Inspiration comes from funny things

On the way to work this morning,  I was flipping through radio stations and heard a song come on that I couldn’t help but listen to. Then I thought of my book I was writing and thought of a scene with this song in it.  So of course, I had to write the scene idea down once I got to work. Now, I want to hurry and get to where I want the scene so I can write it out and laugh.

Scene idea:  Have CeeCee in her room (while on vacation and staying in somebody’s house).She’s in a good mood, feeling oddly better and starts listening to music.A song comes on and she can’t resist dancing and singing to it.Little does she know that her host (Xander) has walked in the room and is watching her sing and dance.Song is Pony

If your horny, Let's do it

Ride it, My Pony

My saddle's waiting

Come and jump on it

 

yea, yea, yea...

yea, yea, yea...

Thoughts on writing...

I have written 8 books to completion. They have a beginning, a middle and an end.  That's an accomplishment.  Yes, they are not published but how many people actually write one book, let alone 8?  

While I am happy that I got those stories out, I also am unhappy.  You see, I also have 7 books that are in progress.  I come up with an idea, start writing and then lose interest part way through.  If I can't hold my own interest when writing the book, readers aren't going to want to read them at all. 

I haven't written in two months. I open my book files, read them and try to come up with something new to add and I get nothing.  I even opened up my idea file and decided they all suck.  So now I sit here, trying to come up with a new book idea and so far, all I could think of was writing this blog. 

Sigh...

As for my completed 8 books, I still need to get them published.  I still want to go the self publishing route but I need money for it.  I had promised myself to get one book published this year and yet, here it is almost the end of November and still I'm not published.    The problem is money.  I had saved up a lot of money at the beginning of the year, and then life happened.  I had to pay a ton for dental work (really bad teeth).  And once that was over, I started saving again.  Then a hail storm happened and insurance decided my car was totalled.  So I bought a new car and still have money left over (Hurray!).  However, I'm trying to hold on to that money because I'll need more dental work next year (have to wait for insurance to reset itself) plus, any extra money I get next year will be saved for a new condo.  While I love living in an apartment, it's time for me to move.   Rent keeps increasing and my full time job doesn't give high enough raises.  

So between my sudden car payment and trying to save money for more teeth work and possible Condo buying at the end of next year, I'm starting to lose hope that I'll get one of my books published.  However, I will promise myself here and now, to push all my worries aside and save money just for publishing costs.  

Until then, I'm trying to decide whether to post a first chapter of one of my books here on my blog.   Do I have any readers who would want to see a chapter?   I write mostly paranormal romance so if you are curious, post a comment here and let me know.

Complaints about books

I love reading and I read a lot.  I'll read free books and ones that cost money if they sound good to me.   One thing that turns me off of buying a book is the length.  If it's less than 100 pages, I'm not paying for it (if it's free, I'll think about downloading it).   If it's less than 200 pages and costs 4.99 and up, it's doubtful I'll pay for it.  It has to be a part of a series and I really have to want it to make it okay for paying that much for a book that's not that long.    I have stopped reading series of books because the length is no longer there.

It seems like more often these days, authors are writing serials where you pay 99 cents or more for short segments of books.  I hate that.   Luckily, there are authors who after providing a serial will put the book together when they are done and offer it as one whole book but there aren't enough people doing that.   While short serial type books seem to be popular and okay for a lot of people, I don't like them.

To me, if you publish something that's less than 100 pages, it's not really a book.  However, I've seen authors publish a 50 page story and call it a novel. 

I use Amazon when searching for books to download onto my ipad.  That's just a personal preference.  However, their advanced search leaves a lot to be desired.  I would like it if I could search for books based on length.  Just add another field to their field so it looks like Pages greater than and then you can type in the number.   I don't know what coding they would need to do on their end but I wish they would do it.   It would make me happy. 

Also, I would love it if authors didn't include the extra pages as their total page count. I want the number of pages of the actual story or the word count of the actual story.   I'd be good with word count too.  Too often, I buy a book and find it's actually shorter than what the description says.  I also find some books don't even include a length at all on the website.  Why not? 

I want to read books with a good length.  300 pages or around 80,000 words. I want to be able to search for full length novels. Actual novels and not serials.     I want the length of the book to be a requirement when you make it for sale on websites.  

Sigh.  Having so many short stories out there now, has made searcing for an actual book, somewhat of a chore.  If I find a story that sounds interesting, I look at the cost of the book. Then I look at how long it is.  Books under 100 pages aren't even considered.  Books under 200 pages, make me ask "Do I really want to spend three bucks on a short book?"   99 cents, I'll consider it more.  Hell, even 2.99 I'll consider buying it.  Anymore than that?  I'd have to really want the book.    

If you made it this far in this long rant, leave me a comment.  Tell me what you think.  I can't believe I'm alone in my need for longer books out there. 

Star Studded Dream

 

I don’t normally dream of celebrities all that often.  My dreams usually have people I’ve never met before.  Strangers.   Well, early this morning, I had a dream with few celebrities in it and this one creeped me out.  sounds like a movie in the making to me and knew I had to share it on my blog.  So here ya go.    

 

Alec Baldwin sent me an email, talking about a charity lunch that a ton of stars were going to.  At first, I got excited because I thought he was going to ask me to go but then he started talking about Anthony Hopkins and his daughters.   He was saying that they were all sweet and 9 years old.   Before I knew it, Alec was asking me to babysit Anthony's kids.  

 

I was going to say no but then I thought " hey, I'll be in a celebrity's house.  I can take lots of pictures and make up a story to explain why I was there."   

 

So I accepted.  Alec sent me the address to show up and when.  I drive there in my ford Taurus I used to have and realize, it's the place where the charity lunch is taking place.   I park the car and step out and on my way to the building, 4 identical 9 year old blonde girls step in my path. They all wore pretty white dresses with red sash around their waists and they had a red ribbon in their hair.   

 

They spoke as one with one voice.  "You don't belong here."  

 

Creeped out, I stepped around them and said "how about I look for your dad and let him decide?"  

 

So I dash into the building and find several long tables set up and people milling about.   I stopped at the first table and asked a guy where I could find Anthony Hopkins.  His voice made me turn and look at him.  It was Gerard butler with long hair. Wow.   He pointed me to the right table and I found Hopkins talking to Stephen Hawkins but Hawkins voice device wasn't working.  Instead, he had to mumble his words but Hopkins understood him fine.  

 

"Mr. Hopkins?  Hi, I'm Katie."  He looks at me blankly "Alec Baldwin said you needed a babysitter today so here I am.  He sent me an email about it.  I printed it up and it's in my car. I can get it if you want to see it. ". 

 

"That won't be necessary.  The girls are fine by themselves.  They're just outside and know where I am. "

 

"Are you sure?  I can stay and watch over them."

 

"You don't want to do that. Trust me.  They are better off left alone."

 

" okie dokie.  I'll just be leaving now".  

 

I rush out to my car and see the girls on the grass kicking a red rubber school ball back and forth to each other.  They giggle and look innocent until they all look at me at the same time.   Yeah, I hurried to my car and started it.   Put it in reverse and stepped on the break, only to find the pedal is gone. The gas pedal is gone too.  The car rolls backward and I can't stop it.  I try to change gears to stop it, and the car goes forward and bumps into another parked car.  I hear laughter to the left of me and see all four girls, standing beside my car, laughing at me.   

 

Yeah, that's when I woke up

 

Katie the Spy

I know I haven't posted on here in a while so I thought I'd entertain you with a dream I had last night.  so here ya go....

 

I was supposed to retrieve a usb drive from a building.  I had to sneak in, grab it and get out. spy stuff. I managed to grab the usb drive but on my way out, I was caught by two brothers.  

 

One was more sympathetic to me.  He wouldn't let his brother hurt me.   I tried to talk him into letting me go with the drive because it had really bad stuff on it. stuff that could kill people. the brothers took me to a room where the sympathetic one tied me to a chair but he tied the ropes loosely.  once I was alone, I managed to free myself.   I went to the door, surprised to find it unlocked.   I was able to hear the two brothers talk and the really bad one said he was taking the drive to the main server room.  Once the drive was plugged in, the info would spread and people would start dying or something like that.   I didn't understand how but I knew I couldn't let it happen. 

 

The sympathetic one knew I was there and listening but he didn't say anything.  I was able to follow them to the room.  Once the brothers were in the room, I hid in a closet across from them and waited for them to go away. 

soon the brothers left.   I got into the room and easily found the usb drive.  I swiped it and got out of the room.  I was running down the hall when I heard voices.  I ducked in another room and waited until the voices went away.  I did this repeatedly as I went down the floors.  Finally, I reached the lobby of the huge building to see both brothers standing there, waiting for me.  the really evil brother had his good one in cuffs  and leaning in front of him on his knees.  the bad one had a gun to his head. 

 

Bad guy "He always was a bit too kind hearted for my tastes.   I knew he'd fall for your charms sooner or later." 

 

me "Well, let us go and you won't have to worry about us anymore." 

 

bad guy laughs "I'm afraid I can't do that.  Give me the usb drive."    He cocks his gun.  "Now."   

 

the good brother shakes his head no but I can't let him die.  so I hand over the usb drive.  The bad guy hooks it up to a computer that magically appears (hey, it's a dream after all) and presses a few buttons.  "do you know what's on this drive?  What the information does?"   I shake my head no.  "Let me demonstrate." 

 

Suddenly, I hear heavy metallic footsteps headed my way.   the bad guy has a huge grin on his face and looks behind me.   As the foot steps get closer, I look over my shoulder.  "Oh crap."  

 

The bad guy starts laughing because he's obviously crazy.  "You see, my dear?   This usb drive has the key components for artificial intelligence.  The military designed it so they could create their own robots to replace soldiers.  Once I heard about it,  I just had to have it.    It works wonderfully, doesn't it?"  He laughs again then speaks to the robot.  "X-412, target is the female in front of you.   Kill her."  

 

I duck as the robot reaches for me.  I get behind it, trying to find some wires to pull or something.   I was fighting a robot twice my size to the death and.....

 

I woke up.   I hope I lived.  lmao

Long time no post

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. but I must tell you about a crazy dream I had last night.

 

I was with two ladies and a guy in a house that appeared normal at first but none of us knew how we got there.   The guy was hunkalicious yummy.  lol The other two ladies were flirting with him.  One more so than the other.  The gal with long black hair was really coming on to him and draping herself all over him.  He would try to ease himself away from her as we all looked for a way out.  

 

Every door we found led to another room.  We couldn't find the door to get us out of the house.  So we wandered for a bit and the guy was trying to ignore the black haired lady.  Finally he had enough and shoved her away, yelling "Knock it off.  This isn't the time for whatever you have in mind. We  have to get out of here!  Either help us find a way out or we go our separate ways." 

 

The black haired lady did not like that he refused her advances.  She stood there and glaring at us and her hair started to float upwards.  "You would choose them over me?  Me!   You're not here for them! You're mine!"  

 

As the gal started to do freaking things with her eyes and hair, the hunk ushered me and other gal away from the weirdo.   Before we went through another door, I looked back and screamed.  The woman was changing into a giant black widow spider.   Yea, the three of ran through a lot of doors, still couldn't find a way out.  The spider lady caught up to us and somehow made the floor move up and down.  The house started shaking, paintings fell of walls.  It was madness

 

Lucky for us, changing into a spider quickly and making things happen took a lot out of her.   She collapsed on the floor as the house settled.  We managed to move around her, discovering she had been ushering us away from one door in particular.  We walked around her as she reached for us with her many legs and made it to the door.  the hunk opened it up and.....

 

I woke up.  I sure as hell hope it was the front door.