In honor of Valentine’s Day, I would like to tell a story about a couple who, in my opinion, live a romance novel life. The couple, by the way, happens to be my wonderful husband and me.

To read the whole story, click here.

Stephanie on the left, I'm on the right.

Sorry I haven’t been around. I had some health issues toward the end of last month. Just as I was feeling better, it was time for the Moonlight and Magnolias Conference in Decatur, Georgia. I’d been looking forward to this conference for a year. Georgia Romance Writers (a chapter of Romance Writers of America) put on one seriously awesome conference! When I got back I took my exhausted body and hid in my writer’s den. So shoot me (or leave snarky comments).

Since the conference was so wonderful, the next few blog entries will be about the trip. The plan is to put in some tidbits that will be of interest to writers while giving non-writers a glimpse into the crazy world of writers conferences. And trust me, writers conferences are like nothing else.

The first hurdle was driving from Chattanooga to Decatur. My good friend, and fellow writer, Stephanie Lilley drove down. I printed out the directions, so I have nobody to blame but me for landing us at the wrong hotel. I knew it didn’t look right, but we’d followed the directions. Turns out I’d printed directions to the wrong hotel. Hey, I’m talented, OK? The good part is that we were only two miles from the right hotel.

We finally got to the right place. Decatur is a suburb of Atlanta, and a gorgeous little town in its own right. The Decatur Hotel and Convention Center is downtown near the courthouse. There are all kinds of shops and restaurants within walking distance, but I saw very little, since I wasn’t there to sightsee, I was there to network and learn. I love smaller conferences, as this one is, since there is more of an opportunity to connect with new people and reunite with old friends.

Monday, I’ll tell you more about the conference.
Sundown tonight marks the beginning or Yom Kippur, the most solemn and holy day of the Jewish calendar. May your fast be easy.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to those in Canada.
Have a great weekend everybody!

Cheryel

cross posted to Blogger and WordPress

Some great free places I’ve discovered with sage advice to make life easier, and cool stuff to make it more fun.

Advice:

When housework gets to the CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) stage:
http://www.flylady.net/index.asp

Change your life in 10 minutes a day:
http://smallstepstobigchange.com/

Quizzes to help you understand yourself better:
http://similarminds.com/

Playtime!


Puzzles, you pick from pages of beautiful pictures, and the cut of the puzzle. Hours of fun:
http://www.jigzone.com/

Expand your vocabulary and help defeat hunger with just a click:
http://www.freerice.com

Furry, funny, two of my favorite sites:

Cats:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/
Dogs:
http://dogs.icanhascheezburger.com/

Maybe these don’t appeal to you. Are there other places you like better? Have you ever put random words in Google just to see where the search leads? Do you think people spend too much time on the internet?

I'm moving soon. Get a preview of my brand new Word Press blog:
http://cheryelhutton.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/places-youre-gonna-wanna-go/

Normally, I go for funny on Fridays, but I happened on a video that I just had to share with you.

A couple of days ago, I read Carrie Spencer's blog,  and was blown away by the video she posted. So blown away that I didn't stop with just the one video. I watched several of the amazingly talented Chris Scalf's   videos. And then I happened on the one I'm posting here.








lDid you know autism affects 1 in 110 children? Do you know anyone with autism? Are you surprised how much the picture resembles a photograph? Awesome huh?

Next Friday, we'll get back to the funny stuff.

Have a great weekend!
Cheryel

Anybody who’s ever happened onto this blog probably knows I’m a nerd. Can’t help it. I love learning. And what’s the problem with that? Learning throughout life is a great way to sharpen the mind and increase enjoyment of the world around us. There are thousands of opportunities out there, books, classes, and even free online lectures. You won’t get a degree (but that too is available online these days), but these sites offer a lot if you don’t need the letters after your name.

Disclaimer: I haven’t actually taken (listened to?) any of the courses at these sites, but I have poked around on the sites more than once, and they seem to have good content and easy, free access. There are several courses I’d like to try. As soon as I get my current manuscript polished, I’m going to try one (or more) of these. Why not?

I love the name of this site, and there are a couple of courses I’m going to get into at the first opportunity:
http://einztein.com/

These two also look very interesting:
http://academicearth.org/
http://www.openculture.com/

I’ve heard many good things about the BBC languages site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Did you know about these websites? Have you ever taken an online course (for credit or not)? Have you ever investigated furthering your education online?

copyright Cheryel Hutton

Cheryel can’t be here today. I tied her up in the closet she had something she had to attend to. Who am I? I’m Quill, Cheryel’s muse. I usually hang out as a dragon, but I’m taking the form of a woman to type this (I make too many mistakes using my claws). I’m here to tell the world Cheryel’s secret problem: she doesn’t type fast enough!

I seriously do not understand. I’m sending her characters and stories, and she keeps shoving them aside. What does she mean she has to polish the last one first? If she’d typed them properly she wouldn’t have this problem. And there’s the one about she has too many stories in her head already. Well, if she’d type faster, she wouldn’t have that problem either. And the worst is needing to spend time with her “family.” Now really, why does she need anybody else when she has all the people I pull into her head.

Right now, she’s finally finishing work on the romantic suspense I gave her over a year ago. It took her forever to even start writing it. And she took time out to write a shorter story, but goodness! How long does it take? I have a vampire story I want her to write, and a couple of funny ones, and there’s another romantic suspense that stars characters from her very first manuscript, the one she screwed up so badly that no one will ever see it. At least I hope not.

Yikes! I think she’s getting loose, I mean it’s about time for her to get home. Now don’t tell her I wrote this. Promise?

Writers: Go write!
Non-writers: Do whatever it is you do.
Later,
Quill

On this 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the Twin Towers, let’s remember those who were injured or killed. Then let us extend that sentiment and remember all the other victims of terrorism. The thousands of victims from all over the world. To all of them, and their families, let’s extend our heartfelt sympathy.

And let us hope and pray that very soon we will learn to live together on our little blue ball, and that we will learn that disagreeing with the way a person lives is no reason to hurt or kill them. We are each one of us different, each of the billions of occupants of this planet, no two are the same. Let us celebrate that difference, and not hate each other because of it.

Kitty takes time from conflict preparations to catch up on her reading. Or is she learning how to attack dogs?
Either way, she's cute!



Have you seen a cat read before? Do you think this is for real? Do you like cute videos?

Have a wonderful Weekend!

Cheryel

We got a new clothes dryer today. This forced us to clean stuff off and around the old one. That cleaning unearthed a couple of treasures—and a lot of junk. Oy!
The purging we had to do reminded me, again, of how much smaller this duplex is than the one we had before. Which was smaller than the one before, which was much smaller…well you get the picture. The reality is that we have too much stuff.

I cringe when I see previews of TV shows or news stories about hoarders. I did a gig as a home health nurse a few years back, and I was actually inside a house that could be on one of those shows. The one thing video can’t convey is the stench. It really is awful. I see video of a place like that, and I feel a little better about myself. I’m not that bad, I think smugly. But setting here at my writing desk, I see the clutter around me, and I know there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. But can I do what needs doing.

I could offer up excuses. My husband uses a wheelchair, I have chronic medical problems. I’ve been getting a lot of writing and writing related stuff done. There just plain aren’t enough hours in the day. The truth is most of the problem is plain old procrastination.

This actually is good news. I can’t control my health, or what my husband can/will or can’t/won’t do. I can work on the procrastination. I wrote about procrastination Monday, so I should be well on my way to achieving great things.

But I procrastinated.




Have a productive hump day and a wonderful rest of the week!

Cheryel

Last week I blogged about procrastination—with videos. I thought it would be an easy, fun way to get my Wednesday blogging done. Thing is, I learned something about myself.

To review: According to one of the videos I posted, there are three types of procrastinators. 1. Relaxed. This is the most common type, and is mostly avoidance of hard work. 2. Genius. This type of person waits until the last minute because they know they can. The result might not be great, but it’s passable. 3. Avoidance. This type has good intentions, but tends not to follow through. They are not good at time management and frequently become overwhelmed. Basically, they avoid because they’re apprehensive.

I’ve been guilty all three types of procrastination, but I firmly believe I’m primarily #3. I avoid and hope the issue will go away. Sometimes it actually works, but most of the time I’m just overwhelmed and behind. I don’t know if this is part of the pattern, but I tend to take on more than I can possibly do, then feel like a failure when I don’t meet my own, impossible, goals.

I really do mean well, I intend to do what I say I’m going to do—what I want to do. Thing is, I worry too much. OK, I’ll admit it. I’m scared. Scared of success? Failure? Don’t know. Just scared. Afraid of making a mistake, I guess. If I don’t try, I won’t have to face success or failure.

Now that I’m aware of the reasons behind my procrastination problem. I’m hoping to find ways to defeat my procrastinating ways.

Have a good week, and I hope the weather is good where you are.
Cheryel

This post is also available on blogger.