News From Janet
Mother's Day
This is a picture of the Chinese Garden in Portland.
I had a very nice Mother's Day. Tom gave me a gift card for Barnes and Nobles, Michael brought me flowers and Rob gave me a snow globe with a mother and child in it. We went out last night to celebrate Mother's Day and my sister's birthday. She brought me See's Candy for Mother's Day and I bought her See's Candy for her birthday. The exact same kind.
We went to Bobby McGee's for dinner. That's the last time we go there. The food is always good but the service sucks. They didn't bring my sister's birthday hat until dinner was over. They had no tea and they put sour cream in my potato when I asked them not to. By the time I got another potato, I'd finished my dinner. Other than that, we had a good time and Chewbaca was excited as always to see my sister.
I finally got my test print copy of The Enchanted Hawk this week, but the book had already come out, so it is going in the bookcase.
I made changes to The Enchanted Hawk trailer, a fantasy romance. Now I have to take down the first one and put up the new one.
I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. Remember to enter my contest.
Chimeras
The chimera is an ancient mythological creature that most of us remember from our studies of Greek mythology. She, and the chimera is always referred to as she, is made up of the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake. Sometimes she is part dragon and breathes fire.
Besides being a type of mythological creature, a chimera is a type of twin. This happens when two zygotes merge at a very early stage of development and become one. However, they carry DNA for both twins. Now this is a fascinating idea especially for a fantasy story. I am developing one with a chimera as the evil presences to be defeated by the good. Throw in some magic and all types of things can happen.
Of course, since no one is going to be doing DNA tests to make sure she is a chimera, something has to distinguish her.
Then, this week I was reading Scientific American and found an article on Chimerism. It was interesting in the fact that it seems all of us are a bit of a chimera. We gain cells from our mothers that stay in the body. Then those of us who have children, gain cells from them. We end up with bits of DNA from several people floating around in our bodies. I don't quite how to feel about that.
I have a new contest running. Make sure to enter. Details are on the contest page.
Contest Judging Time
This is one of the trees I saw at the Chinese Garden in Portland. It was such a pretty garden.
The entries for the Orange Rose Contest came this week. I only have three to do and I have a good start. Just once, I want to read the winner. It seems that the odds should be in my favor as much as I judge contests, but so far, that hasn't happened.
I start teaching new classes tomorrow at Axia at the University of Phoenix. I'm excited. I've missed being "in the classroom." I got my classrooms all set up today and ready to go.
I've been working on the trailer for The Enchanted Hawk, a fantasy romance, that may come out one of these days. I also started making the booklets for the contest I'm going to have as soon as The Enchanted Hawk comes out. I'm hoping for Thursday.
This has been a quiet week. I did do my blog for OCC/RWA, A Slice of Orange. The animals have been behaving, except I woke up yesterday and Stinkers was having breakfast on the living room carpet. Of course, Chewbaca had to investigate. I shooed him away because I didn't want him eating the bird. Besides, I figured Stinkers would rip open his nose if he got too close. Then Teddi had to get into it and I shooed her away. I didn't want her getting sick.
Chewbaca helped me yesterday while I was formatting Brylyn's story for The Enchanted Hawk contest. I ended up with a line in the wrong place and had a terrible time trying to figure out what was wrong. Then the laminator ran out of film and I got a set of covers stuck in it. I had to get Michael to yank it out.
It is so hot here that no one wants to move. Rob complained because he had to go to the store - I need laminating film - but he took my car since it has air conditioning and needed gas.
Busy, Busy, Busy
This is Trevor, one of Gideon's men in "The Betrayer," one of the two new short stories about Augeas. Whiskey Shots Vol. 17 came out on April 1. I was excited about them coming out because I really like the Augeas stories.
I have been so busy with edits and proof reading and stories coming out that I haven't had much time to keep up my webpage. I finally got the contest prizes together so the rest can go in the mail this week. Of course, the two classes I was teaching ended the same time I was doing my edits and I had to grade final projects.
We had to get Chewbaca a new doggie door. He was getting stuck getting through it. He could get out, but Tom feared he would scrap all his fur off. Chewbaca isn't taking to the new door too well. The bottom is higher than the last one and he seems to get the front half out, but the back half of him doesn't want to follow. He stands there trying to figure out how to get his back legs to follow his front. If he wants a treat, like first thing in the morning, he manages to get out just fine.
We tried leaving the plastic flap on it to keep the hot summer air out, but that isn't going very well. Chewbaca didn't like the flap when he was a puppy, so we took it off. We tried bribing him with food to go through the door with the flap on, which worked. Of course, all the bribes is part of why he needs a bigger door. I helped him out last night by holding up the flap. A bit later I was going to bed and realized Chewbaca hadn't come back in. I think he thinks he's not suppose to go through because the door is closed. There is a plastic piece that slides in to close it and he had broken the old one so he could knock it out, but he'd never come in unless we told him he could. Rob had to get him back in the house and we took off the flap. We'll try again once he gets used to the door.
If The Enchanted Hawk, a fantasy romance, comes out on Tuesday, I'll be running another contest. I figured I'd better wait and see if it comes out or not.
Edits
This is what I saw from my window in Portland. It really was pretty even though it was cold.
I am now working on edits for The Enchanted Hawk and Yesteryear's Love. I have eyestrain, but am about half way through both of them. I really hate edits. I don't want to know what I did wrong. Of course, the book is always better after the edits because the editor sees things that I don't because I'm too close to the stories.
I'm down to the last week for the on-line classes I have been teaching. It went pretty fast and became less work once I figured out everything.
I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. We celebrated yesterday along with Tom's and Michael's birthdays. Tom left for Canada for training at 4:15 this morning. It is quiet here today.
Remember to enter my contest.
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