Remember that song from the 90’s? I was a huge Extreme fan back in the day. I saw them two times, once down in North Carolina and another time at Hammerjacks in Baltimore (or as Baltimoreans say, Baltmore). Both shows were awesome.

Andy and I are going to see Extreme. This is going to be awesome. I haven’t seen them in years and it’s almost the original line-up. Andy and I are looking forward to it. It’s cool to be with someone who loves to go to shows as much as I do. We’re going to make a weekend of it. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures to post here.

 

According to Forbes Magazine, Will Smith pulled in a cool $80 mill this year! Can you imagine making $80 million?!? I never thought I’d hear myself say this but I think that’s more money than I could spend.

Not doing too bad himself, Johnny Depp pulled in $72mil.

What would I do with that much money? I’d buy a house on a lake or on a beach. My dream house will look just like HGTV’s 2005 Dream House. I LOVE that house. I’d get a recording studio built into the house and a dojo for Andy. I’d have a library and….we’d take really cool vacations. And maybe I’d get a penthouse in Baltimore. Other than charities and investments for my descendants, I can’t think of anything else.

What would you do with $80 Million? 

or maybe not. Either way, I had a great time.

Yep, I went out on my first paranormal investigation, and though the evening didn’t include any encounters with ghosts, it was a great experience. Like I said in my previous post, I’m doing a “Hill City Haunts” article for a local magazine. Spending a few hours with a paranormal investigation team seemed like a great way to find out more on the subject.

Not only did I get a lot of useful information for the article, but I also got to see first hand what happens when a team of paranormal investigators go to a site to see if they can document the paranoral activity reported there.

Randolph College has a long history of ghost sightings. One of the more interesting stories is that of a boy from a neighboring college (Randolph College used to be Randolph-Macon Women’s College) who agreed to be in one of the school’s productions. Because it was a college for women, they needed to look outside of the school for male roles. The boy was told that he had to be on time for the show, it was very important for him to be there on time. Well, the night of the show comes, but the boy arrives late. Fortunately, the show went fine. However, after it was over the college was informed that the boy that was to perform that night died in a car accident on the way to the college. Creepy, huh. There’s even a professor on campus who taught at the school when this happened. He says this is a true story. Even if you’re not a believer, it’s an interesting tale.

The investigation took us to many different areas of the school where the investigators set up equipment to record any activity. Although nobody recorded anything paranormal, a few people said they experienced something. One person heard someone say “Hello,” when we entered an unoccupied dorm. Another heard a sound come from a room in that same empty dorm.

All in all it was a pretty cool night. My sister came along to take pictures and Andy came to get video. Although you can’t tell from the picture, they enjoyed themselves.

What’s next…a report on great sights to visit on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I’m up and writing. I didn’t actually get up at 5 though, I got up at 6:30, made some coffee & watched the news then AMC on Soap Net…only because I was still too groggy to actually get any writing done. Note to self: When planning to get up before the sun, must go to bed before 1:30 a.m.

 

I was reading a Gena Showalter interview today http://www.joyfullyreviewed.com/Interviews/MayJune08/GenaShowalter.html) and was completely astounded by her work schedule. She writes a chapter every day, no matter what, and she’s released a crap load of books since her first novel. Far from a hack, her books are very good.

That got me to thinking. How much more could I be producing? My writing schedule is that I produce 2000 words a day. Once I do that, I feel pretty good. But could I do more than that? Could I write a full chapter a day? I sometimes worked 12 hour days when I worked in accounting, why couldn’t I do that in writing?  So I’m starting something new this week. A chapter a day, no matter what. I’m going to get up at 5am tomorrow and check in here so everyone can see that I’m up and rolling.

Wish me luck…

 

I recently left my office job to begin writing full-time. This was a huge step for me because for years I’ve wanted to leave the corporate world. I’ve finally taken that step and it feels great!

In addition to writing fiction, I’ve begun writing for a local magazine in my town. So far I’ve done two articles, one on cycling (this town has some great bike trails) and another on theJunior League. For the next issue one of the stories I’m doing (in preparation for Halloween) is going to be about local hauntings. This story will require me to spend the night with a team of paranormal investigators on the site of a location with reported supernatural activity. I’m really excited about this. This is definitely not the kind of outing I would have been involved with on the day job! lol! Once I’ve gone I’ll post a full report here.

Do any of you have any haunting stories? If so, I’d love to hear them.

So I hear everyone thought I fell off the side of the earth somewhere, never to be seen again. Nope! I could never stop writing. It took a little longer than I’d envisioned to get my life reorganized as a singleton. But a funny thing happened on the way to adjusting to single life…I fell in love. Funny how that happens when you least expect it.

Don’t you love this website, designed by Mari LaCroix (www.mariannelacroix.com). She designed it for a new series I’m writing. It’s an urban fantasy that takes place in 2098 and features a totally kick-ass heroine. I told Mari I wanted a city scape and to capture the kick-ass nature of my heroine. I think she got my meaning. The really funny thing is the city where my story takes place is covered in water. I didn’t tell her that, but she used an image of Baltimore (my former city) with a view of the Inner Harbor. It’s a water view & fits with my story perfectly.

Fans of Adrienne Kama will be sad to note that this book won’t have any sex in it. For sex you’re going to have to wait for the next Stella Rice installment. This book (my working title is The Book of the Dead) has enough action, though, to keep Stella fans occupied. It also has some pretty sexy male characters, so readers won’t be disappointed in that regard.

As for Stella Rice… For those of you who don’t know, there are a lot of shady things going on at New Concepts Publishing. It’s unfortunate because once upon a time they were a fantastic publisher. In any case, I don’t feel comfortable releasing any more books with them. The entire Stella Rice series will be moved to a different publisher as my contracts expire. By mid 2009 they’ll be moved to a larger publisher with a history of treating her authors well. In the mean time I may post an excerpt or two of the third installation here.