Vacuum Cleaner Zombies Redux

A while back I wrote about the vacuum cleaner zombies who come to town periodically. Well, they're back!

My daughter and I heard a knock at the door. I peeked out the window and saw a van parked in our driveway. My daughter rushed to the door hoping it was the UPS lady delivering the shoes she ordered. Instead, it was a guy holding a box of baking soda. Yes, baking soda. He asked for the homeowner and I immediately knew who it was.

Gritting my teeth, I went to the door. The last guy was some kid who looked like a teenage runaway. This guy looked to be more about my age. I won't say how old that is.

He stood there holding his box of baking soda and he began a spiel about demonstrating cleaning products. I cut him off saying I wasn't interested and didn't have the time. To his credit, he took it well and left without an argument. He hastily said they were in the area demonstrating Kirby vacuums. Of course, I knew that already. Only Kirby salesmen bring lame gifts to the door like baking soda or travel size Kleenex like the runaway kid did last time. I was still irritated and I waved my hand as if shooing his explanation away.

Until next time, Kirby salesman. Bring me a free Cuisinart food processor next time and we'll talk.

Efficiency: That's My Middle Name

Er...Right. Maybe not so much. BUT...

Today within the space of two hours I:

Mom, Me, My Daughter - Mother's Day 2012

1. Made my mom breakfast: 2 sausages, 1 egg - over easy, and a smoothie
2. Gave her all her meds, set out the meds for this evening, gave her an injection for her cancer (shudder)
3. Visited with her as she ate
4. Washed dishes
5. Made her bed
6. Took out the trash
7. Put away all her Christmas decorations and Christmas tree
8. Paid three bills and discussed her finances
9. Refilled her water container
10. Got her a snack

Whew! Now...why can't I be that efficient in my own home? I came home to find last night's dishes still waiting for me in the kitchen and laundry that still needs folding. Don't get me started on the dust collecting on my shelves.

Do You Need a Hug?

I'm no stranger to the fact that touch is beneficial. Articles on the subject abound on the Internet. Newborn infants who are cuddled thrive and gain weight more so than infants who are not held. I know all this because I've read some of those articles or heard about them sometime in the past. At some deeper level I know and understand this as well. My family is a "huggy" family. Because we hug a lot, maybe I've taken touch for granted.

The therapeutic need for touch really hit home for me yesterday. Stress is a way of life for most Americans. We have good and bad stress everyday. I've read that there is little difference between good stress and bad stress; both can have negative effects on your health. We are told to minimize stress for that reason. How are we supposed to do that?

I've been under more stress than usual lately. To top it off, I had an interview yesterday concerning my book. After the interview I wondered if I said anything stupid or if I sounded like a stuttering fool at times. I was wound up pretty tight after that interview. I was telling my daughter some of my anxieties when she turned around and said, "Do you need a hug?" She says that quite often actually. I nodded my head indicating that I did need a hug. So, she hugged me.

About fifteen minutes later as I was going about my day, I noticed that the stress I had been feeling had melted away. That simple act of giving and receiving a hug made all of the anxiety disappear. It was a marvelous feeling! My faith for the need for touch has been renewed.

Virtual Book Tour - The Vrykolakas Deviation

At long last the first book in my Narcissus Legacy series has been published. Starting today I embark on a virtual book tour that will continue until the 25th of January. Stop be any of the tour stops and comment to get your name entered to win a $25.00 Amazon gift card. I'm at Maggie's Meanderings today. Hope to see you there!

Annoying Characters

Searching through Plinky writing prompts I came across this question: Name a villain in a movie or book you've rooted for. Why?

I have on more than one occasion rooted for the villain in a movie or book. The reason I root for the villain in these instances is always because I don't like the main character(s). Sometimes I don't connect with a character in a story and it causes me to cease to care what happens to him  or her. At other times the character is so annoying that I root for the villain in hope that it will end the story sooner. Of course this doesn't work since the author must like something about the character to keep him or her going to until the end of the book.

An example of an annoying character is Kim Bauer, daughter of Jack Bauer on the TV series, 24. I sat through most of the seasons of this show because my husband loved it, even though I think the writers simply recycled the same plot line only changing the character names for each successive season. The show was ruthless about killing off main characters. Yet, they never killed off Kim. I never understood why. Our whole family would sit there yelling at the TV, hoping against hope that the character of Kim would be eliminated from the show. It never happened. So many good characters fell, but not her. Maybe Billy Joel was right as far as television and books are concerned; only the good die young.

Oh, who am I kidding? I know why they didn't kill her off. She's a blond bombshell, eye candy for most guys who love to watch 24. I say most guys because I know that three out of three guys in our household were rooting for the villain whenever it came down to Kim versus the villain.

Have you ever rooted for the villain in the movies you watch or the books you read?

Call me the Count, 1,2,3,4...

My boss told me today that I'm good at numbering. Thank you Mr. (Sorry I forgot your name; I'm not good with names, only numbers), my fourth grade teacher, for assigning homework which consisted of numbering 1 to 1000. That assignment had me in tears at the time and my mom helped me out toward the end of it. Apparently it paid off after all these years. Who would have ever thought?

I am wondering if excessive numbering can mess up one's mind. Can it put you in a trance-like state? Can you lose track of what is happening around you as you count?

Here is what happened to me today as I counted. I was in the vault, numbering books to be imaged later on. When I reach the end of a book that has a series of blank pages left over, I have to ask the county clerk & recorder or one of her assistants to sign the last page numbered by me.

At approximately 11:20 today, I did just that. I knew she was busy with something else so I said, "When you have a chance, can you come sign a book?" I returned to the vault and began numbering the next book. I think I was up to 386 in the next book when the clock read 12:00, the end of my shift. She had never signed my first book and she was out of the office. I ask the next available person to sign the book in her absence. The lady came into the vault with me only to discover that it had already been signed!

I had been completely alone in the vault for forty minutes with the book that needed to be signed sitting on the table next to me. When did the county clerk come inside the vault to sign it? I have a few hypotheses:

1. There is a temporal distortion in the vault causing a rift in time and space. She traveled into the future and signed the book after I left for lunch. 
2. I went into a number induced trance whereupon I turned into a counting machine unaware of anyone coming into the room including the county clerk.
3. Some of the books don't need to be numbered as they have been numbered already. At some point in the past, the county clerk signed the book thinking it was one of the books that had been numbered already. 

According to Occam's razor, which of my hypotheses makes the most sense?

Fifteen Days with Scrivener

Last month I wrote a post about keeping things simple, especially in writing. I was wondering if there was a better way to organize my writing. Specifically, I was wondering if Scrivener would be a useful writing tool to use.

I decided the only way I would ever know was to jump in and start using Scrivener. Thankfully, they let you try it out for thirty days before you have to commit to buying their software.

I have to say that I am loving Scrivener. It is designed with every writer in mind, thus making its capability enormous. I have barely scratched the surface of all its bells and whistles.

I think the binder has to be my favorite function. I like that I can see my novel's chapters on the left hand side of the page at all times. I can skip back and forth from one chapter to the other with a simple click of my mouse. If I need to quickly compare notes on something I wrote several chapters earlier, I can do that easily now. If I need to add a new chapter or rearrange chapters it is as simple as dragging and dropping them where I choose in the binder.

A separate file is included for research, character sketches, scenes, or whatever you want to use it for. You can save images there as well as links on the Internet pertaining to your research. I haven't fully explored that area yet, but the the character sketch templates are useful.

I have recommended Scrivener to my sons who are also writers. My son, Andrew, is writing a story in which he is telling the story of three separate characters - Isaac, Levi, and Matthew. I think he would find Scrivener's collections tool useful. With collections he could line up all of the chapters with Levi in them, read through them for flow and continuity, and then do the same for his other two main characters. Collections would not change the order of his chapters in the binder while he is using the collections tool.

Once you have completed your novel, you can tell Scrivener to compile your work. It will then send it to a dedicated word processor or turn it into a pdf file. I tried this feature out although I am not finished with my novel yet. I sent it to Word and I also made a pdf file. I was pleased with the result of both. I need to go back to the tutorial on compiling as there are many unique features available. The tutorial said it is easy to make a table of contents on Scrivener and I would like to learn more. I've tried to do that with Word but haven't had any luck with that.

I have decided that Scrivener is an invaluable tool for writers. I am definitely going to purchase the software.