san francisco rwa rocks!

why? because we have the best board ever.

and how do i know this? because i'm the secretary.


Martha Flynn and I at the first official board meeting of 2010


i can't begin to say enough about volunteering for your local writing group, whether it is sisters-in-crime, mwa, science fiction/fantasy (sorry, their exact name is escaping me at the moment!), scbwi, or pretty much the largest and most organized group, romance writers of america.

why? the connections (and although networking is great that is not the kind of connection i am talking about) and the friends that you make are immeasurable.

as a writer, you work in a vacuum. you can spend your days in isolation, tortured by the twisted meanderings of your own mind. it's easy to get lost in that world and forget the real one around you...until it's time to submit your work.



Trish Cetrone, Rachelle Chase, Sophie Littlefield, and Adrienne Miller

that's when the connections you make with other writers will come to save you. they encourage, commiserate, and celebrate right along with you in your journey to publication. whether you've already published or you are just starting, volunteering with your local organization gives you the opportunity to make connections that will sustain you through the bad and the good and the great.

i am so happy to call these women my friends. thanks for everything!

collaging for the visually un-artistic

it's a new year which means...a new collage. i love collaging. it's taken me awhile to get a handle on the process, i'm not visually artistic but i'm working on it. honestly, my collages are never going to be masterpieces but as long as they inspire me, i'm happy.




if you haven't ever done a collage. they're fun. it's even more fun when done in a group. our critique group gets together with colored paper, magazines, fun sparkly do-dads, foam letters and shapes, glitter writing pens. sometimes i have a theme in place. other times, i let my subconscious guide my color and picture choices and theme emerges later.

this year's theme is 'love to write'

which i do. go forth, get some craft supplies and go crazy. :)

Lisa

chance to win free books

by posting your New Year's Resolutions, Intentions, Goals, Whatever over at www.pensfatales.com

you could win a copy of BAD DAY FOR SORRY by Sophie Littlefield, SECONDHAND SPIRITS by Juliet Blackwell, a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card, and a book of your choice!

happy new year!

failure to connect the dots

if I worked in the intelligence community, I would be frustrated with Obama's chastisement of their 'failure to connect the dots'.

the number of intelligence agencies and the amount of intel collected from all sources is staggering. In my most humble opinion, it's a freaking miracle that many plots are stopped.

kudos to all the people out there keeping us safe.

Lisa

hiatus over

so my blogging hiatus is over...i'll be back later this week.

happy new year to all-may 2010 bring happiness and productivity :)

rainy days

I love rain. I love the sound of the drops hitting the pavement, splashing against the window panes, the heady scent of ozone in the air, and how clean and shiny everything appears after the rain is over.



I love the gray sky. I love how green the leaves on my trees seem, glowing from the refraction of light on the rain drops. I love curling up under a blanket, laptop warming my lap and cup of tea steaming at my elbow. (must be tea, you cannot drink coffee on a rainy day, it's a law or something :) )





I love how when you're writing, rain inherently supports the mood and tone of a scene. From gray and ominous as a portent of the plot twists to come. From sad and cloudy or dark and angry mimicking the characters' emotions. And I love how the rain seems to spark my creativity.

I can just as easily snuggle up with my laptop as a good book on a rainy day. Blue skies are lovely, but gray rainy skies rock.



Happy Rainy Monday!



Lisa



ps. I wonder...I'm descended from the English-maybe liking rain is in my blood. :)

unexpected blessings and thanks to Maya Angelou

So Thursday night my son, who is seventeen, says, "oh yeah, i forgot. we have to make spanish rice tonight."

At 6 pm. I've been getting up at 5 am to take other son to water polo practice so by 6 o'clock at NIGHT, I am done. Wiped out, finished, barely coherent. Seriously. I'm so not a morning person that when I'm forced to get up every day like that, by the end of the day I'm in a borderline vegetative state. And by the end of the week, forget it.

Thirty bite sized servings for, no not Spanish class, but English class. Why? Because Maya Angelou apparently is partial to Spanish rice. And for the poetry presentation, his group is spotlighting Maya Angelou.

So he accesses http://www.allrecipes.com/ and searches for Spanish rice. We head to the store for the two ingredients we don't have in our pantry, one of them being, yes, you guessed, the rice.

I don't consider cooking to be helping with homework. I won't write my kid's papers, I won't type my kid's papers, I won't do their math or their French homework, or color their graphs or science lab covers, but I absolutely will help them cook.

Fortunately my sons are in culinary class so he starts the boring stuff (chopping--but don't tell him that) while I get the bacon simmering. We chatted about his day, his classes, cooking, and Maya Angelou while the spicy aromas began to fill our kitchen and what could have been a completely frustrating and annoying evening turned into a lovely interaction with my son. And the rice was absolutely fantastic. We're planning on making the recipe again, it was sooo good.

So thank you, Maya Angelou!

Lisa

ps. I've included the link for the rice recipe. We used smoked applewood bacon and our chile powder is a wonderful smoked powder from New Mexico chiles.
www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spanish-Rice-Original/Detail.aspx