Anna Adams

Posted By admin on May 15, 2013

Water needs to warm up!

I think summer arrived. 80s in the forecast, as far as the eye can see, and I assume many of those 80s will turn into 90s, as often happens here. That makes me sad.

Except for one thing. The pool will start warming up.

Sadly, the beloved found a squirrel in the pool on Mother’s Day. Not quite the gift of a lifetime. But better than the dog that tried to burrow beneath the cover on New Year’s Eve. (I caught him in time, and returned him to his family, who seriously need to keep an eye on their pup. The little fella escapes them to join me when I walk in our neighborhood.)

I’ve made a new playlist for the current ms. All meltingly beautiful, lovey dovey songs. Hoping their emotion seeps into my story. (About three songs on the list are considered country. I’ve never been a big fan of country before. Life change?)

Hand must have quivered, but you can see it’s beautiful!

Speaking of melting… I don’t know what’s in this beautiful drink I found thawing on a bar whilst picking up to-go for my girl, but it looks so refreshing, my mouth waters when I see the photo! I want to slip some sliced citrus into our ice maker. Would they make every liquid look this tempting?

I just can’t take the heat!

Category: Random | No Comments »
Tags: Random

Posted By admin on May 13, 2013

Celebratory Breakfast!

Last night we had a yummy dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant, and I’m swamped in beautiful bouquets and chocolates and loving, lovely cards. (One plays “Tequila!” Which always makes me want to dance!) I cannot resist stopping to breathe in the carnations. The scent brings back my own mom and the days I spent, standing beside her, chattering away about who knows what, while she watered the flowers that grew for her simply because she wanted them to grow.

Dinner was yummy and too filling and the leftovers are waiting in the fridge.

But let me tell you about breakfast.

We got up at about 9-ish and debated where we wanted to go. Good thing we didn’t debate too long….

By the time we reached our choice, there was a line down the sidewalk and no room inside to wedge in and add our name to the all-day waiting list. So we tried our second choice. Same thing. At the third choice, the line wound around the building so we just drove on past.

We took a mental survey of what we’d left in the pantry at home. The beloved makes the world’s absolute beyond best breakfast-y fried potatoes, so we stopped in at WalMart to shop. Well, my girl was starving. As my cousin says, this offspring is like those Snicker’s commercials. The girl is not the girl when she’s hungry.

We closed in on those self-opening doors, and the lovely blue foyer and the carts–and the fragrance of the in-store McDonald’s. My girl’s mood lightened. After the breakfast tour of our little town and the next one over, I was up for sampling the wares, too. We voted.

The beloved said, “No.” And he sounded as if he meant it. (He may have taken some grief on my first Mother’s Day–two weeks after our son was born. “Oh. I forgot you were a mom.”)

But, come on. The girl had scented welcome relief, and she could not approve of a half hour drive home and the wait while we toiled over the tools of the kitchen. So–we asked if he truly wanted to cook.

End result: Yesterday, I had Mother’s Day breakfast at McDonald’s. In a WalMart. As a little crunchy icing on the cake–an eggshell in my Egg McMuffin. And the best time with my girl and my husband.

Two final points–I hope it’s not a bad sign for McDonald’s that we had our choice of breakfast tables!  And I believe they make my favorite coffee in all the world. In fact, right now, I’m on my way to seek out a vat of McDonald’s coffee, and I hope every other mom in the world had a breakfast as lovely as ours!

P.S. I honestly always assumed they used those liquid eggs at McDonald’s. They do not!

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Posted By admin on May 8, 2013

Beautiful Tennessee!

Wide awake at 5 a.m. Time to start the coffee. Time to start work.

Yesterday’s progress: 1783 words of story. Several hand-written pages of spewing information about the hero until he began to form in a way that makes me feel “right” about him. Sometimes I get stuck on the craziest things–points that do not make or break the story–but until I fix them, I can’t go where I need to.

Today’s plan: More story words. List of scenes I know I’ll need. And then–the word that strikes fear into the heart of any sane writer–synopsis. I need to get back to that and tighten dramatically.

Added this photo from Girls Week in TN–because wouldn’t that make a blissful office?

Category: Planning | 4 Comments »
Tags: Planning

Posted By admin on May 7, 2013

I’m working on a new story. I have my heroine, and I’m grabbing at my hero. He’s proving a little bit elusive, but I’m in charge around here!  ;-)

So–I started a synopsis because I was preparing a pitch, and I needed some coherent words. The synopsis I have is about three pages. It’ll probably cull down to less after I part the coherent words from the not-so-much.

When the hero began sidling away from me, I started doing Carolyn Greene’s Plot Doctor worksheets, which have never steered me wrong. (I’d love to provide a link, but her website seems to be down just now.)

Then, I started writing pages. The hero suddenly had a place to live that I hadn’t expected. The heroine’s back story changed, but I like the changes because they’re fresh and a little different.

And right now–I’m taking a break to post this on my blog, which is, after all about writing. This is how I start writing a new story. Groping around in the creative dark, to shine a little light on the pieces I need for my book.

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Posted By admin on May 6, 2013

Clouds, thick enough to stir.

We’ve already had temps in the 80s this year, but the past few days have brought rain and a beautiful break in the heat. Right now, my house is at 63 degrees. Outside, it’s 46, but the low was down to 43 this morning. It won’t last long, but it’s nice right now!

Today is a catch up day for me. We had company last week, but today, my house is my own, and I’m enjoying a luxury–writing, with no other obligations. That doesn’t last long these days, either.

I’m about to switch my office. When we moved into the house, I set it up in the loft, not realizing that everyone would take it as some sort of a toll booth stop. I love my family. I’d do anything for them–except continue to have office space that doesn’t require a door.

But moving can wait because today, I’m writing! Better get to it–before a beloved member of my family has something to tell me that will just take a tiny second!  :-)

Category: Just Living, Writerly | No Comments »
Tags: Living and writing

Posted By admin on May 3, 2013

Take us out to the ballgame!

We did one of my favorite things in the world last night. We went to a baseball game. It was fun and rainy and a bit chilly. Perfect baseball weather!

The rain may have depleted attendance, or it may have been the fact that the Braves aren’t playing as well as one might hope just now. Either way, I feel so bad for folks who were not at the game, wearing a favorite sweatshirt, hearing the bat smack a ball, the ball smack a glove. Enjoying the greenest grass, and the strange traditions of different camera views and people dressed up as inanimate objects running races (Here, it was Home Depot-sponsored tools.) on the warning track between innings. The paintbrush emerged victorious!

Perfect Baseball Weather!

My favorite between-inning view was the Oblivious Cam. One poor woman went over 30 seconds before someone managed to alert her that she was on camera. Between turning pages of a program, she suffered a dreadful sneeze, but she was a good sport when she finally noticed.

Every time our team managed to strike out the opposing batters, a sign in the outfield shot off fireworks. By the end of the evening, my girl and I were identifying the patronus that formed in the smoke. (Ah, sweet nerdery, I embrace thee!)

It was a lovely night–and I have to work it into a story!

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Posted By admin on May 1, 2013

The only pretty thing in my garden!

I thought I was way ahead of my own busy day. I’ve exercised and yanked a few weeds, cleaned the upstairs, washed bedding, and written a few hundred words. Sadly, I only use my phone as a clock/watch these days, and it’s an hour and seventeen minutes behind. Why an hour and seventeen minutes?

Anyway, I’m working on a new project that needs some deep thought, and we have company arriving today. I can’t stay to babble! Must work before the company arrives–and I just lost an hour and seventeen lovely work minutes!

But first… I’m going to drop in a few words. I always love when writers tempt me with a taste of some story!

The smoke that gave these mountains their name wound between trees decked out in orange and red and bronze leaves in the early morning. Emma Candler’s balding tires took the gravel drive under protest. She had just enough gas to climb to the top of Candler’s Hill, and probably not a drop of excess.

Category: Planning | No Comments »
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Posted By admin on April 30, 2013

Courthouse my grandfather refurbished in the 70s

I meant to post yesterday, but I had a visit to make. And then writing to do. So–I visited, and then I wrote 818 words. 818 rusty words because I hadn’t written in over a week. Instead, I was eating, shopping, knitting, walking–enjoying one of my favorite times of the year–Girl’s Week. My aunts and my cousin and I meet in Tennessee and spend a week doing whatever we want. We have traditions, and we managed to get through all of those, but something odd happened this year. Time took flight. It all passed way too quickly. I miss them all so much.

I’ll post some of the almost 200 photos I took as I go along in the next week or so.

Two things I’m having to adjust to on my return–I’m not eating cake and ice cream and cookies and candy. In short, all the sweets in the world are not gathering in front of me in a neverending line of temptation. Surprisingly hard to stop indulging my sweet tooth cold turkey. Fortunately, the beloved has cooked healthy meals, so making better choices has been delicious and easy.

Mountain stream, the way only Tennessee does a mountain stream!

The other thing is exercise. For a week, I had company to walk with and so much talk, I sometimes felt like my daughter, who once ordered us not to say a word till she returned to the room. We looked at spring blooms, and watched geese and duck flirt and preen. Always, the water. I love water, and we saw plenty of it in our wanderings. Yesterday, I went to the gym, where there were a few sweaty people and some boring choices on the hanging garden of televisions.

Thank goodness for Netflix on my phone. I watched the next episode in a British thriller series!

Today, I have the house to myself for part of the day. I’ve already dived into a start on the word count I need for Candy Havens’ Book in a Month class, and in a little while I’m heading to the gym, and then I’m going to grab a salad at a delicious salad-only restaurant on the square in town.

Then–back to the book in a month! (Having started late, I’m only hoping to get through the first draft–so for me, this month–a lot of pages!)

Category: Friends and Family, Random | 6 Comments »
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Posted By admin on April 10, 2013

Mostly, in life, I choose to be cheerful. I honestly think it’s the best approach in the “you get what you give out” stakes. I did read Pollyanna at a really young age, but she was right about that whole finding something good, no matter what, concept.

At the gym, with an old buddy!

However, for some reason, yesterday, I was not cheerful. I even exercised for longer than usual, trying to squeeze a few more endorphins out of–wherever they reside. (I have a confession–my deep and abiding love for Andy Griffith–and Barney Fife!) It didn’t work. Not even Barney and Ange helped!  :-(

So I took refuge in the next best comfort. I made a last Shepherd’s Pie.

Yummy-ness!

I say last Shepherd’s Pie because cooking it made the house too hot! It’s salad time at the Adams abode until next fall–which is kind of a shame because my girl and I have been planning to make an apple crisp!

So–I’m at Panera this morning, working on synopses for two different stories, and refusing to be accept any mood except cheerful! When the woman standing next to me, chatting with her friend says, “Yeah, we had him at the hospital from 1-5 this morning, and he still doesn’t sound good to me.” That’s when the toddler in question, clinging to my booth, hacked all over me.

Have I mentioned I’m a germaphobe? A %^&**&^% cheerful germaphobe! Just now bathed from head to toe in Sweet Pea hand sanitizer.

Perched like a vulture, ready to pounce upon the next free table! No amount of Shepherd’s Pie could ever fix this!

Or could I be overdoing the drama?

Category: Just Living | No Comments »
Tags: Living

Posted By admin on April 9, 2013

and I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning. Instead of sleeping. Two constants on my blog. Sleeplessness and whining about hot weather. They kind of go hand in hand. It’s too hot to sleep.

Yesterday, I edited nine pages, but three of them were a rewrite. I had a long-distance phone conversation happening in pre-World War II at a rate of speed that was impossible. I lived in Iceland for a while, and even then, we had to call the operator and book a call to the US, which took about forty minutes to go through. So–I needed the call to happen, but it couldn’t happen the way I planned.

I still need the call from the original caller, but he’ll be scheduling it at a different time.

I kind of dreaded fixing this problem, but I should have embraced it. The new caller was a character I didn’t expect, and she brings new fodder to the story.

What surprises will show up in today’s pages?

Category: Writing | No Comments »
Tags: Writing