Squawk Radio
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Elizabeth Interrupts a Truly Lovely Blog Conversation with a Perfectly Nice Author to Say, AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
We’ve been suffering more joys of summer at my house. Yeah, it’s been a real !@#$%in’ embarrassment of riches around here in that department. (Sorry, Debbie. I don’t know if the other Squawkers told you, but I’m the resident potty mouth here at the Radio. Ahem.)
Anyway, here’s a rough list of what’s been going on here: Home improvement that’s left my kitchen in a shambles. Meetings at school because I’m one of the parents helping interview prospective candidates to fill the empty director’s position. Home invasions by insects the likes of which I haven’t seen since a 1950s post-atomic-apocalypse movie. Cable problems that were fixed by the cable guy severing our phone line, thereby leaving us without phone service for three days (which meant no getting on-line during that time since we’re stuck in the Stone Age here with our dial-up connection).
AND more surprise visits from more out-of-town relatives. Except that, this time, they’re from MY side of the family, so it’s okay. I think. I mean, I’m PRETTY sure my cousin Hal was only kidding when he said he and his wife were evicted from their Brooklyn apartment and are now moving in with us. (I’ll ask him when he’s finished putting his laundry away in what used to be my husband’s dresser.)
On the up side... Well, hell. There is no up side. I hate when that happens.
Oh, wait, there is an up side now that I’m on line again. (Note to self: Write scene in next book where a cable guy is murdered in a suitably grisly fashion like being eaten by post-atomic-apocalypse insects.) I see that Debbie Macomber is visiting Squawk Radio. Hi, Debbie!
I’ve loved Debbie’s books for approximately two decades. She was one of my first auto-buys for Silhouette. And when I met her at my first RWA conference back in 1990, timidly approaching her to introduce myself and telling her I’d just recently sold to Silhouette Special Editions, she was the epitome of nice and was genuinely enthusiastic when she wished me well with my career. I was sooooooo dazzled.
And I continue to be so, having read her blogs for the week here. But I have one more question to ask Debbie, if she’ll be so patient as to field another. (And maybe the other Squawkers will chime in, too.) I have no idea what makes me ask this, but, Debbie (and Squawkers), how do you deal with the outside intrusions into your writing? The real-life stuff that we’d all rather just ignore in favor of living in the fictional worlds we build and control? Things, like, oh...I don’t know. Home improvement that leaves your kitchen in a shambles, for instance. Or maybe home invasions by insects the size of the Seattle Space Needle? Or cable guys who deserve to be strung up by their, um, toes and prodded with live cable wires, say. Or relatives who use up all the hot water and eat the last bag of M&Ms, even though you thought you hid it really well beneath the cushion of the futon in your office...?
Anyway, here’s a rough list of what’s been going on here: Home improvement that’s left my kitchen in a shambles. Meetings at school because I’m one of the parents helping interview prospective candidates to fill the empty director’s position. Home invasions by insects the likes of which I haven’t seen since a 1950s post-atomic-apocalypse movie. Cable problems that were fixed by the cable guy severing our phone line, thereby leaving us without phone service for three days (which meant no getting on-line during that time since we’re stuck in the Stone Age here with our dial-up connection).
AND more surprise visits from more out-of-town relatives. Except that, this time, they’re from MY side of the family, so it’s okay. I think. I mean, I’m PRETTY sure my cousin Hal was only kidding when he said he and his wife were evicted from their Brooklyn apartment and are now moving in with us. (I’ll ask him when he’s finished putting his laundry away in what used to be my husband’s dresser.)
On the up side... Well, hell. There is no up side. I hate when that happens.
Oh, wait, there is an up side now that I’m on line again. (Note to self: Write scene in next book where a cable guy is murdered in a suitably grisly fashion like being eaten by post-atomic-apocalypse insects.) I see that Debbie Macomber is visiting Squawk Radio. Hi, Debbie!
I’ve loved Debbie’s books for approximately two decades. She was one of my first auto-buys for Silhouette. And when I met her at my first RWA conference back in 1990, timidly approaching her to introduce myself and telling her I’d just recently sold to Silhouette Special Editions, she was the epitome of nice and was genuinely enthusiastic when she wished me well with my career. I was sooooooo dazzled.
And I continue to be so, having read her blogs for the week here. But I have one more question to ask Debbie, if she’ll be so patient as to field another. (And maybe the other Squawkers will chime in, too.) I have no idea what makes me ask this, but, Debbie (and Squawkers), how do you deal with the outside intrusions into your writing? The real-life stuff that we’d all rather just ignore in favor of living in the fictional worlds we build and control? Things, like, oh...I don’t know. Home improvement that leaves your kitchen in a shambles, for instance. Or maybe home invasions by insects the size of the Seattle Space Needle? Or cable guys who deserve to be strung up by their, um, toes and prodded with live cable wires, say. Or relatives who use up all the hot water and eat the last bag of M&Ms, even though you thought you hid it really well beneath the cushion of the futon in your office...?
Elizabeth Bevarly, 8:35 AM
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