It Ain't Christmas...

Began the annual gorging on Christmas season specials with a brand new offering--Shrek the Halls. In it, Donkey says something very profound, as Donkey often does. "Christmas is all about big fights. My mama used to always say, Christmas ain't Christmas till somebody cries."


Ain't it the truth.


For some reason, this time of year can bring out big emotions. I can think of only a few Christmases where there hasn't been one crisis or another, especially in the extended family--aunts, uncles, children, dogs, cat people who hate dogs, dog people who wish the cat people would just shut up and ignore the dogs, etc. Oh, come on. It can't just be my family.

Popular Wednes...okay, Thursday

Yesterday - 1 Starbucks
Today - 1 Starbucks

Let's go through this in the most meaningful way possible, shall we?

My favorite things this week are--

Supernatural - Newly converted and loving it. Lame special effects? Who cares? This is about the Sam and Dean relationship, their backstory and angst. One brother who has devoted his life to killing monsters and who never wants to do anything else. Another brother who just wants to be normal, but is continually sucked back into the lifestyle as he cannot abandon his brother. Oh, it hurts so good. Those boys are too young for me, but I so don't care. I love them so much I am reading episode recaps on...

Television Without Pity - better known as Snarks R Us. Their Lost recaps make me pee my pants. As I read the SPN recaps, and find out things I might want to see live, I go to...

youtube - where wonderful people have posted from all the episodes. So I watch SPN, and favorite clips, and wish there was someone around who understood my love for the boys, and the joy I feel when I watch the Supernatural Drinking Game, and the clip montage running to the "I Killed Kenny" Southpark song. Alas, there is only one...and she is to blame for my current obsession.

Is it any wonder I don't get anything done?

Special shout-out to snowcap brownies at Starbucks, and to Bones, who this week gave all the Booth/Brennan fans a gift when they kissed under the mistletoe. The kiss? Very tame, lips pressed together like they were kissing their brother/sister. The result--Booth ends up with Brennan's gum. Very hilarious.

Perfectionist Nina vs. Practical Nina

This Past Weekend - 2 trips to Starbucks (on the same day)
Christmas Tree? - Check
Christmas panic setting in? - Check
Golden Heart panic waltzing with Christmas panic? - Check

Since I know I have a few other writers that read this, I had some writerly questions for you that all now seem stoopid. Maybe we can expound on the theme of working on a book after the thrill is gone. I have a book like that--my baby, my opus, the best idea evah!--and yet now I want to toss it out the window and watch the pages flutter away in the breeze. My brilliant CP, Celeste, says finish it! Get on with your life! Oh, how I want to.

Or perhaps I just need to read an article on buckling down and finishing the icky, revising part of the whole book writing process.

Which way to go -- Perfectionist or Practical?

It's raining 300 men

All my favorite parts without the ick.

Popular Wednesdays

This week I'm thankful for....

James Blunt - It started with Goodbye My Lover, and it's still going strong with Same Mistake.

Ravel's Bolero - Maybe it will get me in the mood...to write love scenes. What did you think I meant?

Private Practice - This show wants you to swallow a lot to believe the set up--Really? Doctors working together in a commune-like setting? Addison's really not rotting away in private practice when she could be saving a bazillion lives in a huge hospital every week?--but they made up for it last week with two love scenes and a switch at the end that totally had me thinking they had it going on. Anybody else for Taye Diggs at the end? It's still on my TIVO.

300 - I watched it for the rippling abs and got so much more. The reviews I read made it sound like a flashy, but in the end, empty piece, something you wouldn't remember the next day. When I wasn't covering my eyes from spurting arteries, I thought there was a great story in there. None of the emotion was overdone (emotion, I said, I'm not getting into the other parts). As a romantic at heart, it would take a lot for me to send Leonidas and the rest of the 300 to their death without feeling there had to be another way. But I bought the whole thing, and even cheered them on. Even his queen making a deal in exchange for her body seemed noble, when it could easily have gone the other way. Interspersed as it was with scenes of hardship from the front lines, it showed her doing her part for the battle, sacrificing as her husband sacrificed, and carrying wounds to show for it. I believed, and I want to thank the movie makers for that.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In my family, as everyone's gotten older and spread out across the country, it's not easy to get together for all the big holidays. Thanksgiving has fallen by the wayside, and we focus on Christmas. That's fine with me. On Thursday morning, my daughter and I will be watching the parade cuddled up on the sofa while my husband starts the turkey. Later, we'll watch football, in our cozy home filled with the smells of turkey, cranberries and pumpkin, and later go over to some friends to have dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

The good times, the bad times

The past week has been one of the best in a while for ideas and getting past blockages in my writing. I'd like to think I was due, but I know it doesn't work that way. A great idea comes, and I get a day of thinking, "I'm brilliant!' Sigh. I love those days--they're the whole reason I write.

Tomorrow J L Langley's With Caution comes out at Samhain Publishing. I'd link it, but they move it after it comes out. I'm debating whether I can wait until tomorrow night to read it, or whether I'm going to stay up and read it tonight. I am so excited for this book. Hmmmm. Decided. If it's out by midnight, I'm buying it. Self discipline is for sissies!

Virgin Slave, Barbarian King

Saw this when I was flipping through this month's Romantic Times. If you don't know what you're getting when you buy this one, you are beyond help.

Popular Wednesday

Some of my favorite things this week:

• Band of Gold by Freda Payne - I'd forgotten I like this song until I heard it on the radio - suh-weet!


• Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis - Thanks to the folks at the TV show Chuck for playing this an episode ago. I believe it's circa the 90s, but I'd never heard it before. Now it lives on my ipod.

Has anyone been to see Fred Claus? I'd love to take my daughter, but it's rated PG and I don't know if it's appropriate for a 4 year old. If you like, leave a comment, or email me at ninamamone [at] yahoo.com.

And to wrap it up, my favorite quote from last week's 30 Rock. NBC intern Kenneth is handing out cupcake shaped invites to his yearly party, which normally everyone avoids like the plague. Tracy starts a rumour that rapper T. I. will be there, and the rumour rapidly snowballs with everyone excited to attend. Liz is not happy.~

Lemon: "People are going to show up expecting all this great stuff and they're going to be disappointed and angry."

Tracy: "Just like Colonial Williamsburg."

Cranberries Anyone?

Every year around Thanksgiving the stores fill up with bags of fresh cranberries. Ever wonder what to do with them, especially since a lot of people would rather have the stuff that comes out of the can? My grandmother puts out both to keep everyone happy, but there's just something about the sliced cylinder that feels all homey.

I found this recipe for fresh cranberries, and my daughter loves them. Sour and sweet, and with a satisfying crunch when you pop one with your teeth. I'd like to think they're healthy (but I doubt it). Still, they have to be better than a chocolate bar, right? Hmmm. That says a lot, doesn't it, that I'm measuring the healthfulness of food by holding it up against a chocolate bar?

Sugared Cranberries

1 bag of fresh cranberries
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of water
Superfine sugar

Pick over the cranberries and rinse them well. In a saucepan, dissolve the 2 cups of sugar in the water. When the sugar water starts to boil, remove from the heat and add the cranberries. Transfer entire contests of saucepan to a container and leave in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, drain the cranberries, then coat them with superfine sugar (if you'd rather be practical and less fancy, regular sugar works, too.) Spread them on a cookie sheet and let dry. If you do this in the morning, they are usually done by the afternoon.

And, hey, if you don't like the taste, they are sparkly and decorative. You can sprinkle them on your turkey platter or dessert tray for presentation purposes.

When writing to the market is a good thing

Check out my reading list. It's not very long because I'm on a mission this month to get my Golden Heart entry ready and to finish Cisco's story, which has been too long coming. So not a lot of reading on my own unless it's irresistible (and thankfully, I've resisted most.) Don't worry, Cisco's done, he's just in revision land and had to go on hiatus while I dealt with a contest final and The Book That Wouldn't Die. (A quick plug since it's my blog. Cisco is the sequel to Hard To Guard from Samhain Publishing.)

But what savvy readers will notice is that most of the entries are regarding M/M erotica. Shocking, isn't it? I know there's some of you are out there right now perplexed and wondering what on earth I see in the M/M erotica. My husband agrees with you. Well, I've been thinking about it and I've figured it out. Right now, I'm keeping that information to myself. But I love, love, love M/M, and I love the thread I've found that keeps me up to date on all the good M/M authors. Feel free to send me recommended reads--I'm voracious when I'm on a roll.

So when I get my plate cleared, I'm starting one. I've been told I write men better than women anyway. I may try to plot this one, since I've realized that revisions can be bugger-all if you have to replace half of the original draft because you weren't smart enough to envision the entire character arc. Wish me luck!