Phone a friend(s)......

I did something I wanted to do for ages today. I rang my two blog mates – authors Anny Cook and Kelly Kirch. For those of you who don’t know, I live in Australia and the dynamic duo live in the US. We have never met yet it seemed like we had picked up a conversation from a moment ago. There is this weird connection between us. We are three wildly different women from different walks of life and ideas. Yet it works between us. I really enjoyed talking to them both. Kelly said I was ‘much more upbeat and cheerful’ then she expected. And she expected my voice to be ‘deeper and smoky sounding with a hard sarcastic edge.’ I promised Kelly I would work on being morose and husky sounding for our future interaction. It’s the least I can do for a friend. As for Anny – she is the Zen Queen – cheerful, warm and wise. I could talk to them both for hours.

Okay – enough soppy stuff. Horatio Caine. Why the sudden change of topic? Because I can….hmmm…good name for a book. Anyway, I digress…I have an old VCR player. It’s probably ten years old and still works so I don’t bother getting a DVD player as why chuck something out that is working for something new? I don’t watch much television – mainly news and a few shows. I don’t even have pay TV (cable) as I would not watch it. Anyway, last night, I decided I would not write on my current WIP. I would instead watch some of the dozen tapes I had recorded. See? This is where Horatio Caine comes in. For anyone that does not know he is the stoic, stony faced detective on CSI:Miami. He fascinates me. It‘s because he is so complicated, as is Gil Grissom on the original CSI

and the King of complicated – Jack Bauer on 24. I like complicated people –and it’s not just television characters. I like people who mumble something deep and cryptic as they stare coolly off into the sunset. I love people with a mysterious edge that makes you want to try and find out more. I hate actual puzzles – jig and crosswords – as I do not have the patience. But enigmatic people fascinate me. So do you like complicated people or do you wish they would stop being so bloody mysterious and moody?

Hint – never use faked tanning lotion if you are going to do a half arsed job of it. I rush everything. That’s who I am. I expect I’ll slow down when I am dead. But for now I do everything quickly and most times it’s a blessing. But there are times when you have to ‘evenly spread lotion on both legs’ and that rushing is a bad thing. So I have multi-tonal legs at the moment. The bright side is they make me laugh when I look at them. Moral of the story – pay attention and slow down. The reality? It ain’t going to happen.


So what exciting things are y’all (I am practising my American courtesy of Anny Cook) doing on this pleasant Saturday? I know that you can find profound words of wisdom on www.annycook.blogspot.com. Anny also has the blog serial today. I would like to say it’s profound but I am trying to cut down on my lies. Kelly is supposed to be finishing up her week of penance for the HAI. What is that? She cut the map of Australia in half on her blog www.kkirch.blogspot.com. Today I have requested she explain the ‘great Aussie salute’ and ‘Louie the Fly.’ It’s a co-related topic

And now a sedate excerpt from The Goddess and the Ghost. I am trying to be good-ish. The book is released…er…I can never remember the date but it’s either the 26 or 27th November from Total-E-Bound…. http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?s=v7Yg5661446&strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=183

"I am in hell,” Zipporah Scott muttered gravely as she surveyed her surroundings with a growing sense of horror. Something was not right. The air smelt different. The people around her looked odd. The ground under her feet felt rough and unforgiving. A sudden spurt of panic surged through Zipporah’s veins. Oh dear lord I must be strong. She closed her eyes, praying that the scene before her tormented gaze was only a hallucination. Maybe those two aspirins she had taken earlier in the day had affected her mind in some way or maybe the three cups of extra strong black coffee she had imbibed had been a bad thing. She opened her eyes slowly.

“Oh fuck,” she muttered as she looked around at the grass and trees and all things natural and earthy. This was the reality of her situation for the next two whole days. And as realities went, this current one sucked badly. “I will survive this,” she muttered through gritted teeth, her fists clenched with determination. If Scarlett could get through the burning of Atlanta she could get through this. Goddesses could get through anything if they had to.
“Isn’t this great, Auntie Zipp?” Evie Daniels, her ten-year-old niece, chirped. She jumped around excitedly, seemingly oblivious to the horrors around her.
“It’s swell, kid.” Zipporah was trying not to sound cynical and jaded but she knew she was failing miserably. She looked at her fair-haired niece with an affection mixed with pity and shock. Zipporah shook her head sadly. Poor deluded child. Who knew that someone with the same strain of blood running through their veins could be excited by the predicament they were now in? Zipporah knew that Evie was young and had not been exposed to the evils of the world. She could not be fully aware of the horrors they were going to have to endure. The angst, the drama and the sheer terror. Zipporah felt a shiver of fear race down her spine when she though about what was before her. Could she do it? Was she strong enough? Could she face her demons?
“I hate fucking camping.” If the great outdoors was so good why was it outdoors and why did everyone have entertainment lounges and computers indoors? And if they were meant to live outside then why had human beings ever been allowed to evolve to the point of designing free form architecture? Zipporah did not believe for one second that cave dwellers, if given the choice, would prefer to live outside battling the elements. It was just wrong. It was too much to inflict on the uninitiated, the cynical and the city bred.
“You just swore, Auntie Zipp.” Evie looked at her with childlike amusement as if at the thought of an adult being caught out doing something wrong.
Bugger. A Good Aunt did not swear around the K-I-D.
“I did not…much.” Zipporah blew the fringe out of her eyes. “Don’t tell your mother or she’ll think I’m a terrible influence.” Her sister already knew she was a terrible influence as all teasing siblings did. She had given the single Zipporah specific instructions to follow this weekend. Zipporah could not recall ‘no swearing’ being one of them. However she was certain it rated up there with her niece going to bed by nine o’clock and not eating junk food. The latter rule they had already broken. The former, Zipporah was determined to stick to but she was flexible in her approach to Aunt-dom.

www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?