Chicks-n-Scratching

Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

So, Munchkin is 6, and she’s, in some ways, a very standard sort of 6-year-old girl. Princesses and dress up mixed with drawing and kung fu (okay, maybe not standard, but you know what I mean). She’s only just turned 6 and is still, socially and emotionally speaking, a kindergartner transitioning to first-grader.

In other ways, though, she’s not so standard. Now, I realize that all kids are different and all parents think their kid is brilliant, but mine is. She’s reading at far above her grade level, can do the first grade math with ease, and can do complicated puzzles herself (though she WANTS people to do it with her, which is really more social than skill). She  does Sudoku (not my level, but she does do it).

So I have a bit of a problem.  When it comes to reading materials and computer games, she’s a challenge to me. Intellectually, she’s definitely ready for the 7-10, some things even higher. Socially, not so much. So I’m having some difficulty finding books and games that are both intellectually challenging and age-appropriate. I can find things that are age-appropriate, and she is less than challenged. I can find things that are challenging, but they aren’t age appropriate. Why is this such a pain? Don’t other people have smart 6-year-olds? They have to, right?

I figured I’d open this up to the collective mind of the internet. Help me. I don’t want to spend scads of money, but I want her to have things that are both challenging and appropriate.

Some things I have found that work are the I Spy hidden object games from Scholastic – but they’re pretty expensive for what you get. E-bay helps some there. My BFF sent some interesting books – some are not so challenging, some more challenging. She did a good job. She digs the Magic Tree House and Magic School Bus books, and we definitely do lots of those.  But I’d welcome more book suggestions. Keep in mind I want her to read them herself, so short chapters work better. Also, she has a vivid imagination, so she will scare herself sick if it’s too creepy or scary.

Do you have suggestions for PC games and/or books that might work for an intellectually advanced but socially/emotionally average 6-year-old girl? Heeeelp meeeee…..

I have a confession. I prefer dirty men. Yep, give me a blue collar guy any day over a starched white collar hero any day. Not that there are not some areas that are in the middle, there are. Like security specialist (that icon of RomSus) or even Police officers, etc. Those types of professions I don’t normally associate with any collar, actually. Hmm, that group needs a name. Let’s call them the middle men for sake of argument.

Now, I get the appeal of white collar dudes, I do. I have written a few. There is something soothing about a guy sitting in an office, making deals, making money (face it, the $$$ is what white collar is about), the thrill of the legal and business game. These men are lawyers, business tycoons, leaders of industry, the historical viscount, etc.

I get all that.These men are usually very intelligent, somewhat ruthless and have shark-like instincts. They hold power like a sword and wield it with razor-sharp precision.  Good hero characteristics if you don’t make them dull as dishwater or an alphahole.

The Middle Men bridge the gap between the stuffed shirts and common man. They are not so out of reach as to be unattainable but they are a not the everyday Joe. They often are required to have a great body to do their jobs but they are not the kind that come home daily sweaty and grease stained.

They are in command(shades of white collar) but have to do the work themselves (blue collar). They are often the saviors of the day. Firemen, police officers, body guards, etc make up this delectable group. This is a nice balance and I think a greater number of heroes fall into this category.

Still at the end of the day, I prefer those men who have worked with their hands. The salt of the earth type, if you will. A blue collar guys knows his worth and his value isn’t attached to his bank statement. He isn’t afraid to get his clothes dirty to help out a stranger, and sometimes gets kicked in the teeth by daily life.

His hands are rough, he drinks beer not wine and may have told an off-color joke or two in his life. He is approachable, understood and attainable… and yummy. He is the farmer, the mechanic, the logger, the construction dude.

What ‘class’ of hero do you prefer?

Yesterday was my 14th wedding anniversary.

Fourteen years. Seriously? How the hell did that happen?

Anyway, it made me think a bit about love, marriage, life, and all that jazz. What is it about love and romance that makes me want to write it? Makes me want to live it?

I think it’s the hopefulness of it, the life-affirming idea that there is continuity, stability, acceptance. That we are each one of us a worthy and wonderful person, and that somewhere there are people who recognize that.

I am not an easy person. I’m bitchy, moody, stubborn. On the plus side, I’m smart – really smart – and often funny (in a snide, sarcastic way). I’m sure this is big news to all of you – because this kind of thing NEVER comes through in my posts or writing. [hey! you could sprain something rolling your eyes like that!]

But I think, at the core of it, this sums it up. I am a world class HOPEFUL romantic.

Yeah I am cheating but work with me here, I am low on coffee this morning.

So, what’s up with you? Anything exciting happening in your life? Share with me. Entertain me.

Me? Lots of things are bubbling behind the scenes. First and foremost is the launch of Carina Press on June 7th. That is going to set the ball rolling for my summer. I have THREE stories coming out with them this summer, one a co-write with our chickilicious Ginny Glass. Here look at this…

Did your heart beat just a little faster? Mine did. Love that presentation and the cover art is gorgeous!

Speaking of gorgeous…

I want to marry that video. Is it not simply stunning? Goldenheart Winner Jeannie Lin designed it and OMG, love it!

And just because he is so… so… well, you get the idea. I leave you with this guy.

Not to mention people with the inability to hear what the customer is saying. The empoyee (read: waste-of-space) can only read off a script that doesn’t vary, no matter your question, complaint or situation. Dave and I have been fighting with a major auto financing company for days and day because of something they did. They refuse to take responsibility and keep telling us that we are xx days late on our payments – yes, I said payments – because they sent a check back to us with a letter saying that we had the wrong payee on it. Now, let me back up a bit and say that Dave pays our bills online through our bank. Our bank then in turn issues a check. The check the assholes sent back, has their company name in big letters right next to “Pay to the Order of.”

Honestly, I don’t know if they were waiting for me to cover it in sparkles or send it with an accompanying brass band. So, now we call and ask what in the hell we’re supposed to do with the check, and why are they suddenly sending this back to us when they’ve cashed every other one we’ve been sending for over a year? The answer: “You are xx days late and it says here that the check was sent back to you for the wrong payee. ”

Smoke slowly begins to pour from my ears at this point. “Didn’t you hear me? I’m looking at the check right now, it’s in my hot little hand and it has your company’s name on it.”

Dead silence.

“Ma’am you’re xx days late on your payments.”

By this point I want not only claw her eyes out, but my own as well.

My hubby had just made another payment on line, this one a double. I told the braindead woman this and she said. “Ma’am you’re xx days late.”

“How can I be when my husband just made a payment. Here’s the confirmation number.”

For the next four days we contined to get calls saying we were behind. No one. And I mean no one is able to think outside their cubicle here.

I woke to Dave yelling at someone on the phone they were giving him the exact same run-around. Finally, he lost it so bad the dogs hid. He then asked to speak to a supervisor. Things are not quite resolved, but reasonably better now. However, my credit is fucked because of the company’s mistake. Not fair. At all.

Don’t even get me started with the incompetence at my mortgage company. The right hand doesn’t know the left one even exsists over there. We got notified by them that they paid our property taxes and they were raising our monthly payment to cover the escroe account they opened for us – without us asking – the reason – they said we hadn’t paid our property taxes, or our township hadn’t informed them of payment. Whatever. I have receipts that prove I paid. So what’s the problem? They are a bunch of freakin’ idiots. That’s what. It comes down to that alone.

So, today I called a mortgage broker who works with one of my best friends who owns her own realty company. He’s the man who wrote up our original mortgage and refianced us when we bought the house ten years ago. He’s going to see what he can do for us. Thank God!!! Now just cross your fingers and pray.

As for the car. The lease is up in December, so I’m going out on my next day off and looking at new ones. I’m going to talk to the credit union at work and see about getting another car and having the payments taken out of my paycheck. (They do payroll deduction where I work) No muss. No fuss. No drama.

That’s the plan. I am just sooooo over the fucking drama that isn’t even of our making.

Jesus wept.

So, let me hear about your brushes with incompetence. Please, let me know I’m not the only one being bombarded by stupidity.

-Kate

Alright, I’ll admit, I’m not infallible. I’m human. I make mistakes and I learn from them and move on. Therein lies the heart of this post. Consider it a cautionary tale for those of you who may think to do this in the future. Take some advice and don’t do it, no matter how much your mind and body screams for you to. No matter if your muse is standing over your shoulder with a rubber hose threatening you. Simply turn around and give them a hearty face shove.

So, here is what I did that I will never do again–at least to the degree I did it this time around.

Using place holders instead of writing the love/sex scenes.

See, it seemed a good idea at the time since I just wanted to finish the book with plot and characters so I could go back and reread and edit and get the book out the damn door. I thought, hell, I’ll just put holders in the love scenes (bright red ones with notes as to the intent of the scene character-wise) then I’d go back during editing and fill them in. Big mistake. Huge. I can’t even express the mental fatigue I have now after writing 7 love scenes in 5 days each one 1k-2k long. In a word, I’m spent. In order to keep things fresh I kept pushing my personal writing boundries. While that is not necessarily a bad thing while writing an erotic romance, it sure makes you sit and stare at the screen, scratching your chin and wondering what the hell you’re going to write next. Then there are the emotional issues during lovemaking. Now, I have done this before on a much smaller scale. One or two scenes only and not always sex related and I had no trouble going back in. Thus, I thought this instance would be fine. Man, was I mistaken. Hard.

I try to have some revelation of character during each love scene. I don’t want it just about tab B in slot A and choreography without meaning. I want the deep emotional responses for my characters as well as physcial fulfillment. Not always easy to accomplish, but better when you are writing linearly and not jumping around. Of course, I went back to a scene or two before the love scene so I knew what was going on and place the action in context, but still. Ugh. I’m one that has always prided herself on letting the sex play grow organically from the plot and characters. Gratuitious action generally turns me off. So, why do I feel, even though I had those place holders there where the sex should have been had I written linearly, that the scenes are in fact extraneous?  Maybe this is just a fear derived from working the way I did on this book. It’s not like me at all. And you  know what? I don’t think I liked it.

How many of you take things out of order and then have to go back and lace things in? Did it seem like a struggle or did you embrace it with open arms? Please let me know, I’m really interested in how it worked for you.

-Kate

In this episode, we’re going with arts and crafts that result in a very strong WTF reaction from me.  Links may not be safe for work. Or sanity.

I have to admit, to begin, that what sparked this topic was a post at Romance Divas. The post linked to this teddy bear. Total squick. Ew.

The next few are from one of my fave WTF sites: Ugliest Tattoos. Because there is nothing like taking your WTFery and permanently inking it on your body. WIN! We’ll start by saying that tattoo artists should provide spell check. Really. And then there’s well… just… WTF?! The whole site is a laundry list of DON’T DO THAT!

This set is from Regretsy. The tagline here says it all: Where DIY Meets WTF. Again with the spelling. Come on, people. And back on the subject of dolls - or cats - or holy crap. I think my head exploded. And the art. Um. Okay, I can’t do more of that.

Last set. Almost done. This one is cakes, which I suppose I’m counting as crafts. You make cake, right? I love the Cake Wreck site. Holiday cakes, occasion cakes. You name it, people screw it up.

There. Now wasn’t that fun?

So, I promised something non-political this week. That’s hard, but I did promise. And I thought about doing spam again, mostly because I just cleaned 493 spam messages out of the inbox (and while I wish I was making that number up, I’m not). But we’ve done that.

So we’re doing something fun. You all get to WTF me.

I’m working on a WIP I’m calling, rather tongue-in-cheek, the mystery-were. It received this name because I’m not telling people what the beastie part of my were is. There are.. um.. aside from me, 4 people who know. I brainstormed the idea with two of them, and ran the first couple of thousand words through one of them. The fourth one is my BFF, so she knows eeeeeverything.

Anyway, here’s the deal. Willem, my were-dude, is Dutch. He was marooned on the Australia coast in the mid 1600s (no, really. I have back story and research that explains this. I DO.). In any case, he runs afoul of the locals and gets himself cursed into a were.

So here’s where it gets fun – guess. Guess what my mystery-were is. I will give you a hint – it isn’t anything inanimate (at one point, were-boomerang or were-Ayers-Rock were suggested). So, knowing that it is an actual beastie, and not something inanimate, what do you think my mystery-were is?

Who knows, I might even tell you if you guess correctly.

Nah.

Sunday night, at around 10:45 Eastern time, the House passed the Health Care Overhaul bill.  It had some changes and amendments that make it a bit different from the Senate version passed last fall, so the Senate will still need to do their thing on those sections, but the underlying legislation is a done deal.  But what does it MEAN?

We’ve heard a lot of talk about costs to taxpayers, costs to consumers, benefits to individuals, concern for small businesses. Unfortunately, it’s hard for the average Joe (or Jane) to make any sense of such a huge, conflicting mass of information. The politics definitely get in the way of understanding in this case.

So, I thought I’d take a moment to give you some of the basics. Some good, some not so good, aspects of the health care reform legislation. I’ll tell you up front I think our health care system is broken, badly broken.  I’m not at all sure this legislation will “fix” or even “improve” health care overall. But since I’m not in the business of prognostication, I don’t expect to know if it will “fix” things. I’m willing to give it a chance.

So, here’s some basic info on what health care reform means for actual people.

What’s in the bill?

1. An individual mandate: all individuals must have insurance by 2014 or pay a $695 annual fine. This is like the mandatory car insurance thing – if you don’t have insurance, you pay the uninsured motorist fee, at least here in VA. Same deal. There are exceptions for the extremely poor.

2. Expands Medicaid for US citizens and legal immigrants; illegal immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid.

3. Closes the Medicare prescription plan “donut hole” by 2020.  If you aren’t familiar with this, the Medicare prescription plan covers costs of prescriptions up to a point, then cuts off until an out-of-pocket limit is reached, when the coverage kicks in again. The gap between the first limit and the out-of-pocket limit is referred to as the donut hole.

4. Requires that employers with more than 50 employees offer insurance to employees or face a fine of up to $2000 per employee per year. The fine is designed to offset government subsidies which will help employees pay for coverage.

5. Individuals and families making up to 400% of the US poverty level are eligible for graduated subsidies to help pay for insurance coverage. The current poverty line for a family of 4 is around $22,500. This means that subsidies would be available for families making up through around $90,000.

6. New health care “exchanges” are designed to create bigger risk pools and create competition for insurance policies.  The idea is that these exchanges will allow individuals more choice and will encourage competitive pricing by the insurers.

7. Starting in 2014, insurers will no longer be able to deny anyone based on preexisting conditions. Within 6 months of enactment, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to children based on preexisting conditions.

8. Parents will be able to carry their children on their insurance policies until age 26, provided those children do not have access to plans through their employer.

What’s NOT in the bill?

1. Government-run health care (aside from the changes to Medicare/Medicaid, which are existing programs). This plan does not put in place anything resembling the national health care plans of Europe, Canada, Costa Rica, or other similar plans.

2. Funding for abortion. The bill segregates tax payer money from private insurance. Subsidies from the US government cannot be used to pay for premiums that fund abortions.* No insurance plan will be required to provide abortion coverage.

3. Increased access for illegal immigrants.  Illegal immigrants will not be allowed to buy insurance on the exchanges, even if they use entirely their own money.  The exchanges are closed to illegal immigrants.

4. Universal prescription drug coverage. Nope. Not in there.

5. Reductions in premiums for existing insured. The vast majority of people who currently have insurance will not see a reduction in premiums. What you, theoretically, should see, is a reduction in increases.

*There is a separate Executive Order which allows for use of those funds to pay for abortion in the case of rape, incest, or for the health of the mother. This is the source of a significant firestorm. Pro-choice groups dislike it because it puts limits on abortion, Pro-life groups dislike it because it doesn’t ban all use of taxpayer funds for abortion. The order itself reflects existing law, so this is not anything new in the debate.

I hope that helps you get some of the idea about what is and is not in this bill.  In terms of cost, the estimated cost is around $940 billion over ten years, which is, theoretically, supposed to be paid for from three main sources. First, right now Medicaid/Medicare tax excludes unearned income. Starting in 2012 for families making more than $250,000/yr that will no longer be the case. Second, a tanning tax. No, I’m not making that up. There will be a 10% excise tax on tanning services. Third, an excise tax starting in 2018 on “Cadillac” plans – that is, plans that exceed $27,500 in cost each year for a family (this doesn’t include vision or dental benefits).

So that’s the basics. If you want more info, here are a few reference links: NPR’s Consumer’s Guide to HCR; The Examiner’s summary; MSNBC coverage; Wall Street Journal coverage; the CBS News breakdown; and the West Wing Report blog summary.  I’d have included a Fox link for contents of the bill, but I couldn’t find one. I found any number of articles on the political repercussions for the Dems having now passed it, but nothing on the actual contents of the bill.  If anyone finds a link for that, let me know and I’ll include it.

Yes, I know. I usually do WTF Wednesday – and, truly, there is much to WTF about. But this week I want to do something a little different. I want to share with you some of the things I’ve found wandering around on the internet doing research for my writing.

Something cool I found doing research for Trusting Destiny is the site for the Ransom Center at the University of Texas. It’s a ridiculously awesome collection of materials from a Gutenberg Bible and a web exhibition of Lewis Carroll work to film holdings and information.  There’s amazing stuff here.

In the course of working on the Mercy serial and a couple of SF pieces, I found the Hubble Site and it’s jaw-dropping collection of pics from the Hubble.

Ms. Menozzi turned me on (ha) to this NSFW site celebrating naked men. Inspiration. That counts as research, right?

Emily Ryan-Davis pointed me toward Albannach when we were doing research for a piece we’re writing together.  Their music has now become some of my go-to for mood.

Finally, I found the Encyclopedia Mythica some time ago and it is invaluable for information on mythology of all types. I can get ideas for stories just by poking around to see what mythology and mythological figures catch my eye.

What are some of your favorite research finds?