The highlight of our weekend was Turbo’s birthday. Here’s the cake I made.

I am so out of practice on doing cakes, but I had fun. The side of the cake that’s showing is the “bad” side where I was figuring out how I wanted to do the blue and yellow stripes. I meant to turn the cake around to decorate the top so the “good” side showed. But Wizard came in the house and was helping me layout the design on top and I forgot to turn the cake. **Shrug**  Turbo loved the cake and didn’t care about those details. He told me, “It’s a construction cake!” After he blew out the candles, he had the tractors digging in the cake, LOL. He also ate all the M&Ms out of the tractor buckets :-). I pretty much guessed that was all he’d eat so I figured I was safe giving him those, and I was right. Overall, the cake was worth a day of work to see how happy he was It was fun to gather with all our sons and their wives just to hang out and celebrate.

How was your weekend?

TGIF! Let’s jump into sharing five random things.

1. Wizard survived jury duty. To no one’s surprised, the judge and lawyers declined to have him on the jury.
2. While he was out of house, I wanted to get an early jump on his birthday. I went to one of his hobby stores to order some stuff for him. I got a kid who took one look at me and decided not to do his job. He told me he couldn’t possibly order the items for me, and the only way I could get them was to call the manufacturer myself. Um…or I could one-click Amazon. So much for trying to help out a small business. Yeah I could have asked to see the owners, but I just didn’t have the energy. I knew I could order the parts but went out of my way to help them, and I really shouldn’t have to fight that hard to spend my money in their store. Just my opinion.
3. A lot of stuff has happened this week, making writing time scarce. Of course, I wasn’t happy with the original synopsis of this book and have spent months rethinking it so that’s on me :-). Now that I have 50 rough (VERY ROUGH) pages, I’m re-outlining the story so I have a decent idea how to write this and weave storylines. I must like writing the hard way, LOL.
4. I went by my son and daughter-in-laws, and while I was there her mom came over. Guys this is soooo cute. One of their dogs is Phoebe, a goofball golden retriever. Phoebe saw daughter in law’s mom, and grabbed the blanket her mom bought the dog for Christmas and took it to her with doggie joy. Then the dog tossed it up so it landed on her back and pranced. It was adorable. I’m not sure I would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. I guess it’s the doggie version of Thank you for my awesome blanket!
5. Turbo’s birthday is next week, but we’re doing a small family celebration Sunday night at Turbo’s house. I’m making him a simple but hopefully fun birthday cake. Hard to believe 3 years went by so fast!

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Originally published on MurderSheWrites Blog August 22, 2011. It’s a decade old, but it’s still true to how I plot and write.

HOW PLOTTING IS LIKE A FRENCH BRAID

I went to the mall yesterday, once again trying to find dinnerware I like at a price I can live with. Once again, I failed. But I did find a purple, two-piece bathing suit on clearance.

So I’m driving home thinking about the purple bathing suit. And sort of pondering the fact that I’m really not purple two piece bathing suit material these days. Even with the weight I’ve lost.

And then I started thinking about when I was younger.

Which naturally led me to thinking about French braids.

And from there, well of course, I began thinking about the fact that I way I write a book is a lot like a French braid.

You followed that, right? No? LOL! Okay, then I’ll explain.

Most women know how to braid hair. It’s a pretty simple concept: Separate hair into three even sections, and beginning at the top, weave the sections one over another, careful not to drop any pieces and to stay in the correct order.

It’s so easy even I can do it.

When I started writing, I thought it would be the same thing. Take three even pieces of story:

Characters
Plot
Conflict

Weave them together in the correct order and without dropping any pieces, and viola! A finished book.

Bwhahahaha!!!! Okay, maybe if I’d ever been able to write a straight romance that might have worked for me.

But guess what? Once I was old enough to do my own hair, I never wore it in a simple braid. But one day, I saw a French braid and loved the sleek look. So I practiced on my hair. To do a French braid, you start with a top layer of hair split into three even sections and begin the braid.

And then it gets complicated. At this point, you must pick up a new layer for each section, and weaver that in. Without dropping hair. Without getting it too tight or too loose. On and it must be straight.

Then repeat the process again and again, picking up a new layer with each pass, until you are at the end.

If you make any mistakes, you almost always have to take the braid apart and start over. But if it’s right, then you must bring all the hair together in a tight little ending and tie it up.

And that’s exactly how I write books. I layer in so many layers of character, plot and conflict that one of my editors, Kate Duffy, once commented that as she read the book, she worried that I’d never catch all the balls I threw in the air. But she swore I pulled it off. That was for NINJA SOCCER MOMS, the third book in my Samantha Shaw Mystery Series. I’ve never forgotten that. Because, if I do it right, it comes out smooth and sleek like a French braid. While an editor might be able to recognize all the work it took to achieve that, most readers won’t. And that’s how it should be.

But unlike my old ability to French braid, I rarely get my books right on the first pass. Usually by the time I get to the end of my first draft, it looks more like a rat’s nest than anything resembling a braid. Then I take it apart, comb out the snarls, and weave it all back together until I finally have something close to a sleek and smooth story, just like a French braid.

And that’s my random musings on writing and French braids!

Although now I’m thinking that if I’m too old to wear a French braid, then I’m too old for a purple bikini. But what the heck, it’s only for my back yard pool…

And maybe I’ll French braid my hair too.

A bit of writing, fun with Turbo and walks with Maggie–that sums up my weekend On the writing front, I’m doing small, quick writing sprints then walking away to stay ahead of my cranky internal editor.

Today, Wizard is grudgingly going to jury duty. For a couple years, he’d wanted to get called, but now he has a several projects he’s working on and is annoyed. Isn’t that always how it goes?

As for me, I’ll be doing some writing, and pushing myself to begin some very light strength training. I’m not going to return to the gym for awhile, so I’m going to try something here at home. I know I’ll be sore, but given how quickly I recovered from fighting with that dog that tried to attack Maggie, I think with patience, I can do it. I need to do something because when I’m avoiding mirrors like they’re spreading Covid, LOL.

So that’s my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! I think it’s Friday? I don’t know anymore…but let’s assume it is and jump into sharing five random things about our week.

1. There’s something I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for a while, and here it is: WIZARD STEALS MY WORDS! It happens all the time. I’ll make a comment at home that he laughs at, then the next thing I know, he’s turned it into a FB post AND MAKES IT SOUND LIKE HE SAID IT!!! It’s been a week or two since he’s done it, but it’s all true!
2. Maggie got a bath yesterday. I made the appointment at the place we always take her to because I’m afraid to cut her nails, and Wizard took her. She came home so pretty and sweet smelling. She was pretty rank after going through surgery and recovery.
3. So after our dog fight adventure, Maggie seems fine. She clearly wasn’t bitten or too terrorized. I, however, was walking in the field when I heard a rustle next to me and dang near jumped out of my skin. It was a freaking plastic bag! LOLOL!!! So I can handle a charging dog, but not a plastic bag
4. I’m reading Silver James’s  book Twice the Temptation and loving it!
5. Turbo and his mom are probably coming over on Sunday to visit. CPA Boy is in tax season so he won’t make it. Happily, Special K has no problem visiting us without him, and that’s something that Wizard and I truly appreciate. I’m keeping any plans loose, but if we run out of things to do, I’ll make cookies with Turbo However, I suspect Grandpa and Turbo will be playing, giving Special K and I time to plot world domination.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

This blog isn’t related to the business of writing, instead I’m talking about what happened yesterday morning. This is why I don’t fully trust dog owners who let their dogs off leash.

I walk Maggie every day in the field close to our house. A lot of us dog walkers are sad that they are beginning work to build houses there, but that’s just life. For now, we can still walk there.

So Maggie and I go into the field, and I spot a man I’ve seen walking his older dog before. I think it’s a Labrador, and he’s off leash, but he’s mellow so I don’t worry about him. Maggie and I walk a little farther when I realized he has another dog with him off leash. A younger lab who’s in the shrubs. Crap. Now I’m worried, but I keep going on a different dirt road, keeping that dog in my peripheral vision and hoping he’ll and follow his owner and the other dog.

That’s when the dog spots Maggie and he doesn’t even hesitate, he runs for her. I’m guessing the dog was 40 to 50 pounds. I had little time to react and the owner was too far away. The owner finally sees this and yells, “He won’t hurt–” and he cut off as the dog went after Maggie.

I got a hold of the dog’s collar, and held on. Some of it I don’t even remember. The owner got there, put a leash on the dog and we handled it. We checked Maggie, and she seemed okay. The man seemed shocked that I was so calm. I was thinking so fast and trying to control a bad situation, I didn’t have time to panic. Or I don’t think I did, maybe I yelled and don’t remember. Plus the man immediately owned up to an ugly situation, and at that point, my being nasty would not have helped. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and misjudgments with my dog too. Once I got home and was checking my arm (it’s fine, no bite) I realized how much danger I was in. The dog wasn’t going after me, he was after Maggie. But I had a pretty up close view of his teeth and that’s not something I’m going to forget.

What frustrates me is that people don’t understand dogs. They are not humans. They are actually simpler and more predictable. I’ll bet money that dog loves people in general, and that lulled this guy into not realizing how fast things can turn bad if a dog’s energy is not controlled. If an off leash dog comes full energy at a smaller leashed dog, there will almost always be a fight. The smaller dog’s instant anxiety and being “trapped” on a leash can and does set off the fight.

I’m not really mad, just frustrated. When I see unleashed dogs, I never, ever listen to the owners telling me their dog won’t bite. THAT IS NOT TRUE AND FOOLISH TO BELIEVE.  In the right circumstances, most any dog will bite. For all I know, Maggie started that fight. I had put her in sit behind my left leg, but I didn’t look at her again. Maybe she growled or lunged. It’s possible. I know at one point I dropped her leash, she moved a few feet away and stayed back. But that’s all I can truly attest too.

Okay, I’m over it. Everyone is all right. I took Maggie back into the field in the afternoon because I don’t want her developing a fear. I’ve worked hard to get her to trust me to handle bad situations, and I wanted to reinforce that training. She was fine.

I started out writing this in frustration, but the more I think about it, the more I want to say this: I respect the other dog owner for the way he handled it once it was over. I really do.

Hmm…that actually makes me feel better!

Yep there was a weekend! Stuff happened, and then Monday showed up.

Two funny things: I was talking to my daughter-in-law who works at the vet. I was telling her that Maggie peed on the vet tech there. Honestly, it’s so embarrassing but Maggie submissive pees when she’s away from me. I warn them, but she looks so sweet and innocent, they pick her up, and a pee party happens. She does it to the groomers too. Anyhow, daughter-in-law tells me, “Oh I know. I was walking by the vet tech, and she said, ‘Your sister in law peed on me’!”

I cracked up. Calling Maggie her sister-in-law made my day. I always tease the boys that Maggie’s the sister they always wanted, so of course she’d be the sister-in-law of their wives Also I love that the vet tech had a sense of humor about it.

Second funny thing. Wizard went racing. So I headed to the donut store, and unsure of which donut Turbo would like best, I bought two. Then I drove fifty miles to see him because I’m a freaking amazing grandma, right? I show up, I get a smile from my grandson, followed by “Grandma, where’s Grandpa?” Then a totally crestfallen face when I told him Grandpa was racing and it was just me. The kid was bummed. Once he got over that, we had fun

There’s a new romance blog in town!  Everything Romance is launching today! Go check out my interview with a contest for a $25.00 (for U.S. residents) at Everything Romance Blog. There’s going to be events there all month long.

How was your weekend?