Today, In a Nutshell… or Pages and Pages

Today has been an uberwacky sort of day. Here’s a little rundown of the highlights:

Woke up. Late. (cuz I was up late coughing. It’s the end of a stinky virus)
Scuzzled around like a madwoman and lead-footed it to work.
Arrived to big banner announcing that the hospital is switching pager service providers, which means the stinging [...]

Nutty Enough Already

So, today, I was making my way in darkness to work.  It is a long drive, even at 5:30 in the morning.  Usually I gratefully spend this time in my own head, thinking out plotlines or revision ideas.  But today was not one of those days.  Sliding through the darkness, my gaze focused where my [...]

Back on the Chain Gang: What’s the Big Idea?

My turn again for the Blog Chain posting!
Today’s topic was started by the lovely Elana Johnson on Mindless Musings. The question before the group is “How do you get your ideas?”
I, for one, am big into “What if?”.
The inspiration for The Edge of Memory started out in a random way. [...]

Secret Confessions from a Pediatrician…

Whenever I see newborn rescue aprons, I want to try them on.
And fully loaded, natch.
They have these aprons in a lot of hospital nurseries (in case of fire or whatever else might require evacuation) to enable a staff member to rescue several babies at once. This is a smaller one than some I’ve [...]

In Deep Smit: A New Blog Post Theme

Fridays often do not mean the start of party time for me. Like many in healthcare (and retail, real estate, publishing, and many other industries) the weekend doesn’t necessarily mean time off.
So I’ve decided since I can’t really get into the I’m-Thankful-Its-Friday mentality, I will instead embrace It’s Friday… I’m thankful.
Meaning every Friday, I [...]

Welcome to My Boudoir… Care for an Informative Brochure?

Well, another mystery solved here on Trying To Do the Write Thing.
A couple of days ago, we received a UPS tag on our front door that they had attempted a delivery.
Neither my husband nor I had ordered anything. It isn’t our birthdays/anniversary. No friends or relations admitted to sending us surprises. We [...]

Mommy Deerest or How NOT to Report an Emergency

Last night I officially had the crap scared out of me. I was working a shift when I received a call from my father.
“Your mother’s been in an accident,” he said. “She hit a deer. She’s bleeding but she doesn’t know from where.”
Needless to say, I was careening towards full-blown panic. I [...]

What is it about me?

Do me a favor… buzz over to the “About Me” tab and take a peek at my picture.
Does it say, “Can I Help You?” in magic ink on my forehead or something?
For reasons I never understand, people gravitate to me when they have questions.  I do work in a service industry, but– trust me– I [...]

Critical Choices: Making Every Word Count

Yesterday, my husband and I had dinner out.  As we perused the menu, we took in the evening’s entertainment, which was provided by two child-sized diners.
A little girl, about 3, in overalls, and her 5-year-old brother were careening in reckless circles from the dining room, through the bar and back again.
During the fourth lap, a [...]

Bite Me, John Denver.

John Denver is messing with me.
Or maybe the Universe is just laughing behind my back.
Let me preface this blog post by saying that I love my car. When my husband asked me what my dream car was last year, I told him an ‘06 Hyundai Sonata. He said, “you’re kidding.” And [...]

Fellow Pilgrims

Every morning when I work, I wake up before dawn, outside black as midnight. It is only the last couple of weeks when a thin pink line highlights the horizon by the time I pull out of my driveway and speed towards the east.
I have a long drive to the children’s hospital where I [...]

Open to Interpretation

I saw Juno last night with my husband and enjoyed it immensely.
The main character’s repeated questioning of “‘Sexually active’… what does that even mean?” reminded me of an incident during medical school.
During a rotation in the ER, one of the medical students I was working with saw a teenage girl who came in with [...]

What’s in a Name?

I’ve been thinking a lot in the last few days about pen names.
I had planned that if my book were to be published, it would be under my professional name. I am starting to doubt that decision.
Given the subject matter of my novel, it is conceivable that I may generate some angry responses. [...]

Happy Thansgiving Analog

I’m working a 24+ hour shift tomorrow, so we had our turkey dinner today instead.
With running around today and working tomorrow, I feel like I’m not doing what I should be with my writing. My head is 2 chapters ahead of my fingers, which is a little confusing.
I did manage to get through Chapter [...]

O Come All Ye Chitties…

So I’ve ‘fessed up to my online community at large.
As of this moment, the folks (outside of the novel writing site) who know I am writing are:

My Husband
My Best Friend
Chitties

Thank you, thank you, to everyone who has offered encouragement and support. It is deeply appreciated.
Any opinions on the book cover options would [...]