Well another summer weekend is over.  We had gorgeous weather in

Ottawa. Miserably, I spent mine more inside than outside.  I wish I had more time to be outside these days, but we can’t all get what we want. Well at least I’m happy to say that I wrote 3 pages over the weekend.  Were they good ones? No but at least I got something down on paper.

Tonight Kelly Clarkson will be appearing on Canadian Idol to help the top 5 finalists.  This should be interesting.  I really like Kelly and her CD although different from her others is really good. I bought it the fist day it came out. There are a few signers that I’ll do that, Kalan Porter is another one (8 days until his latest release) I’m planning to get on his release date.

So will you be watching Canadian Idol tonight? I’m planning to.  Will you vote?  I have to confess I’m not impressed with the remaining contestants this year.  Hopefully we’ll have a better group next year.

Sheriff Dylan Taber takes one look at city girl Hope Spencer and bets she won’t last a week in Gospel, Idaho. But Ray Bans, tiny spandex tops, and a silver Porsche are not the sum total of a woman, and Hope not only stays more than a week, she makes an indelible impression on the local population while she’s driving Dylan crazy with lust and longing. Not that she plans to make the sheriff crazy. Hope just wants to end the writer’s block that has plagued her for months so she can return to being a star reporter for an L.A. tabloid.

 

Fortunately for her, the residents of Gospel provide inspiration for her fertile imagination and she’s soon cranking out new stories that her publisher loves. Meanwhile, she’s making new friends and falling in love–with the

Sawtooth

Mountains, with small-town life, and with Dylan Taber. Dylan is keeping a secret, however, and when he finds out that Hope isn’t just a writer of nonfiction, but a member of the notorious tabloid paparazzi, all hell breaks loose in Gospel. Can Hope convince him that her actions were innocent and will Dylan ever believe her?

 

 

I will confess I LOVE Rachel Gibson books.  I have purchased new and older ones that are out of print.  I am still in the process of hunting some in old bookstores.  However I have to say that I was disappointed in this book.  It didn’t have her usual shine.  Yes the characters were spunky and the dialogue interesting, but it lacked the sparkle her previous books had.  As an author it made me feel good.  Why?  It proves that great authors like Ms Gibson have bad days as well.

 

Will I purchase another Rachel Gibson? You bet, I purchased her latest release just today and looking forward to reading it.

I saw the movie that promoted the idea of “pay it forward”.  I have to say that I like the theory behind it.  Help others and when you are in need of help it will be there for you. Some would call it good karma.  I like to think of it as being nice.  Everyone should do something for someone else every so often.

Now the morning radio station that I listen to was talking about people who are in the drive thru who pay for the order in the car behind them at Tim Horton’s.  Quite a few listeners called in to say that yes they had done it and paid for the order of the car behind then.  One guys said he did it because the other car had let him go ahead of him in line and to him paying an extra $2 was wroth it.  Another called who also paid someone else’s order said it made feel good for the rest of the day.  So next time you are in a drive thru at a coffee shop like Tim Horton’s and someone lets you cut in, treat them to a coffee and pay their order.  That nice gesture will come back to you when you least expect it.

 

Have you ever read your favourite author’s first few books and thought “Thank God I’m not the only one who had weaker first books?”  At first I used to get down on myself when I read a new Jayne Anne Krantz or Nora Roberts book.  Then I decided to hunt down their older books through used bookstore.  That’s when I realized they grew into the awesome authors they are today. They didn’t just start writing that well.  So I thought to myself “There is still hope for me. Thank Goodness!”.

Yeah that gave my creative ego/esteem a HUGE boost.  Now that doesn’t mean that I started to think that I was the best of the best. Heck no!  It made me feel as though I wasn’t wasting my time be writing and trying to improve my writing.  Let’s face it when you get started in the writing world it’s a scary, isolated one.  I can understand how first time writers easily give up and walk away.  It’s harder than it looks.  You have to be discipline to get your butt in that chair and write.  Once you get published the money is a good enough reason to glue your butt down but before then you have to come up with your own reason’s for making time to write and have the determination to keep writing no matter what kind of disappointment you have to deal with whether it’s a bad contest results or a rejection from an agent and/or publisher.

So to those who aren’t published and still plugging away at it take a few seconds to pat yourself on the back, applaud and treat yourself (chocolate, cookies or specialty coffee).  You DESERVE it!

Maroon 5 were wonderful last night. The only issue I had is that there are 5 members in the band but the camera only showed two of them with close ups.  The show also said goodbye to Tara Oram. She was a cute blond girl from

Newfoundland.  I wish her all the best in her signing career as I bet most Canadian Idol fans.  

Who’s going to be the guest judge next week?  It’ll be none other than American Idol Kelly Clarkson.  This should be interesting because she has experience that none other Idol can share. Why? She’s had the best success so far and she is the original AI winner.

 

Hey all Maroon 5 fans they will be appearing on Canadian Idol tonight (check your local listings for the exact time).  They should be awesome. I’ve never seen them live but I’ve heard they are great.  At least they should be better than the last 6 Canadian Idol hopefuls. Is it just me or were they all not up to par and some down right awful last night.  I am quickly loosing faith in this show.  In the past there were one, two and even three (Kalan Porter year) good singers who could win it in past years. However this year no one has stood out.  I mean truly stood out every single week.

Here’s hoping next week the contestants sing better!

Well they replaced a bridge in

Ottawa in 17 hours.  Yep they cut out the bridge and replaced it with a new one in less than a full day.  If they’d done is the old way it would have taken over 2 years to accomplish.  It’s great that it was accomplished in such a short time. However with all the problems with bridges nowadays it makes me nervous that they could make it super sturdy in such little time. Then again with the progress of technology it’s probably sturdier than if they’d used older methods.  It certainly created less of a hassle since the bulk of the work was done overnight.

I’ll be using the bridge next weekend when I go and visit a friend.  I probably won’t be able to see a difference.

Have a happy Monday!

Its typical August day here in

Ottawa, hot humid, breezy and all around wonderful.  I’m hoping the nights will continue to be cool that way I’ll be able to sleep.  I don’t have air conditioning in my home. It’s too expensive to purchase and operate. My budget at the moment won’t allow room for it.

How’s writing have I gotten done so far this weekend? I’ve done one whole page, but I still plan on doing more.  I’m not giving myself a goal I’ll simply see how much I can get done without the added pressure.

How’s your weekend coming along so far?

I’m a little late posting my Saturday blog so I’ll simply have to post two of them today.  I spent the day at a friend’s place helping her with her fruit and vegetable stand. I usually go there once a week.  It gets me out of my house and meeting new people.

Tonight we went to see BECOMING JANE. I have to confess that I have never read any of Jane Austin’s books and knew nothing about the author.  I have seen the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth by A&E. Yum! So I didn’t have any big expectations for this movie.  I found it to be a jewel. Anne Hathaway did a great job a Jane Austin. I ran home, cleaned out my writing office of all its crap (old bathroom parts) and yes, I started to write once more.  Now it’s not huge amounts but half a page is more creative writing that I’ve done since early April.  I’m hoping to get more writing done on my weekends from now on.

My suggestion is if you are a fan of Ms Austin or not go and see this movie. It’s very entertaining and well worth the money.

I’m determined. This weekend my mission is to get back into my writing. I don’t care if I only write 1 page, but I’m hoping to write more than that. I haven’t written a creative word in more than 3 months.  I remember a time when I couldn’t go a day without writing, now I’m lucky if I make time to write more than once a month (or few months).

The only distraction that I can see is the beautiful weather, but then night time will take care of that. Then there is going to see BECOMING JANE. It’s opening this weekend and looks wonderful. I’m also hoping it’ll get me in the mood to write. At this point I’ll take anything that will get me back into writing.

What are your plans for the weekend?