Blue Eyeshadow Day

Today's t-shirt: "WARNING: What you do may appear in my next book." It's from one of my writing groups. I wear it often when I'm in the middle of a book because it is only fair to warn people that everything is fodder for the wacky writing brain.

I made next to no progress over the weekend. I think I need to avoid including weekends in my writing schedule because I really do need the break. I went out a couple of times, to go for high tea with some friends and to see Mamma Mia, but otherwise I was a couch potato. I had a minor stomach bug that hit Saturday night and lasted through mid-day Sunday, and I almost suspect my body of conspiring to make me take a break. I watched way too much HBO and OnDemand. I had the somewhat surreal experience of reading the book Must Love Dogs while the movie was on in the background on TV.

My editor is about halfway through reading book 3, and she reports that she really likes it so far, so that's a relief. It looks like that one will be coming out at the end of April 2007 (with book 4 following in the late summer or fall). But there's also a possibility that they'll hold it and do a back-to-back release with book 4, which might mean that book 3 would be maybe in late summer and book 4 would then come a month or so later. They've had a lot of success launching series and authors like that in mass market, so it's an option to really make a splash with these books. I'm not sure where I stand on the issue. I know y'all are dying for book 3, but I also know that after book 3 you might be really glad to get book 4 right away. I'm kind of glad it's not my decision to make.

After seeing Mamma Mia last night, I have this weird urge to put on blue eyeshadow and dig up all my old ABBA albums. Unfortunately, most of them are on vinyl, I no longer have a turntable, and all my albums are at my parents' house since they do have a turntable. I have one CD and two cassettes. That was the music of my junior high years (except for The Visitors -- one I have on CD -- that came out when I was in high school and that I discovered my junior year, and it's very different from their usual sound) and conjures up memories of roller skating in the school parking lot on weekends with my friend's boombox playing. I was living in Germany then (early 80s) and ABBA was huge there, with posters everywhere. The scene in the show where they're singing "Dancing Queen" into hairbrushes really gives me flashbacks because I did that more than a few times.

And now to get to the chapter 12 I spent the weekend outlining but not writing.