Curl Up With A Good Book…

I’m back. And thank you for coming back yourself. So, where have I been? I’ve been finishing the next novel in the Lambert Falls series. As soon as I can tell you more, I will.  Promise. For now, we’re back to living a champagne life on a beer budget.

Do you remember the movie Mommie Dearest? In one particularly memorable scene, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford goes completely crazy, screaming “No wire hangers!”  Well, if I have one thing that makes me crazy like that around living a champagne life, it’s plastic grocery bags.  In my opinion, plastic grocery bags can be used for transporting groceries, lining a garbage can, cleaning out a litter box, or curbing your dog.  In a pinch, they can be used for a dirty diaper or a wet swimsuit.  Otherwise ~ yeah, I’m somewhere screaming “No plastic bags!”

See, the the whole point of living a champagne life is feeling good about ourselves, feeling put together, confident.  Very little can make us feel that way like having the details right.  That’s why purses, sunglasses and the right jewelry can do so much for an otherwise mediocre outfit.  Can do so much for us on an otherwise mediocre day.  So why do we pay attention to those details and then shove our lunch, our papers, our overnight things into a bag that can be used to line a trash can?

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at beer budget ways to get that last detail up to champagne life standards.  Until then, go ahead and use those grocery bags – for your kitty litter and your pooper scooper and yes, to line your trash bag. Because as we’re discovering, it’s easy to live a champagne life.  Even when it’s on a beer budget.

~ Pauline

Hi…you found my website and my blog. I’m glad you did. As a new author, I’m never quite sure anyone knows I’m out here, let alone if you take the time to read my blog. That’s one of the things they don’t tell you about writing but that you eventually learn on your own. It can be a very isolated, very isolating profession. Fulfilling in huge numbers of ways ~ and isolated at the same time.

Luckily for me, I have ~ just today so drum roll please ~ helped found a critique group. Two fellow members of my local Romance Writers Association of America chapter and I have decided to come together once a week for support, encouragement, constructive criticism and general cheer leading. After all, who better to understand why you haven’t written in three days or how frustrated you are with these characters or the problems in finding another word for “snort” when, what your character does is, well, snort, than another writer? And more importantly, who better to help you get past all that and writing again?

So thanks for joining me on this trip ~ one new author’s journey from first publication to…wherever we end up. My critique group, the other members of RWA, my ever patient fella and friends, and you. Did I just say this was an isolated career? Seriously? Anyway, here’s hoping we all enjoy the ride and still have time to curl up with a good book.

~ Pauline