Aim For The Heart: January 2008

Today is the release date for the paperback of Patry Francis's The Liar's Diary. Ms. Francis was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and has been unable to promote the book the way she'd like, so friends of hers came up with the idea to blog about her book on its release date to get the word out. They also decided to spread the word, have other people blog about the book.

Here's a blog post with more details, and here's a description of the book from Powell's:

----------
Jeanne Crosss contented suburban life gets a jolt of energy from the arrival of Ali Mather, the stunning new music teacher at the local high school. With a magnetic personality and looks to match, Ali draws attention from all quarters, including Jeanne's husband and son. Nonetheless, Jeanne and Ali develop a deep friendship based on their mutual vulnerabilities and long-held secrets that Ali has been recording in her diary. The diary also holds a key to something darker: Alis suspicion that someone has been entering her house when she is not at home. Soon their friendship will be shattered by violence and Jeanne will find herself facing impossible choices in order to protect the people she loves.
----------

I wish Ms. Francis the best of luck.

A new one that is. Fiber One granola bars now come in caramel! Caramel! Of course you've tried Fiber One granola bars, right? RIGHT? No one would be foolish enough to go through life without trying the best granola bars in existence. Chocolate chip, peanut butter, and now caramel. It's like mana from heaven, if mana were smooshed into a bar and had flavored chip bits added to it.

Go. Hurry. Maybe if you're lucky your local grocery store won't be out of them.

My weekend:

Friday -- DnD game.

Saturday -- Usually my day off. Of writing, of most chores, of anything but fun stuff. So, other than a trip to the vet for Delaney, I spent it playing computer and console games.

Puzzle Quest -- I mentioned this one before. It's Bejeweled on steroids. It has roleplaying elements, story, lots of quests, spells you can cast. Instead of the simple Bejeweled model of matching up three colored gems, you can cast spells that changes the way the game board works. You can use magic items to improve your mana, the damage you can do to your opponent, etc. It's a nice little pick-up-and-play game.

Link's Crossbow Training -- This is the game that comes with the Wii Zapper, a tool that turns your Wii remote and nunchuk into a gun. It's a lot of fun with dozens of different timed shooting games. I'm looking forward to trying out other games that take advantage of the controller.

Guitar Hero III -- I attempted Hard. Attempted. I did get another five-star song on Medium (but I'm drawing a blank on which one; the other one I've five-starred is "My Name Is Jonas.") I also four-starred "Cliffs of Dover," which I was really proud of. I even finally got through "Knights of Cydonia," but I still haven't beaten Lou.

Super Paper Mario -- I finally finished this one. I was on chapter 8-1 months ago and had set the game aside. It's a great game; well worth the cost.

Sunday -- After a trip to CostCo and about four hours of work on my book, I played a couple hours of Super Mario Galaxy. I like it; it's a ton of fun. But I don't quite get the excessive level of excitement this game has generated. I can't help but wonder what I'm missing.

Not really. I mean, I don't literally have hives from my book. I'm not really sure what hives even are. But I've been adding an element to the story, a last minute change that really helps tie the plot together better than it had been.

I take notes. Sure, they're scribbled on a piece of scrap paper, but I know where the paper is. Still, I keep worrying that I'm going to forget something vital. It's a dumb worry, because I won't, or if I do I'll find it in my last pass through the book. And if I miss something, my agent will probably catch it. And if she misses it, I'll probably catch it on the next editing pass.

Yet my stupid brain keeps telling me, "Don't forget about the phone! Don't forget about the notepad or the key! And you still need to revise chapter one again!" It even uses all those exclamation marks.

My husband was cleaning the yard this weekend and came across a piece of paper. He brought it in and showed it to me. "This is why it's so important to shred important documents."

Since I'm the one who does all the shredding, he was speaking to the choir, but he was right. What was this document that blew into our yard?

Someone's paycheck, complete with pay stub. And all the relevant information that goes along with that. The disposal of the check was likely an accident; but if it wasn't, and for some reason the check had been intended for the trash, everything a thief needed to know to steal that person's identity was right there: name, address, SSN, and I had a good clue how wealthy that person was (not very; I suspect the check belonged to a teenager).

I've had my credit card number stolen before. I think they must've infiltrated some online site's database, because they had the CC number and our address, but not our phone number or the CCV number from the back of the card. It takes years to clean up the mess when an identity thief does his work. I've had to change credit card numbers about four times in the last two years.

We mailed the check back with a note to the owner that if he doesn't need it to shred it. Let this be a reminder to everyone: better to be safe than sorry. If it has personally identifiable information on it, shred it. If you aren't sure, shred it. It takes less time to run an extra few sheets of paper through your paper shredder than it does to deal with the problems of a stolen identity.

It was a good weekend. Got the cat shaved, so her fur is no longer all matted. We try to do that about every four months, though it ends up being more like six to eight. Gave them both baths, which, if you could ask them, is an equivalent torture to being dipped in boiling oil. Grocery shopping, housecleaning, and some other small chores done.

Also played a lot of Guitar Hero 3, read a bit, watched Veronica Mars, The Wire, and House. (Huh. I just realized all three shows have ambiguously moral main characters.) Maybe later this week I'll do a post on The Wire, and why it's such an incredible show. Or maybe I'll simply wax poetic about Puzzle Quest, which is Bejeweled on steroids.

Next weekend we're having a GH3 party with a couple of friends. I'll get to impress them with my ability to play Weezer's "My Name Is Jonas" on Medium difficulty. Yes, sir. I really know how to rock and/or roll.

Of course I worked on my book. Someone read the first two chapters and liked them enough to ask for more, which was a nice ego boost. I'm really liking the changes I've made, and my husband helped me come up with an incredible idea to really flesh out a character.

I also enjoyed the gourmet marshmallows my husband bought me for a birthday gift. They're awesome. Even if you're mostly indifferent to marshmallows, I highly recommend them.

Just a few random thoughts to start this Monday morning.