I know that Cynthia hasn’t picked out a gift for me because she posted it that she hadn’t just an hour ago.
Tyler has been waiting for me to locate my old wish list from last year.
Eric never gets me a gift.
and Tiffany will probably get me something that she thinks will make me happy but I will never be able to use. Like the orchestra hall voucher she got me last year that I still have sitting in a drawer for a special time…it reminds me of how much I miss playing violin on a regular basis.

I haven’t seen Evan in years and my mother will probably get me a bus card or money…something practical.

Anyway, I was thinking over what I’d actually want this year and honestly if it isn’t in the form or money to pay my bills and a car I can’t think of much I want rather than need right now.

But I did find my old Christmas wish list and since my family didn’t get me much of what I wanted from there last year I’m trying at some of these things again…it’s amazing how much my tastes have changed and how much I’ve gotten myself in this last year that I don’t need to worry about anymore.

So here is the new list: (In no particular order)

1. True Blood Season 1/The Walking Dead : Because I’ve seen them all and I’m addicted

2. David Michael Howe: Because apparently he doesn’t want to spend Christmas with me and I’d really like him to!

3.Little House on the Prairie (any Season): Because it is one of my favorite shows

4. A New MP3 player: Because It would be nice to not have to carry my computer around everywhere I want to hear music.

5. A gift certificate to somewhere to get my hair done: Because I miss having manageable hair and I know I’ve been putting my head through hell…getting my hair professionally done would just make me happy again!

6. A Clothing dresser: On a more practical note this is something I’ve really needed recently.

7. A giftcard to target: Because it is really easy to find anything you want and need at Target

8. A New or 2nd part time job: Can someone give a gift like this that keeps on giving? I need more money in order to save for a car and pay of my tuition without starving.

9. A ring or a Bracelet: Because I like GOLD!

10. A new set of headphones: The ones I’ve been using recently broke and I could really use a new paid.

11. Money: Duh.

12. An all expenses paid trip to Anywhere but here: So I can get a much needed vacation.

13: Socks: Because I keep losing the ones I’ve bought for myself.

14:Bras: Because they are expensive and I need new ones

15:New Boots: Because my Soles are coming off on my left foot. (Crazy that I just got a new pair and this has happened to them in less than 3 months)

16: A bottle of Nair: I’m being practical here and this is in general for hair removal (because girls get hairy too!)

17: A subscription to Interview Magazine: Because I like the pictures.

18: A Cable subscription: Because television is fun to watch and I like wedding shows.

19: A new camcorder: Because my camera broke awhile ago and I haven’t had the money to replace it.

20: Any Brilliant Romantic Comedy that has come out that you think I don’t own: because they are worth it.

21: Any of these books from Carl Hiaasen’s Collection :

• The Downhill Lie,
• Flush,
• Hoot,
• Paradise Screwed,
• Team Rodent,
• Kick Ass,
• Lucky You,
• Death in China,

So I can Finish my Carl Hiaasen Collection.

22. A new bike: Because mine is old are hard to deal with.

23. A mega Bus Pass: To save me money on my daily commute to and from work and to school…or instead 84$ so I can invest in the school’s megabus pass.

24: A Car: …Enough said.

25. Two person playing games:  I have scrabble and that’s about my only 2 person player game…I have apples to apples which needs more than two people which I have no use for.

26: Toilet Paper, Lotion and Laundry Detergent:  Because I’m poor and can’t afford these things regularly…which is sad!

27: A new Digital Camera: Because I love taking pictures and my old one has gone missing

28.: A large Case of LEMON Tea: still my Favorite!

29.A digital Picture Frame: Because i Don’t want to have to use facebook all the time.

30. A Wristwatch: On the more practical side because I really need one, I use my cellphone but I’d like to be able to look at my wrist once again for the time.

31. More Books:

Something Borrowed – Emily Giffin

Plot: Rachel Miller and Darcy Rhone have been best friends since childhood. They’ve shared birthdays, the horrors of high school and even boyfriends, but while Darcy is the sort of woman who breezes through life getting what she wants when she wants it, Rachel has always played by the rules and watched her stunning best friend steal the limelight. The one thing Rachel’s always had over Darcy is the four-month age-gap which meant she was first to being a teenager, first to drive, first to everything …but now she’s about to be first to thirty. And Darcy still has a charmed life.
On the eve of her thirtieth birthday, Rachel is shocked to find herself questioning the status quo. How come Darcy gets a glamorous job at a PR firm and the perfect boyfriend, while Rachel grinds away at her despised job as an attorney and remains painfully single. Is it just luck? Or, looking back at their friendship and their lives together, is it a bit more complicated than that?
Then an accidental fling complicated everything, and it’s time for Rachel to make a few hard choices. And she’s forced to learn that sometimes true love comes at a price…
My Opinion: Everyone has had a friend that they’ve been jealous of, but Rachel has more problems then most! This is a well written book that most women will relate too, and it contains a gritty, gripping love story too. Well worth a read!
Price: $5.58 at amazon.com

The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton

Plot: In 1913, a little girl arrives in Brisbane, Australia, and is taken in by a dockmaster and his wife. She doesn’t know her name, and the only clue to her identity is a book of fairy tales tucked inside a white suitcase.
When the girl, called Nell, grows up, she starts to piece together bits of her story, but just as she’s on the verge of going to England to trace the mystery to its source, her grandaughter, Cassandra, is left in her care. When Nell dies, Cassandra finds herself the owner of a cottage in Cornwall, and makes the journey to England to finally solve the puzzle of Nell’s origins.
Shifting back and forth over a span of nearly 100 years, this is a sprawling, old-fashioned novel, as well-cushioned as a Victorian country house, replete with family secrets, stories-within-stories, even a maze and a Dickensian rag-and-bone shop. All the pieces don’t quite mesh, but it’s a satisfying read overall, just the thing for readers who like multigenerational sagas with a touch of mystery.
-Mary Ellen Quinn
My Opinion: This book made me cry, laugh and fall in love with the main character, and by the end it feels like you were there every step of the journey. A brilliantly written and very inspiring book!
Price: $17.16 at amazon.com

32.  Two and A half Men: Any Season

33. The rest of the Roger and Hammerstein Collection:

34. Guitar Hero for Wii

35. A subscription for free fruit delivered to my door.

36. Bones: Seasons 1 &2

37. Movies on Dvd: Preferably the ones located on my favorite movies section on my facebook page:

38. A big HUGE photo album for my pictures

39. A Scrap Booking material so I can start organizing the things that I have been packing away these few years.

40. Family Guy: Any Season

41. The Office: Any Season

42. Friends/ How I Met Your Mother: Any Season…hopefully in order

43. House: Any Season

44. The Simpsons: Any Season

45. A VHS Player: Because the one I got from Savers was really badly broken and never worked.

46. A Wii with JUST DANCE 1, 2 or 3!

47.  Montel’s Healthmaster: blender, or whatever it is…I want one :D

48. 20th Century Fox’s Romance Collection

49. A Mixed CD

50. Mixed Cds in General.

51. A nice pair of Gloves.

52. A gift certificate to a day at the spa: So I can get my back straightened out (I’m getting old).

53. New Violin Music and a new BOW my bow is broken!

54. a new night cap for my hair like my old pink one.

55. George forman Grill: David swears by them.

56.  Soil for planting and pots for planting flowers over the summer…I really need new soil because I have A LOT OF SEED.  I’d also Love a window flower box.

57. NO CLOTHING!

58. Earrings, and nail polish…I have none I miss them and want to continue to used them.

59. A Nail stamper set by KONAD

Luke Skywalker
You scored 63% airiness, 63% squishiness, and 32% edginess!
According to our patented JawamaticTM technology, you are most like Luke Skywalker in personality.
Luke is a dreamer and a romantic. He’s excited by possibilities and has strong core values that affect all his decisions. Luke is loyal and idealistic, always coming through for those he loves.
Luke is, in a word, heroic.
(The polar opposite of Luke Skywalker is Yoda.)
The eight profiles are as follows:
Han Solo
Yoda
Chewbacca
Threepio
Artoo
Darth Vader
Luke Skywalker
Princess Leia

You were there

You were everything that I ever wanted

Ever needed

When I was all alone

All I had to do was call you to my side.

Now I’m alone and I wonder if you still miss me baby Miss my whole world

I should have known that you’d let atlas fall.

Should Call

Prince Charming

I started it about Two almost three years ago after telling a bedtime story to my little sister. The story has grown and evolved quite a bit since i began typing it up and it’s taken many surprising and exciting twists and turns for me to realize that it might be part of the legacy I leave behind. It’s based loosely on my past relationships with men and what kind of a person I one day aspire to be, Though it’s not one hundred percent completed I feel that there is enough of it done for me to submit it to a publisher, I’ve been looking around at publishing companies and I found a good one for independent and first time writers called the Coffee House Press.

I called and learned that all the information I need to submit my story would be on their website. After writing a creative synopsis of my story including what I intend to do for the ending which I haven’t written down/ typed yet I submitted my work to the press. The website says that it may take up to 3 to four weeks for a selection to be read that is over 30 pages. I submitted three times that so I’m hoping to get a really good amount of feedback back when I get rejected, because that’s actually what I’m expecting, I’m expecting to be rejected and for the feedback to help me improve my novel enough to resubmit it another time.

I can’t wait to hear what other have to say.

Tonight Mark was nice enough to lend me his HP mini which is a newer version of the same computer I currently have in the shop (I wish him better luck with his). Anyway, I took the time I had tonight typing up some of the pages I’d written down and I want to share the what I’ve written on here for people to read if they are interested:

I haven’t thought of a title for this one yet but I’ve titled the file “Celebrity”.

So here it is and I hope you enjoy it:

NESS-DANIA

They were late, she knew it was her fault but she’d never admit it, he knew it was her fault but she was the pop-star/actress and she would never take any responsibility for it. They had a ten am flight out of Los Angeles. He’d been up and dressed at five am, she was sleeping. He’s has both her and his own belongings packed, checked and double checked by 7am. At seven thirty he’d made his first attempt to wake her, a cannon could have gone off and an Emergency Medical Technician pronounce her legally dead she was so unresponsive. At eight o’clock he attempted it all for a second time only for her to rollover and sleepily ask for ten more minutes, he gave it to her because she was the princess and he wasn’t in any mood for any drama do early in the morning on such an important day. It was around that time that he finished preparing breakfast, he brought it into her around eight twenty three and placing it on her side table and fanning the delicious morning breakfast aromas in her direction he hoped he’d be able to use her stomach as a took to wake her. Stirring up her appetite was the right idea for by eight thirty he has her sitting up and sipping orange juice in bed. He was surprised when she didn’t say anything about the pulp still being in her orange juice, for she’d swore up and down and had thrown a glass at him earlier for having not taken it out just a day or two prior. He figured she hadn’t noticed in today’s morning drowsiness. She’d been surprisingly more alert that one particular morning of the orange juice incident than she normally was and he was happy to see things returning back to normal. He made his mistake that morning in leaving her in the room to eat breakfast and dress herself in the clothes he’d taken the time to set out for her the night before. He’d been seeing someone who’d told him that he was becoming to much of a servant, groomsman father and not his own person, At the time he hadn’t put much though into the advice cause even though she’d been his therapist he couldn’t make himself take anyone seriously who was in the process of unbuttoning her shirt for him. The morning of the orange juice incident as Ness cleaned the pulp out of his ears and hair that advice the therapist had given him finally registered and he made up his mind to start becoming his own person. He was young, handsome and he owned a business that was finally beginning to pay off albeit his investment in the time he took with this particular girl was a hefty part of his paycheck, yet he had to work on himself. He’d still made a mistake in thinking he could trust Dania to think enough about her own schedule to know that she wouldn’t have enough time to eat, shower, dress and do makeup if she started it all at two minutes to nine when they had a ten o’clock flight out of LA. At ten minutes to nine expecting to see her dressed and ready to go Ness walked back into Dania’s room to find her sitting in her bed still in her pajamas taking her time more playing with her sugar rice than eating it with her ear buds in he ears the volume blasting rocking out to his latest competition, he’d picked the wrong morning to let her handle herself and to become his own person.
It was then that he opened his phone and called in his favor with Cecilia a stewardess he’d met the last time he’d had to travel to New York. “He Cecilia Babe, I’ve been missing you so much how have you been baby-girl it’s Ness, *pause* it’s great to hear all that baby cakes I’m totally blown out of the water that everything is going so well for you in life *pause* Well honey Cece girl I was just giving you a call because I need a huge favor and you’re the first and only person i had on my mind….” Is how the call happen to begin, Dania sat watching Ness as he slyly talked his way back into the stewardess’s heart, his charming demeanor not only permeating the phone conversation but taking over every inch of the way he carried himself as he held the wireless contraption she could tell that she’d done something wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it and she couldn’t make out all that he was saying but seeing the look he gave her when he hung up that phone was enough for her to know that breakfast time was over. By 9:45 Ness had Dania dressed, fed and loaded into the taxi for the airport. Flashing a Benjamin in front of the driver Ness advised him to be generous at what speed he wanted to take them on their way to the airport. “The speed limit is overrated” he heard the driver chime as if he was a doll and Ness had just pulled his voice box string. The taxi’s engine started and they were off.

CORI

The morning alarm clock hit 6am and Cori let it ring he’d already been awake and lating in bed for ten to fifteen minutes starring at his bedroom ceiling. He hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night because of the anxiety and nervous anticipation he felt deep down to his core for his next few months work had the potential to be life changing for him and he knew it. He felt in no hurry to get out of bed for he had nothing more to get done in preparation for his day’s trip. He’d taken some of his free time the day before to make sure everything he’d listed to have brought from his past week’s Chicago trip was still in his suitcase and as he lay listening to the alarm buzz he recalled how on numerous occasions while he’d been to his production meetings and auditions in Chicago how many times he wished to be out of the fast pace of Los Angeles and actually somewhere real. Not that Chicago was any smaller or slower than LA it was just that he wasn’t a cut throat person and he was getting tired of the cities cut or be cut personality. In many of his experienced with the place he’s realized that everyone was only in the business for personal gain. He had not friends outside of his crew and investors and even they were all business. Yes, the weather was nice and the woman totally head over heels pushovers when they discovered he was in a well paying position in the movie business. Bue he was tired of having to flash his director status in order to make people want to be around him. He tried it all and it was all become far too much for him to handle. He was tired of the late night clubs and cocktail happy hours and the suits whose people never called his people. He’d been in LA now for nearly five years and was happy to admit that he’d come a long way from the bright eyed twenty two year old film student he’d been when he’d first arrived. He’d learned how to walk the walk and he definitely knew how to talk the talk, people said that his small town personality was what got him far but he was never ever asked where he was from, if asked he’d say that he was from a rough part of Minneapolis and that he’d been lucky enough to be granted a scholarship to UCLA to study film based off of his amazing independent work in high school. Looking back at those days Cori remembered how everything was and how he’d imagined everything was going to be in the big city, LA would always be LA and he wasn’t getting any younger to be able to keep up with it, the city simply wore him out now.
Maybe this would be his big break. He’d finally be able to buy his plane ticket to anywhere and slow down a bit, or maybe he’d stay in California. If he stayed he’d probably settle down and live off nothing but royalties from this big picture,with some great gal who he bumped into in a picture perfect way. Maybe when the time was right they’d move out of his high end apartment in the city and into a three of four bedroom fine Spanish colonial revival house in the California suburbs and start a family of their own. He’d quickly be replacing his filming documentaries about his world with documenting the people in his life who meant the world to him.
The alarm clock continued to buzz in Cori’s ear as he drifted out of his fantasy dreamland, looking around his small one bedroom studio apartment with it’s outdated orange and pea green late seventies, early eighties carpets and old dusty Venetian blinds he rolled over and turned off the alarm clock and as he did the realities of his life really began to settle in again as he began his new day. The realities that he’d be working his butt off to make ends meat and all he’d imagined was as far from reality as a wet dream.
Cori was up and out of be by 6:40am, had showered, shaved, dressed and brushed his teeth and was eating a breakfast of leftovers and black tea by 7:14, He would have had a little orange juice but he’d been out of it since the last time he’d been in town and he hadn’t had the time to go get more. He wrote a note to himself on a post-it to go grocery shopping and stuck it on his fridge as a reminder for when he got back, He quietly cleaned his dishes turned on the automatic light changer which he’d purchased the last time his house had been burgled, they hadn’t taken anything for there was nothing to take but he wanted to remain on the safe side. He picked up the fishbowl which sat on his lonely coffee table in his living room area and grabbed his suitcase in his other free hand, wishing his extremely comfy studio apartment goodbye he closed it’s door and locked it behind him.

Before heading down with his suitcase to his little moped and sidecar he took a moment to drop Hitchcock the goldfish off with his neighbor Becky from 3b. Cori had been leaving Hitchcock with Becky for all his business trips and not long after he’d rapped on her door did she come to answer him in nothing but a tasseled bra and a pair of bikini underwear with pink and white polka dots. Cori has grown used to his appearance of his neighbor and he near nakedness did not phase him. He kept his regular friendly eye contact with Becky as he always had with his neighbor for he understood that it was her work attire in the naked therapy practice she ran. Becky had begun the practice after learning through a lot of personal and professional research that men were often more inept to listen and take her professional and personal advice before and after sex than they ever had when she’d been professionally dress for he position as a licensed therapist. In the past she’d had sessions with clients in the regular matronly business attire that most women of her profession had,she’d give a man the advice that he needed to hear but often didn’t want to. Some of the advice she gave didn’t register and after many months of hard headed therapy she’d find that she’d eventually lose the client. On some occasions after she’d lose a client she’d be asked out on a date by the client for there was no longer a professional relationship in between them. After dating her former clients and often becoming intimate with them she would find herself the subject of all their baggage again but this time as someone that the men believed they could now trust because they’d taken the time to make such a connection with her. Becky had discovered that even though she’d given the same advice to the men as she had when they’d been her clients it was only after she slept with them that anything ever began to register and the men began to make positive changes in their lives, Becky liked the fact that they’d actually finally taken her advice and made changes for it but she wished she could find some way to get paid for the effort she often put forth listening to men weep and cry to her when she only felt like rolling over and sleeping. That’s when Becky realized that she could get paid for doing the things she truly loved to do and was good at. The business she’d created gave men the open and intimate environment where they could seek companionship and advice from a woman who could be both lover and mother. Becky was able to show she could be a great therapist, she was able to make people feel great about themselves and she loved that she was able to show off the amazing lingerie collection she’d been collecting over the years, even the ones when she’d been a normal therapist. The naked therapist was about to allow men to poor their hearts out and weep and coddle the breasts of a woman that took them back to even some of their earliest stages of mental development, and to healing of very deep seeded wounds. With Becky cut throat Los Angeles business men mentally reverted back to a time when they felt safe in their mother’s arms and they often re-found their inner innocent child.
Becky found that she didn’t usually even have to revert to having sex with her clients anymore for she’d become an expert in the art of tease and seduction, unfortunately if a client began to show unhealthy signs of obsession or feelings for her she’d have to let them go as a client and on some occasions she’d take them under her wing for her own personal enjoyment. Becky had even started to cater to the needs of both men and women. She wasn’t a lesbian and none of her acts with women were sexual in nature, all she’d do with women is help to empower them with body issues. She’d teach women to love their natural bodies and love themselves from the inside out. Becky would counsel women in how to deal with their rocky relationships, she taught women how to read and handle men in a way that the men didn’t know that they were being handled. She taught women how to understand the needs of their significant others, she’d even been invited to teach a class on empowering women to get to really know their men and connect with their men in the bedroom. She’d named the series “pillow talk.”
Cori thought the idea was extremely unique yet he’d never taken the time to utilize Becky’s services he liked their relationship where it stood of just two neighbors who had formed a strange friendship over the shared custody of a goldfish. He was proud of Becky for her dedication to quality work in her profession and he admired her as a working woman.
She happily accepted the deposit of the fishbowl and Hitchcock within and with a smile turning to Cori she said in her soft professional voice “You need to stop leaving this fish on my doorstep or he might begin experiencing some serious abandonment issues.” Chuckling a bit Cori said what he’d said time and time again, “Papa has to bring in the paycheck of the bills won’t get paid.”

“Hitchcock knows that mama loves him…” Becky said in an adorable baby voice at the goldfish who could have cared less. Then placing the fishbowl on the Table in her Living room which she’d predecorated with different sea ornament over a indeterminable about of time she swiftly walked back to Cori grabbed his face with both her hands, turned his head and gave him a long and unexpected kiss on the cheek, wiping off the excess red lipstick which was the only thing she wore boldly outside of her lingerie and heels she winked at him and said “Come back to mama safe and have fun.” Cori wordlessly nodded his response and turned down the hall with his suitcase now and nothing but a big blush on his face. He wondered if one day he’d ever take the time of reconsider his relationship with his beautiful and smart neighbor, maybe sometime when he got back he’d schedule an appointment with the Naked Therapist Becky. He knew he had a lot of stress and tension to work out of his mind, wiping his cheek with his sleeve he gathered the rest of the red lip stain she’d missed and shoot his head to himself.
When he’d finally made it down to the ground floor and into the parking lot, it didn’t take him long to find his little moped right in the spot Cori had gotten into the habit of normally leaving it, he’d been given a parking spot but the area felt too big and he had given it to someone else in exchange for a subscription to get a fruit basket sent to his place once a month, Cori was happy he’d made the deal especially when he’d forgotten to go grocery shopping, but what did he expect from LA where everything was business? His suitcase fit snugly in his usually lonely empty sidecar, strapping on his moped helmet he fired up his little blue buddy and started out to the international airport.

It’s based loosely on Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott Poem it makes perfect sense when you see the book and the poem drying out in the end on that poem’s page…so I decided to look it up and read it.

It’s a beautiful and sad poem and after reading it I wondered if there were any versions of it that we in audio so I could add it to my playlist on itunes or WMP and I discovered a very nice song that uses bits from the poem to tell the beautiful story. At first I was weary of it for the woman spoke in an accent and accents of any kind still really get to me but I really enjoyed it and decided it would be nice to share because I haven’t for awhile.

And here’s the poem itself:

The Lady of Shalott

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Through the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four grey walls, and four grey towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow veil’d,
Slide the heavy barges trail’d
By slow horses; and unhail’d
The shallop flitteth silken-sail’d
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early,
In among the bearded barley
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly;
Down to tower’d Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers, ” ‘Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott.”

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

And moving through a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls
Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-hair’d page in crimson clad
Goes by to tower’d Camelot;
And sometimes through the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two.
She hath no loyal Knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror’s magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
“I am half sick of shadows,” said
The Lady of Shalott.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro’ the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel’d
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter’d free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon’d baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung
Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell’d shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn’d like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro’ the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, burning bright,
Moves over still Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow’d;
On burnish’d hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow’d
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flashed into the crystal mirror,
“Tirra lirra,” by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look’d down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack’d from side to side;
“The curse is come upon me,” cried
The Lady of Shalott.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower’d Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river’s dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance –
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right –
The leaves upon her falling light –
Thro’ the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn’d to tower’d Camelot.
For ere she reach’d upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, “She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.”

They will soon be married :D
and my novel will soon be over.

I have a lot of friends and friends of friends who have editors who can read and work on the book for me…I want to finish it all before the end of the summer and before the snow falls.

I’ve already put out an ad on Craigslist in order to employ an illustrator, after getting sixty emails and responding to them all and looking at the work of maybe twenty plus artists. I’ve found three potential illustrators, I’m absolutely in love with one of them.

I think I might employ two of them, and let the third down easy.

I never thought that I’d ever get to this point in the novel…it’s been three years and before it was more of a hobby. When Leo was alive I’d first started typing it on his old computer. I thought of it after telling Cynthia a bedtime story. I was still with Craig then and the story sparked a lot of it’s plot and character from my friendship with him. Now that Craig and I are no longer together the dynamic of my story has also changed a bit…I’m debating if I was to do a sequel to the book that doesn’t have a happy ending or if I was to just make the book that much longer to keep it more realistic and talk about reality.

We’ll see.

If anyone who reads this is interested in getting a version of the book when it gets published signed by yours truly I’m creating a list of mail addresses to send copies to.

But I’m still looking for a good publishing company first.

:D

As many of my readers may already have known I’ve been working on a novel that I began after telling my little sister Cynthia a bedtime story. I’ve been working on this novel for a few years now and the sad fact is that even though I have the whole plot down I am having a hard time just getting it out of my head and into the computer.

Originally I’d had plans to post the whole story on my blog for everyone to be able to read but because it isn’t copy written yet I want to keep it safe and out of the hands of evil people who might try to steal it and get it published themselves.

I’ve begun to give it to more and more people to read (at least what I have so far) and they tell me that it’s a great read and that I should hurry up and get it published.

I’ve begun reading it out loud to the children I’ve begun babysitting on Thursday and Saturday nights. The children are a set of male twins age 6 and their ten year old older sister. I love reading my story out loud to them because it makes it easier for me to go back and change spelling errors and sentences that don’t make sense, plus I’m getting a lot of positive and constructive criticism from the children and a lot of fun Ideas that I’d like to add to my story (they don’t just listen to the story…they yell out what they’d like to see happen or said in the story as I’m reading it and I can easily add things when I hear something I like.) The ten year old is really eating the story up but I’m kind of nervous about how far I want to go with my character’s relationship as they get older. In my story my characters begin their friendship as children and that friendship grows into a deep connecting love. After the characters grow up they eventually get married and have children together. (I apologize if this is a spoiler.)

The problem with my novel is the fact that It has the potential to become quite the steamy romance while at the same time it is a really cute bedtime story as it’d been originally told. The question I am asking myself is Do I want to keep my storyline PG or do I want to make it into a teen romance or adult romance for a more mature audience?
Personally at first I thought it would just be a romance novel. I remember I began reading romance novels when I was around eleven and in middle school and my obsession with romance has continued to now. The thing about romance novels is that there are a wide range of them and the ‘innocence’ levels as I like to call them are very different. Some romance novels have slowly budding love that becomes friendship then eventually the people get together, others start passionately as soon as the protagonists first meet. In Christian romance novels the main characters usually get married before the novel writes about any steamy consummation sex. When the first romance I read I believe was ‘forever’ by Judy Blume shows the reader that sex isn’t always part of what love and being loved is.

I don’t really remember the last romance I read because I went through a stage where I was more interested in reading all of the Carl Hiaasen collection. Carl Hiaasen is my favorite author and i find that his style or writing along with my love for romance has been part of what sparked how I’m writing my characters. Though Carl Hiaasen doesn’t really write direct romance he has many aspects of romance in his novels. His characters usually find love or something like it by the end of the books though they originally hadn’t intended to. It’s Carl Hiaasen’s characters that keep me intrigued and my characters in my novel are what the ten year old I babysit says are her favorite part.

My characters have the potential to keep any audience entertained and I’m hoping I’ll be able to continue to write them in a manner that makes them appropriate for people of all ages.

I wrote most of my characters based on people I know or have known in my life. The characters have changed as I’ve met new people and I’ve changed the development to fit different personality traits I’d like my characters to have. As I’ve changed My characters have also.

For example Craig used to be the basis of one of my characters Oliver and as I was writing Oliver’s character and back story I literally just took things out of Craig’s life and I took Craig’s mannerisms and I even asked Craig exactly what he’d think in certain situations. Sadly though Craig and I are no longer together or talking and Oliver’s character has kind of become the embodiment of the kind of guy I’d like to see myself marry one day. Oliver has become a little bit of everything I admired in my past boyfriends and I wished I’d be able to one day obtain.

Since Craig and my love story didn’t have a happy ending I’ve been debating whether or not to give my characters a happy ending or a realistic human ending that has the potential of not being positive.

My mom suggested that I write two sequels where I go through what life had been like if Oliver and Isabel got divorced. Or if Oliver and Isabel had had a good life and continued on with the happy ending.

Though it’s hard to show a person’s love story without getting into aspects of reality I’ve found that the hardest thing I’ve had to teach myself to express in writing is the way a person feels when they first encounter that initial mental and physical attraction to their counterpart. The fact is that sometimes people just get horny and I’m having a hard time determining what would be appropriate to say if the audience has the potential to be fairly young.

Hopefully I will find an answer soon and get this baby published.

1.YOUR REAL NAME:
Corinne Elizabeth Salone

2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother and fathers middle names)
Elnora Bracy

3.NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother’s dad, father’s dad)
James Elwood

4.STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Salco

5.DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Pink Kinkajou

6.SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, town where you were born)
Elizabeth Minneapolis

7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add “THE” to the beginning
The Cream Cream Soda

8.FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name:
Cone

9.STREET NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Vanilla Snickerdoodle

10.SKANK NAME: (1st pet’s name, street you grew up on)
Snow DuPont

11.GANGSTA NAME: (first 2-3 letters of first name plus ‘izzle’
Corizzle

12.YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets)
Black Snow, Black Ambross, or Black Emi

13. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
Bond Girl French Burnt Peanuts