Zombies, Oh My!

Tonight's the night....Walking Dead, Season FIVE Finale

You know, ten years ago, if you would have told me I'd be wildly devoted to a "Zombie" television show, I would have called you insane.....but then again, if you would have told me I would have been obsessed with a 4 book series about "Vampires" I would of laughed at you too.  Funny how you cannot help what you enjoy....but honestly, I cannot help but to LOVE AMC's "The Walking Dead".

Since Episode #1 I've been riveted and hands down hooked.  It has just captured my attention and kept it!  I don't devote pressure time to shows that are only so/so, not in this day and age, there is too much to do, too many "on demand"options of better things, I could write, or read, or do something productive....

But I admit it, while I'm sitting here printing off the latest copy of my manuscript for revisions, and story line re-writes, I'm thinking to myself, ...Oh, they better not kick Rick out of Alexandria....Oh, that damn preacher guy, he's gotta go!....Ohhhhhh....is little Carl gonna get his first kiss?

It's nuts how devoted I am to those characters.  And don't EVEN get me started on whether Daryl dies tonight or not!  

I mean, there will be couches burning in the streets for sure if that happens, Walking Dead fans love them some Daryl Dixon! *winks*....I won't be burning MY couch, but like I said, someone, SOMEWHERE....will.  and I will support their decision to do so.

The weekend is winding down....yet there's still ONE thing left to enjoy before Monday morning comes to wreak havoc on our bodies and minds yet again.....

so, before Monday comes and robs us of all the relaxation and freedom the weekend has given us, tune in for the high point of a TWD Sunday night.  Rumor has it, there's an extra half hour of an episode in it for ya!  woot woot!

 And tomorrow this will be me:

Zombie Luvin--In Ohio,

~HeatherLynn~

Today could be the day you do...

This morning I awoke to a rumbling in my stomach, I knew in a moment, I was going to be sick.

So I woke up, and ran to the bathroom, and awaited the inevitable.

Upon conclusion of the horrific upchucking that ensued, I brought myself here, to my couch, where I type to you and watch the sun rise in the east, and it's a beautiful thing.  It is not every day that I get to enjoy a sunrise in this fashion.  And by "in this fashion" i mean while wearing fleece pj bottoms, a hoodie with my hood up because i feel lowsy, covered in a blanket, with a laptop and with nowhere i have to be.  Seems like anymore life just moves so fast, I'm always running and scrambling to get to work, always running late getting out the door, putting  makeup on in the car..places to be, work to do, responsibilities and expectations to meet.  Being an adult sucks, avoid it if you can.

Everyone in my house is asleep, not even the dogs are here to keep me  company at the moment and that's ok, because I'm watching the light begin to just slip up, ever so softly, turning the dark black-blue sky into a lovely green blue to start, and then a sliver of yellow grows beneath it, followed by a sudden ray of deep lovely orange....to orange-ish red...well, it's just the kind of thing one SHOULD really take a moment and really partake in.  I mean, its like EARTH is putting on a show and who the hell am I to deny Mother earth?  She wants to give me something beautiful to start my day, well then gosh darnit, I'm going to tune in.  Besides, I"m really hoping this sunrise will erase the memory of what just happened in the bathroom....because THAT m'friends is NO way to start a day...

BLECK!!

I opened up my computer here before the sun captured my attention to do a little research and as many of you know, I LOVE Dean Koontz.  Ever since I read his first book "Watchers" in middle school, I've been completely smitten with his writing style, his stories, his characters and his darkness.  There's a quality about his books, that is undeniably attractive to me and my imagination.  I love delving into the worlds that he creates, and the characters that he brings to life.  Good writers can tell you a story, GREAT writers make you live and breathe them.  Anyway, while researching Literary Agents online today, of course the first person Googled to research THEIR agent, was my old "go-to" writer of choice Dean Koontz.  He is represented by Lennart Sane Agency, and their website, well it just really caught my eye in a way most websites don't these days.  It was SO SIMPLE..but in a great way.  The kind of way that makes you want to grab a blanket and stay awhile...just staring at the screen.  To make my visit even MORE enjoyable, they played me a song!  I mean, how wonderful of them, it was almost like showing up for a "Show" and getting "Dinner"...or showing up for "Dinner" and getting a "show"...either way, I loved it.

This be the song that played.  I never heard it before, and after it concluded the first time, I listened to it again and the voice of Jimmy Durante is like that of an old friend.  Even though I had never heard the song before, it was so strange to feel as if I had been listening to it my entire life.  Like every Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movie ever made had prepared me to hear and love this song.  I could close my eyes and see myself walking down the street's of New York, dropping off query letters to the biggest and most world renowned Literary Agents and Publishing Houses in New York, and this song would be playing, and it would be the opening scene, in the movie of a young author's life.  I can almost hear my imaginary heels clicking on the sidewalk, and I imagine my hair is bouncy with the enthusiasm and elasticity of youth, eyes wide and hopeful...can you see me there too?  I want to listen to this song all day.

Oh, btw, the sunrise is happening...while so many of you are sleeping, it's happening.  In my mind, there is a movie being made, and out my window, there is a spectacular show that plays whether anyone is watching or not.

For those of you who are missing it, I give you this:

 

Anyone can fall in love in the glow of a sunset, but only EPIC love can happen first thing in the morning, with bed head, un-brushed teeth, rumpled clothes, wet dewy grass and a chill in the air that transforms your breath into vapor between two people so tortured by love that they cannot even sleep due to the sheer force of that kind of gravitation to one another.  That's why Darcy says, "I never wish to be parted from you from this day on"...between a line like that, and hearing those birds chirping, announcing to the world that the dawn has come once more.  Anyone can love you at night, it's a special love, when it's still there and burning in the morning.

Imaginatively Yours, this morning, and always,

~HeatherLynn~

And because I'm as crazy obsessed with photography as I am Pride & Prejudice, I couldn't help myself, I'm sitting here on my couch, and that sunshine is POURING in and warming my cheek, like a kiss from heaven...

I just couldn't help but trying to capture it so I could share it's splendor with you....

Good Morning...

with Love...from me to you.

I like nostalgic things....

And what could be MORE Nostalgic than a 1984 Itasca Motorhome!??!?!

Ain't she a Beaut?!

Yes yes, it's official, Jerimy and I are buying a vintage (and yes I say vintage like it's a good thing)...Winnebago Style Motorhome.  So you're probably scratching your head and wondering..."WOMAN, what in the world?!?!", well let me enlighten you before you waste another minute roughing up your hair follicles on your noggin.

It's our HONEYMOON MOBILE!

Can't you just see it now, Jerimy behind the wheel, me riding shotgun, listening to some cassette tapes...probably something rad like Def Leopard...

And then, if we want to go spend the holidays somewhere, like visiting my sister, we can be
 just like THIS:  

We can show up at my Sister's in Wisconsin, park right out front and when she finds us there on Christmas morning, completely out of the blue, I can say "Well, are you surprised?"
and then she can say {like so many of our exchanges before}:

{This being one of my big sister's favorite lines to quote from National Lampoons!}

I'm pumped, we pick it up Monday!

So let me take you on a Tour of the ole girl....or BOY, Jerimy says it's got a big block 454, so it's totally a boy camper!

Here's the actual "shitter"!

Top of the Line upholstery on the pull out couch

Complete with Dinette so upscale you can almost feel fancy while drinking your coffee in the morning and watch the world fly by.

Mustard Yellow Shower...I have a feeling THIS decor style is going to come back around any day now

Look at the rear on that thing....*whistles* 

Only 61k miles on the odometer...she's practically a baby!!

State of the art appliances
Toaster/Microwave

I tell you, this baby has it all, and now it has us, the soon to be Mr. & Mrs. S.

I like the damned sound of that!

A road trip never sounded so good!

~HeatherLynn~

Imitation:

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

...that's what they say.

But what happens when imitation, turns into ripping off the artistry of another?  Can you steal some one's style?  Can you steal some one's  thoughts?

I like to think that you can.  One, I know for a fact there have been people to steal my thoughts away from me.  Forcing me to day dream about them, or worry for them, etc.

As for style, look at Style Magazine, people buy it, see the pretty models wearing the designer clothes, and they add to their wardrobes so that they too can look exactly like the girl in the magazine.

Women go to salon's and say, "I want the Jennifer Aniston" cut, or "I want Julia Roberts' red hair", etc.

Originality, is something that not too many have these days.  And I'm not saying its necessarily a bad thing, it's just an interesting thing.  

What is it that makes us such "COPY CATS"?

It has recently been brought to my attention by my editor, someone who knows my work backwards and forwards because she lived, breathed and ingested my written words to the point that she MAY and probably DOES know it better than I do....anyway, she recently informed me that she read a book off of amazon and she said it was TOO similar to one of my books to be an accident.  She said the novel's "villain" was nearly identical to mine.  She said she could almost "hear" me writing the story, the villain had the same "issues" as mine.  She said he was even "ended/killed/removed" from the story nearly identically as mine had.  So what we have here is:

1.  Great minds think eerily alike

2.  A copy cat

3.  A soulless 'assmonkey' who steals the ideas of others and plays them off as their own....OR....wait for it.....

Perhaps "I" am all of these things?

So I asked my editor, when was his book published?

"AFTER yours" was her reply!

Whew!  I couldn't have accidentally stolen or be accused of stealing HIS work at least, as #1) i don't know him, #2) I could not have seen the work of a complete stranger that was unpublished...and #3) I'm just going to go ahead and say it, I purposely DO NOT read books when I'm writing so I don't ever ACCIDENTALLY even find my writing influenced by the writing of others.  I do this very much so on purpose to avoid this kind of artistic identity theft!

I have mixed emotions about this whole thing, like should I just be like..."imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" and feel complimented for having a story worth imitating?  Should I be pissed and track the little bastard down and be like "Dude, get your own ideas, stop ripping off mine!"...Am I totally a egotistical maniac to think that anyone WOULD ever copy me...and perhaps we really just had a very similar idea, and writing style and magically they coincided eerily unbeknownst to both of us?  I would hate to think that I think I'm such a awesome writer than anyone would actually mimic ME, my writing style, etc.  People who steal "writing style" and "story lines" steal from the greats, like Koontz, King, Austen, Hemingway...they don't steal from "little-timers" like me.

So far, I've put the whole thing out of my mind, and have NOT downloaded the book so I could read the story that is so coincidentally like my own.

I may be a very level redhead, as far as redheads go, but I have a sneaking suspicion, reading someone sounding like me, someone who's characters sound "just like mine"...I suspect it wouldn't feel like flattery at all, it would feel like highway robbery!

But then again, on the flip side, is there someone out there who I don't know, and who doesn't know me, that's reading one of MY novels right now, and thinking I stole from THEM?

it's scary being an artist, there's no protection for what goes on inside of your head, there's owner's rights to that which your imagination drums up....I mean, once it's published, technically you own the rights to YOUR story, but nobody owns the RIGHTS to ways a villain is killed.  Nobody owns the rights to the ways a character is flawed, or perhaps what mental illness they may be afflicted with.

So it's a slippery slope.  Is it not?

"Yours Truly" 

{--this much is 100% true and of my own vowing}

~HeatherLynn~

{pictures used in this blog are not the Author's, We don't claim to have generated them, or created them, they just were on google images, and the Author of this Blog likes pretty colorful images, so thank you whomever uploaded them to the internet, they have been thoroughly enjoyed, and used for entertainment purposes only.  Author has not, nor will ever be compensated in any way from their distribution or display here on this blog page.  Thank you -- Management.}

Join Us! It's going to be a smashing success...more so if you're there!

If you haven't "joined" or said "going" to this event, here's a friendly reminder that you should go ahead and do so now!  Light food, drinks, live music, Local Artists/Writers/Illustrators.....plus, if you haven't been in the DAAG building, it's worth a visit just to see the old downtown building they've really made nice.  Plus, there's this really old amazing elevator there, hell i'd go just to check that out.  It's the pulley kind.  You want to talk about vintage!

And here's the thing about events for Artists, I know you guys might have already read my books, purchased my books, but there are other Authors that will be here that perhaps you've never heard of, or even may have written the next book you're going to fall in love with.  I want to introduce you to them, they are writers, just like me and by introducing them to you, and you to them, I'm doing my part to support my fellow writers, just as they will do by inviting THEIR friends/family/readers who perhaps have never heard of me before.

Plus, did I mention FOOD, DRINK & MUSIC?!  Help make our FIRST Author/Illustrator event a success.

And just to clarify -- it IS on two different nights.  Both are writer/illustrator themed events, come to one, come to both, if you're busy on one day, doesn't mean you can't attend the other.  The first event is on Thursday night at the (the) Grind Cafe & Coffeehouse​, an open mic night where musicians will play and Authors have the opportunity to get up and read from their books, or recite a poem, or whatever they wish to share.  I can't say I've ever heard of an event quite like it in Delphos before, and I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of it.  I'm not going to swear by this or anything, but MAYBE I'll do a little reading from my new manuscript I'm working on....all you Vivienne Taylor fans who are drooling over book #3 - might be your chance to get a sneak peak!

The second event will be on Saturday, at the DAAG building on the corner across the street from the Post Office.  Second and Main Streets.  Author's set up with books available, workshops, along with lots of other cool creative things for you to watch, listen to or even take part in.

Join us!

All my Luv,

~HeatherLynn~

and lets us not forget our Sponsors:

Embarrassing Moment of 2015 - #1

So I have cabin fever, like we all do this time of year...it's the same ole song and dance for us Ohioians as we spend far too much of our day daydreaming of wearing short sleeves and being outside and NOT have to freeze to death to do so!

So this week, I really wanted to wear Thongs...oh those colorful, flip-floppy signs of warm weather...I just wanted to put them on my feet and go, ya know?

Well, due to the fact that there's still like 6 inches of frozen crusty snow out side, I had to resign to the fact that thongs were not going to be an option on this particular day.  So I settled for another kind of thong:

The kind that goes between your butt cheeks and not between your toes!

It was just one of those things where I told myself, Well, if you can't wear THONGS, wear A THONG!  It will be your own personal victory over the cold temps outside.  Going all nearly bare-assed under my pants!  Kind of a little inside joke between me and ole Mother Nature, very wink-wink, nudge-nudge if you will.

Well, there's just one thing I hadn't factored in to our little inside joke.  My recent surgery.  Which lead to some weight loss, which lead to my favorite grey pants not fitting so good, which normally isn't a HUGE problem, until you put your cell phone in one of your pants' pocket upon leaving work for the day, and your Ipod in the other.

For you Math Nerds, lets set up the equation shall we:

Lets see, we have gravitational factors at play.

We first have the WEIGHT LOSS FACTOR

Then we have the EQUALLY DISTRIBUTED WEIGHT added to already unstable fabric

followed by the lack of fabric covering my rear assets, which would normally provide a little extra support/friction in keeping up loose pants.

So there I was, leaving work, one arm full of my Real Estate Books & my manuscript that I work on on my lunch break, and in the other hand, the mail I was taking to the post office and my purse and keys.

Can you guess what happens next?

Can you do the hypothetical math on this one?

what happens is, girl loses pants while walking in public and then dies of mortification by public indecency!

THANK GOD I worked a bit late, and my car and one other were the only one in the lot left, and who ever owned that particular vehicle wasn't leaving work at the same moment as I!

Say it with this guy if you will...

This embarrassing moment is brought to you buy the makers of my favorite grey pants, Apple Ipods, Android Smart Phones and Gravity.

I couldn't have done any of this without you!

Isn't it proper that the very FIRST embarssing moment of 2015 should be about "BARE-ASSING"

Em-BARE-ASSING

BARE ASSING!

Coincidence?

Oh, 2015 is going to be a fun year, I can just feel it!

How long do you wanna bet before Embarrassing Post #2 Surfaces?

Your little Writer-Monkey Friend with saggy britches,

~HeatherLynn~

Musings of the TV Variety:

So tonight while face'timing with my sister Angie in Wisconsin, she says:

"Have you watched "Orange is the new black"....

Me:  "Yeah, why?  Did the new season come out and I missed it?

Her:  "No, I'm only like half way through the first season."

Me:  "Oh, whew.  ok.  Well yeah, I've watched it, I'm up to date and awaiting the next season to come out this summer.

Her:  "you look like Alex right now"

Now before I continue with this conversation I'm going to preface it by saying that I think Alex is beautiful and I absolutely have nothing against lesbians.  To each their own I say.  We may not bat for the same team, but we're all human.  And I'm a human who likes to mess with my sister!  Messing with Sister shall now commence.

Me:  You think I look like a giant lesbian?

Her:  No, well, I mean, I didn't mean it like that...I just meant,....

Me:  So I look like a lesbian, great!  Just what a girl needs to hear from her SISTER!

Her:  Ok, sorry, I mean, I think Alex is really pretty....If it makes you feel any better, I'll be Piper!

{Ironically, this is something only sisters say to each other and truly mean, and ultimately get away with saying to one another}

Alex and Piper

Me and My sissy

Me:  OMG!!  NO!  Don't you be piper, that means I look like the girl that wants to go down on you in the shower, and I'm your freaking sister!  ewwwwwwwww!!  that's worse, DON'T BE PIPER!!!!!

Her:  Oh, geesh, yeah, you're right, yeah that was bad, ok, ok, I'm not piper!

Me:  *laughing*...."I'm just messing with you Ang, I think Alex is really pretty, so thank you!

-----------------------------

In other news, I'm not sure that is very productive for a writer, who should be writing, to binge watch a tv show about a writer, with writer's block, who is spiraling out of control.

I could see this going badly for me.

Especially now that I have a slight crush on Hank Moody, aka David Duchovny.

I know I'm a bit late to the party here, but to the writer's of Californication & to David Duchovny who plays Hank Moody flawlessly and with astounding appeal and yet poetic grotesqueness, I send my gratitude for giving my procrastination a valid excuse! 

Also, one little thing to the writers of Californication....there's nothing wrong with BLOGGING!

*laughs*

Assholes!

With all my Luv & Respect.....

Here's hoping you have a good sense of humor about me calling you A-holes!

xoxo

~HeatherLynn~