Weird Dreams

Any other night, my cat Wicket would have woken me up at 3:45am. Today, of course, I wanted to be up at 4am, so I roll over and look at the clock at 5:11am. I rushed to the computer to book my tickets for Ivanov, Ken Branagh's new play at the Donmar West End. Sometime between 4am (10am London time, when the tickets went on sale), and the time I logged on, the booking site crashed. So, I called. Got my tickets, great seats. Then I went back to bed.

I couldn't sleep. I was so excited about having my tickets. Then I got too warm. Then I got too cold. Finally, I was in my living room, only I suddenly realized it's not my house and I'm freaking out when I realize, It's a dream. At that point, I looked out the window and saw an obviously cardboard cutout moon hanging from fishing line, and a small pig ran in the front door to greet me. "I shall call you Presto," I told the pig, then felt bad because Presto is my very overweight cat, then I woke up.

Megapixel Madness

Our first digital camera was a Sony Mavica. We liked it because it uses floppy disks instead of memory cards. Why buy an expensive memory card when you can buy a cheap box of floppys? I used it on trips to Washington D.C., L.A., New York, and London. But, 10 years later, it's now obsolete. The photos are less than one megapixel each. So, on a trip to New York last October, I bought a Kodak Easy Share 6.2 megapixel camera for $99. I didn't research it: Staples was handy to the hotel, the memory card for that one was cheaper than for the other $99 camera they had in stock, and I didn't have much time to make a decision. I've been happy enough with the picture quality, the images blow up nicely, and if I actually sat down with the book and learned all the features, I'd probably be even happier.

The thing is, though, I still drool over double digit megapixel cameras. It would be great for vacation photos and pictures of the cats -- stuff I want to print out or iron onto t-shirts. More megapixels would be good for work, too, where some of the snapshots I've taken have been published in newspapers or the theatre newsletter. It's a luxury I cannot afford, however.

But check this out: the folks over at Momsational are giving away a 12 megapixel Nikon camera.
Give me those nice bright colors, gimme the greens of summer, makes you feel all the world's a sunny day. I want this so bad that I'm telling you about it so that I can earn some extra entries in the giveaway.

http://emomsathome.com/momsational/win-a-nikon-coolpix-p5100-121-mp-camera-courtesy-of-mypictalescom/

So that's the link. If you win, can I borrow it?

Help for Romantic Writers

What the Oscar is the movie industry, the Golden Heart is to romance writers. Now Golden Heart winners and other popular romance authors are sharing tips for creating a successful manuscript. A lot of the elements, such as plotting and character development, can apply to other book genres and screenwriting. Check it out.

The Wet Noodle Posse had such a great time with our month of Golden Heart prep that we're giving away writing tips...one month at a time. In addition to book and critique giveaways, join Q&A sessions and read guest blogs from bestselling writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Gena Showalter.

Check out our line-up of topics!

January-Getting Started (goals, choosing story idea, focus, etc.)
February-Character Development (names, physical descriptions, backstory, etc.)
March-Plotting
April - Conflict
May-Research
June-Business side of Writing (market, marketing, promotion, etiquette)
July-Prepping for Conference (both for national and smaller conferences)
August-Inspiration (for stories and for keeping yourself going)
September-Writer Health (physical and mental)
October-GH Preparation
November-Writing Challenges (NaNo, BIAW, turning off the internal editor, etc.)
December-Editing/Revisions

Get great information in a fun community! Visit http://wetnoodleposse.blogspot.com