1) I had the most fascinating dream last night. It was almost mind boggling (I realize that doesn't take much for me though :) )

To understand how this dream came about, you probably need some background. This week I read fandoria's amazing novel. I finished yesterday morning. It really got me thinking about my characters and itching to write again (yay!). I sent out my comments to her last night five minutes after I should have been at a dress rehersal for a church drama I'm in for the women in our area. So I spent the next four hours at this dress rehersal.

The drama is a garden party where the first president of the women's organization welcomes and visits with each of the following presidents up to the current president. There's musical numbers and each of the presidents talks about something important that she did during her time serving as president. Anyway, I'm one of the presidents in this little production we're doing for all the women tomorrow. (And no, I don't sing or act, so I'm simply doing this because I love the person who asked me, lol).

So last night, I dreamed about a garden party. But I wasn't the host (I played the interesting role of fly on the wall) but one of my mc's from my very first novel was the host. I sat back and watched as characters from my various novels interacted and talked about their stories with fandoria's characters. I swear, I tried to ask a few questions, but they would not cooperate. I simply watched and learned and tried not to wake up (weird as that sounds).

It was one of the most fascinating things I've ever experienced especially since I can still recall it. A few things really stood out to me. One being that I really want to rewrite my first novel after I reread the very first version. One of fandoria's characters kept telling this host that I had it right the first time and I should try going back to the original pov and age of my mc. Is that so weird or what? (OK, please don't report me, I don't think I'm psychotic). So I need to dig up that first version and hope I still have a copy...and read it. Anyway, this was so cool, I had to share.

2) My oldest daughter's friend has been staying with us for a week. Tonight is her last night. I think we'll have a movie party. It's been fun but also very hectic. This friend will be moving to Japan in June and so it was really fun for my daughter to have her while her parents were out of town.

3) My son is taking 3 AP tests. His first one is this morning. I think he'll do great but he was nervous.

He also scored two goals back to back at his soccer game Wed. night. And it just so happened that he played the high school's head coaches private team (yeah, I think it's wrong that he's allowed to coach a private team because the only ones that make the high school team are the kids who played on his private team). Anyway, my son's team shut out the coaches team 3-0 and my son scored the last two goals. To say he was psyched is an understatement. He loves his team and is the first to admit that he enjoys it more than he would playing with the high school because there are awesome kids and coaches that the boys love (no one -- not even the parents of players or players on the school team even remotely like the hs coach)...but I could tell there was immense satisfaction in scoring TWICE against this coaches ELITE team (next year's hs team, ha!) after the coach wouldn't even look at my son because he hadn't been on his previous premier team. (We'd moved here and my son had played varsity as a sophomore in Colorado-- he hadn't had the opportunity to play with him even if he'd wanted to). Anyway, it was a huge boost to my son who has just taken the whole set back in stride and grown from it. Yay for him!

4) It's a weekend. And although I desperately need to weed, find mother's day gifts (any cool suggestions, I'm thinking books or book gift cards -- any more creative ideas out there, lol), make cookies that were promised to someone, actually pull off this garden party play, take my daughter to her state cup soccer tourney an hour away, return a visiting friend in one piece back to her parents, celebrate mother's day with both mom's, clean my house, put away laundry which has been piling up, finish off all the teacher appreciation stuff I've been helping with at the school this week, get recipes collected for the Enrichment dinner we did for church on Tuesday, put together a budget for our church girls camp I'm directing by Sunday, make sure my son is studying for the next two AP tests which are Mon and Tues, and just enjoying the sunshine...it's still a weekend!

I think I'll just celebrate that! Maybe I can have a little garden party and invite a few of my closest friends and characters -- that would liven things up a bit. Ha! Enjoy.

And a very Happy Mother's Day to all of you women out there. We're all mom's to someone (even if not by blood) because there's always someone who needs extra love and care that we can touch. It's just our nature. Hope it's a great day for all.

5) My thoughts go out to all of those who have swine flu or know someone who has it. But looking on the funny side, for all of you worried about getting it. Don't do this!
( Below here )
Sorry, someone sent this to me and it was so funny, I couldn't help myself.

Happy Weekend!

I was tagged by Robinellen for her meme - What five book characters are you most like?  (You can include your own). 

I've given this some thought.  It wasn't as easy as I expected.  This is what I came up with.  (I'm not sure if these are just some of my favorite characters and so I want to be most like them -- hence, I identify with their traits or if it's just wishful thinking. LOL, take it for what it's worth.

1.  Harry (Hari) -- The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley.  Fiercely loyal, sees solutions differently than others but once she chooses the path, she sticks with it (and hopes for the best).  Also stubborn. I definitely have the stubborn and impatient trait.

2.  Mrs. Weasley --  Harry Potter by J K Rowlilng.  Wants to have family close and make sure everyone is happy, safe, and taken care of (I'm sure the woman can cook better than I can though).  Sometimes this is a negative trait if she nags the kids too much.  :)

3.  Jo -- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  Makes hard choices to go after what she wants...also loves writing and family.

4.  Ani -- Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.  Life is hard and sometimes you have to rescue yourself (as much as I love fairy tales and would love to be rescued, lol, sometimes a girl's just gotta make it happen).  Also naive and uncertain at times.

5.  Torina -- The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley.  Stubborn in choices when she thinks she's right (even if she's not), independent, cheers for the underdog, loyal, strong, unconcerned about social class or race, caring, and stands up for what she believes in.


My own characters were the hardest...most of my heroines are more who I'd like to be (with maybe a little of who I am mixed in).  I"m probably most like Lauren:  curious, independent, brave, loyal, socially reserved, caring, insecure, concerned about what others think of her, feels a need to prove herself, hasty, impetuous, stubborn, impatient...but I'm not sure.   I'm probably more outgoing and louder than Lauren...which makes me think, maybe I'm more like Kianna or Akia.  Ahhh!    :) 

Very interesting meme, though.  Really fun to speculate and reminisce about some of my favorite books.

Tag to anyone who wants to play.

I know I'm a bad blogger...I think about posting, really I do. But time always slips away before I do it. I probably can't really justify my lack of blogging that way since I often stall away good writing time reading your blogs -- but what can I say, I like you guys. Your lives seem much more interesting than mine.
Today, I sat down and wrote 1000 words in ten minutes. It's been awhile since I really sat down and spent time writing my story. The characters have been slipping into my dreams lately and I thought they were trying to give me gentle nudges to get busy. But I discovered instead that they were helping me work out some kinks in my plotting. The plot I'm working on is fairly complex (okay to me at least) with several integrated threads running at a time and I knew I had some areas where it wasn't working out the way it needed to. It took me three nights of dreaming of the same scene to really get it, but I think I've got it now. :)
Even though I haven't sat down and written the scenes, I've had many in my head that I'd worked through. Today, I realized that I'd resolved (at least for now) the problems I sensed running throughout the story (not to say there won't be more -- that would be too easy). And I just sat down and it began pouring out words. I'm so excited to write more and get the other scenes that I've worked through in my head down on paper. I love it when it works like this.
So although I've really been taunting myself about being a slacker...I think my subconscious and my characters have been helping me resolve my problems. Now, I'm just hoping I can keep all the threads where they're supposed to be while I weave this tapestry together and maintain some new momentum. Thanks to a little help from my friends.
What influence do your characters have on you while you're writing their story? I'd love to hear.