Two For Tuesday

I have written absolutely nothing this week, but today I pulled up one of my unfinished manuscripts to try and get something done on it. After ten minutes of wanting to stab myself in the eye because of all the passive voice, I gave up and just started highlighting all of the be, was, been, has and were’s. It is a little depressing. But, here are the last two lines from it:

His shoulders stiffened. “Lock this behind me when I leave.” Without another word, he left her alone.
“Well, Sam,” she looked at the puppy, “looks like it’s you and me against the world.”

As for what I am reading, I just finished Jodie Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. Wonderful, amazing book – made me cry like a baby. I won’t give you the last two lines, but here are a few that I liked. It is more than two again, but I’ve always been an overachiever.

“No,” I say automatically. “He’s a service dog.”
“Oh.” The woman straightens, pulls her son away. “But you aren’t blind.”
I’m epileptic, and this is my seizure dog. I think about coming clean , for once, for the first time. But then again, you have to be able to laugh at yourself, don’t you? “I’m a lawyer,” I say, and I grin at her. “He chases ambulances for me.”


I hope things are good with everyone in the world.

Two For Tuesday

Things have been frighteningly busy the last few weeks and I am finally starting to catch my breath. Here’s a quick recap of recent events:

We are gearing up for a new major exhibit at work, so I am snowed under there.

Friday was my birthday and it was an extremely good and extremely bad day. My wonderful hubby hid cards and presents for me all over the house, but part of my family and most of my friends forgot it was even my birthday, and hubby was out of town. But, on the same day we received our adoption certification. We are now officially approved by the state to adopt not one, but two children. Yay us! My amazing little brother (and I use that term loosely because he is now at least 6 feet tall) took me to a horrible movie. We went to see Drag Me To Hell, and let me tell you now, the scary parts are only when someone is jumping out at you, otherwise, it is very funny. We laughed a lot, but were disappointed. We both love a good scary movie.

Saturday, hubby and I attended a friend’s wedding. She used to be one of my very best friends, and hubby actually had dated her a couple of times in college, but now, I hardly ever see or hear from her. It made me sad.

Sunday, we cleaned house, sorta, and were generally bums.

Yesterday was the big day for my brother-in-law and his wife. The doctors induced her labor and in just over three hours, we had a new addition to our family. Things didn’t go so well from there though. The baby aspirated during delivery and his lungs weren’t working well at all. Late yesterday afternoon, they intubated him. Scary stuff. He has been on the ventilator all night, but at around midnight my brother-in-law called and they are weaning the baby off oxygen, so hopefully they will take the tube out sometime this afternoon.

So, that’s it on the home front. Now on to the reading and writing portion of the day’s entertainment. Right now I am reading Whispered Lies by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love. I’m a freak for anything Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor. So, here are the last two lines I read:

Carlos slipped his knife from its sheath and entered silently. He moved two whispered steps and reached for a fist of thick, black hair. As he whipped the man’s head back, exposing his throat to the razor-sharp blade, Carlos got a clear shot of the young woman lying still as death – Mandy – her wrists bleeding profusely. Merde.

I love the tension in these sentences. Love it. And here are a couple of sentences from a freelance project I am working on:

Nobody ever told me growing up that sometimes the one you think is your one true love might not really be. No one ever told me that I might have to start looking again after I turned forty.

Now, I’m not forty, I’m (ahem) thirty something. This was written from a man’s point of view in first person. That was a challenge for me. I’m not so great at first person, I always want to slip into third, but the hardest part was writing about a forty year old man! There came a point of desperation late last night that I almost called my dad and asked him how he would react to certain situations, but I toughed it out and made it through, and I think it turned out pretty well. We’ll see if I get paid for it though, right!

Hope everyone is having a great day, and for more two sentence fun, drop by the Women of Mystery.