Dragon in the System by Cindy Spencer Pape--G

It's MONDAY! And that means it's time for the Mini-Review and Interview. My guest today is Cindy Spencer Pape, my third critique partner. She was gracious about answering my nosy questions. And of course, we all know she looooves dragons, so right there we have something in common. With that, we'll just plunge right in.



1) If you could start over with your writing career, what if anything would you change? I’d start earlier! Much earlier.



2) What was the best piece of advice you received regarding the life of a writer? The great author Douglas Adams once wrote “drink lots of coffee and buy a desk that can withstand having your head banged upon it.” Substitute Diet Coke for the coffee and there you go.



3) If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be? Well there are several politicians living and dead that I’d like to meet just for the opportunity to smack them upside the head! Other than that, Marie Curie, perhaps? Jane Austen? Thomas Jefferson? Leonardo DaVinci? Nah, none of them would talk to me anyway.



4) If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be? Dr. Watson. You know he had to be the stabilizing force in that duo.



5) What do you want to be when you grow up? Grow up? Bite your tongue. I have no intention of doing any such thing. Now growing old is a different story. I plan to spend my old age sipping cocktails on the beach and banging out stories on my laptop. Oh yeah, that’s the life.



6) In the next century, what do you hope people will remember you for? Heck, I hope they remember me at all. Hmmm- being remembered for my writing would be cool. As a loving wife and parent? That crazy writer who sat on the beach and wrote all those sexy stories?

Dragon in the System by Cindy Spencer Pape from Cerridwen Press

There was a funny thing that happened on the way to me reading this story. I read a bunch of other dragon stories so I had a pre-conceived notion about how this one would go. Hah! Was I wrong, thank goodness! Cindy very skillfully leads the reader down the uh, steam tunnel without giving away the secret, so I sure won’t spoil all of her hard work, except to say that the fun has barely begun. At least one of the characters already has his own book and I’ve really been lobbying for more.

To be perfectly honest, my entire college experience was part-time as an adult (graduated in my forties!) Most of my time at college was a mad dash from work to class and then another mad dash for home, so I have no frame of reference when it comes to academia. But the story made me wish—just a little— that I had been able to have that experience. Certainly, Cindy uses the refreshing backdrop of a small college town combined with intelligent characters with the complete confidence of experience.

The characters were ordinary men and women caught up in something so unusual that they demonstrated their strength and courage and ingenuity by rising to the occasion. Eric is one hot geek. Yeah, he is and Lori isn’t too bad herself. Keep the fan on high and the ice water close when these two get together.

If you want a hot entertaining read, get yourself a Dragon in the System.



Anny

Failure to File

Word Count- 1,313
Previous - 6,310
Total - 7,623

Think I'll begin this on a cheerful note. Love Romances and More reviewed Chrysanthemum this past week. They awarded it four hearts.

"Anny Cook’s debut Ellora’s Cave book, CHRYSANTHEMUM is rollicking hilarious story set in Came-a-Lot. This is truly one story that will have the reader giggling like mad at all the wild escapades Gareth, Chrysanthemum, Arthur and the rest of the Avalon legends have. With exceptional characters that play off each other like a fine tuned symphony, Anny Cook delivers a wild, sensual ride into the King Arthur legend.

This author captivates the reader with her wit, prose and subtle comedic turns that mesh well with the sensual passion that is sprinkled throughout the story. With some light bondage involved, this reviewer was alternately giggling and wishing for her own Avalon lover to come calling. CHRYSANTHEMUM is a delightful tale that will leave you breathless-either from laughter or passion. With just the right amount of both, Anny Cook delivers a story that is destined to be read over and over again."...Dawn from Love Romances and More.

And believe it or not that wasn't all the good stuff they said. So that was a really wonderful ending to the week.

Yay! Moving along! Not as much writing as I wanted to get done, but better than I had any reason to expect given the amount of time I spent on writer's housekeeping. Paperwork, paperwork. I do detest doing paperwork and that's a major requirement for being "self" employed. Taxes, contracts, receipts, all the paperwork that seems to multiply like rabbits.

And of course, when you have paperwork, you must have some type of filing system. Now, my favorite type filing system it the vertical pile system. That system doesn't work very well when you're dealing with small pieces of paper like receipts. Sigh. So I broke down and started an actual filing system. I loathe filing.

You need to understand something. I spent thirteen years as an executive secretary type so I'm quite experienced at setting up and using filing systems. That does not mean that I like it. It just means that I know how to do it. Kind of like dishes or cooking. Just because I know how to do either one of those, doesn't mean that I want to waste time doing them. I have considered denying that I know how to do laundry at all.

In any case, as I flipped through the receipts, it occurred to me that I should have marked the receipts when I bought the items. Now I'm stuck peering at receipts with faded ink, wondering what the item was. Of course, I was able to discard the receipts for fast food, slow food, uncooked food, fresh food... sure seemed to have a lot of those. I don't suppose the tax man or woman would be amused if I hauled them in for their inspection.

I now have vertical files stacked on most of the flat surfaces in my office (which was the living room in another life). That means that tomorrow I will spend the day filing, tossing, and putting away so that the cat doesn't get a chance to amuse herself by playing with important papers. There is some method to my madness. By the time I get a chance to sit down and write, there's no time to goof off. So I actually accomplish quite a bit.

Speaking of housekeeping...I have one other thing to note. Tomorrow is MONDAY! That means it's time for my Mini-Review and Interview. My guest author tomorrow is Cindy Spencer Pape and I'll be reviewing Dragon in the System. Now see, that's probably what's wrong with my filing. There's a dragon somewhere in there messing things up. Maybe she'll have a solution for me.

Until tomorrow...

Anny