My new year enthusiasm must have worked yesterday because in spite of the dentist appointment and need to run errands along the way, I still managed to hit both my time and production goals. Yay! I didn't get any exercise or housework done, though (other than washing dishes). Ballet starts again tonight, which means I'll likely suffer through this first class after letting myself get a bit out of shape.

In other news, the Internet is a funny place, and a number of oddities have struck me lately.

One I probably can't blame on the Internet itself. I've been having e-mail issues, mostly because my e-mail software is too outdated to work with the server's current security settings. With one mailbox, I can receive but not send mail, and with the other I can't do either. That means I've been resorting to web mail, and my web mail seems to eat messages. Random messages keep disappearing from my mailbox, and it's usually the crucial ones (or I guess I only notice the crucial ones). At first I thought it was because I was being careless and accidentally deleting things, but I've been really, really careful lately, and messages are still vanishing. Fortunately, I've been able to track down the people who sent me messages I know have vanished, but it's embarrassing and annoying. Since I got a nice royalty check from Japan that I wasn't expecting at all, I'm planning to get a new computer soon, along with the software to go with it, and that should help. This computer is more than five years old, and that's a lifetime in computer years. And, yikes, my version of Office is nearly ten years old (I bought it eight years ago). The IRS can't accuse me of unnecessary computer purchases.

Meanwhile, I have Google Alerts set up for my name and the titles of all my books. That brings me all kinds of information. For one thing, most of the content of these alerts seems to involve free (and illegal) download sites. That is so not cool. On the up side, it seems like people are still finding and blogging about these books. I also got my first notice of a fanfic relating to my books at Fanfiction.net. I think that means I've arrived. It's flattering to know that I've inspired someone that way. However, I will not be looking at any of these stories. I'm not entirely comfortable with a professional screenwriter working with my characters, and I'm getting paid nice amounts of money for that. I'd probably get creeped out by fanfic (especially given the content of most fanfic I've seen). So, I'm in this weird state of feeling kind of pleased about the fact that it exists while also being a little unsettled. I guess I'll stick with just seeing the Google Alerts without ever, ever following the links.

Someone has a blog called Damsel Under Stress, which complicates the Google report on that title, and I haven't figured out a way to exclude those posts from the reports. There's also a Damsel Under Stress t-shirt that doesn't seem to have anything to do with my book (and that I think I might want to buy).

In other oddities, can anyone explain to me the purpose of pop-under ads -- those that open a new window behind the one you're reading? I suppose they're less annoying than ads that cover the page you're reading, but I don't really see the point because most of the time, the windows just get closed unseen when I quit the browser. Otherwise, I check for them and close them immediately, and then I'm just irritated. Netflix is the worst offender. It also seems like regular ads on most pages are the problem with pages loading. If you're selling ads, you should have a server good enough to keep up with the traffic because it defeats the purpose if people give up and move on to another site when the slow ads keep the pages from loading. I suppose it's possible that this has something to do with my outdated browser (thanks to my old computer), but then it's kind of silly to build your ads around only the latest software because it limits your audience. Ad technology should really go to the lowest common denominator, not just those with the latest and greatest. Because, you know, people aren't going to upgrade their computers just to see your ads, and putting lots of animation in your ad isn't going to make me more inclined to look at it or buy your product.

On these ads that I don't pay much attention to, I have noticed a running theme, especially in the ads that strike me as junk ads (they're not from any known company and aren't too different in content from most of the spam I receive). These advertisers really seem to think moms, especially single or stay-at-home moms, are the ultimate product endorsement. I'm not sure why it should matter to anyone that a single mom came up with a surefire way to whiten teeth. The only mom I'd listen to on that subject is my dentist. Then there are the moms who've supposedly found the one rule that will help you lose belly fat and the stay-at-home moms who've found a great way to earn money at home. Do they really think that there are that many people who'd see something like that and think, "Well, if a mom said it, it must be true."?

Ah, it feels better to get those rants off my chest. And now, to work!

PS -- I think I need to update/add some LJ icons. Anyone have any suggestions based on what you know of my interests? I can't let myself into the time suck of going out in search of things right now. If I start that, before I know it, the day is gone.

Happy New Year! It was like my body knew that the holidays were over and it was time to get to work today when after weeks of sleeping ridiculously late, I woke up at my usual "work day" time -- actually even a little before. I might not quite hit my full quota of work time today since I have a dentist appointment and a few errands to run along the way, but at least I'm up and at my desk and have already dealt with one item on the to-do list.

Last year ended nicely, at a party with friends, where I had a lightsaber duel with a four-year-old while watching Doctor Who (I think that says something cosmic about my life). Then I started the new year (the after waking up from the night before part, since it doesn't really feel like the new year begins until I wake up the next day) by watching the Tournament of Roses Parade on TV while cuddled under the electric blanket, before I headed to a friend's house to watch the outdoor hockey game and the Christmas and New Year's Doctor Who specials.

While I'm sad to see David Tennant and the Tenth Doctor go, I'm already rather intrigued by the new guy. I seem to have fickle tendencies, so that almost every time I've been disappointed about a character (or actor) leaving a show, I end up liking the replacement far better. As a result, I've learned not to moan and whine about the departure because then I'll just look foolish in retrospect when I become the biggest fangirl ever for the new person.

So, now that the parties are over and it's time to really buckle down and work, I'm actually enthusiastic about the year to come. Of course, that's true almost every year, but I really mean to make things happen this year. They had a special feature in the newspaper on Sunday with the sayings that various local business leaders use to motivate themselves, and I loved the one from Roger Staubach about how there are no traffic jams on the extra mile (yeah, I know, the rest of the world probably knows him mainly as a famous quarterback, but while he is also that around here, he really has become known as a business leader, as well). My goal is to go so far out on the extra mile that I'm in a class of my own.

Now, before I take on the world (look out, world!), I leave you with a surefire cure for a bad day. I'm mostly putting this here so I can always find it, but I give you the snowboarding bulldogs from the Rose Parade (this was the best video I could find of this). I grinned until my face hurt when I saw this on TV. I can't look at a bulldog without grinning like an idiot, anyway, but seeing them snowboarding takes it up a notch, and they look like they're having so much fun. If I ever need a smile, I'll just have to watch this.

I gave myself an unplanned afternoon off yesterday when I met some friends for lunch and didn't get home until five. We had a nice, long chat at lunch, then the restaurant was close to Borders, and I had a coupon. I spent nearly an hour in Borders, looking for something I wanted to buy. Then there's a Half-Price books nearby -- on my way home from Borders -- and they were having a sale, so I spent another hour in there browsing for reference books. That's a great place to find odd things that you can't find anywhere else and that aren't even in libraries. My find this time was a memoir written by someone who lived in the time period I'm currently researching and who was a part of the society I'm focusing on. I'd heard of her, but had no idea she'd written a book. I suspect it was sort of a celebrity bio of that time, the kind of thing that people in New York publishing circles were excited about but that nobody else cared much about, so it was rapidly remaindered. I love having primary sources for research instead of relying on other people's research, so that was a big win. (And, no, I can't say what it was since it's research for a book, and I don't talk publicly in specifics about works in progress.) Then it was off to the grocery store that has the good produce to get the final ingredients for my planned holiday weekend cooking (where I talked jobs and books with the cashier and ended up giving her one of my bookmarks when she asked what I wrote).

After spending the better part of an hour perusing the science fiction/fantasy section of Borders, I have to say that I think the standard urban fantasy book cover design may have tipped over the fine line between making it easy to recognize the kind of book it is and "I think I've already read that one. It looks familiar." Or, in my case, MAKE IT STOP! NOW! I'm sure I'm missing some books I might like because of those standard covers because after reading (or trying to read) some of the more generic entries in the genre (the "half-vampire, half-fey outcast mage who ekes out a living as a freelance demon slayer/PI but then to save the world she has to team up with a sexy demon who makes her all tingly even though he's usually her enemy" books) I see those standard covers and immediately assume the books will be just like those others with covers like that. I'd also like to call for a moratorium on the use of the words "blood," "death" and "grave" in urban fantasy book titles. I'm starting to suspect that the doom loop is about to strike and that subgenre will bottom out the way chick lit did a few years ago because the wall of books that all look exactly alike was just as oppressive as the table piled with pastel books with either cartoon shoes or martini glasses on the covers was during the height of the chick lit boom, just before it busted. I don't think that the subgenre is bad, but I wouldn't mind a little more variety. I wasn't in the mood for a tough chick in black leather and low-rise pants swinging a sword or battle axe, so I had to resort to the only Terry Pratchett book in the store that I hadn't read, one old enough that my library system only has a single paperback copy that's always checked out. I certainly realized why I only bought ten (now twelve -- in addition to the Pratchett, I took a chance on one book that looked really different and that was neither epic nor urban fantasy and that didn't seem to involve either vampires or werewolves). If you don't like or have burned out on the current flavor of the month, there's not a lot else out there.

And yes, Mom, I'll bring the new Pratchett the next time I visit.

So, a new year/decade starts tomorrow, and that means it's goal time. The main thing I plan to do is really focus on my work. It's occurred to me that, in a sense, I'm an entrepreneur, and I need to bring that level of effort and focus to my "business." I had started doing that in the latter part of this year, and I want to continue going forward. I won't try to do something crazy like write eight books in a year, but I do want to increase my output while also coming up with some interesting marketing approaches. There are some other things I'm weighing in the career realm, some big decisions that will have to be made about what's most likely to move me forward. And I want to clean/decorate my office to make it a pleasant place to work.

On the fun side of things, I'd like to get over that singing stage fright. I may start learning basic piano, just so I can more easily figure out the music I'm singing. I'd like to learn more about Indian food. The most convenient take-out to my house is an Indian place, and I can walk easily to two different Indian grocery stores. I like the Indian food I've tried, but I don't know enough to know what I might like outside my comfort zone of chicken tikki masala, and I want to rectify that.

Now I must prepare my contribution to tonight's party and then decide which fuzzy blue sweater to wear.

I normally do a year-end performance review of myself, but all the decade in review columns I'm seeing have reminded me that it's the end of a decade, as well -- at least for non-pedantic folks (I think, technically, the decade starts with the 1 year, but there's something satisfying about that odometer turnover).

I don't have a lot to say about this year. It was there. No major highs or huge successes, but nothing really awful. I think, in retrospect from further into the future, this year will be like the middle book of a trilogy or that episode just before the season finale two-parter. It's a bridging, a time for pulling together threads of things that have already been set up and then putting everything into place for the explosive finale. There's no room in all that set-up work for a standalone plot, or if there is one, it's pretty thin. How that episode or book rates is ultimately dependent on what comes after it. If the set up pays off in the finale, then the arc that includes the bridge is a success. On its own, that episode or book isn't much, and you'd probably never revisit it on its own again.

And I think that's what this year has been for me. There's been a lot of setting up for things that could possibly happen in the future. If those things do end up happening, then this year will have been a big success. If not, the year will have been a washout, professionally, at least. I wrote a book that hasn't yet gone out on the market, I've started writing a book that I think could be really good, and I got and started researching an idea that gave me the same "oooh, this is it" tingle I got when I came up with the concept for Enchanted, Inc. None of that came to fruition this year, but 2010 better look out.

As for the decade, at this time in 1999 I'd already bought this house, and most of it hasn't changed, although I did switch my bedroom and office in 2001, moving the bedroom to the downstairs room that felt like a cave (which is nice in a bedroom, not so great in an office) and the office to the upstairs room with a wall of windows and a skylight. I was working full-time at a PR agency then, but contemplating quitting my job to write. I'd saved the amount of money I'd considered my threshold for making the leap, I had an agent (a different one than I have now) and had a book rejected with favorable comments and a mention that they'd like to see something else from me. But I hadn't had a chance to write something else because I was working crazy hours and was doing trade show media relations, so I'd spent the fall of 1999 mostly on the road, hitting such lovely spots as New Orleans, New York and Las Vegas (actually, the first two are nice, though the convention centers aren't so much). And I was doing some media training, which meant a quick trip to Minneapolis in December. My grand plan was to take an hourly wage part-time job so I could leave work behind at the end of my shift and only work the hours I was being paid for. It turned out that my boss wouldn't let me quit and instead worked out an arrangement to work part-time and telecommute, so I stayed for two more years (and was happy enough in that time that I ended up not getting much writing done).

I do have a new car and an entirely new set of friends that reminds me of the crowd I hung around with in college (and some of them know some of the people I hung around with in college, so it's a small world). I did a lot of travel in the first two years of the decade, for both work and fun (I was a gold-level frequent flier those years). I've traveled a little less since then, since the absence of a steady salary does trim the travel budget, but I've still made a bunch of trips to New York, several to Chicago, one to Denver, one to Atlanta, one to Reno, one to Philadelphia and then that crazy whirlwind trip to LA for a movie premiere (we'll hope that one repeats this decade, but for my movie and maybe involving more sleep).

As for work, the numbers make me feel like a bit of a slacker. In the decade, I wrote nine books, four of which have been published. I've known people who wrote and published that many in one year. Of the unpublished ones, one was widely rejected and will probably never see the light of day, though I think I'm unconsciously scavenging the worthwhile elements and using them elsewhere. One I think was a good concept that I wasn't a good enough writer at the time to pull off and may get revived in a total rewrite, but the market for that kind of story is weak at the moment. One made the publishing rounds, but I don't think it was the right time for that book and I may revisit it. One was last year's NaNo book and needs a rewrite, but my brain isn't there. And one is the book I've been working on lately that I hope to see published.

I've also written about a dozen proposals and partial books. Some were rejected, some were things I wrote and then changed my mind about. I did two complete re-workings of previously rewritten books to adapt them (unsuccessfully) for a different market, so that might up my writing count.

There's also the non-fiction stuff, with eight published essays and a couple of magazine articles, as well as the five one-minute radio scripts I've written every week of the entire decade. For the first couple of years after I went freelance, I wrote and edited a ton of marketing materials and other documentation.

The thing I can't let myself forget, though, is that this was the decade in which I realized my dream. I've worked for myself through most of the decade and for about half the decade have supported myself mostly through my work as a novelist. I've had a series published in multiple countries and had a book optioned for film. This is the kind of life I've wanted since I was about twelve years old, and while it may not be quite as lucrative and glamorous as I imagined then, I've managed to do it. So it's been a good decade.

Whew, I just survived a harrowing grocery shopping expedition. When I got to the store, the parking lot was almost empty and the store was a ghost town. I thought I'd timed it perfectly. And then hordes of people suddenly descended on the store, buying enough groceries to survive the entire winter and with their whole families in tow -- generally stopping dead still in the middle of aisles to contemplate their purchases. Because the store had been utterly dead mere minutes earlier, it wasn't staffed to deal with the mobs, so there were two regular checkout lanes open and one express, aside from the self-check stands.

The forecast calls for a chance of snow this afternoon (and since it's forecast, it will probably amount to nothing. We only get serious snow when it's entirely unexpected), so apparently people were stocking up for when they're snowed in by an inch of snow that will be gone by morning. I was there getting supplies for the items I'm making for various New Year celebrations as well as foods that go well with the leftover Christmas ham. And a frozen pizza for when I'm sick of leftover Christmas ham.

As the year winds down, I've taken a look at my reading journal for the year, and here's my assessment of my reading patterns.

By the time the year is over, I will have read about 116 books (extrapolating based on two books I'm currently reading that I will likely have finished by Thursday night, but not counting anything I haven't yet started).

I still have a bad re-reading habit, as 32 books on this list were books I had previously read (and there are a few that show up twice even within the same year). That's not even counting reference books that I may have read previously or that I skimmed through multiple times. I think some of the re-reading comes from those authors who make you just want to read something else like that when there's nobody else quite like that. Then there's the "comfort food" scenario, where I get into a certain mood and only one particular book will do.

Most of my reading comes from the library. I only bought about ten new books this year (at least, according to the reading log -- there's a chance I bought something that remains on the to-be-read pile). Part of this is because I'm poor and cheap and haven't run across too many things I'm eager to spend money on lately, but part is because the library is more convenient than any bookstore. I can walk to the library a couple of blocks from my house, while going to a bookstore requires driving. However, I may have influenced book purchases at the library, as I talk books with the librarian. My used book purchases were all either out of print or were textbook type books by authors who are now dead.

I read 26 non-fiction books for work-related purposes -- either writing how-to, general psychology type stuff or research/reference books. I read 15 novels primarily for work purposes. Since a lot of books that might count as "work" are also books I'd read for fun, I only counted for this the books I would not have read if I hadn't had some work-related reason to do so. That includes books I read for judging a contest, books "assigned" for workshops and genre research where I didn't really enjoy the book but felt I needed to know what had already been written. I also have on this list some classics I read for research/reference (because I was planning to allude to or somehow use something from those books).

I'm still on a huge Terry Pratchett kick, with his books accounting for 24 of the books I read this year. Nine of those were first-time reads. Otherwise, there was a lot of re-reading, as he's one of those authors where reading one book gets me in the mood for more like that and nobody else is quite like that. His books also hold up really well to re-reading because I always notice something new.

The bulk of my reading was in fantasy, with 50 books falling into that category. Next was chick lit, with 10 that could be classified that way. Then there was mystery with six and science fiction with five. I've really fallen off on my science fiction reading lately, I think mostly because there's not a lot of really fun science fiction out there. Most of the science fiction I read would fall into the steampunk category, and there were two quasi-steampunk books I counted as fantasy that could possibly have been considered science fiction.

My two main discoveries of authors I read for the first time this year and plan to follow in the future were Philip Reeve, who writes young adult steampunk, and KE Mills, who writes quirky fantasy.

I think my favorite books of the year were Witches Incorporated by KE Mills (actually published this year!), The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett andThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

I have an idea that I hope to work on next year that will involve a lot of research and reference reading (some of which I've already started), and that should have an interesting effect on my statistics next year. I'd like to make more of an effort to read current books, since I can nominate books for the Nebula award. That may depend on library availability or finances and there being something I want to spend money on.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas holiday. I'm back at work, sort of. I have stuff to get done, but I'm planning on this being a light duty week before I hit the ground at full tilt next week. I proved to myself over the holiday that I'm not addicted to the Internet. I checked my e-mail on my parents' computer Thursday morning but otherwise haven't been online until this morning, and I never even took my laptop out of its bag.

The big news in this part of the world was that this area had its first white Christmas in about 80 years, with it snowing most of the day on Christmas Eve and the snow still on the ground for Christmas day.

However, I still have experienced only one white Christmas in my life, and this wasn't it because the storm fell apart before it made it a hundred miles farther east to where my parents live. My house got the white Christmas while I was gone.

We did get enough snow on Christmas Eve afternoon to get pretty swirling flakes blowing around (you may have to squint to see the snow in this picture), but it didn't stick since it was still above freezing.



The snow was pretty much gone by the time I got home, except for one patch to the side of my house. I took this picture right after I got home on Saturday, but it's still there (although a bit smaller). It's an area that doesn't get much sun, and I imagine that the drifts against the wall were pretty deep. That's the part of the yard I can see from my office window, so I can sit at my desk and see the snow. It's also what I can see through the slats of my patio fence from my kitchen window, so if the only window I look out is that one, it looks like the ground is covered in snow. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow.




The one white Christmas I've ever had was when we lived in Oklahoma and it started snowing on Christmas Eve morning, and the snow was still around on Christmas. In Germany, we generally had snow most of the time between Thanksgiving and Easter, but it always melted a few days before Christmas and then didn't snow again until after Christmas, so we never actually had snow on Christmas. Oddly, while this was the first Christmas snowfall in the Dallas area since the 1920s, we've had several Easter snows in the past decade. I've had more white Easters than white Christmases (no real accumulation at Easter, but we have had flurries).

Other than the excitement of watching the Dallas news bulletins about the approaching snowstorm, it was a quiet Christmas. I got lots of warm, fuzzy stuff, including a proper "work" bathrobe that's gray and fuzzy and dignified and makes me look like a cast member in Doctor Zhivago, so I don't have to work in the fuzzy pink bathrobe. Plus, I got a stand for my electronic keyboard so I can make it act like a piano and maybe learn to really play it (true piano practice is a challenge when you're propping the keyboard up on a chair).

This is my get my life together day before I head off for Christmas (and, depending on the weather, it may turn into frantically packing day for an earlier than planned departure). I'm doing laundry and need to wash dishes, pack and get to the bank.

My Christmases tend to be pretty quiet, but then I'm not a big fan of all the hype. I don't go anywhere exotic, just my parents' house that's a couple of hours away from where I live. I drive the back roads -- the old US highway that was the main route before they built the Interstate. It takes me a bit longer because the speed limit drops within the towns that are spaced every seven miles along the road (since the road parallels the railroad, and they set up towns every seven miles to serve the steam engines back in the day -- not all of these towns still exist) and there are red lights. However, there's a lot less traffic, almost no semi trucks and no casino buses heading to Shreveport. I actually kind of like having to slow down and even stop every so often because that keeps me focused. I've been traveling the same stretch of Interstate 20 since I was a small child, and there's a sameness to it that's almost hypnotic. I started driving the back way after the time when I realized I'd zoned out and wasn't entirely sure where I was on the road. Having to slow down, change gears, stop, then change gears again as I speed up means my mind has to stay on my driving.

I really like taking the back roads at Christmas because every little town along the way dresses up for the holiday. These are old railroad towns from the late 1800s/early 1900s, and some of them almost look like a movie set for an Old West film. In most of these towns, the road I'm on is Main Street, and it's lined with old shops, restaurants, usually a bank, sometimes a movie theater (and one is even still in operation). The towns string lights in colored garlands and hang decorations from the light poles. The shops also decorate, and there's usually a town Christmas tree. It will likely be darkish and cloudy when I travel this year, which means the lights will really show up.

There's also a "cut your own" Christmas tree farm along the way, set up to look like Santa's workshop at the North Pole, with hay rides and other fun stuff. I don't know how busy it will be this late in the season, but they may still be open Christmas week.

And then there are the homes along the route that will be decorated, the trees that still have fall colors, the horses and cattle. I suppose I'm a small-town girl at heart because I feel a sense of relief when I get off the freeway onto the back road and out into the country (though that could be from leaving the city traffic behind). Once I'm at my parents' house, we pretty much stay there. We read, we eat, we watch the birds at my dad's feeders. I like to watch the horses in the pasture behind my parents' backyard. It may not be exciting, but it's the kind of holiday that's renewing instead of exhausting.

I survived my solo Sunday. I don't know how well I did because it didn't feel right, but people said it was good. The whole experience is a blur. That was my first time singing a solo in a church service, and it's a big church that was pretty full. I wish I could get over this fear. I have zero fear of public speaking, just singing. What I need is a singing Toastmasters, a way of getting used to performing in front of people on a regular basis in a supportive environment. I got over the public speaking nerves by doing lots of speech competitions in high school, but there aren't a lot of regular opportunities to sing in front of people.

But now I can relax and enjoy the holidays. I just have to wrap gifts and pack to go visit my parents. My shopping is done. My house is mostly clean. I was even able to have company this weekend when I had some friends over to help me eat all those sweets. I recovered from the arduous solo by spending the day with a book I needed to finish before it's due back at the library today. I checked it out, then found out it was a sequel so had to go back for the first book, and now that I've finished both, I'm not sure it was worth the effort, but it fell into the category of market research. I have one more book I need to read this week, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get through it, not because of anything to do with the book itself but because the last person who checked it out must have been a heavy smoker. The book reeks, and my eyes burn when I try to read it. I was smelling smoke and looking around my house to see if there was a problem, and then I realized the smell came from the book. And this is after it's been sitting out for a couple of weeks. I'm glad I didn't leave it in my backpack, or I'd have had to throw the backpack away.

Now that I've bought my gifts for the year, I though I'd make a wish list for myself. These aren't my usual gift requests (mine were horribly practical), just things it would be nice if the universe could provide for me.

Dear Santa,

I have been a mostly good (does boring count as good?) girl this year, so I would like you to bring me:

A contemporary fantasy book that involves a mingling between real-world elements and magical elements that isn't overly dark and doesn't involve vampires and that isn't essentially a noir-style "detective" novel. Basically, I'd like something kind of like my books that I don't have to write for myself.

Some fun fantasy books. Not necessarily comedies, just not overly dark and heavy. Maybe some adventures where the Fate of the World isn't at stake. Something like a USA original series, but with magic.

A really good romantic comedy movie that's well written and acted, the kind of thing that makes me laugh and cry and where I feel good at the end. The hero has to be a grown-up, not an overgrown fratboy clinging to his Peter Pan existence, and the heroine can't be an emasculating shrew. I want to feel good about these people getting together, to believe they really are falling in love (without the crutch of a montage set to a pop song), and to believe that they will make it work after the ending.

For a change, none of my favorite TV shows are teetering on the brink of cancellation, so I don't have to make any requests in that department, and my schedule is pretty full there, so I don't need to ask for anything new. I guess my request for TV is that you remind the writers that not every show needs a romantic subplot, no matter what some of the more vocal fans and prolific fanfiction writers seem to think, so they don't have to force one just to make some of the fans happy, and playing will-they/won't-they games seldom works to make anyone happy.

That's all I'm asking for right now. I won't even get into asking that publishers will want to buy the kind of books I write or that a movie based on one of my books will go into production. I just want these few, simple things.

Thanks, Santa. Love, me.

I successfully escaped the clutches of the evil flannel sheets this morning, but I may have to use earplugs or turn on a radio to drown out their seductive siren song calling me back to the warm bed. And it's not even that cold today.

I'm currently trying to psych myself up to go out and buy one more Christmas gift. The store is more or less within walking distance, but it would probably take me about half an hour to walk there, while it's a five-minute drive. So why does it seem like walking would be less hassle? Though walking wouldn't exactly be good for my long-term health and well-being, as it's an area not designed for pedestrian traffic. I don't know what it is about getting in the car that makes it seem like a much larger errand, even though it's quicker.

In other news, we've come to the mid-season television lull, so I suppose it's time for a report card. I guess I've become Grinchy about TV, as I'm less willing to give new shows a chance. My favorite new show of the season, by far, was White Collar on USA. It's fun, stylish and clever, and it has a slightly retro feel to it, like the theme music should have been written by Henry Mancini. I love shows about smart people. I'm a little irked that they're moving it to Tuesday nights, since that's ballet night and I'll never get to watch it "live," but this is USA, which repeats things often, and I get USA shows OnDemand. I'll probably be able to watch the late-night repeat after ballet class. And it does free up Friday nights, so maybe I can either pretend to have a social life or go back to doing Friday-night writing marathons.

Speaking of freeing up Friday nights, my least-favorite new show has to be Stargate: Universe, which I've dubbed As the Stargate Turns. How they can make a show about being stranded in another galaxy on a mysterious alien spaceship boring is beyond me, but it helps that apparently all the action and decision-making take place off-stage, while the parts they show us are the kinds of scenes I call "doing laundry" and delete from my books. I could write epic essays about what's wrong with this show. They could improve this show tremendously by getting rid of those consciousness-swapping communication stones. I won't even get into the science fiction issues associated with that, where they've invented these cool devices that they use as a plot crutch without, apparently, thinking through the social and emotional implications (like, maybe I'm shallow, but I do think the body counts in a relationship, and I'm not going to just jump in bed with an entirely unfamiliar body, even if it contains the consciousness of someone I love. Not to mention the ick factor of using another person's body that way). But the real problem with these stones for me is the fact that they mean that this show with the word "universe" in the title, that involves an interstellar spaceship with both a shuttle and a stargate, seems to take place mostly on earth, and with mundane activities on earth. If I wanted to watch people going clubbing or having angsty meetings with their significant others, I'd watch all those dramas on the CW. When I watch science fiction that's supposedly about space travel, I'd like to spend more time on alien worlds or really dealing with the fact that we're in space. I'd even take the Ye Olde Ren Faire worlds that became eye-rollingly silly on the previous Stargate shows. Oddly, Paul Cornell thinks this show is brilliant. Perhaps the UK gets a different version, but I sense a future convention debate in the making, which could be a lot of fun. See me flinging my dainty, ladylike glove at Paul's feet as I make my challenge.

Though that was my least favorite show, I still watched it, mostly because the snark was so much fun (though with the mid-season finale, it may have tipped over into just plain irritating). I just sort of tapered off with FlashForward. I didn't hate it and I didn't think it was bad, but mostly I just didn't care. I'm usually pretty much brain dead on Thursday nights (I never could get the hang of Thursdays), and it required way too much concentration to focus on that show. So I started taping it to watch when I had brain power. And then the next Thursday would have rolled around and I still hadn't watched the previous episode. I took that as a sign that I just wasn't that into it, in spite of the fact that I previously would have said I'd watch Joseph Fiennes and His Amazing Eyelashes read the phone book.

Glee was an appropriate post-choir practice show, so I don't know what I'll do in the spring when they move it to Tuesdays -- probably tape it and still watch after choir on Wednesdays. I didn't love it as much as I wanted to, but it still has its moments of brilliance. The weird thing is, some of the better elements of the show are the parts that make no sense whatsoever. For instance, the evil cheerleading coach is one of the best characters and offers the most laughs, but I really don't understand why she even cares enough to be the villain here. If it's about not wanting any group in the school to get any funding that could go to her cheerleaders, is she engaging in simultaneous vendettas we don't see against every other school organization? And what funding is this club getting, considering it's been a plot point that they have to come up with their own funding for everything? You'd think this little group would be beneath the notice of the rest of the school. What I have been impressed with is the way this show makes me truly sympathize with characters I want to hate and character types that usually bug me. Plus, the music is fun. The earlier post-pilot episodes seemed to focus on recent pop music I didn't know or care about, but they seem to have swung back to classic show tunes and 70s-80s oldies I know, and because I am old, I'm much happier with that.

V was okay, I guess, though it could easily slip into FlashForward territory for me. I like the resistance movement subplot with the FBI agent and the hot priest, but the rest of it, especially the rebellious teen and the junior alien scouts plot, bores me. And I'm very disappointed that there has been no rat eating in the episodes so far. The iconic moment of the original series was when the alien chick sucked down a rodent, and I think that's the element the new version is sadly lacking.

I almost completely forgot about NCIS: LA as a new series, until there was an article in the newspaper about it yesterday, and that sums it up. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. It's just there. It's something I catch OnDemand when I get a chance, but if I missed it entirely, I wouldn't feel like I was missing anything. I do like the buddy-cop vibe, and Linda Hunt is brilliant, but the situation and set-up make no sense whatsoever (like why LA? There's no Navy base in LA. Why not San Diego, which is crawling with Navy?).

And now I have to start psyching myself up not only to brave the stores for Christmas shopping, but also for my solo in choir Sunday morning. I'm going to be very sick of the first verse of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" by Sunday.

I think I now remember why I haven't put the flannel sheets on the bed in years. They're so very comfortable and warm that on a cool morning, they make it nearly impossible to get out of bed. While I normally think that live-in household help would be intrusive, on a morning like this, it would be lovely to ring for the maid and say, "Jennings, bring me my tea and a scone and the newspaper," and never have to leave the bed. As it was, I lounged around for far too long until I needed that tea and then felt guilty about throwing my schedule off for the day, until I reminded myself that I have no schedule for the day. I have things to do, but nothing that absolutely had to be done this morning.

I might even be really decadent and take the laptop down to the bed and spend the day in the flannel sheets. Seriously, those things are EVIL. Or maybe I just happened to get the set that's cursed so that they sap your will to do anything but stay in bed.

I had my final Christmas party of the season last night. It was the choir party, so it ended up involving a singalong around the piano. We managed to even sing in parts for the more common Christmas carols, but all of us completely blanked on the words to "Frosty the Snowman." We were all looking at each other for help while singing "la la la" on that, then jumping in with gusto at the "thumpity thump thump" part we remembered.

I found a new cookie recipe that was a little less labor intensive and that made fewer cookies (and still brought home a ton of leftovers). I made thumbprint cookies, and some of them I filled with the traditional jam (my homemade strawberry jam) and for the rest, I re-melted the chocolate I had left over from my last batch of meringue mushrooms and filled the cookies with that. I like this recipe because the dough isn't too sweet. It's almost like a shortbread. The ones with jam taste a bit like scones, so I think these would be good for a tea party. I may add these to the usual rotation. What's handy is that they use egg yolks -- the same number of yolks as I need of egg whites to make the mushrooms -- so these work well to use up other ingredients from the mushrooms.

Now I have enough sweets to keep me on a sugar high for months. I still have some Swedish spritz cookies, a few meringue mushrooms, the thumbprint cookies and some mint fudge, plus the fruitcake cookies and chocolate nut clusters Mom brought me. And that's not even getting into the sugar cookies that were packaged with the cookie jar I won as a door prize at an event. I am hereby forbidden to bake for a while. Well, until I need to come up with something for New Year's Eve. I might get wild and crazy and not do something sweet for that occasion. Maybe I'll dig through Joy of Cooking and look at appetizer recipes.