Did I ever mention I have fanfiction published online? It's all about the 1960's tv show Combat!, which was a historical drama about WWII. Well, one story does cross over a character from Angel (and previously of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). You can access them at www.storynook.net --most of them are on the "Purple Hearts" site, which is an offshoot of Story Nook now. The ones on "Purple Hearts" are under the name White Queen. There's one on the Story Nook site too--"Bulletproof". That's the crossover one...Spike wanders into the Combat! world. Anyway, just thought I'd share the link.

I really like writing fanfic. It lets me try out new ideas without having to create new characters. That really cuts down a writers' workload. It's challenging too though--you have to really nail those characters or else your readers will dislike you for being uncanonical and stop reading your work. I've got a new bit of fanfic percolating in my brain right now. It's going to be kinda unconventional though, at least compared to the fanfic I usually write. I'm crossing a Combat! character into the Angel universe, and in the present day. But then, there are Star Trek/Combat! stories around, so I think I'll still have some readers...

Shrewd move, Tom Cruise. Most of your public, critics, and reviewers blamed you for your divorce from Nicole Kidman a few years ago. I even did, a little bit. I'm not sure why, but we collectively felt bad for Nic, and painted you as the bad guy. I still liked your movies; The Last Samurai makes me weep. But I'd lost my fondness for you--the sparkle you could bring to me had faded. Not that you've ever been one of my most-favorite actors...but you're in my top 25, probably. So what did you do? You accepted the fact, eventually, that we didn't really like seeing you as the good guy in your movies, because we all felt a little miffed with you, even now. And you decided to play a bad guy in the movie Collateral. I saw it a few weeks ago. Your plan worked--I loved you! And now, I'm not mad at you anymore. Neither is anyone else, it seems. If I had a vote in the Academy, I'd vote for you for best actor for that movie. Unless you were up against Harrison Ford or Mel Gibson or Johnny Depp, of course.

If you're wondering who Archie Goodwin is, and why I named my Betta after him, allow me to explain. He's the narrator of the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I love these mysteries. Not only are the books fabulous, but they've been made into a delightful series on A&E, starring Timothy Hutton as Archie. I love the series, because not only do they nail their interpretations of the characters, but the costumes and props are fantabulous! They're sorta 40's/50's, with lots of vibrant colors and flashy suits with awesome hats, for both the men and the women. Mmmm.

Anyway, my Betta is really flashy, sort of an aquamarine blue with major fins that have red tips. And the colors reminded me of the colors from the tv versions of Nero Wolfe mysteries.

Now that I've explained all this, I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotations from a Nero Wolfe book: "Archie doesn't like him, and I have learned that it is always quite possible that anyone he doesn't like may be a murderer." -Nero Wolfe in And Be a Villian by Rex Stout.

I have a betta named James Bond. I got him one week ago today, and he's still alive, so I figure that's a pretty encouraging sign. He's mostly a vibrant blue, except for a red streak along his belly that fades into a little purple on the sides, then on up to the blue. He lives in a giant glass that looks like a cross between a martini glass and a champagne glass, hence his name ;-) I even put green glass rocks on the bottom to look like olives (which was the Chameleon's idea).

My Cowboy is doing a crossword puzzle and wants me to join him, so I'll end this and do so.

Ugh. I am in the throes of what Stephen Maturin (of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels) would call the "blue devils". I'm melancholy. I'm irritated with the world. I'm irritated with myself. And I'm not entirely sure why. I'm partially sure why, but I'm not admitting those reasons to myself. Instead I'm eating melted Hershey's chocolate and gazing mournfully out the window at the yet-more rain.

See, I'm possibly having a piece published in a nationally-distributed magazine. But this isn't bringing me all the joy and fulfillment I thought it might. Instead of affirming my sometimes tenuous belief that I'm a better-than-passable writer, it's stomping me down into the doldrums of maybe-I-suck-dom, for various reasons I don't care to elaborate at the moment.

Also, I think PMS might have something to do with this. More chocolate, please! And if there's a Johnny Depp in sight, bring him over too.

I hate writer's block. It's way worse than writer's cramp. Writer's cramp I can fix by just massaging my hand and wrist (or my back if I'm hunched over the keyboard). But it's really hard to massage my imagination. I can feed it, but I'm not sure I can massage it.

So yeah, I'm working on my novel, which I have neglected for simply weeks, and I'm stuck. I just deleted about 2 pages of stuff because I decided I didn't like where it was going, but now I don't know where I want it to go instead. And I'm irritated by my main character. I just don't like her very well. If she was a real person, I don't think I'd hang out with her. And that's okay, because she's supposed to start out kinda off-putting, but then get nicer and more likeable as the novel progresses. But I haven't gotten to where I can like her yet. I think she's stupid.

So, I'm stuck in the novel, disliking my main character...time to blog. Maybe it will loosen up the imagination blockage. Or maybe I should quit and go bake those apple pies I've been planning. I kinda thought my sister-in-law, The Chameleon, would be here by now and might want to help me peel alllllllllll those apples, but so far she's a no-show. Probably still asleep.

Hmmmm. Maybe I'll go check out MB's blog and see what she's posted lately...

Well, after an absence of...I don't want to think how long it's been since I blogged. I actually didn't think this thing would still be around. But my friend MB set up her own online journal recently (http://maribel.easyjournal.com), and suddenly I've gotten the urge to resume blogging.

I have three sad things to say.

My darling dog Westley is dead.
They canceled Angel.
Creed has disbanded.

It has been kind of a depressing year, now and then. Other than the above 3 horrid occurances, life has been good though. We're in WI now, not MN. We live near my Cowboy's family, so that's kinda cool, we get to hang with them a lot. Good thing we all get along fairly well, eh?

I have a lot more to say, and I hope I'll get around to saying it. Oh, I named my new camera 'Marlowe' after Raymond Chandler's gumshoe Philip Marlowe. That's really old news, but it fits with the last post I left oh so long ago...