Holiday Wishes and an Update

Posted by on Dec 25, 2015 in Random Ramblings | Comments Off on Holiday Wishes and an Update

Another Christmas morning has come and gone here at the Andre household.  I’m knee-deep in wrapping paper and eating warm cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven.  The girl got a new art desk and the boy got a bunch of Fallout 4 memorabilia.  (At the moment, he’s donning his new Fallout hoodie over an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, because nothing says Christmas like gamer gear and A7X.  😛 ) Once I finish here, I’m heading over to my Facebook page to post a new FF4 snippet.   FF4 took longer than expected to come together, but the first draft is done and it’s off with beta readers.  I have a date with my editor in mid-January, so if all goes well, look for it to release in early February. Finally, if you haven’t had a chance to read it, here’s the link to my Christmas themed short story from my bundle, The Final Formula Collection: A Christmas Formula. Have a wonderful holiday and thanks for another great year!...

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A Sweet Ride

Posted by on Oct 2, 2015 in Random Ramblings | 1 comment

The great thing about writing fiction is that I get to do things, go places, and own things that I will probably never do, go, or own. One of the things I have the most fun with is picking out cars for my characters to drive. Sometimes, the character’s personality or circumstances dictates the car, but when I get to choose, I lean toward my love of the old American muscle cars. I come by my love of those old cars honestly: I get it from my dad. He used to take me to car shows when I was a kid. He would know the make and model of every car in the place. I got pretty decent at naming a lot of those old cars myself, but never as good as Dad. Even now, if we see an old car on the road and none of us can name it, my son points out that Grandad would know. (Now that Dad has a smartphone, I just text him a picture and ask.) My first car was a 1966 Ford Mustang. I had been wanting one for a while when Dad found one in Columbus (two hours away) that was in good shape and mostly road worthy. Not a bad find considering that the car was almost twenty-five years old at the time. We brought it home and Dad worked on it for a month replacing the entire braking system until he felt it was safe enough to drive. I was so excited when he finally gave me the keys. I could’t wait to drive it around town. The second day I had it out, I wrapped it around a tree. Those were the days before cell phones, and as luck would have it, my mom was at my sister’s ballgame, my boyfriend (now husband) was out of town, and Dad was working at a new house that didn’t have a phone installed. I had to have my best friend’s mom drive me to him. That was the longest ride of my life. When I told Dad, he just looked at me and said, “You didn’t.” And that was the end of it. He...

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Speaking English – Kinda

Posted by on Oct 24, 2014 in Random Ramblings | 6 comments

I sometimes joke that I don’t speak English; I speak Appalachian. Most folks don’t think Appalachia when they think Ohio, but the rolling hills in the southern part of the state are actually the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. I tend to use words like y’all and reckon (as in, I reckon I’ll go write a blog post now), though I try to keep a handle on it when I write. Last weekend, I hosted a writing retreat. My beta buddies Kendra and Lindsay joined me for three glories days of writing, but at one point, we did laugh about my accent. (Although Kendra’s Oklahoma accent wasn’t all that different.) The first time I noticed that I had an accent was in high school. My Girl Scout troop had gone to Columbus, Ohio to spend the weekend volunteering at the Ohio Special Olympics. We met other groups from all over the state, and people kept asking us if we were from Georgia. Nope, Southern Ohio (pronounced o-hi-a). We found the notion funny because we knew what a southern accent sounded like. All you had to do was cross the Ohio River into Kentucky (we lived right on the border). For some reason, the accent is much stronger there. Curious the way a physical boundary can make such a difference, even in our world of cars and bridges where a river in no longer a true boundary. When I decided to write a blog post on this topic, I did a little research. I wanted to see exactly where the boundaries of Appalachia were. I ended up on Wikipedia and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English. I read through the article, and was shocked to discover that I really do speak Appalachian. Okay, not to the extent shown in the article, but I frequently hear a lot of people who do—especially the older generation. Words like wash pronounced worsh, or droppin’ the g in words that end in –ing. I’ve seen street signs with holler instead of hollow, or crick instead of creek. It’s not just how the words are pronounced, but sometimes the word itself. One of my favorites is substituting the word mango for bell pepper....

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Geek Fail

Posted by on Aug 29, 2014 in Random Ramblings | 9 comments

The other day I came across an article in one of my video gaming magazines (yes, I’m an avid gamer—if you haven’t picked up on that yet) praising the goodness of the original Dungeons & Dragons game, and how it served as an inspiration to so many folks in the gaming industry.  After reading the article, I felt a bit bummed because (confession time), I’ve never played D&D.  I never knew anyone who played.  Heck, I didn’t even hear of the game until I was in my twenties.  Considering my interests (writer, fantasy junkie), I think of this as a childhood failing.  And sadly, it’s not my only one. I’ve seen very few episodes of the original Star Trek.  In my defense, I grew up in house with only three TV stations, and three younger sisters who shared none of my geeky leanings.  Dad was lord of the TV (I would have said remote, but we didn’t have one of those either), and he wasn’t into SciFi.  Although, he and I did watch The Greatest American Hero while it was on.   Looking back now, I smile.  Those were special times.  I wonder… *heads over to Amazon* Oh wow, I can get the ENTIRE series for under $20!  Guess what Dad’s getting for his birthday? I probably shouldn’t bury myself any deeper, but…I didn’t see Star Wars when it was originally released either.  (And yes, I was a kid at the time.)  I did make my husband take me to watch it on the big screen when they re-released the original three movies.  My sister and her husband went with us.  He was a fan; she wasn’t.  My husband and my sister actually fell asleep during the movie.  *sigh*  It’s hard to be a geek when you’re surrounded by non-geeks. Sadly, I had great potential.  I was in the band and chorus, and ran with the academic crowd in high school.  I went on to major in chemistry and math, with a minor in computer programming.  I love video games, fantasy and scifi.  Yet sadly, I occasionally miss a pop culture reference on The Big Bang Theory. But all is not lost.  The other day, I...

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