Beauty Secret your Avon Lady won't tell you

A month ago, a friendly neighborhood esthetician shared this information:

Vitamin C face lotion. Any brand. Any price.

This past month I've been putting it on my face every day in the mornings and in the evenings when I'm not so tired I drag myself to bed I remember.

The results are amazing. Okay I don't all of a sudden have the flawless skin of Jennifer Lopez—I can't sing or dance either—but the redness I've been camouflaging for years with foundation has dramatically lessened. I don't even wear foundation anymore. Yes, even on days when my hermit self leaves the house.

Also, the fine wrinkles and shadows near my eyes have smoothed out quite a bit as well. Not totally, but I'm not exactly in my 30s anymore either.

Her other skin tips:

Rub Brown sugar on lips to exfoliate.

Don't leave the house without sunscreen.

Wash your face twice a day.

Writing Past Grief: Punching Through

It's been 9 months.

My son had cystic fibrosis and he passed away 9 months ago. This is the first time I've even lightly posted about it. It's still much too raw and painful. He was 14.

I understand grief, understand the 7 steps of mourning and the myriad of emotions that crashes through you. What I didn't realize was how that would affect my writing.

I had no idea grief would sabotage my writing confidence.

Everything I've worked so hard for over decades years is shattered. Poof. Gone.

No one wants to read this.

Your characters are too sad.

I thought you knew how to string together a sentence.

No wonder your agent can't sell your work.

You don't deserve to succeed.

Give up. You don't have the energy for this.

I feel like screaming at those inner voices as George Hamiliton did in Love at First Bite "Children of the Night…Shut up!"

So, my new mantra: I'm not a quitter, not a quitter, not a quitter.

I sit down and just start writing, giving myself permission to write badly, if I should punch through and get it done and something surprising happens.

My normal teenage heroine all of a sudden has a sibling who died in her back story and she is screaming at her love interest about how he doesn't understand…what tragedy has he ever experienced in his life that gives him the right to tell her how to feel?

I bang my head against the table. Is this all I can produce now? Angsty grief-driven characters? I just want to write stories, not go through therapy while doing it.

Then again, maybe that's all there is left. Pushing through. I'll let the characters grieve, let them flow however they will and maybe I'll come through the end of it with a little healing on my own. Who can say? I'll let you know how it goes as I continue these posts on writing past grief.


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Inside the Writers Room -- for TV Scripts


I attended Dreamin' In Dallas, DARA's Writer's Conference this weekend. It was really a lot of fun. Anyway there was this workshop on TV script writing by Dean Lorey . That's not something I aspire to, but curiosity won out. Here's the rundown on what happens in the writer's room, which is always referred to as just: The Room. Some terms first: Showrunner: Person in charge of everything. Even the director defers to the Showrunner. The SR is 99.9 times a writer, often the creator of the show (whoever writes the pilot). The Showrunner makes the final pass on all the scripts.

Half-Hours: These are the sitcom type shows that are acted out like a stage play in front of live audiences with at least four cameras on them.

One-Hours: Shot with one camera like little movies at different set locations. Has long season arcs, almost like a soap opera. Supernatural is a One-Hour.

This is how the writers map out a One-Hour show's season:

The Showrunner is in charge. It's called "running a room".

Four to Twelve writers sit around a large conference table for about twelve to sixteen hours, pitching out ideas.

The Showrunner picks out the ideas she likes and together the writing staff lays out broadstroke beats for each episode. They make an outline for the season arc.

Then the Showrunner pitches the ideas to the executives. They approve them. Or not.

The Showrunner assigns writers to each episode. (Usually in teams. The entire team is paid as a team, so they split up whatever each episode is worth. Like paying two writers for the price of one. Heh.) Basic episode outlines are handed out to the teams.

Each writing team writes a full outline of their episode and presents it to the Showrunner.

Showrunner takes and gives note. A lot of back and forth goes on.

Writing team then writes the draft for the episode and presents it to the Showrunner, and gets notes until she is satisfied.

The Showrunner gives approval for the final draft and hands it off to the director and the episode gets shot.

While the episode is shooting, the writing team and Showrunner watch the dailies each morning.


Dailies are what was shot the previous day. The team and Showrunner decide if something needs to be re-shot.

Also, the Writer's Guild of America mandates that two scripts per season must be writen by freelance writers. That's why sometimes we'll see an episode od our favorite shows are written by writers we've never heard of before.

Now for a Half-Hour show, the room runs a little differently. Instead of plotting out the entire season arc, they hash out episode by episode at a time collaboratively while the Showrunner's assistant types the script then and there, and is on a screen that the writers watch. These are also the shows that the actors come in to the room and do a run-through with the writers.


So, that's the process of how your favorite show comes into being.

Embarrassment is Power by Clover Autrey

Embarrassment is Power by Clover Autrey Yep, I'm a bad mommy over at the 4badmommies blog. Fun group of gals.

Fallen Warrior


My short--very short--about 8 pages long, story introducing the Eaglekins is ready for download on the Nook. I'm crazy about the cover and I love that it has a low price of .99 cents. About the price of downloading an iTune song.
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