Monday's List

1. We saw Get Smart on Sunday and I laughed until I cried through much of it.

2. I believe Steve Carrell to be the best comedic actor working today. Light years beyond anything the likes of Will Farrel and Jim Carey are producing.

3. Carrell's genius lies in the fact that he never once points a neon sign toward the jokes/slapstick/humor. He maintains his air of dignity as best he can, oblivious, willfully or otherwise, to what the rest of us find so funny about his current predicament, and delivers his lines with dry wit and perfect timing.

4. No overacting for him, thank God. Let the frat boys crowd into theaters for more brain-cell-killing Farrel and Carey movies. I'm sticking with Carrell.

5. Saw the preview for the upcoming Mummy III and holy cow! I'm so going to see that.

6. I haven't seen the other two...Paul is trying to remedy my woeful lack of movie experience but he is only human...but this, this, looks amazing.

7. Jet Li, a three-headed dragon, the Wall of China, buried armies coming to life again...need I say more? It's right up my alley.

8. I'm so close to finishing SHADOWING FATE, I can taste it.

9. I'm at that stage where I hate to go to sleep because I just want to spill the words across the page and finally see it all come together.

10. Plans for this week:

1. Finish the last few chapters of SF.
2. Write synopsis for SF (because I LOVE torturing myself in this way. Love it.)
3. Do a final read-through, edit, adverb seek-and-destroy on the manuscript.
4. Send it off to agents who've requested it.
5. Write a pitch for SF to use at the RWA Conference at the end of the month.
6. Eat, sleep, and breathe somewhere in the middle of all that.

11. I found the perfect dress to go with my gold, diamond (NOT the real variety, are you crazy?)encrusted stilettos.

12. Now, let's just all pray that if I have to walk up a set of stairs to reach the stage, I won't pull a C.J. and walk into the platform, trip up the stairs, or somehow manage to expose parts of myself that NOBODY signed up to see.

13. Also, if I'm called to stage, we'll pray that whatever comes out of my mouth when presented with a microphone doesn't entertain the audience in a wow-did-you-see-that-train-wreck? sort of way.

14. I learned this week that one of my fellow Golden Heart finalists was actually a classmate of mine at Pepperdine. We had Speech 101 together (and a few other humanities courses as well).

15. Small world, yes?

16. Drat. Now that uber-annoying song is stuck in my head. Here, I'll share: It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all....

17. Thought you'd enjoy that.

18. I find the results of last week's poll to be very interesting: Most of you want a housekeeper (I second the notion!), many of you want a personal assistant (yes! please!), a few of you want a private chef (how nice would that be?!), and one lonely little rebel went for the chauffeur. :)

19. I actually didn't think anyone would choose chauffeur when they could have a housekeeper or personal assistant, but one of you out in cyber land has your crap so together, all you need is someone to drive you around.

20. Or maybe you're just lusting after a really amazing car in which to stash your chaffeur?

21. I found one for you:



22. Reader Question: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?