Sister Scribe - the Official Site of Chicki Brown

Since it was another perfect, sunny 70 degree day in Atlanta, I decided to find a new place to hang out and read my research material for Someday at Christmas.

Thanks to a very nice man at the Fayette County Recreation Department, I discovered a beautiful spot called Starr's Mill right on Highway 85. Here's where I spent a couple of hours today:

Here's a little history on this scenic spot from http://www.times-herald.com/Local/Starrs-Mill-a-popular-attraction-643159

"Starr's Mill, just a few miles north of Senoia, is probably one of the most famous -- or at least the most-photographed -- sites on the old McIntosh Trail, featured in numerous magazines and even in the Reese Witherspoon film "Sweet Home Alabama."

But even though a mill was located at the site from a very early period, when Creek and Cherokee Indians were still living in west Georgia, the current structure isn't nearly so old.

The mill changed hands three more times in the 20th century. This mill -- the building which still exists today, built on the foundation of the original burned mill -- operated until 1959, using a water-powered turbine, instead of a wheel, to grind corn and operate a sawmill.

The Starr's Mill site also included a cotton gin and a dynamo that produced electricity for nearby Senoia.

The Fayette County Water Department has owned the site since Feb. 1991. The county has used the millpond as a drinking water source since 1994 and has repaired the building's foundation and painted and fixed the roof."

Great day ...

I have mentioned many times that I do my best work away from the house, and Atlanta Bread Company is one of my favorite places to write. They offer free WiFi (which I don't need for my Alphasmart), but it makes the store a hot spot for meetings and studying.

If you write, you know how important comfort is. The ergonomics of the furniture are a major consideration. Something about the design of the benches and height of the tables at the Fayetteville ABC were perfect for me, but I have also worked at the Morrow and Peachtree City locations where they did a total remodel last year. The wooden benches are gone -- replaced by padded booths with a pendant light over each table. The booths also have high backs, which cuts down on distraction, and there is a half-wall separating the seating areas.

When my friends in Fayetteville announced that they were closing on Sunday night and reopening on Tuesday morning so they could remodel, I was thrilled.

Yesterday I spent three hours at the newly redecorated ABC. They're really going to have a hard time getting rid of me now.

This is kind of what the old decor looked like:

 This is the new look.

This booth in the bottom left corner is my new home. Headed out again in about an hour ...

GOD CREATED CHILDREN (AND IN THE PROCESS GRANDCHILDREN)

To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students, here is something to make you chuckle.

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And one of the first things He said was, "DON'T!"

"Don 't what?" Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit," God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve, we have forbidden fruit! "

" No Way! "

"Yes way! "

"Do NOT eat the fruit! " said God.

"Why? "

"Because I am your Father and I said so! " God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an fruit break and He was ticked! "Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?" said The Father.

"I don't know," said Eve.

"She started it! " Adam said.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT! "

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you? THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said

5 The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY: Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.

 I am already 4,000 words into my new story, Someday at Christmas. Here's the meter:

The query letter for Hollywood Swinging is with my critique partners. Now all I need to do is put together the dreaded synopsis ...

There's nothing I love more than starting a new story. Over the weekend I was a bit under the weather, but I had enough energy to start outlining my next WIP, a "fish out of water" Christmas story.

The title is Someday at Christmas (taken from the old Stevie Wonder song) and it's about an Atlanta lawyer from a dignified family who falls for an exotic dancer. Y'all do know that Atlanta is the strip club capital of the nation, right? He takes her home to meet the family for Christmas, and you can imagine the drama that ensues.

During my cold medicine-induced wooziness, I managed to put together this collage of the cast of characters. These are some good-looking black folks!

TOP ROW: The Gardner Family - Everett, Helene, Grandma, Family Home, Veronica and Lisette (sisters)

CENTER ROW: Christmas Dinner, Warrick "Rick" Gardner, Tamyra "Tamy" Allen, Sledding in New Jersey

BOTTOM ROW: Dreamland, Shanice aka "Luscious", Ouida (Tamy's BFF), Dreamland Bodyguard, Campbell (Rick's BFF)

This is a continuation of my entry from last Friday. 

If you've ever had an evil voice whisper in your ear, "You look terrible today," I want you to bookmark this page. Now, go look in the mirror and smile ...

Hollywood Swinging is finished!

It came in under my anticipated word count, but that's fine, because I'm always too longwinded. The ending came out better than I'd expected.

So here's the final meter, but I'm sure it will change somewhat after I go through critiques of the final chapters with my partners.

I know I said I was going to work on rewriting Lyrics, but suddenly ideas for a Christmas story jumped into my head. Since I've never written a holiday story before, I think I'll jump on that before I dive into Lyrics.

Guess I need to think of a way to reward myself, but how do you do that with no cash? The general concensus is that you shouldn;t reward yourself with food, but I haven't had a box of Cheez-It in over a year. Maybe that will be my treat for reaching The End once again ...

Busy day on tap today. Hopefully I'll get some writing done while I'm sitting and waiting at my various errands.

A friend sent this to me, and I thought the ideas expressed the hearts of many women ...

I am closing in on the last two chapters of Hollywood Swinging. It looks as if this manuscrit is going to be shorter than I'd expected, but that's okay. I need to write shorter, more concise stories since books are getting shorter (with the exception of J.R. Ward, whose latest release is 482 pages!)   

Here's the meter this morning:

Ideas are swirling around in my head on what to do next, but I'm leaning toward reworking Have You Seen Her?  the multicultural romance I wrote a couple of years ago before I write anything new. I loved the story and I really loved nightclub bouncer, Taylor Villanova, the ultra sexy bi-racial hero.

Jumping to another subject, this is my second week going to the gym. Can somebody tell me when that wonderful energy I've heard people talk about is supposed to kick in?  All I feel is TIRED ...

As far as my reading goes, I just finished Suzanne Brockmann's latest release, Hot Pursuit.

This is Alyssa and Sam's continuing story and one of Ms. Brockmann's best. As always, she introduced a secondary romance, this time between Danny and Jenn. I can't wait for her next release to find out what happens with them. If you are a romantic suspense fan, I highly recommend  I didn't blog about Into the Fire because I must admit that I gave up on it before I reached The End. For some reason the story just didn't hold my attention.

On another note, when I went to Malaika Adero's editing workshop last Saturday, she talked about Simon & Schuster's development of e-books that contain video. Since I love new technology, that subject fascinated me. 

This article from the New York Times explains it in detail.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/books/01book.html?_r=1

Take a look at the vook for Promises by Jude Deveraux and tell me what you think of this new concept.