Fun Weekend

I've had a great weekend.

Friday I went out to dinner with my daughter from Houston, love Chinese food.
Saturday, lunch with writer friends, gossip for three hours, or was it four. Also love a Leaning Bellini and Shrimp Portofino.
Made a big pot of Chili Saturday night, had the rest of the kids over and discovered chocolate wine-too good.
Had lunch today with my 88-year-old mother-in-law. discovered the most wonderful cake ever invented at Maggies, on 39th Expressway, Bethany, OK.
Okay, so this weekend revolved around food and drink. But it was fun.

So you don't think the weekend was a total loss, I almost finished chapter 13 of Dead Fairies, and have to figure out exactly who it is that Ande likes, Brandon or the new character trying to sneak in. Hmmm.

Also, I had an interview with Kim Smith on Blog Talk Radio on "Introducing Writers." That was fun. And in the interest of promotion, don't forget that all the Tali Cates books are at www.eternalpres.ca, or in print from www.amazon.com. If you need multiple e-formats, try www.fictionwise.com. You can catch the interview on Blog Talk in a couple of days. I'll put out an announcement.

I'm putting on a contest, see my website and visit my blog for a chance to win bookmarks, postcards, a Bloody Murder T-shirt, an autographed copy of a Tali Cates book and more. Stay tuned.

When Worlds Collide

I heard about the most horrific thing on the BBC news. It was about the albinos in Africa who are being slaughtered because albinos supposedly bring good luck. 40 of them murdered and mutilated just this year. Why? Because a witch doctor said a potion containing Albino skin or other albino pieces, brings riches and good fortune. That leads random groups to go out, find an albino, attack him with knives and take away parts. Obviously, the good fortune did not extend to the albinos.

However, it did give me a good idea for "Dead Fairies" and the murderer's motivation. No, there is not a witch doctor in it. But the idea clarified some characterization for me.(That sounds sick and I don't mean disrespect to any families who lost loved ones.)

Then I read some writing tips from Jim Butcher and he made a lot of sense. See, it's never to late to learn, even for someone my advanced age. I love it when a book comes together and a theme occurs. The story is getting much darker, which is what I wanted.

Anyone else out there had any aha moments lately?