The Weekend: Bikes, Babes, Bulbs and Books

Had a great, and busy, weekend.

Friday night my granddaughter spent the night. She’s 4 and adorable. We sat together and watched Rattatouile. Very cute movie, but about 3/4 of the way through I could tell she was getting tired (mainly, because she kept asking me how much longer until the movie was over). So I paused the movie, read her a story and put her to bed. Then I watched the rest of the movie myself. :giggle: It was very cute. Hey, I love kid movies and I highly recommend this one if you haven’t seen it yet. Several laugh out loud moments.

Saturday the sun was shining. A bit windy, but the temps climbed into the high 60’s so I decided I needed to repot some plants and plant some bulbs. I had some gladiolas I’d bought to plant over at the side of the garden (my mom loved white gladiolas) so put those in (after much wrestling with tree roots that were in my way-ugh!). Then some of my house plants were looking kind of icky, so I dragged those outside, kneeled in the driveway and cut away the dead stuff and repotted one of my peace lillies. My plants are all much happier now, and so am I. But oh my legs, my knees, my back. Can you say out of shape? By Saturday night I couldn’t get off the couch without groaning. Bleh.

Sunday there was no wind and the sun was warm and gorgeous, so Biker Dude and I decided to take a ride up north to Woolaroc Museum. Nothing like riding your bike next to deer nestled on the side of the road, and seeing buffalo! The museum itself is lots of fun too.

On the ride up there, we took the back roads. We were zipping along this county road and a farmer came out of his gate with his dog at his side. The farmer waved to us and I waved back.

He was young, in a sleeveless muscle shirt, tan, nice smile, great body, and boom! A story line popped into my head. Riding on the back of the bike for a long period of time, with nothing to do but watch the scenery go by, is a great time to clear my head and think. So I thought about that farmer (who, by the way, had an awesomely beautiful house). A story began to form in my head, a heroine appeared, and the story went in all different directions. By the time we got home last night I sat at my computer and whipped out several pages of plotline.

And that’s how writers sometimes get their story ideas. :charlie:

Of course I immediately tossed it in my plotlines folder, because I’m working on a book that’s due July 1st. No time to play with uncontracted stories right now.

The uncontracted ones are always the easiest ones to play with, ya know. No pressure.

This week I’ll be writing. On the contracted book.
And I’m giving an online workshop at NEORWA on worldbuilding, along with my pal Mandy Roth.
This Saturday I’ll be giving a workshop on Before And After The Sale for my local RWA Chapter.
And I really need to make an appointment to have my hair colored.
Edited To Add: My lovely Samhain editor sent me edits for Dare To Love this morning, so I’ll be tackling those first. ;;)

So how was your weekend? And what’s on tap for this week?