My Guilty Pleasure

$3,000 to $5,000 Per Night!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks getting ready for the release of my next book, Seaside of Love.

It's unreal how much detail is necessary: scheduling ads, emails, coordinating with the review team, formatting, working with artists, selecting categories and keywords ... the list goes on.

Suffice it to say I've spent a lot of time sitting at my desk, not writing, but being an admin person. (a darn good-looking one at that.)

Once evening rolls around, Surfer Boy and I have been enjoying the hit show, Big Little Lies.

Well, to be fair, I've been enjoying it. He doesn't have much of a choice as our house is tiny with only one TV. (how do we survive?)

The show is set in the town of Monterey, Ca which is a fabulously moody, atmospheric spot for a story with its coastal fog, dramatic cliffs leading down to the stormy ocean, and the pounding surf.

The show stars some of my all-time favorite actors: Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and yes! Merryl Streep.

Fun fact: The house in the picture belongs to Reese Witherspoon's character. At least while they're filming. And it's not in Monterey. It's in Malibu.

And you can rent it too!

Only $3,000 to $5,000.

Per night.

I'll meet you there!

Rattlers!

His mother thinks he's cute. And so do I!

I've spent many years running and hiking on the local SoCal trails.

I've vaulted over rattlesnakes while running downhill only because I didn't see them till the last second, I've warily given rattlers a wide berth as they stretched across a warm summer trail and I've walked past them coiled up on the side of the trail.

But today ...

I came just about as close as I've ever been to real danger.

Southern California has been blessed with a fantastically wonderful rainy season this year. This has resulted in many of our local trails deluged with water, many of them closed off because of the resulting ravines. Not necessarily a safe place to hike.

But it's May, right? How bad could it be out there?

This morning, I started out on a nicely groomed trail with fantastic ocean views.

I hiked up to an area that's been closed off since December. "DO NOT ENTER!" warned the sign.

Where I come from, that sign means, "Welcome."

So I went.

The wildflowers were abundant, the views spectacular, and I felt immersed in nature. Ah, pure bliss.

Then, I came to a trail that veered off sharp left. A wildly overgrown trail. This will be fun, thought I.

And it was!

The honeybees buzzed around my head, the scent of sage and wildflowers a balm to my soul.

I pushed through head-high brush wishing I had a machete.

As I made the final push up the hill to the main trail, I heard a blood-chilling rattle to my left. I gazed over and, there, in the brush, not one foot away, was the cutest rattler you ever did see.

Ever heard the term "fight or flight"?

Well, baby, I gotta tell ya, my reptilian brain (no pun intended) went into flight mode as a massive spurt of adrenaline roared through my system.

Okay, okay, before you report me to the local authorities for trespassing, I have to tell you that my father was a daredevil who piloted World War Two airplanes in loopty-loops for fun. My mother is no longer with us (God rest her soul) so she can't put me in my room without supper. Mom always yelled at Dad for raising a daughter who followed in his reckless footsteps.

You'll be happy to know that I survived the hike unbitten.

But ...

Am I going to tell my daughters about this near-strike?

Not on your life, buddy. They might send me to my room without supper.

Beekeeping Tour

Suited up!

Over the holiday weekend, Surfer Boy and I headed out to San Diego for a beehive tour.

I've always been interested in bees so I decided to make one of the characters in my next book a beekeeper.

It was a blast researching and that's where I found Hilary of Girl Next Door Honey.

Hilary and her husband run a beekeeping operation that makes beekeeping sexy.

They're a young couple, hard workers and filled with passion for the bees and the environment.

The information we took in was limitless and there's still more to learn.

One of the things I learned was that when bees swarm, that's when they're actually the least dangerous.

Swarming, though the word has a bad connotation, simply means that the bees are separating from an established hive that's done so well it ran out of room.

At that point, the bees leave the hive and move to another location. When they swarm (or fly away) they're not protecting a hive so they're highly unlikely to sting.

Another cool fact: If you have allergies, eat honey from a local beekeeper. The pollens that you're allergic to will enter your system and help you build a tolerance.

The tour was amazingly awesome, fun and informative.

Now ... back to edits.

Remembering To Pay Attention

The view from our house. And that's all I've got to say about that.

Sometimes I sit at my computer for so long, concentrating so hard on my work that my back and head start to hurt.

Today I remembered to stop and listen to the ocean and say thank you for my life.

Okay, okay, I know you're rolling your eyes right now and asking, "where's my snarky Jennifer?"

Don't worry, she's still alive and well inside a body and brain that won't shut up with its story musings.

But today I totally (not partially) stopped to think about the fact that when I was in second-grade Catholic school, I used to talk my best friend into sneaking out of the playground and walking across the street to the library because I loved to read.

When the Mother Superior found out about my daredevil ways, all hell broke loose, and I have the sore scalp from the ensuing hair pulling to prove it.

The point is, all these (many) years later, I'm sitting at a computer doing what I dreamed of doing all those years ago when I devoured comic books and library books.

Writing stories that people actually read.

So I think it's important to stop every now and then and say thank you.

Okay ... now I can get back to my snarky self.

What I’m Watching

Filmed behind our house. How cool is that!

My daughter turned me on to this cool Netflix series called Dead To Me starring Christina Applegate.

The show is a compulsively watchable dark comedy with melodrama galore, beautiful clothes, ocean view mansions, fine wines, and stunning scenery.

The best part of all?

It's filmed in our very own little seaside town.

Well, maybe.

I've visited the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, so I know that most shows are filmed on sound stages. You'd be blown away by how much can be done in a dark, cavernous sound studio with bright lights, cameras, and action!

What the filmmakers do is this: They take a ton of scenery shots, they hire a helicopter to take gorgeous panoramic views of the breathtaking ocean coastline, they do a few live action shots in outdoor locations (probably somewhere in Burbank) that look close enough, and the rest is done on a soundstage under hot lights.

Last night my daughter's fiance sent me the picture above from Dead To Me, which was filmed in the back part of our house. How cool! That was probably shot by a film student who was given a reprieve from Burbank to our town. Go earn your keep, buddy!

Sorry if I ruined it. Ha!

In other news, while I wait for the return of my manuscript from the copyeditor, I'm learning how to use Vellum, which is a book formatting program. It's (relatively) easy to use. Just wait and see, I'll take over the world with my one stop publishing company.

Swiffering Has To Wait

So much for yesterday's post of feeling adrift because my manuscript is with the editor.

Today, I sat down and wrote a four-page dissertation of everything I need to do over the next six weeks to launch the book (working title Seaside of Love) and all the other cool junk that needs to happen in my author world.

Whew!

I took a break from my desk to walk down to the beach and ran into a surfer who's affectionately known as Insta Bro.

Insta Bro gave me a bear hug and wouldn't let go. "You're such a fantastic woman," he said when he finally released me from his muscular grip. "So many women out there are messed up in the head."

"The check's in the mail."

We've had several conversations over the years and it seems Insta Bro had a gnarly relationship breakup. I told him that women are trouble, that he should steer clear.

He picked up his surfboard, gave me another hug, a salute, and headed for the waves.

Adrift

My delicious manuscript is with the copyeditor for the next two weeks, and it feels like a part of me is gone.

What, oh what, shall I do with my time?

Writing books is like that. Authors get all caught up in our story world, devoting as many hours as possible each day at the keyboard, many, many, more hours each day thinking about our story. We work and rework, fix plot holes, read aloud, throw coffee containers across the room.

And finally ...

The manuscript goes to the editor, and we're left with a massive hole in our lives.

Now that I've unpacked from Chicago, Swiffered the floors a few times, done the laundry, shopped at both the local market and Whole Foods (in one day) I'm ready to sit down with pen and notebook to come up with what I plan to write next.

I'm eager to explore the darker side of my writing life, and I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous about it only because I've spent so much time with the hunky surfers who never poison anybody.

I think part of being a creative person, though, is letting our minds come up with what excites us.

Even if a few fictional characters end up on a coroner's table. Or a shallow grave.