Psst...type-by posting for "A Man-to-Man Christmas"

I'm putting the finishing touches on a holiday short for Brad and Cam, the boys from Man-to-Man Coverage.  Be on the lookout for A Man-to-Man Christmas, coming soon!

I'll be posting this holiday quickie (~3000 words) on Monday morning. It's suuuuuuuper sappy, but what can I say? The holidays just bring out the cheese in me. ;)

UPDATE: The story is online HERE and on Goodreads HERE!! 

Nomming on sweet cheese and sappiness,
NJ

3T, 12/13/12 - Holiday Shenanigans

Note: I've decided to get all mathematical and use the algebraic "3T" as shorthand for "Three Things for Thursday."  I know, I just out-nerdify myself sometimes.

1) Baltimore! I spent the weekend in Baltimore eating stupid amounts of food and, in particular, crabcakes. Mmmmm.....crabcakes.

The occasion? My friend's wedding. The wedding was stellar - delicious food (seriously, plus there were THREE types of cake - all amazing, and yes, I did try them all *shameless grin*), unique setting, touching ceremony, and lively DJ.  But yes, another wedding. This is my fifth wedding in the last six months. As some of my friends have pointed out, I'm just in that age range when everyone and their mother (well, maybe not their mother) is getting married.  What's weird, though, is that while that may translate to a ticking time bomb to some people, it really doesn't feel that way to me.  Ever since I was little, I never wanted to get married, and, in my adulthood, not much has changed except I've sort of analyzed that initial feeling to death. Perhaps I'll expand on that further one day, but today, alas, is not that day.

2) Holy crap, it's mid-December already. I haven't finished holiday shopping.  In fact, I don't even know if what I have so far counts as having started. I dunno...the pressure to find the perfect gift during the holidays may be getting to me, to be honest. On the one hand, I want my family and friends to know I appreciate their awesomeness.  On the other hand, why do we have to wait for December to give these gifts?  With my best friend, we give stuff to each other all the time, and honestly? It's pretty awesome. It just feels more genuine when I show up at her place and say "surprise!" than needing to give a gift on X day, no matter what.

3) The P in WIP.  So I've definitely made progress on my swimmer story. I'm liking it, but it needs some tweaking. I'm not yet at the sexytimes part, but I think I've set the stage, so to speak.  

Separately, though, I've been making P on another thing. Specifically, I had a brainspaz for a short peek into Brad and Cam's holiday with the Hunters. Yes, a Man-to-Man Coverage Christmas! So I started writing it. Tuesday night.Well, Wednesday morning. At 3:30AM. It'll be a little glimpse into their holiday season, and I hope to have it to you all soon!

Pecking away at her little keyboard,

NJ

Inveterate Romance Seeker

Just a quick post to confess to something most people might not know about me "in real life."

I am an inveterate romance seeker.

Since childhood, I have always focused on the romance of a story, whether it was the classic Disney retelling of Beauty & the Beast or reading about Elizabeth and Todd in the Sweet Valley High series.  Now, in adulthood, this interest has manifested itself in my genre of choice: romance.

Available on the Starz website.

Something happened recently that caught my attention and really drilled home how much romance is at the center of what I seek out in my stories. I began watching the Starz show Spartacus, and even though the blood and gore are truly not to my tastes, I found myself watching the first two seasons straight through in the span of one week. Indeed, I watched season two last night. As in....the whole thing, and thank goodness I'm not working because I made it to bed at *cough cough* four AM *cough cough*. What's funny to me, though, is I now recognize that, in retrospect, my enjoyment of the series definitely increased the moment there appeared to be a potential romance in the works.

Don't get me wrong - there was a reason I was watching it in the first place. I was initially drawn by the promise of bare chests and thick, steely man-thighs. Duh.  Yes, I have no shame, and I freely admit it.  However, to be honest, I was almost completely turned off by the gore and extreme violence that were in the first episodes in ABUNDANCE. Once the hint of romance came onto the scene, though, I was sold.

I was especially gratified by season two's romancing.  There's an adorable and sweet (m/m!) romance between Agron, one of the gladiators, and Nasir, one of the liberated slaves. There are just little tastes of them throughout the season - you know, just enough to make me want more more more! :) Luckily, I discovered that there are also really adorable fan sites like this Tumblr and wonderful YouTube videos dedicated to this budding romance. Their soft glances sprinkled in amongst the blood, violence, and hard living gave me hope and helped me believe that there really was a human element beyond just war and battles.

Now, I don't have Starz, but I just might have to find someone who does so that I can get my fix of them - I mean *ahem* this show *ahem* - when season three premieres in January 2013! For now, I'll just have to make do with YouTube and hrm...I'm sure there's some slashy stuff written on them somewhere... ;)

Hitting "repeat" on the Nagron YouTube videos,
NJ

Three Things for Thursday, 12/06/12

Ahhhh!!! It's December already!

1) Things to Come.  December??? What??? Holy smokes, where has the year gone, everyone?? Well, I have my update for today, and I'll have one for next week, I promise! With my upcoming holiday travels, though, I'm going to be entering The Dark Zone. There's no internet at my parents' place *gasp*, so I'll be radio silent for a while. Yes, it'll be like an addict who's gone cold turkey. *deep breaths*

But fear not!

I'm testing out the "schedule a post" option and *knocks on wood* will be posting a couple of updates on topics of...SUPER interest.  I actually drafted one already about which I am muy excited. I hope you guys like it. Let's just say...my WIP right now includes a half-Asian character, and I haven't seen many Asians out there in romance. *wiggles eyebrows*

2) NYPL Holiday Open House.  This weekend I attended the New York Public Library's Holiday Open House for donors to the library. I didn't know what to expect, but I was impressed in the end by the sheer joy I felt in the air and the friendly people I met there. One really interesting exhibit that they currently have at the main library is called "Lunch Hour," and it explores anything and everything to do with the lunch hour, from power lunches to authentic automats to delis to the origins of sushi in NYC. It was really an awesome exhibit, and it's free at the main library until Feb. 17, 2013. I highly recommend it if you're in the area!

3) Ladies love Letterman.  Yesterday I went to the taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. It wasn't my first time attending a TV taping, but it was still a cool experience.  Also, to think that the Beatles debuted on that stage is pretty amazing. :)

On a writing note, I'm still not done with my WIP, but I'm making progress. That arbitrary due date helped light a fire, and I hope to have it to my friend soon for a second pair of eyes. *crosses fingers and toes*

Have a wonderful week, folks!

Embracing the holiday spirit,
NJ

Three Things for Thursday, 11/29/12

Here's what I'm thinking about this Thursday (and for the past week!):

1) WIP Progress: Also known as "How Nico got her groove back!" Yesssss. I have a WIP, and I am psyched about it.  After almost two months of little to no progress on the college boy WIP (they just weren't speaking to me), I started a new WIP maybe two weeks ago.  I was making little to no progress on that one, too, until this weekend, when I brilliantly set myself an arbitrary deadline. Because those work so well, you know. But it did this time! I'm aiming to finish a first draft by the end of this month. Yes, that means by Saturday. Realistically, I think this could translate to finishing the relationship-building up to the actual sexytimes, but still...this is progress! This is grooving! This is groooooovy! Yes, I'm excited, and it's worthy of exclamation points.

The true culprit in my non-progress up til now? The internet.  The above cartoon depicts this perfectly.

The experiment: I turned off my wireless, and apparently I write around 150-200 words for every 10 minutes without wireless.  That's kind of amaze-balls for this notoriously glacially slow writer.  So I've decided I must go live in a cave that miraculously has power outlets.  Yes, yes I must.

So, yes, I've written around 4000 words in the last two days. Let me repeat: this is amaze-balls for me.

I am psyched and cannot wait to get Tomas and Derek's tale on the page. They are awesomesauce and a whole bag of chips.

2) Nico the Feline.  I'm totally sad-panda-ing over bringing Nico back home for the holidays.  First there's the stress of air travel with a kitty who loves being in his homebase so much that he hardly even brings himself to walk down the hallway outside my apartment.  Most of all, though, it's the super sadness I'm feeling over leaving him in San Francisco for six months with my parents while I (1) study for the California bar exam, (2) travel around, and (3) figure out logistics for moving back in June.  I know it's better for him than having to continue finding sitters or boarding him, and I definitely know it's better than having to stress him out by having him be smack in the middle of a cross-country move.  Nonetheless, I'm experiencing separation anxiety already...and he's not even gone yet!

3) California Bar Exam.  Ugh. Yep, I signed up to take it. Not thrilled about this prospect, but I determined in the end that I should do it "just in case."  It's a rather expensive endeavor, but law school and six years of lawyering were a rather significant portion of my life thus far.  It would make sense at least to be able to practice in California by having the California bar exam under my belt. So, yes, I ordered some study materials, and I'll be doing this thing. Wish me luck!

3.5) An extra random thought: Drag Queen Bingo!  I went to bingo night hosted by drag queens earlier this week. It was unabashedly ridiculous and also ridiculously awesome. :)

My feelings...they are a-jumble, but yay for WIP progress and (fictional) boys who are talking to me!

Thrilled to be typing away about her swimmer and the object of his affection,
NJ

My hands have been very busy.

Being crafty...like a fox. Rowr.

I've been very hands-on since funemployment began. Baking, cooking, and...crafts!

What happens when it's midnight and I have pliers and a paperclip in hand?

Yup...this is what happens. Thanks to inspiration from the I Spy DIY blog, I now have a cute little heart ring on my finger.

In addition to that, I also have supplies for bracelet (and other jewelry) making and my previous new find of needle felting to keep me occupied in the crafty way. Needle felting, by the way, is totally awesome. I repaired holes in my cashmere sweater and also created adorable little heart-shaped elbow patches. So easy and so quick! I highly recommend it. :)

I have two thoughts about this recent explosion in craftiness on my part:

1) Lawyering and being a legal eagle was stifling my creative side to such an extreme extent that I now feel this subconscious need to compensate for that lost time. At the end of the day, being behind a desk and working on docs and agreements didn't necessarily produce anything substantive or tangible. Don't get me wrong - I'm not putting down lawyering.  However, it's impossible to wear an agreement or accessorize with a private equity fund memorandum. There's no getting around that  Doing crafts and creating things with my hands is just much more satisfying to that part of me that needed to produce something physical from all of my effort.

2) Crafting has, unfortunately, also been accompanied by a massive case of writer's block. Boooooooo. Perhaps there's a parallelism to my above thought number 1 because with writing I'm also sitting in front of a computer versus physically using my hands and materials to create something fun and tangible.  Regardless of the reason, though, it's immensely frustrating. I recently started a second story, so I have two WIPs now. However, I haven't made much progress on either of them, and I really need to focus. Basically, I can't seem to sit still because, now that I think about it, my reading has also really tapered off in the last two months.

So...yes.

Being crafty like a fox is, on the one hand, awesome because I get to make cool stuff like my paperclip ring, and my friends will get handmade jewelry as little presents from yours truly. It is also, on the other hand, super frustrating because I can't seem to focus myself so that I sit down and flesh out what I have in mind for the boys in my stories. I'm quite torn because I have this desire to be creative; it's just not creative in the writing sense right now. I've just been going with the flow since this started with funemployment nearly two months ago, but wow...it's pretty much a writer's block the size of Stonehenge at this point. *cringes*

Anyone have any ideas for how to kick this writing slump while still feeding my thirst to get hands-on creative nowadays?

Trying to find a balance between using her hands for creating crafts versus stories,
NJ

Three Things for Thursday, 11/22/12 (Thanksgiving Edition)

Happy Thanksgiving! Three things on my mind for this fabulous Thanksgiving 2012:

1) Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, it bears mentioning again. :D This morning I woke up early to check out the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A humongous Hello Kitty floated by, and I couldn't stop smiling.

This was the second time I stayed here in NYC for Thanksgiving. Back in 2007, I stayed here and hosted an "if you have nowhere to go, come by!" gathering that ended up stuffing twelve people into my teeny tiny NYC apartment. I even roasted a turkey and everything. :) This year, I kept it low key, but still had two friends stop by to hang out and eat food with me. It was chill, and the adage that time flies by when you're having fun definitely held true.

2) I'm thankful for...   Every day I'm thankful for my family and friends who bring joy to my life. This year in particular, though, I'm specifically thankful for opportunity. My life has been filled with opportunities for which I'm grateful because, regardless of which direction I've taken, I've met wonderful people and experienced rewarding things that have helped me to develop into the person I am today. Right now, I'm thankful to have the opportunity (both temporally and monetarily) to take this time away from lawyering to explore other interests and life in general on my own time and terms.

3)  Turkey.  Just a random thought, but as far as my memory goes, this is the first year I haven't had turkey on Thanksgiving. I purchased a whole roast duck from Chinatown, so some poultry was consumed, but alas...not turkey.  Here's the turkey I roasted back in 2007:

More blog posting to come later this week (i.e., before the next Thursday update). I have some other stuff to say (I know - *gasp!*), but not right now. Right now I just want to rest with my cozy little food coma. :)

Patting her belly and smiling like the Cheshire Cat,
NJ