Jennifer Labrecque

Wednesday, March 22nd

Inspiration

One of the questions I'm asked most frequently is where I get my ideas. Sometimes it's an overheard snippet of conversation, a movie scene, a magazine article, or a picture such as this....

This inspires me to write. It fires my imagination to fill in the blanks. It tells me nothing but leaves me yearning to know where he is, where he came from, where he's going, what happened immediately before this moment, what will happen next.

In actuality, it's a lovely ad for American Express but it literally captured my imagination and took my breath when I saw it. Well, maybe the breathless business was because Ken Watanabe is so incredible. That bone structure...that mouth...he even has beautiful hands....

wow2 (84k image)

Jennifer on 03.22.06 @ 08:46 AM EST [Entry Link] [3 Comments]

Tuesday, March 21st

New Cover

Whaddaya think? Cute, huh? Even if I am the fat fish.... smile

3guyscover (78k image)

Jennifer on 03.21.06 @ 07:24 AM EST [Entry Link] [6 Comments]

Monday, March 20th

Painting and Poetry

This is the painting, reproduction of course, that hangs in my hero's bedroom -- well, the hero in my wip. smile

corregio2 (60k image)

Leda and the Swan
by William Butler Yeats

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By his dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
How can anybody, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins, engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Jennifer on 03.20.06 @ 09:11 AM EST [Entry Link] [3 Comments]

Sunday, March 19th

Choices

There are seven opened boxes of cereal in the pantry. Seven. This makes me crazy. I could see three, possibly four, but seven? Two months from now I will throw out at least 5 of those half-eaten boxes that have gone stale. Only one of those is my cereal. It will not go stale. The rest belong to my dh. He brings them home. He opens them. He only eats half of them. He leaves them there for perpetuity. If the cupboard gets too full of cereal boxes he leaves them on the counter. The question begs asking: How many choices does he need?

Current cereal choices at chez LaBrecque:

Eggo Maple Syrup Cereal
Golden Crisp
Resses Puffs
Marshmallow Mania
Toasted Honey Crunch
Captain Crunch
Organic Zen Cranberry/Orange

That's it! I've had enough...enough I tell you. I can't live this way any more. Tomorrow I'm contacting my attorney. shocked I'm going to narrow his choices to two -- me or all those cereals. crazy I think he'll miss me more than he realizes. big grin

Jennifer on 03.19.06 @ 09:00 AM EST [Entry Link] [4 Comments]

Saturday, March 18th

Blame it on Rhonda...and Play the "Four" Game

Blame it on Rhonda Nelson, brilliant Blaze author, fellow BentQuillPosse rabblerouser, and general good friend. She "tagged" me yesterday on her blog to play the "Four" game by saying some really nice things about me. Hmmm...I think she tagged me because she knows I'm a sucker for things like this. Of course, the instigator for Rhonda's participation was the inimitable Kris Starr.

I will forewarn you, as Rhonda did, that you may find out more than you want to know...

Four Jobs you’ve had in your life:

1) Waitress at Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Que. When I got the job one of my brothers said, "You're way too bitchy to be a waitress." He was right.

2) Olan Mills Portrait Studio Telemarketer. Yes, I confess. I was one of those hated telemarketers who called while you were trying to cook dinner, let the dog out and change the baby's diaper after you got home from a full day at the office. Sorry. I'm not proud...I needed to eat and pay the bills.

3) Sex T.A. I was the teacher's assistant for a psych professor's class on human sexuality. The boys in Pi Kappa Alpha dubbed me the sex t.a. smile

4) Merchandiser for The Athelete's Foot corporate stores. Hated the number crunching...loved the travel.

Four movies you would watch over and over again:

1) Sabrina with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormand, and Greg Kinnear. And I have watched it over and over and over...

2) Lonesome Dove. What? You mean it's over after only six hours. It can't be over!

3) The Full Monty.

4) Romancing the Stone

Four TV shows you love to watch:

Much as in real life, I can’t just answer a question. I always have some goofy story to go with it or some qualifier, but I’ll say there are lots of shows I think I’d like to watch. I saw Everybody Loves Raymond once and thought it was really funny. I think I’d like some of those crime dramas like CSI and Bones. I’m pretty sure I would’ve liked Sex in the City (or is it Sex and the City?). On the other hand I’m so sure I would hate The OC and Desperate Housewives. But I don’t know any of this for sure because the t.v. just never really works out for me. It’s a combination of other people in charge of the remote…programming having to be age-appropriate for a kid…books to be read…a resistance to arranging my life around a specific television show at a specific time. But one day I’m going to watch more t.v. I always feel culturally illiterate when people are discussing all these programs. Really….makes me feel inadequate. Damages my psyche.

1) The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (or it may be Mandy and Billy – I also have a tendency to screw up titles). Love this cartoon. Grim is the Grim Reaper who takes up residence with these two kids. Billy is gross and stupid. Mandy is smart and snarky...and never smiles. I love Mandy.

2) Keeping Up Appearances. I only get to see it when I visit my parents because no one in my house likes it except me and I forget it’s on when I’m at home anyway.

3) How Do I Look?

4) Animal Planet, Discover, History channel

Four places you’ve been on vacation:

1) Alaska

2) Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria (I should tell you the story of the dh and I bumbling into an international arms summit and finding ourselves facing soldiers with their M16’s trained on us. Well, perhaps another time…but they sent us on our way, having decided we were too pathetically stupid to be terrorists.)

3) Mexico a couple of times, once for a month.

4) West Indies

Four websites you visit daily:

1) readrhondanelson.com

2) tarot.com

3) my bank account because it’s always so dismally low. sad

That’s it. Can’t come up with a fourth.

Four of your favorite foods:

This is tough. I like food. I take my food seriously (just ask Rhonda). And I haven't had breakfast yet, so I'm hungry and the things that sound good and I like are tough to narrow down to four, but I'll give it a shot.

1) Cheese. Almost any kind except for nasty, slimy processed American cheese. Wait, that’s good too when it’s melted and has sausage and a can of Rotel dumped in and you eat it with nacho chips.

2) Sea bass with mango salsa

3) Warm crusty rosemary bread dipped in olive oil with fresh-ground pepper

4) Figs when you pick them off the tree and they're warm from the sun and you eat them standing there

Four places you’d rather be right now:

1) Baja

2) Costa Rica

3) Ireland/Scotland

4) Fiji

Yes, with the exception of Ireland/Scotland, there's a pattern there. wink And this list could go on and on and on as well.

Four friends you are tagging who you think will respond:

This is a problem…if I only had four friends…wait, how about YOU? big grin

Jennifer on 03.18.06 @ 09:50 AM EST [Entry Link] [3 Comments]

Friday, March 17th

Top 'o the Day to You

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Girl and I are both wearing our $5 Irish t-shirts from Tar-get today. big grin Even though my last name is now LaBrecque and it's truly lovely -- I married into that French-Canadian name and can't claim any roots there. Nope. I'm English and Irish. My mother's people came from Ireland in 1692 and landed in Charleston. They came as indentured servants. (Her cousin, who has now passed, spent years researching this and putting together a book--it's very cool.)

This evening we're joining two other families for a dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. My contribution is a couple of Irish cheeses, Killians, Harps, and dessert. I made this dessert last year and it was apparently a hit because our hostess requested it again this year. Sinfully easy and pretty tasty, I pulled it off the Internet from MasterCook. I'm taking two over.

Bailey's Chocolate Mousse Pie

6 oz Ready Crust (chocolate or graham)
1 env unflavored gelatine
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c milk
3/4 c Bailey's Irish Cream
6 oz semisweet choc chips
2 c frozen whipped topping
Chocolate-dipped strawberries (optional)
Whipped cream

In saucepan, sprinkle unflavored gelatine over milk. Let stand about 1 min. Stir over low heat til gelatine is dissolved, about 5 mins. Add chocolate and continue cooking, stirring constantly until choc is melted. Stir in vanilla. Remove from heat and stir occasionally. Add Bailey's about 5 mins later. When mixture mounds when dropped from a spoon, stir in whipped topping. Turn into crust. Chill at least 4 hours. Garnish with chocolate-dipped strawberries, if you like, and whipped cream.

This Irish blessing hung in my mother's kitchen for years:
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

And this wasn't in her kitchen, but I figure it's always useful to have an Irish curse on hand:
May those who love us love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we'll know them by their limping.

razz

Jennifer on 03.17.06 @ 09:58 AM EST [Entry Link]

Thursday, March 16th

This Too Shall Pass

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to blog this...but what the heck!

I'm in the awful place of feeling as if I can't write my way out of a paper bag. Every word is hard to come by and feels awkward. This is not a new phenomena and I know I'm not the only writer that goes through this -- of course the others perhaps don't share it with the world via cyberspace. sleepy

I'm going to do the only thing that I know to do -- I'm going to tell that nagging, hateful, insidious voice in my head that alternately whispers and shouts that I'm making a total hash of this...I'm going to tell it to shut-up...and I'm going to keep writing forward.

I AM NOT going to put back on my pajamas and watch The Constant Gardener or crawl back into bed and re-read Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels...because then I slip further behind, but more importantly, then that malicious voice has won.

In the words of Winston Churchill, "If you're going through hell, keep going."

This too shall pass.

Jennifer on 03.16.06 @ 09:55 AM EST [Entry Link]

Wednesday, March 15th

Spring Break Special

A visit to the ENT yesterday and we've got The Girl lined up to lose her tonsils and adenoids at the end of the month. She wasn't a particularly happy camper when she realized she'll spend Spring Break recovering and therefore won't miss an additional week of school. big grin Yes, she can thank the evil mommy for that. razz

Jennifer on 03.15.06 @ 02:26 PM EST [Entry Link]

Tuesday, March 14th

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Better

The latest craze in plastic surgery is...HTG, I kid you not...virginity restoration. Nose job? Boob job? Tummy tuck? Liposuction? Add one more option to the menu. Can you imagine the conversations?

Two Friends Shopping:

"I was thinking I wanted to give Jack something special for a wedding gift when we tie the knot next month. Didn't you have that virginity restoration done a couple of months ago?"

"Oh, girl! That's perfect. You've got to see my surgeon, Dr. Stitchittight. He does fabulous work."

-OR-

Cocktail Party:

"Hi. This is my husband Harry. He specializes in hymenal repair. Next month he's running a bogo -- buy one, get one free. Come in and bring a friend."

I could go on but I'll do us all a favor and stop. hehe Just sleep better tonight knowing that for 2-5 grand a pop (bad pun fully intended) you can sing right along with Madonna, Like a virgin, for the very first time....

Jennifer on 03.14.06 @ 08:52 AM EST [Entry Link]

Monday, March 13th

Secrets to a Full and Happy Life

1. If you are in a hotel room and have put lotion on your hands and can't unscrew the screw top on your mini-bottle of merlot/cab blend travel wine (travel wine being the only acceptable reason for wine with a screw top), don't despair. A mini-pad works like a charm. Pull off the adhesive backing and wrap it around the top portion of the screw top. (Don't wrap it too far down or you'll just have a bottle of wine decked out in a mini-pad.) Voila. Pour and enjoy. Not particularly elegant, but very effective. big grin

2. On a warm day when you've worked up a sweat doing yard work, a Girl Scout thin mint along with an ice cold beer is wonderful. And if your husband says you're embarrassing him guzzling a beer from the bottle in the front yard of your suburban neighborhood, pleasantly invite him to join you in a little spring yard clean-up.

Okay, so maybe I exaggerated a little and these aren't necessarily secrets to a full and happy life, but they sure do feel good for about fifteen minutes. big grin

Jennifer on 03.13.06 @ 08:58 AM EST [Entry Link]

Sunday, March 12th

Back Home

Back from chaperoning The Girl's choir group to North Carolina. Really a great trip. Nice group of kids and adults (other chaperones/conductor/accompanist).

High point of the trip: Listening to the performance. Lovely.

Second high point of the trip: The Westin's heavanly bed.

Low point of the trip: Mall shopping with 6 girls to keep up with.

THEM:
"Can we go to the Loius Vuitton shop? I want to see what new purses they have in."
"I want to go to Hollister!"
"I need to go to the Apple store, so they can look at my ipod."
"But American Eagle is this way."
"Oh, I just have to go in this shop...."
"Can we go to Loius Vuitton now?"
"How much is that book bag? Only $80. That's not bad."
Squeal. "Oh, I just love Steve Madden shoes."
"Starbucks is down at that end."

ME:
"What time is the bus picking us up?"

Yesterday, we cut the museum visit short and one of my little shopaholic charges came up with the following:

"Mrs. LaBrecque, do you think since we're leaving early we can stop at the outlet mall on the way home?"

"Only if they stop the bus on a bridge first...so I can jump."

Jennifer on 03.12.06 @ 12:29 PM EST [Entry Link]

Thursday, March 9th

Road-tripping with Loretta Chase

This evening, me, The Girl, and Loretta Chase are gonna catch a bus for Charlotte...along with 33 other kids and only a handful of adults. shocked Girl is part of a professional children's choir and they're traveling to Charlotte for a performance tomorrow. I'm chaperoning. Let me take a moment to be a proud Mama and say that this group is amazing. They sing in English, Latin, Italian, French, Gaelic, and Creole and it's just beautiful.

Loretta Chase? She's coming along in the form of her latest release -- Lord Perfect. big grin She's one of my absolutely favorite writers -- oh, to be able to write like her. Lord of Scoundrels -- Brilliant. It couldn't possibly be better timing for her newest novel to be out. Four to five hours on a bus? Prime reading time. smile Can't think of a better travel companion than Loretta Chase. I'm also taking along two partials that I'm critiquing for a workshop and my own wip, but I'll save those for the trip back. hehe

Jennifer on 03.09.06 @ 09:44 AM EST [Entry Link]

Wednesday, March 8th

And I Thought it was Just Me

Excerpt from TAKE JOY: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO LOVING THE CRAFT by Jane Yolen:

Anthony Burgess once said that the dream seldom survives the first paragraph.
And Edith Wharton, quoting an old French proverb, worte, "I dream of an eagle, I give birth to a hummingbird."
All writing is about that gap -- no, that chasm -- between expectation and final product. A veritable Grand Canyon, it is the very thing that induces writer's block.
I say that we writers should just expect that disappointment, not be surprised by it. Expect it, sidestep it, move on.

Jennifer on 03.08.06 @ 09:59 AM EST [Entry Link]

Tuesday, March 7th

Sick -- Again

Girl is sick with strep...again. Certainly not her fault but frustrating nonetheless. Two days out of school. Two nights of not being able to sleep because her throat is so sore and she can't breathe through her nose. At 12:30 last night I'm stumbling through Wal-Mart in my pajamas, bedroom slippers, and a sweat shirt to get nose spray and mentholated bath salts -- it was as not pretty as it sounds, especially considering I was running on about 4 1/2 hours of sleep from the night before. Poor little punkin'. Poor not-so-little mommy who's now two days behind on her work. shocked We see the ENT next week. I'm thinking a tonsillectomy is just where we need to go for Spring Break. wink

Jennifer on 03.07.06 @ 11:07 AM EST [Entry Link]

Sunday, March 5th

How Do I Look

I don't watch much t.v. I'm not sure whether it's a matter of not feeling as if I have the time or preferring to read or maybe it's because the dh is usually commandeering the remote and we don't enjoy the same programming. That said, I have to confess that I love How Do I Look on Style channel.

I'm not sure why I like it so much. Maybe it's because the focus is on maximizing a person's potential. Maybe it's because there's always a happy ending big grin -- I have yet to see someone in the end who didn't look about a gazillion times better than they started out and more importantly you can see the increase in self-confidence.

Actually, I have a friend I'd like to nominate for the show. She's not gross or anything but she's been saying for about a year that she needs to update her look because she feels about 20 years out of fashion. Every time I suggest we go shopping, she bails. I think I scare her. confused But honestly, I'd respect her sense of style and not try to foist my own on her because we have distinctly different personalities. So, I've thought about calling her in but I'm not sure at all that she wouldn't be offended.

Me? I want someone to sign me up on that Make You Look 10 Years Younger show. big grin It'd even be worth the humiliation of having to stand in the middle of a sidewalk in a glass box while complete strangers guessed your age. hehe

Jennifer on 03.05.06 @ 10:08 AM EST [Entry Link]

Saturday, March 4th

Economics 101

Yesterday when The Girl got in the car from school:

Girl: Mom, what do we have going on this afternoon?

Me: (immediately wary) Not much. Why?

Girl: There's a sale at Hollister.

Me: Sorry. I don't have any money to go shopping.

Girl: But we had money to eat out.

Me: Be glad you had money to eat. We're not going shopping.

Girl: Don't you have your card?

Me: (She's talking about my debit card.) Sweetling, when you use that card, the money comes directly out of your account. If there's no money in the account, it doesn't work.

Girl: Oh.

Jennifer on 03.04.06 @ 08:23 AM EST [Entry Link]

Friday, March 3rd

Great Read, Bad Girl, Lousy Diction

Treat yourself and pick up a copy of Rita Herron's IN A HEARTBEAT. It's romantic suspense and Rita does an excellent job of blending a good romance with the creepy stuff. satisfied

Uh...where did this week go? My daughter's begun to taunt me by saying, "Wow, can you believe it's already Wednesday/Thursday/Friday?" That kid needs a good smacking.

And The Girl and I have been going around about the following. There's a song out with the refrain, "I think I'm gonna stick with you." Except they don't sing it that way. It comes out, "I think I'm gonna stick wit choo." I change the radio every time because I can't abide that "wit choo" business. Girl argues that it's just the fashion now. I argue that it's just deplorable and I can't listen to it. crazy Wit choo. I think I should respond with Gesundheit or something. Argh. It makes me shudder just to think about it. hehe

Jennifer on 03.03.06 @ 08:48 AM EST [Entry Link]

Thursday, March 2nd

The Great and the Not-So-Great

Yesterday was such a totally awesome day!! I met my cousin for lunch. I'm terrible with time lines and I'm not sure if it had been two years or three years since we last saw one another, but it had been too long. She's really lovely, both inside and out, and it was a pleasure spending time with her. Then The Girl and I met my friend and her two daughters for dinner last night. We hadn't seen them in...yikes...a couple of months...but it was fun and that's the great thing about old friends -- you can sit down with them and it's as if you just saw them yesterday. rolls eyes

Well, the not so awesome factor yesterday was my computer crashed and burned. shocked sad Thank goodness I'd emailed a backup of my current wip to my dh and at least have those files at my disposal and can work off of Girl's computer until I get mine fixed or a new one. My dh is pretty sure it's dead and I'm trying not to freak out over the thought of my hard drive not being recovered. Over three years worth of pictures on it. Books. My organizer with all of my addresses and phone numbers. Deep breath. Stay calm. Learn a lesson and back that stuff up. crazy

It must've just been a bad day for my personal technology because my cd player in my car fritzed out too yesterday. crying So, I'm about to log off of my borrowed computer and drive my car in. They'll give me a loaner but it's 45 minutes to the dealer. And then another 45 minutes back home. angry, grr An hour and a half shot. Then I've got to get myself set up on my borrowed computer. Girl won't be happy but I've got to move her desk. It's bad feng shui where it is now. Fine for her playing games on it but not good for my writing. confused

I hate things that muck with my schedule and this book is due next week. ACK! sleepy

Jennifer on 03.02.06 @ 08:40 AM EST [Entry Link]

Wednesday, March 1st

What a Relief!

Not that I periodically waste time by reading dumb articles or anything but...the caption cried out to me...What Real Women Drive. Let me first explain that I am a self-avowed car whore. I can't help myself. When I was a teen-ager other girls had posters of boys on their walls...not me. I had car posters. Sexy, European sports cars. And okay, one poster of Bruce Springsteen because what use is a sexy fast car without a bad-boy rebel to go with it. hehe Anyway...a couple of years ago I traded in the minivan that once upon a time I'd sworn I'd never drive for a car I really wanted. So, can you imagine my anxiety when I saw that caption? What if I was driving the wrong car? What if I wasn't a real woman? In an instant my entire female identity was tied up in my set o'wheels. Heart pounding, hands clammy, I hit enter on the link button and anxiously read forward. Whew! I sagged with relief. Yes, I AM a real woman. Thank God and the automotive industry! Right at the top of the list was my car -- a BMW 330i. big grin And BTW, most days, driving it is better than...well, most things. cool eh?

Jennifer on 03.01.06 @ 08:23 AM EST [Entry Link]

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