Leavin' the Laptop Behind

As promised, Korea pics! I left the laptop behind for the first time ever, but apparently I did not leave the guilt. I THOUGHT I had, since I made a conscious decision to make the Korea trip a total writing vacation. But then, as I was window shopping in Insadong, Seoul, I saw this:



I'm sure it says "Starbucks", but the instant I saw it, a little voice in my head translated it to, "Why are you shopping when you should be writing? In here? With a venti nonfat latte nearby and oodles of words flying onto the page?"

But since I refuse to write by hand (it's completely illegible, even to me), and the laptop was a few thousand miles away, I marched right down the street and plunked down some Korean Won for a funky green pot to put on my desk. Then the next day, I visited the DMZ, which I highly recommend doing if you're ever in South Korea. It is the ultimate way to NOT think about whatever writing/cleaning/other project you should be doing.

Other trip highlights: Visiting three different Buddhist temples (one at 4 am so I could be there when the monks rang the morning bells), three different palaces, and two local markets (mostly so I could check out the food, which is sold by friendly people like this):



The highlight of the trip, however, was completely unexpected. While walking in Namdaemun Market, I was approached by a group of teenage boys who begged me to take a picture with them. So I did!



Yep, I'm the blonde one. Also, the only one not wearing Converse. Go figure!

Unfortunately, I came home to Fenway Park and witnessed a nasty game three playoff loss to the Devil Rays. Fenway sure didn't feel like Fenway with the Sox struggling from the get-go (even with the smell of Dunkin' Donuts coffee and Fenway Franks in the air.)

Here's hoping they can rally in game five tonight!

Lucky Seven

Game seven ROCKED. Got there early for batting practice, watched former Boston Red Sox player Trot Nixon (now a Cleveland Indian) hit, then talk with Peter Gammons.



Took some shots early in the game...first, of Kevin Youkilis prepping to smack one with Dustin Pedroia on first base, then a shot of Jacoby Ellsbury on third, waiting for the signal to go home.




Unfortunately, the camera battery went before Jonathan Papelbon stood on the pitcher's mound and poured his beer all over the AL Championship trophy after the Red Sox won 11-2. Maybe it's best not to immortalize that moment, anyway.

Made it home just before two a.m., then got up and made a run at buying Rockies tickets for one of the games at Coors Field. No dice...the system crashed. (There go two hours of my productive work time!) I'll try again when they re-post the tickets at noon. Wish me luck!

I think I'm in baseball heaven. I'll be at Fenway for game one on Wednesday night, then head to Seattle for a large group booksigning on Saturday night. If you're in the Seattle area, please hop on over to Bellevue and introduce yourself! There will be many, many authors signing their books, including Julia Quinn, Stella Cameron, Cherry Adair, Elizabeth Boyle, Jane Porter, and a slew of others.

A Grand Slam Kind of Day

Oh, happy day!

On the writing front, I've just about wrapped up a new proposal for a YA novel. I'll be sending it to my agent early this week. As soon as I can share more details, I'll post them to my website. At the moment, I'll just say that it's a comedy, I've LOVED writing it so far, and it's set in eastern Nebraska.

In other news, as I've mentioned before, my husband and I have Red Sox season tickets, but they're split six ways. (In other words, we get to attend--roughly--every sixth game.) During the playoffs, we have a draft for the tickets. Instead of drafting games, we draft seats. (For instance, "I want seat number two to ALCS game one.")

As his first pick, my husband drafted a seat to game one of the World Series, which is great if Boston makes the Series, not so great if they don't. As his second and third picks, he drafted both seats to game seven of the ALCS. Again, risky, because who knows if they'll make the ALCS, let alone whether it'll go the full seven games. (His final pick was one seat to game five of the division series...a game that was never played.)

Well...guess what? Since Curt Schilling and J.D. Drew had phenomenal performances at Fenway last night, the ALCS is going to game seven...and so am I!

Never would have predicted that a J.D. Drew grand slam would do it, but whaddya know? If you're a member of Red Sox Nation, you just gotta believe.

Tonight's prediction: Sox take it 8-3.

Writing Emergency

I was scanning the shelves at Target (again) today, hoping they'd received a new shipment of Diet Cherry Coke. Just as I was about to give up, the Coke Man (in a spiffy red polo with the Coca-Cola logo) showed up to restock. I asked about the Diet Cherry Coke, and he informed me that it is, in fact, a seasonal item and no longer being stocked. Ditto the Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.

I think this constitutes a writing emergency. How is it possible that I've never noticed this before? I wrote all through last winter with a fridge full of Diet Cherry Coke! Were my local stores stocking old soda or something?

I'd lobby Coke for a change, but if ever a company was too big to listen to one squawking author, Coke is it. If anyone has a Diet Cherry Coke source, let me know. I'm finishing up a new proposal, and it calls for Diet Cherry Coke fuel. There's an autographed book in it for you if your suggestion works!

In other emergency news, the Sox had better step it up tonight. Otherwise, my dream of seeing my two favorite teams in the World Series--the Red Sox in the A.L. and the Rockies in the N.L.--is over. (Paging Josh Beckett...tonight would be a great time to pull off a no-hitter!)



Red Sox Nation should quit listening to the pessimists on WEEI 850 and let Manny be Manny and say whatever he wants; a lot of baseball is a mind game, and comments like Manny's are expected. (Come on, does anyone really think Manny's given up? I don't.) What matters is rocking tonight's game at Jacobs Field, not what anyone says or does off the field.

I'm planning to TiVO both Survivor and Ugly Betty so I don't miss a single pitch of tonight's game. Let's go, Sox! I'll be nursing my VERY LAST Diet Cherry Coke while I watch.

Weekend in Denver

Remember how I said tickets on Stubhub to the Rockies NLCS games at Coors Field were so much less expensive than trying to get seats to see the Red Sox here at Fenway? Well....I ended up cashing in the frequent flyer miles, hitting up my parents for a place to stay (thanks, Mom & Dad!) and flying to Colorado to see Sunday night's game three. Total cost, including four tickets thirty-one rows behind the Rockies dugout, road tolls and airport parking? About $900. An equivalent seat at Fenway--one seat--will set you back the same amount or more.

As you might guess, I had a blast. Took this shot of the water-soaked field between innings with my cell phone, as the grounds crew worked to add layers of dry dirt to the base paths:



They did a great job given the constant rain. I lucked out, seating-wise. We were exactly two rows under the awning. The D-back fans two rows in front of us got soaked, we stayed (mostly) dry. My flight home yesterday got me in at 12:33 ET, meaning I had to race home to see the bottom of the eighth and top of the ninth inning of game four...and wow, was it worth it! Any team that can win twenty-one out of twenty-two games deserves to go to the big show. On top of that, they won an amazing seven straight postseason games, have a likely Rookie of the Year in Troy Tulowitzki, a possible Cy Young winner in Jeff Francis, and a (please, please, please) National League MVP in Matt Holliday.

Congrats, Rockies! Can't wait to see the World Series played in Colorado (hopefully without snow!)

Two Interviews, A Website, and Those Yankees

I'll attack the last part first. I saw a news poll on one of Boston's television stations yesterday afternoon that said 71% of Red Sox fans wanted to have the Sox face the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series, rather than face the New York Yankees. After last night's game, they're getting their wish. But I have to wonder why they felt this way. IMO, either team would be tough. I was just hoping the series between the Yankees and the Indians would go the full five games so the advancing team would be tired before arriving in Boston.

Last StubHub check: cheapest tix to the Boston/Cleveland game are running $293 for the nosebleed section of the bleachers. A good seat near the action is running $2718.

On the other hand, the cheapest tix to the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks first playoff game start at $40. Not great seats, but still. What a price differential. I think I could almost get the airfare out west and a game ticket for what it'd cost me to get one ticket to see the Sox. Insane.

However, I have tres coolio news! First, I e-mailed the revisions on my upcoming novella, Last Stand, to my editor this morning. (Did ya hear the woot-woot sounds?! LOVE when I have a project wrapped!)

Second, Joy Siegel of Working Palms Radio Magazine in South Florida has asked to do an interview with me. It will air down there on the following stations:

WLVJ - 1040AM
WFTL - 850AM
WMEN - 640AM
WFLL - 1400AM

As soon as I know the exact dates and times, I'll post 'em here. I'm also doing an interview with the fantastic Cynthia Leitich Smith for her popular Cynsations blog. Again, as soon as I know the exact date the interview goes live, I'll post it here.

Speaking of live, you've gotta check out Lynda Sandoval's new website, which re-launched today. I think it's one of the best I've ever seen. (And if you haven't read Lynda's books yet--either for teens or for adults--you're missing out.)



And a P.S.: Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me to tell me that Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper IS a seasonal release (I'll stock up next year!) and that Diet Cherry Coke is not. I'll go hunting for that Diet Cherry Coke now and hope they don't replace it with Cherry Coke Zero, which is way too sweet for me.

The Dangers of Salad Dressing

I spent the last forty-five minutes or so sweeping out and then vacuuming my garage. I'm a neat freak (as you may know from past blog posts) but not to the extent that I vacuum my garage. The only garages that should be vacuumed are those that are more like car museums (think Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey.) My garage is of the standard cement-floor, stuffed-with-sports-equipment variety. Worthy of the occasional broom cleaning, but not vacuuming. Not until this morning.

Tip: When taking salad dressing bottles to the recycling bin in the garage, be careful not to drop them. The glass goes EVERYWHERE. Under the car, into shoes, you name it. I managed to drop not one, but two glass bottles. I swept out the glass the best I could, then vacuumed. I got most of it before I backed out the car (thinking, please, please, do not let me have missed any glass under the tires) then swept and vacuumed some more.

So much for saving time by carrying as many bottles and cans as possible.

I suspect it's because last night I uttered a sentence that's never before passed my lips. I actually said, "Both the Rockies and the Red Sox won their playoff games!" Jeff Francis had an outstanding outing against the Phillies and the Red Sox pitcher, Josh Beckett, threw a shutout against the Angels.



It's giving me a spooky feeling, like something really, really bad is about to happen...I'm not used to having both my teams win, let alone win in the playoffs.

Wonder if this means I'm going to end up with flat tires tomorrow, thanks to the glass in the garage? Something's gotta give.

On another baseball topic: For those who're interested in the finances behind professional sports, I came across this article on CNN Money about how much teams stand to lose financially when their teams are expected to make the playoffs, but don't. Somehow, I doubt Mets ticket sales drop off drastically in 2008. Mets fans are die-hards.

Rock Me, Baby!

Most writers say their happiest days are those when a new book hits the shelves. Not me. I'm all about the day I turn in a book to my editor. Today's one of those days. (Happy, happy, joy, joy!) This latest is a novella titled "Last Stand" that will appear in a collection called Breaking Up (Is Hard To Do) . The other stories are by Ellen Hopkins, Lynda Sandoval, and Terri Clark. Needless to say, knowing the story's now in my editor's hands has put me in a fabulous mood.

Now, to do my usual post-deadline routine: clean the house, get a haircut, and work off the snack food consumed at my desk over the last couple of weeks. I'm also off and running on a new book, set at a high school in the central U.S. It's a project I'm excited about, so I'll be posting more on that another day.

The other thing making me over-the-moon happy today, aside from the fact it's a mere thirty days until Halloween: The Colorado Rockies. They played a fantastic game against the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday at Coors Field to finish the season dead even with the San Diego Padres. The game was actually on television at my house (go figure!) I was jumping up and down yelling every time the Rockies got a hit or made an out. When they got the final out, I cheered so loud I think I scared the dog.



The Rockies' win forces a one-game playoff (tonight at 7:35 ET on TBS) to see which team will grab the final playoff spot in the National League. I predict the Rockies win it, 7-5. They've been on an upswing, winning 13 of their last 14 games to get to this tiebreaker, while the Padres are 8-6 over the last 14.

But we'll see...I'm no sportscaster, just a writer in a good mood.

Eleven

When I talk baseball, it's usually about the Boston Red Sox. It's natural, since I live in Boston and have season tickets (they're split with friends, though, or I'd be broke.) Plus, there's always plenty to write about the Sox. But my National League team is the Colorado Rockies. I can't watch them on television here in Boston (grrrrrr) but every night for the last month, while I've been typing away on the novella I have due on Sept. 30, I've had the ESPN live baseball scoreboard running in the background, letting me keep track of how my Rockies are doing. I've been cheering each run scored, hoping against hope that they'd stay above .500.

Now, not only are they going to finish the season well above .500, they just won their eleventh game in a row and are just-this-close to grabbing a spot in the playoffs. I'll be watching their remaining games closely...if they sweep the Diamondbacks, they'll either clinch a postseason berth or will have to play a tiebreaking game. I predict their win streak goes from eleven to fourteen, but even if it doesn't, I've loved watching them this summer. They've beaten preseason predictions (Google the words "national league 2007 preview" -- without the quotes -- and you'll see what I mean), and they and continue to ignore naysayers to play good, solid, optimistic ball.

There's always one team to watch during the last week of the regular season. This year, I'm thrilled that it's the Colorado Rockies.