I Write with Cats.

{The Oldest Language}

§157 · March 2, 2010 · Did you know? · (No comments)

Sanskrit was a great answer, and some still argue that it is the reigning king of old languages, however, many scholars now point to language that I had never heard of until yesterday.

Tamil. It is widely believed to be at least 6,000 years old. Wow, and a written form to boot. It is related to languages that are considered Dravidian or proto-Dravidian…don’t get me started, because I got lost among all the references to guttural sounds etc. etc. and the many, many branches of the verbal family tree.

And I thought the old, old, English of Beowulf (the original, original that sounded half-German) was hard to follow.

Both Tamil and Sanskrit hail from India, so either way, they get the bragging rights.

Note: Some reports claim that Tamil has only 1500 years under its belt and is beaten out by another language called Kannada, found in Bangalore.

Whatever the case, I got what I needed for research, and am happy that I speak my mother tongue, good old (or rather, good new) English.

Back to work on love and murder,

Suza

{Deadlines and Home Invasions}

§155 · February 25, 2010 · Uncategorized · (No comments)

Wow, have I been out of touch with my blog or what? Two weeks have flown by, and here I am without an interesting tidbit. Unless you count the fact that the new “Karate Kid” movie features a boy who learns Kung Fu. Anybody else see the descrepancy there?

Can’t complain about how busy I’ve been, since the reason for my abscence can be summed up in a word. Deadlines. How sweet the sound! As a matter of fact, I’ve cleared the week to finish the first draft of one book so I can start on the next project. With my first release coming out in June or July, I have to get at it.

In lieu of the research trivia that seems to have gone over well with followers, I offer a cat story.

In the past two months the cats and I have suffered a home invasion. Make that multiple home invasions. By foreign cats.

Felines who are unknown to my kitties or myself. The problem is, I have a cat fence that keeps my lovelies safe in the yard and away from the cruel world. (Plus, they don’t leave paw-prints in neighbors’ cars. That makes people angry, and I know this from past experience.) So when a strange cat gets in, they can’t get back out.

The first time it happened, a beautiful long-haired tom, black, with white chest and paws, sought shelter from the pouring rain. He made the mistake of coming in the cat door, only to be greeted by my brood of 5, who were not happy with the uninvited guest. Needless to say, he ran back out, and only a little fur flew in the air. (Daisy, the bodyguard, doing her duty.)

After being chased out of the grill where he’d hidden(once the rain had stopped, because I’m not heartless) the cat came back two more times, making a total of 3 visits with the same scenario, due to his evident short-term memory, then he wised up and never came back.

Two nights ago, I was awakened by the scrambling noise of a crazy cat trying to find a way out of the fence and the growls of my 5 who were at the windows watching. (I’ve taken to closing the pet door at night with mine inside. Too risky to leave it open.)

Couldn’t believe my eyes. It was another cat entirely, and wild, wild, wild. Full black, a yearling, and probably just terrified to be trapped. So in my daze, because EVERY time, it happens between 4 and 6 a.m., I opened the fence gate and herded him out.

This morning, at 5:45, a little later than usual, there it was, the clawing of toenails on the fence, and Thomas O’Malley, who has had enough of this, by the way, standing at the door and chomping at the bit to get out. He normally lets Daisy do the dirty work, but even he realizes when a missive needs to be sent out to the area cats. Stay out of my yard!!!

And wonder of wonders, it was a new cat entirely, full white, young male. They’ve all been male, but anyway…

So now I have a problem. Evidently, they’re leaving a scent behind that’s got other cats curious when they pass by on their nightly strolls. I’ll have to figure out how to put a stop to it, maybe some wolf urine or whatever I can buy at a hunting store, right? And no, I have no females in heat here. Everybody in this household got fixed years ago. C’est la vie.

Well, that’s all for now, have to finish up that book. So excited about what’s happening and can’t wait to release. Funny, it’s been right at a year since I first set up the website, blog, etc. How much difference the last 11 months have made.

With love and murder,

Suza

{Food for Love}

§153 · February 8, 2010 · Did you know?, Ups n Downs · 1 comment

We’re all pretty familiar with the association between romance and certain foods. Champagne…chocolate…oysters. You see my meaning.

Throughout history food has been used as an aphrodisiac, and growing up, most girls were assured of the one and only true way to a man’s heart, right?

For the book I’m currently writing, I had to do a little research on the subject and have to say, it was quite intriguing. For a full list of the “love foods” I discovered, and a recipe or two to try for yourself, check out the next Love and Murder newsletter, due out on Feb. 12th.

On a personal note. Things are moving along quite well in my world, and frankly, I wish I could share it all right now!

But you know how I love suspense.

Have a Happy Happy Valentine’s Day, and for this one I’m signing off with just Love.

Suza

{I Dreamed of a…}

§150 · January 25, 2010 · Did you know? · 1 comment

…new house last night. I wanted the new house so badly that I cried.

So, the first thing I do after a dream as emotional as this is open the now yellowed pages of my dream interpretation book to see what ails my psyche. Don’t laugh or navigate away just, yet…this isn’t hocus-pocus but psychology, and I’ve found over the years that the book can be dead on.

Dreams are not always obvious, for example, dreaming of drowning can be about debt, a car represents your life and can be very enlightening if someone else is driving it in the dream. I once leaned over and started honking the horn because my father was driving my car and wouldn’t listen to me!

This morning I read that a house can represent a few things, and one of them is health. I focused in on this because, I’m dieting, of course, and also because of the room I focused on in the dream. The kitchen. This room might be about my spirit being fed : ) or my own need to be, and I quote, “more concerned about dietary habits.”

Blech. This interpretation was not so enlightening. I could have told you I needed to lose 10 pounds.

Or maybe I just want a bigger house. You know us writers. Never satisfied.

Well anyway, happy dreaming…

Suza

{I know I should…}

§148 · January 20, 2010 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

…be writing something interesting, because the last two blogs have been much more successful than normal.

But, today I’m feeling happily frustrated! I’m getting new fans on the fan page daily and many are asking where they can get my books. Happy!!!!

Frustrated : { I want to rush and get my first book out there and type, type, type, to get the current stuff done, but that would be a mistake. There is still editing to be done, and I want my “debut” to be a great one.

I’m still communicating with an editor and should be seeing publication of one or more projects sometime this year, but hello, it’s only January!

This blog is a plea. Hang in there. Stay in touch. The promises won’t be empty!

With love and murder,

Suza

{Secrets in Love Letters}

§140 · January 13, 2010 · Did you know? · (No comments)

As a fan of riddles, clues, and mysteries, I often stumble across interesting tidbits.

As a romance writer, I found this amusing.

Probable Words ( a decryption method)

When important messages are relayed, often unimaginative choice of words could give away the encryption, as specialists in the field of cryptography have amassed a set of most probable words as the nature of the message exhibits. For instance, in decoding love letters, frequency ordering looks for words such as ‘love, heart, fire, miss, life, light’ which are most frequently used. Hence it is important to rephrase messages before they are encrypted and transmitted.”

For more you can link to the following site:

http://library.thinkquest.org/27158/decipher.html

With love, murder, and secrets in mind,

Suza

{Her Majesty’s Official Site}

§137 · January 8, 2010 · Cats, Did you know? · 2 comments

Did you know the Islamic country of Jordan has a queen? And she’s gorgeous. And she bares her legs in public, the most surprising thing for me, considering the country is still largely Muslim. I guess that’s makes me a little prejudice, or in this case, I’d actually prefer to claim ignorance.

Either way…it’s an interesting tidbit I discovered while doing some research. I mean, I can’t have my character wear a short dress in Amman, Jordan if that’s something that would never be allowed. Always check the details, right?

So I discovered Queen (used to be princess before her husband ascended to the throne) Rania of Jordan. Here’s a link to, I kid you not, how it’s listed is… Her Majesty’s official site http://www.queenrania.jo/

P.S. Fannie Mae turns out to be more allergic to Savannah than I am. Poor kitty had to get some steroids.

With love and murder in mind,

Suza

{Already behind.}

§133 · January 4, 2010 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

It’s January 4th, and I’m already running behind. How’s that possible? Well, I had every intention of doing a newsletter for the New Year…but, um…did you get a copy?

Exactly.

I’m also very behind in the schedule I set for myself for my current writing project but plan to remedy that the day after tomorrow. (When I have the day free again.) It’s not technically due until the end of April, but hey, I want to get a jump on it, so I can return to the previous project. But all that’s been covered in another blog.

Off the beaten track- What did I do with some of my very precious time the last few days? I ate some yummy sausage balls that I made myself, cuddled with the kitties, especially Fannie Mae who is a little bit sick and will be seeing the vet on Wednesday, and I watched more than a couple of movies that, oddly enough, all had something to do with people being eaten by an otherworldly something-or-other. And it wasn’t exactly planned either. Promise.

By the way, Skinwalkers was a decent B Werewolf movie. I enjoyed it.

So…what did you do on your lazy Christmas/New Year’s time off?

With love and murder in mind,

Suza

{What do you like?}

§128 · December 29, 2009 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

As I’m looking through my contacts on various sites, I realize that many are readers and not writers, which makes me wonder how many people are interested in the writing tips? Surely authors more advanced than I am don’t need them, and why would readers care what I learned about character arc or the perils of e-publishing?

So as we draw closer to the new year, the question I’m asking of those of you who have loyally followed the blog is this.

What do you like to read?

Have you found the writing business interesting? The cats? What is it that makes you come back to a blog, whether it is this one or another?

There are plenty of articles about “Writing a Good Blog,” but I’d like to know what makes YOU look. Did you just happen to catch it on the Facebook profile? Or maybe, just maybe there was a post that struck you and makes you check it out once in a while with the hope that there will be more of the good stuff. If so, what was it?

In a business where one needs to be their own censor, ensuring no one gets offended, it’s hard to share the juicy daily details, but maybe a compromise can be arranged.

Before I started this, I barely knew what a blog was. Now, it’s sort of an outlet for me, but I want it to be more than that. I want it to be a way of staying in touch with those who really are interested in reading more. So with that said, I’d sincerely like to know…

What do you like?

P.S. Happy New Year to all!

Suza

{MPD for Christmas}

§124 · December 26, 2009 · Ups n Downs · (No comments)

Multiple Personality Disorder… that’s what I got!

Historically, I write romantic suspense and have one in the works right now. Then there’s the paranormal novella I’m working on, not to mention the other path (that will remain unmentioned) I’m currently attempting to traverse. Everything from my computer files to my imagination has been systematically divided into three parts!

What character was that in my head just now? Oh, yeah, the sidekick to the heroine of book A. Unfortunately, the person that responded was the hero from book C. Even my characters are getting confused. : )

Actually, if you can believe it, it helps to work on multiple projects. It does me, anyway. Some would tear their hair out, I’m sure.

I’m chugging along on research for one, nailing down plot for another, and actually writing the third. Plus, the voices in my head are very distinctive, so that’s good. Can’t have everybody sounding alike, especially if they lived 200 years apart.

Oooh, that reminds me of the fourth project…but it’s just going to have to warm the shelf for a while until I get all the kinks worked out of its predecessor.

What do you think my resolution will be? ; )

Happy New Year!

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Unique writer’s trivia with some humor thrown in the mix.

{The Oldest Language}

{Deadlines and Home Invasions}

{Food for Love}

{I Dreamed of a…}

{I know I should…}

{Secrets in Love Letters}

{Her Majesty’s Official Site}

{Already behind.}

{What do you like?}

{MPD for Christmas}

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