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Ah, the joys and trials of the season.
Dec. 14th, 2010 12:34 pm... The fact that Christmas is eleven days away is both frightening and exciting.
I've been working with various gift ficlets and pics, trying to get them ready and to determine what else I need to come up with. I'm surprising some people, whom I have a good idea of what they would like, but for some others I'm still trying to work out the details. I have a good idea of what some of them would probably like as well, but I'm not entirely certain I can deliver, which definitely prompts a dilemma.
Last night we had a look at what's available in the stores. I saw that some things have finally come into my area, including the Vector and Espio figure set. That caused much silent squeeing. It looks really amazing in person! I looked over each box until I found the one that looked the best, since I know best what errors to look for on the Jazwares figures, and asked for that for Christmas.
I got hold of a Randy Travis Christmas album I'd wanted last year. I was thrilled to find that Wal-Mart had them again. Our local one didn't have any last week, so we went to a different one and I found one there.
I also was able to use the $10 in Borders Bucks I was given by Borders (basically like a gift card/certificate) to get a couple of Hardy Boys books. Combined with a lovely 40% coupon, I only paid $1.25 out of my bank account.
I love Borders so much. Their Rewards program is free, unlike all the other ones I've seen (except the one for Smith's grocery stores). And I get so many discounts. Then every now and then they send me Border Bucks because I'm a preferred customer.
It really is sad, how few Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books Borders has these days. There were only a scant few Hardy Boys hardbacks. There were a few more Nancy Drews and two of the recent paperbacks. For once, Barnes and Noble has actually been having a wider selection than Borders. I've seen many more of those books there.
In reading a recent Hardy Boys book (one of the new kind told in first person), I thought the characters' personalities had been a bit exaggerated and that at times they were OOC. But after reading an old Casefile book, I realized that maybe they weren't. Their personalities in the Casefile book were extremely similar to what I read in the recent book. So now I want some more of the recent ones. I've seen some really interesting looking ones when browsing at Amazon and Borders.com.
We passed one of those private neighborhoods and it had an intriguing name: The Whispering Willows. It sounds like a Nancy Drew book. Now I want to write a mystery fic called that and feature a mysterious old house surrounded by old willow trees. I've seen a house surrounded by poplar trees, which looks rather ominous in its seclusion. I'll probably use it for partial inspiration.
I'm wondering if this mystery will be the American Tutu mystery I've been thinking of. I've been trying to think of more of a plot for it other than "Ahiru, Autor, and Fakir are in America because the ballet class is performing and Ahiru convinced Autor to play their music so he could come with them! And Ahiru has trouble with English and loves touring! And then a mystery comes along for them to solve!" Or maybe there will be more than one American Tutu mystery (i.e., maybe there will be an entire series of mysteries). As much as I love writing paranormal mysteries, I think my true love is mysteries with criminals. And even though the setting for this mystery will be creepy and there will be ghost rumors, I think there will only be mortals haunting this house.
I've been working with various gift ficlets and pics, trying to get them ready and to determine what else I need to come up with. I'm surprising some people, whom I have a good idea of what they would like, but for some others I'm still trying to work out the details. I have a good idea of what some of them would probably like as well, but I'm not entirely certain I can deliver, which definitely prompts a dilemma.
Last night we had a look at what's available in the stores. I saw that some things have finally come into my area, including the Vector and Espio figure set. That caused much silent squeeing. It looks really amazing in person! I looked over each box until I found the one that looked the best, since I know best what errors to look for on the Jazwares figures, and asked for that for Christmas.
I got hold of a Randy Travis Christmas album I'd wanted last year. I was thrilled to find that Wal-Mart had them again. Our local one didn't have any last week, so we went to a different one and I found one there.
I also was able to use the $10 in Borders Bucks I was given by Borders (basically like a gift card/certificate) to get a couple of Hardy Boys books. Combined with a lovely 40% coupon, I only paid $1.25 out of my bank account.
I love Borders so much. Their Rewards program is free, unlike all the other ones I've seen (except the one for Smith's grocery stores). And I get so many discounts. Then every now and then they send me Border Bucks because I'm a preferred customer.
It really is sad, how few Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books Borders has these days. There were only a scant few Hardy Boys hardbacks. There were a few more Nancy Drews and two of the recent paperbacks. For once, Barnes and Noble has actually been having a wider selection than Borders. I've seen many more of those books there.
In reading a recent Hardy Boys book (one of the new kind told in first person), I thought the characters' personalities had been a bit exaggerated and that at times they were OOC. But after reading an old Casefile book, I realized that maybe they weren't. Their personalities in the Casefile book were extremely similar to what I read in the recent book. So now I want some more of the recent ones. I've seen some really interesting looking ones when browsing at Amazon and Borders.com.
We passed one of those private neighborhoods and it had an intriguing name: The Whispering Willows. It sounds like a Nancy Drew book. Now I want to write a mystery fic called that and feature a mysterious old house surrounded by old willow trees. I've seen a house surrounded by poplar trees, which looks rather ominous in its seclusion. I'll probably use it for partial inspiration.
I'm wondering if this mystery will be the American Tutu mystery I've been thinking of. I've been trying to think of more of a plot for it other than "Ahiru, Autor, and Fakir are in America because the ballet class is performing and Ahiru convinced Autor to play their music so he could come with them! And Ahiru has trouble with English and loves touring! And then a mystery comes along for them to solve!" Or maybe there will be more than one American Tutu mystery (i.e., maybe there will be an entire series of mysteries). As much as I love writing paranormal mysteries, I think my true love is mysteries with criminals. And even though the setting for this mystery will be creepy and there will be ghost rumors, I think there will only be mortals haunting this house.
