Street Fair

It was an exhausting but fun weekend with the street fair in our village. We set up a stand on front of my house and a bunch of my friends got together with me to sell our junk (old clothes, books, knick-knacks and whatever...)

I've been working...

All week long, so there's not much to report. Well, actually there is, but it's mostly depressing news, so I'll just let things slide for a while and see what happens.

What I'd like to know is, why are the pople in charge so often people who have no real knowledge of what they are supposed to be in charge of?

But that shouldn't surprise too many people.

Well, August is flying by! I had a lovely week vacation at the seaside - the weather was incredible and I took my daughter to the races and yearling sales and we saw some lovely horses. (and there was polo, of course, as my husband is working there until the end of the month!) Then it was back home to another marathon week of work, which Imanaged to wrap up yesterday, so I'm going to putter about today and maybe look wistfully ut the wiondow and think of going into the garden - but I won't. It's fall, and that means the chiggers and spiders are out in swarms and I am literally bitten up all over - and the bites itch. Oh well - now I'm waiting impatiently for the first freeze - I think I'll still be alive by then, lol. The dry, very hot weather has aggravated the chigger condition, and I have to stop wanting to do gardening work - everything is burnt dry as straw anyway - but the other day I wanted to harvest my lavender and my silver dollar plants (the lavender goes in a big bowl in the kitchen and gets turned into sachets or I use it to freshen the vacuume cleaner. And the silver dollar plants are so pretty when you pick them at the right time - you get a huge lovely bouquet to last the winter. )
And so I'm covered with bites, lol.
And just an aside - My cousin gave me the most wonderful tea - one for the morning (Earl Gray - French Blue, it's called) and one for the night called Red Nile - Rooisbus with Marigold) So I sit at my desk with a pot of fragrant tea. It's quite a change from my mug of coffee!

Polo day!

The Yearling Sales

I wanted to show my daughter the world of racing - it's so different from the polo and jumping worlds, but as one breeder said to me when I mentioned this, "they all stink of manure". I think I have a crush on that guy, lol. As we walked in the gate, I saw a friend I hadn't seen in ages - at least 15 years, and so we had to catch up. He's a trainer, and he was nice enough to take my daughter and I on his search for the perfect yearling. I don't know if he found one - his catalogue was dog-eared from being studied so much, but he was awfully hard to please. All the horses looked gorgeus to me! We stopped in to see another friend I hadn't seen in a long, long time - she's a breeder and handles one of the top stud farms in France. I love the racing world, but it is very rarified. In polo, you really get close to the ponies, they're more rustic and very well trained, but racing seems to put the horse on a pedestal where only a very people can get close to them. Everyone in racing is so chic, where in polo, everyone is kind of cowboy and casual.

At the yearling sales in DeauvilleThis filly was my favorite - I thought she was stunning. She hasn't grown up yet, look at the difference between her front and back end, lol. But what a fabulous walk - she just stepped out and swung about like a dancer.

My daughter getting a lesson in how to look at a yearling from one of the best!

She made her choice - a chestnut with an impeccable pedegree. Now to play the lottery...

Racing at Clairefontaine

I don't know what I like most about racing. Is it the glorious colors of flowers and racing silks? The horses, so sleek and prancing? I know it's not betting - I'm a dismal better and always seem to pick the horse that comes in last (that must be almost as hard as picking the one that comes in first!) or seeing my racing friends (such a different world than polo!) - whatever the reason, I always have a good time at the races. I took my daughter to Clairfontaine to see my friend Marie (one of the vets there) and she took us backstage to the stables to see the horses, much to my horse-mad daughter's delight. I took lots of pics of her, but there are none of me - I was wearing my 'poofy hat' as my daughter calls it, it was so hot I dragged it out of my purse and wore it. My daughter says it makes me look like a character from the Little House on the Prairie. I hope the horses didn't think I looked too ridiculous.
Tomorrow I'll post some photos of the day we spent at the yearling sales, and then I'll post some polo pics.

A week in Normandy

Back from a week vacation at the seacoast - had a lovely time. Mostly hanging out at the polo matches and eating and drinking far too much at friends' houses. We were up 'till the wee hours every night, and it's hard to sleep when the church bells ring so loudly in the morning - the worst was Saturday - I thought I'd get some sleep but there were weddings all morning long - ring them in, ring them out. There is nothing poetic about the clanging of a churchbell when you've been up all night and had too much hard cider (we were in Normandy...)

Fantasy Manga

My daughter (14 almost 15) is writing a book (actually she finished it but it was one of those everythingbutthekitchensink books, so she's rewriting the whole thing... Are virgos always like that? A tiny bit of criticsm and she takes the whole thing apart and starts over. Well, at least she didn't give up!)
And she started an illustrated fantasy manga including a talking horse with an attitude, a heroine who's good with knives, and something to do with troops and recruiters that is keeping me in suspense (I get to read it every night as she finishes a chapter. What will happen next??)
One thing had my eyebrows shooting off the top of my head - elf women in hotpants to attract the eyes of recruiters. LOL
I told her to go back to fantasy and leave real-life ouf of the story. :-D

Blogged down

Can one have too many blogs? I meant this one to be a connection (tri-via) between my Sam blog, my photo blog, and my writing blog...and then I found Facebook...
I think I'll keep my Sam blog and photo blog (one for photo archives, and the Sam blog for photos and for announcements for my Sam books.
Perhaps I can keep this as a writing diary - I already have a 'what I'm working on' ^post - maybe I can keep up with 'what I'm working on and what is happening with my writing' and see what happens.
If you want to see photos of France go here.
And here is a site with archived photos.


So what am I working on now?
Still finishing up The Road to Eternity.
Sent 'The Promise' pitch (YA post -appocalypse story) to the BBC for possible movie - TV series.
Zombie series being looked at by Vanessa over at the Lori Perkins agency (always read industry blogs, folks. Lori mentioned she was looking for kick-ass heroines and vampire/zombie tales, and I just happened to have one!)
Starting book III in abovementioned Zombie series and so far having a great time with it - although the zombies are being taken over by werewolves, waitresses and witches...it starts out at a vamp-addict anonymous meeting. I'm loving every minute of writing it, and wish I had more time to work on it, but would you believe, I have to work?
:-)

What I'm working on...

The Road to Eternity

The party never ends on the road to eternity. Leading the troop is Zeus, and he decides which stop is next and how long the party stays. Back in forth in time from mountain top to sandy shore, the party winds its way in a cacophony of sound and color. But Ares has decided to take over the party and lead it to where its never gone before: to the great and bloody battlefields of history. Having joined the troop expecting wine, song, and fun, Clio, a young magician, instead finds herself in a nightmare voyage. Escape means going through Hades, where she meets Chiron, Cerberus, and the queen of the dead, Persephone. In order to stop Ares, she must somehow free Zeus from the prison Ares has cast him, but it won’t be easy. Ares has put Zeus into the body of a young and handsome, rich and famous rock star. Persuading him to give up his fame and glory is what she has to do before he can recover his memory and take control of the troop that voyages on the road to eternity.
But how can she convince a god to embrace the simple life? Using her magic, she kidnaps him, and finds herself running from the law with a disbelieving and reluctant hostage. She has to find Ares and the troop – and she knows where to look. It’s September, 2001, and a disaster is about to happen.

It's about halfway done, and my editor at Cerridwen wants first peek at it for their brand new YA line. It means I have to actually sit down and finish it now!

:-)

The Intersection

Tri Via is an intersection of three roads, where messages are posted, and where you can choose your destination...
From here you can visit:

Sam's Spot

to read my usual blog

Or take a look at my websites:

Jennifer Macaire

Samantha Winston

Calderwood Books