Indian Rocks Beach, Florida

My family moved to Tampa from a small town in Georgia when I was four. That summer - and several summers after that - we spent a week at Indian Rocks Beach on Florida's Gulf Coast. I can remember as a small child wondering where the Indians were. Ditto the rocks. I still don't know the origin of that name. Google wasn't much help.

Back in the day, this was a relatively sleepy community where families would rent rustic cottages on the beach. Not quite as nice as Jimmy Stewart's place in "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation," but something along that line. All of those cabins are gone now, of course, replaced by high-rise condos and multi-million dollar McMansions.

Two things I remember about that first summer: We played Crazy Eights a lot.
The old man (although in retrospect, he was probably around forty) who ran the place let me flip the switch that turned on the neon sign every night. Oh, come on! I was four! It didn't take much to amuse me.

Still doesn't take much to amuse me, come to think of it.

Anyway, many years later, after my father passed away, we were struggling to find something fun to do because there was precious little to smile about in our lives for a while. My sister's family and my family, which included two children each by then, along with my mother and some family friends, headed over to Indian Rocks Beach for two weeks. Most of the quaint little cottages were gone, but we did manage to find a two-story house complete with tin roof and wide wooden deck.

We didn't recapture the magic of those first few years in Florida, but we did have a good time being together with our friends, our memories and our laughter.

And that's the house where Dylan and Amberly spend their haunted summer together in BLAME IT ON THE GHOST. In their own way, they're also seeking a measure of peace and healing.

Here you go again. Another answer to that constant question, "Where do you get your ideas?"

It's been a good week for me. I got a great cover. My latest book released. I laughed with people I love. I hope it was good for you too.

What I'm Reading - DANCE OF THE GODS, Nora Roberts
What I'm Listening to - Frank Sinatra Classics
What I'm Watching - Sex and the City, the Complete Series

Have a wonderful weekend!
Susan

Get Haunted!!

The GHOST arrives today at Cerridwen Press!

Release day is always exciting, no matter how many times it happens. Today is especially fun for me because I truly love this story. Anyone ever notice how often Stephen King's protagonist is a writer? Why do you suppose that is? Well, gee. Maybe it's because if the protagonist were a brain surgeon or something, there would be a lot more research involved. I don't know.

BLAME IT ON THE GHOST has not one, but TWO writers, slogging their way to a happily ever after. Writing books while they try to get there. Understanding and respecting each other's worlds they've created in their heads and tried to get onto paper. It's not easy. Especially for these two. Between them they have more baggage than carousel number five at LaGuardia.

But get there they will, or my name isn't Delia Carnell!

Okay, my name really isn't Delia Carnell, but that's what it says on the book cover. So go get this one today. Get haunted. Fall in love. Find your happily ever after. Maybe you need a push, just like they did. It's okay. You can always Blame it on the Ghost.

Have a great day!
Delia (Susan)

Who Ya Gonna Call?

It's almost time to start Ghostbusting! BLAME IT ON THE GHOST releases tomorrow over at Cerridwen Press. There's always a little hum of excitement buzzing through my veins just before release day. It's almost - ALMOST - like being pregnant and anticipating the birth of your child. The book is, of course, much easier to deal with, and I didn't gain fifty pounds for it.

People love to ask writers, "Where do you get your ideas?" As if we have any control over them. But this one does have a bit of an answer to it. I love Stephen King. I've read nearly every word he's written. In fact I've read THE STAND three times. I can't think of any other book I've read more than twice. Well, maybe GREEN EGGS AND HAM, but that's different.

So this book is in a way an homage to one of my favorite writers. Dylan Hart is a horror fiction writer who has come to Indian Rocks Beach, Florida to housesit for his old college professor for the summer. He's been very successful, every book a bestseller. But what fears - real or imagined - have him blocked right now?

Amberly Ross is a romance author. She's got her own share of bestsellers in her catalogue. She was mentored by the same college professor as Dylan. Although they've never met, they've certainly heard plenty about each other. Now she has also come to spend the summer in the beach house. Putting a really bad marriage behind her, she's managed to keep her faith in romance and happily ever after. It's what she writes about all day long every day.

But why are they BOTH there to housesit? Ah, that's where the ghost comes in.

Or is it?

Sorry, you'll just have to find out for yourself when BLAME IT ON THE GHOST releases tomorrow at Cerridwen Press.

Have a great day!

Delia (for Susan)

A Lotus-Covered Cover

What an exciting week! The Ghost is releasing on Thursday at Cerridwen. In the meantime, I just received the cover for my short story at The Wild Rose Press. Take a look:




There are a few things to be happy about with this one. First of all, there's no tacky "Walmart bra" like with DIAMONDS. There's no nearly-naked heroine like with GHOST. It's a beautiful, tasteful depiction of the door (which is important in the story) and a gorgeous lotus blossom. The lotus is important also, but I'll let you read it before we talk too much about it. Don't want to ruin everything for you.

But the really important thing about this cover - for me anyway - is the author's name. This one isn't by the now-comatose Suzanne Ashley or the terminally ill Delia Carnell. This one has MY name on it.

I like that a lot.

Maybe I'm just a little to braggy about it, but it's MY NAME!!!

Now I need to go write something else to go with it. Have a great day!

Susan/Suzanne/Delia

I'm Still a Barbie Girl

I was a tiny tot when Mattel launched the tall cool blonde with the pony tail. Like most little girls my age - and every age after - I was enthralled. Every Christmas and birthday for the next several years were devoted to outfitting and equipping Barbie.

I had all the classic outfits - Silken Flame, Solo in the Spotlight, Garden Party. If you're my age, you know what I mean. But I had something else that no other Barbie girl had. My mother's good friend, Lura Mae Bradbury, a fantastic seamstress, made outfits for my Barbie. She was the kind of crafter who could take an old handkerchief and turn it into a wedding gown. So my Barbie had an array of one of a kind fashions from a black velvet cape with red satin lining to a blue corduroy coat to a fancy nylon negligee with lace trim. I was the envy of all the little girls because of my very special wardrobe.

When I was a senior in high school, my best friend Sue Hartley had a little sister in kindergarten. In my memory, I gave all of my Barbie stuff to her. Had I instead kept all that, especially the boxes it came in, I could now be living in a villa in the South of France.

Okay, it's not quite THAT valuable, but still...

So imagine my surprise recently when I was talking with my sister about Barbie and she said, "I have all your Barbie stuff."

What!?

One afternoon last week, I went into her playroom, moved the boxes of old photographs, the My Little Pony stable, the Strawberry Shortcake trolley and two large baby dolls to find a box full of Barbie and friends. With clothing. Including my original Midge doll. What a find!

I guess the only thing I gave to Julie Hartley was the Barbie doll. All the clothes are here. The Silken Flame. The Solo in the Spotlight. The In the Mood for Music, which I had forgotten about!! And wonder of wonders,ALL of the clothing especially designed and made by Mrs. Bradbury were in there too.

I'm still a very lucky girl. Here are my friends in their Bradbury originals:



Almost too good to be true, isn't it? I guess I'd given all the Barbie stuff to my niece. I had no memory of it. Amazing, isn't it?

Now I'm off to make up some more stories for my dolls. The ones I move around on paper.

Have a great day.
Susan

No Autographs, Please!

Ah, fame. It can be such a burden. The paparazzi hanging around my front door all the time. The complete lack of privacy for even the most mundane things. My picture in the newspaper. It's never ending.

Okay, snap out of it! Yes, my picture was in the paper this morning. But I was changing the kitty litter when I remembered to go pick it up. That's the glorious life of the romance novelist. Kitty litter one minute, sequins and glitter the next. Or something like that.

THE TAMPA TRIBUNE runs a weekly feature in its Friday entertainment section called, "Five Minutes With..." Today it's five minutes with me. Imagine that!

The interview part was fun. The books editor, Kevin Walker, has been an acquaintance for many years. He used to do a little Friday morning trivia thing, generally about books, music or movies. If you know me, you know I'm obsessive with trivia-type contests. It's so bad that my friends refuse to play SCENE IT with me. Even if it's ALL of them against just me by myself.

So I began emailing with Kevin a long time ago with comments about his trivia questions and always trying to win the coveted Bobo the Dog T-shirt. He's such a personable guy, and so interested in pop culture, that it was more like having a drink with a buddy than being grilled by a journalist. Of course, that's what they WANT you to think.

But I really do enjoy talking with Kevin, and I'm very pleased with the feature in today's paper. The photograph - now THAT was the scary part. But it's not too bad. I wish my hair looked better. I wish I was ten years younger. I wish I weighed twenty pounds less.

I also wish I had the winning lottery numbers, but that's not going to happen either.

Now here's the really intriguing part. I've lived in this city since I was five years old. Virtually EVERYONE I know reads this newspaper. Let's see how many of them call me or email me after reading this today. I especially hope ALL my ex-boyfriends see it.

Okay, that's it. My fifteen minutes are up.

Have a great day!
Susan

Why I Get My Nails Done

I was thinking about this. It's something I've been doing every two weeks for more than a decade. That's almost longer than I was married. What's the reason? Here are a few:

* I love Michelle. She's been painting my nails since shortly before her twenty-first birthday. She's now in her thirties with two adorable children ten and eight years old. She's about the same age as my nieces, who I also love, but I wouldn't let them touch my fingers with electrical equipment! I've been with Michelle through a miscarriage, two pregnancies, the loss of her father, several homes and two salons. She's one of my favorite people AND she loves the Beatles!

* It's one of the cheaper things you can do from a beauty standpoint. Do you know how much it costs to cut and color hair these days? Facials and massages are quite pricey too. You can get your nails done for about the price of a movie with soda and popcorn.

* I like the names of the colors. Who can turn down "I'm Not Really A Waitress" ??? Or "Vampire State Building." When I choose my color each time, I first look at the bottle, but I won't pick it unless I also like the title. How do I get the job of thinking up the names? Wouldn't that be great!

* I like the sound they make when they click on the keyboard. I'm easy to amuse.

* My ex-husband wouldn't "let" me get my nails done. Easy to see why he's an ex, right?

I could probably come up with a few more reasons, but I don't want to be late for my appointment!

Have a great day.
Susan

"Love is now the stardust..."

Great old song recorded by a lot of people, but probably most notably, Nat King Cole. If you've never heard it, you should find it and listen to it.

But it's Stardust the movie I've come to talk about today.

First of all, Michelle Pfeiffer must have one heck of an agent! Having not seen much of her in a while, I suddenly find her running away with two movies in a row for me. First it was the Barbe-doll type stage mother in HAIRSPRAY, now it's a four hundred year-old witch in STARDUST. She's very good, by the way. The girl does a fine cackle.

Second, what is it with all the macho male movie stars wanting to dress in women's clothing lately? Is this the same Robert DeNiro who brilliantly portrayed Jake La Motta, Al Capone and a young (and frightening) Vito Coreleone? Wearing dance-hall girl clothing and flirting with him/herself in front of a mirror? That scene alone is worth the price of admission.

But that statement shortchanges the rest of the film, which is full of laughter, romance, adventure, magic, falling stars and a kidnapped princess. I had read about the book by Neil Gamain a couple of months ago, and in fact it's sitting on my Amazon wish list right now. But I'm out of the pop culture loop these days, so I didn't know anything about the movie until a few days ago. I'm really glad I made the connection.

It's the kind of film that makes me glad I'm a writer. I always enjoy a story that inspires me to go home and work harder.

So I'm off to work now. I hope you'll go see this movie. And I hope you'll listen to Nat King Cole. A different kind of magic there.

Have a magical day.
Susan

We're All in This Together

Disney does it again. Yes, I am eagerly awaiting tonight's premiere of High School Musical 2. Me and about 20 Million other eight year old girls. What? I'm NOT an eight year old girl? Are you sure? Have you seen my Barbie collection?

Okay, maybe I am an adult whose children aren't even that young, but I can still be a kid in my heart, and I will be tonight when I watch the new movie. There are a lot of things to love about High School Musical. No, the music isn't the best I've ever heard, but it is light and cheerful, and I do find myself humming it long after it's left the radio or tv.

How about the message? In a world where children are filled with neuroses and angst, how about a movie that says, Do your own thing? The Skaters, The Athletes, The Brainiacs, The Drama Club all get together in this one, and they all respect each other's feelings and desires. Well, all except for Sharpay, the Cruellea D'HighSchool. But what's a Disney movie without a villain?

Then there are all the nods to movies of the past. There's a little bit of Romeo and Juliet - teens dating outside their own little circle. There's a piece of Grease - they meet on vacation then find themselves in the same school. And doesn't Alyson Reed as Darbus remind you of Eve Arden's Principal McGee? A little bit? Finally, we have big ol' Busby Berkley type dance numbers.

Yes, I'm looking forward to it, and I don't apologize. I do, after all, own the DVD of the first one. Not just the DVD of the movie. I have the Dance-Along version. Yes, it's true. Late at night, in the privacy of my own bedroom where absolutely no one can see me, I do the Wildcat Breakdown. Go Wildcats! Getcha head in the game!

Have a musical day!
Susan

Elvis Is Still Dead

When we were little girls, my sister and I spent our Sunday afternoons lying on the floor in front of the radio. This wasn't some small transistor type thing, or even one the size of my Bose that sits here on my desk, smaller than a breadbox. No, this radio was a piece of furniture. Huge. Something like this:



Every Sunday they had a call-in competition.People would vote for their favorite artist, then the station would play records by the winner all the rest of the afternoon. The winner was always Elvis. Pat Boone made it a decent race some of the time, but the King was always, well, The King.

I was a little too young for Elvis. But my sister....I think she still loves him. When she got married in 1969, she chose August 16. By coincidence, it happened to be the wedding anniversary of both sets of our grandparents. That's not why she chose it, although it makes a touching story. No, her date was mostly dictated by the United States Air Force.

Fast forward to 1977. We were preparing for my wedding which would take place in early September. I remember being at my mother's house with my sister when we heard about Elvis. "But it's my anniversary!" she lamented. Well, she can drink a toast to The King when her husband takes her out for dinner.

Or, she could hold with the philosophy of another friend of mine who wears a button which reads, "Elvis isn't dead till I say he's dead!"

Long Live The King.
Susan

It Was Fifty Years Ago...

If 1967 was the summer of love, then 1957 must have been the summer of birth. Two things happened fifty years ago this summer that are particularly noteworthy.



In 1957 ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac was released. It is a rambling semi-autobiographical novel about two guys who hit the road. But it's really about much more than that. Many people call it the birth of the Beat generation, the anthem of Baby Boomers all across America who questioned everything their parents fought and died for in a cruel and ugly war.



Also in July, 1957, a little known skiffle group called The Quarrymen played a one-hour engagement at an English Garden Party. Little noteworthy about that, except for the fact that a fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney took his guitar along to meet these Quarrymen, led by a sixteen-year-old fellow named John Lennon. I doubt that lightning bolts shot down from the heavens. There was no cracking in the earth's crust. Just two blokes who'd heard of each other and sat down to play few tunes together.

The rest, as they say, is history.

If Jack Kerouac wrote the script for the lives of the Beat generation, Lennon and McCartney composed the soundtrack. What peculair alignment of the stars during that fifty-year-old summer allowed this creative energy to flower? How did this come to pass?

Odd coincidence, perhaps. But I can't help wondering this: What is happening right now that will be noteworthy fifty years from today?

Something to think about.

Have a great day.
Susan

It's About Time!

Yesterday, I finished the Time Travel book, THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE. I don't know why this took so long. It's only 20,000 words. Really short by fiction standards. One-third of a small category romance. But it seemed to go on forever.

For one thing, I made a major change to it halfway through which required me to go all the way back to the beginning and make adjustments. I didn't mind that so much because the changes really make the story a lot better. I just wish I would have thought of it the first time through. But I'm a Seat-of-the-Pants writer. I don't know when I start out what's going to happen. Some people like to have everything very carefully plotted before they begin. To me, that takes a lot of the fun out of it. I like to find out as we go along, just as if I were reading it. And as Stephen King says, I am the first reader of this particular book. Plotting it first takes away the joy of finding out for me.

I will admit to shedding a tear during the last scene. At least I know I connected on an emotional level with ONE reader. Even if it is me.

What I found fascinating about this one was all the ways TIME played a role in the story. First she was out of her normal Time Zone. She couldn't talk to her NY office when she first got up in England. They weren't there yet. She suffered from jet lag the first day and slept a long TIME when she got settled in.

Then, after she went through the portal to a different TIME, a lot of things happened that depended on TIME. Towards the end, they're racing to a destination to find someone in TIME to fix something, and she's watching the hands on the clock moving forward in TIME.

When I was in high school, I fancied myself a folk singer. We all did. It was the Sixties. I remember a TIME sitting on my bed, playing my guitar, singing TIME by the Pozo Seco Singers. "Time, oh, time. Where did you go? Time, oh, good, good, time, where did you go?"

My grandfather happened down the hall as I was singing, poked his head in my bedroom door and said, "Yeah. Where did time go?"

He would have been about seventy-five at the TIME. He lived into his eighties.

Well, I'd like to go on and on about this book and about TIME but that's it for today. I'm running out of blog TIME. See you tomorrow. If you've got the time.

Susan

Oh, THAT'S why...

"We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style...but as we move along,you'd do well to remember that we are also talking about magic." Stephen King, On Writing

"All you need is a little faith, trust, and pixie dust!" Peter Pan

I always knew my fascination with all things Disney was related to my passion for writing. Every great Disney animated film is a little romance novel. Well, maybe not 101 Dalmatians. But think about it...Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty. They all have that age-old plot: Prince meets Princess, Prince falls in love with Princess, Prince loses Princess but finds her shoe, Prince and Princess live happily ever after. The only thing that changes, boys and girls, is the shoe. It may be a poisoned apple, a dying rose, a sleeping spell, but one thing is certain. These romantic couples always meet their conflict head on, overcome it and find their happy ending.

Usually with an Oscar-winning soundtrack in the background.

A few nights ago, I ran across a documentary titled, UB IWERKS, The Hand Behind the Mouse. I've been to the Magic Kingdom enough times to recognize a Main Street window name when I see one. I knew Ub to be one of the "nine old men," the original Disney animators. But this "old man" holds the place of highest esteem in the Disney Archives. Ub created Mickey.

"I just hope we never lose sight of one thing. It all started with a mouse." Walt Disney.

Although Walt and Ub had been together since their Kansas City days, they did split for a while over "creative differences." About ten years later, Walt was able to lure Ub back, and the pair went on to create some truly wonderful animation for decades after. (Ub also worked with Hitchcock on "The Birds," which I find fascinating. That's kind of like a Disney film on steroids.)

Even Ub eventually realized Walt's contributions to the marketing side of the empire could direct the success of the project. "It's not what you create that matters," Ub said later in life. "It's what you do with it."

Old Uncle Walt sure knew what to do with things, didn't he? And he never lost the magic.

Have a magical day,
Susan

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Not two days ago I was whining about the cover for BLAME IT ON THE GHOST being MIA, when I look into my Yahoo mailbox and -- Voila!-- I find this:



Not bad. Not bad at all. While it isn't exactly what I asked for - there's no sign of the beach house or the ghost - they did go with an important plot point that I described. The heroine washes her really long hair at the makeshift shower on the deck.

I'm very happy with their portrayal of Dylan. It's all right that we can't see his face. The view we do get is Very Nice. I'm happy with his hair, which is supposed to be slightly shaggy. And that overall blue tone lends an eeriness to it that suggests the ghost. Also, if you remember the cover for Diamonds, you can see that they repeated the font and style for the title. That will make them look quite nice side by side.

And now on to the usual Friday stuff:

What I'm Listening to - Chris Botti, When I Fall in Love

What I'm Reading - STRIPPED by Julie Leto

What I'm Watching - ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!??? Pre-season starts tonight at 7:30!! YAY!!

Have a wonderful day!
Susan
also known in some circles as DELIA

You Can't Always Get What You Want

"I went down to the Chelsea drugstore..."

Turns out my time-traveling couple need to go to London. I've been to London. It was 1992. This book is set in 1962. I suppose some things have changed in thirty years. And some haven't. While I was there, I was driving around with my childhood friend who lives there now, and HIS friend who was born and raised in Liverpool. We turned a corner, and Alan (his friend) said, "There's the Chelsea drugstore."

Sure, I'm a big Stones fan. What woman my age isn't? So I look out the car window, and I see this:




Not quite what I expected.

So thinking about Star and Colin, and where they might be headed in 1962
London, I googled "Chelsea drugstore." Wow, there are a lot of hits for that phrase, most of them, of course, to do with the Stones' song.

But I found several schools of thought about what the Chelsea drugstore really was BEFORE Mickey D took it over. There is the not unexpected belief that it was a pharmacy. There are several references to it being a pub or a nightclub.

But the most interesting one claims it was the record shop Alex visited in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Hmmm....that same site alleges that Mick Jagger was slated to play the role in the movie immortalized by Malcolm MacDowell. Interesting.

Well, now I'm bursting with trivia about the Chelsea drugstore, The Rolling Stones and Stanley Kubrick movies. But alas, none the wiser as to where my couple will wind up when they get to London. Ah, well. I suppose that's why they call it fiction.

If you try sometimes, you just might find... (altogether now)...you get what you NEED!

Have a great day,
Susan

Here Comes the Ghost

Usually so much happens between signing the contract for a book and actually seeing the book available to the public that you have a tendency to almost forget about it in the interim. In a way this is kind of neat because it gives me the chance to get excited about it all over again.

I've written quite a few stories since last I looked at BLAME IT ON THE GHOST. I'll be just as excited as anyone to see the finished product when it arrives in a couple of weeks. First of all, I'm eager to see the cover. As much as I love TOUGHER THAN DIAMONDS, I was greatly disappointed with the cover. The two people didn't look anything like the picture I had in my mind of Jake and Rebecca. And that bra she's wearing! That's a Wal-Mart bra if I ever saw one. Rebecca buys her lingerie in a more upscale environment.

When the art sheets came around for GHOST,I was ever so much more specific about how things should look on the cover. Even sent them a few pictures of things so they would know EXACTLY what I meant.

The action takes place in an old house on Indian Rocks Beach. The house is very important. It's almost a character itself, so I really want it to be just right. I sent along this picture for the art department to use as inspiration:



This isn't exactly the house we want, but it's really close. We'll find out soon enough, won't we? Everyone I ask is rather vague about when I'll receive a cover, but we know for sure it will be prior to August 30. They won't put the book live on the site without one. Let's hope we love it!

Have a wonderful day!
Susan

Just One More Thing...

I know I said I was done with Harry Potter posts, but then I found this cute little Sorting Hat kind of thing, and I couldn't resist.


Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

At first I thought I wanted to be Hermione. I mean, I was the one who always had my hand up. "Pick me, pick me, pick me!" But Hermione ends up with Ron. It's Ginny Weasley who gets Harry. And she goes through her entire tenure at Hogwarts snogging virtually everyone. So I'm pretty happy with this.

So, go ahead. Click the link then come back and tell us who the Sorting Hat picked for you. We'll wait.

Meanwhile, the typical Friday stuff:

What I'm reading - ON WRITING by Stephen King. Yeah, there's a guy who knows a thing or two about the craft. I read this a long time ago, but when I came across it during the office remodel, I started it again. Great book. I highly recommend it to writers and readers alike.

What I'm listening to - GENIUS LOVES COMPANY by Ray Charles and Friends

Coming next week - our 100th Post! Maybe we'll do a look back. A retrospective, if you will, of the Blonde's thoughts.

Or maybe not.

Have a great day!
Susan

Back to the Future

I should have finished this time travel story at least a week ago, maybe two. The thing is, I thought of something that makes it a LOT better. I hate to rewrite more than just about anything else. But here I am back on page one, filling in all the little holes to make this thing flow smoothly now that I've had this brilliant idea that makes it so so SO much better.

I've never paid a lot of attention to time travel. "Back to the Future" and "Peggy Sue Got Married" are both great films. And my Boy is named Christopher because of "Somewhere in Time." But that's about it for me. I didn't even watch the two BttF sequels. And that movie with Meg Ryan and the guy from ... whenever he was from ... was perfectly awful.

But here I am mired in this thing, and discovering how really, really difficult it is. You have to think of EVERYTHING. And once you establish a rule, you have to stick with it. Like, if she's injured when she's in the past, will she still have the injury when she goes back to her own time? I think she would.

But the thing that everyone absolutely MUST abide by is this: YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE FUTURE. So, if she did something when she went back that altered her present, then she has to go back and fix it!

And that's where the fun begins.

Have a great day.

Susan

I'm an eBay-bee

I will admit: All things computer frighten me. I don't know why. I've always managed to figure out everything I needed to figure out. I've kept myself surrounded with people who know a great deal about them, however, so that's been some comfort.

I used to write in long-hand in spiral notebooks. There's an esthetic pleasure to watching the words flow out of a pen like some long, meandering river or the ribbons of a maypole. But I'm a Baby Boomer. We're edge-riders, risk-takers, world-changers. At least we used to be. Now we spend more time worried about our annuities and shaking our heads over the music, but that's another story.

It bothers me that I spend $138.03 per month on a storage unit that's full of stuff I don't know what to do with. Plus, my best friends have plans to sell their dental practice and their home and live a long adventuresome time in a motor home. So Jeanette and I decided we had to solve this eBay mystery. There's gold in them thar boxes!



I have always considered myself a cut above your average dummy. So off we go! Jeanette used to be a semi-grand poobah in the person-to-person cosmetics business, so our test balloon, we decided, would be the Silver Anniversary doll of Miss Mary Kay herself. Surely it would be a collector's dream for MK consultants and doll people alike.

After much study. Okay, after a few minutes of study, I managed to get the thing up there. Yes, you can now go to eBay and see the Mary Kay doll (tastefully photographed against my freshly painted office walls in a complementary color). Bid on her if you like. I'd be thrilled to at least make back my one dollar investment.

If this works out, I'm going to start throwing handfuls of The Boy's sports cards up there. He was a big Niners fan in the Joe Montana days. Maybe we'll stumble upon a rarity.

At the very least, I have the best written sales copy of anyone out there.

Have a wonderful day.
Susan