Too busy to write today

Feel free to make your own captions... I'm exhausted!

Flying and Foodie Friday: Myrtle Beach Red Eye Special

A thick fog consumed Worcester Airport, leading to a series of misadventures that dropped the Wooldridge Clan in Myrtle Beach at 2AM and without access to their rental car…

… Our first southern meal was at 11AM today, after finally obtaining said rental car, at a Waffle House.

Any further blogging on the subject is irrelevant.

Coffee, waffles, coffee, and (unpictured) "scattered" hash browns with "all the works."

Fun to blow out your entire caloric count in one meal, huh?  Good thing I'm doing a lot of walking while I'm down here!

Southern Eating

Every year Scott and I go on vacation down to Myrtle Beach. (Potential robbers: We have a security system and friends in police and fire!)

In any case, we are here… in the land of fried chicken, fried pork chops, vegetables like fried okra and that heavenly concoction of liquid sugar flavored with tea (aka sweet tea).

It's not at all good for my diet.

On the other hand, I do an awful lot of walking down here: walks along the beach, walks through Brookgreen Gardens (looking for hidden gates to Faerie), and walking around the shopping stops. Oh – and horseback riding. :)

But Southern food is definitely a great cuisine. While I see lots of "Southern style" cooking up North, there is very little that actually resembles what I eat down here. We hit the "cheap" buffet restaurants, yet the food is still good quality. Also unlike the "affordable" restaurants back home, the servers are also all extremely polite, so eating out is always a pleasant experience.

(Except for the aforementioned diet guilt, of course.)

As a food reviewer, the overall flavor, quality, and service down here is always high. On the other hand, while these buffets have plenty of selection, they are all very similar… it's clearly Southern and American cuisine. There was some "teriyaki" chicken, and nachos, and tacos… but they were still "American." There are more Japanese restaurants around here now, and some Italian-American restaurants, but there is not a lot of ethnic restaurants nor any restaurants that cater to "healthy" or organic eating. There aren’t a lot of bistros or coffee houses – and that I miss.

Now, Myrtle Beach is also a "tourist" town, so there would be a lot of conformity and touristy places – those familiar restaurants that families can all go to because they know their picky-eating family members will eat something. It's not a real college town, and it's not urban… so I'm sure that has a lot to do with the lack of diversity.

The question is, what do you think is more important: Have a few things that are ALWAYS good? Or have a wide diversity where a cuisine or restaurant could be excellent – or just "different"?

Meet the Voices in my Head

I'm far too distracted to do any useful blogging right now. My mind knows I'm going on vacation (next few blogs will be coming from Myrtle Beach (there's a reason for that particular link - you'll see next week!) and Wiscon!), and my characters are already fighting for who will get the time I don't dedicate to horseback riding, painting, or -gasp!- perchance… relaxing!

First things first: A giant THANK YOU! to K.S. Augustin who already donated towards the BSER Blogathon! You've met her here before for the Great Broad Blog Out, but now I get to ask even more fun questions of her… Homework: Go buy her books! They are HOT!

Now, thanks to second hand advice and conversations from my friend, Victoria Durm, per her meetings with Mark David Gerson, I'm going to introduce you to a few of the people who are contending for my attention.

Heather MacArthur is an 12-year-old with the good fortune of living in a haunted and magical castle in Scotland with her crazy family, and the questionable luck of… living in a haunted and magical castle in Scotland with her crazy family. She lives in a potential series of novels that started off as an idea for a short story.

Aurelio Sangreleyes, a vampire of more than a few centuries, is torn between the duties of protecting his race and a blood promise to protect a 15-year-old orphan (Sophia Marquez) - whose duty seems to be driving Aurelio crazy. Aurelio lives in a comic I'm writing with my friend Stef Gannon in which the story wouldn't manifest itself in any good writing until I realized the comic book medium.

Thomas is a "biomech" who dares challenge the status quo of human-android relations by falling in love and risking everything for the human he loves. And, if that's not bad enough, he insists has a soul and has the data to prove it. He lives in two different novels, one that's about 2/3 drafted, the other only a synopis. (Thomas also looks like David Tennant.)

Alec Bradshaw is having some "issues" with immortality and immortal beings. During the Apocalypse. Oh, and he's supposed to help stop said Apocalypse with the unattainable girl he loves. Alec lives in the novel (and potential sequels) that I'm currently working with Christy on.

Kyra Starbard is meant to continue the family legacy of interpreting the future from the stars' songs. Her deafness, incurable by the best medics, breaks her mother's heart and pushes her father to explore anything to help his little girl--including the expensive purchase of a telepathic alien servant to help Kyra communicate on a planet inhospitable to unfixable genetic defects. She is currently querying agents with her best friend, Marne.

Lily Minor knows that graveyards are safe because her mother never locks the doors there - and when decision proves dangerous, the cemetery angels come to life and dead relatives come to their aid. Lily lives in a short story that is basically done with some minor edits from my correspondence writing group.

… And those are just who is on my mind right now. Demanding immediate attention. I tallied it up and I've got about 15 worlds in my head, with 2-4 (or more - Heather's 1 of 5 siblings and has two "interesting" parents!) major characters in each.

So, if you're wondering why I may seem distracted, it's THEIR fault!

To my writer friends, who is on your mind??