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July 31, 2016 I wanted to write a post yesterday, not only the promotional post for my book. However, with everything going on – my mother’s birthday, trouble with the cover for print, Rex’s boredom and Zoey’s playful nature yesterday, it was a little difficult to write anything. Besides my crime novels, which I enjoy writing, I started writing romance with a little of adventure and humor peppered here and there, even though lately, looking around me, I have had some doubt that true lasting love still exists. I’ve thought that maybe people are in too much rush to find their happiness right now and, consequently, they settle for the immediate without too much thought of what might come along. There’s also the possibility that maybe people want just to have some fun to counterbalance the harshness of life or the ugliness of the reality pictured by the news. Maybe many are only driven by the principles depicted by Sex and the City, although in my opinion, there’s a lot of sadness and disappointment in that film, even though it doesn’t pop up at first sight. Anyway, you can take your pick. Yesterday, though, I was reminded what real love is. I went shopping – well, our variant of shopping. Having Rex in the leash, I wait outside and my daughter goes inside with a fuzzy idea about what she should buy (it seems that everything flies out of my head when we get there, and anytime I prepare a list, I forget the list at home. So, I let her choose.) It is exhilarating to see what’s in her bags when she comes out of the store. There’s never disappointment but sometimes there’s a huge surprise. More important, rarely what’s in the bag could help with cooking dinner without a lot of cleverness and applying the Romanian saying “To make bricks without straw”. Anyway, waiting outside with Rex means that I have plenty of time to observe the people milling around and yesterday, I had plenty of material to pick from: from the guy who was talking on his cell phone, which was on speaker, because he used the screen to groom his mustache, to the old couple that had come shopping and after shopping stopped outside the store for a while, just to hold each other. They are actually the subject which I had in mind when I started writing this post. Around eighty, both of them weighed down by age, they had that air of the couples that had spent decades together. It was refreshing to see that after half a century – they both were around ninety - they still felt the need to hold each other and whisper things meant only for their ears. That refreshed my belief that something else might exist besides the instant gratification that seems to be the purpose of most relationships I’ve seen lately. That being said, it doesn’t mean that a relationship that starts on a flirty note and seems like just a lot of fun can’t evolve into something meaningful. Surprisingly, most of the time people are taken aback to see that exactly the relationships labeled as: “it will never last” are the ones that last in the end. Probably because of the contradictions or differences in temper and sometimes in beliefs, such relationships may pass the test of time. The two protagonists don’t have the time to get bored one with the other because they are too involved in the relationship and because surprises come too fast one after the other. Sometimes, if one of the two is a pain in the neck for the other that might give an occupation to the partner. I’m far from an expert. I can speak only about what I’ve seen during the time. Of course, there are relationships where the two partners think the same and behave in the same way, and of course, these relationships can last as well. However, most of them fall into a sort of routine. The relationship still exists, under a certain form, the feelings are mutual but there’s no spark whatsoever. Without the spark, everything goes on as a lazy river, too fat to move. It’s like that Merry-Go-Round which I mentioned in a previous post. But imagine a relationship like the roller-coaster! Scary! Thrilling! Your heart is about to jump out of your chest! Nonetheless, how many of you, after a scary ride, didn’t go back to try it again? Just asking! See you again – I hope!
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Hello Dear Readers, Today it is my mother's birthday and that's why I decided to release my new novel exactly on July 30th. Check it out on Amazon and Smashwords! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JBTNT2G#nav-subnav https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/654835 I will have a promotion until August 21st. During the promotion, you can find the book at $0.99 only. . Please, try the sample, at least, and let me know what you think!  Soon, it should be in print as well. Here's the cover:  July 26, 2016 The first smart thing I’ve done: I didn’t promise a post every day. As you’ve seen, on Sunday and Monday, I couldn’t write. On Sunday, in the morning, I gave in and accepted to bake a cake despite the high temperature. The results were somewhat mixed: the cake was good; however, I managed to burn my right hand. I don’t really know what I was thinking about, but I simply put my hand on the oven door to take the pan out with the other hand. Of course, it wasn’t a very good Sunday, and writing was out of the question. I spent the entire day doing something I haven’t done in years: I watched a season and a half of The Big Bang Theory. Anyway, I’m back in the trenches now. Let’s see for how long! Life has its own way to dictate what you can or can’t do. This morning, I’ve been thinking a lot about the new shape of the neighborhood. It seems that in less than a year things changed dramatically. There’s good material for a writer, but as a person that enjoys quietness, especially in the mornings, there’s not such a good choice for living. We have the guy who thinks he’s Elvis, and every morning, around six, he takes his guitar out in the yard and plays his guitar, which wouldn’t be too problematic. However, he also sings: from the tops of his lungs. All the dogs in the neighborhood feel a compulsion to sing along. It’s a unique concert that usually lasts about an hour or an hour and a half during weekdays. On weekends, things change. The guy gratifies us with two or three concerts along the day, each between one hour and a half and even three hours sometimes, when he feels inspired. I say inspired because all songs are personal composition (or at least, I can’t recognize them – his interpretation is unique). Then we have the family of five, right next door. I’m happy when they have guests, and I think their three children are happy too. Those are the only moments when the adults play the role of loving parents and talk to their children with patience, and in a loving manner. The rest of the time, they could put a gang to shame. I don’t even have to check to find new phrases for swearing. They know the entire repertoire, and they use it with dedication when they address one of the children. And they do, constantly. The mother complains she’s very tired in the evenings, and I believe her. It is no easy task to yell nonstop and be so inventive that the swear words never overlap. The other close neighbors are something else altogether. I’ve seen the man of the family once when he told me that I have an obnoxious dog (like I didn’t know that! Huh!). The lady I heard, or better said, I heard her sweeping the yard. She does that every day, at least three or four times a day. Otherwise, they come out of the house only after dark. No, they’re not vampires, because he wouldn’t have talked to me in broad daylight, and she wouldn’t be so adamant that no speck of dust touches her yard. The ones that read my blog in the past might remember that I was wondering about the lack of kids. Of, good days! There was a huge shift in population. There are lots and lots of kids now. I can mention the little guy who likes to stand in the middle of the alley – for hours! – and imitate a crow. Terrific sound! Especially if you try hard to move a scene along in your novel, and the scene doesn’t involve a crow! Most of the games that the other children play seem to involve a very long “aaaaaaaaaaah” repeated at very short intervals or running along with the supermarket carts that are the mark of the condominium. I’ve told you before: everyone must have one at the front door. It helps a lot: you can go shopping, take a run in the cart, walk the dog (why, I wonder?) and so on. I like people here: they are extremely inventive. We couldn’t integrate into the population, I think, as we couldn’t go past the shame of going shopping, leaving with the cart from home or come back home with a cart. The truth is that we’re still old-fashioned: we carry everything in bags. Maybe one day we’ll reach the modern age too…. Who knows? Rex is not the noisiest dog in the neighborhood anymore. That’s the happiest thing that has happened lately. He was outdone by two Chihuahuas, one poodle, a Shih Tzu, and a boxer. It’s true, he still watches the moon with apprehension and still gives the evil eye to planes and helicopters but he doesn’t bark at them anymore. He hasn’t overcome other things, though. God forbid putting a thing in a place where that thing has not been before! He goes into a fit of barking and he doesn’t stop till the said thing is removed. The problem is when the neighbors move something in their yard: there, I have no jurisdiction. It makes for a happy afternoon, believe me! And besides that, of course, there are the squirrels. There are three of them at least, I think, because they’re of different color. They’ve seen that he gets furious when they come into his yard, and now, they come just for fun, talk to him, drive him crazy… Anyway, they go to bed early, so it’s not a real problem. I think I’m all caught up right now. I ‘m about to launch a new novel. Check it out on my site and see the links! I had another one coming out last week and there has been a revamp to my crime story Mayhem on Nightingale Street. Another crime story is in the works! See you soon and have fun! It’s summer! Hello there, again!
It’s been a while, I know. But better later than never. I like this expression. It gives you the chance to do things your own way. There’s always an excuse, isn’t there? Do you remember that tidbit I wrote on January 1st? … How could you? It’s been over half a year since then and it’s not like you’d go back every day to reread my blog. Anyway, I’ll remind you: resolutions made at the beginning of the year are meant to be forgotten (or something like that; not even I would go back to read the exact phrase, and that says something!). Well, one of the resolutions I made (and of course, I had to put it in writing on my blog – that’s the smartest thing to do: promise something and don’t do it!) was that I would post something on my blog before midnight every day. Well, I’d forgotten something very important when I wrote that: I don’t do well with rules. They wear me down. So, instead of finding fun writing on the blog, it became a chore. I hate chores, don’t you? I can do whatever I have to do as long as there’s no rule attached to it. So, from now on, my posts will be on line when they are on line. Not before midnight or before noon. They might be in the morning or in the evening. Whenever inspiration strikes. Anyway, the post will be shared on Facebook and Twitter so everybody will know. Besides the rules thing, which I’ve already confessed it’s so not me, I was on that roller-coaster ride (who read my posts will know what I’m talking about) and the ride went only down for a while, then took me up, so up that I had so many things to do, that I couldn’t even think about posting anything on line. Briefly, so that I could bring you back to speed, in a span of a few months, I’ve had two accounts hacked (everything went missing – balance zero in one morning) and a fraud on the credit card, a terrible flu that didn’t want to go away, and I’ve lived (actually I’m still living!!!) next to the neighbors from hell. I’m talking about that type of neighbors that have only two speeds: either music as loud as possible (of course, not something I’d find enjoyable - it's always like that, isn't it?) but who also hate their children with passion, which translates in constant yelling and verbal and, sometimes, physical abusing. I can hear the worst swearing and yelling in the world every single day. It seems that they don’t like their children’s interfering with their TV shows, which they watch all the time. They are on welfare so they have the time. The problem is that no one sees nothing and does nothing, even though there have been complaints from everywhere. A couple of weeks ago, I read about a family whose child was taken by social services just because the father smoked pot, and the story had a very tragic ending. However, no one cares about children abused daily or I could say every single minute of the day. Sometimes, I wonder what the rules are. Either they’re too elaborated for me to understand or they’re applied depending on the mood of the social workers. Well, it seems that this is the norm, lately. I can see a lot of mothers riding the TTC. They have toddlers in strollers and they are so absorbed with their cell phones that whenever the little guy says something either they ignore the child or they yell that they can't have peace. I know raising a child is no piece of cake, however, once the child's here in the world, you have to do your best. It's not like the little guy begged you to have it. Anyway, besides everything going on, TTC decided to improve their services. That means, with no exaggeration, that every single time I had to go downtown, whenever I went inside the station, I had my heart in my boots. I knew I’d hear a message and I wasn’t disappointed for a few months. Whenever I’d step inside I could hear one of the messages: there is a delay on line one because of track conditions (or because of signal failure, because of an alarm activated on the train, because of fire at station….). That wasn’t so bad. Bad was when I heard something like: there’s a suspension on line one. Well, that would make my day. I would leave to work or coming back from work but I wouldn’t know how long it would take. For a train trip that should take maximum thirty minutes, I had the joy of being stuck on the subway even for three hours. Well, I shouldn’t complain: there's quite good material on the subway. It’s a nursery of characters. Just take your pick. It’s not like you have anything else good to do. For a while, I started writing poems on my phone but the noise around wore me out and I couldn’t tune it out anymore, so I had to give up the poetry writing. And I was so proud of myself! I hadn’t written a poem since I was twelve and the first three I wrote recently got picked up for an anthology. I’m not very demonstrative, but this time I had to tell myself: good for you girl! A few weeks ago, the town hall decided on fixing an intersection, and that meant that all the intersections related to one of the main roads leading to that crossroads were affected. You could have the chance to be on a bus that needed about twenty minutes to get from one stop to another. I take the express. Don’t get fooled by the name! That one gets stuck in traffic like any other bus. So it takes five minutes per meter! The express way, huh! Anyway, with everything going on, I was a bit angry. A friend told me that people nowadays can’t deal with everything without a good psychologist or psychotherapist and that I bottled too much inside and I needed to talk to someone, as usually I was the one listening and no one would listen to me. I was a bit reluctant at the beginning, however, in the end, I said it wouldn’t be bad. I wouldn't have too much to lose. So, I found a psychologist: it sounded a bit more professional than a psychotherapist (how wrong I was!). Anyway, I went to the first appointment with a lot of enthusiasm. I thought I could talk now, someone would listen… huh… Well, she talked for about 99.99% of the time. I told myself that it was only the first appointment and I shouldn't feel disappointed. Maybe the next one would get better. Well, after three appointments, I knew everything about her youth, her dog and even her aunt. I also got a good piece of advice: don’t skip meals and just relax. She knew nothing about me: it was too difficult for me to put a word in. Every time I’d open my mouth, she’d start talking again. So, due to a very strong preservation sense, I kept my mouth shut and enjoyed the brief moments of silence when she’d run out of steam. After the third appointment I knew it: I’d better spend three hours with a good book then going back to see her. It would do miracles for my well-being. Nonetheless, that decision did me good because I started writing again and I started a lot of interesting projects. However, because of that, I didn’t have time to return to my blog. I saw that people came back to see if I posted something, and I do have to apologize to them. What I can say now is that I will post, probably every day, but not at a specific time of the day. It will work better that way. I’d also like to let you know that meanwhile I’ve had a new book published, both in English and Romanian: Leap of Faith in English, and Meg La Rascruce de Drumuri in Romanian. I will put up the links. If you leave a comment, positive or negative (how could someone learn anything without feedback?), I will send you a coupon so that you could get the eBook free. Till next time! See you! |
ROXANA NASTASEBorn sometime in the past century, living in the 21st century. 
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