“On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again…”

Today was a longer day on the road, but it was much more pleasant. I sometimes like to take the backroads instead of stretches of interstate I’ve already traveled, so before I left on this trip I plotted my course. I had to change it a bit on the fly yesterday because of my late start, but it still provided for some leisurely, scenic, calm driving today. No tractor-trailer rigs about to blow my poor, wee Sentra off the road. No boring stretches of mindless interstate. Instead, I left the interestate at Salem, Illinois and for the most part stuck to state and local highways the rest of the day. I drove through Springfield, the heart of Abraham Lincoln country (as far as Illinois is concerned; I’m a Kentuckian by birth, and Abe will always be a Kentuckian to me), Peoria and countless charming little towns. I particularly liked the northwestern corner of Illinois. It’s not flat like the vast majority of Illinois. It’s full of big, rolling hills covered in beautiful, deep green grass, dotted with picturesque dairy farms. From the top of some of these hills, you can see for miles amd miles in all directions. The landscape stayed pretty much the same as I passed into Wisconsin. It was almost enough to make me want to become a dairy farmer.

Other highlights of the day:

*In one of the small towns in Illinois, I noticed something that harkened back to the “Read all about it!” newspaper days. Outside a newspaper office, there stood a sign with that day’s top local headline on it and the time when papers would be available for sale. By the way, today’s top story was about three locals facing meth charges. Sad. That scourge is everywhere.
*I crossed Route 66. I know it’s just a road, but I thought it was cool.
*East of Galesburg, Illinois, I crossed the railroad tracks I’d taken last summer on my Amtrak trip back to Chicago from Reno. I can’t remember what the name of the little town was at the moment, and my atlas is down in the car and I’m too tired to go get it.
*I stopped for a while in New Glarus, Wisconsin, an adorable little town filled with Swiss heritage. The Swiss Historical Village is located there, but unfortunately I arrived too late in the day to visit. I did walk around the downtown area filled with shops and restaurants with alpine architecture and filled with products from Switzerland and famous Wisconsin cheese.

Thankfully, I don’t have to spend my day in the car tomorrow. I plan to spend the morning writing, then get out and see a few sights tomorrow afternoon.

I’m on my way to a writer’s conference, and I’m hoping the second day of my trip is less blood pressure-raising than the first.

I got a later start today because I realized my car tags run out tomorrow and I hadn’t gotten the stupid registration notice in the mail from the county clerk’s office. Grrr. I’m always good about going early and getting that taken care of, but I’ve been so busy that I didn’t realize I’d not received the notice in the mail until my husband said something — last Friday after I couldn’t do anything about it until today, the first day of business after the holiday weekend. So I hoofed it over to emissions this morning, sat in line for 25-30 minutes only to find out my car failed! Thus, I couldn’t get new tags, and was thinking I’d have to cancel my trip or risk being pulled over with expired tags or endure the not-needed expense of renting a car. Found out I could get a temp tag that’s good until June 28. That way I can take this trip and have time to get my car worked on when I get home. Ugh, I hope it’s nothing super expensive. The emissions guy said it could be something really simple, could even have been because I’d been idling in line for so long. Grrr, I wouldn’t have had to wait in line so long if I’d gotten the renewal notice when I should have. Anyway, had to wait in line 35 minutes to get my temp tag, rummage through my trunk hoping I had a screwdriver to take off the now-useless plate, found a flathead but managed to get the Phillips screws out of the plate and put the temp tag in the back window. I’m sure I was quite a sight in the parking lot of the police precinct (where the satellite clerk’s office is located), hauling my luggage out of my trunk and rummaging in the assorted trunk “supplies” for a screwdriver.

About 2.5 hours later, I arrive to pick up my Mom for a quickie trip through two counties for the annual tour of cemeteries to put flowers on the graves of various family members. Only, it comes a huge storm and we either have to 1) dash through the rain and virtually toss the flowers on the graves to avoid being struck by lightning or 2) sit in the car until said storm passes. We did a little of both.

After dropping Mom off at her house, I wind my way along country roads back to the interstate. I’m already a wee bit tired. Wonder why. Anyway, I head north, leave the state where my parents live and finally encounter sunshine in the next state north! But the tale does have a happy ending — I had enough points with a certain hotel chain for a free night’s stay, and I enjoyed some quesadillas from the Applebee’s conveniently located across the street.

As has been said many times before, tomorrow is another day. And, after all, I really am glad I wasn’t struck by lightning.

It’s my birthday today, so I decided to see what happened on May 29 throughout history like my friend Mary did on her birthday. From Wikipedia:

EVENTS
1660 — English Restoration. Charles II restored to the throne of England.
1677 — The Treaty of Middle Plantation established peace between the Virginia colonists and the local Indians.
1727 — Peter II becomes czar of Russia.
1765 — Patrick Henry, in a speech denouncing the Stamp Act, reportedly said, “If this be treason, make the most of it!”
1790 — Rhode Island becomes the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the Constitution and is admitted as the 13th state.
1848 — Wisconsin admitted as the 30 state.
1886 — Chemist John Pemberton places his first ad for Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal.
1935 — Hoover Dam is completed.
1953 — Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first people to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.
2005 — France rejects the European Constitution, throwing a European Union into question.

BIRTHS
King Charles II of England (1630)
Patrick Henry (1736)
Bob Hope (1903)
Tenzing Norgay, Nepalese sherpa (1914 — Hey, he reached the summit of Mt. Everest on his birthday!)
John F. Kennedy (1917)
Annette Bening (1958)
Rupert Everett (1959)

HOLIDAYS
Memorial Day — sometimes (U.S.)
Oak Apple Day (U.K.)
Tree Day (Venezuela) — Cool! I love trees.

My husband wants to know how many other people can spread their toes like this. He guarantees me that everyone who sees this compelling photo will pull off their shoe and try (and will post to the blog about it — hee hee). Now that you’ve seen this photo, can you go to bed tonight without trying?

OK. Now that you’ve tried on one foot, can you do it on the other? Can you do it without making a face?

For the record, I can’t do this. Of course, I can’t make the Vulcan “live long and prosper” sign with my fingers either.

I have been revising all day, so am too tapped out to think. So I’ll just share this story, which I read yesterday. It’s about the tremendous outpouring of love and gifts for Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner who shattered his ankle during last Saturday’s Preakness race. I found this story very touching, and I don’t mind saying it made me tear up.

Tonight was the big finale as far as the performances go for American Idol. I’ve been trying to vote for Taylor but can’t get through. Hope that means he’s getting bazillions of votes and he wins. He’s not as musically gifted as my Idol fave Chris Daughtry, but he sure is fun and has a great time and seems like a genuinely nice guy. Plus, he’s from the South.

A few years ago, Romantic Times BOOKClub Magazine and Dorchester Publishing teamed up to sponsor an American Idol-type writing competition called the American Title, the winner of which gets a publishing contract. Amazingly, I’ve known most of the winners. Fellow Noodlers Janice Lynn won last year. A previous year, when the contest was still called the New Voice in Romance Contest, saw a tie between another Noodler Norah Wilson and RWA chaptermate Kate Lyon. And last weekend, fellow 2005 Golden Heart finalist Gerri Russell won the lastest American Title. Gerri’s been writing for a long time and so deserves to finally see her book on shelves. Go over to her Web site to check out the cover her winning book, The Warrior Trainer.

LEARNING CURVE
Terry McLaughlin’s debut novel
Harlequin Superromance
May 2006

What it’s about:

High school history teacher Joe Wisniewski may be in a rut, but he dug it himself and he’s not planning on getting out anytime soon. The last thing he wants is to mentor a starry-eyed newcomer, so when he gets an unexpected assignment—Emily Sullivan, a student teacher with a steamroller smile and dynamite legs—he digs in deeper and ducks for cover.

Emily has looked up to the legendary “Wiz” for a long time. In her opinion, the man is coasting these days, and she’s sure a little change in his routine is exactly what he needs. The question is: Will Emily get Joe fired up or just plain fired?

What others are saying:

“…a skillfully developed story with wonderful characters and excellent dialogue…” 4 Stars from Romantic Times

“…sassy, sexy and riotous entertainment…” 5 Stars from CataRomance

“…snappy, entertaining, compelling…richly drawn characters and laugh out loud dialogue…” National Bestselling Author Roxanne St. Claire

To learn more about Terry, visit her website:

My hubby found this video on YouTube.com. I thought it was hilarious and have been guilty of a few of these dances myself.

This afternoon, I sat in front of the TV, anxious to see the running of The Preakness, the second horse race in the Triple Crown. I, like many others, were hoping to see Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro win and take the second step toward being the first Triple Crown winner I can remember. There have only been three Triple Crown winners in my lifetime (Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977, and Affirmed in 1978), all before I was old enough to know much about horse racing.

But instead of seeing Barbaro race to victory, I witnessed what was a career-ending injury, perhaps a life-threatening one. As a cruel twist of fate, while thoroughbred racehorses are powerful and beautiful and fast, they are also fragile. Something as simple as a broken leg can end a horse’s life. I’m praying that this isn’t the case with Barbaro, who broke his right hind leg in two places during today’s race before he even made it to the first turn. It’s so incredibly sad. And even if they can save him and put him to stud, what might have been a wonderful career is over.

For those of you who are writers, do you keep a collection of photos from magazines for character inspiration? I have a fat folder in my filing cabinet with pictures of celebrities, models, average-joe folks. Yesterday, I spent a good chunk of the day going through these photos trying to find the faces I feel match my characters for some new story ideas. Not only did I have to find the right women and the right men, but I had to make sure they matched up in what felt like the right way. And then I had to go through my naming books to pick out just the right names. I feel like when I have the right visual and the right name, the character is so much more three-dimensional in my mind.

For me, one of the best sources of photos is People magazine, particularly their World’s Most Beautiful People and Sexiest Man Alive issues. I need to go through some of the teen mags I have to choose some photos for my young adult characters.

I do the same thing for settings too, whether they’re scenic outdoor shots or home interiors. I don’t always know what I’ll use them for, but either they’ll someday fit a story I’m working on or the photo itself will inspire a story.