I used to be normal.  Or at least I functioned within a semi-normal state of being.  There was a schedule I followed, a general routine.

But ever since I started writing at night & by hand, my life is topsy-turvy & upside-down.

Used to be, I’d actually set my alarm & get up at 8am or so—sometimes earlier.  This is not to say that I am a morning person.  I sincerely am not.  It would always take me a while to really wake up by feeding the cats & exercising for an hour.  (Because I have to do that sort of thing while I’m still sleepy & groggy, otherwise my brain catches on & tries to talk me out of it.  Often succeeding. :runrun )  But the point is, I knew what daylight looked like.  Sometimes I even saw the majority of the sun come up.

After putting in my time on the Torture Cycle or with the weights, I’d check e-mail, update my Twitter & Facebook statuses.  (Because I know y’all wait with bated breath to find out what new bit of excitement is going on in my ever-so-glamorous life & cannot function until I tell you. :muahaha )  Sometimes I’d even work on a new blog post—like this one only, you know, interesting. :moon )

Then, even though it was much closer to lunchtime, I usually grabbed a bit of breakfast.  Or if I’d spent too long at the computer, sometimes I went straight for a heartier lunch.

And after that, with my belly full & my busy work out of the way, I’d pull out my AlphaSmart and get to work.  While it was still light out.

Okay…now turn that upside down & you’ve got my new daily routine.  These days, I’m lucky if I wake up before noon.  But is that because I’m lazing abed, doing my best impression of a diva starlet?  Oh, how I wish. :cuffs   No, it’s because I’m slowing turning into a freaking vampire.

Nowadays, I drag myself out of bed when the sun is already high in the sky & heading down.  The poor Kittehs don’t know what the hell is going on & wonder why I’ve suddenly put them on a starvation diet.  (They definitely aren’t used to not being fed every five minutes. :Huh )

Almost immediately, I head to the computer because it’s already so late, I don’t want anyone thinking I died.  Or usually, because I want to be sure to alert readers to what’s going on here at WIPs or elsewhere before you’re all shutting down your computers & heading home from work.  :oops

It’s all very confusing, I admit.  And I hope you know enough to just show up over here to see what’s going on for yourselves.  Eventually, I will show up.  But in the words of every teenager in every movie who ever ran from inbred cannibals with a group of friends:  Go on without me!  Save yourselves!  Okay, maybe they didn’t actually say that.  I, for instance, would be saying, Get the hell out of my way! & tripping you to buy myself some time! :runrun   (Just sayin’.)

Then, after all of that, I still climb on the Torture Cycle, but I try not to look at the clock when I do it because it’s just too bizarre to be on there at 1pm when I used to be on by 9am.  (Yesterday, it was actually 3:30pm, which almost made me cry. :sick )

Once I finish, I grab some breakfast…except how the heck can I call it that when it’s nowhere near morning anymore?  Most of the time, I don’t even bother with toast or cereal or oatmeal the way I used to.  What’s the point?  I just go straight for lunch.  For some reason, I usually end up back at the computer after that, as well as doing a bunch of the everyday tasks I used to do as soon as I got up.

Then it’s time to get down to business, usually when it’s already very dark & everybody else is getting ready for bed.  And instead of grabbing my AlphaSmart the way I used to, I now grab a tablet & pencil, scribbling until the wee hours of the morning.  Usually until about 3am, sometimes as late as 5am.

I will be the first to admit this is totally bizarre.  It feels bizarre.  I feel as though I’ve fallen into a parallel universe where day is night, light is dark, & it’s apparently normal to be getting up just as the buses are bringing small children home from school. :drinkup

But I also have to say that it’s working for me.  I’m writing faster, having more fun, & getting more done than I have in a long time.   So what can I do?  I think I have to embrace it.  At least until this book is finished & the world turns itself right-side up again.

Last week, I posted on the Brava Authors blog about some of the great new paranormal programming that’s on television right now, & I thought it might be fun to have the same chat here.  Especially since I am nothing if not a dedicated boob-tuber.

So here are some of the shows with a paranormal twist that I’ve been watching lately.  They’re some of the best to come along in a good, long while, if do say so myself. :whip

GRIMM — I love this show! I love that it’s a cop drama, but also has oodles of otherworldly creatures & lore mixed in. And one of the things I enjoy most is how each time somebody turns out to be a “monster,” the monster’s character traits totally suit the human side of the person. You know what I mean… A snake creature turns out to be a slimy slip-and-fall lawyer… An ogre turns out be be a big bully (i.e. ogre) in real life… A wolf turns out to be protective & pack-like…  Can you imagine what it would be like to categorize the people you meet like that?  Bear.  Pig.  Wolf.  Bee.  Love it!

ONCE UPON A TIME — I always group Grimm & Once Upon a Time together because they both started airing at the same time, but they really aren’t anything alike. One is straight paranormal, while the other draws its paranormal elements from the fairy tales & folk lore we’re already familiar with. And I love the fairy tale aspect of Once Upon a Time. The Evil Queen…Snow White & Prince Charming…Rumplestiltskin… But I also love how it takes place in two different time periods, jumping back & forth to show us how current circumstances began in or mirror the past. I also love the heroism & determination of Henry, the little boy who figures it all out & is fighting to put things right, even against the woman who raised him.  (Go, Henry!  Die, Evil Queen, die!)

BEING HUMAN — I’m watching this one, but to be honest, I don’t really like it very much. I had such high hopes, too. A vampire, a werewolf, & a ghost…? Oh, it had so much potential. But even though I continue to watch each new episode just to kind of keep up with what’s going on, I really don’t care about the characters or storylines.  It’s too confusing, too convoluted, too soap opera-ish for my tastes.  And it probably doesn’t help that the acting isn’t all that great.

SUPERNATURAL — As you know, I was a late-comer to this one. Literally, I just started watching it the last time TNT started running the episodes in repeats from the very beginning a few months ago. I also literally kick myself at least once a day for not catching this one from the first moment it aired. :runrun   And as you also know, now that I’ve discovered it, I am completely hooked, verging on obsessed.  I am totally in love with Sam & Dean. (A little more with Dean than Sam, but that’s really none of your business. :angry ) Pretty much everything about this show is freaking amazing—including the music!—& even though I’m only up to Season 6 so far in my viewing, I hope it never gets old & never disappoints, because I want to be delighted, entertained, spellbound, enthralled, horrified…&, yes, obsessed by it forever!

Such great inspiration for a romance writer who adores her heroes a little bit dangerous.  Well, some of them, anyway.

So what do you think…  Are you watching these, too?  Which is your favorites & your least favorites?

And are there any other shows on TV right now with a paranormal twist that I might be missing?  :Huh   I need to know!  My DVR still has, like, ten whole hours left to fill. :dropmouth

“Oh Lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”
~Shakespeare

Happy Sunday, all!  I hope you’ve had a wonderful week & are enjoying what’s left of the weekend.  They go by much too quickly, don’t they? :oops

This week, I AM HAPPY that even though we finally got some snow, it really wasn’t that bad & didn’t get all that cold.  And it’s gone already!  I’m still afraid “the worst” is yet to come, but for now I’m happy I haven’t had to dealt with horrible, awful, frigid conditions.  I kinda hate that. :angry

I AM HAPPY that even though my DVD set of The Commish was damaged when it arrived (sniff-sniff), I was able to get a quick & easy replacement.  Haven’t started watching them yet, but that doesn’t matter…they’re here & I’z happy. :twirl

I AM HAPPY that I finally got all the laundry done.  It’s been piling up for a while, but eventually even I run out of clean underwear. :moon   Okay, so it was more like I started running out of clean pajamas & slipper socks, but those are my work clothes, so I needed them!  And also a bunch of cat stuff—blankies & towels that looked like they were birthing new kitty cats, they were so full of fur.  And The Kittehs love it when their stuff is fresh & warm from the dryer.  I think they actually believe I bought them something brand new. :kitty

I AM HAPPY that a mini middle-of-the-night crisis with Older Kitty earlier this week seems to have been averted.  Poor baby has so many problems sometimes…& others she does amazingly well.  I just never know what might happen or what time it might occur.  (For the record, it’s usually around 3 or 4am.  And even if I’ve stayed up that late, it is always about two minutes after I finally fall asleep.  Al-ways. :sick )

Speaking of 3 or 4am, I AM HAPPY the writing is still going really, really well.  I’m still stuck in this weird up-all-night/sleep-all-day spiral, which is really throwing me (& the cats!) off, but this close to my deadline, I am going with Whatever Works.

That’s probably why my gratitude list is a little anemic these days, too.  Because I’m basically tucked in, writing like a madwoman & just trying to survive the rest.  Doesn’t leave a lot of room for non-TV experiences.

But you guys can handle it, right?  You’re used to my mild bouts of schizophrenia. :rolf

Oh!  I AM HAPPY, too, that all of the 6 Packs/9 Lives Calendars I gave away here at WIPs and Chains last week are in the mail & on their way to the winners!  I’m so sorry that January is coming to an end already & you’ll miss using that portion of the calendar.  In my defense, I didn’t even know these things existed before mid-January, & I can only hope you’ll still fully enjoy them. :cuffs   Heck, if you’re anything like I am, it’ll take you halfway through January of next year to find a good 2013 calendar (an update of one of these, perhaps?!?!?!? :thumbsup ), so you can just flip back & enjoy Hot Biker Dude all over again then.

And don’t forget…obligatory “for a good cause” notation here…you can still order these calendar from FoundAnimals.org for only $7.99 (+ free S&H).  100% of the proceeds go to help homeless animals.  You could even buy a few as gifts for friends—hint, hint. :winkwink

Okay—your turn!  Tell us what’s going on in your life this week & what has you happy, grateful, or simply not teetering on a ledge somewhere. :muahaha

Now to announce the winner of our latest Free Book Friday giveaway, The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde…

:twirl Bobbi!!! :twirl

Congratulations, Bobbi! :thumbsup   Please contact me with your full name & mailing information, & I’ll get your book out to you as soon as I can!

P.S. I’m still waiting for mailing information from the winner of Chill of Fear by Kay Hooper. If I don’t hear from you soon, I’ll return this book to the pile & give it away again at a future date.