Altered-Altered States

Since I still cling like a barnacle to the academic schedule, this is presidents' week. It was always my favorite vacation week as a kid, because we never traveled, never had company and there were no family obligations. (Sweet sociable kid, wasn't I? I haven't changed. But I think it was my parents' secret favorite, too.)

As a teacher, I love it for precisely the same reasons. And as a writer—well, let me see, where was I when my alarm to post the blog went off. Oh, playing a computer game. But this time, I have an excuse. And before I rationalize my gigantic time waster of the day, let me say that this blog will prove what a ginormous dork I am. (Like I don't already get 100 dork points for saying ginormous).

Rationalization for not writing today follows. (People I have been nagging to work on their books should not read any further.) So the WIP is different. Different in a lot of ways, but the way that was frustrating me last night and today was because John and Mason are separated for most of this and the next chapter, which is very unlike me as a romance writer. I missed them together. So I borrowed the love of my life's Sim 3 game and made them a happy home. They are adorable together. Mason wants to have John's babies, but I don't quite know how that works out. I'm not a regular Sim-gamer. And I don't know how Mason and John work out in the book either because I'm a panster. But seeing them happy made me feel more determined to write them to that happy ending.

But then the blog alarm went off and I realized I had no idea what to write about. Now, people have often asked if the characters who all live in Florida and know one and other would ever get together. So with the thrill of a Sim-god raging in my blood, I built a giant house and threw all six of them in together. Noah and Cameron from Diving In Deep, Joey and Aaron from Collision Course and although you haven't met them officially yet—their excerpted selves are floating around—Kim and Shane from No Souvenirs which comes out March 9. To make life really interesting, I also threw in a Simmed Dean Winchester (who is not my creation but Eric Kripke's) because two prickly personalities (Kim and Aaron) and one aloof bastard (Cameron) were just not enough for fun.

In the first five seconds, Dean hurt Joey's feeling; Aaron and Shane got into an argument; Kim walked off into the yard; and Cameron disappeared while I was watching the argument. They weren't even in the house yet.

Immediately after they got into the house, Dean turned on the TV. Cameron, Kim, and Aaron all joined him on the couches. Noah and Shane got on the computers and Joey turned on the stereo.
Dean and Aaron argued, but Dean and Kim got along. Joey danced with Shane and flirted with Kim. I sent Aaron over to talk to Joey, and when I clicked that one of his options for conversational openers was to complain about Kim. I left them alone for a few seconds, and they disappeared upstairs for what EA games calls "WooHoo."

Kim and Shane played catch on the lawn. Cameron ignored everyone and got on the third computer. Then Kim made supper which he ate with Dean out on the patio. Joey ate in at the counter and left his dish there. Aaron started cleaning. And then I figured any more fact finding would be enough to have everyone stop reading so I turned it off, and I swear, I'm getting back to John and Mason right now. Not the Simmed ones either. The ones with issues that can't be resolved by shoving them into a pretty suburban house and making them flirt.

Given the two ways of creating reality, I think I like being a writer god more than a Sim-god, especially because I'm much better at typing than I am at mouse clicks, and I'd rather skip the boring parts of TV watching and cooking and just do the flirting and the fighting and woo-hooing. So who else altered reality today?

And in other dork news, Joey and Aaron celebrated Valentine's Day and Kim denied wanting a prince in this free story.