Heather Foeh

In my “free” time, I’m a writer. Or at least, I’m trying to be. Yesterday I started Book in a Week. The concept is to vomit out the first draft of your manuscript in 7 days. You may not believe this, but it can actually be done. It’s not beautiful and there are plenty of gaps (”…insert description of house here…”) but at least you get the story and character arc down on paper and have something to work with. I did this last year and found that it worked really well for me. I then particpated in NaNoWriMo last November and again found that I write better in consolidated chunks of time. So here I am again working on a new manuscript and I want to get this sucker out of my head and onto the computer. And guess what - I’m a glutton for punishment because I plan on participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. Which means that I’ll be busting out with another manuscript in November. That also means that the months of December and January will be filled with revisions.

Hooray!! A new yoga studio is opening up in mid-October and it’s only .6 miles from my house! How lucky am I?  It’s called simply Yoga Center and it looks like they’re going to have a wide range of classes, and they’ll also offer Pilates and treatments such as massage and reflexology. I can’t wait to try it out and I’m going to attend their Open House on October 16th.

Our little town of Fredericksburg has a great new business — a cocktail lounge called Proof. It’s in a wonderful space, tucked away between two buildings. You feel like you’re heading into a speakeasy! You can sit in the narrow outdoor path or get comfortable inside. The decor is mod - simple tones, leather furniture, big wooden bar, large fireplace. It’s perfect. We’ve been twice so far and have had excellent drinks and prompt service both times. There’s not a website yet (maybe they need to hire BlueBranch to build them one?), so I’ll post their address the old-fashioned way: 215 West Main Street, Fredericksburg, TX 78624. If you’re in town, stop in - you won’t be sorry.

I really like the look and feel of the new Google Chrome browser. Have you tried it out? If not, I recommend it - see what you think: http://www.google.com/chrome. It’s fast and sleek and has a lot of great features for keeping each tab separate from one another, so if one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t crash. Now, if only my favorite plug-ins from Firefox would work in it….

We had the extreme pleasure of seeing Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in concert on Friday night in The Woodlands (that’s in the Houston area for you non-Texans). The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion is a great venue and we had excellent seats about 20 rows from the stage. They put on an awesome show - everyone in the band is an amazing musician. It was the final night of their tour they really seemed to give it their all. We stayed at the The Waterway Marriott — apparently along with everyone else who went to the concert — and it was fabulous to be able to walk back there after the show rather than fight those invariably long post-concert traffic lines. All in all, a wonderful weekend and a wonderful way to celebrate my parents’ 40th anniversary!!!

Oh, I love this new ad from the ONE campaign.

Want to join? It’s free. Visit www.one.org and sign up.

I’ve been reading a few articles here and there about Knols - the new item from Google on their quest for world domination. (By the way, I say that without any malice. I like things to be orderly and easy to find, so if Google can make the whole world that way, I’ll roll over and let them rule us all. Sorry.) What the heck is a knol, you ask? According to the site: “A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.”

I checked out the Knol site tonight and read through a few of these authoritative articles and I was underwhelmed. There seems to be an overabundance of health-related articles. They are written by doctors, so I guess that’s a good thing, and if I ever need more information about Ganglion Cysts, I know right where to go. One thing I don’t like is that there’s not really a browsing method. You can search just fine (hello, it’s Google), but one of the things I love (and HATE) about Wikipedia is that I can keep clicking related links for three days straight if I want to. The Knol site doesn’t have that interconnectedness (a.k.a., quagmire of non-productivity) and I think it needs it. The search box is scary - I don’t know what I want to search for. I want to browse, dammit.

I haven’t really figured out the allure of the Knol yet, nor am I sure what Google will get out of it…other than the fact that there are 2 ads on the right hand side of each topic. But really? Are those two little ads per page enough to make them want to create the Land of Knol?

Anyone else have an opinion??

YAY! I had a great trip to San Francisco. My daughter and I did some great sight-seeing (and nearly froze to death!) and the entire RWA Conference was a blast. I’m so lucky to have so many talented writer friends. I feel better and smarter just hanging around them - you’ve gotta love that!

Now tomorrow I’m back to the real world and my brand new job at Eloqua. I’ll be spending the week in Toronto getting up to speed, meeting people, getting my computer, signing papers, etc, etc. Whew! More later…

Thank you, George W. Bush - you bought me a Kindle with your Economic Stimulus Check.

Seriously, I’ve been wanting a Kindle for a while, but I had a hard time justifying the cost. So when the “fun money” of the stimulus check arrived, I decided it was the perfect moment to take the plunge. And MAN am I ever glad I did! It’s small, it’s super readable, it’s easy to use and I’m thrilled. The only downside that I can see is that it’s too easy to order books. It doesn’t really feel like you’re spending money. You just navigate to the Kindle Store from the Kindle itself, find your book and click Buy. Voila! Super handy and super scary.

So far I’ve reined myself in to just two purchases (however, one of them was the Harlequin 1-click Blaze buy — all 6 July books for $9.99). But I think a magazine subscription is next on the list… I’ll keep you posted.

Good heavens. I’ve been such a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of girl lately that I didn’t even catch that my friend Catherine Morris tagged me! Sheesh! So…better late than absolutely never… here are 6 random things about me. (Catherine - I feel your pain: how to know if they’re random?!)

1. I’m a big nerd. I love the cool things that technology can do. Just yesterday I took my Mini Cooper in for an oil change. They took my key and plugged it into a little thingy hooked up to the service computer and VOILA! out came a print-out saying how many miles my car had on it, what services were needed and which ones were not. I love that. LOVE THAT.
2. I have a huge sweet tooth and really would rather eat cookies than dinner almost any day of the week. I love cake for breakfast, especially Red Velvet (The Official Birthday Cake of Heather Foeh for 39 Years).
3. My pseudonym is Emma Clair. Why do I have a pseudonym when I don’t yet have a published manuscript? It’s the power of positive thinking. I’m visualizing being Emma Clair full time somewhere in the future. And by the way, Emma would love to live in France.
4. My nose is pierced. Now, everyone reading this blog probably already knows that I’m sure. But I still like that about myself. I wanted one for years before I actually took the plunge 2 years ago, and when I look in the mirror, I still really like my little shiny nose stud. It’s my late-30’s rebellion.
5. I cannot possibly watch the Pride and Prejudice miniseries (with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle) enough. It’s like comfort food for my soul. The words are beautiful. The story is beautiful. And HELLO - Colin Firth is also beautiful. He is absolutely superb to watch in that movie.
6. If I had my life and career choices to live over again, I would be an FBI agent. I’d like to be on the technology side of things - thwarting hackers and internet bad guys. Special Agent Foeh has a nice ring to it. Please take a moment to picture me saying it as I flash my shiny badge.

Now, according to the rules, I need to tag 6 other people. However, Catherine already chose three of the people that I would have chosen as well (Michelle McGinnis and Lexi Connor and Nicole Reillan), so does that get me off the hook for six?

• Jane Sevier
• Monika Schulze
• Jeanell Bolton

The rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you
• Post the rules on your blog
• Write six random things about yourself
• Tag six random bloggers by linking to their blogs
• Leave comments on their sites to let them know they’ve been tagged
• Let your tagger know when your entry is up