Thanks to All

Fiorella is very fortunate to have good friends, like Jason, who is restoring her baby car for her.  And like Lisa, who told her about two tax deductions she needed to take advantage of.  Like Janece, who regularly gives her sympathy and wise council.  Like Suzy and Ellen, who support her across the miles.  Like Pat, whom she's never met in person.  Like Paula and Sharon, who've stood by her through the years.  Like Jamie and Patricia and Claire, who've helped her with electronics.  Like Jane and Jan, who make her laugh.

And if this reads like an acknowledgment page, it is.

Fiorella's Literary Identity

Who the heck does Fiorella write like? Fiorella sent the first two chapters of Kinkaid House out to RWA members willing to speculate, and the votes are starting to come in.

Friend Janece nominates Grace Metalious of Peyton Place fame, plus Sandra Brown and Tami Hoag, in romance rather than mystery mode.  Friend Vivien, who said KH feels like small-town, but not sweet-tea-and-mint, suggests a cross between a Lifetime movie and Twin Peaks.  "There's an edge here," she adds. "There's that lingering sense that a lot of dark is going on under the surface."  To which Fio replies, "You bet your booty!"

Anyone else want to check out the first two chapters?

Inner Self

Fiorella diagnoses herself as paranoid obsessive.  Always looming over her is the threat of failing to carry out one of her self-assigned responsibilities, of not living up to what she thinks is expected of her.  It's guilt--part and parcel of being brought up Missouri Synod.  To compensate, she writes everything down--there are scraps of paper on her desk and in her "study" that date back to the ice age--and she makes lists to boot.  Office Depot's profit margin is based on her purchases of tablets.

Fio has been known to wake up in the middle of the night to check that she's taken all her pills and that they were the correct ones.  A recurring nightmare is that she's forgotten about one pill or the other a couple of years ago and fate is about to catch up with her.  This morning she suddenly realized that dream she'd often had about finding a baby dead in his crib because she'd forgotten about him doesn't have anything to do with babies (thank you, Friend Janece), but about her fear that unknown things forgotten along the way will come back to bite her.

Are you sure you want to continue reading this woman's blog?  She's crazy.

Eclectic Snippets

Like Dolly, Fiorella's back in town.  Not that she was actually gone, just knocked off the internet till about noon today, which drove her crazy.  No Google news, no e-mail, no blogging.  For someone who calls herself a Luddite, Fio is mighty computer-dependent.
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Looking at the pictures Son took of her, Fio realizes she doesn't really look as good as she thinks she does.  But then, she never did.
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Between the elections and the Longhorns, Fio's going to retreat into her snail shell for the duration.
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What would Fio do without friends?  Tomorrow she's going to have lunch with Joan, and last week she lunched with Sharon.  Last night she wrote a long email to Suzy in England to bring her up to date.  Paula has stood by her for years.  Katie, Janece, and Jane have cheered on her literary aspirations, and Marion even read an early copy of P of BB.  Fio's sure to have left someone important out so please forgive her because she loves you all.