Question of Fortune

“There is never any harm in asking an honest question.”

Ummm….I think on this point I am going to have to disagree. There may be no harm intended, but harm can certainly come. Or, at the very least hurt feelings.

“Honey, do these pants make me look fat?”

Honestly, if I ask this question, I want an answer. Because if they make me look fat, I am taking those bad boys off!! But, be careful how this question is answered, there is a fine (VERY fine) line between an honest answer and nuclear fallout.

“Where do you see our relationship going?”

Honestly, if you have to ask…it’s probably going nowhere fast.

Most of my questions go something like this, “Can you take your laundry upstairs?” “When do you plan on being home?” “WHY are there dirty dishes in your floor?” I think those are honest questions, certainly no harm in them.

In reality, most questions are pretty loaded though (especially the pants question). Some of them I already know the answer to (especially the pants question). But, I ask anyway.

What is the last really honest question that you have asked or answered? That’s an honest question, no harm in asking.

Live, Laugh, Love~

Vanilla Mama

Lucky Numbers: 5, 10, 20, 25, 35, 40

If you win the lottery, will you share with me? (Yes another honest question, no harm in asking!)

Book Blurb #5 - Blood Flower

Book Blurb #5 (#4 for me!)

The Blood Flower

For every victim there is a flower tied to a tree in the yard…

Red.

For Blood.

And once the Blood Flower has been tied to the tree – there is only 72 hours.

When Detective Margarita Olivera discovers the red bouquet tied to the oak tree in her yard, she knows her investigation has turned personal. She is too close.

After six years of digging into these crimes, now she has become a target herself.  

With her life on the line, only 72 hours left, and a mystery that has been brewing for 6 years…how will Detective Margarita find the killer with a rookie partner?

Margarita will have to put aside her emotions and think like the cold calculating maniac who is stalking her…can she and Harry Turner, her partner, solve the puzzles left for her in time? Or will the Blood Flower Killer leave his mark on her grave.

What is the Book Blurb Challenge - (From the Source!)
Here are the details of Book Blurb Friday. I hope you'll join the challenge!

A "blurb" is the story summary on the back of a book (usually 150 words or less) written to entice you to read the book. Think of your visits to a bookstore or library. A book's front cover may catch your eye, but if the blurb doesn't interest you the book goes back on the shelf; if it resonates with you, you bring the book home.

The goal of this meme is to: Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book. 

Every Thursday evening I'll post a photo that we'll pretend is the cover of a book, along with my 150 words-or-less blurb to match. You are invited to post the photo on your site along with your own 150 words-or-less blurb, and I encourage you to leave your link in the Mr. Linky widget that will be available on this blog.  A link from your site back to this one would also be nice as it will encourage your readers to visit the other Book Blurb participants via Mr. Linky.

Your book blurb is entirely your own creation. Based on the photo, you create the plot and characters, genre, fiction or non-fiction, etc. Think of all the story ideas you will craft! Also, it will be fun linking to other sites to read the various twisty plots and inspired characterizations generated by other participants.

I hope you'll opt to participate in Book Blurb Friday! If you have any questions, please shoot me an email:  writinginthebuff@hotmail.com.

Live, Laugh, Love ~Vanilla Mama

BTW-You will have to at the end of all this figure out which one is the REAL Book Blurb! Which one of the many I am posting is going to be the real one....you will have to stay tuned!

The Admirer - Book Blurb #4

(#3 for me, because I know you are counting!)

Okay – Here it is, the blending of the Fortune Cookie with the Book Blurb!

The Admirer

Melinda read the Fortune Cookie paper she found tucked underneath the door of her hotel room door and began to cry.

“A secret admirer will soon send you a sign of affection.”

The suspense was too great and the running was wearing her out. What kind of twisted game had she gotten caught up in?

What began as a silly internet role playing game with some flirting, had become a deadly obsession. Lines between virtual life and reality had been blurred by one player and “The Admirer” was unwavering in his desire to have and destroy her.

She knew “The Admirer” was out there and had found her, hidden away in a strange city, and time was running out for her.

Beneath the tears, her anger builds and she determines that she is not hiding anymore…Melinda takes out her laptop and a plan begins to form.

-          I was really torn between going creepy or lovey dovey with this one, but honestly…I am not much of a lovey dovey kind of person.

Live, Laugh, Love ~

Vanilla Mama

Lucky numbers: 14, 16, 24, 28, 30, 43. I think Melinda is going to need all the lucky numbers she can get.

What is Book Blurb (Friday), check out my previous post and find out!

Book Blurb #3 - Last Call

(#2 for me if you are counting!)

Last Call

Last Call 

“Last call!” That’s the last thing I remember hearing. 

My world was already spinning and I did not need that last drink, but the lure of ‘Last Call’ was too great. It’s like a sale, it’s like the only chance…it’s the LAST CALL. For some people its shoes or the latest designer fashions on a sale rack at TJ Maxx, coupons at the grocery store, ‘Last Call’ does that to me every time!

As I finished that final shot, a double…it happened. Or did it? That man in the white shirt, did I really see it, the gun or was it knife? Where did the body go?

I saw it.

I think.

Can I trust what I saw, that last moment of lucidity? In a bar full of smoke and mirrors, with a mind hazed with alcohol, did that really happen? How did I get home?

Told you I was playing catch up - headed to bed...will have a new fortune and blurb tomorrow, maybe I can combine the two! 

What is Book Blurb (Friday), check out my previous post and find out!

Live, Laugh, Love~

Vanilla Mama

Book Blurb Friday

This looks like fun -
From  - http://www.writinginthebuff.net/

Picture for blurb -

Here are the details of Book Blurb Friday. I hope you'll join the challenge!

A "blurb" is the story summary on the back of a book (usually 150 words or less) written to entice you to read the book. Think of your visits to a bookstore or library. A book's front cover may catch your eye, but if the blurb doesn't interest you the book goes back on the shelf; if it resonates with you, you bring the book home.

The goal of this meme is to: 

Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book. 

I am coming into this a little late, but better late than never! (This is #2 of the challenge, they are up to #15...I will either catch up, or jump around!)

What Lies Buried

The picture, the overexposed golden picture, came in the mail, postmarked from her home town. No note, no return address…nothing. The sunshine belied the dread that flooded Jenna’s heart as her memory took her back to that tree, no letter was needed to remind her of what happened that day underneath that very tree.

Who had discovered her secret after all these years? Who would taunt her in such a way, and who had found her?

Jenna knew that she had to return to the tree, face the nightmare from over a decade ago, and bury it once more.

If it wasn’t already too late.

Such a simple, dreadful secret with the power to crumble so many…herself included, how will she protect it now that it was unburied?

What do you think?

Character of Fortune

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

Here I am in Arkansas getting ready to register my Pop for college – I am so excited, so proud, so heartbroken all at the same time. Who knew so many emotions were possible in the same heartbeat?

I watched him with pride on Saturday as he walked across the stage and received his diploma, and I managed not to cry. We had a wonderful party for him with a video his father made that is beyond words amazing, this video brought him from an infant to now with well wishes from friends and family, managed not to cry. But, as I am sitting here in the hotel room while he is working out with his new football team – I think I may cry.

It is too real the fact that he is moving away, while I am sitting here. It is too soon that it is happening…seriously wasn’t he just that little baby that would peek at me through the bars of his cribs with his bright eyes in the middle of the night? Wasn’t he just that little boy running through the house with only his diaper on? Wasn’t he just this new big brother holding his little brother, Tart, and poking his cheek to make him giggle? So…where has the time gone?

It has flown. And, here I am.

What on earth does this have to do with my Fortune Cookie? (Which by the way I got at the local Chinese Buffett, along with my Hot and Sour!)

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

It is very valid advice to him and to any graduate as they head into this semi-grownup stage. Life right now is open to them in a way it may never be again. Fresh start on a new campus, new town, new teachers with no preconceived notions of them – Keep your character. Keep your integrity, keep the heart and soul of who you are and grow. This is your shot to really shine, to be on your own and show everyone your character.

How hard is it to recover character? Ask Michael Vick. Ask Congressman Weiner. Ask Arnold – will we look at any of them the same? Think about the friends and family that have through the years let you down…what does that say about their character? Can they recover it with you?

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

My Pop, My Tart (and my Frosting, who is a little young for this), you have amazing character – keep it!

The world is wide open, step into it!

Live, Laugh, Love ~

Vanilla Mama

PS – I don’t know if Arkansas has a lottery…guess I need to look into it! Your lucky numbers are 55, 5, 45, 28, 13, 4.

Lucky Fortune



Silly Dog and Tortuga



“You will be showered with good luck tomorrow.”

OH – PLEASE!! I could use a little.

I apologize for being MIA, I have had quite a bit on my plate. The opportunity I had hoped for came to pass, and today was my (very sad) last day at one full time job. My Pop graduates on Saturday from High School. They are coming to drill through my master bedroom closet for a slab leak and also into my garage floor to compare soil samples tomorrow. I cracked a tooth and it had a HOLE in it – got a filling in it yesterday and hoping I don’t end up with a root canal. Adopted a tortoise – named her Tortuga.

SOOO….needless to say as I am sitting here with my glass of Merlot with stacks of cloths piled around me that came out of my closet, I am actually feeling guilty as I sit to write. But honestly, I do not know where to start with anything that I need to do in the house. If I fold laundry, where will I put it? There is truly NO ROOM in my house that is not piled up, cluttered or otherwise screwed up! I am behind on my non-profit work, sad to leave one full-time job, totally excited to start another, emotional beyond belief over Pop’s graduating and overwhelmed by everything hitting at one time. Poor Tortuga to come into our home at this point in time – but I am hoping that the awesome collard greens I got her will make up for it!

“You will be showered with good luck tomorrow.”

All this being said, perhaps I should get a little cheese to go with my Whine?

I am SO blessed!! So Blessed! I have to praise this wonderful Creator of the Universe – I have a wonderful hubby, Pop, Tart and Frosting, a roof over my head, three jobs that don’t want to lose me (okay – technically two right now, but the FT job I just left offered to keep me on part-time.), a good dog, a tortoise and amazing friends and family to share it with!

The fact that I can get up each morning and face the day – I am showered with good luck, love and fortune (cookies).

Thanks for your prayers and support –

Live, Laugh, Love~

Vanilla Mama

Lucky Numbers – 1, 2, 29, 36, 40, 47. If you are showered with good luck, please let me know!!!