Happy Halloween!!

Go check out Sandra's latest!

TracyBelly

Okay, so this was me last Friday morning before I went to work. All my family is in Canada, and some close friends as well, so this is how I'm showing them my progress. This is TracyBelly at 19 weeks-ish.

I'm just quickly blogging before I start getting all sleepy again. It's raining like crazy out there, which is perfect writing weather for me, but it also makes me groggy. My honey got me a Hazelnut decaf and a breakfast sandwich from Dunkin Donuts so that I can be all set for my writing session. I have no excuses.

So I'm fed, my little critter is fed, and I'm sitting here with the laptop on the reclying couch. Feeling sleepy. But off I go anyway! I'm determined to write my little heart out today before I get back to clearing out what will be the baby's room.

Okay. I'm really going this time. Have a great day all ::Yawn::

My Little Guy

This is an ultrasound pic of my little guy. Isn't he cute? Of course, I'm a tad bit biased but I think he's cute as hell. This was about three weeks ago, and he was 16 weeks and 5 days old in there.


It was really funny during the ultrasound because the very first image we saw was of him with his little legs open, just letting it all hang out. The ultrasound tech said that this was not a shy baby, hehe. She said that usually she tells people that she thinks a baby is a boy or a girl, but not to by any gender specific baby clothes yet. With this little guy she said not to even worry about it, and to even plan the nursery if we wanted, because he is clearly a little boy.

I had an amnio at the same time. It was brutal. That's for an entirely other post. The results revealed that there were no chromosomal abnormalities, and that he is definitely a boy. Of course, we knew that already. The nurse said, "He's perfect!" I knew that already too. Hehe!

He was moving all over the place though, and still does. He's a really active little guy, and moves even more when I'm hungry. He sure lets me know when it's time to eat. I always figured that since a baby eat via the cord, that it wouldn't matter when the mother eats, but it's not true. They do know. One lady told me she thought it had to do with blood sugar levels. The baby knows when it's grub time.

I was really tired during the first three months, and had a lot of food aversions. I didn't have many cravings, but what I did crave was italian food. I wanted anything with sauce and spices. Pizza, meatball sandwiches, pasta with meat sauce, anything with sauce. But being insulin resistant because of the PCOS, I have to be pretty careful about what I eat.

I'm starting to know his sleep and wake patterns too. It's pretty cool, really.

As for the writing, I feel more creative but can't seem to write for as long. I get sleepy. Same with reading. But I am working full-time so that might have something to do with it.

Time to get ready for work! I'm going in later today and staying later, that's how I was able to blog. Have a great day all!

Oh Baby!

Gone Baby Gone rocked! I love it! Affleck stayed very true to the novel, with a few minor changes. I loved the authenticity of the movie, and the fact that he used locals as extras and for many of the small parts.

One thing I was a little disappointed in, though, was that Angie didn't really get to shine in the movie. She really kind of stood back, letting Patrick do most of the talking and she kinda seemed a little like background decoration. The Angie in the books is so much more substantial. She's far more kick-ass and is much more of an equal partner in the action.

Also, I would've loved to have seen more of Bubba. Anyone who has read the Patrick and Angie series knows who Bubba is. He's a much loved character with definite moral flexibility. Bubba is a riot. But viewers didn't see even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bubba's personality. They didn't get to see Patrick and Angie taking direction from Bubba as to where to step in his apartment in order to avoid tripping the explosives under the floor. Too bad.

Still, a fantastic film and I'd see it again. In fact, I'll have to buy it when it comes out on DVD. Loved it.

Now some news. I've kept this under my blog hat for a while, for my own reasons. But I'm letting the cat out of the bag today.

I'm a little over four and a half months pregnant!

A big surprise, and I'm not supposed to even be able to have kids without injections or invitro or something, as I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, which makes getting pregnant a trick, and staying pregnant even trickier, even with all kinds of drugs to help stay pregnant. I certainly didn't think I'd make it this far. A large part of the reason I kept this news under wraps.

Also, I'm forty. A woman of forty without polycycstic ovarian syndrome has only a 5% chance of concieving on her most fertile days. So the odds were stacked HIGH against me ever having any kids of my own.

But I wasn't on any drugs. Wasn't even trying. Still not on any drugs.

But it looks like this little critter is staying!

And it's a boy!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I think he's a miracle baby. And it gets me thinking of all the crap I went through in the last couple of years as being choreographed by somebody up there (I'm pointing to the sky), because this never would've happened if it weren't for those crappy events.

I'm now with my very best friend in the world and the absolute love of my life, and I've been sent a little miracle.

So that's my news :)

Of to do some writing. Later all!

Woohoo!

This Friday, the movie Gone Baby Gone, based on Dennis Lehane's book is in theaters. I'm so friggin' excited. Oh man. He's my absolute favorite writer on the planet. No matter what he writes, it gets to me every time. And that particular book really stuck with me.

Morgan Freeman has a lead role in the movie, and I'm a huge fan of his as well. I'll pretty much watch anything he's in. The actors who play Patrick and Angie, the two detective in the series, are new I think. I've never seen them before.

But man, I am SUPER stoked about this movie.

Now if only Lehane would start writing books again. He's been writing plays and screenplays, and he's been writing for The Wire. So he's been a busy boy. But damnit, I miss his books!

Of course, it would be nice to find some time to actually read again, hehe. Have a good week all!

Character Names

I didn't blog yesterday because I had to work. Afterward, I plopped down on the couch for what was supposed to be a little while. HA!

Anyway, I'm quite a ways into this book, although it does somehow seem to keep getting bigger *ahem*, and for some reason want to change my main character's name. This is really a pain in the ass, because when you go to "find and replace" and replace one word with another, sometimes what happens is that other words end up with the character's new name in them. Like a character might end up saying, "I want you to Stacy with me." Instead of "I want you to stay with me." Something along those lines. I'm sure this has happened to you at some point if you're a writer.

And I don't know about you, but I absolutely agonize over character names. I even use Name Your Baby books, have since I was a teenager, to name them. I finally find one that fits, that just feels right, and usually stick with it. But once in a while for some reason, the name stops feeling right. Maybe it's because the character has outgrown the name or has changed so much that the name doesn't suit them anymore.

Like have you ever met a person with a specific name but they really don't look like that name? I once worked with a guy whose name was Jim, and I swear to God, for like two months I kept calling him Dave. He really didn't look like a Jim and he reminded me of a fellow I knew a while back named Dave. It was really bizarre though. The name Jim just didn't want to stick with me. My mind kept rejecting it.

So now, my lead character's name is Meagan. Meg for short. I love this name. But really don't know if it suits her so much anymore. Granted, she wasn't as strong in the first half of the book as she is now. She was down and just trying to keep chuggin' along after a huge trauma. Now she's kicking ass though. So does Meagan fit? I don't think so. Maybe Meg does. I don't know.

What about all you writers out there? Do you agonize over choosing names for your characters? How do you choose them? By meaning? By sound? Do you ever want to change them after you've worked with them for a while?