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Cynthia Polansky's Blog (17)

"Lovely Johnson Lane" Has a Buddy

At last, my list of really odd street names has another item! For almost a year now, Lovely Johnson Lane in Annapolis, Maryland has been the sole occupant of this photo-list, despite pleas for submissions of oddly named street signs and their locations. Maybe this will break the stalemate. I give you: "A AND EAGLE blvd" When I picture a boulevard, I see a very broad road with a wide island divider, usually with pretty landscaping and/or decorative. A and Eagle Boulevard is a short street in the… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on August 6, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

How Not to Lose Your Humanity In These Hard Economic Times

As soon as I read the pet article's title, How Not to Lose Your Pet in Our Difficult Economy, my blood began to boil. Tips to prevent people strapped for cash from surrendering their pets to shelters, rescue organizations, or simply abandoning them? It is unthinkable to me that such an option exists.Okay, so I was already a little hot under the collar, so to speak, about a Baltimore "pit bull" who had been doused with gasoline, been forced to swallow gasoline, and ignited (for the outcome of tha… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on July 28, 2009 at 7:54pm — No Comments

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PIG LATIN?

While visiting recently in my mother's kitchen, my brother mentioned that he hadn't received my monthly newsletter in a while."Could it be the spam filter?" I asked him "Maybe you need to whitelist the email addy."I caught a glimpse of my mother's bewildered face. "You have no idea what I just said, do you?" She definitely had the I don't know what you're talking about but I'll be supportive and pretend it's fascinating look. Trooper that she is, she shook her head and cheerfully said, "No, but… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on July 6, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Backyard Tragedy

I was a student at George Washington University when I first heard Washington, DC described as "where local news is national news." Catchy, and true. I've lived most of my life in and around Washington and, not surprisingly, I've been privy to many historical events, good and bad. Even out here in Annapolis -- 22 miles and a lifestyle away from the District -- we aren't immune. Years ago, when the DC Sniper targeted Benjamin Tasker Middle School in nearby Bowie, that was too close for comfort. A… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on June 18, 2009 at 7:20pm — No Comments

"Bite Me"

Ah, remember the good old days, when the title phrase was an efficacious insult instead of the come-hither teen-speak Stephenie Meyer fans have come to associate with all things vampire. I'm probably not the only one who remembers that the whole teen infatuation with hunky vampires began more than 20 years ago with the film, "The Lost Boys." Back then there was less blood and more imagination, kind of like the movies of 60 years ago when the camera panned up to the stars after the final kiss clo… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on June 9, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

"Gee, I Wish I Was a Man..."

"...I'd join the Navy!" Thus reads a WWI Navy recruiting poster. One look at the modern Navy tells us that we've come a long way, baby. Since a very young age, I'd wanted to join the Navy; its structure, solidarity, and purpose always appealed to me. I might have been among the first class of women to matriculate at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1976. Obviously, my life took a different direction, but I confess that I still harbor (no pun intended) a wistful penchant. Living in Annapolis and working… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on May 19, 2009 at 7:08pm — No Comments

Gene Weingarten, This One's For You

Those of you who read the Wasington Post Sunday magazine are familiar with columnist Gene Weingarten, whose perspective on everyday occurrences is laugh-out-loud funny. My favorite is from a few years ago, before phishing had gone mainstream. The Post had installed a state-of-the-art spam filter guaranteed to weed out links to porn sites or any emails with "questionable" language. Unfortunately for the human resources department, it also blocked solicited resumes from highly qualified job applic… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on May 5, 2009 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Gene Weingarten, This One's For You

Added by Cynthia Polansky on May 5, 2009 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Yom HaShoah

April 21, 2009 is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a memorial holiday brought to the forefront of contemporary American life with Steven Spielberg's 1994 film, Schindler's List. It certainly made me more cognizant of the profound implications of this day of observance. I didn't realize, though, that Yom HaShoah was not an outgrowth of a menschy film director's cause; it was established by Israel in 1951, seven years before my birth and less than a decade after the end of World War II. I… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on April 20, 2009 at 7:20pm — No Comments

FEAR NOT THE SUCK ZONE!

Most of us know by now that an author's success is part skill, part determination, and part luck. The mystique of the published author rarely translates in real life to major celebrity and glamour. Consequently, my book signings at Borders are very different from, say, Carly Phillips.' Because I'm not a household name -- yet -- I don't have an entourage ushering me to a skirted table with stacks of books, bottled water, and extra Sharpies. Well, actually, that's not true; I did experience that k… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on March 31, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

Gimme an E...book

It's been ten years (really five, in technology years) since the eBook first appeared on the scene to change reading life as we know it. I'm talking way back, before Facebook and Twitter, when DOS was still a viable part of our techno-reality. I was still hunting for a publisher for Far Above Rubies when my then-agent hooked introduced me to a man with a vision: treat eBooks with the same respect as we do print books, and the industry will sit up and take notice. He started an e-publishing house… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on March 11, 2009 at 7:53pm — No Comments

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO

I’m a literal person, inept at verbal volleyball and frustrated by euphemistic rejection phrases like "not right for our list" or "not sure how to market this." I hate using slang and improper grammar to craft authentic-sounding dialogue in fiction. Forget about using words like fantastic, fabulous, awful, and lousy in their literal sense (of a fantasy, of a fable, awe-inspiring, and lice-ridden); only 19th century novelists get away with that. We also have a h… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on January 19, 2009 at 3:43pm — No Comments

Desperate Housescribes

I have just finished slogging through the pile of stuff I amassed at this year's BEA. I know, I know -- the show was in late May, but I prefer to think that I'm such a busy, successful writer, I don't have time to plow through mundane administrative chores. Can anyone spell D-I-V-A? Actually, I do want to share some useful albeit sensitive information I found in one of the daily BEA editions of Publishers Weekly. Random publishers (not Random House Publishers) were asked to comment on their mo… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on September 24, 2008 at 10:30am — No Comments

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS: It's Not Just for Witches Anymore

NEW AGE NOVEL COMES TO SALEM Yes, Salem is where they held the infamous Witch Trials of the 17th century. Salem also played host to the cast and crew of Sixties TV hit Bewitched. And Salem is the perfect venue for New Age writers like Cynthia Polansky, author of contemporary women's novel REMOTE CONTROL (Echelon Press 2008). NOT YOUR MOTHER'S GHOST STORY Set in the afterlife, REMOTE CONTROL has all the wit of Bridget Jones' Diary and the paranormal elements of The Lovely Bones. Polansky, a nati… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on May 6, 2008 at 4:17pm — No Comments

The Forces of Evil

Okay, just because I wrote a paranormal novel doesn't give the Universe the right to slap me with bad karma. It seems the book signings I schedule for my new novel "Remote Control" are succumbing to some sort of poltergeist. Two weeks ago I was on my way to a store signing about an hour's drive from my home. Traffic was a bit worse than I expected, so I called the store to assure them that I was about five minutes away. With an apathy typical of young store clerks who haven't yet mastered the

… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on January 25, 2008 at 11:49am — No Comments

Feature Article in the Annapolis "Capital" Sunday, Dec. 16th, 2007

the local Annapolis newspaper did a nice feature story on me at the launch party for Remote Control. To read the article, click here:

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/12_16-02/LIF

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Added by Cynthia Polansky on December 20, 2007 at 12:43pm — No Comments

Stranger than Fiction

I am awakened from a sound sleep (which is actually a good thing because I was dreaming that people were chasing me, trying to throw pies in my face) by three forceful knocks on my hotel room door. "Hotel security!"

A glance at the bedside clock says it's 6:30 a.m. in Schaumburg, IL. I stumble out of bed to the door and look through the peephole. Sure enough, there stood a couple of macho men in black with ear pieces and dark glasses. "Can I help you?" I croak through the door.

… Continue

Added by Cynthia Polansky on October 1, 2007 at 12:11pm — No Comments

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MORGAN'S OWN BLOGSPOT

New Killer Career Excerpt at Acme Authors Link

Hi Gang,
Today, I've got a new Killer Career excerpt up at http://acmeauthorslink.blogspot.com/ . This one continues from the first excerpt I posted on Monday at http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com/

If you're curious about my recently released romantic suspense, come on over to one or both blogs to check it out.

Thanks,
Morgan

Time Out for Kindle Reading

Our local library has 8 kindles available for its patrons. The DH and I both got on the waiting list, mainly so I could use one. His number was reached and we picked up the kindle on Sunday afternoon. Now I've got a kindle to read for 2 weeks! So far I'm really loving it, especially the current book I'm reading, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

What about you? Do you own a kindle? Or, have you tried someone else's? Would you like to?

Who's Doing Cyber Monday?

I'm very carefully going to check out the Cyber Monday deals. I have a few items in mind that I plan to buy, but it would be very nice if they'd go on sale and save me some money. I won't be spending much. Can't afford to do so this year.

What about you?

Did You Shop on Black Friday?

There's still time to take the poll to the left about what you ate at Thanksgiving.
About Black Friday -
The DH despises mob scenes, but my brother and I do love the adventure of shopping on Black Friday. We weren't courageous enough to get up at the crack of dawn, though, so we did miss out on a few goodies, like the snuglee blankets and pots and pans sets at Menards, and some other items. I did manage to get some work gloves at almost 50 cents each pair, and a boot/shoe dryer which sounded interesting and was less than $9.00. The biggest extravagance there was this turntable with MP3 encoding/AM FM radio combination thing, but that was only $49.00, which isn't too bad. I didn't go for any of the high ticket items.

I didn't do too bad, but do have some Staples rebates to send in. They're pretty easy to do online, so I don't mind doing them. I bought some USB flash drives, batteries, and CD rewrites there.

I also bought a reversible light grey, almost white bubble coat and some grey boots at Walmart, both items $7.00 each, which I plan to use walking Rascal.

What about you? Did you shop on Black Friday? If so, what kind of deals did you get?

So, this year I was pretty practical, but it was still fun and I did get a few things I hadn't expected to find.

What about you? Did you shop on Black Friday? If so, what kind of finds did you get?