St. Patrick’s Day is probably my favorite pointless holiday of the year! There are two basic reasons for this—and neither of them are my rich Irish heritage. (Incidentally, I do have Irish heritage, but considering those people died in the US a century before I was born, I don’t really have a strong attachment to the culture from them.)
No, my real reasons are at least half ridiculous:
1.) When I was in college, I spent Thanksgivings with my aunt. Randomly one year when we got up silly early for Black Friday, we began speaking in an Irish accent. These things only make sense before 5 AM.
2.) My first novel, due out next year, features a character from Ireland. I just finished a round of edits on the sequel, which features even more characters from Ireland (6!), so I’m up to my neck in Irish accents and slang and culture. I’ve spent approximately 1,000,000 hours studying it 😉 .
So to celebrate, I’m going to share a little “true” Irishness with you.
Head on over to my author blog for a few minutes to share in my good news. Here’s a little teaser:
My first novel, Saints and Spies, will be published by [Redacted] in 2013!!!
The book is about an LDS (Mormon) FBI agent who has to go undercover as a Catholic priest to root out the mob in the parish. Falling for the parish secretary? That’s just the beginning of his problems.
I got the email Friday morning while working away at a writers’ retreat (where I pounded out 27,000 words on a new novel that I’m very excited about, too!). It was fantastic to share that with other writers face to face, especially when those writers are some really good friends.
I’ve answered a bunch of pertinent questions at the end of the post—with a link to the first chapter of the book—so I suggest you head on over and take a look! Thank you!
Halloween is coming up and we love to dress up as a family (since the kids are still young enough to agree!). We haven’t settled on this year’s costume, so I’m coming up with as many ideas as possible. We always make our own costumes (and I’ve included pictures of every year here) in a family theme. Please note that I’m not saying that I think these ideas are good/creative/funny, nor that you should buy these costumes; they’re just everything I found. Also note: the links below are Amazon affiliate links; I earn a small percentage of any purchase you might make after following the links. (Thanks!)
Most of these use “babies” to mean toddler or infant, and “kids” to mean grade schoolers (since, let’s face it, how many teens do family-themed costumes?).
Daddies: Lawrence Fletcher (white polo with red cuffs & hem and green shield/pocket on chest, blue pants or jeans, glasses), Dr. Doofenshmirtz (black turtleneck, gray pants, lab coat, large “inator” [water gun]), Major Monogram (olive drab with purple MM monogram) Mommies: Linda Flynn-Fletcher (white collared shirt, yellow sweater vest, green capris, red hair) (or Lindana: pink tube top, gold hoop earrings, jean jacket, green hairbow with pink polkadots, TOY belt buckle, green miniskirt, grey tights, pink? leggings), Candace (coral shirt, white skirt with red ribbon/belt, coral socks, white shoes, orange hair) Sons: Phineas (orange and white striped shirt, blue shorts, red hair), Ferb (white shirt, high-waisted purple shorts with gray ribbon/belt, green hair), Buford (black skull shirt, olive drab shorts, wallet chain), Baljeet (white shirt, jean shortalls) Daughters: Candace, Isabella (white shirt, pink jumper dress, pink hairbow) Babies: Perry the Platypus (Agent P) (green onesie, green tights, tail, bill, flippers and fedora)
Daddies: Dave Mommies: Chipmunk, Chipette, Beatrice Miller (Chipettes’ “mom”) Sons: Alvin the Chipmunk (or Simon or Theodore) Daughters: Chipettes or Chipmunks Babies: Chipmunk/Chipette
Daddies: Steve, Blue, Mr. Salt Mommies: Magenta, Periwinkle, Mrs. Pepper Sons: Blue, Green Puppy, Steve Daughters: Blue (she’s a girl, you know), Magenta, Periwinkle Babies: Green puppy, Blue (crawling/walking or in arms), Cinnamon, Paprika
Daddies: Willy Wonka (hat), Mr. Bucket, Grandpa Joe Mommies: Grandma Josephine, Mrs. Bucket, any of the mothers or girls Sons: Charlie, Oompa Loompa (Green wig or black wig) Daughters: Violet, Veruca, Oompa Loompa Babies: Oompa Loompa
Possibly for three children or a family of three: butcher (make your own unless you’re going for terrifying), baker kids or adults, candlestick maker (ummm . . . ?)
Men: Mr. Body (Dr. Black outside of North America), Col. Mustard, Mr./Rev. Green, Professor Plum Women: Mrs. White, Miss Scarlet(t), Mrs. Peacock Kids: as above, dice, murder weapons
edits on the sequel, which features even more characters from Ireland (6!), so I’m up to my neck in Irish accents and slang and culture. I’ve spent approximately 1,000,000 hours studying it 😉 .
