Rob's Halfway House #11

[marielle]

offer accepted!!!! We almost bought a big house!!!! Only financing it all could become an issue...

[Susie]

Lynne and Austin - Luta's book is a little different. Try to shift your mind from fiction to a 70 year old woman from the Congo and her memoir of her life in the Congo and the U.S. She wants to be able to sell it/give it to her family and friends in the Congo as well as to Congolese immigrants in the U.S. As an unknown author, getting a memoir published by an official publisher is nearly impossible. Also keep in mind that Luta has very limited resources. She and her husband had to flee the Congo with only their suitcases and although he was a college professor there, the banks/government was so corrupt their money was lost. She was a community organizer there when it was unheard of for a woman to have any kind of power and she is still doing that today in any way she can. There is still a place for books in the world - not everyone has access to laptops, smart phones and e-readers. Austin - DO NOT RING THE FUNERAL KNELL FOR HARDCOVERS! That just makes me sad.

[GrayceM]

OMG! Marielle, that is wonderful news! /clap

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[openfire]

Happy Friday all!!

Can you believe it is nearly October??? Mental!!

Not really been up to much. Been to the cinema a couple times. We saw The house at the end of the stree which was really good. Anyone else seen it? Jennifer Lawrence was really good. Story was NOT what I was expecting at all - defo a big twist that you did not expect!! Very chilling! And then on Wednesday we saw Now is Good, which is based on a very excellent book Before I Die. As you can assume from the title, it is terribly sad. The film was good; the book is better. Both are heartbreaking!!! Anyone read/saw it?

To the posts!


Lynne - So can you give us a plot synopsis on your new book, or would you rather not just now?

Marielle - Yeah none of us have ever had an iPhone, but you hear people say good things about them. Tho I'm guessing there are bad things too LOL. He ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm going to see what it's like and then maybe get myself one too!
Let me know if you guys do ever plan another Holland HHCon, cos I would love to try and make it! We should just have a EuroHHCon! Could be in Holland...or London or something!
CONGRATS ON THE HOUSE!! That is great news!!! When will you get the keys etc?

Austin - I LOVE your "full cirlce" idea for the scene after the credits! Unfortunately I don't think they would do that, but it would be really cool. And a proper wee nudge to the fans! But, like I said before, I think it will be Jake & Renesmee...maybe their wedding or something...

Suzan - Yay to getting marathon tickets!! Is it all the movies or just BD1&2?

Grayce - Sorry about all the drama with your hubs ex. That is such a shame that she seems to be taking our on her own kids... You and your hubs seem to be handling the situation well though... I hope everything works out ok soon
And, your and your hubs are soooo sweet about your boys' friend! That's such a shame that he doesn't have much - you are very sweet to help him out!

Susie - Hi there! Hope you manage to catch up ok!

Caryn - HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you had a lovely day & got spoiled rotten!!

Everyone I missed - HELLO THERE!


I am going out tomorrow night with my new work. We are going to an Indian place - yum! Then on Sunday, hubs & I are going out for the day to the races. Should be fun apart from the weather... it is to be pouring LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

[Tornado]

Morning all!

We had a digger in here yesterday levelling our backyard, and today we are preparing a trench with a drain to try and keep the water away from our house when it rains (the backyard sloped straight towards the house). We'll also be putting a retaining wall in on some of it. A lot of work, but we hope it will keep our downstairs area from the small leaks it's been getting.

Austin - sadly, there are plenty of people who shell out thousands of dollars to publish hard copies of their books themselves. Yes, it is incredibly risky. Refusal by a traditional publisher is not always a sign that the book isn't worth the effort, because publishers get so many manuscripts. We get 500 a year (not including any we get from authors we already publish) and we usually publish about 20 of them! So there are plenty that are good that we have to turn down because they're not quite as good as another, or because the author hasn't got a professional edit, and there are just too many issues in it for us to fix ourselves. But most people self publish because they think their book has been refused unjustly, not realising that there is so much work yet to be done on it, and that's when the trouble starts. Fifty Shades of Grey was self-published.

marielle - congratulations!

Susie - Actually, memoirs like that can be good sellers, especially if they had to flee the country. That's a good selling point. It would depend, of course, on what else the book contained as to how interesting the rest was. I think there will always be hard copies of books, but soon only the most popular ones will make it to hard copy.

Jaclyn - I can give you an idea. There's no sci-fi or fantasy element in this one. It is set in the real world. My book is about a bestselling Australian crime and mystery thriller writer (he's not based on anyone real!) who is a hardbitten, cynical man. He gets tricked into mentoring the winner of a novel competition, who turns out to be a demure, young Christian widow who's written an inspirational fiction based on her own story, covering the loss of her husband in a car accident five years before and the people who she helps now in a grief support group she runs. They clash, of course, because he has a negative view of everything in the world and she always tries to have a positive one. And, as you'd expect, they fall in love.

[Chernaudi]

Hi everyone.

I had a pretty good (but exhausting) day at work. But I did get paid today. I got some more wine--a chardonnay this time--and it was about as putrid as the red I got the other day. Thank god for the root beer I bought today, too, since mixing it with the wine seems to make it tolerable, if not actually pretty good.

And I do have to admit that Taco Bell has some pretty good stuff, such as their chicken fiesta salad, and their cantina bowls and wraps. Might have to pick those up on Monday when I get off work. I'm also gonna start, on occasion, at least, stopping my convenience stories to get stuff on my way into work.

At least there's nothing new on the Kristen and Rob rumor front, at least nothing that didn't get shot down as fast as it was posed. As I said, we know that they talked, but outside of that, it's all rumor and conjecture. We don't know what Kristen and Rob talked about, or how many times that they've seen each other, or how often they've talked, texted, or emailed. But I swear to god that it's easier to kill cockroaches than these rumors. It's like trying to kill a Guyver or a Twilight vampire or vampire hybrid or shape-shifter or, for a real life example, destroy an Abrams tank, all with a plastic spork--an exercise in futility.

Speaking of fast, Audi qualified 1-2 today for the 6 Hours of Bahrain that's set to be held tomorrow. That's a bit of turn around from Brazil and they believe that they fixed to a large degree their issues with tire wear that dogged them in Brazil.

And as I posted at the HH FB, I do have to say that I'm happier than I've been in quite a while since I started working at my new job, and I now have some money to spend...Sometimes, life is pretty cool.

That's all for now. I do believe that I'm missing some stuff, but I'm a bit tired at the moment and I have a few things to attend to.

I'll be back later

[Tornado]

Goodness, it's been quiet here overnight. Where is everyone?

Sean - it seems your opinion of alcohol is pretty much the same as mine!

[Chernaudi]

Sorry that I didn't have much to talk about today, but not many people were talking or posting and I've been pretty much out of it most of today anyways. So I'll be heading to bed soon and hopefully business will pick up soon. Good Night everyone.

[Chernaudi]

Sorry to double post, but I gotta vent a little bit.

This is an installment of same crap, different day, and, of course, it's a Robsten rumor. A few people on Twitter have said that they saw Kristen and Rob having dinner at the Soho club last night, and they're pretty insistent that they saw them there together. To me, IMO, it's another rumor that needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Two people have commented that they saw R&K, and a couple of my friends have linked to it on their Twitters.

I have nothing against people saying that Kristen and Rob may be back together--hell, I'm sort of hoping for it personally--but meetings don't mean that they're a couple again. It could be business for all we know, which is basically nothing. My opinion is photos, multiple witnesses saying the same things with consistent, coherent details, or IMO, it probably didn't happen.

I hate to sound like I don't want to believe every person who has a K&R story, but right now, I can care less what Kristen and Rob are doing. I'm not that interested, and it's none of my damn business, anyways. I will say this: it's sad when two people's lives become entertainment fodder for the rest of the pathetic, IMO insane, so-called fans who don't respect Kristen and Rob as people. Me, I admire them as actors, entertainers, and there's things that I like about them as people and human beings.

And I'll let this be known. IMO, you don't have to love or like Kristen, you don't have to love or like Rob, but when people start talking crap about them for the sake of it, be it Kristen, Rob, or the both of them, that's where I'm gonna draw the line. At least everyone here seems to abide by that without me asking, and I wanna say thanks to you for that, but some don't always believe in the axiom of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". I'd add to that the phrasing of "if you are gonna say something bad, don't be a butthole about it". I have taken my toys and gone home with people like that once, and I'm not afraid to do it again. Thankfully, I don't feel such pressure here, but I'm just letting everyone know that outside of this realm (TL HH and FB HH), I'll probably be pretty quick to call people out on their bluffs and I will unfriend and block if need be.

Sorry for venting, but I've had enough of the rumors and crap. I'm OK with people talking about and speculating about Kristen and Rob getting back together, but I'm not losing sleep over it. I had that happen to me when the scandal broke. I have more important, and more positive things going on in my life right now, and I love sharing these experiences with all of you. I hate it when people over analyze rumors and report it as fact without stating relevant evidence. As I said, I will admit to there being IMO a preponderance of evidence about K&R hooking back up, but I'm not ready to jump that ship yet. I need something more than Twitter sightings and fan reports that are unverifiable.

And of course, tomorrow isn't gonna be very enjoyable, since I have some meeting at 9:00, and then I have work from 12:00-2:00. That means that I might have a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do, depending on how long the meeting may last.

Well, I hope that this clarifies some things, and I just needed to vent because I think that so many people are jumping the gun on Kristen and Rob being an item again because of a few meetings in which no one knows what exactly goes on. People can believe what they want, but we also have to be realistic and keep all avenues open. These meetings can mean anything, business or personal. We have to keep an open mind, and keep our expectations in check until verifiable info about any of this being more than just casual meetings comes out.

And I don't know if I'll be online much later. I have to get some sleep for my meeting and work, and I haven't been feeling good the past couple of days. Wish me luck for making it though tomorrow.

I'll be back later

[older_twilight_fan]

Hello everyone~

Sorry I've been MIA again. I've missed all of you and hope everyone is well.

As I mentioned at the HH Annex on Facebook, we celebrated my son's 11th birthday last Thursday with dinner out with family Thursday night, and my in-laws were here to visit part of the weekend and celebrate with him. Unfortunately he hasn't felt well (headache, stomachache, low energy level, and very little appetite) the past few days. He felt poorly enough that he didn't play in his baseball game and missed having a few friends over to help him celebrate Saturday afternoon. I actually took him to the doctor Saturday morning as several children at his elementary school were very recently hospitalized with viral meningitis. He tested negative for strep, and the doctor thinks it's just a viral illness that should resolve on its own. Luckily he hasn't had any fever, but he's most definitely not himself. He hasn't even wanted to eat any of his birthday cake, and that's really saying something. It's always hard seeing our little ones like this, even when they're not so "little" anymore , and I hope he feels better very soon.

Sean~ I hope work and your meeting go well Monday. I'm so glad you're liking your new job. Approximately how many hours per week do you work at the new job? And yay for getting paid!

Lynne~ Good luck with all the grading, digging, and building of the retaining wall. It certainly sounds like a lot of work, but will be worth it in the end when your backyard and/or house no longer floods. Your next book sounds quite intriguing. I'm such a sucker for the star-crossed lover angle, or whatever you want to call it....especially when one or the other (or both) of the main characters profoundly affect and change one another's lives in such important ways. I'd love to hear more about it when you have the opportunity, and thanks for keeping us updated.

Jaclyn~ I haven't seen either of the movies you mentioned, but am glad you enjoyed them. I haven't heard of Now is Good, or the book on which it was based. I hope you enjoyed your busy and fun weekend, especially going out with your new coworkers. Does everyone seem to get along well?

Marielle~ Congratulations on your great news about the house....that's wonderful!

Austin~ Congrats on the recent bowling achievements, and good luck breaking in your newest team member. Regarding the Twilight marathon, I don't think my rear end could stand sitting in the theatre for so many consecutive hours, either. Several of my coworkers and I will probably maintain our tradition and get together in early November with some festive foods and adult beverages to watch the latest two movies....and I'll watch Twilight and New Moon sometime on my own, beforehand. What about you?

Caryn~ I hope you had a wonderful birthday and that you're continuing to survive work and your busy schedule with the kiddos.

Suzan~ Good for you getting tickets to the Twilight marathon. I'm sure you'll enjoy the time well spent with your sister. Does the marathon take place over one or two days, or will you sit in the theater for ten to twelve hours, straight? More power to you, and your booty.

Hello to Susie, Grayce, and anyone else I've missed. Susie, are you finished helping your former student make the appropriate edits and revisions, and did the book turn out as you'd hoped?