December 4, 2007 | Comments

PHOENIX RISING

They say, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’, well we’re about to say goodbye to 2007 and welcome 2008. Change is good, reluctant or planned, maybe both. So being the Phoenix that I am, I’m lighting a creative fire under my website and evolving a new idea.

Beginning January 2008 my Blog page will be replaced with ‘Phoenix Rising’ a bimonthly highlight in writing and life page. My writing, other authors, and information I come across that might be useful to you will be available. Also this page will be interactive – I hope. If there is a subject, opinion, rant, or disagreement with what I’ve said, you email me at YasminePhoenix@aol.com and I’ll respond. No cooking assistance will be provided; you can email SloaneTaylor for assistance.

Of course you can count on the following topics to be addressed, Battlestar Galactica, tennis, and handbags. I know you’re asking what these three things possibly have to do with writing or life. Glad you asked. Battlestar Galactica is one of the most well written and acted television programs to come along in a long time. The opportunity for writers to view the goals, motivation, and conflict of each character is awesome. Plus the hot pilots, Apollo and Helo don’t hurt.

Tennis is my way of relaxing, reducing stress and it provides much needed interaction after I’ve spent a few days bent over my keyboard attempting to find another word for felt. My tennis team is an awesome group of women.

Handbags, please. A writer carries in their handbag paper and pen to jot down ideas, dialogue or snippets of information for their work in progress, a mirror, and protein bars. It is very important we have the correct bag, not too large, definitely not too small, but always fashionable. And women know one handbag can not possibly meet all of the above criteria, so we have to have several to meet the needs of a particular day. If my hubby asks, this is my story and I’m sticking to it. Feel free to use my reasoning if necessary.

So I hope the rest of 2007 is spent writing, enjoying your family and friends, and remember to celebrate every positive thing you did to improve your writing career and life. No matter if you think its minuscule, it’s still a step in the right direction. Even if you gained ten pounds, relax it could have been fifteen! (Not saying I did)

Yasmine

September 18, 2007 | 2 Comments

I don’t meet with my critique partners during the summer. It appears I have less time than in the fall. I miss the ladies and tonight was my first meeting back! Great stuff going on.
Now that September has arrived, I thought I’d share what I learned this summer. No particular order.
1. Model in a Bottle really works.
2. Juking is not a sport.
3. Really nice restaurants leave a bit of the straw paper on the top of the straw when serving your cold drink.
4. Airline travel - SUCKS!
5. If you can’t afford to buy a t-shirt with a saying printed on it, please don’t wear one with a saying written with a magic marker.
6. While driving from Georgia to South Carolina I thought about the Civil War and how long it took for information to travel about the battles. Cell phones and faxes would have been great.
7. If we don’t use our talents, take advantage of them, then they’re wasted.
8. Double toilet rolls means means more tissue on a roll, NOT thicker ply tissue.
9. Losing weight can be as much fun as eating.
10. When your Internet connection goes down, you are all alone in the world.
11. You can’t spend money twice, but you sure can try.
12. There is no such thing as the perfect handbag.
13. JMan is maturing and hiding it well.
14. Eating is fun.
15. I can find a Starbucks anywhere!
16. I’m a vegetarian, but when I play tennis I crave Big Macs and hot dogs.
17. Hot flashes: Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four has got nothing on me. “Flame on!”
18. If you put away clean clothes, they will be worn and dirty again. So don’t put them away.
19. Law and Order Mondays are fantastic.
20. I love westerns and they’re making a comeback.
21. I can watch tennis matches on the Internet.
22. Why don’t some celebrities in real life, look like their publicity shots?
23. Shopping in Home Depot can be almost as much fun as shopping at Macys. I SAID ALMOST!!
24. Skye, my beagle, loves me.
25. Note to OJ Simpson - Johnny Cochran is dead.
26. Virginia Tech - mans’ brutality can only be exceeded by his imagination of how to inflict brutality.
27. Molly Herwood always has my back. That’s because she’s always pushing me forward.
28. JGirl is enjoying her single adult life and I have a place to visit.
29. During my trip to South Carolina and visiting my father’s family, I tried to imagine what it was like for him to grow up as the son of a sharecropper.
30. I miss my parents very, very much.
31. I’m still married. What is wrong with this guy?
32. You can go home again, however - a. it might be torn down and turned into a Starbucks, b. the neighborhood has changed; c. no one remembers you; d. you don’t remember anyone; but e. your memories will last you a lifetime and make you smile.
33. Reality shows are surreal.
34. Men gossip, they call it sports talk radio.
35. A lot of women look like me, not Halle Berry or some model.
36. About #31, I could never be married to anyone else but him.

There are probably other things I learned this summer, but this is the top of the list.

July 24, 2007 | 4 Comments

I will be the first to admit I’m an overprotective mother. Now I’m not so bad I won’t let him cross the street by himself, he’ll be seventeen in August. He’s about to take the test for his driver’s license and I’m not too nervous. Right.

J Man is the opposite of J Girl. She was the ying, he the yang. She was the social butterfly, he’s the video game tennis player. We were never sure when J Girl went out on weekends what story or adventure she’d have before returning home. J Man, well he is at home, unless he has a tennis tournament or begging to go to Best Buy. J Man is a young man of few words. I’ve been told this numerous times by many. I agree because unless they’re hiding in a closet when he and I are at home, they don’t know the truth. That boy can TALK!! Again, the opposite of J Girl. Of course since she couldn’t keep her stories straight, it was in her best interest not to talk. The truth always had a way of sneaking out.

Now I’ve always suspected J Man was growing up, maturing, but he’s sneaky. He allows me to mother him to a point, but as I discovered last weekend the boy is savier than I give him credit. Sorry honey. J Girl was always strutting her independence (of course it was all in her mind). J Man is sutle. He’s independent and initutive, when it serves his purpose.

J Man is a high school senior this fall and we’re doing the college tour this summer. We spent last Saturday visiting a college in Indiana and afterwards we went to dinner downtown. Now in Indy, most of the places are closed until four in the afternoon. We wanted to be home by five. Hubby chose Weber Grill (I don’t want to cook anymore after eating there, but that’s another story), mainly a steak place, but the fish was excellent. We drove past and hubby asked J Man to get out and make sure it was open. So he did, and it was. Hubby was parking in the garage across the street and I was going to get out and go with my son. Hubby said no, I stayed in the car until it was parked. Now here is where the overprotective part comes in. When we reached the street, no J Man. Some one had stolen my baby!! Hubby asked me to go inside and look for him. I did, he wasn’t and I freaked. “I told you I should have gotten out of the car!!” I shouted at hubby, who is very use to my hysterics. I walked down the street freaking out, while hubby stood quietly and patiently at the sidewalk. When I returned he asked me to go back and see if he was there. “At the bar?” I retorted. But I went in, and this time went upstairs, and asked the hostess if they’d seen a young, tall black teenager. She said calmly, “Table for three? I seated him.” Then I felt his familiar big hand on my shoulder. J Man had gotten a booth, the bread and butter had already been served, and he was drinking a Coke. Needless to say, my two men had a major laugh at my expense for thirty minutes. I ordered a cosmopolitan. Okay, so I was afraid someone had kidnapped my six foot three inch, almost seventeen year old son.

Now, the most interesting part of this story, if you can stop laughing at me for a moment, is that an upscale restaurant would actually seat a young black male with adults nowhere in sight. Kudos to Weber Grill for respecting my son and kudos to J Man for taking charge of the situation. Of course it didn’t hurt he was extremely hungry.

April 30, 2007 | 2 Comments

1. Don’t tease me, if you can’t please me.
2. I don’t make mistakes, I date them.
3. Skinny Bitch.
4. I Don’t Give A Blog!
5. And Your Point Is …
6. Mental Breakdown in Five, Four, Three, Two ….

T-shirts have been taken to a whole different level. The first three I listed are owned by JGirl. I’m guilty of buying her a few but not the third one. When I was her age, my t-shirts had, Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud!, not I’m Gay and You’re Not! stitched on it. Tshirts are a way of expressing opinions, beliefs, a place to eat, or good old fashion humor. JMan receives t-shirts every time he plays a tournament. They make great cleaning rags, because he won’t wear them. He doesn’t wear shirts with sayings, shirts with dragons maybe.

T-shirts are popular because they’re easy to wash, reasonably priced, and come in a multitude of colors and sizes. It’s so easy to get up, put on a shirt that says Monday, even if it’s really Thursday, and get going. The shirt can express exactly how you feel, without you opening your mouth, stare a person down, or frown. Unless of course the shirt says, I Feel Pretty. You can cite your college affliation, a picture of your grandchildren, your pet dog, or your latest book cover. I had a shirt from a Las Vegas hotel that said, Gamble, Gamble, Gamble, Shop, Eat, Gamble, Gamble …. across the front. Yep, it expressed just how I felt about Sin City and the fun I had every time I went. Not so much the gamble part, but the eat and shop is right up my alley. T-shirts contain memories, family reunions, a tribute to a great basketball run (that would be The Chicago Bulls, of course). They throw them into the crowd at sporting events. You can make ones with glitter and spice up your wardrobe. Wet t-shirt contests are very popular I hear. Calendars have been dedicated to women wearing nothing but t-shirts. It is socially acceptable to go on a field trip, children and seniors, and see fifty people wearing identical shirts. It makes it easy to find your group if you wander off, children or seniors. And it identifies for everyone else what group you came with. This is the main reason I don’t wear t-shirts. I can’t stand seeing someone wearing what I am. It goes back to my Catholic school navy blue uniform nightmare. Last year, I purchased purple tshirts for my tennis team with their names on the back. I still haven’t worn mine. Sorry ladies, but they were cute.

I don’t approve of all the sayings on the shirts, some are rather outrageous and obscene and the wearer is trying to promote a particular political opinion or belief to provoke a comment and/or draw attention to themselves. I haven’t seen any yellow happy faces on t-shirts, unless I’m at Wal Mart. However there are many shirts with silk screened pictures of Tupac, P Diddy, various bands, movie stars, etc. Think it and you’ll find it. Autographed tshirts are a big thing. But my question is: once you have the shirt covered with signatures, can you wash it? What do you do with it?

There is a distinct difference in t-shirts worn by girls and guys. Girls wear shirts two sizes too small, with large bright letters, and are meant to intentionally draw the males attention with some risque remark. JGirl wore her Skinny Bitch shirt to breakfast when she was in town. I didn’t say anything and the fact I kept the menu glued to my face had nothing to do with my not wanting to be identified as her mother. Our waitress was definitely impressed, she wanted to know where she got it.

When I sell my first book, my family and friends, will be ‘encouraged’ to wear a t-shirt with a Phoenix on the back and my book cover on the front.

Guys wear t-shirts eight sizes too big, with small lettering, so you have to get up close and personal, squint to read it, so you can be amused, insulted, or confused. And the sayings on their shirts aren’t as snappy as the females. Note: if a guy is wearing a shirt with the second saying from the above list - run away!