For the low, low price of...

I was looking for a replacement keyboard for my laptop (yeah, I know it's old!) and I found this offer for a new Dell keyboard. Not for what the other guys are charging--$45.00?! No way! How about $69.00? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I bet this company would club a baby seal to make a deal! (for those of you who didn't catch my UHF reference, I love baby seals and I honestly don't condone seal clubbing of any kind)

Review of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl

Tracy Quan's debut novel, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, follows an early-thirty-something who has been turning tricks since she was thirteen years old. However, this isn't a story about exploitation or sex slavery. It's about a girl, Nancy, who knew she wanted to be a call girl from a very young age. As she matures she realizes all of the naive assumptions and mistakes she made as an adolescent helped to shape the woman she is today.

Nancy's biggest hurdle in life is her engagement to a "straight" man-- someone who isn't involved in prostitution and doesn't know about her involvement in it. She cares for him and she likes her current profession.

Unfortunately her fiancé’s sister is a district attorney, which increases her anxiety about whether or not to get married.

Between meetings with Johns Nancy has to make arrangements for her wedding, meet with her future in-laws, and visit with her therapist to try to sort out her mixed emotions.

I enjoyed the book, though it may be too graphic for some readers. It definitely isn't for children or teens, as it contains some graphic sexual situations.

The overall tone of the book is lightly comedic, with tension about Nancy's pre-marital drama weaved throughout. I definitely recommend this book if you enjoy strong female lead characters that you are able to connect with. Obviously her profession causes somewhat of a disconnect; for instance, I wouldn't see the dilemma in giving up a risky profession for a life as a well provided for wife. But since her entire adult life has been in the hooking culture of course it would be a huge lifestyle change for her.

There are lots of interesting scenes about the mechanics of being sexy and beautiful all day. Also, though there aren't many scenes where Johns are talked about in depth, it is fun to see the wide variety of men with their differing idiosyncratic sexual proclivities. It adds another interesting dimension to what may otherwise have been just straight sex scenes.

The book is 271 pages long, and the paperback version I have includes a 19 page preview of Tracy Quan's next novel, Diary of a Married Call Girl.

Ever Forget Your Baby in a Car?

I was procrastinating while reading some Yahoo Shine articles earlier today when I read this title: Ever Forget Your Baby in a Car?

I'm a forgetful person and my short term memory leaves much to be desired. However, I'm not sure I've ever come anywhere close to forgetting a baby or child in a car. Hmm...

Stress and Appreciation

This past week (almost exactly the past seven days down to the hour) has been so stressful and emotionally draining. I had a family emergency medical situation that totally stressed me out and freaked me out. I've never been so scared of a situation before.

Everything is fine now, but the whole experience just sort of wiped me out. Now that everything is settling down I have to try to make up for lost time. I've made very little money this week, which is only stressing me out further.

I'm posting now because I don't seem to be able to focus on my writing. I guess I am hoping some unstructured writing will free up my mind (or something--I don't really know).

When bad things happen, I get a huge sense of how I should appreciate life more. I feel awful that I'm a big complainer most of the time when I have lots of things to be grateful for. I've tried to change and become more optimistic, but it doesn't seem to work. My mind always veers back to the gloomy, unhappy things in life.

Anyway, I can't really concentrate on just writing whatever comes to mind either, it seems. Hopefully I'll get more focused soon (or I'm going to continue to be broke! and that certainly isn't good).