Life with an active five year old is always interesting. Yesterday was one of those days that was a little more interesting.
We left the house early for some errands (this means before my morning shower). I warned the child before breakfast "Eat your breakfast, because I'm not buying anything while we're out." "Okay." Right, half an hour later "I'm hungry. Let's go to Sub-way." He's never set foot in a Sub-way, but it's next door and he figures it's close and I'll cave. I'm proud to say I didn't.
We get home, he has a yogurt and goes out to play. I tell him he's got half an hour outside before he has to come in. I need to take a shower and he needs to be inside. Okay, 45 minutes later he's inside with the his 2nd best friend from down the street. Instead of trying to figure out how to get rid of the 2nd BF I tell them to go out on the back porch and watch some TV while I take a quick shower. I get my clothing out, turn on the water and hear the front door open, both went outside to play. I turn the water off and head downstairs. Finally, I manage to get the 2nd BF on his way home and the 5 year old into the house with a "We're going shopping, but "Junior" can come out and play later."
I'm back upstairs and he yells up the stairs he's hungry. I tell him to have some cheese and fruit. "Okay."
Finally, I get into the shower. I'm out dried off and getting dressed and I hear water running, and I hear water running and I hear water running. And that gets me downstairs quickly. He's washing the dishes. So, I take his "clean" dishes off the drain board, put them back in the sink and instead of chasing him away I give him is first lesson in washing dishes. The first thing we wash is a pink depression glass plate. "Why is this in the sink?" "I used your good crystal for my lunch." That's what he calls anything that isn't china from my china cabinet. He also used a crystal sherbet cup for a glass.
Before we leave I give him a Go-Tart to help fill the bottomless pit he calls a stomach.
As we're pulling up to Barnes & Noble I tell him he's not getting anything but a book inside and to stay close to me. Apparently he heard nothing I said as he announces he's hungry and can't wait for a snack inside. As if I'm buying a 5 year old a Starbucks "snack". I then make the threat "... if you don't behave I'll drag you out by your hair." Not my best threat but it's what popped out of my mouth. "The hair is better then my leg, that would really hurt." Okay. I'm looking for the new Linda Howard which I thought was out but I was wrong. But I did pick up NR's new High Noon and bribed the child with a shark book to keep him out of children's section and away from the Thomas the Tank engine train table. While we were waiting on line he announced that "You wouldn't really drag me out by my hair, that would hurt me and you wouldn't want to hurt me." Thank God there was no one on line with us.
So we head across the street to Adams. Adams is a family owned market, smaller than a supermarket, but much bigger than a farm stand. It has the best quality produce, cheaper than any supermarket and they sell a tremendous amount of locally grown food. They also have a great butcher shop and really good gourmet cheeses, and the best deli counter in the county. Can you tell it's one of my favorite stores? Junior loves this store because it has kid size carts and he gets to wheel it around. Of course when he starts neighing like a horse and making it buck I'm not real happy, when he starts doing wheely spins by the deli counter I'm really not happy. He's still hungry. I finally cave and tell him he can get a giant cookie on the way out. No, he wants an ice cream. Okay, an ice cream. He wants a fudge bar. "I don't think you like them." "Yeah, I do." Half way home he hands the melting mess to me, "I don't like it."
We're home and the 2nd BF is back. They want to go swimming. I talk them out of it because it's kind of cold (75 degrees) for swimming. Well, that only lasted about 20 minutes. "We're hot from riding our bikes, can we go in the pool." Now I argue that the friend doesn't have permission and off they go to get permission. So, I've got 2 kids in the pool having a great time but they're out in less than half an hour "it's too cold."
While the kids were in the pool, the hubby called. He's had a rotten day, the boss is on the war path and he'd like a quiet night. "Pull "Junior" aside and tell him no one for dinner." Got it.
Well, it was too late, the 2nd BF had already been invited for dinner and got the okay when he went home for his bathing suit.
We had pizza delivered.
While we were waiting for the pizza. Junior comes in and announces he traded for the 2nd BF bike. What? Yeah he got the bike and the friends "toddler" helmet and he gave the 2nd BF his good helmet and his Razor Scooter. This needs fixing, we head down the street and get this straightened out and the 2nd BF came back for pizza.
The boys went back out to ride bikes and at 7:30 the child was back in the house for the night. Hit the shower and was in bed by 8:10.
Ah, peace and quiet, the child's in bed, the hubby's asleep early and I'm reading the new Nora Roberts, that is until 10:00 when the child comes in and says he can't sleep. "You haven't been to sleep yet?" "Nope, I watched The Naked Brother's Band movie on Nick--it was great." Maybe we need to take the TV out of his room. He crawled in with us and was asleep in about 30 seconds.
A day in the life...
As readers we have differing reading criteria, some like me read for voice and writing style, some read for story and others prefer a combination. So, what works for me may not work for someone else. I read these authors for their distinct writing styles and voices, I don't always love the story their telling, but I always like how they write. For me this separates them from the other 30 or so Avon authors I've tried. And this is where I think the "Avonization" comes about. Within the historical line there are authors whose books and stories sound too similar, so much so they're writing and stories can seemingly be interchanged with other authors that write historicals for Avon. If Avon put the wrong author's name on the cover I wonder how many people would notice the style or voice is wrong, because we really can't tell them apart. Without a really distinctive voice, writing style or story will these authors languish among the midlist realm?
Here's the thing. Which came first? Does Avon sign them because they are already writing in this style or do Avon editors push them toward this mold? For some reason I don't think the editors push them toward this, because there's enough authors within the group that don't fall into the "Avonization" category. Or are the authors that feel interchangeable actually writing to a glutted Regency/Victorian market? Do they need to write a spectacular or completely different story to get noticed? I ask this because Anna Campbell's Claiming the Courtesan garnered so much positive and negative attention because it wasn't interchangeable with anything else on the market right now. I've heard good things about Janet Mullany's The Rules of Gentility, and I'm left wondering will it fall into the Avon mold or will it be distinctive and different.
