Deanna Hoak

While I was getting ready to go out today, my two-year-old little boy came up to me and hugged my leg and said, “Mommy cute.” He’d never used the word before, though almost every woman he meets exclaims it to him. I said, “Are you saying Mommy is cute?” He grinned hugely and said, “Yes.”
My [...]

Wow. I’m 39 today. Next year, when I turn 40, I want to have a big celebration at some con you can all attend. Suggestions?
Blaine gave me a photo shoot for my birthday, which is very nice since I needed to update my year-old LJ userpic.
For my first shoot this morning, she suggested I [...]

This hurricane is nearing Cat 5 in intensity now, but it looks like it may miss us over here on Florida’s east coast.
Still, a few pertinent facts regarding this storm are making me long for a summer home elsewhere:
1) This is the first year since record keeping began in 1851 that there have been four [...]

I broke 80,000 words on my novel today. I’ve been making progress lately after a long time of being unable to by refusing to allow myself to copyedit before 6 a.m.–that time is mine to write. I’m really happy to be getting words down on paper, however slowly.
I can tell I’ve taken too long to [...]

I’ve been following this fascinating guy’s blog lately, and he has the most interesting observation today under the heading “Critical Mass is the Key to Success.” It’s a useful concept for anyone, and for writers in particular, I think.

Dennis looks like it will be our first hurricane of the season, though it’s still far enough out that there’s no telling if it will hit Florida. It’s supposed to hit Cuba on Friday: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/164305.shtml?3day.
Thus begins an obsession with the six-hour update cycle on NOAA….

I’m feeling better. Thank you all for your thoughts.
If you know anyone who was in Vietnam (or who worked on planes that sprayed Agent Orange once the planes were back in the States) and who has diabetes mellitus (type II), Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate cancer, acute or subacute peripheral neuropathy, any and [...]

It’s the third anniversary of my dad’s death today. He contracted tonsil cancer when he was 50 and bronchial and tracheal cancer when he was 55. He eliminated the cancers only to die from the treatment–the radiation weakened a blood vessel in his throat; it burst and he drowned in his own blood. He was [...]

I got to see a little bit of Alaska the last few weeks. I learned how to pan for gold, ate some wonderful salmon and king crab legs, watched a glacier calve, and saw bald eagles soar and preen. I’d love to go back someday to see and do a lot more there.
I was [...]