Yes, I really did get paid to drive these!

Seriously, I accepted money for test driving these cars!!! It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it.

Ferrari F430 Coupe, Porsche 911 Turbo, Lamborghini Gallardo and a Ferrari F430 Spider. And yes, Spider is spelled with an ‘i’ for this car. We looked it up on the Owner’s Manual because we were curious.

This gig happened for a little over a week in July 2007 and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I got up at 1:45AM every day, got to work by 3:50 (I live about an hour from the shop) and was driving out the door at 4:00AM. On the mornings when I had trouble dragging myself out the door, I’d wonder why I tortured myself getting up so early and driving so far. Then, the door would roll up and the cars were sitting there and we’d all give each other that ‘pinch me, ’cause I MUST be dreaming’ look.

I’ll admit, though, that driving for 8 hours in any car isn’t fun for some people, but I love it. I also love that it was my job to press every button, turn every knob and then write out my findings, my preferences, my suggestions for improvement.

Told ya it was a tough job, but someone had to do it!

They’re all so freakin’ sexy–except the 911. Sorry Porsche people, but I’m just not a 911 girl. I wanted to like the car, but I just couldn’t find anything about it that turned me on. Nothing. Well, the cup-holders were pretty bitchin’. They fold up and stow away when not in use. That’s all I liked about the car.

I liked the Gallardo. It had some eccentricities, but I liked it.

I loved the Ferraris. OMG did I love them. Everything about them. They could’ve had more torque, but I’m used to driving my Viper, so I expected the Ferrari to be lacking in that regard. The sound, the paddle shifting, the steering, ohhhh… I’m getting all orgasmic just thinking about those cars!

It’s been months and I still only barely believe I got to drive those cars. If it weren’t for the pictures and all the notes I’d scribbled for the job, I don’t think I’d really believe I was fortunate enough to have done the job.

I totally forgot…

In June, I went to a Mustang Cruise put together by some of the guys on the boards at mustangforums.com. When I got there, I felt pretty out of place. I had one of maybe 3 or 4 classics. Everyone else had late models.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time and talked to some very interesting people, but I could hardly relate. Yeah, I’ve got an ’06 GT, but not only is it stock, I’d driven my ’68 fastback that day. To me, it’s way more interesting than the late model. Ah well. I was gonna go to another, but they were having it the same weekend as Comic Con and when they called, I was on the road out of town so I had to miss it.

A few days after this cruise, some of the guys were nice enough to post pictures. I saved a couple that were either of my car or included my car in the background while we were on the road. Unfortunately, I somehow didn’t save who actually took the pics. One has the guy’s info on it. The others said we could snag their pics, so I’m considering that permission for posting ’em here. There were over 160 cars on the cruise, too. It was awesome.

 

You can barely see me in the driver seat. Oh boy! And this next one, I was likely yacking with somebody about my jalopy. No surprises there, either.

Even though these last two pics are about the same, I like how the photographer below happened to catch a late model driving by. I don’t know if that was intentional, but I think the pic looks cool because of it.

 

 Special thanks to everyone who was there. I hope to do another one!

Drove to Florida… almost 3K miles… again

I’m trying to post more often, but in that, I end up posting less often. I don’t know how that happens, but anyway, this time I do have a reason. I was gone for a week. I’d done the journey in about 4 days before, but this time, well, things went a bit differently.

I was driving a fully loaded ’85 Cadillac Seville. Yep, that was 135 horses of purebread slowness, following a motorhome towing a trailer–which could smoke me on accelleration! Oh yeah, I was feelin’ sassy in my Cad-O-Lack that had been sitting for about ten years and probably should have been towed, but what the heck, I only live once.

And when Bobby Ore asks if you’d drive for him, the only answer is yes. So I did.

But the car kept breaking down. No surprises there, huh?

30 minutes in, radiator blew.

3 or 4 hours from there, the smog pump belt broke–and it was brand new!

Another 3 or 4 hours from there, we limped into a shop.

…Who among other things didn’t tighten down one of the radiator hoses.

Another 5 hours from there, that radiator hose came loose and sprayed the brakes plus the windshield. Nice.

Limping into another shop got everything patched up, but I think we were both still wary.

The rest of the trip went off without incident. Which was refreshing, I might add!

Somewhere during the first bit, we pulled off to glue the rearview mirror back on. But given that I’ve unsuccessfully done 4 and have a propensity for having them come off in my hand when I adjust them, I let Bobby do the glueing and then I decided to wait a few hours to let the glue dry.

Well, hours turned into days because I completely forgot!!!!! This pic was taken during the last 200 or so miles of the trip:

One of the reasons I forgot about the rearview was because I was concerned with the sideview mirror. The passenger side one was good as gold, but the driver side one… Well, I dunno what was going on with it other than it wasn’t really connected to the guts behind it. Over the course of the first thousand miles or so, I finally set up this sophisticated method of getting it to stay properly aligned. It was quite an engineering feat considering I had nothing but a couple napkins to work with…

All in all, even though it was hellish, the trip was worth making. I mean, if nothing else, it can serve as a memory of times much worse. I survived just fine. A little worse for wear, but the car made it to Florida in one piece after those first three days.

I forgot to take a picture of the car itself…Duh…I know, I know… But here was my view from Los Angeles to Central Florida:

Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

Third Time’s a Charm

So, I’ve blogged about how hard I sucked at stunt driving, but this time was much different. This time, I was more confident and essentially, I realized that stunt driving is easy. My problem wasn’t the driving. It was me. Apparently, I have difficulty thinking. Yes, thinking. How so? Well, I don’t know how to answer that. All I know is that this time around, my thoughts were crystal clear and everything fell pretty much into place.

Bright and early on that Saturday morning, I showed up for class. I learned the importance of tires and various other bits about stunt driving on a working movie set. Then, it was time to go out on the course.

And I wasn’t nervous this time. Not at all. I knew a lot would be required of me, but for some reason I simply didn’t care. I just wanted to drive and learn.

Boy did I ever!!!!!!

It was raining. For me, I saw that as good luck because that’d mean it’d be easier for wimpy little me to get good lock-up. I knew that this was now or never.

We worked through the slalom and learned how to shuffle steer. I’d been practicing my shuffle steer every time I’d driven since my last class, so that was pretty easy for me. I’d also been practicing using a focal point.

Once the whole class was ready, we moved on to forward 180s. Last time, I had a helluva fight to yank up on the e-brake and get the car to lock up. This time, just as I’d suspected, because of the rain, locking up was hard, but not impossible like it had been last time. My arm started to hurt, but I didn’t care because I was finally able to get lock-up and and throw the car around. I know the teacher wanted us all to finesse these to perfection, but honestly, I didn’t care what he wanted. I just wanted to get the damn car to come around. I’d worry about the finesse later. Any amount of progress was more important than finesse.

The next day, we continued our forward 180s left and right and then went into sliding 90s. Y’know, when you slide into a parallel parking job coming at it from the side.

My arm hurt so bad, it went numb and didn’t always work. But the rain continued and I still got good lock-up. Once again, I know the teacher wanted us all to finesse the car right in the middle of the coned-off box, but I was satisfied with just getting the car fully in the box. Whether I was forward or back or side-to-side didn’t matter. Just getting it in the box was progress enough for me.

And that took awhile. For some reason, the whole class had started having trouble with our forward 180s and that sort of crushed our morale I guess when we went into the 90s.

But eventually I got it. And then the miracle happened… I started to really understand how to ‘feel’ the car. That’s what Jay and Blaina do when they’re driving. I’d been feeling it all along, but hadn’t been able to really understand it. I hadn’t been able to read it well enough to adjust my input to get a perfect run as a result. I’d come flying at the cone gate for the 180 and be so concerned with getting lock up that I’d forget to crank the wheel into the turn, or I’d turn it too far, or too soon. In the 90s, I’d fly toward the cone box too fast or forget to let go of the wheel once I tossed the car into the box.

This was the day that really had me start asking myself, “What would Jay or Blaina do?” I sometimes even dropped into one of their characters, asking them for advice. I like to think it worked, too!

I can’t say that I’m any good at stunt driving. I can’t say I’m consistent. But I can say that I know what I’m trying to do and learning how to read what I feel in order to make the stunt happen correctly.

Once I realized that, I sort of looked back at the day and a half and was so satisfied with my performance that not only did I not care if I never quite got the finesse right, but I also didn’t need to take the test at the end to be satisfied with what I’d learned.

However, the course was wet and slippery enough that I knew I’d be able to get decent lock-up. And that always seemed to make the difference between executing the stunt correctly or failing miserably. If I was going to pass at all, it would be during this class, so I decided to go for it.

After more practice of the slalom, forward 80s and sliding 90s, we moved on to reverse 180s.

Sadly, I never quite mastered them. I learned a new technique–well, order of actions–from one of the instructor’s assistants which I put to good use and excelled way beyond how I’d fared in my last two classes. But more importantly–I thought, anyway– I figured out on my own what I was doing wrong just before the teacher told me. For some stupid reason, I kept forgetting to let go of the wheel and let the car right itself. Oh well. It’s something to work on in the future.

At the end of that second day, it was time to test. We practiced and I knew I was going to pass. I just knew it. I didn’t allow myself to practice into the ground because I wanted to save my poor little arm and I didn’t think I’d be getting any better that day anyway. I had the confidence. I knew I’d pass. I knew I could make it happen.

So, when the moment was upon me–finish the course in 59 seconds or less–I took off on a practice run…

And screwed it up so badly that I was thankful to take a second practice–which was close to perfect, but I didn’t quite get the car all the way into the final box. My time was good, though…50-something seconds. I wasn’t really worried about timing. I was worried about keeping the car between the cones without touching any of them. Well, and just plain surviving the course!

But now it was do or die. I had to do a passing run on that third one or I’d fail again. Well, before I took off, I congratulated myself for actually testing this time. I didn’t even bother testing last time because I knew I’d fail. This time, I knew that even if I didn’t pass, I’d learned so much and had come so far. It didn’t matter anymore, really.

But deep down, I still wanted to pass. I needed to pass.

I slalomed through the cones, grabbed that e-brake with all my might and whipped the car into the 180 to the right. Slamming the brake back down, I took off right through the center of the cone gate, while resetting my focal point and then yanked the e-brake and tossed the car into a 180 to the left. Dropping the brake and smashing the gas, I had to cheat and use a little main brake to slow the car after locking it as I skidded into the box for the 90 to the right. I waited for the “go” once the guys were sure I was in the box without hitting cones. I gritted my teeth and set up for the reverse 180–trying to make myself believe that it wasn’t my weakest maneuver. I stomped the gas, then as I whipped the wheel, looked back for my new focal point and rammed the car into drive. I still forgot to let go of the wheel, but I didn’t care because I didn’t hit any cones. I blasted toward that final box and threw the car into it to the left.

And waited.

Nervously.

To find out if I was in the box all the way.

And if I’d made it in less than 59 seconds.

My heart was beating a mile a minute and I suddenly realised that I’d done it. I’d made it all the way through the course.
…And I had the fastest time in the class: 46 seconds.

Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All I could think of was, “GO ME!!!!!!!!!!” on so many levels, too!

Spinning Wheels

This was before all the fun started. I like the array of cars and sportbike in the background. I felt like I was definitely in for loads of fun.

I’ll be posting more videos at CarCrazyCentral, but for now, notice my big grin…? I was sitting in the backseat while my Buddy Jim Wilkey from Wagon Train Productions drifted the car every which way and then some.

I sucked…hard…No, really…really…

The title of this entry is absolutely accurate.

However, as much as I hate to admit that I sucked, it also doesn’t matter that I sucked. In fact, sucking allowed me to do more than if I’d nailed it.

What is “it” you ask?

Stunt Driving School. (Yes, I really did suck at it. Me, with all my cars and working on them, too. Yes, me. I sucked. Hard. I can’t believe it either…Well, maybe I can.)

Honestly, it wasn’t that I couldn’t drive. It was my stupid brain that kept making me do everything at once, rather than finding the right cadence. In essence, I was just too nervous. I wanted to do soooooo well that my very own desire to kick ass hindered my performance.

Not to mention that I ended up too girly to get the rear wheels locked up every time. I tried to use the one car with the foot brake, but I eventually bruised my foot because I’d stood on the pedal so hard so many times.

But y’know, none of any of my reasons for failure matters because I learned a helluva lot about driving and about myself. And honestly, if I hadn’t sucked, I wouldn’t have gotten to know the teacher and his assistants so well. They’re such a great group of guys. Really top notch in everything. Always willing to help and even answered stupid questions for researching some of the stunts in Driven to Distraction.

Bottom line, the teacher saw that underneath all my sucking, I really did want to learn and I had a passion for cars. He tried everything he could think of in order to get me to stop sucking, but I just somehow couldn’t. Still, he saw through.

And gave me an opportunity to take the class again.

I still sucked…just not as hard. I still learned a helluva lot more, too. And because I’d bruised my foot during the first class, I had to use the cars with the hand brake instead. I still had trouble getting a good lock up, sometimes, but I definitely did better overall.

A few of the highlights are as follows:

~ When my teacher successfully pissed me off enough to get a good pull on the hand brake and I did a nearly perfect sliding 90 box park.
~ In the middle of the second day when my teacher looked me straight in the eye and said, “You’re starting to get it.” (In that instant, I swear I almost cried.)
~ During lunch when he took me out in my Viper and got it up to 130 before running out of stopping distance.

The experience and adventure was absolutely incredible.

I’ll definitely be back. I gotta quit sucking one of these days and pass the darn class!

…Although, it seems I learned more by doing poorly. Hmmmm… Maybe I should keep sucking after all…

It’s officially official!

I’m officially booked in for stunt driving school at the end of this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m also still in shock.

I mean, when I was a little girl I said, “Some day, I wanna go to stunt driving school.” But I never thought I’d ever get to go.

And here I am, less than three weeks away and I’m still not sure if I really am going. I mean, it was a dream…something to give me hope, a goal to work toward. It wasn’t supposed to actually happen!

Now I just hope that the reality is even better than the dream!

(I’m bettin’ it will be. I love cars. I love driving and drifting. This is gonna be so friggin’ awesome!!!!!)

I guess I’ll let you know in early October…a few weeks before Otherness: Rift is released from Samhain Publishing.

Tea and Stunt Driving School

Shortly, I’ll be posting some pics of a lovely high tea I had with some Ellora’s Cave authors and editors. My goodness what a fantastic time I had. The tea and…and…bunch of food I don’t remember what it was called, but it sure tasted divine…were almost as wonderful as the company.

I got to hang out with Jen (believe it or not, we rarely get together for other than signings…we’ve both been incredibly busy writing), Donna (Final Line Editor at Ellora’s Cave), Heather (Ellora’s Cave Editor) and authors: Maggie Casper, Beverly Havlir, Sylvia Day and Lena Matthews. What a fun crew we were!

And lucky for me, I get to go see many of them again tomorrow…

Oh, and special thanks to Heather for giving me a copy of Ellora’s Cave Legendary Tails Volume IV in which Ashleigh Raine’s story, Orgasm Fairy is first up. I was particularly glad to see it because the story opens with a bad erotic poetry reading for which I wrote the bad erotic poetry. I don’t know why I have a knack for cringingly bad poetry, but I do. And to see “Fertilizing The Petals Of Bliss” in print–on page one no less!–was truly amazing. I’ll cherish that memory forever.

That was a lovely tea party.

And now on to how Santa (namely Jason) smiled upon me this Christmas…

I’d thought he might’ve had ulterior motives or perhaps too much procrastination, but he swears he was being thoughtful and y’know, I gotta believe him.

Before I get into details, let me first say that in my family, we more often than not put one or two ridiculous things on our Christmas List. I recall my mom asking for a Corvette, myself for a million dollars when I was in high school…stuff we want but would most likely not get for Christmas from someone.

Well, I’ve had “Stunt Driving School” on my list for a couple years now. Yeah, I want it like crazy, but come on…like I’m really gonna find it under the tree on Christmas morning.

And then there’s Jason…who said he’d looked at my list and wondered what of everything on that list would I never, ever expect.

So…I’M GOING TO STUNT DRIVING SCHOOL AND I’M IN UTTER SHOCK AND AMAZEMENT!

I would say that I nearly fell outta my chair when I looked at the certificate, but Jason almost fell out of his chair for me… See, it was a recliner and he didn’t know that until his feet flew up in the air and his eyes were as wide as saucers. I couldn’t stop laughing at the team effort. I bet if I’d been sitting in a chair, I probably would’ve fallen out of it.

I really, really, really, really, really, really wanna be a stunt driver. Even if I only get to do it once, I wanna do it. Even if I only get to go to the class, I wanna do it. I want the experience. I mean, you read my driving stories an entry or two ago… Isn’t it obvious, I dig driving and wanna do more of it…in crazy situations?!?!

Well…I’M GOING TO STUNT DRIVING SCHOOL!!!!!

I dunno when yet. I gotta look at the schedule and stuff, but still. I’m sure there’ll be an entry or two about it here.

And now, I need to get back to work. I’ve got writing to do!!!!!

(and tea to drink!)

Go fast? And Jay Leno

So, the other day, I went to get a part for my new engine. I needed a water neck. No big deal. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten to get one in the first place.

For a little fun during a stupid parts run, I took the Viper.

On the way there, I almost blasted past a cop. Whoops! Thank goodness for Granny in her Camry, whom I was behind, or I’d’ve probably gotten a ticket.

On my way home, however, things were a little different.

Traffic was kind of bunched up on city streets. It seemed like everyone was Christmas shopping and in zero hurry. (And that wasn’t just because I happened to be in a car that hates going slow! People really were driving far under the speed limit in one giant herd.) I passed a blue late model Mustang that was wheezing like it had a supercharger on it. I glanced again and saw a cowl hood. Okay, so this was the moment of truth.

Generally, when another sporty car rolls up on me in the Viper, their first thing to do is spar with me, rev, cut me off, something. It’s usually some hot-headed guy, too.

But this guy–or I should say ‘person’ because unfortunately, I never did see the driver–kept giving me room to get around.

It was weird. I was totally expecting the small-minded, gotta-get-in-front-of-the-Viper, how-ya-like-me-now attitude, but instead, there was this weird respect-like thing.

Personally, when I see anyone driving something that sounds healthy and looks like the driver is a car enthusiast, I always give right of way, lots of room, thumbs up “nice car” if I can, no matter which of my cars I’m driving. But generally, in the Viper I don’t receive the same whether I give it or not.

So, I’m driving toward the freeway, the Mustang’s giving me room, I wanna see who’s driving just to give a thumbs up if nothing more, when finally, there’s a break in the traffic and I can squeeze through.

I drop a gear and blast. So does the Mustang. And I’m sure we were both hoping to spar a little on the freeway.

But dammit…I was going east and he was going west. Ah well. I hope we meet again. His ride was damn sweet and probably would’ve smoked me because I’m not real good at speed-shifting the Viper. Ah well. That story’ll happen another day, I’m sure.

Speaking of sparring…I’ve got a few other favorite stories.

Last year, I was in the Prowler, following Jason who was in the ’98 Corvette we no longer have. I was hardly paying attention to much other than driving when a black German car kept speeding up, slowing down, goofing off next to me.

Finally, I glance over, unsure what/who I’m gonna see and there’s this really, really, really, really cute guy rolling down his window. I smile, unsure why other than that he’s obviously some kind of car guy and having fun on a Friday night.

I don’t remember the exact conversation other than that he was surprised that my Prowler wasn’t fast. It’s really not. It’s only got a V6 in it, but because it looks odd, people think it’s fast anyway. He wanted to spar, but then, he asked me out.

And oh my goodness, if I weren’t married, I totally would’ve accepted.

But then, as I shook my head, he said, “You with him?” and pointed toward Jason in the Corvette ahead of me.

I nodded, completely shocked that the guy guessed it…like somehow he just knew. That was such a strange encounter and I loved every minute of it. When Jason and I got to the restaurant, we both had a good chuckle.

I guess car chicks are simply hard to come by and guys will go to crazy lengths to score one sometimes.

Last year around this time, I did a shoot waaaaaaaaaay out some of the canyon roads near my house. I left the shoot and had zero intention of following the directions to the freeway because I didn’t want to take the freeway, I wanted to play in the canyon twisties. I was driving my ’68 Mustang Fastback.

So, I haul ass, 4-wheel-drifting around corners, keeping my car in my lane, of course. Only once did I go over the yellow and I’m not sure if that was because I was drifting or I couldn’t turn the wheel hard enough. My car does not have power steering, but I muscle it down the road at warp speed and in my rearview, I notice a Cadillac that had been following me since I left the shoot.

Anyhow, out of the canyons and into town, we stop at a traffic light. My window was down. Mr. Cadillac called out, “YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He was truly in awe judging by the grin on his face and enthusiasm in his eyes, but then he continued, “How do I get to the freeway?”

Whoops….Poor guy hadn’t been keeping up with me because he wanted a hard drive, he’d wanted to find the freeway! Sorry!

From that stop light, I had him follow me to the freeway. That was a very fun trip.

And now for my best sparring with the boys story:

I was on my way to Jen’s baby shower, so this had to’ve been 2000.

But anyhow, I was heading southbound on the 101 through Studio City. Traffic was tight, but there was a little room to move. I was in my ’68 Mustang Fastback.

I’m bored in traffic and still have at least an hour left on the road, so I start to weave a little bit. Not cutting anyone off or anything, just trying to change my scenery when a bizarre 20s car…make that racecar…rolls up on my tail.

Stranger than that, I think the driver looks like Jay Leno.

Yeah, Jay Leno is a car guy, so anything’s possible.

But still, me being a car chick and him driving the cooler car, I most definitely feel obligated to get out of his way, even help him get through traffic easier.

So, I keep weaving, leaving him room to get by me, but he’s just not taking it!

I’m still going, waiting, leaving a mile in front of me…

Finally, as the 134 is about to split off, he changes lanes to my right. Then he rolls alongside and with a big ol’ grin on his face, gives me a thumbs up!!!!

Yep! Jay Leno gave ME a thumbs up!

Good golly!!!! I still grin at that memory!!!!!!!!!

Starsky & Hutch (2)

This was definitely a life-altering experience for me. I was earning my first two SAG vouchers, on my way to getting into the union and got waaaaaaaaay more than just that. I had zero expectations going into it and just let it unfold. It’s still one of my favorite shoots ever.

Two weekend days in downtown LA that I will never forget.

The following are excerpts from an email written shortly after the shoot:

I spent my weekend on the set of the feature film Starsky & Hutch.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are playing Starsky & Hutch in the movie. I’m thinking it’s gonna be rather campy. But the original S&H do make an appearance.

I saw them very briefly this weekend. They were in one of the stunt scenes we shot. I got to watch as the lead stunt driver jumped the Torino through a driveway into the street so that it landed going backward. Then, he drove in reverse gear toward the poice station and then whipped the car around 180 degrees into a parking space. Oh yeah… It was a thrill just to watch. I was about three cars away from the action… The captain of the driving team was riding in the car in front of me so he could see everything. My, oh my… what a weekend!

Let me break it all down a little more…

I showed up at base camp and got my first SAG voucher. I was absolutely on cloud 9 at this point.

The person checking me in gave me a map of the set and told me where to park. I was already in costume because wardrobe chose an outfit from my own personal collection, so I hopped in my car and drove to where the map told me to.

I was about three cars back in the line-up and gradually the rest of the background cars rolled up eventually. I was just excited to be there. I didn’t really care about much else. I was on a show that I’d loved as a kid and was two vouchers closer to getting into SAG. Life couldn’t get much better at that point.

Oh, but it did…

During the first take, the cars in front of me took off and then I was waved through frame only to discover afterward that I’d been grouped with the precision drivers!!!!

Talk about a little dream come true for me!

Because I’m a good driver, that first take set the stage for the rest of the shoot. The precision driving coach took a liking to me and used me all day the first day.

And then on the second day, I figured I’d never get used again because my car was seen so much. But when the driving coach asked me where my car was, I told him production didn’t want to see me anymore and he talked to the 1st AD about it.

WOW!

From that point on, they considered me a precision driver! I had the time of my life! He let me drive a bunch of different cars on the driving team.

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and know how to pay attention and drive a car such that I hit the same mark every time and I got to be on the precision driving team. Yeah, the captain of the team has been stunt driving since Mission Impossible, the TV show!

By the time that second day was through, I’d driven about five different cars. It was so amazing. I’d found a new dream…to be a stunt driver or at least a precision driver. So far, that’s my absolute favorite. I already love cars.

Also, during that fantastic second day, Jen and I got to talking on my cell phone. We were in edits on Lover’s Talisman and were discussing the book as a whole.

This was the day we decided to rewrite the end of the book.

Actually, one of the weirdest things about our decision to rearrange the end of Lover’s Talisman was that I was the one who actually noticed it was lame somehow. Usually, I’m not quite that astute and Jen points out where we suck the hardest and we fix it.

I just remember sitting with the driving team on Starsky & Hutch, calling Jen on my cell phone to check in as I usually do and of course, we got to talking about Lover’s Talisman and how we were both rereading it for the millionth time.

We sort of reminisced about writing it and I was trying to figure out how to exactly say what was on my mind… That while even on the millionth read through, Lover’s Talisman wasn’t half bad, but there was one scene…(one of Jen’s personal faves from the getgo)…that I was just tired of reading.

It was wonderfully great the first time, but after the millionth, I really paid no attention to it. And it’s a friggin’ sex scene! So, I just kinda quickly glossed over that in hopes of not pissing her off and we went on to talk about other stuff.

Then, the next time I talk to her, she has this brilliant idea to rework the end of the book mainly because the cave scene really didn’t advance the plot in the ways it should.

Boy, did I wipe the sweat from my brow. 🙂 Sure I had no idea why I didn’t like the millionth read through of the cave scene, but that’s why Jen and I work so well together.

Life altering. I tell ya, this shoot had everything. Tons and tons of adventure plus writing stuff. I got to do great research for Driven To Distraction as well as get on my way to getting into SAG.

One of my all time favorite shoots bar none. I wish they were all as awesome as this one.

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