Why Coke before bed is not a good idea for a toddler

As a treat for the kids, we picked up dinner last night and I allowed my 2-year-old to have a rare treat: a small child-sized Coke. Now the reason she loves Coke is because of her grandfather, who decided to give it to her when she was still in diapers. Thanks, Dad. While my son thought it tasted like battery acid, my daughter was instantly in love. In fact, any time I happened to be carrying a soda from a fast-food place with her in my other arm, she would launch her body sideways and aim her mouth for the straw. It was rather scary.

Now my daughter is a bundle of energy anyway. She has been known to randomly sing songs, spin herself in circles, and bounce around the house. Why in the world did I think giving her a dose of caffeine before bed was a good idea? She was running around like I’d given her an amphetamine high. I tried to give her a bedtime story and she started jumping on the bed. After I turned the lights off and closed her door, she kept on a running dialogue between herself and her baby doll. :blahblah: Remind me not to do that again.

The revisions are coming along well. I have about 40 pages left to go. The tricky part is making sure the emotional intensity is right. You can say a lot with body language and action, as well as revealing character thoughts. Subtext is really fun to play with. I listened to a workshop by Jolie Kramer once where she described the market scene in Casablanca. Rick and Else are standing before a vendor who’s trying to sell his goods to Elsa. Rick is talking about what happened the other day and Else is answering questions for the vendor. At one point, she looks at the vendor and says, “No, I don’t want that.” But we know she’s talking about Rick and what he’s said earlier. It’s a great example of subtext.

Someone asked me the other day if I read other romance novels to get ideas for my books. In all honesty, I never do that. If anything, I’m very conscious of what’s already been done and I make a concerted effort NOT to follow those trends.