Okay, so.  After I finish the Camille paranormal, I'm going to write a 
ChickLit book.  They don't really require any plot of any kind, and they're 
all rambling-like, just like my normal style.  So this should be 
perfect.  

But I did come up with an opening paragraph, effortlessly.  What worries me 
is that it might be a quotation from something I've read, because it just 
poured out.  And seems too good.  I thought I might post it here and see 
whether anyone recognizes it, and whether it would be any incentive to read 
on.  Considering this is supposed to be fiction, humorous, women's stuff, 
that is.  If you've read _See Jane Date_ or _Confessions of a Shopaholic_ 
or one of those books, you know what I'm aiming for.

"My life is filled with little rituals. I don't know when I invented them, 
or even how; I simply know that I do them, even if I don't always 
rationally believe in them or that they work.  One ritual from childhood is 
to count to four or eight or a multiple thereof while chug-a-lugging water; 
another is to put my hands on the ceiling of the car whenever I'm going 
under a railroad track with a train crossing it.  But the most powerful one 
is to do something selfless, something selfish, and then a random, 
anonymous act of kindness, in that order, within a span of forty-eight hours.
"This is the charm that heals, I hope.  This week the ritual started when I 
gave away my place on the train to a kid desperate to get home on 
time.  Then I indulged in several scanty bras for no reason at all.  As for 
the third, it has to stay anonymous for the magic to work. And I need some 
magic in my life right now. As do we all."

There.  Isn't that sounding a lot like something that came out of . . . I 
don't know where?

So far, though, Google searches haven't turned up anything.  I think this 
could be a cool Chick Lit (Red Dress Ink) sort of book, and it's obvious 
it'll be based on and circle around rituals, the little rituals of the day 
and the year and the life that keep us going, that keep us grounded, even 
if they don't work and we don't even consciously believe in them.  The 
rituals that comfort and guide us and give our lives structure.  And then 
there has to be "the hump or the heat," of course, as it is
vulgarly stated 
about "romance" and women's fiction.  

We'll see.  Just thought I'd gauge reaction here.

Shal
- - -
The only thing that flies faster than an F-16 is your guardian angel
- - - -
Nine out of ten doctors recommend reading my books.  The tenth is a quack.
Shalanna Collins   http://home.attbi.com/~shalanna/>
_Dulcinea: or Wizardry A-Flute_  (e-mail me 4 excerpt)  ISBN 0-7388-5388-7
New!  I'm trying out a blog/jrnl http://www.livejournal.com/users/shalanna/>

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