I just found out online today that the last two episodes of Blood Ties on Lifetime will not be aired on television, but online.

I have three problems with this idea.

1. It is inconvenient for viewers to track down episodes on the Lifetime Website, which I generally find confusing and hard to use in the first place.

2. Paying for episodes on iTunes when I already pay for the channel and service through my cable provider is like paying twice for one haircut. I find that to be a rip-off.

3. Isn’t this exactly why writers are on strike in Hollywood? So they can be paid for their work appropriately regardless of what medium it is shown on?! I am appalled by the business of Hollywood and the lack of respect given to writers whose creativity and ability to string words and images together is the reason television and movies have blossomed in the first place. As a writer, I find it completely unprofessional for a firm to not pay me for work. It takes a while to come up with the best images and words to convey a story, poem, play, or show. My hard work and that of other writers should be appreciated in the same way that construction workers’ sweat is appreciated.

I’ve grown to love Blood Ties and the characters, but do I love them enough to watch episodes online and deny the writers payment? I think not. I am appalled by Lifetime’s decision. I watched Blood Ties on a whim, and then got involved with the characters to the point that I needed to get the books to read those stories. I hope that the outraged viewers can send a message to Hollywood and Lifetime, especially about the Blood Ties show.

Don’t forget to weigh in on the dilemma in this week’s latest poll.

This is me spreading the word about the Christmas Exchange. From Things Mean A Lot:

Think about and participate. It should be a great time. Although it looks like I may have found out about this after the deadline passed by. Darn it.

As you will recall from the last post, I ordered volume 2 in the Blood Books by Tanya Huff to complete my little collection. Well suffice to say, the bookstore called to say the book was in and ready to be picked up. I headed to the bookstore and picked up the book. Got home with the book only to realize they ordered me Volume 1 and not Volume 2, like I had expected. I have to now wait another week for the correct book to come in and then complete and even exchange. UGH.

Sometimes incompetence just astounds me, particularly when the person ordering the book for me saw that I was purchasing Volumes 1 and 3 that day! Ridiculous.

The other part of the bookstore trip was to purchase my mother’s latest James Patterson book, You’ve Been Warned with my 40% off coupon. At least that part of the trip went well.

Next post will be a review of one of the books I am currently reading; have no fear.

One of my friends at work asked me for a reference on his job search, and I thought nothing of it. Soon he announced he was leaving for another firm, and thanked me for my reference with a giftcard to Borders. Being the bookworm that I am, I headed to the bookstore several times with good intentions of finding some new reading material to keep me occupied.

Finishing Places in the Bone, had me hankering for another memoir, and thankfully, my friend Sarah out in Iowa had just the book. Queen of the Oddballs by Hillary Carlip is a hilarious memoir of someone I barely know. This was my first mission at the bookstore yesterday…to find a copy of this book. Upon securing the last copy of the memoir, I set about another task, finding the Blood Books by Tanya Huff. Mind you at the time of my search, I could not remember the author’s name, nor the titles of the books. All I could remember was they books were the basis of a Lifetime show, Blood Ties. I tried just looking for the books in the horror section; then I attempted to check out the mystery/suspense section; little did I know that she is considered a fantasy author. I headed back to the information desk and put in my keywords: vampire (too many results), blood ties (too many books not related to the show), and finally private investigator and vampires (eureka it worked!). Again, the search computer told me that one volume was “likely” in the store, while another volume you had to reserve, and the last volume was “on order.” Lo and behold, the information desk staffwoman came to my rescue and brought me over to the fantasy section where we located volumes 1 and 3; I had to order volume 2. You would think that the search for books would be over. But no.

I had three books, two of them cheaper paperbacks, a 30% off coupon, and an urge to find more vampires. Eclipse, which is a recent book from Stephenie Meyer, peaked my interest, but again it was the third in a series. I began to hunt. We found the second book in the series, New Moon, right away. But the first book in the series eluded me. Perhaps again because I assumed it was a horror novel. I am full of misconceptions. It is actually a young adult series, which is where the information desk staffwoman led me to find Twilight.

Suffice to say, I did not leave with 6 books, but with four. I got 30 percent off oddballs, and the others were inexpensive enough that my giftcard covered a majority of the costs. Yeah for me.

I just wanted to post a note that I have not forgotten about the poll, nor about posting new posts. I had a wedding to attend across the U.S. this month, and I am just now catching up on work at the office. I hope to have a new post this weekend for you. As for the results of the poll, I am currently waiting for my poetry book of Carol Dine to arrive in the mail, so until it gets to me, you will all have to be patient for my review.

I do have Dine’s memoir, Places in the Bone, which I started reading and will probably post about on here when I have finished it.

Yes, I have been absent for some time. I apologize. I’ve had a heap of things going on and a mini-vacation in the mix, but I will be back this week with additional poetry posts. In the meantime, let me know what you think of the new Blog look. She needed to be dressed up for her next set of adventures.

I inserted the panda photo just to cheer you up.

I wanted to alert all readers that I recently created a storefront at Cafe Press for this blog. It is still in the beginning stages of development, but I hope to add more products related to the content on this page as time goes on. For now here is a link to the shop.

Shop on! I’m also hoping to con someone else into this venture.

I have no idea if this is going to help Google find my site.

I wonder if this will help TeenBlips find my site?

I wonder if this will help BookBlips find my site?