Bigger is better

Yes. I'm still obsessed with temari. I came across some huge styrofoam balls at a garage sale and used them to make temari bases. I was a little intimidated at first with the prospect of making a bigger design, but I think this first one came out pretty good.

This is one project, but the two sides are different designs. It took two evenings to finish, that includes wrapping the base. If only I could write a novella in two evenings.

I did some writing...

So I've been taking a break from writing lately. I haven't worked on my WIP in over a week. My brain is fried and I've been really scrambling to try to figure out what direction I want to go in.

I decided to not to work on anything until after I get back from NJRW this coming weekend. I'm hoping that the conference will energize me as it has in the past and I'll come home with some new ideas that really get my writing blood fired up. And I'm also hoping that a self-imposed exile from my fictional worlds will make my heart grow a bit fonder and I'll look forward to getting back to work. In the past, nothing has made me more eager to write than not writing.

Of course, that being said, I had to write something. So rather than work on a WIP, I actually sat down yesterday and wrote to my congressman.

I bet you didn't know I had my very own congressman, did you? LOL. Well, he's not my personal congressman. I share him with a bunch of other people who live around here. I decided it was time to tell him what I thought about the health care debacle...I mean debate.

Here's my letter. If anyone out there would like to use it as a basis for their own letter to their own congressman or government representative, please feel free to do so.

Dear Congressman ___________,

I’m writing to you to express my concern about the national healthcare crisis. In following political news for the past several months I’ve noticed an alarming omission in the health insurance debate. It seems that there is a great desire by our government for every American to have ‘health insurance’ when the hot button issue should be assuring that every American has ‘health care’.

As someone who has been self-employed at one time and was then responsible for obtaining private health insurance for my family, I’m acutely aware that having health insurance does not always equate to having access to adequate and affordable health care. Too many Americans are drowning under the burden of paying exorbitant health insurance premiums, which while it may leave them covered in the event of hospitalization still leaves them with little or no money to afford co-payments, medications or incidental medical expenses. I’m sadly aware of many families where the cost of insurance prohibits spending for anything else. What good is having health insurance if you still can’t afford to go to the doctor?

I’ve read about the cost of health care skyrocketing due to people who wait until they are seriously ill to seek medical attention. Making health insurance mandatory and fining those who do not obtain it [with or without government subsidies or thresholds] will not solve this problem. Money that should go to pay for health care will still be funneled into paying for insurance, and the cost of that will still preclude many individuals from actually being able to obtain timely, routine health care to prevent serious illness.

What America needs is not more health insurance or laws forcing people to give more of their hard-earned money to insurance companies. We need a system by which Americans can afford to go to the doctor and obtain medical care at reasonable prices from the most basic checkups and health screenings to treatment for the life-threatening and catastrophic illnesses that every day threaten to send more American families into bankruptcy.

I am respectfully asking that you vote to give Americans peace of mind with regards to the health care debate and do what you can to see the emphasis in this issue shifts from the importance of health ‘insurance’ to the importance of health ‘care’. I strongly believe that a reduction in the stress involved with living under the constant fear of losing one’s health insurance, or of losing one’s home to medical-bill induced bankruptcy will go a long way to improving the overall health of the American people.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

So there you have it. It ain't fiction, but I do think it needed to be said.

Wanna bite?

If you're hungry...and you're a vampire, go check out the vampire bonanza over at Smutketeers today. The ladies there all have vampire books coming out soon and they're talking about the allure of the hero with with bite.

I dream in color

Colors of thread, that is.

I've become obsessed with making temari. Now, when I go to sleep, I see thread crossing and looping and wrapping around in coordinating and contrasting colors.

This is the first one I made that actually looks just like the picture in the pattern.

These are just random patterns I made up.


This one turned out different than I intended but still pretty cool.

For more information on how to make Japanese temari, and what some really expert ones look like, check out TemariKai.com. Click on the How To, Patterns and Album section for some gorgeous photos of temari like the ones I made printouts of shown in my pictures. And be prepared to become obsessed.

WTF FTC?

So if you blog, by now you may have heard about the new FTC Guidelines governing disclosure of payments or non-payments in the case of product endorsements or reviews.

This quote comes from an article about the new regulations, which can impose fines on those who break the rules:

"We’re acting to ensure that bloggers don’t create a bias in the consumer decision-making process,” said Mary Engle, acting deputy director for the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Consumers need to know that what they’re reading is technically an advertisement.”

This would be noble if it wasn't so half-assed. Anyone been surfing the web lately? Where is the FTC in relation to those insipid ads you see all over the place - Obama asks Moms to Return to School!, Local Mom loses 47 pounds following This One Old Rule, I earn $77/hr while I sleep! Come on - that's NOT false advertising? Yet it remains.

Have you ever caught one of those infomercials on TV that consist of a string of glowing testimonials by people ‘just like you and me’ who have become overnight millionaires using those get rich quick schemes where they sell household products, or they distribute reports or they buy and sell real estate or the most nebulous one – ‘they place ads’ and the money rolls in and now than can retire at 35 and you can too? Seriously. NOT false advertising?? Come on. Yet they remain.

Isn't the whole point of advertising to create a bias in the consumer decision-making process? If advertising wasn’t mostly false [let’s face it] would those Whoppers really look so good on TV? Take one out of the box, they’re not as juicy and delicious in real life as they appear on the screen. Is your candy bar really as rich and creamy as it looks in the commercial? Or is it a bit crumbly and sickeningly sweet? [Candy IS evil, remember.] Tell me again how those models in VOGUE are NOT airbrushed. Their skin is naturally flawless, their eyes are naturally brilliant sapphire blue and [well this part is true] they really ARE a size zero because they don’t eat [candy OR Whoppers]. Notice how the FTC doesn’t seem to be doing anything about those advertisements.

Why do my kids want the latest video game? Because the commercials make it look like a full-blown 3-D interactive mind-blowing adventure they can have right in their own living room. Not because it’s actually really frustrating and impossible to win. Why do I want to go see that great new comedy that just came out? Because the trailer shows a sampling of the hilarious, madcap entertainment my $11.00 can buy me. Not because those 30 seconds of trailer represent the only 30 seconds of the movie that are worth watching.

In the meantime, I can be handed a free copy of a book written by my best friend, I can read it, love it and write a glowing review [that's maybe a bit biased because hey, this is my friend] and suddenly I'm up for a fine if I don't disclose that I got the book for free?

Someone, anyone, anywhere, I beg you. Give me a break. Consumers need a lot more protection, but not from rabid bloggers.

* And please note my new disclaimer in the side bar. I do not endorse or recommend any of the products or services mentioned in this blog article and I have received none of them for free. Nor would I want to.

Goin' to the Chapel

I haven't done much writing this week. I have a cold and my brain is totally fried by that stuffy-headed feeling. I haven't even read any romance because it seems much more comfortable just to stare straight ahead, not blinking and willing my nose not to run.

Yeah, TMI. Sorry about that.

Anyway. A week like this would normally have me questioning my status as a romance writer. After all, how can a romance writer NOT be in the mood to write romance? And, usually, cold medicine gives me a bit of a creative buzz [ask any writer, they'll tell you - a good dose of Sudafed and your fingers are flyin' on the keyboard] Maybe it's the weather too - cool, breezy - really good sleeping weather. Who can concentrate on writing when sleeping seems like such a good idea?

Fortunately, I figured out how I know I'm still a romance writer. I'm still a romance writer [who is currently out sick] because I'm totally jazzed to watch the wedding of Pam Beasley and Jim Halpert on THE OFFICE tomorrow night. Pam and Jim are an awesome couple. They're my idea of romance. They were friends first. They had a repertoire of shared language and inside jokes. They always looked out for each other and thought about each other all the time. They had their ups and downs, their dark moment [more than one] and they still ended up together. Tomorrow night is the HEA all the fans have been waiting for. It's like the last chapter in a long, mushy romance novel.

I can't wait.

So, the romance is still in there somewhere. I've got it. It's just taking a break until I can breathe again and hold both my eyelids open at once. Now I just have to try to refrain from throwing rice at the television.

Candy is Evil

So, just in time for Halloween, TIME comes out with this bit of absurdity in which a researcher in the UK posits that there is a link between children who eat candy and adults who commit crimes.

The study in question comes out of Cardiff University and brings what it believes to be incontrovertible evidence that the consumption of candy leads to criminal activity.

Researcher Simon Moore discovered that "kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers, and that these kids had terrible diets - breakfast was a Coke and a bag of chips,"

He further discovered that: regardless of other environmental and lifestyle factors, like family-income level, parenting style or children's level of education, the data suggested it was only the frequency of confectionery consumption in childhood that strongly predicted adult violence.

So there you have it, folks. Just as the kid who is still drinking from a bottle at age 2 or sucking on a pacifer until Preschool, the kids who eats candy will grow up to be a criminal. That explains a lot. Especially since crime is such a relatively NEW concept...you know, it's only been around since they invented candy.

I'm glad this study comes out of the UK. If it was an American study I would be on my rant about wasting money on dumbness, but if Cardiff University wants to pay someone to link candy and crime, that's their business. I'm off to buy a big bag of Snickers to hand out to the hooligans on October 31st. I have no doubt at least one of the little rug rats who shows up at my door dressed as a hobo and waving a hollow plastic pumpkin at me will grow up to be a serial killer. But I also believe that one of that serial killer's fondest memories will be of getting high on sugar after a lawless night of Trick or Treating.

Call me an anarchist.

Livin' La Vida...

A few weeks ago I thought I was pretty much done for the year - as in no more releases scheduled. I didn't have anything new coming out until 2010 - BUT as luck would have it, not only did I happen to sell one of the novellas I wrote over the summer, it also managed to fill a slot in Amber Quill's 2009 release schedule!

Coming in November from Amber Heat- La Vida Muerta

Here's the blurb:

Elena Talbot betrayed her sister for a chance at immortality. Now, ensconced in the dark world of Chicago’s undead, she clings to the person who helped her find herself and her sanity after the gut wrenching, soul-stealing transformation from human to vampire.

Vampire investigator Lucas Vitale has gotten used to having Elena in his home and in his bed. She’s always ready for his lusty games, but she’s still afloat in a sea of self-doubt and confusion about her new existence. She wants the one thing he can’t give her, a purpose. When her quest for fulfillment brings her too close to his long-hidden secret, he casts her out. Only after she’s gone does he realize there’s no point in living ‘the dead life’ without her.


If you want a little background on the characters in La Vida Muerta, check out my FREE READ, Fresh Blood. The Talbot sisters, Lucas Vitale and Max Hart were all introduced in that story.

And that's not all - stay tuned for more info about my December re-release of The Soul Jar!

How cool is this?

A fellow Romance Diva just posted this link and I had to come over here and blog about it.


From the How Cool Is This file:

Star Trek Cologne.

It's too bad most perfume gives me a headache, or I might be tempted to put one of these on my Christmas list. At $29.95 a pop they're a bit pricey as far as I'm concerned, but the novelty factor is high.

I'm not sure I'd opt for the Red Shirt fragrance. Seriously - do you want to smell like you're expendable? I would definitely have to go with Pon Farr. You have to figure it must be a sexy scent, and you can't beat the IDIC insignia on the bottle. I used to have an IDIC pendant, not sure what happened to it, but it was mega cool. [For those of you who aren't familiar - IDIC stands for the Vulcan concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination. Pon Farr is the Vulcan 'blood fever' which precedes the pinnacle of their 7-year mating cycle.]

The important question here, of course is, how soon will this stuff show up on The Big Bang Theory?

Guest Blogging!

I'm over at "Embrace the Shadows" today talking about The Matchmakers and giving away a free copy, so drop by and leave a comment for a chance to win!

Epiphany Schmapiphany

Yeah, so, remember all that crap about clearing the decks? Forget it.

It didn't work. I even had DH pick a genre for me so I wouldn't be influenced by my own insecure desire to stick with what I know. I wrote about four pages on something and realized it was not at all what I wanted or needed to do.

Then I had an idea about a character in my current WIP and worked on that instead. The idea involves possibly rewriting the plot, changing major POVs and introducing a new [and or secondary] hero. Can you say, love triangle? I love those.

I also did actually start a new story as well, based on an idea I had a while ago and I'm working on that too. This breaks a cardinal rule I made not long ago about working on only one story at a time so I can give it my full attention. I realized I don't having something called 'my full attention' anymore. I'm too busy thinking about a million different things.

To combat my creative schizophrenia, I've also thrown myself into a new craft hobby.
Japanese Temari. I made these...they are basically embroidery on handmade balls of yarn and string. The fun part is actually wrapping the ball of yarn in thread. It takes a while but it looks cool when you're done. Then I basically ruin the ball by trying to sew designs on it with embroidery floss. [The larger ones are cheats - they're wrapped in Lion Brand ladder yarn which requires no skill but it looks awesome.]


To keep me extra busy, I also stumbled across an afghan kit at a yard sale on the weekend, so that's on deck [yeah, the deck I just cleared] for as soon as I finish the afghan I'm already working on.

Maybe somewhere in there I'll complete a story, if I can find one with all this commotion on the deck. Speaking of which, I had a dream last night I was on a cruise. The deck of the ship was pretty busy. It had a waterfall on it and a Zen garden. It was a nice place to visit, but I'm not sure I'd want to live there.

Two windows...

No waiting.

The Daily Epiphany

Sounds like a cool name for a newspaper, doesn't it?

Part sarcastic, part inspirational...

The Daily Epiphany pretty much describes my writing life. Every day, almost, I come up with some kernel of an idea that gets caught somewhere in my gray matter. Some days, it's a cool idea for a story. Other days its a bad seed - like the days I think I should give up this life of glamour and excitement and concentrate on a real job.

Either way, there's some new nugget taking shape in my brain all the time. Sometimes helpful and good, other times insidious and self-defeating.

Today, just a few minutes ago in fact, I had one of the shiny epiphanies. It was a small one, nothing earth shattering, but it's one I may decide to run with. It has to do with clearing the decks again.

I've been bogged down with a couple of stories, a couple of ideas that I just can't leave alone. I'm chipping away at them a lot like chipping away at an iceberg with a chopstick. I'm working up a sweat and not making much progress.

It just occurred to me that maybe I need a clean slate for a while. What would happen, if I put all the half-finished stories on hold for a bit and forced myself to write something totally new, totally out of my comfort zone, seat of the pants, no holds barred? What if I got out of my own way and just let myself write?

I know. Right? Radical.

I'm off to trade in my chopsticks for a blow torch.

Why haven't I posted?

I've been meaning too, really.

The problem is I can't find the right picture to post. See, I've been obsessing over finding the right look for a new hero I'm working on and I know just what I think he looks like, but I can't find the right picture and it's driving me nuts.

I discovered once before that sometimes stories don't work because one or the other of the main characters is wrong. They may be good looking, smart, clever, and experts in their chosen profession, but they're just not exactly right and that's why the story doesn't seem to gel.

So I have this story all plotted and I know everything that needs to happen, but it's just been sitting around doing nothing because the scenes I wrote with the hero and heroine were just too...nice. The hero was a gentleman. Very wise as well as handsome. Powerful, sophisticated...you'd like him. Really. The heroine, in fact, had no reason not to like him.

Therein lay the problem. When there's no conflict, there's no story. When two people meet and really hit it off...that's not a romance novel. Two people need to meet like oil and water, or preferably oil and a lit match. They need to leave each other scorched and spent, not giddy and grinning [at least not a first].

So, I'm off to find the hero that my heroine doesn't find genteel and admirably heroic. She can't look at him and think, 'Wow, he's got it all together.' She needs to look at him and think, 'Oh, please. This guy?'

I'll let you know when I find him.

Running with the Turtles

Yesterday DH and I took the kids to the zoo. We love zoos, and even though at 11 and 14 ours were the oldest kids there, they still had a good time.

In the reptile house, we came across this little fellow [on the right] who, though he looks stationary in the picture, was actually booking for a turtle. He was moving pretty fast across his habitat, apparently trying to cut off his roommate. He succeeded, since the other turtle wasn't actually moving at all.

This little bit of zoo drama got me thinking about my writing journey. From the outside, it may look like I'm at a bit of a standstill at the moment. I don't have any new releases scheduled until 2010. I'm plugging away on a WIP that, if it does what I want it to do, will end up a full-length novel, so that takes some major time. I'm not racing around trying to do a bunch of promo because I want to concentrate my limited energy on writing. My progress is slow, from a relative standpoint, but like this turtle, I'm moving as fast as I can.

I like to think that from the perspective of another turtle, I'm hauling some major a$$. It's all about viewpoint. No one is eating my dust, but at least I'm moving.

SHIFT High Gear

It always amazes me how September seems to shift instantly into high gear. This week has been full of 'new' and 'different' and it really feels a lot more like a new year has begun than when January 1st rolls around.


DD started high school this week. High School. Egads, I'm old. So far, she's loving it, and in less than 2 and a half days, I'm totally broke from running around buying school supplies. Her long and complicated list required visits not only to Staples, but JoAnn's Fabric and Michaels. Fortunately we had a lot of the needed supplies already on hand, and better yet it was a great sale weekend, but nevertheless we watched the money flow out of both our wallets.


I got through four chapters of the first draft of my new WIP. Yay! It's interesting - I have to keep telling myself not to sweat the things I already know I need to change. I've seen the development of my other full length novels over time and I realize the words I'm putting down now may be drasatically different from the finished product that ends up being submitted, but that's okay. These are the bare bones. The cosmetic surgery will come later.


I've also thrown myself into a new endeavor. I plan to rediscover the joy of cooking.



Don't laugh. I'm serious.

I like food. I love to eat - and I've sworn off dieting forever. [That's another long post] My plan is to work on making healthier meals and try to cut back on our use of packaged, processed food. The Ultra-Metabolism principle is still floating around in my head, so I need to concentrate on better eating for better health, not 'diet' eating for losing weight. I'm in the process of going through all my old cook books, weeding out easy, nutritious recipes that have potential and tossing the rest. [This is also part of my plan to eventually clean all the junk out of my house.] I found a folder with my receipes that had coupons in it that expired in 2003. I think it's time to start letting go, don't you? LOL.

Here's to new endeavors!

The opposite of hangin' on...

Is holdin' up. Ever feel like everything rests on you? Like you alone hold the world together and keep everything on an even keel?

I feel like that a lot. Sort of like a Borg queen, trying to keep all the drones from walking around in circles mumbling 'Resistance is futile, resistance is futile.'

The interesting thing about this 'weight of the world' type feeling, is that it seems to change dramatically when September arrives. It's practically an overnight thing. I go from feeling like I'm trying to hold up a giant dog, to feeling like I can float without treading water. [My ability to create interesting metaphors drops dramatically, but what the heck.]

Is there a time of year when your attitude shifts abruptly and you feel more hopeful and confident?

And they call what I write 'fiction'

While I don't want to turn this into a political blog, I could not let this one little nugget of toxic waste slip by without comment.

I saw this on Yahoo News this morning: BS to be found HERE and I could not get it out of my head.

Apparently this load of manure comes from Reuters. You'd think they'd have a modicum of integrity, but I guess they don't. How can this 'story' be for real? Who are they trying to fool?

Oh, right. The American public. I forgot.

Seriously? Do they really think we are dumb enough to believe a statement like this:

Researchers found a steady increase in people's confidence about their ability to pay for healthcare services -- it rose 12 percent between March and July this year.


Who are they polling? Brad and Angelina? Cause it's certainly not middle class Americans. That's for sure. In a time when most personal bankruptcies are cause by exhorbitant medical bills THAT ARE NOT COVERED by insurance, who exactly is more confident that they will be able to pay their medical bills? Perhaps, if an actual healthcare reform bill had been put into action, you might say people's confidence would rise, but considering everything seems to be stacked toward the President eventually getting away with saying: The American people don't want healthcare reform, therefore we're not going to do it. [See if that doesn't happen.] It's just beyond ridiculous that anyone is naive enough to think they're in a better position to pay rising medical care costs.

Now, before I shut my rant off and go back to writing some 'real' fiction, I'd just want to say, the only reason healthcare costs are out of control is BECAUSE HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE OUT OF CONTROL. It has nothing to do with how much healthcare we use, or obesity, or heart disease, or people who don't want to go to the doctor until they're extremely ill. It has to do with the fact that it simply COSTS TOO DAMN MUCH TO UTILIZE HEALTHCARE. An aspirin doesn't cost $7 in a hospital because the average American leads a sedentary lifestyle. An aspirin costs $7 in a hospital BECAUSE THE FREAKIN' HOSPITAL CAN GET AWAY WITH CHARGING THAT MUCH.

Hello! Wake up, Congress. Wake up, Mr. President, and wake up Reuters. It's time to tell the truth and do something about it. The only thing to blame for the mess we're in with healthcare is GREED. That's with a capital G. Now, who's got the balls do actually do something about it?

A productive day...for other people

A lot got done today. I wish I could say it was all done by me...

We had our new bathrub installed and it's gorgeous. The old one was in pretty sad shape. The finish was cracked and rust was showing through. It had a couple of nicks in the porcelain coating. The new one is shiny and very, very white and just lovely.

The phone got fixed. We've been having static on the line and hearing a radio [apparently this is a common problem in the area]. So Verizon stopped by and shielded the line.

The kitchen sink sprouted a leak a few days ago and the plumber came by and replaced all the pipes under the sink for a fairly reasonable price.

I'm glad I could keep so many people busy today.

Oh...I did manage to finish the galley edits for the PRINT version of The Matchmakers[April 2010!] AND I knocked out the first draft of the first chapter of my new WIP. So it wasn't just other people that accomplished today. I did some stuff too. I wish every Friday could be this productive.

New wallpaper - maybe a bad idea

So yesterday I let DS use my computer for a little while. He has his own computer but he wanted to look at a map on mine so I said fine.

Of course, for some reason, when I sat down later to do some work, my wallpaper was gone. I have no idea how the kid could have made my wallpaper disappear, but the picture I had up [the one I took at Disney World of the Materhorn mountain that looks like an Alp] was gone. I must have moved it off my computer, because I did an overhaul of my picture files last week so it's gone from the drive. [I could find it on a CD but I didn't feel like looking] After all, it's going to be September soon and it's time for a change.

So I picked this picture as my new wallpaper...

And now I'm sort of regretting it, because not only does it beckon me to lean closer to the monitor and hope I fall in, it also makes me long to go back to the beach when I should be longing to get some writing done instead.

What's your wallpaper? Does it inspire you or is it just there?

Not a total loss

Nope. Summer was not a total loss.

I say that because my disdain for this season is well known. I'm not into heat. I'm not into humidity. I'm not into the kids hanging around the house whining about how bored they are while the pool filter labors happily away keeping the chlorinated water crystal clear while no one swims in it.

Nope. It's not my season.

So, the fact that I completed and submitted TWO novellas this summer is monumental in my book. I wasn't really going to work too hard between June and September. In fact, when the summer began, I didn't have many plans to write at all. I was just fooling around with some ideas, dabbling, but not interested in sweating to the finish line, and lo and behold, I did.

So I'm somewhat pleased with myself. Of course it remains to be seen whether those novellas will sell or not. That's in the hands of my editors, but I accomplished more than I set out to, so I'm pretty jazzed.

Now that September is looming, I'm starting to think about goals again. I picked up a partially finished story from my pile and have decided this is the NEXT BIG ONE. I hesitate to make any specific plans for it, because you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...but considering I'm neither a man nor a mouse, maybe I have a decent shot.

Wish me luck.

I only hope...

...that someday a reader will be as anxious for the next installment of one of my books as I was for this.

I don't pre-order books very often...mostly because I don't have that much disposable cash lying around, but this one I did. I've been patiently waiting for it and it arrived on Thursday.

I ripped open the box like it was Christmas and I couldn't wait to get started. [The only reason I haven't finished yet is because I've had a lot of editing work to do, AND because I have a perverse desire to savor the book while devouring it at the same time.] I want to have my cake and eat it too. [Let's not talk about the outrageous amount of time I spend over at Cake Wrecks blog - that's a different post].

I won't go into any details about the book, no spoilers. I'll just say, while it's inherently cruel to make readers wait for months and months and months for the next installment of an ongoing story, I completely envy any author who can keep me on the hook this long.

What books/authors are you on the hook for?

Thinking inside the box...

LOLCat with Laser Action Eyes - comes with batteries included.

Something old, something new...

I’m a firm believer that trying new things is the best way to get out of a rut, combat depression and kick start the creative process.

I was in the mood for something new on Friday evening, so off we went to the mall where I indulged in something I’ve been wanting to try for a while now, but haven’t had the courage.

I got myself a bubble tea.

Radical right? I know. I’ve been putting it off since the craze began and I couldn’t hedge any longer.

A little bit of background on bubble tea – it’s a cold milk tea usually sweetened with fruit flavors, shaken vigorously to produce a layer of bubbles on the top. Then tapioca pearls are added which sink to the bottom of the cup and appear as more dark ‘bubbles’ in the bottom. It’s served with a wide straw so you can suck up the tapioca pearls and eat them.

Fascinating concept. Eating your drinks. I’ve never been fond of chewing liquid, but I just had to give this a try.

It tasted good, not very tea-like though. I ordered strawberry which tasted more like strawberry Quick with ice – hyper sweet, very pink. Sort of like ping-pong balls in a lottery machine, the tapioca pearls roll around in the bottom of the cup until one of them decides to make a break for it and travel slowly up the straw. Now, you can’t just go chugging bubble tea willy nilly. You have to be prepared for that pearl when it reaches the top of the straw because you have to chew it. It has the consistency of a gummy bear, and not much actual flavor. Again, not bad...but just not very...you know...drink-like.

My concern with bubble tea is of course the fact that I’m easily distracted. So walking, through the mall [all that visual stimuli], while holding a conversation with my peeps, and drinking at the same time is hard enough, but to have to be aware that at any moment I might be called upon to start chewing a strange little gum drop that popped out of my straw, was just too much for me to process at one time. I got about halfway through the bubble tea before the squick factor overcame my enjoyment of the strawberry coolness.

Hey, it was an experience. Now I know. Bubble tea is too complex for me. It tastes good, but there’s just too much going on in the cup for me to really relax and enjoy it.

How about you? What new thing have you tried lately?

I made a reviewer cry!

The Matchmakers has been nominated for Best Book of the Week over at The Long and the Short Reviews!

You can read the awesome 5-book review here: http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2009/08/matchmakers-by-jennifer-colgan.html

And you can vote for the best book based on the reviews here: http://www.longandshortreviews.com/LASR/recentrev.htm


Voting for the nominated books runs only Saturday and Sunday so please stop by and VOTE!

“By the third page, the enchantment of the story enveloped me. Kudos, to author Jennifer Colgan; I will definitely watch for more of this author's books, and suggest that my friends buy her too. The writing and editing were superb, delivering a story that made me remember why I love romance. Like I said, I don't cry easy, but this one made me wipe the mist from my glasses.” – Zinnia, LASR

It's too hot

All that unseasonably cool weather is gone now and real summer showed up. There's just no point in NOT being on an island somewhere when it's this hot.

I'll be cranking up the AC, sippin' some iced tea and dreamin' about a place like the one in the picture.

Seriously?

I was just over at Romance Divas expressing my dismay at finding Halloween candy on sale at Walgreens today.

It's AUGUST, people.

I understand the fire has gone out under the pool toys and flip flops, but what happened to a solid month of Back to School? If it's already time to start thinking about Halloween, that means come October it will be time to start stocking up for Christmas.

This is just getting out of hand. I would really like to see the sales numbers for retail stores to find out how much profit they actually make by selling holiday items more than two months ahead of time. Do they really think they can create a demand for something that no one wants to think about for another eight weeks at least?

I just don't get it.

A thorn! A thorn!

The Matchmakers WON the Thorn for best cover in the Embrace the Shadows Cover Clash!

How cool is that??

Be sure to stop by today for the next contest. More cool covers are on display, including the hot HOT HOTT cover for All Fired Up, the September Samhain release by Romance Diva Kristen Painter!

What's in your glass?

Last night at dinner, the discussion centered around the age-old question, Do you see life as the glass is half empty or half full?

DH asked the question and I got to answer first... which was tough for me because my view of life is, if you talk about the glass too much, it ends up getting spilled. Finally I said, generally I’m a glass half full...with the caveat that usually it contains something I don’t want to drink.

DD’s response was: My glass is half empty. Can I get a refill?

DS said: “My glass is completely empty. Because I drank it.” I amended this because I know my son. His response is more likely: “Someone stole my glass.”

And of course DH’s response? “I need a bigger glass.”

How about you? What’s in your glass?

Oh nos!

After holding it's own against two other gorgeous covers, The Matchmakers is now trailing in the Embrace the Shadows poll.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, enough shameless begging. I'm now in the throes of trying to write sucknopses for TWO stories [one still needs a few more scenes, so I'm hoping a synopsis will help me round out the plot and the dang thing finished.]

What's your system for writing synopses? Do you write them before or after the story itself? I tend to make 'fast draft' type synopses first, which often end up having little to do with the finished story. Then when I'm done, I go chapter by chapter and take notes. I end up with pages and pages of notes, which I have to boil down into something short and sweet. This is torture.

Let me just say to all those publishers and agents out there who DON'T require a synopsis - I LOVE YOU!

Today's the Day!

Please stop by Embrace the Shadows today if you get a chance, cast your vote and leave a comment. I’d love to hear what people think about The Matchmakers cover!

http://embracetheshadows.wordpress.com/

Chainsaw Wielding Robot Threatens Humanity

Apparently.

According to THIS ARTICLE that DH sent me, a self-powering landscape robot created by a company called Cyclone Technologies is drawing fire [or more likely, screams of terror] from the paranoid population who fear it may have the capacity to convert more than just yard waste into organic fuel.

The company, along with DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] has issued a statement assuring the public that the robot, ironically named EATR, will not devour people, living or dead. Whew. Aren't you glad that's been cleared up?

In other news:

I've been having such a Jack Attack since I watched Torchwood last week. I'm not complaining or anything, but all it does is make me want more Torchwood. What hot hunky heroes do you obsess about?

How cool is this?

I found out today that The Matchmakers has been chosen for next Monday's COVER CLASH over at EMBRACE THE SHADOWS blog.
I don't normally do this, but what the heck...please, please, please, please stop by Embrace the Shadows on Monday, August 3rd. I'm told you can vote for your favorite cover and comment on the covers that are competing.
Don't worry, I'll put up a reminder on Monday. I can't wait to see the comments and find out what other cover(s) have been chosen for the clash.
In other news:
I DID IT! I finished the final scene of my WIP. Yay!!! Now I have to finish typing it [thanks to some roving thunderstorms I had to shut off my computer this afternoon, which means none of my editing got done, but I did get to curl up on the couch and write - once the dog stopped having his thunder-induced conniption fit.]
Whew! You have no idea how thrilled I am to have finished this story - well, the first draft anyway. It still needs work of course, but it's done, done, done!! [Doing the dance of joy right now.]

OK, a slightly greater joy...

I'm not dissing the wonderfulness of cheap notebooks, mind you, but there is something just a little bit better and that is closing in on the end of a WIP.

I had a nice chunk of free time this morning [at work - gotta love that!] and I was able to get past the big denoument in my WIP. [Which happens to be the sequel to Skin, btw.] Now I have just one more major scene to write and I'm DONE!!

I'm so thrilled because, barring a Torchwood fan fic, this will be the first story I've actually finished this year. After going through a major period of disillusionment I began to wonder if I'd ever get my groove back, but this story seems to have done it.

Now, I really have no idea what I'll work on after this one is finished, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Off to get tapping on the keys and put this puppy to bed.

BTW...there's one more thing that needs to be said. I've been holding off saying it because some people haven't seen Season 3 of Torchwood, but it's killing me not to mention it, so I will. If you want to read it, highlight the paragraph below:

I absolutely, positively and without reservation, forgive Jack for everything he had to do in order to stop the 456. He saved the world. Period. I know a lot of people are disillisioned about what he had to do, but he's probably the only one who could have gotten the job done. On the other hand, I don't forgive Russell T. Davies for the stuff he did. I'm really pissed at him for a whole bunch of reasons and the only way I'll forgive him is if he redeems himself spectacularly in Season 4. [And there just better damn well BE a seaon 4. Just sayin'.]

No greater joy...

...than cheap notebooks. It's that time of year again at Shop Rite - 10 single subject notebooks for $1.00.

Can't beat that with a stick.

Yes, I know. I have a computer. A laptop. And a NEO. And I still go all dreamy-eyed over that humungous pile of one subject notebooks stacked at the end of aisle 9.

It's like Christmas.

There's just something about a blank sheet of notebook paper that's a lot more inspiring to me than a blank computer screen. I think it's the blinking cursor that gets to me. It's so...expectant. You can just see it tapping its little foot, waiting for you to start writing. But the paper is patient. It's doesn't blink, it just sits, quietly, peacefully, waiting to absorb some ink. It asks for nothing, consumes nothing...it's passive and uncomplicated. I like that. I need that.

And at 10 cents a book, it's almost a sin NOT to buy them.

So, what's your preference? Cyber paper or real paper?

A new obsession

Rather than continue to torture certain people with my Captain Jack fetish [and let me just say, with two more episodes of series 3 to go - I totally forgive him! So far] I thought I would talk about another obsession I'm developing.


No, it's not Primeval - though I'm totally a Connor/Abby shipper. More on them another time.


No, it's not Warehouse 13. Think Fringe with less bite, X-Files with more fun.


It's these:



Sweet potatoes.

It all started a few weeks ago when we had dinner at Bob's Burger Palace where they serve the most excellent sweet potato fries. I fell in love. Literally, fell into the cup of fries, would have stayed there forever. Knowing that 'fried' has some inherent badness to it, I decided to buy my own sweet potatoes and bake them. I figured the people [I live with] would enjoy some nutritious yumminess. All three of them hated the baked sweet potatoes because there's just something wrong with them. I, however, fell in love all over again and now, I have decided to buy sweet potatoes every week and have them in place of white potatoes in all their forms.

The people are not happy, but I don't care. According to my research, sweet potatoes are 'wunderfood' and should be eaten by everyone all the time. That suits me fine.

Tell me about the last time you feel in love with food. [Chocolate doesn't count. That goes without saying.]

It's Torchwood Week

I'll be running around Cardiff with Jack, Gwen and Ianto.

I will try not to post any spoilers, though I'm dying to.

We.

We. Are.

We. Are. Coming.

We. Are. Coming.

Back.

Staycation is over

After having four straight days off, I'm actually sort of looking forward to going back to work.

Yeah. I know. That's just about as wrong as neon blue soda.

Friday: Went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The movie was...good. Now, don't throw rotten cherry tomatoes at me. I enjoyed it. As I told someone who asked me, it was like visiting with old friends. It's great to see Hermione and Ron and Harry again, it's great to spend an afternoon at Hogwarts, but in this installment, there just wasn't that breakneck sense of adventure the other movies have had. I'm still looking forward to the next two movies that will make up the final installment of the series, but unlike with Star Trek, I didn't have the immediate desire to run back into the theater and see this again.

Saturday: Day trip to Seaside for a wedding. Thanks to traffic, we missed the ceremony, but interestingly, I've noticed that any proximity to the ocean mellows me out completely. The moment I see sand, it's like someone put a valium in my Kool-Aid. And the weather was stunning, so I really can't complain.

Sunday: The demolition of the disaster area that was DD's bedroom. We pulled everything out, painted the walls and put everything back, sans about three bags full of accumulated garbage. The color? See the blog header? That color purple.

Today: Food shopping, house cleaning...not sure where the 'cation' part comes in. I guess that begins tonight when I settle down in front of the tube to watch Torchwood: Children of Earth, Day One.

Have you taken a 'staycation' this year? How did you spend it? Was it more 'stay' than 'cation?'

So wrong

Neon drinks. There's just something so wrong about drinking something that's this color.

DH got sucked into the marketing ploy of Mountain Dew this week and picked up some 12-packs of World of Warcraft Mountain Dew [Gamer Fuel]. He claimed it was market reserach for his gaming conventions when this stuff will go over better than sliced bread.

He doesn't play WoW, but that doesn't matter. Just the idea of a drink marketed as Gamer Fuel had him intrigued. I tasted the stuff and it's sort of like cough medicine without the kick. [The blue flavor, I haven't tried the red.]

Years ago there was this supposedly scientific claim that 'blue' food was unappetizing. That's why there was so little of it. The only blue thing you used to be able to eat was the occasinal ice pop or one third of a sno cone. Now, blue seems to be the new rage and guess what, after staring down into a cup of something that looked like windshield wiper fluid, I have to agree. Blue food/drink just doesn't cut it.

What do you think? Have you tried Gamer Fuel? Would you if they paid you? Does the color of food affect your enjoyment of it? Is neon tasty?

Fresh from the vine

I've noticed that, like celebrity deaths, rejections seem to come in clusters. Like vine fruit, you can get a handful at a time.
In the wake of a small cluster of rejections, [one was acutally a very nice one, worth printing out and saving] I immediately picked up a pen and paper and started making a list of things I needed to do next. Mostly my list consisted of stories I want to finish and where I want to submit them, so today, my next list will consist of new places to submit the rejected stories.
I resisted the urge to mope, though sometimes moping can be fun and necessary. There's not time to spend on feeling bad when there are so many stories still to be completed, revised, edited, blurbed and e-mailed or plopped into the nice manilla envelopes I just bought at ShopRite for those snail-mail only submissions.
So what do you do when you get a rejection? Do you sit back and reassess, or start making lists? Do you mope, cope, rant, rave? [I can make good arguments for doing all of the above, mind you, so don't feel bad if you're a ranter.]
When life hands me cherry tomatoes, I make salsa.
*Note: I was yelled at by Photobucket for looking up the term 'cherry tomatoes.' Apparently, it's sexually explicit and I should be ashamed of myself for even thinking it.

Summer Sale

If you're looking for some summer reading [and you've already finished The Matchmakers] check out the sales at Ellora's Cave!

Ellora's Cave is discounting loads of paperbacks more than 20% while supplies last! Customers also receive one free paperback on each print order and two free books on print orders over $35 (free books are selected at random.)

What's on your summer reading list?

Brr...

It's July 9th - and I'm sitting at my computer next to the open window...and I'M COLD!

Bwahahahahahaa!!!

I know, I know. All this means is that in the battle between global warming and the impending ice age, the ice age is up one point. I shouldn't be secretly gleeful.

But I am.

A chuckle @ Mrs. Giggles

Today was a banner day! It started with my oversleeping by 45 minutes, so there went my morning walk. I figured then that the rest of the day would follow that path – and thankfully, I was wrong.

Rather than going down hill, things got better! I found a wonderful review for The Matchmakers in my in-box!

Amanda Haffery of Paranormal Romance.org had this to say:
"Fast-paced, characters you can believe in, romance and faerie folk....what more could you ask for?... an enticing web of passion, romance, paranormal and suspense..."
Read the full review HERE

These days, reviews tend to trickle in very slowly, so to get one only a week after release is like winning the lottery! And, to really defy the odds, this wasn’t the only one!

I found out later on today that I’d been Giggled! Now, Mrs. Giggles has a rep for being harsh on books, so I always approach her reviews with my fingers over my eyes. Lo and behold, she gave The Matchmakers a 79!

Now, I could pull out the flattering quotes from her review, like where she says: “There are plenty of humorous moments that have me chuckling out loud as Callie tries to get Nick to cooperate with her. Nick's reaction to Callie's presence is amusing too. These two are fun to read...” or where she calls the book “a fun bouncy read,” but honestly, I think I enjoyed some of her more disparaging remarks even more.

I must confess I giggled a bit myself when I read her assessment of my hero Nick as: “[a] dim-witted asshole with the handprints of a million skanky women all over his much-used body.” ROFL. Come on, that’s funny. If Calliope weren't such a sweetheart, she'd probably have called him that herself.

Even better, she suggests: “Shouldn't we, I don't know, make him spend a week or so in a decontamination chamber before we allow him to have sex with another woman?” Snarf! I’ve often thought that about many a romance hero to be honest. I suppose my Nick is no exception.

I don’t know if the review will garner me sales or turn some potential readers away, but either way, I did actually enjoy it. Thanks for the giggle, Mrs. Giggles!

OH – and one more thing – I happened by Fictionwise today, where The Matchmakers is already available, and I noticed that it is listed as Erotica. Please note – The Matchmakers is NOT erotic romance. It’s sexy, sensual romance, yes, but it’s not erotica!

The Desert Island Dilemma

Back before the school year ended, DD told me about an assignment she had for English class. Her teacher tasked a group of 14-year-olds with answering this question:
If you were to be stranded on an island forever, and could bring only three things with you, what would they be? [No boats or modes of transportation allowed.]
DD chose her two best friends and a canister of oxygen – she explained that the three of them would be laughing so hard one of them would need to be resuscitated.

At dinner we posed the question to DS, who, after some deliberation decided on a ray gun [a death ray of course], a pen disguised as a tape recorder [not to be confused with a tape recorder disguised as a pen mind you] and an endless supply of edible goop [this is a child who doesn’t even like Jell-o, so I don’t know how eating goop for the rest of his life would work out for him.]

DH was a bit more pragmatic. He said he would take a Swiss Army Knife, the Boy Scout Hand Book and an endless roll of duct tape so he could MacGuyver the hell out of that island. I guess the idea of just taking MacGuyver didn’t occur to him. Maybe if MacGuyver was female...
Anyway...I thought about it for a while and after the obvious choices: John Barrowman [so what if he’s gay?], Keanu Reeves and David Boreanaz - I decided if I really, really had to choose, I’d take: a carpenter [who looked like David Boreanaz] a chef [who looked like Keanu Reeves] and the Professor from Gilligan’s Island [who had a makeover and now looked like John Barrowman].

What [or who] would you choose for spending the rest of your days living the LOST life?

Happy Fourth!

Have a great day! We'll be working on FINALLY opening the pool today. Thanks to some amazingly wet, cool weather, we haven't had a hot day around here since...like...April.
What are your holiday plans?

Long-awaited release day!

This one's special...and it's available today from Samhain Publishing!

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but they just might make a perfect match…

Nick Garret is flypaper for females, and he likes it that way. Women stick for a while, and when it’s over they fly away. So does he. Then one rain-slick night a young woman steps in front of his pickup truck, and his jaded, cynical life takes a sharp swerve toward trouble.

Calliope did the only thing she could think to get Nick to steer his truck—and his life—in a new direction. Banished from the Fae realm for granting a wish gone bad, her punishment is an impossible task; redeem the unredeemable Nick Garret. If she fails to help him pair three couples in everlasting bliss, he’s doomed to never experience real love. And she will share his fate—as a mortal.

Nick can’t decide if this charming, exasperating woman is a dream come true, or a saucy, sexy nightmare sent to drive him insane. Yet something about her makes him want to rise to her challenge. He’ll do anything to make her stick around a while.

Besides, how much trouble can one half-naked, seemingly wingless faerie be?

Warning: This title contains sensual love scenes, mischievous Fae, removable wings and hot men in tool belts.

For more information on The Matchmakers, visit Samhain today - special price available at MBaM!

Read an excerpt here!

Ranger vs Morelli

This one is for all you Plum fans out there.

I just finished reading Finger Lickin' Fifteen, the latest in Janet Evanovich's series about disaster prone Trenton bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. [I have no idea why this hasn't been made into a TV series, I think it would rock!]

I won't reveal any spoilers about this installment of the ongoing saga. I'll just say, I envy Ms. Evanovich's ability to keep a series going for fifteen books and to keep fans wondering will she or won't she with regards to her heroine's two equally yummy love interests.

For those of you not in the know, Ms. Plum has two gorgeous men in her life - hunky Joe Morelli, one of Trenton's finest and mysterious Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, fellow bounty hunter and security company honcho.

One offers stability, the prospect of a home and family, a solid future - and the other offers endless adventure and sex so hot she can't even bring herself to repeat their one night stand. I know the debate runs hot on which one Stephanie should ultimately choose - but I've got to say, I'm a hands down Ranger fan. Maybe I feel that way because Stephanie is a fictional character, and therefore her life can go any way Ms. Evanovich wants it to go, so why shouldn't she have all the fun and adventure she can get? If Ms. Plum were a real person, I might be in the Morelli camp...then again...

Well, for all you fans out there, weigh in. If you could choose Ranger or Morelli, which would it be?

The end of an era x 3

This week has been a bit of a stunner on the pop-culture front. First , Tonight Show icon Ed McMahon passed away a few days ago after a long illness.

Earlier today, '70s pin-up and quintessential Charlie's Angel, Farah Fawcett, died after a two-year bout with cancer.

And just this evening, the King of Pop himself, Micheal Jackson, died suddenly from a heart attack at age 50.

I'm always struck by a mix of emotions when celebrities die. On a shallow level, it's news, it's gossip, it's that OMG moment because even though there are greater tragedies occurring all over the world at the same time, you know this will be headline news above war, injustice, crime, etc.

On a deeper level, there's the feeling that though these people were somehow removed from every day life and led almost fictionally dramatic or often charmed lives, they were still people with families who loved them and they will be mourned just as members of any family would be.

Then there's sort of a global level - it amazes me how the passing of an entertainer, an actress, a singer, even a princess, can make the whole world sort of stop for a moment. Whatever my personal opinion of a celebrity might be, I must always give them credit to have had the ability to touch so many people. To have been known and loved by millions around the world is an accomplishment in itself.

Too much knowledge is a bad thing

I’ve ruined another reader.

I didn’t plan on it. It really wasn’t intentional. I plead not guilty, even though I am. I turned my own mother into an EDITOR.

{hangs head in shame} I apologize to all you authors out there whose books my mother would have happily read without complaint. Now she’s nitpicking punctuation and it’s all my fault.

After a spirited discussion not long ago over dinner, in which Ursula took over my body and began ranting about the misuse of punctuation – the abundance of ellipses, the use of semi-colons in place of commas, the unmitigated rain of exclamation points – my mother started to analyze the books she reads.

Now she finds the misuse of punctuation as irritating as Ursula does. And she yelled at me about it.

My mother is an avid reader. [That’s where I got it from.] She buys TONS of books, most by mail order, so her postal carrier tends to glare at her house when he walks by. She reads and reads and reads. And she enjoys the vast majority of these books. She reads for the story, so up until now, the words have faded into the background for her. Then Ursula got a hold of her and bent her year about bad grammar and now she notices things wrong with the books she reads, and I get blamed for it. I would yell at Ursula, but she’s busy editing right now and she might hurt me, so I’ll just have to keep quiet about it for now.

Does your inner editor make it hard for you to enjoy reading? And is it Ursula’s fault?

Summer Menu

No, this has nothing to do with food, though DH and I have been talking a lot about changing our diet, the menu I’m talking about is my TBR pile. I recently joined ANOTHER book club. Yes, I signed up for the Mystery Guild because I couldn’t pass up their deal – five books for 99 cents. What avid reader couldn’t?

I got my order the other day and I can’t wait to dig in to the first course, but I’m also waiting on delivery of the next Stephanie Plum novel and I want to read that one first.

So here, in no particular order, are the books I have on my list for the next few months.

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich
Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs [my first Temperance Brennan book!]
Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood
Lethal Legacy by Linda Fairstein
Still Life by Joy Fielding
Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz
Bones of Betrayal by Jefferson Bass

I’m also dying to get my hands on the Castaways by Elin Hildebrand, but it’s not out yet, and of course I’m waiting with bated breath for the next installment of Karen Marie Moning’s Fae series, which incidentally trumps everything on the list.

So tell me...do you join book clubs? I can’t help myself. Anytime I’m offered books at a bargain, I’m hooked. How about you?

The next installment

I hadn't planned on having on ongoing blog about the politics of romance - but the debate [and now it is a debate] rages on at the ESPAN blog with the rebuttal from RWA President Diane Pershing.

My take on the blog post is that the RWA isn’t going to change anything, because change would mean going against the RWA policies and the RWA can’t go against it’s own policies and changing the policies won’t serve the remaining membership. I say remaining, because I believe that ultimately the only people left in RWA will be the people who agree with the party line – in essence, the people who wrote the policies.

In response to this, a movement has sprung up by RWA members who are determined to effect change from within. I applaud their efforts to mold the organization, into which they've invested so much time, effort and money, into the organization that they want it to be. Why am I not involved in this romance revolution? Well, as one fellow writer put it in an e-mail to another loop, [and I paraphrase] I didn't join RWA to change it. I joined RWA to benefit from what already existed. What already existed was of no benefit to me, so I'm moving on.

Again, I have nothing but respect for those who are digging in, setting up camp and plunging into the battle to make RWA a truly inclusive organization that will embrace the modern writer [who will increasingly be an epublished writer since so many traditional publishers are foraying into the world of electronic publishing.] Now with the Kindle and the Sony eReader available, authors who never dreamed of seeing their work in digital format will become epublished - whether they like it or not. While RWA maintains that epublished authors are in the minority and therefore beneath its notice, the reality is that within a short time the author who is strictly print published, whose books are not available anywhere in electronic format of any kind, will be the minority. These days, once you sell, there's a better than average chance that somewhere along the line your work will be available electronically. To not deal with that change is to fall to extinction.

I look forward to seeing continuing posts on the ESPAN blog from Angela James of Samhain Publishing and Raelene Gorlinski of Ellora's Cave. And I look forward to seeing the transformation of the RWA. Good luck to those who have charged into battle.

Back to the brouhaha

The discussion over at the ESPAN blog rages on about the view the RWA administration has taken regarding e-pub and small press authors.

Disclaimer: I have not read the letter from the RWA president. Due in part to this very issue, I have not renewed my membership to RWA, so I speak only based on the gist of the presidents words, which I’ve gathered from reading the posts of others.

In essence, so I hear, Diane Pershing has thrown down the gauntlet so to speak. Her letter has hundreds of authors incensed over what seems to be a sweeping denunciation of e-published and indie-press published authors being little more than hobbyists who are not ‘career minded’.

The discussion [I can’t call it a debate, because most of the authors who have weighed in on the subject and on super-agent Deidre Knight’s subsequent post, all seem to be in agreement. There really is no actual argument, just a long line of ‘career minded’ authors who are defending the path they’ve chosen to publication] centers around the stance of the Romance Writers of America which seems to place those who pursue the route of e-publishing in a lesser standing than those who have gone the traditional print [translation: NY] route.

In the past, the issue had revolved around content – such as what constitutes a romance, can a non-male/female couple really star in a romance novel? Are MM, FF, Menage and other alternative lifestyles to be considered ‘romance’. Does erotic romance deserve a place in the annals [that’s two N’s for you gutter-minded people] of romance or should ‘smut’ and ‘pron’ remain as the redheaded stepchildren of romance, just as romance itself has long been considered the redheaded stepchild of literature and ‘serious’ writing?

My take is similar to that of just about everyone else who has spoken up in response to Ms. Knight’s post. Electronic and small press published authors are NO LESS CAREER MINDED than those authors who are published with traditional print [NY] houses. In many cases they earn as much or more, they work as many hours, probably spend more time promoting their books and interacting with fans, and they strive, just as traditionally published authors do, to write the best book they can and connect with readers on a deep, emotional level. They are not LESS because they did not earn an advance. They are not LESS because perhaps their books are not available in book stores. They are not LESS because their route to publication may have been faster than for those who sometimes wait two years from the date of their contract to see their book become available and often six months to a year after that before receiving their first royalty checks.

Even though I am no longer a member of RWA, I would still like to see the organization make the changes its membership demands because there are so many authors who have gained great benefits from association with their local chapters. I would like to see the huge number of small press authors with which I’m familiar get the recognition they deserve as hard working PROFESSIONALS.

I understand Ms. Pershing will be responding to Ms. Knight’s post on Friday, June 19th. I’ll be looking forward to hearing what she has to say.

Eenie meenie meinie mo...

It never fails...most days I have trouble coming up with something to blog about, but today I planned to talk about the great writing weekend I had while my peeps were away at Anime Next, and the t-shirt they bought for me. I took pictures and everything.

Then I heard about Deidre Knight's recent post over at the ESPAN blog regarding the RWA attitudes about e-publishing, so I planned to blog about that.

BUT...I got a message on my voice mail last night that trumps everything, so I decided to push those other blogs off for a bit and crow about my good news:

SKIN has won 1st Place in the erotic category of the More Than Magic Contest sponsored by Romance Writers Ink!

I'm thrilled! Now the book goes on to the final round judging and the grand prize winner will be announced July 11th. Let me say, as much as I would love to win the grand prize, it's an honor just to be nominated, as the saying goes. I know SKIN was up against some awesome books by fabulous authors, so to take 1st place is a bit humbling.

Here's a link to the winner's list: http://rwimagiccontests.wordpress.com/2009-more-than-magic-placements/. Congratulations to everyone and best of luck!

Stay tuned for more on the bumped topics...

From My Keeper Shelf

I was just sitting here gazing at my bookshelf and thinking about keepers.
I have two shelves currently full of books I won't get rid of - this is pared down a lot from years past. After my book shelves collapsed when I was a teeanger, I had to learn my lesson about keeping every single book that passed through my hands.
While most of my keepers fall into the categories of YA, romance, non-fiction and research, I have one that doesn't really fit any of those labels.
Years ago when my kids were little I invested in a couple of the Look -Alikes books. They're amazing picture books in which miniature scenes or objects are built out of everyday items. The rocket ship, for instance is made from a thermos, pens, a shuttle cock, some buttons and various office supplies. The work that went into these models is phenomenal and I can stare at the pictures for hours. My kids have somewhat outgrown the game of the books - find all the objects you can hidden in the picture. But I haven't. I still love to look at them and I probably always will.
Do you have any unusual books on your keeper shelf?

Jewels on the web

I do a lot of surfing while I'm at work and my train of thought led me to this magnificent picture of clouds over New Zealand. These amazing formations represent what might be a new type of cloud - which is, on one hand, very cool, and on the other - a little disconcerting. Why, I have to wonder, is there all of a sudden a new type of cloud? Do clouds evolve? Did someone invent it? Or are our weather patterns and climate changing so dramatically that clouds aren't following same old routines any more?
Either way, the picture is a gem.

News Flash - You can't grow crunchberries

DH sent me this link today about a lawsuit that was thankfully thrown out of court, in which an angry consumer tried to sue the makers of Capt’n Crunch cereal for somehow leading her to believe that the ‘crunchberries’ in her cereal were actually real fruit.

Fortunately the judge ruled that any reasonable consumer would be able to tell that cereal balls are made, not grown.

Before you start checking your cereal boxes, just be informed – there is no real Froot in Froot Loops and Fruity Pebbles contain no actual pebbles.

Let the buyer beware.

Don't you hate it when...

The last lolcat in the box is all smooshed?

Don't wanna. Don't hafta. I'm retired.

Have you ever seen that t-shirt? I'm thinking about getting me one - since as of next Tuesday, I'm officially retired from fund raising.

Yep. My last bake sale is coming up. Hallelujah!

The milestone is bittersweet, I will admit. After three years of toiling for the Winter Guard, I'm done. DD is moving on to a new school and has decided to take a break from spinning and tossing for a while. In a way, it's sad because she's so good at it, and it's an amazing sport, but in a way - well, HALLELUJAH!

I've never been a joiner, so trekking to parent meetings, showing up at school functions, handing out cup cakes and making change for ravenous middle schoolers - it's all taken its toll on me. This year in addition to the bake sales, we did tag day [begging for money], a showcase at the school and a car wash. It's been all about collecting the cash, and now the year is winding down and I'm stepping down and we're heading off to a new school and new set of challenges, and maybe even a new activity.

It really wasn't all that bad. In fact, there were times it was kind of fun, even when I complained to myself that I was tired, busy, overworked, etc. I still felt a sense of accomplishment. Now, it feels good to look at the next few months and know I don't have to schlep to the school at odd hours for meetings and I don't have to carry around a box of quarters to make change. Oddly, I still feel a bit melancholy.

I'm going to see if there's a pill for that, because good golly, miss molly, I'M RETIRED!