Move over Christmas...

It's time for someone else to take center stage.

Happy New Year Everyone! See you in 2011!

My apologies to the weather guys

I'm sorry. I take back everything I said early yesterday about how wrong you always are and how much you exaggerate snow storms in order to make people panic and force them out to the stores to boost the economy.

This time you were right.

Here's the upstairs deck - there's more than 15 inches of snow piled up against the door and it gets deeper after that. Nobody was kidding when they said this storm was going to be a bad one.

We're still waiting for the plows to come and plow us back in and so we can dig ourselves out again. I'm so glad nobody has to go anywhere today.

I really hate it when the weather guys are right about stuff like this.

Merry Christmas!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa brought you all you asked for. I'll be relaxing on the couch today with my new Kindle.

What did Santa bring you?

New in Print!

Rihana has seen a lot in five years working as a psychic for the NYPD, but the murder of a freelance reporter makes her question if she really wants to continue her law enforcement career.


The dark vibe she gets from this case is nothing new, but the main suspect, sexy, enigmatic tattoo artist Heath, leaves her heightened senses burning. She can read him like a book—and she can see his innocence but she can’t prove it. His feral sexual thoughts make her insane with need and her desire for him jeopardizes her job and the investigation.

When she learns the truth about the man who can strip her soul bare with a glance, will she give up everything she knows to flee with him to a safer world? Or will she become a psychic killer in order to destroy a ruthless assassin and put an end to her lover’s exile?



 
SLITHER is now available in print - visit Ellora's Cave for more details!

The No-Brainer

One of the hazards of raising kids is having to answer all the tough questions they pose. If you've been on the receiving end of any of the golden classics like 'Where do babies come from?' or 'Why is the sky blue?' you know what I mean.

Kids are always putting us parents on the spot, so it's especially refreshing to be asked a question with an easy answer.

My son won the No-Brainer award tonight when he asked me this as we were in the car on the way to pick up my daughter from an after school club:

"Mom, if there was actually, physically, a zombie apocalypse, would you allow me to have a weapon and to kill zombies?"

Gotta love those easy ones.

"Of course," I said. "Not only would I allow it, I'd very likely insist upon it."

DS: "Good."

It's nice that he's thinking ahead. Getting all those pesky permission issues out of the way before the actual, physical zombie apocalypse hits. I'd hate to have to worry about it then.

Beat the rush!

Get it while it's hot - or maybe before... I was just browsing around over at Amazon.com and noticed that my January release from Samhain is available for PRE-ORDER!

I've never been available for pre-order before. It's so cool.

I asked Santa for a Kindle for Christmas, so if he brings it, I'll think I'll order Uncross my Heart ahead of time, just because I can!

Interview with a Gargoyle

Do you have any questions for the gargoyle?

I do, but they'll have to wait a while. I just signed a contract with Samhain for my full-length paranormal romance, Interview with a Gargoyle.*

Here's the blurb:

Darkness has ruled the life of Blake DeWitt for over a decade. Cursed to spend each day from dawn until dusk encased in the hideous form of a stone gargoyle, he’s reached a new level of desperation. A chance encounter with a dying demon puts cake decorator Melodie McConnell in possession of the key to Blake’s freedom, but only her death will break the curse. How far into darkness will he go to reclaim the light?

*Yes, the title is a play on Interview with a Vampire. And no, actually there's not really an interview involved in the story, but nevertheless, if you have anything you'd like to ask a hunky hero who turns into a gargoyle by day, just let me know and I'll pass it along.

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a happy Turkey Day everyone. I'm off to the kitchen to start cooking. This year the feast is at my house, so I've got a lot to do. I may try to squeeze in some work on a new story later tonight, once I convince the kids that clean up is THEIR job.

This year, despite the economic downturn, I still have a lot to be thankful for. Good friends, family around me, a new home where I'm comfortable and secure, good health and moderate professional success.

May your day be full of love and good food and may all your holidays be happy ones.

Art shot

A peek through the trees at the Easton Tower in Paramus at Saddle River Park. This is from my two-hour walk last week. If I didn't have a massive head cold, I'd be walking today too. [Even though I should be writing]. I thought this picture would make a good 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Is it just me...

...or do you think it's a bad idea for scientists to be teaching e. ecoli bacteria how to solve math puzzles?

This article caught my attention and scared a little bit of the crap out of me also. Apparently researchers can train e. coli [yeah, the really bad bacteria that you don't want to find in your hamburger or your spinach salad] to solve sudoku puzzles.

So as if it's not bad enough that e. coli is smart enough to get into food, now those of us who have trouble solving sudoku puzzles can feel inferior to a bacteria.

I'm on somebody's list

Amazon's list - that is - as of 7:25 PM EST today here is the Amazon Kindle Top 100 Paid Bestseller list, Romance Category:

1. Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts
2. Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber
3. Cowgirls Don't Cry by Lorelei James
**4. The Matchmakers by Jennifer Colgan
5. Disintegration by Scott Nicholson
6.Whatever You Like by Maureen Smith
7. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
8. Maggie's Mates by Bronwyn Green
9. Vampire Moon by J. R. Rain
10. The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber
11. Trust Me on This by Jennifer Cruisie
12. Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich

Somebody pinch me. I'm on a list with La Nora, Jennifer Cruisie and Janet Evanovich? I must be dreamin'.

**Updated to note: The Matchmakers is holding steady at #2 on the Romance list now.
**And it was just kicked out of #2 by Disintegration by Scott Nicholson, I'm now at #3

Auspicious beginnings

When is a good day to start something new?

I ask because because I realized this weekend as I was gearing up to begin two new projects that I might have been putting off starting on them in order to wait for the 'right time'. You know how a lot of diets start on January 1st or on any given Monday? Some people wait for a full moon, or a new season to embark on a new path in life or an important journey and some people just jump in when the mood strikes.

Which one are you?

I tend to feel like the start of something new should coincide with something. I find I put thing off until other things occur. Usually it's a wait and see thing - let me see how Y goes before I start X. The day after this, I'll do that.

I'm not sure it's a good thing or a bad thing. Does giving a project or a life change or a journey of some kind an auspicious start help it along or is it just an excuse to put off until tomorrow [or a month from now or until the next new millenia] what you can and should be doing today?

I decided this time, I would toss the auspicious beginning out the window and just jump into a new project. So we'll see how it goes.

What about you?

A new record

Today marks the day that my contemporary novella, The Rebound Guy, hits the top of my personal best seller list.

Up until now that title has been held, believe it or not, by my very first published story [which is no longer in print at the moment]. The Rebound Guy is about friends who take the plunge and become lovers, taking the chance that their new relationship won't stand the test of time. It's my favorite type of love story and apparently, readers' too - because people seem to be snatching it up like hot cakes.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's read The Rebound Guy - tell me what made you buy it. Was it the hawt guy on the cover? Was it the blurb or the idea that the old 'we can't get together because it would ruin our friendship' song is just a lame excuse?

Talk to me, I know you're out there.

Mini NaNo word count

I wrote 12,559 words over the course of the weekend. Technically this tells me I could write a full novel in 20 days if given the right conditions [conditions which could never actually exist, but nevertheless, it is a remote possibility.]

The down side is only about 3,000 of those words actually stand a change of being published one day. Most of what I wrote involves a story I now realize I will likely never finish because it's just not interesting enough.

Are you NaNo'ing? If so, how's it going?

Smell Like A Monster

I was just surfing over to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and I saw they'd posted this video, which has to be the funniest thing I've seen since...well, since I saw the actual commercial.

Check it out.

MiniNaNoVaCay

That about sums up my weekend. I get a mini-vacation while DH and the kids tackle a gaming marathon at UberCon. I spent the week trying to decide if I wanted to go for a Spa Mini Vacation - where I take long walks, bubble baths, paint my toenails and sit with my feet up watching sappy movies, or if I wanted to do a Mini NaNo.

Let me tell you it was a tough decision. Being as November is NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month and so many of my writer friends are digging into their writer caves to turn out 50,000 words in 30 days, I figured it was fitting that do some NaNo'ing of my own. Last year my Mini NaNo produced Icarus Rising which is now available from Liquid Silver Books, and also a good portion of Icarus Unbound which will be coming soon from LSB. Those books have spawned two more, which are currently on my drawing table, but as much fun as Bernadette's world of flying hotties is, I felt like I needed a change, so I cooked up a contemporary plot and decided I'd throw myself into writing for the next couple of days while I don't have to do any cooking, laundry or ferrying of kids to or from school.

I have to say, it's still a hard decision to sit down and write non-stop for any length of time. The decision not to sit around and watch TV all weekend was easy - I have a hard time doing nothing, but it's been especially difficult for me lately to concentrate on writing [notice how I'm blogging now, btw, not writing fiction]. This weekend was supposed to be an experiment to see if my brain still worked well enough to put a decent amount of words on paper. I need to get in the zone...which has been disturbingly illusive lately.

I still don't know if I'm going to accomplish any real NaNo'ing this weekend [or should that be NoWri'ing?] We'll, either way I still plan to enjoy having the house to myself while DH and the kids battle gamer funk* and try to avoid catching Con Plague**.

I'll let you know how many words I actually do produce. Wish me luck and maybe next year I'll be telling you where you can pick up a copy of this year's MiniNaNoVaCay novella.

*Gamer Funk - the aroma of unwashed gamers who hardly eat and barely shower during a convention

** Con Plague - also known as Nerd Flu - the major head cold you get about a week after returning from a Convention

Speaking of years

The other day was Samhain Publishing's Fifth Birthday and that got me to thinking about how long I've been doing this writing stuff. It seems like I've always been a writer - since I was ten years old anyway and a school friend of mine and I decided to write our own soap opera. We created a cast of characters and gave them all complicated lives and problems. That was more than 30 years ago [yes, I'm that old] and we didn't follow the characters for very long, but I remember the creative process very well.

I'd like to say who would have thought then that I really would be a published author today, but I did think it at the time. Once I caught the writing bug, I dreamed of seeing my book on shelves, of doing book signings and appearing on talk shows to talk about how cool it is to be a full time writer.

Well, 30+ years later, I've seen my books in stores, and I've sat at a table and had people line up to have me sign copies of my books for them [it's just as much fun as I always imagined]. I've never been on a talk show, but I have been interviewed a number of times and that's cool too.

I've been published for five years, and oddly enough, I've been blogging for five years too - hard to believe I've managed to fill up my little corner of cyberspace with so much talk. It's been a long, often tedious journey and I know I still have a long way to go.

How about you? How long has your journey been? Where are you headed?

I'm Free!

Okay, well, I'm not free, but one of my books is.

From now until November 14, 2010, you can pick up the Kindle edition of The Matchmakers for absolutely FREE at Amazon.com.

Currently The Matchmakers is out-freeing the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll and Jane Austen, and it tops the Best Selling 100 Free Kindle Book list for Romance. My goal is to keep it there for the entire two weeks, so drop by Amazon and pick yourself up a copy of the The Matchmakers today!

Happy Birthday Samhain!

Today, Samhain Publishing turns five years old today and I'll be over at Samhain Cafe helping to celebrate by posting excerpts from all of my Samhain titles and my next release - Uncross My Heart.

Drop by the cafe and say hello!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/samhaincafe/?yguid=113644739

How often...

...do you beat yourself up?

Weird question, I know. I ask because I find I beat myself up a lot. And it's never a fair fight. Whenever I screw something up, which is quite often, I tend to take it to heart and question all of my abilities. What's wrong with me? How could I make that mistake? Why didn't I do this or that differently? Is everything I've done since also wrong in some way?


It's miserable and counterproductive, and yet I can't stop sometimes. I hate beating myself up, yet I often feel like I need to be beat up a little bit, to take my lumps because just picking myself up, dusting myself off and walking away from a mistake with my head held high seems so…arrogant. Shouldn’t we suffer at least a little humility when we make a mistake?

I have to admit I envy people who can let mistakes roll off them like water. They don't sweat it, they don't fret, they don't feel bad for a moment. They don't waste any time beating themselves up, no mental black eyes or bloody noses for them. They just move on – sometimes to the next mistake, but at least they're moving.

Meanwhile, I'm the one in the ring with the gloves on trying to knock myself out.

When you make a mistake, large or small, do you beat yourself up or let it roll off you and move on?