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Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop

HolidayGiveaway2012 copyI love to hear about different people’s holiday traditions, especially at Christmas time.  Some traditions are pretty basic, like putting up the Christmas tree, but I love to learn about other cultures and even just other families’ celebrations.

I’d never heard of king cake until we lived in Texas.  I didn’t know people could buy their own portable snow blowers and engine block heaters until we lived in Minnesota (and snow is almost always a part of the holiday season there!).

I’m sure most of you would be surprised to hear that one year my family put the litter box under the tree.  It wasn’t a tradition we WANTED to keep… but the cat kept leaving “presents” beneath the tree and it was easier to clean up that way!

What I really find fascinating is how people might celebrate the holiday season in outer space.  If you were stranded on an ice planet… I suppose you’d probably be pretty sick of White Christmas.  Aliens might think it’s strange to put a live tree in your living room and hang lights on it.  Or maybe not.  Maybe they live IN the tree and always have lights hung…

The “what ifs” send my writer brain buzzing.  So tell me, what wonderfully bizarre holiday traditions can you think of — or just tell me about one of your traditions.  Commenters will be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to their choice of online book retailer (B&N, Amazon, Samhain, Carina, etc.)

Lots of prizes are available – find the other sites here!

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New Puppy!

Ever since Pepper passed away in March, we’ve been thinking about getting a second dog.  Well, “we” being me and the monsters.  That Man likes dogs well enough…. from a distance.  He’s not really an indoor dog kind of guy.  But Middle Monster wrote a powerfully cute Christmas letter about really really REALLY wanting another dog, and TM finally agreed.

I looked on petfinder.com first but couldn’t find anything that was a good match for us.  I wanted something boxer like, not too big, but that energy level.  Our poor old gentleman Pepper (Schnoodle mix) hated it when KC wanted to play with him.  She’s very high energy.  She could run up and down the stairs after a ball all day.  I wanted something she and the girls would really have fun playing with.

I never expected to end up with a PUPPY.

We found her on craigslist.  Supposedly the guy had bought her for his son he has on the weekends and the care throughout the week (without his kid there to help) was too much.  I say supposedly because “supposedly” she was wormed and mostly housebroken too…  and both of those were big fat lies.

I took her to our vet immediately the next day and she tested positive for both roundworms and fleas.  Poor baby.  We’ve also started her on her puppy shots, and until she gets all three, she can’t be around other potentially infected dogs.  Which means she gets to make the Christmas rounds with us this year.  (That Man is so thrilled.  NOT.)

She’s also “supposedly” purebred American bulldog but she can’t be purebred — she’s just too small.  But she’s awfully darned cute and we didn’t care about the purebred thing at all.  Plus smaller is good for us.

Other than the potty training (which is actually going pretty well), the hardest thing of all was naming her.  She needed a cute name to match her perky ears and assertive personality (she growled at KC upon their first meeting).  Mom and Dad wanted to name her Sunshine (so we’d have KC and the Sunshine band, snort), but the monsters didn’t get it.  They wanted to name her either Kona or Cocoa.

It was like WWIII around here, people.  So the puppy’s name is officially KoKoKoNa.  I hope she can live up to such a mouthful.  Here are both dogs pictured with the monsters (our Christmas cards this year):

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Change in the Air

As with any sorrow or tragedy, I think it’s human nature to stop and count your blessings.  To be thankful for what you still have — and maybe change some of your priorities.

I’ve been taking a hard look at my writing this year and asking some questions I still don’t have the answer for.  Why am I struggling to finish Sig’s story?  Why has my word count gone down so much?  What’s next on the horizon?  Why do I feel so bruised and beat up?

I’m weary.  Maybe it’s real life hits we’ve taken this year, from losing Pepper our dog in March, to my grandpa, to my father-in-law of 24 years.  Maybe it’s the hard revisions I had to do on Tecun and Vicki this year to get them ready for release.  I know part of my weariness is definitely due to the blog promotions I did during that time.

I’m blogged out.  Hence the scarcity of posts here.  Some days I think I’ve already said it all.  And the things I need to say I can’t really say publicly.

It hit me today as I was mulling over this past year that I hit my nine-year writer birthday in September.  Nine years.  I’ve changed a lot in that time… and I have a feeling that I’m changing again.  Growth and change are never easy.

I think that’s why Sig is so difficult.

Lady Blackmyre — even though I wrote her story quickly — challenged me on many fronts.

I find myself looking for deeper meaning and messages in strange places.  And then wondering if I’m reading too much into everyday occurrences and regular writing business.  I used to hear the Call — and in answer, I could gallop full speed ahead.  Now I plod and strain to hear a whisper of where I should go.

I hate to plod.

But plod I must until I can figure out what I need.  This sounds cheesy but my writer soul is crying out for something.  I just can’t hear it.  Or I hear it, and I don’t understand what it’s saying.

It doesn’t help that an idea I had last year — and even had plotted on the wall in my office — never came to fruition.  Every day I had to look at that plot and be reminded of my failure to actually write it.  I just didn’t have the desire to work on it.  As if plotting it out was all my brain cared to do — it was done.  One by one the sticky notes started falling off the wall, yet I clung to that hope that maybe… someday…

Just today I’ve read about someone’s recent deal to a NY publisher for the same general premise.  If only I’d been able to find the time (more importantly, the desire) to write it.  If only I’d been able to shuffle things around.  If only…

It wasn’t meant to be.  Cross it off the list.  I have other things that demand my time anyway, and at the rate Sig’s going, I’ll be working on his project until I die.

If you’re worrying about which project got the axe, let me assure you that Sig is my #1 priority.  Mama Connagher and Mal (Mine to Break) are still very high on my to-do list.  I need some closure on these projects so I’m going to keep pushing.

But I think change is in the air.  What or how or when, I don’t know.  I just feel the need to blaze a new trail.  To go somewhere I’ve never gone before. My inner horse wants to kick down the stall doors and charge off into the wilderness again, wild and free.

So each day is a battle to rein that side of my muse in enough to even think about plodding on Sig.  I’m going back to my mini goal of just 250 words a day.  I have to get back into the story so I can finish.  It was nearly 30K already and only just getting into the main plot.

Maybe the last half of the story will fly.  Vulkar let it be so.

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Zombie Prize Updates

The $25 gift certificate winner has been notified.

Since I only had two entries on the Make Me Write the Book post, I’m going to keep that giveaway open awhile longer.  You’re making it too easy on me!  NaNoWriMo is just around the corner, you know.  I need to know the title, so I can decide so many other things about the book.

Like what’s the gorgeous red-head witch’s special gift?  Clare was a kitchen witch.  I need something unique and fun for the new book.  Any ideas?  Go over and comment on the giveaway for an extra entry!

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Feeding My Addiction

If you’ve been reading here long, you know that I love coffee.  I’ve had all kinds of coffee pots over the years.  I’ve tried cheap ones.  I’ve tried expensive ones (to me, any coffee pot that costs over $100 is expensive).  I’ve bought green coffee beans and had them roasted to order.  I jumped up and down when Caribou Coffee opened, only to become…disillusioned.

Over time, my taste has changed.  I used to love Gevalia, for example.  I bought Kenya by the box.  Then I got sick of it and I can’t stand how it tastes now, even from other companies.  There’s a honey-cured bean (with some of the coffee fruit still on the bean) that we adored from Costa Rica, but we haven’t been able to order it for over a year.  Nothing else compares.  Even my old standby – Mahogany from Caribou – loses its taste if that’s all I drink.  It helps if I trade in other coffees, like Living After Midnight from Classic Rock, a local roastery, but…

Now I’m having problems with my coffee pot.

I’m hard on pots, I know that.  I make 2-4 pots a day.  By “pot” I don’t mean a full pot.  I make just enough at once to fill my favorite white mug, which takes about 4 cups of water on the measuring line.  I use a ridiculous amount of beans to get it as strong as I like, even with the 1-4 cup/Bold setting on this pot.  Yet it still doesn’t have that TASTE I want.

It’s hard to describe.  It’s like when you steal the first 1/2 cup or so out of the pot, when it’s really really strong and rich.  That’s what I like.  I’ve been making my coffee stronger and stronger over time, and cutting back on how much I make as a result, but this pot just isn’t making the coffee as strong as I like, even when I only make 1 cup at a time.  Plus it’s ridiculously expensive to waste so many beans.

Then this pot started leaking.  And it’s less than 6 months old!  I thought a KitchenAid would last longer than that.

Anyway, I’ve been eying an espresso machine as a result.  I wanted that rich strong taste that I crave, even if I get a much smaller cup at once.  (If I drank my white mug full of espresso I think I’d have a heart attack.)

We went to Everything Kitchen to try out some different pots (they were nice enough to demo them for me, which makes shopping so much easier).  I tasted espresso both from a Nepresso Pixie and a gorgeous stainless steel Saeco, fully automated.  I admit, I loved that Saeco.  The coffee was incredible.

So was the sticker price at over $1200.  Gulp!!!

Needless to say, I didn’t spend that much.  But I did spend more than I’ve ever spent on a coffee pot before and bought the Pixie.  I was reluctant because I don’t want to chain myself to a pod-only system, but since I’m fairly tired of the beans I typically buy, it’s a risk I was willing to take.  Plus my other pot still works — it just leaks.  When I need to change things up, I can always make a traditional pot of coffee.

So here’s my cute little lime-green Pixie.  (My colors are black or red, but this was a demo model and I got a really good price on it.)  My only complaint so far:  I ran out of the sample pods way too quickly!  I was desperate enough that I drank the decaf ones today until my order arrived.

I’m not addicted or anything….

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Save An Ent – Read An Ebook Giveaway

Since Tecun arrives 8/6, I’m going to celebrate ebooks the entire month!  I’ll be doing several guest posts again throughout the blogosphere, so this entry will be updated as those links become available.

What’s up for grabs:  WINNER’S CHOICE EREADER up to $200 (USD) value.

 

 

  • Love the one-click buy at Amazon and want to upgrade to a new Kindle Fire?
  • Have you been lusting after the Nook GlowLight?
  • Or maybe the Kobo Vox is more your style.

The winner picks whichever eReader you want.  I will ship internationally, but please make sure the device you select will work in your country and that I’m allowed to ship it there without violating any customs regulations.  I do not retain names or email addresses after the giveaway closes.

How to enter:

  • Comment as many times as you want on this post through Aug 31st, midnight CST.
  • Comment as many times as you want on any of the guest posts I’m doing the month of August (I’ll add the links to this post).
  • Rate or Review The Bloodgate Warrior on any online book site and post a comment here with the link.
  • Post about this giveaway on your own blog or website and make a comment on this post with the link.  (A cool giveaway icon is coming soon!)

I’ll accumulate a spreadsheet of everyone who comments throughout the month on the above posts and use Random.org to select the winner on Sept 1st.  The winner will have 3 days to respond.  If I’m unable to reach the winner, I’ll pick a new name until I have a contact.

To get the comments started:  are you an ebook lover, a possible convert to electronic reading, or a take-my-paperback-from-my-cold-dead-hands reader?

Comment at these guest posts for an extra entry:


Artwork courtesy of S.J. Collins

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Crazy Busy

I’ve been so busy this past week, and we’ve had a lot of drama and stress.  I also had galleys to get back on Yours to Take – which I’m ashamed to admit I ended up turning in late.  I’ve never been late before, but with everything going on, I just got behind.  So that was my main push last week.

That Man has a job and he starts tomorrow.  I started school shopping this weekend.  I got several business casual outfits for myself to prepare for my upcoming trip to MN.  I found some great vegetarian recipes (watch out family, I might be pulling them out on everyone, not just Princess!).  The fridge is well stocked for a week of healthy meals, including lots of smoked chicken That Man cooked today.

Now let me buckle down and finish the additions to Lady Blackmyre…  And the expansion to Bloodgate… then I’ll be in good shape for this month.  Nose to the grindstone!