Posted on 55 Comments

Mistletoe Madness Giveaway

Main Giveaway Hub

In these days of ultra cool electronics and games, I sometimes wonder if people care about homemade gifts from the heart.

 

I always try to make a few things for people on my list, but the busier I get with real life, the more I can’t quite pull off my big plans.

I just don’t have enough time to make all the things I want.  This year, I’m hurrying to finish some simple cross-stitch Christmas ornaments.  Next week I plan to do a lot of baking to take to family dinners.  One year I made easy flannel scarves, another year crochet bookmarks.

Yet I always secretly fear that people think homemade gifts are a little tacky or cheap.  What about you – what’s your favorite memory of a handmade gift someone gave you?

Comment on this post any time Dec. 16 – 23 to be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to any online book retailer of your choice (B&N, Amazon, ARe, etc.) and any book from my backlist, including a signed print copy of either Dear Sir, I’m Yours or Hurt Me So Good.  If you choose print, I’ll mail internationally.

Happy Holidays – let the Mistletoe Madness begin!

 

Posted on Leave a comment

Bad Blogger

Forgive me, blogosphere, for I’ve been lazy and busy.  It’s that time of the year when every moment outside of the Evil Day Job is packed with something to-do.  Like shopping, getting family pictures taken, hopefully sending out Christmas cards this year *crosses fingers – last time we tried to do this, JC Penney lost our order until Feb!*

Add to that the cold, dreary, darkness of December and I’ve just not had much gumption to work on writing either early or late.  Sigh.  I’ve got Rose about 3/4 formatted and lightly edited.  The Horse Master is done, except for putting an excerpt from Rose in.  I was hoping to get the entire trilogy up by the end of the year, but I might not make it.

I also want to get the Zombie story submitted sooner than later.

Oh, and all the bloghop/holiday giveaways to manage, which starts tomorrow!  (So watch here for cool prizes over the next few days!)

Posted on 9 Comments

Emotional Reads

One of the things I want to work on with my writing in 2012 is making sure I involve the emotions.  I want to take you on an emotional rollcoaster!  Wild joy, the depths of loneliness and doubt, and everything in between.

I’ve taken Margie Lawson’s Empowing Characters’ Emotions workshop (I plan to re-read all my notes next year), but I’m looking for highly emotional books you’ve enjoyed that I can add to Mt. TBR.  Some books I’ve heard recommended as “emotional” are Lisa Valdez’s Passion and E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey.  (Whispers, although I’ll admit that I’ve tried to read both in the past and can’t get through the samples.)

When you think of high emotions, what books would you recommend?

Posted on 1 Comment

RBW Post Turkey

I didn’t track much this past week.  I didn’t exercise either.  Sigh.  I was just too busy.  If I wasn’t running an errand or cooking, I was doing up dishes, cleaning the house for company, or writing (a little).  We even ended up with fried twist donuts in the house Thursday morning (for the company, of course), and I succumbed instead of eating my healthy yogurt as planned.

I gave away tons of leftovers but the fridges are still loaded.  We had another Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, brother, and sister Saturday, and of course Granny sent us home with MORE leftovers, including a nice big piece of Chocolate Angel Pie.  I ate it.

So why was the scale down .42% today?

I tried really hard to not OVER eat.  I ate what I wanted – but had small portions, ate slowly, and had NO seconds.  I ate extra vegetables and fruit and yogurt whenever possible (e.g. Saturday morning brunch before leaving for Mom’s I had Fage, blueberries, and Kashi, while the family gnoshed on Combos and beef jerky on the ride).  Then Sunday and Monday I was strictly back to plan, ate a little less than my point range but nothing extreme, drank my water, tracked my points, and avoided snacky food.  In other words, I got right back on track instead of allowing the feasting to continue.

Nearly to my next 5 pound star!

Romance Biggest Winner

Posted on 2 Comments

RBW Thanksgiving Edition

I haven’t been posting weekly Romance Biggest Winner updates because there’s not been much to report.  I’ve been hovering around the same number, up a pound, down a pound, wash and repeat over and over and over.

It’s frustrating to say the least.

However, I’ve also gotten just a little bit lazy on my tracking.  Where I was tracking faithfully every day, I’ve just been so busy — and had a few too many slips — to keep up.  When I’m writing hard, I tend to get up early and stay up later, which makes me even more hungry.  And yes, I’m always tempted to use munchies to help me stay awake even longer.  Enter my nemesis, the Lay’s potato chip.

But this NaNoWriMo I’ve been pretty strong.  I only indulged in chips once.  I even got a little exercise in last week — but I’m still not consistent yet.  Baby steps.

Yesterday I tracked my food before I ate it — planning my day out to the final point so I already knew I would have nothing else after the last apple snack.  I drank water with lemon (that I finally remembered to pick up), which helped me want even more water because I love the taste, especially bubbly water made by our SodaStream.

And today, I was finally thrilled to slip into that new decade on the scale.  .91% loss for RBW and 57 pounds lost for the year!  Woot!

Now a lot of you might be wondering what I’m going to do for Thanksgiving.  Will I make diet food?  Will I starve myself and gorge on all the goodies at dinner?

Here’s my philosophy.  I love to cook the big dinner.  I make it the way my mom always made it, with a few extras that That Man’s family likes.  I use the best quality ingredients I can find.  I make my own chicken broth for the gravy and noodles (and I don’t skim the fat off).  I make bone broth from the turkey carcass for another round of healthy soups after the big day.  I make real food.

Many “light” and “fat free” products have added corn syrup and fillers to make them taste good.  So I don’t often use them.  I do substitute light sour cream and light cheese occasionally because I personally can’t taste the difference.  But when I’m cooking for twenty people on Thanksgiving day, I’m making the best food I possibly can and I’ll use the real deal.

Will I have pie?  Yes.  Small pieces of both pumpkin and pecan.  Will I eat both mashed potatoes and carby homemade egg noodles?  Yep.  But I’ll eat in moderation.  I’m going to have a filling Greek yogurt and Kashi breakfast.  I’ll drink my water along with a gallon of coffee.  I’m preparing a healthy yet delicious spinach salad to eat along with the carbs, and my SIL is bringing a vegetable platter.  I’ll try not to eat until I’m miserable, which shouldn’t be too hard.  I’ll be too busy serving and cleaning up to eat a lot anyway.  As soon as the main late lunch is consumed, I’ll throw the carcass into a pot and start the late dinner soup fest with the leftovers.  (We’ll have people visiting all day)

So I won’t “diet” that day — but I will try to eat in moderation.  I’ll go into the day with a plan and do the best I can.  It’s only one day a year, the only day I’m responsible for cooking delicious food for so many people, and I’m going to enjoy it!

Posted on 2 Comments

NaNoWriMo2011 Day 21

I haven’t given up on hitting 50K but wallowed in the glow of finishing ZCR a bit too long.  It’s hard to switch gears without much down time, especially this time of year.  I’ve been a shopping, cleaning fool the past two weeks preparing for Thanksgiving.  I’ve got two fridges absolutely stuffed with all the fixings.  Cooking will start Tuesday night this week, Wednesday is prep day when I’ll bake the pies, make at least 10 batches of egg noodles, and mash 20 pounds of potatoes.  (We like our carbs…)  Then of course the turkey needs to go into the oven by 8 AM Thursday and we’ll have a house full of guests until late Thursday night.

Writing?  In all of that?

Yes.  I’m trying.  I did some plotting and brainstorming for Lord Regret’s Price.  I also decided to see if I could expand the free prequel, Lady Wyre’s Regret.  IF I can get to RT next April, I want to have something to hand out and sign (since Lady Doctor Wyre is an ebook).  I’m thinking about printing up a chapbook of the prequel and a nice excerpt.  But of course I want it to be the absolute best I have to offer, and there’s a lot more to how Lady Wyre and Regret meet than I’ve given you so far.

NaNoWriMo count:  40,450 words

Snippet:  this is continuing the free read prequel, Lady Wyre’s Regret.  First draft only, etc. etc.  I love the little line tying into the next book….  What exactly is Lord Regret’s price?

Waving regally, Charlotte paused on the front steps of Wyreton and awaited her public assassination.  Her heartbeat ramped to supersonic speeds, but she managed to smile for the millions of Britannians watching the Solstice Eclipse festivities.  Cameras flashed, broadcasting her departure for the royal ball.

As the Duchess of Wyre, she’d be fashionably late. Eternally
late, if Lord Regret manages to pull off this charade.

She heard the shocked whispers and gasps before she felt the assassin’s blade digging into her neck.  This time he didn’t spare any pressure, deliberately drawing enough blood to leave DNA evidence on her spotless white marble.

It must look real and authentic.

Drawing in a deep breath, she let a shrill scream echo across the plaza.  She clawed at his arm locked about her throat so tightly she couldn’t breathe.  Combined with the rigid corset, she was afraid she might actually pass out.

Pain burned across her throat and she screamed again.  She hadn’t counted on being so terrified.  Her orders had been
explicit.  He must rough her up enough to make it look real.  He must draw her blood, obviously wounding her severely enough that the general public would believe her dead.

Yet she couldn’t help that niggling doubt.  What if Majel had gotten to him?  What if someone had upped her price, making the amount on her head too attractive for the famous assassin to resist?  Every man has a price.  What is Lord Regret’s?

 

Posted on 1 Comment

NaNoWriMo2011 Day 14

As you can probably tell from my lack of posts over the weekend, NaNoWriMo was a bit of a bust.

We host for Thanksgiving, so we had a ton of preparation we needed to do this past weekend to ensure the house was fit to open up for guests.  The basement was a pit of toys and junk, but we couldn’t clean it until we cleaned the garage and the unfinished storage area (so we’d have a place to take all this junk).  We’ve been in this house just over a year now, and last Thanksgiving I cut us some slack because we had just moved.  However, there’s no excuse this year.  Some of those buckets and tubs hadn’t been touched in a year, and they were taking up much needed space.

So we worked almost all day Sat.  We donated several bags of clothes, toys, and coats.  Plus I found some things I’d totally forgotten we even had (because they’ve been packed up for over a year).  I didn’t find everything, like my leather coat I bought in Texas many a moon ago, but overall I’m pretty pleased.  We still have to hang some artwork, but the general organization is much better.

In the middle of all this, Middle Monster decided she would really really like to have her own room…in the basement.  Right now, she’s sharing a room with Littlest, and the only thing downstairs is my office and the kids’ play area/family room.  We don’t have another bedroom and I can’t give up my office (I telecommute for the Evil Day Job), but she was happy with just having a bedroom set up in the corner.

So on top of all the cleaning Sat, on Sunday we put together a platform bed in the basement (involved a trip to Lowe’s to replace the plywood base that had cracked) and moved a bunch of her stuff into the basement.  She hung pictures.  She set up shelves.  She made her bed.

And lasted about 10 minutes after bedtime.  😉 Then she was back upstairs with her little sister.  Oh well.  I think she’ll make it eventually, and she loves having her own space.  Once the newness wears off, I think she’ll be able to sleep down there permanently.

NaNoWriMo Count:  23,274.  I’m going to start falling behind if I don’t pick up the pace.

In a discussion with Dmitri, one of Yiorgos’s best friends, Clare says:

My specialty is food and he sampled the best I can offer for Remy’s.  You heard me warn him not to eat another piece of cake but he insisted on another piece not once but twice.  It’s not my fault he’s a pigheaded chocoholic.

Posted on 6 Comments

Halloween Free Read

Happy Halloween, everyone!  I thought people might enjoy a short, creepy free read today, so I worked on a secret project this weekend.

A word of warning:  I’m not a graphic artist like Dawn, Deena, Silvia, or Soleil.  So while I did purchase stock to make a cover, it’s not “art” or anything unique.  However, with My Beloved Sis’s help, I think I made something simple yet appropriately creepy.

This is my short story, “Broken Angel:  A Zombie Love Story”  previously published in Drollerie Press’s horror anthology, Things That Go Bump in the Night.  We were in a DP chat (back in 2007 or 2008) talking about zombies (like we always did!) and someone ::cough, Deena, cough:: challenged me to write a zombie romance.

I wouldn’t really call this “romance” but it is a love story and it definitely involves zombies.  I hope it makes you shiver delightfully this wonderful Halloween!

Click on the cover to dowload pdf.  I’ve also created epub and mobi for Kindle (although I haven’t tested the Kindle version yet – Littlest Monster ran off with my Kindle).

P.S. I might load this up to Smashwords and Amazon as practice for the Shanhasson books coming soon, so Broken Angel may not be available for free very long!

Posted on 1 Comment

RBW Week 17

No huge losses to report (which is why I didn’t post last week).  In fact, I’m showing a gain today.  Sigh.  It could be that coconut pie and real Susie Qs I had Sat. night in Joplin…  But I’ve been very good and on plan since.  I actually “felt” thinner today…until I stepped on the scale.

That’s the pitfall of daily weighing.  The scale can change our perception of how we look, even though we feel better, stronger, thinner.  I’m determined not to let that one pound gain affect me.  We had a great time Sat. night and I immediately got back on the horse with my plan.  I didn’t eat ALL my food that night — just until I was comfortable.

I haven’t really tried any new foods lately.  I’ve been trying to keep a meal plan and shopping accordingly.  This time of year we love chili, ham & beans, stew, chicken & noodles, etc. so that’s what I’ve been making.  Of course I choose very lean hamburger when applicable.  I’m also using lots of fresh garlic, onions, and coconut oil to combat fall colds.  I don’t know that it’s helping exactly, but we haven’t had any colds either!  *knocks on wood*

I say this to illustrate why Weight Watchers has worked so well for me.  I’m eating normal food my family eats too, our favorites!  Without guilt.  Sure, there are healthy “diet” foods I choose to eat that they won’t touch with a ten foot pole — like Kashi Go Lean cereal and Fage nonfat Greek yogurt — but in general, we eat the same thing.  I just make more veggies for myself and make sure I don’t eat more than my single serving.

I’ve already started Thanksgiving preparation for next month (we host That Man’s family, my dad, and my beloved sister).  I’ve got 4-6 quarters of frozen homemade chicken broth ready to make stuffing and noodles.  I’ll be watching the circulars over the next few weeks to see when turkeys first go on sale.  I might buy two and freeze one — we all love turkey, but hardly ever eat it.

I’m still failing in the exercise department.  Grrr.  I’m taking the entire week off next week from the Evil Day Job (for NaNoWriMo, if I officially join), but I’m determined to use those days to establish a work out routine that I can stick with once I return to work.

Anyway, a long-winded post to say that I’m still hovering around 55 pounds lost for the year.  One pound away from a new decade on the scale — not counting that pesky one that decided to join me today!