Yay!  I've been waiting for this one.   And if I don't start it until the kids are in bed, I should be finishing it right around 1am.

Not that I have any particular reason for wanting to be up til 1am.  Nope, not me.  Not that there's anything special happening sometime around midnight CST (1am EST).

I just visited Dublin.

And damn, was it tasty.

That's called Dublin Mudslide.

Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream with Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Coffee Fudge Swirl

Go ahead -- take a wild ride down the Dublin Mudslide! From the first dreamy dip into the truly Irish Cream liqueur ice cream, through the jumpin' java fudge swirl & chipsy chocolatey cookies, don't be surprised to hear your tastebuds exclaiming "Erin go Wow!"

Yum. My tastebuds were in too much bliss to be exclaiming, but I'm a happy person right now. As happy as I can be when my hubby is 2500 miles away. (Shush to anyone thinking I am happy because he is 2500 miles away. We're up to day 3 - I miss him!)

Also making me happy - I re-read the transcript from the chat last night with the Ellora's Cave authors, and I think everyone else had as much fun as I did. Sylvia Day, NJ Walters, and Lauren Dane were there to answer our questions; Rod C and Jordan Summers also stopped in. Jordan didn't say much (we'll have to drag her in to a real chat and grill ask her some questions at another time). Rod was very funny; Sylvia, Nj, and Lauren had so much great information to share. Several books got added to my shopping list!

We talked about just how they can make those deadlines. (Hint - they all write a LOT. Double diget daily goals. Ouch.) What is hot, what sells best, what doesn't sell, and quite a lot about sex. We touched on purple prose, and spent a hilarious five minutes listening to some great examples of what NOT to write. This conversation was definately for adult minds only ;)

If you want to read what they had to say, you can download the pdf from Romance Divas. You'll need to register if you haven't already, and ask for permission to the steamy sections - I mentioned this was an adult chat?

Put together funny, entertaining writers talking about sexy books, and answering just about any question we could throw at them. It was a great time! We're doing it again on March 10th, so if you missed last nights - don't miss the next one! Ann Jacobs, Bella Andre, Denise A. Agnew, Eve Lilas, Jaci Burton, Jory Strong, and Kate Douglas are all scheduled to be there. What a great group chat that will be!

Chat tonight with Ellora's Cave authors!

Come join us tonight in the Romance Divas chat room to talk with the hottest authors of Ellora's Cave! We'll be in our chat room at http://romancedivas.com/divachat.html.

Be there at 9pm EST to get the latest news from your favorite authors. Several have new books to share, and all are ready to answer your questions about the books - and the publisher - that brought steamy success to epublishing.

You can hang out with Sylvia Day, Ann Jacobs, Eve Lilas, Lauren Dane, NJ Walters, and Patrice Michelle. Find out who's got books, contracts, and other exciting news to talk about! We've got a few fun giveaways as well, so you could end the night with a great new book to read.

Don't miss this exciting chance to meet the authors of Ellora's Cave!

Five Guilty Pleasures

Jax has tagged me with "Five Guilty Pleasures". This one is tough for me, because honestly the things I feel guilty for doing aren't things I get pleasure from doing. I feel guilty for things like yelling at my kids, not always really listening when the hubby wants to talk, and letting the dog go a month without a bath.

So I had to dig pretty deep for this... a few are really quite silly. And maybe that's the whole point here in the first place.

1 - Chocolate stashes. Now, I need to loose a few inches on the hips. And the thighs, and the waist, and the boobs. So really, chocolate should be a no-no. Being the mostly good person with my diet, I don't buy it for myself. But there are just so *many* holidays that involve candy. Valentines Day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas being the big 4. With 2 kids, we get 10 times as much candy as this house needs. (Doing the math here, my sister Kathy gets about 30 times as much candy as her house needs. But hell, with 6 kids, maybe there's a modifier in there somewhere.) Anywho... After a day or two goes by, I have no qualms about weeding thru that bowl to pare down the sugar level in the house. Most of the candy goes in the trash. But throwing away chocolate is about as big a sin as throwing away a book in this house. So the chocolate goes into a bag, which goes into a stash. For emergancy use only, you know. Good thing emergancies only come around a few times a week in this house.

2 - Naps. There are days when the work is piled up on my desk, the laundry won't all fit behind the laundry room doors, the dishes ooze over the kitchen counters along with the remenants of breakfast. And after the kids are off to school, all I want to do is curl up in bed for an hour or two of peace and slumber. At least once or twice a month, I indulge.

3 - Good wine. Pablo Neruda said it better than I ever could.
" Day-colored wine,
night-colored wine,
wine with purple feet
or wine with topaz blood,
wine,
starry child
of earth,
wine, smooth
as a golden sword,
soft
as lascivious velvet,
wine, spiral-seashelled
and full of wonder,..."

4 - Scents. My nose is very sensitive. Things like stinky kids, dogs, husbands athletic equipment, a jacket that carries the smell of smoke from the neighborhood bar (Lynch's, our neighborhood Irish bar, still allows smoking inside) drive me crazy.

I love fresh smells. Nothing floral, fruity, or overpowering. I'm constantly looking for the perfect blend of clean, fresh, non-cloying scents that will please my nose without strangling my senses. I love using liquid fabric softener on the laundry - it makes the whole house smell fresh when you take it out.

Glade Fresh Linen plug ins come close to being perfect.

5 - Wearing my husbands clothes. Sometimes it drives him nuts, but his clothes feel sooo much better than mine. I've tried shopping in the mens department, but for some reason if it isn't something he's broken in for me, it just doesn't work. So I wait until he's worn a shirt just long enough to break it in, then it will suddenly start showing up in my side of the closet instead of his. My very favorite shirt is a grey/blue flannel one that he got for Christmas the first year we were married. Now he's not a flannel kinda guy, but he wore it once to make the giver happy, then I claimed it for my own. After 11 years that shirt is about ready for the rag bag, but it is the softest, most comfortable, most comforting piece of clothing I own. A true guilty pleasure.

And so. I guess I should "tag" someone myself for this. Looking back at yesterdays comments...
Silma, Elise, Sam, Laine, and Lynn. Share the guilt!

TBR

I found a way to keep my TBR (To Be Read) pile manageable about a year ago, and I have to say it's working out pretty good for me. (Insert small pause to pat myself on the back, and refill my coffee to keep that inner glow.)

Part 1 is the hardest. I stopped buying books. Not cold-turkey stopped, but if-I-buy-it-read-it-now stopped. That means that every now and then I give in to a moment of weakness, but the book has to be really, really good, or have real purpose to the purchase.

Purpose to the purchase. Ohhh, I like the sound of that. (Insert pause to drink more coffee while I let that roll around in my head a few minutes.)

So I was saying. Ok, I buy a few books, but they're for specific reasons - either one of less that half a dozen authors I actively "keeper", or a book that came so highly recommended by someone whom I know and trust that I feel I have to buy it.

Part 2 is the fun part. Jacksonville has a decent public library


system, including computerized holds. I can log in from home, browse the catalog, and request any book from any of the branches be sent to my local branch

for pick up. I've found some great books just surfing through the catalog, and some pretty big duds too. But the great thing is that I feel absolutely no guilt at not finishing the duds. All I've spent to get to page 20 is about 10 minutes to run into the library and pick up the books, and another 10 minutes or so to get to page 20. If the book hasn't pulled me in by then, back to the library it goes.

It's also made me realize how important the start to any story is. I'm picky. Entertain me from the start, or I'm gone. Too many books, too little time. I used to be compulsive about finishing books. If I started one, no matter how bad, I had to finish it. Now I'm a bit easier on myself. If I've got to know how a really bad book ends, I'll just skip ahead and read the end before I give up on the book. But read all the pages in the middle? Not unless they're really worth the time it takes to read them.

How many books are in your TBR pile right now? And do you finish every book you start, or do you let the bad ones go?

A week full of ... what?

It was pointed out to me (Sis: Holy crap woman, it's been almost a week since you put anything on your blog) that it's been almost a week since I posted. I wish I could claim I've been busy solving world hunger - or at least avian flu - but really, it's just life. Sometimes the day-to-day things start to pile up, much as my laundry has done. The laundry is an actual problem, since it all needs to be clean tonight for Sean to pack for Vegas. The blog lack-of-posting, no one is going to be going without undies because of. Unless they want to go without undies, but I'm guessing that you would have done that anyway. So.

I was saying? Oh, life.

Sean's golf tour started back up last weekend, with the first event of the season at Black Bear. I won't see him much on the weekends from now until October, except for the weeks I go work with him. I'd forgotten how much paperwork goes with these things too... we spent most of Wednesday and Thursday last week getting the new forms printed with the name change. Michelob Ultra pulled their sponsorship this year (evidently bad beer doesn't sell well enough to sponsor a golf tour), so they're back to American Amateur - even though the web site still hasn't been redesigned. And to make things even more fun, there's another Big Name Company expressing an intrest in buying naming rights, so we may go through all this again in a few weeks. Yay.

Sean was gone Friday and Saturday to the event at Black Bear, and I thought I'd get some writing done over the weekend. The kids had other plans, and instead we watched lots of Barbie, did a lot of homework, worked on getting the pool back in swim-condition.

Sunday was paperwork day from the golf tournament. I'm always amazed at how many grown men can't add their scorecards correctly. These men have been playing golf long enough to be competitive, and they can't add 18 numbers that will equal a score of between 72 and 110. Yay for our country's math skills.

Sunday night, dinner with the inlaws. Jim's 65th birthday is Wednesday, but since Sean will be in Vegas we got together early. Had a really nice dinner at Dolphin Depot - great seafood restaurant here at the beach that I'd never eaten at before. While it's a relatively casual dress style (slacks, but no jeans), it's pricey. I'm not sure how pricey, since there are no prices on the "menu" (a chalkboard they bring to your table, used as a prop while the waiter describes the intricate details of ingredients and preperation). My sister-in-law (they dine there often) said most of the entrees are between $20 and $40 each. And then there are apetizers and salads, and wine. I didn't see a kiddie menu available (kiddie chalkboard?) so I don't think we'll be making it a regular stop on our dining circuit.

And an update on my back problem. I've got a bit of a problem with degenerative disc disease. Lots of people become afflicted with this at some point in their lives. Getting a more serious form when you're still in your 20's isn't that common. I've been seeing a chiropractor monthly for the past decade, and usually he keeps me on my feet and pain free. About 2 weeks ago I popped it out of alignment picking up Samantha, and have been in more pain than is fun from it. Today my chiro did something funky though, and I was in tears on the table. Not fun. I told him it hurt like hell and he needed not to do that anymore. Poor guy felt bad for hurting me. Not as bad as I did, of course. Ouch.

Then I went to Books A Million and rewarded myself for my stoic reaction to the pain

with this months copy of Romantic Times (research of course), Thea Devine's Bliss River, and a Bad Boy anthology from Brava - I Brake For Bad Boys. I think the whole "Bad Boy" concept sounds a bit goofy, but I really liked Bad Boy's Ahoy, so I'm going to overlok the titles and give this a try. Much like I overlook the covers on many books I read. It's not the cover, or the title, it's the writing. And someone - many someones - must like both the titles and the covers, since publishers tell us that's what sells.

So that's what I've been doing this week. How about you?

My first finalist! And Happy Valentines Day to you!

The Best First Meeting contest at Romance Diva's has entered the second stage. And the six finalists are :
And the finalists are...

Steamy Section:
THE REBOUND GUY - JAC / Bernadette
TONIGHT, FOREVER - Karen / Diva Karen
THE LORD HELPS THOSE... - Keziah Hill

Mainstream Section
JUST ONE NIGHT - Diva Jenna
UN-BREAK MY HEART - AJ
A KIND DECEIVER - Eliza

Gratz to the other finalists, and to everyone who entered - this contest had some serious talent in it. When I started reading the other entries, I didn't expect to see myself in the finalist group at all. And was doubly excited that I was!

Now I've got a day to make revisions before this goes off to the final judge - for the steamy entries, that is an editor at Siren Publishing. Which means my first chance to put my work before the professionals.

Happy Valentines Day to you!

Sony Librie eBook Reader

The new Sony Librie is evidently already available in Japan. Listed on Ebay at a Buy It Now price of $399, this item can be yours - along with working in through figuring out how to read Japanesse menus.

And, it evidently does use a proprietary format, so anything you want to read with it will have to be converted first.

High price and inconvieninet to use. Two marks against it in my book. If the US version comes with a similiar price, and their own custom format, this won't be hitting my wish list.

More Gmail love

Want to use gmail to archive, but don't want to take the time to email yourself hundreds (thousands?) of files?

Check out the firefox extension at http://www.rjonna.com/ext/gspace.php.

It's a beautiful thing.

Currently...

current clothing: Black leggings, blue and white well worn flannel shirt.
current hair: red, shoulder lenght, much curls
current mood: happy
current refreshment: coffee, black and strong
current annoyance: that I don't have 30 hours in my day to do everything I'd like to be able to
current avoidance: yardwork
current smell: vanilla and brown sugar skin lotion
current thing you ought to be doing: (see avoidance)
current thing or things on your wall: 3 calendars - life, writing, goals. Pictures of my kids and husband.
current IM/person you're talking to: Samantha (no one else is up yet!)
current jewelry: wedding ring, engagement ring, anniversary ring from 3 years ago, gold hoop earrings
current book: just finished Bad Boys Ahoy 2 days ago, haven't found anything else to suck me in since
current worry: no worries :)
current favorite celebrity: I ended my celebrity watcher days back in my teens when I realized most of them are weirder than anyone I know in real life
current obsession: getting organized.
current love: chai tea. yumm.
current longing: two hours of guilt free peace, quiet, and alone time
current disappointment: My RWA membership is stuck in backlog hell
current lyric in your head: It's such a bittersweet symphony this life...
current music: Saturday morning kiddie cartoons - Do Re Mi's (ugh)
current favorite book: Bad Boys Ahoy! by Sylvia Day
current favorite movie: Serenity. (geek r me)
current wish: peace on earth... to much? How about "to write the best damn books I can, one book at a time"
current happy thing: coffee... coffee... coffee...
current undergarments: eep. Hey, I just woke up 2 hours ago, and it's Saturday!
current desktop picture: the undulating chocolate satin of the web site I'm designing
current plans for tonight/weekend: none!

So what are you currently doing?

Word Cloud

Tess over at the Divas shared this cool little tool.
It's a web site that scans your website and creates a "word cloud" of words from your site.
(A word cloud is "a visual depiction of content (words) used in a body of
text. The word clouds we use at snapshirts.com are arranged
alphabetically and depict more frequently used words in progressively
larger fonts.")

Ok, it looks neater than it sounds.
Here is my site, as seen by word cloud.

I'm not at all suprised that books, read, and reading are in the large font.

Young Adults

Samantha and I spent an hour at the park this afternoon.

Three thirty on a Wednesday afternoon is not prime kiddie time. She was a bit disappointed when we got there to be the only preschooler; I was a bit amused to see a half dozen teenagers hanging around the picnic area with their skateboards. Ahh, I thought to myself, it's great to see the neighborhood kids have a semi-healthy gathering spot. No smoking, drinking, or pot-smoking going on here, just some 14ish year old boys (and one girl) doing half-flips from the picnic tables with their skateboards.

Over the next thirty minutes the group slowly swelled, until there were at least a dozen crowded under the picnic shelter. As Samantha and I stopped to empty the playground sand from our sneakers, one newly arriving group stopped less than five feet behind our bench to say their hello's.

It was immediately obvious that I have crossed all borders into the land of old. Old, and invisible. They paid no attention to me - or to the three year old with me.

"Is Shannon here yet?" The female in the group asked. She looked to be sixteen-going-on-welfare mom. Long dirty blonde hair with six inches of split ends. Too much eyeliner and lipstick.

"Who?" The sk8t3r boy was maybe 17. Seemed to be the leader of the three boys, since he did most of the talking while the other two echoed "dude" and "shi-it".

"Fat Shannon. She said she'd be here." A snicker in her voice had me hoping for Shannon's sake she wasn't here.

"Yo, Fat Shannon. No, she's not here." Two eager to please voices echoed "Fat Shannon, dude." "Fat Shannon - shi-it."

"You heard she ***ked two boys at the party last weekend." The girl is obviously disgusted by this rumor."

"No shi-it dude. She really ***ked them?" Leader boy sounds far from disgusted. His snickering pals as well.

"That's what I heard. But really, she's such a slut. I wasn't suprised." The girl is enjoying this. A chance to talk dirty, which guarantees the boys attention, while spreading dirt about someone else.

I looked at my daughter sitting next to me. I'd been humming a song the whole time, hoping that I was drowning out their voices, or at least distracting her from their words. She didn't seem to notice them at all, her attention split between my humming and the slightly younger group doing skateboard moves behind us.

And I wondered, is this what it is to be a teenager today?

Rumors flew around high school when I was there; which girls (and boys) were doing what with whom, which ones would be rewarded for the behavior and which ones would be shunned. But I don't remember hearing anyone so much enjoy the spreading of a rumor, the destroying of a persons reputation, as much as this girl was today.

My son is only 3 short years from high school. That's scary enough, but he's an independant sort. Much like me, he at least has a shell of outter aloofness that carries him through the gauntlet of public scrutiny. But my daughter seems to be a softer sort. At three, she already worries about who was "mad" at her today in preschool, or who wouldn't be her friend. It scares the hell out of me to think of her as a teenager, and knowing not to far down the road I won't be there to hum over the uglier parts of growing up.

My reading blahs are lifted.

I've been in the blah's the last two weeks or so with reading. Part of it was from the preasure I put on myself to get more writing done. When I had time to read, I wanted it to be something not just good, but GREAT. Very little I picked up hit the spot. I've got no less than 7 books scattered around the house, car, and purse (3 in the car alone) that I've tried to start in the last 2 weeks. Another 3 that went back to the library because they couldn't suck me in past the first chapter. I've read a few great ebooks in that time, but most of the paperbacks I picked up couldn't get the job done.

So yesterday I suffered thru an emergancy chiro appointment, and to reward myself I stopped in at Books A Million - it's just down the road a bit. Went in for a fresh cup of coffee and the Februray copy of Romantic Times (nice article on ebooks in there that I had been waiting for, although it didn't give me as much depth as I wanted). A glitch behind the coffee counter gave me 5 minutes to kill, so I started browsing the shelves. And found Bad Boys Ahoy.

(Warning - I'm becoming a Sylvia Day fangirl.) Since I read "Misled" last year, it really opened me up to a fresh voice in writing, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I've heard Bad Boys Ahoy recommened everywhere I turn for the last month, and I couldn't have found it at a better time.

Because it completely cured my reading dumps. I devoured the first story (the book is a set of 3 novellas), and Sebastian Blake is man enough to get anyone out of the dumps. I started Lucien's Gamble right before I started dinner, and only the fact that the family ate frozen dinners and take out the last 3 nights drug me away from reading to cook. Now I've got the TiVo set up to take care of NCIS and House for me tonight, because - for the first time in weeks - there's a book I'd rather read.

It's adult fiction, hot and sensual. I can't wait to finish.

Sunday morning happy thoughts

Things that give me feel-goods :
the warm body of my husband snoring lightly beside me
the cheerful girlish voice saying "Mom, the sun's up, it's time to get up"
the son who helps me out when I'm not feeling my best.
fresh coffee in my favorite, very chipped, last of its set mug
the wireless router that lets me roam the house trying to find the most comfortable spot to stay connected
the husband that said "we have a wireless router?" last night
a stinky dog that lick my feet and make me say ewww... Pal!
text messages from sis reminding me of things I've forgotten, that she knows I've forgotten, that would make me feel bad when I remember I've forgotten them. Thanks to her, I remembered in time ;)
email from people I haven't heard from in a while
online photo albums, as long as I don't have to log in to see them
the sun shining on the overgrown bush outside my bedroom sliding door. Overgrown is good, since it keeps me from seeing the neglected pool on the otherside.
"Mom, I love you" - even when it comes after I've just been scolding.
finding just the right word for just the right time
Love, hugs and kisses, family, friends.


This one gave me a nice false sense of having a role in the political future of our country :

Get your position here

All About Romance has the interim results from the 2005 readers poll up. I was suprised this year at how few books on this list I've read. I guess my 2005 reading was much less romance-heavy than my usual reading. Or, less traditional at least. Quite a few books I read were more sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, or romantica. With a few exceptions, those categories aren't represented highly in this poll.

I'm going to put holds on some of these from the library, and see if they strike my intrest. Nothing in my TBR pile seems to these days. I need a kickstart - my 2006 books read list is looking pretty light so far.

Super Bowl weekend...

How I'll spend at least part of the weekend :

Ok really, I won't be in front of the tv all weekend - I'm going to write some. Sean finally (!) asked to read the current work last night. I'll probably indulge him.

But Super Bowl Sunday, that picture will be accurate. The commercials should be good, even if the game itself isn't.

Go Seahawks!

Luxary

I was distracted yesterday thinking about luxary. I saw an ad for a condo about a mile and a half from here that would be just about my dream home. It's a condo in Jax beach. 4 bedroom, seperate office, 3700 square feet, oh and $2.5 million furnished. Beautiful views like

from many windows. Yes, that would be luxary.

But that's pretty extreme luxary. I think a more modest luxary would be ... maid service once a month. Or an occasional dinner out that didn't involve sports bars. Even sleeping in past 6:30 once or twice a month.

What would be a luxary to you?