The Month of the Hero Begins!

MJ is starting our Month of the Hero with this week's trait, Responsibility. Check out her post about Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Don't forget, if you comment, you'll be entered in this week's drawing for a $25 Amazon gift certificate! Comments will be accepted anywhere the full blog post appears (such as eHarlequin or Facebook, etc.).

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Check out MJ's March release from Carina Press.
Friend her on Facebook.
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In Over My Head

Yesterday was a pretty productive day, culminating in a meeting to revise and finalize the Policy and Procedure manual for my local writer's group, something that's been in the works since 2003.

Unfortunately, none of my productivity was the stuff on my list. And the same thing happened today! I spent hours darting (figuratively) here and there, getting ready for The Month of the Hero. And I'm still doing it! I stopped writing this post to go set up that page at my website, then created a few more bit.ly links, then posted on Twitter, then took a deep breath and came back here.

I still have to set up my posts for the week and schedule them to go. They're written, but need some additions and tweaking. I also have mail to prep to send, some revisions on three chapters to enter and print so I can mail them tomorrow, a contract to finish reading so I can mail that tomorrow, too, a checkbook to update, an insurance policy to review and file, and the aforementioned P&P manual to proof, since our overachieving committee chair already made the 26 pages of changes we discussed over 3 hours last night. OY!

I have a synopsis to finish by the end of the week, some phone calls to make, and my annual mammogram tomorrow. Oh, and the Carina marketing plan to complete for my March 28th release!

I'm a little worried about my ability to get that all done. I mean, it's already 5:22 p.m.!

What's your go-to defense for drowning in "must get done NOW"s?

Supernatural Love

Trish did a fantastic recap on Supernatural Sisters last night, but after watching the show twice (J won't watch with me and Number One, so I always watch it a second time with him) and reading the recap and the comments, I have so much to say about the episode, it needs a full post. :)

First, let's go deep:

Poll Testing

I'm trying this out in preparation for the gigantic hero showdown at the end of March, where you all get to vote for your favorite heroes, from the ones we discuss in The Month of the Hero, starting Monday. So feel free to lie, just to give me results to test! :)

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Big Event! And Big News!

I thought MJ had already posted something about this, but I can't find it! Oh, I just remembered. It was in her newsletter!

Okay, anyway...! Starting next week, we are launching a HUGE event! It's the Month of Heroes, and every day, either she or I will be talking about a heroic trait and some of the characters who embody it. Next week, we start with Responsibility and talk about 5 hunky guys who shoulder a helluva lot of it.

For every comment that you post here or there*, you get an entry into a drawing for a gift certificate at the end of EVERY week! We'll encourage you to post your own suggestions, and we'll have a huge showdown in the final week, between her heroes, my heroes, and the ones you suggest.



*All comments posted on Facebook Notes, Goodreads, eHarlequin, etc.—in other words, wherever this blog or MJ Fredrick's blog appear—will be counted in the drawings for that week.

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Wanna hear my other news?

I sold another book to Carina Press! Behind the Scenes is another romantic adventure. Kennedy Smythe runs a high-level security company hired to work on an old friend's movie set. Rogan St. James is the star of the film, and a target. Which makes him off limits in all kinds of ways.

I don't have a release date for Behind the Scenes yet, but you can bet your bippy I'll keep you posted on that. :)

Kane-etic Weekend

I hate country music.

I hate crowds.

I hate cigarette smoke.

So why was I enduring all three for nearly 4 hours last night?

For this:

Smiling Awards

Wayyyyy back on February 11th, Vicki Smith gave me this award. I didn't find out about it for a few days, then didn't actually READ it for a few days, then started this post but didn't finish it for even more days.

I so don't deserve this award.

Not the least of which because I'm not funny. But I suppose the thought of me drinking a stinkbug can make someone smile, so I humbly accept this cute award and pass it along.

First, to Jody Wallace, who needs to share with her cat, as both are equally hilarious, and Meankitty will shred me if I don't say so.

And also to Shannon Stacey, because her outlook on life is so wonderfully wry.

Check them out!

Gender Busting

I recently learned about this site called The Gender Genie, where you can plug in some of your writing and it analyzes words like "if" and "around" to determine the writer's gender.

I was curious, because I often write from a male point of view in my books. I tested the first chapter of Hummingbird, a romantic adventure, and the analysis came out almost perfectly even, though the scale tipped in favor of female. That chapter is all in the male POV. So not as good as I'd like, but gratifying. A chapter in the heroine's POV was skewed way female. Another scene in a different guy's POV was also way female, and that bothered me, so I tested my blog posts.

The analysis works best on longer text, so I started with this one, and it guessed me male! I thought maybe it was skewed because I was recapping a show about guys, so I tried one of mine. This post had an even higher male score!

Part of me wants to say the algorithm is flawed, because come on. "When" is feminine and "who" is masculine? Who says? Part of me thinks it's because I'm more like a guy than a woman. You know, the whole hate-shopping, want-to-fix-more-than-listen stuff.

What do you think?

The Gab Wagon: How to Derail a Saturday

The Gab Wagon: How to Derail a Saturday: "1. Intend to sleep in due to going to bed at 1:30 a.m., but have to use the bathroom at 7:30. Come back to bed groggy and without vision enh..."

Fight or Flight Up for Preorder

Wheee! Fight or Flight up on Amazon!

And Barnes and Noble!

Release date 3/28/11, even though Amazon lists it as March 28, 2001. LOL

Stinkbug Nightmare

Woke up early this morning (too early, when I went to bed at 1:30!) to go to the bathroom. Came back, sat on the edge of the bed. Picked up my water glass, put my mouth on the rim, and tipped it to drink. Something brushed the bridge of my nose. It felt like a hair. Which was really weird. Dim in the room, and my eyesight sucks bigtime, so squinted at glass.

At the stinkbug walking along the edge of my glass.

As stinkbug horror stories go, I can never top Vicki Smith's. But the thought of what could have happened if the bug hadn't been on the other side of the glass will haunt me for the rest of my life.

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My grandfather called me this morning by accident. He said whenever he's always screwing up with technology. What's funny is that he told the phone to "Call Mary" and it called me instead. I'm 37 1/2 years younger than him, and *I* don't bother with voice recognition! LOL

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My recap of "Unforgiven" is up now on Supernatural Sisters Head over and let me know if you loved it as much as I did!

Plus...I just watched "Like a Virgin" again. The actress who played the sister of the woman taken out of the airplane looks like Amy Grabow, who played Becky in "Skin" in season 1. I can't find anything confirming this. Anyone else see it?

The Year of Methodology Trials

I finished another book yesterday. Yay, me! But that means I have...let's see...that one, and that one, and that one, and that one--four first draft novels. Which means this year will be The Year of Revision, uncontested.

A lot of my potential revising time is time when a computer isn't available. So I've decided to do something I've never done before. Work in hard copy! *gasp*

The Gab Wagon: The Economy Hits the Super Bowl

The Gab Wagon: The Economy Hits the Super Bowl: "In some ways, it didn't show. The Super Bowl was, as always, packed with fans, despite the $900 ticket prices. Thousands more braved the un-..."

Pushing Spring

I'm not one to want to hurry through the seasons. Sure, I hate March in particular and by the time winter and summer are waning, I'm more than ready for spring and fall. But generally, I like the seasons and try to enjoy them while they're here.

Not this year. I'm sick of writing massive checks for oil every two weeks, and getting up super early to drive slowly to work while my kids sleep in because school was canceled (and get to work only to have 90% of my patients not show up, anyway).

So you know what? Let's fast forward a little bit. To May. May 1st, to be exact, and the start of Brenda Novak's 2011 Online Auction to Benefit Diabetes Research.

This year, I'm participating! I don't mean just drooling over stuff that has bids way above what I can afford, or buying tickets for the incredible raffles, or bidding on a bunch of stuff I CAN afford (assuming I don't win it all...).

First, I'm offering a Proofreading/Polishing of a Partial Manuscript. If you're a writer and proper spelling, grammar, and sentence structure are the bane of your existence, you might want to check it out.

Not a writer? That's cool! Carina Press authors are offering up a boatload of stuff. An entire page of stuff, in fact. In addition to first-chapter critiques by a multitude of authors, we're donating a NOOK Color and a Kindle, both loaded with e-books. There will be a breakfast with Carina authors attention the RWA National conference this June, too.

It's not too early to head over and start browsing. There are TONS of awesome items, no matter what you like.