Setting a Bad Example

Me, 1984.

A few weeks ago, Number One came close to fisticuffs in a soccer game. She's an aggressive defender, and often up against equally aggressive offensive players. Once in a while, things escalate slightly beyond the norm. This other girl went a little too far, Number One fought back, and when the girl looked about to punch my kid in the face, Number One held her off with a pointed finger and a bit of verbal ferocity.

The ref has had it out for her ever since.

Unfortunately, she seems to come by it naturally. My sister-in-law told me I HAD to post this, so here it is. :)

We were at a game last night, and there was a woman in the stands near us who wasn't well versed in the game. She was asking the kid with her lots of questions, and making lots of comments. Her voice was strident and carried, and the subject matter was poking at me. When people ask questions, I have a need to answer. Of course, she wasn't asking me, so I wasn't saying anything, but this sets the background a little bit.

The girls play on an old hockey rink with walls and a solid floor. One girl on the other team ran out of her shoe, but instead of stopping to put it on, she kept going after the ball (instinct, of course). She tried to stop, slid, and slide-tackled our forward. FYI, a slide tackle is when the player goes to the ground feet first. If they kick or knock the feet out from under the opponent, it's a foul, whether it was intentional or not. And whether they slid deliberately, going for the ball, or slipped on the surface accidentally. Slide tackles indoors are illegal.

So the woman cries out, "What, her shoe comes off and it's a penalty?" in a very annoyed tone. That was all I could handle. The following exchange is paraphrased for the most part. Except the part in bold.

Me: "No, she was penalized because she tackled our player."

Before I can explain as I did above, the woman yells at me. "She did not! She lost her shoe!"

Me: "She was supposed to stop and put it back on. It's dangerous. She could have hurt herself and the other player."

By the time I said "stop," the woman was yelling again. Then she says:

"You know what?" *sticks her fingers in her ears* "LALALALALALA" 

And THEN she says, "Forget it. I'm mature. I'm not having this conversation."

Seriously.

I'm like, "Okay, yeah, that's mature." I turn back to watch the game. She keeps yelling at me, and I know I should have just kept my mouth shut at that point, but I couldn't help it. I was still operating under the delusion that I could make her understand that it was the rule, that's all. I don't even remember what either of us said, but she let the F word fly at the top of her lungs.

The stands erupted around me. I told her to watch her mouth. Several other parents scolded her. She yelled at them. The woman behind me said her child was sitting right there and she didn't deserve to be subject to that. My mild-mannered husband, who probably had been fairly unaware of the exchange before that, told her this was a family environment. She went quiet for a minute, then complained that apparently profanity is a felony.

I was lucky this was an informal, indoor event, and the ref was on the other side of the wall. If it had been a league game outdoors, the line judge probably would have thrown us both out. As it was, she subsided completely for ten or so blessed minutes before she started complaining about the fouls. Never mind that every time two players got in the same space, no matter what they did or didn't do, the ref blew a foul on us.

We won, 2-0.

My sister-in-law assured me that she had my back, that she wouldn't let that woman attack me. I'm pretty sure I could have taken her if she had, but you never know. I haven't been in a fistfight since middle school.

Have you ever suddenly found yourself in a confrontation? How did you handle it?

Birdbrains

I like birds. Back when I was getting a degree in geography and environmental studies, I had an internship at a nature center in Michigan. We had a barred owl named Joey that we used for educational programs. I nursed an American kestrel back to health and saved a batch of baby blue jays. One of the happiest parts of my winter is watching the juncos foraging outside my window.

But birds are sometimes the stupidest creatures I've ever seen.

A couple of years ago, we had a fledgling male robin that flung itself against the picture window in our basement. Repeatedly. We'd hear a tap, go peek around the corner, and there he'd be, fluttering up to the picnic table and launching himself at the center of the window. Then he'd fall to the ground and rap his beak against the glass, hard, a few times before starting again. He did this over and over and over, for hours, and it went on for weeks. The window was filthy. Some of the dirt smears were wing-shaped. He eventually stopped, after he got old enough for us to tell that he was male. I figure he got brain damage and couldn't find his way back.

Fast forward a couple of years. I'm sitting in my office, and I hear that distinctive thud-click. Thud-click. I go peek around the corner, wondering if our robin is back, and guess what? No! It's a CARDINAL this time. He flies at the window half a dozen times and stops, and he always stops when we go peek. So I guess he's a *little* smarter than the robin.

I had to do a term paper on starlings for my ornithology class in college. I was so proud of myself when I figured out that they wiped their beaks on the branches of the trees to scrape off the dirt from digging for worms and bugs. I got that paper published in The Student Scholar. So I'm not completely ignorant when it comes to birds. I assume these guys are trying to court or attack their reflections or something, but I can't figure out why it never stops.

Anyone out there a birdwatcher with some insight into this?

Book History

Last night, I had some time. I know, right?! I'd finished Shattered Glass, had no client work pending, had made huge progress on a friend's project, finished the CSS registration, and had a couple of hours before meeting a friend for a movie. So I decided to pull out my master book history spreadsheet and update it.

YIKES. I hadn't updated it in years! It was really interesting to see my accomplishments all in one place. And transfer all the rejections I hadn't logged for each title. But also the sales! Those are always fun. :)

So here are my stats. I've written 22 complete books and 28 short stories and novellas. I also have 3 completed partials (3 chapters and a synopsis of books that I may or may not ever finish) and 7 "started" books. Those include my first book (which I aborted and split the idea into 3 books, only one of which got completed), 2 sequels that will never be completed, 2 sequels that will be eventually, and two new books that I just haven't had time to get back to.

Of all of those, I have had 13 of the novels published or contracted, and self-published one. 24 of the shorts have been published. Not too shabby. :)

Now I have to update my master character sheet. I'm five titles behind! Though by now some crossover, especially in the secondary characters, is inevitable, it's still nice to be able to check it and say "hey, I'd better change the heroine's name because..."

I started writing this at 7ish last night. I had to do some auction coordination and other promotional stuff, and kept going back and forth between things, so I didn't finished until ten after 8, and there's no way I'd get that character sheet done in 20 minutes! So I had to add it to the to-do list. It's of no benefit if it's incomplete, right? (Even if I haven't looked at it in *mumble* years.)

Reasons to be Gleeful on Wednesday

1. I'm home!
After a stressful week two weeks ago, I'd wanted to take an extra day off. Wednesday is my least busy day at work, so my boss let me take today off, just to catch up on stuff. So I didn't have to get up and get ready for work, and my day is mine to do with as I please! The best part is that I'm home tomorrow, too!

2. Things are Going Well
I got up early anyway, because I couldn't sleep. So I ended up putting a novel draft into a binder so I can work on edits when I'm away from the computer, and I FINALLY OH MY GOD cleaned out my supplies cubby. For YEARS it's just been a mess of things tossed into it. Oh, I had organizers. They were kind of stacked on top of each other, under and on top of the mess. I pulled everything out and sorted it all, trashing trash and separating clips by type and putting all paper goods in one tray and so on. I had to go to the store to get a shelf so I could maximize the space, and then I had to take some tools to the shelf so I could force it to fit, but everything is in there!

I wish I had a before picture, but here's the after:

I also set up my blog post for Everybody Needs a Little Romance on Friday, and visited some other cool blogs, and did some RWA stuff. As soon as I'm done with this, it will be time to eat lunch and then on to the WRITING! I'm determined to finish Shattered Glass today. Then tonight I'm going to a movie with a friend.

3. The Plan is Working
I've written every day for six days in a row. That hasn't happened since the beginning of September! And now I have momentum, and I won't let anything interfere with it as long as I can. :) 

4. The Whole Shebang has launched.
Misty Simon and Vicky Burkholder have started a new blog to celebrate creativity of all kinds. They'll feature novels in The Library, art in The Gallery, and music in The Jukebox. They've already got an amazing lineup of guests scheduled and have started some of their regular columns. Go check it out! I know you'll want to subscribe. :)

5. Under the Moon was a Daily Deal.
Okay, that happened two weeks ago. But it went to number 1 in three different categories and up to 54 on the Kindle Top 100 list. I was above JK Rowling. Briefly. :) The book's ranking is still good, and the hoped-for aftereffects are trickling in. I had three Authorgraph requests this week, on Amazon there were four fantastic new reviews for the book, and the number of shelves that Heavy Metal, the sequel, is on are growing. Plenty of reasons to be excited!

5. More Things are About to Happen
That's not a tease. I have no reason to believe it's a true statement. But sometimes, when things are going well, it creates a sense of optimistic anticipation that, if I'm lucky, will open up a flood of great new events.

What are your reasons to be gleeful this Wednesday?

Getting Back to What Works

Isn't it ridiculous how otherwise smart people can "forget" how to be successful?

It's not always true. (Warning: The following might sound like bragging. A little.) Last fall, I lost 17 pounds by counting calories. I don't remember exactly when I stopped logging and calculating the calories for everything I ate, but I just didn't want to do it through the holidays. I needed a break. I tried to keep my portions manageable and not go overboard on the holiday goodies. Surprise, surprise, when I got on the scale a couple of weeks ago, I was exactly where I'd been when I stopped! No gain!

Of course, maintaining is not losing. I want 13 more gone by my writers retreat in mid-May, so I started counting again.

The bigger struggle is writing. I hoped the new year would bring a little more balance, but I've still been swamped by the day job, freelance work, stuff with the kids, volunteer (though minimal) and promotional activities, etc., and I wind up too tired to write every day. And that's even without watching TV for like six weeks!

I've been beating myself up over my lack of discipline/dedication/time management skills. And then I read this post by Liz Talley. She didn't really say anything I hadn't already known, but her advice to turn to your support group kind of slapped me in the face.

I *have* a support group. I've had them for six years. But things have changed since we first set up to hold each other accountable, and we've been very lax in 2013 about checking in with each other about writing. So I revved us up. Now I have people to report to, and that gives me a little bit more push.

The other thing I needed to do was set more concrete goals. I always have goals, and I always track production, but I'd gotten a little vague on that to start the year. So I pulled up last year's spreadsheet, thinking I'd set a goal to beat my word count total for the corresponding month in 2012. January was 8,428, so that's very doable. But May was 24,454, and August was 35,900. Not stellar, but pretty high. What if those are months I have to do revisions for my publisher? Being that direct was going to be too restrictive.

So I calculated an average for the year. Since October had 0 new words (god, I don't think that's happened in YEARS), it ended up being a decent 15,414. So that's my goal for each month, to write at least that many words.

Since I'm already halfway through January, I wasn't sure I could do it this month. But I broke it down, and needed 800 words a day. Whew! That's less than my daily goal has been! (Never mind that I double my daily goal one day, then do nothing for three days.) Thank god for Thursdays. Today I wrote over 2,600 words, so now I only need 600 per day for the monthly goal. I will hopefully do more, because that's how it works. You meet a particular count, but only need 200 more to reach, say, 1,000, and then you're on a roll so you keep going, and it's almost 1,500 so keep going a little...

Now I have to do 2 client projects and cook dinner and hit the volunteer stuff, try to go to bed at a decent hour, and stick my determined chin in the air for my goal tomorrow, which is a day job day and a soccer game night and...

No more excuses.

I Love This Freakin' Show

I liked David Silver on Beverly Hills 90210 (the original, obviously). But I didn't love Brian Austin Green until he played Derek Reese on The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I loved his character so much, I was glad they'd canceled the show when they shot him in the head in the finale. I didn't want to watch it without him.

I'll admit that I couldn't handle watching Happy Endings, not even for the few episodes BAG was on. But then Gabe Tigerman tweeted several time about his wife's new show, Wedding Band. I love Gabe. He's a sweet guy and a funny actor, and he sat and chatted with us in the bar at the Supernatural convention for a really long time. One of the reasons we fell in love with him then was because he was so giddy over his wife. So I checked out Wedding Band to see if it was something I'd like to watch. And found that Brian Austin Green is the star! Hell, yeah, it's a show I want to watch!

And you know what? It's really awesome! It may be the show I'm most excited to see every week. Not just because of BAG. The band has four members, all different characters but who fit together believably. They're not caricatures. Yes, the lead singer is a playboy and the drummer is kind of schlubby, but they're smart and hard-working and they really love what they do. But most of all, they care about people. They've helped a couple of dorks get the attention of the girls they crushed on. Arranged a pre-meet for a very nervous Indian bride and groom the night before their arranged marriage. And risked their careers turning a divorce party into a renewal of vows ceremony for the couple whose wedding was their first gig as a band 7 years ago.

The writing is, of course, what makes it so great. The characters are complex, the plotlines interesting and/or fun, and there's plenty of humor. The raunch is held in check, and situations never devolve into ridiculousness.

My only quibble is part of a subplot that had Tommy (BAG) going to a romance book club to meet women. He really got into the books and there were ongoing clever jokes about them, but I didn't like some of the details that were clearly poking fun at romances, lines written by people who obviously don't read them.

If you're looking for light entertainment on a Saturday night, check it out and let me know what you think!

Under the Moon is a Daily Deal!

Amazon has chosen Under the Moon to be today's Romance Daily Deal. You can get it for only 99 CENTS! But only today! http://amzn.to/XgSpdM

Mini Me—Except She's Taller

It's a running joke in our family that Number One is a duplicate of me in a lot of ways, both superficial and substantial. The superficial ones are funny. During family conversations and sporting events and while watching TV, we'll often say the same thing in the same way. Just now, watching the playoffs, we both went "Ooh, niiiiice." Same duration, same tone. Her father and sister comment on it every time.

Last night, she had a craving for a burger with onions, so they got McDonald's. A while later, her father spotted her set-aside plate with one bite of hamburger on it. He said something about it, and she said she didn't know why, she just can't eat the last bite of a sandwich.

Her father gave me a significant, exasperated look and said, "I'm quite familiar with that."

Yeah. I never eat the last bite of a sandwich/burger/whatever that I haven't made myself.

We have different reasons for this. When I was a kid, we had a grinder restaurant next door. The ginders often had tiny bits of gristle or bone, and that made me gag. So for decades, I'd stop eating my sub/burger/sandwich if I hit something gross. If I got all the way through without a problem and had just one more bite, it felt like tempting fate. I couldn't make myself eat it.

Number One said the last bite feels like she's stuffing her mouth, which makes her feel like she's stuffing her stomach, which makes her feel a little sick. So she can't do that last bite, no matter how small.

How weird are we?

Launching 2013 the Right Way

Ways I Started 2013 Off Right

1. I cleaned my office, including filing and pending paperwork, so I have a fresh, uncluttered area to work in.

2. I wrote down the mileage on my car on the first day, instead of the 7th (last year) or in March (all the years before that).

3. I moved a year and a half worth of pictures from the camera to my hard drive, and backed them up. (Alas, I did not label and file them all yet.)

4. I put my laundry away as I did it!

5. I did all my tax prep and handed it over!

6. I blogged!

Ways I Intend to Continue Starting 2013 Off Right but Haven't Yet Because I'm Blogging Here First

1. Cover reveal for Heavy Metal. I'm going to do this on the News page of my website as soon as I'm done posting here. Well, after I send a newsletter. Those loyal subscribers deserve first look, right? :) Anyway, go check it out! It's possibly my favorite cover yet.

2. Writing! I want to finish Shattered Glass soon, the first novella in the Goddesses Rising series (not yet acquired for publication, FYI), so I can get Soulflight done soon after.

3. More Firefly, though I probably can't talk Number Two into it. She's loving the show, but there's tennis on today. For five hours.

4. Getting to bed at a decent hour. I'm not sure number 1 is conducive to number 4, but we'll see.

5. Self-evaluation! Which really means just boring the heck out of you guys. You can stop here if you want to.

Words Written:
2011 = 129,194
2012 = 185,125

Wow. That's kind of a surprise. I stopped tracking words created during revisions back in March because it was driving me nuts and slowing me down. I wonder how I did in 2010... (166,606)

I'd like to go for 200,000 in 2013, but there are too many factors affecting it. I'll probably be doing more revision than writing in the first half of the year.

Freelance Work
I know this was wayyyy up in 2012, but I don't want to take the time to add it all up. So let's just say I worked a lot. :)

Books Read
2011:
  92 books read (61 e-book, 14 hardcover, 11 mass market, 6 trade paperback)
  26 started and not finished
2012:
  97 books read (62 e-book, 20 hardcover, 9 mass market, 6 trade paperback)
  20 started and not finished

The books completed include short stories and novellas. They don't match up with my Goodreads shelves, because those might include whole anthologies while my spreadsheet lists the stories separately if I only read some of them.

It's interesting that I read more hardcover this year. I think because I did more young adult that I shared with my kids, and more library books.

Movies Watched
2011 = 47 (one on DVD I didn't finish [Extract], 21 on DVD, 8 on Netflix streaming, 2 on Starz during a free promotion, and 16 in the theater)

2012 = 33 (10 on DVD, 23 in the theater)

Part of the reason...well, probably the whole reason for the drop is the cancellation of Netflix when we cut expenses. It's worth mentioning that the numbers include Thor twice in 2011 and The Avengers three times in 2012. :)

TV on DVD or streaming
In 2011 I watched Supernatural season 5, and then seasons 1 and 2 again. I also rewatched Firefly and watched Justified season 1 before season 2 began. It's possible I failed to track some things, because that seems awfully light.

In 2012 I watched Entourage season 7, rewatched Supernatural seasons 5 and 6, rewatched Doctor Who seasons 1–3 before we canceled Netflix, and Suburgatory season 1 as my "should have tried that last year" show. I also added Firefly, though we have a few eps to go.

So that's my year(s) in review! This year I'm going to record when I read or watched stuff, because I'm curious when my busiest months are, and when I have more time to read/watch. It will also be interesting to see if I can increase both my writing and my reading, without decreasing my day job or freelance hours. :)

Okay, if you read this far, thank you! And wishing you the best year ever in 2013. *mwah!*

Penultimate Day of 2012

I'm always sad when December 30th-ish gets here. The football season is (almost) officially over (not counting the playoffs, and the last game is being played right now). I have one more "extra" day off with New Year's Day, and then no holidays until MAY. That's always freaking depressing.

It's also a long, dark stretch with no good movies most years. And then, of course, there's the weather.

This has been a good weekend, though. A nice snowfall yesterday, enough to look great but not require TOO much shoveling. The Patriots won and Houston lost, so my guys get a much-needed week of rest on wild-card weekend. I got some writing done, and we went to the movies Friday night.

I wasn't that excited about seeing The Hobbit. I loved Lord of the Rings SO much, and The Hobbit felt like a weak second act. Plus, it's been so long since Return of the King, and my obsession was completely cured. But I also felt like I had to see it, and Number One and her father really wanted to, so we went while Number Two was at a sleepover.

And it was really great! I loved the ties to Lord of the Rings (which were really ties from LotR to The Hobbit) and since I hadn't been reading much about the film, I was surprised by a couple of the cameos. I came home and had to watch Fellowship again. Which was great, except that I can no longer watch the council scene without thinking of Jack Black and his "special" ring at the MTV movie awards...

On Tuesday I might go see Silver Linings Playbook. I'd wanted to go on my birthday, but it wasn't playing here yet. Part of me doesn't want to see it, because of the mental illness storyline and the Philadelphia Eagles. But I love Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence and I hear it's got a lot of humor. So I'll probably go.

There are other things to look forward to. Some way off (Star Trek and my writing retreat in May, various book releases spread out over the next six months or more), some very close (I'll reveal the cover of Heavy Metal this week!). And of course, there's the year-end round up and preparation for the new year. Spreadsheets galore! LOL

What are you looking forward to most in 2013?

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Thanks to Misty Simon for tagging me in The Next Big Thing blog hop, way back on December 3rd. I'm late, but I had to get through the previous two blog hops first! :) So go see what Misty had to say about her WIP, and here's mine:
 
What is your working title of your book?
Shattered Glass

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I wanted to do some novellas to fit in between the books in my Goddesses Rising trilogy. Alana and Chloe, two secondary characters who appear or are mentioned in each book of the trilogy, were logical choices to find their own happy endings.

What genre does your book fall under?
It's a paranormal romance, though the paranormal element has a smaller impact on the story than it does in the full-length books.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I really suck at casting my characters. I never picture anyone in particular for them. They're completely unique people, most of the time. Who's a quiet, pretty, average-looking actress and a smooth, yet sincere lawyer type actor? :)

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
It's been a long time since Alana was so attracted to a guy, and the attorney for the Society for Goddess Education and Defense is hard to turn down—a huge mistake, when she discovers there's no way to keep her dangerous secret and have a healthy relationship.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?It's not contracted yet, but I hope it will be published by Entangled Publishing sometime next year.
 
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?Still working on it! Due to other deadlines, it's already been way too long.
 
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?Comparisons give me almost as much trouble as character casting does!
 
Who or what inspired you to write this book?Originally, I was inspired by the writers of the TV show Supernatural and the relationship between the brothers on that show. Shattered Glass doesn't have anything to do with that direct inspiration, but is an extension of it through the series. Credit has to go to my editors, Kerri-Leigh and Liz, who suggested filling in the gaps between novels with short pieces.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?Sports fans might appreciate their first date, at a pro football game. The heart of Alana and Shane's conflict is her fear that he can't care about her the way she is, rather than the way he perceives her.
 
The writers I'm tagging are:
Paula Altenburg
Michele de Winton
Decca Price
Patrice Luneski


Look for their posts the week of December 31!

Rules of The Next Big Thing

***Use this format for your post
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress)
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Today is My Last Day Being 41

First, thank you to EVERYONE who participated in the holiday blog hops for the last two weeks. Congratulations to Carla H. and Kimberly H., the winners from this blog. Stay tuned, opportunities always arise.

NEXT! In case you didn't see my social media blitz on Thursday, I have a new book out! If You Believe in Me is a Christmas short story from Entangled Flirts.

Three years ago, Amber Benedict fell in love with Kale Riker and pledged to wait for him to return from military service. Even though she rarely hears from him, she’s steadfast in her belief: he’s coming home to her, and soon. Then the government tells Kale’s family that he’s missing in action, and the Rikers have given him up for dead. Now the entire town is set on convincing Amber to let go of a dead man and move on.

Amber is certain Kale is still alive and on his way home, but can she hold out against an entire town pushing her to give up on love?

If You Believe in Me
by Natalie J. Damschroder
Contemporary Romance Short Story
Entangled Publishing, 2012
ISBN 13: 978-1-62266-869-4


Purchase From:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Tomorrow I turn 42, and I can't wait. I'm really tired of the number 41. I never felt "old" until I read a local newspaper article about my writer's group back in April. They quoted me with "...says Natalie J. Damschroder, 41, who..." That number looked ugly in print.

But 42! Is not ugly! In fact, it's the answer to life, the universe, and everything, is it not? I know they never figured out the question, but maybe *I'm* the question!

Okay, that's getting too deep. In more ways than one. Moving on.

Forty-one was not a bad year for me. I just like even numbers better, I guess. Since my birthday is so close to the end of December, my personal year coincides with the calendar year. It's a nice way to keep things organized. I skipped my annual round-up post for 2011, so prepare to be bored out of your mind, as I gather TWO sets of data in a week or two. You've been warned!

We celebrate birthdays seriously around here. Not flamboyantly, but with intent. Tonight we went to dinner, because tomorrow my husband's NFL team plays a late game and his family always comes over to watch. My game is at 1:00, and so is the kids' soccer game. So they're getting me pecan pancakes from Cracker Barrel for breakfast, then I'll open presents, then they'll clean for the guests, then we'll do soccer, then I'll watch my football game in the bedroom while they cook dinner for the inlaws, then I'll probably do some writing* while their game finishes, and if I'm lucky, we'll get to watch more Firefly**! Sounds pretty good, right?

*Who am I kidding? If I get the bookstore gift cards that I ASKED FOR, I'll be shopping, not writing! LOL)

**We have indoctrinated Number Two into the cult of Firefly. We forced her to watch the first episode, and she liked it. So she said okay when we asked her to watch the next two. Then she asked to watch an episode on a school night! She didn't like Shindig as much, so she's resisting my push to make her watch Safe tonight. I think once we get to Jaynestown, there will be no more coercion necessary.

On Monday, I have The Next Big thing posting, thanks to being tagged by Misty Simon before my blog hops. Then it's CHRISTMAS! For all of my readers who celebrate, please have a very happy, safe, fun holiday.

For everyone else, keep the non-apocalypse party going!

Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop

I love giving and getting gifts, but the older I get, the harder it seems. Especially for my family and friends who live far away. I don't know what they already have, what they want, or what kind of gift would just be lame.

So I fall back on gift cards a lot. A LOT. Amazon, iTunes, VISA, a grocery store near my loved one, Target or WalMart, specialty websites, even gas cards for the new car owners. It never feels personal or exciting enough. So why do I keep doing it?

Because I love getting them! It's not just the joy of possibility that's opened up when you tear off the wrapping. It's also the joy of shopping without guilt! Getting something I might never have bought for myself, or at least not right now. Bookstore gift cards are the best. I always have a long wish list, so those get eaten up pretty fast.

More general cards are good, too. I rarely shop for clothes, but give me a department store or mall gift card for my birthday, and I can't wait to get to the after-holiday sales. :) A gift card for our local grocery store means I might get stuff that doesn't have coupons, or fill my entire tank of gas without getting depressed by the number on the screen.

So I figure if I love gift cards this much, they must be a pretty good gift, right? What do you think?

I'm giving one lucky winner a copy of both books that have been released in my Soul series of paranormal romance, Soul of the Dragon and Souflight. Once the giveaway is over, I'll contact the winner to determine preferred format. Go to the bottom of this post for entry information, and
click the image at the top of the post to go to the main giveaway page, where you can register for the Kindle Fire giveaway. Use the link(s) below to visit other hop participants, all of whom are offering prizes! :)

http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=211362

Thanks for participating


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entangled Under the Mistletoe Blog Hop

  Don’t forget to check out what the other authors participating in the hop are giving away!
I'm so excited to have my first holiday story coming out this week. If You Believe in Me is an Entangled Flirt, the first short story I've had released in a couple of years.

This is also the first story I've done in a very long time that's a straight contemporary romance. Usually, I have some kind of adventure or suspense plot, heroes and heroines chasing bad guys, the risk of death.

Well, okay, this one doesn't escape that completely. Kale Riker is deep in black ops, struggling to get through one final mission in time to get home for Christmas. The guns and heat and sand and bad guys aren't typical Christmas scenery.

But back home, we've got a small-town heroine immersing herself in the spirit of Christmas, helping run the Breakfast with Santa for underprivileged kids and taking elderly friends for last-minute shopping, not to mention cooking, donating, and preparing every minute of the day. Not that it's helping keep her mind off Kale, the love of her life, who's been missing for six months and whose parents have given up on ever seeing him again...

(Don't worry. What would a reunion romance be without the happy ending? Especially at Christmas!)

Check back here for more information! In the meantime, you can enter my giveaway for a free copy of the story! And don't forget to click the link above to see the other posts and giveaways! Have fun!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

More (Probably Way Too Many) Thoughts on Change

I just read a great blog post by Laura Drake, and equally great comments, over at Writer Unboxed. As often happens, it sparked a lot of thoughts and rather than hijack the comments with my own opinions, I decided to bring them home. After all, that's why I have this blog in the first place! So I can listen to myself talk! LOL

Here's the background:

RWA is Romance Writers of America, a national organization that is exactly what its name suggests: an organization created for writers of romance in the United States of America. It has a very specific charter defining the purpose of the organization, and is obligated to stay close to that charter in order to maintain its nonprofit status with the IRS. RWA chapters are also required to stick to the purpose of the umbrella organization, because RWA's nonprofit status extends to us—and trust me, we want to keep it that way! :)

RWA is one of the very few writers organizations that allows unpublished members and doesn't (currently) require us to prove anything. A group of 12,000 people tends to evolve in certain ways, and periodically, RWA is forced to haul its policies and practices back in line, almost always in response to adjustments in IRS regulations or attention.

Several years ago, the romance genre burst out in different directions. Chick lit, adventure, fantasy, and urban fantasy all took off. But the more you add to a story, the less "focused" it might become. All of those stories had romance in them but stretched certain conventions of the genre. The heroine might have multiple romantic interests over time, or the romance may be a smaller part of the story. RWA members found homes for these books by creating chapters focused on certain subgenres (like the Women's Fiction chapter discussed in the post linked above) and by adding categories to the genre's top contests.

This year, RWA's board decided to remove the Novel with Romantic Elements categories from those contests and eventually notified chapters that their bylaws must match RWA's: "To advance the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy . . .”

Laura's description of the WF chapter's decision made me very happy. (I really encourage you to read that post, but essentially, they've elected to disband under RWA's umbrella but continue in a new incarnation outside of it.) So often when something like this occurs, the response is purely negative, even acrimonious. When we heard that the young adult category of the contests would require the entered books to contain a romance, many comments were along the lines of "how dare RWA dictate what I can put in my books!"

But that's the thing. RWA doesn't dictate anything. The organization doesn't tell readers what to read or publishers what they can publish, and it doesn't tell writers what to write. There is nothing wrong with an author or group of authors deciding RWA doesn't meet their needs. I just don't understand why, when that happens, there's so much hostility toward the organization for being what it is instead of what the individual or group of individuals wants it to be.

Look at it this way. Chiropractors and nurses work in the medical field and serve a similar purpose to medical doctors in keeping people healthy. But do they attack the American Medical Association, calling them names and accusing them of nefarious intentions because they aren't allowed to join? No! They created their own organizations to meet their own needs, instead!

I think RWA makes it too easy for us. They do their job—providing opportunities for networking and advocacy—so well that we get lazy. We "find our people" and don't want to let go of them, so when our personal needs deviate from the boundaries of the organization, we want to change them to fit us instead of clearing our own place in the world.

It takes very special people with unique traits to be able to do that kind of clearing. To have the strength and dedication and passion to work that hard and face the challenges that come with it. The founding members of RWA had that. Perhaps the members of the Women's Fiction chapter and their leadership have it, too. I think the publishing world can only benefit from having more organizations dedicated to specific groups of writers and the genres in which they write. Let's use RWA as a template instead of a target. It can only strengthen us all!

The Christmas Season May Now Officially Begin

Two things happened this weekend that allow me to finally get in the holiday mood!

I say "finally," but really, with this year's calendar, everything is earlier than usual. I refused to let my husband play Christmas music in the car on Thanksgiving, and I steadfastly ignored all references until this weekend.

So what happened that "allows" me to feel it?

The first Saturday of December is always my Central PA Romance Writers holiday party. It forces one member (this year the fantastic Misty Simon) to decorate and clean so she can host us all. She did a fantastic job, especially considering she's got to travel in two days! Then 20-25 of us come and hang out, mingle, talk, and eat great food. We also do a small gift exchange. I'm sooo happy with the one I got! It was like Delynn Royer put it together specifically for me. It's everything I need for a cozy night of writing: two pairs of really warm, fuzzy socks, truffles, hot cocoa, and a tiny bottle of Kalhua, my favorite liqueur. Tiny so I can't get too drunk to write. :)

The other event was cutting down our Christmas tree.

Sticker Shock!

We've been going to one tree farm since shortly after Number One was born. Once in a while we'll get a pre-cut tree from the Boy Scouts or the local fire department, but this was likely the last year that Number One would be with us to choose it, and she wanted to cut it.

We take a hay ride out into the tree fields, hiking up and down muddy hills until we find a great tree. It didn't take us long this year, once we stopped searching for lower price tags and started looking at the actual trees.

At least this one wasn't $84!

Our final choice—nice shape!

Evidence of Number Two's hard "work" cutting the trunk.

Her father's evidence of REAL work.

Number One tries to cut off excess limbs.

Hauling the tree back down the hill.

After a very comical session of "tie the tree to the roof and climb in through the windows" and hot sausages, hot dogs, and hot cocoa from the catering truck, we drove verrrry slowwwwly back home. Success! Tree stayed on the car!

Now our house smells wonderful. We haven't decorated yet, but that's part of the fun of the early weeks of the season. That, and getting serious about shopping!

Do you have a real or artificial tree? Take the ornaments down, or store the tree in a bag and stick it back in the corner every year? :)

Time to Crack the Whip

Get back to work!

This is my second favorite time of year. Yeah, it's colder, and drearier. We have to rake and clean the gutters (again and again) and after that everything just looks a little bleak.

But it's still football season, and rivalries are heating up. Sundays are exciting. The girls are starting indoor soccer this weekend, which is always fun to watch. And, of course, we have the holidays.


This year, I didn't do NaNoWriMo (could have, but not in a position to start a new book). My freelance work slowed down, and the stream at my day job slowed a little, too, for various reasons. I've drifted through the month, doing what needed to be done but not as much of the non-urgent stuff as I intended.

That's got to change.

I did start Christmas shopping early, so that part isn't going to be heavy pressure, as long as I don't get cocky. :) After losing 17 pounds I got lazy and stopped counting calories, but I've still paid attention and haven't gained back even a tenth of a pound. I'm going to be vigilant over the holidays but won't worry about budgeting until we get through the difficult period. Difficult meaning I don't want to go to author lunches and family meals and parties and spend the whole time going, "do you know how many calories are in this dip?" Moderation is the rule, with a focus on not eating when I'm not hungry. More challenging with patients keep bringing in cookies, so there's one whip to be cracked.

Another is productivity. I'm struggling with my time management. Like yesterday, we had a staff meeting after work, so by the time I got home I had just enough time to do the dishes and put away my laundry before I had to go pick up Number Two at school. Then I went to the gym with Number One, came home, took a quick shower, made dinner, ate, had to go back to the school to pick up Market Day (a grocery fundraiser for the schools). By the time I got my client work done, it was after 9:00 p.m. I have to figure out what I'm going to do with that. Get up earlier, force myself to work later and hope it's not dreck because of temporary brain death, or push myself to do one page here, a paragraph there. That's always easier when you're writing fresh and can take it anywhere, though. When you're editing, you have to keep details straight, and get into the world of the story, and be locked to your computer. Minutes at a time aren't very efficient.

But where I really need to crack the whip is in the story itself. I'm working on two. In one, I don't think the big breach is serious enough. I keep going back, but until this very second haven't hit on the solution. It just hit me that I have the problem occurring too early. I just need to move it to a little later, and I think it will work out perfectly. I can stop struggling to create conflict and it will happen more naturally. Yay!

The other project is Soulflight, which was written and set aside long ago. Unlike book 1 in The Soul Series, Soul of the Dragon, I haven't updated this book several times over the years. So it needs a lot of updating.

I thought going into it that it would just mean tweaking technology references and stuff, and that's how I started. But I'm not going far enough. The fact that YouTube didn't exist then and plays such a huge role in our lives now means it is integral to the plot.

So I need to get tough and not take the easy way out, trying to fit the pieces that are there into the new reality. No, I have to dig in there and put a lot more pressure on my heroine. She has to be more afraid, more in danger, more desperate. I've always struggled with making things challenging for my characters, but now that I know what I have to do, it feels better.

So I'd better get back to it!

Is there anything you need to be harder on yourself about right now?

Fall TV 2012

I haven't picked up too many new shows this season, and I've already dropped a couple that I started.

1. The Failures
I watched the first episode of Partners. It was eh. I like the actors, but it just wasn't fresh enough. Also tried The New Normal, and got a few weeks into that one. But I got tired of the "issue of the week" preaching. I don't watch sitcoms to have a message pounded into my head, especially one ("everyone has valid points, even, or especially, if they don't think the way you do") that I already hold. We tried Last Resort, which had potential but would get kind of weird at odd moments. We watched 2 episodes of that, I think, and had 4 or 5 recorded when we heard they'd canceled it. So I dropped that off our season pass.

We also dropped The Mentalist this year. Bored. Tired of Red John. The end of last season was compelling, but what we loved best about Patrick Jane in early seasons was gone. We've had conflicts timing-wise with other shows, so we just deleted it.

2. The Successes
Arrow has to top the list. It's not super-fantastic, but somehow, it's the show that I think about most during the week. I love the potential I see in it, for all the people around him to join his crusade. I do want it to expand beyond the list in his book, which it seems like it's already doing. Flashbacks have been all the rage since Lost, but these are intriguing. I want to know how he got the way he is, especially from such a ridiculously opposite extreme.

I'm also enjoying Revolution. Number Two is loving it, too. It's her replacement for Terra Nova. :) Charlie's forehead does a lot of independent acting, but either I'm getting used to it, or she's getting a little more subtle. It's not her fault, really, that she has fifty more muscles in that section of her face than the rest of us do. :) Billy Burke has been a revelation for me. I wasn't excited to hear about his casting, but he's been tremendous as Miles. And if I hadn't already been hooked, they'd have had me with Colin Ford a couple of weeks ago, as the second-in-command to a group of kids left on their own after the militia murdered all their parents. Yes, this is a dark show.

So it's good that Go On is not! I mean, yeah, it's about a guy whose wife died, who's so depressed he was forced to join a support group, but it's FUNNY! I think the cast has good chemistry, and the characters are just quirky enough to keep us entertained without being silly or unreal. You've got to love Matthew Perry, of course, to love the show, and luckily, I do. :)

The other new show I just picked up is Wedding Band on TBS. Gabe Tigerman, who played Andy on Supernatural, had tweeted that his wife is in the show. I have a soft spot for him after he sat with us for hours in the hotel bar at the first NJ Salute to Supernatural convention, and as an author seeking an audience, I get how hard it is for a show like that to get a toehold. Still, I didn't get serious about watching it until I saw that Brian Austin Green was the lead. Yeah, there's nostalgia for my young adult days with Beverly Hills 90210, but really, I fell for BAG when he was on The Sarah Connor Chronicles. His character is MUCH different, which makes me sad (I miss the moody, intense man of action), but I enjoyed the pilot and think it's a keeper.

3. The Rest
So many returning shows! I won't blah blah blah about all of them. The older ones I'm routinely enjoying, if not dying to get to every week, are How I Met Your Mother, Bones, Hawaii 5-O, New Girl, Fringe, Glee, Covert Affairs, Once Upon a Time and Big Bang Theory. Nothing revelatory in any of those.

Revenge isn't quite as tight and satisfying as last season, but my boss and I are still eager to discuss it every week. It's fun to try to figure out motivations, and I'm enjoying Emily's new softness, her recognition that she can be merciful and compassionate. Of course, then she makes a guy confess to murder and go to jail, but no one changes overnight.

Haven is probably my most compelling show right now. The ticking clock has definitely upped the suspense. The look on Nathan's face every time Audrey touches him still kills me—but I admit, with not a small amount of guilt, that Duke's "friendship" with her has me by the throat. Gotta love a delicious love triangle. I like Jordan (but not too much) and the shrink (love her!), too. Nice to have some balance, gender-wise.

Nikita and Castle top my list, too. They've twisted everything up and made it fresh, which means both are still very compelling. On Nikita, the turnaround on Division has given them some new kinds of cases and new relationships, while on Castle, having Rick and Kate together has been fantastic. It's so awesome to see her *happy*, and him in love. And the secondary cast is as great as always. 

Then there's Supernatural, of course. I'm on the fence about it. There's a lot that I love—Cas, Benny, Mrs. Tran, Crowley, Garth, the Big New Goal—but I'm disappointed in the writers for slapping on a conflict that makes no sense, just to keep "tension" between the brothers. Having them acting out of character to give them something to be mad about is SOOOOOOOOOOOO tedious compared to previous seasons' tension due to their deep, disastrous brotherly love and mutual drive to save the world. After 7 years, can't they just be brothers? Can't they start to heal?

We're on Doctor Who hiatus, but I thought they did a fantastic job with Rory and Amy's exit, as much as it broke my heart. I LOVED the actress/character from the season opener, so I'm sure I'll love the new companion, too, even though she's a different character. I don't know if the big storyline that they've only teased will be as huge and fantastic as in the previous two seasons, but it's got me hooked.

I'm probably forgetting something somewhere. What shows are top of your list this season?

News and More News!

So things have been (still, despite my best intentions) very quiet around here. We had some good guest blog posts (check them out below) with more to come. But *I* haven't had very much to say, have I?

But it's not like I haven't been up to anything! There's so much neeeewwwwwsssss!

1. Trip to Boston
Part of the reason for no new posts is travel and the pressure that puts on your work schedule. I took Number One to Boston for a couple of college visits. Very successful trip! On the way home, we stopped at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. Partly because I can't go to eastern Massachusetts without stopping. Partly because she's never been. So we peeked through the gate and shopped in the pro shop and ate in CBS Scene. Of course, the Patriots were in London, so there was no chance of a glimpse of anyone. *sigh*

2. New Website
I have been in dire need of a new website for a long time. What I had was clean and could be navigated without too much confusion, but it was also dull and had become cumbersome over the years. I had to change my hosting to a WordPress-friendly product, which took down my old site, so I've had to rebuild fairly quickly. I'm taking a class while I do it, and I keep finding myself tweaking links and HTML and CSS and looking up an hour later. See what you think!

3. The Soul Series
I've also started self-publishing the "series of my heart." Many of you have heard the term "book of your heart." That's something they tell new authors to write. Not to write to trends, or what you think you should, but the book that's residing deep in your heart. All of my books have been that, but Soul of the Dragon was my first one. There were problems that kept it from being acquired by a publisher. I've revised it over the years to address some of those, but some of the things that keep it from fitting a rigid definition of romance are still there. I hope that doesn't keep people from liking it, but I'd love to hear from anyone who gives it a try. The second book in the series, Soulflight, I hope to have out in a couple of weeks, with the other two books to follow on an undetermined schedule.


4. EPIC's eBook Awards
I was very excited to find out that Acceptable Risks, my most recent romantic adventure from Carina Press, was a finalist in the 2013 EPIC eBook awards. I have stiff competition in the romantic suspense category, and can't wait to see who wins. Check out the full list of finalists here. The winners will be announced in March 2013, at EPICon.

So that's it for now! Tell me what you've been up to, help me catch up!

Speaking of catching up, in a couple of days I'll post my long-overdue thoughts on the new fall TV season. :)

Booksigning at the Paperback Exchange!

Booksigning at the Paperback Exchange!