Ice Bucket Awesomeness

A lot of things go viral. Some of them are silly, like dogs stealing frankfurters or Sweet Brown spawning a new catchphrase. Some are awful, showing the darker side of life or human nature. But some are pure awesomeness.

The Ice Bucket Challenge, a campaign to raise donations for and awareness of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), has been around for a few months. But then friends and family of Pete Frates, a former Boston College baseball player, took up the challenge, and it moved like that virus on the new TV show The Last Ship.

I saw football player Julian Edelman accept the challenge—in the short video, you explain what you're doing and why, dump a bucket of ice over your head (he used a Gatorade sideline "bucket"), and challenge other people. Those people are required by the challenge to comply in 24 hours or make a donation to ALS. Then I heard that the owner of the New York Giants challenged Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, and Bill Belichick, the head coach (who had been challenged by others, too). The other day at practice, the whole team took the challenge and passed it along to the Jets (as did Jimmy Fallon; the Patriots also challenged the Dolphins and Bills). The Jets of course had to one-up them and used a fire hose.

The Kennedys took the challenge as a family, including 86-year-old Ethel Kennedy, who is just awesome. She challenged President Obama, got irritated at her granddaughter for helping her raise the bucket, and dumped it all over herself while wearing a white outfit.


This morning I found out my father-in-law also took it with a couple of his employees, challenging a fellow Gulf terminal.

So this is all fun and stuff, one of those things that penetrates the collective consciousness, brings us all together, and is just amusing to watch, right? Plus, of course, we're all saying "ALS" on a regular basis, because luckily the point of the game hasn't been buried under the friendly competition.

But it turns out to be so much more. According to the ALS Association, they have received—in two weeks!—over $4 million. That's almost four times as much as the same period last year, with three times as many donors. ALS is a 100% fatal disease with little treatment available, so the importance of this awareness and research money can't be underestimated.

[Edited 8/24/24: An article posted 8/19 stated that $15 million had been raised, and then on 8/22 was updated to $53 million. !!! The article also talks about whether the ALSA stands up to scrutiny as a charity.]

So I'll take ubiquitous food pictures and the occasional moronic uproar on social media, because the technology and societal factors that make stupid things possible also help make awesomeness possible, too.

[Edited to go along with the above edit: It is irrelevant if this is "episodic" giving that won't result in repeat donations. That doesn't negate they money and awareness that has been raised already, and I doubt the decline will be to baseline. Also, people DID give to other/additional charities during this viral challenge, and always will. Disasters and fun awareness campaigns help us focus our giving when otherwise it's a blur of noise and desperation making us feel that what we do is never enough. So I'm still all for it! :) ]

Adrenalizing

What do you think of the new look?

If you subscribe to the blog (or are viewing it elsewhere), you have no idea what I'm talking about. Click here and check it out, if you're so inclined. :)

I started blogging originally on LiveJournal, mainly because I thought blogs were a cool way to say what I was thinking without having to bore the people around me. I'm kind of an opinionated person.

*pause for the fake incredulity and sarcasm*

I added a Blogger blog somewhere along the line, because people had their preferred formats. I posted the same thing in both places. Then eventually I let LiveJournal go, mainly because I'd outgrown a lot of the communities I'd kind of become part of. Except one person. Hi, Gail! :) (Gail is awesome, and I will always think of LiveJournal fondly because it made our friendship possible.)

As time went on, "author branding" grew more and more important. Everyone lives online now, and Internet real estate is vital. My writing has coalesced, so that all of my books, however different they may seem on the surface, are similar at their core.

My paranormal romances (Goddesses Rising and the Soul Series) have kick-ass heroes and heroines who are trying to save their world and each other, and some of those people have otherworldly abilities.

My romantic adventures feature kick-ass heroes and heroines who are trying to save their world and each other, but there's nothing paranormal or otherworldly about them.

My YA books are going to be slightly different, in that the same heroine will be the protagonist of many books, and the romance will be stretched out through them. But they're still about teenagers kicking ass and saving the world—while they figure out who the hell they are and how they fit into the world they're saving, of course.

I don't want to import this massive blog to my website, smart as that would be, but the time had come to tie it a little more closely to the rest of my online property. So I renamed it using my author tagline, Love with a Shot of Adrenaline, and changed the template. Climbing a mountain in the rain generates adrenaline, I bet. And the colors tie in to everything else.

You know what else generates adrenaline? Being overworked. It's not something I want to complain about. I'm very happy to have the amount of work I'm doing, and it's of a type I enjoy. But when Monday kicks you hard in the face, and you're like me, that nonstop adrenaline has bad side effects. Like dreaming about work when you're not checking the clock every half hour. And getting your heart flutter back.

My problem is that I care too much. It's not okay that I left work on my desk yesterday, even though I got all the urgent stuff done. It's not okay that I had three client projects in my inbox when I went to bed, even though I have to, you know, at least try to get half a night's sleep. It's definitely not okay when my daily word count doesn't get done, and it's especially not okay when work takes me away from my kids and husband—even if they're doing their own thing and wouldn't be hanging with me even if I wasn't working.

I'm a crusader for pushing my friends to be good to themselves and not beat themselves up for what they don't do, and to be happy with whatever balance they achieve. It's stuff I believe with my entire being.

Except, apparently, for myself. :/

Over on Everybody Needs a Little Romance, we had a recent guest who pulled soul cards (kind of like tarot) for all the commenters. I was floored by what mine said. I taped it over my desk:

Flow

It's time to let go. You're entering a period of gracious ease and flow. All is unfolding perfectly and with good timing. Everything is falling into place because you aren't resisting the drift of the great river of life.

When you're in a state of flow, you aren't pushing the river to go faster, and you aren't swimming against it. You just let go of the shore and enjoy the ride. If you aren't feeling the smooth currents of life, it might mean that you're trying to control situations in your life, or your'e being self-critical or judgmental. The way to move into the flow is through gratitude and appreciation, and by allowing others to support and help you.

I'm trying. Failing more than half the time, but trying!

Movie Lust

I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm a bit bored by TV right now. (Though Franklin and Bash comes back this week, yay! And then the Doctor!) Maybe I need inspiration for my writing. I don't know. But I've been watching and rewatching movies a lot lately. Old favorites like Galaxy Quest, stuff I never saw like Gravity, and more recent loves like Iron Man 3...and today I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy for the second time.

I give it a solid A. I'm getting tired of criticism that things aren't "unique." Nothing is, especially superhero/comics-inspired movies. All I want from film nowadays is enjoyment, and GotG gave that to me. It's all about the characters, and these are some great ones. I loved the writing that tweaked tropes, too. The speech that pulls everyone together, the self-sacrifice leading to a special moment between two people—they got turned very lightly on their heads. There were some fantastic lines that have already joined the common quotables in our house. It was just all very satisfying. (Though I will say I didn't find Ronan intimidating because all I could see was The Piemaker. Sorry, Lee Pace. :) )

Gravity sucked. One of my friends hated it, and everyone else seemed to be completely wowed, so I thought I'd be somewhere in the middle. Okay, the zero-g effects were great. Totally sold that she was in space the whole time. But everything else...ugh. No character development save a couple of slapped-on motivations that did not support at all the whole "rebirth" thing at the end. Heavy-handed symbolism does not add depth to a film that's pretty much all one big special effect. I was able to shrug off most of the illogic, but when Clooney unclipped himself—when he was at a complete standstill—because he was going to pull them both away and doom her, well, that did it for me. I watched the rest of the movie with a curl of my lip. (See this article that backs me up.) And while Sandra Bullock is one of my favorite actresses, I got soooo tired of her panting cries as she spiraled or bounced. I can't even give this one a grade.

While at GotG I saw some really good trailers, too. The next Hobbit movie looks tremendous, and they overlaid the trailer with Pippin's heartbreaking song from Return of the King, which always brings a sting to my eyes. Big Hero 6 looks like great fun, and even the remake of Annie looks decent. I'd watch that on TV, probably, if I came across it. I'm not sure I'd seek it out. I swear there were more trailers when we saw GotG the first time (Number Two was like, "get to the movie already!") but I can't remember what they were. :(

What movie did you like best this summer? What are you looking forward to coming up?

Making that Connection

I'm so happy to have Misty Simon back here today! Ivy is probably my favorite mystery series, and if you try one, you'll understand why! Take it away, Misty!

Thanks to Natalie for having me here today!

I love getting sucked into a story. It doesn’t matter what the vehicle is. It can be a book, a movie, a television show, a chat with a friend over coffee. I’m an avid listener and watcher, and as I listen and watch I can’t help but be drawn into the emotions and the vividness of what is being told.

I especially love getting lost in a book, though. What can be better than using your own imagination to see the characters, the rooms they inhabit, the dangers and struggles they go through? You can step into their world for a just a little bit (or three hours later you surface and realize it’s midnight and you have to go to work in the morning). Great storytellers are my heroes as they weave words and images into a tapestry that makes me laugh, cry, sigh, and cringe.

I adore stepping into someone’s world, a world they’ve lovingly created, one they’ve inhabited for weeks or months or years while they wrote this book. The characters become important to me and their struggles real to me (emotional or physical) when it’s done right.

And I always feel a little like I’ve awoken from a Rip Van Winkle sleep when it’s done. The happily ever after is just the beginning, the loose ends are tied up, justice is served. And I’m left to close the book with a smile, wishing there was some way to find those people and have a drink while we squee over the good parts.

Have you ever felt like you’ve known a character so well that you wished you could go find them and buy them a beer (or other beverage of choice)?

About the Author

Misty Simon loves a good story and decided one day that she would try her hand at it. Eventually she got it right. There’s nothing better in the world than making someone laugh, and she hopes everyone at least snickers in the right places when reading her books. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two insane dogs in Central Pennsylvania where she is hard at work on her next novel or three. She loves to hear from readers so drop her a line.

The Wrong Drawers – An Ivy Morris Mystery

Ivy Morris is back, and this time she’s determined to stay out of trouble. She’s comfortably ensconced in her costume shop, happy as a clam. Happy as a clam can be, anyway, when her father has moved in with her for an indefinite amount of time, putting her love life frustratingly on hold.

So when her best friend asks for help with an in-home demonstration party, Ivy jumps at the chance to get out of the house and away from Dad. She has no idea of the subject until she gets a look at the cookies. But that becomes the least of her troubles when she walks straight into another murder scene. One where she’s the prime suspect.

What else could go wrong? When you’re Ivy Morris, the only right answer is “everything.” With the help of hunky Ben Fallon, this girl will try to figure out why she’s being framed and what it has to do with her getting The Wrong Drawers.

Buy Now:

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What's Up with Me

Well, let me tell you.

Writing-wise, I'm moving along with Harte and Soul in a very focused and apologetic manner. This book really should have been out long ago. It didn't deserve to be shoved aside by all those other books that ended up coming first. But it's my priority now! Except when the sequel to Full Fusion and other stuff crowds my brain. I just purge those details and then get back to H&S. I'm going to soon have Full Fusion available in print, and slowly, over the next several months, a lot of my backlist will be freshened and reissued.

Sunroper won the Prism! That was exciting. (The Prism is given by the Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal Romance Writers, and it won the Light Paranormal category for 2014.)

Fall's going to be busy! September 5–7 I'll be in Ohio for a mini-meeting with Entangled authors and editors and publicists and the owner. Then I'll be doing a signing at Cupboard Maker Books in Enola, PA, followed by a YA signing there in October (stay tuned for details). October 17–20 I'm attending the New Jersey Romance Writers Put Your Heart in a Book conference in Iselin, NJ.

Work-wise, when I'm not writing, my day job at the chiropractor is going just fine, and my freelance work has been WHOA.

Which is good! Because family-wise, Number One is about to head back to Boston for her sophomore year at Emerson (which is another trip, a week before Ohio, and I might be a bit crazy...). I think she's about ready to head back after a hard-working summer. Number Two, on the other hand, feels summer went WAY too fast and she doesn't need to go back yet.

We've had a great time watching the Harrisburg City Islanders soccer this summer. They had a very rough start, but have clawed their way up the rankings to 6th place and hopefully a spot in the playoffs. They have to stay here, though, which means a few more wins before the season ends. Seasons ending make us sad. But the end of soccer means the start of football! The NFL kicks off...the weekend I'm in Ohio. :( But thank goodness for DVRs, right?

I'm trying to spend a little more time outdoors, even if it's just reading while I eat dinner, sitting on the top of the steps down to our backyard as if it were a tiny deck. :) The weather has been crazy. I have my window open right now and it feels like it's September. We've had very few +90-degree days, and a shocking number of 55-degree mornings. I'm praying it's carry-over from the cold winter and not a sign of the coming one.

Ooh, fall also means new TV. I haven't had time to watch much this summer. I'm behind on most of what I'm watching, except The Last Ship, Falling Skies, and Royal Pains because those we watch together. Franklin & Bash starts next week, followed by Doctor Who, and I"m excited about both! I'll hold off on talking about the new shows this fall until we get closer.

What's going on with all of you?

Cover Reveal for Kat Latham's Tempting the Player!

Book three of the London Legends Best friends make the best lovers. Libby Hart and Matt Ogden are perfect for each other—as friends. They’ve known each other for ages. They act as each other’s plus-ones. They even share custody of a dog. And if there’s always been a little spark between them, so what? It’s never been worth jeopardizing their friendship. Professional rugby player Matt is fighting for a starter position with the London Legends—and that’s not the only thing he’s fighting. A crippling fear of flying means he’s struggling to get his career off the ground. He has no time for a relationship, even if Libby does make him ache. As an airline pilot, Libby’s looking for a stay-at-home husband so she can have a family without sacrificing her high-flying career. Matt’s certainly not that man. But just because they don’t have a future together doesn’t mean they can’t have a right now. When Matt asks Libby for help overcoming his fear, they agree to take a vacation from their platonic relationship—whenever they fly together, they can have sex. It’s the perfect way to resolve all that built-up tension. As long as they can avoid getting a little too comfortable… Amazon: http://amzn.to/1mLF6k1 Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1mx8Rpj Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1mLG9jX Books a Million: http://bit.ly/W0j7ML Kobo: http://bit.ly/1mYzZyP Google Play: http://bit.ly/1jEMsHq

About Kat

Kat Latham is a California girl who moved to Europe the day after graduating from UCLA, ditching her tank tops for raincoats. She taught English in Prague and worked as an editor in London before she and her British husband moved to the Netherlands. Kat’s other career involves writing and editing for charities, and she’s traveled to Kenya, Ethiopia and India to meet heroic people helping their communities survive disasters. Find out more on her website: katlatham.com. Follow Kat: Site: http://katlatham.com/ Blog: http://katlatham.com/blog/ Newsletter: http://katlatham.com/newsletter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatLathamRomance Twitter: https://twitter.com/katrinalatham Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/KatLatham1/

Giveaway

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Full Fusion

I'm a little appalled at myself.

My latest book has been out for three weeks, and I haven't even mentioned it here! (Apologies who have seen all my announcements on social media and stuff. You can stop here. :) )

Full Fusion is my first young adult paranormal adventure, published as NJ Damschroder.

I've always wanted to write YA. I mean, I can attribute my entire career to all the books I devoured when I was a tween and teen and college student (though by then I was mostly reading adult romance). But when I started writing, there was a huge drought in YA fiction. That changed dramatically, and now it's an awesomely healthy part of the industry.

But even when that began to happen, I didn't think I was capable of writing YA. I wasn't a typical teen, and my kids are even less typical. So how could I convey what it's like to be a teenager if I didn't live it properly?

Turns out, all I needed was the right idea.

A scene popped into my head. A couple of little kids wanting to start a water fight. They're hauling gigantic super-soakers, and they hand their "nemesis" a tiny blue water pistol. And that's where Full Fusion starts. Roxie has a great life. Adorable twin sisters, cool parents, a great boyfriend. She's about to graduate and go to a fantastic college. But she feels completely disconnected from any of it.

Why? Well, there had to be a real reason. Like, something concrete and adventurous, because that's what I like to write and read. Not angsty internal stuff. So it turns out that Roxie is supposed to be a fusion of a human body and an angel soul. But something went wrong when she was born, and she got separated. Now she and her best friends have to track down and "save" the light that is her soul before the bad guys use it to destroy two worlds.

Full Fusion has fights and chases and the start of a love triangle. It has beings of light from another dimension (aka angels) and secrets and okay, there's some angst, too. I mean Roxie's felt distant from everything her whole life. Here's her chance to feel normal for the first time. But the stakes are wickedly high, and her choice isn't as easy as it seems. Plus, in the middle of it all, her most important relationships break down, leaving her alone.

The series will have at least three books and we'll learn a lot more about Roxie's original mission, about her friend Lincoln and his own secrets, and about the world she came from and its interaction with our own. Stay tuned!

Here's the official info about the book.

If you want to sign up for the newsletter to learn about future releases, you can do that here. I won't be sending NJ Damschroder info to my regular newsletter, so be sure to sign up for this one if you want to make sure not to miss the new books when they come out.

If social media is your preference, the series has its own FB page.

Blurb:
Eighteen-year-old Roxie Sebastian lives a charmed life, and she knows it. Too bad she can’t feel it. All her life, she’s felt disconnected from the world around her. Everything changes just before graduation, when she’s drawn to an eerie, brilliant light—which narrowly misses her as it blows up her friend Lincoln’s car. Clearly someone’s after Roxie, and finally Lincoln tells her the truth: He and Roxie are angels, beings from another dimension, and that light is her soul, separated from her human body in a traumatic birth.

Once a skeptical Roxie rules out the other possibilities—like Lincoln created this delusion to escape his abusive father—she accepts her gut-deep knowledge of the truth. But someone has been screwing with her light, using it to commit crimes, and their actions are about to cause irreparable damage to two worlds: the one she lives in, and the one she can’t remember.

Aided by her best friend Jordan, her boyfriend Tucker, and Lincoln, Roxie tracks down the criminal and uncovers many more secrets not only of her past, but of the history of their race on Earth. And then Roxie faces a horrible dilemma—the only way she can stop them from ripping apart both worlds is to fuse with her light…which could be tainted by the evil with which it was used.

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Doing It with Passion

Because a lot of our family time is attending sporting events, I get to hear the National Anthem a lot. Many different versions, many different settings, and many different methods.

Recently, I realized I've started categorizing each rendition I hear.

The most disappointing are the "look at me!" types. The ones who drag it out to twice as long as it should be, showing off all the fancy stuff they can do with their throats. They really seem to be focused on themselves, on being impressive. And on trying to make everyone recognize how oh-so-special they are.

There may be a venue where that's appropriate. The National Anthem probably shouldn't be it, though I do understand that its very nature must make it hard to resist.

Another type is the nervous amateur. They deserve the most applause, IMO. Probably pushed out there by someone or something not completely in their control, singing one of the hardest songs to sing in front of huge, judgy crowds of people. I think that takes incredible bravery, especially when it's kids.

We also have the pros. You know, the military quartets and traveling choirs, the people who sing with quiet confidence, who care as much about the teamwork as the soccer players or football players do.

But then you have my favorites. The people who sing with passion. They don't care about the crowd or how they look or even how they sound. They close their eyes and lose themselves in the music. I think this is why Whitney Houston's rendition is considered by so many to be the best ever. She tells a story with her voice. The song is about the emotions inspired by the events and the symbolism of the song. Yes, she has off-the-charts talent, but how much of it was simply because of her joy in singing?

We should all be doing this. It's not possible, I know, to imbue everything we do with joy and passion. I will never engage in passionate grocery shopping or joyful laundry for example. And it's disingenuous to imply that every job can be approached that way. But I think it's good to concentrate on what something gives us internally, at least while we're creating it, rather than what it can give us externally. Write, sing, dance, play the piano, knit, garden, sculpt, paint, create with passion. It will always make the experience better.

Orphan Black Has Made Me Afraid

I admit to holding on to a bit (or way more) of naivete and blind idealism when it comes to certain issues related to casting in Hollywood. When people roar about Supernatural killing off all the ethnic and female characters, I point out that they kill off EVERYONE. If someone ever survives (Hi, Sarah from "Provenance" in season 1!) and comes back, well, we know it's goodbye. When people were up in arms about having too few females in the first "cast photo," I thought it was unfair to JJ Abrams, who is well known for using strong female characters in his shows. And then we had additional casting announcements that hopefully appeased the impatient angry masses.

I tend to believe there is oversimplification in casting allegations, and I tend to take that angle when I debate such issues because...big confession here...I'm part of the problem. I *love* The Avengers, and I don't care that it's flooded with testosterone. You can't pay me to go see August: Osage County, and I turned off Bridesmaids about 10 minutes in because it made me queasy. I don't want the movies and shows I love to go away, so I try to make the issue more complex.

A couple of days ago a friend and I were chatting about The 100. For those who don't know, that's a CW TV show set in the future, featuring kids sent from a space station down to a post-nuclear Earth to see if it's safe to come back to. I stopped watching after maybe the third episode, when a little girl killed one of my favorite characters. The fact that he happened to be black was irrelevant, but my friend said yeah, she hates that the show seems to kill off all its ethnicity. She also said, in that same conversation, that Orphan Black wasn't getting the credit it was due because it's a female-centric show.

OB does get tons of credit, at least as far as gen-pop buzz goes. Tatiana Maslany, who has played 9 different, very distinct characters, has won her second Critics Choice Award and everyone raves about her skill. But of course by "credit" we mean Top Honors, aka an Emmy. We have a little while before we find out whether she'll be nominated. The show itself probably will never get a nomination, because it's very genre, it's on BBCAmerica, and the competition is fierce. But NO ONE on TV can possibly be giving as good of a performance as Maslany is right now. I argued that the genre and the network were bigger marks against the show than the fact that there are more women at center focus than men.

But a gamechanger occurred in last night's finale. We learned there are male clones, so the guy who has been playing Mark will get a chance to do what Tat does. And now I'm scared. This is a perfect chance for my friend to be proven right. If this guy gets more acclaim than Tat has (which, like I said, would be difficult in terms of buzz) I'll be forced to admit that the level of gender bias in television is disgustingly deep-seated.

So come on, Hollywood. For once prove all the others wrong. Give us a reason to put this topic to bed, at least for a little while!

My Chris Pine Mini Marathon

Last week, I read a blog post about romantic comedies with geeky characters. And one of the suggested films was Blind Dating.

So I got it out of the library. It was adorable. Chris Pine did a very good job pretending to be both blind AND geeky AND insecure, and he's also got a talent for displaying passion. (Not that kind, although sometimes that kind.)

Someone else had mentioned watching Unstoppable on Facebook. That was one that had been on my Netflix list before we ditched Netflix, so I got that from the library too. I liked it! The people on FB thought the beginning was slow, but I didn't. It had good enough cinematography and characterization to keep me interested until the tension started ramping up. Plus, Chris Pine was usually on the screen. I liked the story and the balance of heroism between the two characters (three, if you counted the welder guy).

So then I got Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, which had already been on my list because I didn't get to see it in the theater. By now, we've seen Chris Pine as a rugged action hero several times. But in this reboot (I assume it's a reboot because of the 9/11 stuff and moving up young Jack Ryan into the present, but I don't read the books so who the heck knows.) he's an intellectual more than a physical hero. Not completely. I mean, he was a Marine. But in his first foray into the field, he sells his fear and lack of confidence even while he balances it with doing the right thing. I loved the scene on the plane where he's getting all take-charge and showing off his brains.

Kiera Knightly was good, though she distracted me with her American accent. And I kept looking at the Russian bad guy going "He looks just like Kenneth Brannagh, but he can't be Kenneth Brannagh." Guess what? He's Kenneth Brannagh!


So what's next? I own these two:

I might just watch them again. And...I confess. I just added This Means War to my library requests. I've seen it, and it's kind of icky in places, and some of it isn't well written, but... I'm on a Chris Pine kick! It's low level, not nearly to the heights that my Brendan Fraser obsession went. (Ooh, maybe I should start that again...) But it's still buzzing. :)

What's your favorite Chris Pine movie? Do you get on these actor kicks like I do?

Weird Discoveries at the Soccer Match

I made two discoveries at the soccer game on Saturday, neither of which had anything to do with soccer.

OWU Guy
Number One had worn her new Cleveland Browns ballcap to the game. A guy sitting near us spotted it and, as people are always surprised to find Browns fans in the heart of Steeler country, he commented on it. He grew up in Akron, and played high school football on the same field (at Baldwin Wallace University) as my husband did. They reminisced about the old region for a while, and then the guy mentions OWU. Turns out he went to Ohio Wesleyan University, same as we did! Albeit a decade after I graduated.

It's amazing how amazed we continually are by these small-world coincidences, common though they are. It's like the summer we went to Tennessee for vacation and the people in the cabin next door live two blocks from us back home. Weird!

Cyst
So Number One is talking about the bruising on the webbing of her thumb from using the mop at work so much, and I comment that the pad on my right hand right below my index finger only ever hurts when I'm driving. Like, EVER. But I just kind of figured it was tenderness from the steering wheel. I grip the wheel gingerly and otherwise don't think about it.

But talking about it had me probing the area, and holy cow! I found a cyst in my hand! That's the most padded part of my hand so I hadn't ever probed that hard. It wasn't otherwise detectable. It's right over the lowest joint so I'm pretty sure it's a ganglion cyst. I had one in my wrist when I was a teenager. It went away by itself, so it's no big deal, just one of those "huh" things.

Except probing it was apparently really stupid, because today it's huge and every time I used my hand for support (like to get up at my desk or something), it hurt. And I can feel it just brushing my thumb over the area, no probing necessary. Idiot.

So what weird discovery have YOU made lately?

A Little Bit of TV Love and Hate. We'll Start with the Hate.

It's the end of the main TV season, and I have a few things to say. THERE ARE TONS OF SPOILERS HERE.

Revenge
My boss and I watch this show and break it down every week. It's been fun, because it's very much not the kind of show either of us would normally watch, and we have extremely different tastes. But we normally feel the same about what happens in each episode. We love the same characters (Nolan and Jack, natch, and Victoria and Conrad for the opposite reasons). We hate the same storylines. And we are very disappointed in the finale.

I'm speaking only for myself, but there was a lot of "oh, come on!" The network (probably our local affiliate) screwed up and had a big blank spot where a commercial should have been, then the commercial, and then we landed halfway through Aiden's murder. That left me feeling cold and disengaged. I knew Aiden was going to die, though the showrunners seem to think that was a big surprise, and that might have contributed to my lack of caring. I liked Aiden, and I liked Emily with him, especially at the end, but it was always clear they weren't destined to be together. I figured he'd die heroically. There was nothing heroic in being paralyzed and smothered, and how the hell are we supposed to believe Victoria dragged his body from the city to the Hamptons and posed it in Emily's house? He was paralyzed so I guess the look on his face could have been frozen there, but he was paralyzed so how did his mouth get that open, AFTER a pillow was smashed against it? The whole doll thing was just stupid.

Then there was Charlotte cluing in to Jack's involvement in her abduction. She's a pretty dumb person in a lot of ways, but NOW she gets smart and doesn't confront someone about something? The cops can't really hold Jack. Charlotte thinking his hand felt the same and that she might have felt the rip in his car seat through her jacket and clothing is so far from real evidence it's not even funny. But that's all for the future. The drama and "uh-oh" of it were fine.

But the truly gasp-worthy moment? David orchestrating Conrad's escape and then knifing him in the street? WTF?!

They've teased the possibility of him being alive in a variety of ways all season, but successfully dismissed each one. Then in the finale they showed him on TV incessantly, in footage I don't think we've seen before, which of course was so we'd be sure to recognize him when he shows up on that rural road. I admit, I gasped hard. But this man who has JUST been cleared of crimes he did not commit decides the way to celebrate is to become a murderer? I mean...if you could get any more ridiculous than posing a dead guy to look like a blow-up doll, this was it. I assume he's going to come out of the shadows. And just how does he explain to his daughter why he let her think he was dead? Not to mention that hey, he's the most likely suspect for the knifing!

I think the Revenge writer's room got a little too hung up on Scandal-style shock value and forgot to support their story.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Last night's finale left me feeling the complete opposite of how Revenge did. There was so much awesomeness it's hard to know where to begin.

Okay, let's go with the big one. I told my friend Gail over at SciFi Chicks that I expected Fury's bit to be short. But it was delightfully not! First, he had the best intro moment possible, when Simmons drags Fitz to the surface and there's good ol' Nick to save them. Then his banter with Coulson while Garrett tries to be the center of attention was hilarious. He INTERRUPTED him. We had to watch a couple of parts a second time. I'm sure others would stone me for saying this, but I think Nick Fury is SLJ's best role ever. :)

Coulson still manages to upstage him, though. Garrett survives the blast from a newly freed Mike/Deathlok and rebuilds himself with Quinn's fancy rebuilding machine, then begins to declare himself unstoppable before being interrupted (again) by a molecularizing weapon wielded by Coulson, who has no comment, no real reaction, and walks away saying "Found it! Told you it would be in here." It all plays such delightful fun with the melodrama of action-adventure.

Some fans (Gail!) dislike Skye with a surprising (to me) level of intensity. I've always liked her, though she's about sixth on my list of favorite team members. I really enjoyed her empowerment (I know, that's a bit of an exaggeration). She's had the least to contribute to the team over the season as a whole, but this time she got to free people and save lives and employ her skills to hugely successful results, and was able to dismiss Ward and pass him off to May for punishment. And oh, what fantastic punishment! Nailing his foot to the floor was one of the bits we rewound. :)

Then there was FitzSimmons. Goddamn, they broke my heart right before the escape. Fitz, for cripes sake, leave my heart alone! He shredded me with "I don't have the courage to tell you, so let me show you." Us hard-hearted, unsentimental Damschroder females admitted to getting a little teary. Number Two is absolutely furious that we didn't get to see him at the end, and the potential implications of his changes.

But the very best moment was when Coulson confronted Fury about T.A.H.I.T.I., saying it was only to be used if an Avenger fell. Fury shoots back, "Exactly" and Coulson's expression is just perfect. They set up the second season amazingly well, IMO.

Oooh! Ooh! And THEN. Agent Koenig! A different one (twins? clones? LMDs?), but played as the same kind of guy, and that was the cherry topping on the big pile of yummy whipped cream that's the only reason to bother eating cake (or pie) in the first place.

As with any show, there are a few tiny quibbly things that would mar the joy with too much scrutiny, so I'm ignoring them. :)

And that is puh-lenty of both gushing and ranting for one (way too long) blog post! If you watch these two shows, let me know your thoughts!

Today I Finally Broke Open

The Reason I Couldn't Clean the Gutters

As I mentioned an annoying number of times this winter, it was a long, wearying one. I spoke with many people about how little energy we had, how little impetus to do anything. The cold and snow were confining.

I was excited when the birds came back. Even when a mourning dove laid eggs on our extension ladder. But while it heralded spring, it didn't really change how I felt. I'd get momentary spurts of happiness when I heard the singing and chirping, but when I opened my office window to let in fresh air, thirty seconds later I was closing it and turning my space heater back on.

Last week Laverne had babies.

My husband named her Laverne because a robin moved in about two feet to the left of Laverne's nest. She's called Shirley. We put up little tape labels with their names on them. I don't have a picture of Shirley, because she flies off frantically every time we go outside. She's probably upset, despite the way the two of them fought, because a few days after the two babies hatched, they and Laverne moved on. They pushed the nest off the back of the ladder and disappeared. (I'm going with "they fledge fast" because I can't handle any other possible explanation and there's no evidence that's not what happened.) Anyway, I think Shirley misses her roommate.

ANYway, we've had some nice days, and I've been outside a bit doing yardwork and whatnot, but "it" hadn't happened yet. Cuz, you know, every time it hit 70, the next night it was back to 30 and all the people who were told NOT to plant their tomatoes until May 15 started screaming that their tomatoes were dead. Last week, we went to pick up Number One from college in Boston and I couldn't believe it was May 1 and there were NO leaves even budding on the trees there. In the city itself there was a hint of green, and a few flowering trees were starting to get some color, but in the rest of New England it might as well have been February. So depressing.

Then today I drove Number One to work and had lunch with my husband and did some flower shopping. We bought a couple of annuals and these:

And I spent a few minutes admiring the lushness in our front bed:

It's at least a month later than the azaleas usually bloom! But those lilies and hosta are gonna be monsters. Foy!

After I'd loaded up the car I took a spin through the trees and shrubs section of Ashcombe, which is in the parking lot. My husband was already back in his office so I was able to refrain from spending more money, but I did pick out what I want to get later this month.

I drove home with the windows all down and music blasting on the radio, me belting out "Addicted" by Kelly Clarkson (except the high parts; SO can't do those) and other rocking songs. And it happened about halfway down Lisburn Road. The "click." The moment when everything breaks open and euphoria fills me up. I finally feel unfettered and energetic, and pleeeeaaaassseeee, Mother Nature, hold off on the 85-95 degrees for a few months, okay?!

How's YOUR spring going?

Book Covers and Movies and Tweets and Stuff

I am so freaking tired, I'm sitting here staring at the computer and trying to find some little ounce of energy to do something. Anything. It really is not a good idea for me to go to bed at 12:15 a.m. and get up at 5:00 a.m., after first getting up at 4:00 a.m. to feed the cats so they stop scratching at the freaking doors.

So I got the final print cover for Acceptable Risks, which comes out in mass market paperback in June. It's pretty much the original cover with the new Carina logo and some added richness and contrast, I think. I'm excited! This is my favorite of my three Carina books. If you're in the romantic suspense Reader Service, you'll get this one!

I am not much for independent films. I tend to find them morose, dull, navel-gazing, and/or weird. The bigger accolades the critics give an independent film, the less I tend to like it (assuming I cave to the praise and give it a try).

Things started to break with Silver Linings Playbook. I was wary of the mental illness plot, but I love both Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper (every time I type his name I want to go back and watch Alias again), and I love football. Lo and behold, the movie was funny and sweet and had an uplifting ending that surprised me.

Last night I watched an independent film that I absolutely loved. Well, it was Joss Whedon, so that's not a surprise. The ending was a little too Hollywood (dramatically satisfying without much thought to the consequences of events and what would happen after the credits rolled), but the acting and editing were absolutely superb, and the characterization and cinematography equally so. I rented it last night, and since I haven't stopped thinking about it all day, I'd say it was well worth the $5. Check it out:



Last night or maybe this morning, I don't know, it all runs together, I watched the trailer for Clark Gregg's Trust Me, and it looks delightful. Now, admittedly I've got a bit of a crush on Clark Gregg. Some of it is why the rest of the world is crushing on him (i.e. Agent Coulson) but he's a Massachusetts native and went to my college and is a writer. And he's always super-gracious to all the Twitter whiners who beg him to tweet them. So check THIS out:



And finally, there's the movie called Authors Anonymous that also looks cute and funny and not dull or depressing, though I'm not as eager for that one because a) I've been burned before by movies that portray author-dom in a completely ridiculous way (I'm looking at YOU, Cheaper by the Dozen), and b) the cast doesn't excite me as much as the other two movies did/do.

Okay, that's book covers and movies... Oh, tweets! Yeah, I thought I had 10k tweets exactly this morning because Twitter said 10k, but then I pointed to it this afternoon and it said 10,004, so I missed it. That made me a little sad, especially since I'd already posted a tweet about it that was wrong. Oh, well. I gotta be wrong sometimes. It validates all my rightness. :)

Stuff...

Why do we have so much freaking mulch? We'll be shoveling it around the property all summer long.

The mulch-shoveling is extra annoying because I also have to do a big heavy cleaning of my house, with my inlaws coming later next week to stay with Number Two while we go to Boston to pick up Number One from college. Cleaning and yardwork take away from writing time, and that's frustrating. So I should write now, except I'm pretty brain-dead.

This came out okay, though. Maybe I'll have my heroine do some blogging...

Grocery Store Fantasies (of the Non-Food Variety)

I just made a quick run to the grocery store for pancake mix for Number Two's birthday breakfast tomorrow. (We HAD pancake mix, but it turns out it expired in January. :/ )

So on my way out I watch a woman with a giant SUV parked 4 spots from the store using her free hand (she was on her cell phone, natch) to stick her grocery cart in between the cars. Rather than taking 30 seconds to run it up to the walkway.

As I passed it, I deliberately-accidentally bumped into it, but it didn't go anywhere. That made me sad. So here's my fantasy, edited twice in my head on the drive home, because that's my job. :)

I "bump" the cart hard enough to knock it into her shiny planet-killer. She leans back out the partially open door of her vehicle to yell at me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I say, grabbing the cart, even though it's too late to save her paint job. "The person who left this here obviously didn't care about what happened to people's cars."

And then I leave it there and walk away to my 16-year-old Toyota that can totally stand up to any carts left in the lot, and then carefully put my cart in the corral, because I always do.

That would have been trés satisfying, non?

What kind of confrontation have you fantasized about lately?

Second Honeymoon Book Tour by Sara Walter Ellwood

Gambling On A Secret

Book 1 of The Colton Gamblers

Blurb:

When Charli bets everything on a secret, will she find the deck stacked against her?

Former runaway-turned heiress Charli Monroe is hiding her sordid past and planning a future in Colton, Texas. Attending the local college for a degree in social work, she intends to raise cattle on her newly purchased ranch, which she plans to open as a home for troubled teens. Only a few glitches—the Victorian mansion is crumbling, the barn needs a roof, and her oilman neighbor wants more than friendship. When she meets Dylan Quinn, Charli is willing to take a chance on the town drunk to help her rebuild the rundown ranch.

Dylan has his demons, too. The former Special Forces commander can’t get past his ex-wife’s betrayal and the botched mission that left him with much more than a bad limp. Certain the greedy oilman next door to Charli wants much more than just her heart, Dylan’s even willing to stop drinking in order to protect her.

When things get dangerous and secrets of the past are revealed, is he only looking out for his new employer, or is she the new start he so desperately needs?

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Gambling On A Heart

Book 2 of The Colton Gamblers

Blurb:

She once lost his heart on a bluff. Will she risk everything to win it back?

Beautician Tracy Quinn spends her days making the women of Colton, Texas beautiful, while living down the nickname of Olive Oyl, given to her by the only man she has ever loved—Zack Cartwright. She spends her nights alone, despite what her ex husband wants their friends and neighbors to think.

Ex-rodeo cowboy. Ex-bad-boy. Ex-Marine. Widower and single dad Sheriff Zack Cartwright can describe his life in exes. One ex in particular reminds him of what’s missing in his workaholic life: Tracy Quinn. For years since she broke his heart, he’s practically made avoiding her a second job. He still wants her, but can never go after her.

When cattle rustlers target her brother’s ranch, Tracy and Zack are stuck working together. Her son could use a positive male role model, and his daughter is wild for a chance at a “substitute” mom. But Tracy’s ex threatens to sue if she lets Zack near her son, and the Colton grapevine is abuzz with rumors about their past relationship. Is it worth the gamble to see if what they have is more than lust?

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Heartstrings

Blurb:

He’s determined to set things right, no matter the cost.

The last person Abby Crawford wants to face down is country music superstar Seth Kendall. Last time she did, she flat-out lied so he’d go to Nashville without her. She’s never understood why their mutual best friend proposed, but she went with it so her baby wouldn’t be fatherless. Now she’s a divorced mother of a teenager, and secretly Seth’s biggest fan.

Seth is home in McAllister, Texas for his father’s funeral…and a chance to meet the daughter he’s never known. He’s willing to face the music of his own making and admit he’s known about his little girl all along. For fifteen years he’s kept his distance because Abby told him to follow his dreams without her, insisting she didn’t love him. But now he won’t leave until he knows his daughter and she knows him, even if it means facing the woman who broke his heart for good.

Confessing she’s lied about her daughter’s paternity all these years won’t be easy for Abby, especially with her ex blackmailing her to keep the secret. And Seth doesn’t know the hardest truth of all: Every love song he plays on his guitar still plucks her heartstrings.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGmgAkdsyM

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barns and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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About Sara…

Although Sara Walter Ellwood has long ago left the farm for the glamour of the big town, she draws on her experiences growing up on a small hobby farm in West Central Pennsylvania to write her contemporary westerns. She’s been married to her college sweetheart for over 20 years, and they have two teenagers and one very spoiled rescue cat named Penny. She longs to visit the places she writes about and jokes she’s a cowgirl at heart stuck in Pennsylvania suburbia. She also has paranormal romantic suspense published under the pen name Cera duBois.

Author links:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Newsletter Signup

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Follow the Second Honeymoon Blog Tour HERE

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Rafflecopter Giveaway:

Sara is giving away a beautiful treasure box full of goodies:

1. A thumb drive containing Sara’s novella The Birthday Fantasy and her paranormals A Hunter’s Angel and A Hunter’s Blade

2. A signed paperback copy of Carolyn Brown’s Just a Cowboy and His Baby

3. A retractable black ink pen

4. A decorative diary style notebook

5. A mouse pad

6. Sara’s own custom designed jewelry (necklace and earring set)

7. $10 Starbucks gift card and more.

A total prize package valued at $100.

The giveaway ends April 30 and the winner of the Swag Pack will be announced on May 1, 2014. Must be 18 years old or older and a resident of the USA to qualify. Void where prohibited by law. See http://sarawalterellwood.wordpress.com/giveaway-rules/ for complete list of terms and rules.

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