Okay I stole this Christmas list from like everyone's blog...
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, though I prefer a Pumpkin Spice latte from Starbucks...
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa just set them under the tree in my house - Santa wrapped them in hubby's house. I shall win this battle, I do every year.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I like both, but our fake tree has white. I miss the smell of a real tree... I also like just blue lights.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, we all kiss enough in this house. LOL
5. When do you put your decorations up? The day after Thanksgiving! Gotta get my maximum worth out of them. By the day after Christmas I hate them all.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Grandma's cookies. And when she's feeling really generous, her homemade fudge. Yum...
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: Christmas Eve at my great-grandma's house. All of the cousins would get together and the parents would buy us all cheapy gifts to open. They would make us kids wait locked up in the kitchen for Santa to come and then my grandpa would shake these really old bells and yell out "ho ho ho" in another room. We all knew it was him. Then paper would be flying and kids would be yelling. It was so much fun!!! I really wish I got those bells when my great-grandma passed...
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What are you talking about?
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not anymore. All of that anticipation is what makes Christmas so great. Make 'em wait one more day I say.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? What does this question mean? What kind of decorations? What is my plan of attack? We just hang the hodge podge of decorations we've collected over the years.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Like to look at it, don't like to be in it.
12. Can you ice skate? I wish. I wanted to be Dorothy Hamill when I was a kid. I even had the haircut!
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Hmmm, there's been so many over the years. I remember when I got the Barbie penthouse. That thing even had an elevator! My poor single mom sold Avon on the side to get the money for that Christmas! I love my mama.
14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? That my children are happy and enjoying the magic of Christmas. Cos that's what it's all about.
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Too many to say!
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Going down Christmas Tree Lane. It's this cool street with all of these beautiful homes and they light it up like crazy every year. You get to count all of Santa's reindeer throughout the drive and they play Christmas music over speakers. They'll even have a live choir sometimes. Back before the kidlets came along my hubby and I would sing along with the Christmas music - and add curse words. Like "Silver mothaf*!kin bells..." Yeah, we're bad.
17. What tops your tree? Nothing! Can you believe it?
18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Both.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Okay, I love that Wham! Christmas song "Last Christmas." How 80s am I? Oh, I also like any of the music that has to do with Charlie Brown's Christmas. Love that music!
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Now that they've come out with all of the flavored kinds, I can eat 'em. Straight peppermint? Kinda yuck.
I'm not gonna tag anyone - if you wanna do it, do it!
I was in bed before 8:30 last night! I never go to bed that early! But I was exhausted - and I have a minor head cold that's annoying more than anything. I believe it drained me of all my energy though, so I took some Alka Selzer nighttime cold and cough medicine (this stuff is the bomb) and passed out.
It's now seven in the morning and I feel pretty good. It's briskly cold and frosty outside. Scooby's on TV (hence the post title). I'm getting my hair highlighted and cut today. Life's all right.
Hey a bunch of authors (including myself) will be over at Novelspotters this Saturday chatting up our December releases. Come visit us - we'll be giving away books and everything!
Check out Novelspotters by clicking the link below:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Novelspotters/
More authors than what's listed will appear...it's gonna be a blast!
So I'm watching Vh1 Classics and a video comes on with some of the greatest lyrics ever.
Actually, it's just the chorus. It's by Romeo Void and it goes a little something like this,
I might like you better if we slept together
I might like you better if we slept together
I might like you better if we slept together
But there's something in your eyes that says
maybe
That's never
Never say never...
Okay I haven't written a word in almost two weeks and just those lyrics make me want to go write a raunchy story! Yeah!
I had no clue this song was on the soundtrack for the movie Dodgeball. Very cool...
...freakin' crazy! This morning I turn on the laptop and it can't find my wireless network. No problem, I unplug and then replug them in like usual. Still can't find it.
Many hours later I finally get it to work, even though I have no idea exactly what made it work. And all kinds of weird things happened in the meantime. UGH! So frustrating.
Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving who celebrated? Eat a lot of food? Everything I made turned out pretty good except my stuffing was a little dry. Oh well - live and learn.
And did any of you shop this weekend? I didn't, unless online shopping and the grocery store count...
It's a flirtin' Friday for me. And heaven forbid I'm already talking about Christmas...
I don't know how much I'll be around this week. I have a ton of stuff to do...like cleaning and cooking and cooking and cleaning. This is what happens when you host the Thanksgiving holiday at your house.
So I hope you and yours have a fantastic Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much! Ha ha ha...
I feel like a turkey cos I didn't write a damn thing this weekend.
But I did happen to update my website. I added an excerpt from Fairies & Wishes on the excerpt page, and there's a new contest up. So I was productive. I swear.
Click on the graphic below to check it out...
Why do I not watch Battlestar Galactica? Have you seen this man? Shiver shiver...Jamie Bamber is his name and he is sizzling hot! I guess after this scene appeared on TV women went absolutely nuts. And I can understand why... I discovered him in People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue. I bought it yesterday. George Clooney is on the cover (yum yum). And many more hot men are in the magazine, making the purchase well worth it. But I took one look at this guy (you should see the pic in People - I had to fan myself!) and thought, "Where have you been all my life?" Talk about inspiration... Pant pant pant
So my friend and I head out to shop last night. First stop - Toys R Us. We're drving in her Excursion, all is good. Then I notice a weird noise. Then an even weirder noise happens. Then a lady rolls down her window and tells us something is dragging on the road and it's sparking. Great.
We pull into the Lowe's parking lot. Call my friend's sister in law's boyfriend, who just did some work on the SUV. He tells us, "don't drive it. I'll be there in...three hours!" Our husbands are at my house with the kids so we didn't want them dragging the kids with them to get us. Sooooo....
We walked our asses off! A couple of blocks down the street was Toys R Us. We brought the cart back over to the car to drop off what we bought when we were finished. We felt like hobos!
Same deal with Target. Ran across the street (a very very busy street I might add) and shopped hard core. A bunch of dudes were camped out in front of the store, waiting for the PS3 to come out. It doesn't come out til Friday morning! This was Wednesday night! One of the Target employees said they'd been there since Tuesday. That's nuts.
The boyfriend finally came to rescue us. He fixed the car, no prob. Thank goodness. My Christmas shopping for the little ones is pretty much finished. Yay! But what a night!
Don't forget to stop by The Story Board (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Story_Board_/)today for ebook reader appreciation day! The place is on fire with excerpts and contests - all for readers to enjoy and win!! Yay!
I didn't write a word yesterday. And that's okay! I gotta admit, it felt good. Relaxing, no pressure.
I pressured myself in different ways instead. Yep, I went to the ritzy part of town and did a little Xmas shopping. Williams Sonoma was making a full on Thanksgiving feast! It smelled so good. We were a little early so me and the little one had some pumpkin cookies. Delicious...
Looked over magazines and stuff, figuring out what the heck I'm gonna make for Thanksgiving dinner. It's in a week! Aaah! That freaks me out a little.
Then my dearest friend called me last night. We've known each other since we were 11. We share a long and silly history. We have this way of talking where we revert to sounding like we did when we were teenagers. Lots of giggling and funny things said.
Oh, wait, and we also bring on the bad language. We sound like pissed off sailors. It's so much fun! We got stuck on saying, "sucks c*@k." Yeah we kept repeating that one, drawing out the last word. Heh, heh. I love my bestest friend. Too bad she doesn't live closer to me.
So any of you ready for Thanksgiving? How's the writing going? Have a good friend who trash talks with you? Tell me all about it.
This Thursday at The Story Board (The_Story_Board_-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to subscribe). It's an all day event featuring various authors from ebook publishers.
It's all about giving to the readers who support epublishing! Lots of excerpts, contests and prizes! Authors will answer any questions readers have. This is a MUST if you love epublished books.
I know I'm going to be giving away a free copy of both Release Me and Haunted Dreams on Thursday.
On a side note, I finished the novella yesterday. Yay! I feel so good. :)
I'm almost finished with the novella. Well, at least with the first draft. And since I went back so many times to reread the dang thing in the beginning, the first half of the first draft is pretty clean. So editing shouldn't be too much of a problem.
That means I haven't written on the NaNo project in...four days? Five? I don't know, but I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to it right now. I have another idea that came on strong a few days ago. It's chomping at the bit to come out after the novella is submitted. So we'll see.
I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to do NaNo again cos I did it last year and accomplished my goal. And then I got caught up in the NaNo frenzy. I'm thrilled that other writers are doing so well at it - congrats to them! I might get back into it, but I don't know...
In other news my house is clean (gasp!) but I still need to do laundry. It's amazing to me how I can do all the laundry and then two days later it looks like I didn't do any. This is what happens in a house of two adults and three children.
Here's some Monday inspiration for you...
I haven't written on my NaNo project for...TWO DAYS!! And I DON'T CARE!!
What kind of attitude is that, you ask? Well, I've been working extra hard on the novella - the other project I've been working on. The one that has an ACTUAL deadline. Yeah, that one.
Sheesh, why did I decide to do NaNo? Maybe because I'm a glutton for punishment? That has to be it!
Anywho, I'm banning any NaNo work this weekend and I SWEAR I'm going to finish the novella.
Can I get a hell to the yes?
Here's a pic to enjoy for the weekend. Too funny!
p.s. - Yes Robin, the Bean pic is the one in his underwear. Photobucket banned it! Mr. Bean in his tighty whiteys? Come on!!
Watch me lose my mind over at the Word Flirts today.
P.S. ~ My naughty pic for inspiration from a few days ago? Violated Photobucket's term of service and they yanked it. Second time I've done that (remember Mr. Bean?).
I think that is SO AWESOME!
I have nothing to say! Because nothing exciting has happened to me in the past couple of days...sigh.
Keeping up on word for my crazy NaNo project, yep. Did I write that blush-worthy scene? Yes indeedy. Plowed right through it thinking the whole time, "My mother CANNOT read this!" She'd probably think I've done something like this. Which I haven't!! I swear!
The temperature has finally plunged and it's downright cold this morning. I'm sorry but I'm sick of the 80 degree days. Bring on the cold weather Mother Nature! Give us some rain! We need it!
Went to lunch at Chili's yesterday with my nutty children and my loving husband. My children are nuts - they feed off each other which only makes them nuttier. Thankfully, Chili's is very loud so all their carrying on went pretty much unnoticed. I think.
OH! My son fell in the pool last night! My husband was cleaning up around it, watering trees and our son was w/ him. One minute he's standing close to the pool and the next my hubby hears a splash. He'd fallen right in! And my husband dived right in to save his little life.
So I had two soaked cold men on my back porch. Glad I missed the whole thing - I probably would've freaked out.
I guess I'm a liar cos that last bit is kind of exciting...
How's YOUR week been? NaNo'ing coming along, hmmmmm?
My NaNo project is crazy. C.R.A.Z.Y. This couple should not be getting together - her boyfriend is his best friend (but her boyfriend is a cheatin' jerk so that makes it all ok. Right? RIGHT??? Crap I don't know...), and they kind of can't stand each other.
In that, Oh God I can't stand you but let's do it now kind of way.
And where I ended it last night makes me think I'm going to have them do something that is just so damn naughty I can't even write about it on this blog cos I'll blush and get all flustered and tongue tied.
Who the hell would buy this thing? It's just a tale of smut! Pure crazy smut!
But I'm having fun writing it. The heroine is just so damn feisty, and the hero is tres sexy - rawr rawr.
P.S. - Word count so far: 10,333
It wasn't a stellar writing weekend but that's okay. I received my first round edits for Fairies & Wishes and finished those up Saturday. Went to the mall with the kids and actually bought a couple of Christmas presents! Can you believe it? I'm going to try and get the shopping done early this year. I say this every year. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't...
NaNo wise, I'm right on track. I have no idea what the counter is saying in the previous post but it's wrong, I know that. I'm at 8,517 words. Would've been more but my son woke up with a runny nose and it was irritating him. Yes, I believe we're getting sick in this house again. Oh joy.
In exciting news I'm a featured author at The Romance Studio Blue this month. They interviewed me and everything! I feel special. Click here to read it.
Want some sexy inspiration for the day? I found this pic on someone's myspace page, but I can't remember exactly who...
Okay so the NaNo counter a couple of posts down is now officially off. I wrote like a fiend yesterday morning - as of right now I'm 6,846 words in. Whoo hoo! Glad I wrote in the morning too cos I received my edits for Fairies & Wishes so I worked on that yesterday evening.
I also went to a holiday open house where I ate good food and spent money on candles. Holiday candles - yum yum. It was fun. Chatted with friends and got away from my lovely children. I love my children but sometimes, you just need a break.
All right, I haven't posted a hot dude on here in a long time. My bad.
Antonio Sabato Jr. when he did the Calvin Klein campaign! Sigh...posters of this man in his underwear in a dept store in Laguna Beach stopped me and my friend in our tracks when we were there one weekend many years ago. We wanted to steal one but figured it would've been too obvious...
Enjoy!
So NaNo is going swimmingly, which surprises me. I was so stressed out just thinking about NaNo a couple of days ago I thought I would be overwhelmed. Hell, I didn't even know what I was going to write!
So I took a cue from Shelli and looked back at some old stuff collecting dust on the hard drive. Most of it awful writing-wise but with some decent premises. So I dusted off one attempt, kept the characters, kept the basic premise. Also kept the first scene but completely rewrote it and just went from there.
And I like it! I like it so much I'm 4300 words in! Not bad for two days' work. Especially 'cos I'm finishing up my novella on the side. I'll be glad when that puppy is done and submitted.
Here's the weird thing. The NaNo counter I have a couple of posts down updates All By Itself. How does that happen? It's not 100% accurate but it's close. And the NaNo project is not the only thing I'm working on. Is it going to account for my novella writing as well? Freaky stuff.
If you're NaNo'ing, how's it going?
Lily the Christmas fairy must teach a lonely doctor how to love again, so she makes him fall in love with her. Big mistake since she always leaves earth the day after Christmas. But how can she leave the sweet, sexy doctor when she's fallen in love with him, too?
Okay today marks the start of Nano, and all I can think is OMG! Am I really going to do this? I have so many other things on my plate! But hey, I gotta make the attempt. And I think I came up with a decent idea. I'll let you know more as it develops.
In other news, I sold another Christmas story to Silks Vault! Entitled Her Christmas Prince, this one was fun to write. In fact, there is a bit of a personal experience in it, but I'll share that later as well.
Yesterday was crazy pimping myself out all over the internet about Haunted Dreams coming out. Then last night we took the kids trick or treating. What fun! My daughter was practically bouncing off the walls of the car, she was so excited to get there. We went around my mother-in-law's neighborhood and it wasn't that busy, but we met some great people who really got into the spirit.
One more teaser - I received the cover for Fairies & Wishes. I love, love LOVE it! I'll share that with y'all tomorrow.
Happy First Day of Nano everyone!
