Boo!

I'm all hot and sweaty. And no, I wasn't doing anything fun. I got up early and made banana muffins from scratch, then went nuts washing floors because they won't get washed for the entire month of November, so I wanted to do a really good job. Of course, the Swiffer wet jet decided to give me a problem today, so I had to threaten, beg and plead for it to work because I'd be damned if I was going to go downstairs and dig out the mop and bucket. To hell with that.

Coaxed the swiffer into allowing me to finish the job. I'll have to get a new one before Dec, hehe. Baby slept until 8 am when I had to go in and wake him up. I felt terrible about it but daddy was taking him for his hair cut so I had to get him up. Daddy was tired from hangin' with his posse until 3 am, so it was more difficult getting him up. Car guys. *Shaking head*

I'm still draggin' a bit from the cold virus I caught, but otherwise doing well. I did some plotting last night on the new Leah book. Wow. It's already coming together. I rarely know who the villain is until the end of the story. This time I know. It'll be interesting. I have the skeleton of the book done. Still trying to decide if I want to include another plot line I've been thinking about for a few years. We'll see what happens.

Gotta take the little bean for his flu shot this morning. He won't be pleased with me. I'll have to bribe him with a new toy car. Usually works.

A squirrel came up to the kitchen window and looked right at us while he was eating his muffin. It made him giggle. That made my entire day. That'll get me through the month when the writing gets tough and I'm really cranky. I'll keep that image in my head.

Have a great Halloween everyone!

I'm Crazier than I Thought

I did it. I signed up for NaNoWriMo this year. This means I have to write 50,000 words between Nov 1st and Nov 30th. With the day job and a toddler, this is an insane venture to take on. But I'm going to do it because I love challenges and pushing myself to the brink of sanity, because there is nothing like the rush of achieving something against the odds.

So, on Nov 1st I'm going to begin a Leah Ryan story. One that's been haunting me for years. I actually attempted this story with other characters a few years ago and it wasn't working. The topic of the story is horrific, but I think I can do it now. If anyone can handle it, Leah and her best friend Jack can.

I'm excited and scared by the prospect of even attempting this nutty venture. But I've done crazier things. It means that this novel will be written in a feverish rush during my off writing times. I write best in the mornings, but I'll be staying up later to write, during times when I'm exhausted.

It means that I won't be spending as much time hanging out with my fella, who is both fun and helps me detox from my day almost each night. I'll be missing his company and wit.

It means that I'll be tired during the days and not as energetic with my little guy in the evenings.

It means that the elliptical, which also helps me detox at the end of the day, will have to wait.

But at the end of the month of Nov, I'll have a rough draft of the next Leah Ryan book, title yet unknown.

So I'm stoked. Woohoo!

Thanks goes out to Laura, who inspired me to take on this crazy adventure. You got me thinkin', Laura. Thank you!

*Sigh*

Went to bed early with a book, turned off the lamp at 8:30. Sadly, my little guy woke up at around 9 coughing and coughed pretty much all night.

I'm the walking dead today. But I have my pumpkin spice coffee to sip on, so the world is a better place :)

*Sniffle* *Cough*

So I was feeling pretty cocky and please with myself that I hadn't yet caught one of the nasty viruses flying around, seemingly affecting everyone but me.

Yeah. Operative word there being *was*.

Got on the elliptical last night and really gave her hell. Woke up at 3:30 a.m with a sore throat. Today I have a sniffle, blocked ears and a sore throat. Yay. Sometimes I can work a bug out of my system. Not this time. I wasn't even aware there was a bug working on me.

I took a day off for my little guy on Friday so I really can't take one today. I'll survive. I just hope I don't give it to anyone else.

So there is my bit of whining for the day.

What's Hot?

Gena Showalter does Beefcake Monday each week. It's always a pic of a very pretty, ripped guy with very little clothes on if any at all. Pretty indeed. I love Gena. She rocks.

But what really is hot? I think that what is pleasing to the eye isn't always what gets somebody's motor running. I used to work with a girl who liked sculpted construction workers. She wanted somebody who was ripped, dirty, and would get the job done with as little conversation as possible. That was her dream guy.

Although I confess to checking out a ripped construction worker while I'm passing them in my truck (but not too much, or I'd risk running them over. I have terrible space perception), that isn't what gets me where I live.

The worst thing a person can do to me is to bore me. It's personality that really gets me. A guy has to be interesting for me to be interested. If he can make me laugh, that's more than half the battle.

I don't have to be entertained all the time. In fact, that would exhaust me. But it's not a pretty face and hot bod that does it for me. It's character.

The closest I could find to what I like is Harrison Ford.

A face with character. Personality paired with a mischievous and boyish grin.

Most of all, somebody who is kind. A sincere heart.

Yeah. That's what I'm talking about.

Theme Song

The theme song for the rest of the current book. I'm in middle. Things are gettin' good. But I'm always exhausted after writing from the middle section on a book on. Especially if there's a lot of action going on. Anyway, I'm playing this song a lot.

Sick Puppies - You're Going Down

Home

Sitter and her daughter have strep, so I'm keeping my little guy home. Took him to the doc and his initial test is negative, but what worries me is what he might've caught while waiting at the doc.

He's napping, so bonus writing session.

Chuggin' Along

I've almost reached the halfway point in the current book, rough draft. I'm always surprised when things happen that I didn't predict, but work perfectly for the story. I always have main events plotted out in my mind map which I know have to happen, and sometimes these change, but stuff always pops up that I didn't plan.

Throws me a curve. Sometimes things will happen and I don't know why right away, but there is usually a reason for it, and it makes sense later on in the story. Always freaks me out, because it's like my subconscious knows better than my conscious mind does. I really have to trust myself, and sometimes this is difficult because I'm kind of running blind on it. But it usually works out.

This is the magic of creating a story, and I love it. There is nothing like the rush, the high of everything coming together, coalecing. Wow.

So I'm at that point where I need to trust myself. Stuff is happening that I didn't plan, seemingly from out of nowhere, and I know there are reasons for them, but it's hard to just let go when I don't know what those reasons are.

But then, that's the fun of this thing we call writing. Taking a walk in those deep, dark woods to see what you'll find, or what will find you.

But I Don't Waaaannaaa!

Ugh. I'm at a point in my current book where something really horrible has to happen. I keep arguing with myself, trying to find ways that it doesn't happen, but I keep coming right back to this point.

It is a horrible, terrible, heartwrenching thing. But it has to happen. Chickening out because I love the character isn't fair to the story.

But I still don't want to do it. I just don't want to. So I'm staring at the blinking curser, still arguing with myself.

Wasting time because I'm a softy.

Ugh!

*Waving*

Oh hi! I'm over at Laura's today. Drop in and see us!

Spooky Photo

Lovin' this.

:Yaaawn:

My little guy has been off. He hasn't been feeling all that well this weekend, and he fell and bashed his little lip at the sitter's, so he's been having a rough time. He hasn't been sleeping all that well, which means I haven't been sleeping all that well. So I'm exhausted.

I had a pretty good writing day yesterday. But nothing today because I had to take him to the doc to get his mouth checked, and then he wouldn't nap for me. It might've been the four chocolate chip cookies I gave him while we were shopping. But they were soft. I knew I'd suffer for it but it was okay because they wouldn't hurt his mouth.

As soon as he drops off I'm off.

I'm going to bed early with a book. I'm shot.

Just realized that Tender is the Night was cut short on my playlist. Fixed now. Love that tune.

Me and my Girl

This was taken when my girl Tasha was still with me. I still miss her so much. She used to smile like that a lot.

The new pic on the side bar is from a couple of years ago. My mother took both of these.

Crazy

This has been a crazy week. We're short a person in the office and we always feel it when a person is missing. We're all holding our own. Just takes a little bit extra.

Waiting for my little guy to fall asleep so that I can get on the elliptical. I need to just work myself into a nice, luxurious exhaustion. Helps with the creative process too. And I sleep like the dead after. Which is good, since I'm a very light sleeper usually.

I never was a good sleeper. And when I'm geeking out on a book, it's worse. I have scenes playing out in my mind before, during and after sleep. I dream of the characters, work out problems in my sleep.

But working myself until I almost drop helps me to shut it all down. Or at least quiet it down to a dull roar. Not so much technicolor.

Okay, I'm off.

Damn

I broke the gold chain that holds the celtic cross my mother gave me. Taking off a friggin' turtleneck sweater. I've taken turtleneck sweaters off a billion times and this never happened.

*Sigh*

I'll find another one eventually. I'm just sad because I can't wear the cross without the chain and I don't have another one, so I have wait to get a chain to wear the cross again. I feel naked without it.

My good luck charm.

Off to go over my mind map for the current work in progress. I'm planning on some power writing sessions this weekend so I want to have my ducks in a row.

At LSB

I'm blogging at the LSB today! Be there or be square!

Teehe!

I'm tickled by this. We're on the Romance Buzz site :) and we're also live at Liquid Silver Books.

My newest baby is out there. For all to see. I'm a little freaked out, as I always am when I have a new release coming out. But the story came from the heart and I gave it my all. I hope I did Mia justice.

Wow. I'm shot. There's a reason I don't usually blog on Mondays.

Can't string two coherent thoughts together. I'm off to cuddle up in my flannel pjs, in my flannel sheets, with a book.

Release Day!

Release day! Woohoo! The Oct installment of Hearts Afire will be released after 7 pm Est time tonight!

YAh!

Flyby Post

Release day tomorrow. Woohoo! Not much to say today. Just buzzing around, trying to prepare myself mentally.

I did post another playlist, though. Whoever posted this file for Magic Carpet Ride on project playlist made a typo in the name Steppenwolf, and used a "d" instead of an "f", but it's the clearest version I could find.

Burning Souls Excerpt

I can't get the paragraphs to load exactly right, but here is an excerpt of the new release. This is actually the first scene of the book.

Liquid Silver Books Hearts Afire Series - October Installment

Excerpt: Burning Souls

They’re burning alive. God help them. Mia Nolan stared, wide-eyed, at the house as she parked her car along the beautiful, tree-lined street. She was a safe distance away, but felt as if she were in that house, eyes stinging, throat choked with black smoke. She heard the fire raging in her ears.

Without realizing it, she ran toward the house. An upper window burst and flames shot through, like feelers, searching for something, anything to devour. She heard the smoke-stifled whimpers of a small child. Closed her eyes and felt a small, confined space around her. A crack of light. Cupboard doors. The child was in a downstairs cupboard.

“She’s still in there,” she murmured.Her eyes flew open. “She’s still in there!” She barely heard her voice. Blood roared in her ears.

She ran at the house just as a fireman rushed out with a child under each arm, running toward the safety of an ambulance.

“In the kitchen cupboard!” She screamed at him.He turned and looked at her. Dark eyes. Burnished skin.

It was him. Her heart almost stopped as recognition flashed in his eyes.
Something electric passed between them. Mia caught her breath. The girl was still in there.

“Under the sink! The cupboard under the sink! Hurry!”

He deposited the children into the waiting arms of an EMT, then turned and ran into the house.

Mia couldn’t get enough breath into her lungs. Her heart thumped double-time. “Please, God. Please, God,” she coughed between ragged breaths. She bent over, hands on her knees, and watched the door. Seconds seems like eons.

She closed her eyes and saw the cupboard doors opening. Arms reached in for her.

Then they were bursting through the door toward safety.Mia fell on her knees and sobbed.

“Thank you,” she cried to the heavens. “Thank you.”

She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay, ma’am?”

She looked up to see the concerned eyes of an EMT.“Come on. We need to check you out.”

Her brain was buzzing. She didn’t want anyone touching her. Prodding her. “No, I’m fine. Really.

Better than fine. They’re all okay, aren’t they?”

He nodded. “Looks that way. Very lucky family.”

“I need a few moments. Just shaken. That’s all.”

“We all are.” He patted her shoulder. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Okay. We’re just over there if you change your mind.”

He gestured to the nearby ambulance.“Thank you. I’ll keep it in mind.”He turned to leave.She caught his arm. “Excuse me. Do you know the name of that firefighter?”

“Which one?”

Of course. There were several firefighters on the scene.

“The one who brought the three kids out.”“Yeah. That’s Josh. Josh Waters.”

Mia held herself steady while a fresh wave of dizziness moved over her. “Thanks.”

The ambulance worker moved away but she barely noticed.

It was him. After all these years, she was finally face-to-face with the man who saved her from a burning house eleven years ago.

He’d saved her life, and she hated him for it.

My Little Bean and I

Taken Oct 1st.

Conversation Snippet

Not long ago a very pretty guy came in, whom my pal at the front desk has taken quite a shine to:

She: "Oh my God. That's that guy I was telling you about."
Me: "Christ. He looks like something off the cover of a romance novel. Fabio. Look at that ponytail."

He swaggers over, gleaming smile sparkling. He *knows* he's got it going on. He asks her how it's going, tossing his hair a little.

I walk away, trying not to laugh. Ugh.

After he leaves she gets water and says, "I should be splashing this on my face instead of drinking it."

Me: "He's too pretty. Never date anyone prettier than yourself."
She: "Who said anything about dating?"

Haha!