I know I've seen that dress

Tonight, after a margarita and not much to eat, my friend and I went to the mall (she'd had a long island iced tea). We went to several shops (including the bookstore where we'd gone today during lunch, with me buying four books then) including Foleys.

When we were in Foleys we both took several dresses into the fitting room to try on. Well, she tried on this one dress that she wanted to buy. Here was our conversation:

Her: What do you think?
Me: I like it but you have one very similar to that, don't you?
Her: No.
Me: Yes you do. It's just like that one!
Her: No, I don't.
Me: Yes you do, I've seen it!
Her: (trying not to sound annoyed) No, I don't. I don't own a single dress with polka dots.
Me: (also trying not to sound annoyed because I can't understand why she's denying having a dress like the one she wants to buy) Yes, you do. (pause) I've seen it! You've worn it to work!
Her: No! I don't! I don't have any dresses with a belt either. (pause) I do have a dress with polka dots. I wore it yesterday.
Me: Not that one. You have one that looks like the one you're wearing now!
Her: (looking in the mirror) No I don't. (pausing, cocking her head to the side) You know, this kind of looks like the dress from Pretty Woman, doesn't it?
Me: (realizing THAT'S where I've seen the dress before) Um, yeah, it does. (pause) That might be where I've seen it before.

And here's the dress.....

Double Standards?

I've been reading the responses to my last entry and I started to respond and I realized that my response was more than a "comment"...it was its own blog entry - well, I think so anyway.

It started as a question of how it would impact a relationship if the woman made more than the man. The words "moocher" and "loser" came up. Exactly the words that came to my mind.

Then I started thinking...what about all the women who are stay at home wives and mothers? In fact, if I were married right now, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be working - in an office at least. I might be working full time on that first chapter of the book I keep re-writing (over and over and over again - most authors look forward to writing "the end"...I look forward to writing "chapter two", but I digress). I know that when I was married, I didn't work - by choice - a lot of the time. I figured I had "options" and I'd opted not to work - I wanted to be a housewife. My husband had no such options (except when his father was dying and I was the sole support for the better part of a year and a half - but I never had any misgivings about that, then or now).

Fact is, we live in a society that looks down on men who don't work, whether by choice or not. Women, on the other hand, have options. Those options are the only thing that make me think I might consider getting married again. But again, I wouldn't consider that my husband had the same options. Not only would he need to work, he'd need to make no less than I make because he'd have to be able to support me in the manner that I could support myself. And if he wanted to be able to do anything at all - ever - he'd need to make more than that so he could do things too. That's just how it is.

And our society supports that. Would a woman be referred to as moocher or a loser if she opted not to work? Probably not. Is it fair? I'd say no. Would I still quit my job if I were married?

In a heartbeat!

Starving Artists

This morning on the drive to work I was listening to my favorite DJ team (Roula and Ryan). The topic was women making more money than men...how does it affect the relationship - or does it?

A number of people called in with their opinions on the matter. (Personally I believe it was a contributing factor in my divorce (from his perspective) but I didn't call in.

But it did remind me of a dating relationship I was in about 10-11 years ago. I was taking college classes - my favorite of which was ceramics, which happens to be where I met this guy. This guy was an incredibly gifted artist. He could sculpt anything. I watched him do a bust of his cousin, touching his cousin's face and then feeling the clay under his hands and then molding it to where, when he was done, it looked exactly like his cousin - exactly like his cousin. (He also was a gifted painter but I didn't know that until we went out and I saw his paintings...but I'm jumping a bit ahead in the story.)

So this guy (whose name I can't remember now) asked me for my phone number. He was cute, he was talented, so I gave it to him. He called me a few days later and asked me out. I agreed to go out with him and he mentioned a transportation issue he was having so I offered to pick him up in my brand new car.

When I got to his house I saw that it needed some work. He was living in a trailer that had no porch or stairs so he basically had to pull me up in the front door to give me the "grand tour".

First thing I found out was that he didn't have running water. I see a few issues with that like, what does he do when he need to use the restroom and / or take a shower. And I asked him that. Basically he told me that if he just needs to pee, he goes out back and does his business. Anything more major and he would go to his neighbors or a nearby gas station. (Talk about your crappy neighbor! LOL) And he would hose himself down at the neighbors or ask to use their shower, as necessary.

I wasn't impressed so far (I also found out that he'd called me from a pay phone because he couldn't afford a phone either).

But we leave on our date...a movie.

We get to the theater and are getting out of the car when he announces, "Um, by the way, I don't have any money."

Inwardly I'm wondering WHY this didn't come up before this particular point in time. Outwardly, my non-confrontational self says, "That's okay. I'll pay for the tickets." And I did.

After the movie he asks me if I want to go get something to eat. Inwardly I'm thinking, "how stupid do I look? Did you get some money while we were at the movie???" Outwardly I said, "No, I ate before I picked you up, but thanks for asking."

I took him home and never saw him outside of class again.

So yeah, it was a bit of a problem that I made (so much) more than this guy. And as I said, I honestly believe it was a contributing factor (for my husband) in my divorce.

What about you? Do you think it makes a difference if the woman in the relationship makes more than the man? And why or why not?

Code Word Booby

I was blog hopping earlier and I came across an interesting post by Kim Amburn. It seems her young son was injured at school and when he was asked where he hurt, he told them his penis hurt. The mother was called and told this was unacceptable language - that he should refer to his penis as "down there" or his "private area".

She didn't get it, and neither do I. It's not like he was saying his dick was hurt or that his manhood was "throbbing". (Yeah I know...I'm groaning myself.)

I don't remember having these issues growing up. I don't remember having special names for "those" areas. (Although, my oldest sister says my mother told her to call her vagina her "tiny baby"...I didn't get that talk.)

I do, however, remember my niece coming over to my house for the weekend and my (ex) husband and I having a friend from work come by. She'd (the friend) brought her dogs and we were all in the backyard, seeing how my dogs would get along with her dogs. My doberman (male dog) hiked his legs to pee over something one of my friend's dogs peed on. When he did, my niece says "HE HAS A PECKER!" The adults all laughed that nervous laugh you have when you don't know what to say and said nothing.

So my niece repeated it. "HE HAS A PECKER." But that wasn't enough. She turned to my (ex) husband and said, "Do you have a pecker Uncle James?" I tried to calmly tell her that wasn't nice and to please stop saying that so she just got louder (that's just how she is). "MY DADDY HAS A PECKER. UNCLE JAMES, YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PECKER TOO. YOU DO HAVE A PECKER DON'T YOU?" This went on for a while...in front of our company.

Later that evening I called my sister, who told me, "She knew 'boys' had something different and I didn't know what to call it so I told her it was a pecker." And she laughed about it.

Personally, I'd rather it be called what it is...a penis. But that's just me.

Keeping the Reader in the Story

I did a book reading marathon this weekend, reading six books in three days and kind of a theme that followed (in hindsight, that is) was, keeping the reader in the story...what pulls you out.

Okay, so let me say upfront that I liked all the books but there were a couple of things that pulled me out of the story.

First I read Nancy Block's Once Upon a Pirate:

Here's what got to me with this book...The heroine falls through a hole in her home onto a pirate ship. She looks up to see the pirate and he has dark (black) chest hair with a little gray.

Anything jump out at you yet? The hero on the cover of the book has ZERO chest hair. None, zip, nada. Yet in the book it's referenced a number of times and the heroine enjoys running her hands through his chest hair.

Now, I know it's not at all the author's fault but every time there was a reference to his chest hair, I flipped over to the cover. Drove me nuts and pulled me out of the story.

Other than that, it was a fun time-travel book. (Think seasick pirate. ;o) )


Next I read Linda Barrett's Reluctant Housemates.

The issue I had with this book also had to do with the cover. The heroine in the story had short hair...as short as the hero's hair. Yet on the cover, the heroine's hair is down her back. Again, not the author's fault but it was a distraction. Other than that, I absolutely loved this book, as I have all of them in this series.


Next I read Debra Clopton's And Baby Makes Five:


This was my first ever Inspirational book. I met Debra at the airport in Houston, waiting to catch our flight to Atlanta. She was a very sweet woman with a distinct accent (and as such I heard every single one of her characters with that same accent).

My "problem" with this story was that, the book starts off with a pregnant, unmarried heroine - and no explanation. It shocked me, being that it was an inspirational book. You're well into the book before it is explained that she was married but her husband, not interested in being a father, left her as soon as he found out she was pregnant. Other than that, I really liked the book. Samantha was my favorite character. :o)


After that I read Shane Bolks' Reality TV Bites:

Only complaint was a secondary character, Rory. Shane's book, The Good The Bad and the Ugly Men I've Dated was not a favorite of mine (even though it was up for a Rita this year for best first book) because Rory was soooooooooo into Star Wars and I'm so not. She would make comments that would only make sense if you were a Star Wars fan and so I didn't get a lot of that book. So, having her in this book doing the same thing annoyed the heck out of me. Thankfully she wasn't in the book much. This was a fun book to read and I enjoyed it.


Next, I read Emily McKay's Surrogate and Wife:


The heroine looks very young on the cover. In the story she's a judge...who's afraid of losing her job because she's pregnant and unmarried. I might not have been bothered at all, if she didn't have the job/profession she did. Other than that, I really liked the book. I liked the way they built the relationship. Good book.


And lastly, I read Erica Spindler's Cause for Alarm:

Only beef was I couldn't read it fast enough. I love her books!


As I said, I enjoyed all the books but sometimes little things can stand out.

So, what sort of things pull you out of the story when you're reading a book?

New Favorite Book of All Time

Several years ago, in a Dallas airport, as I waited for my connecting flight, I read a couple of chapters of John Grisham's Skipping Christmas. I was reading a particular scene that tickled my funnybone immensely. I was in a public place and I couldn't stop laughing to save my life (seriously, I couldn't). Finally, after about five minutes of uninterrupted hysterical laughing, someone came up to me and said, "Excuse me. What are you reading?" Unable to stop laughing, I flashed the cover at them. Of course, John Grisham doesn't normally write funny books but this wasn't your typical Grisham book - it wasn't even remotely a thriller - so they just looked funny at me. When I continued to laugh, they commented that they might have to read it, since it was so funny.

The Red Hat Club Rides Again had me laughing so hard my sides hurt and tears were streaming down my face. And it wasn't just for one or two scenes. About eighty percent of the book had me laughing that hard (and Honey, if you're reading this, I did a LOT of snorting-laughing with this book). The other twenty percent of the book tugged at the heart strings though. It was a very touching book about friendships and loving your friends, no matter what. Friends for more than thirty years, these six women have been through it all together. Marriage, divorce, death, cancer, drug and alcohol addictions, and they are there for each other - no matter what (it's one of the "traditions"). And even though the women are in their fifties, the humor is ageless. The things happening are not age specific and could happen to anyone in their twenties or thirties or forties. It's a story about life and love.

If I had been reading this book in the Dallas airport, instead of Skipping Christmas, no doubt security would have been called in to subdue me.

The Red Hat Club Rides Again was such a fun read - I couldn't put it down. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you get an opportunity to read this book - DO IT! You won't regret it!

Meanwhile, this book whore has already ordered The Red Hat Club (Rides Again is the sequel), even though I still have a gazillion more books from Atlanta that I've not yet read. And I don't bear even the slightest regret or guilt. ;o)

Vamps

I picked up an autographed copy of Vamps and the City while in Atlanta and sat down today to read the follow up of How to Marry A Millionaire Vampire (which I made comments about here). I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending to How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire but Vamps and the City addressed the issues I was frustrated with. My frustration might compare to watching The Wizard of Oz and at the end when the good witch tells Dorothy she's always had the power to go home, if they stopped the movie there and rolled the credits. You'd be wondering "did Dorothy figure out what to do? Did someone tell her? Did she make it home? What happened?"

Of course, having the "wrap-up" in another book would be like later telling the Scarecrow's story and, indirectly, letting the reader know that Dorothy made it home okay - and how.

But it was done in Vamps and the City without being intrusive into this story. I really liked this book. Even Gregori "I'm too sexy for my fangs" was in it and still as adorable as ever. :o)

Now for the blurb:

Who says a vamp can't have it all?

Darcy Newhart thought it was a stroke of genius -- the first-ever reality TV show where mortals vie with vampires for the title of The Sexiest Man on EArth. As the show's director, Darcy's career would be on track again. And she can finally have a life apart from the vampire harem. Okay, so she's still technically dead, but tow out of three's not bad. Now she just has to make sure that a mortal doesn't win. If only she wasn't so distracted by a super-sexy and live contestant named Austin...

But Darcy doesn't know the worst of it. Austin Erickson is actually a vampire slayer! And he's got his eye on the show's leggy blond director. Only problem is, he's never wanted any woman--living or dead--as badly. But if he wins her heart, will he lose his soul? And if it means an eternity of hot, passionate loving with Darcy, does that really matter anyway?

15 Things I learned in Atlanta

15. Burger King does not sell alcohol (okay, I knew that going in but apparently the other parties in the car didn't)

14. You can be a multi-published, big name author and still be a nice person

13. You can be an unpublished nobody and still be a snot

12. The fact that there are plenty of free books for everyone doesn't mean you won't get trampled as you head for the one book you don't have (apologies to all I may have hurt in my endeavors)

11. One can never have too many books

10. No amount of perfume will cover up the fact that you haven't bathed in four days

9. Not all perfume smells good

8. If the elevator doors open, regardless of the direction it's going, if it has room for you to get in, GET ON THE ELEVATOR

7. Pressing up against the elevator panel can result in your ass pressing the emergency button

6. Your ass pressing the emergency button will result in the elevator stopping, doors opening and an alarm to sound

5. Someone can attend ONE workshop and determine that the whole conference sucks

4. Everyone else can attend the same workshop and think it was the best workshop offered

3. You can learn a lot by hanging out in the bar (some would say this just applies to RWA Conferences but I may have to do some "research" before I reach a determination on that point ;o) )

2. One not used to wearing a cell phone on their hip can freak out the first time it vibrates, assuming they're dying (they'll later pay people to call them but that's another story)

And the number one thing I learned in Atlanta.....

1. Tiara or no tiara, Melissa Francis is one of the warmest, most genuine people you can hope to meet (even though she called me a bitch and told me she hated me...I know she really she loves me)

Hungry Dogs

I came home from Atlanta to an empty kitchen. And by empty I mean no food. So I stopped by the grocery store after work yesterday to restock my kitchen.

Among the items I bought were my muffins. I have a 5-point muffin every morning. I love those muffins. I look forward to those muffins. I dream about those muffins. They are what keep me going.

Did I mention that my dogs love those muffins too? I'm sometimes bad about putting away my groceries though. I'll put away what absolutely HAS to be put away and then leave the rest for later. But I've learned that certain things (like my muffins) need to be put WAY out of reach of my dogs, otherwise they "disappear" in the night. (Literally!)

Well, last night was a lazy night and I only put away what HAD to be put away and totally forgot about the muffins.....totally! So when I got up this morning, looking forward to having a muffin, they're gone.

My dogs were dancing at my feet, waiting for their morning treat, and I'm digging through the bags looking for my muffins (and cussing because I know I'm not going to find them - at least not inside the house).

I went outside (I have a doggy door for my dogs, in case you didn't know) and sure enough, there were the remains of my muffins. While I was asleep, my dogs drug the muffins outside and ate them. Thus proving the saying, "You snooze, you lose." *sigh*


Okay, I just remembered that the books I shipped home were there when I got home last night with my groceries. I was so excited and now that I really think about it, I'm probably very lucky that my WW ice cream isn't melted all over my kitchen floor. So, my apologies to my dogs for all the bad names I was calling them...it's really more my fault than theirs. But dang, I really wanted my muffin this morning. :(

Excuse me, Adult Beverage Please?

Go here for the scoop on Mel and SEP (Mel admitted it and there were witnesses).

Okay, with that out the way...

After several weather-related flight delays, I made it to Atlanta about 5:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. My roommate had rented a car and we'd picked up another chaptermate at the airport so there were three of us headed to the hotel. JoAnne (the other chaptermate) had asked if we could stop by a liquor store to get her some alcohol (to help her sleep...at least that was the "official" story). We said we would.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine was scheduled to have surgery on Wednesday and I hadn't gotten to talk to her Monday so I was trying to call her all morning Tuesday (while we waited for the danged plane!) without success. So Tuesday, as we're headed to the hotel, I finally reach her and I'm telling her about the events of the morning when the car I'm in pulls into a shopping strip parking lot. I assume we've found a liquor store but instead we pull into the drive thru of a McDonald's or Burger King or something, anyway... They pull up and order two cokes (I'd said I didn't want anything), which is fine but I was a little confused - didn't we want alcohol??? But I was on the phone, so I said nothing. These women pull up to the window and say - I swear this is what they said - "Do you know where we can get some alcohol?"

I wish I could have gotten a picture of the poor girl's face when they asked for liquor at a drive thru window! Poor girl probably thought I was on the phone trying to score some drugs from my dealer. Seriously, what kind of lush thinks they can get alcohol at a drive thru? LOL

Probably not the best impression to make in a new city. Welcome to Atlanta!

Oh, and we never did find the alcohol. *sigh*

What a dork am I

I probably shouldn’t admit this but I may be the only person (female in particular) on the planet who cannot identify Hugh Jackman. I know he’s a popular actor but I don’t know who he is (know the name though), and don’t know that I’ve ever seen a movie he’s been in. And, you know, I’m okay with that. (Even now.)

So when they did a clip from his movie Paperback Hero (thanks to Blogging National for that info) at the awards ceremony Saturday night, I thought it was a "staged" thing. THEN, when the women on either side of me say, "Ohmigod, that’s Hugh Jackman!" I, having never seen Paperback Hero and not realizing it’s a clip from a movie, jump to the conclusion that RWA has hired Mr. Jackman for this little performance. Seriously, that is what I was thinking as I watched that. I’m thinking they opened the purse strings and shelled out for a spot with Hugh Jackman. I’m that stupid.

It wasn’t until they started showing clips from other movies (that I knew) that I realized what they were doing and that the clip with THE Hugh Jackman was probably from an actual movie. And now, all I can think is I want to see that movie.

I’m such a dork.

~L

RWA National

Well, I made it home, safe and sound (so did the boys).

I would post pictures but the only one I have on my camera was of my roommate in bed (I was testing the camera to see if I remembered how to use it), and while she doesn't know this blog exists (few do), I don't think she would appreciate me posting that picture. HOWEVER, she took a bunch of pictures for (and of) me that she said she would email to me so I will be posting some in the near future.

As for National, suffice it to say, I had a wonderful time. If I can be perfectly candid (and who's going to stop me?), I was considering leaving RWA altogether. It's not that I've been depressed or discouraged but more dispassionate about writing and my membership dues are due at the end of this month. But a week or so ago, Claire Cross/Delacroix posted a blog entry that made me want to stay in RWA (and I renewed my membership a day or two before I left to go to Atlanta). And National got me motivated again.

But here's the deal...it wasn't a workshop I went to that did it. No. Thursday night (during Moonlight Madness) my roommate and I went to the bar and got a table (and if you were in Atlanta, you know that was no small feat). It was a large table and only the two of us sitting at it. We saw these two women looking for a place to sit down and told them we had room at our table - and they joined us. They were both published authors (Nancy Block and Sharon Schulze). They could not have been more open and giving of their time and knowledge. We visited until well after midnight (missing the entire MM, which we'd planned on going to...well, we had stopped by when it opened but it was way too busy to stay then, which is why we went to the bar, so technically, it was that we never made it back to MM...if you want to be technical). By the end of the night, I had a renewed desire to write and felt like I'd made two new friends (we saw them several times more during the conference and Nancy and I even have a "challenge" going about writing - it was so cool!). For me, that was the best thing of the conference - bar none. And, not that I have a problem or anything (I came home with thirty pounds of books, not to mention I shipped another thirty pounds of books home.), but the first thing I did when I got home was order Nancy's book - and I can't wait for it to arrive so I can read it.

But enough about that...tomorrow (or one day soon), I'll tell you about being witness to Mel making Susan Elizabeth Phillips cry.

Until then.....

~L

Do you see what I see?

So, yesterday I went to my Weight Watchers meeting like I do every Tuesday. I usually wear the same thing each week. I have two shirts that the only difference is the color (although one fits looser) and I usually alternate those with my pants. The shirt has a light jacket that I remove for the weigh in (the white one, I know for a fact, weighs .6 of a pound).

Yesterday I wore a dress instead of my usual weigh in outfit (it's a laundry issue...totally forgot..anyway...). I'm going to try to describe the dress so that you know what I was dealing with. The dress is in two pieces. The "skirt" portion of the dress is like a full dress except that the top portion of the "dress" is not intended for viewing by the general public...it just holds the "skirt" portion up. It's not obscene or anything but the top half of the skirt portion is definitely "under" wear. Then there is the top portion of the outfit. It has a button down shirt with delicate buttons (it's a very nice outfit - very professional looking) on the front. This portion of the outfit is necessary...repeat, necessary! Hopefully that gives you an idea of what it looks like?

So anyway I walk into Weight Watchers wearing this. I had been bad most of the week and I was feeling particularly "fat" when I went into the meeting but I'm a believer in weighing in anyway (particularly since I won't be able to next week...vacation and all), not to mention I didn't want three weeks to go by with no weigh in. So I step up to the scale and tell the person (Betty Jo) "don't look yet...let me see first."

Betty Jo graciously accommodated me. And I stepped on the scale. I'd figured I'd gone up in weight but it was slightly more than I'd hoped (I won't say expected because I was pretty bad last week) and I gasped. Betty Jo immediately suggested I might want to take off the "shirt" portion of my outfit (assuming it was two-piece, which, as I mentioned, it is) to weigh.

I really was surprised by this because when I've suggested it (jokingly) in the past, she shot the idea down.

There were only three of us in the room at the time and she got up to close the doors and she and the other woman stood in front of the door windows (yes, the doors have windows in them) so that no one would see me "stripping" to weigh in. Then, for some reason still unknown to me, I took the shirt off and weighed (it also weighs .6 of a pound, in case you were wondering).

The second I stepped off the scale the two women stepped away from the door windows. Now you may have noticed that I didn't say I'd put the shirt back on...because I hadn't. I'm still standing there "exposed" when they stepped away from the windows. I'm mentioning this fact when someone swings one of the doors open wide and comes in.

Of course, I'm freaking out, frantically trying to get dressed before anyone else walks in (or by) because stripping at work is just not my thing.

At that point I hadn't decided if I was going to stay for the actual meeting but they talked me into it so I went up to get my lunch. I stood in the coffee bar visiting with several people (telling a couple about being "naked" in the conference room with the door flying open lol) as my lunch heated up. I go back to the meeting, sit through it and then go back to my office and work.

A couple of hours had passed and I had talked with a number of people. Gotten up and done things, had people come in my office, etc. And then I had to go to the Ladies Room.

I do my thing and am washing my hands, looking in the mirror when I realize...I'm not properly buttoned up!!! In my rush to get dressed I'd missed buttoned myself. And no one told me.

And this, my friends, is why I have the policy of no stripping at work.

Dentists vs. Housekeepers

It's official. I've given in. I'm hiring a housekeeper to come clean my house this weekend. The dust bunnies have dust bunnies and it's time some serious attention is given to it - and I don't want to do it so I've called in the experts.

But here's the deal...I'm sitting in my living room thinking "can I let them see my living room like this? maybe I should pick up a little." Then I go into the bedroom and think "there's two inches of dust on the dresser, maybe I should just dust a little." Bathroom "I really use it when it looks like this??? I can't let anyone else see it like this...I'll just scrub the toilet...and the bathtub...and the floor."

Then I think, "why am I going to pay them to clean my house if I'm going to clean it first?" That is, after all, why I'm hiring them. Right?

So I did an informal poll at work, asking people if they had someone come out to clean their house, would they "clean" before the housekeepers got there?

The majority said no, that that is why you were paying them. It was their job to clean - don't do it for them.

One person started giving me a lecture on that point so finally I looked at her and said, "Okay then. Answer me this. Do you brush your teeth before you go to the dentist?"

She looked at me like I'd grown a third breast or something and said, "Yes. Of course!"

"Why?" I asked. "Aren't you paying him to clean your teeth? Doesn't that mean you're doing his job for him?"

Funny, she didn't have a quick comeback for that.

Great Summer Read - FINALLY OUT!

Sandra K. Moore has a knack for continually upping the level of suspense, and with Dead Reckoning, she delivers more than promised. I highly recommend Dead Reckoning.

Chris Hampton was used to bailing her younger sister out of tight spots, but discovering Natalie needed rescuing from her abusive, drug-smuggling husband, was definitely new territory.

Reluctantly, Chris accepts help from DEA Special Agents "Smitty" and Connor. They set out on her 70-foot motor yacht, Obsession, to take advantage of a two-day window of opportunity before Natalie leaves her husband’s private, highly guarded, island. Chris has no room for navigational error.

The stakes go even higher when she finds strange equipment concealed onboard Obsession, and discovers that someone is stalking her, believing she’s hiding a stolen fortune.

Despite her best efforts to stay focused, Chris finds herself responding to the advances of both agents. But after an "accident" in the engine room nearly costs Chris her life and the discovery of a dead body in the salon, Chris realizes that someone on her boat will do anything to stop her.

Torn, Chris doesn’t know who to trust. She’s drawn to Connor, but fears he is trying to seduce her merely to distract her from her purpose. And is Smitty really suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, as he claims, or is he pretending in order to further his own deadly agenda?

I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Reckoning. The flow was fast paced, and I was drawn in from page one. I was there with Chris, sharing her love of boating as she risks all to go after her sister. I suffered through her upheavals, doubts, and fears. And, I was there with her in the end when she is heart-wrenchingly forced to choose between the two things she loves most in the world.

Will Chris be able to survive and save her sister?

I'm too sexy for my fangs...

This is for Maria, who said she likes blogs about books. :-)

I just finished reading How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks. I'm not particularly drawn to vampire stories (I know they're hot right now but I don't feel the pull) so it's been easy to resist buying this one in the past.

That was until last Thursday when I went to dinner with a friend (and had a margarita) and then followed that up with a trip to the bookstore. I was happily shopping the aisles of books, telling stories of different authors (and no, the friend doesn't know I write) and books as we went. She said she wanted to find a book for her daughter-in-law who liked vampire stories so I pulled this one out for her, telling her it was a local author. She started reading the back cover as I walked away and then she started laughing. I wanted to know what she was laughing at but she was laughing too hard to tell me so I picked up another book and started reading the back cover myself.

Here's the back cover contents:

Nobody said love was perfect...

Roman Draganesti is charming, handsome, and rich...he's also a vampire. But this vampire just lost one of his fangs sinking his teeth into something he shouldn't have. Now he has one night to find a dentist before his natural healing abilities close the wound, leaving him a lop-sided eater for all eternity.

Things aren't going well for Shanna Whelan, either. After witnessing a gruesome murder, she's next on the mob's hit list. And her career as a dentist appears to be on a downward spiral because she's afraid of blood. When Roman rescues her from an assassination attempt, she wonders if she's found the one man who can keep her alive. Though the attraction between them is immediate and hot, can Shanna conquer her fear of blood to fix Roman's fang? And if she does, what will prevent Roman from using his fangs on her...?

My friend and I both bought the book. :-D

I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but overall, it was a fun read. Some seriously funny moments, including one where one vampire was singing "I'm too sexy for my cape, too sexy for my fangs. Too sexy!"

Blog Etiquette, Part II

Okay, so you get a blog...what is acceptable blog material? Is it better to keep the material superficial? Personal? Business oriented? Mix it up?

Blogging is a form of journaling but how personal should it get? For instance, I used to keep a journal but I only wrote when I had something really bothering me that I needed to get off my chest and I addressed my entries to God. Letters to my heavenly Father. I didn't write every day but when I did write, it was because something was bothering me. If anyone read that journal today I think I would come across as very troubled or angry because I was when the entries were written - and that's all they'd see. Nobody wants to read that.

If I blogged that way, well, I wouldn't keep reading a blog that was only venting frustrations so why would I think anyone else would? So, I try to keep the rants (hence the blog name ;-) ) to a minimum (they still get in there occasionally though).

But my question is, what kind of blog (if you have one) do you have (see list above ;-) )? And what kind of blogs do you enjoy more? What turns you off of a blog?

Again, inquiring minds want to know. ;-)

Blog Etiquette

Have you ever thought about your obligation to your blog audience?

Should you always respond to their comments?

And as a blog reader, what obligations are there? If you read the blog do you have to post a comment?

I was thinking about this because of a particular blog I frequent. I have no idea how large her audience is (I will say that I've seen her blog link on several author's blogs and she is published herself) but what I do know is that I'm typically the only person commenting on her blog. A lot of times I don't know what to say so I say nothing but when I can think of something, I post it because I know that seeing a lot of 0 comments can be discouraging and she has interesting, thought-provoking posts.

Well, she recently posted an entry asking all her readers to post a comment so she'd know they were out there. I immediately jumped up, raised my hand, said "I'm here" then posted a comment (because she couldn't "see" me jumping up, raising my hand, and oddly enough, she couldn't hear me either...weird how that works).

But here's the deal, every time I read her entries and post a comment, she responds....once. For example, I post a comment and she posts a reply. Her reply makes me think of something else, a comment, a question, whatever, and I post another comment. She never responds back to the second comment I make...NEVER - even when I am asking a follow up question - never. So if you see her blog she either has two comments or three comments...never four or more. Not that I'm complaining, I just find that a bit odd and that could just be me.

Anyway, not all that long ago a discussion was raised somewhere that bloggers should respond to their comments, otherwise the commentors will disappear, not feeling valued (which, for the record, I know I'm bad about NOT doing that but it has more to do with my own belief that I'm a topic killer than anything else - I really do appreciate the comments!). So my question is, when is it acceptable to cut off a dialogue with someone reading / commenting on your blog? Is there a magic number - if so, what is it? Do you feel you owe it to your "audience" to respond? Would you stop commenting if you didn't get a response from the blogger? Would you stop reading their blog altogether if they didn't respond?

I guess the real question (feel free to answer as few or as many as you like :-) ) is, do you have rules you follow when it comes to blogging? If so, what are those rules.

Inquiring minds want to know. :-)

The Devil Wears Prada

I just got home from seeing The Devil Wears Prada with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. I loved it! Very Fun!

I've seen several interviews with the cast and have heard Meryl Streep say that it wasn't a fun movie to make. Not fun because, because of her role, she felt she had to maintain a distance from the rest of the cast and crew and to her, that is the best part of making a movie. (Cast members had even commented on it in their interviews.) But, the final result is she pulled off one wicked, bad-ass bitch on screen.

Anne Hathaway also did a good job with her role. However, all the movies I've seen her do, she plays the sweet, down-to-earth girl and this was no different. But, she did a great job with it.

One of my favorite lines from the movie (and mentioned as one of the actor's favorite lines) was "I'm one flu bug away from my goal weight."

Good movie. :-)

Story Ideas

It's a question that's been asked a million times but I always like to know where story ideas come from.

For me, so far anyway, there has always been a basis of fact in my ideas. For example, the story I'm working on now (a recent idea but I've been going to town on it, so to speak) came from an event that happened a week ago - at the baseball game. Since most everyone who reads this blog has access to my other one, I'll be brief in the description but it came from the kiss cam proposal that happened at the baseball game I went to. The woman had a deer-in-headlights look throughout the entire episode and the man was giddy with excitement. I never saw him ASK a question and I didn't see her give an ANSWER so what if there was a miscommunication there? Maybe the question is only implied and something she does (which actually happened), albeit inadvertently, causes him to jump to the conclusion that she's accepting the implied question. (Well, not so much implied since it was in big letters on the big screen but not actually verbalized.)

Aside from the fact that I witnessed a proposal like this recently, I've incorporated some other incidents from my personal life. Like, it's their third date and they haven't so much as kissed (or even held hands) and he's proposing. (That actually happened to me a few years back.)

But this brings me to my big question of the day. How much of your personal life / experiences do you bring to the table when forming your ideas? How much of your heroine is actually you?

Inquiring minds want to know. :-)