I've been looking at building a house. That's why I'm late blogging today--my builder came by with some pricing figures and we discussed options. All I have to say is EEK! We're not talking a lot of square footage here, but the total left me hyperventilating. And I still think I'm going to do this. I must be insane. Or if I'm not insane already, I will be by the time the house is done. Did I say EEK?

But it will be really cool. The kitchen, living room and dining room are all open with a vaulted ceiling. I'm thinking pergo floors--looks like hardwood, but holds up better and is much cheaper. It'll have a center island and because it's so open, I'll have to go with a lot of neutrals.

Three bedrooms, which will give me a master suite with a walk-in closet--I've longed for one of those--plus a really large bathroom. That's been another dream of mine. And I'll have a writing room. I'd like to use the third bedroom to set up my scrapbook stuff, but I'll probably have to get a cast off card table to work on since I won't be able to afford a desk. Did I say EEK? Washer and dryer on the main level so I won't have to run up and down stairs to do laundry. And I'm thinking I can set up all my fiction books downstairs.

I love the idea of this house, it has everything I've always wanted/liked, so when I think about that and about how great it would be to live in, I get all excited. Then I think of the cost and it's back to EEK!

The other thing that's making me go EEK is the idea of working full time, writing and meeting my deadlines, keeping the doctor appointments for my foot, mailing out promotional materials that I promised people, and building on top of all this. Sleep? What's sleep? The builder already wants me to drive out to one of his models to see a kitchen he did there and it's a half hour just to reach the place. I think I'll be hyperventilating about the time this is costing me just as much as the money. EEK!

MN Weather Report: 76 degrees. A tad humid.

If you can, please do something to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

To donate to the Red Cross, you can call 1-800-HELP NOW, or visit their website at: http://www.redcross.org. Red Cross.

For more organizations that are helping the victims, CNN has a complete listing and information on how to donate.

Yesterday, I visited the Romantic Times site and saw that the ratings for the October books were up. Heart pounding, I clicked on the Top Picks! page and crossed my fingers. When I saw Through a Crimson Veil listed there, I was able to breathe again. Whew! I don't have my copy of the magazine yet, I probably won't see it for another week, but I asked friends and acquaintances to see if anyone had their issue yet and was lucky enough to find someone who did. She was also kind enough to type in the review for me and it's wonderful! Here is the sum up paragraph from RT Bookclub:

This adventurous thriller is searing hot and filled with passion, treachery and danger. It's paranormal adventure at its ultimate!

Now I need to update my website with this! Cool!

Sometime last night, Hurricane Katrina wobbled and it sounds as if things didn't get nearly as bad in New Orleans as they'd feared. The hurricane also weakened as it came closer to land, meaning a smaller storm surge than had been predicted for a Cat 5. Of course, the storm is still horrific and it looks like just to the east of New Orleans was hit and hit hard, although it's difficult to be sure how hard since the storm is still coming ashore and there aren't many pictures yet. Still, it sounds as if the loss of life will be considerably less than what was feared when this thing was aiming for a major metropolitan area.

In non-hurricane news, my dad is driving me nuts. Yesterday, he suggests I go to Home Depot with him. I said, What? He repeated it. I was like, well, do you remember that the doctor said I'm only allowed to do minimal walking? That I'm still supposed to stay off the foot as much as possible? Somehow I don't think he had shopping at Home Depot in mind when he said I could walk to the bathroom and back. Gah!

Then this morning, less than 5 minutes after I woke up, my dad is asking me what I want for dinner. Again, I could just stare at him. All I'm thinking about that soon after waking is getting a cup of coffee. Who cares about dinner? But of course, he gets testy when I tell him that I don't care. Sigh. I don't know how he can get so obsessed about stuff like this, but he does. Maybe that's what happens when you're retired.

And speaking of work, I have to go back to my job next week. That should be interesting. First, I think the walk in from the medical permit spot to my desk is more walking than the doctor would like me to do, but I can't stay out 6 to 8 weeks over this foot. And secondly, I'll have to cross a picket line to get in. In my contract, I'm required to cross and my union has opted not to support the mechanics union. Which is no surprise since AMFA raided our union to get the mechanics. And third, there's supposed to be a ton of security to get through in front of the building where I work.

On the one hand, I'm about ready to go back to work. I'm a little tired of being asked what I want for dinner when I'm still blurry-eyed from sleeping and being at work would give me a respite from that. On the other hand, it's been nice to not have to get up at 4am, fight traffic, and spend 8.5 hours in a cube.

MN Weather Report: 76 degrees. I think it's a touch on the humid side.

Okay, so popular means two people asked for puppy pictures. :-) I found some pictures online of Siberian Huskies. I had two Siberian Husky/German Shepherd crosses and both of them were very special dogs. This picture I found made me think of one of them.



Kody was a very curious dog. If she heard something going on outside, she would jump up and look out the window, paws on the sill. If the fence had a hole like this in it, you can bet she'd have been in a pose just like this dog.



This puppy is just cute. There's nothing here that reminds me of either of my dogs. :-)

My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the people on the Gulf coast. I can only hope that somehow things don't end up being as dire as predicted.

In 2001, the RWA conference was in New Orleans. It was my first trip there, and I loved the city. It was beautiful and fun and friendly. The hotel RWA was based in was across the street from the French Quarter, and we spent a lot of time over there, walking around, shopping, having our fortunes told, watching the street performers. I even had my own personal perfume created for me. It didn't take long for New Orleans to become one of my very favorite cities, a place I planned to visit again.

Now, as I sit here, watching this huge hurricane lurking off the coast, I wonder how much of New Orleans will be left after Katrina is finished. I try to remind myself that New Orleans is a very old city, that she's withstood other hurricanes and come through. I worry about all the people there, the ones that may not be able to get out--the poor, the elderly. If even half of the dire events they're predicting come to pass, things are going to be ugly.

I stayed up late last night--too late--and when I went to bed, wind speeds on Katrina had jumped from 115 mph to 145 mph, certainly more than bad enough. But this morning when I got up, I heard 175 mph--whoa. They're saying they don't see significant weakening. They are predicting a lot of flooding too.

So New Orleans--and the people there--are on my mind and in my prayers. I can only hope for the best.

Thesaurus.com is one of my favorite sites. The main reason I'm online when I write is so I have instant access to synonyms. It's also helped me find some really obscure words that sound pretty cool. Like in Power of Two Cai writes on a quire. Got that from the online thesaurus. I've been using it for Temple of Dreams too. Kendall has a dream where she enters a chancel surrounded by a cortege. Cool!

I finished the chapter I was working on, did a little read through, made some fixes, and sent it out to my writing buddies. Heard back from one of my friends who is just getting caught up with what I wrote, and I started making changes based on a couple of things we discussed. That will be the project for the day, to finish doing a little revision.

Last night, my foot really hurt. A lot. Enough that I couldn't sleep. I finally got up around 12:30 and took some Advil. I also propped my leg up on a couple of pillows. And I still couldn't sleep. I was contemplating taking one of my pain killers again, when apparently, the Advil kicked in. I was gone in seconds. :-) This morning, I feel hung over. Gah! Fun to write when the brain is in this state. Not.

MN Weather Report: 71 degrees. Humidity dropped. Hurrah!

Heart of the Dragon
by Gena Showalter
HQN books, 037377057X

He is a Dragon, a rare breed of warriors able to transform into the legendary creature at will. Though the mighty warlord breathes fear into the minds of his enemies and fire into the blood of his women, no one has ever stirred his heart -- until he encounters Grace Carlyle of modern day Earth. He burns to possess this proud, alluring beauty . . . but he has sworn to kill her.

Set in the mythological world of Atlantis, where the gods' hid their greatest mistakes -- the vampires, demons, minotaurs, dragons and too many others to name -- Darius en Kragin is the fiercest creature of all. But this immortal warrior is unprepared for Grace and soon finds himself caught between sizzling white-hot passion and duty.

Praise:

"Sexy, funny, and downright magical!" New York Times bestselling author Katie MacAlister

"Sexy and sparkling," Award winning author Robin D. Owens

"Bold and witty, sexy and provocative, Gena Showalter's star is rising fast!" Carly Phillips New York Times Bestselling Author.

Gena's website

Excerpt from Heart of the Dragon

Buy from Barnes and Noble or Amazon

I found the cutest pictures of a sphinx cat--like the kind Rachel had on "Friends." Since I was so boring earlier today, I thought I'd resort to animal pictures to redeem myself.

Okay, so I might have walked just a little bit too much yesterday. By the time I went to bed last night, my foot was really achy. So my plan for today is to do less walking. The thing that makes me nuts, though, is I really didn't walk that much! Although I suppose after two weeks without using on that foot at all, that much is relative. Back after a little break. I needed to rinse out my coffee cup, and just walking to the sink and standing for a couple of minutes was almost too much. I can see my patience is going to be sorely tested until this break heals. But that's enough foot stuff.

By the time I got home from the doctor yesterday, more than half the day was gone. And because I haven't had enough sleep for the last week, I was exhausted. In other words, I wasn't mentally sharp enough to write. :-( I made up for the lack of sleep last night, and after I answer two email that can't wait, I'm hitting the WIP.

As you can tell from this post, I have absolutely nothing interesting to share. Sorry about that. This foot is hampering me in more ways than one. I could tell you about the ball games I watched yesterday, or mention that I drove for the first time in 2 weeks on the way home from the doctor, but I fear that's just as boring. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have something more exciting to share--even if it's only writing progress.

MN Weather Report: 75 degrees. Humid.

If you're bored to death reading about my foot, skip this note. This will only be a medical update. :-)

Good news/bad news on the doctor appointment. The good news? I can walk. The bad news? Only very short distances, like to the bathroom and back, and I have to wear my boot whenever I walk. Period. No jumping. No running. And no long distances. No barefoot dashes to the bathroom. I can shower without the boot, but that's it.

Overall, I'm thrilled. I would have preferred to walk a little more than I'm allowed, but I'm happy just to walk. I'd been using a wheelchair to get around. This doesn't give me quite the independence I was hoping for, but it is an improvement.

The break is still visible in the X-rays, and he said it could take a month--or longer--to heal. It depends on the person. The screw was also visible and he's very happy with its position and how it's situated in the bone--which is why I'm allowed to walk the short distances. I see him again in four weeks. Until then, I am trapped in the boot.

One interesting note--okay, I find it interesting--it was amazingly weird to walk. I've only been off my foot for two weeks, hardly long enough to forget how to do it or for the muscles to atrophy or whatever, but I was this huge spaz! My leg was even wobbly. Wow! I'm getting better now, but it's just the oddest sensation to do something so normal, and have it not be normal.

Wrote 8 pages yesterday, hurrah! This is about as much as I can do in a day now. How I wished I wrote faster! I didn't finish until about 9pm, though, so no entries last night. I finished the first scene, wrote a second, and started a third. Let's hope it doesn't all suck.

I have a doctor's appointment this morning, and since it takes me forever now to do anything, I'm going to have to start getting ready soon. I've got my fingers crossed that when I post next, I'll be saying I can walk again. I can't wait!

MN Weather Report: 59 degrees. Sunny.

Maybe it's because I have two packets of entries to judge for two separate contests, but my thoughts, once again, have turned to RWA chapter writing contests. The turnaround times are short, and the timing isn't the best for me, but at least these are short entries, which really helps.

A friend of mine has been judging contests recently and received two thank you notes! Her first two, ever. Which means most entrants are still not writing thank you notes. I won't get into that again, but I will repeat one thing--Thank your judges even if you think they're full of hot air.

But back to my friend. Two thank you notes, neither of whom said which entry was theirs or which contest they'd entered the story in. When I was on the contest circuit in 2001, there were unofficial "guidelines" on how to write thank you notes for judges and two of the things on the list were mention the title of your entry and mention the name of the contest. Is the information not out there any more? Oh, well, at least these two women were savvy--and well-mannered--enough to send a note.

Length of entries. I mentioned both these contests are short that I'm judging in. I won't judge long contests any more. I did it once, and that was enough. The amount of time it took from my life, and my own writing, was incredible for one thing, and for another, the editors and agents who say they know within a few pages whether or not the story is good are right on the money. For me, it's the writing. If the writing isn't sharp from the start, I've never seen it get any better. And 50 pages can seem like an eternity, especially when a judge is expected to write comments on the entry.

The comments. I always worry about these. I try as hard as I can to couch things in the kindest terms possible because I know from firsthand experience how much negative comments hurt, but I always worry about how successful I was. That's why I love the entries that have everything, and I feel, are ready to be published. I've had two of those in the years I've been judging. I've had two other entries where the writer had a great voice, lots of spark, but major plot problems. Those are fixable.

The hardest entries to judge are the ones that are competent in every way, but just, well, lack any spark. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading the writer's equivalent of Paint By the Numbers. It's so hard to comment on these stories because spark is subjective, isn't it? Just because someone didn't click with me, doesn't mean they wouldn't click with another judge. But at the same time, I owe my honest opinion. I just hate it, though. I'd rather judge an entry that needs a lot of work than one that's competent, but unexciting and/or unoriginal.

Why do I judge? For one thing, I feel like I should pay back for all the contests I entered, especially since my first sale was a direct result of a contest win. The second reason is I'd like to help out other writers. If something I spot can make a difference for them, that's fabulous. This happened for me, not on the contest circuit, but from an editor. She took the time to go through my full manuscript and pointed out things I'd never thought about. Her comments were one of the two final keys that helped me reach the stage where I was ready to be published. The third reason is finding that story that just shines. The one that has so much spark to it that you're excited that you were lucky enough to read it. That makes it all worthwhile.

I haven't started to read yet, so right now every entry holds potential to be one that gets me all excited. And as I think about beginning to judge, I also think about the writers and how they must feel, how I felt when I sent my entry off to a contest. Hopeful, nervous, eager, fretful--well, half a gazillion different things. I keep this in mind while I judge too, that this is someone's baby, the same way my stories, my heroes and heroines, are my babies. Here's to every entry being spectacular!

MN Weather Report: 69 sunny fantastic degrees!

Marianne's fire fund auction is nearly finished, at least it looks like it is. I only see two more items on the bid board at eBay. Out of curiosity, I went to see what the winning bids were on some of the items. It was totally amazing! What a wonderful response from people! Whoo hoo!!!

Is it okay to admit that some of the final bids absolutely floored me? $1000, $972, $811, $760, $754, $732. Holy moley! These were for manuscript critiques of 30 pages plus a 5 page synopsis. The $1000 bid works out to $28.57 per page! =8-O It made me wonder if the volunteer critiquers feel pressure to really give someone their money's worth when the person paid THAT much to be read.

Anyway, I can't wait to see what the grand total is and I'm glad that so many people were so generous. It looks like the auction is a total success! Hurrah!!!

Yesterday, I flipped over to QVC for a while. They had this hair stylist on named Nick Chavez who was selling his hair products. So these models came out, he'd have them bend over and flip their hair upside down. Then Nick would spray one of his products on them, they'd sit up, he'd pick at a few tresses with his fingers, and wahla! perfect hair. It was as if he were performing magic. It was totally amazing.

I did not order any products. I know that if I flip my hair upside and spray something in it, it will not look perfect when I right myself. I also know that if I had an hour, a curling iron, and every other hair tool I own, I still couldn't duplicate what he did so effortlessly.

Writing went well on Sunday, dropping that other scene was definitely the right decision. I wish I could do it faster, but I'm slow. I didn't use to be. I used to be able to write 20 pages in a day. I haven't been able to do that in years and years, though. Some day, I guess I should read through the book where the pages just came flowing out of me and see if I had the depth there that I do now. Of course, skill level might have something to do with that too and it would be difficult to judge if any difference is speed related or tied to getting better as a writer.

MN Weather Report: 60 fabulous, sunny degrees!

I have nothing much to say today. So far, cutting the scene I was writing and skipping to the next one is going well, but that's about all the writing news I have. Everyone must be sick of me whining about my captivity--um, I mean my immobility by now, so I'll skip that. That leaves me with sharing a quiz. I chose What Color Are You?

I'm:

Green You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature. Find out your color at Quiz Me!

I was IMing with one of my writing buddies last night. We talked about a few things, before I asked for her thoughts on RFS (oops, make that TOD). I'd spent 2 days writing 4 pages--it was frustrating as hell-- and felt like there was nothing else I could do with the scene. Her response? Why don't you just skip it and go right to the next scene?

It was definitely a "Why Didn't I Think of That" moment. As soon as she said it, I realized nothing important happens in the scene, and that what I did need to convey, I could easily drop in later, maybe in dialogue or something. It's good to have writing buddies. :-) I don't know how I survived so long without sharing my work with anyone.

In other news, the mechanics at my airline went on strike last night. :-( I hope this is resolved quickly.

MN Weather Report: 66 degrees. Sunny.

My guest blogger today is the very talented and funny Liz Maverick, creator of the Crimson City series. Liz is a world traveler, novelist, freelance travel writer, and odd-jobs specialist whose contract assignments have taken her around the globe. She's driven trucks in Antarctica, attended university in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and worked on reality TV shows in California.

Liz writes women's fiction comedy for Penguin Putnam's NAL imprint and futuristic/paranormal action romance for Dorchester and Red Sage. She's also been a finalist in the National Readers' Choice Awards, the PRISM Awards, the Daphne Awards among others.

Now, here's Liz to talk about Crimson City and other stuff.

* * *

So, I just flew in from L.A....and, boy, are my arms tired. No, seriously folks. It's great to be here, guesting on Patti's blog. I asked Patti what she thought I ought to blog about and she nixed The Bikini Wax, Part II in favor of some comments about Crimson City. Okay, fine. But I tell ya, you are missing out on some hilarious material.

I'm in the middle of writing Crimson Rogue, the final book in the series. Well, final is a relative concept. Who knows. There could be more Crimson books. But CR is the final book in the multi-author arc. Crimson City was about Dain Reston (human) and Fleur Dumont (vampire). One of the secondary characters was the jaded, slightly freaked out by demons, apparently drug-addicted bad-ass, Cydney Brighton. And somehow my editor decided to let me make her into the heroine of the CR. Which I thought was awfully nice of him, frankly, since romance heroines aren't supposed to be quite such big messes and all.

But it got me thinking about why I'm drawn to such characters. This isn't the first time I've dabbled in the gritty before. The Shadow Runners featured an ex-convict heroine. And there was the matter of those really delusional Australians who thought they were living in the English Regency when actually there were living in the future. And, of course, there's the world of Crimson City itself which has some deliciously seedy elements. And for some reason, I just love it. I love the dramatic possibility of it all. I love the bad-asses, the troubled souls, the people who are at war with both good and evil...

I'm actually a huge historical reader and two of my favorites feature heroes who come from the lower echelons of society. One is Judith Ivory's The Proposition and the other is by Lisa Kleypas. The name of the book escapes me at the moment, but his name doesn't: Derek Craven. Craven is actually a minor character in Then Came You before he gets his own book. Frankly, I think he stole the book and ran with it. (Bonus fact: Historical regencies are still my favorite romance genre to read, and Dain Reston is named in an homage to the hero of Loretta Chase's Lord of Scoundrels, my all time favorite romance novel.)

In any case, the Crimson City series indulges my taste for the dramatic flair of the gritty side of things, where people aren't always nice and don't always say appropriate things and sometimes punch the lights out of other people when you least expect it (*wink*) and somehow people manage to fall wildly in love anyway. That element is represented by the werewolf society and the underground world of informants, traitors, and rogues. What's also interesting is that the vampire world indulges my taste for the extravagance in the historicals I love so much.

I guess when I created the world of Crimson City, I subconsciously gathered elements of the things I loved most about the books I was reading along with elements I wanted to read about and couldn't find at all. And this would explain the three very different strata of Crimson City plus the demon underworld.

It's pretty damn cool, I tell ya. And when you add authors like the uber-talented Patti O'Shea to the mix, it makes the Crimson City world that much richer.

I hope you enjoy reading these as much we all enjoyed bringing them to life.

:-)

Liz

Revision 14 celebrates its 1-year anniversary August 23 to August 28 with a BUNDLE O' BOOKS giveaway bonanza! Free books, signed by the authors, will be given away every day!

It's free and easy to enter. Just log onto Revision 14, and click on the Contest Sign-Up link under FEATURES.

And to increase your chances of winning, just post a comment to any or all of the articles featured Tuesday through Saturday of that week.

Nearly 20 signed books will be given away over 5 days.

Articles featured that week will include Bloggers from Around the World who are readers and lovers of fiction. They include Candy and Sarah of Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books from the U.S.A., Maili from Britain, and Rosario from Uruguay. Signed books will be given away on the days of their posts in honor of their blogs!

And the GRAND PRIZE, BLOW-OUT giveaways is the entire 2176 series, each book signed by its author with the final book of the series signed by ALL of the authors!

Enter, and YOU could be a lucky winner!

There's construction going on, and yesterday, as I'm working on chapter 6, they made their presence known. I was working on the second scene in chapter 6, and making some good progress, when I heard this thump. The power cuts out, but comes back on almost immediately. Another thump, another off and on. I unplug the electrical cord from the laptop before the third thump. Then came the fourth thump, and the power went down and stayed down. For 2.5 hours. Those construction guys weren't going to give up. I'm sitting there thinking, what? The first thump or two didn't offer a clue that maybe they want to try something different? Sigh.

With no power and this wide screen laptop sucking power from the battery at an alarming rate, I powered down and tried to find something else to do. I opted to bundle up a box of bookmarks for Crimson Veil into packets of 25. My parents had worked on bundling up most of them for me while I was in Reno. I finished the box, still no power. I looked through the JC Penney big fall/winter catalog. Still no power. I don't have access to my MP3 player, so no music. Or my crossword puzzles, so no games. Nothing to do but wait. And wait. I've said this before, but it's amazing how much our lives revolve around electricity.

When the power finally came back on at 7pm, I decided to make a stab of catching up on my email. I think I've mentioned how horribly behind I am. I did make progress, but I'm still not caught up. At least only 1 person answered me.

So it's raining today and incredibly humid. The goal is to finish chapter 6 today. I'm hoping to move on to 7, too, but this scene I'm working in has some major character stuff I need to fix, so it might take the entire day.

This is something I find very interesting. Always before this story, either both the hero and heroine from a book talked to me, or the heroine talked. I've never had a story where it's the hero that's been open and not the heroine--until RFS. Wyatt is the first well-adjusted, no real issues hero that I've ever had. He's the boy-next-door type--if that boy has grown up sexy as hell and joined Army Special Forces. :-) But he's so well, normal. So, as I'm writing, I feel like I have a really good grip on Wyatt and the scenes in his point of view (POV) are easy.

Kendall is another story. She's the one who's all shut down and wary. And she's the character I "lost" as I was writing chapter 6. I couldn't figure out for the longest time why I was having so much trouble. Then came the epiphany. I had Kendall reacting wrong. That's what I'm fixing now.

Where this problem comes into play is that usually in the stories where the hero isn't talking (TPOT and TACV), it didn't matter all that much because the primary POV character was the heroine. But in RFS (I guess I should try to call it TOD (Temple of Dreams), huh?), it's all reversed.

My big decision is how to handle this. The easiest way is to stay in Wyatt's POV as much as possible since I have a good grip on him. But. But he knows things the reader can't know yet, while Kendall is in the dark. From a plot perspective, I really should spend at least equal time in her head--if not more. Guess I'll finish 6 and debate what to do when I reach chapter 7. :-)

MN Weather Report: 68 degrees. Rain. Humid.

I found out yesterday that The Power of Two finished in a second place tie for Best Paranormal in the Barclay Gold!!! This was a huge surprise for me--but a great one--since I didn't even know I was a finalist! You can see all the winners on the Lake Country Romance Writers site.

I think I have the rework of chapter 5 done. That ended up taking a lot more time than I intended, and I didn't get a start on chapter 6 the way I had hoped. I think the changes I made to 5 make it better. I need to reread this morning and make sure, then I can go on to the next chapter.

Insomnia was back last night, and after I deliberately made sure I didn't have too much sleep the night before. Right now, I'm operating on 5 hours of sleep and a cup of coffee. Hopefully, forcing myself out of bed when I'd had some of the best sleep of my night will pay off when I try to rest tonight.

Oh! I had a dream last night that I stole a car from the parking lot at my day job to run errands during lunch. It was a beat up (and I mean really beat up) tiny red car. Apparently, I had brake trouble with the SUV and didn't want to take it, although why didn't I choose a better car? Anyway, I run my errands and park the car, adding a $20 gift certificate to a card explaining that I'd "borrowed" the car. Yikes!

I read somewhere that in dreams our vehicle represents our bodies, so maybe I chose the really banged up model because of the surgery I had and being stuck on crutches or in the wheelchair. It makes sense, I guess since I am feeling banged up. :-)

I still can't wake up, but I need to get moving.

MN Weather Report: 75 degrees. Hazy. Humid.

Surgery was one week ago today. That means 14 more days till I can ditch the crutches. Not that I'm counting or anything. ;-)

I am soooo behind on email right now. Horribly, horribly behind. If you're one of the people I need to respond to, hang in there. I'm trying to do a couple of email every day. It would just really help if people wouldn't answer me immediately. ;-) I know, I know.

I made myself get up around 8:15 this morning even though I couldn't fall asleep again last night. This time, though, instead of reaching for the pain killers, I took advil. That worked just fine, so maybe I can put the drugs away. Right now, my foot feels good. Of course, I haven't moved around a whole lot either yet. I've finished my coffee, but my brain still feels like it's asleep. I'm trying to think of some way to jolt it into gear.

Yesterday, I continued my work on chapter 5. I should finish the rewrite today and segue into chapter 6. I had an epiphany night before last. I lost Kendall. It explains a lot. So I'll fix the stuff that needs fixing and move forward.

MN Weather Report: 67 gorgeous, sunny degrees.

I'm completely on my own this morning. My dad has a doctor's appointment and my mom and the aunt went with him. Struggling to do things on my own--simple things like make a cup of instant coffee--have given me a new appreciation for what handicapped people have to go through. It wasn't that I ever thought things were easy for them, but now I know just how damn hard everything can be.

I've been using a wheelchair around the house because it's easier to get around with it than crutches, but even though I can wheel myself around really well, I never had to carry my crutches with me say to the bathroom. My mom would always meet me at the doorway and be holding them, so I'd get out of the chair, take my crutches and hobble into the bathroom. But this morning, there was no one here to carry my crutches, I had to get them to the bathroom myself. It wasn't easy. Now I understand why the doctor and nurses wanted to make sure I'd have someone to take care of me after surgery. Things have been a gazillion times easier because of my folks' help. I don't know what I would have done without them. Believe me, I know how lucky I am to have this kind of assistance and support.

Anyway, in recovery news, I had to take pain killers again last night. My foot was just throbbing. Actually, it really hurts right now too, but I need to write, so I'm going to tough it out. Maybe I'll take some Tylenol, but that will mean wheeling myself around again, so I might just wait till my parents get home and can get the bottle down for me. My hands ache too. A lot. And I know that's from the crutches. Those are damn miserable things.

I managed to write a fair amount yesterday. Not a huge number of pages, but enough. Since I haven't written since before the RWA conference, I was happy with the progress. I also figured out another part that's wrong with what I've already gotten down in RFS and I'll tweak that when I get there. Right now, I'm rewriting the second scene in chapter 5 and then I'll revise chapter 6. I think things will flow smoothly now that I'm picking up the places where I strayed.

MN Weather Report: 71 completely fabulous degrees.

Clearly, enforced inactivity is giving me too much time to think. :-)

I see that a copy of Ravyn's Flight is up for auction on eBay. I also see that with only one day to go, there are no bidders. There's also a copy of The Power of Two up. It makes me wonder why these people don't wait until October to try to sell my books. Demand for an author's backlist always increases immediately after the release of a new book by said author. This is especially true with an author as new as I am. As more readers find me, and hopefully, like me, they'll look for other titles I've written. By waiting just a few short weeks, these sellers might increase their revenues. Who knows, in the case of RF, maybe increase it a lot since it's out of print. Same thing goes for those sellers on Amazon.

It's the law of supply and demand. Right now, demand isn't particularly great so these sellers keep lowering their price. If they waited until demand is higher, then they'd get more. That's what I'd do if I were trying to sell used books. Of course, the School of Journalism required Micro and Macro Economics courses and I am compulsive enough to research an author's release month to get the most bang for my buck, so to speak.

Still a fabulous day in MN and I'm all cleaned up and feeling pretty happy. I've even managed to eke out a little bit of writing. Which I'm getting back to right now.

After days and days of sleeping at the drop of a hat, insomnia made a return appearance last night. I couldn't sleep to save my life. I went to bed around 11pm and was still awake at 3:15am. Sigh. I hate when that happens. If I could have been writing or something, that would have been one thing, but I was just tossing and turning. I didn't have anything weighing on my mind, so maybe I'd just had too much sleep over the week?

Yesterday was really cool. My dad opened the drapes in the family room and there were two fawns lying in the yard! I have pictures on my digital camera, but the software to download them is on my desktop computer, not the laptop, so I can't show them today. They were in the yard for quite a long time too. One mostly laid there, but the other kept eating--greenery, flowers, apples--you name it. They were a nice diversion.

I didn't take any pain pills at all yesterday. Hurrah! Ten more days till I get the stitches out and I'm looking forward to that. I'm hoping the doctor will say, wow, you healed so fast that you can go off the crutches right this minute. :-) It's good to have dreams. If he doesn't say that, I have 16 more days with the damn things. You know, I don't remember them being this big a chore when I was 9. Of course, maybe I just forgot.

It's an absolutely fabulous day here in the Twin Cities, and fear of having to go up and down stairs is keeping me inside. Despite the kind instructions on how to navigate stairs with the crutches, I'm hesitant to do it. Then there's how horrible I look. I have yellow streaks of something all over my left leg. Scrubbing while I was in the shower did not take it off. I resemble some bizarre zebra. What if someone came over and saw me looking like this????

MN Weather Report: 71 fabulous degrees!

I'm camped out in my parents' family room on a pull-out bed because I'm pretty restricted right now on what I can do. So my mom's sister is living with them, and she's absolutely driving me crazy. She never shuts up, not for 2 minutes. If she's awake, she's talking and she's so shrill and so loud, there's no way to block her out. She's woken me up more than once and she's rude enough not to care. As I do with almost anyone that irritates the hell out of me, I've given her a nickname--Jabber Jaw. (Like the cartoon shark.)

If I don't get some peace, I don't know how I'm going to write. Right now, I'm praying really hard for laryngitis, but somehow that seems so wrong. Sigh. I'm losing my mind!

17 more days on crutches.

PS. My dad is a saint.

Yesterday was the day I was finally allowed to take the bandage off my foot and shower. Easier said than done. First, the cotton part of the bandage stuck to my skin. Then the gauze had some blood on it and it stuck to my stitches. That called for warm water to dampen the gauze so it could be removed without ripping anything open. The wound actually doesn't look too ugly. I'm the most incredibly squeamish person ever and it didn't bother me--that should give you an idea. Anyway, the incision is incredibly small and there are maybe three stitches or so in there. Not too bad.

The shower part became the major production. Just crawling over the side of the tub was a challenge and it didn't take long to figure out that standing wasn't going to work real well. So I sat and showered and by the time I was done, I was so exhausted I was covered with sweat and sick to my stomach. Gah! Who would have guessed that a simple shower would be such an ordeal?

Once I recovered, though, I was honestly able to say I was glad I'd muddled my way through the shower. It felt so good to be completely clean. Washing up in the sink just doesn't offer the same satisfaction.

The other high point of the day is that I managed to stay awake! That's right, no nap! Hurrah! Of course, I didn't accomplish a whole lot, but it was a milestone just to be conscious. :-)

Nothing interesting to report, but I've said it before--my life revolves around my foot.

MN Weather Report: 68 degrees. Cloudy.

Just a reminder, the eBay auction to benefit author Marianne Mancusi continues. Marianne's house burned down while she was in Reno at the Romance Writers of American conference, and she lost everything. The items up for bid include critiques from editors, agents and authors, autographed books, tarot readings and more. For more information, see the listing at eBay or check out the Literary Chicks website.

But I'm sick of sleeping! That's absolutely all I do. I think my longest stretch of time spent awake was 4 hours yesterday--then it was right back to sleep. :-/ I'm getting backed up on email again because I can't stay awake long enough to answer it. And anything else I need to do? Forget about it.

Part of me knows it's only been a few days since surgery and I should be counting the fact that I didn't take pain killers during the day yesterday as a victory. Another part of me, the part that's tired of crutches, feels like it's been an eternity since surgery. 18 more days and counting till I'm allowed to walk again. Sigh.

I did have a strange dream this morning. The scary thing is that I don't think it was drug induced since I took the pain killers before I went to sleep last night and I had the dream almost 12 hours later. :-/ I guess that means I'm just weird.

In my dream, I was on a huge cruise ship and my cabin was way up high. I could look down and see all these people in the water and I was like what are they doing swimming out so far from land? And the answer from someone on the ship was another ship had gone down and these must be survivors. But my ship didn't stop, and I could see the people being pulled into these vortices created by the big ship.

The next thing I remember in the dream is this big ice berg and people posing on it with killer whales. Aside from Orca, there were all kinds of sharks and other whales too. And as I'm walking along this bank of some sort, a fish jumps over it. I'm like, cool and we didn't even have to work to get this thing. But the person with me kept tugging me along and wouldn't let me pick up the fish (and it was big too). A little further on, I see a sign saying that it's one of the protected fish and that we're not allowed to catch it.

That's the last I can recall, but it was an entertaining interlude, and I'll take those any way I can get them. I'm aware enough to be bored, but still out of it enough to not have enough mental energy to do much. I'm not a good patient, that's for sure.

MN Weather Report: 73 degrees.

The one thing that is making me nuts right now is how tired I get. I'm awake for a couple of hours, then fatigue hits and I'm asleep for another 3 or 4 hours. I couldn't even write much of a blog entry yesterday because I had to logoff and sleep. This is getting old really fast and I'm not even taking the pain killers all that often.

My foot is very sore and so is my throat. I went under general anesthesia which means they had to put a tube down my throat to breathe for me. I'm not allowed to take the bandages off my foot until Friday--it's going to be a long week.

I only have one funny story to report. The last time I used crutches, I was 9 years old. They gave me a refresher course at the hospital, but neglected to instruct me on how to go up and down stairs. There were two stairs I needed to go up to get in the house. I stared at them. I tried different positions. I could not figure out how the hell to maneuver them. Finally, I just dropped onto my knees and crawled into the house. Glad no one except my parents were there to see that charming little stunt.

So has anyone had this surgery before? I'm wondering how long my foot will be this tender. It seems after two days it should be hurting less, right?

When I finally logged on to the computer yesterday, I had 107 emails. Yikes! 80+ were from one group. I didn't bother reading most of those notes, I just deleted them, but man, how do they find so much to talk about in 24 hours?

MN Weather Report: 69 degrees. Rain on the way.

Surgery went okay. I'm sore, but I've got pain killers. I'm home, but all I want to do is sleep and I tire out easily. In fact, I'm about to logout right now and sleep some more.

Today is the day I have surgery on my foot. I've been getting more and more anxious over the past few days about it and right now I'm ready to run the opposite direction. Okay, limp the opposite direction. I wish this were tomorrow morning, that everything was over with and that I knew I was on the mend. I'm so tense right now, that I have to keep reminding myself to breath deeply.

Edited to add: I'll post again when I can, but I'm not sure when that is going to be. It depends on how I feel, how the pain killers make me feel and when I can get back online.

MN Weather Report: 76 degrees. Humid.

Since I'm not able to bring my laptop to work (my broken foot can't handle the extra burden), I've been forced to print out a hard copy of the WIP and peruse it during lunch. I just found the most incredibly boring stuff I have ever written. Gah! Will be cutting and rewriting this scene when I get home. At least I have an idea what I want to do.

Last night, I'm lying in bed, minding my own business, when two new characters showed up and started talking. Well, not new new. They were both mentioned in Crimson Veil, although neither one of them appeared in person. I told them I was busy, but did that faze them? Hell, no. They just kept on talking.

I'll get a rein on them at some point, I always do, but it's so crowded in my head right now. Mika and Conor are still here. Conor stays mostly quiet, but I don't think Mika is capable of sitting silently--not for long. I've got the characters from the book I'm working on now, and the secondary couple. That brings my total up to six. Then there's the four characters from my paranormal and its spin off. Ten. And four of the six heroes and heroines from my romantic suspense and its two spin offs are here too. Grand total: Fourteen.

Granted, most of them don't bug me too much, but they still take up space and my head is full! But its not like I have any say in the matter. Characters come when they want, and if I never do anything with them, they leave. Eventually.

In a little update to yesterday's post, I finally found two pictures of a woman with a gun that are cool. I was beginning to wonder if such pictures existed. Hurrah!

MN Weather Report: 77 degrees. It's humid again.

Not in romance novels, not on television or in the movies. I'm talking about the portrayal of women in stock photography. This is one topic I never thought I'd be blogging about, but after a day of frustration, I need to vent.

I had this idea for a web page and needed an image of an "action" heroine--a woman doing something that could be construed as active, kick butt or along those lines. I hit a stock photography site and did a search for "woman." There were a lot of pictures there, pages and pages of them, but none showed a woman doing something active. Usually, the pose was serene or seductive. Even the fitness category didn't have what I needed. I tried the military category next. Mostly the pictures were of planes or equipment. Some were of historical reenactments. The pictures of modern soldiers were all men. Each and every single one of them.

Okay, maybe it was hard to photograph action or something. I decided to try illustrations. An artist can draw anything, right?

Looking through these drawings, I noticed something. If I were judging women by these images this is what I would think: Women love to shop--especially for shoes. Women go to spas, put on makeup and do their hair. Women talk on cell phones--a lot. Women go to parties and nightclubs. Women like to sit or lie around their homes--or the beach.

To be fair, there were some pictures of women in business. Usually, talking on cell phones or sitting in front of a computer. There were some where women were nurses or maybe even doctors--it was hard to tell, and some where women were doing some kind of sport. The kick ass heroine? Well, those were few and far between. When I did run into an image like that, it was generally very cartoonish with the woman dressed as a superhero complete with cape and mask--not quite what I was hoping to find.

If I wanted a picture of an action HERO, those were easy to find--both in photo and in illustration. But a HEROINE? Nope, there were hardly any. I finally did find a few that might work, although I didn't love them, but then I realized that I don't have the time to do this page I was thinking about anyway.

But this frustration I felt in my search started me thinking--always scary. :-) Why were women portrayed so passively? Why couldn't there be more images of women doing kick butt things? Why did 90% of the images involve shopping, child care, tending the sick, making ourselves beautiful, or going out to nightclubs? Where were the heroines in law enforcement? The military? Where were the heroines with guns? Or doing martial arts? Where were the strong women?

I'm not a crusader, I've never claimed to be. I tend to take things as they come and shrug off what I can't do anything about. But as I looked through all these pictures, I was happy to write heroines who aren't passive, who step up when the call to adventure comes and take action. It makes me feel as if I'm doing something to counter these very passive images I found. Maybe I'm not, maybe I'm just fooling myself, but I want to chip away at this attitude and change the perception of women. And 10 years from now, if I look through those photos and illustrations again, I want to find a lot more images of women in active roles. After all, it's the 21st century.

MN Weather report: 80 degrees.

The first auction items for Marianne's Fire Fund are up! [Permission to forward granted and encouraged! ]

The first 10 auctions for Marianne's fire fund are up on ebay! (yay!)

We'll have another 10-20 up in a day or two and then the rest in another day or two (all-volunteer effort here and HUGE thanks to all of you who donated and to the wonderful Gemma Halliday for her hard work putting the items on ebay).

Please forward this info to any list, person, loop or anywhere else aspiring writers who may like to bid on critiques to help Marianne may be. Stay tuned - more top authors like Suz Brockmann, Jenny Crusie, and more, plus industry powerhouses like Senior Editors Cindy Hwang and Kate Seaver at Berkley and agent Steve Axelrod also donated critiques.

(and, again, to donate for the book drive or directly, see Marianne's addy at Literary Chicks)

Thank you all so much!
Alesia

I received my second review for Through a Crimson Veil last night and it was another good one! Hurrah! I posted a snippet up on my website already, but my favorite part of the review is this:

As far as heroes and heroines go, Mika and Conor are exceptional ones and draw readers in the minute they appear on the page. The sexual tension between them adds an air of excitement to the danger they are both in and is totally explosive.

The characters are my favorite part of writing so it's always cool when readers/reviewers like them. Anyway, this review will appear on Romance Reviews Today in October.

I'm still incredibly sleepy despite getting almost 10 hours in last night. I'm already thinking about a nap. I wonder why I'm so tired? I would have slept longer this morning, but my back is still real sore from Reno, and I couldn't lie there one more minute. Now I'm sitting here, sipping coffee and trying to find some energy.

I've started hyperventilating every time I think about the surgery on Tuesday. :-( I really don't want to do this, but I really want to be back at 100% too. It just scares the hell out of me to think about being cut. I was too young when I had my tonsils out to care, and somehow wisdom teeth don't seem like a big deal--those were the only two other surgeries I've had--but my foot? Well, this seems like a huge thing to me. I wish this was all over with. :-(

MN Weather Report: 79 degrees. Sunny. Beautiful.

It's the weirdest thing. I've had to nap every single afternoon when I've gotten home from work and I rarely nap. I'm not talking 20 minute catnaps either, which I did while on deadline for Power of Two. I mean one hour to three hour long naps. Yikes! How can I get anything done when I'm constantly sleeping?

Take yesterday for example. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and finally I gave in around 5pm or so. The phone woke me up at 5:39 or I would have slept much longer. The call, BTW, was from the contest coordinator for the Orange Rose. TPOT is a finalist in the paranormal category!!! Happy dog dancing--well, in spirit anyway. It was definitely worth waking up for this. :-)

The funny thing is that I almost didn't enter the Orange Rose. I debated for a while, had decided not to, and then TPOT did so well in all the contests RF didn't. Well, the OR was a contest RF didn't do well in, so I thought, hey, this is worth a shot. I think I sneaked in right under the deadline, or at least darn close to it. Since the final judges are booksellers and librarians, getting my book in on time was a good choice.

Oh, speaking of RF (Ravyn's Flight), the spin off, Temple of Dreams is on the schedule now for August 2006! Hurrah! That's a month earlier than the original plan, and while it's not set in stone, I hope it stays there. I've wanted a summer release, and finally I may just have one! And it looks like the title is going to stay TOD. My editor is okay with it and I can't come up with anything I like better. I'm awful at coming up with names for books, and actually, TOD fits well. Only a few of us will know that the title started out as a total joke, right? As in "Kendall Thomas and the Temple of Dreams." ;-) Shh! Don't tell anyone.

MN Weather Report: 63 degrees.

Sometimes corporate America just leaves me shaking my head. Take my day job, for example. In their quest to get pay cuts from our mechanics, the airline is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Easily.

First, there's training all our management employees with aircraft maintenance licenses so that they can be up to date in case of a strike. Then, all the mgmt employees that are being deployed outside of Minneapolis have wireless internet PDAs. Um, hey, I'd like one of those too, but can't justify the cost--especially the monthly fee for wireless internet service. The company has also hired and trained "replacement workers." Not only did they get bonuses for agreeing to hire on and cross the picket line, word is the powers that be are paying for their housing too while we count down to the strike. Keep in mind that our workers need background checks and such, so factor in the costs of doing all that as well. I'm sure there's more stuff that I haven't heard about too.

The latest news is that all office employees are being rebadged and fingerprinted. Yep, that's right, we'll be paid to stand in line forever to have another badge picture taken and a new badge created. We also have unmarked black cars driving around--hired security.

I suppose all this security stuff makes a certain kind of sense, but I keep thinking, wouldn't this money be better spent in other ways? Like maybe closing the gap between what the mechanics union has proposed for pay cuts versus what the airline has proposed?

Sigh. This will be my first real strike--I can't count the pilots' strike since they wanted us to come to work and cross their line. Although, TBH, I won't be there for the onset of the strike since I'm having surgery and will be out of work for a while. If the damn doctor will ever sign my family leave paperwork. He's "busy" according to the girl who answers the phone.

So I'm a little stressed right now. Things are not a lot of fun at work and I'm getting anxious about surgery. Okay, maybe I'm bordering on scared. I just wish I could time travel to a point where the foot was all healed and this was all over with.

MN Weather Report: 70 degrees. Rain.

Sad news. While she was at the RWA conference in Reno, Dorchester author Marianne Mancusi's home was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. She lost everything except her dog, who fortunately was staying elsewhere.

The Literary Chicks are organizing a way to help Marianne. Here's more information on the tragedy. Updated information on the situation is here, and here's how you can help.

Even though I arrived home Sunday evening, I still feel dragged out and in need of a lot more rest. Probably I should have gone to bed earlier last night than I actually did, especially after a night without sleep.

Since my life now revolves around my foot. I had my pre-surgery physical yesterday and all systems are go. That's one of those good news/bad news things. On the one hand, it's nice to know I'm healthy enough to get this foot thing over with. On the other hand, I'm really not looking forward to surgery. I wish I could time travel and just wake up 7 weeks from now all healed.

Nothing more interesting than this to report today.

MN Weather Report: 76 degrees. Very humid.