Last night was the first episode of "Nightstalker." I don't watch much TV, in fact the only show I watch right now is "Two and a Half Men," but I loved the original "Nightstalker." I remember as a little kid watching reruns of the show and being simply enthralled. This might be where my love of paranormal stories started. So I had to watch the remake.

I had a hard time paying attention for part of it. That might mean I found the show a trifle boring. Or it might be my problem because the reason I don't see many movies is because I can't sit for that long without doing something else and becoming interested in it. Or it could be that I was distracted by a conversation at the time. :-) Or maybe all three. I also didn't think that the actor playing Kolchak was right for that part. But that could be because Darren McGavin was so perfect in the original that no one could measure up.

It really makes me want to buy the original TV series on DVD. There are a few things stopping me. First, I really don't need to spend the money given the state of my day job. Two, I wouldn't watch them anyway. I still have tapes of stuff from 10 years ago that I haven't watched yet. Sigh. I'm so bad about sitting and watching anything for long. And three, a friend of mine said she saw the original show in the recent past and it didn't live up to memory. In fact, she was downright disappointed in it.

I'll give the new "Nightstalker" a few more chances. The premise is too good not to at least try to watch it, but I'm hoping to be more drawn in next week than I was this week. It could be that parts were slow because they're setting everything up for the whole show. We'll see.

MN Weather Report: 54 degrees.

The WIP has a lot of dream scenes. As a reader, I hate a lot of italicized text, but this is how the story needs to be told. So I cringe as I type these scenes, trying to keep them as short as possible and still get across what I need to put out there. At least I've managed to keep these to a minimum--I've written two so far, I think. Maybe three. The thing is that one way or the other--conscious flashback or dream--it has to be in italics.

At least I've been able to avoid dialect. That's when the writer spells words so they sound like the character is pronouncing them. This is another thing I hate as a reader, especially if there's a lot of it. Wyatt is from Texas, but I've limited myself to dropping the "g" at the end of "darling," and mentioning his drawl, rather than mutilating his dialogue to show his accent. I've also had a friend who's southern check my phrasing to make sure when I'm in Wyatt's point of view, that he sounds legit. Not that I've overdone the southern phrases either. I think when a writer does that, she creates a caricature, not a character.

Now comes the part about lucid dreaming. Do you ever have those dreams where as you're dreaming, you realize you're you even though you don't look like you? I've had dreams like that all my life, but I was talking to a friend of mine and she said she's never had a dream like that. It's not important to the scene, that Kendall realize she's herself yet not herself, so I'm cutting that sentence, but it made me curious. Once, I believed that everyone had stories in their head and it never occurred to me that others didn't until someone said it. This was another one of those moments for me, that's why I'm asking the question. I just thought everyone had dreams where they knew they looked different than in real life.

I have done lucid dreaming, and by that I mean actually controlling the outcome/events in the dream. It's so cool! Of course, I haven't done it in a while, but then I only remember my dreams when I'm rested and I am absolutely exhausted right now. My goal is to be in bed as close to 9pm as I can manage tonight.

To Do List Items Accomplished: 2
MN Weather Report: 39 degrees. Brrr.

Email is down this morning. I can't stand not being able to download email or even access webmail. They do this now and then, take the system down for maintenance and it always seems to be during the time I'm drinking coffee and wanting to check email. I don't enjoy this deprivation at all.

Yesterday, I received an email from someone telling me they were enjoying Crimson Veil, my first for this book. And better yet, she's a reporter and she wants to interview me. :-) It's for a local paper out in St. Paul, but she does a roundup of the best of the best on books by MN authors, and it's way cool that she wants to include me!

I can't seem to get enough sleep right now. I'm sure it has something to do with the busy weekend I just had and that I wasn't able to get caught up like I usually do. I know I push myself during the week to function on very little sleep, but I always sleep like 10+ hours on the weekends, and am ready to roll. I keep going to bed earlier and earlier, and I'm still feeling beyond exhausted. Yesterday, though, ended my week of running, and that will help. I still have too many items on the To Do List and too many things looming off in the distance to take care of. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to squeeze anything in with my schedule. Gah!

To Do List Items Completed: 1
MN Weather Report: 63 degrees

If you're a member of Romance Writers of America, the October RWR had some interesting reading in it. My agent gives a great and informative interview and Jennifer Crusie has a PRO column that touches on an experiment that involves rats.

The experiment she talks about had two containers of opaque liquid. One had an island at the bottom of it, the other had nothing. One rat was put into each one. The rat that had an island was able to find it and stand on it to keep his head out of the water. The other rat had to be fished out before it drowned. The next day, neither container had an island in it, but that when the scientists put the two rats in the liquid again, the rat that had found the island the day before swam twice as long as the rat who had nothing. Crusie equated this with writing, that if we look at the stats on being published, we'd all be rats without an island.

This isn't quite how I'd explain it, but I do agree with the theory as it relates to writing. I've maintained over and over that most writers take themselves off the market. There are a lot of talented writers who:

1. Don't write
2. Don't finish what they did start writing
3. Don't submit
4. Quit too easily

I've been guilty of one and two before I was published. Oh, yeah. I have dozens of stories where I wrote a few chapters, or even just a few pages, and never finished. I was also really good at finding excuses not to write. The chief one being that I was tired. I also believed that I had to wait till I was in the "mood" to write.

What I've learned is you can put yourself in the mood if you actually sit down and start writing. And you know what else I learned? That as a writer, the middle and the end present different challenges than the beginning does. Writing the full book taught me a lot.

The thing that's funny is that while I never even told anyone I was writing, I had no trouble submitting my work to NYC. Much easier to share your dreams with a stranger, I guess, than friends or family. But there are a lot of writers who let fear stand in their way. I'm a big proponent of "feel the fear and do it anyway."

The last one, quitting too easily, is a real heartbreaker. I maintain that when a person is at the end of their life and looking back, they shouldn't have regrets. Not pursuing a dream or giving up on the dream, has to be the worst regret a person can have. Of course, if writing is only an interest and not a passion, quitting isn't a bad thing. It's lonely, it's tough, it's time consuming, and being published isn't some magic elixir that makes everything perfect. The phobias and neuroses you had before selling are still there after you sell. The only thing that changes is that you add new ones. Lots of new ones.

So to tie back into Crusie's column in RWR, keep swimming, looking for that island. Because some of the containers do have land. Some authors do get published. Some authors do make a living at it. Some authors make a very good living at it. Reality? Who needs reality? To quote from "Mythbusters," I reject your reality and substitute my own.

MN Weather Report: 53 degrees.

Sorry to anyone who checked in earlier expecting to find out how the Midwest Booksellers Association tradeshow (MBA) went. Oversleeping this morning really put a crimp in my plans. But now, at last, is the long, drawn out story you've been anxiously waiting for.

Sunday was another early morning, I was up before 5am, and left the house by 7:45. St. Paul is a long ride from where I live and I wasn't 100% sure where I was going. I made good time down to the area where the River Center is supposed to be, but I couldn't find it. I found the XCEL Center, but I wasn't going there. I ended up turning around and retracing the drive. Somehow, don't ask me how, I spiraled into the area where it was. (I'll never be able to find it again, it was just a flukey thing.) From the entrance, it was a straight shot to the place where the MBA event was being held.

I was there like half an hour early, wheeling my cart with my box of Crimson Veil books, carrying a tote bag with bookmarks, and a display easel with my cover on it, my purse and my cane. Get my badge, and the woman tells me I can't take my little wheeled cart inside. I'm like, what am I going to do? I can't carry a box of books with my foot like it is. I can't even bring my laptop into work yet because it's too heavy. So I said something like, I don't know how I'm going to manage, and she said, let me ask if we can make an exception for you. The woman she called over said, oh, no, it's fine. Authors can bring in wheeled carts. The badges are color coded so they know who is what designation.

So I wheeled myself to the far end of the auditorium and started to set up. This was my first time there so I began to pre sign books in case there was a huge rush and people were lined up. I was scheduled from 9am to 10am and the show opened at 9am that day. Do I need to mention that it was pretty quiet for a while? It wasn't like they opened the doors and packs of booksellers descended. :-)

But after 10 or 15 minutes, a steady trickle developed and I had a chance to talk with the booksellers as I personalized a copy of Crimson Veil for them, which I guess is better than just hurriedly handing out copies. Anyway, it went really well and the time just flew by!

When the author signing from 10-11 showed up, I went to walk around the tradeshow and check it out. First time there, so I was curious. On the second to last row, I was caught by another author. She was very nice, but her book was on writing your own eulogy. Um, to be honest, if I'm dead, I really don't care what's said about me. Just cremate me and stick me in the ground somewhere. That's all I need. It just seemed like such an odd thing to write about. Shrug. But she'd done a book signing at Barnes & Noble at the Mall of America too, so I guess there must be plenty of people interested. Especially since this was the second edition of the book. I still find it a bit odd that people want to control things after they're dead, but to each his own.

I finished my limping circuit of the room and returned to the MFW booth to collect my purse, tote, and wheeled cart. That's when I found out that people showed up after 10am looking for me! Wow! Booksellers actually specifically wanted to meet me. How cool is that??? I was told, and I quote, that these people said, "oh, no, I missed Patti?" Made my day.

When I got home, I tried to write, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Tried to nap, but I couldn't sleep. Booted up the computer to write again, and couldn't keep my eyes open. Anything that requires me to be an extrovert is exhausting, but I had full (and early) days on top of it. I did manage to finish the chapter I was working on and revise two earlier chapters that needed work so I was happy with my progress for the day.

To Do List items completed this weekend: 5! Whoo hooo!!! Items Added: 0.

I overslept. Smooth Jazz may not be working as an alarm setting since it's usually fairly soothing. I'm exhausted this morning, but it was a long weekend.

I'll have to post about the MBA tradeshow and other things later since I've got to logoff like now.

MN Weather Report: 55 degrees.

Well, I managed to wake up better than I thought I would, and I actually have a little time before I have jump in the shower, so I can report some of my Saturday in detail. Probably too much detail.

First off, part of one of the freeways here is closed this weekend for construction. Needless to say, this is the part I needed to drive on, so I had to go out of my way to get anywhere. It was fine Saturday morning when I left before 8am to get to the workshop, but not so good later. I arrived at the workshop hotel in plenty of time, but I'd never been there before and I didn't realize that there wasn't a nice little parking lot right next to the building. Rather, there was a parking ramp a fair distance out--and all the close parking spots were reserved for some stupid office building. I started my day with a long walk into the hotel, including a tromp down a flight of stairs in the ramp. And it was raining as I walked outside from the ramp to the hotel. Oh, joy.

Registration went smoothly. I found my name tag immediately and the woman at the table not only recognized me, but she gave me directions to my event today. The room was already full when I went in and I ended up having to sit at the back. I wanted to be closer up, but I needed a seat on the aisle so I could stick my foot out. Sigh. I'm so tired of the fashionable cam boot.

The workshop was interesting. A great refresher of GMC and it got me thinking about TOD and how I'm using these elements. I was able to gush to Debra Dixon about how her GMC book was the final light bulb that went off for me, and it enabled me to write a book that I sold. I also got my copy of Bad to the Bone autographed.

Since the workshop ran over, and I had to go home before the book signing at the Mall of America, I hoofed it quickly to my SUV. Okay, as quickly as the fashionable cam boot and my hobbled foot would allow. Did I mention it was a long walk? Did I mention it was raining? Did I mention people can't drive in MN when it's raining? It took much longer to get home than I would have liked, and when I walked in the door, I was absolutely flying around the house to get ready. I ended up leaving 10 minutes later than I wanted to, but I figured I'd be okay because I'd built in extra time to the schedule to walk in.

Well, needless to say, I didn't factor the entire world being on the road with me. Remember, a segment of the freeway was closed, so I had to take a detour. I sat through 4 lights at one intersection on Hwy 7, and sat through 2 at a couple of others. I finally made it to the next highway only to encounter traffic pretty much at a dead stop the whole way. The freeway which is normally so congested, was the best out of all the roads I was on as far as traffic went. Then I hit the side streets around the Mall of America. OMG! I have never seen so many cars and so many people in my entire life. I don't think there was this much traffic in downtown Manhattan! =8-O And if there were this many cars surrounding the mall, you can just imagine how many cars were in the mall parking ramps!

I almost got a spot in the second row because someone was pulling out, but there was a car in front of me and he grabbed it. :-( I went up and down row after row and everything was filled. Everything! I finally found a spot in the last row of the first level. Just what my foot needed--another long walk!

I can't even tell you how many people there were just swarming all over the parking ramp (in and out of cars), how many people were entering and exiting the mall, or how many people were teeming inside the mall. It was incredible! I usually do my best to avoid the MOA--too many tourists, too hard to find a decent parking spot, too big a mall--and this just reinforced my decision to give it a wide berth.

Fortunately for me, I had managed to park right near the bookstore. Of course, I'd looked at the mall map, figured out I needed to go left at the hallway intersection. When I hit it, I paused for a moment, and kind of glanced around. Good thing I did. Wrong Way O'Shea strikes again. There was Barnes & Noble on my right. Sigh.

I was ten minutes late, but I was not the last one there. A couple of the authors signing with me walked in right behind me--although I didn't recognize them--and a couple came in much later than me. One of those people said she ended up parking on the 4th level because 1, 2 and 3 were all full.

Kelly at BN was incredibly nice and treated us all to whatever we wanted at the cafe and then we went up to the table in front to sign. I ended up hauling the big version of my cover mounted on an easel for no reason. There was no place to put it up, but I did get my bookmarks out.

I had a couple of people bring copies of The Power of Two in from home for me to sign, but otherwise it was all Through a Crimson Veil that people were interested in. It was really interesting to see the aversion to futuristic romance again. I'd seen it once at the literacy signing at RWA in Reno, but this was kind of an eye opener for me despite that. Maybe it's the repetition thing reinforcing it.

I ended up being the last author to leave. How does that keep happening? But the mall was still swarming with people. Even the ramp was still fairly full, although there were a bunch of open spots too. So there I am, driving in the dark with it raining, and trying to figure out where I'm going. I didn't get lost, though--a moral victory--and I got home a little before 10pm. A very long day considering I left the house that morning at 7:50.

So today my foot really hurts and I'm still swollen even after sleeping. And I need to get moving now to drive in the rain to St. Paul for MBA. I'm really exhausted and just want to crawl back into bed and sleep for like another 8 hours. :-) Of course, when I get home, I have to do laundry and put away all the crap I tossed around in my hurry to get to the book signing last night. I haven't been able to really watch any television, so I have no idea how the poor people in the path of Rita made out, but I'm hoping since the hurricane's strength was weakening, that it wasn't as bad as everyone had feared.

MN Weather Report: 64 degrees. Rain.

I just got home about half an hour ago. It's been a long day. The workshop was good. I rushed home, changed for the book signing and tried to rush back to the Mall of America. Tomorrow I get up early since I have to leave the house at 7:45 to make it all the way to St. Paul in time to register and get set up for the Midwest Booksellers Association tradeshow. I think I'll be having the jumbo cup of coffee.

I'm posting this tonight despite the thunderstorm because I don't know if I'll be coherent enough to post tomorrow morning. I'll give a more than thorough report when I can. On the bright side, I crossed a lot of items off my To Do List today.

Today I'm going to a workshop put on by Debra Dixon. It involves Goal, Motivation and Conflict and the Big Black Moment. I can't remember the exact name of the class, but I'm sure it's going to be really good! I'm just hoping everything goes smoothly. I never received a confirmation and my check hasn't cleared the bank yet, so hopefully I'm all signed up.

After the workshop is over, I plan to run home, hurry up and change clothes, then hightail it to the Mall of America for the book signing this evening. I suppose it would be smarter to stay in the area, but I don't want to dress up for the workshop--I want to be comfortable--but I do want to be a bit dressier for the book signing.

In Crimson City news, Through a Crimson Veil is now shipping through Amazon as well as BN.com. I haven't gotten any reports of it in the stores yet, though. Whatever that means.

Carolyn received an early review of A Darker Crimson and it's a great one! Romance Reviews Today says, "A DARKER CRIMSON is a fast-paced, attention-grabbing, action-packed hell of ride into the unknown demon world." Yea, Carolyn! If you want to read more of the review, check out Carolyn's Blog.

And for the release of Crimson Veil, I'm running a contest on my website. The prize is a pink leather purse similar to the one Mika carried in the story and 6 books--the complete 2176 series and an autographed copy of Ravyn's Flight, which is out of print and can be hard to find. To find out more, visit my contest page.

MN Weather Report: 58 degrees.

I have to keep this brief because I need to logoff and get ready for work right away. I know I was a little slow getting out of bed this morning, but I'm not quite sure where the time went. Okay, so I did a little update to my website and sent out a newsletter to my email loop for September; I still thought I'd have more time.

I received a thank you note from one of the contests I'd judged! Yea! But she didn't give me the name of her entry, and I'm trying to guess which of the five stories I judged might have been hers. At least she gave me the name of the contest, that was good since I've judged a few lately.

Saw a woman on the news saying that Hurricane Rita is like earthquakes in CA or snow storms up north. I can go with the earthquake analogy, but not the snow storm. Unless a person is an imbecile who goes out driving too fast in bad weather or does some other brainless maneuver, it's rare that anyone dies from a snow storm. For sure, it doesn't leave anyone's home damaged beyond repair. Winter might be a bitch, but it's generally not a killer or destroyer of property.

I have a book signing tomorrow--which I'm sure I've mentioned here repeatedly--and I need to find my display easel with the Crimson Veil cover so I can put it up at my table. I love the cover, and hopefully, it'll draw some people over. I know at least one person from work has promised to attend so I won't be sitting there completely lonely. :-)

To Do List: 1 item down. 0 items added.
MN Weather Report: 51 degrees.

Now I have all the information for my book signing on Saturday night and my appearance at the Midwest Booksellers Association tradeshow on Sunday morning. I have the okay from the doctor on my foot, so I don't have to panic about the screw coming out through my skin. (Yes, I was worried about this because I swear I felt a protrusion.) And all I need now are some maps to figure out how the hell to get to the River Center. I'm directionally challenged. I've been lost in more cities than most people have traveled too--and that includes locally. However, Minneapolis people (like me) always have a rough time figuring out how to get around St. Paul (where the River Center is located).

It's back to work today. This should be interesting since the doctor said to cut back on my walking and I'm already not walking much. The problem is the distances involved. It's a LONG hike to my desk. I sit as far from the elevators/bathroom as I could possibly be. I'll probably have to use the wheelchair to get around since I don't see how else I can walk less. I already make the guys come see me rather than making rounds. And this weekend... By Monday, I'm guessing I'll be hurting bad.

Figured out how to torture poor Wyatt in TOD last night. heh heh heh. Hey! He's been torturing me, so why the heck not? I always tell people my motto when it comes to writing is "torture the h/h before they torture me." This time Wyatt and Kendall got the drop on me, but I'll even the score.

To Do List - 1 more down. 1 added.
MN Weather Report: 66 degrees. Nasty weather rolled through last night.

Because I'm sure there are people waiting on the edge of their seats. ;-)

The screw is exactly where it's supposed to be in my foot and there are signs of healing. He's happy with my progress. He felt around on my foot to find the pain, but it didn't hurt when he pressed anywhere, so I'm supposed to cut back on my walking. I am okay to go to my book signings this weekend, which is one thing I was worried about.

I can't even tell y'all what a HUGE relief this was to me.

PS. I'm wishing that hurricane Rita fizzles and doesn't do to Texas what Katrina did to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Through a Crimson Veil is now listed as shipping in 2-3 days on Barnes & Noble.com. Gah!

Ingrams still hasn't received their copies--I called half an hour ago--and Amazon still lists it as preorder.

So I logged on to BN.com last night and was shocked to see my ranking below 1000. It had been 10,000 something or other when I'd checked yesterday morning. What's up with this? Since the site doesn't show my book shipping yet, I can only conclude that some stores must have it and are selling it. Either that, or everyone is rushing BN.com and I doubt it. Now I can obsess about this.

Recently, I had an email from a reader asking me when I was going to write another book like Ravyn's Flight. At the time, I answered by mentioning Temple of Dreams, but since then I've been thinking. What did she mean by another book like RF? I thought Power of Two would fall into that category. Futuristic, action, adventure, danger, romance, alpha hero with baggage, alpha heroine who has to work through some issues. So I've been wondering about this and turning it over in my brain. I still can't figure it out. If I'd thought about it at the time, I guess I could have asked, but I didn't.

And continuing the What's Up theme, I go to the doctor this afternoon. I'm very worried about what the X-ray is going to show. I'm trying not to think about it, but it's hard not to. I seriously do not have time to have any kind of set back, let alone a major one. I'm attending an all-day workshop on Saturday, doing a book signing on Saturday evening (check out My Website for details), and I'm signing books at the Midwest Booksellers Association Tradeshow on Sunday. I have to be able to walk.

MN Weather Report: 66 degrees.

Up on the Crimson City Hub, you can find a post from Mika about how infuriating Conor can be. Check out the Musings of a Half Demon.

I mentioned here that when I went through the galleys for Through a Crimson Veil I marked over 100 changes. I think I also lamented about the typos I'd missed, but found later--after I'd mailed the galley in. So of course, when I received the box of Crimson Veil for the MBA trade show, I had to look through and see how much of what I marked was corrected.

First, hats off to the publisher's proofreader who caught the most glaring typo that I missed. I'm thinking they caught the other one too because I didn't see it, but then I didn't have that one's place in the book memorized like I did the first. Yeah, I know. I keep telling people it's not easy to be obsessive/compulsive.

Second, the big changes--the ones that I'd marked as critically important to me--were made! Hurrah! That did not happen with TPOT, much to my disappointment. A good number of the second tier of changes were made as well. There were a few things that I really would have liked to have seen fixed that weren't, but overall I'm very happy with what I got. This was a huge relief to me!

Galleys are such a crap shoot. An author can mark up the thing to hell and back, but we never have a clue what will or won't be fixed until we see the final version. I still remember screaming in horror when I read the galleys for my first book and discovered Damon's Spec Ops team had become a bunch of wusses! Fortunately, that got fixed, but the run on sentence from hell didn't, and neither did a few other things I'd wanted changed. One of them even completely changed the meaning of the sentence and another took my beautiful sentence and made it ordinary. :-( Ah, well, water under the bridge. Overall, RF is almost completely the way I turned it in.

To Do List Update: Five items crossed off, no new ones added.
Foot Update: Still hurts. I'm home and not walking much.
MN Weather Report: 72 degrees. Sunny.

The one thing about judging contests is I get as excited as the people who entered. I'm eager to see who finaled and can hardly stand the wait. I know when my packets were due in to the coordinators and I'm wondering how much longer it will be. And I'm still broken hearted over that one fab entry I judged not finaling in a contest that did announce. No thank you note from the author, BTW, but I'm still hoping to get one.

I'm done judging contests for a while now. I'm too busy and I spend hours on each entry. Time I can't afford to lose with the length of my To Do List.

BTW, speaking of the To Do List, since Friday, I've crossed off FOUR items and NONE were added! Yea!!!

Foot is still hurting badly enough that I'm not going into work until I see the doctor on Wednesday. If something is seriously wrong, I don't want to make it worse by doing a lot of walking. I've even retrieved the crutches and I hate those things. Sigh.

And there's no baseball on TV, so I'm watching football. :-( I wish baseball was on TV 24/7 and played year round. But then I love to write with a game on.

I expect Amazon and BN.com to start shipping Crimson Veil some time this week. They're always so early and this would fall into the time frame that the first two books started making an appearance in public. :-) I'm bracing myself. But I'm having trouble right now getting too neurotic about it. I've got bigger things worrying me.

Yesterday my foot started to hurt--bad. Bad enough that I'm scared that something is really hosed up. Bad enough that I considered taking a pain killer and the only reason I didn't was I didn't want to be messed up today. I haven't told anyone yet about this, but I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. All I can think is please don't let that screw have worked its way loose. I can't have more surgery to fix things.

And I'm still going into work today. Which is probably the worst thing I can do since I have to do more walking there than anywhere else. Just the hike in from the parking lot is bad. But I was out for a month, NWA is in bankruptcy and two mechanics were arrested yesterday during their picketing. As volatile as things are, I don't think I can stay home. See? Timing for being out of work for another month is not good, so I can't need surgery again.

Despite all this, the writing went well. I did like 9 pages yesterday which is a lot for me. I'm such a painfully slow writer.

MN Weather Report: 70 degrees. Humid. Thunderstorms rolling through.

Temple of Dreams is the Work in Progress (WIP) and this week, as I was writing, I learned a lot of new details about Kendall and Wyatt. I knew who they were, and what their issues were, but now they're giving me facts about their lives. I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. First, I'm always curious about my h/h. Second, every book is different and the characters give me information differently. With some books, I know nearly everything up front (Through a Crimson Veil). Other books, they withhold important information, then spring it on me midway through (Ravyn's Flight), which causes all kinds of rewrites to foreshadow the big piece of baggage. With TOD, I knew all the big stuff, it's the small facts they didn't bother to tell me.

I always knew Wyatt was from Texas and had a nice, all-American family, but this week I learned that he's from Fort Worth; he has two older sisters who are both married and have kids; his parents are still married and have been for more than thirty years; and that he spoils his nieces and nephews.

I knew Kendall's mother was a serial monogamist, who was always looking for her soul mate, but as soon as the excitement of a new relationship died, she was moving on to the next man. What I didn't realize is that Kendall doesn't know who her father is, that her mother can't keep all her men straight and she couldn't even give Kendall a list of names to check into. And that there are times the questions eat at her; she wants to know who her family is and she feels partially adrift because she has no clue. I also discovered that Kendall is a little ashamed to admit that her mother doesn't know who fathered her, and that she's withheld this info from Wyatt. After all, he comes from such a normal family, how can he understand the upheaval she lived in as a child?

None of what I learned affects the big picture of who Wyatt and Kendall are, but they all add depth to their personalities. I love when that happens. The characters are the best part of writing. Watching them change and grow, watching them dare to be vulnerable, to risk rejection in order to have their HEA (happily ever after) is absolutely the reason why I spend hours hunched over the laptop trying to get the stories down. It's not like I get to steer the ship. :-( I'm more like an observer trying to get down the characters' thoughts and dialogue as they interact with each other.

So anyway, it's been a fun week for me, especially this newest scene I'm working on. I'm all excited about this information, and can hardly wait to see what they reveal next!

MN Weather Report: 71 degrees. Sunny.

Like I posted last night, I have copies of Through a Crimson Veil that I've touched, looked at, caressed. Yeah, writers are all weird. And like I said, I don't get to keep these copies, but just seeing them is such a thrill. I said to a friend last night, do you think authors ever become inured to the excitement of opening a box and seeing their story as a book? Because honestly, I can't imagine a day when I'm not buzzed about it.

Of course, now comes the time when I start obsessing about readers and whether or not they'll like it. I'm determined not to torture myself this time. I've removed all the shortcuts to books boards and search engines from my computer. I'm fairly confident that I'm too lazy to take a few extra steps to get to these places. I've removed the feedster search for Crimson Veil from my Bloglines list and I'm going to delete my Google Alert search. I have mentioned that I'm obsessive, right? ;-) Ignorance is bliss and I don't want to see my baby picked apart.

That's exactly what it's like, I think. I don't have kids, but I can imagine if some stranger came up in a mall and said, "Your kid is reasonably attractive, I like his brown hair and the shape of his eyes, but his ears are too big and I don't like that missing tooth when he grins, and what kind of shoes is he wearing? Tennis shoes? No, no, you must put him in hiking boots, then I'd love his clothes." Now imagine that going on for paragraphs as perceived flaws in your child are mentioned and commented on. Now imagine the next person coming up, praising what the first person dissed, and then dissing the items the first person praised. That's what it's like having a book released. Writers are neurotic to begin with, but after a couple of books, we're even worse.

For today, though, I'm just going to enjoy looking at TACV. It's not shipping anywhere yet--I checked first thing this morning--and I can relax and savor the moment. Hurrah!

I crossed two items off my To Do List, and so far, have not received any new items to add. Of course, snail mail hasn't arrived yet either. :-) I redid my list, breaking it into categories. Some of the items were events like book signings or doctors' appointments, so nothing for me to do except show up. I broke that off into a separate listing. Then there are the things I have to write. That makes up a second listing. Then there's everything else.

MN Weather Report: 67 degrees.

I am holding a copy of Through a Crimson Veil in my hand right this minute! I don't get to keep it--the shipment of books is for an appearance I'm making at the Midwest Booksellers Association--but just seeing it is exciting!

Crimson Veil isn't on sale yet, although I saw another author's October book is shipping already from BN.com and had a moment of panic today. It won't be much longer now, though. Gulp.

When I left work on Wednesday afternoon, I had 24 items on my To Do List and had crossed off 5 of them. (I wrote up the list during lunch and keep forgetting to grab it as I leave.) Then I came home, and got the mail. My extra contest entries that I'd agreed to judge had arrived. Add judging, emailing the coordinator, and returning the entries to my list. That's 27 items with 5 done.

There were a couple items on the list that I thought I could take care of quickly--I just had to email a couple of people--but I didn't get a response back, so those items remain on the list. So much for quick. Sigh.

I woke up Thursday, and let email download while I went to get coffee. Overnight, another item had been added to my To Do List. Brand new, and not related to the emails I'd sent. Make that 28 items. Do you see where this is going? All I want to do is cross items off, but I don't seem to be making up any ground.

So Thursday, I worked really hard and was able to cross two additional items off my list. Then I arrived home, grabbed snail mail, and added Item 29 to the list. But it gets better! I logged on to the internet, opened email, and lo and behold, Item 30 was waiting there for me. I think I'm going to stop my mail and stop checking email. Gah! Clearly, I'm never going to get anything done if every time I finish something, I get more things to do. I'm beginning to feel persecuted--does that make me paranoid? Sigh.

Right now, I just feel all stressed out because of this stupid list. Okay, because of the ITEMS on the list. There are so many of them! The thing is that none of them are things that I can ask someone else to do for me. The other thing is that some of them involve writing something up, which steals time away from the WIP.

Oh, speaking of the WIP, finished another chapter last night. Hurrah! It's rough, and probably what I'll work on this afternoon/evening, but it's there, in pixels!

MN Weather Report: 57 degrees.

NWA filed for bankruptcy yesterday afternoon. Not a huge shock, although I figured they'd wait till today. Since we were hanging on by a thread before, as soon as oil prices jumped, we all knew what was coming. What does this means? Who knows. For passengers, absolutely nothing. Things will continue like they'd been going before we filed. For employees, well, now the fun starts. How many people will be laid off? How ugly will our paycuts be? Little things like that.

I've been there long enough that they'd have to cut clerical pretty deep to get to me. Of course, depending on the paycuts, that might be a moot point. I really don't want to be out there looking for a new job, but I'm not making enough to take a big slash in pay. Right now, I've kind of got a wait and see attitude, but rumors and speculation will be rife. I understand people get nervous and want to talk about it, but no one knows anything and they spread misinformation and scare themselves--or work themselves into a tizzy. I just can't go there. So I'm sure people will be upset when I tell them there's no point in worrying about it since we have zero control. Ah, the glamour and excitement of a career in the airline industry.

In other news, I tried like heck to get another item crossed off my To Do List last night, but I haven't received a reply to my email yet. It's tough when my results are contingent on someone else's actions. And I have a new item to replace the one I crossed off yesterday. Again, with a short deadline. Gah!

Writing went well last night, and I went to bed an hour earlier than I've been getting to sleep. Oh, and I received a wedding invitation. I'm looking at it going, who? Then I kept reading and found out one of the guys I work with, his son is getting married. That was a surprise. My boss has taken a job in France, which means I'll be getting another new boss. Hoping for another nice person.

MN Weather Report: 56 degrees

I've crossed FIVE items off the To Do List!!! Hurrah! Of course, a couple of them were the really easy ones, but one was a really time consuming one with a short deadline, and another was just time consuming. :-)

Just an FYI, I had the heater on in the SUV yesterday. Yes, it was that cold. Considering I'd been running the air when I drove in that morning, it was quite a shock. And of course, I had to get gas. Brrr! This was the first time I'd needed to fill up since surgery--which was before Hurricane Katrina. Talk about sticker shock. Gah! And prices are down from where they were at last week.

I've been judging a lot of unpubbed contests lately, which begs the question of what are the most common mistakes I see.

• Starting the story too early.
  
  This is absolutely the most common problem I've seen. At least 2/3rds of the entries start with background, not with the inciting incident. They don't even start close to the beginning of the story. I think this might be one of the more difficult things to learn, it certainly was for me, but if nothing is happening, you've started too early.
  
  
• Dialogue that serves no purpose except to fill in the reader.
  
  This problem tends to go hand in hand with problem number one. I read a lot of entries that not only started early, but then they gave me even more background information by the characters having a conversation that was highly improbable.
  
  
• Dialogue that is pointless.
  
  This is kind of a 2A kind of thing. I also read entries filled with pleasantries between the characters. Yeah, this happens in real life all the time, but in fiction, the dialogue needs to move the story forward. Heck, the scene needs to move the story forward.
  
  
• Sharing way too much about the characters.
  
  I subscribe to the iceberg rule. The writer better know everything there is to know about their character, but the reader shouldn't. In my own writing, I'd say the reader gets to find out less than half of what I know. My characters share their entire lives with me, they even share scenes after the close of the book. There's no need for the reader to know who the heroine's second grade teacher was unless she's intrgral to the story, so when you're writing, don't pass along everything you know. Yeah, you love your characters and are fascinated by them, but the reader won't share that fascination if you tell them everything.
  
  
• No tension/suspense in the story.
  
  I don't mean suspense as in romantic suspense, I'm talking suspense/tension as in something that makes me want to turn the page to find out more. This is kind of an offshoot of the previous mistakes. If a story starts too soon and is full of conversation that serves no purpose other than to give me the background on the events that are coming or the life story of the heroine and/or hero, then that deflates any desire to read more.

So my best advice is to start the story darn close to the inciting event, and let the reader find out necessary background information later on. In very small increments. There were other mistakes in the entries as well, but those were more individual. These few items happened repeatedly. I hope this helps someone, but I think it's one of those things where one day, the writer just figures it out on their own. I'd say, though, look at the books on your keeper shelf. Where do those authors start their stories? Where does your story begin?

MN Weather Report: 52 degrees.

Because I haven't posted a quiz in a while.

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free. In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved. You'd like your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change. You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic. Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything... no secrets. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something that will confine you. You are afraid of marriage. In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Don't they say that the mind is the first thing to go? I think I lost mine somewhere after I broke my foot. Maybe it was pain clouding my judgment. I didn't quite realize just how busy I was or how much I had to do until I starting listing things. All I could say then was GAH! What was I thinking?

So far in September, I've judged some unpubbed contests. That's almost done, but I did agree to take a couple more entries because one of the other judges fell through. What was I thinking? At least this is a short contest, so it won't eat up a ton of time.

I have a doctor's appointment to take a look at the break and see how it's healing, and a dentist appointment. I'm supposed to be getting stuff together for this house I somehow am going to be building, although, well, yikes! And in the middle of all this is the ton of promotional stuff I need to get done for Crimson Veil. On the plus side, I've mailed out bookmarks to everyone I promised them to. On the minus side, everything left is time consuming and much of it involves me writing something. Of course, that all takes writing time/energy away from TOD which I'm trying to work on.

I also signed up for a workshop. It's given by Debra Dixon who wrote GMC. This is the book that allowed me to turn the corner on my writing. It was a huge light bulb moment for me. Since there's always room to learn more, and since I've heard her workshops are great, I signed up. It's an all day event. Afterward, I'll swing home, change clothes and head for the Mall of America to do a book signing. The next day, I have to get all the way over to St. Paul (that's a long drive for me) and make an appearance at the Midwest Booksellers Association tradeshow. Wonderful chance to meet booksellers and librarians so how could I turn it down?

And did I mention I want to run a promotional contest for Crimson Veil? This is ghastly as far as eating up time because of the sweepstakes sites. I have no problem with my contests being posted there, or with sweepstakes entries IF the entrants read the excerpt. What really happens is that someone will post the answer to my contest question on their bulletin boards and then I get swamped. Once the cheating starts, it takes more work. This time I'm going to give away books and a leather purse. I'm focusing on the books and not the bag, and hoping that it helps attract readers, not people who will enter anything just to win something--including cheat.

One of the things I was hoping to do with Crimson Veil was drive around the Twin Cities and autograph store stock. I think this idea will have to be shelved (no pun intended). First is the foot issue. I don't think it's going to hold up for walking through a ton of malls. The second is the time factor. Quite frankly, I've stretched myself too thin and I have too much to do in too short a time frame. :-(

And the thing that bites the hardest as far as writing goes is that I can't bring the laptop to work and write during lunch. :-( The computer is too heavy for me to carry with my foot and extra weight makes it hurt worse. It hurts enough as it is after I've been walking on it at work all day. That time, though, was so valuable to me, and now that I don't have it, I'm understanding just how much I accomplished during that short time. Sigh.

Well, now that I've complained for paragraph after paragraph, I'll finish up now. I really didn't mean to get going on this topic, but I'm short on sleep--again--and suddenly my time constraints just seemed overwhelming.

MN Weather Report: 66 degrees. Still very humid.

Sunday was another productive writing day, and I finished the scene I was working on. Kind of. I realized I forgot to describe the room they're in and now I'll have to go back and add that since it's a futuristic and I suppose some people will expect to have the information. I hate describing things, but then I hate reading description too. I just want enough to visualize my own setting. But I will dutifully go back and describe the room. Sigh. But what a tragic waste of valuable word count.

I know, I know. I'm not normal.

So at any rate, as I tossed in turned in bed last night, I began worrying that the scene sucks and that it leached all the tension that I'm supposed to be creating. I'll have to read through it today. Hopefully, it works.

Tired again today. I don't know why I bother to go to bed on Sunday nights since I never manage more than 2-3 hours of sleep no matter how tired I am. At least the foot is doing well, although the real test will be all the walking I have to do at work.

MN Weather Report: 73 degrees. Humid.

On one of the boards I visit regularly, we started discussing author/book blogs. It was an interesting topic and had me thinking about things I haven't really spent any time contemplating--like does blogging take away from writing time.

The answer to that is yes and no. Mostly no. During the week, I blog before work and that's kind of a dead time for me. I'm too tired to be creative, and even if I were inclined to write my story, I'd only have time to get a few paragraphs done. The weekends, though, does take writing time--usually. Some weekend mornings, I'm still in the wake up stage when I post here. Which my scattered writing demonstrates quite readily.

Another thread of the conversation was what kind of blogs we liked to visit. It was easier to list the types of blogs I don't like to visit. I don't like to visit blogs that are always talking about the craft of writing. This is no doubt my own failing because if I think about this too much, I become paralyzed. I don't do almost anything that everyone says I should be doing to craft a novel. I'm way on the pantser side of the equation.

I also don't like blogs that talk about the publishing industry, particularly if they spend a great deal of time talking about genres other than romance. I rarely know the author names they mention and I get plenty of romance industry news on the loops I'm on. I really don't want more than what I'm already getting. Again, this is probably another failing of mine, but business bores the hell out of me, and while I know enough to understand what's going on, I'm never going to be an expert.

The other type of blog I don't read is the so-called snarky ones. That's the snide ones, the people who go for humor by making unkind comments about others, or their books. The world is full of mean people, they're all around us, I don't feel any need to deliberately seek them out. And I don't find the comments funny no matter how well written they may be. All I can think of is the poor person involved, and how she'd react reading it. Meanness as entertainment should have been left on the grade school playground.

The blogs I like are the ones where the blogger doesn't take herself too seriously, where every post isn't a brag about how great she is and how everyone in the universe just loves her. I like the blogs that are positive, by and large, and where the blogger is secure enough to poke fun at herself.

Yesterday was another good writing day. I'm going to reread what I wrote and then get going on new stuff. I didn't officially join my chapter's book in a week loop, but I'm doing it kind of on my own. My goal for the week is 38 pages. Fingers crossed.

MN Weather Report: 83 degrees. Humid.

While there have been some stories of Hurricane Katrina bringing out the worst in people, like looters and price gougers, there are also stories of it inspiring the best. Last night, I heard a story on the news that was simply heartwarming.

The police, fire fighters, soldiers and other first responders in New Orleans haven't been getting hot meals. A group from Alabama decided to go over there and feed them, but they didn't have enough meat. A little league team had sausage that they were going to sell to raise money for new uniforms. Instead, they donated all the meat so that the men and women working so hard in New Orleans could have a hot meal.

Then Cher heard about this and she contacted the woman who'd organized this effort to feed the first responders. Cher is picking up the bill for all the food.

Big cheers for the group in Alabama who saw a need for hot food, an extra big cheer for the little league team who donated the meat, and to Cher for stepping in and picking up the food bill from here on out. It's so great to hear stories like this!

In foot news, it's doing better. I still have to be careful not to overdo it, but at least I didn't have to take pain killers Thursday or Friday.

Writing is going well--hurrah!

MN Weather Report: 85 degrees. Humid.

I stayed up way too late last night. The writing was going well, though, and I didn't want to quit until I finished the chapter I was working on. That happened around 11pm, and then it took me a little while to get ready for bed. By the time I fell asleep, I'm guessing I got about 4 hours. Maybe less. I just hope what writing I produced was worth the loss of sleep. :-)

Yesterday, I could hardly keep my eyes open because of how tired I was. In fact, I actually think I fell asleep for about 10 minutes during lunch. I think that was a result of the pain killer I'd taken before I went to bed the night before. Made for a long day.

Our mechanics and the company are back at the bargaining table, but I don't hold out much hope. The company's latest offer is considerably worse than the one that sent the mechanics out on strike in the first place.

MN Weather Report: 62 degrees.

I've talked about what writers who enter romance contests should know/do, so let me turn it around and mention what I think judges should be doing.

1. Write comments. Lots of them.
   
   You might have someone who entered the contest primarily for feedback--tell them what did and didn't work for you. Not just the negative either. Try to point out what you liked. Even if you just write "loved this" at the parts you particularly enjoyed, that's helpful. Judging an entry and offering nothing but a score isn't fair to the entrant, especially if you take off points. But even if you give a perfect score, let the writer know what you particularly liked. Yes, it will take more of your time. Yes, there are entrants who are only in the contest to final. Do it anyway.
   
   
2. Don't nitpick. Know that there may be more than one correct way of doing things.
   
   I'm talking about punctuation/formatting type stuff here. Just because someone doesn't put a comma where you think they should, or puts a few where you think they shouldn't, don't be quick to take points off. If there are numerous typos and other flagrant errors, that's one thing. Disagreeing with someone's method of punctuation is something else.
   
   On the formatting, if the entry is clear and readable without eye strain, don't worry about counting 25 lines per page or suggesting they use Courier. Don't take points because they italicized instead of underlined or vice versa.
   
   
3. Use some common sense.
   
   If you're reading a fantastic entry, one that's well written and you're enjoying, don't start over thinking the score sheet and taking points off because the hero and heroine don't meet in the first 10 pages. (Non-category romance) Trust that if the writer handled everything you've read well, that they'll handle things like the sexual tension between the h/h well too even if you don't read it for yourself in the entry. Too many judges take the score sheet too literally and it boxes in writers who tell a story that doesn't follow the "rules."
   
   
4. Read the entry more than once.
   
   Yes, it takes more time, but you'll see stuff on subsequent readings that you missed the first time through. The first reading should be big picture reading--how does the entry flow without you stopping to mark missing commas? Just read as if it were a book and only stop to write on the entry if something leaps out at you. The second/third/etc readings are for marking up the entry and making LOTS of comments.
   
   
5. Try to put aside personal bias.
   
   You don't like reading the "F" word in romance? Too bad. Other people don't mind. Don't mark an entry down because you're uncomfortable with the language. That's a personal bias and has ZERO bearing on whether or not the book is marketable. Don't mark an entry down because the characters have a career you don't like or one you think isn't marketable. Yes, we've all heard repeatedly that sports stars as heroes don't sell. Better tell Susan Elizabeth Phillips about that. She seems to have missed the memo and has written some damn good books that have sold very well. You're there to judge the writing, the plotting, the characterization and other elements, you are not there to pass judgment, you are not there to tell someone they can't have a rock star as a heroine. Judge the work, period. If you can't do this, contact the contest coordinator and ask to return the entry. Let a judge who can be objective read it instead.
   
   
6. Be kind, but be honest.
   
   Imagine if it were your entry. Would you want to read unkind comments? At the same time, if something doesn't work, point it out--nicely. Offer suggestions--if you can--on how they might fix it.
   
   
7. Remember there are different skill levels and judge accordingly.
   
   If you're reading an entry by someone who is a beginner and has a lot of problems, don't start pointing out every little thing. It could discourage them, or crush them. Pick the two or three biggest items that they need to work on and focus on them. Make sure you point out what they're doing right. And sometimes this is damn hard.
   
   With a writer that's almost there, I think it's safer to point out other, smaller things, but make sure your enthusiasm for their work comes through in your comments. Don't do nothing but rag on them.
   
   
8. Do NOT rewrite the contest entry. Do NOT mess with an author's voice.
   
   This happened to me with Ravyn's Flight and it absolutely made me insane. A judge thought I used too many words and she actually went through my entry and crossed out what she thought should be gone and rewrote my sentences! =8-O Pointing out that she thought I could be more succinct is one thing, rewriting the entry is something else. That's interfering in VOICE. Don't mess with an author's voice. BTW, my editor did NOT have me cut. Ravyn's Flight was released damn close to the way I submitted it. Just a warning for a judge who thinks she can write the story better. Hands off. It's not your place to rewrite.
   

I took another pain killer last night because of the foot, so I can only hope I sound logical and have presented this information in some kind of organized format. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest thing is the comments. Write all over the damn entry if you have to, but point out what does and doesn't work for you and why. If you're not willing to do this, then a) don't judge or b) give them a perfect score. If you're taking any points off, explain why--and do it KINDLY.

I managed two hours of sleep before I had to get ready for work on Tuesday--not as much as I'd hoped for, but about what I'd suspected I'd end up with. Traffic was much heavier going into work than I expected it to be with the mechanics on strike, and I had to pass through Checkpoint Charlie to park.

Outside the door to my building was a guard from a private firm. Good thing he was there since I couldn't figure out how to get my new badge to open the new card reader. (blush) By the time I hobbled to my desk, my foot had started to hurt.

My desk was covered, but not quite as bad as I thought it would be. Email was loaded, but then I hadn't checked even once from home. I decided to start with email. Bet y'all are surprised since I might have the slightest bit of an email addiction. ;-) A lot of it, I just deleted without looking at it since it was newsy stuff and out of date by that point. Then I tried to clean off my desk. I actually made fairly good progress--until one of my maintenance specialists came down with a project. Since all but 2 of the guys are off in other cities, I thought my odds of being left alone for one day were pretty good. I was wrong. :-) Since I didn't let him know I was here, he must have just come down on the off chance I'd be there--or he memorized the day I was scheduled back.

The biggest deal out of the day, though, was how badly my foot was hurting by 9am. I didn't expect it to be that painful. And all I'd done at that point was hike in and make one trip to the bathroom.

When I got home, I took Advil and propped it up. It helped some, but I ended up taking a pain killer before I went to bed--the first in about three weeks. And the foot still hurts this morning. :-( Unfortunately, because of what's going on with the day job, I don't feel like I can stay home any longer, so somehow, I'm going to have to try and tough it out. The plan for the day is fewer trips to the bathroom and keeping the foot elevated as much as possible.

Leaving work, BTW, was even weirder. I had to drive out past the strikers and the security company that was hired was videotaping them. I guess to make sure they didn't do anything. It was sad, though, actually. Pretty much, I think these guys are done. Things were bad before Hurricane Katrina raised oil so high, but now, with it pushing $70 a barrel, it's a foregone conclusion that we'll be filing for bankruptcy and that those guys are just out of luck. I think a lot of them knew the strike would be it for them anyway, though.

The other thing that was so strange was how quiet it was on my floor. It felt like a Saturday. My manager and most of the tech writers and maintenance specialists are deployed. It really threw my sense of time off too. Normally, the noise level picks up sometime after 7 or 8am, but it never did yesterday.

MN Weather Report: 65 degrees. Rain coming.

I found a cool site today called the Creativity Portal. I haven't had time to explore it thoroughly yet, but what I did find looks helpful! Here's what the site says about itself:

Creativity Portal is an imagination inducing sanctuary for artists, writers, crafters, and creativity enthusiasts. It's been featured in Imagine magazine, Writer's Digest, and thousands of other places Web-wide. It features free articles, creative projects and printables, and quality hand-selected 'how to' Web resources designed to inspire your creativity.

One of the pages they have features an Imagination Prompt that gives you a question to mull over, and hopefully, get the ideas flowing. They have helpful articles like 11 Tips to Surviving a Day Job With Your Creativity Intact and Connect With Your Muse.

They also have a free email newsletter that can be signed up for. If you're a creative person, or even wish you were more creative, it looks as if there is a ton of stuff to read here.

Today, I head back to work for the first time since my surgery. I think I mentioned this before, but I'm ready to go back. Except for a few small things like waking up at 4am every morning, driving through all this lousy traffic (and the construction zones), and having to cross a picket line and be scrutinized by some private security force. But other than that...

Seriously, it was getting a bit tiresome to be trapped at home. I'm glad to be getting back to normal. Well, as normal as I usually am.

I received another review yesterday for Through a Crimson Veil. There were some nice quotes in there. They're up on my website with the other reviews. You can check them out on my Crimson Veil Reviews page.

There was one line in the review, however, that I found to be, well, odd. I had to share it with other writers, hoping we could all chuckle over it, but I've only gotten two people who've responded. One of them was a writing buddy who said she choked on her French fry when she read it, the other was a writer who said that she found the line intriguing and that it would prompt her to buy the book. If it's going to sell books, cool, but I still find it beyond odd. The quote?

THROUGH A CRIMSON VEIL is a fantastic paranormal romantic suspense thriller that never slows down from the moment that Conor wets Mika's panties with orange juice only fourteen hours after they meet until the final explosive climax.

It begs the question which climax she's talking about. Or maybe my mind is just perpetually in the gutter. I'm curious to know what y'all think since I've had so few responses from the people I've already sent it to. Is this as odd, like I think it is, or would this interest you enough to buy Crimson Veil? Or both?

MN Weather Report: 68 degrees. Rain. Humid.

I hate to do this, but I've set verification for comments today. The spam problem has just gotten overwhelming, and I'm tired of endlessly deleting notes about cash annuities and other crap like that. So from now on, to comment, you'll have to type in the series of letters and/or numbers that Blogger shows on the post comment screen.

Again, I apologize for changing over to the verification system, but spammers ruin things for everyone.