Summer Means Polysporin

I've written my last couple of scenes at a local skateboard park. No, I haven't taken up writing while attempting to perfect my ollie. I have a 9 year old who decided this would be the summer he'd learn to skateboard. So every couple of days we pack up to go to the skateboard park. He packs his board and a helmet. I pack water bottles, my Alphasmart, Band-Aids and polysporin.

While I sit at the picnic table on the sidelines my fingers tapping at my keyboard, I steal sidelong glances his way. Is he going to make that nollie lipslide? Will he lose his balance and smash to the pavement? When skin meets concrete it's never pretty.

Oh! He's down.
And I'm up.

My hand instantly reaches for the ziploc bag of first aid supplies at my elbow. He shoots me an "I'm okay" look. Or maybe it's an "If you come over and embarrass me I'm not letting you watch me anymore" look. Regardless, there's no blood so I sit back down. He wants to master it on his own.

I return my fingers to my keyboard, where there is blood. At least there will be once I'm done this next scene. Or maybe not. When skin meets the keys the result isn't always pretty. I'm trying to master this writing thing on my own too.

My Newly Revised Site!

I'm excited to announce that my newly revised website is up and running *YAY*!

Please click HERE to take a look.

More changes are on the way but in the meantime please give me your feedback. I really want to know what you think. If you had my old site bookmarked, remember to refresh and save the new look.

I think Rita at OwwwLS Solutions has really outdone herself this time.

Summer Sloooowww Down

It's always difficult for me to remain on task in the summer. First of all, my kids are home from school. Secondly, there's the-going-away-vacation-thing and the-company-staying-with-me-for-their-vacation-thing. Thirdly, my kids are home from school.

Because I can't possibly go the entire summer without writing, I've devised little sneaky writing escapes.

1) I wake up before everyone else and write for an hour. This one is not fun and since we all tend to stay up extra late in the summer, it also makes me grumpy so I limit the early writing to a max of three times a week.

2) I bring the kids to the playground and bring my laptop with me. Great plan except for this week when it's raining every day *ugh*

3) I leave the oldest one in charge while I sneak off to Starbucks for a couple hours.

4) On those days when I can't manage any of the above but my muse is screaming for attention, desperate times call for desperate measures. I leave my laptop in the bathroom and write a few lines at every visit.

How do you manage to squeeze in time to support your passion when the rest of the world is trying to fill up your day?

I'm Very Fortunate

Came home from Thrillerfest to find this book had arrived in the mail :) Even though I now have a rather large collection of new books from my hunting and gathering in NYC, I couldn't resist diving into this story.

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes is a collaborative book written by three fabulous authors, Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart and Eileen Dreyer. I've enjoyed the work of all three on their own so I knew I was in for a treat. Besides, with two sisters and a brother of my own, I'm always a sucker for a story involving siblings.

Mix three sisters with magic and you've got an irresistible premise. Each of these sisters has a unique trait and I loved reading about their various talents. Dee is the oldest sister and she can shape shift. Lizzie is the middle child who creates bunnies but would rather turn straw into gold. Mare (isn't that a great name?) can move objects but hasn't quite figured out how to focus her skill.

The trio have been hiding from their Aunt Xan who is a witch. The evil Xan supposedly killed their mom and dad in order to steal their powers. Xan has also concocted a scheme to send the sisters each the man of their dreams in order to trick them into allowing her to take their powers as well.

Overall, I found the Miss Fortunes a delightful book. Each of the sisters were strong enough characters I believe they could have pulled off their own novel and I found myself wondering if it would've worked as a trilogy. Regardless, Miss Fortunes is filled with witty banter inside a fast paced plot and is a fun read.

Have you read it? If so, tell me what you think. If not, tell me what you're reading now.

Baaaack!

Is there any place better than NYC to get the blood pumping? Stayed at the conference hotel, The Grand Hyatt. As you can see in the pic above, it was smack dab between Grand Central and the Chrysler Building. Perfect location!

I had a great tour of the Penguin offices courtesy of my wonderful editor, Kristen Weber. She gave me some cover flats of Remains and I hugged them so tight I was worried I'd creased them. Later, Kristen and I hooked up with my agent, Miriam Kriss for lunch. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that fabulous day because I dropped my camera on the Hyatt's marble floor as I was leaving and it wouldn't work after that :( However, on my return the very nice bell captain fiddled with it and got my camera working again *yay*

On Wednesday I had most of the day free so I roamed the city in the 90 degree heat. I walked to central park and enjoyed the fabulous sites on the way, even if I was sweating like a pig LOL.



Later on, I walked the couple blocks to the library and even got myself a library card! The NYC library is spectacular.





At Thrillerfest, I enjoyed many entertaining and informative workshops. I chatted briefly with Tess Gerritsen and managed not to get too tongue tied :)


Of course, there was much entertainment to be found in the lounges as well. Rhonda Pollero is just about the funniest and friendliest lady on the planet. I picked up her new book, Knock Off, and will blog about it at a later date. Also fun bar pals were Cherry Adair and Amy Fetzer.

Start spreading the news...

I want to be a part of it,
New York, New York!


I leave Monday for NYC and I'm insanely busy coordinating everything required to leave 4 kids in the care of someone else for a number of days.

While in NYC I'll get to hook up with my fabulous editor and agent and also get crafty at Thrillerfest's Craftfest.

Also on my to do list is to take a long walk. Preferably through Strand Bookstore's famous eighteen miles of books. Any suggestions for other must sees?

Hope to have pics to post on my return.

Lip Tattoo

Would you?



In researching a character for Ghost Dusters book two, I began checking into lip tattoos. I was completely surprised to find how common they are.



Of course the idea of lip tattoos has been around for a while. A tattoo can be a way of finding the bloodline pedigree of a horse.

But in this day and age people are choosing to decorate themselves in many styles and arts of tattooing. I'm sure to choose a word for your own lip would take a lot of thought.



Or maybe not.



If I had to choose a word, it wouldn't be beer. Maybe the word joy. Then again I may only choose that one because it's short and the thought of having a needle pierce the inside of my lip for a longer word is a tad nauseating.

If you could choose a single world to mark yourself with, what would you choose?

Happy Independence Day

Planning a 4th of July barbeque or taking it easy? Either way may all your celebrations be safe and joyful!

Happy Canada Day!

Did you know .....



* Canada is the second largest country in the world, with 9,971,000 square kilometers of land.

* With only three people per square kilometer, Canada has the fourth lowest population density in the world.

* According to the United Nations Human Development Index, Canada has the highest quality of life in the world.

* Canada has the world’s highest post-secondary education enrollment

* Canada is the home of many great inventions, including:
basketball, the electric light bulb, the electric range, the electron microscope, the television, the telephone and the zipper.

The most important creation was my daughter. Fourteen years ago today she came into the world so I'm spending my Canada Day with a gang of teen girls at the water slide park.

If you're Canadian, how are you spending your long weekend? If you're one of my many friends south of the border, have you already begun celebrating the Fourth of July?