Gala Notes and More Spy Pics

I did manage to sneak in a Braves game at Turner Field! There I was, sitting among the hated Mets fans as they cheered their team beating the crap out of my poor boys. Me in new Braves hat, eating a big hotdog, beer by my side, nice sunny weather that wasn't too hot...ahhhh, it was simply too cool! I know this isn't part of the RWA experience ;-) but hey, it's my first live experience of my favorite sports in the world! I can't tell you how awesome it was to see the field right in front of me and 50,000 people sitting around the stadium.

And all for less than 10 bucks! Honest to God! It was so easy to get to Turner Field from the hotel--walk through Peachtree Mall, down to MARTA (the rail), pay $1.75, take one stop south, then walk through Atlanta Underground (you have to go here, girls--it's like an underground flea market, with lots of jewelry, African American artwork, food, arcade fun, handmade handbags, just tremendous shopping fun!), then take the waiting shuttles there for $1. The shuttles take you straight to the Stadium without any traffic headaches! And since the game was sold out, I paid 5 bucks--FIVE BUCKS--for standing room only to get in. And walking in and finding any spot I want to watch from for that amount of money--it was sweet. Well worth the price of admission. In comparison, I pay $50 for an Orlando Magic game, if I'm lucky. Heck, for $5 I don't even mind the Braves losing as long as I get to be close to Marcus Giles, teehee.



Okay, so you're yawning that I'm waxing poetic about my first baseball game. I have this thing about men in tights bending over, I don't know why.... This is the backside of my one of my favorite players ;-). I like to watch him play a lot.



********Right, onto MORE IMPORTANT THINGS....
Before I regale you in another post about my Uber-Brush With Homeland Security (sigh, someone UNCROSSED their toes too soon!!!), here are notes and photos of the RWA RITA and Golden Heart Gala that was held on Saturday night.

For a good article from AP about romance and the RWA signing, click HERE. It's actually a pretty good article.

Actually my Homeland Security Brush-In, although very frustrating and crazy, was nothing compared to Michelle Willingham's experience in the homebound aircraft. I spent hours at ATL airport trying to get a ride home without an ID; she had to deal with engine failure. While in the air. Yikes! She wins.

The list of winners:

Golden Heart

BEST SHORT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Sweet Surrender by Yvonne Harris

BEST LONG CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
The Memory of You by Laurie Kellogg

BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE
Blood Squad by Kelli Shewey

BEST INSPIRATIONAL
When Angels Fall by Lora Bale

BEST SHORT HISTORICAL ROMANCE
candal's Daughter by Christine Diehm

BEST LONG HISTORICAL ROMANCE
The Education of Mrs Brimley by Donna MacMeans

BEST YOUNG ADULT
Do You Really Want to Haunt Me? by Heather Koenig

BEST NOVEL WITH STRONG ROMANTIC ELEMENTS
Snooping in Stilettos by Kathleen Beaver

BEST ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
The Watcher by Jo Robertson

BEST CONTEMPORARY SINGLE TITLE
Dangerous Choices by Donna Meier

THE RITAS:

BEST TRADITIONAL
Princess of Convenience by Marion Lennox

BEST SHORT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
The Marriage Miracle by Liz Fielding

BEST LONG CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Worth Every Risk by Dianna Love-Snell

BEST PARANORMAL
Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair

BEST INSPIRATIONAL
Heavens to Betsy by Beth Pattillo

BEST ROMANTIC NOVELLA
The Naked Truth About Guys by Alesia Holliday

BEST FIRST BOOK
Show Her the Money by Stephanie Feagan

BEST REGENCY
A Reputable Rake by Diane Gaston

BEST SHORT HISTORICAL ROMANCE
The Texan's Reward by Jodi Thomas

BEST LONG HISTORICAL ROMANCE
The Devil to Pay by Liz Carlyle

BEST NOVEL WITH STRONG ROMANTIC ELEMENTS
Lady Luck's Map of Vegas by Barbara Samuel

BEST ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Survivor in Death by J.D. Robb

BEST CONTEMPORARY SINGLE TITLE ROMANCE
Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs

2006 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD to Susan Elizabeth Phillips


So here are some photos taken during the gala, showing off the glamorous side of uber-authorness:



Here is me in my usual roofing outfit, only without my toolbelt and tar smears, of course.



Arianna Hart and me. In case you're still wondering, Arianna is the tall blonde.



I Heart Jacquie d'Alessandro's gator purse. One day I will steal it. I think all Cherry Bombs will understand why ;-).



The totally glamorous Marjorie Liu in bold leopard print. And that's her third plate of chocolate strawberries. GAH. ;-) Luv you, ML! Woof.



I'm sorry, I don't know who this is. I just love that dress so much and she looked so elegant that I asked to snap her pic and forgot to ask for her name and email. So if any of you recognize her, please let me know! Again, my apologies. I'm really, really bad with remembering names and faces.

And the following photo is for Jude at Blogging National. Here are pretty gala shoes!



And here are the uber-authors wearing them (plus a few late-joiners):



And that's all I have for now! Whew! Posting photos on Blogger is like walking through the Tunnel of Doom and Torture. For some reason it gives you options, like Centering or Right or Left, and these buttons don't FREAKING WORK!

For fab pictures taken of presenters at the RWA awards ceremony, here is the link to Jude's pics. She really did a fantastic job covering the RWA experience. Kudos to that Cherry Bombette!

Click HERE to see all the beautifully coiffed uber authors! More about my RWA week later!

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Uber Authors Caught Partying

Posting photos. Details at 11. ;-)











me and Sherrilyn Kenyon












me and Stephanie Bond











The goddess Anne Stuart, Donna Hayes (Harlequin CEO) and uber-author Karen Harper


my editor, Tracy, and me






one of the most glamorous and also my favorite uber-authors, Jacquie D'Alessandro

Dancing queens!

me and Kayla Perrin

That's Nora Roberts in the middle, getting down and boogieing

AnnVoss Peterson and me

That's Bob Mayer, former Green Beret, having the time of his life, I'm sure. ;-)

As you can see, everyone looked fantastic!

Off to keynote luncheon. TTYL!

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RWA Uber Report Two

Okay, I just woke up from a much needed nap and have an hour to post details of the conference. For those dropping by looking for RWA stuff, I apologize for the tardiness of this report. Spies and authors seem to get lazy when they're having fun.

Let's start from the beginning.

***CUE IN MUSIC FROM MISSION IMPOSSIBLE***

dun-dun-dundun; dun-dun-dundun...

FIRST MISSION
Okay, my first mission as uberauthor uberspy was to find my way from airport to the Mariott Marquis hotel in exactly ONE HOUR for my next operation. I couldn't fail. My whole uber authorness depended on this.

So my plane arrived 14 minutes early, which was good. But it took 15 minutes to taxi into the disembarking area, which was bad. I didn't have any luggage to pick up at the Baggage Area, which was good. I was at Terminal C, the farthest terminal from Ground Transportation, which was bad. I was feeling pretty awake, which was good. I needed the restroom first, which was bad.

Anyway, after taking care of personal business, I started on my cross-airport venture to get to MARTA, the rail that would take me to Peachtree Center. I pulled my luggage and handbag along, making good time, to the shuttle that would take me to the terminal. Crowds. Lots and Lots of people have the same idea about going to the terminal. The ride took 20 minutes.

The information counter lady was very nice, giving me directions to MARTA, which was pass the Luggage Area and Car Rental Area. Turn left, down these steps. I hurried.

Dun-dun dundun....

Ten minutes. Bought a ticket. I must commend the rail station for their escalators. WE LURV ESCALATORS, yup we do. I got on the northbound train and looked at my handy RAZR. Okay, I had 28 minutes to make it to the hotel. I was getting a little worried because it was eight stops away. Eight stops and the train was moving pretty slowly.

Dun-dun dundun....

Finally we pulled in at Peachtree Center and it was ten minutes till 5pm. I jumped out of the train, almost killing an old lady, a gentleman with a shopping bag, and two kids in my rush to make my mission. I yelled my apologies as I ran.

There was an attendant standing in front of the station whose duties was to give directions. Can I pause here and say MARTA has a VERY NICE AND THOUGHTFUL train station system (if systems can be nice and thoughtful...). Anyway, he told me to turn the corner, one block, turn left, one block. Sounded good....

I turned the corner. ARcccKKkh....slope! Me. 40lb luggage on wheels. Big heavy bag dangling from one shoulder. Huffpuff, huffpuff, cross road, whimpering "I'm strong, I'm invincible, I'm uber...uber...***huffpuffhuffpuff***

I arrived at the hotel at 4.58pm, 2 minutes before the signing and I could see the long line of readers while standing at the concierge level of the hotel. I think I scared the desk attendant by telling her I was Super Uber Author and needed the fastest Check-In she could perform, LOL. But even with that feat, I was unable to beat the S-L-O-W elevators due to crowds.

Throwing my luggage into the room and then pulling my signing bag out, I jumped down the railing and launched into the air. Then I grabbed one of the wires and used it to slide down the middle open area of the hotel atrium. With a "eeeeeyah!" I kicked open the signing doors, did one dramatic somersault in the air and landed right on my seat exactly at 5.12pm. Because of such a wonderful entry, La Nora and La Linda's lines ignored them and started heading my way and I merrily signed all the copies of my books away before those two silly goddesses.

:-P

Okay, so actually I did get into the signing and proceeded to bump into readers whom I promised to give ARCs to if they bring me alcohol. Does that sound more ME? ;-)

Dun-dun dundun, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Mission Two:

I lined up to get an In Death signed by La Nora and she remembered my name (you don't know what that means to little me)! Then I was first to snag a copy of Jennifer Crusie's and Bob Mayer's book, Don't Look Down and you saw the photo I posted yesterday. They were hilarious together, of course. A reporter from the AP interviewed me about romantic suspense and men writing romance. I still haven't seen it online, so if you guys have a copy, please send the link to me, 'kay, coz I've been wondering whether my words were all chopped up and came out all wrong, like most interviews with the AP and other newspapers seem to get.

I found other books I wanted signed and then I had to return to my seat to drink my wine and meet with all the readers coming in. It was a madhouse. So many readers! The noise level was incredible and at one point, I think everyone was shouting at everyone to get heard. But so much fun!

I sat beside Dianna Love-Snell and Kathy Love and had a total blast. We are now signing buddies forevah.

The photos from the day before were all from the signing.

DAY TWO OPERATIONS

Can I add here my opinions about the Marriott Marquis? BESTEST BED EVAH. The total bestest. The bed in my room was big, with these featherbed comforters, and six pillows of various firmness. It's a dream bed. It's a bed for sex. It's a bed that could seduce a spy.

I LURV the Marriott Marquis bed, okay? I would take a pic of it to show off but right now it's not in a state for public viewing because of, well, hard usage, heeheehee. I love this bed so much that I want it to be shipped home to FL. I'll never leave it. I'll stay at home and be a romance author diva in it....

As for the hotel, I like it. It's perfect for a convention and the elevators are similar to the ones in the New York Marriott; they are plexy-glass, so you could see the humans encased within as they shoot up and down the many floors. Of course, some of the authors hated this because they didn't like heights. Some had requested to be placed on a lower floor because of these elevators. I don't mind the height at all. In fact, it was kind of fun to plaster my face and body against the plexy glass as the elevator shoots down from the 41st floor ;-). I know. I keep forgetting I'm no longer a kid.

The entire hotel surrounds an empty space in the middle, so you can actually look down and see the lobby with the seatings and people milling around. The atrium is lit by a huge big skylight that I'd LOVE to check out to see how it was put together.

Pamela Clare, author friend, described it the best during one of our wine-drinking moments...she described the hotel as being like the belly of a whale, the bullet elevators were the back bone, the ridges above us were the ribs, and we, the ones sitting in the belly, were food. Hmmm. Well, that was after three or four glasses of wine, so....

Okay, I just glanced at the clock and I have to get ready for the Harlequin party. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll give details about my book haul from the book signings as well as post pictures of me with my new MIRA authors and editors.

Oh, here is a pic of me, Pamela Clare and CJ Barry after she won the Daphne du Maurier award. CJ is da QUEEN, girls. She absolutely deserved the award for UNMASKED. So don't mind us if we looked a bit drunk because really, what could we do when rolling around in a whale's belly?!!!




More to come, dundun dun dun, dun-dun dun dun....

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Spy Pics

Been running around all day.

Been eating and drinking and listening to stuff all day.

Getting ready for dinner. Here are some pics of RWA Literacy signing. I'll give details later, my dears!



Jennifer Crusie and Bob Meyer. God, I'm so damn tiny!




with author Jordan Summers

Three RBL'ers came by for a visit!

With Delphite Mirmie!

I took a break and there were GLOW IMPERSONATORS at my signing table!

MORE FUN TO COME!

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Mini Spy Report and a Hole Story

Mood today:

Yoohoooo! It's traveling uber-spy on a mission ;-). First, thanks for keeping those fingers crossed for me...that was de Best. Delta. Flight. evah. No delays, no misadventures, no attacking luggage. I even met some really cool traveling spies who had convinced me to go to the Hot Air Balloon festival in Alburquerque one of these days...that's got to be quite an adventure. Has anyone of you done that?

Anyway, I'm NOT at RWA yet, in case you're wondering. Uber-author mode starts tomorrow. Remember I was asking for time management advice from the Atlanta airport to the hotel because I'm arriving at 4pm and the signing is at 5pm?! The rail system is supposed to be really efficient from the airport and I should be able to get to the hotel, check in, and get to the event by, oh, running at 100mph. ;-) SO DON'T UNCROSS THOSE FINGERS AND TOES YET! Remember the last time Delta made me run cross-airport, my right wrist was unusable for almost a month. I need to learn to walk unhurriedly, sedately, in a less frenzied pace. I don't think I remember that lifestyle.

So far this week, because of the airplane friends I made, I've crashed a birthday party that had over 100 people attending (best party-crash I've done in years!), rented a PT Cruiser convertible and rode around in the mountains (my man refuses to sit in a chick car, can you believe it?), been called "tough as nails" because I decided I missed roofing so much I had to show how it's done right to a bunch of macho dudes (I suppose that's a compliment....), and perhaps go to a concert tonight (RASCAL FLATTS!!!!!!), if my friend can pull some favors and get tickets. We shall see how good my party-life magic spell is.

Also, I think I broke all my nails rope climbing. Long story for when I get back in town.

Writing update. I started Chapter One with my hero in the shower. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS GUY and NEKKIDNESS? ***evil grin*** I'm mulling over changing it and starting with action that is more of a spy nature than a bedroom nature.

The main direction of the first few chapters is learning to reconnect with Book One (Virtually His) without making the story sound repetitious to those who have read it. In other words, no info-dumping. The fun part is to make everything from the hero's POV because this spydude is just too damn intriguing. I think you will approve.

Talk to you all in Atlanta! I'll definitely report about uber author sightings then, okay? Spy camera ready to click!

P/S I just got to share this because it's been cracking me up all day. My nephew sent me an email asking me to sponsor his hockey team--you know, $50 will get you a banner; $100 will get your name/business on a flag over the golf hole. Can you imagine, you're playing and trying to put your ball into Gennita Low's Hole? HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA. Dying here. I don't know how I'm going to explain THAT one to my nephew.

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Uber Author On The Go

It's traveling time for uber rooferauthor for the next week and the half again, so postings will be sporadic, dear readers. Hopefully the Mercury retrograde will not cause any delay problems with Delta, my favorite air carrier. Sigh. What am I saying. With Delta, it's always Mercury retrograde ;-/. Anyway, we'll be traveling and then I'll be at Hotlanta on Weds., rushing from the airport to the Literacy signing like a madwoman.

Keep your fingers crossed that everything will work out for me, okay? I need LOTS of fingers and toes crossing now (mental picture of all of you walking around like that...for me!)

As usual, I worry about my furbabees, especially Prince Brando. He's my seventeen year-old uber-pom, as you know, and likes to sit near me at home. He'll be wandering the house looking for Momma.

**************************

I trimmed one of the sexy scenes in the prologue (hangs my head, wringing my hands). Have to. It's not with the heroine anyway, so you can stop your screaming. I told you the hero is a sexy sexual seductive bastard.

**************************

I haven't gotten any reader mail from Atlanta...so maybe there aren't ANY living near there? ;-) I'm looking forward to meeting some of you who are traveling to RWA--Leiha, Mirmie, and Sadista come to mind. Anyone else?

Remember, the Literacy signing is next Weds. from 5pm-8pm at the Mariott at Peachtree Center. There will hundreds (HUNDREDS) of your favorite authors waiting there for you! And all the proceeds go to Literacy. I wish I could stand in line for Nora Roberts to sign some of my In Death books. I want to take a photo of La Linda Howard! Maybe she'll be doing a workshop, then I'll definitely try to find time to attend. and oh, Jennifer Crusie will be there with her co-writer Bob Meyer, the Green Beret dude. Anyone read that book yet?

Here's a pic of the Reno Literacy signing last year:



Anyway, no roofing clothes for a week! Pahty clothes and shoes; authorly skirts; nicely-combed hair; and watch your language when you open your mouth, Gennita (takes a few days to remember I'm not on a roof)!

Now, don't uncross those fingers! My flight leaves in the morning! ;-D

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Stop That Seductive Spy!

Mood today:



Shhh. Don't tell them but it's FUN (they are easily jinxed) watching the Braves again. I'm going to be at Atlanta next week and I hope they have a game in town because then I can finally see my favorite team play! It'll probably be sticky hot in Atlanta too, just right for a ball game ;-).

Now if only I can somehow get whatever water they are drinking in the dugout for my own creative burst...sigh. I need a good swing at the plate and get this prologue ball out of the field. Because I need to get back to Helen, you see. Because this is HER story too, you know. But does Muse listen? No... Muse wants Mr. Secret Trainer-Commando to take center stage.

This is going to be a really strange trilogy because this prologue is reshaping my whole planned focus. I have to embrace it because that's the way I write--seat of my pants, hold my breath, jump off the cliff, hope I fly. Sort of like this blogging thing everyday ;-).

Anyway, the Crossfire trilogy was an interesting learning experience. I wanted to see whether I could hold three stories together using a MacGuffin plot device. The idea was not to dump too much on the reader because I already have so much to tell and being limited to a certain number of pages, I have to choose which sub-plot on which to expand.

If you are a story-arc nerd and draw a diagram of the three books, you will find several ongoing plots:

1. the SEALs and their goal
2. the GEM/COS Command and their objective

-->1 and 2 working together

3. T and Alex
4. Jed (Stefan)

-->each of their "roles" within the covert objective and of course, their relationship with each other (esp. T and Alex). Ongoing arc of T and Alex because...hey, no room to tell everything! And what the hell does Jed do for fun anyway? ;-) And...and...and, has Jed slept with EVERY desirable female that crossed his path? ;-)

5. the different routes of human trafficking

-->different countries for each novel, different and same attitudes, cultural

6. Lily and the CIA

-->more a sidebar, besides the backstory of Lily's book, because I like to show that grayness in everything

7. the roles of the strategist, the leader and the sharpshooter.

8. the camaraderie of the SEALs

--> 7 and 8 are also sidebars, condiments, toppings, the things that make my heart sing. EXCEPT THAT A LOT OF IT GOT CUT IN ONE BOOK. Ahem.

9) The MacGuffin itself.

-->I could have written that sub-plot differently but it would have needed a lot more pages. As it stands, it became more personal from Book One, The Protector, to Book Three, Sleeping ***. I actually wanted to show Lily at the Summit and then you would have had a good peek of Jed in his magnificence :-) but I couldn't do it without an extra 3 chapters. And y'all know WHAT HAPPENED to almost 60 (three chapters) pages of words.... So instead, I used the MacGuffin as an emotional wave, building it and have it "crashed" over different characters through the book. Nice parallel with Reed's surfer-dude character, eh, even if I suddenly realized that myself? ;-P

Anyway, you see how fun it could be for me to break down my own stories and try to understand how my mind works. You understand I do this AFTER I wrote them, right? So, during the process itself, I was actually conducting the whole symphony with a blindfold. I hear the music but everything is from instinct.

So.

Now I'm trying to learn how to write a new kind of three-book series. There is no MacGuffin yet to move my plot along. The first book focused on the heroine because the hero was a mystery. The second book has decided to focus on the hero because...he is still a mystery. LOL. My original plan had been to have Hell unravel more of these interesting skeins, but so far...the hero is doing it for himself quite nicely, thank you verra much.

Oh, HELLLLLEN! I need you to wake up and start talking! Your darling man is taking over the story! He is the most seductive bastard I've ever met in my writing life and I mean it. He's just so damn tempting, showing me all the things that should be sub-plots and side-bars and trying to tease me into thinking that they are main courses. If this continues, it will be a 100,000 word prologue and what will my editor say to that?!

I need to drink the Braves' magic elixir and start hitting everything out of sight. That's my daily mantra these days. I need to start a winning streak.

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Uber Author Plays Mental Ping Pong

Mood Today:



Has this ever happened to you?

I was reading the news this morning that Prez Bush was caught in "real" conversation by a live mike at the G-8 meeting, at one point using a bad word while talking about the current crisis between Israel and Hizbollah, at another point remarking about Diet Coke and joking about a gift from PM Blair, etc. etc. G-8, I was thinking, what did G-8 stand for? Group of Eight Nations. And suddenly Katherine Neville's book, The Eight, came to mind.

Neville's story is one of my favorite books, and more intricate and original than that Uber Conspiracy written by dat man named Brown. And it's all about political intrigue, uber-spying, with a supernatural twist too, with powerful men trying to rule the world. Now I want to do a reread and I don't have the time! Wahhhhhhh.

I was reading Linda Howard's Cover Of Night and didn't finish it because I was sidetracked by her fabulous oldie but forever goodie Son In The Morning. Probably because I was looking for the missing alpha male who doesn't BLUSH. Put that as #5 for that post a few days back about what Alpha Males Don't Do. NO BLUSHING, 'kay? No stammering around the heroine either. Sigh. So I was thinking of the anti-blushing, anti-stammering antidote and for some reason, Black Niall came to mind. Off I went to do a reread, even though I really didn't have the time. God. Me. Lurvs. That. Book.

**************************

I'm stuck writing the prologue that will not quit. It's going to be the longest prologue evah. Why not make it Chapter One? Well, then it wouldn't be a prologue! Besides, it's the hero's past and it's full of information that he wants to share with the readers. He's a COS commando, and an uber-alpha--he wouldn't let his writer's screams about length and umm...rest of the plot to stand in his way! Right from the get-go, he sneaks into an apartment, steals a sack of important weapons, and wait...finds time to do a little seduction ;-)! Definitely not the blushing and stammering type of dude, this young man.

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Catch A Snake, Sell A Book

Ugh, a snake swimming in my neighbor's pool! Ugh, ugh. Now I'm going to be paranoid whenever I go for a dip. That's why I don't want a swimming pool for my house, as tempting as it is at the notion of coming home from a hot day on the roof and jumping fully cloth into my very own watery paradise. I don't want to spend my evenings chasing after snakes in the pool!!!

Because of this adventure, I did get to spend some time with my new neighbors, though. The man found out that I was published and since he liked to read while traveling, he asked for my titles. I told him I wrote romantic suspense and he wasn't sure whether he would like them because he didn't read romance. So I asked him what kind of books did he like to read. What was he reading now?

You would NEVER have guessed his answer.

NOT in a MILLION years.

"J.D. Robb."

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA.

"Umm...that's a romance."
"No, it's not."
"It is. We call those romantic suspense."
"It doesn't have romance. It's about this cop and how she solves these murders..." and the man went on, giving a guy's take on a romance story. It was very ear-opening because he did NOT once refer to Eve and Roarke's hot scenes. Not once.

Of course I had to bring that up. What about the bedroom scenes? The hot sex? The LURvvvvvvvv?

The wife, who was listening, chirped in, "There's sex in the books you're reading? What have you been reading? I thought you said they were science fiction! Now I want to read them, if they have hot sex!"

"Oh, there weren't that many," the man said, a touch defensively, "and I skip them anyway."

Heh. Okay. Whatever. But he still didn't think they were romance. Which brings back to my always saying that the reader doesn't care what he/she is reading as long as he/she is enjoying it. This man was enjoying a classic romantic suspense and had no idea that he was touching the "forbidden" girlie stuff until now. So now I got him all intrigued about Navy SEALs and spy romances and he's starting with The Hunter. We'll see what he thinks about the book when he comes home!

RB likes to read my books. He likes to show off his name from the front page too ;-). He always points it to everyone, and then adds that he can't wait to graduate to the FRONT cover. AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Of course, Fabio's name will pop up in the conversation (again, a long held misconception in the public that the man is still modeling on covers). I told him we'll audition him in a long wig ;-). Can't wait for THAT picture.

The things I have to do to promote myself.... Uber roofer, uber snake catcher....

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Uber Alpha They Ain't

I believe in balance in the universe ;-). In response to the analysis of Alpha Heroes (ck out the subject title Musings On The Alpha Hero) in TEACH ME TONIGHT, the blog that analyzes the themes and important developments in the romantic genre, I would like to introduce these dudes below.



These are my KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Rules on recognizing Alpha Heroes, for academic purposes only, of course.

1) Alpha heroes do not lip-sync The Theme from Titanic
2) Alpha males do not dance with each other and look like they need female company in their apartment
3) Alpha males do not video tape their secret slumber parties
4) Please help me fill in a few more simple rules ;-) if you watch this video.

OTOH, that is not to say I don't enjoy men being nekkid around each other. Heck, after all, I shelled out the money to buy the Dieux du Stade nekkid rugby men VCD.

Shallow, shallow, shallow. Girls, you need to come over to MY slumber party. I guarantee we won't be watching no stinkin' Titanic. :-)

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Deep Thought About Romance

Want to go deep?

Heeheehee. I knew that would get your attention. I came across a site that would either make your head swim or send you into happy analytic ecstacy. It's a blog called TEACH ME TONIGHT, a blog that discusses the romance genre from an academic perspective.

It's DEEP. It's so deep it can sound like Peanut's WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH at times. But it's pretty cool to know there are people who are dissecting our genre into Shakespearean proportions. Okay, not that deep, but still Shakespeare does have his romantic moments to dissect.

I still haven't read through too many of its blog posts, although the Alpha Male dissection was pretty interesting. It's one of those places I tend to avoid when I'm writing, though, because I find that analysis causes paralysis in the creative process. But for some of you into that kind of stuff, hey, here's yet another web page to park yourself for a few cyber hours ;-).

Do you, as a reader, go THAT deep? I do analyze my favorite books/romance stories but it's mostly personal study, not a general perspective of the themes in romance books itself. For example, when I read Linda Howard's Kiss Me While I Sleep, I was very struck by the fact that La Linda gave the heroine, Lily, a "poisoned" heart, so to speak, when her heart valve was damaged when she drank the wine, and the theme of Lily opening her "heart" to Lucas was prevalent throughout the story. It was only when the valve was repaired at the end, that we see a "whole" Lily again.

Again, that could be too, too deep for another reader, who just probably enjoyed a story about an assassin out to avenge the deaths of her friends and her adopted child. But I did see the Shakespearean elements in La Linda's book, whether she meant it or not--the poison, the rage against the "gods," the Hamlet aloneness, down to the "pretend" death.

If KMWIS hadn't been a romance, I wouldn't have minded if it had ended with the scene in which the hero gave the heroine that glass of wine at the end. OMG, what an ending that would have been! And...so thematically DEEP ;-). Of course, romance readers would never have accepted that ending. But that scene was so powerful, and the subsequent prologue so infodumpish that I felt it took away from what could have been a jaw-dropping ending.

Arrghhh. Stop me. It's me being deep on Saturday again! Wazzup with dat?!

For an antidote of deep analysis, read THIS forum rant/conversation. What do you think of THAT? Deep, but in a scary way, huh?

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Uber Headache Musings

Repeat after me: IMITREX is my friend.

I seriously don't know how I survived migraines before IMITREX. Oh wait, I remember now. Two Advils. Pillow tight around my head. Eyes squeezed shut. Silent screaming.

My mother had a lot of headaches when I was growing up and I never understood the pain because well...I never got them. Haha. Retribution a few decades later. I have all my mother's ailments, including a penchant for headaches. However, she only had Panadol. I have IMITREX.

One day, of course, they're going to tell me that too much IMITREX will give me warts but until then IMITREX is god of painlessness.

You will see the theme of pain, especially headaches, in the virtual reality books coming up. Pain manifests itself in different ways; it's the way the body tells the brain that something is wrong, or maybe it's the other way around...hmm.... But anyway, as you know, I've been researching into the government experiments to find ways *coughdrugscough* for their soldiers to perform in pain and to go longer without sleep. I figure there has to be a yin to this yang, a downside for the experimentee, IF it's successful.

I'm familiar with all sorts of aches and pains, having been abusing my body on the rooftops for nearly twenty years. Headaches, backaches, foot aches, carpal tunnel aches--you name it. So I'm thinking--suppress the pain now and the pain shows up somewhere later. Maybe in another form. Maybe starting with a headache. And tada! I can use my own experience in this area and go from there. Poor super soldier spy. IMITREX can't save him.

Question: Do animals get headaches?

***************************

FOR SQ: BRYLCREEM IN A JAR

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Uber Dilemma

I have been thinking of ordering one of those ON THE DAY YOU WERE BORN newspapers-gift for a birthday present. Holy Shite! I didn't realize they were that expensive! $60 with just vinyl covers; $150 and more for the more elaborate gold-leafed versions.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's a "unique" birthday gift service in which an online place gets a newspaper of choice (usually NYT but also other cities, if not too obscure) for a specific date, which is the birthdate, usually. Sometimes, it's an anniversary or other special date. So anyway, I was thinking this would make a cool, different sort of gift. But this morning, after caffeine, I'm thinking, does ANYONE really like that kind of present? I mean, if someone gives that to me, I think I'd find it interesting but I'm weird like that. What if other people look at it and go, "WTF is this? Why would I want an old newspaper for my birthday?"

Sigh. It's hard to buy a birthday present for someone whom you've consistently given great birthday presents because at a certain point...there's nothing else in the world except VERY EXPENSIVE STUFF. LOL. Ever have that problem?

This old newspaper-for-sale service made me think of niche markets. I mean, what makes one wake up one day and go, "Hey, wouldn't there be a market for old newspapers? What if I start this birthday service?" Which also makes me wonder where on earth does one go looking to buy enough newspapers from decades ago to start this business? Hurts my head to think like that ;-).

But of course, writing is also about finding one's niche too. Some are just niche-ier, heh. And some niches become uber-mod. Take, for example, the fang trend today. Writing vampire stories was a niche market a long time ago but now it's the hottest thing to do, and the niche has become opposite-of-niche. LOL. If you have the word for opposite-of-niche, let me know; I was stuck for ten minutes writing this blog trying to think of a word.

Anyway, back to unique birthday present. Guys have it easy, I swear--flowers and baubles; flowers and dinner; flowers and even a "baby, I'm broke but let's take the day off and let me have my way with you"; flowers and all three of the above. We melt. We go all gooey and soft and womanly.

But buying for boys...I mean, *cough*MEN *cough*...especially boys with too many toys already...is so difficult for me, whether it's buying for my brother or my father or a male friend. When I was a kid, I bought the same gift for my father for ten years--Brylcreem, a hair cream thing that men of his era used to comb into their hair. I could never figure out what to buy for him every year--he was very rich and didn't seem to have a hobby that I could afford to buy--so Brylcreem. I still wonder sometimes whether he thought he had the weirdest kid or just a smartass whenever he opened his present and saw the same thing every year.

The funniest thing is--I have no problem buying something for Ranger Buddy. This year I gave him Memory Foam to cut and put in his shoes for his aching feet. I bought him a twin mattress and solemnly told him this should last him for the next twenty years of shoes. He gravely replied that he might use whatever that's left of it to line his coffin. That is, if he remembered. Haha. Smartass.

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Uber Bad Behavior

I have been surfing the wild world of words and am amazed at the catfights out there--between author and reader, and reader and reader. It's gotten so bad that even Romantic Times magazine had a column about it, called Authors Behaving Badly. Here is an ARTICLE to get your gossip juices flowing.

Then there are readers who are screaming, umm, blogging about their need to be worshipped by authors, like this one reader's UBER RANT, in which she would "love to be in the place of a dog sled driver with these bitches as the team, my whip held high and ready. Instead of mush, I would scream WRITE! WRITE BITCHES, WRITE! Using my whip to lash some sense into their ungrateful hides." THAT is a direct quote.

This particular post started a snit-fit cat-smackdown of the ages between uber-author Mary Janice Davidson and this...umm...reader and then every other uber-author and uber-blogger began to blog about it and...and... and...there is CACOPHONY out there in the wild Internet!!! This uber-roofer is thinking of bringing her ear-plugs home from work!

So why are you blogging about it then, you stupid bitch-roofer, I can just hear that ranting reader growling from way over that corner. Why don't you effing shut up and effing write like a good little bitch? Well. I actually have a solution. It's a pretty cool one too. No cat-fighting involved. Not even the calling of names!

Click on Arrow to stay here and watch:



You see (pun intended)? No blood drawn! And the loser has to go home and write, write, write. So there.

;-)

What do y'all think of my solution? And aren't you glad your favorite uber-spy just shows you nekkid veges and nekkid men? ;-)

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Some Old Technology Still Works!

Life getting you down? A certain someone giving you problems? Hate confrontations? Need to vent frustrations?

Here is a way to deal with the pain:
Voodoo Doll

I was so mad this morning I used the pliers on a certain body part. Many times. I feel much better now ;-).

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Soccer Spies vs Rugby Spies

Showing off, and these are bad pics because I couldn't find a background that wouldn't reflect the flash of my camera. It's my Keeper Award for Into Danger! Isn't it gorgeous? I used a big poster of The Protector as its background because the award is made of heavy see-through acrylic. The flash came out looking like the moonlight from the poster, doesn't it? ***smug bow***

I love it, I love it, I love it! If I have time when I come home from work, I'll take a better shot so you can see how pretty it is.

Thank you, Colorado RWA chapter!

***********************************

Soccer is over! Just to show that I've been watching:





and of course, once de baddest boy with the wicked kick from Great Britain:



Actually, having grown up in a soccer-loving country, I do enjoy soccer more than American football, the latter of which, if you had read my wonderfully succinct Super Bowl commentary this year, shows my utter cluelessness ;-). Nice pants, though. Shiny.

Anyway, Italy beat France, which is good, since France beat Portugal, country of my ancestor Vasco da Gama and sigh-worthy Christiano Ronaldo.

I was planning to have a late-night fest enjoying hot Latin music while watching hot Latin men on the field battling each other in the field. Instead I had bald Frenchie Zinedine Zidane head-butting people left and right.



Of course I was writing. That was why soccer was on TV! ;-)

Hmm...which sport is more EXCITING--the boys from Dieux du Stade or these dudes who can run up and down a field non-stop for hundreds of minutes? Indeed, an important question for late-night musings.

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Uber Author's Good and Bad Sex Scenes

Here are three questions/comments I often get regarding my being a published romance author:

1) How hard can it be to write a romance novel? It's all sex, right? You whip that out in the evening after research, right?

2) How long does it take you? It's just a love story, right? Can I tell you this sexy story idea I have and maybe you can tell me how to write it quickly?

3) I've always wanted to write. I just don't have the time. If I can just find some, I can easily write a two or three books, I have so many things happening in my life....

I've only been published since 2002, a mere four years, but it seems, the more people are aware of my "other" job, the more I hear about how easy it is to write, except for the time factor thing. It's almost as if they are accusing me of having too much time on my hands! ;-)

I wish I could show them the following video. It's a very well-done commercial made by Honda. It doesn't say a word about the car (book) as the parts (words and scenes) collide and move each other with precision, bringing the viewer (reader) inexorably to the end product (ending).

I want to say that everything takes time. This commercial, I've been told, was painstakingly put together with over 600 film takes. Imagine the re-dos (rewrites) and the creative process to make everything click just right (plot, character, action, ending).

As for the old (getting stale to the point of fungified) argument of how easy it is to write sensual and sexy scenes, I usually nod and say, "No, research takes about three or four days, then I let the poor man rest up a bit before I resume." ;-)

But isn't this a coooool commercial? When I have good writing periods, things click just like this ad. Click on ARROW to stay on this page:



However, when things are going wrong and I'm struggling, this is what I get:



Heeheeheeheeheeheee. Honest. That's exactly what a bad sex scene reads like....

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The Spy Who Used Obsolete Tech

Can you imagine, one of these days, the things we mentioned the last few days would be in a HISTORICAL ROMANCE? ARgghhhHhhh. LOL.

When I was reading the reissue of Demon Rumm by Sandra Brown recently, I noticed she updated parts of the books with newer hi-tech stuff. The story was about a woman writing the biography of her dead husband, Demon Rumm, and in the book, she uses a computer. There were also references to CDs and other 21st century products.

What was interesting was the use of the hero's POV through the whole book, which I thought must have been something different for the reader in the 80s; the heroine's feelings and inner reaction to the hero weren't revealed till way later in the book.

Now, I keep wondering, what was the original Demon Rumm like? Did Sandra Brown rewrite much of the books, changed the POV too, or did she just fiddle with modern technology to fit into the 21st century? Has any one of you read the first (original) version of Demon Rumm in the 80s?

I don't like the idea of fiddling with originals myself. I don't want to read the rewritten, politically corrected version of historical romances. I don't want to read a new version of a sexy romance with the sexiness (and sex) taken out because the author no longers write romances. It bothers me that a book has to be rewritten like that. Can you imagine Gone With The Wind, version II? Eeeek.

Have you read any updated versions of older books? Did you like them?

Bear in mind, I have no problems watching movies that are remakes of the original, but that's because the second or third versions are rewritten and re-envisioned by SOMEBODY else. 90 percent of remakes are weak in comparison to the originals, anyway, in my opinion.

Wow--What am I doing?! I'm ranting about writing! On a Saturday! I must be coming down with a bug.... ;-)

We were talking about technology, comparing what we had in our childhood with today. How about dances? The following video should bring back some great memories for you. I cracked up because I know all the dances this dude did!



Quick, quick, when I sing Men Without Hats' "THE SAFETY DANCE":

we can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends dont dance
And if they dont dance
Well they're no friends of mine

Does everyone suddenly has this weird video going on in their head with dwarfs dancing in the countryside? LOL. If you do...you obviously watched too much MTV like I did. :-D

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Old Spy Vs New Spy

Mood today:



Yesterday I received a spam email from MUTANT DICK, with the subject heading SHE IS SCARED. Now, the question is...did the stupid spammer have a sense of humor or did he really think more people will open the email to check this mutant dick out? I have to admit that I did pause in the middle of deleting it unopen, long enough to reread the name. After all, it's not every day a Mr. Mutant Dick writes me an email.

LOL. What would Cucumber, my SEAL, say to spam like that in his email box? His comments would no doubt be colorful.

Your replies yesterday sure brought up a flood of memories of obsolete stuff that would make the younger crowd today blink their eyes in wonderment. I mean, even I had forgotten the pleasant chore of changing typewriter ribbons (remember the two tone red/white ribbon and the white one for typos?!) I made a short list:

1) phones with cords to the walls
2) 36 volumes of encyclopaedia (remember the encyclopaedia salesman? Isn't there one in every country? Poor guy got Wikipedified)
3) one movie cinemas (you have to go to different locations to see different movies. Crazy!)
4) no Mapquest, arrghhh! (Sign of the times: even RB uses Mapquest now)
5) Rubik's Cube
6) Big Heavy BOOM boxes (I love that TV ad with the guy that's behind the times, who was carrying a boombox while everyone had their ipods, etc.)
7) Talking of boom boxes, how about those monster speakers that we doubled as night stands or dinner tables? ;-) I still have two Technics ones at my house, connected to my old Technics turntable! TURNTABLE!!! ALBUMS!!! EIGHT TRACKS!!!
8) PONG, the first computer/video game ;-). Boy, I saw a version of that a few years back and am ashamed to admit that chasing that bouncing green dot on the screen is more entertaining than killing mutant aliens.
9) SoleilMoonFry. Bet you're going huh? Hint: At least her name isn't Apple.

Ah, that was fun. At least one thing remained constant--IT IS STILL HOT ON THE ROOF!!!

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A Kid Can Teach The Uber Writer

I was eating lunch at Shits and Grits when a young kid sitting behind me started asking me where I was from and what it was like growing up in Malaysia. He was a curious child and the more questions he asked the more my childhood country, Malaysia, sounded like an alien planet to him! ;-)

For example, he asked about our bathrooms. I told him about the toilet bowl that was sunk into cement, how one had to squat over the hole (yes, I know, the subject of toilets come up a lot during my lunchtime, for some reason).



Anyway, this type of toilet is normal in Asia, although the sitting down kind is probably prevalent now. But when I was growing up, this was the kind I know.

He asked me about fruits that I couldn't get here (meaning Little Town, here, not New York). I told him about the durian, with his huge thorns and the yellow fruit inside that smelled to white people; the rambutan, the hairy red fruits that come in clusters; the coconut, the green kind that monkeys are trained to climb up trees to get. He was just fascinated.

I horrified him with no hot water (remember, he asked when I was growing up), no color TV, no Game Boys, no carpets on the floor. He thought driving on the other side of road was funny ("wouldn't that cause accidents?", which by the way, is very uniquely child-logic, as in, everyone is wrong because mom and dad don't do it that way).

I told him about school uniforms and how we all had to line up when the school bell rang. That we had to do our homework without calculators or computers. That our teachers were allowed to pinch or hit us with a ruler (hey, my mom approved!). He was fascinated at how I could automatically recite my timestable in a singsong voice (5 times 5 is 25, 5 times 6 is 30, 9 times 9 is 81....), heehee.

There was so much to tell him! Of course, he wouldn't understand what combing long hair was like in the days when there were no hair conditioner till Kao came into existence. Or when school allowance was 15 (Malaysian) cents a day (ai!). Or that my favorite thing to collect was those big pencil boxes with the Japanese anime with girls with huge innocent eyes and flowers in their hair (can you imagine the hentai art boxes now....) and how it was fun to sharpen pencils so I could arrange them in my pretty boxes. No, I didn't tell him these things because his eyes were getting as big as those anime girls.

What he enjoyed was stories of how some of us didn't have electricity and had to live by gaslight at night--he thought that was cool. He loved hearing about living next to the smelly open market where all the kids can go see the fish with their heads lying on the table and watch chickens being boiled in water. THAT was ultra cool.

But when I asked him whether he would like to go see a country like that, he said, after a pause, "Only if I can bring my X-Box and mom can bring her laptop. That way we don't have to live such a hard life like you did. We can just order from the Internet."

Hahahahahahahahaha. I like the kid who thinks ahead.

It isn't just another country, of course. For those of us who went to college in the late 70s and 80s, everything is ALIEN to those of us who are used to being hooked up to all kinds of wireless media these days.

WHAT? No Starbucks?!

What is one of the main things in your childhood that some kid today wouldn't have any concept of? These conversations are relevant to me because as a military-spy-high tech writer, I have to essentially bring an alien world to my readers. The best part is the kid's last remark, because that's something that adds the flavor to the strange dish, the kind of thing that all of us can laugh at, and understand.

Next writing lesson: Demonstrating how to squat over the Asian toilet, bwah! Hey, look at it this way--the significant other can't hog the darn powder room with his newspaper! Heehee.

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Spy Info Needed

EDITED TO ADD:
Okay, got all the tickets, blah-blah blah, done. Gosh, airtickets cost a fortune now!

Who's going to the RWA convention in Atlanta this year? Do come by my table to say hi! If this is your first time at a RWA signing, be prepared--bring a big bag or box for books! You'll want to get all your favorite authors to sign their books for you, and it's for a good cause too--all proceeds go to the Literacy program.

I'm psyched to meet all my other friends who don't go to the RT convention. I'm also psyched because I'm getting Linda Howard to sign her new release for me. *squee

BTW, I'm looking to actually do a signing in California next year! A bookstore (Booksmarts) at Rocklin, Calif. has invited me and we're in the process of finding a good date for both of us. Any Californians out there living by Rocklin??

Mood today:



Calling all Atlanta area people! ;-) I'm buying airline tickets for the RWA conference and want to arrive at Hartsfield on the 26th of July just in time for the signing that evening at the Marriott Marquis (Peachtree Center Av). Unfortunately the only plane I can come in at arrives at 4.07pm. I'm holding off buying the ticket because I'm thinking about the Atlanta traffic. Can I make it from the airport to the hotel (supposedly 12 miles away) by the latest, 5.20pm? The signing starts at 5.30pm ;-P.

I'll write more later since I'm running late but would appreciate anyone in Atlanta's help in this matter.

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Saluting Uber Warriors

HAPPY JULY 4th! Today is patriotic video day.

I write spy military romance. I write about the men who live lives on the edge. I write about them because they offer themselves for something they deem important. Most of us live for ourselves and seldom think of anything bigger than our current problem (re: finishing a manuscript, whimper***). There are men (and women) out there who do bigger things than me. I write of them. I write for them.

Sometimes it's intense and gimmicky, showing the boys with their toys:



Sometimes it's humorous, human, and ironic, with the boys releasing some tension:



And it's mostly about the ideal man, the hero with a big heart, the strength of mind, and something very few people have--a noble character. And if that's not romantic, I don't know what is.

Here's a salute to the Army Ranger whom we all recognize: Pat Tillman, an unique man who had these qualities and more.

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An Uber Holiday

An appropriate quote for the day, to celebrate tomorrow:

"WHEN, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God's entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

— WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Sometimes, as in the Bible, where we just kinda-sorta remember the stories in bits and pieces, most Americans kinda-sorta know their own history and that important piece of document called The Declaration of Independence. Sometimes, I feel we forget, as we live our busy lives, why we celebrate anything, other than as an excuse for a family gathering in the backyard cookout or around a turkey or around a tree with sparklies.

For those who are interested in reading all of it, here is the whole document.

************************************

Okay, who was the anonymous that sent me the link to government experiments of synthetic telepathy? You are evil! Now I'm reading and reading instead of writing. Evil!

I've also been trying to formulate a new acronym for something in the book. I have the word; it's what each letter stands for and having it makes sense that's tough! Hah, and you think writing is all about plot, plot, plot! ;-)

My mid-year monthly newsletter (heehee) is due (the last one was in Jan.), so that's another deadline hanging over my head. I have so much to tell all my readers, about the new titles and their pub dates to RWA signings to contest winner...I need an assistant, sigh.

And, just so I don't get Ranger Buddy grumbling all day long, here's a salute to his division, the 173rd Airborne Rangers:

A History of Those Badass Rangers

Hooo-Ah! To the Sky Soldiers! And having worked with one for over a decade, let me tell you, there's nothing like uber-ranger mental and physical toughness. Oooops. Sowwy, SEAL babes ;-).

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Is It Christmas Yet?

It's July! As RB says on every Summer Solstice, summer is almost over!

I work almost everyday so I sometimes forget that it's a national holiday. Totally forgot this is a 4th of July weekend until I saw the NASCAR race on TV last night. This is the weekend when most Americans take off and do the family thang. Most of the time, like Labor Day, I'm usually on a roof and disturbing family grill-outs in their backyards with my nailgun going bap-bap-bap ;-). I know, I know. I get stares of annoyance all the time. But why should I be the only one to suffer in this life? LOL.

Anyway, let's go HOOYAH to our favorite military arm:

Shhh. Let's not be too loud less Ranger Buddy hears us.

As for the Pepsi 400 Race, pffffffffffft. Tony Stewart won the race. You know, I like bad boys. I just hate bad boys who are nasty-tempered, backends people IN a race, and causes accident just for payback. Gah.

On the writing front, it's slowly gathering form. Sometimes it takes a while for me because I tend to let the hero lead me around his head and male POV is notoriously unrevealing about plot and feelings.

I've been playing around with the idea of writing vignettes on my daglowworld.blogspot.com weblog site. Just short ones, featuring one or several commandos at a time, just as a way to introduce readers to the COS commandos. Last night, I had this scene of them working out and one of them brought up about Hell's presence. That's not going to be included in any book soon, so I thought, hmm, maybe in the blog? Just long enough to enjoy but short enough that it won't be another job for me to do (as you know, time is very important here)? Since I need to update that weblog to include the new characters anyway.... Just wondering.

It'll be May 2007 before Virtually His shows up at the stores. I have all these months to grow my readership and also make my current readers (you!) happy. I am an uber-brown noser, aren't I? ;-)

Bear with me while I learn. The first button likes the POST. The second button likes the BLOG site. Please help me by "liking" me. Thanks!
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How Uber Are You?

For those of you who are still NOT TIRED of The Uber Subservient Chicken doing the electric slide, moonwalk, tango, or YMCA, try typing:

1) John Travolta
2) worm (he thinks this is a dance)

I know, I know, some of us just can't get enough of this incredible chicken.

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More Books For My Stress:

Yesterday, I picked up the new Cherry Adair: Edge of Danger (whoa, mind reading...whoa, covert lab, whoa, sex and telepathy, whoa, sounds familiar! LOL) I can't wait. Cherry is one of my goddesses.

I also picked up Shiloh Walker's Hunting The Hunter. Anyone read her before?

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For more fun, click on pix below to see what Classic Movie you are. I answered the minimum 9 questions and I am:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Then I answered 27 questions out of curiosity and I am:

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hmm. I'm either a Heathcliffe or Indiana Jones. Either a man who lost his soul (fortune) or one who hunts for fortune (soul). Both are anti-hero, one with a better sense of humor. Hmm. Hmmm. I've always loved Heathcliffe, my first anti-hero but I'm also very into kewl Indiana and his whip. But in relation to the questions asked, mostly about my personality, I suppose this means I like the unattainable???? LOL. Damn, and I so wanted that magic decoder ring too.

What did you get? Does it go with what you think you're like? For myself, I thought they would give me Gone With The Wind because I'm such a "Oh, tomorrow is another day" sort of gal. I guess I wasn't southern enough. I knew I wouldn't get a Casablanca since I'm very bad with inaction and observation. Would love to know what other classic movies they have in the database.

Bear with me while I learn. The first button likes the POST. The second button likes the BLOG site. Please help me by "liking" me. Thanks!
NO NEED TO CLICK TILL I TELL YA: RESERVED FOR NOT SAFE FOR WORK STUFF