Dressing Up

Here I am, before venturing out into the heat Sunday morning.  By 10am, it was already in the mid-70's.  As soon as I left my air-conditioned home and walked to the car, I was already rolling up my sleeves.

Fortunately, during the service, we were in a shady spot, plus a gentle breeze provided welcome relief.  I was in front on stage, and friend BC Brown said we sounded good.  And afterward, we gathered for a group photo.  I'm in the back, due to my height.

Talked the spouse into buying this skirt and vest for me.  I love the color, and even found a pair of matching bead earrings:)  Forgot to wear them in the picture.

Close up of my cap.  Next year, I'll only have to borrow the chemise and cap:)  What if I go to the 500 next year?  I'll wear this on Saturday:)  Provided, of course, it isn't raining or too hot!

And then we came home and I proceeded to watch my beloved Indy Car race....from the beginning, which slightly irritated the spouse.  When we tuned in, Tony Kanaan had just taken the lead, but I wanted to watch ALL of it.  And cheered Dario Franchiti to victory!

Currently Reading:  Finished Liz Crowe's Floor Time, and I posted the following review on Amazon:
This is my first Liz Crowe book and I'm definitely going to read more. It was refreshing to read an erotic romance which showed a natural progression of the relationship, not just attraction-hop into bed-conflict-hop into bed again-resolution. The emotion was there throughout and it kept me scrolling through my Kindle, wanting to see what happened next. Excellent job Liz:) And hope I get to actually meet you one day!


Recommended Read:)

Now I'm reading Jean Joachim's Now and Forever 3:  Blind Love and enjoying it:)  I'm up to chapter 8 and wondering when the two storylines are going to intersect.

Print:  Still reading Jodi Picoult's Song of the Humpback Whale.  It's a little confusing in spots, as the timeline jumps around.  But still enjoyable:)

Heading up north tomorrow, so probably won't blog again until Thursday or Friday.  Enjoy these last few days of May:)

Flashback Friday: Coldest 500 EVER!

May 1992:
The spouse took our 5-month old to spend the weekend with his family while I traveled north to my family's house, since I would be attending the Indianapolis 500.  The day was cold and overcast; I donned long underwear under jeans and wore a T-shirt; thick sweatshirt; and threw a jacket over the entire ensemble.  Who knew it would barely be above freezing the last weekend in May?

Fortunately, the rain stayed away.  The race began on time, and we kept warm by jumping up and down, cheering for our drivers and eating....and eating.  Halfway through the race, the wind picked up and I began to wish I'd filled my thermos with hot chocolate, rather than iced tea!  And the last two laps were close, but with everyone standing on their seats, I stood in a tiny cocoon of warmth.  The only way I knew Al Unser Jr aka 'Little Al' had won, was the fact I had a clear view of his pit crew through a space between the shoulders of the people in front of me!  I was never so happy to see a race come to an end, and with the driver of my choice the winner.  But that's not all the excitement which occurred that weekend.

On Monday, when we were back from our travels, the spouse revealed his mother had bought some pear juice for baby K.  Sunday night, she was rocking her darling grandchild, who was sucking down the juice in a contented manner.  Suddenly, he held up his bottle, grinned, and my MIL felt a very warm substance running down her lap.  Yes, his diaper literally exploded all over her and ran down her leg and on the couch!

That was the day the spouse learned how to cure any of K's future constipation issues, lol!  It is still a family joke, 20 years later.

Present Day:
Currently Reading:  Finished Jaid Black's story The Addiction and LOVED it!  See Wednesday's post; I already recommended it.  Still reading Floor Time by Liz Crowe and am enjoying the slower pace of this story!


With the exception of a few books I've already read in e-format, and three others I wasn't in the mood to read yet, I'm finished with the stack I brought home from RT.  Only took me six weeks, lol!  I want to re-read Lisa Hendrix's 1st book before I dive into the sequels.  And that means....finding it first.


Began reading Jodi Picoult's Song of the Humpback Whale last night, and am looking forward to reading more:)

With some trial and error, I managed to upload several pdf files to my Kindle Fire last night!  Now I can show off my books and read the ones I downloaded earlier in the year.  And was upset when I discovered 50 Shades of Gray is NOT available for borrowing through Amazon Prime.  My free subscription runs out in another week or two, and I've not been able to use it yet.  So when it runs out, I guess I won't miss it after all.

Youngling continues his hitting streak:  I posted his two-run homer on facebook the other day, plus he's hit triples and doubles.  Now if he'd only learn to field better.....I guess it comes with practice!

Last night at karaoke, I was thrilled to sing Gloria by Laura Brannigan; Never by Heart (BC shot video of me!); and Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi.  Unfortunately, Darrell decided to DJ for a while, so I didn't get to sing my other songs.  I'd really wanted to do What About Love by Heart again (with BC filming, lol!); Living in Sin by Bon Jovi; and yes, Parents Just Don't Understand by Will Smith!  So maybe next week????

Happy Memorial Weekend!  I'll be in late 1700-period costume on Sunday, since our church choir is providing acappella music during the church service at Rendezvous (when the fur traders would return from the West, to trade for supplies).  I'll have pictures to post for next week.

LIFE Update

First of all, a very happy birthday to my BFF, who endured many interrupted nights as my roommate, when I'd get a brainstorm @ 3am.  I had the top bunk and would be happily scribbling away in a notebook when she'd kick me from her lower bunk and tell me to stop; I was shaking the bed!

Yesterday's release date caught me by surprise.  I was deep into the final revisions on Sunday when I thought to email my editor and ask about my release date.

"Tuesday the 22nd".

Holy sh*t....that's in two days!  The only 'promo' I'd done for it was to post my editing reports, and of course, I interviewed 'Joe' this past weekend for the Villain-Tine's Blog Hop.

So thanks to everyone who endured my frantic promo-posts yesterday:)  I'll post another excerpt at the bottom of this post.

Currently Reading:  Finished BC Brown's Touch of Madness, and OMG....what a roller coaster of emotion and turmoil for the heroine!  This book kept me scrolling right up to the end.  If you want a good paranormal mystery,  which isn't typical at all, read this book.  Definite Recommended Read:)


Also read the next four stories in the Something Wicked This Way Comes Vol 1 antho.  I loved Desiree Holt's Dangerous Addiction and Kathy Kulig's Tattoo Witch.   I'll get to Jaid Black's The Addiction tonight.  Since I'm on the last book, definitely get this one also, esp since Vol 2 contains a Regina Carlysle story and I can hardly wait to get my hands on it also:)  Recommended Read.


I also read Jean Joachim's Now and Forever:  Callie's Story, and found it enjoyable:)  Looking forward to the others in this series.  If you like sweet romance, Recommended Read:)


Now I'm up to Ch 2 in Liz Crowe's Floor Time.  I've wanted to read all of Liz's books since I first 'met' her last fall.  I'm really enjoying this book, even though I've only read two 'chapters', and am already in love with Jack.  Looking forward to more tonight!

Today is officially Day 1 of The Great Basement Discovery.  I'm getting tired of the clutter.  I decided a few months back to try to 'streamline' our various boxes of 'stuff', but got discouraged when my method wasn't working as well as I thought it would.  But now we have the means to invest in another storage unit, so I proposed a plan of action to the SU, who agreed.  Step 1 is to rent the storage space; step 2 will be to begin taking ten or so boxes per day over to it and organizing them.  Not the usual 'throw the boxes in the car and stack them as fast as you can; we'll go through them later' kind of thing.  No; I want to stack like boxes with like boxes, and get rid of anything we don't want AS we're stacking!  Make sense?

Now for that excerpt:)

“Did we ever tell you about the ugly riveters that replaced you last winter?” Adam took a drink of his beer. “They were so ugly we kept them against the press at the other end of the table.”

“Yeah,” Mark joined in. “We much prefer pretty faces while we're setting up. One of them—what was her name? Wanda had a thing for ol' Tom here. Tell her about it, Tom.” He jabbed the other man with his elbow.

“I don't think Gretchen wants to hear it.” Tom wiped beer foam from his black mustache.

“Sure I do.” Gretchen leaned forward. “Come on, tell me. What happened?”

“You sure you want to know?” Tom’s eyebrows rose as he leaned forward when she nodded. “She tried to get me to go to bed with her. Even came into the office and showed me she wasn't wearing any underwear.”

Laughter exploded all around. “Whoooeee, Tom!” Bruce wiped his eyes. “Did you screw her?”

“For five minutes, then I fired her.”

“You didn't!” Gretchen gasped.

“Yes, I did.” Tom signaled for another pitcher. “Paid for it the next few weeks too with the clap.”

“Oh, no!”

“Let this be a lesson, children. Look before you lay.”

“On that note, I'm ready to go home. See you tomorrow.” She drained her glass and stood up.

“Hey, wait up a second.” Joe stood up. “Can you give me a lift? I don't think Tom's ready to go yet. Right?”

“Right. I'm just now starting my second pitcher. Go on with Gretchen, and we'll see you later.” Tom poured himself another mug of beer.

Gretchen and Joe made their way to her small car. He’s never sought me out in private, after hours before! Joe appeared relaxed and calm. I'll just stay on my guard.

“I sure do appreciate the ride.” Joe slid into the passenger seat.

“No problem. What's wrong with your car?” Gretchen backed out of her parking space and headed for the main street.

“It's in the shop getting the brakes fixed. I should get it back tomorrow.”

“That's good.”

“Yeah. Listen, I gotta ask you this. There’s a reason why I asked you to take me home.”

Here it comes. “Oh? What is it?”

“Take a left at the next light. Are you seeing anyone right now?”

“Not exactly.” Why is he asking? Did Shawn put him up to this? Or is he asking for himself? “I’m good friends with a couple of pilots at the base, and you know I dated Shawn Graber last semester, but no one serious.”

“I'm glad. See, I've been confused all winter. Ever since you left, I’ve missed seeing you every day. Now you're back, and I've been promoted to coordinator, and I don't know what to do.”

Gretchen blinked. “Just what are you trying to say?”

“Hell, I guess there's only one way to do it, and that's just to blurt it out. Gretchen, I think I love you. Turn right at the stop sign.”

Gretchen stopped the car. “What did you say?”

“I said turn right.”

“Joseph! I meant before.” She signaled, turning onto the private road.

“Third trailer on the left. I said I think I'm in love with you.”

Want to read more?  Buy the book here:)

Balancing Act Releases Today!

Whoo hoo!  It's hard to believe my 4th book is here.

Here's one of the 'angry' excerpts.  This was one of the dark moments in my past; at the time I did not know the man I'd agreed to marry had a temper.  This particular argument took place about a month after I let him move into my apartment; I felt it necessary to include it because it becomes an 'eye-opener' moment for Gretchen.   Enjoy, and please be assured; this book DOES have a happy ending!


Except:
“That's just great!” Joe threw his towel down in anger. “You have all day to read, but you pick the one time when I want to talk to you. What's more important, me or your damned book?”

“You, of course.” Damn it, why is he so mad now? How long did it take to get my attention? “I'm sorry I wasn't listening.”

“That's right, you don't think I'm worth paying attention to. What are you reading, anyway?”

“It's Danielle Steele's new one, Kaleidoscope.”

“I should have guessed. I saw those trashy novels in your room at the base. Why do you read them? They're not realistic.”

“So what?” Gretchen fired back. “Fiction is a form of entertainment, not meant for educational purposes.”

“Yeah, but these are all the same. Sex and trash!” Joe grabbed the green paperback and threw it into the kitchen wastebasket. “I don't want you reading that shit in front of me again. All it does is ruin your mind and morality.”

“It does not!” I don’t believe he threw it away! It’s not even mine! Maybe I can reason with him? She burst into tears and grabbed a tissue. “I read romance novels for enjoyment, not as a textbook to define how I live.”

“If you hadn't read them, you wouldn't have been such a slut last year!” Joe shouted.

“Oh, that's wonderful. I don't have to take this. I'm going back to campus!” Gretchen stood up and began looking for her shoes. What’s wrong with him? Where does he get the idea that reading romance equals a skewed morality?

“Don't leave, babe.” Joe softened his voice. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought up the past.”

“Then why did you?” She pulled on her left tennis shoe. “Where's my other shoe? There it is.”

She reached for it. Joe grabbed it and held it. “Just listen to me for a minute.”

“No!” she yelled. “I'm too mad, just let me go back to the dorm before I do something I regret!”

“Just let me explain.”

“Give me my shoe!”

Buy link:
http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=13&products_id=333&zenid=44d343c22ca12347f36e9bcdb0306318

Introducing Caleb Smith from A Change Of Address

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Welcome to the SCP Villain-tine's Weekend Blog Hop!  Today I'm happy to host author Natalie-Nicole Bates as she introduces you to her favorite villain, Caleb Smith.  Take it away Natalie:)

Blurb:

Saved from a traumatic past and successful in her present as a home care nurse, Josselyn Adler’s dream of home ownership in the idyllic town of Unity are dashed to pieces when Dr Ben Parnell, a cancer specialist, shows up on her doorstep claiming to be the rightful owner of the house—and Ben has a will to prove it!  To Josselyn, the house represents a new start in her life. With a stable home, hopefully a much wanted family wouldn’t be far behind.

After a near career-ending allegation is made, Ben has returned home to lick his wounds. But now he must prove Josselyn’s claim to be a fake, that she used her position as a live-in nurse to his sick father to ingratiate herself into his good graces. But as he gets to know her, he can tell by her shy, often standoffish behavior, that Josselyn is a woman who has been deeply hurt in her past. Although he is attracted to the dark haired beauty that has invaded his life, he is still suspicious of her true motives and her past involvement with his father.

I’m pleased today to have the chance to chat with my “villain” from Change of Address, Caleb Smith.

Natalie-Nicole: Caleb, thank you so much for this opportunity to chat. I know you’re anxious to share some of your thoughts and feelings about Josselyn Adler and Ben Parnell.

Caleb: I feel it’s important to clear the air a bit on certain subjects, so I’m happy to spend a few minutes with you.

Natalie-Nicole: It has been suggested that you use your position as a police officer to intimidate certain people in Unity.

Caleb: Are you speaking about Ben Parnell?

Natalie-Nicole: Ben, among others.

Caleb: I am a consummate professional. I have never used my position or sense of authority to intimidate anyone. Ben merely feels threatened by my presence on Josselyn’s life.

Natalie-Nicole: And why do you think that is. I mean, Ben is a successful cancer specialist. From my understanding he is quite an upstanding citizen as well. He and Josselyn seem to be a perfect romantic match.

Caleb: Huh! Upstanding citizen you say? Don’t you know of his recent past? You need to catch up on the facts, Girl. But let me sum up Ben Parnell for you: Haughty, arrogant, and aware of his own self-importance.

Natalie-Nicole: Why do you despise Ben so much?

Caleb: We have a long past together. Let’s just say that Ben was quite the bully way back when.

Natalie-Nicole: So the bullied has now become the bully? You’re getting back at him by trying to drive a wedge between him and Josselyn?

Caleb: Josselyn is a sweet, lovely woman who has had a rough life. She deserves better than Ben Parnell. What I feel for her has nothing to do with my hatred of Ben Parnell.

Natalie-Nicole: But, Caleb, it is true that you’ve been going out of your way to not only poison Josselyn’s mind regarding Ben, but you’ve also been threatening to arrest Ben on more than one occasion.

Caleb: Nonsense. You speak as though Ben is some threat to me. I am the threat to him.

Natalie-Nicole: Well, on that rather frightening note, I will thank you, Caleb, for spending some time with me today. To learn more about Caleb Smith, Josselyn Adler, and Ben Parnell, read Change of Address available now at Secret Cravings Publishing.

Buy link:

http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=4&products_id=216

Links:

Blog: www.natalienicolebates.com

Twitter: BatesNatalie

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/natalienicole.bates

Prize: A pdf of Change of Address

Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author.

Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian and Edwardian era photography and antique poison bottles.  Natalie contributes her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia.

She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to her collection of 19^th century post-mortem photos.

Visit Natalie-Nicole online at www.natalienicolebates.com

Please visit the other SCP author blogs and meet other villains, plus a chance for prizes!

Nicola (aka Imogene Nix)  http://www.imogenenix.blogspot.com

Cynthia Arsuaga http://www.romanticwordsbycynthia.blogspot.com

Mike Arsuaga  http://mikearsuaga.weebly.com/blog.HTML 

Tabs Shay  http://tabithashay.blogspot.com

Jean Joachim   http://www.jeanjoachim.blogspot.com

Marie DuFour http://marierosedufour.blogspot.com.au/ 

Dawne Prochilo  http://dawneprochilo.blogspot.com.au/

Sandy Sullivan  http://sandysullivanauthor.blogspot.com.au/

Kellie Kamryn  http://www.kelliekamryn.blogspot.com.au/

Natalie Bates  http://natalienicolebates.blogspot.com.au/

Shannon West  http://remyshannon.weebly.com/shannons-blog.html 
Kenzie Michaels  http://kenziemichaels.blogspot.com 

LIFE Update

Currently Reading:  Print:  Something Wicked This Way Comes (Vol 1).  I LOVED Laurann Donner's story, Captain For Nara's Heart:)  I'm getting ready to read story #2, Dragon Heat by Mel Teshco. On Tuesday, Marianne Stephens' Anything You Can Do arrived, and I began reading it before bed.  Found it hard to put down, and it's taken a great deal of will power not to pick it up, or stay up late!  


E-books:  (You DID know I got a kindle fire for Mother's Day?)  I've already read Sandy Sullivan's Love Me Once, Love Me Twice, and enjoyed it!  My favorite character was Natalie's grandmother!  And OMG is this lady and I on the same (scarily enough!) wavelength, when it comes to our characters!  If not for a certain element to this story, it was like reading something I would have written, in regards to the character's emotions and 'back story'.   Recommended Read:)  Can't wait to read more of Sandy's books!  Now reading:  A Touch Of Madness by BC Brown.  This book released yesterday, and since she's been 'torturing' me the past year and bouncing ideas off me as she wrote (she calls me her 'plot trampoline', hee hee!), I wanted to see for myself how everything came together.  I'm up to Ch 3 and loving it:)


In no particular order, here are the other books on my Kindle, to be read next:
-Floor Time-Liz Crowe (I've wanted to read her books ever since I 'met' her through RBRU!)
-The Scarlet Letter-Nathaniel Hawthorne (it was free, and I've always wanted to read it)
-Pearl in the Sand-Tessa Afshar (another freebee, not sure who recommended it)
-Now and Forever:  Callie's Story-Jean Joachim (I've enjoyed Jean's other books and want to read more:)
-Inscribed Love-Mahalia Levy (Another freebee by fellow SCP author:)
-Storm of Desire- Cara Marsi (see above)
-Born To Be Wild-Cynthia Arsuaga (see above)
-Be Mine-Sharon Kleve (see #2)
-The Bastard Preacher-Dee Dawning (I liked this author's previous works, so downloaded this freebee)


I'm hoping to buy e-books again (I know; I've been saying that for the past three months!), plus bought a micro-adapter so I can put the books I've won in the past several months onto my new Kindle, including my own, lol!

NOTE:  
I'm preposting this on Wednesday, since I've been a bad blogger again this week, and our Villain-Tines Blog Hop is this weekend.  My Friday Flashbacks will be suspended this Friday, but I'll be back with May 1992 the following weekend.  You will NOT want to miss this post, lol!


Reality TV:
I finally watched Celebrity Apprentice yesterday, and wow!  I predicted a Lisa vs Aubrey showdown, or even an Arsenio vs Aubrey, after Lisa was sent packing!  Can't wait to see what happens next week, esp with Arsenio's disappointing footage of Magic's video.  Maybe they can edit it out so that Magic BEGINS the PSA instead of the END?  Maybe Penn can work his 'magic' on Magic:)

Karaoke:
Last week, I bombed on Leanne Rhimes' Can't Fight The Moonlight.  Hoping that after a week of practice, I'll finally get it right.

Also on the line up:
-Candy Man-Sammy Davis Jr
-Can't Buy Me Love-Beatles
-Can't Fight This Feeling-REO Speedwagon
-Can't Help Falling In Love-Elvis
-Can't Keep A Good Man Down-Alabama (If there's enough time)

Best Mother's Day Weekend Ever:)

I've now been a published author for ten years, five months, and fourteen days.  Five years ago, I learned about book pirates, and had a 'ha-ha' moment when I discovered neither mine nor Kenzie's (who's been a published author for nearly three years now) books had been pirated.  I decided we were such newbies that we were flying under the pirates' radar.  All of that changed last Friday.

If you're a regular reader of the RBRU blog, or a paid attention to Kenzie's tweets and my FB status, then you're familiar with the current 'scandal':  One of our own authors happens to share the first name of a very popular, Grammy Award artist.  And Sony apparently googled its artist's name, looking for copyright infringements.  And, oh, look....there's an author with that name.  Let's let legal know she cannot use that name anymore, and send a Cease and Desist order to everyone affiliated with this particular blog.  Oh, and let Google know, so they'll take down every website, blog, and the like.

But what's really confusing is the book URL they cited had another author's name on it.

Someone goofed.
 
Which led to discussions about names, and got me thinking about my own fictional university.  Was there an actual Arbor U out there?  Internet didn't exist when I made up the name in 1985, and yes, I was too damn lazy to use the library.  And at the time, never dreamed my book would ever see published status, other than what came out of my printer!  So who cared?  But after Friday's fiasco....I googled Arbor U.

And (big sigh of relief) nothing showed up.

So...let's put 'tales' after AU.

BINGO!  My blog, website, links, and interviews popped up.  But...wait....what the hell is near the bottom?  Someone's offering a FREE DOWNLOAD of my baby?  I clicked the link.  And discovered someone has liked my book so much, he's offering it to anyone for free.

Outraged, I complained.  Tweeted.  Posted the site everywhere.  And yes, filed the DMCA form.  But being the weekend, it will be today before Customer Service receives anything.  I'm hoping the site will be down by tonight.

So hurrah....I've attained 'seasoned author' status at last!  And :PPPP Kenzie...you're still a newbie...(insert playful sing-song voice!)

So why was this the 'Best Mother's Day Ever', if I was pirated?

Take a look:

My youngest presented me with a handmade card and a new coffee cup which he'd decorated at school:)  This explains his question last week about needing a new coffee cup, lol!  Not understanding what he was up to, I thought he was offering to swap cups with me:  The one he uses is larger, and more decorative.  His eyes lit up this morning when he saw me drinking my morning coffee from the new one!

After church, they took me to La Carreta, the best Mexican restaurant in town.  I drank a pina-colada-flavored margarita; enjoyed my chicken fajita nachos, and was stunned when the daughter handed me a package.  Inside was a shiny Kindle Fire!!!  It doesn't show up very well in this pic, so I took another when we arrived home:

I can check FB instantly, without having to drag out the laptop; all the free books I've been downloading (including the Flavors of Ecstasy, Cindy, which I'd bought two years ago!!) in anticipation are on it; and I can even download music, via Pandora.  And I've already caught my youngling trying to download SpongeBob episodes.  Thank God I hadn't set up my Amazon account yet; he thought he was accessing NetFlix, when actually, he was trying to ORDER a $2 download!

If the college kid had been thinking, he should have grabbed my camera before I opened my present.  I think I held onto the box for maybe a full minute,  hugging the thing and saying 'thankyouthankyouthankyou!'

And when I asked when they bought it, I was even more dumbfounded.  Turns out they did it Monday morning, while I was editing.

I didn't blog last week; the spouse took the two older kids to breakfast at Denny's; I declined since I wanted to hit the edits hard.  Later, discovered they'd been gone for nearly 5 hours, but since I know the spouse is looking at trucks, plus his favorite stores are Lowes and Rural King....and had two teenagers, figured he was just enjoying Quality Time with his kids.  Little did I know they'd taken $300 in cash and driven to Terre Haute, to the very same Best Buy where we bought the daughter's laptop in April.  I was just enjoying the fact they had left me alone to work!

Daughter even said she carried it into the house right past me....and I hadn't even noticed.  I probably thought she had a Walmart bag or something.  And when after church, CK offered to pick her up so we could go ahead to the restaurant, I agreed, never dreaming she had been wrapping my Kindle while the rest of us were at church.  She doesn't go with us, due to 'exercising her religious freedom' and attends her church on Thursday nights.

And the spouse cleaned up the kitchen....nobody complained while I took a nap and watched a few of my DVR'd shows....and the spouse even warmed up the leftover lasagna while I watched the Survivor finale.  I was hoping Chelsea would win, but Kim did play an awesome game.  And being a 'Troyzan' fan, I got to see him one more time:)

Currently Reading:  Finished Immortal Cravings by Cindy Spencer Pape, and loved, loved, LOVED Dani's Demons!  As previously stated, there are few vampire stories which appeal to me, and when these three stories first released, I wasn't that thrilled.  But since they were in one volume and in print at RT, I went ahead and bought it.  I also read it over the weekend, so kudos to holding my attention!  Last Friday, I finished Susan Elizabeth Phillips Glitter Baby.  WOW!  I want to get some of her others, which I found in the back of the book.  Both of these ladies' work is Recommended Reads, so I suggest you hightail it over to Amazon. 


Next Up:  Something Wicked This Way Comes Vol 1.  I'm already loving Laurann Donner's story!

Flashback Friday: Heartache and Broken Plans

May 1982:
With my sophomore year drawing to a close, and confident in the plans my friends and I had made for the upcoming Band Camp, I was doing well in school and looking forward to summer vacation.  I was stunned one morning when my boyfriend K appeared at my mom's office before school and asked to speak to me.

He and I went to a private corner near the band room, and he broke up with me.  Shocked, I stumbled my way to my locker and met B on the way down the stairs.  He asked what was wrong, and before I could check myself, I blurted out the truth, then felt my eyes fill with tears.  I rushed into the library and darted behind the counter, looking for the kleenex.  B had followed me inside, and told me everything would be okay.  And of course, by lunchtime, I was fielding questions about he and I again.  I was thankful when school was out; I could concentrate on learning the choreography as well as my field placement for the upcoming parade and marching band contests.  And was mourning the broken plans K and I had made for our free time at band camp.  Would I ever know the joy of a 'summer love'?

Forgot to mention:  A senior whom I'd harbored a slight crush on showed me his Prom tickets.  Instantly my brain asked, 'Could it be he's asking me??'  Nope.  Out loud  I asked who he was taking to the Big Event, and he named someone I didn't know.  But for just that moment, I enjoyed a split-second fantasy:)

Next Month:  Band Camp and An Eye-Opener.

Present Day:
I've been a bad blogger the past two weeks; I've been hurrying to finish the edits on Balancing Act, and finally sent them back this past Tuesday:)  My College Kid is home; my mother received her Wall of Fame for Outstanding Faculty at my high school; I've caught up on the laundry and restocked my pantry.  Right now, I'm self-editing book #5, Endless Love, which tells Caitlyn's story.  And I'm somewhat amused:  I spent Wednesday night cutting the first two chapters, and 'Caty's' not rebelled, yelled, or even refused to cooperate!  Maybe she sees the wisdom of this drastic change?  Or maybe she's still (looks around) reading Keri's book and hasn't noticed yet?  LOL!

Currently Reading:
Finished Brynn's The Daly Way trilogy, and I have to say, I enjoyed Belonging To Them, but my favorite is Plays Well With Others.  And Fill 'Er Up was good also.  Maybe I'm just burning out on erotic romance?  I decided to pass on Cindy S. Pape's books for the moment and read Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Glitter Baby.  Really enjoying it!  Had to look up a picture of Errol Flynn, so I could 'see' him.