I know right about now you’re probably thinking it’s still Christmas. (wg) I rarely put on contests, much less two in such a short period of time. So brace yourself, here comes another. I will be giving away TWO ARC’s of Bad Boys Over Easy. You have from today until the 28th of January to enter. Read the official rules on my contest page. Good luck!
On the writing front, I haven’t been doing much. Okay, nothing. I intend to get the wind back in my sails today. I’ve printed out a ton of questions for world building and I’m going to answer them before I add info to my latest paranormal. So that’s what I’ll be doing today. Hopefully it won’t take me all afternoon.
Tomorrow a dear friend of mine and I are going to High Tea. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you EVER have the chance to do this GO! It’s a wonderful way to slow the pace of the world down.
Archive for January, 2005
I decided to announce the winners on my homepage too, along with the posting them on the contest page. Congratulations goes out to Joy Isley, Cynthya Petzen, and Sasha White. All three will receive an ARC of Wicked Women On Top.
I will be holding another contest starting this Tuesday through the end of the month. I will post details on the contest page of my site. This time you have a chance to win the ARC of Bad Boys Over Easy.
Congratulations again to the winners.
Okay folks, the first contest is over and dh has picked a couple of winners. I’m feeling saucy, so I believe I’ll pick a third. (wg) I will announce the winners on the contest page later today. I know that’s a tease, but I have to scoot. We have people to see and things to do on this end. Check back tonight to see the winners’ names. I also want to thank you all for entering. The response has been overwhelming. It truly is a humbling experience. Thank you. 
Today’s the official last day of the contest. If you haven’t entered yet, you have a few more hours to do so. Best of luck to those who’ve sent their entries in. I’ll announce the winners on Sunday (16th) night.
On a completely different thought track, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you haven’t picked up Eileen Wilks’ latest book ‘Tempting Danger’ run out and do so now. It’s fabulous. The love scenes aren’t the hottest, but the story is terrific IMO. I can’t wait for the next book in the series to be released. Are you still here? Go! Go now! What are you waiting for? LOL!
I was beating myself up last night over a pathetic email I sent to the powers that be. My dh listened intently for several minutes before slowly turning to me and asking, “Since when do you need permission to write?”
The question stopped me cold. Until that moment, I didn’t realize that was what I was doing. I thought about it for a few seconds and realized he was absolutely correct. I’ve been subconsciously asking for permission to write, by waiting for that outside voice to tell me what to work on.
When in the hell did that happen? When did I transfer my power to others outside of myself, who never asked for it in the first place? Talk about an epiphany. That question rang with such resonance that for a moment I thought I was Big Ben. (wg)
Today, I’m still trying to digest the knowledge that I’ve been doing that and figure out what action I’m going to take to change. I didn’t get into this business to please others. I mean, I’m happy if people dig what I write, but I didn’t initially write it for them. I wrote it for myself.
I think it’s time to get back to writing for me. The path I need to take has suddenly become crystal clear. I’ve been worrying so much about keeping what I have attained that I forgot to think about what I want, what I need, what makes me happy. Not anymore.
I’m going to be all over the place in today’s blog. There’s too much on my mind to stick with one subject.
Life can be utterly bizarre at times. I’m still amazed how you can go from overwhelming joy to devastation within weeks of one another. Please send your good thoughts to my friend. She needs all the positive energy she can get right now. Hang in there H.T.
After hearing her crap news yesterday, I started thinking about the New Year. I hate to admit it, but I’m fairly superstitious. It worries me when the New Year starts off with negative things happening. My temporary refusal from my agent is minor and all but non-existent in comparison to my friend’s news. I spiraled down this worrisome path all day yesterday until my dh pointed out that our New Year actually started out as a lovely celebration with friends and family nearby. This made me relax…a bit. Do you all think if negative things happen at the beginning of the year it’s a precursor to how the rest of the year will go? God, I hope not.
I attended the Brava chat last night. It was one of the liveliest I’ve been to so far. Tons of book giveaways. All and all a success I’d say.
I also browsed through Amazon last night and it said my book was shipping. I’m not sure if that’s the case since it’s still saying that the official release date is Feb. 1st. It may be a psych on Amazon’s part. If anyone receives a copy, please let me know. This will definitely skew sales.
Looks like there’s a Brava chat tonight at 9 eastern time. You can find it at Romance and Friends. Hope to see you there. (Rolling neck and shoulders in preparation for question answering. 
It’s a dreary day today. I don’t mind this kind of weather when I’m in Scotland or England, but out West in the states it sucks. If it’s going to rain, I wish it would get it over with already. Can you tell I’m in a mood? LOL!
Accomplishments-zilch! Thoughts-many! Ambition-what’s that? Hope your Monday was far more productive than mine.
Just a reminder, there are five days remaining to enter the contest. No pushing. No shoving. No shoes. No shirt. No service. Happy entering.
Today I find myself contemplating the week ahead. My jetlag is just about gone, so I should be able to keep a fairly normal schedule starting tomorrow. I suppose the question is what to do next. My agent wasn’t thrilled about my latest submissions. Well, to give him his due, he did say that if I added more stuff to the paranormal one it would have potential. (I’m paraphrasing.) That’s really hard to hear when you actually think the submission is good. (A very rare thought for me.)
So now that I’m finished crying (I did mention I was jetlagged. Grin.), I guess I will dig back into the manuscript and see where I can add info and description. I had wanted to work on it and AQ4 anyhow, so I guess here’s my ‘excuse’ (like I needed one).
What do you do when you think a piece of your work is good, but the powers that be disagree? How do you jump back into the story with fresh eyes and enthusiasm?
We took the overnight Caledonian sleeper train from London to Glasgow where my father-in-law picked us up. They live thirty miles from there in the west of Scotland near Dunoon at the foothills of the Highlands. We arrived Christmas Eve and woke up Christmas Day to a blanket of white. It was the first white Christmas I’ve had in years. My breath caught and tears nearly formed in my eyes as I looked out at the Firth of Clyde (an inlet to the Atlantic). The skies were gray, but the water was tranquil. Snow clung to the tree branches and peace decended upon the house…until the dynamo known as my two year old niece entered the room and discovered gifts and chocolate. (And not in that order. LOL!) The rest of the day was a pleasant blur of food, drink, and excited squeals. I stopped after everyone said it was getting on their nerves.
We spent the next couple of days admiring the view. I’ll post a picture soon. After my brother and sister-in-law left with the kids my dh and I went out with his folks to a restaurant called the Whistlefield. They also have lodges as you can see from the link. This place overlooks my favorite loch (lake) in Scotland, Loch Eck. We had a lovely lunch at the restaurant, which has amazing food. The place has been around forever.
The next day my dh and I went to the Benmore Botanic Gardens and hiked below the snowcapped mountains. Gorgeous is an understatement. Again, I will post pictures. It was so hard to go.
We left the peace and quiet of Dunoon for Edinburgh. For those of you unfamiliar with the city, it holds one of the, if not the, largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in Europe. We rented a flat on the Royal Mile, which is in the Old Town section of Edinburgh. Our flat stared out at the Mile and St. Giles Cathedral. We could also see the Edinburgh Castle from our living room window.
On Boxing Day, the city holds a candlelight procession, which starts outside of St. Giles Cathedral and marches through the streets of Edinburgh down Princess Street to Calton Hill. It’s kind of a winter solstice celebration held at the acropolis like their Beltane Festival. Now that said, when my dh put the beeswax candle in my hand, the size of a sword, I had the overwhelming urge to start singing “Yo Ho, Yo Ho”, which would not have been appropriate since this was a Viking celebration not a Pirate one. (giggle) I cannot begin to describe the thrill of marching through the streets with hundreds of people, who are all carrying ‘torches’. It was amazing. And then to reach the top of Calton Hill where they set the Viking longboat they’d been carrying on fire. I found the experience to be incredibly cleansing. In that moment, I let go of a lot of frustration I’d been carrying about the business side of writing. (Must be the fire sign in me. The burning of the boat was followed by an impressive fireworks display. It was absolutely worth being covered in wax. (Did I mention the wind was blowing and the candle wax went everywhere? LOL!)
The next day was Hogmanay or New Year’s Eve as we know it here in the states. The first person over your doorstep the next day/possibly that night determines the year’s fortunes. We went to a candlelight concert in St. Giles to start the evening off. The choir and the musical ensemble were wonderful. Afterwards, we went back to our flat where a bottle of bubbly awaited us.
The fireworks above the castle were awe-inspiring. We had tickets (you need them to get into certain areas because there are concerts going on), but we ended up standing in our living room watching the fireworks shoot out from castle. There are seven hills surrounding Edinburgh. Fireworks were going off all around us. It was a truly breathtaking experience without having to deal with the massive crowd. Have I mentioned that I don’t like crowds? (wg)
The next couple of days were spent seeing friends and family. The evening before we left to return to London we dined at our favorite restaurant, The Witchery or in our case, the Secret Garden part of the establishment. The place has a fascinating history, albeit bloody. Succulent food and eyepopping atmosphere. I highly recommend dining there.
I guess that sums up my Scottish fling. My impressions were as follows, bagpipers playing ‘Amazing Grace’ on the streets, taxies winging by, the feeling of something ancient in the air, and the friendliness of the Scottish people. The place calls to your soul. If you can avoid its pull, you’re a much stronger person than I.
