Heart's Blood - It has a Cover!!

Okay, so I did promise the magnificence that is the cover to Heart's Blood, the second book in my steampunk blood magic universe. It truly is beautimous.

Look! There are little mechanical spiders with red eyes down in the lower left hand corner. There is Big Ben. There are moody clouds. There is even the villain lurking behind the title. And there is a quote from the wonderful Nalini Singh (who is one of my favoritest people now, besides writing really great books).

Admittedly, I think the hero looks a tad young, even though they've olded him up a bit. And okay, I have to admit that I visualized him--well, actually, I started off visualizing him as oh, this guy-- but he didn't stay that way.

Partway through New Blood, (the first book, remember?) Grey Carteret, the hero of Heart's Blood, morphed into Johnny Depp, as seen in the movie From Hell. It wasn't my idea. It was totally Grey's.

But hey, it totally worked. For some reason, especially when the characters are the ones who decide how they look, they acquire personalities and do a lot of dictating of the story. I didn't have to make up Grey's banter. He just spouted it off for me to take down...

And yes, I know exactly what Harry Tomlinson looks like, and he is providing his dialogue and the rest of it for book 3--but I'm not telling you who plays his part, because-- Well, just because...

So, if you want, you can paste the one face over the other face, or if you like the one on the cover better, you can imagine that one, or whatever suits your fancy. I just thought I'd let you know a little bit about the weird way I work. (Yes, it is true, I have never grown up. I still have imaginary friends. Scientists have done a study of novelists and other writers of fiction, and shown that we (authors) relate to our characters in an identical fashion to how children relate to their imaginary friends.) Sometimes I cast my characters. Sometimes they cast themselves, and there's nothing I can do about it... In my head, in Grey's behavior, Mr. Depp plays the part of Grey Carteret...

Ahhh, the beach--

I have now been to the beach twice. It was fabulous. The first day, the water was a little cool, but still nice. Saturday, it was Perfect for this weenie, no-going-in-the-water-unless-it's-over-90 sissy swimmer. Not quite bathwater warm, but darn close.

I really love the Gulf because the waves aren't strong and splashy. I can get out past the surf without much trouble at all and just let the water rock me, and that's what I truly enjoy. When the water's warm and the waves are easy, I've found my bliss.

The wind's been really strong from the south, pushing currents right up along the beach--Gulf water, especially in Texas, tends to be kind of gold--well, okay, brown--because of all the Mississippi sediment, changing to green water, then blue water at various distances. This past week, the green stripe has been really wide, with a very noticeable, distinctive color change not far past the end of the jetties. Which is where the shrimp boats have been trawling, and the seagulls, terns and pelicans fishing. It's really cool to see brown pelicans fly maybe 6 feet over your head, going out to catch fish...

So, yeah, the grandboys were visiting. It was great getting to see them and go play with them. We went to see the Cirque du Soleil "Saltimbanco!" show on Thursday night for the older one's 8th birthday (He had his birthday at our house last year, too). It was a great show--I really loved the sound-effects mime clown, and the tumblers, and the--well, just all of it, except the two-on-a-trapeze act scared the pee-wadding out of me. But they were great too. After, we went to Chuy's to eat, because we only had a birthday cake snack beforehand, and I had Elvis Green Chile Fried Chicken. Yum!

I also was trying to get the book untracked. I did get my plot sorted and have been re-writing the opening and tweaking some of the stuff I already had written to make it fit. It's all in the computer now, and I think I have around 70 pages, which is pretty good. Now I get to start from scratch and write madly. I'm ready for the "Debate" scene, where they debate about what the heroine wants to do.

I am taking a "sabbatical" from the dayjob for August so I can really focus and get this book written--except my parents, sisters (and brother at least part of the time) and their families, plus my daughter and her son, will be coming down for a week or more smack in the middle of it.

I foresee more Taco Cabana time. Yeah, I spent a couple of mornings over there last week. The boys all went fishing or golfing the other two mornings... We ate angel fish one night, because they caught them on their boat fishing expedition, the gray-and-black striped kind. They're pretty good eating...

Pictures. My goal is to download pictures this week and post some, one day.

Back from Washington

I went to the Romance Writers of America national conference last week and got home last night at midnight or so. It was a great time, but man, am I tired now. Of course, the tiredness is mostly because I walked to the National Zoo from the hotel, and all through the zoo, and back to the hotel again, and my calves are knotted up like a macrame plant hanger. The rest of my legs are just sore.

I will try to get pictures downloaded this week and posted. The grandboys (and their daddy) have come to visit for the week, and their dad is sleeping in my office, but I bet I can get some pictures onto the blog. I have pictures of the panda bears and an orangutan crossing the zoo on the special "O-line" cable, and a wolf, and a few other animals. Do not let me forget the pictures!

I took many more pictures at the zoo than at the conference--I kept forgetting to get the camera out--but I do have a few. It was a good conference. I sold about 12 copies of New Blood at the literacy signing--more than half of those donated. The big news about that was that they were all sold to people I don't know. It's easy to sell books to your friends, but not so much to strangers. A number were made curious by the steampunk label, so that was all good.

Had my first "OMG, you're Gail Dayton!" moment, complete with a hug like we were long lost sisters. That was fabulous. And my "fangirl" was a librarian with the Portland-area King County library system. Who did a little "favorite library story" podcast thing with me. I left her card at home, so I'll have to get back to you with the link.

Got to see the cover to Heart's Blood, WHICH WILL BE RELEASED IN JANUARY, instead of February as I had thought. I will get it up here and on the website asap. It is gorgeous, and I can't wait for y'all to see it.

I moderated two workshops, and volunteered at another where the moderator didn't show and the speaker had transparencies to put on an overhead projector. I swapped out the pages. I went to a number of interesting workshops, but of course, I can't remember which ones they were at the moment. Several of them helped me figure out why I am struggling so much with this book--the 3rd in the steampunk series--though the biggest thing I just figured out last night/this morning. Which is:

I am once more trying to cram two books' worth of plot into one book. So I will have to pull all the extra stuff out and focus on the correct main plot. This ought to help tremendously in the "get the &#@$!%*! book written" department. I am now re-doing all my plot points and such. Trying to get it sorted out. I may do this "Save the Cat" style. Yes, I finally found the book.

So--I'll do my best to get pictures and such downloaded and posted asap. Again, nag me, if I don't.

Wild Weeks

So, last week I went to Fort Worth with the fella, to his conference. I hadn't been able to go in a while, so it was nice to see some people I haven't seen since the last time I went. I ate really well. We stayed at the Worthington Hotel which is in Sundance Square. It's been a while since I spent much time in downtown Fort Worth, but it is a really nice place. Lots of good places to eat (I didn't make it to all of them, though I did go to Razzoo's twice...), a Barnes & Noble within 3 blocks, and a movie theater next door. Not a whole lot of other shopping, but I really didn't care.

It was blisteringly hot--topped 100F/37+C every day--but without the island's 900% humidity, it wasn't actually too terribly bad. Okay, yeah, it was bad, but not THAT bad. At least, not for a person who's used to being a little bit sweaty all the time. Somebody from Minnesota, or Idaho--yeah, they might've died a little. I went out to the bookstore twice in one hot afternoon. Went to the movie one day. Took a nap. Read books. Oh, and I wrote. I wrote and wrote till I ran out of ideas. I got quite a bit done--except I think I'm going to have to scrap some of it, because my heroes are getting answers handed to them on a platter. They need to work a little harder at it. But I made progress.

This week is Romance Writers of America conference. (I'm working at a newspaper. They make me spell everything out the first time, every time.) I discovered this morning that I booked my return flight on the wrong day, and it's costing me some bucks to change it. (sigh) Oh well. I am flying out at way-too-early o'clock Wednesday. We got home Saturday night. I have time to wash clothes, pack again, (change my flight reservation) and leave again. And try to make sure everything's together at the paper for me to be out most of another week. Oh, and the day I come back--the older son and his boys will be here for a week. I WILL get to the beach to swim while they're here. I will. By hook or by crook.

Of course, the rest of the time, I'll probably be at Taco Cabana writing. (I don't really like coffee, and Starbucks doesn't have enough space, anyway.) Wish me luck.

Holiday weekend

It was Independence Day over the weekend. And it was hot as blazes on the island. As usual, the actual temperature wasn't much over 90F (32C), but the sun and the humidity made it FEEL much, much, much hotter. The fact that it hasn't rained in more than a month (and doesn't look to rain today, despite the storms predicted by The Weather Channel), does not help

And I still haven't made it into the water. I really wanted to go swimming sometime last week/weekend, and every time I wanted to go, everybody else had something else going, and I didn't want to go by myself. I believe in the buddy system. Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico really isn't a solo activity, even if there is a lifeguard on the beach... I am just going to have to twist somebody's arm and GO.

I didn't go to the 4th of July parade downtown. It was too hot, and I didn't want to go downtown an hour and a half early, and nobody else in the house got up. Which didn't really hurt my feelings. ('Cause it was hot.)

But we did go to the fireworks. We headed down toward 39th Street about 45 minutes ahead of time, because they shoot them off out the 37th Street jetty. (It's paved along the top, so they could drive the Budget Rent-a-truck out onto the rocks.) There was a really strong onshore wind (isn't that what you call a wind that blows from the water onto the land?), whipping up the sand everywhere, so we had to hunt a little while to find a place where we could actually keep our eyes open and not have sand in them. The kids on the beach below the seawall digging in the sand like puppy dogs did not help, but it wasn't too bad, once we moved upwind from the sand ramp down to the beach. And shortly after it got dark, the fireworks started. It was a good show--lasted about 30 minutes. I'm not sure if it was longer or shorter than last year, because I don't remember how long last year's show lasted. But there were plenty of great big sparkly, splashy, flashy fireworks. It was fun.

I am hoping to have a chance in the rest of the week to plunge deep into the deadline cave and get a bunch of this book written. The fella and I are leaving the boy behind to hold down the fort and keep the dog in the yard to go to a conference of his. I plan to spend my time in Fort Worth writing. And maybe going to some fun stuff. I'm not sure what's playing in Bass Hall. We talked about going--but I don't remember if we ever did anything about it. Wish me luck. I have GOT to get some writing done!!

Blogging Here, Blogging There, Gail is Blogging...elsewhere

I am definitely not blogging everywhere, but I did blog in two different places this week. Which has sort of left me all blogged out. However, you can Read my blogs from those other places and know what I'm doing.

On Tuesday, I blogged at the To Be Read blog of the published authors chapter of RWA, all about my weekend spent at ApolloCon. So if you're more interested in my day-to-day life (which admittedly is not that interesting), go read that one.

Today, Wednesday, I have a blog up at the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter's blog, all about steampunk and what it is. And of course, a blatant promo job of the NEW BLOOD book...

More blogging? Here? Let me catch my breath, 'kay? I'm going to be busy the next couple of weeks. I need to catch up and try to get ahead... Oh, and I have my page proofs to go over, as well. I have plenty of time, but there's so much ELSE to be done! Ack!!

Pants, and the fitting thereof

I have two pairs of pants in two different sizes from a mail-order catalog waiting for me to send/take them back because neither pair fit. They were too small. I have pants in both sizes in my closet that fit nicely--one pair has no elastic in the waist, no stretch in the fabric, buttons and zips up the front, and fits very comfortably. The two pair that have to go back have both stretch and elastic, but the buttons won't fasten. They're made by different manufacturers, which is why--even though they're supposedly the same size, they're not.

I cannot be the only person who finds this a huge pain. It's not an issue just for large-size women like me. Even women who wear size 6 have problems because the Lee Jeans size 6 is not the same as the ... oh, Ann Klein size 6. (If Ann Klein makes jeans.) There needs to be some kind of standard--something with a waist/hip/length measurement maybe, like in men's pants. Women's pants would need that extra hip measurement, because there isn't a consistent waist-to-hip ratio. Some of us have larger backsides than others. But there ought to be some way to be able to order a pair of pants--or pull them off the rack/shelf in the store--and have a reasonable expectation that they will go around said backside.

I've dealt with the "high-water pants" all my life--it's incredibly hard for me to find pants that are long enough, especially since I'm not quite tall enough for the "tall sizes" but too tall for "average." I was really hoping these jeans would fit because they were a whole inch longer than the other pants in the catalog--all of which were for "average" height. But they didn't, and now they have to go back.

I do understand the vanity issue, that women like to say they wear a size 6--when they only wear a size 6 in, oh, Ralph Lauren clothes, and a size 8 or 10 in some other manufacturer's clothing. But it's still a pain. And since I was a size 12 from the time I hit my full height of 5'8" or so, I can tell you truthfully that size 12 is NOT fat--especially if you're on the tall side. (We will not discuss what size I am now--but I will never see 12 again...) All I'm asking for is a little consistency.

Why is it so impossible for the clothing industry to come up with a consistent, across-the-board sizing? Anybody out there have a clue?

Other people's vacations

Summer is vacation season. I like my vacations. Other people's, not so much. This week, the other person at the dayjob who handles the same things I do is out. So I'm having to do her every-day things as well as my own. I have been coming in to the newspaper office in the mornings, doing the "first thing" stuff, and then writing for an hour or two before digging into the regular stuff. And I'm tired. (whine, moan, complain)

The worst part is that my sprained elbow is still very sore. My arm hurts--it has turned spectacular colors all down the underside, and my whole elbow area is green--and it never touched the ground when I fell. I caught myself on my hand, but it's the elbow that's sore. As someone put it--the bruise is "where the pain went." So, since it's sore, I'm holding myself funny, which makes my back hurt too, and my shoulder--I'm just in sorry shape all over. (whine, moan, complain)

I would just like to lie down and do nothing for about 3 days. I might get tired of it after one, but I'd like the opportunity. No laundry. No cooking. No writing. Just vegetating. Maybe a little reading. By the end of it, I might be ready to jump back into the swing of things. Poor, poor, pitiful me.

I'm cranking out one, maybe two pages a day. It's not getting me very far, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as my mama used to say. I think I'm going to see about going down to the rec center and getting my exercise in there, instead of trying to walk outside. I keep tripping over stuff, and that's NO fun.

It's still hot. No rain. I wish we could figure out how to do this swap thing...

I'm going to stop now before I depress myself any worse. No more whining! (Today, anyway)

Ouch!

Yeah. I fell again. I have GOT to quit doing this. Especially since this time, I hurt my arm. I can scarcely use it. My fingers work, and it bends and such (though it's owie), and I can even press it down on the arm rest or keyboard shelf, but the muscles are strained so I have no grip strength, and can't even exert enough pressure to fasten my seatbelt. (And when I type, after a while, it starts to ache from the muscle movement up near the elbow.) So, yeah. Need to stop this.

I've had offers to trade rain in Sweden (and maybe France) for some of our heat. I would be happy to do this--if I could just figure out how. We could really use the rain.

The city and tree experts have finally decided that very few of the 109-year-old live oaks down the median of Broadway (one of the few streets to have a historic designation) survived last fall's hurricane. They poured water to them after the salt hurricane surge went down, and waited to see if they'd put out new leaves this spring...but most of them didn't. People are all up in arms, insisting the trees are just dormant, and that they'll come back if we just wait. But if they haven't come back by now, it's pretty much "dead" certain that they won't. So now, all those trees have to come down so new trees can be planted. There are also palm trees in the medians. The palms survived the salt water, but not the oaks. I think they're planning a variety of trees to replace the dead ones, magnolias among them.

The magnolias in our yard survived the storm. They don't look real hot, but they have leaves, and they have even bloomed--even the one in the front yard where the storm surge came up to the door. The Norfolk Island pine in the back is doing just fine--though it did lose some leaves. The airplane/spider plants and ferns and sago palms and other shrubs all recovered nicely too. The only plants that died were these pink polka-dot plants that were on the front row of the flower beds--that looked kind of scraggly anyway. I really ought to replace them with something. But my elbow's too hurty today. (whine, moan, whimper, complain--yeah, I'm pathetic.)(But I can still type!)

Anyway, that's what the mention of rain makes me think of. All the trees that died partly because, after Ike, it didn't rain...

Hurricane season has arrived again. Y'all keep us in your thoughts/prayers that all the big ones go somewhere else this year...

Hot, Hot, HOT!!

We are not talking attractiveness (for which there is no charge) or awesomeness (ditto), when we speak of hot. (We are fans of Kung Fu Panda at my house.) We are speaking of--when you walk outside the air-conditioned cool of the house or office, the heat smashes into you like a brick. A really hot brick. Yeah, it got hot this week.

I am not surprised. This is Texas. It is summer. Texas + summer = HOT.

The temperature is not that hot, here on the island. It's 89F, (almost 32C) which would be reasonable--if the humidity were not somewhere in the vicinity of, oh, 900 percent or so. Yes, I do realize that technically, it is impossible to have a greater percentage than 100. But it feels like 900% humidity. If you were here, you would agree with me. Walking from the front door to the car door will have the average person sweating through his T-shirt. (Yeah, I know it sounds gross. How do you think it feels???)

So, of course, the crepe myrtles are blooming. They like the hot weather, don't really get to blooming much till the hot as Hades weather arrives. Our little island doesn't have as many crepe myrtles as I'm used to, in other Texas cities. We have oleanders, and the oleanders have been blooming like crazy for at least a month already. I figure they've got most of another month to go. Oleanders bloom a long time. Galveston has lots of oleanders, I'm told, because they are salt-resistant. They are not salt-proof, because the oleanders which were submerged longer and/or deeper in the Hurricane Ike surge have not returned. But most of the semi-submerged shrubs are putting out new shoots, or blooming valiantly on the few stems left living. Those less swamped are solid pink or peach or white with blooms. They're just gorgeous.

The granddog and I went for a beach walk today. It was hot already at 8 a.m., but there was a stiff wind blowing, which helped. Dolly was a very good dog, didn't pull, didn't try to go smell the other dogs or lick the people. The sand was extremely soft and hard to walk in, even where it was wet. We were there right at high tide, so the wet sand was dry underneath, hence soft. Tired me out right quick. So we didn't walk very far, but it was a good walk.

I think part of the reason Dolly was such a good dog is her little "adventure" last week. I went out to go walking one morning, and there was no Dolly in the yard. I made the boy get out of bed (before noon!) and he went to see if she'd gone to chase birds at the beach, and I drove down to the humane society. Apparently, she got out of the yard (a board on the fence came loose) and got picked up as a stray and taken to the humane society. Her boy tends to take her collar off when she's in the yard, so she didn't have her collar or tags. I was able to identify her right then, but we couldn't take her home till later when they officially opened for the day. She looked very mournful when I didn't get her out of the cage right then, all--"Gigi! Don't leave me!" And she was VERY happy when we did come get her to take her home.

Spent the weekend visiting with relatives, seeing the nephew graduate. Nice, snappy ceremony, with eating to follow. Ice cream the night of the graduation, and cook-out with cake and M&Ms the next day. I made myself go upstairs and work Saturday morning, and got almost 6 pages done. That's a lot for one day, the way things have gone lately. It was a good visit.

Wednesday words

I was trying to think of something alliterative for the title, to go with Wednesday, since I don't really have much to say today. Of course, I first came up with "Thursday thoughts" because I keep thinking today is Thursday for some reason. But it's not. It's Wednesday.

So what goes with Wednesday? Woes? Well, but I'm not really woeful today. It's been a pretty good day for me. Okay, there's a condo fire over on the Seawall, bad enough they've asked fire trucks from Texas City and La Marque and Santa Fe or Hitchcock, or one of those other towns across the bay, to come cover the rest of the city while all the Galveston fire trucks are dealing with the fire--but it's about 40 blocks from my house, and while I'm sympathetic, it hasn't really affected my day.

What else? Wisdom? *snort* Yeah right. On rare occasions, I might stumble over something that vaguely resembles wisdom, but ... Rare, remember?

Words. I am writing words on Wednesday. That's nicely generic, and promises nothing more than that the words be strung together in an order that will make sense. (Actually, it doesn't even promise that, but with any luck, that's what you're getting.)

So here they are. My words.

Like I said, it's been a pretty good day for me today, and that's because of words. As in, I got a decent number of them written today. I need to be writing more, but... I'm getting some done. And really, that's all I had to say. The writing is being written. The story is going. I'm not exactly sure where it's going, but it IS going.

So y'all go look at the fire pictures... 'Cause that's all that's happening around here today.

Lazy Summer Days

Yes, some of you will doubtless be telling me that it has been summer on my island since--oh, March or so. And given what your summers are like, I will be agreeing with you. However, now summer has REALLY arrived. With a vengeance.

First of all, the tourists are here.

On weekdays, even in summer, the tourists aren't too bad. You can still get into a restaurant without an hour or more to wait, and drive down Seawall without wanting to honk at the sightseers. But weekends? Fuggeddaboutit! (and yeah, I know, we don't sound like that in Texas, but we do definitely know the sentiment.)

The tourists hit Memorial Day weekend. The beaches were pretty much wall-to-wall people, and Seawall Boulevard was wall-to-wall cars. We spent a very lazy few days. We went to see a movie Saturday afternoon (Angels & Demons), went out to the Coastal Living magazine idea house on Sunday and then the fella had to go to Austin (he had a presentation I "got" to proof before he left) Monday, so I made the boy and his girlfriend go see Monsters vs. Aliens with me. On the way back, the traffic was so heavy, we had to sit through one stoplight--on the street most people use to leave the island--about 5 times just to get up to it and go through. Fortunately, we weren't trying to turn left, just go straight through to go home. The boy kept growling "Get off my island." And it hasn't even been his very long...

Actually, we didn't go home, but to one of our favorite, hidden, mostly-locals places to eat. Having lived most of our lives in small-town Texas, we know that the hole-in-the-wall non-chain/local chain places often have the best food. And no, I'm not going to tell you where we ate, because we don't want all you tourists crowding up our favorite place. If you know me, call me when you get to town, and I'll take you there. :) We figured we could get in easily, because everybody was heading home at the end of the holiday. And we did.

Still trying to get some writing done. Yesterday, I was going to go to Starbucks to try to write, but there wasn't a place to sit. And since I don't drink coffee anyway, I went across the street to the Taco Cabana and wrote there for a couple of hours. Today, I had both a dentist's appointment and a doctor's appointment (regular checkups) and that took up all my time--so much that I was very late getting to the paper for the dayjob. But I am getting a little bit done. I need to get a LOT done.

Party in Pittsburgh

I've been back a few days, but it's hard work, sitting through 5 hours of graduation ceremonies. (Yeah. 5 hours. Plus some.) The son-in-law walked across the stage in anticipation of completing his PhD in another couple of months, so we went to Pittsburgh to see it. Saturday, when we arrived, was chilly and rainy, but the Saturday night Hooding (when doctoral grads get their fancy hoods) was indoors. The middle grandson got fidgety and was sent outside to the playground with Uncle Bob to play...and when it started raining, he decided the tarp over the sandbox made a good slide and did a Superman leap onto it. He got Really wet and cold, but made it back inside with UB and Granddaddy to see Daddy get his fancy hood. After, we took him home to dry off and have cake. Doodlebug and Granddaddy are both allergic to wheat and milk, though Doodle is more allergic to milk. But there is a gluten-free bakery that makes really good cakes--so Everybody got cake, with really thick fluffy icing.

Sunday morning, all the graduates--from bachelor's degrees through the doctorates--marched into the stadium and got their degrees officially conferred, and had all the speeches. It was COLD! I think the high that day was barely 60 F, (15.5 C)--which is winter weather here in Galveston! I did take a velveteen jacket to wear, so I didn't get too cold. It started off cloudy and threatening, but cleared off by noon and warmed up nicely. Doodlebug went crawling around our feet, but he was really quite good. And afterward, we went to the physics department where they handed out the actual diplomas, or diploma holders for those who hadn't quite finished all the paperwork yet. And all the graduating was done! We went back to the hotel/home, changed clothes, took little naps, and gathered back at the house to be lazy. We spent the evening watching Kung Fu Panda with the grandboy. And eating sandwiches and more cake. (This was a BIG cake...)

Monday, we slept in, then went to join the others. Doodle still is in school, so we went to see the "scary movie." Star Trek. (He probably would have liked all the stuff blowing up, but not the talky parts.) Totally enjoyed it. My favorite characters are still McCoy and Scott, even with the new actors. (Who can't love Simon Pegg as Scotty?!?!! And Karl Urban has all the McCoy mannerisms down, with extra hotness. Sigh.) Then we took the boy to see the Science museum, one of his favorite spots, and went out to dinner by the airport, because his other grandparents needed to go to their hotel to fly out early in the morning.

We still had most of Tuesday to visit. We went to see the dinosaurs, and since Doodlebug (as his mom calls him), was in school, we got to see the mineral exhibits, and the horse exhibit, and even went over to the art museum to look at the art. Had some really cool stuff. Had an Ethiopian lunch. Apparently in Pittsburgh, you either get burger places (with Really Good burgers) or foreign food... Anyway, Ethiopian was interesting, and good, and no, it was not "Eat your twigs and bugs and go run 6 miles." It was good. Spicy. Then, as the daughter was driving us to the airport for our 5 p.m. flight, we had a wreck. It was relatively minor, nobody hurt, but left both cars undriveable. We wound up calling a cab, once the tow truck got there, and the fire truck got there. The police took another half hour to make it, but we had to go to make our flight. Which we did, with plenty of time. And we were home by 11 p.m.--Texas time, which meant midnight, Pittsburgh time. You know, it was odd that they didn't have a lot of steak places in Pittsburgh... Anyway. The weather stayed sunshiny, which is apparently peculiar for Pittsburgh. It's the 3rd rainiest city in the U.S., right up there with Seattle and Portland. Nice that it was gorgeous for us. :)

So, I've been home. Got my copy edits sent off before I left town, so I'm good there. Haven't got back into the writing of the book, much. Sigh. But I did type some in today. Less to have to do later. NEED to write. I'll try to do some tomorrow. So, that's what's doing here. I hope to go to the Coastal Living idea house this weekend. I bought tickets... Need to check how long they'll be open, in case I don't make it this weekend.

And there you have my life.

Beach observations and other news

I meant to post this yesterday, but got too busy. Today's no less busy, but I am determined.

First, want to say thanks for the "Awws" from Catie and Barb. I have decided that I need to walk more often, but not quite so far, because I get tired and don't pick up my feet and trip over stuff. My bruises are better, and my hand is doing that "getting well" itching. :)

I drove down to the beach to walk yesterday, because it's more fun, and because I wanted to spend my walking time actually on the beach, not getting to it. And I didn't take Dolly. I tend to observe stuff more when I don't have to deal with the dog.

First observation: The seaweed has come in. Blankets of it. I was thinking maybe it's a little early for the big piles of seaweed, but maybe not. We're almost halfway through May... I saw some logs that had floated in that looked like they had fur. Greenish fur, but furry, nonetheless. (Yes, I know it's algae. But it looks like fur.) And a tennis shoe that had been in the water long enough that it had those lipstick clams attached to it. Quite a few decent sized ones... I only saw the bottom of the sole, not the top, so I don't know how much of the upper shoe survived, but that sole had been floating around a long time.

I only saw one seagull. I was out there by 8 a.m., but I think because the sun's coming up earlier, the seagulls are giving up their "standing by the edge of the water waking up" earlier. I saw lots of sanderlings and ruddy turnstones, all of which had two legs. They have a little butt wiggle when they're running away from you...

I also saw a shark that had washed up on shore. It was about a meter/yard long (give or take that difference between a meter and a yard), and it didn't have a tail. I don't know if it died and got washed up because it had lost its tail, or if it lost its tail after it got washed up. It didn't look like any scavengers had been at it... I have no idea what kind of shark it was, though. I've been looking--not a nurse shark. Dorsal fins aren't right. Its nose was really square across, so it's not a pointy-nose shark or a round-nose shark. Hmm. It was gray, with that straight-across nose, one rather pointy dorsal fin, no barbels (catfish-like whiskers), gill-slits in front of its side-fins, and small high-set eyes. Haven't found the right picture for it yet. And having its tail missing takes away another thing to help ID it. Oh well.

In other, more interesting news, New Blood is a recommended read by the Virginia Beach Public Library! It's a lovely review--and they're recommending it!! I'm excited.

I got my copy edits for Heart's Blood (Grey's story), and have finished them up, except for the chunk of 25 pages that got left out of the ms they sent me.

What do you think of Blood from Stone as a title for Harry & Elinor's story? Stoneheart? Heart of Oak? Working on villains for the story... Villains are such a pain.

The clumsy gene strikes again

I'm going to have to stop doing this. Yep, fell down again. Tripped over an uneven gravel-concrete sidewalk and hit the ground, face down, stretched full-out. Cut my hand on the exposed rocks. Skinned the knees (again). Aches and pains, scrapes and bruises. Not much more than that, but boy am I moving slow.

I was on my way home after another walk with the dog. She'd worn herself out chasing birds through the surf--probably 17 times back and forth at full speed between the jetties, so she wasn't pulling at the leash at all when I fell. I'll probably have to give her an aspirin later on, for her bad knee. She was limping on it there at the end, but she was running as fast as the birds were flying, most of the time. I've always thought she looks to be part bird dog, except bird dogs don't actually chase birds...

When I crashed to the earth (and it's a wonder it didn't measure on the Richter scale), she came back to check on me, make sure I was okay. Luckily, I didn't fall on her--entirely due to her fancy footwork, I'm sure. I crawled up onto the grass, because I wasn't about to push off those rocks, and sat there a while. Dolly sat there with me. I think she figured if I was going to rest, she might as well rest up too. Thing is--she was still all salty and sandy and kind of icky, hovering by me like that. Oh well. She was looking after me. Or something.

So--no more falling down. Not sure how I'm going to make sure I don't--didn't mean to fall down these last two times either--but that's my intent.

I didn't think I'd be able to concentrate on the new book--but since I just got copyedits for Heart's Blood, that's what I worked on instead. It's pretty clean, which makes me happy. Got to check one thing with the Brit Across The Desk. Of course, I'm only through page 125 or so...

Adventures in Dog-bathing

So I took the granddog walking on the beach this morning. Tide was in, and the rainstorm last night had carved the new sand into more cliffs and gullies, so I was either climbing up and down steps (okay, the cliffs were no more than a steep step high, but still!) or walking in the water, because the water was washing right up into the gullies. I had actual shoes on today, because I walked from the house, and it's a tad too far to do that in flipflops, so I didn't want to walk in the water. And it was pretty quiet, so I let Dolly off the leash to go chase birds. She had a marvelous time terrorizing all the little sanderlings and a seagull or two...

We walked back home, and because Dolly had been needing a bath anyway, and I let her chase the birds into the surf and she was all sandy and salty, I got out the dog soap and washed her. Didn't even have to pick her up and carry her this time (though I did have to drag her by her collar...that dog does NOT like baths. Never knew one that did, actually...). Got her all clean, turned off the water, went to put up the shampoo back in the garage, and slipped on the very slippery garage floor with my wet feet (took off the shoes to do the dog washing) and hit the ground very hard. Ouch!

I did manage to get myself up off the ground. I got very wet because I basically sat down in the water from washing the dog. There are a few bruises, a scrape or two, but I'm really sore. I went inside and whined to the boy (who needed to get out of bed for class anyway) and guilted him into picking up the dead bug in the hall I didn't want to pick up (and he did!) and wrote only a little because I was being a whiny baby--and tomorrow, I will have to get back to work!

I am such a wuss... Oh well...

Anniversarius

Again, a quiet weekend. The fella and I had an anniversary Friday--number 33--and he sent me a gorgeous huge orchid plant with many red-speckled yellow flowers blooming on it. HUGE plant. Good thing, because for dinner, we went to the college pot-luck awards ceremony. I did get the promise to go out again the next night.

Saturday, I decided I really needed to write at least a LITTLE, so I sat down for an hour and got 2.5 pages done. Happiness! Then we went out and ran errands. Like getting a birthday present for Idbit (AKA the littlest grandboy)--whose birthday was Saturday, and we had thought about his birthday and a present the week before, and promptly forgot about it until the day before his birthday. (sigh) Typical. We'll hand deliver it.

I tried out office chairs at Office Depot -- the paper is getting me a new one--and then we went across the causeway and got some frames for the two antique map reproductions the fella bought. That took a little time. Also found a frame (finally) for my sunflower-sand dune painting. Then we came home, took naps and went out to dinner at Landry's for our "official" anniversary date. I really love their shrimp Fresca... Then we came home to watch "The Perfect Man" romantic comedy movie and discovered that the orchid I got was actually the perfect romantic occasion gift. Roses are great, but orchids... they're the best. So it's official. I received the perfect romantic anniversary gift. :)

I like orchids a lot. Have one on the back patio that survived the hurricane and the winter... I hope I can keep this one alive too. :)

The writing continues to go. Sometimes I'm not sure where it's going, but at least it's going...

Local Notes

This will be just a bunch of observations about stuff I've noticed around town. Like how, now that the dayjob desk faces the bit window, I can watch pelicans flying by outside. None so far today that I've really noticed, but there were seven of them yesterday...

There were Lots of birds out when I went walking yesterday morning--without the granddog, who loves chasing birds so much, I wouldn't have had a chance to see them so well. (She only likes chasing birds when she can chase them into the water...) There were the usual laughing gulls, and willets and pigeons. I saw a few ruddy turnstones, and a one-legged sanderling that was almost as fast hopping on its one little leg as its flock-mates on their two. It wasn't quite as smooth, hopping up and down, but wow, it was fast! It did take to flying quicker than they did, and landed sooner. I tried to keep enough distance from it so the poor thing wouldn't feel it quite so necessary to fly. The seagulls were flirting. The males--slightly smaller than the females--would give off a rhythmic squawk, as if singing to their chosen lady, while the females stood aloof--but listening. I also saw a pair of tiny terns. Little sparrow-sized fellas.

And then, today, I had to take a cell phone back to its owner who forgot it in my car, and while driving to work, I saw this house that I always think is the neatest thing when I see it, and promptly forget about it once I've passed by. It's an old raised cottage, vintage 1920 to 1940s probably, with the main floor upstairs and the garage below. The downstairs has vertical siding and the upstairs has horizontal--and every slat of the siding, both upstairs and down, is painted in a different bright color. Maroon, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink--every color you can think of. It might have been seriously garish when it was new, but the paint's pretty battered now, especially since Ike, and it just looks...happy. Even battered and peeling. The house always makes me smile when I drive down 39th Street and see it.

After I turned onto Broadway to head toward the causeway (the paper is at the very last exit before you leave the island), I passed by one of the older cemeteries there at 40th St. inside its cast-iron fencing. And it was all dressed up in its Maytime colors with coreopsis blooming like crazy. They cover every grave, crowd up to the headstones and make it look so bright and cheery--believe it or not--with their flashy yellow blossoms. So the cemetery made me smile too. I'll have to go by and take pictures, won't I?

So--yeah, I have lots and lots to do, and I'm not actually getting a whole lot of it done, but the birds are flirting and the flowers are blooming and the weather is gorgeous and... It's just nice to be here. :)

E-books and such

A number of you have asked about e-book availability for the Rose books and for (I hope) the new one. However, from everything I have been able to find, only THE ETERNAL ROSE is available in an e-book format. It is at Fictionwise, and at the Sony Book store, and at Amazon for the Kindle.

None of the other books seem to be offered as e-books. I've wandered around at the e-Harlequin website--no Rose books there at all. I checked at Tor, and it doesn't look like they do any e-books. I'll ask my editor, but apparently, MacMillan is caught in the stone age. They've bought all their editors Sony readers. They ought to consider that they need to put their books into an electronic format. If y'all send them e-mails asking for them, they might. Us lowly authors don't have as much clout as you powerful readers, aka customers. ;)

Okay, that's all I know to say about e-books.

I don't have much else to say at all. I spent a very lazy weekend, because it was POURING rain Saturday, and I didn't want to get out in it. The boy and his friends, Walter and Lamar (and if those aren't Texas country-boy names, I don't know what are), were in the garage building a miniature catapult for an engineering project. It was very convenient that the daughter gave her brother a book on how to built catapults for Christmas a couple of years ago... So they had plans.

We had to take all the bicycles out and put them under the covered porch portion of the patio so they'd have room to build. They got the ping-pong ball to fly about 15 feet (as required) once they replaced their wooden twister-things with metal ones, so they could tighten the tension enough to get some oomph behind it. Now they have to work on accuracy, because they have to sink their ping-pong ball in a bucket. They were industrious. I was not. I read books.

I have a number of things I need to do, not least, the writing of this silly book. I think I am going to have to try the "Puzzler" method of writing this book, this time. There are scenes I know I need. I think I will just write those scenes and work out the transitions between them later, because it seems to be the transition bits where I get stuck the worst. I have started this particular transition over three cotton-picking times, and am about ready to scream. And I'm not even sure I need it. So, I'm just going to ignore it, and go write the next scene I know about. So there.

Champagne & Chocolate

Okay, I didn't have any champagne. I was driving. I did have a little Pinot Grigio, though, and it was excellent. And the chocolate.... Oh, my.

Last night was the Houston Bay Area Chapter of RWA's Bookseller Reception at The Chocolate Bar in the Montrose area of Houston. And my-oh-my, the chocolate was everywhere! They had chocolate ice cream, chocolate cookies, chocolate cakes, chocolate cheesecakes and tortes and flan and pie and... Well, pretty much anything you could think of that can be made out of chocolate-- they had it.

I drove up from the island and picked up Dawn Temple (who's had a couple of books out from Silhouette Special Edition), Anne Marie Novark (who writes for Wild Rose Press) and Liz Webb, and Liz gave me directions to The Chocolate Bar so I didn't get lost, though it did feel a little squeezy maneuvering my big bus down those narrow streets. They weren't any narrower than Galveston streets, though, so I don't know why I felt squeezed... Maybe because there was even less parking... We carried all our stuff inside, then visited until the booksellers got off work and showed up.

One of them, Dana from the Barnes & Noble at Champions (I'm not real sure where that is, but it's on the other side of Houston from me) pulled My Book--New Blood--out of her purse and asked me to sign it. That really made me feel good. Like, totally wowed! And most of the others knew of my books, which also made me happy. :)

I got a piece of Miss Etta's chocolate cake. This was not any ordinary chocolate cake--though it had all the best things about chocolate cake going for it. It was moist and chocolatey and had gooey, shiny icing, and four (4!) layers, and cocoa dusted over the outside icing (up the side). It was a Huge piece of cake. I managed to eat about a third of it, and had to take a break. I think I ate 3 more bites, the rest of the evening. I also drank two bottles of water and a diet Coke. (I know. Eat huge amounts of chocolate cake, and drink diet soda... But chocolate takes longer to digest than corn syrup.) Anyway, it was fun, I had some Really good cake, and met some cool people. :)

So--there's what I have to say today.