The Dynamic Trio - Blog

So the winner of the ARC of Cascadia Wolves: Standoff is reply #19 - Melissa! Melissa, email me with your format preference and I’ll get it out your way!

There’s still a chance to win an ARC at the Bradford Bunch blog (runs until tomorrow, Wednesday the 20th!) - just look for my last entry.

And speaking of contests and books - you can check out my blog for a chance to win a copy of Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace (a very fabulous book)

Yesterday was the Monday from hell! Ugh, total projectile vomit from oldest child. Like a scene from the Exorcist! I’m scarred for life by the clean up.

Today I’m better. I’ve got a sneak peek up at my messageboard for those who’re interested.

I’m working on Sensual Magic and plugging along quite happily. I think if I can keep the momentum up, I’ll be done by the beginning of March, which leaves me time for crit and revision without feeling stressed. I’m really digging this world, it’s been a while since I’ve created a whole new paranormal universe so I’m pleased.

My kids are on school break this week and my middle son, aside from a few scary moments yesterday when it looked like he’d join his older brother in projectile vomit land, has not shut up since Friday. Friday of 2001. He’s a really busy kid! Right now he’s got some elaborate game going with legos and of course they’re slamming into each other and he’s narrating the whole thing for me. Lord. Every once in a while he’ll make a joke about bodily functions, bleah, such a boy!

I’m off, my kitchen is a freaking mess! Enjoy your Tuesday everyone!

Now you would think I have more common sense than this, but obviously not. Guess what I did this afternoon? I vacuumed, yes vacuumed the keys off my laptop. Why? Because I’m a dufus today. See, this is what happened - I was vacuuming the puppy area (we got puppies for Christmas, remember), and looked up and saw puppy hair all over one of my favorite comforters. So I vacuumed it off. No biggie.

Then I had the grand idea of vacuuming the dust off my laptop. Everything went fine on my sturdy 17″ wide heavy hitter. Then I thought, “Hey, my work laptop, skimpy thing that it is, needs dusting, too.” So I put the powerful vacuum to the cheapie laptop. And vacuumed the keys right off.

Looked into the vacuum canister while it was running to make sure they were still in good condition. Yep, there they were, sitting in the bottom while the dust and stuff was flying around the canister. This was a very good sign. Yep, I’ll just pop the canister out, click the little button that opens it and lets the stuff fall out the bottom, snatch up the buttons, clean ‘em and put ‘em back. Right? Yeah, right.

Well, no matter how I looked all over my floor, I couldn’t find those damned buttons. So now I have to go back to work with a, uh, somewhat fractional laptop and explain to my IT guy what happened to them. Good thing they won’t be able to tell I’m blushing. Sheesh.

I’m probably the only one in the world who’s ever done something so undeniably ridiculous. I think I’m gonna have to put that in a book.

TJ

My name is Lauren Dane and I love wallpaper historicals.

Yes. Yes I admit it. I like pretty dresses. I like ballrooms and rakes and scoundrels who are really dukes. I do. I don’t care that shoe buckles weren’t round until 1789 or even that this is an actual fact or not. I don’t care that Alamacks wasn’t on X street until 1891 or whatever. I really don’t.

I’m not saying you’re bad if you care about those things. I’m saying I don’t. I don’t mind learning. I like learning. But I want pretty ballrooms and jaunty caps and men who blather about horses (not in too great a detail).

I get that some people are quite serious about historical detail in their historical romances. Everyone’s got their hot buttons. I’m that way about legal stuff in books. It drives me insane to see how people write about the legal system and don’t even bother actually, um, say reading about how the law works. So generally I don’t read books with legal themes or I stick with people I know will do it right or just don’t really touch on intense details. Then again, the legal system is a current thing, it’s pretty basic and not at all that hard to get correct if you just make a passing reference to it and if you delve into ANY subject in detail, it should be well researched, historical or not.

Otherwise, I’m quite happy to read wallpaper historicals with minxes and rakes, Alamacks and ballrooms with tepid lemonade.

I just had to say that. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Oh - how about a contest? Wanna win an ARC of Cascadia Wolves: Standoff? Well how about this? Tuesday when it’s my blog day again, I’ll choose a winner at random from this post? Why don’t you tell me what pushes your buttons in a book - good or bad, you choose!

I’m off for a long weekend. Hubby and I are hitting Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and also Martinborough. Some of you might recall Lily and Alex from Never Send a Dog to do a Woman’s Job visited both places…

…which, leads in nicely to the fact that I’m the Spotlight Author at Author Island today. I’m giving away a print copy of Romancing the Alien.

How are you spending your weekend?

For more than one reason.

First off - HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! Make it an awesome day with that someone special. And if you don’t have a someone special (like me) just take a second look. We single gals might not have a bed warmer, but we do have friends and family that love us and we love in turn. Make them your Valentine. My kids don’t know it yet, but they’re going to be my Valentine’s, complete with goodies and lots of chocolate.

AND

Today at the Romance Studio’s blog, the big CAPA announcement party is happening! I’m shaking in my boots with nervous excitement because Carinian’s Seeker, Vampire Council of Ethics Book 1, has been nominated for Best Paranormal Erotic Romance of 2007. *TJ dancing around the room badly*

I’m so honored to be in the running with such awesome writers as our very own Lauren Dane (Fire and Rain), Jory Strong (Sophie’s Dragon), Cindy Spencer Pape (Curses), Devyn Quinn (Flesh and the Devil) and Isabella Jordan (Taking Julia).

Some come by sometime today, chat on the blog with all of the CAPA nominated folks, and see what’s going on!

New Zealand author, N.D. Hansen-Hill is guest blogging for me today. She’s talking about her journey, perceptions in writing and raisins. Win a copy of her upcoming release, ErRatic. Details are available at my blog.

I will kill the internet if it erases this post…

Okay let’s see if I can remember everything I wrote because you know I like to blather on and on!

BTW, 70 Days of Sweat will begin round three on March 1 and end in May, giving an extra week for RT for those who’ll be attending. It’s no secret just how much I love this challenge. I think it’s effective and a great way to give your writing focus in your life. You can head over to the Sven blog to sign up!

I’m an author sponsor again this round so I’ll poke at you and celebrate with you as well if you sign up. It’s not just me - Diana Peterfreund, HelenKay Dimon, Jaci Burton, Larissa Ione, Portia Da Costa, and Shiloh Walker are back for another round as well!

Standoff is out in three weeks! Yay! I’m so thrilled. This is the last book in the story arc but not the last in the series. The next one, Unexpected, comes out in August of this year from Samhain and will be about Megan Warden.

And I just got my cover for my next Witches Knot book - Celebration for the Dead! You can see it and a blurb and read an excerpt at my website.

Speaking of covers - they finally uploaded the cover for What Happens in Vegas to Amazon.com AND it’s on sale! Even happier news is that it’ll be available for the RT convention book signing in April.

And speaking of RT - I’m doing a reader party on Friday morning of RT:

READER: IT’S THE LOVE SHACK
Friday, 10 - 11am: Ann, Anya, Lauren and Megan are your hostesses with the most(esses) for karaoke, trivia, music and fun! Come dressed as your favorite pop star or come as you are, but be prepared to dance, laugh and chat and play with these five top-selling authors of erotic fiction and romance. We’ll have prizes and giveaways as well as some delicious snacks.
Hosted by: Anne Aguirre, Anya Bast, Lauren Dane, and Megan Hart

So if you’ll be there, please come by and say hello.

I finished up Taking Care of Business and it’s all ready to be sent to our editor at Black Lace. I can’t wait to see the cover! I’ve really been liking the Black Lace covers of late. Totally gorgeous.

And now I’m working on Sensual Magic, which is the next Spice novella for the second Vegas anthology coming out in May of 2009. I’m at 3K and humming along. Nell, my heroine likes buttrock, who knew? I love getting to know a character, it’s one of the most fun parts of writing a book.

I think that’s it. Oh wait, I waxed on about wallpaper historicals at my blog in case anyone cares.

Happy Valentine’s Day - XOXOXO!

OMG. I had this hugely long post and the freaking internet just ate it. Sigh. I’ll be back to try and reconstruct it after I get dinner for my kids

The well-known game Monopoly is going global with the World Edition launching soon. Currently there’s a worldwide online voting campaign to select which cities will fill the 20 available spots on the monopoly board. Queenstown, located in the South Island of New Zealand, is the only New Zealand city on the leaderboard and is competing with 68 other finalists for a spot.

I love Queenstown. It’s not far from where the fictional Mitchell family lives (my Middlemarch series) and my next release in this series, ASSASSIN is partially set in Queenstown. It’s a tourist mecca in both summer and winter, the town dominated by the beautiful lake Wakatipu and the majestic Remarkables mountain range. This photo was taken from the gondola on the way up to our dinner at the hilltop restaurant.

Queenstown is currently sitting in 18th place.

Vote for your favorites here.

Which cities do you think should be on the World Edition of monopoly?

I did some writing yesterday for the first time in ages…and it was fabulous. I’d set aside my follow up to “Jaguar’s Rule meets Spirit of the Pryde.” In this story, outlined ages ago, the younger Pryde twins meet the James boys from Jaguar’s Rule. Suddenly, out of the blue, I got a great of idea of how to introduce some of the returning characters and when I pulled out the story yesterday, the old excitement poured through me and suddenly the words just flew onto the paper. It was amazing - I actually had…ideas! And good ones.

And what happened this morning? As soon as I woke, an idea for Niah’s story jumped into my head. And as annoyed as I was that it happened a couple of hours sooner than I wanted to, I woke up, grabbed my laptop off the floor and started getting it down.

I wasn’t sure when it would happen - when writing would become fun again. When that spark of imagination would spur me on to get it down on paper. Needless to say, “relieved” doesn’t begin to describe the, well, relief, and yes, maniacal laughter, that joined me for coffee this morning!

Getting back to it with glee!!!

TJ