How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Books, uh, Ways...(Social Picnic $500 and Tablet Giveaway)

Seriously, I can't tell you the number of giveaways I've entered, hoping to win an ARC or exciting new release. So when I came across this upcoming giveaway that includes 500 bucks and a Free Next6 Android Tablet, I knew I had to be a part of it! If only to sprinkle freebie goodness on my readers! Can you imagine $500 worth of books? Oh my aching eyes! Gimme! Gimme!

Of course, you don't have to buy books, you could spend the money on gobs and gobs of dark chocolate and Starbucks coffee. Or maybe as a down payment on a car, rent, sky diving lessons, clothes, spa day, jewelry, groceries, stock in Jif peanut butter, toward college tuition, a weekend getaway--this is a nice chunk of change we're talking about here! Oh what fun can be had!

If you're already following me that counts toward an entry--just check it off on rafflecopter and you're in the running! See how good I am to you?


Twitter Hashtag: #SocialPicnic2

The Social Picnic event is finally here, hosted by This Lil Piglet and Family Approve. To enter the giveaway, the Rafflecopter giveaway form will be located on participating blogs September 1- 12:01 AM EST - 8th 12:01 AM EST

Enter to win...

$500 Cash via PayPal

Next6 Android Tablet

If you like reading books, browse the internet, listen to music, view your favorite photo albums or videos, Next6 is your new best friend. Its sleek design, touch screen feature, 7 inches color display,and WiFi is nothing short of amazing. As an added bonus, Next6 also comes with 25 free preloaded books. With one touch, you can open your favorite book and enjoy it anywhere anytime. When fully charged, you can read for up to 10 hours.



Your new Next6 will come with the EBook Store App, so you can download eBooks directly from the web. Its crystal clear capacitive screen is easy to use and gives you crystal clear images especially when playing HD video. If it’s games that you prefer, there are thousands of free 3rd party apps available for you to download. Next6, it is all you need in a tablet!!

Rules and Regulations of the giveaway:

1. Each entry gains you one entry towards the winning prizes

2.The winning entry will be checked to ensure they have complied with their entry. If it is found that the winning entry has not completed the entry requirement, a different winner will be selected.

3.The $500 Cash prize is open Worldwide. The Nexbook Next6 Tablet prize is open to US and Canada residents only. One winner will be chosen and will win ALL prizes. If the chosen winner is located outside the US & Canada, they will win the cash prize only and a second winner will be chosen for the tablet.



Tips: If you've never used Rafflecopter before, it's an easy way to enter giveaway's. Keep in mind that Rafflecopter is run using Javascript so you must enable javascript on your computer to use. If you are having trouble, try a different browser or make sure you have updated your computer and browser.

Because of the amount of entries for this event, we suggest bookmarking this page and spreading out your entries throughout the course of the event.

Have fun and Good luck!

Don't you feel silly when...

This morning my hubby was sorting his pills into one of those Monday thru Friday pill boxes with the help of our four y/o. With tiny fingers she placed the last of the multivitamins into Sunday and then held out her hand for more.
"Sorry honey, I have to do these myself," he told her, carefully dropping his blood pressure meds across the slotted week.
"Ohhh." She sighed.
Her disappointed expression had me asking "why" on her behalf.
Apparently the vitamin D pills look identical to the blood pressure pills. It's easy to see why he didn't want any mistakes.

In a weird way, this brought to mind a time I was applying makeup. As usual I felt around my makeup bag for foundation, and then mascara. After which, I found my retractable blush brush (all with my eyes still on my reflection, tweaking my work--it takes a lot of effort these days), pulled off the lid, twisted it open and swiped it across my cheek. Only it wasn't my blush brush after all, it was my lipstick. I about died laughing. Serves me right for not paying closer attention. In my defense, though, you should know that the lipstick and brush are about the same size, housed in identical gold cases.









      See the cheeks? That was me, only it was one cheek-- streaked, like a die hard fan at a football game.                                                                    





                                                         (BTW, this is some random person-not me)


                                                                                 

Yikes! Mixing up heart meds, and makeup, isn't good. Mixing up anything isn't good. This couldn't be more true than with writing. (Good golly, I actually have a point)

I'm the worst at this. Forgetting to double check, to make sure I've chosen the 'write' word . Use the wrong word, and the sentence becomes incomprehensible, or worse yet, changes meaning altogether.

For example:

The writer poured over his rewrite.

You make my heart beet.

I don't have thyme to stay for dinner.

Weak examples, but I'm sure hope you get the idea. I've heard writers, agents, and editors discussing this at great length, driving home the importance of using the correct word.  All I have to say is: Hear, hear!

**I posted this without asking if anyone else has any other examples. What are your red flag words that trip you up and make you think twice?

Are you attending?

Hello?!? Of course you are. After all, every swanky person we know is going to be there. I'll be the one disguised as Angelina Jolie. Oops...let the cat out of the bag.  No worries though, secrecy is definitely not one of the requirements to gain entry! Quite the opposite, in fact.

The Details:

When: September 14th


Where: Talli Roland's Blog

Why: To celebrate the launch of Tilli's book Watching Willow Watts, silly!

No one plays a heat strapping, butt kicking gal better than Angelina. There's something to be said for that! So who will you be? (Promise not to tell!)

I'm a Killer

And I won't be quitting any time soon. The first one was the hardest. I mourned for days. But it had to be done, it's a necessary evil, you see?

 I never kill for the sake of killing. I only do it if it makes things better. If you knew, knew the terrible, repulsive things my victims are capable of, then I think you'd agree that I'm doing the world a favor. I'm sort of like Dexter, the serial killer. There's rhyme and reason to his method. Murder the bad ones to satisfy his urge to kill. I don't have that same lust for blood, (at all--the sight of it makes me queasy and light headed) but I understand the need to remove the cancer. I can't describe how satisfying it is to cut them out and be done with it--even if I do occasionally miss them. But there's always someone new on the horizon. So kill 'em, and then make up a new character with silver dewed wings and sun sucking powers. Very therapeutic.

But sometimes, I have to kill the good ones, too. There is no satisfaction in that, no smirk to be found on my face. The tears run free with the innocent, kind hearted ones, who've done nothing to deserve such treatment. However, they must be sacrificed for the greater good. I'm sure they would understand if I could sit down with them and talk it out. Murder doesn't work that way, though, does it? It must be a surprise--quick and calculated. Although I must admit that botched up, frenetic acts of violence can also be fun at times.

However, while I'm a self-proclaimed fiction character murderer, I never thought I'd be an orange tree killer.

When I pass by this tree, I want to cry out: "Why, world? Why?" But then the neighbors would give me that look again. Not sure how they put up with me. (that's a whole other post)

As I've said before, Texas has been in triple digits for a loooong time. It's stupid. Someone needs to have a word with Mother Nature. It's like she turned up the thermostat and forgot to turn it back down. Her bill is going to be MASSIVE!  Alas, my little dwarf orange tree isn't fairing too well. I bought it about a month and a half ago and cleverly thought I'd leave it out in the sun till it became too cold outside--and then I'd bring it into the house. I had this fond image of this little tree's boughs weighed down with fat juicy clementines, sitting by the Christmas tree, the children decked in flannel pajamas, happily opening gifts. Pretty sure this daydream also involved a warm crackling fire, and the faint sound of Elvis's Christmas playing in the background. But at the rate this little guy is going, he'll be dead by Halloween. Maybe sooner.

I thought about giving up and bringing it inside, but I'm afraid the air conditioning will shock it and finish it off. Any tips?  And I'm curious, are you a killer too? Or are you the amicable sort?

Fall Into Fun

Can you feel it? There's a change in the air, so faint it's easy to dismiss. But we all know that fall is coming and soon enough those hot days will turn into crisp autumn. With this transition to a new season comes many new and exciting opportunities. Today I want to share my recent finds with you. These are the two that have caught my attention:

1. The Muse Online Writers Conference
2. Rach Writes: Third Writers' Platform Campaign 

The Muse Online Writers Conference is great for pitching your work and getting yourself out there in front of agents and publishers.

Rachael Harrie (who is completely fabulous, by the way) is the brain child behind Third Writer's Platform Campaign--a great way to meet and support other writers. --Seriously can't wait to get going on this! 

I hope you can find the time to join in, I'd love to see you there!

This Message Will Self Destruct In........

                                                                               oh, wait...never.

Recently I discovered something about Twitter that took me by surprise. It isn't that my tweets can be found all over the internet, I realized that a few months back--hence my infrequent activity on there lately. No, this discovery is even more unsettling. At least, for me, anyway.

What would you do if you found out every single comment you've made on Twitter (not including DM's) is going to be gathered and archived, available for public consumption within six months of your hitting the send button. Your cute little blurb about what you're eating for dinner tonight and how you hope the neighbors don't set off their annoying car alarm at 3 in the morning, will be preserved till the end of time. Remaining intact and glossy, long after we're all dead and buried.

Would you think twice before sending out random crap with your name stamped all over it? I know I do! Who's going to see this stuff? My kids? My grandkids? What will they think of my views on today's fashion and the latest great novel. Worse yet, how would they view me if I were to say something rotten about another writer or family member? (Not that I ever, ever would!) Or anyone, for that matter. Does it make any difference?

I suppose it only counts if you care about the footprint you leave behind. No, not the carbon kind, I'm referring to the one that reflects you and who you are as a person. Your contributions, your salt, if you will. What are you made of?

The fact that Twitter has donated the entire archive of public tweets to The Library of Congress has me quaking in my boots. There's this new pressure to make every tweet meaningful. Wait, no, every tweet must be profound! Earth shattering! My ancestors will look back and think, by George, that girl was the very definition of genius! See the great stock we come from? Pffttt.....

Since last year, our tweets have been harvested for preservation and research by the Library of Congress. So not only are they safeguarding all our coy 140 letter bites, they are using them for studies. And why, you may ask, my brilliant minded readers. Well, because we're making history, of course. Honestly, I can't fault the logic here. Think of all the chatter that came about after Senator Wieners embarrassing escapades were uncovered (pun intended). Oh, can you imagine how he feels knowing that scandalous mis-tweet is now part and parcel with billions of tweets, including, Brittany Spears updates and Obama plugs. Oh, hold on, I forgot, he deleted it, right? But is it really gone? Or is it sitting embedded somewhere in cyber space, waiting to upload to the Library of Congress for the world to see? I really can't speak on that, I don't know. (I'll have to do some investigating.)

And what about the tweets surrounding Osama bin Laden's death, and what about the upcoming presidential election. This is history in action. Pretty exciting, important stuff, huh! So, I suppose the moral of my post today is this: when putting yourself out there for the world to see, think twice, and then once more before hitting send--don't get caught with your pants down!

For further reading, go to the Source

What's Going On Around Here?

This week I have been enjoying WriteOnCon from the comfort of home. (Sometimes in pajamas, yes.) If you're a writer, you really need to check it out, I'm talking complete GENIUS! The creative minds that put this together ought to be showered with American Beauty roses & yumdelish Godiva chocolate--in colossal downpours!

As I'm relatively new to this whole writing gig, this is my very first conference. Saying I LOVE IT would be an understatement. I find myself hanging on every word, and stowing away gobs of incredibly useful information. I've even stepped out of the shadows to leave a comment or two--complete with spelling errors.  It isn't lost on me that leaving permanent dialogue around the blogosphere at 2am is not the best of ideas. And for anyone (but writers, especially), spelling mistakes that can't be corrected, are beyond painful. Sigh...

Anyway, back to the conference. Because I have absolutely adored my time reading and watching and learning this week, I have come up with a fool proof plan to get my butt to the next SCBWI or any other writing conference within a hundred mile radius. Little did I know I could be so diabolical, moihahaha (yeah, that would be my evil laugh).

And the idea you ask? Well, here it is: I'll tell my hubby it will be like a second honeymoon. And don't we deserve some alone time? We'll be away from the kids, staying in a hotel. Sure they'll be others around, like a few hundred people actually, but what does that matter? Sans kids, excitement, I won't have to cook, and best of all--I'll get to actually meet some of the folks in this field that I look up to. Whatd'ya think?

Definitely a winner, right?!?

I'll scamper around pitching ideas in elevators, and he can hold my hand. What a lucky guy!

No, but seriously, Writeoncon has whet my appetite for more.

I want, I want... (pouting helps, maybe some tears) --I'll keep you apprised of any news on this front.

Besides chilling with the Awesomeness, I'm thrilled to say that I just brought on a new reader. Armed with chocolate (how many deals have been brokered with this tasty treat, I wonder) I called her up and asked if she was interested. She jumped at the offer, and even told me that the chocolate isn't necessary, she's been wanting to read my work for forever. Gasp! Who turns down chocolate? It makes me wonder. Perhaps she's an alien! I mean, seriously, she simply cannot be human. But she is totally fabulous, so I'll try not to judge.

I've also come to terms with the third novel in the Lillian Riece series. I've finally put some order to the chaos in my mind. I had a seriously grueling pow wow with my assistant this morning. Sitting on my bedroom floor, folding mounds of laundry while basically having a one sided conversation with my eight-year-old. She'd thrown out some crazy ideas and I'd nodded, pointing out any redeeming qualities in her thought process, and then following it up with 'What about x, y and z'?


I'm not sure what I'd do without my little assistant.  I've also read both Lillian Riece novels to her (minus the age inappropriate details and language). Out of the blue, today she told me that the characters are very much alive for her--which I'd suspected months ago when she began frequently comparing how my MC (Lillian) would react to events happening in my daughter's everyday life. The characters have always been alive in my mind, to hear someone else say it is sort of mind blowing. WIN!

Now I'm off to WriteOnCon, where, incidentally, I hope to see you. And if any of my dear blogging buddies have ideas on how to bring my hubby on board with my uber secret conference plot, please do share!

She Writes "We Love New Novelists" Competition

Okay, folks! Just discovered this competition ends today tomorrow (8/16) at midnight! I myself am passing this one up, but if you were looking to compete, you best get on over there! Why? 


Because if you win, heavy hitters, Sally Wofford Girand, with Brick House Literary Agents, Eleanor Jackson, with Markson Thoma Literary Agency, and Sara Weiss, with Grand Central Publishing, are all on board to offer advice and coverage of your work!


Click on the link in the sidebar to go to their page. Good luck, everyone!

Bonnie and Clyde strike again!

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be working on closets this week, but I thought I'd stop by and give you a taste of how it's going. Here I was all proud of myself for making some kind of progress on the house. I should have known better, I forgot the golden rule of child-rearing: For every mess thou cleanest up, two more shall be created. This is what the two youngest offspring contributed while I was breaking for lunch. Welcome to my reality. I had to take pictures, seriously, you just can't make this s**t up.




It's kind of hard to tell from these grainy iPhone photos but they took a can of Orange Peel (spray texture) to the two year old's bedroom. (Not sure why his sister's doll house is in his room, but it figures.) After a few hours of scrubbing, I got most of it off the walls, blinds and carpet. I rewashed a pile of clean clothes that fell within range of spray off. But the toys still need to be tended to, including a huge box of Legos and the old fabric rocking horse.

Ugh...

Looks like snow, smells like deadly, toxic fumes. Merry Christmas, Mommy! (banging my head on the wall, about now)

Exhibit A.

Looks like they broke the plastic cap to get into the can. Still a mystery how 1) they got their little fingers on this can in the first place, and 2) how they figured out the spray mechanism--even I struggle with it.


After this I've renamed the four year old and two year old Bonnie and Clyde--wreakers of havoc and destruction.

Hope your week is more productive than mine!

Welcome to the Family

The conversation teetered on absurd late last night. I guess this is what I get for coming inside for a 'drink'. The offer came from my very close friend--like a sister. You know the kind. One in a million. The one you tell your deepest, darkest secrets and fears to. So anyway, during the course of the conversation I found myself admiring her little pooches--two cute miniature poodles who consider themselves lap dogs. One even let the four and two-year-old push him around in the doll stroller. And then he stayed in that stroller, completely content for hours. Sooo cute! This reminded me that my family has a new addition of our own.

"Did I mention we have a new pet?" I asked, excitedly.

"Oh, um, that dog?" She was referring to Dash-a psycho, lightening fast puppy that adopted us last winter. I found her a home in January. Wish we could have kept her, but she couldn't be contained in the back yard, and kept eating the neighbors newspapers/shoes/xmas decorations, and then leaving the evidence scattered all over my property for everyone to see.

"Nah, we have a gecko." I went on to explain that one evening I'd opened the door to come inside after watering the flowers, and I saw a tiny lizard whip past me into the kitchen. I couldn't find it anywhere to round it up for expulsion, so I looked it up online (of course)-- just to make sure it wasn't hazardous to humans (specifically, my kids). Turns out it's a house gecko-common to my area. But these little cuties are actually an asset rather than a liability. Anyone who's posted about them, loves these little geckos and is super excited to have them around. Apparently, they eat all the things we hate-moths, spiders, crickets, etc... Despite Terminix's great efforts, we do still have some moths and an occasional spider. 

The little gecko was spotted yesterday in the bathroom, climbing the wall. That sucker is so fast, I couldn't catch it even if I was hell bent on it--which I'm not. 

It feels a little strange at times thinking that I have a little pet running around the house that most would want to keep cooped up in a glass box, but I see this as a symbiotic relationship. It can go about its business and I'll go about mine, and so long as I never find it crawling across my face while I'm sleeping, then we can go on like this forever. I jokingly told my husband that it's going to be so well fed that I'll eventually find a basilisk in the living room, we'll buy it a studded collar and let it sleep at the foot of the bed at night. Okay, they really only grow to up to 6 inches long( at most) but it's still a funny image.

So now we have our little pet, any suggestions for a name? 

(Also, I won't be on here for most of the week-it's that time again. Gotta go through and clean out closets, round up the kids clothes to sell on Ebay and all that jazz.) 

Deadly Heat Wave

Last night as I walked around the house loudly complaining while flipping off light switches, I realized I've turned into my dad. When I was a young girl, my sisters and I constantly left lights burning in rooms we weren't using, and since we lived away from the military base where we were stationed, my dad took it personally. Those kilowatts were coming straight out of his wallet. And the exchange rate on the dollar wasn't exactly favorable, either.

Now I can so relate. With electricity rates skyrocketing, every extra watt of energy counts. Not to mention the threat of rolling blackouts. Never had that happen before. It's been so bloody hot that I found myself mowing the yard with only the light of the moon and security lights (that flipped on as I trudged by) to guide my way. Ridiculous. At 9 o'clock last night my neighbor came out and reprimanded me because it was 104 degrees. Too hot. Well, my yard resembled a jungle, and I was a desperate woman. So now it's mowed.

We are on our 35th consecutive day of triple digit temps here in Texas and it's seriously taking its toll. No one is outside during the day. No one. The kids are cooped up, my orange tree is browning, it's even too hot to take the kids to the local pool for fear of sunburn through all that SPF. We've been asked to conserve energy to help prevent blackouts, so yesterday I kicked my AC up to 78 degrees, didn't run the very full dishwasher until bedtime, and let the laundry stack up. (Not that I minded) But that didn't seem like near enough. I hate the idea of anyone going without electricity in such deadly heat, so here's a few more tips for those of you trying to conserve, whether to keep more cash money monkey in your wallet or out of necessity. 

1.  Wasting water wastes electricity. In big cities, the biggest draw on electricity is supplying water to residents and processing the water after it's been used. -Use water sparingly and check your water bill, if it's higher than usual that may indicate a leak somewhere.
2. Freezers and refrigerators use up to a sixth of all electricity in a typical American home--more than any other single appliance. If possible move the unit away from the wall, dishwasher, stove and heating vents to help it perform better.
3. Water heater. -Make sure it's set to 120 degrees to save money and prevent burns.
4. Chimney damper. -An open fireplace damper can let up to 8 percent of heat/air up the chimney.
5. Unplug. -Use a power strip on televisions, home theater equipment and stereos when not in use. According to NRDC even when you think these products are off, together their consumption can be equivalent to a continuously burning 75 or 100 watt lightbulb.
6. Put it to sleep. Make sure your computer is set to sleep mode so it burns through less watts while you're away.

Anyone else out there melting? What do you do to cut back on electricity?

Wordless Wednesday: Bliss

Source: lunaandchloeweddings.com via Lindy on Pinterest

State and Bound

So I'm back! Somehow I managed to 'outwit, outplay and outlast' the insane weekend. On the road with four kids aged 11 to 2, I received a lot of sympathetic stares and comments. I'm not sure if this made me feel better or worse. Did it look like I didn't have it under control? Maybe they didn't get the memo that I believe I can do anything I set my mind to.  Okay, I am a little delusional at times, but I challenge anyone to beat me at Survivor-unless they make me eat bugs-that's a deal breaker!

Alas, I digress...back to the weekend...

Although it felt differently, no one actually suffered from heatstroke.  No one was kidnapped, and we even survived the absurd Dallas traffic on our way to Waco. State turned out to be a positive experience for the kids, even the two year old had a rockin' time, dancing barefoot to tunes that were jammin' during the fireworks show. The only downer was my hubby's absence, but we called him in Vegas and sent him lots of pics, so it was almost like he was there with us. Besides, if he'd joined us we couldn't have purchased all those light-up play swords--he's a rather practical fellow.









Also, on a happy note, I received a lovely email from Deana on Friday informing me that I won first place in the '200 word limit contest'. What does this mean? Well, only that stupendous agent, Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency will very sweetly critique my query and the first 30 pages of Bound.

I'm so excited that I feel like Christmas came early this year.  Bound is the first novel in my Lillian Riece series and actually stems from my Bittersweet series (still in rewrites).  Bound stands alone, but most of the characters have a past and IMO are well developed because of this. As I've never felt ready to query Bound, this is forcing me out of my shell.

Which is a good thing!