Tigger On Speed -- or at least caffeine

I have Google set up to alert me when my name and the word "One Ring" appear together. I'm egotistical that way. After Publishers Weekly eviscerated me over Three Alarm Tenant in the Amazon contest, I'm a little hesitant when I get reviews. Yes, I was told the PW was brutal to every entry. I think having to read and review over 800 books would make me cranky too. Regardless, I walked around for a couple of days like Sylvester the Cat after he's had an anvil dropped on his head -- complete with stars and tiny Tweety Birds flying around my head. When a new review shows up in the inbox, I'm reluctant to open it.

I gotta get over that. Every one has been fantastic. One Ring To Rule has been called a delight and a must read.

"…my emotions swung from crying to laughing and back again." -Manic Readers
"…a strong, sassy style with plenty of sharp humour." -Cocktail Reviews
"…a refreshing story that spells thrills the minute it starts." -Coffee Time

So I'm springing off the walls with that and I decide to send the maligned Three Alarm Tenant to my editor at Lyrical. This book is near and dear to me. Katherine is afraid to give her heart to Jack because he's a fireman and she's already lost a fiance to death on the job. I worry about my husband when he's late and he's not going to a potentially life threatening job. Once I fell in love with Jack, it was only a matter of time before I fell for his buddies and wanted to see them happily settles down with spouses and mortgages too. Book 2 is finished. I'm working on book 3. But back to the story.

I email my editor with Three Alarm Tenant. She emails back the next day and says she wants it. I wonder if I made her cry again. She cried over the ending of One Ring. Then the publisher emails me my contract and tells me she loves me. She's really excited about the story.

Spoingy, spoingy, spoingy!

Spy Candy is Coming!

When I was in the Gather First Chapters Romance contest, one other entry really caught my eye. The opening line was "Her panties were in a bunch." Believe it or not, it got better from there. I wasn't at all surprised when it went with mine to the semi-finals. I had it pegged for the winner because it was so funny and exciting. Well, it didn't win, but the author, Gina Robinson, got another book accepted with Zebra shortly after the contest ended. This one features a fantasy spy camp and a delectable hero named Torq Toricelli.

I haven't looked forward to a book coming out like this for a long time. That's a lie. I looked forward to my own book coming out, but for books that aren't written by me, this one is right at the top of the list. In fact, as soon as I'm done here, I'm headed to her website to preorder that baby.

Seriously, this is not to be missed. Check it out for yourself.
Gina Robinson

He's finally married!

My big brother got married yesterday! He's always been the marrying kind, but never met a good match. My sister met her hubby nearly 20 years ago. I have been hitched for 17 years now. Big Bro has been jealous the entire time. Several years ago he met his sweetheart, but she was married at the time so he, being the good guy that he is, didn't give her a second thought. Well, she wised up to the monster she'd married, got a divorce and after a year or so mutual friends started making a point of throwing them together as much as possible. It stuck.

Big Bro and the brand new SIL were married yesterday in a lovely outdoor ceremony with freakishly good weather for Ohio. The bees were in abundance and the minister called Big Bro Paul twice. Big Bro's name is not Paul. The best man's name was Paul. Oops. The florist forgot to deliver the throw away bouquet, so we had to invent one out of a centerpiece. The caterers screwed up and cut the top layer of the cake.

Of course this just gave my sister and I a chance to stand on the side lines and compare disasters from our own weddings. My dad got caught in her dress when he walked her up the aisle, a bee buzzed her flowered head piece in the middle of the ceremony, and she had a little too much champagne on the way to the pictures so she was standing up through the limo sunroof yelling all the way to the reception. I said 'yeah' instead of 'I do," tried to put Guitarman's ring on the wrong finger and we had a cloudburst in the middle of out open air reception.

While we weren't watching, Guitarman convinced one of my nephews to peddle cookies to the golfers on the neighboring course and my brother-in-law plotted revenge for the shaving creaming of his car 18 years ago. He bought 4 packages of sticky notes and we covered Big Bro's black Mustang in hearts, flowers and leaves. I can't wait to see the pictures.

So what's the funniest thing you've seen, intentional of accidental at a wedding?

Things that are making me happy RIGHT NOW

Am I a disgustingly upbeat person? No, be honest. Am I one of those people who makes you want to throw things at me when I start talking about the positive side of whatever disaster has befallen most recently?

So I've been struggling for self discipline lately. Doing pretty good on the food and exercise front, but not so good on the writing front. I got a rejection this week and sent it right back out - then I went and trolled message boards, played games on Pogo and found wonderful new things on You Tube. That's how I found the thing that is making me really happy RIGHT NOW.

4 out of 5 Cowboys Prefer Joe Boxer

This is why I don't get anything done. It's not my fault. There's just far too much fabulous stuff out there!