Heather Rae Scott

I've Moved

2006-11-17T00:44:00.000-05:00

Keeping this for all of you who have your blogs set so that only people with a blogger account can post. My new blog is located: http://www.heatherraescott.com/blog/ Hope to see you there!

Echo

2006-09-22T00:24:00.000-04:00

I don't even know if anyone out there still has this blog addy or not, so I may just be wasting a whole lot of time even posting this. I'm having difficulties with the server that I had the wordpress blog on. I miss my blog. Who do you use as your domain keepers/website hosts?

Hair today, gone tomorrow....

2006-06-22T11:51:00.000-04:00

I can't stand my hair. It's lifeless and for some unknown reason is deciding to turn red. Age? Have I mentioned they called my grandfather "Red" ? Apparently, the older I get, his genetics are showing up in my hair folicles.

I have to take my mom to physical therapy this afternoon. Where it is, there are three beauty places/spa's. My favorite is over there, so that's where I'll be headed once I get her settled in. It occured to me, one of the things stopping me from going to the local bookstores is my appearance. I don't think it'd be wise to show up in a baseball cap proclaiming "I'm a new romance author." I think a short and sexy cut--something easy for this fine-haired girl to fix and style is just what the DR. ordered.

There's a woman whose son plays baseball with mine. She's become my new PR person. Hi, Beth! She has the greatest hair!

I need a pick-me-up. I need rid of this hair. It's shorter on the one side because the last person who cut it did it with a hack-saw. Okay, so she really didn't have a saw...I wish Tory from this next book coming in the fall was real enough to jump out of the book and give me the haircut I deserve. But, she's only in my head and no way would she tell me to pick up scissors to walk me through it. '-)

Anyone else have trouble with their hair?

Website Woes

2006-06-21T11:59:00.000-04:00

I had no idea that changing domains was going to be such a damned nightmare. This is why I should've went with someone who knew what they were doing, paid the extra money and was just done with it. Now, I currently have no website and am the owner of two domains in which I can't so squat with. I'm worried I'm going to be out all this money and nothing to show for it and have to start again from square one.

Yes, it's one of those days. I don't know why this isn't working. Perhaps Mercury is in retrograde. I'm too afraid to look.

I was really looking forward to switching to Wordpress and having it on my site...at this point, I just want my site back. *sobs*

Suspense and a little dog, too!

2006-06-20T12:52:00.000-04:00

72 Hours by Shannon Stacey
ISBN: 1-59998-040-1
Length: Category
Price: $4.50
Genre: Romance/Suspense
Publication Date: June 20, 2006
Buy From MBaM!

Alex Rossi leads a double life, and it may cost Grace Nolan her son.
The Devlin Group: A privately-owned rogue agency unhindered by red tape and jurisdiction.
Grace Nolan walked away from the Devlin Group carrying Alex Rossi's child in her womb and his bullet in her shoulder. But a ghost from the past has kidnapped her son, Danny. The ransom—Alex Rossi. To get her son back, Grace will have to step back into the life she'd left behind and reveal her secret to Alex.
With vengeance for his mother's murder nearly at hand and a deadly substance on the loose, the last thing Alex Rossi needs is to find himself at the business end of Grace's gun. Now the clock is ticking as they race to save a child and stop a madman bent on destruction. But Alex has a secret of his own, and it may be the ultimate betrayal.
Read an excerpt!
Buy From MBaM!

You'll Be The Death Of Me by Stacia Wolf
ISBN: 1-59998-039-8
Length: Catagory
Price: $4.50
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Publication Date: June 20, 2006
Buy From MBaM!

Meddling landladies, fashion-tortured canines, psychotic best friends - is that what it takes to bring two love-jaded people together, or will they be killed with good intentions?

Allison Leavitt is great at living in a make-believe world - she'd created one in her best-selling mystery novels, home of her fantasy man, a hard-nosed detective with a granite-encrusted heart. It's taken years for an artist to finally capture his image, the one she's lived with in her head for far too long. Imagine her shock when she discovers him standing in her living room!

When the shock fades, one question remains: now that she's found him, what is she going to do about making fantasy reality?

Displaced Los Angeles detective Jay Cantrall isn't happy with his Spokane, Washington assignment, and even more disgruntled with his whacked-out apartment house. The landlady runs around in muumuus whispering sweet nothings to her bizarre canine companion, who hates Jay but has romantic tendencies toward his leg. One tenant thinks nothing of staging mock murders, another is a man-shark, and his next-door neighbor, Allison, although incredibly delectable, seems to be incapable of little more than fish imitations.

Besides, he learned his lesson where women are concerned: nothing can bring a man's downfall faster than a woman's lies.

It seems that whenever Jay and Allison are near each other, disaster strikes. And when one of the disasters leaves Jay injured, guilt-ridden Allison decides to nurse the cranky cop back to health. But will her ministrations heal the wounds deep inside both of them, or will it end in yet another disaster?

Warning: this title contains hot, steamy sex explicitly described.
Cover art by Scott Carpenter.
Read an excerpt!
Buy From MBaM!

Happy Father's Day....SURPRISE!

2006-06-18T21:41:00.000-04:00

So, what are those? They're brand-new baby Russian Dwarf hamsters. And they were what I found when I went to clean my oldest son's cage. He named his hamster "Skooter". Skooter, apparently is a she. Skooter damn near took my finger off and she is never like that. It wasn't until she moved like a tigress to attack my innocent pinky did I see why. My youngest thinks we should keep these. 8 Russian Dwarf Hamsters to clean up after, I don't think so. I've never seen a baby rodent before. They're uh, so ugly they're cute. I'm just hoping their mama doesn't uh, eat them.

I just want your extra time and your KISS

2006-06-16T00:20:00.000-04:00

Okay, so while I profess that I'm not good at talking about myself, I mean it. Which is why sometimes it takes friends to encourage me to put myself out there and try something new. They usually have to bend, twist and finally dare me--double dog dare me into submission. This was the case when Donica Covey twisted my arm behind my back and made me beg for mercy.

Donica persuaded me into submitting a kiss to ecataromance. You know, the same gracious people with whom I did my very first chat with as an author. I really love the first kiss Eddie and Grace share and it was so fun to write that I thought I'll use that one. Lo' and behold, it was picked. My "yummy" smooch was selected as "Smooch of the Day".

Now, in keeping it real, when I read the email, I did the cabbage patch, or at least my version of it and my youngest son aka J-Man wanted to know what a smooch was. So, I grabbed his little face and kissed him. He said "ooh" and did a little wiggle. "Mommy's in loooove"

"With who?" asks his dad.

A dramatic eyeroll ensues. "With me, silly! Who else?"

Thank you so much to ecataromance.com!

Press Kit?

2006-06-15T14:20:00.000-04:00

When does an author decide if she wants to write her own press kit to send to the local small town newspapers? Is it after she has ten books under her belt?

I consider myself outgoing. To a point. I can make friends easily. I'm good at PR for other places like my job I have with eHarlequin.com I can talk about their authors, their books and their message boards without stuttering and I can look the person in the eye without the blush creeping into my cheeks.

Ask me about my book(s) and I flounder. I feel inadequate and well, stupid. I'm not sure why. I can talk about it to my writing buddies. But when someone asks me how it's going--ie J-man's baseball manager, I feel the heat rising into my cheeks. Yes, he's a guy. When he says he wants to buy it, I don't 'buy' him. But maybe he will, he always asks about it.

There's another guy in town. He so doesn't look like a reader. To my knowledge he doesn't read. He's a party guy. Every time he sees me--I don't care where he is, he says: "Where's my book?" I should also mention his voice is quite boisterous and you most certainly cannot ignore him because he gets louder. I offered to print him out a copy ( to shut him up ) but he wants the 'real deal".

Of course his question garners questions from others in our town. So, in a way, he's like a publicity manager. If only I could make the words stammering out of my mouth make sense.

Heather Lester has a great article she wrote on self-promotion. But how soon should you go about some of this and when do you reach the point where everyone gets so damned sick of hearing you toot your own horn?

Thoughts?

After thought

My nice/evil editor suggested that I say how much I want JR Ward's Lover Awakened. She is after all, a Goddess. And anyone who loves Brotherhood of the Black Dagger are SURE to LURVE MY books. =)

Stupidity

2006-06-13T11:47:00.000-04:00

It's funny how when enough people warn you...in fact, to the point where you become defensive about your choice, that when something happens--something that was in fact predicted.

Steelers' 'Big Ben' Breaks Nose, Jaw In Helmetless Crash

Ben Roethlisberger will probably wear a helmet the next time he's on his motorcycle.
Doctors in Pittsburgh said the 24-year-old Steelers quarterback remains in serious but stable condition after Monday's motorcycle wreck. He broke his jaw and nose in the crash. Doctors said the multiple facial fractures were successfully repaired during more than 7.5 hours of surgery. The lead surgeon said doctors didn't discover any other serious injuries.
Police said Roethlisberger wasn't wearing a helmet when his bike hit a car traveling in the opposite direction, which is perfectly legal in Pennsylvania. Roethlisberger was thrown from his bike on impact.

If you click on the headline--you can read the full article and see the pictures.

The fan in me gasped yesterday and held my breath to see if it was him in the first place, because they were unsure. Then, held my breath as we waited to see what all was wrong with him since his head hit the windshield and then the pavement.

We were just discussing the fact that I can get a ticket for choosing not to wear my seatbelt. I do wear my seatbelt. But it should be my choice if I want to take the chance to die without it. Right? So, I can get a fine for not wearing a seatbelt, but if I want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, I can. Because it's legal in Pennsylvania.

Now, I love motorcycles. I love to ride on the back of them. Unless it's one of those crotch rockets and having my fat ass up in the air that high just doesn't do it for me anymore. '-)

One of the reporters said to Ben recently, "You have to wear a helmet to play football." His response was that of, The NFL makes me wear one--that's their law. In Pa, the law says I don't have to wear one.

The evil author in me who is currently working on her football story says "hmm". Cocky, stubbon, up and coming quarter back who has the world in his hands...

Gabe Mathison perks up from the pages."I resemble that remark."

"A little too much," Tory Sinclair agrees.

No, Gabe isn't modeled after Ben...even though I think he's cute as hell...I started this story before Big Ben. '-) Although, funny sometimes how life and fiction mesh when you least expect it.

Four Cups!

2006-06-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

I really needed this news today. You can read the full review by clicking HERE.

Squee!

Sunday Blues

2006-06-11T21:44:00.000-04:00

My two older children left this afternoon, bound for North Carolina to visit with their dad & family. :( They didn't go last year. I thought once they were older, it'd be easier to let them go, but it isn't. I tried to put on a brave face when they left, but when my youngest started to cry, it was all over.

My daughter's lifeline is her tracfone. She broke it on the way down--the antenna. So she called me sobbing. Didn't help my mood.
Then, once I calmed down, I took my g'ma to visit my mom. She's in a rehabilitation center for now. Her left leg doesn't want to work real good--because of the nerve. They said possibly twelve days there, but she's hoping they spring her faster. She has to use a walker to get around, because she doesn't feel steady on her feet. We were there for like five hours and after a while, it gets rather depressing being in a facility like that. But her spirits are up and they say she's improving by the minute. ^ Five mom.

Calling All Readers

2006-06-10T01:18:00.000-04:00

I guess that means you.

I'm rewriting a lot of "The Last Thing I Wanted" and as I was writing it occured to me that Tory and Gabe have a past. Grace and Eddie have a past. Callie and Jackson do not have a past.

Is it wrong to have two back to back books in which the hero and heroine know each other in the past? I can write about strangers falling in love. Really, I can. I didn't realize when I changed Gabe's profession that this whole story was going to pop out and it really does make the story pop, along with my voice.

Whaddaya think?

Yahoo!

2006-06-07T01:09:00.000-04:00

So, a long time ago, I created a yahoo group and it has sat and sat. It's for my future newsletter. This evening, Danica convinced me that I needed to tell all of you about it. Here I am.

If you'd like to join my newsletter, you can do so by clicking here. I promise not to take up too much space in your inbox.

If you join, you'll be privvy to a special contest each month. How's that for an incentive?

UPDATE--IF YOU JOIN MY NEWSLETTER, YOUR NAME WILL GO INTO A DRAWING FOR A REALLY NEAT PRIZE.'-)

Reviews & Bets

2006-06-06T13:23:00.000-04:00

The Last Thing I Expected received another great review.

"While I was reading this story, I had a smile on my face most of the time. It’s a funny and in a way a heart-touching story with romance in it. I really loved the main character Grace from the first page, she is someone I would like to have as a friend in real life. She’s funny and loving. It doesn’t matter if you believe the possibility of people being cursed our not, Heather Rae Scott has written a story that will make you sit and relax, and forget everything around you. " --Annick

You can read the rest by going here.

Make sure you check out my buddy's book. Betting Hearts is out now! Betting Hearts by Dee Tenorio
ISBN: 1-59998-035-5
Length: Novel
Price: $5.50
Genre: Romance/Contemporary/Comedy
Publication Date: June 6, 2006
Buy From MBaM!
He's never lost a bet in his life but she's playing for keeps!
Cassandra Bishop’s boyfriend is back. Only problem is…she doesn’t want anything to do with him. Or his new fiancée. What the confirmed tomboy would like is to wring his neck. She might have done it, too, if he hadn’t filled her in on the embarrassing truth that he'd left her at the altar because she wasn’t woman enough to satisfy him. Her pride nearly settled for punching him in the nose…until she thought of something better—proving him wrong. High on Burke Hallifax’s list of cataclysmic nightmares is having to look at his best friend as a real female. But when her ex-fiancé makes his wedding a personal vendetta against Cass, Burke has no choice but to bet everything on her ability to out hot-girl the competition. Unfortunately, the entire town is betting as well—on whether Burke and Cass can pull off the makeover of the century…without losing their hearts in the process.

Update

2006-06-05T22:54:00.000-04:00

My mom had her surgery today and everything went as well as could be expected. She had one fuse instead of several. The nerve was hidden and bent under the disc they removed, so that was kind of tricky. The Dr. explained it like this. Hold your arm straight out at your side. That is what your nerve is supposed to look like. Now, bend your arm and tuck it in beside your body. That was my mom's nerve.

He also had a bit of a surprise. When he removed the disc, spinal fluid started flowing. She had two tiny tears from the disc fragmentation that he had to repair. I won't tell you how I think this happened. Okay, so maybe I will. Do I think the Dr. did this? nyah. I think it was self-inflicted. Why?

Do you see this shiny red car? It is my mom's "baby". There was some dirt on the throw rugs she has laying on the floor and she felt the need to go clean them with a canister vaccum. She lugged this across the room, out on the porch and down three stairs, across the sidewalk, down that step you see in the photo and to the car. While she was using the hose, her back hurt, so she sat down and finished it. When she stood up, she was dizzy. She called me once she lugged the vaccum back up into the house.

"What were you doing when you got dizzy?"

I won't go into all the explatives I used when she told me what she was doing. So, fast-forward to today. "Heather, will losing spinal fluid make you dizzy?"
"Doh!"

I could still shake her.

My grandmother was her classic self. She didn't embarrass me though, so chalk it up to a semi-good day. I didn't get any writing done. There's no room in this story for her, if there had been...

Things to do

2006-06-05T08:18:00.000-04:00

Can I just say that I can't wait until Sunday? Why?

Today my mom is having surgery. I'll be stuck at the hospital all day w/ my g'ma. Lots of stories out of this.
Tuesday is the last day of school--but it's only HALF a day, oh and "Betting Hearts" by Dee Tenorio debutes.
Wednesday my mom will probably come home from the hospital, despite me telling her to wait as long as she can
Thursday hopefully my mom will come home this day. Then, nurse maid here I come
Friday, I have the Blaze Pitch over at eHarlequin.com
Saturday, my ex and his flavor of the year are coming to my home. They're getting my two oldest and taking them to North Carolina. I promised myself I was going to lay down the law as nicely as I can about these trips. I hate it when they go and believe you me, I feel selfish. But there's a whole lot of history there that makes me want to scream. But, this year, my kids are both armed with tracfone's and they know if it gets bad all they have to do is call and I'll be down to get them. No ifs, ands or buts.
Sunday, I hope to be able to sit on my butt and do nada. Yeah right.

So, I see lots of laundry in my future and a house cleaning because the flavor of the month doesn't know my house doesn't always look like this. Oh, and we acquired a new feathered friend. Her name is Cami, short for camouflage. When I get a picture of her, you'll see why. Cami is going to gain a new friend while my mom is here. His name is "Budge-Man". Cami is fairly quiet and still getting used to us. Last night when I was talking to Stacia Wolf, the yahoo pings were making her sing.

Well, the babysitter just pulled up. I'm half-awake and going to suck down this coffee and head out the door. I have supplies for today, but knowing my grandma ain't nothing going to get done except for her talking to me and telling me things I've heard 500 times.

Staying Grounded

2006-06-03T12:54:00.000-04:00

If anyone has any doubt in their mind that becoming an author has went to my head or is going to go to my head ( which it so hasn't) here is an example of WHY I'll stay grounded. LMAO. This was taken at my daughter's banquet last week. She said she wanted one of me--a good one. I had no clue my best-friend Stace was doing this behind me.

She's always saying that she is going to blackmail me with photo's she has of me growing up...here's my retaliation. haha.

Leaving Mama

2006-05-30T14:39:00.000-04:00

Leaving Mama by Bobbie Cole
ISBN: 1-59998-032-0
Length: Novel
Price: $5.50
Genre: Mainstream/Women's Fiction
Date: May 30th, 2006
Buy From MBaM!
Sometimes the only way to find your way home is to leave.

Smoking weed while perched on top of her grandmother's coffin in the middle of a downpour was not how Jillian had seen the trip from Oklahoma to Minnesota as happening. With flights canceled and the airline employees striking, she had no choice but to improvise and use her rock band's hearse. And when Gran exits the hearse after the tires skid on a rain slick highway and the back door flies open, Jillian decides to make the best of the moment.

Things only get worse when they arrive in Minnesota and her oldest sister, Shari, has a stroke at the memorial service. Toss in the fact that their grandmother had led two lives—there was a whole other family they'd known nothing about waiting for them in Minnesota—and life suddenly becomes more complicated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You might also know Bobbie Cole as Lyn Cash

Little Bird...lost

2006-05-29T21:34:00.000-04:00

I think today was the worst one ever. I took our bird Sunny out to our deck so she could chirp with the other birds, something she loves. I came back into the house to work on the laptop--which is up and running and so is Norton and some spyware stuff and the other computer is half done. I saved my favorites and my addresses, so I should be good to go. =)

So, birdie is on the deck, I'm in my daughter's room and we hear this crash. Everyone in the house converges and we all look at each other, like what was that? The bird cage!

We go running outside to see the cage on the deck and it's disassembled. Bird seed is everywhere and there's no bird. My oldest sees her about five minutes later in the yard behind ours. She is hopping on the ground near another fence. He grabs a hat and is quietly going to get her. All is not lost. There's hope. Out of no where comes the culprit. A stray black and white cat from hell lunges at Sunny and it has our bird in its mouth. My daughter and I are screaming, so the oldest kicks the cat and it lets go of Sunny. She flies to the other neighbor's porch roof.

My daughter is hysterical and I'm not far from it. Oldest son approaches the neighbor's, explains where our bird is and can he please go in, with the hat, open their window and get our bird. "Absolutely not. No one is coming in or going on our roof." I'm trying my best to stay as calm as possible without barging in. He comes out when he sees me and he says his roof is bad. Fine, I say. She's right by the window, I tell him. He sees where she is, is now okay with oldest going in to get her when his dumbass wife opens the window and two of her kitties are right there. Sunny flies off again and we haven't seen her since.

I feel like the world's worst mother. I put her out on the deck. I can't bring back yet another bird that we fell in love with. I've cried with my kids off and on today. I've searched for her and nothing. I've prayed a lot. There are a lot of odds against her. She's bright yellow. There's an abundance of stray cats around us and there are falcons and hawks. It doesn't look good.

I have her cage on the porch, open with her favorite honey stick in it. I've told people. At this point, it's up to her and God if she comes back to us. Keep us in your thoughts.

Catch Up...sorta

2006-05-29T01:10:00.000-04:00

Thank you to all of you who've come over and commented on either my book, my daughter or both. We both really appreciate it.

We've had family in from Alabama. Growing up and having all three of my uncles in the Air Force always made their visits special. I haven't seen my Uncle Bob in about three or four years. He brought with him his fiance' and she seems really nice.I liked visiting with her and talking to her. I asked him one question. "are you happy?" he said, yes very. That was all that mattered. Besides, he doesn't interfere in my life, so I'm not going to in his. =)

His son, my cousin ended up here. He drove down from Boston and is driving back up there tomorrow. He and I were extremely close--depsite living in different states. When they lived in Ohio, our families would travel back and forth. Then, when they moved, that stopped and we kinda fell out of touch. We had an exceptional good visit with a whole lot of laughs and then, of course I handed him my laptop. Long story short and alot of cursing and mumbling on his part, I am reinstalling windows on my POS laptop. The good news, he showed me how to network the lap and the desk top. So, I was able to move everything to here, effortlessly. The bad news--the noise I heard wasn't the actual hard drive but the mechanics that make it work. In other words, there is a new laptop in my future. =)

I cried when my cousin left our home this evening. He promised to stay in touch and the sucker added me to his msn, so now he's forced to deal with me--lmao.

I had fifteen people at my house today and I still have enough food to feed an Army. I'm beat and reinstalling is the last thing I want to be doing, but alas here I am. Although the majority of it is going to have to be done tomorrow. And, did I mention my kids have screwed up the desktop as well...that's next to get rehauled and then I doubt I'll let them touch this.

I hope you enjoy whatever festivities you're going to do today--for those of you not in the states--Happy Monday.

President's Award for Educational Excellence

2006-05-25T21:47:00.000-04:00

Tonight, my daughter received the President's Award for Educational Excellence. She was one of nineteen and I am so proud of her. She had her fifth grade graduation banquet tonight. I'm still smiling. Her principal said that this is a very prestigous award and one that is hard to attain. She got a pin with the Presedential seal and her award is signed by George W. Bush. And they explained that he hand-signed these. =)

~*~ CONGRATULATIONS KAYLEIGH!!~*~

Special Thanks

2006-05-24T01:33:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to take a moment and thank each and every one of you who either imed, emailed, came to novelspotters, bought my book, won my book, posted something in my blog, made your IM name pretty--as in "Buy Rae's Book" or talked about me on your blog and just all around made the first day of my first book--launch such a wonderful and memorable experience. ( I can see my editor cringing at that sentence. ) But seriously, each and every one of you ROCK! So thank you!

In the dedication, I actually needed about five pages or more to thank a ton of you. But, people aren't paying to read a dedication and this isn't the inside of a CD jacket. I plan on having a lot more books out in the future, but I also wanted to take a moment and thank some extremely important people who have held my hand, the bucket, given me a shoulder and just been there for me when I needed them--which is a lot.

To my 'sassy' Stace. You have read just about everything I've ever written. To the long, drawn-out notes, to the silly ones, to the false starts and finally to THE ENDS. You never lost faith in me, even when I did. Our past has fueled and sparked my creativity in more ways than one.

To JoJo: You will always be the little sister that I never had. You're growing into such a beautiful and mature woman. You've also given me fodder for books, been there when I needed you and you have the best music collection and know exactly the right songs to fit the scene or mood I need. Without you, the titles to my first three books wouldn't have even sprung to mind.

To Heather L & Jayne: Thank you for taking a young, unruly wanna-be and turning her into a gonna-bee and eventually into a beez-kneez. You two were the very first people to greet me when I stumbled upon the 'boards' and thought I knew it all. Without your guidance, faith and ability to shine the rusted parts, I may still be aimlessly wandering around thinking I knew it all.

To Kate Walker, Patricia McLinn, Lori Wilde, Holly Jacobs, Tori Carrington, Cathie Linz, Valerie Parv, Maggie Shayne, Karen Templeton, Erica Orloff, Cathy Yardley, Mia Zachary and countless others for sharing your wisdom, your faith and most importantly your friendship.

To the beez. Keep buzzing in the hive and making honey.

To FY. You're my soul-sisters and I heart you all.

To The Belfry Collective. You're the very best and supportive friends/sisters/critique partners on the web and I am blessed to be part of such a great group of talented, creative and hilarious women.

Shannon Stacey, thank you from my heart for giving me the push I needed. Without you, I would still be wandering around.

Danica, I am so glad that you found what you needed too. There is no doubt in my mind that if you write it, you will sell it. You were born for greater things and you just need to trust yourself a little bit more and listen to HIM.

Steph, you've been a blessing and a leaning post. You helped me so much with this book, I can't even begin to thank you enough. Your day is coming, my friend. =)

*~*THANK YOU*~*

( Some of you are in the actual book dedication, but if I forgot anyone, you can beat me later )

Release Day

2006-05-23T00:13:00.000-04:00

A man who thought he had life figured out…just met a woman who proved him wrong! Kindergarten teacher Grace Adams wants to turn over a new leaf. She’s hoping a new school and a new apartment will de-magnetize the loser magnet she seems to possess. According to a student’s mother, she’s cursed. All it would take is a simple ceremony, some friends and a teeny-tiny bonfire in a coffee can to shake it…

Within a few moments her apartment is engulfed in smoke, her fire alarm is blaring, and she can’t stop laughing because she really should have known better. The next thing she knows someone is busting through her door to “save the day”.

That someone is firefighter Eddie Mancilla. He has one thing on his mind—fire chief. It’s been a family tradition for generations. He’s not about to jeopardize it for his former high-school crush. Eddie doesn’t believe in curses or have time to rekindle a relationship with Grace. But as the reunion combusts, Eddie has to douse a lot more than structure fires, now he has to quench the fire he has blazing for Grace.

Once they unite it’s going to be a four-alarm situation. Grace is under his skin and unfortunately her bad luck seems to have spread…. to him!

You can buy your copy here. I'm also going to have a contest. I just have to figure out what I'm going to do. '-) Right now, I feel shell-shocked.

~*~UPDATE~*~

Dee Tenorio has graciously offered to share her spot on novelspotters with me today at 3pm est. Both of us will be giving away copies of our books and would love the participation so it isn't the two of us talking to each other the full hour. Not that we haven't ever done this before. *gg*

Hope to see you there!

My very first review

2006-05-22T00:27:00.000-04:00

If I could, I would kiss Belle Rouge. Why? She's the awesome reviewer who had this to say about "The Last Thing I Expected".

THE LAST THING I EXPECTED is deliciously fun. Sparkling with humor and sizzling with passion this tale is one that will keep you spellbound from beginning to end. Heather Rae Scott has penned a divine romantic comedy, the first in what promises to be a great new series. With true-to-life characters and the right mix of passion and romance, readers are sure to be charmed.

*insert me squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeing*

Birthdays & Pretty things

2006-05-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

Spent most of today in the waiting area of "short stay" while my mother had a myliogram. To say it was hell would be an understatement. I won't bore you with the boring details--really, I won't.

My oldest turned 14 today. My friend, who got him after school called me on the way home from the hospital to tell me, "BJ is having a Happy Barf-day" When I didn't say anything, she told me he'd just thrown up. *insert loud sighing* We had plans to take him to dinner this evening, which he told me when I got home that he was now fine and blamed it on the cafeteria at school. So, off we went to a place called "Fire Mountain". A buffet place. The young one refused to eat. His reasoning? He was sick. I think it was simply in his head. You see, the last buffet joint we went too, he tossed his mandarin oranges all over the table. Different place, different atmosphere, but the kid refused to eat. BJ, well...he didn't eat so much either, but they did clap some rendition of Happy Birthday to him.

While in the bathroom, the bright lights shown my worst fear coming true. I have gray hairs coming in droves on the top of my head. *insert more sighing* I, of course blamed the three children sitting at the table and that man who lives with me. It's all their fault.

But, if anyone fears that my head is going to grow rather large because of becoming an author, be rest assured that the four creatures I live with will most definitely keep me grounded. =)

I want to thank ALL of you who are coming in here and saying that you can't wait for my book. It's gorgeous. I love the scene breaks. LOVE them. You'll have to wait and see what they are, but Samhain truly is "all about the story". I truly couldn't ask for more.

I'm still trying to think of a contest or two to have.

In the meantime, I have to thank Dee for making me the most gorgeous button. I LOVE the way it looks like the heroine, Grace is looking at Eddie. LOVE it.

More book stuff tomorrow...

Six Days

2006-05-18T14:54:00.000-04:00

Wow.

In six days, "The Last Thing I Expected" will be available from Samhain Publishing. If you haven't checked out My Bookstore and More I encourage you to check it out. It's totally redone and there are a ton of neat things on there aside from some awesome books. I'm trying to come up with a really cool contest and trying to muster the courage to send my baby to reviewers now that I have my e-book copies.

So, any ideas for a contest? *gg*

Color Me...Pink

2006-05-17T00:25:00.000-04:00

Okay, so before I share an embarrassing moment with you, let me tell you that I pick Taylor and Kat to go to the final two. Nothing against Elliot, because I think he's grown so much, but he didn't show me too much this evening. You can throw stuff at me if you want, but that is who I hope gets to the final two.

So, I was reminded that since a lot of the authors were at RT this week, that we could play on Jaci's Group. So, I had people interested in my story thanks to Mel. She had something to the effect of tell us more about "The Last Thing I Wanted". Okay, so, I post the blurb and the teaser I gave y'all in here yesterday. Without even thinking about the title. Or the title in my new signature. "The Last Thing I Wanted" available May 23rd from Samhain Publishing.

My editor ims me and brings it to my attention that while my blurb and excerpt are for the up and coming book--the title is for it's sequel.

*insert me holding an "L" on my forehead.*

I'm excited about all of my books, but jeesh! I'm so embarrassed. Even though, I somehow managed to plug both books. Is there a lesson in there? Yes, proofread even your signature line!

I blame it on Tory. She's completely taken over my brain. Why? She's severely irritated with me. She wants more sex with Gabe and since I've torn them apart to rewrite them, she isn't happy with me at all. She wants me to skip all the plot layering and get to the good stuff. She's tired of Grace. She wants hers. So, anyway she can get it, she sneaks in there.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Have an embarrassing story to tell?

Tuesday Teaser

2006-05-16T12:07:00.000-04:00

Her plan was to come over here, apologize and leave. Meeting his mother and getting invited to dinner was so not in the plan. Why had she so eagerly accepted the invitation, despite Eddie’s obvious reluctance? If she kept this up, Eddie was definitely going to hate her. “Look, I don’t have to go on Sunday. I can make up some sort of excuse,” she offered, still not daring to turn and face him.
“My mother’s too smart for that.”
“You could tell her I stood you up.”
Eddie laughed. “She knows better than that, too.”
“I’m sorry.” Grace dared to turn around, and to her surprise, Eddie was smiling warmly at her.
He shook his head. “You know, that’s the fifth time I’ve heard you apologize for something you didn’t do.”
The light in his eyes changed and, for a moment, she wished she knew what he was thinking. Then again, maybe she didn’t want to know…or maybe she did.
She had to be honest with herself. Just before she fell asleep last night, she’d imagined him looking at her like this. His eyes were dark pools, veiled by long, curling lashes. Not brooding at all. They were soft, seductively soft. Intense.
Set the plate of cookies down and get out of here. She didn’t know what to say. Wasn’t quite sure what to do. She exhaled as she set the plate down on his table. “I should get going.”
Eddie stepped toward her. “Wait.”
Her heart skipped a beat—somersaulted into her throat. He looked so damned sexy. “You have some flour, right here.” He touched his finger to her nose.
Everything in her body ignited.
“And right here,” he said as his hand caressed her jaw line.
Her pulse quickened when his thumb found her bottom lip, making her sway slightly. She held her breath and her eyelids fluttered, but refused to fall. She wanted to lick her lips where his thumb stroked, but that’d be too forward and as much as she wanted Eddie to kiss her, she wanted him to come to her.
She didn’t have to wait long. When her lips parted, his hand dropped to her waist and he pulled her to him. He lifted her up to her tiptoes, pressing her against him.
Hesitating for a heartbeat, he raised his eyes to hers. His head dipped down, lightly grazing her mouth with his. A soft sound escaped from deep in her throat. She flicked her tongue across his lips, needing a taste, inviting him to deepen the kiss.
Grace closed her eyes, intensifying the sensations of the kiss. He slid his hands up her waist, over her back, until they found her hair. Burying his fingers in her hair he pulled her closer, enveloping her with the warm taste of her own cookies.
Grace splayed her hands across his chest, feeling his heartbeat, warmth radiating from beneath his T-shirt. She never wanted a man’s shirt off more than she did at this moment. She needed to feel, to touch, to caress his bare skin.
She settled on cupping his face with her hands, cradling him as his tongue stroked the inside of her mouth. The kiss consumed her with such a passion, such a feeling of belonging, she could barely endure it.
Her fingers ran the length of his jaw, over prickly stubble, down his throat and finally along the back of his neck and into the thickness of his hair.
Nothing could be better than this.
Feeling him lower her, Grace resisted removing her mouth from his, letting go of him, relinquishing her embrace. She felt his hands at her shoulders and felt him slowly release her. Breathless, she licked her lips before she looked up at him. “Wow,” she whispered. “If I’d known you could kiss like that—”
“You’d have what?” he asked. His tone deepened, sharpened. “If you’d have known that I could kiss like that, you would’ve what, Grace? You’d have kissed the fat guy?”
Her gaze flew to his face. “That’s not what—”
He stepped away from her. A muscle jumped in his lower jaw. “I think maybe it’s time you left.” The light in his eyes had winked out. His gaze was now cold and distant. Just like that, he’d shut her out.
Grace swallowed the hurt, refused to let him see it. That wasn’t what she’d meant, and deep down, Eddie had to know that. She lifted her head, refused to look at him and walked out the door.
Eddie’s mother was right, he was a jackass.

Grey's Anatomy

2006-05-15T23:35:00.000-04:00

All I'm saying right now is that this is a must-see. I'm still crying, partly because of the show and having to wait until the fall to see what is going to happen and partly because I got my e-book in its final state. *sqeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

I love my cover, which you already knew. But the chapter headings are to die for--the font is awesome. Plus, it makes it real.

Tomorrow, I'll tease you some more and I'll try to think of another contest.

Rae's Insanity

2006-05-15T12:54:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to talk about Grey's right now. I want too. I could talk about it all day until the show starts at 9pm est. I know they're going to torture me more with the final minutes then the whole show. Why? Because a guy I've grown to adore is laying on the ground bleeding, with his eyes open. He looked dead. The gasps were so loud coming from my mouth that I woke Noel up. Of course, it didn't help that I was yelling "Don't do it!" to the television when Izzy was holding the wire in her hand. Wishing George would've gotten some balls and tackled her. Betcha he's wishing he'd have stayed in the locker room and dealt with what's her face saying she loved him.

I'll be opening my own hospital ward soon enough, it seems. I love my family, but for once, I wish I could switch birth order and be the baby instead of the mature responsible, older daughter to which all shit floats straight down hill and ends in her lap.

My mom hurt her back again--okay, so that's an understatement. I took her to the neurologist on Friday and the prognosis wasn't great. It looks like she's going to have her spine fused--lower spine. Which means, she'll be staying here so I can take care of her. I love my mom. She loves me. We ebb and flow like the ocean, however. We can't live together for any long period of time. So, all this happens while I'm being a baseball mom to the youngest, my oldest is taking a long field trip in which I have to have him at the school either by 4am or pick him up at 4am. She's scheduling appointments for late in the day around the same time my kids are coming home from school, my book is releasing, my daughter is graduating the fifth grade and the end of the year picnic in which I volunteered from is coming. Oh, and my kids are getting out of school, soon.

Pray for me. Send me good juju vibes cuz, folks, I'm going to need them.

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T03:41:00.000-04:00

I'm sharing one of my favorite pictures of all four of the kids I share with my guy. I only wish that it hadn't been taken on my old digital camera and that the lapses in time when I can have all four of these wonderful kids together were shorter.

A really good friend of mine sent me this email and I had to share it with all of you. It made me cry. I don't know who wrote this, but if there was ever the perfect way to give tribute to mom's that encompasses everything--this is it. Happy Mother's Day.

This is for the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, "It's okay honey, Mommy's here."

Who have sat in rocking chairs for hours on end soothing crying babies who can't be comforted.

This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse. For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And all the mothers who DON'T.

This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.

This is for the mothers whose priceless art collections are hanging on their refrigerator doors.

And for all the mothers who froze their buns on metal bleachers at football or soccer games instead of watching from the warmth of their cars, so that when their kids asked, "Did you see me, Mom?" they could say, "Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," and mean it. This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet and scream for ice cream before dinner. And for all the mothers who count to ten instead, but realize how child abuse happens.

This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all the (grand) mothers who wanted to, but just couldn't find the words.

This is for all the mothers who go hungry, so their children can eat. For all the mothers who read "Goodnight, Moon" twice a night for a year. And then read it again. "Just one more time."

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for every mother whose head turns automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home -- or even away at college.

This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomach aches assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up. Right away.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them. This is for all the step-mothers who raised another woman's child or children, and gave their time, attention, and love... sometimes totally unappreciated!

For all the mothers who bite their lips until they bleed when their 14-year-olds dye their hair green.

For all the mothers of the victims of recent school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.

For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to be peaceful, and now pray they come home safely from a war.

What makes a good Mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time? Or is it in her heart? Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time? The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby? The panic, years later, that comes again at 2 A.M. when you just want to hear their key in the door and know they are safe again in your home? Or the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying? The emotions of motherhood are universal and so our thoughts are for young mothers stumbling through diaper ch anges and sleep deprivation...And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Single mothers and married mothers. Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all.

For all of us.

Hang in there. In the end we can only do the best we can. Tell them every day that we love them. And pray.

"Home is what catches you when you fall - and we all fall."

What Do You Love/Hate About Romance?

2006-05-12T09:15:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd talk a little about this subject, since this is what I write. *winks* But seriously, I don't want to bore anyone senseless with all the dreck and craziness in my life. So, here are my top five reasons I love romance and the top five things I hate that happen in romance. Fair enough? If you feel compelled, you can add to the list in here or consider being blog tagged. *winks* Why I love Romance:

The fact that a man can run the world but doesn't have a clue why this one woman is suddenly everything to him.
The strong & smart women.
The whole emotional justice aspect. Good--if flawed--people getting the ultimate: their very own Happily Ever After.
The awesome dialogue. Witty and funny come to mind, most.
The hum of a well told story.

Things I hate in Romances:

Loose ends. If you've set up a scene and skip to the next chapter with the heroine and hero chit-chatting about how great it was instead of letting me get involved in the fun--you suck.
When nothing happens. I don't need a huge plot, but give me something--anything.
When there's one issue keeping the couple apart and that issue is restated, over and over, without movement or change. Then at the end, they're suddenly "over it" and live HEA.
Plot threads that go nowhere, inconsistencies, obvious cliches and coincidence.
The hero is mean all the way through the book and then at the end says "I love you" as if that means he's transformed. I want to see the journey. OR-- He's out for revenge/blackmail and is horribly cruel to the heroine, then figures out what he needs too and says, "I'm sorry"--but doesn't really do it.

I, of course do none of these things in my book--or atleast I hope not. *looks around* Which brings to mind an important question. How forgiving are you if an author does something you totally hate? Would you read him/her again? Or would you cross that person off your future TBR pile? One other thing I love about romances is a series. I love revisiting characters and towns. Which is why I wrote one myself, or am in the process of fixing this series for all of you. I think after these are finished, it's going to be hard not to write another series right off the bat--but I'm going to try. Tory and Callie, Grace's friends are getting their own story. Tory's is next and she's in for one helluva ride with Pittsburgh Prowler's Quarterback, Gabe Mathison. Yes, I like to think of myself as a tease. *winks*

Shocked

2006-05-10T21:37:00.000-04:00

If you haven't watched American Idol, don't read any further.

I was so damned sure Kat was going home that I never ever saw it coming. Ohmigod. I cannot believe that Chris Daughtry went home tonight. Wow. My guy says that Chris and his band Absent Mind will become huge. You're all to 'mark his words.' I almost cried. Almost. I think he'll be fine. I'm just totally shocked shitless.

Thirteen Days

2006-05-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, in thirteen days I make my debute. *feels ill*. I'm not good at this self-promotion, but I hope I am good at teasing. So, without further ado, here is a snippet from the first chapter.

“Oh, shut up. You aren’t cursed.”
Grace Adams placed the unpacked glass in the cupboard and sighed. An hour ago she wouldn’t have believed she was cursed either, but suddenly everything had fallen into perspective. Her best friend had no idea. As far as Grace was concerned she was cursed.
Tory Sinclair continued, “Look, Gracie, I don’t care what this woman—”
“Her name is Nancy Barnes.”
Tory blinked, not once, but twice. “Bottom line, you’re not broken, you’re just…badly sprained.”
Grace snorted. “You make it sound like ‘badly sprained’ is a good thing.”
“Sure beats the curse of Nancy Barnes.”
Grace stacked silverware into a drawer and looked around her disaster area of a kitchen in despair. “Have I said how much I detest unpacking?”
“Only a thousand times,” Tory groaned. “Okay, tell me about this alleged curse again. I want to make sure I have all the gory details.” Tory hummed the Twilight Zone theme, cracking up at her own humor.
Grace pinned her friend with a tolerant stare. “It’s not funny.”
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Go ahead.”
“I told you, I was standing there at the school’s Open House, meeting all the parents. When Kylie’s mother, Nancy, shook my hand, she told me that I had a cursed aura.”
“How does she know this?”
Grace shrugged. “Some people can see your aura, I guess.”
“You didn’t ask her how she knew?”
“There were too many people. What was I supposed to do?”
“Call security?”
Grace snorted. “Can you be serious here?”
“I will if you will.” Tory began breaking down a box. “So she told you she had just the thing to lift this curse—a Pennsylvanian Dutch ritual that’s supposed to be the cure-all and end-all?”
Grace thought about what Tory was asking her for a moment. She’d never attempted anything like this in her life. Okay, she’d been known to throw salt over her shoulder occasionally, and she never walked under a ladder. “Yes.”
“Who’d have thunk the Amish would be making up rituals?”
“Pennsylvania Dutch.”
“Yeah, Amish people. And you call yourself a school teacher?”
Grace crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you going to help me or not?”
“I am helping you. Look, a fully functional and organized kitchen.”

Idols Have Left The Building

2006-05-09T21:39:00.000-04:00

Okay, so you think the PTB want two guys this year in the final two or what? Are they tired of the girls winning? Because Kelly and Carrie are kicking ass and taking names while Clay and Rueben have fizzled as have Justin.

They've done a lot of hard songs this year--hard for females to sing, songs. I like Kat. I have no doubt that she'll go far. I was just hoping she'd make it to the final two. After tonight, I'm not so sure. I think she did well for the choices available. There's a reason why you don't hear women singing anything by Elvis on purpose. I loved her rendition of Hound Dog/ All Shook Up. I liked her dancing and having fun. We know she can do ballads.

Taylor was in his element on both songs. I don't care what Simon says. He did really good. However, don't hate me when I say this. I love the Soul Patrol. I just don't picture him as the next American Idol. He's an old soul. While there isn't a damned thing wrong with that, I just don't see him as the next American Idol.

Elliot has grown on me a lot. He's the underdog. He came in with a near shaven head, nasty looking teeth and some sort of goatee. The makeup artists and stylists have really outdone themselves. I was a little hesitant when they showed him having to learn the song. But he came out and he did it and he was awesome on both songs he performed tonight.

Loved Chris singing "Suspiscous Minds". Wasn't so keen on "A little Less Satisfaction". I thought it was too low for him and I hated the way he rocked it out at the end. We know he can rock. I want to hear a little more from him yet. If he isn't careful, he's going to blow his voice.

I'm hoping Kat doesn't go home tomorrow. Although, judging that the couple of times I voted for her this evening and the fact that we got through isn't a good sign. Each one of us votes. My daughter and I voted for Kat and the boys voted for Chris and my guy wanted a vote for Taylor.

Who got your vote?

Vexed

2006-05-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my modem was fried. On some level, I think the damned thing has always been fried. Blogger has been a bitch to get onto and so I thought I'd try Word Press. I semi-have it going, but will not force bookmarks to change until I'm ready for it, which should be in the next couple of weeks. I have to change from geocities to yahoo before I can upload it to my website. Wish they'd have told me that sooner. '-) This is, my life.

I'll be back later, after American Idol, of course. =)

Simple Pleasures

2006-05-05T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today, I spent an obscene amount of $$ on three little critters for three little beauties called my children and these pictures say it all. Their happiness makes the $$ I forked out totally worth it. A picture's worth a thousand words? Priceless in my humble little opinion as are the giggles that came with them.

Meet Skooter. And Fluff-a-nutter And Scratches.

Three little Russian Dwarf Hamsters that are bringing a ton of giggles.

Samhain Author Days

2006-05-05T08:57:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, all day long, the Samhain authors are going to host an author day. What does this mean for you? A chance to see what Samhain is publishing, to meet their authors, have a blast and WIN PRIZES.

I was supposed to be one of the authors, but my little one has his first baseball game and well, as a mommy, this is something I have to do. =) But I will be joining them throughout the day. I hope to see you there!

It's from 9am to 9pm. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/samhaincafe/ This is an email group.

Happy Cinco DeMayo!!

Princess Pea

2006-05-03T22:09:00.000-04:00

Before, I said I thought Kellie would go last week and Paris this week. Perhaps I should've put my mouth where the money is and played this years Fantasy Idol.

I'm not surprised to see Paris go. I wish her luck. I foresee her having a great future on Broadway or perhaps in a couple of years she will be the next Beyonce. Seventeen is young.

As for who goes next week...Im going to go out on a limb and say Taylor or Elliot. I'm still holding that the final two are going to be Kat and Chris. I don't think Kat will go home next week, but I've been wrong before.

Play That Funky Music

2006-05-02T21:05:00.000-04:00

***AMERICAN IDOL SPOILERS***

Where do I begin?

Not entirely sure. I don't think they should've used 'birth' years. Why? Because these 'kids' haven't done extremely well with their choices. This is of course my humble opinion. I thought Elliot, Chris and Taylor did well. I loved Chris's "Renegade". I thought Paris was annoying with her rendition of "Kiss" and quite prefered hearing Julia Roberts sing it in "Pretty Woman". I loved the song "Against All Odds" but hated the way Kat sang it.

On the flipside. They all did pretty damned good with today's charts. Paris gets my props for doing Mary J and doing her "quite well". I love the song "Be Without You". Elliot, while not Michael Buble did okay with "Home". Chris rocked the house with Shinedown's "I Dare You". I just hope that by admitting his voice is going doesn't hurt him too bad. Taylor. I too wondered how he snuck a Beatles song in there, but he did it well. My guy said he thinks tomorrow will be Taylor's night to go home. As for Kat. I admittedly have never heard this song before, I plan on looking it up. But I loved it. And I hope it was enough to redeem the first song. I still have McFeever. I'm still holding on to Chris and Kat being the top two with it coming down to Chris as the next American Idol.

Would love to hear YOUR thoughts.

Twenty-One Days

2006-05-02T17:03:00.000-04:00

Only because I couldn't think of another title, although out with the old might've worked. I spent the better part of the morning in my dungeon aka basement. Why? Because my town is holding "Clean Up Days" all day Friday and part of Saturday. This is a chance for me to get rid of a lot of clutter. *sqeee* Sadly, I am a pack rat. I donated two big huge garbage bags full of Harlequins I found down there. All I'd read once, sometimes twice to the local Library. They were very happy as they're having a book sale. All proceeds go towards buying MORE books. Of course, some of them will be recylced into the paperbook section. They dont have to be checked out and a lot of times, people will not return them. =(

I did take a break to walk to the Post Office and had a cool moment when the post master said, "And how's our favorite budding local author?" =) And there was a line behind me, so that was kinda cool.

And how was your day?

Twenty-Two Days

2006-05-01T14:48:00.000-04:00

Twenty-two days til my world debute. The very thought ties my tummy in knots. I've waited for this for what seems an eternity and now that it's happening I'm feeling ill. Why? What if everyone hates it? What if it gets horrible reviews? I checked out my horoscope on astrology zone.

What a magical, amazing, positive month! In May you will have a number of jaw-dropping opportunities and get several signs that you are on the right track. Projects or relationships that hit snags in March or April will suddenly move forward again, quite smoothly. You have had no sign that things would untangle this easily, so when things start to go your way, it will likely feel like a miracle.

That's promising. Very promising considering I barely survived last month. =) Hopefully, I'll be able to tease you over the next twenty-two days. I'll post snippets of "The Last Thing I Expected". Ohhh. My friend brought something to my attention. My imaginary friend's name really was Sam. She asked if anyone got the correlation between Sam and Samhain. I said no. I hadn't thought of it either. So, let's do some math, I think it's math.

My grandmother was born and raised in Scotland. She came to this country as a war bride. We're Celtic in some ways.
Samhain means Celtic New Year
I had an imaginary friend named Sam.
My first editor's name was Scottish

Was it fate? The original title I came up with for this story was "Cursed". But since the first editor also shared my feelings that the secondary characters were screaming for their own books, it became a series. Since I hadn't went with any theme with the exception of they're friends ( hindsight is always 20/20 ) I went with a title theme. "The Last Thing I..." Truly, the last thing I expected was to be bought. So, very fitting for a first title. =) I cannot thank Samhain enough.

So, with that. I'm going to try to make this tonight. There's a chat this evening at Romance Junkies. May 1st, 9-10pm EST. Shelly Laurenston, Arianna Hart and Charlene Teglia will be there chatting so drop in and say Hi. http://www.romancejunkies.com/chat.html

I've also been invited to help with RJ's next writing contest. Looking forward to that as well as a chat there in June.

Have a great Monday!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

2006-04-30T23:15:00.000-04:00

No. Not really, unless you count the scratches and pricks on my hands from one said rose bush.

Today, I found out that my grandmother who passed away in Jan, that her sister-in-law--my great Aunt passed away. So, off to the funeral home Tues. evening and her burial on Wednesday. Marion was 90 years old and lived a long, full life. She was a spinster because apparently, her parents didn't want her to ever get married and they succeeded by pushing her suitors away. A tiny woman, I used to adore her. When I was a child, she'd give me papers from her teachings at Sunday school. I had my first cup of coffee with her and her parents. A tiny woman, she was maybe four-foot-eleven. I'm guilty of not seeing her over the course of the last five years and I'll explain why. I'm sad she's gone. But I think I grieved her passing five years ago when she didn't know who I was. Either that or it was the accusations that I stole money from her and made her leave her home. I don't know who she thought I was--this happens in dimensia. I, apparently reminded her of someone she hated. Because the last thing she wailed was that I stole her boyfriend from her and her baby. *shrugs* To my knowledge, she never concieved a child. But the mind can be a wonderful place. Just ask the characters in my head.

Ah, but alas, the rose bush. My grandmother's house has been sold and for some reason, I got this nagging urge to get a peice of an old fashioned yellow rose bush that sits at the top of the stairs leading to my grandmother's house. I went with no idea what I was doing and no gloves. I took the wrong peice from the wrong rose bush. So, I went back up there with gloves and with the right bush in my sight. It still got me. But, I was able to get three pieces that were rooted. So, with a little luck and a little grace from God, my rose bush will bloom just as beautiful as hers and if we move, that bush is coming with me. I hear they're tearing out all of her bushes and plants. She has irises up there that are almost as talll as me and the flowers are huge. I took a piece of a bleeding heart she has up there and sadly, it doesn't look like it'll amount too much, but I can always go back up there and steal another piece. I'm even half tempted to talk to the people who bought it and ask them if when they dig up the yellow rose bush to let me know and I'll come and get it.

I planted my three pieces and fertilized them and then, I sat there and just cried. I miss my grandma so much some days. I talked to her as I was digging it up and talked to her some more as I was planting. My neighbors probably thought me insane, but they should be used to it by now.

It was a beautiful weekend and I'm hoping it stays that way so that I can clean up the algae bird bath, formerly known as our pool.

Pickle's, Mattresses & Cat Fight

2006-04-26T22:58:00.000-04:00

So while I missed the farewell to Kellie 'Pickles Pickler, I'm not surprised. I am however miffed that Elliot was in the bottom three again instead of Paris.

Noel and I ventured to the school to get on a bus and drive back country roads to the place where "Once Upon A Mattress" was playing. It's about a forty minute drive. Loud children always make me smile. Not. We enter the auditorium and I had no idea what to expect. I told you, I'm a musical freak, but I've never seen this one.

I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed seeing the performers playing new roles this year. I laughed at the Jester and while I have to admit there were a couple of times that some of the content had me wanting to cover my daughters eyes and ears--er, should I say I was ready too. She's eleven and while she knows some things, she doesn't--okay, who in the hell am I kidding? She probably knows. But, if you've never seen this, there's a part where the mute King tries to explain to the Prince about...sex. I could see the kids whispering to each other. For all I know, they were saying, "No. No. This is lame. There's no boy flower. What bee dust?"

But, I don't want to know. It was a fun time, the kids enjoyed it, the parents enjoyed it and my daughter is officially a "Prince Dauntless" fan. She got his autograph.
One of her friends said, "He's only in high school!"
Noel shrugged her shoulders and asked, "Did you get his autograph?"
"No!" the other girl replied.
"I think you're jealous." She strutted away.

Then, came the bus ride home. One of the dad's who went came armed with pretzel logs and hugs--the juice in a barrell--cold. He even brought a garbage bag. My daughter stood up to let her friend move to the seat with her mom. Some other woman--a mother, yelled at my daughter to sit down. Okay, so I allowed it. Once. Bus driver didn't say anything to my daughter, but this mother did.

My daughter is a helper by nature, she gets it honestly. She was walking the garbage bag to the back of the bus--we were halfway to the back. This bitch bellows inappropriately at my daughter. Game. On. I can't remember what all I said to this "woman", because I was fighting the urge to walk up and bitch slap her. And, I was making sure that no words came out like: bull shit, bitch or feck you came out of my mouth. The entire bus went quiet when I yelled at her. I do remember saying that I've chaparoned a lot of things over the years and never did I talk to a child the way she did. And when she said "excuse me woman" I said, "There's no excuse for you." I did tell the Band teacher and I had parents from our bus coming up and saying that yes, this woman was very nasty. She made my daughter cry. I still better not see her at a school function or I'll give her another round of what for.

By the time we got back to the school, I had my pretty girl smiling again. I did apologize for flipping out to the bus driver as we walked off and she told me that there was nothing to be sorry for, she'd have done the exact same thing.
br> Noel and I giggled over cheesy-broccoli-rice and she's now tucked in her bed where she is going to hate getting out of in the morning because she just went about ten minutes ago.

And how was your day? =)

McPhee-ver

2006-04-25T21:22:00.000-04:00

And then there were six.

My guy has a theory on reality shows like this. Especially when they make stupid remarks like they did to Katharine. For weeks, these contestants have been told to make the song their own. Kat did exactly that with "I have Nothing". Whitney Houston, I'm sorry is old news--okay, so most of the time when you hear anything about her it has to deal with some sort of alleged drug problem or rehab. It isn't because she won a grammy or made a new record. I did not think the song was too big for Katharine at all. I think she kicked the song's ass and made it her own and shined while doing it. She showed heart and passion and she gave me goosebumps as she sang. So despite Simon saying she sounded "cabaret", she got one of my votes tonight.

Elliot grows on me more and more each week. And it's going to be harder and harder to watch some of these people go. He changed from this gangly looking guy into a smooth operator. I adore the song he sang and I think he was awesome. He also gets my vote tonight. I think Paula cheapened it with her fake tears, but then again, it could be that she pissed me off by what she said to Kat.

Kellie. Hmm. What can I say about Kellie? She's cute as a button, but these past two weeks have shown us that she doesn't have what it takes. Sorry, but when you butcher two songs that shouldn't be that damned hard to sing, you deserve to go home.

Paris. She's cute. She likes her wigs, but she doesn't have any depth as a singer. She takes every damned song she sings and makes it sound the same. She was NOT the best female singer of the night, Simon. Katharine was and YOU know it. Paris needs to join a Cabaret show, not Kat. "Memories" was too big a song for that little girl.

Soul-Patrol, Taylor. I'm a huge fan of the song "Just Once". It's one of my favorites and no one I've heard except for one guy when I was in the Air Force could blow this song away like James Ingram. No one. Taylor is the exception. He gave me goosebumps and I thought it was the perfect choice for him. I didn't think he looked uncomfortable singing it at all. I think Taylor is one of these people who talk and sing with their hands and in a song like that, it's hard to know where or how to move those hands. He gets a vote from me tonight.

Chris. Can I just say that I loved it when David Foster made him lay on the floor to teach him how to use his diaphragm? My senior year in high school, my music teacher made me stand an inch away from the wall and I had a bottle pushed against my diaphragm and the wall. The object was to push it flush between me and the wall so that it never fell the entire time I sang. I thought he was a nut, but it really improved the quality and range I possessed. I think Chris did a great job tonight. I applaud his senstive side.

I think the top four should be: Kat, Elliot, Taylor and Chris with either Paris or Kellie going home tomorrow night. I don't know who I want as the top two yet. This is going to be hard.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to have to call home at some point to find out who left or else tape the show and watch it when my daughter and I get home from her choral field trip. We're going to watch the dress rehearsal at her music teachers husbands school. He's the music director and he allows his wife's music students to watch the musical. The show is "Once Upon A Matress" and I'm looking forward to it. Last year, they performed "Beauty and the Beast" and they were excellent on a High School caliber. Belle actually sounded like Disney's Belle.

I have one more paragraph to write--a transition if you will and round three will be done. *happy dancing*

Fun With Chalk

2006-04-25T09:27:00.000-04:00

I'm caffeinated. I'm about to open up the file that contains my next set of edits. And despite my daughter staying home today with a headache and sore throat, I plan on slugging through these with a fury. I want them done. Hopefully the phone won't ring like it did yesterday with people asking if I'm still alive. I think my children would've reported me dead when I didn't feed them. I'm an equal opportunistic, I figured since my youngest made my blog, I'd showcase the other two. Today, is my daughter's day. Most of the time I call her by her middle name--Noel or she gets called Belle, short for Noelly-belly. Her real name is not as unique as my eldest, which disturbs me--lol. She's a last initial kid. Something I never wanted any of my children to be. Because there are a whole lot of Heather's out there. I too, was an initial kid until my best friend got tired of yelling "Heather!" and having every other Heather except me look at her. I became "Rae" in the tenth grade. And although she and my mother were the only ones who used it--now, mostly everyone knows me as Rae. "I didn't know you were a Heather." Yup. I am. Without further ado, here is my eleven-year old daughter with her friend, Faith. They decided to decorate the road--they claimed it needed 'color'. Noel is in the orange shirt

Off to do edits.

Grey's Anatomy

2006-04-23T23:05:00.000-04:00

I admit it, I have serious issues with the writers for this show. Why? Because OMG, I wish I could write like that! If you've never watched this show...TiVo or the West Coast @ 10pm is your friend. Tonight's episode is called "Under Pressure". It's like a Grey's for Dummies. I love this show almost as much as I loved FRIENDS. Okay, so I love this show a lot. It replaces FRIENDS--sorta. Is it wrong to want my own McDreamy? I fell in love with Patrick Dempsey as a teen. Sure, he was slightly goofy looking, but the man is all heart. Then, Sweet Home Alabama came and I was hooked in a little more. Enter Derek Sheppard. This season, what hooked me on this show, and yeah, I'm prolly repeating myself...was when I watched the two episodes after the Superbowl and at the very end of the second part, when he's describing he and Grey's last kiss as a couple...He had me at hello.

Paging Dr. McDreamy....Okay, I've decided...Patrick Dempsey will be the next hero model for my next book. I'll let you know when, what his name is and so on.

What's your favorite tv show and why? Is it the writing, the characters...what?

UPDATE:

Round 3 edits came in. I'm on the home stretch, but I have to get these done this week. I'll leave you with McDreamy. =)

Buzzin' Contest

2006-04-22T21:02:00.000-04:00

Hop, run, jump, fly on over to my evil editor's blog. She's got a whole new look and blog on Wordpress AND she's trying to make create some noise and it includes free books. All you need to do is bring your tootie horns.

My new toy

2006-04-20T23:54:00.000-04:00

I've been in the market for a digital camera for quite a while. I'd bought a cheapy in Reno--a polaroid, but I couldn't figure it out and the pictures it took left me feeling rather numb. I really liked Dee's camera. Someone had one for sale on one of the local websites here, I called a day too late. I looked on ebay and found the exact bundle Dee had. I bid, bid and bid some more and I won it. It came today. =) It's a baby Canon and it came with a printer. I got it for about $100. Color me happy. So, I'm going to bore you with a couple of pictures. The first is of our bird, Sunny. She's a very whacky and spoiled little thing. Although she wasn't named for my buddy, Sunny, she has her same tendencies. '-) IOW, she might as well have been named for my buddy. She doesn't eat funky things like Eileen's puppies do and you can't cuddle up to her, but we love her. I still want a puppy. The second one is of a bush beside our home. We've had it a year. I can't remember the name of it. But it's purple and pretty.

And the third...heh. This is MY baby. He finally let us pull the dangling front tooth that we've been begging,bribing and bartering for him to pull out. This is J-Man, my seven-year-old cutie pie.

So, now that I have a camera that takes good pictures...I can add some of them to some of these stories I tell everyone. =)

TGIF!

Tonight's The Night

2006-04-20T17:06:00.000-04:00

I'm doing my author chat this evening.

Below are the details:

Samhain authors are chatting at Ecataromance April 20th!
Here's the link. http://catanetwork.com/chat.html

Here are the authors participating!

Group one 7:30 - 8:30 pm American EST
Kelly Ethan
Alexandra Rowland
Rene Lyons
Mackenzie McKade
Lauren Dane
Jenn Andrus
Kim Rees

Group Two 8:30 - 9:30 pm American Est
Anne Whitfield
Vicki Gaia
Bianca D'Arc
Ingela Hyatt
Heather Rae Scott
Annmarie McKenna

I hope to see you there. These are some really awesome authors. Plus, you can come and point and laugh at me as I sit here shaking like a leaf. =)

American Idol

2006-04-19T21:43:00.000-04:00

Stacy reminded me that I didn't comment on AI last night--shame on me.

So, I absolutely was blown away by Chris and Kat. They're my favorites. Of course, we love the soul patrol too. Taylor.

SPOILER

So, is it totally wrong that my entire house cheered tonight when Ace went home? Thank you, America!

Wasn't entirely thrilled that Chris was in the bottom three. But he survived. Was I surprised that Pickler wasn't after her performance last night. You betcha. Am I slightly unnerved by her lately? You betcha. I mean, the dumb-blonde routine can only get you so far. But, the people seem to like her. *shrugs*

Mark Your Calendar!

2006-04-19T00:55:00.000-04:00

Why? Because I'm doing an author chat with other Samhain Authors tomorrow. *gulps* I've done a lot of author chats as a host on eharlequin, but never, ever as an author. *gulps* I'm a virgin when it comes to this. Below are the details: Samhain authors are chatting at Ecataromance April 20th! Here's the link. http://catanetwork.com/chat.html Here are the authors participating! Group one 7:30 - 8:30 pm American EST Kelly Ethan Alexandra Rowland Rene Lyons Mackenzie McKade Lauren Dane Jenn Andrus Kim Rees Group Two 8:30 - 9:30 pm American Est Anne Whitfield Vicki Gaia Bianca D'Arc Ingela Hyatt Heather Rae Scott Annmarie McKenna I hope to see you there. These are some really awesome authors. Plus, you can come and point and laugh at me as I sit here shaking like a leaf. =)

Stupid Girls

2006-04-18T02:10:00.000-04:00

Have I mentioned that it's spring break here? It is. My three lovely children are home with me all week--okay, so they go back to school this Friday--yes, for one day. School system is screwy. They're making up that ONE snow day.

Am I editting like I'm supposed to be? Uh, no. I started when I tossed the kids outside. But then, my daughter came in and she was bawling. Why? Because her so called 'friends' ditched her. She's eleven and starting the whole drama thing--but these girls got mean. Now, I don't usually get involved in these things, because the parents end up being madder than the kids in the first place, the kids make up and the adults are left feeling bitter. So, instead I went out on the porch and sat and listened. These three girls apparently had nothing better to do that sit as close as possible and taunt my daughter while she played with her little brother and his friends. For once, the kid was minding her own business and she was actually smiling again.

Let me digress for a moment and tell you that I hate the use of the word 'retarded'. Unless you are using it to say Mentally Retarded and not in a derogatory way, you'll probably get a weird look from me. And I'll even explain why I hate that word. One of my friends had an Aunt. She's a change-of-life baby. She's mentally retarded. We were at a family function and 'Teeny' as she's been dubbed was doing her thing, not bothering anyone. Something was on the television and one of the guys there hollered out, "Man is that retarded!" Teeny stopped what she was doing, turned around and said, "Like me?" If that doesn't make you stop and think about how painful a simple adjective can be--I don't know what will.

One of the mean girls called my daughter 'retarded'. I flipped out. I walked across the street and gave them 'what for'. I never swore. I just used words like rude, ignorant and disappointed. And I told them to leave her alone.

The mom of the mean sisters, called me and asked me what happened today. I told her I wasn't sure--didn't care what started it, but that I'd gotten upset when it continued later and they taunted her for the rest of the day. Her daughter, the one that called mine that word--she got paddled and grounded. They're to come and apologize tomorrow to my daughter. Because this was all apparently because of the third girl there. She picks and choses who is most beneficial for her to play with. She won't be doing that to my daughter anymore. We had a long talk about who and who is not your friend and why. I think--hope that she finally realizes that people who use you aren't worth the space in your brain.

There's nothing worse than getting bullied. Speaking of bullies--my oldest handed me the phone this morning and guess who it was? It was my g'ma. I glared at my forgetful son--the one who didn't comprehend my orders of, if she calls, let the answering machine get it. I talked to her--but only said one or two words. I'm still angry. I cried today. Why? Because I'm so frustrated. I would love to be able to tell her that just because she's a cow doesn't mean I have to take her bull, like Eileen suggested. But you can't do that with her. She'll twist, stomp, manipulate everything I say and make me look like the biggest bitch on the planet and her the victim. She'll tell her friends, my uncles...whoever will listen that I picked on her. And she will make me feel guilty. I don't know how she does it--but she does. Do you know that I picked up the phone and started dialing my other g'ma's number? The one who passed away in January. That's when it hit me. I miss her so much. I told my mom, I wish my other g'ma had half the patience, half the understanding, half the heart that my Gram H. had. My mom said, well you know that will never happen. *sighs*

Tomorrow is another day--er, I guess today is another day--looking at my clock.

Easter with the Kranks

2006-04-16T23:10:00.000-04:00

Here's hoping that the Bunny was good to you. We had dinner at my mom's. She hurt her back again, so my sister-in-law and I did most of the work. You remember my lovely grandmother from Scotland? I was ready to put her out of her misery and ours today. Yes, I know, not a pleasant thing to say on Easter Sunday, but I don't know how much more of her I can take.

She came to my mom's with an attitude three times the size of her petite self. She blew off my guy and said "Yeah." When he told her Happy Easter. Then came back to him later because she wanted him to trim these insole things for her feet. She started her question with, "Think you can stay up long enough to cut these?" I was proud of my guy for not telling her to feck off. Proud of myself for not telling her as well. She pushed my youngest out of her way. And she made faces at my little brother's ham. Okay, so what if he tried something different--his ham was good.

She ruins our holidays anymore. I told my mom this evening that I'm not sure I want to celebrate with them again like this. We ate dinner is silence. There was so much animosity in that room you could barely cut through it with a knife--why? Because she's Cruella DeVil.

I'd try to take her aside and tell her look, this has got to change, but there's no reasoning with that woman. I love her, because she's my grandmother, but I'm starting to resent her--if that makes sense. I just hate spending holidays on egg shells. She made me curse in my head so many times and then I unleashed on my guy when we finally got home. It's just not fair that she gets away with this shit anymore. This "Elderly Entitlement" she has is horrid. She's the type of person who will deny it til you're sick of hearing about it, or God forbid you piss her off--she holds a grudge. She also knows how to twist things so badly that you're ready to lose your mind.

So, while I'd love to tell you that I enjoyed my meal and the company, I can't. Okay, so I did until she showed up.

The next time she lays the guilt on with her, nobody wants to take us anywhere crap, and says, "We should've never left Florida to come here." I may just buy her a one-way plane ticket back.

Round Two

2006-04-13T22:30:00.000-04:00

Received round two of edits this evening, so while the kids are on Spring Break, I'm going to try and dig in and get these done. =) Which means, chances are I won't be rambling around here much, plus with the kids, we have Easter Eggs to color, family to visit and fun things to do. My release date has also been pushed back a week later to ensure that my book is sparkling. =) So, "The Last Thing I Expected" will be debuting on May 23rd--a day before I celebrate nine years with my guy. Double reason to celebrate.

I leave you with this. =)

Bye Bye Bucky

2006-04-12T22:38:00.000-04:00

So, the bottom three weren't who I predicted. I got two out of three. I wish Bucky the best, American Idol he wasn't. However, I wanted Ace to go home! Now we get to listen to him butcher Rod Stewart--repeat after me--"Oh! Joy!"

It's storming here. Helluva lightning display a little while ago. I love watching it until it starts getting closer. The smells are heavenly. It smells like Spring and that makes me =).

So, whattaya think about the blog now? Dee fixed me up. The girl reading the book is back and she's featured on my website too. Maybe this weekend I'll get the links page up and running on my website.

Storm is rolling back in. Have a good night.

The Show Must Go On

2006-04-11T21:38:00.000-04:00

While my heroine, Tory is being a beotch, I took time to watch American Idol. Okay, so I would've anyhow...lol I love Queen. There are certain songs that make me want to get up and dance like...Taylor. They take me back to a time when I lived for the local dances just so I could get out there on the dance floor and sweat my ass off dancing all night long. Tonight my daughter had her last Elementary School concert. They did "Surfin' USA" and it was so cute. I handed her a bouquet of five purple carnations afterwards and I made her night. I was so proud of her. We got home just in time to watch Chris perform. I think he did a great job--then again, rock is his forte'. Katharine did good too--she was a little pitchy in places--but sorry, I just really like her. Elliot kicked ass. He's really grown on me. Taylor, I liked. Perfect song for him and I booed Simon when he asked him if he was drunk. Taylor was classic Taylor tonight. =) And you can boo me if you like, but I agreed with Simon when he said he thought Paris' performance was "weird". She just seems out of her element. Is it wrong for me to judge her on her speaking voice which totally annoys me? I think whatever happens, Paris will get some sort of deal out of this.

As for the other ones.... Will somebody other than Barry Manilow PLEASE teach Bucky about diction? What in the hell is wrong with the voice coaches? I mean, seriously, I can sing better with a partial in my mouth than he can. Maybe it was all those years of having things drilled in my head by school music teachers or something, but that man sounds like he's singing with marbles in his mouth. Spit em out buddy and sing already! Ace needs to be put in outer space. Will everyone stop voting for him? He should've been gone. Constantine he is not. Bo Bice, he is not. Ace, your village called, they want their idiot back. Kellie Pickler...didn't care for her snippet. Of course, I think tonight they pulled the most shittiest snippet they could to air this evening.

My bottom three for tomorrow. Ace, Bucky and Paris. With hopefully Ace going the hell home and Bucky next. At least that is my hope. This American voted and it so wasn't for any of the three mentioned up there.

Website

2006-04-11T13:37:00.000-04:00

My buddy Cat did something very special for me. =) Which is why I tinkered with the settings on this and well, it's not going so hot--so bear with me...anyhow...without further ado, I give you my newly revamped website. Let me know what you think--I disabled the guestbook because of spammers.

Never Say Never

2006-04-10T22:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm going to say it. I will never, never rewrite another book ever, ever again. Ever. I'm not talking edits. I'm talking taking what little bit you can and completely stripping the book down to bare bones and starting over.

This story was already written. I even typed 'the end'. But it just will not work the way it is. Yeah, there's a 'just'. Hard to break. I swear, I was completely high when I signed the contract for this book. Seriously, what in the hell was I thinking?

So, Jodie, those other books you got attached to--never going to see the light of day unless someone more brilliant than I am comes up with an easier way to do what I am now.

People with ADD should NOT be doing this. lmao I swear, I have it. And have I mentioned that my heroine, Tory is so utterly disgusted with me, she's crossed her arms and is glaring at me. Why is she mad?

Because I yanked her out of her happily ever after and stuck her back into a place no woman wants to be.

In other funny news, I told a friend of mine what garbage words were and she looked at me and started howling. She said, and JoJo will know WHO she meant when she reads this. She said, "Can you imagine if poor "so & so" ever wrote a book? It'd sound like this.'I went to the store and bought peanut butter and that. They had jelly on sale and what not.'"

Yes, this person really talks like that!

What are some of your pet peeves? Do rewrites leave you wanting a lot of alcohol? Does something someone say drive you nuts? You can share and what not. No one will judge you and that.

4 Things Meme

2006-04-09T20:06:00.000-04:00

I haven't done this one either, so I thought I would. Thanks, Shannon. =)

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Waitress
2. Services Specialist in the USAF
3. Certified Nurse's Aid/ eHQ Host
4. Author

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1.How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days
2. Sweet Home Alabama
3. The Wedding Planner
4.Pirates of the Caribbean

Four places you have lived:
1. Pennsylvania
2. California
3. South Carolina
4. England
(And so many more…)

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Amazing Race/American Idol
2.Grey's Anatomy
3. Survivor
4. LOST

Four websites you visit daily.
1. eHarlequin.com
2. iwon.com--holding out to win!
3. Romance Junkies
4. And a whole bunch more listed over there on the right

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Niagra Falls
2. Virgina Beach
3. Myrtle Beach
4. Ocean City Maryland & New Jersey

Four of my favorite foods: ( in no particular order)
1. Anything with Crab
2. homemade mac n cheese
3. Steak
4. anything with potato's

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. On the beach
2. Camping --away from it all
3. Anywhere but Pennsylvania
4. in bed

Four friends I am tagging that I think will respond…..
1. This one’s been going around a while, so if you haven’t done it and want to—TAG, you’re it!

Twilight Zone

2006-04-08T00:25:00.000-04:00

I swear the whole world is going crazy.

"I'm going off the rails on a crazy train." --Ozzy Osbourne

My daughter had this District Chorus type thing. There were 330 students that attended this from all over the surrounding areas. We decided that my guy would stay home with our boys. This was a good choice. I decided to ride with a really good friend and her mom. They were always doing sweet things for me growing up, so I suggested that we stop for a bite to eat on the way there--just the three of us--like old times. We pass several establishments like Burger King and Subway and a chinese place. Her mom decides that we should get a little closer to the town this concert is located. We stop at this place called 'The Shannon Dell'. It looks quaint. Cute little mom and pop place with soft serve icecream. My friend giggles and says maybe we should go someplace else and her mom argues that usually places like this have really good food.

We walk in and the whole place stops what they're doing. They're looking at us like we have four heads apiece. They're staring at us. I wanted to walk back out, but her mom pushed on and walked to a booth. My friend and I look at each other and we follow. The waitress walks over and says, "Need a menu?" Her voice is gruff and she looks mean. No smile. No hello. If she could, I think she'd have told us to leave. People are still looking at us. We tell her yes we need a menu and she says, "Specials are on the board!" and walks away.

All righty then. She comes back about five minutes later. "You ready?" We order our drinks and food. My friend gets a BLT and asks for cheese on it. I get one of the specials--crab cakes. Her mom gets a bacon cheeseburger. She puts our drinks on the table and brings back this nasty cole slaw. Might as well have been cabbage and carrots diced in a dish. My friend looks at me and says, "I'm afraid not to eat this." I agree with her. So, we eat what we can and set it aside. The placemats had ads on them and I'm looking at this one and I say to my friend, read this. She starts giggling and I am trying so damned hard not to laugh. ( I have a weird laugh.)There's an Ad for "Bubba's Bait Shop" ( that wasn't really the name ) and it has "Hunting, Fishing, All your gaming needs" and then below that in all capital letters it says:

TANNING BED SPECIALS NOW AVAILABLE

I shit you not. Her mom didn't get it, so I said, "Yeah, I need some night-crawlers and while I wait for them, I'd like to tan." Like, how many hunters do you see out in the woods with bright orange attire and a California tan?

Our food finally comes and I look at mine and the waitress is gone. She proceeds to avoid me because what she sets down in front of me is hideous. They burnt my crab cakes. I mean, they weren't slightly brown. The outside of them was black. I wanted to walk back outside the resturaunt and make sure we weren't at the "Crusty Crab" Did Spongebob make them? I didn't eat them. But I never had a chance to get new ones because the waitress conviently ignored me.

My friend never got her cheese on her BLT either. So, I go to take a bite of my fries and this old guy across from me lights a cigarette and blows it in our direction, then proceeds to say, "Yeah, did you all go by so oand so during Deer Season? It smelled like a crematorium!"

Helloooooooooo, Jackass, I'm eatting!

I smoke. Bad habit, I know, but I wouldn't blow it in another person's direction when they're eatting. Then crazy no teeth guy comes in and he's staring at me and smiling. I finally said, enough. But we had to wait for our waitress to finally give us our bill. So, she starts to ring it up and my friend tells her to not charge me for cheese because she never got it on her sandwhich and not to charge me for the crab cakes because they were burnt. Waitress stands there with her finger poised above buttons not sure what the hell to do. She didn't charge me for those things, but never apologized either. So friend holds out a five dollar bill and says in this sarcastic voice. "Thanks for your hospitality and caring about your customers."

Waitress smiles for the first time all frickin' day and says, "Thank you."

"I meant your other ones." She snatches the five away, takes me by the arm and leads me out the door. "We won't be back here!" she yells over her shoulder.

We half bolt to the car, expecting someone to come out after us. And we watch the road because of the scary movies where the locals make a call to the Sheriff and later end up in the crab cakes or BBQ.

Finally get to the school and we have to wait in line to get in and none of us brought a jacket. We forgot this town was in the mountains. The mountains are always colder. They let us in and we have to find a seat and we're in the back. This auditorium seats 840, but it was wall to wall people--literally, with NO AIR. So, my poor daughter is up on stage with bright lights on her with other kids and they start singing and I can just barely see her because the conductor is in front of her. I looked away for one second and I hear this THUD. I look back up, the conductor is still swinging her arms, music is still going and the kids are all looking horrified. I can't see my daughter. Someone passed out. I was in enough concerts to know what that sounds like. It was the boy in front of her, but for a brief minute, my heart went into my chest and I was on my feet.

They sang their songs and walked off the stage with no more incidents and I went out for some air. I saw my daughter, hugged her and she was so hot. So, I walked her to the fountain and made her drink some water as she had to go back up on stage and sing more songs with a combined chorus. IOW, all of the schools on one hot freaking stage.

It's finally over and I'm waiting for my baby girl to come with her stuff and she does and I see this man hugging her. I'm like what is going on. He turns around and I realize it's my guy's brother-in-law. We haven't seen them in over a year. Our faults? Nope. His family just doesn't bother with us. Which, I've learned to live with, even though the cancer in me values family. Here comes my guy's sister. I used to love her like my own sister until she dumped me--three times. Yes, I know--foolish for letting her do it. My friend, her mom and another friend and her hubby are standing there and so she puts on a show like we talk every day.

"I was looking for you," she squeals. "Where's my brother?"

I won't bore you with the rest of our conversation, but I was screaming on the inside. I didn't want her to hug me. I didn't want to be nice to her. But I gritted my teeth and plastered on a smile. I was cordial and I was nice. I won't tell you what I was saying to her on the inside. I'll save it for a book. *gg*

We're FINALLY on the road back home now. I make the mistake of telling my friend I saw her ex. She asked me if I talked to him and I said I told him hello. We were at a birthday party and when he talked to me, he said it loudly and people looked. She gets quiet. Now, if it were any other place or circumstance, I wouldn't have spoke. He did something horrible to her that will take me too long to post. Long story short, he had a psycho moment and held her at gun-point. Did she turn him in? No. He got away with it. We're still at least an hour away from home and she turns in the passenger seat and says: "You know, when you talk to him or any of my friends talk to him, you're essentially telling him that it was OKAY for him to do that to me. My daughter ( who is sitting in the car and who is 11 ) almost lost her mother that day. Thanks, Rae!"

Drama much?

I took two breaths before I spoke. "I said hello. Period. Be pissed off, it's been a long day, so I don't care."

Silence.

Her mom spoke up on my behalf. It wasn't like I invited him over for tea or anything else. I said one word. Hello.

I didn't think I was ever going to get home.

I still have editing to do. Kids are home. My guy invited my brother, his wife and my three-year-old nephew to the house tomorrow to watch movies. My mom will be calling to see if I'll go Easter Shopping with her. If my editor is reading this, they will get done by Wednesday even if I have to poor mass amounts of coffee into my system. I think I've gotten most of the "garbage words" out. I'm half-way searching for "that" I hear it's her favorite word. *gg*

TGIF

2006-04-07T01:12:00.000-04:00

Or maybe not.

When my guy comes home early from work and has that look in his eyes...

"Jump right into my nightmare, the water is warm!" Jerry McGuire

His boss went all Norman Bates on him. Technically, he didn't get fired. But he doesn't want to go back and quite frankly, neither do I. He got blamed for something that was completely out of his hands. And when he tried to explain that, Norman just got crazier to the point where he put his hands on my guy and pushed him out the door.

"What we've got here is failure to communicate." Cool Hand Luke

So, he's going to be home with me and he'll want me to redo his resume' and I have edits that I need to be doing before my editor uses her whip on me. *sighs*

*sings* The sun'll come out...tomorrow...

It just got interesting

2006-04-05T22:12:00.000-04:00

Wow.

I didn't see that one coming. Mandisa, Elliot and Paris.... Admittedly none of them were the best last night....but wow.

I'm disappointed that Ace is still there. He needs to go home. This isn't a contest based on f*ing the camera and touching yourself. This is a singing contest.

But that's just me.

I'm going in....

2006-04-04T20:09:00.000-04:00

Had a tiny glitch in that my editor left the company. There's a new Sheriff in town who sent me this awesome cheat-sheet. She'd like my first-round edits by next Wednesday. I can do that. I think. Tomorrow, 04-05-06 is my guy's fortieth birthday. So, I'm taking him out to dinner. Me, him and the three darling children. Friday, my daughter is singing at a concert in a town a couple of hours away. The kids will be home all weekend. I can do the no sleep thing. =) American Idol is on. I'll be back with my weekly thoughts. But for now, if I can offer one piece of advice...watch your use of "just" in your m/ss. I'm currently removing all gazillions of them. I'll be back! UPDATE
Do not read this if you haven't watched American Idol. '-)

I disliked: Taylor, Mandisa, and Ace. There are hundreds of blue-sy type country songs for Taylor to pick, but noooo, he picked John Denver and sang it rather badly. I was like where is Taylor? Mandisa--if she wanted to sing a Shania Twain song, there are better ones than that. Yick. I adore Keith Urban. And I love his new song "Tonight I'm Gonna Cry" Ace butchered it. He should've sang a Chris Cagle or Rascal Flatts song.

I liked: Paris--she picked a good song. Katharine did okay. Not ready to see her go home. Kellie did good. I think she should've picked a more recent song--same as Katharine, but I respect their choices. Elliot made "The Dance" his own and I liked what Kenny Rogers said to him. I loved what Chris did with "Making Memories of Us" And surprisingly, I liked Bucky tonight until he slurred his words.

Off to edit and vote.

We have a WINNER

2006-04-04T02:35:00.000-04:00

So, "Pittsburgh Prowlers" it is and KimW wins a $5 gift certificate to My Bookstore and More. I'll get that gift cert to you soon!

Congratulations, Kim. I have your email address and snailmail. =)

I may try to move this to word press. ahahahaha. I suck at html. Was trying to figure out how to bring the picture back and won't even tell you the mess I got into. Thank goodness for the preview button. I might figure it all out eventually.

Part One

2006-04-03T09:35:00.000-04:00

Today was my day at the Belfry Blog, only for some reason, word press is telling me that my username is all wrong.

Gotta love it when stuff like that happens.

So, what was I going to talk about over there?

Promotional items.

I was talking to a friend this weekend and we were talking about promotional items. Well, that's how the conversation started anyhow. With RT and the RWA national conference coming up, you'll hear lots of authors talking about promo items. They'll make or buy bookmarks, pens, matches, cups, bottled water, book plates, pencils, magnets, mousepads, computer screen wipers, key board cleaners, candy. You name it and they'll have it with their names and website addresses plastered all over them.

I'm a starving artist. *gg* So, if I choose to go to say Atlanta, where the RWA National Conference is being held and say I choose some big ticket item--does that mean that the readers are going to love me more? Does that mean they're going to pick my pen out of a pile of many and say, "Huh. Cool pen. I'm going to read her book based on this very pen."

Because before I became an author or a writer, I was a reader. I never attended a single conference or meeting. Hell, I didn't know there were groups out there with women and men just like me. I thought authors were snobs. I stereo-typed them. Bon-bons, feather boa's. The image I conjured up of them was so far removed from my life, it wasn't even funny. They weren't moms who sat in some corner penning novels while they had baby throw-up on their ratty t-shirt. No, they were too glamorous for that.

So, I grew up. And I got a computer and I found out that I was wrong. Romance writers were just like me. They juggled kids, marriages, careers.

I never recieved a pen from an author and to my knowledge, before I started going to the conferences neither did my mom. But she religiously picked books up off shelves of her favorite authors. Why? Because she read their books and loved THE AUTHOR.

It wasn't any of the items I mentioned above. It was the quality of the story. The author's ability to suck in her reader and keep her glued to the pages from the start to the finish. Am I going to be remembered for that cool pen that says you stole it from me? No. That pen will be long forgotten once the ink runs out and it gets tossed in some drawer or in the trash can. But with a little luck, a whole lot of practice and the knowledge I grasp onto perfecting my voice and my craft, I'll be remembered for the characters I create. The ones that tug on your heartstrings, the ones who make you laugh, make you cry and leave you with a sigh when you read the words "the end" or the final words on the page.

I think the very best promotional tool an author can use is her stories.

What do you think?

PS. Don't forget to vote in the post below this one. =)

Final Three

2006-04-01T02:00:00.000-05:00

JoJo gave me her picks and I agree with her. =)
1. Pitbulls
2. Prowlers
3. Phantoms

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for participating. And I'm trying to get some more magnets made up and have decided that each of you who gave me names will receive a magnet, if you'd like one. Just email me with your snailmail and I'll get one to you asap. The address you need is rae_cy@yahoo.com

So, this is where I need y'all to vote. Pick one of the three and put in into the comments. =) You can do eeeeet!

They're Heeeeeeeere

2006-03-30T23:23:00.000-05:00

So, it's been an eventful evening. I had company this evening. JoJo and Wickett decided to drop by and I felt so bad, but we'd ordered food and I had to cut our visit short. But she didn't go home emplty handed, I gave her a magnet to take home with her. So, today is your last chance. If you want a magnet to hold up papers and reminders on your refrigerator, enter the contest. =)

After we ate dinner, we went to the Dairy Queen. I got a Peanut Buster Parfait. If you don't know what that is, let me explain it for you. It's a sundae, only better. On the bottom is peanuts and fudge, then icecream, then more fudge and peanuts, ice cream again and then topped with hot fudge and peanuts. It's sinfully good and fattening. It so didn't agree with me this evening. And it hit me fast. Rendered me motionless and on the couch for over an hour holding my tummy and groaning. And I only ate the first layer. Because we ate it there and I was half-frozen. i was bumming hard. So, it's in the freezer. I was so hungry for it and it felt like it was going to kill me. I do believe I'm lactose intolerant. Which is just cruel.

So, in passing through the dining room, I heard my messenger going. And there were a few people hailing me. I looked at my email and what to my wondering eyes did appear?

My edits.

This is where I need some emoticons for this blog. I need a big fat chicken doing a dance. Why? Because I have yet to open the file and peek in.

I need a pacifier. Preferably one with valium on it. This is the part where I just know when I open it, it's going to look like someone gave it a blood bath. And this is the part where I have the recurring nightmare that I'm going to choke at the proverbial bat.

Color me scared.

I'm not surprised

2006-03-30T00:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not surprised that Lisa went home, in fact, I knew it was only a matter of time. I do believe she sealed her fate when she butchered "Because of You". Bad, bad, song choice. I admit that I didn't watch it. I was too engrossed in LOST. I'm a junkie and have been since that damned plane crashed on the island. Anyone else out there addicted to LOST? I was however horribly surprised that my Katharine was in the bottom three. And I know why. I got cocky and I didn't vote. So, it's all my fault. I won't make the same mistake twice. As for Ace, I so wasn't surprised to see him there. But not Bucky? WTH is America thinking? I totally agreed with Simon when he said you couldn't understand him. And what was with his worm dance? I'm a HUGE fan of Tim McGraw and Bucky ain't no Tim.

Haven't gotten my edits yet. Expecting them sometime today. *gulps*

Don't forget about the contest. =)

Six years of songs...

2006-03-28T23:06:00.000-05:00

So, I was a tad bit disappointed in American Idol this evening. Sadly, I agreed with most of the judges comments, particularly Simon. So, it's going to be interesting tomorrow to see who goes home and who stays. They had six years of songs to come up with and not one of them impressed me much.

As much as I like Chris, I agree, he has yet to show me a different side of him. Lisa picked a song that was too big for her voice. Mandisa indulged. My favorite's tonight were Taylor, Katharine and Elliot.

So...my editor tells me that I'll be receiving my first round of edits. Although she tells me not to worry, I'm worried. This is the very first time for me. So, I'm a little nervous and want to get them done and turned back into her so that I can continue to work on the quarterback.

His team still needs a name, so while I may not be here for the next couple of days as I'll be working on "The Last Thing I Expected", that doesn't mean y'all still can't try to name Gabe's football team. '-)

And uh, has anyone seen the new monument to Britany Spears? *blinks*

~~CONTEST REMINDER~~

2006-03-27T01:38:00.000-05:00

I'm still running this contest. The deadline for entries will be this Friday, the 31st at midnight est.

Then, after that, I will pick someone to help me--probably JoJo since she lives so close to me and we'll narrow it down to the top three, if we can. The top three will all recieve a cute magnet from me and who knows, maybe some other stuff. I had magnets made up with my book cover on it and yes, JoJo, you can have one. =)

The top three will be posted in their own thread and then we'll have a vote.

The winner will recieve a $5 gift certificate to My Bookstore and More.

Below are the entries I already recieved--suggested names.

Jennybrat said...
Tigers
Cougars
Sharks
Stingrays
Hawks
Falcons
Artic Wolves
Wolfhounds
Alligators
Crocodiles
*** Lisa T said...
Pilots
Playmates
Gators
Liberties
Tsunamis
Hurricanes

***
Pamk said...
panthers
petunia
python
postmen
pitbulls
piranha
***
KimW said...
Prowlers
Forces
Warriors
Fighters
Miners
Rulers
Phantoms
Vultures
P Rascals

So, come on, join in on the fun!

Can't Smile Without...them

2006-03-25T23:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, so y'all asked for the smile...I had my 13 year old take the picture and it took him so bloody long to take it, so my smile is fading, but you can see the work I had done.

Creativity

2006-03-25T00:17:00.000-05:00

Recently, I made a spaghetti dinner for my mom's birthday and all of the family--my immediate family was there. My grandfather who is affectionately known as Pap, is very proud of me and the fact that I chose his last name as my pen name.

He'll be ninety next year, but his eighty-ninth birthday is coming up fast. Now, while I have two fathers--a prodigal sperm-donor and a deceased step-father who adopted me--my Pap is like a substitute dad only better. He had the patience and wisdom to deal with me. You see, I sometimes think that he made up for his short comings as a father with me. He can be cranky, stubborn and a real pain in the ass, but I love him and when the day comes for him to leave this earth, it's going to be a very sad time for me and not one that I look forward too. In fact, I've warned my mother that her strong daughter will not be strong, so she will have to find someone else to lean on.

So, at this dinner, we're sitting there with our bellies full, because I'm a good cook. LOL My Pap looks at me and he asks me if I remember a melody--if you can call it that. You see, my Pap is always good for a laugh or a smile. He tells jokes as old as he is, but we all smile and laugh because he's smiling and laughing.

When I couldn't recall a diddy, he looked kinda sad. "Maybe I should write these down so no one forgets them." translated to me as "so no one forgets me".

To which I replied:
Had a little monkey, sent him to the country, fed him gingerbread. Arsle, tarsle, kick him in the arse-hole, now my monkey's dead.

My little brother chimed in with:
Fuzzy-wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy wuzzy had no hair, fuzzy wuzzy wasn't fuzzy was he?

It was my mom's turn:

"She's got a pimple on her butt, she is beautiful. She's got a pimple on her butt, but she is mine!" she sang badly.

If my uncle is lurking, I can see him smiling. There are more of these. Were they the best thing to teach a child? Perhaps, not. But these are the things that I cherish. Time spent with him. Time that he took to teach us his diddies. The laughs, the smiles.

My grandma likes to bitch that my pap sits by himself and writes in his "books" all the time. That he's always written in his books. He helped me make a scrap book like his--his were filled with pictures of the Big Band era. Stories of Glenn Miller and other people I can't remember. His bedroom aways smelled of chewing tobacco, Paul Sebastian cologne and soft, flowing instruments would flow from there.

And every day when he came home from work when my mother and I moved in with my grandparents, it was always the same. I would crawl under a blanket and hide someplace. He would walk in the door and holler, "Where's my sack of potatoe's?"

His imagination is vivid. The stories he weaves and tells of days gone by are in technicolor and I never tire of hearing about them. He played Santa for his children and fell off the roof. He taught my Scottish grandmother to ride a bike in her fur coat by the ocean. But what he didn't teach her was how to stop it, so into the ocean with the fur coat she went. He's fell backwards in a rocking chair with my baby brother in one hand and a glass of buttermilk in the other and didn't spill a drop of the milk or let my brother fall. And, he's smoked sheep shit in a pipe that made everyone but him sick.

Did I get my creativity from him? I think we'd both like to think so.

Fickleness

2006-03-24T16:40:00.000-05:00

If it's not a word, I apologize.

I'm feeling melancholy and all that. Can't put my finger on it. Perhaps it was the snow shower this morning. Perhaps it was the two-day headache that just won't go away.

I. Feel. Like. Shit.

It's Friday and it really feels like Monday. A bad Monday. One in which I just want to curl up in bed and stay there all day with the covers pulled up over my head.

How is everyone else's Friday going?

The Force Is With Me

2006-03-23T14:34:00.000-05:00

It was a rough night for me. The big kid complained of a headache, yet went to his room after a shower and played the PS2. So, while each and every child in this house has a flair for the dramatics, we just let him go.

He woke me up before the sun rose to tell me that he wasn't feeling well. He was, and I quote, "Too sick to be standing here right now."

"Then why are you?" I asked him annoyed. "Go back to bed."

About an hour later, the big kid and the supposed adult male argued over the child being sick. He gave the child the option to stay home. The child said no, he would go to school. They woke the little guy up who crawled into bed with me and put his icicle feet upon my person.

I walked the other two children to the bus stop, came home and there was a message on my answering machine from the big kid's school. "Your son is sick, can you please come get him?"

*bangs head*

So, I stole this from Shannon, who stole it from someone else, who stole it from....

You get the idea.

This totally puts my life into perspective. LMAO

Now, before Eileen accuses me of hitting the laughing gas again. Here is where I acquired this information from. Although, by the looks of her blog, maybe she is the one who is hitting the laughing gas. LMAO.

My past life diagnosis:

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.

I don't know how I feel about it either. I just hope I wrote in the snow somewhere.

You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Ireland around the year 850.Your profession was that of a seaman, cook or carpenter.

Yep. Chances are, I peed my name in the snow. Seamus was my name. It's all starting to come back to me. Seamus the Seaman. Your brief psychological profile in your past life:Bohemian personality, mysterious, highly gifted, capable to understand ancient books. With a magician's abilities, you could have been a servant of dark forces.

I KNEW IT!

I knew I pissed someone off somewhere. I was an evil incarnate of Yoda. I pissed off the Jedi Master! It also explains my ability to magically pull money out of my butt when bills are due.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:Your task is to learn, to love and to trust the universe. You are bound to think, study, reflect, and to develop inner wisdom.

I think it was more, you were evil and you shall have to pay penance and live life as hell on earth. But, it could just be the day.

Do you remember now?

His sky has fallen

2006-03-22T23:53:00.000-05:00

Chicken little was eliminated from the American Idol competition this evening. Kevin Corvais is going home. I'm not surprised and after his painful performance last night, I think this was just. However, I think that Bucky should've been the one to go and I predict him going home next week. I didn't hear what theme they're doing next week. I was too busy watching LOST. We're LOST junkies in this house. The begining was a bit boring, but the end just pissed me off.

Fan-i-low of Manilow

2006-03-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

So, if you haven't seen tonight's show, don't read on.
Consider yourself warned.
So, last week, when they didn't say what the contestants were singing, I tried like hell to figure it out. I was excited to see Barry Manilow. As a young girl, my mom listened to 8 tracks of Barry Manilow. I know most of his songs by heart. I don't care that he's been in show business for as long as I've been alive, I don't care what the critics or anyone else thinks about him. I'm a "fan-i-low" ( thank you Elliot )

Okay, so they didn't sing Barry's songs. I bet Shannon is disappointed that no one belted out "Oh Mandy"

So, they sang the fifties and while I'm not a huge fan of 50's music...I think the eleven did a'ight.

These are my opinions. You can take em' or leave em. Going to try a little Ryan Seacrest.

Mandisa sang: "I Don't Hurt Anymore". She gave me chills. To quote Randy, the girl can blow. I think she kicked some serious ass tonight. Simon said she was evolving. He even called her sexy.

Bucky sang: "Oh Boy!" I think he sucked. I think he's always sucked. Bo Bice he is NOT. Bucky needs to go home to North Carolina.

Paris sang "Fever". Barry told her that she picked a song that was too old for her. Hello! Haven't the judges been telling these girls that? If she keeps this up, I think she'll be beside Lisa in the bottom three. I wasn't impressed.

Chris sang: "I Walk the Line". I will walk any line for that man. Oh.My.God. Chris does it for me because he stays true to himself and who he is, no matter what the theme is. Once again, he rocked the house.

Katharine sang: "Come Rain or Come Shine" She blew me away. I've been a huge fan of hers from the get go. There's just something about her that I love.

Taylor sang: "Not Fade Away" Barry said he was a "whiskey tenor". Taylor had fun up on that stage. He's fun to watch and you can tell that he loves what he's doing. Which makes us love him and we look forward to him every week. Ya never know what he's going to do.

Lisa sang: "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" Now, I give her credit for picking a "younger" song, but I look for her to be back in the bottom three this week. Why? I think she's lost her edge.

Kevin sang: "When I Fall In Love" Chicken Little, he is. There are a million other FUN songs that Kev could've sang. Did he have balls sitting in front of Simon and singing? Yes. Do I like Kevin? Yes. Do I think he has what it takes to be the next AI? Hell. No.

Elliot sang: "Teach Me Tonight" I think that Barry taught him a thing or two and I think he did really good. I like Elliot. He's not a pretty boy, but the more his hair grows in and the more he's on there, the more he grows on me.

Kellie sang: "Walkin' After Midnight". I really liked her this evening. Simon said she was back. He picked her as one of his top three. I think she kicked ass tonight. I know they're comparing her to Carrie Underwood, but I think she's a bit edgier. I think she's growing every week and wouldn't she be a success story for her to come from where she has to get up there?

Ace sang: "In The Still Of The Night". I look for him to be in the bottom three again. Do I think he'll go home? No. I think and hope that Bucky will go home. Ace needs to stick to George Michael type songs. That was the last thing I liked that he sang. I hated the Michael Jackson thing and hated the Stevie Wonder song. Wasn't thrilled about this one.

The orange represents who I think is going to be in the top five. I could be wrong. But that is who I think deserves to be up there. At least those were my top five this evening. Top six would include Elliot. =)

What do you think?

The short frog by Geoffrey & Heather

2006-03-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

One day there was a green frog. The green frog was quite content to live in a princess and eat policemen.

Suddenly, there was a slimy knocking sound coming from the dragon. The frog jumped in fright. It decided to swim to the queen, and got there just in time to see a short frog standing there! The frog waved a scaly prince and the frog turned into a bumpy king. One quite unable to dive!

The frog shimmered and disappeared, leaving a few toad's in its place. The king picked up the toad's and popped one into her mouth. The gift of speech befell the king, who exclaimed, "What a hideous day! I think I shall pick firemen!"

Off went the bumpy king, slowly running and skipping, finally tripping on a warty jester and toppling headlong into a green knight. Needless to say, it succumbed to a ugly death.

The moral of this story?

If you are thinking of becoming a frog, never open a queen until you are sure there is no short frog lying in wait.

Above all, live carefully. The firemen you eat may be your last!

You can make your own here.

~CONTEST~

2006-03-19T00:21:00.000-05:00

I need all of you to put your thinking caps back on. I held a contest much like this about a year ago on my other blog and I lost the name. I need a new name for a football team. I'm using the great city of Pittsburgh in my book because well, they tell you to write what you know. *gg*

So, for those of you who don't know what our teams are called, I'll give you a quick list so that you know I can't use these.

Football: Steelers/ college: Panthers

Hockey: Penguins

Baseball: Pirates

Trying to decide what I'll be giving away this time. I guess y'all can decide that too. My buddy JoJo called and said we could get together and concoct some items for a prize. She likes playing the role of mad scientist with scents and stuff for candles and lotions. I'll have to use that in a story some day and interview her. I think a massage therapist would make a cute romantic comedy.

But, I digress...as per usual.

So, your mission, should you accept it is to come up with a catchy name. I'll narrow it down and we'll have a vote on the names. Sound like fun?

Hope so.

Would it help if I said I needed you to do this? And, tell me what kind of 'prize' the winner should receive.

Whatcha waitin' for?

Bizarre

2006-03-18T02:32:00.000-05:00

Why is this bizarre? Because just by answering four rather simple questions, it gave me my correct birth order. AND it summed up my personality pretty damned good too.

You Are Likely a First Born

At your darkest moments, you feel guilty. At work and school, you do best when you're researching. When you love someone, you tend to agree with them often. In friendship, you are considerate and compromising. Your ideal careers are: business, research, counseling, promotion, and speaking. You will leave your mark on the world with discoveries, new information, and teaching people to dream.

The Birth Order Predictor

I couldn't sleep, so I got back up to listen to the scanner a little longer. The police scanner that is. There are DUI checkpoints all over the place and finally we have cops back in our town instead of the State Police. They're in full force busting people for over celebrating St. Patty's Day and then stupid as they are, getting behind a wheel of a car. So far, I've heard the name of one person I know...they took his sorry ass to the police station to book. Hope the green beer was worth it. I'm not a tea totaller, but I'm not a huge fan of drinking and driving either. I'm not proud to admit in my much younger days I did it once or twice and managed to not kill anyone in the process. But, the older I get, the less tolerance I have for people my own age or older who do it. You have to grow up sometime. It's the ones who are repeat offenders that make me the angriest. I lost a really good friend to drunk driving. He crashed in South Carolina coming home from a bar. He almost killed one of his best friends too. Huh. Hadn't thought about him in awhile. That was the day I decided it wasn't worth the risk. He had a bright future ahead of him in the USAF. A real hottie. Awesome kisser and total clown. We drove up to Myrtle Beach one night on a whim to watch the sunrise on the beach. There were four of us. I have a picture of him sitting atop a Giraffe. Okay, so not a real one--a statue of a giraffe from a miniature golf course that was uh, closed. He hopped the fence because he always wanted his picture taken atop a giraffe. He was a goober and another one of those great mysteries of what could've been...

UPDATE: It's uh almost 3 am. Over the scanner, I hear: male driver with sunglasses...is he anticipating the sun to come up in the next freaking five minutes? Guess they'll help with the glare of the red and blue lights he sees in his rearview mirrors. Nothing like calling attention to yourself.

ABC of Heather

2006-03-17T23:51:00.000-05:00

Totally took this from Shannon.

A is for age: 35
B is for Booze of choice: Mike's Hard Lemonade or Capn' Morgan
C is for career: Writer
D is for your dog’s name: Don't own a dog right now. :(
E is for essential items you use everyday: iced tea, laptop
F is for favorite song at the moment: "What Hurts The Most" by Rascal Flatts
G is for favorite games: Anything to do with cards
H is for hometown: Apollo, Pa
I is for instruments you play: some piano & flute
J is for jam or jelly you like: Elderberry
K is for Kids: 2 boys and a girl
L is for last kiss: a kiss on the cheek from the man a few minutes ago
M is for most admired trait: sense of humor
N is for the name of your crush: Jon Bon Jovi
O is for overnight hospital stays: 5
P is for phobias: spiders, snakes
Q is for quotes you like: "Put your big girl panties on and deal with it!"
R is for biggest regret: Oy. Okay. Not telling someone something a lot sooner.
S is for sweets of your choice: Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs
T is for the time you wake up: 7:30 am
U is for underwear: Hanes Her Way
V is for vegetable you love: Potato's--any way
W is for worst habit: Smoking
X is for x-rays you’ve had: Too many to count
Y is for yummy food you make: potato salad, spaghetti, cabbage rolls--just about anything I make is yummy, dammit!
Z is for zodiac sign: Cancer

Back to the living

2006-03-17T15:37:00.000-05:00

No changes. Why? Since around, oh, ten o'clock Monday night until today, I've had a fever. A fever, chills and stuffed up nose. I had the flu and boy did I have it bad. I'm still feeling weak. But I feel a lot better than I did. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. During which, I had phone calls I let the machine get. Don't you hate it when people take the time to dial your number, but can't take the time to leave a message? I do. Especially when you wake me up. Anyhow, nothing prolific for me to say. Is there ever? haha.

Changes

2006-03-13T21:04:00.000-05:00

I can't figure out how to fix the margins on here. So, I'm going to have to play and this blog probably won't look like this any more. /pouts. But...I may be absent from posting because I just found out that the second book in my "The Last Thing I..." series is coming out in August and I am no where near finished with the rewrites. I also need to figure out what to put on my website. I'm looking into designers. Anyhow, going to work or try to work on these rewrites this evening. The kids are going to bed, the Man will go back to work tomorrow. Life will be good. I just need to remember the name we picked as the football team in my contest I had last year on the old blog. If not, maybe I should run a new contest. Decisions, decisions.

Blessed

2006-03-10T13:11:00.000-05:00

I have been blessed. I have an awesome fiance. I have awesome children, despite what I say..*gg*. I have some of the greatest family & friends on the planet. I have an awesome book cover to go with an awesome series I've been waiting to share with the world for quite some time. I write for a brand-new, fast moving, up and coming publisher who just informed us last night that my dream is going to be a reality. "The Last Thing I Expected" comes out in e-book on May 16th "The Last Thing I Wanted" comes out in e-book August 8th Possibly, the print version of "The Last Thing I Expected" will be coming out in print the third week in August. Guess where that book is going to be? *happy dances* Walden's. Borders. Borders Express. Amazon. WALDEN'S BOOK STORE WILL HAVE MY BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BORDERS WILL HAVE MY BOOK! I can go to either one, probably both and take someone with me and have my picture taken with MY BOOK on their pretty shelf! I am over the fricking moon! I'm off to redo this laptop one final time. My uncle sent me a cd that we hope will work on this dinosaur. If not, I'll be latched to the desktop until my income tax return comes in. What are some of the reasons you feel blessed?

Revamp

2006-03-09T09:22:00.000-05:00

If all goes well this afternoon when I have the stitches out, I'm going to try--attempt--to widen the settings--parameters- of this skinny blog. It needs fattened up so that I can add things to the sidebar without screwing everything up. Just not sure how it's going to all pan out.

Astrology

2006-03-08T21:24:00.000-05:00

From Astrology for Writers, Editors and Filmmakers

Cancer: This is a great time to cuddle up to the person of your choice and make the relationship better. Signing contracts is out this month unless you cannot reasonably drag the signing out post April 1. Try to keep the discussion going about how your work can be packaged, improved, promoted. Buy time by lengthening the discourse. It's ok, this is not a speedy biz and no one will complain.

Wish I'd have read this before yesterday. Third contract went out in the mail for my Last Thing series. Oh well. I'm not worried. I am however trying to figure out a contest and promotions for the upcoming months. Winners will of course win a gift certificate to My Bookstore and More so that they can get my book in the e-book format of their choice.

My guy and I have already been cuddly.

It's been one of those kinds of days, so I'm afraid I don't have anything prolific to say. I get the stitches out tomorrow afternoon. Not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not.

Have a good one!

I've Arrived!

2006-03-07T09:03:00.000-05:00

Isn't it gorgeous??? UPDATE: This is what it's going to look like. Scott lengthened her hair. It's perfect and I am so excited.

It's over...well, sorta

2006-03-03T05:05:00.000-05:00

Had to get up to get more ice and another pain killer, but all in all yesterday wasn't so bad. The waiting sucked. Thinking about it while I waited, sucked. The valium was a low dose, so I ended up taking one and a half. Next time, I'll make sure they know that 5mg isn't enough. I guess it took some of the edge off, but I wanted to be way out of it. They used a strong type of orajel and I had long Q-tips sticking out of my mouth for about ten minutes, then Dr. McDreamy came in and talked to me a for a second and started the shots. Now, I hate shots in the top of your mouth. You know the ones that feel like the needle is going to come out your nose? But these ones weren't so bad. It wasn't until he started on the roof of my mouth that it got bad. The last, I'd say three were horrid. Okay, so the last two left me in tears. A little pinch, my ass. They let me calm down, the dental assistant talking to me in a soothing voice, asking me about my kids then McDreamy came back. Told me I was doing great, that I was a real trooper and then he said, "I'm going to play around in here a little bit and see if I can't loosen these teeth." I don't know what he used. I heard some funky noises, but nothing that really made me freak out. I couldn't feel anything. I closed my eyes while he played around. I didn't fall asleep and I can't really say that I thought about much, just listened to the sucking sounds and them telling me to breathe through my nose. A couple of minutes later, he said, "Let's do it." I told some friends, the first tooth I ever had pulled a couple of years ago was murder. The guy twisted one way, twisted the other, pulled and repeated until the tooth came out. He had no regard for the tears streaming down my face at all. It was a horrible experience and one I'd braced myself for. My youngest had given me one of his Monkey beanies to take with me to hold onto. In less than the time it took the jerk who took the first tooth out, this dentist probably had the first three out. It was like they just came out. No yanking, no twisting, I felt a slight tug and heard them being dropped into the bag. The second worse part was seeing the blood, feeling it on my face and knowing he got it on my nose as he filed the bone down. Then I watched for about half a second him stitching me up. Haven't looked at my face in the mirror this morning, but as of last night, I wasn't that swollen, very little bruising and the pain is much different than what I've been dealing with for the last couple of years. Made the mistake of 'looking' at the gap and made myself sick. Won't be doing that again, not on purpose. Partial is pretty comfortable. I thought I'd hate it completely. It's slightly wonky in my mouth, so it needs adjusted. I didn't have perfectly straight teeth, but these are a little crooked looking in my mouth and the one front tooth is a hair longer than the other one, mine were even from years of grinding my teeth. And two of them were definitely fractured. I go in about five hours to see them again. The worst, I suspect is over. Thanks for your thoughts, hugs, prayers and words. I really appreciated them. xx

America Voted

2006-03-02T00:55:00.000-05:00

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon with everyone else and talk about American Idol. I hope America voted and this evening, this is who I hope goes home. These are the bottom four in my eyes. 1. Brenna. Girlfriend needs to get over herself in a hurry. She can't sing and she's annoying as hell the way she stands there and vogue's in front of the camera. Her head is shoved so far up her ass. She needs a dose of reality and I sure as hell hope she gets it tonight. 2. Kinnick. What was she thinking? Gretchen Wilson? Yikes! 3. Gideon. I agree with Simon. Dude's smile is freaky. 4. David/Bucky--One of em needs to go home. okay, so both of em need to go. But only one can go tonight. Either one of them would make me happy. So, who do I like? Top Girls: My two favorite girls right now are Ayla & Katharine. I agree with Simon in that I think Lisa and Paris need to pick songs that are more their age. Enough with the dramatic ballads already. I think I read somewhere that Kellie Pickler's mom abandoned her when she was a little girl and her father is in jail for drug abuse. She's cute and I always like the underdog. I hope she picks more songs that are suitable to her like Bonnie Raitt's "Something To Talk About". Top Guys: My three favorite guys are: Chris --When he sang "Wanted Dead or Alive" last week, I thought I was going to...well, it isn't important--lol --Then, this week he sang "Hemmorage" and same thing happened. Dayum, he can "blow". I love Taylor Hicks. He has a total style all of his own and he sure isn't afraid to show it. I hope he goes far. I should've made it four favorite guys. Because I like Elliot. When he opened his mouth to sing, I about shit. That'll teach me for judging a book by its cover. I see his confidence coming through more and more with each compliment Simon gives him. And I'm half-rooting for Kevin. I too, would like to pinch his cheeks. Gotta give the youngin credit for standing up there and taking all that Simon has to dish. I do think that this is the year of the guy. There's only been one--Clay Aiken. I didn't care for him or Ruben. And I don't think either of them got very far. Who would you like to see go home?

FUBAR

2006-03-01T13:16:00.000-05:00

So, I bought a laptop on ebay quite some time ago. Lately, the errors and crashing were too much to bear so I contacted the person I acquired it from and asked him for the system cd. I had to do this several times. Finally, I get the cd, with no product key. I use magic jelly bean, acquire the key...get everything going and the key doesn't work. My bright idea? I'll use the operating cd I have for the desktop. Uh, it doesn't work either. It's on there, but for some reason, neither is accepting the cd for my internet. I did it all manually. I'm in hell. Why? Because I can only use the desktop right now. Where is the desktop? In my daughter's messy room. Do I like the desktop? Hell no. I want my laptop back! Oh and dentist called...was supposed to go in tomorrow morning for this procedure...they bumped it until 2:30 pm est. So, I have all freaking day to think about it. Niiiice. I'd hoped to be out of it and adjusted to the pain by the time my children came home. That ain't happening either. /sighs

Music In Me

2006-02-26T15:41:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm going to use Lynn's game again and see if I can stump Jo Jo, at least. ha! But, if you haven't heard Rascal Flatts new song "What Hurts The Most" or seen the video--OMG, I highly reccomend it. That isn't the song I chose for below, but I am obsessed with the song and am listening to it a lot as I delve into this damned black moment. The video, will make you cry. But you have to pay very close attention to it to know just what is going on the first time around. Teeth are bugging me, so haven't really did anything too productive. In fact, most of what I wrote will more than likely go to the scrap pile. The man did buy me a new file cabinet and a PC cart so that I can take the desktop out of one daughter's room and control it more. I have to completely rehaul it because they went to a lot of gaming sites and downloaded a ton of crap. erg. The Rules: 1. Take the lyrics to a favorite song. 2. Go to Babelfish, translate the lyrics into German, then from German to French, and finally from French back into English. 3.Post the results verbatim. 4. Invite friends to guess the song based on the interesting new lyrics. The Song: All it is that I wanted, which especially to be, something which them eyes, right for it moment holily is, at your side its thinks slightly grassement and luminous sometimes me that you never understand, I am perhaps time this one for always, say that all can be that is which it to want, something which especially to be, somebody who is precisely holy for one moment in your life, at my side warmly and luminous sound I think sometimes that you' ll never includes me, that however something is me explained together, we' D fortunately Happy guessing!

Changed my mind....

2006-02-23T17:53:00.000-05:00

Just in case there are eyes or ears in the corn field of this blog...I'm changing the original post and will be back shortly with something that Shannon did on her blog once I calm down. Sorry Eileen, didn't meant to delete your comment. You were dead on. Rae UPDATED: Current Clothing: Jeans, an Ohio State hoodie, and socks Current Hair: Ask me tomorrow when I get it fixed. It's I guess kinda like a 70's shag with curls. :( IOW, it sucks! Current Mood: Bitchy. My mouth is tiny and the molds were too big and they cut into my gums and made me sore on top of the infection that was already there. Current Annoyance: Everything. Current Avoidance: Microsoft Word. Emails. Deciding what to make for dinner that I can't eat. Current Smell: the cigarette I'm smoking so I don't kill anyone. '-) Current Thing You Ought to be Doing: Editing. Writing. Working. Being a mom. Cleaning up after messy Sunny. Current Thing or Things on Your Wall: I'm in the dining room, so, a mirror on the one wall in between the windows. A Home Interior picture of a barn in a field. A cabinet in the wall that holds all the school pictures and assorted candids. And on the other wall is a china cabinet filled with old china my grandma recently passed down to me and then Sunny's cage is up against the last wall. She has feathers and bird seed all over the place and I need to clean it up. Current IM person You’re Talking to: Jo Jo Current Jewelry: engagement shiny, pink & blue stoned ring on the right hand, hoops in my ears and my H pendant with a white gold angel upon the gold H. Current Book: Writing—rewriting Last Thing I Wanted and jotting down notes for Last Thing I Needed Your turn!

Pet Peeves

2006-02-20T01:24:00.000-05:00

My kids don't have school today. (insert sobbing here ) So, since I won't have much quiet time unless I go hide in the basement somewhere, which wouldn't be a bad idea except that it's freezing down there. So, what is my pet peeve? My little brother. Love him dearly. Would do just about anything for him. Do I get to see him much? Nope. Do I get to see my nephew much? Nope. He and his wife came to our house Sat night after a diaster of a birthday dinner for my grandmother. We were going to play cards, something that we haven't played together in ages. His wife is a sore loser. But she wasn't so bad lsat night. My little brother walked into my house, sat on my couch and immediately picked up my laptop and started going to sites that well, have a ton of pop-ups and are bogged down with media. He likes to watch cartoons of the gross type and listen to stupid shit. What bothers me most is that he doesn't ask. That would bother me in and of itself IF he hadn't passworded his computer long ago while he had MY printer ( he borrowed it ) and I could not get in there to print something I needed. Now, granted, this was years ago, but I haven't forgotten the hissy fit he threw when he found out I was trying to use his computer without asking. Every single time he comes to visit, he does this. He's even turned on a computer that was off. Does he ask? Nope. My other pet peeve with him is that if I confront him, I probably won't see him or my nephew, because he tends to pout. The third pet peeve that I have with him is this. He has friends. I have friends too. Are my friends my life? No. They are not. My "family" is. I love my friends dearly, but when it comes to family, no matter how badly they treat me, I always make them a priority. Now, I may joke with some of my online friends and Dee's Moo calls me Auntie Rae. Does she refer to me as this every day. Perhaps. Does Moo see me? No. Does Moo see me more than his Aunt Pet? No. My nephew sees his "Uncles and Aunts" ie their friends more than he sees me. The same with his "grandma's and grandpa's" he's collected. And it bugs the hell out of me when his parents refer to their friends as aunts and uncles. Off of my brother now, and onto some family members who think that me selling a couple of books is going to: a.) entitle them to never have to do their laundry again--I guess I'm going to buy them a maid service b.) buy them a brand new Mustang & a Hummer--I'm going to buy myself a car first. My mother and grandmother have plans for money I haven't even made yet! Final pet peeve and I promise I shall go someplace else... Friends who only bother with you when they need something. I have this friend. We used to be the very best of friends. She has threatened to blackmail me someday with the knowledge she has on me since we've been friends and honestly, there isn't much blackmail because well, I'm not that bad. I've done things that most of you reading this has done. So, whatever she thinks she has on me...this person never calls me unless she needs someone to watch her daughter or she needs money. Now, by money, I mean for a charity deal or she is having some sort of party. She called me three times today. ( Sunday ) starting this afternoon. She didn't say why the first time and I figured since the kids were off tomorrow that she would need a baby sitter. So, I let the answering machine catch it. The second time, she may've told me what she wanted, but the message got erased. The third time it was her daughter and my daughter answered the phone. She was having a party. A party in which I would go to at a moment's notice and purchase something so that she could acquire points and well get free stuff. Now, did she just decide this morning when she woke up to invite me or do you think I was an oversight? I think I was an oversight. I think she forgot about me until the last minute and thought, I'll call Rae and she'll come because she always pulls through. Rae didn't. What are some of your pet peeves?

Breathe, just breathe

2006-02-12T23:16:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is about songs with the word Breathe in them that make so much sense to me. I love them. There's the one by Faith Hill and the newer one Breathe ( 2 am ) by Anna Nalick. This evening, I heard the one by Anna malice as I watched Grey's Anatomy. I admit that up until last week, I really hadn't watched this show. Now, before you throw rotten tomatoes at me, the man of the house usually has the remote and I'm busy doing my other job. The previews intrigued me so much for the "Code Black" episode that I had to tune in. Can you say hooked? Can you say love at first sight? Can you say I just pre-ordered the DVD coming out on Valentine's Day of their very first season? Wow. I won't post any spoilers, but I have been looking for a show like this. I miss FRIENDS every damned Thursday. Okay, so they aren't that much alike, but they kinda are for me. Anyhow, I was feeling sorry for myself the last couple of days. Why? Because the story that I love, the one that should've been a semi-easy fix...wasn't. This story is very near and dear to my heart because it got my creative juices flowing. It gave me hope at one time. But...I did the unthinkable. I let other people into this story. What do I mean? Does the phrase too many cooks spoil the broth mean anything to you? There was a time when I was very insecure about my writing and I needed praise and tons of feedback. Why? I wanted to make sure that I was doing it right. Okay, so there might not be a law against that or any type of set rule that says don't show others your work. Don't ask for that critique. Don't ask for help. But I took it to a whole new level. By the way, I am still extremely insecure about my writing. That hasn't changed with the sale of two books. And to be honest, I'm not sure it will ever change. The level I took was this and let me just say that it was wrong. Anything and I mean anything that someone told me to change--if they'd recently gotten a request--I did it. I changed lines, I changed expressions, I changed dialogue and settings. If they had a better way of saying something and suggested that I used it--I did it. If I questioned something, you know what I told myself? I told myself that they were the ones getting the requests so they had to know what the hell they were talking about, and I did what they wanted me too. Where did this lead me? It lead me to this conversation with an editor on the phone. "Rae, I was reading your story and things were flowing and making complete sense and then all of the sudden...honestly, I asked myself where in the hell that came from. Your voice changes in this story like none I've ever seen." I had a lightbulb moment. Too damned bad it had to happen while an editor was on the phone with me. I was mortified. I was pissed. I was stoic. And I was graceful when I explained to Miss Editor why. Okay, so perhaps graceful isn't the word I'm looking for. But I didn't freak out or sound like I was freaking out even though that's exactly what I was doing on the inside. Professional is the word I was looking for as I type this. And that segue's me into something cool. Desire Author Heidi Betts is starting a Q & A in the morning on www.eharlequin.com It's called: The Care and Feeding of Editors. I leave you with the first few lines of Anna Nalick's song as I listen to her and start rewriting this story my way. I finally know what I need to do to make this the best story I know how. My characters are pleased and as long as they're happy the words flow freely. Night and day. This is a good song for my hero and heroine. 2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake, Can you help me unravel my latest mistake, I don't love him, winter just wasn't my season Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes Like they have any right at all to criticize, Hypocrites, you're all here for the very same reason' Cause you can't jump the track,we're like cars on a cable And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table No one can find the rewind button girl, So cradle your head in your hands And breathe, just breathe, Woah breathe, just breathe

Dubbed by Daisy

2006-01-23T21:42:00.000-05:00

Let me start this with saying that Daisy Dexter Dobbs is a gem. She had the exercise I told you about--well, two actually. One was on Aliases and the other was on chosing a character name. It was really interesting to see the other methods that writers use to create the names of their beloved hero's and heroines. Why or Why not they chose a pseudonym. We had to create a name using three things AND find an unusual obituary. Daisy then compiled all of these and added them to her blog post. She colored them differently AND she dubbed us. Here's what she said about me: Rae Scott: Real Name: Heather Rae Scott. Goes by Rae. She feels 'Heather' is too common and might consider a pseudonym in the future. Possible Pseudonym: Tavin. Because it's an unusual and beautiful name. 3-Word Character Name: Jetta Baxter Armstrong Interesting Tidbit: Rae's daughter goes to school with a boy named Bicardi Obit Gem: Diodato "Teddy" Adorante. Born June 1, 1930, in Guardiagrelle, Italy, he was a son of the late Donato and Ersila Adorante. He lived in Pennsylvania since arriving in the United States in 1949. Method: Looking for names in movies, books and soaps. Dubbed by Daisy: Annie Border Baxter She did this for every person who participated on her blog. You should check it out. '-) And you can tell me what you think about my name. *gg*

It's Friday!

2006-01-20T08:38:00.000-05:00

I thought I might pay it forward a little bit by pointing you in the direction of interesting things happening out there in the cyber world. Yes, I'm procrastinating, well, not really. I'm revving my engines up so I can beat out some pages today on this rewrite of two awesome characters who found a home with Samhain. I'm trying to think of a theme to tie together these three books. Their respective titles are: Last Thing I Expected Last Thing I Wanted Last Thing I Needed Something will come to me. '-) Daisy Dexter Dobbs has a really good writing topic/exercise on her blog on naming your characters. You should go check her out. Ann Wesley Hardin talks about size mattering and has a quiz on age. Snarkywood has 18 Degrees of Madonna and it's hysterical! Jeff Gordon is on Live! today and he's so damned boring. He shouldn't quit his day job. I don't care for him as a racer either. Big Dale Jr fan here. I think JG is a cry baby. Hopping off the bunny trail--caffeine is wearing off. Must...have...coffee....

We Have a WINNER!

2006-01-13T23:17:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much for participating in my name my heroine contest. We have a winner. My heroine's name is now Callie. Thank you Tracey. Now, if you email me, I'll get that gift certificate to you right away! Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. And I'll be having more contests soon. So, keep checking back from time to time.

~~CONTEST ~~

2006-01-13T13:54:00.000-05:00

I figured I'd make this bigger and not hide it in the post below. I'm having a contest. I need a name for a heroine. She's a bartender. She's tall with dark brown hair, thin build, blue eyes. She's got a tough exterior and a soft interior that rarely comes out. She needs a good man to make it come out. '-) The winner receives a $5 gift certificate to My Bookstore and More. Jo Jo suggested Rochelle or Richelle M'Lady suggested: Zarilla, Pheby,Celistia, Cordelia Robin suggested: Ramona-Jasmine-Juanita-Zondra-Mikayla-Helena-Alexis-Brooke-Krystal She is the third heroine in a trilogy of friends and her two best friends are named Grace and Tory. Winner will be posted here and will need to send me his/her email address here. Thanks!

My Grandma

2006-01-10T01:21:00.000-05:00

My Grandmother lost her battle with cancer Sunday evening. My aunt found two things in her purse of significance that she thought I should know about. One was the poem I wrote when her son, my dad passed away. The other was a poem she'd found somewhere and copied. My cousin Ashley, the poet in the family is going to read that one on Wednesday. As for me, I was asked to write a poem for my grandma, that she would want me too and my mom suggested that I celebrate not mourn her. A friend sent me this quote: "Rather than mourn the absence of the flame, let us celebrate how brightly it glowed." I tried to incorporate some humor into this and perhaps you have to have been there to appreciate this, but I have to read this on Wednesday and I would appreciate feedback. ( I guess this is where I warn that all of the unneccessary comma's are for me so that when I'm standing up there trying not to cry and be nervous, that I'll remember to pause and breathe. )

Grandma

Memories of the past rush through my mind, I try to recapture them, hold them close and rewind To a time and place that doesn’t hold fears When illness and sadness slowly disappears. I remember: Gin and not of the drinking sort Playing cards became a new kind of sport Crazy eights, Go fish, War and Rummy Grandma was always the first to yell rummy- dummy! She taught us to play solitaire in three different ways Then Sorry, Parcheesi and Yahtzee were the craze She taught some of us, mainly me, the ethics in losing And when we were done, she could be caught in her rocker snoozing. And although she wasn’t wealthy, she sure wasn’t poor her gifts didn’t come from riches, they came from so much more. It was her kindness, her wisdom, her style and grace That made her one of a kind, a rarity, an ace. Because she took us all in and placed us under her wing Whether you were blood or brought to her by a wedding ring It didn’t matter to her from where you came You became a part of her just the same And that part lives on in you and me If only in our memories We each have them, one of a kind She’s not someone we can leave behind. What she did and said came straight from her heart And if we hold her in ours, we’ll never be apart And as this poem draws to the end We should celebrate the life of a mother, sister, grandmother, aunt and friend. I can still hear her voice loud and clear Come on listen, I’m sure you’ll hear She’ll crook her finger right this way And tell us to wipe our tears away. She’d tell us we’d make an awful sight To, straighten up and fly right!

Pinch Me

2006-01-03T13:42:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it. Samhain has picked up "Last Thing I Wanted" the second book in a series of three. I've waited so damned long for this and it's finally happening at warp speed. Of course the doubt monkeys are eatting me alive. Samhain launches today and my baby girl turned eleven. She told me this morning that her mom selling another book was a great present. My seven year old rolled his eyes and said: "Are you going to cry, again?" "Mom did that last night," my daughter told him happily. "Glad to have missed it," the seven-year old said and proceeded to wiggle his naked behind at me. He was getting dressed for school in the living room as per the norm. He has not learned modesty and at this point, I fear he never will. The man was upset because he'll be working late, which means he claims we can't do anything special. We'll see what he does in spite of it. '-) We had number one and only daughter's birthday party last night. Happy Eleventh Birthday, Belle.

Look out world, here she comes!

Heather Rae Scott

I've Moved

Echo

Hair today, gone tomorrow....

Website Woes

Suspense and a little dog, too!

Happy Father's Day....SURPRISE!

I just want your extra time and your KISS

Press Kit?

Stupidity

Four Cups!

Sunday Blues

Calling All Readers

Yahoo!

Reviews & Bets

Update

Things to do

Staying Grounded

Leaving Mama

Little Bird...lost

Catch Up...sorta

President's Award for Educational Excellence

Special Thanks

Release Day

My very first review

Birthdays & Pretty things

Six Days

Color Me...Pink

Tuesday Teaser

Grey's Anatomy

Rae's Insanity

Happy Mother's Day

What Do You Love/Hate About Romance?

Shocked

Thirteen Days

Idols Have Left The Building

Vexed

Simple Pleasures

Samhain Author Days

Princess Pea

Play That Funky Music

Twenty-One Days

Twenty-Two Days

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Pickle's, Mattresses & Cat Fight

McPhee-ver

Fun With Chalk

Grey's Anatomy

Buzzin' Contest

My new toy

Tonight's The Night

American Idol

Mark Your Calendar!

Stupid Girls

Easter with the Kranks

Round Two

Bye Bye Bucky

The Show Must Go On

Website

Never Say Never

4 Things Meme

Twilight Zone

TGIF

It just got interesting

I'm going in....

We have a WINNER

Part One

Final Three

They're Heeeeeeeere

I'm not surprised

Six years of songs...

~*~CONTEST REMINDER~*~

Can't Smile Without...them

Creativity

Fickleness

The Force Is With Me

His sky has fallen

Fan-i-low of Manilow

The short frog by Geoffrey & Heather

~CONTEST~

~~CONTEST REMINDER~~

~~CONTEST ~~