The Novelty Girls

Hey, it’s summer what else do you expect?

So I know I’m supposed to blog about ‘net time wasters, but that isn’t my problem this time of year. Nope. My problem is it hasn’t been under 95 in weeks and I have a pool and patio. And the sunburn to prove it.

Other than that, what am I doing?

Talking on the phone. A LOT. Cause I can. And cause sitting down in front of my computer and opening a Word document is akin to waving a red flag at a bull. Cept the bull is a kid. Three kids. Who all need my attention. Right. This. Minute. Unless of course I want them to do the dishes. Then they are incredibly busy people.

They will, occasionally, let me hit Divas, a blog or two, or Democratic Underground (hey it’s campaign season!), but mostly, no, it’s all about the pool lol.

Put this in your wtf file.

It’s true, y’all. For the third year, the USA Rock Paper Scissors League Championship will be televised — this time as an hourlong Best Damn Sports Show Period special on Fox Sports in October. The event will take place the weekend of June 20 in Las Vegas.

Go read the rest of the article. Seriously. The winner gets 50 grand and a trip to the summer Olympics. And gets to compete in, wait for it…The International Rock Paper Scissors Federation Championship?!

I’m afraid to ask what’s next.

Well, so far at least. In pictures. LOL.

Painted my room

Before

After. Cause every romance writer needs a red bedroom, right?

Ripped down the swing set which unfortunately did not get immortalized. But the new pool did.

Built a new patio table.

And got a new tattoo. Doubt this will be the last of the summer lol.

Geesh. No wonder I’m so tired.

13 great things about summer in Bama…

1. I finished BOTH books. Woohoo!!
2. It hasn’t been under 90 degrees for 3 weeks.
3. Already got a nice tan.
4. The beach is 65 miles away.
5. If the beach is out, my best friend has a pool.
6. Army Guy says, sure get a pool put in. *g*
7. School is out tomorrow. No more early morning wake ups.
8. My roses are all blooming.
9. Getting the rest of my chest tattoo Friday.
10. Nationals is in only two months!!
11. I’m going to Atlanta, Savannah, and San Francisco this summer.
12. Army Guy is NOT getting deployed this summer.
13. It’s warm, it’s sunny, I’ve got good friends, and I’m buying a case of wine on Saturday. What more could you ask for?

is kicking my ass. Why do I do this to myself?? I’ve never been good at all the various challenges. 70 days, NaNo, etc. It’s all been a bust for me. See I tend to write in spurts. I’ll write quite a bit in a few weeks, then take a couple off. And NaNo is in freaking Nov. Bad, bad time for long challenges! But, school is out in 4 weeks and Nationals is in 3 months and I have to have something to pitch!

Enter Fast Draft that crazy little challenge where you write 20 pages a day for 14 days. Crazy because you would have to be insane to try it. That’s me. Crazy. And getting crazier by the day. But it’s working. If I can stick this out another week I should have about a 300 page rough draft, and I do mean rough since the rules are writing only, no backtracking, no editing. That part is killing me. Or maybe it’s the 20 pages every day. Or something.

Y’all know there’s not enough alcohol in the world for this kind thing right? *sigh* I’m off for my daily dose of masochism. Hoping everyone else is having a less stressful week!

Why is it when you work at home everyone thinks you don’t actually work!?

I love my real life non-writer friends. Really. They’ve been especially awesome the last few weeks. But I am seriously behind. So behind that I’m torturing myself with a fast draft. Two hundred forty pages in 14 days. So why is it, even after I told everyone, hey I won’t be around because I’m way behind schedule, I still get 15 phone calls a day? They expect me to drop everything and go to lunch or go to the store or whatever. (Now if someone was saying let’s go to the beach, I’d be all over it. Man, I need to go to the beach. I’ve promised myself that reward when I finished this FD. ) And Army Guy is driving me crazy too. He’s very supportive of my writing. When it doesn’t interfere with his time. When he’s home he just expects me to drop everything and if I say I need to write, he’s all for it. He’ll say, okay go write. But then he follows me. And he talks. I love the man dearly but it’s damned hard to write when someone is sitting next to you running their mouth.

Anyone else have this problem? Or does everyone else have this problem lol? That’s probably closer to the truth lol.

Y’all, I am so not joking.

I call to check and see if my credit card payment cleared the other day and the system is all done by voice now. So I say my card number and it makes me repeat it. Figuring I just talked too fast, I said it slower. No dice. Okay. Needs to be slower and well enunciated apparently. Um yeah right. I finally gave up and waited till I could check it online. But then a few days later I get a late notice on a bill, check my bank and the check’s cleared, and have to call that company. Oh. My. Freaking. Gawd. After the fourth try to make stupid computer guy understand my account number I finally got transfered to a real live person. Who tells me yes. There have been complaints about the system. Apparently it doesn’t like some accents. Why do they keep using it? To save money of course.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

I’m waiting for the day I can instant message with issues but until then maybe I need to go into speech therapy. Or spend a lot of frustrated time on the phone if I have a billing issue. Corporate America isn’t nearly well prepared enough for all the pissed off phone calls they’ll be getting from the South.

I hope y’all’s is better than mine. It’s cold and I’ve got the crud my kids so thoughtfully brought home from school. So I’m calling in sick and spending Valentine’s Day in bed. Please tell me someone has better plans lol!?

Out now:

It’s 1899– the Civil War still rages, shifters and vampires are commonplace, and Calista Nichols is just trying to get her family by. When her sister discovers a cure for the shifters and vampires, she’s kidnapped by a Rebel faction. Calista has no choice but to accept the local Alpha’s help in getting her back.

But Kane Dupree has much more in mind than just helping out his lover. He has to reveal the secrets of his past and convince her to accept him as her mate. Can she take her place in his world? Or will his secrets drive them further apart?

This title contains explicit language and graphic sex.

Buy it here!

Congratulations, Lori. This year has been full of changes for you, including the Dreaded Day Job. I’m thrilled to see a new release from you: Proof you really CAN have it all

What if. The bread and butter of a writer’s life, eh? (Hey! I’ve been hanging around Dayna so long now I’m speaking Canadian lol. :)) Crystal and I chatted about what if and history the other day. It was an interesting discussion that I won’t bore y’all with here, but it’s been on mind since. I have a book coming out tomorrow that took what if and history went to town. In the world I built the plague didn’t just kill off half or more of Europe. It created new species–shifters and vampires. Since I took that much liberty with history, I just kept right on going. The what ifs were too intriguing, ya know? So it’s 1899, the Civil War never really ended, and steam is the technology of the day. I really loved writing this because all the rules went out the window except the ones I made. But I’m at a total loss as to how to promo it. I’m certain I’ll get emails or reviews or whatever lambasting my lack of historical knowledge lol. But the whole point of the story is what could have been, not what was.

So I’m trying to figure out how to promo it and I have two questions. Are you interested in reading or writing alternative history? And how would you approach promoting it? I’m wondering if I should put a yes I do know this isn’t history as you know it disclaimer on my website lol.