Like coffee? Try some for free!

My pal Marilyn Brant, who's fabulous novel According to Jane will be released in October of this year, is running a taste test on the new Starbucks instant coffee, currently only available in Chicago, Seattle and London.

If you'd like to be among the first to try it, click here, and get information on free samples.

Bite Me!

Don't worry, you didn't do anything to offend. :-)

I'm just excited about a book that's hitting the shelves tomorrow.

Melissa Francis's BITE ME.

Melissa is one of the warmest, funniest women I've met since I started writing, and can't WAIT to read her book.

There's a contest going on the Fictionistas Blog to win a copy! Really, I shouldn't be telling people, because I WANT TO WIN. But then again, I'll buy a copy regardless, so all of you, go enter, now. And if you don't win, go buy her book. Even if you do win, go buy her book. It'd make a great gift.

It was the best of timing, it was the worst of timing...

I got some great news about a week ago. I sold my short story "Lost and Found" into the anthology,
THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE. Check out the hottie on the cover!

It's a quirky little story I pitched as a mash up of Groundhog Day, The Time Traveler's Wife and Life on Mars.

Clear, no?

You'll just have to buy the anthology and read the story to figure out how the heck I can combine elements of all those in one short story. ;-)

Although this isn't a big book deal, yet, here are the top five reasons I'm thrilled.

1. It's a publishing credit, however small. And one with a publisher I know can get books into stores.
2. The anthology includes some great authors and I was thrilled that the editor even considered reading my story, never mind deciding to include it.
3. The cover is hot.
4. It's going to be released in December, 2009. Soon. You don't normally get that kind of almost instant gratification in print publishing.
5. It's already available for preorder on Amazon, Amazon Canada, Chapters/Indigo, etc. No pressure. :-)

I've decided to overlook the fact they spelled my name "many more" on the cover. At least they got the initials correct. ;-)

The timing of hearing this news was both awesome and horrible, because I found out literally hours before I left for last week's RWA National Conference in DC. It was great, because I was able to tell a few friends I ran into there, and strangers, and basically anyone I spoke to. But horrible because I wasn't really able to "announce" this news to all my online friends since I had pretty spotty internet access last week.

So, a small start. But a start. Can't wait for this to come out.

Catching up

On TV that is.

After last week in DC, I'm watching a few of the shows I missed. And wow.

Just had to say that I never got why Jason was on SYTYCD. And Jeanine... I could see she was good, but again, didn't really get why the judges were so crazy about her.

Finally tonight. (Well, last Wednesday, but tonight for me.) Wow. Awesome. (almost put an f-related superlative in front of that awesome.)

Wow.

I didn't think Jason was that great before, but I have to say, I think that Kaitlyn was holding him back. Their lines didn't match and I now realize it wasn't him, it was her.

With Jeanine and Jason everything was perfect. Like they'd been dancing together for years. Fabulous.

Conference Stress

Or lack thereof.

Blogging about the upcoming conference on Drunk Writer Talk.

Alibi Junior High!

Do you know a boy (or girl) age 10-14 who needs a good book to read at camp? Or to get them off their X-Box for a few hours? Then buy them a copy of Greg Logsted's new book ALIBI JUNIOR HIGH. Greg and his whole family (wife and daughter) are repped by the same agent as I, and I think that kind of makes me family as well. So, to steal a phrase from Nadine Dajani's (actual) brother: Buy my brother's book or die.

Here are the deets:

Thirteen-year-old Cody Saron has been home schooled his whole life by his father, an undercover agent for the CIA. Cody has never lived the same life as other kids his age. He never went to a regular school, never lived in one place longer than a few weeks, never had a friend or played on any sports teams. Cody’s a black belt in the arts of Tae Kwon Do and Ju Jitsu. He speaks five languages and has traveled to every corner of the globe. But what Cody isn't prepared for is . . . junior high.

When the danger surrounding Cody's dad heats up like never before, Cody is sent to stay with the aunt he's never known, Jenny Williams, in her small Connecticut suburb. Cody knows how to pick a lock or follow a trail, but he has no idea how to fit in with regular kids, how to handle his first crush, or how to make it through a day of classes. How will he ever fit in?

“I just finished reading Greg Logsted’s Alibi Junior High in a single sitting. Thankfully the family had other things to do for a while because the author nailed me to the pages with his premise and with the fantastic pacing of this young adult novel. I wasn’t tempted even once to get up and go do something else. Logsted starts his spell on page one, and readers will have to stay with him to see what ultimately happens to Cody Saron, the 13-year-old professional spy.” ~ Mel Odol, INDENVER TIMES

Greg Logsted currently lives in Danbury with his wife and fellow author, Lauren Baratz-Logsted and their daughter Jackie. He is the author of Something Happened and coauthor of The Sisters 8 series for young readers.

Ranting and Raving

Ranting and raving about a couple TV shows over on DWT today.

Posting to new blog today!

I'm doing my first post today on a new group blog that some of my fellow 2007 GH finalists created. Nobody Writes it Better.

We went with the "Bond" theme because of the whole 007 thing.

Anyway... I blogged about the Bachelorette. Check it out.

Ben

So all the Michael Jackson stuff is driving me a little crazy... But I have to say this song remains one of my all-time favorites.

My parents used to let us watch the Sonny & Cher show occasionally... not 100% sure I actually saw this (clearly lip-synced) performance, but boy did I love the song when I was a little kid.

The arrangement is pretty schmatzy by today's standards... But such a pretty, heart-wrenching song that in spite of being about a rat, really spoke to me as a pre-tween.

Pride and Self-Confidence

Pride is a tough emotion for me. Or is it a trait? I suppose Catholics say it's a sin.

Whatever it is, one thing this pursuit for publication has taught me is I need to ignore my pride, or at least swallow it. And I need to stop confusing it with self confidence.

In fact, the two can be diametrically opposed.

• Pride makes me embarrassed I haven't got a contract from a major house, yet.
• Pride makes me want to avoid talking to non-writer friends and family about my writing. (My writer friends totally get it.)
• Pride makes people think writing makes me angry, when really, it makes me happy.

• Self-confidence keeps me going.
• Self-confidence keeps me positive.
• Self-confidence reminds me I'll reach my goals -- some day.

L'il C on SYTYCD often makes me a little crazy with his various prognostications.

BUT this week, in amongst all his crazy talk, unnecessary alliterations and misused words, was a gem:

Lack of self-confidence is the heaviest anchor you can put on your creativity.

I'd like to amend that, slightly, and say that pride can be mighty heavy, too.

Anchors away!

Win, Win, Win

Hey, I just learned of two contests by fabulous writers! Part of me doesn't want to tell anyone about them, to increase my own odds of winning... but I flunked out of evil villain school.

Eileen Cook is giving away a $75 gift certificate for books. That's right! Wow.


If that's not enough, Victoria Dahl is giving away not one, but four, of her new releases!!!! (Four exclamation marks in honor of giveaway.) Awesomely cute cover, too.



Good luck everyone!

Monday reading

Great article about paranormal romance and urban fantasy from Publishers' Weekly.

I do think the genre may ebb and floe, it may wane at times (how's that for mixing metaphors!) but it's here to stay.

Tulip Heaven

Heading off to Ottawa for the May two-four weekend to play with my sister. Tulips are probably done, already, but hey, might still be a few.



Interesting Canadian trivia... Holland sends millions of tulip bulbs to Ottawa (capital of Canada) every fall that come up in brilliant colour all over the city each spring. This is to thank Canada, not only for being the allied troops that landed on their beaches on D-day... but also for letting their royal family (the wife and kids, anyway) stay in Ottawa during the war.

And about May two four. Yes. Canadians celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. Who cares she's been dead for a over a hundred years. Chick still deserves a party. The holiday falls on or about May 24th each year (officially falls on the second-to-last Monday in May)... But the real reason it's become known as the May two-four is that "two-four" is Canadian slang for a case of beer... As in, "Hey, let's pick up a two-four and head up to the cottage." And, well, lots of beer is typically consumed on the Victoria Day weekend.

Party on Garth! Party on Wayne!


(Okay, I know for SNL purposes, those guys were supposed to be in a suburb of Chicago, but every one up here, and anyone who knows anything about Mike Myers knows Garth and Wayne were actually from Scarborough, Ontario. Stan Mikita's Donuts was so obviously Tim Hortons.)

Rats Hope and Publishing

Post on Drunk Writer Talk.

Oh, and wasn't Star Trek all kinds of awesome? Need to see it again, STAT.

Editing Letter....

Okay, so this is pretty funny. And a very clever and different way to promote a novel. I don't know Lara Zielin but will keep an eye out for her debut Donut Days in August now I've seen this.



Particularly love the ukulele riffs. Rock on!

Thanks to Loreth Anne White for pointing me to this.

Also, blogging about human/monster action on DWT.

Put on your big girl pants

Blogging on DWT about the assertion that some romance reviewers are mean.

More reasons why 30 Rock rocks

Kenneth going into anaphylactic shock: My real name is Dick Wittman.

Okay, only funny if you watch Mad Men. But if you aren't watching Mad Men, why not??? For the smart people who are into Mad Men, here's my analysis of the first episode of Mad Men.

But back to 30 Rock... I bounced up and down in my chair clapping when Salma Hayek revealed her What the Frak? Battlestar Galactica t-shirt.

Inside jokes on one of my favourite comedies, based on two of my favourite dramas. All they needed was a Tim Riggins reference and my life would've been complete.

Gay Storms Ahead -- Beware!!

Okay... So when I first saw this on Moonrat's blog I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. Sure, it was funny, but I feared that its target audience would take it seriously and so it made me a little sad about the world (at least our neighbours to the South), and angry about misleading propaganda and misinformation.



And then the brilliant Steven Colbert does a parody of it and I almost died laughing. Seriously. Have watched it six times already and laugh out loud, every time. "Oh God. The homo storm got me!"




Enjoy

Blindside

Wow. Survivor tonight was the best blindside ***of the audience*** I've ever seen. Those rascally editors/producers.

They sure had me convinced they were getting rid of Coach. Maybe I just wanted to believe it, because I can't STAND Coach. I'd even started another blog post about arrogance never getting you anywhere that I had to delete to start this one after the vote. Crap. Arrogance won.

That guy defines the word arrogant. And ridiculous. And narcissistic. And immature. And misogynistic. And about a dozen other negative words I can't think of right now. (I used up my allotted vocabulary editing today.)

Brendan seemed really nice and I thought he deserved to stay, but again, it's the all about the edit. He did make a huge mistake by not staying loyal to the Exile Island alliance right from the merge. But it seems like this season NO ONE is staying loyal. To anyone. I now think/hope Debbie will win. I used to be rooting for Taj or JT.

I don't think I remember another season where this far in there weren't stronger alliances. Quite honestly, it seemed like Brendan was the only one not totally in it for himself this year. I actually believed him when he said he hoped JT would win.

All I care about is that Coach doesn't win. Get that guy out of there. He makes me crazy and not in a good way. He absolutely encapsulates the personality type I most despise.

/rant

I Love You, Man

So, enjoyed this movie. Paul Rudd, anyone? And it was fun and his character was dorkily adorable and the Seth Rogen Jason Segal* character wasn't nearly as obnoxious as I was expecting--even showed some vulnerable layers...

But I couldn't help thinking... They've done it. Hollywood has figured out how to marginalize women, even in romantic comedies. A romantic comedy where the girl is the side-kick. Even managed to make her a secondary character at her own wedding.

Sigh.

Still enjoyed it. How about you?

*(Hmm... they are slightly interchangeable. Still. Sloppy, Maureen. Sloppy!)