Shame - The Great Motivator & Contest Link

I was catching up via email with a friend yesterday and had to confess that I'd slacked on my writing. Just admitting it made me feel like a loser, so in an effort to prove to myself that I was working towards my dream and not just lazing around dreaming about it, I actually *gasp* edited some of my novel last night.

Now, the editing probably wasn't very good, because that's one of my weak points, but I sat down and did it. A whole 13 pages. Yippee. One more chapter down - 33 to go. Oh, heavens, kill me now. Does that seem like a mountain to anyone else? An eternity? An endless road? If not, could you do it for me? ;)

As for the contest, a debut novel hit the shelves yesterday and I've had my eye on it. It's Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie and a copy is being given away over on OddShots. Read the interview with her and you'll be hooked. This is also your chance to name your come-to-life-to-protect-you-tattoos. This one's for you, Bex! It's an urban fantasy, but the heroine isn't a vampire or a werewolf. *alarm! alarm!* She's a Fury, ala Greek Mythology, and I think that's a totally cool idea. I so wish I'd come up with it myself.

Kids - Mildly Funny Things I Overheard

Yeah, I know. Kids say the darndest things, right? I swore to myself that I wouldn't turn my blog into an accounting of my kids and all the funny stuff they do. But the following snippets made me laugh, so I'll share. Then we'll be back to our regularly scheduled book goodness.

1. We were praying the other night before bed, and E4.2 asked God for new parents. I kid you not. My sister, C, witnessed it and almost snorted herself sick (when she wasn't pointing and laughing at us). Near as we can figure, this came about because we'd been talking that day about the fact that while I have my own parents, I also now have a mom and dad in-law who I didn't have when I was younger, so I got more parents, in a sense. She wants more too.
   
   
2. E4.2 was playing with her prince/princess/horse figurines, and the conversation she created between them at one point, went like this:
   Prince: "Okay. That's it for me."
   Random Princess: "What?!?!? But we just started playing! You can't quit now!"
   Prince: "Yes I can. You see..." *pause for dramatic effect* "I'm the bad guy!" *oh noes!*
   Random Princess who doesn't put up with silly little bad guys: "No you're not," *scoffing* "You're just wearing his costume." And they went back to playing, Prince included. The moral of this story is, you can't just dress like a bad guy. You have to be the bad guy.
   
   
3. At a b-day party for one of J6.11's friends, the birthday boy received some silly bands from his friend. (If you don't know what these demonic items are, go ask any kid from age 4 to 18. They'll look at you like you're an idiot, roll their eyes, and thrust their arm in your face so you can look at the twisted, obscurely colored bands encasing their arms. Enjoy.) After all the congratulations and jealous moaning were past, the gift giver pointed out their superior features in used-car salesman glory. "See! They're tie-dyed AND they glow in the dark!" While all the other kids were oohing and aahing, one kid looked down his nose a the gift-giver and said "Yeah, but do they have smells?" The gift-giver's face fell and he mumbled, "No." And the other kids had a new silly-band hero.

Say Wha-?

My husband and I always laugh at how differently we pronounce words in our heads when reading stuff. We've gone to my mom before to have her settle how to say something, only for her to start laughing at us because she uses a third pronunciation. On a side-note, isn't it weird how you can say something in your head and it seems perfectly normal, but somehow saying it out loud and introducing your tongue and mouth to the equation makes it sound NOT like what was in your head?

Lisa Shearin is helping all her readers out by posting a compendium of pronunciations for the Names, Places and random Words in her Raine Benares novels. It was compiled by Lisa and the audio book reader (voice-over actress) for her first several novels.

I was pronouncing Tamnais wrong. Way wrong. 'tam-NAY-is' was my interpretation. Apparently it's 'tom-NAHS'. So does that mean when they shorted it to Tam, it's not pronounced Tam but Tom? I like Tam better. ANYhoo, it was cool to see the list and compare.

Mmmm, book book book book

What Time Is It? No, it's not summertime on the High School Musical set (sorry, that's a HSM2 reference for those of you without squealy girl offspring or relations). It's almost the end of the month, which means 2 straight weeks of new book releases!!! Commence giddy dancing.

What am I looking forward to? Well, glad you asked. Aaaaaaand, heeeeeeere we go!

June 29th

• Fatal Circle by Linda Robertson - urban fantasy - book 3 in her series, and I've been eagerly awaiting this one. Great heroine who's destined to balance the paranormal forces of the world, but not a kick-butt confident one. She's worried about the responsibility and doing the right thing with the trust she's been given. Nice amount of emotion, balanced with action, and some intellectual dilemmas without clear-cut right and wrong paths.

• Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter - young adult - book four in the Gallagher Girls series and I really like these books. The spy stuff woven throughout typical teen girl drama is entertaining. And no angst. Thank you, Ms. Carter.

• The Brazen Bride by Stephanie Laurens - historical romance - kinda looking forward to this one, mainly because she's just a good writer. I admit that all her heroes are really starting to run together for me, though and the heroines aren't much more distinct. I'm also tired. Tired of the repetition. Of the same thing. Over and over again. And the fragments. Of sentences. At first, it was a unique writing style. Now it annoys me.

July 6th

• Bonds of Justice by Nalini Singh - paranormal romance - More Psy/Changeling goodness. Cannot get enough, eva.

• Demon Blood by Meljean Brook - paranormal romance - Another writer whose work I can't get enough of. Nuff said.

Did I miss anything?

Out of Practice

Sat down to write the other day. Had an idea for a scene and thought to myself, oh, this will be quick. Yeah. It was quick in the same way my kids are able to occupy themselves for longer than 3.5 minutes - Epic Fail.

An hour later, I was angry, my scene was done (kinda), and my brain was cramping. Obviously taking several weeks off from writing hadn't done my brain any good. Bad Writer!

I have done a good bit of plotting though, so that ways on the Nice side of my list. Unfortunately, that's the only responsible writer type thing I've done lately. No editing, no editing, no editing. Sigh. I really need to edit. :(

Links and Contests!!

Dear Author is doing their usual ACE/ROC giveaway - there's even a new (gasp!) BOY urban fantasy series starting up in there!!! It looks good. The last Weather Warden series book by Rachel Caine is also up for grabs, as well as Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (but everyone on the planet should already have that one... and if you don't, consider yourself slapped silly.)

OMG The Hoff in a ninja movie (Dancing Ninja at that) and his character name is... WAIT FOR IT...

Ansel Ladouche.

My world is complete. Thanks to Smart Bitches, Trashy Books for the heads-up

Completely unrelated to the Hoff, B&N is giving you a free $50 gift card to start filling your e-library if you purchase a nook "for a limited time". You may walk out of a B&N with your nook or order one on-line. Either way, now's a good time to pick one up. Not mention the free e-books they give you each week. And the cookies and 7-Layer bars from the cafe when you show them the coupon on your nook. I heart my nook.

Go forth and enjoy your day!