August 19, 2008 | Filed under: Stuff

I had to admit to Alpha Man last night that I was bumping George Clooney off my list for a newbie. You know the list I mean, right? Don’t even try to tell me you don’t all have a list. It’s the Can’t-Divorce-Me-If-I-Do-Them list!

Anyway, I was reading one of my fave sites this morning, Dooce, and saw she’d done the same thing.

Here’s my newest edition to my list:

I know there’s all this talk about how ridiculously low he wears his swimgear, and I have to say, that doesn’t bother me one little bit. So here’s my new top five:

Matt Damon
Johnny Depp
Clive Owen
Michael Phelps
Matt Damon

You’ll notice I have Matt Damon on twice. I call it a Matt Damon sandwich.

Now you. Your top five?

August 18, 2008 | Filed under: Stuff

So I had a set of galleys due today. It’s a print out of my book, and it’s the last time I’ll see it before it goes to print. It requires a careful read to catch any last minute mistakes. As usual, I waited until the last minute for this chore, and the whole manuscript was sitting in a neat stack, rubber-banded, on my bed. I came back upstairs after breakfast to get started and saw this on the floor:

Huh. That looks suspiciously like how my galleys might look if some not-to-be-named kitty cat had EATEN THEM. Panic time. I looked at the bed. No neat rubber-banded stack of manuscript pages. Just this:

Oh no. No, no, no . . . I narrowed my eyes at the other bundle on the bed, only a foot away:

Are you KIDDING me? Sadie Shalvis! Wake your butt up and face the music. She didn’t want to wake up. I suppose all that hard work destroying my galleys had tired her out. So Oldest and I had a good time torturing her, giving her stuffed animals to hug.

She still wouldn’t wake up. I think she was faking . . .

Just so I wouldn’t kill her . . . It’s a good tactic, as it worked.

August 16, 2008 | Filed under: Stuff

(Psst: to see contest winners from earlier in the week, go click here )

Donner Lake, sunset last night. We stayed out there very late, until everyone’s muscles were mush from boarding and then came home and watched Olympics. Which are killing me, by the way, I can’t stay up until one in the morning every night and function, but I can’t stop watching.

I need a nap. You?

PS I know I didn’t name a winner from the contest earlier in the week, I will do that by tomorrow, I promise! So stay tuned . . .

August 15, 2008 | Filed under: Stuff

There was a bee in my house. A big, fat, hungry bee, buzzing and buzzing around my windows, which drove me crazy. I wanted to go after it but one; I was afraid, and two; I was afraid.

Not as terrified as I would be a spider, but it was a close second.

So I sicced Ashes on the thing.

Ashes loves to eat bees. She ate three just yesterday but her tongue swelled and today suddenly she doesn’t like bees so much.

Go get it, Ashes!

But nothing. She didn’t wanna.

Dammit.

I tried Mountain Barbie next. Surely this wild, fearless puppy would protect me. Right, Mountain Barbie?

RIGHT?

But she thought the bee was her friend and even played with it for awhile, but then she lost interest, distracted by her own tail, and then the need to lick herself.

Thanks a lot, Mountain Barbie.

Desperate, I put Sadie The Cat on bee duty. “Kill,” I told her.

She yawned, stretched, and then swatted it with one casual bat of her paw, nailing the thing on the first try.

Then she ate half the carcass, left the other half as a present for me, and took a long nap.

Sadie, you are my new hero.

August 14, 2008 | Filed under: Stuff

Would you like to know what happens when your daughter leaves a soda can in the freezer? Specifically in the ice tray of the freezer? And then takes a call from A Boy and forgets about the can? In fact, forgets about everything because she’s ON THE PHONE, MOM!

And when you try to talk to her, she looks at you horrified for daring to interrupt her call with The Boy, and gives you the shoo away wave?

Which reminds me, why is it when I’M on the phone all hell breaks loose around me and I can’t have a conversation even for a minute, but when the situation is reversed there must be silence?

Yes, I realize that’s because it’s A Boy, but please. I’ve been around boys for longer than she’s been alive, and I could tell her that they’re not always all they’re cracked up to be, but I guess there are some things she’s just going to have to learn for herself.

As she’s cleaning out my freezer from her exploded soda can . . .

August 13, 2008 | Filed under: Stuff

Summer has finally arrived here in the Sierras in full swing. It’s been extremely hot the past few days, prompting me to do the unthinkable — dream about snow. Skiing. Snowshoeing. Christmas . . .

Yes, I’m crazy. But Santa? I’ll take a trip to the Mother’s cookie factory please.

Continuing on that theme, my editor sent me the cover to the Harlequin Christmas anthology collection, Heating Up The Holidays, out in December, and actually, I thought I’d already shared this with you here on the blog, but for the life of me I can’t find it in my archives anywhere. It’s vanished.

Probably the ghost from the attic messing with me again, but that’s a story for another time.

My novella is a continuation of the Firehouse #34 series I have going. It’s Cristina’s and Dustin’s story, and don’t worry, if you haven’t read FLASHPOINT or FLASHBACK, you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Here’s a quick excerpt from chapter one:

Dustin pulled up to the multi-car pile-up on Hwy 1, where he could immediately see what they faced — a big rig had hit the center divider, caught fire, and been hit by two other cars, which had slid beneath the trailer. It was a chaotic mess, and all units had been called to the scene.

The firefighters from his station were already there. Blake was working the flames, Zach and Aidan using the jaws of life to extract the people trapped in the first car, while Sam and Eddie rescued the woman in the second car.

And then there was the stubborn, gorgeous firefighter in the center of it all. Cristina, aka Heartbreaker, surrounded by the blazing big rig and the smashed cars, feet firmly planted wide as she held a hose on the flames. She was in her fire gear from head to toe, including mask, so he couldn’t see her face but he didn’t need to. Her expression would be calm assertive, intensely determined as she concentrated on the job at hand.

Much as it’d been when she’d dumped him after the best night of his life.