Jen's Attic: October 2006

Happy Halloween!

I've Been Tagged...

Dana Diamond tagged me. I'm supposed to come up with five fun or unusual facts about me.

Boring. But remember this is all DANA DIAMOND'S FAULT!

But here's my attempt:

1) My brothers were 10 and 13 years older than me, but I was creative. The oldest brother, Rich was being mean to me one morning when I was just trying to watch cartoons probably at the crack of dawn. He insisted I turn the TV down because his room was on the other side of the TV wall. I waited for Rich to go back to sleep, then crept quietly into his room and sprayed shaving cream all over his face. I forgot all about it until he started screaming when he saw himself in the mirror. My parents thought it was hysterical...And they are clearly to be blamed for my twisted behavior.

2) I ran over my mom's foot in a Volkswagen when I was three years old. I have no memory of this so my family is probably making it up! Actually I was just in the car when it rolled back over my mom's foot. But I still get blamed!

3) My husband and I took our two oldest kids to the mountains when they were little, about 3 and 1 years old I think. What did we NOT take? Chains. Yep, we got stuck in a surprise snowstorm in a Ford Aerostar van. To this day, I don't know how we made it down the mountain.

4) I went to a Radio Control Car Expo that my husband and three sons were racing in. They were videotaping the event. I had no interest in radio control cars, except that my husband and kids were involved. It was a hot day and I went in shorts and a little top :-) A week or two later, my husband went to buy the video because he was in it. Only the guys at the store, who knew him, were LAUGHING saying he had to see this tape. My husband bought it, watched it and was stunned. He had ended up on the cutting room floor while there was lots of tape of me. My poor husband! Everyone tormented him. I was embarrassed! I still believe they were promoting the event as Family Entertainment and I was the "mom" on the videotape.

5) I threw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game as promotion for an upcoming booksigning celebrating the release of a new book. I hadn't thrown a ball in years, at least not since I had developed Rheumatoid Arthritis and I knew I'd make a fool of myself! I ended up throwing the pitch to a Mascot who had to make a flying dive but he did catch the pitch! The things I'll do to sell books! The bookseller suggested skydiving for the next year. I politely declined!

Okay you're turn! Tell me something interesting about yourself!

Flowers! And Question of the Day...

I'm posting flowers from my garden just for Maureen Child today! She's been SUBTLY REMINDING me to blog, and so...I'm blogging! And look Maureen, I can grow flowers! Okay, just Vincas, and maybe my husband did plant them but still. FLOWERS THAT AREN'T DEAD!

In other news--life has been crazy. A son broke his foot, a husband broke his tooth and I am taking the online PR Bootcamp class that is hard. Everyone wants to talk to me while I'm doing my homework. It goes like this:

Them "What are you doing?"
Me "Homework."
Them "For what"
Me "I'm learning how to set up a public relations campaign."
Them "Uh huh, I found candy in the cupboard, can I eat it?"
Me. "No."
Them "Grandma ate her Halloween candy and you had to buy her more." (True story and she was 90 lbs--life is NOT fair. I am NOT 90 lbs)
Me trying to look serious. "Don't start making me laugh." But the games over and I end up chatting for another half hour to kid or hubby.

An hour later, same conversation with another one of the men in my life.

Now for my question of the day: I heard this morning that some parents are taking kids as young as 11 months old to psychologist or therapists. Who do you think really needs the help--the kid or the parents? I mean COME ON! A baby needs sane parents not therapy!

The Cover!

First I must do some promo...Here's my publishing schedule for 2007

THE SEX ON THE BEACH BOOK CLUB January 2007

SUN SAND SEX Anthology June 2007

UNTITLED ROMANTIC MYSTERY November 2007

Two books and a novella in one year! Why? Because my editor, Kate Duffy, is awesome :-)

Okay, and now introducing the cover for SUN, SAND, SEX...

Question of the Day

I had a whole blog that Blogger ate. So here's the condensed version:

I got a JPeg of my cover for the SUN, SAND, SEX anthology that I hope to post later this week. That book is an anthology with Linda Lael Miller and Shelly Laurenston. SUN SAND SEX will be out June 2007.

In the meantime, I went grocery shopping and while putting cookies in the cookie jar, I had to wonder:

Do broken cookies have calories?

Vote for Kate Carlisle KAMA SUTRA CHRONICLES

Today is the first day to vote at The American Title Contest. Kate Carlisle is a friend and very talented, funny writer. Go here http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php to read and vote!

Friday the 13th

I came home from the gym and ALL THE CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS WERE GONE!

Enough said.

Trying to be Good

I don't understand why I'm struggling with the middle age weight issue. I mean look at my morning:

Get up, have a banana and coffee.
Go to the gym.
Come home, have another cup of coffee and a chocolate chip muffin.
Sit all day and write.

Why am I not losing weight? Mwhahahaha!!!!

Should the Lawyer Have Gotten the Boot?

I tried to post once this morning, but after working on it for awhile, Blogger lost the connection and everything vanished. Fun times...

So instead I'm going to do a short version. In Santa Barbara, the Appeals Court removed a prosecutor from a rape case because she had written a novel (self-published) that had a similar rape.

Here's the link http://www.metnews.com/articles/2006/hara100606.htm

I think this is a case of the judges having a hard time sorting out fact and fiction. What do you all think?

Learn How To Promote Yourself!

I am terrible at self-promotion. Everyone knows it. It's time I learned how to promote in a way that is comfortable for me. So I'm taking the online class of a good friend of mine, Louise Knott Ahern. I worked with Louise when I was Co-President of the Orange County Chapter of RWA. She is truly gifted at promotion. I saw first hand her innovative ideas on promoting events for OCC. Not only did she have the ideas, but she taught the OCC Board of Directors the skills to implement the ideas.

So I'm going to take Louise's online class PR BOOT CAMP. If you are interested in learning to promote, check out this class. Here's the information:

PR Boot Camp: Everything You Need to Know to Manage Your Own Public Relations
Oct. 16 -- Nov. 11, 2006
Hosted by the Orange County Chapter, RWA
To sign up, go to www.occrwa.com/classes_October.htm

I'm Here and There

Today I'm blogging over at the Brava Blog if you would like to stop by.

As for yesterday's post, Kate Carlisle had a great question--which dwarf would you pick to dress up as for Halloween? Look at the picture in the post below this one to see your options!