heidi's blog

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

I hope you all have your flags out & your grills fired up. :-D

Enjoy the holiday!

I'm getting ready for the RWA conference, of course, so today was my pre-conference hair appointment. No fancy, freaky colors this time, but I did jump feet first into...bangs. I haven't had bangs in ages, but I've been thinking about them for a while, so this time I just said, "Give 'em to me!" We'll see how they look & how I handle them. (I am not a hair styling queen, so just because I've got bangs doesn't mean I'll know what to do with them. LOL)

I also had to run over to the dentist because I broke a tooth. A molar, thank God, so I don't have a giant gap in the front, but still...I was so not happy. Then again, having the tooth filled was a great excuse for a zap of novocaine. Don't like the needle, but I love that buh-buh-buh numbness that lasts for a couple hours afterwards. Call me crazy, but I think it's cool. Of course, once it wears off, you're left with the tingles &--in my case, anyway--a little bit of pain.

Aside from that, I'm still just digging through my closet for clothes, trying stuff on (egads, my very least favorite thing), & making a long, long list of everything I can't live without, even for only a week. That will be my life for a while, so don't expect anything too exciting for the next couple of weeks.

Unless, of course, my new website design finally goes live, in which case it will be very, very exciting. *g*

My web designer has requested that I alert you all to the possibility of a "blackout" here at my website over the next few days. We're working hard to get the redesign of all the pages finalized & to get everything switched over to a new server so we can go live. But that means that there may be a window of time--twenty-four hours, even--when my website will either not be accessible, or it will be, but you won't be able to do anything within the current pages. (That makes sense, right?)

So if you have trouble getting a page to load or click on a link & it doesn't work, you'll know why. I'm also not sure if the changes will effect the blog at all...my ability to post, your ability to access or comment... Guess we'll just have to wait & see.

I'm not sure when this switch will be taking place, though, so know that any time over the next few days to a week, you could run into glitches & such.

But then my new site will be up & it will be gorgeous, & you'll all be so excited & delighted, you won't even remember that the old site was giving you fits. :-D So be patient with us, okay? It'll totally be worth it in the end!

Today was our community yard sale, so of course I had to bop around & see what everyone had. I should have cleaned the house & had one of my own, but I'm either too busy or too lazy. Maybe next year.

Although it was a little warm & I'm not a fan of being out in the sun for too long, I put on my big, floppy hat & walked around & around. It was fun. Didn't find a whole lot, but then, I don't really need anything. :-p

I did find a couple of new monkeys to add to the collection, though. (Gads, I'm not supposed to have a collection. I didn't set out to have a collection. I don't need another collection!)

The first (on the left, though it's not a very clear picture) is a little wall sconce/votive holder. Kind of peculiar-looking, but cute, too, & he was only a dime. :-) I already hung him on my office wall. Whether or not I'll actually burn candles in him is a different story. What if he falls down? What if a cat knocks him over? What if I light a candle, then walk away & the whole house burns down? So we'll see. I may give him a test run & see how it works out.

The second is one of those stuffed monkeys with velcro on his hands so it can hang around your neck. I've got about six of these now...& don't need a single one of them. But they're cute & I like them, so I'm keeping them. So there! I actually hung this one on the front of my exercise bike...mostly just to get him out of the way for a while, but it turns out he looks really cute there, so I may leave him. We'll see how that works out after the next time I use my bike. Don't know if he'll flap around & drive me nuts or keep me from sticking a bottle of water in the holder or what. Again, we'll see. :-)

Oh, & I found a little set of frogs to add to that collection. (Not looking. Not trying to collect. These things just keep falling into my lap & I don't have the will to resist them!)


So that was my day, & now that I'm home, I need to get back to writing. Oh, & finding some clothes that seem to be MIA so I can start lining up my outfits & packing for RWA. :-p

I can't believe it's Friday again already. Where the heck does the time go?

I've been writing like crazy, getting pages & pages done on my first single title for St. Martin's Press. I am so excited about this book, having a fabulous time, & can only hope that everything I'm doing now makes sense in the end when the whole book is finished. :-p

I've also been working closely this past week or so with my web designer on the redesign of my website. Yes, I know I've been talking about it for quite a while, but we're coming down to the wire now, I swear. We're hoping to have the new site go live over the weekend or early next week. I definitely want it up before I leave for the RWA National conference in Dallas because I'll be handing out little cards to promote my blog & mailing list there & I don't want folks to get home with them, try to check the new site, & go, Huh?

It's all going to be gorgeous, that's for sure. Yeah, there will probably be some bugs to work out, & since we're moving my blog from Blogger to WordPress, it will definitely take me a while to get the hang of the new layout & functions. But bear with me & I promise we'll have some fun. (Wait until you see! He he he he. :-D)

And last but not least, I've been watching some movies. (I can watch & write at the same time, thankyouverymuch.) Watched the end of Sahara, which I'd actually started quite some time ago...didn't love it, but watching Matthew McConaughey is never a hardship; The Cave, which I expected to be bad, but actually enjoyed...it's one of those dark, eerie, almost B-movie horror flicks; & The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which was also better than I expected...that one I thought was going to be a horror flick, but it ended up being more of a courtroom drama-type thing.

Oh, & I'm also working on the galleys of my November Silhouette Desire, CHRISTMAS IN HIS ROYAL BED, going through the story one last time for typos & the like before it goes to press. Hopefully I can catch them all this time, since I've been getting letters about a name snafu in FORTUNE'S FORBIDDEN WOMAN. Did you know that at one point (I want to say on page 34 or 35, but I'm not sure) the hero's name changes from Creed to Chase, then back again? LOL Don't know if it was a typo or a mental thing (since Chase is the name of my hero from the previous book, BLACKMAILED INTO BED), but there it was. I never caught it, & apparently no one else did, either...at least not until the story reached readers. :-P

But what can you do? I guess the good news is that it didn't ruin the book for anyone, & everybody seems to have caught on quickly enough. I have such smart readers. *g*