Heidi Betts - www.heidibetts.com

new cover flats...& a special treat for you (I hope)

Oooh. A stack of cover flats for my May Silhouette Desire, MR. AND MISTRESS, just arrived. Not a huge number, but enough to fan thru & adequately admire. :-)

I knew I liked this cover, but it looks even more gorgeous full-blown, in all its gold & maroon glory. Really, really nice. It still makes me think, "Here, honey. Hold my purse while I fix my hair," but that's okay. And I want Misty's earrings! LOL

As a special treat to those of you who have been checking in to read my blog every day--& I know you're out there, even if most of you choose not to leave comments very often--I'm going to send autographed MR. AND MISTRESS cover flats to the first five people who respond to this post. Just a nice little note to let me know you're out there & would like one.

They're really ni-ice. And you can get a sneak peek at Misty's gorgeous earrings & Cullen's really very attractive tie while everyone else has to wait until May. :-D

Let the posting begin!

catching up is hard to do

Had an appointment yesterday, & used it as an excuse to shop the whole rest of the day. :-P What fun, but now I have mondo catching up to do. I did find some very cute promo items, tho, & an outfit I'll probably wear to an upcoming conference. Yay!

So what's been going on?

Well, my bruises from the latest "slip & slide" incident are starting to appear & I've got some sore muscles here & there. (I could barely turn my head the day after, but my neck now seems to be okay.) They're working themselves out, but I can definitely feel them. And I'm still taking baby steps through that part of the house. :-p

Got my "Dakota Fortunes" story, FORTUNE'S FORBIDDEN WOMAN, plotted out & am working on the synopsis. I'd say I'm about half done, but it will take some fine-tuning before I'm happy enough to send it to my editor for approval. My contracts for the book also arrived, so I read over them, signed with my very special & hopefully lucky fishy pen (the one my agent gave me at RWA National last year), & will put them back in the mail today.

My DVDs for The Pretender, Season 3 finally showed up, too. I ordered them a few weeks ago & can't wait to watch them. Although, I still haven't had the chance to watch Season 2 yet, so one of these days I'll have to sit down, pop some popcorn, & have a Pretender marathon or something.

And I got more foreign editions of BOUGHT BY A MILLIONAIRE. Holy mackerel, they seem to be rolling in on an almost daily basis. I'm going to be overrun by the things pretty soon, & I can't read a word of any of them. :-p This time it's Italian. I love the cover...it's the same as the North American version of MILLIONAIRE, but more of a close-up, so you can see more detail. Very nice. The title is Oltre il denaro, l'amore. I went to a translation website & it means "Beyond the Money, the Love." Awwwww.

That's about all for now. I've got a couple of articles about writing I'm thinking of posting, & maybe some tips or answers to "ask the author"-type questions I've been getting a lot of lately. A couple of giveaway ideas...the new contest running on my website...etc. Now I just need to follow thru. Cross your fingers, but don't hold your breath, just in case. :-)

is it just me...

or did Susan Meyer (on Sunday night's episode of Desperate Housewives) A.) recover faster from her spleen-ectomy than any other surgery patient in the history of the world? & B.) then become more of an invalid than any other surgery patient in the history of the world?

I mean, come on!

First, she looked terrific when she was released from the hospital. And the whole time she's wheeling around the room, bumping into things to get away from the doctor (the love interest one; I forget this name), she's moving just fine, not even twinging. I've had surgery; even with minor stuff, you look like something the cat coughed up afterwards. You move very slowly & every little movement makes you cringe.

Then she's home & in a wheelchair?!? Who are they kidding? You have to break your leg in sixteen places to get a wheelchair. Oh, the hospital lets you use one of theirs to get to the curb, where they dump you into your car & say, "Adios!" but they do not send minor surgery patients home with them. (And these days, anything less than a triple bypass or limb reattachment is considered "minor." Right?)

And to top it all off, when the doc goes over to Mike's house, she's bouncing around on the sidewalk & street in her wheelchair, trying to chase him down. Then she falls & is suddenly, supposedly in pain. Yeah, right. Falling out of the wheelchair like that after surgery probably would have popped a couple of stitches, & she most certainly wouldn't have been "fine." She'd have been in tears, writhing in pain.

Sorry, but I just did not buy that at all. Am I wrong here? Has anyone had a similar surgery & hops up to look & feel that good a day or so later? Even on pain killers--& I've had some good ones :-)--you don't recover that quickly.

That's my gripe for the day. Television shows have really got to get better at these things...they're giving me entirely too much to blog about. :-P

never dust under the rug unless you're TRYING to kill yourself

We've already established that I'm a little accident-prone & lacking in grace of movement, right? So this will come as no surprise to you.

But let it be a lesson to everyone who likes to keep a clean house: never use wood polishes or dusting sprays on a hardwood floor, under a throw rug, unless you want to die a rather painful & surprising death.

I did this, & thought nothing of it. Then, about an hour later, heard one of my cats crying. And of course, being the good kitty mama that I am, I went racing to see what was wrong. From my office, through the living room, toward the kitchen. "What's wrong, baby? Mama's coming!"

That's about when I hit the edge of the rug that was on the newly polished &--little did I realize--extremely slippery floor. The rug went sliding, I went flying...& the rest is sort of a blur.

But I swear, baseball players couldn't have gone sliding into home plate as well as I went sliding across that dining room floor. (So clean. So shiny. So deadly.) And baseball players also don't have to worry about cracking their heads into newel posts with sharp corners as they round the stairs. I didn't crack my head, thank goodness, but I did crack my hip, arm, & left boob on the way down. My poor left boob! I think it's a little closer to center now than it should be, & may never be the same. (The next time you see me, if both of my breasts are on the same side of my body, you'll know why. :-P)

And I am so going to have bruises in the morning. The ones from my fall off the treadmill were just beginning to fade, too. :-(

But I didn't break my fingers or wrists (though I do have a bit of rug burn on the one) so I can still write--which we all know is the important thing.

And I'm off to do that now... Very slowly, taking small, careful steps.

this totally makes up for not getting a RITA nom

Well, maybe not totally, but it comes in a pretty close second. :-)

I just got a phone call informing me that WHEN THE LIGHTS GO DOWN is a finalist in the Short Contemporary category for Colorado Romance Writers' "Award of Excellence."

Yippee!!!

I was too stunned to ask when this would be posted on their website (so I could make sure I'm not dreaming, of course) & when the winners would be announced, but I'm sure I'll find out eventually. If they don't send me a follow-up letter or e-mail, then I'll hear it through the grapevine.

That was a nice surprise for an otherwise uneventful Sunday afternoon, &--I think--deserves a little bit of a Snoopy Dance. (Picture me dancing, cuz that's what I'm doing. :-D)

more foreign editions

Finally picked up my mail today, after letting it pile up for a while, & I was happily surprised to find not one, but two new foreign editions of my Desires in the box.

One is a Japanese version of BOUGHT BY A MILLIONAIRE. The cover is basically the same as the North American printing, but the neat thing is that the entire book is backwards. It opens on the left instead of the right, so I keep flipping it over, then going, "Oh, no, it's supposed to be that way. " LOL Unfortunately, not even my mother can make sense of it...she only reads a bit of Chinese. (Hmm, think I'll get Chinese copies soon? :-))

The other is a German version of BLAME IT ON THE BLACKOUT. Completely different cover than when it was published here, & instead of being a book-book, it's more like a mini-magazine...like a crossword puzzle book. And it actually has a crossword puzzle in the back, as well as a horoscope page. Cool. Wish books in this country had horoscopes in them. :-p

That was the big excitement for today. Aside from that, I read through my "Dakota Fortunes" bible & am beginning to process what needs to happen in my story. I want to start plotting it out & write the synopsis soon, but I'd like to have a really good idea for the opening first. Once I have that, I think--hope!--the rest will fall into place.

Have a good weekend, all!

no RITA for me

RWA's RITA & Golden Heart nominations went out today, & I have to admit, I was kind of hoping for a phone call. I didn't really expect one, but I was hoping. :-) I didn't even realize today was the day until I got online to check e-mail & started seeing notes about it. I prefer to not even think about stuff like that...if it's going to happen, I like to be surprised, & if it's not, I don't even want to know. LOL

I do have a couple of friends who finaled, tho, so there will definitely be celebrating at the conference in Atlanta this summer! Whoo-hoo!

And--while pretending not to be listening for the phone--I did manage to get 8pgs written on BLACKMAILED INTO BED. That puts me almost halfway thru the book, which is coming along just swimmingly. I can't wait to get it finished, just to see how it turns out.

Now I've got to get back to it. Congratulations to all the RITA & Golden Heart finalists!!! I'll be cheering you on at the Awards Ceremony, & won't wear a stitch of green, I promise. :-D

I got my bracelet!

Okay, this story is going to take some setting up.

See, there were these bracelets in Target the last time I was there. I fell in love with them the moment I saw them. They were sterling silver, with little Celtic designs & Swarovski (is that right?) crystals. They were also on clearance. (Oh, color me excited! I love jewelry, but I especially love it when it's on sale! :-D)

They had them in blue, purple, green, & brown. But for some reason, the brown one (which I really liked) was not marked down. I even asked at the register, & they gave me some spiel about the order to lower prices coming from the companies & there must be some reason the brown ones weren't on sale. Okay, fine. Wal-Mart would have given it to me for the sale price, but what-ever. I put it back & left with just the blue, purple, & green ones. (Just--ha! Most people would have been happy with only one, but I had to have them all. All, I tell you!)

This was right around the time SEVEN-YEAR SEDUCTION came out, so I was going from town to town signing copies I found in stores, anyway, which meant I stumbled across another Target rather quickly. They had the exact same bracelets on sale, but can you believe that at this store, they were $6 cheaper?!? Sheesh! Once again, tho, that darn brown one was not marked down. &^%$#@! But mama didn't raise no fools, so I picked up another blue one, another purple one, & another green one, & bought them all over again, figuring I'd return the more expensive ones to the other store & get my money back.

That was weeks ago. I'd pretty much given up hope of ever getting my pretty brown bracelet, & I knew that if I didn't return the others soon, I might never be able to. Then yesterday, my mother had a workshop to attend in a town with a Target store, so I gave her the bag of to-be-returned bracelets & asked her to take them back for me.

Next thing you know, she's calling me on her cell phone. They have all those bracelets I liked in a bin of clearance jewelry, marked down even more--$7 each. Of course, they don't have any of the Celtic ones, just the other designs that I didn't care for. Look for the brown one, I tell her. Keep looking!

She calls back. No, they didn't have the brown one--or any of the Celtic ones--in the bin, but she looked on the regular wrack at the jewelry counter & the brown one was there, still full price. Well, double &^%$#@! But what can you do? Okay, I say. Guess I'm just going to have to deal with the fact that I'm not meant to have that braclet. Return the others & we'll call it a day, thanks.

A few minutes later, she calls again. I will not believe what happened, she tells me. She took the brown bracelet up to the desk with the others that needed to be returned, & the woman who waited on her was the mother of a boy she had in school. A boy who loved her! And the mother couldn't have been nicer. My mom told her what was going on, how much I loved that brown bracelet, but how the darn thing was never marked down like the others. And the woman says, "Well, we'll just override that."

So I not only got my refund, but I also finally got my beloved brown bracelet for the bargain price of $7. How cool is that? I couldn't have gotten any luckier if I married a leprechaun.

I'm wearing it now. My beautiful, much-coveted silver & brown bracelet...with my Spongebob pajamas. As hard as it was to finally get my hands on, I may never take this sucker off!

is it just me...

or does Eric's sister, Marisol, on CSI: Miami not look all that sick?

She's supposed to have cancer, right? In fact, the last time she was on the show, it was mentioned that she had "only a couple more months to live."

So shouldn't she be in the hospital or a hospice or something? At the very least, she should be bald from chemo treatments & have dark circles under her eyes. She should actually look like she's sick & in pain.

Instead, she's flitting around, looking better than any cancer patient I've ever seen & spending her days being pampered at some expensive spa. It also sounds like she & Horatio are going to hook up & there may be a baby in her future.

And what woman with terminal cancer & "only a couple months to live" even thinks about getting pregnant? That's what I want to know. Last time I checked, it takes 9 months to have a baby, & she'll only be around two or three of those. Unless Miami is planning a miraculous recovery. (Which I'm kind of beginning to suspect. Sheesh!)

What do you think? Am I wrong here, & overreacting? Or do you wish that just once everyone on that show wasn't so freaking beautiful, even in the end stages of cancer? LOL

when bad bookmarks happen to good people

Well, my new bookmarks arrived. Unfortunately, they look like crap. Okay, not crap-crap, but they're not nearly as nice as I'd hoped or expected.

For one thing, my face looks like a cheese doodle. Really...I'm orange, like Charlize Theron at last year's Oscars with her apricot spray-on tan. (Was that a bad idea, or what?)

For another, they're cut smaller than they're supposed to be, so they sort of look...stunted. Like runts of the litter. And the edges are trimmed really badly. Normally, they're smooth, but these look like the printer's blade needs sharpened or something. They're kind of raggedy & just aren't as nice as they should be. Even the back, which is just black on white, has smudges that shouldn't be there. :-P

And sadly, I'm stuck with them. We used a new printer this time, one who promised a faster turnaround time, but they sure didn't produce a very professional product. (Back to the old printer, I say!) Except for doing a half-assed job, the printer really didn't do anything wrong, so it's not like I can demand a refund or reprint.

Sigh. I'm sure if any of you saw this bookmark, you'd wonder what I'm stressing about. (Except for the cheese doodle face, maybe; I'm guessing you'd notice that right away.) I'm just used to a much higher quality product & really loved this bookmark design, so I wanted them to be fabulous. Crisp, clean, snazzy...

Ah, well, what can you do? When you see them, just know that I have not been spending too much time in a tanning bed, & that I really did want them to be so much prettier than they turned out. :-(

back to business

Well, my weekend was pretty much a bust...as far as getting any writing done, anyway. Spent almost all of Saturday helping my mother update her computer--you know, anti-spyware, virus protection, & the like. And of course we're all on dial-up in this neck of the woods, so it took freaking forever. I wish she'd learn to do that sort of thing on her own...but then, you know how mothers are, especially when it comes to technology. :-P

Then Sunday I mostly spent--eew, can you believe it?--cleaning. What is with that? I must have been running a fever. (There is something going around; I didn't think I'd caught it, but maybe I did. It's the only explanation I can come up with for that kind of odd behavior.) I sorted, weeded, put things away, dusted, & even vacuumed a bit. Yikes! That's not to say it didn't need done, just that I wouldn't normally take an entire day to do it. LOL

I also managed to finish No Escape by Heather Lowell & am now getting ready to start Kill the Messenger by Tami Hoag & Beyond Innocence by Emma Holly. I hope they're good ones, altho they'll probably both take me forever to get thru. :-( I'm also very close to finishing The MacGregor Grooms by Nora Roberts, & am still eyeing Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince, knowing I should start it but not being quite ready to jump into it yet.

And--for anyone who may be interested in new DVD releases--while fiddling around online this weekend, I discovered that Season 1 of The Young Riders will be out tomorrow, March 21st (Jennifer, that one's for you! :-D)...Season 1 of The Sentinel is coming April 18th (Did anyone besides myself watch that show?!? I loved it!)...& Seasons 1 & 2 of Wings is coming out May 23rd. So mark your calendars & start saving up. :-) Now if they would just start releasing Diagnosis Murder on DVD, darn it, I'd be a happy camper. :-P

All right, time to get busy & back to work! Have a good Monday, everyone!

happy st. patrick's day!

Aside from Halloween, St. Patrick's Day is my favorite holiday. I just love all things Irish! :-)

I'm already wearing green, by way of a brand new pair of flannel pjs with froggies & lilypads on them, & am planning--at some point in the day--to dance a jig. Well, you know...maybe.

Do you have any plans for this St. Patrick's Day? We could all go out to a local pub & get snookered. Sing a few Irish ditties. Or maybe we could just tune in to QVC to see what Irish goodies they're selling.

That's actually my favorite St. Patrick's Day tradition. LOL I don't usually buy anything, but I love to see all the beautiful stuff, often straight from the Emerald Isle itself. And when they start to show that gorgeous Celtic jewelry, I admit by palms begin to itch & it takes a concerted effort not the get up & run to the phone.

However you spend your day today, I hope you have a good time. And if you get the chance, raise a pint of Guinness for me! :-)

when did TV suddenly get so good again?

All right, maybe it's because I have Dish Network now, with so many more channels to choose from. Or maybe I've simply been stumbling across great programming. But I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by some of the shows I've been catching lately.

This past Friday, when I was kind of distracted by concerns about my mom's mammogram, I happened to find several episodes of Firefly playing all in a row on the Sci-Fi Channel--& we all know how much I LOVE Firefly.

Then, at the end of that little mini-marathon, I discovered that they were also playing John Doe. Does anyone remember this show? It was on Fox, about the same time as Firely, but didn't last long, either. This guy--John Doe--woke up in the woods of the Pacific Northwest with absolutely no memory of who he was, how he'd gotten there, what had happened to him, etc., but he knew absolutely everything else. We're talking mega-genius, here. It's another short-lived series that I fell in love with & cursed Fox for cancelling. I'd love to see John Doe come out on DVD, but until then, it's nice to know Sci-Fi is playing it again--Fridays at 7pm, as far as I could tell.

And then yesterday, as I was flipping channels, I found another much-loved show that hasn't been on for ages--Simon & Simon. Too cool. It's apparently on TV Land Wednesday afternoons at 1pm & 2pm. And you can bet I'll be there to enjoy them...or will set the DVR & watch them later.

I've also been reminiscing with Wings & Night Court & Ellen. :-)

It's been such fun getting to experience these great shows again. Especially when the current viewing selection isn't always very interesting, & I was growing kind of tired of seeing the same episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for the umpteenth time.

Have you been enjoying any old shows lately? Or are there any you wish would show up again?

NewsRadio. I miss NewsRadio. And I wouldn't mind seeing Silk Stalkings again. :-)

hubba-hubba

Didn't get the chance to watch this week's Apprentice until last night, but as I was watching, I was struck by a very important question:

Is it just me, or is Bill Rancik a real cutie?

He was my favorite on the show the season he won, & now I just love it when he comes back to help Mr. Trump on the tasks & in the boardroom. :-) He's nice, without being too nice. And hard on the contestants when the need arises, without being too mean.

In fact, I think he should take over The Donald's role & be the main focus of every episode. We should start a write-in campaign & see if we can get that to happen! LOL

What do you think? Who's your favorite person on The Apprentice?

And what ever happened to that ex-Army guy, Kelly? You don't see or hear much about him anymore, do you?

finally, some good news

Today has turned out to be a very good day already. :-D

First & most important--it is not cancer! Mom's doctor called this morning & everything is A-okay. The area they thought might be a problem turned out to be a cyst. Whew! Apparently, they needed to do all the other tests to see the spot from different angles & be sure it wasn't something much scarier. (I'm not sure how they can tell it's a cyst & not something worse just by looking, but I'm going to trust that they know what they're doing.) Needless to say, we're all breathing huge sighs of relief around here. At the very least, we expected she'd have to go in for a biopsy, but now she can relax until her next scheduled mammogram. :-p

And then, soon after we got the excellent news about Mom, my agent called to say Silhouette was inviting me to be part of another continuity series. This one will be out the first half of 2007 & is called the "Dakota Fortunes." Cool! I've been reading the Fortune books for ages, but now I get to actually be a part of them. What a thrill!

My contribution is going to be the last book of the series, #6, & will be out in June 2007. It's called FORTUNE'S FORBIDDEN WOMAN, and the heroine is part Native American. I really like that aspect of it...ever since writing HANNAH'S HALF-BREED, I've wanted to do more Native American characters. There probably won't be a lot involved in this story, but I still think it will be fun & interesting.

I was also given my main characters' names already--Creed Fortune & Maya Blackstone. Mmm, Creed--I like that. :-) And how eerie is this...the hero's & heroine's names start with the exact same letters as the characters from my last continuity book (MR. AND MISTRESS, which will be out in May)--Cullen & Misty. Okay, so maybe I'm the only one who finds that a neat coincidence. And once again, I love my hero's name. I loved Cullen's name from the moment I heard it, & I love Creed's just as much. I hope that's a good sign. LOL

That's about all I know right now. I'll be getting the "bible" for the continuity series soon, & then I'll have all the details for my characters & storyline. I also have kind of a short deadline for it, so I'll have to get my butt moving on BLACKMAILED INTO BED. Yikes!

battle of the reality shows

Okay, since Jennifer mentioned it...

It does feel like we're having a "Battle of the Reality Shows," but darned if I can think of any others to compare. Can you?

If there aren't any more that are similar--like Project Runway & The Cut or Hell's Kitchen & Top Chef--what others do you watch? Which ones do you not watch?

To be honest, I don't think I really love any of them, but I do watch several...sort of with half an eye. (For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, that's sort of like listening with half an ear. :-P Which basically means that I'm usually reading or writing at the same time the show is on, only tuning in for the important parts--like shouting matches or eliminations.) In addition to the ones mentioned above, I tend to watch The Amazing Race, Survivor, The Apprentice, & American Idol at the very beginning when they're auditioning some truly awful singers...

I do not watch Dancing with the Stars, Skating with the Stars, Li'l Kim's going to prison, the Gotti family, The Real O.C., or anything like that. I guess I have issues with watching filthy rich people act like they have actual problems. (Wait, was that snarky of me? I think maybe it was! :-p)

And one that I actually used to like but haven't seen for a while is that Eco-Challenge. At least I think that's what it was called. Mark Burnett (of Survivor & Apprentice fame) was involved somehow, & it followed teams of really athletic folk thru the jungles of Borneo & stuff. It also wasn't so much a reality show as an actual sports challenge they happened to film along the way. But it hasn't been on in a while & I'm beginning to wonder what happened to it. Anybody know?

Project Runway vs. The Cut

And as long as we're on the subject, what about these two fashion-related reality shows?

Now that I have the Bravo channel, I've been watching a lot of old & new episodes of Project Runway. I'd heard so much about it, I was expecting the show to be fabulous. But I have to say, I really don't care for it. I don't know if it's the set-up or the execution or the people, but it just doesn't do much for me.

Although I didn't catch every episode, I think I much preferred The Cut with Tommy Hilfiger (did I spell that right?!?) on CBS last year. I liked Tommy better than Heidi Klum--am I the only one who finds her annoying for some unknown reason?--& the types of challenges more. I even think I liked the designers on The Cut better. I certainly didn't like all of them, but Jay & Santino on Runway drive me insane.

And what is with those clothes on Runway? Some of them are nice...Nick & Daniel were my favorite designers, I believe. I thought some of their stuff was lovely. But would you be caught dead in half of Jay or Santino's creations? I know this is supposed to be "high fashion," but still--ack! (Remember the ice skating costume that looked like a turkey had exploded on a baboon's ass? LOL)

But anyway, that's my take on the two shows...where do you weigh in? Do you watch either Runway or Cut--or both? And which do you like better & why?

Top Chef vs. Hell's Kitchen

Since the past couple days have been heavy & depressing, I thought I'd go for complete fluff today. :-)

Bravo's Top Chef versus Fox's Hell's Kitchen... What do we think? Which do we like best?

I like Hell's Kitchen better. It's more intense, the competitions more meaningful. (I also have this little thing for Gordon Ramsey, even if he is a big old meanie. :-D)

Top Chef seemed too slow & slightly dull. The panel of judges did absolutely nothing for me, & there was no edginess to keep you hooked or coming back after the commercials. Altho...I did like the Irish guy, Ken Lee, there for a minute. God, what an accent! Too bad he turned out to be kind of a hot-headed jerk.

That's my opinion, anyway. What do you think?

good news?

My mother did finally get a call from her doctor's office this afternoon & was able to talk to a nurse she's known for years. Turns out the mammogram needs to be redone because there was a "dense" or "incomplete" area on the film & they need a clearer image so they can really see what's going on. She's not out of the woods yet, but this is definitely an improvement over knowing nothing or thinking the worst.

The nurse also assured her they hadn't spotted anything out of the ordinary on the first mammogram, so there's a chance this second one will turn out just as well as all of the others she's had these past couple years. Yay!

I talked to a friend about all of this today, & she immediately told me not to worry, that she's had to have a number of mammograms redone for various reasons, too, & that they've always turned out okay. But once you've had a cancer scare, you tend to turn gun-shy about these things, so I don't think I (or my mom) will really breathe easy until we know for sure what's going on.

This is definitely a step in the right direction, tho, & I think we'll both sleep better tonight from having this new information. :-)

no news is definitely better news

Well, I think I'd rather have nothing going on than to deal with the type of thing that popped up today.

As some of you may know, my mother had breast cancer a couple of years ago, right after my dad died. She came thru the surgery & radiation with flying colors, & everything's been clear since then.

Earlier this week, she went in for one of her frequent mammograms. Once you have cancer, they keep a really close eye on you, & where other women have them once a year, she has one every three or six months. So anyway, she went in for that & didn't think much more about it until the hospital called this morning & asked her to come back in. She didn't ask as many questions as I would have, so we don't know if there was just something funny with the film, if the cancer's back, or if there are just some spots they want to be sure about before proceeding any further.

And we can't decide if it's a good sign or a bad sign that the call didn't come from her doctor. On the one hand, we think if it were serious or he was really concerned, he'd have called himself. On the other, we wonder if maybe they didn't have just a random somebody from the hospital call so she wouldn't get worried or upset yet. If that's the case, I've got news for them--it didn't work. We are worried & I upset.

She goes in again Friday morning for the second set of mammograms, & until then, we're going to be praying really hard & really frequently. If it's not too much trouble, I'd appreciate it if you guys would do the same.

Yep, no news is definitely better news than something like this. :-(

what's black & blue & sore all over?

That would be me! LOL

I was right about "feeling it in the morning." I was so sore when my alarm went off, I could barely get out of bed. But I made myself, & even got on the airbike to watch a bit of last night's episode of Medium. (I'm still mad at & somewhat frightened of the treadmill :-p so it may take me a while to get back to it.) The funny thing is, I'm most sore across my arms & chest, where I didn't even realize I'd hit. My legs are just beginning to bruise in large & amusing patterns, & only hurt when a cat gets on my lap & begins to knead. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Sheesh. I can just see my dad shaking his head & muttering, "How does it feel to be graceful?" We're a very accident-prone people, so he used to say that a lot. :-p Ironically, my mother's name means "grace," but she is not graceful at all. And, apparently, neither am I.

But biking did help to work out a few of the kinks, & I've already gotten 10pgs written today, finishing up chapter 2. I can't wait to start chapter 3...things are getting good. :-)

And that's all that's going on here. I have absolutely nothing more interesting to report because there's nothing going on. If anything exciting is going on in your life, let me know. I could use a little pick-me-up. :-)

file this under "it could only happen to me"

It's been business as usual today, for the most part. Got my "Dear Reader" letter approved, so that's one item to cross off the list. And I'm halfway thru ch2 of BLACKMAILED INTO BED, still going strong. Yay!

I also decided to walk instead of bike for my daily exercise today--mostly so I could start another book. I picked Taming Blackhawk by Barbara McCauley. It's a Desire (a couple of years old, I believe) & so far, it's excellent.

The highlight of my day--& I'm going for deep, deep sarcasm here--was falling off the treadmill.

LOL Yes, that yip you heard this morning was me flying through the air & landing smack-dab on the end of the still-moving belt. Don't ask me how it happened because I honestly have no idea. One minute I was doing fine--walking, reading, minding my own business. The next, I was sort of like a pen dropped on an escalator. Pa-thump, pa-thump, pa-thump. (Go ahead, take a minute to picture that. Laugh if you must.)

I could have been killed! But luckily, I got away with only a few scrapes & bruises. There's a spot on my leg that really hurts (especially if I poke at it) & I have the tread of the belt imprinted on one elbow & one knee, but it could have been worse. Of course, you know how this sort of thing is; I feel fine now, but I may be too stiff & sore to move by morning.

I can tell you one thing for sure... If I ever go near the darn thing again, I'll be using that little emergency pull tab that's supposed to stop the treadmill if you fall off. I didn't think it was necessary, since I've been walking...well, you know, all my life...& on the treadmill for about 5yrs without anything even close to this happening. But now I know differently. Now I will be sure to buckle up for safety, even if I'm not leaving the house. 8-P

wake me when Spring has sprung

Despite waking up early & getting right to work all this week, I haven't been sleeping very well the past few nights. It would take me a couple of hours to fall asleep, & then every little noise would wake me right up again. (The other night, one of my cats sneezed & I was wide awake. LOL) So last night, I decided to take a sleeping pill about an hour before bed, in hopes of drifting right off & sleeping straight thru until 8am.

And it worked! Maybe a little too well.

I still got up when my alarm went off & biked while watching another episode of Monk--I'm all out now...oh, no! what will I do?--but I'm dragging a bit today. If I let myself lie down, I'm sure I'd doze off & probably not wake up until this time tomorrow. (Which is why I'm making myself stay awake! :-)) I won't be taking another sleeping pill tonight, that's for sure.

But I'm still moving along & making progress. Just started ch2 of BLACKMAILED INTO BED & am hoping to get another nice chunk of pages done today. (My hero just asked my heroine to be his mistress. :-D) And I'm halfway thru No Escape & 1/4 thru Chill of Fear. Yay! See--progress.

I also had to do some tweaks on my "Dear Reader" letter. (I told you I'm not good at these things.) The changes my editor asked for were pretty mild & only took me about 5mins to incorporate, so I'll be able to send the revised version to her tomorrow.

That's it for me! I may be yawning, but I'm plugging away. Hope you're all having a nice weekend!

quote of the day

I could tell that my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster & a radio.
--Rodney Dangerfield

biking & writing & worrying, oh my!

I had a good day yesterday. I'm working on a new daily regimen where I get up early, exercise right away (before I can talk myself out of it :-p), then have breakfast & start writing. So far --24hrs & counting :-D--it's going great.

My choice of exercise this week has been biking, which gives me a chance to catch up on all the newer episodes of Monk that I taped but never got the chance to watch. So that's fun. Then I sat down & got 8pgs written in a matter of about 4hrs. Wow, not too shabby.

Today, I have some errands to run, so I'm not sure I'll get quite as much done. But I already biked & showered, which is at least half the battle.

I also just finished polishing my first "Dear Reader" letter for the front of my next Desire & sent it off to my editor. Starting soon--I don't know exactly which month--all of the Harlequin and Silhouette books are going to have letters from the authors in the front. A lot of the Harlequin lines have been doing this for a while, but it's new to those of us who write for Silhouette.

Of course, the news that I would have to start writing these sent me into a bit of a tailspin. I didn't know what the heck to say, & I knew I was going to have to do one for the book I just turned in, BEDDED THEN WED. Which meant I didn't have much time at all to get used to the idea. :-p It took me about a month to finally come up with an idea & work it into something that sounded half decent. I would write a little, then get blocked. Write a little more, stop. When it finally started coming together, I would open the document every morning & make miniscule changes or read over the whole thing to see if it sounded right. LOL I swear, that letter made me more nervous & possibly took me longer than writing the darn book.

But it's done now, & I think it's pretty decent. We'll see what my editor says...& maybe I'll get better at them with practice. :-)

thought for the day

Life shrinks or expands in proporation to your courage.

I like that, don't you? And I read it on the back of a Pria power bar wrapper. :-)

Have you tried these things? If not--& if you're looking for a good power bar--give the

m a shot. I know a lot of power bars & health food stuff tastes icky. They make you feel like you're chewing on a doormat & leave an aftertaste in your mouth that's hard to get rid of. But these things are really good, almost like candy bars.

Of course, you don't want to eat them like candy bars. (Kind of defeats the purpose. LOL) I keep them in the car or in my purse for those times when you're running around & need to eat, but can't get a decent meal. I could probably eat two or three at a time...they're that good!...but I make myself stick to one. :-)

They come in really neat flavors, too. Chocolate Peanut Crunch (a personal favorite)...Mint Chocolate Cookie...Creme Caramel Crisp...Double Chocolate Cookie...French Vanilla Crisp... Yummy.

And that's my product placement of the day. Pria bars...they don't taste like a doormat, so give 'em a try!

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