Happy Halloween!!

Thanks for all the well wishes for my release yesterday! Beleive it or not, that was #12. All since A Walk on the Wild Side released last November.

Is it any wonder I’m as skatterbrained as I am?

Anyway, I did get a fair bit done at Starbucks yesterday and I’m feeling pretty good about starting NaNo on Wednesday. The one problem I have is that this book really seems to want to be told in 1st person - from the hero’s POV!

But, that’s a post for another day…onto my weekend…

So, Saturday, the hubster and I were sleeping in. It was one of those wake up and then go back to bed things, when all of a sudden we were awoken for real by a lound noise. And the power went out.

We got up, showered in the dark (luckily we have oil heat) and sat by the windows trying to read. As it was a CRAZY windy and sometimes stormy day, this wasn’t as easy at it may seem.

Anyway, we’re sitting around when we notice electric company guys in our back yard. They seem to be mostly staring at the telephone pole in our backyard. They climb it, but then they leave.

A few hours later, still in the dark mind you, we heard a popping noise and then a sizzle. It took us a good half hour to realize what it was. I was minding my own business when the hubster came rushing into the room yelling “the bush in the backyard is on fire.”

He overreacted a bit. Okay, a lot.

But, the electric company guys were back and there was a downed powerline in our backyard which was sparking when it hit the bushes (which was often since it was way windy).

It would have been great if I could’ve made microwave popcorn, but alas I couldn’t. But I did spend the rest of the day (once it got too dark to read) watching electrical workers in the backyard. Alas, there wasn’t a sexy one in the bunch.

At one point there were 5 big electric trucks in front of the house. They replaced the transformer in the back yard.

And never, in the hours they were here and the whole time I was watching, did they speak to us. We had to go out for dinner (obviously) and the power came back about 10 minutes after we got home. Perfect timimg.

That evening we went to a Halloween party, but well, that’s another post in itself.

So, I know it’s already Tuesday, but what’d you do this weekend? And what are you doing for Halloween tonight?

On, and I’m blogging at SEx as part of Morning After.

The final fate book - Fighting Fate - releases today from Liquid Silver Books!! Hooray!!

New books don’t go up until later in the day and I’ve got a TON of stuff to finish up before NaNo starts on Wednesday so I’m going AWOL for most of the day - Starbucks, here I come.

I’ll be back later though to post a link direct to the Fighting Fate page at LSB or you can just head over to http://www.lsb.com

And a blurb for your reading pleasure:

Fate Atropos Moirae–Atty–bears the burden of cutting the thread of human life. After a few millenia, that can get under anyone’s skin. Her happily married sisters decide she’s long overdue for a vacation, so off to Earth she goes.

Millionaire playboy Cole has everything a man could want–but far from being carefree, he harbors a dark secret of his own.

Headed to the same vacation resort, and unable to resist the attraction between them, Cole and Atty agree to a no-strings-attached sexual affair. But despite their best efforts, the heat between them turns into much, much more.

Their situation is hopeless–there’s no way on heaven or earth they could possibly have a future together. Is there any way Atty and Cole can Fight Fate to live happily ever after?

I’ll tell you about my exciting weekend tomorrow…

Update: It’s availablw now, click here.

Sarah’s comment yesterday about the neighborhood that tries to outdo one another in terms of decorations made me realize I haven’t told you about the house in my neighborhood yet!

I haven’t taken a picture yet, but I’ll have to before Halloween is over.

And, I’d just like to say that these decorations have been up since early September.

First of all there are 9 - yes NINE big blow up thingies - there’s Skeleton Homer (Simpson), a ghost or two, a cat, one of those snow globe ones, I think a Pooh bear. There’s a giant blow up man eating purple tarantula on the roof of the house.

Nine of them!

Now, a normal person may think this would be enough, overkill even, but no.

There are also lights - orange and purple - on every available surface. More scarecrows than birds in the neighborhood practically. As for pumpkins…well, I’m wondering if they have their own pumpkin patch in the backyard or something.

It’s impossible not to stop and stare at the house. And yet, even as I make fun, I’m anxiously awaiting other holidays…will they have a giant blow up turkey? What about Xmas? Will they have their own snow making machine?

They’re putting my .89 cent plastic pumpkins to shame. Shame I say!!

*Sigh*

Do you do a lot of decorating for the holidays? What’s your favorite? As for me, I’ve already told you about my favorite, so I’ll just direct you to last years Jimbo post.

Who’s starting to get excited about Halloween?

Me!

We bought our halloween candy last weekend. But then the hubster had to hide it from me (I made him). I was all like - I can totally handle having a huge bowl of candy in the house for more than a week. Uh, not so much.

We bought six - yes 6 - bags of candy. We’re new to this whole trick-or-treat thing as this is the first time we’ve ever lived in a house not an apartment. Still, the hubster thinks we need to go back and get TWICE as much candy. 12 bags of candy?!?!

Anyway (I admit, when I started this post I had no idea it was going to lead this way…) my favorite part about Halloween isn’t really Halloween itself, but it does lead to my favorite season–A SEASON OF EATING!!

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Mmm-mmm time to gorge like a pig.

The hubster is already salivating at the thought of my yummy Thanksgiving dinner. Me, I’ve decided that I’m going to make homemade fudge for Xmas this year (last night I started naming all the kinds I was going to make - the hubster left the room shaking his head…).

And yes, I’m crazy, but I’m already starting to fret about Xmas presents (no, our Halloween costumes aren’t finished yet). Both what I’m going to ask for and what I’m going to get others. Last year, I had ALL of my shopping done the day after Thanksgiving - yes, I’m one of those people. This year, we’re headed into NYC on the day after Thanksgiving. Should be crazy. Crazy fun!

What’s your favorite time of year? Holiday? Are you stressing about Xmas presents already or do you do your shopping Xmas eve? What are you being for Halloween?

WooHoo!

AJ’s suggestion to change all my Yahoo groups from “Fully Functional” to “Traditional” seems to have done the trick.

I wokek up this morning to lots of emails from all my yahoo groups. I’ll let you know if it lasts (fingers crossed).

Follow-up

I’ve posted answers to all of the movie quotes below. I have to say, I’m quite impressed with how well you did. It’s much harder than it seems it should be. But it’s a really fun game!

Blah

I feel icky. It started last evening, I just started to feel a bit feverish. You know, when your skin seems like it’s boiling yet you’re really cold. Aside from a headache and sore throat, I don’t have any other symptoms though. It’s hard to have people feel bad for you when there’s no outward symptoms that you’r sick.

And another one to add to Emma’s sleep related injuries - somehow I hurt my back in my sleep last night. I was doing hard labor in all of my dreams (and I was having some crazy ones) and this morning I ache.

The hubster tried to snuggle with me this morning and I yelled at him because it hurt my back. I feel bad now though, cause I was mostly asleep when I yelled, lol.

I’ll take the laptop wiht me to the couch this afternoon and try to write a bit, but mostly I see a blanket and a book in my future.

So since I feel icky, tell me something good on this Hump Day before Halloween!

I was having so much fun with that game yesterday that I decided not to post a real post. There’s still some that no one has gotten! Hee Hee.

OK, I’ve come to find out that I’m having some very big email problems. Yahoo isn’t working for me at all - and hasn’t been for the last month (yes, I just noticed it over the weekend).

Yahoo groups - nothing.

Yahoo emails - I’m not sure if I’m getting those or not.

The strange thing is, it appears to be the “adult” yahoo groups I’m not getting - meaing all my publisher groups and now the new Romance Bistro. I’ve turned off all my spam filters (which were already on really low) and I’m still not having any luck.

I have noticed lately that the amount of email I get seems to have decreased dramatically, so there could be other stuff I’m not getting. Obviously, I wouldn’t know that.

While most everything else just appears to be slow, Yahoo stuff may not be coming through at all - definitely not yahoo groups.

Anyway, if you email me and don’t hear from me within a few days (I’ll try to get better at responding to emails more promptly) I’m not ignoring you. If you need to reach me try EmmaSinWrites at gmail.com.

Hopefully that will be a bit more reliable.

But what’d everybody do over the weekend? Fun stuff?

We were playing this one at Romance Divas.

A. Pick 16 of your favorite movies.
B. Then pick one of your favorite quotes from each movie.
C. Post the quotes in your journal.
D. Have those on your friends list try to guess what the movie is. If you google, you suck.
E. Strike out the quote once it has been correctly identified and place the guesser’s username directly after the quote.

1. “…with hair, who wears t-shirts…sometimes.” Can’t Hardly Wait
2. “I think we’ve all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically.” - Pirates of the Carribean, Cat
3. “I know. I hate people, but I love gatherings. Isn’t that ironic.” Clerks
4. “Got lost in his own museum, eh?” - Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, Sherrill
5. “Girls, stop tonguing the foyer!” - Ella Enchanted, Tess
6. “Bikers. Big ones. Full of sperm.” - 10 Things I hate about you, Cat
7. “What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?” - The Lion King, Kris
8. “No ticket.” Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, Sherrill AND Dogma, Aurelia
9. “What’s a “Nubian?” Chasing Amy
10. “What is a place like this doing in a girl like me?” - The Mummy, Sherill
11. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for Sega.” Mallrats - anyone noticing a Kevin Smith theme?
12. “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?” Toy Story!
13. “This was my first bus ride.” - The Mummy Returns, Michele

OK, I could only do 13 - I’m the one that doesn’t like movies, remember? See how many you can get. Anyone else want to play and do their own list?

is at Word Flirts.

I issued you a challenge, so go check it out.

Also, are you looking for another Yahoo group to join? Do you want one that’s more fun than all the others? Than join Romance Bistro! A group of 6 super great authors (including moi) have teamed together to talk about books, romance, guys, food, whatever floats our boats…

Come join us here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Romance_Bistro/

So, last night, because I haven’t been to the grocery store for a week, we went out to dinner. We got some pizza (and a pepperoni roll, yum) and then after dinner we decided to hit Borders. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually bought a book in a bookstore–rather than Amazon–but I still love to browse.

Anyway, it was our first visit to the Borders, it’s across the street from anything else we ever go to.

My first impression…it was messy! People had left books lying around the front table (and not like they were placing it strategically on the front table which I’ll get to in a second) but, like they were leaving the store and just through the book down at the closest place.

I made my way to the romance sections. It was the most overstuffed romance section I’d ever seen! Books were shelved at least 2 deep and then there were even more piled on top of the shelves. There was a stack of “Breath of Snow and Ashes” that came up to my waist (OK, really that book is so freaking huge it was only a stack of two).

The endcaps of the shelf made no sense at all. You’d expect computer books on the end of the row of computer books. No.

There was a whole endcap of Brava books on the religion section! Hello?

They had another disply labled “Sensual Romance” and had a bunch of Fern Michaels and Linda Lael Miller books? Who’s definition of Sensual romance is that?

Anyway, they had a fair number of e/small press books in the romance section - has anyone ever heard of Vintage Press - but I’m a dumb ass and forgot to scope out the “relationship” section.

But now…onto confession time.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that goes into bookstores and rearranges a little! I admit it, I show some love to my writer friends while I’m in the bookstore!

When they’re shelved spine out, I pull one (or a few) out so they’re a bit more obvious than others.

When books are faced out, maybe I’ll take some bigger authors books and stack them behind or underneath to make my friends books stand out more.

And yes, perhaps once or twice I’ve taken a book and placed it on one of the front tables.

I’m totally okay with showing my friends some love in the bookstore. Even if I don’t buy my books there!

What bookstore tricks do you play?

I didn’t make my 25 page goal yesterday, but I did do 12, which I’ll consider quite a success.

I am kind of getting to the point in my MS where I wish I were a plotter instead of a pantster, but I’ve hit this wall before so I will just keep plugging along. My characters aren’t finding a lot of time to fall into bed though.

Definitely gotta fix that.

So, as you may know, I’ve been talking about redoing my website for about as long as I’ve had my website. And that thought is still lurking in the back of my mind.

I know this isn’t very flashy, but that’s me, not very flashy. And while I like the look of dark websites, I don’t want one, and that would be the logical way to go with what I write. So I’m stuck.

So, anyway, I think I’ve convinced myself to stick with the layout and fiddle with the content for the time being.

Both Shannon and PBW were recently talking about FAQ’s. While I’m not sure if I need one of those, I think my About Me page needs to be spruced up a bit.

What do you like to see in the About Author page? Pictures? FAQ’s? Do you like a long author bio or short author bios? What do you think it needs to include? What about lists of favorite things?

And if you like FAQ’s - Ask me questions!