Today’s the day…

The day of the Romance Diva’s Valentines E-book Challenge!

Dozens of Diva’s have written short stories and posted them on their blogs or websites. For a complete list (and heat ratings) check out: http://romancedivas.com/ebookchallenge.html

And if you’re interested in my read, a Valentine’s Sotry called Shot through the Heart, click here (it’s on my new “Extras” page).

So, am I the only loser that watched the Westminster Kennel club dog show last night?

If you missed it the second half is tonight (though you missed the toy group, which come on, is the best part). Although the terrier group was fun, too. The Dandi Dinmont Terrier won.

I’ve never heard of it before, but he’s awful cute.

And speaking of dogs, has anyone else seen the Pedigree dogfood commercials about shelter dogs? Angent Mulder teels me that the dogs are really good dogs and they don’t know why they’re in a shelter and don’t have good homes.

OMG, the commercials kill me!

They seriously make me feel guilty for not having a dog. Like really guildty. They’re even getting close to making the hubster feel like he should have a dog!

But, I can’t have a dog. I’m allergic.

Still, it doesn’t make me feel any less guilty.

Do you have pets? What kind? If you don’t have pets, do you want one?

So we drove out to the very end of Long Island on Saturday. Supposedly there are seals that winter there, but well, we didn’t see any. Either of the blubbery flippered kind of Sexy Navy kind.

And honestly, I would have been fine with either.

It was cold, but we hiked a long way. Probably close to a mile on the beach, and then back through the woods what felt like a dozen miles in the cold.

We saw deer, but no seals.

Still, it was fun, and very pretty.

I’m usually not much for hiking, usually there’s way too many bugs for me, but hiking in the winter was kind of nice.

Granted it took me hours to warm up afterwards, but it was still fun.

Sunday was a completly lazy day for the hubsters, but I worked pretty much all day. But the taxes are ready to go, I took care of some PI stuff - including my first presidents letter for the newsletter, made yummy potato soup for dinner, and…more that I can’t even remember.

What’d you do this weekend?

…is at Word Flirts.

Come tell me what the soundtrack of your writing life would be!

As for me, I’m (hopefully) going to see seals today!! Will post pics tomorrow if I see any!

I really wouldn’t want to do anything else, but lets face it…it’s stupid.

Most of us suffer a lot during the writing of our books, take more rejection than really anybody should ever take and we just keep going back for more.

I didn’t do my taxes yet, but last night I was getting all my stuff together so I could send them to the accountant. I’m really good about keeping all of my receipts, but I don’t necessarily keep them in any useful order.

So I was entering all of my receipts and stuff into excel, making sure everything is a-okay. And, surprise, surprise, I made a profit last year!

Now, rather than being excited about making a profit, I was actually a little bit bummed that I didn’t put enough into promo.

What the hell?

In what other profession would you actually be upset that you made a profit?

Yippee!! I’m up to 20 some pages in 2 days!

Unfortunatly, I think I’m going to have to break down and go to the grocery store in a day or so. I’m out of coffee creamer - one of the few things that will make me go out in this cold!

I’ve got a bunch of other stuff that I’m ignoring, too.

My main goal this year was balance, and so far I’m not doing so well. That said, I do think my procrastination has waned a little bit.

But between the writing (which I suppose it’s really good that I’ve been doing so much of it), the reading (again a good thing) and Passionate Ink I haven’t had much time for anything else.

And that includes, you know, the hubster.

Granted, he doesn’t seem to mind so much because it means he has a lot more time to play video games.

I’d say it’s all working out well at the moment, but I just don’t think it can go on this way much longer.

I guess (to use a correct cliche *cough*April*cough*) I’m just putting the cart before the horse though. Why worry until something actually breaks?

How are you doing with your New Years Resolutions?

Hee Hee!

I woke up with new characters screaming in my head yesterday and whoo-hoo!! I’ve been a bit…adrift over the past little bit. Since finishing the last thing I finished.

I dabbled in some stories here and there, but I think it was mostly stuff to keep my fingers and brain fresh, not anything nthat would actually go anywhere.

I tend to write a fair bit of stuff, mostly just in snippets, but it lacks conflict, therefore I know it’s not going anywhere. Still, I do it because at least it’s writing something.

So far I’ve got a (recovering) alcoholic hero, an ex-model (and one time porn actress) heroine who had a quickie in a bathroom 2 months ago. Now they work together. The best friend is pregnant with with a married mans baby, and somehow the story will involve flamingos.

I don’t know why with the flamingos - but they’ll come into play somewhere. For some reason, when thinking about this story, there’s flamingoes (I’m reminded of Jenny Crusie’s collages when she says sometimes she picks pictures without knowing why - my collage would have a flamingo - and I wouldn’t know why).

So do you ever have weird stuff like that pop up in your writing? Examples?

Did you watch the Big Game?

And by Big Game, I toall mean the Animal Planet Puppy Bowl.

I’m sick. Kinda.

I have a sore throat, headache and plenty of aches and pains, but I don’t have a cough or runny nose or anything. I mean, that’s good that I don’t feel worse, but I feel like the hubster thinks I’m faking.

Of course, he did tell me several times over the weekend that I wasn’t looking so good, so I guess he does beleive me. And my ego feels great, let me tell you.

I also wore bad shoes into the city on Saturday. The boots are really cute, and they’re great for standing but they’re slightly too big and so when I walk I slide a little bit in them which caused some major blisters. They may have been better with thicker socks, too.

But I have to blisters on one baby toe alone!!

I’m so scatter brained and out of it right now that while I know I should probably have a pretty big list of things to do this week, I’m not really with it enough to figure out what it is.

What’s on your to-do list this week?

OK, so I really enjoyed the movie version of Rent and I was pretty sure I’d enjoy the play version, but OMG, I LOVED it!! (The hubster liked the move version better though).

So, first of all, we sat in the fourth row. And let me tell you, theater is so much better when you can really see the blood, sweat and tears up close (and spit, there’s a lot of spit). I saw A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum from the second row years ago and really, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a show as much since - until yesterday.

But it gave me tingles and made me laugh and cry, just like a great show should.

My mom is supposed to come visit in a few weeks and we’ll probably go see another show. It’s going to be really hard for me not to sit way close up again.

I wasn’t really going to post about it, but it was just so good I had to (Frenchie from American Idol is back in the cast and damn can that girl sing).

Are you a big theater person? I was never involved in school or anything, but I LOVE watching, particularly musicals now that I live in New York. What’s the best show you’ve ever seen?