Happy Memorial Day!

I'm a little late to the game today. Yes, I know it's Monday, but it's a holiday, so it doesn't register like a regular Monday. Thank Goodness! Have I ever told you all how I hate Mondays....this week? So this morning, I got up bright and early at 6:30 am and wrote until 10:30, then headed out to see Prince of Persia.

I really liked it. Of course, staring at Jake Gyllenhaal for a couple of hours is hardly torture, and the movie was good too. (grins)

Lately, for relaxation (what little I attempt) I've been trying to do some crafty sort of stuff while watching tv. I added glass beads to a candle holder a couple of weeks ago that turned out nicely and then some people on one of the writer's forums I visit turned me on to a new website. You can create your own stuff (kinda like Cafe Press, for those that are familiar with it), but this place seems to have more selection. You create graphics or take pics, upload them to the objects and create your own stuff. You can also create your own store with your stuff and get a commission on the sale.

Despite attempting to learn Photoshop for over a year now, I have to say it still gives me the craps, but I'm getting better. Unfortunately, not better enough, fast enough, so I cheated and got a cheap, easy-to-use graphics software to play with. So here's my official store.

As you can see, I've only managed a couple of things and clearly I have some color preferences and like the girly stuff, but it is kinda fun. Not sure I'm ever going to purchase that notebook for $18, but the mousepad and the coffee mug are maybes.

And I'd also like to apologize ahead of time for anyone who visits the site and gets sucked into the graphic designing hole.

Deadly DeLeon

I hate sprinklers... and really need some sleep

Okay, sprinkler update (because I know you are all dying to know):


My grandfather came over last weekend and had the brilliant idea to put a brick over the offending sprinkler. We did. It worked like a charm the first night. But then the second night, someone moved the brick. Jerks. I moved it back. Great night’s sleep. Third night, someone moved it again. Gah! Would encasing the sprinkler head in wet cement be going too far?

And we encountered another problem… a second sprinkler. Turn out, when the first one is under brick, the water pressure of the others is higher. Which means the second farthest one from our bedroom now pelts the wall.

Whimper.

The Man suggested we go stick a wine cork in the sprinkler head to stop it up. That is plan B.

(Can you tell how obsessed I’ve become with sprinklers? Three full blog posts it’s occupied. If the men in white coats come to take me away, I’ll likely be curled in a fetal position in the corner, rocking and muttering, “sprinklers, sprinklers, sprinklers”.)

Okay, when I haven’t been obsessing about lawn care this week, I’ve been gearing up to teach a series of online workshops this summer. I had a lot of fun doing this last year, so I’ve expanded them this year to include a couple new ones. You can check them all out on my website at:
http://www.gemmahalliday.com/classes

The first one on power editing, called What Not to Write, starts June 7th, so if anyone wants a little kick in the pants to get that manuscript in tip top shape, check it out.


~Trigger Happy Halliday

Patience is a virtue...But I want it NOW, Babushka!

Another week has gone by and I'm still playing the agent waiting game. Good thing I was gifted with an abundance of patience. What's that I hear? It sounds like tittering. Okay. So maybe patience isn't really one of my strong suits. Which brings to mind a book I used to read to my children and hadn't thought about in a very long time. Until now, that is.


Written and illustrated by Patricia Pollaco, BABUSKA'S DOLL http://www.amazon.com/Babushkas-Doll-Patricia-Polacco/dp/0671683438is the story of a selfish, young girl who wants everything 'RIGHT NOW!' Fed up with her granddaughter's whining, Babuska goes to run errands leaving Natasha behind with a very special playmate: a doll who mysteriously subjects the unsuspecting Natasha to the same whiney, 'I want it now' treatment she perpetrated on her grandmother. By the time Babuska returns home, Natasha has learned a very important lesson about the perils of 'me first' thinking. It's a wonderful story and the illlustrations are fabulous so if you have a wee one who might be getting a wee bit full of him or herself, pick up a copy and read it to them.


Often.


So. Here's a question for those of you who have or are doing the 'agent search'. Do you go the one-agent-at-a-time query route or do you send out multiple queries to different agents and agencies? Is there a proper etiquette here? Are you wiser to query multiple agents so you have a base of comparison as you interview prospective agents or is it more suitable to focus on one at a time? I'm getting antsy-pantsy to find a new agent and get back on the publishing treadmill and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue.


Tomorrow's my Friday for the work week! Anybody have any special plans for Memorial Day weekend? I may get to weed and feed my yard this week. Looks like the weather may finally cooperate.


Have a super--and safe--long weekend!


~Bullet Hole~

The Day Has Come

Winner! Winner! The winner of the $10 gift certificate to Amazon is ....Cheryl! Congrats, Cheryl!

Don't forget, I'll be blogging a lot this week and will be giving away prizes all month long!

CC

**********************

It’s here. The day Shut Up and Kiss Me is officially released. You can bet I’m biting my nails, hoping my baby looks pretty sitting on the bookstore shelves and praying that tons of readers will be leaving the store with my book snug in their purchase bags. Then I hope when they get home, they look around at the different chores they need to do—you know, like vacuuming, dusting, and scrubbing toilets, and I hope they say, “Oh, what the hell!” and they pull my book out of that bag, curl up on the sofa, or in the bed, and let me take them away on a romantic adventure that promises to make them care, laugh, and sigh.

And because today is release day, I’ll be holding contest every week at Killer Fiction for the next month. Today’s contest is simple. Just tell me where you buy your books and one lucky person will receive a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com. See, that’s simple, right? I’m also hosting a contest on my website. Check it out below:


What I've Learned from Romance Novels:

In 250 words or less, tell me what you've learned from romance novels. The winner will receive a fun, get-ready-for-the-beach basket.

It's almost summer time and you know what that means-gathering up your beach gear and heading to the shore with a copy of your favorite romance novel. To celebrate my new release, and the arrival of summer beach fun, I'm holding a contest just for readers. The prize will include: A beach towel, a sand bucket, sun screen, body lotion, and a signed copy of Shut Up and Kiss Me and more.

To enter, write me a 250 word essay on "What I've learned from reading romance novels" and email it to me by clicking here. Please no attachments - just copy and paste your essay into the email message. Winners will be published on my blog at Killer Fiction. Deadline for receipt of entries is June 15th. Good luck!

But that’s not all, I’m also hosting numerous contests at various blogs. Today, I’m giving away two ten dollar gift cards to B&N. And then there’s Wednesday and Thursday and then next Tuesday. See the list below:

May 25th - Tracy Madison's Blog - Fate and Destiny…Do you believe? One commenter will win a $10 gift card to B&N
May 25th - Pop Syndicate - Interview with Christie. One commenter will win a $10 Gift Card to B&N
May 26th - Sia McKye's Thoughts Over Coffee - The Art of Jabbering & Networking at Conferences. One commenter will win an autographed copy of Shut Up and Kiss Me.
May 26th - Running with Quills - Making Your Dreams Come True. One commenter will win a 15$ B&N gift card
May 27th - Romantic Times - The Banana Peel Effect - One commenter will win a $10 gift card for Barnes and Noble.
June 1st - Write By Bethany - An interview with Christie. One commenter will receive an autographed copy of Shut Up and Kiss Me
June 1st - Romance Novel Sluts - One commenter will receive a $10 B&N gift card.

Now I just want to say thank you for stopping in, and don't forget to leave a comment about where you buy your books, and I hope you have a wonderful day.
~CC

Boring Adults

Remember when you were a teenager and you looked around at adults and thought they were incredibly boring? No matter what, adults seemed old to me. For example, my cousins may have been 20 when I was 10, but that was an adult, so now that I'm 42 and they're 52, they still seem old to me even though we're not that much different in decades. Then I see silly kids in the store and I realize, they're looking at me and thinking I'm just some old, boring adult, too. And compared to being a stupid teenager, I am.

I sometimes wonder how any of my high school friends made it to adulthood without a major crisis. I was not that much of a risk-taker, other than running through cemeteries (and that's a whole other story), but some of my friends had serious issues. Like take my friend Joe (we'll call him). Joe was a great alcoholic our senior year of high school. Back then, the legal drinking age was 18, so it's not like he was breaking 50 major laws to buy the stuff...it was the driving afterward that was a problem.

Joe also liked to steal road signs, along with a couple of other friends, and he decorated his room with them. Of course, that turned out to be a really bad idea the time he drove drunk, sped, ran two red lights and four stop signs running from the police...and led them right back to his house, where he hid in his room.

But there was this one time that Joe pulled a great funny with the help of a sober friend. Joe's parents were out of town, so Joe was having the obligatory teen party. It was summer, so kids were milling around outside, inside - this is a half-acre lot, so plenty of milling room. I was in the den with a group of kids watching that horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well, Joe's girlfriend picked that night to break up with him, so Joe picked that night to stand in the middle of the den, down an entire bottle of vodka and give her the bird along with the words that go with the bird.

Then he passed out on the floor, and since the show was over, we went back to the movie. (Remember, we were too young and stupid to think he might be dead) So Joe wakes up and slinks off to the garage. A sober friend followed him and caught him getting ready to fire up the chainsaw. NOT a good idea when sober, much less after a bottle of vodka and when said ex-girlfriend is still "milling" in the backyard. So the sober friend takes control - he removes the chain from the saw, fires it up and sends Joe in the house to terrorize people.

I have never seen people move so fast. Kids ran out doors, jumped out windows. It's a miracle things weren't broken in the fray - including kids. But it was funny. And still makes me wonder how some of us made it to be adults. Or heck, maybe some of us never did. I don't know where Joe is, but maybe he's still drinking vodka and playing with chainsaws.

What about you - surprised you or some of your friends lasted beyond the teen years?

Deadly DeLeon

Caption Contest - Come Join The Fun!

Hey. . . Since I know you guys love books and have practice writing photo captions that I've posted here at Killer Fiction, I thought I'd let you know about a contest Dorchester is doing with my RT photos. Contest ends soon, so make sure you enter now!

The following 3 candid photos featuring various contestants of the Mr. Romance competition.

a) with Diane and Tanya from the Dorchester team

b) performing together

c) acting out a scene with author Marie-Claude Bourque

These photos have been selected after much debate, and in some cases, protestation, for a Caption Contest!

So lend your wit and levity to captioning these pics and the best of the best will win a selection of books worth $50, including Connie Mason's Lord of Devil Isle featuring Mr. Romance 2009, Charles Paz, on the cover and American Title V winner Marie-Claude Bourque's Ancient Whispers.

The winner will be announced Tuesday, May 25th. Good luck and have fun - I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

To see more photos plus videos and a recap of RT - click here!

To enter go to: http://forums.dorchesterpub.com/post?id=4710901

Rant Update

Sooo…. Remember that sprinkler from last week?  The one that pelts our house like a freakin fire hose every night at 3am and 4:30am?  Well, I did, in fact, get some very sly neighborhood kids to break it for me.  They took the entire head clean off.  Bwahahaha.  I was looking to a nice peaceful night’s sleep.

Then at 3am the fire hose started.  Apparently when it’s broken, it still spews water.  It just doesn’t rotate like it’s supposed to.   Guess where it spews?  Directly at my bedroom!  Instead of running back and forth, it spray directly at my bedroom.  Or, more accurately, the metal storm drain running down the length of my bedroom wall.  So, now instead of a fire hose, it’s a fire hose hitting a metal drum.  Fab.

It’s been three days since I’ve slept.  This is what I get for directing young children to destroy property.

I saw the landlord lurking around our place today and almost grabbed him to talk about my sprinkler woes.  Only I wasn’t dressed and figured he wouldn’t appreciate the early morning moon, so I will be emailing him tomorrow.  If that doesn’t work, I’m gonna pay the kids to break the water main to the neighbor’s house.  That’s not wrong, is it?  

~Trigger Happy Halliday