Left at home... probably wise

Nothin' too exciting here. Feeling blue that I didn't get to go to RWA this year. Hoping that Wendy, Rosie, Kristie, Jill, and Barbara (the last two I haven't met yet, Boohoo!) are having a great time.

In the meantime, I have transferred all my ebooks to my new laptop. Yay! And just to make sure that my new Microsoft Reader worked, I bought The Surgeon's Lady at eHarlequin.com. And then to make sure I could download the books and hook up my ebookwise properly, I went and bought Love is in the Heir at ebookwise.com for $1.79! These things are very important, you know, LMAO!! All in the name of testing, you see.

Then I transferred over half my pictures, but my memory card got full. Then Jeff decided it was time to do some of his gazillion summer assignments, so the rest of the pictures and my music will have to wait until tomorrow. Have I told you all about Jeff's summer assignments? Yikes. I'll have to post about that, but it'll probably be over at LITHOT.

My really old brain is having a meltdown. I got a surprise in the mail today. A copy of Relentless from the fabulous Lauren Dane!! Yay me! Problem is, I can't remember if I won a contest, or if Lauren was just being her wonderful self and sent it to me. I think I won a contest somewhere, but for the life of me, I can't remember where! Anyone? If I won your contest, let me know. LOL!

Oh, and last but not least, this last weekend, I met Tracy and Nikki for lunch and book shopping. We started at Borders, where we all bought books and Nikki bought the cutest bags for her and her daughter. Then we had a great lunch at CPK, then traipsed on over to a little UBS in the neighborhood, where I spent $15 and got about 6 books. I don't recall what I got, but hopefully, you'll see some reviews up for some of them. But honest, they were good! Heh.

Then, of course, I went and spent a small fortune on my new laptop! Yay me! Which I'm sitting on the couch and typing this post on. Woot!

That's all I've got going on. What's new with you?

Woohoo!! Finally got a new baby :)

After tons of research, I got a new baby last night!



And, y'all, look how clean my desktop is. LOL.

Goin' to the chapel...

We're going to a wedding next weekend, and here's what we were told to wear. Uh, yeah, right.

While this is not a theme wedding, and costumes are not required, we would LOVE to see our fellow artists and creative family members embrace the steampunk style to help set the tone for this event. Let your children (and your inner children) go crazy! Steampunk is the combination of the best of Victorian England with technological advances that didn't actually take place until 100 years later. While it began as a literary movement, it has now expanded to included art, design and style. For more info visit these links:


http://www.edwardianball.com/previously.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/steampunk

http://kineticsteamworks.org

You can also google image "steampunk costume" for clothing ideas. Think brass goggle wearing hackers, apocalyptic scavenger style of "Mad Max", vaudeville and burlesque in the structured gentility in the Victorian age...

First off, as soon as I saw "costumes" I was thinking "WTF?" JUST what I want to wear to a wedding. Even Jeff rolled his eyes and sounded grateful he had football practice and had to stay home for the weekend. At least Bob & I will get a nice weekend away together out of it. Here's where we're staying.

Save the School of Gallantry

Found this on Heather's site, RT'd by many on Twitter. Good luck, Delilah. I really hope this works!




My Dearest Readers,

When I was in high school, I had a dream. I was going to be the next Stephen King. Heh. Yeah. Stay with me. Please. I knew my ideas were fabulous and I knew all it would take is for an editor to look at it and they would offer me up the moon and the stars and best of all, a contract. I had my girlfriends read everything I wrote. And they kept telling me, “This is fabulous! It's SO funny! Hilarious!” Seeing it really wasn't supposed to BE funny, I immediately changed course realizing I actually had a better handle on being funny than scary. I also figured adding a romance into it would even make it better since that is what I loved to read.

I then entered college as an English major. I was going to be teacher and write during the summers. Even then I was a smart girl who knew I wasn't going to make jack and that I needed a job to support the “creative” one. Throughout all of college I wrote historical romances. One right after another. And kept submitting. And submitting. And submitting. And kept getting rejected and rejected and rejected. In the meantime, I got married. I had two kids. I joined RWA. I got critique partners. I did honed and honed and honed the crap out of my writing. And kept writing and getting rejected. I eventually racked up over 200 rejections and had written over 40 books in those 11 years of trying to get published.

When I finally sold my first historical romance, MISTRESS OF PLEASURE, and my second book, LORD OF PLEASURE, I was beside myself. It didn't feel real. To FINALLY arrive at a destination I had been traveling toward for 11 long years seemed like a mirage. Which fortunately, I quickly snapped out of. Because after all, most of my friends are all published and unpublished writers and the stories they all have told me throughout the years made me realize I had to fight with fists up for myself every step of the way. I knew publishers did little to no promotion for their authors, so I spearheaded my own promo, ready to be more than just an author. And even though I was budgeting very well and spending countless hours networking and promoting on websites and blogs, doing tons for free, I still ended up spending $7,000 on my first book. Which was way more than my advance. But hey, every business starts in the red. Right?

Then the reviews started coming in about my series set in 1830 London England about a school that educates men on the topic of love and seduction. People loved it! Wow. It got nominated for awards. Wow. Readers are e-mailing me raving. Wow. Readers from France, Austria, Poland, South Africa and from all over the U.S and the world. Wow. It just kept getting better and better. I was beginning to feel as if every penny I spent was all worth it (even though my family and I weren't going on any vacations and were eating out of cans). Because all that mattered was that my publisher loved me and my readers loved my series.

Come contract time, I'm ready for whatever they wanna throw at me. Or so I thought. Mistress of Pleasure, though completely sold out and unavailable anywhere (unless it's a used copy, some going for a ridiculous amount of $40.00), hadn't done as well as my publisher had hoped. So without waiting for the second book to come out to see if the series was even worth saving, I get a rejection from my own editor citing lack of sales.

I have to say this rejection felt more personal than any of the other two hundred and some rejections I'd received. Because it was no longer “Your book isn't good enough” it became “Your sales aren't good enough.” Since when is an author supposed to be a market guru AND a fabulous writer? Eck.

I love this series. The men in it make me laugh and it broke my heart to think that my readers will never get a chance to read about Lord Brayton, my glorious male virgin. The only alpha virgin I ever plan to write about. Then I realized something, why I am letting a publisher decide what is worth holding on to? Shouldn't that be a reader's job?

Ah. Herein lies the purpose of my post. I am challenging everyone, be they readers or writers to help me do something that's never been done before. Save a series from a death sentence given by a publisher. Can it be done? Who knows. But I eat challenges for breakfast and I hope you do to. Please join me in saving my series. Come August 4th, tell everyone you know (yes, even you're 72 year old grandfather) to buy the book, Lord of Pleasure. In doing so, you'll have a chance to win one of three $50 Visa Gift Cards. How? Check out my website for details at http://www.delilahmarvelle.com/

That said, thank you for all the support and love everyone has already shown me. Feel free to post and repost this to everyone under the moon and the stars. To all you readers out there, thank you for supporting us writers. To all you writers out there, don't ever give up on your writing. The moment you do, you give up on yourself. Which is why I'm not giving up on my series.

Cheers and much love,
Delilah Marvelle

I heart Wendy

Seriously. As an historicals ho, I always want to know what I need to get next. Often, I just go to my Borders and buy whatever's on the table or on the shelves that looks interesting. Often, I'll scroll through the reviews I've starred or "bookwatch" posts in my GReader. But if I want the real lowdown on what historicals are coming out? I go here. It's like chocolate for PMS. Water in the desert. Margaritas after a long day at work.

Seriously. I heart Wendy.

How do you find the books you want to get?

Random Thoughts on books, blogging, etc...

Don't put restrictions on the books you want on PBS that make me think the book has to be perfect. If you want a perfect book, go buy it. I know you just want to go resell my book elsewhere.

If your book makes me feel crappy about myself, I'm not going to put it down and remember it fondly. No matter how well written it is.

Lately, I've been far more critical of books than I ever have been in the past. Wonder why that is?

Not everyone in blogland has a PhD. Don't be snooty to those who only have 2 degrees. (or 1, or none)

A good romantic comedy goes a long way. As does a good Baileys. Put the two together, and it's even better. (Thanking Jill Shalvis right about now)

Twitter is very, very bad. I got far less work done this week than I should have.

Google Chrome's Incognito Window rocks. See random thought above.

I really hate cliques. They're so high school. At work or at play.

If all I can think to blog about is a bitch session, I really need a vacation. I'm glad it's a 3-day weekend coming up.

What are you all doing for the 4th?

Book Watch!

Particularly exciting for me because Virtually His was one of only a handful of my WOW reads in 2007. I was floored, if memory serves.

So obviously, I cannot wait for this one:



VIRTUALLY HERS will be coming out as an ebook through Samhain on Oct. 6, 2009. It'll come out as a print book mid 2010.

Note: I was unable to find mention of this title yet at http://www.samhainpublishing.com/. Consequently, I'm not sure if this book cover is THE cover.

Need some audiobook recs

I want to try an audiobook, but I'm not sure where/what to start with. Any recs?

What's good to listen to vs reading?

Leah's birthday bash - prizes, giveaways, fun galore...

Leah Braemel is having a birthday bash all month. To celebrate, she's having authors and giveaways all month. Seriously. Here's the lowdown.

Bookwatch: Uncovered by Linda Winfree

One of the fabulous things about e-books is that they are so easy to buy on release day. One of the few authors I "race" to buy in e-book on release day is Linda Winfree. I love her Hearts of the South series. Even though there's always one thing that gives me pause in each one, and Holly and I always compare notes about what bugged us, the books rock. Seriously.

The next one, Uncovered, is due out July 7. This is book 9 in the series (book 10 if you count the prequel, What Mattered Most - and you should definitely count it!)

Before she can build a future, she must dig up the bones of her past…

A Hearts of the South story.

After nearly twenty years, her career in possible ruins, homicide detective Madeline Holton returns to her hometown for a temporary stint working with the local sheriff’s department. The demons of her teen years lie in wait, rising once more in the form of a cold case she must solve. And when it comes to a handsome farmer who’s making good on her family’s former land, she can’t seem to keep her foot out of her mouth—or her hands off him.

Agricultural businessman Ash Hardison won’t lie to himself—despite Madeline’s obvious issues, he’s more drawn to her than any woman he’s ever known. He’s already laid the ghosts of his past to rest, and he’s determined to help Madeline purge hers. Whether she likes it or not.

Because he knows it’s the only way they have a chance to forge a future together.

Excerpt.

Can I just say? That is the most manly looking man I've seen on a book cover in a long time. I love his face. Not a boy, but a man. The 42 year old woman in me cries out for him, and I don't feel like I'm lusting after jailbait. Yum.

Madeline is Autry's sister and sister-in-law to sheriff Stanton Reed, the H/H from Anything but Mine (book 4). July 7 is almost here!

I'm a Twit!

Well, I've joined Twitter, anyway. :-)

You can find me as edkates. And hubby taught me how to link my tweets to my facebook - look at me all tech savvy!

So who else uses Twitter?

It's all about Kristie II ;-)

Holy crap, I'm posting again! The world must have ended...

But Kristie would like to see desktops, so here's my home one (since I'm off work until August). Note the lack of icons compared to Lori's, lol. I'm a TAD anal about clutter on my desktop. All that's there is the recycling bin, a Pics folder for when I move the pics from my camera (which are then transferred to the giant hard drive), and my Couch to 5k Workout Plan. That is there as a reminder to actually do it. Riiiight.
Yes, the pic is my beautiful boy who's kept me away for so long. Can you blame me? ;-)

It's all about Kristie... :)

Cause KristieJ wants to know what we all have on our desktop...

I have to say... honestly? You all know how busy I am at work, right? That's my disclaimer, LOL. It's Jeff snowboarding behind all this junk.



Maybe I'll post the one from home. It's not quite this bad, but pretty close, cause it has all Bob's working recording files on it. The man simply doesn't understand the meaning of "losing the data".

My Beef

Strange title, right? Ever have one of those PMS-y days where ALL the little things bother you? I'm going to start my list from JUST this morning. Feel free to chime in on what's annoying YOU today.

1. Landscapers who come at nap time. Every. Time.
2. Heroes from Elizabeth Lowell's old romances. Seriously. There's always this one thing they think they KNOW about the heroine and regardless of what the heroine says, they're CERTAIN they're right and they're assholes because of it. Yet I LOVE the books. Ugh.
3. Dear Author. Yes, they're pissing me off today. Because I now have 101 unread feeds from them in my Google Reader, because every time I read one post I get SUCKED in and have to read all the comments. DA, you are TOO popular. Stop being so cool and funny. I am never going to catch up!
4. My book. I threw my first MS out, did I tell you all that? 60,000 words down the drain because it was AWFUL. Now I have 5k of the new one. My issue? I'm an editor, and can't stop editing. I just can't turn the darn brain off while I'm writing, so it's going soooooooo slooowwwwwwwwllllllyyyyy. Sometime soon I'll tell you about it (think Harlequin Blaze type with a boss. Yum.).
5. PMS. WHY do women have to get this?

WELL, now that I've all cheered you all up, what would you like to complain about? I'm all ears. :-)

Junk About Kate

I'm stealing this from Lori while I think about my newest post--yes, I am ACTUALLY going to post. Did you all miss me? :-) You can see where she stole it from below. (Also, is anyone else seeing the horrible bandwidth tile? *shudder*)

1. What thing is nearest to you? My coffee cup and baby monitor
2. What is your ringtone? So Close from the Enchanted Soundtrack
3. What was the last message in your inbox? A new review from Romance Junkies for one of my authors!
4. Who is your best friend? My hubby
5. What is the brand of your TV? Sylvania. It's old, to hubby's displeasure.
6. What schools did you attend? Nursery School (called pre-K now), Kindergarten, Elementary, Junior High, High School, College.
7. Do you own a MP4? Nope. Not yet.
8. What song are you listening to now? Promise Me by Lea Salonga. Anyone ever heard her voice? Pure and beautiful. (She was the singing voice of Jasmine in Aladdin. :-))
9. Did you kiss anybody in the past 2 days? Yes.
10. Have you ever kissed someone you met in the blogosphere? Nope.
11. What would you want to call yourself if you didn't have your current name? I like my name, but when I was younger I wanted to change to Rina, a different spin off Katherine.
12. Would you be happy if you had everything? I agree with Lori - I'd like the opportunity to find out.
13. Are you always thinking of someone special? While I love my few someone specials, there are actually times where I don't think of them. Sometimes, lol.
14. Tell us of your most desperate dream? Right now it's to become a published author. I'm working on it, I swear.
15. When did you last laugh till you cried? I haven't in a while. I think that's sad.
16. If you had a crush, would you tell them you love him/her now? I tell the hubster every day.
17. If you could be anywhere in the world now, where would you want to be? On a sunny beach, basking in the sun. ~I agree, Lori
18. When was your heart last broken? I can't remember. I think that's a good thing.
19. Whose birthday(s) is/are coming up? My baby turns one in July. WHERE did the time go?? And mine's in August.
20. How many email accounts do you have? Hmm, one personal, one for work, one for review/editing. And I had one for Yahoo group stuff, but since I don't do Yahoo groups really anymore, that's since become defunct.