Yesterday I saw this story on Smart Bitches and got all fired up.  I haven’t been that furious in a long time. The short version is, a mother exposed a 10th grade teacher’s second job of writing erotica under a pen name. She believes the teacher is somehow unfit to teach, and says some pretty inflammatory (and utterly ridiculous) things.

Note that the teacher consciously kept her life as an erotic writer separate and out of the classroom. I respect her for that as she showed true sensitivity to the welfare of her students and concerns of parents. And I support her right to write whatever fiction she likes outside the classroom.

The article written about erotic author, Judy Mays, was in my opinion a witch hunt. A form of slander with no attempt to do “deep background” on the source(es) that said really offensive things about this woman.

I’m getting pissed all over again. Seriously. I raised three boys, and I can’t remember ever being concerned about a teacher’s life outside the class room. I can remember being concerned about laziness or teaching methods I did not agree with BUT I also believe that even less than stellar teachers taught my kids some realistic life lessons about dealing with the real world.  They are stronger men now for learning to deal with imperfections then.

I can completely respect that a parent’s right to “protect” their child, but I cannot respect ripping apart a teacher’s life when she has done nothing wrong.

Okay I’ll end my rant now.  Is there a rant you want to get off your chest?

Okay first a shout out to Kate Carlisle and Maureen Child for being finalists in the National Reader Choice Awards! I’m so happy for them! Kate’s a finalist for her Desire:  SWEET SURRENDER BABY SURPRISE. Maureen is a finalist for her novella, THE WRONG BROTHER in Under the Millionaires Mistletoe Congrats Kate and Maureen! I am thrilled for you both!

Now onto my new love THE VAMPIRE ACADEMY by Rachel Mead. I read the first book over the insane four days Wizard and  I had Thursday through Sunday and loved it!! Then I bought and downloaded the second one, FROSTBITE to my Kindle yesterday and started it. I’m so hooked! You all have been telling me, and I finally got a change to read it. Awesome!

And lastly, five weeks from today until Key’s book, SINFUL MAGIC, comes out. it seems to be taking a really long time! I’m so curious how readers will react to that story.

Okay, what are you all reading?

Sorry! I got home from a family Easter party and forgot to post a blog.

Today I’m blogging over at Romance Bandits and would love it if you all stopped by to say hi.

I need a vacation from my vacation! Holy Bunnies, people, this having fun stuff is hard work! Well the first part wasn’t fun. Cleaning the carpets was just hard work. Who knew we had so much furniture and crap to move? And then it had to be moved back. But the good news is that once the carpet dried, all the weird buckles in the carpet laid flat again.

Friday, after moving all the furniture back, we went to a casino and played the slots. The first half hour, I won steadily and Wizard pouted.  I may have laughed a little bit. But then I lost and he won…it’s not as funny when Wizard laughs at me.  After the casino took all our money we called it a day.

Saturday we went to Disneyland.  Wow it was busy! But we had a blast. Eight hours and Disneyland left us exhausted.

Sunday we went to the family party for Easter and to celebrate my Mother In Law’s birthday adn had more fun.

During all this time, I only got to read one book. I thought I’d have time to read more.

How was your Easter weekend?

I feel like this puppy–except not as cute. In fact, I feel like a wrung out dish rag! But this puppy is more more fun to look at than a dish rag.

Anyway, Wizard got it into his head to actually listen to me while I was whining about needing the carpets cleaned. So he took a day off work and booked a carpet cleaner for today.  Which required me to spend two days cleaning out crap and moving furniture, vacuuming and …I’m already sore.  And Wizard has been doing his part too, I can’t even accuse him of slacking.

And we still have to move everything back.

What’s really sad is that this is how Wizard and I spend our vacation days. We obviously need an intervention or life coach or something.

We’re thinking we might do something fun tomorrow, if we’re not too sore.

Not sure how much I’ll be online, but go ahead and share: What did you do on your last vacation day? I bet it was more fun than this!

I went to the post office yesterday, where I began chatting with a young woman about reading physical books versus reading e-books. She prefers physical books. I heard myself describing how much I like reading on my Kindle. Then as I got into my car, I was thinking, “Idiot!  I need every physical book sale I can get just to stay published, and I’m telling people how great a Kindle is.”

And this is only like the 50th time I’ve done it.  Sigh…   Besides, publishing is change so fast that e-book sales are starting to carry more weight.  And I do LUV my Kindle!

Anyhow, last week when I was in my funk, I picked up a book off the top of a bag of books my sister gave me. It’s THE NEIGHBOR by Lisa Gardner.  I loved it! This is what romantic suspense used to be before serial killers and CSI gore took over the genre.  This book drew me into the lives of all the players as I tried to figure out what happened to the missing wife.  I’m not sure I totally buy the ending, but I still loved the book.

And Lisa Gardner is an excellent writer! In fact, I took a class from her that helped me craft my query letter for my first published book DATING CAN BE MURDER. She’s an excellent teacher too.

Next up, I’m going to read Laura Wright’s ETERNAL KISS.  I read parts of it as she wrote it, but now I get to read it all grown up in a a real book Then I’m going to download the first Vampire Academy book. At least that’s my plan right now.

So what are you reading?

It was a pretty good weekend.  On Saturday, Wizard and I went to oldest son’s house to celebrate his birthday.  We won’t talk about how old he is, because frankly, I think he’s being rude. He doesn’t seem to understand that his getting older makes me older.

Rude.

But the day involved chocolate cake and playing with Bailey Dog! My youngest son got Bailey to stand up on his hind legs and walk backwards. So funny! Wish I’d had a camera!

Sunday, I had to run to the store to exchange something, AND I found a pair of workout pants that made me look thinner! Seriously! SCORE! Now if only I could find a magic swim suit that made me look 30 pounds thinner.

And if I’m not writing, why did I just spent nearly two hours working on a Murder She Writes blog? I wish I had two more hours to make it a good blog…but I ran out of time, darn it. But still…I haven’t opened a file for an actual book! (That’s three days, Wizard! Three days of no book writing!)

How was your weekend?

How did this happen? Wizard and I just wanted to buy a new TV.

Then we suddenly had to have High Definition.

Then the three Apprentices (our sons) decided that Wizard needed a blu ray DVD player with surround sound.  They bought it for him, and helped with the intial set up.

Then Firday Wizard and I spent all day mounting the speakers and taming the wiring.

This is insane! But it’s truly awesome watching movies too.   Saturday night, oldest son, girlfriend and Bailey dog came over to have dinner and watch a movie.  They were very impressed with the mounted speakers! AVATAR was awesome!

Sunday I worked all day until I couldn’t see the computer screen anymore.

How was your weekend?