I’m back to work on the Wing Slayers and loving it even if my writing time is limited lately!

For all those who participate, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! This year it totally snuck (Wrong tense? Is snuck even a word? Can you all tell I’ve been working long hours today and totally wiped out?)  up on me. For fun, I thought we’d have a little Halloween Costume Contest. I asked the Wing Slayer Hunters if they’d model for us, but they pitched a total fit about having to put on costumes.

MEN! Such whiners.

But then I found volunteers totally willing to model costumes! Okay, up first is Candidate Number 1 modeling a very trendy Halloween Hat but he’s sad as no one is giving him treats. I’m on it, heading to my cupboard right now to get him a super yummy bacon treat. I think he deserves at least two treats for rocking this hat!

“Wait!” Phoenix yells out. “No one told me there’d be bacon!”

“Too late, dude. You had your chance. The bacon treats are all for the models!” Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah, Candidate number 2: He happily volunteered to be a witch or wizard, but I  think he tricked the cat into getting into the cauldron. Hmm, do we deduct points for meanness? Or add points for out-smarting a cat since that doesn’t happen very often?

And now for Candidate number 3.  This guy has just been waiting for an excuse to wear his spiffy new tux. But he got so tired putting it on, he had to take a nap. Not only is he styling his tux, but he’s totally got the whole nap thing mastered.

“I have a tux. Hell I have four tuxes.” Linc shouted out. “I could have modeled a tux. Do you have any more bacon?”

Ignore Linc. He’s just mad because Candidate Number 3 wears a tux better than him. Linc is a little vain. Let’s move onto Candidate Number 4: This little guy is super cool as Devil Dog. He could steal my heart any day, what about yours?

So there you have it, our four Halloween Costume Contest Candidates. Who is your choice of a winner?

Hope you all have a great Halloween and a terrific weekend!

Hey! I missed all of you while I was in Florida. It was an amazing conference that had excellent workshops, opportunities to brainstorm, see old friends and make new ones.  It was interesting how many of us are juggling to manage our careers, yet thrilled to be doing it.  I haven’t transcribed my notes yet, but I’m hoping to do that this week and get an outline of key things I learned. But I won’t bore you guys with a bunch of recaps.

I got crazy lucky with an amazing room and a slider overlooking the ocean. It was stunning.

It was so gorgeous. See those blue chairs? Those are collapsed cabanas, two of my friends and I took an afternoon off and hung out there in those for a couple hours. Total relaxation! The water was really warm, and we saw some dolphins playing out there. Seriously, I lucked out with the view from my room–usually when I travel I have a view of the dumpsters or parking lot :-). I turned on the TV only ONCE just to make sure it worked, the rest of the time I listened to the waves while I worked on some notes, email with my Brazilian editor, caught up on social media or one morning when I had time, I even did a tiny amount of writing. I’d love to have stayed there another week to write non-stop but real life demanded my presence. Plus I missed Wizard.

In other news, Wizard figured out how to make coffee all by himself! He did great on his own. He’s having no problem filling his time so far since he retired. He even tried to vacuum for me, but he only managed to do the upstairs because the power went out.

At least that’s his story, LOL! He swears the power really went out.

Okay enough of all that.  I have a Wednesday Worthy Candidate for you:

What do you think, is he worthy? And now it’s YOUR turn, how have you all been while I was away? I really want to know!

Hopefully, I’m on a flight to Florida and the NINC Conference about the time you all are reading this. And Wizard is home puzzling out the mysteries of the coffeemaker and microwave. We went over all of it step-by-step yesterday including how to defrost meat for dinner. Now it’s time to see if Wizard can conquer kitchen appliances all by himself

And of course, he lectured me on making sure I get dinner after I get to the hotel. “And no vending machine crap, or pre-made sandwiches, Witch.”  ONE TIME I bought a pre-made sandwich because I was in too much of a hurry (or cheap, I can’t remember which) to order room service or go out to eat in a decent place. I spent the night sick, and Wizard never lets me forget it. I was traveling by myself, and was dumb enough to tell him what happened and now he nags me about it every dang time.  When I will I learn NOT to tell him stuff?

Like the time I accidentally went into the men’s bathroom in an airport?That story gets repeated in public. A LOT. That’s okay I have a lot of stuff on Wizard too

Anyway, back to my point, I’ll be gone from the blog until next Wednesday.

But I do have a Wednesday Worthy Candidate:

So what do you think?

See you all next week!

So my big news–I cleaned out my closet! LOL, ok it’s not big news, but I purged three bags; one is trash and two are for the charity truck. I’m so happy to get that project done! Otherwise, I had a great time at my meeting. I already mentioned on FB that The Plus One Chronicles won first place in the Erotic Romance category of Book Buyer’s Best contest for the Orange County Chapter of RWA. This was super awesome because that’s my “home chapter” where I began as a total newbie, wanna-be-writer. So many people from that chapter have helped me along with the way and I am forever grateful.

Also, the two other finalists in that category are winners in my view. As honored as I am to win, the truth is it could have been any one of us. They are both wonderfully talented authors. That said, I’m trying to convince Wizard that since Plus One Chronicles did win, I should get a French Bulldog puppy next year.  He rolled him eyes and refused to answer that comment (I put it on his FB page) so far. We’ll see, I think I’m wearing him down, LOL!

Okay, moving on…now I get to focus on the Wing Slayers for a while!  At the meeting (it was actually a big birthday meeting held in a hotel) few people came up to me to tell he how excited they are that I’m continuing the Wing Slayers. That always fills me with equal parts of joy and terror. I’m so happy to give back to the readers who’ve stuck with me plus I love the hunters and witches, but I’m always concerned the stories will let them down. Isn’t it great how I can emotionally multitask

In other news…I’m leaving Wednesday for Florida for the NINC Conference! This is an industry focused conference, so I’ll let you all know if I hear any interesting tidbits.

Oh and I really need to stop baking! I made chocolate chunk cookies on Friday that I can’t leave alone. Bad Witch!

Okay, your turn! How as your weekend?

I totally forgot to post on Wednesday! So sorry. I blame Wizard confusing the heck out of me by being home All The Time! Well that, and I had my head down, completely focused on revising EXPOSING THE HEIRESS, which I finished and sent off yesterday.  Now I’m getting ready for the NINC (Novelists Inc) conference that will be in Florida next week. I’m looking forward to that, but also hoping I can get a little writing on Linc’s book (CAGED MAGIC) done too.  I want so much to move forward on that story, it’s driving me crazy.

I have another book/series bugging the crap out of me too. I’m determinedly ignoring that until I can get to it.

Let’s not even talk about the joys of switching over the health insurance. We’re going with Cobra, and it was supposed to be a seamless transition, bwhahaha!! Not. Anyway that’s been a challenge and time suck, but its straightened out, at least for the time being. Then I saw my RA doc, who is more worried about me handling the travel and walking at the conference that I am.  And while it amuses me, I’m also seriously appreciate that he looks out for me and has for many years now. I’ve been very fortunate.

This weekend, I may go to my RWA chapter meeting (I’ve had a mild sinus/allergy thing, so it depends on that) and just getting stuff ready for conference.

I’ll post on Monday and maybe Wednesday before I leave. Wizard is being hilarious, planning his Junk Food Holiday while I’m gone. Although he’s concerned he won’t be able to figure out how to make coffee or turn on the oven…yeah, three college degrees and he can’t operate a coffeemaker? Really? (He’ll figure it out, I’m pretty sure he’s done it before!)

So what are you doing this weekend?

Oh yay, it’s Monday. But the weekend was fantastic. I worked of course.

Since this book will likely be moved to a sexier line, most of my editors notes are versions of. “Can we get five sex scenes?” Umm, sure thing. I’m on it. And by the way, Wizard thinks this is hilarious. He’s making all kinds of comments that the Blog Police have forbidden me from repeating here.  In all seriousness, the sex must work with the emotional arc to have any real value…I hope I’m doing that but I can’t really tell right now.

But I took two huge breaks this weekend. Late Saturday afternoon we went to see GONE GIRL and we both really liked it. Lots of twists and surprises (I didn’t read the book and I’m glad I didn’t. It was fun to be surprised), then went out to dinner. Sunday afternoon we went over CPA Boy and Special K’s for her birthday. It was so easy and fun; pizza, cupcakes, and tons of fun with the two pups. Wizard took his Asus Transformer computer tablet thingie, and he and Special K had their heads together over that, working on something or other–I think they were setting up Nexflix. Everyone is surprised at how much he’s done on it already. Wizard LOVES that tablet.

Then Sunday night I’m back at the computer working. It’s taken me a while to figure out what I wanted to do to realign this book, but now I’m hooked and working! The changes are almost done, then I’ll clean it up and send it off.

So how was your weekend?

When I run into people who read my blog I usually get one of two reactions: Either they asked how Bailey’s doing because everyone knows I luuvvv Bailey dog (and Cookie and Corky!) or they ask, “Do you make up the stuff about you and Wizard?”

Umm, if I was going to make up stuff about me and Wizard, wouldn’t I try to make myself look a little better? But now that Wizard is on Face Book and pretty much outted himself as my husband, I have proof. I actually had screen shots, but I deleted them by accident. (Don’t ask…I’m deep in revisions!) So ALREADY on Wizard’s FB we have a battle going over getting a puppy. His cousins and friends are getting in on the act and it’s pretty funny.

So finally Wizard posted this (since I deleted the screen shot before comments,  I recreated it exactly as he posted it)

“Ok I give up. I got Jennifer a new puppy. Now is everybody happy??? I have way too much time on hand.”

That is not a real dog! That’s a beloved stuffed dog that belonged to one of my kids when he was little! Here’s the thing, I was WORKING, not paying any attention to Wizard while he did all this. Then the post popped up in my FB feed.

“WIZARD!!!! You can’t do that! That’s not a dog!”

Evil laugher came from the other room. “You saw my post?”

“That’s…” Damn it I won’t laugh. “I’m not laughing!”

“You’re laughing.”

Well of course I was, it was funny. But he can’t make me admit it. “I’m ignoring you. I’m busy WORKING!”

“And laughing.”

I refused to discuss this anymore and kept on working. Then I got an idea. Wizard wants a Mustang and has for years and years. In the comments of his post, I put this:

“That’s so mean! See the picture for my official response :-)”

An hour later, Wizard yelled at me. “You can’t do that!”

“Ha! Who do you think you’re messing with? It’s on, Wizard!”

Then we both busted up laughing because we have regressed to unsupervised four year olds.

So for those of you who wonder do Witch and Wizard really act like that?  We totally do. We had to be adults all the years we raised our kids. We’re over it and are having way too much fun And by the way, one of his friends said, “Have fun sleeping on the couch, buddy.” LOLOL!!! Wizard CAN have a Mustang, but I get any dog I want with no complaints if he ever gets one. We’ve had that deal for years.

So my weekend plans are working, then making lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting. It was Special K’s birthday this week, and she requested those cupcakes when we go see her on Sunday.  Much as I love her, I’d make anything she wanted!

What are your plans?