Great weekend! First off, Wizard came home. He was gone all last week for work, and surprisingly, I managed to not get into any trouble. Probably because BLB appointed himself my babysitter and stayed with me all week. Usually he goes home for half the week now, but it was nice to have him here.

Saturday we had a family party to celebrate a college graduation. We really enjoyed that. Even though I have a problem understand why people order white cake for these things. Two events in a row–white cake.  It just makes me sad that people don’t respect chocolate properly

Sunday Wizard was gone all day again (this time for fun, which he needed) and I worked in peace. It feels like I’m making progress. But man, in every book, I always forget what it takes to get into the character’s heads:

In the beginning, it’s all hearts and flowers as I get to know the superficial stuff about the characters. Height, weight, hair and eye color, job, dreams, goals…and at first, that all seems like enough.

Then it’s not enough.

And man, this is the hard part. I have to get inside them and poke around to the most painful parts because that is the only place I will find what truly motivates them. It’s only there I learn their fears,  their pain, their darkest parts that all of us have.

Now since all these characters are created from MY imagination, guess who’s experiences I have to mine to figure this stuff out?

Why do I do this again? Because I know it’s not for the money, LOL! Hey, maybe it’s a form of therapy?

In any case, as morose as all this sounds, I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve made!

So how was your weekend?

After much thought, I think I’m going to have to go to a Monday/Wednesday/ Friday blog schedule.  We’ll try it and see how it works.

But since I have you here now…

The other day Wizard was balancing the checkbook while I was making cupcakes.  They were low fat cupcakes and now they are all gone!

But I digress.

So I’m working away when Wizard suddenly says,  “Witch you forgot to put a Barnes and Noble entry in the checkbook. It’s 99 cents.”

I pause from my labors, and look up hoping he doesn’t notice the chocolate all over my face. “Are you sure? I use my business account, named The Lyon Account, for all that stuff.”

Wizard says, “It’s right here.”

“Huh, well okay. Guess I used the wrong account.”

“No big deal,” Wizard says.

I go back to eating batter baking.

“Witch, here’s another one, and another and…”

Wiping the batter off my face, I stroll over. “That can’t be right. Wizard, I think you’re looking at the statement for my Lyon account.

Wizard looks down and sure enough, he’s looking at the wrong part of the statement.  Stunned that he actually made a mistake, he looks up at me and narrows his eyes. “This is your fault.”

I might have been laughing (okay I was laughing my ass off, because when it comes to accounting, Wizard does NOT make mistakes) Finally, I get control and ask, “How is this my fault?”

“I don’t know yet, but I know  it’s your fault.”

I laughed again. “Will a cupcake make you feel better?”

“Depends, does it come with an admission of guilty?”

“Nope. But it has chocolate chunks int he batter.”

He grinned. “Good enough for me.”

But when I went to get the cupcake for him, I hear him mutter, “It’s still your fault.”

I gave him a cupcake anyway.

My deadline for the new book was moved up to July 15th. Umm…yeah. Actually I can make that deadline, I think. The only real issue will be BLB’s surgery and we have no idea when that will be scheduled.  I’m not even thinking about the dragons that are out on submission.

So I am writing! The shorter, tighter structure of this book is much easier than a paranormal. But it still has to be good. Unfortunately that usually requires a lot of agony and rewriting on my part

Fortunately, Wizard is in his extremely busy time as well so our schedules are working well together.

Bailey however, is not as happy about my work schedule:

He doesn’t like NOT being the center of attention! And speaking of Bailey. He was over on the weekend, and BLB’s girlfriend came over to hang for a while. Bailey loves her! He planted himself in her lap and stayed there while we all watched a movie.  She pet him the entire time.

Hope you all have a great day!

Had a great weekend! I ate too much. I’ve been slipping a bit in my eating, so today I’m hitting the gym and my WW eating program.

Mother’s Day was so nice. BLB gave me a card with a Stork that said, “Sorry no refunds.” So funny! Guess I’m stuck with him, LOL!

We swam and had a great day, in spite of the fact that when I was drying off, oldest son threw an entire glass of ice water on me.

For no reason.

Okay, maybe I was splashing him a lot. But once he threw the water on me, he ran and jumped in the pool to escape my wrath. I would have gotten him back but I was laughing too hard. I totally deserved it. Plus he caught me by surprise, so bonus points for him.

Until next time, of course. Like when he’s sleeping

Oh and I read Silver’s novella BLOOD MOON too. Loved it!

How was your weekend?

I talked to my new editor yesterday and REALLY like her! It was such a pleasant experience. I’ve generally had amazing luck with editors and that luck is continuing, it seems. I’m so happy there.

This is a quickie story. On Monday Wizard left work and arrived at BLB’s doctors office at a quarter to nine. The appointment was at 9:10

BLB and I had left early, but I neglected to map the route. I was pretty sure I remembered.

In my defense I have a lot on my mind. I mean A LOT.

Finally, BLB says, “Mom, you realized you passed turn off. A long time ago. We somehow missed it.”

I’ve known for a couple miles but I’m excellent at denial. But I was busted so I owned up, “Yes. Call the office and ask them for the right street.”

“I’ll map it on my Droid GPS.”

I’m thinking, Damn it, if I only had my Siri! But refrained from saying that, got off the freeway and turned around.

BLB’s phone rings.

“Dont answer that!” I said.

He rolls his eyes, and answers, “Hi Dad. Yeah, we’ve turned around. Of course she’s lost.”

“I’m not lost. I know where I am, I just don’t know where the stupid exit is.” Seriously, I knew exactly where I was.

Wizard says, “Tell me where you are, I’ll get you here.”

I kept my mouth closed, but BLB blabbed and told him where we were. Wizard told us exactly how to get there and we made it in plenty of time. We pull up, and there is Wizard, standing by his car and smirking. I didn’t even bother to ask, but BLB did. “How did you know?”

Wizard laughed. “Your Mom wasn’t here by ten minutes to nine. She’s compulsively early, especially when it comes to something this serious. And I knew she’d never see that offramp, it’s hidden. So I rescued her. Again. It’s what I do.”

Damn it. He’s not wrong.

So my DSL has decided to work, but my car has decided not to “recognize” my key. It’s a push start system and the car tells me it can’t detect the key.  I’m getting a complex here. Wizard just replaced the batteries in our keys. His works, mind doesn’t. Sigh. Wizard is going by the dealership to get another battery and try that.

Not sure what Techno Fairy I pissed off, but I’m really sorry! Seriously! I’ll even make you cookies. But please quit punishing me through my technology!

In other news, today we’re taking BLB (Broken Leg Boy) back to the surgeon to see what he wants to do next with his leg.  We are hoping the surgeon can clearly see in the MRI what needs to be done.

Unfortunately the metal plate and pins cause some distortion in the MRI.

It’s been four months and we are so close…he’s walking, but with a limp and he still has some pain. We’ll see what today brings.

And lastly, I just finished reading TEMPTING THE BEST MAN by J. Lynn, and am starting BLACKMAILED BY THE ITALIAN BILLIONAIRE by Nina Croft. Both are Entangled Publishing books. I’m talking to my new editor tomorrow to discuss the book I’m writing for them, so I’m trying to get a stronger feel for the line. I’ve also read THE MARRIAGE BED by Jennifer Probst (a really cute book!)

What are you reading?

I had a good weekend.  For days, okay a week, I’ve been needling Wizard a little bit. Saying things like, “When I get Siri (my new iPhone with the voice feature named Siri)…

Perhaps I’ve said it too much. Wizard knows how bad I want this iPhone.  So yesterday morning, I was just leaving the house to meet Biker Witch for coffee. As I drove down my street, I realized I hadn’t checked my old flip phone.  Biker Witch could have sent me a text or called (my phone sometimes doesn’t ring or alert me). So while driving down my street, I flipped open the phone for a quick check.

No text. But I found a label on my phone that read, “Hi! I’m Siri!”

OMG! I had to pull over I was laughing so hard. Score one for Wizard! That was too funny. I have no idea when he did that with his beloved label maker.

But I’m still getting my iPhone if he would just make up his mind on what kind of phone he wants.

Okay, now for the news. I’m actually pretty excited about this: I’ve sold a book to Entangled Publishing. It’s a digital first publisher that I’m hearing great things about. Jennifer Probst has hit the bestseller lists with her Entangled books.

The working title of the book is A HERO’S TOUCH. It’s a contemporary love story in the shorter format of category (Harlequin Desire, Special Edition etc). The pitch is:

When Adam Waters returns home from the Marines his first thought is of Megan, the girl he left behind. Though Megan’s heart was broken by him, she never stopped loving the father of her child. Can Megan find the courage to tell Adam about his son, and will Adam forgive her or leave forever?

This is a very fresh different direction for me.  Adam is home from the Marines and has opened a security agency with some of his buddies, who I hope will get their own books.  I think of this new venture as my Broken Heroes: Broken in Battle and Healed in Love.

Naturally, I am not leaving paranormal. At this point, I still plan to write CAGE MAGIC around writing the book for Entangled.

So how was your weekend?