Today is Bathroom Granite Day! I can’t believe we’re finally doing this.  But as I write this blog on Thursday night I’m deep into POSSESSION revisions and pretty tired, worried, stressed…so all is normal here

But to prove I’m not the only crazy one, here’s what I deal with on a day basis.

Oldest son, CPA Boy,  sent out an email arranging his own birthday at a restaurant . I’m rather impressed with that because it means both me and Fiancee Girl are of the hook in planning! Yay!   Wizard and I agree to the plans. Then I sent a group email back.  “All I need is a birthday list that does not include me buying you a house, paying for your wedding or honeymoon.”

In my deadline and remodel insanity I forgot that not only is my family crazy, we have completely corrupted Finance Girl. She’s a lovely young woman, graduated college young, super smart and talented…but alas even she can be corrupted by our brand of crazy.

So Fiancee Girl emails right back to all of us, “CPA boy says he wants a new baby brother for his birthday because BLB is too big to boss around now.  He’s requesting that you get to work on that now.”

Picture my mouth hanging open. CPA boy tries to embarrass me with stuff like this, but Fiancee Girl? Yeah..I might be a little impressed.

Then Wizard jumps in with “Witch and I will grant this gift, look for Witch to be four months along at your wedding. And then Wizard went onto to torture Fiancee Girl, who is tiny, about how he will lift and spin her at the wedding, saying, “Behold my new daughter!” (Told you, they are all insane).

I send my own email. WHY IS EVERYONE TRYING TO MAKE ME FAT? Then I remember I have to a book due in like ten minutes and got back to work , totally ignoring the crazy people.

My email dings again. It’s oldest son, CPA boy who started all this madness. “Hey Mom, did Dad (Wizard) and Fiancee Girl work out their Baby Bargain yet? Get it, Mom? Baby Bargain? It’s a book , maybe you’ve read it?”

I cannot make this stuff up. My family is nuts.  And they make me laugh every day.

What are you doing this weekend? Something fun I hope!

Today’s The Baby Bargain Blog Tour stop is Page Flippers. Stop by and enter for a chance to win a $50.00 gift card!

So, The Baby Bargain has been out about four weeks now.  When I originally singed with  Entangled Publisher I was cautious and a bit unsure. But now, after three solid weeks in their top ten (the first week out the sales were just building) , I am thrilled with the publisher. I’m very pleased with the editing process (I’m sure mistakes got through–digital is like that for many reasons) but their editing at all the stages including revision, copy edit and proofreading was as rigorous as any I’ve ever been through. My editor not only edits, but answers every question I have and cares as much as I do about the book. So far, I love this publisher  All they work me hard, that’s something I respect (when I’m not griping, LOL).

Then there’s my beloved THE PROPOSITION. It did pretty well for the first of three books in a series. I decided to take a risk and offer it to a reviewer known to be brutally honest.  She read it last night and contacted me today to let me know she really liked it. This, for me was a huge personal validation. The review will be up on her site next week, and I’ll link it then. But you guys have been with me through all this so I just wanted to share.

Now  for our Wednesday Hunk, I went to iStock to use up some credits I had leftover there. It’s a small picture, but what do you think?

Is he hunk worthy?

The Baby Bargain Blog Tour stop today is Ex Libris. Stop over and enter for a chance to win the $50.00 gift card!

I now have a rough draft of POSSESSION! This is the absolute roughest drafter I’ve ever written.  I need to fill out one scene then I’ll read through it and see if there’s hope for the book.  I’m crossing my fingers. I’m trying to streamline my process into something a little faster. There’s no way to make it easier, writing is always hard. But getting a draft down gives me something solid to work with and then I can agonize over the finer details, descriptions, word choices and finessing plot lines. The hardest task is always setting up and executing emotional scenes.  I really want to get POSSESSION to the editor next week and let her take a crack at it. I think I’ll be able to do an even more powerful revision with her input. But it has to be in good enough shape for her to get a solid feel in order for her to  give me constructive feedback. So we’ll see.

On Saturday, we got the lights in the bathroom. They look exactly as we hoped, we’re so happy! We have a great handy man that is doing the electrical and plumbing for the bathrooms as we need it. Wizard could do this but he’s busy enough patching, painting, etc.  He’s done the lion’s share of pulling all this together too. Weirdly he gets mad when I say that. He always says, “We’re a team.” And that’s true. I’ve done everything he asked, including getting a quote on mirrors that is going to save us $270.00 so I’m not entirely useless. But he really has done most of it while I write.

Here’s a picture of the granite I think we’re putting in the two upstairs bathrooms. This piece is broken, but the slab will be a full piece with no seams. Then they’ll cut out the sinks and faucets once they line them up.

The granite color is petty bold, but I’m tired of so much white. In the kitchen we have something softer in mind. But we’re going to see how they do in the bathrooms before we make a final decision on the kitchen.

So how was your weekend?

The Baby Bargain Blog stop today is The Romance Junkies  I hope you’ll stop by and enter the contest for the $50.00 gift card!

Yesterday was Wizard’s birthday. BLB was out. He studied and I wrote so it worked out perfectly. Then BLB and I (mostly I!) made Wizard’s strawberry cheesecake and the three of us wen tot dinner. The other two boys couldn’t make it out, but we saw them on Sunday so it all worked out well.

Oh! The lights we ordered for the bathrooms came. Love them! Since we had to order them from a picture I wasn’t sure. I’m getting excited to get it all done.

I’m about 50 pages from the end of my draft of POSSESSION.  I know the ending, it’s a couple scenes between where I am and the end I’m still figuring out. Then I need to rewrite and polish it–all before April 15th. That’s impossible, but I’m going to do my best

So what are your weekend plans?

The Baby Bargain Blog Tour stop today is Reading Between the Wines. Hop over and enter the contest for the $5o.00 gift card.

For two weeks, THE BABY BARGAIN was on the B&N and Amazon Romance Contemporary bestseller’s list and I am thrilled. Yesterday a new crop of books released, probably knocking TBB off, but that’s okay. I never expected the amazing two weeks, and I want to thank everyone who helped put TBB there! I loved writing the book, but I had no idea it would be so well received. It’s absolutely the best kind of surprise!

But you know what my best moment was? Easter day were were all chatting, and BLB says, “Hey mom I was reading through your amazon reviews on THE BABY BARGAIN and people loved that book.

I was stunned. “You went and looked at the book and reviews?” BLB reads a ton of books, all non fiction military and politics.  Just walking by his books can put me to sleep. He does not read romance.  (My oldest son is more likely to read my books, which is awesome, but he has zero time right now.)

BLB answered, “Yep, after we talked on the phone the other day, I looked it up. Very cool, mom.”

I know, it sounds silly. But it so made my day.

Okay this was the best I could do for our Worthy Candidate today:

So is he worthy? You be the judge!

Before I forget, today for The Baby Bargain Blog Tour, I’m here at Laurie’s Non-paranormal Thoughts and Reviews.

The weekend was exhausting. Easter was exhausting.  Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of Bailey.  I did, however, make Bailey a special piece of bacon that I crumbled in his food. That dog now thinks I’m a goddess

I also watched Bailey help himself to a couple licks of Middle Son’s (he’s an adult) gin and tonic while Middle Son was in the jacuzzi and not watching. Then I watched Middle Son drink it. After I was done amusing myself I told Middle Son–who shrugged and laughed. Middle Son is too funny. Very little freaks him out. (Bailey didn’t drink much, I would have stopped him.)

So we’re set to have the bathroom granite put in April 12th. Then the next day the sinks and plumbing will be done. I’m excited to be getting work done, but frankly, Wizard’s doing the lion’s share of organizing this.  I’m pretty much chained to the computer.

However Friday night Wizard announced we were going to Home Depot to buy the sinks and hardware like faucets, towel racks, etc.  I was like…Yay, because my day started at just after 6am  in the gym and I’ve been going nonstop since then. Now it’s after 7pm and I get to go to Home-Freaking-Depot, oh double yay.

Wizard is staring at me warily… “Is is safe for you to be in public? You’ve been working a lot and you look a little…stressed.”
“No worries I’m fine. Let’s go.”

So we went. Bought stuff. All kinds of shiny stuff. Then we go to get the sinks. We need four, they have one–and I’m not a math genius but I know there’s a problem. So Wizard finds a guy to help. Except…he was confused by his job. So he vanishes.

And we’re waiting, and waiting, and now I’m bored. I’m standing across an aisle from Wizard when I say, “Hey Wizard, this store has cameras right?”

He gets THAT look again. Like I might be ready to snap the last threat tethering me to reality. “Uh, Yeah. Why?”

I start walked toward him. “Where is the cameras?”

His eyes get wide. Then he looks around, spots the camera and points to the ceiling on his right. “There. Why?”

Stopping toe to toe wtih him, I look up. “Cause “I’m going to get us on You Tube.  Or the news.”

His eyes widened.  “How?’

“We’re going to make out.”

After that, time went really fast. Okay, we didn’ t REALLY make out (or at least, I haven’t seen any video proof that we did .  Finally Clueless Worker Guy came back to announce there were no more sinks to be had. By then we laughing like idiots and struggling to pull it together. We made our escape and managed to stop laughing by the time we hit the check out stand with the stuff we did find.

Wizard tracked down the other three sinks we needed on Saturday. Oddly enough, he didn’t ask me to go with him that day.

How was your weekend?