I woke up Tuesday feeling so much better, let’s hope that continues! I even got in a little writing time, and figured out how to rewrite the beginning of Savaged Vows for the gazillionth time (it’s just how I work–I write and rewrite and fret, moan and don’t sleep until it works). Today, I have to go do a medical test in the morning so I won’t be around until later in the day. While I’m doing that, I’m going to leave you all to play the Santa Edition of Wednesday Worthy.

We have three candidates and all you have to do is choose the one you think is most worthy.

Santa #1

Santa #2

Santa #3

So is number 1, 2 or 3 the most worthy?

I’m less Grinchy! This weekend, Wizard and I busted our butts and got 95% of the Christmas shopping done. Whew! I have to say this is where Wizard and I shine in teamwork. All of our marriage has been like this–we divide and conquer and get it done. Which is pretty funny because both of us are also control freaks But I trust or accept his decisions and visa versa. And since I’ve been sick and Wizard’s dealing with his cranky back, we managed pretty well.

I’ll think about all the wrapping later.

Wait, I was supposed to be writing? Bwahaha!! Okay I’m trying, but it’s hard, especially since with cold crud his hanging out in my head and throat. I have a about a half of day of feeling okay and all that has been spent taking care of Christmas and life stuff. I’m not even reading right now from the pressure in my head. I’m not super sick though, it’s just enough to slow me down and make me a tag snappish (according to Wizard) at times.

I also attempted my first gingerbread house. This one was pre-assembled, so all I had to do was decorate it. I did this one to test the royal icing recipe, which turned out great. But my hand…well let’s just say my hand is not a fan of piping stiff royal icing. But I think we can all agree that’s not a terrible loss as gingerbread houses are NOT my secret talent.

Still it was fun, and I’m going to try to do the other one later this week if I can find the time and energy with a million other things I have to do.

So that’s been my weekend, how was yours?

Happy Friday! Okay let’s do this!

1. I started my Christmas shopping, sent out 3/4s of my Christmas cards and decorated my house. Huge Kudos to Wizard for computerizing our mailing list so all I had to do was print labels for that batch of Christmas cards Handwriting causes problems for me so this really helped! (FYI, typing doesn’t bother me unless I’m doing it for eight hours straight. But more than a half page of handwriting is a killer.)
2. I got my Gingerbread House book! It’s really cool. It shows step by step how to design and bake the cookies for your house, then how to assemble and decorate them. And there are houses for all year long (Valentines Day, Halloween, etc). It’s a lot of fun to look at.
3. But I’m don’t have time to design and bake my own houses right now. And since I’ve done cake decorating, I know that I’m going to need to practice to get the feel for it. So I bought a couple kits, but I haven’t had time to play with them yet. 
4. I had the most delicious ever bagel and cream cheese at Starbucks. Wednesday morning I did the whole fasting thing to go do my blood work. After donating 8 freaking vials to satisfy two blood-thirsty doctors, I was starved and needed coffee. So I headed to Starbucks, and with my nonfat latte I got a plain bagel with cream cheese. The fact that I was clearly weak from hunger and blood loss probably contributed to my bagel love, but man, it was good!
5. OH!!! And here’s the cover for Good, Bad & Sexy coming January 23, 2017! You can mark it to read on Goodreads here. 

This weekend, I need to shop, plan some baking, play with my gingerbread houses and write, write, write! What are your plans? Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Let’s blame it on my cold Actually my cold isn’t too bad so far. Monday I felt pretty crummy, but yesterday was better so maybe I’ll get off easy with just an average, run of the mill cold that clears up in a week. But last night when I was scanning the photo sites for a Wednesday Worthy Candidate, I stopped on our candidate below intending to enlarge the picture to get a better look…fumbled…and accidentally bought him.

Well I didn’t buy him, that would be wrong. I bought the rights to use the image of him Anyway, here today’s candidate:

So what do you think? Is he worthy? Or shall we blame it on my cold?

Oh for the love puppies, my crappy Internet service once again dropped over night, so my post didn’t publish at 1am as schedule. Grrr…I have to do something about this service (and my antiquated cell phone) but I’ve been procrastinating for six months so why stop now?

Whoa…what a weekend. Friday and Saturday pretty much sucked, and Sunday was much better. Not going to get into all the stupid annoying stuff except to say I either have a mean allergy attack or a cold. I don’t have time for a cold, but who does? No one. If it is a cold, I’ll suck it up and deal

Yesterday I think I finally figured out why I didn’t like my first chapter in Savaged Vows. I was doing the usual panic and worry, then I binge-watched Pitbulls and Parolees (because DOGS!!! I know you’ll all be so surprised to hear this, but I love dogs ). On Sunday, I think I know how to fix it. Yay!! I’m sure getting my conscious mind off the chapter gave my subconscious mind more freedom to work out what was off.

This year, I’m toying with attempting to make a gingerbread house. This is just for fun since I probably won’t do a lot of other baking. So what does any self-respecting writer do when she’s thinking about to attempt a project? I ordered a book on gingerbread houses! I think I might be more excited about knowing a new book is on its way to me that anything else. I’m such a book-nerd sometimes.

In fun news, I’ve asked Anna to reveal the cover for Good, Bad and Sexy novella on FB this week. I’ll post the cover here too once she does.

So how was your weekend?

Let’s play Friday Five. I’m talking about random stuff in my week. I’ve been working a lot so the first three are about writing

1. I forgot how to write a book. I do this on almost every book I write and it’s ridiculous. And Wizard laughing at me doesn’t help. Okay I sort of deserved the laughter since I was standing in the family room and banging my head on a wall. What? I’m a Leo people, we are dramatic when we want to make a point and get a little sympathy Also I was kind of hoping I’d knock myself out so I could stop thinking about how I’m in over my head, I don’t know what I’m doing…yada, yada, yada. Which by the way, is FEAR TALKING and total B.S. Fear is a roadblock to the first draft and I know better. But fear can be a sneaky little bitch who gets in our head and it takes an army to get rid of her. FYI, banging your head on the wall doesn’t get rid of fear, it just gives you a headache. But I Refuse to Let Fear Win. Ever.
2. I was just ready to send everything off to my cover designer for the novella that I’m re-releasing in January 2017. My AAA (Awesome Assistant Anna) found the perfect image for my cover and I had everything I needed Monday night. But for some reason I resisted sending it off. Tuesday morning, I woke up with total clarity. I couldn’t re-publish the novella with the original title. Here’s the truth folks, I kind of hated the old title of You Give Love A Good Name. But I didn’t argue because the novella was in an anthology with a really strong title so the individual titles didn’t matter. And one thing I learned when I was with NY publishers was to pick my battles. But now I’m indie and so I spent days agonizing before deciding to go with the title of, Good, Bad & Sexy. But I still wasn’t sure until… (see #3)
3. OMG! I just saw the mockup of the new cover with the title of Good, Bad & Sexy and I LOVE IT! It creates the exact “brand” of sexy fun I wanted for this book. A title is part of the three-pronged brand created from the cover, title and back cover copy that tells the reader what to expect from the book, and the original title wasn’t doing that. But Good, Bad & Sexy does ( I hope!).
4. Now moving off the subject of writing. Six weeks ago I hired a house cleaner to help Wizard and me through this rough patch with his back and my work schedule. They come every two weeks and I think I’m going to start baking them cookies out of sheer gratitude. They are fast, efficient, nice and reasonably priced. I’m surprised how well it’s working out so far. And I’m going to hate to give them up down the road (unless we win lotto), but right now, they are a huge help.
5. No he’s not mine! This is Tube Sock Steve. He’s a tiny dog that came into the veterinarian’s office where Youngest Son’s fiance works. He was homeless and badly injured. But that didn’t stop these heroes–they performed surgery and saved his life. Because he was so tiny, they had to make clothes for him out of socks to help keep him warm, and that’s how he earned the name Tube Sock Steve. But this story gets even better–they found Tube Sock Steve a new home where he’s a much loved part of the family (and he has a new name, LOL!). I just wanted to leave you guys with that story of real and loving heroes. 

So do you guys have a Friday Five you want to share? Or any Friday thoughts? Hope everyone has a great weekend!