It was a great weekend! I had a wonderful Mother’s Day, although I really missed my mom. It’s been well over a decade since she passed, but this year I’ve missed her more…that’s just how it works with loss. So here’s a recap of my weekend:

–There was something I wanted to remember about Friday to share with you all, and I’ve forgotten

–Saturday, Maggie went with me to pick up Biker Witch and take her out to see Baby Slayer. Okay so we arrive at CPA Boy’s house, and while Maggie is making the rounds with CPA Boy (Special K wasn’t there at that moment but came back a bit later) and BLB (Youngest Son who was there visiting his nephew) I thought I’d say hi to my grandson. Baby Slayer was laying on a pillow on the couch, happily kicking and cooing. I barely sat down to talk to him, when I was RUDELY PULLED AWAY FROM MY GRANDSON.

Shocking, right?

Biker Witch did it!! Then she sat down in my place and monopolized Baby Slayer!!!

Later, when I recovered from being pushed around by my sister, I’d just sat down to hold baby Slayer when BLB demanded “MY TURN” and he took him from me too.

Here’s the weird thing, people are calling me a baby hog, and telling me that I have to share my grand baby. It’s so very strange…BECAUSE I DON’T WANNA SHARE! LOLOL!!  At least Special K understands because her mom (Baby Slayers other grandma) is the same!

–On Sunday, Wizard took me to breakfast, and gave me a beautiful necklace that I didn’t expect or deserve. Then Middle Son called and we talked forever about this and that, making me happy. After that, Wizard and I headed out to visit his mom. I’d like to say here that my mother-in-law has always been a wonderful grandmother, but now that I’ve become a grandmother too, I have even more love, admiration and respect for her. We had a great day seeing family, and Baby Slayer and his parents came by too.

And, once again, I was forced to share my grand baby   Nope, still don’t like sharing (I’m kidding! Mostly.)

How was your weekend?

**NOTE: Due to Wizard’s surgery this week, I probably won’t be able to post on Wednesday, but will hopefully be back on Friday. Thank you for all the positive thoughts! I’m sure all will go well, and we’re going to have a lot of help from our sons, daughter-in-law, and two fiances (whom we already think of as daughters too), Biker Witch and Biker Hubby. 

TGIF Again!! It’s time to share five random things about our week. I’ll go first

1) I’ve been cooking and freezing a few meals. So far, I have spaghetti sauce and chicken cacciatore. Today I’m making 2 servings of enchiladas to freeze.

2) I’m doing the above because next week Wizard is having more back surgery. This one is a little more involved than the one he had last year, but if this works, it will be worth it.

3) Yesterday, despite #2, Wizard came in the house yesterday and said, “Witch, I need your help with something.”

I went outside and found the EXTENSION LADDER leaning up against the tall palm trees. Even more worrisome, this is on a freaking SLOPE. I narrow my eyes. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He held up big hedge clippers like it was obvious. “Trimming the tops of the trees. I need you to hold the ladder.”

I looked at the aluminum extension ladder precariously placed on the sloped yard and shook my head. “No. Absolutely not. You’ve lost your mind.”

Wizard frowned, studied the ladder and said, “You’re right.”

Of course I am. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then Wizard went into the garage and reappeared with a small block of wood. “Let me put this under the ladder.” He wedged it under one leg of the ladder that didn’t sit flush in the grass BECAUSE THE YARD IS SLOPED!!! Then he said, “Now hold the ladder so I can get this done.”

“Have you lost your mind?” My voice rushed up the street, hit the hills at the top and bounce back in a screaming echo. “You’re not doing this!”

He stared at me. “Yes I am. The ladder is a little shaky though. Just hold it. And don’t worry, if I fall, I’m having surgery anyway.” I swear to you, that’s what he said! And then he smirked and added, “You know, like two for one deal.”

And before I could smack him, he started climbing the ladder. I had no choice but to grab and hold it.

He didn’t fall, but I’m still pissed. All these shenanigans cause him more pain too. What is WRONG with men? Is there medication to make them sane???

4a) This is Maggie yesterday on our morning walk. There were bunnies at the park, and she is staring at one in the bushes.

4b)  And this is Maggie’s expression after I tugged her away from the bunny, lifted her on a wide rock wall and tried to get her to pose for a picture: 

**In case you’re wondering why she has two collars on, the second one is a Martingale collar that I use for her safety when we hike. She’s never taken off on me or fought her collar, but if she did, she could possibly slip her regular collar and either get hurt or rush into danger. This collar prevents that, and she’s perfectly comfortable in it. I take it off when we’re finished walking.

5) HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL THE MOMS!!

Okay that’s my Friday Five, now it’s your turn to share yours!

A quick update before we get to Wednesday Worthy. I got the results back from my brainscan, and despite Biker Witch’s snort of disbelief, my brain is normal!

Yeah, Wizard choked a little too.  In fact, he demanded to see a copy of the report, and HA! I have proof that I am normal! Well my brain is anyway.

Okay, serious face here, I am enormously relieved and grateful. There is no evidence of tumors lurking around my auditory nerves and creating the havoc going on in my head. The ENT doctor agreed that all, or at least most, of the symptoms are likely coming from my bulging cervical discs and nerve compression. So my next surgical injection date is June 7th, and that will be a series of 6 to 8 injections into the cervical facet joints.

Enough of that, let’s leap ahead to Wednesday Worthy. I found this guy pondering the whole #Cockygate thread going on Twitter, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t realize it’s an author getting a dubious trademark on a commonly used word, rather than a reference to anatomy. But don’t blame him, for anyone who’s not a writer, or following authors on social media, there’s no reason they would know

So what do you think, is he worthy?

It was a good weekend, but there’s no way I can get everything crammed into this blog in the short time I have to write it, so I’ll  recap with–we had a good weekend. We saw Baby Slayer and he’s getting bigger, stronger, faster and amazing!! Here’s the picture I posted on my FB of him (he’s 7 weeks old):

Now taking off my Grandma Hat and dusting off my Author Hat: If you’ve ventured anywhere romanceland online over the weekend, you’ve probably heard that latest uproar. I oftentimes avoid social media pile ons, but I consider this a potentially serious threat to authors. My recap is this: A self published author has trademarked the word “Cocky” that appears in her series title, thereby (supposedly) preventing other authors from using the word in their titles. And she’s sending takedown notices to authors who’ve used “Cocky” in their published single book titles.

**NOTE: I am not a lawyer, I don’t play one on TV and this is not legal advice**

However, I’m an author who’s been around a long time, and I’m calling this a cheap-ass, attention-grabbing, bullying move. If it’s not and I’m wrong, I’ll happily admit it. But from where I stand, that’s what it looks like. The word “Cocky” has been appearing in titles for quite awhile now BEFORE she used it, and it’s a commonly used word in romance. It’s my opinion (and only an opinion) that it should never have passed the trademark threshold, but that’s not something I’m not at all qualified to judge, so whatever.

However I’ve been a human being for decades now, and I’m not seeing much humanity in her actions of sending authors cease and decease letters with a threat to sue, and then reporting them to Amazon, as the authors involved claimed has happened (see copy of takedown letter here). That does not show class, integrity or good business sense.

Again I could be wrong.

But I’m not wrong about this: If something like this happens to you as an author in the romance world, reach out to your fellow authors. We will try to help you if we can. That’s exactly what is happening with this latest uproar that has the (unfortunate in my view) name of “#Cockygate” on Twitter. You can also read more about it here http://jennytrout.com/?p=12071  and a more legal explanation here of Trademark here http://legalinspiration.com/?p=503

Also if you’ve been targeted for using “cocky” in a book title, Romance Writers of America would like to hear from you. They are working with an IP attorney to clarify this issue, and hopefully resolve it. Contact Carol Ritter carol.ritter@rwa.org

What I want you all to take away from this bears repeating: IF SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS TO YOU, ASK FOR HELP! The romance community has its faults, but when we pull together to help authors we feel are being treated unfairly, we are powerful and relentless. You’re not alone. We may not be able to give you an instant fix, but we can be there to support and help you.  I’ve reached out in my career and received help, and I believe I’ve helped others.

So, as you may know, I’ve been very quiet on most social media lately, and in fact, this blog is where I engage the most. But even though writing is a struggle for me with my cervical spine issues right now, I still care passionately about all my fellow authors. I respect their hard work and right to make a living. So here I am speaking out

Okay, stepping off my soapbox now. How was your weekend? As always, I really want to know!

TGIF Again! Okay time for some randomness! I’ll list five random things about my week, and then it’s your turn to do the same

1. On Wednesday, it was so cold I had long sleeves and a jacket on to walk Maggie. On Thursday, it was so hot, I wore shorts and a tank for our afternoon walk. And by dinner time, both Wizard and I had sinus headaches…because the weather is psychotic.
2. We had a scheduled power outage from 2am to 5am Thursday morning. Both Wizard and I woke up the second the power went off and didn’t sleep.  There’s no logical reason for this, but our brains both decided we should be awake and so we were.
3. I made tacos last night for dinner, and I fried Wizard’s taco shells the way he likes them even though they are good for him. Bad Jen. But how can I say no when I know he loves them fried??
4. Maggie doesn’t have a watch, but she knows when it’s time for her morning walk around 8am, and her afternoon walk around 3pm. She’s sits and stares at me if I’m working.
5. And…Wizard’s eyes surgery appears to have worked this time! And both he and his surgeon are happy. I’m so happy for him.

That’s my randomness, now it’s time to share yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend.

P.S., I get to see Baby Slayer this weekend!

In my search for the right candidate, I have seen things I can’t unseen. First, my “safe search” filters were off, and WHOA…I need some bleach for my eyes and brain! I’m not sure why my filters are skewed, I’ll figure that out later. After that, I somehow got in the central casting reject room for all the wannabe Tarzans, Hulks and Wolverines. Also…why was that one guy dressed in a fur hat and creepy mist???? So weird.

Anyhow, this is the guy I finally settled on, even though I suspect he might have Elf lineage (or my eyes are still trying to recover).

So what do you think, is he worthy?

You know how to tell Biker Witch is my sister????

So on Saturday, I asked Biker Witch to drive me to a MRI because the plan was to clamp down my head and shove me into a tube for an hour for a brain scan. Yeah, like that’s going to happen while I’m completely sober or, you know, conscious. I can barely handle boarding a plane, walking down those tight aisles with people crowding in front of, and behind me, makes me break out in a clammy sweat. Being shoved into a tube?

Hell. No.

I pulled out my old friend Xanax. I had some left from the last time some doctor decided on this brand of torture. I’d put it in the back of my cupboard and forgotten about it. Saturday, Xanax and I got acquainted. Biker Witch loaded me up in her car and off we went. The MRI went fine. The nice people there strapped my head down, pulled a white plastic looking-cage over it, and pushed me into the machine that was louder than a jet plane for roughly half an hour.

The good news is that while I was in there, I couldn’t hear the tinnitus. Or a bomb going off in the same room. A fire alarm could have sounded and I wouldn’t have known (or cared, thanks to Xanax).

Then I was pulled me out, some glow-in-the-dark juice injected into my veins, and rolled me back into the noise tunnel. I stayed calm, still, and kept my eyes closed, mostly because I only planned to do this ONE TIME. And then it was over. I got a copy of the MRI on a CD and then Biker Witch and I had lunch and came home. I won’t get the results until mid next week, but using my medical degree from UGI (University of Google Images), I scanned the files and didn’t see anything particularly scary like a big tumor. I was also able to determine that yes, I do have a brain in my head

Now we’ll wait and see if the radiologist and specialist agree with my medical assessment.  NOTE: This was just a necessary precaution. I don’t want to make the MRI sound dramatic. There’s only an extremely slim chance there’s anything worrisome going on, we just had to do it to rule things out because of the way my symptom presented.

So back to my question at the top. Do you know how to tell Biker Witch is my sister? In payment for doing this for me, she demanded I gave her my freshly baked chocolate chunk cookies. Only my sister would take payment in chocolate chunk cookies!

Fortunately, I had backup cookies frozen! Shhhh, don’t tell Biker Witch :-).

Seriously, guys, Biker Witch and her Biker Hubby rock! Biker Witch was more than willing to drive all over, navigating through some ugly traffic, to do this for me. She and her Biker Hubby also brought Wizard his very favorite boysenberry pie. That pie helped him feel much better. I’ve always been able to rely on Biker Witch and Biker Hubby for anything, anytime. That’s not something I ever want to abuse, but it’s sure a relief knowing they are there when I need them.

Wizard is recovering well, by the way.

How was your weekend?