They're just not trying

Crappy cellphone photo, yes. Goes well with the uninspired fortunes. "You will be involved in a social activity"? Isn't that like saying "You will eat" or "You will drink"? It's only news to a hermit.

It's not Friday and they may not be goofy, but they did come from Google (and Yahoo)

The Hunter's Wife likes to post her Friday's Goofy Googler. I always think it's a fun post when she does it, so I figured I'd give it a go and try it myself this week. I know, it's not Friday and the searches aren't all that goofy, but it is fresh content.

Internet searches that have found their way to my little old blog in the past week:

For the person searching how you been coming on that novel -- Slowly, thanks for asking. Oh, you mean the clip from Family Guy, don't you? I'll bet you were as bummed as I was to find that the videos have been taken down from YouTube for copyright violations. But, here's a transcript of the first video. I hope that helps.

For the people searching romantic novels online and humorous romance -- I'm sure this romantic novel online that Google images sent you to had to be a disappointment. I know the story was disappointment to me, but it was sort of humorous. Try eharlequin.com instead. Maybe even check out Grace d'Otare's erotica story (shameless plug for a friend!).

For the person searching that's why i assaulted ren author -- Why did you assault a ren author? What is a "ren author"? I know I've never assaulted a ren author, so I'm sure you were disappointed when you read this post.

For the person wondering can you bring folding chairs in tinley park amphitheatre? -- No idea, dude. I can't remember if anyone had any at the concert I was writing about in this piece.

For the person wondering Does karaoke wreak speakers? -- I hope not, otherwise our speakers would be really big bookends by now. And I'm pretty sure you didn't find your answer here, which is where Google sent you.

For the person searching mcg members bar dress code -- I take it you're planning a trip to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds and you want to know the dress code for the members area? I'm not sure, but a year ago when I was there, the men had to wear collared shirts to sit in the members balcony, and suit jackets to sit in the dining room. Does that help?

For the person searching yellow xterra 2001 blog -- I assume you want to know if I like my yellow 2001 Xterra? Yes.

For the people searching eddie izzard -- A number of you are looking for him this week. His show was awesome. Yes, you should buy tickets.

For the person searching Godzilla -- You were doing an image search for Godzilla and saw this photo and surely wondered: What would happen if the Super Flying Screaming Monkey fought Godzilla? My husband and my nephew disagree about the outcome. What do you think would happen?

For the person searching "roller bowling" skates -- Can you really bowl on roller skates? That sounds scary. Even though Google sent you here, I'm sure you didn't find a satisfying answer.

For the person searching brecken beacon -- I wasn't sure what you could be looking for here, so I did my own search. A la Google terminology, did you mean Brecon Beacons? If so, that's a mountain range in southeast Wales. I've never been there and never written about it, but it looks pretty. My writeup about my recent visit to Breckenridge, Colo., probably didn't answer your query.

For the person searching angie evil dave letterman -- Wow. I can't believe people are still curious about the romance between Angie and Evil David Letterman. Sorry. I know nothing more than was written here.

For the person searching Haley Hughes Prairie Fire -- You found me! Hi. No, Prairie Fire hasn't been published yet. I know: What's taking so long? I've finished one version of it, but it needs another revision. Then I need to get lucky (luck is a major factor) and get an editor to fall in love with it and buy it. Know any editors?

Wordless Wednesday: Landscaper's Apprentice

I know, dog photos two days in a row. In the top photo, Thor decides to help me with my landscaping by trimming my decorative grass. At right, Loki surveys her domain from the patio stoop.

Happy 6th Birthday Miss Loki

Loki, our oldest Bernese Mountain Dog, turns 6 years old today.

We celebrated yesterday with a few of our neighbors. The dogs tolerated their birthday hats like champs. There were rewards waiting, of course.



For the sake of contrast, here is Loki (center) at six weeks old back in 2002.

Life: Stripped, Avenue Q and All Consuming

~Live Performances~
Saw Eddie Izzard last weekend at the Chicago Theater. Excellent show, as expected. I know this is my third time seeing him live, but for some reason I'm having trouble remembering both previous shows clearly. They keep trying to congeal into one performance in my memory. (It was his Sexie and Circle tours, I think. Eric, if you read this, can you help me fill in the gaps in my memory? Thanks.)

I fell in love with Eddie watching his Dress to Kill show on HBO in the late '90s. That will always be my Eddie Izzard gold standard. My husband and I taped it and played it for friends over and over and over again. Then we met Wilko, who is English and loves Eddie, and he sent us audio CDs of Eddie's older performances. We've been part of this giant Cult of Eddie ever since.

As we were wandering around the Theater District after Eddie's show, hoping to run into a friend who was taking her Dad to see Jersey Boys, we passed the Cadillac Palace Theater, which is where we're going to be tonight when we see Avenue Q. Think Sesame Street for grown-ups with songs like "The Internet is for Porn" and "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist". I'm really looking forward to this show. We saw Avenue Q in Las Vegas a few years ago and thought it was a blast, and can't wait to bring our friends now that it has finally made it to Chicago.

Which reminds me of this World of Warcraft machinima video to the song "The Internet if for Porn". It was probably the first machinima I ever watched. It's a couple years old now, but still fun.



~Now Playing in Theaters~
My husband and I saw Indiana Jones this last night. The plot has issues, and it's probably one of the weakest movies in the franchise, but it's still an enjoyable movie. And Indy always holds a soft spot in my heart.

That makes three out of four of the big blockbuster movies we've seen on opening night so far this month. Here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Iron Man = Excellent
Speed Racer = Lots of fun
Indiana Jones = Just enjoyable

Saw this interesting blog post about Speed Racer and some musings on why the critics panned it even though it's a fun movie. I think this author nailed his review. It *is* a fun movie. It should be viewed on the big screen.

No more immediate plans to see anything on the big screen. Kung-Fu Panda and Wall-E look intriguing.

I have no interest what-so-ever is seeing Prince Caspian. Even though I read the first few books of the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid, I didn't cherish the books and the first movie left me kind of cold. It didn't engage me.

~Now Playing on DVD~
Speaking of didn't-engage-me, I watched The Golden Compass on DVD over the weekend and that totally didn't engage me. I can't put my finger on why it left me feeling distant and uncaring, but I think it was the characterization. The characters were thin and just moved along with the plot. Things happened because, well, they were supposed to happen. And, for the life of me, none of the characters' names would stick in my head.

But what did engage me was Avatar: The Last Airbender. My husband and I have been watching this program on Nickelodeon and have been hooked since Season 1. We thought the show was in hiatus, but a friend informed us that there are shows available on DVD that haven't been aired in the United States yet, picking up from the Day of Black Sun which aired last Fall. So my husband picked up Avatar: Season 3, Disc 3 at Blockbuster and we sat back and enjoyed a few hours of excellent storytelling. I guess Avatar: Season 3, Disc 4 comes out in about a month.

~On the Internet~
And now, after all this talk about what I've been consuming, here's a site I found this week called All Consuming. It seems to be a tool to catalog what you've been watching/reading/listening to. It's affiliated with 43Things, if anyone is familiar with that site.

Some public goal-setting -- *gulp*

How you comin' on that novel you're working on? Huh? Got a big stack of papers there? Got a nice little story you're working on there? Your big novel you've been working on for three years? Huh? Got a compelling protagonist? Yeah? Got an obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? Got a story brewing there? Working on that for quite some time? Huh? Yeah, talking about that three years ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your main character is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah?

No, no, you deserve some time off.

-- Stewie Griffin to Brian the dog on Family Guy
said in an extremely sarcastic tone of voice,
tempo and pitch rising throughout

Have you noticed that the writing posts in this online journal of mine have been pretty scarce lately? Me too. Well, it's time to get off my rear and start committing myself publicly to some fiction-writing goals.

In two months I'll be attending the RWA national conference, where I'll get to attend some fabulous writing workshops, hang out with other writers, and potentially meet an agent or editor or two. In fact, I've signed up for an appointment with Susan Swinwood, who is the Spice editor. I'd really like to be able to talk about my writing being in full gear and focused.

First goal: Finish the erotic novella I've been working on within the next 10 days. Working title is The Viking's Tale. I have about 4,000 words written. I'm shooting for about 12,500 words, which is 50 pages in standard manuscript format. Basically, I need to write 850 words a day. My problem is that I keep trying to shove too much plot into a short story. Simplify. Oh, and I need to actually write the intimate parts. Yeah, that's been kind of slow for me on this one. Mental block?

Second goal: Whip my other erotic novella into shape. Clio's Tale, this one is called. It's blessedly short on external plot complications and is meant for inclusion in a novel-length work that I've been working on with two other writer friends. I need to dust this one off and see where I'm at on it before I can get more specific with goals. I'd like to have this one solidified before the conference, too.

Longer-term goals:
Re-imagine the opening section of my finished novel-length manuscript, Prairie Fire. As I've been developing the companion book, Witch's Fire, I've solidified the universe a little better. Thus, changes need to be made, which is OK, because I think the opening was feeling a little tired to me anyway. And when I'm finished with the new-and-improved Prairie Fire, then start actually writing Witch's Fire.

OK, so those are my current writing goals, put out there publicly for you all to see. Feel free to ask me every now and then, "How you comin' on that novel you're working on?"

At Large: New episodes of The Guild

I'm not sure how I missed them, but there are two new episodes out for an Internet show that I've been really enjoying called The Guild. The show revolves are the "real lives" of a group of online gamers, and all their social dysfunctions. If you want to watch it from Episode 1, go here, otherwise, Episode 9 seems like a good entry point.

Episode 9: Owning Bladezzz


Episode 10: Boss Fight

Wordless Wednesday: Feeling Squirrely

All taken during a visit to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, over the weekend. See my entire Morton Arboretum set on Flickr.

At Large: More offbeat Illinois

We saw this sign as we were walking in the Chicago Loop on Friday night. Since we were in the Theater District, I thought at first there was some new production coming out, but then I looked closer. It's promoting the Raggedy Ann and Andy Museum and is a new addition to the Offbeat Illinois campaign by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

I love the campaign and even wrote about it last year. It features little quirky tourist attractions and unusual sights around the state, all presented in a humorous and intriguing way.

Here are some of the new posters that have come out since my last post.





I'm serious this time. I really am going to buy a set of the magnets. They're only $2.99 each.

My to-be-read stack should be shrinking

But it's not.

What good is a to-be-read stack when it's 75 books high? Most of those have been waiting to be read for over four years.

So I decided it was time to purge. Majorly. Into the garage-sale/donate-to-library box went at least 60 titles. My stack looked manageable for all of three days.

Then my sister returned a bunch of books to me, and the stack grew again. D'oh!

Worse yet (or better yet), in two months I'm going to the national RWA conference, where I know from past experience I'll be toting home dozens of fresh to-be-read books.

But that's two months away. In the mean time, I've been trying to dwindle down the remaining to-be-read stack by actually reading. /gasp (Seriously, I don't read enough.) But that's just had the effect of making me find more books that I want to buy. I can't seem to win. :P

"Finishing a good story is like coming out of an altered state. I feel like I should have a sign around my neck: 'Be Gentle! I Dwell in the Land of Imagination.'"
-- Grace d'Otare, Spice author

So, without further ado, here's what I've been reading (Note: These are not really meant as reviews. I'm mostly writing about them because the process of blogging about a book helps me set it more firmly in my memory):

Gabriel's Ghost (futuristic, Sci-Fi, romance, published 2005) by Linnea Sinclair

I first read Linnea Sinclair's An Accidental Goddess a few years ago for the (now defunct) Windy City Choice Awards. For some reason (perhaps because my to-be-read pile was too large?), even though I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I didn't follow up and buy more by the author. Then, two years ago, I saw that Sinclair had won the prestigious Rita award in the Paranormal category from Romance Writers of America for Gabriel's Ghost. The book has been on my must-read list ever since. Now, her other books are on my list, especially the sequel to Gabriel's Ghost, called Shades of Dark, which is coming out in July.

Kitty and the Midnight Hour (contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, published 2005) by Carrie Vaughn

I'm not sure how this book made it into my to-be-read stack. I don't remember buying it, so it must have been a loaner (Jules, is this your copy?). Seems like it wants to be a little bit Anita Blake Vampire Hunter (pre sex orgy days) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are werewolves, vampires and other preternatural creatures in her universe. A fun read. I especially like the way the author writes the talk-show scenes. Evidently there are already four books in the series. I'll have to check out the second book, Kitty Goes to Washington. (And while I'm at it, I guess there's a new Anita Blake novel coming out next week titled Blood Noir (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 16). Add that to the list, too.)

Destiny (paranormal, contemporary, historical, romance, published 2001) by Maggie Shayne

I'd read other Maggie Shayne books and enjoyed them, but for some reason I burned out on her. I've had this book in my to-be-read stack for a few years, and I finally got to it. Now I remember what I liked about Maggie Shayne in the first place. An interesting plot that easily pulls the reader between the present day and ancient Sumer. A world of immortal witches, both light and dark. I had a few issues with how the romance resolved itself, but overall I enjoyed this book. I see that Shayne has a vampire series that started just last year with Demon's Kiss. I'm curious what six years does to an author's voice. Add another one to my reading list.

1001 Nights of Snowfall (graphic novel, fantasy, published 2006) by Bill Willingham

I wrote about this Fables series a few weeks ago. The setup for the Fables universe is this: A great dictator, the Adversary, has taken over the magical kingdoms where the characters in our beloved fables and folktales live. Snow White, Prince Charming, The Big Bad Wolf and many of our favorite fairytale characters have had to flee their magical world and are living in exile in New York City in a secretive community known as Fabletown.

1001 Nights of Snowfall is the prequel book that gives the back-stories of a lot of the Fables characters. We learn how The Big Bad Wolf got so big and bad, how the witch from Hansel and Gretel survived being burned in the oven, and what happened to the Frog Prince's family. The stories are told by Snow White and presented ala Scheherazade and The Arabian Nights. Fun. And definitely for grownups.

Fables Volume 10 The Good Prince comes out in July. It's already been ordered. I can't wait.

At Large: Link Love

It's the 15th of the month, the date that I like to recognize the top Entrecard droppers on my site. These are the Entrecard people who have stopped by my site the most since April 15.

Aerten Art
MamaFlo's Place
On the Bricks
Life's Context
Cromely's World
Driving to Oahu
Sharp Words
Avon Romance Blog
Daisy the Curly Cat
Cheaper by the Half Dozen

And, of course, I like to recognize anyone who has left more than two comments on this blog since April 15, which is harder to tally, since I compile the list by hand. This old-fashioned method of data collection is prone to errors (does Blogger have a script for this?), so I'm sorry if I missed anyone.

Lisa at Lisa365
Kelly at Aerten Art
Laura at That Grrl
Periapex at Life's Context
Jody at The Hunter's Wife
Claire at A Little Piece of Me
Cromely at Cromely's World
Marsha at Just Some Thoughts
Daisy at Daisy the Curly Cat
Tam at Fighting with Writing
MamaFlo at MamaFlo's Place
Catherine at Sharp Words
Mark at neOnbubble
FragileHeart
Don M.F.H at Driving to Oahu
CastoCreations
CynthiaBlue at Tip Tail

Thanks everyone. You make blogging fun.

Doodle Madness

Yesterday, the doodle magic left me. My thoughts were too concrete.



Today, the doodles drove me mad. Crazy. Like butterflies against an open flame. With neon edges.



Now, Doodle Week is over. I am sad.

Wordless Wednesday: MarioKart Racing

And because it makes me happy: This photo taken at Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL, on Mother's Day.

Ramblings of a doodle-addled mind

~Random ramblings, just because I can~

Doodle. Doodle. Doodle. That's all this blog has featured for the past five days. It's fun, but it's time for some alternative content, don't you think?

Don M.F.H. dredged up an ancient (OK, it's only 9 years old) photo of the two of us and the rest of the copy desk. Who dressed me? Mom jeans (back when Mom jeans were in style?), shiny gold earring, stretchy necklace? And worse yet, who are some of those other people in the photo? I can't remember all of them.

I'm two months or so overdue for a haircut. At this rate, my bangs will grow out for the first time in 35 years.

Saw Iron Man on opening night. Excellent! Go see it. Now.

Saw Speed Racer on opening night. Fun. It's very true to the spirit of the original cartoon. And Matthew Fox as Racer X? Yummy.

Winning Apples to Apples with a quirky but otherwise unrelated answer ("Bubbles", btw) is totally awesome. Especially because it annoys everyone else.

Ending the night in the Greater Peon's chair is not totally awesome. I'm the hat!

Mario Kart for the Wii? Total crowd pleaser. Yoshi!

I'm out of clever things to Twitter. (Did I ever have anything clever to Twitter?) It looks like I'll be stuck Twittering meal plans and laundry lists if I don't snap out of it soon.

Looking forward to Eddie Izzard on Friday night. Cake, please!

Posting this Godzilla picture for my husband. It's one of his favorites. Wish I knew where it came from so I could give proper credit.


And now back to our regularly scheduled doodling. At least for the next two days.

Doodle Catchup

I may not have posted any doodles over the weekend, but that's not to say that I didn't have doodles on the mind. Now it's time to play a little catchup with my doodling for Doodle Week.

Saturday's theme was Doodle Animals. I created these lovely two doodles in Paint Shop Pro, using geometric shapes.



Sunday's theme was Doodle Flowers. I took some liberties and stretched the definition of a doodle for this contribution. It was created following Mother's Day brunch, using little decorative dishes from the table. While I was the instigator and photographer, my nephew actually crafted this doodle.



Todays's theme is Doodle Daydream. So, I grabbed some golden-rod colored paper and doodled up a daydream.

Notice that it incorporates the previous themes of animals and flowers. And cats. There's a special incentive to use cats in doodles today (See Mo's Manic Monday challenge), so I doodled in some stick-figure cats.

This photo of my doodle is taken with my camera phone. The doodle is hanging from my cubicle wall.

Doodle Monster!

I'm still feeling doodly, so there's more doodling to be done. Monsters! That's today's theme.

Drawing inspiration from Ginger M. of Growing Happiness, I doodled today's monster in a cool online application called The Scribbler.

First, you create a line drawing, then you click a button and the application starts scribbling what you've drawn. You can set the colors, line thickness, line opacity, and messiness of the scribble, but it controls the actual scribbling.

Something fun to play with during those boring conference calls at work, perhaps?

As for today's lovely piece of ... doodle, the original line drawing looked far more menacing, with mean eyes and claws for front hooves, but those got scribbled away. Oh well. As for the creature's body, I'm not sure what's happening there. Imagine there are wings. It's flying after all. Or maybe it's like Santa's reindeer and doesn't need wings. It's open to interpretation.

Doodle Me!

I can't draw. No siree, Bob! And my doodles are usually pretty atrocious.

But, hey, it's doodle week, and I'm feeling doodly, so, forgive me if I offend your eyes.

Keeping in the theme of "You", which means "Me", here's my doodle for today:



It's not very original, but it is representative of something I would actually doodle.

Well, if I wanted to be really and truly honest, this is more representative of something I'd doodle, but it offends even me, so I'm keeping it small. Very small. Truthfully, I try not to doodle in color, because my sense of color usage vanishes. I could keep going on about how bad it is, but I'll stop. Here it is. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Treat yourself and raise money for diabetes research

Here's something to check out. This month, author Brenda Novak is running her fourth annual online auction for diabetes research.

The goal this year is to raise over $300,000. That's a lot of change, so you know there are some really good things available.

There are literally hundreds of things up for auction, donated by some top-notch people and companies. I did a quick perusal, and here's a sampling of what's posted.

For Readers and Writers:

Book Proposal Read--and 24 HOUR RESPONSE--by Shauna Summers, Bantam Doubleday Dell Editor

Evaluation of a Proposal by Agent Donald Maass, author of WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL

USA Today Bestselling Author Cathy Clamp Full Manuscript Critique

YOUR NAME in a 2009 Dark-Hunter Book by NYT #1 Best Selling author Sherrilyn Kenyon

Two Critiques AND Lunch at RWA National with authors Lindsay Longford and Margaret Watson



For Everyone:

The Design of a New Website--and maintenance for 1 YEAR-- by Wikkibird Web Design

Dell Gaming Laptop courtesy of TNT Solar Experts, Inc.

AFRICAN SAFARI For Two: Six Romantic Days & Nights You'll Never Forget

Isabella Fiore "Vacation Sensation" Vintage-Inspired Straw Tote Purse

Autographed ERIC CLAPTON Album Cover

That list barely scratches the surface of what's available. Check it out.

Wordless Wednesday: First Communion

We had two different First Communions to attend on Saturday. One for a neighbor (Chloe cutting her cake) and one for our niece (Ashley playing cat's cradle).

On this date in history...

... the Hindenburg crashed








... Sigmund Freud was born














... and I entered this world.

Yep, it's my birthday today. And thanks to the miracle that is the Internet (and Twitter) I've discovered three other birthday twins today.

Happy Birthday to Periapex, Canine, and Kamala.

And in real life, Happy Birthday to Tayler.


Any other birthday twins out there?

Warming up for Doodle Week

I almost called this post Premature Doodling, then thought better of it.

For some reason, I had it in my head that Doodle Week started yesterday and I was a day behind. So I fired up Paint Shop Pro and whipped up a couple doodles. Then when I went to grab the Doodle Week badge, I figured out that I was premature. It doesn't start until Thursday. Oh well.

Here are my premature doodles. There will be more later this week.



In case you hadn't noticed, evidently, I'm feeling a little psychedelic today. :)

A Beacon Time Capsule -- May 4-10

A brief look at where this blog has been:

A year ago, I was blogging about:
I was on a blogging hiatus.

Two years ago, I was blogging about:

Signing up to be an Amazon Associate -- Where I sign this blog up for the Amazon Associates program.

Garage Sale -- About the almost-annual garage sale I hold with my Mom and my sister.

Tales of the MS Walk, dogs and sit-down strikes -- Where the whole family (me, Dave, Loki and Thor) raise almost $1,000 for the M.S. Society.

Prairie Band returns to Shabbona -- A news story about a band of the Potawatomi tribe that ties into the novel I'm writing.

Tatterdemalion -- Fun with the words tatterdemalion and tintinnabulation.

Mother's Day roundup and other stories -- a collection of links to news stories about Mother's Day and motherhood.

Prior to that:
This blog didn't yet exist, and I haven't back-posted anything that qualifies.

Booksellers, librarians, Ritas and Susan Elizabeth Phillips

My writers group had its annual Booksellers and Librarians Appreciation Dinner recently. I've been meaning to mention it for a while, along with a few other nuggets of information, but I've been having trouble framing my thoughts.

So, I'm just going to throw framing out the window and see what happens.

"A Booksellers and Librarians Appreciation Dinner?" you might ask. "What is that?"

Well, my writers group, which is a chapter of Romance Writers of America, invites any local booksellers and librarians who are interested to a party so that the local authors can mingle with them and get to know them better. It's basic networking 101.

Booksellers and librarians are the people on the front lines who have the power to bring in new readers. They can talk up a book. They can impact a book's placement on the shelf and in the store. They can set up signing events. Basically, booksellers and librarians are an author's friend. And the better they understand the romance genre, and the better they know the local authors, the more opportunities they have to increase sales and circulation.

"But, Haley, you're not published," you so politely point out. "Why were you there? What are booksellers and librarians going to do for *you*?"

Thanks for rubbing it in.

*My* goal at the dinner was just to be social. Talk to my friends, mingle, and work toward future name recognition. Because someday, I will have a book coming out, and I want that bookseller or librarian to say, "I recognize that author's name. I'll have to make sure I stock that title."

That's the theory. I'm not sure how well I executed it. We writers tend to be introverts.

Now for a clumsy segue to my next topic, which is to congratulate Susan Gibberman, a librarian at the Schaumburg Township District Library (who is also a member of my writers group), who was named this year's RWA Librarian of the Year. It's a national award that will be presented at the Romance Writers of America annual conference in San Francisco in July. Susan was featured in the Schaumburg Review recently with a nice article about her achievement titled Romancing the librarian.

Which leads me to my next topic, which is to congratulate Jennifer Greene and Simone Elkeles, authors in my writers group who are both nominated for Rita Awards this year. The Rita is the romance industry's highest award of distinction. If you're interested in checking out what books romance authors consider the best of the best this year, check out the list of Rita finalists. It's a great launching point for exploring the romance genre.

Which leads me to my final topic, which is Susan Elizabeth Phillips, who is one of my favorite romance authors and a previous recipient of the Rita award. I spoke with her at my chapter's Booksellers and Librarians Appreciation Dinner, mentioned above, and told her that I've been noticing that my website is getting hits lately from people Googling her and looking for her newest release. She said to tell you curious fans that Natural Born Charmer was just released in paperback (it was previously released in hardback) and that her next new book is scheduled to be released in February.

OK, that's all I've got. I guess that ended with more structure than I thought.

At large: Blue

Here's something fresh and not at all intended as filler. Really.

Your Mind is Blue

Of all the mind types, yours is the most mellow. You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles. Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

What Color Is Your Mind?

You Need Some Blue in Your Life

Blue will make you feel calm, intelligent, and confident. And with a little blue, you will project an aura of sincerity and loyalty. If you want wisdom, you've got to get a little blue in your life! For extra punch: Combine blue with brown or green The downside of blue: Blue can make you seem more conservative and reserved than you are The consequences of more blue in your life: You will feel more open to the world around you You will have a broader and richer perspective on life You will be able to find solitude, even in the most hectic times

What Color Do You Need?

Two different quizzes. The same color. Interestingly enough, blue is one of my least favorite colors.