Friday, February 29, 2008

I'm officially e-published today!

Just a quick post for now...

The anthology I'm a part of is officially available today from The Wild Rose Press. Love, Texas Style is a collection of twelve short romantic stories, some on the sweet side, some on the more sensual side. Click here for more info on the individual stories. The paper copy will be available from The Wild Rose Press on March 28th.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Reading...

Fellow NT member Sandra Ferguson has issued a challenge to read a book a week. I've taken her up on it. In fact, with what I've already read so far, I think I've actually managed a book a week since the beginning of the year.

Apparently, people are reading less and watching TV or playing video games more. I'd like to take up the challenge and pass it on. I remember commercials from when I was a teen, encouraging people to read: Reading is knowledge, knowledge is power.

For writers, especially writers of romance, we are encouraged to read what we want to write. Keep up-to-date on what's selling. Of course, that book probably sold to the publisher 12 to 18 months previous to when it's actually available in the stores. But the other benefit of reading (as a writer) is being exposed to writing - mostly what's good, or else it shouldn't be published, right? But also what's bad.(How the heck did it get published?) As a reader, a writer should ask, 'what did I like about this book?' Of course, I love books that make me laugh, but haven't been able to write anything funny.

Anyhow, back to the challenge. From the lists at the right, you can see I have an odd combination of reading tastes.

I'd love to know what you're currently reading ~

Friday, February 22, 2008

Getting rid of idols...

Or: 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'

I have successfully broken my soda habit. I can take or leave a Dr. Pepper, and will choose lemonade or iced tea over a bubbly cola.

Now, my goal is to break my addiction to iced tea. It's been two days now. The only things I've had to drink are water and hot mint tea. Wednesday, I did break down and get raspberry iced tea from Race Trac on the way to church, but I had a withdrawal headache... Otherwise, I'd had nothing but water that day.

Part of my decision come from the fact that I'm tired of making tea for everyone else to drink. Otherwise, I'm trying to eliminate as much as I can that keeps me from a deeper walk with Jesus. One by one, I will face my giants and idols and, with God's grace and mercy, strength and direction, I will slay them all.

Do you have giants and idols you need to slay?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Taking care of business...

Before I take my last two (well, actually the first and the last) children to their respective activities for the day - work for one, school for the other - I thought I'd check in.

Today my goal is to get through all the stuff on my desk and get good and caught up. And pull all the paperwork and receipts out of my purse and get that stuff figured out and filed.

I got some sanding done on my cabinets yesterday, and have a sore right upper arm to prove it, and I got some writing done. I've got to have the cabinets completely done in the next two weeks. And my concrete writing goal is a complete rough draft of my 30K word Young Adult story by March 8th. I've got 8400+ words.

Hope you have a productive day.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Blogging... (again)

Only not me this time, but others. There are a handful of blogs I read--or should I say check--on an almost daily basis. One gets a posting daily, sometimes twice. And always interesting. A couple of others are updated a couple to several times a week. Okay. I can understand, we're all busy. I've made it a point to try post twice a week on mine. I can't guarantee specific days, but twice a week is manageable. The others? I'm lucky if they post once a month or two. But I have dutifully kept checking back.

Well, maybe I should just stop checking them and save myself the disappointment. And go find some other bloggers posting *regularly* on topics I find interesting and quit my whining. Yes, I think that's what I'll do.

I'll let you know if I find anything I think is worthy of a mention.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Progress

Well, I've sort of taken the afternoon off from my actual job to work on my new kitchen cabinets. The counter tops are supposed to be installed in about three weeks. Which means my cabinets need to be completely finished - conditioned, lightly sanded, stained, and sealed. So far all the bottom doors and drawer fronts are conditioned. My plan is to work on the upper cabinet doors tonight. Maybe, just maybe... I'll go to The Home Depot and buy some of that fine sandpaper and the stain and get the actual staining started, too...

Well, on another note, Happy Valentine's Day.

May the love of Christ fill your heart and life from this day forward.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Blogging...

This new post window has been open all day waiting for me to blog... But another day has gotten away from me and the topic I'd originally thought of to write about has up and disappeared from my brain.

So instead I'll say that The Home Depot sent their crew out to create the template for my new Corian seamless counter-top/back-splash/sink. Yep. It's all going to be one big smooth piece of work, and I can hardly wait to have my kitchen counter back. It's been over a year. But that means I have to get myself in gear and start staining. ETA for my new counters is three weeks.

I've been busy presidenting, too. Trying to make sure I stay on top of chapter business, and completing my personal tasks to that end. And of course, making sure the other board members are also taking care of business.

And it has been a sad week. Friends of mine lost their oldest daughter and unborn grand-daughter in a drunk driving accident. The daughter was 22, and she leaves behind a 4-your-old son. I will be attending the funeral Friday.

Life is precious. Hug your spouse, your child, your loved one. Tell them you love them often - make sure it's the last thing they hear you say when you part. Because you just never know.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Brooks & Dunn

A talented duo, if ever there was one. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn each originally sought careers as single artists. However, it was suggested they hook up, they obviously did, and the rest has been magical musical history.

The concert followed the evenings rodeo activities at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.

On our particular night, a group of folks (maybe 60 to 80 people) got to sit down in the arena, up close and personal. The really cool part was when Kix Brooks came off the stage and pulled a young lady, maybe 16-years-old, from the crowd, and took her picture with her camera, danced with her, gave a great big ol' Texas-sized hug, and swung her around. I can guarantee that girl had an experience she'll never forget. See that here--(it's only the first minute or so).



They sang most of their better known hits for just about an hour. And what an hour it was. They also brought in a four-some of Marines as a salute to our troops. Aww... And can Ronnie Dunn sing those ballads, or what!? Hoo-eee!

Well, it was an awesome experience. One I wouldn't mind having again. Can I be the girl next time?

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Only in America

Can one experience a stock show, a rodeo, a concert, and visit a landmark in less than twelve hours--and three of those all in one place!

Okay, maybe not *only* in America, but I had to think of one of the titles of a Brooks & Dunn's songs that would work. But seriously, hubby and I drove down to San Antonio on Tuesday. I was given tickets to the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, which happened to include a Brooks & Dunn concert this past Tuesday (2/5/08). So we get there about 1:30, I nap for a bit so I wouldn't get too tired before the concert. We headed out to the At&T Center & Freeman Coliseum and check out the exhibits, the live stock, etc.


Here's a poor sheep being sheared, and he was not happy about it at all. I don't know if you can see it, but every time he bleated, his tongue came out.

We headed over to the AT&T Center about 5:30 to scope out souvineers and dinner. Our tickets included entrance to the Spurs & Saddle Club - ooh la la - where we had a quick dinner before taking our seats. After a short laser show, the rodeo began.

Here's a pair of cowboys doing a little stretching before their event, although I don't remember what it was.


















And, of course, the concert was fantastic. Brooks & Dunn were awesome. Here they are--















The next morning, hubby and I drove another hour and half to visit the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi - a place I have gone three times. I love it. And here's Lady Lex, but more details on her later.


A good time was had by all. But I'll go into more details next time.

Monday, February 4, 2008

Boot, Scoot, n' Boogie

Okay, I'm off tomorrow for only the second concert I've ever been to. My first concert was Garth Brooks doing a fund raiser concert for the fire department in Omaha--right before he exploded.

This time around, I'm off to see Brooks & Dunn in San Antonio. I'm really excited. I LUV me some Brooks & Dunn. We're leaving the children and the employees alone for two days. Yikes.

Got a rental car, got concert tickets, got cash, got gift card for souvineers, got hotel room booked. Just gotta get packed and a good night's sleep, and hubby and I'll be on the road first thing in the morning.

I'll let you know how much fun we had in a couple of days.

Friday, February 1, 2008

A time to post...

I've been trying to post on a regular basis, with an average of twice a week. Some weeks are harder than others. This week for instance. I worked late everyday trying to get caught up on the work I couldn't get done during the day. Wednesday was the worst. I was on the phone pretty much all day - or so it seemed - and I couldn't even complete one call without another call or two or three coming in on call waiting. Yikes!

But today has settled down considerably, despite what I had to do this morning. And I'm not working late tonight, either. My two critique partners are coming over (I love how writerly that sounds -- hee hee) and we're going to work on our current works in progress. (Okay, it's really a sleepover for grown up women under the guise of official writing type activities.) So I've been slave-driving my kids today who have no school or work to get my house acceptably clean for guests.

My hubby and I finally made it to The Home Depot last night and got our new kitchen counter-tops ordered and paid for. Now I really have to get after staining the cabinets... and removing the remaining wall paper and border and getting the upper half of the walls painted... I'll be so glad when this project is over.

Well, back to work. It's the first and, therefore, payday for my employees. After I create paychecks, I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off. It's nice being the boss.

Have a good weekend.