I know. Quite a hodge-podge of topics, eh?

First off, I'm guest blogging today over at Cynthia Eden's blog for her month of monsters, talking about monsters, what scares me and my new paranormal series - Eternal Guardians. Plus I'm giving away a free book.

So stop on over and leave me a comment to be entered into the drawing.


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Secondly, I promised pictures of Hawaii, and no, I didn't forget. I've simply been overwhelmed with my deadline, so apologies for not getting these up sooner.


We had a fabulous time in Kauai. It was my first time to that particular island and I can totally see why people consider it paradise. Originally we were supposed to stay in a condo in Poipu (south, sunny side) but 10 days before our trip the rental agency called to inform me that the unit I'd rented had sold and they didn't have anything else available. You can imagine my shock - and stress. I scrambled at the last minute to find something that would work. Luckily, I did, and we ended up at the Waipouli Beach Resort in Kapa'a. (Located in the heart of the Coconut Coast, and now I know why.)


I hadn't wanted to be on the east side (due to the weather) but it turned out great. The resort was gorgeous, the pool was beautiful and the kids had a fabulous vacation. This was the first time any of them had been to Hawaii, so the fab pool and the great beach were a bonus. It did rain a few days in Kapa'a, but we were able to load up in the car and drive to the beaches in Poipu on those days and find some sun, so all in all it wasn't bad at all.


We didn't get to do a few things I wanted to do, like explore the northern beaches (the weather didn't cooperate) or sail the Napili Coast (the seas were a bit rough) or hike Waimea Canyon (we learned quickly on a hike to Secret Beach that the kids are not hikers in the least). But that was okay. We relaxed on the beach and hung out at the pool, and spending time with the kids was our goal for the trip, so we were happy.





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And finally, now that I'm home my focus is trained on finishing the 2nd book in my Eternal Guardians series. It's due soon so I may be in and out. But don't forget to check back soon for deets on my upcoming contest. STOLEN SEDUCTION, the third Stolen book, releases December 29, 2009. It seems so far away, but really it's not. It's right around the corner!!

Wow, the last month feels like a whirlwind. Thankfully, though, I'm home now from all my trips, re-acclimating to real life (so sad!) and counting down the days until school starts up again (2 weeks...can you tell I'm excited!!!!)

The DH and I had a fabulous time in Hawaii. We stayed in a high-end condo in Waikoloa on the big island, which was absolutely beautiful. No view of the ocean, but it did have a wonderful view of the pool, was close to the King & Queen shopping centers, and was only a 5-10 min. walk to the beach. We didn't "do" anything exciting other than lay on the beach, swim in the ocean, drink like fish and go out to eat. I'd wanted to go see the volcano - which became active again about three weeks ago - but when we learned it was a 3.5 hr. drive one way and another 1.5 hr. hike in to actually see the flow, we decided that was too much time away from our "relaxation" and opted to stay right where we were. The goal of the trip was to relax and recharge our batteries, and that's exactly what we did.

Since the hubby asked me not to work on our week away, I took eight books with me - not out of the norm for me on vacation. How many did I read? Only two, and one novella on the flight home. (Both of Roxanne St. Claire's newest Bullet Catcher Books and Cindy Gerard's latest novella, Desert Heat - all three were great.) In all actuality, I was too stressed to read. You see, I'd printed out Stolen Fury for the DH to read on the beach, per his request. He'd read the first four chapters a while back, but not the entire book. So while he read, all comfy and kicked back in his beach chair, I pretty much sat chewing my nails (and drinking to stay sane). It was nerve-wracking! Especially because he kept putting the book down and heading off to swim. Now, you have to know my hubby. He's not a swimmer. Not really. He likes the water, but swimming isn't his favorite pasttime. So finally, at the end of my rope, I just asked what was up. Did he not like the book? Was it not holding his attention? What was the deal?!

His answer? "It's hot! And we're here with friends! I have to keep heading off to the water to cool down!"

Okay...that answer made me smile. :) The DH got brownie points for that one.

I would definitely go back to Waikoloa. The beaches are beautiful. Hapuna Beach up the road from us was white sand with that turquoise blue water you associate with the Caribbean. The Hilton Waikoloa resort was gorgeous and definitely a place we want to visit again with the kids. (It's so big, they have a tram that travels from one end of the resort to the other!). And the weather was just perfect.

So here are a few pics from the trip...

View from the Hilton Waikoloa putting green at sunset.

The DH and I at the Hilton Waikoloa.

My Henna tattoo. It's a dragonfly. I wanted a fury, but they didn't have one. :(


Dinner in Kona.

Dinner at Roy's in Waikoloa.

What I love most about Hawaii is that all the islands are different. Maui is completely different in landscape and lifestyle than the big island. Both are gorgeous in different ways. Next year I want to try Kauai, so if you know of any great places to stay, I'm all ears.

Okay...later this week I promise to post more pics from San Francisco. I have a whole bunch I didn't get up before I left on vacation. As for me, I'm back to work on Stolen Seduction. My week away did wonders...I love this book! (Tomorrow I'll probably hate it. LOL)

Have you been to Hawaii? What's your favorite island or resort?

Whew! Finally two minutes of peace. Is anyone else ready to send their kids back to school?

I know I promised to blog about my vacation yesterday, but my editor sent my line edits for STOLEN FURY and I spent all day yesterday working through them. I'm happy to say they're done and gone this morning, which is a nice thing to have off my plate. Either I've grown a thick skin, or I've learned to step back from my work and look at things objectively. Honestly, even six months ago I used to cringe when I'd open crits from CPs or an email from my agent regarding submissions. These days though, no sweat (well, hardly any anyway). I'm lucky in that I've surrounded myself with people - CPs, agent, editor - who know what they're doing.

My line edits all-in-all weren't too bad. And while I was deathly afraid of the horror stories I'd heard from some authors about editors rewriting their sentences and effectively changing their voice, that didn't happen in my case. My editor has a great eye for what doesn't need to be there or what lines can be moved around to different locations for maximum impact. And while I was a wee bit sad at a few areas we had to trim (mostly secondary character development) the manuscript was not impacted by those changes. It's still the exact same book I wrote and fell in love with.

As for vacation, I'm still nursing a blister on my hand from playing golf two days in a row. But, boy, it was worth it. I haven't golfed in probably five years, but apparently I have a natural swing (ROFL...or so my hubby and golf-obsessed friends told me). And I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The second day we took the kids golfing late in the afternoon and that was a hoot. My 3-yr old loved driving the golf cart (on my lap). Putting isn't his specialty - he runs around and picks up everyone's balls - but he was happy to have the job of holding my clubs. We swam everyday and I got way more sun than I should have (shhh...don't tell my mother), and for my g'friend's birthday the adults went to this beautiful restaurant on Suttle Lake housed in an old boat house. Very fun - and The Lodge at Suttle Lake is absolutely gorgeous. I definitely want to make plans to go back there.

Next trip on my plate is RWA in San Fran. Followed by Hawaii (sans kiddos) less than a week later. The hubby has told me since he's not taking his laptop to Hawaii, I'm not taking mine (don't worry, Leah...I can sneak my notebook in my bag if I'm behind), so I guess I'd better get back to the wip.

Do you have any trips planned this summer? If so, where?

It's technically spring break, but I'm in Central Oregon on a mini-vacation with the family where it's been snowing ALL day. We've gotten about 8 inches of snow so far today and it just keeps piling up. It feels like a winter wonderland!

I'm blogging over at my chapter blog today about irrational fears - I have my fair share. ;) Stop by and say hi.

And I'm looking at websites. Which authors - in your opinion - have fab websites?

DH and I got home from Reno late last night. We went with a group of friends for Super Bowl weekend, and wow, what a great time we had. We ate too much, drank too much, partied too much, gambled too much...good times!

I got carded in the casino by a dealer who looked at my ID three times and then said, "No way you're that old!" (made me feel good), got hit on a few times when the DH wasn't with me (that made me feel even better), and scored some cash when the Giants won! (Was that game awesome or what?!). I admit to not being a big NFL fan (college football's more my thing), but the Giants are the only NFL team I've ever loved. It started in high school when my English teacher used to do soda can bets on the Sunday games. I picked the Giants and have stuck with them since. My mother loves to tell the story of the time (in my sophomore year) she took me to NY and spent the whole day showing me the sites...you know, The Empire State Building, Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Tiffany's...and I, being oh-so-wise, was more impressed driving by Giant Stadium on the way into the city than I was on anything she had to show me. So when I found out the Giants were going to be playing in the Super Bowl this year - even better times. And when they won? Amazing. You can't help but love the underdogs. (And that Eli - wow...)

In other news, after I got home last night I stayed up and finished my revisions. (I can hear the collective cheering from you all, yeaaaaaaah!). No idea why I stayed up until 2 AM doing revisions after a weekend of very little sleep, but I had the bug, so I went with it. Now I have to read the thing from beginning to end and figure out if it makes any sense with the changes I made. Cross your fingers for me. Hopefully I'll have this ms out the door to my agent by early next week.

And because I'm sharing this, that and other things...I thought I'd pass on some good things happening for friends of mine. Lin has her new cover, and it's gorgeous. Go check it out at her blog if you haven't seen it yet. Carol has some fabulous news to share as well, so hop over to her blog and wish her good luck. Jenny sold her first book a few weeks ago (click on Contemporary (general) and scroll down to The Wedding War...way to go, Jen!), and if you're in the mood for a good, quick, light-hearted, romantic read, pick up Roxanne St. Claire's Tis The Silly Season novella in A NASCAR Holiday, which came out from HQN last year. Rocki won the RITA for this one last summer, and I finally got around to reading it on the plane coming home from Reno. Loved it.

That's all from me. I'm off to get started reading my revisions again. Drop me a note and let me know how you're doing!

Back From Vacation & New Office Space

Hey y'all!

That's my new southern-ness shining through. :) I'm afraid I'm not very good at it though. Y'all just doesn't come natural for us Pacific Northwesterners, and I'll never be able to say it with the gusto my cousin's hubby from Atlanta can say it. Though I do see the catchability and ease of the phrase and may try to incorporate it now and then, just for fun. So consider yourselves warned. ;)

I know I disappeared after Nationals without a word. Big apologies. Life was hectic after coming home from Dallas, and then we turned around just a couple of days later and took the kids on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to visit with the extended family. What a great vacation! We soaked up the sun, played in the sand and generally just had hang time. The Gremlins loved being able to dive into a warm ocean (here on the OR coast we wear sweatshirts in July!) and spent hours and hours on the sand and in the surf. I took tons of pictures, but all of them are of my kids, and since I don't post pics of my kids online, you'll just have to take my word on the fact the place was gorgeous!

We got home late Friday, and I've been trying to get life back to order around here this past weekend. And tonight DH assembled my new desk. I finally have my own writing space! No more sitting at the table or parking it on the couch (though I'm sure I'll still park it on the couch now and then to write as that's comfy for me....but shhhh...don't tell him that).

So just for fun I thought I'd share the before and after pics with you. When we remodeled our house, we moved the table closer to the kitchen. My "office space" is technically the old dining room, which we've been using as a play room (RE: toy storage space they never use). But now, it's my office. It's not enclosed, the kids can come and go, but actually, for me, since I'm a SAHM, that works well. I can keep an ear out for them, and since I'm close to the kitchen I can wrangle any little hands that think playing in the cupboards is acceptable entertainment. So here's the before pic:

General messiness. Blah.

And here's the new office space:

Clean, simple and not nearly as cluttered. We'll see how long the "clean" desk lasts. LOL. I still need to get a comfy chair, but I can't wait to sit and write. I was going to turn the desk around and face inward (you know, that whole feng shui thing about never having your back to a doorway and all), but I love the view out my window into the park behind our house.

So catch me up on what you've been up to lately. And tell me, where do you do all your writing? If you have your own office, do you actually write there? Or do you find other places to write?

Glad to be back, and I can't wait to dive back into my book!