After realizing that I am just worn out, I took a minute to think about the last book I read and how long ago it was. It’s been weeks. It’s also been weeks since I watched TV. I need a reading break. So while I was at the grocery store tonight I bought Blaze, by JoAnn Ross. I think most people would be amazed at how many writers I don’t know and haven’t read. JoAnn is one of them. Until she joined a couple of my online RWA chapters I’d never heard of her. Her latest, Blaze, has been raved about and I’m excited to read it.

I also bought Masquerade, by Brenda Joyce, another NY Times Bestselling author I’ve never heard of or read. I haven’t heard anything about Masquerade either, but it had a full page color ad in a recent Romantic Times issue so I bought it. LOL I guess those ads work after all. I’ll let you know how I like them.

Sorry, about the lackluster blogging lately. I am just really out of it and tired, way tired. :yawn: Like exhausted, ran-over-by-a-truck tired. However, I’m am (almost) completely caught up on everything and am now launching myself back into my next Brava. I’ve been missing it. It’s kind of hard to get motivated though when you just want to sleep all day. I know the problem is Jack being in first grade. We get up to an alarm clock now and I swear, it is absolute TORTURE for me to get up to an alarm. If I don’t wake up on my own, my whole day is spent tired. I’ve been up for three hours now, and have had half a pot of coffee and I’m ready to go to bed. It sucks. It’s been almost eight years since I woke up to an alarm.

Aren’t I such a :baby: ? *sigh* At least I admit it. That’s something, right?

And ya know I’m all over the Pirate thing because of Bad Boys Ahoy! which will be released in a little over four months, but is still not on Amazon, I’m sorry to say. But you can bid on it at Larissa’s auction and benefit a great gal.

Let’s have some fun! Tell me what your results are.

Your Pirate name
Your other Pirate name

And your other Pirate name

You Are A Pirate!

What Type Of Swashbuckler Are You?
brought to you by Maddog Varuka & Dawg Brown

SOCIAL SECURITY SEX

Two men were talking. “So, how’s your sex life?”
“Oh, nothing special. I’m having Social Security sex.”
“Social Security sex?”
“Yeah, you know: I get a little each month, but not enough to live on!”

LOUD SEX

A wife went in to see a therapist and said, “I’ve got a big problem, doctor. Every time we’re in bed and my husband climaxes, he lets out this ear splitting yell.”
“My dear,” the shrink said, “that’s completely natural. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“The problem is,” she complained, “It wakes me up!”

QUIET SEX

Tired of a listless sex life, the man came right out and asked his wife during a recent lovemaking session, “How come you never tell me when you have an orgasm?”
She glanced at him casually and replied, “You’re never home!”

CONFOUNDED SEX

A man was in a terrible accident, and his “manhood” was mangled and torn from his body. His doctor assured him that modern medicine could give him back his manhood, but that his insurance wouldn’t cover the surgery, since it was considered cosmetic. The doctor said the cost would be $3,500 for “small, $6,500 for “medium, $14,000 for “large.” The man was sure he would want a medium or large, but the doctor urged him to talk it over with his wife before he made any decision. The man called his wife on the phone and explained their options. The doctor came back into the room, and found the man looking dejected.
“Well, what have the two of you decided?” asked the doctor.
The man answered, “She’d rather remodel the kitchen”.

(awww, man… I’m sorry, but that’s sad. )

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY SEX

A husband and his wife had a bitter quarrel on the day of their 40th wedding anniversary. The husband yells, “When you die, I’m getting you a headstone that reads: ‘Here Lies My Wife - Cold As Ever’.”
“Yeah,” she replies, “When you die, I’m getting you a headstone reads: ‘Here Lies My Husband - Stiff At Last.’”

WOMEN’S HUMOR

1.) Nora’s husband came home with a tube of KY jelly and said, “This will make you happy tonight.” He was right. When he went out of the bedroom, she squirted it all over the doorknobs and he couldn’t get back in.

2.) A couple is lying in bed. The man says, “I am going to make you the happiest woman in the world.”
The woman says….. “I’ll miss you.”

…on the premise of Mary Balogh’s newest book. Totally hooked. I have to read it just to see how she pulled it off. The first time I picked up a book where the hero was already married, I was totally eager to read it, but I haven’t read it yet. The comments on Amazon about the lack of sex turned me off. However, I’m definitely picking up Mary’s. Love the prostitute angle, too. Just the whole thing sounds fabulously impossible.

The first encounter between Fleur Hamilton and the Duke of Ridgeway outside the Drury Lane Theater one night is ugly, even sordid. She is a prostitute, he her first client. When they meet again, she is in his own home as governess to his daughter. His wife, the duchess, lives there too. That love should grow between Fleur and the duke seems improbable. That such a love can find a happy future seems quite impossible. And yet both happen…

I took the last couple days off of writing/editing. I went to bed early, watched some tv, and generally took some time doing nada. I did get caught up on some things: mailings that had to go out, emails that needed answers, checks that needed to be mailed. I’m getting closer and closer to having less weighing on me. :bounce:

My hubby is home sick today, poor guy. He’s got a fishing trip in Ensenada tomorrow and he’s desperately praying he feels better by then, but honestly, he’s laid up pretty bad. I hope he feels well enough to go. He’s been looking forward to this for awhile.

Today, it’s back to work for me. :cafe:

My CALL came during a strange faze of my life. After ten years of staying home with my children, I’d just returned to work nine months prior. Juggling work, four children, husband, and house, I was at the point where I feared I’d have to give up my dreams of becoming an author. Writing was forced to a back burner, but missing it tormented me. It’s a shame a day only has twenty-four hours…

My agent had informed me that Chocolate Kisses :choco: was getting a second read, but I was too tired :yawn: to think about what that meant to my career and too afraid to get my hopes up. Trudging into the house one evening in mid August, 2004, with soccer and football bags tossed over one shoulder and a fast food dinner for four hungry kids in the other hand, I didn’t think much about the flashing red light on my answering machine.

My husband, who hardly ever checks messages, told me I should listen to this one, then stood there staring expectantly as I did. Five times:!: My agent. Saying something about an offer. Need to call her as soon as I get in the door. OMG:!: It was after 9:00pm in CA. After midnight where she was. Call her? This late? My husband reassured that that’s what she said. I grabbed the phone, ran to the living room couch, and cried. Dinners forgotten, my four little sports-grubby monsters danced and cheered around me as I bawled into the pillow. :rofl: “Mommy sold a book” :rofl: they repeated during their twirls through the house.

Their excitement:bounce: snapped me out of my tearful moment. What if it was something I wasn’t going to accept? I couldn’t let them be this happy, then let them down. So I dialed. And got the answering machine. At almost 1:00am my agent’s time, duh, what did I expect? :doh: Darn. I called my mom twice but got voicemail both times. I called my critique partner, but just as it started to ring the other line bleeped. I clicked over thinking it was my mom, but nope. It was my agent who sounded like she’d just crawled out of bed, which she had. She told me enough of the details. NAL. A sale. Enough to know that I’d sold. I’d sold. :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

Back in mom mode, I finished getting the monsters dinner, into showers and tucked into bed. It wasn’t until the house was still and quiet when I sprawled across my husband’s chest, tucked into his embrace and finished crying out those tears. I sobbed and my hero held me. :hug: