The Brava Novella Contest will cease accepting entries tonight at midnight Central time. Don’t miss it! It’s only 750 words — no paper, no ink, no fees, no postage, nothing to lose!

I was sleepy all day today, not sure why. Still, I got some stuff done. Multiple loads of dishes and laundry (hubby made homemade lasagna on Sunday and boy! is he a messy cook. But a good one. Yum.). Still got lots more to do to get my house back from the deadline monster, but we’re getting there.

Some of you might now that I like to be geeky with web stuff. I’m no designer by any means and I can’t create a graphic to save my life, but I can tweak and play with css and html fairly well. Handcoded since I don’t have any design software besides a really old version of FrontPage. I recently put together my S.J. Day site/forum and moved/reskinned my message board. Today, I put up Shelley Bradley/Shayla Black’s Doomsday Brethren site. Naughty Nikki made the graphics. I enjoy messing with stuff like that. Wish I were good enough at it to do my own stuff, but I lack the graphic knowledge and design aesthetic. I just don’t have the eye.

I talked to a dear friend of mine today, a gal I’ve known for decades. She’s coming down on Thursday and we’re all (dad included) heading to Universal Studios for the weekend. It’s been almost 8 years since our last visit and it’s the first time for my daughter (might be the first time for my dad, too, I’ll have to double-check.) Anyway, should be fun!

Tomorrow is more puttering around the house for me. My dad is wiped out after a day spent in planes. He flew from Pisa, to Rome, to NY, to Boston, to San Diego. Yikes! So he’ll be recharging and chilling out while I do my thang.

I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Oh, and if you subscribe to RT magazine, you can read another excerpt from A PASSION FOR HIM here. (there’s also an excerpt posted on the message board. You can find the link if you scroll down two posts here on my blog.)

I felt pretty good this weekend.

I’m caught up on my deadlines (finally!) and I’m getting caught up on the delayed housework, etc. I finagled my hubby into working for me this weekend. Here’s what I posted on my chat loop:

So…

Today, I’m standing on the threshold of the master bedroom trying to pinpoint the source of my clutter. It is immediately clear that the piles of books everywhere are causing the ruckus in my peaceful retreat. Books, books, and more books. Everywhere.

I walk into my walk-in closet (which is solely mine. Hubby has to use the one downstairs, because I need the whole space), and try to find some place to put my books. (Hubby has his own bookshelves in the “man cave” — AKA the finished garage with pool table, TV, sofa, etc.) I note that there is a 3 foot gap between the top shelf of my closet and its ceiling. I think, “Hmm… could put shelves up there.”

As if on cue, hubby comes upstairs and asks for LOVER UNBOUND.

I reply, “Must work for books.”

He rumbles, “Syl…” (in his “I am the man, hear me roar” voice.)

I smile. “You build me shelves, I give you book.”

He grumbles, “Syl…” (in his “I’m not going to win this one, but damned if I won’t keep trying” voice.)

Suffice it to say that the table saw is now buzzing merrily outside and I am sending a silent thank-you to J.R. for my new bookshelves. *g*

So today, I ran around and collected all the various piles of books that had been accumulating and put them in my new bookshelves. Hubby came in and went, “Damn. That’s a lot of books.” So true. I need to get rid of some. Ones either given to me that I don’t care to read, or ones I’ve read that aren’t keepers. I must figure out what to do with them.

I got a large part of my room tidied up today, tomorrow I’ll work on my office. So nice to get things organized again. Makes me happy.

My dad arrives Monday night, so the kids are going crazy. Both of my in-laws died over the last couple of years due to lung cancer (and hubby still smokes, drives me nuts. I quit years ago.), so my parents are all my kids have in the way of grandparents. My dad lives in Pisa, Italy so we see him only every few years.

Also, I’m going to try something different writing-wise from here-on-out. I’m going to take weekends off and evenings. Just write during the day while the munchkins are in school. I’m hoping that will keep my energy high and the creative well filled. As it is, I’ve been writing all day, every day for years now and it started to wear me out until I wrote my last Brava. (Simon Quinn’s story DON’T TEMPT ME.) I had so much fun writing that book! I struggled with the beginning, but once I hit half-way it was a blast to write.

Of course, this led me to worry that I’d simply lost my mind and the book sucked. But my editor said it was good, so I’m very happy. (HUGE thanks to my critique partner who was critiquing a chapter a day once I hit my stride. Bless her.)

Now, if I can just get back in the habit of going to the gym…

From A PASSION FOR HIM - Oct. 30

www.sylviaday.net/index.php?showtopic=382

Here’s another pic from RAW, one of me and Susan:

My dad flies in from Italy on Monday night. I think it’s been about 3 years since the last time he visited, so we’re all excited. I need to clean the house and write my next Alluring Tales short story. I love to write shorts and novellas, for the most part. I don’t think I get to do enough of them, certainly not as many as I’d like. I’m dying to write another Christmas novella. Someday…

Speaking of novellas, if you’ve been thinking about entering the Brava Novella Contest, you should hurry up. The contest closes on Sept. 30.

I came home sick from Kentucky, the result of too many days of only a few hours sleep a night. I was getting up at 5-6AM every morning (which was 3 hours earlier for me on PST) to write with my dear friend Shelley Bradley, and by the end of the trip I had a sore throat and sinus trouble.

My kids have half days at school most of this week, so I haven’t been able to catch up on my rest. I’m looking forward to the weekend and hopefully sleeping a lot. If you’ve emailed me recently, forgive the delay in my replies.

In the meantime, here’s a fun pic from RAW (I do promise to tell you all about it soon!!). I’m not so keen on how the pic makes me look HUGE. *g* Do note the lovely necklace I’m wearing. It was handmade for me by a fan, Diane Smith. She says it was inspired by my books. I can’t tell you how touched I am that something I wrote could inspire such a beautiful piece of jewelry. It’s a three-strand necklace featuring stones of various shades of purple (my favorite color) and pearls.

(from l to r: Naughty Nikki, J.R. Ward, me, and Shelley Bradley)

In other great news, advance copies (not ARCs, so complete with super yummy cover of Nathan Kamp) of my Oct. 30 release A PASSION FOR HIM arrived yesterday, as well as the wonderful news that THE STRANGER I MARRIED sold to Brazil.

Have I told y’all lately that I love Kensington and Kate Duffy? Well, I’ll tell you again. I love Kensington and Kate Duffy.

Today is travel day.

I’ll be hopping 3 different flights to return from Kentucky to California. I had a wonderful time at RAW and it was a joy to meet everyone. (I’ll tell you more when I get home.)

I hope your weekend was a good one.