Some of you may wonder why anyone would give up South Texas with the cowboys in tight Wranglers, Tex-Mex food, wide open skies and a rich, varied culture for the backwoods of Arkansas. So I thought I’d give you a glimpse into one reason I did that very thing.

The scenery changes from season to season, but also varies according to the amount of rainfall and bright sun we get. An ice storm or high winds can change it irrevocably, so once in a while, I like to take a camera into the yard.

We had a lot of rain the past few weeks, and today when I stepped outside I spotted what I thought were flowers growing underneath the massive white oak in the backyard.

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I’m late! I’m late!

I’m channeling the Mad Hatter. I took a test on Facebook yesterday to see which Alice in Wonderland character I am—and I was the Mad Hatter. It sooo fits me today. I went to bed at 1:00 AM last night. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I remembered I had a doctor’s appointment 70 miles away at 8:00 AM! So needless to say, no morning blog. And to make matters worse, I’m at Access Romance today talking about “Following my Manic Muse”.

I’d love for you to drop by and keep me company. Here’s where you go:
Access Romance

See ya there! ~ DD

I’ll recap the last week.

As you can see from the progress bar to the right, I finished Unbroken, then wrote a quick short story for Cleis’s upcoming Girl Crush anthology (which got accepted yesterday—woot!). Unbroken is a very sexy cowboy story about a couple having to get past infidelity. The Cleis thing was a short challenge for myself—just 3000 words about a lesbian affair. And don’t forget about my new release, Eye of the Storm. It’s my 11th for the year!

We had so much rain this past week that the pool cooled from 90 to 80 degrees and I had to drain off the excess water three times. The ground is so saturated, a large apple tree fell and knocked out a portion of the back fence. The deer gorged on the leaves of the tree—so there’s your silver lining.

My daughter and I threw around ideas for a Young Adult novel, and I think I have the opening scene for something really spooky. Will have to do a lot of plotting for this one because there will be a larger cast than I normally deal with and a spookfest I have to nail.

Then I went on a reading binge of intrigue books. At the end, plots started swirling in my head, and I came up with one that I’d love to start writing, but will require research of its own.

So, this next week will be spent in geek-mode, reading through my library of occult books and surfing the net for bomb-making and Homeland Security-related articles. But I can’t spend the whole time reading, so I think I’ll start a new story, something quick and light that I can pound out in between all the hard, boring work.

According to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, August’s moon is the Wyrt moon. WTF does that mean, you ask? Wyrt is the Old English word for plant, so Wyrt moon refers to the Plant or Herb moon. It’s time to collect your magical herbs, time to reap the harvest.

What does that mean in a metaphysical sense? This is the time to reap what you sow. So hope like hell you’ve built some great karma.

Unbroken is finished!

Yeah, another one bit the dust yesterday. Whew! At it’s core was the theme of infidelity and forgiveness. Cheating might hit someone’s hot button out there, but I like keeping it real. As well, it was a sequel to a very sexy ménage so I could hardly play it safe with a strictly m/f story.

Now I have to figure out what’s next. I have several projects in different stages, but I need to be smart about what I choose to focus on for the next little while. So, I’m going through my plans today and adjusting goals. I have a futuristic adventure that’s tons of fun to work on, but it might be smarter putting together an intrigue proposal instead. I know I have to wrap up MIK-7 sometime in August, but then I’ll feel like I have to plunge right into MIK-8, and I don’t have that story firmly in my mind yet. Decisions, decisions.

And it’s not helpful at all that I have the latest episodes of Torchwood saved. They are calling to me. I was heartbroken when Toshika and Owen died, and just have this horrible feeling that someone else is going to go. Does anyone know if they plan on any more episodes? This inquiring mind needs to know!

For you writers out there, I blogged about Living in Limbo (life between contracts) at the NINC blog.

For the rest of you, I saw this list on Ashlyn Chase’s loop. It’s hilarious, but I have my own funny incident to add to the list at the end!

Things Not to Say to a Cop

1. I can’t reach my license unless you hold my beer.

2. Sorry, officer, I didn’t realize my radar detector wasn’t plugged in.

3. Aren’t you the guy from the Village People?

4. Hey, you must’ve been going about 125 mph to keep up with me. Good job!

5. Are you Andy or Barney?

6. I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a police officer.

7. You’re not going to check the trunk, are you?

8. I pay your salary!

9. Gee, officer! That’s terrific. The last officer only gave me a warning, too!

10. Do you know why you pulled me over? Okay, just so one of us does.

11. I was trying to keep up with traffic. Yes, I know there are no other cars around. That’s how far ahead of me they are.

12. When the officer says “Gee son….Your eyes look red, have you been drinking?” You probably shouldn’t respond with, “Gee officer your eyes look glazed, have you been eating donuts?”

Okay, so the true story…

A few years ago when I lived in Texas, my daughter and I took my car to the carwash. After running it through, I didn’t want to take the time to dry it off with a chamois, so I headed out of town. A siren chirped, and I looked up to see blue lights in my rear view mirror.

All right, so I knew I’d been speeding, and my daughter sat beside me mumbling, “I told you that you were going too fast, mom.”

The officer came to window and I rolled it down, smiling up at him.

He said, “Ma’am, do you realize you were going twenty miles over the posted speed limit?”

Well, of course I did, but I really, really didn’t want a ticket, so I batted my eyes and said, “But officer, I was only trying to blowdry my car!”

My daughter groaned beside me and the officer’s lips pressed into a skinny, tight line. But he gave me a ticket anyway. No sense of humor.

Maybe because I played with the Tarot cards last night.

I asked a question regarding a proposal I have out at the moment. I ask this question once a week, and so far, the cards have told me to be patient.

Last night, I drew the Queen of Wands. Since, I’m still learning, I went to the book. The answer was ambiguous. Someone else holds my fate in their hands. So I interpret it to be the editor—and was it coincidence that the card depicts a blonde woman? I think not. This particular editor is both.

I drew another card, the Six of Wands, to see what her answer would be. And it said absolutely yes! So now I have it on great authority and all I have to do is wait. 😉

Get your FREE Astroprofile

Tell me you can resist an offer like that. It popped up on my screen when I was checking my ho-hum horoscope, so I followed it for kicks. I filled out the little application and voila! Five minutes later I had a free profile in my inbox. My horoscopes are never very accurate—I’m so not your typical Cancer—but the numerology aspect of the report was interesting…

Your Life-Path number is probably the most influential numerological aspect to be considered and represents who you are at the time of birth. It indicates specific traits and will likely be active and influential throughout your lifetime. It is the overall number that determines much of what will be important to you and how you will handle things as they come.

You are sprightly and versatile, and usually end up being the life of every party. Mostly it is you, who gets up on the table and entertains everyone with an improvised one-man show. You feel most alive if you have an audience, are the center of attention, and get an immediate reaction to your mental and verbal output.

Yeah, that’s me. Follow the link and see what the Internet God has to say about you!