Rain, rain go away…

Don’t get me wrong, I love rainy days, but the weather has cooled and so has the pool. I haven’t been in the water in days. And I’m back working on a project that has to be perfect. I don’t like having to worry about every little word. I work better when I just let go.

Worse, I have to write little poems for this book. I suck at poetry. I’ve written a draft of one particular poem, and it’s so bad I have a hard time letting it go so I can continue writing the scene. Sis is in Germany, and she’s the poet in the family. When she gets back I know she’ll whip my sucky poem into shape, but GAH!

Ugh, I’m whining. I recognize the tone. I’m babysitting the 4-year-old and sounding just like her. She wants hot dogs for lunch, but I want her to eat some of the leftovers her mama left. So do I give her the hot dog or send her to her room where she’ll stomp and mutter and call me mean? Actually, the hot dog’s starting to sound good. Maybe I can feed the leftovers to the beagle and tell mom the kid ate them. No one should ever leave me in charge of disciplining a child.

Click on the picture and join me at the Aphrodisia Authors’ website today!

This is a snippet from my annual plan. May looks a bit ambitious, but I have lots of catching up to do after slacking up through April. With publishers pulling in their belts, contracts are going to be more competitive than ever. So, I can’t get lazy now!

I have plans. Big plans and little plans. I have to nurture my bread and butter projects (ebooks). I want to rope in my big dreams and step out on the right foot, working through my process, which I’ve let slip away from me. Somehow, I thought I didn’t need it anymore. That maybe it had become intuitive. I can’t rely on instinct now. I have to go through all the motions. I know what I want to achieve this year, and I can’t let ego, laziness, whatever it is holding me back, get in the way!

And it’s perfect moon phase timing. May’s the time to watch those “seeds” you planted last month grow while you protect them from the bunnies that might come munching on your dreams.

And now, suddenly, I’m hearing Anyanka break out in song. If you aren’t a Buffy fan, that one will go right over your head!

Calling Eva Sikka…you have one week to send me your snail mail address or I will pick another winner for the multicultural box of books!

Did you notice I skipped yesterday? I blew off all work and played hookie with a 4-year-old. She called early AM to say, “Nina, whatcha doin’?”—and that’s all it took to convince me. I’m such a marshmallow.

But back to the Romantic Times Convention. I suppose this view doesn’t look like much fun—unless you’re one of the authors waiting for the throng outside the doors to rush through.

This was the line outside the Urban Street Party that Kimberly Kaye Terry captained.
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I promised I’d share, so here are the first few. My sister and I traveled together from Little Rock to Orlando. Our trip started on a sour note when we found out our flight was cancelled, but we were placed on a Delta plane and made it by evening. We missed the first of many parties with our Allure Author buddies, but them’s the breaks. Six of seven of our AA buddies made it. Meet the crew!

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Thought I’d post this quick. I’ll be back later with photos from the conference, but I didn’t want you to have to wait a minute longer. I got up at the butt-crack of dawn to cut and paste all the entries into a single document, thinking I’d use the scissors and put all your names into a big bowl.

But I had 27 pages of entries when I was done! So, I cut out the comments and just kept the names and that took me down to 7 pages of single-line entries!

Still too many. So, I added numbers to each line, then went to an online random number picker and voila! The generator chose “69”—no kidding.

Lucky number 69 is…

But wait. Before I announce the first winner, let me just say how much I enjoyed reading through all those comments—from all three sites where you entered. Some of you were very, very persistent! I hope it paid off.

Okay, lucky number 69 is…Becky Ward!

The winner of the multicultural stash was much easier to choose with only one day worth of entries. That winner is lucky number 16…Eva Sikka!

I need both Becky and Eva to send me an email with your snail mail addresses. Congratulations! Thanks to everyone for playing!

Oh, and I have two more winners to announce later today. One is my March website contest winner—I know April’s almost gone but I forgot!! Bad author! And I have the winner to a contest I ran on the Aphrodisia loop a while ago. Again, mea culpa! Be looking for the new contest rules on my contest page later today!

I’m baaaack! And oh, my aching feet. I napped yesterday evening in front of the TV, slept solid for about nine hours when I finally managed to get off the couch. I can’t believe how tired I was. I thought I’d paced myself well this time around. Ha!

I brought back a nice stash for my winner. And I have another box I’d like to put together as well of multicultural books. So, if anyone would like to be considered for the multicultural stash, send me an email! Email Me!

I’ll post winners tomorrow and start sharing my RT photos and stories. I had a great time—reconnected with friends, met new friends, drank way too much!! Oh, I did work too. I have an exciting new project that my buddy Sasha White and I pitched to our Samhain editor, but more about that later!

I’m glad to be back. Be patient for a day and then I’ll make an announcement. I have other prize winners that I will be mailing stuff to this week as well, so if you’ve been wondering…I got a little behind trying to get out the door to Orlando. This is catch-up week!

Thanks to everyone for posting. I can’t believe how busy this place has been while I was gone!