Nom, nom, nom...

I'm all for charity and supporting a cause. I think everyone should, in some way that suits them...give. But I've always had a problem with the little pink ribbons on some products. I think, hmm, should I buy the yogurt that's probably laced with cancer-causing chemicals and packaged inside a plastic carton laced with more cancer-causing chemicals, just so I can donate a few cents to cancer research? Never makes sense to me.

I just read a great blog post that I really think you should read too. It'll make you think. I'm not trying to change your buying decisions or point fingers, I just want to make you pause for a few seconds to...think.

M

Tax day. Or I'm going to start working on it. I have a stack of receipts and paid bills and other assorted crap that needs to be sorted before I can even begin to think about doing taxes. Because my writing receipts for '08 are all mixed in there and I need to sort them out and then organize and tally, and...this is going to be a long day. Fingers crossed I paid enough to the government this year. As you know, writers are freelancers, and most publishers don't take out taxes from our paychecks. Though some do. I think it's those pubs in the States that do, and yet Harlequin is out of Canada so they don't. Maybe? I don't know. I just know it's heck trying to figure what I should pay in estimated taxes if I don't get regular paychecks, so why should I pay every quarter if I don't get checks every quarter? See the problems there?

Anyway, I'm off to that mess.

Have you all checked out my Color Me Happy blog? I think you should. Coloring makes me happy, and it could make you happy too. I'm just sayin'. It's a hobby of mine, and a method to relax and 'refill the creativity well', so to speak. I'm going to try to post pics more often, and updates to the coloring pages. If you're ever interested in getting a coloring book, that blog and the sidebar on the right, is the best place to start.

M

ARCs!

So I just got a couple advanced reading copies for FAERIES GONE WILD.  That's two whole copies.  One for my keeper shelf and one, well, I'm not sure I can hit up a lot of reviewers with just one lonely ARC.  So I'm thinking of doing some kind of traveling ARC contest, maybe.  Hmm...  I wonder if readers would accept the ARC, then pay to send it on to the next person on the list?  Might be asking too much.  On the other hand, who knows.  Will report more on that when I get it all figured out.

M

Time Travel anyone?

So I'm researching time travel for some story ideas I have. I'm not going into detail on the how and why of the mechanics behind my time travelers, but suffice to say I think they'll be different than most. I've been wanting to watch some movies though, just to see what's been done (and overdone). I really cringe when a person puts on a necklace and is transported back to another time (but that doesn't mean the story can't be well written; it's just not for me). Time machines are always popular.

PRIMER is a movie I watched a few years back that went into some very scientific methods to time travel. A lot of it went over my head, but I recall the movie fascinated me. Wormholes and all that stuff also goes over my head. Dr. Who, well that just baffles me. I like it simple but believable. I just got SLIPSTREAM from Netflix, and that promises to be good—fingers crossed.

So toss out some time travel movie titles for me to explore, pretty please?

And if you could travel through time, what year would you want to land in? (I'm sure you can all guess what century I'd aim for.)

M

Max Contemplative

Actually, he's waiting for birds to land the deck and eat the bird seed. The cat can spend a long time pursuing birds behind glass.

I'm blogging over at Romance Novel TV today as part of a three-day feature on Nocturne authors. Tara Gavin, the senior editor of the line,  begins today by answering a few questions, then my post is up at 10 central, followed by two more Nocturne authors.

M

Vegas! (or: contraband chocolate will get you every time)

So, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision the hubby and I made to go to Vegas. The economy is hitting us all hard, and when you most expect a person should be tightening the buckles and saving, us two nuts head on vacation. The hubby is currently unemployed (he didn't lose his job, there's just no work; construction, don't you know). So since he's around all the time now I suggested we take advantage of his forced vacation and do a budget trip to Vegas. I figured if we could do the trip including airfare and hotel for $1K, we'd go for it. Well, it was pretty close. We planned to go for four days, but the travel agent said five days was actually cheaper, so heck, why not? (More on the reasons why not later.)  That's a view of the mountains from our hotel window and the Rio hotel.  Very pretty.  I think the mountains were about ten miles out.

I must say the flight was a breeze for this freak-about-flying chick.  Both there and back I didn't feel a bit nervous and was actually able to relax.  Stunning.  We stayed at the Bellagio because I wanted to stay someplace fancy.  And don't you just love saying that name?  Bellagio.  It just plays with your tongue.  It was in a good location.  We were able to walk to various other hotels/casinos from there, including: Caesar's Palace, Bally's, Paris, Planet Hollywood, and then we took a cab to New York New York and the Luxor (though if I had taken along good walking shoes we could have made the hike).  Below is a view looking out the front of our hotel to the Paris hotel.  How cool is that to see the Eiffel tower like, right there!  It was half the size of the real one, and when you go into the casino, you see the four legs coming down through the ceiling (painted like a sky).  Fancy.

Dude, everything in Vegas is expensive!  We ate at the Bellagio Buffet the first night we arrived, and were so tired and hungry we didn't blink at the $60+ bill.  For a buffet.  Yikes.  But we got wise—and the hubby got walking—and every morning following he hoofed it down the street to McDonalds and picked up breakfast.  Then, we just did one meal around 3:00.  Those meals ranged from $50 - 80 a couple.  And I was so not impressed with the food.  Below is the huge flag made of chains (suspended from top to bottom) in the Harley Davidson restaurant.  The flag was cool, the food was not.  Famous Daves has much better BBQ.

 We ate at Trevi in Caesar's Palace, an Italian joint.  Both of us agreed that Olive Garden was much better.  Same with the Mexican place called Yolos in Planet Hollywood.  We've a local Mexican spot that is ten times better.  Maybe that just proves we like our cheap food.  But seriously, an $8 dollar piece of dry chocolate cake that tasted like Duncan Hines?  Below is a pic of the obelisk in the lobby of the Bellagio.  I thought it was pretty.  You can barely see my hubby standing before it, on the phone (as usual).

For entertainment we got free tickets to a show when booking the vacation.  We chose to see Zumanity.  Wow.  Interesting.  It is an erotic cirque du soleil show.  Topless.  And all the acts were related to seduction, sex, and there was even a disturbing take on bondage.  When I say disturbing, I don't necessarily mean it was bad.  It just put you in a new place you're not accustomed to.  You're watching a woman perform with ropes and tying herself up, and you feel like a voyeur watching something you probably shouldn't, but hey, let's just peek a little longer.  The hubby and I gave the show a '7'.  

We then decided we needed to see another show, and chose Criss Angel's Believe.  Not-good seats sets a couple back $180.  Oh yeah, did I mention Vegas is not cheap?  But the theater was only half-full by the time the show was beginning to start so we were allowed to move up, and we ended up in the tenth row with excellent seats.  I've never really cared for Angel on TV, but up close (standing only three seats away from me in the aisle) I had to admit he is pretty handsome.  The hubby and I both agreed though, that magic shows are best viewed on TV.  You don't see all the ropes and cables that way, and it's easier to buy into the 'magic'.  I think we gave that show a '6'.  

The casinos were fun.  But once you've seen one casino in Vegas you've pretty much seen them all.  We allowed ourselves $20 a day to gamble (I know, don't get carried away!) and while the hubby lost all his money, I did manage to come ahead about $150.  I discovered I really like the penny and nickel machines.  Who would have thought you could actually make money on a penny slot machine?  I think my biggest win was after putting $5 into a penny slot and I walked away with $70.  Cool.  And yeah, in that moment when you're winning, I could entirely see how a person could get hooked on gambling.  Yet in those many more moments of quick and effortless loss, I could also see how easily gambling depresses a person.

One should only go to Vegas for three days.  Don't let a travel agent or anyone else convince you otherwise.  By day four I was ready to strangle someone, anything.  We'd done the shows and walked the strip.  If we wanted to do anything else it was going to cost $$$.  And we had a whole other day to stay!  So we decided it would be cheaper for us to pay the cost of standby to fly back a day early ($50 each) than to stay because if we stayed we'd have food and probably more gambling to pay for.  Such are the choices one must make when stranded in Vegas.  Heh.

But heck, we had a great time.  It was the first vacation the hubby and I have taken since our honeymoon.  You heard that right.  That was almost 21 years ago.  So I think we deserved the time alone together.  And it was nice spending all that time with the hubby.  Until day four arrived and the urge to kill something came upon me.  That was the day the hubby decided sitting in the casino bar and watching the race was far safer that muddling about in the room with me.  Hee.  I'm better now.  Promise.

The highlights of the trip were all consumable goods, which seems to be the case for Hubby and I.  I had the best cherry Italian soda ever.  The Jean-Phillipe Patisserie in the Bellagio had the most excellent chocolate treats.  And the chai in the gelato cafe was heaven.  

Oh, and mentioning chocolate...  I broke down and bought the bottle of chocolate at the patisserie because it just looked so divine.  And here's a pic (above) of the chocolate fountain that constantly runs two tons of white, milk and dark chocolate through all day every day.  I thought very little of my prize until I got to airport security.  I was pulled aside and my luggage was searched.  The security dude pulled out my bottle of chocolate and gave it a look.  I wasn't allowed to take liquids on carry-on bags, didn't I know that?  Yeah, but it's not really liquid.  It's almost solid.  You have to heat it to pour the stuff.  I cringed as I noticed how lovingly he caressed the bottle.  I knew it was a goner.  And I didn't want to pay $15 to check the bag.  Aggh!  My chocolate was confiscated.  Can you believe it?  I told the guy I hoped he enjoyed it later, and he informed me all confiscated items were destroyed.  Yeah right.  Bet his wife got a nice Valentine's gift.  And can I just say....I noticed in the airport shop you could by a spiny cactus to take home as a gift to a loved one.  And now answer this one for me: Which do you think would be a more deadly weapon to carry onto an airplane?  A cactus teaming with sharp long spines that could poke an eye out or maybe even pierce a lung.  Or an innocent bottle of chocolate?

Sigh...  Vegas, baby.  Ya gotta love it.

M

I'm back from Vegas!

Heh. You didn't even know I was gone, did you?

Full report...soon.

M

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was the front of the bookmark, today is the back. I like 'em!

If you want a couple to stick in your books, send an SASE (regular size envelope; one stamp) and I'll stick them in the mail for you. PO Box 23, Anoka, MN 55303

Bookstores: If you'd like a stack of bookmarks to hand out, email me with your snailmail address and number of bookmarks desired.

Ahead: The week in pictures...

Cover flats anyone?

Doing some cleaning today. I have a lot of cover flats lying around and stuffed in every possible area of my closet. I decided to save 10 of each cover, and now I have about a four-inch high stack of leftovers. It seems a shame to toss them. Does anyone out there collect cover flats? I'll send some your way if you send me an SASE, probably one of the larger manila envelopes with two stamps on it. I have flats for my entire Luna series, Getaway Girl, most of the Nocturnes, and I may even find more.

Let me know if you're interested in a specific cover and I'll send it, otherwise I'll just put one of each in the envelope. I can autograph them too, if you prefer. And if you're a bookstore and could use a stack, email me and we'll talk.

Send SASE to: PO Box 23, Anoka MN 55303

Give me a heads up after you drop it in the mail so I know to go and check my PO box, because sometimes I don't get there for a month.

M