As often happens when I go to RWA, I've been making midsummer resolutions. One of them is to get back on a regular blogging schedule. I figure I've got two main topics:
1) Books, and the reading and writing thereof
2) Food, and the cooking and eating thereof (with occasional side discussions on health and fitness)
So my new goal is four posts per week, two on each topic. For books, that's one post on what I'm reading and one on something to do with writing--what I'm working on, or aspects of craft, time management, or the business of writing.
On the food side, I'm reluctantly abandoning my 52 Cookbooks series. I'd fallen too far behind on posting, and the blogging was becoming a chore, though the cooking wasn't. So I'm starting fresh. I'm going to keep doing one new-to-me recipe per week from a random cookbook, though I'm going to cull the ones I know aren't very good and add those I've gotten since starting the project.
But I also want to blog a bit about day-to-day cooking. Because my husband has a long commute while mine is quite short, I do most of the weeknight cooking. It's a constant challenge to come up with a variety of interesting and nutritious meals that are FAST, and therefore don't eat up my precious writing time. And as groceries get more and more expensive, I'm looking for ways to eat more frugally. So...fast, frugal, tasty, and nutritious. All at once. Methinks that won't be easy...and therefore that anything I discover might be worth sharing.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
A Marriage of Inconvenience giveaway!
Today I'm on my way back from RWA '12. Later I hope to post about my conference experiences and what I learned there. But for now I'm here to let you know about an opportunity to win my 2011 release, A Marriage of Inconvenience.
I'm taking part in The Romance Reviews Sizzling Summer Reads event. Stop by today, July 29, and answer a question on my book for your chance to win! And while you're there, take a look at the other participating authors and their giveaways.
I'm taking part in The Romance Reviews Sizzling Summer Reads event. Stop by today, July 29, and answer a question on my book for your chance to win! And while you're there, take a look at the other participating authors and their giveaways.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Coming to RWA? Help choose my next cover!
Tomorrow I fly down to Anaheim for RWA '12. At this point I'm mostly packed, though I've got plenty of last-minute errands to make this a busy day.
This year for the first time I'll be signing at the annual literacy signing. It's on Wednesday from 5-8 PM in the 3rd floor ballroom of the Anaheim Convention Center, and it's open to the general public, so do stop by if you're in the area. This is the first year they've let ebook-only authors participate, and what we'll be signing is publisher-produced CD's of our works. Personally, I'd far rather they set it up so readers can download copies for their e-readers onsite and have the sales count toward the literacy benefit. Maybe next year...and at least they're finally letting us take part.
Oh, and unlike previous years, authors will not be seated alphabetically. I'll be at Table 207, along with Loreth Anne White, Angie Fox, Olivia Gates, Anne Hope, and Ruthie Knox.
One more piece of conference news...as part of the Carina Press spotlight this year, the Carina team will discuss the cover selection process and offer those at the spotlight the chance to vote on different cover concepts for two upcoming releases. And one of them will be An Infamous Marriage. I've seen the two draft covers, and they're both wonderful, as Carina's generally are. But they're quite different in how they're posed and in the overall look and feel, and I'll be fascinated to see how the vote turns out.
If you're going to RWA and want to help pick my cover, come to the Carina spotlight at 9:45 on Thursday.
This year for the first time I'll be signing at the annual literacy signing. It's on Wednesday from 5-8 PM in the 3rd floor ballroom of the Anaheim Convention Center, and it's open to the general public, so do stop by if you're in the area. This is the first year they've let ebook-only authors participate, and what we'll be signing is publisher-produced CD's of our works. Personally, I'd far rather they set it up so readers can download copies for their e-readers onsite and have the sales count toward the literacy benefit. Maybe next year...and at least they're finally letting us take part.
Oh, and unlike previous years, authors will not be seated alphabetically. I'll be at Table 207, along with Loreth Anne White, Angie Fox, Olivia Gates, Anne Hope, and Ruthie Knox.
One more piece of conference news...as part of the Carina Press spotlight this year, the Carina team will discuss the cover selection process and offer those at the spotlight the chance to vote on different cover concepts for two upcoming releases. And one of them will be An Infamous Marriage. I've seen the two draft covers, and they're both wonderful, as Carina's generally are. But they're quite different in how they're posed and in the overall look and feel, and I'll be fascinated to see how the vote turns out.
If you're going to RWA and want to help pick my cover, come to the Carina spotlight at 9:45 on Thursday.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
What I've been reading lately
So, I've had a bit of a reading drought the past couple weeks, partly because I went back and read Captain Vorpatril's Alliance again slowly, to savor it properly after bolting through it the first time around. I do that a lot with Bujold's books--they just get richer on re-reading.
That said, I have a few novellas and graphic novels to add to my 2012 reading count:
59) Slow Summer Kisses, by Shannon Stacey. A contemporary romance novella with a heroine decompressing from a downsizing at her grandparents' summer cabin and a hero who downsized himself a long time ago. I'm not usually a huge fan of small town contemporary romances, but this story really worked for me, and also did a great job convincing me of the characters' compatibility and hopes for happiness despite the relatively short length--I finished it in three half-hour sessions over lunch last week.
60) Serenity: Better Days, by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad. This graphic novel read just like an episode of Firefly--a fun one, but not one of my all-time favorites from that 'verse.
61) Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, by Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, and Chris Samnee. Shepherd Book's backstory. I liked this one better than the previous one, but it still felt a bit...incomplete, I guess. I would've liked a bit more of Book's post-conversion life, and some of his childhood hardships seemed a little obvious, but I still enjoyed it.
That said, I have a few novellas and graphic novels to add to my 2012 reading count:
59) Slow Summer Kisses, by Shannon Stacey. A contemporary romance novella with a heroine decompressing from a downsizing at her grandparents' summer cabin and a hero who downsized himself a long time ago. I'm not usually a huge fan of small town contemporary romances, but this story really worked for me, and also did a great job convincing me of the characters' compatibility and hopes for happiness despite the relatively short length--I finished it in three half-hour sessions over lunch last week.
60) Serenity: Better Days, by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad. This graphic novel read just like an episode of Firefly--a fun one, but not one of my all-time favorites from that 'verse.
61) Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, by Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, and Chris Samnee. Shepherd Book's backstory. I liked this one better than the previous one, but it still felt a bit...incomplete, I guess. I would've liked a bit more of Book's post-conversion life, and some of his childhood hardships seemed a little obvious, but I still enjoyed it.
62) Kilts & Kraken, by Cindy Spencer Pape. Another Carina novella, this one a mid-19th century steampunk romance set in Scotland. I'm not inherently into steampunk, but I enjoyed this book, which like Slow Summer Kisses managed plenty of character development in its short length. (I'm working on a novella now myself, so I suppose I'm studying the form.)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
One week till RWA
With just one week till RWA '12, I've gone from resolutions to to-do lists and schedule-making. I won't bore you with an accounting of my multiple lists and spreadsheets. Suffice it to say I'm the type who plans out my outfits for each day and has a schedule of workshops with second and sometimes third choices for each hour should the first prove less intriguing and useful than the title and handouts led me to hope.
The last six weeks have led me to reflect, glumly, on my habit of making vows to eat better, exercise more, and really-o, truly-o stick with Weight Watchers this time, only to give up after a week or two, as soon as some mini-crisis upsets my precarious equilibrium. It makes it hard to start over again, because why should I expect myself to do better next time?
But I don't want to give up, either, and say, "This is the body I have, and these are my eating and exercise habits, now please pass the potato chips." I've got the family history, and I'm starting to have the cholesterol and triglyceride numbers, to tell me what a bad idea that is. Not to mention that I'd really love the wider array of shopping options open to me if I were at my goal weight, two or three sizes smaller than I am now. Plus, I'd see my cheekbones again. I miss them.
Yet somehow I don't think deciding to start Weight Watchers again the day after I get back from conference and really meaning it this time is the answer. I'm still figuring out what the answer might be, but I think it involves A) starting with smaller steps to give myself some victories, and thereby build in some new habits that won't collapse as soon as I have a deadline or a fever or something crazy happens at work, and B) stepping back and doing some serious brainstorming about what a healthy life would look like for someone with my combination of gifts and constraints, and then planning what it would take to get there. In other words, plan my healthy lifestyle the way I plan my writing schedule for a new manuscript, or my ever-evolving 5-year writing career goals, or the way we tackle backlogs at my day job, rather than grabbing some one-size-fits-all plan and trying to force it to fit.
I've got some ideas for both A and B, and I've also got a new, marathon-distance goal for myself: the big European trip I'm planning for the summer of 2015. I'm planning to be at Waterloo for the bicentennial of the battle, and I'm hoping to spend at least a month in Europe on either side of the anniversary. That's just a little less than three years away, and a smidge over 1000 days.
So that's the new goal. 1000 days from now, I'll be making lists and schedules for the trip of a lifetime instead of an annual conference. I want to be ready to jaunt around the Continent as the healthiest, fittest, and most energetic version of me as I can muster. All I need is the right plan and steps to make that happen.
The last six weeks have led me to reflect, glumly, on my habit of making vows to eat better, exercise more, and really-o, truly-o stick with Weight Watchers this time, only to give up after a week or two, as soon as some mini-crisis upsets my precarious equilibrium. It makes it hard to start over again, because why should I expect myself to do better next time?
But I don't want to give up, either, and say, "This is the body I have, and these are my eating and exercise habits, now please pass the potato chips." I've got the family history, and I'm starting to have the cholesterol and triglyceride numbers, to tell me what a bad idea that is. Not to mention that I'd really love the wider array of shopping options open to me if I were at my goal weight, two or three sizes smaller than I am now. Plus, I'd see my cheekbones again. I miss them.
Yet somehow I don't think deciding to start Weight Watchers again the day after I get back from conference and really meaning it this time is the answer. I'm still figuring out what the answer might be, but I think it involves A) starting with smaller steps to give myself some victories, and thereby build in some new habits that won't collapse as soon as I have a deadline or a fever or something crazy happens at work, and B) stepping back and doing some serious brainstorming about what a healthy life would look like for someone with my combination of gifts and constraints, and then planning what it would take to get there. In other words, plan my healthy lifestyle the way I plan my writing schedule for a new manuscript, or my ever-evolving 5-year writing career goals, or the way we tackle backlogs at my day job, rather than grabbing some one-size-fits-all plan and trying to force it to fit.
I've got some ideas for both A and B, and I've also got a new, marathon-distance goal for myself: the big European trip I'm planning for the summer of 2015. I'm planning to be at Waterloo for the bicentennial of the battle, and I'm hoping to spend at least a month in Europe on either side of the anniversary. That's just a little less than three years away, and a smidge over 1000 days.
So that's the new goal. 1000 days from now, I'll be making lists and schedules for the trip of a lifetime instead of an annual conference. I want to be ready to jaunt around the Continent as the healthiest, fittest, and most energetic version of me as I can muster. All I need is the right plan and steps to make that happen.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Two weeks: time to regroup
I leave for RWA '12 two weeks from Tuesday, and it's time to admit I'm not going to live up to the ambitious goals I set myself four weeks ago. I haven't stuck with my health goals, and while the writing has been coming along, it hasn't gone as quickly as I'd hoped.
Normally this is where I quietly beat myself up for failure and stop publicly admitting I had goals. But this time around I think I'll look at why I failed, and try to regroup so I can still have a productive summer.
As for the why, the health thing I've been dealing with for the past 2-3 weeks is probably the biggest culprit. I've been deliberately vague to spare you all the TMI, but suffice it to say this was clearly an annoyance rather than a scare almost from the very beginning. There were three possible treatments, and we decided to go with the simplest first. So far it's working fine, but if that changes the second simplest will probably do the trick, and the most complex/invasive is pretty much a guarantee.
But at no point was I afraid. It just took me a couple referrals and tests to get to that simple treatment, and it added a layer of hassle to my life. It's as if that hassle layer knocked aside the most recent addition to my schedule--the time I was spending exercising and preparing and journaling my food.
I'm not happy with myself, but I think the best thing I can do is to get back to those habits now that I'm healed-for-now, in hopes that next time life kicks me up a level in Hassle, my good health habits will be more than a week or two old, and therefore not so quick to melt away. So it's back to Weight Watchers and exercise, even though I can no longer hope to drop a size by RWA. Maybe by Emerald City Writers Conference instead.
On the writing side, the health hassle impacted me there, though not as strongly. I've been writing fairly steadily, but my word count isn't where I expected it to be at this point. So I've shifted my goal from finishing my draft by 7/22 and having it ready to submit by 8/12, to finished by 8/12 and submission-ready 8/26. Then I can take a week or so off and start my next manuscript right after Labor Day, just when Miss Fraser goes back to school for the fall.
Normally this is where I quietly beat myself up for failure and stop publicly admitting I had goals. But this time around I think I'll look at why I failed, and try to regroup so I can still have a productive summer.
As for the why, the health thing I've been dealing with for the past 2-3 weeks is probably the biggest culprit. I've been deliberately vague to spare you all the TMI, but suffice it to say this was clearly an annoyance rather than a scare almost from the very beginning. There were three possible treatments, and we decided to go with the simplest first. So far it's working fine, but if that changes the second simplest will probably do the trick, and the most complex/invasive is pretty much a guarantee.
But at no point was I afraid. It just took me a couple referrals and tests to get to that simple treatment, and it added a layer of hassle to my life. It's as if that hassle layer knocked aside the most recent addition to my schedule--the time I was spending exercising and preparing and journaling my food.
I'm not happy with myself, but I think the best thing I can do is to get back to those habits now that I'm healed-for-now, in hopes that next time life kicks me up a level in Hassle, my good health habits will be more than a week or two old, and therefore not so quick to melt away. So it's back to Weight Watchers and exercise, even though I can no longer hope to drop a size by RWA. Maybe by Emerald City Writers Conference instead.
On the writing side, the health hassle impacted me there, though not as strongly. I've been writing fairly steadily, but my word count isn't where I expected it to be at this point. So I've shifted my goal from finishing my draft by 7/22 and having it ready to submit by 8/12, to finished by 8/12 and submission-ready 8/26. Then I can take a week or so off and start my next manuscript right after Labor Day, just when Miss Fraser goes back to school for the fall.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Summer reading, continued
I'm now up to 58 books read on the year, 10 of which count toward my library's summer reading program. Miss Fraser is kicking my butt in that regard--she's up to 24. Even allowing for the fact a lot of hers are manga and graphic novels, she's turning into one bookish kid, I'm proud to say. Her chapter books are from the Warriors and Wolves of the Beyond series, neither of which is short or easy for a rising third grader.
Anyway, my latest reads:
55) Lessons After Dark, by Isabel Cooper. This is Cooper's second book, a sequel to No Proper Lady. Unlike many fantasy romance authors, Cooper gets the balance of romance and fantasy just right, with solid world-building. This book isn't as fast-paced and high-stakes as her debut, but it's still well worth reading, IMHO.
56) Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Properly speaking, the book doesn't release till November, but Baen is selling eARCs directly from their website, and I couldn't resist.
It's a fun, lovely book, and I enjoyed seeing Ivan in an adventure of his own, revealing himself when out of Miles's orbit to be capable and intelligent in his own more deliberate and level-headed style. It's something of a romantic comedy of manners meets crime caper story, and while I'd rank it below my all-time favorites, Memory and A Civil Campaign, I'll definitely be re-reading it.
57) Watching Baseball Smarter, by Zack Hample. For the most part, this book just confirmed that I'm already a fairly savvy fan, but I learned some new things. I'd never noticed that all catchers are right-handed, for example, and I'm surprised singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch only dates to 1971, since the song itself is so much older.
58) Hearts and Harbingers, by Olivia Waite, is an erotic historical romance novella, one that, frankly, is more explicit than I'd feel comfortable reading as a steady diet. That said, the writing is polished and the heroine in particular an engaging character, so if you like super-hot reads, I recommend it.
Anyway, my latest reads:
55) Lessons After Dark, by Isabel Cooper. This is Cooper's second book, a sequel to No Proper Lady. Unlike many fantasy romance authors, Cooper gets the balance of romance and fantasy just right, with solid world-building. This book isn't as fast-paced and high-stakes as her debut, but it's still well worth reading, IMHO.
56) Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Properly speaking, the book doesn't release till November, but Baen is selling eARCs directly from their website, and I couldn't resist.
It's a fun, lovely book, and I enjoyed seeing Ivan in an adventure of his own, revealing himself when out of Miles's orbit to be capable and intelligent in his own more deliberate and level-headed style. It's something of a romantic comedy of manners meets crime caper story, and while I'd rank it below my all-time favorites, Memory and A Civil Campaign, I'll definitely be re-reading it.
57) Watching Baseball Smarter, by Zack Hample. For the most part, this book just confirmed that I'm already a fairly savvy fan, but I learned some new things. I'd never noticed that all catchers are right-handed, for example, and I'm surprised singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch only dates to 1971, since the song itself is so much older.
58) Hearts and Harbingers, by Olivia Waite, is an erotic historical romance novella, one that, frankly, is more explicit than I'd feel comfortable reading as a steady diet. That said, the writing is polished and the heroine in particular an engaging character, so if you like super-hot reads, I recommend it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)