In Case You Were Wondering...

No, I haven't disappeared, and I apologize for not filling you all in before now.

I have an old spinal cord injury that has resulted in a pinched nerve in my back. You'll never guess what makes it hurt the worst - you got it, typing.

I've been in therapy for about four months now to straighten my spine and try to relieve the pressure. Unfortunately, until further notice, I have been asked to abstain from all typing that isn't absolutely necessary. Since I'm a technical writer at the day job (and that sorta pays the bills and provides me health insurance) and I have two books releasing next year, my blog was one of the casualties.

I DO post every Monday at Killer Fiction Writers. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do. It's a blog of five fabulous humorous mystery writers. You're guaranteed to have a good time.

And look for my next book, TROUBLE IN MUDBUG, on 1/27/09. It's the first in the GHOST-IN-LAW mystery/romance series.

I hope to be back soon!

Killer Fiction

Posting at Killer Fiction today - check it out!

Monday Morning

Hi guys,

Today's my post at Killer Fiction. I'm sharing my shoes story with everyone, so hop over there and check it out if you'd like.

Have a great day!

Monday Morning

Today's my Killer Fiction post, so check it out.

Also, I posted a great interview on Killer Fiction yesterday with mystery author, Wendy Roberts!!!!!! Don't miss it.

Busy Week

Sorry I haven't been blogging regularly, but it's been a really busy week! I've been working overtime on my book, and was just about to release the new accounting guide at work when I discovered product had changed the branding on the software and now every single screen shot has to be redone - at least two days worth of cutting and pasting and resizing and mumbling and cussing and groaning. Lovely.

And if that wasn't enough, my air conditioning doesn't work. Ugh. It was hot last night and humid so I turned on the AC, but after two hours it hadn't even lowered the temp by a single degree. So I shut it off. No sense paying more for being hot. So AC man comes tomorrow - yeah! But I think I've decided that new houses have far more issues than existing ones.

On the good news front, I am continuing on my thin, sexy bitch journey but ran into a bit of a problem. I've apparently lost a lot of weight and fairly fast so the other day I noticed my thigh (which is much thinner now) jiggles. HORRORS!!!!!!! I was just about to decide that there was no alternative in life but to be fat and taut or thin and jiggly, so I did what anyone does in an emergency situation - I googled.

I found out that if you lose weight rapidly, the skin takes a little time to catch up, so that's part of the problem (I hope). The other thing is weight lifting. I need to lift weights and get some more muscle. More muscle = less jiggle.

So I bought a home gym and some home gym installation guy is coming Saturday to set it up. So that will give me a treadmill, home gym, aerobic dvd's and a big living room to do them in. I have absolutely no excuses for not getting thin.

So how's your week been?

Busy Weekend - Busy Week

I had a busy weekend but a productive one. Hung out with friends, did yard work, worked on my book and a whole host of other things. I have a busy week at work too since this week I am officially releasing the new accounting training guide I've been working on for 3-4 months. Yahoo!

Today is my blog day at Killer Fiction, so check it out. I'm taking Microsoft to task and you won't believe why.

Milestones

Life is full of milestones, some good some bad, but all of them signify progress in a journey. Well, I have reached a mini-milestone in one of my journeys and am thrilled to announce that as of today

I have lost 50 pounds!!!!!!!

I'm still not ready for a bikini, but hell, how many people really are? But I'm feeling soooooooo much better and for the first time in years, I don't mind having to shop for clothes. Of course, I'm trying to buy the bare minimum to cover me until the next size down as I have no intention of stopping at 50 pounds, but hey - at least I don't cringe walking into a clothes store any more.

So it's a great day and I'm positive it will be a great weekend!

Hope you all have a great weekend too!

Shoulda Stayed in Bed

You know you've had one - one of those days you should have just stayed in bed. Well, of course, part of my problem is that I was up late last night writing so I slept in a bit this morning. So of course, my entire morning routine was thrown off by my slumber. So I rushed to get ready for work then headed outside to play ball with Bogey then dashed back in to fix me a protein shake for breakfast. Downed the protein shake, grabbed my stuff and headed to work.

Got to work and set about generating and printing a training guide I wrote that is being QA'd today (quality control analysis). Set the 200+ document to print, had a conversation with the Business Analyst for the product, then was about to go to the printer and pick up the doc that I needed for a 10:00 meeting and realized I had never taken off my "playing ball with Bogey" shoes and put on my work shoes.

This was not good.

We are fairly casual at work but I think bright blue and white neoprene Nike hiking sandals might be pushing the envelop. I panicked. I couldn't go through an entire day wearing business casual and hiking sandals. And I had a meeting in 30 minutes!

So I did what any red-blooded American woman would do - I hauled ass to Walmart and bought a pair of shoes. Managed to complete the entire transaction in 13 minutes. That has got to be a new record for shoe-buying. They are kinda cute but not overly comfortable, but then what do you expect for $13. So I figure I'll just leave them at my desk......just in case.

So - you ever had one of those moments?

Beautiful Monday

Hi guys! It was a beautiful weekend here in Texas and it's a beautiful Monday too!

Check out my post at Killer Fiction.

Later!

Good Morning!

Good morning, everyone! Today's my post over at Killer Fiction, so check it out - it has conference rules for all to follow.

See ya tomorrow!

Fabulous Friday

It's Friday!!!!! It's been a busy week, but my new accounting training guide is ready to go for content review on Monday - yeah!!!!! Four months of work in a neat 200+ page document. Very exciting.

Today, I'm on an official vacation day, one because my power went out last night and I woke up late, and two b/c I was planning to take a half day anyway and since the power pulled a fast one, I just decided to go ahead with the full. Why, you ask was I taking a half day off. Well, b/c this weekend is the DARA conference, Dreamin' in Dallas.

So tonight is the booksigning and tomorrow is the conference. And you know what that means - girl's weekend!!!!!! My friend Cindy will be here at lunch and spend the night tonight and tomorrow and Cari will meet us tomorrow morning for breakfast and to attend the conference, and will spend the night tomorrow night. Always a good time! Tell me what's better for a writer than hanging out all weekend with a bunch of writers?

Hope you all have a great weekend too!

House Cleaning

I'll be the first to admit - I'm not domestic. I don't really cook (and can't without a recipe), I don't sew (but I have a nifty little tool that puts buttons back in with plastic), and I really don't like to houseclean. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil. So Saturday, I started the big clean and realized why I don't like doing it - because I'm too easily destracted.

Now my house is fairly small - 1800sf - and it's just me, the dog and the cat, so it doesn't get really messy. So this should be a fairly simple and speedy process, right? Nooooooooo. Take for instance, I started with the master bath, which was going well until I had to deal with trying to get the dirt and grim out of my incredibly slow-draining tub. Finally deciding I'd been standing in water while I showered long enough, I headed to the store to buy some Liquid Plumber and wala - the tub was fixed.

Then it was on to the master bedroom, where I was doing good until I got to dusting the dresser that my tv sits on. And that's when I remembered that something was wrong with the hook up I'd done for the DVD player and the colors were all wrong. So what do I do - pull the dresser out, break out the instruction manuals and spend 45 minutes rewiring the DVD player to the tv.

So you get the picture, right? And rest assured, I tried to block my closet out of my mind entirely or I'd still be in there.

And then on Sunday, I couldn't stand the clothes situation any longer. You see, I've lost some weight recently and have changed clothes sizes - 2 to 3 clothes sizes depending on the designer. Now, I have smaller clothes in storage containers because I always figured on losing the weight and didn't want to get rid of them as they're all cute and fun and a lot of them have matching shoes. But every morning when I'm trying to get ready for work, I had to dig longer and harder to find something that didn't fall off.

So I tackled the closet on Sunday. Ugh!

You KNOW you can't just check the size and discard an article of clothing. All clothes run different so that means I had to try on darned near everything! Do you have any idea how long that takes?????? Well, I can give you an idea - I watched Season 2 and half of Season 3 of the X-Files while doing it. But miracle of miracles, my closet is finally cleared of all the bigger sizes. Now if I just get all the smaller ones out of the storage containers - and ironed (double ugh), I might have something to hang in there again.

And for any of you who think I might be exaggerating the extent of my woes, here's a photo of the "removals" that are waiting for a friend to dig through them and take what she wants. Mind you, this photo does NOT include the 5 garbage bags already full and ready for donation.

Titles

Anyone who's been around the publishing industry (or authors) for a while knows that there are certain thing beyond our control. Two of them are book covers and book titles. Now you can try to throw your ideas in the pot, but there's no guarantee your publisher will use them. I've been lucky so far to have three good titles and they've all stuck, and I must say (totally without bias) that Dorchester does the best covers on the market.

So imagine my surprise when I read a news article about the book that won this year's Oddest Book Title Competition. Heck, I didn't even know there WAS a competition for oddest book title, but I guess it makes sense.

The winner this year is a self-help book (probably appropriately) entitled IF YOU WANT CLOSURE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP - START WITH YOUR LEGS

You have to smile. If you're interested in seeing some of the other past winners, check out the article.

Muggy Monday

It's humid here in Texas - been raining. Guess we're bringing in April, but hey, the flowers like it.

Today's my post over at Killer Fiction, so check it out and have a great day!

Writers & Pets

One thing I have discovered as I meet writers is that almost all of us have pets. In fact, a lot of writers are huge animal lovers. I'm not exactly sure why that is, but it's definitely more than a trend.


I have my own personal baby, and that's my Sheltie, Bogey. Bogey is the perfect dog - he stays in the house all day while I'm at work and doesn't bother a thing. He likes to play - God we play ball and play ball and play ball....well, you get the idea. But that's a good thing because I've been walking him every day and that way we both get some much needed exercise.

So today I thought I'd share some Bogey pics with you, so you can see my "child."



This is Bogey doing one of his favorite things - playing in the sprinkler.




This is Bogey in one of his preferred sleeping positions. You gotta love a dog who's that comfortable perched on the back of the couch.
This is Bogey as a baby - is it any wonder I had to have him??????

Description

As a writer you're always looking for the best descriptive terms - the ones that bring a powerful image into the mind of your reader. Well, yesterday someone sent me this link to a call played on a radio station. What does this have to do with description - well, this guy has some of the best description I've ever heard - and it's damned funny to make it even better. If you can listen to this and don't have a clear mental image of what happened, then you have no imagination at all.

So check it out - and fair warning - you should NOT be consuming liquids while listening!

Kickin' Off the Week

Good morning, everyone! I hope you had a great Easter!

Today's my post over at Killer Fiction, so check it out. I'm talking about things you should never see in church.

Have a great day!

Critique Groups

Since I've been writing (and especially after I sold), I got a lot of questions from other writers about critique groups/partners. Until recently I wasn't a member of a "group" per se in that the group didn't meet regularly and discuss/plot/critique. My critiquing up to that point had been by email or phone call - especially since a couple of the people I critique with are in another states.

I've been asked what makes a good critique partner/group and when to know you need a new group, etc.

To me the answer is easy - a good critique partner/group takes the time to learn your style and voice and doesn't try to change it with their advice. The group should NEVER tell you how to write your book - EVER! They should instead tell you where your technique went faulty or was missing altogether - where your plot fell apart - inconsistencies in your story - when they don't have a connection to a main character - when they are confused by the story.

Most importantly, and the thing that is often missed by cp's is that they should tell you what you're doing RIGHT and encourage you to do more of it. Every missed opportunity for your voice to shine is a missed opportunity to wow an editor or an agent.

Granted, these are only a few of the things you should be thinking about when selecting or continuing with a group or partner, but your career is on the line here - thinking you might hurt someone's feeling should be the very last reason you continue with a group or partner that's no forwarding your career.

Leroy

Today's my post over at Killer Fiction, so check it out. I talk about the reason I made my journey from corporate training to technical writing. ie Leroy

Have a great day!

Vacation

I've been doing a lot of decorating at the new house - painting the walls lovely shades of turquoise and placing my seashell decor everywhere. It looks very serene and pretty and I'm loving it. And the reason I love it so much is because I am a beach junkie. There is simply nothing I find more relaxing than sitting on a beach with a beer and a book. In fact, I can stay there all day.

My family used to vacation to Destin a lot - which has beautiful beaches. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and maybe now someday I will.

What about you? What's your favorite vacation spot?

Monday Already

Jeez, is it Monday already????? Busy weekend - had girl's night Friday night which was fab - we ate Mexican, then headed back to the bachlorette pad for wine, cookies and this absolutely sinful homemade candy (my thighs salute you, Cari). Saturday morning we had a leisurely breakfast then went shopping where we tried to work off some of the candy.

Sunday I did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, grocery shopped and organized the garage. Very exciting!

Today's my post day at Killer Fiction, so hop over there and leave a comment on your favorite tv series.

Have a great day!

Weird Weather Redux

Well, just when you thought it was safe to plant flowers, it snowed again in Dallas. That's twice in one week. What in the world???????

In other news, the Ghost-in-Law edits are going fine and I'm really pleased with what I have so far. I've sent the first third out to my critique partners and can't wait to see what they think.

Also, I got an offer for foreign rights for UNLUCKY. So looks like it will be published in Dutch along with RUMBLE. I wonder what they'll do with the covers.

I've got a big weekend planned - girl's night tonight with my cp's, then shopping tomorrow and I'm still painting - fun, fun, fun!

Well, must run and write some technical documentation - I'm knee deep in a training guide for accounting software - riveting text. :)

Have a great weekend!

Weird Weather

Okay, so we all know Texas has weird weather sometime - but come on. On Sunday I was wearing capris and a t-shirt and it was in the 70's, then it snowed Monday night. Now even for Texas that's a little weird. And did I mention that people in Texas can NOT drive in snowy/icy weather. They think appropriate driving means hitting their brakes when they're ON the bridge - jeez.

This weekend was a busy one for me. I painted on Saturday and my living room is looking fabulous. It's a light shade of turquoise and looks great with all my light furniture and the seashell decorations. It's very serene and pretty. Then my parents came over on Sunday and my dad installed a couple of ceiling fans for me and raised a couple of light fixtures so that you don't have to be 3 foot 2 to walk underneath them - what are builders thinking???????

As part of the separation of property, I took one dog and one cat with me, so no more six animals to take care of, but I've got the Sheltie and he's living the life of Riley now. He gets to stay inside with the run of the house all day and I have to say that he's been great! Not a single thing bothered and no accidents. He's such a wonderful dog. Plus he gets treats and walks and to play ball every single day - on weekends, more than once or even twice. For anyone who lives alone and feels lonely, my advice is to get a dog. He's the best company. Always happy, never complaining, easy to please.

I got back into my writing last week and since I'd been off for so long, I had to go back to the beginning and start re-reading/editing what I had already written. I'm happy to say that I REALLY like what I have. I think this book is going to be one of my funniest yet and can't wait to see how it ends. Sounds kinda strange for the author to be saying that, huh, but the reality is, I tend to come up with better twists and ideas as I write than I ever could when producing a synopsis. Thank God my fabulous editor knows it will all work out in the end. :) I love ya, Leah!

Oh, well, I must run and get some work done. My new schedule seems to include rising at 4-4:30 am and falling asleep on the couch around 7-8 pm. But hey, that way everything is done before I go to work so no down side really.

Have a great day everyone!

Back from Beyond

Hi everyone! I'm finally back. I posted at Killer Fiction today, explaining my absence, so hop over there and check it out.

Thanks so much for all my regulars who sent me personal emails. They were definitely appreciated!

Absent for a While

I'm so sorry that I haven't been blogging on a regular basis. I am in the midst of a personal crisis and need to take some time off. I truly appreciate all the emails I have received from regular readers expressing their concern. I am still here but not feeling like posting at the moment.

I will be back in a couple of weeks or so. Thanks again for all the emails!

Jana

Many Apologies

Many apologies for not posting in FOREVER. I've been in holiday whirl and am just now coming out. Today's my day over at Killer Fiction so check it out! It's another story that you just can't make up and I think you'll enjoy it.

Movie review and a GCC tour tomorrow!