*

There goes the electric bill...

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Clark (Griswold) Sr. and Jr. were busy last week at our house. These are the nicknames earned by my husband and son.

My husband has already declared when he retires in a few years, the annual Christmas light display will be his "hobby."

Goddess help me.

Last year I (yes, ME, myself, not anyone else) installed a dedicated 20 amp GFI external circuit, on its own breaker, so he would quit tripping my living room circuit when he plugged into the only outside outlet on the front wall (which for some stupidly inexplicable reason is hooked into my living room circuit).

Took him all of fifteen minutes to blow that.

After helping him reconfigure his layout, we made it through if I didn't turn on the lamp in the living room at the same time as the front lights.

So this year I installed ANOTHER dedicated 20 amp GFI external circuit. And he's switched a few of the strands over to LEDs, which should help. But he's added one wire animal and one blow-up animal to the "menagerie" (which includes a blow-up Santa on a motorcycle, a blow-up polar bear, blow-up penguin, several light-up deer, a family of light-up geese, a polar bear, etc. etc. etc.

You get the idea. This is in ADDITION to the lights on the roof and in the yard. And they informed me that they're not done.

I'm not complaining. Seriously. He does a great job and it looks fantastic. But I hate dealing with electrical. Something about the idea of possible electrocution that stifles my enthusiasm.

Sorry the pictures are blurry, it's hard to take night light pictures. And what you're seeing isn't even all of them, because there are lights along both sides of the house and some out back.

We're the first people on our street to light up, and even though we're more than ten houses from the end of the street, when you turn onto our street, you can immediately see our house.

I heard them muttering something about "visible from space" and put a kabosh on that.

Yeah, I know, I'm a Grinch, but our light bill can't take that. *LOL*

Want to win a free e-book reader?

Amira Press is offering a chance to win a free e-book reader! Click here for details. I'm one of the participating authors, and if you buy "Love and Brimstone" from Amira Press you can get entered for a chance to win an e-book reader!

I also have two shapeshifter shorts, "Doggy Style" and "Dog Walk," coming soon from Amira, as well as "Brimstone Blues," the sequel to "Love and Brimstone."

Whoo hoo! "Love Slave for Two" at #4!

My first Tymber Dalton book is at #4 on BookStrand's bestseller list after one day!!

http://www.bookstrand.com/product-loveslavefortwo-13926-200.html

"Love and Brimstone" Trailer Nominated for a Covey

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
My book trailer for my vampire romance "Love and Brimstone" (Amira Press) is nominated for a Covey Trailer Award. Yippee!!!!

Please vote for it (#10 on the list) at:

http://thenewcoveytrailerawards.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much!!!

Tribute to John Williams

Friday, November 7, 2008
This is just too good not to share. If you love John Williams, you'll love this!

Happy dance!

Thursday, November 6, 2008
I've received word from Amira Press that they're offering me a contract on book two in my Brimstone series: "Brimstone Blues." It's the sequel to "Love and Brimstone" and picks up where the first leaves off.

Whoo hoo!!

The blurb:

Anastazia Proctor feels like the universe yanked the rug out from under her. Finding out you’re a vampire, surviving multiple attempts on your life, getting engaged to a hunky guy who happens to be your boss, and dealing with your fiancĂ©’s cousin’s death after playing succubus with him can play a mind-trip on anyone.

Can life get any crazier? Now haunted by a devastatingly familiar phantom voice in her brain, Taz struggles to cope with the aftermath, her crazy new powers, and the psychopathic lupine-like “Others” who just won’t give up. But even worse…now she’s got a wedding to plan.

If you missed "Love and Brimstone" you can get it from Amira Press by clicking here.

Guest Blogging

Check out my blog post on why e-books ARE "real" books on the Amused Authors blog: http://amusedauthors.wordpress.com

And I have a blog post on the Lyrical Press, Inc. blog about what defines a "real" writer: http://lyricalpress.blogspot.com