Our RWA Connection

Pat White has been bustling about the conference snapping pics. Now, we've finally got a picture of her, along with Lois. Thanks, Pat! Keep sending the pictures. Wish I was there!

Couple more pics, and contest!

Here's Judy Baer, our own Betina Krahn, Thea Devine, and...I'm not sure about the fourth chick. And that's where the contest for Those Left Behind comes in. Email me at: toastfaery@gmail.com with your guess (or maybe you know for sure) who the fourth lady is. I'll draw a winner on Monday from the correct answers, and the winner will receive something fun from the Riders.

Pat White also sent a picture of Nina Bruhns from her cell phone. She's up for a RITA this year!

RWA pics arriving now!

So what do you do when everyone else is at the party, and you're not?

Organize your sock drawer?

Play musical pillows with the cats?

Clean behind the washer and dryer? (Eww, what is that fuzzy stuff?)

Write the perfect chapter Fourteen?

Surf the Internet for bits and gossip about the party?

So come on, let's brainstorm on things to do when everyone else is having fun. It's gotta be something that looks so fun, they'll be jealous. Like baking an entire pan of brownies, poking it with holes, and pouring caramel over the top—then eating half of it. Oh yeah, I'm so there. :-)

Update: Whoo hoo! Pat White, my Woman On The Scene at the Literacy Signing tonight has just sent a few pics of the Riders.
Here's Susan Kay Law looking great! Someone go buy her books!


And here's Helen Brenna with my former Luna editor, MaryTheresa Hussey. Looking great, gals!


Go Christie! Lookin' so pretty, and beachy!


And Cindy is very busy signing autographs! Hey ladies, looks like you're having fun!


And our very own, luverly Lois (who, I believe, is talking to Mary Strand).

Mamma Mia!

Did you see it?
In the past few weeks I've seen The Dark Knight, The X Files, and Mamma Mia. Dark Knight rocked. X Files? Meh. Mamma Mia was super fun!

I've read the reviews and most of them are mediocre. But I think most of the reviewers were expecting more than just a summer-fun movie. The plot was simple: girl about to wed, who was never told who her real father is, finds three possible candidates from her mother's journal and invites them all to the wedding. She'll know her father when she sees him! But she doesn't.

Meanwhile Mom (played by Meryl Streep) is a bit of a hippie, free-wheeling, fun-loving woman who is forced to face her past in the guise of three suitors from said past. The story could have gone really deep and angsty, but it stayed very light, which I appreciated.

Critics complained of the awful signing voices. Well heck, I didn't find anyone's voice offensive. These are actors, not professional singers. I thought Streep did well, and Brosnan even rocked the screen. The best song was a solo by Julie Walters who seduces a reluctant Stellan Skarsgaard into Taking A Chance on her. Christine Baransky's solo with a sexy young suitor was also cute.
Critics also bemoaned the sloppy choreography. Again, I say, these weren't professional dancers. And the movie is supposed to be a summery beach kind of extravaganza. No one synchronizes their dance moves on the beach. I thought it was perfectly carefree, and I've even been humming some ABBA tunes lately. And I don't even like ABBA.

If I have any moans about the movie, it was Colin Firth's surprise announcement. That totally took me from out of the blue. Didn't see it coming, and didn't see a setup in the plot to explain its coming either. Also, it seemed Streep was really trying to embody the loose and fancy-free character, but it came off as forced. After a while, all the actors seemed to stop being so excited about their lines (like they were voicing them loudly and happily from the Broadway stage) and then things got much better.

At the end of the movie the three ladies sing a dance routine in spandex and spangles, a la ABBA. Stay and watch it, because they do two songs, and the second song, the men join in, wearing more spandex and spangles. It's a hoot! And a great afternoon at the movies with friends or family.

What did you think? Did you see the movie? Want to see it? Not sure about Pierce Brosnan in spangles?

Michele

California here we....

Well, most of the Riders are headed toward San Francisco at this moment, or in a day or two. We're not sure if Deb has already arrived, or if the airport put up signs with her likeness on them after last week's bit of fun. (We love you, Deb!) Everyone is flying in for the Romance Writers of America Conference. Except me and Kathleen. Sigh...

That means we two will try our best to entertain everyone else who got left behind this week. I can strum a bit on the guitar. Kathy, can you carry a tune?

Anyway, here's a fun contest we've come up with for those who are going to the conference. Stalk the Riders. Yeah, you heard me. Okay, don't get arrested, or be rude, but do take a picture. Use your camera phone or digital camera, and take a picture of any of the Riders. Find them at the Literacy signing on Wednesday night, strolling down the motel hallway, crammed in an elevator. Send the picture to me at: toastfaery@gmail.com (you can send it right from your phone, if you like) and I'll post them at the blog. Yes, send them during the conf. After the conference, we'll draw a winner to receive some books from the Riders. Have fun with it, but don't go paparazzi and send anything incriminating. :-)

We'll think of a contest for Those Left Behind and post it this week as well, so everyone has a chance to win.

If you want to send conference updates, in short Twitter-style snippets, you can email me those too, and I'll post them if I get them. Please, people! I need info on the biggest party I don't get to go to! Send pics of the chocolate from Harlequin's party. Send pics of the fancy shoes prancing about the RITA ceremony. Send pics of that sexy male editor—er, well, yeah, do it!

So...I've got my guitar. What do ya wanna hear? A little Dust In The Wind? How about Ghost Riders In The Sky? Kathy, do you know any John Denver?

Michele

Kathleen Gets Makeover and So Can You

TGIF
Let's have some fun!

I'm feeling a little sorry for myself with everybody in the car talking about going to the RWA National Conference in San Francisco next week. I'm not going this year. I love National, and I've been many many times. I'll miss seeing friends. Right now I'm missing the preparation. Oh, the outfits! The makeup! The coiffure!

But our dear friend Ann Stuart put me onto a website that lets you redo your do and try out all kinds of looks, and I indulged. Spirits have thus been lifted, and now I dare to share. First, notice the promo picture. It was taken a few years back, and it's me. It will remain me. In perpetuity. I hate having my picture taken. However, if you want to play Makeover, you'll need a picture with your hair slicked back. Few of us have anything like that on hand, so get out the digital, grab a photographer, have him shoot you a few times, and come on back here. (I went outdoors. Mine was made in the shade. Otherwise I'd have bug eyes. Probably red ones.)

Got your likeness? If you don't want to do yourself, the site offers an assortment of models. But what fun to play the game with your own face! So here's what I came up with:


I can't remember which movie star loaned me her hair, but this is Look #1. I had a hat like this in 1965. It was plaid.











I've always wondered about red locks. I could have chosen a more daring shade, but we all know I'm not very daring. You can put any hairstyle with any color, and there are tons of choices. The makeup shows up better on the site. Unfortunately, you can't do anything about the sags, bags, lines and wrinkles. This is a reality show. So this is Look #2.









Ah, the joy of blond. I would love to wear really short hair. To me, it's the epitome of sassy. But I have no body in my hair and no hair dryer/round brush skills in my hands. This will be Look #3.

Which do you like best?

Now it's your turn. Go to Makeover-o-Matic and have at it. What kind of a makeover have you done or would you like to do?

Now, I'm off to get my roots touched up. I'm showing my age.

Debra - What do you mean I can't check in?

For those folks who stop by but don't know a lot about the romance world, we have an annual professional conference attended by about 2,000 writers. We have that conference in July every year. I go most years.

Packing is brutal. It's a week crammed with business activities, cocktail parties, the RITA awards which are the romance writers' Oscars. You've got your field trips, workshops, breakfasts, lunches and dinners with editors and agents. My suitcase has been certified as an emergency shelter.

As many of you know, I've been up to my butt in alligators with the new imprint over at BelleBooks. I'm treading water with decreasing effectiveness. How do I know this?

Because I arrived at the airport July 22, fully packed.

The conference is next week. My plane ticket is for July 29th.

The electronic check in machine said, "Your flight is not available for check-in. Please see an agent at the counter."

I had to call my son to come and pick me up. (Yes, that was a hoot. For him, not me.) My husband was out of town in a meeting when my son tracked him down to be the first to tell him. I understand my husband laughed so loud and so long that everyone in the building ran in to see what was so funny.

I had to call the woman who works for BelleBooks part-time so she could reorganize her working schedule. I share her hours with one of my consulting clients, so I had to call her at her office. When I told her the problem, she said, "Just a minute." I can't be sure, but I'm fairly certain she got up on her chair and made an announcement to their entire staff. Well, I know she did because I was yelling into the phone, "I can hear you! You're fired." She just kept laughing. She's worked for me so long she knows where the bodies are buried. (But more importantly she knows how to bury them.)

I told the Top Down crew. Guffaws and laughter ensued. And they've helpfully been sending me reminders about the conference and various events because we all know I can't be trusted to show up at the proper time. I think Helen is making visual aids to help me learn the calendar.

I had to tell the Belles. My partners are still laughing. When they sober up, I'm probably going to wish they hadn't.

My mother called this morning to see if I'd not made any trips today. Funny woman.

I'm not unpacking. I would have had to iron regardless.

So, read any good books lately?

Winner from Janice Maynard's Visit

Yay! The winner from Wednesday's visit with Janice Maynard is "Sean and Anna"!! Please email Janice directly at JESM13@aol.com with your address and she'll take care of the rest.

Thanks, everyone, for hanging with us!

Helen

Guest Author Janice Maynard

I met Janice a couple months ago at a Wisconsin writers conference. I hadn't been to a smaller regional shindig in a very long time and so enjoyed the intimate setting. I had an opportunity to visit a little with Janice and Lori Foster who were the headliners and asked them to visit some time.

So here's Janice ...

Thanks so much to Helen and the gang for inviting me to "cruise" the cyber highway with you today! Riding with the top down sounds like a good idea on a day like today with the sun shining and the storms from last night that cleared out the air a bit!

I'm in the midst of writing a book that will be out in July '09 called, "Mating Game". It's about a woman whose grandmother died and left her a fortunre with the proviso that the granddaughter must be married in thirty days to inherit. The heroine has three good options: her current lover, her childhood sweetheart, and the hunky handyman she hires to fix up her grandmother's derelict mansion. Things are going well until someone tries to kill her, and then she has to decide not only who to marry, but who she can trust.

It's a bit of a departure from some of my earlier books... very sexy but with a bit of a dark side. It's turning out well, I think... I hope!!

I've also been working on a proposal for a new trilogy which I hope my editor will like. Which brings me to today's topic... what's in a name? I keep a huge chart of first names and last names from all the books I have done to date, so I don't re-use favorite names... I try to challenge myself to find new names that really fit my characters.

In the proposal I'm working on now, my agent sugested changing one character's name and offered "Hal" as a substitute. Now, Hal is a great name and I like it, but it's also the name of my dear hubby's best friend, so that really didn't float my boat. We settled on a third name as a compromise.

When Lori Foster was writing "Hard to Handle", she e-mailed me to see if I minded her naming the heroine Anastasia, because Lori knew that was the name of my granddaughter. Of course, I thought that was great. But all this has set me to thinking. Have I ever really been turned off by a book because one of the characters had a name I disliked? I can't remember any off hand, but I suppose it might have happened once or twice.

I think in reality that once I get caught up in a story, if the characters are written well, the name really doesn't bother me one way or another. But I do have my favorites for both sexes.

So tell me all you romance readers... can a hero's name turn you off? A heroine's? Or will you keep on reading until the end to get to the happily ever after??

As a thank you to anyone who posts today, I'll be drawing one name and giving away a copy of "The Power of Love", a June release from Berkley. The other photo is my current book (July '08), The Perfect Ten.

Thanks for letting me play!

Janice M.

The joys of writing. . .

Betina here.

Of late I've been researching a new book, looking for a period and place and a provocative story nugget that I can turn into an epic romance. And you know what-- I LOVE research. For a trivia junkie like me, this is heaven. I could do this all day, every day. That is, unless I'm expected to actually produce something from it. Sigh. There's always a catch.

So far, I researched gun manufacturing in Britain during Victorian times, oriental trade and political relations during the Victorian era, and the development of martial arts in the orient and elsewhere. Oh, and did I mention British political scandals of the Victorian era?

Breach loading rifles, karate, and Gladstone's obsession with soiled doves. Try making a steamy romance out of those.

Then I stumbled back to medieval days. . . for a look at how weaving began and what the weaving centers for tapestries and fancy wall hangings were. Then I looked at early looms and the process of making threads and producing dyes. Then I looked at medieval legends in England and France. . .

Prehistoric looms and shuttle calluses, alchemists who produced dyes in secret and carried out industrial intrigue against each other, and woodcuts of people with no arms and one great mouth in the middle of their chests. . . ewwww. Keep looking . . .

Then I raced to colonial America. . . where I began looking at early American agricultural practices. And the run-up to the war of 1812. . . which was our SECOND war of independence. I began looking at what happened at the burning of Washington DC and the incident of Dolly Madison saving George Washington's portrait. . .

Hey, did you know they used to beat apple trees in spring to make them produce? How about harvesting oats green to get both "king(top kernal on the stalk) and queen (bottom kernal)"? Did you know guys with great breeding horses used to tour the farming areas offering their stallions for stud. . . living off the proceeds? Traving studs. Okay we're getting warmer. . . definite potential here. . .

Whoa. Did you know that what stopped the British from taking over Washington permanently was literally an act of God? Honest-- it was a hurricane and a tornado that wrecked the British ships lying offshore and made such a mess of the British troups occupying the area that they retreated in disorder! Is that a historical paranormal writer's dream or what?

Gotta learn more about that event. . .

So, more than you wanted to know about the mind and imagination of an historical writer and what happens when one gets stuck in RESEARCH MODE and doesn't want to leave. Do you ever start looking up something and find yourself on the trail of a fascinating bit of trivia?

And if you had to choose, would you rather read a colonial America book, a medieval, or a Victorian?

The Dress

I know it's a lame post. I worked all day yesterday on press kits for the upcoming national conference, and collapsed on my sofa late last night. Remembered blogging as my head hit the pillow, and, no, I did not jump up and run to my computer again!

So here it is, the dress I picked out for the Awards Ceremony in San Francisco. I went to several different stores, looked at and tried on a ton of dresses, both short and long, and finally settled on this one.

Thanks for all your input, guys, a few weeks back. All the comments helped me solidify what I was looking for. The tight black bodice on this style requires a tummy tuck devise, something I've never worn before. I can suck it up. For a while, anyway. But, sure enough, I'd forget at the worst possible moment and someone will take a pic of me from the side with my gut hanging out!

Now all I have to do is practice my Eva Longoria itty bitty steps walk. Oh, and I'll be at the club, frantically working those arms too!

One last little detail and I'm set for national. Do I wear the necklace I'm wearing or would the dress look better with a big rhinestone confection and dangling globs?

Silver and black or rhinestone?

RESCUE ME - #16 on the New York Times

Hey guys - just a quick shout out with a big thanks to all of you who bought RESCUE ME.
Last week it hit #21 on the New York Times and this week it jumped up to #16!!
Wow! What a thrill. So thanks everyone!!! I'm grinning like crazy!
Hugs, Cindy

The Evils of Hose

When I was younger (caution: dating myself ahead) pantyhose were a given if you were getting Dressed Up. You know - weddings, fancy parties, job interviews. The only way you could wear a dress and no hose was if it was a summery thing with sandals, going to something casual.

I hated them. Thought they were hot and wildly uncomfortable.

Fast forward (mumble, mumble) years. And wearing hose now marks you as hopelessly out of date, unless it's actual tights and a fashion statement. I should be thrilled, right?

Except there's a problem. For one, I live in Minnesota, and bare legs in January . . . not a good thing.

But mostly, my legs are just not up to the task. They really could use a bit of veiling, mostly to disguise the veining. And the bruises, and bumps, and mosquito bits . . .

Not to mention that, half the time, depending upon what I had for dinner the night before, I'm wearing Spanx, anyway, so the comfort factors not there.

So what do you do? I don't tan. (It's not entirely fear of skin cancer, though that's a good excuse. Mostly, it's Fear of Boredom. And Heat.)

I tried that spray can "air stocking stuff." It's kind of a pain, and it made my sheets brown. I bought the new More magazine, which had a headline on the cover about making your bare legs to look good, only to find out it was all about leg makeup. I can barely bring myself to put makeup on my face.

So I'm going off to RWA, the one time I year I really must dress up routinely.
And I need suggestions. What do you all do . . . have a self-tanner that really works, go off and great a spray tan, or just live with it?

I'm really not very good at living with anything. But I'm also afraid to end up, oh, orange. Or purple. If anybody could manage to do something wierd and end up purple, it would be me.

Susie

Snoop much?

I writing a story right now with a heroine who is a compulsive snooper. Any chance she gets, she'll crack open a friend's medicine cabinet to browse, flip down the hero's glove compartment (bad idea), or even get lost in a grocery store snooping about the aisles. She's a familiar, which means she's a cat-shapeshifter. So it's a curiosity and the cat thing.

But it got me to wondering about us. That's me and you. Do you snoop? I've heard that a lot of people do. If they're at a friends house, they use the bathroom, then check out the medicine cabinet while they're in there. They might check cupboards, fridges, bookshelves, the cat's bed, anything is fair game.

I suppose it might be helpful on that first date if you discover your potential new boyfriend keeps a gallon of fungus cream at the back of his bathroom closet. Also, if you stumble across a few of those books you borrowed your friend last year, that she insists she lost, that's another clue for you.

So I want to know: Do you snoop? And if you do, why? Are you just trying to gain more insight on the person you're snooping on? Are you hoping to uncover some skeletons in the closet? Or is it a safety measure for that first date?

And if you are a snoop, I want to hear about fascinating discoveries. Or horrifying ones! Come on, tell all.

Michele, who can honestly say she has never felt the compulsion to snoop. Though, after writing today's post, my friends better keep one eye over their shoulder next time I visit. :-)

Secrets Every Woman Needs to Know

Please welcome Michelle Gagnon whose new thriller BONEYARD is sure to make you an instant fan....

I’ll start out by saying that I’m the furthest thing from an authority on girl stuff—basically, all that qualifies me to write this post is that I’m a) technically female and b) always eager to learn.

I grew up with one of those mothers that was not, shall we say, a whiz at the home economics. So Girl Scout badges were glued (not sewn) to my sash, when buttons popped off our shirts we were handed safety-pins, and dinner was ordered by phone. Needless to say, I can’t sew, cook, braid my hair, or do many of the other things that most women seem to take for granted.

I was always mystified by those girls who showed up at junior high perfectly coiffed and made-up, wearing the right clothes and able to make small talk with the boys. I was not among them. In terms of styling my hair, the most I’ve ever managed is a ponytail, and as far as makeup goes, let’s just say I generally don’t wear any because I prefer not to frighten people.

But I have managed to pick up some tips along the way, and thought I’d share them here. Take them with a grain of salt: like I said, I’m no expert…

1. In order to keep a wine glass rim free of lipstick, always (discreetly) lick it before sipping. I must emphasize the “discreet” element here, the first few times I tried this I had sketchy characters following me to the ladies’ room the rest of the night. Consider practicing in front of a mirror first.

And along those same lines…

2. Always hold a wine glass by the stem. Holding it by the bowl (the wide part) adversely affects the wine temperature. Using the stem enables you to look oh-so sophisticated and keeps your chardonnay cool and your merlot room temperature.

3. To keep lipstick off your teeth, once it’s been applied stick your (clean, preferably) index finger in your mouth and pull it out. Again, try not to do this in front of lecherous strangers, but feel free to make a resounding popping sound if you must do so.

4. This tidbit comes from a Parisian friend of mine, so it must be true, right? When wearing perfume, there are 12 spots where you should place it: that’s right, 12 (although she assures me you can cut a few out if you’re not wearing a dress or planning on getting naked.)

And they are: behind the ears, at the nape of the neck, in your cleavage, on each wrist, right below the navel, on the lower back, behind each knee, and on the outside of each ankle. I’m going to go out on a limb and surmise that if wearing pants, you can cut out all of these but the first four. But I could be wrong.

5.Also, regarding perfume: just a touch of oil-based fragrance goes a long way and doesn’t lose its scent like eau de toilette. It costs a bit more, but in the end if you only wear it rarely (like me) it’s more cost effective.

6. Eyebrow maintenance. Something I learned about in my late twenties, which is why for a decade prior to that you might have mistaken me for Frida Kahlo. Having someone manage your eyebrows (even if they only do the initial shaping) can make a huge difference. I found a lovely woman in my neighborhood who does Indian-style threading, my favorite option since it hurts less than plucking or waxing; but any form of maintenance will do. It can be the world’s cheapest makeover.

So, ladies, ready to share? What are your secrets? I’d love any and all further help. Best tip receives a signed copy of my first thriller THE TUNNELS. And if you don’t win, console yourself by signing up for my newsletter at www.michellegagnon.com and I’ll toss your name in the hat for an Amazon Kindle, iPod Shuffle, Starbucks gift certificates, and other fabulous prizes.

Michelle Gagnon is a former modern dancer, bartender, dog walker, model, personal trainer, and Russian supper club performer. Her debut thriller The Tunnels was an IMBA bestseller. Her next book, Boneyard, depicts a cat and mouse game between dueling serial killers. In her spare time she runs errands and tries to figure out how to get her hair in a French twist.

Which One Are You?

I’m writing the third book in a trilogy. As the three heroines (and I) have gotten to know each other, details about their lives have cropped up and I realize how certain physical things that we have no control over shape our history. For example, one character didn’t have a date until college. She was satisfied with the romances that she imagined, and the hero cannot understand that this beautiful woman wasn’t hounded by a bunch of guys. Well, she was a late bloomer. She didn’t look old enough to date when she was in high school.

By contrast, another heroine in the trilogy has one of those curvy bodies we A-cup high school girls envied. She learned early the power of her womanly figure (okay, breasts) and pretty much accepts the magic it (they) wielded over men. It’s been great fun pairing her with a man who for the last two books (theirs is the third in the trilogy) has made it a point never to look below her collarbone. Cassandra doesn’t flaunt herself, nor is she particularly smug about her attributes, but she is quite aware of them. As an early flower, she’s had plenty of time to become accustomed to them.

I was somewhere in the middle, but more to the late bloomer side. Two of my best friends had stuff up top when I could still wear an undershirt. And I had a baby face for years. It makes a difference, I think, in how others see and treat you. With that little kid body and little girl face, it was a long time before boys wanted to do anything but keep me safe from the playground bully.

One of my sons is an early flower (Son 1), while the other is a late bloomer. It’s interesting to watch how that affects them day-to-day. Both have their pluses and their minuses.

What about you? Late bloomer? Early flower? In my reading tastes, I really enjoy a late bloomer story, which is often tied to the ugly-duckling-turned-swan premise. But I’m having fun with my luscious—and stacked—Cassandra.

Debra - Fur Balls

I'll be the first to admit that I don't get hung up on dog hair. Or cat hair. If you have animals, they shed. Plain and simple.

But here's the thing, if I'm watching television, I shouldn't see an air borne fur tumbleweed waft past in front of the screen. THAT will get my attention. Yes, it happened. I'm not making this up. I'm sitting there minding my own business when a fur ball floated by.

The dog scratched (one time, just a side swipe) and out comes a chunk of hair.

I dialed doggie 911 (my best friend is a Labrador breeder). http://www.seawindlab.com

She said all the cool dog people use the Furminator, which of course she has and is willing to loan me. (There will come a day when I'll have to repay the favor and make bullet-ridden corpses look good but that's a small price to pay to rid myself of fur tumbleweeds.)

The gadget doesn't look impressive. You hold it in your hand and think, "Huh." You wonder how this is going to get rid of hair.

You wonder if the company has over-hyped their product. These things aren't cheap. It does have a heft and a weight to it that feels solid. Feels like quality materials.

But really is it going to do what the pictures say it will? Will you get enough hair out of your dog's coat to knit a sweater? Will it take all day to get that much hair out? Seriously, look at the German Shepherd photo on the right. Doesn't that look like product hype?

I'm here to tell you that while I didn't get quite that much hair off my dog, I was amazed. Thank heavens I did it on the back patio. There was hair everywhere. Oodles of that little fine soft dead hair. No, it didn't look like the dog on the right, but probably only because the wind was blowing it off the deck as fast as I could comb the dog.

My dog doesn't look bald; she just looks less puffy. The Furminator didn't "cut" the hairs. It pulls out all the dead and loose hair.

I rate this product a MUST HAVE. Suffice to say the cats are hiding because they know they are next.

Have you got a fur problem? A solution to living with hairy family members? And have you tried this Furminator??

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Try these places for a Furminator.

Amazon.com
Entirelypets.com
Pets.com
Dog.com
Petsmart.com Petco.com (I bet these places have them in the stores.)

Kathleen On the R Word

Good morning, all! Pardon me, folks. I'm coming down off a high. Turned in a book. As many of you know, there is a unique euphoria that lasts for several days after the WIP is done and in. It's real and it's groovy, man. So I've got that I-can-do-anything feeling, and I'm going to throw out a topic that might not fly, but here goes.

As you can see, I'm a vanilla, white bread kind of a gal. But I'm married (37 years and counting) to a man "of color." We have three grown children, so I'm the white mother of three American Indian kids. I am thrilled that we have a bi-racial person running for president.

Don't run away! I'm not going to talk about politics. I'm going to talk about bridges. Win or lose, Barack Obama has come to the fore in the life of this country as a very public social and cultural bridge. And I'm here to say that it's a beautiful thing. It's not easy, and many things will be said that sound--particularly when put through the media parsing machine--off-putting at first. But when we get over ourselves a little bit, we're going to experience some of that euphoria I mentioned earlier.

Take for instance the "I could no more disown him than I could my white grandmother" statement Barack made a while back. While I was celebrating the honesty of that remark, some of the pundits said that Grandma had been thrown under the bus. Far from it. This was a recognition of the fact that these two people--different races, different cultures--were equally human, as someone in Barack's position understands better than most people do. He is both. He comes from both. He loves both. When he said that his grandmother was a "typical white person" some people considered it an insulting remark. I knew what he meant. His grandmother is of my mother's generation.

My mother objected to my marriage, but those bridge children change everything. Barack's grandmother helped to raise him. My mother would have done the same if circumstances had called for it. My mother was a Southern lady--ever polite and gracious--but she grew up with some racial prejudices about race that she tried very hard not to pass on to me. I guess I took it further than she intended. My parents drew the line at marriage, but that question doesn't come up until it's too late. The girl is grown, and she's in love. Then comes marriage and Kathleen pushing the baby carriage. My cousin--Mama's sister's daughter, who grew up in the same little Tidewater (Virginia) town--married the son of a Chinese woman and white American man. And mamas become grandmas, and they either cross the bridge or they miss out. My mama and my aunt crossed right over.

Yes, I'm a "typical" white woman. We don't think alike, mind you, but we've walked in white skin all our lives, and that means something different from walking in black or brown skin--skin "of color." But I think the mother of a bi-racial child comes as close as is humanly possible for a person of one race to walk in the skin of another. Yes, I have stories, and bits of them are woven into my books. But I really think, as the song goes, "the times, they are a-changin'."

I honor Barack's grandmother today. Like her grandson, she's a bridge. Maybe we could share some thoughts, maybe some anecdotes on women's and mothers' perspective of race and barriers and bridges. Hey, dads, too! I'll save some anecdotes for the comments section. As I said, maybe this won't fly, and that's okay. But I thought I'd run the topic up the flagpole today. It's that euphoria thing. Hope is a thing with feathers.

I’m a size: Happy – well most of the time.

You’ve seen the commercials for Jenny Craig, right? Queen Latiffa is walking on the treadmill, smiling and saying, “I’m a size active.” And then there’s Valarie B, hiking the Himalayas or something saying, “I’m a size energetic.” She’s smiling, too.

See, that’s where the trouble begins. Who smiles on a treadmill? Well, a masochist, maybe, but I’m fairly certain the rest of us are grim with fatigue and possibly pain and just counting the minutes until we can get off.

With the possible exception of our lovely, thin-mint Lois, I think most of us have played the diet game once or ten in our lifetime. Me – it’s been a never ending battle. Not a day goes by that I’m not watching what I eat, wishing I were eating something else, wishing I hadn’t eaten that or hoping that tomorrow will be a better day. When it comes to diets I’ve been successful, I’ve been a failure, I’ve been ambivalent.

I’m kind of at the ambivalent stage now. I’ve actually dropped 25 pounds in the past several months. Of course, since I powered through the first book on my current contract on chocolate, I still have ##$@#%% to lose. BUT, I’ve finally learned some things along the way that have really helped me become a ‘Size Happy’ and yes, I’m going to share them with you.

1) Eat less. You’ll lose weight. Simple concept, but it works.

2) Eat when you’re hungry BUT stop when you’re full – and you may have to relearn what full is because if you’re like me, you often eat until you want to quit eating instead of when you’re full

3) Eat slowly. Think about the food, how it tastes, the texture and you’ll enjoy it so much more. Let’s face it – often times we eat merely because it tastes good so why rush through it?

4) Eat what you want. Me – I couldn’t live without Pizza so I eat it. I just eat less of it. I also love sweets so I keep a package of Hersheys caramel kisses in the freezer and pop one once or twice a day. Yum. I also satisfy my sweet tooth with Marshmallow cream. Only 20 calories a Tablespoon and it tastes like Divinity. Double yum

5) Keep a food diary and forget about counting carbs and fats and just count calories. Get yourself a little pocket book that lists calories in everything. Less calories = less weight. Period. I try to stick to around 1200 to 1300 calories a day. The weight goes off slowly this way but it does go off AND I can eat the things I love in moderation

6) Eat healthy – fruits, veggies, lean protein, dairy.

7)

7) Drink 6 – 8 glasses of water.

8) Exercise – even if it’s just walking the dog. Move at least 30 minutes 6 days a week.

That’s it. Plain, simple, effective. Quite agonizing about what you can’t have and eat it. Just don’t go overboard.

How about you all? Any tried and true tips you’ve learned over the years? And if you haven’t had to fight your weight, what do you think you attribute this wonderful anomaly to?

What I Do Best

Lois Greiman

I’d like to talk about one of my favorite activities, and something at which I myself am something of an expert. It’s sleeping.

That’s right. I am a national caliber sleeper. I can (and have) slept in horse stalls, in every moving vehicle I’ve ever entered, and during most physical activities. (Use your imagination if you must.) I can sleep while talking, while others are talking and during mastication. (No, you pervert, I said mastication.) In fact, my skill in the sleep arena is so stupendous some say it borders on narcolepsy. But I don’t care. I love to sleep.

I don’t mean to lord it over anyone, but I’ve got to tell you, if there was an Olympic sleeping event I would be a gold medallist. Well, okay, I may have to share the podium with my sister because when we used to have sleeping contests (that’s right, I said sleeping contests) she would sometimes win.

However, I’m told that 60 millions Americans have difficulties falling asleep and that’s sad because, there’s nothing better than sleep. In my own humble opinion, few things come close. For example, I can go 36 hours without chocolate if it’s absolutely necessary; I can’t say the same about sleep. So, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some facts I learned from the National Sleep Foundations’ website.

Here goes:

A majority of American adults (63%) do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep needed for good health, safety, and optimum performance. In fact, nearly one-third (31%) report sleeping less than seven hours each week night, though many adults say they try to sleep more on weekends.

Before Thomas Edison's invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10 hours a night; today Americans average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours per night on weekends.

Perhaps you can hear my heart breaking from where you sit, because, beyond the fact that sleep is totally awesome, lack of sleep can cause a host of problems. I’ll list of few of them below. (I’ll also add my own thoughts in italics, just because I find myself so danged amusing--and to keep myself awake.)

1. Lack of sleep makes you ravenous: According to a December 2004 University of Chicago study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, partial sleep deprivation alters your level of hunger hormones, making you not only hungrier all day, but seriously jonesing for calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate fare.

2. Lack of sleep makes it harder to exercise: When you wake up tired, it is increasingly more difficult to find the motivation and energy to exercise, which, as you progress through life, is mission critical in your ability to not only lose weight, but maintain weight loss. This sets up a vicious cycle of lack of energy that leads to lack of exercise that fosters a poorer sleep that leads to lack of energy. At some point, you need to just dive in and make an exercise intervention.
Oh come on--it’s always hard to exercise.

3. Lack of sleep dramatically increases your risk of obesity: Research by the University of Warwick linked sleep deprivation with an near doubling in the chance of becoming obese. More recently, a 2007 University of Michigan study revealed a strong correlation between childhood obesity and lack of adequate sleep (9-hours). Every additional hour of sleep in 6th-grade decreased a child’s likely of being overweight by 20%, while every additional hour of sleep in 3rd-grade decreased the risk of being overweight in 6th-grade by a whopping 40%. A University of Texas at Houston study similarly showed the odds of obesity in adolescents increased 80-percent for each hour of lost sleep. And, things don’t get better any as we get older, more stressed, less active and sleep even less.
Well you gotta admit, when you’re sleeping, you’re probably not eating.

4. Lack of sleep make you less discerning: A 2007 study presented at the21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies revealed a serious drop in the ability of airport screeners to detect high-risk items. And, that problem worsened at the participated slept less.

Duh!

5. Lack of sleep decreases cognitive function & memory: Much of what we learn during the day is processed and integrated while we sleep. So, when we disprupt our sleep, we mess with not only our ability to form memories, but to understand and utlize new information. This leads to poorer performance both at work and in school. Dr. Avi Sadeh of Tel Aviv University recently studied the effects of a slightly shortened sleep period in 4th and 6th graders. After three days getting just 30-minutes less sleep, the average 6th grader had the cognitive function of a 4th-grader. A second study from the University of Minnestoa revealed the Average A-student got 36-more minutes of sleep than the average D-student. Moved by this and other evidence, the high school in Edina, Minnesota pushed its start-time from 7:30am to 8:25am and saw a jump in SAT scores from the top 10% of students from 1288 to 1500. Yes, you read that right!

6. Lack of sleep makes you nasty.
I and everyone who has ever crossed my proverbial path can attest to this fact.

So how can we improve our sleeping habits?

Exercise: Exercising 3-6 hours before going to sleep increases your body temperature and there is some evidence to suggest that the gradual decrease in temperature that follows help lull you into sleep. A Stanford University School of Medicine study of 55 to 75 year old sedentary individuals who struggled with insomnia revealed that adding 20-30 minutes of exercise every other day cut the time needed to fall asleep in half and increased sleep time by nearly one hour. Plus, it’ll help discharge a lot of daytime stress and anxiety and we all know how important it is to overall health.

Alcohol & caffeine Simple. It takes about 2-hours to metabolize an ounce of alcohol, so try to limit intake to no more than one drink at least 2-hours before bedtime. Caffeine metabolizes far more slowly. a large cup of coffee could take up to 15 hours to fully metabolize, so the general rule is no caffeine after lunch.

Go to sleep at a consistent time. Establish a consistent sleep time and make it a strong priority to keep to that time, even on weekends. Over time, this helps train your system to expect and accept sleep more readily.

Develop a routine. Along the same lines, create a specific bedtime routine that you can repeat every night before retiring. This helps program your mind to ease into sleep more readily.

Avoid napping during the day. If you nap throughout the day, it is no wonder that you will not be able to sleep at night. The late afternoon for most people is a "sleepy time." Many people will take a nap at that time. This is generally not a bad thing to do, provided you limit the nap to 30-45 minutes and can sleep well at night.

I have no idea why they’re trying to ruin my life with this nonsense.

Avoid heavy, spicy, or sugary foods 4-6 hours before bedtime. These can affect your ability to stay asleep.

Block out all distracting noise, and eliminate as much light as possible.
I’m told by those who should know that this one will also help you avoid cancer. Wow, huh?

There you have it--motivation to get more and better sleep. So what about you? How are your sleep habits? Do you suffer from apnea? Restless leg syndrome? Insomnia? Or are you, like me, an expert in the field?

www.loisgreiman.com

Bald. Beautiful or not?

Betina here. In shock. Okay, maybe more simple surprise. I'm researching my contemporary for Blaze and ran up against a little rule that kind of threw me for a loop.

Blaze doesn't do BALD.

Not even shaved bald.

See, I had planned to have a balding hero-- prematurely balding, of course and a little sensitive about it. But very buff and manly in all other respects. Nope. No baldies in Blaze I was told. Wasn't given an explanation, but my guess is "bald" doesn't play well on covers. And there would be some logic to that if we were talking these guys.





But this is sexy BLAZE, after all. I know the rules and no way I'd be caught with a HOMER hero. . .no matter what Marge says. Sigh. I guess HQ thinks that it's demographic likes to run fingers through hair, not over skin. Sigh again. You suppose they've done focus groups and studies? Still, it seems a little short sighted to me. But I'm going back to the drawing board, because "bald" is not my cause. I'll leave somebody else to fight for that one.

But, I'm thinking about using a baldie in a women's fic book I'm working on. It's a built-in and has to be there to show the transformation in the hero. So. . . whaddya think about bald men?

Guys like:

Or like:

Sexy or not? Just to help you decide, I've pulled in just one more example from the ether-o-sphere:

Okay, now vote. Bald or not bald? And no maybes. I've gotta have an answer so I can get this book moving ahead! Do you think bald can be beautiful and sexy or not? Does a shaved head equate to "whoa, baby" or "ewww, momma"?

And since everyone's being so helpful, I'm adding a couple of additional images. I've seen Shemar Moore here with hair and without. You be the judge.

And to sum up, here's my opinion: