I've been trying to do a little updating on the website. But I've worn my husband out so I guess I'll do more tomorrow.

I revised chapters 14, 15 today. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! It's fine. Really.

But then--the good news:

MASTER OF PLEASURE is out in GERMAN!



THANK YOU KENSINGTON!

Now, some info on my friend Jerry. Jerry is 64. I have known Jerry since I was, oh, I dunno, 5 years old. The thing is with Jerry--he's still teaching me things. He's amazing. (His wife is too, but that's another blog entirely.)

We went roller-skating the other day with my son. I just bought these roller skates and I'm not very good, but Jerry is an old hand--10 years of rollerblading. Now, that's cool. So, he holds my hand so we can go a little faster. And it felt great. We followed the kids who were riding their bikes.

And then, out of nowhere, Jerry falls, slams down on his knees onto the pavement. And I'm freaked. But not Jerry. Jerry laughs. He's like, "man, that was fun!" And we head off again.

Oh, how wonderful to be so free with life. It's no wonder people clamor around him. My son is as crazy about him as I am. And so are his grandkids. How cool to be able to pick yourself up so easy and laugh at your failure and enjoy the ride. I've wasted countless hours beating myself up over failures. But how sad, when there are so many fabulous things to enjoy in life. Life is meant to be good. A wonderful, chaotic, creative process. Enjoy every day. It's the only day ya got!

TOMATOES!!!!!





The new pump came in today.

Last night I was on a panel with the HBA group. It was really fun! What an awesome group of ladies.

Here is the preliminary blurb for my work in progress. I've passed the half way mark. Please send good thoughts my way that I'll be able to get this manuscript finished.

Master of Passion

The love of art of was her passion; painting in Italy her greatest desire. But when the King's Enforcer attacks her home and forces her to marry him, her dreams are held captive...and she must embrace a new passion: the art of love.

The Jamester woke up on Saturday morning with 103 degree fever and looking a little glassy eyed. Bad ear infection in both ears. :(

Jack and I had to miss our class to become certified pet therapists. Bummer.

But--James is looking a little better. Still running fever today though.

My garden is coming along, but I sure wish the new pump would come in instead of having to use this make-shift one.



My manuscript is also creeping along. I'm on a panel for the local Houston Bay Area romance writer's group on Tuesday night http://www.hbarwa.com/index.php ... looking forward to that.

And... lookie what somebody sent me today... a link to say that Master of Pleasure and Master of Desire had been recommended on their website: http://www.recommendedreads.net/T.htm

WAHOO!!! Best news I've heard all weekend.

Yesterday was an AWESOME day! I met a friend for critique and we hammered away at both of our manuscripts. I left feeling both inspired and exhausted.

Afterwards I took a two hour class on fear and confidence. It gave me some good ideas to get out of this funk. One thing that amazed me was how amazing the people were that were in the class--half of them owned their own businesses or were in high profile jobs-- I would never have guessed any of them to be fearful in any areas... they all seemed very brave and talented to me.

I felt so energized from yesterday that I spent most of the day reworking the first half of the manuscript per yesterday's critique session. WAHOO!! Thank God for critique partners!

Jack was invited to be a model at the Paws in the Park dog show. Here he is today, just relaxing is some weirdo pose with his butt up in the air. Totally cracked me up. Had to photo it.

Today the Houston Artist Way meetup group met for the first time. http://artistsway.meetup.com/184/?gj=sj10 There were three of us and we had a nice discussion. I've been feeling SOOO freaked about life lately. The book is scary. Life is scary. I dunno. Maybe we all go through phases like that. All I know is that some days I wake up feeling overwhelmed and unable to do even the simplest tasks like empty the dishwasher.

My new year's resolution this year was to give myself a freakin' break and to be grateful for all the things I have and all the blessings that God gives me. I'm going to continue to work on that.

Anyhow... it was a great meeting... Afterwards, I worked on one of the chapters that had really been giving me a fit. There is something nice about having "believing mirrors" as one struggles to wrestle a creative project to the ground.

We had to do another minor surgery on the garden tonight. The hose was kinked, so the water wasn't dripping through the way it was supposed to. Joe took it apart, cut off the end of the hose and readjusted it. I'm not sure what else he did... but it seems to be working now. My husband is a mechanical genius--he can fix all sorts of things. I'm very lucky to have him around!!!!

I'll sure be glad when the new pump comes in. But look at the flowers!

.

Good news! Master of Desire was nominated for best medieval in 2006 at AAR! http://www.likesbooks.com/interim2006.html

I'm working hard on book 3. A ran into a snag and got very discouraged with it--but I think I'm back on the bandwagon now. Please say a prayer for me though! My deadline feels like it's looming in front of me and I need lots of good thoughts sent my way.

This is been a serious week of near misses.Spent the day in the doctor's office on Tuesday getting x-rays for James wrist. Not broken! Hooray! My entire manuscript was wiped off my computer on Wednesday. Gak. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Turns out I remembered I had e-mailed most of it to my critique partner earlier that day, so I only lost about a day's worth of work. Bad, but not disastrous.

Joe and I did surgery on my garden, which involved taking the thing apart and turning the tomatoes upside down:



NO, I do NOT normally walk around my kitchen in leather pants... we'd been out motorcycle riding. LOL!

I e-mailed the areogarden people. They're supposed to be sending me a new pump.

For now, the garden looks like this:



My husband put a different pump in it (one that was left over from other garden projects) so at least it's working until the new pump comes in.



The plants are getting bigger and starting to flower. I'll take new photos today.

Congratulations Lois! WTG!!!
This year's read-a-thon has been very fun. :) I really enjoyed reading what people wrote about the books. What an awesome group of readers!

I just bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking and am learning how to dictate into the computer. Wow.