Halloween Transformations

I spent almost the whole day without internet access or email--I felt so antcy, so unconnected--so when it was finally back, I was in reading my emails when my son called me from the kitchen...
Our moth broke out of the cocoon!

He wasn't at all graceful, just hairy and sloppy, stumbling around. We didn't know if we should let him go, wait a little bit... I asked my husband if we should put a couple more leaves in with him, and his answer was that he didn't know if moths ate leaves. And I didn't want to try to catch some bugs for him. So anyway, my forward-thinking and practical husband didn't want him released near our house, thinking that he/she? would only mate and leave more baby caterpillars to devour our trees, so on his way to play raquetball tonight, he took the little guy to release him into 'the wild'... L.O. wanted to keep him for a pet.

Also including a picture of my two trick-or-treaters, complete with homemade gun. Unbelievably, they ran into a toddler girl dressed as the Star Wars Princess Leia, huge buns and all.

And I got to the end! My first draft is done!!

Can You Spot A Hugger?

I've recently wondered how people seem to instinctively know that I'm not a hugger. That is to say, I don't initiate hugs as a general rule--with much of anybody but my immediate family. Except after long absences. And even then there is some uncertainty... But I'm not, by any means, against hugging. I'm happy to accept them from genuine huggers, and you can bet I hug back--even in the awkward situations. But I have friends who hug virtually everyone hello, but they don't hug me...and it has me wondering why.

Do I put off some sort of vibe? Am I not as sentimental as maybe I should be? I was the only one among my best junior high school chums (about eight of us) who didn't cry on the last day of junior high. It just didn't seem warranted, given the fact that we were all going to the same high school... So I just stood there, feeling awkward. Maybe it's just that I've always been a little more comfortable with guys than with girls. But I don't hug the guys either... Hmmm...

I digress...if anyone has any ideas, I'd be thrilled to hear about them. My family was not a group of huggers. We were all too busy making fun of each other (in a generally good-natured way). I think I'd have been laughed out of the room and made the butt of a good many jokes if I'd tried to hug my brother or sister. So I do have a history (and maybe some emotional scarring).

Maybe I should just freak everybody out and start hugging everyone hello... Imagine that!

We Obviously Need to Eat More Apples!

Tomorrow will be the third time in ten days that I've had to visit the pediatrician's office. That's right, the torch has been passed. My older son is now ill and the little one is better. And yet they seem to have very different symptoms. O.S. started with wheezing and has been coughing all week; now he has some sort of eye infection. L.O. had high fever and an upper respiratory infection-he's still on antibiotics. So tomorrow we shall start anew...

No significant writing has been done recently--I did some on Friday, but then spent the weekend trying to finish The Princess Bride since it's reserved at the library and due tomorrow. I finished the basic story, but have not yet read the 'added features': Buttercup's Baby, Fezzik's Death, etc. I liked it. I'm not too sure about all the author asides, particularly all the mentions of 'this was before so and so occurred'--that was a trifle overdone. But there were so many good lines, so much fabulous narrative and lyrical description. I'm glad to have read it.

Up next...I have nothing available at the library right now (which is what usually keeps me on my toes), and I figure my tottering TBR stack can wait a bit, so I'm thinking to read a book of Regency etiquette published in that era: The Mirror of Graces by A Lady of Distinction. And I just ordered my copy of Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Deb Dixon, so when that comes in, I'll want to get busy reading it...

I'm a little worried about starting my revisions because I want to make this the truly definitive set. I want to decide everything about the story now--any side plots, any quirks in character, all that so I don't have to go back for major changes later. But I'm supposed to start Candace Haven's next class: Revision Hell and How To Get Through It on Wednesday. I don't know if I'm ready yet... But time is getting away from me...I'd wanted to finish this book by the end of the year!!!
Must work harder....

Friday Update

I'm very excited! I'm being interviewed for a Virtual Cocktail Hour next Friday (Nov 3) by the fabulous Tasha Alexander at her group blog The Good Girls Kill For Money Club. Readers of the blog send in the questions, which she then forwards to me for answers, and I'm supposed to provide a cocktail recipe and a few questions for readers...

So...if you have a thought-provoking, intelligent question to ask me, please send it on to Tasha. Send your quirky, embarrassing ones too.

In other news, the cocooned caterpillar, mentioned in a recent, previous post, has still not emerged, so we're watching him closely. And I just happened to notice a note my son had written lying on the desk in his room. It's to a girl in his class, asking if she'll be his girlfriend (please), and it is very sweet. I probably shouldn't have read it, but it was out there big as life, and I'm a sucker for a romance...

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons Why I Don't--And Never Will--Smoke

1. The plethora of health issues--I couldn't get around this one if I wanted to...
2. The idea of holding a little stick with fire on the end of it and having carbon monoxide billow out of it in my mouth.
3. The smell, my God the smell...
4. The effect on clothes
5. The effect on teeth
6. The inconvenience--having to pop away for a cigarette, always have some on hand, etc.
7. The ostracism of being sent to a little corner of a restaurant or outside to smoke
8. Weather difficulties. I think I'd end up quitting pretty darn quick if I had to scurry outside in frigid weather, pouring rain, or Houston humidity just to smoke.
9. The cost, my God the cost...
10. The fact that they're addictive--I had enough trouble shaking loose of Coke.
11. The second-hand smoke I'd be forcing on everyone else.
12. The potential danger of cigarette burns (on me, my clothes, my books!...)
13. Cigarette butts--I'm shocked that people toss them out their car windows, stomp them into the sidewalk, litter up parks, zoos, and public places. Find an ashtray, please!



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The Princess Bride

I know, I know, everyone loves this movie, me included. We recently let my sons watch it (they are 4 and 6) and even they loved it. But I was totally unaware--until recently--that there was a book. Not only that, but I only heard lately that S. Morgenstern is merely a writing device. I'm so out of the loop.

So I put the book on hold at the library, finally got it, and last night I'm reading the Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition and then Introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition (both by William Goldman, the actual author), thinking to myself, 'Is any of this stuff true?' Having not done any research on the book or any of the side stories, I have to tell you I was a little drawn in...'Could there possibly be a country Florin of which I've never heard? Are the Cliffs of Insanity actually real?!?!

Now I feel like an idiot. But I guess that's what makes William Goldman so good. More on the actual book later...

I've Been Tagged...

I've been tagged by Amanda Brice...so today I'm writing five interesting or unique things about me. I'm not sure any of these will help with writer research...sorry

1. I've never had a job paying less than $10/hr. Bascially I've only had three engineering internships and one full-time job (not counting stay-at-home mom). I have no experience with retail or food preparation, and not much with working hours outside the 8-6:30 range.

2. Both of my boys were born sans drugs, but not because I'd decided on natural births. I was induced with the first one and in labor only a couple of hours when I asked for the epidural--it was already too late. For my second one, I barely made it into the hospital room before he popped out of there. There was no time for much of anything.

3. My husband planned on proposing to me on the Gondola ski lift at Keystone, Colorado, but I was so angry with him that he put it off. The only way to get to the lift is to ski down this steep, icy slope, and I'm not a very confident or experienced skier. I'd been down the slope once--very carefully--and I'd asked not to go down again, but he already had plans for me, so he took me down again (I didn't know my way around, so I had no idea where we were headed most of the time). So, what happpened on my second time down? I got going too fast and tried to slow down at the bottom, which is basically just roped off, with a sharp turn. Well, my skis slid...they slid me right into a collision with this poor middle-aged couple, whom I totally and completely knocked down. I was mortified and refused to speak to my then-boyfriend for quite a little while. So...he didn't carry on with the plan...he decided to propose at midnight on New Year's Eve instead. Only trouble was he mistook a Campbell's soup commerical about the ball dropping in NYC for the real thing and made me stand up for this little ceremony 20 minutes too early. Still very sweet...

4. In highschool I was friends with a Vietnamese guy who eventually decided to ask me out. He told me it was just a friendly dinner, but I could tell it was more. However, I had just started dating my husband-to-be, so I told him I had a boyfriend, said I had a church function to go to (a total lie) and asked to go just for something quick. Well, at dinner at Long John Silvers--I told him I didn't have time for Red Lobster--while eating corn-on-the-cob-on-a-stick, he told me he'd been seeing a psychic, and that he'd discovered that we were meant to be together and would eventually be married! I was sort of freaked out, but I just hurried though my meal, and he took me home. The following Monday, he called me over to his table in physics class, asked me to hold some beads, did some weird hand manuevering, and then thumped me on both sides of my chest, right below my collar bone. At that point, I was through being nice and refused to take him seriously at all. It hurt! He did however give me (and absolutely refuse to take back) a 14K gold thick chain. My brother wore it with pride.

5. Although he still denies it to this day, my dad had my brother, sister, and I spliting a McDonald's happy meal when we were young...even not so young...my brother and sister are three years apart, and we were still sharing at an age I can easily remember, so I'm guessing I was maybe five or six--that means my sister was even older. We thought it was such a treat when we went to Grandma's and she bought us each our own meal!
(My son is six, and you can bet he gets his own happy meal!)

We'll try this and see if it works...I tag Catherine Avril Morris, Colleen Gleason, Sara Hantz, and Swishy.

Ugh! And double Ugh!

What a weekend--I feel unrefreshed and a little nauseous. Friday, after my oldest woke up wheezing, I gave him a couple of breathing treatments (which are a rare occurence in my house) and took him to the doctor. She told me to continue the treatments through the weekend and just have him rest. She wasn't too concerned because he seemed to have no other symptoms besides coughing. So late, late, late Friday night, my youngest woke up coughing and wheezing and we had to do a couple of breathing treatments on him. After that he got steadily worse (and so did I). He had high fever Sat. and Sun., with coughing, lethargy, and no appetite. I, on the other hand, was also lethargic from being up half the night and then Sunday I got a rip-roaring headache that would just not go away. I feel it lurking even now, so I'm trying not to move too suddenly or look into any bright light.

So this afternoon I need to take the little one to the doctor. He's much better and his fever is down, but he's still not eating anything. And if I don't take him, he's bound to be up with another 102 degree fever in the middle of the night again...

My goals for the weekend had been to finish Rumble on the Bayou by Jana Deleon, which I did, and let me tell you it was one of the only highpoints of my weekend...and to finish writing the last couple of scenes on my WIP. That was not acomplished. I could barely bring myself to sit up straight in the chair, let alone push out anything wonderful. And this week probably won't be much better, as the little one will likely be home and needy for the next few days. It's a chance for more reading, I guess...

Hope your weekend was better...

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Colors And Why I Love Them

1. Watermelon Red - a simply scrumptious color, warm and cool at the same time
2. Evergreen - Christmas trees, piney woods, plaid blankets and parkas
3. Spring Green - warmth, new life, a blinding yellow-green that makes me stare
4. Periwinkle - reminds me of twilight, my favorite time of the day
5. Orange - the color of pumpkins and sunsets
6. Turquoise - the ocean in the sunlight in an exotic locale (i.e. not Galveston)
7. Teal blue/green - the sexy cousin of turquoise...deeper, darker, more mysterious
8. Cerulean blue - the color of the sky...on a good day
9. Tomato Red - a kitchen color: pizza, pasta, nectarines
10. Lemon Yellow - just yummy, makes me think of lemon merengue pie and lemon ice
11. Chocolate Brown - obviously, the color of chocolate; my staple, instead of black
12. Rosy Pink - the inside of seashells, the color of 'apple cheeks', a happy color
13. Chartreuse - an otherworldly color, found under the ocean or deep in the forest

...and once again, Blogger is not letting me post images...if I knew how to do colored type, I'd do that, but alas...



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Photo Cards

It's getting to be about that time of year when I start thinking about Christmas cards. I know, I know, I disgust some of you, but I'm one of those pre-pre-planners, and because I always send out photo cards of the boys, some planning is necessary. I have to start thinking, come up with some ideas, decide on one, figure out all the details, actually take the pictures, narrow it down to one where they're both smiling, looking, have their eyes open, etc. Then the picture must be printed, enveloped, addressed, mailed...you get it. There's work to be done.

We always try for a slightly humorous tone...This was our card (pre Christmas greeting) when our oldest son was one year old. It eventually read, "Merry Christmas from a real polar bear club" The photo taking was promptly followed by a clean-up effort. We'd decided to go crazy (a.k.a. sans diaper), and there was an incident.

So this year, my mom took some pictures at a sporting goods/hunting/fishing superstore sort of place in Phoenix and wondered if we could Photoshop the boys in... Maybe I could get a couple of toddler sized red and black plaid flannel shirts... Or a Tarzan theme with just little loin clothes...'raised by deer'.

I've put my writing off long enough...I should really get to it...

'Not so Haunted' Houses

While I was relaxing in Tucson, my boys (and mother-in-law) were hard at work at home, coating a pair of store-bought gingerbread houses with every piece of candy they could get their hands on...

I think they look extremely festive, and although the yellow and blue icing was an afterthought (after they ran out of the provided frosting!), I think it adds a nice touch.

Getaway

Well, I left amidst a downpour, and I returned to the same. I'm back from a three day jaunt out to Tucson with my husband (without the kids), and I'm happy to be home. Our flight out was delayed four hours due to thunderstorms all over Texas, and since we flew into Phoenix, we still had that drive down to Tucson. So we didn't get in until somewhere around 3am! Then, to add to the misery, the airline evidently let my suitcase fall into a puddle and sit. It was SOAKING wet. Friday morning was spent in my husband's t-shirt as I washed everything in my suitcase. I had a little hot pink silk purse in there that bled onto a few things, but miraculously the stains almost disappeared completely. Still, we went to the baggage service center, only to find out that they don't cover electronics (how they referred to my hairdryer, which ended up working fine) or paper (I had a brand new book in there that was completely trashed). So I was thinking I'd just get reimbursed $1.94 for my new toothbrush, but the guy actually gave us a $75 voucher for our next flight, so not bad, all in all. Irritating, but not bad.



Other than airport troubles, the trip was good...relaxing. We went on a hike up into Madera Canyon, discovered that hubby and I aren't in the best shape, and trekked back early, only to stop at a gelato bar. (No wonder we're not in shape). We had some good Mexican food, stocked up at Trader Joes--those Triple Ginger Cookies are addictive!--got our mountain fix for a while, and enjoyed a little unscheduled time without our boys.

But it's good to be home. Thanks to my mother-in-law for holding down the fort!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Books I Would Love to See Made Into Movies

1. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
This one would be absolutely awesome, and evidently it has been optioned by MTV films, Paramount and Maverick Films, as a group.

2. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
I laughed out loud at this book, but I also think it would be cringingly painful to watch as a movie.

3. If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern
If cleverly done, this story about an 'imaginary friend' could be very memorable.

4. The Givenchy Code by Julie Kenner
A definite line-crosser. Chick-flick, action-adventure, suspense.

5. Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund
You'd really have to pay attention, but it'd be totally worth it. It'd be a blast to pick the actors to play the characters.

6. And Only To Deceive by Tasha Alexander
We need another delicately done historical.

7. Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

8. The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
Loved the idea...would make a perfect Chick Flick.

9. Murder on a Bad Hair Day by Anne George
I love the Southern Sisters mysteries--two feisty sisters in their sixties, stumbling over murders and gossiping over Cokes with ice.

10. Sanibel Flats by Randy Wayne White
I was riveted the whole way through.

11. Going Coastal by Wendy French
Just simply hilarious in dialogue and situation.

12. Big Hair and Flying Cows by Dolores J. Wilson
Ditto. There's just something about the South...

13. Absolutely any romantic suspense by Mary Stewart.
The Moonspinners was made into a Disney movie with Haley Mills, but it didn't have quite the romantic tension I was looking for, what with Mills being a teenager.



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Insanity Runs Amok

Well, I started my day with email and discovered that some yahoo who is running for Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts is trying to undermine his opponent, Susan Combs, by making an issue of the fact that she wrote a romance novel! He dedicates an entire page of his website to how we're not trust her because she's a pornographic book writer. It's a Kismet paperback published in 1990, and he's actually posted pages on his website, which is no doubt infringing on her copyright. Anyway...this can't end well, at least for him. The Houston chapters of RWA are up-in-arms (rightly so), trying to organize, make a statement, solicit a statement from National, notify other Texas chapters, etc. Politically speaking, this was likely not a smart move for this man. On every other level, it's just ridiculous and laughable.

Something this man should have considered...if romance novels are pornographic, then romance readers are reading pornography, and I doubt all those Texas Republicans are going to like being accused of that... Or maybe his next rally will be overrun with women in t-shirts, proclaiming, "I read porn, and I like it!" You never know.

If you'd like to check out his website, it's www.votefredhead.com.

Other

Visitor

We have a little visitor at our house that showed up at the same time as the 100,000 cake I'm just polishing off right now. It's a caterpillar that my little one happened to notice on one of the oaks in our front yard while I was pitching the softball to big brother. Well, my husband didn't want it on the tree, siting a past caterpillar appearance that had single-handedly been responsible for stunting the growth of a backyard tree, and my little one wanted it as a pet.

So we placed it in a Trader Joe's ginger cookie container, poked in some air holes, tossed in some oak leaves, a little branch, and watched for a while. Well, the little bugger ate all the leaves and left a monstrous number of little brown acorn-like pellets all over the container. So the next day, we started again with new leaves and a fresh, tidy living space. The little guy was getting HUGE....

Well then he started spinning, and shrinking. And I was sort of in awe, because I've never witnessed any cocoon formation, so I kept checking in on the progress. Well then I started getting discouraged, wondering if our little guy was having trouble, would be able to manage the task of covering himself up in self-created sleeping bag. The webbing was getting spread all over the place, getting wadded up in balls, and it lacked efficiency. I couldn't tell if he even knew what he was doing. But last night, finally, it looked like maybe he was on the right track.



This morning I came out to check on him and he was totally covered. I was so proud... Now I suppose we'll wait for the transformation into moth (my husband assures me this is no butterfly caterpiller, but we shall see).

In other news, we are currently auditioning early reader chapter books for boys. We've exhausted Junie B. Jones and Mercy Watson and are trying to find something else with plenty of books in the series. My first grader loves working his way through lists... I checked out the first in The Zak Files series, The Time Warp Trio, and The Cam Jansen Mysteries. So far...inconclusive. Any suggestions would be delightful...

Let Me Eat Cake!

Yesterday my husband came home with a bakery cake--a chocolate cake with buttercream icing, decorated with the words '100,000 October 6, 2006'. I was simultaneously thrilled and exasperated. My husband has admitted to having a little list of numerical milestones that celebrate out life together.

When I was working, I was called down to the lobby for a bouquet of flowers, sure they weren't for me, but willing to check anyway. The card read, 'For a thousand incredible days and nights'... (Whoa! Had to hope the security guard hadn't snooped.) There's been another milestone marked as well, but shockingly, I can't remember it. (And last time it took me forever to figure it out. I'm not sure I ever did...I think he had to tell me.)

So this time, I'm already guessing out loud--way off, just spouting things--like 'days we've been together'. Well, after a few of these, he gives me a hint. The cake is actually celebrating two milestones within a few days of each other. Now I'm really confused, thinking back, trying to mentally calculate, giving up finally, and using a calculator... Really I should have figured this out right away, but somehow it got lost in all the other silly guesses: We've been married 100,000 hours.

My hint for our second reason to celebrate pertains to the kids. Well, we've been married for almost twelve years, and our kids are young, so I jokingly ask, 'Do you have an eleven year old I don't know about?' Let me tell you, it's a little disturbing that he answers with 'You're getting close' (!) Anyway...turns out I've accumulated 100,000 hours taking care of my children. I scored double for the time I've dealt with them--I mean enjoyed them--both together.

Wow! Talk about your unexpected surprises and celebrating the little things...
I wonder what else is on my husband's little list...are we limited to powers of ten, or will a quarter million somethings be marked in some way? Only one way to find out....

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Movies I Could Watch Again and Again...


1. The Lord of the Rings--any or all of them.

I was originally a Legolas fan, but I've since switched to Aragorn. Although Eomer is a close second. Funny story: my mother-in-law had taken to wearing those hair pieces (like ponytails) when she had short hair. Well, my husband thought they were ridiculous and looked like the horse hair helmets of the Rohirrin from the movie. So, one day she's wearing it, and he says to her, "How fare things in the Riddermark?" She totally didn't get it, but I couldn't stop laughing.

2. Star Wars--the original trilogy

Somehow, I just can't relate to any of the new characters.

3. Serendipity

4. Ghostbusters
My dad laughs uproariously at "That's a big Twinkie," but I've never really gotten it.

5. Meet the Parents
Gotta love Ben Stiller.

6. Simon Burch
I cry everytime. Perfect cast.

7. Gigi
A favorite since my junior high days. I still occasionally quote the movie.

8. Freaky Friday
I have the new version with Lyndsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.

9. Rear Window
I could almost fill the whole list with Hitchcock movies...

10. North by Northwest

11. Gladiator

12. The Saint
Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue
One day I'll need to watch the original TV episodes with Roger Moore.

13. Emma
So many good lines! Loved Gwenyth Paltrow as Emma.

Blogger's not uploading my photos, so I'll post without 'em.



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Torn

Well, I thought I was back in with the Fast Draft. I did 10 pages yesterday and was very pleased...even interrupted the flow several times to do a quick bit of research on the internet. Today...nothing so far, and things are not 'percolating' yet. And I think I'm going to have a little trouble in future days. Yesterday I picked up a novel I've had on hold at the library for-ever! I'm pretty sure it's been on order this whole time and they just got it in, and I'm getting first crack at it. I can't even remember how I found out about it, but it sounded so unique and different that I have been waiting eagerly to get my hands on it.

The book is Hope Tarr's Vanquished from Medallion Press. And although I'm only a few pages--maybe 20 into it, so far so good! I'm not one of those people who just can't put a book down--no matter what the book, I can put it down. I never stay up all night reading...about 12:30 is my limit... Anyway...the book is set in Victorian England, where the heroine is a suffragette leader and the hero a photographer. She needs portraits done, and someone in the Parliament, interested in quelling the vote for women, hires him to seduce her and capture 'her downfall' on film. I'm totally titillated!

Confession: Candy Havens told us to reward ourselves after a successful Fast Draft. Well, I haven't really finished FD, what with the hiatus and all, but I went shopping today....and totally rewarded myself.

Tales of the Gold Monkey

Inspired by Colleen Gleason's 80's Retro Tuesdays (and because it's been in my mind for the past few days), I want ask if anyone remembers (ever saw) The Tales of the Gold Monkey, which aired from 1982-1983. Let me just say that I LOVED that show, and it was one of very few my parents let me watch. You can name just about any show in the 80's--no matter how popular, and my dad probably didn't let us watch it. The only other one I can remember off-hand is The Cosby Show. Anyway, I don't really know what happened to this show or why it disappeared so quickly, but I still think about it from time to time.

And now that I've actually looked it up, I see that the pilot (on whom I had a great crush, despite all that sweat) is actually Stephen Collins--the dad on 7th Heaven. And no, I don't watch that show. All this time I've been wondering...

Photo copyright to ABC-Universal-Bellisarius.

Bookseller Reception

Well, last night, after months of planning, my RWA chapter had its first (who knows if it will end up being annual) Author/Bookseller Reception. And I really think it was a huge success! I sort of suggested it back in April or so when I'd read an RWR article in which Eloisa James had mentioned that her chapter does an annual Bookseller Luncheon, and I thought, what a great idea! Houston is a BIG city, and we have plenty of bookstores (our invitation list topped 40!). What a great way to introduce authors to local booksellers and booksellers to local authors.

So...we brainstormed, and planned, and divvied up the tasks between board members (I was drafted to be Secretary after someone else had to quit for personal reasons), and then got to work. We ended up having it at one of our local author's houses, and it was lovely. There were about thirteen booksellers in attendance and maybe twenty authors, and pretty much everyone mingled with everyone else. Then, when it was time to leave, the booksellers took home goodie bags that were filled with promo items from most every pubbed author in our chapter. We also handed out bound pamphlets entitled 'What Every Bookseller Should Know', which included creative and useful tips from Stephanie Bond (used with permission) on how to revitalize romance sales. We also requested giveaways from RWA National, so the bags were chock full!

We did hors d'oeuvres (provided by the authors), and bought chocolate dipped strawberries, champagne, and wine. I made mini cherry cheesecake bites. It was really quite elegant. What a relief....we've all been worried over bookseller turnout, and I think we had the perfect number. I came home happy. (Obviously, I'm still on hiatus from writing...)