Holidays

Ta-da! A Holiday Anthology and I’m Guest Blogging Today

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment
A Season for Romance Book Cover
They say home is where the heart is…

Yes, that’s me doing the happy dance in the kitchen, while trying not to spill my morning cup of tea. No, I will not be sharing photos of me post-yoga and pre-shower. Even with the Dunkin’ Donut, it’s not a pretty picture!

So, here’s the exciting news of the day: my holiday anthology, A Season for Romance, is out!!! This is a fun collection of short stories that take place between Thankgsiving and New Year’s Eve.

If you ever wondered how Grandma Vi got her matchmaking start, you can watch as she tries her hand with Jessica’s parents, in Meddling with Mistletoe. You’ll remember Jessica from my first book, The Heiress and Her Fake Fiance. There was a throw-away line in there about how Vi locked Jessica’s parents in a wine cellar at a Christmas party. When the offer to participate in the anthology came along, I knew it was time to share their story.

Romantic Suspense author, VR Marks brings us The Sheriff’s Proposal. We meet Sheriff Cochran in her first novel, The Thief, but we don’t learn exactly how he feels about Ruth Williams, the owner of the local diner, until her annual Thanksgiving feast in The Sheriff’s Proposal.

When Ethan Myers, an award-winning photographer short on inspiration, leaves his studio for the road, he’s shocked to run into the one woman he’s never forgotten, in the contemporary sweet story, Finding the Focus, by Jay Keelan.

And finally, we have Snow-Covered Resolutions by Regan Black, a fantastic paranormal romance/fantasy/Young Adult author. It’s New Year’s Eve and all of the Pixie Chicks have someone special to kiss at midnight – except Austin. In this season of resolutions will she stick to hers, or will the snow-covered magic of Hobbitville sweep her up in a whole new adventure?

We’re guest blogging today at Romance Bandits, so stop by. I’ll be checking in throughout the day while I wrap presents and bake a ton of Christmas cookies! And did I mention there will be book giveaways?

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The Christmas Tree, Phase 2

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

So, when last we spoke of the holiday season, I was cooking a turkey and wondering what my cats were doing to the naked Christmas tree at home.

To look at them right now, you’d think they were innocent.

 

photo of cats sleeping
Sophie and Rex are look innocent now

 

photo of a kitten asleep
Athena never does anything wrong… or so she says.

But after 5:00pm, that’s no longer the case, as evidenced here, when Stumpasaurus Rex decided he needed to investigate the dishwasher. He ends up in there at least twice a week. No idea why.

 

photo of a cat sitting in a dishwasher
Rex checks to make sure the dishes are clean before we put them in the dishwasher

Last night, with the room spinning due to an inner ear thing I have going on, I decided it was time to put the lights on the tree. What’s not to like about vertigo, a step stool, and electricity?

Remember those adorable, innocent balls of fluff? I don’t know where they were. Demons replaced them. And in case you wondered, no, LED lights do not stay lit any better than regular tree lights. I know this because Athena and Rex were all about loosening random LEDs on the strand so that sections of the lights would go off and I’d have to sit down and fight the stupid strand again.

Yes, I do know that Christmas tree lights are strung by hand (yes, really), and if I had to do that, they would never work. So I am thankful when the things work at all. But if these cats want to be on Santa’s Nice List, they really need to leave the damn tree alone.

Tune in later this week as we start the Broken Ornament Pool. Once the lights were on the tree, the cats seemed to lose interest, but we’ll see what 5:03 has in store for me tonight. They are, after all, still trying to eat the tree.

As an aside, are you looking for the perfect gift for a writer? Yeah, I wasn’t either. I mean, really that would be a bigger MacBook Pro… Sorry, I was working on my Christmas List.

So, a few weeks ago, in some part of my cyber-life I was complaining about maybe needing some of those tip-less gloves so I could write with warm hands. I didn’t think anything else about it. But on Wednesday night, we found ourselves at World Market, looking for wine for the rest of the week.

I was pretty focused on Sauvignon Blanc, so I wasn’t paying much attention when my friend said, “Hey, they have a whole selection of gloves for you!” Sure enough, there must have been 15 pairs to choose from.

Writer Friend got me this pair for Christmas. If you look closely, you’ll see what appears to be an elf hat buttoned on them. Don’t give me grief. I was focused on wine. Pulled the gloves out this morning and realized those “hats” turn them into fully functional mittens!

 

photo of fingerless gloves
The ultimate gift for cold writers

Awesome! And so much more useful that the cat’s version of a muff, where they lay down on my hands and keyboard while I try to work!

 

Only 27 days, 13 hours left til Christmas! I have a lot of knitting/baking/wrapping to do between now and then. Are you ready?

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Everything’s Better with Real Whipped Cream

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

So, after 19 years in the South, I finally ate at Waffle House.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s Thanksgiving, aka National Mashed Potato Day, and I want to talk about Waffle House? Not really. It was more a confessional thing. Really good waffles though.

We just put the turkey in the oven. I’m excited and terrified because I feel like this year’s cooking isn’t doing what I wanted. Nothing like potentially poisoning your extended family with cheesecake.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Sour Cream Bourbon topping from Gourmet. It’s an awesome cheesecake, and a great substitution if you’ve hit the point where making another pumpkin pie is going to get you institutionalized.

Normally the cream cheese works with me and everything turns out nicely, with a few small cracks on the top that are easily covered by the sour cream bourbon (or in this case Glenlivet) topping. Not so. Yesterday, I got the San Andreas Fault going through the cheesecake. Did I stop and think, hmmm, how can I fix this? Did I read the recipe as I was making the cheesecake?

No, not so much.

I just put the topping on the cheesecake and kept going. And here’s what it ended up looking like:

photo of pumpkin cheesecake
Luckily, a spoon smooths this topping and makes it look better than this.

Do not start with me. Had I thought about it, I would have put a flag over the fault line because clearly that spot will have more alcohol in it. But here’s the thing about cheesecake:

It’s really hard to tell when it’s done. It jiggles. And it’s cracked, and it’s just odd looking. And it has to sort of set up in the refrigerator after you bake it. So it doesn’t look right when it comes out of the oven. It’s a total crap shoot.

So crap shoot dessert, although the French Apple Pie — do  not start with me about the French on Thanksgiving; everything is better with streusel topping — looks fantastic.

French Apple pie photo
No promises about the turkey or the cheesecake, but we can all feed off the French Apple pie

But we got a surprise phone call and suddenly the turkey cook was tied up, and if you’ve cooked a turkey, you know it has to get in the oven on time if you want to eat before Saturday. So suddenly, I’m working on the turkey. Which was so not what I had planned. Sweet potato casserole, yes. Pie, yes. Main part of the meal that everyone looks at when I’m already nervous about the damned cheesecake? No.

So, a little nervous. And if this works, I will be telling everyone at dinner what I’m thankful for: not killing them with poultry and dairy products.

And pie with real whipped cream. Because everything’s better with whipped cream. As long as it’s homemade.

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Building the Tree

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

You know you’ve been out of work too long when…

  • You’re excited about Michael Strahan’s new dressing room reveal tomorrow;
  • You know which Twilight star is dumber than a post, which one is the post, and which one actually has a brain. And uses it;
  • You no longer stop typing when a cat lies (lays?) across your arms;
  • You have to go to The Oatmeal to figure out if it should be lays or lies. (It’s lies.)
Photo of kids building a fake Christmas tree
“Yeah! We’re building the tree!!!”

I know you’re all shocked because this is two posts in two days, as opposed to my usual once a week/month/lifetime routine I’ve had going lately. But I knew you all wanted to know how the tree building went.

First, boys do not know how to fluff trees. Shocked, I am. Especially since I’ve been re-teaching this skill for five years. So I went through the refresher. Some branches have to point forward to cover the florist wire, some to the left, some to the right, some down so we have a full tree. And still, the skill does not come naturally to those with a Y chromosome.

OK, this tree is 11 years old, so it gave up on full years ago. But it was a really good tree I got for about $2.32 when I worked at Michael’s because that was more fun than potty training one of my children. Yes, I really chose retail during the holiday season over potty training a child. And I wonder why I haven’t been nominated for Mom of the Year.

photo of Kids building a Christmas Tree
Scout Son tries to fluff like Snarky Daughter. Yes, I see she is wearing a barcode on her elbow. Yes, I have the Photoshop skills to fix it, but why miss this opportunity to embarrass her?

Back to the tree. Rockefeller Center’s got nothing on this 7.5-foot plastic concoction currently sitting in my living room. Snarky Daughter, being a girl, was all about the fluffing.

You know what’s really depressing? A Christmas tree without stuff on it. So we built the tree and Stumpasaurus Rex immediately tried to figure out how to scale the tree. Given that he’s missing a back leg and can’t jump well, you’d think I could breathe a sigh of relief. The problem is, he’s muscle. Since he can’t launch himself, he pulls himself up things. He is regularly at the top of the 6-foot cat tree.

Which is the other reason I was worried about the tree. Given that they already have one thing to climb in the room, would the cats see the difference?  I really expected a cat as a tree topper.

Rex is crafty. He spent the evening under the tree trying to figure out how to get up the clothing hanger branches. We’d be watching TV and all of a sudden some part of the tree would start shaking.

Photo of kitten exploring Christmas Tree
“Finally, you brought the trees inside! Where are the birds and squirrels?”

I had a glass of wine and generally ignored it. Athena, Goddess of Christmas Trees, felt that this tree was like any other plant (real or fake) in the house and it was meant to be eaten. For that, I grabbed a spray bottle and shot her with water. She was not amused. I expect a retaliatory hairball any time now.

This morning, I’m staring at an empty tree and the cats are totally. Ignoring. It. Totally. Like, OMG.

I may speed up the process and add lights. So tune in next time (I almost wrote tomorrow, but that seemed like a promise I was going to blog tomorrow, hahahaha) to see what’s going on with holiday preparations.

And find out if I mess with Bon Appetite’s Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe or if I keep it pure for Thanksgiving.

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40 Days Til Christmas

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

40 days and 14 hours. That’s how long we have until Christmas. Yes, I’m a little surprised that I was able to Google days til Christmas and come up with a Christmas Countdown clock. I shouldn’t be, but it seems like there are better programming choices than that.

Anyway, Christmas. 40.5 days of shopping left. I know. There are a ton of you who haven’t given this any thought yet. Clearly none of you are flying home for the holidays. But we are, and that means I have to do a ton more planning for the holiday than I’d like.

There are the folks I don’t normally see but this year I’ll have to find a nice gift for. Hard to do when you see each other every other year. These are the people in my life who would, on this coast, get homemade Irish Cream truffles, sea salt scrubs, knit scarves or some other Pinterest-inspired gift. But since I have to get it across the country without breakage, I have to either buy supplies/bottles and ship them to California and spend a day in the kitchen there, or I have to make it here and pack it very carefully. And hope TSA doesn’t decide they want softer hands and spiced pecans.

Of course, next week I’ll be writing that great holiday favorite: the family Christmas letter.

Photo of kids with Christmas tree
Scout Son and Snarky Daughter try looking cute in front of the Christmas tree.

Being a freelance writer gives me a leg up on most in that department because I have InDesign so I can put together something nice and spend an extra 100 hours making sure everything lines up perfectly. Because I know you’re all going to pull out rulers and check to see if the spacing is equal on all columns.

My letter comes and goes depending on the news. The year my mom died and I was getting divorced I didn’t do the letter. Merry Christmas! May Death and Destruction Stay with Me, Not with You! Somehow, I couldn’t find a lot of happy to share that year.

This year, even with the loss of a job, I feel like there’s good news. Snarky Daughter and Scout Son each get a column in the newsletter, so I only have to find about 300 words of happy, and with two books coming out this month, I think I can wing it.

But that’s next week. This week, I’m cruising Pinterest for cool homemade gift ideas, making a shopping list for pies for Thanksgiving. And putting up the Christmas tree. Tonight. No ornaments or lights, just the tree. I want to see what the kittens will do to it. I fully expect to find Rex sleeping at the top tomorrow morning. I’ll keep you posted.

Feel free to start the pool on how many times the cats knock it over.

What’s that? Why am I putting up a tree when I won’t be here?

That’s a really good question. The answer involves pitiful faces on sweet children who want to decorate for the season.

Whatever. I have gifts to work on.

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April Reading Challenge, Easter Chocolate and Monday Chaos

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

Hard to believe it’s Monday again. As usual, I start Monday with the list of stuff I was supposed to finish over the weekend but didn’t, like write this blog. The list is really long today because it’s really a bunch of stuff I was supposed to do last week. But I did finally find decent chocolate bunnies, so Easter was good. And I introduced Snarky Daughter to Cadbury Crème Eggs, which means I have to share, but they’re so good!

So the list is long this week because I finally had an aha! moment with one of my prescriptions. I take it one week a month and this is the first time I’ve taken it since the day job went away. About halfway through the week, fighting all sorts of signs of depression except being depressed — just tired but can’t sleep, no energy, etc — it occurred to me to check the side effects of the medication. Bingo! Of course, I thought of that on Saturday, the last day I had to take it. But now I know, so maybe coffee is allowed the week I take it.

Sunday came along and BOOM I was back to my crazy, how many things other than writing this blog and paying the bills can I get done today? Well, turns out I can do 4 hours of yard work, including cutting down a 10′ dead limb from a tree. OK, halfway through Scout Son wanted a crack at it, so he finished it up. I can burn all the dead leaves that had the audacity to fall after we burned the leaves in December. I can weed a small part of the garden for fifteen minutes (hunger and teenager mutiny ended that one), strip wallpaper for two hours, do four loads of laundry, change the sheets, watch Iron Man 2 and Tangled with the kids (hey, the Easter Bunny brought them), and finish up the Boy Scout reports for the upcoming Court of Honor.

I probably could have done more, but if you read through that list again, you’ll see a bunch of stuff that probably isn’t so good for back/hip injuries. But that’s the way I get on weekends. Did I mention I got rid of a 2′ stack of old bank and insurance statements? Well, I needed to start the fire somehow!

So, I’m writing this blog about the cool Reading Romance challenge a friend put me onto last weekend. You got that from the first four paragraphs, right? Not seeing it? Well, it’s Monday and I can’t have coffee so it’s sort of free-range blogging today. Which reminds me, I might need a couple of goats… Anyway, when she first mentioned it, I thought, it’s not a challenge for me to read, it’s a challenge for me to put the book down. See Thursday when I read all day. Yes, really.

But the deal with this challenge is that each month there’s a different theme. The rules are at the Reading Romances Challenge site, and you can sign up for April’s challenge here.

The best part is that she gives you choices, so if you can’t find something you like in the first option, no problem, move on to #2. But here they are for April:

TOPICS: Alternate Realities Month!

1) Read a contemporary book where something is different in the world than what reality reflects. (vampires, magic etc)

2) Read a book set in the future or  a historical with an alternative reality (i.e. steampunk).

THEMES: 

3) Read one book that was nominated for the RITA or Golden Heart award!

SPECIAL EVENTS:

4) Read an LGBT book, a book with at least 3 of the 7 colours of a rainbow (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red) on it’s cover, or a book with a title that includes the word: dream/s, wish/es, or rainbow.

5) Read a book with an accountant/book-keeper character, or due to a shortage of funds, read a free or borrowed (library, friend etc) book.

You can read as many as you want. So, I’m tackling Lothaire by Kresley Cole. It’s part of a series and I’d been holding off on reading this one because, well, once you start Kresley’s books, you might as well call in sick for the day. I may also tackle a book that was nominated for the RITA, although to be honest, I forgot to check out the list when the nominees were announced. But you can find them on the Romance Writer’s of America website. Reading a Golden Heart finalist is a little harder since they’re unpublished manuscripts.

I may also tackle one of the special events because Snarky Daughter keeps talking about the Jenny Crusie books she’s stealing from my shelf, and Bet Me is about an actuary, which in my mind is an accountant of sorts.

We’ll see what shakes out since it’s April and I’m being called to work in the yard. It sounds like I’ll be too busy to read, but usually I end up getting hurt working in the yard by, you know, walking or something equally taxing, and then I’m laid up for a week reading and writing.

Happy Spring! Go out and plant something heavenly, and then sit by and watch it grow, while you read a good book, of course!

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Relax…It’s Just Valentine’s Day

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

Valentine’s Day.

So. Much. Pressure.

Flowers. Chocolate. Dinner. Cards. Someone please tell Hallmark to stay out of this. Valentine’s Day is about romance. It’s about love. It’s not about a copywriter’s idea of love. So sayeth a copywriter. No, Hallmark is not my day job.

But this is the day people open their hearts to each other. The words, the gifts, they have to come from the heart too. And that does not mean a heart-shaped box. In the case of Scout Son and Snarky Daughter, those boxes were rectangular and had truffles in them.

For me, single as always on V-Day, it meant kids waiting for 40 minutes for a table at the best Thai restaurant in the area so I could have an awesome meal with them. That’s love.

That’s what today is about.

Enjoy it. If you know your beloved, there’s no pressure at all.

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New Year’s Resolutions

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

For about eight years now, my New Year’s resolution has been to learn to juggle. I can “jug.” It’s the “–gling” part I have trouble with. I can get all three balls in the air when I’m supposed to. On good days I can even do it twice in a row. After that, things fall down. Stupid gravity.

So this year, I’m looking for new resolutions. A few years ago, our local YMCA came up with the idea of doing several small resolutions. Things you could accomplish in 90 days. You were supposed to come up with five of them. I had everything from work out more to re-learn French. Hey, I suffered through 11 years of French in school. I should be able to speak it.

Within three weeks of making the resolution, I fell off a ladder, broke my leg and screwed up my back. It – and my ability to work out – have never been the same. And French… well, if you drop me in Paris, I can eat and find a hotel room. I can probably get a date. After that, it’s all downhill.

My pants are making the first resolution for me. Regardless of what my hip and back think, we’re getting back in shape. Period. End of story. This should be an amusing process since every time I try, I have setbacks with said hip and back and end up not able to move for weeks. But Prevention Magazine has a walking workout they swear can help you lose up to 22 pounds in 8 weeks. I may try it. Or I may keep riding my bike in the living room. I’m still working on the plan.

I gave up on French years ago to try Italian, a language I actually want to learn. Rosetta Stone and I are going to have a party… as soon as I buy a new headset with a microphone since the computer isn’t recognizing me with the built in mic (that works just fine when I’m Skyping my dad). Go figure.

Then there are the work related resolutions. Getting more active on social media. Build a following. Adding pages to the website. Writing a book or two.

You know, the usual.

I’m excited about writing the books. Characters are bopping around like crazy in my head. It’s nice to know I’m not crazy when I hear voices; it’s a job requirement! I’m knee-deep in book three of the Heiress at the Door series, with book two coming around for edits shortly. And I’m looking forward to book four, which is jut a glimmer right now, but will take place back in Blakely. No idea if there will be an heiress in that one; how many can there be in one small coastal North Carolina town?

So, lose 15 pounds, write a book, conquer Italian. Sounds like I have a busy year ahead. What will you be doing?

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Christmas Reviews or The Evil Empire? Which Would You Face?

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

Christmas at my house means Star Wars. This year we had Star Wars coffee mugs, t-shirts from Vader and more video games than I can count. We even had Star Wars hot chocolate. Scout Son sagely informed me that there are only three Star Wars games that we do not currently own. He wasn’t asking for them, mind you, he’s analytical. He knows these things and feels the need to share.

Christmas came for me when my daughter got an Amazon gift card. After all the gifts were open, she went to the computer to carefully consider her purchases. Funny how when it’s their money the kids have to think about what they’re buying. When it’s my money, it’s how fast can we get the stuff into the cart.

So, she’s carefully shopping. Except for one thing. When she opened up our Amazon account, she looked at me and said, “Mom, can I buy your book?”

Merry Christmas to me! My kid wants to buy my book! Umm…hmm… My daughter wants to read my book?

Don’t get me wrong. I know she reads romance novels, and I’m fine with it. But now she’s going to read the one I wrote. That just seems like it’s skating on the line of Too Much Information. But it was so sweet, I couldn’t say no.

Luckily, Snarky Daughter reads about five books at a time, so there’s a really good chance I’ll never hear about this again. And it helps my sales numbers. Heaven help me if she decides to review it. Worse, what if it doesn’t hold up? What if she doesn’t like it?

Have I mentioned that writers are neurotic? Yes, it takes guts to put our books out there for people to read. But the reality is, once it’s out there, we can sort of ignore its existence and just accept the checks when they come in. If we don’t think about the fact that people are reading the books, we can get through the day.

On Christmas Eve, I got the email from Amazon that someone had reviewed The Heiress and Her Fake Fiancé. Remember that feeling you got in school when your teacher handed back the big assignment, but you hadn’t looked at the grade yet? Multiply that by 1,000 and you’ve got what a writer feels when they get a review.

I got the email in the middle of canceling a credit card, baking cookies, and last-minute wrapping. In the middle of all the holiday hoopla, I was not prepared to face a review. Who am I kidding? In the middle of winning the lottery I wouldn’t be prepared to face a review.

Please have it be someone I know. Please have it be someone I know…

Armed with a Hot Buttered Rum, I clicked on the link. Paranormal romance author, Regan Black, reviewed my book. I looked at the stars. Woo-hoo! A five-star review! And with that, I closed the computer and went back to making cookies. No, I didn’t read it right then. I couldn’t. Seriously, I had about a million more packages to wrap, and fingers to burn making pralines (another story) before I could go to bed and hope the reindeer dancing on the roof didn’t wake me up.

I did finally face the review, which is lovely, by the way. Even knowing it was going to be good, I still had pralines in hand. You never know when you’re going to need them! Because facing Darth Vader is easier than facing a review.

I should know. We face him daily, thanks to Santa.

Happy Holidays!

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Six Shopping Days Left Until Sanity Returns

~ kimberly ~ Leave a comment

Six shopping days left. I think I’m done. Having said that, four cousins and a kid I have never met will appear, needing some sort of gift. But right now, I almost feel like I’ve got the holidays under control.

Almost.

Never mind that there’s frosting and wrapping paper stuck to my hair. Cakes have been baked. Irish Cream Truffles are done, just waiting to be packaged each night and dropped off with the neighbors. All that’s left is baking cookies with the kids… and wrapping the last of the presents. Which would be all the easier if Amazon would deliver the last of the gifts.

There was a nasty rumor from the USPS that they’d be on my doorstep sometime this afternoon. These are the same people who tell me I can send flat rate packages from my door, but apparently only if I live in a cottage, because I can’t do it here. And though I have searched the yard, the garage and even *gasp* the mailbox, there is no package to be found. These are also the people who ran out of stamps. I kid you not. Out of stamps.

I can’t complain too much about that because without the stamps there’s really no reason to get on those Christmas cards tonight. Hey, last year the annual update became a Valentine’s Day letter, but I did get it out.

So tonight I am taking a break. Peace on Earth. Good will to men, women and children. All of which will be had if I relax and enjoy the twinkling lights on my tree, enjoy a cup of cocoa and play Lego Star Wars with Scout Son.

Tomorrow I will add photos to the letter and start addressing envelopes. Maybe the Post Office will even get stamps and find the missing Christmas present that they logged in to our post office on Saturday. But when they wonder why they’re going bankrupt, I will point to days like today. While singing the 12 Days of Christmas in line at UPS.

Shameless Holiday Joy Moment: If you haven’t heard them and need a laugh, YouTube Straight No Chaser and listen to Christmas Can-Can or their rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. I laughed so hard I almost had to pull the car off the road.

Merry, merry!

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