Almost there

I need to make glossaries or something.  Actually, I’m not sure what the proper term would be, but I need to make up lists of characters, their traits, what they look like, what they do and so on.  You would not believe the amount of time I waste running back through books to check names, birthdates etc.  I’ve been thinking this for a while, but just started doing it.  Sort of..  Actually, I will admit I have several different ones started.  The problem is that I get them started, and then deadlines loom and I drop it and switch back to writing.  But it’s getting to the point where it is very necessary.

Okay, that was my whine of the day.  And it’s probably the most interesting thing that will be in this blog. <grin>

So, Sunday we went to my lovely Aunt Leigh’s house to celebrate her and Grandma’s birthday.  It’s always nice visiting with my family.  If I haven’t mentioned it before I have the best relatives in the world.  Sorry.  It’s true.   You all may think you have great families, but I have the best.  I also found out this weekend, that while all my relatives  buy every book of mine that’s published, two of them only read the historicals.  I burst out laughing when I heard this and said, “Well, why on earth are you buying the vamps if you aren’t going to read them?”  They looked rather surprised at the question and then said, “Well, you write them.”  LOL.  I do love my family.

As for the not reading the vamps thing, I think that may change with Aunt Leigh at least.  I mentioned while there that the new website was done and they took a quick look while we were all there to see the pic in the top left corner because I explained how it came to be the top left corner pic.  Then after we left, Aunt Leigh apparently went through the website for a proper look.  She happened upon the excerpt for Bite Me If You Can, noted her name and started to read and wrote me to say she’d started to read it, and was getting into it when it suddenly ended.  She accused me of being a tease, then said she has decided while she waits for it to come out, she will read the series now.  What order should it be read in?    

GOTCHA!  I’m pretty sure she’ll like the series.  They are funny like my historicals, just in a different time and including vampires.  I think it’s the vampire thing that kept her and Gran from reading them, but really, my vamps aren’t your normal vamp fare.  Or didn’t used to be.  When I wrote the first of the Argeneau series, no one was writing funny vamps.  They were all dark and…well dark.  Sad, cursed creatures suffering under their curse of longevity.  Some soulless and so on.  I was a little nervous when my first book came out, so sure that I would get hate mail for writing “Vamp light”  And I did actually get one or two complaints, but for the most part, readers seem to like the lighter version of my Atlantean/Canadian-still-have-their-souls vamps.  Now everyone seems to be doing lighter vamps….which is kind of cool really. 

Anyway, other than that all I’ve been doing is working.  I’m almost done the story due December (YAY) I hope to finish it this week and then start on the one due for January.  If I can manage that, I can take a little time off over Christmas which would be nice.  But to do that I have to get back to it now and write like a fiend.  Tomorrow is the op, the day after is our anniversary, and then this weekend Terri and her hubby are coming down for the weekend and we’re going to a concert.  Foo Fighters and Dylan.  So, I do have to get back to it if I hope to finish the story this week.

Hope you all have a great day!

Lynsay

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Get me to the church on time

Hmmmm.  So I posted (or thought I posted) a blog yesterday, but I was in a rush to go post at my forum too so didn’t “View” my space afterward to see that it did actually post…  So of course it didn’t <Rolling eyes here>

So I’ll do it again, although I’m sure this will be much shorter and less boring because I somehow wrote a big long post about nothing.  Anyone who’s read my silly, and often long, tales here about my – no doubt – boring days will understand that.  <grin>

What I really wanted to post was that my new website is done and has been “launched” which really just means uploaded.  When they say “Launched” for some reason it always makes me think of a boat launching with the requisite bottle of champagne smashed on the bow for good luck.  There was no Champagne smashing here, or even getting smashed on Champagne.  At least not at Chateau Spice.  Although, I can’t speak for the designer who had to put up with my indecisiveness alternating with knitpicking.  By that I mean that when she started, I had no idea what I wanted.  She suggested I check out other sites and I tended to like the ones where images were blended into the site as opposed to cartoon images in the corner or too much fussiness placed about.  However, when she started sending images of couples embracing and so on, I knew decisively what I DIDN’T want, lol. 

My instinctive reaction to clasped hands and embracing couples and sunset romance was EWWWW, they’re way to hearts and flowery and I’m just not a hearts and flowery chick.  And then I went looking for images myself.  Nothing appealed to me really except for the image now gracing the top left side of my new website.  The image is actually from the top of a wedding cake where a bride was dragging the groom across the cake, presumably toward a preacher.  It made me laugh and I saved it and after spending all day and part of the night looking at thousands of images, Dave came up and asked if I’d seen anything I liked and I said, “Well, actually, I have, but it’s really very silly.”  I then pulled it up and showed it to him and he pronounced it as “perfect.”  Funny, light and just not what one would expect…especially not on a wedding cake, it seemed to suit me.

I should like to mention that on our wedding day, I did not have to drag Dave to the preacher.  In fact the laugh of the day was that he kept running excitedly ahead and leaving me behind.  At 6’1 to my 5’4 his legs are much longer than mine and I am always a slower walker than he, but that day my high heels were making me even slower than normal.  And where as he normally slows down for me, that day he was rushing ahead like a locomotive. 

We were married in New York and rode there with my sister and her husband.  Once there, Dave leapt out of the car and charged across the street to the building, only then seeming to realize we were no longer at his side.  He stopped beside Sandra and Mark who were there as his witnesses, looked around as if for something he’d misplaced, then turned to watch with a grin as we caught up.  He then charged ahead into the building.  We caught up at the elevators, rode up together and then the doors opened and he burst out like a racehorse leaving the gates and rushed up the hall, Mark and Sandra on his heels.  My sister and brother-in-law trailed behind to walk with me.  They watched him disappear around the corner, then turned befuddled expressions my way and I burst out laughing and said, “Well, at least no one can say I had to drag him to the wedding.”

We three were laughing as we turned the corner and found Dave hurrying back to “chivvy” me to where we had to go. 

Once the actual ceremony began and the officiate said, “Do you David, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife-”  He jumped in with “I do!” and the lady, a little Irish woman (It was an international type wedding, a Canadian married to a Brit in New York by an Irish woman <grin>) stopped, smiled and said, “I’m not done yet, son.”  She then continued with all the promises and the ceremony went perfectly. 

So, as you can see, the image isn’t representative of our wedding, but it does have the quirky sense of humor my stories have and is perfect for my site I think.

Hmmm, so I guess this isn’t any shorter than the original blog I typed up yesterday.  Guess I just can’t write short.  Ah well.  Go take a look at the site www.lynsaysands.net and let me know what you think.  I’m off to give Dave a kiss and a cuddle for NOT having to drag him to the wedding.  He really is a sweetie.

Have a great weekend!

Lynsay

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I’m a baaaad girl!

Well….I’ve been bad this week…Twice! 

Saturday Jackie picked me up and we drove up to Terri’s for a girl’s night.  (These are my sisters, I am the middle of three)  Terri lives about an hour and a half away.  We got there at about 11:30 and headed right to a spa that was about an hour away her place.  It was facials and manicures for us for the afternoon and it took ALL afternoon. 

I’m doing it again some time.  It was quite relaxing.  After working on the face the gal then massaged my neck, shoulders and arms.  LOL.  She was really working on those muscles at the base of the back of the neck and shoulders and suddenly asked, “Have you ever considered a full body massage?” 

I said, “Nope.”  

She said, “You should.  You’re terribly tense.” 

I could tell she was right, it hurt like crazy when she was digging into the knots at the base of my neck, but man it felt great afterward.  I’ve never felt so relaxed in my life and she was saying I was still tense.  I think I walk around most of the time with everything clenched, lol.

Once we were all done, we headed back to Terri’s for a round of Mojitos while we waited for Steve to get home so we could go out to dinner.  He got home shortly thereafter, but bowed out of the girl’s night dinner and left us to our own devices.  We walked to her local pub (didn’t want to drink and drive, but didn’t want anyone to have to NOT drink if they wanted to, besides, we’d all already had one drink each, or half a drink really, we were just trying the mojitos to see if we liked them.)

Anyway, dinner was good, the company excellent and we chatted and laughed our way through it and then back home.  Steve is an early bird and was off to bed and the three of us sat around chatting until 3:30 in the morning.  (We had a couple drinks too, but none of us got drunk.)  We were all up by 8:30 Sunday morning, and Jackie and I enjoyed bagels and cream cheese with Terri and Steve before heading back home.

It was lovely, but then I always have fun with my sisters on girl’s night. 

Then, last night, I was bad again.  Not super bad if you ask me.  I did get up, ride my bike and set to work like a good girl.  But then late in the evening, after a full days work, I decided to relax a bit.  Unfortunately, by the time I decided to relax there was nothing on TV so I decided to play a video game, something I haven’t done in years.  Well, I went to msn games to check out what they have, found one called prime suspect or something like that and started to play.  It was an okay game, I thought.  Nothing mind-twisting, but some of the pieces were hard to find.  I was playing for a little bit when Dave kissed me and said he was off to bed.  I said, I’d be along shortly, just play a little longer.  I was just growing tired and thinking to shut down and go to bed when Dave came grumbling into the room.

“Have you been playing all this time?” he grumbled.

“Yes, I was just shutting down.  What time is it?” I asked, thinking it was probably 2 or 3 in the morning….I thought wrong.  It was 6:30!  I’d played ALL night!  Holy!  Well, that computer was off and I was trundling off to bed in seconds flat.  LOL.  I refuse to feel guilty though, I haven’t played online games in ages.  Besides, I only slept five hours, then got up, so tonight I should be able to get to sleep at a relatively decent hour.  AND I’ll get lots of work done too.

So, that’s the boring tale of my being bad <grin> 

Other than that, work is going well and everything is presently good.  Great even.  Yesterday I got my advanced copies of Bite Me If You Can (Gad, I hate that title L)  and I’m thinking of a contest to give away a couple copies.  I just have to figure out what it should be.  I’m toying with the idea of it being “Name Lissianna’s daughter, get a mention in the book it’s used in and an autographed ARC of Bite Me If You Can.”  I’m still thinking though.

Sooooo, hope you’re all well!

Lynsay

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Early birds

I’m up ridiculously early for me.  Bed at two, sleep at three, and up at 8.  Why?  Because….They’re ba-ack!  The electricians are finally making a return visit to finish things.  They have to finish pulling some old wire they replaced last visit and put an air vent thingy in the bathroom, and hopefully, replace a hall light.

Urgh.  Dave is not a morning person.  I have turned him into a night owl too and he is shuffling around here all scowly faced, and I’m only half my normal cheerful self.  Still enough to make the poor grumpy Brit nuts, I’m sure <grin>  The funny thing is, this is only an hour earlier than I got up yesterday, for heaven’s sake.  But the fact that I HAD to go to bed to get up early for the electricians ensured that I was wide awake and couldn’t get to sleep.  Aye Carumba!

Oh well, we can always nap after the electricians leave.  Anyway, enough of my piddling about, I should go up to the office to work.  I have the last of those corrections to do before I can get back to writing and I really want to finish the antho today.

Hope you all have a great one!

Lynsay

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Weekends

I love October!  You gotta love a month when every station on tv pulls out all the horrors they have. <grin> 

Odd how my desire to clean house struck just as some of the better horror movies came on so that I just had to put work away for the evening and dust, wash floors and do laundry while watching the boob tube.  That was yesterday, Saturday, I worked during the day, then stopped for the evening to clean.  Today I worked through the afternoon, then had busy work to do while horrors were on tonight.  Busy work is research, e-mails and other things I can do while the television is on. 

Now it’s just after one and I plan to head to bed.  GAD!  I’ll be up by 9, almost as early as normal people.  That’s okay though.

While I was writing this weekend, I really need to get back to corrections of The Accidental Vampire, get them done and send the story back to the publisher, so tomorrow I’m going to finish those off, and if I have time, hopefully, go back to the Avon Antho.   Or stop and help Dave with taxes.  The end of the month is fast approaching and they have to be done.  Besides, next weekend I’m going to my sisters Saturday for a spa day and girl’s night.  Should be fun.  A nice break too.  I’d like to have this antho done by then.

So that was my wild and crazy weekend, cleaning, working, horrors and harassing Dave, cause that’s my job as wife.  You know, those little things like bugging him while he’s reading by waving my hand or sticking other body parts in front of his book or monitor so he can’t read while asking, “Is it a good book/story?”   Jumping out around corners and kissing him when he’s trying to do things and generally harassing him with the knowledge that he’s loved.  That’s the fun part of being married…though he might disagree <Grin>

Anyway, hope you all had a great weekend!

Lynsay

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Pumpkins and things

Well I’ve been working on the latest story and back and forth with the website designer the last week.  But I quit work early today and we actually had dinner between 7 and 8 pm (Dave made curry).  This was an early dinner for us.  We’ve had it as late as almost ten some nights.  But I was hungry.   Afterward, rather than head right back to work, I joined Dave in carving pumpkins.  As I mentioned, Halloween isn’t the tradition over in England that it is over here, Dave was a Pumpkin virgin. <Grin> 

I’m sure he’ll post photos eventually if he hasn’t already.  I think he did an awesome job on his first pumpkin, and we both had fun. 

Then I roasted pumpkin seeds, burning them of course.  Have I mentioned that I HATE THIS STOVE?  Explain to me the logic of this.  I set the oven to 325, checked the temp after ten minutes (I have a thermometer in there because its thermometer is screwy) and it was over four hundred.  So, I turned the temperature DOWN to 275 and put the seeds in, checked them about five minutes later and they were sizzling and brown and the thermometer now read almost 600 degrees!!  I hate that stove.  Once I find some time, I’m getting a new one.  Until then, baking is out.

Anyway, despite the fact that they were slightly charred, the seeds were good.  We ate them while we watched a show and I did e-mails.  (I can never do only one thing at a time which is good since I usually have too much to do not to)  Shrug.

Anyway, so the pumpkins are carved, e-mails caught up and the latest story is going well.  I’m hoping I can finish it by early next week. 

Now…

Jen that mug sounds perfect!!  LOL. 

As for ops, they’re just girly ones.  Atypical cells, biopsies, stuff like that.

As for book dates, Bite Me If You Can comes out in February.  I’m not sure about The Accidental Vampire yet.  They’re talking about holding back on it and publishing it and the two stories that follow one right after the other, bang-bang-bang over three months.  I’ll report when they make up their minds on when.

That’s it for me today.  I think I’ll head to bed early (It’s only 3:04 a.m.here.  Woohoo!)

Mrs. Spice

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Happy Thanksgiving….LATE!

A Very Belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada!  Hope you all had a great time!  I did.  I relaxed.  Just typing that makes me smile.

 

So, Saturday we went to Gran’s and Aunt Sue’s for a Thanksgiving meal.  Both the food and the company were lovely.  As we headed home, about a couple blocks from Gran and Aunt Sue’s place, we passed a couple of teenage girls walking in the opposite direction and as we passed, one of them – a little blonde – suddenly jerked up her sweatshirt, flashing her chest.  I burst out laughing and made some comment like “Thanks for sharing.”  Or something along those lines.  She didn’t hear of course, the windows in the car were up.  Dave did though and asked what I was talking about.  He’d missed the flashing. 

 

It gave us a good laugh, probably not the reaction the girl was hoping for.  But it also started a conversation between us on people today.  Youth, women, etc.   I’m hoping this action isn’t a common pastime among teenage girls nowadays and this was a “one off.”  I’m hoping most young women today have a little more self-respect and act a little less trashy, but I’m probably old-fashioned.  That’s okay though.    

 

I was planning to make a turkey and the trimmings and so on for Sunday for Dave and I, but the turkey wasn’t thawed in time, so I made it Monday instead.  Everything turned out beautifully and we now have leftovers deluxe for the week.  <grin>  Then today I got the corrections for The Accidental Vampire.  My editor loves the story, thank goodness!  She’s happy as a clam and that made me happy as a clam, so Dave and I went to town to shop for Halloween stuff.  He’s really getting into it and we had fun picking out bats and other creepy crawlies to hang around the house.  We then went to pick up a couple of pumpkins to carve, one each.  We’ll do that later in the week.  Dave’s really getting into this Halloween business.  It, like Thanksgiving, isn’t a British tradition and he’s getting excited talking about a costume and so on.  We’re even considering having a Halloween party. 

 

So, it was a lovely weekend and I’m well rested and ready to start into corrections tomorrow and then return to the new stories.

 

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

 

Mrs. Spice

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It’s Raining Receipts

Sorry I haven’t checked in for a while.  There hasn’t been much to tell.  I’ll sum it up now.  Dave got all the info together and sent off to the website designer so she should have that done soon.  YAY!!  Then I’ll stop getting complaints about it from readers…  Well, hopefully, anyway.

 

He shipped them off Monday and then it was Dentist Monday, hospital Tuesday, banking Wednesday, Accountant Thursday and Union Gas people at the house Friday.  We worked on taxes around that.  My year end is the end of October, so they have to get done.  Unfortunately, they are so confusing and disorganized, he’s needing help with it, so I’ve taken time out to help in that area. 

 

I HATE TAXES.  Have I ever mentioned that?   Well, I do.  They are such a pain.  I try to put the receipts in separate files every month or so (Research, transport, utilities, etc) but it still leaves a lot of work at the end of the year.  I don’t just drop the receipts off at the accountants in a box.  It would be too bloody expensive to have them sort them, so they all have to be sorted by date and what they are and entered into spreadsheets.  That’s a time consuming and messy affair, so you wouldn’t be far wrong in thinking we are presently knee deep in piles of receipts here.

 

This, of course, is a pain because my mind has decided it wants to be writing and is coming up with some really great ideas.  I’ve been jotting them down in various notebooks all over the house and will no doubt not be able to find them when I CAN get back to writing.  Or maybe not, since I think today I’ll put the taxes aside and switch to writing for a bit.  Dave has taken himself off to mow the lawn before the neighbors arrive at our door with pitchforks, so I may run down to the grocery store to grab a couple things to make some Cauliflower cheese soup and then hunker down and write for several hours.  I can go back to taxes later tonight.

 

So there you have it.  Boring, huh?  And I thought a writer’s life would be glamorous and exciting!  Sheesh.  Right now the writing schedule is a story due December, another January, another February, then one April and one June.  It’s going to be busy for the next while…And I still haven’t got my vacation.  I think we have to stick in a trip to New York in there somewhere.  I promised my agent and editor I’d go.  We’ll probably do it in November, after my operation. 

 

Hmmm, that’s when our anniversary is.  Actually the operation is the day before the wedding anniversary.  Bummer.  Oh well, we can take the trip a week or so later and celebrate a late anniversary dinner at the same restaurant we had our wedding dinner at while we’re in New York.  Maybe I can take a day out to relax and shop between seeing the agent and editor.  I’ll have to look into it.

 

Anyway, hope you’re all well.  I’ll try to visit my various blog buddies later tonight before bed.

 

Lynsay

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