As for the title of the post, it’s not that I haven’t been working, but I’ve definitely taken some time off because I kind of can’t stop holding this baby.  He’s addictive, you know?  But then yesterday, I finally started to feel that writing urge, the one I can’t ignore, which means writing is slowly nudging its way back into being a priority.  And now it’s become something I can’t ignore, which is a good thing.  Because really, the job has to be something I love enough to want to tear myself away from both the kids.  

And I kind of missed Sydney Croft’s TEMPTING THE FIRE‘S release day!  TwinMom wrote up a great review here (thanks, TwinMom!)  It’s book 4 in the ACRO series, starring Logan and Sela…and there’s lots of Marlena in there, for those who’ve written to ask when she’s going to get her HEA!  Thanks to all the Syd readers who ran out and bought the book and continue to talk up the series – it’s so much fun for Larissa and I to write.

TAKEN BY FIRE, Syd book 6, is nearly done with revisions (and they were minor, so YAY!)…we should have a cover really soon.  Mace’s book, IN THE AIR TONIGHT, is being revised as we speak – I found out it’s got a tentitive release date of August 2011…the book that follows (aka the book I have no idea who the hero is or what it’s about) is scheduled for October 2011.  And today, I need to do a final read-thru for PROMISES IN THE DARK and then it’s done, done, done.

How’re you all doing?  Busy summer?   Reading / watching anything good?  Deadliest Catch was really hard to watch this season…

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

A pretty good excuse, right?

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

When Keri Daniels’ editor finds out she has previous carnal knowledge of reclusive bestselling author Joe Kowalski, she gives Keri a choice: get an interview or get a new job.  

Joe’s never forgotten the first girl to break his heart, so he’s intrigued to hear Keri’s back in town—and looking for him. Despite his intense need for privacy, he’ll grant Keri an interview if it means a chance to finish what they started in high school.

He proposes an outrageous plan—for every day she survives with his family on their annual camping and four-wheeling trip, Keri can ask one question. Keri agrees; she’s worked too hard to walk away from her career.

But the chemistry between them is still as potent as the bug spray, Joe’s sister is out to avenge his broken heart and Keri hasn’t ridden an ATV since she was ten. Who knew a little blackmail, a whole lot of family and some sizzling romantic interludes could make Keri reconsider the old dream of Keri & Joe 2gether 4ever.

I’ve got my Kindle copy, thanks to the magic of preorder – so go forth and buy!  Because Shannon’s awesome and her books are awesome (love the Devlin books especially!)  I’m diving right in after today’s writing session…

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

What?  I can’t make this stuff up, people.

Oh, and the exterminator recommended a spider brush to me – he’s like, they sell them at Home Depot. And I’m picturing this big brush that you whack spiders to death with.

Exterminator:  You take the brush and you catch the spiders in them.  Then you take the brush outside and shake the spiders out.

Me: Wait a minute, I’m supposed to carry a live spider through the house on a brush?  Isn’t there a brush where a little man comes out of the top and smashes the spider to death?  Because that’s a brush I want.

That’s when he gave up talking spider brushes and just sprayed the windows.

Anyway, so I’ve got to finish the draft of a book by May 31st. Pray for me, because it’s going to be tight.  It’s in the, oh my god, what was I thinking, stage, right on target, right around the page count that I always want to throw the book out the window.  This is Mace’s book (no pub date yet) but I do get to keep it’s original title, IN THE AIR TONIGHT.  It fits the book perfectly so I’m thrilled my editor loves it!

Larissa and I also got a title for Sydney book 6…TAKEN BY FIRE.  Loving that one too.

Just got copy edits for PROMISES IN THE DARK, which is exciting – means the book is kind of thisclose to getting put to bed.  Can’t stop looking at the cover, either.

Okay, how AWESOME was Gray’s Anatomy last night?  I was literally hanging onto the bed every time it came back from commercial – talk about moving forward relentlessly.  It was probably my favorite episode of all time.  Real Housewives of New York was good too, but kind of sad.  Kelly needs help.  Fast.

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And Gus is all kind of running around and knocking his bed across the room for no reason and I finally get him settled on my bed where he procedes to squash my legs.  The kid was already squashing me because we’re all together because Zoo’s away and I realize now that this is crazy on my end but it’s too late to change.

So then something catches my eye and I look up at the ceiling and there is a spider up there.

I’ll let that settle in for a moment.  Because those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while (or Writeminded) know that I cannot handle spiders or crickets.  (Or butterflies, but that’s more of a gross me out thing and I could deal with a butterfly in the house, because even though it’s a worm with wings, I know it won’t kill me. ) But the crickets at least stay in the basement, while the spiders seem to feel they can have run of the house.  I’m guessing the warm weather brought them all out of the woodwork.

So, it’s kind of right to the side of the bed – I can’t reach it.  I can throw a shoe at it until it falls but it could fall on the bed and that wouldn’t be good.

And it’s staring at me.  Black and white and tarantuala-sized.

Okay, maybe not that big.  Maybe.

And I’m like, okay, I can do this…it will move away and I can live and let live and it won’t eat me while I sleep.

And THEN I look at the big light that hangs over the bed and there is ANOTHER spider, crawling around.  It’s like a spider family reunion and Arachnophobia (which is a surprisingly funny movie) all at once.

I now realize I could die.

Gus, of course, is no help, as he has not even bothered to wake up and realize that we are in imminent danger.  I think about texting Zoo and telling him to come home immediately, but figured by the time he got home from Florida it wouldn’t work in my favor.  Of course, I did text him with a scream about spiders.

Anyway, so in a moment of brilliance (these do not come often, trust me) I race downstairs for the vacuum.  I hate our vacuum – it’s a canister and a pain in the ass but I haul it up the stairs and turn it on and get close to ceiling spider.  It knows it’s going to die and doesn’t try to fight the suction.  The other one on the light is still running and romping and playing until it sees me with the hose – then it goes still and gets sucked into the void.

Of course, then I worry that they will escape at night and bring the rest of the spider family to my ceiling to kill me.  I know they’re sitting in the vacuum bag, plotting.  I’m totally going to need a new vacuum.  And Zoo can’t ever leave the house again, unless he leaves behind someone to kill the spiders.

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Tiny, tiny trees compared to what we had.  *sobs*  I need them to grow like 3 feet overnight because let me tell you – seeing my neighbor these last weeks has MORE than made up for the 10 years he was hidden behind trees.  So yes, I talk to them a lot and tell them that’s what they need to do.  I hope they listen better than Gus.  Because Gus seems to act like that’s not his name.  He must think, Man, that Gus must be a real pain in the ass because she’s always calling his name…

Anyway, Zane’s book revisions are done and Cam’s galleys are done (that’s pretty much my last step before it becomes a real book, so that’s good) – now I dive back into Mace’s book (I’m tentatively calling it In The Air Tonight but I don’t know if that will stick.)  But I’m really loving it – I’ve been waiting a couple of years to write it and it’s all new and fun and shiny.

Which means, give me a few weeks and I’ll start whining for sure.

What’s up with everyone?  Enjoying the weather?  Any good news / fun news?

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Maybe.

So Zoo’s alarm clock (aka my cube) woke me up to La Isla Bonita.  And you know when you’ve got a lyric in your mind wrong and you know it’s wrong but you can’t stop singing it wrong?

Yeah, I keeping hearing, young girls with eyes like potatoes, in my ear.  And I know that can’t be right.  Who has eyes like potataoes?

It’s like when my friend told me she thought the song, Big Old Jet Airliner was really, big ole chad had a rhino, and ruined the song for me.

There’s also a line in Cinderelmo where I swear the king says, cake and eat it (because, hi, cake – who wouldn’t want to eat cake?) but Zoo’s like, he’s saying, take an edict.

Granted, the edict line makes way more sense, but it’s Elmo.  He’s always got too many questions, he’s always scared of something and he’s always screwing up, so common sense isn’t really his friend.  So I’m sticking by my cake and eat it line.

Anyway, I have a lot to do – some last minute revisions on Zane and I almost can’t bear to drag myself through the manuscript again.  Don’t get me wrong – I love the book – love the way it’s turned out and the edits will only make it stronger but…I don’t want to!  (mature, I know) I want to work on shiny new stories, like Mace, where things still make sense and I have a lot to discover.

But I will be good and finish Zane.  I’m armed with candy.  A large, price club mixed bag of candy that includes Twix.  The Twix will inspire me.  If I can stop singing about the young girls with eyes like potatoes to myself…

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

Anyway, here’s the deal – I want my cube clock back.

Seriously, I’m pretty good with new technology.  I switched from a PC to a Mac without much issue, I’ve installed software and moved from a Blackberry to a PalmPre with few difficulties.  I can work a remote, set my DVR.

I haven’t been able to work an alarm clock since my Sony cube.  I’ve had that cube since before college.  Which, was a while ago.  Quite a while ago, and I can’t believe it’s still working.

See, it was on my side of the bed until Zoo and I had to switch sides for the kid.  And then since I was staying home and he was the only one going out to work, the clock stayed on his side.  And then I bought a new clock.  A big, shiny new clock that I didn’t know how to set.

Zoo set it for me and it took me the better part of six months to realize he’d set it to a Spanish radio station.  I couldn’t understand any of the songs when I woke up but I’m not a morning person and just assumed that I was really tired.

I have four new clocks – four perfectly good clocks and I can’t work any of them.  So, last week, I bought a new Sony cube.  I figured – it’s the cube!  Probably as easy as my old cube…a perfect solution.

I still can’t work it.

I know you’re saying to yourself, why doesn’t she just give him the new clock and take back the old clock? And I have no answer for you.  It’s not like the clock is being held hostage or anything.

As long as I’m confessing, I might as well admit that most of the time I end up watching the commercials on the shows I’ve DVR’d because I forget they’re recorded shows.  Just me?  Yes?

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

World, meet Cam.

And, world, meet Zane.

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

I will, of course, still bitch about it.  Just not a lot.  But you all understand.

When we lost all our trees a few weeks ago, I put in for a homeowner’s claim – I really didn’t think they’d be covered but we’ve (luckily) never had to put in a claim and I figured I’d try.  It was denied, and I asked, since we’re getting new trees, why / how they’d be covered.

The woman said, “Well, they’d have to be destroyed by an explosion, fire, an aircraft crashing into them, or they’d have to be run down by a vehicle not registered to you.”

And I’m thinking, dude, if any of those things are happening, I’m worried about a lot more than my trees. But hey, I guess that kind of puts it all in perspective.

When I told Zoo, he said, Maybe we can borrow some parts from a local airport and scatter them throughout the trees.

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

So basically, I’m up for the day, coffee in hand and Scrivener (my writing program) open and ready to go.

Gus, on the other hand, is not looking forward to the rain.  Snow, yes, but rain makes him crazy.  He doesn’t like getting wet, even though I remind him that he’s a hunting dog and should really be swimming on a regular basis.  

Anyway, what are your plans for the day / the weekend?  Catching up on some reading / writing / TV?  Oh, let’s talk books and TV and movies.  I’m sort of sadly addicted to the Real Housewives (the OC just ended and the new season for NY just started) – and I’m liking LA Ink so far.  Burn Notice was awesome – can’t wait till it starts again in June.  And then Celebrity Apprentice starts again soon – and since Brett Michaels is no longer doing Rock of Love, maybe he’ll be as interesting on CA.  And Celebrity Rehab’s Sober House – the 1st episode depressed me as much as the entire season of Celebrity Rehab.

As for books, I just finished One Foot in the Grave by Jeanine Frost – really liking Cat and Bones, although first person and continuing love stories don’t always thrill me.  I’m in for the 2nd though (it’s already loaded up onto Kindle)  I’m also 1/3 through the new Pamela Clare, Naked Edge and I’m waiting for all 3 of Christy Reece’s new trilogy to release before I read them, but it’s hard to wait.

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.

And so the judge holds up the pictures, taken on the phone and says something like, you young people don’t get it – all this facebook and twitter and posting everything to your profiles..haven’t you ever heard the phrase, say it, forget it, write it, regret it?

Personally, I’d never heard it put like that but yes, I’ve always heard that you should be careful what you put in writing, and how if you’re angry you should wait 24 hours before sending anything written in said anger.  I think they’re good rules.

I’ve said it before – I find social media overwhelming and exhausting.  Part of that is my personality for sure – I definitely lean more toward the loner side of things – I need a lot of alone time, which is pretty awesome given that my career requires a lot of time alone.  And while I really love hanging out and chatting with readers and writers, sometimes only being able to respond with a certain amount of characters becomes tough and then it’s like, you’re basically using Twitter as an IM.  But I get it – it’s a great way to get updated quickly and efficiently.

When we talked about discontinuing the Writeminded Blog (don’t worry – we’re still all there on the reader’s yahoo loop and for now, the monthly chats will for sure continue) I said that I found it really sad that blogs were being replaced by Twitter and Facebook updates.  As someone who keeps pages for my author persona and not for personal use per se, I should like that more, find it easier to shoot out an update here and there.

But I’m a writer – I like to spill my thoughts on the page – and keeping this blog is really not much different than keeping a personal journal, which I’ve done since I was literally like eight.  Granted, there are things I won’t share here because they’re too personal, but I like knowing that people can come here and feel comfortable to post or not, to learn about Gus or Zoo or to hear about my writing process or the fact that I might be getting another tattoo soon or..whatever.

So this is my way of saying that I like my blog – and sometimes I have to say that to remind myself of how much I do like it, especially when I stop worrying about whether or not I’m saying anything of worth, whether I’m offending someone or being too PC or what.  I’ve been blogging for a long time and I’m really hoping that people still enjoying reading them.  It’s where I’m most comfortable and, like I told Catherine in an earlier post, it’s home.

So what’s your favorite social media / way of connecting with friends / families / readers, etc?  Do you like all the options or did you find it easier when people were all in one place?

©2010 Stephanie Tyler's Weblog. All Rights Reserved.