Vixenwriter

So yesterday, as a whole? Not so good. First I heard this story on NPR about this man’s son who committed suicide in Iraq in 2005 and the overall epidemic rate of suicide “in theater” I had this moment as I drove where I thought about how you can’t protect your kids from everything and it made me mildly weepy all day. And then writerly stuff, best left unspoken about because I’m over it now. And then? Hello, I am not pleased with the new Word nor Vista because they both decided last night “hey, let’s configure updates and shut down Lauren’s computer and don’t bother giving her any notice!” Yes, I was homicidal for about forty five minutes.

ANYWAY - so today I decided to buy

These shoes:

And this dress:

Not to be worn together of course.

I also decided what I’m going to wear to the EC party at RT. well okay, I had an idea yesterday and I was all excited about it so I IM’d Megan to blather about it. But, because we’re so much alike sometimes it’s a wee bit scary - she’d already had that idea and unless we wanted to look like each others’ dates I had to change my mind since she had the idea first. So I incorporated part of my idea into a new idea.

I also looked at sneakers - you know just simple slide on skimmers but cripes, I am not gonna spend 40 bucks on plain old flat tennis shoes. They’re not all super space aged running shoes or even designer shoes. I know, it’s old school of me but whatever. Now I have my cat shoes and I’m wearing those on the plane to RT because I have to have shoes easy on and off for the security check point thingamabob.

And yes, I am babbling. It’s that sort of day.

Being a mom, I pretty much try to look at everything as a teaching or learning moment. So when something happens I think about how I can try and craft it into a lesson for my kids. I know, it’s odd, but go with me here for a moment.

I have three kids. This means several things. One, everything in my house is broken, nearly broken, taped together and generally a mess. Don’t come to my house expecting to use white gloves. It’s rarely quiet and everything gets tussled over.

Yesterday there was a battle royale over legos. Now there must be eighteen thousand legos in my house between all the toyboxes, in drawers, under beds, on dressers and tucked into corners. There’s no reason for a lego battle because they’re not a finite good. Any one of the three demons I gave birth to could easily dig around in a toybox and find ten legos. But they’d rather snatch them from each other and claim posession (this is usually the MO of the youngest one).

So after finding yet another file “sharing” site stealing from me, I’d had just about enough of theft yesterday. I gave a little speech about how oldest child had worked hard to gather the legos and build his whatsit and how the middle kiddo trying to take them was stealing. Worse, it was lazy and spiteful because you should be proud of your hard work and not steal it from other people.

Okay so I had this big long rant ready but cripes, I frankly just don’t care enough about the people who knowingly steal - be it books, music or other people’s work via plagerism - to write something I can actually publish in public on this blog.

So hey, stop it. Please. If your mother didn’t teach you you can’t share what doesn’t belong to you, I pity you.

I love LOL Cats - Always cheers me up no matter what.

moar funny pictures

Got word this weekend that Unexpected, Megan Warden’s book set in the Cascadia Wolves universe, has been contracted by Samhain. You should see it in July or August.

Waiting to hear back on beta on Undercover. I’ve got some feedback so far and I’m relieved. I’m waiting to see what my agent thinks of it and of a proposal I sent her last week as well.

Oh! I did sneak in some reading over the weekend - Patricia Briggs has seriously hit it out of the park yet again with her newest installment in the Mercy Thompson series. Iron Kissed was seriously fabulous. Made me actually weep, not just cry, but weep in one part. The writing is taut and interesting and I love Mercy’s character. I think the resolution with who Mercy chooses works really well and makes sense for everyone involved. Just a really fabulous book.

I also read Carrie Vaughn’s next Kitty book - Kitty and the Silver Bullet. Also fabulous. There were times when I just wanted to smack the crap out of Kitty. Part of the appeal though is how much she grows, of how despite the fact that she’s a werewolf, she’s scared and flawed and well, human. The action was well done and I love Ben’s character development too.

My dude and I watched Shoot em Up on Friday night. First of all, it might come as a surprise to you all but I have a wee bit of a crush on Clive Owen. Just a teeeny weeeny one. I laughed and laughed as I watched the movie. It’s meant to be over the top and campy and it is. Paul Giamati is absolutely hilarious and I don’t mind looking at Monica Belluci in any way so it was all win win for me.

Um, that’s about it for my exciting life today.

I know better. I know I shouldn’t read the letters in the RWR and yet every month I do. And I’m honestly never ready for the depth of audacity on the part of some of the people who write in to gasp and moan and put their hand on their foreheads and cry about the direction of romance.

This month’s little ditty is written by Linda Swift Reeder - who quickly assures us she’s not a prude and then follows up by calling erotic romance porn and women who have sex or who use curse words in these books sluts. This follows three months of letters crying about the “gang member” language on the part of heroines (including one written by a fairly well known pararomance author only signed in her real name and makes no reference to her writerly persona). Yawn. Won’t someone think of the children. *weeps* Yadda yadda.

I’m bored by the attacks on my morals by people who don’t know me. I’m agitated far more by what equals attacks on my readers. I mean, to consistently assail books my readers buy which contain curse words and sex scenes is at attack on romance readers and I’m not a genius or anything, but I love my readers and I can’t imagine why these folks attack them.

At this point I’m not even angry. I’m just sort of saddened by the lazy intellectualism this sort of letter shows.

I don’t think it’s jealousy that drives this sort of letter. I think there’s an expectation by people of Reeder’s ilk, that one’s opinion should be more than just an opinion - it should simply be the way *everyone* thinks and feels. This plays out in politics and every day life as well.

Some people don’t handle change well so they latch on to whatever they can to hang their anxieties. Erotic romance, sex, confident women - it’s all just a place to go when you can’t deal with your own insecurities.

There are indeed many romance novels that don’t contain graphic sex and bad language. There is indeed a middle ground in romance as well as the extremes on both sides (and I mean extreme as in polarity from the middle not in character). But people like this never rely on facts, they go straight for histrionics because that’s all they know. It’s lazy, but it’s prevalent.

There are many books I don’t read. Many genres that dont’ work for me. And many that do. I tend to turn my brain off whenever anyone starts wailing about “the children” or “our daughters” or “we as X women” because cripes, there are as many kinds of women as there are kinds of books.

I don’t think it’s sex she needs, or royalties, or whatever. I think it’s a damned open mind she’s in desperate need of and an ability to accept and understand she’s not the arbiter of what anyone but herself reads, does and says.

Books are amazing. Preferences are amazing. So put the two together why don’t you? Like what you like, don’t like what you don’t. It’s so very simple and completely unnecessary to attack what other people read and write.

I’m over at the RRT Blog with an “Ask Five” spot! Come by and say hello.

Undercover is now off to beta readers. I’ll be on pins and needles until I begin to hear back. Eeep! Now it’s back to work on Taking Care of Business, which I hope to finish up this weekend.

Anyone doing anything exciting this weekend? Here at home it’s me, writing oh and Mt. Laundry too.

Wow, what a wonderful response I got on the Joyfully Blogging Contest!!

A’la the randomizer at random.org - I chose four winners and they are:

Laura K
Bonnie Rose Leigh
Melissa
Estella

Folks, please email me with your mailing addresses and congratulations!!!

I love Anne Cain. I’m just sayin - she makes me all giddy with her covers. God, look at this. Happy sigh.

Book Three in my Cascadia Wolves series is now available from Samhain Publishing!

First, to correct my horrible oversight in my dedication I want to thank Angie James, editor most fabulous for helping me always write a better book.

An excerpt after the jump!

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