The rules:

a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

All Righty Then:

1. I could chew a whole bag of Dubble Bubble gum – just one after the other, chewing until it loses flavor and then onto another one.

2. I twirl this one lock of my hair, just under my left ear. My mother tells me I’ve done this since I was a baby.

3. I make up random songs about things all the time. Including buttsecks.

4. When I’m very tired and trying to sleep, I rub my feet together over and over until I pass out.

5. I get motion sick (Doom sick) with first person shooter games.

6. I love sparkly things

I tag: Anne, Rhian, Anya, Cynthia, Jenn and Vivi

2. How many books have you completed?
Oh my, let’s see: 18 full length novels and seven novellas. I’ve also got contracts for two more full length novels and a novella

3. How many books are you working on now? I’m writing a novella, revising a dual author novel and working on two proposals.

4. Are you a linear or chunk writer?
Linear. I cannot jump ahead although I can come back at the end and add new things.

5. The POV you’re most partial to?
Third but I do find myself drawn for first for just the right story.

6. The theme that keeps cropping up in your books?
Well this is a hard one. I suppose strength of conviction even in a challenge. Strength of character. Class and gender issues pop up frequently and well, I do love a big, bad alpha male and tend to write women who can hold their own with them.

7. How many days a week do you write?
Seven. Occasionally I take the day off, but most weeks I write every day.

8. What time of day do you get your best writing done? I have three kids and one of them is still home all day so I don’t get much done until after 8 when they’re in bed. So I write from about 8 – 11 nightly. It used to be 9 – 1 so I’m getting better and sleeping a tiny bit more.

9. Who are your inspirations? Authors who excite my imagination. Authors like William Gibson who can say in 3 words what it takes other authors 15 to say. Margaret Atwood whose writing has a sense of grace and beauty even when the subject is stark. Authors like Jenny Crusie and Nora Roberts who can create characters you can sink your teeth into but who aren’t one dimensional stereotypes. Nalini Singh and Eileen Wilks who can take a genre like paranormal romance and simply turn it upside down and breathe new life into it.

10. Who are your favorite authors to read? (different from mentors) William Gibson, Patricia Briggs, Frank Herbert, Kim Harrison, Margaret Atwood, Eileen Wilks, Nalini Singh, Liz Maverick, Marge Piercy, Sherri Tepper, Louise Marley, Richard Morgan, Linda Howard, Megan Hart, Anya Bast, Susan Elizabeth Phillips – the list goes on and on

Seven Random Facts About Me:

1. I’m a control freak (hey it said random, not surprising). Being an author is a total challenge to this part of me because well, there are a lot of important things outside your control.

2. I love Donna Summer – I’m currently listening to On The Radio right now

3. I’m totally goofy and too old to care what anyone else thinks about it. For instance, I always say goofy stuff – just now one of my favorite things to say is “flossy flossy”

4. I love pin up art and vintage styled clothing.

5. My favorite poem is Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese. It makes me cry every time I read it:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild gees, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

“Wild Geese,” by Mary Oliver from New & Selected Poems (Harcourt Brace)

6. I’m obsessed with music and it’s tied very closely into my writing process. There’s not a big moment in my life that I don’t have a song associated with for one reason or another. Labor and delivery of my first child – Tub Thumping by Chumbawumba because it was on the radio relentlessly! My trip to Budapest with my husband – and also the first time my husband said I love you – Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. The former because we heard a group play it on the walls of the castle in Pest and the latter because the record was on when he told me.

7. I’m actually sort of shy.

Okay now I’m supposed to tag 7 people: Megan, Red, Rhian, Ann, Anya, Lori, and Jenn.

1. Smart Mouthed Women – Um, yeah, they say you write what you know. Most of my heroines tend to have quick, smart mouths. Some hide it under a smoother, nicer veneer (like Grace in Standoff) but when you push them too far, you’ll know it.

2. The couple usually gets together early and the threat is external – I tend to write stories where you know the couple will be together but the stressor is outside – werewolf mafia, class distinctions, big world threatening events.

3. Pop culture references. It’s just how I am. Many of my characters will use slang or make references to music or pop culture figures.

4. Cursing. Yes, start that letter to the RWR right now because my characters say bad words. A lot. There are exceptions but a lot of my characters are hard, or warriors and my warriors say bad words when a baddie pulls a weapon on them. Or when they catch their partner with another person in bed.

5. Big families – I love big families. Be they werewolves or small town humans – you’ll find them in almost all my books.

6. Lots of secondary characters – not as series fodder but because, well, I like secondary characters. I think they add an interesting layer to the main story and characters.

7. Sexin. Oh yeah. Even in my non erotic titles you’ll find it. Because I like to write it and I think sex is rich with opportunity to explore character motivaton.

8. Lots of talking – I like dialog, my characters like dialog. I can’t help it. It’s because I’m so shy in real life (okay I laughed when I wrote that)

9. Dominant heroes and heroines who push right back when the hero gets all bossy

10. Romance. Even in my urban fantasy and post apocalyptic books there’s romance. What can I say? I like it.

Four jobs Ive had or currently have in my life:

1. Writer
2. Lawyer
3. Grant Writer
4. Domestic Violence Victim’s Advocate

Four countries I’ve been to:

1. Czech Republic
2. Mexico
3. Germany
4. Hungary

Four places Id rather be right now:

1. Prague
2. Las Vegas
3. Maui
4. Bali

Four foods I like to eat:

1. Yellow Curry
2. Shrimp Egg Rolls
3. Snappea Crisps
4. Cupcakes

Four personal heroes, past or present:

1. My Grandma Minnie
2. Vaclav Havel
3. Marian Wright Edelman
4. Mother Jones

Four books you’ve read or are currently reading:

1. The Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea
2. Trouble by Sasha White
3. Thirteen by Richard Morgan
4. Bit By The Bug by Michelle Pillow

Four words or phrases you would like to see used more often:

1. You’re totally right, Lauren
2. I’d like to offer you a three book contract
3.Thank You
4. Excuse me

Four reasons for ending a friendship:

1. Lies
2. Repeated Thoughtlessness
3. Jealousy over what I have
4. Racism/Sexism/Homophobia or any other bigotries

Four smells that make you feel good about the world:

1. Fresh Soup From The Crock Pot
2. The Top of My Children’s Heads After A Bath
3. Morning Air
4. The way it smells in autumn – clean air, fireplaces, leaves, sunshine

My question: Four Faces Who Bring Inspiration:

1. Clive Owen
2. Gerard Butler
3. Salma Hayek
4. Julian McMahon

I’m going to tag: Megan Hart, Anya Bast, Cynthia Eden and NJ Walters

I am however, relieved because apparently “dozens of horny girls in (my town)” want to be my friend. Gosh, isn’t that nice of them? I’m sure my husband would be pleased by that. So friendly they even send me dozens of emails every day about it offering to send me pictures for some low introductory price. If I use that along with the offers to make my penis very large and virile, I’m so money! (well, if only I had a penis)

I have several new pairs of shoes that make me squee every time I see them. I’ve never had strappy stilettos before and these are so ridiculous! I love them in all their totally ridiculous, can only wear them with a few things glory. Also? A pair of bright red patent leather slingback open toed pumps. With, white polka dots on the heel and platform. Totally works with the vintage dress I picked up last month.

Okay, I’m officially rambling and I need to post excerpts up at my messageboard because it is, after all, Titilating Tuesday – actually I’ve already done that part. Sneaky peeks of Reading Between the Lines and Fire and Rain are up and ready to be read.

OH! And speaking of Fire and Rain, I realize I posed the cover all over the place but not here. Duh.

Syneca does it again and it works well with the Ascension cover too! (Which I’ll post too because I lurve it)

1. WHERE IS YOUR CELL PHONE? Counter.
2. RELATIONSHIP? Beautiful.
3. YOUR HAIR? Red.
4. WORK? Woman.
5. YOUR SISTER? Marianne.
6. YOUR FAVORITE THING? Snuggling.
7. YOUR DREAM LAST NIGHT? Sex!
8. YOUR FAVORITE DRINK? Pelligrino
9. YOUR DREAM CAR? Boxster
10. THE ROOM YOU’RE IN? Front.
11. YOUR SHOES? None.
12. YOUR FEARS? Failure.
13. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE IN 10 YEARS? Fulfilled
14. WHO DID YOU HANG OUT WITH THIS WEEKEND? Family.
15. WHAT ARE YOU NOT GOOD AT? Waiting.
16. MUFFIN? Chocolate.
17. ONE OF YOUR WISH LIST ITEMS? Contract.
18. WHERE YOU GREW UP? Los Angeles.
19.LAST THING YOU DID? coffee.
20. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING? capris.
21. WHAT AREN’T YOU WEARING? bra.
22. YOUR PET? Kids.
23. YOUR COMPUTER? Laptop.
24. YOUR LIFE? Chaos
25. YOUR MOOD? Restless.
26. MISSING? Answers.
27. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW? Contracts.
28. YOUR CAR? minivan.
29. YOUR KITCHEN? Mess.
30. YOUR SUMMER? insane
31. YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? red.
32. LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED? now.
33. LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Yesterday.
34. SCHOOL? lots.
35. LOVE? Yes.

Consider yourself tagged if you’d like to be!

1. I didn’t start reading romance in earnest until I was in my 30′s. It all started with Emma Holly…

2. But it was Jenny Crusie who made me think, “if I could write this well, I’d be proud to write romance”

3. But Emma remains the reason why I love to write menages and BDSM (and I hope, half was well as she can)

4. My first romance novel ever was when I was like 13 or 14 and it was Judy Blume’s, Forever.

5. I’ve always lived in large cities but I love to write about the kind of small town my mom grew up in

6. When I was a kid, my mom would drop me off at the local library and I’d spend literally hours there and still be sorry to leave

7. There’s a local sex toy store here in Seattle, Babeland (with stores in several other cities and they’re fab!) Anyway, I go there from time to time and I even did a reading there in March. But the first time I ever went there, when I was in college, I was totally freaked out.

8. I love Prague and if there was any other city I could live in anywhere in the world, I’d most definitely pack my kids and dude up and head there.

There are rules about tagging and all that stuff, but another not so unknown fact about me is that I hate rules. If you want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged.