Alison Kent's Blah Blog

This is the Mira Erotik copy of THE SWEETEST TABOO released this month in Germany. The title is GEWAGTE SPIELE which seems to translate to “daring plays.” (Click cover for a bigger version.) For some reason, Germany likes me!

I’m doing something I haven’t done in awhile and writing by the seat of my pants. I’m working on another Brava with characters readers haven’t yet met (though one does appear in Simon’s book) and have decided just to see where they take me. Knowing the one character about whom I’ve already written helps, and I knew at the time of our introduction that I wanted to give him a story, but he didn’t hook up with the heroine I’d originally planned. Which means that Stacy who won this prize will still get to name things; it’s just a whole different book than I’d thought I’d be writing.

And that’s okay. I’m liking it a lot. This off the cuff writing stuff is fun, especially since I’ve put my spec idea on hold for now since the plotting was giving me a headache. I am writing a synopsis for another straight contemporary romance (with a touch of mystery/suspense though it’s mostly a story about the who, not the why) because the story came at me like a whirlwind, and it’s over the top fun (at least in my mind) and I have to get the twists and turns down before my tiny mind loses them. But again. That one is involved and requiring a lot of plotting thought, and this one that I’m getting into isn’t. I mean, yes. There’s thought. Of course there’s thought. But it’s been a long time since I just wrote without a plotting board filled with colored stickies or turning points all mapped out. It’s nice. It’s relaxed. And it feels like some of the best writing I’ve done. This is a good thing, taking the road I rarely travel!

Sorry I’ve been away. I’ve been writing, been finishing a website for launching on the 1st, been playing with the cutest grandbaby ever, and been resting my overworked arm which still hasn’t recovered from my September writing stint. (A word on the piano. It was given to my parents by church friends when I was in grade school. My sister teethed on the keys, popping off the ivory. My sister is now 39 years old, the detective who I blogged about being shot three years ago. It’s an upright that was once a player, and it’s completely out of tune with several dead keys, and it’s only nostalgia that keeps us hauling it around. I used to play, and probably still could if I actually sat down and did it! Of course, with the out of tune / dead key issue, it would sound like complete crap!) Anyhow, today I’m blogging at Sven’s.

The winner of the galleys for UNBROKEN is: Estella! Estella, send me your mailing info and I’ll get that sent out to you asap!

Friday, the husband and I are babysitting for Sam as his nanny is going to Mexico for the weekend. (Yes, the plan is for the boy to be moderately bi-lingual!) We babysat one Friday last month, too, and I decided that babies should not be the only ones with Exersaucers. How cool to have a seat with all your goodies on a tray around you. I’d have to have my MP3 player, my Dana, my laptop with wireless, my cell phone, a book, a water bottle, pens and notebooks for writing – since these are all the things I haul outside with me every day to write. (And this week? I smell like sunscreen.) What about you? What would you want if you could build your own Exersaucer?

I no longer set an alarm clock. Since we have only mini-blinds covering our windows, I wake up when the sun is high enough above our neighborhood’s roofs and trees to hit our backyard. That’s about the time the dog decides it’s play time, and squirrels her way up between me and the husband, paws and claws outstretched, body elongated half the length of the bed, tail slamming the mattress like a base drum.

It doesn’t matter that I’m a night person these days, watching my 3 hours of mindless television then doing a last email check and some client web work before bed. Many times I’ll get involved in the web work and it’s already tomorrow when I finally get up from the desk. (I’ve got two sites launching first of next month.) The dog doesn’t understand.

Unfortunately, neither do the neighbors. I expect to hear mowers by 7:00 a.m. on the weekends. This is the Texas Gulf Coast and it’s hot. Lawn services get through the subdivisions as early as they can to kick out the work before the sweltering afternoon hours. That noise is usually in the distance and I don’t pay it much attention, noting it in my subconscious then going back to sleep (if the dog lets me).

The family living directly behind us, however, is doing home renovations. This morning I woke up to a power saw and hammer before 8:00 a.m. Okay. I’d probably had enough sleep, but I’m definitely a much happier camper when I wake up to the sun’s clock. And even the hammering and sawing isn’t that bad since it’s not constant. It’s the radio.

We all know how much I love sitting in the backyard and writing my fingers to the bone. This week? I’ve had to do it to the strains of KRBE. Granted, it could be a whole lot worse. The music is fairly innocuous, but it is not music I would ever write to, and I have been highly annoyed. I haven’t, in fact, been very productive page-wise.

Oh, I have three notebooks of notes going, and did type up some synopsis paragraphs on my Dana yesterday and more on my laptop last night, but this music thing is interfering with the thought process way too much. Still, I put up with it because I love being outside in the sun and the cool air. We get so few of these days during the year that I have to take advantage, even if the conditions for creating are not optimal, sigh.

Everyone waiting on something from me? All of it will be going out over the next couple of days. I spent Monday packaging and labeling and the husband will be making the p.o. trek for me, nice guy that he is. You should have what you’re waiting on by the 31st. If not, drop me a note as I may have overlooked you in the mailing madhouse, but I think I got everything.

I also contacted the winners of the copies of COMING TOGETHER: FOR THE CURE from my Comment for the Cure post as well as made available the copies of my friend Jan Freed’s books (she who inspired the post) to those who participated in the thread.

While doing all this mailing and prize organizing clean-up, I realized I finished with my galleys for UNBROKEN. Another winner is getting the copy edits, but I thought it would be fun for someone to get the novella in galley format. (This is the edited version that I get and check for continuity and typos, etc.) I’m going to give it away here to a commenter, and I’ll draw a name on Thursday night, October 25, 2007, at 8:00 p.m.ish CDT. The rest of you have to wait till approximately January 20th or so to get a copy of this February Blaze:

Read the rest of this entry �

I’m writing this on Sunday night. It’s only 8:00 p.m.. I’m exhausted. It feels like it should be midnight. (I’m also freezing. I guess I turned the a/c to icicle when everyone was here.) We had a great late bday lunch with #2 (the birthday girl) and her man, #1 (the older daughter) and her man, the son and the d-i-l and Sam, the husband and I, as well as #2’s best friend who is also the son’s best friend’s wife and her new baby who will now be Sam’s best friend (did you get all that?). (Click the pic for the up close cutie-pie version.) We went to TGI Friday’s (#2’s choice) and then came back here for cakes.

Now, the Smith Island cake was good, but I would’ve liked it better without the candy. That said, there’s not a slice left. The tres leches cake? I’d never eaten one, definitely never made one, and I was surprised. It was really good. Very carmel-y without being carmelized at all. If you know who Rick Bayless is, he has a tres leches recipe that uses carmelized goat milk (yeah, didn’t have that on hand), and I imagine is amazing. But my off-the-internet version was not bad.

Before the husband and I headed off to meet everyone, I wrote a new story pitch. (Something about drinking coffee in the backyard and enjoying the gorgeous day. 60% chance of rain Monday, then look at this forecast for the rest of the week, whoo-hoo!) I didn’t write a full synopsis yet, but I blasted through the whole thing from scratch, the characters and the set-up, and the basic plot.

It was one of those out of the blue things that hit and I had to go with it. Since it looks like I’ll be stuck indoors Monday due to the weather, I plan to get as much non-writing work done as I can (the house [I have SOOO much laundry to do], client web work, stuff to mail, etc.) since I will be spending the rest of the week in the sun creating my little fingers to the bone! Back to Sven’s book first (since it’s contracted and is earning me my living), but then I’m putting the spec book on momentary hold until I write out this new synopsis. Gotta do it before I lose the fire!

Though Friday was daughter #2’s birthday, she spent it with her man at the beach, leaving her two heathens dogs with us for the day (click the pic for a larger version of the two passed out from exhaustion). We did like any good grandparents, and made them play outside for 8 hours, then fed them and put them down (to sleep, not permanently) when they came in at dark. Ergo, it was not a family day. Last weekend the husband and I cooked for everyone because I was in the mood (which is VERY rare, trust me, heh). Chicken fried steak, mashed taters (w/ skins, of course), green beans with onions and bacon grease (mmm mm mmm), cornbread, salad, and banana pudding. Today, we’re going out. Yesterday I made two cakes for everyone to gorge on when we come back here after late lunch / early dinner. I made this one, and this one. No clue if either of them will be edible, but those are the two she chose, one an alternate in case not everyone liked the other! I’ll let you know!

Fall Television – Sweating with Sven – Gratuitous Family Pics! -

FALL TELEVISION

Did anyone watch Viva Laughlin Thursday night? I wasn’t as entirely put off by the Cop Rock style singing (except with Melanie Griffith’s plastic face) as I thought I’d be. Funny to see Hugh Jackman on a tv show.

SWEATING WITH SVEN

Friday was a total bust as far as words written, but I spent hours, I mean HOURS, with the husband brainstorming world-building for my spec idea. (We were dog-sitting for daughter #2 who spent her birthday at the beach, and we were outside in the backyard most of the day – me writing, the husband coding.) Let me just say, world-building is not for the faint of heart. We do it with any book we write, of course. I had a worlds that I used in both my gIRL-gEAR and SG-5 series. But neither of those are anything like what I’m dealing with now, creating fantasy elements that are logical and don’t break my make-believe rules!

GRATUITOUS FAMILY PICS!

Reviews – Fall Television – Sweating with Sven

REVIEWS

See? I’m not the only one who loved Kristan Higgins’ CATCH OF THE DAY! Says another reader:

Let’s talk about how much I love, love, love this book. Kristan’s characters are so funny and so real-life that you can’t help but want to move to the town in Maine she set the book in, hang out with the lobstermen, and go to Joe’s Diner for some good blueberry pie. (Kristan, dang it, you’re going to have to put a scratch-n-sniff in your next book. Then again, I could SMELL the sea air, feel the sand between my toes, hear Father Tim’s lilting Irish brogue as he’s asking for some more eggs Benedict with bacon instead of Canadian bacon…) I loved the heroine, Maggie, and her dating disasters. I especially loved the Beethoven-playing lobsterman hero, Malone: He rescued the heroine from herself, and every woman knows that man’s a keeper.

Awhile back, I’d given away some books for review here on the blog, one for Janelle Denison’s BORN TO BE WILDE and another for Sydney Croft’s RIDING THE STORM. I’ve got both of those for you today!

Janelle Denison never disappoints and with her latest in the Wilde series, Born To Be Wilde is no exception. This story will have readers begging for more. Born To Be Wilde has everything a romance reader could want–electrifying sexual tension, plenty of steamy sex, a dash of suspense and of course expert pacing. You’ll be hooked from the first page–guaranteed!
~Cher Gorman

Haley Marie Holmes has been sent by her agency to meet Remy Begnaud and discover whether the whispered rumors of his ability to control the weather are true or not – using any means available to her. Remy has been haunted by his curse all his life, living amid distrust and fear and at the mercy of Mother Nature and her storms. When he comes home to the bayous to answer a call for help from his father, Remy discovers the gorgeous Haley living in his father’s house instead. He didn’t believe her excuses and made up his mind to get to the truth. But the enemy is almost upon them.

Riding the Storm was a scorchingly hot, fast-paced paranormal that sucked me in from the first page and made me resent any interruption. It combines many of my favorite things: a strong, smart heroine, a sexy, tormented hero, hot sex and a fascinating paranormal universe. I was especially struck by the chemistry between Haley and Remy. Their relationship was explosive from the start and only grew more and more so as the story progressed. I could almost taste the storms and feel the power behind them and Remy as I read.

I received Riding the Storm from Alison Kent and wasn’t sure what I would think about it. I loved it and have already put the next book in the series on my Buy list. The writing duo behind the Sydney Croft name have a truly wonderful chemistry to put out this is a result and I, for one, hope they continue to work together. I definitely recommend this book to fans of paranormals that want something new that’s not vampires, shapeshifters or witches.

~Maura Anderson

FALL TELEVISION

Friday is fairly boring. I watch Numb3rs and that’s it. If I’d watched Friday Night Lights the first season, I’d watch that, too, but I’m behind on all the drama, though I do like the episodes I’ve seen. Moonlight is meh, as is Ghost Whisperer. If I’m tired enough and bored enough, I’ll tune in. But even Tom Selleck and Josh Duhamel can’t get me to watch Las Vegas with it’s cast of TSTL females. I have the first Women’s Murder Club recorded and might add that to the line-up if it’s any good. And I’ll probably be a sucker and try Next Great American Band. We’ll see. ;)

SWEATING WITH SVEN

Yesterday I managed to get into the Sven book and I now have 10 pages written, wahoo! A good start because the characters are coming alive and surprising me. I knew where I was going with these beginning couple of scenes, but then had one of those nice OOH moments happen, so that was good. I also did more plotting and planning on the spec story, and *think* I worked out the issue that was keeping me from writing more. (Like I said on Monday, I don’t move forward until I know what I’m doing so that I don’t have to go back and spend time doing fixes that I can avoid by working through the first time.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DAUGHTER #2!!