Alison Kent's Blah Blog

I love lazy days. Today is the first lazy day I’ve had in at least a month, probably two. I’m waiting for the sun to hit the backyard, then I’m heading outside with a book. It’s already 67 degrees and it’s only 10:00 a.m., yay! ‘Cept it is going to be sorta muggy today. If I get up the energy, I’ll go early vote. If not, I’ll be there on Tuesday.

I’m still pretty punch drunk after the last week. I finished up my Brava on Monday, then spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday doing a final polish. It gets to the point where words quit making sense and all blur together. I’ve said before that I write pretty much finished product, so my polishing goes pretty smoothly, heh, but when the brain is that tired it’s hard to know if I’m even spelling things correctly. Found myself once having written however for whoever . . . things like that aren’t caught by spell check!

Anyhow, a couple of things.

PBW is giving readers a chance to win several Blazes! Go check it out!

And the 3rd round of the 70 Days of Sweat Writing Challenge starts TOMORROW!

I’m bowing out as sponsor for this round simply because I’ve got too much on my plate in March to be able to blog over there. But the challenge is in very capable hands, and you should plan to drop by the sponsors’ blogs tomorrow for some encouraging words: Shiloh Walker has stepped up as boss man in charge, doing the organizing I did the last two rounds. And she’s assisted by Larissa Ione, HelenKay Dimon, Lauren Dane, Jaci Burton, Diana Peterfreund, and Portia Da Costa this time around.

You’ll notice on the sidebar at the Sven site (and on my right sidebar) a link to Holly Lisle’s Holly Shop for Writers. I put the link in both places because Holly offers some of the most down to earth advice for dealing with the writing life, as well as some amazingly comprehensive craft books. (My favorite is her Create A Plot Clinic.) Yes, I’m an affiliate of her shop, but I wouldn’t be if I didn’t think her work was worth the investment. From the encouraging to the instructional, it is.

When I was working the Sven team, I would dig for encouraging words and quotes a couple of times a week to post over there. Several I ended up adding to my own sidebars because they resonate with me so much. I thought in honor of Sven (and Russell), I’ll pull this one up and share it here.

“You know, I’m a storyteller. We are storytellers. And ours is an ancient tradition, contemporized by the cinema and the capturing of light. And we should all be very proud of our place in society. On any given night, millions of people across the world buy a ticket for adventures that only we as storytellers can provide. We release burdens, we galvanize emotions, we make people laugh, we make people talk over breakfast. This is a great job and I want to encourage every one of you in this room to give everything you can to the story. God bless narrative. God bless originality.”
~ Russell Crowe – 2002 SAG Award Winner

The book is done and gone, woot! Friday I’ll be scrambling around to mail everything that needs to go out the door. Saturday will be another Advertising with Alison giveaway (Sydney Croft’s UNLEASHING THE STORM) and by Sunday I should have a brain again!

Up for grabs:

An SG-5 novella 4-pack. The Shaughnessey Accord, The Samms Agenda, The Beach Alibi (A Quill Award Nominee), The McKenzie Artifact.

To be eligible, comment here and tell me what part of the world you’re in – or what state in the US. That’s it! I’ll draw a winner Sunday night, March 2, 2008, at 8:00 p.m.ish CST.

My food requirements of late have had me wondering if other authors go through this.

For me (not my characters) this book has been all about muffins. I don’t know why, but I’ve wanted muffins. Carrots. Bran. And Shredded Wheat. Puffed Wheat. Raisin Bran.

When I was writing the CIG, I ate crackers, cheese, and olives for lunch every day. Fancy crackers, gouda and havarti and muenster, olives stuffed with garlic and other things.

When I was writing MAXIMUM EXPOSURE, I drank yogurt every day for breakfast, had a grilled tuna sandwich every day for lunch, downed a fruit smoothie every afternoon.

The husband has been nuts trying to anticipate what to buy, what to cook and feed me.

Since I’ll be starting a new book next Monday after this one goes into Thursday’s FedEx, I’m wondering what I’ll be eating while writing that one – though I did place an order here today! And, yes, I take vitamins and oils and all the things that are good for me. This is not that sort of needy body craving. It’s more like my creative brain is insane!

(No, that is nothing the husband cooked. I borrowed it from this website because the hero in the Brava I’m polishing now obsesses daily about his crawfish, corn on the cob, and red potatoes – even though this is shrimp! Just seemed too perfect not to use.)

. . . others of us are off making new friends.

The winner of BENEATH HIS CONTROL is: jessiegirl! Send me your mailing info and I’ll pass it along to Stephanie who’ll be sending you the book!

. . . to fit in the viewfinder of my cell phone camera.

She stopped by for a few yesterday while I was out in the sunny backyard writing away. She and her man boy moved this last week, so she was out in our area dropping off old keys, getting new ones made, and early voting — where she ran into the husband buying tomatoes at the Master Gardener Tomato Pepper Sale and Gardening Expo. She also delivered the GS cookies I ordered through #2 daughter’s office. Four boxes. One flavor.

She’s always been beyond his control…

Justin Brandt was Ava’s brother’s best friend, her protector during her wild-child teenage years…and the object of her hottest fantasies. Now he’s a highly trained Navy SEAL with a body to die for and he’s been tasked with keeping Ava alive. Which means keeping her close – the closer the better…

Post a comment here if you’d like to be entered to win a copy of BEYOND HIS CONTROL from Stephanie Tyler. Winner will be drawn, Sunday night, February 24, 2008, at 8:00 p.m.ish CST. (Authors interested in having their books advertised, click here.)

. . . that she can’t even be arsed to get all the way off her pillow to do dishes get her lickings from the husband’s dinner plate. (And, yes, we do let her lick the plates, but most of the time we set them near her feeding corner. Guess others of us are lazy, too!)

Valentine’s Day morning I had a cup of coffee delivered to me by the husband moments after I sat up in bed. I headed to the sunny backyard not long after to write, and around lunchtime received my second delivery of the day – a toasted sandwich of thinly sliced rib-eye, freshly grilled onions and garlic, green olives, and herbed goat cheese.

One night last week? I showed him this picture (no recipe, just the photo) I’d found in a magazine, a dinner of baked chicken romano with artichoke hearts, black olives and sun dried tomato orzo, and a light parmesan cream sauce.

This picture? What he served. Baked chicken romano with artichoke hearts and asparagus tips instead of orzo, and all the yummy parmesan cream sauce I wanted.