Lighting The Luminaries

My neighborhood has a long-standing tradition of lining our streets with luminaries on the Saturday night before Christmas. A few stalwart volunteers put out hundreds of white bags filled with sand during the afternoon, and then a few more people go out at dusk with their trusty lighters and light up as many as they can. Block by block, street by street. The result is magical - a line of flickering white lanterns up and down the street, Christmas lights on all the houses, neighbor talking to neighbor in the gathering dark.

Peace on earth. Goodwill toward fellow men. For a little while, anyway. :-) Christmas traditions remind us to take a little time and appreciate what we have, where we've come from, and hopefully where we're going.

Do you have any special traditions for the holiday?

Quiet Heroes

For the last couple of years, I've done a little bit of fundraising for The Freedom Playground Foundation, an organization formed with the goal of creating the first barrier-free, all-access playground for the handicapped children of Tampa.

The Freedom Playground is the brainchild of my neighbor, Stefani Busansky, whose oldest daughter Sarah was born with cerebral palsy. Freedom Playground began as a dream, and it is about to become a reality, all because of some wonderful people who have donated both time and money into making it so.

My feeble efforts at fundraising have raised only a few hundred dollars a year, until this year. This year, I want to give a very special thank you to a wonderful woman who, out of the goodness of her heart, just donated a total of $50,000.00 to the Freedom Playground Foundation. While this extremely generous, very kind soul has asked to remain anonymous, I'd like her to know that what she's done is about to make some very special children very happy. The legacy of her generosity will live on for years and years in the hearts of children who, because of their disabilities, often have a much harder time just "being kids".

So for those of you out there who think that angels don't exist, think again. :) Merry Christmas to all the quiet heroes out there, who put their money or their time where their mouth is!

In Memoriam: Jon Kipling Bohannon Nov. 3, 1956 - December 19, 1998

My brother Jon was a guy who was passionate about fishing, about partying, and about women. Combine all three of those things and Jonny was in heaven, which is where (I can only hope) he is right now.

In our family of five, Jon was the only boy, and the sibling closest to me in age. One of my favorite memories is how - when he'd teased me to the point where I'd finally lose my temper, which he loved to do - I'd chase him down the hall to his bedroom and he'd jump into bed and pull the covers of his head, shouting and laughing that the blanket was his "shield of defense" as I did my best to pummel him senseless (hey, I was a little girl and he was my older brother - I couldn't have hurt him if I wanted to). No matter how mad I'd get at him, we'd both end up laughing over his very verbal, and very ridiculous mock defense.

As an adult, Jonny wasn't perfect. He was often unreliable, sometimes a bit shady, and always drank too much, but he'd give you the shirt off his back if you asked for it. He had a big heart, and zest for life. That zest for life is, unfortunately, what eventually what did him in, and he died far too young of chronic liver failure. He knew it was coming for a couple of years, and he became very, very ill near the end, but he wasn't bitter. He'd lived his life the way he wanted - he'd traveled all over the world only to settle in his beloved Key West, where he could fish and laze away his days with pretty girls and laid-back people like himself.

He died nine years ago today, just before Christmas. So today I'm remembering him, and I hope a few other people do, too. Even though I had a chance to say goodbye right before he died, I'd like him to know one more thing: I've finally forgiven him for reading my diary when I was thirteen. :)

The New Suburb Beautiful Book Club

I just wanted to say thank you to the warm and wonderful women of the New Suburb Beautiful Book Club, who invited me to share in their monthly fun last night. I had such a great time! Special thanks to Jane, who spent all day cooking up a true Southern feast for fifteen: peppered pork tenderloin, black-eyed peas with ham, green beans and potatoes, roasted pears and cornbread baked with maple syrup. It was DEE-lish, particularly the cornbread. :)

I knew it'd be a fun evening when Jane met me at the door wearing a tree skirt. As in tree skirt - the skirt that goes around the bottom of a tree. She'd pinned it on herself so neatly that it actually worked, flocking and all! It was the book club's Christmas gathering, and all the members brought wrapped books to exchange. Wine and conversation on the patio in a mild Florida night (sorry to all you folks in the great White North!), laughter and teasing among women who obviously knew each other well, a chance to get to know some of my own neighbors better.

It was truly a lovely, fun evening. Thanks, ladies!

A New 'Do

As much as I hate to admit it, my husband was right again. :-(

One of our favorite TV shows is Medium, which stars Patricia Arquette as a woman who sees spirits (it's based on the life of real-life psychic Allison DuBois). My husband has told me many times that Ms. Arquette and I have a lot in common - longish blonde hair, curvy figure, even a slightly crooked tooth which gives her a teeny bit of a lopsided smile similar to mine. Anyway, last season Patricia Arquette got a new hairdo - she cut her long blonde hair into a short, straight bob which looked fabulous on her.

"You'd look great with that haircut!" says my husband.

"But it's so short," says I, "and besides, she's got hair and makeup people."

Over the next few months, the debate continued. I was, in fact, tired of my long hair, but very leery of cutting it - it's been a part of me so long I was worried I'd end up like the Biblical character of Samson, who lost his strength when he lost his hair. I was ready for a change, but hesitant to walk into a salon, hand my guy a picture of an actress and say, "Here, make me look like this."

But, veteran watcher of "What Not To Wear" makeovers that I am, I knew that a great hair stylist can work miracles. I did my homework and found a "master stylist" here in town (yes, there are different levels of hair stylists depending on their training) who recommended a consultation before the actual cut - you come in, talk to him, let him evaluate your style and your "look", then go away and think about it before you come back for the cut. Suited me perfectly.

So, I went for my consultation and let him evaluate me. And what did he recommend? A short, straight bob just like this:

What a surprise, hm? :-)

So now Patricia Arquette and I kinda look like sisters, and I ain't complainin'. I'm still getting used to it, but I'm liking it better every day (no pictures of me yet, but it looks just like this, I promise).

Change is good, but having your husband be right when it comes to your hair style is a little weird. I mean, most men don't notice these things, do they? (My husband insists on disclaimer here: he's a Marine, a manly man of manly pursuits, and he never notices anybody's hair except mine. Feel better, honey?)

So have you ever had a haircut that you just loved? How about one you hated?

How Much Does It Cost To Get Published?

Alas, it's finally happened. The inevitable awkward cocktail party conversation I've heard about so many times, but hoped never to experience. The one where you're chatting away with a woman you barely know, but she knows you're a published author because her husband knows your husband so she wants to hear the details. "Great!" you think, "a new reader!" You try to sum it up your book in a nutshell, explain that it's available in the bookstores (It is? Yes, it is. You mean like Borders and Barnes&Noble? Yes, like Borders and Barnes&Noble), and then you drop a coy little comment about your literary agent and take another sip of your drink.

So now it's her turn, and you're listening to how she's had a book stuck in her head forever, and how she knows it would be a huge success if she could get around to writing it. How she knows the perfect artist to do the illustrations, and how Nora Roberts has got nothing on her. And then, a question that took me completely by surprise: "How much does it cost to get published?"

My first thought, I swear, was "Is she asking how much I spend on paper and office supplies?" And then I realized that she was assuming I was self-published; that I'd paid someone to publish my book. While I have absolutely nothing against self-publishing or print-on-demand publishing, what surprised me the most was that it obviously hadn't occurred to her that anyone could get published any other way.

"I don't know how much it costs to get published," I said, very politely. It wasn't this woman's fault that she'd misunderstood. "My publisher paid me," I told her. "They bought the book."

Her eyebrows went sky high, and I could see the skepticism in her face. No more questions about publishing, and she immediately changed the subject. I was left feeling like I'd said something wrong, and even though we chatted for a while longer, I was relieved when she moved on to chat with someone else.

It was weird. It was awkward. How strange not to be believed when you've achieved something that you worked so hard for.

My husband claims that you're never a hero in your hometown, and I think he's right. I think that woman at the cocktail party made an immediate assumption that I couldn't possibly be a bona fide author simply because I move in the same circles she did. How could the woman who shops at the same grocery store she does be a published author? Ah, well. Her book is still in her head, while mine is on the shelves. Clean up on Aisle 3.

Does This Ph.D. Make Me Look Fat?

No, I don't have a Ph.D. (unless you count the one I'm married to), but according to a recent Harvard study of 16,000 women published in the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, I don't need one - all you have to do is look at my waist/hip ratio to tell I'm a freakin' genius! LOL
According to this gloriously wonderful study (and I mean that sincerely), women with a small waist and large hips are smarter, and have smarter babies. It seems the fat stored in the hips is rich in Omega 3, which is serious brain food. In addition, it appears that men are genetically hard wired to be attracted to curvier women (that loud groan you hear is my husband, tiredly repeating "I've been telling you that for years!").

So scootch on over, J-Lo, and lemme take a seat next to you, girlfriend! I don't mind if it's a squeeze... the junk in our trunks has finally been vindicated!

(To find our your waist/hip ratio, measure your waist and hips. Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement, and hope you come up with a number below .7.)

Bottom line (pun intended), the eggheads at Harvard have proven once and for all that an hourglass figure gives women a genetic advantage over the size 4 Kate Moss/Twiggy/Beanpoles of the world. Now excuse me while I go eat a cookie. :)

Scratch and Read

What do I have to say for myself today? Click the box, pick up the virtual coin and start scratching to find out!

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Today is my sister Pam's birthday! She's forbidden me from ever revealing her age, so I won't, except to say that she's older than me, and always will be. LOL (What year were you born in again, Sis? I can't remember.) ;-)

Anyway, my sister Pam is what you officially call a "hoot". (Seriously, it's a word we Southerners use all the time!) She's bubbly and upbeat and energetic, and she LOVES a party or a practical joke. She's also impossible when it comes to presents... even when you clearly mark a gift "Do Not Open Until Your Birthday", she can't be trusted.

Hence my phone call at 6p last night when she called to tell me how cute she looked in the gift I bought her! (the gift she wasn't supposed to open until this morning) *sigh*

Happy Birthday, Pammie! I love you!

Congratulations, Carla Hughes!

A great, big shout-out of CONGRATULATIONS! to my dear friend, Carla Hughes, who found out yesterday that her historical/inspirational romance, The Heart Beckons, will be released by Harlequin Inspirational in 2009. Carla won the Golden Heart for this manuscript last July, and everyone who knows her knew it was just a matter of time before some intelligent editor snapped it up! Melissa Endlich at Harlequin is obviously one smart cookie. :)

Nobody deserves this more than Carla, and I'm so PROUD of her. She's done something not many people have been able to do - write a good, solid historical romance in a fascinating time period (ancient Rome), using the growth of Christianianity itself as the fulcrum for a love story. I can't wait to see it on the shelves!

If Today Is Your Birthday...

...then you and I share the same birthday! :) Here's what our horoscope says for the coming year:

Your star-quality is turned up to the maximum this year (woohoo!). On the positive side, you will be both highly attractive and highly charismatic.

Well. Break out the red carpet, hm? LOL

A great birthday horoscope, but I learned a long time ago not to believe everything I read. :) I'll be happy to be fairly attractive and somewhat interesting this year.

HOWEVER, I saved my birthday horoscope from the year 2000, and this is what it said THEN:

You are dynamic, inquisitive and very serious where romance is concerned. You are a natural writer, psychologist. You travel more than most. One day you could write a novel.

Seriously, that's what it said. Maybe I should start looking for the red carpet after all, hm? :)

Oh, and here's a lovely Birthday Fairy I got from a friend this morning! Pretty, isn't she?

It's All Greek To Me

I went to a big, fat Greek wedding this weekend, and I now understand why they call them that (LOVED that movie, btw). I'd never been in a Greek Orthodox church before, or heard a Greek service performed. The church was beautiful, the walls covered with distinctive Byzantine-style iconography, like the picture at left. The service was VERY long, replete with rituals I'd never heard of before, like the "crowning" of both bride and group, and a formal processional around the altar three times. The priest actually sang most of the words to the service, which made it a bit hard to understand. Very opulent, very ritualistic, very long... very BIG. I estimated about 250 people were there.

There was also a moment where I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing - a lovely young woman began a solo of Ave Maria just before the wedding started. Not only did the organist make a mistake and start playing from the wrong piece of sheet music halfway through the song (causing the poor woman to have to start over), it seemed all the men in the audience were taken by a fit of coughing at the same time. So this nice young woman is trying to sing the gorgeously beautiful, spiritual song, and all you can hear is *cough, cough*, *wrong note*, *cough, cough*. None of the women were coughing, just the men - it was so odd it was funny. :)

The reception was very formal - the bride and groom were whisked off in a Rolls Royce for wedding pictures while everyone else drank and impatiently eyed the menu: filet mignon AND chicken stuffed with feta and cranberries. Best of luck to Tom and Stephanie, who are honeymooning in Spain, then taking a cruise around the Mediterranean. Opah!!

I Heart Amazon :)

Did I mention that my next two books are already listed on Amazon? Neither of them have a cover yet, but they're both already available for pre-order!! A MATCH MADE IN HELL and WEDDINGS FROM HELL are out next summer, one month apart!

I'm enjoying the fall weather too much to wish for summer just yet, but knowing I'll have two more books on the bookstore shelves will definitely give me something to look forward to. :)

The 2007 Weblog Awards

I'm tickled to announce that the blog kept by the fabulous editors over at Avon is up for an award! The Avon Romance Blog is one of 10 finalists in the Best Literature Blog category of the 2007 Weblog Awards, the world's largest blog competition!

Early last year, Avon editors Carrie Ferron, Lucia Macro, Erika Tsang, Lyssa Keusch, May Chen, Esi Sogah and Tessa Woodward began a really fun blogsite all about books and the people who write them. Frequent guest bloggers include authors Stephanie Laurens, Julianne McLean, Julia Quinn, Dixie Cash and Mary Castillo (and me. :)

I think it's super cool that they're up for an award already, but they need votes to win! If you're reading this, do me a huge favor and VOTE for the Avon Romance Blog! All it takes is one click! You can vote once a day per computer through end of polls, which is tomorrow!

Copyedits, Coming Up!

I got word today that I'll be getting the copyedits for my next book pretty soon. A Match Made In Hell is in the very competent and grammatically correct hands of Peter Weissman, the same man who did the copyedits on my first book, Dead Girls Are Easy. While I can't say I'm thrilled about confirming copyedits, I AM thrilled about what it means, because it means the book is in production. It means I'll get to see the cover sometime in the next couple of months, and then galleys (Advance Reader Copies) will be produced a month or so after that. The actual release date for A Match Made In Hell is June 24, 2008.

I just finished copyedits for Weddings From Hell, the paranormal anthology I'm doing with fellow authors Maggie Shayne, Kathryn Smith and Jeaniene Frost. The release date for that is May 27, 2008.

Two more Nicki Styx ghost tales, published one month apart, for a total of three. It's a beautiful thing. LOL Having been through this process once, you'd think it'd be less exciting this time, but it isn't.

To top it off, both A Match Made In Hell and Weddings From Hell have joined Dead Girls Are Easy on Amazon, and are already available for pre-order! Woohoo!

A Boy King's Face Revealed

What must it be like to be a nineteen year old boy, and a king? A young man, just entering your prime, raised from birth to know that you are the last in a line of kings stretching back over centuries?

What must it be like to then fall ill, and die, knowing your family's royal dynasty ends with you?

Maybe I'm strange (ok, I'm strange), but I find those types of questions fascinating. King Tutankhamun, boy king, entombed with riches beyond imagining: precious collars, inlaid necklaces and bracelets, rings, amulets, a ceremonial apron, sandals, sheaths for his fingers and toes, his coffin and death mask of pure gold. Seven coffins, actually - four nested boxes, or shrines, of gilded wood, then three mummy-shaped coffins—two gilded and one of solid gold—all inside a red quartzite sarcophagus. What must his life have been like all those centuries ago, when he was a living, breathing boy/king? The walls of his tomb are filled with heiroglyphs that tell his tale, so we know he was a hunter, a warrior, a young husband. Now they've even done a CT scan of his face, and come up with what he actually looked like. Exotic, with almond-shaped eyes and an elegantly shaped skull that marked him as the last surviving member of a a family who had ruled Egypt for generations.

Look at him... doesn't putting a face on him make you curious about what kind of person he was? Was he kind? Was he cruel? Did he love his young wife or was it a marriage of convenience? (History always excites me, because it makes my imagination come alive - I often wish I'd gone into archeology. Except for the heat, the sand, the often difficult working conditions, and the bugs.) :)

Anyway, I think Tutanhkhamun was very much loved, and very much mourned. He was buried with such great wealth, such great care that he still exists, in a way, thousands of years after he died. I also like to think it was his young wife who left him a winecup engraved with, "May you, who love Thebes, spend millions of years with your face to the north wind, and may your eyes see joy."

You can read all about him in this great article from National Geographic.

Happy Halloween!

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I don't know why, really, except that it's a chance to be a kid again. To be silly, let loose and have a little fun. A time to get the adrenaline pumping a little, but still feel safe.

The house is all decorated, I've got eight bags of candy (ok, ok - I admit it! Seven and a half bags of candy... I'm eating M&M's as I write this!) But do you know what Halloween is really all about?

The early Celts called it Samhain (pronounced "Sow-wen"), meaning "Summer's End". One of their four main festivals of light, all tied to the seasons, Samhain was a joyous celebration of the harvest. A wild night of feasting and plenty around the bonfire, as the Celts enjoyed the fruits of their labor before the harshness of winter. The Celts believed it was a night when the veil between the living and the dead was thin, and for this reason, it was also a night to honor their dead. In one of my earlier, unpublished novels called DRUID MOON, I wrote about how I envisioned Samhain might be. You can read it here if you're interested. :)

Anyway, the idea that Halloween night is the night when the veil was thin has stuck with us through the years, though the emphasis has changed from honoring the dead into something much more spooky. Lighted pumpkins with leering faces were derived from the carved turnip lamps peasants used to make to frighten away spirits. Early costumes were worn to confuse any curious ghostly wanderers, so they couldn't follow a poor, luckless serf home.

It wasn't until the early thirties, and the advent of silent movies, that Halloween as we know it came about. The silver screen ushered in a new era of spookiness with classics like Nosferatu and Phantom of the Opera. The 40's and 50's gave us Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price even Abbott and Costello... creep shows were hot, and horror movies were at the top of their game. All of this fueling America's fire for a little ghoulish fun on Halloween.

Fun, isn't it?

How About Another Ghost Story?

Halloween isn't here yet, and I've more ghost stories from my readers left to tell! Here's the story of a "ladies man" who still likes to peek, as told by Pam:

Years ago, I dated a man off and on for about 8 months and because he wasn't "special" to me, I never even mentioned him to my family. Unfortunately, he met a ghastly end. It seems he was quite the playboy in town and also came from a very well heeled family. Prior to my dating him, he'd dated a local woman who worked as a bank teller in one of the downtown Tampa banks. She was hopelessly in love with him and, in fact, left her husband for this man. This was sadly unrequited love on her part, however, as the man in question never had any intention of marrying her. She called him one day to ask him to stop by her house after work. What happened then shocked the very core of Tampa society. In the hallway outside her bedroom she shot the man and then took her own life.


Now, fast forward about 20 years. My sister and brother-in-law, newly married at the time, rented a small home in South Tampa prior to buying their home. Very strange things happened in this home from the time they moved in. My brother-in-law's daughter had a strange encounter whereby she was certain someone was in the bedroom or outside in the hallway when she spent the night with them. After that, and not knowing this story, I stayed at their home while my sister and brother-in-law went away for the weekend. After putting my nephews to bed, I took a shower and several times the bathroom door opened....I got out of the shower each time, grabbing a towel, thinking my nephews were playing tricks on me only to discover each time that they were sound asleep. I mentioned it to my sister later and she said her step-daughter had had some of these same strange things happen to her. After a while, my sister began to feel increasingly uncomfortable in the house and one day was mentioning to the next door neighbor that she felt strange in this house. The neighbor looked at her and said "well, you know there was a murder/suicide in this house, don't you?" She, in fact, did not know this and was stunned that the realtor hadn't revealed this morbid fact. Being the investigator she is, she went to the Public Library and looked up the microfiche on the story and discovered its ghostly roots. She called me at work to tell me about it and mentioned the "socialite's" name. I almost screamed! I told her that this was a man I'd dated many, many years ago and that I very much recalled when this took place as it was only about a year after I'd dated him. I had no idea that the house they were renting was the scene of the crime and she had no idea that the man murdered there was someone I'd dated!

This is a story I can vouch for, because I know the people involved in the story personally.

The sister who rented the house that was the scene of the murder/suicide? That was me. :)

We were out of that house ASAP, but I saved the newspaper articles I found on microfiche at the library. Creepy, sad and true story.

Ghoulish Greetings From The Graveyard

I know I promised more ghost stories, but I wanted to share some shots from my Halloween party this weekend. We had such a great time, and some of my friends had such great costumes! A peacock, a Greek goddess, a Renaissance woman, a belly dancer, a nerd, some hippies, a Playboy bunny and the Queen of Hearts, even an alien skater rat (at least that's what Ed said he was).

Anyway, here's a quick slideshow of the fun:

The Haunted Caboose - Ghost Story #2

I promised to share ghost stories with you this week, so here's ghost story #2, from Pamela:

I thought it would be fun to spend the last night of our Arizona road trip vacation, this past August, in a renovated 193o's motor court on historic Route 66. The place has cabins, plus an old caboose on the property for guests to spend the night in. The caboose is said to be haunted, and well, that sounded like fun so I booked it. Past guests have reported seeing the ghost of a conductor, hearing whispering voices, or seeing flickering lights. Sounded cool to me.

As soon as we got there, I was sorry I hadn't booked the Marriott. We were exhausted from our week on the road with 4 kids, and the caboose was a little on the creepy side. Since only 5 could sleep in the caboose, my husband took a regular room in a cabin across the driveway. The kids were given a choice: stay in the so-called haunted caboose with mommy, or the regular room with Dad. Only the eldest went with Dad. My youngest child slept with me in the main part of the caboose, and the two middle children were thrilled with their bunks built high up in the cupola.

A few minutes after midnight, I was sound asleep when out of nowhere a force slammed around my ankles and feet. My eyes flew open. The feeling was as real as if two powerful hands grabbed and held me. I could see the room--there was nothing there. My mind was spinning with shock and and honestly, a little bit of anger. Flickering lights are fine, but this thing was touching me! In that second I felt myself being dragged toward the end of the bed. I tried to pull away but I couldn't move.

Just as suddenly as it started, it was over. I jerked my feet up to the middle of the bed, and turned on the light and TV. More than anything I wanted to make a run for my husband's cabin, but I knew that waking up my three children for a ghost evacuation would terrify them, in ways that could frighten them at night for years. I'd also lose all credibility for ever helping them through "silly" childhood fears from that point on.

One of the hardest things I've ever done as a mother was to brave out the rest of that night in the caboose. I spent the next 4 hours sitting in bed with the light on watching Star Trek reruns, before allowing myself to drift off for a short hour's sleep just before dawn (with my feet tucked well up under me!) I got up at 5:30AM, woke my husband, packed up the kids, and we got a very early start home.

Spooky, huh? I think I'd stick with Holiday Inns from now on, Pamela! :) Thanks for sharing your story, and I hope others are enjoying it as much as I did!