THE BOOK!!!

I got a little something in the mail today: A nice box full of books. That's something that'll always make me happy, but these books happen to have my name on them. Yup. My author copies of Double Take arrived today. I brought the box inside and looked at it, set it down, looked at it some more. But my husband was in a meeting, so he couldn't come home to open them with me. So I checked my email. Gathered some things for errands. Then picked up the box, too, along with the camera. I was good--I waited until Jason could be there before I opened it; I was bad--I crashed his meeting to do it. :-)


His mom and dad were there, and his mom brought out her massive video camera to record the event. Then we went over to my parents' house and did the whole blinded-by-camera-flashes thing over again.
So I did get to open it with my husband. Even though he doesn't even read fiction, he's been amazingly supportive through all my writing stuff--sending me to conferences, allowing me to work only a few days a week even though we could use the money, and promising to actually read my stuff once it comes out in its final version in an actual book. So...he pulled one out a brand new copy of Double Take, looked at it and said, "Oh no. Now I have to read it..."

Okay, he didn't actually say the Oh, no part. But THAT'S when we'll really need the camera--when my husband picks up this romantic suspense novel and reads it from beginning to end. :-)

So...I have my books. Forty-eight copies, to be exact. A little over half of these will go to a list of friends and family members who have been very supportive with my writing--a list that was so hard to narrow down. The other books will go toward promotional giveaways online in October.

Thanks for sharing in the excitement! :-)

Summer Vacation Part 2

We were in Jacksonville, FL for the rest of our trip. Here are some of the things we did:



1. Watched a baseball game, where we ate too much, enjoyed fireworks, got free baseball caps...



...and saw Irish wrestling for the first time ever. (For those of you not in the know...which is probably all three of my loyal readers...Irish wrestling was actually a staged match with a couple little people/leprechauns.) Interesting, to say the least. :-)





2. Went to two museums. The wrong two, apparently. The manuscript museum had a small collection of photocopies of old letters, etc. It took about two minutes to go through. But the building was cool. Kind of run down, but it apparently used to be a theater/opera house, with a small orchestra pit and everything.

The second museum was one for contemporary art. We figured it wouldn't be quite our style, but it would be something different. Well...it was definitely different. One floor was made up almost entirely of videos. Odd videos. Like of a woman putting on her make-up, but the camera was in the make-up brushes. So, close up shots, to say the least. Or the one where the guy was covered in mud and veeeeeeerrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy slllllllllllooooooooooowwwlly approached the camera. Or the one where the guy did a slow and exaggerated cat walk down a long hallway. Yeah. Weird. Maybe they would have made more sense if we'd read all of the explanations beside the displays, but I doubt it.

So the museums...not something I would do again, but definitely something we'll remember. :-)

3. Something else I probably wouldn't do again...We tried sushi for the first time. Kind of on accident. We ordered dinner "boxes" at a Japanese restaurant and ended up with a sampling of things. Among them--California rolls. I think that's what they were, anyway. I ate all of mine just because. They weren't disgusting, but they weren't exactly good, either.

4. We drove around a lot. Jacksonville is a sprawling city. I could never live there--WAY too many shopping plazas and interesting looking restaurants. :-) We got stuck in Hobby Lobby for a couple hours, trying to pick out some wall decor for our newly repainted rooms. Finally took pictures of a bunch of things and left to decide on later. Never did make up our minds...Anyway, the city also has some cool bridges and buildings.

5. We walked around the San Marco shops a little bit. Got some ice cream, ate it near the gazebo...

...and of course couldn't resist going into this shop --

The Write Touch. :-) Cute little store with stationary and computer bags and an old golden retriever who greeted us at the door. All the frames for sale in the shop had the dog's picture in them.

6. Went to the zoo. Of course! No meerkats this time, but we did have a bird freak us out. And we watched a monkey mess with the face of a giant-gerbil-like thing.

7. Met up with Jason's cousin and his wife and ate at Cheesecake Factory. Yeah. That in itself would have made it a good vacation. :-)

So...that was the summer trip for 2009. Next year, we're thinking about Kentucky. :-) Any suggestions?

Guest Blog Entry

A friend of mine had me fill in for a day on her blog while she was out of town. (Which is ironic, considering I hardly write in my own whether I'm in town or not, eh?) I resurrected a post about my experience with pitching to editors and agents. Check it out here: http://on-the-write-track.blogspot.com/2009/07/pitching-lessons.html

Speaking of pitching...I just bought my ticket to the ACFW conference in September. Yay! :-) (I'm cheering for the conference in general, not the pitching.) It's being held in Denver this year, so I'll get to hang out with my uncle some as well. Debbie Macomber will be the keynote speaker, and agent Donald Maass is going to be doing an early bird session. It'll be a great conference. You should go! Check it out at www.acfw.com/conference.

Summer Vacation Part One

So...I'm back from a short, last-minute, but fun and much-needed vacation. :-) After working on our house for a month, we took off to the Jacksonville/St. Augustine, FL area. We decided to leave early--after I got home from work on Tuesday. We hadn't packed or anything, but we rushed around to get ready so we could make it far enough down the road to go to Texas Roadhouse for supper. Well, we made it. Barely. :-) It felt odd to order a full meal at 10 p.m., but ah well. Vacation, right?

The next morning we shopped in St. Augustine and then ate lunch on St. George Street. We were really in town just for the gelato from Cafe de Hidalgo. :-) Good stuff, let me tell you.

Then we traveled on to Jacksonville, where we checked in to one of our favorite places in the world: Hotel Indigo. (The happy couple in the hallway. ;-) )

Ah...Hotel Indigo. Our very cool home away from home. We checked in, hung out for a little bit, and then went to a mini golf place. Jason won, of course. But I beat him at the NASCAR arcade thing, so maybe we're even. Either way, it was a great start to our less-than-usual planned-out vacation.

Fun Sign

I was shopping yesterday for our newly remodeled home (okay, remodeled is a slight exaggeration, but we did repair and repaint...), and I came across this sign I thought was fun.

"So it isn't Home Sweet Home...Adjust."

:-) Happy Fourth of July, y'all. Have a great one.