Favorite TV Shows

We all have them—our guilty pleasures that we watch every week on TV. I didn't watch nighttime TV for years, other than one or two favorite shows (I never missed 24) because I worked at the newspaper during the day and wrote at night. Now that I write all day, I've discovered some nighttime TV shows that I enjoy.

Castle! Oh, how I love Castle. The chemistry between Castle and Beckett is so palpable, I swear I can touch it. And he's just so darn cute.

Other shows I enjoy include:

NCIS

NCIS: Los Angeles

CSI: New York

Blue Bloods

The Mentalist

Bones

Dancing With the Stars

Body of Proof

Hawaii Five-O

Harry's Law

I've also discovered some wonderful shows on the cable networks, like USA and TNT. They don't have a very long season, but I'm going to enjoy them while I can.

White Collar

Covert Affairs

Leverage

Necessary Roughness

Royal Pains

Franklin and Bash

Suits

I still watch M*A*S*H reruns whenever possible. I wish I could find a comedy I enjoy as much as M*A*S*H. Anyone have a suggestion for a show that will make me laugh without using stupid jokes about bodily functions?

Have a great week!

Lynn

Hawt, Sizzlin' Summertime!

Hi all! There’s a good chance that 70% of you reading this is experiencing just that! The states have been immersed in abnormally record highs that don’t seem to want to temper down at all. This Minnesotan is having a hard time with the heat so I’ve found myself perched before my computer and doing the one thing that I love with a passion! Writing!

Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve been awol in that area, but sometimes that’s what life does to you. Family, business and life in general has a way of completely discombobulating a perfectly planned schedule. I am happy to report though that the sizzling temperature isn’t the only thing having to do with hot! Yup! I’m heating up my keyboard and having a ball! I’m back, baby, and I couldn’t be more thrilled!

So what’s on the table? I recently submitted to Ellora’s Cave and am waiting for an acceptance on that story. Also, I decided to delve into the world of self publishing. My story, One Chance, is just about done and I can’t wait to get it up and running.

It seems that a lot of authors are dipping their toes into this new age of writing and simultaneously striking out on their own. Some are doing great. Others? Well, the numbers speak for themselves. Bad editing, numerous errors and weak plotlines. So my major concern becomes an issue of quality control. I want to put out my finest. That’s where my Sizzling Scribes sisters come in. This author group that I belong to is absolutely phenomenal. We talk daily. We exchange ideas daily and we also edit, edit, edit daily to assure that the books we finish have a professional quality to them that is unsurpassed.

So enough said. I’m working hard to produce stories that will have you thinking about them long after you’ve read THE END. Whether those tales are erotic romance, sweet romance, or stories about strong women, I hope you’ll enjoy them all.

So sit back, grab a cold one and get ready. I’ve got some heat planned for you!

Day Off

I apologize for this not being posted sooner. But I've been distracted. My children are no longer children. They both work, they drive, they've got friends and to quote my daughter "they've got lives." So where does that leave me?

This spring I tore up part of my backyard and created a rather large garden. Hey, my kids don't play back there anymore so why not make it useful. My daughter even helped. This has been a rather nice way to transform from the yard for all the kids to just the yard for the old fart.

But this morning with coffee in hand I realized, I miss the swing set days. The kids playing ball or hide 'n' seek. It's a tough transition from young kids, boo-boos and band-aides to who's got the beer and 18 to 20+ year old pool parties till all hours of the night.

When did this happen? I swear I didn't blink. I really tried to keep them little as long as I possibly could but it didn't work.

Not to mention, their friends have grown up too. They've gone from these awkward, lanky children with squeaky voices to adults. Geez it happened too fast.

But I am grateful for one thing...My two are close. This past Sunday, my DH invited a few of his work buddies over and their wives whom I didn't know. It was an adventure to say the least.

But during this busy, chaos, I spotted my two out by the tree swing chatting. Not sure what they were discussing, really don't care. But it was a special moment for me. One sat in the swing while the other sat in the grass and they were simply having a conversation. It was a beautiful sight. it made me realize that maybe I haven't done a bad job. It's not easy keeping brothers and sisters close.

Then on Monday, when I said I'd get this posted, I ended up spending a quite day with the two of them. Not a bad day. Burgers on the grill, great conversation, and swimming in the pool. I tried to nap on a float in the pool. They tried to drown me. Just like when they were little, drown the mama was the game of the day or a least flip her float and watch her sputter. LOL.

And best of all, they obviously believed me when I told them last week that I was no longer the maid and they had to do their own laundry because I was sick of doing it all. No kidding, they would walk through the giant ever-growing pile in the laundry room and not stop to put a load in or toss one in the dryer. So, I sat them down, explained how the machines worked and told them they were on their on. My daughter actually has been doing her own laundry. My son didn't believe me until he had to basically dig his way out of his room through the pile of dirty laundry. Yesterday, he met the washer and dryer, separated his clothes and did his laundry. I was impressed that he even listened. I consider this a small victory. It's one less thing I've got to do.

Now if I could figure out a strategy to get my husband to finish at least one of the ninety projects he has started over the years in my house then I'd truly be a happy woman.

Like falling off a bike. . .

As many of you have noticed, I haven't written much in the last three years.

Okay, let's be honest, I haven't written bubkis in the last three years. Nada, zilch, schmatz.

Anyway, since I live in the northeast, I decided to visit my friends who were at the Romance Writers of America conference in New York City. It's been a while since I've hung out with any writing buddies and I wasn't quite sure how many people would even remember me. I wasn't sure how I would feel when everyone was talking about writing and I had nothing to offer. I was even a little uneasy about how I would react when people were discussing career moves and my writing career has pretty much stalled.

I shouldn't have worried. I can honestly say, Romance writers are some of the most amazing, caring, and just awesome people around. Everyone asked me about my daughter (she's doing fantastic, 10 months since her last chemo and her counts are still great) and when I was going to write again.

No one had forgotten me, no one ignored me because I couldn't do anything to further their career, and my publisher, Samhain, even bought me dinner and breakfast and it's been years since I've written anything for them.

I was humbled and overwhelmed by the caring so many people showed me.

I was also inspired to write again! With any luck at all, I'll actually FINISH writing something this summer and who knows? Maybe the next conference I go to, I'll have something to talk about.

Musical Cherry

This week I experienced an important rite of passage. My first concert. You’ve never been to a concert? I hear you say. Yes, it’s true...well sort of. I have worked at one before but it’s not quite the same. There are various reasons for this, no time, no money but mostly just friends with different tastes in music. Last year I swore I would do it, but who would be my first? It was an important decision, one not to be taken lightly. So I watched the newsletters from event holders and ticket sales websites and in October, there it was.

Bon Jovi.

Now I don’t really care if it makes me uncool but I have loved that group for years. Catchy rock music for blasting out loud and singing along to and a charismatic lead singer – who I swear has a deal with the devil to still look so good. It’s also one of the things my mum and I share so of course she would have to go with me. Whenever we would go on road trips out would come the Bon Jovi cd and we would sing along together. They are part of some really good memories. So I woke up early on the morning they went on sale and I bought the best tickets I could get my hands on without going bankrupt. Back then, June seemed a very long way away.

The nearer the date got the more excited I got. I kept expecting something to go wrong, the concert to be cancelled but the 22^nd arrived and off we went. The one and only concert I’ve experienced I was working with the Red Cross and was actually next to the stage and feet away from Billy Joel and Elton John. You wouldn’t think anything would beat that but not so. That day I was working and wasn’t concentrating on the experience. Being behind the barriers means that you are very separate from the crowd, the atmosphere isn’t the same.

The rain poured down but even that didn’t spoil our anticipation. Our seats were amazing. I chose to be in the seated section which did put us about a hundred yards from the stage but we are both short and if we had stood we wouldn’t have been able to see past the crowd. Slowly the stadium began to fill up until 60,000 people joined us. The atmosphere was electric. I have never been in such a large crowd before and it was amazing to look around and see a sea of faces and the strobe of thousands of camera flashes. Suffice to say that Bon Jovi exceeded all of my expectations. They played for two and a half hours without a break and it was one of the best experiences of my life. There is nothing like being one of thousands of voices singing out anthems that clearly mean as much to them as they do to you. I am proud to say that Bon Jovi took my concert virginity; there will never be another first.

I can now say I am hooked and even if I have to go alone, there will be more concerts in my future. The question now is who will I see next?

Question for our readers

As you undoubtedly know, several of the Scribes have made recent forays into the blossoming self-publishing market. Tara Nina's Playing Cowboy (a wonderfully HOT read!), Tielle St. Clare's A Change of Pace (M/M erotica like you've never read before!) and Diana Hunter's Tales from the Ramayana (romantic short stories) are currently available. But like so many others, we're having an internal debate about pricing. Right now we're just shooting in the dark.

And so we turn to our faithful readers for help. Please take the survey below (it's through Survey Monkey and will not download any unwanted material to your machines!). We made it nice and simple with only 4 questions. Help us price the books you want to buy!

Click here for survey

This will be open until noon on Sunday, June 26th. One of us will post the results later that night.

- the Sizzlin' Scribes :)

An I Love Lucy Moment

We've all had those moments when we've done something totally stupid, something like Lucy Ricardo would've done on the old I Love Lucy show. If you're too young to remember that show, you've missed out on some great comedy.

I'll start this story with a fact about me that you may not know—I'm very full busted. That plays a big part in my tale.

My late husband, Harry, and I moved from Sacramento, California to Olympia, Washington in 1996. His son, Little Harry (whose name never made sense to me since he's 6'1"), owned a house in Forks (yes, the town of Twilight fame) that was currently empty, so told us we could store all our household belongings in it until we got settled in a place to live. It was a cute little house with a second story that contained two small bedrooms and a bath. Little Harry was currently remodeling the house, so it was pretty much a mess upstairs.

A couple of weeks after we arrived in Washington, we drove up to the house in Forks to get some of our stuff. It was pouring rain. Forks is on the edge of a rain forest and gets a lot of rain per year. We walked in the back door of the house and heard water running. Let me rephrase that. We heard water gushing and it had nothing to do with the rain outside.

A pipe had burst in the upstairs bathroom beneath the sink and water was literally dripping down the walls and through the ceiling. So we whipped out our cell phone and prayed we could reach Little Harry in Olympia to tell him what happened and find out how to turn off the water. Remember, this was 1996, so cell phones barely had a strong enough signal to call the neighbor, let alone 100 miles away. Luckily, we were able to reach him and he told us where the lever was located to turn off the water. It was under the house, which meant going out in the pouring rain.

I was elected for the job. Harry had had a stroke in 1994 that affected his legs, so him crawling beneath a house wasn't even an option. With the help of a flashlight, we found the little white lever. Hooray! All I had to do was pull it forward a couple of inches and the water would turn off. So I get on the ground in the mud and scooch backward on my back in the narrow space between the ground and the bottom of the house to get to the lever. I'm within an inch (literally) of reaching it when (yep, you guessed it) my boobs came up against the house. I can't go any farther. I'm stretching and squirming to reach that lever just off my fingertips, but my boobs won't let me move.

Of course, Harry is leaning down watching me and laughing like crazy. I put up with his snickering for a few moments, then informed him it was up to him to figure out what to do. After laughing a little longer, he went in the house and came back with a wire clothes hanger. I hooked it around the lever and pulled forward. Viola! Water off, job complete.

Do you have one of those I Love Lucy moments? Tell me about it. I love a good laugh.

Lynn