Happy Pre Summer Everyone!

FINALLY! It’s finally warming up here in northern Minnesota. And boy has it been a long time coming. We experienced one of the most grueling winters we’ve had in a long time. LOTS of snow and many, many days of below normal temps.

I remember the days of yore being this way when I was a child. Huge snow banks, artic winds blowing, and spit freezing before it hit the ground. Of course, back then my body was a mass of youthful joints and muscles and my brain surely wasn’t at full capacity. We spent many days outside playing when it was -20. (That’s the ‘not at full capacity’ kicking in.)You simply bundled in layers and did what you had to do. The big game was to see how quickly your chin would freeze – well, not actually freeze, but it would stiffen up, making it a bit more difficult to get your face muscles moving properly. Then me and my cohort playmates would laugh our asses off because our faces would be a mess as we tried to smile and our words jumbled because our lips didn’t move.

We were always looking for something to do. The times were perfect for kids who were always looking for something new to experience since there were only four channels on the television, no VCR’s, DVD players or Playstations, and we really had no choice because our parents shoved us out the door and said, “See you at suppertime.”

My sisters and I had the greatest dog when we were young. Spike was a combination of about every big breed of canine you could imagine. And that crazy idiot loved to retrieve. Didn’t matter if it were a rock, a ball, or a cantaloupe. As long as you threw it, he’d chase it. So one day we got this bright idea of implementing his animal-god-given talent. We tied a flying saucer (remember those?) to the back of our toboggan, then spent the next thirty minutes rolling snowballs and loading up the front of the sled. Finding a harness, we hooked the dog up, loaded our little sister onto the saucer and climbed aboard the toboggan. We spent the next thirty minutes screaming in joy as we whipped one snowball after another and Spike just kept up the chase. We were given the rides of our lives around town as we clung on tightly with one arm and kept the stream of snowballs airborne.

Then along came the advent of snowmobiling. Not the same machines that are sold now but a safe little 10 horsepower chunk of metal with skis and a hard vinyl seat. Perfect for tying a long rope to as one of us drove and the other strapped on old alpine skis. It makes me shake my head in wonder that we’re all still alive. We took out more trees, hit more parked cars, and took more headers than should have been allowable. I remember once we found some cardboard so we came up with the bright idea to have two people sit on the cardboard as one held on tightly with one hand, using the other to wrap around the person in front of us. The job the person in front had was to hold the rope tightly as we were pulled around. Sheesh. We never did get more than a five second ride on the cardboard because immediately we’d fly off it but weren’t smart enough to let go. So down and around we’d go, sliding on our ass and screaming in delight.

Oh, hey. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, the cold, cold winter we experienced the past year. So easy to get off track. So now as an adult, I’m thinking I experienced childhood with a helluva lot more enthusiasm and imagination than the kids of today. But we’ll talk more of that later. I just got out of the hottub. I had to soak my sore joints. Wonder why my shoulders, my hips, and my knees ache all the time? Well, I’ll figure it out when I’m sitting in the chair watching my taped shows. Oh hell, I could go out and sit in the sun since it FINALLY WARMED UP!

Men and Women--different sexes or different species?

My older sister once said to me that marriage was a barbaric institution and men and women were really never meant to live together. At the time, I was dating and in the midst of new love so I thought she was just being an old married woman.

After twelve years of marriage, I have to wonder if she might have been onto something. . .

Let me preface this by saying, I have a wonderful husband whom I love with all my heart and I think we have a pretty solid marriage based on mutual respect and values not to mention good sex.

That said, there are times when I could happily beat him with a stick.

Men and women just think differently. They have different meanings for the same words and a totally different understanding of time. Now, this may be generalizing a lot, but it’s my blog so I can do that!

Let me give you a few examples. . .

Men- I’ll be back in ten minutes. This really means, I have no idea when I’ll be back, but I think it will be less than an hour unless, of course, I run into someone I know and we have to solve the world’s problems.

Men- Just let me watch the last two minutes of the game. This really means the last quarter/half/two innings etc. and will take upwards of half an hour and at least two more drinks.

Men- I just had a beer or two with the guys. This really means I had less than a case of beer and you should be glad I didn’t end up on stage with the stripper like my buddy did.

Men-I cleaned the kitchen. This means, I put my dishes in the dishwasher.

Men- I was watching the kids! This means, I was asleep on the couch, but in the same building as the children when they set fire to the cat.


I think the divorce rate would go down significantly if all married couples lived in duplexes—men on one side, women on the other with common rooms in the middle. Women could decorate with all the girly frou-frou things they wanted and put up towels no one can use with the soap no one can use and men wouldn’t be mystified by items in the medicine closet. Men would be able to burp and fart and watch TV in their underwear while leaving towels on the floor and eating directly out of the carton/bag/box. Everyone would be happy.
What do you think?

Itchy Feet

Once again it's time to exercise my itchy feet: at stupid o'clock on Tuesday morning I am leaving for Orlando Florida! Going from a sunny, but cool, 10 degrees in Bonnie Scotland to a hot and humid 27 degrees. I love my home town and my beautiful country but every once in a while I have to get out of it and travel, to see and do something different. In this case I will be visiting the magical world of Disney and as many other theme parks as I can squeeze into the first week. The second week is reserved for the annual Romantic Times Convention - an event that I look forward to with more anticipation every year.

Truthfully though, the destination isn't the be all and end all for me. What I love is the whole experience. Even the terror of the Trans-Atlantic flight. I love the planning of the trip - even when I procrastinate so often that I have to do a last minute rush. Buying new clothes and trying to fit everything into your suitcase (I do NOT understand the concept of packing light). I like researching things to do and see, the anticipation of it, the excitement. Everything that comes before you actually get there and experience it all first hand. I'm not lovin' the fact that I have to leave the house at 2.30am to check in for a 6.30am flight but what the hell, I probably wouldn't sleep anyway (see previous note about Trans-Atlantic terror).

What about you? Do you share my feelings? Or is the thought of travel and everything that goes with it just a nightmare you wish you never have?

Hope to see many of you at the Romantic Times Convention in Orlando this year whatever your feelings.
Hugs,
Cait

Of clutter and escapes...

With a new release coming next week (STRESS RELIEF on April 17th; no cover yet or you know I'd post it), I should be going full-tilt into promo-mode – getting my name out there and letting readers know there soon will be another Diana Hunter novel for their enjoyment. And I will – just as I’ll let know people know I’m a finalist in the Best Writer category at the Bondage Awards (if you want to vote, you can, by the way. Just go here and scroll to ‘Best Writer’ and choose me from the drop-down menu. You can vote once a day).

But recently I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the crush of online information. For example, I like my Twitter account, but decided I really didn’t care what some people had for breakfast and so stopped following about a dozen people. I belonged to a list-serve for my day job that only seemed to clutter the email address I got just for them. The flaming and sometimes unprofessional attitudes only served to tick me off –and for what reason or to what avail? None. Bye-bye list serve!

The level of stress in my life has dropped dramatically this past week because, besides these actions, I’ve also unsubscribed from several lists I wasn’t really following anyway. I went no-mail on a bunch of others and added others to my RSS reader instead of getting the emails to further streamline my time. I truly feel so much less burdened. It isn’t that I don’t care about any of these topics, rather that I just am spread too thin and as a result, am not able to go deeply into any of them. My interest can only be superficial and time-consuming and that only leads to frustration. If it is true that, “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise,” then I’m choosing to be blissfully ignorant of some issues regarding the state of publishing today, the machinations of educators who can’t be professional, and what people ate for which meal.

So what have I done with all this time? Believe it or not, I gave myself back nearly an hour a day. I’d like to say I’ve spent it writing a new book and next week, I promise, I will. But this week I went for a walk in one of my favorite worlds: Uru. Telling a story in a non-linear fashion has always fascinated me and the Myst series remains one of the most well-done examples of this budding genre. It was a wonderful escape and makes me long to write the fantasy I started a while back.

Which brought me to a decision: after I finish my current work-in-progress (which should be by the end of the month), I’m going into a world of my own creation for the summer. I’m immersing myself in a story that has been niggling at my brain for too long and is now insistent. At this point it’s a fantasy with erotic elements rather than a straight erotic romance, so who knows where it’ll end up once it’s done. But I’ll worry about that later. For right now, I’m planning to leave the real world behind and live in my imagination for a while.

And to think – authors are not only allowed to do this, but we’re encouraged to! I love being a writer!

So what about it? What are your favorite de-cluttering activities – and your favorite escapes?

Play safe,
Diana

Why Write a Series?

I spent some time on the Ellora's Cave fan chat group a while back and "met" someone who had never read any of my books. She asked me some questions, I assume to get to know me a bit better before spending her hard-earned cash on a book by an author she didn't like.

One of her questions had to do with series and why an author decides to write them. Great question, and it made me think about my own books. When I got the idea for Rent-A-Stud, I never thought about writing a series that would include books about the other two Cooper siblings. I wanted to tell Jade and Zach's story. I figured I would type "The End" and go on my merry way with a different set of characters in the next book.

Nuh-uh. Michelle and Brent, Zach's sister and brother, wouldn't leave me alone. They demanded that I tell their stories. Well, when my characters start making demands, I'm gonna listen! Michelle's Men was born, the story of Michelle and the two men who fall in love with her.

While I was writing about Michelle happily making merry with her guys, Brent was standing behind me, impatiently tapping his foot. "Write MY book," he told me. "Hey," I told him back, "I have contracts for other books. You'll have to wait."

Brent wasn't exactly patient. He kept bugging me until I finally HAD to write his book so he would leave me alone.

So two years after the release of Michelle's Men, Brent now has his own story--Almost Perfection. I had a lot of fun redeeming the "bad boy" of Coopers' Companions. He needed a strong woman to tame him and show him how special the love between a man and woman can be. Robin is that woman.

I didn't mean for Zach's book to be the first of a series, but I truly enjoyed writing all three books. Will I do another series? I plan to. I love reading them, and loved writing a series more than I thought I would.

Lynn

Packing for Nome

It’s that time of year when most of the country is starting to actually believe that Spring might be just around the corner…and here in Alaska we’re watching, tracking and in some cases (mine) obsessing about the Iditarod. It’s an 1100 mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome. There were 67 mushers (yes, that’s what they’re called) who started the race a week ago. The winner is expected to arrive in Nome, Alaska sometime Tuesday night.

I’ll be there. Not because I’m a big enough fan to have to be at the finish line but because my day job includes TV coverage of the start and finish of the race. We’ll do a one-hour live broadcast of the finish no matter when it occurs. Last year that was at 2:45 in the morning. We’re hoping for a daylight finish (makes so much better TV).

But packing for Nome isn’t like going on most trips. My attitude when traveling is “if I forgot it, I’ll just buy a new one”. Can’t really do that in Nome. You can get the basics but it’s expensive and you probably don’t want to arrive and find you’ve left all your undies at home. There’s no Target or Wal-Mart near by.

There is a Subway (attached to a movie theater). I think that’s the only fast food place in Nome.

And the weather is changeable. It’s on the southern coast of the Seward Peninsula in Northwest Alaska. Last week, the temperatures were in the 20s. This week, the highs will be around -5 with a wind chill of -35. Suddenly my plan of wearing jeans and long johns doesn’t seem like it’s going to be warm enough.

So for three days, I’ll pack as many clothes as I would for week in the Lower 48, not so I have the variety but so I have layers. Walking the ten minutes from our production site to hotel could be an extremely uncomfortable trip.

But still, despite the cold and the lack of amenities, it’s a great experience. Seeing that first musher and his dog team arrive is thrilling. It’s amazing when you think about what they accomplish. For nine days, they run across the state, camping, sleeping when they can, resting only when they have to. They carry almost everything but food with them, melting snow for water, cooking over a propane fire.

And I can’t figure out how to pack for three days in Nome. More power to them.

Well, better go finish up. Don’t want to forget my undies.

Is writing therapeutic and life saving?

As writers, have you ever sat back and realized that our environment plays a part in our manuscript's characters? On a snowy day, without thinking, we may have placed our character's in a warm, cozy shack with hot chocolate (spiked of course)and no way out of this private haven until the storm passes.
The mood can go in a selection of several different ways, all of which I feel are dependent of your own mood. If the environment surrounding you is serene, then your characters have a chance at a quite, romantic escape filled with hot sex. But I've found that it's almost never 'serene' in anyone's household. If the writer is angered (let's say by a lovely, no-it-all 17 year old) then this scene can twist into a full blown argument or fight without the author realizing it until the re-read. But as writers, we have the ability to rearrange the words and bring that fight back on track and end our character's up in a romp of purely erotic sexual release due to the high emotion caused by the argument.
Ever wondered if you in author mode (we have to be clear here so no one ends up in lock-up for murder) Killed someone off because you were angry? Did the dead character take on physical aspects of the individual you were angered by?
Does this mean that writing is therapeutic and saves lives?
I believe it is. Because in real life, we can't just kill people off. But on paper...
Can you tell I've had enough of winter and want spring?