Sunday, May 23, 2010

In other news, I've been writing away and attempting to get my vegetable garden in.

"Vegetable garden?", you say. "How hard can that be?", you say. (I'm postulating an imagined you who doesn't do a lot of gardening.)

It probably wouldn't be nearly so much work if I wasn't trying to grow a substantial percentage of our food. The other day, I put in 40 tomato plants, all with individual cardboard "Elizabethan collars" to prevent cutworm damage. (Planting the tomatoes wasn't so bad, but fiddling with the bits of toilet paper roll was a pest.) Yesterday I did the same with peppers--a blessedly fewer number--and basil and parsley. Today I need to rake and till the remaining two beds and put in four different kinds of squash and four different kinds of beans.

And hill up the potatoes.

And weed.

The Cat-Herder helps. I imagine he'll do the raking and tilling and put in the poles for the pole beans--one variety requires 8-foot poles and short as I am, it's much easier to let the big guy handle that.

But I do most it myself, and I couldn't be happier.

At this time of spring, the garden can seem overwhelming, but I wouldn't give it up. I love the results and for the most part I love the work. OK, weeding not so, but I love playing with plants, having my hands in the dirt, watching things grow. I love feeling that we have a bit of independence from the system of large-scale agriculture dependent on dangerous chemicals and illegal immigrants working for next to nothing. I love being able to stroll out at dinner time and pick part of dinner. I love getting up before the day job and wandering out in my bathrobe to water the container plants and pick a salad--it grounds me and gives me perspective on a day spent, out of necessity, doing rather boring tasks that make a lot of money for someone else and far less for me when I'd rather be home writing or playing in said garden.

My life is full of meaning.

I create stories. I create food.

Two of humanity's basic needs and, from the sweat of my brow and the sweat of my brain, I can produce them. How cool is that!

More shameless self-promotion

Hey, if I don't do it, who will?

Another Lions' Pride excerpt is up at Coffee Time Romance. Go, read, comment, and possibly win a book. Then click up the thread and find many other excerpts from fun books by my fellow Samhain authors.

http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/board/showthread.php?p=119795#post119795

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Oh my goodness--we are winners!



















In my flurry of busy-ness, I'd neglected to post that two anthologies that contain my stories were finalists for IPPYs (or is that IPPIES?), the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Today I just learned, courtesy of the much more on top of things Dayle A. Dermatis (my amazing co-author when we write as Sophie Mouette), that these anthologies tied for first place in the erotica category.

The winners are:
Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press) and Sweet Love: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, edited by Violet Blue (Cleis Press).

Congratulations to everyone in the anthologies and especially to the wonderful, hard-working editors, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Violet Blue.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Promo and hot excerpt alert

First off, I'm embarrassed I've neglected this blog for so long. The good news is that I've been writing and living instead of blogging. The bad news is you've probably forgotten all about me by now.

But here's something that might remind you who I am. Remember me talking about the second Duals and Donovans book, Foxes' Den?

It's coming out in August, but you can read a sexy excerpt now and have a chance to win it as soon as I get my own copies! Check out the Spring Showers promo at Coffee Time Romance. (You have to register, but all you need is an email and username.) While you're there, track up the thread and see all the other hot, hot, hot excerpts from my fellow Samhain authors.

And you could win fabulous prizes from me or any of the many authors involved. Who knows, you might find a new favorite, though I might cry if it's not me!

Keep checking back at Coffee Time. New excerpts will go up all month long.

And maybe I'll manage to get a few posts up here this month too.