Hey everyone.

Sorry I did not get to leave a message for you all on Wednesday. We were in the process of preparing to leave for my mom's house for Thanksgiving and realized one of the twins had pink eye.

So we called the doctor's office, and they sent in a prescription.

Then we realized the Princess had gotten ahold of a pair of the boys' glasses.

Mangled the frames.

So we ran those to the eye doctor in town, who bravely attempted to repair them, but alas, could not.

We'll be picking up the new glasses sometime next week.

We had to stop for gas, and then drove to Wal-Mart for the prescription. Where we waited and waited for an eternity (30 minutes) to get the eye drops.

Got to Mom's house, and got ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Had the family over for dinner yesterday. It was great, as always.

Came home late and put everyone to bed, me included. I was exhausted.

Got up this morning, hopped in the shower, and got out to the sound of one of the twins crying. He was throwing up in the other bathroom.

We were supposed to be getting ready to go to Hubby's family Thanksgiving. So after a quick call to Hubby's folks, we decided that I would stay home with the sick child, and Hubby would take the other two kids to his parents' house.

So I don't get to enjoy another Thanksgiving dinner, and I'm trying to keep the sick kid still because he wants to be up and around.

I know he needs to stay home and rest, but I was looking forward to visiting with family.

Oh, well. I'm sure I'll manage. Twin B and I will hang out, watch movies, and rest. Tough times, but someone has to do it.

Hope your Thanksgiving was good, and the rest of your weekend it fantastic.

Later.

Good morning, all.

It is a very foggy Monday for us. Got the kids off to school this morning, and Hubby off to work, and now the Princess and I are hanging at the house.

I've got a laundry room full to the ceiling (not really, but it's close), and I need to get on it. Which I don't really want to do.

I'm getting excited about the end of the book drawing near, and I want to finish it in the next couple of days. Of course, with the Princess fighting for my undivided attention, we'll see how it goes.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm super excited about hanging with family and eating lots of yummy food.

We also had Hubby's older brother and nephews visiting for the weekend, which was great. The boys love hanging with their cousins, Her Majesty ruled the world and everyone in it, Hubby and his bro got to have their favorite political discussions, and I got to hide from everyone.

It was wonderful.

So that's about it for us. I'll check in Wednesday before we take off to Mom's house.

Later.

A Publishing Rant

Hello, all.

Happy Friday to you.

Today's post is more of a rant than a post, and it also has to do with the small, intimate world of publishing.

I am working on a book right now. It's a Christian romance targeted for Steeple Hill, which is the inspirational imprint of the Harlequin romance line (in a nut shell).

I only have three more chapters to go, and the first draft will be finished. Then the excruciating task of rewriting begins. I know several authors who LOVE this phase of writing (winking at Carla), but I'm not one of them. I want to get it down right the first time, or as close to the best I can do on the first try. Other authors like to get the "bones" down first, and then build from there, add layers and depth, etc.

But I digress.

A few days ago, the huge conglomerate of Harlequin Enterprises (or whatever their official corporate name is) announced that they will be starting two new lines: Carina Press and Harlequin Horizons.

Carina Press will be a digital publisher only. No print books. The story will be available for purchase and can be downloaded to e-readers, computers, iPhones, etc.

Harlequin Horizons (although I've 'heard' they are going to change the name of the line) will be a subsidy publisher. From what I have gathered, this means the author pays to have the book printed, and then they are in charge of selling the book themselves. Now, based on how many books the author is able to sell, the publisher will be keeping track, and MIGHT be interested in contracting that author for future books under a traditional line (the publisher pays you for your work, and not the other way around).

There are self-publishers out there who do this very thing all the time. And there's nothing wrong with it. If someone has a specific type of book for a niche market, say "Rare Birds of Western Oklahoma", and you're a part of a national bird watching group, you go to regional and national events on a regular basis, you have a monthly column in "Bird Watcher Magazine", and do a weekly webcast on "Birds of the Week" radio, then you have a viable market to sell your book. There's a good chance you're going to be able to recoup your expenses printing the book, and even make a profit.

But if you're just writing the novel of your heart, and you don't have a PhD in marketing and PR, you're going to have a VERY hard time selling your own book.

The RWA (Romance Writer's of America) [which I am not a member of and have no affiliation with] is a HUGE organization (10,000 + members) of published and unpublished romance authors. They have strict rules about which publishers are eligible for perks and benefits with their organization, and they essentially called Harlequin out on this new business venture, and the web has been buzzing with the fallout.

I know several authors who are RWA members AND Harlequin authors. What this show-down is going to mean to them concerns me.

The other thing that concerns me is selfish on my part, but . . . oh, well. What is this going to mean for my chances of getting my book published with Steeple Hill (Harlequin's inspirational imprint)?

Well, number one, I have to write an OUTSTANDING book they absolutely love and must contract right away. That's the first step.

But beyond that, I wonder if the move into self-publishing is going to have an impact on the traditional lines.

Steeple Hill is a traditional line. They pay advances and royalties for the books they contract, and I don't think the fallout from the self-publishing line is going to affect them. But it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

So that is the long, but stilted version of what I've been following for the last few days. And since I know none of you are really interested in this kind of stuff, I'll let you get back to the rest of your day.

Have a good weekend and take care.

Hey.

Well, today is another busy day for our family. The Princess is doing her best to wreak havoc throughout the house, and Twin B is home again. The school called yesterday afternoon. He had thrown up on the playground so I picked him up. Turns out he got to coughing too hard and it made him sick, but they wanted to be safe.

So I decided to keep him home one more day to see if we can get rid of the cough.

And that's about it.

Hubby is at work, and the other boy is at school.

The three of us will be hanging out, and hopefully everyone will be healthy again soon.

Later.

Hi.

Well, it's a cloudy, cold Monday morning, and my first inclination is to hide under the covers and be lazy, lazy, lazy.

But there's lots to do, and the Princess is a little too active to allow for hanging out in bed all day.

Twin B is feeling better and off to school. We're hoping this upswing in his health will continue. He had to miss the Thanksgiving program, but we were able to take him to his team's t-ball party on Sunday. They ate pizza and ice cream, and got their first place trophies. We just had to keep Twin B back from the other kids.

Because of the sick child, and the changed sleeping arrangements, I'm pretty tired, and have been for a couple of days. Hopefully things will get back to normal, and I'll be able to catch up on my sleep.

On a totally separate note, the other blog I participate in www.romanceyourspouse.blogspot.com is having a two-book giveaway this week, so you might want to stop by, leave a comment, and be entered in the drawing for a chance to win.

Hope you all have a good week, and I'll catch you again on Wednesday.

Later.

Hey everybody.

Well, the Thanksgiving program was last night, and it was too cute.

We only had one hiccup in the evening: Twin B came home from school with a fever, and couldn't be in the show.

He was so distraught, and so was Mommy. He cried and cried because he wanted to be in the program with everyone else, and we just couldn't let him go.

And I cried and cried (inside) because he was so miserable.

But Twin A did a great job, and was able to do is brother's part because they had practiced so much together.

Mimi, Grandma, Uncle Clint, and Auntie Misty were able to come, and it was great to see them.

So Twin B is home today recovering, and the Princess is torturing him mercilessly. I'm really going to have to find a way to keep her out of trouble. But the problem is I'm so exhausted, I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open, much less entertaining a two year old for the next 8 hours.

But we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll perk up soon and be able to keep everyone happy and the house from being destroyed.

Have a good weekend and stay out of trouble.

Later.

Hello, all.

Well, we've had a busy week, and it's going to get even busier. The boys have a school Thanksgiving program tomorrow night, and I think we may have family visiting over the weekend.

There are mountains of laundry to be folded, and I need to mop the floors. In addition to the every day picking up, shuffling piles around, etc.

Things have been pretty normal here lately, which is a good. I've had a cough I can't seem to shake, though no other symptoms. I've been a little tired, but that's not unusual while trying to keep up with the kiddos.

Anyway, that's all for now. The dryer just buzzed and I need to get some folding done.

Later.

Howdy, folks.

Trying out my cowgirl lingo.

I think I'll pass.

So, not a whole lot to share this morning. The weather here has been beautiful for the early part of November. The Princess and I have gone for a walk a couple of days now, and hopefully we'll manage to get a couple more walks in since it's supposed to be nice for the rest of the weekend.

The boys are off to school.

Hubby is off to work.

I'm still trying to finish my manuscript, but for as wonderful as Her Majesty has been when we're taking walks, she's not so accommodating when I'm trying to type.

It's very irritating.

So I'll be sneaking in paragraphs here and there, doing my best to keep her distracted while I try to work.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and have warm, sunny weather to play in.

Later.

Good morning.

Well, I'm going to tell a funny on myself today because I feel like a total idiot and maybe y'all will get a good laugh in the middle of the week.

So last night, Hubby and I were working on dinner. We decided to make toasted sub sandwiches just because it sounded good and we didn't have to do a lot of "cooking".

We got all the ingredients out, and I remembered we'd brought home a ton of home-grown peppers from my mother's house over the weekend. A neighbor across the street from her has a garden and has been very generous in sharing with our family. And the peppers varied from green & red, jalapenos, etc.

So we're cooking and I grabbed a banana pepper; nice, mild, slightly sweet. I cleaned out the seeds, cut it into strips, and my son asked for a bite.

Sure.

I handed him a piece.

He took a bite.

His face turned bright red, he started panting and drooling, and waving his hand at his gaping mouth.

"It's hot! It's hot!" he screamed.

We gave him a glass of milk and Hubby stared at me. I stared back.

"They're only banana peppers," I said. "They shouldn't be hot."

Hubby popped a piece in his mouth. Same reaction. Red face, drooling, panting. "Not banana peppers!" He chugged from the jug of milk.

Well, yes, actually they are banana peppers, but I found out that if you plant sweet peppers close to spicy peppers, they become cross-pollinated and result in spicy peppers.

And the worst part is that I got those seeds and the oil all over my fingers and no matter how many times I washed my hands last night, I still couldn't get the spicy off them.

My mouth burned every time I got my fingers near it. Managed to burn my eyes when I was washing my face before bed. My skin sizzled all night.

Totally felt like a moron.

So I'll probably be avoiding peppers for a while, and I think my son probably will, too.

Hope the rest of your week goes well.

Later.

Hi everyone!

Monday again, and we're back to the grind after a busy weekend. We took the kids to my Mom's house for Halloween, and we got a ton of candy. I don't think they'll be able to eat it all anytime soon.

Of course, being my kids, they'll probably have it finished by the end of the week.

I got to stay the night with my sweet little nephew, and he was totally adorable, as usual.

We hurried home on Sunday afternoon so I could stop by my friend Lacy's baby shower, which was totally cute.

And today, because of the time change, the boys were up very early and ready to go to school. Like, arguing with me because we couldn't walk out the door that very moment.

I'm really liking the change this year because the kids are going to bed early, we're up earlier without feeling exhausted, and I've already gotten the dishes and a couple of loads of laundry going.

Of course, the Princess is feeling really good, and has been into everything all morning long. Hopefully she'll wear herself out playing this morning and will take a great nap this afternoon.

And I guess that's it for us. I need to go switch the laundry and start folding. Exciting. Not.

Have a great week.

Later.