First Night Story Trailer

I finally got with the program and created my own book trailer and uploaded it on YouTube. This was an experiment as I was teaching myself a flash program that I probably won't use again, LOL. I think I prefer Roxio. But here it is ... only 32 seconds long, which is apropos for a short story, don't you think?

I learned a lot while making it, and hopefully will be able to apply that knowledge to one for Private Property, and then Personal Protection. Yes, you caught me, I've found more ways to keep procrastinating from writing. I think I found Bonnie Staring another 'Excuse of the week'.

Don't forget you can download First Night here. (But hang on to your old copy if you downloaded it before six pm yesterday, it may be worth something - that cover itself is now a 'collectors' item that may win you something when I hold my first contest.)

Oh, and here's a short blurb about it:

Was it the excitement of the New Year or stubborn pride that drove Jodi Tyler to challenge her boss? But when the clock strikes midnight, and the ball drops on Times Square, has Jodi Tyler won the bet or lost her heart?

Oh, and you just HAVE to go over and download Inez Kelley's "To Cop a Kiss" today. It's absolutely hilarious and such fresh writing! Here's a writer to watch in the future! (Plus her website has man-candy!)

First Night released today!

I'm blogging over at the new Samhellion blog today in the first of what will be a regular monthly blogging session. Come read, leave a comment, then continue on over to The Samhellion and download my New Year's Eve story, First Night, to get a sneak peak at Private Property's Jodi Tyler and Mark Rodriguez and an insight into how they began their no-strings-attached affair.

First Night will be on the front page of The Samhellion today, then it'll move to the Free ebooks section. But I'll give you fair warning, it's steamy hot. It takes place in Texas after all.

If you download it now, you get the special edition cover with my name spelled as Leah Brahmel instead of Leah Braemel.

**Edited** the fixed version with my name spelled correctly is now up for download.

The Well's Running Dry

I've been blogging almost two years now and I had it in the back of my head that blogging would get easier.

I was wrong.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to post my very first blog over on the new Samhellion blog. I'm starting to panic because right now I have nothing. Nada. Zip. I'm so used to writing about Gizmo Guy gizmos, or Guitar Hero's antics that anything I write not referring to them comes out more like a thesis. Plus you know already that I'm rather, um, long-winded both on my blog and in real life. A good blog runs around 500 words, just long enough to hook a reader without intimidating them with a lengthy post. Trouble is I can't ask directions to the bathroom in less than 1000 words. Not to mention that this week I've not even been able to come up with anything interesting to post to THIS blog. Ugh.

You'd think I'd have a lot to talk about, wouldn't you? After all, I've got a free New Year's Eve themed short-story coming out tomorrow over at The Samhellion called First Night. I've even made a book trailer for it that I hope to put up for you tomorrow. Plus in less than a month, Private Property's going to be released. But the blogs on The Samhellion are not supposed to be promo but more chatty. So no excerpts or blatant self-promotion. (Plus I'm wondering just how much good it is to post an excerpt when you can't even buy the book yet. It's sort of like dangling chocolates in front of a dieter. Just plain mean.)

I'm guest blogging over at a few other author's blogs in the next month and when asked if I wanted to write my own blog or be 'interviewed' I jumped at the chance to be interviewed rather than go through this hair-pulling stress again. So I've been filling out questionnaires/interviews with some of the toughest questions I could have imagined. I mean, how hard can it be to describe your perfect day? But then I start questioning if they mean one I've already lived, or one I'd love to live as a writer? Akk! And there goes the word count ballooning again because, being me, I answer it both ways in excruciating detail.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm not writing literary fiction the way my mind wanders. Oh, yeah, becase I like my stories to have a plot, that's why. (How's that for a non sequitur?)

And now a total change of direction, here's one of my favorite cartoons - the Animaniacs. This one is Yakko singing the dictionary. Because sometimes I think I've used every word in the dictionary on this blog. (And just how long did it take them to get everything to rhyme and fit the timing?)

Tick tock, tick tock

Christmas in the Braemel house was a blast this year. I did lots of baking, but even so the chocolate macaroons and double batch of peanut butter cookies I made didn't last until Christmas morning. We had only one minor glitch this year. Gizmo Guy and I bought Curly a new digital camera to take with him on his school band trip to Florida. We checked out the floor model in the store and compared shopped and did all the responsible parent-y things, then when we'd made our decision the sales clerk handed us a box - in a sealed plastic security container - to take to the cash register. The cashier undid the theft device and rang up the sale, then we took the box home and wrapped it. Yeah, should have checked the box before wrapping it, because when Curly opened the box on Christmas day, the box contained a rechargeable battery and the adapter etc. but no camera. Good thing that wasn't his only present that day. (When we took the camera box back to the store along with the receipt, the store gave us no problems and very promptly handed us a new camera box and ensured everything was there. Phew!)

When Shelley Munro had me as a guest over on her blog, I wrote about a reasonably new tradition we started as the kids were growing out of the "Santa's coming" stage. In a nutshell, if someone's getting an 'extra special' gift, we hide it and the recipient has to ensure a Treasure Hunt through the house - sometimes following clues left in strategic places - to find it.

This year - for the first time - Gizmo Guy and the boys played the Treasure Hunt trick on me. Guitar Hero knew that GG and I had said that for our twenty-fifth anniversary we wanted to buy ourselves a grandfather clock. Except that year GG had been laid off, so we'd said we'd get one for our thirtiest anniversary. But when we celebrated that this year and we started pricing them, we just couldn't justify spending three thousand dollars (Canadian) for one. So a couple weeks ago, I got a call at 6:45 a.m. from Guitar Hero asking me to come pick him up at the Walmart where he works. He needed to ask me something about a present he wanted to buy me. Turned out Walmart sells grandfather clocks, and they don't cost three thousand bucks. I had to laugh at the time because it was so cute, and I was also touched that he'd thought about me enough to ask me if I'd 'settle' for one bought at Walmart. I said, "Yes, it was probably the only way I'd ever get a grandfather clock - other than the miniature on my fireplace mantel." So we trucked it home that day and it has been hidden in Guitar Hero's room ever since.

When I came down Christmas morning, there was the huge - and it was frickin' huge - present for me in the middle of the living room floor. Guitar Hero and Curly made a show of hauling it in front of me when I sat down on the living room couch. Now, because of the way my parents didn't like celebrating Christmas, I tend to open my presents really slowly to prolong the moment. Trying very hard not to tear the paper, I carefully unwrap one present then turn my attention to watching everyone else rip over their gifts. So by the time everyone else is done, I still have several unopened presents surrounding me.

This Christmas Day was no exception, and I left the largest package for the last. I removed the paper and frowned.

"The top wasn't ripped like that when we brought it home," I said.

"Ah, no, we had a bit of a problem when we were bringing it down the stairs," Guitar Hero replied.

What a sucker I am. I bought his story and lifted one of the flaps, and then removed the large sheet of styrofoam protecting the .... weight lifting set?

Yup, they'd removed the clock and put about fifty pounds of weights in its place. (Curly informed me later that my laugh qualified for the 'evil cackle of the year' award.) They'd assembled the clock and left it for me to find - no clues. But really? There's not many places in our house where they could hide a six foot tall clock. It was standing in front of the fireplace in the family room. I've spent the last two days trying to figure out where it would best be showcased. I would have preferred it to be in the living room as its cherrywood case matches my curio cabinet and the rest of the furniture there, but the only place it would fit would be beside the treadmill (only place IT would go too, not that I want it in my living room.) So now it's standing in the upstairs hallway between GG's and my bedroom and Guitar Hero's bedroom. It'll be interesting to see if its chiming keeps him awake during the day. So it may not be there permanently.

So now if you're on the phone me with over the hour changeover, you'll have to endure a symphony of my cuckoo clock cuckooing (the one that works), my mantel clock, the chiming wall clock in the living room, and my grandfather clock. Of course, as Marley will attest to after talking with me at two o'clock this afternoon, none of them chime at exactly the same time. Talk about a cacophony.

Tis the season ...

If you're Dutch, Zalig Kerstfeast. If you're French, Joyeux Noel; Spanish - Feliz Navidad; Polish -
Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia. For those of you in Wales, Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr! Greece - Kala Christouyenna! or Ireland, Nollaig Shona Dhuit ... well, you get the idea.

Merry Christmas

or for those who aren't celebrating Christmas today...

Season's Greetings

I should have listened to Fozzy Bear

All right Mother Nature, enough already. Yes, I know Wylie's kids are having fun building snow forts and toboganning but we adults have had enough of shoveling the darned stuff out of the driveways. Besides we've had enough now to guarantee us a white Christmas. (Although I understand that it for officially be a white Christmas it has to snow on Christmas morning itself, I consider it a white Christmas if there's snow on the ground no matter when it fell.) To make matters worse, according to a report I've just read, it's supposed to snow pretty much every day between now and New Year's. Ugh.


I've been filling up the bird feeder with black sunflower seeds and we've been having fun watching the birds swooping around all day: chickadees, house finches, juncos and mourning doves, along with a pair of downy woodpeckers on the suet feeder. (Can you tell the difference in the pictures between the male and the female woodpeckers?)


They went through the seed by midafternoon, and not wanting to let them go hungry, I grabbed the seed funnel and stepped out into knee-high snow wearing only my running shoes. I made it safely all the way out to the shepherd's hook that the feeder is hung on. Trouble was the funnel only holds enough seed to fill half the feeder. So carrying the half-filled feeder in one hand and the funnel in the other, I turned and slogged back through the drifts to the patio door. I'd made it half way when my right foot slid out from under me.

You know those passages you read when people say 'time slowed down for them'? That's what happened to me. I knew I was falling, and tried to figure out if there was a way to regain my balance but after a few gyrations I realized I'd probably get hurt worse and just let myself fall smack on my butt. At least it was a soft landing in the snow, more cold than anything. And I didn't even spill any seed, much to the ground-feeding birds' and squirrels' disgust.

Gizmo Guy was watching and when he came to help me, he said, "That wasn't the most graceful fall I've ever seen." Gee, thanks, GG.

So I leave you with a clip from one of Guitar Hero's favorite Christmas shows when he was a kid - the Muppet Family Christmas. Unfortunately it's not shown much any more, but he used to watch it over and over again and then warn everyone for weeks afterward to "be careful of the icy patch."

So there!

Gizmo Guy has been reading David Baldacci's Camel Club series, and found this note at the end of Stone Cold (yes, it's got the same title as Robert Parker's Jesse Stone book - how did the marketing people let that get by?) Anyway, I just had to share it with you. (One warning that Gizmo Guy gave me - if you are planning to read the series and haven't, this may be considered a spoiler.)

AUTHOR'S NOTE

HOPE YOU ENJOYED Stone Cold. One note so people won't e-mail telling me I made a glaring mistake: I've played with the time-line, putting Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko in office as heads of the Soviet Union so it would match Oliver Stone's career as a government assassin. As a fiction writer, I have full latitude to do so. It's an entitlement actually granted to me by the Novelist's Bill of Rights, under the subsection "Why Bother with the Truth When You Can Just Make It Up?" It was duly enacted by Congress, an august body that has enviable experience in same.

How many writers have wanted to say this to their readers but were too afraid? I want a copy of this 'Novelist's Bill of Rights.' Somehow I don't think my editor will go for this as my explanation for any errors though.

What do you mean Leah's blogging somewhere else today?

I'm doing my first 'guest blog' over on Shelley Munro's blog today - I'm talking about how my family's Christmas traditions have changed over the years. I'm also sharing my recipe for pizza-pan cookies. So don't forget to pop over and say hi. (I'd hate to hear the crickets chirping.)

Also, Samhain is doing a Reader Survey as they prepare to release their first ever Top Ten Bestsellers of the Year. They're interested in hearing about your favourite Samhain books and covers for 2008. It can be taken here. Or you can also find it over at Angela James' blog, Nice Mommy-Evil Editor.

Smelling like meat is sexy?

Burger King has announced they're releasing a new cologne for men so they can smell like a Burger King burger. They describe it as "a bodyspray of seduction, with a hint of flame broiled meat." Um, do you think you'd find a man smelling of meat sexy? Especially after looking at the picture of that creepy King above? Ugh.

To get a whole new outlook on the Burger King, check out this site. (It was loading a little slow for me, but once it loads, move your mouse to the bottom center of the screen to bring up the spray bottle. It'll keep changing the picture for you and eventually you'll get to see the King above - one time he's beckoning you to him, another time he's stroking the bearskin rug he's on, and the third time he's got the rose. Eeew.)

File this under "I kid you not."

Another Sony freebie ...

More on the Sony deals - the Harlequin free ebook was only for that day, the next day's 'deal' was a Linda Lael Miller that they chopped the price by only 25 cents. Today's is another Linda Lael Miller--A Stone Creek Christmas--that they've dropped the price from $3.38 to $2.87. Whoopee. However, I've noticed that on the main ebook store page (left hand side), Random House is offering 9 free books between now and February 28th including

• Julie Garwood - The Murder List
• David Liss - The Whiskey Rebels
• Alan Furst - The Foreign Correspondent
• Charlie Huston - Six Bad Things
• Charlie Huston - Caught Stealing
• Charlie Huston - A Dangerous Man
• Simon Rich - Free-Range Chickens
• Laurie Notaro - The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death
• David Carnoy - Knife Music

Free books! Woohoo, I am SO there.

Immortals to Die For by JK Coi

I'm trying something new today by inviting a fellow member of the Toronto Romance Writers, and Linden Bay Romance/Samhain author, JK Coi to guest blog here. So give a big hand, for my first guest blogger ...

J.K. COI—LIVING WITH IMMORTALS

Yep, I live with Immortals. Huge, stubborn warriors who barely know the meaning of compromise and never give up until they get exactly what they want. Difficult to reason with and impossible to out-muscle...but at least they don’t scare my neighbours and eat me out of house and home. They don’t leave the toilet seat up or throw their torn, bloodstained laundry on the floor. I don’t have to wrestle any one of them for the television remote, and they don’t destroy my living room with their swords when they’re training.

They just do all of that in my head.

Yes, I’m probably a little bit crazy (really, what writer isn’t?) but I’ve read the self-help books, taken the 12-step program, and I’m finally willing to admit it to the world: My characters are real to me.

Then again, that’s not so strange. I hope that they will become real to you as well after you read my books. Because, you see, that is the goal of every writer. To create such compelling heroes and heroines, to paint such vivid pictures with words, that the story runs through your head like a blockbuster movie and stays with you long after you’ve finished reading. You should breathe in the scents and textures of that world, cry when the characters hurt, frown and throw things when they are insufferable, and laugh at their lame jokes just as you would for your sweet husband (*kidding, he’s hilarious*).

This is why I am proud to say that I live with Immortals. Like all of us real people do, these strong, alpha warriors have a past, and they have baggage that affects how they deal with others. They have experienced frustration, desire, happiness. My characters have suffered with me, grown and matured with me as we have hashed out their stories together. And I am happy, in turn, to be able to share that with all of you.

So I invite you into my world. Come and meet my immortals...

Immortal Kiss (Book 2, Immortal Series)

Evil lurks in the darkest of shadows, but a band of warriors stands ready to defend humanity against hell’s own monsters—Immortal men hand-picked by destiny and taken out of time hold the fate of the world in their hands.

It has been two years since Baron’s initiation into the world of the Immortals, and during that time, he’s been training with them, setting aside his past to embrace the challenges of his new future…a future without Maxine Deveraux.

Maxine is strong, determined, and loyal to a fault. The last person she wants to have to face is Baron Silver, the man who broke her heart, leaving her without an explanation or even a goodbye. But Maxine gave her word to Baron’s brother Jackson that she’d track him down and bring him home…and Max always keeps her promises.

When Baron encounters a vicious vampire who vows to destroy everything he loves, it doesn’t faze him in the least. He gave up everything he loved along with his humanity. But then the demon attacks Maxine leaving her broken and battered on Baron’s doorstep and he realizes there are still things he can lose…and they are things he can’t live without.

© Immortal Kiss (Book 2, Immortal Series) by J.K. Coi

She put a hand to Baron’s chest in a lame effort to push him back and put distance between them, which he wholly ignored, stepping even closer into her personal space. Baron had always been a very physical person. He had played sports constantly, his body always in motion—almost as if he’d been given an extra dose of energy to make up for what his brother lacked.

Now all of that physical presence was concentrated on her, transformed into blistering, crackling, hot sexual energy. Her fingers curled around the soft cotton of his shirt. “Baron—”

“Max—” he mimicked, his voice deep and husky and so damn sexy.

He was close. So close.

She was going to push him away now. Wasn’t she?

Apparently not soon enough to avoid being kissed. Her body tensed with the initial contact of his mouth against hers. It was a sizzling, wet kiss that ignited a fever in her blood, but he was gentle, almost careful with her as if he half expected to get kneed in the groin.

Which was exactly what she should do.

When it came to this man, though, Max had never operated on “should”. Baron had always been her one and worst weakness, the addiction she may never kick no matter how long and hard she tried.

Her lips were opening of their own accord under his gentle but insistent pressure. Damn, this was dangerous.

Thanks so much to Leah for letting me visit today!

Please visit me at my website for more information about upcoming books, chats, interviews, reviews, and all things Immortal: http://www.jkcoi.com. I’m also on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jkcoi and I blog at http://www.jkcoi.blogspot.com.

J.K. Coi
Immortals to Die For
www.jkcoi.com

Free Harlequin over at Sony

I haven't done a Sony Reader update in a while - but I just had to today. I got their latest sale 'flyer' in my inbox and noticed they're offering a different 'deal' every day between now and December 28th. Today's 'deal' is a free download of The Mistletoe Wager by Christine Merrill.

YOUR FREE GIFT TODAY, A REGENCY ROMANCE WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS!

Harry Pennyngton, Earl of Anneslea, is surprised when his estranged wife, Elise, arrives home for Christmas, especially as she is still intent on divorce! The festive house party is in full swing when the guests are snowed in, and Harry and Elise find themselves together beneath the mistletoe. Maybe the magic of Christmas is just what these two need to reignite their love....

What a lovely Christmas present. I just hope each 'deal' for the next two weeks is also a free book and not just 50% off or something.

***

I pretty much finished up my Christmas shopping today. Everyone except Blue Monkey, Guitar Hero's girlfriend, has something under the tree. And poor Blue Monkey doesn't have anything because GH won't tell me what she wants except "lots of books". So Blue Monkey (I'm not going to refer you by the Blue Monkey initials *shudder*) if you're reading this, drop me an email and let me know what you'd like. Your boyfriend is being evasive. As usual. After all, he takes after his father.

***

Don't forget to drop by tomorrow, I've got JK Coi blogging about her newest book in her Immortal series.

Weekend Roundup

Another weekend is gone, and we're that much closer to Christmas. No, I'm not much readier than I was this time last week. I did my Christmas baking shopping - icing sugar, coconut, etc. and got that out of the way yesterday. I do a sleighful of baking - lots of cookies and peanut brittle and candies etc. That'll be next week's task.

The sequel to Sam's Story, oops excuse me, Personal Protection - I really need to remember its name - is going well. Working on Scrivener on the Mac is helping me organize and focus more than on Word. But maybe it's just that 'new toy' syndrome at work. The Mac is in the family room still - we've decided it will be until Christmas is over and then yes, sigh, it'll be up in the living room. Mainly because a) there's no space and no electrical plugs left in the office, and b) we want Curly to be able to use it for his video projects and want to make it more accessible to him.

I also went into Toronto for the annual Toronto Romance Writers Holiday social. This time of year the weather always makes commitments iffy, so I wasn't sure if I'd try, but Saturday turned out to be nice. Grey. But nice. And I enjoyed catching up with Amy Ruttan and Christine d'Abo, Laurie Rauch and JK Coi - who will be guest blogging here on Wednesday. (Missed you, Wylie!)

Oh, and Guitar Hero - who I am thinking of renaming to Biker Dude - went to a motorcycle show in Toronto on Saturday and came home sporting a brand spanking new set of leather chaps. These button up around the ankle but have a zipper up the side so you can get into them easier. Some lace up the side, some have tassles that'll blow in the wind when you're out on the road, and some just are straight pull-on tight leather pants. But they all have the crotch and butt hanging out.

I'm going to leave it to your imaginations as to what an erotica author might want to do with a pair of chaps, but frankly I can't even go there. It's just too .... weird.

Dash it all

Not much to say today - I just finished my line edits for Private Property. I need to study more about American hyphenation standards - apparently they are different from Canadian/British standards. Other than that it's all good and Private Property is one step closer to publication. Hmm, I had typed in 'PP' which is how I've been referring to Private Property in my emails but now I've got Personal Protection, I guess I'll have to refer to them as PP1 and PP2. Those sound ... rude.

Don't forget about the free Holiday short stories over on The Samhellion. It's a great way to find new authors (yeah, I can hear you grumbling - But Leah, my TBR pile is already six foot tall and threatening to topple or has already toppled and now covers my floor so deep I can't see the carpet anymore. But these are free folks, and only three K long. They're perfect to read when you're sitting down and want a quick read during your lunch or your coffee break. (Ciar Cullen's Midnight Clear is really sweet because it's based upon the true story of how her great-grandfather proposed to her great-grandmother. And how many other people can say their grandfather is Edward Cullen, LOL.) Today's story(#11) is A Kringle in the System by MK Mancos which is a really fun read - it'll make you see Santa's elves in a whole new light.

Oh, and Angela's Holiday Hell contest is winding up - it ends tomorrow, so get your Kindle entries in now! Today Angie blogged how there are less entries for the second Kindle than for the first. So get out there and start finding those icons. (Marley pointed out that if you have a slower connection and you're searching a graphics heavy site you may have to wait a while for all the graphics to completely load in order to find them. But trust me. They're there.) Today's daily draw prizes include a Samhain Coffee Travel Mug (I need to get myself one of those), an apron, a cookbook (Gizmo Guy will tell me I need one of them since I tell when food is done by when the smoke alarm goes off), and books by Ciar Cullen, Sasha White, Eve Vaughn, Catherine Mann, Dianna Love Snell, Emily Hendrickson and Lucy Monroe.

Speak softly ...

Holiday Hell is up to day 10 already. Today over on Nice Mommy-Evil Editor, Angela James is offering books by Jaci Burton, Eve Vaughn, Ann Cory, Melani Blazer, Rose Marie Wolf, Kinley MacGregor (aka Sherrilyn Kenyon), Lora Leigh, Jan Colley and Roxanne St. Clair. The challenge for today is to say something nice to someone you know and then tell Angela who and how you told them.

I really like that challenge. There's been so much negativity in the world lately, people willing to tear down others and walk over their battered bodies (literally in the case of the Walmart worker in the States), that taking the time to give someone a compliment or a kind word seems so needed, so right.

Since we're coming up to the end of the year and it's that time to be retrospective, I know that I have a lot of people who deserve compliments. But how to choose one? I can't. There's so many people I need to compliment. From the ladies of the TRW who have been so supportive, to my newly-made online friends who make my day when they leave comments to some of my inane ramblings here on my blog, to my critique partners who have put aside their own lives and own writing to read my manuscripts and offered suggestions, to my family who (they tell me) don't mind that the dust bunnies have taken over every room of the house. And to Angela herself who took a chance on a newbie Canuck author and fulfilled her dreams by offering her a contract. Then offered her another. (No, I'm not sucking up, LOL, the contract's already signed! And no, I'm not writing this to enter the contest - I consider myself a part of an (unspoken) exclusionary clause - you know those "employees of ... are not eligible" clauses.)

In William Makepeace Thackery's words, "Never lose the chance of saying a kind word." So go out there and give someone a compliment, say a kind word, be nice to someone when you want to snarl. Leave a comment on Twitter or Facebook, on MySpace or a blog. Make someone's day, or maybe even someone's week.

Turf wars

Gizmo Guy bought another computer last night (This makes what? #10 or 11?) It's another Mac - this time a G4 Desktop with a HUGE - and I'm talking 70 pound/30 kilogram - professional quality LaCie Electron Blue 19 inch monitor. It used to belong to a graphic artist who left it loaded with all the software the professionals use to design websites, graphics, newsletters, etc. So now I have Adobe Professional - I can make and edit PDF files. It has the entire CS2 suite - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign so I can make graphics/banners galore. Oh, all, right I won't, because I have no graphic abilities - I've offered Curly money to make me banners and design a newsletter for me. It also has Final Cut Pro, which is what the boys use in Media Arts to create their professional-quality movies. Yeah, like I'm going to be using that. I think more money will be changing hands as I hire Curly and Guitar Hero to make me book trailers. Or maybe I'll just stay on the PC and use Roxio.

Since there is not room enough to turn around in our tiny 8x8 office, Gizmo Guy has declared we will put this one in the living room where I can work undisturbed. Folks, that's a fairy tale. Not the living room, the undisturbed part. When Gizmo Guy worked from home and declared the closet room we designated as an office as 'his office' my computer was moved to the living room. Where everyone and their mother/brother would stop off on their way to the kitchen or bathroom. Given the nature of what I write and the appetites of two then-teenaged boys, that meant every five minutes I was having to shrink down my screen when someone meandered past and asked "How's the writing going?" It took me 18 months once GG went back 'out there' to work before I could convince him to allow me to move my computer back into 'his office.'

At the moment the computer is on an old printer stand in the family room, but it's blocking the door to the garage so it can't stay there, not that I want it there anyway. So I'm left wondering if GG bought this computer in a passive aggressive move to reclaim 'his office' or if I should be turfing him out to work in the living room.

To borrow a phrase from the Godfather (and You've Got Mail), it may be time to "go to the mattresses" and defend my territory.

Christmas Factory explosion

Akk, it's the eighth of December already! Tree's up at least, most of the decorations too, although the boxes are still strewn around the living and family rooms. Guitar Hero decided to go all out this year with the decorating - we have bows on all the light fixtures, pine garland wrapped around the banister on the stairway leading to the top floor, garland around doorways, etc. I love it! Especially since he did it on his own without me having to nag ask him. My mother would walk in and say "Oh, look a Christmas factory exploded." Which is ironic when you consider she used to work at a factory that made Christmas decorations.

I've got a couple presents for Gizmo Guy - yes, they're gizmos so he should be happy, and that's one major headache item crossed off my list. (Although I still need to get out there and do the little stocking stuffer shopping - that's the part where usually people have the most fun as we buy each other nonsensical presents.)

I always try to find everyone what Gizmo Guy calls the 'woohoo' present. That's the present that wasn't on your list, that you didn't know you wanted until you get it. For a toddler, it's a foil pie plate and a wooden spoon, or an empty box, LOL. For adults, it's some weird toy or gizmo that they'd never seen and never would pick up for themselves. In other words, it's that present that you end up spending most of your Christmas Day playing with. When the boys were little it would usually be some toy I found on special in the clearance bin for under $10 and put away for them. Then when they opened it, they'd scream, "Santa knew! Santa knew! I didn't tell anyone I wanted this but he bought it anyway!" (One year it was a toy Star Trek Bridge or Transporter or something. They still won't let me get rid of it even though half the parts are missing.) Trouble is those presents are getting harder and harder to find and some years I don't manage it. I have an idea for one for Guitar Hero or Curly - or maybe both - but the closest store that carries it is on the outskirts of Toronto and I hate driving in that traffic. Ah, well, what we do for our kids, right?

Don't forget that Angela's Holiday Hell contest is still going on - today's prize includes a $25 'bookmark' (gift certificate?) and books by Lauren Dane, Sloane McBride, Anne Whitfield, Alex Fleming and Brenda Novak as well as a few other items. And she's got a very interesting question for you to answer in order to win - it had me chuckling and scratching my head at the same time. So pop on over.

And Marley Delarose has a a warning and some advice for PC owners - there's a new antivirus virus going around that's hitting PCs hard. The only way to get rid of it is to reformat your computer. Ouch.

An Unglamorous Present

A few years back, I was Christmas shopping for my sister and parents. Since they're hard to shop for, I decided to buy a decidedly unglamorous present. I bought them each a carbon monoxide detector (I think I also bought them smoke alarms too - this was before Ontario law required every house to have a smoke alarm on each floor.) I'd forgotten completely about it until my sister happened to mention it earlier this year.

That conversation came to mind the other day when I was reading a news report from south-western Ontario that a police constable had been found in her house unconscious, her family - husband and two children - dead. With my writer's imagination, I automatically figured either it was a murder-suicide that we hear so much about these days, or some form of foul play - perhaps someone she'd arrested had set out to 'punish' her. (Yes, writers can have very sick imaginations.)

It was nothing so sinister. They died of carbon monoxide poisoning due to a blocked exhaust pipe connected to their gas fireplace.

In other words, they were totally preventable deaths. A true tragedy.

We have a carbon monoxide detector outside of our bedrooms - I insisted on it when we bought our first house with a built-in garage. Of course, once we got settled, the cars never actually managed to fit into the garage for all our boxes and camping gear so car exhaust has never been a problem. But now Guitar Hero stores his motorcycle in there, and has on occasion warmed it up inside. Even with the door to the garage open, and the inside door to the house closed, I can still smell its exhaust. So I mentioned that perhaps I should buy a second unit for the family room that leads to the garage.

Once I read that report of the police constable and her family , I decided to buy one for the basement as well. (It's recommended carbon monoxide detectors be placed on each level of your home but not within 5 feet fuel burning appliances, or near cooking or bathing areas or you'll have a lot of false alarms.) The other thing I need to do? Have the fireplace chimney checked. I'd never realized that a gas burning fireplace needed to be swept the same way a wood burning fireplace did. I figured it was a clean-burning fuel, so what was the problem? Apart from birds' nests and squirrels that is ...

So if you have someone hard to shop for, or someone you care a lot about, buy them a completely unglamorous present. Buy them - and yourself - something that could save lives.

Oh, and don't forget to change the batteries on your smoke alarms regularly too.

Voice of an Angel

Ever since I posted that "Where in the Hell is Matt" video back on Monday, I've had the song playing in my head. It's downloadable to those in the States through Amazon for $1.98 - or .99, I see it for two prices, not sure what the difference is. Unfortunately it's not available to us in Canada or any one in NZ. (Why the hell not, I have no idea) It's also available through iTunes, but since I don't use iTunes and shudder at just the thought of using it ... well, I'm sorta stuck.

So I started researching and discovered that the singer is 17 year old Palbasha Siddique from Minneapolis (originally she's from Bangladesh - you DO know where that is, don't you?) Here's an article about her. She was paid a thousand bucks for singing the song, and does not receive any royalties from the Amazon sales. (She needs an agent!) And even though she sings like an angel, plans to study law at Harvard. (Music's loss, isn't it?)

The words come from Bengali poet Robi Thakur’s “Gitanjoli”. The English translation is:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Anyway, here it is again, for your (and my) listening pleasure ...

Holiday Goodies of the Non-Fattening Kind

Wow, it's so cool to look over on my sidebar and see TWO books there. *basking* All right, I'm back now.

There's lots of other news going on too ...

For instance, there will be a third cover going up on my sidebar within the next couple of weeks but before you get too excited, it's not from another sale. You see Samhain and 31 Samhain authors have gotten together to do a 'reader appreciation' event this month. Each day over on the Samhellion, a different holiday-themed short story is being released - for free. Mine is a New Year's Eve theme, so it will be released **Edited** December 30th. I'll post the link here when "First Night" is available for download. I even have a little book trailer for it, LOL. I had such a blast doing that. It's a whole 32 seconds long.

While you're over there, take a gander at the new Samhellion blog that started up December 1st. While Wednesdays are for promoting new releases, the other days will be chatty casual slice-of-life blogs by a variety of Samhain authors. And if you take a look at the author list, you'll see my name on it. Which means I have to figure out what types of posts readers want to read on blogs. Any suggestions or requests are definitely appreciated.

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas coming up, don't forget Angela James' Holiday Hell contest is still on-going. That one has two parts - the "find the icon on the Kindle" treasure hunt which can garner you a brand new Kindle loaded with books by all the contributing authors (the books alone are worth over $200!) And she has daily prizes being awarded too. Today all you have to do is leave a comment with the best book/author that you've read recently and you might win a hardcover copy of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Acheron, books by Lilith St. Crow, Sasha White, Alexis Fleming, Kelley St. John, and Sara Reinke. Not to mention more Australian and New Zealand goodies.

Break out the Bubbly!

Did you guys hear me 'squeeing' on Monday afternoon? I'm surprised if you didn't. After all, you danced along with me and Matt. (Did you realize that was a clue? That was my extra-special happy dance.)

Curly heard me all the way down in the basement. Even Marley heard me down in the heart of bayou country. Oh, all right, I didn't scream THAT loud. We were on the phone as I bugged her with my incessant questions about the Mac when *cue triumphant music here* 'the email' arrived. Angela James of Samhain Publishing offered me another contract - this one for Sam's story - from here on in known as PERSONAL PROTECTION.

Now that the contract is signed and initialled on all ten pages, sealed in an envelope (with scotch tape, not a kiss) and is winging its way to Samhain even as you read this, I can officially squee long and loud. And in public.

SQUEEEEEEEEEeeeeee *pauses for breath* EEEEeeeeeeeeee

Happy Dance with me again!

Tis the Season ... to Grumble

I've been playing with my blog listing because I'd received a complaint that my page was loading slowly while blogger went out to get YOUR posts for MY list. Yeah, so not going to lose my 2 faithful readers because of that. Do you guys use that bloglist anyway? Does it need to be there for anyone else? Tell me. Please! *Edited* Okay, BlueSue pointed out I can limit the number of blogs it shows, so I've set it to 25 instead of the 41 I had on there. Want to make it on my list? Update your blog!

(And if you have problems loading either my blog or my webpage, let me know - send an email to Leah AT LeahBraemel DOT com although no caps are necessary.)

No, I haven't sent my Christmas cards out yet - all three of them. Wait, I'm sending FOUR out this year, the rest I hand deliver. No, I've not started my Christmas baking. No, I haven't got my vacuum fixed. And no, I haven't done any more Christmas shopping this week. Though my shopping for Curly is just about complete, I haven't got anything for either Guitar Hero or Gizmo Guy yet. GH is taken care of with a trip over to GP Bikes for a special item for his motorcycle. (He knows about it, so I'm not giving away any secrets here.) But GG. OMG. GG is the hardest man in the world to shop for because he already owns every gadget imaginable and if he sees one in the store he wants, he impulse buys it instead of coming home and telling me about it so I can buy it as a present. Plus I just got through finding something for his birthday so the idea pot is dry.

If you're having problems figuring out gifts, or perhaps you're already done your Christmas shopping and want to reward yourself with a little something extra, head on over to Angela's Nice Mommy-Evil Editor blog again for today's Holiday Hell Day 3 Contest.

Today's prize pack includes:

Signed copy of the The Black Dagger Brotherhood an Insider’s Guide by JR Ward
ARC of Eve of Darkness by S.J. Day
Signed Highland Stone by Sloan McBride
Stud Finders Incorporated by Alexis Fleming
A Fiery Secret by Diane Craver
RWA Lanyard
Australia bottle cooler
Signed Decadent by Shayla Black
Blank journal and bookmark

Apples no longer virus-free?

Sheesh, most days I can't think of anything to post, and this week I keep double posting. Anyway, I thought this was important enough to generate that 'extra' post for today.

According to this article on the Washington Post "Security Fix" blog, Apple has announced that they recommended Mac users install anti-virus software. If you're a Mac user, the article lists several anti-virus programs Apple recommends you can choose from to install.

Pity, the day has finally arrived when Mac users are just as hostage as the rest of ... well, I was going to say 'us' but considering I now use a Mac amongst my PCs, I have to heave a sigh. I really liked not having to worry about such things on my little iBook.

There's not enough hours in a day ...

So much to do, so little time. Gee, where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah, everywhere!

I am not ready for Christmas. I like to have the house clean before we drag out the decorations. Last week I decided to clean the carpets after I'd vacuumed and discovered the heater on my carpet cleaner had gone, so it's in the shop. Yesterday I vacuumed and the belt that drives the beater bar heated up and filled the house with the stench of burnt rubber. So now I have to buy a new belt and get GG to replace it for me. Which will be like ... next year ... he is not a handyman unless it has a circuit board in it. (I'm sure I had a spare around here somewhere but do you think I can find it? Nope.)

On Sunday, the boys' computer monitor started smoking and died with a crack and sizzle. The danged thing was due, it was probably about eight years old. So Gizmo Guy haunted some of the used computer places and bought 19" CRT style used one for $30 and hauled it home. Guitar Hero is ecstatic, and so is Curly because GH kicked Curly out of his own bedroom so GH could use Curly's computer to IM his girlfriend.

So I'm thinking I should stay away from most things electrical right now. (Says she eyeing her reasonably new computer and wondering if she should back it up again. Probably a good idea at any time.)

Anyway, I've just been handed a huge assignment and I need to wrestle it into submission. I hope I'll be able to tell you about it by the end of the week. So I'm back on the Sven bandwagon ... and sweating before I even begin.

Don't forget to head over to Angela's Nice Mommy-Evil Editor blog today for the Christmas contest. Today's prize includes a Samhain laptop bag, a signed copy of First You Run by Roxanne St. Claire amongst other things.

Matt's Dancing ...

... and so am I.



(For the high quality version go here ... and then dance along with me.)

Let the surfing begin ...

Head over to Angela James' blog today. It's the start of her 12 Days of Christmas contest where her authors have pitched in so some lucky person can win one of two Kindles. Just to make it extra worth your while, there are daily prizes as well. Today's special prize is a $25 gift certificate to the online bookstore of the winner's choice. Check back each day if you're interested in a variety of signed books including an autographed copy of JR Ward's The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide, a Vera Bradley purse, and all sorts of swag from Australia. That's just for starters. We're talking a whole lot of swag, folks so it'll be worth your time.

By the way, it is open to anyone and everyone, not just residents of the United States. So those of you who have wanted a Kindle but are limited by political borders, here's your chance.

To link to the Kindle contest, you can either click on the the graphic above, the link in the text, or over on the graphic in the right hand bar. You'll find links to the instructions on Angela's menu bar at the top. Kindle Contest #1, and Kindle Contest #2. To enter the daily contest, go to Angela's blog every day (that's the link attached to her name above) and follow her instructions.