Over the river and through the woods....

To Grandmother's house we go!

Lucky for me, I live with the reigning grandmother in my family so I didn't have to cross any rivers or go through any woods. Not that there are any woods in this major metropolitan area I call home. There is a river. Anyway...

It's Thanksgiviing, in case you've been living in a cave that just this moment became wired for Internet access. It's the time of year when we stop for a minute to think on those things for which we're thankful. After which we consume massive amounts of poultry and refined carbohydrates. Yum!

A couple of years ago, our circle widened to temporarily include a handful of young people who joined us for dinner. My son, who was then twenty-two, was explaining to them our annual ritual. "We stand in a circle and hold hands, then everyone has to say what they're thankful for."

"On, no," one of the young people said. "We won't do that."

"Oh, yes," my Boy insisted. "You HAVE to."

It's always good for a parent to discover that those little rituals we hold sacred actually stuck when we threw them at the younger generation.

So here are a few things for which I'm thankful. I won't list the obvious. Family, health, loved ones. Everybody has those. No, these are the little things that give me pleasure with some regularity:

A local radio station that plays classical music
More books than I'll ever have time to read
Flowers blooming outside my window
A really fast car and (so far) money to gas it up
My driveway to Walt Disney World - one hour
Fresh oranges almost falling in my lap
Every day, whether I have a chance to write or not, the words never stop filling my mind.

I hope everyone takes a moment to think about the little things today.

Happy Thanksgiving

Susan

What's in a Title?

A rose by any other name...blah, blah, blah. I know. Shakespeare was never wrong, and if he was, I'd be the last to say so. But TITLES, now that's a different story.

My Time Travel adventure is tentatively titled FROM A CASTLE KEEP. And I like that title. But I don't love it. The hard K sound is very nice. And there's a pretty good rhythm to it. But what does it say about the story? Do we have a clue what's going on there?

THE RUNAWAY HEIRESS is prettty straightforward. BLAME IT ON THE GHOST likewise gives the potential book buyer a clue. But what does FROM A CASTLE KEEP tell you? I'd really like it if I could come up with something that has TIME in the title. Here's my short list of maybes:

Time After Time
From Time to Time
Never Enough Time
So Little Time
No Time Left

I dunno. I'm open to suggestions. Anyone have any? Hey, how about a contest? Leave your title suggestions in the comments section here, and if I choose one of them, I'll give that person a free copy of the book! How's that?

Not much beats a free book!

Have a great day!

Susan

Some things I just can't ignore

I know, usually I blog about writing - my own and writing in general. But two news items have come to my attention today, and I'm powerless to let them go by unnoticed.

First, David Beckham has been awarded a $41 million dollar contract from Armani to model their underwear.

Wait, let me rephrase that:

FORTY-ONE MILLION DOLLARS TO MODEL UNDERWEAR

I'm sorry, I don't follow professional soccer, and I've never seen "Bend It Like Beckham." I do know that he's a good looking man who married a Spice Girl, moved to LA and got a huge bucketful of money to NOT play soccer. There's a really good chance the Beck looks Very Good in his underwear. Even better in Mr. Armani's underwear. But FORTY-ONE MILLION DOLLARS??? How much does a pair of these underpants cost, do you think? Has to be a lot to justify paying for Beck, right?

They probably won't be available at WalMart. Will they?

I'm just sayin'.

Next - and as Dave Barry would say, I'm NOT making this up - a platoon of Santas in Sydney, Australia (like there's another Sydney, right?) have been ordered - ORDERED -to say Ha, Ha, Ha instead of Ho, Ho, Ho.

Know why?

Go ahead. Guess why.

That's right. So they won't offend any woman who might think Santa is calling her a "ho."

And that's from our Give Me A Flippin' Break Department.

Now go have yourselves a nice day. I dare ya.

Susan

"Time is on my side.."

As Mick would say, "Yes, it is."

I've just received a contract offer for the time travel story, tentatively titled FROM A CASTLE KEEP.

This started as a contest entry at The Wild Rose Press. The only rules were that your heroine had to be in 2007, and she had to travel back in time to one of four designated time periods. I chose the Vintage period and had Star Prescott whisked back to 1962.

While I didn't win the contest, the editors did love the story enough to want to publish it apart from the contest. I had to make a few changes to it and resubmit. So instead of the English cottage that was the original setting for the contest, I moved Star to a spooky old castle in western England.

So what happens to Star when she takes her holiday in the old castle?

Stay tuned. More on that later.

Have a great day!

Susan

And Here's the Proof!

That's the official 1993 Fabio calendar. And it's autographed to ME! Notice how he signed it "Love?" I can't help it. I just have that effect on men.

And yes, I did put it on eBay. We'll see whether it gets any attention. But I'm here to report the Donny and Marie dolls I showed you last week got us THIRTY-ONE DOLLARS!

Surely Fabio is worth at least that.

Okay, this is a quick one. My internet service has been spotty for a few days now. I do hope that's resolved soon.

Have a great day!
Susan

"Let me 'splain you that..."

So,Fabio and George Clooney walk into a restaurant...

No,it's not the beginning of a bad joke. The Cover Model and the King of Cool actually came to blows two days ago when Clooney thought the women with Fabio were taking pictures of him. When actually, they were taking pictures of, you know, Fabio.

The Romance Novel World hasn't been in this much of a tizzy since RWA national conference was held in New Orleans while Kevin Costner was filming JFK. (And speaking of Costner, a rock band???? Come on, dude. You're not twenty-three and living in your mother's basement any more.) Various RomBlogs are posing the question: Who would win in a real fight? The camps are about evenly divided between "Fabio would crush him like a bug" and "Clooney would sneak in a sucker punch or a hairpulling."

To me, it doesn't matter. As one woman said somewhere, when those two start rolling around on the floor, WE are the winners. Yes, ma'am. Pull me up a lawn chair to the edge of the circle and let the games begin!

But I have actually met Fabio. Touched him. Had my picture taken beside him. Received his autograph on his 1993 calendar. Which I am about to post on eBay. (See my recent post about strikes and hot irons). I would upload the picture of me with Fab (as those close to him like to call him) but aside from the fact that I don't have a scanner, it's possibly the worst picture ever taken of me. But really - who's going to look good standing next to Fabio? Maybe Jessica Simpson?

Hmmm....come to think of it....have you ever seen the two of them together???

I'm off to ponder Clooney and Fab in a hairpulling, clothes ripping match.

Have a great day!
Susan

The Lotus Unfolds

Yesterday I received my first review for A LOTUS-COVERED DOOR. Certainly over the years my books have been reviewed by professionals and amateurs alike, but this is my first short story. You never know what's going to happen when you try something different.

Here's part of what the reviewer had to say:

"A Lotus Covered Door is a sweet story. Susan Cody has done a great job creating a real romance in so few pages. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys short romance."

That's by Dakota Rebel. You can read the entire review here.

So, there you go. At least one person to whom I am not related likes it.

And now I'm off to do some more writing. Rumor has it I do a great job.

Have a great day!
Susan