Oh my God. I have a cover!

My editor just emailed my cover for Double Exposure for my approval.

Do I approve? Are you kidding me? It's fantastic! Perfect.

Red Sage does know how to do covers right, don't they? And at this point we're looking at an August release.

Still in the Rio Grande valley, selling pictures the dh is taking. But after 3 weeks, I'm more than ready to head for home.

On the Road Again

Heading out for another photography trip, this time to South Texas. Since I've never been there, it will be a new experience, and hopefully a new setting for a book.

We had a good Christmas this year, with most of the kids home. It was a little different in that we didn't go to my mother-in-law's for the first time in 35 years, but we survived the change. Didn't like it much, but we survived.

Found out my book will most likely be released in July. I'm excited about that. I wish I could afford to go to San Francisco so I could participate in the booksigning--that's something I've looked forward to for years, but unless I make a ton of money in the next couple of months, that won't be happening.

Be sure to pop over to the Wet Noodle Posse blog and check out all the exciting happenings going on there. They've started a several month series on writing--all the how-to's you've always wanted to know about.

Here's a bit of info...

You can enter to win Barnes and Noble.com gift certificates by posting this news release on your blog or forwarding to a chapter/group e-mail loop or newsletter. To be eligible, e-mail the particulars of your forward/post to jillmonroe @ cox.net (no spaces) and post no later than January 20, 2008. A random drawing will determine the winner(s) of the gift certificates.



The Wet Noodle Posse had such a great time with our month of Golden Heart prep that we're giving away writing tips...one month at a time. In addition to book and critique giveaways, join Q&A sessions and read guest blogs from bestselling writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon and Gena Showalter. Check out our line-up of topics! January-Getting Started (goals, choosing story idea, focus, etc.) February-Character Development (names, physical descriptions, backstory, etc.) March-Plotting April - Conflict May-Research June-Business side of Writing (market, marketing, promotion, etiquette) July-Prepping for Conference (both for national and smaller conferences) August-Inspiration (for stories and for keeping yourself going) September-Writer Health (physical and mental) October-GH Preparation November-Writing Challenges (NaNo, BIAW, turning off the internal editor, etc.) December-Editing/Revisions Get great information in a fun community! Visit http://wetnoodleposse.blogspot.com

First book-length sale!

Started to label this post first sale, but actually my first sale was the Christmas story to Woman's World, so this is my first book sale. I sold to Red Sage! The book is tentatively titled Double Exposure. It used to be titled Satin and Steel. It's the one Blaze almost bought, the one that won the Golden Gateway contest a few years ago. The one that just never would let go. I loved that book and couldn't give up on it. So glad I didn't.

Many thanks to Theresa, my new editor, and Alexandria, my new publisher. I'm looking forward to lots of good times ahead.

Catching Up

I've been gone for weeks, on the road helping the dh with the photography stuff. I'll be back in a bit to catch up with where we've been and what we've been up to. This post is just to keep my blogger account open so they don't delete me.

Check back tonight for an update.

Headed for Georgia

We've been asked to drive to Georgia to take pictures. Of course, we said yes! Who can resist an all-expenses paid trip out of town with nearly double our normal rate of pay, a per-diem for meals, an extra .10 a mile for gas (and over 1600 miles, that adds up!) We're excited. My dogs won't be, however, when they realize they're on their own.

Okay, not exactly. They'll have company. It just won't be me. They worry when I'm gone, when I come home after dark, etc. They freak out if I go outside after midnight.

I'm really afraid I'll come home to find my Great Pyrenees male, Willie, has passed. He's 10 years old, can barely get around, and wheezes something awful when he breathes. This heat is really hard on him. And if/when he dies, the female, Dollie, will freak. They've been together since she was 6 months old and Willie was 8 weeks old. I may end up having to put her down.

I'm ready to not own animals anymore. It's too hard to watch them die. We sold the cows (which nearly broke my heart, since I'd hand raised most of them) and the chickens. So the cat and the dogs are all we have left.

But with this job, we'll have opportunities to travel, and that's hard to do when you have furry friends depending on you. I'd probably give the two younger dogs away if I could, but I've had them since they were puppies. How do you give away your babies?

Has anyone ever adopted an older dog? How do they handle a new home and family? Do they miss the old ones?

Long time gone

We've been super busy, learning the photograpy biz, working 12 hour days, driving at least 2-3 of those hours. I'm exhausted. We're not making the money we'd hoped to, either, but hopefully that's a temporary situation while we're learning.

I did manage to cut a 400 page ms down to 200 pages at an editor's request and got it edited and sent off. Now I'm back in the waiting game. In the meantime, I got my first fan mail! A lady read The Christmas Wish, my Woman's World romance story from Dec. 2005 and loved it. Yay! That made my day.

Today is my youngest daughter's birthday. She's now 20, so I'm no longer the mother of a teenager. Last time we didn't have a teenager in the family was in 1989. So I can now say my kids are all grown, they're all beautiful/handsome, and they're smart and talented. Good kids. What more could a mother ask for?

Golden Heart and Rita Winners

The winners of this year's Romance Writers of America Golden Heart and Rita Awards have been posted at the RWA website. (click on link above)

I've very excited for two friends, Trish Milburn of the Wet Noodle Posse and my Aussie friend Bronwyn Clarke, who both won Golden Hearts tonight.

CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!!!!!!!!

RWA National

It's killing me that I won't get to attend National again this year. And it's within easy driving distance! But the new job requires my presence at training (the nerve!), my daughter needs help at her place on the weekend, and we have one last concrete job to pour so we can survive until the first paycheck from the new job.

So if you're going to National, drink a Cosmo for me, tell the editors and agents I said hi, and seek out the Wet Noodle Posse ladies and give them a hug from me.

If you're looking for someplace to eat besides the over-priced hotel restaurants, some of my favorite restaurants in or near downtown that serve great food for reasonable prices include El Fenix on McKinney Ave,(best Tex-Mex ever), Spaghetti Warehouse, Olive Garden, and Joe's Crab Shack (they have great coconut shrimp) in the West End.

I will be at the hotel Sunday morning, the 15th, to meet some people, so if you see me, stop and say hello.






The Wet Noodle Posse at the Awards, Dallas 2004

Where I've been...and Father's Day

Thought this map thing I found on Trish Milburn's blog (click blog title for link) was pretty cool. I can see that there are a few more places I need to visit before I die. And that's just here in the states.

We spent three weeks in Mexico one year, too. Two weeks in Vera Cruz, and a week travelling back and forth in a motorhome caravan. It was an absolute blast.

Most of these states were visited when I was a kid, when my Dad worked for Sperry Gyroscope. We moved at least once a year, usually from one coast to the other, so I got to see a lot of the country. I can remember singing with my mom, dad, and sister (that was before she became such a pain in the ass) as we drove along lonely highways late at night. In those days, you could drive a hundred miles or more and never see another car. (No, this wasn't in the thirties! It was the sixties.) Dad couldn't carry a note in a bucket, but that never stopped him from belting out "Shine on Silver Moon" or any of those other old songs.

That's probably one of my best memories of childhood, singing with my dad. I still miss him every damned day. Happy Father's Day, Dad.

PIcture Day

Decided to post some pics since my brain won't come up with anything to write. These photos were taken by my husband, an amateur photographer who would really like to go pro.

This one is from a bush in my back yard.







This is my 10 year old Great Pyrenees, Willie, enjoying the pond.








Ducks on my mother-in-law's pond.

Honoring Those Who Have Fallen

My father-in-law, Archie Payne 1923-2005















My father, Charles Maeker 1927-1998




These pictures are indicative of where my thoughts are today...

I don't personally know anyone who died while in service to our country, but I have been priviledged to know many who served our country with honor--some still living, some having passed on. My oldest daughter served in the Coast Guard, my father was a Merchant Marine during World War II, my father-in-law was in an Army tank division during that same time. A friend's husband served in Vietnam and my brother-in-law was a Sea Bee. My nephew served time in the Navy and is thinking about signing back up. I have a number of friends whose children are in Iraq or who are preparing to return.

My prayers today are thanks to those who protect us, prayers for safety to those fighting wars overseas, and prayers for our leaders to find a way out of this war that is costing so many young lives.

My wish for those serving is that our government would realize how great the sacrifices are that you make, and that your families make. I think it's appalling that one soldier I know of has to sell his truck to be able to come home to see his four year old son before he deploys back to Iraq. I think it's appalling that our soldiers don't have enough ammunition, don't have proper safety equipment, often don't have enough food. That their families are many times destitute because their pay for fighting is so much lower than their civilian pay was.

The least we can do, as Americans, is say thank you. Send a card to a soldier today. And if you can, include a $20 bill, a phone card, a book--something to let them know you care.

We've quit celebrating a lot of holidays around our house, at least in the sense of not wasting money on gifts for what we call "Hallmark Holidays." I don't want my kids wasting their hard-earned money on presents just because someone somewhere decided this should be a gift-buying day. For the last two weeks we've been inundated with commercials on television implying that husbands and kids should be spending thousands of dollars at Zales buying diamond necklaces and earrings for Mom, or buying iPods or cellphones at Best Buy, clothes or dishes at Marshall's, etc.

Yeah, I like presents as much as anyone. But the greatest gift to me is having children who are kind and loving, who are honest and hard-working, who don't drag me out in the middle of the night to bail them out of jail, who don't keep me up nights worrying that they're in trouble, who don't break me financially because they need drug rehab, and don't steal from me to support a drug habit. My greatest gift is four fantastic, wonderful, awesome children.

The oldest has two of the cutest little boys on earth. She's smart, funny, has a good job that lets her support herself and the boys, owns her own home, and she comes to see us several times a year even though it's inconvenient and tiring to make the trip after working all week. The second oldest lives far away, but he makes me proud when I see how he treats the ones he loves. He makes more money in a week than we do in two or three months, but he doesn't spend it on high living. He helps his family when they need it, helps his girlfriend when she needs it, puts some back for a rainy day. Oh, and he sent me flowers for Mother's Day. I can't remember the last time I got flowers, but I'm pretty sure the last ones also came from him.

The second oldest is just about to finish college. One more semester to go. He's held a 4 point average in all but one class, works part-time in the computer lab, comes home for the weekend when I need him to or when there's a family gathering so he can be part of it. He's at an age where a lot of kids pull away from their families, but he hasn't done that. I'm looking forward to the day when he finds that special someone and she knocks his socks off. I just pray she's kind and gentle, like he is.

The youngest is our rebel. She's opinionated and very vocal about her beliefs. But like the others, she's a damned good kid. She's beautiful and smart, a killer combination. We're still watching to see where she's headed in life, but I know, without a doubt, she'll make a difference. And she'll make us proud, as her brothers and sister have.

As for me, I tried to send my mom flowers but I waited too late, apparently. FTD's website and 800 number wouldn't take orders, I tried 1-800-Flowers, Teleflora...all busy. My mom is 800 miles away, so I can't pop by and take her a bouquet from the grocery store. I should have sent a card, but I was so busy helping the third child move home from college and working on my books, I forgot.

So I called her today to wish her Happy Mother's Day and reminded her of the hard backed book I gave her last month in case I forgot this month. Hopefully, like most mom's, she understood.

My kids haven't gotten together for a group photo in many years. Here's one from nearly 15 years ago.



Yeah, I've been blessed.

Happy Mother's Day!

Retraction

Okay, Wild Blue made it right. The tech guy came by on his way home from another install, on his own time, and got us up and running. For some reason, the dish had moved slightly, probably from the storm, and it wasn't getting a signal. Now we shall wait and see if it happens again. But for now, I'm a happy--and fast--camper.

Faster than the speed of...huh?

Got Wild Blue Satellite internet yesterday. I was looking forward to being able to actually watch video trailers and upload pictures. The dh was excited about finally being able to surf the web without my computer activity slowing him down.

Well, all we did was build ourselves up to a huge disappointment. $300 for equipment, $50.00 a month for service we're tied into for a full year, and I'm still on dialup. The Wild Blue worked on my computer (way slower than advertised) for about 4 hours. Then the clouds moved in and that was that. No more connection. Can't get it back up. Don't know when the technician can get back out here (he's 2 hours away). I was lied to about having back up dial up service (only the most expensive package has that, and only 10 hours a month). I was told it would be as reliable, if not more, than my Dish Network satellite service. Sorry, Dish is on, Wild Blue is not.

I'm so mad at myself for signing up for this. I'll be out nearly $1000 for something that doesn't work. And I'm still crawling along like a turtle at 12.0 kbps at the moment.

Grrrrrrr.

I've been tagged!

Denise Patrick has tagged me to reveal 8 random things you didn't know about me.

Honestly, is there anything left I haven't already revealed on this blog? Well, I'll give it a shot, but I may be repeating myself.

1. I spent 20 minutes backstage with Garth Brooks in 1992. I won a contest on the radio for a limo ride to the concert and two backstage passes, plus great seats up front at the concert. It was my oldest son's 15th birthday and he was a huge Garth Brooks fan, so it was a great birthday present. And Garth was great. He autographed a bunch of stuff for us, showed us the pictures of his first little girl (we were one of the first to see them), and he treated my son like an adult.

2. I graduated from college at 35, after I'd already had four kids. The youngest was just a year old when I started back to school.

3. I used to be an avid scuba diver. The best place I dove was off the coast of Hawaii. Nearly killed myself, though. We'd been at 70 feet for nearly an hour, the deepest and longest I'd ever been down. The water was so clear, it looked like we were only 10 feet below the boat. When the dive master signaled me to ascend because my air was running low, I forgot to do a decompression stop and went straight to the top. Luckily I remembered at that point and descended back down to 15 feet and stayed there for a while.

4. I have a huge Beanie Baby collection I don't know what to do with, thanks to my mom.

5. I'm a pack rat. A huge pack rat. This is my year to clean up my act. Started clearing out my bedroom closet this week.

6. I make pets out of all of my animals, even the cows. They're all named, and they come running when I whistle.


7. I'm a night owl. I don't even start writing until around 10 p.m. and usually don't go to bed until nearly 3.

8. I'm hooked on 24, House, Jericho, CSI: Las Vegas. I hate reality shows, don't watch American Idol, Survivor, or any of those. Don't like sitcoms. I don't like reading books where the author writes in short, choppy sentences. Love thrillers.

Statcounter and Mother's Day

I love Statcounter. It lets me see who's visited the blog, how they got here, what entries they read, how long they stayed, how many times they've visited (1st timer or repeat visitor).

I also hate it. I obsess over it. I keep the log open all day, refreshing it every hour or so. Who visited from New York? Was that an editor? An agent? A friend? Or a bored secretary looking for romance who was led here from Google? Was that really a prisoner, or a clerk at the prison? (Note to prisoners...hubby has a riot gun and knows how to use it.) How do people from China, Brazil, Egypt, Israel, and Chile find their way to my blog, and what do they think about what they read?

You could easily drive yourself crazy with all the unanswered questions. So my challenge is this...after you read this post, leave a comment telling me how you got here, where you're from, and what you think.

On Mother's Day...I'll only have one kid here for Mother's Day, for the first time in a long time. Should be a quiet, peaceful day--because I intend to make sure the hubby and kid take me out to lunch instead of making me cook! Maybe we'll go see Next while we're out, too.

Speaking of Mother's Day, on the Wet Noodle Posse e-zine, some of the Noodlers talk about their mothers. Check it out at http://www.wetnoodleposse.com.

I still have some submissions out with a couple of agents, and one with an editor that I've given up on. It's been two and a half years and the editor who had it is no longer taking submissions. I have no idea if she's even still there. She never responded to my follow-up letters. But that's okay. I'm getting ready to send it to another editor who does answer my emails and seems to like my stuff. Yay!

Don't forget. Mother's day is May 13th. Do something nice for your mom. She's done a lot for you.

A tragedy

My heart goes out to the friends and families of those killed yesterday at Virginia Tech. As the parent of two college students, I just can't imagine how they will go on.

The tragedy has set off a lot of emotions among friends and colleagues. Lots of argument for gun control, etc. But I disagree. Had the teacher or other students in the classroom been armed, there wouldn't have been such a large-scale massacre. Or if the students had been taught defensive measures, as some students in Texas schools are being taught, they might have had a chance to survive. One of the things some of our students are learning is how to use a textbook as a shield, to grab their desks and use them to charge the shooter, using the desks as both shield and weapon. The worst thing they can do is dive for cover and wait to be executed.

But that's the natural instinct. Without training, any one of us would do the same. But one man armed with a pistol is no match for 30 charging students. He might shoot one, maybe two, but he would be overpowered before he could kill 32 and wound 26.

A lot of blame going around, too, for school officials who didn't sound the alarm after the first shootings. But honestly, how were they to know? Sure, they should have done more than email 2 hours after the first shootings. They should have locked down the school until he was caught. But that's easy to say in hindsight, isn't it? The students had already been somewhat traumatized earlier in the year by a similar incident and school officials probably weren't eager to alarm them again.

What concerns me now are the copycats coming out of the woodwork on campuses across the country. Bomb threats, notes passed to students saying worse is yet to come. Families need to wake up and get help for their out of control kids. They need to be aware of what's going on with their children. They need to keep their guns locked up, out of kids' reach and they need to ask why if their college-aged child feels the need to buy a gun. A little concern and awareness can go a long way toward averting a potential tragedy.

Bored

For some reason lately I've been really bored. So bored, I've resorted to cleaning my house and doing laundry. Even my writing is boring me to tears. I guess this is one of the hazards of living an hour from anything resembling civilization and of not having my own car. The transmission went out on my 13 year old, 300,000 mile Crown Vic and it's just not worth spending the money to fix it. But with our irregular income in the construction biz, borrowing money to buy one isn't feasible and shelling out the dough for another used car--just as old and with nearly as many miles, which is all we can afford--doesn't make sense either. So I'm stuck either going everywhere with the hubby or taking off on my own in his work truck--which I don't do often.

About the only thing exciting that's happened recently is that a friend got the call! And I can't even tell you about that yet until everything's final.

So I'm thinking about posting an online serial of my first book. I loved that book, it came very close to selling to Harlequin Special Edition, but it's not likely to ever see the light of day. My writing has improved big time since that first book and my voice has changed a lot. So, knowing all that, would anyone be interested in reading a chapter a week or so?

When is it okay to halt progress?

The electric co-op here is upgrading from one-phase to three-phase service--whatever that means. To do this, they want to bring the poles across our property. Um, no. That would mean taking down 4 big trees, chopping off one whole side of about fifty 40 foot or taller trees, and I'd have electric poles in my front yard, my garden, and my pasture.

Why can't they put them across the street, where the people have done nothing with the property, they have no big trees, and they wouldn't look out of place? Because the neighbor across the street is the grandfather to the budding serial killer we've had to deal with for the last ten years. He's an ass.

I'm not going to consent to them putting those line on our property. They'd have to come inside to service the lines, and if they have to go in the pasture, we'd be risking having our cows get out. Besides, here's a picture of my front yard. Would you want poles stuck in the middle of it?



I think the pole that's already there looks bad enough. So I'm voting to halt progress--right in my front yard.

Website update

I've updated my website a bit and added some new book excerpts. If you have a few minutes, click on the title above to check it out, then let me know what you think.

It's a homemade website, so it's not too fancy. When I actually get a book contract, I'll hire someone to do a professional one for me.

Or do you think I should suck it up and shell out the dough now?