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Nita
Author: Nita
Cool Contest
Several authors are giving away some great prizes. First place is a Sony Reader and I want one! To enter, all I have to do is post about the contest. So here it is:
Click on the contest graphic for a link to Helen’s site. 🙂
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Have you seen it?
I’ve got my own little spotlight in the Romance eBooks Newsletter
! Too cool. Check it out and let me know what you think. 🙂
Nita
I've been interviewed!
Check it out! I’ve been interviewed by the lovely Renee Knowles at the Happy Endings blog
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. Stop by and see how I answered some of the tough questions she asked. 🙂
Nita
What the Big Names Get Away With
I just have to vent a little. I’ve been listening to the audio version of LED ASTRAY, by Sandra Brown. If you’re a romance reader, you’ve no doubt heard of her. She’s a big name. I’ve listened to one or two of her other books–can’t think of the titles right now. This one has me gritting my teeth.
First off, the parents of the hero (and his brother) are judgemental, bible-thumping, holier-than-thou— er, I mean— respectable, devout Christians. The father is a preacher, and the mother is the stereotypical preacher’s wife. Spreading the Word is their life’s mission. So they named their firstborn son…
Cage.
What?!!! Don’t get me wrong. I love the name Cage for a romance hero. But I don’t believe for a split second these two dyed-in-the-wool Christians named their kid that. No way. No how. Nope. Not buying it.
Second, Brown’s writing technique is questionable at best in this one. She uses so many LY adjectives the reader sounds like she’s trying not to trip over her tougue. “She sat down nervously at the table and drank from her soft drink thirstily.” I can’t remember if that’s verbatim, but it’s close. What kind of lazy writing is that?
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Add to that the over-abundance of “telling” phrases and I’m about ready to scream. “Her shirt was sticking to her back.” Was sticking? Come on, Sandra. You can do better than that. Nevermind that a few minutes later, the heroine has a shower and we discover that she was wearing a full slip beneath her clothes. Shouldn’t her slip have been sticking to her back rather than her shirt?
I’m telling you, I sometimes wonder whether the editors for the big name authors even read the book before they send it to press. Not long ago, I read a Bertrice Small book, part four of her contemporary erotica series, where Bertrice called the heroine by the wrong name. Not once, but twice!!! Shouldn’t the editor have caught that?
Granted, big name authors who’ve proven they can sell books are allowed more room to break the rules than others. I mean, if you loved her other books, you’re going to buy the next one, right? But don’t t faithful readers deserve well-written, well edited books?
Nita
Success!
Finally! No. I’m not reporting anything about writing. LOL I’ve had trouble focusing, and I’ve been struggling to find the desire to write. So nothing is happening on that front. I can’t really expect anything to happen since I haven’t been doing anything to make it happen.
But what I have been doing is trying to lose a few pounds. I’m overweight. Have been for about 20 years. In the last few years, I’ve packed on even more excess baggage. Getting older, Iguess. So one of my New’s Years’ resolutions was to change my diet and try and get more exercise. I set a goal of losing 40 pounds by the end of May.
Yes. For those of you who read my blog regularly, that’s when I’m taking my cruise. LOL And yes, the prospect of being seen in public wearing a bathing suit is some pretty good motivation. It’s also a good reminder that I’m going to want to be in good enough condition to hike around the Mayan ruins at Tulum without getting out of breath. I want to be able to take the stairs on the ship rather than wait, and wait, and wait for the elevators. I want to be able to enjoy every possible activity without sitting out because I just don’t have the energy.
So yes, the cruise has made it much easier to stick by that resolution. Here it is the end of March and unlike years past, I’m still working to keep that resolution. I was doing so well at first. I lost a pound or two a week steadily for the first six or seven weeks. I’d lost about 16 pounds, and then it happened.
The dreaded plateau
.
Ugh. You know the one. The kind that makes you want to quit trying. The kind that makes you wonder if you’ll ever lose another pound. The kind that brings on that little devil who sits on your shoulder and whispers in you ear, “Go ahead, eat that pizza. You ate nothing but rabbit food last week and what did it get you? You didn’t even lose a half a pound.”
It was the kind of plateau that made me look at my exercise bike and think, “What’s the point?” For three weeks I went to the gym at least twice a week and continued to climb 4 flights of stairs at work every day. Twice a week at the gym, I’d get on the scale and see little or no change at all. Once it even showed a 1/4 pound gain!
Talk about discouraging and disappointing. Part of me wanted to give up. I admit it, but I kept telling myself, “It’s just a plateau. Every dieter hits them.”
My daughter and I went to the gym tonight. I went to the scale and held my breath. I moved the weights on the bar to what it registered last time. The little thing wasn’t balanced, so I tapped it down a couple of pounds. Still out of balance. Confused, I tapped it back the other way thinking I’d been too hopeful.
Nope. The unbalanced bar remained in the same place. I’d pushed the weight the wrong way. My brows lifted in surprise as I slid the weight back toward the lower setting. The bar finally balanced in the middle.
I’d lost 4 pounds since last Monday! That was only 5 days! Sure, a pound or so was probably water weight, but still. I was ready to squeal. The blasted plateau is behind me. I’ve finally broken through that invisible barrier where my body has finally stopped fighting the inevitable and turned loose of some fat.
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Hallelujah.
It’s been hard — counting every calorie, denying myself so many of the foods I love. But it’s working. I’ve tried to lose weight before. Usually I make it to five or ten pounds before I fall off the wagon. This time I’m doing better. The incentive from the cruise is definitely one of the reasons. But another reason is my family. My husband and daughter are also trying to shed a few pounds this time. Neither have the weight problem I do, but it wouldn’t hurt either of them to lose that little pooch around the middle or their love handles. Having the majority of my family on board with the healthier eating has helped a lot. (My son is a 16 year-old boy with a hollow leg. LOL He can eat anything he wants without worry. We’ve all told him to enjoy it while he can.)
So… I’ve now lost 22 1/2 pounds. Yes, I’m counting that 1/2 pound. I worked hard for it! LOL My original goal was to lose 40 pounds by the time I set sail on May 30th. Since I spent 3 weeks on that plateau, I may not quite reach that lofty target. I have nine weeks left. I’d have to lose 2 pounds a week every week to make that goal. Not likely. But I can still get close. Surely I can reach the 30 pound mark. That would require one pound a week. I may even make it to 35 pounds.
In any case, that long-awaited break-through has renewed my resolve. I’m going to keep counting those calories, and I remind myself that the exercise (however dreaded) is needed.
And I’ll be waiting at least 6 more weeks before I go shopping for that bathing suit. 🙂
Nita
Visit the Author's Studio Blog
I blogged today about social networking sites over at the Author’s Studio. I’d love to hear your opinion about these sites. Stop on over and give us your two cents.
Nita
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Secret Revealed
You may remember that I posted recently (March 7th) that I’d made a gift for CHRW’s Secret Leprechaun Gift Exchange. It was something I liked so much I decided I needed to make one for myself. 🙂
My CHRW sister opened her gift yesterday, so now I can show you what it was.
It’s a Celtic themed book thong. It has three beads with Celtic designs as well as a few other beads. The top and bottom is actually a heart-shaped toggle set like the kind used for jewelry such as bracelets. It’s long enough to wrap around the spine of a mass market paperback and hook so that it doesn’t slip out. 🙂
I have the stuff to make more in different colors and styles. I picked some pretty purple beads and lavender ribbon for some, and some pink heart beads to go with some rose colored ribbon. There are flower themed metal beads, too, to replace the Celtic themed beads for a different look.
I’m planning to give these away as gifts and promotional items. I hope everyone likes them as much as I do.
Nita
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
My baby is sick. :(
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Dracula cerca sangue di vergine… e morì di sete!!! full movie Okay, so my “baby” is 16 years old, five foot ten, and 175 pounds. But he’s still my baby. The poor kid has been running a fever of about 102 for two days now. We took him to the walk-in clinic today. I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to find out if his regular doctor could see him.
They ran several tests. It’s not the flu. The strep test was negative, but the doc said there’s always a slight chance of a false negative. The blood test showed an elevated white blood cell count, so there’s some kind of infection, we’re just not sure what kind. The doctor prescribed a Z-pack, some combination decongestant/antihistamine/codeine cough medicine, bed rest, lots of fluids, and some of mom’s chicken soup.
I made the chicken soup for supper, and he got up long enough to eat. He says he’s feeling a little better. Thank goodness. I just hate it when the kids are sick. At least when they were little, I could hold them and cuddle them. The cuddling comforted me as much as it did them, I think. He’s too big for that now, but he’s still my baby. And I worry about him just as much as I ever have.
Nita