Archive for January, 2007

PSA–Bisexual Much?

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

Are you bisexual? Have you ever had a girl-crush? how much of a crush was it? What female celebrity would you “do”?

Are you willing to talk to someone (namely me) frankly about it? If so, you can send me a message at amie at amiestuart.com or post here if you’re feeling lucky. Basically, what I’m looking for are antecdotes about your experiences–it can be on your first experience, how you figured out you were bi, how it works into or has enhanced your hetero relationship (if that applies). Anything like that.

The Inn Crowd

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

My new cover is up at Samhain

“The Inn Crowd” by Denise Belinda McDonald

Genre:
ISBN: 1-59998-440-7

Length: Novel

Price: $5.50
Publication Date:
March 20, 2007 (in e-format – print version September 18, 2007)
Cover art by Anne Cain

What do you get when you have a beautiful B & B owner, an incognito movie star, his entourage and a leather wearing, hairless pooch all staying at the Wild Rose Bed and Breakfast?

Jamie Crawford needs time to unwind after his last movie. His sudden bump from B-list to A-list actor keeps him too busy to take time for himself. When an opportunity arises for him to sneak into a small Texas town and for some much-needed R & R, he snaps it up. The last thing he expects is to meet the beautiful owner and fall almost instantly head-over-heels.

Lorenna Beauchamp runs her inn and has time for little else. And that’s the way she likes it—until her stunningly handsome new guest piques an interest she thought long dormant. She breaks all her rules to get close to him. Imagine her surprise when she learns that not only has Jamie been hiding his identity, but he is one of the most sought after celebs.

Jamie has to persuade Lorenna his feelings are true while he convinces himself that loving someone isn’t detrimental to his career. Can Lorenna get past the lies and her mistrust of all things Hollywood to give Jamie a chance?

My Love/Hate Relationship With Food

Monday, January 29th, 2007

Which is something I’m sure many women can relate to, whether you’re big or small or tall or short or fat or thin or eat healthy or eat junk all the time or exercise every day or don’t exercise at all.

I was talking with some friends yesterday about being overweight and body image and it got me to thinking….was I really a fat child or was it just that my family didn’t know what to do with me since a) we didn’t share the same genes and b) I wasn’t built like them? Though I have to confess even at 10 and 11 I had celulite, which my grandfather took great delight in reminding me no 10 year old should have every time his sorry, drunken ass he got the chance. (from a writer’s standpoint I find the whole cause and effect rather fascinating especially after seeing the whole grandfather/grandchild scenario repeated with my youngest son and MY father).

And in today’s society even my 11 year old SON worries about his weight. He’s not thin, he may never be thin but he’s active and we’re working on his eating habits. I figure if I have to change the way I eat for like EVER, I shouldn’t have to suffer alone the least I can do is change the kids’s so they don’t find themselves in a health crisis long before they should ever have to face one.

Right now, however, I hate food. Okay, I don’t really hate food, it’s just a huge inconveniece/chore in my life. This happened last month too and I blamed it on TTOTM (that time of the month). For the most part, I don’t want to cook, I don’t want to eat, I don’t want to shop, but if I don’t eat I get very very sick.

So how do you feel about food?

Free-For-All Friday

Friday, January 26th, 2007

Remember wayyyy back when you were just a wee tadpole, and your parents/guardians/keepers told you, “if you can’t say something nice…”  ???  :roll:

So it’s been a rather rough week.

So I think I’ll just open up the blog to whatever may come.

It’s Free-For-All Friday.  There’s no subject pending.

Got a question, any question?  Bring it.  Comment on anything?  Post it.  Vent?  Go for it.  Are you a lurker who comes to peek but never participate?  Feel free to join in!

Go for it.  :grin:

Get Your Word On - Round 2

Thursday, January 25th, 2007

Yep. You guessed it. I’m stumped on what to blog about today. So, dear readers, gimme your words and I’ll continue the odd-ball story I started last week, or start something new. The point is, I need to be writing and I’m not so GIVE ME YOUR WORDS! :)

Ready, go!

No Jenny Craig for me

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

I have the ever-dreaded saggy middle. I have been working on edits for two WIPs and am facing this in both of them - only worse.

But wait, it goes beyond that - it’s not so much that my middle sags, but in both these WIPs they are none existant - as in not there, as in I never wrote it, just left a HUGE gaping hole to fill in later and now I am stumped.

I have had this problem before which is why I have no less than thirteen (yes that is 1 and 3) WIPs in various stages of not finished. I get to the point where I fizzle in the middle and have a hell of a time getting past it. Somehow on the two I am editing I just wrote a basic time has passed mini-recap and moved on.

Now however I am left with the “Clean up” of said saggy middles and might I say, it’s still a bitch.

How do you overcome this dreaded writer’s affliction? Any thoughts would much be appreciated!

A Sickie Quickie

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

I’m at work long enough to finish a project and going home and going back to bed, but I do have good news :)

I sold a short story to Zane’s Carmel Flava 2 anthlogy!!!

So share your good news on this sunny (at least here) Monday morning.

Half-Full or Half-Empty?

Friday, January 19th, 2007

glass-b.JPG ”The glass is half-full.”

(optimistic writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”The glass is half-empty.”

(pessimistic writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”Who left the !%&#!! glass of water on the coffee table again?!”

(mommy writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”Gawd—wasn’t there a worm in that glass last night??”

(morning after party for receiving ‘the call’ writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”No-Doz!  What the hell good is water without No-Doz!”

(seriously late for a deadline writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”Nice try, class, but I can smell the formaldehyde in my water.”

(biology teacher who desperately needs new career writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”The contents are irrelevant—but it excites me, and I like the sharp curve of the edge.”

(penned one too many serial killers writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”Who gives a shit?  Is it wet?!”

(PMS-ing writer)

 

glass-b.JPG ”See?  I told you a condom could hold at least 4 ounces of water.”

(hasn’t had any in AGES writer)

Get Your Word On - Results!

Thursday, January 18th, 2007

Last week, I asked ya’ll to give me a list of words and I’d write a story/scene out of them. This wasn’t easy! But it was certainly fun. Thanks for the challenge. I had a great time.

Here’s the list of words you sent:

  • dick
  • poo
  • passive-aggressive
  • reefer
  • mongoose
  • egg whites
  • tape
  • mini pad
  • unicycle
  • duckbilled platypus
  • gargantuan
  • gargoyle
  • fuzzy
  • stickie
  • crystal
  • flux capacitor

The ONLY word I couldn’t get into the scene was flux capacitor (sorry, Leigh, hehe). Everything else is there, in some form or another. I’ve put the words in bold so you can spot them. Enjoy!

~*~*~

“Have you ever seen a duckbilled platypus?” Dick asked.

“What?” I asked.

Generally, I tuned Dick out. I mean, the man talked about nonsense most of the time. He was a bit of a weirdo, after all. And what was up with him riding a unicycle to work every day? I just wished the cubicle wall between us was sound proof.

“A duckbilled platypus,” he said. “Have you seen one of those?”

First of all, why would I want to? “Are they fuzzy?”

“I’m not sure. I was just wondering if you knew.”

I heaved a sigh. It wasn’t as though our jobs were that mentally stimulating. I mean, we edited copy for the nature magazine, Our Fertile Earth. It covered everything. There was even a story about a mongoose that saved the life of some unfortunate human in the middle of some rain forest in South America. Apparently, the mongoose had been in the right place at the right time because the venomous snake that was about to take a bite out of the man had, instead, gone after the mongoose. True story.

Wondering about this duckbill platypus thing, I decided to Google it. Who knew the thing was fuzzy after all? I grabbed a mini-pad stickie note and scribbled some stats about the animal. I figured I could toss it on Dick’s desk before I headed to lunch. Grabbing my crystal, I mentally prepared for the experience of stepping foot near his cube.

It wasn’t that I was a freak – I just had this purple protective crystal I kept on my desk. It was the only way I could deal with my neighbor on a daily basis. Having a reefer would make it that much better.

Did that make me passive-aggressive?

Shrugging, I parted my love beads – yeah, I had love beads hanging from the ceiling covering the entrance to my cube – I stepped over to Dick’s. Reaching around the wall, I placed the stickie note on his desk.

I swear, I didn’t get how he worked in such a big pile of poo. The man never threw anything away. Ever. He went beyond the worst packrat. He was obsessive compulsive. I guess that made us good neighbors. I was passive-aggressive, he was obsessive compulsive. Right?

Anyway.

“Hey, thanks,” Dick said. “Off to lunch?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Alone again?”

Oh, thanks, Dick. Thanks for the reminder that I am in fact a total loser and still, after a year and a half at this job, have no friends. “Yeah,” I said.

He paused, looking at me in a sort of thoughtful way. And it occurred to me at that moment his face reminded me of one of those gargoyles you see carved into the side of buildings. He had sort of a misshapen oversized nose, weirdly shaped eyes, thick eyebrows, and the thickest, fattest lips I’d ever seen.

And did he realize his head was sort of this gargantuan oddity attached to his body?

I suppressed the shudder that wanted to course through. Yeah. He was just freaky looking.

“See ya.”

Whatever.

I headed through the front of the office and out the doors. There was a café in the lobby of the building and that’s where I frequented. They served breakfast, lunch and brunch. And you could get these really good egg white omelets for lunch. And I knew that’s exactly what I wanted. Taped up on a board outside the entrance to the café were the daily specials. Cheeseburger and fries. Pancakes, sausage and bacon.

But I was still leaning toward that omelet.

Dashing In

Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

Yes, yes I’m two days late! I woke up Monday morning to more ice and no internet—or CABLE which is why I had no internet. Can you say HELL boys and girls? I also got the day off from work and ended up cleaning house and doing something I haven’t done in a long time–read a book. GONE is probably one of the best Lisa Gardner books I’ve read in a long time.

Anyway, I digress. I’m currently working with Raine on an erotic romance anthology and color me superstitious, but I refuse to say anything about it but it’s TONS Of fun and yes my hero in one story is modeled after Billy Bob Thornton, the other one runs a male strip club….like I said tons of fun. So I’ve spent some time thinking about what I want to work on next, obviously another proposal, but besides that a 15k word novella for my epublisher that I’d like to finish. It involves food and sex, two of my favorite subjects! And music, my third favorite subject and hunky men, my fourth favorite subject.

So now that I’ve bored you, I’m gearing up to do promo for HANDS ON. Probably with giveaways via my newsletter for March-June, what would you like to win? I’m also doing some autographed books and a critique for Brenda Novaks JD auction in May–stay tuned.

And last but not least, what are you reading? I’m desperate to hit the book store but my plans have been thwarted by ice and snow.