Ten Things You Don't Know About Me Part 2!

It’s been a long time since we did a “get to know me” post so I thought I would do a new one. I have no idea if you guys like these but I think they’re fun so we’re doing it!

Ten Things You Don’t Know About Me:

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it. I have both soundtracks and listen to them all year long. I have a ton of the merchandise, including two sets of fingerless gloves, a desk calendar, a messenger bag and the book written by Tim Burton.

2. My favorite classic book is Jane Eyre. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. People talk about Withering Heights and Little Women, but I’m all about Jane Eyre. I actually red it when I was 14 for the first time by accident; I had been working on a history report about Lady Jane Eyre, the Nine Days Queen and couldn’t get my hands on enough stuff about her and didn’t realize the book was about a different Jane Eyre and ended up loving it. My favorite movie version is the one with Orson Wells, it rocks. I haven’t seen the latest one with the girl from Alice in Wonderland, but we may read it for book club and then rent the movie. Sounds awesome to me!

3. The only fake accent I can pull off is an American Southern one. I have tried to do an Irish accent, an English one, an Australian one, nope, can’t do it. But I have to say, if I could do a British Isle accent, I would totally go around talking like that all the time like a crazy person.

4. I have seen every episode of Friends about a dozen times each. My friends and I know it so well we can sneak in Friends jokes and references in our daily conversation. It drives my husband crazy.

5. I can kick over a 250 pound wave bag (a sort of standing punching bag). It’s a pretty cool feeling.

6. I hate shoes but I own a few dozen pairs. I love looking at shoes and buying cute, sexy, fun, gorgeous shoes of all shapes and sizes, but if I could walk around barefoot everywhere I went, I totally would.

7. I currently have six cartoon/comic book characters on my desk, one is in the form of a daily calendar, three are dolls, one is a bobble head and one is a picture holder.

8. I have read each of the Harry Potter books at least ten times and when I found out my husband’s last name was Granger I was very excited to have the same last name as one of the main characters. Oh and by the way, billions of copies sold and people still don’t know how to pronounce Granger. People always try to pronounce it “Grang-ger”. I have no idea why.

9. When I write I listen to music and have the TV on full volume.

10. My favorite nut is walnuts. It seemed important to end on the most important and interesting fact. Seriously though, walnuts rock! Next time you make pesto, omit the stupid pine nuts and try walnuts, ah-maz-ing!

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My New Year's Resolution

So I am not one for resolutions – just like everyone else, I tend to fail at them – but this year my husband and I are doing one together. Luckily it’s not a yearlong one; we’ve set ourselves a 90 day goal to eat clean and try to lose some of the pesky body fat we haven’t been able to shed. Many of you know, my husband is a personal trainer, so this sort of thing is pretty easy for him. Really, it’s more of a challenge for me.

I like to say in another life I was an Italian grandmother because of how much and what I like to cook. I love to have people over and pile their plates high with the food I made – I get that from my Southern family. But my favorite things to make are pastas with homemade sauce, garlic bread, and all kinds of things with meat and cheese. Yep, super healthy.

So what does this crazy resolution entail? No sodas, at all, no cheese, at all, no fast food, at all, minimal bread (whole wheat if any and only in the morning), carb depletion through the day, so at dinner we’ll mostly only get fibrous carbs. This also means the only complex carbs I’m allowed will be oatmeal in the morning, that occasional wheat bread, red potatoes (and not often), sweet potatoes and brown rice (which I hate). Yeah, no pastas, no garlic breads, no red meats. Sounds like so much fun, right?

But I keep telling myself it’s only until the end of March and maybe not even that long if we hit our goals early. My husband tells me the first 30 days are the hardest but luckily my husband’s birthday is at the end of January and he’s agreed to some leniency while we celebrate so I’m able to set shorter goals so it isn’t as daunting. And I’ve always wanted to throw a Saint Patrick’s Day party and this year it’s on a Saturday so after his birthday I just have to make it to St. Patrick’s day and then it’s only a couple of weeks after that. Not bad, right?

I know, it’s gonna be hard, but that’s also why I’m blogging about it – telling everyone in the world about it will hold me accountable. Its only day 2 and people are already asking us how it’s going and I don’t want to be that person who says they’ve already caved. Now you all know so if I cave or cheat there are a lot of people who will know and that’s embarrassing. And since I’m doing it with my husband, if I cave, I’m letting him down. It’s a little easier knowing someone else is depending on me to help them reach their goal and I don’t want to let him down.
We’ve done really well building muscle and stamina but we haven’t done what we should have to shed excess body fat so now we’re doing it. A little backwards but at least we’re doing it.

I’ll let you know how we do and how well our marriage survives, lol!

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Christmastime Tour!

So I told everyone that I have a special surprise in store for the grand prize winner of my new tour and I wanted to give you a sneak peak!

Included in the box:
1. A signed copy of my latest book: Air Book Two in the Elemental Series with a matching bookmark
2. A sugar cookie scented candle
3. A tin of homemade sun solstice cookies
4. A tin of snowflake shaped peppermint bark
5. A gold and silver sparkly ornament (got to have some sparkle!)

So excited to give this to someone and spread some holiday cheer! The tour starts tomorrow people! Please follow along with me!

To follow the tour in order to win here is a list of the scheduled stops:

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Click here for the AIR Tour Schedule

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12 Favorite Things of Christmas

I told you to expect some Christmas-solstice-holiday themed posts! So here’s the first one! Twelve of my favorite things about Christmas (though there are many more than 12):

1. Favorite Christmas Carol: Carol of the Bells – I especially love The Trans-Siberian Orchestra rendition
2. Favorite Christmas Movie: Miracle on 34th Street with Natalie Wood and Maureen O’Hara
3. Favorite Christmas Comedy Movie: Christmas With the Kranks (yeah I know)
4. Favorite Christmas Animated Movie: All of them.
5. Favorite Christmas Gift my Hubs has Given Me: Harry Potter Hardcover Boxed Set in the nifty steam trunk
6. Favorite Christmas Activity: Decorating the tree
7. Favorite Christmas Tradition: Stocking Stuffers
8. Favorite Christmas Family Tradition: Christmas Eve presents. When I was growing up it was so hard to watch the presents under the tree that my mom would let me open one small present on Christmas Eve. Now my husband and I do it for each other.
9. Favorite Christmas Story: A Christmas Carol
10. Favorite Christmas Album: “Everything You Want For Christmas” by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
11. Favorite Christmas Starbucks Drink: Peppermint Mocha (yes, I tried the “Skinny” version. It’s just not the same).
12. Favorite Christmas Decoration: My Nightmare Before Christmas advent calendar


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I Love Christmastime!

I absolutely love this time of year. People get so angry when the Christmas decorations come out earlier and earlier, edging closer to Halloween, but I love it. I love the anticipation, the buildup, the music, the movies and television specials, the gift giving and how much nicer we all are to each other. Of course, I’m excluding the Black Friday tramplings.

I’m a Christmas baby; I was actually two weeks late, forcing my mom to be rushed to the hospital Christmas Eve to deliver me in the small dark hours of Christmas morning. So really, I’m supposed to hate Christmas and be bitter about it, but I love this holiday. I will be honest with you, I hate the people who either forget my birthday or try to lump my birthday in with Christmas, but I do not hate the actual holiday. So take that as a lesson if you have any friends or family with Christmas birthdays or near-Christmas birthdays, stop forgetting them, oh, and combining birthday and Christmas presents? Bad form. If it’s okay for you to do that to us, then that birthday present I got you back in May? Yeah, that was for both, jackass.

But I digress.

Every year I find at least one person I can make a present for and this year I was able to make presents for six people! I can’t say what I made here (one of those people may be reading this), but I am so proud of them, they’re all beautiful and look store bought, if I do say so myself, and I do.

And I’m happy to announce that my husband has agreed to let me decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving so come November 25th there will be a decorated tree in my house! And I’ve already got a lot of family gifts out of the way so there will be presents wrapped under it.

Also the amazing Julie over at A Tale of Many Reviews is hosting a second blog tour for me and it will be posting during the middle of December, just in time for me to put together a nifty present for my grand prize winner! Oh the wonderment!

So be prepared for some Christmas-solstice-holiday cheer! I’ll be posting some holiday themed posts, hopefully you won’t go all Grinch on me and will enjoy!

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Yeah, I saw Breaking Dawn

Yes, I saw Breaking Dawn. I even saw it on opening day, but no, not at midnight. I’m very lucky that there is a theater nearby that offers 21 and older screens. Oh yes, that means no screaming teens anywhere near you. The chairs are huge and plush and if you want you can even enjoy an adult beverage. Oh and the best part? Reserved seating, so no lining up. This is the only way to see one of these movies.

I was really surprised at how many men were at that showing, I think there had to be something like 1 man for every 4 women. Impressive, really. Anyway, that’s not the point of my post.

So yes, I’ve read all four Twilight books and when I read them, I really enjoyed them. I was totally Team Edward and full out hated both Bella and Jacob. But then, after the glow of the fantasies wore off, I started to really think about the books. Yes, they’re kinda bad. I won’t get down on the writing because I had a good time reading them and I liken them to a fast food meal. We all know it’s bad for us, but every once in a while that’s what you want. What I had a problem with was the type of “heroine” Bella was.

Bella wasn’t endearingly clumsy, she was stupid clumsy. Bella wasn’t attracted to Jacob, but that didn’t stop her from leading him on or letting him manipulate her. Bella was fully in love with Edward, but that didn’t stop her from throwing Jacob in his face over and over again. I’m sorry, but if the guy in the story did the same thing to his girlfriend we would all hate him with the heat of a thousand suns. Don’t act like that isn’t true. And Breaking Dawn did a fabulous job of reminding me why I hate Bella so much.

I’m a married woman. My wedding day went by in a blur, especially the ceremony. I remember standing with my dad, holding onto his arm and saying, “Wait, are we going right now? Already?!” But when you look at the pictures of me walking down the aisle, do you know what I’m doing? I’m smiling. I’m looking at my husband-to-be and smiling. My mother whispered to me, “You look so beautiful” as I passed her and I smiled at her. I smiled at my dad and gave him a kiss when he gave me away. I smiled at my bridesmaids. I smiled at the minister. I smiled. What did Bella do? She looked like she was going to be sick, she looked like she couldn’t be more angry to be walking down the aisle, she looked like her father was dragging her down the aisle and forcing her into an arranged marriage. And when did Bella finally smile? Oh right, when the guy who has been trying to break up her relationship for the last couple of years finally shows up. Not only does she smile but she runs to him and jumps into his arms and clings to him.

Really? I know my husband would’ve been okay with that behavior.

I know, I know, it’s just a movie, it’s just a book, it’s just a fantasy. I know that. But fantasy or not, they are asking us to believe that this girl is madly in love with this guy and that if he ever died, left her or rejected her she would die. Point blank. But she can’t smile on her wedding day? Really?

It’s bad enough this saga has sent the message to girls that you should get married one week out of graduating high school, but then to tell them that it’s okay to act this way between two guys when you’re doing it? Yeah, no. I just hope the mothers out there are talking to their daughters about this. And I know we’re not supposed to hold up the morality mirror to this story, but when I hear about teenagers biting each other trying to emulate this stuff, you can’t help but flash that mirror.

Anyway. It wasn’t quite as bad as the first two movies, I have to admit. And occasionally the acting wasn’t quite as wooden and wax figure-ish. But I just know the second part (yeah still annoyed that they felt the need to split this book into two movies) is going to be so much worse and pointless. Nothing freaking happens in the second half of the book! It is completely anticlimactic, people! But whatever; we’ll all go see that one too.


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Finally Finished the Fourth Book

Today I finished the first draft of the fourth installment in my Elemental Series: Fire. As a matter of fact I just finished it about fifteen minutes ago. When I finished I found my husband and held onto him as I cried. This was the hardest book for me to write. It took me the longest amount of time to write of all the other books and it was the most emotionally intense. I’m not sure my imaginary friends will ever speak to me again after what I’ve done to them. My husband hugged me back and asked me if I killed someone and I told him, yes, yes I did.

It seems strange to cry over the death of an imaginary person, but these characters have been a major part of my life for the last four years. I know every minute detail about them. I have been with them through everything, watching them grow, watching them make stupid mistakes. I’ve bled with them and cried with them. I’ve laughed with them and loved with them. To lose one of these characters is really like losing a friend.

I remember reading Laurell K Hamilton’s blog a couple of years ago as she talked about writing through the killing scene of one of her major characters and how she felt like she’d watched a friend die. She walked around in a blue funk for days as she mourned that character. I didn’t really understand it. I understand it now.

I am thrilled the book is done. Part of me laughed as I cried, feeling the joy bubbling inside of me that I finally, finally finished it. But that doesn’t take the shock of the pain away. I knew it was coming, I thought of it, I saw it in my mind, I walked through the details, making sure I knew exactly how and what was going to happen. But it didn’t take the sting away when I typed that last heart breaking word.

I started writing this book last year and I took a break about two-thirds of the way through to go back and work on and edit the earlier books in the series and only came back to writing this book last month. So while there was a long period of time where I didn’t write one word on this book, I still count that time in how long it took to finish. I wasn’t ready to write this ending until now. I almost wish I hadn’t been ready now. But this is writing. It isn’t pretty and it’s incredibly bloody.

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