It being a Friday, I’m at my favorite Peet’s Coffee and Tea right now. I haven’t been for a few weeks, but this is usually where I spend my Friday afternoons. Normally when I post to this blog, I’m on my home computer, so there’s a certain pool of images I can pull from. Well, can I just say I’m glad to be here because lookee what I found?

I took this probably four years ago now. My husband and I went on a sort of California adventure vacation where we stayed at haunted hotels and went from LA, up the coast to Napa and then inland to gold country and all the way back down.

While we were at Santa Cruz, I snapped this gargoyle shot on the boardwalk–which was freakin’ creepy because it was deserted. We’d gotten to Santa Cruz mid-week, during the off-season. I tell ya, an empty boardwalk is surreal. I don’t think I’d been there since 1989 before the earthquake leveled the stage that was used in the filming of the Lost Boys.

My husband and I saw the carousel and then played miniature golf because it was pretty much the only place open. Each of us got a hole in one. Fun little trip I’d do again in a heartbeat even if the boardwalk is deserted.

Also here on my laptop, I found what’s kind of a rare thing… A picture of both Jen and I for the sake of taking a picture. Not because we were somewhere and goofing off, but we were together and our friend Donna was kind enough to snap a few shots. Jen’s so much taller than I am so she’s scrunching down. We didn’t plan on both wearing the same color though. I think this pic is about four years old as well!

Happy Friday everyone! I’m celebrating by wearing a floral polyester jumpsuit as I sit here sipping my tea and blogging. Find some fun in your Friday…and smile. I am!

I’ve been making necklaces for years. The ones I’d made for myself (aside the one I built on a dare that I couldn’t make a necklace using a broken car part) were always to match an outfit. Like, I needed one that had red in it or blue or multi-colored to match that aqua, amber and pink fabric I made an outfit out of. All the ones I made for myself were for a specific purpose.

Well, it finally happened the other day… I made a necklace for myself that I didn’t even know it was mine until I was completely done with it. The darn thing just ended up “right”.

I worked through the design while doing two other necklaces at the same time. I used beads that I liked, but didn’t work in the other necklaces…plus some that came into my collection a little over fifteen years ago while I had my second job, at a craft store.

Back when I first started beading (junior high), I used to make jewelry for me, me, me. No, I won’t give you my necklace or make one for you, no, no, no. (Not even Jen got one of my necklaces until what, 2003?) Somehow, over the years, though, they’ve become these pretty little butterflies that I want to fly away and be happy and flutter into other people’s lives. They’re not mine, they must fly away! I dunno exactly when that happened, but it did and that’s why I’ve officially started selling them online.

…And on Sunday, I’ll be at the World Famous Rose Bowl Flea Market selling for the first big time. The event Jen got me to do last week was very small. It was a great warm up, but Sunday is the big day. So, I’ve been building more inventory.

I’ve been wearing “My” necklace every day as inspiration. Good golly I’m nervous, but this week has gone very well. I mean, Jen and I are now officially working on Eternal Talisman. Yes. Book three in the Talisman Bay series. Yeah, that one…with the sexy men and kickass chicks. Uh-huh. And it feels sooooooo “right”…

Happy Friday!!!

And can I just say it felt great to get an extra hour and a half of sleep. I hadn’t known how much I needed it until I woke up, freaked out at the time and jumped out of bed.

At least I didn’t have any appointments today…

Yesterday, Jen and I got together because she twisted my arm and made me set up a table for a very small craft fair. Yes, she forced me to do it. Why? Because she’s awesome like that and because she knew I’d never get up the nerve to do it myself. We had a great time, I sold some stuff and I learned that yes, indeed, I can make a real go of doing craft fairs. Hooray!

There’s an old saying in the street race community…”Run what you brung.” While not linguistically correct, it serves the purpose. No whining, no complaining, make the best of what you have. That’s exactly what I did.

In fact, I didn’t buy anything for displays. I made the best of what I had laying around. I took a lot of notes on what could be done better, what I needed to change next time and what I should’ve brought. But I’m glad to report that I didn’t forget any key elements (such as my inventory!) which I had been terrified about earlier.

What you see on the table is also available online in my Twilight’s Fancy store. Happy Friday!

It’s just a cold and I’ve been in denial for days now. In fact, I thought I’d be over it by this morning…or at least only dealing with the last little remnants. Boy was I wrong!

Although, I gotta admit the temporary hearing loss is kinda funny. As I write this, my desk is shaking because I had to turn my music up. Anyone wanna sneak up and scare the crap outta me? Now’s your chance!

Jen and I are doing some fine tuning to the website here. In fact, I’m supposed to be adding some links to all the Deleted Scenes from Forsaken Talisman right now, but I’m playing hooky for the moment… (Okay, so my head’s so full of goo, it’s impeding the recollection of where the heck I put that handy-dandy list of links so that all I’d have to do is copy/paste instead of geek them all out. I’ll find ‘em, though. I’ll find ‘em…hopefully before my head explodes!)

But it’s Friday. I like to celebrate Fridays. Just because I’m sick, that doesn’t mean life stops. I’m not wearing a full vintage outfit like I sometimes do, but my sweater is definitely, like, totally 80s. The tea I’m drinking is one of my ’special’ ones… (Sometimes I really mean ’special’ and sometimes, I just mean ‘too-expensive-to-drink-every-day’.) Today, I’m drinking the purely special ones because the expensive ones are too delicate to penetrate this little illness. Today’s a great day for jet fuel.

And since I’m also celebrating my big tortoise coming out of hibernation (it really is spring, I guess!), here’s a tortoise pic that Jason found…and added a twist.

We’ve got some exciting plans for our website/blog that we’ll be debuting over the new few weeks. A new contest will be going live sometime in the next week, and we’ll be posting a bunch of deleted scenes from Forsaken Talisman with introductions/explanations from us about those scenes.

We’re also planning on being much better at regularly posting here. We’ve been horribly slacking at it lately (um, lately being pretty much the entire last year), so it’s time to change things up.

Is there anything you’d like us to post about? Any questions you want to ask us? Anything in particular you want to know more about? Feel free to drop us an email or comment here and we’ll be happy to oblige. We’ve been thinking about doing an FAQ for awhile, so that’s on our agenda, as well as some posts about us as writers, best friends, hobbyists, fangirls, wives, mother, cooks, crafters, ghost hunters, actor, etc.

So keep an eye on the blog. Who knows what we’ll post from day to day.

What can I say about the RT convention that hasn’t already been said elsewhere? Probably not a lot. Yes, the hotel was a rundown dump. Yes, some of the “models” (I put models in quotes because to call the troublemakers models is an insult to the true cover models in attendance) took bad behavior to a new, disgusting and disturbing level. But still, even in the midst of plaster dust, missing towel racks and the lingering odors of mold, mildew and must, I still had fun visiting with friends and meeting new ones.

Some of the highlights from my week:

–I won a Sony Ebook reader at Wednesday night’s ebook expo. You can see a photo of me (with friends Beth Williamson and Cindy Szolyga) and my new ereader over on the Beyond Her Book Publishers Weekly blog written by Barbara Vey (who is an absolute sweetheart and was a pleasure to see as she ran all over the convention, catching all the goings on). I’ve been eying the Sony Reader for awhile, and now I have one. I love my new toy! Not only did I get the Reader, it also came with a fun and funky purple and black skin and a Dooney & Bourke Reader cover and keychain. Click the link to see a photo of the one I got. Unfortunately, my keychain has gone missing. I’ve searched all my luggage and bags and it’s disappeared. I do have to dedicate this win to Marty Mathews, Samhain’s author liaison and all-around awesome person. Without her, I never would’ve won. She brought me the ticket when I was busy working and couldn’t get away to grab one myself. And she nudged me to pay attention when they called out the winning numbers. I even told her afterward that she should’ve won, rather than me, and she shrugged it off and told me I deserved it. Have I mentioned lately how much I adore Marty?

–Staying up until 3 am my first night at RT with my bud Heather Osborn, editor for TOR. Heather and I have been friends for-evah–forever being around 13 years–but I haven’t seen her in a few years. We spent half the night laughing our asses off. It was the perfect way to start my RT week.

–Going on a Pittsburgh adventure with Shiloh Walker and her hubby. Shiloh and I discovered we have something in common–wherever we go, whenever we travel, we collect books on local ghost stories. So on Friday we decided to get some fresh air and find a bookstore. We hit up Pittsburgh’s public transportation–the T–and with the help of some locals, we made our way to the mall, about 40 stops away on the opposite end of the line. We found a bunch of ghost story books, and then had lunch in a fun little cafe with to-die-for chocolate fondue for dessert, before racing back to the hotel so I could do my hour in Club RT.

–Throwing an impromptu party in my hotel room on Friday night. The hotel, as some sort of compensation for the awful, awful living conditions, gave everyone vouchers for food and alcohol. Shiloh, her hubby and I pooled our vouchers together, bought a bunch of appetizers, and invited pretty much whoever we ran across to join us up in the room. I was one of the lucky few with a fridge, stocked with alcohol thanks to my editor Angie. So the drinks flowed, the appetizers disappeared, and we laughed and gabbed for half the night. Plus I got to meet Smart Bitch Sarah–which is how she was introduced to me. She was a hoot! I think the most amusing part of that evening was watching JC Wilder roll around on the bed laughing, her head landing in the remnants of frosting from the cake Shiloh Walker provided. So if you kissed JC on top of the head later in the week and thought she tasted sweet, you got a taste of our party too!

–Meeting Laura Bradford, who is one hell of an awesome literary agent who represents some of my best writing buds, Lauren Dane and Anya Bast. I had a great time talking about the industry with her during one of the parties as we huddled in a corner because the room was so crowded. Ms. Bradford is one classy lady–now I know why her clients love her so much!

Honestly, it’s impossible to sum up the RT experience in just a single blog post. I’ve been home for almost two days, but I still feel like I could sleep for a week. But you know what? I’m already thinking about next year and what it might bring, who I might see, and the experiences I’ll have. I hope to see some of you next year in Orlando!

Today we’re blogging over at It Takes Two. If you can call it blogging. Apparently sometime in the last week Lisa and I lost our shared brain, and we need help getting our mojo back! If you have time, come on by and offer some suggestions to kick our brain into gear again.

Today we’re blogging over at the It Takes Two blog, talking about making time for friendship as well as writing. Come on by and say hi.

We’re blogging over at It Takes Two today, the new blog focusing on author teams/writing partnerships. Lisa and I talked about some of the silliest typos and mistakes we’ve made over the years. Hope you’ll come by and check it out.

Since I was a kid, my mom has made a special Halloween dinner. This year, the festivities are at my house, with the entire extended family coming over for dinner and Trick or Treat goodness. Together, my mom and I will be making the same dinner I’ve had every Halloween since I was a little girl in costume.

Halloween Beef Pies

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 (15 1/2-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 cup shredded carrot

1 (4 1/2-ounce) can chopped ripe olives

1 (10-ounce) can refrigerated biscuits

10 slices American cheese

Brown ground beef and onion in large skillet. Pour off drippings. Sprinkle chili powder, cumin, salt and garlic powder over meat mixture. Stir in tomato sauce, carrot and olives. Cover and cook slowly 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Roll each biscuit on lightly floured board to make a 4-inch circle. Press each over the bottom of greased muffin cup to fit snugly. Bake at 400 degrees 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove biscuit cups from pan immediately. Place on baking sheet. Cut 3-inch circles from each cheese slice and cut each with a sharp knife to make a pumpkin face. (Note from Jen: My son, niece and nephew are in charge of making the jack-o-lantern cheese faces. They love it!) Chop cheese scraps and stir into meat mixture until partially melted. Place an equal amount of meat mixture in each biscuit cup. Top each cup with cheese face. Return to oven just until cheese begins to melt, about 3 minutes. Makes 10 pies.