My lovely lovely friends did it again.

Saturday, I got a giftie.

Today, a fabulous bouquet of flowers.

They so rock!

I got a notice in my mailbox yesterday. An express mail package – attempted delivery. Wracked my brain trying to figure it out.

Today, it was re-delivered.

A lovely congratulations giftie from Dr. Dana, Toni and Charlaine re: my story’s Agatha nomination.

A set of Buffy cards (The Women of Sunnydale) and a box of dark chocolate (Hunter Sweets), along with an Anne Taintor greeting card (I feel a sin coming on).

I LOVE these women. They are simply the best.

Thanks to bheerfan – I have a lovely CKR icon from last night’s BSG episode.

I’m squeeing!

Happy birthday to the darling Ms. bluster!!!

May your day be filled with joy, love and wonder. You deserve the best!

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

Came back from my MWA Board meeting last night all set to watch Veronica Mars before goign to bed. (I record VM and House) No VM on the DVR recording.

Checked the on-screen guide – a freakin’ local b’ball game! Damn their sports-lovin’ souls to the bad place.

No VM. No Alyson Hannigan. No joy in Mudville. At least I have House to look forward to, plus tonight’s Lost.

On another note, a certain person (bluster) pimped me into getting a new Palm Tungsten E. I also bought a 512 MB expansion card. Mobile stories!! Yippeee!!!

Lovely new icon by not_a_painter.

I’ve been totally too busy today to read LJ, but I thought you all would enjoy these.

Some “reimagined” romance novel covers.

(the artist took existing cover art and modified the titles).

Spew alert!! Put down all liquids.

It’s been a quiet day at work today, since many of our clients are off for Prez day. I’ve spent time catching up on old work, and just being glad to be here and that I’m healthy and have wonderful friends.

I am so grateful for my recent wonderful news and extremely lucky to have friends with whom to share it. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Hugs on all of you.

I finally finished mainlining Oz – wow, what a ride! Season 6 was more than I expected. I’m so very glad I finally saw this incredible show.

My goal for the week (besides laundry!) is to get at least 5,000 more words written in book 2, which has a working title: A Necessary Evil. I’ve decided that I want to try to approach this in a new way – more logically and less organic. My plan is to break out the key scenes and write them onto index cards (one per card), then start arranging the scenes in some sort of order. A few of my fellow authors do this and it works for them. At this point, I’ll try anything that breaks me out of the slump.

Connexions finally acknowledged my registration, via email – however, they *still* don’t have me listed on the newly updated attendees page. WTF? In any case, I’m going, so I’ll get to see/meet a lot of you there.

Hope everyone is having a good day!

Last night, I went from the highest high (reading lovely congratulatory emails from friends), to the lowest low.

I found out that an author friend of mine, Barbara Burnett Smith was in a horrible car accident yesterday afternoon. She was in a terrible car accident and is now effectively brain dead with no hope of recovery.

Barb and I weren’t close. We didn’t correspond or keep in touch much, but she was one of the first authors I ever met. She lived outside of Austin and I was in San Antonio. We’d see each other at conferences and hug. A few years ago, Barb beat breast cancer.

Nothing ever kept her down for long. She was one of the most vital, energetic and lovely women I ever knew.

I am numb.

Hug your family. Hug your friends. Remember how precious and uncertain life is.

Love you all.

ETA: Just heard that Barb died last night.

First off – I want to thank you all for all the wonderful congratulations re: my award nomination.

I’m so incredibly happy and grateful to have you all. You are AWESOME!!

I spent last night and today watching more Oz episodes (season 5 and part of season 6) and napping. It’s been a crazy wonderful week.

Sunday will be spent pretty much the same. This will be the last weekend of total laziness. I need to get serious about book 2.

Love you all!

I never thought I’d like the month of February. It’s usually dreary and cold and, if not snowing, it’s raining and chilly.

But this February has proven to be amazing.

Sunday evening kind of capped it all off. I got a phone call informing me that my short story, “The Butler Didn’t Do It” (Chesapeake Crimes, ISBN:0974960802) is nominated for an Agatha Award. I’m totally gobsmacked. All I could say was “OMG! OMG!” The Agatha is one of the top 3 awards given by the mystery community.

The full list of nominees