Watcha Readin Wednesday

...a contract!

I got a contract for my Christmas novella, with Cobblestone Press. The title needs changing, and right now I'm leaning toward:

Fireman for Christmas

Off to read the other fine print.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Tube Tuesday - Lashisse

I caught this on the Jay Leno show last week, it's actually from a really fun site called FunnyOrDie.com

Silly, but it's kinda reflective of all those pharmaceutial ads and the lengths people go to in the name of beauty:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b4b8bb4810/lashisse

Happy Tuesday!

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Things That Suck More Than Mondays

This week's Sucky goes to....

Rules for Rules' Sake.

Yeah, I know we all need law and order and all that. I'm talking grammar and writing rules. Some things are a given, but... well, rules are made to be broken, right? Lone Star Trouble has a lot of Texan dialogue and dialect, which means tons of those dropped "g"s at the end of words such as "talkin", which is Texan for "talking". (conventionally, talkin') And I positively loathed the idea of all those apostrophes cluttering up my book. Every reader who reads Cleve saying, "We're not goin there, Rocky" will know even without the "g" that Cleve means "going".

When I approached the editor initially assigned to this book with my idea of leaving off the apostrophes I got the no-nonsense, "The apostrophes must stay. They are grammatically correct."

Ewww. Remember in the Mummy movies, those under-skin-burrowing beetles? It felt like I had one of those. Just because it's grammatically correct??? Do we not use sentence fragments in commercial fiction? We commit a host of grammatically incorrect faux pas to make the printed word reader-friendly.

Well, this editor (who is a wonderful person and I like very much) ended up taking time off and I got another editor who agreed with my unconventional plan (go Mary, you rock!) and was willing to go to bat for me if need be, but our illustrious Editor-in-Chief also thought the idea worked.

So there you have it: Lone Star Trouble breaks the rules.

Kinda makes me feel all wild and criminal, like maybe I'll break some more rules.... drive up the road and put up everybody's mailbox flag or something...

May your Monday be as suck-less as possible,

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Finally Friday

Today is the end of week 3 of my subbing gig for my dear pal Vanessa, in her middle school PE, Drama, and Reading classes. My mom asked me the other day how I was doing with working so many days and honestly, I'm sort of settled in now. Things don't get done around the house as quick, and some things don't get done at all, but the family is acclimating. (I still think women had it easier before women's lib but that's another whole blog topic!)

And 2 days ago as I was walking down the hall toward lunch doodie (not a typo, --I didn't mean "duty" even if it's synonymous -- although it's not quite as crappy as some doodies because my son's class happens to be in the cafeteria at this time, but I digress...)...ahem. I had an epiphany (not to be corn-fused with episiotomy, which I'll pray to heaven never to have again, whereas I do like epiphanies and welcome them...and yes I've digressed again). Much as I'd figured over the summer to gravitate toward the elementary schools this year, I'm rather liking where I am. Yes, it's possible I've lost all my marbles, but: I feel like I belong there with all those 5th-8th grade kids. Everywhere I go, kids greet me or share some story, joke with me, and I've even been asked for love life advice. (great big grin) Best of all, they don't intimidate me anymore. It must be true, then: I've become one of those insane people who likes adolescent kids. Don't know how or when it happened, but there it is. When I come home, I'm equally happy to only be with my own adolescent kids.

Now, if only the laundry fairy would start coming around during the day, things would be complete!

Happy Friday, everybody!

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

So excited!

My pal Amanda found out our county library is going to have ebooks available starting next month, which is totally awesome. (And guess who'll be donating ecopies of her books there?) We'll be linked up with the entire Marmot library system, so we should have access to lots of books. This means anybody with a library card and a computer/ebook reader/smart phone can check out books electronically, from the comfort of their home/car/office. Instantly. And no returning the book when it's due -- the digital file is no longer accessible once the check-out period has expired.

For anyone interested, the new Sony reader with wireless "Whispernet" is hooked up with Overdrive and many major library systems too, so owners can check out ebooks directly to their device.

Slowly but surely, ebooks are going mainstream.

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Watcha Readin' Wednesday

I've got 3 more EPIC entries left to judge (actually 2 1/2, and boy am I counting!) by Saturday, so there's no time for reading anything else. And I have to say in all honesty, though I've read some interesting stories and a couple of really good books, some of the entries I received have been, well... disappointing in the editing department. By and large, the most points I've taken off have been in regards to really big editing issues, and I've noticed a pattern with them coming from particular publishers (who I won't name). Entire paragraphs repeated one after another, missing words, no punctuation at all, and one entry actually still had someone's critique markup still in it (LOLs and :)'s). Which I find... disappointing and a very poor reflection on the ebook industry. What about people who paid their good hard-earned money to buy books they expected to have been edited? It's just wrong. On so many levels.

Off to read til my eyes bleed,

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Tube Tuesday

Because I've got a weak spot for turtles:

Lucky the Turtle

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Monday Mix-Up

New feature starting today - you know those jokes "Whaddaya get when you cross an X and a Y"...? Well, Mondays call for a few laughs.
So. To kick it off, here's one which gave me a belly laugh. Feel free to tack yours on in comments and raise the giggle-quotient.

What do you get when you mix PMS and GPS? A crazy bitch who WILL find you.

Happy Monday!

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Fuscius Friday....Finally!

It's been ages since I posted any pearls of wisdom from Cornfuscius, but he came up with a real gem this week. Wants to make a ringback tone (you know, the ones people hear when they call you, and you can set certain ones for certain callers in your contacts). This ringback tone wouldn't be music -- it'd be that recording you get when someone's changed their number: "We're sorry, the cellular number you have called is no longer in service."

Heh. Could come in soooo handy.

Happy Friday!

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Man Song

A bit of funniness to get us thru til Friday....

Husband song

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Watcha Readin' Wednesday

Still working my way through the EPIC judging. Smack in the middle of a very racey vampire novel. And despite my previous bias against these tales -- vampires and blood and fangs(needles) oh my! -- am quite engaged.

Happy Wednesday (good lord, almost called it HumpDay like they always do on the radio...),

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

My few cents' worth

Regarding Kanye West and his obnoxious outburst during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Awards...

I watched him on the new Jay Leno show last night, and Jay really asked him some hard questions (including what his mother would think). On Jay's show, he seemed sincerely sorry.

But I wonder what he could possibly do to make up for ruining one of the biggest moments of Miss Swift's life? Whether he was serious or totally goofing around when he interrupted her speech to shout out that Beyonce's video was better and should have won, it was totally rude and inconsiderate, and frankly, I don't care if he's been busy doing tours and making albums. "Busy" does not take away one's sense of right and wrong, nor does it erase one's common sense.

Taylor Swift seems sweet and genuine and I fully expect she'll issue a public acceptance of his apology, but I wonder what she really thinks of him (and like me, now the entire hip-hop scene in general)? Poor kid. Would be totally understandable if she told him to bugger off. After all, forgiveness is the option of the wronged.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Things That Suck More Than Mondays

In no particular order of badness...

• Hangovers
• Playing pilot light to the person who is suddenly a Bunsen Burner to their old flame
• Running out of milk so there's nothing to put on your Cheerios at breakfast

Autumn Piper

Got romance?

Friday Fact

Right-handed people live, on average, 9 years longer than left-handed people.
(It came from an email so I cannot vouch for authenticity)

Happy Friday! Anybody know a restaurant that delivers pitchers of margaritas to your house?

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

More Mommy Woes

Yesterday when we were leaving school, 2 kids in my daughter's grade were kissing!

Oy.

Somebody stop the crazy train! I'm not ready for this trip after all...

Autumn Piper
Got (grown-up) romance?

Wednesday's Woes

Sorry, no Watcha Readin' today, as I'm ear-deep in contest entries I can't discuss.

But on the personal front...
You know parenting is about to get lots more tricky when your son is excited because the Victoria's Secret catalog arrived in the mail.

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Back to worky

Got my galley reviews for Lone Star Trouble done just in the nick of time. Will be working this week - a dear friend is very sick so I'm subbing for her.

Now I've just gotta psyche myself into the middle-school mindset....(picture me meditating, images of Taylor Swift and South Park, skinny jeans and hoodies, floating all round my head).

Here's hoping I've still got "it".

Autumn Piper
Got It?

Holiday Greetings

Happy Labor Day, everyone! And may you not be as bummed by the prospect of oncoming winter as I am.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Friday Funny

This week is another lyric mix-up, courtesy of young Fuscius II.

From Pink's So What?: "So what?! I got my rock moves..." only he says,
"So what?! I got my rock boobs..."

I think it works just as well. :)

Happy Friday!

Autumn Piper
Got romance?

Dude.

Somebody (Piper is pointing her finger at Autumn and Autumn is pointing her finger at Piper...) totally forgot to blog today.

That's a first.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Watcha Readin' Wednesday

Currently working my way through the EPIC entries I volunteered to judge, wondering if I was crazy. But then, I've got so much time on my hands, right? Silly me.

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!

Tuesday Levity

I'm digging myself out of a heapin' helpin' o' behindness right now, so I thought I'd share a bit of humor:

Banging your head against the wall (desktop, steering wheel) burns 150 calories per hour.

Happy Tuesday!

Piper Denna
Romance is sexy!