Mr. Fabulous’s Kareoke Duet Night and Hot Chocolate to Die For

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One of my Blog Book Tour hosts, Mr. Fabulous, is having a special evening of kareoke duets with some of his peeps (his word, NOT mine) tomorrow (Sunday) night at 6:30 EST. Yours truly is showing her love for Mr. Fab and his wonderful, irreverant blog Pointless Drivel, by doing LEATHER AND LACE with him. I, like the other duet partners, pre-recorded my part to a karoeke version of the song (may I say I HATE this friggin’ song! What does ‘give to me your leather, take from me my lace’ MEAN, anyway?!) and sent it in MP3 form to Mr. Fab, who will sing along live with each song. He is either very brave or very foolish. Perhaps both.

And now for something completely different.
For the best hot chocolate ever, take two squares of Belgian chocolate (bittersweet is best), melt into a cup of milk (I prefer a tablespoon of cream cut with water – no carbs, no sugar, with the flavor of cream instead of skim milk!) in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stir it constantly with a whisk and then, when it’s melted and hot, give it an extra minute of whisking to insure the frothiest, richest hot chocolate ever. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings for extra decadence. Peppermint oil can be added (take a toothpick, dip it in the oil, then dip that in the hot chocolate. If you’re patient, you can also infuse a batch of chocolate beforehand by chopping it up into small pieces, adding a drop of the oil into the chocolate and stirring/shaking it to spread the oil) for some extra zing. Grated orange peel and/or cinnamon and other spices are other options.

Dates for my Tour!

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Yes, the tour for Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon, is slowly coming together. I will have an official page for this on my website under The Goods section, but what’s the use of a blog if I can’t further promote myself and my lovely host bloggers? I’m very excited about this, but the coolest part is the wonderful blogs I discovered when researching the tour and meeting some incredibly talented and nice people. Please take a look at my list of tour stops:

Sunday, January 20th

Elysabeth’s Emerald City

Monday, January 21st
Blogbooktours.com

Tuesday, January 22nd
Kat’s Random Thoughts

Wednesday, January 23rd
Chrysalis Stage

Thursday, January 24th
Kitty Litter

Friday, January 25th
Pointless Drivel

Saturday, January 26th
Redzilla Attacks!

These are all on my blogroll, which got ate by WordPress when I added my RSS feed and link to the blogbooktours group on yahoo. My lovely and talented website designer, Leslie Keats, is working on recovering said blogroll and my blog archives. If you need website design, I cannot recommend her highly enough! And aside from her web design talents, she surfs and enjoys drinking wine while watching bad movies. My kinda gal!

My First Official Appearance as a Mystery Author

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San Diego Mystery Club Appearance

This was taken at the San Diego Mystery Club meeting in November.  I’m happy to say I’ve lost a full dress size since then, but quite pleased with how cleverly (and kindly) the photographer (thank you, Bill!) hid my butt with a copy of the book cover.   I’m gonna have him photoshop all future unflattering photos!   This picture was taken five minutes after arriving at the hotel restaurant where SDMC holds their monthly meetings.  We were fresh off the plane, which was delayed over an hour, and our Avis rental car.  I drove in record time from Charles Limburgh Airport to Hotel Circle South, arriving at the meeting minutes before dinner was served.  The lovely hostess took one look at my frazzled expression and handed me a glass of wine, which you see in my hand. 

Gearing up for the Great Blog Book Tour of 2008!

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Dang me, this blog book tour thing is a lot of work!  I was told by the Yoda of Blogbooktour.blogspot.com (that would be Dani) that I need to put a sitemeter on my blog.  The secret of adding this sitemeter is hidden somewhere in my WordPress dashboard, possibily under ‘widgets.’   I have gone my entire life without the need for widgets (which rhymes with ‘midgets’, ‘fidgets’ and ‘gidgets’, doncha know…) and suddenly I’m forced to explore this strange new world of cyberstuff.

Widgets.

Feh.

Upcoming Blog Tour

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Yes, that’s right.  I’m actually going to DO this blog book tour I’ve been dropping hints about for the last month!  It’s going to start the Monday of the third week of January.  If I had a calendar nearbye, I’d give you the date.  but I don’t and I have felines lounging on me and can’t get up to check.   Does this make me lazy?  Perhaps.  Or does it make me a good mother?  I prefer to look at it that way.

So I’m gonna be doing interviews and guest posts at…six different blogs, hosted by six diversely talented writers and bloggers.  Still working out the logistics, but we will be having several drawing for free copies of my book, MURDER FOR HIRE: The Peruvian Pigeon.  If you win, you’ll have to bake your own chocolate chip cookies to eat while reading it, but the book itself will be free.

I will be posting a schedule with the dates and urls of the blogs I’ll be visiting and hope you’ll stop by all of them and check it out!

The Week Before Christmas

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And all through the house…many creatures were stirring, but none were a mouse!

This would be because of all my cats wandering around, y’see…

These same felines are the reason we do not currently have a Christmas tree.  Eight of the 10 are fairly well behaved when it comes to tempting things dangling from high places, but Taz and Haggis do not understand the concept of boundaries.  There is no ledge high enough that they will not jump.  The world is their oyster and all items their toys.  We are still debating the wisdom of throwing caution to the wind, putting softer, disposable ornaments on the bottom branches and seeing what happens…  but that might not happen this week.

Holiday plans for this week (official week ending Sunday the 23rd) are:  Some shopping ( although most of that will happen between the 26th and 28th – we’re going to see my family in San Diego that weekend and most of our shopping will be in prep for that trip); listening to Christmas carols in the evening while cooking and cleaning; at least one viewing of A CHRISTMAS STORY; and relaxing.  My main goal this holiday season is to stay relaxed.  Holidays are supposed to be joyful and happy, right?

Now if I were working on the sequel to MURDER FOR HIRE: The Peruvian Pigeon, my main character Connie would be getting ready for the holidays.  The first book takes place right before Halloween  and while I’ve got the plot basically outlines, I’m not sure how far in the future the sequel will take place.  I’d better figure this out ’cause Connie ends the book with…oh…wait.  I’d better not say anything else.  Spoilers, doncha know.

I’m looking forward to the weekend.  Dave and I are going to visit our former son Wookie (now Ned) at his new home on Saturday.  His new dad, Matt, is full of holiday spirit and just a hoot to be around.  We may go to my cousin Jon’s holiday party in Sacramento, depending on Dave’s health (he’s been battling a cold and has to be in good shape for the drive to San Diego next week).   And that’s about it for the week before Christmas.   I would be happy spending most of it hunkered down at home, cuddled under warm blankets and purring kitties, a glass of good red wine in hand.

Vanity post

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This picture was taken last night at a Solstice Party.  I don’t usually like pictures of myself these days and this was a pleasant surprise.  If I could just figure out how to remove the lantern growing out of my head, I’d have a great potential author photo!
Thank you, Joan!  Lady in Red

It’s Meme Time!

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I’m still not entirely sure what a meme is (I could google it, but I’m too lazy…), but I’ve been sent one by Dani at HotButtonPress and I have vowed to do this.  And then it will be sent to other bloggers.  HAHAHAHAH!!!!!    So…now it begins.

What have you just read?

I have just read the first two Bloodline books by Tanya Huff, Shopaholic and Baby by…by the gal that writes those books and my mind is blanking…, A Latte Trouble by Cleo Coyle, and lots of other books.  I read on the Muni every day, read when I walk anywhere and lose track of what I’ve read.

 What are you reading now?

Now I’m reading… what am I reading?  Ah yes, Designer Knockoff, a fun mystery set in Washington D.C. with reporter  Lacey Smithsonian as the protaganist.  It took me a while to get into it, but now I’m loving it.  Lots of cool vintage clothing details, a sassy heroine reminiscent of a Hepburn character, and an intriguing plot.
Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?
The next Tanya Huff Bloodline book.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?

Urm…  I have never been forced to read anything.  I actually seek out bad writing.  We’re talking SHOWGIRLS bad.  So bad that it’s fun.  I have a book by D.B. Patterson (a zombie book) that’s so badly written, it’s now a party game with my friends.  We open it and read a paragraph at random.  Bliss…

What’s one book you always recommend to just about anyone?

well…Murder for Hire, of course!  🙂  Seriously, it depends on the person, their interests and the genre.  For horror, WHERE THE CHILL WAITS by T. Chris Martindale.  It inspired my very first (one of two) fan letters.

Admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?

Even MORE sadly, no.  I just started going to the library in San Francisco.

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

Nope.  I have impeccable taste.  Good AND bad.


Do you read books while you eat?While you bath?
While you watch movies or TV?
While you listen to music?
While you’re on the computer?

Yes to all of the above.  I love to read.  If the movie is really good,  I won’t read.  But I read when I walk.  I love to read and find every opportunity possible.


When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?

Nope.


What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?

Sigh…the last Harry Potter book.


Have any books made you cry?

If I’m in the right (or wrong) frame of mind, anything will make me cry.

Okay then.  Time for me to tag my blogger pals!

Bye, Trapper…

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Baby TrapperI just got an email that Trapper died. Trapper was a Canadian lynx at EFBC/FCC, just a few years old. The following is from the EFBC/FCC website:

In the fall of 2007 we noticed he had some balance issues, occasionally had trouble walking straight, and couldn’t jump as well as he used to. We moved him to a smaller cage with less chance of him injuring himself. He was brought to the vet for an MRI in October. The news was not good. His condition is called a Chiari-I like malformation, syringomyelia C1-C3. Basically in the back of the skull the cerebellum is being pushed against the skull, blocking fluid from draining down the spinal cord, which caused the neural tube to expand with fluid. This is a congenital defect, sometimes seen in humans, and often in a breed of dog known as Cavalier King Charles spaniels.

A veterinarian who has performed the same surgery on dogs operated on Trapper in November. The back of Trapper’s skull was removed to allow the cerebellum to expand, and the top of the C1 vertebrae was removed to allow fluid to escape.

Dr. Berry then placed a wire mesh titanium basket over the back of the skull to protect the brain.

He evidently came out of the surgery okay, but…well, he didn’t make it. I don’t know the details. It’s heartbreaking. Trapper was special. I mean, all the cats out there are special, whether they’re people-friendly or totally wild. Trapper was a sweetheart. I can’t stop crying right now.Trapper

Reliving my childhood

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Or at least parts of it.  The parts when I was shy and awkward.  I used to be a very friendly, open kid who’d make friends anywhere.  But after a few negative experiences dealing with the kind of casual cruelty that kids specialize in, I became a lot more hesitant about approaching people and spent quite a few parties hiding out in corners.  I outgrew that over time and have had relatively few awkward moments in my adulthood as far as interacting with strangers, but today at the Mystery Writers of America/Sisters in Crime holiday party at M is for Mystery Bookstore, I had about an hour of pure, agonizing shyness, straight out of grade school.  I clutched my glass of wine with one hand, Dave’s arm with the other and felt my heartrate speed up as I began to hyperventilate and wonder what the hell I was doing there.  I vanished behind a long row of bookshelves and tried to get control of my breathing and stop myself from making a hasty escape back to the car.

It got better.  A very kind woman, Susan S. (webmistress for MWA) took me under her wing and introduced me around to a few people.  The ice melted, my breathing returned to normal and I ended up having a great time.  Sold a few books, bought some and had them signed by the authors, and am really looking forward to the next SinC event.   But tonight was an object lesson to me that we may grow older, but we never really leave our childhood behind, both the good bits and the bad.