Canis Blanketus

 I have many things I need to post about, most notably the Ravenous Romance Ornery Eleven (Formerly Dirty Dozen) Blog Tour, which is kicking off on April 18th, but because I am on a deadline at work and that will be a link-formatting heavy post, and because I really want to post something new RIGHT NOW, I’m sharing some wild life info a friend sent me.  Thank you, Deb!  

To protect baby while mama is out foraging for food, Canis blanketus  females train their young to lie

motionless for hours at a time.  Unless the baby moves, it is invisible, so seamlessly does it blend into its natural environment.

 

(And if you can’t wait for me to get my act together to find out more about the tour, go to C. Margery Kempe’s blog here ’cause she’s already got the schedule up and running)

Drawing for Three (3)! Copies of Murder For Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon…

…will take place tomorrow night at approximately 7:00pm Pacific Standard Time.  I’m compiling the lists from my lovely blog hosts, must type it up, cut the names into separate strips of paper, then put ’em in my handy dandy fedora, stir ’em up, and pull out the winners.   Whew!  I’ll be posting the winners on my blog as soon as I finish the drawing and will also send the names to the seven hosts so they can post the winners as well if they so desire.

Thanks again to everyone who followed the tour, whether or not you left comments!  And a huge thanks to Elysabeth, Dani, Kat, Blaize, Nessa, Mr. Fab and Redzilla!  You all rock (can I stil say that at my age?) and made this experience a fantastic first blog tour for me!

And now to sip some very lovely Rosenblum Abba Syrah and read the rest of DARK TIDE by Elizabeth Forrest…

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

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!

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!

Gearing up for the Great Blog Book Tour of 2008!

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

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!

My Holiday Weekend

I just made hot chocolate – two squares Belgian bittersweet, a teaspoon or two of Ghirardelli cocoa powder mixed with a little bit of cream, and a cup of milk per serving, topped with whipped cream. May I just say “yum?”

I’ve been doing a lot of work on marketing and publicity for MFH, which means a great deal of time spent on the couch ‘cause that’s where I do most of my computer work. The pluses include comfort, and the TV when I want a mindless movie on in the background. I can’t have anything but music on when I’m writing any sort of fiction, but as far as research, lists or letters, I do love me my bad zombie movies.

Dead ClownsThis weekend’s mindless white noise included: DEAD CLOWNS (zombie clowns return from a watery grave to revenge themselves on those who let them die), which was mind-boggling in how boring a movie with zombie clowns, serial killers on the lam, and Brinke Stevens can be when executed by a bad director; SHADOW WALKERS (a group of scientists and assorted military personnel wake up in an underground facility with no idea who they are or why they’re there, only to find they share the facility with mutants with a taste for human flesh), more interesting than DEAD CLOWNS, but still only a low rent RESIDENT EVIL with the longest, dullest fight scenes I’ve seen in a long time); and 28 WEEKS LATER, which was more than background noise ‘cause it’s way too good a movie to be relegated to white noise. I liked it even better second time around too.28 weeks later

Other entertainment for the holiday weekend included several long walks on the beach, a lovely drive up the 101 to Hopland, home of Brutocao Winery. The autumn colors were in full regalia, traffic was light, and the weather was perfect. Home by 3pm with plenty of time to relax with the kitties and get some work done around the house. AMC was playing MGM musicals that night, so we caught the end of SINGING IN THE RAIN and watched all of THE BAND WAGON, which (if you haven’t seen it) has one of the most spectacular numbers ever staged, The Manhunt Ballet. The Manhunt Ballet (Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in what I consider their best dancing roles ever) was a huge inspiration to both me and Maureen in terms of MFH, and noir dialogue. “She came at me in sections, with more curves than a scenic railway.” I mean…come on, that’s classic.The Bandwagon

I love those old musicals. Lisa and I were raised on them when we were kids. When my parents got divorced, big treat night was an MGM musical, homemade pizza from Appian Way pizza mixes, Coke and homemade fudge. When I see them now, I’m always sent back into a time when life seemed a lot simpler. I generally cry like a baby during at least one scene per movie. Even the goofy ones. And I’d kill to have Cyd’s legs. Or to have legs that looked like hers in her prime. I think Cyd’s actual gams need to stay on Cyd.

So it’s been a good holiday weekend. A lot of relaxation, a lot of household improvements, some intense work on MFH and my upcoming Blog Book Tour. More on that tomorrow night!