This is what The Chief looks like from the bottom:



If you use your imagination, it looks like an Indian Chief lying/laying on his back. The first bump on the right is his head, the middle bump is his belly and the left bump is his legs/feet. I don't rock climb, but I'm told it's one of the premiere places to climb in North America.

And here's the view looking down from the nose of The Chief:



The boys and I hiked up it today and now I remember why it's been 25 years since I've hiked that thing! Holy crap, Frank!! I'm told the trail is "only" 4 km (approx 2.5 miles) but it's almost straight up. I can't whine too much because our 7-year old managed it without too much trouble. . . and now they want to hike to the belly and then the feet! God help me.

Here it is - the cover for Deacon's story "Dancing with the Devil."



As usual, the art department at Dorchester has pulled in bits of the story itself to mesh with the cover and I think it's brilliant. And they even kept the same font as they used for The Devil's Daughter, which I just love!

And just because I'm here doing shameless self promotion, look at how pretty both books are side-by-side! :)

Check this out: Book Covers

One Real Man by Janette Kenny

Lost And Found…

Gil Yancy is a man with a mission: claim his share of Rocky Point Ranch and build a herd of his own. What Gil doesn’t count on is the greeting he gets—in the form of a stove lid upside the head—from the mistress of the place. She’s the prettiest thing Gil’s ever laid eyes—and more—on. When last they met, the shady lady seduced him and stole his last red cent, so now it might just be time for a little sweet revenge…

Josie can’t believe Rocky Point’s new cowboy is that cowboy—the one with the strongest-yet-gentlest hands ever to mark a trail down her body. She robbed Gil blind out of sheer desperation, and years later, Josie still has something of his…but that’s not her only secret. She wants him just as much as ever—and she knows he’d do anything to please a lady…



Praise for One Real Man–

“Janette Kenny has, once again, written a winning novel.” Brenda Talley, The Romance Studio

“Kenny utilizes a standard western theme - two strong-willed characters fighting for ranch ownership - and adds a twist or two, changing the typical to the unique.” Kathe Robin, Romantic Times

“One word - awesome!” Merri Crawford, Merrimon Book Reviews

What a day I've had!! Started off as any other Saturday with having to get the kids ready for soccer, but I was also blogging over at Petticoats & Pistols which was a lot of fun! Anyway, I went to soccer, ran a few errands and came home to find my BIL's truck in front of the house. Not unusual, really, I just figured he and the DH were loading the boat to go fishing.

WRONG!!

Inside the house, the BIL and my sisters had completely done an "Extreme Home MakeOver" on my office. You have to understand that for the first 16 months or so after we moved into this house, I was working out of the crawl space which was fine, just cramped.

So last month, the boys moved all their toys and gaming systems out of the little hobbit room upstairs and I moved all my stuff up there. I did have pictures, but for some reason I deleted them. RRRRR Anyway, it's a very small window-less room that has a sloped wall and patched together carpeting. But it got me out of the crawl space and up to where it was warm.

So when I left for soccer this morning, my office was a thrown together little room. When I got home, this is what I found:

Look at that - a real desk!!! They took a door (yes, a door!) sanded it down, stained it and turned it into a real desk for me! My laptop and keyboard can both fit on the same surface now without me having to sit sideways!!

I have a shelf to put things on. That picture you see there was from my sister's 40th birthday and we were all crammed in one of those photo booths. Hilarious!! And that little devil guy was a gift from my buddy Lori Devoti.


They hung my coverflats EVENLY (I can't hang anything in a straight line) and the BIL drew, cut out and painted the Marlboro Man for me. How hilarious is that??


My neices found this super cool mirror and then used glitter to write "home of happy endings" around it (might be hard to see with the angle this picture's at)


And here you can see how the wall slants over my desk. Look at that fun lamp and that clock! Oh, those are paper flowers my kids made me hanging off the wall. I hang all sorts of their art work and gifts up there.

Now I ask you - is there a better gift for a writer than coming home and finding a real office waiting for her? I think not! I LOVE IT!!!! Apparently, my DH was a little concerned because they swooped in and took all my books off my shelves, which is fine, but they weren't going back in the same order. Apparently I've given people the impression that I"m an anal freak of some kind. ha! I don't care because they built me a shelf for the books,too!!! Everything fits in here now and I actually have more room to cram more stuff!

It's a beautiful thing!!!

My friend Laura C emailed me tonight to say she'd ordered The Devil's Daughter from Amazon and it's already been shipped!

FORTUNE’S KISS by Lisa Manuel
Genre: Historical Romance
Publisher: Medallion Press
Release Date: March 2008
ISBN: 978-193383635-5

Practical, country-bred Moira Hughes must fight for the family fortune she believes her stepfather’s heir has unlawfully withheld from her. Graham Foster, treasure hunter and Egyptian antiquities expert, returns to London to claim his barony only to find himself accused of foul play by Moira and her widowed mother. Coming to a wary truce, Graham agrees to help Moira find her lost fortune, and together they follow a trail of fraud, deceit and murder that leads them through the streets of London—and into each other’s arms.


“The characters are full of depth and vitality and you feel like you are with them every step of the way. Fortune’s Kiss is definitely one for the keeper shelves.” – Night Owl Reviews

“…A cunning story of love and treachery… Settle down with some tea and cakes and put up your feet. Fortune’s Kiss is an excellent Sunday afternoon read.” – Novel Spot

“…An excellent historical romantic suspense. This is an exciting and enjoyable book and one you don’t want to miss.” – Romance Junkies

“…An amusing, engaging historical romance starring two likable heroes and a zany out of control support cast.” – Harriet Klausner

“…Unique and sinfully delicious…” – Romance Reviews Today


Visit Lisa at www.lisamanuel.com

I just got home and missed half the red carpet, but HIlary Swank looks FABULOUS!!!

My husband brought home a Golf Digest the other day. So I was flipping through it tonight as I watched one of my favourite shows, Dirty Jobs and here's what occured to me.

Tiger Woods made $122,702,706 last year. Yes, that's right. Over one hundred and twenty-two MILLION dollars for PLAYING GOLF! Okay, in truth, he only made a measly $22.9 million playing golf. The other $99 million he made in endorsements, appearances, etc. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Tiger's great. He's done amazing things to the world of golf and brought in a whole new audience. He's an amazing athlete and he deserves to be paid well.

But what about the poor guy in the waste water treatment plant Mike Rowe was working with today? He spends over 40 hours a week making sure our poop gets taken care of. Think about that job. Think about spending every day walking through poop. And the smell. . . .!!!! Oh my disgusting-ness. These workers see every disgusting thing people flush down their toilets (because apparently they don't "see" the waste baskets right beside the toilets) and then these workers make sure it all gets cleaned out before it gets dumped into the ocean.

Now call me crazy, but don't you think these guys deserve the $100 million for doing their job? I don't know what they get paid, all I know is that it's not nearly enough!! How does this make sense to anyone??

There is something wrong with this world, I'm tellin' ya!!

And boo to all those idiots on Survivor who voted off Yau Man! Boo hiss!!

Look at this baby!! How cute is this??

Here I am. :)

Here's a few useless but interesting facts I've discovered about books:

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell, was rejected 38 times
Carrie, by Stephen King, was rejected 30 times (and if it wasn't for King's wife, it never would have been sent to editor #31!)

The Pokey Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey, is the #1 best selling hard cover children's book of all time
Charlotte's Web, by EB White, is the #1 paperback

The Bible is still the #1 best selling book of all time
The first six Harry Potter books come in at #'s 6, 9, 11, 13, 14, & 15

Bilbo Baggins was born on September 22, 1290 (not sure why we need to know this, but I did warn you these were useless facts.)

My blog is boring. I know this, and so do the 2 other people who stop by. My goal for the new year is to make it more fun and to make it more fun more often. :) So I thought to myself "Self, go find one of those fun doo-dicker things to put up here today." I thought for sure I'd be a fun breakfast at least. Sadly, here's what I find out about myself:

You Are Cereal

Playful and lighthearted, breakfast is likely your favorite meal of the day. (In fact, you're probably the type who sneaks cereal as a midnight snack.) Your culinary skills are probably a bit lacking... and you are a sucker for junk food. Some people accuse you of eating like a kid, but you prefer to think of yourself as low maintenance.

Sadly, it's fairly accurate. Go figure.

Tomorrow there'll be something more exciting, I'm sure of it.

Just in time for Christmas, Lori Devoti's new book, Guardian's Keep, is out!!! If you read her first Nocturne, Unbound, then you know how amazing these books are. You can find Guardian's Keep at any bookstore or any of the online stores. And you have to check out Lori's website for all sorts of cool things.

Merry Christmas!!

I can't believe my a$$ they gave the million bucks to Todd! Even the skinny chick would have been a better choice than Todd! I'm completely gobsmacked.

I am, no doubt, the only person on earth who hadn't heard this guy before now. I was at Mom and Dad's the other day and saw his CD case sitting on their table, so they told me how they'd come across him, but it wasn't until my sister emailed me the link to him singing that I realized what I'd been missing.

Holy crap!! No, really - HOLY CRAP!!

I was all set to blog about the carpet cleaner guy who came yesterday, almost an hour late, without apology, and then proceeded to take a big dump in my bathroom. However, you've been saved from that rant because Andrea just sent me this video clip which made me laugh so hard that I've almost gotten over the carpet cleaning dude. Almost.

Turn your speakers up and enjoy this.

Okay, so maybe we weren't speaking about it, but since it's on my mind all the time because of the new book coming out (The Devil's Daughter - April '08), we're going to talk about it now. :) My editor sent me this today and I'm posting it here because, well, it's funny. Everyone needs a little funny on a Monday morning, don't they? :)

The Climate In Hell

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

The fat lady sang. Joe Torre will no longer manage the Yankees.

The only good thing about that is he was the one to turn them down. They offered him a one-year deal worth $5 million plus bonuses for every round of the playoffs they might make next year. $5 million is a lot of money, but considering he made $7.5 this year, it's hardly a compliment.

Apparently the talk is now that Don Mattingly is the leading contender to replace him, but Joe Girardi and Tony La Russa are also in the running by the looks of things.

Guess we'll have to wait and see what ARod's going to do now.

Don Mattingly

Joe Girardi

Tony La Russa

My sister, who is ever-so-helpful, sent me this recipe. Enjoy!!

Great Chicken Recipe
Here is a chicken recipe that also includes the use of popcorn as a stuffing -- imagine that. When I found this recipe, I thought it was perfect for people like me, who just are not sure how to tell when poultry is thoroughly cooked, but not dried out. Give this a try.

BAKED STUFFED CHICKEN
4 - 5 lb. Chicken
1 cup melted butter
1 cup stuffing (Pepperidge Farm is Good.)
1 cup uncooked popcorn (ORVILLE REDENBACHER'S LOW FAT)
Salt/pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush chicken well with melted butter salt, and pepper. Fill cavity with stuffing and popcorn. Place in baking pan with the neck end toward the back of the oven.

Listen for the popping sounds. When the chicken's ass blows the oven door open and the chicken flies across the room, it's done.

And, you thought I couldn't cook...