Resolution Revolution!

This will be the year. Do you ever catch yourself saying that just prior to a New Year? I do. But this year I mean it - I hope. My resolutions this year are simple - achieve my personal best. Meet my weekly word count goals, my daily exercise & calorie goals and stay under budget when shopping, be a better wife and mother. Well - maybe I can't improve on everything! I hope to participate in lots of book signings, write many books and sell every one of them.
I resolve to try not to get too upset if my son decides to go to college away from home (but I plan to beg and plead for him to stay local).
I hope when I look back here from December 2007, I won't be disappointed. I hope you and yours have a great '07. Please resolve to read all Dara Edmondson's books this year - oh, and recommend them to all your friends!

Woe is Me

Well, here it is, Christmas Eve day and I'm sitting at home with a retched hangover. Why, you ask? Enablers. Dear friends who took us out to a very fine Italian restaurant last night forced us to over-imbibe, as usual. They are wonderful folks - very generous and fun to be with. But they always, always, encourage us to drink too much, eat too much and generally have too good a time. On top of this, they give us gifts like Godiva chocolates and other irresistable goodies.
The power is ours, you might say,(as Captain Planet did). We could easily turn them down - not go have loads of fun and enjoy their stimulating company. But we're mere mortals - weak and prone to lapses in our resolve. So here's my wish to you. May you find yourselves with such enabling friends this holiday season. You'll have a terrific time. Plus, you'll have that much more to repent for come January. So eat, drink and overindulge with reckless abandon. And have one for me!

Diet Don'ts and Don'ts

I really hate this time of year. Don't get me wrong - I love all the parties and the celebrating. It's the temptations that slither beside me as I sit innocently beside my thin friends. If they can indulge in a plate full of potato latkes with a fudge chaser, why can't I? It's just not fair. And never is that clearer than at the holidays which, let's face it, are one big hedonistic orgy. If we're not stuffing our faces, we're tearing open gifts! My thin friends ease up on their exercise routines for the month of December while I do triple time at the gym. No effect. If I didn't sweat my tush off 5 days a week on the elliptical trainer, the bike and the treadmill, I'd have twelve chins.
But that's the way the cookie crumbles (pardon my reference to food again!) So, I end up every January first way over my caloric as well as my monetary budget. Here's the good news - January is resolution month. I think it's no coincidence that resolution month comes immediately after overindulgence month. That's the ying and yang of it - the balance of the universe. But please - let calories burned in January equal or outnumber calories consumed in December. Please???

Teenage Wasteland

It's official tomorrow - I will be the parent of two teenagers. My youngest turns 13. Talk about making me feel old! As if that wasn't bad enough, a good friend sent me the public school calendar for next year. Since my daughter goes to a charter school and my son will be graduating in May, I won't have any children adhering to said calendar. I know this must all sound trivial but to me, it's tear-worthy. Kind of like the day, many years ago when I tried to lift my son to put him inside the back of the grocery cart, which I did as an occasional treat until it was too full of groceries. So, there I am standing in the middle of the supermarket and I realize he's gotten too heavy for me to lift him. I started bawling, right there. Poor kid hugged me and showed me that he could just climb into the cart. But I knew - and half the people at Publix knew - I was getting old. I was probably about 33 at the time, which sounds so young looking back from 44. Nowadays my husband and I talk of things like retirement and when the kids are through with college and on their own. If I had my way, they'd live with us forever. I might regret those words one day if that actually came to pass but the idea that my family is going to morph into a smaller version of itself when my son goes to college has me scrambling for reasons why he must stay at home. I know I'll get over this - it's part of life after all. But it's not a part I much care for. I'm a huge proponent of the status quo.

Another Chapter...

Just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press to print The Kitten Club - a contemporary romance about a 40 year old working class hairdresser who falls for a wealthy developer. This will be #2 in print for me and my first "serious" book. My other books and stories have been romantic comedies and Chick Lit but this isn't. I'm curious to see how well it goes over. If I do say so myself, it's a really good book. Lots of heartache and tears, a bit of saucy sex, as a Brit I recently met says.
The toughest thing about writing saucy sex into a novel is the knowledge that your parents will read it. I hope and pray my Dad skims over those parts. Yes - he does. I must believe that!

What Little Girls Are Made Of...

...Sugar and spice and everything nice...
The nursery rhyme author never met my daughter or her arch nemesis/best friend (depending on the day). The pair is 12 years old - almost 13 and my husband and I cringe at the thought of them becoming teenagers and fighting about, say - boys. Right now they're not speaking. No problem, you might say - perhaps they need the time apart. And I'd agree with you, save for the fact that they must ride in the same carpool most days to and from school and live a block apart. Oh - did I mention their older brothers are close friends and their fathers and mothers are bestest friends. Yes - this complicates the issue immensely.
Arch Nemesis insists my daughter sent an email to the boy AN has a crush on. In it, said daughter pretended to be AN and professed her undying affection for the boy. My daughter insists it wasn't her. Now AN has supposedly turned all the other 12-13 year old females in their class against my daughter. Who do you believe. Did you think we were talking politics for a moment? Does the United Nations have similar distrust issues?
Eventually the pair will kiss and make up until the next drama begins. Until that time both girls will make their parents' lives a living Hell.
Dr. Spock never said there'd be days like this!

Inlaws and Outlaws

Gotta love the holidays with office parties, friend parties and the ever-dreaded family parties. Must we continue to torture ourselves? Slow, excruciating death by family rears its ugly head and we just sit back and ride the miserable wave.
Being married to a man whose family hails from rural West Virginia, I'm always in awe of the products of a family tree with no branches - Cousin Kermit, straight from prison, Uncle Ralph, released from the mental institution on a one-day pass.
Like lambs to the slaughter, we line up to get a serving of Grandma Bertha's corn casserole which may or may not have poisoned Grandpa Howard last year.
Well - best of luck to you all as you trek through the muck of dysfunctional family functions. May the force be with you!

Black Friday Madness

What is up with people waiting on lines in the middle of the night in the freezing cold? Okay, okay, you get some awesome deals but you see the worst of the shopping humanity. I love shopping - when there are not a gazillion people with the same idea at the same moment. I admit I was out there with them but not until 6 am. I missed the best deals because I wasn't on line with the die-hards. But I still got a two station cordless phone for free after the rebate and a fax/scanner/copier/printer for $40 after the rebates.
I'm proud to say that my holiday shopping is now nearly complete. After a late start, (by my standards) I got a running start and threw myself into it. All I have left to buy is some stupid figurine toy for my nephew and colognes for my in-laws. Pretty darned good.
Anyway, good news on the writing front. I've had another request for a full manuscript. Keep your fingers crossed.

Lucy Bakes!

Okay - I admit it - I'm a fabulous cook but a lousy baker. My husband says I'm "cookie challenged." I've made my mother's pecan raisin pie a dozen or more times and it came out perfect each time. But not yesterday. I think I overbaked it. (I"ll blame that on my a-little-too-hot oven) So this morning I had to brave the supermarket on the day before Thanksgiving (can you say cluster f*%&#k?) And here I sit, waiting for the darned thing to bake. Wish me luck! Braving the supermarket is nothing next to facing the holidays with the inlaws. I need your prayers for that one!

Have a great Thanksgiving and don't eat too much pie. Just pretend I made it and it won't taste quite as good!

Home Sweet Home

I've returned from NYC and boy O boy does it feel good to take a shower in my own shower and lay on my own bed! Mission accomplished (Ick - did I sound like someone just then?) How embarrassing.

I came home to find my fist short story was released from The Wild Rose Press. It'll only set you back a buck-fifty, so run over to www.thewildrosepress.com and check it out. Write me a review while you're at it;-)

BTW, we took an Amtrak train all the way from New York to Orlando - my husband is such a good sport. He indulges me for all sorts of reasons. This time it was because I hate to fly. Yes - I know. I'm a wimp. Everyone from my family to the bag boy at my supermarket has pointed that out. Do me a favor - if you know someone with a phobia, don't tell them to just get over it. That's simplistic and unrealistic. As long as it doesn't cause you harm, let them be. Okay - stepping off the soap box now. Time to start making some cranberry chutney for Thanksgiving. Have a great holiday.

I took the plunge

It's official - I'm crazy. Today, I was voted in as Prez of my local writers' organization. Yes - I'm head honcho of a group of nearly 70 women. These are not shrinking violets, mind you. They're strong, accomplished, kick-ass ladies.
On another subject, I leave for the big apple in a couple of days. Have to help the folks move out of the house I grew up in. I wonder if I'll get choked up...
On a happier note, I just started a new book that seems pretty good. It's Barbara Samuel's Madame Mirabou's School of Love. I'm taking the train so I have 3 books packed along with holiday cards to write out and my MP3.
My fractured foot is almost heeled (pun!) and I've decided to leave the ski boot of a cast at home. Hope I can survive in sneakers. If not, no problem - the left one works just fine.

Hello Out There...

Welcome to my brand new blog. I'll be talking about the books and stories I'm writing, my home and family and cool stuff that gives me ideas to draw from.

A little about me...I'm a Floridian by way of Long Island. Went to college in the Sunshine State and decided to stay. I met my adorable hubby in a tanning salon I used to own and the rest is history. We have 2 teenagers!!! Yes - I think we'll survive.

I'm currently working on a long short story - wait - is that an oxymoron? I have two full-length ChickLit novels out - both online. The second, Compromising Positions will be released in print in February. I also have a short story in a print anthology coming to bookstores in March.

As I write this, I'm trying to teach my daughter to crochet - something I haven't done in about 25 years. I guess it's like riding a bike. Only problem is - it just came back to me why I stopped - I can only make long straight things. I think I made about 2 dozen scarves. My Dad was the only one who wore his - it looked like an endless orange and blue road! There must be a stpry in there somewhere. Off to work.