Tweet of the Week

My DVR is set to record all episodes of House Hunters International because my nightcap of choice is to 'travel' to some beautiful seaside place before heading off to dreamland :). So the other night I was watching the episode when a gal travels to Malta to buy a vacation place. Although I didn't agree on the place she chose--LOL, when do I ever?--I enjoyed touring the area with her.

This particular night I tweeted : "House Hunters International, I heart you." The next day HGTV contacted me to ask if they could include my note in their 'Tweet of the Week.' Um, let me think...YES!

They then sent me some legal stuff, and I signed it, so my words may (finally!) make it to the (little) screen. LOL ... Let me know if and when you see it, alrighty? Have a beachy week, my friends!

calls that go bump in the night ...

So a character from a book called my home last night. Seriously. The phone rang at 8:20 pm, and Call Waiting read: Asher Price. No one was on the other end (even creepier), but I just stared at the name, trying to remember where I'd seen it before.

"What's wrong?" my daughter asked.

Omg! I ran down the hall. She followed. I grabbed the book from my shelf, turned it over, and pointed at the text on the back cover. "Asher Price just called!"

We both screamed, laughing.

"It's like that movie, Mom. Stranger than Fiction. A character is talking to you!"

"Yeah," I said. "but it's not one of my characters!"

Methinks it's time to take a break from all this writing. I'm going to the beach. And not answering the phone ...

Charlie and me

That's Charlie the Dog in the photo. I was on deadline awhile back, ignoring him, so he decided to slip into something more comfortable ... and wait until I noticed.

Instead of a writing deadline, I'm on an editing one at the moment. But it all looks the same to Charlie, i.e., I AM IGNORING HIM. He gallops into the office and slaps his paws on the floor next to me, looking for a playmate. I want to say, Hey, I just sent one off to college! I want to be free! He doesn't care.

I get asked all the time what kind of doggy he is. We adopted Charlie from a shelter, so the best guess we have is some kind of beagle mix. I modeled Moondoggy from A Shore Thing after him. The pooch on the cover has a longer snout, but don't they kind of look alike? One thing is certain, they both have minds of their own and will do whatever it takes to get some attention. Lol...

Fade to ... School

School's officially back in session for most kids around my 'hood. Yours? This includes all three of mine which means that the edits I received on Friday for my next book, FADE TO BLUE, will probably actually get done. Woo-hoo! I'm so excited about this book! If you read A SHORE THING you'll love this new story because it picks up where Suz--Gage's sister--left off. Learn what happens in the life of the single mother with a tumultuous past.

Also my publisher has moved up the release date ~ FADE TO BLUE will be out before most kids finish this year of school! Again with the woot :) We've looked at several covers and I think you'll love the one we chose. SO. PRETTY. I'd buy it just to keep on the coffee table. LOL

Okay, enough of this frivolity! Back to work for me (and back to school for the kiddos :) Have a beachy day, my friends ~ wherever you are!

Whaddaweek!

I'm officially Mom to a middle schooler, a high schooler and a COLLEGE student!!! Funny since I'm JUST SO YOUNG! Ha :)

So the big move was this weekend. Bittersweet times. After two days of mini-seminars and orientations and mixers and meals, thousands of new students and families gathered on the great lawn on Saturday night for a big send off. Tissue boxes were scattered about as we worshiped God under a shiny round moon. Then there was communion and private family prayer time. Thought for sure I was going to lose it!!! After all, parents and students were sobbing ALL AROUND US.

But then my son said something that made me giggle, and all hope for the 'mama-style' breakdown was gone. We ended up leaving our kiddo at the entrance to the dorm, fully confident that with God watching over him, he was ready for this new chapter. Truthfully, I'd had a quiet cry earlier that morning ... so enough already!

After church on Sunday, we took our daughters to lunch and when the hostess asked, "How many?" our older daughter automatically answered, "Five." Whoops! With Matt away at college, that number has been shaved to four.

Oh boy. THIS is going to take some getting used to!

To all my college-mama friends out there, past, present, and future ~ have a beachy day, wherever you are :-)

Gone fishing ...

Not really. I don't fish ~ I just eat them :)

Looks like a lovely weekend ahead. Stay away from mindless TV and get outside, if you can. We're moving our son into his dorm, but it's so amazing on our stretch of California that we might just fling open the sunroof and take the coast route home afterward (the wind will dry the tears, for sure!).

Have a beachy weekend, my friends ~ wherever you are :)

College bound ...

It's an emotional week! Our oldest is moving off to college this weekend and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. The girls are excited--they've already been planning ways to makeover his room. How they're going to afford a leather couch and flat screen is beyond me, but hey, we all have our dreams.

But all I know is the kid who's been here for almost 19 years will be living more than two hours away. We'll go weeks without seeing him (although I'm suddenly interested in skype), and he'll have to fend for himself more than ever. (Since I'm not the best cook in the world, and he's a hungry boy, he might say that he's already been fending for himself, LOL) Still, it's a huge shift in our little family.

Author friend Sherry tells me that she went to Biola too--and met her husband the very first month of freshman year!!! Cannot. Imagine. (Incidentally, she says students were affectionately known as Biola Betty and Biola Bob, and I'm wondering if this is still true ...?)

Ah, well, he's ready for the change I think. He's worked hard to get into college--and already has a job in place on campus. I'm proud of him! Nervous about the changes ahead ... but proud! So that chick you see buying up all the Biola Mom merchandise in the bookstore, well, that would be ME!

Day of rest

One child started school this week, another starts her junior year of high school next, and our son is currently packing to move to college in about 6 days. Yet I'm the one in a tizzy. Can you relate? Busy, busy, busy. And no matter how 'green' our country professes to be, there seems to be more paperwork than ever!

No wonder Amish books remain so popular ...

Anyhoo, tomorrow's Sunday, so I'm hoping to rest and I'm giving you permission to do the same. (Unless you're a minister. If so--sorry, but you must work to 'feed' all of us sheep :)

My daughter took this secret picture of me walking along the beach in Carpinteria (I'm about to walk right in front of Kevin Costner's house). I loved the two days we spent up there. Sooo serene. This picture reminds me of a beach scene above my bed. When our youngest was about 3, she pointed at it and said, "I want to go there."

I so get that.

Let's go surfin' now ...

If you've read this blog before, you know my mini obsession with beach rides. See this post for some I've spotted here on the coast.

So anyway, while we were in Pennsylvania last month, we rented a Ford Flex. So. Much. Fun. I do not have stock in Ford ~ I promise! But that thing was comfy (leather seats like 'buttah!') and tricked out with a GPS, DVD, and synced up phones. Reminded me of a souped up woody. Can't you just see this thing cruising the coast with a surfboard on top?

It is big though. A little too big for me. Think: lowered Suburban. Still when we arrived at LAX and slid into my foreign made mini-suv with its stiff-leather and cramped spaces, we all kind of groaned. Lol ...

Bookstore visits & sunny daze

So apparently the Farmer's Almanac warned us about an especially cool summer ~ our friend Alex told us this last eve. But today...oh, TODAY...the sun is (finally) out on the California coast. It's not been AWOL all summer, but pretty much. I was starting to sense a lack of vitamin D in my system, Lol

To celebrate, I'm going to enjoy these last few days of freedom from early morning rides to school and making bag lunches. Yes, school starts soon. Too soon, if you ask me (nobody did). I suppose if my kids were younger and driving me crazy, I'd be glad. But they're not and (for the most part) they aren't, so I'd rather we extend the lovely carefree days for, say, another month.

Not that my days are all that carefree with book promos, but still! Speaking of promoting a book, A SHORE THING, is popping up in stores all over the place. Happiness! In between dodging the clouds, I visited several of these stores. THANKS to all the bookstore staffers who welcomed me!

If you're in the SoCal area, here are the stores I visited with beachy bookmarks (I also signed copies of Shore when asked):

GOLETA Borders
SANTA BARBARA Barnes & Noble (signed copies)
VENTURA Barnes & Noble
THOUSAND OAKS Barnes & Noble (signed copies)
CALABASAS Barnes & Noble
WOODLAND HILLS Barnes & Noble (signed copies)

Happy Beach Reading, my friends ~ wherever you are ;-)

Make it a good one!

Beach daze

Came back from visiting family last week and the work was piled THIS high. Sheesh! But it's all good. Today I visited a couple of Barnes & Noble stores that carry A Shore Thing (Calabasas & Thousand Oaks). Tomorrow I'll stop by a couple of stores in Santa Barbara, and then a few more down south on Friday. If you're near any of these, stop by and pick up a bookmark at the customer service desk. My publisher B&H designed them and they're very 'beachy' :)

Speaking of the beach, I refuse to let the proliferation of back-to-school clothes drown out the need for summer to last. We have through late September people! Can I hear an Amen?

One of my daughters starts school next week already. I know, crazy. The Ventura County Fair will be still going on then. Might even take her to see that cutey patooty Dierks Bentley. Which will she remember more? 7th grade homework or staying out late to see a Country Music star on a school night?

My point exactly.

Here's to good memories ~ and another six weeks of summer :-)