shopping daze

So I've managed to do something I didn't do before Christmas: go to the three different malls two days in a row. Quite a feat for a non-shopper like myself (with a bad back too). But it's been kind of fun, actually, because most of the money spent was not mine, ha. The kids received all kinds of giftcards & cash and I've had fun watching them spend away.

And I did some observing too. One of my girls, the one who has plans for a career in fashion design, spent every cent...and borrowed some from me! (We did 'split' a coat, though). The other, my soccer girl, bought mostly 'needs' and has a bunch of moolah leftover (guess who I'll be borrowing from? Lol)

Here's the pic of the purple coat my eldest daughter and I bought together from Forever 21. She fell in love with it but it was over her budget. Of course, I crowed about how good it would look on me which caused her to bat her eyes and suggest that I split the cost with her. Sigh...wonder which one of us gets to wear it on New Year's Eve...? :-)

college daze

Happy Monday! After all the church and family festivities, I ended up on the couch for nearly 2 days with a bad back. Hasn't happened in years, but this one was a doozy. Anyway, I watched several movies, read a lot, and ate even more than I did during the Christmas parties. Oh, how I wish I'd asked for a Wii Fit, haha!

I'm better today and working on my 2011 release again. Good stuff, this one! I'm hoping to whip through 1000s of words while my kids sleep in during their continued break.

Speaking of kids, my son Matt received his first college acceptance letter on Christmas Eve Eve...from Biola University! In case you missed it, I wrote about my happy discovery in the university library a couple months back when Matt and I visited the campus. Anyway, such a terrific Christmas present...my baby accepted to college. *sniff* *sniff* *SNIFF!* (That last sniff came after I saw the tuition schedule. Lol! Praying for a surge in book sales :-)

This pic of Matt at the end of "No Shave November" cracks me up. My girls call that his Noah cap, as in Noah from the movie The Notebook.

Off to write that bestseller ;) Have a beachy day my friends ~ wherever you are!

Just popping in to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

After last night's Christmas Eve service, we feasted on tamales with family. This morning we hung out with close friends and carbo-loaded (thanks, Angel :), then headed to the beach (see pic!). Next friends and family will arrive and I'll pull a couple of lasagnas out of the oven so that eating can commence yet again.

Have a blessed rest of the holiday, and tell me about yours too!

I love a parade

Happy Christmas week, my friends! Got up and out early to beat the shopping rush. I'm a rather anti-chick when it comes to shopping...I don't really enjoy it all. But today the lines were short because it was early-burly, woot! Had to make a couple of trips out to my car to stash all my treasures...

Speaking of good times, here's a picture from the Parade of Lights, an annual event in the Ventura Harbor. I took this pic with my phone from a friend's deck on Saturday night. See the boat and fireworks in the background? Such F-U-N!

That kiss

Okay, I swiped this clip from Kristin Billerbeck's blog. Now that I've got that off my chest, I ask you, what will we do without Glee for the next, oh, four months or so?

It's youth group night and in addition to my word count for the day, I'll be getting ready for this week's English Muffin Pizza Making Christmas Party. But for the past few months, after all the Wednesday night frivolity at my house, I've looked forward to settling in with my weekly dose of Glee. Now it's over until spring. Over! It's just not right, I tell you!

Btw, I've studied that kiss over and over again. Look at Schu's wrinkled brow (is she offended? does she love me back?) and Emma's shock followed by utter relief and joy. This is the stuff romance novels are made of and studying the facial expressions of good actors is a great place to start. (And gets you in less trouble than stalking lovers at the mall...)

p.s. I know that Schu's technically still married. That's the stuff of another post...

talk soup

Started off the weekend with a busy signing for Sweet Waters over at the Ventura Barnes & Noble. Remembered to bring signage, candy, bookmarks, magnets...but not a camera. Argh. Didn't even think of having someone snap one with my phone. So here's one from the International Christian Retailers Show last summer in Denver (that's Patti Hill in the background, on the left).

I get nervous before book signings. Will anyone show? And ... what if people show? LOL Truthfully, I love to gab and always end up in interesting conversations, even though they're often in snippets. For instance, on Saturday, I talked with new readers and old friends about:

screenwriting
kinesiology
obsessive-compulsive disorder
the old neighborhood
Jane Austen
detoxing
differences in fantasy vs. sci fi
faith

Yeah, pretty much the same stuff that goes through my head in a NY minute! Ah ha ha!

So, it's the last week before my kids are out of school for 2-3 more (depending on the kiddo). I MUST write A LOT this week, so here I go...

Wishing you a beachy day, my friends ~ wherever you are :)

Friday mus-ings

This is Gage, my muse...and yes, I have a male muse. Gage appears in my next book, A Shore Thing, and he doesn't just appear and speak, he also thinks right there on the page. In other words, I wrote his POV (point of view). Sooo fun to be a woman writing what a man thinks. Oh, the possibilities!!! Lol

But I've moved on to the next book and my next muse couple. I found the purrr-fect pictures to represent them both (she's famous, he's not), and I'm having a ball putting words and thoughts and conflicting emotions into their heads. Feels quite diabolical at times, mwaa-ha-ha!

If only I could control my own life this well. A novel idea indeed ;)

Just in time for Christmas...

If you're in the Ventura area on Saturday, I'll be signing Sweet Waters at Barnes & Noble. In addition to handing out candy, magnets and bookmarks (naturally :), B&H Publishing Group will be holding a drawing for one of these cool book "chairs". This thing's big enough to hold a cookbook (or, of course, one of my novels, Lol).

The Ventura B&N store is located at 4820 Telephone Road. I'll be there from 11 am to 1 pm.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Baby, it's cold outside

I love a California coast sky after a rain. Had some rain (and wind and momentary loss of power) earlier this week, and the forecast says it'll be back tomorrow...with a gusto. So I'm dusting off my boots, and making sure my gloves are handy. Unlike other parts of the country, winter can be fleeting around here and we Californians don't always know what to do about it. I'm sure those in frigid areas would mock me mercilessly about all the snow gear I wear when it's cold outside. But whatever. Lol

And the winner is...

Stampedwithgrace! I'll be getting your copy of Sweet Waters out to you lickety split. Thanks all for stopping by my cyber beach pad and participating in the discussion!

Turkey Ole

My husband's Italian and when he was a kid, his father made homemade turkey ravioli the day after Thanksgiving. (I'm told they even served a spaghetti side dish on the holiday.) So you can imagine my husband's surprise when, as new marrieds, I made turkey enchiladas with the leftovers. See, I'm Mexican on my father's side, and besides, I'm from California, home of amazing Mex food. My husband hadn't even had a taco until he moved to CA from PA in his early 20s!

So anyway, a couple of nights ago, I was tired of re-warmed turkey, and hot turkey sandwiches, but didn't feel like shopping. So I dug out all the extras in the fridge ~ and wouldn't you know it? ~ we had the fixins for turkey soft tacos, Lol! Aren't other cultures fun?

Ah, well. What do you do with the leftovers? Make something fun? Or toss them out? As for me, I'm finally going to clean out that fridge today, even though that means it'll be as hollow as a drum. Let the shopping begin!

*** Still a few more hours to enter to win Sweet Waters on the post below. I'll pick a winner at noon, pst!

Sweet giveaway

Happy December!

I was trying to think of a snappy post, which is tough since my head's fully into a new story and how many words do I really have left? So anyway, I can't think of anything amazing today, so instead I'm going to give away a copy of Sweet Waters. Hey, who needs pithy anyway?

So here's the deal. Tell me about your favorite book (the title, what you like about it, who wrote it, or whatever you want to tell me) in the comments section. On Wednesday at noon pst, I'll throw all answers into the random number generator and come up with a winner. Sound good?

Looking forward to reading your comments on my breaks! And if you're looking for Christmas gifts, you can find my previous titles (Chocolate Beach & Truffles by the Sea) in Julie's Beach Shop or on Amazon.

Here's to a beachy holiday season ~ wherever you are :)

November 30!

We had two Thanksgiving gatherings, put up all the Christmas stuff (or most of it), had two soccer practices and two church services this weekend. How about you? Today's the last day of the month, so the Christmas season is officially here ~ I love it!

My son did the Black Friday thing with friends, well, they actually started on Thanksgiving night at 11. That's so crazy, I think, but maybe I'm alone in that. It's just that I'd choose sleep over shopping ANY time, Lol. Of course, it wasn't too easy to sleep when you're kid's out at a shopping mall in the middle of the night. Ah well. Maybe he got me something...ha.

How about you? Did you brave the crowds and early mornings (or late nights), just to get those mukluks for a buck? Or were you home snoozing like I was?

Well, it's Monday, and for now, the last of the ornaments will have to wait. I've got A LOT of writing to do. My car's in the shop, which means I can't go anywhere ~ so I've got NO EXCUSE. I will, however, be peeking in on the beach shop periodically because today's the last day of my pre-Christmas sale. Lots of fun stuff in there (the signs are the most popular), so if you've got a beach-lover on your list, you might want to check it out. Julie's Beach Shop

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

Under a beachy sky

The wind's whipping the waves and the air's turning colder. Feels very holiday-ish and I just loved this pink & blue sky from my evening walk.

Hope you all had a beautiful Thanksgiving and continue to enjoy the weekend, my friends ~ wherever you are :)

Gobble, gobble

I'm determined to get more writing done, despite my youngest being off school this week (and despite the thawing turkey in my fridge which'll need to be buttered and browned in just a couple of days). Yesterday, though, she had a forever-friend over and how could we not head to the beach on such a sunny November day? Unfortunately, I left evidence of that excursion all over the couch when I slipped off my shoes last night and realized just how much sand I'd brought home, haha. Reminded me of this sign that I carry in my beach shop. In addition to sand, I've been known to carry back a shell or two from the beach (sometimes not finding them until they've taken a spin through my washing machine, Lol...)

Ah well. Have a beachy Thanksgiving week, my friends, wherever you are!

No shave November

Apparently it's No Shave November, evidenced by this picture of my son. Mothers of teen boys who take part in this ritual know what I'm sayin'! Although yesterday I was chastised by a dad at church for complaining (not so) bitterly about this new look. "He's not doing drugs or partying or drinkin', so a little hair rebellion is all right." But I maintained that I was just doing my job, Lol. We already picked up his senior portraits and you wouldn't ever recognize him--he's as clean cut as can be. Even the guy at the photography studio did a double take, haha.

Ah well, December's coming. (And I'm putting new batteries in the electric razor. Love you, kiddo ;)

Feeling 'glee' ful ;)

Happy Wednesday (the weekend's a-comin' ;). If you're a writer or interested in marketing, I've posted over at the CAN Blog today. Feel free to stop by.

My elves have been busy filling beach shop orders while I've been researching/writing my next book. I'm taking a break, though, because my youngest made the honor roll, and there's a ceremony soon (such a smarty, that girl). Then it's church small groups tonight, complete with hot apple cider to usher in Thanksgiving. Busy times, but life is good, eh?

Have a beachy rest of the week, my friends ~ wherever you are! I'll stop back in when something fabulous happens. Feel free to tell me about your week~I'd love to hear it!
p.s. Glee's on tonight, yippee :)

Internet's up ... & new interview

Our Internet connection went down last Friday so I took that opportunity to cancel that service and go with a faster one. This meant no Internet all weekend. I thought we'd go crazy. My youngest looked at me all moon-eyed yesterday and said, "Life's so boring without Facebook, Mom." I told her to go read a book (although it took everything within me not to opine about the old days when the TV had ears and my bookshelf overflowed with the Nancy Drew series...)

I have to say, though, that it almost felt like a vacation. A productive one because I got a lot more done around the old hacienda without the Internet beckoning. I know we could have gone to Sbucks for wi-fi, and admittedly, three of us have iPhones, so it's not that we weren't occasionally checking for that all-important-super-urgent email that just might come through. But all in all, we survived the weekend just fine.

Ah well. The main connection is live, but I'm off to buy a router so the whole fam can be back in business. T'was fun while it lasted...

One more thing! Rel over at Titletrakk interviewed me the other day, and some of the questions were, uh, out of the norm ;) You can read that interview, including how my kids describe me at Titletrakk.

Sweet Waters giveaway

Cathy Bryant posted a brief interview of moi over on her blog. Stop by and leave a comment...you might win a copy of Sweet Waters.

Cheers!
--Julie