I love shoes. I’m a girl. I can’t help it. It’s in my genetics. Being as it’s now sandal season, I love shoes even more. Especially cute orange sandals (like the pair I just bought – CUTE!) with pretty painted toe-nails. Pedicures are my guilty pleasure. Right now my toes are au-natural with white tips (AKA: French). And they do look nice. Most days. Just not today.

My half-marathon is two weeks from tomorrow – June 14th. Today was my last looooong run before R-day (run day). Eight miles. The good part? It was in the 50’s when I left. The bad part? I had to run alone. Eight long, lonely miles all by myself because my running partner wasn’t around. (Can you hear Deirks Bentley singing, ‘It’s a long trip alone…’?) And because I ran alone, bad things happened.

You see, I have no problem shopping for adorable sandals to go with outfits. I love browsing shoe shops and the mall looking for that can’t-pass-up-pair. But running shoes??? Ugh. Boring. They’re NOT cute. And they’re NOT fun to shop for. And because I have this weird nerve thing in my left foot that makes my toes go numb anytime I run over six miles, I need to have special stabilizer shoes that you can’t just grab at the local Nike outlet. Which means, I have to go to a special running store. With the 3-yr old. Get on the treadmill. Have them watch me run, then pick out a pair I’ll probably have to special order. How fun is that??? Shop for un-cute shoes and then not even get to leave the store with them? Ack!

So in my wisdom, I have pushed off going running shoe shopping. And today I’m paying the price. My left foot has been semi-numb all day from my nine mile run (yeah, you read that right. NINE miles, not eight. Without my running partner I ran more than I was supposed to because she wasn’t there telling me when to stop.) And because that pretty French pedicure was just a little longer than it should have been, when I whipped off my sock I found a bloody stump where one nail had gouged another toe and ripped it to shreds. Fun, huh? The only good part about the whole fiasco is I spent a lot of time thinking and working through plot issues in the current WIP while I was running, but still…my feet hurt.

My latest splurge:

So what’s your guilty pleasure?

Whew.

I’ve come up for air. Sorry to be so slack, but I’ve been in major revision mode. The good news? I am DONE with the revisions on STOLEN FURY and STOLEN HEAT. And the even better news? Going back through both of these books, I have totally fallen in love with the hero and heroine for STOLEN SEDUCTION (they’re secondary characters in the first two books). Of course, I already liked them before (obviously), but now I can’t wait to get seriously cooking on this book instead of dallying while I work on the others.

In other news…lots of fun (very minor) news to share. I love my editor (have I said that before????). Seriously. I have never met a woman who is so on top of things. I have a question, she gets right back to me. I have a problem and email to ask a good time to call her, my phone rings two minutes later. She’s kept me involved in cover art and titles and cover copy and asks my opinion about things I thought I’d have no say in. I am just totally tickled with the staff at Dorchester. Can’t say enough good things about them. And I’m really looking forward to meeting my editor and others face-to-face in San Fran.

So the little things to gush about…I have an ISBN! I know, silly really. But for some reason that excited me. I also have a new “official” release date for STOLEN FURY – December 30, 2008. EGAD!!!! That seems so sooon!!! There’s so much to do promotion-wise between now and then. Thank God I have PR pro Lisa on my side to help me out. I also just got my PAN membership approved through RWA this morning, which is such a minor thing, really, but another mini-milestone that made me smile.

In other non-writing news…my half marathon (ack!!!) is scheduled for June 14th. Now THAT seems soon, doesn’t it? Last Friday my running partner and I ran 10 miles (my longest run to date) in sweltering heat. We were having a mini-bakefest going on here in Oregon last weekend. The high that day was 102. When we left on our run it was 76 degrees. When we got back it was 88. Stupid me got sunburned, but thankfully now I’m just tan. I won’t tell you our time though because it was awful…the heat really kicked my tushie. Interestingly enough, the past few days we haven’t even reached 60 degrees. Go figure. And today I only have a short run (3 miles). (Can you see me rolling my eyes???)

Oh, and to answer questions from my Marilyn post below…snicker…yes, I did get my hair fixed, though it’s still a little more blond than normal. But definitely better. When I went into the shop, my hair dresser said, “Why would you want to change it? You look so good super blond!” Obviously, the woman is color-blind!!!!!

So what’s new with you? Share. I feel like I’ve been on Mars the past few weeks.

PS…I’m blogging today at the Mid-Willamette Valley Blog. No clue on what though. Better go figure that out…

Or Pamela. Or bleach-blond Playboy bunny (minus the really big boobs) straight out of Nickelback’s “Rockstar”. Because that’s me right now. Platinum blond. I’d post a picture but…yeah. Not gonna happen.

I went to get my hair done on Friday and my hairdresser and I had a communication breakdown. My normal hair color is an ash blond/light brown. (The pic at the left is pretty much me minus the highlights) Actually, I think it’s getting darker as I get older (I was golden blond up until my 20’s), but I’ve been highlighting it so long, who can tell? I went in for my normal touch-up – normally we do one blond and two different shades of brown so it’s all mixed together. Well, my color had faded and she said to me, “You don’t want to be this blond do you?” Now, when I look in the mirror I don’t see blond, I see brown and roots, so I said, “Do what you normally do. But I don’t mind being blond. It’s summer, after all.” Apparently, I wasn’t clear enough. Because I walked out of there looking like Marilyn Monroe. I think there are like three colors of blond in my hair and heck if I can see any brown at all. It’s hard to tell in the salon, so I waited until I got home, took a look in the mirror and went, Holy crap! Needless to say, I had a packed Friday so I couldn’t go back and have her fix it right away, and the earliest she can get me in is Tuesday. So until then…platinum blond I am. Which…I have to tell you…looks really hilarious because I have super dark eyebrows. (It’s those gypsy genes.) Even though my normal hair color is fairly light I’ve always had dark eyebrows, even as a kid.

It’s actually kind of fun to be a different color than normal, and I might enjoy being a “Pamela” for a while, except for the fact I need to get my author photos done this month, and I want to look normal for those. No bleach-blond bunnies on my books. LOL. So back to my normal light brown w/blond highlights I will go.

In other news, I finished my revisions on STOLEN FURY. God, I love this book. I’m so glad my editor does, too! I’m just giving it one more quick read through this weekend to make sure I covered all my revisions points. Then I’m moving on to the revisions for STOLEN HEAT this week.

Since it’s Mother’s Day (Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there!) let’s talk something non-writing. How about hair color? Ever done a dramatic “do”? And did you keep it or change it back? Several years back (loooong time ago in a galaxy far far away…) I decided to go red. Did it myself at home. Ummmmmmm. Yeah. Imagine me with flame-red hair. It didn’t turn out so well. The scalp was light (my normal color) and the ends soaked up all the red. It looked hilarious. Needless to say I had to have it fixed by the pros. It was the last time I did my hair myself. And I quickly learned red and my skin tone do not go well together.

In case you missed it Saturday when I guest blogged at The Bradford Bunch, I’m reposting the cover copy for STOLEN FURY which I received from my editor last week.

DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Oh, is he handsome. And charming. And sexy as all get out. Dr. Lisa Maxwell isn’t the type to go home with a guy she barely knows. But, hey, this is Italy and the red-blooded Rafe Sullivan seems much more enticing than cataloging a bunch of dusty artifacts.

After being fully seduced, Lisa wakes to an empty bed and, worse yet, an empty safe. She’s staked her career as an archaeologist on collecting the three Furies, a priceless set of ancient Greek reliefs. Now the one she had is gone. But Lisa won’t just get mad. She’ll get even.

She tracks Rafe to Florida, and finds the sparks between them blaze hotter than the Miami sun. He may still have her relic, but he’ll never find all three without her. And they’re not the only ones on the hunt. To beat the other treasure seekers, they’ll have to partner up—because suddenly Lisa and Rafe are in a race just to stay alive.

I’m really getting excited about this release. As I’ve been going back through doing my editor revisions, I’ve fallen in love with the book and characters all over again. I can’t wait to see it in print.

In other news, I’ve been putting together my song list for STOLEN SEDUCTION. Because, hey, you know I can’t get very far without a “theme” song and soundtrack. I’ll post it soon. Speaking of which, have you ever really listened to the songs on the SHREK soundtracks? My daughter got one for Christmas and my new favorite song is It is You (I have loved) by Dana Glover. (Yeah, that one’s on my song list.)

And Kendra just told me there are less than three months until Nationals. Eek! I need to get crackin’.

Today I’m guest blogging at The Bradford Bunch. I posted the cover copy for Stolen Fury, and I’d love it if you popped over and said hi. I’m giving away a prize!