Oh, come on, Mama Nature!

Although I write about vampires and others things that roam the dark hours, I am definitely NOT a child of the night. I adore sunlight and heat; my idea of a perfect summer day is basking in the sun on some white-sand beach with a sexy cabana boy bringing me drinks.

So I assume that Mother Nature hates me. Otherwise, why in the world would she continue to submit me to gray day after gray day?

I can handle the rain. I can handle the snow. I can even handle those days when rain turns into ice which then becomes fat flakes of snow. What I can't handle is week after week of that with nothing brightening the world but street lights.

Our local weather man explained that it's not really a bad winter, it's because we so many warm and sunny days late into the fall. Well, that's nice, but it doesn't make me feel any better. What would make me feel better is our local weather man announcing that tomorrow's temperature will be 70 degrees and we better put on some sunscreen.

A few weeks ago, I seriously considered escaping to the south, to visit my niece in Louisana. I haven't seen her for a couple of years, and not seen her new baby at all. She says her door is open and I'm sure I could find a motel somewhere close, since she lives in a city.

I'm glad I didn't jump in the car and start down the Interstate, because about the time I decided to leave all this behind, the south was slammed with a winter freeze and snow. In fact, one day it was warmer in Alaska than Florida said, yes, my local weather man.

I know I could find comfort on the warm beaches of Hawaii, which would be perfect since I don't have to have a passport to go there. But with all the vivid description of the new airport screenings, I'm a little hesitant to fly right now. Not that I mind a good pat down now and again, but I prefer from someone I love and not a stranger with latex gloves.

So I guess that leaves me with two choices: endure or bribe Mother Nature.

Do you think she'd take Old Man Winter for a little fling if I got them a classy suite in Vegas?

Bagels and bologna

Yesterday marked the third anniversary of Dear Hubby's death. He fought stage 4 melanoma for 10 months and died peacefully at home, with those he loved around him.

In some ways, it seems like forever. Incredibly supportive of my writing, he died before my first book was published. I like to think that he's looking down from a cloud somewhere, nodding his head and saying, "About time,  babe."

In other ways, it seems like yesterday. Every so often I come across a piece of his clothing in the closet, and there are times I roll over in the night and pat his side of the bed, forgetting he isn't there.

Since he's not here to read this, I can confess that I have a thing for bad boy heroes and, yeah, he was kinda the impiration. He was, after all, the ultimate bad boy when I met him. Being young, impressionable and in love, I loved to hear his stories of derring-do -- street racing and fist fights mostly. And yes, like my heroines, I helped tame him a little. He was a great husband, a wonderful father and a dependable friend.

Darling Hubby never met a stranger. He held court on our front porch, chatting with everyone who walked by. It wasn't unusual for me to come home and find the neighbors sitting on the wide porch rail while Hubby sat in his favorite porch chair smoking his pipe,.

My kids have always joked that they never starved when I went out of town. Their dad had a limited cooking repertoire -- eggs, fried potatoes, hamburgers and bologna sandwiches -- but he always made plenty of it.

Last night, my critique group  met at a local coffee shop, so I ordered a bagel in honor of Hubby, who loved their cinnamon-raisin variety. And tomorrow, to commemorate Hubby's lasting influence on our lives, the kids and I are having lunch together after church.

The menu?

Bologna on white bread with mustard and thick slices of onion and potato salad, his very favorite.

Where did the decade go?

My wise grandmother warned me once that the older you get, the faster time goes. I understand now, since it seems like only yesterday I was greeting 2010 and now here we are, in the second decade of the 21st century.
I suppose I ought to make some resolutions. But we all know, don't we, that I'll never keep them. I fear I'm too impulsive for long-term change.
I am not, however, without discipline. That's good, since I have two books to finish for publication this year. The first is Blood Oath, the fourth in my Shadow Ancient series. I love my vampires, I really do, but I'm moving in a different direction with Claimed.
That one, which will come out in the second half of 2011, includes our mysterious Guardian Protective Services, better known as the agency. But the heroine is half-Valkerie, on the run with a jaded free agent for Guardian who connects himself to her with an ancient Sumarian binding spell.
2010 was a great year for me as a writer, but it was also pretty good personally. Despite last year's lack of resolutions, I managed to lose a little weight, I've whittled down my debts and managed to clean out a good chunk of the basement.
All in all, a pretty good year ... and I'm waiting in anticipation to see what the new year begins.

Did you miss me?

I'm back blogging after a long haul of doctors and treatments that started two months ago when my (usually) kind family doctor forbid me to use a computer. I guess,when a patient shows up with hands that don't work and pain up her arms, it might lead a medical professional to suspect carpal tunnel.

Yep, got that. Also have something I never heard of before called thoracic outlet syndome, and arthritis in my hands. After making visits to a neurologist and a hand specialist, I've gotten nerve tests, special exercises, shots in my thumbs and thumb braces -- and permission to again do all the things I did that got me in this condition.

Which is great! The first in my Shadow Ancients series, "Out of the Shadows," releases on March 2 from Resplendence Publishing. I'm in edits for two more books coming out this year and finishing up the third in the Shadow Ancients series. Whew! No wonder my hands wanted a break!

I'm so excited about bringing my vampires -- my Ancients -- to the world. These aren't your angsty, guilt-ridden vampires, by the way. They're powerful, rich and plagued with the same problems as us short-life humans. Well, slightly different problems, as you'll discover in "Out of the Shadows," which introduces the series with a prophecy, a newborn vampire child whose life in is in danger and the short-lifer heroine who saves her by hooking up with the Ancients' enemy.

And you think you have problems!

See you on the dark side --

Cammie

A new month, again!

Here we are in yet another new month -- where is the time going?

Oh, I know. Edits.

That's right, I'm hard at working making editor-requested revisions on my vampire books coming out next year. It's funny how finished I thought I was until my editor got hold of it! Not that the changes have been hard, but it makes me think about how often I make the same mistakes.

Like those pesky "-ly" words -- you know, regretfully, longingly, seriously, beautifully and their relatives. It's so easy to drop one of them in rather than use a bunch of nouns and verbs. And then there's my tendency to use the "has been" form of verbs, like "She had watched" or "He had waited."

I have a real attachment to the words "just" and "very," too. I'm too chicken to see how often I use them in a 70,000-word manuscript, but I wouldn't be surprised it they make up 10 percent. So I've just decided to be very careful in using them from now on. (Yeah, see how they creep in?)

My goal is to get the first manuscript squeaky clean by next week so the changes are back to the editor before I have to worry about getting plastic on the upstairs windows and checking for the best price on turkeys. And then we'll roll into a new month and more challenges ... like getting the next manuscript cleaned up and to the editor before Christmas rolls around.

Ready for the ghoulish good time?

Halloween is just a week away and yes, I have already eaten most of the candy I bought for the darling little trick or treaters. That means I'm off to buy candy I don't much care for this time around.

I've always been a fan of Halloween. Considering that I write paranormal romance, I suppose that's much of a surprise. What is surprising is that I'm still as enthusiastic as back when I was a kid. Granted, I no longer get to dress up and ring doorbells, but decorating my porch and lawn is almost as much fun.

I've already done some scarecrow and pumpkin stuff, but the big guns come out this week. I'll be setting up the fake tombstones and hanging my ghost Lydia (complete with bright red LED eyes!) in front of the window upstairs. Add a few skeletal parts hanging from the dogwood tree in the front yard and we'll be ready.

Oh, and that candy that didn't make it to kiddies? Chocolate fangs, for the vampire lover in us all.

One short jump to Christmas

Guess what? It's fall!

Okay, here at my old Kentucky home, it's still summer. The fans twirl merrily to keep my house cool, I run around in flip-flops and capris and air conditioning flows from every store and restaurant around. Still the calendar says the season has changed, which makes me happy.

As I see it, I'm only a few football games and a hayride away from the Christmas season. Once upon a time, twinkling lights didn't go up until the last of the Thanksgiving turkey was devoured. These days, tiny goblins and princesses trick-or-treat by the light of the neon nativity scene.

I must confess, I have already begun my Christmas shopping. I'm one of those people who see the perfect item for someone I know and snap it up. Giving is much more fun for me than receiving, as long as no one expects their gifts to be perfectly wrapped.

The reason I'm a writer is because I do not have the makings of an artist. My creativity lends itself more to passionate prose than perfectly shaped ribbons. That's why I love those colorful gift boxes. All I have to do is slap a label on and voila! I'm done.

One thing I'm trying to do is give books by people I know to people I know. Call me old-fashioned, but there's nothing I like better on a cool evening that curling up under a fuzzy blanket with a cup of cocoa and a good book. In fact, it's such a wonderful escape that for hours on end, I won't even think about how few shopping days there are to Christmas or ponder why I left the snowmen on the end table ever since last year.