I'm Sick

I have a cold. This makes me angry.

I am not a good sick person. I'm grumpy and once I get past the anger of actually being sick, I spend the rest of the time until I am well hunting down the person who made me that way. Was it the dumb woman sho sneezed on me in the Grocery store? Were the germs on the pen that stupid guy handed me to use at the bank? Damn public restrooms and door knobs! Damn you all to hell!

I actually don't mind colds as much as a sore throat. Sore throats suck because I can't talk and I can't not talk. But the thing I hate the most is vomiting. The whole experience of it is horrible. I can't stand other people doing it either. I lived in a sorority house in college where we had some pretty serious drinkers. Back then it was sorta funny. Now not so much, largely because its usually my kids and I'm the one who now has to clean it up.

Sickness annoys me (mine or anyone elses) but injury I find facinating. I love a good bloody wound. THe might need a tournequette needing stitches kind. I could totally handle stitching someone up. Broken bones can be fun, too. I saw a ski accident once where a bone stuck right out from the skin. Dislocations are creepy. But to see them pop back into the socket is interesting.

So anyway, thats my rant. I'm off to blow my nose and hack up some phlem.

More Summer Fun!

So Now thats its mid September, I am nostalgic for July. Sun, fun, swimming, golf, good friends, daylight until 10pm. Ugg. I hate fall. Even the word"fall" sounds tragic. For example, "They fall to the ground after slitting their writs when waking up Monday morning and discovered it was Labor Day." This sentence has tense issues and is struturally incorrect but you get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, I have some.

Kellan digging at the beach.

Dylan and I went to the US Open Tennis in New York. It deserves it own post.

Tanner jumping off the diving board at the Pool.

Me with my Synchronized Swimming girls.

Tanner with Spikes at the Rochester Red Wings Game. Boxes are relly the way to go. Great cheesecake.

Me in a sand trap during the club championship. Dylan is in the left corner as my caddie.

Us losing the club champoinship. I refer you to the previous sand trap.

So that was some of my summer. I miss it already!

What I did On My Summer Vacation Part One: THE BOOKSIGNING

People came! Isn't that exciting? Even total strangers came up to me and wanted to buy my book.! Family, friends, some creepy guy wth a lazy eye ( a fan perhaps?) and of course my Fly Girls, two of which drove their asses all the way from Syracuse to Rochester for the occasion.

It was fun.

I made sure I dressed so I "matched" my book. It takes place in South Florida, very tropical so I wore a cute little beachy outfit. Also, its about professional tennis so my neices who are tournament tennis players came looking very sporty. As for the sex aspect of my book, I had obscene candies that were a hit. I also signed with a playboy pen.

Here are some pics! Hope you like! And if you haven't already get my book LOVE GAME.

LOVE GAME Book Signing Aug 18th

So that is a week from tomorrow and in that time I have a golf tournament, a week of synchro swim practice and I have to clean my house and do laundry becasue I haven't really all summer. Who am I kidding? I won't clean till labor day and as long as everyone has clean underwear, I'll let the laundry go.

SO anyway, my booksigning is Saturday Aug 18th at 2pm at the Borders book store in Victor. I'm excited. I hope people show up. So if anyone is out there who plans on coming, bring a friend.

One thing going for me, I'm friendly and i'm outgoing. Some authors are not so they have a hard time talking to the people who are showing up. I like to chat. My friend also suggested I wear something tight and short so the male population would be interested. I am wondering if food might work just as well. I will bring candy just in case.

I was also asked to do a question/answer thing, but I might feel weird. So far when I get emails from people who have read the book, the question get most is what is it like to write sex scenes. That might be bazarr to answer with my whole family in the room.

So anyway, I'm excited. It's cool. I just hope people show up!

Emmy Nominations!

Sopranos leads the pack with fifteen.
One short of most by a series ever. That title goes to Moonlighting in 1986 with sixteen.

Just had to say that to give my show their props.

Anyway, there is alot that I am happy about this year. For one thing, it isn't just a celebration of edgy cable shows that get attention because they can swear and show boobs. Forgive me, but I actually like network TV. Boton Legal got a nod for Drama series as did fave and front runner James Spader. Also American Ferrera is in for Ugly Betty and a million noms for Office including Rainne Wilson Steve Carrel, Jenna Fischer and writing nods for "Gay Witch Hunt" and The Negotiation" both great eps by the way.

Other notables... Jamie Pressly for her role as Joy on My Name Is Earl. Too funny. She deserves to win.
Tina Fey for her writing expertise on 30 Rock. (Can I have her career, please?)
Patricia Arqueet for lead actress on Medium. ( Glenn Carron creation. Had to be said)
Anyway, I am off in search of more quality TV.
Have I mentioned I am addicted to "Scott Bai0 is 45 and Single"?

Summer Baby!

I love Summer! Golf swimming. Eating bad food, getting melanoma. All the pastimes. This week I will be wrapping up my WIP and closing my computer down for a while.
Other things I want to do this summer...
1) Try not to have any tan lines so I can wear tube tops and not looks stupid.

2) Eat calamari

3) Remember to water my flowers so they don't die.

4)Catch up on all the TV I missed.

5)Spend time with hubby and family.

Thats all folks. I'm off to go run naked in the sprinkler!

Dig My Cover?

Hey Guys! This is my cover for my romantci suspense story LOVE GAME from Wild Rose Press. It comes out his summer. Head down to Amazon and grab your self a copy.

Here's A Blurb....

EVER FEEL CURSED BY A GIFT? International tennis star KENLEIGH DWYER knows how that feels. With unprecedented talent and extraordinary beauty, she’s heralded as America’s Sweetheart. But her gift has made her a target. Her father, notorious South Florida gangster BIG AL DWYER has a hobby fixing high-stakes sporting events. He needs a favor from his famous daughter.
And her refusal may cost her life.
Eight years earlier, BLAKE “STREAK” GARRISON was the playboy of the NASCAR circuit before a fiery crash in the Daytona 500 nearly killed him. It wasn’t an accident, and his obsession for revenge has led him to a monster. Big Al Dwyer.
Now a FBI expert in organized crime, Blake has infiltrated Al’s closely knit gang. When news breaks of Kenleigh’s vicious stabbing, he knows Al is to blame. He also sees a chance at the ultimate revenge. Destroy the devil by the hand of his spawn. Blake is convinced Kenleigh is the perfect weapon, and the key to Al’s demise.
Until he falls in love with her. And she might love him too, if she didn’t believe he was sent to kill her.

At The Finish Line

I am working on this manuscript that basically I actually started writing a month ago and I want to finish the draft by friday. Fifty thousand words in five weeks. Doesn't sound like much but tell that to my aching back, bugged out eyes and oh, I think I have carpul tunnel for real now.

I like to work fast but not this fast.

My plans are to finish this baby completely and send it off by the time my husband is done teaching mid june so I can take off the rest of the summer and enjoy my family. I am totally looking forward to it. But until then I will be waking up at 7am and writing until 8am when the kids get up and sneak it in whenever I can. And at night (now that the TV season is over) I will work to the wee hours.

Yeah! Back to work....

Random Thoughts While Jogging

I am training for a half marathon in September so recently I have been doing a lot of running. First off, running sucks. I hate running but I hate being out of shape even more so for a few months pounding pavement it is.

Running is a lonely sport. you're alone with your thoughts. So, since I have nothing else interesting to post, I give you some of my thoughts as I jog aimlessly around my neighborhood every night.

1) A Hotness Of A Man is Severely Reduced if they are Walking an Emasculating Dog: My idea of a rugged rough and tumble guy is one that walk a Rottweiler or Doberman. If you are holding a little Chuiwawa like fucking Paris Hilton, sorry. Fefe the Pomeranian will NOT get you laid.

2) There are a lot of Uncoordinated Children in the World: I have seen many near fatal spills on roller blades, scooters and bikes and one unfortunate run in with a basketball hoop. ( and I do mean run in) Phys ed classes should not be abolished! Write your congressman.

3) Mailmen can be hot.

4) Chem lawn guy, not so much.

5)My Ipod has many songs I didn't know about. Vanilla Ice is fun to run to.

6) Why do all Skippy ice cream Drivers look like they have Hepatitis.

7)Whats with all the hate on Dandilions? I think they're kind or pretty.

and lastly...

8)How good would a cheeseburger taste right now?

Prom '07: How Queer Are We?

First of all let me just preface that my husband and I share a brain. We love practical jokes and quoting funny movies (CaddyShack and Tommy Boy are our favorites.) We also like to do stupid stuff. Now remember, what we consider stupid and fun might be regarded as pathetic to others since we have been married for almost a decade and have two little boys that never let us leave that house that much. But when we do go out...

Look out! Freak shows on parade!

So when my husband Dylan asked me to chaperone the prom with him (he's a high school teacher) Well hell, we went all out. He took me out for a great meal, got me flowers, did all the prom things high school kids do. I told him that there was no pressure to impress. I was a sure thing after all (after two kids the thrill of the chase is more like the thrill of the "roll over and ask nice."

TMI. Just kidding.

I have to say I had a great time. Much different from my other prom experiences. For one, I was sober the whole time, second I got to bed before dawn. Third, it didn't involve sleeping in the bathtub of a seedy hotel room in my date's tux (Sophmore year), throwing up on my science teacher's Lexus ( Junior prom) or singing the ABC's to my college boyfriend wasted at four in the morning to prove I wasn't drunk while my hookup of the night is sitting next to me holding cue cards ( Senior Ball).

Very tame in comparison, but fun just the same. We still know how to have a good time which is why I posted the picture below. "The Anti Prom Pic (I don't know why I am holding tin foil)

I'm Back BABY!!!!!!!!

So I went to Florida for a few weeks with my family and friends. I flew with the help of some great drugs (thank you Valium), shopped, went to the beach, golfed, got a tan and did some reading that I otherwise would not have time to do. I am totally refreshed, ready to write. ( A chapter a week is out critique partner pact) I'm ready bitches! Bring it on!

I thought I would post a few vacation pics just for your viewing pleasure. Its great to be home.

The Bitches are Back! A PREVIEW of our Time in NEC

So we went to NEC and Natick Mass Crown Plaza hotel we'll never been the same. Barbie, Jen, Kari me and our friend Regina rocked the joint.

And now, I present a preview of OUR WEEKEND IN PICTURES...Sorry this post is not that funny. Mostly because I am still in a coma.

Right: The Robert Palmer Girls

Left: The Robert Palmer FLY GIRLS! (much sexier)

More pics to come this week!

Gopher Grab A Booey! Man Overboard

What's with the recent epidemic of people falling off cruise ships? Is this a new problem or did it just happen to one guy and a couple others thought it would be cool to copy cat? To all these people I have a few questions I would like answered.
1) HOW? Or more exact, How DRUNK are you? I mean, I understand if you were tipsy. You're on a cruise, Issac tends to overserve and you enjoyed one too many umbrella drinks. But lets face it, it takes some amount of cordination to jump up on the railing and swan dive into the deep blue. Unless you pissed off Julie and Vicki and they pushed you, or you're one of Doc's disgruntled girlfriends.
2) HOW DUMB ARE YOU? In this question I am also referring to your friends. Did they encourage this? If this is the case, get new friends. Or at least don't listen when they want you to reinact the"King of The World" scene in Titanic.
3) HOW PISSED WAS EVERYONE WHEN THEY TURNED AROUND TO GET YOU? Not that I am a great waterskier, but I remember how annoying it was to drop some stupid skier who tripped over the wake and have to go back and retreive them. This person fell off a floating city. If I were the spotter I would say "fuck it" and let him swim his ass to shore.

But maybe falling of a cruise ship is tramatizing. Especially if you can't swim and even more so if you are appetizing to sea life. I however am not sympathetic. My advice to them is this: Keep your ass on the Lido deck and take in a Charo show. No one cares if you drown.

There is Something Seriously Wrong With Me. I Swear!

Those of your who know me know that I have a weird and warped way of looking at life. For me, I think everything is perfect. Great husband, great family, great health, great life in general. And becasue of this I think that there will be some sort of cosmic retribution for this at some point (what I like to call "waiting for the other shoe to drop") where Fate will even the score and I will be rewarded with my greatest fear. An illness that robs my cordination strength and basically all I value about myself.

Now, I am not so much a hyperchondrac rather I have decided that this is the worst possible thing that could happen to me so I am convinced I have it. A few months ago my head felt funny and instead of accepting the doctor's assessment of 'sinus problems" I was convinced this was some neorological illness settling in once and for all rendering me catatonic in a wheel chair. No more golf skiing, tennis or the multitue of sports that I play obsessively. My family would be miserable and I would be payed back for my lifetime of happiness.

I have told others that I would rather have anything else, especially something that either you treat it, get better or die than basically just suffereing for years and years.
Yeah, I know. Who thinks Danielle is crazy? Show of hands.

Wow. I feel better now that I have vented. Actually I think I just have seasonal affective disorder and need spring to come. Besides, sunshine contains vitimin D and vitimin D deficits are thought to be a cause of soem nerological diseases.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

My Most Recent Inspiration: Bailey Chase

I admit it, I like men. My choice is tall blonde athletic looking guys which is funny because my husband is under six feet and had dark hair. (he is athletic though which is a definite prerequiste if you knew me) But even if my husband is not my "type" I think he's hot none the less. He's at the top of my "to do" list.

And then there is Bailey Chase.

He used to be on my soap opera "As The World Turns" playing a young Dr. Hughes. I think he is a pretty good actor, although most of his air time I was too busy fantasizing if he were my doctor and I needed a VERY IN-DEPTH physical. He's been in other stuff too, TV movies and I think Buffy fans might recognize him from a few late series episodes. Even in Vampire garb he was pretty good looking. He could bite me anytime.

Okay so my point: Hotness aside, when I write a male character (a hero as the lingo goes) I have a few consistencies. A sense of humor, and some sort of Achilles heel that has to do with something the heroine possesses. I like Bailey because he looks tough but he has a vulnerability. Not so much that he writes poetry and collects ceramic cats, but like a thoughtful place inside him. A sensitivity that isn't sappy and emasculating.

Making sense?

That said, I think its funny that Bailey now plays Becks, Daniel's womanizing, party-boy friend on Ugly Betty. A totally shallow guy that I find sexy as hell, too. But just as actors can be versatile, I think characters in book should be too. People don't believe me when I say I learn more from watching TV than I do from reading books. But TV characters offer a study in arc and growth, something essential in books and something I think movies lack at least for my purposes.

TV, movies, whatever. I would watch Bailey read the phone book.

My Two Year Old Is Prison Bound

My whole life I have been told that I was an "interesting" child. My mother usually tells me this with a laugh and then spews off all the great stories about me. Like the time my father had to come home from work to find me becasue I hid in the creek bed behind our house and yelled "help" so the babysitter who I hated would quit. (age five)

I cut myself a piece of my sister's wedding cake before they did. ( I was six) and blew out all the candles on the centerpieces.
I found paint in our garage when I was eight and painted the front door with white pokadots.

I can't think of half the stories, mostly because I am so tired of keeping my younger son from following in my footsteps. So far today he has flushed a plastic golf ball down the toilet, pulled wall paper off the wall, taken his diaper off and peed on the stairs and hit the cat over the head with a skillet.

Then he took a nap.

The child is so damn cute but he is a hell raiser. My first son is the most well behaved kid in the world. To the point where my mom was coaching him on how to be bad just to pay me back for the headaches I caused her. The other day Tanner (the five year old) looked at me after I dissaplined Kellan (the two year old) shook his head and asked "When will he learn to be good, mommy?

"Soon" I said.

After the skillet bashing incident today Tanner asked, "Mommy, is it soon yet?"
My husband laughed and said "Ask us again in five to seven years. And from now on, refer to us as "the wardens."

And here is Kellan's first mug shot.

Its In The Kiss

I meant to do this topic during Valentines week but I forgot and I was busy revising things for submission. But here I am and I have a question to pose. Have you ever had a knock-you-out, mind-numming, kneeknocking, throw-me-down and-lets-get-to-the-good-stuff kiss? I have but I don't kiss and tell.

Oh wait, yes I do.

My husband is a great kisser. He's a big fan of it to. He will do it anywhere and has. I used to get embarrassed but now I just think its funny, and his "who cares who sees" attitude is sexy. I have also learned to aprechiate good kissing.

In college my a few of my sorority sisters and I would head over to one of the frat houses every Monday night and have "porn night" Don't get excited folks we just watched it ate pizza, and drank beer left over in the keg from the weekend. But one night in stead of watching Traci Lords hump a cable man, we ended up discussing why kissing can be so much more personal than sex sometimes. The guys said that they noticed that if they like a girl a lot, thought about kissing them more than having sex with them. I am not sure if they meant it or thought that was just what we wanted to hear, but they explained themselves pretty well and I have to admit they focuced on the converstaion instead of the doggystyle romp on the TV screen.

Hows that for sensitive frat boys.

Now I have seen Pretty Woman and Julia Roberts character talks about kissing is so personal that she isn't supposed to do it. I guess that whole thing makes sense. Kissing is a huge part of the sexual attraction bit. What do you guys think?

By the way the picture above is the 2003 Valentines issue of TV guide. Maddie and Davids kiss came in third of all times although the article does say that the sex scene AFTER IT is hands down number one of all times.

I will accept congratulations on their behalf.

Lost in Ski Paradise

So for the past week I have been with my family in Ellicottville, New York. We are skiers and we have been members at Holimont since the year it opened in the mid sixties (before I was born) when all there was there was a tow rope tied between trees and no grooming at all. Now its this huge place with over a hundred trails. The town itself too has grown (obnoxiously in my opinion) from a place where you had to call the town sheffif at his house directly to a place with its own fire department and five real estate agencies.

We had a ski chalet at the top of Holimont until a few years ago when my mom sold it with the intention of getting something bigger for our extended family and more easily accessable (you had to walk a quarter mile up hill to get to it after parking the car) . We all regret it now becasue we all miss the old place instead of staying in rented condos. They may be easier to get too but lack the charm of an old rotary phone and tin foil rabit ears on the TV.

This break though we managed to strike a deal with the new owners and actually stayed at the old place. Weird. They modernized it, added skylights and (gulp) a driveway and satalite TV.

Thank god the rotary phone was sill there to which my five year old son asked me. "Is this older than dinasaurs?"

Anyway, I hate change and the notion that time marches on. Thank God the skiing is still great as always. I think i'll go hit the slopes now for one last run before the light gets flat.

Kill Me, But I Liked Anna Nicole

So I know she was a little nutty, but I really liked Anna Nicole Smith. Not that she was a great actress or rocket scientist ( but perhaps just as oversexxed as some of the rocket scientists recently in the news) but beyond the fake boobs she was a real person. This woman may have had huges sucesses but incredible sadness. She came from nothing and made something of herself. Her poor dead son loved her and was always by her side. For a kid to love his mom that much she had to have done something right.

I admit, I watched the Anna Nicole Show and there were times when I thought it was pathetic, but man that woman bouced back. She was facing a million law suits, family members begging for money. She had a tough life, despite the Hollywood surroundings.

I feel so bad for Dannilyn. Its a wierd to think that Anna Nicole was the stability in her life and now she's gone. What a drama.

Just Like Anna Nicole

The Fifth Season Does NOT SUCK! (Minus Annie)

So, March 7 is the release date for the fifth season of Moonlighting and I personally can't wait. Word on the street is that Glenn is doing a commentary for Womb with a View (for anyone who doesn't know, this is the episode where David is dessed up in footie Pjs as the fetus "BABY HAYES" and Jerome the Guardian Angel introduces him to his parents, Maddie and David) I want to hear right from the horse's mouth that David is the father and not Sam Crawford!

There are poeple out there still unsure. You know who you are.

Okay, so I know fifth season has some low points. (Lunar?) But I think some of the downright funniest episodes are this season. NETHERWORLD is one of my all time faves where they have to run around with a corpse in the BMW's backseat and look for a lottery ticket. (You can't beat the shower scene in that one either.)

And of course the point of contention for every ML fan. ANNIE. I will probably be attacked for this but here is my opinion. I think the Annie arc would have worked if it made David and Maddie realize how awful life was without each other. I am not sure where the whole storyline went awry but I think its is somewhere where David calls her "desperate."

How out of charater is that?

If this post makes little sense to some people, sorry. But the Die Hard ML fan( cheap pun, sorry) will understand. I already ordered season five and will watch it faithfully. But for me the show ends at "Lips and Lies"

Cakes