Hunting The Demon by Jaci Burton

DUDE!

I was lucky enough to get an arc of the second in Jaci Burton's Demon Hunter's series, Hunting The Demon.

Again I say, DUDE!

There are very few times where I have loved the second in the series more than the first, but this is one of those times. You think Derek from Surviving Demon Island was hot... Nic smokes on him. YUM! And Shay is a fabulous heroine-- smart, tough and vulnerable.

I think the action in Hunting the Demon is even more tautly written than in Surviving Demon Island, if you can believe that.

I loved getting to know the secondary characters better and can't wait for Angelique's and Ryder's story!

Bravo Jaci, for writing such a fabulous second installment of one of the hottest romance series I've ever read:)

The Call You Don't Want to Get

It's every parent's nightmare and it happened to me yesterday. The phone rang and I picked it up.

"MAMA!"

I knew. The strangled cry, the terror, the emotion. "What's wrong?"

"I got into a car wreck! "

My first thought, was "She's making the phone call herself. It's going to be okay." My baby has been driving for three months and she is a great little driver. She's just an inexperienced driver. She rearended someone on Hwy 217 at 3:00 yesterday afternoon. It had been stop and go traffic, but she hit hard enough that both airbags deployed. It took me fifteen minutes to get there because traffic was piling up. She looked so little standing there listening to the policeman tell her what was going on and trying to fill out forms.Everyone involved in the accident (three other cars) was very nice to her, but I will never forget the relief on her face when I finally got there.

She cried on and off yesterday evening. We don't know what's going on with our new car. It's painful to watch your children grow sometimes. But maybe feeling a little less safe will make her a little more cautious.

My Home Away from Home: The Sandlake Country Inn

I didn't want to come back.

Now I know that's always what people say when they come home from a particularly scrumptious vacation, but I mean it.

I didn't want to come back.

And why should I? It felt like home. The kind of home you always dreamed of having, but just don't have the time to make for yourself. At my new home they provided me with matching fuzzy socks instead of mismatched socks with holes in the toes. I had a giant jacuzzi tub for two instead of a tub that you, well, you don't bathe in it. It had a dining room, but no kitchen. A gas fireplace that you flicked on instead of having to construct yourself in an old woodstove. A cookie jar full of homemade gourmet cookies instead of one that hasn't seen cookies in ten years. Instead of running to the store at 1:00 am to buy a bottle of wine that could fuel a semi, they provided you with a selection of wine the God of grapes himself would appreciate. I slept in a feather bed instead of one held together underneathe with a bungi cord. The dishes matched. There was always a silver coffee service with fresh steaming coffee at my door in the morning instead of having to stumble out to the kitchen to make it myself. I listened to classical music instead of the wall of sound that comes from my teens bedrooms.

And best of all, it had a wonderfully attentive, relaxed and happy husband instead of a harried, mean, old grouch.

I remember the guy I met on vacation. He's the one I married. Heck, he's the one I love!

So we are going back for our anniversary in December. Back home.

Thank you all!

This is a blanket thanks for all the cover kudos. I am going to try to thank you all personally, but don't know if I will get to everyone before I take off for our romantic getaway.

Of course, at the moment I would rather drown the dh than romance him. He found out about an unusually high cell phone bill from the son WE TOLD to get off the phone. (One of his North Dakota friends.) Son didn't and now we owe verizon several hundred dollars. I don't blame dh for getting angry... cell phones have cost us a lot of money over the years, though as my son pointed out as we took his phone away, that is usually the daughter's fault not his. However in a state of anger, he asked me if we could get the money back on the Bed and Breakfast. "No," I told him sweetly. "But if you like, I have a couple of dear friends, I could take in your place."

So much for romance.

Other than that, I have been busy taking care of my dad. My dad is 91 and tells the most awesome stories. Yesterday, he told me that when he was a kid, he had a friend who was into crystals and circuits and stuff... I guessed by the story that it wasn't crystals as we know crystals, but rather having to do with radio. Anyway, the friend told dad what to do. Dad had a pair of earphones his uncle had given him. (the uncle had found some kind of old walkie talkie communicator) He climbed as high on the roof as he could and attached the wire to it and ran it down into the house. Then he pulled it through the window. After playing with the headphones, crystal and wire he actually got a baseball game on the radio. This was the first time his family had ever recieved radio in their home. His dad said, "Oh, you did not!" Took the headphones and listened to the whole game. The next evening he asked dad if he could get that baseball game again. LOL! Several weeks later my grandfather went and charged a real radio.

Can you imagine the changes my dad has seen... he was raised in rural Washington and they had horses working the farm years after tractors were invented because the family couldnt afford one. Amazing.

COVER!!!!!

Isn't it simply gorgy???

Another little secret...

I got the final cover for LIPS!

Am waiting to show everyone until I get the word from up high that I can make it public.

But I love it, love it, love it!

Spell is out the door. Dash is being worked on. Articles going swimmingly. Not much else to report.

Countdown to romantic trip alone with hubby: 6

Plea for help...

I need someone to read/crit/judge three Golden Rose young adult entries. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody?

Quickies:

Spell isn't quite done, but almost. I started on Chapter 11 of Dash and it is going well. I have three articles due this week. I sucked on the query challenge last week. I have nine days until my romantic weekend for two. (with hubby)I have a lot to do before then. Should I take my laptop? No, probably not. Hee.

I'm outtie (more teentalk)

The Way I Talk...

I have a problem...

I write for teenagers. I live with teenagers. I read YA books.

So naturally.... I talk like a teenager! Does anyone else have this problem? Their YA voice spilling into other things? I answered an email the other day with "I would so totally do that!"

I say "Not!" "Would you chill?" or even "Chillax!" (A combination of relax and chill.) I have used "As if," in a conversation. I have said, "I'm outtie" and "Okay, let's bounce," when I am taking off to go somewhere.

I refer to young love as their crush or they are crushing. Kissing or making out, I call macing (Not sure how it's spelled but it has a short a.)

Isn't there a 12 step program somewhere to help me? I am Forty(mumble mumble)two (mumble mumble) years old... It sounds ridiculous!

Or maybe I am just really immature inside! HA! Maybe when I started writing YA I was just releasing my inner teen.

Peace out!

You Had Me At Halo!

Holly Evans has just seen her own body laid to rest. If it had been up to her, she wouldn’t have chosen that particular polyester dress for the event. Still, she could live with that (so to speak), if it guaranteed a quick jump to Level 3 of the afterlife, which she hopes will feature both reruns of Friends and reunions with long-lost loved ones.

But Holly has some mortal baggage to unload first, starting with the matter of how she died. Yes, she drowned in her bathtub under suspicious circumstances, but she did not kill herself. Holly had too much to live for, from her recent promotion to taking the next big step in her relationship. Okay, her life had a few loose ends, but whose doesn’t?

Holly's heavenly shrink isn’t buying it. He says she has to return to earth to straighten things out. The thing is, she’ll need to borrow someone’s body to do it—and the body in question belongs to none other than computer geek Vince Murphy. Oh, and although Vince was supposed to have vacated the premises, he apparently never got the memo.

Now, Holly has forty-eight hours to resolve her issues while sharing arms, legs, and...other things...with a guy she barely noticed while she was alive. But the real surprise is what life has to offer when you have only two days to live it...

I must so get this book!

Incorporating romance in your life

My son is away to camp and dd is staying the weekend with friends. Time for a little romance with hubby. I write romance, but have noticed there isn't much romance in my life. I need to not only fuel the muse, but fuel the romance, as well. So I decided to make a romantic dinner for two. The last time I did this, the kids were small. Back then, I surprised him after work(he works swingshift so the wee ones were in bed)with a bubble bath, wine and bread sticks dipped in welsh rarebit. It was fun. Then I guess I got busy because we really haven't done anything since.

Until last night.

He had to work six hours so I planned it for after work, which worked out better because it was dark and cool out on the terrace(it's really a patio, but this is supposed to be romantic.)

I strung Christmas lights up around the picnic table umbrella, covered the table with lace and added fresh flowers and candles. On the menu:

Merlot
Bruschetta
Thick cut pork chops baked with apples and onions
Three cheese risotto
Fresh corn
A small scoop of icecream with a shot of expresso poured over it

When he finally got home, he changed out of his workboots and into slippers. When I led him out onto the patio/terrace, he actually teared up. Said he felt like Jimmy Stewart when he comes home after the run on the savings and loan and his new wife had fixed up the old manse to resemble their honeymoon destinations.

How could you not love a guy like that?

It was a perfect night. And yes, we did talk about the kids. LOL

Unfortunately, I'm still on pain meds for my leg and after two glasses of wine, he had to put me into bed... and not in the romantic way, in the my wife is going to passout, she's so tired way:) He even went and found me a nightgown and put medicine on my poor leg. Now that ladies and gentlemen, is romance.

Don't Try This At Home

Okay, I was going to upload a pix, but thought that would just be gross. In an effort to prepare for my author photos I have been walking from two to five miles a day. Yesterday, I thought I would head to old town to check out the antique shops before heading home. I jogged across the steet and my feet, being sometimes unwilling to do what my brain tells them to, went out from underneath me and I fell forward, sliding across the pavement. I now have about a ten inch patch of roadrash across my shin and the side of my leg.

Can you spell klutz? I knew you could.

In other news, I found the photographer who will be doing my author photos. Kind of spendy, but... I will get a decent package and won't ever have to do this again.

In other, other news... I wrote over a thousand words in SPELL yesterday and am almost done with chapter three! YAY. Then I will polish the heck out of it and send to my agent. Hopefully, she will love it and I won't have to finish it before we sub it.

Crossing my fingers and popping another pain pill.