News, News, News!

...And that's the new title of this blog.

I've had a ball with this as a regular blog. It's been fun, everyone.

But I'm reevaluating and deciding I need to put my energy where it counts--into writing the books. So I'm renaming this my News area and I'll post here periodically when I have something, er, newsy to tell you.

If you need to get in touch with me, please email me through my website--simply go to ChristineRimmer.com and click on the "email Christine" button. Or hey. Just drop me a note to say hi. You know I love to hear from you...

all best,
Christine

10 Things I Love

I adore Barbara Samuel's blog, A Writer Afoot. A very wise woman, that Barbara. She put up 10 things she loved and invited the rest of us to do the same. Here are mine, in no particular order:

1. about hands. I love my son, the J's, hands. As you may recall, he's a musician and clarinet is his main instrument. His hands are graceful, huge and long-fingered and slim. I think it's the whole graceful and huge combo that really makes them so amazing.

2. My DH's brain. I love it. He's brillant and sexy and funny. Can't beat that.

3. My peonies, back and front yards. White and pink. A scent like nothing else.

4. My cats, Tom and Ed.

5. The photo of me taken in the ladies restroom of the Ritz Carlton at a NINC conference. My friend, Susan Crosby, cut out a GODIVA label, tore it in two: GO DIVA, and glued it on the photo.

6. Thunderstorms. Nature as entertainment, oh yeah!

7. Anita Shreve. I'm on an Anita Shreve kick lately.

8. Having done my exercises. Okay, not real into the doing, but I love the having done.

9. Seagrams VO Gold, which they never have in bars.

10. My mom. She is the sweetest woman on earth. When I lived in Hollywood, I used to take her to comedy clubs on open mike night. She would laugh at anything. The comedians would always end up giving her a round of applause for being the best audience member ever.

How about you? Come on, you know you can think of at least one or two. It really does feel good just to write them down...

13 Scary Things About Starting a New Book

1. Who are these people and why are they in this book?

2. How many heroines have I written with blue eyes?

3. I need a new way to say that his mouth is sexy.

4. I need a new way to say his eyes are sexy.

5. Note to self: He shouldn't brood. Heroes are way too prone to brooding.

6. He's brooding.

7. She has blue eyes.

8. I have a headache.

9. There's a smudge on that window. And a cobweb in the corner.

10. Maybe I should clean the house instead of starting this book.

11. But if I don't start it, I'll never finish it and if I never finish it...

12. Help!

13. Who are these people and why are they in this book?

I Like a Clean Guy...

As you can see.

A nice smile is a plus, as well!

Happy Monday, everyone.

I've finished the Heathcliffe-finds-happiness-and-not-with-Cathy book. On to Valentine, which is Kelly Bravo's story and will be out...you guessed it...in Feburary! Uh, you know. Febuary= Valentine's Day?

Oh, now. Isn't that just too clever?

How's everyone? Workin' hard?

Readability

Okay, I loved my dark blue background. But I read at DearAuthor.com that a lot of readers have trouble visually--because of eye problems or because of their computer set-ups--with dark backgrounds.

So I'm goin' light.

Does a light background and dark lettering work better, you think? And, as the DH would be more than happy to tell you about now--yes, that was a faux choice. Because I was ready for a change, anyway. ;)

And Happy Mother's Day--whether you are one or you have one, or both! Here's a lovely, big cyber-cookie in honor of Mom's special day.

And the Rains Came...

It freaking will not stop raining around here. Last year we were deep in drought. This year, you can't even go outside for fear you'll be washed away never to be heard from again.

Yesterday morning, I was supposed to get my teeth cleaned. Yes. True. Even Uber-glam authors like yours truly occasionally have to visit the dental hygienist--and believe it or not, I just spell-checked "hygienist." Nailed it. Yes!--where was I? Oh, off to the hygienist at 6 in the a.m. My dentist is forty miles away in Edmond. Because I like him and I like his hygienist (can't stop spelling that word!) so I've followed him when he moved. Like my hairdresser, Jimmy, who moved from two miles away up to OKC. I am so loyal. I cannot get over myself!

Okay. So I get up early. I shower, blow-dry,brush my teeth. All that stuff. But what I fail to consider is that it's raining and it's been raining--and it will continue to rain.

I end up twenty miles north of home and I cannot see the road for the rain and now and then when I roll into lower ground, I am absolutely positive I will be swamped and flooded and washed away. Never to be heard from again. I'll be found, drowned. My teeth unattended by said excellent hygienist.

Okay, I give. I decide to turn around. I get off the highway and circle back--mistaking a lane going the wrong way at one point for my lane and only discovering my error when I notice the headlights coming directly toward me. Hellllp!

Anyway, I finally get in the proper lane and get going back the way I came on the highway frontage road...when suddenly I see a yellow sign that says "Road Subject to Flooding." Like they couldn't have told me before I got on the thing--with no way to get off!

It was so scary, folks. I knew more than once that the water was too deep and my poor Avalon was not going to make it.

But at last. Impossibly, after driving through more than one insta-lake of way-deep water, I reached home.

Today, my teeth still need cleaning and it is still raining. It's going to be raining for the next several days, from what the weather experts report.

There is flooding in various areas of OKC and there will continue to be flooding. And I think I need a new dentist, one I won't get drowned trying to get to.

Oh, and my peonies--both the white in the front yard and the pink in the back--are in glorious, waterlogged bloom. I snuck out during a dry moment and brought some inside. That's them, above. So pretty. And what an amazing scent.

So how's the weather where you are?

Books Will Do What Books Wanna Do...

Sorry. But this is what happened...

I had my current WIP all planned out. I did. I promise. I truly did.

But of course, it refused to cooperate.

Now this book has become about the question: "What if Heathcliffe had found someone else--someone better?

You think he'd still be stickin' with that mean, self-absorbed, crazy woman, Cathy?

Stay tuned....

So am I totally evil to mess with the classics?

I promise, I changed the names to protect the, er, guilty...

And the Winner Is....

Durango Kim wins the goodie bag from the Booksellers and Librarians Reception (AKA, le bag of le swag!)

Congrats, Kim!