My life is a to do list

I am surrounded by things to do. Certain times of the year, I can actually get all the things done and then have time for myself. Most of the time, I go to bed, mentally calculating all the things I didn't get around to that day and planning accordingly for the next.

My life is a to do list. There is no satisfaction quite like that achieved when I can cross something off it.

These days, it centers around the holiday, even more so this year because we're on our own for it. This will be the first year we don't have my mother-in-law. My father-in-law chose to stay in the UK and spend the holidays with his other son. My family? Well, I haven't celebrated Christmas with my family in twenty years. We're scattered across the country. I'm in California. My brother is in Michigan. One sister is in Oklahoma and the other is in North Carolina with my mom. Getting together just doesn't happen.

So here I am, doing what I can to make it a memorable Christmas anyway. It's important to me. These are the memories that will guide my children into their futures. These are the signposts they will measure future holidays by. But it's more than that, because these are also the days I will never have with them again. If I've learned anything this year, it's that each day must be treasured for the gift it is. Holidays are no exception to that.

At the periphery of this, stories beg for my attention. I have no pressing demands right now, except for something completely gratis and for fun, but I can't even find the time to chip at that. Writing takes a backseat. Even more frustrating is the fact that ideas crop up more often when I don't have time to write. I keep getting nibbles of, "Oh! That would be fun to do," or "Wouldn't it be great to get back to the story about the prodigy?" 

I can't, though. Not right now. On the to do list of my life, it's just not enough of a priority to ignore everything else.

New Facebook account

Well, I buckled. I've kind of avoided having a professional account on Facebook. Hell, I avoided having a private one for years. But the past couple months, I realized I would have to cave. I meant to do it for the New Year, but I went ahead and created one yesterday.

So for those who are over there, I'm now on Facebook.

New Amber Quill pax blog

I've been working recently with Clare London in launching a new blog for Amber Quill, one dedicated solely to promoting the pax collections. This was its first full week, launched with the most recent release, the That Old Gang of Mine collection.

Some of the authors will be contributing posts to talk about their stories, but more importantly, anybody who comments on one of the posts the week after a release - and that's including this week - gets an opportunity to win the entire collection. That's five stories to one lucky person! So head over, take a look, and leave a comment. You just might be the winner!

Holiday movie season

If I had my way, I'd live at the movie theater from mid-December to mid-January. This is the time of year that invariably sees my favorite movies come out. This year will be no exception. I mean...look at it.

Les Miserables - my favorite Broadway show ever, plus Hugh Jackman

Monsters, Inc. in 3D - okay, I've seen this many, many times, but never with my kids on the big screen and it's one of my favorite animated films ever

The Guilt Trip - looks insanely funny, who doesn't love Seth Rogen?

Gangster Squad - Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn, need I say more?

This Is 40 - because who doesn't love Paul Rudd?

And these aren't even counting the movies that are already out that I need yet to see. Skyfall. Lincoln. Life of Pi. Rise of the Guardians. Red Dawn. Hitchcock.

Maybe I should just ask for movie tickets for Christmas.

No more SSS

Today is usually the day I sign up for Six Sentence Sunday, but I've decided that I won't be doing it this week. I'm too busy right now to do the rounds like I should, and with the hop ending at the end of January, I'm going to have to find something new for Sundays anyway.

There's talk something might get organized separately from SSS, but I don't know what it might be. I think I'll end up doing something similar on my own, just posting a snippet and highlighting backlist titles on a regular basis. Who knows at this point? Maybe it'll be something completely different.

Right now, I just need to survive Christmas, lol.

Being an introvert

People who have met me in person usually think one of two things. That either I'm incredibly quiet or I'm incredibly talkative. Very rarely is it something in between. But how can that be? It's seems dichotomous at best.

It's easy. I'm an introvert. I am, by nature, a solitary, quiet person. However, put me one on one with someone I trust and a topic I'm passionate about, and I turn into Chatty Cathy. I have a friend who I only ever saw in a single environment when it was only the two of us. We would talk and laugh for hours until someone else reminded us of the time. The first time she invited me to a party at her house? She commented to me afterward that she worried I wasn't having a good time, because I'd been so quiet. She'd literally never seen me like that before, so it took her aback to realize I wasn't so outgoing all the time.

I can be shy, too, but I'm more heartily driven by my introversion. There was an article recently that detailed the differences between the two, complete with a list of signs to see how you fare. I wasn't surprised to hit all the marks. A lot of people don't get it, honestly. My kids don't. They see me social and bubbly with a select few, and then can't understand why I don't choose to be like that everywhere.

But I'm happy with my own company a lot of the time. I like my quiet. I think a lot of writers are like that, though. It helps to hear the voices of all those characters in your head.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Maddy and Cash had sex. This is the morning after, when Maddy wakes early and tries to get up without disturbing Cash.

She was stopped from rising by his fingers curling around her arm.

“I already woke up one morning without you in my bed. I don't want to do it again.”

Something warmed in Maddy's stomach, and she leaned to brush a soft kiss across his mouth. His arm snaked around her waist, drawing her back to lie on top of him.

“Stay,” he breathed into the kiss.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.