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Maybe I need to sneak some of Rott’s Visine. Or maybe I need to not work so hard.

I wrote yesterday. I was a tad on fire for awhile. I napped too but when I awoke from the nap I was on fire again. A whole helluva lot of words later, I went to bed. It was 1 am.

I’ve done the late night writing gig before. I don’t do it as well this year as I did last year. Must be an age and stress thing. Or it could be a Daylight Savings time thing. What a crock of shit DST is anyway. I don’t have to reset the time in my car with a pen because yanno…I never turned the effing thing back! Cause it’s stupid!

Still, this morning my eyes are burning and my temples are pounding.  And the office beckons.

Sometimes I think it would be great to be able to stay home all day and write. Then I realize I’d probably leave my house about twice a month if that happened.  Working gets me out of the house and interacting with people. Writing has me pounding my keyboard and being pissy to my email, IM, and Twitter. (ie shutting them off and ignoring people.) And I’d have burning eyes all the time!

I’d much rather have my eyes burn for other reasons. Like staying up all night have marathon sex. Ummm, yeah. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.  *sigh* Actually, the body is more than weak. It’s kinda beat up. I prolly shoulda taken better care of it during those years I was having marathon sex. I’ve found I can write marathon sex without beating myself up too much, but then that brings me back to… burning eyes.  I don’t think I can win this morning.

I wish I had something deep and succinct to impart to you today, but I don’t. Oh, maybe a snippet of lyrics before I get to Marcus.

A piece of heaven

In your arms every night

I can’t forget, I don’t regret

Staying with you

I can’t go back and I won’t fight

To hold you if you want to fly

My eyes are open wide

My heart knows what’s right

And my soul belongs to you

Traded for a piece of heaven tonight

Rough draft. Don’t shoot me. Ah, time for Marcus.  I need a nice soothing one this morning.

Okay, maybe that didn’t have the effect I thought it would. And the burning eyes thing is still eating me cause I’m not the only one with them. Apparently, some people have trained theirs on my back where there’s again a target of sorts. I thought I’d tossed that raggedy old target in the trash but it’s found its way back onto my back.  And burning eyes are trained on it. I need to hunt down my Kevlar again so that I may walk through the valley of the shadow of death (promo groups) and fear no slings and arrows aimed at said target. You don’t get me, but it’s okay. All I’m gonna say is that people suck, burning eyes and all.

I’m taking my burning eyes off the office now. Sorry for the randomly cryptic post. Gimme a few days and I’ll be more succinct. Happy Visine Monday!

I should probably tell you not to ask. But you know me. I have to tell! LOL I live in a condo. There are four condos in my building.  There are two connected garages for my building. Each condo gets ONE spot in the garages.  On each side of the garages is one parking space.  There are three people in the front condo, each with a car. There are two roomies in one condo, each with a car. There’s a couple at the bottom of my stairs and they each have a car. And… Rott and I each have a car.

So let’s do the math.  Six available parking spaces. Nine cars. Someone is gonna be ass out. The Asian couple at the bottom of my stairs seems to think that the parking spot next to our garage is their assigned space. They went out of their way to tell me this when I moved in. At the time, we only had the Intrepid so I didn’t give a rat’s ass, although I did point out to them that what they told me didn’t match what I read in the association rules. The bitchy Asian woman in the condo behind this couple thinks that the parking space next to the other garage is only for the condos whose front door is on that side of the building (her condo.) Again, that’s not what the association rules say. We’ve pointed this out too but the snotty woman just wants to be obnoxious about it.

Whenever I’ve parked behind our side of the garage (which technically isn’t blocking the fire lane because it’s NEXT TO the actual parking slot) the patrol puts a ticket on the Intrepid. My neighbors park behind their side of the garage all the time, but they never get a ticket. Weird, huh?

In January, new rules were sent around. It spelled out clearly that those spaces on either side of the garages (adjacent yanno) are for the people who live in that building. They are not assigned. It is first come, first served, and it doesn’t matter which condo you live in as long as it’s THAT building. When the new rules came out, the Asian couple who thought that was their assigned spot started saving it for themselves. Hubby goes to work right around the time I do. He gets home a little after me. Not by much. But his wife has started pulling her car out of the garage and into that space to save it for him. So I started grabbing the spot on the other side of the garage, right under my bedroom window.

My car got keyed. Then I started finding coffee tossed on the door so it dripped all over the handle. Or tossed all over the windshield and hood. The bitchy Asian woman and the people from the front whose SUV is too big for a space anyway (sticks out too far) always have those travel mugs for coffee in their vehicles. The bitchy woman has shoved Rott’s Infiniti SUV before too in order to set off the alarm inside the garage. Nice people, aren’t they?

Rott’s pissed as you can imagine. We’re probably gonna put a sign on the Intrepid indicating there is a camera in the window above (my bedroom window.) We’re looking for the long cable for the webcam. AND… Rott had me pee in a pickle jar. He says the bitchy woman better watch her step because head to head, her silver Infiniti sedan against his silver Infiniti SUV… Well, let’s just say the truck could drive right over her sedan. Yep. I do believe it’s war.

I dunno what’s gonna happen with the pee in a pickle jar. Nor do I wish to know. Thus far, the pee is still there in the jar days later. I’m not sure what Rott’s hatching in his head, but I wonder if that bitchy woman leaves her sunroof open a little in the garage when the weather is nice.

Now, on to a more pleasant subject than urine and keyed cars.  Marcus! Oh, it’s so nice to be able to look at his handsome face and forget my woes… Can I be his cellie?

If I happen to get any interesting video (if we can find the long cable) I’ll be sure to post it on my You Tube account and here too. Then you can all watch my bitchy neighbor vandalize my car before I turn the video over to the cops. Or should I just use it to get her to stop? How mean should I be? You tell me.

Have a great non-vandalized Monday!

What a weekend. Issues with a switch on the network at my office cause problems for my co-workers which translated to problems for me at home as I tried to get on the network and tried to soothe the callers. The rain screwed up my plans to go flying down the freeway for an hour so my mechanic can check the car’s computer. My grocery order arrived quickly and early and I got my shampoo, but not my conditioner. My phone (a T-Mobile Dash) has started having charging issues. Because of the rain, I didn’t go down to the beach to watch the morons who decided to Surf the Tsunami. (We love looking at those dorks but I wasn’t going to the beach in the rain.) Bah. There were other things that went wrong, but I’m getting tired of how long the list is so I’ll just quit now.

If I give you a list of what went right, I think you’ll see that for every moment I went, “Oh, eff me” I had something that countered it. Almost anyway. My friend Faith sent me flowers! You can see them in my Flickr account.  My friend Trinity sent me two bottles of Vampire wine and non-wine drinkers me and Rott actually liked it! The Swiss Sherbet I’ve been trying to order (it’s orange sherbet with dark chocolate chunks and the store is always out!) finally had some in stock! Author James Buchanan had a table at Escapade Con over the weekend and gave out some Love Me Dead bookmarks to help promo the MLR anthology I’m in. You can see them on the table HERE. And last but not least, Cobblestone offered me a contract for Insolence.   As frustrated as I was over some things, I guess other stuff balanced it out and balance does happen to be one of those things that we all look for and strive for in our lives.

Now, that I’m on an even keel, I’m hitting Word hard over the next week and planning to give Unbreak Me to my editor by this time next week. Then it’s back to Common Ground which got off track and got me in trouble. I don’t like it when I can’t deliver as promised.  These characters have been hard on me and I’m realizing that the tough stories may need more structure than what I give them from this point forward. I’ve got two more WIPs I need to power up on as soon as Common Ground goes to Mary later in March and I’m sure I’ll have edits soon for Where There’s Smoke and Insolence. This is going to be just as busy a year as last year. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I mean, I don’t wanna burn out, yanno.

To help keep me in balance and not burning out, I need a very hunky Marcus today. I know there’s a half naked woman in the photo but it’s a sexy shot anyway.

If you get a chance check out the new template I put up for Karenna Colcroft. I love it when I can do virtually a whole new site for someone in less than an hour. I was stoked.  Now, if I could just figure out what I want to do with LexValentine.com. I want it revamped, but I’m not yet sure what I want. I’ve got to finish Winterheart.com too and I’ve got a tentative plan for this blog as well. And no, the skyline with the bats (aka Batty theme) is NOT going away. You’re stuck with my bats. LOL

Have yourselves a great Monday!

Oh, that old saying… I’m trotting it out because I was in a haze due to lack of sleep this morning and forgot (yes, I know, how the fuck could I FORGET?) that it was Monday. Oy to the vey.  So it’s still Monday here on the West Coast and I’m gonna post my Marcus Monday. Heh.

I was up late on Sunday (until almost 1 am) because Rott decided to spend some money. He blew out a speaker last week and since he cannot be without music, and cannot abide listening to music with crackly one-sided, sounds like shit busted speakers… he went to Frys Electronics. He went to buy a $479 Onkyo 5.1 Stereo Surround Sound Home Theater System. 600+ watts. Oooooh. He came home with a 1200 Watt Onkyo 7.1 Stereo Surround Sound Home Theater System for $499. Yep. Only $20 more.

He made me laugh because he said out the window to the neighbors (who like to eavesdrop), “The last stereo was only 200 watts. This is 1200 watts.  This is ONE THOUSAND times louder and I’m about to drown out your basketball bouncing brats, incessantly barking ankle biters, whining, screaming babies, and all the shit you talk about me on your fucking patio.”

Oh, I love it when he gets all worked up and then blasts Motley Crue or Tool at them. Now, he can do it one thousand times louder! Woot!

At any rate, we were up late watching Law Abiding Citizen and drinking Vampire wine. The buzz of the saw in 1200 watts of surround sound was surreal. I loved it.

Also this past weekend, I got Nookie. Not sex. Nookie. I bought a Nook ebook reader at Barnes and Noble. In the settings, you can name your Nook. Of course, I just named it Nookie. I like the play on words. I read sexy erotic romances on my Nook. What better name for it than Nookie.

It must be time for Marcus. Rott is tweaking on the speakers again and we might be watching Up In the Air if he finishes before it gets too late. LOL

I might have posted this one before, but damn. It’s so hot it bears repeating.

Before I go I want to give a shout out to my friend Hilly who is driving back to California from Florida. She left here almost as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels, but she’s coming back better and stronger than ever and I just wanted to say how happy I am for her and ask you all to wish her a safe trip.

Hope you have a great Monday, what’s left of it anyway!

Um, yeah. I don’t do the vote begging thing very well. “Vote for meeeeee!”  I’m the type of person who will tell everyone there is a voting opportunity, but leave it at that. I’ll post it here, post it to the Yahoo groups I belong to on the appointed promo days, and pretty much leave it at that. The voting thing eats at me because it’s just not logical.

Let me backtrack for a second here and tell you what’s going on. Love Romances Cafe, a book review site, announced their nominees for the Best of 2009. Fire Season has been nominated for Best Shape Shifter Novel. I am, of course, honored. I posted excerpts and promo’d a little at LRC’s showcase day on their group yesterday. But voting starts today so I’m pretty sure the Yahoo groups are inundated with authors pimping for votes. *sigh*

To me this process is not logical. It’s backward. Of course, as much as I love Elisa Rolle, I thought the Rainbow Awards were a little backward too. (Although to give Elisa her due, she tried really, really hard to make it as agenda free as possible and I commend her for even taking on the project.) Here’s the deal. With the Rainbow Awards, Elisa allowed everyone to nominate books and vote on them. Then she took the popular vote winners to a panel of judges. I liked this… except that the judges then got to add to the list with books they thought belonged there. That didn’t feel right to me. I just wanted to yell, “Either or, people! Either or!” With the judges adding books to the list on top of the popular voting, it just felt like there were more chances for people to push an agenda.

With LRC’s nominees, I think (and don’t quote me here cause I didn’t ask) the LRC staff looked at the reviews they’d given that year and chose their nominees from that list. Now, they are asking the public to vote on them to choose the winner. And, as you can tell, I’m not so crazy about that process either. And don’t even get me started on Preditors and Editors! A well respected site letting people nominate themselves and vote as much as they want based on email and IP addresses. Puleeze. What a joke. I can’t for the life of me understand why they would do that. In my eyes, it simply tarnishes their reputation.

I guess I just feel that there needs to be a clear selection process for nominees and then a clear judging process based on criteria. Not this popular voting crap. I won’t win jack no matter how good my book is because I don’t “pimp the vote.” Yeah, sure Fire Season did get the popular vote win at Rainbow Awards, but I wonder if then it made the judges leery of it. Cause yanno, I might have been had I been in their shoes.

To me, you need a selection committee to choose nominees. (In a review site’s case, this would be people who make the selection from the top reviews of the year.) Then you need a group of judges (not the same people as the selection committee) to make their choices based on a set of criteria. Of course, I suppose I’m living in a rose colored glasses world to hope that things would be done in such a logical manner in all these awards. And I don’t mean to sound ungrateful either. I just like things to be fair and when you can’t bring yourself to pimp for votes, things become really unfair.

At any rate, Fire Season is nominated for Best Shape Shifter Book of 2009. If you would like to vote for it, and/or happen to think it IS the best shape shifter book you read in 2009, I invite you to send in a vote. Here is the information:

Voting begins FEBRUARY 15th and ends FEBRUARY 22nd.

To vote: Send an email to dawn_roberto AT yahoo DOT com with “LRC’s “BEST OF 2009″ Awards” in subject. If this is not in the subject it will not be counted.

All entries must be received by 2/23/2010. Any entries received after that will NOT be counted and automatically deleted.

To vote for Fire Season just state in the body of your email “Fire Season – Best Shape Shifter.”

In other news, Flirty Author Bitches is back up and running with a line-up of Monday-Friday blogging with some of the hottest authors and aspiring authors out there! Today’s blogger is my friend Regina Carlysle. Please stop by and show her a little belated Valentine’s love and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a prize.

I’ve submitted Insolence to Cobblestone so now it’s a wait and see thing. Still waiting on edits for Where There’s Smoke. The AWH contest for Rekindled ends today. AND, I need to power on with the reluctant Common Ground. I thought the addition of Weylyn to this story would make it easier, but it started turning into the Weylyn show because Marius and Sair have… issues. *sigh* I’ll be spending lots of quality time with them today.

Now, my Marcus for today is a little bit of yummy that I seriously need on this holiday Monday.

If you’ve been by Winterheart Dot Com lately, you’ll have noticed that there’s some sawdust from construction. I still don’t have all the graphics up nor have I figured out the stupid thumbnail script yet. I will. I just need some time. I have plans to revamp this blog too but the header will stay so don’t worry that you won’t recognize it one day. LOL

Have yourselves a simply wonderful President’s Day Monday! MUAH!

I’m in a tearing hurry this morning because I’m very close to finishing Insolence, which puts me back on track to get done all the stuff I need to do.  A part of the scene I’m struggling with came to in the shower so I need to spit it out so I don’t forget it. So forgive me if I rush through this Monday’s inane chatter.

First of all, I’m guest blogging at Cindy Jacks’ about Love. CLICK HERE to see what I had to say! Second, Fire Season’s trailer was reviewed by 1st Turning Point and received 4 parrots! That’s a great score! Third, I tore down Winterheart Design this weekend and it’s slowly coming back up. I needed to change some outdated links (a former client took down the template I made for her and didn’t tell me) but when I looked at the site, I went… aw, fuckit. Fourth, I was in a chat with publishers and editors and the like and the Editor in Chief from Ellora’s Cave (generally considered THE big romance epublisher) made it clear that she’d been looking at my work. Off the group, in email, she invited me to submit a manuscript directly to her rather than through the regular channels. Even if I didn’t send her a manuscript, it’s a feather in my cap to have her issue the invite. As far as I could tell, I was the only one in the chat she spoke to like that. Yup, I am flattered. After all, didn’t I just start this journey a year ago?

So now, I’m gonna slap a Marcus on here and head out to clean my inbox and drop that bit of scene into Insolence. That story is so hot I don’t dare open it in the office to work on at lunch!

Yum! Even in a hoodie and jeans he looks great!

Wishing you all a very happy Monday!

Later this week, on the 7th, I’ll be over at Cindy Jacks’s blog talking about love.  It’s February, so people tend to wanna talk about those tender emotions.  I write about them all the time because my books and stories always have a happy ending.  I’m the kind of person who has to have a HEA (happily ever after.) Or some sort of happy ending at any rate. I don’t want to read about the angst without having it all work itself out, handing the hero and heroine a reward.

In real life, things don’t always work out that way. In my life, the angst has always outweighed the HEA. I think some of us are meant to have to struggle. Very little in my life has come easy, ergo I learned to appreciate the hard won victories.  Things mean more to me if I have to work for it. I tend to hang on to people as long as I can, try to work out issues, try to give them what they need and want, try to keep and nurture the love I have. But sometimes, no matter how hard you work, love still slips away. I’ve lost a lot of people in my life so I prize the ones I have right now. I know that our hearts seem to be the regenerative type, and if we lose someone today, later on we’ll find someone else to love. Still, I’d rather not have go through that again. I just want this HEA to work itself out NOW.

Someone I’ve known and loved since I was 17 years old (I’m not sure I should tell you how many years that is… but it’s more than thirty LOL) did a nice thing this week. He told the readers of his blog about me and sent them here. I think most of his audience are mommy bloggers, which I’m so not. After all, Motley (Nikki) is twenty now and I don’t think she ever called me Mommy anyway. *wink*

Anyway, David told people about me in a little post that exposes some of the framework upon which my heart sits. It felt strangely timely to read his words about my past and feel the connection to my present. You should click THIS and hop on over to see what he said. He was probably my first real love, first real lover, odd as that may seem since he’s decidedly gay. But back then we were just kids, beginning to work our way out of the teens, learning about emotions and sex and a host of other stuff we just really had no clue about. The piece of my heart that David owns is just one of those things about love that we can’t exactly quantify. It just IS.

I must need a sweet, sexy Marcus today. Something to make my old heart pound.  I used to think about my Bar characters a lot more than I do now and thinking about my signature character Alexandria and her mate Alaric always meant that I had that image of Marcus in my head. I miss Lex so I think maybe I need to a write a post about her. After all, she lets me use her name on my books, the least I could do is visit her once in awhile, eh? So here’s my Marcus for today, all sexy and smokey-eyed.

Don’t forget to come by Cindy’s on February 7th to see what I have to say about that thing called Love.  Also, don’t forget that Marty and I have a new release filled with spooky stories. You can pick up Weirdly 3 at Wild Child Publishing.

One last thing… go give my pal Tess some love. Her book Latin Rhythm is scheduled for release on the 4th but the buy link is live NOW. Her cover is probably the best cover I’ve ever done.

Wishing you all a very wonderful Monday!