Do or Di is now available in ebook format at your favorite store.
Unraveling Isobel is now available from booksellers everywhere.
Fourth Grade Fairy, Wishes for Beginners, and Gnome Invasion are now in stores everywhere.
The Education of Hailey Kendrick is now available from booksellers everywhere.
Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood is now available from booksellers everywhere.
Watch the Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood trailer
Unpredictable is now available from booksellers everywhere.
While it may seem as if I’ve dropped off the face of the earth, this isn’t true. Merely traveling and then having some family in town. This week things get back to normal. Or at least what passes for normal in my life. This means more time spent making stuff up all day and swinging wildly back and forth between loving what I just made up and thinking it’s total crap.
I spent last week in one of my favorite places in the world, NYC. It’s hard to say how much I love that city. Could be the library (divine), the shops (insane), the cocktail lounges (sinful), the galleries. museums (educational and fascinating all at the same time), or simply wandering around watching people. For an obsessed people watcher, NYC is like crack.
There is also no doubt that part of my attraction is having a chance to catch up with various people I know in publishing. I love this in part because the people I’ve met in publishing are darn nice and also happen to share my passion for books. However, part of it is still the thrill of thinking “I know people in publishing!” This never gets old for me.
I’ve also been to NYC a few times so I am starting to feel like I know my way around a bit. Or to be more precise, when I get lost, I am much more confident in my ability to eventually figure out where I am supposed to be. While there someone on the street stopped me asked for directions. I was THRILLED. They thought I looked like I belonged there! Granted, there are a lot of odd people in NYC so looking like you fit in may not always be a compliment, nevertheless it felt great. What made it better is that I even know where they wanted to go. I felt like a rockstar.
It doesn’t take much for me to feel like a rockstar. When people find out I’m a writer sometimes they’re impressed and I try and act cool. “Yes, I have a few novels out now.” Of course in the inside what I’m saying is: ”I know!! Isn’t that awesome! Can you believe it? Me neither.” Some people have an inner child, I have an inner dork.
While NYC was great it is good to be headed home. I miss my dog, my own bed and being on a sidewalk that is not shared by sixty bazillion people. I have family coming to town tomorrow so it’s my turn to show off my city!
It’s a crazy week for me. A good kind of crazy, seeing friends, chatting writing, going here and there. As a result I am fresh out of amusing stuff. In the meantime, enjoy this.
Never accept leftovers from someone who works in a vet clinic.
Wondering how I know this wisdom? Allow me to explain. Last week our dog Cairo had what is known on TV and in magazine ads as “tummy trouble.” This is a much more appealing way of explaining what was happening in the nether regions of our dog. It appeared to be unpleasant for him, and it was certainly unpleasant for the rest of us. As a result, I bundled him off to the vet to see if they couldn’t do something to sort of “firm things up.”
I should start by saying we have a great vet. Nice people. Clean clinic with all the bells and whistles. They give out dehydrated organic chicken nuggets if you stop by. To the dogs, not the people. (I suppose if you asked they would give you a chicken nugget too. I’ve never tried.) So Mr. Cairo goes in and is poked and prodded. One of the problems of having a dog is that they are incapable of telling you what the problem might be. For example: “I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that dead thing that I found on our walk on the beach, but I’m sure after a day or two I’ll be fine.” Versus: “I have a raging pancreas that will soon explode and cause all sorts of expensive vet bills if left untreated.”
After some looking at the dog the vet determines that yep- he sure does have a nasty case of “tummy trouble,” but we are none the wiser as to the cause of said tummy issues. Thus, more tests were needed including a urinary screen. The vet tech helpfully advised that on Cairo’s next trip to the outdoors as soon as he got down to business to slide a Tupperware container under his back end and then bring it in to be tested.
So Cairo goes out and I follow behind him with my trusty Gladware. On cue I shove it under him and he scoots away as fast as he can with a look that pretty much screams: Bad Touch! Then he wanders off into the bushes to finish in private, because apparently I can no longer be trusted to give him the space he needs. I bundle up what I have, hoping that “spill proof locking lid” really works, and take it into the vet. The vet tech takes the container in the back and then comes back out with the empty container.
“Do you want this back?” She asks.
Um. No.
First off, even if I separated it out into a special “this Tupperware is only to be used for carrying around dog waste” place, there is no guarantee it would stay there. All my leftover containers sort of mill about in a free for all in the drawer. With my luck I’d be sitting down for lunch and suddenly think: “Wait a minute, why was this the last Tupperware dish in the drawer…..” I don’t need that kind of upset in my life. Plus, it might give me tummy trouble.
So I was surfing around the internet and I came across this. Apparently this is a thing now. Dogs wearing pantyhose. Can’t imagine it? Here’s a photo for you.
How’s that for an image that won’t leave your head? I warn you. If you click on the link above there are even more photos. I spent a fair bit of time trying to imagine what comes over a person where they think: “hey, I wonder what my dog would look like in pantyhose.” I sort of feel bad for my dog. He’s so small that they pantyhose would sort of droop and bag around his knees. This is a trend that will pass him by.
You can find anything on the internet. Including things you aren’t even sure if you want to find. Separate from all sorts of oddities, what amazes me is the amount of energy that some people spend on hatred and spewing vile. There’s a fellow who spends a significant time writing about how women having the right to vote is ruining society. Also how women are worse than Nazis, that ugly women have no reason to live, and that rape really isn’t that bad because women sort of have it coming. Course, he hates more than women. He’s also not fond of people who are gay, or immigrants, or liberal. I’m sure there are others who don’t make the list, but to be honest I can’t spend too much time reading him to find out.
This guy posts a few times a day. That’s a lot of time and energy to spend on hating other people. I always wonder how people like that find the time to be so nasty. Personally, I don’t have the time to do all the things I want. Life’s short. I have so many places I want to visit. There are books to write. Not to mention the amount of books I want to read. There’s never enough time to have dinner with all the friends I want to see. I want to see more of family. There are dishes I want to learn to cook, yarn that needs to be knitted, and wine to be drunk. There are causes and issues that I would like to give more time to because they matter. Then there’s the time I want to spend doing nothing except slowing down and enjoying the moment.
You have a choice in how you spend your time. I’ve got no respect for people who squander that resource on hate instead of making the world a better place, or at least a happier place. Someone’s got to put pantyhose on dogs.
Former Deb friend, Sarah, has a new book out, The Best of Us. I can’t wait to get my hands on this- I love her books.
About the Book:
An all-expense-paid week at a luxury villa in Jamaica—it’s the invitation of a lifetime for a group of old college friends. All four women are desperate not just for a reunion, but for an escape: Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie is shattered by the news that a genetic illness runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her wealthy husband an unforgettable thirty-fifth birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks already splitting apart their new marriage.
Languid hours on a private beach, gourmet dinners, and late nights of drinking kick off an idyllic week for the women and their husbands. But as a powerful hurricane bears down on the island, turmoil swirls inside the villa, forcing each of the women to reevaluate everything she knows about her friends—and herself.
Sarah stopped by to answer some questions-
1) Tell us something fun about your new book, it can be a character detail, something that inspired the story, or a behind the scenes story from the writing process.
I was really tired one day – I have three kids, and they’ve been passing around the same cold all winter long, it seems – and I started dreaming about a vacation. I thought about all the things that would make it over the top: a private villa and white sand beach, a chef, massages, endless time soaking up the sunshine and reading and napping… every busy mother’s dream right? Since I knew I couldn’t take that vacation myself – Hershey Park is about as exotic as we get – I created it for my characters! I loved sending four very stressed out women on the trip of a lifetime. Of course, it couldn’t all be napping on the beach, so I threw in a hurricane, too.
2) What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?
Hang out with my boys (I’ve developed a pretty decent throwing arm) and read. I can go through four or five books a week.
3) If you weren’t an author- what job would you choose?
Maybe an elementary-school teacher. I adore kids, and co-oping in my son’s preschool is one of the highlights of my week. I can’t stop laughing when I hear the stuff kids come up with. They’re the best storytellers around!
4) Since I often write for teens, what is one piece of advice you would give to your teen self if you could travel back in time?
Please don’t be so hard on yourself – everyone else feels as awkward and nerdy as you do!
5) Rapid fire round! Read more »
Currently Reading:
Sweet or Salty: Sweet
Morning or Night person: Morning
Coffee or Tea: Tea
Favorite Holiday: Christmas
Favorite TV Show: The Voice
Favorite Indulgence: Massages
