Man Candy Monday!!!!!

True Blood Season 4 began last night and I heard it was freaking amazing. I forgot to call AT&T to get HBO started again so we haven't seen it yet. BUT here is some yummy Ryan Kwanten who plays Jason Stackhouse!!!! Enjoy ladies! ;P

Man Candy Monday!!!!!

True Blood begins June 26th and we can't wait! Today I am featuring Alexander Skarsgard who plays uber sexy vampire Eric Northman.

Enjoy!!!!!

Man Candy Mo....Tuesday!!!!!!

Sorry, I left y'all high and dry with no Man Candy yesterday! The Prince graduated from 8th Grade and I forgot to put it up Sunday night. So here it is...better late than never!

In honor of The Green Lantern openning on Friday our Man Candy this week is Ryan Reynolds! I loved him in The Proposal and I had no idea he had been on so many movies and he has even more coming out! He is adorable and HOT!

Enjoy!!!!!

A Sassy observation from my Special Guest D.D. Scott!!!!!

Today I am so pleased to have Author D. D. Scott as my special guest! 
DeeDee is a good friend of mine and I have had the pleasure of taking her Muse Therapy class. You know my Muse always needs some therapy! And as a bonus D.D. makes me laugh every day!
Thank you so much for joining us today D. D.!!!

As a very special treat for the first five people who comment on this post, D.D. will treat them to a FREE Kindle Copy of BOOTSCOOTIN' BLAHNIKS

Just a little bit about D. D.~

D. D. Scott is a bestselling romantic comedy and cozy mystery author and a Writer’s Go-To-Gal for Muse Therapy,  plus the #1 Amazon Bestselling Author of MUSE THERAPY: UNLEASHING YOUR INNER SYBIL and the co-founder of The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing, your destination site for Everything E-Publishing.  You can get all the scoop on her, her books, her Muse Therapy Online Classes and Live Workshops, plus juicy tidbits from her fabulous grog The Naked Hero at http://www.DDScott.com.

Hello, Monika-Land!!!

I’m Bestselling Romantic Comedy and Cozy Mystery Author D. D. Scott, and I’m a huge fan of our Monika’s “sassy observations about life...”

 To that end, I’m sharing with you one of my own “sassy observations about life...”...the writer’s life that is...

Here’s My Evil Editor Turd Anecdote straight outta my MUSE THERAPY book.

http://www.amazon.com/Muse-Therapy-Unleashing-Inner-ebook/dp/B004774LN4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306947576&sr=8-1

It doesn’t get much sassier than this...and, keep in mind...

This is...

no joke...

what actually happened to me at RWA (Romance Writers of America) Nationals in 2009:

I used to stew about many of the anxiety-heavy, neurotic behaviors dogging me on my way to Publishing Oz... but not anymore.  Let me give you a personal example of how I put my neurosis in perspective for the first time.

This Highway to Hell was my defining moment when it scorched and branded my ego in July 2009 at RWA National Conference in Washington D.C.

Like any good neurotic, I’m subject to “impulsive compulsive acts”. 

For example, I submitted a one-page synopsis of my manuscript - which is now agented and Indie Epubbed but was then agented and still under consideration by several NY publishers - to be cold read by a huge, HUGE editor. 

Screw “avoidance”, I was evidently “habitually fantasizing” that my many times praised manuscript would no longer meet “negativity and cynicism”.  I’d been there, done that and seemed to be getting quite close to Oz.

So...I went to D.C., “obsessed” with my lucky break at getting a cold read from this top editor.  And I made my DH miserable all week with my “repetition of thoughts” regarding what the esteemed editor would say about my work.

When 3:30 PM the Saturday afternoon of conference finally came around, I sat with my DH in the front row and faced The Devil in Editor Form...ever “vigilant” of my career’s future.

Said editor cold read and critiqued all twenty or so of the submissions, finally getting to mine at the end of the session.  Then...she publically annihilated my work (as recorded on the RWA conference cd-rom). 
 

We’re not talking she politely stated my chick-lit tone wasn’t her thing, she used my manuscript to mock the entire genre. 

Let me paraphrase her rant, although I could probably quote it as I will NEVER forget the exact words. 

She threw her hands up in the air making all kinds of flying monkey poses and went-off: 

“A tomato-growin’, bootscootin’ cowboy?!  How heroic is that?  How about a horse?!  That’s what I want my hero riding not a tractor!  And dancing?!  Who finds dancing heroic?!  I don’t know about you, but I’m always wondering about those men on Dancing With The Stars.  I doubt they’re really interested in their dance partners.  Again, give me a hero, not a tomato-growin’, bootscootin’ cowboy!!!  C’mon!  Tomatoes?!!!”  (Oh, and she laughed her ass off through all of this!!!)

  
Okay...granted, after said editor’s rampage, I was still breathing so I had lived through the nightmare...barely...thanks to my SweetMan patting my leg.  And not patting for comfort, rather caressing for control.  He knew I was d*mn well capable of exhibiting a “socio-culturally inappropriate behavior”! 

You bet your ass I was feeling “anger”, “irritability”, “low sense of self-worth” and an abundance of “unpleasant or disturbing thoughts”! 

Oh, yeah. 

Hard core neurotic attack!

LOL!!! 

Well...now I’m laughing.  Trust me, or ask SweetMan, I wasn’t laughing then!

So...I got up and did what any well-practiced neurotic would do with my “grip on reality”.  After introducing myself and thanking Evil Editor for annihilating me, as any neurotic suffering from “mental confusion” would do, I ran as fast as my ridiculous spike heels and tortured feet would allow to my hotel room and practiced “schizoid isolation”. 

I was “lethargic”, “sad” and “depressed”...ohhh yeahhh...but still mad as hell!!!

The Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders suggests you treat neurosis with psychotherapy, behavior therapy and drugs.  F-that!  I used pasta, Tanqueray, tiramisu, and some Zen Buddhist mantra bullshit. 
Talk about anxiety issues!!!  I was hurting bad...and I mean bad!  SweetMan, the Hero that he is, hugged and kissed me, told me he loved me, put on his C-pap mask and took a nap.  Smart guy!

You know, it wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate that my chick-lit, sexy, sassy, smart voice wasn’t this editor’s thing.  I’m perfectly okay with the fact she thinks multi-headed aliens and Jack the Ripper-style heroes are more “heroic” than a bootscootin’, tomato-growin’ cowboy who’s tractor is sexy, who’s truck is big and bad, and who can sweep any girl off her feet on the dance floor. 

Really...I am okay with this...after several months later maybe...but yeah, I admit, I really wasn’t that okay then. 

What bothered me...and still does...to be honest...was how this editor showed no respect for other readers’ tastes.  No respect for the quality of my good neurotic “perfectionist” work. (Note:  mine was the only submission she didn’t pick apart for form or clarity...in fact, she requested partials based on synopses she flat-out said were confusing and not done well...characters she didn’t quite get or find realistic...big, Big problems she never once knocked my submission for containing.)  She had no consideration for the fact she acknowledged my writing was funny and an easy read.  “You are funny...very funny...and you’re writing is good...tight...,” she said. 

She simply had a profound hate for my type of hero...enough to not just not request my partial but enough disdain for the genre to make a mockery out of my work to garner a room-full of laughs.

BUT my writing did make an entire room and one incredibly nasty editor laugh!  There-in is the key that got me back on my neurotic feet.  I am a romantic comedy writer.  So making people laugh can’t be half-bad, right?

And how’s this for justice served? 

When I got home, my SweetMan happened to be looking up our state fair schedule and what did he discover?  Evidently, not everyone thinks like Evil Editor Turd...because there, in all its splendid glory, was a welcome to the 2009 Indiana State Fair poster announcing this year’s theme “The Year of the Tomato”!  And there was their poster for the fair, including a bunch of tomatoes, tractors, a cowboy, and a guitar! 

Hmmm...guess enough people like my ideas being as an entire state’s fair theme includes those images and “characterizations”! 

The darn poster could have been my book cover!!!  I actually saved the print, planning to give it to the art department of the publisher I eventually signed with.

And yes...I sent this poster to my agent who was considering forwarding it to said Evil Editor Turd!

P.S.  You can also listen to all this on the RWA Conference CD Roms...'cause yes, it was one of the recorded events!!!  LOL!!!

****

Fast forward to April 2011, I sold 850 Bootscootin' Books in one month (April 2011)!!!

Fast forward again to May 2011, I sold 1138 Bootscootin’ Books in one month (May 2011), putting me in Kindle’s prestigious 1000 Sales-a-Month Club!!!

So hmmm...again...evidently readers and fans really do like bootscootin’, tomato-growin’ cowboys on tractors instead of horses!!!

Okay...there's my little bit of sassy, MUSE THERAPY: UNLEASHING YOUR INNER SYBIL wisdom...for more, I invite all of you to join my Muse Therapy Online Class Community where it’s all about reining in and reigning over your creative divas, despite the Evil Editor Turds of the World:

  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/note.php?note_id=212855472071976

http://www.ddscott.com/signupform.php

Thanks bunches for hosting me today, Monika!

 Please...feel free to comment and ask me any questions you’d like.  I’ll be checking-in through-out the day!

 In addition, you can always catch me at all my cyber homes:

 http://www.DDScott.com

 http://ddscottauthor.blogspot.com

http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com

http://thenakedhero.com

I look forward to welcoming y’all to my Bootscootin’ and Cozy Cash Mystery Worlds!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Bootscootin-Blahniks-Books-ebook/dp/B003ZDO30W/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

http://www.amazon.com/Stompin-Stetsons-Bootscootin-Books-ebook/dp/B004DI7N32/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

http://www.amazon.com/Buckles-Baby-Bootscootin-Books-ebook/dp/B004NEVZ6C/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

 http://www.amazon.com/Thug-Guard-Cozy-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00507FTQS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1306947717&sr=1-1

Sexy Sassy Smart & Neurotic Wishes --- D. D. Scott

D. D. Scott’s bestselling romantic comedies are all about sexy, sassy, smart, career-driven women and the men who complete them.  They're a bit chick lit with a gone-country twist...and now a cozy mystery twist too.  She’s agented, and her Bootscootin’ Books Series - think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy – debuted August 2010, on Amazon’s Kindle and at Smashwords, with BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS, followed by STOMPIN’ ON STETSONS and BUCKLES ME BABY.  Now, The Bootscootin’ Characters are gettin’ “cozy”...as in Cozy Mystery cozy, with the release of THUG GUARD, Book One of the her new, Cozy Cash Mysteries, featuring all of your fave Bootscootin’ characters plus tons of quirky, new characters too.

She's a member of RWA and served on RWA’s History Committee for the National RWA Board.  She's been a guest blogger on Romance Writers on the Journey, Inside the Writer’s Mind, Daily Dose Fantasy Romance, Romance University, Romance Lives Forever, Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers, Lesa’s Book Critiques, Savvy Authors and Healthy Writers.  She can also be spotted every Wednesday on Mount Olympus fulfilling her duties as The Naked Hero’s Hump-Day Goddess and all-week long on her new grog The WG2E, a writer’s destination site for all-things-Epublishing.  She is linked to on Romancing the Blog and also has an active blog of her own http://ddscottauthor.blogspot.com  on her website at http://www.DDScott.com .  In addition, her first RWR articles were published by RWA in the July 2010 and October 2010 issues.

 Also a Writer’s Go-to-Gal for Muse Therapy and now the Amazon #1 Bestselling Author of MUSE THERAPY: UNLEASHING YOUR INNER SYBIL, D. D. debuted her Muse Therapy Online Classes in 2009 and her Live Workshops in 2010.  Thanks to the fabulous endorsement of Stephen Windwalker’s Kindle Nation Daily, there’s a ton more fun and fascinating MUSE THERAPY adventures in development.
    

            D. D.’s busy now writing her next Cozy “Cash” Mystery – LIP GLOCK – which will release in August 2011.

      Declaring 2011 to be “The Year of the E-Book & Cross-Pollination”, D. D. co-founded and launched The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing (http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com), your destination site for Everything E-Publishing.  Whatever you want to know and/or cuss and discuss about E-publishing, it’s right there at The WG2E waiting for you!

    When she’s not writing, she’s busy luvin’ on her real-life hero “Sweet Man” and their beloved shelter-rescued dog Buckley.

    For updates on her books, her sexy, sassy, smart neurotic writer's life blog, and for a schedule of her appearances and Muse Therapy Sessions, visit her website http://www.DDScott.com .     

Man Candy Monday!!!!!!!!

Gorgeous George!!!
I have loved George Clooney ever since he was first on The Facts of Life. He was so sexy and charming then and now many years later he has gotten even better! He is even more suave, elegant and sexy now at 50 than ever. I think he is truly America's last real movie star!

Friends are the family you choose for yourself...

Today I received the most touching and heartfelt thank you note from my “Other Mother”.  In it she said, “You might not be the daughter of my womb but you certainly are the daughter of my heart!”

 I collected my “Other Mother” when I was in high school. I loved babies so I spent all my free time with a neighborhood family helping with or babysitting their twins and they became very close family friends.  We bonded and helped each other.  I had much more experience with babies than she did. She would call me crying, “They are both crying and I don’t know what to do!” I would walk over and calm the babies while she took a shower and had some quiet time. She has always been there when I needed extra mothering in times of joy and sorrow and as my main mom for the last ten years. She took me for prom dress fittings and to choose my wedding gift registry. She has been an amazing role model for me. Mommy was very thankful that I had Mom M.R. in my life since I didn’t have any aunts.

I was raised with an extended family that was made up of family friends. The only family we had in the United States was my mom’s cousin and her family who lived in San Francisco; we lived in the Chicago suburbs. When my parents finally settled in the Chicago area they sought out old friends from Poland and were introduced to friends of friends in the Polish community. We spent many holidays with my dad’s college buddy and his family. Other couples and families became close too. Of course my mom made friends in town and we had more chosen family that was important to us.

The first family member I chose was G. my oldest best friend, my Brother from a German Mother. He and I have been friends from the moment we met when we moved into the house next door. We were  two and a half years old. Our moms said I took his truck away and hit him in the head with it as an introduction. When we were four years old we were united in a garden ceremony. The preacher was his older brother who pronounced us “awfully married”. The bride wore a swim suit and flip flops. The groom his finest under pants and a popsicle stained shirt. My Pekingese Tanya, wearing my mom’s wig was the maid of honor. G and I have had many adventures, together and apart since then but he is still my very best friend. We are Godparents to each other’s daughters and adore each other’s spouses.

I met the sister of my heart when I pledged my sorority in college. A mutual friend suggested that maybe I would meet Kit when we rushed at the same time. I really doubted it, since there were over five hundred girls rushing. As fate would have it we pledged the same house and became sisters and bff’s immediately. I can always count on her for a laugh, atta girl or a poor baby whenever I need it. We are each other’s cheer leaders and confidants. We vacation and spend holidays together and support each other through each other’s triumphs, celebrations and the most devastating times of our lives. When Mommy was in a nursing home near her house she would visit her when I couldn’t. Our husbands are best friends from diapers. Of course they introduced me and Big Daddy. We have raised our families together, the kids as cousins so they have the beginning of their own chosen families.

I also met my Twin separated at birth in another sorority. We had so much on common it was very scary.  Our families are close and we are godparents to each other’s sons. Our husbands are like twins separated at birth too. Sometimes you are so lucky to bond with people that just “get you”.

Your chosen family can be just as or more important to you than your blood family. People are brought together by for many different reasons and circumstances. We need people in our life that will support us and love us no matter what. The saying goes, “A friend knows all about you but loves you just the same.” I think in some cases even more!