kate rothwell

The horror the horror! I'm reading it all over the internet (in places like Bam's beautiful blog**) and it is just silly. All of the sudden people are scared to death of teenaged sex and teenaged love. It's as if TS is a newly discovered disease and we have to do all we can to stamp out the insidious, horrible thing. Excuse me? As the mother of teenagers, I'm not ready for them to be boffing anyone. But: 1. It hardly matters if I'm ready or not. 2. What's the deal with acting as if it were gross? (I mean honestly, don't you guys remember--that's PARENTS having sex that's gross.) Underage sex has been around since long before Romeo and Juliet and the whole idea that it's Unnatural is going to get more than the teens in trouble. The entire society is going to suffer. It's not so much discouraging sex that I hate. That's fine with me as long as people encourage sublimation, masturbation, keeping them busy or other constructive methods. B...

Just got a note from the ex-agent. The Spanish rights are sold. So that's Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. I wonder why the books appeals to those particular groups? Interesting.

I swear it takes a long hard cry and then a Barbara Metzger. No one can do it like Barbara Metzger and I wish someone would give her a contract that let her do it in her best style (trad regency) Heck, I need them to let her play with the language again. Cath, I wish I'd kept better touch but I will. Though honestly, you might not want me in person. In the Victorian novels they clasp hands and weep and turn pale and maybe swoon. I race to the nearest bathroom--or moan about it.

I'm supposed to chat somewhere online in a half an hour (yes, another chat. I'm an attention whore plus masochist. [ note to self: There has to be an EC in there somewhere .]) And I have no idea where to find it. I tried googling without a lot of luck. I love romances and more, Gia's note said. I did find this http://www.loveromancesandmore.com/ ** but there's no sign of a chatty place. Hmmm. UPDATED: It might be here. If this is it, might be tough because yahoo's been so horrible lately. I see Bonnie Dee's been by to chat. Not bad! Hey what is with yahoo? Why is it so sucky? UPDATED 2: TOMORROW. The thing is tomorrow. January 28. Sunday. Right. Never mind. ______ ** you think I'd remember them--they gave me a Golden Rose award a couple of years go. Ingrate Kate. Please join me for a chat (yes, another chat, but it's the last one, I swear) at this message board, Sunday Morning 1/28, at 11 a.m., yahoo willing.** ** I know, I know. Tacky. Does it cou...

and I would like to direct your attention to the wonderful new system for bookstores in the comments section . I think Sam and I will share the patent on this one. But I get more money because she wasn't serious. Forgot a couple Book of My Hands=crafts Book of My stomach=cookbooks. Wonder where the mystery/thrillers would be filed? Updated: Come on kids, play along at home! Raise and/or settle questions like: "Would the book of my blood be a search for a person's ancestors ( Roots would be filed there) or where we'd find Anne Rice's work?"

This is me in the newspaper. Wasn't I the cutest thing in the world? I believe I thought so. Wild that they put in our address. Just shows that I'm very, very old and from a very, very different era. and this is me older. Awww. My auntie took that picture I don't have a punchline. Just wandering around my computer trying to clean things up. Margaret's doing far better. She's awake again. I wonder how many people will wander over here because of the "hot pix" title. Heh.

I just finished writing another book that I don't think my agent wants. It doesn't fit any particular group (maybe Nocturne? On an off day?). I don't do the book of my heart thing, but I keep having these books that refuse to go away. Not really books of my heart, more like books of my liver (BoML). We're not talking passionate longing to write a masterpiece. This is a matter of detoxing the system so maybe I can get a happy, fun historical or a smutty romp that'll sell. I don't think the BoML are precious important works of art. I don't think they're any better than my usual sit-down-and-come-up-with-something-on-deadline sort of writing. In fact, I suspect they're worse. They're simply noisier than the other books. There's still one lingering and it's the dopiest of them all. I can't figure out how to get the whole thing to work, but it won't go away. Usually the only way to figure these things out is to write them down, so I...

Feeling rotten about missing my chat last night? Assuage that guilt! Try again tonight. 9 pm EST noveltalk It's your chance to find out if I get to make an ass of myself again ! Last night someone named Susan showed up and said something nice about my books. I said, aw thanks, it's lovely to hear good things because, see, it can be tough on the ego being a writer. I asked her if she was trying to be a writer, and she said yes, and I think I even gave her a couple of tips or something equally mortifying along the lines of "don't give up, it can be hard to get published!" I can't recall what, exactly, because those chats go fast. Turns out it was Susan Meier. Yeah, she's a writer: she's published 28 books. Oh. Ah. Beth is excused tonight because she has put in her time. She can do something more fun tonight, perhaps drink something with six ingredients and a frothy top.

finally Bloooger's letting me post. I'm going to put up the same note I'm frantically sending to every group I belong to: CHATTING WITH SUMMER Tonight I'm going to go over to Romancejunkies at nine p.m. EST http://romancejunkies.com/chat.html and tomorrow night it'll be noveltalk, same time. http://noveltalk.com (I'm listed as Kate there ) Eeeiiiii! It's been months and now two in two nights? Why don't I know how to plan my life? Don't answer that. or wait! Do answer it in detail! Tonight or tomorrow. Please come visit me! You win books, and not just mine. I have a Jackie Ivie I might be giving away. or a Lori Devoti. . .I have to take a good look at my shelves. * * * * Bam's put up another review of a Summer Devon book. This is the novella that's in Taming Him with Kimberly Dean and Michelle Pillow. She liked all three, especially the one by Kimberly Dean. ha, and it turns out I'd read Fever in ebook form! Linda loved it and told m...

I hope you'll be ready to play the State Of The Union Drinking Game! at 9 tonight (Maybe not you, Amelia. You probably still haven't recovered from last year's game and should stick to SOTU bingo .) Members of all political parties can play, btw. And you can keep it simple. Just take a shot every time you see Nancy Pelosi applauding. I won't be participating. I plan on reading a chapter of Thud! to my kids. Terry Pratchett beats GWB I'm afraid.

The boxes are cardboard. When I'm feeling virtuous, I pull them out to vacuum the dust, and sometimes I look through the books to see if there's anything I should stick on the bedside table. There's also a box of jeans and other clothing--all stuff that's way too small for me. This morning I was looking for something to wear and yanked out the box of clothes. I tried on a pair of jeans that I couldn't button last September. They fit fine, a little loose. So I tried on the corduroys that I couldn't even pull all the way up my legs in September. They fit, too. And the khakis and the other blue jeans. Every pair of them FIT. Apparently that's what thirty-two pounds down will do for me. I was blown away. Just like I don't notice when I'm fat, I don't notice when I'm not fat. Wow. How could I not see the difference? But I really don't. When I got downstairs, wearing the now-loose jeans, I hefted the unopened 25 lbs sack of dog food and told th...

Warning to My kids: Don't read this unless you enjoy the idea of therapy. I've been stopping by Bam's review of Revealing Skills and we've discussed the theme of powerful hoo-hahs and noted the lack of magic wands wielding similar powers. ** As soon as I finished writing RS, I read three stories with magic, potentially deadly vagina (no, not teeth. More like they dispensed Wicked Killer Orgasms) and now I can't find them because they were ebooks and naturally the laptop of doom--damn you, Dell--lost them. I can't find the stupid titles, either. So PART ONE OF my SBD is what the hell are the names of those stories? They're published by Samhain, EC or Liquid Silver since I don't think I've bought any other books lately. . .oh blast. Fictionwise. I forgot they have all sorts of publishers. PART TWO of SBD: And why aren't there more dongs of destiny/death? Maybe because because dongs = death is too much like some real life situations? Can anyone thi...

Go! Enter a worthwhile contest for once. 1. It'll help some food-prep challenged people 2. You may win a real cook book. Look around and you can find something hardbound and fancy-ass and Doug will have to pay for it. He promised. So far the only recipe I've come up with: open box of cereal pour cereal into bowl add milk or yogurt to bowl.

A selfish request: For god's sake, get better. I haven't told you about the dream involving salad. And I have a funny snarky story about your neighbor. You know those little ads in the newspaper that are addressed to dead people? "It's been ten years. and we still miss you, Timbo." The urge to talk to people who aren't operating on the conversational level is hard to resist. Hey, if dead people read the obits, maybe sick people read the internet? (Even the ones who can't stand computers.) * * * * * Updated: Still searching for female curmudgeon. If she does pull out of this, the last time I talked to her a few days back the subject came up again--we were still looking for a word that we think doesn't exist. It can't be beyotch or bitch because those are too firmly negative in her mind (if she's still there). The word needs to connote a female with sharp sense of humor, okay?

Hey look! Someone finally reviewed my book. The book hasn't been real popular. As one pal said** the book "sold as well as frozen dildo pops at a church luncheon. (And actually I think the pops would do much better.)" Funny thing is I knew Bam was going to review another Summer novella because there's a picture of Taming Him at her site, but then whoops! there's a review of Revealing Skills . __________________ **about her own book. I'd identify her but she might not wish to be associated with the remark. * * * * * As part of a promo kick, I've been doing interviews. And since I'm writing as Summer, people keep asking me about my Sexuality. So here are two stories of My Sexuality that are actually not about my sexuality, but try to convince my parents of that. Don't bother, they're dead. I showed up when my parents were in their mid-40s and figured they were done with the kid thing**. My parents were so hands-off, they left me for long weeke...

there we go--the ladies. A pretty good article. I like it. He's right. It IS pathetic that I'm the first thing that pops up when you want Bosnian rugs. And he's also correct, Fatima is adorable. ** Enough with the positive. Here's what he got wrong: 1. He mixed up Fatima and Remzija's stories, somewhat. 2. Fatima has two daughters (her son died) and she lives with her daughter and son-in-law, both of whom have low-paying jobs. She's doing better than many most of the other women I know. Her other daughter is still in Bosnia. (and actually I got her story wrong. I thought she came here by way of Germany and she didn't.) 3. She is not sarcastic. Very occasionally ironic, but not sarcastic. Snark is not something she likes, except perhaps about herself and her bad memory. She doesn't mock anyone else, even me, and I've done a lot to deserve mockery in her presence. (We've spent a lot of time together) 4, maybe. I could be wrong, but I think Fatim...

So my husband's in Seattle Portland (Doug was right. The husband drove between the two cities twice! Ugh! Winter!) and of course he visits Powell's--a required trip for all tourists. And instead of looking for mysteries, he heads straight for the romance section to see if he can find my books. He called me up to give me a report. We're talking rea l deal here: he was even willing to carry this book with this cover around the store. (He was looking for his sister to show it to her. I doubt he bought it--there is a limit.) She's a loyal SIL too. Apparently she has the Dutch copy of Somebody Wonderful sitting out in the open. (Hey, I didn't know what else to do with them so I sent copies to random relatives. I still have a couple. Anyone want one?) OHhhh. And last week I found out SW is being translated into Italian. Yahoo!

Trainwrecks may be gone, but while looking for the ladies in the Advocate (no Bosnians yet) I did find this great weekly feature of local trainwrecks. here's one from the article: There’s something charming about a repentant thief, though we wonder about the wisdom of being simultaneously as good and as bad as Richard Corlette reportedly was. Corlette, 41, allegedly grabbed a woman’s pocketbook from her car last week while she was shopping at Sophia’s Plaza in East Windsor, the Journal-Inquirer reported. However, the woman saw Corlette as he took the pocketbook and got into his own car, police said. As he was trying to drive away, the woman opened his car door, took back the pocketbook, and said, “You gotta try harder than that,” according to police. He apologized, saying he needed the money, and drove away, police said. The woman took down his license number and police tracked down Corlette at his Windsor Locks home. As if he hadn’t already said enough, Corlette then admitted wha...

Listen, I don't have much to say, but we need to get our routine back on track, right? SCHEDULES are SACRED. There are kids all over my house. They don't seem to understand how important it is that they not be bugging me on Monday, silly guys. Happy MLK Day. I'm thinking of something appropriate to MLK day but I can't. Discrimination? How about the whole Millenium Black thing -- where the author's race seems to matter more than the books she writes? That seems sort of. . . bizarre. I frequently see occasions when the author chooses to highlight her race/employment history/background to help sell books. ["ex-FBI agent!" seems to be the most common one] But to go the other way? Change the book to fit a niche without the author's consent? Nope. It might not be traditional discrimination, but it sure is not kosher. * * * * * I'm rereading things because that's what I do when I can't work or concentrate. Just reread Truly by Mary Balogh. I was...

All that's left at Trainwrecks. "Sorry, folks, but Trainwrecks is gone and it's not coming back. Some deeply disturbed people with an irrational fixation on this site decided that stupid photo montages, libel, and obscene anonymous comments just weren't enough, so they decided to take their little hate campaign into the real world. And since their information came from gossip and bad detective work, they didn't exactly hit the right targets. As anyone might have expected, the people who suffered the most were not even involved with this site. Once it became clear that the people posting at Heaven Nose were willing to cross the line between a one-sided flame war and real-life harassment, our web host decided enough was enough, and we agreed. This site wasn't important enough to us to be worth having innocent people harassed at home and work. We're done." No, I had NOTHING to do with it.

What happened to trainwrecks.net? Someone finally get fed up with them? I did find an interesting blog to read whilst surfing around, trying to find out about some old trainwreck issue. If anyone reads the Hartford Advocate, there might be an article about my ladies sometime soon. We had the big event this evening. The ladies sat in the spotlight and talked about their lives while Lajla the Magnificent translated. It's so obviously difficult for the ladies to do this in a big crowd...I want to thwack some of the people asking questions. Right longside the head. Jeebus. And I caught someone trying to tell R she should try to work toward forgiving the Serbs. Sure, she should--anyone who's read any advice column on the internet knows that "hate only hurts the hater," but Christ on a cracker, who the heck has the right to give advice like that to R? She'd just finished telling the crowd how the Serbs marched into her village one sunny day in June and killed every sing...

Here's a fun new profession. I can't wait to read the first romance with either a hero or heroine who's a professional RP (Reputation Defender).

I blogged over at Samhain. I like that blog. So far people are doing a great job of avoiding too much promo (except on Samhain release days, of course. Go Ari!) Tonight I was supposed to go to a fundraising event for one of the boy's school. I took the opportunity to flip out instead. I think I'd rather have gone to the Pond House. Prettier views there. (Actually I did manage to show up for about ten minutes. Long enough for the other boy I had to drag along to wolf down a few brownies. So that was good.) I don't know if any of you guys do panic, but it's seriously overrated as a hobby.

THE CONTEST IS ENDING. Now what? First I tried to find judges. No go. I thought about using the boys, but some of the hotter ones. . .uh, nope. Then I tried to be a judge. No wonder no one else wanted to sign on for the job. I'm not as nice as Doug who gave all of his winners copies of the book. I've decided to make it a game of chance. I'm dividing the entries into two groups, snark and hot, and number them, and pick a number from a hat. annna SAYS "Boy three will now yell out two numbers and the winners are. . . CORN DOG FOR SNARK and CRAZY IN ALABAMA FOR HEAT" so click on my name up in the right-hand corner and email me with your snail mail address. I'll make sure you get a copy of Taming Him !! Or, if you'd rather, I'll send you another Summer Devon ebook or a Kate Rothwell novel .

If you want a dose of "ooooo, I wanna be that person" visit this blog or this blog. Not only do they live in wonderful places (rural France, on a sailboat in Hawaii) they relish their worlds. And there is the fact that Paul Theroux loved Wood's book. Wow.

Dear Trainwrecks the website (tm), Never mind the fact that you mock people's pain, that you shine a spotlight on the strangest corners of the internet and make sure we all have bad dreams about adults who are just trying to lead their happy, quiet existence -- in diapers. No, what I resent is that you go out of your way to make sure I spend hours following threads and reading stories about and by people I'd cross the street to avoid. I find myself worrying about these strangers who've left their husbands for the fourteenth time and who are drinking themselves sick, again. You've wasted hours of my life making me follow threads of threads and forcing me to find out what happened to various traumatic polyamorous break-ups caused by sex-changes or the introduction of more playpals. You pointed out that there might be such a thing as woman sperm and, by golly, two hours later I finally got to the part you were talking about. Because of you, I missed my kid's bedtime--...

I'll do SBD later. I have to go out and do Bosnian things. It's time to say goodbye to Cass. It's been months since he blogged, so it's not a huge surprise. It always sounded as if he insisted on having a wonderful time much longer than most people could. ** I'll miss him. _________ **not really a comprehensible sentence, but I can't think of another way to put it at the moment. Sue me.

Never did get pumpkin spice latte. I did get baklava (from Fatima) and now I'm drinking champagne (not from Fatima). I didn't get any champagne on New Years and I needed it for luck. There. Aren't you glad you checked in? Sure you are, because now you can go enter the flipping contest. Or at least read the entries. Hey speaking of contests, Doug, I won't pimp your contest ** until you enthusiastically promote mine, dude. __________ **I have grown to love that Kenney artist. I want his Art in my life. Now. Even more than I want the pumpkin spice stuff. Want want need need. Or maybe I want want need need the last of the pineapple upsidedown cake Mike made as part of his campaign to keep me from losing too much weight. It makes him nervous for some reason.

I ran around gathering refugee crafts today. Run, run, drive, run. My day = dull Yours any better? The radio thing didn't happen after all, and tomorrow I'll go with all my rugs, lace, mittens, socks, hats and whatnot to meet the lady so she can do a better job of talking about the refugees, I hope. The radio interview will air Friday the 12th. I'll meet the lady in the building we--and everyone else, I think--call The Democrats. Why? Because until five or six years ago, this building was the headquarters of the local Democratic committee. After they cleared out, there was still the name painted on the front of the building, but the sign has been gone for at least three years. It's kind of like the habit of naming housing developments after the landscape that was destroyed to make the houses, "Meadowglen" "Shady Forest" (When we were looking for houses in Maryland, we quickly learned that the good communities usually had undistinguished, dull names...

Remember S, the Bosnian who had some sort of sudden brain malfunction? She's been in a nursing home for about a month. I still don't know what went wrong with her. Neither do her neighbors and good friends, including her best friend, her sister-in-law (the only adult survivors of their family). I thought at first it was a language problem. But the nurses didn't seem to know what was going on either. Now I strongly suspect that once she stablized, the health care system did not bother to spend the money on tests to figure out if she had a stroke or an aneurysm. She has no money and is on state aid. She never did take the citizenship exam(and was one of the students who actually studied for it and seemed to care) and there's no way she ever will. She responds to her name but not much else. She's been in a series of state nursing homes--at least three. I can't figure out why they move her. I have no right to demand what's going on and anyway, her sons don'...

Oh, for goodness sake. You're too freaking POLITE, WYLIE KINSON. ** If I get your name wrong ( twice ) you're supposed to say, "yo, beyotch, I'm going to be more famous than you some day. And when I am, I plan on calling you 'Kathy.' All the time." Sheesh. Now everyone must go enter the contest. Make it a New Year's resolution that's easy to keep. ______ **She didn't say a word. I finally figured it out, several days later.