kate rothwell

I can't stay away from the subject of Sarah Palin. I've been looking at the trashiest stories, too. Nothing to do with her stands on important issues (or if Alaska's proximity to Russia means she's got experience with foreign issues). Some of my conclusions from the wading into useless dreck: She's far better looking than she was when she did sportscasting. Say what you like about her, I think she's pretty. She's probably got the sort of charisma that gives me the willies. A lot of people who are considered inspiring make me want to escape their presence. A form of jealousy? A sense of inferiority? Maybe. Anyway, from the reports I've read, she's supposed to be the sort of person who makes you feel as if she's listening to you and cares about your opinion. She's got a room-filling presence. Eeearrrgh. All of that sounds just like what they said about Bill Clinton. I never particularly paid attention to the fact that Hillary is female--sure...

She joined my team and I'm no longer a lonely looozr. We could give this team a good name. Something to do with our work, maybe? Sam'n'Summer, Spectacular Smut . Any time anyone else wants to jump in we can change the name.

But first: Did you notice that if you raise a lot of money for CFF you can maybe win a crit from LEAH HULTENSCHMIDT from Dorchester? Did you see that? Or a boat-load of donations will get you an 80 gig Ipod? Meme time. Rules: 1) Link to the person that tagged you. 2) Post the rules on your blog. 3) List six unspectacular quirks you have. 4) Tag six bloggers by linking them. 5) Leave a comment on each person's blog to let them know they've been tagged. Lyn "PITA too" Cash tagged me. Rules are posted above. I liked Lyn's, especially details of how she broke the toe. Just enough to make it intriguing not enough to explain squat. I'm skipping steps 4 and 5. * * * I go for lots of sneezes, not just one or two. Drives Mike crazy and he always ends up yelling "enough already." After a gazillion years, you'd think he'd be used to it by now. But that's his quirk, not mine. * * * One summer when I was a teenager, I gave tours in DC, I lied like ...

I'll do Lyn's meme tomorrow, yessiree. but first. This is the Unleashed Challenge 101, aka, just the basics: The challenge is actually composed of two parts, the page count and the fund-raiser . PART ONE : Go to the unleashed site. This part is free. That’s where you compete with Macomber and generally have fun about writing (although the prizes will be awarded for fund-raising, not page count). Starting September 1, we’re going to have a post a day at that site about the challenge of writing, including some from agents and editors, I think. I hope. You can skip this step and go onto PART TWO : the fund raising portion, which is directly through cystic fibrosis foundation. We authors didn’t want to fool around with actual money and CFF has a great system for collecting the money AND for keeping track of donations for us, so we can award the prizes. (CFF is giving prizes too, like an 80 gig Ipod) You can donate one of three ways: 1. Go through the links found at http:/...

Come on, you guys. So far the team consists of me. There is no I in TEAM! Don't make me the only ME in TEAM! Etc. Here's the official CFF-generated email you'd get if I had your email address and could ruthlessly track you down: Kate Rothwell is trying to make "CF" stand for "Cure Found!" Visit Kate's Unleash Your Story Home Page at http://www.cff.org/LWC/KateRothwell ! NOTE: If link looks broken, cut and paste ENTIRE link into address bar. If you are presented with a "Find A Fund-raiser" page, enter Kate's first and last name and click on "Submit". Then click "View" in the results list to go to "Kate Rothwell's Unleash Your Story Home Page." And don't forget. Good writer-y/reader-y/author-y prizes. If my team wins anything, I don't get to keep the prizes but YOU DO.

Promo time: Unleash your book is almost here. We've lined up some great prizes for top donation-earners. You can find details of the fund-raiser here: HERE and you can sign up directly with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation here: HERE And if you don’t want to bother keeping track of pages you WRITE, you can try it out with pages you READ. Readers and writers are encouraged to enter. Here are some of the prizes: (I’m still trying to track down a Sony reader--the Alphasmart Neo is a yes!!!!) Critiques, signed books and more AlphaSmart Neo - Designed specifically for writing, NEO is the rugged, low-cost, lightweight, non-stop, power-writing notepad that provides quick and easy writing access from any location. Its instant-on function lets you download your thoughts immediately, and with NEO’s low-energy consumption you can compose for hours, days, and months at a time―up to 700 hours on three AA batteries, or up to 300 hours using the rechargeable batte...

I can't seem to get the big book to hang together. I think I got too many good ideas from the agent and Bonnie and instead of going for a couple of big changes I just nibbled at bits of each. That's annoyed me enough lately, so today I ripped apart a short thing and am now sewing it back together. I'm done dumping scenes, characters, changing plot, tossing out whole storylines and now I get to make up new ones. Big-time fun, seriously, because I know what I want to do. Pretty soon it'll be time to be a parent again. Got to drag the boyz and my butt out of the house.

I've gone through a period of kick-ass action in my junk-reading and I'm tarred tarred tarred of: 1. any mention of shadowy government agencies with initials (except when said government agencies look incompetent and bureaucratic. That's still kind of funny.) 2. gay side-kicks with great snark abilities . Apparently when you're gay, you can give better comeback lines. Of course if you're in one of those government or military agencies, you're closeted and all funny/tragically conflicted and whatnot. These days at least you gay types get secondary romance. 3. any mention of Bin Laden or Al Quida as bad guy. Make it fictional, dammit. Or Nazis maybe. Don't know why it bugs me so much. Maybe because it's escapist fiction junk and they don't fit EFJ profile. ...and this is the one that killed it for me: 4. people in danger dreaming about sex. Suz Brockmann doesn't need me as a reader so I don't feel bad. Because honestly I'm done. I thought...

boy3 singing: Love goes where my Rosemary grows. me: I think the lyrics are "love grows where my Rosemary goes." boy3: but that makes no sense. Rosemary can't go anywhere. Hey, we don't know anyone with that name and we do have a big old rosemary plant on the deck.

thank you for this, esri rose and lisa.

Miladyinsanity has cursed me and I'm not going to ignore her--no way. I will follow the meme. Also I like these things. 5 MUST Read Books: 1. Due to serious self-indulgence at Barnes and Noble (I bought anything I wanted and read them all) I don't have any must reads at the moment. Any suggestions? I have yet to buy the books by Samantha Winston and KG McAbee (McAbee's won that contest) but I'll get around it soon. Oh and maybe Tall Tales by Al Jafee and Stephen Colbert. And people seem to like The Lace Reader 5 Books on the Nightstand and electronic equivalent (laptop): Your Scandalous Ways by Loretta Chase Thunderstruck by Erik Larson The Warrior's Gift by Bonnie Dee (LT) The Used World by Haven Kimmel Bonk by Mary Roach 5 Look For These Soon: That Terry Pratchett kids' book that's coming out soon, I hope Doesn't Julia Quinn have a book out in September? Watchmen by Moore/Gibbons. Kid stole the 1 copy we own Dear American Airlines by Jonatha...

Quick! get to Burger King before the protesting public gets the tray liners removed. These works of veggie weirddom are bound to become collectors items. Here's the one called red light district. My kid's convinced it's all an internet spoof. I wouldn't be surprised. Kind of disappointed, though. People seem most offended by red light but I think the sniper one is ever more jaw-dropping. Jeepers. It's almost enough to make me want to go buy a Whopper to find out if it's true. Also featuring airport with a bdsm pickle strip-searching an onion ...and a couple of others I'm too lazy to link to. You can find them at the bottom of the links I provided. Halloween is pretty blood spattered.

And I don't even have a burn-out excuse because I haven't had a release in months. So, listen. I got an ebook coming out in October. It's pretty last minute but....what do I do about promo? With dozens of titles coming out every week, the ebook world is flooded. So much of the promo I'm seeing looks sort of desperate or maybe there's some projection going on here. So far: --RT has a copy. They'll give it three stars. They always give Summer three stars. Kate gets 4.5 and RT Top Pick and Best First Historical and hugs and kisses. Summer gets three stars but good quotes. --someone's updating/redoing Summer's page. --ummm. Maybe I'll guest-blog at a couple of places? --I think I'm getting one of those week of romance excerpt things because I won it in an auction. I should check on that now that Tara Green's moved on. I haven't gotten any for any books lately, so I hope they're still doing them. Ah, this is such a far cry from my ambitio...

What does it mean about us? The results of the new Pew Survey on News Consumption (taken every two years and released this afternoon) suggest that viewers of the “fake news” programs "The Daily Show"and "The Colbert Report" are more knowledgeable about current events (as judged by three test questions) than watchers of “real” cable news shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Bill O’Reilly and Larry King, among others -- as well as average consumers of NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN, C-SPAN and daily newspapers. Pundits Time to roll up your sleeves and tell us that the mainstream media is worthless. But what about overlap--the people who watch regular news and the Daily Show. No mention of that. Okay, I have to go write the sex stuff.

from someecards.com

1. It was our fault. When we say "our" we mean "his." We are fairly certain the kid who first noticed the internet wasn't working is the reason the internet wasn't working. 2. 58 bags of groceries through the food drive. That's pretty good. 3. Just as I celebrate the existence of the poptarts, the kid eats the last one. 4. We miss our friends and relations. 5. We spent $250 at Target today for college boy supplies. Shampoo! Phone! Toothpaste! Floss! STUFF. 6. You're not the only one. We're bored by this post too. 7. It's too windy for badminton. So we won't be running around just now.

because we have no phone, no internet....no Kate and I won't exist for another 24 hours at least.

feeeeelings, nothing more than feeeeeeeeeelings. The part of writing I love best are peeps. Foibles and anecdotes that's what I'm adore--but I write fiction. For politics? No, uh-uh, tired of that. I'm with that voter education ad that mocks people who vote for the candidate with the nice smile or the one who loves his wife or who pets kitty cats. I can't find that ad. But damn, this totally-unrelated-to-my-point Onion one is great! Mention swing states to seem smarter! Print out I Voted sticker! Anyway. Give me boring facts and no thanks to the bits of the guy totally unrelated to his job. I want know a guy's voting record and don't care about his relationship with his God. (Well, unless, of course, he worships at a shrine that kills all non-believers and requires a yearly sacrifice of babies.) I read this article with deep feeeeeeling ranging from being pissed off at McCain to annoyance at the author. It contains information that's worth knowing. The aut...

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." Dell and I have never done well . We have a long history together. Really enough water under the bridge for me to have learned water is kinda wet... Or so you'd think But see, at my kid's school they have this program with Dell and you get this discount. And you get some kinda on-campus service or something so I thought okay give them one more chance. Just one more. Different, sturdy model. It'll be okay this time! Thirty-third time's a charm, right? So I bought the boy a Dell and, now, two months later. . . Boy's on with technical support getting the address to send the sucker's hard-drive back. He treats it carefully, like a desk-top. Rarely taking it away from his desk-top in fact. No, they don't want to deal with him at his school, thanks anyway. Stupid Flook...

I'll bet this is slightly different from the last version I saw. That's why she's less like Sara Gilbert. Uh-huh.

Here, look. The first time I saw the cover I thought, hey, that woman looks just like Sara Gilbert! Which is fine with me, because I like SG's looks. Here's a recent Sara G. picture for comparison. See? Kinda? Okay, now I'm less sure. Once I get my better jpg version of the cover, I'll plaster it everywhere.

A shorter person's view of the dog. copyright JG and an old picture of Boy2 who's been gone for a couple of days, so we miss him. He is showing us his front curl, the most excellent one.

So did the Californians beat American Airlines and make it back? Concerned cousins want to know. With each passing hour of email hassle, my hatred of Outlook and the new poor excuse of Outlook Express expands. I loathe trying to work with Outlook more than I hate stepping on slugs with bare feet. (I'm the one with bare feet. The slugs, as you know, have no feet.). I hate Outlook even more than when the slug goo gets between the toes. You know know how you scrub and scrub and never get that slippery slug-gly layer off? I hate trying to battle Outlook even more.

I'm big on community service that's easy to do. We're lazy concerned citizens. Here's the best one, evah. Great results with virtually no work. You get pleased community sorts at the end of it, and proud kids preening themselves on a job well-done--and it is well done, but also? Ridiculously, truly easy. I'm talking really, really simple. I think I'll eventually post pictures of the drive over the years. In the meantime, our seven e.p. steps. 1. Compose flier. (hardest part, so get kids to do it.) here is this year's: TIME FOR THE ANNUAL FOOD DRIVE!!!! In the summer, the local food pantry runs low on supplies.Every summer for 9 years (give or take a year we kinda didn’t get around to it) , the people of Our Road—that means YOU--have helped the pantry during its toughest season. We’ll pick up donations SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, noon-ish. Of course, you can always give more food than will fill this bag. We’ll take it all! If you want us to pick up your donation any t...

chile verde peppers stuffed with feta cheese and pickled. Ow, yum, ow., yum. Almost as addictive as wasabi peas--a lot messier. Oooooo, I want some. Now.

No RWA scandal but here's something more serious (and way less fun) than a swan hat. Hmm. Obviously anyone who'd react with violence to a book is an asshat. That's the only Absolute Truth I get out of it. The rest of the controversy isn't easy. Is it worth the fight against censorship? Be Salman Rushdie? Publish and possibly perish? The tension's wound even tighter these days. I don't know if "halting the publication of any book is letting the idiots win" should be the main focus now. No, I really don't know and I'm glad I don't have to. Anyway. Go read that link above because the conversation is interesting.

Note to self about next year: two bedrooms really aren't enough for 9 people. Especially when there's rain every day and every night. The sleep porch and couches aren't enough. More bedrooms. More. Bedrooms. More bathrooms, too. Note to anyone who might be emailing me. It's not working. I can't get outlook to pay any attention to me. I guess it got scared by the hundreds of messages and refuses to come out of hiding. gmail is all I'll use. All of my computing is going wonky and it's taking minutes and minutes to get this written/posted instead of seconds. Note to the dog: I'm sorry. I won't leave you again. We missed you too. Boy1 called and left a message. Hope you heard it..

I'm going to do real life for a time. Maybe a week. We'll soon have guests and be doing Stuff. I have to post a blog article somewhere else--another place that doesn't get comments. Great. This writing notes to "no one who may be concerned" is a downer after a while. (No, I know it's not your job to entertain me. I don't blame YOU of course.) The bat is still hanging upside-down in a kid's room. Bats don't bother me, usually. But L's family down the street is currently getting the series of shots. The bat that got in their house last week had rabies. It's bad enough to have to get punctured over and over, turns out you have to go to the emergency room to get the shots on days 1, 3, 14, 28 ER...There're a few days of your life sucked into the void, waiting. Okay, enough rambling. I'm off. I'll be back. Before I go, I have to post something over at passionate prose. Eventually.** First I think I'll go get the broom and se...