kate rothwell

I'm working on a blurb sheet for a Samhain book coming out in October and boy, do I suck at blurb sheets. Quick, fun, tagline about a title? Nope, can't manage that. How about a longer blurb to capture a reader? Ummmm. Well see, remember the mariel boat lift ? yeah, I only sort of do. But they were shoved out of their homes and prisons and. . .. How about if they're only half-people, but wait, they're of course the same species...Hey, why're you walking away? I think the hardest question, the one that I'm currently avoiding (by messing around here): List some titles that are similar in nature to this book. . . . . Not exactly the same, but lets the bookseller recommend this book to a reader who likes the type. I bet I'm not the only writer who goes slack-jawed whuh duh? on this one. I don't want to imitate other people so if I do, it's an accident. I'd be the last to see the resemblance. Actually, it's not just a matter of being too clos...

Varian's finished her post-apocalyptic smut story. After** Phew. ______ ** Mentioned in a footnote here.

question from a blog reader/pal: Don't you get tired of pimping the same group of writers over and over? answer: not really! Remember, keep the cards and letters coming.

Man, this game gets hard. Mike, a boy and I got up to level fifty but a lot of it was guessing. Pretty amazing. Mike does crossword puzzles (I'm talking the NY Times Sunday in pen and starting in one corner working his way across without stopping) and the boy plays Magic cards which does wonders for your vocab (especially when it comes to words relating to murder, weapons and destruction)

both of these are old biddy sorts of info. Doesn't mean it isn't valuable, okay? One doesn't sneer at the wisdom of Mrs. Cosmopilite. ALERT ONE: Freecycle is great . I just got a month's worth of nutrisystem diet stuff from someone who'd ordered it and decided she didn't like it. ** this leads to: ALERT TWO: Nutrisystem food, at least the batch I picked up the other day, is Horrible . Thank you, Sue! I'd wondered for a long time about one of these diet plan thingies. I'm too cheap to buy and this was free so why not? This stuff tastes worse than cardboard and I should know because I eat cardboard every morning (13 grams of fiber!) and rather like it. I'm probably going to freecycle (ahhh, new verbs. always a fun way to torture language purists) this big old honking box of meals. Maybe it'll make its way slowly around the Hartford area, down a dinner here and there, until everyone who ever thought about ordering this crap is . . . satisfied. No...

and while you're over looking at Bam's old contests, which really are fun (see my promise at the link on the right?) read the first chapter of Bettie Sharpe's story. Actually if you were me, you'd wait the ten agonizing weeks for the whole thing to to be out because you'd hate that drip....drip....thing with serial stories that hook you. Instant gratification in necessary when it comes to a good book. If you were me, you'd have the attitude of screw you, Charles Dickens. At the end of a single chapter, I keep hoping the rest of the book will magically appear. This book by Bettie hooked me good. OR maybe you could email Bettie and beg her for the story? Offer her riches; offer her writing contracts (and feel free to throw in my first born child with your offer. He's stealing his brothers' halloween candy and causing much unhappiness.) And has Carrie announced the title of her coming Kensington book yet? I'll go see if it's up at her blog. . . .

As soon as I can figure out how to upload the damn pictures, you'll see a glorious batch o' flowers. I mean, wow. Roses and more roses and some kind of gorgeous purple orchid-thingy. Two of my sisters sent me flowers for my birthday and they take up most of the dining room table (the flowers, not sisters, who aren't here, unfortunately). Last time I had this many bouquets I'd given birth. Speaking of which, it's the boy's birthday too. Boy1 = best present I ever got, hardest to unwrap. He's not getting flowers. I got him computer games and cold, hard cash--very cold. I wrapped the money around a batch of lime popsicles, his faves. What else is happening? Doug's birthday, too. He's running a contest over there. What is it with bloggers and contests? No don't answer because . . . I'm going to give away an eb00k copy of The Knight's Challenge . ** Comment below and in a couple of days I'll pick a winner. Really, even if you don't ...

My friend Sally got a couple of revoltingly bad reviews and a fair number of good reviews. She didn't get many meh as far as I can tell. Sally and a bunch of other writers I know have the luck to attract passionate hatred and love. They sell a lot of books. Do they sell even more than the pure love reviewed books? Maybe. My first book got a lot of pure lovin' Anyway, when I read miladyinsanity' s meh reviews of my books, I thanked her and then asked if maybe next time, if she wasn't going to adore my stuff maybe she could be a little meaner. Then I decided, heck, if she doesn't want to rip me a new one, maybe we could get into one of those really putrid blog wars that make people curious enough to show up in droves to read the fight. Hey! Yes! Let's get into it and drive traffic to our sites! She didn't actually agree, but by then I'd had a glass or two of wine. I rolled up my sleeves and went looking for her. I was gonna call her names and make sure we ...

Boy Two says Make another post about me because I'm awesome. He is, but I can't find a photo on this computer. I'll put one in later. IN THE MEANTIME! Here's his post. AWESOME BOY! And how come you all didn't comment on his AWESOME POEM? And guess who picked the labels for this post.

Every now and then a romance writer snaps. She has her fill of bad reviews (sometimes it just takes one good snark) and, with a mighty cry of pain, she uses her blog or someone else's, to assault critics or the reading public in general. Someone like Karen is always there to jump into the argument and inform the writer she's a moron. Today we have apparently have a cover model going over to the dark side. Is there a single word that describes trying to kill your professional image by flaming the very people you want to attract or buy your books? Come on, guys, there must be. Idiot doesn't count. There has to at least be a good acronym. And another thing . (updated because jmc is absolutely right. I got the phrase that pays wrong. Sorry Jen) For most of my life, I've restrained myself because I didn't want to be A Mean Nasty Bad Person and because I didn't want the police knocking on my door asking a lot of nuisance questions about threats I've made. I her...

I wonder if A's saga of three days in the airport is gone along with his old blog that's lost forever, but here's a new place. Yet another relative to marvel at. He's the son of this sister . I can't get over the fact that I'm related to these people. Seriously, Osbert, I must have been a good dog in that previous life.

Check out Aya's page above. She's and artist and does film things, too, like the one of our thanksgiving. ** Her mom, Junko, is way talented, too. Nan's pots on my shelves, Junko's paintings/drawings on my walls. Sometimes even Nan's pots in Junko's paintings. Go ahead, envy me. (this isn't mine. It's just a Nan Pot in Junko Drawing example. ) __________ ** I show up in the first few shots and now and then and I'd just like to point out that I'm now 32 lbs lighter.