kate rothwell

If you've ever scythed a lawn before, you know how happy you are when you finally get to use a real lawn-mower. Hey! You can just push a machine instead of that whack-swoosh-whack-swoosh-whack-swoosh**. It's the elation you feel when you load a dishwasher after years of washing by hand. It's like reaching for sliced bread vs whole loaf and crappy knife. Yes, really. As good as sliced bread. That "THIS IS SO EASY!"is my attitude (at the moment) about this new way to do my newsletter. Holy moly, after years of messing with email programs and trying to hide the recipients' addresses and dumping emails that don't work and . . . . other stuff. . . . there's this program that will take care of everything but the content**** for me. As soon as I get banned because someone who forgot they signed up for my newsletter complains to the management--that's when I'll feel less sunny about the whole thing. But until then, the people at tiny letter are my hero...

The more I use it, the more I like query tracker . Their information is more up-to-date than most of the other trackers I've looked at (more up-to-date than the dang agent websites, that's for sure) and the system is easy to figure out. I wish I could do things a little differently--not have it be organized by manuscript, for instance--but that's ok. Every system I don't design I'm certain I can improve. Of course, I don't design a system and that's the main flaw with that particular whine. The non-system I had been using was several pieces of paper with writing on them--and those papers are on the computer, too. Use Excell, another writer told me. Ooo, that gave me sweaty flashbacks to the time I attempted tax-stuff with Excell. I'd rather suck all the snot out of a dog's head** than try to figure out those damned cell-thingies formulas again. I paid the $25 and it's probably the best money I've invested in my so-called career this year. W...

Summer has to think this Kindle thing is good. Look, a couple more of her books are up at Amazon again . Good! Yay! Bring them all on! Kate isn't selling at the moment, and she is aiming at NYC. That market is getting scarier by the minute, so she's terrified by the Kindle thing. Eeeiiii, says Kate. Yet another reason for them to say no to me. There're always more reasons to say no! So many changes and a general shaking up and publishers scurrying around in fear. They'd want to avoid printing more books by mid-listers. This is when I'm glad I'm two different people in the writing world. I only wish I was real enough to be marching-- not scurrying--with the giant rat. I hope Eddie, a stagehand striker in NYC, doesn't mind if I use his rat photo. But listen, this important: Did you know there is some guy who rents rats? Yes, a man makes his living renting out inflatable rats to striking workers. The rat represents management, see. (Mike was appalled. I g...

Thunderstorms yesterday meant no splashing in the lake. We hit the Marble Museum and The Maple Syrup Museum instead. I wanted to stay back. No such luck. We didn't visit the inside of the castle though. Too expensive and the one piece of furniture on the page looked appallingly tacky. The outside had a long hill which needed to be rolled down, so several boys got muddy and felt car sick all the way home. Highlights: 1. The all-marble bathrooms in the Marble Museum. 2 . Mr. Doolittle, our animated guide to the Maple Syrup Museum, who spoke in rhyme except when he didn't, quite. Actual highlight: meeting a guy who cares deeply about maple sugaring. There's something contagious about true excitement. The boys managed to slip away to the sampling room while the man talked about how grades of syrup are determined. I witnessed Mike's fanatic streak get tapped [heh. maple syruping joke] when the man mentioned the bacteria that might or might not affect the process. But the...

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Lord Voldemort discovers Jesus and becomes a Bishop by clever use of the Goblet of Fire Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

Chocolate Decadence 1 pound bittersweet chocolate chopped 1 stick (4 oz) butter 4 eggs 1 Tablespoon flour whipped cream and raspberry sauce or orange sauce Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan with a round of parchment. Melt chocolate and butter till smooth. In a large bowl, beat eggs till increased in volume. Beat in flour and chocolate until well blended. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Then bake for 12 to15 minutes. Cake must be soft in center, will firm up when cold. Let stand at room temperature to cool, refridgerate. When time to serve, run knife around edge of cake and remove springform side. Serve in thin slices topped with whipped cream and raspberry sauce or orange sauce. *Raspberry sauce is quite simple to prepare. Just take 2 cups of raspberries and 3-4 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Heat in a saucepan till berries are soft, and then put through a sieve. Taste and adjust flavor with either a bit of lemon juice or more powdered sugar as ne...

HEADS UP! And I mean you, Bettie and Doug--and, okay, everyone else who comes by here. Angie sent this out--when I copy/pasted, weird junk happened. Funky typos are not her fault. I think this is a fabulous way to find new writers and to bring traffic to the blog. Theirs, I mean. Not mine....sigh. Thanks to inspiration from the Romance Divas and author Karin Tabke, Samhain Publishing is going to be holding a Best First Line contest on our blog http://www.samhainpublishing.com/blog . Starting Monday, June 4th at 8am Eastern, authors are invited to leave the first line of a previously unpublished work (of 12,000 words or more) in the comments of the Best First Line blog post. The contest is open to published and unpublished authors not currently contracted with Samhain Publishing [damn]. On Friday, June 8th at noon Eastern, we will close the comments and no more entrants will be admitted into the contest. Only those who enter by posting on our first line contest blog post between 8:00 ...

Today, it's The List. I had no hand in creating most of these items. A. First, the awesome contest. It's hip, it's viral, it could be worth sixty dollars to you. Enter it. B. Now the list of romance drinking contests. Please use these games wisely and do not, for god's sake, blame me for the hangover. I'm talking to you, Amelia. 1. Mrs. G's Paranormal Romance Drinking Game 2. Mrs. G's Regency Romance Drinking Game 3. Smart Bitches's Paranormal Romance Drinking Game 4. Smart Bitches's Contemporary Romance Drinking Game. 5 Random romance Novel (or "Nove") Phrases Drinking Game. A mere hint of a game. 6. Andygrrl's Mystery of Udolpho's Drinking Game. (and the rest of the blog is worth a look, too) 7. Miss Marple Marathon Drinking Game (it's sort of like a book, right?) 8. Random unrelated to any sort of reading Drinking Games.

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.

I use refdesk.com as my home page. It's a fine resource, though I'm guessing the founder is connected to Matt Drudge (same last name, connects to Matt's page, the default news page is breitbart, which labels itself conservative.) Anyway, I don't know if the guy running the page has any say over Word of the Day but look at today's. Heh. I'd never heard of the word so I got my day's education before 8 am. What's more I particularly appreciate today's usage. Hmm maybe it was yesterday's (today is stymie. Pfah) Still true today unfortunately. camarilla Definition: (noun) A group of confidential, often scheming advisers. Synonyms: cabal , faction , junto Usage: The people thought the war was for a righteous cause, but in truth, it was the brainchild of a greedy camarilla that hoped to profit from it.

Ohhh baby! Pup porn props. And boy1 made me watch this interview. Jon Stewart is too a journalist. Anchors and rporters (or maybe I mean their producers) should watch it and learn: Stop worrying about the image and do your goddamn job. What is your job? Big hint: It isn't about you.