M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 80

The New TV Season

This week is my very favorite week. Yup, better than my birthday (which usually includes TAKS stress) or Christmas or Spring Break (okay, maybe not Spring Break).

It's Season Premiere Week! Since I was a girl, this week has always been special. It always happened shortly after school was out, and the days were getting shorter. We'd get the TV Guide from the store—an extravagance—and pore over the new shows, what we'd want to watch. This was the day before VCRs, so we had choices to make.

We'd c...

Goals for Season Premiere Week

Whee!! Also, I got a ROCKING review for Don't Look Back at LASR, and I got release dates for Star Power and Road Signs. Star Power, part of The Wild Rose Press's Class of '85 series, is out Oct. 6, and Road Signs, my contemporary romance from Carina, will be out March 14!

finish revisionscritique a novellatwo guest blogs, today at Romance Bandits and Wednesday at Leah Braemel's bloggo to grocery stores for Season Premiere Week goodies—apples, peanut butter M&Ms, popcornEnter the Rita (maybe...

Booking It

I stole this from Charity's blog.

1. Favorite childhood book?

The Trixie Belden books. And the Little House books. And Two Are Better Than One. And…I found another one recently, can't remember the title. Something about ghost children. Oh, and Lois Lenski books.

2. What are you reading right now?

Walker, a Harlequin American Romance, the first in Trish's continuity series, is on the Nook. War of the Sons, a Supernatural novel, is the print one, and I'm listening to Life As We Knew It.

3. What...

California Trip–The Way Home

The next morning we woke early, checked out, and went to Grandma's one last time. Dad and Sue and Raymond were there, and we visited for about an hour before we had to hit the road. I burst into tears when it was time to go.

The trip back was a lot more stressful. Again, let me say San Jose was an EASY airport. That was good because I've never returned a rental car ($82 for 4 days!) and we couldn't check in online because we didn't have a printer, so we had to check in at the airport. But it w...

California Trip, Sunday

Sunday morning we wanted to go to Morro Bay. When I was a kid, tradition was that Grandma and Grandpa took us to Morro Bay for fish and chips the first night. We went to the car parade instead, so we thought this would be a good time. Only thing was, we had to be back at the church at 11:45 to help set up for the party. So we drove out for breakfast. Um, not the same. Very foggy, very cold, though we did get a couple of souvenirs. But breakfast isn't the same as fish and chips.

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We got back to ...

California Trip, Saturday

Saturday I woke up early, and not wanting to bug Josh and Fred, I slipped out with my netbook to the McD's. Fred met me there around 8, and we went to breakfast, then to the RiteAid and then to the classic car show in the park. Finally Josh got up and we went to Grandma's. We ate salad before heading to Janice's in Atascadero. The photographer was coming at 2:15 though the party wasn't until 4. We each had a shot of tequila, then took a ton of pictures.

Here's me with my cousins, minus one.

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I w...

California Trip–Friday

So I haven't told y'all about the big family reunion! I'll break this up into smaller blogs because who knows how long I'll ramble on!

Friday morning Mom and Joe came to get us at 5:30. Josh had barely woken up, so it was a scramble out the door. We waited for our flight until 7:30, got to Dallas, had to use the tram to get from one terminal to the other (HUGE! OMG!) We made it with only enough time for Josh and Fred to get quick snacks at Starbucks, then loaded onto the plane for San Jose...

Playing with a New Story

I haven't written anything new since  before school started. That's 4 weeks, and I'm getting twitchy. My brother gave me a book about a woman in Texas in the 30s, which is a time period I never thought I'd want to write about. But I have a pretty good idea, and I have the heroine I want to use, but am not sure about my heroes. Yes, I'm writing a love triangle.

Here's my heroine:

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Any ideas for a hero?

Meanwhile, revisions continue on the short story.

Goals for Week of Back to Normal

I actually get to teach this week. The first 13 days of school, we tested 4 days and I missed 2. I'm looking forward to putting up centers and teaching and helping the kids move forward.

Also, the dh is on vacation, so I don't have to cook! Woot!

1)      Open House

2)      Revisions on short story

3)      ONE guest blog—Nine Naughty Novelists

4)      SPN Sisters blog

5)      Big grocery trip

6)      Get my house in order. I'm feeling claustrophobic.

7) library

Hey, not so bad, is it?

Happy Other Release Day To ME!

Don't Look Back is out today! I don't have an excerpt because I JUST got my digital author copy, but here's the blurb:

When her best friend is kidnapped in Africa, Dr. Liv Olney must return to the scene of her own horrific captivity. The only man she trusts is former Army Lt. Gerard "Del" Delaney, the man who rescued her. Even with him, she can't relinquish control of her emotions, needing to keep painful memories at bay.

Del takes honor seriously, but sometimes neither honor nor humanity are f...