Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 158

Wednesday Worthy

I’m feeling so much better and more energized this week compared to last week when I had the minor dental surgery. Thanks everyone for all your good thoughts!

Okay so you guys know the drill. Here’s our candidate:

 

Do you think he’s worthy?

Weekend Roundup

It’s been pretty quiet here. I’m finally back to working and trying to get the revision done on CAGED MAGIC.  It’s going okay, just been slow with Wizard’s surgery (he’s fine now) and mine (I’m healing great) and various things. I should have this done and back to the editor next week.

By the way, in the few days I was recovering, I read three books! So cool to get a chance to read like that! And in between all that reading, I started thinking about doughnuts. I’m pretty sure it’s because I was so freaking limited on what I could eat, LOL! But I remembered I have this doughnut pan:

And haven’t used it yet! So now I’m looking for baked doughnut recipes and trying to decide what I want to make. Wizard is beside himself with happiness at the very idea of doughnuts .  A really evil wife might just be teasing him about making doughnuts after he sat there in front of me and ate jelly beans right after my oral surgery and every single day since then.

But would I be that evil??? Oh I totally would, but now I actually want to make donuts so we’ll see which side of me wins: The evil side or the fat side

So how was your weekend?

Oops! I forgot :-)

Hi guys, I just wanted to let everyone know I’m fine after the oral surgery.  Just healing at a normal pace instead of the superwoman pace I was hoping to achieve I forgot to post a blog until about 11:00 pm last night which I attribute to pain pills. I spent two days sitting around and reading mostly because Wizard took my phone away threatened to be mad at me if I didn’t follow directions.

I hate when he’s mad. He’s rarely ever truly mad at me so the threat worked. And before anyone talks about what a great husband he is, after he got me home, he went to pick up my prescriptions. (I had to go on antipbiotics because of course, I had an infection. Long story — but I couldn’t get the first dentist I saw to understand the problem, you woulnd’t even belived me if I told you that story. It was unread and pretty funny now). So anyway, Wizard ran off to get all that for me and came home with…

JELLY BEANS!!!

Which he ate in front of me for two days. I love jelly beans. See? He’s mean! There I am, sprawled on the couch, packed with gauze, holding ice on my face and he’s eating jelly beans. And even worse, it made me laugh and that hurt Wizard owes me jelly beans when this whole thing is over!

Today I’m getting back to work and still wishing I was superwoman.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wednesday Worthy & The Domino Effect

When I was little, I was alone a lot so I played a lot of different games to keep myself entertained. So one day I found a set of dominoes. I’d spent hours carefully standing up one domino on it’s side, then another and another, building a complicated domino trail with multiple twists and turns.  One of the reasons it took so long was because I kept REVISING my plan. I’d get part way into the masterpiece, and think, OH! I HAVE A BETTER IDEA, THE TRAIL SHOULD TURN LEFT NOT RIGHT! So I’d picked up one domino to change directions and inadvertently knock over the next dominio…

That set off the chain reaction of all my dominoes tumbling down in a horrifyingly beautiful wave until the last domino fell.

Or if I managed to build some design I liked, one of my brothers would come home and say, “Hey! You don’t need this first piece, take it out.” Then they’d move that domino, and ta-da the entire creation would collapse in that unstoppable wave knows as The Domino Effect.

This is exactly what happens when trying to revise the beginning of a book. No matter how simple the fix, we are still moving a domino and that almost always causes The Domino Effect.

And that’s why I’m changing the title of CAGED MAGIC to The Domino Effect.

Nah, just kidding  I’m not changing the name, and I still love the characters as much if not more than ever. But that’s exactly what I’m dealing with in this round of revisions. Truthfully I spent too much time trying to figure out fixes that would avoid The Domino Effect, but that’s foolish. It’s better to just do the work no matter how intense or challenging. Because these characters and my readers absolutely deserve my effort, no matter how long it takes, or how arduous it is to accomplish.

But today, I get to do something even more fun and go to the oral surgeon to finally extract the baby tooth that has decided we are no longer BFF’s. I can’t wait . Wizard is teasing the heck out of me about this because I’ve suddenly turned into a big whiny baby. He and Biker Witch both find this hysterically funny. I have chosen to ignore them because all other alternatives are frowned upon by all forms of law enforcement. Ironically, when I finally talked my self into doing this by promising I can have all the coffee ice cream I want — which Wizard bought me to keep me motivated – I’ve been hit by the allergy attack from hell. However, I’m about 90% sure I can get it under control enough to get the stupid tooth dealt with.

Okay enough of all that, here’s a Wednesday Worthy Candidate. We’ve seen him before (I think…my mind is on coffee ice cream, not hunks today) but let’s take another look:

 

So what do you think?

Also, not sure when I’ll be able to answer comments, it all depends on how it goes at the oral surgeon.

Weekend Roundup

Wow another run around weekend! Bailey has been here and we had fun, but I think we’re having a little too much fun and then he gets sore. Getting older isn’t for sissies

Oh and here’s the cake for Wizard’s birthday.

It’s plain chocolate layer cake with just a sprinkling of chocolate chips on the top. That’s what Wizard likes.

So Easter Sunday,  BLB (youngest son) came over with his girlfriend and they wanted cake. BLB stares at his piece. “There’s not enough chocolate chips.”

“Oh,” I said, “I can fix that.” I went to the cupboard, got out the remainder of the chips and upended the bag over his piece, then handed it back to him.

His girlfriend cracked up. And for once, BLB was so surprised, he had nothing else to say, LOL!  And, he ate it all

Now it’s back to work for me. I have a really solid fix in place for CAGED MAGIC and need to keep going to getting it done and back to the editor.

How was your weekend and Easter?

 

Happy Friday!

Bailey is here! I wish I had a good picture of him, but we were too busy playing. First I walked him down to the local park and there were two bunnies playing in the grass. They took off into the bushes (smart bunnies!) and Bailey spent the next half hour sniffing out their trail. Then we came home and he chased lizards in the back yard. After that, he took a nap while I worked.

For Bailey, life just doesn’t get any better.

I, however, need more time to work. Saturday is Wizard’s birthday and Sunday is Easter. We’re going over to wizard’s brother’s house.

What are your plans for the weekend and Easter?

Wednesday Worthy and Rita Chatter!

The Wednesday Worthy Hunk is at the bottom if you want to scroll down to skip my chatter.

I’m so excited, it looks like I’m going to New York for the RWA Conference, and the RITA® Awards as a Finalist.  The RWA office staff has been awesome in helping me make this work, and I really want to give them a shout out for that.

Now I just have to win Lotto, LOL!

So, I was going over the costs with Wizard: “The conference is XX much.”

He didn’t even look up from whatever he was doing on his computer. “Do it.”

Yeah, I knew he’d say that. But we always do this run down of expenses before doing anything.  I went on, “Okay, well, the hotel is XX much.”

He waved a hand at me. “It’s the conference hotel, less walking for you. Book it.” And went back to typing.

So far so good. “Um, okay the flight is XX much.”

Now he looked up. “Witch, I want you to fly first class.” Then he turned his computer to show me the flights he’d found and the price.

My response

 

Wizard frowned at my response. “It’d be easier on you to fly first class.”

“Not if I have a heart attack from sticker shock. That’s more than the hotel!” Okay, truth time here, I already feel guilty spending this money so I just shook my head. I can’t do it. I can fly the cheap seats just fine. Wizard’s the one who has trouble because of his back and neck, I do fine.

Wizard grumbled but gave up (for now).

Then I added the last thing. “Also, I’ll need a Rita dress.”

Wizard looked like this:

 

“But you have dresses. What do you need another on for?”

I burst out laughing. “Seriously, this is your line? You’re trying to get me to pay DOUBLE to fly first class (which is not happening) but you think a new dress is unnecessary?”

He refused to answer me on the grounds that I will make fun of him on my blog. LOL! Too late, I’m totally telling you all! And I will buy a new dress

Now I need to work on revisions of CAGED MAGIC. I made big progress on one troublesome scene and need tackle the next one. Those two scenes will make everything else I need to do flow easier. But all this excitement and trying to make arrangements has been a total time suck!

Now for our Wednesday Worthy Hunk

What do you think, is he worthy?

 

Weekend Roundup

This weekend was a blur, and now I’m deep in the trenches of CAGED MAGIC revisions. I’m hoping that once I get this done, I can write more interesting blogs. In the meantime, tell me what’s the last book you absolutely loved and why? For me, I loved WORTH THE RISK by Claudia Conner because both the hero and heroine were damaged by their past and deserved love. The story just drew me in.

Your turn! And how was your weekend?

 

 

Happy Friday!

Many of you already heard my news: HER TEMPORARY HERO is a finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA Awards. So the phone ran around 10 am I think… and I of course, was my usual graceful self. My response when the woman announced she was with RWA? “Seriously? This is really happening?” Yeah, I’m a total dork sometimes.

She assured me HER TEMPORARY HERO had truly been nominated for the RITA in mid-length contemporary. And frankly, she really sounded sure

I ran out back and told Wizard who was cleaning the pool. “He’s like, wait you’ve been nominated for, and won other RWA awards, right?” He was trying to figure out why I was acting strange (okay stranger than usual). (Also I’m always excited and honored when my books place in any contest!)

It finally dawned on him what I was talking about. “At the chapter/local level, this is national! The RITA’s. You have to be in the top 4 to 6% of scores, it’s like the Academy Awards of Romance. They swear they nominated Her Temporary Hero but I waiting to see if my names shows on the list.”

“JEN!!! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME YOU WERE WAITING FOR THE CALL TODAY!!”

Umm, yeah, he might have yelled that. It’s true, I didn’t say a word to anyone because… “Uhh, I didn’t think they would call.”

“Damn, all these years you worked so hard, and look at you now.” Then Wizard jumped on his computer and started looking at flights and hotels to NY for the big awards ceremony in July.

And me? I sat at my computer, on the announcement page of finalists and did this: Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! Refresh! until my name finally showed. After a few minutes, it finally did! What do you know, it wasn’t a mistake

Here’s the list of others in my category and they are amazing!

Contemporary Romance: Mid-Length

Carolina Man

by Virginia Kantra

Penguin Publishing Group USA, Berkley Sensation

Cindy Hwang, editor

Her Cowboy Hero

by Tanya Michaels

Harlequin, American Romance

Johanna Raisanen, editor

Her Kind of Trouble

by Sarah Mayberry

Harlequin, Superromance

Wanda Ottewell, editor

Her Temporary Hero

by Jennifer Apodaca

Entangled Publishing, Indulgence

Kate Fall and Alethea Spiridon Hopson, editors

Love with a Perfect Cowboy

by Lori Wilde

HarperCollins Publishers, Avon Books

Lucia Macro, editor

Once a Family

by Tara Taylor Quinn

Harlequin, Superromance

Paula Eykelhof, editor

One in a Million

by Jill Shalvis

Grand Central Publishing

Leah Hultenschmidt and Alex Logan, editors

Reforming the Playboy

by Inara Scott

Entangled Publishing, Indulgence

Alethea Spiridon Hopson, editor

Starting with June

by Emilie Rose

Harlequin, Superromance

Wanda Ottewell and Karen Reid, editors

Worth the Fall

by Caitie Quinn

Self-published

Jenn Harris, editor

I still don’t know if I’m going to NY or the ceremony, but this is one of those moments I’m thrilled to experience! I also owe thanks to many, many people, including Entangled Publishing and my two editors Kate Fall and Alethea Spiridon Hopson, who supported my effort to show the hero, Logan Knight as a man dealing with PTSD in the most authentic way I’m capable of writing. That was super important to me, as was showing Becky, the heroine, as young but very strong woman and mother. I’m just thrilled to have the book nominated!

Now I have to get back to making CAGED MAGIC shine. This nomination gave me a boost of confidence to tackle it! I’ll be doing that all weekend.

So what are you guys doing this weekend?

Wednesday Worthy

I’m working! I love CAGED MAGIC so much, but the beginning needs real work…so that’s what I’m doing. Cross your fingers that I can do it

This morning I have to go get a stupid x-ray on my endlessly annoying ankle so I can see an orthopedic in a few weeks. I pretty sure this orthopedic will find nothing, but we have to check since the ankle likes to wake me up around 1:30 am. Apparently doctors think that is  a problem, but I’m so used to not sleeping I like to think of it as an opportunity to sneak in a little reading time

In the meantime, I have a Wednesday Worthy Candidate for you all because no matter how busy I am, you guys are still on my mind! However, much as I love you all, I’m not sure about this guy so tell me what YOU think:

So what do you all think, is he worthy?