Alison Kent's Blog, page 37

Support groups, toxic trainwrecks, protecting the work

This morning, I ran across a post on Jennifer Crusie's Argh Ink blog called Ten Tips for Writers and thought it worth sharing here for those of you who write. I especially love the first three and find they resonate with my way of managing writing as a way of life – because, really, it's way more than just a career. It's in the air we breathe, in our dreams. We don't watch news stories without thinking, "What if?" Same with people watching. We steal conversations, we cast roles, we borrow...

To Be or Not To Be, when you're two

Carol of the Bells

Things I REALLY need to do today

1) Write

2) Wrap some presents before my hiding closet explodes

3) Write

4) Bake some sort of cookie or cupcake thing involving chocolate

5) Write

6) Fold two baskets of laundry before they morph into twenty

7) Write

8) Make a list of what gifts I've bought and what's left to buy

9) Write

10) Decide if Christmas dinner is going to be sit down or buffet

So far I've managed to do early morning emails, a bit of web work, and write some on a project that might actually take hold and grow into...

Want to get your hands on RT's Best Harlequin Blaze nominees? Well, c'mon down!

Earlier this week, RT Bookclub Magazine released their 2009 Reviewer's Choice Award nominees. I heard through the grapevine that A LONG, HARD RIDE was in the running for Best Blaze, along with MAKE ME YOURS by Betina Krahn, SHE'S GOT IT BAD by Sarah Mayberry, LETTERS FROM HOME by Rhonda Nelson, and HOT UNDER PRESSURE by Kathleen O'Reilly. How the reviewers settle on five with all the awesome books penned by the Blaze Babes, I'll never know, but yay!

I'm going to give away a set of the five...

Sam in the snow

A very yummy dinner

I probably read more food and cooking blogs than book and writing blogs these days, and one of my favorites is Dutch Girl Cooking – probably because of her very cool recipe cards and pictures, but also, how can you not love a recipe that calls for a "knob of butter?"

Last night I made her Twice Baked Beef Potatoes, and though @cuppacafe looked at them dubiously when he got home, when he dug in, he said, "Hey, these aren't bad." I took that as a compliment. Plus, he was right!

Now, I didn't use ...

It IS all in a name, every bit of it

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I spent the weekend trying to come up with a name. I'm working on a new story idea, and suddenly realized I needed to add a certain character type to spice it up, add some oomph, some good conflict, some really good sexual tension and some big time suspense. The guy I came up with was one that reminds me of King Trahan, a bad boy that I wasn't originally sure would be redeemable. I'm...

More winners!

Apparently I forgot to select the NO LIMITS winners from my Thanksgiving weekend contest. Sorry about that! The winners are:

Calila – comment #2

Erin T. – comment #3

Caitlin Usignol – comment #10

Sharla – comment #17

Joy – comment #25

You guys send me your addresses and I'll pop the books in the mail.

If I knew what to do, I wouldn't have to ask!

First of all, the four winners of JINGLE BELL ROCK are:

Danielle Yockman – comment #2

Veronica – comment #4

Julie – comment #18

Kim Fravel – comment #22

You guys send your addresses to ak@alisonkent.com and I'll get the books mailed.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Secondly, I've got a new poll, yay! Every year at this time I think about what I'm doing with my blog. I make big plans, I don't follow through. I took off...