Sommer Marsden's Blog, page 126

"...sure to thrill readers"

Yay! I love to thrill readers :) My EC Quickie Allure received a nice four tombstone review from Brit at Bitten by Books. Go check it out here.

I don't know about you, but I made no formal New Year's resolutions. I am dropping weight and inches thanks to be being able to eat...oh, just about nothing. I spend time with family and friends. I have weaned myself off the internet some and am reading more. I write every day so I can't really amp that up. However, I do get upset about stuff I cannot control. So, I guess the closest thing to a 'resolution' I have is that I promised myself I would not get all bent out of shape and discombobulated over poor reviews/ratings of my work.
Lucky me, I got to test that on day one of the new year! LOL. I ended '10 with a five star rating on my new book and kicked off '11 with a five star and a...one star. And I was upset about it. For about three minutes! And then I kept calm and carried on. Yay me, must say, pretty proud.
Hope '11 is starting out with a bang for you.
XOXOSommer

Happy New Year's Eve!

may 2011 be full of many many possibilities. Ones you're plotting and ones you didn't see coming. This is one of my favorite views and I like to think that before I kick it (a long long looooooooooooong time from now) I will have had as many adventures and opportunities as there are branches on that tree. Big ones and little ones and the ones in between.

That being said, our adventurous NYE is Easy A, The A-Team and the new Resident Evil movie. I have my fingers crossed because last year we had three of the best movies I saw all year all on New Year's Eve. Julie and Julia, Paranormal Activity (which no one found scary until bed time and then we were creeped the fuck out) and The Hangover. So, I doubt we could recreate such a stellar line up, but we'll see.

Now food. I believe my family has chosen: nachos, mussels, hot wings, cream cheese and lox bites, bacon and onion dip and pickled herring (*shudder*). I will be in the corner eating soft gluten free stuff and taking my pain pills. Heh.

Hope yours is grand and as super exciting and festive as ours! I wish for you lots of little branches of adventure and opportunity in the coming year. Tada!
XOXOSommer

hey!

I have had a half a pain pill! That means that I am stupider than I was this morning before my dentist appointment and after the man kept me up all night. All. Night. And not doing dirty stuff, either. Snoring. I have blogged about it here because bright and early with only one brain cell functioning I found the topic fascinating.

So now I am running on about 4 hours sleep and 1/2 a pain pill. Because soon I need a root canal. (o_O) Trust me, 1/2 is all I need. I am a total light weight. Off I go to write. Believe it or not I can write like this. I can't barely string a spoken sentence together, but I can actually write. Go figure.


XOXO
Sommer
that is a random Christmas tree picture. enjoy!

Why for a brief moment in Christmas time *I* was the man...

and why I am still wife of the year. Behold, the newest member of the family, my gift to the man. Guess what our neighborhood smells like? If you guessed woodsmoke, you are a genius!

XOXOSommer

just let my get my handy dandy vacuum...

I dreamt last night that I went to camp. I have no idea how old I was supposed to be but I felt and looked pretty much like me, I think. So that was odd. And my mother and I showed up hours late and in the dark.

People (that I went to high school with!) were pointing us in the right direction, and we basically knew where we were, but it was one of those instances where you just sort of feel like you're skating by on the skin of your teeth.

Then I asked (as we continue to stumble around in the dark on these paths) if there is still time to take me home because I have forgotten my phone, which I was allowed to have...and a sleeping bag...a tent. I have forgotten damn near everything that would classify this as 'camping'. And she says sure, but then I turn to find her vacuuming up leaves with a little vacuum...

WTF. I'm saying "Ma! Leave them! They are leaves! In nature...in their natural environment. This is where one would expect to find leaves..."
And then I woke up, panicky because I did not have my phone. Or sleeping bag. Or...um...shoes.
No. I haven't a clue what that means. But there you have it.

XOXO
Sommer
p.s. boy child and girl child have both gone to fifth grade sleep away camp. They did not forget a single thing. Especially not...shoes!!! Just sayin'

okay, so it turned me on...

Today's been a weird day. Wind and a scattering of dry snow on the ground. Girl child and I running errands in the insane wind that had her big heavy shopping bag from the bookstore literally banging my leg so hard it hurt.

Then I came home and wrote four pages of my mainstream and then three pages of my paranormal...in bed. Then I napped...in bed. Then I watched Psych and ate mini chocolate bars--wait for it--in bed! That is so unusual for me, but damn was it decadent. My room is sunny and open and big and to lay there in the sunbeams and just be after so much Christmas craziness was super nice.

What's the burger about? The burger is about this really really handsome man who was driving in a car behind me earlier. He had dark hair and dark glasses on and dark coat and he was kind of exotic looking and burly and he was eating a burger like...okay, so it turned me on. He ate it with a huge amount of predatory glee without being gross or nasty or messy or anything. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen in the burger eating department. I didn't have a mental image for my lycan in the my current book. Now I do...

Heh.

Happy windy Monday.

XOXO
Sommer

"**SNAPS** again for Sommer and her fantastico way...

OMG. Someone give me a big giant shove to help me get my big giant head through that little tiny doorway! Another enormously flattering review from Seriously Reviewed. This one for my very first Christmas novel ever "Christmas Break". You can read the whole thing here.
I must have been a very very good girl this year to deserve so many nice things said about me. :)
XOXOSommer

"...this one was just as good as I figured it would be."

Yay! This review from Seriously Reviewed came in Christmas Eve for my holiday novella. Happy Christmas Eve to me. :)
I have to admit, it still startles me when folks call me one of their favorite authors or I find that authors I know and have been reading forever suddenly show up liking my work. It makes my brain ache. It's like trying to pair peanut butter and garlic in my mind. I have such a hard time but am always very flattered.

We had a fabulous Xmas Eve dinner here and then a great Christmas morning, afternoon and night. The man loved his huge grill and smoker. It's about the size of a small car. LOL. And me...I am the proud owner of a brand new pair of dark leather driving moccasins and Supernatural season 5 and custom artwork from one of my favorite artists and...a bunch of other stuff.
It's snowing right now and I'm about to have wine. Yay wine! Hope you had a fabulous holiday. Drop me a comment and tell me your favorite part if you're sitting there all exhausted and stuffed with food with a drink in your hand... XOXOSommer

Ho Ho Ho, I'm On Fire...

Oh. Not for real. It's just that my new book from EC is out today. Yay me! What a great gift. Gee, I hope I don't manage to start a fire tonight. If you see the blog below my odds are rather good. Um...anyway! Off I go. I need a coffee infusion and then have a buncha holiday stuff to attend to. I'm awake now, after getting one more look at my smoking hot cover. Whew.
Merry Christmas Eve!
XOXO
Sommer

This is what Christmastime means to me...

No. Not city sidewalks...

But all kinds of other stuff. This year, for whatever reason, it truly feels Christmasy to me. Last year was cold (finally! we've had some downer warmish years for a while) but TOO much snow. Enough snow to put everything at a stand still and/or crawl it too much. This year it's cold and blowy. A dusting of snow. It's still on the roads. It's picturesque but it's not debilitating. Plus, I'm ODing on Christmas music in my travels, listening to our local lite station that plays it 24/7 starting the day after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I was driving to the store for my last-last-lastly-LAST minute food stuff for Christmas Eve dinner at my house tomorrow. And I was thinking about how I have always loved Christmas and that it has a specific feel to me. So here are a few things from my childhood that I remember vividly. You're welcome.

*The year I had about a thimble full of wine and fell up the steps. I was about twelve. It was all downhill from there.

*The year Santa set off I TOOK A LICKIN' FROM A CHICKEN in the attic. I was still awake. I was faking it.

*The year Santa brought me a Barbie outfit for my Barbie because my 'best friend' had stolen the exact same outfit when she came to play.

*The year I got clogs and instantly proceeded to fall down in the street trying to run across and show my friend. And then the scariest man in the whole neighborhood found me and carried me home. I was traumatized for...well, I am still traumatized.

*My mother always made Baklava. If you don't know what this is, it is paper thin sheets of phyllo dough and honey and walnuts and it is an act of God that you can even get these ingredients to adhere together, let alone have them make a delicate, crispy perfect dessert. She always had the help of a nice rum and Coke and some smokes. (My mom smoked back in the day but hasn't for about 12 years, go ma!). I mention the rum and Coke because we all need some spirits during the holidays, but if it had been me (as I have worked with phyllo dough) I'd have been drinking the Bacardi straight from the bottle with a crazy straw. Fuck the Coke.

*The year my dad decided to stain the entertainment center on Xmas Eve and the fumes were damn near overwhelming and we were all half high from fumes and the windows were open and it was freezing and my mother was yelling about the goddamn sugar cookies(!!!!)

*Same year: my dad asking my one hundred pound (soaking wet with a brick in each hand), five foot five boyfriend to help him move the ginormous entertainment center. Christ. It would have been more productive to ask me. Or the wiener dog.

*The year I thought that wearing my green and white candy cane striped footy pajamas and totally wrapping my feet in tin foil to resemble boots would be a brilliant and festive costume!

*Sitting around my aunt's table while all the adults drank and smoked and gossiped. I had huge ears and the ability to record all the gory details in my super snappy mind (that has now started to fail me. heh.)

*The year I fell down my aunt's front steps and managed to hook my foot in the railing so I ended up with my skirt around my neck doing a rather impressive yet excruciating split. (In her defense she had yelled, careful! the steps are icy! and I yelled No! They're just wet-aaaaaaaaaaah!)
*The year I asked for one of these (<~~~see photo insert) and sprained my groin.

*The year my grandmother gave me and my sister matching purses that looked like macrame plant hangers. We still begin opening her gifts with: I hope it's not a purse...

*And just a few years ago, watching A Christmas Story, no lie, THREE times before the kids finally fell asleep.

These are just a few of the gems. I have always been blessed with fab Christmases that I hope I'm passing down to my kids. Fingers crossed.

I also remember that my mother ALWAYS made Christmas super and festive no matter how stressed she was, what doofy boyfriend I had that year, or what kind of hoopla was going on . She was brilliant, always giving me a book on Christmas Eve so that a) I got a gift and b) I was occupied unless she needed me. I never minded helping because I loved Christmas. One of my favorite things to help with was wrapping. I remember many years of wrapping in front of the TV or radio while she did whatever (Baklava!) in the kitchen. I had a good run of Bloom County books for several years. I still have them. Opus and I have had some very merry Christmas Eves together. I still heart Opus.

So if you want and have the time, take a moment to share a memory with me. Yes, it's crazy and stressful and all that jazz, but it sure is fun too. And it can be a huge part of the fabric of memories we all have as we grown and age and start families of our own. (Hallmark, call me, I could write cards ;) )

XOXO
Sommer