Toni Anderson's Blog: Toni Anderson, page 57

Ta da!!

I'm no longer in the closet. I feel like little Harry Potter on his way to Hogwarts :) DH picked up my new desk from Minneapolis and the next night started putting it together. He is a man of action. So I now have the shortest desk in the world and LOTS more space. Yippee!!! It's still a mess but he's going to build me some wraparound shelves etc etc.
Love my hubby :)

Anyone know what this is?

It's on a vine but I don't recall planting it...

My Summer so Far.

I guess I've been quiet so far this summer. I don't feel quiet but I'm ruminating on what I've said about my school vacation (well, the kids' school vacation)--and realize I haven't said much :)

So...
We're nearly three weeks in and that fact makes me blink with a mix of horror and joy. I've been getting up early (I want to say six a.m., but six-thirty is more truthful).

I have a daily word count goal of 2K words, but I also have a cut-off time because I find if I'm online all day my wrists hurt. So far, I've made my 10K words per week and I'm at about 55K for a projected 80K novel.*Yay* :) We've had Harry Potter movie marathons and almost daily swims and we've just started packing :)

For August we're going to drive to the west coast (ha ha, yes, 2,500 km) and spend 3 weeks in the wilds of Vancouver Island while DH works at the marine lab there. Thankfully this trip doubles as a research trip for me because the WIP (DARK WATERS current working title) is set there (well--a lot of it anyway :)). I'm planning on still getting up early (oh, god) and working until noon and then taking the kids to the beach. How idyllic this is will depend on the weather and the set-up in our cabin, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'll probably blog about the trip out so I won't repeat myself by telling you our plans.

Here are some pictures of the garden. That's the worst thing--missing the month when most of the flowers will bloom. Hopefully our dog/house-sitters will give it the occasional water and maybe there will still be blooms when I get back. Hoping the Echinacea will flower and the globe thistles turn blue before we go.

Are you going anywhere special?

Sizzling Summer Reads

I'm taking part in a summer bash at The Romance Reviews. There are a series of Q&A on the party page and you can win a ton of books (mine's Q. 12 BTW).


I'm giving away a copy of EDGE OF SURVIVAL.

Surprise!

A surprise parcel arrived from Harlequin today! A few rare print copies of my books :) There's nothing quite like holding it in your paws, plus I get to give my mom a copy (not that she ever reads them *rolls eyes* :)).

I will be giving away a few copies on Goodreads in the next few months and maybe a set of all three to someone on my Newsletter list, building up to my next release, DANGEROUS WATERS. I'm so excited about this book and can't wait to share the cover and blurb.

Current Hero

Current hero. Josh Holloway. Yes, it's an excuse to have male pin-ups on my wall. So what? :) There are women up there too, but Josh is... *sigh*

First Sunflower of the Year...

Savages--Oliver Stone

 







This isn't a review :) Just a few thoughts.
I went to an advance screening of this movie last night. And I don't quite know how to start to describe what I thought about it. 
Firstly, graphic violence. I say this upfront because for the opening ten minutes you wonder if you might have wandered into a horror movie wrongly labelled 'thriller' or even a porn flick--although that's a bit harsh. But we get to see the sex first without knowing the characters and that emotional disconnection gives the scenes a hard edge.

After that, the story settles down into an above average thriller with regular scenes of violent death. 
The three leads in the story are interesting--it's a menage story (I read a friend's menage story simply to figure out how the heck the mechanics work, and discovered something else. With trust, there's an amazing capacity for love and emotion within these relationships. It isn't for me but I can see how it might work for some). So, a menage story in a big Hollywood production? I was shocked. With the whole 50 Shades thing I'm wondering if society is relaxing a little in the whole sex department?--I have no clue.
I don't want kids reading or watching this stuff, but adults? What's the problem?
Taylor Kitsch--I have to say he rocked his part and sizzled on the screen. All the other characters were good. The story starts off all hippy and bright, and ends up bloody and destroyed in a way that seems to epitomize the drug trade. Benicio Del Toro is so convincing he scares the crap out of me. Want to meet a famous actor? Ugh, no thanks, I'll just go hide over here. 
This is not a movie I would have gone to see (I hadn't even heard of it), but if you don't mind the violence (It has the same sort of kick as Pulp Fiction) then you'll probably enjoy it. 
There's a story in Savages. Lots of stories. And I enjoyed it the way you enjoy any Oliver Stone movie. With some big holes blasted in my brain and my thoughts in a jumble, but that's probably just me.

Clematis

 We have blooms! Although the neighbor's are more impressive :)

Happy Canada Day!