Gwendolyn Cease's Blog, page 23

Midweek Thoughts

So here I sit on a quiet Wednesday night. Don't know where any of my loser cats are, they're usually lounging around on the bed with me. But for a change, I'm alone. Wooo, for me. I was going to watch Mythbusters, but decided I would write instead. I opened the file on my current book and stared at it. You know what the biggest pain is for me as a writer? During the day at my other job I'm playing out scenes in my head. I can hear conversations between my characters, word for word. But by the time I make it home and do all the things I have to do . . . it's gone. Jeez louise, this whole working thing totally cramps my style. My friend and writing partner Jessica Jarman and I often discuss winning a huge lottery, but then we realize we would probably have to play to win. As with most things, we'd have to remember to get a ticket and that doesn't happen very often. Oh we talk a big stick about what we would do with the money. Buy, rent, whatever a beach house and live near the water all summer long. That's our big dream other than becoming huge Nora Roberts-esque best selling authors. I figured we could so do both and learn to adapt to our new life styles. But, once again, we'd have to buy that ticket . . oh and win. That's the other thing we'd so have to do. *sigh* Yep, I guess I'll keep my day job at the museum and keep writing at night. But if anything changes, believe me, I will certainly let everyone know. *bg*

--GC

NOOK CONTEST RESULTS!!! GRAND PRIZE WINNER Terra Pen...

NOOK CONTEST RESULTS!!!


GRAND PRIZE WINNER Terra Pennington

2nd PRIZE Miranda (Sweet Vernal Zephyr)
3rd PRIZE Jason
Congratulations!!
We'd like to thank everyone who entered. We were thrilled at the response and are so excited. The above winners will be contacted via email and will need to respond to Jessica (jessica@jessicajarman.com) within three (3) days to claim their prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.
Congratulations to the winners!
__GC

Contest Almost Over?? Already??

Yeah, I cannot believe it either. We're almost to the 11th! Heck, we're almost to the middle of the month already. Jeez louise, it goes so fast I often wonder where the time goes. There's only a few more days to enter the contest to win a Nook Color so make sure you jump on it. You have to comment on the actual contest post which is the one below.

--GC

Win a Nook Color for the New Year!!

Six sexy authors of erotic romance are coming together with a fabulous giveaway to usher in the wonderful New Year!! Entering couldn't be simpler.

Just visit each of our blogs beginning Monday, January 3rd and leave a comment on the contest post with:

* your name or user name and contact email and
* your top two (2) choices from the author's backlist to kick-start your Nook library should you winContest will close at Noon ET on Tuesday, January 11, 2011, and a winner will be drawn at 1:11pm ET from all the readers who commented on all six blogs: Gwendolyn Cease at www.gwendolyncease.blogspot.comSusanne Graham at www.suzannegraham.blogspot.comBronwyn Green at www.bronwyngreenblog.blogspot.comJessica Jarman at www.jessicajarman.blogspot.comKris Norris at www.krisnorris.blogspot.comDevon Rhodes at www.devonrhodes.blogspot.com **The Grand Prize winner will receive a brand new Nook Color and two ebooks of his/her choice from each author!**Second Prize will be winner's choice of ebook from each author's backlist**Third Prize will be winner's choice of an available print book personalized and signed by the authorMore surprises and prizes at each blog, so what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking, and when it comes up all ones, you could be the winner!Details:* In order to be eligible for the drawing, you must leave a comment at each of the six blogs with your email address and choice of two books. We're sorry, but anyone who misses a blog or forgets to leave their contact info will be disqualified. * All comments must be posted by 12:00 Noon, ET, on January 11th.* Valid entry comments must be in response to the official Contest pot on each blog, although we also welcome comments on other posts, so feel free to poke around!* The Nook will be shipped directly from the store to the winner's house. Ebooks will be emailed separately to the winner.* Winner must repond to Jessica within three days or an alternate winner will be announced. Go to my website (http://www.gwendolyncease.com) and see all available titles. Unfortunately, Blood Bond is no longer available. Sorry!!! If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me at gwendolyncease@insightbb.comGood Luck!!--GC

Being Taken to Class

So I'm sitting here watching TV and turned it on the new Oprah channel. There's a show called Master Class, which is people with experience talking about stuff. So here I am, 44 year old white writer, teacher, etc and I discover Jay-Z talking on this show. And damn the man is so intelligent and so . . . insightful. He's talking about integrity and believing in yourself and this constant striving for more in life. Yep, he is taking me to class and I am learning from what he says. I've heard his music before and even have a song on my MP3 player, but beyond that I don't know anything about him. But now, with this program, he is saying things that make sense to me. He is saying things that I can think about and mull over beyond the hour he will be on my television.

I guess the whole point of this rambling is to say that we can learn from anyone at anytime. All we have to do is open our ears and our mind and our heart. We need to listen to one another, no matter what the message is and learn to understand one another. Everyday we are given an opportunity and we need to take it and make something of it. If I learned nothing from last year, I learned that time is short. We need to take hold of life with both hands and get what we can out of it. No matter what.

--GC

My Cat has Brain Damage

I really think my cat Warlock has brain damage, bless his heart. ;-D Okay, so here's the deal. He's never ever been allowed on my coffee table. Ever! So I'm sitting on the couch writing and I look over and he's standing on the table. O_O Hello?? What?? So I shew him off the table. A second later I look over and there he is again. So I get the water bottle after him and spray him. He jumps down, licks his shoulder, and a second later there he is again. What the crap? He gets up on the table another billion times and each time he gets sprayed, usually in the face!!! And he still gets up on the table. Who does this if there isn't something mentally wrong?? Each time he's up there, he gets water in the face, gives a little cry, jumps down, and cleans his face. Another second later there he is up on the table again!!! I got nothing to explain this. All I know is that after a while my friend Jessica Jarman and i are laughing our butts off because he continues to get up on that table and gets sprayed for it every time. If nothing else, we can call him persistent.

Music and Writing

To me, music and writing go hand in hand. I can't write without the music. And I'm not one of those people who must create sound tracks or whatever for each book. Please, that would require me to be way more organized than I would ever be in my life. But I carry my MP3 player with me whenever I plan on writing. I can't concentrate unless I have that music pounding in my ears and head. I guess it stills the other thoughts I might be having. You know, worries about work, school or just normal everyday things such as the need to do laundry, mop the floor, blah, blah, blah. With someone like Missy Elliot singing about getting ur freak on I don't have the time to think about anything else, but whatever my characters are currently doing. It's hard to think about laundry when an alpha male is thinking of making a meal of the woman he so wants. I have just ordered a new MP3 player with 8 gigs of memory. Wooooo!! This will mean more songs, longer battery life and a greater opportunity to write. Which is what my ultimate goal is, of course.

--GC

Thankful for the Holidays

Can I just say how thankful I am that the holidays are almost over? This year was certainly a rough one and not something I'd want to repeat anytime too soon. My mother passed away 5 months ago from a massive stroke, which was incredibly sudden and unexpected. This left my sister and I struggling along attempting to figure out what normal is for us now. It hasn't been easy, but we are so lucky to have the friends we do. Two of our very best friends drove up from Memphis, TN (6 hours) to spend the holiday with us. We had the best time and though it did suck, it didn't suck nearly as bad as it could have. In fact, there were moments where we were laughing and having a good time. Mom would have liked that. Unfortunately, they had to leave on the 26th, but my writing partner and awesome friend Jessica Jarman flew in that afternoon. We have been writing, relaxing and talking which is exactly what I needed. Will I get a ton of writing done this week? I have no idea and I don't even think that's important. What is important is the friends I have and how thankful I am they are in my lives. So I guess, instead of being thankful the holidays are over, I need to turn it around and be thankful for all the people I love who are still in my life. My mom would appreciate that sentiment and say that I am finally celebrating the holidays right.

Museum Madness

In my real life I work at a museum as an educator. I love it. I still can work with the kids, but don't have to deal with meetings, grading, meetings, lesson plans, meetings . . . you get the picture. Anyway, so I'm walking around with a group of high schoolers and one stops next to a huge poster we have hung up near a stairwell. On it, one of our actors is dressed as Annie Oakley and she's holding one of our membership cards.

One of the boys says, "Oh man, Annie Oakley was so cool."

Another asks, "Who's that?"

First kid replies, "Annie Oakley was a famous sharp-shooter during the 1800s. She could even shoot a rifle over her shoulder with just a mirror to help her see."

Second kid says, "1800s? So how did she get to be a member of this museum?"

First kid looks at him like this O_O and finally says, "Duuuuuude."

Second kid, "What?"

First kid, "Never mind."

*sigh* Every time I think I've heard it all, someone sets out to prove me wrong.

Saturday Travels

So last Saturday my sister and I hit the road for a day trip. She has this fascination with a place called Big Bone Lick State Park. Yeah, I swear that's really the name. It happens to sit on a road called . . . wait for it . . . Beaver Road. I was telling my friend Jessica it should really sit in the town of Boobieville. I mean really, did a bunch of ten year old boys sit around and think up names? The name supposedly comes from the gigantic mastadon and mammoth bones that were found way back in the day. Apparently, these animals would show up for the salt licks in the area and got sucked down into a huge muddy pit.

I have no idea what she thought the place would be like, but it wasn't all that. It took us nearly 2 hours to get there, driving through areas that I swear I could hear the banjos strumming. And once there, we stayed maybe an hour. Not a lot to do beyond look at the bones, the one huge diorama they have set up, and hike a bit. We then had lunch, not there since there is no where to eat, but an Arby's and hit the road again. To the wineries!!! Wooo hoooo! Way nicer than Big Bone Lick and much more to do . . . like taste wine and buy wine. Totally made my weekend.