Julia London's Blog, page 3

September 11

My daughter’s boyfriend works in New York City, posted this picture to his Facebook yesterday, taken when he got out of work late and realized the ghost lights were on.

A very moving reminder of all we lost that day, and all we gained from each other in the aftermath. Peace and love to you all.

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Cereal Killers

It’s that time of year! Halloween, when monster cereals make their return to the cereal aisle and I resume my torrid affair with Count Chocula. 

My most favorite breakfast cereal ever, Count Chocula. I also love his friends, Frankenberry and Boo Berry. When they can’t be found (not Halloween), I occasionally indulge in my next favorite, Lucky Charms.

My husband doesn’t understand my love for the Count. He prefers Cap’n Crunch. In fact, he maintains that the Cap’n is really an Admiral but Admiral Crunch just doesn’t have the same ring as Captain Crunch.

My friend Dee Davis doesn’t understand my love for the Count. She’s not a cereal person. She prefers waffles. Hey, I like waffles too. But even better if they came in chocolate with mini-marshmallows (note to self: look into that).

What’s your favorite cereal? Do you even like cereal? For breakfast or for dessert or late night snacking?

 

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Sparked Cover

 

My new ebook release, coming in November 2012!

Sparks fuel desire… When a rebellious sorcerer of New Mystic City steals the Queen’s ancient and powerful scepter, warrior witch and security commander Abia Quinn is charged with the vital mission of retrieving the vital artifact, but she doesn’t count on a startling encounter with NYPD lieutenant Nick Westin, who unknowingly has captivating and rare powers of his own.

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Weekend Reads: Harry Potter Series

I’m not actually reading them again. I’m watching the movies on ABC Family, playing them all weekend. 

Fond memories. I read the books with my kids as they came out, when they were the ages of the kids cast in the films. Watching the Potter kids grow through the films is like going through the memory box, remembering what my own kids were up to or looking like at the time. Especially poignant since this is the first full weekend with both of mine away at college.

 

Have you read the Potter books? Watched the movies? Just for you, or with your kids? Do you plan to do so, if you have young children now? 

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From Sunny St. Louis

Writing in my outdoor office while the housekeeper cleans my room. Gorgeous weather. There are woods all around and a river running right beyond the pool. Some of the leaves are just starting to turn. The cicadas are near-deafening, but I like their sound. Yeah, this isn’t home. I’m at a Marriott in St. Louis, MO. But I’m here enough that it feels a little bit like home now.

I love traveling! Concierge lounge breakfast, housekeeping, discovering new places, new restaurants, new people. I’m tagging along on another one of my husband’s business trips. We just dropped both kids off at college, and our empty nest awaits at home.

Scratch that. Not quite empty. There’s Kylie, my aging Pembroke Welsh corgi, and my dad is still living with us. But at least, I have someone to watch my house while I’m gone.

Life is good. At least until I get my revision notes back from my editor. How are you doing?

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Living La Vita Loca

 

 

This isn’t Sparta and Gerard Butler’s 300 The Movie abs aren’t here.  But it is madness!  And it is DragonCon 2013.  Welcome to the insanity of every Sci-Fi, paranormal, fantasy, and anything out there that interests and feeds the wild and eclectic minds of serious DragonCon beasts and connoisseurs.   Filling most of downtown Atlanta’s hotels every Labor Day Weekend for twenty plus years, Dragon Con has become a beast of a convention that meets up to its legendary name.  Panels and workshops on just about every TV show, book, movie, comic book series, or gaming niche that collects a following can be found here with all of their stars to talk to fans and to share fun stories and facts.

So what is a fifty something year old writer doing here?  Having a mid-life geeky crisis? LOL no.  I am speaking on writing panels on how to learn the magic of writing stories and, attempting to sell books.  With a crowd of about sixty thousand people or more, this is a happening place with lots of readers who enjoy just about everything under the sun.

Shh.. Don’t tell anyone but I here Stephen Amell (From The Arrow on CW) is here.  Maybe I will get lucy and meet him…or maybe meet one of the Vampire Diary Hunks, or one of the True Blood wild men, or…just wow…there are so many possibilities.  Wish me luck and more to come.  Meanwhile here are a few of the personas and creatures roaming the landscape.  All of them getting ready to be in the DragonCon Parade.

Oh, I almost Forgot!  Wild Irish Ride and Smooth Irish Seduction by Jennifer Saints are now available on I-books.  So follow @ibooks on twitter and spread the news. More on my exciting changes coming soon.   Happy reading and tweeting and I’ll be back with more DragonCon updates soon.

Enjoy

 

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Midweek Reads: Jane Eyre

The original! If you haven’t picked it up in awhile, treat yourself. Or watch the movie version with Michael Fassbender as Rochester (hubba). Or if you have read Jane Eyre, maybe try Wide Sargasso Sea (Bertha Rochester’s story reimagined) or Jane Slayre (fun times, vampyre slaying). Or Jane Eyre Laid Bare, the erotic retelling.

From Goodreads, Jane Eyre:

Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity.

She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman’s passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed.

With a heroine full of yearning, the dangerous secrets she encounters, and the choices she finally makes, Charlotte Bronte’s innovative and enduring romantic novel continues to engage and provoke readers.

Are you a Jane fan, or do you think she needs to lighten up a little? 

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Strange Hobbies and Their Repercussions

My husband looks down at my foot, up at me, and then back at my foot.

“How did this happen?” David asks, pointing to the big toe where I am missing the “top half” of my toe nail.

“Jiu jitsu on Tuesday, I caught my toes on the mat when we were practicing elbow escapes. I heard it snap and I knew I was going to lose it.  It’s kind of cool, though.  It’s my first real martial arts injury.”

David sighs.  “This is going to be so much worse than cake decorating, isn’t it?”

Now, to be fair, he has some reason to be worried. My hands are covered with scars of various sizes  from the years I spent decorating cakes as a hobby.  I burned my wrists getting the cakes out of the oven.  I cut my fingertips with knives and fondant sculpting tools. Between the injuries, the cursing and the fine layer of Crisco and powdered sugar coating our kitchen, David finally put his foot down and told me I had to choose between cakes and writing books.  And the books were just a little bit more profitable.

On the other hand, David, a black belt who has been practicing karate since he was 15, once knocked himself unconscious with a nungchuk.  So I don’t think he has a lot of room to talk.

I’ve always had slightly strange hobbies, playing the tuba in the high school band, cake decorating, analyzing and mocking badly made mutant shark movies.  And these fascinations have left their marks on me. I started Brazilian jiu jitsu lessons a few months ago because I wanted to add another layer of activity to my fitness plan.  I’ve wanted to try martial arts for years, but thought it would be best for my marriage not to put myself in the position of being instructed (read: constantly corrected) by my husband.  So I went with a completely different style at a different school.

By the end of the first lesson,  I found that I really enjoyed learning the physics and physiology behind the various maneuvers.  I liked knowing that if some crazy stranger tried to sucker punch me, I would know what to do. (I don’t know what sort of life decisions hypothetical me would make that lead to being sucker punched, but it’s important to be prepared.)  And I came up with an idea for a contemporary series based on my experience.

By the end of the second lesson, I had kicked myself in the shin hard enough to leave a bruise.

It’s OK, though.  I still have nine toenails left.

So does anyone else here have slightly off-center hobbies? (Also, am I the only one out there whose hobbies are putting her on the injured list?)

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Weekend Reads: Outlander

Hard to believe, perhaps, (especially since we were just discussing Dee Davis’s fabulous time travel romances) but I’ve never read Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books. I asked my Facebook and Twitter peeps if I should, and the answer was a resounding YES! So I guess I will get right on that.

From Goodreads:

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon–when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach–an “outlander”–in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord…1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life…and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire…and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

Have you read Outlander? What did you think?

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What’s Good for the Goose…

New trend alert: Dudeoir Photoography. 

You’ve heard of Boudoir portraits? Women having artsy, glamorized photos taken of themselves in lingerie or suggestive poses? Often as presents for their men or to boost their own self-esteem. I have a friend (not a Whine Sister) who had this done and she loved the results, felt really great about herself, and loved giving the pictures to her husband. Well, apparently, guys want to feel good about themselves, too. 

Sometimes, they are gifts for the wife. Sometimes, just to immortalize how they feel about themselves at any given time. Whatever. 

I can’t imagine my husband doing this. Like me, he’s far too camera-shy. But hey, why not? Jezebel and the New York Post have run articles on the growing trend. I love how one man taking pictures for his wife observes in the New York Post that “The whole shoot was designed with her in mind — it’s not a case of ‘Hi, here is my penis!’ but a more sensual approach.”

Well, thank goodness for that. Taking notes, Anthony Weiner?

My mind keeps going back to George Costanza, and the pirate dude in Jezebel, but what do you think of the trend? 

 

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