Dee J. Adams's Blog, page 14

You Heard It Here: iPhone

As most of you know… it’s birthday month and for my birthday I received a much needed new phone. But not just ANY new phone. I got an iPhone! Do I love it? Really? Need you ask? I adore it! Yes, I know the new iPhone 5s are coming out… like NOW, but I really couldn’t wait and I’m so thrilled with my 4s that I’m not unhappy in the least. (Not to mention that because the 5s were so near to release, I got my 4s for a song! Doesn’t get better than that!)

My old phone – which shall be aptly called from this point on POS – is now history. Thank God. That thing stunk. It was discontinued shortly after I bought it. Naturally. But I digress…

My new phone… Dare I use the word – orgasmic? Yes, that’s how much I love it. I’m comparing it to orgasms. (That is so wrong. Yet on the road to the truth nevertheless.) And the case…don’t even get me started on the joy of my Mophi. It’s a charger too. Between the phone battery and the charger, my phone has a solid 12 hours of go time. Yay!

I’ll be chalking this birthday up to an absolute success. This is also my last chance in September to wish Dangerous Race a happy belated first birthday!!

What about you? Any favorite b-day gifts?

You Heard It Here: I Covet…

It’s still birthday month so I thought I’d share my birthday book. Literally this time.

Because I entered the RITA Awards, my publisher, Carina Press, had to print up some copies for the contest. Had I finalled, I wouldn’t have seen my books, but as it stands, Carina sent me the left over copies. I covet them. Yes, I do… I covet the copies of my books. I’ve given a few away and still have a couple more to give to family members, but I’m keeping one for myself. I stare at it when I get down. LOL.

This book represents over ten years of trying to get published. Ten years of wondering if anyone would enjoy my stories, style and voice. There is a lot going on in my head when I look at this book. And it’s all pretty damn emotional!

What about you? What do you covet? What item do you have that represents a struggle or triumph in your life?

You Heard It Here: Happy Birthday

Since this is my birthday month – and the one year birthday of my first book, Dangerous Race on September 5th – I thought I’d tell a couple of Hollywood birthday stories.

The first is from my days working on Roseanne. Someone had had a birthday on set and Roseanne didn’t find out about it until after the fact. She was a little upset that she hadn’t known and hadn’t wished that person a happy birthday. She made an executive announcement: From now on, you people better tell me when it’s your birthday! (I may not have gotten the exact words right, but it was something to that effect.) Now, just imagine those words in her high pitch voice with a little bit of anger behind it. LOL. (She was good at making decrees like a queen of her castle might do. To my knowledge that has not changed. )

Like a good employee, I mentioned that my birthday was the next day. (Good timing on my birthday’s part, I guess.) Low and behold, the next day, Rosie came to work with a gift for me. She brought me a Laura Ashley coffee table book about home decor. It was lovely. Not anything in that book would ever grace my house, but the thought was sweet and I still have the book today.

Fast forward about 15 years and the time I was working on Still Standing. I had a milestone birthday on our show night (which meant I was working a solid 11 hour day and wouldn’t really get to celebrate my birthday). Jamie Gertz, who starred in the show had the same milestone birthday as me (about 6 weeks later). I think we were both feeling the weight of that birthday so we bonded a bit. I never expected a cast member of any show I worked on to bring me a birthday present, so when Jamie gifted me with two spectacular matching diamond bracelets, I nearly fell over. They are beautiful and I think my jaw hit the floor. There may have been tears… LOL.

So those are my birthday stories. What about you? Any cool surprises or great birthday stories to share?

You Heard It Here: Life Imitates Art

Two days ago while Danica Patrick was running in first place during the Nationwide Series race in Montreal, someone threw a shoe onto the track. Danica rolled right over it. Imagine the velocity of the shoe when it kicked up under her car? You can guess… it did some damage. She lost a bracket under the car and ended up in 26th place.

Now, imagine what might’ve happened if she or anyone else rolled over that shoe at a different angle? There might have been a serious chain of events, especially with all those cars running so closely together. It makes every race a Dangerous Race.

When I came up with the idea for Dangerous Race, I never really thought that anyone would throw anything onto the track, but the reality is it’s a possibility (as shown on Saturday when this happened to Danica). If you want to check out what happens when a race car goes over oil on the track… check out the first book in the Adrenaline Highs series. Dangerous Race.

Personally, I’m not nearly brave enough to want to race cars for a living. What about you? Are you a daredevil? Do you like to live life on the edge? Do you like high octane fun?

Letting Loose

I very recently took a trip to my hometown of El Paso, Texas to visit family. I’ve discovered that when I visit in the summer time, I’m usually in for at least one lightning storm… especially when it’s hot. There’s nothing like a good old Texas heat/lightning/thunder storm.

My daughter took this awesome picture and it was only one of many. (So hard to pick just one!) Okay… a little late, but here’s another:

And one more:

Mother nature really knows how to let loose and I guess I took some advice the following night when my daughter and I went on a road trip with cousins. We drove about 30 minutes or so into New Mexico (for a great Mexican dinner!) in a Jeep with no windows and the stereo blasting. Talk about reverting to high school! It was awesome! So much fun to let loose and enjoy the best parts of life.

How about you? Let loose lately? What did you do to let off steam?

You Heard It Here: Remember Me?

It’s the first of the month, which means it’s time for another Hollywood story. Since I’ve given you a few that happened so many years ago, I thought I’d tell you something recent.

A few of you may be aware that I worked on Roseanne twenty years ago. (I was Roseanne’s stand-in and dialogue coach.) You also may or may not be aware that she recently shot a new pilot for NBC co-starring John Goodman. (No they were not reprising their roles on Roseanne. They played different characters in a different situation and they weren’t married.) Many of the old crew members were called to work on the show including me, and I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I knew it would be a great reunion.

Speaking of reunion, here’s a pic on set of some of my favorite people in the whole world.

Because the show was a bit on the high profile side (yes, that’s an understatement!), we had some fairly high profile people on the set. Two in particular stood out for me. The first was Ryan Reynolds. And, yes, he’s as gorgeous as you might think! I’ve never met him or worked with him, but it didn’t stop me from enjoying his presence. LOL. But the next guy I spotted… now he is a man I’d worked with. When I saw Matthew Perry, my jaw hit the floor. I hadn’t seen him in about twenty years. I worked  with him on his very first show on FOX called, Boys Will Be Boys. It later became Second Chance. Matthew was only sixteen at the time and he was just as funny then as he is now. I walked right up to him and said, “Matthew, you probably don’t remember me, but we worked together on Boys Will Be Boys.” Bless his heart… he smiled and shook my outstretched hand. “I do remember you!” he said. Well, even if he didn’t, he made my day! Later, when I had a few minutes we talked some more and it was great seeing him again. That’s the one thing about Hollywood… it’s a small town and it’s common to run into people at some point in time if you’ve worked with them in the past.

So, not only did I get a reunion from many of my Roseanne cohorts, but I also got an extra benefit to the gig. (If only George Clooney would’ve stopped in! I think we were all hoping for that. LOL.)

What about you? Have you met up with an old acquaintance someplace you didn’t expect to see them?

RWA Conference Follow-up.

What a week! RWA has wrapped its conference for 2012 and Anaheim may never be the same! There is no place else in the world where such lovely, sharing, caring people come together than at an RWA conference. (Notice I said people, because as women heavy as the conference is there are always a few men and I don’t want to exclude them! Waving at Tom, Rick and Larry specifically. )

So tell me about your conference experience. Did you pitch? Did you walk up to Nora and get your picture taken with her. (Rick, I know your answer already!!) Who did you meet? Who did you see? Who did you go fangirl/boy over?

You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine!

Spill!!

Dangerously Close is here!!

My pal and fellow suspense author, Joan Swan was nice enough to have me at her house today, so come on over and hear a little about the making of the Dangerously Close audio book!

Giving away of a digital copy of DC for one lucky commenter. C’mon by! I’d love to see you!

Danger Zone Winners Circle!

Congrats to Lindsey and all the Danger Zone winners this week!

Hope you all enjoy the adventure!

Join me on Monday for the release of Dangerously Close! I’ll be blogging at Joan Swan’s place so stop by and say hello for a chance to win a copy!

Last Chance to Win Danger Zone!

I can’t believe the next time I’m here it’s going to be announcing the release of Dangerously Close!

Thanks to everyone who came by and congrats to all the winners this week. I hope you enjoy Danger Zone and are primed and ready for Dangerously Close!

The last question of the week:

How man of you like to read stories with animals? Dogs, cats, monkey, whatever? Do you like characters to have furry (or scaly) friends?