Do you ever look in the mirror and go OMG who IS that? Or when someone makes a comment about your appearance, you are baffled and wondering who on earth they are talking about?

I do! The other day someone mentioned how surprising it was to talk to me since I looked so conservative (apparently I don't sound that way LOL) and I did the jaw-drop thing. Me? Conservative?

So it got me thinking...

Thanks so much for letting me come and play. I’m a regular at Babes in Bookland but it’s fun to jump the fence sometimes.

I just finished being mother of the bride and matron of honor for my daughter’s wedding on Saturday. What an experience. Talk about INTENSE! I did, however, do my duty and at the reception, I not only gave a toast that brought tears to the eyes of the bride and groom, I also joined a huge group of women who circled the groom singing Respect by Aretha Franklin, danced to Brick House with the bride and the mother of the groom, and danced to We Are Family with my sisters and mother.

I'm abusing the privilege here and blogging twice today, because I just got off a loop where folks are, again, talking about their RWA clothes. In the past month, every person I know has emailed or talked on a loop about what they are wearing, worried about what they are wearing, their clothes, their hair, their weight, and I'm just sitting in fearful fascination, partly glad I am not able to attend. I simply am not a clothes person -- I like the basics, and this much attention to clothes just freaks me out.

Everyone loves a page turner -- we want to read them, we want to write them. When you're writing a book, quite honestly, I've always found it difficult to know if the work is a page-turner. There's a point where the manuscript captures all of your attention, and there's a point where you can't see it any more and it may seem like the most boring thing on earth because you've looked at it for months and months. I mean, take the most exciting book you know, read it every day for four to six months, and see if you still love it. *G* That's kind of what writing is like sometimes.

But what it is that makes a page-turner?

It was really great to read the many ways we all unwind and what we do to make the time we spend with family--and ourselves--special. I wish everyone could win.

In the book I'm currently working on, which will be part of a series of four books written in conjunction with three other fabulous authors (waving at Sam, Tawny, and Lisa Renee Jones), my heroine has a secret. Outside of her parents and the hero, nobody else knows of this secret, not even her closest friends. Even the hero doesn't know all the details of the secret, despite the fact they concern him in a big way (and no, it's not a secret baby)!

So in the spirit of writing this book, I decided to share some secrets of my own, that few people know. Initially, I was going to share TEN things you might not know about me, but I think ten things would be too incriminating, so will stick with just five things...

When I was young and first started reading romance, the only heroes available were those lovable alphas…okay, maybe not so lovable. Not until you scratched the surface—or took a Black and Decker power sander and sanded the crap out of the surface—and discovered, hey, this guy has a vulnerable side that he hides at all costs and it pains him to show that side. This guy has humanity, despite his outward appearance. That was the point where the heroine and I (since we were the only people allowed to see this side of the hero) fell in love.

I loved these alphas—it was the 70’s and 80’s after all—

The Deadline Office

In the perfect version of my life, I am a super-organized person with a place for everything and everything in its place. My house would be ready for a spread in House Beautiful at a moment's notice. Floors--freshly swept, polished or vacuumed. Books--not only alphabetized but separated into genres. Windows--sparkling. Garden--raked, weeded, planted and mulched. In reality, perfections happens for about fifteen minutes before and after company arrives.

And then there's deadline time. That's a whole other mess.

Summertime is always slow motion in my head. When we were kids, growing up in Fresno, it's probably because it was so bloody hot, we couldn't breathe. But even my memories after we moved to Southern Cali have this golden-blue quality that time went a little slower at this time of year.

I'm older now. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay older. And the days just don't seem to be long enough. Hubby works. I work. The kids move at the speed of light. Before we know it, the work week has blazed through and we have to consider what to do with our weekend.

Will it be work time? Or will it be "quality time"?