Lynsay Sands

Just an update

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:27:55 GMT

It’s been so long since I posted, nobody probably checks here anymore. That’s all right though.

Anyway, I thought I’d update on what’s been happening and what’s upcoming. So, let’s see . . . well, we spent a good portion of the time after returning from St. Lucia prepping the house for sale. That translates to decluttering and a bit of painting, nothing major. And then we put the house up for sale in May. It perhaps wasn’t the best time to do it, I had two books due June 1^st, but when do I NOT have books due? So, whatever.

Anyway, we put it up for sale and the showings started. Every showing we had to clean up, pack up kitty and evacuate the premises. IT WAS DRIVING ME NUTS. As was Mr. Spice who was also being driven nuts, so was in turn, adding to making me nuts as well. So, I packed up the computer and moved to a motel for a month. Mr. Spice and Emma sometimes visited during showings, but otherwise it was very quiet and productive. It was also really annoying to be in a little motel room when you do have a lovely big house you could be working in (grimace). Ah well. I came back a week and a half ago.

My editor and agent are already reading the latest Argeneau I sent them. They’re half way through and both claim to love it. They kinda have to say that though, don’t they? I mean, it’s my agent and editor. The story gave me a hard time. I wanted light, it wanted dark (as it often seems to do when I’m revealing Argeneau family secrets). I finally gave in to the dark and then it wanted to go for an extra 30,000 words. I had to cut it back and managed to cut 20,000. But that was the best I could do, my editor will have to see what she comes up with.

And now I’m working here around showings. Miss Terri (aka Tori the house elf) has moved out to her own place . . . Did I mention miss Terri has a boyfriend? She’s had him a couple of months now and his name is . . . wait for it . . . DAVE!! Seriously, lol. She’s dating a Dave. It gets a bit confusing when we’re yipping now cause we sometimes confuse which Dave she’s speaking about. Ah well. We like him. We had dinner together and he’s a nice guy.

So . . . hmmm . . . I think that’s all the news I have. Oh, except we’re supposed to be going to RWA in San Francisco. I am saying supposed to because there’s this Murphy’s law about if it can happen it will . . . and I’m thinking that someone will offer to buy the house and give us a short deadline that coincides with the conference or something and forces us to not go but to be waist deep in boxes instead. I’m hoping not, but you just know something weird will happen. If not though, Tori, Dave and I are all going to be in San Francisco the end of July.

Well, that’s it for me. I’m off to torment my historical guy. Hope you’re all well

Lynsay

Single White Vampire & The Rogue Hunter

Fri, 23 May 2008 20:19:26 GMT

As promised, here are the covers for my next books - The Rogue Hunter - to be published on September 30th and the reissued Single White Vampire - complete with entirely new cover art.

That's all for now. Normal service will be resumed as soon as I've finished writing Argeneau number 11

Lynsay

The Rogue Hunter

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:39:16 GMT

I haven’t posted for a while. I have considered doing so a couple of times but there never seems to be anything to post about. My life is incredibly boring. At least that’s what I kept thinking and then this morning Mr. Spice came into my office and said he wanted to post the new book covers which arrived in the mail today (both the Italian translation of The Reluctant Reformer and the cover for The Rogue Hunter which comes out at the end of September) and would I write a quick blog to go with them. I grumbled that yes, I’d try to think of something to write, then sat back and I did try to come up with something. After several minutes I thought with irritation that there was really nothing to write about and I’m pretty boring.

Finally, in exasperation I started going through the last couple or three months trying to sort out what had been going on. Well, there was my trip to the tropics but I’d posted about that. Then there were the three books that came out; The Accidental Vampire, Vampires Are Forever and Vampire Interrupted. All of which placed high on the New York Times lists as well as lists like USA Today, Publisher's Weekly, Borders, etc. AND they stayed on those lists for weeks so that I’ve pretty much been on the lists every week for three months now.

So . . . there was Christmas, a trip to the tropics with my booty-shaking runner-upness (see previous blog), Easter, and my books entering the New York Times list at #10, # 6, and # 3 . . . Nothing much happening, right? LOL.

But really, that hardly makes for an interesting tale and my working on corrections for The Rogue Hunter, which, incidentally, is the title of the next book in the Argeneau series and is published on September 30th. . . or corrections for the next historical which I don’t yet have a cover for . . . or my working on writing the next immortal and historical at the same time . . . Well, that’s hardly entertaining to you guys and that’s about all I’ve been doing, that and cuddling up with Mr. Spice for a couple hours a week to watch American Idol. (Yes, I know. We’re sad creatures, but hey, music, cuddling with Mr. Spice . . . and then I go back to writing <Grin>)

So, I guess I’ll stop boring you guys and get back to it. (Mr. Spice has come in the office at least three times since he asked me to do this. I think he’s anxious to get the information posted.) But first I want to thank you guys for all the support and encouragement and lovely letters you’ve been sending, and thank you VERY much for getting the Argeneaus so high on those lists. I never imagined this when I started writing.

Thank you.

Lynsay

p.s.

My publisher has asked that I don't show the cover illustration until they've done some additional work and got the promotion stuff underway - hence the reason that the picture has now disappeared.

Shake It, Baby, Shake It

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:49:30 GMT

Well now, I’ve been trying to figure out what to blog about for days now. Well, I know what I want to blog about, but it’s wayyyyy too silly and you’ll all roll your eyes and shake your heads and-- Well, heck, I’m used to that so I’ll tell it anyway, lol.

So, as you may have heard, Terri, Jackie and I went to St. Lucia for a week. It was warm and sunny there, lovely people, palm trees, sand and sea . . . I shall post a pic or two for you to see how lovely. Anyway, we had a nice time. We flew in Sunday, explored the town of Castries Monday, going to the Market and so on. Then we had a “chill on the beach” day Tuesday. I actually got to READ A BOOK!!! OMG!! It was such a pleasure.

Anyway, the next day, Wednesday, was a spa day. The three of us went in for pedicures, manicures, facials, massage, the whole works. I swear, by the time the girl was done with me every muscle in my body was a soggy noodle. Since I’m usually as wound up as a clock and simply find it impossible to relax, this was no small thing. Thursday was mega day. We ended up booked on two excursions, sort of by accidents. We had a bit of trepidation about this beforehand. One was an all day cruise/drive. It started with a cruise around the island on a catamaran to a small village where we all got off and piled into several very nice passenger vans which then drove us to a town called Souffre (Gad I hope I spelled that right) There the air was heavy with the unpleasant scent of sulphur and the locals rushed out with their wares, necklaces made of lave rock and so on. From there we continued up into the hills to a collapsed volcano that we could walk right into. Not telling more about that cause you know it’s gonna be in a future book.

Then we went to a cocoa plantation and saw how cocoa is dried and so on to make 100 % pure chocolate for Hershey’s. You know I bought a stick. Yes a stick. It’s a little bigger around than a broom stick, but only about six inches long. It’s solid and heavy and smells SOOOO yummy. I was also given some spices with it and a recipe to make hot chocolate that calls for grating some off the stick, adding the herbs and spices, boiling and so on. I haven’t tried it yet, but will. After that we had a meal at the plantation, followed by a chocolate desert that was lovely. Then we all piled into the passenger vans and were returned down the mountain to the catamaran. We sailed back, pausing for a swim in a cove along the way, sailing back into the cove by our resort at 4:30. This left us exactly half an hour to get off, walk back to the resort, go to the bathroom and then rush back for the 5:00 sunset cruise. I should mention here . . . Yes, it was a long excursion, an all day deal.

But that wasn’t the big worry. You see, rum punch is a big drink on St. Lucia, especially at the resort. It was everywhere and usually free, and it was the drink of choice and on offer on the catamaran. There were other offerings like Bounty rum and bananas (don’t ask. I never quite worked out the banana thing). Anyway, the point is, it’s hot on the boat. You are mostly exposed and under the bright sun, and Jackie had warned us that she’d seen the cruise before and that it always rode out with a quiet, conservative type group and then came back into harbor at night with a singing, laughing, cheering and carousing crowd. Which would be fine, except that the same thing tended to happen with the sunset cruise too, and she was concerned about our being on one and the other and . . . well, you get the idea. I told her not to worry, yes it would be a long day out in the sun and sea air, and yes the rum punch would flow, but we would pace ourselves. It would be fine. We could do it.

I am very proud to say that we did. WE WERE AWESOME. While everyone else started on the rum punches as soon as we boarded at EIGHT in the MORNING, we stuck to bottled water. I then switched to diet coke, not going near the rum punch until the cruise ride back in mid-afternoon. I’m pretty sure Jackie and Terri were too, though I didn’t police their drinks. We were a little wind swept, a little salty from our swim and happily tired when the first cruise came to an end, but otherwise fine. We were a little late getting in and only had about 15 or 20 minutes before the next cruise so hopped off and went to use the washrooms at the resort while the catamaran was taken out, cleaned and restocked for the sunset cruise.

Unfortunately, because we were running from one cruise to the other without time between to change, we were a little underdressed compared to the others. We were in swimsuits and cover ups, with sunhats rosy red cheeks and probably redder noses from the sun while the rest were in evening, island casual; pretty much a dress shorts and polo shirts kind of thing. We just shrugged. What can you do, right? The sunset cruise was a gift and we couldn’t just give it a miss was our thought and afterward I was terribly glad our mother taught us good manners and to be polite. I would have been sorry had we missed that cruise. There were a ton of yummy hors d’oeuvres and, of course, the customary rum punch. We - A little low on energy after our all day excursion - indulged in both and started to chat and interact with our cohorts on this latest cruise. We were the only ones on it from the first cruise (No one else would have dared two in a day I think, lol.) We were having fun, enjoying the tour of the bays and the setting sun and yipping with everyone when they headed back out to sea and then called all the women up to the center of the catamaran to line up in rows with one of the crew members, a young woman, before us.

While the boat gently pitched on the swells, we were expected to keep our feet while at the same time emulating a dance she showed us. It was a shake your booty contest and it was all about the hips, moving those while keeping your upper body still, sort of like you do in belly dancing but with a lot more. . . umm . . . shaking of your groove thing. Well, while Terri’s voice rang in my ears with “We’re Canadian, we don’t do that” (ROFLMAO) I copied our instructor’s stance, spread my legs, bent my knees a bit and proceeded to do my best to emulate what she was teaching, lol. As a dear friend of mine put it, I SHOOK WHAT MY MAMA GAVE ME! And DAMNNNNNNNN, when the music stopped, one of the male crew members went along, pausing behind each of us for a clap vote and do you know WHAT? DAMNNNNNN!!! I made it to the finals. It meant I had to do it again and stuff, but DAMNNNNNNNNN! I was one of the last three contestants and a runner up before losing out to a cute little 18 year old. The men had to line up and do it next and then we arrived back at the resort, the second cruise now over. The minute we landed we headed back to the villa to change before our dinner reservations.

The first thing I did when I got in was to call Mr. Spice to tell him that he had a booty shaking, hottie of a wife who could get her groove thing on well enough to be a runner up in a contest. He—being a man—had no concept of what this meant. He did not understand the earth shaking import behind this news. His response was a droll “I’m more impressed that my wife made 3 on the NY Times.” Clearly, the man has his priorities ALL MESSED UP. Sigh. Anyway, the rest of the trip was lovely, but I was glad to come home to Mr. Spice. He may not understand the importance of a booty shaking wife, but he’s still a sweetie.

Hope you’re all well.

Lynsay, the booty shaking NY Timer.

Hello Again

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:47:14 GMT

I started to write this blog last night while cooking. Yes, cooking, shocking as it is to everyone in this household, I finally took a turn. Usually Dave and Terri man the kitchens here at Spice acres while I write, but I got the story done and sent out Monday and, not having any corrections at the moment, have been running around trying to get ready for the trip to St. Lucia. However, I also ran out and grabbed the fixings to make a homemade Lasagna. It turned out lovely, by the way (Thank God!!! It’s been so long since I cooked I feared I might set the house on fire or accidentally poison everyone, but no. YAY!!) Only now they’re thinking I should help out with the cooking more often.

Hmmm. That wasn’t very clever of me, was it? LOL.

Actually, it turned out okay, but I suspect the compliments came more from love of me than love of my cooking, if you know what I mean. Family are lovely that way. Well, except me. I can’t lie worth a poop. If something tastes horrible or looks horrible, or reads horrible and someone is cruel--or foolish--enough to ask my opinion, I will get this wide-eyed, deer in the headlights, “OH GOD!” look on my face and say, “It’s nice,” in this high, panicked type voice. Don’t know why. I think it’s because when we were kids we were told, “Everyone makes mistakes and we won’t be angry at you or punish you for that, but lying about it is bad and we will be very angry and punish you twice over for that.”

Much to my parent’s dismay, I took this too heart. I think I made my poor mother crazy. I would skip class to hang out in the bathroom smoking and writing (Yeah, I was a geek delinquent. Other’s skipped out to go OFF school property and party, I skipped out and headed for the girl’s washroom because I just had to write this one scene . . . I was and still am a very sad case (grin)

Anyway, I would skip out and then later when I went home and Mom would ask how my day was, my answer was , “Okay, I skipped Consumer studies and English.” (The English class I skipped was the only BAD English teacher I ever had. I shall explain later.) Mom would get this expression, it was priceless, It was part “I can’t believe you’re telling me this” and part, “Oh crap, because you ARE telling me this I CAN’T give you real hell.” I really don’t think my mother knew quite what to do with me. Actually, now that I think of it, she often had this somewhat befuddled look on her face that was very similar to one Dave often gets around me. Hmm. Terri sometimes has it too, but after all this time, more often than not just shakes her head and walks away.

Anyway, that’s my explanation for why I don’t seem to be able to lie. I never bothered as a kid, got no practice and simply can’t be bothered to learn how now. Although, I do think it would be nice to be better at it when it would save feelings, like when a new recipe tastes like dog food but you know the person worked hard and don’t want to hurt their feelings even though they do have taste buds in their mouths and probably know it’s dog food too. Then it would be good to be a better liar.

So . . . Back to the bad English teacher. First I shall say that I had some WONDERFUL English teachers. Especially Mr. Brady. There is a man I would love to find and thank. He really nurtured and encouraged my writing. Unfortunately, the school where he worked is no longer a middle school but a grade school and I couldn’t find him through the searches I’ve tried. But I digress, back to the crackpot English teacher. That sounds rude, but truly, she was a bit of a flake. The woman kept taking me aside and telling me she thought I should drop out of high school. I thought she thought I was a moron or something and couldn’t pass her class and found it terribly demoralizing. Then, one day, maybe 3/4s of the way through the year, my History teacher came to me with an essay I did on Napoleon for his class. He told me he’d been sure I’d plagiarized my essay. He said, he was so sure I’d just lifted it out of a history book that he’d checked the reference books in the school library and--not finding anything like it-- finally took it to my English teacher to ask if this really could be my writing. I believe I flinched when he said this. I mean, this is the same woman who kept telling me to drop out of school. I figured she’d trash me. But, he then added, “She said, ‘Nope, that’s her work. Actually, it’s sloppy for her. She can do better.”

Well, you could have blown me over with a feather. She’s saying things like that to him, and then telling me I should drop high school? What the heck? (Heck is not the word I was using at the time.) I was something like 16 or maybe 17. Teenage angst was riding my back and those horrid hormones were messing with the brain . . . so, I stormed off on a witch hunt. I found her at her desk in her empty classroom. I flung the A++ paper on her desk with all the dramatic flourish only a teenager can pull off and said, “What?”

She raised her eyebrows in her usual supercilious manner, but said nothing. Well, that was it. I was all righteous anger and, “What’s this crap about I can do better and I’m an excellent writer and meanwhile you’re telling ME I should drop out of highschool?! What the hell is that all about?”

“It’s about your future,” said she, perfectly calm. “I do think you should drop out of school. You will be a fine writer someday, but you need to suffer for your art. I think you should drop out of school and experience what’s it’s like to truly live.”

I think my jaw actually fell off my face. I mean, COME ON!! What kind of crack pot crap was that to spout to a teenager? Suffer for my art? What? Did she mean live in the gutter? Become a drug addict? Try prostitution maybe? I stared at her, thinking she was completely screwed up, and then I’m afraid I told her so. She’d caused me no end of misery with her constant prodding at me to drop out, I’d taken it horribly, feeling more stupid and useless each time she returned a story unmarked and said I should drop out, so I blasted her one. Don’t regret it to this day.

So that was the one bad English teacher I had. Considering we moved a lot when I was a kid, and then you have a different English teacher each year, I’d guess I had more than 12 English teachers before university. So one bad one is pretty good. Not even ten percent, right?

Well, I’m off to do last minute shopping before the trip to St. Lucia. Be sure to stop in and say hey to Mr. Spice who will be here all by himself with Miss Emma, the cat. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the peace and quiet for a day or two, but . . . well, come on, the place will be a tomb without Terri and I here to annoy him. LOL. Hey to all!

Lynsay

Health, a boring subject so feel free to pass on to Mr. Spice (grin)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:26:04 GMT

I am sitting here irritated with myself. Why? Because of this attempt to sleep 8 hours a day and take at least an hour or so out of a day for me-time (read time with Dave and biking for my health) rather than work from the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed.

This nonsense really slows me down in my writing. I mean, sleeping a whole eight hours means at least four hours less of writing a day and sometimes as many as six or seven or even eight because I previously ran along on four hours sleep a night and sometimes as few as two or none, skipping bed altogether prior to this to get a story done. And then the hour or two of me-time takes more time away from writing.

This is, of course, all an attempt to be healthier. You see, I read in the paper that disruptions in sleep have been linked with the risk of diabetes. Weird huh? I thought to myself, Nahhhhhh. And then I started testing this theory and here’s what I found.

After only 4 hours of sleep my blood sugar is over 8 (sorry, I’m not sure what the U.S. equivalent is, but 8 is basically a very bad count for fasting blood)

After 5 hours sleep, I wake up with a blood sugar over 7 (also bad).

After 6 hours it’s 6.8 (still not great).

After 7 hours I am running 5.8 (this is a good number)

And after a full eight hours of sleep I generally wake up with a blood sugar level of 4.8 which is excellent.

Yes, it is usually the .8 and yes it is regular as clockwork that way with a variation of maybe a point or so.

Huh, I thought. That’s kind of weird. I guess I have been wrecking my health with this no or little sleeping business. No wonder my blood sugar was off the chart after months and months of all work and little sleep. So, I determined to sleep 8 hours every night as the first step to taking better care of myself. And, oddly enough, while I used to wake up chipper and chirpy on 4 hours sleep, with 8 hours of sleep I often wake up kind of grumpy. (I will deny that if anyone else says it, but it IS true.) I’m not sure why, I suspect it’s because my body is used to having thick, sugary blood and that it is just a temporary thing until my body adjusts to these lower, and healthier, levels.

Despite that grumpiness, once I had got that going and settled into sleeping 8 straight hours a night (this is harder than you would think. For the first week or two I kept waking up at the 4 hour point, ready and raring to go and had to force myself to go back to sleep, where upon I would wake up at the 5 hour point, and then the 6 hour point and so on until I snapped the leash and let myself get up at 8)

Anyway, once I stopped waking up every hour and started sleeping 8, I then added the bit about “I will have me time.” I actually planned to have weekends off like most people do, and then evenings off too, but I’m just not that good. I intend to, plan it, and then I get annoyed because I’m not writing as quickly as I used to when I had those extra hours without sleep and so I stay working longer than planned and . . .well, you get it. But I am trying.

We’ve also switched to a healthier diet with lots of fiber, which, embarrassingly enough, also takes away from my time. I am considering setting up an extra computer in the bathroom so that I can continue to work despite those irritating visits to that room. Honestly, has everyone else always spent so much time in the “john?” I’ve been told this is normal and that my previous state of hardly ever visiting it (It took six months for me to notice there was no wallpaper on the wall in there before this) was the abnormal state and that everything I used to eat must have been immediately shifted into the fat cells prior to the fibre business and now it is not. (By the way, I am saying this all as delicately as possible. And I’m sorry to say it at all, however, if there IS someone else out there like me, I really want them to know this stuff, cause you just have no idea what you are doing to your body if you are doing what I used to do.)

The point is, SLEEP. It is important. And eat fiber, it too makes a hell of a difference and nowadays with all these fast food and frozen options it is just too easy to miss out on fiber altogether as well as foods with anything at all close to a nutrient in it. And if you don’t get the fiber and nutrients, your body will just store away what you are eating as fat and send you out to eat again because it is lacking both. I used to also skip meals, eating once or twice a day thinking that surely, the less you eat the better the chances of losing weight. Not so. I am presently eating twice as much as I ever have in my life and about twice or more often (pretty much every three hours like a baby) and I have lost about a pound a week for the last six weeks or so and that with only biking once or twice so far because I am too worried about getting this book done. WEIRD.

And why didn’t someone tell me all this nonsense ten years ago? Or twenty even? I am thinking they should teach kids this in school or something because it isn’t rocket science, but goes against all logic. Eat more, gain less or even lose weight? Sleep more and lose weight? I would have thought the extra hours awake would have used up more calories and helped with weight loss, but apparently I knew nothing when it came to my own body. The good news is, I know it now and am doing it. . . Still, I get irritated at that loss of time for writing and because it takes longer to get a book done than it used to. However, I am hoping that the long term benefits will make up for that. I mean, I may write less in the short term, but more in the long term cause I’m not working myself into the grave.

So that’s my boring blog today. Health. UGH! Oh, and we had to get a tire changed cause we had a slow leak (Lovely Mr. Spice did it while I went to the doc’s), and Gran and Aunt Leigh and Uncle Wil came to tea Thursday which was a nice break in the week for me so that’s how I justified not taking today off. I had time off Thursday so working Saturday is okay, right? (grin) Tomorrow I’ll have to find a different excuse not to take time off cause I really want to get this book done and out of my hair. At the same time I don’t want to finish it and have to leave the characters behind, so I end up in this struggle . . . But that’s another story.

Hope you’re all well and getting your eight hours.

Lynsay

Happy New Year!

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:30:16 GMT

Well gees, here it is a new year and I’m already behind (grin). The house elf Tori is off in her room, yipping on the phone, Dave is in the tub, and I’m taking a time out from work to say hello. And it pretty much will be just a hello because I really have little in the way of news to share.

Our Christmas was lovely and quiet. We spent Christmas eve at Jackie’s with her crew, and then Christmas day at Leigh’s with the rest of the family. And then boxing day, Jackie and hubby and kids came to visit with us. I have a lovely family by the way. If there is anything in the world you can be jealous of me for it’s my hubby and family. I expect I’ll never win the lotto and be a millionaire cause I got lucky in the family jackpot. And that’s okay with me.

Other than that, I did take a day or two off to play games with Dave. Anyone who reads Mr. Spice’s blog knows that the big laugh this Christmas was that he and I each bought the other a Playstation 3 and games for Christmas. The second playstation has been returned (The one I bought unfortunately, since I now have to sort out what to get him instead) but surprisingly enough, we didn’t double on any of the games. That, at least, was fortuitous. Anyway, my editor had admonished me just before Christmas to STOP WORKING and take some time off, so I did. The day after boxing day we went shopping which included a stop at Chapters to sign the books in stock ( you didn’t really think I could completely quit working even for a day, did you? LOL. And I will admit here that I kept up working on emails every day too) Anyway, we also hit various shops and while Tori and Dave did some shopping, I came home disappointingly empty handed. There was just nothing I really wanted. I spent another day tending to health stuff, and then a couple of days playing with the Playstation with Dave, but am back to work now, finishing off this historical. I’m hoping to have it done by the middle of next week so that I can take some time out and prepare for the trip to St. Lucia I’m taking with Jackie and Terri at the beginning of February. Can you guess where the Vamp I’m writing for March is based? (grin) Now why would a vamp be in sunny St. Lucia? LOL

So that’s it from me. All the news I have. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Years and are raring to go for 2008

Lynsay

Merry Christmas

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 06:37:13 GMT

Well, I've tried to post at least three times since returning from Vegas, but each time I got the message that it couldn't be "done at this time." I've finally installed the writer thingy and hope that makes a difference.

So, today was a bit of a crush. Last minute shopping and then baking (This year that meant a trip to the bakery was done because we just had no time to bake, grimace) and then we were off to Jackie's for a Christmas Eve visit. Unfortunately, in all the rush between shopping and wrapping diabetic girl here forgot my tester and so we left earlier than intended because I couldn't tell if my blood was dropping or what was happening. Bleck, never said I was organized.

Anyway, we get to see them again boxing day, so. . .

Now the gifts are all wrapped and under the tree. Dave has just wandered off to bed saying that the sooner he goes to sleep, the sooner it will be morning and we can open gifts (grin) and the house elf, Tori, has snuck off with the wrapping paper for last minute wrapping of her own.

Now I'm just writing you all a Christmas greeting here before I toddle off to bed behind Mr. Spice. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and get to enjoy this time with your family. For those who celebrate an alternate holiday this time of year, Happy Holidays to you.

Everyone stay safe and healthy and enjoy your time off together.

Lynsay

Far and Away

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:23:30 GMT

Yes Jen and Linda it is a stress ball in the shape of garlic. LOL. We got it the day it was posted and Mr. Spice is the meany who taunted you with it. I myself have been too busy running around like a crazy person getting ready for this trip to Vegas today to come up with such tortures.

Yes, Vegas. I'm presently waiting for the car to take me to the airport in Toronto. I am off by myself in Sin City until Friday. . . I don't wanna goooooooooo. LOL. That's not totally true. I do want to go and meet Vicki Pettersson and I do want to meet the readers, but I shall miss Mr. Spice (Avon arranged everything from the car to the airport there to the rooms etc and didn't include Dave) and I sooooo don't want to have to actually talk in front of people. I am not a public speech type person. Trust me on this. Standing up in front of a bunch of people makes my IQ drop by about fifty points. I will er and uh and be red faced and stupid. I know this. So why did I agree? I kinda felt I had to when Avon asked. Sigh.

Oh well. Lunch with Vicki will be nice. And they've booked me into the Luxor, which means I'm sleeping in a bloody pyramid, which should be an experience. Maybe. Personally I'd rather sleep on a pirate ship, but they probably don't have one of those in the dessert. Or maybe they do. This is Vegas, right? We shall see. So, I'd best get off here and double check I have everything. Maybe I can fit Mr. Spice in my suitcase. No, he's 6'1 and would never squeeze in there. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a witch like Samantha on Bewitched. Then I could just shrink him and slip him in my pocket for the trip. Hmm. . . I could do all sorts of neat things if I was a witch.

Anyway, I'm off. If you're in the Vegas area I'm at County Clark Library on Thursday at 7 pm.

Till later guys!

Lynsay

It's Coming Closer

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:37:40 GMT

Stuff

Sun, 04 Nov 2007 01:03:33 GMT

Ah ha!! The next Argeneau is done. Well, actually it was done last week but for a final editing. It was 5802 words too long and so I have spent the last three days editing and editing, cutting and hacking and rewriting and so on (bar last night when Mr. Spice and I celebrated our second anniversary <grin> He gave me the loveliest necklace, he’s such a sweetie) Anyway, I just finished the final edit and with all that cutting and rewriting its now 7076 words too long. Go figure. I just don’t know how that happens. Honestly, it’s ridiculous!! So, Mr. Spice gets to do his read through now and check for continuity and so on and see if he can’t find places to slash. Geeees!

In the meantime, after I close up here, I’m going downstairs to cuddle up with Mr. Spice and gloam on the last three or four episodes of Dexter that I’ve missed while working. Yes, I like Dexter. There’s just something satisfying about a show where the good/bad guy takes out full-on bad guys. As a character in one of my books--that I haven’t decided whether to finish or not--says, “There are just some people who need killing, dear.” (I started this story ten years ago at least and the main character is the sweetest little granny you ever wanted to meet, except for her propensity to kill people ; )

Tomorrow we’re going on a day trip to Elora. Mr. Spice planned it as a nice get away since I’ve been working so hard. And then tomorrow night I’ll start on the corrections to the first historical for Avon, get those out of the way, do a last slash and dash through the Argeneau story, send both off to my editor and then I get to start on the next historical that’s due the end of the month before I fly to Vegas for a reading and signing in early December, and then come back to prep for Christmas. Yes, I know, I’m mad as a hatter, but hopefully things will ease up soon. There’s always hope isn’t there?

So, to close up here and get to go relax with Mr. Spice, Dexter and some wine, I hope you’re all healthy and well.

Lynsay

A Fly By Blogging!!

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:54:49 GMT

I know. You all hate me now for being absent too long. My apologies. I’ve been working. . . and working . . . and working . . . and whining. . – erhm, I mean working. Oh all right, I am something of a whiner. Or whinger as Dave would no doubt call it. Can’t help it. I’d really rather be playing you know, but there’s so much to do; deadlines to meet, and prepping the house for sale (although Terri and Dave are doing most of that) and doing exercise stuff to keep the body from COMPLETELY falling apart from these long days of sitting on me flat arse typing. Hmmm, sorry, a bit of Dave’s English slid in there, I even thought it with the northern English accent. Hehehehehe.

Anyhooooooo, I just thought I’d pop in and let you know I really am still alive and I’m sorry to be neglecting you so. I think I’ve worn myself down a little with that grinding schedule I had up till June or July. Now I’m moving at a snail’s pace and getting very little done in comparison.

Sooooo. . . while here I shall mention a few things...

Arctic Fox, shame on you for disparaging our naming of the fauna here in Canada (for readers who may not know, this was on my hubby Spice the cat’s blog). The Chickadee is thus named because that’s the sound of its call, it goes Chickadee dee dee and if you Chickadee dee dee at it, they have been known to come closer to check you out in case you are a chick they want to dee dee dee with. Bwahahahahaha-- Hmm, cough, sorry, obviously I need to take a break from the computer.

Also, DEAR LORD ABOVE!! Did you know you can get messages on here? I didn’t. At least I don’t think I knew. I might have known back a long while. Maybe I knew and just forgot. Anyway, I got a message and was reminded. So if anyone sent a message that was ignored, I’m so sorry I just saw the message thing at the top of my thing tonight and went “Wow! Cool!"

Third, I have a bloody cat yowling outside my window making it incredibly difficult to concentrate on my story. Somehow he knows Emma is in here and is yowling up a storm for her attention. She-- Ah poop, Emma just came into the sunroom, no doubt she’ll hear and—Yep, there she goes, up in the window. Now the bloody cat outside will just keep yowling all night. Sigh.

Sorry, stopped to watch the cat action, Emma just sat looking down her nose at the cat outside for the longest time with this totally disinterested stare (she’s been fixed you see, no interest here) and then her butt went up, she flicked her tail in the air, leapt off the window and sauntered out of the room like she was the Queen of Sheba. I could hear I’M TOO SEXY by Right Said Fred playing in my head as she went. “ I’m too sexy for that cat, too sexy for that cat, poor pussy, poor pussy cat.” Ah, spring! When the—hell, even the cats are confused by this warm weather (grin)

It’s back to work for me. Hope you’re all happy, healthy and well!

Lynsay

Eternal Lover

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:31:43 GMT

I was surprised today to receive proof copies of the cover for a new book to be published by Kensington and which is titled Eternal Lover. I wasn't aware there was a new one in the pipeline and since I haven't written a story for them since Highland Thirst I was puzzled to say the least.

It turns out that the stories by Hannah Howell and I in Eternal Lover are the same ones that were published back in 2003 in the book His Immortal Embrace. I'm assuming the stories by the other two authors are new ones, although I can't say for sure.

I'm posting this information on here, on my website forum and also on MySpace to try and make sure people are aware that my contribution to the book isn't new and to try and avoid anyone being disappointed when they realise two of the stories have been available before.

Lynsay

Pining For The Fjords

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:15:53 GMT

One of the oddest things about being a writer is never knowing what really happens to your books once the publisher gets hold of them. I understand the part where they turn them into the books I see in the stores and on Barnes and Noble, Chapters and Amazon, but what always amazes me is the way that they'll suddenly turn up in a foreign language and I have no idea quite how it happened.

The process of how they went from being the pile of papers I'm stuffing into an envelope to send off to the publisher through to the German, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, or whatever language it is I don't recognise, edition find dropping into my mailbox is a complete mystery. Are there people who spend their lives reading books with a view to overseas translations, or is there a special English language department in the publishing houses in other countries who specialise in selecting works suitable for their home market.

Why does Spain only translate the vampire stories and not the historicals?: Why does Germany, Holland, Russia, and Norway only have translations of the historicals and not the vampires. What makes China take both and how on earth do you translate the Argeneau vampire family into something that would be familiar and recognisable as a part of everyday Chinese society? I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has read any of the Argeneau series in both languages to see how they compare.

And if anyone is wondering what suddenly brought this on, it was an unexpected mail delivery of copies of the historical, Always, which had been published in Norway and which I knew absolutely nothing about until they arrived today.

Lynsay, who is mystified.

Taking A Breather

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:30:59 GMT

Sorry for the delay in posting here on the blog, I'm in the middle of a deadline for finishing a book and I haven't had much time for anything else recently. One thing of note that has happened is that I've received a copy of the promotional poster for the next three Argeneau series books and which will be going out to the bookstores. I think this is the first time I've ever had a real promotional item before and, even if I say so myself, I think it looks pretty cool. I'm going to ask the publisher if I can have some more copies (they only sent me one - grrr) and then I can pass them on if anyone wants a copy, but don't hold your breath, though. I haven't had a reply yet.

And so it's back to work, for me. Argeneau series book number ten isn't going to write itself.

Lynsay

A Cottaging We Shall Go

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:32:29 GMT

Sooooooo. I’ve been working on this story and tapping out ideas and scenes but have come to the realization that I need more info about the setting. It takes place in a cottage up north . . . which means a trip north, preferably to a cottage. You can imagine how easy it is to find one of those at this time of year (rolling eyes).

Much to my relief, Saturday we managed to find one, and our booking was confirmed Tuesday so now we’re packing and prepping. This could take some effort. Dave has NEVER been cottaging, and I’m a newbie at least in Northern Ontario (bear country, EEEK!!), so it’s check everywhere for advice and pack everything but the kitchen sink just in case you need it. I’m beginning to worry there won’t be enough room in the car.

I guess we’ll find out, but in the meantime -- much to my utter amazement -- Dave seems somewhat excited about the trip. At least I consider his making special mp3s of music for the trip, doing laundry and packing so far ahead as signs of excitement and it really does surprise me. Why? Because the man ISN’T a camping or cottaging kind of guy. It’s the city or bust for him. Or, at least, it used to be, but moving to Canada -- and specifically here to our little garden of small furry critters -- appears to have changed him some. He appears to actually be looking forward to it being up in the wilderness, lakeside, with mother nature and her critters. I’m hoping he enjoys himself. I’m also hoping this trip helps fill in the missing pieces of the story.

Hope you’re all happy healthy and well.

Lynsay

Dropping by

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 01:49:28 GMT

I’ve been meaning to blog for a while, but just keep getting distracted. Mostly by my own thoughts. I didn’t really do much last week, at least not much out of the house. My Gran had mentioned that my Aunt had the week off and they might come visit so I mostly stuck close to home and spent last week plotting . . . which consists of my wandering around here in a distracted state and then pausing to scribble ideas down.

I say mostly cause I did head out one day in search of a new notebook for my scribbling. This was a fortuitous trip in the end because I came across . . . Well, first I should explain that on our bed in our hotel room in Dallas was something that gave us hours of pleasure. Get those dirty thoughts out of your heads, guys! It was a round, ball-like pillow a little smaller than a beach ball. Really, lol.

No matter how exhausted or footsore I was at the end of the day, Dave could perk me up by grabbing the ball/pillow off the bed and kicking it in my direction, starting a fun, one on one game of football (British for soccer) We would kick it around, sending it flying every which way and making each other chase after it around the room. It was great fun.

Well, late last week while hunting the aforementioned notebook, I thought I’d just nip over to the bedding section of Zellers. Much to my pleasure, here I found, not just a round ball shaped pillow, but a round ball shaped pillow made to look like a real soccer ball. I grabbed it up with a squeal and rushed home (I DID purchase the pillow first lol) to present it to Dave and we immediately started a fun, one on one game of football in our dining room, that soon moved to include the parlor and entry. It meant removing and moving anything breakable but we had great fun. And we’ve had fun with the ball several times since . . . usually when I’m wandering, distracted, through the dining room and Dave suddenly kicks the ball into my path. Really, that ball was a lovely find.

Ah well, I have to get back to plotting. In the meantime, the cover finally arrived for Vampire, Interrupted. I’ll see if Dave can’t post it here for me. Tomorrow I’ll send stuff to the web designer to get up on the website.

In the meantime, hope you’re all happy and well.

Lynsay, off to plot some more.

Back at it

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:50:07 GMT

Well, I’m back from Dallas. Actually I was back a week ago Sunday, but then I headed to the cottage to join my sisters.

Dallas was hot, tiring and nice. It’s always lovely to meet fans and I got to meet quite a few. And Mr Spice and I even got away briefly the first day we were there to go visit the museum and buy a real cowboy hat for me. Yay and yeehaw! LOL. I got to see a couple of old friends and made a few new and I didn’t spill anything down my chest or do anything else unbearably embarrassing, so. . . it was all good.

We flew back on the Sunday and then I ran around, packed and headed for the cottage. That was lovely too. It was for research but I got some fun and relaxation in as well. Mr. Spice was supposed to go too but decided that after a week in a hotel with three thousand or more women that he was overdosed on estrogen and preferred staying home by himself to spending a week in a cottage with three gals. So that’s what he did.

Now I’m back home and starting on the next Argeneau.

Hope you’re all well.

Lynsay

Checking in!!

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:16:39 GMT

Well, I’ve been running around like a crazy person trying to get ready for Dallas. There was loads to clear up before I go, and loads more to do for the trip, so I’ve been neglecting.my blog, as usual. Sorry. Doubt you all would want to hear about paperwork and shopping anyway <grin>

Resa, you’re absolutely right, it’s just the forum Dave will be helping with, and that’s only when I get too busy to comment myself, though he’s welcome to jump in and comment anytime.

KJ, yes I DID write him. Too weird huh? As for the soul mates and circle theories, I’d believe that, because I never had any intention of going to England, and he had no desire to visit Canada and the chances of our being in a city like New York at the same time not to mention meeting with millions of people and tourists there was probably pretty slim. And yet we met, spent all our time talking to each other as comfortably as if we’d known each other forever, and then took it from there. So . . . shrug. Guess I was lucky. You want to hear something even weirder when it comes to soul mate theories and such? When I was eight or nine and my older sister was eleven or twelve our parents took us to a town Christmas dinner thingy at “the hall” The legion or something. We walked in and she and I were standing there and she fastened her eyes on this fella across the hall and then I think she asked who he was, at least I recall someone telling her who he was and then she turned to me and said, “I’m going to marry him, someday.” Just like that, with all the certainty that the sun would rise the next morning. I didn’t seem to think it odd at the time, just shrugged and took note of the guy. Four or five years later they started dating and after University they did marry and are still very happily married with two kids. The subject came up afterward about that announcement she made that day, and it turns out that it was a memorable first sighting for her now husband too. He recalls that party, and seeing her, and could recall what she wore and everything. It was like they were meant to be or something. Shrug. Life is strange sometimes.

Fox, the forum is a part of my website where some readers like to go and talk and try to finagle plots of future stories out of me. NAUGHTY!! But when I was really busy there for a while, I couldn’t answer their questions as quick as I’d like so Dave has offered to step in and help when necessary. The Key, huh? I’m surprised you didn’t try one of the vamps first, but you must let me know what you thought of “The battle of the belt” as some readers were calling it. I had great fun with The Key but some guys just aren’t in to historicals, though I write all my books with the same sense of humor. If you hate it, give a vamp a try.

Jen, my darling, you are more than welcome to be the talking donkey, lol. Hope everything’s going smoothly with the new house business.

Well, I got the cover for the Holidays are Hell anthology and I think it’s too cool. The best part is my character wears the dress on the cover <grin> Mr. Spice is going to post it here for you guys to see. Let me know what you think.

Take Care

Lynsay, who’s looking forward to seeing some of you in Dallas.

Doom and gloom and my Brit

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:34:43 GMT

Mr. Spice is going to start moderating my forum. I posted at the forum to let the gals and guys know and explained that I had written about Mr. Spice before I met him. I’ll just copy and paste it here and then get to my point.

Mr Spice, aka my hubby Dave, is going to be helping out from now on. He'll answer questions and such when I'm rushed off my feet and even when I'm not. I'll still be here, but you guys won't have to wait as long for a reply when I'm rushed off my feet.

Mr. Spice is his blogging name for those who don't know and haven't been to his blog http://spice-the-cat.spaces.live.com/. Now, I'm going to explain where the name came from. Years ago he had a cat named Spice and so made Spice-the-cat his email address. There is a pic of Spice at his blog. And when he started blogging, he just kept it as Spice the cat there too.

I shortened it to Spice or Mr Spice while we were msning, emailing and phoning. We met in New York, I was there for a conference, he was on vacation. He was from England and I from Canada and so after I headed home from the conference we were msning, emailing and phoning every night around my trips to Engalnd and his to Canada until he came to collect me and take me back to England with him. We were married in New York (neutral ground that wouldn't leave out one family or the other) I now have brought him home to Canada.

Mr Spice is 6'1, has had prematurely silver hair since 19 and has the cutest British accent. He was an engineer and then supervising engineer in England. He's frightfully smart and can seem terribly. . . er. . . British at first , but has a devilish streak so watch out for his sense of humor.

Hope you'll all like and and welcome Mr. Spice. He's a sweety. Actually, he's Lucern. Strange as it sounds, I was writing Mr. Spice before I ever met him. Single White Vampire was written the year before I met him and the book came out the same month as our first date. I got my author copies just before flying to England for his birthday five dats after returning from our first date (which was a week in New York three months after we met and started writing and calling back and forth) I grabbed one and took it with me to England for him to read because he'd never read my books.

Mr Spice picked me up at the airport and took me home and I walked in and the first thing I noticed was a foot high stack of mail sitting on a shelf in the hall. "Is this mail?" I asked with disbelief. "Yeah, I can't be bothered opening it," he muttered seeming embarassed and ushered me away from it. We went into the kitchen to make tea and there was more mail there, two stacks. The man had probably six months to a year's worth of mail sitting around unopened. He didn't understand why I burst out laughing. I just handed him Single White Vampire and told him to read.

He started reading it that night and kept bursting out laughing and muttering, this guy sounds familiar. So there you have it, I think I wrote Mr. Spice into existence. He still doesn't open his mail unless it's a package or something he's ordered. His explanation is, why bother? Bills come out of the bank automatically, he doesn't bother reading bank statements and anything else is unsolicited unless it's books or a cd he's ordered online. His personality is much like Lucern's too. Grumpy and very British on the surface, but a sweetie underneath. So,there you have it. That's who we'll have amongst us. Hope you like him.

Lynsay

So after I posted that, one of my readers asked if there is anything I’d change about him if I wrote him again, and I said no. And it’s true, I wouldn’t really. What would I gripe about if he was perfect? Besides, if he was perfect, he might expect me to be, and that’s just not gonna happen. <grin>

But, it made me think of something that drives me wild about my Mr. Spice. And that is that his taste in movies and books is horrendous. I like both comedy and horror when it comes to books and movies. Dean Koontz is my favorite writer and the movies I like to watch vary from Disney to horrors. I like adventures, fast pace, action or laughs, but I like them to end relatively happily. They don’t always have to end happily. I enjoyed Children of Men, and also Tsotsi which didn’t end all that happily for the hero in either, but ended with hope. It’s the hope at the end I guess that I need to enjoy a movie.

Then there is Mr. Spice . . . For books he enjoys some of the stuff I do, but also happily reads autobiographical stuff and books like Cod which is about exactly what the title claims, Cod . . .the fish . . .it’s life it’s death and whatever the devil else they can fill hundreds of pages with about a type of fish. Just not my cup of tea, too much like research which I do (really I do do research) for work, not pleasure.

And then there are movies. He likes the most God awful depressing stuff ever made. I swear, Wickerman was the first classic movie he made me sit down and watch with him. This was way back when we were in England. He got me all excited, throwing around phrases like cult classic and so on. So, eager and happy, I sat down to watch it with him, cuddling up next to him on the couch and settling in for what I was sure at that time (I didn’t yet know he had bad taste) would be an excellent movie.

When it ended I sat their blinking for several minutes and then just exploded with horror.

"What the h*ll was that? You made me watch THIS? THIS is your idea of a GOOD movie?!"

"Yes, it's good," says he. "Didn't you like it?"

I stared at him with disbelief and said, "The good guy DIES IN THE END!!! That was the most depressing load of bollocks I've seen in my life! Oh my God, I'm so depressed now! I can't believe you made me watch that!"

I stomped around glaring at him for the rest of the day. LOL. I can laugh now but I was very upset. It wasn't just that the guy died, but good lost out totally in that story and bad won out and, obviously, would continue to win on that nasty little island forever.

Like I say, it wasn’t just the guy dying. The hero dying in an act of self sacrifice that saves others or the world is fine, I can deal with that. For instance, we watched Children of Men, and while (really hot actor) Clive Owens died at the end, the child lived, good still won out and there was hope, but Wickerman left you feeling completely hopeless. The man was lured to the island and killed in a horribly cruel manner, burned to death in the head of the wickerman, his death accomplishing nothing. That’s just not my thing at all. I think he gets that now. At least he doesn’t try to get me to watch depressing movies any more.

I put his horrendous taste in depressing tales down to being British. Really, it has to be a British thing. All that grey sky and rain, and doom and gloom over there must make them all want to sit down and spend two hours getting even more depressed. I’m more of a happy type chick myself. Life has enough misery without seeking out stuff to depress me. I want things to remind me that there IS good in the world, that we can win out over the bad stuff, that there’s hope. I suspect Mr. Spice has a secret yearning for that too, or else he wouldn’t love me. Really. Life must have been terribly boring before he had me bursting out of bed in the morning singing cheery off key songs and “mithering” him (British for pestering) every day, making him smile and telling him I love him. . . Well, what I call boring, he might say was nice and peaceful (grin) Too bad, though. He married me, he’s stuck with me now, and I shall just feed him horribly upbeat, cheerful, HOPEFUL movies to counter all those grey British blahs that have been drummed into him over the years.

Take care!!

Mrs. Spice, off to mither Mr. Spice on this lovely sunny day

P.S Reguarding the question of Chris Keyes ever getting a book of his own. Nope. Never happen. CK is based on a real editor and hasn't found a lifemate, mortal or immortal. Sorry

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