An Almost White Christmas, Snowballs, and TV

This is the last week for gift-giving here at Three Wicked Writers Plus Two. Today I’m offering a copy of my book Latin Rhythm from Pink Petal Books. I’ve NEVER given away a copy before. This is a first. So leave me a comment if you’d like to be entered to win. Natalie Dae will announce the winner on Friday. Also, it’s not too late to get your copy of my free Christmas book: Blame It On Mistletoe. You can get your copy by visiting the Got Romance Reviews site and either commenting to the blog or simply email the GRR ladies. GOTROMANCEREVIEWS@GMAIL.COM Also, Natalie Dae has a free Christmas book available at GRR—Wanton and Wicked. And under Nat’s M/M pen name, Sarah Masters, she has Caught Naked available for free.
Blame It On Mistletoe link: http://gotromancemusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/blame-it-on-mistletoe-by-tess-mackall_19.html

Wanton and Wicked link: http://gotromancemusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/wanton-wicked-by-natalie-dae-free-gift.html

Caught Naked link: http://gotromancemusings.blogspot.com/2010/12/caught-naked-by-sarah-masters.html

ANNOUNCEMENT: Natalie Dae and I are very excited and so happy to be able to tell you that our co-authored book, BLACK COUGAR CURSE will be releasing from Ellora’s Cave on January 26th! So mark your calendars and look out for a contest heading your way! Here’s the Blurb:
Deep in the mountain wilderness, Lucia Chavez searches for closure to her father's death, and the mythical black cougar he sought. Drop-dead sexy Cherokee Indian guide Sam Starr knows more than he’s telling. After he saves Lucia from being swept away in a mudslide, the bath they both need steams up a lot more than the mirror. Sam and Lucia are living proof that near-death experiences can bring two people closer together—they can’t keep their hands off each other. Neither has ever experienced anything like the heat that smolders between them.

Amidst danger and mystery, Sam and Lucia explore the lust that burns between them. If their desire for one another gets any stronger, it could bring down the mountains that surround them. Ancient secrets hold the key to their unbridled sexual need. Was their passion written in the stars?

One man. One woman. A curse that binds them—and could tear them apart.
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Now on with my final Christmas memories.

Reporting in from Holiday Central here. Lol Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and made
lots of memories—even though you may not know they will be memories until way later on. I got to thinking, though, what happened this Christmas that I’ll carry with me as a memory? Well, there are a couple of things that stand out in my mind so far.

First, the weather dude kept calling for snow and snatching it back. DROVE ME INSANE. Then he’d do this “trace to 62 inches” kind of report and DROVE ME INSANE. You know the kind of weather report I’m talking about. Sort of like prescription medicine disclaimers. They predict every damn side effect known to mankind and a few alien planets just so they don’t get sued. Well, in our weather dude’s case, we got predictions of nothing to rain to sleet to snow. The promise of my FIRST WHITE CHIRSTMAS EVER literally kept me on edge. At one point the weather dude said: “Keep watching for updates.” And I said, “I watch you closer than your damn wife.” Yeah, I was talking to the TV. Told ya he drove me insane.

My family gets a kick out of me whenever snow is predicted. I’m the original Little Red Hen. Remember that story? The Little Red Hen prepares like crazy and no one helps her but they all want to reap the benefits of her hard work? Yeah, that’s me. So we were prepped and ready for the storm—lots of food and emergency supplies if the power went out, which it didn’t, thankfully.

After watching for the snow all day long Christmas Day, I finally gave up about ten that night and went to bed. Hells bells, I’d been cooking for two days solid. Shopping and cleaning for two days before that. I was exhausted. The Boy was on guard, though—up playing his new X Box games, and he had strict orders to sound the alarm in the case of white stuff.

So about three a.m. on the 26th, he woke me to say we had FLAKES! Technically NOT a White Christmas but close. No, I didn’t get up. lol I waited until six a.m. and then did my little dance at the front door while urging all four dogs to go out in it and relieve themselves. So that will be one of my Christmas memories this year. That and the big snowball The Boy rolled up. Yeah, it was big and had no real purpose other than in his mind. Lol It ended up being about five feet tall, I guess. Got to the point he couldn’t roll it anymore. Yeah, I know, kinda odd. LOL But awful cute! I guess it’ll take a couple of weeks for it to melt.

So my next Christmas memory? My two girls watched all thirteen episodes of Brett Michaels finding his girlfriend on Netflix. Well, twelve, and then the season reunion. The den is next to the kitchen where I spent MOST of my time, and you can imagine the comments I made throughout this marathon dose of so-called reality TV. During the first episode, I became so disgusted with what I was hearing I rounded the corner, waving my big spoon, just to have a 52 inch screen of wall-to-wall boobs in my face. And the big BM right in the middle of them. HA

I have to admit he’s cute. Has this really attractive bad-boy style for sure. But reality TV, as we all know, is a definite misnomer. Nothing real about it. No dude who is intelligent enough to make all the money he made from that show is going to settle down with a gal he chose from a TV show. So the entire premise of the show just pissed me off. Now the thing where they hooked up his manhood to the machine to measure the level of his “turn on” while the girls were trying to engage him in phone sex was funny. Yeah, I sat down and watched that.

You know what I kept thinking, though? Hahahahahaha! We erotic romance authors could have done a much better job than those girls for sure. That machine would have been smokin’ and so would his…hmmmm…okay. Movin’ on!

So folks, The Almost White Christmas, The Boy’s Big Snowball, and a dose of Brett Michaels will be the three things I think I will carry with me from this Christmas for sure. And maybe the fact that my brother forgot about my gift lying in the trunk of his car until four o’clock Christmas afternoon before he remembered it. Yeah, I have to admit I was a bit upset that he hadn’t gotten me a thing for Christmas but never said a word—just held my head high and acted like nothing was wrong. He has bronchitis and was NOT doing well at all Christmas Day so I forgive him. Sort of. Hmmmm…

And now it’s on to New Year’s Eve. You know what they say about New Year’s Eve, right? “Whatever you’re doing at midnight is what you’ll be doing all year long.” So be careful. Pick something that you really want to be doing all year long. In my partying days, lol, I always made sure I got a New Year’s Eve kiss—sometimes more—but I won’t get into all of that. lol But I’ve had a long stretch of years in which I rang in the new year with my kids with a glass of champagne while they had ginger ale too. Thinking about it, I guess in both instances I was exactly where I was supposed to be at the time. But I have to admit, I’m thinking about those kisses again. HA! Both my girls will be out and about. I understand The Boy has been invited to a big sleepover with three other XBoxers at a friend’s house. I’ll be alone. Now on the surface that might sound pretty rough, but when you’re a woman who is rarely alone???? Not so bad.

No. I’m not going to put a sign up on the side of the road inviting kisses. LOL I’m going to buy myself a bottle of Korbel, sit down at my computer about eleven—maybe sooner—and make sure I’m happily tapping away at the keys on one of my works in progress at the stroke of midnight. Why not kissing? Hahahaha This is going to be my YEAR OF WRITING. No editing or teaching this year. I might do some blog posts with writing tips but nothing major on teaching. And NO kissing. Kissing can be a real distraction--know what I mean?

Next year? I might think about that sign on the side of the road.

Happy New Year Everyone! I know it’s going to be a great one.
http://tessmackall.com