Best Book of the Week?

WOW. PLAY ME is up for best book of the week over at Whipped Cream Reviews!! There are some fantastic books up there. I know because I've read some of them. Voting is now open so, you know...if you're so inclined :).

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/WC/index.htm

I'm It!

I was tagged. A wonderful fellow blogger Kerrin has given me a blog award and tagged me for this 5-5-5 thingy. I have to answer 5 questions with 5 answers and tag 5 other bloggers to do the same. Sounds like fun!

Question 1. Where were you five years ago?
Jeez, I can barely remember what I did last week!
1. I was getting ready to sell my company and was totally burned out.
2. I'd decided we were going to stop at 2 kids (yeah, right)
3.I was living in Miami. This is the longest place I've ever lived.
4. I was just starting a renovation on my house. It turned out to be seriously M A J O R!
5. I wasn't writing. Hadn't even considered it.

Question 2. What is (was) on your to do list?
1. Get (more) fit. For some reason this is on my to do list every week.
2. Spend more quality time with my kids.
3. See the pyramids in Egypt.
4. Change the number of hours in a day to 30 (at least).
5. Write something someone else wants to read.

Question 3. What 5 snacks do you enjoy?
Well, I don't really snack that much, but foods I love?
1. Chocolate chip cookies, straight from the oven or not cooked at all.
2. Hagen Daaz vanilla ice-cream with chocolate covered almonds (OK, I haven't had this in probably over a year, but I dream about it).
3. A well made capuccino.
4. Cheese. I love cheese and haven't met a cheese I didn't love. Well, some of the goat ones are a bit stinky, so apart from those!
5. Green bean casserole. I discovered this about 2 years ago. My hubby makes it with the fried onion on top. Divine!

Question 4. What five places have you lived?
OK, I've lived in a bunch more, but I'll exclude where I live now (Miami) and list the ones I've enjoyed the most.
1. San Diego, CA
2. Los Angeles, CA
3. Houston, TX
4. New York, NY
5. Melbourne, Australia

Question 5. What 5 things would you do if you were a billionaire?
Oh, I have no shortage of these, but the followinge came to mind first:
1. Hire a chef. Although my hubby is a really good cook, it would be great to choose meals each week from a menu and have someone else do the cleaning up.
2. Buy homes around the world; ski lodge, mountain cabin, tropical island, NY penthouse, beach house - you get the idea! I love to travel, but rather than just visit, I like to get immersed in the local community.
3. Have a library/office all to myself with enough shelves to display all the romance books I have packed in dusty boxes.
4. Start my own publishing house - run by authors, for authors. We'd give the big guys a run for their money!
5. Create a foundation to help others help themselves. It would be called 'The Quest Organization'. I would hire a group of smart people whose job it would be to find worthy people or groups, not just to give charity, but to provide the mechanisms for them to help, grow and develop themselves. Yeah, I've thought about this one alot! It's a dream of mine.

5 bloggers I'm tagging (cause I would love to know more about these writers :) ):
Wendi Zwaduk
Cari Quinn
Lynne Roberts
Shelley Munro
Kaye Manro

I got an award. A blog Award.

It still amazes me there are people out there who are even remotely interested in what I have to say on my blog. Some even come back more than once, which makes me think they didn't accidently hit some link somewhere. Seriously. Go figure! Anway, I got a Happy Cupcake Award for being a blogger that makes Kerrin Hearfield happy! Kerrin is also on the 'I will be published one day' track. Thanks so much Kerrin!

Now, I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. Happy? Honestly, I don't really think of things in those terms. If anyone ever gets an opportunity to read my writing, you'll know that while love/committment always prevails, my writing is edgy and a bit dark, but I'll try. Here goes:

1. Revision requests. Yay! Of course, I just got my first, but they made me VERY happy. I could get used to it.
2. Characters. I'm always happiest when my characters are cooperating and telling me what they're going to do, rather than me having to figure it out!
3. Starbucks. I have to have my daily fix. This was one of the biggest issues for me at RWA nationals last year. No Starbucks, or not really Starbucks espresso anyway. If I ever move back to Australia and there's no Starbucks near by, well, we'll just have to relocate. For right now, I'm happy with one on every second block.
4. My kids. They're a lot of work, they're aggravating, challenging, 'tear my hair out' frustrating - oh wait, this is meant to be a happy list, right? All of that melts away the instant they tell me they love me - which is often and usually when they want to change my mind about something. They're the best thing that ever happened to me! All 4 of them!
5. My husband. He's a lot of work, he's aggravating, challenging, 'tear my hair out' frustrating - oh wait, is this a duplicate? Seriously, he's my best friend and I could tell you about some other skills he has, but I'd have to make this blog 'R' rated :).
6. My birthday. You might think this is odd. Every year I'm older yes, but my husband gets me the BEST presents for my birthday. They are always truly awesome and he spends a LOT of time on them.
7. Seeing my kids use good manners with other people without being prompted. I can't tell you how proud I feel when one of my kids are thoughtful or thankful to others all by themselves.
8. Last weekend my son picked up a book and - just started reading! I can't tell you how many books I've borrowed or bought to find the thing that he's interested in, so he would read more and WANT to read more. Who knew it would be a series about a clan of cats? He had free time. He could have played on the computer. He could have played the Wii or watched TV. No, he picked up a book, lay down on my bed and READ!
9. The stockmarket. I'm always happy when the stockmarket is too!
10. This hasn't happened to me yet, but I know when I get THE CALL (or open the email) and I have an offer of a contract for my writing, it's going to go so far beyond happy, I'm not sure what I'll call it.

So, who brightens my day? Below are some blogs (not already nominated I don't think) that I check in on frequently. They're not just entertaining, but often inspirational and thought provoking too:
Cari Quinn
Lynne Roberts
Shelley Munro
Hetal Patel
Helen Hardt
Wendi Zwaduk
Kaye Manro
Lyn Armstrong
Romy Sommer
Waiting for the Call

So, the rules are:

1. Copy the award image into a post
2. List 10 things that make you happy
3. Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day.
4. Link to their blogs.
5. Notify the award recipients.
6. Award recipients link back to sender’s blog

ENJOY!

I got a Kreativ Blogger Award!

Yay! OK, I have to admit, I'd never seen this before and had no idea what it was, so I had to look it up.  It's been doing the rounds for awhile. I get to thank the person who bestowed it on me, reveal 7 interesting things about myself (that might be a stretch) and then pass it on to 7 other bloggers. So, here goes:

Thanks Cari Quinn! Cari is a fellow Sagittarian who seems to be writing the same type of material as me. Well, not exactly the same - she's published, after all! We stumbled across each other on the boards. Cari published her first novel last year and if you want hot and steamy (and I mean HOT and STEAMY), you can check it out here.

7 things about myself? I decided to list things that people would likely not know about me (even if they kinda 'knew' me):
1. I grew up in the Australian outback, or close enough to it for it not to really matter. Yeah, that makes me Australian!
2. Everyone complains all year about the weather in Miami, Florida but I LOVE it. There's something about the humid weather and palm trees that tricks the mind into thinking you're perpetually on vacation. Well, almost.
3. I'm the mother of identical twins. They're 4. It's fascinating, aggravating, joyous, aggravating, special and rewarding, and you guessed it, aggravating! I'd like to think I'll have enough material one day to come up with a unique twist on the twin story line.
4. I have a thing about frames. Picture frames. Just the frames. I really think it's an addiction. I just seem to collect them but never get around to actually putting anything in them or hanging them up, but I can never have too many!
5. I've never cooked a meal in my life. When we were renovating our kitchen, someone once asked me - 'Are you getting a gas or electric stove?' - and I'm like - 'I'll have to get back to you on that.' I've never been interested in cooking and don't see that changing anytime soon.
6. My first job out of university? I was a computer programmer. My, how far I've come :).
7. Last year I did something scandalous and daring. I hired a professional photographer to take pictures of me. What's daring about that you ask? The pictures were...well, naked!! I had them made into a coffee table book for my husband for his birthday. I look back at them and still wonder, where the hell did I get the nerve to do THAT? BTW, the book is nowhere near the coffee table!

Now, for my nominations. They're blogs that I look to for inspiration, for a laugh, for their educational value or just because they seem to be on the same path that I am and I can relate (plus they don't appear to be already nominated) LOL:
Jackie Ashenden
Wendi Zwaduk
Hetal Pinal
Waiting for the Call
Romy Sommer
Dee Tenorio
Donna Alward

ENJOY!

Now that I've settled..

... back into some semblance of normal, I would like to offer congratulations to the other finalists in the Linda Howard Aware of Excellence! Yeah, seems along with stammering through my notification call and not being able to recall any details of what the lovely woman said, I also completely forgot my manners :)!! It was all ME, ME, ME. But hey, I've never finaled in a contest before, so cut me some slack this one time, OK? I'm at work on my revisions and plan to get it back in their hands by Monday at the lastest (a few days early!!!). Kudos to everyone who entered. I know it takes guts to just get out there. I hope the feedback was constructive and helpful. Best of luck to everyone in the next round!

I also learned yesterday I was given a Kreativ Blogger award. Thank you Cari!! I'd never been given an award for ANYTHING. I was excited, elated, flattered, till I thought 'What the heck is a Kreativ Blogger award?' When I figure it out, I'll let you know LOL. It appears to come with some requirements, so stay tuned for that tomorrow while I mull it over!!!