Plot Monkeys

Well, as you know, we’ve spent this whole week celebrating the first anniversary of Plotmonkeys. YAY! Hope you’ve enjoyed our birthday celebration as much as we have.

No birthday party, of course, would be complete without goody bags, and we have one heck of a goody bag for this week’s Jungle Madness Winner.

To begin with, a few videos to commemorate the occasion…

It was, you must agree…

It might, in fact, some might say it was …

And we most certainly hope you will join us the…

But aside from some fun movies to entertain you, how about a bit of reading material?

(may I have a drumroll please?)

We have, of course, given away the occasional ARC, or pre-release book here on Plotmonkeys. But never in our history have we done something like this…

Each Plotmonkey will send our winner an autographed copy of her NEXT (not released yet) published work!!!

That means a bound galley/manuscript from Julie (STRIPPED — Harlequin Blaze, 8/07) and Leslie (SHE’S NO ANGEL, HQN Books, 7/07) an ARC from Carly (SEALED WITH A KISS, 10/07) and a bound galley/manuscript from Janelle! (BORN TO BE WILDE, featuring Joel Wilde’s story, Berkley, 10/07)

Julie’s and Leslie’s books have been read by nobody but their editor and one or two reviewers… same for Janelle’s next Wilde story that readers have been anxiously waiting for, and Carly’s fans are already lining up for this sequel to Cross My Heart which won’t be in stores for months.

AND YOU GET THEM ALL!!

We’d have to say this is about as exclusive a contest as we’re ever likely to offer here at Plotmonkeys…and we hope you’re as excited about it as we are!

*Note: Carly’s ARC’s will not be available for another month, but she will send it out in May.

You know how to enter! Just leave a comment and you’ve got a chance. Winner will be drawn at random and posted this Sunday morning.

GOOD LUCK…and THANKS AGAIN for coming to our party!!!

(Oh…and this contest does involve a lot of shipping so, please, US/Canada winners only.)

PS: Fedora–you were one of my winners Monday and I haven’t heard from you yet! Please write to me at: author@lesliekelly.com with your snail mail addy and choice of book from my backlist!

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Here are the winners from Janelle’s Anniversary contest from yesterday. Please be sure and contact me at janelledenison@sbcglobal.net so I can mail you your prizes!

I think I made the questions WAY too easy, because just about everyone got them correct! I’ll be sure to ask more difficult questions next year

1 GRAND PRIZE WINNER:
Shannon Upright - Comment #21

4 RUNNER-UP WINNERS:
Patricia A. - Comment #29
Robyn L. - Comment #37
Melissa - Comment #47
Emily - Comment #57

To help liven up our one year anniversary, I’ve invited a few hunky friends to join in on the fun today. So please be sure to make them all feel at home and welcome here in the jungle!

Over the past year, all of us Plotmonkeys have shared various things about ourselves, our writing lives, and most especially our family lives. You’ve learned about our pets, and even our pet peeves. You’ve come to know the good, the bad, and sometimes even the ugly. You’ve laughed with us, cried with us, and even defended us. All four of us have loved sharing a part of ourselves, and so many of you have done the same during your posts, and we sincerely THANK YOU for making this such a special place for not only us, but for so many who visit on a daily basis. You all are truly the ones who have made this blog such a pleasure and success!

To celebrate our one year anniversary, I thought we’d do something fun — a little test of your knowledge of the Plotmonkeys. I know some of you have been with us from the beginning of the blog, and others are just getting to know us — but all these answers are posted somewhere in our past blogs, so everyone can easily figure out the answers!

Of course there will be prizes involved — five (5) of them in all today! And EVERYONE will have a chance to win, whether you guess the correct answers, or not. But the posters who guess all the questions accurately will be eligible for the GRAND PRIZE! Everyone else who posts will be eligible for one of the four runner-up prizes.

One (1) grand prize winner will receive a complete “Take a Walk on the Wilde Side” set that includes a ceramic mug, matching coaster, and mousepad! Winner will also receive an autographed book of their choice from Janelle’s backlist, leopard print bookcover, and book thong! (WOW )

Four (4) runner-up winners will receive a $5.00 online gift certificate to Barnes & Noble!

Here are the questions. Good luck (no cheating by copying someone else’s answers! ) and have fun!

1) What Plotmonkey loves the color pink?
2) Which Plotmonkey has a kid in college?
3) Which Plotmonkey has a vegetarian daughter?
4) Which Plotmonkey is a major food-o-holic?
5) What editor do all four Plotmonkeys have in common?
6) What state did the Plotmonkeys spend their most recent plotting session?

Be sure to check tomorrow’s blog to see the correct answers and find out who today’s winners are!

And the winner of yesterday’s Birthday drawing (in honor of Jen’s birthday on April 18) is:
# 18 Vicki!!!
Email me at: carlyphillips@mac.com with your info.

A lot of you wondered why Julie and I switched days this week. Here’s the reason: It’s my daughter Jen’s 11th Birthday and I promised her I’d post and say:

It’s a bonus that it’s also the Plotmonkey’s Birthday Week!

When we started this blog, we didn’t know what to expect. I know Janelle figured even I could handle one post a week without getting blocked on ideas. Little did she know. I have one standby and that’s Buddy. I was thrilled to hear many of you say this week how much you enjoy my Buddy posts. Did I mention we’re getting another wheaten? This one a girl we’re thinking of naming Bailey? Yes, next year there will be many more doggie posts from me.

In the meantime, like the other plotmonkeys, I’ve thought back over the year. What else did I post about besides Buddy that you enjoyed? I definitely remember some shameless pleading to buy my books and I can see some more of that in the near future But there were some other posts I remember too.

Do you? Tell me what Carly posts you enjoyed the most and I’ll draw one grand prize winner for your choice of a signed Carly book AND a Plotmonkeys sweatshirt!

The winners of Julie’s contest yesterday are:

Yeah! Please email me at julie @ julieleto.com (no spaces) and let me know which title you’d like from my backlist. I don’t have copies of all of them available, but I’m sure we’ll work out something. My website has my backlist, um, listed.

I can’t believe it has been a year! You can imagine that all this week, we Monkeys will be ruminating about our experiences here and reading everyone’s comments yesterday on Leslie’s blog was so heart-warming. I tried to remember what blogs I’ve written over the past year…of course, there was the one about my ongoing battle with my garbage guys…renovating my kitchen (no, we haven’t started yet) and many on dancing, music and movies. I wonder how many times I mentioned Star Wars in a blog? If I were cruel, I’d make it the answer to my contest question! But I’m not that cruel.

And that’s another thing…of all the emoticons…this one is the one I use most often. Does that surprise anyone?

And this one… I’m still trying to figure out how to reply to my daughter when she asks me, “Mommy, what does WTF stand for?” She reads the blog over my shoulder many days…I really need to learn to be more careful, I guess!

Honestly, the most amazing thing about this blog over the past year has been the community we’ve all built together. If I’m having a sucky day, I know I can come here and get cheered by the funny, insightful, warm, giving and loving comments of all our visitors. Readers and writers, both aspiring and multi-published, all hanging out together and having a great time.

I have to admit, I had a blast today going through old posts. Remember my parent’s wild Italian phone adventure? Or the ugly fan letter I got claiming my book was “dirty” and how I responded? The tales of my family, from my daughter’s broken wrist to my Halloween extravaganza? My run-ins with my daughter’s principal? And many a homage to Star Wars, Harry Potter, Colin Firth, Alan Rickman and all things Disney? And of course, a run down of my annual pilgrimage to the Windy City…we’re leaving again in a few weeks. I can only hope I’ll come up with interesting topics for the next year…heck, right now I’m worry about the next MONTH, since I have, oh, 230 pages to write in the next 25 days.

Huh…guess I should get back to work, huh?

I just wanted to thank everyone for stopping by and commenting as often as you do…and of course, offer free books! Tell me ANYTHING you’ve learned about me or remember about the wacky world I live in and you’re eligible to win an autographed copy from my backlist. FIVE winners will be chosen!

If you add something you WANT to know (and I know you won’t ask my weight, dress size or any otherwise humiliating information)–thus giving me fodder for future blogs–and you’re entered twice.

Oh, also wanted everyone to know that I do intend to put up a few writing/craft oriented blogs soon…after this book is done!

PS: Yesterday’s winners of five books from Leslie’s backlist are:

Drop Leslie a line at author@lesliekelly.com with your snail mail addy and choice of book title! CONGRATULATIONS!

Happy birthday to us,
Happy birthday to us,
Happy bithday dear Plotmonkeys,
Happy birthday to us!!

Can you believe it? Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the launch of Plotmonkeys. My, how quickly the year has gone. When we started the site, we honestly didn’t envision how important it would become to all of us. Now, I can’t imagine going through my day without popping onto Plotmonkeys at least once an hour for a big dose of comeraderie and laughter and fun. I’m as addicted to everyone here in the jungle as I am to my daily 6-pack of Diet Coke.

One year ago tomorrow was also the date of my very first blog post, in which I talked about each of us as people, hoping to give you a glimpse of why Carly, Janelle and Julie are three of the dearest, most-trusted friends I could ever dream of having.

That much has not changed. But the circle of friendship here at Plotmonkeys has most certainly expanded. Now when I am covered by dog drool, or am having a lousy day dealing with a house for sale or when I embarasss myself in front of hot workmen or lock myself out of the house and have to ride a lawnmower to pick up my kid, I have a whole jungle full of people to commiserate.

So, thank you. Every one of you. You’ve made this past year absolutely delightful and I genuinely cannot thank you enough.

But I’ll try…how about some free books? Just leave a message recalling one of your favorite blog entries of the past year, and I’ll put your name in a hat. Five random winners will each get an autographed book from my backlist.

It’s our birthday…but you all get the presents!

I decided to really make 13 lucky and I chose # 13 as the winner of my Friday the 13th Jungle Madness Giveaway. And so the person who gets to take home Spank the monkey, Under the Boardwalk and MnM’s is poster # 13:
CAROLYN A
Email me at: carlyphillips@mac.com with your address!
CONGRATS!

And now the Sunday Funny:

Subject: The mind of a woman…..

Ralph returns from the doctor and tells his wife that the doctor has told
him he has only 24 hours to live. Given this prognosis, Ralph asks his wife for sex. Naturally, she agrees, and they make love.

About six hours later, the husband goes to his wife and says, “Honey, you know I now have only 18 hours to live. Could we please do it one more time?” Of course, the wife agrees and they do it again.

Later, as the man gets into bed, he looks at his watch and realizes he now has only 8 hours left. He touches his wife’s shoulder and asks, “Honey, please… just one more time before I die?” She says, “Of course, dear.” And they make love for the third time.

After this session, the wife rolls over & falls asleep. Ralph, however, worried about his impending death, tosses & turns until he’s down to 4 more hours. He taps his wife, who rouses. “Honey, I have only 4 more hours. Do you think we could…..?”

At this point the wife sits up and says, “Listen Ralph, I have to get up in the morning…You don’t.”

Yes, it’s happened. We’re blank for our Saturday blog. Well, not really. We just decided that there are things we’d like to know from you, our visitors/readers. So each of us monkeys will ask you a question we’d like your thoughts on. (minus Janelle who is on a mini honeymoon … er … vacation. Have fun, Janelle! Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do! )

QUESTIONS:

CP: I want to know if you have already bought CROSS MY HEART in hardcover … or if you haven’t (and are hopefully waiting for CMH in paperback June 26). And following up on that, if you do already own the hardcover, are you still planning to pick up the paperback version so you can have a matching set with SEALED WITH A KISS paperback in October. (And really this isn’t a “I can’t afford hardcover discussion because as I said, that’s over and done with. Your pocketbooks will now be lighter when you buy my books!) I’m just curious what to expect for CROSS MY HEART sales in July.

LK: I want to know what makes you really chomp at the bit to buy a book before it’s released? Excerpts? Contests? Reviews? Buzz? Word of mouth? This matters because, as you know, I’ve got a lot riding on this next contemporary single title coming out in July, and I want to do absolutely anything within my power to make sure it does well so that hopefully I might someday get the chance to write the last of the Trouble books! So…any tips?

JEL: I want to question our aspiring writers…first, a public service announcement. My local RWA chapter, with which I’m very involved, has a writing contest coming up with a deadline of May 1. The contest rocks. I train the judges every year and have for the last six years at least. I highly recommend it. Joanne Rock sold her first book because of our contest. Or was it Julie Kenner? I can’t remember. It was someone who I’m a fan of! Anyway…here’s my question…are there any craft issues you’d like the plotmonkeys to discuss. If we set a few Saturdays aside for craft questions, would you participate? And readers…would this bore you to tears?

Check out the TARA contest here.

I’ve been cleaning my office and I found some goodies to give away. SPANK the Monkey, star of UNDER THE BOARDWALK and a signed hardcover copy of the book. And to remind you that CROSS MY HEART isn’t far away, I have one package of custom MnM’s left that I’ll throw in with this prize.

Chocolate, a book and a monkey.

You know the drill, post to be eligible to win, winner posted on Sunday with the funny.
HAPPY FRIDAY the 13th!
(No bad luck here!)

Yesterday, April 11th, was my 20th wedding anniversary with my husband, Don. After so many years, I thought it would be fun to show “then” and “now” pictures, and share a bit about what I think has enabled Don and I to make it to this marriage milestone.

Here is a picture of the two of us at our wedding in 1987. It truly was a beautiful wedding and reception, and even after twenty years I can still remember so much about it all. We were both pretty young by today’s standards. I was twenty-one, and Don was twenty-five, and even though we’d dated for five years before getting married, I don’t think the two of us realized just how difficult the first year of marriage would be. For us, that first year was a “make or break” year. We thought we knew everything there was to know about one another, and for the most part, that was true. But believe it or not, it was the little things that nearly killed us.

Two months after getting married, we moved into a brand new house that we bought, and that’s when those “little things” started making themselves known. Don hated the way I’d squeeze the toothpaste from the middle, and we’d argue about why I couldn’t just squeeze it from the bottom like he did. I would get annoyed at how he couldn’t manage to get his underwear into the hamper and how I’d have to pick them up off the floor by his side of the bed (too much information, I know, LOL!). But it was stupid things like these, along with the fact that I was working during the day from 8-5, and he was working graveyard from midnight to 8AM, and it seemed like we were arguing or fighting all the time about SOMETHING. More so than we’d fought in the five years that we were dating!

It finally got to the point that we knew we both had to make some changes, or we’d never make it for the long haul. So, we established some “rules” to help us get through those rough patches, and believe it or not, it’s these “rules” that have gotten us through the past 20 years with relative ease. So, if I had to give someone some tips on how to make a marriage work, this is what I’ve learned, and what has worked so well for Don and I.

1) Before starting an argument about something, decide just how important winning that argument is to you. Let’s go back to the silly toothpaste issue. During the course of this discussion/argument, Don decided that it just wasn’t worth getting upset about me squeezing the toothpaste from the middle and let it go. To this day, I still squeeze it from the middle. As for me, I decided that I could live with picking up Don’s underwear and tossing them into the hamper, as long as his side of the bed faced the farthest wall and I didn’t have to see those unmentionables when I walked into the room, LOL. Bottom line, when an argument ensues, it’s all about compromise. Someone has to give (or else it will just breed resentment), and it’s a matter of deciding just how important that issue is to each person, and letting the person who feels most strongly about it get their way. So, over the years, Don and I have given in on different things, depending how important it was to each of us.

2) We truly don’t go to be at night without resolving a problem or argument. Now, that’s not to say that we haven’t gone to bed upset with one another, but we ALWAYS make sure that the issue has been talked through and resolved.

3) We don’t bring up issues from the past. Once a problem or issue between us is resolved, it’s done and put to rest. We don’t bring it up again, or use it against the other person.

So, to summarize, it’s communication, compromise, and trust that has made our marriage as strong as it is. And now, twenty years and two daughter’s later, we’re each other’s very best friend. Don is the one I want to grow old with, and I’m looking forward to spending at least another twenty years with him.

And looking at this “now” picture, we really haven’t changed all that much. My hair is a lot less “poufy” (hey, it was the 80’s when I got married and it was all about BIG hair, LOL!), and even though Don still has all his hair, it’s sprinkled with gray and he’s opted to keep it cut super-short just to make things easy on him. I still think we make a cute couple!

So, what advice do you have that has helped to make your marriage, or a relationship, successful?

I have a love hate relationship with rain. The forecast this week is rain, rain and more rain. Now, believe me when I tell you that I know with every fiber of my being that this is better than snow. I’m not looking for sympathy. Just wanted to ruminate on this particular kind of rainy day.

In Florida, you can usually set your clock by our thunderstorms in summertime. I used to schedule my college classes so that I wasn’t moving between buildings or going to my car any time between three and five, when the deluge (replete with lightning and thunder…and my area is the lightning capital of North America) was at its worst. But these springtime showers are unpredictible and can last days.

One day, like yesterday, wasn’t bad. I had a lot of work to do when I’d much have preferred to spend the day in bed, but the gentle patter of the rain and the fact that my dog didn’t want to go outside and chase squirrels every five minutes really meant I accomplished quite a bit.

Can’t say I enjoy rainy day dismissal from school, though. I park pretty far away and the walk to school is a minefield of very deep puddles. The fact that my daughter has a rolling backpack that is currently making a valiant quest toward lasting to the end of the school year thanks to many strips of duct tape made going back to the car a rather interesting trek.

And let’s not even talk about what rain and humidity do to my hair. One of the moms asked afterschool why I had the hood up on my hoodie…it was a vain attempt at keeping my hair straight, although, since I knew this was futile, also kept everyone from seeing how my hair curls in about twelve different directions when not tamed by my straightening iron.

Tonight, I’m looking forward to curling into bed with a good book and reading to the sound of the gentle rain. No lightning, no thunder, just the rhythmic patter of water tickling the windows.

Since I’ve only had one day of non-stop percipitation, I can wax poetic. By this afternoon, I’ll be screaming for sunlight. I’ll be wondering aloud how people in Seattle and London can possibly deal with all the gray. I’ll be cursing the morons who seem to forget all the rules of common sense and traffic laws just because they have to use their windshield wipers. I’ll be searching the internet for a new sunlamp and perhaps pricing vacations to the Caribbean.

But for now, I’m just going to enjoy the rain.

How do you feel about the rain?

PS…pray for me. I’m chaperoning a 3rd grade field trip today, in the rain, on a bus, to the other side of town to see a 3-D movie about bugs. I’ll be back this afternoon to respond to comments…if I survived!