Plot Monkeys

So … I hope you know by now I’m continuing the SERENDIPITY series – my current plan is to write in 3 book arcs about the people in Serendipity for as long as readers love them and my publisher wants them! So. Who’s up next? Well unfortunately, I can’t tell you that until KARMA (May 2012 – 2 mos. from now) is out because you won’t meet the characters until then, but once you do, I’m sure you’ll be happy. What I CAN tell you now is that we decided on titles and release dates for the next books in the series.

PERFECT FIT – Feb. 2013
PERFECT CHANCE – Sept. 2013
PERFECT TOGETHER – Feb. 2014

Yay!

Wish I had more to tell you today, but as some of you know, this post was late going up (because I’m just plain exhausted) and because I’m exhausted I’m kinda out of ideas! I AM willing to answer questions and stuff about SERENDIPITY so far if you’ve got any!

As you read this, I will be sitting in the orthodontist office with my daughter because today, she’s getting braces.

I have to tell you, she’s been a real trooper about the whole thing. I’m a FREAK when it comes to dentistry. I punched my dentist when I was eight. (In my defense, he was coming at me with a big needle after promising me, before I shut my eyes, that he wouldn’t give me a shot.) I never went back to him. In fact, I never went back to ANYONE for many, many years. I still despise the idea of going to the dentist and when I was getting a crown, actually preferred the pain of childbirth.

I was very careful when selecting my daughter’s dentist because I didn’t want to transfer my horrendous fears onto her. I picked a woman, very well respected in the area, who specialized in children. My daughter’s dentist experiences have always been good. So of course, when it came time to pick the orthodontist, I deferred to the dentist. Luckily, both her husband and her (good-looking) son are orthodontists who have their office right next door to hers. Convenient!

She’s not exactly excited about it, but she knows she has to do it. I have the refrigerator stocked with soft foods that she likes and promised to make her creme brulee, Sorrento pie (it’s an Italian shepherd’s pie) and egg salad…her favorites. I’ve got my Advil ready to go.

But otherwise, I don’t have any advise to give her. I never needed braces (thank GOD) but on the downside, I can’t give her any advice about what she can/can’t eat or what she should/shouldn’t do.

So I’m looking to the jungle…any advice to offer about surviving braces, especially in the first few days?

I’d love to say that title means I’m sitting on a tropical beach, sipping a Pina Colada, but the truth is, I’m referring to another beach. As in: South Beach.

Yes, yes, once again, I’m tackling weight loss. The reason is because Bruce and I had to get new life insurance policies, as our 10 year term policies were expiring. They came out to do a physical, and not only was my cholesterol bad, and my triglycerides, but I weighed exactly one pound less than I did the day I gave birth to my youngest daughter! ARRGH!

So, major diet time. My oldest daughter’s wedding is in October, and I am determined to be a young-and-attractive mother-of-the-bride!

I’ve done all the big diets, but South Beach is the one my heart doctor recommended, and it’s a little easier for me to stick with than some of the others. I like the strict structure, I like having a big, huge, “NO!” list that I can avoid. The first two weeks are definitely the toughest, but Bruce (who is doing it with me) and I made it through just fine. I ended up losing 11 pounds and he lost 9. We didn’t exercise the way we need to, but that’s going to be a big part of phase 2, which is the long-term, steady-loss phase. I am aiming for 2 lbs a week, which is perfectly reasonable, and I KNOW I can do it!

The big problem I’m having with this diet isn’t the day to day, I am fine with that and have found a bunch of great recipes that I’ve loved experimenting with. The trouble comes on weekends during “social” events. For instance, my nephew’s birthday is this weekend and we’re going over to my sister’s house for a small party. There. Will. Be. Cake. (ACK!)  Fortunately, she’s a doll and when we went over there for dinner last week, she made a nice roast dinner with a huge salad. We skipped the potatoes and had roast & salad and skipped the wine (that’s painful for me. :-)

I’d love to hear any tips from anybody who’s done this, or some other kind of “lifestyle change” diet. Because it’s not just about me bringing along a baggie of celery sticks…I’d like to know what I can do, long-term, to maintain this healthy lifestyle without completely giving up a social life.

Any tips??

Also: WE HAVE A WINNER from last week’s Ruthie Knox guest blog. The winner of a digital copy of RIDE WITH ME is ALINA D! Comment # 16. Alina, please drop me a line, author @ lesliekelly . com (no spaces) so I can get your info for Ruthie.

So, how many of you watched The Oscar’s last night?  I watched the red carpet preview, then the Oscar show, and enjoyed both.  I always enjoy seeing what the women are wearing, and if you missed that part, I did a commentary on my Facebook Fan Page that you can CHECK OUT HERE  and add your own comments.  It was a lot of fun!

Some of the highlights of the show, for me, were who won — like Meryl Streep.  So happy to see her win after YEARS of being nominated.  I know this is her third Oscar, but it’s so well deserved.  She’s such an amazing actress.  A lot of the awards went to The Artist, which I haven’t seen, so I can’t judge on that.  Has anyone else seen The Artist?  Is it worth watching (Just because it won a few Oscars doesn’t mean it’s worth watching, LOL.).  It’s a silent, black & white movie, and that just doesn’t appeal to me.

I heard about the Sacha Baron Cohen debacle with Ryan Seacrest, but didn’t see it happen on the channel I was watching, so of course I found it on YouTube.  If you’d like to see it for yourself, you can do so here:  RYAN SECRET & SACHA BARON COHEN.

For me, the best dressed actress was Milla Jovovich.  Absolutely beautiful from head to toes!

And the worst dressed for me, was Rooney Mara.  The dress she wore was so unflattering in design, and even the color of her.  I wasn’t a fan at all.  What were those flaps over her breasts???

So, what were some of the Oscar highlights for you?

So sorry to be late … still catching up from vacation!

The winner is: # 63 – MICHELE L.

CONGRATULATIONS! EMAIL me at: carly phillips @ mac . com (no spaces) with your confirmed email to receive your prize!

And now SUNDAY FUNNY!

A tough looking group of bikers were riding when they saw a girl about to jump off a bridge, so they stopped.
The leader, a big burly man, gets off his bike and says, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to commit suicide,” she says.

While he didn’t want to appear insensitive, he didn’t want to miss an opportunity so he asked… “Well, before you jump, why don’t you give me a kiss?”

So she did… And it was a long, deep, lingering kiss.

After she’s finished, the biker says, “Wow! That was the best kiss I have ever had! That’s a real talent you are wasting. You could be famous. Why are you committing suicide?”

“My parents don’t like me dressing up like a girl”
:rotf1:

Me? I found a new author. KRISTEN ASHLEY In a word? LOVE. First person (new for me but these are people you WANT To be in their heads only as it happens). Why? ALPHA MALES. Like I’ve never read them before. Start with either The Rock Chick Series or with the Dream Man series and then keep going. I am. Long books. 100,000 words long so worth every penny of the $4.99/book. Ebook (sorry book only lovers). So anyway … RUN and read these books. Of course being the stalker I am, I contacted her and she will be guest posting here one day this spring. For me, that’s gonna be a huge treat!

So what are YOU reading?

Hey all! It’s my Friday and that means … a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

You know the drill and in case you don’t – post a comment for a chance to win and check back on Sunday to see if you got lucky!

It’s the President’s week break and my kids are off from school and we’re in Florida. They each brought a friend. I have a college age daughter and a sophomore in H.S. This means I’m now used to living with three people in my house – me, hubby and daughter. Said daughter is extremely social and rarely around and when she is home, she’s on the computer yapping with her friends. In other words, I’m not used to having 6 under one roof. I’m not used to constant “Mom”, “Mom” – and noise. It’s a SHOCK I tell you! I’m SO happy to have my family all together, and the girls’ friends who I really do enjoy, and we’re having a really good time. But yesterday I had a mini meltdown. I don’t know why. I just know suddenly I was anxious and crazy and didn’t want anyone asking me anything. Which of course meant everyone did. Which led to a huge old round of GUILT (we Jewish girls EXCEL in Guilt 101) because I’m so LUCKY to be with my whole family on vacation, how dare wish I was alone and need a corner to myself to go into meltdown mode. I needed a vacation from my vacation. I guess that’s why when the kids were younger and people said what’s your favorite day of the week I always said Monday, because everyone left the house, went to school and work, and I had peace. The irony of THAT is, if everyone I love, including hubby, said “I’m going out tonight without you,” instead of celebrating I’d have an anxiety, “how dare you not want to be with me” attack. I AM SO NOT RATIONAL and clearly INSANE. It’s the crazy mix of feelings. Gotta tell you, it’s not fun to be me sometimes.

Comments on Carly Craziness?
(Oh let me add it’s 6:43 AM and I just realized I panicked, thought I forgot to blog, jumped up to write this and realized NOW it’s only Wed. not Thurs. And THIS is a vacation? Clearly I am not relaxed. What’s wrong w/me?)

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CARLY LIVE in West Palm Beach, FL
Oh and if you live near West Palm Beach, Florida, PLEASE take pity on me and show up at my signing/talk tomorrow night at the WPB Library. I’m truly afraid it’s gonna be just me and my parents. It’s FREE but they’d like you to register so they know how many to expect:
Date: Thursday, Feb. 23
Time: 3:00 PM
Place: Main Library, West Palm Beach – 3650 Summit Boulevard, West Palm Beach, FL 33406.
REGISTER: CLICK HERE
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Remembering I now have longer, curlier, brunette/reddish hair – check out the video interview I did with Romantic Times last August about SERENDIPITY series!

When you think about it, the whole bottled water thing is amazing. I’m not that old, but I remember when there was no such thing as a water bottle. I played sports and danced and we never, ever drank water. I don’t even remember being thirsty! We had a water fountain and that was enough.

Now, of course, we’re obsessed with water. I’m sure it has something to do with the research that shows drinking water will help us lose weight…though the water craze seems to match up with a growing problem of obesity in our country. So that doesn’t even make sense. Water has not helped us lose weight…at least not the bottled kind.

I have had times where emptying out my car has resulted in the throwing away of nearly a dozen water bottles. And keep in mind, I have ONE child. Now, admittedly, my one child only drinks water. She drinks no soda, no juice, only has milk when she’s eating Oreos. Water only. But the waste of water bottles is really sad.

About a year ago, I stopped buying them. I bought her a really good Thermos and I filled it with water and ice from our filtered fridge. This is usually enough for her, but when she rides (horses) she can easily go through her whole Thermos in half a lesson…and there is no water fountain where I can refill. So guess what I buy for refills? Bottled water. I am definitely buying LESS, but I still buy it because once you’re out, your sources of good tasting water can be very limited!

(And by the way, my daughter, as someone who only drinks water, is pretty choosy. She likes the stuff out of the fridge just fine, but she HATES Dasani and only tolerates some other brands. Dasani, as a Coke product, is the only water sold at many places…including Disney…although, I know the spots where I can get her Evian or iced water in a cup. But they are few and far between! I try to pack up a lot of water…but damn, you can only carry so many Thermoses!)

My favorite, for the record, is Fiji water. I consider it a huge treat!

So…what about you? Do you go through a lot of bottled water? Do you try to use refillable containers? Do you throw out as much as I do and feel horribly guilty about it???

We love having guests here on Plotmonkeys, especially new authors we discover and love.

Both Carly and I have read & adored a new book by author Ruthie Knox, called RIDE WITH ME. The story is about a pair of strangers doing a cross-country bike ride, and how they fall in love more and more with every mile they travel. It’s fun, sexy, sassy, contemporary, with a great, strong heroine and a wounded hero who’s so darn sexy and adorable!! We’re really excited to have Ruthie here today, so please give her a big Jungle welcome! (And one lucky commenter wins a copy of the book!)

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Thanks to Leslie for inviting me to visit Plot Monkeys!

Let’s talk about epilogues, shall we? I’ve had epilogues on the brain lately. I’m trying to write this new book — it’s about a rock climber heroine and a park ranger hero, and it’s pretty fly, if I do say so myself — and it seems to want to have both a prologue and an epilogue. This is a prospect that makes me faintly ill.

See, I’m generally not a fan of epilogues. In fact, I dislike them so much, I actually put it in my bio: “Ruthie abhors an epilogue and insists a decent romance requires at least three good sex scenes.” Way to lay it all out there, Ruthie. Nothing like making arbitrary rules in your bio to set yourself up for an embarrassing failure when you break them sooner or later. (Sooner, as it happens.)

But here’s my beef with epilogues: I feel like romance authors often use them to put a great big bow around the happy-ever-after. Like, See? My hero and heroine are blissfully happy! It’s three years later, they have 2.5 children, and they’re still knocking boots on the laundry room floor. All is well!

Which is good, of course. I want the hero and heroine to be happy. I just . . . actually, no, sorry. I’m not sure I do want the hero and heroine to be happy — not that sort of happy. Because here’s the thing: I live in the happy-ever-after. I have a husband and a kid, and I actually sort of want the hero and heroine to be normal people. I want them to still be in love three years later, but if they have a baby, and if the heroine decides to breast feed, I want her to be bleary-eyed and greasy, and to shoot Flame Eyes of Death at her still-handsome, grotesquely well-rested husband when he says, “You get to sleep in this morning, honey. I’ll handle everything.” I want her to think, ‘Get’ to sleep in? Seriously? THIS IS YOUR CHILD. YOU PUT HIM IN MY BODY, AND I AM DOING ALL THE WORK. STOP BEING SO EFFING SMUG.

Not that this has ever happened to me.

I guess what I’m saying is that the happy ending is, for me, one moment. It’s a respite. After a few hundred pages of conflict and strife, the hero and heroine deserve a few minutes to breathe and rest easy in the comfortable space they’ve made through their mutual disclosures, their lifting of burdens, and their hot smexin’. But nobody gets to live in the happy-ever-after moment forever. Not even romance novel characters. Being in love is hard work. So why doesn’t anyone ever write an epilogue with hero and heroine bickering and irritating the crap out of each other, but still obviously in love? That would be an epilogue I’d want to read.

What about you guys? Do you like epilogues, or do they drive you batty? Why? One lucky commenter will be randomly chosen to win a digital copy of Ride with Me, which is the book I’m supposed to be promoting, but I got a little distracted. Ride with Me does not have an epilogue. On the other hand, it *does* have tent sex. Winners will pick up their copy through Net Galley. Good luck to all!

Ride with Me, available from Loveswept on February 13, 2012!

In this fun, scorching-hot eBook original romance by Ruthie Knox, a cross-country bike adventure takes a detour into unexplored passion. As readers will discover, Ride with Me is not about the bike!

When Lexie Marshall places an ad for a cycling companion, she hopes to find someone friendly and fun to cross the TransAmerica Trail with. Instead, she gets Tom Geiger — a lean, sexy loner whose bad attitude threatens to spoil the adventure she’s spent years planning.

Roped into the cycling equivalent of a blind date by his sister, Tom doesn’t want to ride with a chatty, go-by-the-map kind of woman, and he certainly doesn’t want to want her. Too bad the sight of Lexie with a bike between her thighs really turns his crank.

Even Tom’s stubborn determination to keep Lexie at a distance can’t stop a kiss from leading to endless nights of hotter-than-hot sex. But when the wild ride ends, where will they go next?

More About Ruthie:

Ruthie Knox figured out how to walk and read at the same time in the second grade, and she hasn’t looked up since. She spent her formative years hiding romance novels in her bedroom closet to avoid the merciless teasing of her brothers and imagining scenarios in which someone who looked remarkably like Daniel Day Lewis recognized her well-hidden sex appeal and rescued her from middle-class Midwestern obscurity. After graduating from Grinnell College with an English and history double major, she earned a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to remarkably little use.

These days, she writes contemporary romance in which witty, down-to- earth characters find each other irresistible in their pajamas, though she freely admits this has yet to happen to her. Perhaps she needs more exciting pajamas. Ruthie abhors an epilogue and insists a decent romance requires at least three good sex scenes.

To learn more, visit her website: www.ruthieknox.com.