It’s been quite awhile since I blogged, but I thought I’d put up some photos as I prepare for my annual geekfest at Dragon*Con. I’m dressing up one day this year as Kahlen Amnell from Legend of the Seeker. Let’s just say that Bridget Regan looks better than I do and I now really remember why I don’t have long hair anymore. This is one time I’ll be glad the hotels are cold since the wig is hot. Still, it’s a great costume, and a shout out to W. A. for making it for me.

Here’s Bridget as Kahlen.

Here’s me, first with the hood up.

And down, with the “daggers” up and ready. I didn’t get real daggers but am making do with some $2.50 fake ninja knives from a costume store where I got the wig. LOL. And, yes, Kahlen mysteriously needed vision correction. Hey, I want to be able to see where I’m going.

I’m super excited because four stars from my all-time favorite show, Firefly, will be in attendance this year — Summer Glau (River), Sean Maher (Simon), Jewel Staite (Kaylee) and Morena Baccarin (Inara). Even though Adam Baldwin (Jayne) won’t be there, I did have a Jayne hat made. Here’s me in said hat. (And, hey, closeup of the new glasses.) Dude, why am I always managing to put blog photos up of myself with no makeup on?

The gal who makes the hats goes the extra mile for authenticity by sending it in a box with stamps that look like postal stamps from some of the places from the show. There’s Eavesdown Docks on Persephone…

Canton, setting of the hilarious episode “Jaynestown”…

Capital City Osiris and New Duinsmur Beaumond.

She also included a replica of the letter Jayne’s mother sends to him with the hat in the episode “The Message” and a Blue Sun sticker.

I’m going to be a picture-taking maniac at Dragon*Con, so I’ll be posting more photos of awesome costumes and famous people sightings.

Mary e-mailed me yesterday to tell me the cover for my October book, Elly: Cowgirl Bride, was up on Amazon.com. Squee! Here it is. What do you think?

I’m excited to show my first book trailer, for next month’s release, Winter Longing. Hope you all enjoy it. Feel free to share.

We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Healthy Writer blog, and in celebration we’ve expanded to a full site and given it all a new, spiffy look. Come on by and check it out.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on revising Coven, my paranormal YA. Today was dedicated to beginning work on synopses on books 2 and 3 of what I hope will be a trilogy. World building is fun but tiring. It’s off being read by the wonderful, fabulous, incredible Mary now.

Remember when summer was a wasteland as far as TV went? Granted, I’m TiVoing fewer shows in the summer, but there are still some. Foremost is Deadliest Catch, which is sadly gripping this season because the episodes are leading up to the death of Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie. Last week’s episode showed when he had his stroke, and the next few episodes cover the couple of weeks between that and when he passed away. Still doesn’t seem real even though it happened in February.

I’m also watching the latest season of Burn Notice (love Michael, Fiona and Sam, and new guy Jesse) and a new show called The Gates. Anyone watching this one? It’s like Desperate Housewives meets Eureka meets True Blood.

I got a review from a YA book blogger this week that has had me smiling ever since I read it. Jami over at YA Book Addict wrote the type of review of my August book, Winter Longing, that every author dreams of getting. We want to touch people with our writing, and Jami says in her review that Winter Longing did exactly that for her. I’m thrilled! Check out her awesome review here.

My weekly online read is still going on over at eHarlequin. Chapter 4 goes up in the morning, so you can see what happens to Callum and Madison next — or get caught up with the first four chapters if you haven’t read them yet. Check out Her Unexpected Cowboy here.

I’m having a book trailer made for Winter Longing, and I hope to have it up for viewing soon. Stay tuned!

My first-ever online read at eHarlequin.com begins today. You can go here to read the first chapter.

The six authors who are taking part in the continuity series The Codys: The First Family of Rodeo are hosting a contest. Here are the details:

June kicks off the debut of Harlequin American Romance’s first-ever six-book continuity The Codys: First Family of Rodeo. In honor of this exciting occasion we’re running 6 one-day-a-month Social Media Blitz Contests at www.harauthors.blogspot.com

Contest Scoop
Beginning next month in June, an author in the continuity will post a blog at www.harauthors.blogspot.com and discuss her contribution to the The Codys: First Family of Rodeo series. After reading the author’s blog, post the link www.harauthors.blogspot.com, the title of the book and the author’s name to your Facebook, MySpace and or Twitter pages as well as your favorite blogs. The more places you link to and mention the author and her book, the more chances you have to win.

You can earn additional chances to win if you refer a friend and they in turn post a link to their favorite social media websites and blogs. Be sure to return to www.harauthors.blogspot.com and tell us where you’re spreading the word by posting the information in the comment section of the blog–that way we can keep a tally of your activity. Remember, it’s One Day Only Each Month June-November 2010!

Authors will be giving away prizes to several lucky winners. Your name will be entered into a drawing for each social media site you promote The Codys: First Family of Rodeo and for each friend you contact who in turn spreads the word through their favorite networks. You have twenty-four hours to link to us and win! The author will post the winners in the comment section of her blog the next day–be sure to return to see if you’re one of the lucky winners.

On June 5th Senior Editor for American Romance, Kathleen Scheibling will introduce The Codys: First Family of Rodeo to readers and the following day on June 6th Rebecca Winters kicks off the Social Media Blitz Contest with the first book in the series– Walker: The Rodeo Legend!

With the help of our faithful readers we’re hoping that on June 6th the web is buzzing with chatter about The Codys: First Family of Rodeo!

Like millions of other people, I watched the series finale of LOST last night. I came away with mixed feelings. I cried, especially when some of the couples met up again — Charlie and Claire, Sun and Jin, Sawyer and Juliet. I still didn’t buy the Sayid and Shannon pairing, especially since they spent so much time building up the deep love he had for Nadia. Or are we supposed to interpret it that the reason he kept losing Nadia was she wasn’t who he was supposed to be with? Sorry, still don’t buy the Shannon thing.

I know lots of people are upset that we didn’t get definitive answers, but that’s been the nature of LOST from the beginning. Lots of things have been open to interpretation, and that’s how it went out. Would I have loved to have concrete answers to all my many questions? Sure. And maybe we’ll get some of them at some point in the future. I’ve heard show creators Damon Lindlelof and Carlton Cuse may expound on things at some point in the future, and I’m sure there are going to be books written on the subject.

I am still confused about the Sideways stories we’ve gotten this season. What were they? Did they really happen? We were told by Christian Shepard at the end that everything on the island really happened, but what about the Sideways stories? I can’t figure that one out. And I can’t believe I didn’t realize the potential implications of Jack’s dad’s name — Christian Shepard. And I wonder if everything that happened on the island was just some sort of test — either for Jack or for all of them — and that it ultimately didn’t matter.

What was your impression if you watched LOST? Did you like the finale? Hate it? Somewhere in between? What questions do you still have that you most want answered?

It’s late May, so that means there are season finales left and right on TV. Last week, we got the finale of Supernatural, which left me with a lot of lingering questions about next season. In fact, I’m blogging about those today at Supernatural Sisters.

And like many other people, I’m eagerly awaiting the LOST series finale. I can’t wait to see what all the show’s writers answer and what is left open to interpretation (aka drive me crazy).

Next Tuesday is the finale for The Biggest Loser. I’ve really enjoyed this season, liked the contestants. And it’s always so dramatic to see what everyone looks like now.

Any predictions for LOST? What season finales have you enjoyed? Looking forward to?

I’m being auctioned off! Okay, not really. But I have donated some critiques and books to be auctioned for good causes.

Up now is a critique of the first 25 pages of an unpublished young adult manuscript and an autographed copy of my first YA novel, Heartbreak River. This is to benefit diabetes research and is sponsored by author Brenda Novak, whose son has diabetes. You can access the auction listing (and bid!) here.

Tomorrow (Sunday, May 9), I’ll have a similar package available on the Do the Write Thing for Nashville auction to benefit flood victims here in Middle Tennessee. While my auction isn’t up yet, you’ll want to go over and look through all the fabulous auctions available now. I’ve bid on a few myself. Books, critiques, phone calls with agents, and all kinds of good stuff is just waiting for your bid.

I knew it was going to be a stormy day when I headed out to Gena Showalter’s book signing yesterday, but I had no idea it was going to turn into a historic weather event. Several of us got stuck at the bookstore well beyond when we’d planned to go home as wave after wave of storms and tornado warnings headed by us. Thankfully, I don’t think any of the funnels ever touched down, but the rain is what has ended up being the issue. We are currently experiencing the worst floods since the 1940s. As of last night, we’d had about a foot of rain in Nashville and it’s been pouring all day today. Creeks and rivers are overflowing. Water has overtaken some of the interstates and forced their closure. Five people have been reported drowned in Tennessee so far, one here in Nashville as Mill Creek overtook I-24 near Hickory Hollow Mall. At the end of this post, I’ll put the video of the flooding on I-24. It’s unbelievable. But first, my inner reporter came out this morning and I very carefully drove around our area taking photos. I took my husband’s truck since my car sits too low, and if I had encountered any water over the road I was going to turn around and backtrack. I’ve seen stories of way too many people attempt to drive through water and end up drowning.

This is the drainage ditch that runs behind our house.

Just up the street behind the next subdivision, it looks like a river has formed, complete with cascades right next to the road.

This is the parking lot below Percy Priest Dam at the entrance to the Stones River Greenway.

And here’s the Stones River overrunning its banks.

They don’t currently have the flood gates open on the dam, but I suspect that’s because there’s already flooding going on below the dam and if they open them it’ll be that much worse. But they’ll have to open them at some point because flooding is happening above the dam too.

I drove to a parking area above the dam and had to sit in the truck for a bit while the latest monsoon calmed down.

Once it slacked enough for me to take some photos, I hopped out quickly to take a few shots. This is a little park just above the dam. You can see the top of a bench at the right and that tree on the left is at the point of land that juts out into Percy Priest Lake.

Here, if you look closely, you can see the lighter shade under the water at the left. That’s a sidewalk in front of a bench that you can barely see.

Here’s a tree down at the entrance to our subdivision.

And this is where the drainage ditch that runs between our house (left) meets the one that runs behind another area of the subdivision.

And here’s the incredible video of I-24 yesterday.