Since last I blogged, I’ve turned in some edits on my October book, written and turned in an online read for eHarlequin that will we debut at the end of May (more on that as the day approaches), attended the Southern Kentucky Book Festival in Bowling Green where I got to hang out with Teresa Medeiros, Susan Crandall, Molly Harper, Karen White, Bente Gallagher and fellow Harlequin American author Laura Bradford. It was fun to catch up with Teresa. We’d not had the opportunity to talk in a long time. And Molly and I discovered we’re originally from the same neck of the woods and are both former newspaper reporters in Western Kentucky. Cue “It’s a Small World.” Come back tomorrow for a bit more on this event, including pictures.

And speaking of It’s a Small World, I had a fabulous three days at Walt Disney World in Florida prior to the RWA board meeting. Friends and fellow board members Stephanie Feagan, Terry McLaughlin and Stephanie’s daughter joined me for some quality time in Mouse-land. Here we are outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which has been Johnny Depp-ified since I was there last with the hubby in 2004.

The week after I got back from that trip to Florida, I went back to Ft. Walton Beach for an all-girls family trip. My sister and two nieces had flown in for a visit and we went to pick up my Mom and all headed to Ft. Walton Beach. I admit I was a bit nervous because Mom has some health issues and she’s not been more than an hour away from home since she had a heart attack last year. But she had never seen the ocean, so we rented a van and off we went. Here’s Mom during her first time to ever stand on a beach at the ocean. That’s the condo complex where we stayed in the background.

And here I am with my sister and nieces the night before they flew back home.

Little Niece was quite proud of her temporary tattoo she’d gotten from a machine at the Pizza Hut in my hometown.

So, what have I been doing? I had to do revisions to Elly: Cowgirl Bride, which is due out in October as part of a six-book, multi-author continuity series. When I finished those and turned them in, I had to read like a mad woman to finish judging the RITA contest for RWA. I had some good books in my packet, one of which I enjoyed so much that I went out and bought the sequel. This week is a massive catch-up week including exciting things like getting all my business taxes stuff in order so hubby can do our taxes. Oh, will the fun never end!

I do have some good news to share. Last week, I sold my first eHarlequin online read! We’re still working out the details, but it’s going to be a weekly serial connected to the continuity series I mentioned above. It starts on eHarlequin’s Web site at the end of May and runs for eight weekly installments.

For those of you in or near Bowling Green, Kentucky, I just put some details on the homepage of this site, over in the Appearances sidebar, about my attendance at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest on April 17. Hope to see some of you there.

We had the first snowflakes of the season this morning as hubby was headed to work. They stopped once the sun came out, and what few were stuck to the grass and the deck quickly disappeared despite it being cold, cold, cold today. It’s like the New Year’s ball dropped in Times Square and the temps decided to drop with it. Right now it’s 20 degrees with a wind chill of 7! And we’re headed for 12 degrees tonight. Brrrrrrrrr! Not supposed to get above freezing tomorrow. Have I mentioned that January is my least favorite month of the year? Oh well, I’m going to be so busy that it’ll be spring before I know it.

* Drove 12 hours from the beach to Kentucky for Christmas
* Took down all the Christmas decorations and shoved them in the attic
* Marked as many things off my to-do list as I could
* Watched Avatar again, this time in 3-D, as well as DVDs of Push (confusing, not as good as I’d hoped) and Knocked Up (okay)

Speaking of movies, I keep a spreadsheet each year of all the movies I see and another of all the books I read. Yes, I’m odd. Anyway, here are my top 5 movies I saw and books I read in 2009:

Movies

Avatar
Star Trek
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Up
Gran Torino

Books

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Graceling by Kristin Cashor
As Shadows Fade by Colleen Gleason
Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward

What were your faves of 2009?

When I returned from my walk, I found hubby chilling and reading on the balcony.

I finished my proofing job and ran it to FedEx, then went to an area Books-a-Million to set up a book signing for March since the book I have coming out then, The Family Man, is the second book I’ve written set in this area. My hope is that since it’ll be spring break all those spring breakers will need a good beach read.

While I was out, I also bought the soundtrack to Avatar. As usual with James Horner’s work, it’s beautiful. I’m listening to it now. Hubby took this shot while I was out and about.

We went to Floyd’s Shrimp House for dinner. We ate there last December and really enjoyed it, so it’s the only place we’ve gone back to for a repeat visit this trip. We played a game of Perquacky, a word game, and have been playing on the Internet since. Hubby is reading the book I got him today as an early Christmas gift, The Art of Avatar.

We went for a walk (hubby for half an hour and me another half hour on top of that), and just chilled around the condo. But, hey, when you’ve got fun paintings like this on the wall, it’s a happy place to hang out.

I even did a little work. See, here’s proof. For all you RWA members out there, I was proofing the February issue of the RWR. Good stuff in there.

Hubby played some guitar, and later in the afternoon we headed to the movie theater in Destin to Avatar. Loved it! We both agreed it’s very re-watchable. I’d love to see it in its 3-D incarnation. Even without it, I enjoyed the story, the acting, the tremendous visual beauty. It made me want to be a blue Na’vi and live on Pandora. If you have not seen it, go.

Photo: 20th Century Fox

I tried to get the soundtrack after dinner, but Barnes & Noble was sold out. May check somewhere else tomorrow if I venture away from the condo for anything other than my walk.

After a casual morning, we hopped in the car again for the rest of the drive to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We made our usual stop at Florala State Park in Florala, Alabama, so we could add to our collection of goofy pictures of the hubby posing with Spanish moss in some fashion. Today it was crazy hair guy.

I posed for a quick picture in front of the park’s Lake Jackson. If I look cold, it’s because I was. The wind was blowing across the lake. Being that close to Florida, I stomped my foot and said, “I demand it be warm!” in my best queenly voice.

We rolled into Fort Walton Beach around 2:45, and I uttered my usual greeting of, “Hello, ocean!” Yes, I’m a dork. But the beach always makes me happy — the relaxed atmosphere, the sound of the waves, the bright colors you can get away with painting your home here. This is me posing on the balcony of the condo where we’re staying. I’m looking forward to one of the warmer days this week so I can sit out there and read a book.

And here was the first sunset of our stay here. Gorgeous, yes?

After appreciating the sunset, we went to Publix and stocked up on some groceries. Then when hubby discovered he had forgotten to bring a cable for his computer, we drove over to Destin and hit Target, Radio Shack and finally Best Buy before we found it. Then we came back and hubby made shrimp scampi, brown rice and mixed veggies for dinner. I love shrimp, so count this as something else that made me happy.

While eating dinner, we watched the Pixar movie, UP. Really good movie, though it made me cry a couple of times.

And now here we sit across the table from each other working on our respective computers. Guess that’s all for tonight. I’ll post again tomorrow.

I finally got my Christmas letter written and all the Christmas cards ready to go this afternoon, which means a trip to the post office tomorrow. Might as well make it Errand Day and hit other exciting hot spots such as the recycling center. Oh, the glamorous life of a writer.

So, what have I been up to since I last blogged here in mid September? Well, I spoke at the Moonlight & Magnolias Conference

Went to my 20-year high school reunion

Spoke at the member retreat for River City Romance Writers in Memphis

Have been enjoying the new TV season (I’ll do a separate post about this sometime this week, but I have to give a squeeful shoutout to the beginning of Castle last night when Nathan Fillion’s character, Richard Castle, dressed up for Halloween as Captain Mal, aka Captain Tightpants, from his Firefly days!)

Been working on some new story ideas

Been doing a lot of yard work and general prep for winter (like the duct-cleaning guys are here now)

Keeping up with my Healthy Writer blog (come by and check us out!) and continuing with my regular blog days at the Romance Bandits, Supernatural Sisters, Wet Noodle Posse, Harlequin American Authors and Nobody Writes is Better blogs

Got new author photos taken

And generally just keeping up with all of the everyday demands.

So, what is everyone else working on/doing this fall?