Made a boo-boo
Current mood: embarrassed

Okay - in case anyone read the blog I put on about an hour ago - ignore it.  Rechecked the 'my favorites' videos and what I thought was wrong.  So - back to writing.  I obviously shouldn't try to do anything that requires thinking too soon after I drag myself out of story as the brain hasn't adjusted to real time yet.  Ta, Hannah

11:46 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

I must have had a brain freeze
Current mood: confused
Category: Life

Hello: Okay now I'm severely embarrassed and pray the kiddos haven't read my blog lately.  I neglected to mention that I now have a new granddaughter - Evelyn Rose, born March 27th(and let's pray I got the date right and will be forgiven if I don't as I was called at 5am and had to drive an hour and a half to babysit the 2 three year olds while Mama had the baby.)  Evelyn Rose was born in the back of the ambulance outside the Post Office.  My psychic friend went to visit her with me the other day and says her totem is the grizzly.(means she's stubborn.  A Howell stubborn?  What a surprise)  That ought to make a nice mix with her brother (the eagle and the wolf) and her sister(the coyote).  Plus she's supposedly even more psychic than her brother.  What fun.  So there it is - a pioneer of romance and a grandmother x 3.  I can feel all my body parts sliding towards the floor even as I type this.  A delightful image, don't you think.  I'll leave you with that and get back to Tormand - I feel like torturing a character right now.  And to Evie - who may be psychic enough to know I'm writing this - sorry - but, hey, I've been married 37 years and can't even get my own anniversary date right - is it the 23rd or the 26th of March?  Fortunately the hubby remembers.  Bye now - time to get mean with Tormand, Hannah 

12:39 AM - 4 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Romantic Times convention
Current mood: calm

Hi, Back home now from Pittsburgh and the chaos of the RT Convention.  Met a lot of nice people - fans, booksellers, etc. The drive there was long and very interesting.  I've decided that the ones who do the maps for Mapquest are all guys and thus don't have any idea of how important a bathroom is.  Note to those guys - women require more than a tree.  I stopped seeing a decent place to make a rest stop at about 3pm and by 8pm was getting desperate - almost desperate enough to pop into one of the bars I was driving by despite the big signs that advertised Live Girls.  And just to show how flaky I was getting after 10+ hours on the road - when I saw the Live Girls sign my first thought was - well, what else would they be - dead girls?  Maybe a vampire bar in the hills of PA?  Anyhoo,I actually began to wish for a MacDonald's.  Make that pray.  Desperately. Funny thing is - one showed up about 10 miles later.  It was almost a religious experience to see those golden arches.  I think I even said Thank you, Jesus.  Whipped into the parking lot and did the get out of my way  dash.  Then I felt guilty for bursting into the place just to use the john and so I bought a lemonade.    Then back on the road.  For the drive home I bought a map and picked my own route - one with rest areas at appropriate distances, and lots of pulloffs to get gas and food.  Funny thing is - my route was no longer in miles than the mapquest one and far more straightforward, better roads, and, of course - bathrooms.  Well, at RT it was fun if a little hectic and sometimes a lot loud.  I got a very nice engraved thingy that declared me a Pioneer in the romance genre.  Flattering beyond words and I will soon beat down the part of me that thinks it makes me sound very old.  Got home late Sunday night and had 2 1/2 days to visit with my brother-in-law who was over from England and soothe the widespread annoyance of the cats who obviously feel I have no right to leave them.  They seem to take it personally that I actually have bit of a life that doesn't include feeding them or scratching their ears.  Back to Tormand who is just about to get very lucky, Hannah

11:57 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

let’s try this again
Current mood: groggy

Hi, so much for keeping this up to date.  Only excuse - deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.  Throw in a few conferences and a trip to see my mother-in-law in England(went to celebrate one of those big birthdays - my hubby’s - with his twin brother and no, I’ll be kind, and not say which one)  Got a new grand-daughter on the way - due April 1, poor dear.  Hope she decides to come a little earlier or later.  Lost two cats - Banshee and Oliver Cromwell III - the first to complications due to diabetes and the second to liver cancer.  Now have 2 new kittens and they are happily tearing up the house.  Jackson and Perkins(after the rose catalog people no less) Oh, and my last old cat(Spooky whose 14) lost an eye to a disease and during the process, the operation or infection, lost most of the sight in the other.  You know, I never realized there was such a thing as an eye specialist for a pet.  Go figure.  Just finished my latest vampire novella - due out in September - and am pushing through my next book - Highland Sinner - due out in December.  With 2 conferences taking up about the first half of April I’ll be pushing real hard on that one.  It’s all about Tormand - who appears briefly in Highland Wolf - and he finds himself hip deep in murders and has to get the aid of a woman believed to be a witch(a beautiful one of course)  And I’m trying to organize my work space, remember to excercise, stop eating so many potato chips and grow my nails back after wrecking them transplanting plants, moving boxes around, and stirring up bird seed.  Such an exciting life I lead.  Well, off to try and find a new song as it appears I lost the one I had on there.  That’ll probably take me a few days.  Take care and be well, Hannah

11:09 AM - 5 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

Another day in the life ...
Current mood: awake
Category: Life

So - only took me a month.  Went to my new grand-daughter's Dedication(Unitarian Church)and had great fun watching my son and his wife try to control 2 2-year-olds in a church, went to a few writers' meetings, wrote some, and am still working on what's needed for a 2-hour workshop I'm due to give in NH on characters.  How's that for intense excitement.  My next book is due to the editor in June and James and his honey are not coopperating.  Time to whip them into shape.

Having a fox population boom here.  They are in and out of the yard at all times of the day which is putting the willies up the cats.  There's even 3 kits living in a drainage pipe just down the road.  Supposedly foxes aren't interested in eating cats but it's breeding season and they are a little hyper.  One small female actually stood on a dirt pile in the back garden barking at the house after the hubby told her to go away. Talk about ATTITUDE. Between them, the wild turkeys, the deer, the possums, the racoons, the skunks, the big snapping turtles that drag themselves up from the river every June to dig up the yard and lay eggs,etc., I think it's time to fence in the back garden.  Then maybe the cats will go outside once in a while and save me a little on cat litter. Well, back to wrestling with James and his sweety(sounds a bit kinky) 

9:14 AM - 4 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

just a ramble
Category: Life

Everyone says I need to blog.  Seems to me I ought to have something interesting to talk about if I'm going to put it out there for everyone to see.  I'm a writer - I sit at home scribbling, then typing it into the computer, editing it, and sending it to my editor.  Big yawn for most people I'm sure.  I've got a deadline for my next book looming and will soon be lost in trying to meet it with the occasional wander into trying to find out such exciting things as exactly when they began to make scones in Scotland.   In fact I'm so ready to get back to my writing that I believe I'll call my son(it's his day to stay home with the kids) and see how harrassed he sounds after trying to give 2 two-year-olds breakfast.  Procrastination can be a true art form.

9:00 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment