Today, I’m blogging over at eHarlequin on my favorite Harlequin Moment. Click here to join in on the discussion and enter a comment to win a copy of a book of your choice OR a download of “The Viking’s Forbidden Love-Slave”!
By the way, Her Warrior Slave goes on sale at eHarlequin exclusively tomorrow! It will be in by the end of October. Thanks for stopping by!
I’m working on the new medieval (Ewan’s book) now, and one of the things that makes it interesting for me, is digging up new bits of history. His book takes place in 1180, and the Norman invaders were most definitely making a place for themselves in Ulster, Ireland. I was trying to connect Ewan’s bride to events happening at the time, and I stumbled upon an interesting fellow named John de Courcy.
John de Courcy built the castle of Carrickfergus in northern Ireland, after he led a campaign there in 1177. The castle was built and finished by 1180. I visited Carrickfergus in 2006 and despite the cheesy medieval statues hanging around, it’s a good example of twelfth century castle architecture. Ewan’s book, incidentally, takes place in 1180.
Interior gathering space in Carrickfergus Castle
There were also many interesting things to see, like this salt cellar. I imagine John de Courcy must have had a fairly good income, to afford fun little decorative pieces like this. Not bad for a Norman knight.
salt cellar
Anyway, for me, part of the fun in researching a book is looking for the little details like these. 
My daughter is starting to go on the mend, but she’s still sick today. As for me, I’m so glad not to be teaching–an illness that lasts 3-4 days is just brutal for a teacher. My kids always had a knack for getting sick just when my husband was out of town and during 3rd class period. 
But anyway, she’s bouncing around, singing and skipping, despite the 102 fever. I’ll never understand how kids can be that cheerful with high fevers. I would be half dead if I had the fevers she’s had this week, but she’s managing to keep her spirits up.
If any of you live in the southeastern or Virginia Beach areas, please come this Sunday between noon and four p.m.! There will be around 145 authors (including me) signing books at Town Point Park for the Books in the Park festival. Hope to see you there!
My little girl is still sick today, so the poor baby has been relaxing on the couch for most of the day. However, I was at the point where we were about to be eating cardboard for dinner, since I was out of just about everything. Yet, how do you justify dragging a sick child and infant to the grocery store? I should have gone last night. But after the long day of cleaning up sickness, fixing drinks, dosing Tylenol, yadda yadda, plus I hadn’t written a thing…I decided that I’d go ahead and get my daily pages done instead of shop. I just plain old didn’t wanna.
We are having a monsoon at the moment, with a nor’easter hitting our coastline. I keep waiting for the animals to line up, two by two. I decided to help my son out by not making him wait out in the rainstorm, so I buckled everybody up and drove him to the bus stop. It occurred to me that while my secondborn was drugged up on Tylenol, this might be an opportunity to grocery shop. After all, who else is shopping at 8:45 in the morning during a tropical storm? Turns out, we were about the only ones in the store. And Little Miss Skippy was just delighted to be out and about.
(Aside: have you ever noticed how much milk young children drink? Dear lord, I need a cow to keep up. 2 gallons a week, and we still run out!)
Anyhoo, I was gathering up all the things we needed and it occurred to me that today would be a great day to make chili. It’s cool outside, rainy, and with a one-pot dish, I could get it going early enough that it could simmer most of the day. Yum.
I haven’t made it in a while, and I was thinking out loud, telling my daughter that we’d have chili for supper. Her little eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I want hot food, Mommy.” 
Gotta love it. 
One thing that all mothers discover is that your child can go from zinging off the walls to flat-out sick in 0.5 seconds. My daughter came home from preschool yesterday with a 102 fever. Today she was home with me, and she went through ups and downs. The scary one was around noon when her fever shot up to 105. Those scare me, and yet kids can spike a temperature so quickly.
I managed to get her into the pediatrician, but it turns out it was only a virus. Can’t do anything except wait it out, so she’s camped out in front of the tv with movies and Gatorade.
The baby is screaming upstairs. He won’t drink a bottle, won’t take a nap, and is being a beast in general. I suppose he’s probably coming down with the same bug.
Can I have my mommy now?
Today and yesterday I have been writing like a madwoman. I have days when the pages just flow, and I keep going as fast as my little fingers will type. Then there are the slow days when I know something isn’t right, but I can’t put my finger on it. I’ll rewrite a scene and delete pages for several hours, feeling like a complete hack because I can’t seem to make forward progress.
But so far, the story is starting to take shape. I’m very much a seat-of-the-pants type of writer. I like being surprised by my characters and sometimes they do things that make me say, “Ooooh! I didn’t know that about you!” And other times I want to smack them down and say, “Oh, no, you did not just do that. Tell me you didn’t do that!!” It’s a love-hate relationship between us.
What I really like discovering are the little details, the habits that make a character compelling. I’m re-reading one of my “comfort reads,” Nora Roberts’s Born in Fire. Her heroine Maggie likes her tea strong enough to walk. Those kinds of details make a character come alive for me, as well as the snappy dialogue. I’ve nearly worn that book out, I’ve read it so many times.
Some other books I’ve read 5 or more times are: Clan of the Cave Bear, Anne of Green Gables, Dark Lover, Lover Awakened, The Mists of Avalon, and Morning Glory.
How about you? What are your “comfort reads?”
I was heading off to go shopping yesterday for baby formula (can I say I will be so glad when the baby can have whole milk?!), when my daughter informed me she wanted to come along. “Can I buy something?” she wanted to know. Which means, “Can I buy something from the candy aisle that will rot my teeth out and send me on a two-hour sugar high?”
I said, she needed to use money from her own bank. She disappeared upstairs and returned a few moments later. I asked how much she’d brought. She held out a handful of pennies.
Me: Um, honey, that’s not enough to buy candy. Eight cents won’t get you anything.
Her: But I have a lot!
Me: But it costs much more than that. You need at least a dollar.
Her: Oh. Well, how about this? (holds out a folded dollar bill)
Note: The last time I checked, the girl didn’t have much more than pocket change in her bank.
Me: Where did you get that?
Her: (looks guilty) Um, I found it.
Me: WHERE did you find it?
Her: (shifts feet around) In (older brother)’s bank.
Me: Does your brother know about this?
Her: No.
I explained to her that theft was not acceptable, and she had to use her own money, not her brother’s. She seemed somewhat confused about this, because after all, she FOUND the money. 
It all worked out, however. Her brother decided to join us, and he was fine with giving her a dollar as long as she cleaned his room.
However, when we reached the store, my son got the idea that he wanted to buy a toy with his dollar. I let him walk through the aisles, and his jaw dropped at the prices. He couldn’t believe that the Batman toys he lusted after were $19.95 and up. Even the cheap plastic light saber was $7.95. He was nearly in tears when we left the section because he really didn’t realize how much things cost. I reminded him that he could write down the price of something he wanted, save up to buy it, and then we’d go back. Still, he was very discouraged to find out how little a dollar really is. I think it was a good lesson for him.
Pretty soon, we’ll have to figure out the whole allowance thing. I haven’t decided whether to just let him have a set amount for spending money, whether to have him do extra chores, or what. What did your parents do for you when you were growing up? Mine gave me a set allowance of around $5 a week.
So, cover art often comes from stock photography images. Sometimes an author is lucky and gets a great cover. I’ve been happy with all of mine. But the other day, I was browsing Barnes and Noble and came across a new book. It had a certain feeling of deja vu. And then with a little more searching, I found that this lovely warrior has been around….big gold barbarian belt and all! Check it out:
The Conquest by Julia Templeton
Prince of Ice by Stobie Piel
The Warrior's Touch by Michelle Willingham
Looks like my Connor MacEgan has been around the block a few times!
Last night, hubby and I celebrated ten years of marriage. I ended up using Brian’s suggestion from the comments and I bought him a bottle of Jack Daniels, so he could put up with me for another ten years. Actually, I was also running out, and I often cook with it, so it had another purpose. 
Since ten years is the “tin” anniversary, I bought him a stainless steel flask at Things Remembered and had it engraved with our names and our anniversary. It amused me. 
Then we went out to dinner at the Regency Room in Williamsburg. The babysitter took the kids and SweetBaby was screaming his head off as we left. I was hoping that he would only cry for five minutes and then settle in, as most kids do. As it turns out, he cried for 45 minutes. Dear Lord. Let’s just say that I paid the babysitter quite a tip. Poor girl. My SweetBaby has a set of lungs on him, and he is one stubborn little cuss when he wants to be. I suppose I should find it flattering that he wanted his mommy, but I mostly felt bad for the sitter. He also had a lousy nap schedule yesterday, and hell hath no fury like a baby who has missed naps. Heads will roll…
We enjoyed our dinner out, and hubby offered me my choice of a new bike (I am currently riding a donated ancient bicycle with questionable brakes) in keeping with the “tin” theme. Or if I’d prefer, I can get the shelves and storage for the office. It’s a tough choice, actually, since I want both. I need the shelves for my research books, but I also want a bike. Choices, choices…
He also gave me a ring lollipop, to say he’d marry me all over again… Awww… 
Okay, I did the drawing, and the first thing I did was choose the day. The computer came up with:
Here are your random numbers:
2
Timestamp: 2008-09-19 01:11:23 UTC
So since we started on Monday, we’re going with Tuesday’s blog post. And the random number chosen is…
Here are your random numbers:
6
Timestamp: 2008-09-19 01:13:46 UTC
Comment #6 which belongs to Stacy Dawn! 
Congratulations, Stacy! 
E-mail me your mailing address and your choice of book, and I’ll drop that in the mail for you.
Today is my ten year anniversary. Wow, where did the time go? I should probably go dig up a wedding picture or something, don’t you think?
