Traditionally, I'm not much for resolutions & introspection at this point in the year (I tend to reserve such things for my birthday, as that's my "start date" & therefore the date from which counting fwds & bkwards makes the most sense to me). There is, however, appeal in a group date for such things too.
Top Moments of the Year (never in order):
1. Being w Daughter when she fell in love w a Dali painting at the Met. She's loved art in general, but rarely has she been so utterly smitten.
2. Son & Daughter & Spouse video-skyping to have dinner with me when I was on tour.
3. Stretched out on the beach (off season when it's deserted w Spouse AND during summer w Spouse & son).
4. Niece curling into my lap & announcing that she needed purple boots "just like yours, Aunt Miss"
5. Floating in the pool with son & spouse.
6. Late night conversations in the dark listening to frogs & insects.
7. Owl perched on a branch outside my window
8. Outside w kids & Spouse w telescope & seeing one of Jupiter's moons pass in front of the planet (THIS might be the top moment for me)
9. Building bird feeders w my beasties (& then watching birds).
10. All of those random moments that are so fleeting, yet one pauses & realizes that I Wish This Instant Would Last Forever.
. . . and at the end of it all, that's what it's all about: the moments. It's why I like photography, why I write, why I enjoy meeting new ppl whom I'll never talk to a 2hnd time. There are these things we do, these attempts to pause the world & fit all of the living we need into a space less than a second. At the end--whether that's this instant or many years away--I want to have a collection of moments to think on. I suspect that the desire to fill moments to bursting, to freeze them when they happen, is what causes us to think of afterlives and of folkloric immortality.
I hope your year has been filled with many moments & that your next year will be overflowing with them.
If you are so inclined, I love hearing of moments, so pls feel invited to share some of yours.
I'm working on a short story that I'd like to have at least half finished by Monday (when copyedits for ETERNAL KISS OF DARKNESS land on my doorstep), so I'm crunched for time. Still, it didn't seem right to let 2009 slide into 2010 without one more wave from the ol' blog :). So aside from working on the short story, here's what I've been up to this past week, copied from my Twitter posts:
Saw AVATAR. Amazing visuals, good story. Yes, if you're looking for plot holes, you'll find them, but I wanted to be entertained & I was.
Vote on your fav romance bk for 2009 http://bit.ly/4qFaVI, & we'll share with our publisher partners,
Reading HEART OF STONE by C.E. Murphy and enjoying it. Had recent dry spell w/reading so I'm happy to have it broken. Yawn. It's morning's like these that I regret not learning how to automatically program my coffee pot. Me to hubby: We need to get carpet steam cleaned. Hubby: Eh, it's not bad. Dog, 5 minutes later, vomits on carpet. Hubby: Okay, I'll call. Lazy. That's what I've been. However, taking a few days off had a surprising result: lots of plot ideas. Maybe my brain needed a recharge. For something far lighter, see uber-cute baby squirrel learning to jump: http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5017561/133
See? A whole week and still not enough stuff to make an entire blog post out of, lol. Hope everyone had a great holiday, whatever you celebrated, and wishing all of you a Happy New Year! Since I don't drink, be sure to have a glass of champage for me ;-).
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renaissance2010Turning to photography as a creative outlet during a valiant fight with breast cancer at age 34,
renaissance10 survived and set up a photo contest to help raise funds for the Lavender Trust, a nonprofit that provides information and support to younger women with breast cancer. In the first two years, the competition brought in over £65,000 (that's $107,260.73 U.S.!), with entries from 130 countries last year. Renaissance10 recently joined LiveJournal to meet other passionate photographers and find supportive friends.![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
curiouscupcakesHoly buttercream frosting! If you have a sweet tooth for sugary goodness or a wandering eye for whimsical confection, this is pure ecstasy iced in deliciousness. Hailing the beloved cupcake as the artisinal canvas of choice, you'll enjoy recipes, photos, and bountiful tips to bake up a batch, whether your taste leans toward French classics or funky and flavorful.
mission101With New Years in the offing, it's an ideal time to reflect on past accomplishments, make peace with disappointments, and refocus the lens on future goals. This community welcomes you to create a bucket list of 101 things you plan to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. Offering support, guidance, and inspiration, this is a great way to jumpstart those pesky resolutions.
( Read more... )
STILL WANT ONE/DIDN'T GET IT HERE:
I'm still giving 10 away in the Goodreads program thru the 12th of Jan.
Holiday debuggery
We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:
- If you were unable to send out multiple coupons at a time, please perform a hard refresh, and you should be good to go.
- If you redeemed a coupon to upgrade your account and the balance at checkout was $0 instead of $9.95 or $15, this means your upgrade did not go through (nor were you charged). We've straightened this out, so you can now apply your holiday coupon toward the purchase of an annual paid account.
- If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
- If the number of holiday coupons you have available suddenly goes up (instead of down), this might be due to recipients declining the coupons, at which point your pool of available coupons will be replenished and, therefore, increase.
- If you need assistance with holiday coupons or pretty much anything else (well, LiveJournal related), please open a support request and we'll be more than happy to help!
Tweaks
- There were some initial glitches displaying results on My Guests, but we've worked them out. We hope you'll check out who's been checking you out!
- Some of you reported formatting issues using the Rich Text Editor (i.e., line breaks were being removed incorrectly). We've implemented a fix! Thanks so much for your patience.
Give a little extra!
We're pleased to report that we've already sold over 100 virtual red ribbons in honor of National AIDS Awareness month. Remember, for each charitable vgift you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to fund the development of an HIV vaccine. Once again, we thank you for your generosity.
Celebrate with holiday vGifts!
Stop by the Virtual Gift Shop and share some holiday magic with your LiveJournal friends.
Photos of the week
We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!
For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )
Curtains
Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!
I haven't forgotten the contests. Snow & kids & Winter Break starting a few days early took priority though.
Will get results up as soon as I can do so.
As it stands at the moment, Pray for Dawn (book 4) is scheduled for release in late June, while Wait for Dusk (book 5) is scheduled for release in late July of 2010. My publisher and I decided to do a quick back-to-back release of the next two books as a treat to readers. Both books are currently up for pre-order on Amazon.com if you are interested. In the meantime, I will be spending this winter and early spring writing book 6 in the Dark Days series. After that book is handed in, I will begin sketching out what I hope will be more books for the series.
Turning to look at the convention schedule, I will be attending the Romantic Times convention in Columbus, Ohio at the end of April. It’s always a fun time filled with some amazing authors, including the amazing Rachel Vincent, Vicki Pettersson, Melissa Marr, Jeaniene Frost, Jim Butcher, and Charlaine Harris. You don’t want to miss out on this one!
In addition, I am planning to attend the Romance Writers of America convention in Nashville, Tennessee in late July. This is another chance to meet some amazing authors and get some books signed.
As for the rest of 2010, I hope to sneak in a quick vacation to Disney World and spend the rest of my time writing some great books!
- Location:home
- Mood:
cheerful
i_hope_thatFor many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.
Profile
- jocelynndrake
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Page Summary
- melissa_writing : On moments [+8]
- frost_light : Last week in 2009 [+5]
- lj_spotlight :: ljspotlight : Homepage Spotlight 12/28/09 [+3]
- lj_spotlight :: ljspotlight : Homepage Spotlight 12/28/09 [+3]
- lj_spotlight :: ljspotlight : Homepage Spotlight 12/28/09 [+2]
- melissa_writing : SHADOWS ARCs (winners list) [+16]
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news :: theljstaff : LiveJournal Major Notes: Get your holiday fix! [+274]
- melissa_writing : ARCs & Snow [+7]
- jocelynndrake : A Look Ahead to 2010: More Books [+2]
- lj_spotlight :: ljspotlight : 12/21/09 Homepage Spotlight [+17]