As we enter a new year filled with excitement and adventure, fun and thrills, challenges and opportunities, your goddess authors would like to take a moment to wish each and every one of our goddess readers, writers, and friends a happy, happy, HAPPY New Year!

May you and your family have a golden year filled with love, laughter, and romance!

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This is it, folks, the end of another year. If you’re like me, you’re looking around in a daze thinking, “Like, dude. How did this happen? How did it get to be December 31?” Well, the same way it always does, LOL. The sun rose and set 365 times.

Some of us may be focusing on New Year’s Resolutions. This day does seem to be a good opportunity for reflection and goal setting. But before you make your To Do list of all the things you’ll change or “do better” in 2009, take a minute to look back at this year with us goddesses on Mt. Oly. What did you accomplish this year?

Okay, here are the rules:
1. Nobody uses the word BUT. As in, I did this [wonderful thing], but I didn’t do [something else]. I’m really serious. No BUTs.
2. Nobody makes a resolution. There will be time for that later.
3. Anything you did that you’re happy with, counts! You don’t have to have been Michael Phelps winning 8 Golds in Beijing. And you don’t have to have written a book. Everybody has done SOMETHING this year.
4. You may Rah-Rah the accomplishments of others as unique posts (because I’m putting posts in a hat and drawing book winners, see below).
5. If you forget an accomplishment, feel free to post again.

P-R-I-Z-E-S. This is the time to celebrate what we’ve done as the sun has risen and set 365 times this year. And, to sweeten the pot (and to unabashedly promo my new releases), I’ll be drawing 4 lucky goddesses. Three will get 1 book each: DIE FOR ME, SCREAM FOR ME (out in paperback this Monday!) and an arc for KILL FOR ME, (out in hardcover on 2/2)! The fourth goddess drawn gets all three, the entire Vartanian family series. What better way to celebrate our achievements than through hot heroes, strong heroines, and vile villainy? (Oh, and hot sex. Can’t forget about that!)

So, let the self-praising, high-fiving, and rah-rah-ing begin! I’ll go first, in no particular order:

1. I wrote two books this year. Woot.
2. I helped get two members of my family through some health issues, navigating doctors and treatments.
3. I filed my taxes. (Just in case the IRS is watching. You never know.)
4. I proudly saw my oldest daughter graduate from high school and cried a river.
5. Two of my books were on bestseller lists in three different countries at the same time. AWESOME. (That’s the UK SCREAM FOR ME and the German translation of DIE FOR ME.)
6. I connected up with old friends from high school after 25 years.
7. I took my family on a vacation of a lifetime, and I drove 1400 miles through the UK in 12 days without a scratch on the rental car!
8. I lost 17 pounds!!! (Here is where not saying “BUT” comes in. I’m leading through example, here.) I lost 17 pounds. Period.
9. I deepened friendships and made new ones, many through this blog.
10. I adopted a second kitty from a shelter, giving her a new home. Her name is Kali (Hindu Goddess of Death and Destruction, of course).

I might think of some more later. Go at it, goddesses. Share and feel proud of what you did in 2008!

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New Year’s. A time for looking back before you look ahead, which started me thinking…

I’ve lived in the city and I’ve lived in a small town and I’ve lived in the country, and no matter where I lived while I was a kid, dogs ran free. Those days are gone, and I miss them.

When I was a kid, you opened the door and the dog ran outside, really outside, not just in a fenced backyard. Dogs roamed the streets, sniffing, saying hi to the neighbors, trotting around and checking things out. Everybody knew every dog by name. No one was alarmed to see a dog in their front yard or in their garage or cruising through their back yard. People actually greeted the dogs in their yard, neighbor to neighbor.

Dogs ran along next to kids when they rode bikes, eyes shining with joy.

Dogs ran through the kids, tongues hanging out, when they played tag.

Dogs were a part of the landscape of life. Some dogs were more friendly than others, but all dogs were okay. No dog I ever heard of ever bit anyone. Were dogs happier and more well adjusted because they got lots of exercise, is that why they didn’t bite? I don’t know. All I know is that I miss those days. I miss seeing dogs belonging to the neighborhood. Having a dog now is a bit like being a prison warden to a crazed killer. The dog cannot escape! The dog must be monitored at all times! The dog must be restrained!

I miss the days when dogs ran free, when Lassie could find someone to get Timmy out of the well. Who would help Timmy now? The cat?

Did you grow up with dogs roaming the streets? Did you like it? Do you like it better now that dogs are nearly always required to be leashed?

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I’ll be speaking at the Orange County Romance Writers of America chapter in January. I don’t give many talks, given my tendency to drool and run away in times of stress, but they asked and I said yes.

In the few previous talks I’ve done, I generally discuss how I came to be a writer. I mention some of my awards and honors, the genres that I write, and tell some anecdotes about a writer’s life. This is the first time I’ll be speaking in front of a group of published and hopeful writers, though, and I’m not sure if I’ll be saying what they want to hear.

And so I have a couple of questions for you, my fellow goddesses.

1) Are you an author, published or prospective?
2) What do you most want to know about the writing process, if anything? Or do you prefer anecdotes?
3) If you could ask an author any question, what would it be?
4) Have you ever given a talk, and does it help to picture people in their underwear? (If it’s Hugh Jackman or this guy, then I assume the answer is yes.)
5) Do you have any advice for me?

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I’m fascinated with EHJ. (That’s Everything Hugh Jackman for those of you who’ve been asleep.) So when a friend of mine sent me this cartoon/real thing comparison of Hugh Jackman’s soon-to-be-released movie, WOLVERINE, I was enthralled and decided to share it with you guys.

Usually, when you do a fantasy v. reality comparison, fantasy wins. But this time . . . well, take a look at it yourself.

The Cartoon:

The Man:

For once, I found the real thing much more exciting than the fantasy, didn’t you?

Happy Fros, to one and all! I hope none of you found this little foray into reality too painful.

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This year, I had a total of thirty-six people in my house Christmas day and night. Those ruffians are most of the nieces and nephews. I love my family and it is always such a huge pleasure to see them, but thirty-six all in one day is a bit overwhelming. I’m still recovering

The day started out fairly peaceful. My three kids came over in the morning and we exchanged gifts. Mr. G shocked me this year with little ornaments made out of the covers of my books. He had them photocopied and shrunk and they are the coolest things. He really put some thought into his gift and I was beyond thrilled. My oldest daughter got me a leg lamp like the one in A Christmas Story. I love that movie and love the lamp. My middle daughter made me a scrapbook with photos of my favorite people inside. It was very special and very thoughtful. My son . . .well, he bought me a Thanksgiving tablecloth with matching napkins. As I stared down at the tablecloth with the big turkeys all over it, I was a little confused. Then he told me that he knew I didn’t have a Thanksgiving cloth, so he got me one. So all in all, my family came through with very thoughtful gifts that didn’t cost a lot.

I am so very blessed. I didn’t get anything weird this year. No itchy sweaters, or ugly earrings, or Bedazzled hats.

So how about you all? Did you get thoughtful or weird gifts, or a combo of both. Tell me the good the bad and the ugly..

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Leftovers is such an ugly word. But not for me. I enjoy finding creative ways to transform them into something really special. Remember the Friends episode where Ross loses it because some coworker not only stole the sandwich with leftover turkey that his sister made for him, but didn’t appreciate its wonderful nuances and actually tossed half of it away? Well, that’s how I can be about leftovers. 

For example, every Christmas or Thanksgiving (whichever holiday we deem poultry-worthy), I use the leftover poultry to make gumbo. I even save the carcass for it. I’ve made turkey gumbo, goose gumbo, cornish hen gumbo (which my husband deems the best of all time), smoked turkey gumbo, and duck gumbo. This year it will be duck because that’s what we had today. And since my parents are coming to visit in a week and Mom is bringing some smoked turkey, it will be duck/smoked turkey gumbo. My mouth is already watering! I also make turkey quiche out of leftover turkey, so I’m not a one trick pony.

It does take a certain knowledge about food, however. My dad once decided he was going to make potato soup out of leftover potato salad. My mom tried to talk him out of it, pointing out that potato salad has pickles and mayonnaise in it, but he was sure it would be great. It wasn’t. None of the rest of us would go near it, and even he finally broke down and admitted it wasn’t his best idea.

Like my dad, I’ve had a few failures, but mostly great triumphs. One time hubby decided to make his signature dish–stewed beef rounds–except that he burned the roux (Creole term for base of a gravy). Convinced it was not burned, he cooked all the meat in it. It tasted … um … burned. But he couldn’t stand the thought of several pounds of meat going down the drain, so he asked if I could fix it. I washed off all the gravy, ground the meat in the food processor, added lots of salsa, and used it as meat for nachos. DH, who has the sensitive palate of a gourmand, pronounced it delicious and ate it all. I swear, I will do ANYTHING to keep from throwing away food. It’s a sickness, I know. 

So how are you about leftovers? Like them? Avoid them? Do you rework them into something else or just keep ladling it up in the original form until it’s gone? What is your greatest leftover triumph? And do you hate to throw away food as much as I do? Or am I just warped?

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