One of the things I love most about being a woman is the support I get from my women friends. The following are some hints/secrets/tidbits that various wonderful women in my life have shared with me that have made my life longer, richer, and just plain better:

1) My doctor (a she!) told me that “A brisk forty-five minute walk is as good for you as a thirty minute run, only not as hard on your knees and hips!”

2) The counselor I saw when I went through my divorce told me that “A relationship is hard work, but it shouldn’t FEEL like it. In a healthy relationship, your partner will give back enough to replenish the well.” That measure helped me find the wonderful relationship I’m in now.

3) My mother once told me that “All teenagers are brain dead. If you remember that fact, you might manage to communicate with them.”

4) A friend of mine who is a CEO for a huge corporation told me that “The key to financial security isn’t investments but cash on hand. If you don’t have an emergency savings account that holds at least six months’ salary for those difficult stretches, you’re going to end up cashing in your investments at really bad times and losing whatever gain you might have made.”

What are some brightest words of wisdom the women in your life have shared with you? On Family? Kids? Relationships? Money? Health? Beauty? Weight loss? Anything else?

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During our anniversary celebration last week, when I found myself studying the statue on our Goddess Blogs button, I realized that our mascot is a trifle bare – in more ways than one. She’s not only wearing very little, she doesn’t have a name or a past or a future or any sort of a life.

Maybe it’s because I’m starting a new book that I have character development on my brain just now. But I would love to be able to give our statue mascot a life story that makes a statement about who we Mount Oly Goddesses are.

Usually when I develop my main characters, I decide on names and personalities first, then figure out their stories and conflicts. To me, our mascot looks like a Lulu. But that is hardly a Greek name. Then again, the Goddesses here aren’t Greek, either. And I certainly don’t want to do this alone. So may we have a little fun today brainstorming possibilities and developing our TGB button mascot?

As a novelist, these are the sort of questions I would ask:

What name should she have? What’s her profession? Appealing personality traits? Character flaws? What’s her backstory? Any emotional baggage that made her who she is today? Where is she headed? Why’s she wearing a bikini top and carrying a purse, and are those designer duds or the latest fashion lines from Walmart? What’s her biggest life goal? Does she have a man in her life? If not, why not? Has she spent time looking for men in a Moroccan jail the way Ellen is sure to be doing this week? (See Goddess Blog “We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” from 2/14 if you want that one explained.)

I’m gonna make this simple for myself since I’m tired of being a glutton for punishment. Anyone who participates will have an equal chance to win a copy of my Courtship Wars Book 2, TO BED A BEAUTY, which will be out next Tuesday. But this will be a random drawing, not a contest, cause it’s just too dang hard to choose from all the clever, entertaining entries if we make it a contest! (As usual, although not eligible to win, resident Goddesses and Handmaidens are encouraged to participate, especially since they have a stake in the outcome this time.)

So does our mascot look like a Goddess Lulu to you, or someone else? Any ideas about who she is, where she’s come from, and where she’s going?

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Happy Valentine’s Day to all Goddesses and visitors to Mount Oly! And Happy Birthday to us!

Can you believe how time has flown over the past year? It seems like only an eyeblink ago when Soon To Be Goddess Karen Hawkins caucused with Nearly Almost Goddess Sabrina Jeffries and invited some of their near and dear author friends to participate in a brand new adventure in the Internet world. Thus, The Goddess Blogs Dot Com was born one year ago today on Valentine’s Day.

And then many wonderful other Goddesses joined us on Mount Oly to talk about love, life, heroes and heroines, books, and everything else under the sun.

What a splendid adventure it has been! We’ve enjoyed loads of fun and laughter, met great new friends, and shared our love of romances with kindred spirits who understand our passion. Thank you all for making it a super year!

So now it’s time to take a brief look back and take stock of what’s happened with us since last Valentine’s Day – and then look to the future. Therefore, lovely Goddesses, answer any or all of the following questions…

In the past year what would you say is your:

1. Proudest achievement?

2. Most embarrassing moment?

3. Best learning experience?

4. Happiest time?

And…

5. What are you most looking forward to over the next year?

6. Any special birthday wish(s) for your fellow Goddesses?

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My grandfather was born in Sweden in the 1890s. When he was 18 years old, he kissed his mother good-bye, hitched a ride to the coast, and climbed on a boat bound for New York. He never saw his parents again.

He didn’t speak English. He was one of the many children of a farmer. He had no skills to sell. He had his health and he had the will to succeed. He landed at Ellis Island and found work in Manhattan. He and another Swede fresh off the boat decided to see America. They worked their way west. They worked as itinerant farm labor. They worked in factories when they could. They slept where they could, in cheap dives or in the farmer’s barn.

They worked until they got all the way to Los Angeles. My grandfather loved Los Angeles, but he didn’t stay there. He worked his way back to New York because my grandmother finally said she’d marry him. She was a Swede who’d come to America as a teen to make a new life in a new country, a another child of a farmer, another risk taker. They had three children, three American children who never heard them speak a word of Swedish. They were Americans now, living the American dream.

My grandfather worked the night shift in a factory as a machinist. He was never out of work, even during the Depression. His was the first family on his street of fellow Swedish immigrants to have a car. He put his three kids, all born in the 1920s, through college. When one of his kids, my mom, moved to Los Angeles, he and my grandmother packed up and moved there, too. He was in his mid-50s. He got a job at a factory as a machinist, day shift. He worked there for more than twenty years.

I’ve been thinking about my grandfather a lot lately. He was so willing to look at his life and decide that he wanted something else. He was willing to leave everything he knew, even abandoning his own language, to find what he was looking for. I asked him once how he felt about leaving Sweden, leaving everything he knew and loved. He smiled and said, “There was nothing for me there.”

How brave am I? How willing am I to admit that there’s nothing for me here; in this job, in this town, in this relationship? I want to be that brave. I want to be brave enough to look for what I want. I want to embrace my choices, never looking back, always looking forward, ready for the next chance to achieve a dream.

What do you want for 2008? What are you willing to do to make it happen?

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We hope your holidays are happy, peaceful, and fulfilling. We’d like to thank each and every one of you for sharing your precious time, your vast and interesting lives, your divergent opinions, and your fresh and wonderful senses of humor. You’ve made Mt. Oly a very special place for us all and we can’t thank you enough.

Meanwhile, we wish you . . .

. . . the best holiday ever!

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What would you ask him to bring you for Christmas? And while we’re at it, what’s the number one thing on your Christmas List now?

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We wish you and yours a Happy Turkey Day!

Blessings to all of you from Mt. Oly!

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I was driving along in my car yesterday, doing the Car Dance, and a song came on the radio that took me back to my First Kiss. Don’t ask me what it was about that song that made the memory of my First Kiss come flooding back; there wasn’t any music playing during that Magic Moment.

My First Kiss took place on a Saturday afternoon. It was sunny and warm and there was birdsong. I was in a horse barn, there were bales of sweet-smelling hay surrounding me, the dust motes rising up from the hay were sparkling in the afternoon sunlight, and then he kissed me.

It was very nearly perfect. He was gentle and sweet. He knew it was my first kiss and he wanted it to be good for me. And it was.

Let’s compare notes, woman to woman, first kiss to first kiss. 

Was it day or night? Warm weather or cold? Were you in love or in like? Were you nervous or excited? Did you know it was coming or did he take you by surprise? Was it good for you?

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At the request of many of you, today we’re going to give up our hot man pic and instead address the topic that has been burning many of your reader hearts — HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!

NOTE: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. This post is for readers who’ve already read the book, or those readers who don’t care about spoilers.

Again, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS! This is a no-holds-barred discussion.

We’ve even come up with a discussion guide to get ya’ll rolling:

1) Did you re-read the earlier Harry Potter books before reading the new one?

2) Were you satisfied or disappointed with HP and the Deathly Hallows?

3) Did you find that Rowling’s writing style changed as she went through the series?

4) Do you feel the books became too dark? Too long? Or juuust right?

5) What did you like best about the book?

Now go, lovely goddess readers, and add your own comments, debate the details, and just discuss, discuss, discuss!!!

(And don’t forget that this coming Tuesday, Suzanne Enoch’s TWICE THE TEMPTATION, and Rachel Gibson’s TANGLED UP IN YOU, will be on a shelf near you!)

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I know you remember the moment when you first discovered romance novels and fell for them in a big way. I know I do.

I found my first romance novel in the grocery store. I was out of college, suffering through my first “real” job, not enjoying it much, living alone in an apartment in North Hollywood and commuting to downtown Los Angeles every day. I never saw my apartment in daylight from Monday through Friday. It was that kind of job and that kind of drive.

So, feeling alone and tired and disillusioned, I took a second look at the books for sale next to the register. The covers looked pretty good. I picked one up. This was the first time that I ever touched a romance novel. This was the first time I remember ever *seeing* a romance novel.

Zing went the strings of my heart.

Right then and there, I spent money I really didn’t have–I was living on one meal a day and $5 for a book was almost a meal–and bought my very first romance. I rushed home, snuggled up on the couch, and dove in.

I was hooked. I loved it. I loved the style of the writing, I loved where the story took me, I loved the characters, I loved it all. I even remember the title of that novel (I must have read it 4 times in a row)–Red Adam’s Lady. I still remember some of the scenes! It was a great read.

I was hooked, completely hooked. I’m still hooked.

So, do you remember when and where, how and why you first fell for romances? And do you remember which one flew you to the moon?

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