Like millions of other people, I’m a fan of American Idol, although I don’t usually tune in until the screechers have been banished from public view and the cream of the crop has been chosen to compete for the TV audience as well as the judges. Besides the singing, I enjoy getting to know the contestants from the short interview segments they do.

One of my favorite interview topics is “Tell us something most people don’t know about you.” Confiding secrets, I suppose, gives the performers a chance to appear likeable and to win our votes with their personalities in addition to their voices and singing styles.

So this is your chance, goddesses, to surprise your fellow inhabitants of Mt. Oly. I’ll start by confessing a few things most people don’t know about me:

– I earn my living as a romance writer now, but until my late 20’s, I never wrote a word of fiction except for a poem about the Easter Bunny in elementary school and a short story in high school (to which my mother added the final two sentences since I didn’t have an ending.)

– My great, great, great grandfather was a Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation, but I’m only 1/16th Cherokee.

– When it comes to fashion – clothes, shoes, hair, etc. – I would much, much rather be comfortable than stylish. Sacrificing for beauty is not my idea of fun. But then if you’ve hung around Mt. Oly long enough, you probably already know that about me!

So, goddesses, tell us something we don’t know about you!

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Now that the Olympics and especially curling are over, and many of us are snowed or rained in for another few weeks at least, it’s the perfect time to read a good book.

I’m reading eight paranormal romances for the Romance Writers of America best book contest, known as the RITAs. I can’t talk about them, because, well, I’m judging them. I can say that I have Angel’s Blood by Nalini Singh sitting on my coffee table waiting for me to have a free moment or two. I keep hearing good things about it, so I decided to give it a try.

And I’m going through some of my still-in-their-original-package action figures and deciding which ones I want to get rid of. There comes a time, my fellow goddesses, when a lady needs to make a choice between selling off a few duplicate R2-D2’s or having to start parking her car on the driveway instead of inside the garage.

So what are you reading right now? Or if you haven’t had time to pick up a good book lately, what’s your latest project?

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At my house right now we are in the process of “the big decision” ie-where youngest son will choose to go to college.  I’m not exactly sure what to tell him.  If he ever asked.

When oldest son chose a school, it was based on basketball recruitment, combined with the schools that had the programs he was interested in, a coach who wasn’t psycho and the fact that he wanted to remain in Wisconsin.

When I went to college, I knew I wanted to go to the University of Iowa because of their writing program.  Not that I stayed long enough to get into it, but it did give me a basis for choosing.  (The homesickness that blindsided me sent me back to Wisconsin after a single year.)

But all this confusion has gotten me thinking about how people make big decisions, and realizing that I’ve never really agonized over one. (I’m lucky.  I know it.)

When we bought a house, we bought the house that IVs, dad’s best friend (got that?) sold us at a steal-deal.  No big decision there.

No big decision when IV asked me to marry him either.  I had no choice.  First time I saw him, I knew.

I’ve never had two publishing houses duking it out over me.  (I’d like to.)  So I never had to weigh pros and cons career-wise.

I always thought that if I had to make a major decision I would list the pros and cons on my yellow pad, total them up and voila!  (Does this actually work?  Anyone?)

I could ask for advice from my trusted friends and family.  Then total that up too.

But really . . . how DO you make a huge decision that’s going to alter your life?  I need some advice.  For the kid.  If he ever asks.

I’ll be giving away an ARC of my May release CHAOS BITES today.  I’ll draw a name at random from the posters on today’s blog.

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We hear a lot about celebrities who behave badly, mostly because they show up in the tabloids making fools of themselves. But we rarely hear about the ones who live stellar lives. So I thought I’d mention a few who’ve caught my attention.

Pierce Brosnan: I’ve had a crush on the guy from the day I saw him on Remington Steele, but I really fell in love with him when I read about him and his two wives. His first wife died of cancer at the age of 43, and when she fell ill, he put his career on hold to be with her. By then, he’d already adopted her two children by a previous husband. He got the Bond role a few years after her death and could have had any young thing he wanted. Instead, he married a journalist only ten years his junior, and together they support a number of charities and are active in other causes. Everything I read about him shows him to be a good, stand-up guy. Kudos to Brosnan!

Meryl Streep: Okay, I’m not going through the cast of Mamma Mia purposely, but she’s another impressive one. Not only is she a brilliant actress, but she has been married to the same man for 40+ years, has four kids who seem to adore her, seems genuinely nice in interviews, and supports several charities. Before her husband, she was engaged to a man who got bone cancer, and she too took a leave from acting to be there for him until his death. Go, Meryl!

Alyssa Milano: On the marriage front, she’s had some rockier times than the above two (she’s on her second marriage), but I admire her for two things–her perseverance despite her dyslexia, and her charitable work, which is considerable. Also, you never hear about her in the tabloids doing stupid things like running over ex-husbands she hates or driving drunk.

Weird Al Yankovich: First, I admire him for making a success out of doing novelty songs. He’s hard-working and highly respected in the music industry. He’s happily married and a general nice guy, according to just about everybody who works with him or knows him. His fans love him for that. And he too supports charities.

There’s lots more, but we never hear about them. So tell me, who are some of the celebrities who’ve impressed you by behaving well? Who do you admire and why? If you hear something good about a celebrity, does it make you more inclined to support the work they do or is that even a factor for you?

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As most of you know by now, I’m a big movie buff. That doesn’t mean I see every movie, however. Frequently and for some very odd reason the ones I haven’t seen are the ones that get the Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Some of them seem so pretentious – and don’t get me started about No Country for Old Men, the Emperor’s New Clothes of movies. Everybody said it was magnificent because nobody could be the first to admit that they didn’t get it. Well, I didn’t get it. Because it was STUPID.

Anyway, the nominations this year were expanded to ten movies. Of those ten, I’ve seen four, own another one (my mom wanted to see it, so I let her borrow it), and want to see an additional two. This is very rare for me. Last year I’d seen NONE of the nominated movies. I still haven’t seen any of them, in fact, though I own Frost/Nixon (which didn’t win).

So this year’s nominees are:
Avatar – awesome looking and sounding. Plot…well, it looks awesome.
The Blind Side – want to go
District 9 – fascinating character study, and unfortunately probably what would really happen if an alien ship ran out of gas over a major city
An Education – eww, don’t want to see it despite Colin Firth (added later: oops. Colin Firth is in A Single Man, not this one. An Education still gets an ewww vote, though.)
The Hurt Locker – Mom, I need my movie back so I can see it
Inglourious Basterds – violent, clever, and equal parts funny and horrifying
Precious – too depressing for me to go see
A Serious Man – It hasn’t been long enough for me to forgive the Coen brothers for that other movie
Up – sad and funny and uplifting and just amazing
Up in the Air – I’ll get there, George Clooney! Just give me time to finish my revisions!

I have no idea which movie will win. Of the ones I’ve seen, my Oscar vote goes to Inglourious Basterds. Or Up. Probably.

How many of the nominated movies have you seen? Which movie gets your vote? Is there a movie that should have been nominated that wasn’t? Oh, and in honor of The Goddess Blogs anniversary next week, I’m giving away an advanced reader copy of my May 11th book, A Lady’s Guide to Improper Behavior, to a lucky poster!
Congratulations to LauraR! My nephew drew her name for the ARC!

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I’m bad with dates. I admit it. Not sure why, but there’s a reason I have a calendar that reminds me in several ways of various appointments, and even then I’ve been known to miss one because I didn’t check my calendar first thing when I got up. It’s a sickness, I swear.

I have this really BAD tendency to schedule things on the same day without making the connection. If it’s two different worlds (for example, my son’s school schedule and my public appearance schedule), they don’t correlate in my mind. At some point, however, the worlds inevitably cross and I am SO screwed when I realize I’m double-booked.

For the most part this problem has been eradicated by slavish use of an online calendar. But with my life so busy these days, even THAT doesn’t prevent all trouble. Like when my parents stayed longer after Thanksgiving than I’d expected, so I ended up with the following events scheduled on ONE day: their departure (someone had to drive them to the airport), my husband’s dental surgery (someone had to drive HIM to the dentist and back, on account of the drugs), and my own one-year appointment at Duke (which had been set up weeks in advance). Hubby hadn’t bothered to consult with me when he set up his surgery and my parents kind of had no choice, so I was screwed. Fortunately, the appointments were at different times, so somehow I managed to do all three. I ate in the car (twice), and had to really book it to Duke, though. Didn’t get any writing done that day, either. Duh.

So how are you with appointments? Are you better making some than others? What’s the worst appointment mess-up you ever had? Do you ever double-book? And what do you think of the new Dread Pirate Roberts action figure I got for Christmas–isn’t he dreamy??

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Okay, “Sunny Southern California” is a cliche. We do get clouds and those pesky Santa Ana winds and even somewhere between 8-12″ of rain per year. And when it gets hot, it gets HOT.

What we do not get is torrential rain, lightning, tornadoes, hail, or snow anywhere but on the slopes. Except for this week.

Yes, I sat through my very first official tornado warning on Tuesday. Sirens went off, the news became very serious, telling everyone to stay indoors and not go outside to look at the sky. Those of you who are accustomed to tornadoes might think the not-going-outside part was just understood – but not here. We don’t know what the hell to do during a tornado. Earthquakes? You sit under or beside a big, heavy piece of furniture, or you run outside. That’s easy. Nobody out here has a cellar, and if you have a two-story house, the bathtub is upstairs. Not good for crawling into.

In addition to the tornado warning, we had hail and lightning and a grand deluge of rain – so much coming down all in a half-hour period that my full trash can washed away down to the corner. When it eased up I had to go down and haul it back to my house. And then I had to sweep three inches of water off the rear of my patio and into the drain. And my mail was all wet. I hate that.

What kind of weather are you comfortable with? What is strange for your area? And what natural phenomena freaks you out?

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