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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My prejudices hit me the other day. I am very, very picky about what e-mails I open. And I’m even pickier about what e-mails I reply to.

A friend who knows I love animals forwards delightful e-mails about puppies and dolphins and piglets, etc. As usual, I eagerly open her e-mails and laugh and coo at the adorable pics. But then I quickly zap the next several from my in-box.

I respond to any business mail, to good friends, and to most family. But there are a lot that I don’t bother reading.

You know those chain mail thingies, where the sender promises your ears will fall off and you’ll have ten thousand years of bad luck if you don’t forward their precious message on to ten of your friends? Now why would I want to inflict that curse on my friends?

Dh gets tons of jokes from friends and relatives, but he knows better than to send them on to me unless they are really great. And my family darn well knows better than to send me political commentary, since we are 180 degrees out of sync. We just politely agree to disagree. If you don’t want me to reply with a tirade, just keep your contrary political opinions to yourself, thank you very much.

I zap a lot of e-mail without opening it. Along with the junk mail asking me if I want an implant to enlarge an organ I don’t even posses, or to inspire ecstasy in my woman lover, which I don’t have either, or to buy watches for a great price, I get repeated Facebook invitations from people I don’t even know. It irks me that because I don’t respond the first time, they automatically send me notices half a dozen more times.

I’ve made enemies of friends when I ask them to stop sending me jokes. To keep my friends, I’ve learned I have to gently train them in my preferences.

Part of my problem, I suppose, is that I actually have 5 e-mail addresses (which I use for entirely different purposes), so I have to check a lot of different places, which takes more time. And I keep most of my spam filters turned off so that I don’t accidently miss the e-mails I really want to read, which means I open myself up to junk mail.

It worries me that some folks don’t get my e-mails because they get zapped by spam filters. Especially readers who take the time out of their busy schedule to write me about my books. But I confess that reading fan mail is the second favorite part of my on-line day – next to checking out The Goddess Blogs, of course.

What’s your fave and least fave kind of e-mail? Do you feel obliged to respond or do you zap without remorse? Do you have your family and friends trained? And do you forward those chain mail thingies? If not, can you tell if you’ve incurred ten thousand years of bad luck?

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I lost a treasured friend last week. Actually, I never met him in person, but I knew him from his words and characters and stories.

Dick Francis was one of my long-time favorite authors who brought me many, many hours of entertainment and joy. His life bio was interesting and unique: A former champion steeplechase jockey who at one time rode for the Queen of England, and who, in his second life, wrote delicious murder mysteries, mostly set in the racing world.

When I heard of his passing, I pulled out one his novels at random – TWICE SHY – from my keeper shelf  and started reading. That particular story came from the early 1980’s. It was a bit strange reading about dated details when the entire plot hinged around no cell phones and early computers that were so small they could only store 32K bits of data, including the program. But it also featured a timely hero for this week – an Olympic competitor in rifle shooting.

Reading my Dick Francis novel was like slipping into a robe and comfortable pair of house slippers and sharing a hot cup of tea with an old friend.

Now that he’s gone, I feel as if I’ve lost a little part of me. So for a moment I’d like to celebrate his life and pay tribute to him and thank him for the way he touched my life, even though he’ll never know my feelings.

And as long as I’m paying tribute to writers who have touched me, I like to mention the late Kathleen Woodiwiss and the retired Laurie McBain, who inspired me to dream of writing my own historical romances. And two of my favorite traditional Regency writers who also retired some time ago – the delightful Marian Devon and Joan Smith. I miss you all.

Do you have authors you would like to pay tribute to if you could? Writers you really miss who are no long writing or who are no longer with us?

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Hello, My Sweetings!

Forgive the blanket endearment, but I’m positively giddy over our 3rd anniversary celebration taking place this Valentine’s week at The Goddess Blogs. So let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a delightful, romantic, love-filled Valentine’s Day. (Hint: If you want love, you’ll get lots of it right here all week!)

You might find my “sweeting” greeting a bit odd for a blog, but it’s one of my favorite terms of endearment in Regency-set stories. I’m a sucker for a great romance—historical, contemporary, paranormal, any kind!—especially when I get a thrill from the chemistry igniting between the hero and heroine. And part of that delicious chemistry can be sparked by what they call each other when their hearts (and their libidos) spring into action. Brings back fond memories, you know?

Of course, endearments uttered by my 19th century lovers (whether strolling in a garden or sparring behind closed bedchamber doors) differ greatly from those used in stories by my contemporary writer colleagues. Imagine if my latest dashing nobleman voiced his compliments to his new bride for her seductive prowess by proclaiming, “Wow, babe! You rock my world!” On the other hand, I wince at having my heroes and heroines running around calling each other “Miss Surname” and “my lord” every time they speak to each other. That’s too stilted for my tastes, not to mention that it could come off sounding like a “Saturday Night Live” skit.

So during this month of sweethearts, I’d like us to share our favorite terms of endearment, as well as our not-so-favorites. Here are my faves:

From a Lord’s Lips to a Lady’s Ears:

When the Misses Speak, the Gents Shall Listen:

Some of my favorite contemporary endearments:

Feel free to weigh in on the examples from my list, but what I really want to know is: What are your favorite endearments for historical, contemporary, and paranormal lovers? Which endearments do you hate to see in romance novels? (Even if you don’t like “sweeting” I want to know!) And if you’re feeling adventurous, what creative endearments would you suggest we romance authors use to spice up our novels? We’ll choose three lucky posters at random to win a fabulous pair of vintage-style earrings or a Victorian-inspired locket!

So get creative, My Sweet Goddesses! For romance novel heroes and heroines, list your:

1. FAVORITE Endearment(s)
2. LEAST Favorite Endearment(s)
3. FUN/CREATIVE Endearment Suggestion(s)

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Do you like surprises? I confess I only like the good kind.

My dh surprised me last week with wedding anniversary flowers a day early. Good thing, because I’d forgotten to get him so much as a card. (The next morning I hastily made one up out of old note cards instead of making a special trip to the store to buy an expensive greeting card, which actually was better than a few years ago when I also forgot to give him a card and wrote my sentiments on a Post-it note and plastered on his bathroom mirror.)

The day after our anniversary, my riding buddies threw a surprise 50th birthday party for our trainer, with a 50’s theme complete with soda fountain, poodle skirts, saddle oxfords. hair ribbons, and an Elvis impersonator. It was great fun, and our trainer was totally surprised in a good way.

Then there are the amusing-plus-wincing kind of surprises. Years ago when dh and I returned home from our honeymoon, we found our guest bathroom toilet broken and water running all over the ceiling of the floor below. Our friends had tried to steal the seat but broke the ceramic bowl and caused a big mess. Almost as bad, our toilet seat wound up in our manufacturing plant, and we had to get a pass to take it out so the security guards wouldn’t think we were stealing plant property. To this day, we’ve never found out the names of the culprits, who could have been any of 60 people.

Actually, the toilet seat was in retaliation for the prank dh and I pulled on my neighbor when I was looking after his apartment during his honeymoon. We Vaselined all his cabinet and door knobs and let the water out of his water bed. (And I’m sure all you goddesses thought I was nice!)

Then there was dh’s 4oth birthday when I decorated our bedroom with black funeral stuff. He was not amused.

Of course I hate the nasty surprises, like the $900 bill dh got recently for a 20 minute visit to a new dermatologist who was part of a new insurance university med system. We’re still contesting that one.

I guess over all I have mixed feelings about surprises. I think I’d rather have the pleasure of anticipation. Knowing something good is coming up helps get me through the daily grind. And if something bad is coming my way, I really don’t want to know about it until it happens!

Do you like surpirses? What’s the best surprise you’ve ever gotten? The worst? What surprises have you given, and were they good or bad?

(Oh, and this is the perfect time to announce our big surprise for Valantine’s Week — our 3rd anniversary of The Goddess Blogs!  We welcome your comments below!)

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My family may kill me after this since I plan to share some of their deepest, darkest, personal, most intimate secrets: their nicknames.

Let me start by saying I like most nicknames. Often they’re a sign of affection and/or shared history. My dad was a champion nicknamer. He used to come up with these long convoluted phrases that had little meaning except to us.

My childhood nickname was AggalitiesBumuntly (don’t ask me how I got that cause I haven’t a clue!), which got shortened to Aggie and is still used by my family to this day. My sis’s long name is unpronounceable but her short one is Miggie. And my 6′2″ 220 # ex-Army-Ranger-Vet bro was known as Binky when he was a kid. We still get a kick out of that. Even more amusing is that his wife’s childhood nickname is Linky. Binky-Linky. Wonder if fate was at work there?

My dh I call F.P.  but I can’t share what the initials mean in public or he really would kill me. It’s not bad, just silly and affectionate. I’ve always called my mother Moggs, which also expresses love, even though a stranger would never think so. I call my new little computer laptop Netbook “Junior” to differentiate him from my office laptop, which by default must be Senior.

My gorgeous 17-hand Irish Thourougbred jumper I named Irish Outlaw after the Western romance I was writing at the time. But he became Bestest Favorite Pony. I use Pony when he’s in my good graces and Big Twit when he’s not.

My young Warmblood hunter mare was registered as Rivella at birth because of her long championship breeding (names in her sire’s line all start with RIV.) But since dh thought that sounded too much like the wicked stepsister in Cinderella, we shortened her barn name to Riva and use Cloud Nine as her show name, after one of dh’s favorite ski runs. She’s Pretty Filly when she’s good, and something unprintable when she’s bad.

My equine trainer is wonderful at coming up with names for horses in her barn…. such as Pop Tart (he loves to eat them), Hey Bartender (a play on his owner, who doesn’t drink,) and Area 51 (the owner’s scientist dad worked at Roswell.) And her pet goat is named Alverson, Alvie for short.

Then there’s my father-in-law’s nickname for my nephew, which isn’t pretty. How would you like to be known as Stinkbutt to your friends? Or maybe you have something that can top that? 

Also, I should mention that I’m offering a nifty prize for my January website contest to celebrate the release of To Tame a Dangerous Lord, and there are only a few more days left to enter. I would love for one of our Goddesses to win!

Do you go by any nicknames — and do they have any significance? Do you have nicknames for other people or pets? What’s the best and worst nicknames you’ve ever heard (please remember to keep it clean or Zeus will zap me!)

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THIS BLOG COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE! How’s that for an attention-grabber?

Actually I can’t promise anything so miraculous. But I can tell you about a scary article I just read that literally made me sit up and take notice. If you’re a reader, writer, or TV watcher – or anyone who sits on your tush for hours at a time – you could be at much higher risk for heart problems.

The results of a six year study in Australia were published recently in an issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association. The goal of the study was to analyze the effect of TV watching on people, and they reported that each hour a day spent in front of the TV increased the risk of heart-related death by 18%. More than four hours a day increased your risk by a freakin’ 80%! (It made no difference whether the person was overweight or obese, and the study factored for raised cholesterol levels and lifestyle risks.)

The scary thing is, the results were the same not only for watching TV but any kind of prolonged sedentary behavior – sitting at a computer typing or playing games, or working at an office desk, or lounging in a couch reading. How many of the goddesses here fall into one or more of those categories????

It’s really not fair. Even if we generally have a healthy lifestyle, watch what we eat and exercise regularly… even if we rarely watch more than an hour or two of TV a day, we now learn it may all be for naught. We could very well be setting ourselves up for an early heart attack simply by doing what we love.

I thought I knew most of the factors that impact health – water intake, exercise, alcohol in moderation, antioxidants, healthy diet, healthy weight, sleep, cholesterol levels, enjoying your work, stress relievers such as hobbies, friendships and loving relationships and community bonds, laughter, music, reading…. And I thought I was doing pretty well on the healthy lifestyle front.

(Okay, I’m really bad about posture. I’m guilty of hunching over my keyboard or worse, leaning back in my chair and propping my leg up on my desk, which curls my spine and puts extra pressure on my neck. Partly because of my poor posture, earlier this year I ended up with some strained neck muscles and upper vertebrae that were locking up.)

I’m much more aware of my posture now. To avoid pain, at frequent intervals I change seat cushions and alternate pillows behind my back, vary chair and monitor angles and height. I also stretch, do physical therapy exercises, and use heat and a massage pillow regularly. Thankfully some of that movement could help me stave off heart problems.

One other major thing I’ve done to improve my health to drink more whey protein and eat less high glycemic carbs – keeps me from feeling hungry all the time and increases muscle mass, which increases metabolism.

Admittedly since reading that article, I’m a little more motivated to get moving every twenty minutes or so, even if it’s only in short bursts – standing and stretching, going downstairs more often to fix myself a cup of tea, pacing the room when I’m stewing over a plot problem instead of lounging back in my chair. But sitting for long periods of time is hard habit for me to break. And reading about this study makes me want to thrown in the towel completely.

Sheesh. Sometimes it seems as if you just can’t win.

What about you? In terms of looking out for your health, what are you best at? What needs the most improvement? Any health tips for your fellow goddesses? And when you get through posting your comments, will you please haul your tush up out of your chair and move a little?

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