Last December, I was browsing craigslist and came across an ad that made my heart swoon. It was for a Quaker parrot. Immediately I told everyone (with a link, natch) “this is what I want for Christmas!”  Gil and I talked about it, we did research, and I emailed back and forth with the owner. We learned what to feed her, what sort of cage would be best, how much out-of-cage time she’d need a day, and how to keep her healthy.

Finally, I was sure I had an excellent idea of what a small parrot would need and what she would be like. We drove up to meet Riley. She was a dear! A little standoffish but I was sure it was because she didn’t know me. A few days later we brought Riley home.

Do you know what none of our research or the previous owner told us? We’d just adopted a toddler.

My empty nest is no longer empty. Every morning I awake to “squawk!” which means “Mom, let me out!” Morning is Riley and mom time. She rubs against my face and hair, grooms me and chitters to me. I’m not sure what it means but I think she’s telling me all about her day. She walks across my desk stealing anything her beak can lift. She perches on my wrist while I type and gives herself a bath.

Our road to morning bliss was not so smooth. Riley had to train me so we could find our groove. When we first brought her home she wouldn’t step up for me. Each time I gave her my finger, she’d clamp down on it, which infuriated me. In return, she’d tear up anything and everything. She was one ticked off bird.

Or she was until Poppa learned that Riley needed more than one hour out of her cage a day, which all of the books and websites recommended. If she wasn’t sleeping, then she wanted out. Now she gets the run of the house from wake up to bedtime. When the lights go off, she flaps back to her cage, crawls in her bed and goes night night.

Her previous owner also assured us that she never ate people food. Ha Ha HA! The first time she was out of her cage while I ate, she landed on my plate and took a bite of my chicken. Yes, my little feathered baby is a cannibal. Her favorite foods are chicken, egg and pasta. She also has a thing for McDonald’s french fries. Now at dinner she gets her little bites and eats with us. She also loves cherry ice cream.

*ahem*

As of yet, she hasn’t talked but she does laugh. Only when she bites you, though. Honestly, it’s hilarious unless you’re the one who was bitten. Right now, she’s over on Poppa’s desk shredding all of his papers. Occasionally she takes a break to rub her beak against his hand.

That was another unexpected find. Everything told us she’d bond with only one of us. Not Riley. She has times when she wants to be with each of us and she shares her affection equally.

If a year ago someone had told me that a 4 inch bird would be ruling my house, I’d have laughed in their face. But now our days and home revolve around her. She and our cat, Precious, chase each other even though we scold them both. Sometimes, Riley crawls in bed with us, snuggles down and takes a nap. She gives kisses and she definitely gives love.

The other day Gil and I were talking about her; about how our expectations were that she’d be a neat bird who might mimic our words and that we’d get to take her out for a bit every day and enjoy her company, but that was all. Then my big, tough husband said the sweetest words. “It’s been only three months, but I can’t believe how much…how much I love her already. She’s a people, not a pet, and I can’t imagine life without her.”

Have you ever found love and a happily ever after unexpectedly? Tell me all about your pets!

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I’m one of those who prefers a physical book with paper I can touch and smell.  I’ve never read a book on my computer (unless you count my own) and the single book I placed on my iphone in case I was somewhere and didn’t have a book, has never been opened. (Because, really, when am I EVER without a book?)

But when I went to Florida a few weeks ago, I found myself wishing I had a Kindle.  I wanted to read 3 books on vacation, but to make sure I had 3 books to read, I needed to bring 5 or 6, just in case one, or more, didn’t work out.  Several I really wanted to read I didn’t want to bring because they were trade or hardcover and where was I going to fit THOSE in my bag?  A reading device would have solved this problem handily.

As my out of print backlist reverted to me book by book, steadily growing to a list of nearly 20 books that would continue to be unavailable to readers unless I did something about it, I decided to do something about it.

So last week I became a seller of ebooks with the launch of A Writers Work (www.awriterswork.com)  a new e-book publisher owned and operated by multi-published authors. Right now three of my backlist titles (Mother of the Year, Dreams of an Eagle, When You Wish) are available there, with many more to follow as soon as I can get them ready.

How many of you have read an ebook?  Was it an original book or a reprint of a previously published book by a beloved author?  Do you read ebooks on a specific device (Sony reader, Kindle) or your computer or phone?  Do you like reading ebooks?  If you have tried one, will you continue to read ebooks?

I’m giving away an ARC (advanced reading copy) of my June release SHAKESPEARE UNDEAD.  Winner will be chosen at random from the posters on today’s blog.

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While I was reading the News Of The Weird the other day, I came across the following famous last words:

“A million dollars is a lot of money to pay for a whore,” were the last words of multimillionaire French banker Edouard Stern, according to his girlfriend, Cecile Brossard, who took offense (and was convicted of killing him in June in Geneva, Switzerland)

“Shoot me, shoot me, you ain’t got the –” were the last words (according to a police report) of Scott Riley, 25, who was arguing with the gun-wielding Joseph Jimenez, 24, about their game of Beer Pong in Bridgeport, Pa.

Reading those famous last words, I was reminded of a few of my own famous last words.

My famous last words:

Me at 16:”I’ll never shove a cookie in my kids’ faces just to shut them up.”
Me at 25 with three kids: “Here. Have a cookie and shut up.”

Me: “My son would never sneak out at night.”
BPD:“Mrs. Gibson, we have your son in custody on a curfew violation. He and three other juveniles were picked up toilet papering the neighborhood.”

Me: “My daughter would never get a dog. She’s a cat lover and hates dogs.”
Daughter #1: “Mom, I got a pit bull. His name is Cypress. Can you buy me a dog crate?”

Me: “My daughter would never flunk out of college. She knows I’ll kill her.”
Daughter #2: “Mom, it’s me. Hi, I flunked out of college. You’re not mad are you?”

Me: “My son would never sell drugs.”
BPD: “Mrs. Gibson, we have your eleven year old son in custody for selling cat nip to jr. high school kids.”

What are some of your famous last words?

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Give a warm Mt. Oly welcome to debut author, Erica Ridley!

Erica writes Regency-set historical romances, often with a touch of paranormal. Since becoming active in the writing community, all of her manuscripts have finaled in or won various RWA chapter contests. Erica is also the webmistress of her local writing chapter. Her first book, TOO WICKED TO KISS, debuted March 2, 2010.

When not reading or writing romances, Erica can be found riding camels in Africa, zip-lining through rainforests in Costa Rica, or getting hopelessly lost in the middle of Budapest.

Real Men Wear Starched Cravats

One of the most fun and most challenging things about being a romance author is writing scenes from the hero’s point of view. On the one hand, I want him to be equal parts strong and sexy and thoughtful and romantic and understanding and compassionate and witty and logical and intelligent and charming and objective. On the other hand, I want him to be realistic. (What? Choice A isn’t always realistic? LOL.)

Luckily for me, I have four brothers and a wealth of male friends from which to draw upon when trying to decide what a man would really say and how a man would really react. I am also dating someone who is a walking icon of the male/female divide and therefore a constant source of entertainment.

Last Christmas, while I was out of town, he and I had the following two phone conversations:

Boyfriend: Hey, I went to a huge party last night.

Erica: Cool! How was it?

Boyfriend: I don’t have time to tell you right now. I’ll explain later.

[4 hours go by]

Boyfriend: OK, now I have time to talk.

Erica: Great! So, how was the party?

Boyfriend: Fine.

That right there pretty much sums up the difference between men and women, does it not?

How about you? Have you experienced dissimilar man/woman expectations of what makes for satisfying conversations? When you’re reading a romance, do you prefer the hero to behave more realistically or more idealistically? Name a favorite hero from your keeper shelves!

Erica will be giving one lucky commentor a signed copy of Two Wicked To Kiss!

Visit Erica on the web at: Her website, her book bonus feature website, Facebook and Twitter.

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Your favorite day of the month is here again! Its Fun Contest Saturday!

The second book in Madeline’s new series, Provocative in Pearls, just came out and next month we get Karen Hawkins’s next contemporary, Lois Lane Tells All! That’s a whole lot of good reads, isn’t it?

Fun Contest Saturday is two things. 1. FUN. 2. A contest. Which means one lucky reader is going to win two signed books. One each from Madeline and Karen. I’ll ask two questions and to enter you just need to email your answers to goddesscontest@gmail.com. Please use the subject line “Feb Contest” and include your Goddess blog name and full mailing address.

Let the contest begin!

1. Lord Hawkeswell and Verity strike a bargain. What must she accept from him daily?

You can find a hint on Madeline’s website.

2. Mark Tremayne returns to Glory for a job. What job is he taking over?
There’s a hint, right here, on Karen’s website for you!

Remember, don’t post your answers in the comments below. Email them to goddesscontest@gmail.com.

The contest ends at midnight, Sunday, February 28.

One winner will be chosen at random to win. They will be able to choose one book from Karen and one from Madeline from the Mt. Oly prize temple shelves.

Good luck to y’all!

This Saturday I’m working on paperwork and my taxes. Two things that I seriously do not enjoy. What are you doing this Saturday? And tell me, is there anything you have to do on a regular basis that you really detest?

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They say “information is power.”  Not sure who the “they” are, but “they” must be wise, right?

Hmmm.  Not so sure about that anymore.  In this age of info-at-a-click, we get deluged with data, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not feeling any more powerful than I did before.  In fact, I’m feeling a lot less powerful than before.

“Before what?” you ask.  Ahh.  Before THIS (cue scary music):

This is a dust mite.  It lives in your carpet and feeds on your dust.  (ICK!)

“Eat my dust!” you might say.  “Welcome to it!  Eat it all!  Saves me the trouble of vacuuming!”  You might say that, but you would be WRONG! (cue more scary music)

Because living in your dust is more ICK than you can shake a stick at.  Leading scientists say so, and we know they are never wrong.  So, living in your dust is:

• Shed bits of human skin, animal fur, decomposing insects
• Food debris
• Lint and organic fibers from clothes, bedding and other fabrics
• Tracked-in soil, soot, particulate matter from smoking and cooking
• And, disturbingly, lead, arsenic and even DDT.

These scientists have even come up with a computer algorithm to model how the dust gets in and leaves — IT NEVER LEAVES — and how your dust is different than your neighbors’ and your Aunt Didi who lives in Poughkeepsie.

This, my friends, is far more than I want to know.  I do not want to think about the bits of shed skin in my carpet or the decomposing insects that get into my food.  I am far, far happier not knowing.

Information may be power, but ignorance is bliss.  I like bliss.  Unfortunately, I’m also a power-hungry information junkie, so I’m totally conflicted.

The best thing I can do is not click on the articles with disturbing titles like “Dust’s Disturbing Components,” “Space Junk Collision Averted,” (whew!), and “Danger Lurks Under Megacities,” opting instead for comfort-reads such as “Kardashian’s Sizzling Mini” (it did indeed sizzle) and “Surprising Things You Can Recycle.”  (That recycling one was a real nail-biter.)

“How Asexual Species Survive” was one I couldn’t resist.  I clicked, therefore I know.  Whether I wanted to or not.

Are you an information junkie?  Do you click on articles?  Do you feel more informationally powerful than you did before?  What have you learned that you really did not want to know?  Did you read the one about Kardashian’s sizzling miniskirt?

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Today is the release of Provocative in Pearls, the second book in my Rarest Blooms series. It also marks the first time that a title that I chose ended up on one of my covers. This is pretty pitiful when you realize this is my 19th book. I mean, I know authors who have titled all their books. I have too, just my publishers have changed my titles to other ones.  

I used to pick the title when I started writing a book, so those later changes bugged me at first. I had lived with that title for months. It was my book’s name. It felt weird to see it with another name attached to it. This happened often enough that I got the message, though. My titles sucked.

By about my fourth book I stopped thinking up titles until after the book was written, so I wouldn’t bond with it too much. I would have skipped it all together, but I had to put something on that cover sheet. I worked at those titles and even loved some of them. However, those did not survive either. I think the problem was that I tended to pick titles that made great sense to me, but I had read the book. To someone who had not read the book (like the publisher’s marketing director) the titles said nothing at all.

If I could just be removed from the entire titling process now, I would not be upset. Only it does not work that way. I still have to try and think of great titles even though the evidence is that this is overwhelmingly futile. My editors always asked for ideas and help, and it is my job to give it a shot.

My current editor (I actually had her for books 1 through 11, and now we are back together) likes to brainstorm when it is title time. We spend a few days trying to come up with title ideas that have zing and zip, will fit on the cover, will catch the eye, and will evoke all the things we want to evoke in what amounts to maybe fifteen letters of the alphabet. I shoot her emails filled with word pools, with combinations and variations of title words, with take-offs on songs and movies and all the other tricks. I ask my fans for help (and one time a fan did provide the title that was used.) It is pretty stressful for me.

My editor never says mine are horrible, but we never end up with one of them. We do, however, find a title. Or she does. The final title doesn’t seem to have any of my ideas within a hundred miles of it, but she honestly thinks our “brainstorming” produced it. I guess all my sucky titles help the good ones emerge in her head.

Anyway, with this series, we went through that whole process and somehow—I truly do not know how it happened— we ended up with a set of titles that we thought were very good, very cool, very apt, and also different. Well, except for one. The title for the second book, while it fit with the others, was “meh.”  We got into that thing where you both try to convince each other and yourself that it works, really it does, but both of us knew it didn’t.

Then suddenly, in a split second of inspiration, Provocative in Pearls came to me. We both knew at once it was perfect for this series and this book. It was brilliant. I was brilliant.

One out of 19 is a pretty sad score, but I could have struck out again. And who knows, maybe when it is time to title my 38th book, I’ll be brilliant again.

Publishers consider titles a crucial marketing tool. Have you ever been drawn to a book by its title?

Can you think of a book title that you thought was perfect for the book? Can you think of one that made no sense?

Is there anything about the way romances are titled that bugs you?

I have heard that the word Duke in a title helps sell an historical romance. Are you attracted to Duke books?

Are you the kind of person who is good at things like titles? If so, can I adopt you?

In case you are wondering, the next two titles are Sinful in Satin, and Dangerous in Diamonds. If you are curious about Provocative in Pearls, you can read an excerpt on my  web site  There is a video for PiP there too.

To celebrate this release date, two of the visitors who comment on today’s blog will win a signed copy of Ravishing in Red, or any novel in my backlist.

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