The other Connie (Consuelo Vazquez)

Okay, it's only in the baby stages, but you can now visit my other blog, Consuelo Vazquez, which is going to be especially for my other pen name. My current WIP, once done, will hopefully soon find a home, and it will be the first Consuelo Vazquez project I've done in a LONG time.

But not just for promo; I'll be having some neat stuff, hopefully, on that blog. So surf on by & help yourself to the cafe con leche, chicas!

IT'S OUT!!!

Well, it was a long time in coming because FASCINATION is one of those books that hit a few bumps in the road on the way to publication, but it's out NOW!!! As of today, you can find my book up on Awe-Struck Publishing. Be sure to get your copy!

Coffee for One?

At last, I got one of THESE little guys! Coffee, as we all know, is one of those writing "tools"--right up there with laptops, the Internet (for researching &, yeah, goofing off) and Alphasmarts, etc. As long as it's enjoyed in moderation, can't live without it, right?


Well, while visiting my cousin Pep and his wife, Marlene, she introduced me to their new coffeemaker...one of those amazing Kreiger thingies. You must've seen them in Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl's, Walmart's, they sell them everywhere. All you do is load a small container of coffee into them, press a button, and voila! Coffee for one! Marlene's explanation to me as why she put up her 12-cup coffeemaker? "We were wasting so much coffee, I figured I'd keep the other one for times when we have a lot of guests over, but we'd keep this one as the every day coffeemaker." Turns out my sister-in-law, Jackie, has had an "every day" smaller coffee maker, too, for just that very reason. Wasting coffee is a SIN, people!

Nobody was wasting more coffee than I was, especially since my machine *usually* makes great coffee, but the paper filter shifts around inside the filter cup and you get grounds all in the coffee. Yuck. I found a smaller version, a 5-cup Mr. Coffee. Not only does it make good coffee and the filter stays in place (it's small, so it doesn't have much room to shimmy around), but it doesn't take up much space on my counter, either.

Ahhhh, it's the little things that get you excited at this age! ;D

Refreshed & Revvvvvvvvved!

That's "revved" with a "v". When I first wrote it, it looked like "rewed." Bill would have something to say about that one. LOL!

We actually returned from our too-short vacation up North last week. I'm just now getting around to blogging about it, and I only came out of the woodwork because I surfed onto my publisher's site for the 10,000th time and was pleasantly surprised to find my new cover!

But back to Jersey: Considering we got there on Friday night and headed back on Monday morning, we managed to squeeze in lots of fun & affection that weekend. We spent time with our eldest son, Joey, and his honey, Iris, including a day at the Jersey shore that also included my two best friends, Linda and Lisa, and Linda's daughter, Hailey. Sunday we had breakfast and caught up with my cousins Pep, Marlene & Viki, who's expecting a little girl very soon. After that, we headed off to spend some time in Greenwich Village, which I LOVE (see the Macdougal Street sign on this page!) and then it was back to Jersey for dinner at PF Chang's with our friends, Bill's uncle and aunt Tony & Doreen. You can SORTA see that one on here, too. My only regret was not seeing my other cousins, Soli, Mark & Ashley, and of course, the irrepressible Tia Soledad. Next visit!!!

I loved Cancun, but there's something about getting together with friends and family that you haven't seen in a while. The Internet is a great invention: Thanks to Facebook and Myspace and, of course, email, you can keep in touch with your loved ones. But there's something that can't be matched when you're sitting on a beach or around a table, passing around a dish of guava to spread on a cream cheesed bagel or being the loudest table at a Chinese restaurant because you're all laughing and chatting, that can't really be matched.

That visit also really energized me. I'm ready to get back to work. I've ditched projects over this year, not happy with the way they were coming out. As I get older, I get more finicky with my writing. I have a feeling I'll be moving in other directions, but that's what writing should be--growth. You should grow as a writer, even if that means moving in other areas. As a writer I've always welcomed the chance to be adventurous, even if it's scary at first.

And since I don't write as much as I did in my 30s--life just takes up more of your time, it seems, in your late 40s and 50s--I want to make sure I'm working on something that I & my readers will enjoy, with some touch of surprise as well!

Cover for FASCINATION!

Well, the date for the release has been pushed back, but here's the cover for my newest book, FASCINATION! Isn't that gorgeous? As soon as the release date is, um, released, I'll be sure to post it. FASCINATION is a sweet contemporary romance coming out from Awe-Struck Publishing, my second book for them. It's been kinda hectic, with us spending time up North with Joey, Iris, friends & family, but I'll be back later this week to give a little background on this book. Look for it on Awe-Struck's page!

MEXICO!

Hola! Bill & I are back from our (too short) vacation in Cancun. Some pictures are up on my MySpace page, plus new pics of Aubrey. (Because you can NEVER have too many pictures of your granddaughter!)

As you can probably tell from the pictures, we had a great time in Mexico. Here's one tip, though: NEVER go for your regular treadmill workout in heat that can fry an egg. I lost one whole day due to heat exhaustion and spent hours and hours in our hotel room. As you can imagine, yep, that WAS kinda scary. Other than that, though, it was a memorable, terrific time.

More scribbling soon on my new project, but in the meantime, FASCINATION should be coming out very soon from Awe-Struck Publishing. Check back for news, plus another excerpt.

And sorry I haven't blogged lately. Besides our vacation, I've been biking, hiking, entertaining friends and family, but I've got some thoughts coming up next month, hopefully in between our trip up North to see our older son Joey and his lovable girlfriend, Iris.

Catch ya later!

Besides the big cookout we had with the family...and playing with my granddaughter...and sunbathing in the backyard with my daughter-in-law Yesica...and going to church...and working on the edited version of Fascination, here's what I did on my long 4th of July weekend: I went shopping for one of THESE babies with my husband!

We walked out of our local Harley Davidson store without actually buying one, much to my dismay. But like Arnold said in Terminator, I'll be back! :D Well, we're just researching it right now. Bill isn't as excited about it as I am. He says if he can hold me off for a couple months, summer will be over and I'll (hopefully) forget all about it.

That's a switch for us. HE'S the more daredevil-y one between us, the one who always rode every roller coaster in Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure with our boys while I, the scaredy-cat, was the one who chilled out on a bench nearby and waited for them.

Maybe it's getting closer to the big 5-0? Maybe it's middle-aged bravado? Who knows? I do know that ever since we moved here to North Carolina I've been slowly falling in love with those machines that are thunder on wheels.

This is coming from a woman who's been on a motorcycle ONCE in her whole life. That was when I was 18 and on vacation with my best friend Linda in Hawaii. We happened to meet a couple of young guys from Vegas on the plane who later met us for dinner. My date was a sweet guy named Henry, who, with his friend, escorted us there on their rented motorcycles. That's a lot more memorable than being driven in a stretch limo--riding on the back of a blue Honda 650 that's flying down a main in Oahu, with the wind whipping up your hair and Waikiki Beach on your right.

That same thrill came to me when my husband and I hopped onto one of the softail models in the showroom. Even though it wasn't moving, we weren't going anywhere, but his hands were on the handlebars and my arms were around his waist. I wasn't thinking about things grownups typically think of, i.e. DANGER. Listen, that bike wasn't scary, it was sexy. And it was romantic being on it, how it whispered adventure and fun, with room just enough for two.

The heroine in Fascination, Candy Norwood, rides a motorcycle. She eventually brings out the biker in the hero, Alex Reinhard. I'd forgotten that aspect of the book (yes, we writers forget stuff sometimes!) because Fascination was written shortly before The Cop and the Mermaid, and that's going back a couple of years. So maybe I've had this itch for a lot longer than I realize.

So we WILL be back to that shop. Because maybe getting to this age makes your desire for adventure, as well as your acceptance of who you really are, stronger than your fears. And life really does go by in a heartbeat, doesn't it?