I have to say that I am sorry that I haven’t been blogging as often as I used to. However now that I am a new partner in Lachesis Publishing I have to put my responsibilities there first which leaves me with little time left. Right now all my free time is being spent watching the Olympics. I have to admit I am loving every minute of it. Vancouver seems to be doing a bang up job.

So many things have happened in the last week that I haven’t been able to blog for a while. Sorry about that. It has also impacted my writing as well. At this time I’ve had to dedicate my writing time to work. I know that soon things will balance themselves out and I’ll get my writing time back. It’s just going to take some time that’s all.

I have to say the weather here in Ottawa the past few days have been very weird. One day its warm and raining (you’d think we were in late March early April instead of late January), then it’s snowing like crazing then it warms up again. What is up with this crap?

I’ve had a chance to read a few good books. The best one by far has been IF HE’S SINFUL by Hannah Howell. If I get enough time soon I’ll post a review.

I don’t know about anyone else but I am sure missing my weekly fix of BEING ERICA. I can’t wait to watch it again. I’m hoping they renew it for another season. As of right now I haven’t heard either way. I’m keeping my figers crossed that they do.

Well I have to run before life runs me over first.

I spent a fabulous weekend at my friend Hannah’s. Her party was a blast and I was quite glad to be here to help her and husband get the last details organized. Yesterday I went shopping and bought tons of clothes on sale. Today Hannah and I are heading out to pick up our friend Judy for a writers retreat in Connecticut. I’m not going to say where we are staying because I don’t want to get spammed by other locations on this blog.

Last week I met my weekly writing goal. This week my writing goal is slightly different. I’m hoping to write 5 Lachesis manuscript pages per day. This will help me get closer to my deadline. I’ll keep you posted on my goals as the week goes by.

If you intend to go out keep warm!

It’s that time of the year again where everyone or almost everyone makes a resolution for the new year. I usually try to keep mine but within a month or two I usually forget what it was.

This year my new nephew will be my inspiration. You see Zachary Ethan Goodwin wasn’t meant to arrive for another week but decided to change his parents and doctor’s plan and come early. Both baby and Mom are doing fabulous.

However his arrival made me realize that I need to put myself first a little more and try not to control every aspect of my life. So I’m looking to live a little and relax. Hopefully I’ll meet interesting people and have a ball all at once.

What do you have planned for the new years?

I started work at SAIC Canada 9 years ago (or it will be on Jan 2). I didn’t start surfing their employee forum until earlier this year. That’s where I posted a little about myself, Deadly Secrets and the American Breast Cancer Foundation. Ok I did this at the urging of two co-workers (Thanks Trish and Caroline). I had a few people contact me and suggest I fill out Life@SAIC Profiles. I didn’t think anything would happen other than be filed away.

I was very happy when they featured my profile in an email that is sent to all 40,000+ employees around the world. The shock came when I was contacted by someone asking if they could use my profile when promoting the company to potential clients and then did an interview about me and my book. This means more people would know about the American Breast Cancer Foundation and my book of course.

Today I found out that close to 1,000 employees have filled out their profile and out of those I am 5^th most viewed profile and one of the top 10 employees to get to know in 2009. Now isn’t that cool! I certainly think it is.

Here I thought the malls would be insane today. I mean it is the last Saturday before Christmas. The media has been calling it “Super Saturday”. It must be a slow news day for that to happen.

I used to work the last Saturday before Christmas when I worked retail and yes they were insane during the day and died down in the evening. I have to say I don’t miss those days all that much. However I went to the mall late this afternoon I found it lacking shoppers. There were a lot of shoppers in the mall but nothing compared to what I had expected. The sales clerks I spoke with said it had been a busy.

That said I got a lot more of my Christmas shopping done and crossed off a few names off my shopping list. I hope you were able to get out and get some of your shopping if not all your shopping done.

Today is the perfect lazy Sunday. Well it would be if I were able to sit down and be lazy. LOL

Sunday is the day I get all my cleaning, washing and groceries for the week along with making the meals for the week. Yes I usually make one or two dishes and eat them during the week. It’s a good thing I’m not picking about leftovers. I simply have no time during the week to make fresh dinners every night. Kudos to those who do.

Later on today I’m heading out to my parents where we will be celebrating my father’s birthday in advance. Shhh! I bought him something that is going to tick him off but I know he is going to love.

So what are you doing on this fine Sunday?

So many female readers are addicted to Vampire romances. No I’m not sure just talking about the Twilighters or twilight fans. If you were to look at what types of paranormal romance books that are out the majority of them feature vampires or the authors version of vampires (such as Hannah Howell’s and Sherrilyn Kenyon’s heroes).

I have to admit I’m not a fan of vampire books whether they are horror or romance ones. I just can’t get over the fact that these heroes are dead and to survive they must feed off humans. To me that is just not romantic.

However I do love Hannah Howell’s version, her heroes aren’t vampires, but they aren’t human either. They are mortal but have a longer life expectancy than us humans. However they aren’t immortal. Also they don’t’ need human blood to survive.

As for Sherrilyn Kenyon series, her dark hunters don’t feed off human or human blood for that matter. However they are immortal and soulless. To be with their soul mates they need to get back their souls.

Then from my publisher you have AB Wallace author of VINTAGE BLOOD AND THE SACRED SCEPTERS, David Lee Summers author of VAMPIRES OF THE SCARLET ORDER and VMK Fewings author of STONE MASTERS. They are all wonderful and different books. So if you are in the mood for a good vampire book pick one of them up.

What I’d like to know from readers is what attracts you to reading vampire based stories? Why do you feel someone sucking your blood to be romantic? I truly would like to know.

The drive down to New Jersey was rather uneventful with the exception of getting lost in Montreal when I picked up one of my girlfriends, but I’m truly not surprised to get lost there. Maggie, Thelma and I had a blast on the drive down. We talked about our books, pitches and what we were looking forward to during the conference. I have to say they did a bang up job of distracting me from my nerves of tonight’s awards.

I will be back later today to blog about the results of the awards. However so far I’ve had a great time at this conference.

More later!

Today was an AMAZING morning. I took part in the CIBC Run For A Cure for Breast Cancer in my hometown of Ottawa. They were hoping to get 8,500 participants. I have to say they probably exceeded that.

As I waited for the run to start I couldn’t help but notice all the pink t-shirts in the crowd. What did they represent? They were the survivors who were taking part in the events today. Then they had a 30 year old survivor tell her story about finding out at the age of 26 that she had breast cancer. I loved her attitude. She planned right from the start to beat the cancer, and she did.

Were you aware that 1 in 100 in Canada will get breast cancer? I wasn’t. It does make sense though. Their breasts may not be as big as ours but they are still there and they are also at risk of getting breast cancer.

As I ran with the other runners (75% women 25% men) I realized that my time or how many people I passed didn’t matter. I was one of the few who ran with two healthy breasts. Some weren’t as lucky. It made me realize that I might not like the size of my chest but I LOVE the fact that it’s a healthy one.

As I rounded my 5 km run about 10-150 meters from the finish line the last of the walkers were starting their walk. We almost spanned 5 km as a group. How cool is that?

How can you do something for Breast Cancer? Make a donation to a local charity supporting breast cancer whether it’s in Canada or US or another country. If you want to actually do something, do your own walk with friends and family. Trust me you’ll feel fabulous after you do it. Why? Because you are doing it someone else.