I know I’m procrastinating when I spend the best part of an hour shopping for doll accessories. I can’t even shove this into the “creative avoidance” category. It’s pure and utter time wasting, not to mention hard on the bank balance. I somehow managed to order a buggy/stroller/whatever-the-heck-you-call-it-in-your-country for my daughter’s doll. Seriously. A fricking doll’s buggy!

Then I spent/wasted another hour looking up current clothing fashions. It’s been so long since I shopped in a CITY where there’s VARIETY that I no longer know what’s “In” and what’s “Out”. Our local town has an Esprit shop, and….well, that’s pretty much it. I do have a legitimate excuse for the fashion research, though: I need to clothe my characters. *cough”

Having shopped for toys and clothes, I made the oh-so-logical leap to elliptical trainers. I’ve picked out the one I want for Christmas. I even ran it by C, who approved its purchase. He might have been half asleep at the time this conversation took place, but I’m interpreting it as a “Yes”.

I know I’m procrastinating when I feel a sudden urge to clean. I clean because I have to, not because I get any joy out of the process. An urgent desire to clean is generally indicative of wanting to avoid doing whatever it is I really should be doing.

A more entertaining method of creative avoidance is baking. I love making cakes. I also love eating them. There’s something therapeutic about the whole process.

Anyway, I have 302 words to go until I reach my daily word count goal. Sadly, this post doesn’t count.

What do you do when you procrastinate? Clean? Bake? Engage in a spot of retail therapy?

♥ I didn’t get as much reading done this week as I would have liked, but I still managed to read two category romances and two single-title books. The best of the bunch was Libertine’s Kiss by Judith James, which is set during the Restoration. My review will be up on Monday. The Heat is On by Jill Shalvis also deserves a mention. If you like Harlequin Blazes, this is a good one.

♥ I have several ARCs I’m excited to read. They include My Lord Jack by Hope Tarr, an historical romance featuring a courtesan heroine and a hangman hero; All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins; and White Heat by Brenda Novak, which is the start of her new Romantic Suspense trilogy, Dept. 6 Hired Guns. If you’re a reviewer, they’re currently available for request at NetGalley.

♥ My writing for the Book in 3 Months Challenge went well this week, but the weekend has not been as productive as I would have liked. I polished my first four chapters. I’ve also managed just under 5,000 new words so far, bringing my total up to 23,232. I was hoping to hit the 25K mark today, but I’m dragging.

♥ In a rare show of good fashion sense, Iran has officially banned the mullet. I laughed myself silly when I read this. Yes, I know; I have a weird sense of humour.

♥ I didn’t get much blog hopping done this week, so I’m afraid I don’t have any posts to recommend. If my writing continues to suck today, I might use it as an excuse to catch up on what my favourite bloggers have been up to.

Enjoy your Sunday!

We’re just back from a family BBQ. My children’s behaviour at the party can be best described as a walking ad for contraception.

I’d been very much looking forward to it, especially as it was an incentive to dress up, and take particular care with my hair and make-up. By the time I was finished getting ready this morning, I thought I looked pretty good. Unfortunately, I wasn’t destined to stay that way.

The party was hosted by my sister-in-law’s parents. They live in a beautiful house on a river with a large, sprawling garden. They also have a pond. When I saw the pond, I figured I’d have to be extra vigilant as the small one in particular loves water.

Within half an hour of our arrival, the boy decided to go for a refreshing dip. I saw him wading into the pond, legged it across the lawn, and was horrified when he promptly sank. Apparently, the pond is deep. I dove in, quickly followed by C and one of his brothers. The boy was hauled out covered in dirt and slime. Needless to say, those of us who went in after him were also not looking or smelling our best.

While all the adults were distracted by the rescue operation, the girl seized the opportunity to get into some serious mischief. She emptied watering cans; trampled plants; raided a raspberry bush; and – quite literally – rolled in dirt.

By the time we were leaving, I was covered from head to toe in pond slime, raspberry juice, dirt, potato salad and some unidentifiable substance.

I think a very large glass of wine is called for this evening, don’t you?

♥ I’ve finally updated my About page. I’ve also added an extra page to my menu bar called Faves.

♥ My progress for the Book in 3 Months Challenge was pathetic. My excuse: I was sick. But if I don’t make some serious headway next week, it will be more like the Book in 3 Years Challenge.

♥ I read four books so far this week, plus three novellas. The winner of the week was Marie Force’s Fatal Affair, which I’ve already reviewed. I also enjoyed Jill Shalvis’ steamy novella, Friendly Fire, which is in the Harlequin Blaze anthology, Born on the 4th of July.

♥ I laughed out loud at Wendy the Super Librarian’s post, Booktastic Bus for Sale. If Wendy and the SoCal Bloggers buy that bus, I’m going to show up on their doorsteps and beg to become an honorary member.

♥ Meljean Brook announced the sale of the final two books in her Guardian series. They will be released in 2011 and 2012 respectively, and the last one will be Michael’s long-awaited story. Yay! I still have three books plus a novella to read in order to be caught up with the series, but I think I should manage that in the next two years.

♥ RRRJessica has a great (as in amusing) review of The Raider by Jude Deveraux, complete with action figures!

♥ Magdalen’s husband, Ross, made good on his promise to read and review a romance novel. Check out his review of Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. (I need to wrest Christian’s new iPad from him and force him to write up his review of Lord Perfect.)

Enjoy your Sunday!

I am not having a good day. I have a splitting headache and everyone and everything is annoying me. If I were 18 months old, like my daughter, I would pout and throw a tantrum. Sadly, this option is not considered socially acceptable in a 31-year-old. Plus I’d have to clean up the mess. Bummer.

My son has more or less been “asked to leave” his playgroup. He has Asperger’s Syndrome and prefers to play on his own rather than in a group. That, apparently, is unacceptable in the village playgroup. He didn’t scream and roar or hit anybody. He didn’t do anything to bother the other kids, or otherwise disrupt the group. He simply preferred to play in a corner with a red fire truck rather than play with Play Doh.

I don’t want to raise a brat. If he’d behaved badly, AS or no AS, I’d be on the playgroup leader’s side. But FFS, he didn’t do anything except be himself. He’s simply a bit different, doesn’t say much, and tends to become passionately interested in a single object in a way that most other little kids don’t. His favourite toy in the playgroup is the aforementioned fire truck. The playgroup leader finds it “unnerving” that this is the only toy he wants to play with, and the fact that he’s different is apparently “scaring” the other kids.

To cut a long rant short, I was advised that he’d be better off in a playgroup for mentally handicapped kids. Apparently, my attempts to explain what Asperger’s Syndrome is and what it ISN’T fell on deaf ears. Oh, and she also discussed my son’s condition with my neighbour. Without my permission. Aargh!

Thankfully, we have an appointment with another playgroup in mid-June. The leader of that playgroup didn’t seem fazed in the least when I mentioned AS. She actually had a notion of what it was. Fingers crossed that it works out.

I know this will not be the last time I encounter prejudice and misunderstandings about what AS is. However, it’s still all new to me. I haven’t yet developed the thick skin I’m going to need to deal with this.

In more positive news: I received the first four books in Mary Balogh’s Huxtable series in today’s post. Thank goodness for good books!

This is what two people who went to a wine tasting and left with thirty bottles of wine look like. This is also what someone who forgot their hairbrush and had to make do with finger combing for three days looks like. Ahem. Please concentrate on the truly spectacular scenery behind us. That’s the view from my in-laws’ house. Lucky sods.

It was my first trip away with my BeBook. Not having to pack six printed books was a joy. Instead, I had over forty digital ones to choose from! One thing I have noticed in the past week is an increased tendency to read a couple of books at the same time. Perhaps it’s the novelty factor of having so many books at my disposal. Or maybe it’s going to change the way I read. I usually never read more than one book at a time and yet I’m currently reading both Victoria Dahl’s Crazy for Love and Tasha Alexander’s And Only to Deceive.

As indicated above, the highlight of my weekend was visiting a local winery. My father-in-law knows the guy who runs it and arranged a tasting for us. In addition to fabulous wine, the vintner also has an amazing collection of antique corkscrews. To add to the atmosphere, the tasting was held in a converted wine cask. I think we tried eight or nine different wines in total, and they were all good. We went in with the intention of buying a couple of bottles of wine and somehow ended up buying thirty. Fitting children, luggage and wine into the car for the trip home proved something of a challenge.

Tonight is the grand finale of LOST in the US. I’ll be having a media blackout tomorrow to avoid spoilers until we can watch it tomorrow evening. We’re already planning to open one of our new bottles of wine to celebrate the event.

I was going to change the working title of this blog post and make it a little more PC, but on request from Edie, the original remains.

We’ve probably all witnessed online craziness at one time or another. Authorial meltdowns, bloggers going ballistic, the dude from ‘Happy Days’ doing whatever it was that he did to piss everyone off, and so on and so forth.

I am – or was – active online in three areas: books (primarily romance novels and mysteries), board games, and, at one point, birth boards. Of the three, the birth boards tend to attract the real loony tunes. It makes sense, of course. Put several hundred hormonal woman together, plus the odd pervert thrown in for shits and giggles, and you will have meltdowns of epic proportions.

When I was pregnant with my son, I couldn’t wait to join a birth board and interact with other women at the same stage of pregnancy as I was. I envisioned a warm and cozy atmosphere in which the joys of impending motherhood would be shared, and support would be offered to those with questions or problems.

The stick had barely turned blue when I registered at an American site specialising in info and advice for pregnant women and new parents. I lasted five days. I joined at around the same time as one poster was unveiled as a sicko who trolled the boards asking women to describe their vaginal discharge and other intimate details. Apparently, pervs were par for the course and no birth board was complete without at least one. I bailed and found a British site.

My new birth board was much more congenial than the first. (In other words, there were no obvious sexual deviants.) The atmosphere on the board was mostly positive while we were all still pregnant. Inevitably, there were a few sad stories of miscarriages and stillbirths, but no one behaved nastily to another poster for the longest time. Yes, there were a few annoying people who only ever seemed to post when they wanted to bitch about their evil exes, or detail their latest family drama, but I tended to ignore them.

The trouble began the nearer our due dates loomed. There were a couple of militant home birthers who felt the need to criticize anyone not intending to give birth at home. Fights broke out and feelings were hurt. Women whose pregnancies were easy belittled those who had problems. Apparently, they weren’t real women, or were just complainers or drama queens.

A more positive environment returned briefly when everyone started having their babies and posting birth announcements. This happy, clappy atmosphere lasted until war broke out between The Breastfeeding Mafia and The Bottlefeeders. (I was in No Man’s Land as I did mixed feeding with my son.) Then someone had the bright idea to hold a weekly debate. Fun topics such as abortion, religion, working mothers and ‘Traditional Family Values’ were hashed out with vigour. Every week, regular posters announced their intention never to return and flounced off in an indignant huff.

The crowning glory, though, was a poster who was suspected of faking her son’s death and inventing several subsequent tragedies in a bid for attention. Let’s call her Rebecca. Rebecca’s son was born two months premature. He had a number of health issues, and eventually died of meningitis when he was eight months old…or so she claimed. In the meantime, Rebecca had miscarried twins and had a stillbirth. A few months later, she had a baby girl, who also died when she was just a few months old. Rebecca had another stillbirth, followed by a couple more miscarriages. This all happened over a period of eighteen months, or so. Then it transpired that the photos of Rebecca’s supposedly deceased children had been swiped from another birth board. When confronted, Rebecca’s profile mysteriously disappeared and she never posted again.

Romland has had its fair share of dramas but I have yet to experience anything (or anyone) as insane as on birth boards.

Are you active online beyond book blogs and review sites? If so, how high is the drama potential?

April was a crazy month for me and I’m glad to see the back of it. My son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, my daughter was referred to a cardiologist for tests, and my asthma decided to come out to play.

Thankfully, the month ended on a positive note. My daughter’s consultation with the cardiologist went well and she seems to be perfectly healthy. My son will need further therapy to help his development, but I’m coming to terms with the diagnosis and its implications for the future. I have good days and bad days, but I’m generally optimistic that we can get him the help he needs.

Proving once again that books are my salvation when times are tough, I got quite a few read in April. Although there were no keepers among them, there was only one absolute clunker.

1. Match Made in Court (2010) by Janice Kay Johnson – B+
2. My Brother Michael (1959) by Mary Stewart - B
3. Hunter’s Green (1968) by Phyllis Whitney – B
4. Be Buried in the Rain (1985) by Barbara Michaels – B
5. Ammie, Come Home (1968) by Barbara Michaels – B
6. Her Best Friend (2010) by Sarah Mayberry - B
7. Vision in White (2009) by Nora Roberts – B-
8. What the Librarian Did (2010) by Karina Bliss – B-
9. The Shadow of the Lynx (1971) by Victoria Holt - C
10. Talk of the Town (2008) by Karen Hawkins - DNF

Hopefully, May will prove to be less stressful and more productive, particularly on the writing front. My WIP is limping along and needs a serious input of time and inspiration. I’m extremely fortunate to have a wonderful critique partner who is as useful for her pep talks as she is for her constructive criticism.

Oh, and we bought a house. A rather small house, it has to be said, but the kids love it.

How was your month? Did you read many books? If so, which ones can you recommend?

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it and Happy Chocolate Bunny Day to everyone else. Also a very Happy Birthday to my son who turned three today!

As you can see from these photos, the kids are so taken by the Duplo train set that they are still in their PJs at 11 am.

Enjoy the long weekend!

I’m the midst of a reading slump at the moment. There’s no particular reason for it. I have an abundance of books I’m looking forward to reading sitting on my TBR shelves, yet I can’t seem to get into any of them.

I’ve been using the time I usually set aside for reading to increase my writing output. I’ve tentatively committed myself to Inkygirl’s 1000 Words a Day Challenge. Yeah, I realize “tentatively committed” is an oxymoron. Basically, it’s what I hope to achieve six days per week.

If you get a chance, check out Inkygirl’s site. She has some cool comic strips and tips for writers.

What do you do if you find yourself in a reading slump?