So I’ve taken up vegetable gardening. And, like my romance writing experience, I can’t be satisfied with buying a couple tomato plants and throwing them in a wine barrel. Nope, I’ve got over 150 sq ft of irrigated raised beds and am starting everything from seed. And, aside from a couple newbie setbacks (never set trays of little seedlings outside on a windy day) I’m having some decent success.

Which may be a bad thing because it means I’ve been bitten by the gardening bug.

As if the heating mat and grow light wasn’t enough, I’ve now got my eyes on greenhouses. I’m wondering how many forms of propagation I could master. I’m pouring through books and eying more spots in my yard that would be ripe for horticulture greatness. We’ve decided to create a bird garden in the area outside my kitchen window, and instead of buying bird feeders and houses, I’m gathering up plans on how to make them.

It seems I have a little trouble settling for good enough. But really, it’s about a thirst for learning new things. The trait runs in my family. When my parents were in their 70’s, my dad took up wood carving and my mom learned flower arranging. My sister is nearing 60 and is taking violin lessons even though she’s never played an instrument in her life. After being a runner for 20 years, my husband is taking up cycling. I seem to be surrounded by people willing to take up a hobby whenever the mood strikes.

So it has me curious to know about all of you. When was the last time you tried something new? How did it work out?

I’ve also been working to complete my November Blaze which I just turned in last weekend (yay!!), my husband’s and son’s birthdays are in two weeks, we just had a shed built for our back yard which means we now have to fill it by clearing out the garage. Oh, and Babe Ruth is starting up.

So where does that leave me?

I’ll say one thing’s for sure, the diet is BLOWN. Of course, it only takes me one excuse to blow the diet, and I’ve got–what–four listed here? Oh, it is SO gone! Which means me looking like Angelina Jolie will be put off for another month. It also means that the selfish side of me reaches out for those guilty pleasures I need in order to handle all the stress without going insane.

Like many people who visit this blog, my guilty pleasure is books. I feel I’m living in the black if I’ve got more “read” books on my shelves than “to be read”, and often I can only accomplish that by including my high school yearbooks and photo albums in the count. Otherwise, I run dangerously close to 50/50. But does that stop me from adding more to my Amazon.com wish list? Of course not! It wouldn’t be a guilty pleasure if there was no guilt involved, now would it?

My second guilty pleasure is food (see paragraph on diet above) and when it comes to that, I could go on for days. But I was thinking about the topic of this post and asking myself what is my MOST guilty pleasure when it comes to food? You know, that horrible thing you don’t even want to admit to eating, but it’s SOOOO good? I’ll never forget an episode of Oprah where an audience member admitted to eating turkey skin sandwiches. Now, even I, a woman who will pick at the crispy golden skin until my husband comes in the kitchen and swats me away, had to admit a certain revoltion to actually putting chunks of it on bread and slathering it in mayonnaise. But I could understand it. And that’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about here.

As a kid, we used to take Wonder Bread, spread on some I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, then sprinkle it with sugar, roll it in a tube and eat it like a Pirouette cookie. I have more money now, and can just buy the things when I want them.

So now I’d have to admit that my most delectible guilty pleasure would have to be chicken fried steak with milk gravy. It’s my favorite food I hate to love. I’m not sure if there’s any nutritional value that hasn’t been fried out, and if there were, the laden fat from the gravy would probably prevent absorbtion. But ask me if I care? I love it with all it’s faults.

It was in the news w shile back that microwave popcorn is bad for your lungs, which lends an interesting twist to the phrase, “inhaling your food”. I was happy to say that we don’t microwave popcorn. We still make it the old fashioned way in a pot with oil, because I prefer to die of heart disease over lung cancer.

Then again, I’ll never forget the line by Dennis Leary who, when told about his cigarettes, “Those things will take 5 years off your life!” replied, “Yeah, but not the good ones.”

Amen, brother.

So tell me, what’s your guilty pleasure? Go ahead, you can confess. And if it’s too embarrassing, just post under “Anonymous” and we’ll never tie it back to you!

Every year I am up at 5:30 a.m. to get those first glimpses of nominations when they’re released by the Academy, and from then until the ceremony, hubby and I spend our time speculating on who will win and–more importantly–who should win. I don’t always have favorites in every category, but every year there are a few people or movies I’m rooting for.

This year, my Oscar hopes go to:

Actor In a Leading Role:

I’ve got my fingers crossed for Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. This was a sweet little movie, and I really enjoyed his singing performance on top of the great acting job. I don’t know this for fact, but the man comes across as a genuinely nice guy. Every time I hear him talk, the tone in his voice makes me smile and think he’d be a great older brother. Add the fact that he’s been acting since he was a kid and has never won the award (despite a few noms), and he’s my personal hopeful this year. Besides, he’s “The Dude”!

Actress In a Leading Role: Having seen Sandra Bullock in Blind Side who is the Oscar favorite this year, I still have to pick Meryl Streep for this category. She was simply amazing in this role, and I thought her half of the movie Julie & Julia was adorable. Yes, I know, she’s been nominated a zillion times and has already won twice, but her last win was 30 years ago. I think it’s time she got another one.

Actress In a Supporting Role: If you haven’t seen the movie Precious, you’ve missed a gem. Yes, the subject matter is dark, but I surprisingly found the movie uplifting and the stand-out performance by Mo’Nique is a must-see. There is a scene at the end of this movie where her performance is riveting. She’s the favorite for this category. IMO deservedly so.

As for the other categories I’m either torn or indifferent. I’m rooting for Avatar for Best Picture. And while I’m here, I’ll stand on my soap box and complain that we don’t need 10 movies in this category. I’m pretty much dismissing 5 of them as Hollywood’s attempt to make more money using the “Oscar Nominated” title. (I’m sorry, but District 9? Really?)

So what about you? Do you watch the Oscars ever year? Is there anyone in particular you’re rooting for?

And when we’re not doing that, our family has several holiday favorites on DVD that we try to fit into our festivities every year.

Here are my top five favorites. I’m curious to know if any of them match yours:

5) It’s A Wonderful Life is my hubby’s favorite, and I have to admit, the dialogue is great.

“Say, Violet, that’s some dress.”

“This old thing? Why, I only wear it when I don’t care how I look!”

Gotta love that line. And no matter how many times I see the movie, I still tear up when Clarence gets his wings.

4) The Homecoming was the pilot to the Walton’s TV show, and anyone over 40 will tell you how huge that series was. For years, families across the world said goodnight to each other by throwing in the line, “Goodnight John Boy!”

I think for us, the movie is sentimental because of the old TV show. Set during the Depression, it also give us cause to feel grateful for the simple things we have, to be thankful, because we know from our parents that times really were that tough back then.

3) A Christmas Carol blends my two first loves: Christmas and creepy movies. As a kid, I grew up with Night Gallery, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, so having a Christmas movie with ghosts and chains was always right up my alley. My only debate that remains is which version I like the best. There have been so many, and to this day, I still can’t decide. I only know I DON’T like the musical. Scary ghost movies and Oliver-style music just don’t mix.

2) Charlie Brown’s Christmas is my second most-favorite show for two reasons. One, because I grew up with it. (Heck, is there anyone on the planet that didn’t?) So it brings me fond memories of childhood to watch the show every year.

But the other reason I love this show so much is because my son fell in love with it as a toddler and absolutely beat the video to death. We were still watching it in May, and in fact, I think we’re on our second copy. So now, not only does the movie bring back my own childhood, it brings me back to the days when my now pre-teen son was a cute adorable toddler who would point to the screen wide-eyed and scream, “Snoopy!!” (sniff sniff)

1) But my most favorite holiday movie of all is about a BB gun. But not just any BB gun, “An official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.”

If I could live in another era, it would have been the 40’s, and A Christmas Story epitomizes everything I adore about it. I love the music, the sense of community, how simple life seemed back then. People still believed in things that were honest and good. And though I didn’t come along until 20 years later, I remember Christmas parades and window displays at Woolworths, and the smelly, stinky department store santas.

So tell me, what are your favorite holiday films? Did any of mine make your list? And what do you have that I’m missing?

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you see things) this holiday season I really am watching my weight. Literally. I’m on Weight Watchers. I’ve lost 20 lbs since August. I’ve got another 40 to go, and that only gets me back to when I still had some baby weight to lose. (My baby’s 13 now, but lets not go there). But what I adore about this program is that it really is about a lifestyle change. Where in the past I had a long list of food off limits (which included all my favorite things, of course), I am now focusing on choices, not restrictions, and I love it!

Thus, with the holidays upon us, we have made some lifestyle changes to keep us from overeating.

The first involved Halloween. We live in a neighborhood where we get hundreds of kids, and in the past, we’ve bought several giant Costco bags of chocolate “fun” bars. Then we proceeded to have lots of “fun”. So much so that we usually had to run out the night before Halloween to restore the supply we’d dwindled down over the prior week. Well, this year, we got smart and ordered Bazooka eyeball gum balls from Oriental Trading Company.

It worked great! None of us touched them until it was time to give them away on Halloween, and for the first time, we spent the holiday candy-free. That was, of course, until our son went out Trick-or-Treating and came home with a bag of chocolate that he promptly dumped on the coffee table right as Dad and I were watching “Phantom From 10,000 Leagues”. I admit, nothing enhances bad special effects quite like Reeses peanut butter cups. But even so, this year, our candy fest got limited to that one night. The next day it was business as usual and the scale remained my friend.

Thanksgiving will be next. Easy, because this year we will be spending it at a friends house. We’ll eat what we want while we’re there (love those 35 weekly bonus points!) and come home to a house absent of turkey legs, stuffing and half-eaten pumpkin pies.

Christmas might be more challenging. We’ve already agreed that the holiday boxes of Sees candy are out. I’ll still make fudge and shortbread, but in a greatly reduced supply, and probably much closer to the actual holiday instead of starting December 1st.

But I’m not worried. What I love about Weight Watchers over everything else I’ve tried is that it truly is about moderation and making lifestyle changes. In the past, I would have tried to get through the holidays without eating a carb. And when I failed (on or around October 30th), I’d say to heck with it! and go whole hog, gaining at least 10 lbs before I stopped the insanity sometime in January. This year, my goal is to simply not gain. I won’t kick myself if I don’t lose anything. Just maintaining will be such a gross improvement over prior years that I would consider that a success.

So tell me, are the holidays a food fest in your house? Do you traditionally put on a few pounds, or are you pretty good about moderation? Anyone trying to lose weight over the holidays? And what tips do you have for getting through it without busting through seams?

I absolutely adore the fact that I’m lucky enough to write for pay, especially writing for Blaze, which I think is the best line in the Harlequin family. But like anything, too much of a good thing can send a person straight to burn-out. Thus, pretty much since I sold my first book, I’ve been trying to figure out how I can strike a balance between a day job and a writing career without draining the creativity well.

How did I do it? By taking up another hobby, of course!

I’m making that a joke, but it’s actually true. This summer, I took some time between books to start a vegetable garden. What you see here are the bones of what I envision will end up a virtual forest of vines, flowers, herbs and vegetables. Too anxious to wait for spring, we went ahead and planted a winter crop of peas, onions, chard and lettuce. But really, I can’t wait for those heirloom tomatoes next summer.

But more than having home-grown produce, the garden has quickly become therapeutic in helping me recharge between a long day at work followed by a couple hours of plotting and writing. I’m a computer programmer by day–entirely left brain. While commuting home, I shut off the left brain and turn on the right, contemplating my WIP, where I want to take my characters in the next scene, what do I need to accomplish over the course of the next few pages. I have dinner, then I write. And when I’m done, I’m only good for a long walk with my husband and a couple hours of TV.

Do that day in and day out, and the well starts to run dry.

The garden refills that. Maybe it’s because I’m a Taurus–the eternal sign of Mother Earth. There’s nothing more serene than going out with the hose and sprinkling my seedlings. I love watching the butterflies and hummingbirds, the smell of wet earth, the twining vines of sweet peas and morning glory, and tidy rows of plants that are a little bit bigger today then they were the day before. But most of all, I love stripping my mind of all thought and just hanging with nature for a while. It’s like taking an eraser and cleaning the board. And ever since I started it, I’m finding renewed energy in my writing and my work.

So tell me, what do you do to step away and recharge? Is there anything you MUST do every day or you’ll go crazy?

The second step was to get rid of the gas guzzling Ford F150 4X4 Supercrew I used to affectionately call “Grave Digger”. It’s been replaced by a Honda Element that gets twice the mileage. My my son calls it “The Lunchbox” and is embarrassed to be seen in it, but honestly, coming from the era of the AMC Pacer, avocado green appliances, disco and polyester leisure suits, if the most embarrassing thing my son has to deal with as a kid is a pumpkin orange Element, he’s doing pretty good.

With the house and the car taken care of, we are now shifting our focus to the 6,000 sqft of lawn in our back yard. We’re in California, where the price of water is about the same as a gallon of gas. So the first thing we said when we spied the back yard was, “That’s gonna go.” And ever since we moved in, we’ve been working on that.

We’re taking it in stages. Unfortunately, the stage that includes a spa, fountain and fire pit will have to wait a few years (unless I see Ahmet from DIY Network’s “Yard Crashers” down at OSH. Then I’m hijacking him so that I can get it sooner, compliments of DIY). The stage we’re starting with first is the side yard that we are converting to a vegetable garden.

Tomorrow, I’m taking a vacation day from my day job to haul 2 1/2 yards of soil into our new veggie garden. I’ve already got lettuce, peas, broccoli and chard waiting to be planted, along with the marigolds and nasturtiums that are supposed to keep the bugs away. I can’t wait. It was almost 15 years ago when I last had a vegetable garden and in those years, my husband and I have missed the heirloom tomatoes and fresh produce we used to get from it. Now, I’ll have it back again while at the same time, doing something good for the environment.

So I’m wondering, with so much talk about global warming and the environment, have any of you made changes recently to live a greener life? Anyone going organic on their produce, meat and dairy? Turning vegetarian? Frequenting the local farmer’s market? If you are, come tell us! I’m curious to know if you’re enjoying the change or if you’re finding it a pain.

Every morning when I power up my browser, AT&T Yahoo! gives me the quick news flash on anything major that might have happened while I was sleeping. If the world has been quiet, it will instead tell me how to shrink my energy bills, or warn me about 5 things not to do during a job interview. After that, I set the “news” aside to make my internet rounds.

Facebook is first on the list. It’s where I’ve managed to collect my family, friends, coworkers, readers and fellow writers all in one spot. And a couple times a day I check in to see what’s happening with everyone.

I check out my “favorities” page over on eHarlequin then it’s on to Twitter.

One of my favorite sections in the daily newspaper was the comics page. It seemed after reading the headlines–which were usually pretty depressing–I needed to end on a high note. These days, my internet version of the funny pages is LOLCats! I’m completely hooked on LOLCats!

What are LOLCats! you ask? Basically, they are pictures of cute adorable cats and kittens that people have captioned, often hysterically. (There is also LOLDogs! for you dog lovers)

Here’s a recent example:

I follow LOLCats! on Twitter, as well as several other cites; CNN and Newsweek, in case I missed any major news since I last left AT&T Yahoo!. I follow Joel Stein, a columnist for Time, as well as Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger. In the event any major news involved “Coleefornia”, I’d like to get his take on it. Bob Vila give me tips on what to do with the 20-year-old house we just bought, and Garden Web will give me the heads up when it’s time to get my tomatoes planted.

And, of course, I follow a host of Blaze authors. Note: Kathleen O’Reilly is exceptionally helpful in locating retailers who are giving away free stuff. Alison Kent is a wizard at tracking down who’s talking about women’s fiction. They’re both good ones to Twitter-follow.

So as you can see, my viewing habits are about as eclectic as everything else in my life.

Which has me curious. How about you? Do you make daily internet rounds? And if so, what sites do you visit?

What a fantastic blog! Congrats to everyone. Your participation has made this a truly special spot on the world wide web.

Thanks for the invite to join in!

Though I do work with authors on other series, primarily I’m assigned to acquire for and work on Blaze. I particularly like the brazen, but still feminine heroines, and the contemporary mindset of the main characters, even if they’re riding horseback on a dusty Texas trail in the 1880’s or traversing Scottish highlands a century before that and using time travel to get there!

August’s lineup of titles offers something for every reader who enjoys a sexy story, plus…

Unbridled by Tori Carrington is a modern day Beauty and the Beast tale with an uptown-girl heroine and a rough-and-tumble Marine.

It’s definitely The Personal Touch when Lori Borrill’s hot power couple start a sexy, romantic fling.

Hot Under Pressure is the first book in Kathleen O’Reilly’s brand-new trilogy, featuring unusual places and circumstances for the hero and heroine’s first meet.

The popular Encounters format continues with Sliding into Home from Joanne Rock.

Jill Shalvis’s Storm Watch is the latest compelling romance in the Uniformly Hot! miniseries, highlighting the National Guard.

And another from Kate Hoffmann in the now near-legendary Mighty Quinns family with The Mighty Quinns: Callum.

I hope you’re all enjoying a fantastic summer as we enter the “dog days” of August. Keep safe.

Kathryn

And remember to include the phrase “Blaze books are blazing hot” to get your name in the draw for copies of our latest Blaze releases.