Happy Halloween!

Hope you’re all decked out and getting ready to eat your candy. Greedy dentists everywhere are celebrating and caramel-dipping apples, while the nice ones are holding vigils and weeping silently.

We don’t get a lot of trick or treaters–or any, for that matter–so we’re going to take the opportunity to hang out with some friends we never get to see anymore. I guess I have to think up a costume, but one thing is for sure–it will be lame! That’s all right, though. I’m past the age of dressing up to look like a hot young thing, and I don’t have kids, so I don’t have anyone to impress, of any age.

In other, exciting news, I’m typing this blog post on my anniversary gift from the husb–a new MacBook! Our old Powerbook is basically on strike, and in the winter, my office downstairs gets to be about 50 degrees, so it’s nice to have a mobile writing option. I’ve been itching to sit on the balcony and do some work out there and this will make it possible. So yay!

I haven’t named it yet, but it’s definitely a girl.

Well, I’m off to a busy day… still more revising, dropping the dirty dog off for a bath and a trim, some house cleaning, and of course figuring out my lame costume!

Hope you all enjoy the day and don’t eat too much sugar!

5 comments October 31st, 2009

The end is near!

I think there’s a pretty good chance I’m going to finish the first draft of BGDD2 today! Then it’s two weeks of intensive revising and sending it off to my editor.

But that’s not the only thing that’s ending…

My “hiatus” ends in just over a week. The regular-season dog shows (the Animal Planet Dog Championships) are canceled, but there’s still the big show, the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship. So I’ll be back at work for a few months. I’m excited to see my friends at the office, but I must say, I kind of like being a stay-at-home-author.

And our family visits have ended… my nomadic sister-in-law was here for two weeks, and then as soon as she left, my father and two of my cousins came. It was fun to see them and do some touristy stuff–visiting the La Brea tar pits and taking the Warner Bros. studio tour. We got to go on Ellen’s soundstage (it was empty, because she doesn’t tape on Fridays) and see the backlot. I love movie studios. The husb and I interned on the Disney lot, and it’s so much fun just to be there.

So I think I need to go get a snack (everything is better with a snack) and buckle down! I’ll report back when I finish. Maybe this calls for a mini-contest. Who knows?

Wish me luck!

k.

7 comments October 24th, 2009

Is it just me, or…

…is everything funnier when it’s a night club?

Okay, so here’s what I’m doing these days: writing. I wish I could say it were more exciting than that, but it’s not.

I also did a guest blog for Vania over at Reverie Book Reviews… check it out! You could win a brown and pink bag, which I will post a picture of as soon as I fix my sewing machine and find 10 minutes to finish it.

Happy Thursday!

8 comments October 15th, 2009

Frogs and bananas and contest winners, oh my!

Hey, everybody! Thanks so much for all the entries in my October contest.

The (randomly chosen) winner is… Nathalie! Congratulations!

Nathalie wins a signed copy of Bad Girls Don’t Die, generously donated as a giveaway by Larramie of The Divining Wand, as well as some fun custom-sewn goodies.

I have to say, the costume suggestions had me rolling. I really loved Nathalie’s idea of the princess and the frog–with Winston as the princess, obviously! Also, H. Mary Cole’s idea that we go as two freak show performers–can’t you just see Winston as the bearded lady? And Bianca’s “Little Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf” idea was wonderful, too. Who gets to be the Big Bad Wolf–me or the dog? Ha! I could dress Winston as Granny.

Kate cracked me up by suggestion that I be Carmen Miranda and Winston be a banana:

And of course, the Dorothy and Toto suggestions ruled… but I love WillowRaven’s idea that I be Toto and Winston be Dorothy.

Of course after ALL that, I remembered that I don’t have a job this year and therefore no place to show off our fantastic costumes. The “D’OH!” heard ’round the world.

So we’ll see. Maybe I’ll whip something up for a Halloween-themed vlog!

Thanks again for all the entries.

Now… back to work with me. I’m about to hit 60,000 words on BGDD2! I specifically stopped 61 words short last night so I could at least feel like I’d accomplished something today, ha ha ha.

Cheers!
k.

7 comments October 12th, 2009

Crouching author, hidden manuscript.

Please excuse my scarcity lately. I’m hammering away at BGDD2–turns out that writing a book is a lot of work, who knew?

The weird thing is that it IS a lot of work and it ISN’T. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never been the world’s fastest writer–not because I can’t write fast, but because I can’t make myself sit still long enough to write fast for any prolonged period of time.

True, you can’t force these things, but on the other hand, sometimes you have to put a little force behind it.

In the style of yoga I practice (because it’s what my friend teaches, mostly–not from any sort of exotic choice-making process), there always seems to be a focus on achieving a balance between discipline and surrender, the “yes” and the “no”… that which comes easily and that which is difficult.

I’m applying that a lot to my writing life right now. In my life, there is that which comes easy: “Yay! I’ve done my writing for the day! I have free time!” and there is that which does not come easy: “Wow, it’s four o’clock and I haven’t come anywhere near my wordcount. Blaaaaaaaaaarrggghh.”

The problem is, as anyone who has ever had a large project set before them knows, you can never really get away from your project. Even if you’ve done your work for the day, there’s still a part of your mind that is anxious, that wants to get back to it. And ESPECIALLY if you haven’t done your work for the day.

And then, for an author (and probably for other professions, but I don’t know because they aren’t my profession), there are the forces that keep you from your work–primarily the abject sense of terror that what you’re doing is a load of useless nonsense and no one will like it and then no one will like YOU and you are a failure and all that.

So the yin and yang are operating strongly on me right now; in all the push and pull I find I am neglecting my blog. Please bear with me for a few more weeks.

k.

3 comments October 10th, 2009

October contest time! [contest entries closed]

Update: The contest is closed! Thank you to everyone who entered!

Time for the October contest! Win a signed copy of Bad Girls Don’t Die as well as some custom-made stuff!

Enter by leaving a comment below telling me what you want to be for Halloween! (+1 entry)

For more chances to win:
+1 Tell me what your favorite Halloween candy is
+1 Share an idea for coordinated Katie/Winston costumes that my dog and I can wear
+1 Twitter a link to the contest — be sure to use hashtag #bgddcontest (up to three extra entries–only one a day)

Sample Tweet (feel free to copy & paste):
Enter to win a signed copy of Bad Girls Don’t Die by @katiealender & other fun stuff! http://j.mp/3GppfV #bgddcontest

Plus, more ways to get extra entries will be revealed before the contest is over!

To get an idea of some of my custom-made bags and eye pillows, click here!

Only entries posted before 12:01 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) October 10 are valid!

By entering, you are agreeing to abide by my contest guidelines!

Thanks, and happy October!

25 comments October 2nd, 2009

October!

Pardon my exclamation marks, but OCTOBER!!!! You know what that means? It’s Fall! Really and truly Fall!

I know it’s a horrible way to look at things, but every year, as it gets warmer and warmer and late winter edges toward early spring and that deteriorates into late spring and then LORD NO here come the ravages of summer–I hold one precious concept in the back of my head.

October!!!

And as the summer starts to gasp and give itself over into the luscious bosom of autumn, my heart starts to sing.

I honestly end every summer with the thought: “I made it!”

Like I said, I hate that I spend so much of the year in a vague sense of unease, just because of the word on the calendar. In these days of air conditioning and garaged cars, it’s not like I ever have to be uncomfortably hot for more than four minutes at a time or so.

But still… October!

It’s here!

October is also a big month for me.

October is when I got married.
October is when Bad Girls Don’t Die takes place.
October is the best!

Because it means that soon the weather will be cool (after the stupid old Santa Ana winds finish blowing), and it means that soon it will be Thanksgiving, and then it is December, which is tied with October as my favorite month, because I get to change my ringtone to a Christmas carol and I get to decorate my house and sit around thinking happy thoughts and eating cookies with icing on them.

October!

PS – New contest announced tomorrow!

6 comments October 1st, 2009