Boy, does time fly...

My beautiful daughter Kendra (my oldest child) turns 20 years old today. My mom warned me when she was born that I should appreciate every single moment, because before I knew it, she’d be 20 years old.

She was right. These past 20 years have just flown by. I can remember almost every detail of her birth, just like it was yesterday (don’t worry, I’m not going to share them LOL). But it did make me wonder how life has changed since she was born.

In 1992...

• A gallon of gas cost $1.05 (I just paid $3.82/gal today).
• The average cost of a new car, $17,000 (today, it’s about $31,000)
• Average house price, $67,000 (today, it’s $274,000)
• Ross Perot announced he was running for President against Clinton and Bush
• Mafia boss John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison
• Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida (the day before my daughter was born)
• Bill Clinton became President (now THAT makes me feel old)
• The Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona
• Rioting breaks out in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four police officers who were accused of beating Rodney King
• Prince Charles and Princess Diana separate
• Windows 3.1 released by Microsoft (where are they at now? Windows 246? :)
• AT&T released a video telephone for $1500
• Popular films were A Few Good Men, Basic Instinct and Sister Act.
• Popular TV shows were Home Improvement, L.A. Law and Married...with Children

So, listen to my mom—appreciate every single moment today, because 20 years from now we’re going to look back and say, “Gas was under $4 in 2012. Can you believe that?”

Meatless Mondays: Where's the Beef?

Happy Monday to you!

I'm going to try a new feature on my blog. I've been toying with the idea of becoming somewhat of a vegetarian for various reasons. One, cutting up and preparing meat totally grosses me out. If I make it, I often can't eat it...but I have no problem eating meat at someone else's house or a restaurant. Yes, I'm weird. Two, I feel better when I eat less animal protein (I look better, too). Three, going meatless would really help with the grocery budget. Four, I'm reading a couple of books that have scared the #$@% out of me regarding animal protein consumption (The China Study and The Starch Solution).

If my family included just me, I'd go cold turkey and try a vegan diet for 30 days or so to see how I feel and look. I did this about 15 years ago and have never felt so good--people told me I looked 10 years younger. Then I cheated and started eating dairy again and that was that. These days if I went all vegan, I think my family would divorce me. So, I'll settle for Meatless Mondays...for now.

Those of you who know me or follow me on social media know I'm a personal fitness trainer in my other life. :) Eliminating animal protein is mostly contrary to everything I've ever learned about nutrition. I encourage my clients to include a good protein with every meal because you need sufficient protein to build muscle. I've always heard that whey protein and eggs are the best protein source for muscle growth. Animal protein is more concentrated, thus a better option for our muscles than vegetarian protein. These are the beliefs I've "lived" by. But I'm starting to question these long-standing beliefs.

But because I'm still a bit skeptical about what I've been reading, and because I can't imagine never eating a cheeseburger again, and maybe because I'm a Gemini and just can't make up my mind, I'm going to start by going meatless one day a week. On Mondays. Not necessarily animal-protein free (I still may eat yogurt, eggs and cheese), but meatless. No flesh (is that a disgusting way of looking at meat? As 'flesh'? Blech.) I think this is called Lacto-ovo vegetarianism--no meat, but you can eat eggs and dairy products.

I have three cookbooks I'll cook from: The Eat Clean Diet Vegetarian Cookbook,  How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, and the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites. I'll also try recipes from my various magazine subscriptions. Because of copyright laws, I won't be able to exactly reproduce the recipes I'm trying on this blog. Apparently, you can't copyright the ingredients, but you can copyright the directions. So I'll give you the ingredients, and rewrite the directions. And hope I don't get sued. LOL. 

My family says they're willing to go along with this experiment, but I can hear the comments now during our first Meatless Monday dinner: "Where's the meat?" "Mom, did you forget to thaw something for dinner again?" or my favorite, "This is dinner? Seriously?" 

I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck. Anyone care to join me????

Friday Firsts with Sandra Dailey

The first five sentences of... THE CHIEF'S PROPOSAL

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Ginny Dearing wiped blood from above her left eye. “I’ve had a car accident. I’m on the county road between I-75 and Three Trees, Georgia. My car is stuck in a ditch and my doors are blocked.”

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Amazon|The Wild Rose Press

Available now!

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FUN FIRST FACTS ABOUT SANDRA

1. Who was your first love?

I’ve been in love many times. I truly believe that’s possible. My first, however, was Ricky. He lived next door and we were five years old. I was excited when he proposed marriage. My heart was soon broken when I found out that he’d made the same proposal to my twin sister. Believe it or not, this has happened a few times in our lives.

2. Tell me about your first date (ever).

I was twelve years old the first time I went out with my steady boyfriend John. That may seem young, but we were driven by his dad, went to the skating rink, where his mom worked, and accompanied by his three younger brothers. No kisses but lots of handholding.

3. What was your first date with your significant other?

My husband Lee and my first date was a play-date, literally. We were each single parents of two preschoolers. His daughter was 4 and his son was 2. My daughter was 3 and my son was 2. Lee cooked a fried chicken dinner for all of us. I was impressed by his tidy housekeeping, capable parenting skills, and sweet disposition. That was thirty-two years ago.

More about Sandra:

I live in a small town outside of Gainesville, Florida, with my husband. Our combined four children are all grown and live in Florida as well. They’ve given us seven beautiful granddaughters, no grandsons, which hardly seems fair. I love to read, write, play games and watch football.

Sandra's Website|Facebook|Blog

FRIDAY FIRSTS with...Rebecca J. Clark

Happy release day to me! My new book, DELIVER THE MOON, is officially out, and I'm so excited. This was a book of my heart (I have another book of my heart I'll be self-pubbing later this year, fingers crossed), so I'm delighted to finally share this one with readers.

The First Five Sentences of... DELIVER THE MOON

Louisa D’Angelo smoothed her long satin skirt for the third time in as many minutes as she waited for her cue to walk down the aisle.

“Don’t be nervous, dear,” the wedding coordinator said in a voice that had probably honeyed the nerves of many a bride. “Just keep your eyes on the altar, and you’ll do fine.” With that, she gave Louisa a gentle nudge forward.

Louisa wasn’t nervous, nor was she the bride.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Amazon|The Wild Rose Press

Available now!

FRIDAY FIRSTS with Stephanie Queen

The first five sentences of... PLAYING THE GAME

“Damn it,” Roxanne muttered. Her drink had splashed on her dress. Looking right, and then left, at the partygoers around her, she took a surreptitious glance down to inspect the damage.

A very large, dark, wet spot spread over her left breast. Luckily it was only ice water—or maybe not so lucky, on second thought. 

Amazon|Barnes & Noble
Available now!
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FUN FIRST FACTS ABOUT STEPHANIE

1. Who was your first love? 
He was a summer love. We were 17, lived on a lake and water skied every day. He got to be real good and wanted to become a professional water skier--he even learned to ski barefoot. We were engaged at age 18 but the following summer he was in a terrible water skiing accident and shattered his elbow. The doctors told him he'd never water ski again. He fell apart. We were dis-engaged by the age of 19. Tragic and True. Of course now every time I tell the story over a margarita I can't stop laughing at the youthful absurdity.

2. What was the first Rated R movie you ever saw?
My tragic water-skiing hero and I, on our first date, went to see Live or Let Die, a James Bond movie, at the drive-in no less. He was hot to see it because there was a speed boat chase scene and he and James Bond happened to have the same speed boat. Geesh. I should have known then...

3. If you could live your life over again, what’s the first thing you’d do differently or change? 
Mostly I've had a wonderful life so far--although it's far from over yet! But maybe I would skip the engagement to the tragic water skiing guy... just saying.

More about Stephanie: Stephanie Queen is a romantic at heart, a writer by nature, and has the soul of a cheerleader. She enjoys creating stories where her rose-colored glasses-view comes to life and the good guys always win. Spending most of her life in New England, she's attended many of the area colleges, including Harvard, and even earned a couple of degrees along the way. Although she lost count of all the jobs she's had before she settled on being a Novelist, her favorite was joining with the Keebler Elves to sell cookies.

Playing the Game is Stephanie’s latest release. Other novels by Stephanie Queen include a romantic comedy, The Throwbacks, first in the Scotland Yard Exchange Program series, and a contemporary romance, Between a Rock and a Mad Woman. Both are available atAmazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Her next release, The Hot Shots, the second book in her romantic comedy mystery series, will be out this summer.

Visit the author at www.StephanieQueen.com or at her Stephanie Queen author page on Facebook and follow her @StephanieQueen on Twitter.

FRIDAY FIRSTS with Simone Sinna

The first sentences of EXCLUSIVE
(no cover yet, so enjoy the covers of the first two books in the series)

[set up: Crystal is Stephanie's mother]

“You’re not happy.” Crystal was making a statement of fact–as she saw it. Stephanie bristled. They’d almost made it through lunch without an argument.

Crystal waved for the check. The Gotham Grill waiter nodded in acknowledgement.

“Things have never been better,” Stephanie replied a little too quickly.

Coming this summer from

Siren-Bookstrand

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FUN FIRST FACTS ABOUT SIMONE

1. What was the first romance you ever read?

I read a lot from the age of about seven - but up until about 13 it was all Enid Blyton, Chalet Girls and Gymkhana books. At school I know I did Jane Eyre which is after all a romance, but probably before that was Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree. I still have it and occasionally re-read it. It's wonderfully written, a nice background mystery and twist, but ahhh (sigh) the romance. Mary Grey and Adam, I am pretty sure, and that's from someone not great on names! When she see his scarred hands and starts to cry... well it's very touching!

2. Tell me about the first novel you ever wrote? What ever happened to it?

I wrote it when I was 13 (by hand) and I still have it. OMG it is bad!!! My attempts at romance (I hadn't had a boyfriend) were well... execrable!

3. Tell me about your very first kiss.

Must I? Not long after the attempt at my first novel, when I had turned 14, I was asked out by a boy from dancing class (I was at a girls' school and this was the only way to meet boys when you didn’t have a brother). He was 18! I felt very grown up – until the first kiss, which was soooo not like it looked like when Rhett Butler kissed Scarlett O’Hara. Yuck! Way too much slobber and tongue thrusting. Put me off boys for a year! And didn’t improve my second ‘novel’ attempt either- romance is just as bad as in the first!

More about Simone: Simone Sinna is the other side of an established nonfiction writer. After an epiphany on the 2038km road to Santiago de Compostela (which inspired her second novel, just out) she changed her name and now writes mostly erotic fiction. Her husband is delighted, her mother and two children less so…

She has three erotic romance suspense novels published with Siren: Embedded, Exposé, Exclusive (due July 2012) and two erotic short stories in Stringybark anthologies, Brushstrokes published in Heat Wave of ’76 (shortlisted for the prize) in 2011 and Night Game in 2012 in Between the Sheets.

You can find out more about Simone on her website, Twitter (@SimoneSinna), and her Bookstrand author page.

FRIDAY FIRSTS with Dawne Prochillo

The first five sentences of... INSATIABLE KATE
Lydia Parsons stood at the top of the wooden staircase of the Willow Creek Saloon, observing below as the cowhands, ranchers, miners and drifters flooded in for the evening. Dressed in everything from scratchy wool trousers to mud ladened chaps, the men jovially celebrated the end of another hard work week. Tomorrow being Sunday would be a day of rest for most. A day of family and church. A day to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Amazon

Available now!

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Fun First Facts about Dawne

 1. What was the first romance you ever read?

Not sure if it would be classified as a romance but VC Andrews' Flowers In The Attic--the taboo book from the 1980's... all the girls were reading it. The first book I ever read with incest in it. Amazing that book would probably be banned if released now.

2. What’s the first thing you do when you start writing a new story?

I plot, plot, make notes and plot some more. I need structure and an outline--not saying I don't change the outline a hundred times but I do need to have an synopsis to follow or I ramble and get lost.

3. When standing in front of a buffet line, what’s the first food that catches your eye?
Anything with oozing cheese. Crunchy salty potatoes. I always joke that my parents should have been from Idaho and Wisconsin. I am a true cheesy potato head. 

More about Dawne: Dawne Prochilo currently has many erotic and contemporary romance books. Her writing in the romance genre varies from sweet and sensual all the way up to four flame heat erotic. 

 She's the Promotion Director for a publisher, she's a freelance writer for a newspaper and was a contributing writer to USA TODAY in September 2011, she writes web content and is the Review Coordinator, Workshop Coordinator, and Managing Editor eMag for Books and Trailers Showcase.

She oversees and contributes to thirteen blogs weekly, twelve facebook fan pages and is in the process of writing a promotional eBook for authors.

She writes relationship articles for mademan.com, yahoo.com and associated press. She's also a reviewer for Eden Fantasy products and writes for their sister website, Eden Cafe. She contributes to Good Vibrations Magazine and many other adult content websites.

She is a staff member and group liaison for Marketing For Romance Writers.
You can learn more about Dawne on her blog.