It turns out that I am a dominant Popular Sanguine.  Which means I’m a talker, a storyteller, emotional and demonstrative, make friends easily and don’t hold grudges.

I am also a strong Powerful Choleric, which means I’m a natural leader and always right.

*ahem*

On the downside, I interrupt people and can talk too much, can be self-centered, I’m always right, and I’m disorganized and have no follow-through.

So, that’s why when I said I’d be posting about my weight loss in a day or two, 18 days later I still haven’t posted.

See?  No follow-through.

But it’s ok, because since I’m always right, I know that post will be written at some point.

Buffy?

One of the top two female characters on tv along with Sydney Bristow from Alias.

Who would win in a fight do you think?

More importantly, who would be better dressed for the fight?

Isaac and I even took a vampire tour of New Orleans when we were there one night, and it was really interesting to hear about mysterious happenings over the years, as well as crimes committed by people who really believed they were vampires.

The problem is that it’s hard for me to find books that I actually will read because a lot of vampire books have a lot of, how to say this to avoid really nasty google searches…

um…

well…

Let’s just say bad icky twisted s*xual situations.

That’s why I was so excited to discover Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga.

Ok, technically it’s for young adults, but I think that’s what keeps it mostly clean, and if you can get past the fact that the main characters are 17, then it’s really enjoyable. The fourth book in the series comes out in August, and in December Twilight is being made into a movie!

1. Ok, let’s say we’re actually meeting at Starbucks instead of doing this over email. I’m having a peppermint mocha. What are you drinking? I always order the same thing: a grande vanilla latte. Vanilla + foam+ lots of caffeine = perfection.

2. How many years have you been a Navy wife? Ten years this month, actually!

3. How many places have you lived? Well, I stared in New York, then moved to Pensacola, Corpus Christi, Meridian (MS), Virginia Beach , Fallon (NV), and in a month, Lemoore (CA). But I’m in North Carolina right now with family:-) Moving boxes are starting to make me phobic.

4. Do you have children? I’ve got three, ages 8, 6, and 2. A girl and two boys. The older two spend most of their time trying to annihilate one another, and the youngest one is currently exploring future career options as a stripper.

5. How did you get started writing? I’ve been writing since I was really little, actually. It started with bad holiday poetry, but by high school a friend and I were filling notebooks with this meandering, bizarre, hysterical (we thought) thing that we just called “The Story.” It was so much fun, I didn’t realize it was actually three years of a creative writing exercise. I won a schoolwide contest my junior year to have an article I’d written published in a local paper, and then in college, a goofy little story I’d written made it into the campus literary magazine. So it was always a strong part of who I was…it just never occurred to me that I might be good enough to make a living at it. Or if it did, my strong fear of rejection kept me from getting very serious about it!

6. How did the military lifestyle affect your writing? Honestly, I don’t think I would ever have decided to take the plunge and really try to get published if I hadn’t been a military wife! Watching my husband, who’s a Navy fighter pilot, live out his dream has been a big inspiration for me to do what I love. That, and knowing so many amazing Navy wives who manage to carve out their own niches, just for themselves, despite being moved all over the country at regular intervals. The military lifestyle itself has, I know, made me much more resilient in general, and has given me confidence in my abilities. Because, you know, when the bad stuff happens and he’s gone (AGAIN), you’re “it”! I won’t say that I never despaired (like, say, over the first manuscript I ever wrote that now lives in the recesses of my closet with a stack of rejection letters), but the writing helped center me amidst the daily insanity. I had to keep trying. And my husband was never going to let me quit anyway…I would have had a boot up my butt immediately. I grouched sometimes, but the support made a huge difference.

7. What’s your favorite snack while writing? This is tough, mostly because I love snacks. If it’s available and crunchy, I’ll probably eat it. And get crumbs in my keyboard. That said, original flavor Baked Lays are right up at the top of the list!

8. Tell us about your first book. What do you love most about it? My first book, Call of the Highland Moon, is about a werewolf named Gideon MacInnes, the reluctant future alpha of his Highland pack, and the shy bookshop owner he falls for when he’s attacked and she takes him in out of a snowstorm in Northern New York. Of course, she thinks he’s a wounded dog at the time…but by the time she figures out otherwise, the creatures hunting Gideon for his connection to an ancient and powerful relic have targeted her as well. Although Gideon and Carly Silver quickly forge a deep bond, Gideon knows all too well that mating with a werewolf can be deadly for humans. But with enemies closing in, and the legendary Stone of Destiny only just beginning to reveal its secrets, the two of them are soon in far too deep to turn their backs on one another. Can their love survive against impossible odds? Only the full moon will tell.

I love a lot of things about this book (after all, it’s the one that won me an agent and sold), but my favorite aspect of it is still the way my hero and heroine, Gideon and Carly, interact with one another. From the very beginning, they just clicked, and their banter was a lot of fun to write. Both speak sarcasm, which is like a second language to me:-) Spooling up their sexual tension before I finally let it rip was, I admit, also entertaining. I love those characters. I’ve had a few emails from people telling me that they hope I’ve included Carly and Gideon in my second book, Dark Highland Fire, which somes out in October, because they really connected with them and want to check in and see how they’re doing. And I did, actually, because I wanted to check in with them too! But that makes me happy, that the heart I put into the characters has come across to others so well.

9. What have you learned about following your dreams while balancing family? In a nutshell: that it’s possible. Being a mom and Navy wife, there were a lot of years where I didn’t think I had any room to add something just for myself to the mix…just holding everything else together was a struggle! But I hit a point where I realized that I really needed to take care of myself as much as I was taking care of everyone else, that besides being a wife and mother I was still the kid who had filled pages with stories and dreamed big, and that that should be important too. It’s not an easy balancing act, for sure. I don’t sleep as much as I should, and I’m more caffeinated than I ought to be. I’ve always been kind of a stress case anyway, though, chewing over the most nebulous concerns with gusto, so it could be a good thing that I have more concrete things to worry about with my work! So there has definitely been sacrifice involved, but I’m happier for actively chasing my dream. And having my husband and kids be as proud of me as I am of them is an amazing feeling.

Congratulations to Kendra!  Remember, to be entered to win one of two copies of her book, just leave a comment on this post before Saturday morning.  Or you can hop over to Amazon.com right now and buy a copy or five for everyone you know, and support a fellow military mama.  And spread the word about the giveaway and Kendra’s first book!

So I just haven’t been reading much, thinking that I need to finish those two books before buying more.

But the Spring Reading Thing gave me just the excuse I needed to toss those books aside and buy some new ones! So, here is my list of books that I want to finish by June 24th, after which I hope to give some of them away to one or more of you so that I can get them out of my house do my small part to help the environment.

1. Mansfield Park- Jane Austen

2. Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Meth Addiction- David Sheff

3. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines- Nic Sheff

4. Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World- Diane MacEachern

And if I finish those, my next choices will be

5. Persuasion- Jane Austen

6. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto- Michael Pollan

Have you read any of these?

]]> http://afteracupofcoffee.net/2008/03/hey-i-can-read/feed/ 3 http://afteracupofcoffee.net/2007/11/i-love-you-more-a-review/ http://afteracupofcoffee.net/2007/11/i-love-you-more-a-review/#comments Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:52:00 +0000 Christy http://afteracupofcoffee.net/?p=204
When I was contacted to receive a free copy of the new book “I Love You More” for review, I immediately jumped at the chance.

After two hours of googling and following links on the chance that it was a psycho stalker just trying to get my address.

I was really suprised by the book. We already have several books about love, one with the same name. But my kids adored this book.

I think most of the reason is that it is two stories in one. The book has no front or back, but flips over and the two stories meet in the middle. My daughter loves the side from the mom’s perspective, “I love you prettier than the prettiest flower ever found.” My son loves the little boy’s perspective, “I love you taller than the tallest giraffe ever grown.”

And all week I have been treated to the poetic stylings of “Mommy I love you bigger than the biggest toad.” And “Mommy, I love you tinier than the tiniest ant.”

They try.

If you want to check it out, you can visit the author’s website