Snow, Snow, Snow...where's the darn snow?

By Jeanne Adams
Let me say right off the bat that I adore Winter. Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons, followed quickly by Spring.

What about Summer, you ask? Its my least favorite. I hibernate in summer because I just wilt in the heat. I'm a mountain girl, I like it cool. I adored Romance Writers of America National this year in lovely, cool San Francisco. Ahhhhh.

(Usually, I dread National because I have to dress up and be professional in the heat. And summer RWA in DALLAS? There are not enough fans and AC made to make that bearable. Urg.)

Okay, that's off track. Back to Winter and snow. Snow!!! I so want it to snow, snow, snow. It's been sleeting, we got a mild ice storm on Tuesday - bleech on ice storms - and we've had a dusting of flurries, but no snow. Where is it? It's 32 degrees farenheit. C'mon!!!

Blame global warming or the melting glaciers or something, but personally I am going to indulge in a serious pout.

I want to sled, and make forts (I think I'll make it a bit bigger than the one pictured with the cats!) and have a wicked, wild, crazy snowball fight with my sons. I want to throw the snowballs into the air and get the dogs to chase them. Back in '96, just prior to my move to DC I got caught in a blizzard in Virginia. (I lived in NC at the time) It was an absolute blast. I was at a dog show and there were about twenty of us stuck in the hotel along with a skeleton hotel staff, a night manager who'd been on when they shut the major roads, and a whole lot of dogs, large and small, who were ready to have a blast in the snow.

Have a blast we did. We built snow forts and snowball fights with perfect strangers who quickly became allies or enemies over the walls of two, four-foot-high forts. Snow diving by the dogs - Dalmatians - quickly became a game of spot-the-spots. Trust me, it's REALLY hard to see a Dalmatian in the snow! If you don't believe me, check out this YouTube video of Bailey, whom I believe is a Dal crossbreed. :> You'll LOL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sUL0KCIc48

That same year, I'm told, there was cross-country skiing on the mall in DC. The monuments were all snowbound and my friend, also with Dalmatians, loosed her dogs on Capitol hill to romp in the snow. A LARGE time was had by all. She has pictures of them running up and down the capitol steps. Wheeeee!

I also want to see my new dog, Diver, the Irish Water Spaniel (IWS) in the snow. A fellow IWS afficianado, Jeremy Kezer took these fabulous pictures of his girls, Fiona and Selchie, in the Massachusetts snow right before Christmas. (Maybe I should move to Massachusetts. After all, the Adamses are originally from Boston...and they had snow BEFORE Christmas.) IWS don't care if it's wet, cold, snowing or sleeting. If there's play to be had, they are THERE. Grins. They are a fabulous fun breed and I am loving being an IWS-mom. Ha! BTW, you can check out more wonderful pix of Jeremy and Kim's dogs here: http://www.chanticoiws.com/index.html (Jeremy was kind enough to give me permission to use these cool shots. If you'd like to see more of his work, check out www.jeremykezer.com)

Anyway, I want to play with my kids and dogs in deep, wonderful fluffy snow. The real stuff. I know Banditas Tawny, Kirsten and Susan had snow at the holiday, as did many others. Alas, DC had none. (Can you tell I'm pouting again?) The saving grace here is that the "real" winter in DC doesn't start until February. President's Day snowstorms are common. Snow for the Ides of March? Oh, yeah. Then, like flipping a switch, April becomes Spring and before you know it, it's hotter than a...well, let's use a phrase I first heard in a little store in my North Carolina hometown:

DC in Summer is hot as the devil's doorknocker. (Do I need to mention hibernation again? No, didn't think so.)

So what's all this got to do with writing?

Nothing.

HAHAHA. Just kidding. In some of the best stories I've ever read, the weather, the seasons and even the landscape play a huge part in how the character's feel, how the story evolves, and even the ways in which the author twists the tale to heighten the emotions of the characters. Nothing like a good blizzard or wicked storm to throw your hero and heroine together. Then again, nothing like a good stormy power outage or icy roads to heighten the fear when the villain is on the loose either!

What's the best book you've ever read where the weather played a part? Any good snowbound books? Any good ice storm books? Are you writing one where the weather plays a part? Or, better yet, are you looking forward to a storm to get some writing DONE? Ha!

Since it's nice and cold and I can mail chocolates without them melting...I'll pick a random winner to get a box of Godiva! And that's S'no joke

Truck Nuts

by Cassondra Murray

Can any of y’all explain this to me?

I am a country girl. I like trucks.

In fact, my first ever new car was a pickup truck. Gray Mazda. I loved her. Still do. Poor thing is down with brake trouble and has over 350,000 miles on her and still, I’m not giving her up. She’s out beside the driveway. Her paint is faded and she’s got a few rust spots, but I will get her fixed.

See there? My truck is a female. I know this. I can’t tell you how I know, but I do.

I just know. We call her the Wonder Truck.

Most of our cars have names, and, usually, gender, and I’ve noticed that we’re not alone. Lots of folks name their cars. Casper is a white SUV, named after the Friendly Ghost. Flower is a black and gold Prizm with a purple flower spray painted on the hood (Don’t ask. It’s a long story.). I have a friend whose SUV is named Vader. I once knew a car named Daisy.

Even my mechanic knows our cars by name. “You bringin’ Casper in to get the belts changed next week or not?”

I’ve called him for help before. “I’m stuck on Nashville Road. Flower won’t start. Can you come get me?” He did. I think he feels obligated. After all, he made Flower out of two other cars. That makes him..well…kinda like her dad, doesn’t it?

I have now asked a bunch of people whether their vehicle is a boy or a girl. To a one, they answered with a minimum of consideration. “Oh, my car is a girl,” one of my friends said. “When she goes in for a tire rotation and balance I tell her I’m taking her for her mani-pedi.” Alllllrightythen.

The interesting thing is that as many of the men I questioned had “girl” cars as “boy” cars, and women had equal numbers of “boy” cars as “girl” cars. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the size or shape of the car, or the size or shape of the owner, though I think some cars might lend themselves toward one gender over the other. For instance, this car on the right I think is sort of a "boy" looking car. But the Hello Kitty car below, not so much.

Strange, isn’t it? Giving our cars names? Endowing them with sentience? I’m not sure when this started. Maybe with Herbie the Love Bug. ( I’m old enough to remember the original Herbie). There was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, who definitely had personality. Pixar released a film called Cars—and all of them have personalities.

We humans spend ton-o-bucks on these machines, we spend scads of time in them, and I guess they become extensions of us. Part of it is image I suppose. Right now I’m conflicted. I'm driving a minivan. I actually love my van. It hauls big dog crates and lots of gear for search and rescue, its comfortable, gets great gas mileage, and thus far I’ve proven to be nearly invisible to law enforcement.

But I don’t like minivans. I don’t like the way they look, and I don’t like the “soccer mom” image because I’m not one. I’m not a mom. See there? I have this need for my car to be an extension of me—of the persona in which I see myself. I’ve tried to come up with ways to de-momify the minivan. The best suggestion thus far has been to add a machine gun turret to the roof.

Like it or not, cars do get personified by their owners. When I trade cars I have a sense of loss—as though I’m saying goodbye to a friend—one who’s traveled with me through ups and downs, both physical and emotional. After all, I’ve spent years singing along to the radio, laughing, crying, and having fights with my husband in my car.

But never, not even once in my lifetime, have I felt the need to prove my car’s gender by attaching plastic or chrome genitalia to it. This I do not understand.

I knew Truck Nuts existed, but I’d never SEEN any until a few days ago and all of a sudden, there they were, on a big white dually turning left in front of me. And lemme tell ya, they were hangin' low. So low that they were dragging the asphalt as he made the turn. All I could do was grit my teeth and say “Ooooowwwwwwww! Dang, that’s gotta burn!”

Truck nuts come in all colors, which seems appropriate. If you’re going to do something as asinine as chaining fake testicles to your automobile, at least have the class to make them match, ya know? Purely for research, I said to my husband, “If I bought a set of white truck nuts for Casper, would you put them on him?”

Him(frowing): “No.”

Me: “Why not?”

Him: “I just wouldn’t!”

Me(waving arms): “WHY NOT?”

Him (frustrated): “Its…just…not….ME…to put truck nuts on my vehicle. I’d rather have little bitty Special Forces Stickers and if you know what they mean you get it and if you don’t know what they mean, you don’t need to know.”

Me(arms crossed, lips pushed out in consideration): “Okay then.”

Since then I’ve done a bit of research and Googled a fair number of images and sources. I found out that you can get Truck Nuts that light up bright red when you brake. Or you can get multi-function ones. When you're turning right, the right one flashes, left, the left one flashes and so on and so forth. They glow white for backing up. Hey, why not?

But I have noticed that most folks who endow their vehicles have those appendages waaaaay too far to the rear. Take that photo of the red truck at the top of the blog as an example. They're just plain too far back. That’s another thing about growing up on a farm. I have a good sense of where they ought to be.

If a truck were to actually be…well…sentient, and actually have said…accessories….they’d be just south of the rear wheels in the area of the spare tire. Not hanging out there on the trailer hitch in front of God and everybody.

It’s the writer in me I suppose. I just can’t seem to let go of this.

Oh. Bad choice of words maybe.

When I see strange behavior, I want to know why. Why is that person doing that? How can I write characters that are real if I can't figure out real people?

A few years ago I was on I-65, driving to Nashville one morning for work. A monster-sized flatbed tractor-trailer was in front of me. Ginormous chains ran from the corners of the huge (mostly empty) flat trailer into the center, where they secured an eensy teensy Tonka toy bulldozer. The driver had switched out the signs on the front and back of the truck to say “Undersize Load.” I laughed out loud. That truck driver took his valuable time and set that up after his last delivery, expressly to make other people smile as they drove by him on the Interstate. THAT I can appreciate.

But this whole Truck Nuts phenomenon—I don’t quite get it. Do you suppose this is the same thing? Is it a joke? Am I missing something here?



I recognize that there are certain vehicles that may suffer from sexual identity crises. But do you think some folks actually need to validate the gender of their vehicles?

What do you think, Bandita Buddies?

Do you own an automobile?

Is it a boy or a girl?

Does it have a name?

Does your significant other have Truck Nuts attached to his or her vehicle? Hey, some girls have them too! Indeed they do. A fair number of ladies have trucks that are boys and they have the appropriate parts to prove it!

Have you ever seen a set of Truck Nuts in real life? What was your reaction? If you’re a female, would you go on a date with a man in a truck which was…obviously a boy?

If you’re a guy, would you put them on your truck?

For those NOT in the States, are Truck Nuts purely an American phenomenon? Or have they spread to where you are yet?


And you might as well weigh in on which is in better taste--Matching or contrasting colors?

The Day After ...

by Anna Sugden

No, I'm not talking about being hung-over after a wild night ;) I'm talking about the day after Twelfth Night.

Here in England, it is tradition that all Christmas decorations be down by midnight on the 6th. If not, it is believed that bad luck will live in your house ... or gremlins will set up home (and we know how dangerous they can be!)

Anyway, for me, the 7th is always kind of blue. No more twinkling lights. The decs are all packed away in boxes for next Christmas - which seems sooo far away. The Christmas music has been put on its special shelf in the cupboard.

Of course, I don't think it helps that the nights are long - it's dark until late in the morning and dark at 4pm. And it's cold! Somehow, cold seems more romantic over Christmas!

Plus, there's that general post-holiday, 'drunk too much, eaten too much, got to get back to normal' malaise.

*sigh*

This year, I followed my usual tradition of watching one of my DVD presents while I take down the decs. My choice was Mama Mia! What a difference it's made! All that bright light and exuberance ... not to mention all the songs you can bop along to. Somehow, Twelfth Night didn't seem quite so bad when you've been jiggling along to Abba *g*.

A new tradition has been started - always play Mama Mia for taking down the decs! It works!

So, for all those of you suffering from the post-holiday miserables, the winter doldrums and cold, dark day grumps - not to mention the back-to-work blues, I thought we could have a little Mama Mia fun on the blog today. (I know our friends Down Under or in the southern states have been basking in glorious heat and sunshine, but play along!)

Abba is on the turntable, here in the Lair. We're going to don our favourite and most outrageous Glam Rock outfits (for today we all have the body of a super-model - except for P226, who may not want that *g*) and as Dancing Queens (again, except for P226!) we're going to Voulez Vous and Chiquitita the blues away.

For one day only, you can squeeze into those skin-tight silver body suits and fluorescent mini-skirts. And you can totter around in those sky-high, glittery platform soles.

The cabana boys, Romans and hockey hunks are ready with the drinks (and to ease away any post-holiday aches!) ... so get ready to party!!

Tell me what your outfit looks like and which your favourite Abba song is ... then grab a drink and a partner and ... go for it!

As an extra bonus, I have a prize for the best/most outrageious/most fun outfit! You can win a copy of our very own Anna Campbell's Tempt The Devil!

Maureen Child is ... BEDEVILED!!

By Kate

With over 100 books and counting, Maureen Child is as prolific as she is versatile and talented, and she’s got SIX prestigious RITA nominations to prove it. She’s back in the Lair today to talk about her newest book, BEDEVILED, the first in her Queen of the Otherworld series. Booklist gave it a *starred review* and said “Clap if you believe in Faeries, and even if you don’t you can applaud Child’s heartwarming, hilarious adventure, a ticket to the fantastic Otherworld and back.”

And I’ll just add that BEDEVILED has the world’s hottest cover! Please join me in welcoming back the completely fabulous Maureen Child!!!

Maureen: Wow. I love being completely fabulous! Thanks for the welcome Kate, and hey, Banditas! Nice to be back!!

Kate: I can’t believe I’m finally getting my hands on this incredible book! Can you give us a hint about the story?

Maureen: Hmm. Hint. Okay, Maggie Donovan is your everyday, ordinary woman who paints windows for a living (That’s ordinary. I used to do that!). And everything in her life is pretty great until she goes to return her ex boyfriend’s ABBA cds and finds him being eaten and not in a sexual way. When it looks like Maggie’s about to be dessert, she fights back and ends up killing the creature, but sucking in a lot of what looks like gold dust. Turns out, it’s Faerie dust and its already changing Maggie. Oh, and then she meets Culhane and—

Kate: Okay hold it right there! We’ll get back to Maureen in just a moment but first I’d like you all to feast your eyes on Culhane, the fierce warrior hero of BEDEVILED...

His long, black hair fell to his shoulders and he swung it back and out of his way as he moved silently through the house, cataloging every room in his mind. He was tall, even for a Fenian, standing almost six feet five inches. His legs were long, his arms muscular and the harsh planes of his face rarely twisted into a smile. He’d lived too long, fought too hard to find much worth smiling about.

Maureen: Wow, he does sound yummy, doesn’t he? And hello? Did somebody mention that sigh worthy cover?? And Maggie Donovan thinks he’s pretty yummy, too—of course she can’t let HIM know that. Culhane’s already way too sure of himself.

Kate: Oh, yummy indeed!! I do love a world-weary alpha warrior – and I’m not the only one, right Banditas? So, Maureen, a few years ago you insisted that you didn’t really like alpha heroes. But uh, now you’re like the freaking queen of the alpha hero! What changed for you? And what’s your secret for making your hot alpha heroes so likable and—dare I say it?—funny?

Maureen: Poor Kate! You had to listen to me whine about writing Alpha heroes!! I never did like a pushy, arrogant guy. They just irritated me beyond measure and while reading a book with that type of guy in it, I was continually yelling at the heroine, “Are you NUTS?? Why do you love this jerk??”

Then ... I finally discovered the secret to Alpha guys. At least for me. My heroes aren’t pushy, they’re bossy. They’re not arrogant, they just know they’re right. (Okay, fine, not a great distinction, but it works for me!) And my Alphas always have a sense of humor. My Alpha hero does what he thinks is best for the heroine and when the heroine shoots him down, he’s completely perplexed. Why can’t she see that he’s right? It’s for her own good! Also, my Alphas always get a heroine who won’t let them get away with much—all the women I know are strong enough to stand up to an Alpha! And there’s always a few laughs along the way, mostly because I just can’t help myself.

Kate: Just bossy, huh? I like it! And by the way, don’t miss Maureen’s AN OFFICER AND A MILLIONAIRE , out this month from Silhouette Desire. If anyone picked up any Harlequin/Silhouette book in December, you no doubt read the fabulous excerpt for this book–which was featured at the end of every single Harlequin/Silhouette book published in December! It’s that good! Do not miss it!

Maureen: Thanks for the plug, Kate! (Oh, and please don’t hold that cover against me!!)

Kate: Hey, come on, that guy is cute! Oh, and next month, another of Maureen’s awesome alpha heroes will show up in her latest Silhouette Nocturne, VANISHED. This one features her sexy Immortal Guardians and got a Top Pick from Romantic Times magazine!

Maureen: Oooh. Rogan Butler’s story. VANISHED is set in Ireland in the village of Tourmakeady, where my dh and I stayed the last time we were there. I LOVE Ireland, have I mentioned that before??

Kate: Uh, once or twice, yeah. And wow, another HOT cover! So what’s coming up next for you?

Maureen: Right now, I’m working on more of my King books for Silhouette Desire. And I just finished the sequel to BEDEVILED, it’s called BEGUILED and it’s due out next November and … hopefully there are dozens more books lined up right behind them! Nothing I like better than LOTS of deadlines!

Thanks for having me back at the Banditas Lair! Always a good time. And in 2009, I wish you all good health, great joy and fabulous books!

Okay, let’s talk alpha heroes. Yay or nay? Everyone knows what Kate thinks (yum!), but what do you love most about the alpha guy? Or do you prefer the boy next door? Hmm, Kate likes him, too!

And of course, two lucky commenters will win a signed copy of Maureen’s BEDEVILED!

Better Than Bulletproof winner

The winner for the autographed copy of Kay Thomas' debut book, BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF, is

Pat Cochran!

Congratulations, Pat!! please send me your snail-mail addy to:
swwelsh2001 AT yahoo DOT com and I'll see that Kay gets that prize to you!

Thanks everyone for making my friend so welcome in the Lair!!

Excercise Your Right to Be Healthy

Joanie T

So we’re a few days into the New Year and people have made the usual resolutions. The most common one is losing weight and exercising.

Now understand, I’m a typical American woman. I have “yo-yo” dieted all my life. Lost 40 pounds, but determined lady that I am, found them again...back and forth several times over the years. When I was at my lowest weight I looked great in clothes and felt confident. Confident enough to tell myself eating that hot fudge sundae just “this once” wouldn’t make a difference. Muffin tops don’t look THAT bad.

I was wrong.

I’m not going to go into diet regimes because eating is only one aspect of being healthy. As the title to my entry states “Exercise Your Right to be Healthy.”

Now before you turn off the blog let me tell you right now, this is not going to be a dissertation on all the benefits of exercise, numerous as they are; ok here are a few. (What can I say? It’s the nurse in me :-)

Exercise can:

* Improve your mood. Brain chemicals that are released during exercise reduces stress, relaxes you and can make you feel happier.

* Fights chronic disease. Exercise combats high blood pressure, increases GOOD cholesterol, prevents or limits the effects of Type 2 diabetes, controls osteoporosis and has been shown to be beneficial in preventing some cancers such as colon and breast.

* Controls weight. Did you know that for every extra 10 pounds that you carry, you exert 30-60 pounds of pressure on your knees? Ouch!

* Improves sleep. Being able to sleep better and longer will increase your concentration and mood.

So, do I practice what I preach?

I try.

You’d think as a nurse that I would be svelte and toned just from running like a mad woman up and down the hospital halls day in and day out (and day in and day out) but nope. Not enough sustained momentum (plus swinging by the lounge to nibble on cookies because dangit, I’m tired and deserve it does not help).

I’ve tried multiple things over the years; jazzercise, aerobics class, a home exercise routine and multiple gym memberships. The classes were ok but if you come into them in the middle with more experienced participants you stand out like a sore thumb. My last attempt at a step class ended with me rolling around on my mat LMAO (if only we COULD laugh our a** off)because I looked and felt ridiculous. My instructor raced back to see if I was having a heart attack.

The home exercise thing waxes and wanes. For a period of time I had one of those exercise balls. That got thrown into the Goodwill the day my brother was over and I had lain on my back over it and…couldn’t get up. Did he help? Nope HE laughed HIS a** off as I struggled like a beached whale to get up.

YMCA, my work fitness club and even a membership to the infamous Gold’s gym followed. The thing with gym memberships is that you come for one orientation on ALL the different equipment then when there is no one there to refresh your memory, you fall into “the same ‘ole routine”…which gets boring fast.

I will say that gym memberships can be amusing. Especially the body builder guys. I have NEVER seen a woman preen like these guys do and the NOISE they make while lifting weights! They talk about supplements, and diets and blah blah. At one point I had a young personal trainer guy who had sampled one of their “special” protein shakes prior to my arrival. He was sweating, flushed and his pupils were dilated. He said “Everything looks so much brighter” and then mumbled something about his libido being enhanced.

What the...?

I quickly informed him that if he went down I wanted the CPR I would have to perform on him to count as my exercise!

But I’ve stuck to some form of this over the years for one reason. To be healthier. It works. I know it does. My joints don’t ache, I move better, I can let the stress of life take a back seat and yes, I look nicer in my clothes and feel better about myself.

You don’t have to officially join a gym. Increasing physical activity in any form (climbing stairs, walking around the neighborhood, chasing smart-alecky brothers with exercise balls) all count as activity. Yep, even Jeanne’s favorite, cleaning house counts on the Weight Watcher plan as activity.

So be good to yourselves Banditas and BB’s. Take a walk. Skip the elevator one time. Park farther away from the mall. Clean my house. As the song says, “You got to move it, move it.”

What is your favorite form of exercise? *Ahem, we know the ONE type is a given. What can you do to increase it in 2009?

PS The picture below shows a tai chi move... I kid you not...called the Golden Rooster! I propose that all Banditas and BB’s use it as a secret signal at conferences.

Must We Deck The Halls?

by Caren Crane

Now that the holidays are over, I have a confession to make. I have a tendency to...well...over-extend myself at the holidays. I commit to too many social gatherings. Offer to bake one batch of cookies too many or buy just one more gift for those in need. At my house, I am in charge of buying and wrapping all the gifts for my husband, children, family and friends. Also getting the kids' Christmas pictures taken, doing the holiday baking, sending the Christmas cards and decorating the house. My husband helps, but only with things I specifically direct him to do (like, put up the Christmas tree or buy a gift for me).

For this past year, by time Christmas rolled around, I had no paid time off from work left. Not even one hour! So all the things I did were wedged in around a full-time job. The result of all this busy-ness has traditionally been complete burnout by Christmas day.

In 2008, I took it easier. My "take it easy" holiday philosophy developed slowly over the years and mostly due to desperation. I gave up stressing out about the house being decorated a few years back. It gets done, but no big deal if the outside lights don't get put up or there aren't electric candles in all the windows. I have let my daughters bake Christmas cookies in the past couple of years (for the record, we made none for 2008). Heck, three years ago, the girls sent all the Christmas cards! So, I've learned to let go a little. But in the past year and a half, I have been sick for long periods of time. Sinus infections and plenty of them, despite the best drugs on the market. Most of the illnesses were exacerbated by exhaustion.

This past year, I learned to take time for me. I often napped in my car at lunchtime, instead of running errands every day. I walked away from my desk and took a coffee or tea break. At home, the laundry often piled high and the cupboard got bare. I found that if things got desperate enough and there were literally no clean socks in the house...someone would be spurred to action. My children learned, at a core level, that if they did not write things on the grocery list, my husband never thought to buy them. This applied to everything from bread and milk to toilet paper. I didn't abdicate my worrying and errand-running throne, but somehow I let go of the feeling of Impending Doom I used to get if we ran out of Special K bars or forgot to buy bagels for choir extended practice.

There is nothing like being laid low to teach you what is important in life. Your life. The only one you get. I learned to take time for me. When I did, guess what happened? Nothing. At least, nothing I didn't want to happen. In the just-passed holiday season, I took time for me. This Christmas, I got to enjoy all the wonders of the holiday season without undue stress or bone-deep exhaustion. I'm looking forward to next Christmas already--even if our halls don’t get decked a bit!

So, why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to make things perfect during the holidays? Are we afraid of letting others down or simply not meeting our own expectations? And when it comes to holiday brouhaha, why are we so reluctant to relax? Please share any tips and tricks you've learned to ease the pressure. We could all use more ME time!

Home Sweet Home

By Kirsten Scott

So, does it look familiar? The houseboat, I mean. I think this particular houseboat probably caused a rush on houseboats unlike any the industry had seen. It's the one used in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, inhabited by Tom Hanks' character, and among other things, it played a prominent role in me falling in love with him. After all, who wouldn't love a man who loved a house like that? The lights on the water, the view of the boats and downtown Seattle...and of course it was gorgeous inside. Furnished like a dream. Furnished like no man would ever furnish a house.

During the holiday season we do a lot of visiting and go to a lot of parties, and I am always struck by how different peoples' houses are, and how each house tells a story about the person who lives there -- sometimes a very different story than the one I would expect. Someone I expect to have drab, by the book decorations has a house filled with art and color; someone I expect to be neat turns out to be a packrat; someone I expect to be simple has a taste for the ostentatious.

I love it. It's a window into the soul.

We authors are always on the lookout for windows into the soul, so we use houses a lot to develop our characters. What better way to show a person's true character than to describe their house? The man with a wounded soul lives on a cliff away from town; the woman who never broke free from her mother still lives in her mother's house, surrounded by her mother's belongings. We can show someone's unexpected depth by giving them a hidden art collection, or a beautiful garden.

As for me, I live in a boxy 1950s ranch that we renovated so it's open and light. In the living room we've got furniture covered with sheets (dog hair, don't you know), two old red arm chairs I inherited when my grandfather passed away, a fairly new sofa-couch from IKEA, and a couple of fabulous Oriental rugs I ordered from Ebay about eight years ago that are fraying around the edges. I want my house to be tidy, comfortable, and above all, a place where kids and dogs can play and have fun.

(Here's one of Grandpa's chairs. Isn't it cool?)

So I'm wondering...what does your house reveal about you? Are you a city dweller in a tiny apartment? A suburban mama? Do you collect original art, or maybe photographs? Is your house straight out of an IKEA catalog, or more of the shabby chic variety? 

And perhaps most importantly -- would you have married Tom Hanks just to live in that houseboat?! :-)

MORE BOOTY!!

The winner of the gift card from Lorraine Heath is.......................................................
Drum roll................................................
.........................................................
Elyssa Papa!

Elyssa, send me your snail-mail addy to swwelsh2001 AT yahoo DOT com, and I'll see that Lorraine gets it!! Mega congratulations!!

Kay Thomas and Better Than Bulletproof

by Suzanne Welsh
Today is champagne day in the Lair. Why? Because I get to welcome one of my closest and sweetest friends, Kay Thomas, to the Lair. I'm also celebrating with Kay and all of you the release of Kay's very first book, BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF!

Suz: Welcome to the Bandit Lair, Kay. Here's your champagne and please have a seat. First, the Bandits love call stories. Care to share yours with us?

Kay: Last year in mid-January, I was packing my family to get ready for a trip to visit my Dad for his 81st birthday. The phone rang and it was my wonderful agent Helen Breitwieser. She usually emails so I knew this was momentous news. She said Harlequin Intrigue really liked my story but it was too long for their line and would I be willing to cut my single title story to a category length. (This meant cutting about 80 pages of the manuscript.)

Was I willing to do that?

"Of course I can."

"Okay, let me call them back. I'll email you, it will probably be tomorrow before we hear anything."

Well, after that awesome call I had to get in the car and drive 8 hours to my parents' house. And let me tell you, it was a good thing we were almost packed because I don't think I could have remembered to pack underwear or shoes or anything, I was so excited.

We didn't really have a deal yet. Just a "Gee, we're interested." And I didn't know if they'd want me to do all that cutting first and see it before they made the offer or after. And I had a long drive to think about that, too. A very long drive.

When we got to my parent's house it was 2 am, and everyone was wiped out from the drive, so I didn't want to get into the news just yet. But my Dad has always been such a cheerleader for my writing. Growing up he always told me I could do whatever I set my mind to. When I went to tell my parents good night after the kids were finally in bed, I just had to tell my folks that I thought I "might" be about to sell my book. The looks on their faces were priceless.

I couldn't sleep after all that and I had to go online to see if there was any news. I really wasn't expecting any until much later that day. It was now about 3:30 in the morning and everyone was fast asleep but yes, there was the email from Helen! Harlequin had made an offer. I was shouting on the inside but I couldn't go wake anyone up to say it was finally real.

They'd all just gotten to sleep. But oh, that evening we got to celebrate my Dad's birthday with the rest of my extended family and my book sale. I don't think I could have given my Dad a greater birthday gift than telling him about my dream come true in person.

Suz: BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF is your debut novel being released later this month. Could you tell us the premise behind the story?

Kay: Sure, BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF is about a woman who gets caught up in the vaccine autism controversy when her sister disappears and leaves behind her autistic son. Gina Rodgers is an ad executive with no idea how to care for her nephew Adam and his overwhelming needs. She finds an unlikely ally in Adam's play therapist, Harlan Jeffries. He's a former Marine sniper looking for redemption in working with special needs children.

Suz: Your hero in BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF is Harlan Jeffries. He's my favorite kind of hero-big, strong, buff, with both a tender heart and a secret. Can you tell us more about what makes him tick?

Kay: Harlan is yummy, isn’t he? I had great time creating him. He is a Marine home on medical leave after being injured in Iraq. Haunted by all he’s seen and done there, he’s also trying to figure out what he’s going to do with his life now. While he’s working through all this, he’s working with Adam doing floortime. A type of play therapy for autistic kids that lay people can do. (Not a lot of special training required. You just have to like to play!) Yes, he does have a secret, but I hate to give that away here today.

Suz: What did you like best about Harlan? What drove you crazy about him?

Kay: Oooh, there were lots of things I like about him. He isn't perfect and even though he's very alpha, he doesn't necessarily have a big ego. In fact he's struggling with figuring out if he makes a difference anymore. He's sustained a terrible back injury and doesn't feel like a hero at all. He loves kids and he's very driven to help people. And of course, Gina doesn't want to be helped or saved in any way.

I really enjoyed showing him how much of a difference he could make in Gina's and Adam's lives just by being present, not necessarily by doing the physical things that he would normally consider heroic. Gina and Adam are the perfect people to show Harlan that he doesn't have to do anything special to make himself a hero. That whole idea of being loved for who you are, not for what you can do for someone.

Suz: Gina Rodgers, the heroine in BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF sees herself as a "screwup". How do you see her?

Kay: I see Gina as a woman who has struggled in the past to become independent from her family. She's now a competent and successful businesswoman, but thrown into the difficult situation of caring for an autistic five-year-old. While dealing with the emotional ramifications of that and looking for her missing sister, Gina feels all her old insecurities rising again. She has no idea how to care for her nephew. She needs help and she hates that she has to rely on Harlan for it.

She's also falling hard for Harlan whom she's not entirely sure she can trust. But she has to trust him because he's the only one who can help her when bullets start flying and it's obvious someone is after her and Adam. The situation pushes all her 'competency buttons' simultaneously so that she feels like she's losing control on every level.

Suz: Gina's nephew in BETTER THAN BULLTETPROOF has autism. It's a condition you are intimately associated with. Would you care to fill our readers in on that?

Kay: Yes, as you can probably tell from my answers above I'm rather passionate about this. Eight years ago my son was diagnosed with autism and we immediately dove into an intensive array of biomedical and traditional therapies for him. He worked hard and responded amazingly well. I will be forever grateful to a multitude of people that I can never repay for giving me back my son. People who worked with him, played with him, prayed for him and for my family. Incredibly generous parents I've met through autism groups online but never met in person who shared their hard won knowledge and advice when we got stuck in various stages of treatment. Doctors, teachers, therapists, and friends who gave so much over the years. It's a very long list.

Even with exceptional treatment, you don't always get the kind of results we did. It's been an extraordinarily humbling and overwhelming experience. Today I look at my son when he's yakking away (a miracle in itself), and I think about where we were 9 years ago. I'm completely awed.

Suz: If someone wanted to learn more about autism or become involved in helping where would recommend they start?

Kay: I'm so glad you asked. There are many great autism resources on the Internet now.

My favorite is www.nationalautismassociation.org

1-877-NAA-AUTISM

Their motto is "Think Autism. Think Cure."

They have fabulous resources for treatment options, conferences, and the latest news in the autism world. Practically every reputable autism site on the web is listed at NAA--Autism Research Institute, Talk About Curing Autism, Generation Rescue, Autism One. Please check them out.

And if you lose the address or can't remember it when you're chatting with someone, I have a list of autism resources on my website under links. NAA is at the top of the list.
Here's an article for more information:
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/childrens-health/2008/12/11/a-parents-guide-to-managing-vaccinations.html

Suz: Was there any special reason you wanted to write BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF?

Kay: BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF is very much the “book of my heart” because the subject matter is so steeped in autism and treatment. I struggled not to “tell too much” as I wrote and to stay focused on the characters—not getting too carried away on a topic which is so close to home. It’s my greatest hope that readers can enjoy Harlan and Gina’s story and be entertained by it as well as learn a bit about autism—an epidemic that is sweeping the country and stealing away some of the brightest children of a generation.


Suz: This is your first book for Harlequin INTRIGUE. Do you have any other up and coming books with them?

Kay: Yes! I have an April Intrigue titled BULLETPROOF TEXAS. The release date is April 14, 2009 and I had a blast writing it. BULLETPROOF TEXAS pulls in some of the characters from BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF.

Suz: Oooo, I love series books where secondary characters get to pop again! Can you give us a hint about it? When will it be released?

Kay: It's a romantic suspense thriller about a pharmaceutical research scientist and a brooding caving guide who are forced to work together extracting a cancer-eating bacteria from a flooding Texas Hill Country cave. As the sparks fly and the sexual tension increases, so do the dangers when a competitor decides this potential cure shouldn't see the light of day--and is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way.

Kay:Suz, thanks so much for having me here in the lair today. 2008 was a remarkable and exciting year for me. I can hardly wait to see what happens in 2009. I was wondering what you and your readers are most looking forward to in the New Year? What is it about January and new beginnings that you most enjoy?

Kay is giving away an autographed copy of BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF to one commentor today.
(By the way, Kay loves boston terriors, so this one came to drink champagne with us today! Isn't he cute?)

January 2009 Coming Attractions

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

We have an exciting list of guests and special blog topics from our Banditas for this month. Let’s start the year off with a bang!

Tomorrow, January 2, Bandita Suzanne guests Harlequin Intrigue writer Kay Thomas whose debut book BETTER THAN BULLETPROOF got a 4 ½ star rating from Romantic Times.

Join us on January 6 for Bandita Kate’s guest Maureen Child to celebrate her release of BEDEVILED. (Check out that HOT cover!) We'll party hearty and discuss her ultra HOT Fae Warriors and the women who love them!



RITA-nominated author Pamela Clare, Joan’s guest on January 13, will talk about her new historical release UNTAMED. Join us to hear about this historical set in a different time period.



On January 19, we welcome my guest Misa Ramirez, to celebrate the release of her debut book LIVING THE VIDA LOCA. Misa also hosts "Chasing Heroes," which you can check out at http://www.chasingheroes.com/.




Aunty Cindy welcomes guest writer Tina Ferraro on January 21 to discuss her new YA release, THE ABC'S OF KISSING BOYS.


January 27 brings to the Lair another of Trish’s guests, Helen Scott Taylor. Helen celebrates the release of her American Title Contest-winning paranormal romance THE MAGIC KNOT.



On January 29 Jeanne hosts guest Heidi Betts whose contemporary debut TANGLED IN LOVE, a "funny, sexy yarn," releases this month.

And on the last day of the month, January 31, Kirsten's guest, New York Times best-selling author Angela Fox, joins us to discuss her Accidental Demon Slayer series.


In addition, the Banditas will visit RNTV the week of January 26-30. Join us and our hosts Romance Novel Television for a great week of Bandita Banter. Last time we invaded, the party was so loud, they had to call the authorities! Let's make it even bigger this time round!