I was sleepy all day today, not sure why. Still, I got some stuff done. Multiple loads of dishes and laundry (hubby made homemade lasagna on Sunday and boy! is he a messy cook. But a good one. Yum.). Still got lots more to do to get my house back from the deadline monster, but we’re getting there.

Some of you might now that I like to be geeky with web stuff. I’m no designer by any means and I can’t create a graphic to save my life, but I can tweak and play with css and html fairly well. Handcoded since I don’t have any design software besides a really old version of FrontPage. I recently put together my S.J. Day site/forum and moved/reskinned my message board. Today, I put up Shelley Bradley/Shayla Black’s Doomsday Brethren site. Naughty Nikki made the graphics. I enjoy messing with stuff like that. Wish I were good enough at it to do my own stuff, but I lack the graphic knowledge and design aesthetic. I just don’t have the eye.

I talked to a dear friend of mine today, a gal I’ve known for decades. She’s coming down on Thursday and we’re all (dad included) heading to Universal Studios for the weekend. It’s been almost 8 years since our last visit and it’s the first time for my daughter (might be the first time for my dad, too, I’ll have to double-check.) Anyway, should be fun!

Tomorrow is more puttering around the house for me. My dad is wiped out after a day spent in planes. He flew from Pisa, to Rome, to NY, to Boston, to San Diego. Yikes! So he’ll be recharging and chilling out while I do my thang.

I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

I came home sick from Kentucky, the result of too many days of only a few hours sleep a night. I was getting up at 5-6AM every morning (which was 3 hours earlier for me on PST) to write with my dear friend Shelley Bradley, and by the end of the trip I had a sore throat and sinus trouble.

My kids have half days at school most of this week, so I haven’t been able to catch up on my rest. I’m looking forward to the weekend and hopefully sleeping a lot. If you’ve emailed me recently, forgive the delay in my replies.

In the meantime, here’s a fun pic from RAW (I do promise to tell you all about it soon!!). I’m not so keen on how the pic makes me look HUGE. *g* Do note the lovely necklace I’m wearing. It was handmade for me by a fan, Diane Smith. She says it was inspired by my books. I can’t tell you how touched I am that something I wrote could inspire such a beautiful piece of jewelry. It’s a three-strand necklace featuring stones of various shades of purple (my favorite color) and pearls.

(from l to r: Naughty Nikki, J.R. Ward, me, and Shelley Bradley) Click on image to see larger size.

Sorry I’m quiet. I’m wrapping up a book and I’m totally focused on it.

I did squeeze in a novella over the weekend — “Alpha and Omega” by Patricia Briggs. I loved it!! Really, really loved it. Once I started, I couldn’t put it down and I stayed up late to finish it. I can’t tell you when that happened to me last. It’s been a long time.

The story is going to be continued… in A YEAR!! OMG!! But that’s okay. I’m really just glad that I get to read more!