We are having Christmas issues at our house. First of all my children seem to think that it’s somehow legitimate to ask what their gifts are. Facing a wrapped gift, they can’t stop themselves from begging to be told what’s inside just one gift. I tried to explain the problems with that picture to my five-year-old, and his response was, “I can’t help it–I’m a curious man.” Apparently they grow up even quicker than I thought.

He also, all of a sudden, doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. Evidently a third-grader at his school–a boy he doesn’t even know–told him that there is no Santa Claus, that he’s caught his own parents on film for the past several years, stuffing his stocking. So Santa is now a myth in my son’s mind, and so far, there’s been no convincing him otherwise. Even my seven-year-old believes and keeps telling him that if he doesn’t stop with the Santa-bashing (and blatant disbelief), he’s not going to get any gifts. So his investigative plan is to check his stocking Christmas morning. If he received any gifts (ostensibly from Santa), he’ll know there is no Santa. But if he doesn’t get any gifts, he’ll know there is. Interesting, isn’t it? I’m not exactly sure how this is all going to play out.

Having been tagged by Sara Hantz for this meme as ‘someone who might respond’, I feel duty bound to participate. Read on…

Two Men I’d Love to Date if I Were Single (and they were single)
Ben Stiller
Luke Wilson

I Am Wearing Right Now
Pajama Pants
T-shirt

Two Things I Would Want in a Relationship
Laughter
Commitment

Two of My Favorite Things to do
Reading
Having lunch with friends

Two Things I Want Very Badly At the Moment
To be finished with my book
To get this one sold!

Two things I did recently
Finished reading an ARC (I’m writing the review today)
Tried to teach a 2-year-old not to knock down everything in his path

Two things I ate today (I’ll do yesterday because I haven’t eaten anything yet today)
Leftover Gyro
Peppermint Bark

Two people I most recently talked to
My husband
My two sons

Two things I’m doing tomorrow
‘Brunching with Santa’
Going ‘behind the scenes’ once again to see and feed white tigers

2 longest car rides
Houston to Charleston, S.C.
St. Paul, MN to Tucson

Two Favorite Holidays (I assume this means where I spent them…?)
Denver, the year my husband proposed
Houston (that covers a lot of ground)

Two Favorite Beverages
Hot chocolate
RC Cola

Two Things about me, things you may not have known
I’m a little claustrophobic
Cats freak me out a little

Two places I have lived
Columbus, Ohio
St. Paul, Minnesota

Two of my Favorite Foods
Enchiladas
Fettucini Alfredo

Two Places I’d rather be right now
Lying in bed reading a book
Traipsing along a Carribean beach

4 people I think will respond
Lucy (I purposely didn’t link you!)
Vicki
Stacy
Sally

I’ve discovered a very interesting discussion thread on Amazon in the ‘Romance’ forum…

Pause here for a digression…

I should admit here that I’m on Amazon all the time. For the obvious reasons: being a book-lover, book-buyer, browser, shopper, etc. But also because right now–three years later–it’s the only place my book is still available. Or at least the only storefront with any visibility at all. As the distributor of a self-published book, I sell UP on Amazon Marketplace and can keep track of day-to-day sales simply using the ranking.

You may have lost interest by now, but I find the whole Amazon system fascinating. Particularly as a few months ago my sales shot up. I say ‘shot up’, but I’m using the term loosely–it is, after all, three years later. I couldn’t figure out why my sales in recent months had increased significantly–I still can’t. But you can bet I’m keeping close tabs on my ranking. My best guess is actually the avalanche effect–that someone buys, then someone else sees the ‘This Customer Also Purchased:’, or else they see stellar percentage under ‘What Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing Items Like This:’ I wish I had some insights…and I solicit anyone with any info to fill me in…please! My husband joked that My Biggest Fan: my MIL was probably buying a copy every now and then to boost my spirits. And let me just say that that casual comment freaked me out. I’ve since decided that she isn’t. And if she is, well I’m blissfully ignorant.

Digression complete…back to the original post…

Anyway, there’s a forum called, ‘Dear Author: Please DON’T’, and it’s comments from readers on what specifically they’d like to not see in romance novels. Fascinating reading (at least for a romance novelist). Just a sampling:

> ‘write in first person. i hate that. i also hate time travel.’

> ‘invent heroines who are so small that they fit under the hero’s chin, armpit or come to his waist … real-sized men and women please.’

> ‘make the hero drink the heroine’s breastmilk’

> ‘write another hero with a scar that bisects one of his eyebrows (honestly-how often can that happen?)’

Okay…I have to get some real work done–go read the forum for more!