A Whale of a Caturday

No, it's not a cat at sea. Today's caturday features a video I took on a recent whale watching trip in Gloucester, Massachusetts while on a family vacation there. We've been whale watching in Hawaii, but I never had a camera with me then. Enjoy!

Late Caturday

Sorry Caturday is late. There was much sleeping to be done.

A few social media tips

What do fluffy bunny slippers have to do with Facebook and Twitter? Come over to the Fictionistas today and find out!

Catching Up - Part 1

I feel like I've been away from home for months, but it's only been 9 days. That's like 78 years in cat time according to my boys, who've been demanding massive quantities of attention in an effort to show me what a bad cat mother I am. *ahem*

Actually, after yesterday's airport disaster I wasn't sure I'd even make it home last night, but Hotrod worked his magic and found us another flight before JetBlue even announced our original flight had been canceled. (It pays to be married to a man who's proactive. That is all.)

RWA Nationals is now a blur, but I will say that one of the highlights was getting to spend time with many of the Orbit folks. This only renewed my love for my publisher. Individually, they're all amazing. As a group, I'm surprised they haven't taken over a small country and renamed it Orbitland.

While I dig out from under a towering pile of laundry and head out to restock our fridge, here are a few book-related things worth mentioning:

There's a signed ARC of Blood Rights up for bid in the LA Banks Relief Auction here. Great cause for an amazing author. Check it out!

The cover of Blood Rights has been listed in a Goodreads Best Book Covers of 2011 here. If you like the cover, give it a vote!

A Very Special Caturday!

Uncle Sam wants you to have a very happy and safe Fourth of July!
He'd also like it if you'd accidentally drop a little barbequed chicken on the ground.

I'm in a New York state of mind!

I'm off to the 2011 RWA National Conference this morning! For anyone else who's going to be there, I'm going to be randomly tweeting my location and anyone who's interested will be able to find me and get a Blood Rights excerpt book that contains the first two chapters. You can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/kristen_painter

Behave while I'm gone! And try to get some writing done, will ya? I'll be doing a little of that while I'm away as well. Carry on!

Caturday!

Today's Caturday is sponsored by the letter D for determination.

Caturday!

MOM! HE'S TOUCHING ME!

My brush with death

Yesterday we finally had some much needed rain. Along with it came some thunder and lightning, but for Florida, that's pretty typical. Once the storm had passed (or I thought it had passed), I decided to head out for my evening walk.

Unlike most nights I walk, there was no one else out - no dogs getting walked, no kids riding bikes, no people out strolling - but hey, it had just stormed, right? I keep going, already deep into thoughts about my story. See, I like to work out the upcoming scenes while I walk. I get a lot of great ideas while I'm out. It's a process that works well for me.

I'm about ten minutes from the house, when all of a sudden, this massive bolt of lightning cracks through the sky so close to me that my scalp goes all tingly. Like I had ants all over me. The thunder that followed it was deafening.

A few seconds later, the rain starts back up.

Stubborn woman that I am, I decide to keep going (I am already 10 mins from the house. Looping around or headed straight back isn't going to make that big a difference.) Another two minutes goes by and a second massive bolt of lightning. The rain is coming down harder now. And I'm starting to rethink the wisdom of this walk.

A third bolt of lightning and I'm contemplating running. Or will that attract the lightning? Should I walk closer to the palms that line the street or farther away from them? Crap.

Suddenly, a black SUV comes barreling down the street toward me and screeches to a stop by the curb. Hotrod had come to my rescue! He saw/heard the first bolt of lightning and thunder and immediately hopped in the car when I didn't come back inside after it happened.

My hero! The moral of this story? When it storms, stay inside and use the treadmill.

Caturday!

These are not the laundries you're looking for...

The Power of Small Failures

I'm over at Fictionistas today talking about the power of small failures.

Caturday!

A rare sighting of parenthetical laser kittens.

Today's the last day!

The Brenda Novak auction is down to only hours left! That means your chance to snag the awesome stuff up for bid is about to disappear. I've got some a few things in the auction you might be interested in:

A signed ARC of Blood Rights - get the first book in my new gothic urban fantasy series now instead of October 1st when it's released! (100 of these went in about 45 minutes when I signed at BEA. You want this. I promise.) Bid here.

An autographed set of the first three books in the series, Blood Rights, Flesh and Blood and Bad Blood. They'll be signed and shipped to you early fall (as soon as I have my author copies!). Bid here.

Lastly, a one chapter critique of your story by me. If that doesn't scare you, bid here.

This is a great auction that benefits a great cause! Get over there and bid!

Late Caturday

Due to spending the last few days at BEA, Caturday has been called off in favor of napping.

BEA baby!

I'm headed to BEA tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about it. I've never been, so just the newness of it will probably be a little overwhelming, but I kinda dig that type of thing too, so no worries.

The best part is I'll be signing copies of BLOOD RIGHTS at the Orbit booth on Thursday from 10 am to 11 am, so if you're going, stop by, say hi and grab a copy!

Have you ever been to BEA? I hope to take some pictures and blog about the experience when I get back. (I'll probably tweet about it while I'm there, too.)

A Very Special Caturday!

Scooter made himself comfortable while he waited for cake.
(Today's my birthday.)

I've been interviewed about my latest obsession

Karen Katchur has a blog about writers and fitness and she's interviewed me HERE about my workouts, which just happen to be all about kettlebells lately. Check it out and say hi!

Caturday!

I had to post this since this is really the only form of writer's block I get.
Except in this house, it's removed with a bowl of chicken.

Caturday!

Today's Caturday features guest cat, Callie! Callie owns my parents.
And as you can see here, she also owns the bed and blanket.

Want an ARC of Blood Rights?

Brenda Novak's 2011 Annual Auction for the Cure for Diabetes kicked off yesterday! It's a great cause and there's just tons of awesome stuff up for auction.

I've got a few things up for bid myself:

A signed ARC of Blood Rights - get the first book in my new gothic urban fantasy series now instead of October 1st when it's released! Bid here.

An autographed set of the first three books in the series, Blood Rights, Flesh and Blood and Bad Blood. They'll be shipped to you early fall (as soon as I have my author copies!). Bid here.

A one chapter critique of your work by me! Bid here.