Archive for February, 2009

February 26, 2009

Countdown Complete

By the extremely talented Karen Alcalde

By the extremely talented Karen Alcalde

Today’s the day.

I’ve been up since 6am. I’m dressed, showered, and packed. I have to make an appearance at the hospital at 8am.

By noon, I’ll have a brand new baby. *_* It’s still mindblowing to even think about it. I’ll finally get to see him and smell him and hold him and blow raspberries onto his belly. :-D

I’ll admit, I’m going to miss carrying the little bugger around. The little dance party he’d have after 11pm every night. How excited he’d get after a glass of orange juice. And how upset the fetal monitor always made him- he’d start doing backflips just to get away from it!

But we’re in a new stage and I can’t wait to meet him and start this new part of our lives together. Hubby is just as thrilled (if not also a little terrified). So as of today, I suppose my hiatus officially begins.

I plan on jumping back around when I’m feeling up to it, if nothing else to post his birth announcements.

I’ll miss you guys!

Be back soon!

P.S. Click on the image for more adorable baby photos! She’s a fantastic photographer.

February 23, 2009

AOTM Workshop at RD

From the Call to the Bookstore

February 25th-26th at Romance Divas

Featuring:

KRISTAN HIGGINS

Want to know what it takes to get from “the call” to the bookstore in New York publishing? Romance Divas is hosting a 2-day workshop with RITA award winning author Kristan Higgins, who can answer that question and many more! It will take place at the Romance Diva Forum. All are welcome. To get access to the forum you will need to register.

P.S. I met this lovely author at the Romance and Chocolates book signing and she’s a complete sweetheart! Trust me when I tell you, she has lots of publishing wisdom to share! So stop by with a notebook and pencil and see for yourself! :D

February 20, 2009

Happy Friday!!!

A day full of appointments and if I can squeeze it in- a nap!!! :)

Wanted to wish you all a happy Friday before I forgot, and to remind you to laugh, love, and live this weekend.

Peace out!

February 18, 2009

It's a Small World

How old do I feel this morning? Or worse, how old does my husband feel? Ha ha.

In the search for a pediatrician, CBear and I were referred to a local practice by a good friend of ours with two children. They spoke highly of their doctor and the one we wanted was no longer taking patients so the referral was well appreciated.

We looked the doctor up and I called to schedule a meet and greet appointment. When I told my husband the address he got really quiet. I think my pediatrician used to be somewhere around there, he said.

Somewhere around there turns out to be exactly right there. In a stroke of irony, this doctor whom we were referred to is actually one of the doctors from the original group my husband saw as a child. He is now the head practicioner and has his own group of 5 great doctors working with him.

My MIL, who was nice enough to drive me to the appointment was having some MAJOR dejavu. I heard stories about my brother in law’s bruises and bumps, about nurses who used to work there who surprisingly were STILL there, and about how she’s surprised the head doctor still works there, as he looked ancient when my husband was a child. *snort* I’m guessing the man is like Santa Claus- he never ages.

How weird is that? We have now become second generation people. Our kids are seeing our doctors. And soon they’ll be seeing our teachers too. I’m totally not ready for this. *mental crisis!*

BTW- those of you who follow me on twitter, I apologize for the silence. I’ve been using the desktop at home much more frequently than the laptop, due to the bulging belly. My desktop absolutely hates Twitter. With a passion. So I’ve been unable to read, respond or post! But I plan to remedy that very soon!

February 16, 2009

I'm Not Dead, Just Floating

For starters, I’d like to congratulate the winner of the Surfacing giveaway! The lovely

Karen Erickson!!!

Just email me – isabelle at twistedfairytale dot net – to claim the prize and I’ll email it right out. :) Thanks so much for stopping in and commenting.

Now, onto blogger things- I apologize for the silence around here lately. It’s certainly not due to a lack of things to say, but really a lack of time to say it. As you can probably imagine the past week has been chock full of activity. Book promotions, doctor appointments, more false labor contractions, last minute cleaning, and trying desperately to keep up with other blogs and writerly events happening online! The entire process is rather exhausting!

Not to mention, the muse has been a good girl and continued to cooperate with me in regards to the fantasy sequel WIP. I reached the big moment this week, and had NOTHING else planned after it (stupid pantster ways). You can imagine my panic. And then, voila!! An afternoon idea session with a great friend (Cam, sometimes it’s the simple things you say that resonate the most!) sparked a vivid vision. An entire flood of conversation and activity for my hero and heroine appeared in my mind. I have to hurry up and write it before I lose it. I jotted down the basics, but either way, I’m thrilled with the direction its taking. It makes perfect sense with how I envisioned the overall story.

Being busy with all that has left little time to play. *whine, whine* But I’d rather be productive and get things done than to spend all my time playing and then find my to-do list is a mile long by the time Peanut gets here (which is now just 2 weeks away!!!!).

So if it remains rather quiet, it’s because I’m being productive. Either writing that book or giving birth. And really, I can’t lose doing either. :)

Happy Monday to all!

February 11, 2009

I Promised Myself

When I neared the beginning of my ninth month, I told myself I would not be like those television women who were in and out of the hospital/doctors with false labor pains, never really knowing what’s going on. I’ve read enough books, I thought to myself, Interviewed enough mothers to have a good idea when this should be the real thing.

Yesterday, I had contractions that got as low as 6 minutes apart. I was sick and miserable all day long. I was achy and tired. I went in to see the doctors twice. The first time, they hooked me up to a fetal monitor to check things out. They told me to call if things got more intense. They did. So I called. When I came back in, I was majorly disappointed to find that although the contractions were getting more severe, they weren’t doing enough in the laboring department. I was only dilated a centimeter. *major bummer*

Either way, today I’m feeling suprisingly calm and put together. I also have an unusual amount of energy. I’m guessing this is a good sign. So I’m taking the day to clean up and be sure the house is ready for another red alert.

In the meantime, I’m glad to tell you all that Surfacing has it’s first review.

Surfacing has the feel of a psychological movie mystery, alternating between fish-eye lens close-ups and hazy, unfocused wide angle shots. The story also utilizes flashbacks in a unique way, similar to diary entries except that they are also bits and pieces of the heroine’s fictional memoir. [...] Ms. Santiago has created an interesting novella of love lost, love returned, and the pain involved in making choices of the heart.

To read the entire review, click here!

And because yesterday was basically a frenzy of activity I hardly remember, I’m making up for the fact that I did not even offer a free copy of Surfacing! How rude of me.

So let’s make it easy, shall we? Anyone who comments on the blog will be entered to win. :) Sound easy enough?

February 10, 2009

Oh, What a Night

I have so much to tell you, I hardly know where to begin.

I suppose for starters, letting you know that this blog post might be on the loopy, sleep-deprived side is fair. I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Two hours from midnight to 2am and then another two from 5-7am. The rest of the night I was counting contractions. An hour apart. Accompanied by some wicked bad nausea. As you can imagine, I’m exhausted.

But that doesn’t put a damper on the the awesomeness that is: RELEASE DAY! :)

Surfacing is finally available from Freya’s Bower.

I’m making this little snippet available exclusively on the blog! So read on!

Excerpt:

“Paige, honey, we have to talk.”
I look into her vibrant lavender eyes lined with black pencil. Her very full lips
colored in a rich chocolate hue. She’s a dark angel. I imagine myself condemned.
“About what?” I ask, though I already know.
“This book,” she says, her espresso in one hand, the other doing a little wave in
the air.
“Aimee, I already told you why I need to do this. Ryan’s asking questions. I
need your support.”
“I can’t support you, Paige. You know how wrong it is.”
“It’s a book! A work of fiction. Who’s going to believe it?”
“That isn’t the point!” She leans forward. Her fists hit the table in a forceful
move that’s out of character. All trace of grace and control vanishes. Her eyes
widen. Her cheeks flush. She squirms in her seat. “It’s dangerous. I am not
willing to risk you to that kind of exposure. To risk myself.”
“I’m changing our names.”
“Changing our names doesn’t change a thing.” She catches her rising voice and
returns to a hushed whisper. “Paige, you said you’d moved on. I don’t want to do
this. I don’t want to relive this anymore.”
“I have to finish it. I have to say goodbye to him once and for all.”
“I know how much you loved him, but you can’t continue to torture yourself
like this. He’s gone, Paige. He left us behind to clean up his mess.”
I hear the hurt in her voice and remain silent. It’s easy to forget that she
suffered as much as I did. “I know that….”
“You are engaged!” she erupts into another frenzied speech, “To a wonderful
man! Ryan loves you. He loves you, Paige. Stop doing this. You’re going to open
up a can of worms and hurt him. Just leave it alone.”
I listen to her words, know full well that she’s right. But there is a stubborn
streak that won’t allow me to budge.
“I can’t.”
“What has gotten into you?”
“I don’t expect you to understand….” The minute the words leave my mouth, I
regret them.
“Understand?” she leans back into her seat, her face blank. “You don’t think I’d
understand? Right, of course, because I wasn’t the one who held you all those
nights you cried. Who listened to your unbelievable story or kept your precious
little secret. Don’t talk to me about not understanding, Paige. Don’t you dare. I
picked up the pieces of your broken heart when he left. I’ve been picking up
whatever pieces of you are left ever since.”
Her eyes water. My chest tightens. God, I am the scum of the earth.
“Aimee… I’m… I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.”
She gives her drink a final sip and stands. “I can’t support you on this one. I’m
sorry, I love you, but you’re being irrational. I can’t deal with you when you’re like this. I’ll call you during the week.”
She walks out, leaving only a twenty-dollar bill and an empty mug as a sign of
her presence. I look down at the money and sigh. It wasn’t supposed to turn out
this way. Why couldn’t I let this go? I think of my journal, of all the nights I wrote
in it, just the scattered thoughts and feelings of a young woman trying to explain
the unexplainable.
Then, it hits me.
I am writing because I need answers. I don’t know how I got from point A to
point B. In science, there is a logical answer to everything. I need to know how I
lost my life and my heart all in one year. I need to understand how I allowed my
soul to die at eighteen and why now, ten years later, it begs to be revived.

book signing pic

book signing pic

And to round things out nicely (ha ha, get it? ROUND things out? *snort*), I’m going to post my favorite photo from the book signing this weekend. It was such a blast and although I didn’t hang around the entire time, due to the starting contractions, I did enjoy meeting all the fabulous authors and doing a reading!

February 5, 2009

Authors and Readers United

As a reader, I love having access to the authors I admire (and let’s be honest, sometimes get totally fangirl over). Whether it’s through their blogs, their LJs or whenever they make appearances at chats and such. That’s why I’m really thrilled to announce that the authors of Wild Child Publishing have now merged with Freya’s Bower‘s authors to create a one stop chat group!

Wild Child Publishing is actually the parent division of Freya’s Bower, and so the union is not only convenient but also expansive! While Freya’s focuses on erotica and romance, Wild Child publishes a host of other genres, including horror and YA!

If you’re interested in joining and seeing what authors talk about all day when they’re procrastinating- ahem- taking a writing break, stop on by! We’d love to hear from you. Plus- you’re likely to get the inside scoop on the happenings of both pub houses and its authors, including contests, submission calls, upcoming projects, etc! And what’s better than being in the know? ;)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freyasbower_authorchat

Hope to see you there!

February 4, 2009

Your First Taste of SURFACING

Surfacing is my new contemporary paranormal that releases on February 10th from Freya’s Bower !

Today, I’m presenting a sneak peek for my devoted blog readers!!

Blurb:

Paige Jacobs lives the perfect life with her fiancé, Ryan, but the memory—or fantasy—of a gorgeous boy with silver eyes consumes her. Her sister Aimee, the only one who knows the dangerous secrets of her past, refuses to talk about them.

Feeling very much alone and obsessing over haunting memories, Paige decides to write a book in hope of finally dispelling the ghosts of her past so she can move on. Every chapter she writes brings her closer to the boy she’d loved so much in her youth. Then one morning in a coffee shop, she encounters a man with silver eyes.

Has she crossed the line between fantasy and reality?

Excerpt:

He tried to tell me his secret, all that time ago. I know because there would be these long silences between us. He was thinking. Deciding. One night, while sitting under the stars, he seemed particularly distracted.

“Everything ok?”

He sighed. It wasn’t a good sign. I reached my hand to his shoulder, let it rest there, offering whatever comfort I could. He stiffened under my touch, a touch he’d explicitly forbidden.

“Paige,” he said, his voice too stressed, too thick. ”What’s happening between us…it can’t. We can’t.”

“You’ve said that.” I took my hand away. It hurt too much to hear him say it again.

“It doesn’t make it any less true.”

“Why? Why can’t we?”

“Because…,” he sighed again, running a shaking hand through his hair, “we’re just too different.”

“I don’t believe that,” I said, too naïve to understand.

“Whether you believe it or not, it’s the way it has to be.”

“I know that you feel something for me,” I pushed, wanting him to break that secretive exterior he guarded so tightly. “I may be young, Xen, but I’m not stupid. I know when a man wants more than he lets on. I can tell by the way you look at me.”

“But I shouldn’t,” he strained, his voice a mere whisper. ”We’ve gone beyond the allowed perimeters of interaction. I’ve already crossed boundaries that could get me expelled.”

“Expelled?”

“Paige, please,” he begged, “please accept that we can’t be anything else. I can’t handle anything else.”

I looked over the cliff at the city below the mountain range where we sat. I couldn’t bear to look at him, too afraid of the emotions that would show in the ageless silver depths of his eyes. “Where did you think this might lead?”

“Not here,” he admitted, “not with us like this. I didn’t think. I allowed myself to cross one line after another all in the name of….” He paused. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. It was supposed to be simple, precise.”

“Nothing about love is simple,” I said, acknowledging that the bourgeoning feeling between us had grown from friendship into something much more potent.

“Love?” He brushed hair from my face with his fingertips. His jaw tightened. He drew his attention away from my questioning gaze over the city. Something about him seemed reckless that night, on the precipice of change. “I’m here for my studies,” he said, reassuring himself. “Research, nothing more.”

“I’ve figured that much out.” I crossed my arms over my chest to protect my aching heart. “What are you studying anyway? You always carry that little notebook around.”

“It isn’t important.”

“It is to me. If it’s the reason we can’t be together I want to know.” I took his hand pressed in the dirt and entwined my fingers with his. That familiar sting of electricity buzzed between us. “Tell me.”

His next word changed my life completely.

February 3, 2009

Heads Up New Englanders

BOOKSIGNING

ROMANCE & CHOCOLATE SOCIAL

Refreshments will be served (cupcakes, pastries, candy, chocolates and chocolate covered fruits, pretzels and chips) hot cocoa, virgin cosmos, and sparking juice! There will also be door prizes (up to 15 gift baskets to give away!), a meet and greet, Q&A, PG-13 readings, and some fun games!

Swing by! We’d love to see you!
Feb 7th, 2-6pm.
Borders, Farmington CT

1600 South East Road
Farmington, CT 06032
Phone: 860.674.8110
Fax: 860.674.5257

Signing will be:

Annette Blair, Kristan Higgans, and Marie Force, Stella Price, Jessica Andersen, Cat Johnson, Tilly Greene, Allie Boniface, Donna Michaels, Leigh Ellwood, Denise Eagan, Emily Bryan, Isabelle Santiago, Kathryn Smith,
Toni Andrews

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