Weeks 12, 13, 14

Hey everyone!

Arghh again! 3 weeks! 3 full, long, awful weeks?? You gotta be kidding me! Where did the time fly? And what on earth has happened in those 3 weeks? Uh, nothing...?

Crikey, what am I gonna do with my life? Oh, idea - to see what's happened, check the Twitter feed on the right of the page. I try and update that one everyday, so at least there's that. Might prove to be a fit reminder for myself as to what's taken place lately.

But to be truthful, I know what took place. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote... and hit an iceberg the size of the Titanic-buster. That's gotten me completely off track. So in between writing and not writing, I've kinda been lost. Strange, wouldn't you say? I'd reply that this is what a deadline does to you. More on this bit in Perception Tunnel.

Otherwise, what else has been happening?

- Kid on the Block
Is being his usual cheeky *big* little self. Someone please tell me - do kids have growth spurts every other month or something? Every time I look at my son it seems to me he's either taller or more bulked up. Yeah, that's right - he bulks up. Nearly 7 years of age, the top of his head touches my shoulder, which makes him close to 5 feet tall already, and when you'd expect him to be a lean, string-bean kind of guy, he's bulky! The works-out-type too! Don't laugh, it's true! He's active in sports at school. Man, if he keeps that up, I may be ending up fending girls off my front door in a few years!

And oh yeah too - he sure is growing up too. Gave him a haircut the other day (yups, I cut his hair, and hubby's too. Saves us like 500 bucks every 6 weeks coz that's how fast they outgrow a cut!). So it's hot here, and I give him a short cut (not buzz, slightly longer, but it nearly dries up with one energetic rub of the towel). Guess what - he's not at all happy! Reason? He wants hair like Anakin in The Revenge of the Sith(yeah, Hayden Christensen, and that's actually long hair! See here, right.). He's not at all happy that his hair looks just like his dad's, coz even though they got literally the same kind of head, dad's got a widow's peak that makes his hair 'cool'. Go figure... and we thought girls were the divas!

- WIPed out
You know what - I'm not touting my horn here - but on the weekend of January 30 to February 1, I actually sat down and wrote over 20K to my WIP. That was like 5 chapters. I saw the story move forward in ways I hadn't imagined, and it was soooo flowing. Really thought I could've made my personal deadline of February 5 on it.
But here we are today and I've got like 4 chapters left to add on it. So yes, it's not near finished yet. What does that mean? I'm a failure as a writer? Maybe. That I'm human? Definitely so. Being wiped out happens, and we writers should really try to prevent this from even being to close to happening. But most often than not, we don't listen to our body, to our gut, that's telling us to slow down. We rush and rush and then we hit the wall nose first!
So where am I standing today? I'm at the black moment. The last time I wrote a word on this WIP was last Wednesday (not the 17th, the 10th actually!). I purposefully took myself off the story to allow it to come back. It's a bit of that strange love 'wisdom' thing - if you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it meant it was supposed to be with you. Or something like that, you get my drift.
Did this with the WIP, even getting acquainted with the idea that maybe I'd have to let my editor know I wouldn't be able to hand this to her. Yeah, I did consider that option. Made my peace with it, if you want, and let it all go. Thankfully the strategy worked. The scenes have clinked again, and my personal writing Titanic repaired her iceberg-torn hole herself. I've not started writing again yet, but I'm going there soon. Wish me luck (just don't ask me to break a wrist!)

- Perception Tunnel
So yes - a deadline. Never really worked with one before. Of course, I've had them for projects, assignments, portfolios, freelance writing briefs, that sort of thing. On a story, nope. Never a 'hard' one imposed by your editor or your pub house. I've always worked within my own own bubble and sked, and this time it was different.
The thing is - life happens. And along with it comes things that do crowd your mind and put you in an unfavourable writing mindset. Not to mention the fact that when you're sorta forcing something to come out, well at one point, you're left with no juice to squeeze. What happens when you find yourself in this boat and you have a deadline on your head? A whole lot of grief and angst. You go through phases - shivering withdrawal-like phase where you keep thinking all paranoid, my editor is gonna kill me! Then comes the angst with all its fiery passion - why can't I do this, dammit??? Then you force it - bl**dy computer, you better inspire me asd I sit before your blank screen. After that you break some china, the geatting-to-grips phase as I call it. Lastly, you're in a zen mindstate - face it, you cannot force it and what has to happen will happen. You free your mind, you brace yourself to face the consequences, and wham! Before you know it, you've been through the trial by fire and you're 'cleansed'. The block, like an opaque veil, lifts and you start seeing your story clearly, really catch the forest for the trees.
An act of faith...? I'm not judging on that!

- Back to the domestic goddess
In between breaking my china (don't worry, it was the chipped and to-be-discarded ones. Not the wedding porcelain!), I did spend quite some time in the kitchen lately. Yeah, that's how bad this block was. I've made liver pate, that's actually tasted good! Swapped the mould for a muffin tin, and ended up with these little patty-like pates. Really easy to wrap and freeze up and control portions. I've baked a coconut-flavoured cake that's reminded me of a cake sold in a now-closed bakery, that I used to buy some twenty years ago (yikes, my memories are getting that old, meaning I'm getting old too!). I've made lima bean curry and chapattis. I've made paella in the pressure cooker. But this is the one I'll be sharing with you -

Chicken Basquaise

Ingredients:
1 full chicken, cut into small pieces (you can use other cuts too, like 4-5 thighs, depending on what you prefer)
1 can tomatoes
2 bell peppers (I use green and red, for colour)
2-3 shallots
2 spoonsful oil
4-5 spoonsful flour
1 cup chicken stock (or water, if you don't have any stock on hand)
Salt and pepper

Method:
Peel and chop shallots. Cut, clean, and dice peppers.
Season chicken with salt and pepper and cover with flour.
In a deep pan or casserole, heat oil and brown chicken pieces. Add shallots, peppers, and the can of tomatoes. Stir. Bring to boil.
Reduce heat slightly, add stock and stir until the liquid thickens. Bring to simmering, cover, and let simmer for 15-20 mins.
Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and a side of steamed white rice.

- Reading Log

Thanks to the block, I had to take my mind away from the chaos of the WIP. Consequently got some reading material and browsed through it. The one I literally devoured was The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen. Not my usual type of reading - I'd checked The Surgeon and The Apprentice before and they'd reminded me of CSI episodes on paper. Back then I didn't think I could enjoy this kind of drama on paper (coz I love it on TV. And no, the sights do not repulse me at all!). But thanks to the lack of good romance books out there right now, ones that don't take you for an utter idiot or worse, ones that mistake readers for lobotomy survivors, I turned to the 'dark' shelves at the library to find stuff to read. Thing is, hubby's getting into books too lately, and I usually end up picking up his reading stuff. He's into the 'dark' stuff and half the time I was choosing for him, I found myself going, oh I'd watch this if it were a movie!
So I took the bet on Ms. Gerritsen's work, as much for the book as for the respect I have for her (I had once read that some readers were giving her grief because she'd started out writing romance for Harlequin, and later became known for her gritty mysteries. Apparently, in some twisted logic, that's she'd written romance once meant she'd 'sold out' on the mystery readers! Gimme a break! That's exactly what I told her in an email I shot to her, so much I was incensed by the pointless grief they were giving her. Completely thought I'd shot a stone in water, you know. Well, less than 48 hours later, Ms. Gerritsen had replied my email and when I was reading it, it was obvious to me she had not only read my note but was replying to everything I had said in it! Lol, you can tell me someone else could've penned that, an assistant maybe, but I liked that she'd replied and that she showed consideration for her fans and for people who got in touch with her. She was human, approachable, and that she's so successful didn't seem to have gone to her head. And yeah too, she doesn't seem to take her readers for lobotomy survivors!)
So about this book - you may or may not be familiar with Ms. Gerritsen's duo of female protagonists: Detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. This duo have been at the heart of many of this author's mysteries, and they're like one of those on-screen duos you just root for from the minute they appear in front of you. They've battled criminals, twisted minds, serial killers. And in The Mephisto Club, they're battling an ancient evil so scary it's literally got you holding the book with one hand and biting your cuticles of the other hand! The writing flows, the descriptions are vivid, and the characters are alive. The evil guy in there, oh my God! You don't wanna encounter someone like that even in your nightmares! But there's also the human factor, like the fact tough cop Rizzoli is having to play referee between... her mom and dad who are on the point of splitting up coz the dad has shacked up with a tart! Tell me if that ain't a slice of 'normal' life!
Go get that book if you're into mysteries and just want to read a good story! Ms. Gerritsen does not disappoint! She walks the fine line between believing in the mystical and the rational side of science and law enforcement, and before you know it, you too are on that fence, right there with Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles!

- Hottie Alert
No pics today because I posted a rather chunky one yesterday at Pop Culture Divas. Check it out, the link is right down here in Promo Maven.

- Promo Maven
I've done a few chats these past few weeks, on Yahoo loops. You'd need to be a member there so that's why I'm not listing them here.
But do check this slightly OT post of yesterday at Pop Culture Divas - New Shoes: Casting Director.. or so I wish... It's about an aspect of writing *wink*

Until next Friday, cheers!!

And don't forget:

Live. Laugh. Love. XOXO

Week 11

Hi everyone

I'm really sorry I didn't get to post on Friday. Without me realising the week had flown by and then I found myself (still do, btw) with an uncooperating Internet access. Add to it that in between writing on the WIP and with its looming deadline ahead, I was also chatting in Promo this week - daytime for the US readers and loop owners equals late evening for me. I was knackered senseless for most of the evenings and dragging the sleep deprivation all around during the days that followed!

So, here's a fast and furious recap of the past week for me on all fronts:

- Kid on the Block
 At a few months to turn seven, kiddo still had all his milk teeth and there wasn't a hint that any was loosening and about to fall any time soon. I was like, okay - when the permanent teeth will cut they'll dislodge the milk ones and all will be well.
Wrong! Brushing his teeth on Wednesday, what is it I see? Yup, it's a tooth, and it's cutting behind the milk teeth row! *gasp*
No way around it - the milk teeth will have to be removed to allow the permanent one to grow in as it should. And here comes the nightmare - have to take kiddo to the dentist! I get an appointment for Saturday 10 am, and in the time leading up to said appointment, I was living off worry and bitten cuticles!
But, thank goodness, all turned out well. Kiddo asked a lot of questions - Will it hurt? Will there be injections? What's she gonna do?
To which we answered as best as we could. And turns out we were right to do so. Seems like with the fear factor lifted from the whole episode - we were frank with him (yeah, the needle prick will hurt but I don't think it's gonna be worse than being hurt by a small chicken bone poking your gums!), kiddo went in like a big guy. Not one tear. Not one scream, even if he did tense up so much he looked 2 inches taller!
All in all, I was worried for nothing but gosh, did that wear me out!

- WIPed out
I had to make Willow shut up or she'd have taken the whole post for herself. She's ecstatic, btw. Why? Because I am writing! I have instilled the WIP Tuesday and Thursday evenings - nothing but the WIP on those nights, and so far it's working. Added close to 10K on the rewrite of WIP in question, and late on Friday I found the 'aha!' factor I needed to give my heroine's arc the proper direction and dimension it's needed. So far seems like all's falling into place nicely - keeping fingers crossed it remains this way all through. My deadline on this is February 5. I've reached a quarter of the full story right now. I'm also finding my feet in the whole ramped-up sexual tension in the book. Man, I've never had a H/h so intensely attracted to one another before and this is really an eye-opening experience for me to put through!
Oh yeah, ladies - the bloke in question has a devilish-looking tattoo on his right bicep all the way from his elbow to his collarbone. Talk of the bad boy you should never bring home to mom and dad. And now picture this - heroine's never done anything that's not in the parents' good book of girl behaviour. Dilemma, dilemma!

- Perception Tunnel
Fellow writer and CP Chicki Brown awarded me the Happy Award on Wednesday. I now have to post the Ten Things That Make Me Happy, and bestow the award upon 3 other people. Here we go with my list:
1. Hearing my son's laughter.
2. Being in the embrace of my husband.
3. A hug by a loved one.
4. Seeing people around me happy and knowing I may have had a hand in that!
5. Chocolate cake.
6. Waking up beyond 7 am and without an alarm blaring me awake.
7. Not having to cook and still getting a meal.
8. Writing and finding it all falling into place.
9. Seeing people enjoying my books.
10. Going to sleep knowing I accomplished all I'd set out to do during the day.
I am now bestowing this award on
Sandra K. Marshall
Carole Gill
GE Stills

- Reading Log
Indulged in my preferred junk food for the mind - Harlequin 3-book collection. It was about 'bought' brides. Oh well. I only finished one of the books, more for the writer's voice and prose than for the story itself. The other 2 in the compilation? Not exactly worth it. One I skimmed to the ending just to know what happened, the other I didn't even bother getting past Chapter 1 because it was terribly telegraphed and I hated the heroine! Oh well... Sigh.
Where are the good books?????

- Promo Maven
Last week I chatted a lot - been at Love Romances Book Club on Wednesday (its Yahoo loop) and yesterday I was at Love Romances Cafe (again the Yahoo loop), this time with a few other Eirelander authors.
On Wednesday too, I penned my every-other-monthly post for the Pop Culture Divas, on Kids' pop culture today. Come see some Mommy woe there!
I just got notified that I'm up in the spotlight at fellow author Rae Lori's blog, A Writer's Dream, all the way from now to mid-February. Drop by and check out the thought-provoking questions Rae put me through in her interview.

So that's it from me this week. Sorry, no hottie this time around. I didn't have time to look at any hottie these past few days (I know, it's a shame, innit?).
Other tidbit of good news - seems Storms in a Shot Glass is doing quite well in its sales ratings! Yay!!

Until next Friday, cheers!!

And don't forget:

Live. Laugh. Love. XOXO

Week 10

Big hello to everyone! Feels so good to be back - kinda normal to be blogging, you know?

I wasn't gonna have pics up this week but changed my mind at the hottie section! Come on - girls gotta have some lightness in their world, innit? Especially when you know that I've been in over my head, with... Promo! Yup yup, the wonderful world that's the other side of writing!

Mind you, I'm a social butterfly and love meeting new people, forging acquaintances, letting some develop almost automatically into friendships.
It's just the sheer amount of being in all places at all times that's totally exhausting! Yahoo loops, blog interviews, chat rooms - surge of energy when it's taking place but there comes a time when all you wanna do is crash and burn!

So what have I been up to promo wise this week? Check out Promo Maven for the links.

So yes too - Storms in a Shot Glass is out, and it doesn't seem to be doing too bad out there! In between friends who have been pimping the book and only letting me know they intended to do so after their post was up (thanks and wink to Chicki Brown & Bella McFarland!!), I also came across two very nice reviews of the book.

"...Storms in a Shotglass was a story chocked full of sweetness, love, passion and interesting developments. Everyone one even the older generation could learn a little in this book. Nolwynn Ardennes is a wonder to discover for me as a reviewer and reader. I, for one, will be keeping my eye out for any further books by Ms. Ardennes."

This is the gist of what Deb @ Dark Diva Reviews had to say in her fabulous review!

And this comes from fellow author and friend Rae Lori who had a chance to read the book when it was still in its galley form:

"...'Storms' not only centers on Jane Smithers and Michael Rinaldi but also the people that surround their lives. It's as much a contemporary romance as it is a story about coming into responsibility, finding love and forgiving and learning to love our families (parents) despite their flaws and past..."

Click the links to read more!

There you have it - my promo week in a nutshell, but lol, that's just the author's shoes! Here's some more as to what happened!

- Kid on the Block
... went back to school after a 10 week summer break that nearly drove me over the edge and nearly sent him skyrocketing with frustration at being 'at home' for too long. Seriously, what do those schools think - 10 weeks of break? Come on, I know they need a reprieve? Oh wait - I know! Make the kids so bored at home that they'll wish for school to start! Not a bad strategy, except that its us poor moms who may become addicted too too many soap operas or reruns of our favourite hunk's movies just to be able to take the edge off of having a kid 24/7 with you! And no, we don't have summer camp in Mauritius... Sigh.
Anywayz, kiddo is now in Grade 2, and boy has he grown up! Mommy moment here - they grow way too fast... But, he's out of my hair for close to 7 hours a day! Label me a bad mom if you want but this is bliss! Also happens that when he comes home, he just gets inundated with kisses and hugs and lots of sweet-sounding stuff like pumpkin, sweetie, and other French nonsense that I just invented in our baby-cooing days. Okay, I'm off this part before you all die of TMI Mommy episodes!

- WIPed out
Didn't manage to put finger to keyboard this week but that didn't mean the brain wasn't working! Kid-free time meant I could focus on story twists instead of Mommy this and Mommy that every 5 seconds! I've thus mapped out the first 3 parts of my sci-fi and have gotten a better grasp on my fantahistorical. Not allowing myself to think of other stories right now because these two are the to-be-absolutely-written in 2010 projects! So far, so good. Next week I'm ramping up the actual writing though, with rewrites on the ms to Neha's story, Book 3 of the Hemant sister series.

- Perception Tunnel
2010 is supposed to be my last year at uni. Yup, been trudging that degree along for the past 7 years, even if I did have to take 1.5 years off due to health issues. Nevertheless, uni bureaucracy expects that since you registered in 2002, you have 8 years to complete said degree so 2010 is your make or break year. I have 5 more modules to go, on the 30 required to make this communications science degree. And man, they don't say uni final year for nothing! I just registered for semester 1 and got my books in, and the sheer amount of work to be done! Wowzers! I even have a portfolio that I'll have to work for a local school- an integrated comms campaign for them! Thank goodness that when I approached the people at kiddo's school, they were more than willing to help! Lol, in a way, why wouldn't they be happy? Hire a comms consultant to plan that campaign for you and shell out a hundred K at least! They'll be getting it for free from me! Oh well, never mind - what's good is that one thing's clear and I have the raw material to start this project.
So there I was yesterday looking at all the deadlines and then checking my diary to find which dates I'd booked promos, and when you know my mind that forgets everything unless a clear memo or alarm is set, guess what I turn to - the new phone that's got a spiffy calendar and PDA-like settings on it.
Start noting down dates and calculating how much time I'll need to allow this project over that one and adding in delays and stuff...
Result? I am booked solid for almost 3.5 months! Yups, you will be hard pressed to find a day on my phone calendar that doesn't have a markup for something before May 5, 2010!
If I didn't have a headache or I wasn't hyperventialting so far, I was when I looked at that!

- Reading Log
A bad thing's happened to me lately - I'm throwing books at the wall after like 25 pages in. Why? Because there just don't seem to be any good stories out there! They're all so cliche you feel you've read it all just by browsing page 1! Then when the blurb doesn't like give you the story till what happens at the next-to-last chapter, you find you've wasted your time reading a dry as dust voice! Or, the read is so all over the place you get mind-motion sickness just by trying to figure out which lead is what in chapters that change between 5-6 leads at every turn!
Where are the good books, people? In despair I turned to the 'old' names, and miracle of all found Julie Garwood. Slow Burn had me captivated, and I read it  over one single day! Yeah, that's how much I was starved for good books!
All this brings me to - traditional print books seem to be highly overrated today. There's nothing new or worthy there - finding a good book at the library is worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack! Which just gets me thinking - epublishing is the way to go! Just at my publisher Eirelander Publishing alone, I stumble upon books that are well-rounded and off the beaten tracks! I want them all actually!
Just as well my phone reads pdf files - I have a feeling you'll be seeing me lots more with the phone and not a physical book in my hands in the future!

- Hottie Alert
In the past 2 weeks I've seen Avatar (yes, finally got to see it!!) and Episodes 1-4 of the Star Wars series. Got 5 and 6 on the DVD rack waiting to be viewed. I wanted to do a lineup of all the hotties in those episodes but since I haven't seen them all yet, I'll wait until I can add my two cents (that you don't probably don't want to hear, lol!) about the whole series.
In the meantime (I know I showcased this hottie last month but he's just too good to pass up on!), here's the total babe from Avatar that has me completely ogling at the moment! Enjoy!

- Promo Maven
Here's where I was in the past week taking Nolwynn and Storms in a Shot Glass out!

http://ddrreviews.blogspot.com/2010/01/feature-friday-nolwynn-ardennes.html on January 8 - Melissa and crew at DDR gave me this gorgeous showcase for the book - big thanks to them!

Interview at Books by Pickles on January 11-12 - where Jen (one half of J&J) interviewed me and showcased the book! Oh, the contest there is still going on till January 17 - leave me a comment and you could win a download copy of Storms in a Shot Glass!

There you are - my past week in a (big!) nutshell!

From now till later, cheers!

And don't forget:

Live. Laugh. Love. XOXO

Week 2

Hey everyone!

Totally knackered week! I wonder where I'm pulling up energy to do something as simple as breathe! Advice: never try to combine exams, kids on vacation, a husband with a chronic need to be out (preferably at the beach) and a desire/need to work on your stories, all of this in the same week! I think I've zipped through the whole island in the past few days, and my mind simply cannot keep up!

Utter madness! Thank goodness the exam went well, for once they didn't pull stuff out of thin air to ask you about in the two-hour paper. On another note, might be getting into a mess with the uni - seems like registration for 2010 closed on october 16, before even the exams were written! Waiting to see if the other students pick up on this - get ready for some drama there!

What else has been up in the past 7 days? Check down and find out!

- Kid on the Block
Extreme. I think that's a word that applies inherently with little boys and growing boys and grown men too. Why else would you literally feel the adrenalin rush inside them when you're just standing by their side and they catch on to something really extreme and break-neck and totally can-kill-you-in-a-minute?
We were at the beach yesterday, me grilling like a dry lizard under the nonexistent shade of the canvas beach-tent and trying to work on the new phone (more on that down!), and here comes the whoops and shouts and hollers. Mom, you gotta see this (son); have you seen this? (stepson); babe check this out (hubby). I'm like, what on earth is this that's so important I see? So there I look up, and some bloke is doing flips and whatever other figures with a kitesurf right there in front of us. Totally swore he'd break his neck every time he hit the water (he did land on his feet though, meaning he was an experienced athlete), and shiver when this comes up:
Son: That is so cool! think I could do that later?
Stepson: You gotta learn how to swim first, silly!
But the worst:
Hubby, addressing himself to me: We should try to check later on if there's some yacht club or something that offers training for kitesurfing.
I'm like, are you mad? Insane? Out of your head? Kill me already, why don't you - the worry will do it if you let the kid attempt that.
But of course, I say nothing - what's the point really? Boys and men will do what they want to do, when they want to do it... Join me in praying the kiddo doesn't figure out you can do all those kitesurfing figures with a skateboard on a u-shaped ramp!
Haha moment - guess what he asked for Christmas...?

- WIPed out
In a total moment of madness (yeah, that's the theme of the week!), I started work on the outline of my upcoming WIP. Maybe I was prompted by Willow, who since a couple weeks has been pestering with ideas how to make the male chauvinist hero less of a male chauvinist hero. So I sat down and took a look at the outline, and rehauled some stuff around. My mentor always told me - use your cast. This is what I've done, and I may have figured out a way to involve the heroine's kids in the story without going all cliche. Wish me luck - this one is expected to go into writing in the coming week! I'll have the progress report here next Friday.

- Perception Tunnel
The eyes of a child versus the eye of a grown adult. This happened to me on Monday when we went out to the natural history museum (place that I visited as a kid at school some two decades ago) and then we hit the coast and the beach (yeah, I have beach blokes at home. I'm sure we could start investing in an SPF 50 lotion company. Sigh...). We went to check out some places along the west coast, and there's this beach that I remember going to, again some twenty years ago. Both places have changed - museum's been renovated and new rooms and species added over the years. Fine, I get that. But the beach, well, had a strange perception issue waiting for me. It too has changed, better accommodation and the likes when this was pretty much a 'wild' beach so long ago, but I clearly recall me and my cousins making sand castles near a huge limestone wall on the beach. I remember we sat there with sand rubbing into our shins, the wall next to us towered above us and when we turned and looked at the sea, it seemed miles away from us.
Well, guess what - the wall is like, barely 5 feet tall, and the sea, like 5 metres away too. Okay, sea levels went up and all that, could account for the sea not being miles away any longer, but the wall?
That's what made me realize - distance and perception are different for kids. And another feature of this distinction between the adult mind and the kiddie mind, is how your imagination steps in to 'fill' in those huge perception gaps when you're little. Thus, the 'big' wall becomes the facade of the fort keeping 'bad' things away while the princesses on the safe side got on with creating their perfect little world.
Maybe we need to start thinking like kids again...?

- Back to the domestic goddess
I have a recipe for you today! And yes, it is edible! Guess what happens when you got blokes at home? They're hungry, and that's like, all the time! Now, we don't exactly roll in the moolah so if you were to buy cakes and packaged stuff for them, you'd end up spending your whole paycheck at the grocery store and that too only in the cakes and sugary goodies' aisles. The solution? Bake your own stuff!
That's how I made muffins this week. One batch was chocolate chip muffins and the other was dried fruits muffins.

Here you go, it's as simple as pie (okay, pie ain't simple, agree with you!)

Ingredients:
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
1 cup (250ml) milk
125 butter, melted
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/2 cup choc-chips/chopped dried fruit (I've tried dates and apricots)

Combine flour, sugar, chips/fruit in a bowl (can add a pinch of mixed spice or cinnamon powder when making the fruit ones).
Stir in milk, butter and egg.
As soon as it's mixed, stop and do not overmix (let it remain lumpy and coarse).
Divide into greased muffin pans, fill holes to 2/3rds.
Bake in moderate hot oven (200-210 C/400-425 F) for 15 mins or until tops are golden.

Recipe calls for three 12-hole small muffin pans. I don't have those and one batch such batter makes me 2 deep 6-hole muffin pans just perfectly.

- Reading Log
Went to the library on Monday, and got a whole batch of goodies waiting. Haven't had a minute to even glance at more than the back blurbs - will update this next week. I've got stuff like Husbands by Adele Parks, For Better For Worse by Carole Matthews, The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon (finally got hold of that!! Yes Carole, you can jump around with joy!), Slow Burn by Julie Garwood, and a Regency Steepwood Scandals anthology.

On another note, made a slight dent in my to-be-watched pile of DVDs. I saw He's just not that into you the other night. Totally fell in love with the movie! I'd gotten it because of the hype there was at its release, what with the book and all that, but didn't think it'd surprise me so much. It reminded me a lot of Love Actually - these people who all know each other in some way or another and how they all find (or lose) love as they go about their lives. The acting was great and it had an edgy, real feel to it (Love Actually did have a romanticised Christmas aura to it). This movie was about real people battling real life issues, and I loved how it all worked out for each and every one of them. And yeah, the 'baddies' end up alone! Watch this movie if you're into romance and romantic comedy - it's well worth it!

- Style Dilemma

Okay, this one here is solved, but I had to share! Had been ogling a new phone for ages. Wanted one that would allow me to carry my ebooks everywhere (cannot bring a laptop to a beach canvas tent, can you?) and something that has a qwerty keypad to allow me to write if ever the fancy struck me while, say, in this same beach canvas tent (I swear that's become my second home!).

So my eye fell on the LG ks360. Looked like a real little gem, but that was the problem - too little. The screen in real life? Well if I might have needed progressive glasses for my eyesight-failing eyes in like 20 years, that phone would've made me need them in 2 years itself! Totally too small in real life. And it doesn't have Word on it! Eek!

Sigh... What to do? I needed a new phone!

For once a salesperson came to the rescue. Showed me the one they'd just received. Nokia E63. I'd heard of the eseries and knew they were great, but this one did not have the slide keyboard and wasn't visually as appealing (I'll stop whining soon!). So I bit the bullet and got this one, and boy, am I glad I did it. Just like with a man, it's not the apperance that counts, but what's inside and what he does and can do for you! Well my Nokia E63 is my new boy toy! Word is a dream to work on with this phone, and pdf ebooks too open perfectly well and just need you to scroll some to be able to catch the reading experience with a font that won't make you go blind in two days.

Only thing I'm not gonna do with it is get an Internet connection. I'd just turn into even more of a Facebook junkie and no one wants that to happen (certainly not my editor!).

- Hottie Alert

Sorry ladies, no one's caught my eye this week. But I'll be bringing the inspiration for my new hero next week, and he's definitely a hottie! Stay tuned!

- Promo Maven

Will be posting my monthly blog post at the PopCultureDivas next week! Catch me there http://www.popculturedivas.com/

And don't forget:

Live. Laugh. Love. XOXO