Friday, October 26, 2012

Not Ready For Radio

 

I had a very interesting new experience this week. In my publicity endeavors, I was presented with a great opportunity: to do a podcast! Now, I'm terrible about listening to these things. The Nerdist tends to be the only one I can listen to for any amount of time (my ADHD is not audio-friendly). I still tend to check out after 15 minutes or so, even if it's, say, Jeri Ryan. 

However, when I was told this Larry Duane of Not Ready For Radio was interested in interviewing me on his podcast, I gave it a listen. This guy is hilarious. He held my attention, he was polite to his guests--it made me feel very confident that I could manage! 

For anyone who isn't aware, I have agoraphobia. To do this, I had to be dropped off and have my husband take the shorties off to go play so they wouldn't be noising up the studio. This presented the problem that not only is it hard for me to be around strangers, particularly men I don't know well, but I wouldn't even have a baby to help balance me. It ended up being a non-issue. 

Get me talking about my favorite subjects and I'm immediately comfortable! Throwing in some pumpkin cream liqueur does not hurt, apparently (I also very seldom drink). He was just as funny in person and his girlfriend is a friend from a local mama's group (how I got connected to him). 

I had a lot of fun and hopefully expanded my reach for Hotel of Lost Souls. Which, by the way, he read and really enjoyed!

If anyone has ever wondered what I sound like, you can check me out here (click the pic--audio is NSFW):




The Cage

Larry Duane continues talking terror in this episode of his show, and he's joined by author H.S. Kallinger. Her book, Hotel of Lost Souls, is an urban fantasy novel featuring the scary-story staple that are vampires; so the pair chat about that a bit, but not before daring to utter -- three terrible times -- HIS horrifying name! Who is HE? Tune in to witness HIS summoning!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Fall 2012 Updates


Well, in lieu of a more interesting post this week (you are still fascinated, I'm sure), I'll give you updates on what's going on here (aka: why I have not had a lot of time to blog).

Our 10 year old kitty got very sick and almost died--
kangaroo care for a kitty brought her back!
Yes, Brat is in the sling with the baby sleeping next to her.
 First, you can blame Facebook above all else. It fires my dopamine receptors like no one's business. 



Next, my kidgets: Lilly has got the whole 1-10 addition down and is doing pretty good up through 15. She loves word problems for subtraction. She will have me knock them out (and I have to use objects for visual reference, even though it's verbal) while we're driving to the store, etc. Finally, on the math front, she's started multiplying small numbers. I just decided to throw out a couple of equations and the girl pwned them.

She's reading faster and larger words with more ease and her favorite subject is still science. Particularly anatomy. A quote from the other day was, "We have a human heart on our wall!" Because we have a printout of a human heart that's all labeled. She loves the circulatory and digestive systems.



Naomi is her usual crazy, creative self. She draws almost on parallel to Lilly and far ahead of where Lilly was at this age. I love her little people and her pony the other day was super cute. She still swings madly between being uber adorable and doing her best imitation of someone locked in a mental institution off their meds. She has her Renfield moments, too--the kid is obsessed with death right now. What is it with 3-4 year olds and death?

Oh, yeah, and I took up hooping
 Katarina is walking! She started just a few days before she turned 10 months old. She says mama, mom, dada, dad, hi, KitKat, cat, Brat, up, this, that, what and random other adorable little sounds that may or may not be words. She signs milk and claps delightedly for milks. She loves to give her family hugs and blow raspberries until the cows come home. She's got more dance moves every day and recently discovered dubstep.

She also knows how to turn on the XBox and loves playing around with the controller. She'll bring it to me to turn on 'baby show' and dances and claps when I turn it on.



As for me... I finished Pet, my second novel (sequel to Hotel of Lost Souls, which is to be a trilogy, apparently) last Tuesday (September 28th). I'm in the editing phase as well as writing the third book, Bridges. I made it about... well, one sleep cycle and six hours awake before I was writing it. Pet took me a total of about 9 weeks, although there was a break of over a year while I grew, birthed and nurtured a new human life.

Oh, and I nursed hands-free for the first time
in a baby carrier!

So, that's why I'm a bit quiet over here. The blog wasn't getting as many hits as it used to and I figure everyone else is busy, too. Or there just hasn't been enough controversy. Whatever it is, all these things combined to take me down from 2-3 posts a week to 1. I'm still here and going strong, but my typity-typity has been directed in a more focused fashion!