How is everyone doing on this beautiful fall day? Its gorgeous out there with the leaves changing colors- all the yellows, oranges, browns, greens, and reds. Gorgeous! Fall is my favorite season, in case you hadn’t noticed.

I don’t really have anything profound to say this week, so I thought I’d share a few quotes about love that I absolutely adore. If you have any you’d like to share, I’d love to hear it!

A relationship is like a rose, How long it lasts, no one knows; Love can erase an awful past, Love can be yours, you’ll see at last; To feel that love, it makes you sigh, To have it leave, you’d rather die; You hope you’ve found that special rose, ‘Cause you love and care for the one you chose.” Rob Cella
There will be a moment when you’re eyes meet and everything in the world is simple again.” [Michael Edwards]

Her need for me And mine for she Has made my Winter Spring.” Robert K. Charron

“The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness, which becomes at times almost insupportable.” Victor Hugo

I only wish to be the fountain of love from which you drink, every drop promising eternal passion.” Unknown

Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it… It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk everything, you risk even more.” Erica Jong

Love is when you look into someone’s eyes and go all the way inside, to their soul and you both know… instantly.” Angela Chase “My So Called Life”

All you need is already within you, only you must approach your self with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of love you bear for your self, all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect. Deny yourself nothing — glue your self infinity and eternity and discover that you do not need them; you are beyond”. Nisargadatta Maharaj

Love enables you to put your deepest feelings and fears in the palm of your partner’s hand, knowing they will be handled with care.” Carl S. Avery

Where there is love, distance doesn’t matter”. Mata Amritanandamayi

And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.” Kahlil Gibran

LOOKIE WHAT’S OUT!! Woot! I LOVE this cover, and I can’t wait to read the book! Yay!

The Chosen are vampires fighting for their very existence. It is Daria Morris’s destiny to become one of them…

Daria is a special forces agent with one obsession: to wreak vengeance on the vampire who nearly destroyed her. But to succeed, she must become something she detests: a vampire. Her fate rests upon Alejandro Martinez, a sexy vampire with whom she once shared an unforgettable night of scorching passion.

Now, while Daria struggles against her newfound bloodlust, the two must slip into the shadows to bring a monster to justice—even as their desire threatens to consume them…

You can buy it at Amazon and BN.

Now, since I mucked up the contest and posted that I’d announce on Sunday rather than today, my regular post day, I’m going to be giving away more books… Instead of two copies of Wanderlust I will be giving away FOUR. I picked names from a hat and the winners are: Wendy, Tina, Zoe, and Catie.  Please email me with your snail mail address at Marissa@MarissaScott.com.  Thank you all for the fabulous information. You’ve helped me TREMENDOUSLY. 

So, the leaves are changing color and the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer (Hey, isn’t that from a song?) and what’s weird is the end of daylight savings isn’t until November. Very bizarre. It used to be in October, now November. I wonder who got to make the decision as to the change in date when daylight savings begins and ends and how they determined that. Anyone know? Whoever it is must feel pretty darn important as this decision impacts a heck of a lot of people.

Fall is my favorite season. I love the colors, the cool, crisp air, and best of all Halloween! I don’t know if I’ll get the opportunity to dress up in my witch costume this year for Halloween, but if I do, I’ll be sure to take some pictures and post them for you. We decorate the porch and have scary music, a strobe light. Halloween, to me, is a lot of fun. I remember when I was little, there was a man down the street who used to have a sort of haunted house. He’d dress up as dracula and have a coffin and a strobe light, spider webs, lots of leaves, scary music, and you’d have to walk up to him to get the candy. I was always too afraid. I guess that’s why I dress up like a witch. For the little children who are too afraid, I take off my witch hat and walk down the steps to them, and I use my “sweetest” tone with them to let them know that just because something looks scary doesn’t always mean it is. And the little ones usually always go away with another handful of candy in their plastic pumpkin and a smile on their face.

What about you? What’s your favorite season? Why? Are you a fan of Halloween?

Opinions requested once again. I’m going to be redoing my website, but before I do I’d like to get some opinions from both readers and authors alike… and agents and editors if they’re around

COLORS: Do you prefer basic colors like blue, black, white or gray? Or do you prefer something with a little more “flash” like red, pink, or green, for example?

NAVIGATION: Do you prefer horizontal/across the top of the page navigation with drop-down menus? Or do you prefer vertical where the menus slide out and then drop-down?

Would you prefer to have a link/page for each series or book, or are you content with having them all on one page?

Do you like to see the books listed in the order they were written/the order they should be read?

What about excerpts? Should they have a page of their own? Or just links underneath the book? Or both?

What about a printable list of all books by series and the order they should be read and/or publication date? Is this a necessity? (Not that I need to worry about this just yet.)

Do you look at book trailers? Or do you just pass them over?

What about quotes from reviewers or other authors? Do they make a difference at all? Or do they just take up space?

Anything else that I didn’t think of? Any and all input is greatly appreciated. I know what I want for the overall design, I just would like opinions of what is vital to make a website ideal for anyone who visits.

Because you all are so wonderful and have given me so many marvelous answers, I’ll be giving away a copy of Ann Aguirre’s Wanderlust to TWO random commenters! Winners will be announced this SUNDAY, 09/28/2008, so be sure to come back and see if you’ve won!

Thanks much for taking the time to sound off!

First thing’s first…. The fabulous Ann Aguirre’s Wanderlust comes out today! Run, run, run to get this book! I was lucky enough to get an ARC and I devoured it! It’s absolutely fabulous!

As for me, I’m currently working the day job, doing transcription, and my BFF Cindy was typing on an elderly woman who was having difficulty and she said she didn’t want to get old. I said I didn’t either. She then went on to say, “Isn’t it funny how older people get set in their ways?” And that made me smile and think of my grandma, my dad’s mom, and her routine. She had certain things she did on certain days of the week and it had to be done that way. LOL What makes it such a fond memory is I remember she’d always clean on Thursdays. Always. And she’d start in the same room and always follow the same pattern until finally she vacuumed which was always last. Then she and my grandpa would sit down and eat lunch, usually at about 11:00 a.m. (LOL)

You see, they had to have their chores done, lunch eaten, and the dishes done because at 11:30 The Bold & The Beautiful came on… or was it As The World Turns that came on first? Well, either way, they had to watch both those shows no matter what. I remember stopping over there and they were watching their shows and they’d tell me what was going on with this person or that and my grandpa-oh how I miss him!- would say things like, “He’s a crook.” Or, “She’s the villainess.” Or, “He’s a swindler.” He always came up with something that made me smile and giggle. My grandma would cluck her tongue or be like, “Oh, he/she’s the devil.” or “Just look at -insert name here-. She’s the dickens.” Heh.

I miss them both very much, but I have such fond memories to bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye each time I think of them.

Hugs to you both, grandma and grandpa! Love and miss you lots!

Well, it’s that time again.  Back to school registration… YAY!  LOL  Soon my son will be going back to high school.  They don’t start this year until September 2, but that’s okay.  I took that day off to just do nothing!  GRIN!

I started my back to school shopping for him as well.  I shop at Walmart.  Have you noticed how freaking early they have holiday decorations out?  My goodness there’s stuff for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even some items for Christmas! What the heck is up with that?  Do they think that if I’m there buying school supplies I’ll see the holiday decorations and wander down that aisle and pick up a few items?  What is the point of having Christmas items out in August?  Anyone out there in sales, please explain it to me because it seems silly.

Anywho- let’s talk books.  Anyone read Acheron yet?  What about Breaking Dawn? How are they?  Good?  Bad?  Make you happy?  Disppointed?  Opinions please!  I’ve got Acheron but haven’t had a chance to read it yet.  I’ve also got Ann Aguirre’s Wanderlust here waiting for me to read and I can’t wait to dig into that one.  What other books are you looking forward to that are coming up?  Give me a list so I can add ‘em to mine.

Thanks for your thoughts, opinions, and recs, and until next time…

Hi all,

I’ve found myself distracted with a couple new-to-me web places… seriously distracted. First, forgive me but my geek is showing. Okay, that said…

First place, Twitter. If it’s open, I’m constantly looking for new messages and (this is so bad of me) I slacked off on my day job one day last week because of it! LOL So, I’ve had to make a pact not to open Twitter while working the day job… or while writing… because otherwise I won’t get done what needs to be done but rather I’ll be chatting with the 35+ members in my followers/following list. It’s so addicting! Do you twitter?

The other place I’ve recently found is SecondLife. I found this because gal pal Sarah McCarty had a rodeo there sponsored by Harlequin Spice to promote her latest release, Sam’s Creed. You create little avatar people and can adjust their facial features, body features, height, weight, all of it! There are free clothes to dress them up in and FREE SHOES! Then you can go anywhere in the SecondLife world. So far I’ve been inspecting the stores and the dance areas. In the dance areas you click on a globe thingie and you are animated to dance! It’s so cool! Then you chat with people and dance with them. Whoever came up with this was a genius. You should check it out. It’s a fun time.

Have you ever been to Second Life?

What are your web addictions?

I missed my blog day.  :blush: I NEVER miss my blog day.  Sigh.  I’m sooooo sorry to all of you who came here expecting something and there was nothing new.  *smacks forehead*  All i can say is life is extremely hectic and stressful right now, but that’s no excuse.

I had a long post planned, but I’m just going to get to the heart of the matter.  It’s a question for the readers and even the authors if they are so inclined to answer.

When you go to an author’s blog, what is it you like to see there?  Do you like to see them talk about their creative process–meaning, how they create their masterpieces including writing, edits, etc.?  Do you like to see things of a more personal nature?  Do you like to know how their writing is going?  Do you like to read snippets of the works in progress?  Do you like to read about the books they’ve been reading, the food they’ve been eating, or the trips they’ve been taking?

Or, do you prefer posts more related toward the reader, such as–the author posting thoughts about anything and everything and then asking for your opinions/likes or dislikes?   Do like getting sneak peeks into their works in the form of either excerpts or short snippets?  I KNOW you all love contests, so that’s a given.  :-)  But what do YOU prefer to see when you go to an author blog?  What engages you enough to have you leaving a comment or coming back?

Inquiring minds–mine–want to know!  So, please, give me your thoughts.  I appreciate your taking the time.  And, again, apologize for my dorkiness.  :blush:

I decided to do a meme for my post this week.  I love doing Memes.  Fun stuff, that.  So, this one is simple, I just have to list six things about me that you probably don’t know.  So, here goes…
1. I love gummy bears… but they have to be Haribo brand… and if I have them, I eat them and eat them until they are gone. I also eat them by color- white first, my fave. Heh.
2. I don’t own a gazillion pair of shoes as most women do. I was very girlie in high school but now I tend to go for practicality. I prefer my leather Keds (used to wear the canvas but they got dirty too fast) over all others.
3. I have to wear socks all the time. It’s weird, yes I know. But when I was a child I had very severe allergies including skin allergies. If I walked in grass barefoot, walked on nylon carpet, or just went barefoot, I would get a skin-peeling-and-cracking rash that was horribly painful and would only resolve with a prescription salve. It was lovely. This is why I don’t wear sandals. My mother used to make me wear socks with my sandals. I looked like a dork. Sigh.
4. I love coffee with Coffee-Mate French vanilla creamer. I absolutely LOVE it. But the coffee has to be strong.
5. I’m a dessert whore… as you can tell by the size of my ass and.. well, the rest of me. LOL I love it. Cake, tortes, some pies, ice cream, but my favorite is cheesecake and since I don’t get it very often, it’s a real treat when I do.
6. I had a hysterectomy four years ago and they ended up having to remove one ovary but you know what? I’m just as hormonal during PMS time as I was back then. Seriously, I can’t tell by my body when I’d be getting my period, but I can tell by my emotional response when it’s PMS time. You’d think they’d learn how to fix that. 

I don’t think I’ll tag anyone, but if you want to do the meme, feel free!  I’d love to hear six things about YOU! 

There are so many good books coming out this summer!  Have you noticed?  I’ve seen a couple from HelenKay Dimon, Sarah McCarty, one from La Nora, Janet Evanovich, Marjorie Liu, Brenda Jackson, Christie Ridgway, Roxanne St. Claire, Karen Kelley, Linda Howard, Janelle Denison, Susan Mallery, Suzanne Brockmann, and in August we’ve got Acheron from Sherrilyn Kenyon and Smoke Screen from Sandra Brown.  I could go on and on and on, but holy smokes we’ve got some awesome reading ahead… and that’s not including any of the ebooks from epublishers!  I’m so excited!

And I’ve noticed that there’s quite a genre mixture there and finally the number of contemporaries are starting to equal the number of paranormals which thrills me beyond words!  I love me some contemporary romance.

Tell me, what books are you looking forward to this summer?

P.S.   As I’m sitting here, I’m realizing why opening windows in June in Wisconsin is bad.  Ugh.  I can smell that the dairy farm (which also grows corn) about a mile away has fertilized.  Yes, a mile away.  If the wind blows from just the right direction, we get full stink from the cow manure.  Gah! PEEEEE-U!  LOL