My first attempt was an outdoor shoot with a local photographer.  We went to a local park that gave us some great backgrounds.  Unfortunately, it was a bit chilly (I was cold!) and windy (my hair wouldn’t stay in place).  The photographer did a good job though and we got some great shots.  

Unfortunately, my eyes were closed on many of them! I so hated that because I loved some of those shots.  The cost for the shoot was pretty inexpensive.  I paid $54, including tip, to get my makeup done at a local spa prior to the shoot and then the photographer only charged $50 for a CD of all the pictures, including the copyright release.  

My second attempt was a trip to the chain photographer in a local department store yesterday.  This shoot was inside and the photographer was great.  This time my fiance, George, went with me because we needed some shots together.  We had a great time!  

Having the “closed eye” experience behind me, we took particular care to make sure my eyes were open.  We were successful on some shots, but unsuccessful on others. Fortunately, we found the winning shot on sixth take.  I really love that picture!

Then it was time for George and me to take some shots.  We took a couple of shots using the top I wore for the publicity shots and then some in another top.  This time we came up with several winning shots and poses.

The cost for this shoot was also pretty inexpensive. I scheduled an appointment to get my make-up done at one of the make-up counters in the department store.  In exchange, I had to purchase two items.  I chose lipstick ($15) and concealer ($15).  The make-artist had used the concealer on my eyelids to give me eyes a more open look, which was a great trick that I’m going to try myself.  I ending up spending $61 in all because I just had to have the $30 brush that she used to apply the foundation.

The photo costs ended up at $100.90.  But look at what we got:

a 10X13 of me and George (one pose)

a 10X13 3-picture montage of me of George: one picture of us together, one of him, and then one of me. (three poses)

a framed set of George and me in different pictures, but similar poses (two poses)

a set of pictures of me: one 8X10, 2-5X7s, 4 wallet (one pose, the one I’m going to use for the publicity photo)

a set of pictures of George: one 8X10, 2-5X7s, 4 wallet (one pose)

a CD of all the poses with the copyright release

I know it sounds too good to be true because that’s how it sounded to me.  Fortunately for us, there was a 50% off sale going on.  The pictures should be back in two weeks, which seems a long time to me in the digital age but what can I do?

I’ve used some of the pictures from the first shoot in this post. I’ll post the new pictures when they’re available.

NOTE: I have a “lazy eye” that always causes me problems with pictures.  Couple that with a huge smile and my full cheeks and it’s “eyes are closed” time.

As a someone who started writing around the same time Francis did and someone who has known her for quite a while, I celebrate this victory with her.  As I told her on the phone, while I am happy for her, I’m also encouraged for what her victory means to authors like me.  

I remember back in the day when we started writing, we would often dream of the day we’d make the Times list.  It was a dream we shared — not just me and Francis – but a bunch of us romance writers who started writing for Pinnacle Arabesque back in the mid-nineties.  It is refreshing and inspiring to see those dreams come true for Francis. It begs the question:  Who’s next?

It’s important to note that Francis is the second author of our generation to make the Times list. Brenda Jackson’s Irresistible Forces made the list in May 2008, reaching #34. Brenda also made the USA Today list with another book, Slow Burn, which reached #117 in November 2007.

So today is a great day for romance writers, especially those of my generation.  To those ladies, I ask, who’s next?

With  the new iTouch or iPod Touch from Apple.  I’ve never had a PDA so the ITouch is the closest I’ve come.  I wanted the iPhone but I couldn’t get it.  The iTouch is close enough.

What do I love about it? 

It’s small, smaller than my cellphone, making it pretty easy for me to carry both around with me.

i can get email from both my work account and my gmail account.  Right now I just keep a week’s worth but you can keep as much as a month’s worth.

It syncs my Outlook calendar. This is a biggie for me.  I’ve always the person in the room without a PDA or a dayplanner.  Now I’ll have one.

It has a whispersync feature that syncs my Kindle books.  Another biggie.  Guess what?  The text size is even readable on the small screen! I couldn’t believe it.  I haven’t tried any long bouts of reading on it and I do wonder if my eyes will get tired fairly quickly.  I’ll keep you posted.  Oh, yeah, one more good thing: the book covers on the iTouch show in color, while on the Kindle they’re in black and white.

It has a speaker so you don’t always have to use the headphones the way you do with a regular iPod.

You can rotate it so that you read landscape or portrait.  This doesn’t work for mail for some reason, but it works for webpages and kindle books.

I’m using boingo for mobile Internet service.  The upside is the price is only $7.95/month compared to the $30/month the wireless phone company charges for Internet service.  The downside is that service is only available where there are hotspots. While there are a lot of hotspots, I won’t have all-the-time Internet access the way I’d have it if I had Internet service through a wireless phone company.

There are hundreds of apps that you can get for it. From games to utilities to educational programs.  I haven’t done much investigation with the apps yet, but I’ll be getting into it, especially the educational programs.

What don’t I like about it?

It only allows me to dowload Kindle books, not the other files (pdfs, doc files) that I’ve sent to my Kindle.

I’m sure there’s something else, but I’m so wowed now that I can’t think of it.  I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

Anybody else got any new gadgets?

If you’re still visiting my blog, I appreciate it. I’ve been absent for so long that I wouldn’t be surprised if all of you had given up on me. Well, I’m still around. There are a lot of things I want to talk about but the best things I’m not sure I can talk about. So, I’ll be asking my editor how much of the editorial process of my next book I can share with you. All I have to say is that I have the BEST editor in the world.

I can’t guarantee how active I’m going to be on the blog. I have grand plans but I also had them last year nand you can see how that turned out. I am committed to hosting several blog tours, with Stacy Hawkins Adams being the first on Friday of this week, so that will happen.  Some big things happened in my life in the last year and I hope to blog my reflections on them.  They include:

• The Obama Campaign — I don’t even want to think about the number of hours I devoted to it
• Getting my book in — Oh, the stories I could tell, if only me editor will allow me
• Tenure – I’m an academic so tenure is an important part of life
• My long engagement — Yes, a wedding is in the works
• Recent travels — I’ve fallen in love with cruising
• Book club visits —  I know they think I’ve forgotten them, but I haven’t

If you’re still hanging around, please give a shout out so I’ll know you’re here.

I’m back, for good this time.

I found this picture of his grandparents online along with a great post.  Here’s the photo and an excerpt from the post.  Now we know where he gets the ears!

From the post:

Likewise, I was looking at this picture of Obama’s grandparents and thinking how much he looks like his grandfather. And suddenly, for whatever reason, I was struck by the fact that they had made the decision to love their daughter, no matter what, and love their grandson, no matter what. I’d bet money that they never even thought of themselves as courageous, that they didn’t give much thought to the broader struggles in the the world at the time. They were just doing what right, honorable people do. But the fact is that, in the 60s, you could be disowned for falling in love with a black woman or black man. There is a reason why we have a long history of publicly biracial black people, but not so much of publicly biracial white people.

We often give a pass to racists by noting that they were “of their times.” Fair enough, and I know Hawaii was a different beast, but still, today, let us speak of people who were ahead of their times, who were outside of their times. Let us remember that Barack Obama learned the great lessons of life from courageous white people. Let us speak of those who do what  normal, right people should always do when faced with a child–commit an act love. Here’s to doing the right thing.

You’ve got to read it.

NOTE: I wrote this post on 10/21 but I’ve been having problems posting to my blog. Sorry I’ve been out of touch.