Okay, I broke down and joined Pinterest. Sure, I have loads of free time to spend there. And why haven’t we developed a sarcasm font yet? It made sense to pin books I’ve read (or written) and stuff like that, then I discovered the cakes.

If you’ve ever been to my Pinterest boards (http://pinterest.com/steelestories/) and scrolled all the way to the bottom of my cakes page, you’ll see a rainbow unicorn. It’s a cake, people! I saw that beautiful unicorn long before I joined Pinterest and I was stunned. If you know anything about me, you know I’m not the domestic goddess type. I know (theoretically) what an iron is for and I have a kitchen, it came with the house. But I do not bake and when I have to, I do not decorate with any style. Canned icing is actually quite good, thank you very much. 

Maybe that’s the thing. None of these cakes look like cakes! They’re friggin’ works of art. I could no more cut into one of these and eat it than I could walk to the moon. They’re too beautiful. Thank goodness we took out cable and went to on-line TV.  La Daughter tells me there are TV shows dedicated to this stuff. I could see instant addiction and I don’t have the time.

I know words like fondant now, of course I also know words like lumos and protego or expelliarmus and I get the same results from knowing them. However, I now realize my wedding cake from 30+ years ago was decorated with fondant – it was the first one I’d ever seen and slightly more expensive, but I couldn’t even look at the others after seeing it. Tasted good too.

Okay, you know my secret passion – I like to look at cakes. Thank goodness I prefer to eat pie.

Okay, it’s August. Only 17 more days until my new southern small town novella is released (see I can write other than paranormal!) And I found some adorable earrings that go with the theme, so I’m going to be giving away two sets of earrings on release day.

Being as sophisticated as I am with technology (I know where the on switch is), just leave me a comment on my blog and if you hit the lucky number, they’ll be on their way to you. 

I love the company so stop by anytime – here’s a little snippet from Red Shoes for you –

 Amazon

Barnes & Noble

He heard the door open and a woman’s voice spoke. “Hello?”

That must be Ms. Setzer. “Hello.” He headed into the front office and stopped dead still. She stared at him, her eyes widening. She’d changed clothes. He wasn’t sure it was for the better. The jeans had already distracted him, now she was in a sundress and damn if her legs weren’t as good as her ass. Shit.

“You?” They said it together, but neither laughed.

Of course it had to be the woman he’d almost run over at the grocery this morning. Served him right for allowing himself to run out of coffee. He took a deep breath and stepped closer. To his dismay she took a step backward.

“Please, my car is in the back, so I’m unarmed. May I apologize again?”

She blinked and he thought her shoulders seemed slightly less tense.

“Are you Ms. Setzer?” She nodded warily. “I’m Micah Allen. I know I didn’t make a very good impression at our first meeting, but I really am a pretty nice guy and I rarely speed around parking lots. You caught me on a bad day.”

“Why was it bad?”

“No coffee in the house,” he said.

“Oh. Well, at least you had an excuse.”

He grinned at that and stepped forward again. Uh oh, too much. She backed up another step.

“Yes, well, I guess you want the paperwork on your house. I have it here in my office.”

“Where’s your secretary?”

“Don’t have one.” He was already headed for the other room so she took a couple of steps in that direction. He held out a chair when she looked inside.

What was wrong? She couldn’t be afraid of him for real, could she?

“See? No car. I’m really harmless now.”

Her eyes lightened and she seemed to straighten slightly though she had seemed to scope him out. But she didn’t come close enough to shake hands. In fact she didn’t come all the way into the room until he rounded the desk and took a seat.

With the desk between them, she sat on the edge of the chair. “Will this take long?”

“No. Everything’s done. I was just going to go over the papers with you, in case you had any questions.”

“Good.” She rose to her feet again. “I don’t have any questions.” She held out her hand for the folder.

“Oh, okay.” This was becoming fucking weird. He hadn’t hit her for crap’s sake. “It’s a lovely house. I hope you’ll be happy there.”

“You’ve been there?” She pulled back again.

“I, uh, I drove by it to make sure everything looked all right before the closing. I haven’t been inside.”

She nodded and took the folder. Without another word she headed for the front office and the door. He wasn’t sure whether he should follow her or not. She was one strange broad. Opting for comfort, he stayed where he was until he heard the front door shut, then sank back into his chair. What the fuck?

Did grab some time to get together with my buds – Char Chaffin, Cyn Haydn, Nancy Lee Badger and Elena Dillon

Before the Rita and Golden Hearts awards grabbed pizza with Sarina Wilde, author of Spare Dick – you can’t make this stuff up, then listened to a true Southern Belle host the show, Christie Craig and to quote her – down here it is definitely “you ain’t gonna believe this shit” over “once upon a time”.

Marriott went all out – check out the elevator door wraps that greeted us.                                    And of course this is the up and down of the Marriott from my room –           

We cleaned up nice for the awards.  My congratulations to all the nominees and winners – it was such a privilege to be in your company! 

I met Michelle Garren Flye, author of Close Up Magic – I interviewed her on my blog not long ago, so that was major cool. Visited with Sabrina Jefferies who was up for a Rita for A Lady Never Surrenders as well as Jennifer Delamere who was also up for a Rita for her first book – An Heiress at Heart.  Cherry Adair was gracious enough to remember me – I met her the day after I signed my first contract (for Rth Rising) and when I mentioned I had signed at the dinner in her honor – very shyly because I really didn’t know anyone there – she jumped up, ran around the table and held me. That’s something I’ll never forget.  

Had lunch with several hundred of my closest friends on Thursday and Friday. Cathy Maxwell of the Scandal and Seduction novels was the keynote speaker on Thursday, and Kristan Higgins spoke on Friday.  I must say she had us rolling on the floor and in tears the next minute. Not only do they write well, they’re incredible speakers! Too far back to get good pictures even with the huge screens, but heard great.

Sylvia Day, president of RWA this year did a wonderful job and also graciously took a picture with me at her signing. Can you see what kind of fan girl time I was having?