I don’t watch any tv shows on Lifetime. I’ve outgrown the need to watch made-for-tv movies about abused women, women in peril, women who commit crimes, women who get divorced, and Tori Spelling. It’s just not my ‘go to’ channel for tv viewing.

However, a little over a week ago I saw a review online for a new tv series debuting on the Lifetime channel called DROP DEAD DIVA. They proclaimed the main actress to be delightful and a great find, the story fun & watchable, etc. Out of curiosity, I set up my TiVO to record the first episode, which aired last Sunday.

Every time I needed something to watch, I’d see it in my queue and skip over it. I mean, it is Lifetime, after all. Is that really my kind of show?

Friday night I was desperate for something to watch. I clicked on DROP DEAD DIVA, and was instantly hooked.

OMG, Lifetime! You did something magical! I absolutely love this show.

Let me give you a quick recap: Beautiful, but slightly shallow, woman with a hot boyfriend dies in a car wreck. In a fluke, she gets sent back to earth to inhabit the body of a brilliant (yet just dead on the operating table) overweight lawyer. And the fun begins.

My favorite parts about this show? The actress who plays the overweight lawyer is a delight. She inhabits her character and makes me instantly want to watch her. Also, although the woman is on the slightly larger side, they don’t whack you over the head with fat jokes. She’s competent, if a bit plain, and the hot chick inside her only goes through a short period of freaking out about her new bigger body. Instead of constantly downing herself for the overweight woman she has become, she just takes it on and moves ahead with it. No talks about diet or exercise. The most we get is a desire to have a better wardrobe.

Also, the writers created a bunch of characters that I find interesting: her assistant (played wonderfully by Margaret Cho), the rival beautiful lawyer chick, her boyfriend (who thinks she is dead), her angel who keeps an eye out for her (hot dude!), and a few others sprinkled into the mix.

The best part is that shallow pretty girl, although she doesn’t inherit the memories of the woman whose body she inhabits, has access to her intelligence. So she will spit out points of law perfectly, shocking herself with her knowledge.

I just loved it. I set up the Season Pass, and I’m ready for more!

Check out this cute show. It’s worth your time. Yay to Lifetime for figuring out how to create a show that women want to watch!!!!!

Wow, it’s been WAY too long since I posted to the old bloggie-o. Sorry about that. Life changes, schedules change, etc. You do whatever it takes to get your feet back on the ground and life going in the right direction again. Slowly, getting there, I think.

Let’s play good news/bad news, shall we?

Good news: I’m busy!

Bad news: I’m busy doing other things besides writing.

Good news: I’m editing a new book!

Bad news: It’s my next release, and it likely won’t be out until this fall.

Good news: I’m writing some new stuff!

Bad news: It’s very slow-going.

So there you go. That is my life in a nutshell right now. Usually summer is a HUGE production time for me and my writing. This year, things have played out entirely differently for me, and I’m still adjusting. The good news is, I have several books in the works all at once.

The next book in my Arctic Heat series is the one I’m trying to focus my attentions on.  Got some major wordage down lately.

All right. Back to work! Hope you all are enjoying your summer.

Kris

I am not a hard core Twitter user, but I do try to log in at least once a day. I read some of the people I subscribe to, catch up on the news and commentary, make a few tweets, etc. Sometimes I spend a bit of time checking out a conversation I may have missed over the course of the day. It’s like being at the party even after the party’s over…

The past couple of days Deidre Knight, agent and writer, has been working the Twitterverse hard with many fellow authors to protest the blatant discrimination the Romance Writers of America (RWA) have been practicing with respect to epublished authors.

I’ve never been a member of RWA. One, I’m too cheap. I think it costs less than $100 bucks a year to join, but since I am several hours away from a local chapter meeting, I didn’t see what I’d be getting for my $100. A magazine? A chance to join online writing groups?

Not enough to get me motivated. I can think of better things to spend my money on.

Everything I learned about writing and publishing/epublishing I found online. Either through Yahoo groups, online critique groups, or the good, old fashioned trial-and-error method. I’m not the kind of person who believes in short cuts. I’m willing to put in the work to get where I want to be…I may not get there as quickly as I want, but I don’t give up once I get an idea in my head that I want to accomplish something.

So, I had been reading all of this #RWAChange dialogue with an outsider’s perspective–curious interest, but nothing more.

What I found *very* interesting was how my interest in RWA changed as I started to contemplate some of the ideas being bandied about on Twitter. If I, as a small-time epublished writer could enter a contest specifically for epublished works…now that might interest me. Or if there was a liaison within RWA who wrote a monthly column on epublishing with information I could use…now that might be something that would get me to part with the $85 or whatever the dues are to join.

Maybe those in Twitter-land should be calling out to those of us who are epublished, but not yet members of RWA. Find out *why* we aren’t members and then build your changes and improvements and demands around those ideas. Because what would make a bigger statement to RWA about including epublished writers and educating its members on epublishing than to show them that they might experience a jump in RWA membership if they were to do so?

Things I’d be interested in:

1) a source for information on epublishers about sales, contracts, advertising, treatment of authors that is based on factual data rather rumor-mongering, like some of the online sources I already know about.

2) a monthly column in RWA magazine geared directly toward writers who are epublished or who are interested in learning about epublishing.

3) a 3rd ‘contest’ for books that are epublished…or, at least a chance to participate in either the Golden Heart or the RITA.

4) conference workshops geared toward the digital market and epublishers.

5) an RWA standard for ranking epublishers…a way to ‘rate’ them that can be changed yearly if epublishers meet certain standards or average sales.

6) be a force for digital rights and a fair and equitable royalties structure for ALL authors in the digital market…as far as I’m concerned some of the standard royalty payments for NY-pubbed authors is highway robbery.

And those are just a few things off the top of my head.

I’m very interested to see where this Twitter conversation goes. You just never know, this time next year, I might be a new member of RWA if things pan out….

Kris

I just noticed last night that my home page is missing…you get some horrid 404 error. Trying to find someone to help me fix it. Technical, I am not.

The rest of my website seems to be working. I apologize for the ugly.

Kris

I watched the very last episode of “Pushing Daisies” over the weekend. And I want to cry. It was such a great little show and so undeserving of being cancelled.

Ned with his secret power to bring the dead back life….but only for 1 minute….and his difficult romance with the only girl he ever loved…who he brought back to life. Well, if you haven’t seen it, it’s a bit complicated to explain. But if you watch an episode, it’s not that hard to catch on.

Kristin Chenoweth was delightful as the little spitfire pie waitress, Olive Snook, and Chi McBride was hilarious as the fast-talking P.I., Emerson Cod.

Why aren’t there more tv shows like this? Why don’t more people WATCH tv shows like this? It had some of the best dialogue I’ve heard in a long while. The lines on “Pushing Daisies” reminded me a lot of the movies from the 30s and 40s. The quick wit and snappy comebacks without a lick of swearing (mostly).

If you get a chance, rent the first season DVD this summer. The first few episodes, especially, were fabulous b/c ABC was putting a lot of money into the show. The costumes, sets and special effects are glorious.

If you follow me on Twitter, I just put a link to an article about Bryan Fuller’s plans (the show’s creator) to publish a series of “Pushing Daisies” comic books that will come out in the fall. Maybe I can get my fill of Chuck, Ned, Olive & Emerson in print.

Whew, I just made it through about 4 or 5 months of releases. Hard to keep up with all that. Different publishers, different blogs, different yahoo groups. It can be intimidating.

So you know what I did? I just laid low and let the books do their own thing.

However, Friday, June 12th was my last new release for several months - ICE WHITE. I believe Shake Your Moneymaker might not be coming out until September.

And the summer lies in front of me full of possibilities.

If you keep an eye on the bottom of my home page, you can see my ‘works in progress’ section. I’m finally getting back to some of the stories I’ve wanted to write. Although my summer is shaping up to be a busy one, the good news is that because there is little new tv on in the summer months and my DVD player is on the fritz, I likely will be spending a significant amount of my free time in front of my computer.

So what’s on the schedule for me? Right now I’m in the middle of BEEF CAKE 2. Looks like this one is going to have some menage elements to it, if everything works out. This BEEF CAKE series is fun, short, and hot. The first book which was released a week ago is about 16,000 words…looks like the sequel will fit right in there, perhaps even be a tad longer. I just never know.

After that I am going to work on a 4th book in my ARCTIC HEAT series…and if you wanted a longer story with some more plot to it, then you should be happy. This book is going to be darker, with plenty of shifter action! (ahem)

Then, I have a couple other things on my plate, a contemporary erotic which has been stewing in my head for awhile, another book in the DEN OF INIQUITY series (the Sept. release is the first in that series), and I also want to work on a cool story I started called ILLUSION. About a street magician and a sexy mysterious stranger…a paranormal story with some darker elements.

Whew! Not sure how many of these books will get written between now and Labor Day Weekend, but I’m hopeful I can get through at least a few of them.

Wish me luck!

Kris

Book three in my Arctic Heat series comes out this Friday, June 12th. If you’re a fan of ICE BLACK and ICE RED, you don’t want to miss ICE WHITE.

What happens when a shapeshifter lost in a squall meets up with a human? Holed up together in a storage shed outside the shifter facility, sparks fly. But can a human and a shifter be mates?

Read ICE WHITE to find out!

An excerpt is available here on my website under “Excerpts.” Check it out!

Kris

All righty, I just checked and my book’s page is ‘live’ on the Siren Publishing site. The official release date for Beef Cake is TOMORROW, but you can check out the link below to read two excerpts from the book…one of which is EXTREMELY hot, so be prepared.

There is a pre-order link…so if you buy today, it should be in your inbox tomorrow. Not bad.

HOT HOT HOT excerpt from Beef Cake!

I’m working on the sequel, which is shaping up to a very fun little story. It’s a hate-to-love kind of thing. With lots of mysterious men conjured using the magical cookbook, 101 Cakes. So if you like a bit of fun & fantasy with your sexy stories, this new little series is definitely right up your alley.

Kris

Ready for a taste of summer? I joined a 20-author contest…tons of prizes, great authors, hot stories. What more could you want for your summertime reading?

Check out the list of authors and the awesome prizes you could win!

Amy Redwood
www.amyredwood.com
A copy of Amy’s latest release from Cobblestone, Diamonds and Kisses, erotic suspense novel in PDF format.

Anne Kane
www.AnneKane.literalseduction.net
A PDF copy of Stargazers 1: Wanton

Bonnie Rose Leigh
www.mybonnierose.com
An autographed copy of the Sex Me: Triad Series in print as well as an autographed poster of the book cover as a prize

Cassandra Gold
www.cassandragold.com
An autographed copy of Fantasies: Thanksgiving (or a $10 Amazon GC for overseas winners).

Celia Kyle
celiakyle.com
A copy of the anthology, Furry, Fluffy & Wild.

Cora Zane
www.corazane.com
A goodie basket filled with bath soak, scrubbie, lotion, and shower gel, along with a flair bag of author book cards/ book marks / tea and candy to the winner. A complete summer relaxation basket.

Eliza Gayle
www.elizagayle.net
A download copy of her shapeshifter book Lucas.

Ericka Scott
www.erickascott.com
A printed edition (signed) of The Werewolf Whisperer (which includes the bonus book, Unleashed).

Jamieson Wolf
www.jamiesonwolf.com
An ebook copy of The Written Word Books One, Two and Three

J. Hali Steele
www.jhalisteele.com
A kelly green “Are You Kind?” T-Shirt /Back has www.sovereignkind.com

***Kris Eton***
www.kriseton.com
A copy of Ice Black, the first in the Arctic Heat series of books.

Loribelle Hunt
www.loribellehunt.com
A copy of Claiming the Moon: Lunar Mated Book 7 (ebook) , Lunar Mates (signed print edition)

Madison Layle & Anna Leigh Keaton
www.annaleighkeaton.com
A pdf copy of Healing Touch from Anna Leigh.

Michelle Miles
www.michellemiles.net
A copy of Take Me I’m Yours

Moira Rogers
www.moirarogers.com
A copy of Kamikaze and a copy of Wild Card to another lucky winner.

Morgan Sierra
www.morgansierra.com
A copy of Dirty Little Secret.

Selena Blake
www.selena-blake.com
A copy of The Wine Tasting

Tara Nichols
www.tarasnichols.com
A copy of Through the Woodwork, Tara’s latest erotic novella through Bookstrand publishing.
Yolanda Sfetsos
www.yolandasfetsos.com
A copy of Valentine’s Beast or Passionate Eve - winner’s choice and preferred format.

CLICK HERE for details on how to enter & win!

I have mentioned before on my blog that I am a tv junkie. The good news for readers is that, during the summer, when nothing much new is on, I get a LOT of writing done! (maybe I should learn from that and try to cut back on my tv watching…nah.)

Last night was the season finale (and the final episode) of a silly little show called “Reaper.” It’s on that weird network, The CW, which also keeps my beloved “Supernatural” alive and kicking every season, so I can’t hate them too much.

“Reaper” is about a sort of loser guy named Sam who had his soul sold to the devil by his father when he was a baby. Nice dad, huh? As payback he must work for the devil collecting escaped souls and returning them back to hell. He has a couple of friends (one of which is named Sock and has probably some of the best lines and the funniest delivery ever) who help him out with this soul collecting, and he also has this on-and-off girlfriend. Anyway, it’s a fun show with a great comic flair to it.

The last episode aired last night…and in some ways they did give an ‘end’ to the show. Not really solid, but something that can work in my mind. They resolved a few things and left me feeling okay with it.

I did read somewhere that they are trying to turn it into a syndicated show…in other words, the local networks would sign on to air the show and pay for the privilege. Much like they do now with repeats of “Seinfeld” or “Friends.” But this would allow them to continue making new episodes of the show. I guess the idea is that there is no original Sunday night CW programming right now. So “Reaper” could fill that void for the local networks who choose to participate.

I thought that was an intriguing idea. Not sure if it will fly. I’m also not sure if that would compromise the quality of the show…not like it was high end in the first place, but it did have occasional special effects and some great actors. I’d hate for that to change.

If you haven’t watched “Reaper,” this summer might be the ideal time to rent the first season. I’m guessing it’s on DVD somewhere. The first season was more formulaic, but it still was fun. The second season they worked a lot harder at the story arcs, rather than just coming up with fun escaped souls to track down every week.