We the Chicks are hanging out our GONE FISHING sign.

We may revisit the blog one day but for now, it’s time to say goodbye. Thanks for reading!

Need an example?

(to the tune of The Itsy Bitsy Spider)
The Itsy Bitsy Alien came down from outer space/
He took out his ray gun and shot me in the face/
The people said “Hey! Go away!”
The alien said “meh”
And the itsy bitsy alien went back to space again.

or….

(to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star)

Sitting, sitting little cat,
My oh my you are so fat,
Sitting on my bed so round,
What in the world was that sound?
Sitting sitting little cat
My oh my you are so fat.

We make up silly versions on the spot depending on what we see and what we’ve done that day. It’s a great exercise in rhyming and word use, as well as just a fun way to play with music.

What silly things like that do you do?

In this world of website and ebooks that release to the public at the speed of light, it’s hard to maintain and upkeep a site if you ae not trained in the ways of the Force. A, the Force of the HTML savvy that is.

It’s really a pain in the posterior if you need to rely on another person to do the work for you. Sure you can save up a bunch of stuff to have it put on your site all at once, or you can do it in drips and drabs at between 40-100 bucks a pop, depending on how much time the webster spends getting you updated.

Me, I suck. I was asked by Inez to change my book covers on here and have no clue in the universe how I’m supposed to manage that. (she suggested I email the covers to her and she’ll switch them out- I think that’s a swell idea. Best one I’ve heard today.)

And so, it is with a little jealousy in my heart that I see others doing what I am destined to never be able to do- my own website.

Sigh.

-Kate

Go on, now. Maybe not exactly safe for work, but… be brave!

Love and kisses,

Neith

Have you been seeing it on twitter? Facebook? Now I’m going to tell you what it’s about. Very simple actually.

There’s a phrase romance authors use. It’s called, “save the cat” or “save the puppy” or “save the baby”. Basically it means your hero or heroine needs to do some selfless loving act that is so sappy, even the most hardened of people will go awwww. Or at the very least, soften a bit.

I was about a paragraph into writing On The Fence and stalled a bit. I was in a chat room at the time and I said, “I need my hero to save a cat.”

There was one problem. My heroine, Shellie, had already and very clearly stated that she did not like cats or small house pets. And I liked that line. I didn’t want to delete it because it just fit Shellie and her lifestyle. It wouldn’t make much sense for the hero to save a cat when the heroine wasn’t a fan of cats! I thought over it for a minute when something sprang to mind.

Cow! –I posted in the chatroom.

From there we all started yelling Cow! ‘Nother Cow! at one another in the spirit of the movie Twister and thus! It stuck. Seriously. Am not even kidding. This is what happens when you put a bunch of women in one room who are all hyped up on caffeine and are hiding from their kids and husbands.

So for months now, anytime someone sees the word Cow! out of that chat room, you can be sure it is always, ALWAYS followed up with ‘Nother Cow!

So to keep the fun going, I have a DVD copy of Twister to giveaway to one lucky commenter. Do you and your friends have some silly phrase that’s an inside joke or something?

And because it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t: Cow!

~~~~~~

Keri Ford writes country set contemporary romances. On The Fence is second in the Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas series.

If Shellie Chambers has to hear one more condescending comment from her mother about life or men, she might scream. She packs up and takes a trip to see her long-missed high school friend, Riley. He’ll know exactly what she needs to loosen up. But instead of the girl-chasing jock she remembers from their youth, Riley’s gone country, keeping up a farm of his own.

Riley Hamilton has settled down on a farm his uncle left to him. Not the life he ever envisioned, but after getting a girl pregnant in college and then watching helplessly as the baby was aborted, he learned the hard way it was time to settle down. Shellie’s reentry into his life reminds of his wild past and it’s a fight to ignore the tempting woman Shellie has become.

Read the 1^st Chapter Here

On The Fence is available for only a $1.99 from Amazon Kindle | Smashwords | Sony | Diesel | Apple | Barnes & Noble (Nook) | Digibooks Café | 1PlaceforRomance | All Romance Ebooks and Omnilit | CoffeeTime Romance eBookstore | BookStrand

For more about Keri’s books and just about anything, please visit her website: www.KeriFord.com

Renatus is a legalist and knows the rules better than most. But knowing the Law doesn’t stop him from imagining the press of a hard, male body against his, or remembering one forbidden kiss that left him hungry for more. He leaves Heaven to mingle with mankind, hoping that satisfying curiosity will quell desire. He finds Adam, a college professor who has given up on love.

Adam once dreamed of finding the perfect man and settling down. His dreams and trust were shattered when he found out the truth about his ex. Meeting Renatus seduces Adam into taking another chance on love. But Ren is keeping secrets, and the only promise he will make is that he will leave.

Now the Most High has commanded Renatus to retrieve the Law of Men and Angels, and a vengeful demon is circling, waiting for her opportunity to strike. Staying is impossible, leaving unbearable, and Ren wants to succumb to temptation, forsaking eternity for a life on Earth with this man.

BUY FORSAKING ETERNITY

Bio:

Voirey Linger writes stories designed to ruffle your feathers. Her second angel book, Forsaking Eternity, releases February 25th from Ellora’s Cave Publishing, and this summer she will be launching a  new series of erotic shorts called The Mansion. She’s also the  founder of  The Summer Reading Trail, a collection of free reads from  authors of all genres. For more information about Voirey’s stories or  the Summer Reading Trail, please visit her Website at www.voireylinger.com

http://arbroath.blogspot.com/2011/01/surprise-visitor-wont-leave-library.html

I can’t tell you how cool I think this is. I love hawks. We have hawks at our house – Cooper’s, sharp-shinned, red-tailed and red-shouldered for sure. Oh. Wait. A lot of people don’t know their hawks. Let me help you.

Cooper’s Hawk (like the one in the Library)

Sharp-shinned hawk (pic taken from my great room window. This one was less than a foot from me through the window)

Red-shouldered hawk (I used to have a great pic of a red-shoulder eating a dove in the snow in my backyard, but I can’t find it!)

And a red-tailed hawk. This one is a light one, but red-tailed hawks have many color morphs.

Some things about these hawks. First, if you want to identify whatever bird is hanging out in your trees or bushes, check out Cornell’s online identification guide. Next, on to our four. You’ll notice that they have similar coloring, so identification isn’t always easy. The first thing is size.  Sharp-shinned hawks are small hawks, about the size of a large blue jay, maybe 10-14″ long. The females are much larger than the males and are often difficult to distinguish from Cooper’s hawks. The sharp-shinned hawk has a very square tail, though, where the Cooper’s has a rounded tail. The Cooper’s is a bit larger (14-20″), about the size of a crow.

Red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks are larger. Red-shoulders are slightly smaller than red-tailed (16-24″), and have distinctive red streaking at the shoulders. Red-taileds (18-24″) have streaking on the underside, but its more toward the middle and less at the shoulders. Additionally, in flight the distinctive red tail is a very big hint. Red-tailed hawks are extremely common and if you see a hawk, odds are good it’s a red-tail.

In my experience, the red-shouldered, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned all hang out in the trees. They wait for some unsuspecting bit of yum and dive bomb from above. The red-tail hawks tend to hang out across the street by the power easement waiting for a mouse or bunny to make a break across the open terrain.

I like birds in general, and I love hawks. In fact, raptors were the major inspiration for the bird-winged aliens in Twice as High. So when I saw this story, I decided to share. What about you? Do you dig hawks?

So, in the interest of actually getting back to writing, I’m thinking about what needs work. I have several WIPs that are in various stages of completion – none more than about 1/3 done. How do I pick? I have mystery-were, which is a paranormal with a whole grab-bag of different stuff (ice fae, the mystery-were, dragons, etc.) and a bit of chase plot thrown in. I have Rio, which is pretty much erotica. I have a follow-on to Twice as High. I have Jack and Sarah, which is ridiculously hot contemporary/BDSM.

Help me. WHICH SHOULD I CHOOSE?

Seriously, I have more on my professional plate than ever before. Add to that the daily workings of a mother of three and yes, warp drive engine in the red light, warning siren blaring. Granted it is all good stuff and for that I am grateful but it will be nose to the grindstone for a while(or is it nose to the keyboard?) 2011 started off with a bang and I’m off and running. Edits, writing, promo, more writing, deadlines, washing dishes a few times, etc.

So TODAY, I will accomplish none of those things. WHY? Well, it started off normally with waking the kids for school. Then Spawnetta, after doing her hair and crap, promptly fell back to sleep. Which meant a mad dash to get her lazy butt to school after she missed the bus. Also Omen gets his casts off today and the wheelchair has to be returned. HALLELUJAH but that is a 3 hour drive one way. Long day, no word production. Dinner will be some restaurant along the way. Spawnetta will make frozen pizza for herself and Damien, which they are thrilled with (Shudder).

So I am revving my engines, prepared to hit warp drive but have to make a few stellar family pit stops along the way. But then, watch out!

Mr. Sulu… engage career plans! Warp factor 5.