I swear this week will go down in the books as one of the most tumultuous weeks I’ve had in a long while. With drama and trouble at the day job combined with my own insecurities in my writing life, I’ve been on a rollercoaster of emotions. Thankfully, I have good friends and a family willing to listen to me rant and rave. I couldn’t have survived to Friday without them.

I’m determined to shrug off my pessimistic and depressed mood and enjoy my weekend. I have a date with my sister and brother-in-law to see One for the Money tomorrow and some Thai food. Nom, nom. I’ll even break out my WIP and work on it because I’ve neglected my writing enough. Note to self: Mental and emotional turmoil is bad for writing.

But that’s this weekend. We’re talking about today and today is about the Fantasy Man. I found this guy through a friend of mine who thought I’d appreciate a website that listed the hottest men in sport. I can’t remember the site now, but I definitely enjoyed it and found several nomilicious men to share with you.

Today’s man is Sean Lamont, a rugby player. Seriously y’all, who knew rugby players were so built? Probably all the female rugby fans, but it’s downright wrong that they haven’t shared their findings with the rest of the population. I mean, I’ve always had a thing for football players, but I’m definitely seeing the appeal of rugby and I think you will too when you get a load of this man:

This is a very modest picture compared to some of him I found. If I thought y’all could handle him in all his glory, I’d have shown y’all why he’s nicknamed Schlong. *cough* Doesn’t he look like you’d expect a Roman gladiator to look? Forget Russell Crowe, this guy is all that and five bags of chips…family size.

Happy Friday! Have a safe and fun weekend!

Growing up, I only had one aunt I referred to as Tante. I had no idea what it meant which is why I ended up calling the poor lady Aunt Tante Dette. I thought tante was part of her name. It was only when I was older that I realized I was calling her Aunt Aunt Odette. *snort* Thanks, Mom!

So I’m sure I’ve mentioned tante means aunt and is pronounced “tawnt”, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned nonc which means uncle. Nonc is pronounced “nawnk”. I never had an uncle I called nonc, but when my brother married his wife, I picked one up. Her dad.

No, I don’t pretend he’s my uncle or anything, but when trying to get attention, it’s a lot easier to shout nonc than Mr. John. And it works, too. We were getting the hall ready for the reception and I needed to ask him something. I shouted his name a couple of times and one of his nephews said “call him nonc“. I did and sure enough he turned around.

So that’s your lesson for today. Nonc and tante for your Cajun characters’ relatives.

Anyway, today’s song is by a band I can’t seem to decide if I like or not. The White Stripes burst upon the alternative music scene a few years ago and never looked back. A friend and I have a friendly argument going about who has the best side band projects, Jack White or James Maynard Keenan (of Tool and A Perfect Circle fame).

I will admit I’m not a huge White Stripes fan, but they do have catchy songs. Today’s What’s Playing Wednesday offering is one of those songs. “Blue Orchid” is fast and catchy and I hope you’ll like it as well.

If you have ideas for future What’s Playing Wednesday themes, drop me a line!

 

When I got published, she read every one of my books and demanded more. That’s when I started introducing her to the world of the kick-ass heroine. Back in the early 90s, heroines were still a little wimpy. Sure, there were some hellions in the bunch, but they hadn’t gotten to the independent state they are now. She was instantly hooked and devoured every series I threw her way. Black Dagger Brotherhood? She was all over that. The Pride Series (Shelly Laurenston)? She ate it up with a spoon.

Pretty soon I’d run out of my favorite series to share with her and decided I’d throw something different her way. That’s when I introduced her to Stephanie Plum. In case you’re not a big romance reader, Stephanie Plum is the brainchild of Janet Evanovich. There are eighteen books in the series with little asides to whet your appetite. I’ll admit I haven’t read the more recent books, having stopped at Fearless Fourteen. However, my sister read every book I gave her and ordered the rest.

She adores the series and I can’t blame her. I mean, who isn’t jealous of Stephanie Plum? She has Joe and Ranger who both want her. I personally think she should go with Ranger. My sister agrees. Ranger…le sigh! Then, when I told her the first book of the series One for the Money was made into a movie that’s being released Friday, the first thing she said was, “We’re going, right?”

Yup, we’re going. Her husband’s coming too. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that, but she told me she tried getting him to read the series too but when she explained it to him, he told her he didn’t have to read it now because she told him everything about it. *shakes her head* Men. Still, I think he might get a kick out of the movie. At least I hope he does. I also hope I’m not disappointed.

I’ve seen who they have playing Joe and Ranger and neither man fits my idea of the characters. You know what I mean. When we love a book so much we’d love to see it on the big screen, we all have a perfect idea of which actors/models should play our favorite characters. I do the same thing when I’m writing, too. Yet the cast for the movie, with the exception of Katherine Heigl, don’t fit my idea of the characters. Meh, maybe I’m just being picky.

Anyway, here’s the trailer. Who else is going to see it?

So because I’m feeling blue and sniffly, I thought I’d share a cute commercial with y’all. Or is it a teaser commercial? I don’t know, but it’s funny.

But this week wasn’t completely awful. There were some good things that happened. Um…the work on my new story is going well. I had to start over about three or four times before I found the right tone for it, but that almost always happens when I start a new story. Now I’m in the groove and making steady progress.

By the way, it’s only six weeks until FF&P’s very first conference. The conference is being held in NOLA the first weekend of March, so if you’ve always wanted to visit the area but haven’t had a “valid” reason to, now’s your chance. Check out www.fantasyonthebayou.blogspot.com for more information. I’ll be presenting a workshop on Music and the Muse and would love to see some friendly faces!

And now for the Fantasy Man because that’s why you’re all here anyway. Because I feel awful, I’ve decided to find a fantasy doctor to cure my ills. I stumbled across this nummy man and he’s perfect to fix anything that ails me. Not you, me. This post is all about me and my new fantasy doctor.

If you didn’t notice, he has a face. I know, shocking, isn’t it? I mean, if you’re like me,  your eyes were immediately drawn south and the naughty tattoos below his navel. Yes, he had a navel too! Yes, I think this doctor can give me exactly what I need. I’ll take two of him and call my real doctor back on Monday.

Happy Friday.

It’s time for another Cajun French lesson. Today’s word is chadron pronounced sha-dron (soft n). A chadron is a thistle. I wasn’t aware they were considered a treat until I spoke with a co-worker who told me about a chadron soup (or something like that). It didn’t sound very appetizing to me. Plus I could just imagine my mother’s reaction if I brought home a bunch of thistles to put in the pot.

I’m not talking about cultivated thistles or anything. Thistles growing wild in fields and along the road are what many people cut and bring home. Some eat it as a snack. I recently read an article where one man said he remembers going hunting with his grandfather who would cut thistles on their way back home as a snack to tide them over until they were home. Someone else mentioned that when they road the bus, they would watch the fields picking out which chadron they planned to cut and eat.

From what I understand thistles, or chadron, taste like celery. The prime time to pick them is March and April as the stalks are more tender. When the chadron are purple, they’re left alone since they’re much tougher. I also understand there’s an art to cutting them without being stuck by the pickers. Alas, I’ve never gone chadron picking so I can’t tell you the way to do it from personal experience.

However, when I’m driving around and I pass a field filled with chadron, I always wonder if they really do taste like celery, but I’m not brave enough to go traipsing into a field to find out.

Anyway, back to blue songs. Orgy came out in the 90s. They were an interesting group and as far as I know, only had two hit songs. One of those songs was a remake of a New Order song from the early 80s. I remember I’d liked the original a lot, thought it was really cool and when Orgy came out with their version, I loved it.

Now that I think about it, I could have used this song during the summer remake series, but there so many other songs I wanted to play that I didn’t have time. Today I’m playing the Orgy version of “Blue Monday” and if you’re curious enough to compare, you can alway check out the New Order version.

Without further ado, here’s Orgy’s “Blue Monday”. (Not to be confused with Fats Domino’s “Blue Monday”).

Even further, I’ve begun to neglect the blogs I usually read. That’s happened over time with shifting urls, more responsibilities on my shoulders, and wonky internet connections. I do apologize to everyone if I’ve stopped commenting on your blogs. I do read them when I remember, but with life so…I don’t know, interesting? Complicated? I sometimes forget.

Which makes me feel awful, like I’m letting everyone down, although I sincerely doubt my absence has been noticed by anyone except for me. Isn’t that the way it goes though?

Ah well, I do apologize if I’ve been neglecting everyone. If these characters would just leave me alone for five bloody minutes, I’d probably have something funny to say. As it is, they’re making me save everything for them. Ungrateful heroines. *mutters*

We lost on Saturday afternoon. It was one hell of a game and I honestly felt like I had multiple personalities while watching it. Jillian Chantal commented on Twitter something like “mood swings, Danica embraces you”. And that’s almost exactly what happened.

I was confident in the Saints, but not as confident as some people I know. I knew we were going to have trouble with the outdoor field and San Francisco, I believe, has the top ranked defense in the NFL. It was one of those games that I really thought would kill me. By halftime, I’d already gone from happy and expectant to depressed and dreading the second half. Then things started happening. We started scoring on them. We were so there!

I’ll probably never forget my reaction when we scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter when a minute and a few seconds left. When we scored, I jumped off my sofa and stormed the television set, screaming and running in place (because I was trying to urge the receiver to run faster). Then came the screaming of excitement and jubilation. We so won. I knew it!

And then those wily punks came back and scored on us with 10 seconds left in the game. I knew it was over then. And just like that, my excitement took a nose dive. Oh man, I was pouting at the television, but you know…I was actually okay with it because the game was good. No one dominated. The defense got us and we got them with our offense. It was an exciting game and will probably go down in my memories as one of the best I’ve ever seen.

Three out of the four games played this weekend went against my hopes. The Broncos lost, so did the Texans, and Saints. But the Giants. Ah, the Giants did exactly what I wanted them to. I can cheer for the Giants because Manning is from New Orleans and Jacobs is from a small town close to home. Two homeboys in the NFC Championship game. I’m really, really hoping they put a smackdown on the 49ers. Sorry, San Fran, but I want the Giants to go to the Super Bowl.

The biggest problem I can see with the world championship game approaching is that football season is almost over. What will I do with myself on Sundays now? And Monday nights? Sometimes Thursdays? What will I watch? *sniff* I’m about to fall into football offseason depression.

Ah well, the Saints are still (and always will be) my favorite team and next year is going to be even better!