Over at Romancing the Blog today, I share my answer to the question of what the most difficult part of my job is. I’ll bet you won’t guess my answer…and you might be a little surprised at just what I share.

Go check it out!

I have two confessions today. One is that I went shopping this morning for pants that I can wear to cocktail parties Monday in NYC. I didn’t find any because I’m TOO SHORT. Kohls is having some great clearance sales and I tried on an embarrassing number of pants but they all were too long for me by about 4 inches. It might have been worth it at clearance prices to buy them and pay to have them tailored, but I was too overwhelmed to make that decision this morning. Maybe I’ll go back.

The other confession is that I’m not at all ready for the traveling to start again. I think it must be because I’m basically lazy at heart, and it suits me to be able to do nothing all day Also, ever since I told her I was going (last week, because she heard me talking about it and asked) Brianna has been telling me how much she doesn’t want me to go. This morning she was particularly upset about it.

But on that note, blogging will probably be lighter again in the next few weeks, because we all know I’m no good at traveling and blogging!

For the Reader:
Since I don’t normally promo my releases during the week, I’m going to start listing them here, under the “for the reader” section. So, released this week:
Taken by Anya Bast (erotic sci fi romance)
Called by Blood by Evie Byrne (erotic paranormal romance)
Mexican Heat by Laura Baumbach and Josh Lanyon (m/m action romance)

Publisher’s Weekly is looking for reviewers in fiction genres including romance!

Kristen Nelson wants to know if free books work on you. On an interesting related note, I got an email from one of my blog readers this week, who was emailing to tell me that the free books she’d gotten from Samhain definitely resulted in her buying others. Anecdotal evidence that free works! I think editor Leah Hultenschmidt talked about that on her blog this week as well.

Jane from Dear Author wonders if you’d be interested in a rent-to-own ereader and ebook subscription?

Smart Bitches has the video from MSNBC that features the Kindle (and Kate Duffy of Kensington!)

Continuing the series about the Dear Author reviewers and their new Sony Readers. I’m really enjoying these posts.

For the Author:

Edittorrent had two great posts up on rejections this week. Alicia wrote this one on form rejections that I swear I could have written myself. Theresa wrote one that relates to my blog post here a few weeks ago about how fast is too fast?

And since we’re talking rejection, here’s one more on post-rejection protocol from Jessica Faust at BookEnds.

Author Lauren Dane has started a Sunday series on promotion.

Author Maria Zannini talks about signature lines. Honestly, an obnoxiously long signature line irritates me enough to remember the author’s name in a negative light.

Author Shannon Stacey has an awesome post up about making sure you’re following your dream, not someone else’s.

In the Kitchen:

Download spice jar labels.

Nom nom nom, these Italian love cakes look good (and easy)!

Pioneer Woman is doing a series on sushi. I actually learned how to make sushi from a Japanese friend years ago, but I’m still enjoying this series.

Peanut Butter and Rice Krispie treats. Me please.

For the Crafty:

Does anyone out there knit? I really want this scarf. Almost enough to take up knitting, except it would take me five years to finish. The scarf combines my love of two things: Doctor Who (LOVE Tom Baker) and scarves.

Sew, Mama, Sew is doing Fat Quarter February. Check out all the fat quarter projects they’re sharing. Tissue holders here (and if I’d thought of it sooner, I’d have whipped up a bunch as small Valentine Day gifts for the daycare staff)

Check out this list of the top 100 tuturials of 2008

I would love to make one of these tea wallets. I like to travel with tea but it always ends up in the bottom of my purse.

I love this idea. Anyone who’s ever been to a conference has a bunch of tote bags laying around. Here’s a tutorial for dressing up and resuing those tote bags!

For Everyone:

Thankfully, the CPSIA Lead-Testing Law has been delayed for one year. I hope they can work the kinks out of that and get a new/different/better law into affect.

An interesting post on recipes and copyright (where I learned, though was not surprised, to find that recipes aren’t copyrighted).

A little insight into the editorial debate between an author and an editor. These are weighty issues we discuss!

Whee! There’s going to be another Sex and the City movie. I’m not sure what type of story line they’ll come up with, but I don’t care. I’ll go see it! Looks to be set for hopefully Summer 2010

It’s what everyone has been talking about. The Snuggie. Now you can make your own and pimp it out to boot! Score!

$25 free from E-Trade when you open an E-Trade Savings Account.

You know you want to make one. A LOLCat purse!

So you’re bored and want to kill some time? Make your own comic strip!

Maybe your music library is like mine and could use a little attending to? MakeUseof.com has 4 suggestions for tools to fix and auto-organize your music library. Let me know if you’re familiar with any of them or try them!

Wi-Fi Hotspot finders. I need to put these links in my phone, with as much as I travel I often need Wi-Fi (even with an aircard, it’s nice to find Wi-Fi)

For the Political:
Not really political but I’m putting it here. Via HighlandGal, a quote about the Michael Phelps thing that made me laugh (also, see the bottom of this post for some links to current articles about Phelps losing sponsors):

Look, I don’t blame Michael Phelps for apologizing. He has a living to earn, so he did what he had to do.

In the meantime, I merely note that this broken wreck of a man’s failure to win any more than a pathetic fourteen Olympic gold medals (so far) is a terrifying warning of the horrific damage that cannabis can do to someone’s health—and a powerful reminder of just how sensible the drug laws really are.

-Andrew Stuttaford from The Corner at National Review Online.

A new video from Ashley Judd about Sarah Palin’s support of the brutal hunting of wolves. The video is not for the tender-hearted.

Obama puts a cap on executive pay at businesses that received bailout money. I really wish more things like this had been put in place before the bailout money was ever given out.

I’ll admit it, I laughed when I read to the end. There’s a follow-up article here. All I can think, though, is that our nation is facing the largest unemployment rate in two three decades and this guy is going to be worried about a suit jacket? Puh-lease.

Michelle Obama is stepping into the stimulus package fray. Oy.

Picture of the week:

Because the whole idea of this still makes me laugh.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Carrie on regardless: How will Sex and the City cope with the credit crunch? (guardian.co.uk)
• Michael Phelps Suspended: Dumped by Sponsor (montysmegamarketing.com)
• Friday Just Keeps Getting Worse For Michael Phelps [Michael Phelps] (deadspin.com)
• New Website Launches to Keep Tabs on Sarah Palin’s Animal Conservation Record (Video) (treehugger.com)
• In the Kindle Backorder Queue? Upgrade Offer for Kindle 2 Coming. (jkontherun.com)

We’ve just had a long day of shopping which resulted in a rather large (planned) purchase so I wasn’t able to post before now, but you’ll recall I ran a contest at the beginning of the week in a desperate call for an RtB topic. As it happens, I ended up coming up with my own topic so I’m hoarding the other ones for future use.

So please, bring a toothbrush and join in the conversation about morning breath over at RtB.

I have to blog at Romancing the Blog the day after Christmas. Since I don’t intend to be writing the post on Christmas, I need to write it and get it up in the next two days. But I don’t have a topic! Ack! So help me out and suggest a topic you’d like to see me post about at RtB this week or in the future. We’ll use the forms so I can keep all your great ideas to myself (because I’m greedy like that). You can chat amongst yourselves in the comments, if you want, but it won’t count as an entry.

The prize is a digital copy of my four (new) December novella releases (three of which release tomorrow!): Sleight of Hand by Katrina Strauss, Mistress Christmas by Lorelei James, Unraveled by Jaci Burton and Sweet Charity by Lauren Dane. Quite a line up there. You can click on the covers below to find out more about the books!

Winner will be chosen at random from all the entries, but your entry will NOT be counted unless you make an effort to give me a viable topic. I’ll choose a winner tomorrow morning and will send out your ebooks tomorrow. Christmas reading! Contest is open to everyone reading this.

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED, BUT IF YOU HAD A SUGGESTION YOU WERE DYING TO SHARE, PLEASE DROP IT IN THE COMMENTS.

I’m over at RtB today talking about publishers as big brother.

Go check it out.

I’m blogging over at Romancing the Blog today. I probably should have posted this earlier, but I’ve been trying to answer emails (also, I took my Twitter friends shopping with me to Walmart this morning. That was fun. And I also had to watch Act II of Dr. Horrible. Twice. There are some laugh out loud moments. Go watch. Act III is on the 19th and then it won’t be free to watch any longer after the 20th).

Anyway! You see why I keep getting distracted? So much going on.

My blog post. At RtB. Brown-Eyed Girl? I Thought Her Eyes Were Green! Go share in my brilliance. No really, go.

I’m over at Romancing the Blog today talking about my love of romance. Head on over and join in the lovefest

For the love of romance