Just in case you’ve ever “wondered” if you’re a romance author, here are the telltale signs…

You know you’re a romance author when:

1.) You go to Amazon.com only to check your sales ranking.

2.) You cuddle your book in print closer to your breast than you ever did your own newborn child.

3.) In the same vein, you fondle your book in print more than you fondle your DH.

4.) You begin thinking of your book as your “baby”.

5.) If someone should dare badmouth your “baby”, you come to its rescue like a rabid mother bear.

6.) You refer to your fictional characters as if they were real people.

7.) You check your publisher’s website for *their* sales ranking of your book.

8.) You get emails from freaky fans asking to “talk” and “roleplay” with your fictional characters. (You scoff…)

9.) You scan the romance shelf at the bookstore and think, “I know her, and her, and HER, and oh man, she’s a beeyotch. And her, and her….”

10.) You grin, because the blogs you frequent are also sacred haunts of Nora Roberts.

11.) You secretly wish she’ll notice your greatness and ask to write an anthology with you.

12.) You publically and gracioiusly thank a reviewer who thought your book reeked of fromage, but in private, you break dishes, yell at the kids, and bite DH’s head off.

And finally…

13.) You know you’re a romance author when that royalty check comes in and it’s more of a “reality check”.

Are you a romance author?

~~Becka

http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

DH and I are giddy at the amount of awesome new shows we’re hoping won’t get canceled after they’ve sucked us in. In fact, this entire week is PREMIERE week, and DH joked that he should take the whole week off from work just to watch.

New shows we’re going to take a chance on this fall:

CHUCK – Looks hilarious
LIFE – Loved the main guy from Band of Brothers, so we’ll give this a shot
JOURNEY MAN – Looks like a glorified Quantum Leap, but who knows…
PUSHING DAISIES – can’t go wrong with a macabre comedy about a guy who can kill you just by touching you.
BIONIC WOMAN – Never watched the original, but this could really be cool if they re-invent the series.
REAPER – A Dead Like Me wannabe, Reaper follows an ordinary guy with a sucky job of being a – you guessed it – Grim Reaper. We’ll see how this does.

Shows we’re dying to see premiere again:

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA – Is Starbuck a Cylon?!?
GREY’S ANATOMY – Mmm… McDreamy AND McHottie. Can’t wait!
HEROES – Tonight, baby, YEAH!
HOUSE – Gotta love the cynical Greg Laurie
LOST – Not until next year, but dammit, I hate this show so much I love it.
THE OFFICE – Please let Jim get with Pam already! ACK!
SCRUBS – Cannot wait for the silliness to ensue
STARGATE ATLANTIS – Seen as how Atlantis now has Jewel Staite on their cast, this has turned into “must see TV” according to my hubby. Of course, I already knew that, because of Joe Flanigan.

And there you have it!

Oh, one more thing, if you watch EUREKA on Sci-Fi, MICHAEL SHANKS will be on this week’s episode. Don’t miss it THIS TUESDAY 9pm, Sci-Fi Channel!

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

Do you watch the Discovery Channel? DH and I think the entire line of Discovery Channels are the shizzy. Every time we channel surf, 9 times out of 10, we stop on Discovery HD and just sit back in awe. Doesn’t even matter what the heck we’re watching, if it’s in HD, it’s AWESOME! lol

But I was struggling with who I was going to pick for my Hottie this week–that is until I turned on Discovery this very morning and watched a show called “Shark Tribe”. It starred a man I literally couldn’t take my eyes off of. The show was something about calling sharks to your kayak with just the sound of coconut shells, some secret of some tribe in Papau New Guinea… I really could have cared less what the show was about. I watched it simply because of this man. Who is he? Mr. Dave Salmoni.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many good pictures of him online. He’s a big cat trainer, and of course, due to my BEAST series, I’m totally intrigued. I guess the shark thing was something he was doing on the side. LOL But Dave has got a body to die for and a personality I wouldn’t mind getting to know a little better. Heheh…

Those are probably the best pictures I could find of him, HOWEVER, he has a video blog on Discovery.com and you can see for yourself how smokin’ this man really is. I will never change the channel when he’s on because wow… I don’t think I could rip my eyes away from the screen long enough to find the remote!

Here’s the linky for his video blog:

Dave Salmoni’s Video Diary

His shows on Discovery are called “Into the Lion’s Den”, “Shark Tribe”, “Living with Tigers”, and perhaps another few shark shows regarding the Great Whites of South Africa. Dude. If you don’t watch Discovery, it’s time you turn it on, girlfriend. Make sure Dave goes on your Tivo’s “auto-record”. Whew! You’ll thank me later.

Congratulations, Dave Salmoni. You’re Becka’s Hottie of the Week!

~~Becka
http://www.rebeccagoings.com/

YES, I’M YELLING!!!

As I’m sure you all know by now, because I know you read this blog faithfully, me, DH, the kids, and all our real-life friends are Avatar: The Last Airbender geeks here in the Pacific Northwest. It is one of THE BEST anime shows on the planet. Why? Because it’s anime written by Americans, so it’s full of American humor and body language, and you never find yourself going “What?” because something was lost in translation.

Not to mention that the art is beautiful.

And the storyline kicks ass.

TONIGHT is the premiere of Book III: Fire on Nickelodeon. If you’re an Airbender geek like me, you’ve probably got chills. Watch this teaser trailer and drool, my friends. Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka… It’s like I’m going to visit old friends I haven’t seen in forever. I can’t WAIT!!!

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

My DH frequently laments at the chaotic state of my desk. However, creative minds are usually chaotic, are they not? Have you ever seen a picture of Ray Bradbury’s office? He can barely walk in there. I’d be willing to bet most writers find inspiration in their clutter. I know I do. So here are some of the things I have scattered about my desk…

1.) A coffeemug filled with pens/pencils. I got this mug after I did an AM talk radio show right after my article in the Argus. It was surreal and awesome at the same time. The mug says, “I survived Don McCoun on Washington County Today“.

2.) Two sets of stackable plastic shelves chock full of papers, paid bills, and various items. I hate filing. lol

3.) A box of 100 paperclips.

4.) A stapler.

5.) Two empty Caffeine Free Diet Coke cans.

6.) One Maleficent plushy (I got at Disney World)

7.) Two AA batteries. Are they good or bad? Who knows.

8.) The cordless phone.

9.) Watercolor paintings my children made for me yesterday.

10.) Lessons from the workbooks of my children’s school-time books (I homeschool)

11.) A Gamecube CD of Mario Party 6.

12.) A porceline teddy bear statue dressed in her Sunday finery.

13.) A tiny, blown glass dragon.

I can literally go on and on… A pair of Black Hills gold earrings I can’t wear because my ears have closed up. A plastic pencil box filled with my kids’ crayons. Pair of scissors. A romance novel I thought was cheesy to say the least (how DID that author get pubbed by NY again and again…and AGAIN?!?) My author event dayplanner. CD cases. Stickers. D&D dice (one 20 sided, one 10 sided). Small notebook. My journal. My author stamps. A headband.

Now you know the chaos that is Becka’s desk. LOL

~~Becka

http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

I have yet to take it off my website, but my Inspirational romance HEART OF GOLD has gone out of print at By Grace Publishing. This book was very special to me, because it taught me that I could write in any genre. It’s an historical western Inspy, with plenty of talk about GOD and religiosity.

I got my start in Inspirationals, you know. They are slowly going out of print, however, since I decided to go 100% mainstream with my romance.

The question is, what should I do with this book? See if I can get it republished elsewhere? Shelve it? Offer it as a free read on my website?

Give me your opinion. What would YOU do with an out-of-print novel?

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

Like last week’s Hottie. I’ve been insanely busy lately, what with trying to keep up with Ciar’s poll, not to mention edits, galleys, and manuscripts (oh my), I haven’t even sent out my NEWSLETTER if you can believe that one. I finished it, honest I did, and saved it even. But then Dreamweaver went and crashed on me before I could upload it and when I opened the program again, the document was blank. *sobs*

Not to mention the edits on HEARTS UNBOUND has been grueling to say the least. It’s kinda disheartening to see a book you think you did pretty good on and then have at least 20 comments PER PAGE from my editor. Thank Gawd it’s only a novella. lol

On top of that, I have to read my print galley for THE WOLVERINE AND THE JEWEL and make sure there are no problems there, not to mention having to finish up NATURE OF THE B*E*A*S*T* (I only have about two chapters to go) and then write two more full books before the end of the year–yeah, I’m a tad overwhelmed.

I need to find a hole and get my sh*t together. Seriously, you might think this is a *good* problem to have with regards to being published and whatnot, but I think I overextended myself a wee bit. Now, I’m feeling the BURN.

And because I didn’t give you a Hottie to drool over last week, here’s some gratuitous eye candy for ya.

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

Okay, people, I’m starting a blog crusade. Let’s see how many people I can get participating, here. I’m desperate to win Ciar Cullen’s Best Summer eBook poll, and now, it’s more for the sake of winning the damn thing rather than the free promo at this point. LOL It has become a VENDETTA.

First, it was against my good friends Cindy Green and MG Braden. A friendly sparring of votes. But then another author decided to come up from behind and steal my thunder! Not in Becka’s house!

Therefore, I’m starting a Blog Crusade in asking each and every one of my friends who has a blog and would like to participate, to write a post to your blog regarding this poll and asking your readers to vote for Becka. The link is:

http://ciarcullen.blogspot.com

and the book in question is: PROMISE ME FOREVER by Rebecca Goings.

If you would like to participate, let me know via the comments section and I’ll send you some signed swag. Even if you don’t have a blog, wordpress, facebook, myspace, livejournal… I don’t care what it is, just tell your readers to vote for Becka!

Because now, folks, I’m out to win and I ain’t goin’ down without a fight. Girlfriend will have to win over my kicking and screaming dead body. lol

~~Becka

LOL My good friend Ciar Cullen is holding a contest for the Best Summer eBook. The prize is for her to buy and read the book and give it an honest review on her blog. My book, PROMISE ME FOREVER, is up for consideration, a book that was released in August, but got pushed to the back burner due to THE WOLVERINE AND THE FLAME’s release in the same month. Poor, poor book.

In an effort to give PROMISE a bit more promo, I thought it would be a great idea to enter her contest and see what happens. I’m currently in the lead by ONE point. Anyone care to make it a bigger lead than that??

Here’s the link you need to go to:

http://ciarcullen.blogspot.com/

Choose PROMISE ME FOREVER by Rebecca Goings in the drop down menu and click Submit! I would love to have your vote, even if you haven’t read the book. Maybe I can get a cool review off it if and a little lip service. Thanks, everyone!

~~Becka
http://www.rebeccagoings.com/

How does one explain 9/11
to children aged 8 and 7?
How do we say
what happened that day
and honor those up in heaven?

My children will never understand
the hatred some have for this land
But I can say this much
our tenacity is such
that we’ll face the terror hand in hand.

Planes taken over by bad men
crashing again and again…and again
Do not let them brag–
Go fly your flag,
and shout, “I’M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”