It’s the Power of Love!

There is an interesting article up at Yahoo News Today about the best advice that Warren Buffett ever received.

According to Buffett, also known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, his father taught him how to live and Buffett believes that all parents can make their children “better human beings” with the power of one simple thing: Unconditional love.

I was lucky to have had a mother who believed in that. I never had any doubt that mother loved me with all my faults and that I could always turn to her when I needed support.

It was imperative to me to do the same with my child, understanding all the good and bad, but always being clear that my love was not conditioned on her getting good grades, being a better athlete, etc., although we always stressed to her that those things were important for her future.

It’s not always easy to be this way in some situations. Can unconditional love make you a doormat? What do you do if your child just seems to be going nowhere? Can you show “tough love” and still have it be unconditional?

I sure don’t have all the answers and I’m sure neither does Warren Buffett. But it’s an interesting news piece and interview if you’ve got a few minutes to spare this morning. You can either click on this link or cut and paste this link into your browser:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100708/bs_yblog_upshot/buffett-recounts-the-best-advice-hes-ever-received

You can also see his comments here:

July 7, 2010

Soldier’s Secret Child

Being asked to participate in a continuity series by Harlequin is always an honor, delight and a challenge. The latter was especially true of my participation in the COLTONS continuity which included my novel, SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD.

It takes a lot of work to create a series of intertwined and yet stand alone stories. I think it’s a testament to the amazing editors at Harlequin who put these series together and then ask the authors to write a particular novel. I have to confess I was a little surprised by which one of the six books in the series I was asked to write.

First of all I was pleased that they didn’t ask me to write the book with the Latina heroine. It’s nice not to be typecast.

But a book about a woman who had a secret baby and hasn’t told the military hero father about him in seventeen years? Hmm. That part was a little harder for me to wrap my head around. In fact, it took me nearly a month to try and understand the motivation behind such a secret and why now, after so many years, it was time for the secret to be revealed.

Being a character-driven writer, that motivation was key for me so that I could craft a hero and heroine with whom readers could identify. At that end of that month of agony, I found the motivation: Love.

Love for Fisher Yates, the hero of the piece. Respect of his dreams and how they would be derailed by an unexpected pregnancy. I won’t say unwanted because that’s the farthest thing in Macy’s mind. Macy is a woman filled with love for her child, the man she marries and loses, and for Fisher.

The story challenged me to show that and to demonstrate how love survived, buried deep in the hearts of two people who had to place duty and honor before what they both wanted most – each other.

I hope you enjoy this free excerpt from SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD. If you can’t see the excerpt below, you can read or download the free excerpt of SOLDIER’S SECRET CHILD by clicking here or cutting and pasting this link into your browser: http://www.scribd.com/doc/34003128/Soldiers-Secret-Child-Free-Excerpt

Soldiers Secret Child – Free Excerpt

July 6, 2010May 10, 2017

Jason Statham and Special July Contests!

Hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend! Today we’re having a belated Guilty Pleasure and some special July Contests!

So who is today’s Guilty Pleasure? What about a totally buff masculine man? What about a kick butt action hero?

We’re talking about Jason Statham who has played both the bad guy (Cellular with hottie Chris Evans), sidekick (The Italian Job) and the hero (the Transporter series). Buff and burly, he’s not a pretty boy, but he sure is hot!

Hope you enjoyed this belated Guilty Pleasure!

And as for contests. . .

We’re having not one, but two Jersey Shore Sin Hunter Summer Goody contests during the month of July!

Come down the shore with me for Christmas in July with my wonderful friends at Fresh Fiction.

From July 5 to July 26th you can enter the Jersey Shore SIN HUNTER Summer Goody contest to win a $25 B&N Gift Card, Autographed copy of SINS OF THE FLESH and SIN HUNTER Summer Goody bag which includes a STRONGER THAN SIN T-shirt & Tote bag, Jesse Bradford Rubber Football Ducky, Bath & Body Works Shower Gel, Mini-Beach Ball and Candy! Just click here for the contest or cut and paste this link in your browser: http://freshfiction.com/contest.php?id=2675

Join the fun at the Summer Beach Party with my amazing friends at Writerspace!

Register now for the July 18th event and a chance to win an assortment of prizes! If you’re lucky, you might win my prize which is:

Autographed ARC of STRONGER THAN SIN & SIN HUNTER Summer Goody bag which includes a STRONGER THAN SIN T-shirt & Tote bag, Jesse Bradford Rubber Football Ducky, Bath & Body Works Shower Gel, Mini-Beach Ball and Candy.

Click here to enter the 2010 Summer Beach Party Contest or cut and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.writerspace.com/beach/

July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, America!

As we celebrate the birth of our amazing Nation, remember that Liberty is not free. It is safeguarded by the sacrifices of the men, women and families of our military. It is maintained by each and every citizen who respects the laws and rules of this Nation.

Fly the flag proudly today and never be ashamed to say, “I am an American.”

God bless America and all those who serve her. May they be safe and sound and come home quickly.

July 3, 2010May 10, 2017

Special July Contests!

We’re having not one, but two Jersey Shore Sin Hunter Summer Goody contests during the month of July!

Come down the shore with me for Christmas in July with my wonderful friends at Fresh Fiction.

Join the fun at the Summer Beach Party with my amazing friends at Writerspace!

Register now for the July 18th event and a chance to win an assortment of prizes! If you’re lucky, you might win my prize which is:

Click here to enter the 2010 Summer Beach Party Contest or cut and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.writerspace.com/beach/

June 30, 2010

Problems abound…

I’m sorry to say the laptop is back at it. Seems to be a video problem, but because of that and some writing deadlines, I’m going to take a short break until July 5th! I’ll be back on Monday with your Guilty Pleasure as well as some summer fun – a few contests for you to enjoy!

Have a great 4th of July weekend!

June 29, 2010May 10, 2017

The Importance of Backups

Last night I pulled out the laptop to work as I am in the middle of multiple deadlines.

Imagine my surprise when my three year old Dell refused to start up. Lights blinked, etc. but no image. I plugged in a monitor to see if it was the screen – no image. After hours of trying, nothing.

Did I freak? Well yes, because I really can’t afford to buy a new laptop right now.

Did I worry about the data or my more important programs? No.

If there is one thing that I am, it’s a stickler for doing backups and you should be as well in order not to lose valuable data when things go wrong.

How can you do backups? Here are some suggestions for you:

Use a thumb drive and do a SAVE AS of your work-in-progress as soon as you’ve finished any major changes. Keep that thumb drive in a safe and secure place.
Use an external drive to do daily/weekly/monthly backups of your data. You know best how often you add data to your drive, so that should determine how often you do a backup. Terrabyte drives are now in the $79 to $129 range at various locations and will store a mess of data for you.
Copy files to an offsite location. You may really really really need not to lose your data in case there is damage to your home. There are services which let you copy your files and hold them offsite. Carbonite is one of the more popular services. If you’re an Optimum Online customer, they have a backup powered by Carbonite which allows you to store up to 2 gigabytes of data offsite.

Those are all nice solutions for safeguarding your data, but what about your programs?

Make sure you store your CDs in a safe place and keep the serial numbers handy. I have one of those audio CD library cases with my programs and I write and/or cut out the serial number from the box and keep it with the CD.
f you’ve downloaded the program from the Internet, keep the program files in a DOWNLOAD folder on your computer and back it up with your data files. Be sure to keep a copy of the serial number information handy, either in a document, address book or other location where you will remember you put it.
If you can’t even bear the thought of reloading all the software, there are programs which will save images of your hard drive which can then be restored to avoid such reinstalls. ACRONIS has a number of backup programs including one that creates a hard drive image. The cost? Only 39.99 right now.

I hope you found this Tuesday Tip helpful. As for me, the Dell decided to boot this morning, so I am busy making a full backup of data and an image backup just to be on the safe side!