Caridad Pineiro® Romance Author
NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Romance Author
OMG! I can’t believe I didn’t blog for you during the RT Convention, but it was impossible!! I ended up on about 8 or 9 panels and the days were longer than I thought they would be. I do have some nice pictures for you of various cover models and authors and will be uploading them tonight for you.
Even though I did all those panels, I had a great time and met so many wonderful people. I’ll write in greater depth tonight when I’ve got a little more time!
Sorry to not have given you a Fun Friday, but I’ve been swamped with both legal and writing work!! Plus, I’m off to RT. Hey Gretchen, there’s that picture of me and Adrian (NOT!)(although I am probably that short compared to him!).
I will try to get a picture for you, but as I mentioned, they are charging for that meal so I’ll have to stalk the corridors, waiting for him. LOL!
On another note, since I am going to RT, look for me to be a roving reporter this week from the trenches of this amazing romance book convention. Hopefully I can provide you some comments from other romance writers, booksellers, readers, the parties, you name it! Also, I’ll be blogging on the RT site on Thursday as well as offering some workshops. I’ll try to get a link for you soon.
Have a great Monday and I’ll keep you posted on my wild times at the convention.
For the past couple of years I’ve been headed to the RT Convention to meet booksellers, fellow writers and the amazing readers of romance.
Notice I didn’t mention the cover models. Much as I appreciate a good cover model (such as the one that appeared on my first book in 1999 and which also happened to grace the cover of RT), I sometimes worry whether putting so much focus on them loses sight of what’s between the covers. (Don’t worry, Gretchen, I will try to get that photo of Adrian Paul for you!).
I do like meeting the cover models as people though, since many of them are such wonderful down-to-earth guys.
And yes, I’m guilty of this fascination with six packs and firm buns since I love a good Guilty Pleasure as we all do on Monday mornings. But I know what I like even more — the story between the covers!
How do you feel about the cover models and our fascination with them? Do you ever buy a book just on the basis of the man on the cover?
I know that I certainly will pick up a book with a nice hunk on the cover, but not necessarily buy it after I read the jacket blurb. Of course, there are covers which don’t have nearly naked men on them and which catch my eye.
Here’s your chance to weigh in on the cover models! Love ’em, hate ’em, indifferent. Which are you?
This Tuesday Tip is a recipe for a very flexible, sweet and sassy salad!
Yes, you read that right — Salad. I know I’ve avowed my aversion to the stuff in various posts, but this is one salad recipe that I love and will actually eat without much complaint. For those of you in the New York area, you may have seen something similar in Cosi, one of the chain sandwich shops. Nordstrom’s also makes a similar salad in their store cafe.
Why is it so tasty? Well, it’s got the sweet thing going, but also, you can mix and match any of a number of ingredients to make it just the way you want it. So, I’ll give you some of the variations and let you decide how to personalize.
Sweet and Sassy Salad
2 to 3 cups of greens (you can use romaine, red leaf lettuce, mesclun greens, arugula, spinach. I like it best with the mesclun greens. Definitely avoid the iceberg lettuce route)
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese (you can also substitute blue cheese which is my favorite yum)
1/2 of a Ripe pear cubed (a nice crisp apple will also work)(if you like it sweet, use the whole fruit!)
1/2 of a tomato, cubed
Handful of dried cranberries (or raisins or currants)
Handful of pecans, chopped (or walnuts)
Handful of chopped scallions (but not onions unless you’re doing a mild Vidalia or Maui onion)
Put all of the above in a bowl and toss with a low fat balsamic vinegarette or another mild salad dressing. You don’t want to use a strongly flavored salad dressing because that will interfere/clash with the more delicate flavors of the fruits and cheeses. This salad is so flavorful, you may want to try it with just a hint of vinegar sans oil or even a citrus vinegarette.
A tip for chopping the nuts without having them go flying all around the counter — stick them in a sandwich bag, put them on the chopping board and with the back of your knife, just give them a few whacks. I guess you’re actually crushing them, but the nuts will break into the pieces and then you just empty the bag onto your salad!
Voila! A sweet and sassy salad that has a combo of things that are sure to keep you satisfied for a while, namely, some proteins, fats and carbs. One big dieting mistake is to just have plain ol’ salad with dressing and while the volume of the salad will fill you up, without any proteins/fats/carbs to sustain your energy levels, you are just asking for a major energy crash that will make you have hunger pangs.
OMG! I hope you will find this morning’s Guilty Pleasure especially guilty and pleasurable!! David Beckham. Bad boy, badder bod as this Emporio Armani ad demonstrates.
Also, if you haven’t seen BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (where unfortunately he does not appear in the movie), check it out anyway. It’s a great movie about cultural clashes, male/female roles and racial bias. . . and of course, soccer. Did I mention the movie also features hottie Jonathan Rhys Meyers (currently of THE TUDORS) and a girl crush possibility — Keira Knightley?
As I promised, I chose a winner over the weekend for the Lisa Daily guest blog and give-away! FANNIE is the lucky winner! Could you please e-mail me your postal address?
Hope you all had a great weekend!
P.S. — Thanks to my sis for the inspiration for today’s Guilty Pleasure.
I got an e-mail today about Getting Clowned and I just had to check it!
Ringling Bros. Circus, which has been making its rounds in our area (Philly April 16-27), has a site where you can send a buddy an e-mail pie-in-the-face. Check it out www.igotclowned.com.
I don’t know about you, I’ve always found clowns to be kind of funny. My mom, however, never liked clowns. She had seen the famous Emmett Kelly and thought he was so sad. She could never shake his sadness whenever she saw a clown.
Anyway, start this Friday by clowing one of your friends with a pie-in-the-face! If you’re sending it my way, make sure it’s either cherry or peach and don’t forget the whipped cream!
Finally, a big thanks to the Maryland Romance Writers for a wonderful night! You rock!
Many thanks to Lisa for visiting with us yesterday and to all of you who took the time to come by and leave a comment! I’m running a little late, busy juggling things today, and will be picking a winner over the weekend.
Lisa has kindly donated a T-shirt and copy of the book for us and look for a winner to be announced on Monday morning!
Juggling. Seems like lately I’m doing more of that than I ever imagined. I’m running from the office to the house, working out, writing, preparing promo stuff, talking to the hubby and daughter, dealing with Spring and all the clean-up that involves around the house and yard. . .
Someone asked me how I do it all and there’s no easy answer. I do sleep, contrary to what some say about my being a vampire. I do eat (as we know sometimes too much! LOL!)
I do juggle a lot. I seem to have balls in the air all the time, but how do I keep from dropping one?
Well, it’s always a challenge, but I try to multi-task. I use every free moment I have to try and accomplish something. Hubby always asks me “What’s my schedule” and the reality of it is, I do have to schedule. Three hours to write. One hour on Saturday to clean in the yard. Another hour to do the weekly food shopping. Another hour to get to the gym, work out . . .
You get it. I do the same at work. Prioritize what’s urgent. Put together similar tasks to deal with them in the most effective way possible.
The same goes for writing. I try to get all the research done first and get it memorized so I don’t have to dig back for a lot of things while writing. I pre-write by using visualization techniques.
What’s that? Well, before going to bed, I watch the scene in my head, kind of like a movie. I do the same on the walk to work and on the walk back to the train station to head home. What does that mean? When I sit down to write, I’ve already got a movie of the scene that I’ve played and replayed in my head until it’s right. That lets me get to writing it right away rather than sitting there thinking about what I’ll write.
So, there’s some skill to the juggling and lots of practice and reinvention. If something’s not working right or using my time effectively, I stop and see how I can make it work better.
That’s my juggling act for today! I’ve got to get going because I’m headed off to speak with the Maryland Romance Writers tonight!