And now for something different...

Now that I got today's spleenage vented... LOL

It looks like the release date for Two Geeks and Their Girl (mfm) is going to be August 2...my wedding anniversary. *big grin* Yes, I'm taking that as a good sign. (There are three cameos/references in there that lovers of Tony, my Love Slave for Two series, and my Good Will Ghost Hunting series will love. LOL No, it's not a paranormal or a BDSM, but I love to have "walkthroughs" in my books from other series. LOL)

August 8 is the 5th anniversary of my very first book being published, too. So it's a good month. :)

And yes, we're currently being dumped on by TS Andrea, but it's mostly a non-event for us. Just well-needed rain.

Yes, I'm working on Triple Trouble 6 to get it submitted. The second book in the Bleacke Shifters series is in edits (I'm still waffling on the title). I'm working on another BDSM wip to get it submitted, called Pinch Me, a mf with thriller/mystery elements, and the next installment of my Suncoast Society series. And the next Coffeeshop Coven series book (Sachi's story, titled Lost Bird.) I'm trying to keep the Coming Soon box updated on the main page with dates when I have them.

Oh, and Many Blessings (Coffeeshop Coven 1) is now available on Kindle. Keep an eye out for the print version coming soon.

Hurricane Sandy - PAY ATTENTION!

Photo Source

Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the NE United States. Folks, I cannot emphasize this highly enough, this is a MONSTER storm. Its sheer size alone will create havoc when it moves onshore and takes out chunks of the power grid in its path. And don't pay attention to the LBL (little black line) or the projected landfall time. This storm is so BIG, and most of the worst weather is in the forward quadrants, that if you count on the projected landfall time you will be caught unaware.

Please, please, please, prepare NOW. Make sure you have supplies, fuel up your vehicles, have made SAFE arrangements for staying warm (it's going to be COLD when Frankenstorm comes through), water for your family, medicine, etc.

And do NOT forget your pets!!!

• The Weather Channel
• Central Florida Hurricane Center (great source for news, radar, path info, and links)
• National Hurricane Center

Hunkering down...

Ugh. I hate hurricane season. Fortunately, Isaac will personally be more of an annoyance than a  serious problem. I can't say that for the rest of our area. We aren't in a flood zone, but as the RNC found out, downtown Tampa is. Not to mention Pinellas county is a peninsula connected to other land by four bridges and a narrow, heavily-populated strip of land. That contains a major evacuation route.

And what idiot decided it'd be a good idea to house the RNC delegates over on the other side of the bay, anyway? There are plenty of good hotels right in downtown Tampa...uh, within BLOCKS of the Forum and Convention Center. Good grief. Most local governments and schools are closed tomorrow because of the storm, and the RNC's opening day has been pushed to Tuesday.

Yeah, let's hold a week-long convention in Florida...at the height of hurricane season...in downtown Tampa...which is prone to flooding.

Asshats.

I went down and boarded up our other house yesterday as a precaution, and of course I'm paying for it today. Everything hurts. I find it ironic that "Love Slave for Two: Reckoning" releases tomorrow, and in it, Nevvie and her brood must deal with a killer hurricane bearing down on the Tampa Bay region.

And when I wrote it, just a short time later, TS Debbie hit the area, causing similar flood damage in some of the areas that I predicted in my book.

So here we go again.

I fear for the folks in New Orleans. As of this writing, the track is still shifting, but it looks like wherever it hits will get whacked in a big way. This s a huge storm.

So Hubby and I are snugly hunkered down. I'm scrambling to finish two WIPs to get them submitted by the end of the month, as well as a set of edits. I'm feeling a little melancholy about "Reckoning" being the last installment of the "Love Slave for Two" series, but it means I can get some of my other series finished up.

Click here to buy "Love Slave for Two: Reckoning."

Weather Tweeters

Okay, for you Tweeps, here's a list of weather tweeters in case you want to follow them to keep track of #Debby. (And if you want to follow me, I'm @madmumbler )

@CraigatFEMA @StormTeam8WFL @TBOcom @TripicalATL @BrooksGarner
@weatherchannel @JimCantore @HurricaneHD @twc_hurricane
@wunderground @hurricanes @storm2k_org @twcbreaking @breakingstorm
@NWSMelbourne @hurricanetrack @HurricaneCity @Watkinstrack
@BigJoeBastardi @cfhc @NASAHurricane @CNN_HurricaneHQ
@StormVisuals @BarometerBob @GregNordstrom @NHC_DrRickKnabb
@AtlanticWatch @philklotzbach @mikeseidel @TWCBryan @DrGregForbes
@TWCBreaking @StephanieAbrams @NWS_Southern_US
@HRD_AOML_NOAA @TWCJulieMartin @TWCMikeBettes
@bn9weather @NBC2

My wet corner of the world right now...

In case you were curious, this is what our local radar looks like. We're about to get hammered by rain again. LOL

"Debby does..." Well, pretty much everywhere.

Source: National Hurricane Center

I can't imagine weather forecasters all over aren't making off-air jokes about the potential for the tropical blob currently in the Gulf of Mexico to become Debby in the next day or so.

The nice thing is, this is a huge drought-buster for the state of Florida. I know Georgia is probably hoping some of this mass ends up sitting over the top of them for a while as well.

It's the price we pay for living in paradise. But it's looking more and more like Debby won't be a monster (I hope!). We don't mind tropical systems as long as they stay on the low end of the scale. People think Florida is this wet place, when the truth is, we get pretty bad droughts in the winter months. If you look at the globe, you'll see we're located in the desert zones. Just because we're surrounded by water doesn't mean we're always "wet." And the fact that so many people move here wanting lush, green lawns (which means using precious water resources) puts a really big dent in our water table.

Rain gooood. Very good. We can do without the wind, but we love the rain.

So I'm spending my Saturday looking at my weather radar channel (which I play muted all day while working and listening to music on my iPod) while I'm working on finishing "Love Slave for Two: Reckoning" to turn in at the end of the month.

I also ordered a BUNCH of goodies this week to give away at The Romance Convention in Dallas in August. If you can, please try to get there, because it will be an EPIC good time.

And I'm going to be putting together a special button you can order (at cost) from either CafePress or Zazzle for my readers to wear at the convention. The first five readers who come up to me that weekend wearing said button will get a special goodie bag from me. :)

Also, due to requests from readers, I've created a chat list for my readers. No promo, please, but feel free to discuss other books if you want. It doesn't replace my email announcement newsletter, but people have been asking me for a chat list and I finally got around to creating it. LOL

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TymbersTrybe/

Don't forget, if you don't want to wait for my latest releases to hit Kindle, you can get them directly from Siren-BookStrand and set up your Siren account to get your Kindle files sent TO your Kindle. No waiting! :)

http://www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

Heads up, folks. Irene's on the way.

People tell me, a native Floridian who's never lived anywhere else, they would never want to live in Florida for a number of reasons, but they normally rank hurricanes at the top of the list.

Fortunately for us, direct strikes by massive storms on our state aren't that common. But as the current storm, Irene, is proof, Florida is far from the only area vulnerable to direct strikes from massive systems.

For those of you on the eastern seaboard in the path of this monster, it's time to take heed. I don't care how many near misses you've lived through, or if you think your local emergency management folks are full of beans. This is a storm to pay attention to and prepare for, even if the preparations turn out to be unneeded. Believe me, as someone who lived through Charley, a storm that wasn't supposed to hit us but made a last-minute turn in our direction and hit us head-on, you do NOT want to guess wrong. And don't forget to take care of your pets. Don't leave them behind.

Good luck to all those in the storm's path, and please stay safe.

Clear (?) skies and writing work habits.

Well, we survived the storm. Luckily it wasn't much of an impact on our area. Still have the boards up, but we'll get those down in the next couple of days.

A chance comment and reply to a friend on an email list today prompted me to think about this and toss the question out to the masses. For you writers out there, what is your preferred "work routine" when it comes to your writing? Or do you even have one? Do you sit with your laptop wherever you feel like it, or do you have a highly regimented routine in front of your desktop, etc. Do you have a favorite beverage or food you have to have handy? Music? Candles?

Tell us about your writing work habits in the comments, and feel free to give us a plug for your website or buy link while you're at it. (Hey, don't look a free promo opportunity in the mouth. *LOL*)

While you're at it, if you haven't yet, stop by the Brimstone Series Blog to find out more information about my paranormal romance, "Love & Brimstone."

Hurry up and wait...

Hurry up and wait... "Hey, Mom, can I have ice cream, because you said we need to eat stuff out of the freezer and we don't want it to melt."

You can't argue with a 12 year-old's logic, can you?

So now I'm sitting in my boarded-up house (ie CAVE) waiting for TS Fay (or Hurricane Fay if it strengthens at some point) to make landfall in our neck of the woods. Boarding up might be overkill, but my theory is this: if I'm boarded up, the storm will be weaker than predicted.

This goes with the same logic I have that as long as my generator works, I won't ever need it. Since we've had it, it has yet to be used for a power outage. It's my magic talisman to keep the bad spinny storms away. *LOL*

I truly don't make light of storms, because as a native Floridian and life-long resident, frankly, I'm used to this. And honestly, 2004 was the worst year we'd had in my life. Normally, we don't get a lot of storms. It's safer living in Florida than it is living in some areas of Tornado Alley, when you think about it. At least with a hurricane it gives you the courtesy of advanced notice.

People ask me, "How can you live in Florida with hurricanes?" Well, if you live in an area that gets blizzards, ask me that in the middle of January when a huge ice storm dumps on you and you lose power for over a week and risk freezing to death. *LOL* At least here, if we lose power, we can open our windows. I've never lived anywhere else, don't really desire to live anywhere else (although if I ever make enough money, I'd love a second home near Yellowstone National Park where I can visit all the time). I mean, really, how many natural disasters are courteous enough to give you advanced warning? *LOL*