Gone From The 'Net, For A Bit

Hi all --

I've got a full week-plus of family stuff coming up, so my internet time will be severely truncated. I'll try to pop on in between events (Can't wait to finish up my review of Torchwood), but in the meantime, here's a video that I absolutely loved:



Hope it makes you smile!

Travels With Kate - National Park Heartbreak

So last year we bought an annual pass for the National Park System. With the Grand Canyon and Arches both on our itinerary, it seemed like the prudent thing to do. A year flies by, as they tend to do, and it's due to expire at the end of the month. What do we decide to do?

Visit some National Parks, of course. Want to get some value out of that thing! (Of course, just seeing the Grand Canyon and Arches would have made it worth it, plus supporting the parks system, which we love.) So Saturday we head to the Klondike Museum in downtown Seattle, an urban park smack dab in the middle of the city. We walk up to the counter and flash the card.

"Oh, don't worry about that. This park has no entrance fee."

Dang. Oh well, better luck next time.

(It was a fabulous museum, full of interactive stuff for kids and plenty of info for all of us.)

Next day, we decide -- Mount Rainier! Why not? We'd been meaning to hit Rainier since we got back from last year's road trip, so it was the perfect opportunity. A beautiful, warm day, excited kids, an annual pass that expires in two weeks...brilliant!

We get to the entrance, flash the annual pass again. "Oh, you don't need that today. It's one of the three free weekends this year for National Parks."

You have GOT to be kidding me. Not only do we save NOTHING, everyone and his mother is on the mountain taking advantage of the free admittance.

(And yes, even though we didn't find any parking at the visitor center, we trundled down partway and walked a few easy trails with the kids. Fun was had, and the views were spectacular.)

Okay. It's starting to get serious. How can we save money when they refuse to charge us anything?

Two days later, it's over to the coast and the Lewis and Clark National Park. We stop at some heritage markers, check out the winding road along the Columbia river, and reach Fort Clatsop. Park, gather kids, enter visitor center. Haul the pass out of my purse with a sense of dread.

Victory! We've saved the admittance fee! (And no comments about how the kids would have gotten in free anyway. I'm busy basking in the moment.)

So that's the story of my run-in with the National Park system. And despite the comedy of errors trying to "use" the pass up before it expires, each park was fabulous and I highly recommend them.

Torchwood, Day Two: Observations

Have you been watching Torchwood this week? It's showing in the US (and I believe Canada) this week over five days. I've been waiting not-so-patiently for it to arrive, and finally it's here!

Two episodes down, three to go. My thoughts so far (and I'll try to keep them as non-spoilerish as possible):

1. Bigger, deeper, more complex. Loving the storytelling in this story arc.

2. The interactions between Jack and Ianto make me giggle and melt at the same time. Oh, boys, you're so cute together! I don't care what you say, couple fits.

3. I've watched the commercials I don't know how many times, and it doesn't matter. Those children creep me out.

4. Speaking of creeping me out, how Jack came back in episode two? Ewwww.

5. Oh, Ianto Jones, tea boy and heavy equipment operator, how I adore you. Mrowr.

6. Loving the backstory. Getting to see Jack and Ianto (separately so far) outside Torchwood proper is illuminating, to say the least. And Gwen and Rhys are adorable together, as always.

7. MORE SNOGGING, PLS. kthxbai.

8. Can't wait for tomorrow!

Coming up on the blog: Kate's great travel adventures, or, why I haven't posted in (gulp) almost two weeks. Sorry.

A Change of Plans

Sometimes, all you can do is laugh...

A couple of days ago, I posted that I'd be away from the computer for a few days, without internet access. We had camping reservations, and were going to enjoy our new pop-up trailer for the first time. No internet at the state park, so I was leaving the computer at home. We spent most of the weekend outfitting the camper, buying and packing stuff, and preparing to head out of town.

Monday arrived. We packed the camper and the van, hooked the pop-up to the hitch, and stepped back to take a look.

Was that low, or was that my imagination?

Uh, no. The trailer we'd purchased based on the assurances of the RV dealership, the place that installed the tow package, and the car dealership that it was the right size and weight for our vehicle, was almost in a "V" formation -- front of trailer and back of van almost dragging on the ground, the front of the van and the back of the trailer hitched way up in the air.

Dubious, we headed down to the closest RV dealer to have it looked at. The guy at the dealership took one look and confirmed our suspicions. We couldn't take it camping without risking damage to the hitch, the trailer, the van, even the spare tire.

Home we drove, slowly, to unhitch the trailer, unpack it, put everything away, and cancel our reservation. All of us were bummed. Any future camping experiences will require either a new tow vehicle or some weight-distributing modifications on the one we currently have.

So no camping. Instead, we're taking some day trips with the kids. And except for this brief hop on the computer, I'm keeping the promise to my family and staying away from the internet. Hopefully, it will be a time we can still remember happily, whether at a campground or a waterslide park. I should be back online sometime next week. In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying this season as well!

The Winner! And Heading Out...

Congratulations to Chey, who won last week's random drawing for Knight Of Desire. Chey, please send me your address off-list and I'll send the book along to you!

Thanks to everyone who commented, re-tweeted, and e-mailed about the book as well. It's much appreciated!

Just so you know, I'm heading out for a few days and will be sans internet, so don't expect any postings until later in the week or next week. Have a great week and I'll chat with you when I'm back!

Booksignings and Blog Tours

Last night I went to debut author Margaret Mallory's first booksigning. It was, by all accounts, a rousing success, with long lines and sold-out stock. It was loads of fun chatting with other RWA chapter members, watching the crowd, and seeing just how thrilled--and a little stunned--Margaret was with the event. Congratulations, again, to MM!

I picked up two copies, one for me, one for a lucky reader. All you have to do to be entered to win is post a comment sometime this week. Easy-peasy, right?

So on the topic of signings, the question of the day is: what author would you most like to meet at a booksigning? Or what's the most precious signed book you own?

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I'm guest blogging over at Leah Braemel's place today, talking about beach reads. There's a giveaway there, so drop on by and say howdy!

Book BIN Tuesday -- Knight of Desire

FEARLESS IN BATTLE
His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn.

TENDER IN BED
Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she’s keeping secrets and dares not give him her heart. As passion ignites and danger closes in, Catherine and William must learn to trust in each other to save their marriage, their land, and their very lives.

***

Not just a new book, but a debut book, by a fabulous new author! Margaret Mallory and I are in the same RWA chapter, and I've been just thrilled watching her career take flight. The book has been getting a lot of buzz, and I couldn't be happier for her.

It's out now, and I encourage everyone to do what I'm going to do this week -- pop down to the bookstore and Buy It Now! (I'll have the added benefit of having it signed by the author, at her booksigning Wednesday at the Olympia WA Borders. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by!)

And one lucky winner will be selected from all comments this week to win a signed copy of the book. Just post a comment sometime between now and Friday, and you could win!

I *Heart* Libraries

I've always been a library person. The weekly trip to the library to check out a new stack of books was one of my favorite activities as a kid, and things haven't changed much since then. I still hit the local libary on a regular basis, and leave with a pile of books each time. Except now, I can add my kids' choices to my own. It adds up to a heck of a lot of reading material.


And that's fine by me. I'm a very fast reader - so fast, in fact, that if I didn't have a library habit, I'd spend the majority of my paycheck on books. I prefer using the library to used bookstores because I know that my checking-out habits encourage the powers that be to order more romance books for the system, which results in more royalties to authors. I also request books and authors all the time -- sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but it's always worth a try.

So I was thrilled to discover that my local library system had ordered my newest print title, Lessons Learned, for circulation. When it first came out, I'd considered donating a copy, but the librarian told me it would just be put in the Friends of the Library sale because of the cost of entering it in the system. And since it's small press, I thought the chances of seeing it on the shelves was slim to none.

I was wrong.

Somehow, somewhere, Lessons Learned ended up on their radar, and there are now four copies in circulation. And that thrilled me as much as getting my first author copies did.

I'm in the library. And dang, it feels good!

Happy Loving Day!

June 12, 1967, was a significant day in the United States. That's the day the Supreme Court decided in favor of Richard and Mildred Loving in the case brought against them by the state of Virginia.

Their "crime"? Living together in Virginia AFTER being married in Washington DC. Why was it a crime? Because they were an interracial couple, and that was illegal in the state of Virginia at the time. In fact, it was still illegal in 16 states in the union in 1967.

(Sidenote: Good lord! That's only two years before I was born. There were still states with anti-miscegenation laws on the books then?)

But on this day in 1967, the Supreme Court struck down the state laws against interracial marriage. And today, the 12th of June is designated Loving Day, in support of multicultural families, and to celebrate the couple whose struggle helped grant Americans the right to marry whomever they want, regardless of race or ethnicity.

We still have a ways to go, but it was a giant step forward, and I wanted to say thanks to the Lovings, who have to be the most appropriately-named defendants in a Supreme Court decision, ever.

(And in any case, a romantic like me couldn't pass up a chance to celebrate something called Loving Day.)

Book BIN Tuesday -- M or F?

A couple of weeks ago I attended an SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) conference. Part of my reason for attending was to earn credit toward my continuing teaching certification, and part was the YA fantasy romance book that's been kicking around in my head for a few years.

Anyway, one of the featured authors was Lisa Papademetriou, a middle grades/YA writer. There was a bookstore table outside the main meeting rooms, and I found myself gravitating to one of her books in particular.

I read it a couple of days ago and I'm so glad I did! It's actually a team-written book, with Chris Tebbets, and the two of them did a fabulous job creating a fun, frothy, sweetly emotional book about navigating the treacherous waters of high school romance.

Did I mention that one of the main characters is gay? Yeah, add even more turbulence to those waters. But it's not a coming out story. Marcus is already (mostly) out of the closet, and his friends and family accept him for who he is. No, that's not the issue.

The problem is, he's developing a crush on the boy his best (female) friend wants to date. And he's starting to think Jeffrey likes him, too.

Add in alternating first person chapters, where we see events from both Marcus's and Frannie's perspectives, fun secondary characters, and a humorous twist on Cyrano de Bergerac featuring an online chat room, and you've got a recipe for a fun, happy book.

I keep saying fun, don't I? Sorry, but it really is the best word to describe this book. I highly recommend it. So why not head on over to to the nearest bookstore and Buy It Now?