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  <title>Dianne Fox</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/</link>
  <description>Dianne Fox - LiveJournal.com</description>
  <lastBuildDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:46:44 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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    <title>Dianne Fox</title>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/137225.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:46:44 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>New Story! Coming to His Senses, a Sensational Story</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/137225.html</link>
  <description>Anah and I have a new story out!  If you liked Jasper and Samson from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;manufacturers_id=203&amp;amp;products_id=2031&quot;&gt;Heightened Senses&lt;/a&gt; (in the K9 Taste Test) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;manufacturers_id=203&amp;amp;products_id=2291&quot;&gt;A Trick of the Senses&lt;/a&gt; (one of the Halloween Sips), you might like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;manufacturers_id=203&amp;amp;products_id=2383&quot;&gt;Coming to His Senses&lt;/a&gt;, a new Holiday &quot;Nice&quot; Sip.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jasper has never known life outside institutions and hospitals. Necessity leads him to a permanent placement at Raindell, where his doctor begins to suspect that there&apos;s nothing the medical establishment can do for him. Samson has lived his life in a haven for shapeshifters, but he yearns to be with his person. When an elderly telepath meets Samson, he’s sure that the troublesome patient of a friend at Raindell is that very person. Jasper just has to hold it together a little longer, and he might find himself face to face with the cure he needs.</description>
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  <category>heightened senses</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/137068.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:18:08 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Friday Fill-Ins</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/137068.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/2009/12/154.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/000233sq&quot; width=&quot;88&quot; height=&quot;31&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;1. Good times: &lt;u&gt;good writing&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;2. &lt;u&gt;I am comfortable in&lt;/u&gt; my home. &lt;br /&gt;3. Sleigh bells ring &lt;u&gt;are you listening?&lt;/u&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4. &lt;u&gt;Cat the second is&lt;/u&gt; little.&lt;br /&gt;5. Once more &lt;u&gt;into the breeches&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;6. &lt;u&gt;&lt;em&gt;That&lt;/em&gt; was the&lt;/u&gt; end?&lt;br /&gt;7. And as for the weekend, tonight I&apos;m looking forward to &lt;u&gt;sleep&lt;/u&gt;, tomorrow my plans include &lt;u&gt;coping with my folks&lt;/u&gt; and Sunday, I want to &lt;u&gt;relax&lt;/u&gt;!</description>
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  <category>friday fill-ins</category>
  <category>lifestyles of the poor and infamous</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136711.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:05:51 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>The weather outside is frightful, but inside, it&apos;s so delightful...</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136711.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/00029dzx/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/00029dzx/s320x240&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;I made napkins! They were a lot easier than I thought they&apos;d be. I guess I should&apos;ve realized, what with them being square and all, that they wouldn&apos;t be too tricky. They were a lot of fun to make, too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I cut and pressed the fabric, then pressed folds along the edges, twice over. Once I had the folds pinned in place, I took my napkin squares to the sewing machine and hemmed it all up, popping the foot up with the needle down to rotate the fabric for the corners.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They&apos;re a little smaller than I&apos;d intended, due to a measuring error on the first napkin I cut, but they came out beautifully, if I do say so myself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/0002ar34/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/0002ar34/s320x240&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The fabric was a remnant I picked up at the craft store when I was looking for fabric to &lt;a href=&quot;http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135981.html&quot;&gt;make stockings with&lt;/a&gt;. Once I&apos;d made the stockings, I wasn&apos;t sure what to do with this other fabric, so I set it aside. When I woke up the next morning, though, I knew what I wanted to do. I&apos;d seen a few patterns and instruction sets online for making cloth napkins, and I knew this fabric would be perfect for some fun holiday napkins for Kucios and Christmas Day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;m so excited to get to use them for the first time!</description>
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  <category>lifestyles of the poor and infamous</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136448.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:50:40 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Becoming Us</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136448.html</link>
  <description>Elisa Rolle posted a very thorough summary of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;products_id=2238&quot;&gt;Becoming Us&lt;/a&gt;. If you&apos;re one of those people who reads the last page first, or if you&apos;ve been curious about some of the themes in the book, you can check out her post &lt;a href=&quot;http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/881967.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. :)</description>
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  <category>becoming us</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136394.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:01:48 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Best Intentions</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136394.html</link>
  <description>Well, the plan was to get lots done this coming weekend, one of the last two weekends before my in-laws arrive and Christmas takes over my life in earnest. But. I&apos;ll be going to see my mother this weekend, to celebrate an early Christmas with her and her family.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I&apos;ve revised my to-do list a bit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Writing To-Do&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;revise &lt;em&gt;Parallax&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;update &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.foxwrites.com&quot;&gt;FoxWrites&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Other To-Do&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;buy the last few gifts&lt;br /&gt;bake oatmeal cookies&lt;br /&gt;wrap gifts for Early Christmas&lt;br /&gt;haircut &amp; dye on Thursday&lt;br /&gt;flushot on Thursday?&lt;br /&gt;hockey game on Friday night&lt;br /&gt;(oh, and lots of proofreading)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Later tonight, I&apos;m hoping to post the pictures of the Christmas napkins I made on Sunday. It&apos;s all holiday crafts, all the time, here on my LJ. ;)</description>
  <comments>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/136394.html</comments>
  <category>lifestyles of the poor and infamous</category>
  <category>apos</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135981.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:57:10 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Homemade Holiday Stockings</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135981.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/0002572z/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/0002572z/s320x240&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; The week before last, I was doing some holiday shopping, and realized I needed to pick up some more stockings. (My in-laws are spending the holidays with us, and I want to include them in our stocking display.) But all the stockings I saw were HUGE. Far too big to actually fill with stocking stuffers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I decided to make my own, more reasonably sized stockings. Haha.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The first thing you need to know is that, while I love crafting projects, I rarely sit down and DO them. Especially sewing, which has been something I&apos;ve turned over to my partner, who shows actual skill and talent at it. But this was to be MY project, not my partner&apos;s. Which meant I had to be the one to do the sewing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/00027wpc/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/00027wpc/s320x240&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;So last week, I picked up a 1yd remnant of red duck cloth, some 2-inch wide white fake fur, and a lot of options for individualizing the stockings. Yesterday, I pulled out the sewing machine and sat down to work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I created a template, rather than a pattern, out of cardboard. That let me trace the shape for six stockings at once. I cut them out with pinking shears and set to work, learning as I went. Hemming the tops before I attached them turned out to be pretty important. The curve of the toes was tricky. The ribbon loops were far easier than I&apos;d expected.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fake fur wasn&apos;t easy to get right. I had to separate the fur before cutting, so that the excess at the end would cover the seam. The thread would flatten the fur if I didn&apos;t keep it properly separated. The bottom of the ends had to be hot-glued in place because sewing them seemed nearly impossible. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/00028pd0/&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/00028pd0/s320x240&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; height=&quot;240&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Cat the Second &quot;helped&quot; every step of the way, from ingesting various ribbons to trying to include his whiskers in the seams. A fun time was had by all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then I ironed on the embroidered letters I bought after several hours of fruitless searching for the dongle that allows us to use the embroidery system for our sewing machine. And, look! They&apos;re not perfect, but I love them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They&apos;re the perfect size for a few small gifts and they fit on our handcrafted stocking hangers. Every time I&apos;ve looked at them, last night and this morning, I&apos;ve smiled. They are exactly what I wanted, and I made them. I&apos;m so proud of myself!</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135717.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:47:39 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Friday Fill-Ins</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135717.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/2009/12/153.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/000233sq&quot; width=&quot;88&quot; height=&quot;31&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;1. You get &lt;u&gt;what anyone gets&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;2. &lt;u&gt;Drive&lt;/u&gt; right to &lt;u&gt;my door&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;3. It&apos;s &lt;u&gt;about fucking&lt;/u&gt; time.&lt;br /&gt;4. &lt;u&gt;Don&apos;t be&lt;/u&gt; ridiculous!&lt;br /&gt;5. I feel more &lt;u&gt;comfortable at home&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;6. &lt;u&gt;Good luck, and&lt;/u&gt;...goodnight!&lt;br /&gt;7. And as for the weekend, tonight I&apos;m looking forward to &lt;u&gt;trying out a new recipe&lt;/u&gt;, tomorrow my plans include &lt;u&gt;holiday decorating&lt;/u&gt; and Sunday, I want to &lt;u&gt;watch football&lt;/u&gt;!</description>
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  <category>friday fill-ins</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135569.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:00:49 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Becoming Us</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135569.html</link>
  <description>Yesterday, I found a new review for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;products_id=2238&quot;&gt;Becoming Us&lt;/a&gt;, my novel with Anah Crow about two college students&apos; struggle to find their way together. Fallen Angel Reviews&apos; Teresa reviewed it &lt;a href=&quot;http://fallenangelreviews.com/2009/November/teresa-becomingus.htm&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and seems to really like it. Yay!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;She says, among other things, &quot;Ms. Crow and Ms. Fox have created a wonderful story about the difficulties one man had to overcome to realize his dream, a love for all time.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;m really proud of this story and how realistically it portrays Bryce&apos;s struggle with his father and himself, and it&apos;s so gratifying to see that other people like it as much as I do.</description>
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  <category>becoming us</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135366.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:01:18 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>It&apos;s Monday again!</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135366.html</link>
  <description>I&apos;m torn between being glad it&apos;s not snowing or raining, and wishing it were Wednesday (which is my &quot;Friday&quot;)... when, sadly, it&apos;s supposed to snow. Or rain. The weather people have not yet decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanksgiving weekend was lovely. My partner and I had Thanksgiving For Two, which I really enjoyed, and then went to two hockey games, which were a lot of fun. Anah and I worked on &lt;em&gt;Parallax&lt;/em&gt; (it&apos;s really coming along!), and I got a bunch of holiday shopping done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, with all of that, I forgot to pull anything out for dinner tonight, so we&apos;re going to have spaghetti and fried eggs, which is exactly what it sounds like, only more delicious. (Seriously, I know it sounds gross, but it&apos;s really good!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh! Today is Blue Monday on Torquere&apos;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aturnofthescrew.com&quot;&gt;Turn of the Screw&lt;/a&gt;, and Anah and I have put up a story for everyone to enjoy. &lt;a href=&quot;http://pandorastories.com/?page_id=119&quot;&gt;Second Blessings&lt;/a&gt; is the latest in our series of stories about Ceb and Tal in the Pandora Project universe. The rest of their stories can be found &lt;a href=&quot;http://pandorastories.com/?page_id=10&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, under &quot;Cerebus Tres.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh, oh! And I have a new story out! &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;products_id=2363&quot;&gt;The Longest Night&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;: Years ago, Gray and Vale were punished by a jealous mentor, and now a curse keeps them apart for all but a single night each year. When dusk falls on Winter Solstice, Vale steps through a tear in the seam of the world and tells Gray that he has a plan to break the curse. For the plan to work, though, everything has to happen at exactly the right time, and when a key component of the plan fails, Gray is left with the certainty that Vale is lost to him not just for the year, but forever.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And since it&apos;s Monday...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Writing To-Do&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;revise &lt;em&gt;Parallax&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;outline the new sooper sekrit projekt&lt;br /&gt;write &lt;em&gt;Percussion&lt;/em&gt;</description>
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  <category>torquere press</category>
  <category>published yay</category>
  <category>the longest night</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135149.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:28:03 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Somehow...</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/135149.html</link>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;...even though I had nearly the whole day to write, and much of that was NOT spent working on Parallax with Anah, I didn&apos;t even open the document for Percussion. Oops. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I think it&apos;s because I hate writing the emotional upheaval and confrontation parts. So I&apos;m procrastinating and being avoidant. By watching Punkin Chunkin. Oops. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which means, of course, that I&apos;ll need to put my butt in the chair tomorrow. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the up side, Anah and I are getting lots done on Parallax. Have I mentioned how much I love this story? Because I do, lots and lots. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;...is anyone else procrastinating like a procrastinaty thing that procrastinates a lot?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;small&gt;Posted via &lt;a href=&quot;http://community.livejournal.com/cosysoftware_en/&quot;&gt;LiveJournal.app&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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  <category>via ljapp</category>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134671.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:47:05 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Friday Fill-Ins</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134671.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/2009/11/152.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/000233sq&quot; width=&quot;88&quot; height=&quot;31&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;1. Wait! Wait, don&apos;t forget &lt;u&gt;the pumpkin pie&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;2. &lt;u&gt;Characters are&lt;/u&gt; followed at once by &lt;u&gt;plot&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;3. The trouble is &lt;u&gt;I just don&apos;t like it&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;4. &lt;u&gt;My family is&lt;/u&gt; many miles away.&lt;br /&gt;5. With a faint pop &lt;u&gt;the can finally came open&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;6. &lt;u&gt;The villains should be&lt;/u&gt; shadowy and ominous.&lt;br /&gt;7. And as for the weekend, tonight I&apos;m looking forward to &lt;u&gt;hockey&lt;/u&gt;, tomorrow my plans include &lt;u&gt;more hockey&lt;/u&gt; and Sunday, I want to &lt;u&gt;watch football&lt;/u&gt;!</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134420.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:25:07 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Happy Thanksgiving!</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134420.html</link>
  <description>Today is Thanksgiving here in the US (my Canadian writing partner had &lt;em&gt;her&lt;/em&gt; Thanksgiving last month), and I&apos;m taking a moment to remember all the things I&apos;m thankful for. In no particular order:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* Decent healthcare. Tomorrow, I go in for my yearly physical and seasonal flu shot. Usually, that wouldn&apos;t be something to be thankful for (I&apos;m not very good with doctors), but this year it just reminds me how grateful I am to have decent healthcare. This year, I&apos;ve had a minor surgical procedure to remove a spot on my back, as well as an entire summer of physical therapy for my knees. Without good healthcare, I would never have been able to afford any of that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* My partner. We&apos;ve been together for twelve years now, and show no signs of stopping. Even when I least expected it, my partner is incredibly supportive of my writing. He&apos;s also supportive of my aspirations to learn how to do this whole cooking thing (he&apos;s much better at it than I am), and doesn&apos;t complain (at least, not any more than I do) about my crazy family. I&apos;m very grateful for him and all he does.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* My job. I take care of two wonderful children, and their parents treat me not just as an employee but as a member of the family. I have been welcomed into their lives, and I appreciate that more than I can say.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* My writing. The satisfaction of getting words on the page, and seeing the story in my head come to life on the page are two things I&apos;ll never stop being grateful for. It&apos;s a kind of magic, and I love it. (I even have a new story coming out on Saturday!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* My readers. This is totally separate from the writing itself. I&apos;m thankful for my readers, the people who read my stories and enjoy them -- especially the ones who take the time to let me know what they think of my work. But even if you&apos;ve never emailed me about my stories, know that I&apos;m thankful for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* My writing partner. &lt;span class=&apos;ljuser ljuser-name_anahcrow&apos; lj:user=&apos;anahcrow&apos; style=&apos;white-space: nowrap;&apos;&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;http://anahcrow.livejournal.com/profile&apos;&gt;&lt;img src=&apos;http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif&apos; alt=&apos;[info]&apos; width=&apos;17&apos; height=&apos;17&apos; style=&apos;vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;&apos; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;http://anahcrow.livejournal.com/&apos;&gt;&lt;b&gt;anahcrow&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; is such a huge part of my life. I don&apos;t know what I&apos;d do without her. She&apos;s a wonderful friend, a great critique partner, and a fantastic co-writer. We fit so well together; I can&apos;t imagine finding that kind of bond with anyone else. I&apos;m thankful for her, too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Happy Thanksgiving!</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134243.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:15:50 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Thanksgiving for Two</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134243.html</link>
  <description>My partner and I will be on our own for Thanksgiving, as my in-laws are 11 hours away and my mother is spending the holiday with her husband&apos;s family (she&apos;s really taking this &apos;new family&apos; thing and running with it). In the past, this has meant we don&apos;t do anything for Thanksgiving, but this year, I decided we should celebrate anyway.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But how to do Thanksgiving for just two people, when all the Thanksgiving recipes are designed for 6 or more?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, that was the tricky part, but I think I came up with a Thanksgiving menu that will work for us. It&apos;ll give us just a bit of leftovers for the following weekend without drowning us in food. Here&apos;s what I&apos;ve got:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2 cornish game hens&lt;br /&gt;cornbread muffins&lt;br /&gt;sausage and cornbread stuffing&lt;br /&gt;turkey gravy&lt;br /&gt;duchess potatoes&lt;br /&gt;roasted carrots&lt;br /&gt;pumpkin pie&lt;br /&gt;pecan pie&lt;br /&gt;miniature apple pies&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(Okay, I went a little overboard with the desserts. But they&apos;ll last longer than the meat and side dishes will. Also, I bought the pumpkin and pecan pies pre-made.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All of the recipes are adapted from various Cook&apos;s Illustrated cookbooks and Cook&apos;s Country magazines, except the pie dough for the apple pies, which comes from &lt;em&gt;Baking With Julia&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a kid, I hated stuffing/dressing on holidays. This is the first stuffing recipe I&apos;ve actually really liked, so I&apos;m going to go ahead and share the pared-down-for-two version of the recipe:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6c. cornbread (break into 1&quot; pieces)&lt;br /&gt;1c. low-sodium chicken broth&lt;br /&gt;.5c. half-and-half&lt;br /&gt;1 egg (beaten lightly)&lt;br /&gt;6oz. bulk pork sausage (broken into 1&quot; pieces)&lt;br /&gt;2 small onions (chopped fine)&lt;br /&gt;1.5 ribs celery (chopped fine)&lt;br /&gt;1tbsp. unsalted butter (plus extra for baking dish)&lt;br /&gt;1tbsp. minced fresh thyme leaves&lt;br /&gt;1tbsp. minced fresh sage leaves&lt;br /&gt;2 small cloves garlic (minced)&lt;br /&gt;3/4tsp. salt&lt;br /&gt;1tsp. ground black pepper&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spread the cornbread pieces on a baking sheet and dry in a 250F oven for about 45 minutes. Place the dried bread in a large bowl.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Whisk together broth, half-and-half, and eggs in a medium bowl. Pour the stock mixture over the bread and toss very gently. (Don&apos;t break the bread.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Cook sausage pieces, stirring occasionally, until it doesn&apos;t look raw anymore (about 5 minutes). Use a slotted spoon to move the sausage to a medium bowl, leaving the fat in the skillet. Add about half the onions and celery to the fat in the skillet and cook until softened (about 5 minutes), then transfer it to the bowl with the sausage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Heat up the skillet again and add butter. Saute the rest of the onions and celery until softened (about 5 minutes), then add sage, thyme, and garlic. Cook until fragrant, then add salt and pepper.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Add this and the sausage to the bread, and stir gently (don&apos;t break the bread).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spray a disposable roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray. Trust me, use a disposable pan. You want to be able to throw the sucker out when you&apos;re done, because it takes FOREVER to clean the cooked cornbread stuffing off a real pan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Spread the stuffing evenly in the roasting pan. Cover with foil and refrigerate. When you roast your turkey (or, in my case, cornish game hens), put turkey on a wire rack or a broiler-pan top, and put that on top of the roasting pan with the stuffing inside. The drippings from the turkey will fall into the stuffing and it will be &lt;em&gt;delicious&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After you take out the turkey, put the stuffing back in (moving the oven rack to the upper middle position) for about 10 more minutes, so it turns golden brown (or as my partner likes to say, &quot;GBD: golden brown and delicious&quot;).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Enjoy!</description>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:47:26 GMT</pubDate>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/134127.html</link>
  <description>&lt;em&gt;Tatterdemalion&lt;/em&gt;&apos;s blurb worksheet is off to the editor, and now I&apos;m revising the synopsis we sent out with our query package, as a lot of things have already changed since then. (Namely, characters with new names and an entire chapter having been removed.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anah is hard at work on a scene for the &lt;em&gt;Parallax&lt;/em&gt; revisions, and we&apos;re both looking forward to moving on to the next piece in that project. The worst part about growing as a writer is having to fix stuff you wrote BEFORE. *facepalm* But that story is really coming together now, and I feel like it&apos;s much, much stronger for our changes. (And I &amp;lt;3 it.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I still have lots of work to do on &lt;em&gt;Percussion&lt;/em&gt;, as well. I&apos;ve written the big conflict scene, and I&apos;m about halfway through the sequel-scene to that. From there, everything will be about tying up loose ends and bringing things back together. It&apos;s not looking like it will be novel-length, but stranger things have happened. I&apos;ll be happy to see it come together, whatever length it ends up being. This has been my pet project since November 2007, after I finished writing &lt;em&gt;Ghost Notes&lt;/em&gt;! It&apos;s been totally rewritten twice. I&apos;m hoping to not have to do that again. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So those are the things on my list to work on this week. It&apos;s Thanksgiving, but my partner and I aren&apos;t traveling to see family, so I should have plenty of free time. Yay for productivity!</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/133843.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:09:02 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Just another...</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/133843.html</link>
  <description>...manic Monday. BUT! This Monday, I actually feel like a human being, unlike last Monday, when I was &lt;s&gt; unknowingly struggling with the first stages of H1N1&lt;/s&gt; recovering from H1N1.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&apos;s a short week this week, because of Thanksgiving, but that&apos;s just fine by me. Two days of work, and five days off. I&apos;ll spend a chunk of Wednesday grocery shopping (again, because I forgot to get stuff for cornbread stuffing when I went out on Friday, and somehow we&apos;ve run out of eggs again), and Thursday is the holiday, which I intend to spend cooking, planting bulbs, and writing. And then a doctor&apos;s appointment and three more days of laziness and leftovers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Writing To-Do&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;revise &lt;em&gt;Parallax&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;finish blurb worksheet for &lt;em&gt;Tatterdemalion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;write &lt;em&gt;Percussion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;outline new sekrit projekt</description>
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  <pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:21:44 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Sunday Stealing: The Party Mummy Meme</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/133521.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://sundaystealing.blogspot.com/2009/11/party-mummy-meme.html&quot;&gt;Sunday Stealing: The Party Mummy Meme&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Name someone with the same birthday as you.&lt;/strong&gt; Wild Bill Hickok&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Where was your first kiss?&lt;/strong&gt; Outside the art classroom.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex? If yes, why?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, because he was picking on me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people? When?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes. I was a soloist in a church choir, and we went to regional competitions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. What&apos;s the first thing you notice about your preferred sex?&lt;/strong&gt; Eyes, or a good smile.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6. What really turns you off?&lt;/strong&gt; A bad sense of humor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. What is your biggest mistake?&lt;/strong&gt; Sometimes, I think it was getting my M.A.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?&lt;/strong&gt; Not that I can think of.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9. Say something totally random about yourself.&lt;/strong&gt; I wish I were more sure of myself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?&lt;/strong&gt; No, but there was another girl in high school who looked just like me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;11. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, definitely!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12. Are you comfortable with your height?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, but it took a long time to accept that I was never going to be tall like my mother.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you?&lt;/strong&gt; Writing love letters to me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;14. When do you know it&apos;s love?&lt;/strong&gt; I&apos;m not the best person to ask.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15. What&apos;s something that really annoys you?&lt;/strong&gt; Wasting time. I feel like I do it a lot.</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/133297.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:24:15 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Friday Fill-Ins</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/133297.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/2009/11/151.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/000233sq&quot; width=&quot;88&quot; height=&quot;31&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;1. We need &lt;u&gt;more sunshine&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;2. &lt;u&gt;I bought chestnuts&lt;/u&gt; and it made me smile. &lt;br /&gt;3. If you want &lt;u&gt;to write, put your ass in the chair&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;4. &lt;u&gt;I have a coldpack wrapped around my thigh&lt;/u&gt; because &lt;u&gt;it&apos;s been hurting for two days&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;5. Massachusetts has a proposed 5% sales tax on elective cosmetic surgery; I think &lt;u&gt;I&apos;m good with that&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;6. &lt;u&gt;Pumpkin pie&lt;/u&gt; makes for a happy holiday.&lt;br /&gt;7. And as for the weekend, tonight I&apos;m looking forward to &lt;u&gt;hockey&lt;/u&gt;, tomorrow my plans include &lt;u&gt;watching football&lt;/u&gt; and Sunday, I want to &lt;u&gt;watch more football&lt;/u&gt;!</description>
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  <pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:48:13 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>I feel like I&apos;ve been hit by a truck.</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/132902.html</link>
  <description>All my productive intentions got kicked to the curb this past week by getting really, really sick. Temp of 102F, and I couldn&apos;t stay awake for more than an hour at a time (as Anah can probably attest, since there were impressive lag times in my responses to her when I was attempting to carry on a conversation while being sick). Coughing, sneezing, runny nose.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I hate being sick.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We did get the good news that &lt;em&gt;Pandora Project: Runaway Star&lt;/em&gt; has finaled in its category for the EPIC Awards, which was pretty exciting. The other finalists are all really well-reviewed stories, so that&apos;s definitely an honor in and of itself, to be included with them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;(And, yes, it was probably H1N1, but they&apos;re not testing in my area anymore, because it&apos;s so prevalent that they figure if you&apos;ve got flu symptoms, you&apos;ve likely got H1N1. Funtimes.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&apos;s gone now, but I&apos;m still completely wrung out. My boss was nice enough to shorten my workday today, which is helping a lot. And I&apos;m hoping by the time Thursday rolls around, I&apos;ll be feeling well enough to get stuff done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Writing To-Do&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Blurb worksheet for &lt;em&gt;Tatterdemalion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finish edits on the Blue Monday story&lt;br /&gt;Marketing material for &lt;em&gt;The Longest Night&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Write &lt;em&gt;Percussion&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Revise &lt;em&gt;Parallax&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Outline the new sekrit projekt</description>
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  <pubDate>Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:37:54 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Sunday Stealing: The Over the Top Meme</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/132855.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://sundaystealing.blogspot.com/2009/11/over-top-meme.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/000240b1&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;60&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Part One - Describe:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your hair?&lt;/strong&gt; Short.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your mother?&lt;/strong&gt; Tall.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your father?&lt;/strong&gt; Distant.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your favorite food?&lt;/strong&gt; Smooth and dark (chocolate).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your dream last night?&lt;/strong&gt; Forgotten.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your favorite drink?&lt;/strong&gt; Minty (mojito).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your dream/goal?&lt;/strong&gt; Closer every day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The room are you in?&lt;/strong&gt; Dim and filled with the sounds of football.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your hobby?&lt;/strong&gt; New, but satisfying (scrapbooking).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your fear?&lt;/strong&gt; Often crippling (heights, doctors).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your TV?&lt;/strong&gt; Used more often than the old one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your Pets?&lt;/strong&gt; Sleepy and snuggly (cats).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Friends?&lt;/strong&gt; Too far away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your life?&lt;/strong&gt; Busier than it seems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your mood?&lt;/strong&gt; Pretty good, considering.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you&apos;re missing someone?&lt;/strong&gt; Always.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your best friend?&lt;/strong&gt; Again, too far away.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Part Two - The Where&apos;s?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where do you want to be in 6 years?&lt;/strong&gt; Closer to my goals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where were you last night?&lt;/strong&gt; At home, still getting over the flu.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where did you grow up?&lt;/strong&gt; Florida, land of sunshine and retirees.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One place that I go to over and over?&lt;/strong&gt; A local coffee shop.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your favorite place to eat out?&lt;/strong&gt; A little sushi shop downtown.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wish list items?&lt;/strong&gt; A pretty apron, and a pair of winter boots that fit my orthotics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last time you laughed?&lt;/strong&gt; Earlier today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last time you cried?&lt;/strong&gt; A couple days ago, feeling so sick.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Part Three - The What&apos;s?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Something that you aren&apos;t?&lt;/strong&gt; Tall.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Last thing you did?&lt;/strong&gt; Coughed. Also, went to pick up antibiotics to fight off the secondary sinus/bronchial infections from the flu.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What are you wearing?&lt;/strong&gt; Sweatpants and a T-shirt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Something you&apos;re not wearing?&lt;/strong&gt; A bra.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Your favorite store?&lt;/strong&gt; Do the Levenger and King Arthur Flour catalogs count?</description>
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  <pubDate>Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:29:55 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>EPIC Awards!</title>
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  <description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://foxwrites.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cover-runawaystar.jpg&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;Anah and I just heard that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;amp;products_id=1777&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pandora Project: Runaway Star&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an EPIC Awards finalist in the Science Fiction Erotic Romance category. Hooray!</description>
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  <pubDate>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:27:35 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Friday Fill-ins</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/132294.html</link>
  <description>&lt;a href=&quot;http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/2009/11/150.html&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://pics.livejournal.com/diannefox/pic/000233sq&quot; width=&quot;88&quot; height=&quot;31&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;1. The last band I saw live was &lt;u&gt;James Hunter&lt;/u&gt;. &lt;br /&gt;2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is &lt;u&gt;pumpkin pie&lt;/u&gt;. (if you don&apos;t celebrate thanksgiving, insert your favorite holiday)&lt;br /&gt;3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is &lt;u&gt;just beginning&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;4. Thoughts of &lt;u&gt;sleep&lt;/u&gt; fill my head.&lt;br /&gt;5. I wish I could wear &lt;u&gt;pajamas all day&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;6. Bagpipes &lt;u&gt;are as hard to listen to as they are hard to play&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;7. And as for the weekend, tonight I&apos;m looking forward to &lt;u&gt;sleep&lt;/u&gt;, tomorrow my plans include &lt;u&gt;sleep, and hopefully feeling better&lt;/u&gt; and Sunday, I want to &lt;u&gt;feel better&lt;/u&gt;!</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131857.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:21:03 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>There&apos;s a Sale!</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131857.html</link>
  <description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://foxwrites.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/cover-othermagicalcreatures.jpg&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;Coffee Time Romance is having a 15%-off sale, and it includes some of my books!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&apos;ve been looking for an excuse to pick up some books, this seems like a great time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=2081&quot;&gt;Renovations 1: Flipping Out&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=2080&quot;&gt;Renovations 2: Playing House&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=2079&quot;&gt;Renovations 3: Moving Day&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://foxwrites.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/cover-lovebites.jpg&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=2334&quot;&gt;The Lion&apos;s Share&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=1566&quot;&gt;Love Bites&lt;/a&gt; (with my story &quot;Birds of a Feather&quot;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=2264&quot;&gt;Other Magical Creatures&lt;/a&gt; (with my novella &quot;God of Wine&quot;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh! And a couple of Anah Crow&apos;s wonderful books, too:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=1464&quot;&gt;Mistress Dalibor&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookStore/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&amp;amp;cPath=57&amp;amp;products_id=1222&quot;&gt;The Look of a King&lt;/a&gt;</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131698.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:47:56 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Veterans&apos; Day (and another meme)</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131698.html</link>
  <description>Veterans: Thank you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The meme (oh, &lt;a href=&quot;http://eyre32.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/random-questions-2/&quot;&gt;look&lt;/a&gt;, I figured out where I got it from!):&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;26. What color is your watch?&lt;/strong&gt; It&apos;s stainless steel, so silver.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;27. What do you think of when you hear “Australia”?&lt;/strong&gt; Priscilla.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;28. Would you strip for money?&lt;/strong&gt; No, I don&apos;t have the confidence in my body for something like that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?&lt;/strong&gt; Drive-through, usually.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;30. What is your favorite number?&lt;/strong&gt; 2.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?&lt;/strong&gt; My partner. I&apos;m the alarm clock.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;32. Any plans today?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes. 10 and a half hours of work, followed by making dinner. Hopefully it goes better than last night&apos;s meal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;33. In how many states have you lived?&lt;/strong&gt; Two.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;34. Biggest annoyance right now?&lt;/strong&gt; A killer headache, and still 5 hours of work left in my day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;35. Last song listened to?&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Disco Duck.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;36. Can you say the alphabet backwards?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, but I have to stop and think about it as I go through it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?&lt;/strong&gt; No. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?&lt;/strong&gt; If you&apos;d asked me six months ago, the answer would&apos;ve been my Birkenstocks, but now it&apos;s my Nike Triad Structures, which fit my orthotics (that, in turn, help keep my knees from grinding themselves into oblivion).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;39. Are you jealous of anyone?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, but I try not to let it affect how I behave.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;40. Is anyone jealous of you?&lt;/strong&gt; Not that I know of. I don&apos;t think there&apos;s a reason to be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;41. Do you love anyone?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes. My partner, my family, my partner&apos;s family, my friends.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;42. Do any of your friends have children?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, a few of them do.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;43. What do you usually do during the day?&lt;/strong&gt; On workdays, I work. On writing days, I write. And clean. And do the grocery shopping. And... Well, writing days are busy days.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?&lt;/strong&gt; I don&apos;t think so. More like intense frustration.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;45. Do you use the word hello daily?&lt;/strong&gt; I do, yes. I say &apos;hello&apos; on the phone, and when speaking to BabyBug.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;46. What color is your car?&lt;/strong&gt; Blue.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;47. What size wedding ring do you wear?&lt;/strong&gt; I don&apos;t wear one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;48. Are you thinking about someone right now?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes. Thinking about my partner, who mentioned not feeling well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?&lt;/strong&gt; No, there isn&apos;t one near me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;50. How did you get your worst scar?&lt;/strong&gt; I slipped on a Sit-n-Spin and fell on a little green army man, which left me with a starburst on my forehead.</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131374.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:41:39 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Me me meme.</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131374.html</link>
  <description>Stolen from somewhere or other. I&apos;m pretty sure it was a blog and not a LiveJournal, though, if that helps?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. What is the color of your toothbrush?&lt;/strong&gt; Purple. And maybe gray?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Name one person who made you smile today.&lt;/strong&gt; BugDad, who folded and put away all the laundry, even though it&apos;s my job.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?&lt;/strong&gt; Herding everyone out the door for the drive to school.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?&lt;/strong&gt; Dropping LoveBug off at school.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. What is your favorite candy bar?&lt;/strong&gt; Snickers!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6. Have you ever been to a strip club?&lt;/strong&gt; No, but I came very close when Nina Hartley came to town.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. What is the last thing you said aloud?&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;It&apos;s uppy uppy time!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8. What is your favorite ice cream?&lt;/strong&gt; Cherry chocolate chip, from Edy&apos;s. Or Strawberry Shortcake from Coldstone Creamery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9. What was the last thing you had to drink?&lt;/strong&gt; Coffee, black.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10. Do you like your wallet?&lt;/strong&gt; I love it. It&apos;s red, and it holds EVERYTHING.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;11. What was the last thing you ate?&lt;/strong&gt; A banana.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?&lt;/strong&gt; No, but I should get some new gloves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;13. The last sporting event you watched?&lt;/strong&gt; The first half of last night&apos;s Steelers game, before bedtime. I&apos;m glad to hear they won the game.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?&lt;/strong&gt; Flavor? Um, just butter, thanks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to?&lt;/strong&gt; BugMom.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;16. Ever go camping?&lt;/strong&gt; I used to go with my mom and my aunt&apos;s family. I&apos;m not really a camping sort of person, though.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;17. Do you take vitamins daily?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes. Chewable, and orange-flavored.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;18. Do you go to church every Sunday?&lt;/strong&gt; No. I&apos;m atheist.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;19. Do you have a tan?&lt;/strong&gt; Very slight, and even with the tan, I&apos;m still the palest person in the whole world. (That&apos;s only a little bit of an exaggeration.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, though I seem to eat pizza more often.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;21. Do you drink your soda with a straw?&lt;/strong&gt; Only at restaurants.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;22. What did your last text message say?&lt;/strong&gt; &quot;Ok. I&apos;ll set those out. Thanks!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;23. What are you doing tomorrow?&lt;/strong&gt; Working another 10.5-hour day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;24. Favorite color?&lt;/strong&gt; Depends on when you ask. Purple and blue, though.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;25. Look to your left; what do you see?&lt;/strong&gt; A photo of the Brooklyn Bridge.</description>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131109.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:02:41 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Moving Apace</title>
  <link>http://diannefox.livejournal.com/131109.html</link>
  <description>It&apos;s just Monday morning and I&apos;m ready for the weekend already. Is that bad?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just feel like my weekend was extra short (it was, I had to work on Saturday, and for longer than I&apos;d expected). But things are moving apace. I got a couple thousand words written on Percussion on my writing days, which always feels good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;The Writing To-Do&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* Tatterdemalion&apos;s blurb worksheet&lt;br /&gt;* Percussion&lt;br /&gt;* outline the short story for Blue Monday&lt;br /&gt;* get back to work on Parallax</description>
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