Hearst Castle

Congratulations to Dena Walton, you are the winner of Virginia Kantra’s Sea Witch. I’ll be contacting you for your snail mail address (or you can email me on skully at skullybuzz dot com if you see this first) and mailing out your prize!

This time let’s do a Silhouette Nocturne, Unbound by Lori Devoti. I love the Nocturnes, they remind a bit of the old Shadows Silhouette did back in the 80s. I have a complete set of those! So, post a comment, (you must type in your email address) and I’ll enter you in the drawing for Lori’s book. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on the February 23rd blog! Good luck!

So remember, I went to Hearst Castle with my family? Here’s the scoop.

We took two tours. The first one was the main tour that shows you the downstairs rooms, including the dining room. I love all the tapestries Hearst collected, especially as I do needlepoint myself. Hey, maybe in 500 years, they'll be saying "and this is a 20th century tapestry by Jasmine Haynes." The second tour was up the upstairs, Mr. Hearst's personal suite that he shared with Marion Davies, plus we saw various other bedrooms that famous people slept in, like Clark Gable, and the kitchen.

Fascinating. Did you know that you could "rent" the Neptune pool (see photo) for an afternoon's swim for $5000? A family from Texas paid $9000 for two evening swims. The foundation that supports the renovations also had an eBay auction for a one-night stay at the castle. It included a breakfast out on the terrace. And it went for $28,000! But you don't stay in Mr. Hearst's room. The auction was for a room in the servants' quarters, up in one of the towers! I still thought it was totally cool, and you just might see a story about that in one of my courtesan books! In fact, ideas having been brewing. BTW, the auction and the benefit dinners they have, not the tour ticket cost which goes to the state, fund all the restoration efforts.

And that's my trip report!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!
http://www.skullybuzz.com/
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Yours for the Night

Congratulations to Gladys, you are the winner of Tawny Weber’s Double Dare. I’ll be contacting you for your snail mail address (or you can email me on skully at skullybuzz.com if you see this first) and mailing out your prize!

This time I’ve got an autographed copy of Virginia Kantra’s Sea Witch. She’s a great writer and a really nice person, too. I’ve met her at several RWA functions over the years. So, post a comment, (you must type in your email address) and I’ll enter you in the drawing for Virginia’s book. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on the February 9th blog! Good luck!

Because all of you have been so great supporting me by coming out to read my blog every other week, I’m going to give you a special sneak peak of my new cover for Yours for the Night. It’s not even up on the website yet. This one is out in November 2009. I turned in the manuscript to my editor on Friday. For those of you who aren’t writers, you can see how early the publisher starts on things. I just got the cover, but the back cover copy (BCC) was given to me at the end of October. I have to admit that I didn’t really like what I was given. I felt it made my girls sound self-centered, all about me-me-me. Okay, let's be honest, I thought it made them unappealing bitches. I didn’t think readers would want to read about them. They do have valid reasons for the life they’ve chosen as “courtesans.” My editor understood what I was saying and let me rewrite it! So that final draft is going in on Monday. Of course, then I’ll have revisions and edits and galley proofs of the actual manuscript. Fair Game is out in June, and I just did the galley proofs on that one! So by the time a book is out in the stores, it’s anywhere from 4 to 6 months since I last saw it. And by that time, I can read it and almost have forgotten the story!

I’d love to hear what you think of the cover for Yours for the Night. BTW, this is the first book, there will be at least one more (no title or cover or release date yet), and hopefully more to come!

Oh, one more thing. I’m posting this on Sunday night because my brother is in town visiting and my mom, sister and I are taking him down to Hearst Castle. I won’t have a computer or access to email until late on Wednesday when I get home. So if I don’t reply to your posts right away, that’s why! I’m not ignoring you, honest! Now, Skully, don’t forget your camera!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!
http://www.skullybuzz.com/
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Believe in Yourself

Congratulations to Debby Guyette, you are the winner of the historicals by Kathryn Caskie and Nicole Jordan! I’ll be contacting you for your snail mail address (or you can email me on skully at skullybuzz.com if you see this first) and mailing out your prize!

This week I’ve got Tawny Weber’s first Blaze, Double Dare. She was at the booksigning yesterday, and she’s great. We all had a really nice lunch beforehand, too. I love those kind of group booksignings. It was a party! So, post a comment, (you must type in your email address) and I’ll enter you in the drawing for Tawny’s book. I’ll also add you to my newsletter for updates on all the fun stuff and releases, too. I’ll announce the winner on the January 26th blog! Good luck!

“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.” Goethe

The other day, my husband came into my office with that quote typed on a piece of paper and stuck it on my computer. He loves Goethe, a German author from the 1800s. He wrote Faust. My husband is always reading me quotes from one philosopher or another. This one really resonates. To me, it’s about the power of positive thinking. It’s not just a mantra or an affirmation. If you really believe in yourself, then you act like it. If you believe you can write a book, then you actually make it happen. If you believe you can get published, then you take steps to make that happen. You write and you revise and you polish and you take classes and you find a critique group and you never stop. After I joined the Romance Writers of America, it took me 8 more years to finally sell my first manuscript. If I didn’t believe in myself, I would have stopped at 7 years and never made that sale. But a positive attitude in every aspect of your life can make great things happen. If you believe a job is great, then it’s great. If you think it sucks, it sucks. You see what you expect to see. Which is why I always try to find something positive in any situation. Negativity attracts negativity, but being positive attracts positive people, things, and events into your life.

So tell us all about things that happened in your life which you believe came about from the power of positive thinking, ie, believing in yourself.

And just a bit of promo here. Jan 16th and 17th, please join Romance Divas for “The Sexual Journey: Character Growth in Erotic Romance,” a lively workshop with authors Zane, Joey W. Hill, Denise Rossetti, Tina Burns and me. This workshop will be held in the Diva's Secrets Steamy section which requires special permission. Please contact an administrator when you have created an account. There are no requirements other than your statement that you are over 18. This is for readers and authors alike so come and join us.

Oh, and don’t miss the Fair Game excerpt on the site if you haven’t already read it!

Jasmine, Jennifer and JB!
http://www.skullybuzz.com/
Newsletter: skullybuzz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com