I’m counting down to the release of my new book– Devil May Care– on February 26th and things are amazingly hectic here in Casa Eimer. Since the beginning of the year I’ve done edits on a short story– Clockwork Bride in the Riveting Affair Anthology– finished line edits on Devil May Care and taken it through galleys, written one 65K manuscript, plotted 3 more, started another manuscript (3 chapters in! So yay me), and done the first pass edits for the first book in my 3 book YA series.

Meanwhile this great blog tour has been going on for Devil May Care while I try to unbury myself from work. You should all check it out. I’m giving away a bunch of free stuff and $50 amazon gift card.

So here is a list of all the stops: http://www.entangledinromance.com/2013/02/14/devil-may-care-blog-tour/
And here are the buy links to preorder it now or buy it when it comes out:
Buy links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Devil-May-Care-Speak/dp/1620610876
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/devil-may-care-patricia-eimer/1108931502?ean=9781620610879

That time of year has come again. The time when Hallmark gets excited and the rest of us look at our darling spouses and think – oh crap, what the hell am I supposed to buy you that says “I love you so much, thank you for sticking around and putting up with my crazy for another year”?

The bad thing is—you know your spouse is thinking the same thing. Not how much do I love you. Not God I really appreciate the way you take the time to go throw my socks in the dryer while I’m in the shower each morning so I can put on cuddly warm socks so my feet don’t get cold. Just like I’m not thinking about how much I appreciate his ability to always know when I’m going to need him to order takeout so I can work or come by with a quick kiss and a 30 second shoulder rub.

So my goal this year—after I find a gift—is to make every day more about showing my darling husband how much I love and appreciate him. To make life more about dryer fresh, cuddly socks in winter and less about squeezing  myself into scratchy, uncomfortable lingerie once a year.

And another upside to this plan besides getting the chance to show my husband how much I love him every day of the year? I no longer have to worry about squeezing myself into scratchy, uncomfortable lingerie. Or at least that’s what I’m angling for.

Click here to check out what the other authors are giving away during the Entangled In Love blog hop!

Oh and I’m giving away a free ebook copy of Luck of the Devil to one commenter who tells me what they want most in the world for Valentines Day.

…but it’s Antarctica outside and I can’t get down the driveway. P.S. In case anyone wants to know, I’m not sure he can get up the driveway either. So the fact that I can’t stop by and pick up something for his lunch isn’t really going to matter. Is it?

I wrote a blog post on Tuesday about how I’d switched to listening to BBC radio documentaries while I’m doing my plotting and my social media work and things like that. In fact, as I write this, I’m listening to the BBC now.

One of the radio documentaries that I’ve devoured recently has been a six part series called THE AGE OF REASON. On it, BBC radio is celebrating their 80^th birthday by talking to women in their Eighties who have done amazing things. No, not women like me who were born in the Eighties—women in their Eighties. And it’s amazing. It really is.

Even if you don’t identify yourself as a feminist (which I’m sorry if you don’t could you please explain that to me because I just don’t get how you cannot be a feminist) you should listen to this series. It is honestly one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever heard.

The first episode was with the former President of Iceland. Yes Iceland has a president and from 1980 until 1996 it was Vigdis Finnbogadottir, a brilliant woman who isn’t just an environmental activist but a woman who’s also used her time in retirement to help save Iceland’s linguistic roots.

After that was the award winning Indian historian Dr. Romila Thapar. Then economist Dr. Alice Rivlin (which let me say as a female economist—you’re never really a former economist—O.M.G.!!!!!!), then apartheid activist Amina Cachalia, physicist Dr. Mildred Dresslhaus (nanotechnology guru), and Egyptian medical doctor and women’s activist Dr. Nawal el Saadawi.

I mean the BBC has managed to get some of the unsung powerhouses of modern feminism talking about their lives. These are women that aren’t famous for being feminists, they’re famous for being brilliant in their own fields and proving that women can do anything a man can. Which is probably even more amazing.

So if you’re looking for six hours—they’re broken up into hour long episodes—of pure female amazing, this is the series for you. Then check out some of the other BBC radio documentaries and get your learning geek on. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

The Age of Reason Main Page:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p010z9xb/episodes/player

I have become a bit of an internet radio snob. I’ve read a lot of bloggers talking about how they love audio books and I tried that but I found that I couldn’t focus on my own works while listening to someone else’s and that I missed holding a book (or a kindle) in my hands. So I decided to try the radio. I like working to music but you know I wanted something a bit different.

That’s when I started listening to BBC World on my satellite radio and I found that I enjoyed it. It wasn’t music, I was sort of absorbing things into my sub-conscious, it was nice. Then a friend mentioned that I could get the BBC itself on the internet and that quite often they had great radio documentaries and even some really good radio plays.

And before I could really “meh” the idea, she sent me the link to the new season of Cabin Pressure, written by John Finnemore. Oh my God. John Finnemore. I could write love poetry to John Finnemore. Odes, stalkery sonnets if need be. This man has written something that is almost sublime in its comedy. I know, I know it sounds strange—a radio play that’s brilliant comedy?—but this thing really is brilliant. I mean not to sound totally overawed but this guy should write a textbook on how to write comedy.

Because that’s the thing. Doing comedy only semi-well like I do it is hard work. I spend more editing time on the jokes than anything else. To do comedy brilliantly? It must be like doing the IronMan every single time you sit down to write. But John Finnemore makes it look as easy as walking through an open doorway.

His first episode of this season Timbuktu was fabulous. The writing is clever as all hell and then Finnemore was smart enough to cast actors who can pull the roles off without making it sound camp. My favorite is Roger Allam (who plays First Officer Douglas Richardson), this guy is like the vocal version of George Clooney. It’s almost easy to believe that he actually knows how to fly an airplane and somehow his ideas well they aren’t completely idiotic—they’re sort of cute.

Then the next week John Finnemore managed to get a second episode out that was even better than the first. I won’t ruin it with spoilers but let me just say that no matter how good I get I’m pretty sure I’ll never be able to come up with a way to weave a dead sheep, angry geese, a swarm of trees and a second airline pilot (played by the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch) who is quite literally UP A TREE.

Absolutely, side splittingly brilliant. I can honestly say that if John Finnemore ever decides to teach a class in how to write comedy I’ll swim to England from  the Newark Seashore for the chance to be in that lecture hall.

Here’s the link to the 4^th season on the BBC (Wednesday at 1:30 EST):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lmcxj/episodes/guide

And you can buy season 1-3 on either Amazon.com or Itunes.

So like just about everyone else in America I’ve become a Downton Abbey fanatic. I’ve managed to watch it since the second episode of the first season and I’ve been hooked from the very beginning. Will Mary and Matthew get together? What happens with Tom Branson and Lady Sybil? Is Edith ever going to find a man?

All I know is that once a week, every Sunday, I’m attached to my television and my family knows not to disturb me while I spend an hour transported to a world so very much unlike my own. With problems that I can’t even contemplate and therefore seem somehow detached from the real world.

If you ask me, that’s why Downton Abbey is so popular. It’s a world that we can all escape into for an hour a week and while the characters may be in danger somehow we all know that things work out all right. After all, the sun had to come up the next day—otherwise none of us would be here, watching a show set in what somehow seems to be a rather quaint, romantic past.

MY NEW BOOK—DEVIL MAY CARE (SPEAK OF THE DEVIL BOOK #2)

IS COMING OUT

FEBRUARY 26^, 2013

AND I HAVE MY NEW COVER!

SO DOES IT COMPARE TO THE COVER OF LUCK OF THE DEVIL. HERE THEY ARE SIDE BY SIDE.

SO TELL ME, WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

My in laws are very crafty people. Very crafty people. There is not a craft that one of them has not tried. They like being craft people and they’re quite good at it. I have lots of lovely quilts and homemade cards and many other such crafty things. I am grateful for all of them.

I’m grateful because I am not crafty. I’ve learned this because Oldest was sent a craft kit—a rather nice kit—from the in laws for her birthday and I helped supplement it a bit with new little bits and bobs in her stocking. I’m supportive right.

OMG she thought that meant I wanted to sit down and help her craft. Which of course I’m trying to be a good mom so I’m going to do it but WTF? within twenty minutes I wanted to gouge my own eyes out.

For me, I’m quite content to have my jewelry come from a store. A nice, lovely store where someone with talent has made it, slapped a price tag on it and only wants my debit card in return. Jewelry my way does not lead to open wounds on my fingertips from trying to thread a piece of bloody wire through the hole of a fucking tiny bead.

After the jewelry failure, and bandaging my hands to stop the copious blood flow, she suggested I try scrapbooking. Because really how hard is it to put pictures on paper. Apparently harder than I bloody well thought.

So that’s it. While I love my daughter and support her hobbies in the interest of self preservation and the remains of my fingers (three stab wound and four papercuts later) Mommy’s support will involve buying materials and telling her how lovely it all looks afterwards.

Yesterday was my favorite day. Not because it was Monday because let’s be serious, everyone hates Mondays. Everyone. Even those annoying people who tell you how much they LOOOOVE going to work each day. Even they hate Mondays.

So the fact that it was Monday was not why I it was such an awesome day. Yesterday was an amazing day because I started a new series that’s been bubbling away in the back of my mind for about two years that I’ve been plotting for the past four months. Over 200+ pages of notes and yesterday, finally, FINALLY I sat down at the computer, opened my word processing program—I’m a PowerWriter Girl for rough drafts and then I move to word—stared at that beautiful

Chapter One

And got the chance to start filling in everything beneath it. Now I’m off to work on my new baby a bit more. Have a beautiful day everyone

This weekend Dr. Hubby and I are going to his office Christmas/New Year’s party which is being held at a fancy reception hall about an hour from here.

Hubby: Oh, this looks like a nice place.

Me: Oh God. That place looks fancy.

Hubby: It’ll be great. We’ll have fun. Think your mom will babysit?

Me: Yeah, no problems on the babysitter. Are you sure you want to do this? The invitation says black tie.

Hubby: So?

Me: I’m going to have to wear a fancy dress and heels.

Hubby: Once again, SO?

Me: I don’t have a dress.

Hubby: So, go buy one. Duh.

Me: I wonder if I can still arrange full body liposuction for sometime in the next week and still heal up in time to go without anyone noticing.

Hubby: I think the odds are rather low.

Me: Crap, I’m going to have to get some of that liposuction underwear off Amazon.

Hubby: Liposuction underwear?

Me: *grabs computer, starts typing wildly, brings up Spanx website* See? Temporary Liposuction underwear.

Hubby: I’m going to go now. I don’t know where, somewhere that your insanity over what’s supposed to be a nice evening out with people YOU ALREADY KNOW has now become something that requires underwear that is banned by the Geneva Convention because it can be used for cruel and inhumane treatment.

You’d think after ten years he’d realize that fancy things bring out my inner psycho cat lady. But apparently he hasn’t been paying attention.

P.S. I’ll be posting pictures here later of me and Hubby all dressed up for the party