I no longer wear "Falsies"

Okay, I admit I have nothing important to blog about today. I’m bogged down with work, have a class, and it’s back to school night… So I stole this blog from the wonderful Julia Barrett who runs her blog like a professional.

I love Julia’s blog and visit it almost everyday. I never know what I’ll find there. Yesterday she had a terrific post featuring the more extreme version of the Maybelline “Falsies” mascara commercial posted above. You’ve got to pop over there and see with your own eyes the excess Maybelline is trying to foist on us.

(Please visit Julia Barrett’s World blog and check out the other version of the Maybelline Falsies ad and the comments visitors’ left! lol)

http://juliarachelbarrett.net/2011/08/what-are-they-supposed-to-be-vampires/

Anyway, these were my thoughts about Maybelline Falsies Mascara:

Maybe she’s born with it? I think the word “Falsies” says it all. I’ve already publicly admitted I’m a mascara addict, willing to believe any crap Maybelline, Cover Girl or L’Oreal heaves on me. The make-up section of Target weakens my willpower and my lashes are skimpy. I hate leaving the store empty handed with so many beauty miracles hanging from the shelf within easy reach. I get pulled in and splurge on any new $6 mascara whenever one is offered—which is often. 


As the Latisse ad featuring Brook Shields says, I “suffer from inadequate lash syndrome” and I’m always on the lookout for those eyelashes I lost in the past. 
At this very moment I’m holding a partially used tube of “Falsies” mascara in “Blackest-black” (that means it’s so black it’s beyond the blackest black of any known black realm, it’s goes to the 11 of black, and its even blacker than “carbon” black, which is supposedly a lighter more tasteful shade of black mascara…)


Honestly, “Falsies” mascara does crap! It does not build lashes remotely close to any of their claims. Those models in the ads are wearing double or even triple pairs of false eyelashes and leading us to believe it’s the mascara. Shame on them. 
 I don’t even want to look like the ad, I just want my mascara to build quickly…  Am I asking too much? 


Last week, I foolishly wore Falsies mascara to the gym and walked out with one eye (not both) looking like a raccoon. Why just one eye? It almost looked rakish, like an eye patch, but its still not a flattering look for a gal. 
The Falsies special “spoon” brush did not give me “wings”.

My experiment in Falsies glamour is over. The tube is going into the trash right now… I fully admit I wasted another $6 dollars on nonsense. I’m just scared that if I leave it lying around I might forget about it’s weird one-eyed cyclopic tendencies and use it again by mistake. 


So, to review, if Falsies mascara worked the wearer would look like a vampire child of the night Rupaul drag queen, when it doesn’t work the wearer risks looking like a one-eye raccoon. Learn from my mistakes and spare yourselves the embarrassment and save $6, don’t bother with Falsies mascara it won’t make your flirty vampire dreams come true. 


XXOO Kat

Another School Year

While I’ve given up writing for the time being I rediscovered reading. I’m enjoying so many books. I can’t seem to devour them fast enough. I’d forgotten how much I truly like escaping into a fantasy world.
My fantasy world is coming to an end tomorrow. Summer will be over for us as my daughter starts her first day of high school. She’s NOT a morning person, so having to get her up at 6am to catch the bus should be fun – not. I do not like fighting with this child to drag her butt out of bed, but it’s what I do every day of the school year. Needless to say I’m not looking forward to tomorrow morning.
After finishing my contracted book and subbing it, my editor let me know edits wouldn’t arrive until around Sept 12th. Okay, I can handle that. Since subbing it I’ve been thinking about different ways to make it stronger.
That’s about all I have this week.
Happy Tuesday!

Vitamin P! Got any?

www.cerisedeland.com

Vitamin P.
Ever heard of it?
Me, neither. Until the other day in a magazine, the writer espoused a regular dosage of Pleasure.  Got any for yourself?
Connected to digital devices of every kind, we are definitely hyperactive.
Example? The other night on a newscast covering Irene, all four people on a boardwalk in New Jersey were walking into the camera view with cell phones to their ears.
Sure, their moment of greatness, right? They were calling home to tell their families, "I'm on TV. Turn in!"
But really! My question is, why the heck were these people out on the BOARDWALK, rain pouring down, ONE WITH A BABY STROLLER, calling home when they should have been in their cars and, as their Governor so improperly told them, "to get the hell off the beach"?  I want to know why they were on their phones (and why the one with the baby stroller wasn't well outta there yesterday)?
More than that, I wonder why the heck they were connected via cell phone when their brains are not connected to their common sense?
Habit?
Addiction?
I vote for both.
I have Rules about how I use my electronic devices.
I don't do email when I travel.
I turn my cell phone off when I'm not using it or not expecting any calls.
I don't text. Ever.
If you want me, you have to email me or call me during normal human being type hours. I do the same for my friends.
I turn off my computer every night at 5, 6 at the latest.
I cook dinner. A really fine one.
I may read at night or I may watch movies.
The news I get comes from the NYT on line and anything else on line until I fold clothes after dinner and watch CNN and MSNBC or maybe (my newest fave) HGTV. (Wanna buy a house in Paris? London? Belize?)
My Blood Pressure is fine.
I work out 2-3x a week.
And my newest addiction is Dance Jam class on Saturdays.
WHAT's your addiction? What are your Rules for electronic devices?
What can you change to give yourself a dose of Vitamin P???

Got my new cover for my next book...

Coming Soon

I'm waiting for edits on Uncertainly Yours. But I got the cover already so I am showing you now.  I love this guy's body...

I have a couple of WIPs in production.  I hope to have another book subbed and contracted before Romanticon this year.  If anyone is going to be there, catch me with an e-mail and we can enjoy a leisurely breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

Hugs!

Fran Lee
http://www.franleeromance.com

Sexy Dreams

I have to laugh.

My husband gets so mad because he cannot dream about sex. Every single time he's in the middle of some sexy dream with some mystery babe, he stops and says..."I can't, I'm married."

I have no such problem. I know I'm dreaming so I give myself permission to do whatever I want. It's a dream, for crying out loud!

For years I've practiced what's called lucid dreaming. I read about it when I was in high school. A lucid dream is a dream in which one aware that one is dreaming. I can often control the direction and the outcome of the dream. Here's a link to Wikepedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream
I also found this from the Lucid Dreaming Institute (had no idea such an institute existed) http://www.lucidity.com/

You too can learn the art of lucid dreaming! In any case, I'm taking Kat's advice - going to write more stream of consciousness. The Artist speaks with my real voice. No parlor tricks. Just me.

Slow Down!

I went to the grocery store after work the other day. At the butcher counter, I pointed to the bacon and cheese stuffed London Broil steaks and asked for two of them, “as close to the same size as possible”. Yes, I understand all of the reasons why hubby and I shouldn’t be eating such evil, artery clogging food, but that is not where I’m going with this story!

As is my way these days, I was driven to multi-task due to feeling like there are just not enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done, so I didn’t allow myself the scant few minutes required to watch the selection process. I went and grabbed milk, bread, toilet paper and pop, picking up the wrapped package as I whizzed back by on my way to check-out.

When dinner time finally rolled around, greatly delayed by car problems, a computer issue and calls from the office, my head nearly exploded when I unwrapped said steaks. Indeed, they were almost exact in circumference, but one was almost double in thickness and stuffing from the other! As always, hubby used his grilling expertise to cook them to perfection, and we enjoyed a delicious, decadent meal.

The literary epiphany I experienced at about four o’clock in the morning was an unexpected bonus! With a strong cup of coffee in hand, I figuratively slapped myself upside the head and opened my stalled WIP!! I’d assumed that with my use of the word “size”, the butcher understood I meant “weight”, “height”, and “volume”. But why should he? I didn’t say that, I didn’t make even the slightest attempt to articulate what was in my mind. As I re-read my story, I saw all the ways I’d rushed through writing it, “assuming” the reader would figure out what I meant! Shame on me!!

Note to self – Slow Down!!!!

Have a great weekend~
Tessie
www.tessiebradford.com

Something Wicked This Way Comes... is coming!

I love working independently but there’s something super special about a group project. That’s why I’m so excited to be included in the upcoming Ellora’s Cave anthology “Something Wicked This Way Comes”.

This is a double treat for me because it was Jaid Black who inspired me to start writing erotic-romance in the first place. Being chosen by her and included in the same volume with one of her stories is a huge honor for me.

It's an honor to have my name anywhere near Diana Hunter. Her amazing book “Secret Submission” was one of my first Ellora’s Cave purchases several years ago. That book is so good and so honest a portrayal of a BDSM lifestyle relationship-it’s burned into my mind. Thank you Diana for writing that book.

Aubrey Ross is so inventive and original; she blows me away and makes me wish I thought of her ideas first! lol

Regina Carlysle is a wonder. The quality and intensity of her stories never falters-She’s always a 5 star read. How does she do it?

If you’re acquainted with Ellora’s Cave Publishing you already know Laurann Dohner is a phenomenon that needs no explanation. Her writing is visceral, hot and punches all the right buttons.

Am I shocked to be in this company? Yes I am! But I’m also mighty grateful.

The other wonderful thing about this anthology is the reference to one of my absolute favorite authors of short fiction—Ray Bradbury.

As a disenfranchised teen I poured over Ray Bradbury’s books at our local library on a weekly basis. I read and reread the many groundbreaking Science fiction anthologies he and Isaac Asimov edited and contributed to. An immense love and respect for the short fiction format was instilled in me.

This is a quote from my spiritual mentor Ray Bradbury (who just turned 91 August 22!)

"Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."

I did the same thing through middle school and high school. Libraries saved my sanity and my life.  “Something Wicked This Way Comes” was certainly on the reading list.

This feels really good. I’m very excited to be contributing my own take on the ever- evolving short story art form. 

That red-hot book cover is by Syneca. Does anyone know the name of that gorgeous model?

XXOO Kat