Writing is an adventure!

I'm a panster, which means I write by the seat of my pants. That's not to say I don't have some kind of thought how a book will unfold. Typically I know bits and pieces. Sometimes I know the ending and nothing more. Other times I know the middle, the dark moment but nothing more. And then sometimes I only know as much as the last sentence I wrote.

Now, I've tried to write using an outline, but quickly lost interest because for me, not knowing what is coming next is probably the most exciting part about writing. I write because I want to know what happens next, pretty much the same as I do when I pick up a book to read.

So for me, writing is the ultimate reader experience because I'm on the frontline helping mold the story, although many times, I'm just a reporter because the characters take over and lead me on a wild adventure.

Anyway, this week I'm riding high on the creative stream’s wave and having a lot of fun writing.

As a reader, what is the one thing that excites you the most about picking up a new book to read?

Sally:)

The Look of Love

Yesterday after work I shot a wedding. Always a lot of fun. I'd set up a "studio" in the home of the parents of the groom, a lovely English couple. I was adjusting lights to take some photos of come dear friends and they were talking. She looked up at him and the way he smiled at her with such adoration prompted such a look of love and passion between them that it was breathtaking. When she closed her eyes and tilted her head back to kiss him I said to hell with the lights and snapped the pic. I loved it so much that I did a little creative photoshopping to give it a more romantic glow and it became one of my favorite shots of the day. I call it Love. What a beautiful thing to see such passion and love in people who have been together more than 30 years. Rare and beautiful. I was so thrilled to have caught the moment! Naturally, I wanted to share it with you. After all, you can never have too much love in the world.

Wishing you and wonderful weekend filled with love and laughter of your own!

Come on baby light my fire...

should have been the song in my mind when my Saturday grilling got a bit out of hand.

When I returned five minutes later after ducking inside the nice a/c to escape the 100o plus grill heat, I was met with roiling smoke that didn't smell too good. When I opened the grill the flames were bursting beneath the aluminum foil supporting the entire surface which held all my juicy wonderful veggies I was cooking. (I cook once a week and then seal a meal them to the freezer for a week or a couple of week's worth of meals.)

Hubby to the rescue... sorta. He brought a big pan with a turner and began removing the precious veggies we'd chopped up that well, took a bit longer than it should ;).

Seems the drip pan, not the tiny one but the big one had some leftover grease in it and the olive oil had dripped through a little hole in the aluminum foil. Salt to the rescue. Yay! Used the whole box. Clean up later was not too fun.

So in we go to wait for the grill to cool so I could cook the 16 breasts of chicken.

I decided to go upstairs to check email while I waited and sat down and that is when the heat really hit me. Well, it didn't subside even with the ceiling fan on high. Off came my top, still too hot, off came my shorts... that kind of grilling was too hot. And once it had cooled down enough to start all over I was tempted to just go out as I was. LOL.

Then this morning hubby sent me an IM (he's just across the hall in his office) to this story about a family who had a similar incident but were not lucky. I guess the only reason that wasn't us was because it was too hot to reach underneath the pan to turn off the gas. These people are fortunate!

End of the Earth?

Well, I guess if your sweetie says he will walk to the end of the earth for you it could be a very short trip. And if he continues on to Houghton, then I guess he will be trying to give you the moon or at least taking that first baby step into outer space.(vbg)

Sally:)

Nothing says I love you like flowers

Okay, this deserves a "duh Stupid" Hussy award. And the award goes to Leroy Greer of Houston, a man who is is suing 1-800-Flowers for a million bucks for revealing that he was cheating on his wife. Yes, I'm serious.

According to Leroy Greer, he bought flowers for his girlfriend through 1-800-Flowers and despite the company's privacy policy that states a customer can ask them not to share personal info with a third party, 1-800-Flowers sent a thank-you note to his house for the order and his wife saw it. (Well duh! That hardly seems to fall under the privacy policy fella. They didn't share your personal info with other companies - which is what the privacy policy states.)

Anyway, when the thank you note arrived, Leroy's wife say it and called the company to get them to fax her a copy of the receipt which revealed that her hubby dearest had sent another woman a dozen long-stemmed red roses, accompanied by a note that said "Just wanted to say that I love you and you mean the world to me."

Oh my. Not a happy wife. Now Leroy and his wife were already in the middle of what was described as an amicable divorce. But once she learned of the affair, wifey-poo wasn't amicable anymore. She asked for a 300k divorce settlement in addition to child support.

Ouch! That little thank you note was E X P E N S I V E.

A 1-800-Flowers spokesman said the company does not comment on pending litigation. In a statement, spokesman Steven Jarmon said, "We take all matters relating to our customers seriously; however, we are not responsible for an individual's personal conduct."

So what do you think? Should the company shell out a cool million because of their note thanking a customer for his order? Should Leroy benefit from his affair? Or are you like me and think "don't want to do the time, don't do the crime"? If Leroy had kept it in his pants until the divorce was final then let's face it, he wouldn't have had anything to hide. So who's really at fault here?

Name change but we're still the same

Hussies!

Yup, we changed the name to thehussiesblog.blogspot.com.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but felt the name needed to reflect our website and yahoo list.

We sent out notices and hopefully everyone will still be able to find us.

Sally and Ciana

Things that Make you go "Hmmmmm"

Some ponderings are deep and philosophical and others are ... well others are a bit more superficial and shallow but still things that make me go "hmmmm". Like the following:

Why do we park in driveways and drive on parkways?

Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

Can I yell "movie" in a crowded firehouse?

Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

How do a fool and his money GET together?

Why does Hawaii have interstate highways?

How is it that a building burns up as it burns down?

If a train station is where the train stops, what is a workstation?

If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they make Teflon stick to the pan?

If the pen is mightier than the sword, and a picture is worth a thousand words, how dangerous is a fax?

If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?

What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Why do banks charge you a "non-sufficient funds" fee on money they already know you don't have?

Why do they put Braille on the drive through bank machines?

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

If you get cheated by the Better Business Bureau, who do you complain to?

What are Preparation A through Preparation G?

In a country of free speech, why are there phone bills?

Did Washington flash a quarter when asked for ID?

How come there aren't B batteries?

If the post office has machines that can sort snail mail at 1000's of times per minute, then why do they give it to a little old man on a bike to deliver?

How do "Do not walk on the grass" signs get there?

Why do black olives come in cans and green olives come in jars?

Before they invented drawing boards, what did they go back to?

How is it possible to have a civil war?

If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

If the #2 pencil is so popular, why is it still #2?

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

If I melt dry ice, can I take a bath without getting wet?

Crime doesn't pay...does that mean that my job is a crime?

How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?

How do you know that honesty is the best policy until you have tried some of the others?

How do you throw away a garbage can?

How does a thermos know if the drink should be hot or cold?

How does the guy who drives the snowplow get to work in the mornings?

Do you realize how many holes there could be if people would just take the time to take the dirt out of them?

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

If you're in a vehicle going the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?

What happens to an 18 hour bra after 18 hours?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do hot dogs come 10 to a package and hot dog buns only 8?

Why do tourists go to the tops of tall buildings and then put money into telescopes so they can see things on the ground close-up?

Why is it that bullets ricochet off of Superman's chest, but he ducks when the gun is thrown at him?

Why is it that night falls but day breaks?

Why is it that you must wait until night to call it a day?

What if the Hokey Pokey IS what its all about?

When your pet bird sees you reading the newspaper, does he wonder why you're just sitting there, staring at carpeting?

Why do people like me even think of these things?

Happy Tuesday :)

Is this Brit's Body? Who Cares?

I'm always amazed that things like this are considered newsworthy. Recently Britney Spheres did an ad for a new perfume for Elizabeth Arden's Believe scent. And no sooner than the shoot was done, rumors were flying that it's not Spear's body shown in the ad.

Now granted, the trademark blond locks are fake, and the thin arms and tight stomach do tend to look like an archive shot from several years back, but hey, I'm an artist by trade and here to tell you that a LOT can be accomplished with some creative photo shop work.

For those who really prefer to believe that this isn't Spears at all, while doing the shoot with OK! magazine, it is confirmed that she bolted from the set for a short timee, during which Cayli Cavaco stepped in so that the photographers could get the lighting right. But a rep from Elizabeth Arden released a statement saying that Cayli was only on the set as a wardrobe assistance and was used only as a stand-in while Spheres was off set, to get the lighting set correctly.

oooookay. My question is ... who the heck cares if it's really Spear's body? For crying out loud people, it's advertising - something meant to stimulate interest and generate sales. And everyone with a brain knows that the entertainment world is smoke and mirrors. Things are RARELY what they seem.

False advertising some scream. I say whatever. Elizabeth Arden isn't doing anything different than any other advertiser or mag cover or ad in the world. I mean do we really believe that all the celebrities we see in these publications actually look THAT good?

Well duh! Hang out at Disney or Universal for a summer. You're bound to see a celebrity or two pass through with their family. And what will you say when you see one? Same as I have ... you'll turn to the person next to you and say "hey doesn't that look alot like (insert name here) only not near as good?"

It's the job of photographers and film makers to make people look good, to remove year and pounds so that what the public sees is the "ideal" shape and form of the person. It's called advertising. No real shockers there.

Point is, what do you think about advertisers, film makers and the like using body doubles? Does it offend you or do you even care?

Picture from article at http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00010614.html

Ring my Bell Baby ... do the laundry

I found this article interesting ... and even emailed it to a few friends who are constantly singing that familiar old tune "I work all day and he still expects me to come home, cook, clean, do the laundry ...."

According to a study from Washington-based Pew Research Center, women and men agree (surprisingly in near equal numbers) that dividing household chores is crucial to a happy marriage. It actually ranks number three out of nine items associated with successful marriages.

Faithfulness was still ranked number one (duh!), followed by a happy sexual relationship (that earned 70%) and then a whopping 62% for the sharing of household tasks.

I found it interesting that as recent as 1990, less that half of adult considered sharing household duties to be of any significance in determining marital happiness. But now, 17 years later that is the one factor on the list that has grown the most. And not just for double income families. No indeed. This holds true even for those stay at home moms.

And it's not about hating housework. It's about how much husbands appreciate the burdens their wives carry and how much the want to help. It's not about equality as feminists would argue. It's about acknowledgement and appreciation.

Now, speaking as a woman whose hubby did the dinner dishes last night, got up fixed coffee and served me a cup when I stumbled out of the bed an hour later, and is at present pulling those nasty weeds from the back flower garden (who sang these lines from a country song when I volunteer to help ... "they oughta put your picture in a magazine -- cause you're the hardest working woman I've ever seen .... baby you just sit there and relax") ... well folks,I can safely say that at that moment he was the sexiest thing I'd ever seen and you can take it to the bank that when the sun goes down and we have the patio and pool all too ourselves, he's gonna get real lucky.

If you want to read more of the article, you can find it here:

Click here: globeandmail.com: Psst, husbands: Vacuuming may spice up your sex life

Hussy Grandma

Divided Love Cover!!!

It's true, I got it late Wednesday. It's incredible. It is elegant. It is perfect!

Syn, you outdid yourself on ths one. Exactly how Reci looks! Thank you!

This one is for all Hussies!

A ghost in my house

Well, I haven't had time to smudge and white light room by room like I typically do whenever I've moved into a new house. I did what my mom would call a lick and a promise.

The other morning I was awakened at 5:30 but didn't know what had awakened me. I rolled over beside hubby and suddenly the bathroom door that I close until I hear it catch every night swung open.

I felt the presence of a young girl about nine years old. I didn't say anything because I wanted to see what she was up to since we've been waked up several time by the tv in our bedroom suddenly turning on. The cat jumped off the bed and moved to sit in front of the closet doors looking up as though watching someone. Then he turned and ran from the room and bounded down the stairs as though chasing something or someone.

I sighed and told myself I would have to send the girl on her way later and went back to sleep only to be awakened a few hours later by the TV downstairs in the den blaring. My husband was not in bed, so I assumed he'd decided to watch the morning news a bit louder than norm, so I called down to him, okay I had to yell to be heard above the noise and asked him if he could turn it down a bit, only to have him respond from his office across the hallway, saying he was just about to ask me to do the same thing.

So yesterday I did tell the entity she had to leave because I didn't sense she really needed my help. She was just being mischievous, which my pal, Melissa, verified for me this morning.

Anyway, I guess I spoke too soon about not having any entities in the new house. Hopefully, there won't be anymore passersby. After all these years of dealing with them, I've pretty much put up a do not disturb sign. Maybe I need to make my sign bigger. (g)

It's really an easy thang... I promise

Our power is back. There is nothing worse than being 4 hours without power when the temp is 97o. I miss the mountains. (g). This is the third time we've experienced a power outage in our new home. You'd think an entire neighborhood with underground lines would never have issues, but the first two were related to micro bursts downing trees on powerlines miles away. That's understandable. But today's outage was completely avoidable.

Six houses in our development were without power. Everyone else had power and why? Three houses down at the new construction site the guy on the Bobcat severed the power to our transformer.

So 6 guys do what? They go to lunch at 11 am. I'm serious. If I hadn't been suffocating in the heat outside and the stuffiness in the house, I would have laughed. Incredulous! They don't call the power company. They go to lunch! Fortunately, we and our neighbors who also work from home called. But according to the repair guy who showed up two hours later, these guys didn't call it in. Huh?

I have to say I'm very perplexed. I guess these yoyos assumed the power company would just know there was a power outage and where it was.

Still I have to shake my head and wonder because the repair guy said it was an every day occurrence and the construction guys never call.

I'm just happy to have some A/C going. Off to play catch up with work.

Even Snakes Fall from Trees

Yeah, I know-- the original phrase was Even Monkeys fall from trees. But that wasn't applicable for my little adventure.

Yesterday I went for a long hot run. It was wonderful despite the heat. I cut across a street to avoid a slimy sidewalk, where a lone patch of shade from a palm beaconed. I was two feet from that inviting momentary oasis when my eye caught something dark above me. A four foot long snake fell from the palm tree at my feet.

I don't know who was more surprised. All I know is that we both ran different ways. And I could have sworn that the snake had an "oh shit!" expression on its face.

And the positive vibe that came out of this near encounter? Well, if I was one step faster, that little sucker would have been on my head instead of at my feet. So being a step or two slower isn't such a bad thing after all.

Snakes have played a prominent role in my life of late. I've encountered quite a few lately, and they have appeared in my dreams. So what does this foretell?

Well, snakes are symbolic of untapped creative energy, life force, the kundali, (and sex in Freudian belief - but then he thought EVERYTHING had to do with sex.)

The literal translation of kundalini means coiling, like a snake. This symbol of "coiling" represents ready & able energies which are not yet tapped into by the Self. That will happen as one becomes spiritually enlightened. The kundalini is like the base of operations of the consciousness, and when we are ready to make changes in our lifes, the kundalini paves the way for the consciousness to evolve and make those changes.

This, of course, lead me to the question...What changes do I want to make in my life? What kind of life do I want to create for myself from this moment forward?

And naturally, I'm going to pose the question to you. What kind of life do you intend to create for yourself?

Reading Erotic Romance

I was asked the other day what the diff between erotic romance, erotica and porn was. In all fairness the person asking was a dear friend who really didn't know and of course, I did enlighten in a gentle way.

But, this made me stop to realize how many people who are romance readers still do not grasp the difference. AND, the reason why is because of their pre-conceived ideas about the genre lean toward the wrong side of the spectrum and are blind to the word that follow erotic - Romance.

So for those here reading erotic romance, what do you find it offers that typical romance doesn't?

Hussies speak up!

What do you feel is the most important self-discovery you've made in the past 5 years?

For me it has been to believe in my own abilities, especially writing. This is very difficult for writers since our validation comes from being accepted for publication. Getting to that place without a contract in hand was my most difficult challenge in this industry. I think it is something all writers struggle with and must eventually grow into.

This is a personal discovery even though it is reltaed to my career because the process of writing is one of the most personal acts I've ever undertaken.

What about you? What has been your personal discovery about yourself?

And then there were TWO HUSSIES

The only constant in life is change. Our dear friend, Hussy Denise has found her life changing too quickly and time has become an even higher commodity. D will no longer be an official hussy, but she is one at heart - forever.

We wish her the very best with her NY publishing venture and if she ever finds the time can certainly rejoin our naughty fun.

We love you, Hussy Denise!

Hussy Hugs,
Sally and Ciana