I'm not sure how many of you saw Dear Author's post from yesterday regarding B&N PubIt stripping samples from erotic romances (the post also featured two of my books: erotic romance Destiny Entwined and contemporary romance Carnal Secrets). It appears as though PubIt started not allowing anybody to download samples of eroticas or erotic romances of indie authors, which resulted in a big loss of sales and so on for many indie authors.

Destiny Entwined was never allowed for sampling since it went on sale on February 14, and I just assumed that it was due to its length; it's a short story. Mind you, Amazon Kindle has always allowed people to sample stories regardless of length or genre. But I honestly had no reason to suspect that how I categorized Destiny Entwined had anything to do with Nook users' inability to read samples until I read DA's post.

Between the time DA's post went live and a few hours ago, PubIt allowed people to sample Destiny Entwined for the first time ever. I haven't changed anything on PubIt. The story still has the exact same description and genre category as before. So I have no idea what happened on PubIt's end. Maybe a little public pressure…?

Anyway, if you're a Nook owner, I hope you download the sample and hopefully enjoy it enough to buy a copy. :) If erotic shorts aren't your cup of tea, I also have a paranormal romance novella, A Happily Ever After of Her Own, and the aforementioned Carnal Secrets on sale as well.

And should any work of mine not have a sample on a particular bookseller's website, you can always come here. I have links to excerpts of all my stories on the Bookshelf page.

I sometimes read Tim Ferriss's blog because I found his Four Hour Workweek very thought-provoking, and he usually has interesting things to say on various topics.

His latest book is The Four Hour Body, which focuses on relatively small things you can do to improve your fitness, health, sex life and so on. I read only a few pages because it's been hard for me to focus on any topic that requires me to concentrate for a long time, and anything biology or medical-related requires a lot of focus on my part. (I blame my Zompyre Baby for my inability to focus.) But somebody forwarded me an interesting article by Mike Geary that referenced Tim's work. (BTW — Mike is also into fitness and health, and he's been putting out good information for about half a decade now.)

The article (thankfully short and easy to understand! :) ) was quite intriguing. I've been reading and hearing for years that cellphones can damage your brains or whatever. But I've never thought much of it because I don't usually talk on cellphones and I'm too lazy to carry mine around. But then as I was reading the article, it hit me that men don't just keep their cellphones in purses (like women do). They keep their gadgets in their pants pockets!

Per Tim's research, a man carrying a cell phone around in his pocket might be doing himself some permanent damage…damage of a kind that most men really do not want to have happen, if you catch my drift. But it's not just that. It may possibly create problems if he wishes to conceive a child. (Which is a big deal to some women who may want to have babies.) And women themselves may have some problems as well.

Anyway, it's a timely and possibly very serious issue, so I'm linking it here for reference. Take a look if you like.

I don't generally publish one of those “help us” or “give us money” types of post on my blog. But this one really caught my interest and I wanted to bring people's attention to RWAus's Flood Appeal:

RWA Flooded Communities Book Appeal

We've all seen the devastation the recent Queensland floods have wrought and have wondered how we can help. We know that for many affected families, books will not be high on their priorities list for some time to come.

But…
We also know how valuable books can be in providing time out when reality gets tough.

So…
With the aid of some wonderful volunteers, we've put together a Romance Writers of Australia Flooded Communities Book Appeal.

What we need?
FICTION BOOKS! Romance books, children's books, young adult books, genre books, whatever — either new or in sparkling condition.

Please send them to:
RWA Flooded Communities Book Appeal
PO Box 1717
Noosaville Post Office
Noosaville BC
Queensland 4566

When to send them?
Now! And any time over the next few months. The books will be boxed and delivered to the appropriate libraries/schools/neighbourhood centres/community centres in batches as soon as the communities are ready to receive them. We'll be liaising with councils, libraries and schools to ensure this is done appropriately. Feel free to pop a note inside, or if you're an author, sign it.

Questions:

If you have a question about donations, email Jess Anastasi.

If you work in a library / council / community centre / school in a flood affected area, email Rachel Bailey.

Cash Donations
If you would prefer to make a cash donation, please donate to the QLD Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal or for the animals, donate to RSPCA Queensland.

Q&A

Q. I’m overseas and would like to donate but the cost of sending books is very expensive?

If you are an author, send one copy of a book. This will keep your individual costs down, but will also contribute to our book appeal.

Alternatively, consider buying a book from The Book Depository, which offers free postage to Australia. The book can be sent directly to the appeal.

Cash donations can be made to the charities listed above.

Q. I’m in Australia and have many books to donate. What is the cheapest postage option?

Australia Post offers a 3kg satchel anywhere in Australia for approximately $10. Please ensure the books are wrapped in bubble wrap to miminise damage in transit.

Band together with friends, your family, your writing group and send books together to minimise postage costs.

Q. I’m in Brisbane. Can the books be dropped off?

We have a drop-off point in Carindale available. Please contact Jess Anastasia for further information.

If any other RWA member in Qld can offer a drop off point, please contact Rachel Bailey.

The appeal page on the RWAus blog will be updated weekly with news on the appeal.

So if you have any books you don't to keep, please consider donating them to RWAus.

In case you haven't seen my announcement on Twitter or Facebook, I'm pregnant. I went to see my doctor last Friday, and she confirmed it. (Hero Material went with me just in case I needed some moral support and translation help, but he didn't have to do anything except wait outside since my doctor spoke good English.)

EDD is June 25-ish.

So on Friday, I immediately ordered a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting.

On Saturday, I looked for pre-natal vitamins. Guess what? I couldn't find any at the local pharmacy. So I decided to order via the net. Then I read about how a lack of folic acid can create birth defects. So I told Hero Material that our baby is going to born wrong because I didn't take pre-natal vitamins in the last 4-5 weeks. Stress much? He had to calm me down by saying how we probably get enough from our diet since we do eat an awful lot of vegetables and salad every day. That wasn't enough for me. So I spent $20 on a regular multivitamin (only 100 pills; yes, vitamins here cost their weight in gold) to tide me over until the pre-natal vitamins arrive from the States.

Anyway on Sunday I got my copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was pretty cool until it said I should exercise every day because it's good for the mom. I'm thinking, “I really don't care that much to exercise EVERY DAY.” Then it went on to state that it makes for a smart baby. Then I'm thinking, “OMG, d*** you!”

They had me. I mean…how am I going to resist the “If you don't exercise, your baby may not born as smart as s/he could've been, and it's all your fault!” implied in the text?

So I'm on my 4th day of walking and light weight training. Holy cow, I've never exercised this regularly except when I'm trying to lose weight. It's weird to realize that the scale weight is going to go up even with the exercise and good nutrition. Of course, I am eating enough for two full-grown rhinoceroses at the moment. Hero Material made me a huge salad for lunch today, and I told him, “Man, that was good! I'm going to have to have that again!” He said “Sure”…not realizing that I meant “again” to be “right now.”

P.S. I'm not a saint, so I indulge in a cookie when I'm craving something sweet. It's not an American-size one though. Each yields two bites, max. I'm also limiting myself to no more than two cookies a day.

September's been pretty productive.

I finished Step 5 for All's Fair, and now it's all with my 1st beta.

A Goddess to Love was supposed to be done by today, but for some reason, I couldn't seem to get in the right mood for it, and I kept nodding and not making the changes I know I need to make. Maybe it's because I spent like more than two months on revision…? Anyway, I'm letting it sit a little longer.

I also had a chance to talk with Agent, and I started outlining / arcing a new story. I don't know much about it except that the heroine is an assistant / nanny, but since I'm the one writing it, a lot of people are going to die. (Don't worry, h/H get their happy ending!) Actually I think the body count in the new nanny project is going to be greater than the one in All's Fair, which features assassins as heroine and hero, plus a Russian mafia boss.

Who said romancing a nanny was safe?

I've listened to multiple workshop tapes from 2010 RWA. Many of them are excellent and inspiring. I highly recommend getting the whole set if you can. It's cheaper than buying each workshop separately.

I also had a chance to watch some really good low budget Asian horror drama. The plot's pretty straightforward, and the supernatural elements are pretty familiar (to Asians, that is!), but I loved how they managed to create awesome mystery and tension by continually escalating the stakes and intensifying the internal and external conflict of all the characters. I just couldn't stop watching. Thankfully it had only sixteen episodes. (Some dramas go for over 50 episodes.)

As for reading, September has been a lackluster month. Jeannie Lin's Historical Undone was good, but the rest of the books I started were mediocre, clumsily written / plotted, and/or just boring. A couple of them got hyped quite a bit, so I'm sure that didn't help.

Fortunately I just got Sin Undone by Larissa Ione, who has yet to disappoint. So that should make up for September. :)

Since Peanut's death earlier this week, I've been very blue about the fact that the big cage has been sitting empty and forlorn. My morning ritual usually starts with checking up on our hamsters and making coffee. It depressed me every time I said, “Hello, ham-chans!” and then realized that there was nobody to squeak back at me. Then throughout the day I look at the cage to see how Peanut's doing, and when he's not there, it makes me feel like I want to cry. In a way it's harder…when the others passed away, I always had another hamster or two to cheer me up and keep me company. Having no hamster at all now feels unimaginable.

So Hero Material and I cleaned out the big cage and redid the set up. Then we went to a local pet store to get some new hamsters. We thought about getting a pearl white and a plain black one, but it didn't work out because the latter looked a little sick and kept biting everyone. *sigh*

So we decided to get blue sapphires instead, but they had three boys in one cage, and we couldn't buy just two like we're thinking about and leave one behind. That'd be cruel, and we couldn't decide which two to take since they were all extremely cute and even-tempered.

So now we are three. Say hello to our little friends: Bigger, Digger and Nester.

Bigger is the biggest out of the group actually. He's very sweet and likes to munch on timothy hay.

Digger is the smallest, and he likes to dig around in the food bowl…

Nester is the mid-size one, and he likes to make nests. He reminds me a little bit of Shiro because she used to make gorgeous nests too.

May they live long and prosper.