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Great Deal for Writers Using Windows

Scrivener has a deal for NaNo, but they don't offer a Windows version. For those of us who use Windows, we're SOL.

Well…not really. ;)

If you want something similar for Windows, try WriteWayPro. You can download the demo and try it out for thirty days. I've heard good things about it from a lot of writers, including Larissa Ione. Also, it was created by Lara Adrian‘s hubby, so it's much more writer-friendly than many other programs out there. WriteWayPro is also on Twitter, and I found them (him?) to be very responsive.

There's also a special coupon code valid until November 30, 2009: $20 off the WriteWayPro download version. Just type NANO-PRO20 when you check out.

Disclaimer: I'm not in any way, shape or form related to or employed by WriteWayPro. I haven't received any monetary compensation for this post. I have, however, downloaded WriteWayPro, and am currently drafting my novel with it.


The Husband Store

A store that sells new husbands has opened in New York City, where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:

You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

So, a woman goes to the Husband Store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 – These Men Have Jobs

She is intrigued, but continues to the second floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 2 – These Men Have Jobs and Love Kids.

That's nice, she thinks, but I want more.

So she continues upward. The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 – These Men Have Jobs, Love Kids, and Are Extremely Good Looking.

Wow, she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going.

She goes to the fourth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 4 – These Men Have Jobs, Love Kids, Are Drop-dead Good Looking and Help With Housework.

“Oh, mercy me!” she exclaims, “I can hardly stand it!”

Still, she goes to the fifth floor and the sign reads:

Floor 5 – These Men Have Jobs, Love Kids, Are Drop-dead Gorgeous, Help with Housework, and Have a Strong Romantic Streak.

She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor, where the sign reads:

Floor 6 – You are visitor 31,456,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

PLEASE NOTE:

To avoid gender bias charges, the store's owner opened a New Wives store just across the street.

The first floor has wives that love sex.

The second floor has wives that love sex and have money and like beer.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth floors have never been visited.


How Does “Retail Therapy” Work?

Recently I read a front-page article on the Washington Post that had the following gems:

  • She [Aba Kwawu] unearthed clothes in her own closet that she had never worn, some with the tags still on. … “I had not shopped in so long I was going through withdrawal,” said Kwawu, 34. “I thought, ‘I have to get something now. I've been good long enough.' “
  • She [Gillian Joseph, 42, of McLean] finally broke her fast, walking into Nordstrom after a long absence and buying a pair of 4 1/2 -inch heels in bright floral colors. The experience was cathartic, she said…. “It was like spring — rebirth, reawakening.”
  • “However, I work all the time….And if you work hard, you like to reward yourself in some capacity.”
  • “It's almost like I've come out of the recession before the market,” he [Paul Wharton] said proudly. “I made a choice! I just refused to be in the recession any longer!”

I don't get it. Spending even a penny in a store makes my stomach hurt. It takes me months of budgeting and cashflow analysis before I decide to buy laptops, etc. This summer while in the States I spent thousands of dollars on shoes, clothes and a netbook after not having shopped for clothes or shoes for two and a half years, and even then I felt sick to my stomach. I think I returned about half the stuff before leaving the States because I just couldn't tolerate the idea of spending that much money. (The only thing I don't mind buying is books – paperbacks, mind you – because they're like decadent indulgences to me.)

So…how does shopping make someone feel better? What value do people get out of spending thousands of dollars regularly on items they don't even need or use? Am I missing something?


Public Service Announcement

A couple of people asked me via Twitter, etc. how they can read the password-protected chapter. Here it is:

I sent out the third installment to A Happily Ever After of Her Own in its entirety, plus the password to access the web version to newsletter subscribers yesterday (Monday October 19) at 6:30 a.m. ET. So please check your inbox.

If you signed up but have not received an email from the list, please make sure that you've clicked on the confirmation link. The link is in the email you got when you first signed up. If you haven't received it, try signing up again with the same email address, so the system can send you another one.

If that doesn't apply to you, please check your spam folder to make sure your email server didn't mark it as spam.

If that's not the case either, contact me via webmail form, twitter or by leaving a comment at the end of this post.

Interested in reading A Happily Ever After of Her Own? Sign up for my newsletter. It's free. :)

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My Top Sixteen Romance Novels (in honor of the birthdate of Kathleen Winsor)

This is my answer to Jessica's call for Windsor list.

In alphabetical order (by title) — some may be questionable as romance to some really strict romance fans, but I think they are, so there! :p

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L M Montgomery
 
BORN IN FIRE by Nora Roberts
 
DON'T TEMPT ME by Loretta Chase
 
DREAM MAN by Linda Howard
 
GENTLE ROGUE by Johanna Lindsey
 
GIFT by Julie Gardwood
 
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
 
IN CONQUEST BORN by C S Friedman
 
IT HAD TO BE YOU by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
 
THE LAST HELLION by Loretta Chase
 
LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase
 
LOVER AWAKENED by J R Ward
 
NO REST FOR THE WICKED by Kresley Cole
 
PARADISE by Judith McNaught
 
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
 
SPLENDID by Julia Quinn