Not sure if you've heard, but someone *coughJamaicaLaynecough* started a rumor that Jane from Dear Author is really an aspiring author who lost her contract with Quartet Press when it folded.

Well…not to be outdone, Jane has requested reviews on her alleged were-gerbil romance The Multi-Billionaire’s Virgin Rodent Wrangling Bride. And people have responded. They're all in good fun, especially now that Jane's secret best friend showed up to defend her as well.

Hero Material decided to participate as well. You can see his review here.

status: I feel awesome today! Weather's finally cooling down some. W00t!

Last night Hero Material and I went out. I was feeling restless because I was stuck on WIP. I had the basic story arc for my h/H, but I had no idea what was going on with my villain. After weeks of tinkering with the story, I was getting mighty frustrated.

So as we were sitting at a bar, I kept thinking about my story and suddenly blurted out, “Do you think you can salt human heads? You know, to preserve them for several years so you can give them to someone as presents?”

Hero Material looked totally grossed out. The piece of chicken between his chopsticks stopped moving toward his mouth, and he stared at me with a what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about expression on his face.

Oh that poor man.

But that little thing — salted human heads — got me thinking about other possibilities that I hadn't considered. Some members of Romance Divas gave me some pointers on how to preserve human heads as well. Special thanks to Kim Knox and Ayla for fabulous suggestions.

P.S. I'm glad nobody at the bar spoke English. Otherwise somebody might have called the police.

My article on how I use Samsung NC10 is up now! Please go to SammyNetbook.com and check it out!

Recently Larissa Ione got emails from people telling her how much they hate her, blah blah blah, because the illegal copies of her books they downloaded infected their computers with a nasty virus. Seriously, what's up with the sense of entitlement? How can they steal from her then get mad that things went wrong? (Because downloading illegal copies = stealing, you know.)

Don't like worm- and virus-laden ebooks? I've got a nutty idea: buy a legit copy from places like FictionWise, BooksOnBoard, Amazon, Sony eBook store, etc.

Sheesh.

Before I begin: This post is not about politics. I'm talking about this from a purely financial point of view. Numbers. If anyone leaves comments with political hate-talk, they will be deleted with extreme prejudice.

As we all know, Americans don't save much. That's one reason why we have to borrow so much from China, Japan, etc., and it's obviously a bad thing. In addition, many people are unable to retire due to a lack of sufficient money to fund their golden years. So in order to make it easier for you to save, Obama is proposing several measures. One of them is this:

In a second move, Mr. Obama said the Internal Revenue Service will allow people to check a box on their tax returns and receive their tax refunds in the form of United States savings bonds. White House officials said about 100 million families get tax refunds each year, and the average refund is about $2,000.

This wouldn't be a bad idea…if U.S. savings bonds actually offered a decent rate of return. According to the US savings bonds website, the interest rates as of September 2009 range from -5.56% (this is not a typo — the website really says that the rate is negative) to 1.5%. So the government gets to keep your federal tax refunds for years and pay you almost nothing. (You know the Chinese demand more than 1.5% on their money.)

If that's not bad enough, with the current rate of inflation, the value of your money will decrease. If you're making 1.5% on a bond and the inflation rate is 4% (let's just say), then your money is worth 2.5% less every year you leave it in the bond. So by saving, you actually lose ground.

The best way to encourage saving is not “allowing” people to put their tax refunds into some savings bonds that pay a nominal and virtually worthless rate of return. It is by raising interest rates and making saving (i.e., delayed gratification) worthwhile.

But I doubt that's really going to happen. If everyone saves, who's going to increase consumer spending, the all-important gauge of economic activity in America?

Happy Labor Day to all my friends in America! :)