Desperate Air Force Wives of St. Clair County

So we’ve been up here in the northern Tundra, also known as Illinois, for 10 months.  In that time, we …

• Hunkered down in our first snow storm
• Started new careers
• Saw our first professional hockey game
• Survived our first tornado
• Spent two days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with baby #4
• Started high school (baby #1)
• Started middle school (baby #2)
• Joined, quit, joined another cheer squad (baby #3)
• Moved back to Florida (baby #2, *sniffle*)
• Published my second book

In a word – stressed.   Moving with the military has been an interesting experience.  We chose not to live on base because 1) it was too far away from my new job; and 2) I heard horror stories about living in close company with people who had nothing better to do than peek out their windows and gossip about you with the other wives.   Who needs that kind of drama?  As you can see, I’m really good at creating my own.  I don’t need any help, thanks.

Gearing up for RT

Next week is the Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention in Orlando, FL.  The last time I went was in 2006 in Daytona Beach and it was so much fun (despite spending more than 1/2 the time in the hotel room puking my guts up with the stomach flu!) 

This year I’ll be going as a Desert Breeze author and I am so excited to be a part of that group.  In the few weeks they’ve been open for business, the staff at DBP have shown extraordinary effort and committment to making the small press a success.  I’m fortunate to be a part of it. 

I’ve done my shopping for all the parties, put together my list of seminars I want to attend, and purchased the items for my giveaway basket in ClubRT.  All I have left to do is ship my basket to the hotel and keep working on my newest WIP, Shut Up & Kiss Me, before I go. 

The convention should be blast.  I hope to see some familiar faces.  I’ll be hard to miss.  I’m the circus-tent-sized pregnant lady waddling around and looking for FL sunshine.  =D

Contest Winner Announced!

I’LL DO ANYTHING… for Lingerie!

WINNER: PAM S!

That’s dedication, girl! Congrats!

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

NEW CONTEST!! March 2009

To celebrate the re-release of my book, I’ll Do Anything, I’m revisiting one of my favorite contests!

I’LL DO ANYTHING… for Lingerie!

Here’s how to win
Subscribe to my blog tell me about a time you went above and beyond for love. Leave your submission as a comment to this announcement. The best story will win!

Grand Prize
A $50 gift card to Victoria’s Secret & a copy of the newly revised, re-released I’ll Do Anything from Desert Breeze Publishing!

Just how far will YOU go for a delicious goody!

Good Luck!

Contest begins Monday, March 9th and ends Friday, April 3rd, 2009.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

My Soundtrack

As I sat here “chair-dancing” to the Pussycat Dolls, I came to the sudden realization that listening to your iPod is like living in your own soundtrack.

Sometimes I am up for an 80’s flashback with a little Rick Springfield, Boston, and Journey to get the day going.

Sometimes I’m shakin’ my ass to Party Like a Rock Star and Gold Digger and dancing like I’m on MTV’s the Grind (I just totally dated myself there.. LOL)

Other days I’m jamming out to System of a Down or “classic” Limp Bizkit and feeling like I could take on the world and beat some serious ass.

If you don’t have an iPod, I highly recommend the purchase. For those of you who write, you can totally relate to my “soundtrack” theory. Many of us use music to set a mood for a certain scene. I remember when I wrote the garden scene in I’LL DO ANYTHING, I listened to Mazzy Starr’s “Fade Into You” over and over again until I got it just right.

I think tonight I’m going to add a new playlist – Kick Ass Workout

This soundtrack will include those songs that make me feel like getting up and moving around. Since the start of football season, we are spending a lot of time at the park for cheer & football practices. Todd and I have decided to make the best of it and start running on the track. I need more motivation than his sexy self jogging in front of me.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my hubby, but I used to tell people that if you saw me running you’d better call the cops ‘cause somebody’s chasing me. LOL

Todd is motivated to lose some weight because he got promoted to SSgt (USAF) and he bought a new uniform. He refused to get the right size pants and now he’s got to lose weight to fit into the ones he bought.

Apparently this idiocity is not limited to us, ladies. Men feel the pinch, too.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

Over-Achiever

There are times in your life when you just have to let things go.

I planned our wedding for over a year; finishing one degree and starting another during that time. My ex-husband joined the Army Reserves and my son’s mild separation anxiety turned into a full blown “issue” as a result. I watched months and months go by without any opportunities to reconnect with my writing and it suffered as a result of all of this extra stuff I was doing all the time.

Then, to my great disappointment and regret, I found it my writing dreams simply wash away with the closing of Triskelion Publishing. I’ll Do Anything, which had seen some excellent reviews, is now frozen in Bankruptcy Limbo while Kristi & Ron Studts’ bankruptcy trustee try to sell off assets to repay their debt. At first I was angry, but now I realize that this emotion is futile as there is nothing I can do but wait and throw my paperwork at the courts when it’s my turn.

Now that the wedding is over and things are settling down a bit at home and work, there seems to be more time to just breathe and relax and think about the things I used to enjoy. I have read three books in the last four days. What a luxurious treat! That’s novels, mind you. NOT textbooks. I have cracked open my Shut Up & Kiss Me file and started editing and reaquainting myself with Gillie & Preston. What a pair those two are! I am excited to say that I’ve set myself a goal to finish them this summer.

I want a second chance at my writing. I want to do things differently this time. I’m more experienced now (and jaded) and know more of what I want out of my writing career. I didn’t make New Years Resolutions this year because I was so overwhelmed at the time that I thought adding more goals would just put me over the edge. Can you make Mid-Year Resolutions?? LOL

There just comes a time when you have to let go of the small things to see the big picture. My big picture is that I’m in love, my family is happy and healthy, and I am making some of my dreams come true. I got some valuable advice recently:

“You are one of those people who can get something 90% done in 4 hours, but spends another two days trying to accomplish the last 10%. Sometimes you just have to accept when 90% is just good enough.”

I needed that eye-opening observation.

Thanks Bob.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

"Do you write trashy romance novels?"

So I spoke at Haley’s school yesterday. I was running late and frazzled as all get out when I finally got there yesterday morning. I had a roomful of sleepy kids watching my every move and I really didn’t have a whole speech planned out so I was nervous.

I knew what I wanted to talk about and how I wanted to start it out. I was to talk to five different classes throughout the day and as this sleepy group started waking up, the day looked really promising. Escpecially when they started asking questions.

“How many books have you written?”
“Where do you get your ideas?”
“If all these books in the library are only a small drop in the total books all over the world, how do you know that your ideas are original?”
“Can I read your book?”

and, my personal favorite:

“Do you write trashy romance novels?”

That one made me laugh. I told her that we don’t typically like to hear them called that but our novels get a bad name because some of the covers are a little trashy.

I talked about why I write and how I get ideas for stories. I also asked them when they write a paper or a story and sign “The End” at the bottom, who thought they were finished? Most of them raised their hands and I laughed and said “You’re wrong.”

We talked about the editting process and about reading your paper out loud to catch mistakes. We talked about writing the way we talk and if we opened a Science book that said “Don’t nobody go to space without no spaceship…” would they want to read a book like that?

Of course, some kids were saying that they would just because they are 11 and they know everything. Other kids understood my point and said that reading books written like that would be confusing to read.

For the most part, I think they got what I was trying to tell them. The best part was the last thirty minutes of each class, we created a unique story all their own. We created characters with ages and friends and siblings. We gave them a conflict and I took ideas for exciting things that could happen in our new story. I incorporated all that we did into the writing process: Pre-writing, Editting, etc.

They had a blast. The teachers, two very lovely ladies whom I admire for doing what they do every day, were wonderful and extremely gracious. They both appreciated my efforts and now the children will have to finish the stories we created next week.

It was more fun than I could have imagined and I am really glad I did it. Mrs. Willoughby hinted that they would love for me to do it again next year and I think that I just might. It made me feel so good to share the things I’ve learned about writing with the kids.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

Tale of a Sixth Grader

This Friday I am speaking to the sixth grade class of my daughter’s school about the writing process.

It all began when the teacher discussed the syllabus with my daughter’s language arts class and she raised her hand and said something to the effect of:

Mrs. Willoughby, my mom is a writer.

Haley came home that night very excited and said her teacher wanted me to come in and talk to her class about the writing process. My first question was if Haley told her teacher that I write romance novels. Haley assured me that she did and her teacher confirmed it.

But the writing process is still the same, right?

Well, Yeah.. I guess so. Hmmm….

It originally started out as talking to Haley’s class for thirty minutes. The next thing I know, I’m taking off an entired day this Friday to talk to all of the sixth grade language arts students. I’m part excited, part terrified. I remember 6th Grade and when Haley started middle school this year, I really hoped she would find some kids more her own age and find her niche. She has finally started coming out of her shell and let me just say for the record:

The kid is ten times braver than I ever was at her age.

Luckily, she hasn’t had to move around as much as I did when I was her age. I was the new kid in five different middle schools in two years. She has grown up with these kids. She still has friends from Kindergarten!

Anyway, I think my biggest fear is that I don’t want to do anything that embarrasses her. She’s so sensitive and so beautiful but she’s also very self-conscious and aware of what other people think of her. This doesn’t stop her, of course, from acting like a complete clown sometimes, but I think she’s finally getting it that other girls her age don’t do impromptu voice overs for the frogs they catch in the yard.

(This, by the way, is the Entertainer side she inherited from me. My family is full of a bunch of spotlight hogging comedians and I am no exception.)

So as I sit down this week and write a few notes on what I want about the writing process from a published writer’s perspective to a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds… I will try very hard to not say or do anything that embarrasses my kid.

Like, you know, actually acknowledge her or something equally heinous.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

Digging out

Sometimes, it takes a pedicure to realize you’ve really let yourself go. When I went in to change my polish from “My Chiuaua Bites” orange to “I’m Really Not a Waitress” red, my pedicurist asks me “You want deluxe today?”

I told her I didn’t have time for the deluxe.. complete with parafin wax and sea salt massage .. and she took one look at my feet and said “Regular pedicure isn’t going to fix this.”

So I got the deluxe—

Dammmmmnnn…

My 30th birthday came and went without much incident. It was also the first day of school here in Florida, so my kids and I had an eventful morning to start out the day. I was still kind of bummed that I’d be by myself but my friends reminded me, one phone call after another, that they love me. Then, when I pulled into my driveway and found my best friend had driven all the way from Mobile, Alabama, to spend my birthday with me… oh wow.. total meltdown. I have the best friends ever!

Thank you Kristi, Saya, “20,” Lawrence and Cliff… the champaigne was magnificent, but the company was way better!

I stayed pretty far behind on my homework until the very last day. I am finally on that 2 week break I have been looking forward to for months! But now I have a book to write. LOL! Oh wow… I must love to be this busy. Otherwise I’d think I was going crazy.

I am taking Lisa Rena Jones’ promotion class next week. I need to get more on top of this promotions stuff. As it is, I was so bogged down in homework and my trip to San Francisco that I completely forgot that I had a contest going. Therefore, I unintentionally extended it (sorry guys!) I will announce the winner this weekend.

It’s going to be an eventful month next month. Todditchka is coming hoooooomeeee!!!! Sometime in mid to late September, my greatest love is coming back stateside. OMG.. I am so stoked. July went by pretty fast but now the days just seem to drag on and on forever. Talking on webcam at the PC cafe is almost torturous now. I can’t watch him on cam without feeling that desperate longing. Not just because I’ve been celibate for 4 months, either.

This man is my soulmate.. he is my forever. Even though I know that being in the military is part of who he is, it still sucks. An old friend of mine, married to Army, has an icon on her MySpace that says “Sex Deprived for your Freedom.”

I think that’s pretty appropo.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!

“That’s what they make boys for…”

Since Todd has been gone, I’ve been so proud of my self-sufficient independence. I have taken care of bills, kids, work, house stuff, etc., all by myself. Today, I finally encountered the first thing that I absolutely can not do on my own.

Vehicle Maintenance.

Now most of y’all will say “What’s so hard about that?” We take the car to Walmart or Sears, depending on the seriousness of the issue, we hand over our keys and tell them we want the full service package with the car freshener and everything.

Easy-breezy…

Except when you live with Todd Vetter : Mr. Car Guy of the Year and Every Girl’s Hero of the Oil Change and Flat Tire. I told Todd that my truck was acting up; not changing gears right and making loud whirring noises. He told me to take the car to Auto Zone and let them run a computer diagnostic on it.

Now, I have never walked into an Auto Zone all by myself and bought anything, much less asked for assistance. I’ve done the “girl-friend follow-along”thing before. You know… going into the store with your sexy boyfriend — his t-shirt has fresh oil-stains and he has smudge marks on his cheeks and forehead? That was kinda fun. All I had to do was stand there and look impressed by his vast knowledge of all things dirty under the hood as he talked with the guys behind the counter

This was different. This time, I was actually expected to know what they were talking about.

I get Donna, a cheerful older woman who plugged a nifty little handheld device into my dashboard and looked up the error code.

“It’s a malfunction of the electrical output speed sensor,” Donna says.

I just looked at her. I’m not really sure what I expected. Maybe I thought she would tell me what to buy and where to put it. I don’t know. What I do know is that for the first time I felt totally helpless.

I burst into tears.

“Oh, please don’t cry,” Donna says.

“But I don’t know how to fix that,” I wailed. Donna hands me a blue, rubbery papertowel that smells like band-aids. What I didn’t bother to mention is that I don’t even know how to change a tire, much less get under the car and find where that sensor-thingie was.

“Honey, you don’t have to know how to fix it,” Donna tells me, patting my hand. “That’s what they make boys for.”

Thanks for the laugh, Donna. I needed that.

$81 later, AAMCO Transmission hooked me up and I’m back on the road again and proud of myself, despite my prissy moment, that I once again was able to save the day all by myself.

Romance Author Chrystal Kincaid talks about life, love, and the pursuit of sanity!