July « 2007 « Patti O'Shea's Blog

Archive for July, 2007

It’s MY Super Tuesday!

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

It’s release day!

Finally, after all this waiting, In the Midnight Hour is available in bookstores everywhere!

I think I have to do a quick happy dog dance. I keep saying this, but it’s true–Midnight Hour is a very special book for me. I love all my books and all my heroes and heroines, but there’s just something about this one… I can’t put it into words.

The story has magic, suspense, action, adventure, and the sexual tension between Ryne and Deke is pretty darn explosive. There’s even humor since Deke has such a smart mouth. They strike sparks off each other and yet Ryne and Deke complement each other beautifully.

For those of you new to the blog, here’s a little blurb about the book:

When a troubleshooter for a society of magic users rescues a private investigator from a dark spell, she finds more than an ally as she faces down her former mentor IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR.

I’ve also had some great responses to the book:

“Patti O’Shea is a voice and talent to be reckoned with. IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is gripping and wonderful, everything a paranormal should be.” ~Sherrilyn Kenyon – NY Times Bestselling Author
“O’Shea ratchets up the paranormal thrills with this inventive and clever new tale.” ~Romantic Times Book Reviews
“Dramatic, funny, and exciting, IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is a story not to be missed.” ~Romance Reviews Today
“[T]his book just blew me away.” ~The Best Reviews

I even have a super cool fabulous video for Midnight Hour! COS Productions did an absolutely incredible job. You can check it out at In the Midnight Hour Video.

Find Out More About MIDNIGHT HOUR

I hope y’all will give this book a try.

That ends my commercial for this Tuesday.

Tags: midnight_hour
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Rabbit 2 Patti 0

Monday, July 30th, 2007

When I watered my flowers on Friday evening, all was well. When I went out to water them on Saturday evening, the vicious killer rabbit had struck again! Adding insult to injury, he was standing less than ten feet from my tree ring when I walked out of the house and he didn’t move! He just sat there even as I walked down to the flowers with the hose in my hand. Finally, as I neared firing range, he hopped away. It was only then that I saw the damage he’d caused to my sole remaining Sumatra Lily. Yes, the heartless fiend had eaten nearly every leaf off the plant!

I was enraged. I swore at the rabbit, called him all kinds of names, but none of it made me feel better. Once again, the monster had bypassed the free flowers and chomped on the ones I’d had to pay for! There was only one thing to do. When I got back to the house, I picked up the Bat Phone and called my dad.

My tree ring is now surrounded by chicken wire and my peony tree has tall plastic fencing around it. The next move is yours, evil rabbit. Let’s see you bypass the fence.

In other news, I managed to cross three items off my To Do List! Hurrah! I’m feeling so much better. Of course, a couple of the items still on there will take a lot of work, but the important thing is the numbers are going lower.

Tags: garden, plants, rabbit
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Deja Vu

Sunday, July 29th, 2007

Yes, it’s movie review time again! I’ve been watching baseball lately so the movies have been sitting, but yesterday the Cubs weren’t televised and I had no desire to watch the Twins.

Last night’s film was Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington. Summing this one up without giving away some spoilers is going to be difficult, but I’ll try.

Denzel is an ATF agent investigating a ferry that was blown up on the Mississippi River near New Orleans. It was a terrorist act and there’s an alphabet soup full of agencies trying to find out who was responsible. One of these agencies recruits Denzel to work with them because they need someone who can study a crime scene quickly. But they’re not always telling him the truth and the secrets they’re keeping are mind blowing.

Not a great summary, but it’s the best I can do without giving away spoilers.

Anyway, my thoughts on this movie. Denzel Washington was looking fine and he played a very likable character that the audience could root for. He’s by far the best part of the film and the main reason why I stuck through it until the end.

The plot sounded promising and interesting, but while it had potential, I don’t think it was realized. When it was advertised on television, it sounded as if there’d be a fairly strong romance going on, but that’s not true. There’s pretty much no romance at all between Denzel’s character and Claire. I could live with that. The biggest problem was that for a movie that was supposed to a taut thriller, I thought there was very little suspense.

Another problem was that the only character I cared about was Doug (Denzel). I didn’t know his partner, so I didn’t give a rip what happened to him and I didn’t care about Claire. Although we were given peeks into her life and that was supposed to make her real, there was simply very little depth to what we were seeing, and consequently, she came across as two-dimensional.

Bottom line: I can’t recommend this movie.
2.5 stars and that’s only because of Denzel

Tags: movies, reviews
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The Theme From…

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

I guest blogged today at Magical Musings about a couple of my Pre-Book writing rituals. If you’re interested, head on over and check it out.

One of my rituals involves finding a theme song for the book. The song for In the Midnight Hour is Here I Go Again by Whitesnake. This was the one that popped up almost from the beginning as I wrote the story and it stuck all the way through. It didn’t work that way for In Twilight’s Shadow, my June 2008 book. I thought the theme was Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas, but by the time I was 3/4 of the way through writing the story, I knew that wasn’t right. I think, and I’m still not 100% positive, that the song is going to end up being On the Dark Side by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.

I’ve been trying to come up with Logan and Shona’s theme (and also a title for their darn story), but I haven’t had any luck. I do have Kel’s, however. (Kel, BTW, is Logan’s twin.) The working song is If Everyone Cared by Nickelback, but since I have no heroine or story for Kel yet (and I shouldn’t since Logan is first), it’ll be a while and who knows if it will stick? I’ve got Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls going through my head, so maybe that’s Logan’s song. Or maybe I just heard it on the radio recently.

Some day, I’m going to burn a CD with all my theme songs on it and just sing along with it in the car or something.

Anyway, I crossed another item off my To Do List yesterday and I hope to finish a few more this weekend. I love crossing things off. It makes me feel sooo good. Things will definitely lighten up after Tuesday when In the Midnight Hour is released. I just need to have about 90% of my list completed before the 31st. Gah!

Tags: blogging, music
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Technology

Friday, July 27th, 2007

Yesterday was my day for computer issues and this put me even farther behind on things. It started out with my antivirus software. It was on the verge of expiring so I figured I’d just take care of that real quick. What was I thinking? Quick? On whose planet?

First of all, I couldn’t get in on Firefox, I had to switch to IE. Then the upgrade to the 2007 version is the same cost as the renewal fee. Hey, I have high speed internet, I might as well go to 2007. It downloaded fast enough, but installing it was another matter. That took forever and required babysitting on my part.

My next challenge was updating my website. I’ve been trying to do it since Monday and I still couldn’t get it to transfer. I emailed the company who hosts my site and he was supposed to have fixed it, only I’d get one page over and then I’d get the error message again. I was planning to email them back, but it was getting late and I was tired. I attempted the upload again this morning and everything worked. I don’t know what the problem was.

Doesn’t sound like too much, does it? To me either, but it ate up most of my evening. Very frustrating. But as of right now, my computer is protected and my website is updated, so I guess all’s well that ends well.

Tags: computer
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The Treadmill of Life

Thursday, July 26th, 2007

Yesterday was one busy day! I spent my lunch hour at the Evil Day Job and my evening once I got home from the EDJ trying to catch up with the cyber world. I didn’t make it. I still have email to respond to and blog comments and other stuff. I started a triage method of dealing with life last night–what’s most critical that I need to handle right now?

I felt like I was running all evening–I didn’t even get to sit down and watch the Cubs game last night–yet I couldn’t seem to make any progress. I’m going to try again today.

One of the things I forgot to mention about waiting in the hospital emergency room was how I passed the time. At first, I was too anxious to do anything, but once they took my dad’s vitals and everything was okay, I was able to relax some. I had one book in the car with me: Open Season by Linda Howard. I’ve already read this book a couple of times, but desperate times and all that, so I jammed it in my purse in case I needed it.

I really, really, really needed it. Like I mentioned yesterday, 6 hours. I read OS twice. Yep, twice while I waited. After the second time I read it, I looked for magazines. The only one near me was something like Home Handyman. I finished that, too. The only other reading material near me was children’s books. I was debating starting on them, that’s how desperate I was.

Conclusion? I must keep more books in the car with me just in case. This showed me the importance of being prepared.

In other news, I was interviewed yesterday by The Wall Street Journal! Not about my writing, which would have been totally super cool, but about my buying things from HSN and QVC, which was still cool, but not totally super cool. I’m hoping something I said makes it into the article and that–fingers crossed–the fact I’m a published author gets mentioned. Maybe it’ll be enough to drive people to my website to check out my books.

Tags: busy, hospitals, interviews, reading
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Stop the Excitement!

Wednesday, July 25th, 2007

I think I’ve mentioned before that I need to stop complaining about how boring my life is because I don’t like it when it gets exciting. Yesterday was one of those times.

I stopped by my parents’ house after work and my dad says that his hand is tingling, and because he hasn’t heard back from his doctor’s office, he’s going to the emergency room. Instant stress. I drove him and my mom to the hospital and I’m worried the whole time that he’s having a heart attack. He was worried he was having a stroke. And we had to wait before they took him in and checked his blood pressure, pulse, etc.

Then more waiting before they took him in for a CAT scan, then more waiting to see the doctor to get the results. Really, really, really a lot of waiting. Even when they called him back to a room, the waiting wasn’t over. They wanted more tests and that took another 2 hours worth of time. In total, we spent 6 hours in the emergency room last night.

My dad is fine. They think it’s just a pinched nerve, thank God. He has a follow up appointment with his own doctor next week just to be safe, but it sounds like all is well.

Because I didn’t get home until late last night and then it took me quite a while to relax enough to sleep, I didn’t hear the alarm this morning. I woke up ten minutes before I had to be out the door. I took the fastest shower ever and I did make it to the Evil Day Job (EDJ) on time, but I didn’t have a chance to check the web or read email, let alone answer anyone.

So, please bear with me. I’ll get to all the notes and comments before I go to bed tonight, but I’m running behind in a lot of areas right now.

Tags: excitment, hospitals, parents
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Aspen Gold Finalist!

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007

I received an email yesterday to tell me that Eternal Nights is an Aspen Gold Award finalist for Best Paranormal! Whoo hoo!!! I had to send out two more books for the final round and my dad’s going to mail them for me today.

I tried to update my website last night, but I couldn’t get on. That was hugely frustrating. But since I couldn’t get email either or websites, I’m suspecting the problem was on my end. I’m going to try again if I have time this morning.

So I’ve been lamenting to anyone who stops moving long enough to be cornered that I have characters (Logan and Shona), but no story for them. I think I finally have a plot! Yea! I have a lot of details left to work out, including how the heck Logan gets himself into Shona’s life to protect her, and who the bad guy (or woman) is, but at least I have the main idea. It actually came to me Sunday night while I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. Of course, I immediately got excited and had to get up and send an email to my friend and see what she thought. Um, even with the time difference between Minneapolis and Paris, I’m sure she was still asleep, but I couldn’t wait. Besides, by writing it down, I wouldn’t forget it myself. Nighttime ideas don’t necessarily remain in the morning.

I’m a little frustrated by the way the information is trickling in, but I was so exhausted creatively that signs of recovery are welcome–even if I’d like the ideas to flow a little faster. My plan is not to rush anything and let the trickle continue.

Items on the To Do List accomplished: 0
Many other things that cropped up and had to be handled: Endless, but accomplished

Tags: awards, ideas, writing
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Goddess of Time, Space and Temperature

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Wouldn’t it be cool to control time? Slow it down if you’re running late or if it’s the weekend and you don’t want the work week to start up again so quickly. Or speed it up while you’re stuck at the Evil Day Job (EDJ) so that you can get out of there. Writing time would be slowed down, expanded until it seemed to last forever and EDJ time would flash by in the blink of an eye.

Weekends. Ah, weekends, they’d be eternal. Bliss. Joy. Happiness.

And suddenly I’m struck by how very sad it is that I totally live for the weekends and can’t wait to get away from the EDJ. Part of it is the worst coworker in the history of the world. My attitude would probably improve greatly if he wasn’t there. But the only thing that would make me completely happy is to write full time. (Although, I’ll confess, while I was working on the book from hell, the EDJ wasn’t looking quite so bad.

But I digress, back to controlling time. Plane trips would be over in a flash. I used to love flying, but those days are long gone. Vacations would last long enough to relax and yet still have enough time to see/do everything I wanted to see/do.

Summers would never end. Winter would last a day. If that. Oh, wow, I want to control the weather, too, and the sun! It would always be Summer Solstice–I love the long days. Sorry Southern hemisphere. Minnesota would be 75 and sunny every day.

I guess I better quit here. I’m depressing myself because I can’t control time, the weather or the sun. Yet. There’s always hope, right?

Sorry. I just felt like being kind of silly today and thinking about how to avoid going back to the EDJ and having longer weekends was on my mind.

Tags: silliness
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

The Two Cs

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

I think I maybe might have found a coffee table! It’s round, which I’m not 100% thrilled about, and at 28″ wide, it’s slightly bigger than I’d like, but overall, I like it. I have to go to the store and look at it in person, though. It was in an advertisement my parents received, and while it was on sale, it’s still more than I wanted to spend and it’s not a decision I’m making from a picture. But it has the shelf and the drawer that I wanted, plus it’s on casters for easy sliding around while I vacuum, which is a definite asset. The end tables that go with it are much too big, (and outrageously expensive, more so than the coffee table) so I’d still have to search for those, but the coffee table is the critical piece of furniture I need. The end tables can wait.

It’s crowded in my head right now. Not only do I have the characters for the proposals I’m sort of working on, but I have characters for stories I don’t plan to write hanging around as well. It’s actually kind of cool since I haven’t had this in years and I take it as a good sign. I really wish, though, that I could figure out what Logan and Shona’s story is and who their bad guy is so that I could move forward with that proposal. I’ve got the first chapter in my head–mostly–but that’s about it.

I think that’s all I have to say today. =8-O No one is more shocked than me. Enjoy your Sunday, y’all.

Tags: characters, furniture
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »