May 3rd, 2006
I have to save my blog. A few more nights of Sparkle and Ganymede would bring down my whole site.
I just wanted to give a shout out to all the people who took the time (during American Idol, no less) to attend my chat tonight. I don’t type too fast, so I didn’t get in as much chatting as I would’ve liked, but I did have a great time.
I really apologize for dropping the ball with the blog. I’ll try to do better. My incentive? Every night that I don’t blog, Sparkle, Ganymede, or heaven knows who will do it for me (shudder).
I’ve been getting in some good reading. I’m really enjoying J. R. Ward’s and Allison Brennan’s series. I’m reading Katie MacAlister’s new book right now. I picked up DEFINITELY DEAD, by Charlaine Harris yesterday. Can’t wait to read it.
Guess I’ve rambled on long enough for my first night back. Does anyone use WordPress for their blogging? I know there’s a way I can access the sidebar on my blog page, but darned if I can figure it out. If I ever do, I can fix the calendar and update the other things there.
Take care,
The real Nina Bangs
May 2nd, 2006
This is Ganymede, and what the hell am I doing here? Yeah, yeah, it’s really me, Ganymede, the baddest of the bad. I was sitting in front of the tube watching some idiot try to spin the fact that the Houston Texans didn’t pick Reggie Bush or Vince Young in the draft as a good thing. And I was working my way through this big bowl of ice cream. I was in my zone, and life was good. Then Sparkle rushed into the room, stole the remote, and changed the station so she could watch American Idol. She has a thing for that Chris guy. I hate him. When I get done here, I think I’ll phone in a thousand votes for all his competition so they can vote his ass off tomorrow. What’s he have that I don’t have more of? Then she told me to do tonight’s blog because she was busy. What do I know about all this blogging crap? Sparkle said to just talk about anything and make sure I didn’t insult anyone. Where’s the fun in that?
I could tell you about me. No, there’s not enough space here for that. I’d have to tell you that I’m one of the oldest and most powerful cosmic troublemakers in the universe. I could give you a few chuckles by telling about the time I created this black hole and sucked in… Hey, that’s a thought. Maybe I’ll create a small inconspicuous black hole to suck Chris right up. See, that makes me feel better just thinking about it. Anyway, I show up in most of Nina’s books to mess with the lives of her characters. Then, just for kicks, I save everyone at the end. What? Sparkle said she’s the one that saves everyone. Who you gonna believe, a cosmic troublemaker who’s definitely going to rule the universe one day or a babe who thinks job satisfaction is hooking up people who hate each other? It’s a no brainer.
I think Sparkle said something about reminding everyone to come to Nina’s chat tomorrow night at Writerspace. It’s at 9:00pm ET. Be there. If no one shows up, she’ll get me to chat with her. And I hate chatting as much as I hate blogging.
Guess I’ve filled up enough space. Gotta get on the phone and send Chris home. Think I’d look sexy with my head shaved?
Sparkle better get Nina back to doing her own blog, because I’m not doing this again.
See ya,
Ganymede 
May 1st, 2006
Hi there, all you abandoned visitors. Sparkle Stardust here. Nina Bangs should be ashamed of herself for leaving all this totally awesome space empty. I mean, I could write for hours and never come up for air. Nina’s been laying these really weak excuses on me for why she’s not blogging–she’s busy writing WICKED FANTASIES, she has to clean out her closets, and she has other “stuff” to do. Yeah, like I believe that. What she means is that she’s a fraidy-cat. Not that a cat is a bad thing to be… Oops, drifting off topic. Anyway, the sad truth is that she has a new blog that’s a little more complicated than the last one, and she hasn’t a clue what to do with it. Now, that’s not me. I’ll just jump right in and start blogging while Nina’s trying to read all the instructions. Hey, who cares if I make a few mistakes? Not me. So I’ll show up each night and we can chat about things like sex, shoes, sex, nail colors, and did I mention sex? If that doesn’t bring her racing to her blog, I don’t know what will. Of course, she’s lost all her visitors, so I’ll have to win them back. Sigh. The things I have to do to keep Nina on track.
Later,
Sparkle 
December 21st, 2005
Thanks Michele, Megan, Ferfe LaBat, and Gabby for your great input on digital cameras and point of view.
After exhaustive research online, in magazines, and from the personal experiences of many many people, I went to my local Wolf Camera store and bought a totally different camera from any of the ones I’d been considering. Chalk one up for a great salesman. Is everyone ready? Drumroll please. I bought a Canon SD400. I was completely confused by the time I hit the store’s door. It seemed that no two reviewers could agree about which was the best camera in the three to four hundred dollar range. I like consensus before I spend my money, and some of the horror stories I read on photo bulletin boards gave me chills. I knew I had to eventually make a decision, so when the salesman brought out the SD400, I bought it. I’m glad that I did. It was less than three hundred dollars, but by the time I bought an SD card and all the other little extras, it took the cost up close to four hundred. The other cameras that a lot of reviewers seemed to like were the newest kids on the block (like the Canon A620), but after adding on the extra costs, they would’ve taken me into the five hundred dollar range. Somewhere I didn’t want to go right now. Yes, I get free lessons with this baby, and heaven knows I need them. The camera is like a computer, and I’m not too great with the technical stuff.
Hey, guys, remember the consensus thing? I didn’t get that with my point of view question either. Sheesh! I’m still undecided about whether to try first person. If I ever do, I’ll make sure that one of my series is still in third person. Anyway, all of my 2006 books will be in third person. The one truly memorable first person POV romance that I remember is Outlander. I fell in love with Jamie even though I never got into his head.
Megan, I took your advice and bought some catnip spray and a catnip plant (plant is growing in my computer room, a cat-free zone for the moment). When the plant is mature enough, I’ll put it out for Abby to go crazy over. I bought a bigger scratching post and sprayed it with the catnip spray. She really loves the new post. Then I sprayed a commercial product on the area of my couch that had become a war zone. The manufacturer guarantees that it will stop the scratching, and so far it seems to be working pretty well. No cords have been chewed lately either. Life is good! By the way, you know that as soon as I take a good picture of Abby, I’ll put it up on the site.
Oh, and have faith. My site updates will be done very soon, and I’ll have a January contest up. I’m trying to think of a really great contest to run for my back-to-back books in May and June. Last year it was a big money prize. What do you think? Do readers want the money or something more meaningful (Although money is pretty meaningful to me)? Suggestions welcome.
December 4th, 2005
Not looking forward to speed reading your way through the same tired plot, the same predictable characters?
Welcome to a different kind of writing and a far weirder reality. Take the road no one else traveled and do lunch with the people who paved it.
It?s a romance?for the lunatic fringe.
Tara Cole is a computer geek who drops off the grid to live in the Florida Keys. After ten years taking hit after hit in the digital world, it?s hard to cut all the baggage loose. She carries some of that baggage in the form of a website she runs called Revenge-Gifts.com. One of the gifts she sells comes back to haunt her in the form of a Reversal of Fortune curse a voodoo priestess puts on Tara for revenge. Only, if you haven?t had sex in ten years and your life pretty much sucks already, how bad can a Reversal of Fortune curse really be?
For your Christmas Revenge Shopping visit http://www.revenge-gifts.com/Revenge%20Gifts/index.htm
Excerpt:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0765352257/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-1562852-4871063#reader-link
Cover:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0765352257/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-1562852-4871063#reader-link
ABOUT Cindy Cruciger
Cindy Cruciger was born on a full moon night in Okeechobee, Florida. A few days later, the doctor who delivered her disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. Weird? Yes. But, she’s used to it. She graduated from USF and UCF with a degree in computer engineering and is an alumna of the Delta Eta chapter of Kappa Delta sorority. She got married, got a job, had a few kids and ended up in Puerto Rico for five years. There amongst the Chupacabra sightings, Santeria rituals, and all the usual island-life madness, on a full moon night at the height of the summer heat, no air-conditioning, fans blowing so hard the cats were skittering over the terrazzo floor trying to get some traction and failing, the scent of night blooming Jasmine so thick in the air that you could wring it out of the curtains — she started writing. Her first work of fiction won an RT Book Club contest and for three years she has been chronicling the strange world of an aspiring author, trying to get published. Her Path to Publishing column appears monthly in RT Book Club Magazine. She is a computer engineer for the Miami Herald and freelances for the Keynoter — a bi-weekly tabloid that chronicles everything and anything that happens in the hundred plus miles of the Florida Keys.
She currently lives in the village of Islamorada in the Florida Keys — until her neighbors read her book and kick her off the island.
REVIEWS
?Four and a half stars TOP PICK Flat-out fabulous, this novel is one-of-a-kind. Cruciger?s original, funny voice is cool and wise?? ?RTBOOK Club Magazine
?Cindy Cruciger?s debut novel is riotously funny and wickedly witty.? ? Romance Junkies
?I kept hiding behind the boxes to keep reading it – this book seriously hooks you so bad you?ll have a rictus curl in the side of your face.? ? Smart Bitches Trashy Books
Website: http://www.CindyCruciger.com
MY COMMENTS: The term “fresh voice” is tossed around a lot in the publishing industry, but Cindy lives up to the hype. She combines great storytelling with a caustic sense of humor that kept me turning the pages. And what a great concept! If you haven’t read this book, do it. Now. That’s an order.
