Merry Christmas!

'Tis the Season!

The time has come. Christmas quickly approaches and along with that, all the joys and beauty of the season.
I love this time of year. It is absolutely my favorite. From the day before Thanksgiving until that wonderful, happy morning on Christmas, there is a huge smile on my face (except when I'm at the day job, of course! LOL!) and songs singing through my spirit. Christmas is a time for joy amongst all people, but also a reflection of the spirit within yourself. Time to spend with friends and family, exchanging not only gifts but bonds of love that will last a whole lifetime.
My joy at this time of year mainly stems from the happiness that lights my children's faces whenever they see colored lights stringing from neighbor houses, or blown up X-mas decorations sitting outside on lawns - and the best time: Christmas morning when they discover all the wonderful presents Santa and Mom & Dad have given them. I cherish this time of year and try to capture as much of it as possible on camera, so that we will never forget the happiness we experienced together.
I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. Lift your spirit and be happy. Have a very Merry Christmas!!
Shannon

Tarot Reading

We had a chapter meeting on Saturday - our RWA writer's chapter CNYRW - and two of our wonderful ladies gave a lesson on using tarot to help our writing / characters. It was extremely fascinating. I've never personnally done tarot before - I'm not against it, just never tried before - but after learning more about it, I am definitely interested.
After the lesson, the ladies asked anyone if they wanted a reading and I volunteered for one. She told me to think of my question in my head - not to say it out loud - and focus on that question as I shuffled the cards. I had 3 cards "jump out" as I shuffled - they fell out as I was shuffling - I'll explain more about that in a moment. Once I was done, I handed them back to her and the only question she asked me was if the question I had thought of was related to my writing or to my life. I answered my life - the question I had thought of in my head was "What should I do about my day job so that I can be happy?"
The reading was amazing - the first card is the "present card", the one about you. Well my card was "STRESS". Hmmm, that definately fit me to a T. And the explanation regarding the card that my reader gave me was right on the money with my present situation.
I really wish I could have had a tape recorder, or wrote everything down - but basically the cards read so much about myself and my reader gave me so much insight that I was astonished. I know that I need to be myself, need to focus on my creativity so that I can reach higher. The message really spoke to me about my unhappiness with my current job and that in order to reach the light, there will be sorrow and change, but with that comes something better. There's so much more that was said, but I won't boggle you down with details - my reading was amazing and I encourage anyone who hasn't tried it to do so.

Phantom of the Opera

Ever since this production began playing in Toronto, it has been one of my biggest desires to see it. One of the "must-do" things on my list in life to accomplish - and I was finally able to check it off the list on Saturday! And I was not disappointed in the least - the show was AMAZING!!

The music was soul-wrenching. The characters and singing were brilliant and beautiful. The cosmetics of each scene were superb and each costume exquisitely designed.

I went with my grandmother and aunt, and about 60 other 70-year old people, (it was a senior citizens trip that our local VFW hosts). We sat up in the nose bleed seats, but in the Crouse-Hinds Theater, it doesn't matter where you sit. The theater is situated so that everyone can see the stage perfectly. I cannot stress how wonderful this show was and how everyone should experience this. The play really filters through to your soul as you are watching it.

The pictures I have posted are not of the cast of the play I saw - but pictures that are free on the Phantom of the Opera website. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures during the show. But the costumes are identical.

So take it from me, you have to see this play. It will touch your heart.

MEDIEVAL TIMES - woah baby!!

OK - now for the moment you've all been waiting for! (well, at least it makes me drool.) Our trip to Dallas, TX could not have been complete without a visit to the Medieval Times Restaurant:

This place was absolutely amazing - so realistic in every way.

Here's me and Holly - who I just know will probably KILL me for posting this - but I just have to share!! She's my buddy and it's not very often I get pics with her & I together:

Here's Holly, myself, and our friend and fellow Celtic Heart Romance Writer, Corrina (plus she's the president of that online group and tons of fun to hang out with!):

This is the entrance to the Torture Chamber and the dude that was guarding it - (not one of the Hot knights so don't start calling me a liar yet!)




The Torture Chamber was pretty intense - I still don't know if half of the stuff that was in there was real or not! There was this one really ugly device, that for some reason I didn't get a pic of, but it was called the Breast Ripper. Yeah! You can just imagine what that little sucker did!! AHHHH!!

Here's a pic of the arena - very cool!

This is the place setting that we had - mind you, NO utensils! We even had to drink the soup from the bowl or dip our bread to sop it up with.
(don't mind the large blue cup on the side - that held my new favorite drink: Maiden's Kiss. Oh yummy!)

One of the guys who served us our meal and drinks. He was really nice - again, not one of the HOT knights. They're coming....patience....

Here's some pics of the show:

Oh yeah - Mr. Hot Blue Knight!!

We were seated in the Yellow Section, so we had to cheer for the Yellow Knight. This pretty white carnation was tossed into the stands and guess who caught it! Oh yep, yours truly! I was such a giddy schoolgirl that evening!

Hold onto your shorts!! Here they come!!

OK - so just look at the HEIGHT of these guys! It's amazing - they don't build 'em like that up here in NY - (sorry Jake, I love you and you're the love of my life - but damn!!) I'm 5'7" and they still tower over me!

That's it! I hope you enjoyed the post - I know I enjoyed the experience!! :)

RWA Nationals #2

Continuing on with the trip:

Both Holly and I are members of the fabulous Celtic Hearts Romance Writers online chapter and were able to meet many of our fellow members at the Meet & Greet that the chapter had. It was a lot of fun. Here's some pics:

Corrina Goentzel (aka Corrina Cowen) and Dona, who I can't remember her last name - sorry Dona!! - are pictured here. They did a great job arranging the meeting. It was a blast!

Holly and I really enjoyed meeting Corrina - she's a great person and a ton of fun to hang out with. We had a fantastic time at Medieval Times Restaurant with her - but I'll tell you more about that later!

OK - so on to Embarrassing Moment #2!

It was our second night there, Thursday night, almost midnight. I've got my comfy jammies on - boxer shorts and a t-shirt, when suddenly the alarm in the hotel goes off telling everyone to immediately evacuate the hotel. Lights are flashing, the whole nine yards - and it's also telling us to not ride the elevators. Mind you - we're 10 STORIES UP!! So, I grabbed a sweater - fortunately - and Holly and I hit the stairs! Yeah, not fun at all. Some other lady was with us too hoofing it down the million steps that we had to - not sure what her name was though. Of course, both her and Holly were dressed. Nope, not me!! So, here I am in all my jammie glory outside of the hotel at midnight:

Just luscious huh? Thank Holly for this wonderful view! Anyways, fortunately, it was nothing serious and about 10 minutes later, we were able to go back inside. Mind you, half of the hotel didn't even hear the alarm and were still inside - but there were many others in their jammies and moo-moos outside with us!

Here's me & Holly again at one of the luncheons that we went to. I really enjoyed listening to Lisa Kleypas speak at one of the luncheons. She was very inspiring.

Here's C.J. Barry (aka Samantha Graves) another member from Central NY Romance Writers chapter (CNYRW), at one of the publisher-hosted booksignings:

OK - Medieval Times is coming up! Hold on to your seat - this is going to be great!

RWA Nationals ROCKED!!

I have to say that the trip was amazing. Every bit of it. (Well, except for the flight home, but I'll tell you about that later).

Holly Greenfield and I got to the hotel about 1pm on Wednesday, July 11th and were simply awed by the beauty of the hotel. It was an amazing hotel.

This is the view from the 10th floor hallway where our room was.
This is the waterfall that was inside of the hotel - absolutely beautiful!!

We definitely had some interesting moments to start off with - the first day, we hit the goody room and started stocking up on the great promotional items that all of the authors had in there - then came the Embarrassing Moment - you see, they had a room called the "Press Room" where there were tons of books laid out on the table already autographed. Well, Holly and I, being the newbie first-timers that we were, figured that they were for free! So, what did we do? We started loading up!! Yep, had a huge armload of these books in our arms when a woman came over to us and was looking at me funny. So, I said "These are for free right?" And got a shocking answer that no, they weren't! Oh Hell....back on the table they go, in the spots that they were in - and my face must have been about as red as a tomato! I have to say it gave Holly and I a great laugh moment once we got out of that room!!

Me and my best friend, Holly outside of the hotel. I was so glad that she was there with me - it definitely would not have been nearly as much fun without her!

The first night of the conference, there was a Literacy Booksigning that we went to with about 450 authors signing / selling books to benefit adult illiteracy. It was amazing! This pic below is only a hint of the amount of people that were there:
Sherrilyn Kenyon below - She is such a down-to-earth, friendly, and personable person.

Holly and I with Nora Roberts!!! That was definitely a highlight of my conference - I have always wanted to meet her. She is one of my favorite authors and an inspiration to all of us writers!

Me with Shana Abe below - I absolutely loved her book "The Smoke Thief" and just got the sequal to that called "The Dream Thief". Awesome novels that I highly recommend to anyone to read!

We also had a wonderful time with the gals from our local chapter, CNYRW. Kari Townsend and Barbie Jo Bogart (aka Barb Witek) were so much fun to hang out with! We had a blast at the bar and luncheons with them - you should just hear them and all the hilarious stories they have - if there's something funny that happens, you can bet it will happen to them! Here is a picture of Gayle Callen (published author for Avon and also a member of CNYRW) and Barb and Kari (soon-to-be published authors!):

If you want to here more about Nationals or learn more about the ladies I hung out with - check out these blogs:

http://www.hollyweeden.blogspot.com/

http://www.karileetownsend.blogspot.com/

http://www.irishbarbie.blogspot.com/

Continuing on:

So, we couldn't stay at this beautiful hotel without getting at least one trip to the pool! And considering that the temp was in the low 90's every day in Dallas, TX - the pool was a very refreshing experience. Here's a pic of me, Suemarie, Carol, (both members of CNYRW too - see there were a lot of us there!) and Holly enjoying the pool:

I have to thank Suemarie for all of the wonderful advice and tips that she gave Holly and I while we were at the conference. She was a wealth of info and readily willing to share! Thanks Suemarie!! Best of luck to you - I know we'll be seeing those books on the shelves soon!

OK - I'm going to stop for now. But come back soon - I'll have more about Nationals posted shortly and you won't want to miss the best part about my trip: Medieval Times and the HOTTEST knights around!!