Thank you so much to my fellow author and sweet friend, Anne Patrick, for sharing this cute Blog Award. I must nominate some of my favorite authors and blogs, so please stop by their places and say hello.

Laurean's Lore
LK Hunsaker
Rachel Rossano
Stephanie Burkhart
Linda Swift

Fun Stuff

An elegant pineapple chicken salad recipe and a review of P.I. Barrington's CRUCIFYING ANGEL will be featured in this month's THE PRIVATEER NEWSLETTER. Check out this short, fun and informative monthly that goes out tonight! Join us. Sign on here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePrivateerNewsletter/

Appreciate Your Own Architecture

Pears, triangles, hourglasses…we give our body shapes such flattering names. They bring to mind delicate fruit, the powerful Sphinx, and shapely timekeepers. Why then, are we so darn hard on ourselves? I loved the Dove commercials that feature women of various sizes, shapes, and ages. It's too bad other companies haven't picked up on this idea. We need it.

I see so much beauty in the women around me. Like the soap ad, they are a vast array of girls from different backgrounds and decades. They are fair, some toned, dark, and blond. My dearest friend towers over me in height, and is a strong, robust woman. To me, her eyes, her smile, and especially her laugh, makes her one of the most beautiful women I know.

You don't have to be thin to be beautiful. We tell each other this, but who buys into it when they look in the mirror? Examine the centuries of art we have today: artists played admiring tribute to the beauties of their ages. Those beauties did not all look like Victoria Secret's models.

I know what it's like to be a skinny girl. Through no effort of my own for most of my life, I've always been on the petite side, and never had to worry about watching what I ate until mid-life. (Oh, how that has changed!) What I do wish people understood, is that no one wants to hear how "tiny" they are. Or "How do you stay so small!" It's embarrassing. Unless they've worked out and earned it, thin people can be just as self-conscious about their figures as those who have more body mass.

The cold hard truth many people don't get, is being thin doesn't mean someone is healthy. If someone is not eating, they aren't getting the nutrition they need. Thin people suffer from common ailments such as stomach problems, ulcers, depression, fatigue, back pain…some of the thinnest people you know may be some of the unhealthiest. I speak from experience. At the happiest and healthiest times in my life, I have been several sizes out of my skinny pants.

Now I'm not advocating being medically overweight, but I wish to impress upon you, that appreciating your body for what it is, admiring the curves and dimples, freckles, and sunspots, is a compliment to the very Force that made you. You are a work of art. Like the Sistine Chapel, you were planned, framed and filled out, created to take your place in this world and make it a better place.

Don't seek substitute processed images in the mirror. See yourself for who you really are: the woman with the skin that glows, the arms that embrace everyone they meet, the pretty painted toenails, hair that is a beautiful silver, not gray--the small perky breasts, sparkling eyes, the quirky incisor that overlaps a front tooth…Your spirit brings your Cathedral to life. It doesn't matter to anyone who loves you, how you compare to the computer-manipulated supermodels in the magazines. Why should you love yourself any less?

Appreciate your own architecture. Like Mona Lisa, you are an original.

Visit With My Guest: Stephanie Burkhart Talks Muses and Anthologies

While the author is away, the muse will play.

Welcome Stephanie Burkhart!

I just want to say I'm excited to go on a mini-blog tour in support of the Be Mused Anthology coming out with Desert Breeze Publishing on 1 April 2010. It's got five light-hearted short stories about muses, their writers, and love. My thanks to Dani for having me today and for Judah Raine for putting together this tour through Classic Romance Revival.

"Be Mused" has a great line up of authors – J. Morgan, Katie Charles, Me, Nicole Zoltack, and Sandra Sookoo. The premise of the novel is that a writer is a muse's job. Muses exist on another plane. They relax by going to bars and visiting friends. They go to muse conferences and take vacations.

"Melpomene and Thalia Sittin' in a Tree" is the story by Nicole Zoltack. Krystal has trouble inspiring her writer, Brent Nightly. He likes to write paranormal mysteries. She talks about her problem with Zal, another muse. Krystal and Zal have a "love/hate" relationship. Zal does suggest Krystal's author should go to a writing course and Krystal motivates Brent to attend. When he gets there he meets a famous romance author, Alice Hartman. Can Brent and Alice put their genres aside and find love? Can Krystal and Zal?

--Brent is my husband's name (tee hee).


Here's an excerpt:

Brent waited until the others left, and they were alone. She gathered some papers and retrieved her disk before glancing up and noticing him. "May I help you?"
"Your lecture was wonderful," he said.
Alice flashed him a wide grin. "I'm glad you got a lot out of it."
"Oh, I didn't say that." Wonderful, Brent, are you trying to be an ass?
She blinked a few times and then laughed. "Forgive me. I just assumed and you know what happens then." She closed her briefcase, tucked it beneath one arm, and offered him a hand. He shook it, careful not to hold it too tightly. After all, her hands were half the size of his, even if her fingers were long and slender. Like her legs. He opened his mouth, but nothing came to mind, no clever phrase, nothing, his mind was as blank as a clean Word document.


If you post on the blog today, I'll be picking two names out of a hat to win an autographed postcard with the "Be Mused" cover on it, signed by me.

I'll also be offering a grand prize gift bag of "Be Mused" products including a coffee mug, mouse pad, magnet, and autographed postcard to my blog tour winner. In order to qualify for the prize, you have to post on all the blogs in the tour. The prize winner will be announced on 10 April. (I go on vacation from 4-9 April)


"Be Mused" will be available in e-book format at the Desert Breeze Website, All Romance e-Books, and on Amazon for the Kindle 1 APRIL 2010.

Desert Breeze: http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-73/Be-Mused--dsh--%3Ci%3EAn/Detail.bok


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Thanks for coming by, Steph. I don't know about everyone else but I'm excited for the new anthology as I've just finished another great Desert Breeze book this month, "Crucifying Angel." (Watch for my review in next month's The Privateer Newsletter.

Great authors, great publishing company, and I'm sure, a great anthology. Best of luck to our commenting guests for the drawing. And best of luck to you, Steph!