What some of you may know is that its my goal in life to procure a sponsorship and/or lifetime supply of Red Bull. My plan to do this is become a world famous, best-selling author and name drop Red Bull every chance I get.
Sure, writing good books that everyone wants to read is awesome, but getting free energy drinks until I die? That's the real measure of success.
Unfortunately, I fail.
I've once again done an interview and forgotten to mention Red Bull. How can I be so careless? It's as if I don't want to succeed. Maybe I'm like Jesse James, and I want to self-sabotage. Except instead of cheating on America's sweetheart, Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock with a bunch of skanky hermaphroditic racists, I forget to talk about Red Bull. So it's very, very similar.
Anyway, the good people (or rather, person) at Twimom 227 blog have interviewed me and reviewed my book. The interview is posted today, and I thank her greatly for giving me the opportunity to ramble about my inspirations, upcoming books, and Prince. So that's very kind of her.
When she's not busy letting me plug my wares, she reviews other books, mostly paranormal romance and urban fantasy. If that sorta thing is your bag, you should go over there and check out her recommendations.
Her review of My Blood Approves goes up tomorrow, and I don't know what she thinks yet. (Fingers crossed that she doesn't hate it!)
On a related note, all of you that have been reviewing my books, thank you very much. I truly appreciate your feedback, and while the response has been overwhelmingly positive, I also value the negative comments.
Onto a bit of sad news that I want to talk about. If you've read my books, you're familiar with the character Mae. Mae, while fictional, is heavily inspired by Nanny, my gramma. In fact, the name "Mae" is taken from Nanny's middle name.
Like Mae, Nanny was from Reading, England, although Nanny is younger than Mae. Nanny helped raise me. She babysat me all the time until I was five, and my parents had a tumultuous marriage, so my mother and I would often end up staying there. On my own, I've lived with her numerous times through out, and to this day, I only live a block away from her.
She's one of the funniest, most caring, charming people you'd ever meet. Everyone, and I mean everyone, remembers her. She always thinks it because of her British accent, but it's more than that. She has always had a vibrance and warmth that radiates off of her.
Nanny is without a doubt one of the most influential people in my life. It is because of her that I learned to love Jim Henson, and I can't count the number of times she watched Labyrinth or Dark Crystal or even those Star Wars Ewok spinoffs with me. Actually, the first time I watched Stars Wars was with her when I was about seven.
More importantly, we read together. We played together. When I was young, maybe 2 or 3, she made a tape recording of me telling a story about the Big Bad Wolf. She was one of the first people to see that I had storytelling in me.
Its from her I learned love and imagination. We've never been a people big on motivation or success, but the doors to her home were always open to anyone that's needed, and lots of people have take her up on that over the years. She loves unconditionally and without reproach. There is nothing I can say or do that would ever make her stop loving me, and it's that kind of foundation that has enabled to be who I am today.
In February, Nanny was diagnosed with dementia. And I guess I didn't except things to go downhill so fast...
There's not really a lot I want to say about that. She's just one of the most amazing people I've ever know. She's like Michael Caine & Betty White times a million.
And I just wanted to share that with you. The essence of Mae is Nanny, and most of the neat parts of me come from her too.
This picture was taken in England, I think sometime in the mid 1950's. My gramma is the second one from the left.
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