Just a quick check in and a thank you to those of you who have asked about when the heck I was ever going to blog again.  I’m alive!  And blogging!  But I’ll continue to be scarce for another couple of weeks until I turn in the revisions for After the Storm.

Which reminds me that I haven’t mentioned this story here, mainly because I wrote the entire thing in the time since I last blogged (Jan. 9, if anyone’s keeping track.)  Yes, that’s just over 2 months and yes, that is way too fast for me to be writing stories.  I have several friends who can handle writing a book every two months but I don’t care to be one of them.  I did it, so now I can say I can do it when I have to and move on.

So yes, the book is After the Storm.  It’ll be the 6th book in my Texas Firefighters series and will be released in November 2012.  It’s the story of firefighter Penn Griffin and Nadia Hamlin, who first appeared in Burning Ambition.  I’ll have more information in the coming months… you know, once my brain’s not mush from writing it.

One last bit of news…if you’re in the Wisconsin/Chicago area and like books and authors, you should definitely consider attending the Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation luncheon and book-signing.  There will be 38 authors, gift bags, a raffle and more, and I’m honored to be one of the participating authors.  If you’re interested, head to the official site and sign up ASAP…deadline is March 31st!

That’s all from me for now.  Over and out…..

So I’m late for Happy New Year.  No surprise there.  This year, I’m making several changes (NOT resolutions…who has EVER kept a resolution longer than a few weeks?) relating to health.  Who isn’t, right?  Which is a good thing, because most of us are unhealthy to some extent.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve slowly been changing the way I eat.  But for this to mean anything, you should know a little about how I used to eat.

Growing up, Little Debbie was one of my closest friends.  We had a cabinet full of sweets…Star Crunch Bars, Zebra Cakes, Swiss Cake Rolls, Oatmeal Creme Pies.  And then there was the candy cabinet (yes they were separate.  Our sugar supply needed lots of space!)  Some of my friends looked forward to coming over to my house for the sugar bennies alone.

My parents tried their best to get me to eat healthy stuff too (I believe there’s a story about a stand-off between me and cole slaw.  Nasty, vile stuff.)  But when I met my husband, who eats about anything, he was a little appalled that my entire vegetable repertoire consisted of corn and lima beans (but not together!)

So the changes, which were brought on by a couple of holistic healthcare doctors…I started focusing on eating more whole foods, less processed foods (which I’d already cut way down on out of necessity.  When I went gluten-free and dairy-free 6 years ago, that cut out almost all convenience foods.)  I attempted to eat more veggies and I’ve actually doubled the list of ones I like (yeah, I know, that’s still only 4…)

Because green veggies are hard for me, I started drinking “super greens” which is a powder you add to water and slam down.  There’s something like 5 servings of veggies in it.  Not the preferred way to get the vitamins but better than I was doing.  I began taking enzymes, since years of a crappy diet had pretty much wiped out my ability to digest good food properly.  And I started eating fresh spinach daily.  All of these made a big difference in the way I felt.

But I still had my Major Downfall.  Yep, my “good” friend sugar.

I adore sugar.  Have been addicted to it for as long as I can remember.  Yes, I mean addicted — it’s an addictive substance and one I couldn’t and didn’t want to live without.  Even when I went on Weight Watchers after I had my babies and lost 25 pounds, I worked the WW system so that I would have plenty of room for a fulfilling dessert every night.  Approximately 30-50% of my daily calories were full of sugar.  And before you go gasping, the average American’s daily diet is about 30% sugar as well.  (Now you can gasp.)

I started reading about sugar addiction and learning all of the bad things sugar does to our bodies.  It has NO nutritional value, spikes blood sugar, which leads to insulin resistance, which leads to diabetes, which is becoming an epidemic.  Sugar leeches the minerals out of our bodies and causes mineral deficiencies.  It suppresses our immune systems.  One can of regular pop suppresses the immune system by 30% for 3 hours after we drink it. One can!  And we wonder why so many of us get sick so much.  This is just the beginning of the list of what sugar does on a cellular level.  The book I’m reading right now (Suicide by Sugar by Nancy Appleton) lists 140 bad things that sugar does to us.

So you’ve probably guessed my next big change.  Yep, I’ve given up sugar.  No refined sugar, no evaporated cane juice, no molasses, no honey, no agave nectar…basically anything that affects the blood sugar because of the speed our bodies break it down…it’s out of my diet.  I can use Stevia as a sweetener (but I haven’t yet.)  And I’m eating fruit in moderation, no more than 2-3 servings a day.

I’ve made it 8 days so far and though weight loss isn’t the reason I gave it up (though weight gain and inability to lose pounds is on the list of Bad Things Sugar Does), I’ve lost 3 pounds already.  I feel less bloated, have less brain fog, and I feel really good and empowered by making this change.

When I feel tempted (like when my son dragged me by the dessert counter at Barnes and Noble so he could get a hot cocoa) I repeat to myself that sugar is poison that eats away at my body.  And repeat.  Like a mantra.  And then once the temptation is gone, I feel great because I didn’t give in.

Other changes I’ve made in the past 2 months:  daily activity (walking for 30 minutes M-F), several new supplements that help with quitting sugar (since usually there are underlying imbalances in the body that make us crave sugar in the first place…if you want to learn more about that, read Beat Sugar Addiction Now by Jacob Teitelbaum), and cutting down even further on grains.  I’m also drinking 80 oz of water a day and getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night.  (I used to get 5-7.)

I eventually hope to get to the stage where I could eat a dessert every once in a while and A) not go overboard B) not fall back into the addiction cycle and C) not beat myself up. But for now, it’s black and white.  No sweets.  No foods that have any form of sugar in the top 3 ingredients.

And you know what?  Overall, I’m doing okay.  Better than okay, actually.  I’m feeling great.

Anyone else making health changes these days?  Giving bad-for-you stuff up?  Making an effort to eat more veggies, exercise more?  Fess up here.  We can get heatlhy together!

For better or worse, I don’t spend a lot of time looking back or reflecting on the past.  This year I’m changing my ways, at least for long enough to blog about it.

#1

Maybe it’s that 2011 was a particularly good year.  Maybe it’s that I feel extreme blog guilt for neglecting my blog for, oh, weeks on end.  Or maybe it’s just the New Year’s beer talking.  Whatever it is, here’s my list of my top ten moments of the year:

10.  Moose sighting!  Our family tradition when we visit Rocky Mountain National Park has become to search for moose.  This year, we staked out Sprague Lake at dusk and…success!  Just when we were giving up, when the light was fading so much it was getting hard to see, a young moose trundled out of the woods and splashed into the lake as we watched.  We watched him from about 40 feet away, until it was too dark to see.

#9

9. Everest Expedition.  Animal Planet’s big rollercoaster…the 4 of us went on it.  The 10yo was unsure, as he’s not all about thrill rides and hates the unknown.  We reassured him (and the somewhat nervous 11yo) that Disney rides only go so high on the intensity scale.  Heh.  Whoops.  Let’s just say it was a miracle that both boys’ pants were clean when we exited.

8. Discovering New Grist.  Which means absolutely nothing to most people, unless they happen to be gluten sensitive and love beer.  Gluten-free beer!  YAY!!!!

7.  Fireworks, Chicago style.  Our boys missed out on 4^th of July fireworks because I was out of town for the Madison show.  So when we were in Chicago a few days later, walking back to our hotel for the night, hitting the bridge over the Chicago River just as the fireworks went off over Lake Michigan was a magical little bit of spontaneity we couldn’t have planned better.

#6

6.  Patrick Dempsey sighting.  Yep, he was better than the moose.  LEGO Store in Rockefeller Center, baby.  6 feet away.  swoon

5. Turning 41.  My “official” birthday dinner was in the Mexican pavilion at Epcot.  We sat next to the “river” watching the boats go by, had excellent food, and my husband topped it off with a custom-made gluten-free Disney birthday cake.

4.  Hancock Tower in a thunderstorm.  My husband and I went out on the screened in balcony 94 stories up as the storm rolled in.  Eerie and otherworldly.  Kind of like a sci-fi flick.

3.  “A bunch of 40 year olds acting like they’re still 22”.  It’s hard to beat a night out in a classy restaurant and a dive bar with 15 or so of my closest high school friends, Strawberry Bitches included.

#2

2.  U2 in the rain.  3 awesome girls including my college roommate, Bono and friends 15 feet away, and…an insane downpour.  Surreal.  Unforgettable.

#1 continued

1.  Crabby Bill’s.  It was the night before my birthday, on the roof of a scrumptious seafood restaurant, on the beach, as the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico.  Umbrella drinks, two amazing writer friends (yes, you, Jeannie Watt and Kay Stockham) and my family.  Doesn’t get much better than that.

It’s been 6 weeks since I’ve blogged.  Sure, I had a 2-week trip to Florida in there, but really, the blog void is all the fault of the Book From Hell.  Ask any author who’s been writing for a while and they will probably agree…some books flow.  (No, I did not say they’re easy.  Though of course, everyone knows writing a romance is EASY! Ha!)  Some books come together nicely, the pieces fit, it feels good when it’s finished.  And you know where this is going…Some books don’t.

Island Haven, my book that will allegedly be published in July 2012, did…not…flow.  In fact, most days it felt like a bunch of blocks of cement that got all jammed up together.  And there was someone on top of the pile of concrete with an axe, swinging at me at every opportunity.

Drama much?  Maybe a little, but ask my husband and he’ll tell you…the writing of this book was particularly ugly.  For instance:

* I started over from scratch 15,000 words in.

* When I hit 39,000 words, I hit another major roadblock and ended up cutting approximately another 17,000 words.

* When I cut, I save all the deleted words, whether it’s a sentence, a paragraph or a chapter (or, hey, 15,000 words) in one big file I call Miscellaneous Snippets.  The Misc Snip file for Island Haven is more than 150 pages of deletion.

* For the first time, I had to ask for an extension on my deadline.  My editor was able to give me 2 extra weeks without pulling the book out of it’s July slot (which, in a total meltdown, I begged her to do.)

* I wrote the final 22,000 words of the 72,000-word book in 6 days.

* I spent a few days debating with my husband about whether I could list our minivan on Craigslist in order to be able to buy back the contract for this book.  (Rest assured, dear Myrtle the Minivan is still sitting in our garage.)

But…THE BOOK IS DONE.  For now.  There will be revisions, oh will there be revisions, and soon (aka under the gun) but for this week, the book is out of my life.

I turned it in at 1am Sunday/Monday with an apology to my editor at the end for leaving it with such a lame last scene.  (Did I mention revisions?)  And since then I’ve been busy….doing absolutely nothing.

My catch-up to-do list is longer than my arm, and I did manage to make the most necessary updates to my website and send out a newsletter.  Both of those, I managed on Monday, when I seemed to run on some kind of post-deadline adrenaline/false energy phenomenon.

Then Tuesday came and…my brain didn’t work.  My energy was at negative levels.  My house is screaming for attention but I put in the earplugs.  I took a nap.  I sat on the couch.  I told myself I really need to think about the next book (which happens to be due in less than 3 months…OMG I’m going to hurl.)  But I didn’t.  Because…I couldn’t.

Now, on Wednesday, I’ve started reading a friend’s story to critique it.  It’s “work” but, well, I get to read a story.  So it’s fun work.  And that is the lump sum of what I’ve accomplished.  Because unlike a beer hangover, a book hangover?  It lasts for days.

My biggest hope is that the Aleve, the naps, and the mass quantities of fluids can revive me by the time I get revisions notes from my editor.  And my second biggest hope is that the next book flows better than solid concrete in January in Wisconsin.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be unconscious.

So our family continues the virtual school experiment this year.  Our younger son still goes to the local elementary school the old-fashioned way, but our 6th grader is once again enrolled in virtual school.  While last year it was basically homeschooling with a support system, this year it’s different.  It’s actual school on his computer.  (Internet.  Whatever.)

Maybe it’s the old in me, but I find this fascinating.

I had no idea how virtual school would work when we signed up, and since a lot of people ask what the heck virtual school is…it’s like this.  My son has 4 subject areas…math, science, social studies and language arts.  For each of these, he has a teacher.  A real live teacher who isn’t his mom!  He has a weekly schedule for these classes that looks a lot like a college schedule — each class meets for 2 one-hour sessions per week, either Monday-Wednesday or Tuesday-Thursday.  The rest of his school days are spent doing the actual work they discuss or learn about during class.

The part that sparks my interest is the times he’s actually “in class.”  He sits at his desk in our home office and is connected to about 18 other students who are also sitting at their desks at home throughout the state of Wisconsin.  The teacher is in yet another city (I think one of them even lives in Minnesota.)  So all these people come together at the appointed time.  They use a program to make the virtual classroom truly interactive.  The computer screen shows a list of all who are in the room; a handful of “actions” such as raising a hand, giving a smiley, thumbs up, thumbs down, a green checkmark and a red X; a chat box with a menu of who your typed message goes to, a button for the microphone, and a large white board.

The class is all audio.  The teacher lectures as if she’s standing in front of the class.  She uses the white board in real time.  The kids can raise their hand and ask questions in real time.  The teacher can ask for a sign from the students, like “give me a green check if you read the assignment.”  The kids can send an answer to the teacher by typing it into the chat box or by saying it into their microphone, depending on what the teacher asks for.  They can even break up into small groups…the teacher simply puts them into private “rooms” where they can talk and only hear what’s being said in their room.

Each week, there are also study hall sessions where kids can go to get help on any part of their work they’re struggling with.  Last week, my son and I couldn’t figure out how to solve a specific math problem, so he went to study hall, the moderator put him in a “room” with his math teacher, and they had a one-on-one session that resulted in my son understanding how to do the problem.

The teachers do a good job of starting out the classes with fun things and getting the kids engaged.  For assignments, the kids do some of them interactively online through the curriculum provider (including tests).  Others they do on paper at home and scan in to send to their teacher.  Some of the daily assignments, the parent still has to correct and go over with them.

End result is that my child has a very different educational set-up that caters to his individual needs and yet, this year, he has 4 teachers who are actively involved in his education and cheering him on through private messages online every week.  Better yet, he has the chance to interact with other kids, which was our greatest concern in taking him out of the local brick-and-mortar school.  In just over a year, he’s gone from being the kid who never finished his work and didn’t know what the heck was going on in his subjects, to being the kid who volunteers to lead small group activities, keeping up on his assignments by organizing himself with a planner, and for the first time in his school career, feeling successful.

Call me a geek but I find this not only amazing and heartwarming but also fascinating.  I can only begin to imagine all the possibilities for education and wonder where we’ll be with it in 10 years.  Live lecture from space, maybe?  Author visit from JK Rowling?  Is it too late to go back to grade school?

I recently started an author page on Facebook in addition to my personal page.  You know, the kind of page you can “like.”

I’m here to tell you, it is LONELY over there!

So if you have a FB account, please consider “liking” my author page.

As a bonus…check out my monthly contest.  You can win a $25 gift card for liking Amy Knupp on Facebook (but if you don’t have a FB account, no worries…you can enter too.)

Yep.  Lonely.  Please send friends.

Whenever I finish writing a book, my mindset is along the lines of “thank god it’s done.”  I never think in terms of whether I like it or not.  Of course I like all my books.  They’re like children.  They’re MINE and I’m protective of them.  The characters are real in my head.  But whenever I’m asked what my favorite book I’ve written is, I don’t know how to answer.  Or I didn’t.  I now have a favorite, and it’s coming out this December!  (Side note:  it is not my favorite title.  Apologies to Victoria.)

So here’s a little information about Because of the List:

Taylor McCabe likes equations.  They make sense.  But one buttoned-up computer whiz plus an injured army pilot simply does not add up.  It’s time to get over her childish crush on Alex Worth, her brother’s best friend, and find a husband.  Enter The List – Taylor’s ten must-have traits for a viable suitor.

But her plan goes awry when Alex insists on vetting each contender.  The way he dismisses them feels like the actions of a protective boyfriend.  Strangely, his attitude makes her even more attracted to him.  Too bad he doesn’t meet even one of her requirements….

Why is this my favorite book?  I don’t know.  I enjoyed writing a geeky heroine for a change.  I love stories with military heroes and this is my first attempt at one.  The hero is the heroine’s big brother’s best friend and I love that particular hook in stories.  The book is set in my new home state of Wisconsin.  It all seemed to come together well.  At any rate, I hope readers will love it as much as I do!

Because of the list is now available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million.

When’s the last time you said, “Remember when…?”  What do you think your life will be like in 10 years and how easy is it for you to “see” that?  What the hell am I smoking, asking these bizarre questions?  Just another little slice of my brain I thought I’d use for a blog topic….

Writing is, for some of us, an excuse to delve into psychology.  The better you understand the psyche of your characters, the more realistic, compelling characters you can create.  Enneagrams, Briggs-Myers, birth order, zodiac signs, archetypes…if you’re a fiction writer, you’ve probably come across at least some of these as a means of understanding your characters better, but I find they’re as fun and interesting to apply to real people as fictional characters.

One of these personality theories, I’ll call it, for lack of a better name, is whether a person exists primarily in the past, the present or the future.

A couple of my friends are very much “past” people.  They remember EVERYTHING.  Details from grade school that are buried deep in my memory and only surface when they bring them up, college exploits that I’ve blocked out…things that I consider inconsequential… “past” people love to reminisce about this stuff.  In detail.

Then there’s the “present” type.  They don’t talk about the past a lot, don’t plan for the future much or have a clear path for where they’re going.  They probably don’t really know where they’re going.  They’re consumed by the right now.  What they have to do today, how they’re feeling right now, maybe what they’re doing in two hours.  But not next week!

And finally there’s the “future” type.  Always planning, or if he or she doesn’t have a specific plan or pathway figured out to reach a goal — or worse yet, can’t figure out a long-term goal — he or she is seriously disturbed and frets about it until a plan is in place.  My husband fits this type.  He had his college and career path planned from about 8^th grade. *shudder*

Any idea what type you are?  I think I’m a “present”…I don’t plan more than about a week out, and I can’t remember *$&% about the past without someone seriously jogging my memory.

For fun, here are a couple of websites with short interactive quizzes that will tell you what type you are:

http://blogthings.com/doyouliveinthepastpresentorfuturequiz/

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/past-present-and-future-personality-quiz

The first one seems more accurate, saying I’m a “present”.  The second one is more based on dating and said I’m a “future”, but I don’t know how reliable it can be to ask a woman who’s been married for 17 years about her dating behavior.  *grin*

If you take the quiz, let me know what type it says you are and if you agree.  If nothing else, it’s a fabulous means of procrastination.

Not really an ode but it sounded good.  Sorry, I don’t actually do odes….I’m succumbing to my love of lists and brevity, my summer by the numbers, also known as why my head is still spinning…From June-August:

Miles I traveled:  5,326

Books I read: 10

U2 concerts I attended:  2

Lessons and activities I played chauffeur to and from:  35ish (horseback riding, swimming, tennis)

Brotherly fights/arguments I broke up:  3,199

Times I restarted my current manuscript:  5+ (and stilllll going!  May have to trash some more.)

Blocks from my front door to Bloom Bakery:  2

Trips to Bloom Bakery:  25ish

Pounds gained:  5

Anyone else have a number from summer to share?

This rock had to fall sometime. Thankfully not the day we were there.

We’re back from Colorado and all that’s left is the vacation hangover and a few pictures.  But first, I thought I’d share a few valuable mountain-hiking tips, made possible by my vast experience, aka a 4-mile hike the day before we left.

1. Don’t worry about conditioning.  You can always blame your shortness of breath on the extreme altitude.

2. Be careful of falling rocks.

My husband was accosted by this little guy the second he poured out a handful of peanuts.

3. Stay hydrated…but not too hydrated, especially if you’re a female.  If you know what I mean.

4. Keep in mind that the scenery isn’t nearly as interesting to a 9yo boy as the piles of horse poop on the trail.

5. Guard your nuts.

That’s it for the advice…you’re ready to go on your very own mountain adventure now.

And because I no longer get to share “what I did last summer” with my peers in a dreary classroom on the first day of school, I’ll subject you to a few more random Colorado pics.

Snow in August.  This was taken on the way up Trail Ridge Road:

This is what it looks like on top of a mountain:

Elk alert! (All the dots in the center of the photo are elk):

Pretty flowers.  Professional photographer I’m not, but these make me happy:

Our hiking trail followed the Big Thompson River the whole way:

This is “The Pool,” which was the end point of our hike:

Proof that we made it to the end of the trail:

The beasts we left at home were not thrilled:

Okay, that’s it.  I promise it’ll be safe to come back to my blog…I won’t bombard you with any more vacation pictures. At least not until I get back from Florida in October.