Brenda Novak’s 2009 Online Auction to benefit Diabetes research begins today. It’s an annual event, is huge, and always raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for a very worthy cause.

Because Brenda is an author, she involves the romance writer and reader community in this auction every year. And let me tell you there are some stellar items up for bid. I’ve already perused what’s going up for bid and have my eye on several things.

I’ve also offered up a couple things for people to bid on, so check them out and bid high and bid often! :giggle:

I’ll be offering:

An ARC of my fourth Demon Hunters book, Taken By Sin, releasing in July, along with autographed copies of the first 3 books in the Demon Hunters series. Click here to check it out and bid.

All of my Berkley Heat releases, autographed – Wild, Wicked & Wanton, Exclusive, Unlaced, Riding Wild, Riding Temptation & my newest release, Riding On Instinct. Click here to check it out and bid.

There are autographed books galore available to bid on, as well as ARCS of upcoming books.

And if you’re a writer, there are many opportunities for manuscript critiques or proposal evaluations from many prominent editors and agents, including one from my fabulous agent, Kim Whalen of Trident Media Group (who also happens to be Brenda Novak’s agent too). Click here to check it out

There’s also a critique of a proposal from my Samhain editor, Angela James. Angie is fantastic, and a tough tough critic. She has a great eye for detail and can spot what’s good and what needs work in a mss. I can think of nothing better than having Angie read your work and offering up her opinion. Click here to check it out

In addition, there are also trips and jewelry and goodie baskets and just about anything and everything you could imagine. I really hope you go and browse the auction site and bid on something for this very worthy cause.

Go. Shop. Have fun! I know I will :giggle:

Those who know me and know me well know I’m a compulsive TV watcher. I watch a LOT of television. And by the time May rolls around, I’m just flat out tired of juggling the DVR. Frankly, I’m ready for rerun season.

Take last night for example. American Idol and The Biggest Loser were on at the same time, and then I run American Idol overtime so I can catch the last part because it always runs long, and The Biggest Loser runs for 2 hours. But then The Mentalist comes on. So at some point there are 3 shows running simultaneously. And my DVR can only tape two shows at at time. And I can’t even watch the Dancing With The Stars results show because that would be another show running in the same time period. Conflict! Ugh.

Wednesdays we have America’s Next Top Model competing with the American Idol results show and Life, which fortunately has already had it’s season finale so no conflict there.

And then there’s Thursday nights with Survivor and CSI and Grey’s Anatomy. :sigh:

We won’t even get into Monday nights. Thankfully the new season of The Bachelor doesn’t start until mid-May, otherwise I’d be DVR shuffling on that night too.

And I didn’t list some of the other shows I watch. I know, it’s a mystery how I get books written, isn’t it? :giggle:

So Biker Dude & I were out and about Saturday morning and happened to notice that there was a home and garden show at the local expo center. We stopped in.

Oh my. Beautiful garden landscapes and trees and flowers and bushes. So we bought. A BUNCH of stuff. Mainly bushes for the spot next to the garage wall, which has laid barren for over a year and desperately needed new landscaping.

I also found a couple quirky things that caught my eye, like this windchime:

It makes a beautiful sound, and, unlike the last windchime that hung there, is not glass. Really. I live in Oklahoma, where like the song, the wind really does sweep down the plain–often at 50 mph. Glass wind chimes? Never again.

And then I saw this wrought iron hummingbird. Omg. I have mad love for it and also bought one for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day:

Then came the landscaping. I’m so happy with how it turned out. I wish I’d taken pics of how it looked before. It was dirt. And weeds. And nothing else. We dug up all the weeds, tilled the ground, laid down a sheet to keep out the weeds, then planted the bushes and put down the rock. Ugh,my back and legs are killing me! But it’s so pretty and so much better than dirt, huh?

Still a lot of work to be done in the yard. But hey, it’s a start! And I do love playing in the dirt. :giggle: