Finally! Pictures

Finally! I was able to get the pictures to load! As you can can see, I was seriously excited to be at the concert. I'm still excited and it's been over for weeks.

My friend said after the show, now everytime I hear them I'm going to think about being there, and she's so right. I love live music, there's just nothing better than the energy from a concert.

In my misspent youth I went to a lot of Grateful Dead shows. After every show I felt like the power of the crowd filled me to the brim and I was surrounded by all those good vibes. I can only imagine what it must be like for the performers to have thousands of people singing songs they wrote and having all those good vibes sent in their direction. It must be an incredible feeling.

As a writer I feel a certain kinship with singers. It's not because I can sing, that's for sure. I have no rhythm, am tone deaf, and couldn't find the right note with a compass and a roadmap. But, I do know what it's like to put your emotions into something that goes out for public consumption. I know the joy you feel when someone "gets" what you wrote, and I know the anxiety you feel when someone judges your work.

I also know the pain of promoting your work, and how hard it is to strike a balance between your craft and the necessisty of doing business.

I have no idea what it's like to have hordes of swarming groupies though, hahahaha.
Have a great day!
Ari

The Panic is setting in

Okay, the panic is starting to set in.
RT is three weeks away. Besides the craziness incumbent with preparing for a week away from home, I also have a book being released on May 9th.

As soon as I get home from RT I have to:
Prepare for the girls dance recital
Prepare for my in-laws to spend a weekend at my house for said recital
Prepare for my middle daughter's birthday party
Prepare for my school's graduation
Prepare for an end of the season party at my house for my daughters' soccer teams

Did I mention that before I leave for RT I'm going away for a weekend? Or that mother's day is the day before I leave? Or that I have two chats to do before I leave?

See the reason for my panic?
Pardon me while I go to make my lists. . . it's either compulsive list making or curling up in the fetal position. . .

The power of silence. . .

I never realized how much I enjoy silence until this week. As anyone who knows me knows I'm a social person and love to talk. I'm not exactly shy, and I can carry on a conversation with a house plant.

That being said, I would give my left arm to have an hour of silence this week.

My darling daughters are home from school vacation and I can get NADA done. I made a deal with them that if they just let me work a few hours in the morning I'd take them places and do things with them after lunch. Yes, I bribed them, but I figured it wouldn't kill them to amuse themselves for a few hours. I mean, the weather has been beautiful, we have a big back yard and a trampoline, they should be able to play for 4 hours, right?

OH SO VERY WRONG!!!

I can't even go to the bathroom without someone calling for me. Case in point, I had all three girls sitting in front of the TV with bowls of ice cream. One would think life would be good for a while right? WRONG! I managed to get one paragraph of this written before my oldest came in to talk to me.

And to think, I couldn't wait until they could walk and talk. Sigh, I miss the days when they were trapped in car seats and cribs. . .

Only three more days until they go back to school!
Ari. . .

Words can hurt

Something I remember my mother saying to me, and something I say to my children has always been, "Remember, words can hurt."

It seems to me that some people have forgotten this lesson.
No, I didn't just get a bad review or a rejection. I bring this up because a good friend of mine just read on someone's blog that they were shocked that her book had finaled in the Ritas. (Or something to that effect)

Now, I didn't read the blog entry, so I don't know for certain what it said or who wrote it, but I don't think it was a literary critic or a reviewer.

Why would you ever say something like that in a public forum? I can be as bitchy and catty as the next person, but I manage to keep it private. I would never say something rude and potentially humiliating where everyone and her sister could read it.

What makes people think just because they have a blog it's okay to be mean? I don't care who you are, if your words are going to be seen by anyone with an internet connection, you have a responsibility to control your mouth. Unless you can back it up with some irrefutible facts, shut your big gob.

Words can hurt, so if you can't say anything nice, don't say it on the internet.

Pen names

As you might guess, Arianna Hart is my pen name. My husband wouldn't let me name any of my daughters Arianna, so I took it for myself. It's kind of fun picking your own name.

The reasons I write under another name are many. I write erotic romance, which I think would make my children slightly uncomfortable if the world knew what they're mommy did while they were at school.

Also, I teach high school and I know I would be uncomfortable if my students knew what I did while my children were in school, hahahaha.

Another person I'm protecting is my husband. He's a volunteer fire fighter and he just knows he'd never live it down if they found out I write hot sex. I told him to tell them I used him for research, but he said, they'd probably say I was doing my own research while he was at the fire house.

My dad used to work for the Bishop, so I'm sure I don't need to explain who I'm protecting there. . .

Lastly, I think by using a pen name, I'm protecting myself. Writing is darn hard on your ego, you get rejected by publishers and trashed by reviewers. It's humiliating enough to see a bad review in a magazine that goes out to thousands of people, it would be even worse to know that all my friends and neighbors would read it too.

Eventually I'd like to get published under my real name, but I don't think I'll give up Ari any time soon. I like being Ari, she's a lot more fun than boring old me.

Do you ever want to be someone else? If so, who?

Goo Goo Pix

Okay, Blogger is driving me nuts today and won't let me load any of the pictures I took(or I should say my friend took) last night. grrrrr

BUT if you go to the blog section of http://www.googoodolls.com there is a picture of the stage with the guys on it. I was perhaps four or five people behind the ones right up close to the stage. I didn't want to be a complete groupie and rush the stage, so I just admired from afar, hahaha. But not too far. . .

I really loved the set they did, their music is rocken, but it also has a sadness to it that touches me. I think that tortured bad boy vibe pushes all my buttons. . .

Anyway, as soon as I can get blogger to cooperate with me, I'll post my pix!!

Have a great weekend!
Ari

Heaven

Okay, I'm in ever-loving heaven right now. You all know about my unholy fascination with the Goo Goo Dolls, right?

Tonight I got to go to see them in a bar with only about 50 other people. I was seriously about 10-15 feet away from Johnny Rzeznik. And let me tell you ladies, he is just as good looking in person as he is in pictures!

I've been to other concerts before, and when I've seen the band in person, quite often I was disappointed--not this time sister!
I can die a happy woman!

And in a move more bold than I've ever done before, I snuck up to one of the bouncers and handed him a CD copy of SABLE FIRE. I told him it was a book that had a dedication to the Goo Goo Dolls in it. I don't know if he threw it in the garbage or what, but hey I tried.


OH!!! And the icing on the cake? My friend and I went to a nearby bar and SAT AT THE SAME BAR AS THE DRUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hot damn, baby!

My friend managed to get some pictures and if she remembers to send them, I'll be sure to post them!!!

Oh my lord, I'm absolutely in heaven!!!
Ari

Unfit mother?

Sometimes I wonder if I'm warping my children. My husband and I decided when I was pregnant with my first that I'd work part-time so the kids wouldn't be in day care. At the time he was traveling a lot for his job and it didn't seem right for them to be gone all day while I worked.

I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't have been better for them to not be around me so much, hahahaha.

I was on my way to nursery school today, my 4 year old in the back seat, and we were listening to Shrek. One of the songs came on that has a heavy punk/metal beat to it (this is the song where Donkey and Shrek are fighting the knights in the mock wrestling scene if you know the movie) and automatically my head starts banging. (As in "headbanger" not as in "headache"). My darling daughter shouts "Youder mommy youder!" (translation: Louder--she doesn't always have her L's.)

I look in the rearview mirror and she's headbanging in her car seat. So, the two of us are flying down the highway with the radio cranked doing matching head movements. I'm quite sure several cars on the highway were calling the Department of Children and Families to report the insane driver with the child in back. . .

The other thing that has me worried about my fitness to be a parent is my older two daughters' taste in clothes. I blame this on Barbie.

I had to buy a pair of stilletto heels to go with my costume for the EC party. Now, I haven't worn heels that high since I got out of college. For one thing, they hurt my big feet, and for the other thing, I'm tall enough as it is. And, well, I'm married, I don't have to go through that much pain to get a date anymore, hahahaha.

Anyway, I got the shoes in the mail (yes, I had to order slut shoes off the internet.) and immediately the girls are hovering over me as I open the box. Of course I had to try them on. I was wearing sweat pants at the time, but hey, I was in my own room.

Middle daughter says to me, "Mommy, you can't wear pants with those shoes. You need a dress."

Eldest daughter says to me, "Mommy walk. You need to go step, step, pose!" And she placed her hand on her out-thrust hip and looked over her shoulder.

My daughters are 8, 6, and 4!!! THEY SHOULD NOT KNOW THESE THINGS YET!!! I swear to you, they have no idea what I write, honest!

Good thing I write under a pen name or DCF would be on my doorstep for sure!!!

In other news, I'M GOING TO SEE THE GOO GOO DOLLS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll tell you all about it after the holiday weekend! Have a great Easter/Passover or whatever else you may celebrate!
Ari

Kids at play

This weekend I watched my daughters playing outside and just marveled that these little people were once tiny babies inside my womb. Several of our friends are pregnant now and it's got me thinking about how fast things change.

When I'm trying to get things done, it seems like my kids will NEVER grow up, that they'll always be hanging on me, calling for me, barging in on me when I'm trying to pee, and crawling into my bed in the middle of the night. But when I really think about it, they've changed so much in such a short period of time, it's mindboggling.

Think about it, in the last 4 years, how much have you changed? My youngest went from a drooling infant to learning to ride a bike and going to pre-school. My oldest went from pre-school to *proud mommy moment* being picked as the school's representive for the young author program. From just learning to tie her shoes and make letters, to writing short stories and riding a two wheeler.

Instead of feeling meloncholy the next time I think about how fast it's gone, and instead of getting frustrated when it doesn't seem like it's going fast enough, I think I'm going to make an effort to just enjoy them as they are RIGHT NOW.

And I think maybe I'll call my folks and say thanks for being pretty awesome parents when it can't have been easy.

I have an idea!

I was talking with Crissy my publisher at Samhain and I was asking her about the "young" book category she has up on the site, that currently has no books in it. I read a lot of what is called "mid-grade" books to my daughters. We buy out entire series of books at Barnes and Noble.

Considering how much I read, it was only natural that I tried my hand at writing a story. Well, life being life, I haven't finished it yet. See, it's not really a priority for me because I need to focus on the books that I'm contracted for and will make me money. Sorry, I love what I do, but I've got bills to pay and three kids to put through college eventually.

Anyway, I have this series in mind that when I get the urge, I work on it. One of the problems is that for this genre you really need an agent to submit anything. I'm terrified of looking for an agent. Down right scared spitless. With that in mind, you can see how I'm not staying up nights to finish this book.

To get back to the point, I was talking with Crissy about children's books and we were discussing kids' ebooks and saying how right now there's no market. Which got me to thinking, kids are so much more comfortable with new technology. Most kids I know not only have cell phones, but even the tiny ones have game boys and leap pads, and a ton of other gizmos. Why wouldn't they use an ebook reader???

Which got me to thinking more, why hasn't someone developed an ebook reader for kids? It would just need a cool casing and the ability to play games and kids and parents would love it. Think about it, you could buy your kid's favorite book, download it and they could carry the reader with them in the car and everywhere else.

Parents would like it because it was educational and promoted reading. Kids would like it because it was a gadget and had cool options. Win win.

So now I have this great idea, but can't do squat about it. I don't know anyone in the ebook reader industry. I know nothing about marketing products so that stores like Toys R Us would buy them. Heck, I can barely get my own books bought and they're under 10 bucks!

But mark my words, someone in the know is going to come up with this idea, or already has, and you're going to see kids walking around with ebook readers in the next 3-5 years.

And when that happens, I hope I'll have a book they'll be able to read!

It's all my fault!

It's snowing here today.
Snowing.
In April.

Yesterday my book SNOWY NIGHT SEDUCTION was released.
SNS had to do with a freak snowstorm. In April.
I've been worried about this happening ever since my publisher suggested an April storm.

You see, originally, I had planned SNS to be a Christmas Eve story, but then life got in the way and I didn't get it written in time. I talked to my publisher and asked her if it would work for maybe Valentine's Day. She suggested a freak April snowstorm.

So here we are. April 5th and it's snowing. I was doing yard work on Sunday. My girls were learning to ride their two-wheelers without training wheels.

Welcome to New England!

In other news, I realize I haven't been a very consistent blogger lately, sorry! Again, that life business is getting in the way. Things have been INSANE here, and I'm not sure why. It's like the old saying,
"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several of them gang up on me."

I forget who said that, but that's exactly how I feel.

Yesterday was my release day and I was really, really excited about my first Samhain release. I wanted to play on the loops all day and haunt the MY BOOKSTORE AND MORE site until I saw my book come up for sale.

Was I able to do that????
NOOOOO!

I barely had time to check my email, forget blog or play on the loops.
Poop.

Juggling life and writing is a tough act. Some days I lose my balance, and yesterday was one of them. Let's hope today I'm a little more skilled!

Have a great day everyone. I hope the sun is shining wherever you may be!
Ari