Justice-a crushing disappointment

Thursday, August 31, 2006

The discussion around my law firm's cooler this morning was the disappointing TV show Justice that aired last night. Now, I normally love Jerry Bruckheimer, but the blatant trial errors now makes me wonder how loose a hand his company's taken with other shows/movies. He knows adventure but this...

I'm only a workers' compensation insurance defense attorney, but it's basic Direct Examination 101 that you don't get to lead your own expert witness. The fact that the Justice defense team did just that was totally ridiculous...and no objection from the D.A.? Come on! About the only time you get to lead your own witness is he has unexpectedly turned hostile. Then you need to get a ruling from the judge before you leap gleefully into leading the witness. What's a leading question? One that requires only a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Leading question: You examine the dead body, correct? The answer can be only 'yes', 'no'...or God forbid, 'I don't know'. Instead of the TV attorney telling the expert what his findings were...the proper question should have been, "What are your findings?" An open-ended question allowing the witness to discuss his conclusions. Now if you've properly prepared your witness, the witness should know generally how to answer the question asked...what you want him/her to cover.

I was so hopeful about this show, but I won't watch it again. I'm going to try out the James Wood show coming out --Sharks-- because I love his work, but I'm not holding out much hope that it will be an improvement over Justice. Carol

Ernesto, a non-event

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Maddie here. Although I huddle close to Carol last night when the wind would howl [had to make sure she was okay, you know], Ernesto turned out to be only gusts of wind and bands of rain. Carol's so industrious that she already has taken down the shutters and set the yard to rights. However, Carol can't figure out why some people are soooo mad at the weather service for Ernesto turning into a dud. Did they want the storm to be a bad one causing property damage and power outages? Both Carol and I are relieved that Ernesto packed no punch and we have power. Carol can continue microwaving my doggie food to take off the refrigerate chill that I don't like. [Shih Tsu's are fussy about these type of things, such as cold food]. Uh oh, Carol's heading to the kitchen to make dinner for us. Later, Maddie

The Marvels of Modern Radar

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Fortunately, it's looking like Ernesto is just a rainmaker. Even as I write, the first bands are moving over my area of South Florida. My feet ache and I'm exhausted from waiting in lines and preparing the house, but I'm relieved we dodged a bullet. With many roofs still wearing blue tarps, we needed a break from hurricanes. But how wonderful it is to click on my local station's website and watch the radar. I can see not only the intensity of the weather but how the size. Instead of wondering if the current stretch of bad weather is never going to end, you know that in another 10-15 minutes, it will pass. Great for determining best chances to take the dog out safely. Here, check it out. :) Carol
http://www.wptv.com/RADAR.html

Ernesto

Monday, August 28, 2006

Tonight when I got home from work I put up my hurricane shutters as Ernesto is chugging toward my section of Florida. Tomorrow I'm going to get up early to try to buy gas for the generator and pick up milk. The gas lines were horrendous all day long and many stations have run dry already. The tankers are giving priority to the Keys so that people can evacuate , but that means our stations are running out. Some stations are receiving supplies tonight so that's why I'll make the rounds early. People who don't live in hurricane zones don't know/understand the long, long lines. Cars circle the blocks around gas stations; people wait in lines stretching down the aisles in the stores. Most of the home supply stores now allow only so many people in at a time in order to regulate the crush. Once a hurricane watch goes up, it is a race against time to get the necessary supplies before the storm hits. Normally, we have more advance warning but Ernest changed course unexpectedly so it's crunch time. I can hardly wait until November and for this hurricane season to be over. Carol

Madonna Key Cover #5 is up

Friday, August 25, 2006

The cover of Hidden Sanctuary, Madonna Key #5, is up on Barnes and Noble and continues the look that appeared on Dark Revelations and my book, SHADOW LINES. This time the 'magic' or light comes from the necklace the heroine is wearing. Wow, only two more covers to undergo the big reveal. Reviews so far have been terrific for SHADOW LINES, and I'm holding my breath for the remaining ones to come. I had a scare about my eye today [bleeding], but my optometrist assured me the eye was okay. However, I figure it's a warning sign to not push myself like I do and plan to rest it over the weekend. Hard for me to do, since I'll work on the laptop while watching TV...or read a book while watching TV...or...you get the picture. I will work on the new book for Silhouette Romantic Suspense that I've begun since my old line is no more. As always, I'm excited to discover this new group of characters. Happy weekend! :) Carol

Countdown to Cindy Dees Workshop

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

I'm so psyched. Today I mailed off my check for Florida Romance Writers' Super Saturday. It will be an all day workshop on 9/16/06 put on by none other than my fellow Madonna Key cohort Cindy Dees. The stories she tells of her service in the Air Force are alone worth the price of attending her workshop, but she's such a fabulous writer. If anyone is interested in attending, the application and information can be found under the tab 'workshops' at the chapter's website:

http://www.frwriters.org Below is the MK group shot from RT in Daytona Beach. Cindy's on the left along with Lorna Tedder, myself and Evelyn Vaughn. :)Carol

Nice chat with my editor

Monday, August 21, 2006

I had a good chat with my editor today. She's a sweetie and it was comforting to speak with her after having Bombshell pulled from underneath me last week. My editor's stoked about a new series I proposed so slowly I'm drifting back into writing. I did relax over the weekend, taking lovely naps. However, I also picked up a few books from the line I'm targeting and indulged in a little reading. I have to admit, though, I ended up returning to my tried and true Nora Robert's books. I always loved the MacKade Brothers series so I read bad boy Rafe cover to cover. So things are good. I promised myself a decent break to recover from my last book, but one week from writing and my fingers are twitching. Below is a picture of my critique partner Linda Conrad and myself at the Harlequin party at RWA in Atlanta. We were are the Ritz Carlton with the theme 'Putting on the Ritz'. I did a Fred Astaire. :) Carol

WHEEE!!!!!!! BENJY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Well, after a not so great week, a bright note. My man Benjy won So You Think You Can Dance! I'm so thrilled. I would love to see him in the movies at some point. What a great performer. :) Carol

The End of Bombshell

Even though I suspected the writing was on the wall for this wonderful line, it was still a stomach punch on Monday [8/14] to get the news that Harlequin was ceasing its publication after January 2007. This particularly hurt when I had just about killed myself to get COURTING DISASTER turned in by my deadline...Monday, 8/14. The one bright note is HQ is reverting the rights to my primary characters in the Courting series so I can market them elsewhere, and my wonderful agent sprang into immediate action on Monday to do so. Much has been written about the failure of HQ to market this line correctly so I won't beat a dead horse. The marketing sucked 10-year-old rotten eggs. But first and foremost, I'm a storyteller. Where one line ceases, another begins or exists. While I was out of town for my day job, I came up with another legal concept for the newly emerging Silhouette Romantic Suspense line so we'll see if that flies. If it doesn't, I have a thousand other ideas. I'll keep writing because I cannot 'not' write. :) Carol

Update on Carol

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Maddie here. My human Carol is in a state of complete collapse. She had a 8/14 deadline and mailed off her completed book yesterday. Good girl. She always meets her deadlines. I gave her an extra lick for a job well done. However, she can't rest too long as she has to turn in a revised proposal by 9/1 so she'll be diving back into writing by mid-week. Today she did take time to give me another swimming lesson. She heard about dogs accidentally getting in pools and then not being to find their way out so she takes me to different areas of the pool and lets me swim to the steps. As a lion dog, I don't really care for the swimming or the bath part afterwards, but I know she loves me and is doing these lessons for my own good. Bark at you later. Carol's heating up pizza and I want to make sure I get my fair share. Maddie

Our Generation's Definition of Cowardness...

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Al Qaeda. Wusses who don't have a molecule of moral decency; hell would probably spit them out as being even too despicable for the devil. The old-fashioned punishment of drawing and quartering would be too good for them. Since they like airplanes so much, I think taking them up as high as a jet can go and then pushing them out without a parachute would be lovely. Carol

Maggie Finalist!!!!

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

I got the call tonight from Georgia Romance Writers that COURTING DANGER is a Maggie finalist in the long contemporary category. This contest is always special to me as it was my first win as an unpublished writer. I won the inaugural Maggie in Paranormal, Futuristic in 1996. That win led to my landing my super agent Roberta Brown. Speaking of which...here is a shot of Roberta and me at the RWA conference in Atlanta. :) Carol