First Draft to Published

Author Doug Hewitt stopped by my blog The Real Hollywood earlier this week during his month long virtual book with Pump Up Your Book Promotion and he answered some Hollywood Trivia questions. One of the questions asked him if he happened to be shipwrecked on the same deserted island with the television characters on the show Gilligan’s Island how would he entice seven different individuals to read his book? Other questions dealt with a game show question, an acceptance speech others. Come on over and check out the answers. A chapter excerpt of The Dead Guy is available at Doug Hewitt’s website ABOUT THE BOOK: Jack Thigpen (www.hewittsbooks.com) works in Detroit, nicknamed The Motor City, the perfect place for a fraud investigator who specializes in car insurance scams. He is on a case he believes is a typical, low-level crime, but it quickly turns into a situation with ominous international consequences. Ironically, as he is targeted for death because of his investigation, Jack is di...

The U.S. Postal Service must think I am a rich woman with all the bills they continually deliver to my mailbox. It does become rather depressing to receive nothing but bills, but once a month I look forward to my writer’s magazines. Recently, an author’s book arrived in the mail. Of course, I had requested the book from the author so I could write a review, but wasn’t sure which day it would arrive. “No Sanctuary”, by author F.M. Meredith is the latest in the Rocky Bluff mystery series. Rocky Bluff is a fictional town in the California foothills with a comparable small town feel to that of Mayberry in the Andy Griffith television show. The town comes to life and so do the Rocky Bluff police officers and detective to solve the mystery of one woman’s murder that involves two churches, two ministers and two wives. Be sure to look for my review at The Real Hollywood during the author’s virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion . She will be hosted all week at The Real Hollywood...

Did Verizon overhear my conversation with my kids because now they are using my famous line “Can You Hear Me Now” in one of their television commercials? It’s the commercial where the Verizon technician walks around to different locations and asks “Can You Hear Me Now?” Could I possibly collect royalty payments from Verizon, since I was using the phrase before them? Being a working mom means most of my parenting during the day has been conducted by way of a phone call to my kids at home. Count the number of times I use the phrase “Can you hear me now” in this phone conversation. Hello, are you there. Can you hear me now? I ask. “Yeah mom, I’m here”, moans my tired son. I don’t understand why he’s still tired as he’s just now crawling out of bed and it’s already early afternoon. I’ve been awake for half the day and feeling like I need a nap. Trying to be understanding, (after all he did work an eight hour shift and was getting home when I was going to bed), I politely say “After you wa...

The world’s most famous groundhog saw his shadow Monday morning, predicting that this already long winter will last for another six more weeks, according to the Associated Press. I wonder with a cold winter already on the east coast was there any question that winter would continue for another six weeks? Did they need a groundhog to tell them it would? What is the magic of this groundhog being able to predict what the next six weeks will hold? According to German superstition, if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb 2 - the Christian holiday of Candlemas - winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says, spring will come early. Since 1887, this little groundhog named Phil, has seen his shadow 97 times, hasn’t seen it 15 times and there are no records for nine years. My paternal family line is from Pennsylvania and they lived near Gobbler’s Knob, a tiny hill in Punxsutawney, 65 mile northeast of Pittsburgh. My paternal grandmother, born in 1904 used to shar...

Do you watch the Superbowl for the game or the commericals? Read what I watch it for and who I spotted in a commerical at The Real Hollywood .

Have you had a chance to see the movie, Marley and Me, about the world's worst dog. If you have a chance visit The Real Hollywood blog and read my movie review. It's here at The Real Hollywood

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS - are they made today and broken tomorrow? Did you make any resolutions this year? Have you kept them or broken them? Read this blog post to find out what Sassy the cat has to say about resolutions. http://dogsrulecatsdrool.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/new-year-resolutions-old-habits-are-hard-to-break/ Enjoy!