One of the things I like…

about my publisher and editor is their openness to writing that fall outside the lines of formula. I don’t have to write she did/he did chapters, alternating between two main characters and little else — and having to stretch it out for 70,000 words. I can write from a single character’s perspective. Or I can tell a story from the perspective of several characters, which I’ll treat you with in my next work, a two-book erotic novel set in a fantasy world.

Carnal Desires Publishing takes a broad view of what constitutes erotic romantic. It doesn’t matter whether a novel features vanilla sex or the kinkiest of the kink, if it has likable characters, is well written, and has a satisfying ending, it counts. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that creative freedom.

So why am I waxing so ebullient yet again? Two reasons. My editor, Alexandra Adams, has been hard at work bringing several new novels on-line at Carnal Desires Publishing. They deserve notice — and Alexandra deserves heaps of praise; I know firsthand how hard she works to make CDP titles clean and tight reads. Head publisher Deron Douglas has expanded the number of formats available for purchase, staying on top of the evolving e-book market and consumers’ needs.

Working with Alexandra and Deron is wonderfully collaborative and I see nothing more beautiful scenery as I walk this rewarding path with them. That’s why I’m exhuberant this morning.

So what do you do…

when you’re tired of the standard black casement that covers your laptop, your ebook reader, and all of your tech stuff? I discovered the answer when I complained about the problem to my daughter.

Put stickers on it, she told me disbelievingly. (Evidently, it’s the most obvious answer in the world.) So I did. The laptop — purchased at a bargain; a un-black lid was not an option — is still a work in progress, but I can share with you the decor I applied to the cover of my Sony Reader.

I love lucky cats so that’s a given whenever I apply a sticker solution to life’s problems, but what else could I enjoy? That’s when I discovered Newbury Comics’ rock posters and fell in love with the art. So that colorful print of trees? A Yo La Tengo poster. (Love the band. That cartoonish, tokidoki-ish art on their site is sticker-worthy.)

The rock posters also led me to Tara McPherson‘s art. I had encountered bits and pieces of her art now and again, but it had been little more than spot motifs in the messy landscape of my visually busy world. So it was wonderful to more fully explore her work and, as a long-time SF fan of sorts, I fell in love with her outer space themes. And the eyeball balloons? Well, that seems to be a definitive McPherson mark.

Funny, isn’t it, where your love of books leads you? It’s always an adventure.

What’s with the maple trees this year?

We were showered in maple seeds like you wouldn’t believe this May — and some trees still have seeds clinging to them. The seed pods, what we call whirlygigs, showered us all month in quantities we’ve never seen before.

We’ve lived here for twenty-five years and have never seen anything like it. My neighbor used his leaf blower to clear his driveway. Our deck had a solid layer covering it and I was saved from sweeping only because we’ve had good, strong breezes almost every day. My husband claims trees that never before put out seeds did so, and that all the producers were triple-ladened this years.

I’m tempted to declare that the trees in our aging neighborhood had perhaps matured in peek numbers. When these homes were new, its middle class owners couldn’t afford the less messy male trees. But everyone wanted to landscape, to make their mark on these, their plots of land, their proof of having arrived, and so many female trees were bought and planted. But I’m not sure I can make the claim. The difference between this year’s and last year’s seed crop is just too extreme.

We had our final proof, however, when my husband tackled a gutter cleaning ahead of predicted storms over the weekend. What you see here is what came from our gutters. Maple seeds. Gallons of them.

So, maple trees, what gives?