Special Guest Blogger Almost Here

Special treat Friday!! Gabriella Hewitt will be guest blogging on our site.

Gabriella Hewitt is the pen name of creative writing talents Sasha Tomaszycki and Patrizia M.J. Hayashi. Together they weave tales of romantic suspense and dangerously sensual paranormals. Check out the website www.GabriellaHewitt.com to find out about upcoming releases and events on her blog.

To make it even more special, if you leave a comment tomorrow, you will be entered into the OUT OF THE SHADOWS Blog Tour Contest to win A $25 GC to Amazon.com. Winner will be announced on Gabriella' blog August 26th. Check here for official rules.

So, remind yourself to stop by Friday!

See you then,

Julia

Interviewed on Turn The Page

Being interviewed today at Turn The Page. Stop by here and leave a comment to be in a drawing for a copy of Evenings At The Argentine Club.

Big Boy School

Who's afraid of middle school and middle school kids?

As far as the kids, unless they're ours, they probably make many of us nervous. First of all, they're larger than we are. They have more hair. Or less hair that stands up in scary, pointy, sharp, colorful spikes. Girl's make-up is so thick, it's difficult to find their eyes, which makes them look even spookier. They mumble when they speak, and when you ask them to repeat what they said, they glare at you. Worst of all, they hang out in packs, so you're almost always outnumbered. Scary.

Then there is middle school itself. I remember Jr. High. Loud bells. Angry teachers who seemed to hate their lives. Rules. Threats if you didn't follow the rules. And today they've added psycho security guards that yell at you if you don't follow the rules or aren't afraid of the threats.

So, this summer when I made the decision to place my children in one of these hell-holes, I actually got sick to my stomach. I decided to do this, not becuase I stopped loving my kids, but because they no longer wanted to be home schooled and the charter they were going to had substandard education and it became unacceptable to return them to that school even if they were comfortable there.

This week was their first week at a public middle school, and Monday I toured the school and met the teachers. I told myself that if this middle school was anything like my Jr. High, I wouldn't follow through on my plan. I was pleasantly surprised to meet super nice teachers. They all had great educational plans for the school year. Something else that I loved was that I wasn't the only parent who showed up to the orientation day. Hundreds of parents and students were there. I can't ever remember seeing a parent at my Jr. High. This was a good sign. Good involved parents = good students. And the kids looked pretty cute : )

So, I won't say that I'm not still nervous and worried about my babies, but I end the week feeling happy about my decision. Like all parents, I want my children to learn, be happy, make some friends, and be safe. If this school can offer me this, I'll revise my ideas about middle school.

What difficult parent decisions have you had to make?

Julia

Your Identity

Sitting in my kitchen with my bother the other day, we were discussing . . . just stuff. You know like when you're hanging out with friends and family and you're not really talking about anything in particular. Well, the conversation turned to how we identify ourselves on those stupid little boxes on almost every application you've ever filled out that ask you to say who (what) you are. Especially if you're Hispanic or Latino - that's not enough. Are you a white or black or asian or whatever of Latino orgin? It's crazy.

He said, he looks at his arm, it looks white so he always marks the Caucasian box and who gives a damn if he's from Latino orgin or not. He was born in America and he's American, period. Whereas, I always mark the Latino box. Always have. I identify myself first on my cultural background - not that I feel any less American, but culturally I bring with me all the Latino and specifically Argentine roots.

After he went home, I started thinking that it's interesting how having the same parents and practically the same upbringing, we have such different views of ourselves. Based on what? I'm not sure.

On the surface it doesn't really matter, but subtly, it does. It makes a big difference on how we view ourselves and our place in the world. What it did was sort of cement in my mind that WE decide who we want to be - not our government, not other people. So even though they have those annoying little boxes questioning who we are - it's basically you and I who decide who we are based on our beliefs.

Deep down, I'm pretty sure that is the message I've placed in most of my books. Decide who you are and be proud of your identity.

Hugs,

Julia

Back from RWA 2011

Back from nine days in spectacular New York City for the RWA (Romance Writer's of America) conference, so I've neglected to post the last couple of Fridays.

The conference was interesting and I met a lot of first time conference attendees and new writers! Awesome!

My publisher, Grand Central Publishing held an author cocktail get together with their staff, and I loved it!! They usually have wonderful dinners, but this was really special, because authors got the opportunity to meet many of the people that contribute to the production of books who we usually never see. And we got great munchies and endless sangria to boot!

About five people showed up to my workshop presentation on Making Research Fun! I knew I should have presented a workshop entitled how to Absolutely, Positively Get Published in 90 Days - LOL.

Seemed like the big talk from publishers, agents and authors was digital publishing and the future of books. All seem to be in agreement that the future is up in the air and we can expect big changes within the next five years. Most seem to be positive about how the changes will affect those of us in the publishing world. I think the best I heard was from an agent who said that with each new change things always get bigger. When we moved from writing on clay tablets to papyrus to paper to typewriters to computers, we've never had less books and reading material, we've always had more. And this is going to be true in the digital age as well.

As always, I return home more inspired to write that perfect book that will make readers laugh and cry and happy that invested some of their entertianment time reading. After the Fourth of July weekend, I plan to jump fully back into my book.

Hugs to you all and Happy Birthday America, where people like the Naked Cowboy are allowed to walk the streets and entertain conference-weary writers and shocked tourists : )

Julia

Are We Finished With Print Books?

Recently, I read an article about the skyrocketing of ebook readers and ebook sales compared to print books, and it left me wondering why. I remember not long ago at writer's organizations and conferences there was repeated talk about whether they would even acknowledge an author who only published an ebook as even being published. And this wasn't even that long ago -maybe 6 or 7 years ago. And now Amazon is telling us that ebook sales have surpassed regular book sales. Wow.

It can't be the price of the books, because they pretty much still ask for the same cover price on most books. In fact, my daughter who owns a Nook, was looking for books to fill her ebook reader's shelf and a series she was interested in was actually MORE expensive for the ebook than for the actual book, especially if I added a Border's 40% off coupon to the equation.

And it can't be the reading experience. Again, I read a preview of a book on my Kindle, and didn't like the book. Then a friend let me borrow the same book, and I found that I loved it! For some reason, the experience was different. Much more pleasant. It's much nicer to hold a book and turn real pages

So is it just the ease of storing a large number of books onto a reader, and maybe the ease of purchase?

I wonder what the real reason is, because if the trend continues - and it appears it will - I can't see publishers continuing to print large volumes of books that will only be returned. Especially since it costs them so little to put an ebook out.

I belong to a book club and always choose the real book over buying the ebook version. It's so much easier to jump to a certain page in a real book. For my college classes, I also buy the actual books, so I can jump back and forth in an instant when I want to find details for a research paper or assignment. Though I do have to admit that when I travel to New York this month, I plan to take my rarely used Kindle on the trip, because it's much easier to carry in my purse.

What about you? Are you a converted ebook reader or still gravitate toward print books?

Julia

A Visit to Callaway Vineyard and Winery

In our second walk through a winery, today you'll have the opportunity to visit Callaway Vineyard and Winery. I'm so excited about this one, because it's the first winery I visited when I first thought of setting SAY YOU'LL BE MINE in a winery. I planned to spend the day visiting a few Temecula vineyards, but this one was so interesting and had so much to offer a writer looking for impressions of a winery as well as details and plain education, that I spent the entire day at this one winery. I hope you enjoy Cecilia Vasquez's tour:

The Winery…
While some work for greatness others are born with it. Eli Reeves Callaway Jr. was one of those people who was born with greatness. Callaway displayed a knack for business at a very young age with an acre peach farm he started at the age of 10. In his first season with his peach business he made over seven hundred dollars. It doesn’t seem like much of a surprise to anyone that this young entrepreneur would become the man behind Callaway Vineyard & Winery. He defied experts who considered Southern California unsuitable for growing wine grapes and put Temecula on the map as a serious wine producing region. In 1976 at a luncheon with the United States President, Queen Elizabeth II, and The Prince Duke of Edinburgh at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City there was only one wine served. The wine of choice for the bicentennial event was the Callaway's estate bottled 1974 White Riesling. The Queen, not known to be a wine drinker, requested a second glass. This was the first time in U.S. viticultural history that a dry table wine from Southern California was chosen to be served on the east coast at an international diplomatic event. The Callaway Vineyard & Winery was an underdog winery that hit the big time. Eli Reeves Callaway Jr. was a business man with an inevitable future of greatness and he made it in the Callaway Vineyard and Winery.

The Wine…
The Callaway Vineyard & Winery has a very wide selection; it leaves just so many wines to choose from. Some of Callaway’s top award winning wines include, 2008 Winemaker's Reserve Calliope Red, 2010 Special Selection Rosé of Sangiovese, 2009 Special Selection Chardonnay, 2009 Special Selection Gewurztraminer, 2009 Special Selection Viognier, and 2008 Winemaker's Reserve Chardonnay.

Upcoming Events…

Taste of Winemaking - Seasonal Seminars
Saturday Mornings from 10am-12:30pm

$88.50 Per Seminar
Legacy Club Member Price - $79.65 Per Seminar
Prices are per person, plus tax

Taste of Summer Winemaking Seminar
Saturday, July 23, 2011 from 10:00am - 12:30pm
This seminar includes guided tour of the production facility with Winemaker, lab demonstration, rosé flight tasting, casual lunch and certificate of completion.

$88.50
A Taste of Autumn Winemaking Seminar
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Take part in harvest as you pick grapes in the vineyard and help with the crush process. Enjoy wine tasting with artisan cheese and fruit and receive a certificate of completion.

$88.50

Cecilia Vasquez

To celebrate our visit to Callaway Vineyard and Winery, I will be drawing another winner this month! For June, I'll be giving away a nifty little wine pump and sealers set. For those times when you don't finish the entire bottle of wine (rarely happens at my house) this is perfect to preserve the flavor and essence of the wine by resealing it!

To enter the drawing, please visit the SAY YOU'LL BE MINE page on Facebook and press the little "Like" button, then let me know you did it in the comments below!

You get an extra entry if you've visited Callaway or another winery and want to share a little about your experience.

Winner will be drawn on June 30th!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Julia