Do You Nap?

I have this romantic vision of a perfect day spent in bed, reading and dozing off whenever I become sleepy. Probably sipping tea and snacking too. Sounds divine, doesn't it? But whenever the opportunity presents itself to have such a day, I never actually do it.

See, I'm a non-napper. 

I'd love to be a napper, but napping doesn't love me. I wake up groggy and cranky and have a brain fog for the rest of the day. (A full nighttime sleep seems to reset everything.)

My mother is a napper. Mr Bailey is a napper. My dogs are SERIOUS nappers. So why doesn't it work for me? If I do lie on a bed to read during the day and my eyelids become heavy, I have to fight it and jump out of bed to wake up again.

My new foster dog, Harry -- the one Napping  With Abandon in these photos -- takes napping to a whole new level. He loves nothing more than to be on a couch, having a little sleep. He's not fond of nature, he'd rather stay right where he is, thank you very much. And I have to say I'm rather envious.

Am I alone in this -- does everyone else love to sneak in a nap whenever they have a chance? Has anyone been a non-napper and worked out a way to successfully do it?

I'd love to hear your thoughts -- especially because it's a freezing cold day here and I have a good book I could snuggle under the covers with if I could fix this!

Pooch Bling!

Last night I ordered a new "going out" collar for Princess Ava. I feel it's important to have an around the house collar for everyday use, plus something pretty for special occasions. Billie already has one - as she's modelling in the picture below, but she has a lovely black coat that goes with just about anything. 

Ava has red fawn fur, which is more difficult to match, but I've eventually decided on a pretty blue feathers design (which also means both girls will have blue going out collars, which is kind of cute). 

Both collars from the awesome Collars By Christine: www.facebook.com/collarsbychristine/

But there were so many other pretty collars that I think I'll need to let the girls have a few each. Which got me to thinking about other pooch accessories. Both girls have winter coats:

And I may have been tempted to put scarves on them in the past. They just have such lovely long necks!

And Ava had painted nails when she first arrived, courtesy of her foster mother. I've bought more pink for her, and a lovely bottle of purple for Billie, but haven't got around to putting them on yet. In fact, I even have a scene in The Finn Factor where the characters paint the nails of the border collie, Harvey.

But this all makes me think about how much I'm paying attention to their accessories, when I hadn't given it much thought with all of my previous pooches. Perhaps the girls have a touch of glamour that lends itself to accessorizing? Or maybe the world is changing - pretty collars like the ones at the top of the post were hard to find 10 or 15 years ago.

What about you? Have you ever put a particularly nice collar on your pooch or kitty? Bought them accessories? Maybe a lovely coat? What about painting their nails? Please tell me I'm not alone in this!

Unlikely Heroines

The romance hero is a very big part of what appeals to readers of romance and I think a lot of us have very specific qualities in mind by which we judge all heroes. An author really has to get that right, IMHO, if she (or he) wants readers to keep coming back for more.

But ultimately, it's the heroine that readers (female readers anyway) identify with and I find most critical reviews I read - of anyones books - tend to be so because the reader didn't like the heroine or couldn't relate to her. Victoria Dahl gave a great speech at ARRC this year about how she writes flawed often "unlikeable" heroines and isn't going to apologise for it. Given I've written some unlikeable heroines, I loved the hell out of that speech!

But today I want to talk about unlikely (as opposed to unlikeable!) heroines because two out of my last four releases have had unlikely heroines.

Billie in It Happened One Night Shift is an emergency doctor who can't stand the sight of blood.

I did that deliberately because I read (and write) so many capable heroines kicking butt in what is often still a very patriarchial world that I wanted to write a heroine who was a bit of a mess, who was doing something she didn't really want to do out of misplaced loyatly and obligation. I also liked the dichotomy of a squeamish doctor. It made her very unlikely as a heroine granted but it gave her such room to grow and arc and become fierce and mighty and take charge over the course of the book.

I freaking loved Billie :-)


My second unlikely heroine is Joy from Limbo. 

 Joy is an ex hillbilly punk rocker turned cadaver make-up artist. She's short and petite with a pixie cut, a pink fringe and black fingernails. She eats like a horse and prefers comfortable boots to kitten heels. She grew up in a funeral home and might just possibly be psychic but doesn't think that seeing the odd ghost from time to time warrants such a label. Joy is not your typical heroine....In fact, she's probably the character least likely to be a heroine. Sure, she's more proactive in her life than Billie but she still prefers to live her day-to-day life completely unnoticed and, well, she packs putty into holes in dead people's heads...not very glamorous, right? 

But Joy was a joy to write :-)

Have you read any good books or seen TV/movies with unlikely heroines? Do you prefer heroines who you an identify with as opposed to those who dont fit any pre-conceived mould?