While my family members were visiting over the Easter weekend, my sister, brother, and I were hit by a sudden wave of nostalgia. We dragged out our old photo albums and started talking about the sort of mischief we used to get up to as kids. At least, the mischief my sister and brother used to get up to. I–of course–was the family angel. Can’t you see my halo? My sister and brother, however, were fondly known as Dynamite and the Match.

As you can see, their torture of me started early. Here is a pic of one of my sister’s first Easters. And yes, that is my Easter basket she is blatantly sifting through while I am smiling innocently at the camera. (No wonder my first book was about a thieves’ den!) After my brother was born, things pretty much spiraled into chaos and insanity from there. There was the time they both pushed my chest of drawers over on top of me and the time they put a hole through my bedroom wall and…Well, you get the picture. Of course, they both insist that it was their way of helping me. They were trying to jolt me out my complaisance. And I have to admit that things were never boring. I learned to duck and cover at a young age.

But as you can also see, things weren’t always wild and crazy. Yes, it’s true. Despite their shenanigans, I adored my brother and sister and still do. We were close then and we are close now. And while I have a few war wounds, LOL, I also have some great memories that I have carried with me into adulthood. And those old tales are always good for a laugh at family get-togethers.

So what about you? Are you a sibling? The oldest? Youngest? Do you get along with your sisters and brothers or did they make you nuts? Please do feel free to share your horror stories. Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy.

Our taxes are finally done, and hubby is off to pick them up from our accountant. I feel much like I do after I turn in a manuscript — whew, what a load off my shoulders! I’m free! I can do anything I want now! Oh, wait, there’s a huge list of stuff that piled up while I was busy on that other project…

At least I can take a brief breather and think about other stuff before tackling the to-do list, and ponder some of life’s mysteries. For instance, how do you fit a 10-pound cat:

into a 5-quart box?

Like this:

We’ve been wondering how long Dakarai will be able to (or want to) stuff himself into this storage container. He was 11 months old as of Easter Sunday, and probably not quite done growing yet. Spider, our 15-lb cat who passed away last year, preferred cardboard shoe boxes — their sides could bow out to accommodate him. Dakarai adopted this box last fall, when I switched some of my beading supplies to a larger container. He only weighed about seven pounds then but was just as fluffy. He’s a four-legged lambs-wool duster.

Sometimes he doesn’t scrunch to fit. We address him as Your Majesty.

By the way, that white line across the bridge of his nose is a crazy curved whisker. A wild hair, as it were.

I thought some of you stuck in the cold and snow and rain might appreciate some color.

Some tulips in my flower box.

These lilies line the medians all down my street.

Close up

It’s like this for several blocks.

I thought you might find this image funny. It’s kind of far away, but can you see the squirrel hanging off the birdfeeder in my backyard?

He’s dropping food to another squirrel underneath (not pictured). Too funny!

I’m going back to bed.

One of my favorite things about being a romance author is the open armed acceptance and support you get from (most) other authors. Sure, there are a few bad apples, but for the most part it’s a very kind group. For example, this past weekend I was off to Knoxville, TN to attend the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers conference.

First, I drove up with fellow author Ann Macela, who writes fantasy romance (with MAGIC!!) for Medallion Press. 8 hours each way, but the time actually flew by with good conversation and very pretty scenery (especially after we got into Kentucky and Tennessee).

On Friday night, after we arrived, there was a welcome dinner where I was seated beside Vicki Lewis Thompson and her delightful daughter/personal assistant, Audrey. Here’s a picture of Vicki doing a speech the next day (and yes, I stole this from Vicki’s site and yes, those are bunny ears).

Vicki is totally delightful. She’s a New York Times Bestselling author and has appeared on the Live with Regis and Kelly show, but a sweeter, more down-to-earth person you could not meet. And Audrey and I share a geeked out sensibility about Star Wars, so it was lovely. We also had a variety of other authors at our table, as well as readers. And even though I’d been on the road for 142 hours (okay, it only felt like that by the time we arrived), it was still an awesome evening, which was capped off by the hilarious Sabrina Jeffries giving a speech about Rejecting Rejection.

The next day, Sabrina and I had a lovely talk. Here’s another picture stolen shamelessly from Vicki’s site since I don’t have mine uploaded yet:

Sabrina and I were also seated next to each other at the author booksigning that day. And she gave a great talk about love scenes that had my fingers itching with some ideas for the historical I’ll be starting later this year.

But the crowning event for me in Tennessee was meeting up with Jaunty Robyn DeHart and The Professor. I will sadly admit that even though I had my camera in my purse when we went to dinner, I didn’t even think of taking pictures until I was back in the hotel. SAD. I guess we were just having too good a time. But The Professor was lovely and Robyn and I had fun and it was the highlight of a really nice conference.

And just 842 hours in a car later… and I was home.

And guess what? I get to do it all again this weekend when I go to Chicago for a retreat. Not bad work if you can get it.

Ladies – I’ve got to hand it to you. You sure know how to find some great pictures!
The closest match to my idea of Brogan was with ladydawgfan’s link. (Pretty hot link, I might add!)
So ladydawgfan – send me your snail mail address and I’ll get a prize package out to you today! Email me at margomaguire@yahoo.com.

And now I’ll get back to admiring all those photos … Maybe my next hero …?

I’m looking for a picture of a hero – not just any hero, but the one who stars in my July release, A Warrior’s Taking. Here’s a picture of the cover … And this is a fairly close likeness of Brogan MacLochlainn.

But what I need is a “snapshot” of the hero – just his face (maybe his neck and shoulders, too ). Brogan is a big guy. He’s actually a Celtic warrior, with fairly longish dark hair and blue eyes. I’m going to send a prize pack – including an ARC for this book – to the person who sends me a url with the best representation of Brogan. I’m hoping for some great pics!

I wrote a blog recently about nature vs. nurture, and it occurred to me that we get more than our creative genes from our parents.

Over Spring Break, Ultimate Sportsfan and I went to Dallas to have dinner with my agent. He took us to this hole in the wall place called Nate’s Seafood and Steak, where he promised there’d be bar fights. There weren’t, but it was only Tuesday.

We also visited with my parents, who are moving soon. My mom wanted to give my sister or me her piano.

It belonged to my grandmother, and my mom, my, sister, and I learned to play on it. Well, USF wasn’t too thrilled about renting a U-Haul and trying to move a piano by ourselves, but as you can see it’s not a big piano. We hit some minor glitches, but by about 11:30 a.m. we were on the road. It’s about a 4-hour drive from Dallas to Houston.

Unless there’s a torrential rainstorm.

USF pulled the U-Haul into the driveway at 6 p.m. I was a little behind him, but he called me when he arrived. I could tell by the sound of his voice something was wrong.

“The house flooded, didn’t it?” I said.
“Yep.”

Crap! So there we were after six and a half hours of driving, with a piano to move and water to mop up. We were also starving.

Sometimes I wonder why nothing can be easy. At ten o’clock that night, when I fell into bed, I wondered if all the trouble was worth it. Then I woke up the next morning, and I had a piano!

It was so beautiful, and I rediscovered my joy in playing. I hadn’t realized I enjoyed it so much. Now, I play almost every day as a way to relax or break up my day a little. One day I hope to have a daughter or son who will also derive joy from playing this piano.

Have you ever received any family heirlooms?

I went to a funeral this week. A friend’s elderly mother had died. While I was sitting in the church I was reminded of a crazy thought I had when I was a child. For some reason I must have taken the Easter resurrection story and put my own spin on it. I remember believing that if you died during the year, you rose from the dead and went to heaven ONLY on Easter Sunday. I remember thinking that if I was in an accident or sick, that I would try to hang on as close to Easter as possible, so that I would spend as little time in the ground as possible. What a goofy, goofy thought. Where it came from I’m not sure….

Do you remember having any such crazy thoughts? Please, please tell me that I’m not alone in my wierdness

On a more pleasant note…and since this is Easter weekend….I encourage you to fill your mind with thoughts of cadbury eggs, easter bonnets and shiny black shoes. Immerse yourself in memories of hunting for hidden eggs before heading indoors to enjoy a dinner centered aroung honey glazed ham. Hum along to songs like “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” and “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.” Most of all, have a very blessed Easter.

And–before you get up from your computer to snack on a handful of jelly beans or chocolate eggs, I have a Shug update for you. He’s doing great, fitting into our family so well I can’t imagine what we did without him.