Romance Reading Mom

Tuesday, March 4

One Flaw in Women

Women have strengths that amaze men.
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take "no" for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you
to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have the compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
family and friends.
Women have vital things to say
and everything to give.
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Posted by Tara Marie :: 7:58 AM :: 6 comments

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Wednesday, February 13

Snow Day :)

School's closed today. So, Junior and I are both home. His room already looks like a bomb exploded in a toy store and it's only 10:30 in the morning--LOL. It's going to be a long day :)

Good news, the scan of Dad's lungs came back tumor free. The doctor still did a biopsy of the inflamed tissue, but isn't expecting anything negative. Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers.

This is a week or so late, but how about those Giants!! Best Super Bowl Ever!!

My dad is a die hard Giants fan. I remember sitting on his lap watching games when I was little asking "Who are the good guys?" Dad's very superstitious and always wore his lucky sweater when I was a kid. When he wore it they won, no sweater they lost. Pretty simple. Since Dad was in the hospital and Mom has probably long since gotten ride of the lucky sweater, I decided to wear my lucky pink fluffy bathrobe.

You're probably wondering why it's lucky. Well, taking a page from Dad, I was wearing it for the last game of the season, Giants and Patriots, for the first three quarters I wore the bathrobe, got hot and took it off during the fourth quarter and they lost. Figured if I wore it again and left it on they would pull off the upset and they did :)

Forget the amazing throw by Eli to David Tyree, forget the defense beat the heck out of Brady, the Giants won because I was wearing my lucky, pink, fluffy bathrobe for the entire game this time.

Got to get Junior to clean that room, have a good one :)

Posted by Tara Marie :: 10:24 AM :: 9 comments

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Wednesday, February 6

What the heck happened?

To me that is :) ?

I didn't realize I was gone for so long. Kept telling myself "I'll get to it tomorrow." Yikes, tomorrow was 2 1/2 months later.

So, the last time I left off here, I was working from home for an outsourcing company, very involved with my son's Catholic school and not finding very much time to read.

Not much has changed, except now you can call me The Church Lady!! Monday I started working at my church's rectory doing bookkeeping and database work. I've cut my hours back at the outsourcing company to basically whenever I want to work.

To be honest Christmas time became a huge chore this year. My job at the outsourcing company is for an incoming call center for a credit card company. Calls were non-stop for 5-6 straight hours a day. Then I had the shopping, wrapping and decorating to get done. By the time my day was finished I didn't have the heart to sit down for one more minute at this computer.

Add to all this I do public relations for the school. Which normally isn't overwhelming, but Catholic School's Week was January 27 - February 1, and all the projects I've been working on came to a head. I ended up spending the entire month of January getting brochures finished, the school website up and running, school newsletters to the parishes that send kids to the school, advertising scheduled and PR finished. I think I need a committee, it was too much work for one person. Throw in Advisory and Parent Organization meetings and Tuesday night Cub Scouts (I hate Cub Scouts) and I'm done in.

The hardest thing we've been dealing with... my dad's been in the hospital twice, he's been diagnosed with COPD along with all of his other problems and the specialist now want to do a biopsy of his lungs to check for cancer. It's scheduled for Friday. This is probably the most stressful part of all our lives.

At this point I'm not even sure I've finished a book in the last couple of months. I've got two books started and a HUGE TBR pile. And at the TOP of the TBR pile are Francine Rivers Biblical series, not that I really want them at the top, but I promised my sister I'd read them. And she may give up her Christian beliefs and beat me up if I don't read them soon :) I've been receiving ARCs that desperately need reading and reviewing.

Junior is still as cute as a button :) And doing very well in school academically. His behavior leaves a little to be desired, but we're working on that too.

That's it for now. Back later :)

Posted by Tara Marie :: 5:56 AM :: 11 comments

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Monday, February 4

Hello out there

Hello, hello, hello, hellooooo!

Is anyone out there??

Posted by Tara Marie :: 7:33 AM :: 14 comments

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Thursday, November 15

Honestly, I'm still here--LOL.

So things didn't loosen up all that much after the American Girl Fundraiser :)

At 4:00 this morning I realized I hadn't written my RTB column that was due to post at 6:00. I managed to finish it at 5:57.

I'm full of questions this month, go post your thoughts, I'll be around today and promise to try and get my act together .

Have a good one, I'll be back later.

Posted by Tara Marie :: 6:02 AM :: 13 comments

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Saturday, October 27

The New Normal

So, I'm realizing things aren't going to go back to normal like I knew it when I was a SAHM. Okay, I'm not a complete idiot, I knew things would be different now that I'm working, but I didn't think that things would change this much. Never realizing I ran errands almost everyday, now they're stockpiled for one day a week. Tuesdays don't feel like a day off--LOL. But Sundays do--Sunday's are still "Family Days" : )

The New Normal means I don't get to read everyday. The American Girl Fundraiser was a success, and I figured the evenings would be mine again. Wrong, three of the five nights this week were filled with something... Tuesday--a conference call for work, Wednesday--making Junior's costume for the All Saints Day Pageant (which was yesterday and absolutely adorable, I'll get to that later :) and Friday--making poster for Trunk or Treat.

The All Saints Day Pageant was Friday. Twenty one 1st Graders parade into the gym and up on stage singing "Oh When The Saints Come Marching In..." They were adorable. Each one got up in front of the entire student body, faculty and parents and quoted three sentences about their "Saint" that they had memorized, pretty impressive for 6 year olds. Of course, the grandparents thought Junior was the BEST, of course, they're not prejudice or anything :) He did do a great job, he speaks incredibly well for his age. We still get teachers and other parents telling us this on a regular basis. One of the parents asked if we taught him the inflections and to slightly pause between sentences. Nope, that's our Barrymore, the school really needs a Drama Club. Actually, the only thing we told him was to speak slowly and clearly, the rest seems to come naturally.

Trunk or Treat is supposed to be today in the school's big parking lot, since we're getting torrential rain, it's been moved to tomorrow, in the back parking lot (Sunday Bingo you know). Last year our "Trunk" theme was a haunted picnic. This year's theme is "The Most Sincere Pumpkin Patch" from It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Junior and I made a big poster for our trunk with lots of pumpkins, Linus, Sally a sign and a glittery moon and stars. It looks cute. We'll bring real pumpkins and I think I'll make a "Most Sincere Pumpkin Patch sign too. Keep in mind the "Trunk or Treat" doesn't have this theme, just us. Mama's a little OCD and likes a theme.

This week I only have one meeting and it's Tuesday night, I should be able to find some reading time and finally get to finish Madeline Hunter's Lessons of Desire. Which I'm not "loving" but will finish.

That's all the news from our little neck of the woods. Hope all are well.

Posted by Tara Marie :: 5:58 AM :: 10 comments

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Wednesday, October 24

The ones that don't make it.

I pulled this nice long quote out of Pamela Morsi's response to comments a couple weeks ago...

American setting aren't done these days. Publishers don't believe that readers will buy them. Which is why all the writers who used to write them, myself included, are now all doing other things. But these trends all come in cycles, so it's sure to be back eventually.

Glad that you and Eva Gale both read SIMPLE JESS. That's a story that really means a lot to me. And to a lot of other people too. I created the character as the heroine's brother in MARRYING STONE. But he was such a great guy I wanted to give him his own book. As soon as I'd finished, I proposed that and my editor turned me down. She said that readers wouldn't go for a mentally handicapped hero. So I moved on, wrote something else and then the movie FORREST GUMP came out and was such a splash, my editor called as said, "You know that book you wanted to write..." So I got busy on SIMPLE JESS. Unfortunately, during the time I got the okay and the time the book was completed, my editor left. The new editor was unfamiliar with my work and when SIMPLE JESS showed up on her desk, she was horrified. She didn't think that the relationship as it was written was "appropriate" and she wanted me to rewrite it to make him smarter. I couldn't do that because he was already in print in Marrying Stone. So after lots of upheaval and argument, SIMPLE JESS was released. The number of copies printed was very small, the cover was nondescript. And it went to the sales department with the notation "controversial" which basically means buy at your own risk.

Not a lot of people did buy it at first. Romance readers were as skeptical of a mentally challenged hero as the editor believed they would be. But slowly, slowly, slowly people began to read it. And they began to like it. I've gotten more feedback on that story than any other - - and all of it has been positive. Jess had such a low print run that it was doomed to commercial failure, but it continues to pay and pay in wonderful feedback dividends. The rights reverted to me several years ago, so I’m always thinking that someday somebody will buy it from me for a reprint and this time give it the push that it truly deserved.

In the industry, people thought the story was a career killer. And it did kill my career at that particular publishing house. If I'd had any sense at all about how to get ahead and move up on the lists, I never would have written it. But I guess it goes to show you that sometimes being too stupid to know better leaves us open to achieve some pretty wonderful things.

Simple Jess is one of my favorite Pamela Morsi books and I for one am glad that it finally made it to print.

Most avid readers know romance on a whole is very cyclical, what's hot now wont be in a couple of years, and publishers are going to take advantage of this and continue publishing what's going to have the largest financial return. And yet you can't help but wonder how many great books have never been published because the publishers deemed them not marketable?

Posted by Tara Marie :: 9:32 PM :: 9 comments

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