Debutante Blog Tour: Rhonda Stapleton

My deepest apologies to Rhonda!

Due to flu-ish children, coughing my lungs out, unpacking boxes, and the cruel machinations of AT&T who refused to hook up my internet until today--over a WEEK after my move!!! argh!!--I was unable to post this sooner.

But here it is, more about "Stupid Cupid" and the very fabulous, un-stupid Rhonda:

About Stupid Cupid

Felicity Walker believes in true love. That’s why she applies for a gig at the matchmaking company Cupid’s Hollow. But when Felicity gets the job, she learns that she isn’t just a matchmaker…she’s a cupid! (There’s more than one of them, you know.)

Armed with a hot pink, tricked-out PDA infused with the latest in cupid magic (love arrows shot through email), Felicity works to meet her quota of successful matches. But when she bends the rules of cupidity by matching her best friend Maya with three different boys at once, disaster strikes. Felicity needs to come up with a plan to set it all right, pronto, before she gets fired…and before Maya ends up with her heart split in three.

About Rhonda Stapleton

Rhonda Stapleton started writing a few years ago to appease the voices in her head. She has a Master’s degree in English and a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. Rhonda works as an editor for a legal publishing company and enjoys offering editing workshops. Rhonda lives in Northeast Ohio with her lovely, energetic family, who are more than enough to keep her busy when she’s not writing.

In the twelve minutes of free time she has each day, Rhonda enjoys reading, photography, writing poetry, singing in the shower (and in the car, at work, or basically anywhere that provides oxygen), drinking chai tea, and playing on the Internet.

Additional Details

• Author Web site: http://rhondastapleton.com
• Bookstore links:
  http://www.amazon.com/Stupid-Cupid-Rhonda-Stapleton/dp/1416974644/
  
  http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781416974642
  

FOUR QUESTIONS WITH:

1. If you had to kill off one of your characters which one would it be? Why him/her?

OMG this is hard...maybe Mrs. Kendel, the English teacher? She's mean. haha

2. Would you consider having this character come back from the dead? Why or why not?

Oh, heck yeah she'd come back from the dead--and probably assign double homework while she was at it.

3. What's the strangest thing eaten in the course of your book? (If it's brains you get ten bonus points!)
Ummmmmmmmmm I'm not sure. There's copious amounts of ice cream consumed. Not weird, though. LOL

4. Random sharing time, what do you want my zombie-blog-author readers to know about your book?

No zombies were harmed in the making of this book. Of course, no zombies were included, either...

Thanks Rhonda! Be back soon with more blog action now that I am once again connected,

Stacey

Ohmygodsuperquickupdate

Hey people,

Hope you're having a great week. I'm getting ready to move a four bedroom house into a two-bedroom apartment in less than twenty-four hours. In that time, I also have to

--pack two little boys for visits with their grandmothers
--go sign some closing papers
--go sign a lease
--pack 42 and 1/2 more boxes
--cancel some bills
--start some new bills
--clean the old house
--clean the new apartment
--and maybe eat the rest of the Christmas cookies and consider a shower in order to be slightly less gross than I am now.

The shower is probably going to be optional, but the Christmas cookies will not be. I have discovered stress eating and it's delightful! I can't believe I'm only now discovering the therapeutic value of chocolate chips and melted caramel. And all these years I thought exercise and eating right was the best way to deal with stress! Fool girl. Now I know the way...and am probably going to need some bigger jeans if someone doesn't make sure these cookies get lost in the move. Lol.

So yeah! Busy, busy, busy! And probably no internet for several days.

Or maybe no internet for several....months? Gasp! Can I do it? Limit my internet to visits to the library for 7 entire months? In the interests of breaking my addiction to email, I'm seriously considering it. More deep thoughts on cyber-addiction and email and cookies and stress in a few days.

Have a wonderful weekend and send smooth-moving vibes if you have them!

Stacey Jay

Go. Vote. Win. Also, Chipmunk Cheeks

Want to find out what this is all about? And why I can't pull off a pouty look to save my life? Then head on over to ZOMBIES IN TIARAS!

Okay, the answer to the second question is chipmunk cheeks, I can't leave you in suspense...and also you can see them up there. I'm the one of the right. With the cheeks.

Hey, you know, chipmunk cheeks may ruin my chances of looking "sultry", but they also ensure I've been carded almost every time I've ever tried to buy an adult beverage. So take that...and do what you will with it. Or forget about it altogether and go read this blog. It's pretty funny, I promise. And also, if you vote for your favorite ZOMBIES IN TIARAS blog bio pic, you could win some stuff. And who doesn't like winning? Maybe you...if so, I'm sorry, I don't think there's anything I can do for you today.

Go forth, dearest horde, and have some reading:

http://zombiesintiaras.blogspot.com/2009/12/vote-for-our-bio-pic-and-win.html

Be back later in the week for a major announcement about what I'm giving up for the New Year. It will probably make you want to throw up a little, but I hope you'll lend me your support as I try to kick a bad habit or two.

Later!

Stacey Jay

"Frosty the Panda" by Roo Jay Age 5

And now, sweet blog readers,

I bring you a guest post from my senior loin fruit, Roo Jay, aged five and seven months.

He calls it Frosty the Panda. (Yes, you could say the Panda's name is derivative, but I prefer to think that the artist has been influenced by seasonal entertainment. It's informed his work, yes, but I believe he's made this project his own.)

"Frosty" is an original work of fiction written and illustrated by Roo. His mother (me) simply served as transcriptionist (a transcriptionist with very bad handwriting as you will see below. Sorry, dudes. I was holding a baby. Slack--you can cut me some?)

And now without further ado: Frosty the Panda--

Frosty, the Panda, wanted to eat bamboo.



But when he eats it, he coughs. Then he wanted to eat pizza.





His tummy fights the bamboo...the pizza wins.



The medicine makes him better.


Then the panda goes home.




The end.

A heartbreaking work of astounding genius, to be sure. I couldn't be prouder.

Excellent Tuesday to you all,

Stacey Jay

Zombies in Tiaras-Sparkle-dee-pire Alert

Find out more about the legendary sparkle-deer-pire over at the Zombies in Tiaras blog, where we tackle the mysteries of deer hunting:

http://zombiesintiaras.blogspot.com/2009/12/urine-grunt-tubes-and-sparkle-deer.html

Have a fabulous weekend!

Stacey

Dreams of Donuts, Dogs, and the cast of High School Musical

Scene:

Interior, Stacey's Brain, sometime between the hours of 1 and 3 a.m. when the baby was actually sleeping instead of coughing his wee brains out and keeping the entire house awake worrying about the fragile state of his health:

Dream Stacey and the cast of High School Musical along with the actress who plays Ugly Betty*--sans thick glasses--are trying to work their way through a huge maze made of scraps of ripped up cardboard**

They have just approached an especially tricksy stretch of maze when a huge pack of tiny yippy dogs*** swarms their feet, barking and nipping and generally being as completely terrifying as small, yippy dogs usually are.

Dream Stacey, being as scared as she should be, scales a really tall guy with a bald head who resembles the lead singer of REM****. Bald dude was very annoyed to have Dream Stacey wrapped around his shoulders like some kind of living mink stole and so shoves her on top of his van, begrudgingly offering her safety from the jagged teeth of the terriers below*****

His van turns out to be a donut delivery van with a transparent roof******. Dream Stacey curls up on the transparent roof, gazing down at the sprinkle-covered pink and white and chocolate donuts and is strangely comforted*******. She feels safe and decides to take a nap.

End scene.

* I haven't watched HSM or Ugly Betty in years. Why were they in my brain? Why?!

**Think this may be my dream-mind's way of stressing out about the fact that my house is filled with moving boxes that need to be packed. Or my dream-mind's way of stressing out that we may all end up living in cardboard boxes because our real estate agents keep encouraging us not to sign a lease until our sale is final, but we may not be able to find an apartment in the two days we have to move once the sale is final, and OMG for the love of sheep!, please just quit stressing me out like this, agents and real estate market in general. You are to be giving me a nervous break-down.

***OMG, dogs. I'm so scared of dogs, especially small ones. I know it's shameful, but it's a phobia. They know no shame or reason. Also, I was bitten by a boyfriend's yippy dog once and it was crazy painful and got infected and almost left a scar. Later, that boyfriend turned out to be insane and thought the devil gave him street directions when he was lost. So there. Yippy dogs=biting + scary/crazy boyfriends.

**** He suddenly made an appearance in the dream, hopefully to teach the cast of High School Musical how to sing.

*****The men in my dreams are never heroic. They are always vaguely irritated by my presence. This may be a sign that my inner masculine is embarrassed that his outer feminine is afraid of dogs.

******WTH??

*******Because donuts=safety from dogs. Duh.

Anyone want to take a crack at a more in-depth psycho-analysis?

Stacey Jay

(Who needs a nap...and probably a couple donuts.)