Long time, no blog

It's official. I'm not a good blogger, as proven by the fact that this is my first blog post in... months.

Today I have something to blog about.

Today was the first episode of MUCH ADO ABOUT BOOKS, the book talk radio show I host.

Did I mention I'm not a public speaker? Anyone who bore witness to my humiliation in Toronto during the last day of the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in 1999 can attest to that. Kathryn Falk dragged me on the stage to talk about the romance calendar we'd published for the convention, even though I'd begged her not to. "Oh, you'll do fine!" she said, in that ever-optimistic way she has of saying things.

Yeah, I did fine. About three words into my schpeal, I literally broke down in tears.

But I have been psyching myself up for this first day of the LIVE show for weeks. I was ready when I went to sleep last night.

The plan:

I would wake up this morning, take my youngest to school, then come back home and write the script for the show, tweak the website, tie up any loose ends, get the kids settled after school, and then do the show.

The reality:

I woke up when my two oldest children were scrambling around trying to get ready because the alarm hadn't gone off and they'd missed the bus. $#!&

But only half the house was without power, so it wasn't a problem with the electric company. I just needed to change one of the fuses. I could do that, take the kids to school, and proceed with my plan.

I went to the basement, armed with my box of fuses. Found the blown fuse, unscrewed it, then screwed in a new fuse.

POW! It literally exploded in my hand. To my left, a flash of light and a pop. I turn, and see water dripping from a light blub!

$#!&

Long story short, a leak in my plumbing resulted in water mixing with electric. I called the plumber, and I called my insurance company, because I think I might well have done something fatal to my electric at this point, because I can't get that one fuse to work at all (even replaced the 60 amp fuses at $20.00 each). Then I call my mother. Sobbing.

The plumber came out, checked out the plumbing, then left. Haven't seen or heard from him since. He was supposed to send someone out to fix it. Guess they weren't in the hurry that I was. Fortunately, I turned off the water supply to that part of the house. And I'm sure my kids won't mind getting all their water from the bathtub (since the bathroom sink supply is off, too).

Didn't hear anything at all from the insurance adjuster (but, you know, it's not half of his house that's experiencing a black out, so...)

That's is the mess I spent my morning trying to clean up, in between bouts of weeping. And I got to thinking that in the scheme of things, yes, my house might end up burning to the ground as a result of the bad mix water and electric make, but there are lots of people who have gone through a hell of a lot more than this. I have no right to cry (all right, yes I do have a right to cry, but remembering the plight of the victims of the hurricane really puts it in perspective).

One positive thing - my computer and the television are on the side of the house that's still got electric. At least that's something!

By about 1pm, I had enough done on the electric/water problem that I could start doing what needed done for the show. And a bad case of nerves set in. And my voice was hoarse from yelling upstairs to my son while working on the electric and plumbling.

By 3:50pm, I was a basket case. But I had my questions, my coffee, and my nicotine free cigarettes (yes, I'm trying to quit - but in a moment of high stress, "nicotine free" isn't nearly as soothing as "nicotine loaded" would have been!)

I'm happy to say, I survived the premier episode of MUCH ADO ABOUT BOOKS. Sure, I sounded more like "Larry Mills-Alcott" than Laura Mills-Alcott, thanks to the abuse my vocal chords endured today, and I hadn't had a run through with the network, so this was done on the fly and by the seat of my proverbial pants, so I know I need to get a bit better at the transitions and network breaks - but other than that, things went swimmingly!

My guests were Tina Leonard (COWBOYS BY THE DOZEN) and Carly Phillips (SUMMER LOVIN') and they were terrific (and really glad that I didn't pass out, because they would have been entirely on their own at that point!)

Tina's new book (hot off the presses) is CROCKETT'S SEDUCTION (you can read excerpts of her COWBOYS BY THE DOZEN books at http://www.theromanceclub.com/authors/tinaleonard)

Carly's book is SUMMER LOVIN' (read the excerpt for this book and other Carly Phillips books at http://www.theromanceclub.com/authors/carlyphillips)

Both Tina and Carly sponsored contests for the show, so be sure to listen to the archived edition if you missed the live show, so you can find out how to enter.

Next week, my guest is Lucy Monroe. You don't want to miss her book TOUCH ME http://www.theromanceclub.com/authors/lucymonroe

Hopefully by then my kitchen plumbing will be fixed, and electricity will be restored to my entire house!