As you can see from this photo, I suffered greatly during my recent trip to Phoenix for a spa weekend with my sister. This is the view from outside BLT (GREAT food), while we were waiting for our reservation. I loved seeing all the different types of cactus and the flowers were amazing. The desert was blooming while we were there.


These pictures were taken at the Camelback Inn located in Scottsdale and I can't recommend it enough. Great, personal service on every level, DRY heat, great food, a wonderful spa and my SISTER. It was a great weekend.

I also have the opportunity to spend time with two of my nieces and baby Jack. He's so cute! And my nieces rock. Yet more reasons to come home mellow. :-)

My flights were interesting and not in a good way, but I kept reminding myself i was FLYING and not in a wagon train and that helped. And it was reading time. I downloaded The Trouble with Demons by Lisa Shearin and am about halfway through. Great fun. I'm trying to pace myself and not rush through it.

And I'm also hoping to finish writing MY book and spend the summer reducing my TBR piles on my various reader devices. I am making progress, though I feel like a turtle. My last book I was the hare and I miss that, even though I am enjoying spending time with my characters. I keep getting surprised by what they do and the plot twists and turns. Wanted to bang my head against the wall before I left over finding myself abruptly in the middle of several time paradoxes, but my son-in-law, Richard, talked me off the ledge. I think that's pretty cool. I mean, I'm his mother-in-law and he didn't push me off the ledge.

Okay, before I get writing, I thought I'd post my twitter wish list. I read a list of tips and while they were useful, I wasn't sure I totally agreed with them. For me, twitter is a social networking site. That means there will be a social element. While I am there for marketing purposes, too, I like the social stuff. I've met some really cool people and I like reading the personal details when I have time. It makes them real to me and I'm more likely to try something someone recommends if I have a personal connection with them.

So my twitter tips wish list would include:

1. Interesting and intriguing links
2. personal moments (does Monday make you wince, too?)
3. the occasional DM when I've done something a tweeter liked.
4. tweets that make me smile or LOL (who doesn't need  more laughter in their lives?)
5. spontaneous book recommendations. (reviews are nice, as are publisher puffs, but I like to hear about the books readers couldn't put down.)
6. iPhone/kindle/sony reader information (cause I'm an ereading techie addict)
7. Music mentions (it was way fun when I tweeted about listening to Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" and a tweeter mentioned the opening sounded like "Werewolves of London." I didn't know anyone but I had noticed that!)
8. Mutual weather slamming tweets (and the occasional "my weather is better than yours" gloat).
9. Cat stories
10. Food stories. I LOVE food. And Diet Dr. Pepper. And chocolate.

And my bonus wish: tweets about American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, NCIS, Top Chef, Big Bang Theory and Project Runway. And Stargate if I like the new show. If I don't, then just the Atlantis movies. (I can't help it if I'm picky!)

So, Delilah, my heroine in Girl Gone Nova is really hoping I'll stop blogging and get her butt out of the trouble I got her butt into yesterday. Life is tough in my books. **vbg**

Here's hoping your May is filled with flowers, great books, good friends and fun tweets.
Perilously yours,
Pauline