I’m so excited! Yesterday, while I was working at Borders, my new office was built. It’s a built-in wrap-around desk of cherry that looks out onto our backyard. I’m writing this from my office desk for the first time. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a new feature in my house! LOL. Here is a picture–kind of hard to see because of the sun shining in–clearly I need to buy some blinds. I’ll post another picture when I have it all set up!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, everyone! I hope yours has been as good as mine (no better gift than to be able to write about people falling in love from a shiny new desk, lol!).

A word to the wise: Never get your website put in redemption. I don’t know if it’s me, or the domain company (who shall remain nameless), or just all-around bad luck, but my dawnhalliday.com website has been offline for almost a month now. This is not for lack of me trying to get it back up. But every time I call my domain company in an attempt to get it back online, this is their response, “Oh, you need to do xxx, and then wait for another three days and then we’ll get it back up for you.” I follow directions. I do xxx, and then I call back in the prescribed time. And what am I told? “Oh, you need to do yyy, and then wait another 24 hours…”

(((SCREAM!!!)))

I’m tired of calling them, and I’m tired of this roundabout response, and I’m tired of being misled! It’s making me crazy. Today I was transferred back and forth between four different departments with this company, and I was shaking with frustration from head to foot by the time it was over. I’ve been on the phone with them for two hours total today. Verdict: I have to wait another five days.

What can I do? Nothing, unless I want to come up with a new domain name.

Sigh. Sooo frustrating.

Since Dawn is “gone” for the time being, I’m going to be giving away some of her books here on my blog. Just respond to this blog with a “bad customer service” tale of your own for a chance to win one of the following books (your choice while supplies last):

Highland Obsession by Dawn Halliday (verrry spicy historical)
10 Days in Paradise by Dawn Halliday (spicy contemporary)
Sins of Summer by Dawn Halliday, Marie Harte, Mackenzie McKade, and Annmarie McKenna (verrry spicy contemporary)

I’ll give away 5 books in total in the next few days! So please let me know your horrible, foot-stomping customer service stories–I really want to hear I’m not alone here. LOL.

First of all, congrats to Ginger C, who won the Margaret Mallory books. I have a new contest going on, this time for an amazing romantic suspense by Susan Crandall, so please go check out my bonus features page for more information.

Secondly, as many of you know, I have three children. I was in my daughter’s kindergarten class last week, doing my civic duty as a volunteer, and here’s how one of my conversations went:

Me: Okay, you’re going to write “This.” Uppercase t…
5-year-old: No.
Me: Would you like to write something else?
Him: I want to write, “This is my dog.”
Me: Okay, so you’ll start with “This,” then. Uppercase t…
Him: NO!
Me: Well, if you want to write “This is my dog,” you’ll start with “This” which starts with t.
Him: (Stares at me like I’m an idiot.)
Me: (encouragingly) Do you need help writing t?
Him: I’M NOT WRITING T!!!
Me: But…”This” starts with t, so you’re going to need a t. Right here.
Him: Nuh uh. “This” doesn’t start with t. You’re wrong.
Me: No, I’m sorry. “This” starts with T.
Him: No it doesn’t. It starts with V.
Me: No, it starts with T.
Him: (getting really worked up) NO, IT DOESN’T!!! IT STARTS WITH V, I SAID! (looks like he’s either going to punch me or cry)
Me: Okay, then you can write it however you think it’s spelled. Good job.

I have the greatest respect for kindergarten teachers! I think I’ll just stick with writing.

Congrats to Susan L., who won Elizabeth Hoyt’s Prince Trilogy over on my contest page. I’ll have another contest going up in the next week or so.

Happy New Year, everyone! We spent our New Year’s Eve packing and moving. I’m sitting here in our new house surrounded by unpacked boxes and not quite feeling like I’m at home yet. Hopefully that changes very soon…

My year ended on a fantastic note, though–I sold another three historical romances to Grand Central Publishing! I am so excited about these books, and I can’t wait to share more of my late-Regency world with you all!

I hope you all have a magnificent 2010!

The winner of my holiday contest was Denise Y! She’s getting a copy of A HINT OF WICKED, a copy of A HIGHLANDER CHRISTMAS, and lots of yummy-smelling holiday bath and body goodies. Congrats to Denise!

I lied about that being my last contest of the year, lol. I have another one up–you can enter to win a copy of Elizabeth Hoyt’s amazing Prince Trilogy. Go on over to my Bonus Features pages and check it out!

I’m heading off to City Hall right now. We’re in escrow both to sell our house and buy a new one, and it just came to our attention that the new house lot might be entirely in a flood zone (which means we can’t build or make improvements–very frustrating). So I’m off to the city to clarify the situation. I tell you, it’s one thing after another when you’re in a real estate transaction. My husband and I were completely crazy to start this process during the holidays.

Come check out my blog over at Popculture Divas, where I’m talking about tattoos, piercings, and elf ears today.

I’m also working on edits for A SEASON OF SEDUCTION–this is the story of the young sister, Becky, from A HINT OF WICKED. I’m loving this story…Becky has learned a lot since her naivety during A HINT OF WICKED, and she has lots of surprises in store for her hero, Jack. I can’t wait until it comes out next October!

Well, we’re selling our house and buying a new one. I forgot how tremendously stressful and time-consuming this process is! But we’ve set our sights on an amazing home–my kids adore the backyard. I hope we get it.

In writing related news, I’m working on edits for the third book, A Season of Seduction (due out next October). I love this book–it’s the story of Becky (Garrett’s younger sister from A Hint of Wicked) and her incredibly sexy hero, Jack.

I just posted a new contest to celebrate the holidays! Win a canvas tote filled with books & Victoria’s Secret goodies! Check it out over at my contest page.

If I don’t post before then, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I will be spending it in Oregon with my grandfather, who will be spending his first Thanksgiving in 70 years without my grandma. I think it’s going to be a bittersweet day for all of us.

Since I just turned in my book, I’ve been in a movie-watching mood. I’m sort of distracted by catching up on episodes of True Blood right now, but after I finish those, I think I’m going on a historical movie binge. Last week, for my Fun Fridays contest, I asked you what your favorite historical movie was. I’ve seen a great majority of them, but some of them are brand-new to me, and I can’t wait to get started.

It was interesting–one movie got probably 10x the response of any of the others. Any guess what that one was? It was GONE WITH THE WIND! Ahh, yes, I can see why!

Here is the exhaustive list of all the movies that were listed by the entrants of the contest. If you entered, thanks so much for these! I’m keeping this list!

Gone With the Wind
Pride & Prejudice (Kiera Knightley Version)
Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth Version)
The Three Musketeers (which version, I wonder?)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (I’ve never seen this one! Putting it on my Netflix!)
The Princess Bride
Ladyhawke (ooh, another one to add to my Netflix queue!)
Jane Eyre
Scarlett
Titanic
Dances With Wolves
Braveheart
The Last of the Mohicans
300
The Great Gatsby
Marie Antoinette
Pirates of the Caribbean
Poseidon
La Reine Margot (Queen Margot) (another one I haven’t seen, I’m intrigued!)
Wuthering Heights with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (with Gary Oldman)
Troy
The Color Purple
North And South
Sense and Sensibility
Forever Amber (another one I need to look up)
A Room with a View
Unconquered
Little Women
Elizabeth
Lonesome Dove
Cold Mountain
Children of the Dust (another new-to-me!)
Lawrence of Arabia
Dr. Zhivago
Shogun
The Duchess
The Last Mistress
The Patriot
Gladiator
Pearl Harbor

Isn’t that a great list? What do you think? Some of these I love so much I want to watch them again, but I think I’m going to hit the new-to-me ones first! Thanks, everyone!

So I’ve been mired in this deadline for a couple of months now, and parts of my life have been sacrificed for the sake of this book. Probably the worst of it is that I see my family so infrequently that I feel like we’re ships passing in the night. I haven’t visited with my girlfriends in ages, and I’m horribly behind in emails/correspondence with all my friends and family who don’t live close.

One thing I’m also missing out on is entertainment. My days are simple: Wake up, take kids to school, work all day, feed and cart kids to their various sports, then go back to work until my eyes are crossing, then go to bed. I’ve taken an hour off here and there to relax. I got a pedicure with my daughter last weekend, and I went to the movies last week. But I need *more*! I need to relax, and I need to start interacting with humanity again!

I’m turning in this book early next week, then I have to go out of town for the rest of the week, then I’m presenting a workshop to an RWA group next Sunday. But as of the 19th of October, I’m a free woman! I’m taking a week off just to have fun…I really, really am…

I blogged today over at Pop Culture Divas about my pop culture deprivation. Please come on by and say hi. I’m especially interested in fall television must-sees as I haven’t watched TV in ages and I don’t even know what’s on anymore!

Okay, I’m crawling back into the cave! See you tomorrow for the Fun Fridays results.

I’m blogging over at Grand Central Cafe about the end of summer today! What’s going to be most memorable to you about this summer?

Please come on over and say hi.
http://grandcentralcafe.blogspot.com/

At least, they don’t mix for me. I mean, I don’t have time to be a gourmet cook! I hardly have time to go to the grocery store. It takes me a full day to plan and execute a “good” meal. I’m so super jealous of all those writers who can just “whip something up.” If I only had that talent!

Anyway, I’m blogging over at Pens Fatales, where I’m talking about my hopelessness when it comes to food and begging for some easy (and hopefully kid-friendly!) recipes. Please come say hi!

Blogging At Pens Fatales: http://pensfatales.com/2009/08/not-quite-foodie.html