Kitten Zest

I'm so excited to see my daughter's new kitties. They are tigers, I think she said. First she thought they were both males but evidently they are both females. I hope she knows what they are going to do to her furniture.

I like cats in general. Dogs are bigger and so dumb. They can have weird owners too.

FLUFFY DOESN'T BITE.

OKAY WELL, WHAT WOULD YOU CALL THIS?

SHE'S JUST PUTTING HER TEETH ON YOU.

ALL RIGHT. WHATEVER.

Then there are the tremendously smelly dogs that come over to you and settle right down on your feet. Whoo! Dear God!! What an odor!!!

DON'T MIND MUFFY. I THINK SHE ROLLED IN SOMETHING.

Or of course the crotch sniffers, which I suppose can be divided into the ones who sniff from the front and the ones who sniff from behind. Now and then a high-achieving dog will be skilled at both. I hate them too.

The barkers will kill you. RAWLRAWLRAWLRAWL without end as you stand in the doorway. HEY ZIGGY!! CALM DOWN YOU FREAKING BIG LOSER!! OH HE'S SO CUTE.

Growlers are plain scary. They're holding grudges and aren't particular on who's going to receive their revenge. Maybe you're not the one who had a bite of their food two years ago, but you could be the one to get punished for it.

Cats aren't nearly as annoying. Well, I take that back. When they stand in the doorway, undecided over whether to go out or stay in, they're tremendously annoying. GET OUT OR I'LL KICK YOU!!! I used to feel truly envious of our cat as I would leave for work, heading out into the slush and snow as she stretched out ready for a hard day lying in the windowsill. Oh to trade places!!!!!

Wonder what they're saying when they "talk." Sometimes they really seem to mean something. YOU'RE STUPID. YOU'RE SERIOUSLY NO SMARTER THAN I AM.

Whatever.

Enjoy the zest.

Be here now.

love,
becky

Karin Gillespie

Ladies and gentlemen,

Time out from villainesses today to give a warm welcome to the lovely and talented Karin Gillespie. Let's tempt Karen with a delicious hot fudge sundae, mmmmmm, while she sits here and we learn about her fabulous new book and what people are saying about it:

“Each character is lovingly crafted in Gillespie's hilarious, heartwarming, and often irreverent look at senior living in small-town America.”— Starred Review Booklist

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Comment overheard under the hair dryer at the Dazzling Do’s

Karin Gillespie’s Bottom Dollar Girls are back with a sugar-spun vengeance in Dollar Daze: The Bottom Dollar Girls in Love (Simon & Schuster; August 2006; $19.95). Broaching the age-old question – Is it ever too late to find one’s heart’s desire? – the feisty ladies of Cayboo Creek are suddenly blindsided by schoolgirl flights of fancy when unexpected romance enters their lives.

Mavis Loomis, Birdie Purdy, and Gracie Tobias, widows in their mid-sixties are certain their dating days are over until they observe their friend eighty-something Attalee Gaines in tempestuous relationship with Dooley Prichard, a trifocal-wearing charmer. If it’s not too late for Attalee, how can it be too late for them?

Unfortunately the eligible men in Cayboo Creek are as picked over as a garage sale at noontime. Things look discouraging until an old high school heartthrob comes to town and Birdie and Mavis compete for his attentions. In the meantime socialite Gracie Tobias finds unlikely love in the arms of a rugged duct doctor. Can she overlook the vast differences in their backgrounds?

All of the books in series have been selected as featured alternatives for Doubleday and Literary Guild book clubs. Bet Your Bottom Dollar has been optioned for film by the actor James Woods. Gillespie (www.karingillespie.com) is also co-author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel. (Simon and Schuster, January 2007) and has a story called TRASH TALK in This is Chick Lit ((http://chicklit.smartpopbooks.com/news.htm)

You can visit Karin's terrific blog here.

Praise for Dollar Daze
“A sweet and amusing tale of romance and lust for the older crowd”—Kirkus

“Gillespie writes with such conviction that readers are thrust right into Cayboo Creek and the lives of the Bottom Dollar Girls….charismatic and replete with poignancy, a story to pass on.”---Romantic Times, four and a half stars

“Laugh-out--loud”—Atlanta Magazine Critic’s Pick

“Fun factor remains high from first chapter to last… The Bottom Dollar Girls…. provide the simple pleasure of an ice-cold bottle of cola and a bag of salty peanuts and that’s just fine.”

David Marshall James, The Columbia State

“Bless her heart, she's done it again. Karin Gillespie's latest installment of the Bottom Dollar Girls series is a fun, breezy read. As tried and true as ham biscuits at a senior center potluck… the book reminds us of what's important just as often as it entertains.

Dawn Baumbartner Vaughan, Durham Herald-Sun

Susan Lucci/Erica Kane

Now this is a real villainess!!! My thanks to sandman1 for fixing this photograph so we can feast our eyes on true evil. Erica Kane (from ALL MY CHILDREN) is the girl we love to hate. It's not that she's smart exactly, but she's conniving in all the ways your mother warned you about. And she rationalizes everything the way we wish we could: "I'm going to fight for the man I want!" Translation: I'm going to ruin his life and his girlfriend's life and if ten people are made miserable by my actions, well, I'm special and I deserve my happiness first.

WOW!!

This is the way we nice girls need to start thinking!!!!

One of these years, all us poor schlubs who try to do the right thing should take a year off and...

BE A BITCH!!! BE A TREMENDOUS BITCH!!!

Wonder what would happen to the world. Wonder how many murders would be committed, extortions implemented, and bad deeds performed. Hit and run, baby!!! (only in a romantic sense)

In truth, the great villainesses are found in abundance on soap operas. Old, young, stupid, brilliant, we love them. I wish I'd watched more in the last xkxjxl years and I could post some of them up here.

But let's have a moment of silence for all the soap bad girls. They are awesome.

Once again coming to the end of V revisions. I think I'm living the movie Groundhog Day. I will always be writing revisions to V. They will never end.

A bientot
becky