Five Earth Facts

Posted by Leslie on June 25th, 2007 | No Comments

Okay, face it, I’m not always gonna get these posted on Fridays. But I will keep going until all 100 are up (at least, that’s my intention!).

25. What’s the driest place on Earth?A place called Arica, in Chile, gets just 0.03 inches (0.76 millimeters) of rain per year. At that rate, it would take a century to fill a coffee cup.

26. What causes a landslide?
Intense rainfall over a short period of time can trigger shallow, fast-moving mud and debris flows. Slow, steady rainfall over a long period of time may trigger deeper, slow-moving landslides. Different materials behave differently, too. Every year as much as $2 billion in landslide damage occurs in the United States. In a record-breaking storm in the San Francisco area in January 1982, some 18,000 debris flows were triggered during a single night! Property damage was over $66 million, and 25 people died.

27. How fast can mud flow?
Debris flows are like mud avalanches that can move at speeds in excess of 100 mph (160 kph).

28. Do things inside Earth flow?
You bet. In fact, scientists found in 1999 that molten material in and around Earth’s core moves in vortices, swirling pockets whose dynamics are similar to tornadoes and hurricanes. And as you’ll learn later in this list, the planet’s core moves in other strange ways, too.

29. What is the wettest place on Earth?
Lloro, Colombia averages 523.6 inches of rainfall a year, or more than 40 feet (13 meters). That’s about 10 times more than fairly wet major cities in Europe or the United States.

Could it be true?

Posted by Leslie on June 20th, 2007 | No Comments

Did you know that:

Contrary to popular opinion, men are more likely to look at a female’s face before other areas when looking at pictures of naked women

According to this article, which reported on a study done at Emory University, pictures were shown of couples having sex to 30 women and 15 men between the ages of 23 and 28. With high-tech eye-tracking devices, they discovered that:

Men went straight to the face and lingered awhile, but most of the women were more interested in the sexual activity. How much so depended on whether they were taking hormone-filled birth control pills…”Eye-tracking data suggested that what women paid most attention to was dependent on their hormonal state.”

The reason given for this is that “women can tell by looking at naked men whether they are aroused, but female bodies don’t reveal much.” Yeah, okay, I’ll buy that…maybe!

Ten Inches?

Posted by Leslie on June 20th, 2007 | No Comments

And, no, I’m not talking about Gerry…although….

I’m referring to the post Michelle Buonfiglio did at Romance: By the Blog. She’s been reading some mighty fine historical sexy romances and wonders:

…it begs me to ask this question, “what’s up with all the ten-inch penises in romance lately?”

It seems like every strapping hero’s sportin just nigh on a foot. Why not nine inches?

While we all want to read about heroes who are well-endowed and able to fulfill the heroine in the most intimate of ways, do romance writers need to go to extremes? I mean, other than porn stars, how many 9 or 10 inchers are out there? Uhhh, maybe I don’t want to know — and please don’t send me any pictures of it! LOL!

Because I’m a narcissist…

Posted by Leslie on June 19th, 2007 | No Comments

Here are more pictures of myself and Jennifer St. Giles signing books — or, sometimes looking rather bored.

Look, someone really IS buying a book from me! LOL!

Ouch! Spikes hurt!

Posted by Leslie on June 18th, 2007 | No Comments

The genitals of male seed beetles are extraordinarily spiny, helping to anchor the males inside females as they attempt to impregnate them. Unfortunately, these spikes damage the females, potentially compromising the entire reproductive mission.

Not too smart of that male seed beetle, is it? Thank goodness the female is much smarter and are growing tougher areas to accomodate their lovers. If she didn’t, she may not survive the mating, since “a number of these species have more than 100 spikes on male genitals.”

Kinda makes you want to cross your legs and wince, doesn’t it?

Pantsing it!

Posted by Leslie on June 18th, 2007 | 1 Comment

These sound much too much like me to deny it. Sigh.

You know you’re a Pantser when…

You think you might know what’s going to happen in the rest of the chapter you’re working on… if you’re lucky. When an editor requests the whole book and you’ve only written thirty pages, you throw up, call your mom and cry, then wish you’d paid more attention at the last conference you attended.

You opened a copy of Chris Vogler’s THE WRITER’S JOURNEY and dutifully forced yourself to read chapter one… and two…., then you skipped to the back of the book and read the epilogue. That way, if any one asks, you can say you know what the hero’s journey is.

Worksheets are fascinating to look at, and you dream of one day being able to fill one out… the whole thing… with all the little details neatly in one place. You get out your pencil and click eraser, you begin to write. The phone rings. You jot down your car mechanic’s pager number in the slot marked “greatest fear.” Then your two year old colors all the tidy little boxes with a black crayon. Your first-grader tears the black paper into polka dots and glues them on Fido, so Fido can be a Dalmation. And then one day you think, “Hey, didn’t I start one of those character worksheets once?”

Continuing with the topic of…

Posted by Leslie on June 16th, 2007 | No Comments

hard male heat – length of said ‘heat’, according to the study in this article, is more important to men than women:

About 90 percent of women actually prefer a wide penis to a long one, according to two studies included in the review.

They also go on to discuss other myths:

The findings also deflate a few other myths about male genitalia. The notion that penis size varies according to race, for example, is false.

Unfortunately, the myths regarding large shoe size or hand size is not discussed. Not that I know anyone *coughGerryButlercough* who has large feet and hands.

Friday’s Five Facts

Posted by Leslie on June 15th, 2007 | No Comments

20. Has the Moon always been so close?
It used to be much closer! A billion years ago, the Moon was in a tighter orbit, taking just 20 days to go around us and make a month. A day on Earth back then was only 18 hours long. The Moon is still moving away — about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) a year. Meanwhile, Earth’s rotation is slowing down, lengthening our days. In the distant future, a day will be 960 hours long!

21. Where is the lowest dry point on Earth?
The shore of the Dead Sea in the Middle East is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) below sea level. Not even a close second is Bad Water in Death Valley, California, at a mere 282 feet below sea level.

22. Good thing California isn’t sinking further, right?
Actually parts of it are, which is so interesting that I snuck this non-question onto the list. In a problem repeated elsewhere in the country, the pumping of natural underground water reservoirs in California is causing the ground to sink up to 4 inches (11 centimeters) per year in places. Water and sewage systems may soon be threatened.

23. What is the longest river?
The Nile River in Africa is 4,160 miles (6,695 kilometers) long.

24. What is the most earthquake-prone state in the United States?
Alaska experiences a magnitude 7 earthquake almost every year, and a magnitude 8 or greater earthquake on average every 14 years. Florida and North Dakota get the fewest earthquakes in the states, even fewer than New York.

Realities of the Business

Posted by Leslie on June 15th, 2007 | No Comments

This article goes into how a big advance or huge contract may not always seem like the heaven writers expect it to be. Many people out there don’t realize what it takes to write a book, much less get it published, promoted, etc.. There are two major parts: (1) Writing or Creativity (2) Selling or Business. They are very different and equally as taxing. It’s no wonder so many give up in one of the stages and aren’t heard from again. I’m continuously struggling with it myself.

While getting books published was a hugely thrilling part of my life, it wasn’t life-altering. I’m still the same person, with the same family, in the same house. I still work my daytime job, still surf the Gerry Butler fan sites, and still waste time I should be writing.

Then again, my advance was three figures, NOT six figures! LOL!