Sneak Peek into a New Project

Today's post is brought to you by unarguably the most talented member of the Goff house.

My five-year-old daughter Brie.

Like Mommy, she wants to be a writer.  Unlike me, she's not going to write romance...because, in her words, "Romances are boring and ridiculous."

So, she'll be writing unicorn epic novels.

Here's Brie's current WIP (which will be published under the pen-name Brie Celt--because my maiden name of Kellett is really tricky for a five-year-old to sound out ;o)

Brie's pushing for me to send this off to my agent to see if he'll considering repping it.  Honestly, I'm afraid she'd outpace me in sales by the end of the year.  Who can resist a delightful unicorn story?

Should I be offended that she wants to distance herself from me and my "boring...ridiculous" romances by taking on a pseudonym?

Where hast thou been?

Around.

Holidays are always a time of craziness for me and the fam. Simply because there are so many of us to try and coordinate schedules around.

Much like last year, I battled with the Turkey.

And I like to think I won. Again. (If my family's to be believed, or perhaps they were just scared I would chuck a turkey leg at them if they didn't pour on the compliments). So, current score:

Mandy 2...Turkey 0.

Then, of course, came the half-crazed shopping before the sun was up on Friday. My sister, who spent the night so we could hit the road early, and I were up at 2:35 am and out the door ten minutes later. We made it back home about 11, after meeting our dear friends for some shopping and breakfast.

Then...decorating time! I kept assuring my daughter that the house was going to be a Christmas Wonderland by the time we were done. She's not totally convinced. And we're out of decorations.

Now it's back to writing.

I've got a plan for December. Leading us up to Christmas, I'm thinking about my "gifts" to y'all being the 25 tips to getting published. (Because I LOVE to pretend to be an authority on all things ;o) But seriously, it'll be some helpful, some humorous, and some random insights into making this crazy, unbelievable dream come true.

Sometimes you need to take a break...

And just spend time with your family.

Because I was feeling moderately better this evening, Daniel, Brie, and I went out so Brie could get some pumpkins.

She was VERY excited.

She was a pumpkin-picking maniac. Daniel and I had to keep a really close eye on her because she wanted to snatch up every single one she saw. And obviously, there were quite a lot.

Some were MUCH too big for her to pick up by herself. That, however, did not stop my determined daughter from trying.

She insisted on pulling the red wagon around by herself.

We all posed for pictures. (I won't put the one of all of us together, because Daniel doesn't like the face he's making...)

I'm home now, tired, and needing to get back to work. But I'm SO glad we went. As you can tell from the last picture, Brie was too...

Happy beginning of the weekend to you all!

It's almost Halloween time!!!

Everyone already knows how much I love Fall. I noticed while looking out the window today that, because of the wind, there were leaves swirling everywhere. Beautiful yellow, red, orange leaves.

It was so lovely.

But it's also almost time for Halloween.

I enjoy Halloween because I adore dressing up my da

ughter and then stealing her candy ;o)

What is Brie going to be this year?

Why, her FAVORITE character of course. (And no, it's not a character from one of my books. Although, my little three year old in a Regency dress would be ADORABLE!)