Happy Rainy Monday! I love rainy Monday’s. Good for hiding in my cave to write. Okay, and eat. Maybe more eating than writing. But how else am I supposed to concentrate if I’m not simultaneously crunching? It’s a quandary really.

So, tomorrow is the Big Day! THE NAUGHTY LIST hits the stands! Wahoo!! This is the 2010 Christmas anthology from Brava and not only does it feature stories from Cynthia Eden and Susan Fox, but this also concludes the three-novella trilogy of stories I started back in TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT. (Story number two was in last fall’s KISSING SANTA CLAUS…which is also celebrating a Big Release Day as it hits the stands today in the smaller, mass market paperback size!!

To celebrate, in this week’s Free Stuff Friday contest, I’ll be giving away two copies of THE NAUGHTY LIST, complete with autographs from all three of us! I know! We’re tricky like that. AND!!!! (Yes, there’s an AND!!! It’s Release Week! There has to be an AND!!! It’s like…a rule.) One lucky Big Time Blog Babe Winner will receive a full set of all three anthologies (so you can read the whole trilogy, of course!) As Probst says….Worth playing for?

To enter, just send an email to donna@donnakauffman.com with “I’ve been good!” in the subject line. I’ll draw two names from the pile this Friday and announce them in the blog that morning.

AND!! (I can’t help it!) Tune in next week for another Special Free Stuff Friday. I know, the fun never stops with me!

So…how many of you watched the Return of Phil and his Infamous Eyebrow last night? I did, I did! The Amazing Race is back and I have to say, after initially wondering if the teams were going to be interesting enough, I’ve decided that this might be the most fun season in a long time. There isn’t the typical dominant Team Studly Guys, for which I am grateful. And we only have one Team Bicker (okay, so more like Team Jerky Guy, but it results in them being Team Bicker, and I can do without that…) But what I am loving? Team Ditz! We have several of those and, sure, it might get old as the season continues, but right now? Comedy gold for me.

Between the pageant blonde, who seems like a sincerely sweet young lady, but tells the court jester juggler in all earnestness “I wish I could juggle balls” while standing right up in his business watching as he tries to stand on top of a big rubber ball…to the Team Tattoo duo who, though they are a bit, well…how should I put this…not remotely bright — “Are you a battlement?” — at least get that they aren’t and mock themselves mercilessly so we don’t have to. Except, duh, of course we do. And so did Phil! To their faces! Ha!! I loved that they eventually figured it out and stayed in the race. I want to see them in foreign speaking countries. No, really!

We’ve got nicknames like Sunshine, Tinkerbell, and Team Glee (the a capella guys who can’t find their way out of a parking lot, but who I already love. And then there’s Team HSN Channel, who…okay, so yes, if Brooke doesn’t stop screeching “Come on, Claire Bear!” I might have to wallop her in the head with a watermelon, but damn, y’all, how monster is her partner for taking that watermelon, warp speed full to the head — “I can’t feel my face!!” — and going on to dominate the challenge and get to the mat as one of the early teams? Still, shut up, Brooke! But, yay! Bring it on!

And there’s a new twist, the Express Pass, which allows the team that holds it to skip a task if and when they desire. Not sure how that’s going to play out, but I’m game.

All in all? Phil still owns me. And I’m not ashamed to say it. Tonight? More Hawaii 5-0. Officially my favorite new show of the season. They had me at Book ‘em, Danno. (Did you not adore how they managed to make that relevant? Love.)

So, hurry and go enter, then come right back and DISH! What are you loving this season so far? What was the biggest disappointment? What is getting its own Express Pass on your DVR??

Tags: Writing //