I dread movie trailers this time of year.  It seems every October there is some new gorey horror flick out in movie theaters.  I can’t stand them.  Won’t watch them.  Can’t think of anything worse.  Give me suspense.  Give me a thriller.  Give me something that scares me.  Just don’t give me blood, guts and gore just for the sake of shock value.

I’m no wuss when it comes to blood or mayhem, but movies where deranged psychopaths hack other humans to death or sharpen their chainsaw skills on them have no appeal whatsoever.  Movie "classics" like the Freddy movies, the Halloween movies, the Friday the 13th movies?  Never watched em.  Wouldn’t if you paid me.

On Halloween, I’m quite content with cutesy ghosties and goblins, fairy princesses, little elves and fake draculas.  What do you like about Halloween?  Do you like gorey movies?  Will you sit through a blood bath?

is Kathleen!  Drop me an email at mayaATmayabanks.com and let me know which format you’d like your ebook in and I’ll zap it over to you

I love rainy days.  They’re great for curling up with a good book or just curling up period.  Throw in some cold weather with rainy drizzle and I’m in heaven.  My college psychology professor jokingly said in a lecture one time that were you ever to ask to draw a tree as part of a psychological evaluation not to draw one of those spooky leaveless ones because it supposedly meant you were depressed.

I disagree. I love the stark landscape of winter.  Give me an overcast sky, cold weather, barren leafless trees and that makes me happy.  Color me weird, but there you have it.

Today is a very rainy day here in south Texas.  (We’re talking Noah’s flood rainy) And I’m already planning my day in my comfy chair, laptop open, watching the rain fall.  The thunder rumbles through every once in awhile, which adds great ambience

My sister is coming to visit with my brand new niece, so really, a rainy day AND sweet newborn baby cuddles?  Does it get any better?

Do you love rainy days?  Tell me what you like about them and be entered to win an ebook of Colters’ Woman.  You’ll get your choice of formats.  I’lll draw a winner at the end of the day.

I’m a nut about Christmas.  Every year, at the first HINT of cooler weather, I go into Christmas mode.  Never mind that Halloween and Thanksgiving are still to come, Im focused on Christmas trees, Christmas music (I LOVE Christmas music)  I start anticipating evenings in front of the fire place and just the warm fuzzy feeling that accompanies the holiday season.

As a child, I associated Thanksgiving with Christmas.  To me it was the kickoff to the holiday season.  They were extensions of each other.  Every single year on the DAY after Thanksgiving, rain or shine, the family trekked out to pick out the Christmas tree and we quickly put it up.  And the tree didn’t come down until after New Years Day.  It’s a tradition I’ve carried on into adulthood.  My husband knows, no matter what, we’re GOING to go get that tree the day after Thanksgiving

Christmas shopping?  I don’t love so much.  Honestly, I was positively orgasmic with the advent of online shopping.  OMG heaven!  Venturing out into the madness that is holiday shopping is the quickest way I know to lose that loving feeling.  But give me a computer and a credit card, and I am the epitome of obnoxious Christmas cheer.

So as much as I love December (my first child was born in December) it gives me the warm fuzzies that my first Berkley book releases in December (of 2007 that is hehe) but still, DECEMBER!  I can be a Christmas pressie!

Am I the only obnoxious Christmas lover?  This morning it was actually a balmy 58 degrees here in Texas, so of course people are breaking out the jackets *snicker* and me, I’m starting to hum Christmas songs.

is Lori Tomlinson!

Drop me an email at mayaATmayabanks.com and include your snail mail address.  I’ll get your book out to you in the mail next week.  Thanks to everyone else for stopping by and playing along.

Of all the seasons, Fall is my absolute favorite.  There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about it.  Every year I look forward to cooler weather, crisp nights, the smell of leaves burning, that first fire in the fireplace, big fluffy sweaters, spiced tea, and of course, FOOTBALL!  Woot!

Fall is also a time of renewal for me.  While everyone else might see it as an ending, a wind down to winter when everything lies in wait for Spring, I look at it with new eyes, reinvented goals and an energy I don’t see at any other time of the year.  I wish that everyday could be a perfect Autumn day with brilliant blue skies, crisp air and the tangy smell of burning wood.  Hmmm.  Of course I live in South Texas where we don’t see fall until bloody December!  But that’s another whine.  On with the book giveaway part of this post.

Seducing Simon is releasing next Thursday, and to celebrate, I’m going to give away a signed copy. All you have to do is tell me what your favorite part of Fall is. Yep, that easy.  I’ll draw one winner from the comments and post the winner tonight sometime.

The title is deceptive, because it would lead you to  believe that I either have a method of kickstarting my morning or that maybe I’m a morning person.  Huh uh.  Morning is not my friend.  My routine, if you can call it that, is to wake up bleary eyed, check my watch then curse because, damn it, it’s already time to get up and get the kids ready for school.

I stumble around, daydreaming about getting to go back to bed.  (this never happens so Im not sure why I waste my time torturing myself over it)  Formerly, I’d drink a coke in the mornings.  This was my "coffee" fix since I never developed a liking for motor oil, er uh I mean coffee.  I can’t get past the smell.  In recent years, however, I gave up cola all together, which means I had no caffeine fix in the A.M. (maybe that’s my problem)

Now I have an addiction, ok we’ll call it a strong LIKING, for juices in the A.M.  Particularly orange or grape.  And I’m picky about what kind.  The grape MUST be welch’s and the OJ must be minute maid low pulp.  Is there anything worse than taking a huge gulp of juice only to get a moutful of pulp??  If I wanted to eat the damn thing, I’d peel my own.

So, basically my morning so far has been a wake up ten minutes late.  An agonizing roll out of bed.  A trudge to the kids room to mumble for them to get up.  Pack lunches, fix breakfast, make sure they have everything they need for school, drive them to their respective campuses, grumbling about dumbass drivers the entire way, return home, collapse into my writing chair with a big ole glass of OJ.  Ahhhh, my one bright part of the morning. 

So are you one of those disgusting morning people?  You know the bright, chipper CHEERFUL sort?  (My husband is, God help me)  And are you a coffee, cola or juice person?  Name your poison.

And I’m not talking weather.  Heck, we’re looking at "summery" temperatures for at least another three months here in Texas.  But the kids are back in school, and on one hand it’s nice to have my nice quiet house back, but on the other hand, it seems that summer passes by more quickly every year.

I was on a writing binge for most of the summer.  When I wasn’t contemplating asking for frequent flier discount points at my local hospital (kidney stones from hell).  So there were two things that disappointed me about the passing of this summer.  One, I didn’t get to do nearly the fun things with my kids that I would have liked.  Two, I didn’t get to read hardly anything.

I picked up a few ebooks.  (I love ebooks)  But I only bought one or two print books because I just didn’t have the time or the fortitude to love, touch and caress books like I normally do

So this is where I ask you, what really good books have you read lately?  How did your summer reading go?  Any recommendations dying to burst out?

While this is my first post here at the Berkley blog, I didn’t do much in the way of an introduction.  Instead, I invite you over to Writeminded where we are throwing a two week long all out parTAY complete with tons of book giveaways, really cool prizes and some terrific guest bloggers.  I’m posting today so you’ll learn way more about me than you’d probably like.  And I’ll definitely be seeing more of you here.

Maya