Just for fun!

My sister-in-law developed an app for the iPhone! (Thrilled to be related to tech geniuses ) And guess what it does? Makes S'Mores!! LOL. Check it out here!

Alyssa Day's world tour

Boy do I have some major, MAJOR news. In August, right after the RWA national conference in Nashville, I'm packing up the kids and the dogs and joining my Navy Guy husband in Japan (Atsugi Naval Air Station, right outside of Tokyo) for THREE YEARS. Yep, that was THREE YEARS.

We're a little stunned here, too.

We're already planning the trips (hike Mt. Fuji, ride elephants in Thailand, go castle seeing all over the gorgeous and historic wonder that is Japan) and we've started learning the language and we're looking forward to this most excellent adventure!

Of course, we're a little nervous, too; worried about being homesick and so far out of our comfort zone. I, as a nearly 6 foot tall woman, am probably going to have a hard time buying clothes. LOL. But I lived in the Philippines for 2 years and in Turkey for 2 years when I was a kid, and am a big fan of my kids having the experience of living in another country and experiencing another culture.

Now, for the big question that you're probably wondering about: the books. I've had a long talk with my editor and there will be absolutely no problem at all with my publishing future. Everything is electronic these days; I submit my books via e-mail and get edits the same way. The time zone difference is just far enough that she can call me in the evening and it will be morning for me, so no worries. And I've already promised to come back in October since I'll be the opening speaker for the wonderful Seattle Emerald City Writers' Conference!

I plan to visit home and friends and family and NY at least 3 times a year, and come to conferences, and of course, the entire world is smaller and just one big happy community thanks to the internet.

So please wish me luck on this exciting new venture and I promise to give updates on the international move excitement and the world travels. I may just have to set one of my Warriors of Poseidon loose on Tokyo . . . Godzilla v. Atlantis . . . hmmmm. The world is full of possibilities!!!

hugs,
Alyssa

Winners!

Sorry this didn't get posted earlier! The 5 winners my random generator picked are: Rhonda, Linda Henderson, Id Brugler, Patrice, and LyndaH. Thanks for playing! Please email me your mailing address to authoralyssaday@gmail.com

It's gray and dreary here today and I'm playing the soundtrack from Glee to try to WAKE UP and GET CREATIVE!! What do you do when you need to get moving and just want to go back to bed? Any tips appreciated!
hugs,
Alyssa

January 20th?? Already??

This month - wow. It's crazy. I got some news that knocked me a little sideways, and then I got some great news, and I'm writing and tweaking the brand-new website that's going up soon . . . wow. Crazy! But stay tuned: the new site will be up in a few days, with brand-new excerpts, videos, and even a lovely fun short story FREE to my lovely fun readers!!!

May cold shivery January treat you well! Our insane low temps are finally gone and we're back to 70 degree Florida winter-just how I like it!
hugs,
Alyssa
PS. Will announce winners from the prize blog this week!

Happy New Year!!

We're very happy here after spending the holidays with our family all together again, after my husband's 6 1/2 month deployment. I have great news to share on Atlantis Redeemed and a new website that will be unveiled very soon -- can't wait to tell all!! But I'm going under for the deadline for the next 2 weeks. I'll try to pop in and say hi but it's going to be crazy!

May your 2010 bring you much joy and see all of your dreams come true!
hugs,
Alyssa

Happy, happy days!

I hope everyone is trying to stay sane and grounded in December, which has to be the craziest month of the year for many of us. I made the very very bad mistake of going to the mall today --on a Saturday -- with not quite 2 weeks left until Christmas. Bad, bad, mistake. On the bright side, I found new pillows and a gorgeous quilt set for my bed at a very good price and stocked up on the video games my kids are hoping to find under the tree. It only took me an hour to calm down from the crowd-induced hyperventilation. (whew!)

We are counting our blessings here, because my Navy Guy husband finally came home Thursday from a 6 1/2 month-long deployment. We are all so thrilled to have him home and our thoughts and prayers are with all of you whose military family members cannot be home with you for the holidays. We've been through that, on previous deployments, and know how hard it is. So extra hugs to you and please, everyone, give special love to your military family friends and loved ones.

I have some fun news of my own: Romantic Times BookClub magazine just nominated Atlantis Unleashed as a Reviewers' Choice finalist in the 2009 contemporary paranormal category! That book was my baby, for many reasons, so I'm thrilled to see it honored like that. And I'm with wonderful, wonderful, company: Ilona Andrews, Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Jennifer Lyon are all finalists in my category. What an honor!

Tuesday I'm going to New York for my annual "Happy holidays with my editor" trip. I'll be filming Project Paranormal (deets later) at Berkley and doing dinner and a show with my lovely editor and her darling assistant. Plus seeing wonderful friends. (I hope it snows!!) I'll try to blog and post pics from there - NYC at the holidays is gorgeous and wonderful.

Stay tuned, by the way, because my new website is in progress and I should be able to unveil it soon! Can't wait - the design is gorgeous.

So, much much much going on!! To celebrate the Reviewers' Choice nod, I'm giving away 5 autographed copies of Atlantis Unleashed to 5 randomly selected folks who tell me in the comments something special you're doing this month to celebrate the holidays.

hugs and may your shopping be crowd-free,
Alyssa

A Thanksgiving feast . . . and really tiny chairs

I'm just home from the 5th grade Thanksgiving feast and boy, was it a feast. I brought my usual, since I am the Queen of Cupcakes, and a cooler full of juice boxes, and everybody else pitched in--woo hoo, it was awesome. We all sat around on very tiny chairs and ate a gracious plenty of yummy treats. I am full of turkey and mashed potatoes and pie (apple blueberry, yummy!) for what I plan to be only the first time this week, and feeling thankful.

So, here goes. I am thankful for:

1. My family, and especially that Navy Guy will be home from a 6.5 month deployment in 2.5 weeks. We are so grateful and SO looking forward to seeing him again. Our family's prayers and best wishes are for everyone else with a military family member away during the holidays.

2. Our health. Especially this year, with so many scares.

3. You. My readers. You make my dreams come true every time you buy my books.

4. My editor and my publisher and everyone at Berkley. They work so hard for me and I appreciate it more than I can say. (See you next month! NYC and West Side Story, yippee!)

5. So many, many more things, but I'll wrap this up by saying pie. I am very thankful for pie. : )

If you're in the U.S. and you celebrate, may you have a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving with much pie and happiness.

hugs,
Alyssa

Movie (and more) Monday

I had a couple of tween girls (one my own) here Saturday evening/night, so I took them to see Fame. Backstory: these 2 attended a long, grueling, but wonderful week of Broadway Camp in NYC last summer, which builds one heck of a bond, and they're both crazy dancing and singing divas. The movie? meh. Some fun dancing and not quite as fun singing, depressing and pointless ?plot?. Sure didn't have the impact of the first one, but then again, I wouldn't have taken tween girls to that one. Anybody see anything they loved this weekend?

In book news, I am working away at editing Brennan's book. Realized I need one more small scene near the end, and it somehow turned smoking, blazing hot. That Brennan! Give a man emotions after 2000 years and you'd better step back or prepare to get burned. My cheeks actually got a little warm as I read some of the things he said to Tiernan. Whew! *fans self*

Also, ran 7000 errands and got mailings out. Poor allergy-ridden dog back to vet. Fixed son's glasses. Etc. etc. Very hamster on wheel day.

Son said to me in car: I did a mind meld with the dogs, Mom. Precious's brain was elevator music & Buckeye's was a dial tone.

BWAH! Laughed so hard I missed my turn.

Working hard on Christophe, but the urban fantasy keeps sneaking in to poke at me. I've never gotten so far in a book without already *knowing* what the title should be. this one is still UNTITLED. Sigh. It will come to me.

OK, off to feed kids. They'll just eat and then grow and need new clothes, which is a vicious circle, but there are laws . . .
hugs,
Alyssa

The prodigal author returns! Random ramblings

Yes, I know at least 3 or 4 of you missed me, LOL. It has been interesting around here. I deleted the past few posts about the Fire and Ice blog since we decided that, while a good idea, we were all too busy to really keep up with yet another group blog.

So here are a few updates:

1) The book!! The book, the book, the book! ATLANTIS REDEEMED is finally finished and my editor love, love, loves it!! Said it's her fave in the series yet, which is saying a lot! I'm so thrilled and can't wait for you all to read it. It will be out in March, 2010, and the lovely cover is newly posted on my website home page HERE.

2) The email address and reader mail. As many of you know, my computer blew up when I was on deadline. I had to finish the book on my son's computer. I took it to the super computer place to switch out the corrupted hard drive for the new one, and retrieve my data, but almost all of my AOL mail did not make the transfer. I am DEVASTATED that, among much else, I lost ALL of my saved reader mail. I am truly heartbroken that I've lost so many, many emails from everyone with your kind words about my books. Also, if you've written to me in the past month or so, I've lost that, too, which means I never wrote back to you. I apologize so much for that, but I have no way to retrieve those emails, so please write to me again if you still need (or want!) an answer.

My new email address is authoralyssaday@gmail.com. No more stupid AOL for me.

3. The new book! I'm writing Christophe's book, ATLANTIS BETRAYED, right now, and it's so much fun!! It's a heist book, which is a little different for this series. I just left Christophe hanging off the front of Big Ben in London. Can't wait to start showing you excerpts!

4. The website. I'm going to change things up a little, so if you have things you'd really like to see on the new site, please write to me and let me know or post a comment here at the blog.

5. The urban fantasy. Yes, it's still coming!! My publisher is focusing on the Atlantis books, but the first UF will be along soon, I promise. It's REALLY EXCITING and I'm having a blast writing it! Can't wait to share excerpts with you for this, too.

6. The thanks! Thanks, as always, for reading my books, sharing them with friends, and for being part of the reading community. Readers rock!

hugs,
Alyssa

My new author portrait

as drawn by my daughter, Princess. Apparently dolphins love me!! LOL.

Teasing on Tuesday

When Tiernan meets Brennan again, from ATLANTIS REDEEMED:

The fog coalesced into a sparkling, shimmering shape—a large and broad shape—the shape of a man. The golden light from the lamps reflected off of tiny particles in the water, projecting a cascade of mini-rainbows across every flat surface in a brilliant light show. Then the cloud of mist exploded outward as if triumphantly hailing the man who stepped from it.

The man. The man who, mere seconds before, had been nothing but a cloud. A fog.

The man who now stood in the center of her hotel room, breathing hard, staring at her with his ice-green eyes.

Except they weren’t as icy as she remembered. No, this man’s eyes were pure green fire, and every inch of her skin burned as the heat of his gaze swept her from head to toe and then back, lingering on her neck.

“Brennan?” His name came out in a whisper, but he snapped his head up and stared straight into her eyes when she spoke. A brief whisper of danger sent a chill down her spine, and her senses translated the deadly stillness in his pose as that of a feral animal crouching to leap.

Feral and primitive. Wild and beautiful. His silky black hair fell in waves around a face that would cause the highest paid male model to weep with jealousy. Pure masculine beauty, with dark brows over those amazing green eyes. The cheekbones and bone structure all the Atlanteans she’d met had shared, as if they alone had posed for the most sublime of the ancient Greek statues. And his mouth . . . oh, his mouth. How could a simple combination of lips and teeth make her wonder what it would be like to taste him?

As reality crumpled around her, some vestige of control snapped into place and Tiernan managed to force words from her suddenly dust-dry throat. “I’m guessing I missed a pretty spectacular entrance back in Boston when I was hiding behind that couch? I had wondered how you guys busted through that window so high off the ground, but I was more thinking ropes coming down from the roof.”

He took a single step toward her, then another, his large, muscled body leaning forward as if he were stalking her. “He dared to touch you,” he growled, the words nearly unintelligible. “He put his mouth on you. I will kill him.”

She backed away but the motion seemed to infuriate him even further, because he dove across the several feet separating them as if he really were that wild animal leaping for its prey.

“Brennan, stop! I don’t know what this is about, but you need to calm down so we can--" Memories of his crazed wildness the first time he’d seen her flashed into her mind, shutting down her powers of speech as he took the final step and slammed his hands flat against the wall on either side of her head, caging her against his body.

He wasn’t going to listen to her. She was in danger. Rick had been right, she should have listened, but no, she had to be tough and now for the second time in an hour she was facing a predator.

“I’ll be damned if I’m going to be prey for a vampire or anybody else,” she shouted, shoving at his chest as he leaned further toward her. It was like shoving a brick wall. A hot, hard, brick wall, that smelled like salt and sea and man.

He froze in place, then tilted his head to one side, pinning her with a long, considering stare. “Not his prey,” he finally said, his deep voice sizzling across her nerve endings.

She caught her breath, but before she could speak he lifted one hand from the wall to touch the side of her face.

“Not his prey,” he repeated, bending his face down to hers. “Mine.”

from ATLANTIS REDEEMED, coming February, 2010

New cover!!

Wow! It's gorgeous! what do you think? This is my darling Brennan, who was cursed more than 2000 years ago to feel no emotion. But then he meets Tiernan . . .

Monday marvelousness with a side of guilt

I am feeling a little robber baron-ish right now. I finally hung up my cape and decided to stop being Super Woman. What that means in practical terms is that I hired a housekeeping service to clean my house. (It's The Cleaning Authority, if anybody is looking, and they're FREAKING FABULOUS). They came today for the first time (right after the landscaping team my daughter calls the Lawn Fairies) and spent 5 and a half hours doing a spring clean of my house.

It's amazing. My house looks like it's brand new. The pugs went to the dog resort this morning since we're heading to Sea World Orlando tomorrow, and I think there isn't a dog hair left in my entire house. It's astonishing. Base boards. Sinks. Floors. Blinds, my friend. Even my BLINDS sparkle.

Wow. It's wonderful beyond all reason, and yet, I feel . . . guilty. Inadequate.

The problem, of course, is that keeping a home clean is all tied up, for me, with notions of what a wife and mother should be able to accomplish, brilliantly; effortlessly; wearing pearls, even. My mother's much-talked-about "floors you could eat off" during my childhood must have made more of an impression than I thought. (Of course, Mom never held down a full-time job until I was 16, so she had more time to clean floors, do laundry, and be a Domestic Goddess. This is, after all, the woman who sniffed the interior of my refrigerator every time she came to visit for the first decade after I moved out of her house.)

I will have more time to write now, more time to plot and plan and create the worlds and characters I see so vividly in my mind, when I'm not worrying about mopping floors or dusting furniture or cleaning bathrooms. That was the goal, and I'm happy to have achieved it. So, tell me: why do I feel so guilty about it?

My computer is back!!! Yahoo!!!

So the Dell tech guy came to my house a couple of hours ago and replaced my entire screen and now I CAN SEE!! My screen is not a dim, flickering, or ENTIRELY BLACK nightmare of not working! Doing handsprings and cartwheels here!

AND since I can now access all of your lovely addresses, I'm going to spend the rest of the day getting out every single one of the books from my mailings that are sadly overdue!! I'm sorry and I promise these books are going to the post office first thing in the morning!

Yay! And my regularly scheduled blogging will resume, too. With pictures! And Ryan from The Proposal!
hugs,
Alyssa, having run out of exclamation points

Random thoughts

I'm a little sad. I know, I know, what do I have to be sad about? Career is going along wonderfully, I had the BEST time in DC at conference, life should be all roses and champagne (and red wine; Darling Agent sent another case of wine to congratulate me on this second book's awesome showing on the New York Times list).

But my husband and best friend in the world is still gone for 4 more months (at least; needs of the Navy) and I miss him dreadfully. It's harder than I can explain to go through deployment. The kids miss Daddy and I miss him; not just his presence and hugs but his calm efficiency -- I get to the be the creative person when he's here while he deals with the pest control guy and the lawn and the car repair and taking out the trash and etc. etc. etc. But when he's gone I get to be Mom and Dad and in charge of everything. It's tiring and frustrating, and believe me when I say that all the single parents out there have my total respect. But it's a little different for military spouses who are single-by-deployment. We live wherever the military stationed us, not necessarily near any family support. I have good friends, but it's not like I can say "please take the kids for a week, I'm on deadline."

Anyway, enough whining. I am so fortunate and grateful that we are all healthy and I know how lucky I am. I'm just . . . a little sad. Please do me a favor and hug a military spouse or single parent friend of yours. Take them to lunch, offer to watch the kids for an hour, or have a margarita evening. Something. It's kind of lonely sometimes, and friends mean everything to us.

OK, enough of that. What's new? I'm trying to get caught up after conference. We're in the middle of packing up all the books we're sending out to you, so if you were a winner from my newsletter contest, please be patient. This has been a crazy week. We'll get them out as soon as we can!

We saw Harry Potter - I'm not sure I loved it. It seemed to go on too long and yet not cover enough of the book. What do you all think?

Also strangest thing I've heard myself saying lately: "Do NOT unclog the toilet with that sword!"

Ah, yes. The glam life of the NYT bestselling author continues . . . ROFL.

Oh, and I'm going to get a tattoo. Hee.

So what's up with you?
hugs,
Alyssa

Life, it is surreal

Just keep staring at the New York Times list and having moment of shock to see the books I'm sandwiched between:

27 ANGELS AND DEMONS, by Dan Brown. (Pocket)
28 ATLANTIS UNMASKED, by Alyssa Day. (Berkley)
29 THE BOURNE SANCTION, by Eric Van Lustbader. (Grand Central)

Um, really??? Really???

Personal note to my readers: I want to make you all chocolate cake. Seriously. Everybody come to my house for cake and champagne. All week long. I adore you beyond all reason.

hugs,

Alyssa (Oh, and in the "real world" I'm unpacking from conference and doing mounds of laundry, ah the glam life. I bet Dan Brown and Eric Van Lustbader are NOT doing laundry. I'm just saying . . .)

Washington D.C. RWA conference happiness!!

Wow! This week is crazy. I wasn't sure what bringing kids to conference would be like, but was determined to be low key about it and have a good time and not stress about what I was missing, and so far so good. They've been great and really helpful - all 3 of us helped set up the giant signing which raised money for literacy charities and they've been having a blast meeting so many of my friends and colleagues.

OK, I don't know how to begin to break this down unless I do it day by day so here goes:

Monday, flew in, cab to Marriott Wardman park - gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I don't know what I expected from the largest conference hotel in DC but it wasn't this. Beautiful landscaping, feels almost like being in a country estate. flowers everywhere. Location is terrific, too, only blocks from the zoo and surrounded by many many places to eat and little shops too (already hit the CVS for the loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, and jar of jelly. (did I mention kids? LOL)

Threw kids in wonderful outdoor pool Monday evening to burn off travel energy

and then hung out with friends. Even slept! In a hotel! which I can never do!

Tuesday: off to the spy museum first thing. This place is insanely wonderful. My son is still telling everyone we see that they MUST go - and I have to agree. He and Eileen Carr's sons went on a special interactive 1-hour program where they actually became spies, deactivated a nuclear bomb, and saved Canada. Or Kandar. I wasn't exactly sure. But they loved it! The rest of us toured the rest of the place, which is also hugely interactive and very very cool. Princess climbed through the overhead duct system spying on the crowds and felt very "spy-ish" she told me. Success!!

Lunch at a microbrewery and we were fueled up for an afternoon at the Smithsonian. Air and Space first, saw Amelia Earhart's plane and went to a show at the Planetarium. LOVED it! Rejoined the Smithsonian since there are good chances we'll move here next summer and then of course blew some more money in gift shops. A quick sweep through Natural History and then back to the hotel with our aching feet.

Dinner with Serena Robar, Cindy Holby, and Barb Ferrer, where I received a photo of my first-ever "dump" - a standalone cardboard case of only my books that gets prominent placement in the stores!! My friends and I were squeeing (embarrassed kids again; theme of the week. Heh.)

Will tell all about Wednesday later, including my 5-minutes before the booksigning news that I HIT THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST AGAIN!!! Thank you again!!!

But for now, pictures!!

ATLANTIS UNMASKED in stores now!!!

Sightings in bookstores abound! And this time you only had to wait one short month! Yay!

I had so much fun writing Alexios's story - especially after he and Grace seemed to have such a strong connection in Unleashed. I couldn't wait to discover more about her - she is my first warrior heroine and I absolutely love her. Strong, funny, and totally in control - except when it comes to Alexios.

Of course, he's exactly the same way about her!! And the scene between Alexios and Alaric on the waterfront where they have a very uncomfortable conversation about "feelings" made me laugh so hard even as I was writing it. I hope you enjoy it as much.

I'm actually doing some booksignings, too! I'll be at my local Borders here in Jacksonville this Sunday the 12th with 10 other authors; then I'm with hundreds of authors at the giant literacy fundraiser booksigning at the RWA national conference next Wednesday, July 15, and I'm doing a signing with the wonderful Karen Rose in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, Florida, on August 8th. All details are on my "About Alyssa" page of my website in the left column. I sure hope to see some of you there!

Please feel free to share and forward this post everywhere book lovers may gather and THANK YOU!!!

Thank you, as always, for reading my books. I appreciate it more than I can ever tell you.

Happy July!!
hugs,
Alyssa

Excerpt snippet time!!

Woohoo!! Atlantis Unmasked releases Tuesday (sightings are already pouring in) so here are some "get you in the mood" snippets:

***

“It’s almost impossible to shoot a bow while driving.”

Grace Havilland clenched her fingers around the steering wheel of the Jeep and waited for the Atlantean warrior riding shotgun to respond to what she thought had been her very reasonable point.

Waited. Waited a little longer.

She’d met Alexios months ago and seen him sporadically since, but she’d never been in such a small space with him. It felt like being trapped in a cage with a lion that’d just eaten a full meal. Deadly, dangerous, and exhilarating, but maybe—just maybe—you’d live through it.

Unless he suddenly felt like a snack.

***

Alexios looked around the crowded lobby, remembering the countless times he’d waited for one or another of his fellow warriors to be healed. Unlike the healing chambers in Atlantis, which were an oasis of serenity—all fresh air and sunlight, soft silken cushions, and masses of flowers from the palace gardens-- this room where desperate and injured humans waited smelled of sweat, blood, antiseptic, and despair.

Grace huddled in an orange plastic chair, strangely diminished without her many weapons strapped to her body. He stood across the room from her, leaning against a battered vending machine, and tried to think of a time he’d seen her without them, but came up empty. The bow, knives, and guns were part of her; oddly dissonant to her beauty and her name.

Grace. It suited her. She was Grace in motion, in and out of battle. Except now, when she hunched in that ugly chair, arms wrapped around her knees, waiting for the bleakest kind of bad news.

***

“Hello, Grace.”

She jumped a little at the sound of his voice; the sound she’d been waiting for—and dreading--all morning. Coffee splashed over the rim of the mug, stinging her fingers. “Ouch!”

“Not the greeting I would have expected, but you do have a history of surprising me.” The amusement colored his voice until it was as rich and dark as the coffee.

She told herself the shiver snaking down her neck was simply because of the cold. He couldn’t possibly be as formidable in reality as he was in her memories. Adrenaline-fueled attraction, that was all.

Pasting what she hoped was a friendly but neutral expression on her face, she put the mug down and swung around to face him. “Alexios. Welcome. We’re glad you’re here. Did you just get in through the magic doorway?”

It hadn’t been the adrenaline.

He was tall. Broad-shouldered and lean-hipped with the exact muscular body type she’d always found irresistible, but that wasn’t what she saw first. It wasn’t what anyone would see first.

In the bright afternoon sunlight that turned his mane of thick hair the color of molten gold, the sight of his scarred face was almost shocking. She’d seen him—seen his face—several times before, but always in the night time. Always in the dark. The merciless quality of the winter sunshine cast dark shadows along the jagged edges of the badly healed gouges. The left side of his face was scarred from temple to chin, leaving only his left eye and, oddly enough, his nose, whole and unmarked. But the right side was perfection; both counterpoint and mockery to the damage it mirrored.

The half-smile that had quirked at the edges of his lips faded under her perusal and she was suddenly desperately ashamed. How long had Alexios been forced to endure the stares and speculation? And, worse, what torture and unimaginable pain had he suffered that could have caused such scars?

His narrowed eyes, rapidly turning the deep, turbulent blue of a storm-tossed sea at dusk, gave her the answers: far too long and far too much.

“No," he replied, a grin quirking the edge of that sensual mouth. "I took the tram.”

More tomorrow! Whee!
hugs,
Alyssa

ABC Family channel: you FAIL. FAIL FAIL FAIL

Imagine my horror and disgust when we're freshly home from the pool and watching Scooby Doo (my 9 y.o. daughter, 12 y.o. son and I) and a commercial for upcoming ABC Family programming comes on. The girls in the spot are driving along listening to a tape from Dad, apparently, where he warns them about venereal diseases.

Explicitly.

When the fire quit coming out of my ears, I wrote this, using the contact information on the ABC Family site:

"I am absolutely furious that you're blasting commercials on your family-friendly programming that feature the words "gonorrhea, syphillis, and genital herpes" over and over. My nine-year old is trying to watch Scooby Doo, of all safe and family-friendly shows, and was subjected to this garbage. I expect better of you and am very disappointed that you are letting down your target demographic in such a huge and awful way."

Since when are venereal diseases funny? Or --and hey, ABC "Family" -- family-friendly topics?

Anyone who has read my books knows I'm no prude. But there's a huge difference between what adults choose to read and what young children have blasted at them on a channel touting itself as family friendly.

Change it, ABC Family. Change it, now.