No one has asked me to come up with a new title yet, so I’m assuming that it will be released as Phoenix Burning. This story has a hero who is a vampire enforcer for the Los Angeles clan lord and a heroine who’s experiencing a lot of change in her life. And yes, I’m being deliberately vague until I see what the cover copy looks like.

I spent Tuesday night doing the Art Fact Sheet for Phoenix. It was actually kind of difficult since I work from pictures when I write and the form is filled with drop downs for hair color, hair style, hair length, etc.

There were also questions about the theme of the story, the theme for the characters inside the story, and other things that I hadn’t really thought about. I think that was a good exercise–to think about those things–and I might try thinking about this earlier.

Some of the pull downs were very difficult, though, because they’re geared for all of Harlequin, not only Nocturnes and so questions like the hero’s age tripped me up. He’s like 600 years old, but since they were asking for the cover, I went with what his age appears to be. Also, vampire enforcer wasn’t an option on the drop down list.

Now I wait. I’m always excited to see the covers and you know I’ll share here as soon as I can.

The first ad I saw pictured a World War II soldier in the middle of battle, talking through time to his great grand son. Some of the great lines are: “Listen hashtag” and “Stop LOLing everything.”

The tag line for the campaign is also clever, IMO. “Shave like a man.” As an example, in the WW2 ad, the great grandfather says: “If you’re not going to fight like a man, at least shave like one.”

The second ad wasn’t quite as strong, but the third one redeemed itself. This time it’s set in the 1920s and features a baseball player. This time the player talks about pitching 17 innings while the current day guy needed a nap after watching a game.

While there’s a lot to like in these ads, I think the main part that resonates is that old “I used to walk up hill to school both ways in the dark with snow up to my waist.” You know, the old generation had it so much tougher than the current day.

This, BTW, is also being used in the AT&T commercials where the slightly older kids are talking about how hard they had it and how much easier their younger siblings have it now. I think this is a very effective campaign, too.

Back to the Barbasol, though. The other part that’s clever is how the writers take current day things, like Twitter or channel surfing and use it as contrast. These ads are entertaining and amusing and they have me looking forward to the next in the series.

Georgia doesn’t make this as easy as it could be. First, the driver’s licenses and license plates are issued at two different locations. In Minnesota, it’s one stop shopping. You go to the government center and take care of both at once. Second, the service centers (plural) for my county are both 40 minutes away from where I live. In Minnesota, it was like 5 miles from my house.

My plan also was sabotaged by me. I didn’t want to get up at 7am. I’d stayed up late the night before writing and I wanted to sleep. So I did. Until 9am and then I ditzed around–drinking coffee, checking in on the internet, etc.

Okay, so plan B. Get everything taken care of before the two service centers close. Driver’s license had to be first because I needed that to get the license plates. I arrive and worry that GPS got me lost. It directed me to a strip mall. I drive around, finally find the Drivers’ Services store front. In the strip mall. For real.

There was a line. I filled in my paperwork and waited. I’d already checked out what I needed to bring with me online, so I was good to go if only they’d call my number. It ended up taking an hour, which I didn’t think was too bad considering I got there at 1:40.

Now on to the license plates. First, this involved driving on weird one-way streets that suddenly become two way. I just about had a stroke at one intersection when I looked up and on the other side was a car headed right at me. Gah! But after that little adventure, I finally found the right place.

This one was harder because despite searching online, I wasn’t sure what the hell they wanted to see for license plates beyond a Georgia driver’s license. I figured they’d want proof of insurance, so I had that with me, and since the car is financed, I brought along my payment coupons in case they needed the information about the bank and their address and my account number.

It turns out they needed the vehicle registration. Um, yeah, what is a vehicle registration? I’ve only been pulled over once in my life and the officer did not ask for registration, just my driver’s license. This was in Minnesota when I was in college, so maybe things have changed, but what is a registration?

So I went back out to my car, looked through the glove box, but there was nothing there remotely like a registration. That could only mean one thing–it’s in Minnesota at my parents’ house. They have a fireproof filing cabinet and all my car paperwork is in there. Apparently, GA wants the registration in the car. Huh.

One day off work. Two missions. One complete. After my dad mails all my car paperwork down to me, I’ll try the second mission again.

It all started when I spotted those stands that can be used to stack dishes in two tiers. Because of the height of the shelves in my cabinets, I can’t use them there, but I told my dad to put them in the pantry. He hadn’t. They were sitting on the counter, taking up space, and on Sunday, I decided enough was enough. They were going into the pantry now.

To say the pantry was crammed would be understating it and I’d kind of resolved myself to not having quite enough room in there. Then I started taking things out to put the stands in and realized things were just put anywhere.

Let me state right here that I know how lucky I am that my parents were willing to come down here and help me unpack after my move. I’m definitely not complaining and I’m grateful for every box they emptied.

But to say my dad has an interesting idea on what belongs in the pantry would understate things. I pulled out vitamins and cleaner for the coffee maker and assorted other things. Since I had the pantry taken apart anyway, I decided I would organize the entire thing.

And lo and behold after I took out the stuff that didn’t need to be there, put in the tiered dish stands, stacked a few cans, and put like items with like items it turned out I have plenty of room in there. So much room that there’s even empty space there now. True, not much, but it’s a heck of a lot more than I had before, but more importantly, I can see what I have now and find it without having to move things around.

Now it makes me wonder how much room I’ll find when I reorganize my cabinets. Maybe I’ll even find a place to put my toaster.

Instead, I want to talk about the weird thing that happened today and it concerns my move.

My dad called from MN today–it’s the normal day for me to talk to my parents. And in the conversation he says to me that the University of Minnesota called (I’ve never given them any number except the one for my parents’ house because I hate the phone and don’t want to get calls). I didn’t think much of this. They’re always calling either for donations or for me to rejoin the alumni association.

Then my dad said they’d called to tell me they were sending me a letter at my new address in Georgia. They wanted to make sure it was correct.

I immediately went, WHAT? I never gave them my address. I haven’t even finished doing my change of address for important things yet. My dad anticipated my response–probably because he had the same one–and asked how they got it.

Apparently, my university has a special program they use to “keep up with their graduates.”

Seriously.

WTF? Is the University of Minnesota taking a page from the NSA? Not only is it weird, but it feels kind of stalker-ish. I’m not feeling all warm and fuzzy about my Alma Mater right now.

As far as I know, the title will be Phoenix Burning. At least I haven’t been asked to submit alternate titles yet. I’m hoping this one sticks because coming up with names for a story is excruciating. I suck at titles.

Anyway, before I digress too far, the title looks as if it will be Phoenix Burning and it’s scheduled to come out January 2014.

This isn’t the best blurb ever and I don’t have time to do a better job just now, but I hope this makes sense:

Vampire enforcer Ivar LeBlanc has been assigned to bring in the male who killed the clan lord’s human beloved several centuries earlier. He’s watching the daughter, Phoenix Cahill, waiting for her father to make an appearance.

Ivar has a small problem, though–Phoenix makes him burn with desire–and his life gets more complicated when it becomes clear that the woman he’s staking out is being hunted by another vampire. Protecting Phoenix means sticking even closer than what he’s already doing.

Phoenix has been taught all her life what the guidelines are for feeding and number one is: Don’t feed too close to home. Ivar is her next door neighbor. Number two is: Don’t feed from the same person twice. But she can’t resist Ivar and she doesn’t want to, not even if it means breaking all the rules because he makes her feel alive and she doesn’t want to give him up.