A Rose by Any Other Name...Stinks!

Haute Couturier Coco Chanel was once asked, "Where should one wear perfume?"

Chanel's answer? "Where ever you would like to be kissed...."

Mmm, now doesn't THAT conjure up some romantic images? Scent is the strongest inducement to memory. Pheremones drive us to passion, to hate, to attraction..... Humans have used it for centuries to entice, allure, and decorate the body, both for our own pleasure and to attract the opposite sex.

Yeah. I like perfume. Grins.

So it will surprise you that I did something this last week that I haven't done in about five years.

(No, not THAT...jeeez, this is a family blog!)

I bought perfume. Or Eau de Cologne or whatever the heck you call it when it comes in a spritzer rather than a five-hundred-dollar-an-ounce bottle. Grins.

Why, you may ask, did it take me five years to do it when it's so yummy, sexy and wonderful? Ahhhhh, now that's a personal question. Hahaha! But I'm going to tell you anyway.

Let me first make the disclaimer that I really, REALLY adore perfume only when it's correctly applied (that means dabbed not drenched, ladies, and same for you with the cologne, gents!)

Think SUBTLE, people!

I love when you have a scent you can layer with lotion, powder and or perfume. I love when people have a "signature scent" - something associated just with them.

My mother always wore a Coty perfume. I can bring it to mind and memory instantly when I smell it, and it means "Mama" to me. Same with a friend of mine who wears Issey-Miyaki. GORGEOUS scent and smells divine on her. Love that.

Now, to the point.

Perfume hates me. Or maybe it's perfumiers. They add stuff to perfume that makes me itch. I have fair skin, but I'm not allergic to much, nor do things usually irritate me or break me out. I've never considered myself "delicate" in any way when it comes to product or potions or any thing like that.

But perfume is different. There are some of them....ugh. Itchy. Haven't defined the ingredient, and really don't care, but I know which perfumes to avoid.

Then there's the problem of the actual smell. I cannot STAND to smell like a sweet little old lady wearing a strong-enough-to-fell-an-ox floral perfume. (And mind you, there are plenty of young women who are already 70 before they're 30, if you know what I mean. Matronly is a choice, people, not a life-sentence.)

Ahem.

Some perfumes also tend to be very musky and almost dank. Kind of like a crypt. SNORK! (You know me, I have to work a crypt in here SOMEWHERE!!! Besides, in my next book the hero and heroine get locked in a tomb at an abandoned archealogical dig....)

Seriously, there's one perfume I smelled - very popular, evidently - that smells like a musty basement to me.

I have a very sensitive nose and can differentiate a lot of scents. I can do that whole wine thing "..it has a note of saffron, and yet it's fruity, with notes of pear and pineapple..." if I choose to (I don't) because I CAN smell and taste it.

Then there's that personal problem. Yes, now we get to it.

For whatever reason, there are a TON of perfumes that smell fabulous in the bottle, but when I put them on?

Ugh. They smell like battery acid. Bleeeeech.

A very knowledgeable aromatherapist once told me the reason. She said my system was more alkaline rather than the more common, acidic system. There are some reasons for that - I eat my veggies! - but mostly, it's just the way I'm made. Grins. However, perfumes are formulated to appeal to the majority, and the majority have a more acidic system.

When someone with a more alkaline system puts on an acidic perfume? Eeek! You guessed it, it smells like Mr. Yuck Died ...or worse. Bleeech.

I used to wear a wonderful perfume called Victoria, by Victoria's Secret. Gold bottle, cobalt blue cap - wonderful perfume, pretty packaging. It was great. I bought the full line - powder, lotion, perfume. LOVED that stuff.

It was discontinued.

Then I wore a perfume from Tiffany. Wonderful stuff, but then they reformulated it and yes, you guessed it, battery acid. Bleeech!

There are several others I CAN wear, but WON'T:
- the perfume my ex-husband bought for his mistress (Opium);
- the perfume a coworker used to pour on (Obsession);
- and the perfume someone dropped onto my luggage or which burst in someone else's bag and contaminated mine, necessitating it's demise (Burberry). I really liked that luggage. Sigh.

But The Good News!? I nearly forgot! I found a new perfume, Coach Poppy, which actually smells GOOD on me! WOOHOOO!!! Alert the media! Buy Stock! Hide the children...wait, that's something else. Grins.

I tried it on in the store, letting it "wear" all day. It didn't turn musky, or smell bad. Excellent. I went back and tried it again on another day. Allllll good.

FINALLY! New perfume! WOOT! So, if you happen to meet me at a conference and I'm wearing a lovely scent, you can pretty much be sure it's Coach's Poppy. We'll see how it goes....

What about you? Do you like perfume?

Do you have a signature scent?

Do you have several that you like to change around? I have a friend who has 6 or 8 different perfumes and can wear them all with equal ease and delicious smells. (Obviously, I'm jealous of this!)

Do you wear it everyday? Just for special occasions? Or never?

And then there's the perfume ads....grins. Seen the new Bulgari one?

And what about the new trend to having celebrities "create" a fragrance? I don't buy it - if I'm wearing Vera Wang, by golly, it better be a DRESS! And I ain't touchin' Jennifer Lopez....

Give me your thoughts! BTW, I'll be giving away an ARC of the RT TOP PICK for September - my new book, DEADLY LITTLE LIES today, to one lucky perfumier...winner. Just because! It's not due out till Sept. 1, so you'll get it early!

Sniff!! Sniff, sniff, sniff? What perfume are YOU wearing?? Source URL: https://plasticsurgerycelebrities.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York%20Times%20Bestseller
Visit plastic surgery celebrities for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Deadline Musings

By Kate



I’m writing to you from Deadline Hell, an actual place located hundreds of miles beneath the earth in the depths of the Cave of Desperation.

The reason I’m here is that I’m racing to finish my second book, due in just a few weeks. I’m sure I won’t make it on time. I know everything I’m writing is dreck. And why am I italicizing words for emphasis? I've forgotten how to write. Gah!

I’m stressed out and not sleeping well. I’m forgetful and prickly. I don’t know what I’m doing and don’t know where I’m going. My butt hurts from sitting in this chair all day.

I’m living on chocolate kisses and frozen foods. My skin is pasty and I wear only sweat pants and work shirts. Big, shapeless shirts and comfortable shoes. Oh, just call them slippers.

I squint a lot.

I have a stack of new and exciting books I’d love to read—but I can’t. Reading something new would mean focusing on the words and the story—and I’ve lost my ability to focus.

So I’m re-reading. Comfort reads. At night, before I crawl off to bed, I’ve been re-reading old favorites. I started with J.D. Robb’s Naked in Death and plowed through the next four "In Death” books. Then I jumped to Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Nobody’s Baby But Mine. Next, I might move to some old Julie Garwood Scottish historicals. Gotta love those Highlander heroes. Men in kilts, 'nuf said.

So tell me, who do you turn to for your comfort reads? What was the last book you re-read?

And I would be remiss if I didn’t send a super-dooper wowzer yowzer THANK YOU to my darling Banditas for the incredible bouquet of star lilies and box of chocolate yummies they sent me to celebrate my first book hitting the New York Times Bestseller List!!



Thank you, my lovelies!

Cabana Boys, attention please! Sven, front and center! Pina Coladas and soothing massages for all my friends!!!
Source URL: https://plasticsurgerycelebrities.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York%20Times%20Bestseller
Visit plastic surgery celebrities for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Trumpet fanfare please as we welcome...LISA GARDNER!

Jeanne: A huge tony margareth welcome to my friend, New York Times bestselling suspense author Lisa Gardner. I’m a big fan – fan girl squeal here… - and am thrilled that Lisa has agreed to join us today.

Lisa: Thanks! I’m so happy to be here. I’ll confess, this is my first blogging experience, but everyone speaks so highly of the tony margareth, I figured I’d be brave and give it a try. Thanks again for inviting me!

Jeanne: Lisa, I know your first book to hit bestseller status was The Other Daughter, and The Killing Hour was your first NYTime lister, but the latest paperback, Hide, also hit the lists, didn’t it? And your latest hardcover, Say Goodbye is flying off the shelves.

Lisa: The Other Daughter was my second paperback novel, and my first book to hit the list (all the others have followed suit). I was standing outside with my new puppy, trying to get him to pee, when my editor called with the great news. So I half-talked with her, half-begging my puppy to please do his business so I could go inside and uncork champagne. It was a funny afternoon. Oh, and yeah, I think The Killing Hour was the first hardcover to hit. You know, I can’t remember.

Jeanne: I was thinking about your heroine, Kimberly Quincy, a determined FBI veteran, coming from a family of FBI agents. I was wondering if she might be willing to pop in for a chat as well. What do you think?

Lisa: Hey, Kimberly? Can you spare a few minutes to chat?

Kimberly: Sure, what’s up?

Jeanne: Hi Kimberly, I’m Jeanne from the tony margareth. I was wondering how you’re feeling, now that you’ve managed to get through Say Goodbye? You were pregnant throughout the investigation, that must have been challenging.

Kimberly: Please, pregnancy is easy. Working for the bureau, not so easy. Trying to talk to my father, harder still. And then, that whole business with spiders…that’s where it got a little impossible. I’m trying to think, in The Killing Hour I had to deal with rattlesnakes. In Say Goodbye, brown recluses and one really p*ssed off supersized tarantula. Spiders, snakes, spiders snakes. Nah, I still have to say, I hate them both.

Jeanne: Ugh, I’m not so afraid of snakes, but the spiders in Say Goodbye…*shudder* So you’re thinking about retiring when…

Kimberly: Never. Can’t do it. It’s in the blood. When my daughter was born, I tried to take up knitting, but every time I saw the needles all I could think of was this case I worked years ago where this sweet old grandmother got tired of her deaf husband screaming at her to fetch him a beer, so she put a knitting needle through his eye. Let’s face it, I’m not PTA material.

Jeanne: Heh-heh-heh. There are several of us, here in the lair who share the sentiment. All of us here at the Lair love a good Call story and a good “how did you meet him?” story. So, you met your husband Mac in Lisa’s The Killing Hour. (Book cover here) Tell us a little bit about that…

Kimberly: (rolling her eyes) Oh please, not that again. Look, so I was roaming Academy ground after hours. Still no good reason for him to sneak up on me like that. Action, reaction, right? He acted, I reacted, and for the record, my reflexes are better than his so I took him out. Got him down with a blade at his throat. ‘Course, then the silly man starts laughing, and trying to steal a kiss. (rolling her eyes again) What in the world are you gonna do with a man like that? Well, marry him, I guess. Hah, that’ll teach him!

Jeanne: Well, I know you have to get your little one down for a nap, thanks for stopping by…will you check in after a bit and see if any of our readers have questions for you?

Kimberly: Sure, I’ll be glad to.

Jeanne: Thanks!

Jeanne: Well, Lisa, that was fabulous! Thanks for letting us get a glimpse into Kimberly and her world. It’s really amazing. Did you just love doing the research for this?

Lisa: Absolutely. I got to visit the FBI Academy for both The Next Accident and The Killing Hour, and it remains one of my favorite places. Just very cool. Lives up to expectation and then some.

Jeanne: How do you structure your day, in terms of writing? I know you have a family, as do many of us, as well as the need to do extensive research that goes into the books you write. I’d love it if you could tell us a bit about that as well.

Lisa: Our house is a pretty noisy chaotic space, so years ago my husband lobbied for me to get an office outside the home. I fought him at the time—thought it would feel very CPA—but he found this great little place that used to be an artist’s studio, very quirky and charming. So now I check e-mail, tend to paperwork for couple of hours at home, then walk to my “writing space.” I have no phone or internet. It’s just me, computer, i-pod and mini fridge. It’s been excellent. I can get more writing done in three hours there than three days at home. So I work until early afternoon, then it’s off to pick up my child from school.

Jeanne: Wow, I would love to have a separate studio, I have to confess. But it would take some getting used to. How wonderful too that your husband is that supportive. I guess I should ask you one of those writerly questions...hmmm...let's see....What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

Lisa: I still love the research, being able to discover something cool and unusual. Fortunately, forensics is advancing in leaps and bounds these days, so even when I’ve covered a topic for one book, there’s still something fresh and different to learn for the next. Probably my favorite part of researching Say Goodbye was setting up the crime scene. How the bodies were disposed, what would be the implications for decomp, how to make it even scarier, etc., etc. I worked with a great woman from the Body Farm on the scene, and she was just a blast to talk to. The things she’d done, the cases she’d worked on. I’d really like to visit some day. Nothing says family vacation quite like a visit to the Body Farm, right?

Jeanne: Lordy, you’re a woman after my own heart, girl. (Cassondra, let’s adopt her, shall we?) Lisa, it’s been a pleasure to have you and Kimberly visit with us, now, do you have a question for our readers?

Lisa: I’m always looking to the future for Kimberly. Now that she’s tackled snakes and spiders, what challenge should she take on next? Vampire bats? Soccer moms? Maybe I should give her a minivan…

Jeanne: Oh, my gosh! Giving her a minivan might send her into apoplexy. Snicker. Mac would probably soup it up and make sure it could move, knowing what kinds of situations Kimberly gets into. Ha! Our Bandits and Buddies can come up with some great suggestions, for sure.
Hey, everyone, Lisa’s graciously giving away a signed copy of both Hide and Say Goodbye to one lucky poster, so…*rubbing hands together* let’s get started shall we?Source URL: https://plasticsurgerycelebrities.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York%20Times%20Bestseller
Visit plastic surgery celebrities for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection