Notes from Nelissa

Soul Charms

2009-03-16T08:24:00.001-07:00

We know the economy bites, and luxury purchases for most of us have been put on the backburner, but I'm a firm believer in doing what you can to brighten your mood without the guilt...SO, how about indulging in a few purchases that LOOK rich and enticing and make you FEEL pampered and sexy but cost next to nothing? That was my intention in developing our new SOUL CHARMS line at lynnparis.com. Gold and silver chains with beautiful inspirational charms & Swarovski crystals and gemstones at rock bottom prices. I'll be adding more pieces in the next few weeks, including rockin' chandelier earrings.

Cheers!

Nelissa

A New Earth

2009-02-25T18:25:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading Eckhart Tolle's book, "A New Earth, Awakening to your Life's Purpose" and listening to the Oprah podcasts with the author speaking on each chapter. Wow, wow...hard to explain how this book has affected me. Simple information that should be obvious, but we go about our lives oblivious to such uncomplicated truths. Well worth the read, or, even listening the podcasts if you're NOT a reader.

http://www.eckharttolle.com/eckharttolle

Sexting

2009-02-06T05:24:00.000-08:00

Again, we prove that common sense is a dinosaur. Per MSN News, teens are now being slapped with child pornography charges for sending (and in some cases) receiving nude or semi-nude photos via cell phone: sexting.

I have no idea how this qualifies as child pornography or why a state would think the best deterrent is to label these teens as sex offenders. COME ON. Parenting! Parenting! And even then, parent's can't police their kids all the time. Is a sexy (if tasteless) picture worse than teens stripping down in person?? It's technology, folks. Teens are gonna experiment either way.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29017808/

Profile of a Heart

2009-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

Interesting to visually see today, how the beat patterns of our heart are affected by stressors/thoughts. Stressors equal "jagged" rhythms, pleasant thoughts and attention to breath = smooth, even rhythms.

Reinforces what so many spiritualists have been touting regarding our thoughts structuring our reality. If we can learn to stay in what I'll call the "state of smooth" then it stands to reason our mental & emotional clarity along with our physical state of health can be greatly improved.

Food for thought...
http://www.heartmath.org/

Good Effort, Cardinals!

2009-02-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

Wah! So close! Overall an exceptionally entertaining game. Commercials? So-so. I was too into the game to pay much attention. :-) And irony of irony, I'm headed to Tampa TODAY for work. Always a day late and a dollar short...

The Lynn Paris Project

2009-01-31T09:03:00.000-08:00

Working to get the word out on my "other" passion, jewelry design. With budgets as tight as they are, I'm offering 25% off total purchase for Valentine's Day. Women still love to get beautiful trinkets and baubles...they don't need to know you got them for a steal. :-) http://www.lynnparis.com. The discount code is: lovepromo. Thought I'd also share a pic of a nice teardrop garnet choker PERFECT for Big Love day.

NipTuck

2009-01-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

Gotta say, the new season (so far) has been hilarious. "Stink bitch...." Hee! Gawd, hope I don't hum that tune in my sleep tonight.

Wow...a non-blog record

2009-01-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

It's pretty bad when you remember you have a blog only when you do the ego-centered Google name search and see your blog from 2 years ago and say...oh! :-)

No guarantees I'll be a more regular blogger, but an effort will be made. At least I changed that ghastly picture, ugh...

Hey, can I tell my agent that this counts as writing????

Bad, bad, bad....

2006-06-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

Okay YES Chey....I've been a very bad girl. :-) No posting AND no writing. Shame on me!

I can't help it. I've been distracted. I've gotten into digitally enhanced photography as well as oil painting. The lengths I will go to to keep from writing, huh?? I'll share a couple of my pics here so you won't think I'm completely making the entire excuse up.

I haven't finished the oil painting yet, but will take a picture once done and post that as well. Not quite as interesting as these little gems, but I' m damn proud just to be able to finish the dang thing!! I've had a fantastic time snapping photos of the botanical wonders around my house. You should see me stalking cactus blossoms, waiting for them to open. My neighbors probably suspect me of being a voyeristic crazy woman the way I skulk around at all hours.

Here's another picture of a barrell cactus manipulated a bit in photoshop, then a more traditional print.

So, you see, my time hasn't been totally wasted. :-) Off to dream about visiting the botanical gardens this weekend!!!

Tagged! Fours.....

2006-04-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

1) Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Department store clerk
2. Admin. Assistant
3. Author
4. Quality Manager

2) Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Braveheart
2. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
3. Harry Potter Movies
4. Matrix Movies

3) Four places you have lived:
1. Indio, CA
2. La Quinta, CA
3. Phoenix, AZ
4. Scottsdale, AZ

4) Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. L.O.S.T.
2. Deadwood (GREAT show....fantastic acting)
3. The Sopranos
4. Oldy but goody....X-files

5) Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Er....this sounds bad, but I've never gone ANYWHERE as an adult on just a "vacation." Our vacations have always been to see family in CA where I used to live. Our trips to Vegas have always been work related. God....I need a VACATION!
2.
3.
4.

6) Four websites you visit daily:
1. Google
2. My bank :-)
3.
4.

7) Four of your favorite foods:
1. Chinese & Thai
2. Sushi
3. Seafood of any type
4. Pasta

8) Four places you would rather be right now:
1. Anywhere but work
2. Europe
3. Virgin Islands
4. Rome

9),10),11),12),& 13) Four friends you are tagging that you think will respond:
1. Ah, er.....I'll need to think about this one. Most of my buds do NOT have blogs!!! Except Annie and Chey, and ones the tagger and the other's been tagged. Hmmmm......
2.
3.
4.

Snow? In the desert???

2006-03-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

Oh, yes, these pics are real....not photoshop recreations. :-) For those in the Phoenix, AZ area, last Saturday was a bizarre, magical treat. After nearly a record 130 some days of no rain at all, we woke up Saturday morning to friggin' snow. It had rained most of the night, and as I stood in the kitchen fixing breakfast I looked out the window and started to see the rain drops morphing into big white flakes. "Kris! It's snowing!" I screamed to my DH, and got the disbelieving reply, "No it's not."

LOL. Yes it was, and after a morning and then an entire evening of snow, we had 6 inches on the ground, on the cars and on our sparse desert palo verdes and mesquites. So much snow in fact, branches snapped.

Snow ball fights in the desert.....Impossible! Nope. Not on this wet, wild, crazy Arizona night.

Nelissa

Tagged! Perfect Partner....

2006-03-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

Geez.....it helps to CHECK your blog every now and then. :-)

Okay, Chey tagged me, so I need to describe my perfect partner.

First of all, I don't believe there IS a perfect partner. Only because no one is perfect, and it's the differences, IMO, that can make a relationship damn interesting.

That said....MY perfect (or almost perfect) partner would be someone with exceptionally quick wit. Someone who thinks deep, but not TOO deep to where they can't fully connect. My perfect partner would be totally in to me. Not in a worship sense, but in a passionate way that defies logic and "the rules." We would be able to laugh together, adventure together, cry together, and explore each other physically, emotionaly and mentally up on side and down the other.

A best friend with benefits, you might say. :-)

But then again, I have that now....so describing my perfect partner isn't so hard to do.

:-)

Healed and feelin' fine

2006-03-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, here is a new pic of the tat all healed up. Not a great picture, I'm afraid, as the flash keeps washing out the colors. It's great to be able to enlarge this on my on PC so I can see it up close and personal. Damn hard to do this when it's on your back! :-)

I saw a cardinal yesterday while doing yoga on the patio. That bright splash of red in the pale green of a palo verde was stunning. It sang beautifully as well.

I'm so easily distracted. :-)

USA TODAY

2006-02-21T19:07:00.000-08:00

Ohmygosh!!! Thanks to Celia, I got my butt over to the Aphrodisia Blog and saw "The News." Kensington's new line was mentioned in a USA Today article! Very balanced, well written article on the erotic market in general and featuring a book cover by P. J. Mellor. Whoohooo! Any publicity is GOOD publicity, especially for a new line. As a result, Aphrodisia author Sunny Chen has been asked to be on an episode of Geraldo on Thursday night. Even better!!

Just had to share my excitment!

Nelissa

Update

2006-02-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, this month is half over. Where has the time gone??

The tat is doing fantastic and I will post a new pic soon. Already thinking of the next one. Wayyy addictive, these things.

Yoga is going great too. Wow...but does this class ever kick my butt! Who ever thought holding one leg up and one arm up could be so dang hard? I do love it tho, and wish I had started classes ages ago.

DH and I are off to the motorcycle races this weekend (Yeah, nearly forty and my man still needs the speed and competition of a good race!) and then it's a day off on Monday to actually WRITE. Gasp! Seems impossible! I need to work on Night Elves 3, which is Gwen and Vigil's story and the final one in the series. Fun stuff having one of the Shining Ones strolling around the Scottish Highlands in the 21st century, bow and arrows and all. :-)

Cheers!

All inked up!

2006-02-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

Let me say....woweee....did this ever hurt! :-) BUT it was worth every painful second, and yeah, weird as it sounds, the pain was kind of a cool part of the entire process. (Yeah, I'm crazy, I know). This is a fresh pic, so there's still some swelling and blood in the tattoo, but isn't it fantastic??? I can't tell you how thrilled I am. Mark at Wisemagic did a fantastic job. It turned out better than I had imagined, and bigger. :-) There was so much detail, we didn't want to go too small and lose what would make the tattoo special. The most painful part was where the water is going over the koi's tail. Argggg....felt like that needle was going right into my spine. I was a good girl, tho, and didn't move for the 2 hours it took to complete the tat. Can't wait until it's healed. I can easliy see why this can become an adictive thing. Not sure what that says about me.....

Starting something new

2006-01-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

I took my first "official" yoga class yesterday. Up until now, I've twisted myself up in private with my beginners mat (with lines on it so I can tell where in the heck I need to place my feet) and a DVD instructer. I have always wanted to delve deeper into yoga, and knew to do that, I needed to find a real live instructor and go on a regular basis. The class Saturday was an interesting mix of people (can't help myself, must be the writer/observer in me, but I'm always "characterizing" people in settings). We had the 19 somethings with their hip hugging sweats and yappy talk (which they did through most of the class, much to my annoyance!) The 20 somethings working hard to get into shape, the 30 somethings there but not ALL there, and the 2 lone guys calm and unruffled pushing themselves into interesting positions. It didn't take me long to figure out how much WORK I need to do to excell as this moving meditation, but I also realized how fabulous it was to spend an hour and 15 minutes thinking of NOTHING but my breath, my body, and well....my discomfort at certain times. :-) I am going to attend the class 2 days a week and see what I can do to widen my abilities, both physically and mentally.

Ack! Tagged!

2006-01-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've been tagged and didn't bother to CHECK my blog for four days (er, has it been more??).

Right. Well....anyway....going off of Chey's excellent example:

7 Things to do before I die

Tavel internationally - I WILL go to Europe, Asia, the Mediterranean before I'm to crotchety to really enjoy all the walking/eating/drinking/dancing. :-)
Focus on painting and art (something I'm not all that good at, but LOVE doing)
Learn how to water ski on one ski
Race a motorcycle (on a track!)
Hold a grandchild (Have a few years until I see this happen. My son's only 19 and has PLENTY OF TIME before he needs to think about having kids-lol)
Become spiritually centered ALL of the time
Write a story that captures people so completely, it stays in print forever

7 Things I cannot do

Pay attention to one thing at a time
A cartwheel
Whistle! I hate that I can't do this. Have tried since I was a kid. Any tried and true methods for learing??
Eat dairy--of any kind--it sucks.
Be mean to people, even when they don't deserve niceness
Ignore someone in pain
Do a REAL chin up. Dang it.

7 Things that attract me to men

Smiles. A smile is EVERYTHING.
Overall package. Balance.
Confidence
Teasing natures
Eyes
Okay, okay....butts. I like butts.
Witty intelligence

7 Things I say most often

Sorry! (Usually when I don't have too. I'm a chronic aplogizer)
Shit!
Can I help you with that?
How are you?
Hey babe
That sucks
Can you believe that?

7 Books or series I love

Dark Materials Series
Harry Potter Series
Saga of Darren Shan Series
Tangerine, by Richard Bloor
Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer
All Orson Scott Card books
All Stephen King books

7 Movies I can watch multiple times

Braveheart
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Corney, but Dodge Ball - too funny, espeically after a few shots of tequilla
Classic James Bond
Big Trouble in Little China
Man on Fire
Star Wars

7 people I want to join in tag

Can I say the rat that tagged me?? Chey :-)
Annie Windsor
Vivi Anna
Kate Douglas
Celia May Hart
Alyssa Brooks
P. J. Mellor

Thinking Ink

2006-01-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

Visited a local tattoo artist yesterday (Wisemagic Tattoo) and set a date for my first tattoo. Been thinking about it for years, but the moment wasn't "right" until this year. Hard to explain....but I didn't want to get a tat just to get one. It needed to have meaning, you know? Anyhooo, the time was right, and I met Mark at Wisemagic through my DH who received an awesome tattoo from him in December. I'm so excited! I know it will be painful, and I chose a detailed design, so will likely be in the chair for 2 hours or more, but it was the only way to go. I'll be getting a koi fish on my lower back swimming through water and sprinkled with cherry blossoms. Bright colors, lots of movement. Koi traditionally represent courage in the face of adversity and determination. For me it also represents conscious, directed movement--managing your own flow and destiny. Let's face it, we're all swimming up stream in a not-so-friendly environment. Having vision, direction, is essential. And it's so easy to lose your way!!

Check out this koi fish design on Keith Alexander. Very cool.

Okay, enough with my musings. If anyone has stories to share on their own first tats or on the symbolism of koi fish, please share!! I'll be certain to post a picture once done, which will be in about 2 weeks.

Best,

Nelissa

Drolling over cover flats....

2006-01-13T05:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm needing to leave for work (still dark out....feels like I should still be in bed) and am looking at the awesome cover flat on my desk for "The Cowboy" anthology. Ohmhgosh...this model is yummy, tat and all. Don't you agree??

This will be an excellent combo of hot erotic stories. More info to come. Have to get my butt to work so I don't have to work late to make up for my drooling. :-)

Best,

Nelissa

Jumping in head first

2006-01-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

My name is Nelissa Donovan and I am blog ignorant. :-) Right. If it isn't obvious (*cough, cough*) this is my first blog. Trying to figure out what I'm doing here.

I'm listening to Shinedown's "Leave a Whisper", enjoying a Smirnoff Twisted (Watermelon...yum) and wondering why on earth I'm diving into the blog scene tonight. Well.....I figure I've given enough excuses (no time, no inclination, no...really....no time) and tonight seems as good a time as any. And it doesn't help that I'm listening to "Crying Out" which incompasses "no turning back" "reinvent your life" ect. :-) Time to get my ass in gear and reconnect, so to speak, with other writers, and most importantly my readers.

I'm looking forward to getting a handle on my blog and not looking so hopelessly stupid as time and posts progress.

Best,

Nelissa