Nadia Lee :: Romance Writer

In case you haven't seen my announcement on Twitter or Facebook, I'm pregnant. I went to see my doctor last Friday, and she confirmed it. (Hero Material went with me just in case I needed some moral support and translation help, but he didn't have to do anything except wait outside since my doctor spoke good English.)

EDD is June 25-ish.

So on Friday, I immediately ordered a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting.

On Saturday, I looked for pre-natal vitamins. Guess what? I couldn't find any at the local pharmacy. So I decided to order via the net. Then I read about how a lack of folic acid can create birth defects. So I told Hero Material that our baby is going to born wrong because I didn't take pre-natal vitamins in the last 4-5 weeks. Stress much? He had to calm me down by saying how we probably get enough from our diet since we do eat an awful lot of vegetables and salad every day. That wasn't enough for me. So I spent $20 on a regular multivitamin (only 100 pills; yes, vitamins here cost their weight in gold) to tide me over until the pre-natal vitamins arrive from the States.

Anyway on Sunday I got my copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was pretty cool until it said I should exercise every day because it's good for the mom. I'm thinking, "I really don't care that much to exercise EVERY DAY." Then it went on to state that it makes for a smart baby. Then I'm thinking, "OMG, d*** you!"

They had me. I mean...how am I going to resist the "If you don't exercise, your baby may not born as smart as s/he could've been, and it's all your fault!" implied in the text?

So I'm on my 4th day of walking and light weight training. Holy cow, I've never exercised this regularly except when I'm trying to lose weight. It's weird to realize that the scale weight is going to go up even with the exercise and good nutrition. Of course, I am eating enough for two full-grown rhinoceroses at the moment. Hero Material made me a huge salad for lunch today, and I told him, "Man, that was good! I'm going to have to have that again!" He said "Sure"...not realizing that I meant "again" to be "right now."

P.S. I'm not a saint, so I indulge in a cookie when I'm craving something sweet. It's not an American-size one though. Each yields two bites, max. I'm also limiting myself to no more than two cookies a day.

September's been pretty productive.

I finished Step 5 for All's Fair, and now it's all with my 1st beta.

A Goddess to Love was supposed to be done by today, but for some reason, I couldn't seem to get in the right mood for it, and I kept nodding and not making the changes I know I need to make. Maybe it's because I spent like more than two months on revision...? Anyway, I'm letting it sit a little longer.

I also had a chance to talk with Agent, and I started outlining / arcing a new story. I don't know much about it except that the heroine is an assistant / nanny, but since I'm the one writing it, a lot of people are going to die. (Don't worry, h/H get their happy ending!) Actually I think the body count in the new nanny project is going to be greater than the one in All's Fair, which features assassins as heroine and hero, plus a Russian mafia boss.

Who said romancing a nanny was safe?

I've listened to multiple workshop tapes from 2010 RWA. Many of them are excellent and inspiring. I highly recommend getting the whole set if you can. It's cheaper than buying each workshop separately.

I also had a chance to watch some really good low budget Asian horror drama. The plot's pretty straightforward, and the supernatural elements are pretty familiar (to Asians, that is!), but I loved how they managed to create awesome mystery and tension by continually escalating the stakes and intensifying the internal and external conflict of all the characters. I just couldn't stop watching. Thankfully it had only sixteen episodes. (Some dramas go for over 50 episodes.)

As for reading, September has been a lackluster month. Jeannie Lin's Historical Undone was good, but the rest of the books I started were mediocre, clumsily written / plotted, and/or just boring. A couple of them got hyped quite a bit, so I'm sure that didn't help.

Fortunately I just got Sin Undone by Larissa Ione, who has yet to disappoint. So that should make up for September.