It has definitely taken me a moment to get over my shock of Michael Jackson sudden death. When I first saw the news of his being rushed to the hospital, I didn’t overreact too much, but then while being on a business call, my sister beeped onto the line asking whether I’d heard the news about Michael. I was immediately upset and told her that he was fine. He was just being rushed to the hospital. She quickly said that’s not what they are saying out there. I quickly click to the cable news, feeling an extra jump in my heart. They were now reporting he was in a deep coma. There was still hope. I corrected my sister again and hung up the phone. But that feeling was now there.
It’s weird, my attachment to Michael of course started in the mid to late 70’s. Who didn’t watched the Jacksons’ cartoons? (Right along with Muhammad Ali’s?) Who didn’t watch their variety show-with little Janet and Randy’s Mae West routine? To me there was nothing more funky then DANCING MACHINE. Later, The Destiny album was my jam and I had gotten in trouble for wearing out my mother’s 8-track. I was suddenly flooded with memories going to bed listening to his music and dreaming that I was a distant cousin that got to perform with him and his brothers. I only went to see The Wiz because Michael was in it. Even at 8 I remember thinking that was a long ass movie. When OFF THE WALL came out, I remember me and my younger sister jumping on the bed and singing GIRLFRIEND at the top of our voices. And who didn’t like SHE’S OUT OF MY LIFE-when it sounded like he was crying at the end? (Awww. I wished Michael could love me like that.)
When I moved to Germany, I remember when I was finally old enough to start babysitting for the neighbor’s kids and the first thing I bought was The Jacksons Live album. I had the whole thing memorized. For Christmas one year I remember getting the Jackson’s TRIUMPH album. Heartbreak Hotel was my jam!
The year Ebony and Ivory came out we named our dog, Ebony. It was deep.
But when I came back to the states, Thriller had hit and Michael Jackson was more popular than ever. Suddenly, I didn’t like it. I never liked it when everyone liked what I liked. Call me fickle. That year, The Girl was Mine played on the radio station like every other song. (Only Michael could get away with a PG-The DOGGONE girl is mine.)
In Junior high in Texas, for one of the classes, as a treat for all of doing so good on our test, the teacher rolled in the T.V. and this huge VHS Tape player and allowed us to watch THE MAKING OF THE THRILLER VIDEO. This was the beginning of the end of my secret love affair. I was put off by all Michael’s giggling and childish behavior. But there was still respect there. But it would never be the same. In high school, I remember buying the BAD album and wondering what the heck was happening to Michael’s skin. The man was practically white. This was before Photoshop and everyone was wondering what kind of bleaching cream did that. There was a few hits from that album, but Michael was moving further and further from my heart because I couldn’t relate to him anymore-much less recognize him. Still I continued to buy the albums. DANGEROUS, HIStory, Invincible-they are all here. And yet I still didn’t think I was like the ones screaming and hollering on T.V.(was I?)
In my 20s, the scandal broke. I remember trying to play it cool, like the accusation didn’t bother me–that is until the boyfriend I was dating at the time started calling him ugly names and was putting his 2 cent in. I remember getting incredibly upset and going off. But I never could wipe that smug smile off his face. We would have that discussion again, years later, him still smug, me pissed because it truly felt like he was attacking a family member. One that I didn’t understand, but one that I loved nonetheless.
And I still love him-though I truly feel that Michael was almost hoping for this. I believe the last trial broke him-his spirit and therefore increased his dependency on drugs. His loopiness was there for all the world to see-like Ana Nicole. Remember the documentary? No one could watch that and not see the truth. He was an addict surrounded by enablers. Sad.
At least now there is peace. Though now I suspect we’re about to see the vultures emerge and secrets brought to life. Be prepared. It’s about to get ugly.

Until then enjoy this clip 74 clip from Soul train: DANCING MACHINE

BLAME IT ON THE BOOGIE (It says 82-but I think it was 79)

THE THINGS i DO FOR YOU

For years I’ve search high low for a good mascara. I have thin lashes and usually after applying mascara I could never really tell the difference between wearing it or not. But for months now, I’ve seen the cute girly girl commerical with Drew Barrymore showing off these incredible lashes with CG’s new mascara. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me and so I decided to try it out. And ladies am I glad that I did. This stuff works. With just two coats I look like I’ve put on a pair faux lashes. I couldn’t believe it. It’s incredible. You should have seen me, batting my lashes at just about every man that walk by. (What can I say, I can be a shameless flirt from time to time.) I love this stuff and it’s now makes my list of one of my favorite things.

I find it interesting that despite being a prolific romance writer that I still find it extremely difficult to write about myself. Despite popular belief, the life of a writer makes it easier to hide—your expanding waist and gluteus maximus in particular. Like most jobs nowadays, I’ve spent the last decade with my butt planted in a chair for 12 to 18 hours a day. Not exactly a recipe for getting your heart rate up. And my diet? Forgetaboutit. ( I always wanted to say that.)
But it’s true.
All writers are familiar with the term ‘Deadline Hell’. It means a book is due and nothing else in life gets done—dishes, laundry, hair and certainly there will be no cooking. By process of elimination that means I’m rolling through someone’s drive-thru. And with 5 to 6 projects due a year, I’m always in ‘Deadline Hell’. I can’t blame it all on my profession. I hate cooking—I always have. It takes too much time and requires to much cleaning up afterwards—and all diets require prepping, measuring, and of course, cooking. Dieting overwhelms me. Not to mention my view of portion sizes are severely warp due to decades of eating restaurants portions. Looking back, I doubt I’ve stuck to a diet for more than two consecutive days before I would give up and pull back up in McDonald’s drive-thru.
Time is a precious commodity and I just don’t have enough of it to cook 3 square meals and deal with the extra burden of dishes. I just want to grab and eat and get back to my world of make believe. But things reached a crisis point when the scale rolled past its 300 maximum limit. I had to get a medical scale to read my peak weight of 315 pounds.
315 pounds!
I remember picking up the phone and calling my cousin, Jose and telling her that I had to do something. I had ignored my back pains for too long, I told myself that it was no big deal. When I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, I said, ‘So. A lot of my friends have to sleep with a CPAP machines. No big deal. Then every morning, I started noticing my feet were swollen, like I had spent the night licking a box of Morton Salt. It’s no big deal. So what I’m a big girl. Almost everyone in my family is big.
Excuses, excuses, excuses.
But 315 pounds was hard to excuse.
Real hard.
“Jose, I have to do something,” I remember whining. But what—force myself to do something, I know I can’t stick to?
Lately there’s been an avalanche of TV commercials, promoting meal delivery. But there was no amount of ‘food make up’ that could make those meals look appetizing. I may not like to cook—but I love food.
Next, I visited a very popular television fitness trainer’s website and saw that it was now advertising meal delivery. But how’s the food?
After a lengthy research, it’s seemed like it was a 50/50 split. I don’t know. It sure looks like an awful lot of money. But there was one company that kept popping on online with nothing but rave reviews. I mean I couldn’t find anyone that didn’t like their program. That company was: Bistro MD. I reviewed their site at what they were promoting seemed too good to be true. I called my cousin and we debated for 2 weeks on what I should do. This program would double my food budget. Then it hit me. Aren’t I worth it? Wasn’t getting my health under control worth the money? Could I afford another year of letting my weight get the best of me?
I picked up the phone and made the call. First of all, customer service was outstanding. They were able to answer my questions and assured me that it would be easy to cancel out the program if I didn’t like it. So what the hell? I can afford one week—right? I selected the 7 day with snacks option—mainly because I didn’t trust myself not to order pizzas on the weekends and erase my week’s worth of hard work.
When the food arrived, I was impressed. It looked like everything was prepared in a gourmet kitchen and simply vacuumed sealed and frozen. Not to mention that it all looked great. Turns out: THEY WERE GREAT!
The food is absolutely delicious. Within 2 days the swelling of my feet vanished. By the end of the first week, I was down 10 pounds.
10 pounds!
Talk about motivation to stick with the program!
It’s now been 5 weeks and I’m down 25 pounds!
25 pounds!!
The program is so easy. It completely takes the hassle of counting calories and worrying over portion sizes completely off the table. I still have a long way to go but I have no doubt that with Bistro MD as my partner in my weight loss journey, I will finally reach my goal.
Stay tuned…

In America alone, there are 40 million women over size 14, spending $25 billion a year on clothing, or a quarter of all clothing sales, according to American Demographics. So, why isn’t there a Fashion Week event dedicated to showcasing fashions available to the curvy consumer?

There wasn’t…until NOW!

A partnership of independent fashion designers, retailers, event producers, models and plus industry businesses, Full Figured Fashion Week (FFFWeek) was created to increase economic development in the area of plus size fashion design, clothing merchandising and plus modeling. Our goal is to highlight the very best in plus size fashions – both retail and independent designers, while providing an inaugural showcase of talented designers, models, stylists and plus industry businesses that serve the plus size consumer.

It is estimated that this long overdue and highly anticipated three-day fashion extravaganza (June 25-27, 2009) will debut before an audience of over 1500+ plus size fashion enthusiasts, style mavens, models, boutiques, vendors and the media.

The FFFWeek finale showcase, which will take place on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at The Cathedral, one of New York’s pre-eminent and most fashionable venues, will feature the runway collections of high-end plus size fashion boutiques, retail stores and local and out of state independent designers.

History is about to be made
For more information: Go here: www.fffweek.com

I recently read a review of my latest single title: LOVE TAKES TIME-and the reader, in her opinion, thought I lacked imagination because she correctly stated the storyline resembled the romantic classic, Sabrina. When I first read it, I laughed. Does this reader think that parodies are only reserved for movies and rap remixes? Did she really think I was trying to pass off the theme as totally my own? In the world of romances, how many Cinderella themes have we read? Romeo and Juliet? Christmas Carol? Secret Babies? Any number of Jane Austin books?
LOVE TAKES TIME was meant to be a parody. From time to time, I do those as a fun re-mix. Out of my near 40 releases, I certainly don’t do it all the time. So let me be clear, I’m not trying to pass off LOVE TAKES TIME as anything other than light and fun parody—mixed with more than a few surprises. So enjoy!

Come join me and the ladies of the Byrdwatchers bookclub FRIDAY NIGHT at 9 p.m. EASTERN STANDARD TIME here on this website (make sure you click on the Chat Link). We will be discussing my latest release LOVE TAKES TIME the fourth book in the UNFORGETTABLE series.
See you there.

Adrianne