Hello to everyone from my computer where my butt is plastered to my chair almost around-the-clock because I am late with book two of the series, NUTCASE. 
 
If I don’t make my May 1st deadline, I’m going to have to come up with a pretty darn good excuse.  I don’t think, “My dog ate my manuscript,” will work.  In the South we say, “That bird ain’t gonna fly.”
 
I would like to make an announcement.  On April 11th, I became a first time grandmother to a 7 lb, 14 oz, baby boy named Caleb!  He is absolutely gorgeous, and I held him when he was less than an hour old.  The nurses hadn’t even cleaned all the gunk off him; that’s how new he was.
 
We went round and round as to what my grandson would call me.  I didn’t want to be called grandma or granny.  I sort of liked the idea of having him call me Miss Charlotte or Mrs. Hughes, but nobody agreed.  I trained my nephews and nieces to call me Beautiful Aunt Charlotte from the moment they could talk. 
 
After a vote, everyone settled on Mimi.  Except for my son, who thought it sounded like a French prostitute.  If anybody out there is named Mimi, remember, I’m not the one who said it.
 
Anyway, I had a great time because I wasn’t the one giving birth.  As soon as I have photos I’ll post them online.
 
I’d like to thank everyone who has E-mailed me telling me how much they enjoyed WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY.  It sort of makes all the hours in front of my computer worth it.
 
I’ll be in touch once I come up for air again.

You know that you have no life when you find yourself reading about the sex lives of Octopuses, but I find myself doing this sort of thing from time to time just to get out of working on my book.  What I learned might surprise you.
 
Maggie Fox of Reuters Ltd. reported on a study by University of California, Berkley, that, “The love lives of octopuses are far more complex than anyone thought.”
 
This is odd to me because I had never spent much time thinking about the love lives of octopuses until now.   Anyway, the males actually court the females.  They flirt and hold hands, or tentacles, as the case may be; they do everything except light candles and put on romantic music.  The male is very protective of his lover.  If a new guy octopus tries to steal the affections of another male’s sweetie pie, watch out!   Males guard their females with the ferociousness of a junkyard dog.  And get this: once octopuses become sexually mature, they do it three times a day!  
 
Maggie Fox goes on to report that males deposit sperm packets into the females with specially designed arms.  This produces tens of thousands of eggs.  Fortunately, for the soon-to-be parents, their life span ends within a few short months after mating, which means they don’t actually have to raise the newborns.
 
 Remember, you heard it here first!