I don’t use beta readers because…I don’t know. Just not a part of my process. Probably the biggest reason is that I don’t have time. By the time I finish a book, my editor’s got big guys in black suits on my doorstep with baseball bats, looking to break my kneecaps.

As to why I don’t have critique partners, it’s because I’m the author your mother warned you about. (Okay, maybe not your mother, but various writing forums.) Harry Potter has Death Eaters, and I’m a Voice Eater. Thankfully, for the less experienced or confident writers who might not know about people like me, I’m pretty aware of this unfortunate character flaw and avoiding critiquing others’ work.

When critiquing, I subconsciously want to tweak and rewrite the pages into my own voice, so it reads the way I would have written it. I don’t do it on purpose, but I do it. If I try really, really hard I can not do it, but that gives me a headache so I just avoid it altogether.

That’s not to say I’m alone in the world. I have close writer friends who are aware of my nefarious voice-killing tendencies and are capable of blowing off any comments that cross that line, so there is some occasional swapping of pages for a does this suck check.

But basically it’s just me and my editor, and that works for me.

It was like a little stroll through memory lane, even if I was cranky about having to do it and my phone’s battery got so hot I could barely touch it. But here’s one of my favorites. It was a lazy Sunday morning and the Short Kid & Gizmo were definitely in comfy mode.

(Sorry about the small size. I thought, when I saved the “thumbnail” version, it would save the actual file, but…no. I don’t have time to go grab the bigger shot. At least, if my twitpic feed implodes, a thumbnail’s better than nothing.)

While it would seem I’d be able to get some work done today, it’s now 10:15 and I haven’t started my work day yet. Instead, I’ve been sitting here, with my husband reading over my shoulder, searching for countertop refrigerated display cases with pass-thru doors and walk-in coolers. How a man can own a business in 2010 and not know how to use Google is beyond me.

In other news, according to Fedex, my new pretty, purple Blackberry Curve is in West Chester, PA and should be here tomorrow. As eager as I am to see it (I even bought the case & microSD card yesterday), I hope it arrives late in the afternoon so I can get my work done before there’s a new toy in the house to play with.

Okay, off to work! (Until my husband comes up with something else he needs my help with.)

We’ve got nothing. No backpacks. No lunchbox for the Short One. No clothes. No shoes. No paper. No…nothing.

Crap. I guess you know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

High school’s particularly annoying because each of the Tall Kid’s teachers will send home a separate supply list along with class syllabus. That means we can’t buy his school supplies until after the first day of school and neither can any of the other high school parents. Come Monday night, there won’t be a single package of lined paper or 3-hole-punched folder left in a 50-mile radius.

What am I going to do right now? I’m going to read some more of Michelle Willingham’s Taming Her Irish Warrior.

I’ll worry about back-to-school shopping tomorrow.

Me: Taming Her Irish Warrior by Michelle Willingham. I’ve been devouring her MacEgan Brothers from Harlequin Historical (and Harlequin Historical Undone) and I’m devastated there’s only one more book after this. Some hot, bad-ass, 12th century Irish warriors here, folks.

Mr S: Watch Them Die by Kevin O’Brien. Since taking custody of the Nook, he’s been plowing through books. I think he’s read more in the last couple of months than in years.

The Tall Kid: He just finished re-reading Boneshaker by Cherie Priest, which he obviously enjoyed. Now he’s reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.

The Short Kid: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He was too young when we all read the series, but the LEGO Harry Potter video game fired up his interest and he’s been making his way through the books.

What are you reading?

I like little ones in my romances. Secret babies or not-so-secret babies are a win, maybe because I think really good dads are pretty damn hot. Example? Karen Templeton’s Guys and Daughters miniseries from Silhouette Special Edition.

But, both as a reader and an author, I do like a kid-free zone sometimes, like the awesome contemporary romances of Julie James. The Christmas novella I’m working on is blissfully free of children, not only because you can’t stuff a novella with an overabundance of secondary characters, but because Exclusively Yours and Undeniably Yours were very family-focused and it’s time for a fun, sexy fling. Not saying the couple doesn’t want children in the future, but kids won’t be a part of the story.

There are two child-free heroines in my backlist. Not that there are children in all the other stories, but in these two cases, being child-free is specifically mentioned.

Eliza Jane, in Taming Eliza Jane, can’t have children. If you’ve read it, you know I had a little fun with the expectation of the Magic Seed of her One True Love. If you haven’t, I won’t say more. While they’re perfectly happy as is, I could see them perhaps adopting some orphans if the opportunity arose.

Carmen, in No Surrender, has consciously decided not to have kids. She just doesn’t see herself as a mother and has zero interest in babies. And, while her happily ever after with Gallagher is fairly traditional because that’s how I roll, I can tell you Mr & Mrs G enjoy the company of other people’s kids, but are 100% happy not having their own.

How about you? Do you like little ones running amok in the romances you read or do you prefer kid-free stories? Or a mix?

EDITED TO ADD: It just occurred to me everybody’s going to say “a mix”, so which do you think you read more of? I think, especially with my love of category romance, I probably read more books with kids than without.

And, of course, all I want to do is watch The Last of the Mohicans for the umpteenth time, which is totally my mother’s fault.

That scene, when they first start walking and we see Uncas watching Alice? *swoon*

And the men running straight up the side of a mountain to rescue their women? *swoon*

My favorite line: “If they don’t kill you, they’ll take you north…”

No no no. MUST. WORK.

Which movie’s your weakness? The one that, if you stumble across it channel-surfing, you can’t look away until the end credits.

He’s not as interested in the military aspect, though. There was a gentleman who was more of the camp “doctor” and TK was fascinated with his antique gadgets and gizmos. It’s almost like he found his real people. And I’ll be honest—I find the idea of sitting in my 18th century dress, scratching away word count with quill & ink a little appealing.

Anyway…some pictures. This is a part of the camp, and you’ll see TK inside, exploring his grandmother’s tent.

The British regulars and colonial militia squared off against the French and the Indians.

For a while, it appeared the British would win.

But the French and Indians rallied and won the day. (Literally just the day. Today they’ll be reenacting the battle again and the English will win. They take turns.)

Mom showing her grandsons how to play a traditional game of the time period. When you uncross the sticks, it causes the hoop to fly and the other players would try to catch the hoop on their sticks before returning it.

There were also several Civil War units present, though they didn’t have any Confederate units, so they made do with parading and demonstrations, rather than a reenactment. Actually, toward the end of the afternoon, a single gentleman of the Confederate Cavalry did show up, but that battle would have been fairly short.

The First New Hampshire Volunteer Cavalry.

And there were several Massachusetts units. I’m honestly not sure if they all fell under the 5th Massachusetts or not, but this is the artillery demonstration.

And for those of you who know me well, you’ll appreciate my mother finding a way to keep me from stealing her spoons…

And every few days I want to take that pricey little package and beat him over the head with it.

I only buy books for me that I want to read. Therefore I can open Stanza or the Kindle app and touch on any cover, title or author that strikes my fancy and start reading. And, since I wanted to read a book, chances are I remember a little about it.

But I’m also in charge of grabbing books for my husband and that’s where we’ll run into problems. I grab him a lot of freebie from B&N and…other places whose books require a little tweaking before going on the nook. I watch for sales on thrillers and, if I think he might like something, I’ll grab it.

So my husband will finish a book and then open the library on the nook, where he gets a list of titles. Just titles. Every single time he wants to start a new book, I have to pull up the Amazon app on my iPod Touch, search for each title and read the blurbs to him.

There’s gotta be a better way…