Category: Becoming a Romance Heroine

Becoming a Romance Heroine: Hair

I have super thick hair that I used to keep short. And then for awhile, I didn’t do anything with it at all. What kind of romance heroine doesn’t tend to her hair?

But last year at a charity girls night out event, I met a hairdresser who is awesome. So I’m giving her and the hair salon a shout out today. If you live in Albuquerque, NM you must try D’Ambrosio Designs Hair Studio. My hair dresser is Natalie Ramirez. When I first went to her, my hair was a disaster, but after a year of regular care my natural waves are a plus rather than a hindrance, and it feels oh so soft. I love the way my hair feels now.

The owner of the salon Marcus D’Ambrosio runs a great business. His stylists are always punctual, but if you get there early for your appointment, you can enjoy a variety of coffee–always important!

This picture is a few weeks after my most recent haircut–still soft and wavy!

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Indulge yourself at a salon this weekend, and if you live in ABQ check out D’Ambrosio. You’ll be very glad you did!

xoxoxoxx

Evelyn

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Becoming a Romance Heroine: Nails

In Corporate Fire, Grace is OCD and can’t stand to have even one fingernail with chipped polish:

Grace noticed the chip in the “sassy red” nail polish on her index finger as she removed the bicycle clips from her pants. The compulsion to slam her hand on the elevator’s emergency stop button pulsed all the way to her fist, but she clenched it at her side—the bells would draw too much attention. She’d ride to her floor, wait for the door to open and close and go back down. It’d only take what, another half hour to bike back to her apartment? Then she’d be late.

I’m not at her level of obsession, but I have been enjoying doing my nails in different ways recently. This weekend I had fun with stickers! Nail stickers are an easy way to make your nails pop. I’ve had lots of compliments on them, and I felt extra attractive on my date because of them.

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Lover Returns

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I love Mondays. I know that’s not normal. But Mondays are the start of a week without mistakes.

Usually.

This morning I woke up to Lover saying, “You have a continuity error in chapter six.”

This was not Finn, the sweet date I had at the Barley Room.

This was THE Lover. The one I had when I started this blog. Think of him to me as Mr. Big was to Carrie Bradshaw.

The problem with dating Alpha Males in real life instead of leaving them to the romance books is they’re always off doing their Alpha Male things. I hand waved over why I’ve been absent from the blog, but mostly it revolved around Lover. Christmas and New Years come like storms to relationships with all the expectations and compromising…especially between two people who are dominant rather than submissive.

Lover rode out with the storm.

I didn’t feel like whining on my blog and I needed to get Corporate Fire publishing ready, so I dove into the story rather than worry about the blog.

Lover is not on Twitter. It’s noise to him. So he says he didn’t read anything of those other dates. I’m not so sure. I think what brought him back was naming Finn on my blog. Even my friends were commenting on me giving someone a name.

I spent the weekend with Lover and it was wonderful. Even waking up to a mistake first thing Monday morning. He takes my work seriously and always helps me with it. I haven’t asked how long he’ll be here this time. It’s a tricky question for an Alpha Male, and tricky for an Alpha Female to time it just right.

I hope your Monday started as great as mine.

xoxoxoxx

Evelyn

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Becoming a Romance Heroine: Exercise, Epic Fail

Back in October, I decided that exercise, particularly Yoga, was what I needed next in my journey to become a Romance Heroine. The first week was fantastic. I had more energy, and I lost two pounds. But then I was promoting my book. I quit exercising. I was back to being like this Internet meme:

 

Establishing an exercise routine is freaking hard. It takes like a month to make it a habit. Before that month kicks in, anything will distract me: a new book to read, a new book to write, mochas to drink, men to drool over, clever dates to think up. Then the rationalizing kicks in: I heard thinking is the only way to burn carbohydrates so reading and writing count as exercise, I need that mocha to keep my mind sharp so I can keep reading and writing and burning off carbohydrates, everyone says sex is a great exercise, so really a date should count.

A month and a half later after all this rationalizing, I gained back the two pounds plus three more.

Soooo, I’m starting exercising again. The goal is to exercise five times a week. I got three in last week, but I did just decide this Thursday. I took yesterday off, but I spent an hour really cleaning the kitchen so that should count right?

Follow me on twitter @evelynaster to see how I’m doing and hear my newest rationalizations for what should count as exercise!

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Romance Heroine Soundtrack: Summer Songs 2014

Larrisa’s Life Top Five Sundays’ topic is Summer Songs of 2014. Every romance heroine needs a good soundtrack for her life, especially during summer time. Here are my top five picks for summer music.

Into New Adult Romance? Lorde is your woman with Down to the Tennis Courts:

Going out salsa dancing for a date? Shakira’s your woman with La La La.

Need a shot of optimism? Plug in some American Authors with Believer:

Need to mellow out? Train’s your band with Angel in Blue Jeans.

And if you’re a writer…Weird Al 🙂

Thanks for stopping by! A reminder I’m running a giveaway for a Kindle Paperwhite until Friday night! Click on the graphic below to enter:

giveaway

 

 

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Becoming a Romance Heroine: Yoga

Dear Readers,

I do intend to finish Becoming a Fantasy Romance Heroine soon! I didn’t like one of my pictures and wanted to retake it. Please enjoy getting back to contemporary times for a bit 🙂

It seems to me that contemporary romance heroines take Yoga or Pilates. I don’t know anything about Pilates, but I have a couple of acquaintances who teach Yoga–one teaches Hot Yoga even. Yoga or Pilates, the point is a romance heroine keeps herself in good shape. Please note that I say “good shape” and not super thin or model perfect.

I have always considered myself to be fit, but definitely not super thin or model perfect. Between the ages of 3-18 I took some form of dance lesson every year, mostly tap but I dabbled in ballet and jazz. That was a great foundation for my adult health. And for quite a bit, as an adult, I kept myself very active.

But recently, not so much. For the first time I have slipped over from “healthy weight” to “overwieght.” I’m not very far over the line, but I haven’t told you the worst.

The worst is I have the stupidist injury ever: from sitting on my butt all the time writing and from sleeping on the same side every night, I injured my T-band which is a band that runs from hip to knee. When my doctor prescribed physical therapy as my treatment, I thought I’d be there with senior citizens recovering from hip replacement. There were a few senior citizens, but mostly there were super athletes who over extended their muscles doing their super exercises and making me feel super pathetic.

Fortunately, my trainer was super cute 🙂

So now my physical therapy is over, and I feel much better. But I’m still a little overweight and my leg strength is definitely not what it used to be. I am not a romance heroine 😦

This morning, I took out the old Wii Fit board, dusted it off and started up the program. I know it’s so 2008, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately, my scores have really dropped from when I did it the first couple of years I had it–especially my Yoga scores. The only good report was I’m still 4 years younger in Wii Fit age than my real age.

My goal is to lose 15 pounds in three months and to build up my balance and strength again. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. Wish me luck!

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Becoming a Fantasy Romance Heroine: Jewelry

Maybe after a fantasy romance heroine has slayed the fearsome monster threatening the kingdom, she’ll get to wear one of these:

And win the hand of him:

Prince Nkuul Mehta

But while in the midst of her quest, a fantasy romance heroine must have practicality as well as beauty. Maybe even something with magic. One of my first aquisitions for my fantasy jewelry collection was this lovely butterfly ring:

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I wore it out gambling once and the blackjack dealer wanted to do a side bet for it!

 

And while at the renaissance fair, my lover bought me a dragon earcuff. It’s my hope that a sexy shape shifting dragon made it, but don’t tell my lover that 😉

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It went great with my hair:

IMG_0581 Do you have any fantasy jewelry? I’d love to see a pic.

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Becoming a Romance Fantasy Heroine: Hair

Princesses, of course, get fabulous hairstyles:

But a heroine in a story needs something practical. I always felt sorry for Rapunzel and figured she’d shave her head the first chance she got. Notice how in the latest Disney fairytale, the heroines get simple hair: one braid or two for Elsa and Anna. Easy to manage.

And in the latest reality/fantasy TV show The Quest, the heroines look practically perfect even though they battle the forces of darkness. They don’t let their fashion suffer!

When I went to the renaissance fair with my lover this summer, I found an awesome tool for hairstyles that I love to use even in reality.

IMG_0593It has dozens of ways to form the metal rings, and it keeps your hair back in a bun or a ponytail so you can fight the villian without hair blowing in your face.

Of course, since I was at the fair, I also needed to get my hair done in braids with flowers and glitter sprinkled all over:

IMG_0557What would your ideal hairstyle be if you were a romance fantasy heroine?

 

 

 

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