Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday to make Love & Laughter’s first guest blogger feel welcome. With 60-plus page views, I’d call Keri Ford’s visit a success. (Keri, please don’t tell me you were the visitor 50 of those 60 times.)
I’ve been adding to the list of articles I find intriguing, motivational or all-around hilarious. It’s time to spread the link love, so here are a few of my recent favorites. Enjoy!
— If you’re in need of a little motivation to get BICHOK (Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard), try these instant motivation tips from The Writer magazine. They’re drawn from recent research in neurology and psychology, so you know you’re getting some top-notch advice. My favorite part? I was already doing many of these things.
— Jody Hedlund’s posts are always chock-full of great information. Such is the case with her recent missive on why writers should be on Pinterest. I was one of those on the fence about having one more social media site to eat away at writing time … but I finally took the plunge a few months ago. (Find me here, under Arlene Hittle.) I don’t spend a whole lot of time there … yet. But I have a few boards up and running. It’s fun to look at all the pretty photos — and someday, hopefully soon, I’ll be able to add my own novel to my “books I want to read” board. Wait — I should probably file it under “books I’ve read and loved” instead.
— From Chuck Wendig of Terrible Minds: 25 reasons I hate your main character. Gulp. Sure hope my main characters don’t fit any of those molds. I mean, I like them all. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be telling their stories … but I fear some of them may whine a little, or react instead of act, or have muddy motivation. So many sins. Is it even possible to avoid every single one?
— Way back in March, Kristin Lamb wrote a fantastic post on failure. (Let’s not talk about how I failed to read it until now, shall we?) My favorite line: “If we aren’t failing, then we aren’t doing anything interesting.” She also argues that failure makes us stronger. Since I have a huge fear of failure, I’m not sure I like that … but I can still see her point. She’s not the only one who feels that way, either. One of the things Bob Mayer said at his Desert Dreams workshop was something along the lines of “we need to do the thing we fear most” to succeed.
— Ready for a good laugh? Christina Dodd shared a link to this blog post on a terrible used cookbook from the ’70s called “Be Bold with Bananas.” Yes, the pictures are as terrible as you might imagine. I just hope it didn’t come from my mother’s cookbook shelf!
I can’t remember how I first “met” Keri Ford. I think I found her through Twitter first, then picked up “On the Fence.” It doesn’t matter, though: Between her sometimes hilarious tweets and engaging, steamy stories, I’m hooked.
That’s why, when Keri was looking for stops to add to her Roughnecks Blog Tour, my virtual hand shot high in the air.
Welcome to Love & Laughter, Keri. I’m honored to have you be my first guest blogger. Take it away.
Arlene, thank you so much for letting me crash at your place today! I’m excited to tell everyone a little about Lane and Gretchen from my latest release, Rough Ride.
If you could take a classic soccer type mom who had no children, that would be Gretchen. She’s down home. She keeps a tidy house, she keeps a tidy yard. She loves to bake and cook. She’s there for her friends when they need her. Even her best friend admits that if she were a lesbian, she’d be all over Gretchen because she is one awesometastic gal. She’s by no means perfect, but when it comes to that down-home, southern lady, you can’t find a better description than Gretchen.
And Lane sees this in her. And he WANTS. Boy does he want. But Lane isn’t staying in town. So the idea of getting a fling going with this very obvious roots woman and then leaving the small town behind where his brother will be living? Yeah…not such a great idea.
As Lane is tempted by Gretchen, he constantly has to remind himself of the sweet kind of person she is. I mean, she even makes homemade pine cone bird feeders! So today, I’ve got a treat for you.
An instructional video on pine cone bird feeders. This was my first attempt at this and I realized something quickly—I am so not cool with sharing my peanut butter with a bunch of birds who just poop all over my car. I scarified. This time. They better not get used to it.
(Note from Arlene: My techno-challenged self can’t get the embedded video to work here. The link above should take you right to it, though.)
What was the last craft project you did? Leave me a comment and the winner will get their pick from my good friend and Inspirational Author, Winnie Griggs! Print Book and open internationally! Thank you Winnie so much for donating! See more about Winnie at her website http://winniegriggs.com/books.html Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=821533857
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Keri Ford writes Sexy Country Contemporary Romances. See her website for more information about her books and The Roughnecks Blog Tour with all the giveaway, sneak peeks and blog stops: http://bit.ly/Hb1hwS
Blurb for “Rough Ride”
You do for family, no matter what. Lane Iverson knows that better than anyone. Harboring a secret about his mother’s death, Lane is counting the days until he finishes helping his brothers with some work and can head back to his hiding hole hours away. As long as he doesn’t have to face his three brothers every day, the guilt is easier to carry.
There is only one thing that can risk his plan. All of five foot tall with these deep eyes and a voice that shudders through him. The completely addicting, Gretchen Jones. She’s been watching him the entire time he’s been in town. With courage from her friends behind her, she confronts what she wants. To her surprise, that’s the easy part. Keeping her heart protected when she knows he’ll be leaving? Not so easy, but her only choice.
Read Chapter One http://bit.ly/H0azIz
Amazon http://amzn.to/IQiTz8
Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/J9Rzth
AllRomance Ebooks http://bit.ly/JN35rh
Goodreads http://bit.ly/KgZbaL
Find Keri at
Website http://bit.ly/Heo4Vr
Twitter http://bit.ly/HRgGgu
Facebook http://on.fb.me/HenzL0
I’m super excited to have my very first guest blog post scheduled for tomorrow, May 23. Keri Ford, whose Uninhibited in Apple Trail series kept me from getting much sleep on my overnight flight to NYC for RWA Nationals last summer, will be stopping by as part of her Roughnecks Blog Tour.
She even has a giveaway.
Be sure to come say hello.
My four-legged fur children have no clue what day it is and my Mom died nearly a decade ago, so Mother’s Day is just another Sunday for me.
But this year, as I was looking for a card for the Boyfriend’s mother, I saw one that made me think of Mom and laugh.
Front
Inside
I’d like to thank the makers of this card, because they get it. They know that not all mothers need sappy sentiment. My Mom would have assumed I was ill had I given her one of those “wishing you all the happiness in the world” cards.
In my family, laughter truly is the best medicine. We even told stories and laughed during visiting hours before my parents’ funerals.
Whether you laugh until it hurts or laugh to keep from crying, it’s good to throw back your head and have a good chortle every so often.
After all, you have to have a sense of humor to get through this joke we call life, right?
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