Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
Welcome to the My Sexy Saturday blog hop. Can you believe this is Week 99? I haven’t participated every week, but it’s still nice to be nearing such an impressive milestone.
From the blog:
This week’s theme is Keeping It Sexy and we’re thinking about all the wonderful things that lovers do to and for each other. Think about those special vacations, those sexy beach or mountain homes or maybe it’s just a fun day at the spa. Or taking a ride in the latest spaceship or seeing the home they’ve built together for the very first time. There are things that all lovers do to keep their love fresh, alive and inviting to each other. It’s all those special sexy environments that we’re talking about.
In honor of the theme, I’m going to share a quiet moment from BLIND DATE BRIDE.
Kari and Damien, the reluctant winners of Romance TV’s “Get a Love Life” contest, have been “married” (really in name only at this point) for several weeks by this time. Damien recently learned that he’d have to accompany Kari on her pre-planned Alaskan vacation, which means he needs to get over his flight-phobia—fast. He asks his buddy, Cody, to take him up and imbibes in a bit too much liquid courage—and celebratory “I made it back to the ground in one piece” booze afterward … on the afternoon he’s supposed to meet Kari’s family. With some difficulty, Kari wrangles him into a shower to sober up and then goes to the kitchen, where Cody is making coffee.
Happy reading!
****
As she neared the closed bathroom door, she heard the water shut off. Wanting to give Damien plenty of time to wrap up in a towel, she counted to fifty before putting her hand on the knob and pushing the door open.
He wasn’t wearing a towel. He wasn’t wearing anything at all. Since their exploit in the Element had been in semi-darkness, this was the first time she’d gotten a good look at Damien in all his glory. And he was magnificent.
Kari gulped, wishing she’d counted to a hundred and fifty instead. She swallowed again, seeking to soothe her suddenly parched throat. Her hand shook, reminding her that she was holding Damien’s industrial-sized vat of coffee. She stole a sip, certain that he wouldn’t miss it from a mug that size.
Speaking of large …
No! Kari refused to let herself go there. Locking her eyes on his face, she stepped into the room, shut the door and held out the mug. “Cody thought you could use this.”
He took it from her, and Kari felt a jolt as his fingers brushed hers. “Thanks. I’m already feeling more like myself.”
“That’s good, because we leave for my sister’s in about fifteen minutes.” She tried to ignore the electricity humming in the air between them, and the part of Damien that seemed happy to see her.
Find BLIND DATE BRIDE at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and in print at CreateSpace or Amazon.
Reviews are a funny thing. When you’re waiting to be published, published author friends warn you not to read them.
With good reason, I’ve realized.
A negative review has the power to make you doubt everything. When you encounter criticism, you can start to question your ability to string words into complete sentences, your self-worth, your fitness to live amongst human beings.
On the flip side, take too many positive reviews as the gospel truth and you might end up with an overinflated opinion of yourself and your writing. I don’t care how many people like a book, there’s always room for improvement.
Still, most of us — myself included — can’t help but sneak a peek at reviews from time to time. And, thanks to Amazon algorithms and whatnot, we’re always begging for reviews. Good or bad, a review helps a book’s visibility — and getting a book noticed on Amazon creates sales, which leads to money in the author’s pocket.
Start raking in enough pocket money, and that elusive goal of quitting the day job can become reality. What author doesn’t dream of that?
I was reading an e-newsletter from Goodreads or Createspace or somewhere else I can’t remember. In it, there was an interview with Susan Mallery. She said something about reviews that I don’t want to forget, so I made a quote card about it.
Feel free to share it with your friends!
I spent the weekend in my room in Flagstaff, sorting and packing — and still I barely made a dent. Packing up 15-plus years of accumulated crap is hard, y’all.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. I spent Saturday night and Sunday morning with trash bags and cardboard boxes. I also enjoyed a Saturday-morning gabfest/brainstorming session with my Northern Arizona RWA chapter mates. I’m telling you, knowing what awaited at home wasn’t conducive to getting my butt out of the Denny’s booth we were occupying.
I confess to being a bit of a hoarder, so paring down my stuff won’t be easy.
For example, I didn’t want to part with these …
… My first author business cards, which I designed after finaling in the Golden Heart in 2011.
They don’t take up much room. They also don’t match my redesigned website or brand, so there’s no reason to keep them … but it was so hard to just toss them in the recycling bin. I did hang onto about five of them—purely for archival purposes, of course.
Where else have I been?
I still haven’t seen my Writer Groupie interview in my iTunes podcast feed. Will keep you posted as soon as I get it.
JUST RIGHT was featured in the April Turquoise Morning Press newsletter, along with new releases by Bella Masters and May Williams. May’s “Playing the Piper” is another of the “and they lived Happily Ever After” tales.
That’s it. It’s been a pretty quiet week.
Soon, I’ll be ordering books for the Payson Book Festival. And—fingers crossed—moving into a new place.
How’s this for a manic Monday: I finally finished my taxes. Yes … #TaxesDone.
I’ve been putting it off for months, dreading the result. Fortunately, the experience wasn’t as painful as I’d feared it would be. That was a relief.
Another thing to chalk up in the “not as painful as I feared” category? Taping the Writer Groupie podcast with Kim Smith. Leading into Friday afternoon’s appointment, I was both excited and fearful. Since it was my first podcast — I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I shouldn’t have worried. It was…So…Much…Fun. Sitting down to chat with Kim was like running into a long-lost friend.
There’s always the chance I’ll end up sounding like a chipmunk on helium when I listen to the podcast. I’m not alone in hating the sound of my own voice, I know. I used to DJ at my college radio station, WUEV, and with a microphone in front of my face, my voice drops into a different register … one that had guys calling up to ask me out and/or say they listened to me in the shower. (“Do you know what that voice can do to a man in a shower?” Someone actually asked me that once.)
But Friday, I was just sitting in front of my computer — no microphone in sight. Oh well. At least I wasn’t coming down with a cold when I talked with Kim. No, that came on Saturday afternoon, evening … and now I have a head full of congestion. Ugh.
Here’s a link to the Writer Groupie Podcast on iTunes. My episode isn’t up there yet, but it should be later this week. I’ll keep you posted.
In other news:
— I added a “subscribe to my newsletter” pop-up box to my website’s home page. It’ll show up the first time you visit — but when you close it, it’ll stay gone for 30 days. Of course, I’d love for you to sign up for my newsletter. (Pretty sure once you do that, the pop-up will go away forever.)
The newsletter is still a work in progress. Right now, it only comes out when I have a new release … but I’d like to start putting it out regularly — maybe once a quarter or once every two months.
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