Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category
Happy Monday! I hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating Easter weekend. I picked up the milk to make myself one of those Cabury Creme Egg Egg Creams, but have yet to pull the trigger. Maybe tonight after work …
Okay, in truth, even though I’m sure it’ll taste ah-mazing, I’m the tiniest bit scared. I’ve tried escargot, frog legs and alligator, but scrambling a Cadbury Creme Egg makes me quake in my hot-pink Reebok Skyscapes. Go figure.
With JUST RIGHT coming out tomorrow, it’s going to be a busy week for me. (Not that I’ve been counting down or anything …)
If getting your name out there is half the battle, I should be winning this war. I feel as if I’ve been screaming my name from the top of the Empire State Building and scattering my book titles to the wind.
Among the places I’ve been popping up:
• Abigail Sharpe’s newest newsletter. Abs and I go way back. She’s the one who called me to tell me BEAUTY AND THE BALLPLAYER finaled in the FCRW Beacon. The phone rang as I left the post office with receipt in hand for mailing BEAUTY to RWA HQ for the Golden Heart. (Yes, in 2010-11 you still had to mail hard copies.)
I love the idea of including friends’ releases in my newsletter, so I might just steal it. You’ve been warned.
• I’ve been invited to be a guest on author Kim Smith‘s Writer Groupie podcast. My first podcast — and I’ll be doing it via Skype, so it’ll be on YouTube, too.
Gulp. On video, I can’t hide the extra pounds I’ve picked up since taking my author photo …
Seriously, though. I’m both nervous and excited. Now that the antenna fell off my car and I can’t get it to stay on, I’ve only recently started listening to podcasts. Some radio stations still come in, but they fuzz in and out, so I’ve been listening to podcasts on the drive to work, or on longer drives out of town.
I find them informative, inspirational and entertaining. If I can manage to be one of those three, I’ll consider my podcast debut a #win.
We’re set to record the interview Friday night, around 5 p.m. my time. I’ll link to it when it’s ready.
• BREAKING ALL THE RULES is now listed on Night Owl Reviews.
It hasn’t been selected for a review yet (that I know of), so if you know anyone who reviews for Night Owl and likes romcom with a geeky bent, feel free to talk it up.
• BREAKING ALL THE RULES got its first review on Amazon — four stars!
Thanks, sjh in SLC!
• The 2015 Goodreads Author Cyber Convention starts Friday.
Click the banner to visit the fairgrounds. My “booth” is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2223533-let-the-games-begin-arlene-hittle-s-contemporary-romantic-comedy.
I’ve promised to give away a $5 Amazon gift card to a new newsletter subscriber … so get on it. (You can subscribe using the form to the right of this blog post.)
• I joined Camp NaNoWriMo. Been adding new words to an old, old story that I’m revamping as a Harlequin Blaze. I submitted the first chapter last month during the #BlazeBlitz on Twitter, and now have everything crossed in hopes that they like it and want to see more. I could handle being a Blaze Babe.
May your day be filled with reflection, rejoicing, fun and as many Cadbury Creme Eggs as you’d like!
If you’re as big a fan of Cadbury Creme Eggs as I am, you might want to try CCE Egg Cream featured on Buzzfeed. (Thanks to Avery Flynn for pointing this dream of a drink out out in a Facebook post.)
Erm … you can’t tell I’ve been spending too much time on Facebook, and not enough writing, right?
Don’t forget Lizzie Shane’s giving away a copy of DIVA IN THE DUGOUT. Today’s the last day to enter; she’s picking a winner Monday morning. Click here to enter.
If the title “Manic Monday” doesn’t have you tapping your toes and humming a certain Bangles hit, you must not be my age. I remember lying on the floor in my room, listening to that song repeatedly as I tried to write down all the lyrics. Of course, in sixth grade, I didn’t understand half of what I was hearing.
The song is especially apt since things have been crazy lately in the land of romance. Last Thursday was the big day: RWA announced RITA and Golden Heart finalists.
I didn’t earn a nomination — you can’t be nominated if you don’t enter — but I was thrilled for the chance to cheer my friends’ successes. Not just one but FOUR gals from my Golden Heart class of 2011, the Starcatchers, received RITA nominations, and at least one finaled in the GH. Two friends from another writers’ group I belong to, the LaLaLas, got Golden Heart nods.
Special congratulations to Starcatchers Anna Richland (His Road Home, Carina Press), Kimberly Kincaid (Pushing the Line, self-published), Tracy Brogan (The Best Medicine, Amazon Montlake) and Caitie Quinn (Worth the Fall, self-published); and to Starcatcher Arlene McFarlane (Murder, Curlers and Cream, romantic suspense) and LaLaLas Caroline Bradley (Indulge My Fantasy, a finalist in the GH’s new erotic romance category) and Kristal Hollis (Howlin Hearts, paranormal GH finalist).
I recognize lots of other names on the lists, and consider some of them my friends, such as Ruby Slippered Sister Amy Liz Talley, who finaled with her Harlequin Superromance The Sweetest September.
Good luck in New York, ladies. Wish I had the time off and the cash to join you!
In an attempt to beef up my blog, I’m planning to make Manic Monday a regular feature. I envision it including updates of what’s happening in my writing life — upcoming appearances, new projects, etc.
I’m also launching a Writer Wednesday feature, in which I’ll introduce other writers. I figure it’ll be easier to blog more regularly if I don’t always talk about me, myself and I. First up is fellow Turquoise Morning Press author Jennifer Anderson on April 15.
April 15? The dreaded tax day … and I have yet to do my taxes. I see a future of long hours cuddled up with TurboTax. Ugh.
Another regular feature on the blog will be the Friday Five — a quick list post of 5 things I’m loving this week … or find interesting, or … gee, I don’t know. Whatever the list is, there’ll be five things on it. I also plan to keep doing the “My Sexy Saturday” blog hop a couple of times a month.
What’s happening in my writing life right now?
— Turquoise Morning Press released Breaking All the Rules March 19. It’s the story of a by-the-book health care administrator forced by a new state law to hire a Klingon interpreter. The only applicant for the job is a devil-may-care guy with the appetite of a 14-year-old boy and a disturbing habit of flouting every rule imaginable. Get all the details on my Novels page.
— Just Right, part of TMP’s “and they lived happily ever after” set, comes out April 7. In this fairytale remaining of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” Goldilocks is Hollywood starlet Callista Gold, who flees to an Arizona mountain town to escape when hackers leak nude photos of her to the tabloids. The three bears are construction workers named Behr, whom Callie hires to renovate the cottage she’s bought, sight unseen.
It’s available for preorder now — the first of my books to be on preorder, so that’s exciting. Links to each bookseller are on my Novels page.
— On April 10-12, I’m taking part in the Goodreads Author Cyber Convention.
Click the banner to visit the fairgrounds. My “booth” is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2223533-let-the-games-begin-arlene-hittle-s-contemporary-romantic-comedy.
I’ve promised to give away a $5 Amazon gift card to a new newsletter subscriber … so get on it. My newsletter comes out even less often than I update my blog, so you don’t have to worry about it cluttering up your inbox too often.
— In July, I’ll be signing books at the first-ever Payson Book Festival. The event is set for Saturday, July 25, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Gila Community College, located at 201 N. Mud Springs Road, Payson, Arizona. I’m sharing a table with my friend Susan Haught, who writes beautiful, lyrical stories. Her tagline: “Love is Ageless and has the power to change lives — one step, one touch, one kiss at a time.”
The festival wants print books, so I’m limited to selling Diva in the Dugout, Blind Date Bride and Home for the Holidays.
That’s it for this week.
I’m over at Just Contemporary Romance today, talking about my favorite Star Trek Captain.
Since I’ve been writing baseball-playing heroes, it’s been fun to geek out a little with Donovan Marshall, the Klingon-speaking hero of BREAKING ALL THE RULES. In my searches, I discovered this fun T-shirt from Star Trek Shop. It features the Top 10 Reasons Why Kirk is better than Picard:
In case you can’t read it:
10. One word: Hair!
9. Kirk would personally throw Wesley off the bridge
8. Kirk would never sing to children in a crisis
7. Kirk wasn’t shy about taking his shirt off
6. Kirk can beat a Klingon bare-handed
5. Three words: Flying leg kick
4. Kirk doesn’t let the doctor tell him what to do
3. If Kirk finds a strange, spinning probe, he blows it up
2. Kirk never drinks tea, ever (Not sure that’s a selling point …)
1. Kirk can beat a Vulcan at chess
Join me over at Just Contemporary Romance to discuss YOUR favorite Star Trek captain. Mine may not be who you think!
Popular Posts
Reading Alley
