To Buy
Sunday, April 30, 2006
I don't often list other people's books on my blog, but I think I ought to try more often. In that spirit, here's my first push.
SUNSET KEYCassidy Kent
ISBN 1-59426-563-1
Freesia Daniels, personnel specialist and consummate planner, wasn't prepared to get the boot from her company for possessing a heart. When she decides to return home from Boston to the sunny beaches of Key West to lick her wounds, she discovers her heartbroken past has finally caught up with her in the form of Zachary Gray, her childhood sweetheart. He lures her to his island getaway and lands them smack in the middle of a raging hurricane. Lightning doesn't often strike twice, but this storm might give them both a second chance at love.
Size: HeatSheet
Rating: Pulsar Milder language, standard sex and pairings.
Read the excerpt
here. .
This is my buddy
Jax's first publication and it's a team effort with a writing buddy. You can't beat a $2 download. Check it out!
IN ADDITION!
I just reviewed
Sasha White's newest short story release,
THE PETSHANI, and gave it 4 kisses! Go read the
review at Romance Divas and then go buy the story. It's hot and fast and will leave you wanting more!
I also just finished reviewing
Julie Cohen's books,
FEATURED ATTRACTION and
BEING A BAD GIRL and I can't begin to describe how much I loved them both. Well, I can because I reviewed them. The reviews aren't up yet, but rest in mind that I gave them both 5 kisses. I'll let y'all know when the reviews go up.
Guilt
I haven't gone blog-hopping in over a week. I feel so guilty!! But we've been swamped. Garage sale, school things. Yesterday I had to drive all the way out to Sumter (nearly an hour trip one way) for a baby shower. Then we hit the school fair on the way back for over two hours. I was so utterly shattered that last night I fell asleep before the kids did. Thank goodness they got themselves to bed although I did find them curled up together like kittens on one bed.
But I do have good news. On Tuesday, I started the
Sonoma Diet. Not drastically low-carb, although they are limited to an extent. I haven't found the space to even exercise yet, but just by watching carefully what I eat, I've lost 2 lbs!
Yesterday didn't go so well, though. I didn't eat many of the goodies at the baby shower, but I was halfway through my slice of chocolate cake before I even thought about it! I told myself I'd make it up by eating a good dinner, but as I said, I was exhausted. Ordered a pizza and had two slices.
Oh well. Today is another day, though. Right? I'm off to get breakfast. I'm jittery for some reason. Probably because I haven't eaten yet. Fell asleep by 8:30, then woke up at 5 am. I just finished reading a Merdedes Lackey book --
Phoenix and Ashes. One of her Elemental Mage series where each story is based on a fairy tale. This one was Cinderella. I really disliked an earlier one I had read that was based on Beauty and the Beast (the Fire Rose), but this one was great! Very powerful, even though I did skim a few pages of arcane esoterica.
Anyway, I will get back to everyone's blogs, but I seem to be in pre-hermit mode. I love being a hermit and walling myself up, but it's a luxury I just don't have the time for right now.
Word of the Day
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Exercised.Not Denise Austin, either. It's a peculiarly Southern word that means
ticked off.
For example, "People get
exercised when they feel someone is taking advantage of them." I just heard it on the radio and it occurred to me that it's probably one of those words that makes Northerners shake their heads.
Life is Good
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
It really is. The weather is gorgeous, the azaleas are blooming, dd got ready in time this morning to drink her cafe au lait, and ds is already dressed and ready for preschool.
The garage sale went really well for the first hour and a half. Before the heavens opened. In less than two minutes it went from cloudy to gullywasher. Still, we raked in a little over $85, which isn't too bad. I got rid of a few heavy/bulky items. See, the Air Force allows you so much weight when they move you. Any extra, you have to pay yourself and lemme tell you, it costs. So I celebrated when someone took a wrought iron patio set off our hands. That sucker was heavy!
Strangely, the books didn't sell too well. The kid's books went like gangbusters, but I only sold about half a dozen adult books. Mostly non-romance. I buy TONS of books at garage sales. I dunno. Maybe I'm weird.
No comments from the peanut gallery.
Anyway, I still have a whole bunch of stuff. I'll probably give 90% of it to the children's hospital charity that comes by every month to pick up stuff. I'll figure out the rest of it.
More good news? I got an e-mail from my editor (yeah, I still give a little squeak when I say that) about cover art info and blurbs. *giggle* I'm gonna have cover art. And a blurb.
HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?
La vita e bella.
Cece Rocks!!
Friday, April 21, 2006
Remember all those promo questions she asked a couple of weeks ago? She got her answers -- you MUST go read them if you're in any way serious about learning the art of self-promotion.
Read her links,
My Head Hurts and
What Do We Think?Thank you, Cece!!!
Contradiction in terms
The good news:Since my last post, I've added probably 6 pages to the Regency.
The bad news:I have no idea what happens next.
The good news: I've cleared out the children's toys for the yard sale tomorrow.
The bad news:My knees may never forgive me.
The good news:My house WAS clean.
The bad news:It's back to normal.
The good news:We're having a yard sale this weekend -- clearing out tons of stuff we just don't need anymore, making money, having fun.
The bad news:I have today to clean out the garage, then organize, price and stage everything.
The best news: I won't have to deal with it anymore when we move!!! And to someone constantly trying to downsize, that's the best news of all!!
BICHOK
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
I don't feel like writing the Regency. I'm just not in the mood. I feel like writing COLD or DAUGHTER OF PRIVILEGE.
But you know what finally clicked this morning? A writing career isn't about moods. It isn't about whims, and it isn't about muses -- undependable creatures at best. I kicked mine to the curb months ago because she wasn't getting the job done.
A writing career is about sitting your ass in the chair and finishing the damn book. And by the time I've written another chapter, I'll be back in the mood to write it.
Then I'm going to work on DAUGHTER OF PRIVILEGE because it's the next closest to being done.
Then I'll work on whatever strikes my fancy. Might by COLD or it might be one of any number of abandoned wips that still strike a chord. But that's then and this is now.
And now I'm going to go to the coffee shop and write.
Lady M's wonderful art!
Monday, April 17, 2006
The fantabulous
Lady M made a mock cover for one of my wips. Isn't it awesome? It goes to a story I'd been calling COLD, but I think I like COLD RUNE even better. As we discussed the cover, I even got a few more ideas for plot and character development.
Here's the blurb I wrote for it:
An action-filled romance featuring Mae Davis, a professor of Nordic history, and Colm McIvers, a gruff Interpol agent trying to protect her. A very special Runestone has been stolen and Mae's the one who did the bulk of the research on it. It's not only an artifact, it's a key to great power. She thinks it's just a fairy story, but she'll learn to believe the unbelievable by the end. Colm can only protect her from what he can see -- how will he keep her safe from the things he can't?
Holiday over...
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Real life intrudes.
We had a great time in Myrtle Beach. We played in the pool, we played on the sand, we played in the ocean. It was fantastic. I'm not a big beach person, but for a short holiday, it was perfect. What helped was that it wasn't crowded at all. I can see that, in the height of the summer season, it would be tough to claim a couple of feet to park your towel, but this week was so calm.
Unfortunately, not calm enough for me to do the reading I wanted to do. So I'm still plugging away, trying to find minutes here and there to pick up
Julie's book, which, btw, I am thoroughly enjoying. If there's a voice that could pull me back into reading more category, this is it.
Anyway, in all the housecleaning that I did from Sunday to the big push on Tuesday, I somehow screwed up my back. From my neck down to my shoulder blades is one big blazing pain. I can turn my head to one side, but not the other and God forbid I should look down.
Ouch.
I've taken 2 ibuprofen and the edge is off, but I'm still veeeery careful with how I move.
Tonight, we grill. There's a sale on boneless rib-eye at BiLo. Tomorrow, Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Pine-Nut Couscous. Also, today I really, really need to take the Monkey Princess shopping. She has no summer clothes. I dropped the ball on that one. Thank goodness Kohl's is having one of their Saturday sales.
Gotta go! Sloooowly.
My house is so clean!
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Clean, clean, clean! I didn't even cook dinner tonight because that would have messed up the kitchen. We're going on a brief holiday tomorrow down to Myrtle Beach, so I wanted to have a clean house to come home to. Mission accomplished! I'm beat.
Aside from cleaning, I've also gardened in the last couple of days. Not much, just a few herbs -- annuals like basil and dill and a couple more rosemary plants. All of last year's perennial herbs returned except for the thyme. Damn bunnies. I have a black thumb, but I do love growing herbs. If we ever end up in a house that we live in for a long time, I want a bay tree. It's a very satisfying feeling to say while I'm cooking, "Hon, will you go snip a couple of sprigs of something for this?"
When I finished planting the last of my rosemary, I also sprinkled fire ant killer. Wretched insects. I can't stand them. Last year, I got bitten right on the top of my foot and it took a month to heal.
Haven't done any writing since I undertook the cleaning project, but I hope to remedy that at the beach. I'm also taking my friend
Julie Cohen's new books,
Featured Attraction and
Being a Bad Girl to read. I've been dying to read them!
Enjoy yourselves while I'm off to the beach!
Anna's Birthday!
Monday, April 10, 2006
Go over to my friend
Anna's blog to wish her
Happy Birthday! While you're there, look around at some of her posts -- she's got a gorgeous way with words.
Y'all are not going to believe this!
Sunday, April 09, 2006
I have a
website! It totally rocks!!
Ok, it probably doesn't, but what the heck. It was Free! I love free. It's a 30-day free trial with
Homestead. It doesn't have any ads and I kind of liked the layout. It took me, like, half an hour to set it up. Actually, as soon as I registered, I got a phone call from them to help me set it up. Cool, huh? And it wasn't even someone in New Delhi -- it was in California! The young man's name was Ocean. Who does that to their child?
Anyway, it's not perfect yet. I have a lot to learn, but it was something to do instead of write.
I didn't actually say that out loud, did I? Oops.
Anyway, it's there. For now. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it now. I guess I need a links page. I'll make one of those tomorrow. Or maybe later tonight if I'm still up.
If you're a Diva, you're not allowed to look on the Portfolio page until you're done judging the Best 5 Pages contest. I didn't change the titles on my entries.
And I'm such a geek.
Angie commented on my post below. That's my editor! Girly squeak!
Ok, I've obviously consumed way too much caffeine. Or a microscopic piece of the splinter I got while gardening today has gone to my brain. I shouldn't be blogging at 10:30 pm. I should be in bed. Reading.
More promo links
So, I'm over at my buddy
Jaye's blog and she's got some interesting links.
The first one I hit took me to
Alison Kent's blog. She's got a really nifty idea she calls the Viral Marketing Blitz. It boils down to this catch phrase -- Buy One, Blog One, Get One Free.
Someone buys/borrows/begs/steals (btw, I'm paraphrasing/quoting her blog, but you need to click the link to get the whole schlemiel) her current book, blogs about it, then they e-mail her to tell her they did it, and she gives them a copy of her next book. And so on, and so on, and so on. Starting to sound like a Prell commercial here. Anyway, the entire idea is to build readership. All they have to do is buy one book, they get one free and they've begun to build a reading relationship with this author. Which totally works if you have one work coming out after another. Which I don't yet, but I still think it's a great idea.
She also links to
Lee Goldberg and thence to
Joe Konrath, who are on differing sides of the How Much Can You Really Afford to Promote debate.
And I have a question about banner ads.
Do those really work? Seriously. Do you have any idea if posting your cover over at Romance Junkies or CoffeeTime or any of those places brings in more readers?
In addition, a few days ago,
Romancing the Blog had a list of webdesigners to check out. Don't forget to look in the Comments section for additional resources.
PS. I was surfing
riemannia's blog and discovered an article
Kate Rothwell wrote about promo. Largely for print, but it's interesting anyway.
Trying to think of something to blog about
Thursday, April 06, 2006
I guess I'm just not that interesting!
Actually, I've been writing. The erotic romance novella I wrote some time ago desperately needs something like a plot surrounding it. So I picked it up two days ago and started writing. And darned if it doesn't like there's an actual story there! Huh. Not that there's anything wrong with a plotless boink-fest!
But life is starting to get hectic. Guests coming late tomorrow and the guest room is uninhabitable. Next week is going to be extremely busy, too, so I've got to get a whole bunch of little things done today.
And there's the blog for today.
Man. I need to get a more exciting life.
Cece is asking Promo Questions
Monday, April 03, 2006
So run on over to her
blog to see if you can help her out. She's asking both readers and writers of e-published books questions about how they buy and/or sell.
Right about now, these questions are bumping around in my head, but not in any organized fashion. So if you help her, you're helping out a lot of us newbie authors.
And is it ok to still get a geeky thrill out of saying the word
author? ;)
The Wry Writer Sneak Attack
Alexandra tagged me with this one:
Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Airline ticket agent
2. Newspaper reporter
3. Substitute teacher
4. Catering staff
Four movies you could watch endlessly:
1. The Fifth Element
2. The Mummy
3. Star Wars 4-6
4. El Dorado
Four places you have lived:
1. Suffolk, England
2. Hampton, VA
3. Crappy little town, central Lousiana. No need to get more specific.
4. Boise, ID
Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. CSI (original)
2. Dr. Who
3. Monk
4. Las Vegas
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Bavaria
2. Venice
3. Sharjah, UAE
4. Honduras
Four websites you visit daily:
1. Romance Divas
2. eHarlequin
3. Too many blogs to count
4. MSN.com for the gossip
Four of your favorite words:
1. Bugger
2. Nuts
3. Cute-pea
4. Hey! (as a greeting)
Four places you would rather be right now:
1. In bed
2. At a coffeeshop
3. England
4. Honduras
I don't know who to tag! I've seen this meme so many places that I think most of my friends have done it already. If you want to do it on your blog -- feel free!
No, no, no
Your hero's name isn't Sinjin. His name is St. John. It's pronounced /sinjun/. Roughly. But it's spelled St. John. Get it? Got it? Good.
Gawd.
Sorry. Pet peeve of mine just bubbled over there.
