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Archive for 2013

Sunday Update 5/12/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 12, 2013| 9 Comments »

Well, I’m still off my game. I only exercised two days, and I didn’t write at all this past week. I had big plans to do a lot of writing yesterday, but I had lots of company, and sometimes company is just more important, you know? Writing will wait, but the people in my life have to come first. That’s just the way I roll. And it seemed like every time I had plans to write during the week, something came up. It was just one of those kinds of weeks.

On another note…hubby and I watched Jack Reacher Friday night (maybe that was one of the things that came up, LOL). I really, really loved that movie. I had qualms about seeing it because of the casting of Tom Cruise. Jack Reacher is suppose to be 6’5″ and between 220-250 lbs. All muscle, of course. You can see why Tom Cruise wouldn’t have been my first choice for the role. When I found out who they had cast, I was ALL bent out of shape. But I will admit, he didn’t do a bad job at all. I still would have cast someone bigger and tougher, but Tom Cruise did fine with the acting. I really enjoyed the movie, and hubby did, too.

It’s only two weeks until my vacation. Luckily, we had already paid for everything before hubby’s hospital stay, so we’re able to go. We’ll just have to pay for food, but since we’re staying in a condo (shared with friends), we can buy groceries just like we would at home instead of going out for every meal. We REALLY need this vacation. I need to just let go of all the stress and just enjoy myself for a little while. One thing we’ll have to be careful about is going too long without stopping on the way. We usually stop at least three times during an eight hour trip, but hubby needs to stop more often this time. Long car rides can actually CAUSE blood clots, and we have to make sure the one in hubby’s leg doesn’t get worse. We don’t want any more breaking off and going into his lung now that his lung is getting better. Life seems to be looking up a little now. I want to keep it that way for awhile, at least what we can control.

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Fun with Balloons

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on May 11, 2013| 13 Comments »

My husband was blowing up balloons for our granddaughter. He found this balloon in the pack. He said “I can’t blow this one up.”

(P.S. On a serious note…isn’t it so cool that after having the blood clot in his lung, he can actually blow up a balloon? I think that shows he’s almost well.)

photo

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Nook Press

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 7, 2013| 15 Comments »

Apparently, B & N has listened to authors’ concerns. One of the reasons I haven’t moved to Nook Press from PubIt is that you had to create a new project if you wanted to edit your manuscript, which meant you would lose all your reviews and rankings. I have a book that I know needs a couple of corrections, and I wanted to get that done before moving over. The last email I got about Nook Press says that you can now edit current books without taking them off sale. This makes me feel better.

One thing that I’m concerned about, though, is that we can no longer upload a Word document, or at least that’s what I’m understanding. We have to either create the manuscript on their site or upload an epub file. To me, creating an epub is a pain. I’ve always uploaded a Word doc to B & N, an html file to Amazon, and a Word doc to Smashwords. Epub is a little more time consuming. When I’ve had to make epub files (for All Romance), I’ve used Sigil. It also lets you create other formats.

So my questions are: How many of you have already converted to Nook Press? Has anyone used their platform to create or edit your manuscript? Any issues with Nook Press? What program do you find easiest and most effective to create epubs?

Anybody have answers?

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Sunday Update 5/5/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 5, 2013| 10 Comments »

Finally, I wrote one day last week! Saturday, I wrote 2038 words. So I’m breathing a sigh of relief. I was beginning to think I just couldn’t write anymore, but I think it was just all the stress worrying about my husband, worrying about finances, worrying about everything. Well, I shouldn’t use the word “worry”, I guess I should say concerned. Worry shows a lack of faith. But none of us are perfect, right? So, yeah, I guess I was worried. But hubby is feeling SO much better. He’s pretty much back to normal, at least on the surface. I know the clots are still there, but his last chest x-ray was better, and his blood is finally thinning like it should. That was a real concern. The doctor made him do some things like walk briskly up and down the hallway to see if he had shortness of breath, and he passed that test. So he is definitely much better. Yay!

Next week, I plan to get back to the gym for weight work. Then, in the evenings, I’ll either walk on the treadmill at home or ride my bike (if I can find the pump to air the tires!). I want to combine the weight and aerobic exercises and get back to healthy living. And I’m going to try to get back to writing at least three days a week, then go up to four. Hopefully, life will get back on track!

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Where I Live

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 4, 2013| 15 Comments »

I love living in the South. And I love living out in the country. I love the green trees and the flowers in the spring and summer. I love listening to the crickets and the tree frogs. I love to hear the hoot owl that lives in the tree close by my house. I have pictures. 🙂

The woods at the side of my house.

The woods at the side of my house.

Front yard.

Front yard.

Duke running toward me.

Duke running toward me.

Purple irises and little purple flowers I've forgotten the name of.

Purple irises and little purple flowers I’ve forgotten the name of.

Yellow and purple irises.

Yellow and purple irises.

Cherry Parfait rose just about to bloom.

Cherry Parfait rose just about to bloom.

Okay, can you tell I’m excited about Spring???

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What I’ve Been Reading 5/2/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on May 2, 2013| 6 Comments »

So here I was planning to write about what I’ve been reading, and I saw this post by my friend, Emma. LOL. Great minds and all that.

Anyway…

I’ve been listening to Micro by Michael Crichton on audiobook through my iPhone (and car speakers). Well, he didn’t get to finish it because he died before it was done. I apologize to the author who did finish it, because I can’t remember his name right now. This book made me really mad a couple of times. I won’t tell you why because it’s a spoiler, but I wanted to scream. I did sort of yell at my iPhone that was playing the story. This book is about a company who can shrink things and people down to about 1/2 inch. Some things even smaller. We get to see the micro-world in a rain forest, and that was really cool. I didn’t check facts every time I wondered if something was real or made up, but if some of the stuff was real, Crichton did a LOT of research for this book. He always has, though, for his books. I’ve liked just about everything Michael Crichton has written. He is the most eclectic author I’ve ever read. I hate that we’ll never have anything else by him to read. 😦

On my Kindle, I’ve been reading Death is a Gift by Claire Farrell. I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. It’s so full of awesome. In the first 25% of the book, I was already bawling my eyes out. But it was something that kind of had to happen. (No, I’m not telling.) I fell in love with the main character, Cliona, who is a banshee. I felt every emotion she felt as I was reading this book. She had to make some hard decisions, and through this whole book, I couldn’t figure out if it was going to have a happy ending or not. (Again, not gonna tell!) This was a stand alone book. Even though I love Claire’s series, this is by far my favorite book by her. I didn’t want it to end.

On my iPhone, I’m reading The Green-Eyed Doll by Jerrie Alexander. This is the first book I’ve read by this author. In fact, I think it’s her only release, but she’s got some other stuff coming out soon. Anyway, this has been slow reading because I don’t get to read on my iPhone very much. Just little bits here and there when I get a chance. I’m enjoying the book. It’s about a sheriff, Matt, and a woman, Catherine, with a past she doesn’t want anyone to know about it, especially the sheriff, whom she’s falling for. Oh, and there’s a serial killer. I think he’s going to take Catherine soon. This one is a murder mystery/romance. I’m pretty sure there’ll be a HEA.

On my iPad, I’m reading Her Reluctant Groom by Rose Gordon. I put this one on hold just a little while because I was reading on my iPad while walking on the treadmill, and I’ve not gotten back to exercising yet. I also read it a little bit while hubby was in ICU. I need to get back to that book, because I was really enjoying it. I love a scarred hero. And the heroine has some issues of her own. Rose always makes me smile because her books are a little different from other historical romances I’ve read. There’s always a bit of humor in them, which I really enjoy. I listened to His Contract Bride recently, and that book was just a lot of fun. I’m taking some of Rose’s books to the beach with me, along with Ruth Ann Nordin’s. Romances are great beach reads.

I hope to do these posts every once in awhile. Since I’ve about decided not to review much at the retailers, I thought I would just do some of it here.

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Wednesday Update 5/1/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 1, 2013| 10 Comments »

Actually, I don’t really have a lot to update. I hope to get back to my Thursday-Saturday writing schedule this week. My WIP has been on my mind, so I guess that’s a good sign. I almost have my office arranged the way I want it, so the writing might be easier.

Hubby is still improving. He had a really rough night a couple of days ago, his chest hurting so badly, I thought I was going to have to take him to the emergency room. We were afraid another clot from his leg had detached and went to his lung. However, when he went to the dr. the next morning for his biweekly blood test, his lung x-ray was actually better. The dr. said he thought hubby had a rib out of whack and did an adjustment. He felt much better after that. Plus, he still has pleurisy from the whole lung ordeal. He REALLY wants to get back to work.

Speaking of back to work…that’s where I am, so I better get to it so I won’t get any further behind.

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Should Authors Review? & Burned Out on PNR

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 30, 2013| 19 Comments »

I had a couple of topics I wanted to discuss and couldn’t decide which one to write about today. So I decided to combine them. I apologize in advance for the long post. If you want to read it, maybe you can break it up into two days or something. LOL.

First, should authors review? You do realize, I’m sure, that there’s no right or wrong answer to that. It’s your choice. However, I’m wondering if it even matters anymore since a couple of authors told me that Amazon is taking down reviews from authors. That doesn’t even make sense because authors are readers, too, but it might be because there are so many authors that give bad reviews to the “competition”. Yeah, it happens. I used to review a lot, but to be honest, I did it partly out of obligation. Yes, I loved the books, but if I knew the author, then there’s the chance people think you are just a friend trying to promote a friend’s book. And that can sometimes hurt more than help. Then there’s the situation where you want to review a friend’s book and you really don’t like it. What do you do then? I’ve pretty much stopped reviewing books by authors who are pretty well established and have lots of reviews already. And I might review a book if it has several bad reviews and I thought it was a really good book. I hate to see a book I really like get bad reviews. It’s really getting to the point, though, that trying to review is bogging me down. I read a LOT of books, and I just don’t have time to review every one of them. On Goodreads, you can at least just pop over and give a book some stars, so sometimes I’ll do that even if I don’t review on Amazon. I’m not saying I’m going to stop reviewing altogether, but I’m not going to do it much on retail sites. So I’m thinking I might start doing some reviewing on my blog. I want to write more on my blog anyway, so that might be a good way to have an extra post here and there. I could even do a post on “What I’m Reading” and just give a little comment about each book. I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet. We’ll see.

Next, I want to talk about how I’m burned out on Paranormal Romance. I never thought it would happen. When I wrote and published my first novel, it was a paranormal romance called A Rocky Path. It’s a ghost story. Then I did a couple of vampire books, a couple more ghost stories, more vampire/werewolf books. And I threw in a fantasy romance, Starfane, in the mix. The funny thing is, until I started writing PNR, it wasn’t what I was used to reading. I used to read horror, mystery, thriller, detective…but no PNR. Then when I started publishing that very thing, I really got into it. I was reading it like crazy. I have friends who write PNR, and I tried to read all of their books. I was like a sponge, soaking up the vampire love stories. The Black Dagger Brotherhood series blew me away. But, suddenly, things shifted. I started getting burned out on the BDB series, which I listened to as audiobooks. After I listened to the 8th (or 9th) Brotherhood book, I had to hear something different. I listened to a historical romance by Rose Gordon, which I enjoyed immensely. I’m currently listening to Micro by Michael Crichton (RIP). Next, I’m going to listen to Joe Hill’s (Stephen King’s son) latest book. Then MAYBE I can get back to the BDB. This burnout may be what’s affected my writing and making me change my current WIP. It was originally supposed to be a PNR, but it’s now apparently going to be horror. I like horror, but I never thought I would be able to write it. I was almost afraid to write The Gnome, but many people have told me they really like it. So I feel a little more confident about my WIP. For those friends of mine who write PNR, don’t worry…I know I won’t feel this way for too long. I WILL be reading your books. Just give me a little time. 🙂 But I also want to find some more indie authors who write other things, like horror, mysteries, etc. I do have some author friends who write in these genres, but I want more. I like to support indies, so I would rather read those authors when I can.

So I kind of feel like my post was rambling. I almost did this in kind of a stream of consciousness way, just writing what came out of my brain. If it makes no sense, please forgive me. I’ve had a rough few months. LOL

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Sunday Update 4/28/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 28, 2013| 16 Comments »

I thought I was ready to get back to writing, but I really wasn’t. Also, there has been a lot going on in the house. My brother is helping do some things to get my office looking more like, well, an office. 🙂 My son and his family were here yesterday, so there was lots of fun with a two-year-old that calls me “Mimi”. I love having her here, but boy am I ever tired when she leaves! When my son started dating someone with a baby, I was so afraid of getting attached to the little girl and then having to get unattached when they broke up. But after two years, they are now engaged, and it looks like I’ll have this little granddaughter around for a long time. So that makes Mimi happy.

I really hope to get back to writing this week. I just couldn’t make myself do it last week, so I guess I wasn’t over the stress enough. I know a lot of writers actually do better when they are full of angst, but not me. I like to be happy when I write, even when I’m writing dark stuff.

I lost my best friend two years ago, and I don’t feel like I’ve really grieved like I should. I’ve had a few moments, but not REAL grieving moments. While I was cleaning things out of my office yesterday, I found a box of her jewelry that I got to keep after she died. Inside was the little two page thingy (I can’t remember what they’re called) that was given out at her memorial service. I actually put the thing together and printed it out. It had some scripture and some quotes picked out by her family members. And there was a lovely poem on the back written by a good friend of hers. I started going through her jewelry, then I read the poem. The floodgates opened, and I cried like a baby. It took me two years to really cry like that. I used to cry more easily, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve hardened a little. I was just glad my husband was still in bed. That kind of grieving needs to be done alone.

As far as my husband’s health goes, we’re frustrated because his blood isn’t thinning out as fast as it should. It’s actually not as thin as it was while he was in the hospital, but he was also taking an extra blood thinner there that was an injection. His doctor has upped his Coumadin dosage twice. He still has the clot in his leg, and if his blood does’t get thin enough, that could be a potential problem. We don’t want another lung clot! Keep us in your prayers, and if you don’t pray, send us good thoughts and vibes. We need all the help we can get. The doctor thinks he might be able to go back to work a little sooner than we thought, but only if he can get his blood thinned out better. I keep wondering when the hospital and doctor bills will start coming in. Again, I can’t thank Kait enough for setting up that fundraiser for me and I thank all of you that donated to it. There’s enough there right now for a mortgage payment and a car payment. You guys are the cream of the crop!

Wish me luck for actually getting writing done this week. Hopefully, the rest of you are making progress!

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Fitness Friday and Interview!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 26, 2013| 4 Comments »

After all the eating hospital food and fast food, after all the stress eating, after the lack of exercise for over two weeks…I just knew my weight had to really be up. I wasn’t really worried about it, because taking care of hubby was first. I knew I could get back to taking care of me later. However…drum roll, please…I only gained 1/2 lb. Only ONE HALF. I am very, very pleased. I should have gained more. I even had four slices of pizza last night. But I’ll take that number, and I’ll work to get back on track and start losing again.

Stats for this week:
Beginning weight: 193
Today’s weight: 172
This week’s gain: .5 lbs.
Total loss: 21 lbs.

And now for the interview. I’m being interviewed today by the lovely Jamallah Bergman, author of several romances, including her latest one, The Admission. Jamallah is a wonderful lady with a great sense of humor, and I was so pleased that she agreed to interview me. So without further ado, here is the link to the interview.

Interview

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