Slow Down, Summer

The warm months are flying by and I want them to slow down. But a lot of good things have come along during that time.

This past weekend at my local meeting of romance writers, we had a guest speaker and met at the house of one of our members. Geri Krotow hosted the meeting in her beautiful home. Other members brought food, delicious wonderful food, most of it not real healthy but terribly delicious. Geri is multi-published in romance and suspense, using her amazing life experiences to add reality to all her writing. She's also one of those very successful authors who shares generously of her knowledge to other writers.

My friend, Heidi Hormel, brought a special treat. These ham and Swiss cheese sliders were delicious and big hit. You know Heidi from her guest spots here and on IWSG. She'll be back next month with a guest post. Heidi is a multi-published author of contemporary western romances with Harlequin.

But to the reason for the meeting, our guest was Kimberly Rocha, founder of Book Obsesessed Chicks Book Club, Blog and Promotions. She does all kinds of things to help authors, from reviewing books to hosting authors at her book club. Then there is her promotions business which I don't know
much about. What Kim did, was give us lots of her opinions on what works for authors and what doesn't. A few tidbits. Facebook release parties are usually a waste of a writers' time. Better to spend time on an hour long Q and A with readers on Facebook. She claims paid Facebook ads are often very effective. She's against giving away free stuff and had many suggestions on how to increase newsletter signups. Other advice was to enjoy your readers but don't be afraid to block and unfriend and un-follow trolls.

In other good news, the third and last book in my Warriors of Gaviron Series, The Warrior and the Professor, is now available on Amazon. Unlike many of my series where the first book is often the
favorite, in the Warrior series, this third book is my favorite. Now if I could only get the third book in the next series done.

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." George Carlin

More good news, my daughter arrived home from Morocco yesterday. I don't know yet where she's headed to next. She learned a  lot about parenting while over there supervising 17 teenagers. The idea of 'herding cats' may have been used more than once. She handled the difficulties well for being only 22 herself.

I'm in a happy place right now. Daughter home and safe, sun shining and iced coffee on the desk with me.
"Start the day off with a smile and get it over with." W.C. Fields
I'm not ever going to watch that video of the Olympic gymnast breaking his leg that's going around. If you've every had a serious orthopedic injury, you would understand. I wince even thinking about it. But I'm looking forward to many Olympic events. I like the track and field races best and the swimming is second for me. I'm going to try and spend the entire week not thinking about the presidential election.

Now that my daughter is home, I'm also going to go see the new Star Trek. I promised I'd wait for her. Everything I hear about it is good.

What good things are going on with you this week? Ever tried to herd cats? Ever break a bone? What do you think about Facebook for promotion? What are your favorite Olympic events to watch?

IWSG: March (already)

It's that time of month. On the first Wednesday of each month, the wonderful group, IWSG, join in a blog hop to support each other and share our insecurities. As usual thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting this best group in the blog-o-sphere. Visit more participants on this list.

There is so much going on at IWSG group. The newletter! The anthology, Parallels: Felix Was Here, and the IWSG site is signed up for A to Z Challenge. Are you?

Why so glum, chum? Well, lots to worry about this month. The fall of another small press, Samhain, last week, as I mentioned in my Monday's post has me worried. But what can I do about it? Nothing except keep on working on my next book. I hope to have the major plotting done by the end of the weekend. This is the second in my next space opera romance series.

"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms." Muriel Rukeyser

The third book in my Warriors of Gaviron is finally available on Amazon. The Warrior and the Professor answers all the questions of where the alien invaders have come from and whether or not humanity can defeat them.

Speaking of A to Z, that brings me my next worry. Only a month until April and I haven't started my posts yet for A to Z. Good news, I'm going to only post once next week and spend some time working on them. Of course, my daughter is home for spring break so who knows how that will go.

I helped my husband with another big paint job over the past two weeks so it has put me behind on some of my writing work but the next two days are catch up days for me.

On the optimism side, the bulbs are pushing green shoots up through the ground. It's been balmy outside. I put my snow boots away. And Mother Nature answered. The forecast is for 2-3 inches of the cold, white stuff Thursday night.

"Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough." Earl Wilson

And a fun fact from The Old Farmer's Almanac:
Austin, Texas is home to North America's largest urban bat colony."

Do you have your A to Z posts ready yet? How sick of snow are you? What is your insecurity this month? Do you know any good publishing news?

The Fun Never Ends

November is in a hurry. Perhaps because I have so much going on. My to-do lists seems to grow rather than shrink. For everything I mark off as done, I have to add two more.

A quick roundup of what is going on in my writing world. The third and last book in my Warriors of Gaviron Series, The Warrior and the Professor is available as in individual purchase on my publisher's website. It's only offered as part of a boxed set on Amazon for now.

The Futhark Chronicles, Book #1, Keepers of Sulbreth, is now available on Amazon. This is the third publisher to have the book up on Amazon, each time with a different cover. I'm currently doing a round of final edits on Book #2, Beyond the Gate. My publisher has done a great job making the covers of both books match enough for a casual view to see they're the same book.

I also received the contract for Book #3, Beneath the Mountain. This week after I finish the above edits, I'll be working on the cover art sheet, blurb and logline for that book.

I'm also very excited to have the first book in my newest space opera romance series up on the coming soon page. I don't have the release date yet, but my publisher has already given the series its own banner.  The Galactic Outlaws starts off with The Outlaw's Prize.

There's only seven more things on my list that need done this week. And that's only my writing work. I'm still helping my husband with that huge paint job he has going on. It's over half done so this week should be the last he needs me for extended hours.

I finally rented and watched Jurassic World this weekend. I'm giving it a so-so rating. I'm glad I didn't pay theater prices to see it. On an up note, Fargo is on tonight. This season is incredible! In my opinion, I'd call it the best show on TV.

I visited the local Barnes and Noble this past weekend. The good news is that the store was packed. People everywhere. The bad news now is that B&N has given over nearly half the store to things other than books. Bags, candles, games, toys and other gadgets that I guess are helping them stay afloat.  On the weird bookstore news, maybe you hear that Amazon opened their first physical bookstore. Lots of mixed feelings about it.

Wisdom from The Old Farmer's Almanac: Nothing sharpens sight like envy.

What is keeping you busy this week? Have you watched Fargo? Did you hear about the Amazon store? Wouldn't you like to visit it if for no other reason than curiosity to see how the giant believes a bookstore should look?

On Your Mark

Wednesday is a big day in the blogging world. It's IWSG day, the first Wednesday of the month. And being April 1st, it's also the kick off day for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. You can still sign up for both. It's going to be one exciting, crazy day on Wednesday.

I have my posts mostly ready but I will probably edit many as the month of April goes on. News to share or add. We'll see how it goes.

In what I have finished, the first draft of The Warrior and the Professor is finally finished. Only took me a month longer than expected. Lots of work to do on it yet before it ever is read by my publisher. But it really is true that it's easier to fix a bad first draft than a blank page.

Other good news, we did our taxes this weekend. On the bad news side, because I'm a self-employed writer and my husband is also self-employed, we always have to pay in despite all the money we've had deducted throughout the year. It hurts to see the percentage of our money that goes to taxes and when we figure in all the taxes and fees we pay every time we shop, pay our phone bills, it really adds up. But that's a story for another forum. Just wanted to say 'ouch.'

I'm keeping this short today because the blogging duties are about to get long.

"Save three pieces of gold, and the fourth one will fall in your lap." Croatian proverb

And for those diving into to A to Z for the first time, another quote.

"Don't agonize, organize." Florynce Kennedy

Do you have a double post for IWSG and A to Z on Wednesday or are you combining them into one? Feeling organized going into the challenge? Finish you taxes? Wince or smile?