I'm so proud of myself; I think I have the basics of this ebook formatting thing down! I am ready for July when I upload my reprinted editions of Kiss it Better and How to Resist Prince Charming.
Which reminds me, my cover reveal for Kiss it Better is a week from today: woo hoo!
Anyway, I plan to distribute those two books to Amazon, Smashwords (which, if I upload my manuscript correctly will in turn distribute to "Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony Reader Store, Kobo, the Diesel eBook Store, and more") and AllRomanceEbooks. Plus, I learned how to make a PDF, MOBI, and EPUB version of my books for reviewers to read it before the release date.
I have all three versions of my YA novella, Bad Boys Don't Play Hero, up on my website if you want to check out my mad formatting skills!!
If you can't tell, I'm really getting into this stuff. I have a new respect for people who self publish. There is so much to learn and do. But it's really exciting to have all the authority over every step of the project. Oh, the power!!!
And since we're on the topic of self publishing, I found this blog post (here) that breaks down the cost of self publishing. Depending on how much you want to spend, you can do it for free or spend tens of thousands of dollars.
After reading a couple of similar articles, the main consensus is that if you really care about doing the project right but want to be as economical as possible, you'll spend between $500 and $5,000.
Here is where I think I stand in the expenses department for my September book, Price of a Kiss.
Write Book:
$0 (but lots of time)
Edit Book:
LOW END - $0 Friend who is an English teacher
ME - $280 for a 95K manuscript
MIDDLE GROUND - $800
HIGH END - $5,000
Proof-read Book:
LOW END - $0 Friends and colleagues
ME - $275
MIDDLE GROUND - $300
HIGH END - $1,000 or more
Cover Design:
LOW END - $0 "Royalty free or own photos and text only made into a .jpg on Microsoft Publisher"
MIDDLE GROUND - $30 - $300 for a cover artist
ME - Not sure yet, but the base price will be $250 plus the price of images.
HIGHER END - $1,000 or more
Typeset Book:
LOW END - $0 Find templates and free formatting programs
ME - $0 (hee-hee, taught myself!!)
MIDDLE GROUND - $20 to $150
HIGH END - $500 or more
Publish Book:
LOW END - $0. Publish at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
ME - $0 (going the low end route!)
MIDDLE GROUND - no clue, sorry!
HIGH END - according to this blog post linked above "$1400 for 250 copies of your print book from a self-publishing/printing company."
And the post didn't include promoting but you really do need to think about it!
Promote Book:
LOW END - $0. Get a free blog for your website home page and use social networking like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.
ME - $205 ($25 Facebook banner, $105 book tour/cover reveal, $25 for book blast release day, $50 for 1 year of website hosting fee)
MIDDLE GROUND - Again, no clue!
HIGH END - This one is honeslty unlimited, so I have not clue.
So, there you have it. I believe I'll be spending just over a grand (holy cow, that sounds like a lot when you put all the dollar signs together) on self publishing one teeny-tiny little book.
But to not think of how big of a debt I'm putting myself into there, I'm working on a new story! What do you think of the forbidden teacher/student plot line? I'm making it a college story so there is no icky, pedophile theme in there. There hero and heroine will only be about two or three years age difference. But there is still the unethical factor. So... opinions?
Okay, that's all I have to say today! Talk more next week.
(PS: Here's another good post about the cost of self publishing)
Friday, May 17, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
She's Growing Up! Sniff-Sniff
This is a picture of my big girl on the phone this past Saturday, calling grandparents and aunts and uncles to make her big announcement.
"Guess what?" she started pretty much every conversation. "I pooped in the potty!"
The hubby and I feel like we've won a war. After an hour and a half of arguing, begging, promising, and scaring our poor child, she finally accomplished it. And she's done it every day since. She received a new bicycle and helmet that day for her trouble, and now she can go the pre-school in the fall! I am just so proud of her. For us, this is a major accomplishment because she's been resisting it for months.
Next goal: Getting rid of night time diapers. Blech...
I don't have anything quite so newsworthy in the writing department, but I am learning how to format books. That's kinda cool, right? I have CreateSpace print format, Smashwords, and I think Kindle down. Now I have to wait until July when I upload them to see if I actually did it right!!
It's also been a decent-sized week in editing for me. My editor (lots of love to Laura Josephsen!! woot-woot) for Price of a Kiss is half way through that manuscript. I've been hearing good progress reports back from her. It's getting me excited all over again for this book!
And my first-round Omnific Publishing editor for Cry completed her edits this week. I think I did my biggest re-writes (after selling a story) for this woman. When I submitted this manuscript to the company, it was 85,000 words long. Yesterday, I turned it back in at 93,000 words. It was challenging, kind of intimidating, but in the end, completely exhilarating. And now I'm really excited about this story too, though fingers crossed that she actually liked what I did!
And to bid you a happy weekend, I'll share a line from Price of a Kiss that sort of reminded me of this picture I saw on Facebook yesterday. Take care!!
"He laughed. Yes, the b@#*!d laughed as if spider murder was some kind of joke. He had no idea just how much peril his life was in for laughing at me. Honestly, have you ever been so freaked-out scared that you could bawl and commit murder in the same breath because someone thought your fear was funny? Well, I had jumped off the high dive and was swimming in a whole vat of that kind of crazy."
Friday, May 3, 2013
Book Banners
I saw this really cool countdown banner for an upcoming book that had a quote from the story in it, and I totally loved it. So I played around and tried to make a quote banner for one of my stories. Problem is, I don't have a nifty image editing program to make it all professional and sophisticated.
But I made the attempt anyway. And here is what I did.
On my first banner, I started with the big, blown-up cover of the book that my cover artist sent me and went into fotoflexer.com. After uploading the entire cover, I went into "crop" under the "BASIC" tab. And I cropped out the portion I wanted to keep for the banner. I resized and then flipped and rotated until I got it where I wanted it.
Then I checked out the EFFECTS tab for this particular banner and chose the "lomoish" option to make it a funky coloring.
(by the way, to make a picture out of what I saw on my screen, I googled and found out you push the print-screen button--might look like "PrtScn," then go into an image editing program--hint, hint: Microsoft Paint--and chose the paste option. I just discovered this and had to share!)
I found the adding-text feature under the DECORATE tab. You can make the text box transparent. You can move it where you want it, tilt it, change size, color, and there are some different font options. So I played around and experimented with those until, voila, I came up with this banner!
It might not be the best banner I've ever seen, but it wasn't the worst either! Except, I wanted more, MORE!
The next attempt at a banner was a bit more detailed. I'm not sure if it came out looking better or worse, but...here's what I did.
I found a free photo reflection site, reflextionmaker.com, and uploaded my book cover from my computer. If I had wanted my banner background to be white, I would've pressed "generate" then. But, no, not me. I had to be difficult.
So, I picked a background color I thought matched the title font, and wrote down the 6-digit color code that for it once I chose it (it was 880015 in this case). And THEN I generated the new picture. After the new "reflected" cover generated, I hovered my mouse over it and pushed the right button, chosing "save picture as" to get it stored as a file on my computer. These reflection people like donations, so if you want to leave a little something-something for them, that's cool.
In the next step, I needed more numbers for my 6-digit background color code (880015, remember?), so I went to http://tech.pro/tutorial/653/javascript-interactive-color-picker and scrolled down until I found this nifty interactive color picker thingy. I typed in the 6-digit code of the color (880015) in the HEX box and then clicked into another box so all the rest of the code numbers I needed would pop up. Then I wrote down the new numbers that came up in the red, green, and blue boxes. (red was 136, green 0, and blue 21)
After that, it was off to Microsoft Paint I went!! Once I set up how big I wanted my banner to be, I went into the "edit colors" box and typed in my written-down numbers for the red (136), green (0), and blue (21) boxes, so it would create a the color to match the reflected part of my cover.
After I used my little Microsoft Paint bucket to fill the entire banner, I had my nifty new background color. But who wants one boring color for their background?? To make it multicolored, I put some black lines in and filled in a black chunk. Two-toned!
I found my reflected cover I'd saved on my computer, and opened it in a new Microsoft Paint program. I resized the picture so it would fit onto my banner (maintaining aspect ratio, of course) and then chose "select all". (Actually, it'd probably be better if you re-sized in Microsoft Office Picture Manager before you even do the reflection stuff for a better chance of keeping the cover having a better quality image. But alas, I forget that step)
After a quick CTRL + C to copy what I had selected, I went back into the Paint program with the blank two-toned banner background waiting for me. Then I hit CTRL+V to paste in my cover, and I moved it until I got it where I wanted it.
I could have added some text straight from Paint, but putting text on a picture in the Paint program always seems to come out grainy and gross, IMHO. At this point, I saved that picture into my computer, and back to FotoFlexer I went to add some text. (actually, the quote part of this banner WAS written in the Paint program, so you can actually see how much grainier it looks than the rest for the fonts).
AND here is what my second quote banner looked like.
I think banners are a neat promotional item for authors. It makes a nice visual touch and adds color and some life to your blog, website, Facebook page or whatever.
You can always go the fancy route and pay a professional to make you really good banners. Those are amazing. Or you can purchase an image-editing program to make it easier to do. Someday, I'm going to do that (Sigh. Someday). And if you already have such a program...I'm so totally jealous of you. Grr. Or you can do it this free, inventive way. Whatever works for you!
So, do you have any cool banner-making tips to share with me? I'm all ears over here, always looking for a helpful way to promote. Since I was self-taught in this art, there's so much more I want to (and really need to) learn about this aspect of advertising!
PS: I ended up making seven banners total for this book. Here's a peek at one more! Which one is your favorite?
But I made the attempt anyway. And here is what I did.
On my first banner, I started with the big, blown-up cover of the book that my cover artist sent me and went into fotoflexer.com. After uploading the entire cover, I went into "crop" under the "BASIC" tab. And I cropped out the portion I wanted to keep for the banner. I resized and then flipped and rotated until I got it where I wanted it.
Then I checked out the EFFECTS tab for this particular banner and chose the "lomoish" option to make it a funky coloring.
(by the way, to make a picture out of what I saw on my screen, I googled and found out you push the print-screen button--might look like "PrtScn," then go into an image editing program--hint, hint: Microsoft Paint--and chose the paste option. I just discovered this and had to share!)
I found the adding-text feature under the DECORATE tab. You can make the text box transparent. You can move it where you want it, tilt it, change size, color, and there are some different font options. So I played around and experimented with those until, voila, I came up with this banner!
It might not be the best banner I've ever seen, but it wasn't the worst either! Except, I wanted more, MORE!
The next attempt at a banner was a bit more detailed. I'm not sure if it came out looking better or worse, but...here's what I did.
I found a free photo reflection site, reflextionmaker.com, and uploaded my book cover from my computer. If I had wanted my banner background to be white, I would've pressed "generate" then. But, no, not me. I had to be difficult.
So, I picked a background color I thought matched the title font, and wrote down the 6-digit color code that for it once I chose it (it was 880015 in this case). And THEN I generated the new picture. After the new "reflected" cover generated, I hovered my mouse over it and pushed the right button, chosing "save picture as" to get it stored as a file on my computer. These reflection people like donations, so if you want to leave a little something-something for them, that's cool.
In the next step, I needed more numbers for my 6-digit background color code (880015, remember?), so I went to http://tech.pro/tutorial/653/javascript-interactive-color-picker and scrolled down until I found this nifty interactive color picker thingy. I typed in the 6-digit code of the color (880015) in the HEX box and then clicked into another box so all the rest of the code numbers I needed would pop up. Then I wrote down the new numbers that came up in the red, green, and blue boxes. (red was 136, green 0, and blue 21)
After I used my little Microsoft Paint bucket to fill the entire banner, I had my nifty new background color. But who wants one boring color for their background?? To make it multicolored, I put some black lines in and filled in a black chunk. Two-toned!
I found my reflected cover I'd saved on my computer, and opened it in a new Microsoft Paint program. I resized the picture so it would fit onto my banner (maintaining aspect ratio, of course) and then chose "select all". (Actually, it'd probably be better if you re-sized in Microsoft Office Picture Manager before you even do the reflection stuff for a better chance of keeping the cover having a better quality image. But alas, I forget that step)
After a quick CTRL + C to copy what I had selected, I went back into the Paint program with the blank two-toned banner background waiting for me. Then I hit CTRL+V to paste in my cover, and I moved it until I got it where I wanted it.
I could have added some text straight from Paint, but putting text on a picture in the Paint program always seems to come out grainy and gross, IMHO. At this point, I saved that picture into my computer, and back to FotoFlexer I went to add some text. (actually, the quote part of this banner WAS written in the Paint program, so you can actually see how much grainier it looks than the rest for the fonts).
AND here is what my second quote banner looked like.
I think banners are a neat promotional item for authors. It makes a nice visual touch and adds color and some life to your blog, website, Facebook page or whatever.
You can always go the fancy route and pay a professional to make you really good banners. Those are amazing. Or you can purchase an image-editing program to make it easier to do. Someday, I'm going to do that (Sigh. Someday). And if you already have such a program...I'm so totally jealous of you. Grr. Or you can do it this free, inventive way. Whatever works for you!
So, do you have any cool banner-making tips to share with me? I'm all ears over here, always looking for a helpful way to promote. Since I was self-taught in this art, there's so much more I want to (and really need to) learn about this aspect of advertising!
PS: I ended up making seven banners total for this book. Here's a peek at one more! Which one is your favorite?
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Torture Much?
Movie quote to reflect upon while reading this post (plus, this is one of my hubby's favorite movies, and I love it when he quotes it, so I had to share :) !!)
"...you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win.” --The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
We have two months left before the deadline to pay for my daughter's pre-school in the fall. But we haven't paid yet.
Why?
Because said stubborn daughter refuses to sit on the potty to go number two. And she can't go to pre-school unless she's completely potty trained, so...we've been forcing the issue lately, trying pretty much everything to get her adjusted to this new way of life before the end of June.
And I gotta tell you, I suck at this. I'm a total push over. My husband can stand there and make her sit while she's screaming and crying, begging to get off the potty, but I just melt and start crying too. I can't handle to see her so upset. I want her to do it on her own without any prodding, but time is running short.
I gotta get mean!
I think I'm having similar problems with my book peeps. My problem with them isn't to coax them to go to the bathroom, of course, but it's forcing them to do things they hate.
A blog I recently read talked about a book the blogger had critiqued. She said it had amazing writing and wonderful characters but the plot was something like "boy meets girl, they have a great time together, fall in love, and life happily every after." Which is great but, yeah, really boring.
Every story need problems, conflict, TORTURE to make it worth our readers' time.
Just like I shouldn't let my kiddo get off the potty to poop, I shouldn't let my characters have anything they want without a huge, uphill, awful, painful, angst-ridden battle. But it's just so hard to keep their happiness away from them. I love them all. I want to give them rainbows and sunshine all the time.
It is a constant struggle for me to torture my book characters. I guess I could be all smug and snooty and say, "I'm just too nice; that's my problem," but in this instance. Nice is bad. Here is where I..."gotta be mean, I mean plumb, mad-dog mean."
And so, that is my goal in my next book: to try to be meaner to my fictional creations!
Have you been mean enough to your characters lately?
"...you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog mean. ‘Cause if you lose your head and you give up then you neither live nor win.” --The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
We have two months left before the deadline to pay for my daughter's pre-school in the fall. But we haven't paid yet.
Why?
Because said stubborn daughter refuses to sit on the potty to go number two. And she can't go to pre-school unless she's completely potty trained, so...we've been forcing the issue lately, trying pretty much everything to get her adjusted to this new way of life before the end of June.
And I gotta tell you, I suck at this. I'm a total push over. My husband can stand there and make her sit while she's screaming and crying, begging to get off the potty, but I just melt and start crying too. I can't handle to see her so upset. I want her to do it on her own without any prodding, but time is running short.
I gotta get mean!
I think I'm having similar problems with my book peeps. My problem with them isn't to coax them to go to the bathroom, of course, but it's forcing them to do things they hate.
A blog I recently read talked about a book the blogger had critiqued. She said it had amazing writing and wonderful characters but the plot was something like "boy meets girl, they have a great time together, fall in love, and life happily every after." Which is great but, yeah, really boring.
Every story need problems, conflict, TORTURE to make it worth our readers' time.
Just like I shouldn't let my kiddo get off the potty to poop, I shouldn't let my characters have anything they want without a huge, uphill, awful, painful, angst-ridden battle. But it's just so hard to keep their happiness away from them. I love them all. I want to give them rainbows and sunshine all the time.
It is a constant struggle for me to torture my book characters. I guess I could be all smug and snooty and say, "I'm just too nice; that's my problem," but in this instance. Nice is bad. Here is where I..."gotta be mean, I mean plumb, mad-dog mean."
And so, that is my goal in my next book: to try to be meaner to my fictional creations!
Have you been mean enough to your characters lately?
Friday, April 26, 2013
New Hobby
So, when I'm not writing stories, watching my never-wants-to-do-anything-by-herself three-year-old, working my full time job, editing, reading other people's stories, up keeping my online networking presence, or occasionally doing a little cooking and cleaning, I know you're just DYING to know what I do in all my free time.
Right?
Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway.
The husband loves it whenever I do something with him that he likes to do, so when I told him I'd absolutely love to go see a play or musical someday, he gave me a dirty look and told me, "good luck with that." Then, a few years later, about a month ago, I told him archery might be kind of cool to learn. So, the very next day, I came home from work to find he'd bought me a new bow!
He even got a bunch of cool purple and pink gadgets to make it look all girly for me, saying "I never thought I'd get into customizing a bow before." But he totally got into it this time! It was like watching my niece go down the fingernail painting aisle at Wal-mart. I call all the pink and purple stuff my bow bling!!
Anyway, I know you're super curious to know...just how good of a shot am I?
Well, I'm no Katniss Everdeen, that's for darn sure.
So far, I pretty much suck. It was really embarrassing when I first tried to pull back the string for the first time. Couldn't even pull it back. So the hubs adjusted the setting until I could pull back forty pounds, since this fancy pants bow (called a Diamond Core, if you're curious) can be adjusted from forty to seventy pounds (whatever that means!).
Eventually, I learned how to pull it back, NOT to dry fire it, to find all my anchor points, and keep my draw firm. The first time I flung and arrow, from ten yards...I totally missed the target. I am now down from five arrows to four, since one has been forever eaten by the field by our house.
I didn't give up though. No, no. I kept shooting. And the husband kept adjusting sights and the peep and all that good stuff to set it up to my specifications. After I became used to drawing back forty pounds, he moved it up to fifty...without telling me (but I can still do it, oh yeah, building up a little arm muscle!).
And now...now...I can shoot at twenty yards. Yesterday, I shot my first decent pattern. I dropped one arrow a little (we'll blame the wind on that one because it WAS really windy).
And now I gotta brag. Just look at that group! Isn't it totally amazing? Well it's the best I've done yet. By looking at all the holes in the target, you can probably tell that I usually don't even get close to the bulls eye.
Right?
Well, I'm gonna tell you anyway.
The husband loves it whenever I do something with him that he likes to do, so when I told him I'd absolutely love to go see a play or musical someday, he gave me a dirty look and told me, "good luck with that." Then, a few years later, about a month ago, I told him archery might be kind of cool to learn. So, the very next day, I came home from work to find he'd bought me a new bow!
He even got a bunch of cool purple and pink gadgets to make it look all girly for me, saying "I never thought I'd get into customizing a bow before." But he totally got into it this time! It was like watching my niece go down the fingernail painting aisle at Wal-mart. I call all the pink and purple stuff my bow bling!!
Anyway, I know you're super curious to know...just how good of a shot am I?
Well, I'm no Katniss Everdeen, that's for darn sure.
So far, I pretty much suck. It was really embarrassing when I first tried to pull back the string for the first time. Couldn't even pull it back. So the hubs adjusted the setting until I could pull back forty pounds, since this fancy pants bow (called a Diamond Core, if you're curious) can be adjusted from forty to seventy pounds (whatever that means!).
Eventually, I learned how to pull it back, NOT to dry fire it, to find all my anchor points, and keep my draw firm. The first time I flung and arrow, from ten yards...I totally missed the target. I am now down from five arrows to four, since one has been forever eaten by the field by our house.
I didn't give up though. No, no. I kept shooting. And the husband kept adjusting sights and the peep and all that good stuff to set it up to my specifications. After I became used to drawing back forty pounds, he moved it up to fifty...without telling me (but I can still do it, oh yeah, building up a little arm muscle!).
And now...now...I can shoot at twenty yards. Yesterday, I shot my first decent pattern. I dropped one arrow a little (we'll blame the wind on that one because it WAS really windy).
And now I gotta brag. Just look at that group! Isn't it totally amazing? Well it's the best I've done yet. By looking at all the holes in the target, you can probably tell that I usually don't even get close to the bulls eye.
What are some things you do when your life is not in a state of total-chaos busy??
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
New Cover : How to Resist Prince Charming
At the end of June, my 2010 story How to Resist Prince Charming will no longer be available through its publisher.
So, I have decided to re-release it in July by myself
once all the publishing rights revert back to me.
There will be new/altered scenes.
It will have a more affordable price.
The genre will be reclassified as Mature New Adult Romance.
It will be available in both ebook (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, AllRomance Ebooks, and Smashwords) and print (CreateSpace).
And even though the cover artist for the current edition has let me use this cover for future publications, I thought with all the other new features it's getting, it needed a new look too.
So, I browsed around and contacted StanzAlone Design for some help. This woman is a saint, I kid you not. I don't know how many times I made her alter things because I got all font picky. But we finally settled on something that made me say, "Oh yeah, I'll take that one!" And life was good.
 |
| CURRENT COVER |
There will be new/altered scenes.
It will have a more affordable price.
The genre will be reclassified as Mature New Adult Romance.
It will be available in both ebook (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, AllRomance Ebooks, and Smashwords) and print (CreateSpace).
And even though the cover artist for the current edition has let me use this cover for future publications, I thought with all the other new features it's getting, it needed a new look too.
So, I browsed around and contacted StanzAlone Design for some help. This woman is a saint, I kid you not. I don't know how many times I made her alter things because I got all font picky. But we finally settled on something that made me say, "Oh yeah, I'll take that one!" And life was good.
So....introducing the future look of HOW TO RESIST PRINCE CHARMING:
 |
| FUTURE COVER |
To resist the perfect man, please follow these simple rules:
Step 1: Never make eye contact.
Step 2: Never smile at him.
Step 3: Never agree to anything he suggests.
Or better yet, just follow Lenna Davenport's example and give in to temptation, sparking a whole tangle of passion, forbidden romance, mounting secrets and deceit. She meets her prince charming at her father’s company Christmas party. Problem is he happens to be her dad’s new boss. Worse problem is, her dad totally hates him.
But what Daddy doesn’t know…
Braxton Farris takes over Farris Industries out of family obligation and expects his new employees might resent his youth and inexperience. What he doesn’t anticipate is the level of contempt Tom Davenport carries for him. Nor does he count on falling for Tom’s daughter. When he and Lenna start a secret affair, a disaster of corporate proportions is bound to follow. But to be together, they must decide if the fallout is worth it.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Tastes Like Cookies
Parenting is sooo full of one worry after another. Beginning at pregnancy, I watched what I ate so my baby would have a healthy balance of food, watched what I did so I wouldn’t hurt her and somehow leave a permanent physical scar on her even before she was born, took all the proper prenatal vitamins so she’d get plenty of every nutritious element she needed.
Then came birthing worries. What if there were complications, the umbilical cord got wrapped around her throat, she got tangled, or suffocated, or anything?
Once she was here, the old pregnancy/birthing worries might’ve suddenly become a thing of the past, but then I worried about SIDS, or dropping her, or getting enough milk. All that good stuff.
We enrolled in the Parents as Teachers program because I worried I wouldn’t know everything I needed to teach her all she needed to know for her mental develop. I mean, who wants their kid to be behind when they start school?
As each phase passed and the worries assigned to that age faded away. But a new crop always sprang up to take their place.
These days, I wonder what’ll happen if she gets up in the middle of the nights and finds a way to unlock the door and take a midnight stroll outside with all the neighborhood coyotes.
Or what if she refuses to poop in the potty for the rest of her life? She can seriously hold it if forced to sit there, and her stubborn streak is miles loner than mine--sadly. It gives her lots of gas, so then I start worrying, GREAT, is she going to be the “stinky” kid when she starts school? I don't want her to be an outcast.
I can’t make this child eat, either. We can get her to sit at the table with us at mealtime, but we have to promise prizes, or beg, or threaten to take things away to actually make her put food in her mouth. Then we have to cajole some more to make her SWALLOW the food. It’s so aggravating and frustrating. I get this urge to wrap my hands around her neck and shake her while screaming, “I love you so much, I just want you to be healthy, damn it...so EAT,” which is all a huge contradiction, but I can't help it.
So, yeah, the kid refuses to eat cake, but oh my, does she love to pick her nose and eat her boogers. I know, totally gross. And now I’m back to worrying she’s going to be one of THOSE kids with no friends when she gets older because she’s a freaking booger eater.
We’ve tried to help her kick this nasty habit, honest, but she’ll go off and hide under a table to pick and munch. I glanced back at her in her car seat when I was driving the other day, and she snapped her hand from her mouth with a guilty little expression. I knew exactly what she’d been up to.
“Were you eating a booger?” I demanded.
She wisely did not answer, already pleading the fifth.
So I had to figure out the appeal. I tried with the whole “Why do you do that?” and got nothing. So I asked, “What do they taste like?” I mean, if they’re better than cake in her eyes, there has to be something appealing, right? After thinking up her favorite food, I asked, “Do they taste like cookies?”
And, great, she giggled thinking this was hilarious. “Yeah,” she said. “They taste like cookies.”
The next time I caught her in the act a few days later, she once again told me they were “so good” and tasted like cookies (her memory astounds me—probably because I took those awesome prenatal vitamins with the Omega-3 DHA to support healthy fetal brain and eye development, but anyway...). Then she came up with the phrase “Cookie Boogers”, which I thought was pretty brilliant, but I didn’t tell her so. She didn't need a reason to repeat it over and over again.
And there you have it. People are being hurt and killed in college stabbings, marathon races, and fertilizer plant explosions, while I’m over here worried about my kid eating her own boogers. You don’t have to tell me, I know my priorities are all out of whack. But seriously, how do I get her to kick this habit??
Meanwhile - Over in my Writing Cave:
I’ve been swamped with editing times four. I simultaneously worked on re-reading and editing four stories these past few weeks. I’ve finished with two for the time being. Still working on two more, and I have worked on no new manuscripts in that time (ho hum).
But I have two new covers for my re-releases coming out in February.
If anyone wants to help me reveal my cover on your blogs for the redone version of KISS IT BETTER, feel free to sign up for the Cover Reveal Party over at Tasty Book Tours. Reveal date will be Friday, May 24th.
I’m beginning to run a little low on the book-stuff funds, so come Tuesday, I’m just going to show off my new cover here on this blog alone for the redone version of How to Resist Prince Charming (no big reveal party there, sorry).
And...That’s what’s going on with me lately. What about you?
Then came birthing worries. What if there were complications, the umbilical cord got wrapped around her throat, she got tangled, or suffocated, or anything?
Once she was here, the old pregnancy/birthing worries might’ve suddenly become a thing of the past, but then I worried about SIDS, or dropping her, or getting enough milk. All that good stuff.
We enrolled in the Parents as Teachers program because I worried I wouldn’t know everything I needed to teach her all she needed to know for her mental develop. I mean, who wants their kid to be behind when they start school?
As each phase passed and the worries assigned to that age faded away. But a new crop always sprang up to take their place.
These days, I wonder what’ll happen if she gets up in the middle of the nights and finds a way to unlock the door and take a midnight stroll outside with all the neighborhood coyotes.
Or what if she refuses to poop in the potty for the rest of her life? She can seriously hold it if forced to sit there, and her stubborn streak is miles loner than mine--sadly. It gives her lots of gas, so then I start worrying, GREAT, is she going to be the “stinky” kid when she starts school? I don't want her to be an outcast.
I can’t make this child eat, either. We can get her to sit at the table with us at mealtime, but we have to promise prizes, or beg, or threaten to take things away to actually make her put food in her mouth. Then we have to cajole some more to make her SWALLOW the food. It’s so aggravating and frustrating. I get this urge to wrap my hands around her neck and shake her while screaming, “I love you so much, I just want you to be healthy, damn it...so EAT,” which is all a huge contradiction, but I can't help it.
So, yeah, the kid refuses to eat cake, but oh my, does she love to pick her nose and eat her boogers. I know, totally gross. And now I’m back to worrying she’s going to be one of THOSE kids with no friends when she gets older because she’s a freaking booger eater.
We’ve tried to help her kick this nasty habit, honest, but she’ll go off and hide under a table to pick and munch. I glanced back at her in her car seat when I was driving the other day, and she snapped her hand from her mouth with a guilty little expression. I knew exactly what she’d been up to.
“Were you eating a booger?” I demanded.
She wisely did not answer, already pleading the fifth.
So I had to figure out the appeal. I tried with the whole “Why do you do that?” and got nothing. So I asked, “What do they taste like?” I mean, if they’re better than cake in her eyes, there has to be something appealing, right? After thinking up her favorite food, I asked, “Do they taste like cookies?”
And, great, she giggled thinking this was hilarious. “Yeah,” she said. “They taste like cookies.”
The next time I caught her in the act a few days later, she once again told me they were “so good” and tasted like cookies (her memory astounds me—probably because I took those awesome prenatal vitamins with the Omega-3 DHA to support healthy fetal brain and eye development, but anyway...). Then she came up with the phrase “Cookie Boogers”, which I thought was pretty brilliant, but I didn’t tell her so. She didn't need a reason to repeat it over and over again.
And there you have it. People are being hurt and killed in college stabbings, marathon races, and fertilizer plant explosions, while I’m over here worried about my kid eating her own boogers. You don’t have to tell me, I know my priorities are all out of whack. But seriously, how do I get her to kick this habit??
Meanwhile - Over in my Writing Cave:
I’ve been swamped with editing times four. I simultaneously worked on re-reading and editing four stories these past few weeks. I’ve finished with two for the time being. Still working on two more, and I have worked on no new manuscripts in that time (ho hum).
But I have two new covers for my re-releases coming out in February.
If anyone wants to help me reveal my cover on your blogs for the redone version of KISS IT BETTER, feel free to sign up for the Cover Reveal Party over at Tasty Book Tours. Reveal date will be Friday, May 24th.
I’m beginning to run a little low on the book-stuff funds, so come Tuesday, I’m just going to show off my new cover here on this blog alone for the redone version of How to Resist Prince Charming (no big reveal party there, sorry).
And...That’s what’s going on with me lately. What about you?
Friday, April 12, 2013
A Quick Hi!
I've kept myself busy this week editing. With the re-release of two of my stories coming in July, I've been learning formatting too. I think I actually have one of my books ready for CreateSpace! I know, how cool is that? We'll see how well I did there in a couple months, though.
I'm getting two new covers for those two reprinted stories. One is completed, and I must say it is KICK ASS. I liked it so much I had to contact someone about setting up one of them fancy Cover Reveal parties for it! But that'll be in a few months, so na-ner-na-ner na-ner, you gotta wait to see it. I know, I'm so evil, huh?
I haven't gotten much reading done lately, and I feel kind of out of the loop. Must read soon (my hands are starting to shake; the withdrawals are coming on strong).
And that's about all I have to report today. I have lots to look forward to in the second half of the year so I'm preparing for all that. Nothing special. Maybe I'll have something more interesting to say on Tuesday (I can always hope). See you then!
I'm getting two new covers for those two reprinted stories. One is completed, and I must say it is KICK ASS. I liked it so much I had to contact someone about setting up one of them fancy Cover Reveal parties for it! But that'll be in a few months, so na-ner-na-ner na-ner, you gotta wait to see it. I know, I'm so evil, huh?
I haven't gotten much reading done lately, and I feel kind of out of the loop. Must read soon (my hands are starting to shake; the withdrawals are coming on strong).
And that's about all I have to report today. I have lots to look forward to in the second half of the year so I'm preparing for all that. Nothing special. Maybe I'll have something more interesting to say on Tuesday (I can always hope). See you then!
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Happy Tornado Season!
HI!! It's a bright, cheery Tuesday morning here, but we have our first threat of the season for a possible tornado this evening. Have to wait to see how that plays out (hopefully, with a nice, gentle rain shower and no twisty winds!). Just yesterday, my hubby bought us two new red bud trees, so I'm praying they don't get damaged.
In my writing corner, I have all kinds of stuff going on. I received paperback copies of both ADDICTED TO ANSLEY and A FALLOW HEART. The lovely Lydia is displaying them for your viewing pleasure below. Oh, and I tossed it a picture of one of the people she draws, because they're just too cute not to share!
Okay, back to book talk...One of my publishers is going out of business in June. I know...sniff, sniff, sob, sob. This is one of my favorite publishers too. They always paid royalties early, treated authors with courtesy and respect, had an editor AND a proofreader go over each story before publication. They even sent out personal letters when you were selling good to congratulate you. I'm definitely going to miss them.
But this means I'll have stories going out of print soon. I've decided to self-publish them in July. I've contacted a couple cover artists for new covers, and Amber Skyze (who just signed a contract on a new story...YAY!) was a huge help in getting me some formatting information.
I think this will be good practice for when my big PRICE OF A KISS story is ready to be published later on in August or September. On that story, I'm reading through it one last time before I send it off to my editor.
The story I have coming out from Omnific Publishing has started its editing phase, and I've filled out a cover art form for it. I think it's going to stick with the title CRY because no one has said anything different.
And I've been coming up with plot ideas for lots of new stories. Nothing has really grabbed me yet and made me work on it exclusively, but I am having trouble on a title for this one that's been whirling through my brain. What to you think of A GLIMPSE OF LOVE. My family nixed A Glimpse of Us, Glimpsing Forever, and A Glimpse Come True. (Yes, is HAS to have 'glimpse' in the title!!!). Ooh, I just thought of ONCE UPON A GLIMPSE. Does that sound like it could be a YA romance book??
So that's what's been going on with me these past couple of weeks. What have you been up to?
In my writing corner, I have all kinds of stuff going on. I received paperback copies of both ADDICTED TO ANSLEY and A FALLOW HEART. The lovely Lydia is displaying them for your viewing pleasure below. Oh, and I tossed it a picture of one of the people she draws, because they're just too cute not to share!
Okay, back to book talk...One of my publishers is going out of business in June. I know...sniff, sniff, sob, sob. This is one of my favorite publishers too. They always paid royalties early, treated authors with courtesy and respect, had an editor AND a proofreader go over each story before publication. They even sent out personal letters when you were selling good to congratulate you. I'm definitely going to miss them.
But this means I'll have stories going out of print soon. I've decided to self-publish them in July. I've contacted a couple cover artists for new covers, and Amber Skyze (who just signed a contract on a new story...YAY!) was a huge help in getting me some formatting information.
I think this will be good practice for when my big PRICE OF A KISS story is ready to be published later on in August or September. On that story, I'm reading through it one last time before I send it off to my editor.
The story I have coming out from Omnific Publishing has started its editing phase, and I've filled out a cover art form for it. I think it's going to stick with the title CRY because no one has said anything different.
And I've been coming up with plot ideas for lots of new stories. Nothing has really grabbed me yet and made me work on it exclusively, but I am having trouble on a title for this one that's been whirling through my brain. What to you think of A GLIMPSE OF LOVE. My family nixed A Glimpse of Us, Glimpsing Forever, and A Glimpse Come True. (Yes, is HAS to have 'glimpse' in the title!!!). Ooh, I just thought of ONCE UPON A GLIMPSE. Does that sound like it could be a YA romance book??
So that's what's been going on with me these past couple of weeks. What have you been up to?
Friday, April 5, 2013
Solomon's Compass by Carol Kilgore
Today, I'm steering away from futuristic Christian thrillers and helping mapping a course toward romantic suspense with:
Solomon's Compass by Carol Kilgore
Just in this week (April 2nd)
A missing belt—her uncle’s prized possession. The lure of buried treasure. And a sexy former SEAL who makes U.S. Coast Guard Commander Taylor Campbell crazy. What more could any woman want. Right?
Taylor is in Rock Harbor, Texas, on a quest to unearth her uncle’s treasure—a journey far outside the realm of her real life. There’s one glitch. Taylor's certain the buried treasure was all in Uncle Randy's dementia-riddled mind. Now he’s dead.
Former SEAL Jake Solomon is in Rock Harbor under false pretenses to protect Taylor from the fate that befell her uncle and the other members of a tight circle of Coast Guardsmen called the Compass Points who served together on Point boats in Vietnam.
Jake is definitely not supposed to become involved with Taylor. That was his first mistake. Taylor is attracted to Jake as well, but she refuses to wait for him to locate the killer when she knows her plan will force her uncle’s murderer into action.
But the killer's actions are just what Jake is afraid of.
For more information on Carol:
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