A Page with Kage (5)

Here's another Page with Kage issue.

 This is one of my favorite excerpts in the book The Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter. She is a contemporary paranormal romance author with a sense of humor that never fails to crack me up and awesome steamy sensuality in her books. The Darkest Secret is the seventh book in her Lords of the Underworld series. The hero is Amun, but this scene is told from the point of view of Amun's buddy, Strider.


Why I love this page: Because I can picture those three men so perfectly and it gives me the yummy goosebumps! I usually love dialogue best. But this small bit of composition, setting up the scene, is perfect! You can picture what's going vividly with just a few words of the actual scenery. You get a bit of Strider's mood and emotions, which is brilliant because you can also tell he's such a guy's guy by how he describes things, it should be hard to pinpoint what he's feeling from his own point of view, but I think Showalter does it flawlessly. You can also get a feel the relationship between William, Paris, and Strider. Plus the voice...so fun! Strider is probably my favorite Lord just because of his unique voice.

So, without anymore blabbering around from me, here's the great page of the day!

***

THIS IS THE S$%T, Strider thought with a slow grin.

A few hours ago, Lucien had flashed him and William to Paris. The guy, not the city. Though the evening had only just begun, Paris had been well on his way to ambrosia intoxication, already laughing like a loon. So rather than cart him off and start hunting Gilly’s parents to play a little game of slice and dice, as planned, and rather than leaving him behind in such a vulnerable condition, Strider and William had decided to take care of Paris—aka down a little ambrosia themselves—and head out as a unit in the morning.

Brotherly love and all that. The things I do for my friends. Not that Strider was intoxicated. He was the sober one.

He reclined on a delightfully cushioned lounge in the sprawling ranch Paris had rented. In Dallas, Texas, of all places. Promiscuity had decked himself out, too, wearing a Stetson (weird), no shirt (understandable), unfastened jeans (smart) and cowboy boots (weird again). Dude looked ready to rustle cattle or something.

At least the girls Paris had invited to party with him were more sensible. They wore bikinis.

Best of all, as the girls swam in the moon-and-lamplit pool, laughing, playing, Strider was reminded that he’d always preferred females with big boobs and lots of makeup. He was able to forget all about only-a-handful Haidee and how lovely and delicate she’d looked in Amun’s arms. Arms that should have been his. But whatever.

“I call dibs on the topless one,” William said from Strider’s left, throwing back his ambrosia-laced beer. “And the one wearing dental floss.” He’d changed his mind five times in the past ten minutes. As of now, he had dibs on every single female in sight.

“That’s a thong, moron,” Paris slurred from Strider’s right.

***

Oh, if you're curious, here is the reading order for Showalter's Lords of the Underwold Series (These are the primary, full-length stories in the series):

1. The Darkest Night (Featuring Maddox, Keeper of Violence and one of the demon possessed warriors. He is paired with human Ashlyn Darrow.)

2. The Darkest Kiss (featuring Lucien, keeper of Death and Anya the (minor) goddes of Anarchy)

3. The Darkest Pleasure (featuring Reyes, keeper of Pain, and Danika Ford)

4. The Darkest Whisper (featuring Sabin, keeper of Doubt, and Gwen the Harpy)

5. The Darkest Passion (featuring Aeron, keeper of Wrath and Olivia the angel)

6. The Darkest Lie (featuring Gideon, keeper of Lies, and Scarlet, keeper of Nightmares)

7. The Darkest Secret (featuring Amun, keeper of Secrets, and Haidee Alexander)

8. The Darkest Surrender (featuring Strider, keeper of Defeat, Kaia the Harpy)

9. The Darkest Seduction (featuring Paris, keeper of Promiscuity)

COVER LOVE:

And since we're on the Gena Showalter topic, I just gotta show off the cover of one of her coming soon stories: WICKED NIGHTS. WOW. I keep going back just to look at it again and again and again. Don't you love how his wings are clothing her? Okay, fine, it took my awhile to drag my eyes away from him to actually notice wings...and the girl...but still, too cool!

Wicked Nights is the first book in the Angels of the Dark series (a spin off from the Lords of the Underworld). This book features Zacharel, the angel who snows (as one of the Lords called it!). It will release June 26th, and I can't wait for it to get here. Happy Squeal!

Okay, okay, my Gena Showalter fan moment is over now. Have a Happy Friday.

Oops

So my computer sits on the floor, right. The screen and keyboard go up on the desktop. Well, I'm not much of a silent sitter, never have been. I was sitting there, typing away and had one leg crossed over the other (I know, totally bad posture for how you're supposed to sit when typing--Correct sitting posture HERE by the way) and as I was slouching my vertebrae big time, swinging my free leg back and forth, WHACK!

My shin bumped into the flash drive sticking out the front of the computer. Bent it over to the side like I was trying to break a key off in a lock.

Heart lodging in my throat, I could only gape at the bent flash drive in shock. After I yanked it free of the computer and tried to straighten it...nothing. I can't pull up a single file I had saved, can't even get the computer to acknowledge there's a flash drive in there.

Now ask me what was on that flash drive.

EVERYTHING! Everything to do with my writing, anyway.

All my works-in-progress stories, all my signed contracts for stories I've sold, all the PDFs of the stories I've sold, all my little graphs, telling me how much I'd made on royalties, all my writing business expenditures, all the graphs I'd made for the promotional projects I set up. Everything. Stored in a little bitty two-inch piece of plastic and metal.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering...didn't you back anything up, Linda Kay? Well, sure. About every year or so, I copy all my files from one flash drive to another and start using the new flash, while storing the old one away. Except I hadn't done that for 2012 quite yet. So I'm saved up to 2010...except my first book didn't release until 2010, so all my book PDFs are probably gone. I have a few saved in old emails but probably not all of them.

In the WIP department, I'm a little more lucky. I just sent an email of all my currents WIPs to myself in attachments last Friday, so I'm at least within a week current of those. Not too much damage there.

Book contracts: I'm hoping I have all of those either printed out in my paper files or still have copies in old emails I've saved. Don't know everything quite yet.


I'm still not too sure how much stuff I've actually lost. Maybe nothing important. It's hard to tell until a month or so down the road when I'll be all like, I need such and such--oops. Guess that's gone forever.

I used to save everything on the hard drive of my computer. But the hard drive would always crash or I'd get a virus and lose everything (am I the only one sensing a pattern here?). So I started to rely more and more heavily on flash drives and CDs and, yeah, those old 3-by-5 inch floppy disks (but my computer doesn't even have a slot for those anymore). I still think I'll save most everything on my "next" flash drive, but....

My piece of advice for this fine hump days remains: BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP...and do it more often than you think you should!

Have a Happy Wednesday.

Proud Mommy Moment

We interrupt this author blog and talking about books and writing to brag about a big Mommy Moment for me!

I no longer have a little baby girl. I have a full-fledged toddler! Woo hoo. Miss Lydia finally used her potty chair yesterday. Her grandma (who babysits her while I work) and I had been talking to her about it, telling what she needed to do to be a big girl. But whenever we'd ask her if she wanted to sit in her chair, she'd simply say, "No," with no interest whatsoever.

I heard you're not supposed to push these things. Okay, I've heard all kinds of advice on potty training, but we decided to follow the "don't push" advice. "She'll do it when she's ready." And yesterday, she was ready!

Grandma got her to sit on her chair and once she did her business, Grandma and Grandpa praised her so much and gave her a prize, consisting of M&Ms, she went and pottied in her chair three more times by the time I picked her up from work. Then she did it again at Grandma's to show me what she could do. At home, she went twice more.

The last time, I wasn't even planning on taking her. I'd just pulled her from the bath and had her sitting on the floor, wrapped up in her towel, while I turned away to drain the bath water and put her toys away. When I came back around, she was sitting her her chair, straining her belly to squeeze out a few drops.

Unlike Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad were not prepared for "prize" giving. Lydia had gotten some chocolate for her birthday last month from her aunt. But I guess Daddy didn't think she was eating it fast enough, so he helped her along, consuming most of her birthday present. I was planning on giving her a chocolate square, or "kaw-kaw" as she calls it for a potty prize. But, yeah, there was only one square left. Thanks, Dada!

So the last time she used her potty last night, I opened the bathroom door and called my husband's name, saying "hurry. Bring chocolate!" When he told me there was none left, I changed gears, thinking of what other treat Lydia liked. So I called, "Bring pretzels." Don't ask why my two-year-old is into pretzels. But there it is.

After she munched on her pretzel stick, I set her on the edge of the bathroom sink where we do our nightly teeth-brushing routine. But Lydia, of course, was still into wanting more prizes for her job well done. So, instead of yelling, "Dada," as she refers to him, she yelled his first name like I'd just done, even used the same inflection in her voice I had used. "More pretzels," she added.

It was too cute to resist. The kid got more pretzels!

So that's another proud mommy moment coming at you from Linda Kage. How's your Friday going?

It's been wet here all week, flooding, raining, slopping up my poor car with mud. I'm ready for a nice dry, sunny day.

Have a happy weekend!

Lucky Seven WIP

Okay, my mind is all bla, bla, bla today. Nothing interesting up there to say.

I've found a new author I'm totally crushing on, so I've been buried in "read" world. Have you ever heard of Jennifer Haymore?? I hadn't until I saw one of her books on Amazon. I bought one of her stories because I was craving a steamy historical regency-style romance. I'm so happy I discovered her. She reminds me of some of my favorite historical romance authors: Suzanne Enoch, Elizabeth Hoyt, Julie Quinn, Laura Lee Guhrke, Lisa Kleypas, and Sabrina Jeffries.

Anyway, Carol over at Under the Tiki Hut, got tagged to play a lucky sevens game, and said anyone else who wanted to try should feel free to take a turn. Since I had no other plans for my blog today, I tried it!

The game: Lucky Sevens

Here's how it goes:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they're written.

4. Tag 7 authors

Below is my line seven and the next seven lines on page 77 of my most-recently completed WIP. I was shocked to find such an important scene mid-progress on line seven of seventy-seven. But here it goes anyway! Sorry if you're confused. It makes more sense if you read the entire story, of course!


****

Why was she saying something now?


He shook his head, not sure what to demand first. The shaky words that left him mouth were, “Are you…are you asking if we had sex?”

“No,” she spat, then a moment later she glanced over her shoulder at him and choked out, “Did we?”


His mouth dropped open. She looked so scared of the answer, he wasn’t sure how to respond. Would finding out she’d been intimate with him honestly traumatize her that much?


****
So, I'm gonna be like Carol. I'm not pointing out seven specific people, but if anyone else wants to play, consider yourself tagged. It was definitely interesting to find out what is on line seven of page 77!!

Happy Monday!

Happy News Friday

I was going to tell ya'all how my self-editing tip worked, where I highlight all my overused words to find and change them. Well...I tried to highlight all them (in different colors) at once and found it to be quite overwhelming to see ALL the times I could repeat one word on a single page. It's definitely a useful feature, but I'd suggest highlighting only one word at a time!

In other news, Lydia has something she wants to share! Her mommy's book, A Man for Mia, is now out in hardback LARGE PRINT!!! Woo Hoo.

She even calls it "Mama's book," though she calls every book without pictures "Mama's book!" The picture books are clearly staked as "Mine, mine mine!"

Oh, yeah. We've moved into the MINE stage. She's tried to stake her claim on the iPad with the angry chant of "mine, mine, mine", but Mama and Dada refuse to let her take it over completely, though I have to admit, she knows her way around it better than I do. Anyway, we tried to teach her to share with "Mama's turn", and "Dada's turn". Now, every time she sees me with it, she claims, "Lydia's turn, Lydia's turn, Lydia's turn." Sigh. There's just no winning with her.

She'd also like you to know The Right to Remain Mine is out in paperback print, but we haven't received our copies yet, so I'm sure a picture of Lydia posing with a new Mama's book will be coming soon!

The last thing I'm excited about sharing on this Good News Friday is that the last WIP I finished and am still all proud of (usually I hit an I'm-so-ashamed-I-wrote-this-drivel point after writing a story, but I haven't gotten there with this one...yet!) has been submitted and a partial read by an editor...and she wanted to see the full! Woo hoo! That right there has made my entire week.

So, spill it. What Good News do you want to share today?

Release Day - The Best Mistake

My quirky romantic comedy novella,
The Best Mistake,
is available in ebook TODAY from:

THE WILD ROSE PRESS

I best describe this story over on the interview I had this morning at A Tasty Read blog: http://atastyread.blogspot.com/.

Other than that, here's a little TEASER for you:


“If you don’t go out with me, you really need to come back to work.”

Deri sent him a startled look. “Are those my only two options?”

“Well…they’re the only two I’ll accept.”

His honesty startled and pleased her. She threw back her head and laughed.

Cole’s gaze grew hot as he watched. “You just had to go and do that, didn’t you?”

When he visibly swallowed and let out a little groan, swaying almost across the threshold toward her, she faltered. “D-do what?”

He rested the side of his face against the doorjamb as he stared with a yearning that made her mouth go dry. “I think I’ve become quite desperately obsessed with your laugh, Dericka Crandall.”

Oh, boy. She had to physically restrain herself from confessing she’d become quite desperately obsessed with pretty much everything about him.

“I…I…” She shook her head, at a loss for words.

He took a step toward her, his gaze vigilant, intent. “I’m just going to throw one more thing out there we both need to consider before you make a final decision.”

She licked her lips, more tempted by the second. “What’s that?”

“This.”

Before she could figure out what he meant, he eased one more step closer, barely entering her apartment. She could only gawk, mesmerized as he lifted a single hand and curled his fingers around the back of her neck to draw her close. Then she was against him.

As his mouth sealed over hers....read more HERE!





And here's a recap of where I've been the past few months, talking about my newest releases or giving away copies of them:

Right to Remain Mine & The Best Mistake Blog Tour Jan 24, 2012 - Interview at Books-N-Kisses Jan 31, 2012 - Guest Blog at The Rose of Prose Feb 1 - Feb 6, 2012 - Giveaway at The Romance Reviews (winners : Mrs AJ Ward & Teresa B.) Feb 5, 2012 - Giveaway at The Goddess Party Pavilion (winner : Marie Rose Dufour) Febr 6, 2012 - Interview at Joyfully Reviewed Feb 6 - Feb 10, 2012 - Guest Week at Novel Works Feb 6, 2012 - Release Day for "The Right to Remain Mine" at Champagne Books Feb 13, 2012 - Interview at You Gotta Read Feb 15, 2012 - Guest Post at Whispers Publishing Feb 17 - Mar 2, 2012 - Giveaway at Paperback Adventures (winner announced soon) Feb 20 - 24, 2012 - Giveaway and Guest Post at Romancing the Book (winners : Allie & Patti P.) Feb 24, 2012 - Interview at Fallen Angels Review Feb 24 - Mar 15, 2012 - Giveaway & Interview at For the Luv of Sanity (contest still open) Mar 6, 2012 - Interview at BookWenches Mar 6 - 14, 2012 - Giveaway at The Romance Reviews (contest still open) Mar 7, 2012 - Giveaway at Reading Between the Wines (contest closed) Mar 14, 2012 - Giveaway & Interview at A Tasty Read (contest open now!) Mar 14, 2012 - Release Day for "The Best Mistake" at The Wild Rose Press

Okay, with that, I'm finished with my Best Mistake announcements! This countdown is officially FINISHED!!!! WOO HOO!

Have a great Wednesday!

Goodreads made me read it!!

I've been a daily guest on Goodreads lately. But it's such a nice place to hang out.

Everyone there is talking about BOOKS! And since that's my thing, I lurk a lot (yeah, I'm one of those) and I check out what so many people are talking most about these days. Ergo, there are a handful of books that have hit my radar and it seems EVERYONE is discussing these stories.

I'm getting tempted, REALLY tempted, to get the following books because of Goodreads.

SWITCHED by Amanda Hocking.
(Trylle Trilogy, #1)

Unless my sources are wrong, this is the great Indie author who sold so many of her own books, she got picked up by St. Martins Press. I couldn't tell you one thing about the book, but I'd say it has some kind of paranormal elements. Shrugs! I still wanna read it.


FRACTURE by Megan Miranda
(Not in a Series to my Knowledge)

I read someone's review about this story (for the life of me, I can't remember who's review I read), and they made it sound so fabulous, I wanted to put everything else aside and start reading it that very moment. But for some reason, I still haven't purchased it yet. It's a paranormal YA story, which better have some romance in it...just sayin'.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY by E. L. James
(Fifty Shades #1)

This is apparently a BDSM book that is totally addictive. The hero is some greatly tortured young millionaire who likes to be ultra dominant in the bedroom, and he becomes obsessed with a sweet girl-next-door college student who interviews him at the beginning of the story. I found it surprising that so many mainstream readers were crazy, wild about a BDSM book. Which has me intrigued. Must read soon to find out what all the hoopla is about.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor
(Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1)

Okay, I know next to nothing about this story either. It's fawned over by lots of YA book lovers, so me thinks it's a YA book, but don't quote me on that. I'm also going to go with paranormal, but I haven't even read a blurb, and I'm still tempted to buy it just because so many other people rave about it.

CINDER by Marissa Meyer
(Lunar Chronicles, #1)

I'm seeing this cover everywhere, so people must like it, or the author has a great promotional plan going on. From what I understand, it's a steampunk version of the Cinderella story. But I don't even know if it's for YA or adult audiences.





So there you have it. I know barely anything about them but I WANT them...all because of Goodreads! Is that totally insane or just normal for a romance reading junkie like me?

More importantly, have any of you read any of these stories? Do you recommend them? Should I, should I, should I throw caution to the wind and just get them? Oh well, I probably will anyway! Thanks for the advice.

In other reader fan-girl news: Elizabeth Hoyt has extended the excerpt she'd posted for Thief of Shadows (steamy historical romance) on her website, which I've been dying--yes, DYING--to read these past few months. It was like a soothing balm to my eager little reader soul. Oh, I can't wait until July.

Which prompts another question from me: What book are you most anticipating to read right now??

Interview-Giveaway-Guest Post-ACHOO!

I know, I know, after that big jumble of a title, you just feel like saying "Bless you!" huh?

That's why I added the "achoo" sneeze at the end. Plus, my kid gets a kick out fake sneezes these days, so I've been slipping in an "a...a...a...CHOO!" at the end of everything I say to make her laugh (she's giggling right now, in fact)!

So I have four places to send you to on my "THE BEST MISTAKE" countdown today (It releases a week from today, remember?).

The Interview:

1. Yesterday, I was interviewed over at The Book Wenches Review Site. I talked about the latest WIP I completed and how that story is probably way-too emotionally close to me!

Giveaways:

2. Today, a copy of "The Best Mistake" will be given away to one commenter who visits the Reading Between the Wines Blog.

3. There is a contest going on over at The Romance Review where, I'm giving away three copies of "The Best Mistake." It ends March 14th.

The Guest Post:

4. And it's my regularly scheduled day to post over at The Writers Vineyard today, so I'm over there as well, talking about setting and, mmm, frosting.

***

After next Wednesday, I think I'll be done with all the interviews, countdown guest posts, and giveaways for a while.

But until then, I hope you're not too annoyed to be chasing me all over the internet! You needed the exercise, right? Yeah, I thought so!

Happy Wednesday to you!

Interview with DEVIN MONAGHAM, Hero in Ivy Bateman's "Between the Lines"

She felt herself grow hot—she knew she was blushing, and she should at least acknowledge his presence, but she couldn't. Devin...she'd completely forgotten the unbelievably sexy Irish writer was one of the seven authors launching a book tonight!

For some time now, she had been hoping to meet him and, had she remembered Devin was part of the book launch, she would have steeled herself for this moment. Ever since Isaac introduced her to Devin's work, she had developed a crazy, high-school crush on him. She loved his rough-around-the-edges good looks and often gazed hungrily at his author photo on the back cover of his books—cigarette in hand, sometimes smiling, sometimes not. Lara usually found smoking to be a turn off, but this didn't seem to be the case when it came to Devin. He had beautiful hands and sexy eyes. When he held a cigarette, it looked as though he was making love to it. Lara found him irresistible.

She snuck a glance at him in the reflective elevator wall. He was lovelier than his publicity photos had ever captured. He was looking at the floor and grinning slightly, a dimple adorably apparent on his right cheek. He ran his hand through his mop of dark brown hair. It gleamed in the light, begging to be touched. Lara immediately pictured his head working its way down her body, her hands tugging at his locks, maybe pushing it to go even lower...

Lara quickly stopped her imagination from running wild and was about to look away when he looked up and met her eyes in the glass. He smiled at her; a shy, slightly knowing smile...one that told her he knew what she was thinking. That was ridiculous. How could he know?

She returned his smile, or hoped she did. She may have just let her jaw drop. She started to attempt a sentence when the door chimed and opened into the lobby. For a moment, neither of them moved; they stood in the elevator looking at each other in their reflections on the wall.

"After you, Ms. Munroe," he quietly lilted.


********************BLURB********************
You just read an excerpt from:
BETWEEN THE LINES
by
Ivy Bateman

Buy Link: Breathless Press
********************************************* Linda Kage: Today, we have political writer, Devin Monagham here with us. Devin is the hero in IVY BATEMAN's debut erotic romance novella, Between the Lines, which released last month from Breathless Press. So, put your hands together for Devin! Hey handsome! The burning question in all our minds this morning is...Who IS Devin Monaghan? Could you please describe yourself in 100 words or less?

Devin: Who is Devin Monaghan, well that isn't exactly an easy question to answer. How does one talk about one's self without coming across as a bit of a narcissist? Okay, I suppose I could be described as humorous, devilishly handsome (laughs), and I enjoy quiet evenings at home with my books, my wine and if I'm lucky, with a lovely and intelligent woman who will read to me while in state of very little dress…Perhaps that's too much information…but there you have it: me in a shallow nutshell.

Kage: Give us a peek into your head. What is one happy memory you have?

Devin: Pretty sure I gave you a peak into my head in question one! But, okay happy memory… the first time someone said, well my editor said "They’d like to publish your book and here’s a sizable advance!" If truth be told, it was the advance part that really brought out the elation. However, I was both happy and horrified: happy because finally I arrived a time where I could make a decent living doing what I love, writing and horrified because I would now have to enter the world of serious deadlines.

Kage: Okay, now let’s skip to the stuff I want to hear about…this is a romance writer’s blog, after all! Before going into this story, what was your romance life like?

Devin: Romance life…I wouldn’t call it a “life” so much as “moments”. I don’t have time right now to have romance as a regularly scheduled part of my day. One day maybe, but for now, I cherish the moments which are divine, heavenly…better than I’ve experienced before and I’m pretty sure I don’t quite deserve.

Kage: I've heard rumors about you and some erotic romance author. Lara something or the other? Oh, yeah. I've heard of her! So what’s going on there, and why isn't your relationship with her like it's been with every other woman you've dated before?

Devin: Well, my goodness…someone has done their sneaky research! You are clearly referring to the lovely Lara Munroe. Our relationship…yes it is different, far different than I’ve had with anyone else. The why though…that’s what you want to know. I think it’s because she’s so free, so uninhibited and not just…you know…in a certain room…She loves her career, her writing, her fans. She loves to laugh and has a brain behind those blazing green eyes. People are drawn to her. She has an inner fire you can’t ignore and in my case, have trouble doing without. The romantic “moments” we share, well…I hope they will become more than moments before too long.

Kage: What do you like most about her? And what do you like least?

Devin: Well, what I like the most is that when I talk, she really listens to me. She understands me. A lot of women I’ve been with only nod along, and have no real interest in the world I write about. We can have deep conversations about all sorts of topics and on the nights where wine is involved, we can solve all the world’s problems while we’re at it! (smiles) But what I like least…I know I should say “Oh nothing! She’s perfect!” but, and well it’s only a small thing…she’s very chatty first thing in the morning. I have trouble remembering what brand of animal I am when my alarm goes off and Lara, she loves to have full conversations immediately. I’m just not cerebrally capable first thing in the morning..

Kage: How do you intend to handle this situation with her?

Devin: Well, I usually just mumble at her and say that if we’re going to converse when I only have four brain cells working, could she please bring me some coffee? Sometimes she does, sometimes she throws a pillow at me and heads to the shower and…sometimes…she wakes me up in a much more personal manner…I tell you…that kind of thing will get a man talking! Maybe not in complete sentences, but it’s a good warm up!

Kage: Thanks for stopping by and gracing us with some eye candy--I mean, with your presence. Was there anything else you'd like to add before getting along on your way?

Devin: Eye candy indeed…no, no…Lara’s the one who’s worth looking at! But thank-you for saying so and for the interview; it’s been lovely meeting you. Cheers!

*********************************************


If you're curious about Devin's author, here are other places to find IVY BATEMAN on the web:

Blog: http://ivybmisbehavin.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/IvyBateman

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003227535431


Publisher: Breathless Press

The Best Countdown or Biggest Mistake EVER!

Okay, I doubt this will be the best countdown OR the biggest mistake, but it IS the beginning of my countdown for The Best Mistake!

The Best Mistake is coming out in two weeks but I'm already tired of all the promoting. I should be at the top of my game, but I just want to curl into a ball somewhere quiet and read.

I've reached that mood where I think, Honestly, who cares? There are so many good books out there, so many great authors, so many...everything. One little, insignificant me shouldn't even bother. I mean, what if I'm more like an annoying little fly, buzzing around the room, simply irritating people.

This is the point in an author's career when they're supposed to be flying high and going on and on about how much they love their story that's about to release. Which I do! I really do (of course, I do because it's mine! LOL). It's my first Linda Kage novella and my first true romantic comedy. I was so proud of it. The heroine was perfect (in my head at least): quirky, lovable, clumsy just enough to make it slightly unrealistic but really entertaining with a sad background she hides with her upbeat attitude. The hero was boy-next-door sweet yet sexy enough to be devastating.

But sigh...after contacting so many people to set up interviews and guest posts and proof-reads for reviews, I just don't feel so vibrant and excited anymore. I just feel exhausted.

Reviews so far are all over the place. Some people love it, some people hate it.

The main issue I have, though, is that I feel like I keep shouting over and over again at the same exact people about my upcoming releases. The interviews and guest posts and reviewers were my attempt to branch out, but I can't tell if any of that is helping or hurting.

I know I should start working on my next newsletter to send out too but, again, that feels like another invasion of everyone else's free time, and to me, free time is so precious these days. Besides, I'm still totally embarrassed about that last one i sent. I found so many spelling errors in it, I'm still ducking my head in shame!

Everywhere I go, I hear how important it is to self promote. But promoting myself is frankly unnatural for me. I don't want to be the center of attention. I just want people to be able to sit back, read my stories and find a couple hours of relaxation, entertainment, and a satisfying happily ever after.

If you can't tell, I think I might possible be stressing myself out and over-thinking things just a tad bit, worrying, wondering, praying what the right path to take is.

The good news is, I'll work through it somehow, release day will come and pass, and whatever was going to happen will have happened. So honestly, there's no need for me to stress about anything. I should simply do the best I can and the rest is...que sera sera (what will be will be). Which reminds me of my favorite Doris Day song....




Ahh...That hit the spot. Made me begin to feel better already!

What kind of strange thoughts swirl through your head when the release of your book approaches?