I finally feel comfortable calling my move "complete," although the task is never truly over, is it? The place is nice, but it doesn't feel like home yet. I suspect it will take some time. For now, I'll just enjoy the view.
Moving!
It's been a while, hasn't it? Yes.
I've been moving, which I've learned is an awful idea around the winter holidays. I've been running rampant for a while, trying to make sure everything goes well. You know, making sure I don't pack an adorable alphabet-teaching octopus in a box which says "kitchen" and gift wrap a toaster for my six month old niece.
Not that everyone's kitchen couldn't use a bit of alphabet-teaching octopus.
Reading List – November (Sales List!)
Would you like something to read, at a great discount? Of course you would.
I'm joining some of my fellow Scribophile members in a reading round robin, where we each buy everyone else's books and check them out. We all priced our books reasonably for the event, so many of these books will be 99 cents for a limited time! Many of them are also in the kindle lending library, if you have that. This means that my reading list is pretty packed for this month already.
I don't normally plan my reading list so far in advance, but it seems like a good opportunity to give everyone a peek at my bookshelf. Note: I haven't read any of these yet, so I'm not sure what genre they are or how long. This is my untested future plans.
Here we go! In no particular order:
Savage Dawn
A Date with Angel: and other things that weren't supposed to happen (A Romantic Comedy)
Beasts and Savages (The Beastly Series Book 1)
The Secrets of Slade Sanders (The Slade Sanders Series Book 1)
The River Girl's Song: Texas Women of Spirit, Book 1
The Rad Misfits
Young Marian A Viper in the Forest
Night Planes: When One and Done Becomes Fly Till You Die
The Bastard's Blade: a medieval romantic fantasy
Home to You (Suspicious Hearts Book 1)
Eating Off The Floor
Rolled: (a short story)
The Secret King: Lethao
THE AMERICAN FATHERS EPISODE 1: SWEPT AWAY
A is for Adverb: An Alphabet for Authors in Agony
Papa's Portrait: An 1820 Stephenson House Short Story
Yesterday: A Novel of Reincarnation
Wild Hunt: A Tale Told In Mythic Time (The Mythic Time Series Book 1)
Duped: An anthology
Calasade: Sanguinem Isle: Illustrated Greco-Roman Fantasy (Normally $5.49 - .99 Sale Won't Last Long)
And that's it! Whew this is gonna be a long list to read through, but I'm excited!
*gets her reading chair warmed up*
Woohoo! Watched!
Watched
On to the next one.
Enemies on Tap
The first novel in Avery Flynn's Sweet Salvation Brewery series is a quick, fun read. There are two more, if you fall in love with the colorful denizens of Salvation. Here's her blurb:
Enemies ...After years away, Miranda Sweet returns to Salvation, Virginia to save her family's brewery, but her fate is in the hands of her lover-turned-enemy, Logan. What's a girl to do when the only person who can help her is the man who betrayed her?
Lovers ...Logan Martin can't believe his luck when the woman who smashed his heart to smithereens walks into his bank asking for his help. What she doesn't know is that he needs the land her brewery is on--and he'll do whatever it takes to get it.
An Irresistible Combination ...Their wager becomes a battle between their attraction and their determination to win. But it's in each other's arms that they realize there might be more at stake now than their bet. With the town against the Sweet Salvation Brewery's success, Logan has to choose between what's expected of him and what he really wants...
All that for a great price. Go check it out!
Watched Cover Art #2
After a submission to Cover Critics and a lot of changes, I'm happy to show off my new-and-improved cover art for Watched!
I think it looks a lot better, don't you? They had a ton of useful comments and direction. You should look them up if you're designing your own book cover.
Book Review: Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare
Book Review: Say Yes to the Marquess - 5 Stars
I've decided that when I find a particularly good book, I'll mention it here on the site. After all, what good is having a blog if you can't gush about things you like? I'll add some Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience, but really I just want to talk about the great books I get to read. Let's talk about Say Yes to the Marquess.
Say Yes to the Marquess: Castles Ever After
There's nothing to dislike here, which is pretty normal for a book by Tessa Dare. The sex scenes were hot, the characters were well-rounded and I even learned a bit about beer. If you're in the mood for a happy-go-lucky romance with a strong female lead and a lot of clever wordplay, read this book.
Blurb:
Your presence is requested at romantic Twill Castle for the wedding of Miss Clio Whitmore and ... and ...?
After eight years of waiting for Piers Brandon, the wandering Marquess of Granville, to set a wedding date, Clio Whitmore has had enough. She's inherited a castle, scraped together some pride, and made plans to break her engagement.
Not if Rafe Brandon can help it. A ruthless prizefighter and notorious rake, Rafe is determined that Clio will marry his brother--even if he has to plan the dratted wedding himself.
So how does a hardened fighter cure a reluctant bride's cold feet?
- He starts with flowers. A wedding can't have too many flowers. Or harps. Or cakes.
- He lets her know she'll make a beautiful, desirable bride--and tries not to picture her as his.
- He doesn't kiss her.
- If he kisses her, he definitely doesn't kiss her again.
- When all else fails, he puts her in a stunning gown. And vows not to be nearby when the gown comes off.
- And no matter what--he doesn't fall in disastrous, hopeless love with the one woman he can never call his own.
Short Story Cover!
Hi again! Just popping in for a quick update before I dive back into edits.
My short story, All Of You, is coming along well. I just finished creating the cover, and wanted to share.
It's got a rose on it, because roses are flowers, and flowers grow from the ground, and the ground is the earth, and this story happens on Earth. Which is a place where romance stories are read. So roses = romance.
All of this is true.
Anyway! This short story will be complete soon-ish, and it's yours all yours if you sign up for my email list. If you sign up, I promise I won't sell your email address. Or spam you with a million weird ads for penis enhancement. Or use your information in any dark rituals.
Mostly because I'm not certain how to do any of those things. Give it time.
Deadlines and Goodies
As the second self-imposed deadline blows past, I would like to take a moment to scream and hold my hands in front of my face to keep the angry scheduling wolves from tearing it off. These are of course imaginary wolves, because I think all of two people read this blog and both are my cats. The third cat can't read. Shame on me.
BUT!
The reason I put off the publication date is because I want to offer goodies in my first self-published book under my own (pen) name! I'm giving away a free short story based on one of the characters in Watched. This awesome piece of wondrousness is available if you sign up for my super awesome email list! I'll deliver it to your inbox as soon as it's complete! Exclamation points!
But seriously, sign up for my email list. It's right there. Waiting.
Edit Funk.
My big shiny book is almost done. Just a few more edits and I'm off to the races, or whatever you want to call the Amazon self-pub machine. There's only one problem.
I'm in the middle of an edit funk.
Today has been the proud owner of not a single scrap of useful work. I've tweaked my book cover (yes, again), made cover images for both my facebook and twitter pages, and stared at pages and pages of text without reading or making a single note. I've got ten more chapters to work through another draft, and at least one more wave of edits to do afterward. I'm stalled at the finish line, or at least close to it.
They've got to make a pill for this, right?
Alright, back to work. Or rather, to work in the first place.