High expectations

Someday...

I will clean my own house again. 

I will blog from my computer, not my phone. 

My kids won't watch TV while I sleep all day. 

I won't sleep all day. 

I will write again. 

I might even put on make up again. 

And you? What aspirations do you have for yourself?

Maternity Leave

I have about two seconds before the baby decides she's done with her bouncy and wants to eat. AGAIN. I'm in that lovely two week period where baby spends 90% of her time clinging to me and nursing. In a moment I'll take up my new favorite position in the corner of the couch, surrounded by blankets and wraps and my water bottle.

The wonderful news is, our baby arrived. She's healthy and beautiful and has a great appetite. Everything works.


The bad news is, she's high maintenance. I don't know when you'll see me blogging again. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Until next time!

FREE Kindle book, today only!

Here it is, folks... for one day only, Inevitable is free to all Kindle users!

This is an awesome chance to snag your copy. It's a great chance for you to share the book with friends, too, if you've read it and enjoyed it!

Get your copy now! Click here for link.

I'm late, I'm late

For a very important date.

A due date, that is, which has come and gone.

I've never been late before, and it's very much driving me nuts. Logically, I realize a woman can't be pregnant forever. This baby must come out. But how can she still be sitting in there, so tight and cozy, when her date has come and gone? I feel like she's becoming an eternal part of me and will never leave.

Before everyone starts giving me advice for encouraging her exit, I've already heard and probably already tried it. Multiple times, because even if she wasn't ready three days ago, she might be now, right?

People keep saying wonderfully observant things like, "You're still pregnant!" Oh, is that what the problem is? I wasn't sure. Or this one: "Are you having contractions?" Yes, and I have been for three weeks. Would you like to know my sleep patterns as well? But this one's the worst: "How are you feeling?" Take a guess. Take a wild guess. I'm overweight with a painful contracting watermelon in my belly, I don't sleep well, my feet, hands, and face are swollen, I can't bend over, everything aches--how do you think I'm feeling?

About the only thing you can say to me is, "I'm so sorry." And then move on. Let's turn the conversation another direction.

I try to keep myself distracted by filling my calendar with events, but as each day approaches, I secretly hope I'll have to cancel because I have a new baby. As much as I love my writer's group, I'm not thrilled that I'll be making it to our meeting tonight. As close as the airport is, I'm not excited that I'm available to give my mom a ride. Even though I planned out our dinner menu for the week, I wish I wasn't cooking it. It's great to get these things accomplished, but I wish I couldn't.

For you on the outside looking in, you know with an even clearer head than I that it's only a matter of days. She will come. And I'll be glad I got so much done before she got here. So what's the big deal?

Well... if you've ever been late, I'm sure you know.

Since I'm still pregnant, my goal today is to tally up the blog tour points and get those posted! Oh, and Inevitable goes free for ONE DAY ONLY tomorrow! I'll give you links tomorrow!

Blog Tours: Are they worth it?

I have NOT finished tallying things up from my blog tour in March... sorry, folks, I'm just really behind like that.

I'm also 40 weeks pregnant and wondering if I'm ever going to deliver or if I'll carry this watermelon around forever. But that's a story for someone else to write.

But while I get things documented from my blog tour, I wanted to share my personal results with people. When I launched Inevitable in February, I decided not to do a blog tour. I felt like I'd just done one with Altercation (though in reality, that one took place in July of 2012... so only in my head was it recent). I didn't want to overwhelm people or confuse people, so I opted not to do a blog tour. I had a few people post promo info on their blogs, did a Facebook launch party which went really well, and left it at that.

By the middle of February, I knew I had to do something more. People won't buy a book they've never heard of.

So I organized what I considered a quickie blog tour. Instead of my usual twenty people, I invited about ten to participate. I didn't require them to review the book, though I did send out review copies. I made up an html blog post and sent that to them so all they had to do was copy and paste. I tried to make it as easy as possible.

Even with that small amount of effort I put into it, the results were immediately obvious. Every single person who commented on a blog post was one more person who now knew about my book. My book was added to more than 500 people's "to read" list on Goodreads. A few more reviews were posted on both Goodreads and Amazon. (I could always use more!)

Goodreads reviews for Inevitable

Reviews from Goodreads.com

And while sales didn't go up astronomically, they did go up.

End result: A blog tour is not only worth it, but necessary. Next time I might try to recruit 50 people. The more, the merrier.

Winner and another awesome book!

So the winner of the ebook copy of Fairchild is Aaron and Emily! Congrats!!!

On the heels of the book giveaway, I just finished reading another awesome book. It's The Rules by Stacey Kade.

This book is about a hybrid alien/human who struggles to fit into society while keeping her identity a secret. If the government finds out about her, they'll take her into custody for examinations and experiments. Unfortunately, she's not so good at hiding.

The book didn't start out bad, but it started slow. It took me several chapters before it fully captured me. Nothing so bad that I didn't want to continue, but suddenly it hooked me and I couldn't put it down. There's romance and mean girls and the MC is very real and believable. I very much enjoyed it and look forward to the next one.

It's a pre-release on Amazon (I was lucky to get an ARC), so if you're looking for a new book and don't know what to get, the pre-order price is a steal. Can't go wrong. Grab it here.

And my blog tour is over!!! Thanks to everyone who participated! I promise I'm going to try and get winners chosen this week, so watch for announcements!

Fair Finds

There are SO MANY books out there. So many I want to read, and so many I've never even heard of. Every time I'm at the library, I check out more than I can possibly read before my time is up. (My apologies, Bella Vista Library. Yes, I still have those books.)

At writer's conferences, I buy huge amounts of books. Not only to support my fellow authors, but to see what they've written!

I've been lucky at bookstores moving locations or going out of business to score massive amounts of books for mere dollars each.

And of course, every time I see a good deal on Amazon, I load up my Kindle.

Occasionally someone will recommend a book to me, and it will get added to my "I'm interested" list. But it usually takes several recommendations before the book actually ends up in my possession.

Well, I have two purposes to this blog post: First, to introduce you to a great book that fell into my possession, and second, to give you the first recommendation you need to purchase this book.

The book is Fairchild by Jaima Fixsen.

This is one of those books that I started out completely not knowing what to expect. Well, here's what I got: A Jane Austen-esque book with vibrant, vivid writing, multi-faceted characters, intriguing plot, and a realistic resolution.

Written in the style of  Regency novels, so many of today's conventions don't apply to the book. From the very beginning I was hooked. It's a story to feast upon and enjoy the plot while relishing the fine writing. 

Very, very rarely does a debut novel impress me so much. I'd rather not give away much of the plot, but it is, of course, a historical romance. Lovers without a hope must find a way to ignore conventions and be together while still finding an honorable place in society. 

If you like this genre, you will like the book. Get it and see.

Still not convinced? I'll give away one Kindle copy of the book to one lucky commenter. Give away runs through Friday, March 29, so comment away! And those comments DO double count toward this give away and the one I'm doing for my book launch!

Here are some more blogs you can comment on for more chances to win! C.K. Bryant, Taffy's Writings, and Lydia Kang!