Book to benefit tornado victims

Even though the Oklahoma tornado is all over the news right now, those who have been affected by previous disasters shouldn't be forgotten. And so I'm very   excited to share with you the cover to my nonfiction book about the Joplin tornado and its victims. 

Though the book doesn't come out for another year, this is my contribution to those affected by the tornado. they are still in recovery, two years later. This is a benefit book, a fundraiser. The profits will go to relief funds and those who contributed their stories. 

The more books I sell, the more Joplin will be helped. So now my job is to select the right charitable groups and start getting press attention. 

You can help too! Start spreading the word and remember that while our lives move on, those affected by the tragedies will bear the burden for years to come. Don't forget them!

Blogging from the park

My life has been taken over by summer vacation and children under the age of 8. 

It's an invasion! And they're so stinking cute you don't even realize it until its too late. 

Oh and if my grammar's a little off, I blame it on the autocorrect function of my phone. 

I'm halfway through my writing goals for May. Perhaps I was too ambitious. :) well try again next month. 

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.