This is my neighbor’s berry patch. It is so successful it hangs over into our yard. For some reason, he thinks this is an inconvenience to us. He encourages us to pick all we want. I picked a big giant bowl and I’m getting ready to bake a pie.
Book Two of the Crooked Rock books is finished. I have a week to tidy it up and smooth up the rough bits and then it goes to the editor. Still looking at a release date in September.
This is not the current scene around the neighborhood. This is from 2014. This weekend we got barely enough snow to cover the ground along with some freezing rain which the weather forecast says is not done yet. It looks pretty slushy out there so hopefully the commute won’t be a mess.
Announcement #1 is: I figured out that I misspelled Tahlequah in Book 1. Tahlequah is the home of the Cherokee Nation and I’ve even been there and I still messed it up. Apologies, apologies. If you have a book with the error and want a fixed copy — contact me and I will fix you up. Sorry I haven’t fixed it in the for sale versions yet either. A lot going on and I haven’t managed to get to it yet.
Announcement #2 is: we found out on January 2 we need a new roof. All tentative travel plans went back into the dust bin. My sweetheart has a big zero birthday this year so we will probably try to do something for that. But otherwise no big trips or adventures this year. Boo!
Announcement #3 is: Heartbeat Braves made Jayne’s 2016 best list (Dear Author). The only book on that list that I’ve read is Shannon Stacey. I need to figure out to do more reading.
I keep a haphazard record of all the romance books I read. This is a separate list from all the other books I read. I don’t have a great system for differentiating what is romance and what isn’t. The lists overlap in places. Why even separate the lists, you ask?
Good question. I understand why I do it in my head but I can’t explain it.
I also keep a list of authors or books I want to try because of good reviews or friend recommendations. That list is down to three authors so I’m either on the ball or falling behind on the job.
I’m not the best resource for discovering new books because I’m always behind and reading books that I bought years ago.
According to my list, I read 32 romances. Of those I DNF 6. I’m not sure how accurate that is because I don’t always keep track of the DNFs. Also my rating system is wishy-washy so unless I’m doing backflips about the book or the book doesn’t work for me at all, they’re mushy in the middle.
After that long introduction, these are a few of my favorite books I read last year. If I had more energy I would link but I’ve got about 30 more things on today’s To Do list. You know how to find them.
Nalini Singh — Angel Blood I finally started the Guild Hunter series and loved the first one. I’m so happy that I have so many Nalini Singh books to look forward to.
Kristan Higgins — The Best Man I loved this one, too. I was upset about one scene that I thought was uncharacteristically mean-spirited, but I’m looking forward to reading more from KH, too.
Lisa Kleypas — Secrets of a Summer Night In my list I leave myself notes to help me remember what the story was about. This one I wrote “scene in the train foundry.” I like contemporary better than historical but I loved these characters.
Tessa Dare — A Night to Surrender Another historical but I fell in love with these characters, too, and I loved the humor.
Sarina Bowen — Understatement of the Year and The Fifteenth Minute I finally finished the Ivy Years series. Those were my most reliable books when I needed something I could disappear into quickly. I’m sorry I’m done with that series. She’s got plenty of new stuff so I expect I will read more in 2017.
I also haven’t managed to get to Courtney Milan — Hold Me yet. That’s high on my list, too.
My favorite non-romance books were The Expanse books by James S.A. Corey. I read the first 5 in 2016. I have #6 sitting here and then I have to wait for new ones with everyone else. I also loved The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. Why haven’t I read her before? I’m thrilled to have a huge backlist from her to look forward to.
But first, my main job (besides my day job and keeping the house from falling apart) is to get Crooked Rock Books 2 and 3 out before the end of the year. I set some ambitious goals. We’ll see how I do.
Here are critter tracks across the back deck. They all look like kitties except for one. We have no pets. We do have raccoons and opossums wandering through our yard.
The big news of the week is that Heartbeat Braves received a *Recommended Read* review from Jayne at Dear Author.
I knew there was a reason I still hadn’t worked on my best of list for this year and this book is it. Yep, it’s going on it for a number of reasons but I’ll cut to the chase and say it’s one of the best overall books I’ve read this year.
–Jayne at Dear Author.
Self-publishing is personally satisfying but it’s tough to find readers and I appreciate Jayne giving the book a chance. I am thrilled that she liked it.
Now look at this cute kitty print, all clean and delicate.
Meanwhile, I am hammering away on Book 2. I also have a prequel story about Arnie and Linda in college that’s going to be a freebie with the newsletter. Luckily, I have a little extra time off for the holidays so in between family time and cookie time, I hope to get a bunch of work done.
I think I’ve finally learned my lesson and I’m doing a lot more Thanksgiving meal prep in advance.
Today I processed almost all the pumpkins and I made the pie crust and put it in the fridge. I’m making the pie on Wednesday.
I read a long thread about how it isn’t worth it to make your own pie filling.
I disagree.
One of the steps they talk about is cooking the pumpkin down. I have never done that. I slow roast the pumpkin then scrape it out of the rind and put it in a strainer lined with cheesecloth and let the extra juice drip out. It’s been so long since I’ve had canned filling, I’m not sure if this tastes better. But it’s bright orange so I like to think so.
Keep an eye out. I’m doing a .99 cent promotion on Heartbeat Braves the last week of November.
I’ve already admitted in the book’s endnotes that the models on the cover are not Indigenous. That’s standard stock art.
For my original plan, I envisioned hiring a photographer and taking photos for the first four planned books all at the same time. I had a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and an emergency plan and they all fell through. Most of the problem was finding models.
I had some connections but apparently young people hear “romance novel” and don’t come running forward to get involved.
I figured I could make do with stock photos. If you’ve ever search through stock photography (for example: istockphoto) for Indigenous people the selection is not wonderful. Just checking right now, it looks better than the first time I checked. There are great family type photos but after the first screen or two you start getting non-native people dressed up in headdresses and stereo-typical buckskin garb that makes my head hurt to see that even exists.
I had booked the cover artist months in advance so I had to make a decision so we went with the present photo. Holly did a fantastic job. The final project looks great. I was afraid I would be disappointed with it.
I am actively looking pro-quality photos of cute native couples. I’ve you’ve got something, get in touch via the contact form. I’d love to work with you.
Crooked Rock is finally here! Who needs more sexy Indians in their life?
Here’s the blurb:
There’s never a dull moment at the Crooked Rock Urban Indian Center.
Rayanne Larson knows firsthand the struggles of native people. Working at Crooked Rock gives her the chance to do good work for Indians living in the city. She has high hopes for the Center’s progress until its new leader hands her special project over to his underachieving–and distractingly sexy–nephew.
Henry Grant’s life is going just fine. Though he knows rez life, he’s always been an urban Indian. He has no interest in the Indian Center job his uncle pushes on him. That is, until he meets Rayanne. She’s attractive and smart, and like no woman he has ever met.
Rayanne is determined to keep her distance but when the Center faces a crisis, the two of them are forced to work together and she can no longer ignore the sparks between them.
Purchase links:
Kindle | Nook | Apple | Kobo | Paperback
Enjoy!
I finished my reader draft last week and sent it out to my lucky (?) first readers.
I still don’t have a title. I still don’t have a cover. I still don’t have stock photos for the cover. I’m supposedly working on that myself but my efforts haven’t been successful so far. I will write a post about this at some point.
I’m going to work on getting a little teaser going for here soon.
The day after I sent out the manuscript, I went on an extra long weekend trip to St. Louis and Kansas City with my sweetheart. The last few days when I was spending every possible waking moment finishing my manuscript I kept saying: I promise I’ll pay attention to you when we go on vacation.
And I did. We had a great time. We did historical stuff and touristy stuff and took naps. I saw my sports team play. I ate BBQ and drank local IPAs. I was completely screen free except for my phone.
We’re still on schedule for a mid-October release.
I had a bunch of things I wanted to accomplish over the weekend:
Clean Oven ✓
Sweep Garage ✓
Get some plants in the ground ✓
Write 6000 words HA HA!
I actually did get some writing done but I got stuck and had to write in circles for a day before I realized I needed to stop and go back to my outline and get situated. That’s a high word count from me, anyway. I’m not super speedy. I’m back on track now.
Meanwhile, I had a dinner date with a friend. She’s a writer and has two small children.
We were lamenting the pile of books we wished to read with the amount of time we had for reading and came up with a great idea: a reading retreat.
This would be like a writing retreat only you just read. In the evening you could have dinner with the other participants and talk about what you’re reading. But the main activity would be reading.
I think this would be a hit.
I’m disappointed in the tulips this year. I need to do some reading from “tulips for dummies” to see if I can figure out the problem.
These blooms are looking pitiful. The backyard is even worse. Oddly, the backyard daffodils looked better than I can ever remember.
This is a photo of the same area from 2 years ago. I’m not sure it demonstrates the issue as well as I would like.
I am working on a new book that would be part of a series but it is slow going. I can carve out time but only a little bit and it’s hard to get much work done in tiny chunks.
For now, it’s going to be a mystery. Hopefully I can report more soon.
I’ve also started a couple of posts about some of my favorite romance, old school and current. Stay tuned.