September 11, 2001
9/11/2015
9/10/2015
Magic Beans, French Translation, Jobs to Do #caffeinateme #writestuff
Good
morning everyone! Hope this fine Thursday morning finds you all well and cool!
*sips coffee* It's comfortably overcast here, so no unbearable heat today. Ooh…
and this coffee? It's the bomb. I used my homemade pumpkin spice coffee
creamer, and ooh whee! I may never buy the stuff again. This is amazing.
I'm
celebrating the release of another French translation, La vieille buvette (The
Old Soda Shop). Cover art is a sexy piece of work by Startled Monkeys Media,
editing and translation by Jade Baiser and Valarie Dubar of Juno translations. .
Today
there's more words to be written on At the Heart of Christmas and Mum's the
Word. Wanna know a weird mummification fact? King Tut's penis was mummified erect. That's weird all right. I remember when I was a kid back in the seventies and
Tut first came to the US. No one said anything about Tut's penis. Just awe and
amazement over the gold and artifacts. I might have been more excited to see
the exhibit if someone had mentioned the mummified erection.
Finished
up the Walking Dead. What a way to end season four, huh? Locked in a rail car,
facing an uncertain future. And whatever happened to Beth? Who's gonna babysit
Judith now? We all got jobs to do, and that was hers.
I
think that just might be one of my favorite lines from the show.
We all got jobs to do.
And
speaking of jobs, there's words to be put on the page here. Still working happily away on At the Heart of Christmas and Mum's the word.
Remember,
there's a gift card giveaway in process HERE to see a complete list of tour stops and find the raffle copter for the
giveaway. And one last thing… Take Time is on sale for $1 at Smashwords with Coupon Code: BL83X Expires: October
9, 2015. Pick up a copy today!
Okay-
*turns up the music* Sweet! Today we have Fly by Night by Rush. Love this song *spins chair* Have a great day everyone.
9/09/2015
Drowning in Tweets, Procrastination, Coupon #writestuff #caffeinateme
Good
morning everyone! *sips coffee* finally a break in the heat today. Downside of
that is it's rainy and grey. This morning I visited Triberr, a great sort of
social media site that I'm sometimes on the fence about using. It collects your
friends into "tribes" and thus makes it easier to locate and share
their tweets- because the twitter is such a swamp of information, it's easy to
drown in tweets. To be honest, anything that makes twitter easier is something I'm
all for. Twitter is one social media site I just don't get. And I've been trying
to "get" it for about five years now.
Anyway,
over at Triberr, I found this video,
posted by The Masquerade Crew. And it makes complete sense to me. I can't log into FaceBook anymore without
being inundated by ads for crazy things. And heaven forbid you look at anything
on Amazon or Ebay, because there's going to be an ad for that banana slicing gizmo
on Facebook next time you log in. But advertising isn't an author's biggest
problem with Facebook. Uh uh. Nope. Our biggest problems is… Distraction.
Procrastination. Probably a few more ----tions as well.
I
cannot tell you how many times I've said, "I'm going to start work as soon
as I check Facebook." An hour later… still scrolling FB, laughing,
muttering, and drinking more coffee.
*shakes
fist at dark sky* Not today Facebook! Not today! Today's projects include work
on both Mum's the Word and At the Heart of Christmas. At the Heart of Christmas
is now well over 10K and chugging steadily along. (I LOVE working with Havan
Fellows.) Oh, and the publication of the French edition of The Old Soda Shop,
which translates as La Vieille buvette. The translation was done by Jade Baiser
and Valarie DuBar at Juno Translations, terrific cover art is by Startled Monkeys Media. Links and other information to follow.
Remember,
there's a gift card giveaway in process HERE to see a complete list of tour stops and find the rafflecopter for the
giveaway. And one last thing… Take Time is on sale for $1 at Smashwords with Coupon Code: BL83X Expires: October
9, 2015. Pick up a copy today!
Okay-
*turns up the music* Bang a Gong by T. Rex! Whoot! No time to waste! Y'all have a great day.
9/08/2015
Story Orgy Presents: Creature Feature Mum's the Word #malexmale #storyorgy #serial
Good morning friends and readers!
Sorry for the posting delay! Labor Day knocked me off track. Ready to see what's up with those letters? Me too!
Sorry for the posting delay! Labor Day knocked me off track. Ready to see what's up with those letters? Me too!
Mum's the Word
Chapter Six
Sept 7: There were sirens.
There were sirens, loud and obnoxious blaring anxiously, coming closer. When the noise didn’t stop or fade, Owen guiltily shoved the letters back into their box and glanced around the room for a place to stash the box itself. Maybe Gregoire had realized what he’d done… that he’d taken the letters. Maybe he, like Izzy and Owen, knew that a collection of authentic, never before displayed Egyptian artifacts, with the letters proving provenance, would be a huge draw for the museum.
Even when he’d swiped the box earlier that evening Owen had known that what he was doing was wrong. He didn’t trust the professor though. The discovery belonged to him, and to Izzy. Gregoire had made it clear he planned to take credit for any and all museum work. To him, Owen and Izzy were lackies… laborers. He had no respect for the fact that they were both trained scholars with hundreds of credit hours under their belts, months away from perfecting their dissertations.
“It’s not stealing.” His conscience raised its invisible, snarky brow, prodding at him. “Okay, it is… but just temporary and only to make sure we get the credit we deserve.”
The sirens finally faded as he shoved the box under a UNC Wolves blanket that Izzy must have bought at some time in a fit of school spirit. Maybe one of the previous boyfriends had left it behind.
Owen checked his watch at the thought of Izzy. He was supposed to have quit the lawn work at the nursing home by eight, and yet when Owen arrived home from his pizza delivery job- with an anchovy and mushroom pizza in hand- well past midnight, Izzy hadn’t been there.
Thinking Izzy had stopped by the library to work on his dissertation, Owen had cued up The Walking Dead on Netflix and settled down to assiduously pluck salty fish bits off one half of the pizza. All the while, he’d been conscious of the box of letters, and the waiting for Izzy to get back had been killing him.
The sirens were finally gone, but still Izzy hadn’t returned. The library was long closed. Where was Izzy? Maybe he’d gone for a drink? Met someone?
Pushing away the thought that Izzy might not return home alone, Owen reached for the box again, and extracted the letters. He began arranging them in order by postage date, snapping shots with his tablet’s camera as he went.
Finally a key scraped in the door lock. His head snapped up, tracking every movement of the door. Waiting…
It rocked open slowly, telegraphing Izzy’s tiredness before Owen caught a glimpse of his face. “Owen?” Izzy dropped a leather back pack on the floor and kicked the door shut behind him. “What are you doing still up?” HIs glance fell on the letters, the half empty pizza box, and the gory television show in rapid succession. “Uh…”
“I wasn’t waiting up for you.” Owen defended himself swiftly. “I was just… documenting these letters.”
Izzy’s blue eyes widened. “Are those the letters?” He advanced into the room, threw himself onto the sofa. He seemed to shed tiredness like a snake does its skin, eyes sparkling, shoulders straightening. “And anchovies on the pizza? Awesome.” Izzy reached for a letter with one hand and a slice of pizza with the other.
Owen snatched the letter back. “No. Eat first, then wash your hands. This paper… it’s old and …”
Izzy nodded. “I know. Sorry. Just forgot in all the excitement.” A cloud passed through his eyes. “How’d these get here?”
“I brought them, how’d you think?” Owen’s voice was harsher than he intended.
Izzy stopped chewing pizza and stared at him, swallowing. “Professor Gregoire doesn’t know about this, does he?”
“No.” Owen lifted his chin, squared his jaw. “I didn’t tell him. I don’t want him taking credit for the discovery when we find it.”
“It’s not exactly fieldwork,” Izzy’s glance slid away, over Owen’s left shoulder, an expression on his face that was hard to read. “There is no “credit” involved except in the design and presentation of the displays.”
An inkling of something wrong snaked through Owen’s consciousness. “Izzy? Where have you been?”
“I met someone at the library. We went for a drink.”
“Did you tell them about the letters?” Owen demanded anxiously.
“I may have,” Izzy drawled timidly.
“Who?” The inkling became a tidal wave drowning Owen in emotions- anger, disappointment, fear. “Who did you tell, Izzy?”
“Micahn… uh Professor Gregoire. He was in the library…” Izzy trailed into silence, finally turning his head to meet Owen’s gaze again. “He asked if we’d found anything new today. I’m sorry, Owen. I didn’t know you wanted to…”
Gulping, stomach tensing painfully, Owen shook off the emotions stalling him. “Yeah… sorry. No. I didn’t say. Don’t worry about it.”
“Worry?” Now Izzy sounded angry. His eyes snapped, his body stiffened. “What if he fires us for stealing from the museum, Owen? You didn’t think of that did you?”
Blinking furiously, taken off guard, Owen sat upright. “What?”
“You put our jobs at risk, Owen. We get our first paycheck next week, and now it just might be our last!” Izzy shoved the pizza box violently, sending it tumbling to the floor.
“We have other jobs,” Owen protested feebly.
“It’s not the same and you know it. Classroom experience, museum experience… these are things that will get us employed doing… archeology things.” He sputtered wordlessly for a moment. “I don’t want to prune shrubs and cut grass while elderly people of both genders ogle me for the rest of my life. Get real, Owen. This could get us kicked out of school, get our dissertations flunked…” He gave a frustrated humph, blowing thin locks of dark hair off his brow.
Owen stood frozen, unable to answer because he had no answer. Not that Izzy gave him time to come up with one. His roommate stormed off down the hall to his bedroom. The slamming door left Owen in no doubt that his presence would not be welcome tonight. He sank back into the couch cushions and grimly picked up his tablet and began snapping shots of each letter.
If you enjoyed my post, click on over to the rest of the Orgiasts and read more!
Email Reviews, Walking Dead, 777 #writestuff #caffeinateme
Good morning everyone! *sips
coffee* It's another gorgeous summer day here, and I got to tell you, the
sunrise this morning was stellar! We had thunder and lightning overnight, which
in addition to keeping the dog up, probably helped cool things off for this
morning.
Yesterday was my official
Keeping House Blog Tour, but the giveaway lasts all week. You can go HERE to see a complete list of tour stops and find the raffle copter for the
giveaway.
Today's email sweetened
my coffee quite nicely as it provided links to several lovely reviews for
Keeping House and one for Dead Man's Hand, my last Pulp Friction book. With
comments like these, how can an author not head to the keyboard smiling?
"Augh! I gotta know
what happens in this series!" Molly Lolly
This was such a lovely,
fast-paced, feel-good story. *happy sigh* … Definitely a story that I will read
again sometime. Bayou Book Junkie
I've been watching The
Walking Dead, as you know, and I keep playing Walking Dead games in the back of
my head. This weekend's puzzler: You have to leave your home because it's
overrun by zombies. You can only bring what you can carry. Assume you have a
backpack. What ten things would you carry with you?
My current list is as
follows: clean socks and underwear, water bottle, trail mix, tuna, a coat, a sleeping
bag, a shovel, notebook and pen.
Then I think, "Duh,
first aid?"
And I start all over
again. What do I HAVE to have, and what can I do without? (Does a first aid kit
count as one item or ten all by itself?)
Yes, I have better things
to do.
Today's projects include
work on both Mum's the Word and At the Heart of Christmas. Plus many little
tasks that managed to slip by me yesterday. For instance, I have to do a 777 on
Facebook. Both Laura Harner and Havan Fellows have tagged me, and if I don't
get on it, there won't be anyone left to tag. *grins* *sips coffee* What comes
around…
Okay- *cracks knuckles* wading into the work
is the only way to get it done! Y'all have a great day.
Keeping House, Blog Tour, Giveaway #malexmale #giveaway #pridepromotions
A very hearty thank you to all the Pride bloggers who hosted my tour yesterday and a special thank you to those who took the time to read and review Keeping House! So glad that you all enjoyed it! You're the best!
Click on through and take a look at some great reviews.
Don't forget to stop and enter the rafflecopter giveaway!
Keeping House:
Havan
Fellows:
Kimi-Chan:
The Jena
Wade:
Multitasking Mommas:
Mikky's World of Books:
9/07/2015
Last Chance, Labor Day Sale, Rebate #malexmale #sale
Greetings Friends and Readers!
Just a reminder that today is the last day of All Romance's Labor Day Sale!
Celebrate the end of summer, and welcome fall at the
I have dozens of titles there to choose from...
How It Works:
Buy books today.
Get $ back to buy again tomorrow!
For every $1 you spend, you earn 0.30 cents in rebates to use on a future shopping trip!
9/06/2015
Too Hot for Coffee, Writing Songs, Walking Dead #writestuff #caffeinateme
Good morning everyone! *sips coffee* Another gorgeous summer day here in the countryside- by which I mean too hot to handle! Taking it easy this mellow Labor Day weekend, don't know about where you are, but it's too hot for anything else here!
The day's music line-up includes The Eagles Life's Been Good to Me, The Black Crowes' Too Hard To Handle, and Foreigner's Juke Box Hero . Some great writing songs in the mix up! What kind of songs do you play when you write?
Looking forward to finishing off season 4 of the Walking Dead. Just in time too, because I see Netflix has season five starting soon. And I just want to let you know that I have come to the conclusion that if Carl had died in season one, this would have been a very different story. Oh, and I AM going to have to get the graphic novels. Sixteen television episodes a year isn't going to feed my OCD.
Today's writing projects are chapter four of At the Heart of Christmas and chapter seven of Mum's the Word. Remember, chapter six will be here on the blog tomorrow!
Stay cool everyone and have a great weekend!
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