12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Blog Hop:  12 Days of Christmas

Event Date:  December 1^st  - 12^th 2013

Hosted By: As You Wish Reviews & Confessions of the Paranormal

Sponsors: As You Wish Tours & Book Dragon Designs

Raspberry Thumbprints

(With all the canning I do in the summer this is a

 great time of year to use some of my yummy jams to make great cookies!) 

Ingredients

1 pouch (1.5 oz) Sugar Cookie Mix

1/2 Cup Softened Butter

1 egg

3 Tbsp All-purpose Flour

1/3 Cup Seedless Raspberry Jam

1 Cup White Chocolate Baking Chips 

Red or Green sprinkles if you would like them

Directions

~ Heat oven to 375°F. 

~ In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg and flour until dough forms. 

~ Roll dough into 3/4-inch balls; place 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Use your thumb to make indentation in center of each cookie. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon jam into each indentation.

~ Bake 8 to 10 minutes (or until edges are light golden brown). Let them cool for 5 minutes.

~ Microwave baking chips on High 1 to 2 minutes or until chips are melted; stir until smooth.  Drizzle over the top with a spoon or put melted white Chocolate into a zip lock bag and cut a small portion of one corner off.

~ Add a little of the Red or Green sprinkles if you wish!

(These are also great with Blueberry or Apricot jam!) 

 

    

The best way to spend a cold winter night in December is to curl up with a blanket, a cup of coco and great book!

You can keep extra warm with a HOT Romance novel! 

$1.99 Until December 24th on Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

    Happy Birthday to Sarah! Turning twenty-six and divorcing her high school sweetheart on the same day. After almost a full year of bad experiences with men Sarah refuses to date anymore. The week of her twenty-seventh Birthday Sarah finds herself stuck in the middle of the ocean with a killer. Could it be the man she has fallen madly in love with? Could she be the next to die?

  

Sarah's first encounter with Gabriel.... 

Thee martinis later I was about to call it quits and go to bed when I was approached by an overly tanned man in a fancy suit. His dark hair was slicked back into a long curly ponytail at the nape of his neck.

“I should buy you a drink, no? Woman of such beauty should not be alone on night like this.” His Spanish accent was thick but the way he rolled his r’s was kind of sexy. He wasn’t that bad to look at either. If you could look past his wet looking hard hair.

“Thank you for the offer but I think I’m done for the night. I was just about to leave and head back to my room.”

“No, no, no,” he purred, as he placed an arm around my waist and tried to pull me in closely, almost pulling me off the stool I was perched on. “You cannot leave me now. I just find you and I am in, how you say, love at first sight. You are very sexy woman.”

“Well, thank you and I am extremely flattered, but I think I should get back to my room and get to sleep.” I did my best to push away from him gently but his grip only tightened around me.

“I go with you to your room? Maybe you would like to see mine instead?” He moved in closer to me, his breath hot and reeking of Jack Daniel’s. “I bring my own sheets, silk.” He ran his other hand down my bare arm. “So soft skin, naked you would enjoy way you slide around.”

I was just about to call him a nasty jerk when another man grabbed his shoulder roughly from behind. “It seems I can’t even leave you alone for a moment Darling. Is this man bothering you?”

Mister Slick and Nasty released me right away and stepped back to face the other man. “My apologies, you are lucky man to be with such beautiful woman.”

“Yes I am, thank you, but I think it’s time for you to walk away now.”

He looked as if he wanted to punch my savior and carry me away over his shoulder. Mr. Slick gave a nod and started to walk away but the new man grabbed his arm again. “On second thought, I think you also owe my lady here an apology for your obnoxious behavior. Don’t you?”

“Excuse my forwardness if you please Miss.” He moved to walk away again but the grip around his arm tightened.

“If I catch you man-handling a woman like that again, my date or not, you might just take a swim all alone in that ocean. Now get out of here.”

He made it about ten feet away before he turned around with a face full of rage and flipped us off with both hands. I watched, holding my breath, as he walked out the doors. Wondering the whole time if he was going to come back and start a fight.

I gave a sigh of relief when the door shut behind him. I finally took a moment to get a good look at the man that had come to my rescue. He was dressed to impress in dark jeans and a cream sweater with a collared black shirt under it. His hair was dark and tousled with just a few strands hanging down over his forehead. His eyes were a deep chocolate brown, and looked sexy peering at me through the black lashes around them. The beard and mustache were short and well kept; with just the slightest hint of grey to it. His full lips turned up in the slightest hint of a smile as he watched me.

I smiled back and gave a small nod to the stool beside me. “Join me for a drink or two? It is the least I can do since you saved me from Mr. Slick with the grabby hands.”

He threw a black leather jacket over the stool before sitting down. “I believe you are now indebted to me until you save my life.”

“I believe that it is only if you save me from actually dying.” I said with a laugh. “But you did say I was your date, so you are stuck with me for at least the next couple of hours. Just in case he comes back of course.”

“Well then, I will just have to save your life tomorrow.”

  

Looking for more of a "first love" kind of romance?

Check out Tempting Fate, also just $1.99 on Amazon

 

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Here is the blog hop!

 

It is okay not to be perfect…

 

Or was it that it is only okay to be perfect? Sometimes I’m just not sure anymore.

On that note, what the hell is perfection anyway? Whose level of perfect are we each trying to meet anyway?

When I was in the second grade something was said to me that stuck with me forever. Though I do not remember the teacher’s name, I remember his face as he said these words to our music class, “Practice makes Prompt! No one person can be perfect, no matter how hard they try. If you want perfect, you will only find it in the eyes of God Himself.” Even at 7 or 8 years old I understood this. Not in an - ah, shit, I will never be perfect at anything; way. No, in more of a, flaws will be in everyone, and I need to remember my own when I see one in others, kind of way.

I know my flaws; I work very hard to become PROMPT at everything I do… though that does not mean that I do not fall short from time to time. Okay, more than from time to time.

Tempting Fate went through edit after edit, years of them, not just for the story and how it developed. I would go over it and see that I had typed dose, not does (better read through and check them all!) Damn! Now I found that quiet has been typed quite (Better check for that one everywhere!) Double Damn! Now I have found that more than one comma should have been a semicolon! (Hmm, I better double check on how it is used and then go through it again!) ECT, you get the idea. Then, JACKPOT, I scored and reconnected with an old friend that went to school to be an english teacher who offered to do edits!!

I was on cloud nine the day I finished with her edits and knew that I WAS going to be a self-published author! I hit publish and did my little happy dance. I was going to be selling books left and right, 3 or 4 five star reviews were going to come in everyday! I was going to be a NYT Bestseller in a month! (Yes, I really thought it was that easy! HA!) I ordered print copies without even looking at a proof, because… it was perfect right? Insert another HA here!

A friend grabbed it within moments of it being published and devoured the book in just a few days. I could not wait to hear what they had to say! They loved it… BUT (Damn, don’t you just hate that word! It never seems to be followed up by something good!!!)  There were A LOT of typos in it! I was thinking, okay, this can be fixed; a lot can’t mean more than 20 in the whole book right? (Turns out that would be considered A FEW typos).

Is it still fixable? Yes! BUT (there is that word again), I have already sent out more than 20 copies to reviews! OH NO! They are all going to see it! Those thoughts of being on the Bestseller list with the likes of Nicholas Sparks went up in flames. Burned out in 2.5 seconds flat.

FAIL! You lose, nice try, delete the book from everything and go hide in a cave in some warm place where you can live off the fruit of near by trees! No, calm down, my brain said. Make the changes, upload the new version, and for the love of all things holy woman – PRAY!! I got a few “nitpicky” friends to help me out; it was all going to be fine.

Then the day arrived, my big box came full of 50 copies of TF. I knew they were going to contain the typos; I had already come to terms with that. My hands were shaking as I opened that box and pushed aside the crumbled up paper covering them at the top. Wait, this can’t be right! Its grainy, and, it didn’t POP out and eat my face the way some covers do. It looked perfect on line, what could have gone wrong!! I was still happy, I still felt accomplished – kind of anyway. I smiled as I showed my friends and family what I had done. But… with every smile I only had two thoughts in my mind. One – please don’t comment on this mediocre covered, typo filled, TRY at being an Author. Two – smile your brightest Bia! Maybe they will not notice the typos! (Of course that would involved them actually reading the book. Maybe they will stick it on their shelf with pride and never crack it open and see them at all. Maybe they will DL the better-edited digital version and keep that paperback spine looking perfect for years!)

A few reviews came in, not a soul said anything about typos or grammar! I was feeling better about the whole thing. I was happy, but the dream of that NYT Bestseller list never came back. And, at some point I got a case of the F-its. I stopped pressing the book, stopped looking for new reviews. I even stopped writing all together. Months flew by before I heard the voice of Sarah from Love on a Killer Cruise invading my brain day and night. (She would not shut up, much like my dear Abby wouldn’t.) She had a story to tell and I was her freaking vessel, yeah! I had to get it down on paper; I had no other way to shut her up! I wrote for hours at a time, shaking the cramp out of my hand when I couldn’t take it anymore and then going back at it again.

I was back in the game and this time I was going to put out that piece of perfection that I had expected from TF. Redemption was in my future!  I was a little older, a little wiser, and had learned a lot more about what I needed to do at this point.

I read blog after blog from many authors about what makes a book perfect and what I needed to do to be better… to be PERFECT. Then I read some of their books, and read reviews of the books as well. But, wait a minuet, I read your blog… you said that there was no room for typos in this day and age. With self-pubed authors flooding the market you had to be PERFECT to not get mixed in the crap novels that every Joe Shmoe puts out there! But… you had a few typos in your work…???

You have given me the wise advise of paying top dollar for an editor, (which, sorry I can’t afford!) but you didn’t get one. Whose PERFECT am I supposed to be meeting here? (I will not even get into the little tricks of the trade, which are nothing but lies and cheats, that I found out some use to keep themselves out of that pool with the Joe Shmoes.)

Nobody said things about the typos that I had spotted in their books in reviews. Maybe I got a case of the F-its for no reason. We are all human after all. I felt more hope, my dreams seemed like they might not be out of reach after all!!

THEN I find typos in the digital books of Authors that have BIG house publishers behind them. (Maybe the conversion process is not perfect?) These big names are not running and hiding in that cave I was going to go look for… hmm. They were still at it, some of them pumping out books at the rate of 2 or 3 a year!

What was I missing? What did I seem to somehow forget?

I forgot that shit happens! I forgot that there is no such thing as perfection; it is learning to be prompt! It is about constantly learning from any and all mistakes that you make! Everyday you will see a flaw, not a fail, a flaw. Something that you must work to over come and become more prompt at! There are some flaws that it will taks years to correct, and some that you can change over night.

Am I still learning? Yes, after delay, delay, delay. I got overzealous with LoaKC.

I got an editor for this book, I lucked out – they were going to do this book for free! I edited, and edited, and edited. I made a list of every flaw my writing had so that I knew what to keep those eyes trained for. With Painless Grammar, and Grammar for Dummies and three other books spread out around me I locked myself away in “Writer Purgatory” and let my house get dirty around me! (You want clean clothing? I will do one load, pick what is important for me to wash or figure out how to use the machine yourself!)

I sent that book off in three parts, and waited, and waited, and waited… and… Maybe I forgot to give them a deadline? No, I did that… they said it would be done. Hmmm. Let me just remind them of the deadline.

Not a problem, I will have it in plenty of time!!! Thank you Lord! I’ve going to have it this time; here was go! Dust off that shelf because Mommy is going to fill it with awards!!

Cover is done, professional and PERFECT this time! (The editor even signed off on the blurb for the back!) Boom, cover release. Boom, planned a book tour. (By myself, not easy by the way!) Boom, plan and pump that release party. Make some games, order that swag! Girl this time you are on top of the world! You are going to knock this one out of the park!!

Release date in just over a week… I don’t have edits!? That's okay, there is still time!

Release date in 4 days… I don’t have edits!? Breath lady, there is still time. Just pull a couple all-nighters.

Ummm, I was going to release this book tomorrow… I DON’T HAVE EDITS!!! Now you may panic!!

My emotions went off the charts! One minute I had to keep busy and started washing down the walls, the next minute I was in my bed crying. There is no book, no finished product. No PERFECTION!!! I lost, fail. My book was finally a book that was anticipated, people were waiting to read it. I was going to have NOTHING to give them!!

My sweet husband, who was as calming as a Xanax, talked me out of looking for that cave again and I went ahead with the release party. It was a blast! I even got my wonderful sister in law to “DJ” songs from my personal play list! I let everyone know that there had been a snag in editing and LoaKC was not ready. They understood and told me that it sucks but they were sure it was going to be fine. It seemed like everything was going to be okay! I had been promised the book within two more weeks at the most… and it was going to happen right, cause why would it not this time… (Everyone roll your eyes with me here.)

Fast-forward a month and a half… I still have no PERFECT book. The masses have moved on. Other books from other authors have come out and boomed over this book that looked great but never came out. LoaKC was quickly forgotten. And I had an Author Fair coming up…. I needed that damn book!!!!

Solution… mentally flip off the editor and moved on. I got 7 beta readers that I knew would have the sharp sight I needed to help nitpick that book to PERFECTION! I sent it out to them, got their notes back and fixed everything they found!!

BOOM! I was gold. I could not afford to have another release party; hell I still had packages from the last one to send out! But I was going to hit publish and pump that book like a drug dealer pumps crack! Did I think it would have typos? Sure did, but that was just fine, at this point it had to be better than TF was that first trip out into the world! (And I knew the cover was PERFECT!)

Hit publish, order the print copies and pray they come before the Author Fair!

This time when the book came, I was beyond excited! Not only was the cover PERFECT but the copies of TF were PERFECT as well. I cried as I looked at them, my heart swelled as I looked at the two books that were as precious as the first time I held my children in my arms. I could NOT wait to shove them in my husbands hands the minute he walked into the door. I was going to make him so damn proud of me, he just might cry too!! (lol, not really, then again you never know)

He was proud; they looked beautiful. He was going to make me dinner and I was going to sit back with a glass of wine at just stare at the PERFECTION. Take note self-publishing world, I will conquer you!!! A little while later I see him smiling as he looks at LoaKC and then he flips it over to read the back. What could be happier that making my husband proud of me? Nothing, absolutely nothing!!

Then his smile faded… my heart dropped. I wanted to know what he saw. He just smiled and told me how wonderful it all was; he was so happy for me. Faster than lightening I flip it over and carefully read through each word. Praying there was nothing wrong. BOOM – if it were a snake, as they say, it would have jumped out and bit me! There, glaring in my face, was a typo! Right on the damn cover! It didn’t say DEFINITELY it says defiantly. I let out a string of curse words that would have made a trucker drop his jaw. How did I MISS THIS!?!? HOW DID THE EDITOR MISS THIS!?!? It was the only thing they DID give me feed back on!!

A few days later I gave in and flipped through the book. There are typos, many typos. Well hell, looks like I am not PERFECT. 

So, there you have it. I have flaws, I am not perfect… and I am okay with it. Yes I will have to have the full cover remade and re-upload it on Creatspace. Yes, I will have to get some more edits on LoaKC and upload new versions of that. Its okay, I will learn to slow down. I will practice this craft that I love, and I will become prompt.

And some day, there will be an award on my shelf… or maybe a framed letter from Jude Deveraux telling me that she found one of my books absolutely delightful! (Now that would be awesome!!) I am not going to give up and go find that tropical cave (though a tropical vacation would sure be great!). I will keep going, and working hard, and never give up on being a better version of myself as an Author.

There are more than likely errors in this post, point them out if you feel the need to… it is okay with me! I am not going to let it break me down; I will use it to help me learn to be more prompt!

I hope that you are enjoying whatever book you have picked up; I hope that if you see a “flaw” you take a moment to remember that it is just that, and I hope that it does not ruin the whole story for you. 

XOXO

The still not so prompt Author

Character Interview with Tanya and Jenny... and more.

Hello everyone!

I took the weekend off from everything to just relax and spend some much needed time with family and friends.
If you were not at the release party you missed some news. Due to a hiccup in editing process Love on a Killer Cruise was not released on Friday. I'm not going to lie, I freaked out a bit... and then I did some crying, BUT I think that it is all going to be okay, lol. I went ahead with the release party and had a ton of fun that lifted my spirits immensely. 

But now it is time to jump back into work, because there is still a lot of things to do!

If you missed the post yesterday over on Lusty Penguin Reviews Blog an Author Interview was posted. Make sure you go check it out and if you have time give LPR's FB page a nuzzle as well!

Sadly I didn't get a chance to Interview Sarah this weekend because.... well I can't tell you why, because that would ruin the end of the book. Let's just say she and Gabriel had somewhere better to be and I am very happy for them!!!!
I did however get a chance to sit down and have coffee with Tanya and Jenny yesterday morning and talk about LoaKC.

**********************************************************************

Me: Good morning ladies are we doing today?

Jenny: Very good, thank you!

Tanya: Good, but can we hurry up with this? I really want to get to the..."

Jenny: TANYA! Shut up! You have to watch what you say about the that. We need to keep it a secret for now; remember?

Tanya: Fine! I want to go see Sarah and Gabriel and.... someone else. I'm just excited, sheesh.

Me: I completely understand. I was very surprised when I got the call from Gabriel telling me that Sarah couldn't make it Saturday, maybe later. Anyway I wanted to talk to the two of you about some of the things that happened in Love on a Killer Cruise. 
I guess my first question would have to be; what did you really think of Sarah's high school sweetheart, Brandon?

Jenny: He was all right. A nice enough guy when we were growing up together. He was always good to Sarah and that was all that really mattered to us.

Tanya: He was nice. Was being a key word there! Once he married Sarah he went into mega serious mode. He hated us meeting up on Wednesday night's at the pub, he thought that Sarah should be at home every night. He wanted it all! Perfect wife, perfect mother, perfectly clean house.

Jenny: Tanya! Sarah wanted the same things. They were young, let it go.

Tanya: All I'm saying is that he was a nice enough guy, he just had high expectations of her. I mean honestly, he blamed her so much for not being able to get pregnant! In the end he was an Ass.

Jenny: I agree, but it is all in the past and things have worked out for the best anyway.

Me: Okay, clearly you two are not his biggest fans. Let's move on. You guys set Sarah up on a lot of dates. I have to say, with the exception of Adrian, what were the two of you thinking when you picked these men? You're Sarah's best friends and you picked some awful guys for her.

Tanya: Well first off let's remember that I was the one that picked out Adrian. He is such a doll; still single sadly. Hey, maybe you would be up for going out with him?

Me: Umm, I'm going to have to pass on that thanks. I don't think my husband would be too happy with me.

Jenny: Sorry about her, she is constantly in set up mode. Even though none of them work out. Anyway, I thought that the guys I picked were nice enough guys, they just didn't work out as being a good fit for Sarah. Of course Ted is the exception, but I seriously had no idea he was going to go crazy.

Tanya: Yeah he was crazy all right! But he was not the only really bad one, what about that guy from the office that was an asshat at dinner, or, the guy that was a friend of Bill's from College. What was his name again? Dick?

Jenny: It was Richard, and he has his good qualities. You just have to get to know him better. Besides you were the one that set her up with the guy who screwed her and never called again.

Tanya: She totally needed that!

Jenny: Um, no she didn't!

Me: That actually brings me to my next question. That guy caused you and Sarah to have a fight Jenny. What can you tell me about it?

Jenny: We have had small fights throughout the years. When you have been friends as long as we have been it is bound to happen. We always bounce back and get over it. We love each other and sometimes you get upset if you want better for one of the others than what is going on. Sarah was very protective of us in college when it came to dating men and she had a system of helping out when she could. Both Tanya and I have never really had to deal with things like that when it came to Sarah. I over-reacted, we both did.

Tanya: I knew that if I just got the two of them to actually get together they would work it out. It is the same thing that Jenny would have done with Sarah and I, or that Sarah would have done for Jenny and I. I agree with Jenny, when you are as close as we are things are going to happen, but we will be friends forever no matter what.

Me: I love the friendship that you all have. I seriously don't think she would have made it through the Ted thing with out you all, or without Roger of course. I just love your husband Tanya, he is just a really great guy and I can't wait to sit down and talk with him later this week.

Tanya: Thank you, he is a great guy! I am one lucky woman. You should see how great he is with the kids too, amazing father!

Me: Are the two of you going to have anymore kids?

Tanya: More than likely. I'm giving my body a long rest for now though. Having two kids back to back is ridiculous! I swear I don't think I will ever be able to fit back into a size seven!

Me: Jenny, what about you? You seemed to be in no rush in LoaKC.

Jenny: There is plenty of time for that later. I'm still up in the air about it though. It's not that I don't want any kids, but I don't really feel the need right now either.

Me: I understand completely! Lets move on, I know that you two have someplace to be. Jenny, what were you thinking just signing Sarah up for the singles cruise contest without telling her?

Jenny: She wasn't going to do it herself! I don't know I guess I just thought that it couldn't hurt, and after Ted. Well she needed the chance to get away for a while. I never dreamed that I would be sending her there to have to deal with a killer though! Gabriel was an unexpected, wonderful thing that came out of it in the end.

Me: Both of you like Gabriel then?

Jenny: Very much so! Everyone loves him.

Tanya: Even Sarah's dad! Who seems pretty much indifferent to everyone.

Me: What was your reaction when you found out that there was a killer on the ship with Sarah?

Tanya: Oh, the time in between her calls was ridiculously long. I knew that she couldn't stay on the phone with us the whole time, but it was nerve racking waiting for the next call from her, or to hear from Roger that she had called him.

Jenny: Yes! And then it got to the point that we hadn't heard from her in over thirty-six hours but the story was on the news that the ship was stuck at sea and they were talking about women being found dead. No names were ever said on the news so all we could do was just sit and wait, and wait. We didn't have Gabriel's last name or any way to try and contact him. I was bad.

Tanya: We flew down and waited at the dock the day the ship came back in. Waiting there was the worst of it all I think. We had no clue if we were going to be hugging her or making plans to send her body home and have to make a call to her parents.

Me: You all kept her parents out of the loop the whole time?

Tanya: Oh, for sure!

Jenny: Her Mom would have been too much of a nervous wreck. She didn't handle it well when she found out after Sarah was back. Sarah's father on the other hand would have been raising hell and trying to get the Navy or coast guard out there to get her.

Me: Well I guess we should wrap it up, I would love to keep talking with you girls more but the novel is over and you guys have more living to do. Thanks for meeting me for coffee to talk, and thank you so much for being part of all this. I am going to miss you two! 

Jenny: Thank you! All of this has been so fun for us. We'll keep in contact with ya, don't worry!

Tanya: We're going to go to the you-know-where now, to see the you-know-what!

Me: Have fun and send me a photo or two!

Jenny: Will do!!


**************************************************************************

There you go. My little interview with Tanya and Jenny.

I loved writing this book for so many reasons. The characters that surrounded my M/C were a big part of it!

I'll be back soon with another interview, this time it will be with my favorite secondary character of the novel, Roger. Until then make sure that you keep an eye out for some of the other stops on the Love on a Killer Cruise blog tour.

In the mean time I will be working on my next project a little more and I promise to post like a crazy woman when LoaKC is live on Amazon and else where!

TTYS
~A




Oh! And don't forget about the big giveaway on my FB page!

Love on a Killer Cruise Blog Tour and MORE!!

Where to start! The past two weeks have flown by so fast.
The blog tour came together easier than I thought that it would in the beginning and-I can't say thank you enough to all the great authors and bloggers that are hosting me, you all are so wonderful!

So here it is!
May 31th: I am sure that I will be here gushing about the fact that it is release day.
June 1st: There will be a interview here with Sarah, the main character of Love on a Killer Cruise.
June 2nd: Lori from Lusty Penguin Reviews will be doing an Author Interview.
June 3rd: I will back here having a chat with Tanya and Jenny, Sarah's two best friends.
June 4th: I will be stopping for another Author Interview with Cover Bound Bookie.
June 5th: A Review will be posted over at Crystal's Many Reviews.
June 6th: There will be an Author Spotlight at The Cavanaugh Connection.
June 7th: I will be doing my first Guest Blog on Author R.L. Kirk's Place.
June 8th: I will be making a stop in at HomeVenn for something special!
June 9th: I will be back here, and Roger will be with me! (My favorite secondary character in LoaKC).
June 10th: I will be back at Lusty Penguin Reviews for another guest blog!

After that, it will be time to dive back into the next project-which you will hear a little bit about during the tour.

I hope you all stop by theses wondrous lady's blogs as well as find them on Facebook and showing them some love with a like!

Friday night there will be a Release Party going on Facebook! ( https://www.facebook.com/events/189797537843769/ ) I have some fun games lined up, and a bunch of great prizes to be won! Including a Pandora Charm if I have 100 or more attending the event! Come on over and join, don't miss your chance to win some great stuff!

Oh, also! Starting June 1st there will be a HUGE rafflecopter going up at my FB Author Page that will run for a month so you won't want to miss that!


And,
I guess while I am here.....
I should show you the cover for Love on a Killer Cruise!

Ready!!
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Well! Do you love it or what?

A big thank you to Jamie for taking my little idea to a whole new level!!!

Love on a Killer Cruise Release and Blog Tour News

Hello! It's me again, the Author that never seems to blog (but keeps promising to do it more - Fail!!)

Sorry for the long break, but if you have been keeping tabs on me through my author/facebook page you probable know why I was absent for so long. I was extremely unmotivated after the loss of my father in late February. But! I have been working hard this last month to get Love on a Killer Cruise done and I am glad to say that I am on the home stretch!
The cover release will be happening on the 23rd of May, and the book will released on the 31st.

I am currently trying to set up a blog tour and make sure that I have the ARC's / Reviewers lined up.
As well as plan some fun stuff for a on-line release party with great giveaways.

Blog Tour Dates so far are:
May 23th, cover reveal - Here, The Mystical World of Book Reviews, and Novel Words by Jessica

May 30th, I will be giving a sneak peek into LoaKC by doing an Interview with one of the Characters of the novel.
May 31st, of course I will be posting here because it is release day! As well as posting a Raffelcopter that will run for about a month.
June 1st - 5th, details to come. (If you want to try and grab a day on your blog, please send me an email at A.Busch2011(at)ymail(dot)com and we will see what we can do!
June 6th, I will be here with another Character interview for you!
June 7th- 9th, are also "details to come" dates!

I hope to have the what and where list carved in stone very soon so that I can share it with you, including links to the blogs.
For now it is back to work!
Hope that you are all as excited as I am!
~A

My BIG Birthday giveaway!

You may have seen this on my Author page on Facebook, but just in case you didn't!!

My birthday is next month.... and I will be 29 again!! Yay! David (the husband) asked what I would like for my birthday. I had to think about that for a little while. Now you are asking, what did she want, right? I want Reviews I will be doing TWO rafflecopters so you get to enjoy they birthday spoils as well! One will be for Reviews of Tempting Fate, and the other will start as soon as Love on a Killer Cruise is up. Each will run for 3 weeks. The first for Tempting Fate and the second for LoaKC. For every review you leave - Amazon, GoodReads, B&N, ect. you will get 2 entries. What will you win you ask? The winner of both will get their choice of a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card! Is that a great gift for my birthday or what!! ♥

And now the first of the two BIG Birthday giveaway's are live!! If you have read Tempting Fate, leave a review on Amazon, GoodReads, or even B&N, and enter the Rafflecopter on this page for your chance to win a $25 gift card from Amazon or B&N, winners choice!  

You can find the Rafflecopter here - http://bit.ly/Xoz4uL

Good luck! I can't wait to read some new Reviews!

Tempting Fate's New Cover is here!

I would like to give a BIG THANK YOU to the wonderful Jamie Cooper from www.youngmulah.com for taking my simple little idea and making it into a beautiful new Cover for Tempting Fate.

I love it SO VERY MUCH!

And I hope that you do too!

It will soon be available in all eReader stores and a New Paperback edition will be out soon as well. 

~A

Crunch, Crunch, Crunch....

 

As in a time crunch…

I know you are reading this and you are like – WOW, she ACTUALLY posted a new blog! Just don’t faint, kay! I need to blog more; I just find that when I have the time to sit and write, I want to work on writing my books.

BUT, I always hear that if you want to keep your viewers on your blog and don’t want to be forgotten you must blog often.  The one question I always ask myself “What the hell am I going to blog about?” I really didn’t read a lot of blogs until I started writing this one. But this is my writing blog, this is not the place for me to post funny parenting stories, my adventures in caning – which I love to do every chance I get! Nor is it the place to post about my political opinions or some religious stance/rant. If I thought that this was the place to post about that, I would have something to tell you daily. Especially if I was posting about the kids!! Which 7/8 of my life revolves around.

As out-going as I am in real life, I’m kind of shy when it comes to being out there as an Author. This is something I have on my 2013 author to-do list. I have set some goals for myself for 2013 and I plan to make it happen.

So what are these goals, you ask? (At least I would like to think that you were thinking that, so just go along with it.)

1)    Do at least 3 author interviews

2)    Have some guest bloggers

3)    Do some guest blogging (About what, I have no clue! I can hardly think of things to tell you about here!)

4)    Do a character interview or two for this blog, maybe another somewhere else.

5)    Try to do 5 book signing’s or author fairs in the area.

6)    Find and enter a one of my books into a contest.

7)    Look into getting a booth at a Convention, preferably a romance one but we shall see.

8)    After Love on a Killer Cruise, get at least 3 of the books for my new series out. (The Seven Saviors Series)

9)    Post on my FB author page more often, again this is another one that I have a hard time with.

Lots to do, and hey lots to blog about also! (-:

Back to the time crunch issue:

I have been working go get TF a new cover and I have been flip flopping on it. It’s not that I can’t decide I just want it perfect. I find something I love, and a week later I only like it and want better, then I do something different and I love it, and then… You get the idea, lol.

I have been working to make the ideas for the cover of Love on a Killer Cruise just what I want as well. Surprisingly that for me was more about Font and positioning of the title and such more than anything.

  

I have three kids, and some days they are such demanding little creatures, but they come first. (Seriously I have been interrupted 4 times already while writing just this much, and I am not done yet...)

Writing is what I love to do, and it’s my “me” time.

Love on a Killer Cruise has about 12 days to be done so that I can start editing, which I will have about 8 days to do before it goes out to some Beta readers for feed back.

The cover, at least front cover, will be released on Feb. 16^th. Plus the Full cover for print has to be perfected and almost perfect. It has to be perfect/ done by the time I release it at the end of march

By March 2^nd all the input from beta readers will have been taken and any final editing must be done so that I can get ARC copies out to a list Reviewers, which I am also in the middle of compiling right now.

Love on a Killer Cruise will be released on the 23^rd of March, SO that means that I have to start trying to get it into, and approved, by Amazon and Smaswords on or around the 19^th, because sometimes it takes time to get it in just the right format. That is a battle that I hope will be easier than it was with Tempting Fate! 

Not to mention the fun of doing the "Print version" format and getting that approved!

Then it is right into The Seven Saviors Series, which will be more of a YA/ New Adult fantasy Series of 6 books. Those covers are being worked on by a fabulous friend and artist, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with from my ideas and character profiles! I want to get out the first three of them this year as they are going to be shorter (about 30 or 40 thousand words each).

So I have around a month to lay the groundwork in so many ways for the next book to come out and a to-do list on my computer that I keep adding to instead of checking things off of. All of this on top of the 24 hour a day job of Mommy/ Wife/ Cook/ Cleaner… you get the idea.

Wish me luck and I hope that you are looking forward to the new book coming out. Writing a romance novel that has a mystery story intertwined in the second half has been fun! I have all my fingers and toes crossed that you love reading it as much as I have loved writing it!