Quick Update and Free eBook Download

I’m all kinds of brain dead right now, working on the first draft of book 4 in the California Dreamin’ Series. Not sure of a title or even a final structure yet, but I’ve been handwriting scenes, possible characters, and expanding on my plot ideas since the beginning of the year.

It’s been a lot of fun bringing it together and I’m definitely looking forward to finishing the first draft over the next couple weeks.

Usually I’m a pantser. I just start typing with a loose idea of my main character, setting, and basic plot then let the words fall into what eventually becomes the story. But I’m doing things a little differently this time. Something I also did for Makeup Your Mind. I’m handwriting the entire first draft.

Not gonna lie, it’s awesome. I see better when I write by hand. I mean, I can visualize what I’m writing as if it’s a movie in my mind and when those details are so clear in my imagination, I find it’s easier to get them on the page. Even if that happens in a later draft, once I’ve “seen” the story I can’t un-see it.

Does that even make any sense?

Typing forces the words out a lot faster, with less pain than using a pen and, don’t get me wrong, that’s great. My arm sure doesn’t fatigue as fast. The thing is though, I love using the keyboard when I’m pulling the final story into a cohesive document, but not to start.

There’s something about a blank notebook page that gets me infinitely more jazzed than a blank computer screen. Call me a romantic writer but I like the nostalgia of a pen and paper.

A blob of black ink permanently embedded into the lump of a callus on the first knuckle of the middle finger on my right hand.

I legit might get that as my next tattoo.

But anyway, the book. (And the free stuff!)

As #4 chugs along in development, I decided it might be a nice time to re-visit Carol + Chad 4-eva!. After all, like all the leading ladies in this series, Lara Greene was first introduced in the pages of Carol’s story.

And since I’m having so much fun developing Ms. Greene, I figured why not get C+C out there for free for a couple days. That way, you can prepare in advance for Lara’s grand entrance in April!

Click here to download the Novelette that started it all, Carol + Chad 4-eva!

Available for free until January 28, 2018 so download it now and read anytime over the next few months. Then don’t forget to review it on Amazon!

And, on that brief note, I must fling myself back on my belly on the sofa, pen in hand, and get writing. Because I’m feeling inspired by all this sunshine today and if there’s anything I’ve learned over these past three decades of writing it’s to let the ink flow when I’m inspired.

Don’t forget to download and review, thanks!

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In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.

Tiny Little Victories

So, I’m having one of those days today where everything seems to take more effort than it should.

You know the kind, where you pick up a pen, drop it, pick it up again, drop it again, and it rolls out of reach under the sofa. Then, by the time you retrieve it (with the end of the broom handle you had to retrieve from wherever it lives), you forgot what you wanted to write anyway.

Yeah.

But then I went out to pick up groceries and the gal at the deli counter called me Miss!

Miss!!!

I haven’t been a Miss in ages.

I’ve been firmly living in Ma’am land for at least the last six or seven years now. But today, after the morning of internal chaos forcing me to be gangly and awkward, I became a Miss again.

If only for that one moment, leaving the house today was totally worth it.

And I’m sure that was a big part of why I was a disaster this morning – I didn’t want to leave the house for errands.

Because yesterday I clocked in another 3,000+ words in my new manuscript and I was feeling particularly ready to write this morning. But then there’s that pesky thing called life where I won’t write too much without food.

And if you know me you know I’m not one of those writers who lives on coffee and cigarettes. Bleh. Even in the days when I was a smoker and drank coffee non-stop there was always, always, food in my life.

I eat, like, five times a day. So grocery shopping was a necessary evil because all that consumption leads to an empty fridge eventually.

But, if I waited, ordered a pizza, ate panko crumbs on peanut butter just to survive (the last 2 things in the house, seriously), and gone shopping tomorrow, I may never have been a Miss.

And now I’m back home, ready to blow out another huge word day, but I can’t seem to force myself to work on this new book. 

Because I'm a Miss! And it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted a blog. After the morning I had, it felt like the right time to catch you all up on the doings around here.

I’ve had a super busy spring / it’s-already-summer-in-Phoenix.

At least this post isn’t three months since my last blog (like my last blog post was), but it has been two solid months of living life, seeing people, doing stuff, typing words.

I’m also getting back into nail art and picked up some supplies to make designs that are more fun and artsy. Which is good because I’d been wearing tan nude nails every week for somewhere near four months.

Over it, time for fun again!

Doing something to my nails (on the regular) started back in junior high school. I’d use markers, polish, whatever I could get my hands on to put color and design on the tips of my fingers. I even used my ballpoint pen to dot flowers onto my pinky finger.

And I didn’t care what color I used as long as there was some color at the ends of my hands. When I was a kid it wasn’t “cool” to use black, navy blue or other colors considered freaky.

I used them.

Because they’re colors. I mean, why was red or pink okay but not black? Why did wearing black nail polish make people think of me as a certain type of person? That shit just never made sense to me and I’d think about it while I slathered shiny blue polish on every other fingernail.

These days I’m trying brushes, sponges, vinyl decals, creating my own decals, acrylic painting, and stamping to get some fun designs going on. And it’s so relaxing to sit and paint for a couple hours without the need for climbing a ladder.

Tiny little canvases. I love it.

Aside from nail art, I released a book, the 2^nd in my California Dreamin’ Series: Alternate Plans. I won’t go into great detail on the book here. You can click on the title and read all about it over on Amazon if you’re so inclined.

Already read it? Then while you’re over there checking out the link, please leave me a review!

Reviews are the lifeblood of authors on Amazon and I’d be forever grateful for your honest feedback. All reviews are awesome because they help me write better books the next time. So, go, review one of my books right now!

Thanks 😍

In the midst of work and life, Matt and I even managed to take an extended vacation for the first time in almost a year. We started out with friends in Temecula, California on a wine weekend of debauchery, madness, and so much fun.

From there we drove up the coast to San Francisco, back down to Big Sur (as far as possible due to the coastal highway being washed out), inland to Paso Robles, back out to the coast (just below the closure), and wound down the entire coast to San Diego before driving home.

It was freaking awesome!

It had been ages since we took a long road trip and it was so much fun to get out, take pictures, reconnect, see the beach. Can’t wait to do it again. Soon.

But, for now, I’ll be finalizing the next book release slated for September (30 Chapters in 30 Days, a writer’s inspiration for getting big word count down in a month or less), and working on this new California Dreamin’ Series book.

And something tells me my main character (who is 44 this year) will get to experience the joys of being called a Miss for the first time in years.

Then again, maybe I’ll just keep that little joy all for myself.

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In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.

Makeup and Alternate Plans

Three months, people. Three months since I’ve posted a blog. Can someone please explain how in the hell I’ve been able to maintain my sanity without an outlet for the past ninety days? Because I sure don’t know how it’s possible.

But regardless, here I am today, ready to share all the news and stuff from the past few months. You ready for this? I mean, here goes.

I’m about to release a new book!

And that’s pretty much the gist of everything I’ve done since January.

In all seriousness, though, that’s moderately accurate.

Since Matt and I got back from D&D’s place in Florida back at the beginning of the year, my go-to activity has definitely been working on this new book. But, as the title of this blog post indicates, there has been something else going on recently. Makeup. And they tie-in together I promise.

A couple years ago, my sister started watching a handful of beauty gurus on YouTube. As she learned about tips and tricks for getting a flawless face, that is exactly what she got. I mean, my sister is gorgeous anyway, but she started using techniques and tools that amped up the flawless factor. Accentuated her best features.

I was impressed with her skill because makeup was always something that attracted me but I just never got it. Not really. So I focused on fun hair colors, clothes, shoes, to share my personality using this shell of my body.

In the last few years (ahem, decades), I’ve gotten away from makeup. Decided not to try anymore because it never came out looking how I thought it would in my head. And it was obvious I wasn’t really trying.

As my skin aged it didn’t seem to like the products I used to use. So I added the bare minimum of items to my “beauty routine” just to make me feel a tiny bit less haggard looking.

But as my sister learned, I developed a growing curiosity to give it all a try again. See if there were things I could do to this middle-aged face to perk her back up. Because, lord knows, perking up my ass and boobs again was a lost cause.

She shared a few of the videos that spoke to her, a few of the online tutors, if you will, who shared their experiences in a breezy way along with tutorials for application.

And I was pretty much hooked right away. Some of the gurus I discovered after those initial few have huge personalities, some more demure, some are even men (who, no lie, do better makeup than me, and are gorgeous, and, yeah). As I watched for a couple weeks I had an epiphany one day and shared it with my sister.

But I need to back up a little bit so this a-ha moment makes more sense.

Right now, I’m working on a whole new book series. The California’ Dreamin Series. The first book, Carol+ Chad 4-eva!, came out last September. Unlike my Shaw McLeary Mystery Series, I have a solid plan and path for this new series direction. At least for the first 5 books.

Carol + Chad introduces the reader to the various characters in California – some raised there, some Carol grew up with in Massachusetts who (like her) moved there in their younger days. Carol tells her story by writing in her diary. She documents multiple decades of times in her life over minimal pages.

But she also gave me a wealth of character development in those entries because even though she hints at her friends lives, only they can tell their own stories.

Book 2, Alternate Plans, will release in a couple days. It is the story of Deb Martin, before she meets Carol. A few years before she and Carol become roommates Deb had an entire life that I hadn’t yet told. It was time to share her story.

So, it only seemed right to do the same type of thing with all the other characters. And that’s where my makeup a-ha came into play.

Cherry, one of Carol’s childhood friends, is my slated story for Book 3. She’s a firecracker of a personality, a classic beauty, fashionista, and - A-HA! – a makeup artist.

When we last read about Cherry she was married and possibly still waitressing. But I didn’t get too specific with her in later diary entries so there was a whole lot of backstory filling in that needed done for this next manuscript.

It was as if I wrote her knowing there was a such thing as makeup gurus on YouTube and that she was going to become one right before my very eyes (eh, fingers?)! So Wendy and I spent some time talking out details of the phenomenon of YouTube and when people like that first started sharing tips. As we talked I saw my character’s entire path. The story only she could tell about the life of a YouTube sensation.

A-HA!

So makeup became my world for the last few months. And, not gonna lie, this might be the most fun research I’ve ever done for a book. I’ve learned an entire lexicon of terms, products, techniques, tools, you name it.

I’m still never going to be good enough at this to become a YouTuber (and I wouldn’t want to be anyway, behind the scenes is where I do my best work) but I have learned so much I feel like I can now write a truly realistic character story for Cherry. Plus, I found ways to enhance the bits I want to better on my own face and body. Win-win!

But her book isn’t even started yet so maybe I should back up again and talk about Book 2, Alternate Plans.

When Deb Martin moved away from her childhood home six months ago she swore to herself two things. First, she would always be there to help her family in times of need. Second, she would make it on her own. Without their money. Without using her given name to get ahead. But life has a funny way of backing up on a person and when Deb finds herself in a financial jam she knows her dad will help. If only he would call her back. While she waits, Deb meets a town full of people who love to help each other. Including one available, attractive guy, Adam. Despite her finding Adam moderately annoying, Deb has no choice but to accept his help. Could her unfortunate circumstance make her realize that on her own doesn’t have to mean alone?

I’m really excited about this book. My editors and beta readers helped this one go from meh to yeah! I can’t begin to thank them enough because I was about ready to give up on this one entirely. It makes me happy now to tell Deb’s story.

Ready for the cover reveal:

So cool. I love how it matches the tone of the book but doesn’t reveal too much otherwise. It’s available for pre-order now and drops this coming Friday, the 21^st.

I can’t wait to get this one out there because, not only is it a story I’m very proud of but, that means I can get to writing the next one. Finally put all this makeup research to good use. Well, better use than just applying a face full of product every morning then walk into my office to go to work. Alone.

Because there is no rest for the self-publisher. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.

From the Front Lines of a Failing Author

It’s raining today. Started last night around ten-ish. After leaving Boston and moving somewhere with abundant sunshine I not only appreciate rainy days, I kind of crave them now. And this winter Phoenix doesn’t seem to want to disappoint me.

Thanks weather patterns!

Rainy days bring out the melancholy, no matter how cliché that might sound it is 100% true. They let me access that place in my head where I sometimes need to swim around in order to pull out the emotions necessary to craft a realistic fiction story.

Speaking of which…

The last update here was all about my cranky attitude and NaNo.

Well, I failed. In grand fashion.

29k words. Just over halfway to a win.

But, as always, the experience/journey is what everything is really about. Right? That’s what I’m going with because it makes me feel better about losing the challenge.

I lost only this one battle though, not the war.

Not a single word of all 29k words I typed during November made it into this book. The one that’s still in-process. The one I plan to finish writing by the end of 2016 and publish in early 2017.

After failing the NaNo challenge you might be wondering how I can say I’m going to publish “this book” in the next couple months.

During the first week of December I pulled an empty journal off the shelf, gathered my arsenal of black ballpoint pens, and sprawled across the sofa to tuck in and write.

So far I’m over 10k words. All by hand.

And let me tell you all, this is how I’m going to write everything from now on. I got away from pen and paper in favor of the much faster keyboard. But there’s nothing personal about plucking away on keys.

My main character, Deb, had no face and no discernable characteristics when I was blindly typing thousands of useless words. Editing that mess of shit would have taken me until 2018. And I guarantee the book would have made a complete 180 anyway so I figured it was better to just go with it and start over from word one.

Now, her character, as well as the MMC, side characters, and the setting, are firmly entrenched in my head. I can see it all. See them, who they are, where they are, their motivations.

Why does that matter you might ask? Because no author can craft a believable story, where characters portray unique voices, without essentially living in that character’s world.

Period.

And I don’t care what kind of book you write. From a reader’s perspective, if you can’t insert yourself into identifying with at least one character in a book you likely won’t finish reading the thing.

The important shit that makes a character seem more real. Relatable. That’s why motivations matter.

So, once again, I failed at NaNo but won at the challenge of producing a book. Almost. Not quite there yet but well on the way. I know I will finish this story because they are all but jumping off the page now.

And, aside from putting the wheels in motion to finish this book, I accomplished a couple other things while handwriting that I didn’t expect.

First, I developed a basic formula for all the books to follow. Now, before you ugh and roll your eyes the only thing I plan to formulate is the pace and overall structure of the stories. Because that’s the second thing I figured out. Every book in my California Dreamin’ Series (for now) will be based around characters you already know.

So, let me explain. As a teenager I always wrote stories that revolved around the meet-cute (despite not knowing what the heck that even was at the time) and the initial falling in love of the two main characters.

In Carol + Chad 4-eva! Carol talks about her life and the lives of those close to her. A huge, almost endless pool of potential characters.

If the stories about Jess, Cherry, Lara, Deb, and maybe more, were to be the focus of this series, I needed to figure out what part of their life stories I wanted to tell.

I started handwriting Deb’s girl-meets-boy story and it all clicked.

Every one of the people in Carol’s life had a someone. They were all in different stages of their relationships – some having just met before the end of Carol’s book but others had been together for a while.

But all of those people had to meet their person at some point. And that point was the 1990s, in California.

Boom!

The proverbial lightbulb clicked on and it all made sense.

They meet, experience some type of conflict, eventually realize they’re supposed to be together, end up in happily ever after. Like I said, formula for structure.

But, just like Carol, all of those characters will struggle to get their HEA ending.

The conflicts will change from character to character, but they will always be there and in roughly the same timing.

Because the bud eventually falls off the bloom, right? No matter how hot they may be for each other at first, at some point they’re going to see the real other person and face a struggle to overcome that defines if they can make it together or not.

Just like life.

So now I’m filling in the blanks of Deb Martin’s life. Who was she before she appeared in Carol’s diary? Who is that boyfriend Carol mentioned her friend moved in with? How did she meet him, where, when, etc.?

Failing is never failing in this life as a fiction author. It’s only a chance to start again. Build a new life for the character. One that fits who they are, where they came from and where they want to go. No matter how disrupted they end up after falling in love.

On this mellow, rainy Friday, I’m looking forward to getting more of Deb’s derailment onto the page.

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In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.