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Showing posts from January, 2018

Running with the band - ONE MORE PROMISE

When I originally planned this series, I wanted it to be called "Rock and Roll Fantasy".  Unfortunately, I write sweet contemporaries so the word 'fantasy' was a no-no.  Or so I was told. When we decided to tie the series in to my Shaughnessy Brothers series, things just fell into place.  But we still needed a series title. What we eventually came up with was Band on the Run and honestly, it fit.  All three of the men in the series are running from something and while I was never a fan of the song, the title worked. Just a little background information for you.  ONE MORE PROMISE is book two in the series and focuses on bass player Dylan Anders and his life after a forced stint in rehab.  Doing his best to clean up his image and get his life back on track, he's faced with having to deal with some community service.  It comes in the form of a literacy campaign where he'll be one of their celebrity endorsers.  Good news for him, not so good news for the publ

Top Five Myths About the Glamorous Life of an Author

Five Myths About the Glamorous Life of an Author: 5.    That it’s glamorous  at all . There are waaaay too many pairs of sweatpants involved for my life to be considered glamorous. 4.    That I lounge around, waiting for the muse to strike. Yeah…if I did that, I wouldn’t have completed even a full chapter. As with most jobs, the bulk of writing is drudgery. It’s a drudgery that I love and wouldn’t give up for any other job, but still…drudgery. 3.    That after I write the first draft of a book, my editor moves a few commas around, and then it’s ready for publication. Nope. My books change a LOT during edits. I’d say a third gets completely rewritten. If rough drafts were houses, mine wouldn’t be move-in ready. They’d be fixer-uppers (the super-scary, get-out-before-something-falls-on-us kind of fixer-uppers). 2.    That I control covers, blurbs, titles, pricing, sales, and other promo stuff. My marvelous publisher takes care of those things. When my inner micromana

The Flu

There's never a good time to be sick, but I have to say that my daughter always manages to pick the very worst times. Not that she chose to catch the flu, but I wish she could have caught it when we were off for Christmas or off for the ice storm. NOT when we were supposed to be getting back to a normal schedule. So while I juggled all the various medicines she needs, doctor's appointments, and my writing deadlines, I also became an expert at how to entertain an elementary school child for 8 days of no school. 1. Find a series you can watch together, preferably one with multiple seasons. This was easy. We'd been reading Little House on the Prairie, so I bought season 1 and we watched a few episodes every day. 2. Find easy crafts that have multiple steps. Do one step, watch your series, then send her back to do the next step. 3. Make use of the camera feature in those ipads. Kids can spend hours making videos of toys, dancing, singing, pets, or even preten

Writing for charity

As writers we have a golden opportunity to share our feelings, hopes, or awareness without preaching, making our message palatable to a much wider audience. Moreover, we have the chance to change our world. For instance… Tug of Attraction, Book 2 in The Love Spells Gone Wrong series, released in 2015 by Lachesis Publishing Inc.  A portion of the proceeds go to the Endometriosis Foundation to benefit research of this not uncommon, but rarely addressed disease. http://www.endofound.org/   My heroine Brigit has endo, so this isn't your typical romance! (Sex can be painful for a woman with endo.) http://www. books2read.com/tugofattraction I'm thrilled to say my publisher has the ebook on sale everywhere for 99 cents until the end of the month! I'm also thrilled to tell you my daughter made the adorable cover and won The Maple Leaf award for best Cover!      Blurb: Failed actress Brigit Love moved back to New Hampshire from Hollywood with one goal: to have

Gutted to hear of the passing of Ursula K. LeGuin

I meant to write this post about something else. But as I sat down to put words to doc, an email alert popped up on my phone. It was from my father-in-law, a longtime fan of science fiction, and it told me that Ursula K. LeGuin had died. Ms. LeGuin’s work has for decades been deeply influential to me as a woman, as a writer, and as a human. When I was writing Chloe’s story – the third book, yet to come, of the Wanted and Wired trilogy – I drew heavily on Genly Ai and Estraven’s trek across the glacier. LeGuin's elegant prose was too spare for the weight of meaning it held, but somehow it served anyway. Kind of like a ballet dancer seems fragile but is in truth amazingly strong. I don’t remember what I meant to post about today. I think it was some kind of craft tip for writers, but I can’t even gather those thoughts. After I read the email, I went right to my bedside, grabbed my much-battered copy of The Left Hand of Darkness , and flipped to a favorite passage: “Beca

Five ways to combat those winter blues.

I'm not one for winter. Not even when it comes to the holidays. I hate the cold, the ice, the snow. I hate being cooped inside my house for days on end, only leaving to pick up my kids for school and occasionally going to the doctor and grocery store. Seriously. Nothing says depressing to me like grey snow and dirty cars along the road ways. This winter has been especially rough. My husband has been suffering from a back injury for months, only having surgery a week ago today. He's better now. BUT he's also home with me, and now I feel like the two of us are suffering through the winter blues together. Ugh. Don't get me wrong. I've come up with some things to keep me functioning throughout the winter. So, thought I'd share with you all what those are.  In the comments, talk to me about what YOU do to keep yourself sane over the winter months. :) 1. Netflixing:  There was a time long ago when I didn't think I'd ever become a binge TV

Linda Broday: Snow, a Giveaway and a Sale!

I know everyone in various part of the country are sick of snow and ice. This weather has sure played havoc. Down here in Texas our weather has been really wonky. One day it's in the teens or twenties and the next day the 70s. We never know what it'll be. Two years ago my oldest daughter got married after years of being single and raising two daughters. A week before the wedding, weathermen said the day would be sunny and 60. The day before the happy event, it snowed and snowed. Roads were a mess and the entire town of Lubbock basically shut down. Guests had a difficult time arriving and some opted to stay home. But that's not the worst part. The florist didn't deliver the flowers. The bakery didn't make the cake. The Tux rental shop gave the groom's tux to someone else and he had to make do with one that was a little too large. Everything you can imagine went wrong. At first, my daughter was in tears then she said the wedding would go on and

Love is the Antidote by Abbie Roads

Love is the Antidote When the son of a serial killer falls for his father’s only surviving victim... The first thing Mercy became aware of was her facing throbbing a low level beat. Her bones ached and her muscles felt too heavy to move. Her side burned with every inhale and exhale. Her stomach felt oddly distended and empty at the same time. And she was going to milk it for all it was worth. She finally had a viable excuse to stay in her room, avoid group, and cancel her session with Dr. Payne. The flu. She’d tell everyone she had the flu. Couldn’t be too far from the truth. It wasn’t like she was faking how bad her body felt. She would spend the entire day lying here, eyes closed pretending to sleep, and luxuriating the rare bit of isolation. “Are you awake?” A masculine voice whispered. Her heart slammed against her spine, her muscles leaped. She gasped a sound of undiluted shock and wrenched her eyes open. The world around her had changed. Gone was the sterile

HIGHLAND PROMISE—SALE!!!

Highland Promise, the first book in my series, The Sons Of Gregor MacLeod, is on sale for $1.99 all this week (e-book only)! A great price for hours of time spent with the brawny Darach MacKenzie and the rest of his drool-worthy foster brothers!! Amazon Barnes & Noble iTunes Kobo Google Play A wee excerpt for you!! “I’ll not be marrying the lass, Oslow, but if I did, she’d more than likely give me daughters. All of them looking like her, causing trouble. I’d be an old man in my grave before I was forty.” “Nay. She’d give you sons. Braw lads as strong-minded and fearless as her. But if you’re not interested in the lass, I’ll introduce her to my Angus. He needs a wife, and I’m sure he’d be as smitten with her as Gare and Brodie.” The blood heated in Darach’s veins, flushing his face. He looked toward the field, trying to make out what Caitlin and the two younger men were doing. Naught of consequence. Just playing with the kittens. Playing w