Enter my GoodReads Giveaway!

Good morning! I am here to announce that my GoodReads Giveaway is now open for entries. If you look in my sidebar, you will see a box with a link that tells you all about it. I am giving away 10 signed paperback copies of my book, BLOOD MOON.

The giveaway started today and ends on September 10th. I'm pretty excited about the response I have gotten so far. Why not throw your hat into the ring?

BLOOD MOON is intended for high school students who will be taking the SAT in the near future, but it would be a fun read for any kid who likes to challenge themselves with new and difficult words. The book contains 1000 SAT-level words with their definitions footnoted in the text.

I have also had several adults enjoy the book and learn a few things as well. So don't be shy. Enter today!

ENTER THE BLOOD MOON GOODREADS GIVEAWAY!

Thanks and spread the word. :-D

Pre-Order ACAPULCO NIGHTS Today

Amazon posted my pre-order page for ACAPULCO NIGHTS. You can now use the link below to pre-order the Kindle version of my book:

Pre-order ACAPULCO NIGHTS

The Kindle version will be released on September 22nd. If you have any interest at all in my book, I'd appreciate a pre-order. This helps with the Amazon rankings, if you have a bunch of purchases on one day...and a pre-order would give me that boost.

I am working on a print copy. CreateSpace is pretty new to me, so I don't know if I can schedule a simultaneous release of the print version along with the Kindle version. But I'll do my best. Once I complete the editing of the Kindle version, then I need to work on my print version (which is different formatting). I can't create the full cover until I know the number of pages in the book.

As you can see, a number of things has to take place in order to have the print version ready. However, once I have a print version, I will be doing a giveaway on GoodReads to a few lucky readers. So come back to the blog (or join me on GoodReads) to keep track of that.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

UPDATE: You can now also pre-order a print version of ACAPULCO NIGHTS here:

 Pre-order ACAPULCO NIGHTS in paperback

Please spread the word!

ACAPULCO NIGHTS Available for Pre-order Soon

I am here to announce that ACAPULCO NIGHTS, my newest book, will be available for Kindle pre-sale in the next few days. The release date is September 22, 2015. I will post the link to the Amazon page as soon as it is up and running.

Here's the blurb for this new book:

  Suzie's fiancé, James, is pressuring her to pick a day for their wedding. She's cancelled three dates, and he's starting to wonder if she really wants to get married. But how does she go about telling her fiancé that she's already married to a man in Mexico? She needs a divorce, and she needs one fast. Her marriage has been a secret from her best friend, Janice, her fiancé, even her own mother, and she wants to keep it that way.

When Janice asks her to come along on an all-girl vacation to Acapulco, Suzie leaps at the chance. A search on the Internet gives Suzie all the information she needs to track down her husband, Joaquin, while out of the country and finally get that divorce.  

Unfortunately, Joaquin won't give her up so easily.

When James appears in Acapulco unexpectedly, all hell breaks loose, and Suzie stands to lose everything she's ever loved.

This is a bit of a departure from the paranormal suspense stuff I usually write. But it was a book I'd had sitting on my computer for awhile that deserved some love. With the new avenues available to writers for publishing, I thought I'd give it a whirl and see where it goes. I will also be releasing this book in paperback around the same time as the Kindle version (if all goes well).

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that awhile back I'd whipped together a couple of cover ideas and had a poll on my blog. I also had asked some friends and family what they thought of my two covers.

Boy, did I get an earful! Reminder: never do that again! LOL. Seems that people love to tell you what your cover should include, look like, etc. I knew I couldn't make everyone happy and decided to start over. After thinking it through, spending 3 days (complete, full work days) looking through different photo options on royalty-free sites, I narrowed it down to the pic above.

With some help from my spouse, I made some improvements, selected the color font, and finalized the cover yesterday.

I spent some time looking at other novels in a similar vein...mainly Jennifer Weiner...who writes women's fiction. ACAPULCO NIGHTS isn't really romance. It's more just general fiction for women with a relationship in turmoil at its core. Hopefully, my cover inspirations are reflected in my own design.

I look forward to sharing this novel with my readers and hope that I can find some new fans out there!

BLOOD MOON Now Available in Paperback!

My book, BLOOD MOON, is now available for purchase in paperback form through CreateSpace. It will soon be available on Amazon later this week...and other retailers, hopefully over the next couple of months.

I received a proof copy of my book last week, and it turned out so cool! I'm pretty proud of how the cover turned out. Designed on my Mac using Illustrator, a photo I downloaded from a royalty-free site and a wolf I used (with permission) from an artist on DeviantArt.

I now have that proof copy sitting on my bookshelf next to my other two books. This has inspired me to really work hard on getting ACAPULCO NIGHTS out there in Kindle and print form ASAP.

Please spread the word about the print version. This book is intended for high school kids looking to expand their vocabulary before they take the SAT or other college entrance exams. However, it could be useful for anyone wanting to learn some difficult words in a fun way.

The Kindle version is $2.99, and the print version is $8.99. The CreateSpace buy link is below. Will add the Amazon link (and others) as they become available.

Buy BLOOD MOON in paperback!

BLOOD MOON To Be Released In Paperback & ACAPULCO NIGHTS News

Hello, readers!  I know I am usually clogging up my blog with StitchFix reviews, but today I'm actually going to update you on my writing. Exciting stuff!

Let's start off with my young adult book, BLOOD MOON. BLOOD MOON was released as a Kindle-only book in May 2013. I revised it several times and even attempted to sell in e-book format through a distributor in order to get my book on Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and other reseller sites. When I didn't see a lot of activity on other resellers, I went back to Kindle-only in order to be eligible for certain advantages Amazon gives to Kindle-only authors.

I had dreamed of making a print copy available, but all I knew about print was that you typically had to invest a LOT of capital into the process (thousands of dollars). It didn't seem worth it to me, since I never expect a huge audience for my self-published works.

Then, I read a blog the other day that I found on Twitter:

Self-Publishing - It's About Breaking The Rules

It really was just a basic blog post about how self-publishing has shaken up the publishing world by redefining what publishing is...length of book no longer matters, for example. Short stories can be sold one at a time. You can put together a novella of 30,000 words and find an audience (and decent $). Etc.

Anyway, somehow this blog post lead me back to CreateSpace, which is the printing arm of Amazon's self-publishing juggernaut. I wanted to find out what the costs were with printing your books. And I learned something new: you can upload your book for print with ZERO cost (if you can do the work yourself...cover design, document formatting, etc.). The books are printed on demand when ordered. You can even make your printed book available to other retailers through CreateSpace, who supplies your book to distributors.

So after reviewing all of this information, I decided to go ahead and make BLOOD MOON available in print. I have re-formatted the book to fit into a standard trade paperback size and am working right now on creating a full cover (back cover, spine, front cover) in the correct size. BLOOD MOON will be my 'experiment' in print sales. I will give you an update when I find out more about the production process and when my book will be ready for sale!

I am also working on making ACAPULCO NIGHTS available in the Kindle store and in print!  I was only expecting to make this book available through the Kindle store, but now that I have figured out how CreateSpace works, I will also be offering a print version of this book in the fall.

I have already worked on the basic formatting for Kindle, and will be doing another edit to fix what I can before I go to print. This book is in a very different style (first person) than my other books, so the editing becomes a different animal. I am also planning on possibly purchasing a cover for this book, so that I don't have to create both a Kindle and a print version of the cover. It can be time consuming! Although I had a couple of cover ideas, after the survey and listening to friends/family about the two options I provided, I'd like to find an even better cover. I'm not a design master, so it takes me a LONG time to create a decent cover that is of high enough quality for print. We will see!

Wish me luck in the printing experience. I'm learning as I go!

Fix #13 from Stitch Fix - June 16, 2015

Hello, faithful readers! Here I am again with a new Stitch Fix box to chat about. If you've read most or all of my reviews, you will know that this spring I reduced my Stitch Fix shipments down to one a quarter, rather than once a month. I love Stitch Fix, but was looking to reduce my spending habits this year. Quarterly seems to be a good fit for me.

Although I do miss my monthly boxes, there is now more of a 'special' factor when I receive one. I got my June box Tuesday the 16th, but have had trouble uploading photos to Blogger, and I have been trying to get this post up for a while now. I've dated this review as the date of delivery.

If you'd like to look at my past reviews, check out the list below:

Fix #1 - May 2014
Fix #2 - June 2014
Fix #3 - July 2014
Fix #4 - August 2014
Fix #5 - September 2014
Fix #6 - October 1, 2014
Fix #7 - October 29, 2014
Fix #8 - November 2014
Fix #9 - December 2014 
Fix #10 - January 2015
Fix #11 - February 2015
Fix #12 - March 2015

This time around, I'd asked my stylist (I've had the same stylist, per my request, for about 10 months now) to send me COLORFUL things. No more grey or black. I also asked for no sleeveless tops, as those aren't my favorite. Short-sleeved was fine as well as dresses, skirts or capri pants.

So my box arrived and I took out the nicely wrapped bundle.

It came in a smaller box. Probably due to the lightweight stuff that would make up a summertime delivery.

I eagerly unwrapped the package and made a stack of my items. Ooh! Pretty colors...although I saw some darker-than-I-wanted colors mixed in there. But I'm always open minded to what my stylist chooses for me.

The green made me happy. Looked interesting and fun! The navy blues and grays were a tad bit depressing. Where are the 'fun' colors I asked for? And I'd specifically said: no more gray or black!

I was disappointed and thinking I would not like anything in this box at all. Horribly sad, since I am now down to 1 box every 3 months. Each box really counts!

However, I went to the next step in my review process and hung up each item. As any of my regular readers will recall, I never look at the price sheet when I am in the try-on phase of my unboxing experience. I want to try everything on (even if I think it looks horrid) and make my judgment based on how much I like the item. This box contained 2 tops, 1 pair of pants, a dress and a necklace. Here we go!

1) First, there was the gray item that gave me sadness. It was the Sam Hi-Lo Short Sleeve Tee by Market and Spruce for $44.00.

I expected that this would be a fail moment just based on the gray color alone. Wasn't this t-shirt available in any other color, stylist? Did you really have to add more gray to my life? Then I tried it on:

Hey, there, plain gray shirt. Aren't you comfy? This t-shirt was made from a stretchy, blend of some kind that is super light. It has a high-low design which is awesome because I can wear this with more form-fitting pants, and it creates a very flattering figure. The lightness of the material means the shirt flows away from my body and really helps keep you cool on a hot day. Also, the cut fit my wide shoulders with the seams falling in just the right place. Even though it was gray, I realized it was a great neutral to go with my things in my wardrobe. From sadness to gladness. KEEP!

2) As you can see in the t-shirt photo above, the next item I tried on were the Emer Textured Cropped Straight Leg Pant by Margaret M for $98.00. Here they on the hanger:

I have received Margaret M pants before (last summer's 'clown pants,' if you're curious) and had liked the fit, but hated the pattern. This time, I was in love with the kelly green!  This is a color that looks really good on me, and I was happy to have something so colorful in my box. I assumed I would love these and would be adding them to my wardrobe. Then, I tried them on.


Yes, they fit. But just a little too tightly. The fabric wasn't quite thick enough to hide the horror of pantylines. And I didn't want to have to think about which underwear to put on in order to wear these pants. If there had been maybe a little more give or a slightly thicker fabric, I think all would've gone well. Such a bummer, because the color was delightful. 

When I saw the price on the receipt, however, I was sort of glad these were GOING BACK.

3) The next item to get the model treatment was the Nogales Lace Detail Blouse by Le Lis for $48.00. I wasn't really looking forward to this one because of the square shape of the blouse. However, I've been fooled before by the way something looks on a hanger vs. on my body.

Hard to tell in my photo, but it is navy blue with a cream-and-navy lace on the front. Once again, I wished this were in a brighter, happier color, But I try everything on, so here we go:

Okay, so I know...the photo on the left makes it look kinda cute. However, I had to stand awkwardly in order to make it look like I had a waist in this photo. For someone with less hip/leg than me, this top might work. But besides the shape of the shirt being off for my figure, if you notice in the photo on the right, the sleeve was incredibly tight on my not-so-slender upper arm. The navy blue fabric was a very unforgiving and unstretchy material. Also, the shoulders were too narrow. And, the weirdest part of all? That lace you see? Pretty much see-through!  Yep, if I weren't wearing a nude bra, you'd see right through it. So, I'd have to pair this top with a tank at all times. And for summer wear, that just didn't make sense to me.  I was a bit disappointed Stitch Fix didn't include a nude tank as they had in the past when they sent something so see-through.

This sucker was GOING BACK.

4) The last item of clothing was the Spencer Striped Jersey Dress by Market and Spruce for $54.00. Oh, this was so cute!  I loved the feel of the dress, the cut, and I was even okay with adding more navy striped clothing to my closet:

I was slightly worried, though, that this dress might be a little too short. Hm. Please say it isn't so! The only way to know is to try it on...

This dress was so comfortable!  It was made out of a stretchy fabric that had some decent weight to it. The flattering arrangement of the stripes was fabulous. It had a delicious twirl-factor when you spun around and the skirt flowed away from unflattering areas so I felt very slim and trim in this dress.

Oh, how I wanted to be able to keep this! The ONLY problem I had with this dress was the length. I have now hit my mid-40s. I felt rather foolish in a dress this short. It was a good 6 inches above my knee. What a horrible, horrible shame. But I just didn't feel comfortable in a dress this length. Dressing too youthfully is not the look I am going for with two teenagers in the house. I am looking for some 'classy elegance' that can take me into my middle years with grace.

DARN! Goodbye, awesome dress. I am so sad to see you go. The dress was a sad and regretful NO.

5) The last item in my box was a necklace - the Munroe Feather Pendant Necklace by Romolo for $28.00. I was actually glad to see it. My cheap jewelry collection is starting to age, and I need to weed out the problem pieces. Here are some pics:

I forgot to take a picture of me wearing it. Silly me. So, just to let you know this is a longer chain. It had a nice weight to it. The length was a good one for me. I am a silver jewelry person and need more simple pieces like this one. I loved it. KEEP.


So, in the end I kept a t-shirt and a necklace. Not the most exciting box I've received. But I still enjoyed the process and will continue getting quarterly boxes. Rarely am I disappointed in a box, and I've really enjoyed updating my wardrobe and staying on top of trends without having to do any work.

If you have yet to try Stitch Fix, can I interest you in using my link below? I will receive a $25 credit after you make your first order. And what girl doesn't want some shopping credit? I greatly appreciate it.

https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/3587901

My next box will arrive in September. Please be sure to come back to my blog for a visit to see what I might get.

Updated the Look of My Blog

Notice anything different? I decided I needed to update the design of my blog. Times, they are a-changin', and my website design did not work well with mobile devices. So, I selected a new template, and here we are.

Let me know what you think.

Hoping this helps my readers keep track of my doings on the fly! ;-)