Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone enjoyed their St. Patrick's Day festivities. I know I did!

While I did not get piss drunk on green beer; I did have an absolutely delightful time in Taos, NM with my best friend, my mother, and my son. We ate dinner at Eske's Brew Pub and Eatery. Yes, the exact Eske's that is mentioned in Snowboards & Tuxes.

I met one of the owners a while back, after having called and asked her permission to feature the fantastic little place in my latest novel. Also, I bought some swag there that I will include in an ultimate giveaway when the series is finished. I purchased a growler. Which is just a fancy way of saying I bought a beer jug. It has the pub's logo/name printed on it in white. Pretty awesome. :)

Just a reminder that the contest mentioned in this post is still open! Just comment with your guess.

P.S. a few teasers from the story I am writing as part of the Love's Landscapes event by the M/M Romance Group can be found here (though you must be a member of the group in order to see the thread).

Trying Something New

Trying something can be new can be a little scary, and sometimes it ends up being fun.

I am proud to say that I belong to the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads. The group hosts a yearly writing event that has become a really big deal. I find myself participating, despite the fact that I am new to Goodreads and the group.

I will continue working on Snowboards & Tuxes, so don't worry if you're a reader of that story about it being put on the back burner.

Time to write! Catch ya later.

I'm horrible at keeping promises...

...that I make to MYSELF.

I had taken a break from writing the week of and after Thanksgiving, and had a hell of a time getting back into my rhythm when I was working on Moonlight & Stained Glass. I then promised myself that I would never go more than a week without writing again. Of course the possibility of carpal tunnel derailed that promise; but for the past couple weeks even on the days I could have written, I didn't.

So, I apologize to my readers who have been waiting for an update.

The good news is that Thursday March 6th I will finally have my test done for carpal tunnel and appropriate treatment will be given depending on the diagnosis.

I want to let you know that the contest from my previous post is still open. Please leave a comment if you think you might know the answer.

Blog Contest

A Public Service Announcement

So, like I said there have been more than 30 kindle copies of "Moonlight & Stained Glass" have been sold by Amazon.com.

There have even been copies sold in the UK and Germany, 3 each.

Now, there have been a total of 2 copies returned. Perhaps they were accidental purchases. This is actually what I'm hoping is the case, because if these people bought the book and read it and then returned it that's kinda sad. Here's why:

When a book is published using KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) the person publishing the book - author or publisher - has two available selections for royalties, 30% or 70% royalties. If the book is published with a 70% royalty rate, the minimum price that KDP will allow you to set the book for is $2.99 (in US currency, not sure what that translates to for their other markets) and the kindle version can be bought via print-match (if you purchased a paperback through Amazon) at a reduced price of $1.99, $0.99, or FREE. If the book is published with the 30% royalty rate, the minimum price the book can be listed for is $0.99 and the only available print-match option is FREE.

Now here's the thing, I don't particularly care about the money. If I did, I would have picked the 70% royalty option. I don't care mostly because I know I'll never be able to make a living off of it. However, even with the 30+ copies that have been sold, that means the royalties I will receive are equal to approximately $10.00 (yep, ten whopping US dollars). Not much, and that's okay. I figure that whatever I make from these books I'll either donate to a charity or two that I really care strongly about, or it'll be rainy day money. I have a two and a half year old son, and I know soon he'll learn how to ask for things. I'm not talking about food or things around the house. I'm talking about things that cost money. He'll want to go places, buy souvenirs, and make memories. If I can save the money I make from my books, then someday that'll most likely be the money I use for things like fishing trips with him.

So, not just for my sake, I implore you to keep the kindle books you purchase on Amazon unless it was an honest mistaken/accidental purchase.

Rolling right along...

At this point I am utterly amazed. Chapter four of "Snowboards & Tuxes" is posted, and more than 30 kindle copies of Moonlight & Stained Glass have been sold. I'm so happy...

By the way, my brain was overworking again last week and even though I'm still working on book two I have already come up with the title for book three. As an added bonus, the first person to guess the general idea of the pairing in book three from the title will win a signed set of all the books as they are completed and published.

The title for book three is "Turquoise & Jade." Let your imaginations run wild... ;)

Sometimes...

I feel evil.

Like when certain things happen in my stories, and I'm just like "Mwahahahahaha!"

Hmmm, but really I don't mean for my characters to get hurt or upset. What happens just happens. For me, it is the natural flow of the story line.

Kind of like the characters themselves. Some people hold fast to the belief that author's write characters in their own image or in the image of a loved one. I disagree with this sometimes. I don't create the characters so much as I...find them. It's like they already existed, and I just happened to think about them and got to know them until I could get into their head. Perhaps, that is why I enjoyed writing fanfiction before I pursued writing original pieces.

For instance, Ewan is most definitely NOT written in my image. I'm short, curvy, and most definitely NOT a snowboarder or skier. Thus, I find I am having somewhat of a hard time figuring out how he will act or react to certain occurrences. I do plan to rectify one thing though, as I am planning a skiing/snowboarding trip with my best friend/sister. ^_^ We also will be eating at Eske's which is mentioned in the story. It is a real pub & grill which I fell head over heels in love with when I ate there for St. Patrick's day last year.

Forgive my rambling. I really wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be working on the character profiles, and I plan to include as many extras as possible so keep an eye out for interesting tidbits about your favorite characters.

Stupid...interwebz

Some days I really despise technology. Today is one of those days. Damn internet, browser, webpage, etc. whatever's fault it was for posting my last blog post half a gillion times. -_-