Having Fun, Football, and Saturday

The fun part

Someone asked me a long time ago which part of the writing process I enjoyed the most. I had said all parts. But you know what? That’s not true. At least, it’s not true anymore.

The part I enjoy the most is the revising part. Adding meat. Fixing the story. That’s where the fun is at. And I’m having loads of fun fixing my short story. But I wouldn’t have had anything to fix if I hadn’t written the stupid thing first. That’s the thing I have to keep reminding myself as I’m writing that first draft.

And I have to remind myself A LOT!

Football
Should I just be happy my teams (okay, most of my teams) won this weekend? USC didn’t win, but OSU did. Barely. But then, they didn’t really “win” that game. Maryland kind of handed it them.

Why do teams go for 2 when they can tie it at 1? Maryland got bit in the butt for that (not that I’m complaining) and so did the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The Steelers also played like crap but managed to come out on top against the Jaguars. I told Hubby that Ben HAD to make that touchdown to make up for all those stupid interceptions.

Sometimes I think our favorite teams just like to torment us fans every now and then. They all do it, don’t they?

Tonight the Rams play against the Chiefs. They’re both at 9-1. I’m almost afraid to watch it, especially after what my teams did on Saturday and Sunday. We’ll see if I can stay awake for the whole thing, though. I want to go bed happy.

The book signing
The author event on Saturday didn’t turn out so bad. I sold a book! I might have sold two if the girl who said she’d left her purse in the car had returned after leaving (she said she wanted one of my books). I think I gave her a magnet, so hopefully she finds me on line and buys one that way.

I guess the library does this event annually, but I doubt I go back. Just not that many romance readers attended. But I’m always willing to try new places, especially when they only cost my time and fuel to drive there.

So… Did you know this calendar year (2018) is the same as 1979? Do you know how I know that? Because Hubby and I were married on Saturday, December 1^st and this December 1^st falls on a Saturday. And Thanksgiving came early that year, too. I had flown into Georgia (probably Atlanta) to meet up with soon-to-be Hubby and we drove down to Jacksonville for me to meet his parents. For Thanksgiving. Then we drove back to Arizona and spent the week preparing for our wedding. Ahhh… memories.

Happy Monday!

Stacy

Wednesday Reads and Having Fun Today

I’m getting caught up in my reading AND getting closer to finishing my WIP. See, I can do both! Haha! Anyway, here’s what I read this week:

Jul 29: “Veronica Mars: Mr. Kiss and Tell” by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham, #2 in the series, a mystery at 330 pages long. Blurb from book: The Neptune Grand has always been the seasie town’s ritziest hotel, despite the shady dealings and high-profile scandalsthat follow its elite guests. When a woman claims that she was brutally assaulted in one of its rooms, then smuggled out and left for dead by a staff member, the owners know that they have a potential powder keg on their hands. They turn to Veronica to disprove the woman’s story. But the case is a convoluted mess. The accused employee is no longer in the country; the security footage shows the woman entering the hotel, but there is not evidence that she ever left; and the victim is someone from Veronica’s past whohas no good reason to trust her. As Veronica works to fill in the missing pieces, the one thing that becomes clear is that a dangerous predator is still on the loose…and that he’s one step away from striking again. This is a fun series mainly because I loved (LOVED) the television series. It’s so fun to get back into these characters. Yeah, they’re all ten years older, but they’re the same, too. I love reading these and look forward to more (I hope there are more!).

Aug 1: “A Buckhorn Summer”/”Back to Buckhorn” by Lori Foster, two contemporary romance novellas in one book at 235 pages long. Blurb for “A Buckhorn Summer” from book: Lisa Sommerville’s wild one-night stand was completely out of character for the workaholic businesswoman. So when she arrives in Buckhorn, Kentucky to spend a summer rethinking her career, she’s stunned to find that Gray Neely has stepped out of her steamy memories and taken up residence in her hometown. What’s more, the laid-back ex-cop wants to pick up where they left off. Lisa has been on Gray’s mind every day since that mind-blowing encounter. He was reeling from a tragedy in the line of duty, and their connection was instant and intense. Still is. But sleepy Buckhorn is a million miles from her corporate world. And he has one sweet, hot summer to prove they have a future there, together. Blurb for “Back to Buckhorn” from Goodreads: For odd-girl-out Zoey Hodge, the best thing about Buckhorn, Kentucky, was leaving it behind. And now she’s back—at least until she can nurse her mother back to health and hightail it out of there anew. But there’s one person she doesn’t mind seeing again. Garrett Hudson was one of the few who was always kind to her. Now he’s a firefighter—still one of the good guys, but with a sexy alpha charm that’s tempting her inner bad girl. In school, Zoey was smart, witty and unafraid to be herself. Garrett fell hard back then, and he’s falling even faster now. As far as he’s concerned, there are all kinds of reasons Zoey should stick around. Her pet grooming business. Her mom. And the chance for him to prove that he can be her real-life hero in every way that matters… Short, sexy romances with some hot, hot fellas! How can you NOT fall in love with them? It's hard, let me tell you. I really like Lori Foster and I bought this benefit book at the Reader Author Get Together where all the proceeds were donated to the Animal Adoption Foundation of Hamilton, Ohio. Double win—for me and the animals! J

I won’t be getting much reading OR writing done today. The hubby and I are going to go have some fun at Kings Island. He got free tickets and the weather looks to be fantastic!

I also see some blueberry ice cream in my future! Mmmmm.

So… Have you ever been to Kings Island? My first trip there was in 1984, before we ever thought about living in the area. I’ve always loved amusement parks (and roller coasters).

Happy Reading!

Stacy

More Diary Fun

Nothing new to report (well, except to grumble that the Penguins lost the first game of Round 1—grrr). That tends to happen when I’m busy writing, or in my case re-writing. Whatever it’s called, it’s working and I’m a happy camper (except where the Penguins are concerned—grrr). But… that doesn’t help my blog any. So, here’s some more diary fun (I love that I have this to fall back on).

Wednesday, December 12, 1973

Well, long time no write! Who’s ever reading this must be terribly bored (especially with all the misspellings). Some time I would love to right pages of stuff like on “The Waltons.” For you young people-It’s a television show which is my favorite right now (along with a lot of other shows). Today was a minimum day and I saw Rick (which I didn’t think would happen). He came into the band room to see the time (which he could have done outside. Maybe he wanted to see me. FAT CHANCE!). I will not have a diary after this maybe a book. P.S. I love you Rick!

Some comments:

1) I was 16 when I wrote this.

2) The “long time no write” remark was made because the last time I had written in that diary was October 28. In fact, this diary has a LOT of blank pages!

3) I like how I mentioned the misspellings and then misspelled “write” after I had spelled it correctly earlier!

4) My memory is faulty and I don’t remember what minimum days were (either shortened classes or some classes were eliminated), BUT… I do remember Rick coming into the band room (because I had a HUGE crush on that guy, as you can tell from the P.S.).

5) I think it’s funny that I wrote I will have a book next, when I couldn’t even write in the small yellow diary every day. But I did use spiral notebooks starting in 1974, and I was able to write more, just not more often (I still had problems with that).

Maybe next time I’ll post one of those longer ones. I’ll have to find one that’s interesting.

So… Starting Saturday I’ll be hosting the Sizzle and Sass Facebook page. My week always seems to catch me off guard. What catches you off guard? The weekend? Monday? Hmmm…

Have a great day!

Stacy

Heading to the Sea

This will be my last post until November. And hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I’ll have pictures to share then. You see… I’ll be on this big boat and they don’t have the internet. I’d like to say I’ll get some writing done. Or even get caught up in my reading. And maybe I will, but they’re not in the plan.

The plan includes FUN. And lots of it! J That’s the way it should be, right?

I’ve been advertising on Goodreads. Not a lot of money (only ten bucks), but it’s garnered some author ranking fluctuations (in a good way) on Amazon. I can only hope it’s doing the same at other vendors. I’ve only noticed one sale since I started the advertising campaign, but then, I can’t see sales from anyone except for Kindle.

One thing I did notice on Goodreads, though. 517 have added My Sunny Vampire to their to-read books (8 since I started advertising on 10/10). Who are these people, I wondered. Well, I CAN check that out. And what I discovered kind of blew my mind.

When several of them have over 20,000 books in their “to-read” column, can I really expect they’ll ever get to mine? Granted, most of these people added my book when I ran a giveaway back in January. At the time I was thrilled people were adding my books. I figured they’ll see it on their lists. Now, I’m not so sure. I find it akin to garnering “likes” on Facebook via a contest. Sure, they’ll “like” you to try and win, but how many will really stick around? How many REALLY like you?

This publishing business is insane, isn’t it? But I love it anyway! Really, I’ve never been happier working at any job than I have been since I started writing. My husband notices it, too. I’m a completely different person! In a good way, of course. J

So… I’m looking forward to doing nothing for a week. No, take that back. Having FUN! What are you looking forward to?

Stacy

E-mail Bantering

Below is an example of the kind of e-mails my husband and I send to one another. I think this is one of the reasons why I love him soooo much! He makes me laugh.

Husband (H): Just got our Thanksgiving gift card from (work), Kroger $20.00. Love ya.
Me: Next time we go, use it to get a DVD or something for yourself.
H: Why?
Me: Why not?
H: I have not used any of the other 18 on myself, why start now?
Me: Fine. I'll use it to get you something. But don't blame me if you don't like it.
H: I don't like that idea. I will spend it myself.
Me: Chicken!
H: Yep.

Gosh – can you tell we've known each other for 33 years?

It's going to be cold tonight. Things will FREEZE. I hope I'm not one of them while I'm waiting for the midnight showing of BREAKING DAWN. I hope the theatre has some compassion and lets us wait inside. I hope it's warm in the theatre!

I also don't expect to have a blog up at 6:00am Friday morning, but I will try to blog. I've been doing pretty well so far this month, haven't I?