Reading Update and Eating Out

Have you gone back to a restaurant yet? Actually sat down, ordered, and ate there? We haven’t. I was going to wait and see what the numbers were like after they’ve been open for a few weeks, but what with all the protesting and people not wearing masks, I fear those numbers will be completely skewed now. And not in a good way.

So I guess I’ll just wait a little longer.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book #23

Dates read: May 29-June 7
Title: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Year of publication: 2020
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Hunger Games #0
# of Pages: 517
Paper or plastic: Hardback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from Book:. It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.
    The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined—every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute…and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
My thoughts: I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be about when it was released, but since it had to do with the Hunger Games, I was all in to read it. It was an interesting story. There wasn’t much suspense for the character, since we all know who he is in the other books, but I became curious to see how he survived. If you enjoyed reading The Hunger Games, you will most likely enjoy this, too.  

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Reading Update and I was Supposed to Start my Vacation

Hubby and I were supposed to board a cruise today, but COVID-19 spoiled all that. It was going to be an awesome cruise, too. With stops to Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, Ireland, and ending in London. Then, we were to start the next leg of our vacation: a European land tour traveling through 9 countries. We would have been gone for a month.

I knew it was too good to be true. We’d never ever planned such an elaborate vacation before. It certainly makes me gun shy to try and schedule another. Because it sure is a pain in the you-know-what when you have to try and get your money back. Which we really didn’t get back. Oh, sure, we got credit for the cruise and land tour. The flight home, not so much. Luckily, credit for the cruise will be easy to use as we have some future cruises booked and not paid for yet. But that land tour? They do have tours in the US, but what if they go out of business? What if the cruise line goes out of business? It really is something to worry about.

Something we also worry about this year is our season tickets to the Dayton Dragons. We’ll really be surprised if they even have a season this year. Don’t know what that will mean for our tickets. Especially since I read that many minor league teams just might go under. I don’t know if Dayton is in danger of doing that, but who knows? I think right now I’ll be happy to have my tickets good for next year. Better than losing outright.

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book #22

Dates read: May 21-28
Title: A Taste of You
Year of publication: 2017
Author: Teri Anne Stanley
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
Series: Bourbon Brothers #3
# of Pages: 216
Paper or plastic: Trade paperback
How obtained: Purchased from author
Blurb from Book:. Office supply addict Eve McGrath’s meticulously organized life is on the verge of crashing at her feet. Blue Mountain distillery’s new tasting and visitor center has to be finished pronto or her mother will lose her mind. Good thing Eve likes a challenge—which is exactly what she’ll face trying to convince the flaky contractor’s hot son to finish the job.
    Nick Baker is back in Kentucky just long enough to get his wayward dad back on his feet. Then he’s gone. Unfortunately, he can’t resist helping Eve, the sexy distiller-in-distress, whose addictive, bourbon-flavored kisses threaten his carefully constructed boundaries. And if he can’t rein himself in, the uncomfortable secrets of his past will nail him to the wall…
My thoughts: The author is a friend of mine, but that’s not why I read her books. I read her books because they’re fun. Lighthearted. And really good stories. I can count on Teri Anne to give me a laugh and make me go awww.

So… Did you have any vacation planned for this year? How about tickets to events? How’s that turning out for you?

Stacy

Reading Update and a Giveaway

I’ve teamed up with 30+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Paranormal & Sci-Fi Romances to 2 lucky winners! And a grand prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader!

You can win my novel, Finding the Perfect Mate, plus books from authors like S.E. Smith and Ann Charles.

Enter the giveaway by clicking here: bit.ly/SciFi-PNR-May2020

Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book #21

Dates read: May 12-20
Title: Revival
Year of publication: 2014
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Horror
Series: N/A
# of Pages: 403
Paper or plastic: Hardback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from Book:. In a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a small boy playing in the yard with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister. Reverend Charles Jacobs, along with his beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister, Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from the shocked town.
    Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar from the age of thirteen, he plays in bands across the country, living the nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin, stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that “revival” has many meanings.
My thoughts: This one is not one of my favorites. The story is told in first person, and when it starts I really have no idea what the book is about (because I don’t read the blurb, apparently). Half-way through the book, “revival” is first mentioned. I enjoyed reading it enough to want to figure out how it was going to end, but it does ramble on at times. Good thing I don’t mind Stephen King’s rambling, but this won’t be anything I will want to re-read.

As you can see, I’m building up my BookBub followers. Whether it does me any good… only time will tell. Same with my Amazon ads. I’m getting more sales (yay!), but losing money in the process (boo!). I’m just considering the money spent as gathering data. I need it in order to advertise efficiently. Of course, right now I’m hearing from the majority of clicks “love your cover, love your copy, but not interested.”  It’s probably not true. I could have been added to someone’s wishlist. But during this time, during this crisis, feeling depressed as it is, it’s where my mind goes. Probably a good thing I’m crocheting a lot right now. It gets my mind off of depressing things, especially when I’m watching a favorite movie doing it!

Happy Reading! And if you enter the giveaway—Good Luck!!

Stacy

Reading Update and Keeping Busy

My writing has stalled (can’t figure out the main conflict), so I’ve been keeping busy with some crochet projects (and using up the yarn stash I have—finally). And when I crochet, I like to have the TV on with something I don’t have to give 100% of my attention to. So I’ve been watching lots of old movies. More than I have all of last year!

I’m still reading, too, because my fingers can only crochet so much a day. Here’s what I read since my last update:

Book #20

Dates read: April 29 – May 10
Title: The Institute
Year of publication: 2019
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Series: N/A
# of Pages: 557
Paper or plastic: Hardback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from Book:. In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at the Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and the youngest of them, ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduate to Back Half, “like the Roach Motel,” Kalisha says. “Kids check in, but they don’t check out.”
    In this most sinister of institutes, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

My thoughts: Whoa. That’s all I got right now. Whoa. It has been awhile since I read a Stephen King book. This one sucked me in right away, too, and I can see me reading this one again. One of these days I just need to claim a reading season to be nothing but Stephen King and then re-read all the books I’ve been wanting to read again. Heck, it might be more than a season. It could possibly be a year!

Do you ever feel like binging a favorite author’s books, to re-read them, one after another? Or are you a one-and-done kind of reader?

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Short Story - Sam's Journal

So… I haven’t finished reading The Institute (which is good, by the way), so I have no books to report today. Instead, I thought I would share the short story I wrote for Book and Main Bites. I was directed to write from the POV of one of my characters in journal form about the first encounter with their love interest. I chose Sam from Biting the Curse.  

I also shared this story with my newsletter subscribers, so if you’ve seen this before, enjoy it again. If you haven’t, you’ll have to let me know what you think. I like it (yes, I’m biased, so what?) and hoped it would grab interested readers. I don’t think it did the job at Book and Main Bites (I didn’t notice sales increase in March), but it was fun to write. That’s all that matters, right?



Sam’s Journal



July 12

I, Sam Kincaid, nearly outed the vampire race—again. Actually, it can still happen.

I had a close call tonight. I couldn’t control the woman I’d fed from. Couldn’t erase her memories, either. Luckily I still had a brain and was able to talk my way out of that mess. I hope. But man, when we touched I actually felt warmth from her. Warmth! And her scent of peaches and cream came alive. I thought I’d been transported home. Back when I could eat real food. Back before I was turned into a vampire.

I nudged her for a kiss, or thought I had because she was into it as much as I was. When I took her sweet, sweet blood, I swear we both nearly came, it was so erotic. But when she screamed, and not the ecstasy kind, I realized I was hurting her. I had no control. She slapped me, too. No human has ever been able to slap me before. Hell, no human has ever had a reason to slap me. At least, I make sure they don’t have a reason.

I’m sad that I had to let her go, but a mortal who can’t be controlled is a dangerous mortal. But I couldn’t kill her, either, even though it’s practically the rule among vampires regarding anyone whose memories we can’t erase. But how could I kill someone who made me feel so … alive? Almost mortal?

I have a feeling it’s going to be a long time before I forget one Janie Robinson.



July 19

It’s been a week and I still can’t get Janie out of my head. Oh sure, I’ve been scouring the news outlets—especially the entertainment rags—to see if she claimed to have been bitten by a vampire. So far, nothing. So it looks like I’m in the clear. So why can’t I forget her?



August 22

It’s been over a month and I still haven’t washed the T-shirt I wore the night I met Janie. Her scent is nearly faded now, but still, can’t wash it. Won’t wear it, either. That sucker is stashed in a sealed baggie. I only open it when I need a whiff of her scent. Lately, I’ve needed lots of whiffs.

Why did I let her go?



July 12

It’s been a year and I still can’t get Janie out of my head. I even went back to that old gas station, hoping she’d stop by again. But nope. Just dumb luck I’d run into her the first time.

I wouldn’t mind having some more of that dumb luck.



July 12

Has it really been two years? I still have the T-shirt in the baggie. Her scent faded long ago, but for some reason washing it seems wrong. So does throwing it away. I should throw it away. I need to forget her.

I think I’m going crazy.



September 15

This is the worst day of my life. I lost the T-shirt! 3+ years of saving it and it’s gone! I’ve looked everywhere. This is what happens when a vampire moves. They lose stuff. Hopefully Vegas will get my mind off Janie (I’m a bartender here now). Not having the T-shirt anymore should help, too.

Maybe my subconscious lost it on purpose.

I hate my subconscious.



June 1

It’s been almost four years since I met Janie. Nine months since I lost the shirt. Nine months of getting over my obsession. Then the Committee posted an announcement on their website.

I can’t believe my eyes. Perfect Mates are real. First time I heard that story, it sounded like a stupid myth and I never gave it another thought. But to find out the story is real? That Perfect Mates exist?

Is Janie a Perfect Mate? Vampires can’t control Perfect Mates. I couldn’t control Janie. Perfect Mates smell like home. Janie smelled like peaches and cream, a scent I always associated with my old home. And the kicker? When a vampire touches a Perfect Mate they feel warmth! I felt warmth with Janie.

And I let her go!

Has she been thinking about me all this time like I’ve been thinking about her?

I need to find her. But how? I don’t dare ask another vampire to help. She’s mine! What am I gonna do?



June 2

Three vampires have found their Perfect Mate. Three! Would it have been four if I hadn’t let Janie go? John Pennington is one of the vampires. He lives in Dayton, Ohio, and owns a bar. I’m a bartender. Wonder if I can get a job, and some advice?

I need lots of advice. And I can trust him. He has his own Perfect Mate.



June 8

Perry contacted me about setting up a bachelor party for his friend, who is getting married in this crazy city on the 28th. Even invited me to the event. I was going to decline because I planned on going to Dayton then, until I found out which friend was getting married.

John Pennington.

Holy shit.



June 28

I have hope. For the first time in four years I have hope.

John said he’ll help me. That he’ll even keep this information from Perry. Because, let’s face it, Perry is determined to find his own Perfect Mate and no one could be more perfect than Janie Robinson.

Only thing, I had to promise not to interfere if she’s already married. John isn’t going to help break up a marriage.

Just the thought of her being married to someone else makes me on edge. She can’t have found someone else. All I think about is her. All I want is her. She has to feel the same way toward me.

Right?

But I agreed. I mean, I don’t want to ruin her life. I want her to be happy. I just hope she’s still single if, no, when I find her.

Because I will find her.

I have hope.



Read Sam and Janie’s story in Biting the Curse, Book 5 in the Bitten by Love series, which can be found at the following vendors:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T8F7BYL/

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/biting-the-curse-stacy-mckitrick/1132154386?ean=2940161328767

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/biting-the-curse

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/biting-the-curse/id1469527645

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Stacy_McKitrick_Biting_the_Curse?id=rMaxDwAAQBAJ

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/945106

FYI: There are no years listed in this short story because I write slow. Some of these events happened in A Vampire Wedding. While there are three years between that and Biting the Curse's release, only seven months had passed in that timeline.

Happy Reading!

Stacy