Wednesday Reads and Man, It’s HOT!

Made it to Santa Barbara yesterday. Normal temps this time of year is in the mid 70s. It was 98. Supposed to reach 90 today. Normally, the temps don’t bother me so much, but my parents’ house doesn’t have A/C.

I’m melting…

I know. It could be worse. It could be humid, too. Luckily, it is not.

Here’s what I read the past week:

Book #54

Dates read: October 15-21
Title: “Immortally Yours”
Year of publication: 2017
Author: Lynsay Sands
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Argeneau Vampire Series #26
# of Pages: 367
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Purchased
Blurb from book: One hundred and twenty-five years is a long time to nurse a crush. That’s how long it’s been since Beth Argenis first met Cullen “Scotty” MacDonald and he instantly became the star of her most X-rated dreams. Back then, he was rescuing her from a rogue immortal. Now Beth’s a Rogue Hunter—and a damn good one. She doesn’t need saving anymore, despite what Scotty thinks. What she does need is the fierce, wild desire that finally erupts between them.
    Scotty has hesitated to claim Beth as his own. But one explosive kiss confirms what he’s long suspected: She’s his life mate. But Beth is tough, fearless, beautiful…and in immortal danger. Unless he wants to lose her forever, he’ll have to rethink everything he once believed about love and destiny as well as confront an enemy who’s terrifyingly close.
My thoughts: I still enjoy this world so much. A Lynsay Sands book is always an entertaining one for me (which is a good thing, because these books are an auto-buy). They’re sexy AND funny (but not in a crazy-funny way).

There’s a huge giveaway of paranormal romance & urban fantasy books going on HERE (to help generate Amazon followers). Each author is sponsoring a book. Check it out and click on any of those you’d like to win (you’ll see who’s sponsoring it, too). And if you click on Lynsay Sands’ book, you might recognize who’s sponsoring that giveaway. Hint: it’s ME! J

So… How about those Dodgers? Whoo hoo!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Pictures Taken Over the Weekend

I found a city I could easily live in: Carlsbad, California. Of course, I'd probably have to win the lottery to afford it. I can only GUESS how much it costs to live here.

Daughter's footy games didn't go so well. They lost all four. She still had a good time and the weather was OUTSTANDING! I mean, you couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Well, except for a win. She would have liked one of those.

Today we visit an aquarium before taking Daughter to the airport. Then maybe Hubby and I will go over to the USS Midway Museum. Maybe. We haven't made up our minds yet. Anyway, here are some pictures I took over the weekend:

I'm thinking you can only find this in California.
We discovered this at our hotel.

This is where the USAFL Nationals was played at:
Surf Cup Sports Park in Del Mar, CA.
I can only imagine how much those homes must cost.

My daughter in the pink, #66.
I'll let you guess WHY she has 66.
Or you can ask in the comments and I'll tell you. :)

Beach in Carlsbad, CA

The other view of the beach in Carlsbad. We walked to the
end in this direction.

Some of the homes/apartments/vacation suites
overlooking the beach. I wouldn't mind staying at
one of them, but I'm sure I couldn't afford it.

Reached the end of the beach and took this picture.
As I was uploading it to Instagram, I stupidly turned my
back to the ocean. Yep, a wave got me. Ooops.

Sunset in California!

That's all for today. Tomorrow I head up to my parent's house. I'm not sure if they have wifi or not, so next post might be difficult. We'll see.

Happy Monday!


Stacy

Vacation, Cancer Update, and Horror Flash Fiction

My vacation starts today! Yay, yay, yay!

I can’t guarantee I’ll continue to blog during the next couple of weeks, but I will if I remember and I have something to say/share—like a good picture. I mean, I’ll be in Southern California. I’m sure I’ll have lots of good pictures!

Now here’s hoping the flight doesn’t mess with my hearing. I really hate flying because of that (it HURTS when the plane descends), but it’s just too far to drive this time around.

So… Yesterday I saw my surgeon. Yes, I need more surgery. But… it doesn’t have anything to do with the cancer. He got all of that and the margins were great (yay!). The area that is giving me problems is an area that could develop into cancer. Apparently, “the book” requires a larger margin for that than the cancer and it’s not known if radiation will get/kill it all. Since the surgery isn’t as long (about a 15-minute procedure) and I won’t need to be completely out (like I was before), it made the decision to go with another surgery a lot easier to make.

Besides, Hubby pretty much said I need to do whatever it takes for me to still be around when he turns 80. J

That means I’ll have surgery after I get back from my trip (Nov 6), and radiation will be pushed into mid December provided I don’t need chemo. Now, my lymph nodes all came back clear (yay!!), but there’s another test that’s being run to determine if I have some gene that indicates I have a higher chance of reoccurrence. I find out that answer on Nov 27th. Hopefully the answer comes back NO. I really do not want chemo (but I’ll do it for Hubby if needed).

Okay, enough of that depressing stuff. Here’s something fun. I got a question from Goodreads (in the Ask an Author section), to write a two-sentence horror story. After thinking for a bit, this is what I wrote:

She walked into the garage and the spider taunted her as it sat blocking her way to the car. But after smushing the nasty arachnid, like she had done to all the others, millions more rained down upon her head in retaliation.

Was that horror enough for you? It certainly was for me! I hate spiders!!!

So… Are you having a second summer this week? I was all set for moderate temps back home only to find it’ll be close to 100! Yikes!! That is definitely NOT fall weather for Southern California.

Happy Friday!

Stacy

Wednesday Reads and I’m a Little Mad

Here’s what I read the past week:

Book #53

Dates read: October 5-14
Title: “Dark Legacy”
Year of publication: 2009
Author: Anna DeStefano
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Legacy #1
# of Pages: 307
Paper or plastic: Mass market paperback
How obtained: Free from a convention
Blurb from book: “Die!” scream her nightmares. The voice is her sister’s, the compulsion stronger than any ordinary dream.
    Maddie Temple can’t go through this again. Her twin has been in a coma for the last ten years. Their psychic link was severed. At least, that’s what she thought.
    But there’s a lot Maddie doesn’t know—about the 200-year-old curse on her family, about the shadowy group that wants to exploit the Temple twins’ powers for themselves, about the sexy psychiatrist offering to help her. The only way to find the answers and avoid being pulled into the abyss of madness is to trust her heart and confront her dark legacy.
My thoughts: This is one of those books that I nearly threw across the room when I reached the end. Why? Because the ending was not satisfying. Wait, it would have had to have an ending for that to happen. This story isn’t over. Not by a long-shot (I still don’t know what the 200-year-old curse is!). It’s a tactic some authors use to get you to buy the next book, but this book would have had to be great to rope me in, and it wasn’t. I saw the low rating (and bad reviews) on Goodreads, but gave it a try anyway because it’s a romance. Except it really wasn’t (not in the way I like them). Yay me for sticking with it. Not so yay for the author, because I really have no desire to continue reading this series. Not when I don’t trust the author.

Can I be a little mad? And no, this has nothing to do with the book. I arrived to what I thought was an appointment with my radiation oncologist on Monday in preparation for radiation treatments (which are to start in Nov). But… he said the appointment was for the following Monday. Not so, I said. I won’t be in town (so I know I wouldn’t have agreed to that date!). He wants to wait until after I see my surgeon, which I see tomorrow. Luckily, he can see me that day, after that appointment. The not so lucky part was that he hinted that the margins might not have come back good enough and I might need more surgery.

More surgery? I specifically told my surgeon to take MORE than was needed. That I wasn’t worried about disfigurement or anything like that. So yeah, I’m kind of pissed. I sure hope the radiation oncologist was wrong because I really don’t want to have to go through another surgery. And really, why should I? Won’t the radiation kill whatever cancer cells I might have remaining? I’ll let you know Friday what I find out.

So… Have you read any books this year that you wanted to toss after reaching the end? What did you do with it? Like all of my free reads this year, I’m giving mine away (via my newsletter), but I feel so bad about the ending, I’m also giving away a bonus book. Gotta keep my subscribers HAPPY!

Happy Reading!

Stacy

Publishing Update and Have Lunch With Some Authors

I finally got the print format for Ghostly Liaison and My Sunny Vampire uploaded to Createspace, so now the waiting game begins. I’ll still get a proof copy first (because you never know…), but I sure hope I’m done with these two.

Bite Me, I’m Yours is with Hubby (via Enterprise Book Services) to format the e-book and paperback. He said I should get the e-book version by today to upload. It’ll probably be a few days later for the print format. I just hope it’s all done before I leave on my vacation (which starts Friday—yay!).

By the way, here’s the new cover to Bite Me, I’m Yours. Isn’t it great? I think Maria Zannini (www.bookcoverdiva.blogspot.com) has done a wonderful job in creating my covers. And she puts up a lot from me, too (because I can be so indecisive at times).

So, to sum it up, here are the statuses of the following books I’m working on:

• My Sunny Vampire: e-books available for sale; print book in process
• Bite Me, I’m Yours: e-books and print book in process
• Ghostly Liaison: e-books available for sale; print book in process
• Ghostly Interlude: with copy editor.

I can’t believe how time consuming it’s been to get these books out. I DESERVE that vacation now! And I’m really hoping I get some writing done because yes, that does sound like a fun thing to do on vacation. It’s been way too long since I wrote anything NEW.

If you’re in the Cincinnati area (or even if you’re not—haha!) and you’d like to have lunch with a bunch of us authors (because hey, that’s fun!), here’s a great opportunity and it’s for a good cause, too. The Book Chicks of Cincinnati is holding a Christmas luncheon/book signing with proceeds going to the Toys for Tots. I had a blast last year (as did everyone), but if we don’t get more tickets sold, it could very well be cancelled this year. L You can find all the details HERE, but before you go registering, email me first (stacy @ stacymckitrick . com—without the spaces). I’ll send you a code to get $5 off.

SPORTS! Wayne HS won on Friday, with 14 seconds left in the game!!! I even found a video of it HERE (it's not long, less than a minute). Aaack. Too exciting! Saturday was a nice sports day. OSU won. USC won. Penguins won. Dodgers won. And WVU won (yes, I like them, too). And Sunday the Steelers squeaked by KC in a nerve-wracking win, the Rams beat the Jags, and the Dodgers won it in the 9th inning with a walk off home run!! They’re up 2-0 in the NLCS. I could use more fun sports weekends like that.

So… Which sports are you enjoying/focusing on now? You can see what interest me (and did you notice I don’t mention the NBA? Yeah, I don’t like them). This certainly is the busy season, isn’t it?

Happy Monday!

Stacy