Movie Monday

It's the morning after the Oscars...what a great day to start my new weekly feature!!!

I had this idea.....I love love love movies. I love books too...but there's just something about seeing a story come to life on the screen. They can leave such an imprint on our hearts and minds. The best movies make me cry. If I cry, it was good.

I thought maybe I'd do a weekly feature, at least for a little while, and focus on my favorite movies of all time! See what my blogging friends think of my picks!

For my first ever Movie Monday, I'm gonna go with my favorite--of all time. I'd first seen this movie when was about 11 or 12. It came out in 1987, when I was 10, but we never went to the theater back then. Had to wait til it was released on video. I can't even remember my first time seeing it, but it had hooked me fast.



Even at that young age, I identified with Baby, though it wouldn't be until years later that I was really dealing with the emotions she dealt with. God, I can so remember a time in my life when the "it" guy was with me and the song "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" played in the back of me head. I was Baby...shy and unsure, and somehow had caught the attention of the hottest guy around.

But when I was younger, me and my friends used to put the movie on and dance around the living room. We had the soundtracks and listened to them non-stop. I even remember a camping trip where we about wet ourselves when we found an tree trunk laid over a little stream. It was tiny compared to the movie version, but still. We put "Hey Baby" on the little boom box and danced on that log all afternoon.

My bedroom walls had two huge posters- the movie poster shown above, and a black and white shot of Patrick Swayze, laying on his side, during the "Love is Strange" scene. "Come 'ere, Loverboy!"



I cried when Patrick died. He was probably my first huge celebrity crush. And he will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Dirty Dancing is played on TV so much, but you know what...every time....I am a total deer caught in the headlights. I can't turn away. I can't flip the channel.

I still listen to the soundtracks. I know every song by heart.

My favorite scene in the whole movie.......it's so full of sexiness and passion, hunger and desire. My heart completely flutters every time I see it.

Gotta click here...couldn't get an embedded code :(

Maintaining Your Mental Health

I am a huge supporter of maintaining your own mental health. If we don't do it ourselves, will anyone else do it for us?? Yes, we have family and friends who will always help elevate our moods when we're not feeling good, but in general, I truly believe our happiness is in our own hands.

The hard part is finding what makes you happy. I'm lucky. I know what makes me happy. Writing, reading, dancing. A funny movie, some great music. If I'm in a bad mood, shopping always helps too! (Typical woman, I know! But I truly believe in retail therapy!)

I get depressed like everyone...I have bad moods. But I know how to get myself out of them.

Something that helps me is always having something to look forward to. We are huge believers of the therapy of going on vacation. I know some people who go years and years without even a weekend getaway. For us, vacations are key to a happy life. Just the act of getting away from our home and our responsibilities, does wonders for us. We thrive on being able to spend quality time with our kids-- no housework, no homework, no alarm clocks. Sometimes we take day trips, and that is a quick fix. Weekends away are great. But a whole week...so so awesome!

And just looking at pictures of past vacations helps me too. I can flip through albums and I'm right back there, reliving the fun!

My hubby knows....I'm miserable when I don't have a vacation to look forward to. It's my way of maintaining my mental health. When I'm feeling down, I simply look over our vacation plans and I feel better. Knowing that some day soon, I will get away from everything that brings me down makes it all better and I can breath again!

What makes you happy? What do you do when you're not feeling the greatest??

Reconstructive surgery has it's place....

But for me, it's not my face, or my body.

These days, it seems most of my friends are talking about the surgeries they want to have and plan on doing in the next few years. Now I don't live in Hollywood or NYC, where plastic surgery is the everyday norm. We're all suburban moms who've finished having kids, and as most women know, pregnancy does not exactly leave us with a fab body. We're all over 30, so that takes a toll too. Skin isn't as taut or resilient anymore.

But surgery...to cut and paste and remove??

No...I really don't think that's for me. The only cutting and pasting I plan on doing is for my manuscripts.

Now I know for some people, it's a must. So many children are born with defects and facial abnormalities and I am 100% behind surgeries that can help a child feel more confident. Or those who are hurt in accidents--yes, plastic surgery is often a necessity.

I know how lucky I am. I was not born with any abnormalities. And though my body is not in super model shape after having two kids, I joined a gym and put in the hard work that is needed. I'm not done, but I never expected instant results. I know it takes time to re-sculpt a body. I have some extra skin in my stomach area....pregnancy can really stretch that skin and it just doesn't go back, no matter how many crunches you do. But I've managed to decrease the fat underneath that skin, so it doesn't really protrude anymore. It's there, but it's far better than it was before I joined the gym. And I'm proud of that fact. I'm proud that I worked hard and got rid if it on my own, as opposed to going to a doctor and having it hacked off.

And as far as breasts go...well, I have been blessed in that department, even though their size has decreased since I joined the gym (but only one cup size, so far). Having an enhancement has never ever been something I've thought of. But I guess if you've had tiny ones your whole life, maybe that is something you would want to do. There's no way to get breasts if you weren't blessed with them naturally. It's not like you can lift some weights and grow them like a bicep.

I can say these things because I am happy with my body. I know others are not....so for them, if they think plastic surgery is the only way to find self confidence and be happy about their bodies, then hooray for them. I think people should spend their money in a way that makes them happy. Life is all about being happy and if you're not, well, you need to find out what will make you happy. Sometimes the path to happiness may include a stop at the plastic surgeon.

I only hope my friends do find what they're looking for when they get these surgeries.

And the winner is......

Okay, so my plan was to do my first ever vlog and draw the winner for my blogfest prize. But it's been over a week since my blogfest and I still haven't done it. I think I'm just gonna use random.org and have it pick me a winner.

We had 19 official participants, not including myself. And unfortunately, that means I'm only giving away one prize :( I'd hoped to have more participants, but oh well! I had lots of fun and really enjoyed reading everyone's answers!!

So here we go......


The winner is:



******************




*************




********




*****




***



**



*


Erica and Christy!!!!


Yay!! Congrats!!!!! In case you forgot, the prize is a signed copy of A Bitch Named Karma and also a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul.

I'll be contacting you guys for an address!

HUGE thanks to everyone who participated!!! It was lots of fun!! I look forward to doing it again in the future!!

It's vacation week!

I know not all schools give the kids a week off for President's week, but ours does. Didn't used to...this is new...only been the last could years. So now the kids only have one week at Easter, instead of almost a full 2 weeks like they used to. I think it's better to have it broken up.

So, this morning I stayed in bed til 10....for some odd reason, my son slept til I went in and got him up. My daughter had stayed the night at Grandma's house.

You may ask...any big plans for this week?? Not one. Last year we took the kids to Kalahari in Ohio, a huge indoor waterpark resort. So so fun..I highly recommend it. But no money for it this year. We'll just hang out at home. I'm sure we'll play lots of Wii and other games.

In other news, I am done with edits on Karma Kameleon, the sequel to A Bitch Named Karma. Yesterday i worked on filling a few small plot holes and hopefully it doesn't look like I added these small scenes in. My main focus now is just reading through the story and looking for grammar mistakes and spots where the text just doesn't work. Hoping to get it out to some readers in the next few days!

Gonna try some freelancing! Ever do it??

As we all know, these days it's extremely tough to make a living on just book royalties. I knew this fact going in and obviously I still wanted to pursue a writing career.

I haven't worked for someone else in almost eight years. I gave up my 9-5 when my daughter was born so I could be home with her. That had always been the plan and I started my home-based business at that time. But after a while, that gig wasn't all I really wanted and writing kinda took over my life.

Luckily, my husband's salary does pay the bills, but we're not using dollar bills as napkins around this place, if you know what I mean. So I'd love to bring in some money again, even if it's just a little.

I recently signed up with Constant Content after reading that my friend and fellow author Nicole Zoltack was giving it a try.

Click here and you can give it a try too!

Now, I've tried this kind of thing before with Helium.com. Not really a great experience. I'd earned only pennies a week and I never actually collected a dime from them. They won't pay you until you reach $25. And at only pennies a week, that can take a looooooong time. But maybe I didn't give it enough energy. I don't know...but I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. And then I found that someone had stolen a few of my articles from there and was using them on their own page somewhere else. Left a real bad impression with me.

But Constant Content seems really good. You can write about anything you want, but there are guidelines and restrictions. Non-fiction only. All articles are reviewed before they go up for sale. And they will reject it for grammar. Of the first three I submitted, one was rejected for a few errors. I fixed them and resubmitted...hopefully it is okay now. Because three rejections and you are out. You set the prices for your articles and the site keeps 35%.

So I guess we'll see how this goes!! Wish me luck!!! If you're interested, please click the link and give it a try too!! I get credit for referrals! ;)

I tried, but I had to just give in....

I think most of us struggle with what we should be doing versus what we are actually doing. I know I do. Every day. There's no mom on earth that doesn't feel some guilt in working when they should be spending time with their kids...or playing with their kids, when they should be working. While I do struggle with that guilt, I'm talking about a different guilt today.

The lure of the internet.

Each day, I have many things I need to do. And yes, that list does include Facebook, Twitter, Blog writing and reading and commenting, email, etc.. Where most people look at these social media outlets as a "time suck", I happen to think differently. I need these outlets to network and promote myself. So, doing these things does actually have a purpose for me. It's helping to get my name and face out there and in turn, sell books.

But, I do also need to actually work on my writing projects each day too. That is equally as important.

And I tried, very hard, to do my editing and writing first each day. I once read that every writer should do an hour of just writing or editing each day, then turn to social networking. Yeah....didn't work so well for me. I just could not concentrate, knowing that there were unread emails out there, Facebook posts to read, blog posts to read and comments to reply to. I just could not keep my mind on my work with all those other things sitting there, waiting for me.

So I decided not to even try anymore. I do what I need with email, FB, Twitter, etc... I do that all first. Yes, it takes time. A lot of time. But when I am finally to a point where I can say "I'm good" I can shut them down and concentrate COMPLETELY on my work.

I do still take mini-breaks from the editing...you have to. The eyes go buggy after a while. I pop into FB or Twitter for like 2 minutes.

What do you guys do?? Work first, network later?? Or are you like me???

Holy Blogfest Season!

Wow...I cannot believe all the amazing blogfests going on right now!!!!!


First up, this one was so fun!!!!!!! Amparo Ortiz at No rest for the Lazy is hosting this SUPER fun blogfest today!!! Please go and check it out!!!! I bet there will be some awesome letters posted!

So here's the deal, participants have to write a love letter to their favorite author or celebrity crush. My only problem is narrowing down my list of celebrity hotties!! There are so many....Zac Efron, Paul Walker, Cameron Mathison, Jordan Knight....but maybe I'll pick one who is actually single at the moment.

Dear Ryan,

Hello, my love. Finally, after all this time, we are free to be together. I know how hard it's been on you, forced to live on the other side of the country, without me. 3000 miles separating our love. But that distance did nothing to extinguish the flames. If anything, it doused them with gasoline, incinerating any kind of emotion for anyone else.

Finally you have broken free of that wife of yours. I can't even bring myself to write her name. We'll just call her The Red Devil. I always knew she was just a temporary distraction. You thought only of me during that horrific time. And that rebound girlfriend you had, Sandy something-or-other, I'm sure you just needed to vent out the anger and frustration of wasting so much of your time on a loveless marriage.

I know you've got a lot on your plate right now-- your job is just so demanding. But I will wait for you, dreaming of when I'll see your face, feel your touch, your lips in every spot I like. You'll know them without me even telling you. And we'll spend every moment in complete bliss.

I love you Ryan.



Next we have the Anti-Valentine's Blogfest. So so fun!! I bet there will some FANTASTIC stories for this one!!!

I guess I was a lucky girl. I met my hubby when I was 17, almost 18. I hadn't really had many serious boyfriends before that. And only once did I have one for Valentine's day. And that was when I was a freshman in high school. Boy was that awkward. I didn't know what to do, and then a friend told me he had gotten me something really nice. I was like "crap!". I was 14...I didn't have any money. How was I gonna buy him anything?? So I asked this same friend for advice on what to get. Her suggestions: a gold chain or an I.D. bracelet. The chain was too much, so I went with the bracelet. I remembered being excited that the price included up to four letters and his name was Mike. God it was so lame. I'm sorry Mike. And yes, we are still friends...even after all that!

Oh, and his really nice gift for me...a gold chain....that turned silver a couple years later. :)

Hope you all had a fantastic time reading these!!! I know I had fun writing them!

Show Me the Love Blogfest!

So excited for this!!!

HUGE thanks to all my participants!!! Please click here for the original post and the list of blogs to visit! Can't wait to go read your posts!!!

And without further ado, my answers!!

1- What is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you?

This is going to sound super silly, but one of the most romantic things my husband does for me is warm my side of the bed. No one likes a frigid bed, but sometimes my hubby will go in before me and lay on my side and get it all toasty. Then when I come in, he rolls to his cold side. Is there anything sweeter than that??

2- What is your favorite love song?

Well, there are so so many great love songs out there. Hubby and me have many that we love, but I have to pick Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. It was our wedding song..timeless and classic.



3- Do you have a favorite romantic movie or book?

I am a huge fan of rom-coms..that's what I watch, what I read, and what I love to write!! Movies that make me swoon: Overboard, You've Got Mail, Pretty Woman, the Wedding Planner









4- Do you have any romantic plans for Valentine's Day this year?

We've never been ones to go out and spend tons of money to show each other how much we care. In the past, we've gone out to a nice dinner, but if you've ever done that in V-day, you know how crazy busy restaurants are. With the actual holiday being a Monday this year, we probably won't do much. We usually go to the gym after hubby gets home from work, so I really can't see us deviating from that!! LOL!!

5- What's your favorite romantic treat?



One treat that seems very romantic to me is fondue. But it's probably more the ambiance and conversation than anything. Most times, when you go out to dinner, you talk, and then the food is laid in front of you and silence hits the table as you dig in. we love to visit The Melting Pot a couple times of year, They have these super romantic "pods" we call them. They're little booths for two and they are pretty private. Since you have to wait for your meat to cook, the meal takes a while. We are usually there for 2 hours and love every minute!

All kinds of fun stuff!!!!

Do NOT miss out on this!! TONS of cool prizes!! Please stop by Goddess Fish Party Pavilion and Long and Short Reviews! I'll be blogging at both spots periodically throughout the day, along with a bunch of other fantastic authors!

Lots of awesome prizes:

GRAND prize: The winner’s choice of a WiFi Nook, a WiFi Kindle or a $150 GC to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Other prizes: At least four $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GCs randomly awarded to a commenter.

We may also award other $5 / $10 Amazon or BN GCs based on participation numbers.

Hope you're having a fab Valentine's Eve!!!!

My hubby is the best!

So the other day, an announcement was made on the radio. All I had to do was go up to hubby and say "I have something to ask you..." and bat my eyelashes. He knew exactly what I wanted.

I've never hidden the fact that I am a huge New Kids on the Block fan. In 08 and 09, when they first reunited and toured, I saw them 5 times in various states, only once in my own. Me and my little Blockhead group of friends had an absolute blast!!! We made our own shirts to wear and just loved every minute.



They took a long break from touring and then announced a joint tour with Backstreet Boys this summer. I was a BSB fan too, but no where near like I am for NKOTB. The tour dates were announced...only like a handful, and none even close to here. Then they announced more...but we'd have to drive. No problem...we'd done it before. We decided on Pittsburgh. More dates were announced.... little closer..Cleveland, but we were good with our tiks. Then this week.....BUFFALO!!!!!! How can you not see you favorite band in the world in your hometown!!!

So I'll be buying tiks today (in about 24 minutes) for me and 3 friends!! Wish me luck!!

***Edited to Add****

Got my tiks!! YAY!! And they were way better seats than I expected!

It ain't broke, but sometimes I want to replace it

First of all, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check out my latest review from Romancing the Blog!!!!!! huge thanks to Francine!!!!!!! Great reviews always brighten my day!!!!

And now on with today's post!!

I think we all have things in our lives that we just get sick of, and even though there's nothing really wrong with it, we want a brand new shiny one!! Sometimes it's the stupidest of things. I would really love some new plastic bowls and lids. Do I need them? No. Do mine work perfectly fine? Yes. Some are kinda orange inside and such, but they still do what they're supposed to do.

But then there's other things that we love and they can be years old, falling apart, and we won't give up on them.

I have a Day Runner that I've had since I started my home-based business, years ago. I've had it for a good decade or so. It's in decent shape though and I've used it for so many years...it was my entire schedule in one place. For me, it was a huge deal. I'd needed a place to write down all my client's wedding dates. It was the place I checked first when a new client called, to make sure I had their date available. I wrote in personal appointments and things too. And I relied on this book so much...I could no longer remember where I had to be and when, I had "my book". The business is gone, but I still cannot live without the book. Most people have switched to some form of a PDA, whether it be on the computer, on their phone, etc.. Not me. I'd be too afraid it would malfunction. there's no malfunctioning for a book. Just gotta make sure I don't lose it!

So what about you?? What would you love to replace that really doesn't need replacing?? What do you have that's been around forever and still usable??

And I also need to remind my lovely readers of my upcoming blogfest- my first ever!! Please check it out and sign up! Show Me the Love Blogfest!

Why can one rude idiot ruin your day?

It always seems to happen this way, at least for me. One rude stranger will do something and make me mad, and I just can't shake it. It puts me in a bad mood and I can't forget it. I try so hard to be considerate to other people, so when someone else is blatantly inconsiderate to me, it really gets to me.

The other day I was driving. Yeah....people always seem to be at their worst when driving. So, right near my house is a section of road, a main road, where the two lanes go down to one. Now for some odd reason, the left lane must merge in. There is a sign that clearly shows the right lane goes straight an the left lane ends...they must merge in. I always get in the right lane so I never have to worry about merging. Well, the other day, this idiot is in the left lane and as the lanes merged together, he was kinda next to me but behind and blared his horn at me, like I was in the wrong. This isn't the first time someone has beeped at me in this situation, but clearly, as the sign shows, they are in the wrong, not me. So badly I want to slam on my brakes and get out, point at the sign and show them they are wrong.

But I tried to shake it off and just continue on. I had to go to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription-- it was a few blocks down. I put my right blinker on, in plenty of time, and know what the idiot does?? As I slow and make my turn, he lays on his horn again.

Why? Why are there so many people out there who insist on being rude and mean and just down right nasty?? The merging thing, yeah, whatever. A lot of people make the mistake there...it is odd for a left lane to have to merge into a right. But the blaring of the horn as I made my turn...that was completely unnecessary. Did it make him feel good in his big black 4x4 to beep his horn at little ole' me in my car with my kids?

Mean people really do suck.

Not sure if I'm going to like this

First of all...don't forget about my first ever blogfest!!!! Show Me The Love Blogfest!! It's gonna be fun!! Make sure you sign up!

Now for today's post!!

Ever since my husband got his job, over 14 years ago (before we got married), we have never held a normal worker's schedule. His job is not a Monday through Friday, 9-5 type of job. His days off rotate. One week it's Wednesday and Thursday, the next week Tuesday and Wednesday. He only gets weekends off every 6 weeks. He works all holidays. But there are certain jobs in his field that do have weekend off. But the guys who get those have lots of seniority.

And it used to be kind of a pain. I worked a semi-normal day....every other weekend off, and the other weekends, I at least had Sunday off. So whenever there were things going on on the weekends, we couldn't do them or we'd have to come late, after he got home. Going out on the weekends was tough...we'd have to be home by a decent time so he could go to sleep...he gets up for work at 5:15 am. Once the kids came along, and our friends started having kids, it wasn't as big of an issue anymore, as we no longer partied it up all the time.

But I learned to love the schedule. Once our daughter was born, I no longer worked a job outside the home. When hubby was off mid week, we could run errands and shop in a near empty mall in the middle of the day. Or we could go to the Children's museum, Chuck E. Cheese, the park, or wherever, and they were dead. We didn't have hoards of families to contend with. It was really great. Having saturday and Sunday off wasn't such a big deal anymore.

But now hubby was penciled into a job that has weekends off. It's definitely temporary. But he should have it for at least a few months. We will be able to have a kinda normal schedule for once...and that is going to be great. No more having to use personal days for weekend events or swapping days off with coworkers. But we will no longer have our quiet midweek days off. I realized this today as I debated on when to make our appointment to have our taxes done. No longer can we go midweek at 10 am. It will have to be a weekend or an evening.

I heart interviews!!

Today I am being interviewed by Summer Ross over at My Inner Fairy! Please please please go and check it out!!!

And don't forget my Show Me the Love Blogfest!! It's coming soon! Sign up if you haven't already!!

How important is email to you?

I love mail. I love physical snail mail that is delivered to my mailbox (though not the bills). I love email. I love getting stuff from people. I know these days mail is not what it used to be and I never get physical letters or anything anymore, but still. Mail is exciting for me! I love getting personal emails, Facebook private messages, email from readers, all of it.

And it's all very important. Whether it's official paperwork like a contract or tax forms, or friendly messages or an invitation to a party. It's all very important. I couldn't imagine a day without fetching my mail from the mailbox. And I check my email repeatedly throughout the day.

So it's very hard for me to understand how people can go days without checking their email. That is one of the ways we communicate these days. Sometimes the information is fun and silly, but other times it is really important. Yes, if it is really critical, a phone call is a better way, but still. You know what I mean.

So, how about you?? Do you check email several times a day, or only once. Are you one of those who only checks every few days?? Can I ask why???

Don't forget my Show Me The Love Blogfest!! It's gonna be fun!! Make sure you sign up!

The Bacon Job

The first time I ever heard that saying, I thought it was positively perfect. The Bacon Job. Most writers have one- the job they do that "brings home the bacon". And I too used to have one. It used to be my dream job, actually.

I went to a vocational high school and took horticulture. I wasn't so much into landscaping or greenhouse stuff, but I really loved floral design. My senior year I did an internship at a local flower shop. I really loved it, but even then I knew I never wanted to own my own flower shop. But I did want to work in the floral industry. I got my associates degree in Floriculture Merchandising and my senior business project was a business plan for a wedding shop, all kinds of wedding -related items plus a floral service only for weddings. No day to day business. I honestly had no desire to do funeral work or everyday birthday arrangements. I loved wedding work. It's safe to say that back then, it was a passion!

After that I worked in the floral business, a couple different places until I settled at one. I worked there for five years and held many high responsibility positions: I did most of the shops window displays, I did most of the wedding consultations and in turn, most of the wedding work. I helped with book keeping and inventory. And I'd started doing weddings on the side. Running my own business had always been my goal. When I became pregnant with my first child, I gave my boss the news that I would not be staying on after the baby was born. It was probably one the of toughest things I've ever had to do.

I thoroughly enjoyed my business for a few years. I loved bringing so much joy to people on one of the most special days of their lives. But it wasn't without it's stress. There was tons. And it slowly started to eat away at my enthusiasm. I'd started writing by that time and I found myself wanting to do that more and more.

I'd decided to give up my business, way before I had a publishing contract. There were many reasons. One of the main ones was money and my business really wasn't bringing in much. So even though it did bring in some bacon, it wasn't enough to keep doing it if I really didn't enjoy it anymore. My husband and I decided together to end it so I could focus on my writing. His salary was enough to support us, though not in the lap of luxury. But we've made it work. And we kinda of had this agreement. I had 5-1/2 years after baby #2 was born. That's how long I had til he would start kindergarten. I needed to be bringing in some kind of money by that time or I would go out and get a job when he went to school full time. He just turned 3 this week, so I have 2-1/2 years to go. So far I think I'm off to a good start. I am bringing in money from my writing, slowly but surely.

Do I miss my bacon job?? Yes...sometimes I really do. When I hear that someone is getting married and I can't say "Hey...do you have a florist??" I loved being a part of so many people's wedding days. But I am so completely happy with where my career is now. I don't regret my decision at all.

So what do you do to bring home the bacon?? Do you plan on doing it forever...or will you someday move on to something else??

Don't forget my Show Me The Love Blogfest!! It's gonna be fun!! Make sure you sign up!

Why do you want to be published?

When I started writing fiction with the intent on completing an entire novel, oh, some six or seven years ago, I had no clue why I was doing it. I just wrote cause I wanted to write. I'd finally decided to take one of the million ideas that had floated into my brain and make it into a story.

I did end up abandoning that first story in favor of something more near and dear to my heart. And I'd never felt so accomplished as I had when I completed it...all 135,000 words of it.

It was then that I took the next natural step. What else does one do with a completed novel but try to figure out how to get it made into an actual book?? I wanted people to read my story and love it just as I did. And man did I ever go through a major schooling after that!! I'd never imagined just how hard it was to become a published author. I laugh now when I think back to that time in my life. I had been so naive! I'd thought it would be so simple!

But maybe it's how hard it was, how much of a challenge, that made me crave it so badly. I worked hard. I learned. I kept on writing. I entered contests. I joined a critique group. I received hundreds of rejections. But I persisted. I just kept going. Only the people who give up never succeed, right? That was my mantra.

And eventually it paid off. I'd finally found the right home for my story (not that original one, mind you, but another one I completed after that). And was it everything I'd ever dreamed of?? Well, yes and no. :) My story was out there for the world to read and that made me so happy. But there was also the challenge of getting people all over the world to know about it and and want to read it.

I'm still working on world domination, but in the meantime, I am ecstatic just having my story available for everyone! Every time someone tells me they loved it, I get tingly! I hope that never goes away!

Don't forget my Show Me The Love Blogfest!! It's gonna be fun!! Make sure you sign up!

Revealing my new cover art!

You may have already noticed this on my sidebar. It's the cover for Soap Dreams, my forthcoming novelette, due out in June 2011.

I think it really captures the young love/first love vibe of the story! What do you think??? I like that's it's bright and sunny!

Don't forget my Show Me The Love Blogfest!! It's gonna be fun!! Make sure you sign up!