Update Thursday #9

I got this idea from the amazingly wonderful Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning. Every Thursday, I’ll be posting an update on my reading, writing, what’s going on at the blog, and anything else I think should be mentioned. 

READING:

I've been doing a bit better with my reading this week. I think I'm finally coming out of my dreaded reading slump - yay! I don't know how much time I'm going to have for reading in the next few weeks...I'll explain why in a minute...but hopefully I can keep getting books read. I hate reading slumps!

Finished reading:

 

Currently reading: 

ON THE BLOG:

I celebrated the release of my book of short erotic romance stories, Undressed, with a giveaway. It's open until tomorrow night - you can enter to win one of three e-copies.

I shared the books I got last week in a new book haul vlog. 

This week's Music Monday spotlight song was Rise Above by Reeve Carney with Bono and The Edge from U2.

On Tuesday I talked about series I haven't finished.

I reviewed My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick. It was amazing. If you enjoy contemporary YA, you have to read this book.

OTHER STUFF:

Well…my life is about to get a whole lot crazy(er). As some of you know, I spent part of the winter and all spring watching my two-year-old nephew 4-5 days a week. I had the whole summer off, but starting this week I’m going to have him again. Thing is: my sister-in-law’s new job has the shittiest hours ever and it’s going to turn my whole life upside down. She’s working pretty much six days a week, different hours every single day, which means that my schedule is going to be blown to hell. I’m not happy about it, but there’s nothing I can do. I love Logan more than just about anything - he and his older brother Noah (who’s in school, thank god) are the lights of my life - but it doesn’t necessarily mean I want to be his primary caregiver for the foreseeable future. Gah. I’ve been desperately wanting a break for a long time now - I work non-stop - but now instead of a break my workload is going to double. I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, but I’m seriously getting burned out, and it’s really getting to me because I never get a break.

Anyway…nothing I can do about it and complaining won’t get me anywhere, so I’ll just have to learn to adjust. I always say I’m going to schedule my blog posts ahead of time, but I end up doing them at like midnight the night before, so I’m really going to try to get a bunch scheduled and then I can visit blogs and reply to comments during breaks or on days off. As for writing…I don’t know how that’s going to go. I was hoping to start book #4 soon, plus I need to finish editing The Game Changer (if the rest of my beta readers ever get back to me), and…yeah…I just don’t know. I had a lot of trouble writing when he was here earlier in the year, but maybe this time will be different. At this point I just want to run away lol. Sorry for the ranty-ness, guys. Just kinda having one of those days!

 

In completely unrelated news, the Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge starts this coming Monday, October 1st. Be sure to sign up if you'd like to participate - it's going to be a lot of fun, and there's a prize at the end!

**EDIT: Ooh, sour grapes! I sound so bitter lol. I was in a definite mood when I wrote this post, which maybe wasn't the best time to write it? Please don't get me wrong - I really do love Logan to bits and I'm happy to get to spend so much time with him, I just don't like that my life is going to be turned upside down when I'm already exhausted and heading for burn out. Anyway...c'est la vie. 

Why am I back? It's 2am and I should be in bed, but I remembered that I wanted to add a few extra things to my post this week. I've been thinking of adding a few more personal touches to Update Thursday, so here goes...

LIFE:

This week I'm watching Angel season 5 on DVD. I'm 5 episodes in and loving it. It's really different from the last few seasons (I never watched the show the first time around, so it's all new to me). I also watched the season premiers of Dancing With the Stars and Castle. Castle was amazing! I really like the new-but-still-familiar dynamics between Castle and Kate, and it hurts my heart to see Esposito and Ryan on the outs - I need their bromance! I also watched the results show of DWTS on Tuesday night (Logan watched it with me, and I taught him to say 'Dancing With the Stars' which was the cutest thing ever).

On Monday I went with my sister-in-law to a doctor's appointment and then we headed to the Native reserve to check out a store there that sells appliances and frozen food (interesting combo, eh?). I'd been there with my mum and a friend a few weeks ago, and my mum saw an electric fireplace she loved, so I went back to get it. She's been wanting a fireplace for as long as I can remember, and it's not something she'd buy for herself, so I thought I'd surprise her. On the way home, Amanda and I stopped at this really cool rock formation and took a bunch of pictures with a field and blue skies in the background. It was a gorgeous day, and we're always looking for photo ops lol.

New fireplace. Kind of an odd angle but the lighting sucked and this was the only way I could get the 'flames' to show.

Me :-)

Me and Amanda

What's new with you this week?

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Undressed Publication Celebration Giveaway!

Yesterday I published my book of short erotic romance stories, Undressed. I didn't do anything to advertise it, or even really talk that much about it. A lot of people have no idea I write erotica, and until I decided to put together this book of short stories, even fewer people knew. I got into writing it several years ago with my ex-writing partner, and once we stopped writing together I continued on and wrote stories on my own. These are some of those stories.

I decided that because I didn't do anything to promote the book, I'd host a giveaway. The book is currently available for just 99 cents on Amazon and Smashwords (in all e-formats), and will be available at all major ebook retailers in the next couple of weeks.

So, the giveaway: I'm going to give away three e-copies of Undressed. The giveaway will run until next Friday, the 28th. Full details/rules are as follows:

*There will be three (3) winners. Each winner will be sent a Smashwords coupon code to download the book in the format of their choice.
*This giveaway is open internationally.
*You must be a follower of Ramblings of a Daydreamer. That's the only mandatory entry. All other entries simply get you extra chances to win, but you do not have to do them - it's up to you how many you do. 
*Because this book is erotica, you must be 18 or older to enter.
*Although I love comments (and I really, really do love comments!) they don't count as an entry into the giveaway. To enter, you need to fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Thank you and good luck!

{GoodReads || Amazon || Smashwords}

For those who like their love stories hot and steamy, Undressed consists of five short romantic stories with an erotic twist. Discover stories about lovers, strangers, friends, the slow burn of romance, and the sizzling heat of chance encounters. Find out what happens when friends become lovers, when lovers return after an extended absence, and when fantasies come true.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

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Update Thursday #8

I got this idea from the amazingly wonderful Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning. Every Thursday, I’ll be posting an update on my reading, writing, what’s going on at the blog, and anything else I think should be mentioned.

It's late and I'm wired (I'll get to why in a second), so I'm going to get right to it!

READING:

I kind of mentioned last week that I've been in a bit of a reading slump this month. I've had so much going on that reading just hasn't been a priority (which I feel is blasphemous to even say, but it's true. I can't concentrate, and none of the books I've read lately are really doing it for me). I despise reading slumps! I have so many great books that need to be read!

Finished reading

 I enjoyed this one and actually did read it quickly. I'll try to have my review up in the next week or two - I'm currently 14 reviews behind.

Still reading 

I've been reading this one for the last 3-4 weeks. Think that says it all.

Currently reading:

This one's sort of meh. I think it has potential, but I've only been able to read a few pages at a time, so it might help if I could actually sit and read it and get into it. 

ON THE BLOG:

I posted a book haul video for the last three weeks or so.

For this week's Music Monday, I talked about how Kelly Clarkson's Dark Side inspired an idea for my fourth novel.  

In this week's Top Ten Tuesday, I talked about the ten bloggers and authors I'd love to meet.  

I finally got a new review posted. It's for Endlessly by Kiersten White, the final book in the Paranormalcy trilogy.

WRITING

So remember last week how I said I'd been putting off getting Undressed (my book of short erotic romance stories) edited, formatted, and published? Well...that's actually the reason I'm wired right now. I finished editing it yesterday, and formatted it today (during breaks from running around after my two-year-old nephew), and it's now live on Smashwords! By morning, it might be up on Amazon - you can check my Amazon author page to see if it's live. In the next couple of weeks it'll be distributed to all major ebook retailers, but for now if you're interested in reading it, you can get it on Smashwords in any e-format. It's only 99 cents!

September 19th, 2012

{Smashwords || GoodReads}

   For those who like their love stories hot and steamy, Undressed consists of five short romantic stories with an erotic twist. Discover stories about lovers, strangers, friends, the slow burn of romance, and the sizzling heat of chance encounters. Find out what happens when friends become lovers, when lovers return after an extended absence, and when fantasies come true.

 

OTHER STUFF:

My friend Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning, who had the amazing indie author series all summer, is hosting a giveaway for four ebooks - one from each author on the indie author panel, including me! Be sure to check it out - who wouldn't want to add four new ebooks to their library?
Another of my friends, Kathy from I Write, I Read, I Review is hosting an event called Cover Lover Month in October. Kat will be revealing the cover for her debut novel, Sealer's Promise (guys...I saw it tonight and it's freaking gorgeous), I'll be doing a guest post along with a special giveaway, and there are other authors, bloggers, and cover artists on board. Kathy's looking for more people to do guest posts and interviews, so be sure to check it out and contact her if it's something you want to be part of!

On a slightly random note: is anyone else (besides Jessica) super excited about Castle returning this coming Monday? It's one of the only shows I'm actually excited about this season. I didn't start watching it until last season (I always wanted to watch it, but it was on at the same time as something else and I don't have a VCR or DVR), and I loved it from the very first episode. Hello, Nathan Fillion...as a writer...come on. I spent the summer catching up on seasons 1-3 (I love my library), and now I'm pumped for season 5 to start! More randomness: I've been thinking about doing more vlogs, and I thought I'd start with a bookshelf tour once I get my shelves a bit more organized, and maybe a few video reviews? I'll keep doing my written reviews, but have the video ones as sort of a companion. Would anyone be interested in seeing those?

I think that's it. I feel like I'm forgetting something but it's after 1am and I've been up since 8 to watch Logan. I'm really excited to finally have Undressed finished and published, and now I just want to go unset my alarm clock and sleep for eight-ten hours! I hope you've all had a great week so far. Be sure to let me know what you've been up to - I love hearing from you guys!

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Update Thursday #7

I got this idea from the amazingly wonderful Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning. Every Thursday, I’ll be posting an update on my reading, writing, what’s going on at the blog, and anything else I think should be mentioned.

This post is going up about 15 hours later than usual, so I'm going to get right to it!

READING:

In August, I read 13 books - a record for me - but so far in September I've only read three books and it's already almost halfway through the month - gah! I've had so much going on between revisions and the cover reveal and getting my book of short stories ready that my reading time has been cut short. Hopefully I can catch up the rest of the month.

I finished:

Still/currently reading:

ON THE BLOG:

I didn't post a single review this week - oops! I've got somewhere between 12 and 15 reviews to post. Maybe I should take a little blogging hiatus and just schedule a week's worth of reviews? Hmmm....

I revealed the cover for my second novel, The Game Changer, along with 13 amazing bloggers.

I participated in the Written Confessions blog hop hosted by my friend and fellow author Patricia Lynne. I confessed something that most people don’t know about me, and I was actually kind of happy that I was able to shock a few people! *insert evil laugh here*

For week 2 of Music Monday, I talked about my love of Phantom of the Opera, and how the lyrics to The Music of the Night can apply to writing. Two people participated this week - this meme might take off yet! ;-) Oh, and by the way, I finally bought my own copy of Phantom for $5 at HMV! No more trekking to the library every time I need a Phantom fix.

WRITING

Not much to report here. Every week I say I'll have Undressed ready to publish, but I keep putting it off. I really need to just do it, especially since I have the cover done. I'm also hoping to start revisions on book #3 soon. It's been talking to me a lot lately, and since there's not much I can do with The Game Changer while it's with beta readers, I might as well start revisions for #3 since I miss writing and it's driving me nuts not to be writing.

OTHER STUFF:

I signed up for my first 2013 reading challenge. How on earth is it time for this already?! I signed up for an obscene amount of challenges in 2012 and I keep thinking I should check my progress to see how I'm doing. Next year I'll do better at keeping track. 

To celebrate the cover reveal of The Game Changer, I've reduced the price of Blue Sky Days through Friday. You can get it on Amazon.com, Amazon UK, or Smashwords (use the code AE43E if you're getting it from Smashwords).

I made a new design for my author blog.

I started a Pinterest board for The Game Changer. Want to see who I’d cast in the roles of my main characters? I’ll be adding a few music videos and pictures of the setting soon, too! 

Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning shared the final post in her amazing self-publishing series. 

I love this post on Victoria Schwab's (author of The Near Witch and The Archived) blog about relationships in books.

30 Day Books has a great post from indie authors about the one thing they do to increase sales. 

And finally...The Game Changer comes out two months from today - EEP! And OMG! Excuse me while I hyperventilate a little bit. It really hit me yesterday when I was reading all the wonderful comments on Twitter and Facebook and blogs about the cover - I'm publishing a second book. This is my lifelong dream. I'm an author. AN AUTHOR. An author with one published book, another one on the way, another due to come out early next year, and two in the works. It's kind of mind-boggling. And pretty freaking amazing. I'm so grateful to everyone who's helped me get here.

So, those are all my updates. What's new with you this week? What are you reading, writing, and blogging about? My other blog has sort of  been falling by the wayside lately, but I have a ton of photographs to post, so hopefully I can do that this week. I really need a personal assistant...or a clone...

 

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