It’s been almost twenty years since my very first book signing! How time flies, right? So here’s a throwback to that signing. I’ve got my best friend and most amazing daughter with me. I so appreciate her support and understanding of my passion for writing.
#WriteWed – Setting Goals
My amazingly organized friend and awesome YA author Nisha Sharma presented me with a lovely birthday gift: a calendar and post-its for getting my writing (and social life) in order. Years earlier we had done a workshop together at RWA about getting organized and it was a lot of fun, but woefully revealed how I am not a calendar/planner/journal/whatever kind of girl. My daughter knows this as well since the other day she was showing me her wonderful planners with her daily writing goals, budgeting information, etc.
Sigh. Those two are going to drag me into the world of actually setting down my goals. Not that I don’t have goals since having been in this publishing world for 20 years and 50+ books, I must have had some kind of goals. LOL! But it’s more relevant than ever since there will be major life changes in the next year and I need to seriously plan what I want to do with my writing, work, and life in general.
How about you? Do you do the planner/calendar/journal/whatever thing? I’d love to know what works for you in setting goals.
Original Journal Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
#TeaserTuesday – Darkness Calls Free Read
Today’s teaser is from the first book in The Calling is Reborn Vampire Novel series. In this book you get to meet sexy Southern vampire Ryder Latimer and badass FBI Agent Diana Reyes. Ryder and Diana appear in all of the books in the series and you’ll get to see more of their story in later books, such as DEATH CALLS.
Excerpt
His was a life filled only with empty dreams, if one could call those fleeting thoughts in a vampire’s sleepless nights dreams. His existence was without end and ruled by a loneliness that made each day harder to bear than the one before.
High above the crowd, Ryder Latimer smelled the sting of the alcohol as the humans drank and spilled it in copious amounts in their search for oblivion or nirvana. Acrid smoke from cigarettes floated high into the air, and in that hazy cloud were the underlying tones of sweat. Sweat laced with lust, he thought, sniffing the air and detecting the pheromone the humans exuded as they played their pitiful mating rituals.
Scents, he had discovered, were important to a vampire. Musks and other aromas literally brought out the beast in him. He normally avoided the smells, but it was tough to do in a crowd as large as this.
This far up, the sounds of the band and the crowd were garbled. Indistinct. A low buzz, like static, and a heavy thumping vibration from the bass of the music. An insistent lub-dub lub-dub, like the beat of a heart.
Ryder closed his eyes, placed his hands on the metal railing of the catwalk and the vibrations traveled up his arms. He took a deep breath, absorbing the smells. Soaking everything up as if by doing so he could restore a small part of the life he had lost when a strange turn of events during the Civil War had condemned him to this solitary life. It was a fleeting moment, the human scents and sounds racing through him, enervating him as he stood near the ceiling of the club.
In no time, however, Ryder was back to normal, watching like a disinterested deity, bored by the repetition of the activity below. Every night the same scene was replayed. Until tonight.
He had discovered in this morning’s paper that there was some killing going on in that mob of humans. The murderer had struck last week and then a few nights ago. Maybe he would hunt another soon, Ryder thought, glancing down and wondering who might be the next one to be taken. Who might become another trophy for the psycho stalking his club. The papers hadn’t mentioned The Lair, but Ryder had no doubt it was here that the hunt was on.
Ryder had sensed something different in the last few weeks, that unique smell of blood lust that had made him wonder if another of his kind had come to feed. A club like this would be an excellent place to select a victim and then cull them from the herd.
He looked down once more and he saw her, standing at the edge of the crowd, searching for someone.
It wasn’t possible, he thought as he hurried along the catwalk, keeping the apparition in sight. For nearly a century she’d been in his dreams. Or maybe it was better to describe them as his restless nocturnal musings.
Regardless, Ryder had stopped questioning why the spirit came to him. Sometimes she arrived at times of unrest, the visions she brought portents of things to come. At other times, when the monotony and uncertainty of his existence made him question why to go on, she’d come to soothe his soul and give him the peace he was unable to find elsewhere.
But tonight, she was no longer just an apparition — or was his loneliness deluding him?
He struggled to get a glimpse of her face, but even with his vampire night sight, he still couldn’t be certain his imagination wasn’t getting the best of him.
After all, for more than a century he had been virtually alone with only a human keeper and his apparition to comfort him. Maybe that was why his mind and eyes were playing games with him tonight. It was just a trick, Ryder told himself, and yet he stood, poised on the edge of the catwalk. Watching. Waiting. Hoping.
Order
DARKNESS CALLS is specially priced at 99 cents and also part of the Volume 1 box set which is specially priced at 2.99 and includes a free novella. You can order it here:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2t3Nwwd
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/2Ga05Po
Apple Books: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1451465485
B&N: http://bit.ly/2TqSiQ8
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2TvCefY
Playster: http://bit.ly/2TvWJJo
Scribd: http://bit.ly/2Tqug7I
The Calling is Reborn Volume 1 Box Set:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2EaYkPm
Apple Books: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1453415597
B&N: http://bit.ly/2N8Jxrj
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2N5T1nq
Playster: http://bit.ly/2N75EyC
Scribd: http://bit.ly/2N7FTOC
#FunFriday #FlowerFriday – Philadelphia Flower Show 2019
As is our annual tradition, my sister and I headed to Philadelphia for the flower show! We had a wonderful time together and today I’m sharing photos of some of my favorite flowers!
Don’t forget to join the fun at my birthday giveaway blast! Comment and tag a friend by midnight EST Sunday for a chance to win!
Image by Bru-nO on Pixabay
Birthday Giveaway Blast!
It’s my party and there’s only one thing better than getting gifts: GIVING THEM!
So hop on over to Facebook for a chance to win 5 of my fav books, a T-shirt, other goodies and a $25 gift card!
Image by Bru-nO on Pixabay
#WriteWed – When Emotion Holds a Story Hostage
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a story that’s been held hostage by my emotions for a very long time. It’s a story about me, my mom, and our family’s escape from Cuba. Every time I set down to write about it, I found myself being held back by the emotions that were inside me. Emotions that are still too raw even after decades of leaving Cuba and losing my mom.
But I know it’s a story that I need to tell almost as if by telling it the ghosts of that past and the pain associated with it will somehow disappear. It occurred to me that one way to get past the emotions holding me back is to write the story as if it wasn’t my story, but rather my characters’ story.
So I find myself laying out this new book that will be mostly about a woman disconnected from one part of her heritage, a man deeply connected to his heritage, and a grandmother desperate to reconnect with a part of her family that she’s lost.
In many ways, I can connect to the heroine and to the grandmother. For a while I had lost a big part of who I had been and had to fight to recover it and leave something of me for my daughter. In time I’ve given her a lot of that, but not all and I hope in time I can give her the rest.
As for this book, in part it is about sharing as much as I can about that story that’s been trapped by emotions. It’s about writing a story that all people will be able to connect to since it will be about getting over loss, finding oneself, and of course, finding love.
No title yet and no release date, but I’ll keep you posted!
Guava Basted Spare Ribs #TuesdayTip
I love ribs! They are one of my favorite foods. I also love guava, usually as a jelly or paste. Not so much as a fresh fruit. This spare rib recipe calls for a dry rub the night before, a slow bake in the oven, and basting with the guava jelly once you’ve got the ribs on the grill. I hope you enjoy it.
Ingredients
For the Dry Rub
(FYI – This will make enough rub for more than one day depending on how many ribs you are making)
2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup onion powder*
1/8 cup garlic powder*
1/8 cup chili powder
1/8 cup paprika
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
*Please be sure you are using powder and not onion salt or garlic salt!
Whisk together all of the above.
For the Guava Basting Sauce
One 17 ounce jar Guava Jelly (look for it in the Ethnic/Spanish aisle)
2 shots Worcestershire sauce
If you’d like a little kick and smokiness in your baste, add a spoon of Korean Gochujang sauce (available at Korean/Asian markets) or a some more paprika with a shot of Tabasco.
Cooking Directions
Rub your ribs with the dry rub, both top and bottom. Let sit overnight preferably to allow those flavors to work into the meat.
In the morning, drain off all the juice from the night before and place the ribs in a baking pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 325 for about an hour.
While you are doing that, please guava jelly basting mix in pan and melt jelly at low heat.
Once you remove the ribs from the oven, place on a grill at low and baste with the guava jelly mixture. Start with basting the top, flip in about 10 minutes and baste the bottom. Continue flipping and basting for about another thirty minutes. Cut and serve the ribs! I usually love some cole slaw on the side for mine.
Image by RitaE on Pixabay