What Am I Doing On Christmas Eve?

We don't celebrate Christmas in our house so I'm making cheesecakes for my friends' holiday celebrations. I've cleaned the living room, did dishes, swept floors and dusted. Then my ex-boyfriend messages me on facebook. He's in an emotional tornado and wants my help. Guess what I agree to. I have him coming over to talk. How stupid can I be. The only time we talk is when he is having problems. If I had a doctorate I'd be getting paid tons of money for this. Why do I always help him and a few others like him? Is it because I know I can or is it a deep seated wishing I had a boyfriend? I have learned from mistakes that I do NOT need a man to have a fulfilled life. My mom thought she needed to stay with an abusive man to be happy. It tore her heart out in the end. I knew then I would never need a man. I still ended up in a few relationships that were just for companionship.  Guess some of us have to learn from experience.

Well, my ex is coming over and I will talk with him. I'll remember all the reasons why we are no longer together and forbid myself to get attached again.

I'm going to spend the next week looking at my mistakes and triumphs to better understand myself. I need to lose weight, eat better and get a handle on my emotions before I fall apart. My resolution for 2015 will be:
Take meds every day(I do it now)
Exercise
Write
Read
Cook healthy meals
Not look out the window and wonder if the grass is greener on the other side
Talk to my kids rather than speak at them

These should help me with all my issues.

Look for excerpts after the new year. I promise you ate least one.

Happy Holidays!

Favorite Author #6

Nicky Charles 

Nicky lives in Canada and I try to use Canadian spelling in her work, which may throw some readers off but it's my way of supporting my country. She likes reading, writing and gardening.  Her favorite food is dark chocolate. She loves to travel and cats. She is an avid supporter of animal shelters, nature conservancy, food banks and a wide variety of other charities.

When I bought my NOOK, Nicky's The Mating was the first book I downloaded. Why? you ask. Well, it's free as well as the others in Laws of The Lycans series. They are around 800pgs. each or more given the book. I was amazed at how well written a free novel was. She catches your attention in the first few chapters and you don't want to put it down. As I finished The Mating I had to immediately download the next. Thinking it would cost a bit, wrong...FREE again.

My reading order was as she wrote them: The Mating, The Keeping, The Finding, Bonded, Betrayed

 Chronological order:  Bonded, The Mating, The Keeping, Betrayed, The Finding  
Following the story strands: Bonded, Betrayed and then The Mating, The Keeping, The Finding

Nicky is one of my fall-back re-reads I love and never get tired of. After reading it several times I still find things I missed the first few. Like a landscape, an emotion or implied feelings.

Nicky's books:

The Mating

Betrayed

The Finding

The Keeping

Bonded

Forever in Time

Find her on her webpage, facebook, or nicky.charles@live.ca & nicky@nickycharles.com

The Long Process

As I sit in front of my computer trying to write, I can't help but think it's not good enough. Nothing seems to flow nor does it seem like a book I would read. Some think that an author just sits down and writes a story without trouble, well NOT! Many of us aspiring authors and even New York Times best sellers have this issue of being stuck.
Once I get started I end up going back and reading through what I have several times. Yep, you guess it; I change a lot. I need to learn to write it then edit it. I doubt that will ever happen which is something slowing me down.
I have however' learned to ask for help when I get stuck. I was hard at first because I didn't want to hear, "What the hell are you thinking? This sucks."  Now I have a few people I trust to tell me the truth and I can listen to their hating on parts of my book.

Things I learned in 2013

1. I can write any time of day, not just in the middle of the night.
2. I can't read when I'm in the process of writing.
3. Editing isn't as hard as I thought it would be.
4. My son can drive just fine and I had no need to worry.
5. I can clean and write in the same day.
6. I love my washer and dryer being in the kitchen. I do loads while typing at the table.
7. Scrivener is something I will never be able to live without.
8. Aeon Timeline is almost as needed as Scrivener.
9. My time management skills improved.
10. I love my son's laptop!

My for 2014!

1. Finish editing novel 1 and self-publish
2. Finish WIP1 and edit
3. Start WIP2
4. Keep house clean while writing...yeah harder than said with 2 teenagers in the house.
5. Save enough for my own laptop for X-mas 2014
6. Do more mommy/kid things with the kiddos

Excerpt:
"Dalara was laying on the couch in pain, it had never been this bad before, she thought. Every muscle and joint felt as if they were on fire, she was shaking with the fever and then her thoughts went fuzzy. She could here Sage and Naleena talking but they sounded as if they were far away. Her mind drifted to her dreams of the black wolf. It had haunted her since the first night." from WIP1 "Dalara"!

Book Release Tuesday!

To Buy it at 

BnN click here

Azazon click here

To but at

BnN click here

Amazon click here

Paranormal Romance releases

Angel Fever by L A Weatherly (#3 in Angels Trilogy)

Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta (#3 in Lumatere Chronicles )

My Warriors' Three Wishes by Carrie Ann Ryan (#2 in Dante's Circle)

Unbreakable by Elizabeth Norris (#2 in Unraveling)

Darkness, Kindled by Samantha Young (#4 in Fire Spirits)

Tempest by Kelly Meding (#3 in MetaWars )

Oath Bound by Rachel Vincent (#3 in Unbound)

Chosen at Nightfall by C C Hunter (#5 in Shadow Falls)

The Elite by Kiera Cass (#2 in The Selection)

Natural Born Angel by Scott Speer (#2 in Immortal City)

Monday!

Here is another Monday in Iowa. A great day for reading and writing. Yesterday we had rain, sleet, freezing rain and then snow! Now it's windy. Time to cuddle up with a hot steamy paranormal romance novel. Here are some suggestion: