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In: for the love of TV, reading
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By the time you read this, people won’t be talking so much about the new Netflix series, Bridgerton, based upon the Julia Quinn series. A check into my Kindle tells me I read the first book, The Duke and I, in 2014. It was published nearly a decade-and-a-half before that. As far as historical romance goes, I was a bit late to the party. I’d read contemporary romance for fifteen years or so and been writing it for ten. I didn’t see an appeal to the nobility that seemed privileged and ridiculous in practice. Of course, I’m speaking of actual nobility, not the romanticized versionRead More →

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In: In my house
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I can tell you that my family’s reading interests are diverse. My husband eats up rock star biographies on Audible, my youngest loves poetry and fan-fiction, my oldest loves fan-fiction and manga, but also has a special place in her heart for some paranormal Nora Roberts trilogies. And me? What won’t I read would be a shorter list. So, yes. All of my Xmas recs will be books. That’s a given. But I’m going to highlight a choice from me (how will I ever pick just one??), both of my daughters (my stepdaughter is busy gestating a second grandbaby and caring for the first soRead More →

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In: A Glance At, DAfRN, reading
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It’s Dating Advice from Romance Novels day! It’s been a while since I did one of these so I really wanted to add one this month. However, the most recent book I read was not a romance, but a Star Wars novel. Yes, I am a proud, proud nerd. I have no small amount of hero worship for Princess Leia/General Organa (as portrayed by Carrie Fisher–who I also have no small amount of hero worship for). Read More →

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In: Exactly Like You, my books
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If you’ve paid attention to the Cupid’s Cafe world, you’ll know that it’s a multi-author series. Besides my contribution, Landra Graf has written two moving books, Katherine McIntyre has written one powerful story, and Catherine Peace has written an upcoming installment that I’m super hyped to read. And I have a sequel to Exactly Like You. It’s not contracted by our publisher (yet–I’m optimistic!), but I am so in love with these people, y’all. If you’ve read ELY, you may remember Aiden has a friend who is also a firefighter. His name is Kurt and he is a douchebag. He is not a nice guy,Read More →

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In: I'm kind of a big deal. Not really.
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Like here’s the awful thing about this year: I don’t need to tell you. You get it. Every single one of you knows exactly what I’m talking about. And, I don’t want to tempt fate, but just when you think it can’t get worse? Oh, it can. It’s funny, because for the past… I think 4 years or so, my best friend and writing soul mate have had this hopeful thing we do to reassure one another. “Next year will be better. I mean, it can’t be worse.” And every year… we are wrong. But never were we wrong like this year. I told her,Read More →

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It’s that time again–Cupid’s Cafe is about to, once again, be open to the public! Welcome to Cupid’s Café, a place where missed connections meet. How the invitations find them, no one knows…except for the mysterious owner, Mr. Heart.  This multi-author series focuses on protagonists struggling with real-life issues that often gets swept under the rug. With Cupid’s Café, these issues find representation in the characters struggling to conquer their own problems while trying to carve a future for themselves.  From cops to artists or social workers to photographers, Mr. Heart ensures these lost souls who believe themselves undeserving of love reconnect with their fatedRead More →

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I’ve been listening to audiobooks because my daughter was going to an out-of-district school. It was 20 minutes from my house, then 30 minutes back past my house to work. 50 minutes a day and I thought… I could be reading. Sort of. In a way that doesn’t take my eyes off the road. My first foray into romance in audiobooks: The Bastard by Lisa Renee Jones. Spoiler Alert: It ends on a cliffhanger. I figured out pretty early what the big bad secret revolved around, and I waited and waited for it to be revealed. For the non-romantic plot to move along. And IRead More →

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In: I'm kind of a big deal. Not really.
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I read once that if you haven’t posted for a while, you should not talk about it, because no one cares. Which is probably true. (Sorry, I’m battling a little depression this year.) Anyway, I wanted to accomplish something besides work and dealing with the wreck that has wreaked havoc in our lives for months. I’m not the best at making covers (that is an understatement), but I’m happy with how these turned out. The black and white gives them a vintage feel and conveys the somewhat darker themes. Check them out!Read More →

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In: I'm kind of a big deal. Not really.
With: 37 Comments

Every year about this time, my critique partner and I start asking one another this question. We take a few weeks to think about it and then we discuss it.  Are our goals realistic and measurable? How will we know when we’ve reached our goals? Are they goals we can reach (e.g. finish a manuscript) as opposed to goals that someone else has to take an active role in completing (e.g. nab an agent)? We’ve been doing this for a few years now, so we’ve gotten pretty good at setting goals that work. But this year? My life blew up–not in a bad way. ThingsRead More →

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In: I'm kind of a big deal. Not really., progress
With: 32 Comments

This has been a hell of a year. And, yeah, I know it’s too early for a year in review thing, so I’ll save that. But, like, for real. First of all, the publisher for my Vegas books isn’t publishing books anymore. Right in the dang middle. Well, two-thirds of the way through. So, I self-published. Which has been a long learning curve. (I’m totally still learning because there is so freaking much to learn.) For now, they’re all three available in Kindle Unlimited so go read the hell out of those, lovelies. Second, I went back to the day job. It’s a different day jobRead More →