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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

This month has been a rollercoaster–all exhilarating highs and scary depths, personally and professionally. I’m not even going to list them here, because I’m a somewhat private person and it would be unprofessional in at least one instance. Needless to say, I’m anxious to move on and hope for a month with some higher ups and less frightening downs. I do have to share with you that My Vegas Comeback, the last Viva Las Vegas book probably won’t be out in June. I think I can make it happen this summer, but I’m not promising until I get a few more pieces in play. The importantRead More →

This month marks the one-year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing. She passed less than two years after her husband, my grandfather. They’ve been on my mind a lot lately. I catch my thoughts slipping into memories, like a bittersweet treat. I saw a typewriter today and thought I’d share one of the many reasons I love them so much. When I was 15, I wanted a typewriter. I am a techie–always have been–and a writer. I take my wording quite seriously and always have. This typewriter had a small word-processing feature on it. Not to give away my age, but this would’ve been summer ofRead More →

Here at the Sizemore home, we’re getting ready to celebrate Christmas. To those of you who celebrate differing holidays, like, say, Festivus (a holiday for the rest of us), I wish you lovely celebrations, decadent food, and happiness in the upcoming year. It’s been a hard year, 2017. I lost my grandmother, I got a 3 book contract. I’ve watched my kids succeed and struggle. I got an Alienware computer (OMGYAY) and a new Nintendo 3DSXL. Not that I’m all about the things… I’m just looking for the stuff I can appreciate. It’s my way of coping. Don’t even get me started on the state ofRead More →

I had this great topic (for other writers) dreamed up this month (actually last month, but I digress), but it’s been one of those months. via GIPHY I finally finished the second book I had to revise and submitted it to my publisher. Edits for the first (which is being published June 20!) should arrive any day. We had an Open House and Formal Dance here this week with the kids and my daughter’s last day of Cosmetology school was Wednesday. And I wasn’t there because my husband had to have surgery WAY out of town. And, so of course, we took her out MondayRead More →

Welcome to my stop on the Highway Cafe Spring Tour! Spring is hands down my favorite time of year. I live in rural West Virginia, in the US, and Spring is incredibly, blissfully green. Even the sunlight seems to reflect the greenness of the grass and budding leaves giving the air a refreshing quality. I wanted to share a picture of typical West Virginia beauty. We get a bad rep in the media, but I won’t go into that. What we do have in spades is mountains, trees, flowers, creeks, and rivers. This isn’t my view but it’s pretty damn close to what I seeRead More →