I am so excited to reveal the cover of the next book in the Perfectly Series – Perfectly Christmas! Isn’t it gorgeous?
I’m very excited to announce the release of Book 4 in the Perfectly Series – Perfectly Unpredictable! Woohoo!What’s it about, you ask?
Falling in love is Perfectly Unpredictable …
Kalia Beck always dreamed of starting a family, living in a house with a white picket fence, and finding her soul mate. Just not in that order. Kalia is coping with an unplanned pregnancy when she learns the father has passed away. She soon finds out that single parenthood isn’t easy, especially when the only thing that soothes the baby is the guitar-playing of a reluctant and reclusive next-door neighbor.
Mack Challen, lead guitarist in a rock and roll band, knows it takes a village to raise a child. He just doesn’t think there’s a village big enough to help “gay momma” and her screaming baby.
Kalia and Mack aren’t looking for love and aren’t ready for each other, but when the future unfolds, it’s … Perfectly Unpredictable.
Why would you want to read it? Well, because it’s a great story, of course. Haha But wait there’s more – Mikaela, Margo, and Chloe make an appearance AND there’s a big reveal: What kind of car does Trace drive??? It’s in there too!! So grab your copy, sit back with a cool drink, and enjoy!! Click HERE
I’m jumping with joy!! I’m very excited to share that I won 2nd Place in the 2015 Canadian Tales of the Heart Short Story Contest! Woohoo!!
There were 123 entries in the Short Story Competition sponsored by Red Tuque Books Inc. The top 3 stories along with 10 additional Honourable Mention winners will be published in an Anthology! (I’m most excited about that!) The release date is scheduled for September 2016. I’ll keep you posted 😀 For a list of all the winners, click HERE
My story is titled That Moment. It’s about that moment when something happens to make you cherish what you have; that moment that forces you to look at things differently, to grow, and to love. It’s a Tale of the Heart (with a twist!). I can’t wait to share it with you in September 😀
How does publishing my second book compare to the first?
Weeellll. When my first book, Perfectly Honest, went live, there were things I was very excited to do. Like buy it! First thing in the morning (before saying good morning to my son), I went onto amazon.com, fingers shaking I was so thrilled to be downloading MY book. I found the title, admired the cover (again), reread the blurb (even though I knew it by heart) and then scrolled over to the buy section. The buy section. Where was the buy section? I looked up, scrolled down, maybe they hid it on the left, no it looked like it should be on the right. WHERE WAS THE BUY BUTTON? Finally, I had to text my friend and she sent me a screen shot of the buy button right where it should be. Well, it turns out that when you live in Canada you have to be logged into amazon.ca to buy anything. I was on amazon.com – a different company – and hence no buy buttons for Canadians.
Okay, so I got that sorted out. Now I needed to gift my book to the winners of the draw I had held. I Googled how to do it – very simple, you click on the ‘Give as a gift’ button. Except the screen shot in Google did not look my screen in amazon.ca. WHERE WAS THE ‘GIVE AS A GIFT’ BUTTON? Well, it turns out (after a very nice online chat with the amazon helpers) that you cannot gift from amazon.ca. You have to be in amazon.com.
By then it was lunchtime and I had accomplished 2 things – I bought my book and figured out how to give it as a gift. I was also told it was very important to add a ‘buy link’ to my website and email it to the authors who were kindly hosting me on their blogs and sharing the good news! Only one problem – WHERE WAS THE BUY LINK? I had no idea what a ‘buy link’ was and although I didn’t mind admiring the amazon screen for another hour, I had no idea where to look for it. I was very grateful when a fellow Soul Mate Publishing author tweeted about my release and included a buy link. I copied and pasted it off her tweet.
The second time around, when Perfectly Reasonable was released, was much faster. I had all 3 things done by 7:15 a.m. That was probably the biggest difference.
When Perfectly Honest was published, I also had to set up accounts in amazon author central to ‘claim’ my book (that kept me busy until dinnertime), Goodreads (patience little grasshopper, the librarians will send an email when they verify you exist . . . and then send you another email when they remove the books by authors who share your name but who aren’t you), authorsDB (you are now indexed on Google – I had no idea what that meant, but yeah!), The Romance Reviews (wait for it) and Night Owl Reviews (it says ‘click here to set up an account’ but they’re only kidding – the publisher has to initiate it). Adding the second book was relatively quick because the accounts were already set up.
Overall, I’d have to say publishing the second book was easier (OMG sooooo much easier) – and I now know where to find the buy link! 😀
I’m visiting author Natalie Damschroder! Reading is usually a solitary activity but it’s been the source of one of my favourite social activities. Check it out HERE.I recently read an article in the newspaper about how vintage jewellery is trending (or as my Mom would say ‘all the rage’). My Mom (I know ‘mom’ shouldn’t have a capital but it just seems so much more respectful) saved some of my Grandmother’s jewellery, and she offered it to me. I loved the gorgeous earrings!
They were the old clip-on style. I tried to wear them and holy cow, they are so not comfortable. Our grandmothers’ generation were a hardy bunch!!
So I asked my awesomely talented glass artist friend, Florence Niven if she could make them into earrings for pierced ears. And Florence, being awesomely talented, said yes! She removed the clip part and glued a new hook on the earring. And voila!! I could wear them. I really love them – and hey I’m trendy 😀
And guess what – about six months later I found a necklace to match at a clothing store!
Tip from Florence: That was a fun project Linda. For anyone else wanting to try it I used E6000 jewelry glue available at Michaels to adhere the jewelry bales once the old clips were removed.
What flavour is my writing? Author Robyn Bachar wanted to know! 😀 Check out my interview with her HERE
First off – the prep. There was a lot of prep for a writing conference. We were given a link to a video showing how and what to pack (colour coordination and rolling all your clothes is key), on how to use the elevator at the hotel (no buttons inside the elevator – you had to punch your floor in the box before you got on AND wait for it – remember which elevator you were assigned – because you know, no buttons in the elevator) and were given advice for socializing for introverts (say hi, ask where they’re from and what they write. Yes, we were given icebreaker question suggestions – these are my people). We were told to set goals and plan – but no worries we were also given an app for that! I think if doctors were told they had to plan this much for a conference, they would give up. Writers are a hardy lot.
Second off – the parking. Here in Kingston, at the conference centre, we park outdoors on a paved lot. Occasionally if it’s really busy, there might be overflow onto the adjacent grass. THIS is what the parking looked like in NYC. It’s like a vending machine for cars. I’ll take F5 – a new black Porsche. (And maybe if I bang on the machine, 2 cars might fall out?)
Third – the workshops. No signing up, feel free to change your mind, the presenters don’t mind if you walk out, workshops. Golden. This isn’t very common at medical conferences. We tend to stay put – physically anyway. I’ve plotted some very interesting novels at medical conferences 🙂
Fourth – the pitch sessions. What a great idea! At the Nationals, authors have a chance to pitch their ideas to editors and agents to see if they’re interested in publishing the story or representing the author to the publishing houses. I think this could really catch on in the medical world. One big room filled with scientists and those people who have the grant money. It’d be like speed dating. Before the researcher spends countless hours preparing a cumbersome proposal, they could take 10 minutes to pitch their ideas and see if there is any interest. Wouldn’t that be such a time saver? Writers know what they’re doing.
Debby Gilbert, Founder and Senior Editor of Soul Mate Publishing, graciously hosted a dinner of the Soul Mate authors at Ellen’s Stardust Diner.
Obviously, we were very excited to meet each other (omg you were on my blog!) and the volume of our chatter rivalled the entertaining singing of the waiters.
A group of us went on The Ride! This is a must for anyone new to NYC. The seats in a giant bus have been converted into 3 rows of stadium seating facing out the windows on one side of the bus. As you tour the city looking at the famous landmarks, there is a lively commentary with lots of singing and waving to the people out on the sidewalk. And no boring idling at the stop signs – there were rappers, ballet dancers, a UPS street dancer – really there is hidden talent everywhere in NYC!
Did you know that our very own SMP author, Susan B. James is also an actor?
And Annette Bower has been mentored by Lawrence Hill – yes THE Lawrence Hill? They are amazing woman and a ton of fun to hang out with!!
It was easy to meet people at the breakfast table or strike up a conversation while waiting for a workshop to start. For me this was the best part of the conference – I learned a lot about the business side of writing by talking to people from all over the world. And lo and behold – you don’t really appreciate their accents in an email!
And here is reason alone for attending RWA Nationals: I met Nora Roberts!!! I’m still pinching myself 😀The conference was a lot of fun. I’ll share some of the stuff I learned in later posts, but if you do have the chance to attend the RWA Nationals in the future, I would highly recommend it – at least once!
February 6, 2015 – Today I’m a guest on Joanne Guidoccio’s blog as part of her Second Acts series! I think my first act isn’t quite done, but I’m definitely into my second one… Read more HERE.
