LOOK CHALLENGE

I've been called out for the look challenge by Renee Rose. The challenge is to find the word LOOK in your current work in progress and then post the sentences around it. Choose your three favourite LOOKS to post.

I've chosen my work in progress 'My House My Rules'.

***

“I agree.” he said surprising her. Her smile was pretty, he thought, even if it wasn't real. “LOOK, I'm not an ogre.” He sighed. He did want to reach some kind of resolution, he wanted to get to know her better. There was a certain vulnerability in her eyes that he was drawn to. “I don't even know what yours or 

the boy's names are.”

                                                    ***

Alex really wanted to tell him to shove his pool, but she didn't. To do so would mean depriving her kids and she would never do that. There was also the fact that he was very good LOOKING and there was something very attractive about his bossy persona. “Ok and thank you.” she said. And will you be there too? She wanted to ask.

                                                   ***

Now for the difficult part. It would be hard enough to draw a heart upside down on a piece of paper with a pencil. Trying to shave a heart in overgrown pubic hair that was gummed up with shaving cream, was like trying to mow a heart with a lawn mower on a snowy mountain. Impossible. How were you supposed to see what you were doing anyway. Alex wiped of the cream to have a look at her efforts and sighed. That was the saddest LOOKING heart she'd ever seen. It would detract from her wide ass maybe, but not in a good way. Another handful of shaving cream and a new razor and she was finally squeaky clean. She'd forgotten how good it felt to be so free.

OK there's mine.... I'm calling out 

Korey Johnson

Starla Kaye 

Sue Lyndon

The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Reviews

I am pondering today the point of reviews.


All Authors like to read reviews. Preferably glowing reviews that tell us how much someone loved our book and how they would recommend it to their friends. Of course not all reviews can be good ones and that's just life.



Not everyone in life is going to like us and not everyone is going to like what we write. Our tastes are different because WE are all different. Some people like spanking in books, some people don't. A LOT of people don't. Some people like things written in a certain point of view while other people don't. As I said, it's all fair and I'm  not complaining about bad reviews. Not a lot anyway, I'm curious. We all get the odd one and I've been very lucky with my sales and with my reviews, but I'm only human and it does hurt my feelings when I get a bad one, as much as I try not to let it get to me. I have NEVER left a bad review. I just wouldn't like the way I know that would make me feel. I was always taught that if you can't think of anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. It's served me well in life, a bit like do unto others I guess. But that's me, I'm no saint but I try to be a nice person. If I read something that really isn't to my taste I quietly move on because I think that it might just be me. That writer deserves the chance for others to read their story and make up their own minds not tainted my one eyed view.

So, the pondering. The reviews and the ratings. What does the bad reviewer or rater get out of smashing someone down? Is it that you think you wasted your money and you're trying to get everyone else not to buy the book? Is it that it makes you feel superior to put someone else down? I have no idea what the payoff would be for someone to make someone else feel badly. I guess it's one of life's mysteries.

Coming Out and Unconditional Love Part II

Ok, so the next day (Sunday) I woke and felt positively elated at the night before's events. Elated and possibly a little hung over. I didn't talk to my sister and I think it was Monday evening before I got another call from her.
"Hi she said.
"Hi." I replied.
"I got your book." she said "It's great."
"Oh really!" I said "I can't wait to see what you think. I know it's probably not going to be your cup of tea.." ( My sister is gay)
"No..that's more or less what I read, only they're women."
"Really." I said.
"Mum and Danielle and the kids are really excited." she said.
I went cold.
"Um...sorry?" I said.
"Mum and the kids are very ex...cit...ted. I wasn't supposed to say anything?" she said. "I'm Sooo sorry."
"It's ok." I said. "Really I should have told you not to say anything." Now in the back of my mind I'm thinking, DH is going to kill me. we talked about telling my sisters not the whole family.



So the next day I get a call from my Mum (she's 90). She was beyond excited. She wanted to read it. I tried to explain as gently as I could that perhaps it wasn't going to be her kind of book.
"Of course it'll be my kind of book. You wrote it."
"Yes I know Mum and that's really sweet but it's..." I searched desperately for  a word...a group of words, anything to explain what was in the book.
"Your sister told me it was a sexy book." Thank you again my sister I thought with a smile.
"Yes that's it. It's a sexy book, I don't know that you'd like it Ma." I said.
"The ladies at Bingo love those kinds of books." she said. "I bet they'd buy your book."
"That's ok Mum." I said. "It's got to be on the computer."
"Oh." she said. That's about as many words as my Mum will use to explain what she thinks about computers. Not much.
That stumped her. I actually felt really bad. The book wasn't that bad was it? And I have to say that is the one thing about all this that really bothers me is that I haven't written anything that my Mum could read.  "Ma we could get you an Kindle." I said.
"No." she said. "I don't mess with all those newfangled things. If the words are in there why can't they just make a book?"
"It doesn't work that way Mum but I'll ask." I said. That made her happy and we went on to talk about other things.


DH wasn't all that happy but he could see it wasn't my fault, well not exactly. So we forgot about it and didn't think much about it until my second book came out. DH is adjusting well now to all this although he did have a conniption about my blog on the Australian Taxation Dept. He doesn't think we should go out of our way to upset them. I have to say though that they go out of their way to upset me so it's even stevens.



My other sister? Just as supportive as the first. She loves my book,  the first one. She hasn't yet read the second one.


The thing that made me start thinking (and worrying) about all this again is an invitation I got in the mail. To a family baby shower. This will mean I get to be face to face with all the people my Mum has told and all the people she will no doubt tell in front of me. So although I'm a lot more confident than I was, I have to say, I'm petrified. Thank goodness I'll be surrounded by some people I love dearly that DO know and that will no doubt help me through it.

Coming Out and Unconditional Love

When my first book came out I was excited. Really excited but something marred it just a little and that was the fact that the only person in my real life (apart from my online friends who are like family) that knew what I wrote was my husband. Now not to diminish this man's role in my life, he's my best friend but I still felt like I needed to tell someone.


The first person I told was my eldest daughter. She was very excited for me. She'd always wanted me to write a book, all my kids had, the older ones anyway. Anyway this child, who isn't a child I hasten to add, urged me to share with my sisters.
"You should tell them."she urged. "They'll be happy for you and they'd be really hurt if they found out and you didn't tell them."


I pondered on this and then finally sent my sisters each an email. It's easy to write something rather than have to say the words isn't it? Of course it is. Problem was I didn't receive a reply from either of them. As the days passed my heart sank. I was starting to think that telling them was a big mistake. They obviously both thought I was crazy or weird or both... I couldn't bring myself to bring the subject up.



Well fate being what it is, I got my chance a few weeks later. We were at a birthday party for my sister's partner. After a bit of dutch courage in the form of a half a bottle of champagne...I pulled my sister over to the side.
"Did you get my email?" I asked. I swear I thought my heart was going to jump right out of my chest.
"No?" she said. "Sorry I haven't checked my email for ages."
Now being that I spend most of my waking hours on the net it never occurred to me that she wouldn't have read it.
"OH." I said. I could run back over to her house steal her computer and try and figure out her password so I could delete the message couldn't I? But then my other sister lives on the other side of the country, no chance of deleting hers...
"Was it important?" she asked.
"No. NO, I said. It's just."
"Let's go and have a drink." she said helpfully. "Then you can tell me."
See that's what I needed another drink, a bit of dutch courage.



We cracked open another bottle of champagne, no idea what happened to the other one, someone else must have drunk it. That's my story anyway. So we shared a drink and I told her.
"I've had a book published." I said. "It's only an E Book and I don't even know if anyone will buy it." I said.
"Wow!" she said gushing."I'll buy it!"
Relief and champagne flooded through me and I opened up and told her about what I write. I thought I mentioned that I wasn't going to tell everyone in the family just her and my other sister. Perhaps I just thought that's what I said or perhaps she didn't hear it...or perhaps it was the champagne....


I was so relieved. She wasn't shocked or disgusted or anything, it felt like a load had been lifted off my shoulders.
 That was until the next day....




This has gotten too long so I'll finish the next part of the story in my next blog.

Author Interview

I was interviewed by Renee Rose on Blushing Books. Come take a look!

Blushing Books Blog

Do I Know You?

I was just wondering...


When you start a story, do you base it on a person that you know?  Do your main characters have a lot in common with the people you know? Do your villains if you have any, freakishly resemble someone that you don't like or does someone in your story get a spanking because you're in a mood... Maybe you just wake up with new people in your head.


As I've said before I started out writing Fan fiction. With Fan fiction, you start off with most of the characters already developed for you. I have been know to use and expand upon real life situations but that's usually just a tiny seed that inevitably grows into something much bigger,  if not something else entirely.


When I was writing Becky's Last Chance I just woke up with the characters in my head. Odd the way that happens. It wasn't the whole story, just the main characters. I had to really think about what I wanted to do with them.  It was almost like they were family members, people that I knew. They didn't though resemble anyone that I DID know. Once I figured out where I wanted the story to go I had to create a few more characters along the way to get to that end. Those are the characters I think I may have injected a little of people I know or may have known in the past into.


When I was writing An Unexpected Husband, I woke up with a seed of the story itself in my head. The plot. I had to come up with the characters early on and they were fresh to me. I didn't already KNOW them. I did get to like them a lot though as the story continued. That's where editing helps. When you go back to the beginning you can change things that don't fit so well with the characters you've become more in tune with by the end.


Now I've just finished the sequel to Becky's Last Chance and I enjoyed going back and developing the characters even more.


So how do you start a story? What comes first?


An Unexpected Husband  Amazon US


An Unexpected Husband   Amazon UK


An Unexpected Husband   Blushing Books





Becky's Last Chance          Amazon US


Becky's Last Chance           Amazon UK


Becky's Last Chance           Blushing Books

It Isn't Whether You Win or Lose but How You Play The Game

Like the rest of the world, we in Australia are in the grip of Olympic fever.  Now Australia has always done pretty well in the medal tally, considering the amount of people who live here, particularly in swimming. This year however, we were given a short sharp shock when our swimmers didn't do as well as we expected them to do. I personally think they did great to even get there in the first place, but it seems that I was in the minority.


Every adult who has or has not ever swum a lap of a pool had an opinion on why it was that our swimmers weren't captured on the middle of the podium, gold swinging around their necks while our national anthem blasted through the arena with pride. Who knows what happened. Perhaps on the day, other countries who wanted it as much as us and who trained just as hard were better on the day.


It seemed that even the swimmers were judging themselves as more than one or two swimmers were captured by reporters so upset that they were unable to speak because they got silver not gold. Seriously people? Silver...second best swimmer in the world. When did sport become so harsh and judgemental?


Yesterday I was given the chance to witness what true sportsmanship was about. I was at my son's sports carnival. My youngest is eleven and the carnival was typical I guess of most school carnivals where all the children are all in one of four house groups. The rules are simple, you have to go in your age race and every other race is optional. Winners and place getter's win points for their house, although all the kids get points for going in a race regardless of where they come.


Now I have to say that running is not my son's favourite or best thing. To say he is not a natural runner is an understatement. But I watched him run in his age race with all the pride that a mother could have, clapping wildly as he came in last. I thought that would be the end of the day for us until the tug a war, well for him, I was sitting in a chair, but I was wrong.


I was stunned as the next race started. There was my boy lined up again ready to race the two hundred metres. He was determined that if he couldn't win then he would get points for his house. Did he win? ...no but he did once again get points for his house. Enough? I thought so. No apparently not, as half an hour later he was lined up for the eight hundred metres. I could tell he was tired and that not only was he going to lose but he was going to lose badly. I was worried that the kids would tease him if he came noticeably last. I almost considered going over and asking them to pull him out. It seemed cruel to sit there and watch your child knowing that they would fail. Finally I decided that it would most likely embarrass him more if I intervened so I waited and watched.


My brave boy ran for a lot of the race and walked for some. I could tell he was exhausted and at one point I didn't think he was going to be able to finish... I almost cried. I didn't know what I could do without making a giant fuss. Eleven year old boys do not want their mothers to come help them off the field under any circumstances. So once again I held my breath and waited. I am so glad that I did.


All of a sudden some of my boy's friends ran over to the track where he was losing heart, being the last one still running and they started to cheer him on. These were friends wearing all the different colours of their house groups, who didn't give a damn for the competition while they helped a friend who needed them. By the time he reached the end of the race the entire school was clapping and cheering for a boy who tried his absolute best.



Sometimes I think that we could learn a lot from the simplicity of childhood. When we're teaching our kids how to play sports, maybe we could try to cultivate rather than repress their natural instincts. Maybe they know better than we do what's fair.


An Unexpected Husband   Amazon US


An Unexpected Husband   Amazon UK


An Unexpected Husband   Blushing Books



Becky's Last Chance       Amazon US


Becky's Last Chance        Amazon UK


Becky's Last Chance       Blushing Books