UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom2003!
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Being a writer—no, being a successful writer—isn’t only about getting words on pages. I wish it worked that way, but in the real world, or at least for the independently published authors…

1. We write a book
2. We scrounge for cover art to hand to the cover artist
3. We look for decent editors (or in my case since I am an editor, good beta readers to find my errors)
4. We pay or learn to format our books ourselves
5. We upload the books on all the platforms where people buy books
6. And then…we try to figure out how to get people to notice our book amid the millions of books available on all those platforms.

And that’s where you can really fall down that rabbit hole and waste an inordinate amount of time while you try to figure out what works.

I have a website. That’s a must for authors—the first order of business for any author.

I have a blog. Now, authors say blogs are dead, but I think mine does okay. See the number of folks on the left who get this daily post mailed straight to their inbox? I choose to continue this blog because it serves as my “face” to the real world out there. I talk about what’s real in my life. I talk about my books. I invite other authors to come to talk about their lives and their books. It’s a friendly place. But as an author, I have to do so much more.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… Gah. How can I be in all places at all times? Simply put, I can’t. And I do not want to pay someone to manage my social media, even though I’ve seen some authors who have the right support do very, very well. You see, I tried it, but it was work managing that support and I don’t really want anything more on my plate. I’ll do the occasional Facebook and Amazon ad and call it done.

And then my dd offered to do something for me.

She noticed all those lovely, luscious book memes on Instagram and Facebook and wondered why I wasn’t doing them. I told her flat out I didn’t have the time or the talent. Since she’s got online school to supervise every day and has to sit in the livingroom or dining room with the kids anyway, and it doesn’t take up every second of her time, she said she’d give it a shot. It looked like fun to her. Fun?! Of course, I worried about what those ads might look like because her taste and mine are not the same, and she doesn’t read romance, doesn’t get the genre at all.

But hey. She wanted to help.

So, for a little over a month now, I give her a cover and maybe a snippet about the book or a piece of an Amazon customer’s review and off she goes.

I told her donuts and the color pink feature in my latest release, Preacher…

And I thought, That’s alright. At least people will stop and look.

And then she saw my cover for my next release, Hardman, and asked whether I had more art with this guy because she said he was hot! This one’s simple. Stark. Sexy. I like it!

And she’s only gotten better. I wanted her to go back and do memes for books I already have out there but folks might have forgotten exist or had no idea they existed…

I had this Texas Cowboy story about a wild-child judge’s daughter who gets caught going Lady Godiva on a motorcycle by a pair of Dom deputies… She found this art!

The story that followed was about a schoolteacher voyeur spying on a deputy’s playroom. This one’s just too cute!

When she put all the Texas Cowboys together, she did this and I snorted with laughter.

My favorites so far? I love, love the biker girl and voyeur girl, but I love this one too!

And has it helped? I really think so. When I look at my sales on Amazon, there are more of my older titles selling, so I’m going to keep her employed for the longterm doing my memes. She’s becoming a goddess (and a godsend—just one more thing I don’t have to worry about)!

What do you think? And which is your favorite image from the ones I provided. Comment for a chance to win a backlisted title of your choice!

UPDATE: The winner is…Brenda Rumsey!
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“All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.”
~ Erma Bombek

I love that quote. Isn’t it soooo true? When my sister lived in Texas, she had a property in the country—and a white-as-hell carpet. You know where my kid spilled the grape juice, right?

I’m thinking about kids because school is back in full swing after Snowmageddon. Online, for our house. But there are Zoom meeting alarms set, homework to supervise. We’ll be busy.

The snow is melting. Yesterday, we had huge slabs of ice slide off the roof. It was dicey getting out the doors. There’s snow in patches, and “The Great Mudding” has begun. Towels are on the floor in front of every entrance for folks to clean off their shoes before coming inside.

I’m busy working on two sets of edits, plus charging back into my Work-in-Progress, Hardman—along with 20 items on my daily To Do list. Gah.

So, to the contest…

Tell me about your family’s “tests of courage” for a chance to win a download of your choice from my backlist of books! 

Me with my busted tailbone means a really short blog today. Even the donut pillow isn’t giving me much relief! And yes, my poor family has to hear about it, constantly. 🙂

Ugh. My desk is covered with paint palettes, unopened mail, an opened package of fabric glue, which I need to put away, a couple of empty water glasses. I wonder if I can make my daughter feel bad about the mess I don’t want to clean up. Yeah, like she doesn’t have a nasty house with mud trails from the kids coming inside after playing in the melting snow. Goodness, I even found a little stuffed dog the seven-year-old parked on my desk. Must mean it has a hole I’m supposed to sew up. Doesn’t she know I don’t want to do anything?

How soon can I go back to bed?

That’s how my day is going to be. Me sitting for a minute, whining about the mess around me, then moving gingerly back to the bed to ease onto the mattress. Wonder what wonderful thing I can watch to while away the day and forget about the fact the cats are leaving their hair all over the end of my bed. Do you think it would be a stretch to ask my dd to change my bedding? I guess I won’t ask. I’m not very skilled at guilting her into doing things. She says I have “good years” left, so I better to put them to “good” use. Yeah, she’s my girl.

This is what I aspire to do today—if only I could sit…

Isn’t that the greatest picture of a couch potato ever?

So, any advice for the woman who isn’t comfortable sitting, lying, or walking? My dd has cut me off from the good pharmaceuticals.

UPDATE: The winner is…Tamye Whitener!
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I’ve been busy sharing photos of Snowmageddon on Facebook and Instagram these past few days. We had a “once in a lifetime” weather event, per the weathermen. We’ve had these cold temperatures before, we’ve also had this much snow, but we’ve never had two snowstorms hover over us for so long, which is what’s causing all the problems with accumulation. All schooling this week was virtual, which was no biggie for my kids since they’ve been virtual since COVID hit. There’s been no mail delivery since Monday because the roads are impassable. We’ve been dripping every faucet non-stop. We had the hot-water pipe into the kitchen freeze up, but on Wednesday it warmed up just enough the pipe unfroze, so now we’re running both the hot and cold water to make sure it didn’t refreeze. Looks like no pipe damage. Woot!

My SIL, dd, and the kids have had a blast. My SIL tied a river innertube to the tractor and “sledded” the kids around the yard. He cleared the driveway and built them an outside “igloo”. There have been snowball fights—everything they’ve seen on TV and never experienced before because we NEVER get this kind of weather. Never this accumulation for sure.

I haven’t had as much fun. Early on Wednesday, I sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast. The little one’s coat was hung over the back, so she came rushing in because she was heading outside to play. I rose partway to help her free the coat, but didn’t realize that when she tugged it away, she pulled the entire chair with it. I sat and fell, my tailbone, and then the back of my head, slapping the floor. My head’s okay other than a bruise. My tailbone? Let’s just say hydrocodone and tramadol are my best friends…

Puzzle-Contest

Solve the puzzle then tell me about your “relationship” with snow for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Here’s me hoping everyone out there is staying safe and warm. My friends in Texas, I know some of you don’t have power, and I’m praying that situation improves for you soon. Here in Arkansas, we’ve been lucky so far. Yes, they are talking about instituting rolling brownouts today, but I hope they are indeed “rolling” as opposed to what’s happening in Texas. We live in a rural area, so we do have a generator, but it won’t be enough to do anything but power the fridges and heat coffee and a single space heater, but we will make do if things get worse. So far, the only inconvenience we’ve suffered is that the hot water pipes leading to the kitchen are frozen. We’re praying we don’t have a busted pipe to get fixed, and in the meantime, we’re boiling water for dishes, but that’s small beans problems when compared to the disaster in the state next door.

Just a couple more days, folks… Hang in there. Stay safe. Stay off the roads, if you can help it. Check on your neighbors.

UPDATE: The winner is…flchen1!
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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here’s a Valentine from me to you. And you can have two! Just solve the puzzle below…

Sincerely, I wish you a happy holiday with cards and gifts from those you love. For myself, the children’s handmade hearts always do me in. 🙂

Puzzle-Contest

Solve and then tell me something you love to do on Valentine’s Day for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

I’m a cold weenie. That wasn’t always the case. I’ve lived in Montana, Colorado, Germany. I’ve slept in tents in the dead of winter. But now, I live in the South. I think my blood’s thinner or something. That’s not to say I love the heat. If I didn’t have a pool to cool off in, I’d be miserable in the summertime. However, I really, really, really don’t like frosty toes and fingers.

I’m talking about this because these next seven days, we’re getting some unusually cold weather. Like single digit temperatures at night and below freezing during the day. The forecast is for several days of snow. We haven’t had anything other than a sprinkle of the cold stuff in years!

So, naturally, we’re freaking out a little bit. In advance of the snow, my dd hit the store today to load up on food we don’t have to cook because we know if there’s any accumulation, or worse—if there’s ice—we will lose power. We live in a rural area, and energy companies are slow to fix problems out here. So, our gas cans are full to feed the generator. We bought extra straw for the goat shed to help keep the three little critters warm. We shuttered the window in the lean-to on the side of the barn for the horses and filled the “warm end” with hay. Last night, my dd went out in the dead of night to break the ice in the horses’ water troughs to make sure they have access to water. We’re staying vigilant so they stay safe. We winterized exposed pipes and faucets. We’re dripping water in the sinks and showers. She bought us all thermal longjohns. The kids have boots.

Can you think of anything we’ve missed?