It’s the holidays again, an emotion-filled time where it seems there are not enough hours in each day to fit everything in. In this busy time, I ask each of you to please consider one more stop on your crazy to do list, that of making a donation to a local food bank. Your donation can be a dollar, a can of food, whatever you can give. With the hurricanes, fires, and flooding that have affected so many this year, anything you can offer is a gift to those working to rebuild their lives.
I volunteer for Habitat For Humanity, and something amazing happens when you allow a person a flicker of hope, that somehow, incredibly, even a stranger understands that at times life shoves us on a road we never asked for.
Several years ago, in addition to my personal donation to my local food bank, I decided to start a Food Bank Challenge. Except, it kind of wonderfully got out of hand. Amazingly, once I posted The Food Bank Challenge on my Facebook page and my Facebook reader page, people from across the U.S. began donating to their local food banks and sharing on my Food Bank Challenge post. Then, I read posts of donations from Canada. Holy cow, the Food Bank Challenge had gone international! And you know what, this is truly a blessing. In this venture, we all win. Gifts from the heart do that, they fill you, remind you there is good in the world, and that you can make a positive as profound difference in others lives.
On December 5th, 2018, ONE name will be drawn from all who posted that they donated to a food bank from both my Facebook page and Facebook Author pages that I received. The winner will receive a mug, and a tote bag.
*Note: Names of those who posted beneath my Facebook pages drive post that they gave to food pantries or groups accepting donations to donate to a food bank will be entered in the drawing.
I wish each of you a wonderful holiday season filled with friendship and laughter and blessings!
Diana Cosby, AGC(AW), USN Ret.
International Best-Selling Author
www.dianacosby.com The Oath Trilogy MacGruder Brother Series Forbidden Series: Forbidden Legacy/Forbidden Knight/Forbidden Vow/Forbidden Alliance‒Aug. 6th 2019/Forbidden Realm TBA
About the Author
A retired Navy Chief, Diana Cosby is an international bestselling author of Scottish medieval romantic suspense. Books in her award-winning MacGruder Brothers series have been translated in five languages. Diana has spoken at the Library of Congress, Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC, and appeared in Woman’s Day, on USA Today’s romance blog, “Happy Ever After,” MSN.com, Atlantic County Women Magazine, and Texoma Living Magazine.
After her career in the Navy, Diana dove into her passion – writing romance novels. With 34 moves behind her, she was anxious to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met throughout the world. After the release of the bestselling MacGruder Brothers series, The Oath Trilogy, and the first three books of The Forbidden Series, she’s now working on book #4, Forbidden Alliance, of the five-book series, which will be released August 6th, 2019.
Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey. www.dianacosby.com
My coffee’s cold…again. I need one of those cupwarmer thingies on my desk, because once I start working, I forget to drink it before it cools. Then I have to stop, head to the microwave, and… Well, I guess I just want to whine about something, and that’s the first thing I thought of. What else can I talk about to procrastinate a little while longer…
My dd met with all the kids’ teachers last week. The 5-year-old had the most glowing report, naturally. She’s a little leader in her class. She’s kind to other kids and listens. She’s smart as a whip (whatever that means). No worries there. The 9-year-old is doing SOOOO much better, behaviorally (she spent the last day of last year in ISS), and her teachers love her. Got to love those ADHD drugs. The 14-year-old girl is doing very well—and she made it into some kind of choral group. There were 700 kids who auditioned in the area, and she was one of 40 selected. Man, we were floored, because we thought for sure she couldn’t sing a note. The 14-year-old boy…? Yeah, he needs a kick in the ass to get his school work done, so we’re knuckling down on how he spends his free time…
Enough procrastinating yet?
I have two editing jobs I need to get out the door soon, because I have three more that will hit any day now. I can’t seem to get motivated unless I’m drowning in commitments. Adrenaline gives me focus—or, at least, that’s my excuse.
And as for new words for new projects of my own? I have three chapters of Wolf completed. I just need to edit them to remind me what I wrote months ago, then push forward to finish the story. I really want to get a Stepbrothers short story done, too. The cover is just too sexy not to find a story to go along with it, don’t you think?
Now, if I can just figure out what the story is about…
Hey! So, maybe you can help me figure that one out. Give me ideas for a story to go along with the cover. Maybe I’ll use it as a jumping off point. I’ll give away a free copy of any of my recent releases to one commenter!Your idea doesn’t have to be wonderful, just have fun with it!
In the meantime, I need to make a trip to the coffee pot for a little “cup of ambition.”
I have a good friend who teaches at a very small, rural school. This school has every grade from kindergarten on up, and she teaches seven art classes to all these children. As you can imagine, supplies are always hard to come by, and more often than should happen, they come out of her pocket. Lately, she’s resorted to having kids bring in cardboard boxes for them to cut up to make dioramas, empty milk jugs for them to paint ghost faces on for luminaires. She had to stop making the dioramas because they ran out of hot glue sticks and paste glue sticks. Read the rest of this entry »
My giveaway is ongoing, too! For a chance to win a free Night Falls story, enter here: Coming Tuesday…
My Lazy Sunday
typewriter keyboard in retro style
This morning, I rose at 6:00 AM, late for me, actually, since most mornings I’m up between 4:30 and 5:30. The extra half hour was nice.
I didn’t have to make breakfast for the house. That was nice, too. So, I reviewed my email, updated a couple of my work/schedule charts, then started editing.
No new words, today, so that’s a bit of a break, too.
Since my dd and my SIL are doing yard-work at my place this morning, I packed my laptop and headed across the street to her place to baby-sit the little ones while their parents work. They are watching Jurassic World, and not asking for my attention, which I usually give in spades, so a break again. I can complete this blog, and then head back into edits.
I hope to close down when their parents come and enjoy a blissfully aimless afternoon. We’ll see.
My issue is I’m a writer. I work from home, so I never escape my work. Ever. And that’s how I like it. I chose this life. I don’t have a job as a ______ (FILL IN THE BLANK). I am a writer/editor/teacher of writers. My work is never done.
Kind of like being a mom, huh? We work from dawn to dusk—and beyond. I wouldn’t chose another life, would you? But if you do crave the occasional, REAL break from work, how do you manage it? I’d really love to know… 🙂
Maybe life is glamorous for other writers, but for me, it’s work, work, work, work, work… Kind of like the song Rihanna sings, but without the sexy clothes or Drake reaching for my goodies. *sigh*
Today, for instance, began with some editing. I broke around 10 AM to conduct a live chat with my plotting bootcamp, then it was back to editing. Around 4 PM, I broke again, because my dd and I had promised to meet a friend for dinner. When we returned home, we had little girls in tow, so we spent an hour in the art work room, trying to keep them out of paint and ink, while we doodled with projects. When my dd left, I went back to editing. Then I remembered, oh yeah, my blog. Gah.
And writing? Grrrrr… I have to finish this project for another author before I can even turn my attention to my own words. Don’t get me wrong, I like editing. It gets me out of my own world. I don’t have time to read for pleasure, so editing equals guilty pleasure + income, so I rarely complain. It’s just that I’m running behind schedule, and I hate being late, but there’s only one me…
So, if you’re bouncing around websites while you break, and happen to come across this post, let me know I’m not the only one work, work, work, working on a Saturday night.
I escaped my desk for most of the day today. Totally ignored my schedule. We’ve had workers underfoot replacing our furnace and AC. I skipped out to sit in my dd’s AC when I could, sat with a fan blowing across me when I had to be here. Not a productive day, and when I’m melting, I’m not particularly clever. Never mind the work crew had a couple of cuties. NOTHING could distract me from my discomfort. Tomorrow, they’ll be back in the early morning to finish up the second day of the installation, so I’m wondering if you all have any advice for how to keep cool when the AC is off!!
Also, remember yesterday’s scavenger hunt is still ongoing!! Be sure to enter! ~DD
This morning, I headed to my dd’s house for my morning cup of joe. I love to hit her right when she’s got the kids scrambling to get ready for the bus.
“I don’t want to wear a pink bow!” the 5-year-old yells, and then she runs to get the “perfect bow”—a gargantuan blue blow that makes her look like a cartoon character, but hey, she’s happy.
“Lala, you’re going to be late!”
“I’m not finished braiding my hair!”
“J, have you brushed your teeth?”
By the time they’re walking down the long drive to meet the bus, I’m sitting back, sipping on my coffee, and secretly laughing my ass off, because I didn’t have to do squat—been there, done that.
My dd comes back from seeing the little one up the bus steps and says, “Hey, before you go back to your office, wanna watch Deadpool 2?”
Of course, I was in. I LOVE superhero movies. She wanted to pre-screen it before she decided if any of the kids could watch it, because we saw the first one, and Ryan Reynolds has a potty mouth (not that I mind that so much—I prefer kids being exposed to bad words and a little flesh as opposed to violence, blood, and guts). So, we settled in to watch.
All I can say is I’m glad we watched it at home because I would have been “That Woman”—you know the one who laughs too loud and has to make comments all the way through the movie. Loved Ryan Reynolds (I have a crush on him), loved Josh Brolin as Cable. Laughed myself silly over Matt Damon’s cameo as the redneck talking about Wet Wipes and toilet paper and Deadpool with the little baby legs. The parachuting scene?! HaHaHa! The soundtrack was fun as well. I laughed again when a Céline Dion song played, because it so wasn’t suited for the movie, but was somehow still perfect.
After the credits rolled, I had to find the video. Céline’s music isn’t my music. I don’t have a single song of hers on my iPod, but this is fun! Hope you enjoy it! Loved Deadpool in high heels. 🙂
So, question for you! Do you love superhero movies, too?
If so, which are your favorites?
It’s the holidays again, an emotion-filled time where it seems there are not enough hours in each day to fit everything in. In this busy time, I ask each of you to please consider one more stop on your crazy to do list, that of making a donation to a local food bank. Your donation can be a dollar, a can of food, whatever you can give. With the hurricanes, fires, and flooding that have affected so many this year, anything you can offer is a gift to those working to rebuild their lives.
Several years ago, in addition to my personal donation to my local food bank, I decided to start a Food Bank Challenge. Except, it kind of wonderfully got out of hand. Amazingly, once I posted The Food Bank Challenge on my Facebook page and my Facebook reader page, people from across the U.S. began donating to their local food banks and sharing on my Food Bank Challenge post. Then, I read posts of donations from Canada. Holy cow, the Food Bank Challenge had gone international! And you know what, this is truly a blessing. In this venture, we all win. Gifts from the heart do that, they fill you, remind you there is good in the world, and that you can make a positive as profound difference in others lives.
