On a whim late last year, I decided to redo my laundry room. It wasn’t a completely unplanned project, but something I have wanted to do for the last seven years and had lacked the inspiration on what to do. I had a vague idea. Paint, add storage and much-needed organization because I was tired of tripping over things every time I stepped foot in there.
Halfway into painting my white walls teal I was having doubts. Serious doubts. I didn’t like the color. I loved the idea of teal walls but the reality had me questioning my choice. I wasn’t sure it was going to pair well with cabinets I had spent the previous three days painting white and grey. My trust in the project was gone. I was doubting my lack of a solid plan. I was ready to head back to Home Depot for new paint when my husband stopped me with a gentle reminder that I always have self-doubts right before I finish a project.
He wasn’t just talking about around-the-house projects, and his words hit me hard because I have been waffling on my latest release, which will be my third release ever. I thought the first two had taught me enough that book three would be easy. I have been dragging my feet because it isn’t only a third book. It’s the final book in my debut series and as excited as I am to move onto new works. Things that are a bit different there is something scary in the new and unknown.
Finally finishing the laundry room meant it was going to be different. New. As much as I had thought I wanted the change something deep inside me decided to fight against it at the last minute. A year of quarantine and living in the unknown didn’t help but I told myself to trust the process. I have always been an observer, a planner. Even if I don’t have an elaborate plan I’m prepared. So I finished the laundry room and I love the color. I love the color more than I thought I would and now doing laundry is a bit more fun.
Somehow, it was harder to trust my process for writing. When it comes to writing, I’m a pantser. When I try to plot and outline, my characters laugh and decide to mutiny and do their own thing. I have learned the hard way that my characters are as stubborn as I am. Probably more. So the doubt I experienced with Say You’ll Be Mine was fierce. Once the manuscript was done, I reviewed my release plan. Then scrapped it and made a new improved plan. Doubted that one too so I made another. (Do you see the pattern?)
I didn’t trust my process. I chucked my process out the window. Now I’m left with the comical aftermath of where it is plan to see I need to listen to my own advice and trust my process. I can say with conviction that I have learned my lesson!
Say You’ll Be Mine
Nona Walker is living a lie.
The petite beauty is a force of nature, all unapologetic sass and in your face honesty. Or so it appears. Beneath the surface, a fear of history repeating itself and bringing pain to those closest to her lingers. Love and loyalty drive Nona to keep the people she cares about at arm’s distance, especially her hot and handy coworker.
A true romantic, Ben Booker has been harboring a not-so-secret crush on Nona. The time he has spent working side by side with Nona has proved no other woman can capture his attention.
Can Ben convince her to claim the happily-ever-after she doesn’t feel she deserves?
UPDATE: The winners are…Margaret, bn100, Debra Guyette and flchen1!
*~*~*
Hi! I’m Beverly Ovalle. I wanted this date since it is my birthday! This marks eight years I’ve been writing.
I am a writer, but I’m so much more, too. A wife, mom, and grandma along with being a crafter. I guess you could say I’m a serial hobbyist. Let me name a few.
My most recent hobby is welding. I took a class through the local community trade school. I’m planning on going back for more. I had a ball doing it.
I love to sew. Back in the day, I made all of my first child’s clothing until he was about two. Before that, I made my dress clothes for work. I still sew. My most recent was a tree skirt for my daughter. I’m in the middle of completing another one for my nephew and his new bride. I didn’t finish it in time for the wedding so I’m mailing it off before Christmas to them.
Another hobby is stained glass. I’ve made windows in a previous house I lived in. I let this one lapse because small children and glass bits don’t mix.
I make jewelry on occasion and bookmarks for swag when the mood hits me.
I have a cricut. I love that but haven’t had much time to go further in-depth. It looks like so much fun so I had to try it.
I also love to build puzzles. All winter long my daughter and I work on them. This past year it was all year round. Being quarantined it gave us something for the whole family to work on.
The IRS might say my writing is a hobby, too, lol. They would be wrong. Like sewing, it is a lifelong love.
In high school, I had to choose between track and the creative writing club. I chose writing. I don’t remember when I started, but I’ve done it throughout my life. I managed it between a full-time job and a growing family. Now, I’m retired and seem to have less time for it.
However, I’ve set a schedule I hope to meet. Currently, I’m working on a book that was supposed to be released last year. I wasn’t happy with it, though. My goal this year for it is April. My next is July.
One book is a military shipboard romance, part fiction and part truth, called China Fleet Club. The other, Taming Tamara, will be the fourth in A Dragon’s Fated Heart Series. I’m also working on a cookbook I’m calling Not Hamburger Again! A total departure from fiction for me.
I’d love to hear about what hobbies you do. I’m always looking for my next great obsession!
In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Instagram where I post a bit about my books, more about my hobbies and life in general. Be ready to see lots of food, lol. Also, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, my website, and my blog.
Honestly, I’m most active on Instagram and Facebook, so those are your best bets to chat with me. The most fun, too! If you just want to see books, follow me on Amazon. But hobby discussions are my bread and butter and keep me active and interested. I’m too restless for just one thing, but obsessed enough to be that serial hobbyist you know and love!
#Mommastrong
My most recent story is in an anthology #Mommastrong. All proceeds go to a well-loved friend everyone calls Momma to help in her fight against cancer. My contribution is a sci-fi romance. A second story in The Road to Eden short story series called “Mama Said.”
UPDATE: The winners are…Beckie and Eileen Airey!
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It’s too bad the only Saturday song I can think of is Chicago’s “Saturday in the Park”—because I detest it. I know, there are Chicago fans out there, but I’m not one of them. But Saturday needs a theme song, don’t you think?
And it can’t be this one either… *shudder*
Now, you can thank me for the ear worm. 🙂
But it is Saturday! For me, it doesn’t mean much work-wise (every day is a workday), but it does mean the kids don’t have online schoolwork, so I’ll be seeing them in my office a heck of lot more. Argh.
Now, if I had time on my schedule to read a book today—I don’t! I’m editing and reading shorties for the anthology—I would likely pick up a book I’ve already read. One of my “comfort reads”, like Johanna Lindsey’s Warrior’s Woman or Mackenzie’s Mountain by Linda Howard, or maybe Julie Garwood’s Saving Grace. I have a single shelf of books I’ve read over the years that I consider my comfort reads. Okay, I think I’d read this one:
It was the first Sci-Fi romance I ever read, and I shared it with the ladies I bunked with during Desert Storm. That copy was so dog-earred by the time I returned home—LOL!
Anyway, for a chance to win your choice of stories from my backlist, tell me what you’re reading this weekend, and whether you have any comfort reads you’d like to share with other readers!
UPDATE: The winners are…Brenda Rumsey, Kelly Samuels, and C. Marie Bowen!
*~*~*
This month, I’m reading the rest of the cowboy stories that will be a part of my next Boys Behaving Badly short story collection. I’m having a blast reading the offerings from some very talented authors! Once I select the stories, edit them, then compile them into a book, I’ll hand them over to my sister, Elle James, to create a cover for the antho before we get it up on Amazon for you all to purchase! (These big books are always offered for only $0.99—a steal because we want everyone reading the authors’ stories!) It’s a huge undertaking, but one I love. Every anthology, I’ve added new author friends, many of whom who come back, again and again, to submit new stories for readers to enjoy.
As soon as Cowboys is in the can, I’ll be searching for a new theme for the next anthology. That’s where you come in. Below, I have the covers of the previous anthologies so you can see what themes we’ve covered. For a chance to win a download of your choice from among these titles, tell me what you’d like to see next!
Click on the covers to learn more about these books!
UPDATE: The winners are…Katherine Horvath and Peggy Fowler!
*~*~*
I like dancers. Those beautiful movements, the expressions, the costumes, the emotion, and yes, the bodies, too. Like any art form, dance is a way of communicating. A story is told, and I love stories. I wrote three fantasy novels about three dancing half-sisters and how they lived in a city full of scoundrels, wizards, and monsters.
There was a time, about fifteen years back, when I went to dance performances, mainly belly dancing. That habit bled to death for various reasons (time, a relationship, et cetera). Usually, I went to a festival in which various acts performed. I learned that there are also male belly dancers. And apparently, I have the belly for it!
Once there was a single female performance in the Regentes Theatre in the Dutch city of Den Haag (I’m a Dutchie for those who didn’t know). The theatre is located in an old swimming pool, and it still has a lot of the original 1920s Art Deco elements.
Most people think that belly dancing is a bit of shaking with the belly, pelvis, breasts, and butt, and yes, those elements are there for sure, but of course, it is much more. Belly dancing consists of all kinds of movements and traditions, from various cultures. There is also room for modern dance types from jazz ballet to house. I once saw a Russian dancer do her belly dance to house music, and it was totally worth it.
But back to the performance I witnessed… I sat in the front row, partly for room for my legs, partly to get a good look. There was no partition; the dance floor started immediately. For those of us in the front row, our feet rested on the dance floor.
Dark room, a single spot. A beautiful, tall dark-haired lady entered. Lebanese? Something like that. Melancholic music began, the dance began. Her performance stood for her life story, or the story of her family. After all these years, the details are getting a bit vague. Anyways, that night she combined belly dancing with modern experimental dance.
She was good. Love, marriage, children, quarrels, loneliness, hope, the threat of war and flight, passion…Â She brought everything to life, caught in the spotlight that followed her. The audience was carried away, without words, without explanation, just by the enchantment of the music and her dance.
The light was now red in color, the music more challenging, her movements voluptuous. A scene in a nightclub from a strip show? Yes, something like that. Lust. Sex. She wiggled her butt, looked over her shoulders at her audience.
Swallow. Yes. Good art plays with your emotions. Art or pleasure, and she used both to play with us.
Big me, short hair, broad shoulders, a head like a rock. Knife scars running from my right ear to my chin. There I was, sitting in the front row, massive between the frail ladies and wiry gentlemen. Who go to dance performances? Mainly dancers, professional, hobby, former and whatever dancers. A dancing public. I was the very clear exception. I’m not a dancer. I’m a writer.
She looked at me. I looked back, appreciative.
She came over to me with swaying her hips.
Something snorted inside me. It came out like a grin. Nostrils open, muscles tense. Control is nice, but feeling the inner beast is fun, too.
At the last moment, less than half a step away, she turned and sat down.
Her butt on my lap, her legs over mine.
There, trapped together in the spot. Beauty and the Beast. Agility exposed on that massive hump of meat and bones.
She turned, squirmed, she danced while sitting.
I kept my hands at my sides. If it had been just the two of us, I would have grabbed and played with her. But there was an audience, so I didn’t, and she knew I would not. Damn, women aren’t crazy. She knew and enjoyed the power she had.
Me, too. Standing on the edge, just not letting go of the beast… That’s nice, too.
She jumped up again; the lap dance was over. She threw me a kiss, and I returned it with a grin. Like a twisting flame, she turned farther up the floor, on her way to the next part of her life story.
Jump after it! Stamp exaggerated, big gestures, big strides. A troll and a fairy. Do it! She would whirl around me, and I would chase her like a golem.
No, I didn’t. It was her performance. Not mine, I told myself. Besides, I wasn’t that brave. No. I didn’t dare, although deep in my heart I wished I had.
In the end, the performance was over.
I went home happy, melancholy, full of creative energy.
…
Once I went to dance performances.
One day, we’ll go again.
We? Yes. She and I. No, not her, not the dancing lady. Another special lady, but that’s another story.
Contest
Comment for a chance to win a copy of First Response! I’ll choose two winners!
About the Author
Inside First Response, read “Save Me Twice” by Jaap Boekestein – Playing with handcuffs leads to unexpected and sexy consequences for a timid office worker when she loses the key.
Jaap Boekestein is an award-winning Dutch writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and whatever takes his fancy. He usually writes his stories in the coffeehouses of his native The Hague, the Netherlands. Over the years he has made his living as a bouncer, working for a detective agency, and the Justice Department.
January was a pretty cool month. I ticked off several things on my 2021 plan. So far, I’m keeping to The Plan. I do have one every year, but then life happens and things slip or disappear. But so far (I still have today to get through 🙂 ), I’m right on the mark.
I finished writing and published a book — Preacher. I really enjoyed writing it, and it looks like readers are loving it, so whew! Check
I set up the pre-order and began work on the next Montana Bounty Hunter, Hardman, and have three chapters under my belt! Check
I completed two full sets of edits for author-clients, and have two more to carry over into February. Check
My daughter restarted my Delilah Devlin Instagram and took it over, making and posting book memes for me. Something I’ve been completely haphazard about doing. Now, my Insta looks like an author lives there. 🙂 Check
With her help and pushing, I started a new FB group as a place to hang out with fans. We’ve set it up but haven’t done any big events yet, like author takeover days, but that’s coming. In the meantime, we’ve had fun with giveaways and sharing exercises. It’s been a pretty fun thing, and thank you, Kelly, for pushing me over the ledge. So, FB group, Delilah’s Corner. Check
I’ve read through roughly 1/3 of the short stories submitted for the upcoming edition of the Cowboys: Boys Behaving Badly Anthology. Check
Also, during the month, I posted plenty of fun commentary, ran numerous contests, and had many wonderful guests. Maintaining this site is work, too! Check
Already, that’s a lot, but I have one more thing to do today…
If you’ve been following me for very long, you’ll remember that I did this art challenge last year, and I posted a boatload of pics of things I completed. Well, it starts again today, so hopefully, I have room to add one more thing to my daily To Do List without capsizing that boat.
Coming in February
February will be cram-jammed. I want to complete Hardman and start on the last in the Beau Reve Coven series, Dark Moon. If Hardman takes me longer to wrap up than I’ve planned for, then I have to push out Dark Moon and start on Hot SEAL, In His Memory first, because that one has a hard due date (April 27th).
Hardman has a release date on Amazon of March 23rd, but if I finish it early, I may move the release to the end of February or early March, so be watching for that announcement!
I have a ton of short stories to still read through and make decisions regarding which stories will be in Cowboys: Boys Behaving Badly Anthology.
I have two sets of author-client edits to finish up and three more to work on in February.
I have 28 days, therefore 28 art projects, to complete in February.
Plus, I’m going to put together a box set of previously published books and run some special deals. So, be watching for that, too!
I think that’s enough, right? Okay, laid out like that, I’m a little nervous. Will you give me an attagirl? And I don’t mind a little nagging throughout the month…Â
I never make New Year’s resolutions. They only turn out to be promises I never keep. But being fortunate enough to survive the hell that was 2020, I’ve decided it’s time to change my ways. I have resolved to share what I’m calling “Aspirational songs for the heart” on my Twitter and FB accounts every day.
My resolution started back on August 2nd, when I began posting “Democracy Reset” quotes to keep my spirits up as we here in the US headed toward the November election. I alternated between words from men and women of all races and all nations, words like Eleanor Roosevelt’s, “It seems to me that the least a citizen can do is to vote” to present-day quotes like John Lewis’, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.”
With the advent of then-President-elect Biden’s win, I switched to songs of all types and from all sources that I labeled, “Aspirational songs for the heart until noon Inauguration Day January 20th.” I enjoyed anew the messages of songs like Frank Sinatra’s rendition of “The House I Live In,” the Beatles’ “I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends,” and Chris Williamson’s “Song of the Soul.” Even Broadway favorites like Grand Hotel’s “Let’s Raise A Glass” and Rent’s “Seasons of Love” got into the act.
In December, I switched to hymns and carols that focused on the birth of Jesus, the event Christians like myself use to remind ourselves to be hopeful as we do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before God (Micah 6:8). By the time I reached December 31st and had posted “O Come All Ye Faithful,” I knew I would return to posting songs of aspiration and encouragement as I looked forward to Inauguration Day. My song for January 1st was Sam Cooke’s “Change is Gonna Come.” It was then I made my new New Year’s resolution. I wouldn’t stop on January 21st but would keep posting inspirational and aspirational songs for the heart and spirit for the rest of the year. The unfortunate events of January 6th in Washington D.C. made it all too clear how easy the human spirit can be turned to do wrong when its focus has been warped.
My songs may seem like a drop in the ocean or a ripple against a tide of negativity and uncertainty, but it’s a start. Finding ways to say yes each and every time no keeps jumping in your face is what keeps the moral arc of the universe bending toward justice. Music has always done that for me, and I hope it helps those who read my social media posts to do the same.
My goal is to post 365 different songs, so for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card, suggest a song or two that lifts your heart that I can share.
Happy New Year.
Haunted Serenade
All the women in Anora Madison’s family have lived as “Poor Butterflies:” women still longing for – but deserted by – the men they loved. Determined to be the first to escape a life of abandonment, she fled Harlem for Brooklyn, severing ties with both her mother and with the man who broke her heart, Winston Emerson, the father of her child.
Six years later, Anora returns to make peace, but a malignant spirit manifests itself during the homecoming, targeting her mother, her aunt, Winston and their little girl. Determined to stop the evil now trying to destroy all she loves, Anora must finally turn to Winston for help. But will their efforts be too little too late?
Excerpt from Haunted Serenade…
“I never understood how you and Elizabeth could stay here after Diana…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word. My mother didn’t finish my sentence for me. Apparently, she couldn’t say the word either.
Suicide.
We waited in the shared silence, unable more than unwilling to offer terms of peace.
“A person can will themselves to die,” my mother said. Her gaze drifted to the album cover in my hands. “It’s not so hard where unforgiving spirits reign.”
My gut clenched. “Do you really believe you’re dying, Ma?”
“According to my doctor, I’m sound as a dollar. But when you’ve got more days behind you than in front of you, that’s not saying much.” She directed her gaze to me. “That’s why Cammie is so important. She’s the future. I feel better just having been in her presence a little while.”
“I should have known.” I gripped the album cover with fingers trembling with anger and disappointment. “All that display of affection…you’re only using her to make you feel better.”
“No, Anora.” My mother came over and grabbed my arm with an earnestness that surprised me. “It’s not like that. I—I want the ghosts keeping us apart to die. Don’t you?”
I wanted it so much it hurt. I grimaced but nodded.
“Cammie took one look at this house and asked if it was haunted.”
My mother snorted. “Out of the mouths of babes.”
“Exactly what I thought.” I returned the album cover to its resting place.
Resting place.
The term troubled my mind. Can the spirit of anyone who dies the way my aunt died ever rest?
The question went unanswered, interrupted by my daughter’s screams.
