Well true to form, I've screwed up again. I'd love to blame my lack of sleep and reactions to new medication because I have both, but this was just a straight up screw up. I actually can’t even tell you what I did because it would compound the screw up. Let’s just say I announced a date that was a secret and royally screwed up by doing it. As soon as I realized what I did I told the person who asked me to keep the secret and apologized and I tried to do damage control by removing the offending document. But you can’t unsend emails, unfortunately. Thankfully the person accepted my apology and told me not to stress about it any longer. You can’t ask a Scorpio not to stress and expect them not to stress however, and guess what? I’m stressed. I’m trying not to stress, but I can’t help wondering if I screwed up and mentioned it anywhere else, thus the stress continues.
I do have something pleasant to report though, so maybe I can counterbalance the ick. A wonderful human and fellow author, Peter Lancellotti has been so incredibly kind to me I want to do something in return. My reach is not nearly as great as his, but I figure talking about him here and in an upcoming newsletter will at a minimum get his name into an algorithm somewhere out in the blogosphere. His website is www.peterlancellotti.com and you can find his books, Her Immortal Menagerie: The Secret Scrolls AND Her Immortal Menagerie: Ethos of Legends there along with a few others, and also on Amazon. Especially if you enjoy fantastical beasts and intrigue with historical artifacts, these books might be for you, check them out, buy them, or read them on Kindle. Support this amazing human!
Another author I wanted to mention who writes similar to me with spicy romantic suspense, is www.jacklynparker.com she has a debut novel, ATARAXIA. It’s a dark romance and intended for readers 18+, so please heed the TWs. She’s participating in the www.DarkModeSYK.com stuff your kindle event with me on 12/27 you can pick up her book for free along with VioleNt by me.
I’m also participating in the Fireside Book Café Stuff Your Kindle event from 12/26-12/28 this is a Romance Novel FREE book event! My spicy romantic suspense book, Force of Corruption will be FREE for the duration along with hundreds of others. You can visit the FB Group for more info or search FREE Romance books during the event dates on Amazon.
Don’t forget I will also be participating in the Author Takeover Party on Shalene Marie's Plot Twisters Group on FB! December 28, at 2pm (EST) I'll be making posts and chatting with readers. I will also be collecting names for a GIVEAWAY!! I will be giving away a $25 Gift Card AND a gorgeous Skull Bracelet valued at $50! But that’s not all, there will be signed copies of my books and some other FUN Swag! Join in the Party All Day for multiple authors hosting and gifting!
The links for everything will be below, so I’m moving on to another topic. I've been trying to post more on social media to see if it makes any difference in my algorithms or exposure. But it’s hard to pull content that’s interesting and engaging out of your ass so I've been collecting good ideas whenever they cross my path. Then if it’s not a post I want to use directly, either because I don’t like something about it or because I feel like it would be rude to the original creator, I make my own post which may be inspired by the posts I’ve saved. To make a post, I use Canva. I use it for my graphics and Newsletter too, I use it all the time, I have a paid account with access to extra features which are fantastic, and I haven’t found another app that compares, until now.
I found another creation app called Book Brush. It’s similar to Canva as far as the features offered but the pricing is lower. It also has a few more tiers of plans that include more creative options. I’ve only barely scratched the surface so far, but I like it, and I plan to continue to explore the free version and if it meets my needs I might go with a paid account on Book Brush. I never thought I would move away from Canva but, this app might convince me. I'll keep you posted.
I got a package in the mail amongst the Christmas purchases, cards, and junk mail. I didn’t know what it could be because I didn’t recognize the name of the sender. Lo and behold, it was an order of VioleNt key chains! I don’t even really remember ordering them. A consequence of writing late into the night and looking at FB when I need a break. People, DO NOT impulse buy things you don’t need! I’m not knocking the key chains, they’re really nice and I like them very much, but I didn’t need another thing to give away. I’ll probably try selling some, but let’s be honest, I’m more likely to gift them to readers who buy my books.
As the end of the year approaches, I've been thinking about tax season. I can’t help it, deadlines make me nervous and when you have a business, the IRS deadlines are in January and March and when you’re late, it’s $400. This year's taxes are going to be rough. I have my new Author business, my husband’s business, and lots of hurricane mess to figure out. Since we’re getting some insurance money for the damage we suffered, the IRS will probably want to take a chunk in taxes. Forget that it’s not enough to cover all of the damage, or we already paid taxes in our premiums. It’s not a windfall; it’s money we hope to make repairs with if we can even get the check cashed. I’m hearing horror stories about banks not endorsing insurance checks.
Fingers crossed when we get a check, we can actually get the money and find a contractor to show up and make repairs. So far, I can’t get anyone to even call me back. Well, the foundation contractor came out and he's awesome. But no general contractors for the walls inside and the floors, cabinets, and baseboards. They even need to remove our shower and clean mold underneath because of where the water came inside. I thought at least our shower was safe being all tile, we just installed it in 2019 and it’s beautiful. Hopefully it will be beautiful once again, sooner rather than later.
The other thing nobody tells you is that you have to remove all the furniture and stay somewhere else while your floors and walls are ripped out and replaced. I’m not good at staying somewhere else, my illness and medications make my life a little difficult, I don’t travel well. Not having my bed and my bathroom which have all of my disability friendly features makes things very hard for me. But it has to be done, so I'll figure it out.
Some good news with regard to my writing, I’m finished with Vile. It’s written. I’m working on my first pass and I’m up to chapter seven. I find myself changing quite a bit to clarify some scenes and dialogue. With three guys in her life, Violet has a lot going on and I need to make sure readers can follow everything without getting a headache. I kind of love this part of writing. I haven’t seen these paragraphs in a long time, it’s all fresh and new. It’s almost as if I'm reading someone else’s book and I like it. Sometimes I’m impressed by my words, and it makes me happy and other times some phrases make me ask, WTH? Again, I blame late night writing. I swear I must fall asleep on the keyboard some nights because there will be a random sentence of gibberish, and I don’t know how it got there.
I can’t believe how fast my first full year of authoring has passed. I published Force of Corruption on 11/28/23 now 2025 is rapidly approaching. Are you all ready for the holidays? I think I’m finished shopping except for a couple Amazon gift cards which I do by email with digital cards, an easy last-minute purchase. We’re getting our grandchild this weekend and I have so many projects planned. We’re decorating cookies, making ornaments, decorating a toddler sized tree, installing a train around the big tree, and building snowmen. Yep! You read that right, and yes, I know I live in Florida. I found a no-bake-clay snowman making kit. I love snowmen and I’m very excited! I hope the kiddo likes it. We’re also getting a visit from Santa; he drives around on a decorated fire truck and we’re going to look at lights in a neighborhood nearby that goes all out. I’m hoping to tucker out the little one, I know we’re going to be exhausted after all the holiday fun.
As always thanks for reading! Please take a moment to enjoy your family and friends this season, you deserve a little love over the holidays!
Links:
My books are on my website www.enchantingauthor.com
My personal Dark Mode link https://www.darkmodesyk.com/winter24/violent
Stuff Your Kindle with Dark Books 12/27 by visiting www.DarkModeSYK.com
Stuff Your Kindle with Romance 12/26-28 by visiting The Fireside Book Café at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thefiresidebookcafe/?ref=share
Party with an Author 12/28 2pm (EST) and maybe WIN by visiting Shalene Marie’s Plot Twisters Group on FB at https://www.facebook.com/groups/907005587511214/?ref=share
Don’t forget to visit fellow author Jaclyn Parker at www.jacklynparker.com
Also, fellow author Peter Lancellotti at www.peterlancellotti.com