I've got to admit, this week's topic stumped me. Normally, as soon as I type the topic into a blank post on Thursday, an idea sparks and I write it down, then polish it before I add it to the linky list a week later. But here it is already Thursday, and thankfully inspiration hit last night.
Duh, Kenzie.....it doesn't have to be something witty by another author! Go to your Bible!
So here it is, the words I truly try to live by:
"Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You."
-The Golden Rule
Professionally, my favorite is this gem:
"Don't get it RIGHT, get it WRITTEN."
-Unknown
What about you?
To see what other pearls of wisdom other authors are sharing, click here.
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Thursday, September 21, 2017
A Year (or Day!) of Seasons
"Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring....what happens to Aaron? EVERYTHING!"
This was one of my favorite books as a kid, about Aaron the Alligator and all the problems he had every season:)
I live in Indiana and sometimes we can get all four seasons in the same day, or at least maybe two per day! What I like about each season is short and sweet.
Summer:
As a full-time Mom, I had a love/hate relationship with summer. When the kids were little and we lived in an apartment, the kids and I spent a great deal of time at the pool, or taking them to the park. As they grew older, though, my summers were spent shuttling them from activity to activity.
Boy was I happy when school began!
My spouse also worked in the summertime, so I was also in single-mom mode most of the time.
Autumn:
School was in session, and I had my 'me' time back. When we moved to the country, this was the time of year I enjoyed getting outside and working in the back yard, picking up sticks and clearing the brush, since our back yard consisted of 6 acres of woods!
Now, my favorite part is attending the Fall Festivals.
Winter:
The only good part of winter is Christmas and my birthday. As I've gotten older, I. HATE. Snow. Last year, I loved it; we got a dusting. My ideal winter? A light snow Christmas Eve or day, then gone by the 26th.
Spring:
My favorite flowers are tulips, and I was thrilled to discover our new house had them in the flower boxes out in front!
When the spouse was working, I also loved the fact the phone would ring and he would return to work:)
What about you? What's your favorite season?
Click here to see more.
This was one of my favorite books as a kid, about Aaron the Alligator and all the problems he had every season:)
I live in Indiana and sometimes we can get all four seasons in the same day, or at least maybe two per day! What I like about each season is short and sweet.
Summer:
As a full-time Mom, I had a love/hate relationship with summer. When the kids were little and we lived in an apartment, the kids and I spent a great deal of time at the pool, or taking them to the park. As they grew older, though, my summers were spent shuttling them from activity to activity.
Boy was I happy when school began!
My spouse also worked in the summertime, so I was also in single-mom mode most of the time.
Autumn:
School was in session, and I had my 'me' time back. When we moved to the country, this was the time of year I enjoyed getting outside and working in the back yard, picking up sticks and clearing the brush, since our back yard consisted of 6 acres of woods!
Now, my favorite part is attending the Fall Festivals.
Winter:
The only good part of winter is Christmas and my birthday. As I've gotten older, I. HATE. Snow. Last year, I loved it; we got a dusting. My ideal winter? A light snow Christmas Eve or day, then gone by the 26th.
Spring:
My favorite flowers are tulips, and I was thrilled to discover our new house had them in the flower boxes out in front!
When the spouse was working, I also loved the fact the phone would ring and he would return to work:)
What about you? What's your favorite season?
Click here to see more.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
Winning My Heart #MFRW Authors #37
What Five Things Can A Person Do To Win My Heart?
I'm going to cheat, and answer this two ways.
As An Author:
1) "Feed Me, Seymore!". A guy once told me on a date that I was the only girl who'd actually eaten her meal on the 1st date. Uuuummmm, yeah, this gal likes her food. I don't buy into the whole notion of not wanting the guy to see what I look like while eating; hell, I think taking a guy to a Greek restaurant is an excellent 1st date! If he can't handle the way I eat a gyro, then there's no point in pursuing this any further.
2) Respect My Need For Space. Every once in a while, I get the urge to write non-stop. If you're gonna nag me about my computer use, forget it.
3) Share My Taste In Music or Humor, Or At Least Don't Ridicule Me: I have quirky tastes, and if I'm in the mood to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show or Spinal Tap, either thrill me by getting the references if I tell you I like my speakers on 11, or ask 'is that an armadillo in your trousers?'
"You know, dozens of people spontaneously combust every day; it's just not widely talked about."
"That'll do, pig."
"You gotta jump to your left...."
"You murdered my father; preepare to die!" (Yes, I purposefully misspelled 'prepare'. If you get it, kudos to you!)
*clears throat* Moving on......
4) Buy me books. Or Amazon/B&N gift cards. Build me shelves for my print books.
5) Offer to clean the kitchen, or at least help with clean up, if I've cooked you a nice meal! Or even better, cook for me:) And have a sing-a-long to make the chore go faster.....
As A Mom:
1) Same As #1 Above. You can never go wrong with food, lol!
2) Take a GENUINE Interest In My Kids and In Me: My kids and I come as a package deal. If you don't like my kids, then take a hike.
3) Same As #3 Above: Case in point: Last night, my husband handed me his cup and asked me to 'ice me, baby.' My oldest son and I looked at each other and started rapping... "Alright stop. Collaborate and listen...Ice is back with a brand new ambition..." Needless to say, he was not exactly amused....
Nor was my dad back in 1983, when my sister and I decided to sing while coming home from somewhere with our parents. My dad asked us to sing something quieter, like Rock of Ages. My sis and I looked at each other and started in. "Rise up, gather round, rock this place to the ground..."
Again, my father was not amused, but Mom laughed!
Have you picked up on my sense of humor yet?
4) Same as #4 Above: You can never go wrong with books!
5) Same as #5 Above. Or at least be willing to either take me out, order pizza, or bring home Arby's for lunch if I'm deep into my aliens' lives! If I've been writing all day, the last thing I want to do is cook!
See? I'm fairly easy to please. Not high-maintenance at all. Oh and as a bonus, go with me to a few events and actually act INTERESTED? Or if you're not after the 1st one, still go with me and go off and do your own thing before picking me up? We can talk about both events!
To see the way to other authors' hearts, click here.
I'm going to cheat, and answer this two ways.
As An Author:
1) "Feed Me, Seymore!". A guy once told me on a date that I was the only girl who'd actually eaten her meal on the 1st date. Uuuummmm, yeah, this gal likes her food. I don't buy into the whole notion of not wanting the guy to see what I look like while eating; hell, I think taking a guy to a Greek restaurant is an excellent 1st date! If he can't handle the way I eat a gyro, then there's no point in pursuing this any further.
2) Respect My Need For Space. Every once in a while, I get the urge to write non-stop. If you're gonna nag me about my computer use, forget it.
3) Share My Taste In Music or Humor, Or At Least Don't Ridicule Me: I have quirky tastes, and if I'm in the mood to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show or Spinal Tap, either thrill me by getting the references if I tell you I like my speakers on 11, or ask 'is that an armadillo in your trousers?'
"You know, dozens of people spontaneously combust every day; it's just not widely talked about."
"That'll do, pig."
"You gotta jump to your left...."
"You murdered my father; preepare to die!" (Yes, I purposefully misspelled 'prepare'. If you get it, kudos to you!)
*clears throat* Moving on......
4) Buy me books. Or Amazon/B&N gift cards. Build me shelves for my print books.
5) Offer to clean the kitchen, or at least help with clean up, if I've cooked you a nice meal! Or even better, cook for me:) And have a sing-a-long to make the chore go faster.....
As A Mom:
1) Same As #1 Above. You can never go wrong with food, lol!
2) Take a GENUINE Interest In My Kids and In Me: My kids and I come as a package deal. If you don't like my kids, then take a hike.
3) Same As #3 Above: Case in point: Last night, my husband handed me his cup and asked me to 'ice me, baby.' My oldest son and I looked at each other and started rapping... "Alright stop. Collaborate and listen...Ice is back with a brand new ambition..." Needless to say, he was not exactly amused....
Nor was my dad back in 1983, when my sister and I decided to sing while coming home from somewhere with our parents. My dad asked us to sing something quieter, like Rock of Ages. My sis and I looked at each other and started in. "Rise up, gather round, rock this place to the ground..."
Again, my father was not amused, but Mom laughed!
Have you picked up on my sense of humor yet?
4) Same as #4 Above: You can never go wrong with books!
5) Same as #5 Above. Or at least be willing to either take me out, order pizza, or bring home Arby's for lunch if I'm deep into my aliens' lives! If I've been writing all day, the last thing I want to do is cook!
See? I'm fairly easy to please. Not high-maintenance at all. Oh and as a bonus, go with me to a few events and actually act INTERESTED? Or if you're not after the 1st one, still go with me and go off and do your own thing before picking me up? We can talk about both events!
To see the way to other authors' hearts, click here.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Time Management, Kenzie-Style #MFRW Authors #36
First of all, what do you think of my shiny new cover? When Freya's Bower folded last year, I received my rights back. I was having trouble paying for Kira's edits, Kira's cover art, AND paying my FB cover artist to remove the FB logo, so something had to wait. Then earlier this summer, I learned that Hydra Publications planned to create a romance spin-off, so I sent off my 2nd official 'baby', after updating it to present day. I'd written it back in 2007, before Smart Phones and Social Media. For anyone who's already read the old version, I hope you will consider checking out the minor changes I've made to this wonderful story. (Old cover can still be seen to the right)
Now, back to the topic at hand: How do I manage my writing time?
Short answer: Not very well.
It used to be easy: Send spouse off to work, wake children and take them to school, check email (took longer to boot up the computer and get online than it did to read my mail!), put on the music, and write.
But now....I've had days when all I've done is bounce back and forth between emails, chat loops, and Facebook! Not to mention blogging. That used to eat up a good hour, more if I felt the need to comment on all of them!
Plus, the spouse is now retired, and you're probably tired of hearing about the two abandoned houses we acquired along with our new house. You get it; I need about six more hours in the day to get everything done.
So when do I write? In the afternoon, after the chores and errands are complete. I've actually made a schedule of what days to set aside for working on the houses, and what days I need to stay put. Of course, the Muse can be fickle; last week I wrote 3K over the course of 2 days.
This may change, once NaNoWriMo gets here, and IF we get a hard winter. Yup....shut me in the house with several inches of snow and ice outside, and Kenzie becomes a hermit, with her computer and Kindle for entertainment!
Unless the spouse 'insists' we brave the cold and go out to lunch, lol!
What's that? You want the blurb to Teacher's Pet? Enjoy:)
Blurb:
What happens when you discover the man you had mind-blowing sex with three months ago is your son's teacher? Tammy Saunders is horrified when she realizes the man who set her heart racing is her son's favorite teacher. With one bad relationship behind her, will she trust her heart again, or will she continue to deny her feminine side?
And is this particular teacher popular only with his students? Kevin has made some bad choices in his life, but sleeping with not only one, but now two, of his students' mothers, has got to be the worst mistake he ever made. Especially when he realizes he's lost his heart to one of them...
Coming later this month from Erotes Press:)
For better tips on managing time, click here.
Coming later this month from Erotes Press:)
For better tips on managing time, click here.
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