 * DRAWING WINNERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED AND NOTIFIED. THANKS* I'm always excited when I receive a shipment of my books (just like Christmas), but when I opened my most recent box and found all the books inside damaged, my heart sunk. I knew something was wrong from the moment I picked up the box: first, the box itself was 3x too big for an order of ten books. The books were scrambled inside and tossed all around. That's not usually how I receive them. They're usually packed in bubble wrap and placed tightly in the right size of a box. Not this time. Somehow, before the books came too me, the box they were in must have been left in the rain and then UPS repackaged them (that's the only thing I can think). Anyway, I contacted the company who printed the books and they're sending me a new order (yay! I'm not out any $$$) and they're going to file a claim with UPS for the damage. But several days have gone by and the damaged books still sit on my dining table. I just wasn't sure what to do with them. I can't mail them out to reviewers, not in the shape they're in. Most family and friends already have a copy. I definitely can't sell them, and I can't donate them to libraries or to schools. I can't even donate them to my local thrift store (they will most likely toss them in the trash). And to trash them myself...heck no! I can't. The idea of throwing away books hurts my heart (my precious).  So they sit on my table and stare at me. They're damaged, but they're not ruined. Every one of the damaged books is still readable. The pages can be turned and the words are fine. They just don't look too pretty. There is one book that is far more damaged than the others, but it too can still be read. Then I got to thinking, there must be readers out there who wouldn't mind a slightly defective book... especially if it was for FREE!  There are people out there, just like me, who hate the idea of throwing away books, so to those people I say, "Do you wanna 'adopt' a slightly damaged book? Give it a good read over and a place to call home?"
All I ask is that you give the damaged book a chance, be willing to read its wrinkly pages. And then, if it's not too much, please leave an honest review on Amazon & Barnes and Noble. Nothing fancy (Authors live for reviews...they're even better than Christmas). You get a book at no cost to you, and I possibly get a review in exchange. That's a much better plan than just throwing away the books. If you want to know more about this book before deciding, then click HERE to read a summary and to check out the book trailer. If this sounds like something you'd like to do, and a damaged book is still a book to be read and loved, and you love reading zombie books, then just leave a comment below and let me know. I will put your name in for a drawing on July 1st (we'll do this old school with a bowl and little pieces of papers) and then get those books mailed out next week. Because there is one book slightly more damaged than the others, for the person who 'adopts' that book, I will add a little zombie something as a bonus :) Leave your name in the comment section below. Make sure to fill out the section with your email. No one sees that but me.
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I prefer my vacations a little more like this: 
Or like this:  But this week, I will be doing this:  And this:  A vacation that doesn't include internet access is NOT a vacation indeed. I have no idea how I will survive. Forget the bears and bugs and the fact that I will be sleeping outdoors and smelling like campfire smoke, I will have laptop withdrawals--complete with shakes and nervous twitches. Actually, this camping trip will be a good thing. I could use a break from facebook, twitter, editing, writing, and everything else, and just have a relaxing time. Yes I will smell like camp fire. Yes I will miss my laptop (my baby), but when I come back I will be refreshed and revved to go. I have a lot to do (ahh, so much editing!). Until then, enjoy a little bit of camping humor while I'm gone. See ya in a week! 
I have no mad skills when it comes to making movies, but that doesn't stop me from trying :) They're kind of fun to create and play around with. So this is my attempt. What do you think of book trailers? Do you make them? Watch them? Oh, and if my book looks at all interesting to you, please add it to your TO-BE READ list on Goodreads. Hey look...here's the link for ya :)   (WARNING: May contain spoilers)
Yesterday was my 18th wedding anniversary (Yay me! I should get a medal or something) so my husband and I decided to celebrate by taking in a movie and doing lunch. So off to see Prometheus we went. I already had some reservations because I'm not really a sci-fi kind of person. Never been much into watching Star Trek or Star Wars and movies of that nature. But I had heard great things about the movie and decided to give it a try (just take a look at the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes). It started off well--the first opening scene was pretty cool. Then I started going, "Wait a minute." For me, I really, really hate it when people do dumb stuff. There are "rules" that should be followed when it comes to certain types of things. Such as, in a horror movie if you hear noises outside, don't go checking it out wearing only your underwear. Psycho killers will chop you to pieces. Especially young cute girls. This is just common sense. Also, never put your eye up to a keyhole to see if someone is out there, because 99.9 percent of the time, someone on the other side is going to jab a long pointy thing right into your eye and directly into your brain. If you do either of these two things, you are stupid and deserve to die. I have no pity for you. So when I see two supposedly smart science-like men, who made the choice to have their bodies shut down for two years while they fly into space to an unknown planet, start talking to a weird looking alien snake kind of thing, telling it, "It's okay. You're beautiful", I want to slap my hand to my forehead and say, "Doh!" That's like rule number one in visiting an alien planet -- DON'T FRIGGIN' ENGAGE WITH WEIRD CREATURES! They will eat you! It's a given. All foreign things want to eat our faces and then take over our bodies. Every single one of them. Even the things that look no bigger than your thumbnail want to eat you, and they will. Don't underestimate them. That's when they get you good. (Okay, so E.T. was nice and didn't try to eat anyone, but are you willing to take that risk?) Another rule when visiting an alien planet -- DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! Come on! If something oozes green or black crap don't touch it. Don't put your fingers in it. Don't lift it to your nose, and for all that is good and descent in the world DO NOT PACK IT UP AND BRING IT ON YOUR SHIP. Seriously! It will grow. It will explode. It will take over. You will die. That is a given. Now, one scene was pretty cool--the scene where she was in the medical pod-thingy and it cut her midsection open. That was interesting and good, but in saying that, there is NO way that anyone who had their midsection sliced open, say like a cesarean section, could then get up off the table a few second later and walk down a hall. Let alone run. I don't buy that. Yet, in this movie, with her stomach stapled, the female character did just that. Actually, she did quite a bit of stuff that amazed me for someone who just went through a major operation. So either she was super tough (wonder woman) or this movie was pushing the limits. I didn't buy it. But then again, I'm a wimp. To give the movie credit, it did have some pretty cool imagery going on and cool special effects, and if you're into science fiction and aliens, and you don't care if the characters do stupid, unrealistic stuff, or why in the end there is a blue alien with a pointy head (I didn't get that part--it didn't fit with the explanation for the rest of the movie. At least, not for me), then you will like this movie. Plenty of people did. When the movie was over, I turned to my husband and said, "I know I didn't get you anything for our anniversary, so consider my sitting through this movie your gift." Anyway, that's my two cents. I would rate this movie a C. Have you seen it? What did you think?  This is an issue I have struggled with for quite some time, but it's becoming more of an issue for me the closer I get to releasing my next book DESERT RICE.
I'm not a religious fanatic, but I do have a moral compass and "rules" for myself that I try my best to live by. But here's the thing...I belong to a religious affiliation who have even more rules that I should be living by, and the kinds of stories I find myself writing tend to break a lot of those rules. I'm a good person, but my characters make a lot of mistakes--some pretty big ones. These are the stories that come to me, the voices that whisper in my ear. Personally, I think I would be HORRIBLE at writing religious fiction type books, so knowing that, I don't even try. So why does any of this matter? I guess because I worry someone might mistake my stories as my own personal belief system. What I write about rarely matches up to what I believe to be true. Do I believe kids should be having sex at fifteen-years-old? Heck no. Do I believe it's okay for kids to drink? Never. The list goes on. Desert Rice deals with some pretty tough topics. I don't go into details, but there is enough there for a reader to paint their own sordid picture. This is a book that I know might offend several people of my church. I guess, even after all this time, I still worry about what people think of me. Sad, I know. So then why write the stories I do? Why write about zombies or child abuse? Why not just stick to my moral compass and do the right thing? Because rarely do I pick the story or its characters--they come to me. That sounds crazy, but it's true. So I write what I write, and I will let the chips fall where they may. I don't think what I write about pushes any major envelopes--there are MANY books out there with topics and word choices I would NEVER do--but to be a member of a religion that preaches building up the kingdom God, I'm pretty sure my books aren't doing any of that. Take Stephanie Meyer for instance (I know, I know. We really don't want to talk about her, right?) but her fourth book got some members of her religious group in an uproar. They didn't agree with what she wrote. They attacked her and questioned her standing in her church. Besides her writing not being up to par, she didn't write anything completely offensive or downright evil, but she suffered some backlash for it, regardless. So how can I be who I am, believe what I do, but write books that contradict some of those beliefs? Am I a hypocrite? Maybe. I don't know. There are certain lines I have drawn, certain "things" and word choices I would never use, but I have made some "creative choices" (for lack of a better term) that some in my religious community would say is wrong--I should be sticking to my standards, so they would say. What do I do? How do I walk that fine line? How do I explain myself...or not? What do you think? How do you balance it? Do you draw lines in the sand or do you write the story that needs to be written...no matter what? I'd love to know. |
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Ahh, the fruits of my labors...
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