Earth Day & Free Books

Happy Earth Day, everyone! What better way to celebrate than by snagging your own copies of tree-free e-books?  Now's your chance to get lost in Liz Baker's crazy world. Time for Death (book 1) will be available for free all week, but the other three are only free today. So don't wait, grab your copies today!  :)

Time for Death (Liz Baker, book 1) 
Coupon Code:JR34D
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/125903

Kill Me Next Week (Liz Baker, book 2) 
Coupon Code: QJ75L
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/80544

Killer Intentions (Liz Baker, book 3) 
Coupon Code: US52T
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/115726

Haunted by Death (Liz Baker, book 4) 
Coupon Code: CP99Q
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/262654

Sunshine Award

A big thank you to P.M Terrell. She sent me this blog award a little while ago and I greatly appreciate it. Stop by and check her out at www.pmterrell.blogspot.com

As a recipient, I am required to answer the following questions for all of you:

Favorite Color - Depends on my mood and time of the year. Right now, it's red.

Favorite Animal - Cats (even though I don't have any right now).

Favorite Number - 25. I have no idea why.

Favorite Non-alcoholic Drink - Is there such a thing as a favorite non-alcoholic drink?! Geez, if I have to choose I guess it would be Diet Mountain Dew.

Facebook or Twitter - I have both, but I like Facebook better. I think it's easier to connect with other people on Facebook.

Your Passion - My passion is my children. I do everything in my power to make sure they will grow up to be happy, healthy, and twisted adults.  ;) You should see my teens bedroom. Eek! 

Giving or getting present - I love giving gifts! I find more joy in giving than receiving. Maybe it's because no on ever tries to surprise me when I get a gift. I like happy surprises.

Favorite Day - Friday

Favorite Flowers - Anything that smells good.

The Sunshine Award and it's given to "those who creatively and positively inspire others in the blogosphere." Next week (April 24th) check out these wonderful authors who inspire me:

Robin Renee Ray
Amy Brantley

Love Hurts

CMSeter on SXC

Authors love their books, almost as much as they love their children. Our books are our babies, in a sense. But sometimes the love we hold for our stories, characters, books can hurt when other people don't love our work as much as we do.

Reviews are a part of being a writer. You're going to have people who love your work and happily tell the world about it. And then you'll have the people who for some odd reason think your work belongs in the recycle bin.

Reviews are opinions, plain and simple.  Everyone has an opinion and we're not always going to agree. Opposing opinions are what makes the world go 'round. What do you do when someone disagrees with you in the real world? Do you scream and holler and cry? Or do you try your hardest to respect their opinion, yet hold true to your own beliefs?

I would hope that you'd understand that others have opinions they feel as strongly about as you do.  The goal as a writer is to take the good with the bad, while staying true to yourself and your characters.  Keep writing, moving forward, taking on the world with your unique style and gusto. And always remember that the world would be a very boring place if we were all the same.

How do I handle bad reviews?
I bitch and moan to one author friend and my sister. I might even tell my husband if it's really, really bad.  And after a day or two of being pissed and talking it out with my peeps, I move on. I jump back into whatever it was I was working on when the notion to check my books' reviews hit me and ruined my mood. I talk to my characters, especially Liz Baker (she has great insights), and then I get back to work.

So what if Sue Pissy Pants hates my writing and thinks anything I would ever write will be utter trash.  "Hey, you, don't read it if you don't like it!" Even the bests of the bests have haters.  It's up to us, as authors, to let the haters be haters without allowing them to distract us for too long.

Sure, it's hard to look past someone telling the world they hate you and everything you stand for, even though they know nothing about you personally.  But stand tall, be brave, pull those thorns from you heart, and get back to work.  You must be doing something right, after all, to garner that much attention from a complete stranger.

Have a great day & keep writing!

My Favorite Things: Electronics

http://www.roku.com/meet-roku

In the spirit of oversharing, today I want to talk about some of my favorite things in electronics.

We live in an electronic world; there's no getting around it. And in the spirit of that amazingly unique revelation (NOT!), here are a few things I don't think I could live without.

 

• Wi-Fi -- Though not really and electronic thing, a girl has to have Wi-Fi to run all the other good stuff.  Duh!
• Dell Inspiron Laptop -- Yep, it's my electronic drug of choice. My computer, my filing system, my database of useless knowledge, my friends from all over the world live inside of it. I go into panic fits at the thoughts of losing my computer and everything in it. Eek! My old Dell had to be sent back to Dell because it wouldn't come on and I attached a frantic note to it begging the tech department to NOT format my harddrive.  Nooooo!  At that point I had half  book written and stupidly didn't have it backed up anywhere else.  Trust me, I learned from that experience and now I back up everything in at least three locations.
• Kindle 2 -- Yes, it's older, bigger, heavier, and probably not as cool as the newer models, but my Kindle 2 has been with me for a few years now and it holds 99% of my library. On any given day I have the ability to pick it up and start reading a new book. Or even snag an old classic I enjoyed as a teen. If it weren't for Wi-Fi and my laptop, the Kindle 2 would be top on my list.
• Kindle Fire -- While I don't use it very often, I do enjoy my Kindle Fire. I take it along when I go out of town overnight (anything longer requires my laptop). I use it to entertain my kids at doctor appointments or other "boring" events/tasks in life. While I don't use it for reading (I don't like the glare), I appreciate that I can pull up any of my library at any time and pick up where I left off on the Kindle 2.
• Roku -- Some of you may not know what this is, so let me just say that it's the best thing for television since SyFy came into existence. LOL!  I'm just sayin'...  My family enjoys the ease of Roku that we actually have three boxes in the house. When given the choice between a cable box or a Roku box for her bedroom, my teenager chose the Roku. All of them are linked to my Netflix account and you can pretty much watch whatever you want at any time of day.
• Netflix -- Yep, I'm back into the "not an electronic" territory, but give a girl a break. I've been a Netflix subscriber for about 5 years now and have enjoyed it tremendously. Aside from getting movies in my mailbox all the time, I really love the streaming aspect of the service. If  get bored I can just turn it on (on my Roku box) and watch movies and tv shows I've never seen. Works for me!

 

What are some of your favorite electronic items?