Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

#IWSG for March 2018

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

This month's awesome co-hosts are: Mary Aalgaard, Bish Denham, Jennifer Hawes, Diane Burton, and Gwen Gardner!

This month's optional IWSG question: How do you celebrate when you achieve a writing goal / finish writing a story?

For the longest time, every book I've finished, I've celebrated by making cookies. When I get near the end of a book, I'll buy the dough and let it sit in the fridge. It's great motivation to keep me chugging through to the end.

If I'm having a tough writing day, I will motivate myself with a chocolate or two. 500 words and then I get that candy! Yes, I'm easily trained.

I think celebrating reaching your goals is so important. It doesn't matter how you do it. Writing is hard work, and sometimes there's no one else around that knows how tough it is or to cheer you. This is why we must celebrate ourselves. Bonus: when you're feeling happy, you get all those happy chemicals released in your brain and you feel even more inspired!

My insecurities: My current WIP keeps getting bigger and bigger. While this is thrilling in a way, I do wonder if it will be too big and thus lose all its power with that size. Am I putting too much time into things that won't matter at the end? But it all goes together... somehow. I think! Hopefully when I finish it and send it along to my CPs, they'll let me know if it is too long.

IWSG newsletter news: Have you subscribed to the IWSG newsletter yet? We have helpful articles and links, and a featured industry guest each month. For March, we have Janet Hise who is a writer that helps other writers achieve their goals.

If you're an IWSG member and you have some news you'd like to share with the group, drop me an email at christinerains.writer@gmail.com and I'll put it in the newsletter.

Monday, June 12, 2017

Jackaroo blitz and #MilesofSmiles


Title: Taming a Jackaroo
Genre: Aussie Cowboy Romance
Release Date: June 10, 2017
Cover Designer: Claire Smith

 Add to TBR

 BUY LINKS 



City girl and serial non-dater, Affrica Clarke travels to Boulia, Australia, to investigate the environmental impacts of the local mining company. Unless she proves herself and wins that promotion, she’ll lose so much more than a pay rise. Yet everything goes wrong the moment she lands in the outback. With no research equipment, only skimpy clothes packed by her best friend to help her score a date, and a tight deadline to submit her report, she’s screwed. So when a sexy cowboy offers to play chauffeur, she’s all over it. But she’s there to shut down the mining activities, not fawn over the guy who’s supporting them, no matter how sizzling the attraction between them.

Billionaire jackaroo, Sam Preston tempts fate as an adrenaline junkie, living each day as if it were his last. Angry and wounded, he’s in town to sell his cattle ranch to the local mining company and be done with his past—until he meets hapless city-chick Affrica, who has no clue about surviving in the desert. Sam doesn’t know how to stop being a daredevil even though Affrica reminds him of the happiness he once had.

Can Sam let go of the past before he loses the one person who's finally breathed new life into him, or is it not possible to truly tame a jackaroo?


Affrica Clarke is determined to prove herself worthy of a full time position as an environmental investigator and get the promotion she needs to keep supporting her sick father. Flying to the Outback, she's left hanging as her equipment goes to another destination and her bag is full of skimpy clothes her roomie packed. That's not going to stop her, though, and neither is the gorgeous billionaire jackaroo, Sam Preston. Wanting to forget his past, Sam is planning on selling his cattle station to the mining company Affrica is investigating. There's something about the city gal that hooks him in a way no other woman has. Will she be able to tame the wild cowboy or lose both him and her case?

This debut romance novel from Sidney Valentine is as sizzling as the Australian Outback. Affrica has a strong voice, fighting for a promotion and the ability to support her father. Sam is a man blaming himself for what happened to his younger brother and throwing himself into dangerous stunts as he plays careless games with his life. The tension between them is immediate and is kept taut all through the story. Not only are the circumstances of why they're in Boulia pitted against one another, but their inner struggles increase the turmoil. Yet their desire is off the charts!

Along with top notch romance, the reader is whisked away to little traveled places. Boulia is a charming town rich with a rugged flavor. Even the Bed & Breakfast Affrica stays in is unique. Huge cattle stations and deep caves. Then add in the little mystery of the Min Min lights, we have a magnificent setting. Plus the perfect place for a out of this world smoking hot first kiss!

I'll definitely be picking up more from Sidney Valentine in the future.


 BUY LINKS 
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2mU7AAD 


Sidney Valentine is an Aussie girl who loves everything about traveling. She lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and spends her time exploring the wild outdoors. But she always carries with her a writing pad in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. While she works in marketing during the day, she never stops writing her romance stories set in Australia as a way to rejuvenate from the bustle of the real world. She is often found at local coffee shops with her laptop, writing about people falling in love.



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http://kyralennon.blogspot.com/2017/06/miles-of-smiles.html

The wonderful Kyra Lennon and Clare Dugmore have teamed up again to bring us another amazing blog hop. With everything going on in the world today, we need to appreciate the little things that make us smile. Of course family and friends bring us joy, but don't neglect the little things.

Share today on social media what makes you smile. Your blog, Facebook, Twitter, wherever. You can use the #MilesofSmiles hashtag.

What a great way to start off a Monday!

Here are some little things that make me smile:
Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Cheesy monster movies.
The smell of autumn leaves.
Hummingbirds stopping in front of my kitchen window to have a peek in.
Superhero underwear in my size.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Friday Five for November 21, 2014


1. I'm so close to finishing my third and final D&D novella. I'll get some extra writing time this evening as my son is at a pajama party at preschool. I'll give it that ol' NaNoWriMo push. I have peanut butter cookies ready to be baked in celebration.

2. I had a few short story rejections recently. I have only one left out there in submission. I really need to write some new short fiction to submit. My first project: a Christmas flash piece for my local critique group meeting next month.

3. I don't know if it's old age, but I have developed a habit where I talk to the books I'm reading. Most of the time, I'm alone. I've never done this before. I surprise myself with it sometimes. I always imagined myself as the crazy old book lady. So I guess talking to books is a good start.

4. I ran out of chocolate this week. With all the writing I've been doing, my appetite has soared. My imagination must be getting a major work-out. I wish it translated into actual loss of calories.

5. My son has next week off school and we'll be visiting my in-laws, so it will be a partial vacation from the interwebs for me. Pop on by for an awesome sci-fi book review on Monday and a few D&D teasers on Wednesday. Have a great weekend!

Friday, February 28, 2014

Friday Five for February 28th, 2014


1. I did a happy dance on Wednesday after I unchained myself from my desk. I finished the 3rd draft of my superhero WIP. Woo-hoo! I sent it off to my CPs and betas. Then I celebrated with peanut butter cookies. On Monday, I will start revising WIP #1 again. I'm right on track with my writing goals so far this year.

2. It's been a tiring week. I've been babysitting every day. It only reminds me I no longer have the energy of my youth. I just wish the youths understood that!

3. My husband was sick on the weekend, and with stuffed up nose, he snores more than usual. So I spent two nights on the couch. I love my couch. It's amazingly comfy, but it always gives me weird dreams. One dream had 5 good versions of myself fighting 5 bad versions. Not clones. (I don't have access to Alex's cloning machine!) It was more like a spirit battle. It was unsettling. Thankfully when I'm sleeping in the bed, I only fight monsters and not myself, er, my selves.

4. I've been reading a lot lately, and I realized I have a favorite bookmark. Until recently, I didn't care what I marked my pages with. A lot of the time it was just a strip of paper ripped from a recycled scrap. Now I have to have a certain one. Do you have a favorite bookmark?

5. I got some BIG news this week: the 4th book in the 13th Floor series, THE HARBINGER, has been nominated for a BigAl's Books & Pals Readers' Choice Award in the category of Fantasy. I'm honored and excited. Voting starts on March 2nd and runs through to the 12th. Please consider voting for my book. I'll share my cookies with you!


Saturday, January 25, 2014

Super Sweet Blogger Award

Here are the rules for accepting the Super Sweet Blogging Award:

1. Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that nominated you.
2. Answer 5 Super Sweet questions.
3. Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award in your blog post.
4. Nominate a bakers’s dozen (13) other deserving bloggers.

5. Notify your Super Sweet nominees on their blog.

Thank you so much to the super awesome Susanne Drazic for this great award! 

The Super Sweet Questions:
1. Cookies or Cake?   Both? Do I have to pick one? All right, cookies.
2. Chocolate or Vanilla?   Chocolate.
3. Favorite Sweet Treat?   Chocolate chip cookies.
4. When Do You Crave Sweet Things The Most?   At night after the boy is in bed.
5. Sweet Nick Name?    Cookie. (My junior leader name in Brownies.)


I love to share my sweets, so I'm handing out awards thick with frosting to anyone that would like to take it. Let us know what your sweet treat is!

Have a great Saturday!