romancewithsass.com

I spent a half hour after breakfast this morning cleaning grouse. My husband and boys went hunting over the weekend. The younger son got two and the older got three. All those hours on the skeet range sure pays off come bird season! They were plump birds and will make a good supper tonight with some freshly-harvested wild rice one of the boys got last month. I grew up in a family that hunts and several of my siblings still hunt, too. This past weekend one of my brothers and his two sons went along. It's an annual event they all look forward to. Archery season for deer is upon us, too, and this weekend my husband and youngest son will have their first outing. I'm excited for them. I see the remarkable memories they are creating. The experiences they are sharing with their father warms my heart. Kids need good memories. The money doesn't have to be there. The time does.

Awakening Allaire's reviews continue to come in very positive and it's selling! Yesterday I got another review on its trailer from 1st Turning Point. This is a terrific educational site. If you want to learn about writing, promotions, editing, the business of publishing, it's a good site to bookmark. Crystal Adkins, one of the site owners, reviewed my trailer and gave it 4 out of 5 parrots. "Parrots?" you might ask. Yep. Visit the site to learn why. Anyway, thanks, Crystal, and it won't be long before I have a trailer created for Avenging Allaire to send in.

I'm hearing from readers all around the globe about Awakening Allaire. Some of you know that I write on another big website - Forbidden Love. <waves to pals> These fans have been coming out strong to buy my book and they take the time to tell me so. As an author, that means so much. Not just because of sales, but because they like my work. If you haven't read Awakening Allaire, I just have one question? What are you waiting for? LOL My 80 year-old mom finished reading it this weekend. She's an avid reader and got through the steamy parts with one eye shut. She pronounced it very easy to read and interesting. She's wondering how the Avenging part will work out in book two. Sit tight mom, cuz it's going to come out in a few short weeks.

So, speaking of Avenging Allaire, have you seen the cover? Check it out  You can rate it at:  
Rate My Book Cover I think it makes me look like a serious writer. I love Awakening's cover but this one might bring in more readers to those who think romance is all fluff. It ain't. I have a signing on Thanksgiving night, in Ely, MN and I plan to have both books there. Today the Ely Echo is interviewing me (Thanks Tom!). It's nice to get some free ink. You have to balance your promotions among personal, print, and electronic. Not everyone is going to find you online. Not everyone is going to want to meet you. Not everyone will print your story. I will have a signing in Elk River shortly after that.

Avenging is in copyediting. That means they're looking for all the nit picky stuff like missing punctuation, wrong word choices, incorrect chapter numbering (yep, that happens), character mistakes (switching eye color) and all that jazz. This book sailed through editing even more cleanly than Awakening did. Not one scene change, no problems at all. It was pretty damn cool. And I hope that's what you'll say when you've read it. "Pretty damn cool." People are asking about autographed copies already. If you want one, contact me: margie_church@yahoo.com.

I've caught up on a bunch of work and commitments so I've had some time to resume writing my WIP, Love Bites. I really need to change that title. I'm thinking of Blood Lust & Shadows. The title has to infer vamps or paranormal, and romance. This book is truly a world traveler. Yesterday the characters were in Munich, Germany; Bucharest, Romania; Brno, Czechoslovakia; and Moscow. Brief stops were made to settle the vast estate of an ancient vampire and set up the ending but even a few sentences or paragraphs requires the research...cities and geography and history to investigate, find appropriate character names, come up with a setting. Whew. Took several hours. One of my beta readers lives in Finland (hey Ram!) and she checks my Europe connections pretty thoroughly. My goal is to finish this book by November 1. A gal pal in New Orleans (hey Jodi!) recently helped me with the medical issues in the next big scene so I'm hoping things will come together pretty quickly now. Once you start to gather readers, every new release gathers more so you need to keep writing. After this book is finished, I need to focus my attention on the children's book I have coming out in the spring and what might follow it. It is far too much work to write just one book and then quit.

I got the edits back this morning on a funny short story I wrote entitled, "Incinerate."  This is a really hilarious holiday story about a woman who can't cook and she decides to take the plunge and make Thanksgiving dinner for her family. My editor thinks she'll need AA if she keeps practicing her cooking! I based the story on some of the cooking blunders I've made over the years and some that other family members have blessed us (cough) with. It'll be free on my website and at Class Act Books. I'll let you know when it's posted.

Frost might arrive tomorrow, so today I'll be picking whatever I want to salvage of my abundant tomato crop. Canning appears on my evening agenda for the last time this season, I hope. I always chuckle when I see the boys diving into my homemade salsa. They wouldn't eat a fresh tomato if their lives depended upon it. Peppers? Onions? Shove them to the side. Combined, they can't get enough of it. Thank you, Tostitos, for wonderful chips to go along!

Grab some chips and salsa. Sit back and enjoy a good book, mine preferably, as the fall weather chills. Class Act Books is holding a contest on its website to celebrate its new look. Visit the site and click on the Contest Time button to get the details. You could win two print books.

Also, our authors will be online at the Mistress Bella Reviews site on Halloween afternoon. Meet the wonderful authors, publisher, and editors of Class Act Books. We're going to have contests, excerpts, and a whole lot of fun. We have sweet romance and erotica, sci-fi and suspense, young adult and time travel. In other words, something for everyone.

Until the next time.
The Churchlady