I made a decision the other day. I pulled my book off of Smashwords and placed it with the Amazon Select Program.

This weekend it is FREE!!! But today is the last day!

So far, I've had more downloads than any of my other books. I got up to #15 on the free erotica list. I'm so tickled that people actually have my work in their hands and are potentially reading. I know a lot of people just pull books because they are free, but even if only a few read it and leave some kind of feedback, I'll be excited.

Once the free days are over it goes back to $1.99.

Thanks to everybody that has downloaded it and left feedback on the site. You all are wonderful!

The Awakening Society is LIVE!!!

I'm so excited! After much fretting and frustration, my first self-pubbed book is live! I can't thank Donna McDonald and Maddie James enough for helping me out! I owe you girls lunch!

You can find the book here:

Smashwords

Amazon

This book is a little different, in that I'm allowing the reader to guide Book 2. In the back of the first book are two excerpts for the beginning of Book 2. They get to decide which one they want to see by following the link to my site and voting on the poll I have posted. I'm super excited to see the results!

The Awakening Society

I received the cover for my self-pub I'm going to be putting up hopefully this week. I have to thank Steena at The Authors Red Room for pulling together what I wanted. Check it out.

It's out for final editing now, and hopefully within the next couple of days, I'll try to upload it to Smashwords.

I'm so excited!

ALSO! I'm going to RT Chicago this year! I'm flat out ecstatic! Money's been tight, but when I mentioned it the other day, hubby told me, "Hell, yes you're going!" So, we'll wring the money from somewhere.

On the horse front, Kid is doing wonderful. He got a bit of a belly ache the other day, and I think it's partially from trying to eat his food before the mare gets it. May try feeding them seperately this week.Update- Left the mare outside while I fed Kid and man was she Pissed! Rattling the gates and snorting. Made me glad I didn't give her anything.
Kid is just a sweetheart. I taped him the yesterday and he's in the high five-hundreds now. So he's gained almost seventy pounds in three weeks! Then, when the food is gone, he turns and wants you to scratch his head. Cutie!

Well, off to write. Have a fabulous day! We've actually got fire warnings for the area. Huh...

An Update on the Rescued Horses...

Well, it's been a week since the new horses have arrived, and I thought I'd post a couple little tidbits I've learned about them.

Sugar is a bit of a prima donna. She likes her comfort, and thinks everybody needs to cater to her, and give her special attention because she's so pretty. I hate to admit it, but I kind of do those things. It's obvious she's been a barn horse, used to finer things that what I supply on my farm. The poor thing was shuddering with cold the other night, so I threw a blanket on her, and she hasn't let me remove it since. Maybe if it warms up another twenty degrees.

I wanted to try to ride her this weekend, but I think I ripped something in my shoulder, so those plans have been put on hold.

Kid, on the other hand, is becoming a bit of a ham. Now that he's actually getting food he's feeling better, and developing more of a personality. He's small enough he can stick his head through the blue bars of the fencing panels, and he's learned he can pull off his halter that way too. I put the weight tape around him this morning, and was amazed to see he's gained fifty pounds in one week. He eats wonderfully, and has good manure and bowel sounds, so as long as he can take it well, I'll feed him what he wants. I also noticed he has a blue spot on the iris of his right eye. It's pretty, and I'll try to get a picture of it.

I let him out for the first time the other day. Sadly, he went straight for the grass. My three original geldings have been wickering and pacing the fence to meet the new ones for days, but Kid ignored them for the food on the ground. He did eventually wander over to say hi, but only for a minute, then he headed back to the grass.

I kind of expect he'll be a little bit obsessive about his food as he grows, but I guess I probably would be too if I were in his position.

In writing news, I decided not to accept a contract for a short story I wrote. I'm going to self-pub it myself and see what happens. I have an email out to a cover designer, which I hope to hear from within a couple of days. I will post when I know the approximate date of publication.

Rescuing Horses FROM the Horse Rescue...

I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday. I know I did. Too much food, too much gift exchanging, but it was still wonderful to see everyone. Both of our families live in Ohio, so there was a lot of driving for us over the break, but it was worth it.

I'm eager for the new year. I started writing a couple of things with a definite plan in mind.

Then, of course, my plans went to shit. Don't they always?

A neighbor called and told me that there were horses being starved in the adjoining county, and they were looking for homes to foster the horses. The saddest part was, THEY WERE ALREADY AT A HORSE RESCUE! The woman running the rescue has over a hundred dogs and cats, and a handful of horses. The sheer number must have been too much for her, because the animals were suffering.

I talked to my husband about it, and he told me to do what my heart told me to do. This was a really big thing, because he is desperately allergic to horses. We have three now, and he's gotten used to them over the years, but with a new animal there is always an adjustment period. Sometimes, he doesn't acclimate at all, and I feel really bad about that. I wash a lot of clothes and vacuum about every other day. So, the fact that he was willing to take them on really touched me.

I told my friend that we couldn't take them until two days later, when we got back from a trip to Ohio. That sunday they brought out Kid and Sugar.

Sugar is a 13 year old registered breeding stock paint. Breeding stock meaning she doesn't have the paint markings- she'd a plain dark sorrel with a star. Beautiful horse actually. A bit smaller, about 15 hands, but perfect size for trail riding or small kids. I've gone over a lot of things with her, cleaned her up, trimmed her hooves, wormed her, and so far she has behaved absolutely perfectly. A bit hoggy with the food, but that's kind of to be expected if they weren't getting fed regularly. I'm anxious to saddle her up this weekend to see how she does. I believe Sugar was thrown in on the deal to sweeten it, so to speak.

Because Kid, on the other hand, is a mess. The poor little guy is severely stunted. Supposedly he is a 1 1/2 year old colt, but he looks more like a six-month old. His testicals have not yet descended, although they should have by about 6 mos. The withers, or the very top of the back bone, is so depressed my fingers can almost touch. Even with his winter coat on, (which has rain rot by the way) you can still see every rib. He hasn't been wormed for a year, and his hooves haven't been trimmed since then either. The backs, or heels, of his hooves have grown under, until he is walking on the back of his foot. When he stands to eat food, he parks his back feet under his belly because that is the way they've grown.

The good news is, he seems to have been worked with at some point, probably when he was a baby. He has decent ground manners that I think will only need to be refreshed, and he seems to be a genuinely sweet little guy. Now that he's been here a couple of days, getting regular food, his personality is picking up. He's a little brighter, and curious.

I was told originally that Kid was half Mustang and half Quarter horse. So that could explain away part of his small size, but when they were delivered, I was told that he was full blooded quarter, and actually available for registration. That makes his situation all the sadder, because he should have been twice the size he is now. Quarter horses are well muscled, stocky. Kid is anything but.

Because he's been so starved, I have to be careful how I feed him. Horses can actually gorge themselves, colic and die. So Kid has been getting about 7 small meals throughout the day. Some good healthy alfalfa, hi protein grain and all the water he can drink. His bowels have been moving correctly, so tomorrow I think I'll drop off a meal and increase the size of the others just a bit.

It's going to be slow work getting him back to a healthy weight. Although I'm only fostering them right now, I have a feeling by the time rolls around he can leave, he will be firmly embedded on our farm.

So, this is the latest little hiccup in my life. Why can't things be normal?

You may be a Literary Genius and just not know it...

I love odd little literary news items. There was a big one that occurred over the last weekend. Charlotte Bronte's little tiny 4000 word 'magazine' sold for almost a million dollars in England.

I guess she wrote six of them. Four are in the care of a Bronte museum in England, and one is still missing. The museum bid for the hard-to-read hand-written book, but was outbid by a French museum by 20,000 pounds.

Charlotte was only 14 in 1830 when she wrote the books to entertain her younger siblings. I have to wonder if she had any clue that her childish scribbles would later be fought over by two countries and be so valuable. I read comments on one of the articles about the sale, and the British seem to be very upset. What appears to grate on them the most is the fact that it was bought by the French, and it will be taken out of Bronte's native country.

Charlotte later went on to use one of the 'magazine' scenes in her novel Jane Eyre, one of the greatest novels ever written.

Switching gears-

A couple of days ago, I was watching a news segment on Earnest Hemingway's home in Cuba. If you read his biography, you will find that Hemingway was a tortured individual. He suffered illnesses, wars, plane crashes, electroshock therapy for depression, and eventually shot himself in 1961. He had the advantage over Charlotte Bronte of being recognized for his work, both good and bad. He won a Pulitzer, and eventually a Nobel Prize in Literature, but it took him as many bad reviews to get there as good.

Again, another legend, though from a completely different perspective.

The news anchor wandered through Earnest Hemingway's home with his grand-daughter Mariel, and they paged through an old manuscript. It was hand-written, heavily scribbled on, and, they remarked, definitely not ready for release to the public. There was too much profanity.

I guess what interests me the most is the dichotomy between the author's journeys, and how they ended up being two of the most well-known authors in history. It's heartening to know that they started out EXACTLY the same way I have- wanting to write.

I believe we have legends in our midst right now, recognized and not, that have changed the writing genre as we know it. Maybe someday WE'LL be the legends. We just have to perservere and write the very best work we can.

What author do YOU admire most for their work in the genre?

Thanks for stopping.

Recipe for Bacon Bark...Don't wrinkle your Nose!

Ok, I don't normally post recipes here, but I felt for the better good of Woman kind, I needed to post this. It's quick and easy, and people will DEMOLISH it!
The holidays are wonderful. Family, friends, presents, get-togethers. But with all that fun comes stress. I always stress more about the food I need to take than the actual traveling out of state to see family. What am I going to take to the Christmas party/ Thanksgiving dinner/ family get-together? My husband actually gets pissed at me because I stress so much.
This can be made the day before you leave, though, and travels perfectly.

NUT mixture-

• 1 cup pecan halves
  


• 1 cup walnut pieces
  


• 1 cup almonds
  


• 2T Maple Syrup
  


• 1/4 cup brown sugar, plus an extra sprinkle
  


• 1t. Pumpkin Pie Spice
  


• 1/2 t. Paprika
  


• salt and pepper
  
  

Bacon mixture-

• 6 strips uncooked bacon (I used 3 strips of extra thick bacon)
  


• 1/4 cup brown sugar
  


• 1/2 t. Paprika
  


• salt and pepper
  

Stir all of the ingredients in the nut mixture until everything is coated. Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Dice the bacon into small cubes. Mix all of the bacon ingredients in a bowl, then spread onto a non-stick cookie sheet. Cook 8-10 minutes, until the sugar is bubbling. Remove from oven and add the nut mixture, stirring thoroughly. Place back in the oven for 15 minutes, stirring halfway through. Serve warm or allow to cool, then break the nuts apart.

I served it the next day. After it cooled, I just threw it into a plastic container and packed it away. Super easy, and the men will absolutely love it. I made this for Thanksgiving, and had people calling me for the recipe as we left.

Enjoy!