22 May 2015

Shiny Objects

By the lack of updates on this blog, you can probably guess that I've been a bit distracted lately.

Many things distract me. Things like, shiny objects, Oreo cookies, sleep, my day job, Netflix, the internet, puppies, candy, shiny objects, shoes. Shiny shoes.

You see, there are so many lovely things in the world.

 Well, the past month or two I've really been pouring on the steam so that I could release my own shiny object out into the world.

It didn't come without blood, sweat and tears. I've rewritten this novel four times. All for the better. My cover artist had some personal issues come up and couldn't finish the cover art, so 4 weeks ago today I was desperately trolling the web and asking other authors to find a new cover artist. My day job decided that they can't live without me and asked me to work more hours. There was probably a paper cut in there somewhere (thus the blood). And let me tell you, without my adorkable husband to help me figure out formatting for e-books and Createspace, this may not have ever happened.

But it did! And now I have a shiny, new book to show for all of my efforts.

This is the third book I've published, and my first Indie adventure. This story showcases just a snippet of the countless hours I've spent in a dojo, which was really great. As a matter of fact, if anyone from any of my Kempo classes reads this, you just might recognize a drill or two. Maybe Sensei's twisted sense of humor. Or that could be mine.

Letting things go isn't always easy-there is always something that could be improved-but why beat a dead horse? It just smells bad and goes squish.

So to avoid any more squishing, here it is!

Fractured Memories
 
Sixteen year old Wendy never knew the world before the Starvation. She’s learned to put her trust in her knives, and her confidence in her fighting ability. When the Skinnies attack her compound, she's the lone survivor.

Injured and near death, Wendy is rescued and nursed back to health by mysterious strangers. Her saviors offer her a place among them, but trust has never been one of Wendy's strengths, and suspicion soon leads to evidence that these people might be the group who killed her family.

The decision to get her revenge, and take the settlement down from the inside out is easy. Keeping her distance from those she must befriend in order to make it happen proves to be much more difficult.

There will be blog tours and maybe a party or something. But that'll be later. For now, I have a book up on Amazon. Nook to come.


One great snippet, the first e-book I sold was in the UK. Now that's cool!

11 May 2015

Just a Quick Google-Seriously

Getting married is all about sharing. My least favorite (well, besides the fact that boys are stinky) thing that I now get to share with my husband is his student loans. We've been busting our check books and getting them paid off really fast. Which has been great.

We were ready to pay one off, but had to go to the U of U to make the final payment. I thought back to my college days, and remembered the weekly mad dash to get off campus every Friday. What better time to wander up there?

So my hubby and I decided to meet for lunch and then go to the financial office last Friday. We even met at 12:30 so we could avoid the lunch rush.

What I didn't realize, what I never would have thought about, is the fact that last Friday was graduation day.

Oops.

We get to campus and there are people everywhere. There are signs saying to park at the stadium and take the shuttle over to the ceremonies.

Naturally, the building we a want is right in the middle of all of the ceremonies.

There were no parking spots to be had.

And let's not forget that people get stupid in groups, and they get high on the scent of cheap flowers, the sway of tassels and the itchy fabric of creased graduation robes.

What should have taken us 15 minutes, ended up taking us a good hour.

Did I forget to mention the ominous clouds circling campus? It started to rain just as soon as we found a parking spot. Go us.

Luckily, my hubby is persistent (aka, he hates losing, even if it is to a plan to pay a school) and we made it to the financial office building place with only wet clothes to show for our efforts. We were two of four people in the entire place, and it took us less than five minutes to get the deed done.

At that point, we rushed back off campus and found a place to eat. The crazed graduation crowd was right behind us, but we beat them to Red Robin and sneered as they waited.

Yes, it worked out. The morale of the story is-there's always time to do a quick Google search. It could save you time and frustration. And maybe your life. Or someone else's life if you're the type to get enraged about mobs of insane people.