Category Archives: Uncategorized

For me, love is love. What I choose for my life might not suit anyone else but it is liberating to be able to make my own choices. This is such a special post, I’m so happy to meet Alec
The same with writing. I’ve chosen a less erotic style of romance because it suits me. Now I have to work a little harder to rebrand myself and reach out to a slightly different audience.
But it’s all good.

There’s an Amazon discussion group titled BBA, Books are Not Babies. The group ,mainly discovers and discusses authors who have lost perspective on the whole publishing game, and defend their books from all criticism, claiming their books are their ‘special babies,’ not to be criticized in any way.

Yeah these people can get a bit extreme especially when they start trying to argue with reviewers. In case you were wondering, no, you do not want to be arguing with reviewers.

However there are some significant similarities between producing a book and producing a child.

It can take months, or even years, to complete a book. During that time you build and grow your germ of an idea until it is

ready for the real world. When it comes time to reveal that book to the world you polish up the outside until it’s slick and shiny and just plain pretty. Same as dressing your child in their very best to meet the family.

Each time after I finished my first books I felt a vague unease, as if everything was a let down. Similar, I realized, to postpartum depression. I had lived and breathed that book for months and now…it was done. There was nothing more I could do with the book and it seemed there was nothing else I really wanted to do.

This is when some writers turn to reading obsessively, catching up on books they missed while immersing themselves in their own book. Some are able to immediately

turn to a new story, particularly if they’re under a time crunch. I tend to garden and usually come out of my stupor to look around a the piles of piles of who knows what that at one time pretended to be tables in my work area.

There’s nothing wrong with thinking of your book as your ‘baby’ as long as you don’t then decide to protect that baby from the cold cruel world. Do the best you can with writing, with editing, then slap that best dress in the closet on as a cover and send it off to prom. You have a lot more where that one came from!

Plus we have a LOT more great blogs in this hop. Check them out, then do the Rafflecopter magic.

http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=259911 Winner gets a Kindle, and a LOAD of wonderful books. Second and Third prizes are gift cards. And if you drop in on the Facebook group you’ll find discussions and recipes and contests all weekend. Check it out here:   a Rafflecopter giveaway//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

That would be the future of Romance writing.

Judging from the entries I saw in the LERA Rebecca contest, the art of writing Romance is alive, well, and awesome. Fresh ideas, expertly presented Any flaws were a matter of technical skills, not technique. All in all, a wonderful experience.

From a personal gain point of view, did the time spent judging these entries do me any good as a writer? Did they promote my writing, my story ideas? No, but there are things we do for love, because they simply make us feel better.

Speaking of what we do for love, don’t forget the upcoming Labor of Love Blog Hop. The Facebook planning page is now public. Check us out: Labor of Love Facebook page

As you know, I’ve been lovin’ Low Carb for a few years now, and sharing as much as I can with you. This week I made the Loaded Cauliflower to have some prepared meals for when I was editing, packing, just trying to keep going. Except I, well, I added some things. Fortunately this isn’t a sensitive recipe!

That would be this recipe: Loaded Cauliflower

 I used frozen cauliflower, about 1.5 of th e12 ounce packages. A healthy few handfuls, maybe a cup? of broccoli cuts. A package of bacon (12 ounces…ever notice how a package of bacon isn’t a pound any more?) substituted some cream cheese for part of the cheddar, for creaminess. And added a nice dollop of chopped green chiles. Maybe half a cup?

Here’s a really pretty version of a lovely song. In past blogging marathons I would dig up a sentimental song or two once in a while, sometimes when I was in on of ‘those’ moods. This time, I’m leading up to a special event.

With the very wise and welcome assistance of the exceptionally clever and multi talented Jami Gray, who understands how modern, non animal oriented, things work, we have put together a Blog Hop (pause for heralds to blow their long horns).

The theme will be Labor of Love. Clever, don’t you think? Labor Day weekend and a great list of Romance authors.

Yes! There will be prizes! Grand prize is a Kindle. It seems Kindle has become a fairly standard prize BUT this one will come preloaded with books from our awesome participating authors. The winner will be decided by Rafflecopter, which means the more you enjoy yourselves on the blogs, the better your opportunities to win, if not the Kindle there will also be gift cards.

How cool is that? What’s also cool is our graphic. Dontcha just love it!

I’ll be back with a list of our authors and reminders for you carve out a few minutes and come on down.

Clouded
By M.S. Kaye
A Sumerian water and sky god myth collides with a modern high school.
Ayanna is a math nerd, logical and rational, even cold, but Calder makes her feel things she never had before. Somehow, she’s able to accept it when she discovers he’s a reincarnated Sumerian water god. Will she be able to accept the full truth, that the story of Enki and Inanna has been reborn in a modern Ohio high school?
Release Date: 9/12/15
Inkspell Publishing
About the Author:
M.S. Kaye has several published books under her black belt. A transplant from Ohio, she resides with her husband Corey in Jacksonville, Florida, where she tries not to melt in the sun. Find suspense and the unusual at   Books By MSK.
To receive news on upcoming releases, sign up for email updates on her website.

Contact M. S. Kaye at:

Facebook  Twitter  Google+  Goodreads   Amazon  TSU  Linked In

This is a self indulgent post, with just a little bit of trying to be better.

I’ve always had ‘odd’ feet. Not bad just not great and heaven knows not pretty. My mother, on the other hand, had lovely small feet with high arches. Feet that she crammed into fashionable shoes for most of her life, ending up with some sore tootsies. I wore shoes because they were required, or when the ground was rough and stickery. And when it was cold, of course. Boots whenever I could. So the not great feet turned into “what the heck happened to your feet?”

These feet served me well for walking and some running. None of that jogging stuff, but occasional bursts of faster walking, especially when I was showing dogs. As long as I kept walking and sort of running, I could walk and run…if that makes any sense?

Then Tom went into the hospital for five months, I sort of stumbled through life wearing the easiest shoes to put on, with neat Velcro straps. Didn’t realize they were too short until after he had died and I tried to pick up the pieces. Then I found out I had forgotten how to run.

I go to a running shoe store…they should know, right? I explain my problem: when I try to run in shoes my toes can’t feel the ground, they curl up and I stumble. The running shoe person said “You’ve been wearing shoes too short, I can tell since your toes are curling under. And since you have a narrow heel I have to put you in these shoes.”

The shoes worked on my wide front/narrow heel foot but didn’t do much for the can’t run, although having more toe space helped a little. Off to the podiatrist.

“You have flat feet,” he says. Well yeah I’ve had flat feet on and off most of my life. This toes curling under is new, what can I do about it? Use an orthotic for your flat feet. But…my toes curl under when I try to run and having these nice special shoes doesn’t really help and…and…

The orthotic helped some. I had worn out my first pair of narrow heel shoes so I bought another pair, sighing some at the exquisite ugliness of them in their blue striped whiteness. And I started experimenting with different shoes to run and show dogs since even with the orthotic and the special for my narrow heel shoe, I stumbled. So for the brief time I was in the ring, I wore shoes that might not support really well but allowed my toes to feel marginally better.

Recently I thought I’d give the first running shoe experts one more try. On a whim, on a hot day when I was in Albuquerque for various other projects and had sweated more than usual, I pulled into the parking lot. Went inside, gave my sorry story. I was pretty much the only person in the store, and it seemed like I had grown an audience by the time I finished with my sad story of ‘can’t run and really want to.” Turns out the person attending was learning so I had the input of the store manager (who shall heretofore be identified as he who worked miracles) who advised which boxes of shoes should be brought out to fit my half size larger than last fitting feet.

Half size larger? That’s good, right? Means those toe stretching exercises I found on the Internet are doing their thing, right?

The third pair of shoes, in a shocking raspberry sort of color, wrapped themselves around my feet and said, “Hello…is it me your looking for?”

Hey, it’s a great song!

And…here are the shoes. I loves them I loves them. And when I put them on to run around the Agility practice, I actually RAN. Fire Dragon is in a state of bliss. He doesn’t have to wait for me any more!

They actually LISTENED to me. HEARD me and responded to what I was telling them. Seems that’s become kind of rare these days.

Now for the trying to be better part. I was babbling my happiness to a friend, who walks so much she leaves my FitBit numbers in the dust. She said something about her upcoming foot surgery.

Foot surgery? Did I know about this? Or was I too busy talking to her I didn’t listen?

A moment when I did listen. Photo by Shiri Hoshen

How many of us are too busy talking, or listening to ourselves, to hear what the people who matter most are saying? Maybe we…maybe I…need to take that extra second to hear?

Thank you for listening.

An ongoing punishment against females for the crime of being female has become a crime itself. “Nigeria made history by outlawing female genital mutilation.” Story HERE

Does this mean the practice of cutting into female genitalia will cease immediately? Sadly, no. But this is a crucial step toward shining a spotlight on the mutilation. And that’s a good start.

A very good start.

Good Morning Sunshine

How many of us can remember at least one incident where we did something strictly for love? Whether it was love of a partner, a family member, a place, an animal, or all of the above? Even knowing it might well be an uneven trade. We could give our all and in the end, have only empty hands and empty hearts to show for our efforts.

I went looking for one of the classic versions of this song, and found a gem by Aretha Franklin. What a unique interpretation.

We might even ask ourselves: Was it worth the time and effort and sacrifice? Each of us must answer for ourselves. In the meantime, there are morning walks, and good memories.

Making Memories