It's a Whole New World
I'm in the process of a major "Do Over" - my life as I knew it is over. Every day is Day #1. I left my husband, lost 55lbs, my job and my publisher. There's nowhere to go but up!
I'm self-publishing my now out-of-print novels, writing freelance articles and books on social media marketing for authors, expanding my marketing consulting work, starting a lifestyle magazine called SAXtreme (San Antonio Xtreme), and I've begun a major physical transformation on my way to stepping on a stage as a figure competitor at the 2012 Lackland Classic Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure Competition.
Click here for the full story.
Pimping Out Some Pulp with The Black Keys
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what is called “Pulp Fiction”. Not the movie, the style. This is the sort of thing I love to write. Imagine my joy to find the official video for a song I love, “Howlin’ for You” by the Black Keys, was completely pimped out in pulp with a bogus movie trailer! I love this!
See any similarities between Alexa Wolf and Sarah Stevens?
The Story That Must Be Told
In August I left my husband of twelve years (we’d been estranged for the better part of our marriage anyway) and started work as the Marketing Director for Sapphire Blue Publishing. By November, their long-neglected marketing program was on the upswing. Unfortunately, other factors had to be considered and my work wasn’t enough for the owners of Sapphire Blue to keep it open.
So I got laid off.
Some time ago I made the decision to put all my writing eggs into the Sapphire Blue Publishing basket. Loyal? Yes. Savvy? Not so much. Luckily, when they closed their doors they returned all of the authors’ rights immediately and let us walk away with our books and cover art.
That opened the door to self-publishing.
Many of my colleagues from Sapphire Blue Publishing are pursuing a mix of publishers and self-publishing but I realized this was a great opportunity for me to be completely independent. I knew great editors and graphic artists and I’d have the opportunity to rework some books I’d admittedly rushed through production.
The Path to Freedom
The Path to Freedom was my first full manuscript and my first published novel. Tina Gerow did the editing on it and I love it just the way it is. The 2008 version remains unchanged and is now available in electronic formats for 99 cents. It will soon be available in paperback from Amazon.com.
A Taste of Liberty
Sarah Stevens wins the lottery (so to speak) in this story but there is so much more to the story that the reader doesn’t know. I rushed this story when I should have taken my time and expanded on the details. They’re worth telling and readers deserve to know them. I’ll begin expanding this book to double it’s original size in January and hope to have some talented editors help me polish it for a February publication in electronic and paperback.
Freedom’s Promise
Another story I rushed through. I should mention why. While I was working on these two books, my marriage was falling down around me. I was desperate to create something of my own and tried to do it too quickly while everything else crumbled. It wasn’t an easy place to write from. It isn’t easy writing happily ever afters when what you thought was yours turns out to be a steaming pile of shit. So I’d like to work on this story too. Ideally, I’d expand on it in March and have my editor friends help me polish it in April. Then I’d release something with twice the original story in both electronic and paperback.
Stealing Liberties
The fourth installment in the Task Force 125 series was to be my very best work yet. It was under contract with SBP but not yet complete when they closed their doors. I have a hardcopy riddled with notes and bleeding red ink everywhere. The first draft was good but the final is going to be fantastic. Things happen in this story that loyal readers would never have imagined. Even I couldn’t believe most of them but, as any writer will tell you, there comes a time when you need to surrender to the muse holding a gun to the back of your head. So I did. Then life happened and I had to tuck the manuscript away for a while.
That’s when I met a character I’d written. He wasn’t just any character either. He was supposed to be a minor character that would be killed off. You know the kind, the Star Trek Ensign that beams down with the landing party. The guy who dies so the story can move along. But once I wrote him, I couldn’t kill him. I wrestled with it for three days but he’d become integral to Sarah’s story. Oddly enough, the man I met six months later would become integral to mine as well. Unfortunately, fact and fiction didn’t run parallel for me and Sarah. Regardless, this episode in Sarah Stevens’ story must be told.
Why so much detail, you ask?
Because I’m doing this completely on my own and it helps to have someone to talk to at the end of the day, even if it is just a blog.
There are stories here that must be told, people here you have to meet, and events that will change lives. I have the stories and I have all the words but delivering Sarah Stevens’ stories in a comprehensive manner means I need editors – few authors can deliver a book worth reading without them. I also need cover art and that means staying true to the other covers in the series and staying with the same artist.
So I took a stab at a Kickstarter campaign. Pledges were generous but they weren’t enough to meet my goal so I never saw any of them (kickstarter being an all-or-nothing proposition).
This is why some artists live in shabby little lofts, go without food and heat and scrape together what money they can to buy supplies to feed their muse. Canvas, paper, paint, ink, frames, covers…all food for the muse no matter what your form of expression may be. So, with a week left to 2011, and stories that must be told, I find myself changing strategies. I can do this myself. It will a great deal of time and much work, but it can be done and, in the end, it will be mine. It should make a hell of a story when I’m gone too!
Frumpy to Fit: Follow My Transformation
It isn't the toppings that kill me, it's the crust.
Have you ever eaten too much junk and felt lousy the next day?
Feeling fat and bloated from too much starch from pizza yesterday, I blogged today at Xtreme Transformations (the official blog of my frumpy to fit transformation) about how I’m ready for a cleansing fast. Today is my first day. This article from Mark’s Daily Apple explains just where I’m hoping to go with this fast.
Ever Felt a Little Foggy?
Interview with J. Paulette Forshey, Author of 33 Days Til Christmas
Today’s blog is actually an interview with author J. Paulette Forshey who is celebrating the release of 33 Days Til Christmas. One lucky commenter today will win a free ebook copy of 33 Days Til Christmas so be sure to leave a comment when you’ve finished reading the interview!
What genre do you write and why?
I write romance because the world needs more Happily Ever Afters. Since even the mystical need love, I enjoy writing paranormal romance.
Are you aware of any themes that run through your stories? If so, what are they?
I find the continuing theme in my books and short stories is that, you can be more than you realize.
What would you like readers to take away from your stories?
I’d like readers to read a book of mine and sigh with satisfaction when they’re finished.
What inspires your stories?
How much space do you have? I usually start off thinking “what if” and go from there. For example here’s an opening line from a short story sci-fi piece I once did: I once thought walking along an asphalt oval surrounding a sedate neighborhood in a rural county side to be harmless. (she’s kidnapped by aliens after this) I got this idea walking along an asphalt oval surrounding my sedate neighborhood in a rural county side.
Will you be attending any book or writing conferences this year? If yes, which ones? Where and when?
For this year I’ve finished, but I plan on attending the Lori Foster and Dianne Castell Reader & Author Get Together the first weekend in June, the North East Ohio Romance Writer of America conference in May, and the Central Ohio Fiction Writers conference sometime in September.
Do you have any book signings or author appearances coming soon? If yes, where and when?
My books are all e-books so doing a face to face signing is difficult, but I’m signed up with Kindle-graft to do cyber signings.
What is your writing schedule like?
I get up a couple of hours before the household inhabitants and work, then stay up a couple of hours after they go to bed at night. That’s my idea schedule; most times I grab as much writing time in a day as possible.
Do you have any other passions besides writing? If yes, what are they? Why?
I love sewing and designing my own clothes and cruising on the big ships with the hubby. It allows me to wear the eveningwear I’ve crafted, and it permits us to grab some much need “us” time. Yes, I take my notebook and write, too.
What is your best memory?
A two week cruise with hubby over Valentine’s Day. I did not want to leave the ship when it was over.
What is your favorite comfort food?
Warm fresh bread with real butter.
What relaxes you?
Music and if you throw in a glass of wine or some rum that helps, too.
What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
Sleeping.
What decade has been your favorite? Why?
This last one has been pretty good with the release of my first book and my other books.
What is your favorite way to promote your work?
On-line! I can be creative, witty, and charming in interviews, chats, and blogs, all the while still wearing my PJs.
Where is your favorite place to write? Why?
Kitchen table it gets the best light and I can keep an eye on what’s going on in the house.
What is your favorite fairy tale? Why?
Cinderella – because she rose from ashes to find her prince.
What was your favorite vacation?
A two week cruise covering the East & West Caribbean over Valentine’s Day.
If you had another career, what was it?
Lion tamer, oh, no, wait, I was a housewife raising our children while hubby was out on the road trucking. Well, technically I still a housewife and he’s still trucking so I can stay home and write.
If you didn’t write, what would you do instead?
I’d be miserable if I couldn’t write, guess I’d still be doing temp-secretarial work.
If you could have one wish, what would it be?
That no child in America would go to bed hungry, thirsty, or abused.
If you could describe yourself in only one word, what would it be?
Loyal
Are you a cat or dog person? Do you have any pets and if so, please tell us about them.
Mostly a dog person, but at one time we had 30 birds, 4 dogs (showed two in conformation & obedience), 3 cats, a house rabbit, and some fish. We’re now down to two dogs, a Jack Russell and a Basset Hound who are my best four legged friends ever. I’ve had some wonderful dogs over the years but these two are so a tuned to me it’s scary sometimes.
What is the one thing you most want to do that you haven’t yet?
Write that book that takes off and becomes a Best Seller.
When the zombies take over, what will you do?
Blast away with my zombie ammo, hopefully making many lethal head shots. I really don’t like zombies.
Vampire or werewolf? Why?
Vampire, oh, my, yes, tall, dark, handsome, and they love to neck. Being a dog person the werewolf is a little too kinky for me.
Please tell us about your most recent release and where we can purchase it.
“33 Days Til Christmas” is about Zipporah (Zippy) Campbell a terminally ill woman who helps the Archangel Gabriel find his Christmas Spirit again. There are plenty of twist, turns, and someone out to do Zippy harm.
Get friendly with J. Paulette Forshey online!
Website: www.jpauletteforshey.com
Twitter: @ForsheyJ
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/paulette.forshey
You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me
With the closing of Sapphire Blue Publishing, the Task Force 125 books are now out of publication.
I’ve self-published The Path to Freedom and it is available in all electronic formats for 99 cents at Smashwords.
I want to rewrite A Taste of Liberty and Freedom’s Promise to novel length and the 4th book, Stealing Liberties, is ready for editing.
Help put Task Force 125 back in action!
If I can get the Kickstarter support, I can self-publish all 4 books in electronic, audio and paperback!
Use the share buttons below
and tell your friends about my #kickstarter project http://kck.st/u2P1PE
Get It Hot! The Path to Freedom is Now Available for Only 99 Cents!
OK, I know I’ve been neglecting my blog for months now but, seriously, you wouldn’t believe it all if I told you!
So here’s the quick and dirty:
Sapphire Blue Publishing has closed its doors. The rights to all of my books and their covers have reverted to me and I am self-publishing the Task Force 125 books. I started today with The Path to Freedom. As you can see by the title of this blog, it is only 99 cents. This book may have gone into a few more hands if it hadn’t been priced so high for so long but I guess we’ll see. If you thought you might like to read it but $6 was too high, please check it out now. You can read the first 20% of the book absolutely free and if that doesn’t grab you then you shouldn’t read the rest of it anyway. If it does, I feel fairly safe in saying you’ll really enjoy the rest of it for only 99 cents!
If you do like it, please be sure to tell all your friends because when Sapphire Blue Publishing closed that meant I was laid off from my full-time job.
Easy come, easy go, right? 
My plan is to rework the 2nd book in the series, A Taste of Liberty, which is currently only 40,000 words, into 70-80,000 words. There were so many things happening in that story that were glossed over that’s I’d really like to take readers through. I have a beta reader and some great editors lined up so I’m hoping to have an expanded and much better book to follow The Path to Freedom within the next few months.
My original plan was to have free short stories available between these novels. Now that I’m self-publishing and handling the timing myself, I can finally do that. In fact, I’m really looking forward to that!
Freedom’s Promise will also be reworked. There’s more to that story I should let you all in on too.
The 4th book in the Task Force 125 series, Stealing Liberties, is still a manuscript but I am really excited about digging into that one and finishing it up. I can honestly say it is my best work yet. There are some new characters in Stealing Liberties that I think you’ll like. In fact, after writing one of the characters, I met a guy just like him. Sadly, I think he was looking for Sarah Stevens and I wasn’t quite enough like her.
That leads me to the next big piece of news: another thing that is changing is ME!
I’ve finally committed to achieving a lifelong dream of competing in a figure competition. Needless to say, I’m nowhere near ready! Luckily I have nearly a year to prepare and I have a phenomenal trainer, named Jonathan Acosta to kick my ass when I need it. You can check out my transformation blog here: http://xtremetransformations.wordpress.com/.
So now you’re up to date!
- I’ve recently had a huge block of time cleared (40 hours a week).
- I’m really excited about self-publishing my books and getting back into some heavy duty writing.
- I’m losing weight and looking better every day.
If you haven’t done it yet, please go check out The Path to Freedom.
If you have read it, and hopefully enjoyed it, thank you for reading it and please leave a comment below.
Hot Guys with Guns: Marshal of Hel Dorado
This guest blog is by my longtime friend and one of my favorite writers, Heather Long. I know you’ll enjoy it!
First let me thank Lisa for letting me show up to share my hot guy with a gun this week. Last month, I released Marshal of Hel Dorado in eBook, this month it’s available in print. Marshal of Hel Dorado is the first book in my new Fevered Hearts series that follows the lives and loves of two families: the Kanes of Dorado and survivors of the spirit fever.
The great thing about Marshal of Hel Dorado is it began with the simple idea of telling a story without modern conveniences like cell phones, cars or the Internet. I reached back into Texas history because cowboys are always hot, right? And what better leading man would you want than a Marshal? Needless to say, this little idea mushroomed into something much larger.
Sam Kane
Sam Kane is the eldest son and the Marshal of Hel Dorado. He focuses his attention on keeping his town safe and quiet. The son of Jebediah Kane, a powerful local rancher, Sam appreciates the good life, but understands you have to work your ass off to get it.
When a group of thieves pick his town to rob, Sam discovers there’s more to his world than drunken cowhands, stingy town businessmen and fussy churchwomen.
To protect his fiery haired prisoner, Sam will have to be ready to take on the town, the posse, the army and her brothers.
Think he’s up for the challenge?
The trading card says it all. But the best part of telling Sam and Scarlett’s story was introducing read
ers to their families. To Sam’s brothers: Micah, Jason and Kid and Scarlett’s brothers: Wyatt, Cody, Rudy, Buck, Noah, Jimmy and Ike.
About Marshal of Hel Dorado
In the shadows of the Old West, that untamed land, live bands of outlaws and outsiders. In a time when fevers could fell whole towns, these few survivors are marked. Marked…and forever changed. Sam Kane is the oldest brother, the steadfast son and the confidant marshal. He’s never met a problem to hot to handle until a gang behind a string of robberies across the territory set their sights on his town. Now with the bank’s gold inexplicably missing from a locked safe, the town hunting the elusive thieves and a passionate redhead with a fiery secret in his jail, Sam has his hands full.
Scarlett Morning Star lived in seclusion in the mountains of West Texas most of her life. She longs for adventure, but with seven very protective older brothers, adventure is hard to come by. When she tags along uninvited on their latest escapade, she is left behind during a bank robbery and finds herself in the custody of the very sexy town marshal.
The town wants to lynch her, the Marshal wants answers and her brothers want her back, can Scarlett keep it together or will her explosive secret burn them all? Her life. His badge. Their fight.
Read the first chapter on Heather’s website and keep up with her latest releases and more hot guys with guns in the months to come.
Is No Part of My Life Sacred?
Apparently not.
I’ve really bared myself in a big way.
But first, SAXtreme Magazine was launched on Sunday, November 13th. This project is a partnership with John Knotts. We started working on it in September and, in unheard of timing, we managed to publish our first issue in November. I’m very excited about this magazine and look forward to publishing an even bigger issue in January 2012. please click on the image and check it out. The magazine is free!
Click on the image to visit SAXtreme online!
And now on to my public exposure…
Jonathan Acosta of Get Sexy San Antonio has agreed to train me. I have approximately 361 days before the next Lackland Classic Bodybuilding Competition in which I have publicly committed to compete in the Women’s Figure competition. (So I really need to BRING IT!) I’m blogging my progress the whole way as well as writing articles for the magazine on it. In my blogs I bare my soul and my measurements. (Talk about painting yourself into a corner, huh?)
Click on the pic below to check it out!
Click on the image to follow my transformation!
