Awkward photo shoots

 As I search the internet for inspiration for my characters, I've come across some pretty ridiculous photos of models that have obviously been posed that way. At first glance, it could seem attractive, but when you realize the absurdity of it, it's suddenly laughable. I'd love to share some of these.

First off, this guy was supposed to be the inspiration for my character, except it looks like he's struggling to lift a heavy suitcase. I finally had to trash it and choose someone else, because I can't keep envisioning him this way, haha! Good posture is important.

This guy got stuck in a shirt that was too small for him, but he decided to just go for it anyway. 

This guy got his fingers caught in his hair.

Someone finished his favorite cereal.

He thinks he may have found a lump.

10-4, good buddy. This is how cops talk to each other.

This guy hates his shirt. The neck is too tight and uncomfortable. And probably itchy.

H

This guy is covering up a cold sore.

Look what I can do!

This guy has sore shoulders. He's annoyed he has to massage them himself. 

This guy tried a new brand of deodorant and wants everyone to smell it, too. 

Looking for good inspiration online is hard, but I guess if I want to check out male armpits or wardrobe malfunctions, I know where to look! What trends do you find hilarious?

Huge Summer Book Sale

 

Summer is almost here! I don't know about you, but that's when I get most of my reading done. And so, to celebrate summer, I'm putting all of my novels on sale! I didn't get to change the price of "The Trouble with Prince Charming" on time, and because it's book 2 of my Magical Troubles series, I've decided to list it as free. However, it won't be available until Saturday, May 17.  My sale goes until Monday, May 19.  Check out my sale here on Amazon! 

In other news, I've finally gotten started on book 6 of my Honeyville High Romance series. I've been planning it out for months, but until I could get the beginning to work, I've been stuck. The past two days have been a lot of progress, and I'm excited for where it's heading! I'm not going to go into many details yet, but I am going to say that it's a Christmas book! If you love Hallmark Christmas movies, then I think you're going to love this book. Fingers crossed I get it published before Christmas. 

As I was online a few days ago, I stumbled across a goldmine idea for the book after that! I'm very excited to start planning for that, but unfortunately, it'll have to wait until book 6 is written. My brain can't create multiple meaningful stories at a time, so I'll have to focus on it next year. 

What books are you reading right now? How big is your TBR list for the summer? I've got a few I'm planning on reading, some new authors and some old. I'm definitely planning on checking out the "Only Magic in the Building" series. It looks so much fun!

Inspiration for "Falling for Finn (and his dumb duck, too)"

 

When I began my publishing journey years ago, my purpose was to write books that were clean, light-hearted and full of humor. I wanted stories that were fun with laugh-out-loud moments for all ages to enjoy. Though the majority of my ideas come from my own imagination, occasional real-life events have made their way into my books, and the one that inspired my latest book, “Falling for Finn (and his dumb duck, too),” was too good to pass up.

I’d been driving my kids to school when something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I swore that the house I just passed had a dog up on top of the roof. I looked through my rear-view mirror and sure enough, there was a black and white dog pacing back and forth! I couldn’t believe it had found its way on a roof of all places! I turned the car around and anxiously knocked on the door, but when a girl answered and listened to my frantic news, she surprised me by her nonchalance. She told me that he got up there all the time. I didn’t believe her of course, but after driving by day after day, sure enough, there he was, even appearing occasionally with another brave dog. I couldn’t believe it!

I thought this experience would make a hilarious way for a couple to come together for the first time, and as I considered the type of character this could work for, I remembered Ava Presley. She’s a character who’s been lurking in the background of several of my Honeyville High Romance books, happily gossiping and trying her best to destroy everyone’s hopes and dreams, and especially their relationships.

Writing a romance for someone with such a fiery personality, though, was going to be a challenge, and I thought the perfect way to do it would be as a modern-day retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.”

As I thought about who would work as Ava's love interest, I knew he would have to be a pretty special guy to put up with Ava's sass and negativity, and he'd have to have a bit of sass himself. Finn Hayward turned out to be a big tease, never really taking what Ava says too seriously, and I felt like he balanced her out pretty well.

Ava was still going to be a tough egg to crack. Finn alone was going to have a hard time breaking through the walls she put up around her heart, but as I considered what might soften her tough exterior, I thought befriending an unlikely animal might do the trick. And what better animal than a terrorizing goose that everyone hates?

I grew up with pet ducks, so some of the things Ava experiences in this book with Hank the goose have actually happened to me in real life. For instance, my dad would frequently let the ducks into our house, and they’d always flip-flap their way across the linoleum kitchen floor and over to the fridge where they’d wait for him to open it up and then gobble the lettuce he’d keep in the bottom drawer. With stories such as these, I hope that, despite Hank’s initial bad temper, readers will fall in love with him and see how loveable even a mean goose can be! 

One fun thing I wanted to include in the story was the irony of Ava's last name. With a name like Presley, it's probably going to be assumed that she has inherited a voice that could land her fame, but in fact, she does not have a beautiful voice. In fact, she hates her shrill singing voice. I wanted to turn her weakness into a strength, though, and thought that with a lead in a musical with a character who was more brash and outgoing, her non-traditional voice would work to her benefit. "Once Upon a Mattress" seemed like the perfect fit.

For anyone not familiar with this musical, it's satirical rendition of the fairytale "The Princess and the Pea." I'll admit that when I first watched the musical for research, I was not impressed. It was over the top and silly. But once I caught on that it wasn't supposed to be serious, I finally began to enjoy it. It seemed like the perfect play for Ava to star in.

Writing Ava’s redemption story has been an absolute blast. Between her hilarious insults and Finn’s quick wit and occasional off-the-wall antics, this two have easily become one of my favorite couples ever written. Like my other books, “Falling for Finn (and his dumb duck too)” is full of humor and heart, focusing on forgiveness, friendship, and acceptance. 

  

 

 

Publishing one, two, three (four)!

 In the midst of getting the 4th of my Honeyville High Romance book ready for publishing, I decided to follow a dream I've had for years of getting a picture book published! Years ago, I wrote Pirate ABCs for my young sons who were going through a serious pirate phase. In my sad attempt at making a picture book, I bound some cardboard together, glued on white index cards, illustrated the pictures with markers, and presented the book to my children.

But then, I learned how to edit photos.

Each book that I've published, I've designed the covers and learned more and more skills required for editing the pictures. I've learned about fonts and shadows and cropping and fading and all that good stuff. It wasn't until about two months ago that I finally got the idea to put my skills to the test and use my paid subscription to DepositPhotos to make my book a reality. I got it done in about a week...and through a lot of trial and error... finally published my first picture book!! Pirate ABCs.

It was tricky learning how to do a full spread over two pages, but once I figured it out, I felt confident that I now knew what I was doing.

So then I published a SECOND picture book. This was a book I originally "published" years ago through Snapfish, a photo company that turns photos into books. I cheated and made a picture book out of it, instead. Check out my amazing editing skills, haha! 

I haven't advertised this book yet, because I'm STILL waiting for my edited copies to arrive, but here's a sneak peek in what one of the pages of "Bird in a Tree" NOW looks like now that I've learned how to properly edit photos, haha!

On top of these two books, I finished my YA romance, "Never Will I Ever," and it will go live in just nine days! It's been a busy couple of months, but it is so much fun seeing all my hard work come alive!

And, because I've totally missed posting about my last book, I want to include book 3 of my Honeyville High Romance series, "Summer Kisses and Boy Bands." It released September 2022.

Being an author has brought me so much happiness, purpose and satisfaction, and I've got to say: I'm pretty lucky that my husband is so incredibly supportive of me and that he's always pushing me to follow my dreams.

Happy Singles Awareness Day released

 It's always amazing to me how quickly time flies. Some days, the hours just drag on, but when I look back, so much time has passed! I wanted to introduce my 5th and latest release,  "Happy Singles Awareness Day," and am a little embarrassed to admit that it was published four months ago! 

I can't believe it's been so long! While writing "Lucky in Love," I realized that young adult romance is definitely my preferred genre, and I knew I needed another book in this series next before I could focus on a younger audience with more fun and less focus on romance. My favorite thing in the world is watching new relationships unfold, and that goes for the stories I write. As I've mentioned before, I'm not usually in control of the plot--my characters tend to have the final say. So, I'm usually a little surprised myself to see how these relationships end up working out.

"Happy Singles Awareness Day" had been in my head for quite some time, though not in the way you might think. I came up with the title long ago, and had been brainstorming how to form it into a viable book. Because I am a pantser and struggle with coming up successful outlines, I had to finally just take a leap of faith and write it and hope that it all came together. I was a little nervous to write it, because I didn't want Carlee's breakup with her long-term boyfriend to be too much of the focus. I tend to write on the lighter side of things, and was worried it might be too much drama. But of course, if you read it, you'll see that this book is full of drama, but mostly from Carlee's mom.

You see, the trouble with Carlee's mom is that while I was writing this book, my husband and I watched our favorite movie, "Pride and Prejudice," the BBC version, which ended up taking several nights. Why is being an adult sooo obnoxious sometimes? Anyway, as a result of being submerged into that movie for several days, Carlee's mother, who is a pushy control freak, accidentally became Mrs. Bennett. It took a lot of editing and work, and with the help of my beta readers and my editor, I was able to tame down her crazy. Mostly, haha. There is still lots of drama, but hopefully there's enough humor and swoony moments to tame it down a bit.

As an author, I typically am only able to work on one book at a time, publishing a new book every year. However, this year is different. I've got three books I am working on since I've been struggling keeping my focus. My first book is "Beans." This is a modern-day Jack and the Beanstalk twist that I started writing two years ago. I've had to completely rewrite the story and change some characters a bit, but I'm really excited for this one. This will be Book 2 of my Forest Hills High Magical Tales series. (Book 1 is Evan the Horrible). This series is mostly magical with just a touch of romance.

The second book I am working on is Book 3 of my Honeyville High Romance series. So far, the title is, "Boy Bands and Summer Kisses," but I'm not set on it. This is a fun one where my character gets to date the lead singer of her favorite band.

And lastly, the third book I'm working on is "Kissing the Prom Queen," Book 3 of my Magical Troubles series. This is a spinoff of the Princess and the Frog. I'm also excited about this one, but am stuck on how she's going to communicate as a frog. I'm hoping I can figure it out soon so I can get back to work on this.

With three books in the works, I'm still fairly certain I'll be publishing only one by the end of this year, but next year may possibly be the year I publish two. We'll see. It can be tough finding time and inspiration with a young child still at home. But in just a few months...he'll be going to Kindergarten! It's only half day, so I probably won't get tons of writing time, but maybe he'll start needing less of my time. 

So tell me, what's going on in your lives? What book are you hoping I'll finish first? Let me know!

Get your copy of Lucky in Love FREE March 17 and 18!

 

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year, I'm offering my book, "Lucky in Love," FREE today and tomorrow! 

This book was so much fun to write. Kat Ellison has had nothing but bad luck, and she's finally able to pin it down onto Sam Buxton. Every time he's around, something goes wrong. Terribly wrong. All she wants to do is get rid of him so she can get on with her life, but her eccentric grandmother has other ideas for her. 

This clean, fun romance is great for young teens and anyone else older. 

FREE BOOK!!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was wonderful and low-key. Because our home used to have part of the basement as a rental unit, that means that we have two kitchens, which of course means TWO OVENS! I woke up at at 7:15 am, got the turkey prepared in the upstairs kitchen, then had all of our pies baking in the downstairs oven. I felt so spoiled! We were able to eat by 1:30 pm--a new record! 

In lieu of expressing gratitude during this time, I am offering my book, "Evan the Horrible," for FREE as an expression of my gratitude for my readers! This freebie goes from now until December 1, 2020. This book is a contemporary teen coming-of-age story that has plenty of magic and humor, and a bit of fun sweet romance. Grab your copy today before it's gone!!