End of January

I can't believe it's almost the end of January already.  Where did the month go?

Unfortunately winter allergies have hit me hard, so for this Monday I'm going to leave you with a picture.  It's really how I feel today.

Off Topic

Well the AFC and NFC championship football games are now over, the Superbowl is in two weeks.  The teams I wanted to win didn't but they both play very good games and have nothing to be ashamed about.

While I'm disappointed, I realized that if these players give up they'll never get anywhere.  The same goes for writers.  We can't give up on our first rejection or bad contest scores.

Perseverance is what is going to keep us in the game.

While we may not succeed today, we have to continue to write, the more we write the better we get.  In sports, they practice, have workouts, and watch films.  In writing, we write, read craft books, do on-line workshops, read other writers and write more.

Don't every give up, you will get there no matter how long it takes you.

Cover of His For The Weekend

I received my cover of His For the Weekend, don't have a release date but will keep everyone update.

So here's the blurb:

Cassandra Adams has a problem and its name is Marcus DeLuca. The man is quite determined to have her--on his terms. Cassie has had enough of domineering men in her life, yet she's drawn to strong, virile Marcus. Tempted to get that man out of her system once and for all, she agrees that she will be his for a weekend only--but then he must leave her alone forever.

Marcus will do anything to get sexy, non-committal Cassie into his arms, into his bed--failure is not an option. He wants nothing more than to keep Cassie in his life, but he senses a secret that keeps her from being able from committing--from submitting--to any man. Will Marcus's special brand of domination free her to be his for more than a weekend?

And here's the cover:

So what do you think?

Authors, Reviewers, Readers

In this last week there has been a lot of conversations around authors, reviewers and readers.

What has been happening in a nut shell, is some authors are feeling the need to take reviewers to task for posting negative reviews of their books, then when other readers defend the reviewer the author becomes even more upset. Language used by the author is inflammatory, derogatory and darn right shameful (In my opinion.).

I do not agree with an author doing this, to me, it means the author is lacking professionalism.  Reviewers and readers are the mainstay of any authors career, they mean everything.  If readers don't read your book, then you have no career.  If reviewers don't like your book, maybe there's a reason for it.

I have received negative reviews, but I also realize what I write is not everyone's cup of tea.  As a reader, I pick up books I figure I'm going to enjoy, but that doesn't mean I enjoy all of them.

Reading is subjective, along with everything else in media.  What I like, someone else may not.  What they like, I may not.

The key is to be professional about it.  Reviewers are stating their opinion of the book good or bad, they try to be objective, but sometimes the subject matter isn't for them.  Does that mean they should be raked over the coals because they posted a negative review?  Not in my book it doesn't.

I sometimes read reviews of books I'm not sure about, these reviews both good and bad help me see if the book is for me. There could be something in the book that I don't want to read.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, good, bad or otherwise.  I have had spirited discussions with critique partners, family and writing friends when we disagree on something, but it hasn't damaged the relationship because we have different opinions.  We're all entitled to our opinions and that's find.  Just don't put the other person down, call them names, make inflammatory or derogatory comments.

As a reader or author or reviewer, how do you feel about this?

Happy New Year

It's hard to believe but 2012 is here.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  I had a nice one, but now it's time for me to get back to work.

I reviewed my 2011 goals and I didn't do too bad, I've made up my 2012 list of goals.  The biggest changes I will have this year is retiring from the day job and becoming a full time writer, plus a move to a new state to a brand new home.

This is exciting and scary all at the same time.

One of my goals this year is to be a bit more visible on social media, Facebook and Twitter.

So if you'd like to friend me on Facebook click here

On twitter click here

Have a great week.