She interrupts me. I interrupt her. Elle A. Muse is unfortunately not amused…
I'm irritated because my posts won't publish.
Except it’s March 1st.
Leap Day decided to take advantage and literally tack a day onto February. You know what, though? We’ve had a fairly snow-less winter, so I don’t mind. It’s been cold and very dry at times, but the majority of the snow hit us post-December. Now, if it’s still like this in two weeks, I’ll be whining:
Just in case anyone’s wondering.
Check out this post and the comment trail on Liz Fielding’s blog. Liz was recently plagiarized and so were several other romance authors mentioned in the comment trail. Kudos to everyone who helped uncover the thief.
It doesn’t matter if you downloaded a story for free when it was offered as such from Amazon or a publisher or the author herself. That doesn’t give you the right to RE-publish the story yourself! That doesn’t give you the right to change character names and titles and upload the story for your own financial gain. It doesn’t give you the right to upload the story under your name and then give it away for free, either.
You know what right it does gives you? The right to read the story. To save it for your re-reading pleasure.
Plagiarism is illegal. And authors will not stand for it. You can only hide for so long. The Internet will help expose you.
In case you didn’t know.
It’s been a long wait, but the audio book of BORROWING ALEX is now up at Audible, iTunes and Overdrive. I don’t know how to create a link to iTunes, so if that’s your distributor of choice just visit the store and type the title into the search box. Oh, and HEAD OVER HEELS is at iTunes, too—dirt cheap.
I’ve supplied a link to the Overdrive software download site, but I don’t have the console on my computer so I can’t supply a direct link to the book there, either. If you have Overdrive, just search!
Fine Print: If you like laugh-out-loud romantic comedies and/or romantic comedy movies (“Chick Flicks”), then the audio book versions of BORROWING ALEX and HEAD OVER HEELS might be just up your alley.
If you hate romantic comedy movies, maybe…not so much. But give them a try, anyway, and tell me what you think.
Here’s the audio book cover and blurb:
What’s a girl to do when her fiance won’t set a date for the wedding? Pretend to have an affair with the best man, of course.
Nikki St. James knows kidnapping Alex Hart and whisking him off to secluded Lake Eden is probably a little extreme, but her fiance barely seems to notice her existence any more, and she needs Alex to help her get his attention. Besides, she’s probably doing the college professor a favor – he’s so uptight a little R & R at a lakeside cabin is just what he needs. Not that she cares what he needs, or has noticed how handsome he is….
Alex needs a break from his quest to achieve tenure at warp speed—but being kidnapped is not his idea of a good time; especially not by his college buddy’s crazy fiancee! He’s not one to judge, but if what he’s heard is true – that she’s perfectly happy with an “open relationship” – why bother to get married at all?
Alex quickly realizes he’s been mislead about Nikki. Worse yet, he’s beginning to fall for her. Can he make her see the truth about her impending marriage without ruining his chances for a happy ending?
I have other great news regarding BORROWING ALEX, but I’m not quite able to announce it yet. Stay tuned!
I am now at 7+ weeks post-SBK laser eye surgery. Finally, I have a tunnel and some light to report. A few days before the 7 week point, I was very down. My eyes were so bad after working on the computer for only a few hours that I could barely see street signs while walking the dog in the afternoon OR in the morning (before getting to the computer). I was at my wit’s end. What else could I do to encourage more rapid healing or give myself some hope that I wouldn’t need to get glasses just to walk the dog? If there’s anything I can’t stand, it’s not being able to see. Those of you who’ve worn glasses from an early age will identify.
Then I woke up last Thursday morning and it was a misty day. My eyes felt great in that mist, so I dug out an old humidifier and put it in my office. I noticed an improvement that afternoon while walking the dog, and on Friday I actually saw some street signs clearly while driving (instead of having to squint).
I made another change. I had been using the various brands and forms (with preservative/preservative-free) of eye drops and ointments that had been recommended to me, and they really weren’t working all that great. Some would make my eyes feel dry again too quickly, and others were too gummy. My optometrist’s colleague had recommended Liposic ointment for night time use. Well, I decided to use it during the day, because it only obscures eyesight for a few minutes yet is very comforting. And I began using Refresh Lacri-Lube ointment at night. THAT I can’t wear during the day, because it’s almost akin to putting Vaseline on your eyes. The vision blurs, but who needs to see when they’re sleeping? Lacri-Lube at night and Liposic during the day made my eyes feel so much better. Not only are they gel ointments, but both have different ingredients than the Refresh Tears (regular eye drops) and Refresh Celluvisc that had been recommended to me.
While stocking up on eye drops (I should buy stock), I noticed another brand called Refresh Endura (that might not be available in the U.S.—see this forum—but is in Canada. The U.S. has something called Refresh Optive that I can’t find here, so I can’t compare them). Endura is not as gummy as Celluvisc, and is a different formula (Celluvisc and Refresh Tear/Refresh Liqui-Gel share various levels and viscosity of the same ingredients). Well, lo and behold! My eyes love Refresh Endura, and I am now using that in conjunction with the Liposic ointment and the humidifier, as well as continuing to limit my computer time during the day, then using the Lacri-Lube at night. When I just need something “light,” I use Bion Tears (also no preservatives).
This morning, I saw wonderfully while walking the dog. Today I had to drive to a nearby town to conduct some writing business, and I noticed that day-time driving is okay while on this combination of eye drops. The slower I’m driving, the easier it is to read the signs. So while I might still need driving glasses for highway driving, twilight and night driving (to be determined at the 3 month point—until then I’m just not driving at night or twilight), I now have hope, hope, hope (!) that “everyday” seeing (like taking walks) will turn out okay.
I can’t tell you what a relief this is.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that if you (1) live in an area with very low or almost non-existent humidity and (2) it’s a cold, DRY winter with barely no snow, that you should (A) NOT HAVE LASER EYE SURGERY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN WINTER. Let people in Florida get laser in December. If you live in a dry climate, for God’s sake, do it in March.
Now, I should temper that advice with the fact that I happen to be one of those in the minority of 2%, or whatever it is, who wind up with very dry eyes following SBK. There’s no way of knowing, of course, if you will be in that minority until AFTER you get the surgery. Unless you have very dry eyes to begin with, which I didn’t.
My other piece of advice is to experiment with the various eye drops/ointments on the market. Don’t think that just because your optometrist recommended one brand that it’s THE right brand for YOUR eyes. Because eyes are different. If I had stuck with my original regime, I doubt I’d be writing this post today. It’s just too coincidental that my eyes began improving when I changed to drops with different ingredients (although made by same company)…and then of course the humidifer helped, too. But on its own, it wasn’t enough. I needed that Endura. Sweet, sweet Endura.
So…at the 7+ week point, I’m thinking I would do it again, just not in mid-December. Or in July/August. Where I live, March and April sound perfect. So does June (it always rains in June). At least then, no matter how dry it is inside, you can go stand in the rain with your eyes open and get some relief.
By the way, did you know the chances of having more than one breech baby are very low? Well, guess who had two in a row? That’s right, me.
I just like being in the low percentile, I guess. Or, my body does. Whatever, I am now holding out hope that I will eventually no longer feel like I am wearing a pair of old contact lenses I can’t take out.
The proofs for the audio book version of WHERE SHE BELONGS arrived in my in-box yesterday from AudioLark. I proofed four chapters right away, so am about 25% through. I’m really enjoying the audio book! The narrator, R.E. Chambliss, also narrated BORROWING ALEX. She did such a great job capturing the romantic comedy tone of BORROWING ALEX that I wondered how her narration of an emotional romance novel would compare. My verdict? R.E. is every bit as good at narrating serious, emotional stories as she is at narrating romcom. Jess, Adam, Nora (Jess’s mother), and the secondary characters are all coming alive for me. I think that’s what I love most about my novels being made into audio books–how they feel to “come alive.” It’s a different experience listening to a book you’ve published, and I am so pleased with the audio rendition thus far. I hope my readers (listeners?) will be, too.
As for the Five Star Expressions library-hardcover edition of WHERE SHE BELONGS, I’ve registered for the RWA National Conference in Anaheim this July. I signed up for the Librarians’ Luncheon on Wednesday, July 25th, and I just found out today that Five Star is donating a box of my books to the Literacy Autographing that will occur in the convention center next to the Conference hotel. So I’ll be signing copies of the book for the public.
I am excited about this. I have only signed as Cindy once before, and that was a long time ago, when HEAD OVER HEELS was first published. I donated ten of my own copies to the Autographing, however, because there wasn’t a box of books by my station, my name placard and place were removed. Then I arrived with my books in my arms, and the volunteers setting up the stations realized they’d made a mistake. There was no room for me in the Ps, so I sat at the end of a table in the Ms. I managed to sell all ten copies of HEAD OVER HEELS that I had brought along, but it was a little weird to be sitting among the Ms.
I have signed as Penny once, and the publisher in question always donates books to the Literacy Autographing. Apparently, they had donated a box of Penny’s books plus had stuffed two more copies into a box of another author’s books. Good thing they did, because the full box of books was nowhere to be found and all I had to sign were those two measly copies. I quickly “sold out,” heh heh, but stuck around to speak to readers regardless.
So…my third Literacy Autographing is approaching, and this time cross your fingers it goes off without a hitch!
