Tin Foil Roses

 Yesterday was mother's day. I've never really been one for flowers. They're nice and I do enjoy getting them, but they wither and die and you're left with nothing but the memory of, "hey remember that one mothers day when you got me flowers?" I'm more of a present girl. I like to tear away wrapping paper and, not only look at, but hold my new gift. Try it out. Make it mine.

After ten years of marriage, my husband knows this all too well. So I never expect flowers. I expect gifts. And every once in a while he gets it right.

I woke up yesterday to a gift, yes, but also a dozen tin foil roses.

Odd, right?

I couldn't tell you when the first time he did it was. I don't think it was when we were dating, though I could be wrong. I don't remember the first time my husband handed me a rose made out of a candy wrapper, or a heart made out of twisty ties. But I do remember that I loved it. I've even kept most of them through the years.

My husband isn't a particularly romantic man. He never really has been. Most men aren't. That's why love stories exist, right? So we can read about the perfect man since he doesn't actually exist. 

But every once in a while he'll do something, which to an outsider would appear to be nothing special. Maybe even a little strange. But to me, it kinda means the world. And isn't that what romance is? Knowing what speaks to the other person's heart?

As weird as it may seem to others, those foil roses meant more to me than if he'd filled the entire house with real ones. It's our thing. It's what he does to tell me he loves me. It's how I know he actually thought about me, not what just to get me.

Love stories will always make us swoon and wish. But don't forget what real romance is. And watch for it. Sometimes it doesn't seem like anything special; a short note in your purse, a candy wrapper rose, a smile across the diner table. 

But if he loves you, it's there.

AKASHA-For free!

I have a love/hate relationship with August. Growing up it meant going back to school. Now it means I will be hot and miserable for another 4-6 weeks because I chose live about as close to the sun as you can get while still being on earth.

But it also happens to be the month of two of the best occasions to celebrate in my life. My birth, and my anniversary. And they happen to be five days a part.

To celebrate these occasions I'm offering AKASHA for free August 11-13. I know, I know. I should have posted this much sooner, but honestly, I have no idea who reads this who isn't a friend on facebook. So just by chance, if you are reading this, and you haven't read my book, now is your chance. (And if you have, tell your friends!)

And as an added bonus, here's the original cover. You know, when it was just printed for me and family members. I still love it! Thanks Hollie Thompson!

To review or not to review

I read a blog post not too long ago that discussed whether or not authors should post book reviews on their blogs. It got me thinking. I like to post reviews mainly because I'm a rather opinionated individual and telling people what I think of a book is fairly easy for me to do. Mix that with the fact that I want to know what the authors I like, like to read and I actually have something to post about. ;)

However, I get why posting reviews would be a bad idea. Who am I to critique an author when I, myself, haven't mastered the craft? There have been a couple of reviews where I've gone off on the author a bit, and now I feel both bad and stupid. But I think the majority of my reviews have been positive.

So, I think what I'm going to do is only post about books I really liked. I'll still give tid bits of info of why I liked the book to hopefully steer people in the right direction (because my taste is impeccable), but for the most part I'll keep my opinions to myself.

About writing anyway.

I think introductions are in order

I've been putting off this post for while now, though I'm not really sure why. The best explanation I can give is that I believe in jinxes. Really I do. I've had it proved to me too many times to ignore, and I guess I just figured if I put it out there, into the cyber world, I'd jinx myself and never finish the book.

I'm happy to say I finished the first round of edits on Serenity! (I would say something snarky to the universe right now, but I could still be jinxed. I take no chances!)

So, I am happy to finally introduce to you, Serenity Chase. AKA-The main character of Serenity. (Thanks to my nephew Nate for the awesome drawing!) I know what you're thinking. Wow! What an original title, Heather, (in your most sarcastic tone). The truth is, I don't want it to remain that title, I just haven't found the right one yet. I'll think of that more as I go through it again.

I'll give more information on the book over the next few weeks/months, but for now I'll just leave you with the summary.

Serenity Chase is in the business of fiction. All those creatures you’ve fallen in love with, all the ones you hate, are real. They just live in a parallel world. As part of the Inter dimensional Syn Alliance, Serenity’s job is to keep them there. It’s a job she was born into, a job she can’t get out of.

So when a dragon crosses over, Serenity thinks it’s just another assignment. She didn’t count on the dragon stealing a boy from her junior English class and hoarding him like he’s the feast of the century. Getting him back is tricky. Keeping him safe, difficult. Not falling for him, impossible.

As if having a crush on a guy the ISA didn’t choose for her wasn’t bad enough, she finds out he’s a major key in discovering a secret the ISA wants buried. Keeping him safe means keeping him secret. Now Serenity is lying to the ISA; putting herself at risk of being sent away to one of a thousand torturous dimensions.

It’s worth it. At least it will be if she can discover the truth before they do.

Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

If any of you have plans to edit your current MS then I suggest you not decide to also paint your house. The hubby had his long weekend and that's what we decided to do. My body hurts and I got nothing done besides scraping paint off my house. Oh, and pressure washed it too! That was kinda fun. It's like a water gun on steroids.

Anyway, I did finish reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Several days ago in fact (see above for reasons this was delayed). I have mixed feelings about this book. I will probably never read it again. Maybe if my girls have to read it for school or something. But I enjoyed reading it and I totally understand why it's one of those books they make you read in school. Well, some schools do. Mine didn't, hence me just reading it now.

At first I didn't really get it. It's from the girl's pov. She's young. She talks about her day to day life. If the writing hadn't been excellent, I may have stopped, but Lee has a way of keeping your interest (That and it takes place in the South). Then the actual story starts to be weaved in. And I started thinking, you know, this book would be so much more interesting if it were told from Atticus' pov.

It wasn't until the end that I got it. The girl, Scout, is sitting in class. Everything has already happened with Tom (sorry, don't want to give spoilers here) and her teacher starts talking about what a bad man Hitler is because he doesn't like Jews. I think that one scene there is really what the book is about. I mean I hadn't read it before a couple of days ago, but even I knew it was about racism. But it was more than that. We tend to find faults with other people and don't see when we're making the same mistakes. And having the story told from a young girl's perspective, that point was made loud and clear. When her teacher talks about Hitler, she's sitting there thinking, how is this different from what we've just done? Are doing?

I'm not naive enough to think we don't have problems with racism today, but you have to admit, it was so much worse then. A book like this makes you stop and think. Maybe that's why it was so controversial when it came out. People didn't want to stop and think. But even today, 50 years later, we can take something from it.

The southern draw

It would've been cool if I could do another book review this week, huh? Ya, well, too bad. Life gets in the way sometimes, doesn't it?

I'm currently reading To Kill a Mocking Bird. The book club I'm in seems to choose classics for January. Not that we actually say, hey let's pick a classic to start the year off, it just sorta happens that way. Which is good. But after last years The Count of Monte Cristo debacle (of course it was only a debacle to me), we went with something a little easier to read.

It is not one of those books that you would describe as gripping. At least not yet (see above-haven't finished). But it has that classic feel to it. The kind of book you want to take your time reading. And to get to the point of what this post is really about, it's Southern.

For some reason I'm drawn to books that take place in the south. I really have no idea why. Even in school, learning about the civil war was something that actually kept my attention. And if you know me, you know I hated history class. Kind of like Buffy.

So are there books you're drawn to? I know some people love to read anything about WWII, or eat up 19th century literature, etc. But to be drawn, not to a period in time, but to a region? Does that seem a little hokey to anyone else?

Maybe it's the accent. They do talk pretty cool.

Book Review: Paranormalacy

Thanks to Jannette Rallison's blog (author of My Fair Godmother, How to Take the Ex out of Ex-boyfriend), I found out about a little writers conference being held not too far from my humble home the end of this month. I say little conference because it's only one day. I plan on attending a "big" one that's three days long next month.

There are going to be 11 authors there! Yes, I'm very excited. The thing is, I didn't really know who they were. Not by name anyway. When I started looking their books up I recognized some of the covers. Two caught my eye. I purchased one.

It was the right one.

As I said in my last post I'm editing right now. Translation-no reading gets done. This is why. I sat down on Saturday to read a chapter or two just to clear my head a little. What should have been a rather productive day in editing ended up being me sitting on the couch reading for hours because I couldn't put the dang thing down.

I don't go into detail about what the book is about on here. If you really want to know go read the blurb, but if you're like me, you like to go in with as little information as possible. So I'll just say, it definitely had a Buffy vibe to it. Think season four. There were even some lines in there that I had to stop and say, I can totally hear Buffy saying that. But again, it was just a vibe. I never felt like Kiersten White was trying to copy.

It shifts about halfway through the book, and without giving anything away, the story is taken to a place I didn't really expect. It's all so very...normal. And in this genre, Paranormal Romance (emphases on the paranormal surprisingly), that's a little different. And yet you're still drawn on to find out what happens next.

The "love" story in this book was completely believable. It made me feel like I did in high school all giddy and ridiculous. It wasn't overdramatic as a lot of paranormal romances are. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I love the drama. It's just nice to read something that doesn't go there once in a while.

So, if you like demon hunting girls with strong personalities and cute shimmering boys- that last part is not what you think-you should read this. I plan on picking up the sequel at the conference and begging the author to tell me how she does it. That's not weird, is it?