We said goodbye to 2022 and now it’s time to celebrate a new year. As 2023 begins its time to focus on goals we want to accomplish. For me, there’s a lot I want to work on.
One of my resolutions for this year is to take time for myself. My life is consumed by work and taking care of others, that I feel I don’t have much downtime. So I’ve decided each day to take 20-30 minutes for some me time.
Another of my goal this year is to focus on my health. I’m a tad overweight and I’ve been trying to lose extra pounds. My goal is to exercise at least three times a week, and I’m hoping I can lose about 20 or 30 pounds this year. It’ll be tough but with the motivation, I think I can get it done.
Like many people my home is disorganized. In 2022, I made strides is getting organized, but by the end of the year, I was getting messy again. This year I’m hoping to get more organized, and I’ve already got tools to help my goal.
My next goal is to focus on my books. I have so many unfinished projects that I need to complete. One of the books I want to finish is volume 9 of the Westmore series. It feels like I’ve been working on it forever, but hopefully 2023 will be the year I finally finished it.
Aside from Westmore volume 9, I hope to finish and publish one of my other books. I have decided which one it’ll be. Maybe I’ll do the eeny, meeny, miny, moe method.
Another writing goal is to participate in more anthologies. Last year, I was in the Mistletoe Kisses anthology for Warrior Publishing and I plan on being involved in more anthologies from the publishing house.
I’ve got a lot to accomplish this year and it won’t be easy, but with determination and dedication, hopefully I can keep my resolutions.
I haven’t been active on here as much, but life got on the way and I missed out on some blog posts. But next year, I’m hoping to be more active with my blog.
2022 is drawing to a close and I thought I’d share some of the positive moments from my year.
In 2022, our family grew with the addition of our new puppy Baby. She a Beagle and Boxer mix, and there’s never a dull moment with her around. When she’s not tearing up her squeaky toys, Baby loves to cuddle. Often she’s laying in my lap or curled beside me in bed.
Needless to say she’s become my new buddy.
Aside from my pup, my pets, and my mom keeping me busy; I spent most of the year concentrating on work. I’m still a writer with Showbiz Cheatsheet, covering soap operas and classic TV shows. There were some ups and downs with the job, but everything calmed down for the moment.
Writing articles kept me busy, but I did find time for my stories. This year I participated in two anthologies and published three short stories.
The first anthology I was included in was the Halloween anthology Icy Fingers, put together by my friend and fellow author Robin Rance. My story The Dare follows a high-school student named Josh who is dared to spend the night in a rumored haunted house.
I won’t reveal any details, but if you’re in the mood for spine tingling tales, check out this anthology.
My second anthology was Mistletoe Kisses from Warrior Publishing. The story I wrote is called An Unforgettable Christmas. It follows married couple Taylor and Drew, whose Christmas may be cut short by an accident.
Aside from the anthologies, I also self-published a few short stories. In May, my modern Cinderella short story You’ll Find True Love was released. I’ve got to give a shout out to Robin who designed the beautiful cover.
In December, I published two holiday stories, Season of Love and Where’s Your Christmas Spirit. They were previously in the Twelve Tales A-Telling anthology published four years ago. When the anthology ended and I got the rights back I decided to publish the stories on my own.
This pretty much sums up my 2022 in review. I’m looking forward to 2023 and I’ll share my goals in my next post.
It seems like forever since I posted on here, but life gets in the way and you’re busy with other stuff. Yet, I found time to publish another story.
I’m pleased to announce my short story You’ll Find True Love will be released on Tuesday, May 17th. Before I share the blurb and links, I want to give the backstory to the book.
You’ll Find True is a modern day Cinderella story. I wrote the story about three years ago for a fairy tale anthology. Unfortunately, the anthology was cancelled. I had already finished the story and decided when the time’s write to publish the story.
Well, the time has come and You’ll Find True Love is here. I’m excited about the release and for everybody to get a chance to read. Also, I want to give a shout-out to author Robin Rance, who designed the beautiful cover.
Sarah Rowland spends her time taking care of others. She’s dealing with her slacker younger sister Ashley when she’s not tending to the pets at her vet’s office. When her neighbor, author Cynthia Fitzgerald invites her to a swank party, Sarah can’t refuse.
The night turns out to be something out of a fairy tale for Sarah, who captures the attention of Kyle Pierce. Yet, when Sarah learns Kyle’s a millionaire, she worries she won’t fit into his world. Can she overcome her fears and find her happily ever after ending like in the romance novels?
2022 is officially upon us. It’s a new year and time for new goals. Like many people I’m made resolutions and today I thought I’d share a few with you.
Last year, one of my main focuses was my health. At the beginning of 2021, I tipped the scales at 292 pounds. I knew I needed to lose weight not just for myself, but for my family who rely on me.
I started exercising and cutting back on the sugar. I thought I’d have trouble giving up sweets, but so far I’ve show great restraint. I’m happy to announce that I’m down to 262.
I still have a long way to go in my weight loss journey, and this year I’m hoping to lose another 30-40 pounds. It’s going to be difficult, but I’m determined to keep up my progress.
My next goal revolves around my writing. I have so many unfinished WIPs and new ideas forming in my head, it’s hard to keep track of everything.
I’ve been so busy the past few months that I’ve been neglecting my books. But this year, I’m planning to concentrate on my stories. My goal this year is to finish my incomplete WIPs and publish at least two of them.
One of the books will be volume 9 in the Westmore series, as for the other, I haven’t figured out which story I’ll work on.
Aside from weight loss and writing, another goal is organization. I’m not just talking about my house, although I’m making good strides in keeping it clean and getting rid of old junk.
I also need to be more organized in my life. Between work, chores, and taking care of my family; I feel that there’s so much to do and so little time. So I’m planning to get on a schedule by going to bed earlier and waking up earlier, so I’ll be able to complete more tasks.
I’ve got a lot to accomplish this year and it’s going to take time, but I’m confident I can get it done. To all my followers, I want to wish y’all much success in 2022 and good luck in your goals. We’ve got this!
In a couple of hours, we’ll be saying goodbye to 2021 and hello to 2022. I think we’re all in agreement that we’re ready to say goodbye to this year.
As another year comes to a close, it’s time for another mandatory year in review post. 2021 was filled with lots of ups and downs in my life, so let’s start the reflections off with the bad stuff.
This year we said goodbye to two furry members of our family. In March, our cat Missy passed away. She was a stray kitten when she showed up at our doorstep in November 2006. She stole our hearts and we’re grateful to have had 14 wonderful years with her.
Recently, we also experienced another loss with the death of our dog Leah. She’d been in bad health for a while and we knew she didn’t have much time left. She passed away peacefully at home on December 10th.
Although I miss these two ladies, I was reunited with another fur baby. Four months after running away, my cat Cotton came home. He ran away in Novemeber 2020 and I gave up hope of him coming back. Then one March night, I was outside when I spotted him on the porch and immediately scooped him up and brought him inside. And he hasn’t been back out since.
Moving on to the more positive stuff. 2021 was a productive year for my writing. I participated in two anthologies. The first was Concordant Vibrancy 5: Extancy. This is the last in the All Authors anthology and my third time participating in the series. I’m sad to see it come to an end, but I hope to work with these authors again in the future.
My next anthology was Cirque Du Delmort, a series of stories about a haunted circus. I went out of my comfort zone and tested my writing skills with a story about a trick rider plagued by nightmares. I’m proud of the story and hope that readers enjoyed it.
Aside from the anthologies, I also published two short stories on my own. The first is Crowns, Coffee, and Cakes; a sweet romance story about a princess who finds love with a coffee shop owner while on vacation.
My next short story came in time for the holiday season. Where’s Your Christmas Spirit? is the tale of a grumpy widower who shuts his family out after the death of his wife. But a visit from an angel may reignite his Christmas spirit.
Aside from my stories, I’ve also been busy with my new writing job. In June, I was let go from my job at The Blast. Yet, as the old saying goes, “when one door closes another one opens.” I quickly found a new and better job with Endgame 360. I’m an entertainment writer with Showbiz Cheatsheet where I wrote about retro TV shows and soap operas. My new job allows me the opportunity to do what I love, and it also offers great pay and benefits.
I had a lot of stuff happen in 2021 and I’m sure 2022 will be full of plenty of surprises too. So to all my followers, I want to wish you a Happy New Year and hopefully, 2022 will bring you lots of joy.
The writing community is a relatively quiet environment. Although every now and then, there’s someone who stirs up drama.
That’s exactly what happened a few weeks when an editor criticized self-published authors. I won’t reveal the person’s identity, so we’ll just call them BB. So what did BB say that had the writing community riled up. To quote the tweet:
“What if Amazon hired editors whose sole job would be to read all the self-pub books and reject the ones that are utter garbage, unedited, and shitty. If there was less trash littering that place, self-publishing would gain more merit in readers’ eyes.”
Needless to say a lot of authors were upset, including yours truly.
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but from the tone of BB’s tweet and their profile picture I sensed they were snobbish. A few authors seem to corroborate that theory when they talked about their past negative experience with BB. After causing an uproar with the tweet, BB deleted it, then tried to play the victim card.
There were a lot of reasons to be upset with BB’s tweet. First off, as most authors will tell you the self-publishing route is hard.
Many authors choose to go in this direction because of the benefits. Although sometimes we don’t always get the rewards we desire.
Being a self-published author means little to zero book sales, a sad fact we all face. As much as we’d love to hit it big and write full-time that’s not the case. Although sales may not amount to nothing, many authors continue to publish. Some do it to hold out hope their book will catch on to readers, while others may do it just to realize a writing dream.
Whatever the reason, authors have a right to publish their book however they please, even if it’s through self-publishing.
BB’s tweet also brought up the discussion of editing. As authors we know the importance of a polished manuscript.
The truth is that many authors do self-editing themselves with the help of free online grammar checkers. Why do we do it ourselves?
Well, the reality is, some of us can’t afford editors.
There are plenty of good editors out there and many offer great deals for their services. However, there are those who charge an arm and a leg. It just so happens that BB is an editor, and curiosity got the better of me, so I did some snooping. I visited their website to look at the prices for their editing packages.
I almost fell out of my chair at the dollar amounts. For copy editing, the prices ranged from $250 to $500. As for line editing, the price list was $700 for a 50,000 word manuscript, and $1200 for 100,000 words.
Let’s see, I can either use that money to pay my bills or use it to edit a book that may or may not garner more sales.
Tough decision.
Aside from high prices, another reason authors may not use professional editors is because of scams. I’ve heard stories about writers being swindled. An author will pay an editor upfront, yet the editor doesn’t do anything to the manuscript and keeps the money. Then the author has to fight tooth and nail to try to get their money back.
I’m not trying to cut down editors. I know there’s some decent ones out there. But scammers and price gougers like BB make it difficult for authors to trust editors.
A lot of criticism has been thrown at self-published authors over the years, and a majority of it stems from their editing. I’m a firm believer that nobody’s writing is perfect, that goes for both self-published and traditional authors. I’ve read plenty of books from big named authors from traditional publishing houses, and they had errors. It goes to show that even experienced writers and editors make mistakes.
There’s always room for improvement when it comes to working on our craft. One of the benefits of the writing community is how supportive everyone is. Whether it’s offering encouragement or writing tips, it’s great to see fellow authors being supportive of each other.
Yet, it’s folks like BB who give it a bad name. Instead of cutting someone down, they should offering help as someone learns the ropes in the publishing industry. This isn’t a competition, we’re all in this together, and want to see each other succeed.
As a side note, I learned that BB is planning to self-publish an upcoming book after getting rejected by traditional publishers. So after criticizing an industry they called “garbage” and “shitty,” they’re joining the community. All I have to say to BB is “good luck” because they’re going to need it.
After five years of marriage, sacrifice, and hard work, Robert and Gia Hunter are about to live their dream in the city of Miami. With the opening of a new family law office, and a luxury jewelry store, what should be the happiest time of their lives quickly turns into a nightmare when they become targets of someone for reasons unknown.
To make matters worse, their marriage is tested when the two face fundamental disagreements on how Gia should handle a request from her imprisoned father.
While dangers confront the two from the outside, and constant fights plague them on the inside, will Gia and Rob unite and conquer the forces that threaten, or will their differences destroy them forever…
Excerpt
Rob enters the bathroom minutes after I turn on the shower. Ordinarily, he’d join me, but after pulling away his shirt, he grabs a tube of shaving cream and I realize he has other plans—plans he’d usually let me help him with when we’re in the bathroom together.
Our first night here, I intended for it to be romantic and sexy. We have so much to be excited about. It was supposed to be the start of this new phase in our lives…it’s just not the way I had hoped it would be. And the way my husband has been looking at me lately, I’m not sure our problems will be resolved any time soon. I’m not sure if he’ll ever see me the same way again…
What can I say to him to make this all better?
But I’m afraid anything I say will only make it worse.
He hasn’t touched me in five days. And apart from the early stages in our relationship when I was almost killed over five years ago while I was recovering from surgery, that is not something I’m used to.
As I step out of the shower, I hear the question I’m afraid to hear the answer to spilling out of my mouth. “Do you still love me?”
He freezes at my question and stares me in the eye through my reflection in the mirror. “How could you ask me that? Why would you ask me that?”
I sense the anger in his voice and to avoid a fight before we leave for dinner, I walk away. “Don’t bother.”
In the bedroom, I open the closet in search of something to wear.
He follows me into the room. “I need you to tell me why you’d ask that.”
“Rob, I don’t want to fight.”
“Why?” he’s borderline shouting.
“Because, lately, when you look at me, all I ever see is disdain.”
His dark eyes suddenly lighten and his jaw, which was clenched before, relaxes.
A barrage of tears plummets down my cheeks. “Every time you speak to me now, all I hear is contempt and resentment in your words and when you’re not talking, I only see disappointment when I look you in the eye.
“If I had done something wrong, maybe I could understand, but it’s all because of a choice I made that I feel is right in my heart. You know, if you want to live the rest of your life carrying around anger and hate, then that’s your decision, but don’t abhor me for letting go and releasing the baggage in my life that has weighed me down for the last five years.”
After FBI Agent, Robert Hunter loses his best friend in a luxurious Washington DC hotel, he’ll do anything to avenge his friend’s death.
Gia French is completely unaware that she’s about to become the subject in a murder investigation, when her new Versace job takes her on a business trip from Milan to Washington DC.
When the two meet in the most unlikely circumstances, Rob finds himself falling for Gia, and Gia begins to question everything and everyone she thought she knew when her universe begins to fall apart.
With no one in her new world she can trust, Robert Hunter, a man who has ulterior motives and who is driven by revenge might be the only one to help her through this agonizing time in her life. But is he in it for love, or does he intend to exploit her to execute the vengeful plans he had from the start…
This novel was previously published under the title, Translating The Tides.
Rebecca Rohman is a wife and designer currently living in the northeastern United States. She was a sales manager for a tourist magazine, and for many years prior, she was involved in marketing for a jewelry company and fine wine distributor.
Over twenty years ago, she started writing her first romance novel purely to entertain herself. In early 2012, she decided to complete and release it. Since then, she has released seven additional novels and five novellas. Fighting For His Subject is her twelfth release.
Although Rebecca Rohman’s novels standalone, they can be read together because they share the same characters. The novellas are follow-up books to the full-length novels. They’re listed below in the order they were released in case you’d like to read them together.
Love On The Pacific Shores Series
Love, Lies & The D.A.
Love M.D.
A Problematic Love
Love, Lies & A Bleu Christmas (Novella)
The Painful Side of Love (Novella)
Love On High Steel Bridge
One More Chance At Love
A Problematic Christmas Love
Facets Of Love Series
Falling For His Subject
(This novel was previously published under the title – Translating The Tides)
I’ve never read the first book in the series, so I wasn’t familiar with Rob and Gia’s story. However, Fighting For His Subject is one of those stories that works good as a standalone. If gives enough information about the characters background so you understand their history as they deal with their present issues.
I’ve read plenty of Rohman’s books in the past, and she’s great about bringing the romance and suspense. I loved Rob and Gia’s relationship. He’s very protective of his wife, especially now since someone’s stalking them. Aside from dealing with a mystery person wrecking havoc on their lives, the couple find themselves arguing over Gia’s father. I won’t delve much into the dad’s history, but let’s say he’s a bad guy.
The book had me hooked from the beginning as I wondered if Rob and Gia would work through their issues, and who was out to get them. This is another great book from Rohman, and I’m always anxious to read more of her other works.
What else can we say, but, “It’s the official release day”?
Humanity in Retrograde
In this retro-futuristic era, the old look and reproduce as if in the prime of their lives. The babies delivered into this world—sickly, fighting for every second to have a slim chance of survival. To turn this existence on its heels, it requires something … or someone … Special.
When a healthy baby is discovered by Nurse Celestine, she makes it her mission to protect what she believes is a well-kept secret.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for the observant Nurse Trudy to put the pieces together to utilize for her personal gain as well as orchestrate Nurse Celestine’s ruin. Can Nurse Celestine succeed in combating the determined Nurse Trudy, or will all that is special be exposed and possibly destroyed? Find out in Reversal.
Babies.
Mere infants … fragile, feeble, sickly and flushed of color, lined the nursery of St. Agnes General Hospital NICU Department. This was nothing new, of course. They were all born that way. Those who made it past their first week of birth were among the blessed.
An almost invisible film of mauve and viridian—a sheath that covered their reality—was the translucent haze that weighed upon all things. It was as though the colors had been embedded into the fabric of the world, tinging everything—no matter what its candescence—in those pigments. The darkest of the dark, and the lightest of the light, all seemed ominous and void of vitality.
Dreary. That was the word that best described this place, these people … these babies.
The atmosphere was inauspicious. Everything seemed afflicted with lifelessness. The hospital, antiquated. Though hundreds of years in the future, the setting felt like a 1950’s time warp. The perimeter of the hospital was as inert as its own appearance—scant trees, barren bushes, leaf and debris covered streets.
The perils that distressed St. Agnes General Hospital was the lack of advanced technologies. It was as though the last ten centuries had never transpired. An entire fragment of time had evidently disappeared leaving behind a woefully dull and mechanically limited world which was forced to operate within its mediocre means.
The hallways of St. Agnes General were long, ominous, and cold. The walls were painted in a tainted light green. The doctors wore perfectly pressed white coats which covered their black business suits. Their hair, slick—brushed back into a tight, shiny do. The nurses donned white nursing uniforms with white hats which had red crosses in the center. Skirts at knee length, taupe pantyhose and white nurse shoes. They looked perfect. In complete contrast to their locality.
Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep; first in dots then in dashes. The sound carried a cadence of absolute fear which could give any person goosebumps—that river of icy-hot pimples that ran all over one’s body. Yet the screeching of the monitor’s blaring was far louder than the unhealthy baby that attempted to cry its woes. His voice was as decrepit as his leathery, bony flesh.
Nurse Juliette was an excessively feminine, soft-spoke Asian woman with the tiny frame. Blue-black hair fell to her waist, and Juliette’s spotless face was softly made up.
“Sh, sh, sh. There, there, little one. It’ll all be over soon, I promise. Mommy already knows that you’ll be going to a better place,” whispered Nurse Juliette who was sitting next to his cradle. She gently shook the child’s puny legs. Nurse Juliette’s tone was void of emotion, as though this were an everyday occurrence.
In all actuality, it was.
In complete opposition to the old-looking, ailing child was Nurse Juliette whose stature was strong, young, healthy and … well, perfect. So was the child’s mother and father who both waited for the news of his fate from their hospital room.
And, just as Nurse Juliette swayed the hardly sobbing yet profusely ailing child, the infant took in a sharp lungful and exhaled his last breath.
“Ahh, poor child,” Nurse Juliette concluded, then proceeded to get out of her seat to pick up the phone. “Nurse Celestine? Yes? Good. Please advise the Smithson family that the child has passed.”
“Certainly,” replied the voice on the opposite end. Neither one of the voices even remotely somber.
Before we proceed with the official cover reveal and book release of Concordant Vibrancy 5: Extancy, All Authors Publishing House would like to thank our supporters and all of the outstanding authors who have participated in the Concordant Vibrancy collection. The thoughtfulness and creativity put forth on each theme question will mark Concordant Vibrancy’s place as literature that will transcend time.
With a proud and heavy heart, All Authors Publishing House presents the final installment of the Concordant Vibrancy collection, entitled “Extancy”.
Eight exceptional talents intermingle to share their interpretations on the following question: “What intangible elixir is paramount to one’s survival?”
C. Desert Rose expands on the elixir of Awareness in her essay “Frequencies Towards Illumination”.
Carol Cassada outlines the amount of Strength to tackle the medically unexpected in “Caregiver”.
Beem Weeks explores the swiftness of Adaptation in his story “Five Minutes”.
Da’Kharta Rising elicits dark humor and strange situations as the ingredients for Felicity in “The Unmasking”.
Adonis Mann illuminates the subjectivity of Unity in “Axis … Redefined”.
All Optimism needs is a window of opportunity to flourish, as demonstrated in Synful Desire’s tale, “Rome’s Debris”.
Evolution is an intangible necessity through the many reincarnations showcased in “The Itinerant” by Queen of Spades.
The synergy of the aforementioned elements from Concordant Vibrancy I – IV are given lives of their own through “Soul Searching” by Y. Correa.
Welcome to Day 9 of the Concordant Vibrancy 5 tour. Today, we have All Authors founder Y. Correa stopping by to explain how synergy inspired her story Soul Searching.
Coming full circle … that was the most predominant feeling I got from the completion of “Concordant Vibrancy 5: Extancy.”
I feel like I have so much to say but I am finding it difficult to express.
The “Concordant Vibrancy” project was, in retrospect, executed with expediency. At the time it was being created things felt eternal, now that we’ve come to the end of the road, the time invested feels minute.
I am certain of one thing, however, the shelflife of this collection will be perpetual. The words encrypted within its pages, historic.
This is something that could not have been done without the participants. It was their skills, their wordsmithing, that led to the footprints made by Concordant Vibrancy.
I will never, ever, forget how much this project meant to me.
Now to answer some questions.
What prompted you to be a part of the Concordant Vibrancy concept? Which Concordant Vibrancy books are you featured in? Why did you choose a certain attribute as your answer to CV5’s theme question?
I was prompted to be part of the project because I was one half of the creation therein. I know it’s a short answer. I’m sorry but there isn’t much more I can add. LOL
I participated in all five books. My stories are as follows:
Unity: Alma’s Unsung Angel
Vitality: Genomegenics
Lustrate: Twin Planets
Inferno: Moxy
And now, Extancy: Soul Searching
For each installment I attempted to utilize a theme word that would bring together the concept of the elements. In the very last installment, I wanted to,as I stated at the beginning, “come full circle”.
It was important for me to tie together the fabric of Concordant Vibrancy by showing the world how each element works in tangent. The elements are synergistic; the function together or not at all. Such is the entire collection.
With that said, I truly hope you love the Concordant Vibrancy Collection as much as we do.
Here is a tiny excerpt of my story, “Soul Searching”.
Author Carol Cassada 