I love book covers.  Breaking the rules and judging a book by it's cover is definitely something that I do (sorry if that makes me a bad person lol.) But, honestly, if I see a really cute cover it makes me long to read what's inside.  Today I get to introduce you guys to my good friend Codi Gary's newest cover from Books with Benefits Press. 

It's super cute... Wait for it


Wait for iiiiiiiiiiittttttt.... (If there are any Psych fans out there then, by all means, feel free to read that like Shawn Spencer)

Drum roll...

aaaaaannnnnddddd....

HERE IT IS!!!!

Cute, yes?

And, so I'm not being a tease, here is the back cover description:

Make Me Crazy will be book one in the lovely and talented Codi Gary's Loco, Texas series and will be available on December 3rd.  If you want an early look into the world of this series there will also be a Halloween Novella in the anthology titled I Put A Spell On You (which I really hope you'll all be interested in since I have a novella in there as well... wait, this isn't about me right now. Whoops) That will be available on October 15th. That's right... less than a week to wait :)

What was that? You want to see that cover, too? Alright.

(Look! There's my name, too!!)
I'll be posting more about this one soon. Until then here are some links to Codi's... well, everything.
Website: www.codigarysbooks.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CodiGarysBooks
Twitter:https://twitter.com/CodiGary
Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6583366.Codi_Gary

And a quick bio: 

Thanks for reading and I'll keep everyone updated on Codi's series and I'll post another blog about our upcoming novella.

Whenever I tell someone I'm a writer, for some reason, I usually get this response: "You're just like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City!" It's funny, too, because several people have had that reaction all on different occasions.  

My reaction? "Yeah, I'm exactly like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City... except without the rich, handsome men, I don't live in the city, and instead of Manolo Blahniks I wear Keds.  Other than that, yes.  We're exactly the same."

And then I watch the show and listen to her reading from her columns and wish that I could do that to my blog.  It wouldn't be nearly as interesting, though.  
Hers are all: 

Mine would be more like:

Then I was googling Manolo Blahnik for this post (which, by the way, I find it entirely creepy that facebook is now giving me ads for it, but I digress...) Where was I? Oh yeah, Manolo Blahnik.  I about had a freaking shoe-gasm. Holy crap-balls I wanted those shoes so freaking bad!

This one in particular. It makes me drool a little.

Was it good for you too?

I need to be rich just so I can wear those shoes. I would sell a kidney to own those shoes. Want my eggs? Take 'em, just leave the shoes! Half my liver? Ok, what do I need it for anyway?!?! Gimme, gimme, gimme, I need, I need!!

And as I thought about selling a kidney to own a pair of Manolo Blahniks, I wondered... Am I more like Carrie than I thought?

Welcome to the Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop! 

 
Since we were published together in the Valentine’s anthology Codi Gary and I have become fast friends so when she asked if I wanted to do a blog hop with her I was like, heck yeah!  Here’s the deal.  Each author invites other authors to post a blog and we all act like crazy people. Okay, no we don’t… much.  We talk about our latest releases or, like me, our works in progress then we post a yummy summer recipe.  There are links on Codi’s page to the other author’s she’s invited.

So read, eat (or drink) and enjoy!

My work in progress is titled Caught in the Crossfire and it’s a funny, action filled romantic suspense about a woman, Tracy, who stumbles across a dying man, unaware that he slips a piece of evidence in her purse as she’s helping him.  Someone wants this evidence back and they have no qualms about killing Tracy to do it.  So she finds her life in the hands of a sexy stranger who’s dark past makes her wonder if it’s smart to trust him.  Or, more important, if it’s smart to fall for him.

 
And here are the questions asked by the lovely and talented Codi Gary and answered by the self-proclaimed lovely and talented me!  :)

 

1) When writing are you a snacker? If so sweet or salty? 
I am a snacker. And not just when I’m writing. I love snacking. While writing I usually reach for popcorn… but not the microwave stuff, I’m a purist! I pop it on the stovetop and put lots of butter on it.  If I reach for a sweet snack, I tend to do a mocha (okay, not really a snack but I feel like coffee transcends definitions. Because coffee, that’s why!)

2) Are you an outliner or someone who writes by the seat of their pants? And are they real pants or jammies? 

Outliner, for sure! It’s the first thing I do. I outline my book using 4 acts and I have to know my main turning points. I’m not rigid about it, though.  I will change the story as I go if it needs it.  When I wrote Love, Guns, and Heart-Shaped Chocolate it stuck really close to the outline I started off with but the book I’m working on now, Caught in the Crossfire, looks nothing like the original outline.  I’ve added in car chases and shootouts that were not even a thing in my outline.  Also, I do a storyboard collage as I go that’s like a visual outline of the plot.  I put main turning points, visuals of settings, anything that evokes the emotions of certain scenes, or song lyrics that remind me of my characters.   

And to answer the second question, I don’t wear what I like to call “real people clothes” while I write.  (“Real people clothes” are essentially anything that’s acceptable to wear in public.) I stuff myself into a t-shirt (my favorite being the lime green one with 3 eyes that look like the little Pizza Planet aliens from Toy Story) and yoga pants (they’re kinda like real pants)

3) When cooking, do you follow a recipe or do you wing it?

I open the box and hope for the best. Okay, okay, I do like to cook and I’ve been known to wing it or make things up but for the most part I’ll follow a recipe.  I’m addicted to the Food Network and I don’t cook very much but I know how to in theory :) 

4) What is next for you after this book? 

I’m working on a new series that I will hopefully be submitting to my editor very soon.  It’s tentatively titled my Guarded Hearts series and it follows the agents of an elite private security company.  Very action packed with a lot of romantic tension.  And if you've read Love, Guns, and Heart-Shaped Chocolate you’ll recognize the heroine in the first book as Tracy Cross, the best friend who endured the horrific blind date.   
   
5) Last question...on a level of one being slightly naughty and ten being whoo hoo steamy, how would you rate your book? 
Somewhere in the middle, probably a 6.  I try to get a good amount of face-fanning blush-worthy moments in there. Enough that it makes me blush when my co-workers recite lines from it, anyway lol.

Aaaaaaaand last but not least, my recipe.
This cocktail tastes just like cherry Starbursts (and aren't those everyone's favorite? Yeah, that's what I thought)

In a writer's brain there is nothing better than sitting down to write and having everything flow.  Knocking out page after page, watching your word count climb, feeling the end getting closer and closer.  Before you realize it, hours have passed and you don't want to sleep because you know you can crank out another scene.

But what about those times when you don't feel like it?  You're tired, drained, and ready to throw yourself from the highest tower because nothing is getting done.  (Hey, when you're tired and drained it's easy to be over dramatic!)  For me, it seems, these kinds of days far out number the other ones.  But it's not like I can sit around and wait for the Creativity Fairy to appear in a puff of smoke, slap me across the face with her fist of magic productivity, fairy dust flying everywhere, and bestow some mystical motivation on my sorry butt.

So, if there's no Creativity Fairy then what's a writer to do?  Here are some of my tried and true methods for keeping going even when you don't want to.

Set an alarm
Give yourself a finite time frame where you do nothing but work.  Turn off the T.V. Back away from Twitter and only allow yourself to write.  Then when the timer goes off, take a break.  Set your alarm for that, too.  Go get an iced mocha or watch 30 minutes of your favorite show then jump back into it.  Another hour on the clock and go.  
Do this as many times as you need to.  Even if you only manage to get an hour of writing time in it's more than you did before.  And when you allow yourself a set amount then you're not wasting your entire day staring at the screen and jumping back and forth from your project to facebook and not actually getting anything done. (Been there!) 
Also, there's something about racing the clock that makes me want to write faster.    

Get a writing buddy
I love when I get a message from one of my writer friends on twitter asking to do a 1k1hr challenge.  Grab a friend, tell them that at a certain time you are going to do nothing but write for one hour.  At the end of the hour your goal is to have written 1,000 words.  
Add some competition.  It's like when I exercise, if I'm by myself it's easy to say "screw it, I'm only walking for 10 minutes then I'm calling it a day" but when I'm with a friend it's like "if she can do it I can do it!" and I end up pushing myself and getting more done.  Friendly competition is healthy and motivating.  I highly recommend it :)

Know that you can always fix it in edits
So what if you're brain is shot?  So what if you can't think of the right word?  Write 'blah blah' in it's place, highlight it and come back later. (Yeah, I've actually written 'blah blah' into my manuscript.)  If you adopt the motto that it can be fixed it later it allows you to take some of the pressure off.  Without the stress of being perfect it's a lot easier to get more done.  Take the stress out of it and just get the story down.  Fine tune it later.

Cut out distractions
For the love of God, get off the internet. Stop pinning, stop tweeting, don't look at the kitties doing funny things.  
Sometimes, when I absolutely can't concentrate long enough to work and I keep ending up on Pinterest, I'll leave the computer behind.  I've been known to bust out a pen and paper, old school style, and jot down a quick scene that way.  It's a pain at times to type it up afterward but, honestly, I end up adding to it and making it a fuller scene and then it's easy to keep going.  Like a kick start.  It gets you going then you can run with the momentum.  

I'm sure there are a ton of other ways and I'll probably think of more after I post this :) but these are a few of my alternatives to the Creativity Fairy.  That damn fairy is so flakey.

I got a tumblr account when I first started my ventures into social media but once I got my shiny new website, complete with blog, I wasn't sure what to do with two blogs.  But during the intense amount of procrastination I've done today I decided on my tumblr's fate.  I'm going to revamp it and start posting these thingies (that big pink thing down there.  Yeah, those.) It's going to be stuff that pops into my head (or, like this one, things I say to Codi Gary on twitter.)

Mother's day is an incredibly special day to me because my mom is one of the most important people in my life.  We're really close. Like Gilmore Girls close.  Like the end of Brave close.  This year we got to have mother's day with my two best friends and their mothers.  And it turned into an extra special day for me, too. 

A few weeks ago my best friend invited me to a mother/daughter candlelight tea.  And she was very vocal about me going.  It seemed important that I do what I gotta do and BE THERE!  She was slick about it, though.  Every time I saw her for weeks she asked if I had remembered to request the day off but I thought it was because I had forgotten last year.  (Still feel a little guilty about that.  I suck at remembering to request days off.)  So my mom and I got all dressed up and went.  I was thinking a little food, wine tasting, raffle drawing, home in time for... well, nothing specific because nothing happens on Thursday nights. But I'd be home in time for all that nothing.

But when I got there I was so excited to see what her mother had done for me.  She was one of the hostesses and in charge of three tables.  On each setting, at each of those tables, was a copy of my book, Kiss Me.  I was so touched.  She even included a copy in the raffle prize.

Look at all of 'em. Aren't they adorable!! Also, those deserts were so delicious. The little pink ones in the middle were raspberry mouse with edible chocolate cups.  So good.  I'm making myself hungry.

Then everyone started coming up asking me to sign their copies.  It was so strange (in a good way.)  I wasn't expecting it but it was an amazing feeling.  Signing copies of a book that I had written had always seemed like a someday thing.  You know, someday I'll have a book published and someday I'll have people asking me to sign it.  But thanks to my best friend's mom last Thursday turned into that someday.  And the look of pride on my own mom's face was so rewarding.  I could see her glowing with it (and it was pre-wine tasting so that makes it all the more sincere.)

So, everyone, hug your mom and hug your all of friend's moms because if they're anything like the ones in my life they are awesome people :)

Any writer will probably tell you that they don't write because they want to.  They write because they need to.  At any given moment I have stories and ideas and characters in my head all trying to escape onto a page.  And I can't remember a time when I didn't have that particular problem :)  Oftentimes, imagining them is a lot more fun than sitting down to actually write them.  Writing is hard work.  It takes time, and a lot of mental energy and it can be draining.  That's why I have to remember to keep it fun.  To take joy in it.  Sure, it's a job and sure I have to sit down and write every day otherwise I won't get anything done.  But if you're not careful it can start to feel like a chore instead of a calling.

Lately, I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to get my word counts in and get the book written (for the love of God GET SOMETHING WRITTEN!) and it's been so hard to sit and stare at that little flashing cursor on my word program mocking me.  Reminding me that I don't feel like doing this right now. (That cursor can be such a jerk sometimes.)  And I'll sit all day and maybe write 500 words (maybe) but the thing is I still am constantly thinking about my characters.  About how they'll react to situations.  How they treat each other.  How they'll act when they figure out that they're in love.  So why is it so difficult for me to get the words onto the page?  Because I started equating writing with stress.  

So today, instead of being hard on myself for not being farther along I sat back, watched some fun, romantic, and exciting movies to get myself in the groove of writing a fun, romantic, exciting book and worked on my collage.  The collage for this book was a mess before today. I think it's because that's how I had been feeling about the book and it reflected in my art.  I started from scratch on it this morning and you know what? I'm super motivated right now.  I feel like I have a better grasp on the plot, on the emotions, on the direction the book is going.  All because I'm letting myself have fun with it.  So listen to music that sounds like your book.  Take the time out to watch a fun movie that inspires you.  Write a scene just for fun and not because you have a word count goal to meet.  Keep the joy alive.

So from now on when writing starts to feel like a chore I need to remind myself to have fun with it because writing is my life and I want to enjoy it.