Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Wittlebee Giveaway Alert

FYI

Dealeactable Mommies is hosting a giveaway for a 3 month subscription for Wittlebee kid's clothing service.  This is an amazing giveaway!  Go enter!


Thursday, May 31, 2012

In Which Maddie Writes Flash Fiction

Anna at Yearning for Wonderland is holding a flash fiction contest.  The basic rules are that you select a picture of her Faerytaleish Pinterest board, write a three hundred word flash fiction, and then link up on her site by the end of Friday.

This is Maddie. She just turned four. Also, she is cute.

I've been meaning to write something, but have yet to do so (eta: finally wrote it, see mine here).  Maddie, however, has selected a picture and written a flash fiction story about it.  It is slightly less than the 300 word goal, but this is her first flash fiction...actually her first story I've written down other than her amazing dream idea for my upcoming dragons book.  I should probably spend more time writing down her stories, because she has some great ones.


So here is Maddie's first writing contest entry:


Maddie's inspiration picture



Golden and Magical
by Maddie Melendez

Once upon a time there was a fairy who was turned to gold.  
She was turned to gold by the sun.
She became a golden robot and all her friends were fairy robots.
And then her father was happy because he was all golden and magical.

The end.

 (48 words)


If you have a Wordpress blog, here is the proper code:

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Last Full Measure of Devotion


Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.


Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.


But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.


President Abraham Lincoln
November 1863




 
As you celebrate this Memorial Day with your family and friends, please consider a donation to the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund.  Thanks.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Costume Party Madness

Prepare to die of cute.

I'm not joking.  You've been warned.


My now four year old daughter, Maddie, came up with the genius idea of having a costume party for her birthday.  She was incredibly committed to this scheme and it ended up being ah-mah-zing.  This kid has more style and savvy in her little finger than I do in my whole body.


We had a blast.  We made princess wreaths out of pipe cleaner, ribbons, and fabric flowers.  We had ring pops and made linky necklaces.  There was a Rapunzel cake.  Her brother took a huge spoonful out of it before the party but she told him it was okay.


We had little girls in adorable costumes and poor Jamie the lone knight among the ladies.


It rocked.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Happy Birthday, Maddie!

Yesterday my sweet baby turned four! 

Tomorrow we are having a super fabulous costume party! 



Happy Birthday, Maddie!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Win a Paperback of Awake: A Fairytale

I'm having a special promo - Awake is FREE for Kindle on Amazon today and tomorrow.  If you help me get the word out you can win a paperback!  Head on over to my author site for the details!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

James Repurposes a Candleholder


This morning James found this candle tower thingy (technical term) in the basement. I have most of the big candle stuff down there because my kids are obsessed with fire and blowing out candles so I can't burn any.




He was convinced it was a bird feeder. No matter what I said to the contrary about using it for silly candles he was undeterred. He had a vision.

So he added bird seed.




And hung it up in the tree where all of our sparrows congregate.




Yes, that is a roll of toilet paper. Don't ask, I have no idea. My best guess is it was stolen out of the bathroom cabinet in order to start a castle.


The sparrows are going gaga over this thing right now. The kids are beside themselves.

James = repurposer extraordinaire.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Sneak Peek of Atone: A Fairytale

I have a sneak peek of Atone: A Fairytale, the second in my Fairytale Trilogy, over on my author site if you'd like to check it out.

And for those of you waiting for the paperback of Awake to be available I am now only waiting on Amazon's system to update. They should be available for purchase on Amazon by the end of this week! Or you can currently purchase paperbacks in the Createspace store!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Shred or Dead

Yeah, this is happening:




I've done two days at Level One and am going to try Level Two today so I'm not doing the exact same thing three days in a row. I fully expect to be dead by the end of the day.

Also, this is my second day on a restricted calorie diet. Yesterday was okay, even though I blew 420 calories on a grande triple shot skim milk white mocha at Starbucks while I was writing. It was worth it though. I wrote 2567 words, bringing my weekend total up to just past 7600. It would have been almost 70 calories less if I'd left of the whipped cream.

I am not emotionally or mentally ready to leave off the whipped cream.

Other than the Starbucks I was crazy healthy in my food choices, didn't feel unsatisfied, and even with the white mocha, came in with 30 calories to spare. Yes.

Here is my inspiration:


Frabjous Day by Shabby Apple

I want this dress, people. I want it baaaaad.
And I want to look HOT in it.

Think happy, non-dying thoughts in my direction. Prayers are also appreciated.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Getting Ready for Another Round...

...of Birthday parties!

I can't believe it, but next month Maddie is going to turn 4! She is going to have a costume party with rainbow accents. Let me tell you, there are not a lot of kid's costume birthday invites (that aren't Halloween related) out there, but I lucked out and found the perfect invitations of Etsy.




Aren't these so cute? They are from Gracie Girl Designs and I am super happy with her customer service and designs. I think we will probably be getting Jamie's 3rd Birthday invites from her as well. He is going with a pirate theme (subject to change).

We are planning quite the costume party spectacular. Have any suggestions for what to do with a group of 3-6 year olds?

Monday, March 12, 2012

A Little Bit of Sewing

It seems like my entire life recently has been consumed with writing, publishing, and marketing my book. Now that it has been released into the wild I have been able to find a little bit of time to get out my grandmother's sewing machine (mine is broken) and fiddle around a bit. I had a bunch of half-square triangles that I had started when Iw as talking a quilting class about two years ago for my "first" quilt. I hated the pattern and didn't love the class so I never finished. I decided to take them and make them into pinwheels because I adore the fabrics.



I took the rest of the fabrics that I'd originally had picked out for this quit and started some Pinwheels in the House blocks as designed by Kaye Prince. I love the idea of these blocks. I kept my log cabin strips thin instead of sizing them to my pinwheels like Kaye did in her quilt, just because my pinwheels are huge and I'd end up with like four total blocks in a quilt. I still love how it looks.




While I sew I like to put on a movie - but it has to be one I've seen a lot so it doesn't distract me from what I am supposed to be doing. One of my favorite go to sewing movies is She's the Man with Amanda Bynes...don't judge! I love Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and I think this is one of the most faithful adaptation of it - and it's funny! And highly underrated.


Do you have a favorite go to entertainment while you sew?

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Awake is FREE Today on Amazon

Yup, you heard me right! Today (Wednesday, February 29th) Awake: A Fairytale is FREE to download from Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle app. I have the kindle app on my phone, but you can also get a reader for your computer. I hope you all take advantage of my little promotional experiment and get a copy for yourselves!

Hurry on over to Amazon and snag your copy! And I would love you forever if you would have your family, friends, and vague acquaintances do the same.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Awake is Now Available!

I’m so excited I can barely stand it!

I hit the “go button” on Awake yesterday for Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble and it is already available!

My book is out there for the general public to purchase and read! Oh. My. Gracious. So I guess this means I’m an author! I feel like Liv Tyler in That Thing You Do except instead of saying “Make a record? Like a record record record?” I’m saying “am I really an author? Like an author author author?” If you haven’t seen That Thing You Do and have no idea what I’m talking about stop reading now, go watch it, and come back. I’ll wait…

Want to snag a copy of Awake for yourself? You can find it on Smashwords for a variety of formats, on Barnes and Noble.com for Nook, and on Amazon for Kindle. The paperback version is coming soon! And if you want to win a copy then head on over to Indie Jane. We are giving away two copies – an ebook and a paperback!

To everyone who already bought my book yesterday – and those of you who were tweeting your favorite lines. I kind of love you all. I hope the hotness that is Luke Reed lived up to your expectations.


Monday, January 30, 2012

Trailer for Awake

My book comes out in just over a week! I debuted the pre-release trailer for it on my author blog on Friday, but I wanted you guys to see it too! Thanks so much to Victoria Austen-Young for putting it together, and to my hubs, Ed, for composing the score!


What do you guys think?

I can't wait for next Tuesday!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A New Sample of Awake

Last week I posted a new sample of my upcoming novel Awake: A Fairytale on my author site. I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

I am now counting down in days to the release! Yikes!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Last Year

I haven't done a year in review post because I felt like I didn't get much accomplished last year. I haven't been able to sew as much as I wanted, and even though I got two quilt tops down, I haven't had time to take nice pictures or blog about them. 2011 was just a weird year for sewing and crafting.

So, I don't have a lot of super gorgeous sewing related pictures to put in a fancy layout, but that doesn't mean I didn't get a lot done last year. I have no reason to feel unaccomplished, but I found myself feeling that way. To make myself feel better/gain perspective, here are a few things I did last year.

I moved. Three times. Seriously. And one of those moves was basically across the country. That's a pretty big accomplishment I think.



I wrote TWO books! This didn't really occur to me until recently, but it's true. I didn't start working on Awake: A Fairytale (other than that first few thousand words I managed in 2010) until March. I wrote the entire thing (those first few pieces hit the trash bin pretty early in the process) between late March and early June. Not only did I write and edit Awake this year, in November I wrote my second book, Attempting Elizabeth. Yeah, it is in rough draft form and I still have several scenes to add, plus the laborious process of editing, having it beta read, rewriting, editing, etc., but the fact remains, 53k words of that book were written in 2011. (If you add together what I've done this year on the two, it is about 144k words, wow).



I started a pretty cool website. Indie Jane was launched in July and we've had 24 thousand plus page views to date and have had fun establishing an online community. The book club on our message boards is starting a Pride and Prejudice group read this week. Each week's discussion questions are being hosted by an author of an indie P&P continuation or re-imagining. We have some great authors participating and our community members are the best!


All in all, I think it has been a pretty darn productive year and I hope to make 2012 even more so.