26 Days of Crazy Coming Your Way

Hey! Guess what's coming to town in April again? Twenty-six days of  crazy blogging A to Z, skipping weekends. Arlee Bird is the creator.You pick the topic and theme. But I suggest you keep your posts short and turn off your captchas-those are the rudest things anyone ever made.

Go here if you want to sign up for the fun.

As for me, I haven't decided to join in or not. If  I do, my plan is to post one word per the alphabet with a picture. They will be clues to what you will find in my next novel, Killer Stilettos, the second book in Lila's Journey.

I'm still tweaking the dickens out of it.

A couple of Mondays ago I sent the first 300 words over to Mainewords for a critique, which by the way was truly helpful. So I'll be writing my 34th draft of chapter one soon. She's always looking for first chapters to critique and post on her blog. If interested click on the link above.

Also, I'm still playing with making my own covers. Here's one:

But its still not right. Practice makes better though. I'm hoping to prepare a post for next Monday on how to make a basic ebook cover. I'm not a wiz yet. I've already forgotten how to make my own Clip Art, and have to re-figure it out.

Before I go, here's a diddy from Killer Stilettos:

Cynthia’s green eyes flinted to the chair Vinny sat in. “There’s no way in hell that I’m going to pray his soul out of purgatory. Ever.”

Vinny chuckled and plucked petals from the rose. “She loves me. She loves me not.”

Hope you enjoyed. I'll be at the Salon most of this week so I'll be lurking the blog world from my iPhone.

Hugs and chocolate, all!

Shelly

What Happened this Past Week

I'm still tweaking Killer Stilettos. A lot of chapters have been murdered and chucked. A lot have been re-done with a small hint of what they were before I began changes. Friday, I left off at Chapter 19.

Also, I've been working on expanding Time on Her Side, a sci-fi, about a middle-aged woman who is visited by her older self and is given a second chance to do her life over, in order to save the world. But things don't always go right.

Sunday, I spent a big part of my day with my 93 and 94 year old grandparents. After, I had dinner with two of my daughters and the Glowstick.

And when I've been able to, I've been making random bookcovers with Power Point and Paint.

Next week, I plan on writing several posts about my childhood sweeties, my first kiss, and a wild first date on Valentine's Day. Oh and something about my grandparents. Their love is still cooking. Anyway, I have  several stories to tell in honor of Valentine's Day.

So to jump start this, I thought I'd give you a kissing scene today:

“Lila,” Julio said, suddenly floating beside me. The last time I had seen him was in the otherworld after I had momentarily died. “I’ve been waiting all day to see you.” He pulled me into him. We really shouldn’t have been doing this. Gram had told me astral projection could be dangerous.

My body melted against his firm one, but guilt ate at me. “We really shouldn’t be doing this. Gram would be upset,” I said chewing on my lower lip.

Julio ignored my comment and maneuvered me underneath his floating body, wrapping his arms around my waist.

Butterflies exploded into the pit of my stomach sending shivers all through me. “Besides, you’ve already picked up a hitch—”

His mouth washed over mine.

Instinctively, I closed my eyes. “Hiker,” I said into his mouth before his tongue probed mine. My hands had a mind of their own and they roamed the muscles on his back. The air grew hot in the little space between us.

His arms moved like vines up and down my back to the sides of my waist, and then to the top of my bottom. His fingers drummed against it as if thinking to go further. Like a suction cup, his lips held onto mine and his tongue squirmed around mine. One hand slid down to my right butt cheek. Oh my. Electricity shot through me waking up desires I had forgotten about.

Gram appeared in my mind. Her finger wagged at me. Oh dear. I grabbed both of Julio’s hands and moved them to my waist. After, I pulled my head back just enough to loosen my lips from his.

I hope everyone has a great Monday and a great week. I'll be reading other blogs off and on all day and throughout the week.

What is everyone else up to?

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Book Cover Dilema

"There is no way you're paying over a 100 dollars for another book cover. You haven't grossed enough to pay an editor, buy your copyrights, and so on." Sweetman is the business person in the house.

"But I'm a writer. Not a cover artist." I can't even draw stick people.

"Nor are you a good  business woman. You haven't even made back all your money on what you've spent to promote your books."

So I hang my head in the hall of shame. He's right, you know. But I'm always hopeful.

Soon I'll be releasing Killer Stilettos, and I haven't got a cover yet. I'd like Collin Beishir to do it.  He did the initial cover to my debut novel below.

And the cover to my short story, The Partners' Progeny.

But he would have to re-do the cover to Secondhand Shoes since I'm going with a shoe theme. Money is an issue right now. Things have been changing in my day to day life at The Salon. The corporate hounds have figured out how to take money out of mine and fellow hairdressers' pockets and put it into theirs. Its really cramping my style...if you know what I mean. Not to mention, I do what I can to help the grandbaby.

So the Sweetman says, "You willhave to learn how to make the covers yourself along with the formatting. Save your pennies for the editor." Talk about being scared to death. Clearly, I have no idea about bookcovers. I directed Collin the wrong way with my debut novel. I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten from peeps wanting to know what is wrong with my cover. So I hang my head in shame feeling I didn't do Collin justice in his talents. 

Live, make your mistakes, and hope to God you learn. 

Anyway, I've heard you can make bookcovers via Power Point. In fact, I found some instructions and will be practicing. Don't be surprised if I begin posting off the wall covers just because.

Anyone use Power Point to make their own covers? Anybody struggling money wise? 

The economy does seem to be changing. And it's at the corporate level, wanting more from you while they take more out of our pockets. I'll stop here because I could go on forever about this.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday. This morning I'm working on my rewrites to Killer Stilettos. Later, I'll be heading off to work.

Before I go, here's a few lines from Killer Stilettos:

The night air felt muggy and hot. Low rumbles of thunder sounded around us, and lightening zig-zagged through the dark sky. Big puffy clusters of clouds hovered over us.

“I don’t see any stars. Can we go back to my room now?” The words filtered through a hiccup.

“Ah, mi amor. But this is beautiful.”Julio lifted his eyes to the sky. Thunder boomed again and what looked liked a million lighted crackles filled the sky for a split second.

“You brought me to watch lightening?” It gave me a fright. I hated lightening.

“Pretty cool. Huh?” Julio moved behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my right shoulder.

Out of my right peripheral, something dark but transparent moved.

Hope you enjoyed the diddy.

Hugs and chocolate!
Shelly