Summer Vacation? What's That? LOL

Hi everyone! Things have been so crazy here. I’ve been busy promoting the Together We Stand collection and gearing up for four takeovers in a week, among other things.

Together We Stand hits the shelves in less than 3 weeks, and we authors are getting excited. So far, the collection is about 100K in length, and if all of the stories promised are added, it’s going to be a lot longer. I’m doing a takeover in the Together We Stand Party Room group in Facebook on July 30^th, at 8:30 PM EDT, and on August 1^st at 1 PM in the Siren’s Lounge group on Facebook to promote my contribution, COVID’s Arrow, and the rest of the amazing stories in the anthology.

I am also gearing up to host a panel for Small Town romance authors in my group (VJ’s VIP Lounge) on July 27^th, and one in the Swag-gering Shout Out Page group on July 31^st from 3-6 PM EDT. I’ll be discussing all of my work during both days, and discussing upcoming stories.

I have a few quick updates before I get to the ultra-big news…

We are now in the Atlantic Provinces bubble. Anyone residing Nova Scotia, Newfoundland-Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island can travel between the four provinces without having to self-isolate for two weeks. So if we wanted to take a trip to Charlottetown, PEI, we could do so, and only stay three days. Or spend the day in Moncton without having to isolate ourselves. That said, anyone coming in from outside of the bubble *must* isolate for two weeks before moving around freely. It’s to make sure the virus isn’t spread by anyone who is asymptomatic.

I don’t leave the house very often, so staying home isn’t new to me. With things opening up and our numbers being so low (less than 5 active cases as of July 15, 2020), Hubby has been taking Son shopping with him, which gives me a breather and a chance to write without worrying about interruptions… From anyone other than that goofy Maine Coon that is. So far, I wrote a short story in one weekend, and I’ve got another WIP started, one that’s part of a series. We plan on doing this for the rest of the summer if things continue to stay as is or open up more within the bubble.

I got more RAM (memory) for the computer. This one is a reconditioned one from the 00s that was rebuilt with Windows 10, and it only had 4 GB of RAM in it. It was slow by times, especially if I had a Word document up with something like Chrome at the same time. I ordered another 8 GB from Amazon, and it arrived last week. This baby is running a lot more efficiently and it’s so sweet. I love it. This is one step closer to me getting a graphics design business off the ground, which I hope to do sometime in the new year. I have to purchase a ton of font bundles, get an account set up at a *premium* (paid for) stock photos site, and get something much more powerful than GIMP. One thing at a time though. (Thank heavens for royalties… If I don’t spend them on the eXtasy Books site that is!)

We make a few changes to Book Carousel. Instead of genre days, we have theme days, and we’re now having fight clubs for upcoming New Releases, Covers, Taglines, etc. Go check it out!

I have also updated my website. Maggie Blackbird gave me a few suggestions, and I worked on them last night. It's not perfect, but it looks great. I removed all excerpts (you can read them for all of my books on eXtasy Books' site - go to my profile and check them out), added the tagline for the Tri-Town Series, and added more tabs. The home page is much sleeker. I'm considering changing the backdrop to the cover of my newest work published, but that can be done later, so can adding a photo gallery of my work as a graphics design artist. 

Coming in December from eXtasy Books…

It is weird to be thinking of Christmas in July, but that’s what this little author did. I wrote a holiday short story for the eXtasy Books 2020 Stocking Stuffers in a single weekend – June 27^th and 28th. I signed the contract for it on June 13^th. I’m not really saying much about it for now, I want to savor knowing I have yet another story coming out with eXtasy Books.

I will say this: It is a continuation of one of my previously published works via eXtasy Books (which eliminates COVID’s Arrow – that one is published via my friend JA Lafrance). I’m going to leave it up to all of you to figure that out. Only a few people know the details, like my beta Erin H, my long-time pal Maggie Blackbird (who also writes for eXtasy) and my fellow moderators for Book Carousel, and maybe five others.

I’m going to share more details later this summer. Keep watching my blog, my pages in Facebook, Twitter, and my official website for any news.

Take care, and stay safe everyone!

I leave you with With Arms Wide Open by CREED.