I'm halfway through Breakthrough edits and I really like this story. It has everything you want - romance, love, a mystery of sorts, and a really cute fur baby. I dabbled into intrigue with this one. It's not crazy or even what the story is about - it just kind of happened. My character, Kennedy Wells, is a celebrity journalist who made a bad decision and has been at her boss' mercy for six months writing crap about washed up famous people who nobody cares about. One more horrible story assignment and then she's free and clear to get back to her glamorous job she loves so much. 

It takes place in Alaska - a place I love and will visit time and time again. Kennedy lives in Los Angeles so it's definitely a culture shock when she arrives in Anchorage and has to deal with life in a different way. Long story short, she gets her ass kicked by Alaska, falls in love with a park ranger, and there's a happy ending. Some of my funniest lines are in this book. My personality comes out because I've been around long enough to relax a bit on the page. I like it when a book makes me laugh out loud. I hope to do this with Breakthrough for my readers. 

Also, this book is the first book that is first person past tense. It's easier to write and sounds better. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. 2018 is a busy year for me. I have 3 things (possibly 4) that will be released this year: 

Touch - January 2018
Breakthrough - May 2018
Against All Odds - Fall 2018
Listen (3rd in the sensory series) - Winter 2018/2019

I've given myself three months to finish Listen. This story is kind of a stretch for me because my character is seriously flawed and I like perfection. Lily Croft is near and dear to my heart because she struggles with social anxiety. As soon as my blurb is approved, I'll post, but just know that this love story is a little darker, a little sadder than the others. The ending will still bring a smile to your face, but the journey might weigh a little bit on your heart. 

So tonight, Megan Ullrich, Maggie Cummings, and yours truly are going to Skype until we finish editing Against All Odds. I think you're gonna like it. It has everything you want - romance, heat, intrigue, and kind of a cool ending. So instead of just my fluffy story, you get Maggie's perfectly crafted scenes and a splash of Megan's fuckery. You know what I'm talking about. The stuff that makes you go.... wha?????? Oh yeah, and there are a few animals because I can't seem to write anything without at least a cat, or a dog, or a raccoon. Wish us luck!  

So during the winters, I hibernate. We all know this. During the summers, I want to be outside and enjoy the sunshine, but I can't. I'm the kid who blisters in the sun. My skin turns pink and peels. Right now, I'm in the back corner of a dark coffee shop sulking. Everyone is outside having fun in the sun and I'm wondering if my face cream has SPF or not so that I can sit outside for ten minutes. 

So, instead of frolicking outside, I sit and write. I have a busy schedule this summer. Touch edits are due Monday and 40K words on Breakthrough is due in a month. And I'm struggling with writing in past tense. Breakthrough is a story I started in third, switched to first present, and got the contract to write it in first past. Editing a present tense book and writing a past tense book at the same time is hard. 

Even if I could enjoy the sun, I'm forced to stay indoors because of my deadlines. Remind me next summer to take a break!

First person isn't everybody's favorite read. I get it. We aren't used to it. We grew up reading Dick and Jane and Cat In the Hat. Our text books were all third person, informative pages we crammed in our brains.

First person is a different way to read and process a story. It's not something we are used to. It takes time to open up and let all of the rules of third person leave our conscious mind and allow first person to enter. 

I like getting into the mind of a character and focus on feelings and emotions. Yes, describing a tree swaying in the breeze brings imagery to your mind and can be written beautifully, but my story isn't about a tree. It's about the person sitting underneath it or the girl who walked by it. Why is she crying? Are they happy or sad tears? Did she have an argument? I love that part. I like my readers to be right there in the story with my characters. I want them to feel angst, anger, love, happiness, satisfaction, and all emotions within her story. 

First person is a challenge. I love that more and more writers are trying it. I hope that readers continue to support us and understand that while it might not be their favorite way to read a story, there is a story there that needs to be heard. 

Right now I am knee deep in page proofs for Forget Me Not AND I'm writing TOUCH. I'm doing both at the same time because I don't want to stop writing. My story is finally getting into a groove. Touch is about a pediatric physical therapist who agrees to work on a 28 year old hockey player with a broken leg and fractured ankle as a favor to her boss. There is a lot of touching and healing. It's a sweet story and I am at the exciting part where they are close to having sex. i love the learning that two people experience with one another at the beginning of a relationship. It's new, exciting, FRESH! This book is about a new relationship, and has very little to do with hockey. For the record, I know so very little about hockey. After this book, I will still only know a very little bit about hockey. If you like a good, old fashioned love story, you will enjoy this book. I will have it ready for Women's Week - at least 2 months before release date. 

Also, today I found out that TASTE, the first book in the sensory series, will be out on audio book this spring. I"m guessing March. So, audio book and Forget Me Not - all available by April 1, 2017. 

PHASE 1

Phase 2... coming soon....

I'm both excited and terrified about tomorrow. I've already decided to go see a movie tomorrow after work. I can't be around the TV or social media. I am the world's most impatient person. I want this election to be over. If I was running for office, I would campaign with cute dog, goat or kitten videos the last week leading up to the election because everybody is tired of all of this mud slinging and fighting. This has been the ugliest campaign I can recall. So, do your thing and go vote. Having lived overseas for several years of my life, I know the importance of voting and what a privilege it really is. Democracy isn't everywhere. Exercise your right to vote. Be proud. Be American. Be with her.

I'm a lucky girl. Taste has been in the top 25 since its release on Amazon almost three weeks ago. I've learned to cyber stalk myself. Not that it's a good thing. Turns out, that's very time consuming. I like to see if what I'm doing is well received. I want to know if the characters I create make as big of an impact on readers as they do on me. Writing is a vulnerable sport. In order to pen our thoughts and feelings, we need to bleed ourselves. I love my characters. I think about them all of the time. I wonder if I'm done with their stories. I wonder if Ali and Bethany have more to say. What about Tristan and Kate? Did Amber and Finn get married and did they have the same comical problems or was the wedding flawless? I have new characters that you will read about - Kerry and Grace in Forget Me Not and Emery and Lily in my erotica Shameless. 

As I mentioned, reviews are always appreciated. If you don't feel comfortable leaving one, send me an email. I met a sweet woman in PTown last month who promised to reach out to me after she read Taste. And she did!! It was such a sweet email, I shared it with some of my other writer friends. It's affirmation. It gives us hope. It encourages us like you have no idea. Truly.

So watching my book bounce around has been fascinating. Thank you if you bought my book and enjoyed it. I had this much fun with Jolt. I hope that Taste does better only because I feel it's a tighter book and my characters are just normal people like you and me. 

I'm so excited that Taste will be released in a few short weeks! I will also have it up in PTown during Women's Week. I know I keep saying this is my favorite, but it really is! I try to cover different things in my books and this is the first time I've tackled a character with a child. I posted on FB that this is a real thing. So many couples have children from other relationships and it's important to cover everything about our lives. This little girl, Olivia, is so delightful. Really. She's the kid I never had. 

I do hope you take the time to read my book. Feel free to reach out to me after you've read it so we can discuss. As writers, we can only talk to one another and our friends about our books for so long before everybody plays possum and are done listening. Readers make us. We write for ourselves, and we write for you. We love to talk about our novels, our novellas and blogs. We are super shy, but not about our writing.

Above all else, please enjoy the stories we write. It takes us at least a year to write, edit and have our books published. It takes a reader a few hours, maybe a few days to read our books. Feedback is great - especially reviews - and we listen to you and make changes if we feel you've made a valid point. We aren't going to write everything you like and some reviews are less than pleasant. You will always be associated with a bad review, and so will we. We need to support one another and if you feel strongly about a book that we've written (strongly unfavorably), write us. Talk to us. Tell us why. Two of my writer friends recently got reamed because readers didn't like the story line. The writing in both books was great. Editing was great. Just the story line didn't go as the reader wanted. That happens. And Taste actually got dinged for a student/teacher relationship even though the student is 27 the teacher 36 and it's a culinary center. Yes, somewhat of a red flag, but happens all the time. Somebody called it taboo, I call it life. Some people call our lifestyles taboo. I call it life. It's all about opinions. We all have them. Let's support one another the best we can. We have enough obstacles out there to face every single day as lesbians.

Stepping off of my soap box now. Thanks for listening!  

Enjoy the read. 

Kris

So every weekend I struggle with two things - writing and getting the house ready to sell. Writing is so much easier. I still have several rooms to go through and divide up into piles - keep, donate, garage sale and trash piles. Sometimes I mix them up and have to start over. Writing is so much easier. This weekend I need to shop for wedding attire (not mine), but I know that's going to take FOREVER because I know what I want and will have to comb the city in order to find it. Wish me luck. 

And I'm starting to roll on Forget-Me-Not. I love Irish women. And I love accents. My character Taryn in Taste has an accent. And Kerry has an accent. So the plan is to work on the house for a few hours and then write for the rest of it. Writing is so much easier.
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