Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 191

Wednesday Worthy

The Baby Bargain Blog Tour stop today is Reading Between the Wines. Hop over and enter the contest for the $5o.00 gift card.

For two weeks, THE BABY BARGAIN was on the B&N and Amazon Romance Contemporary bestseller’s list and I am thrilled. Yesterday a new crop of books released, probably knocking TBB off, but that’s okay. I never expected the amazing two weeks, and I want to thank everyone who helped put TBB there! I loved writing the book, but I had no idea it would be so well received. It’s absolutely the best kind of surprise!

But you know what my best moment was? Easter day were were all chatting, and BLB says, “Hey mom I was reading through your amazon reviews on THE BABY BARGAIN and people loved that book.

I was stunned. “You went and looked at the book and reviews?” BLB reads a ton of books, all non fiction military and politics.  Just walking by his books can put me to sleep. He does not read romance.  (My oldest son is more likely to read my books, which is awesome, but he has zero time right now.)

BLB answered, “Yep, after we talked on the phone the other day, I looked it up. Very cool, mom.”

I know, it sounds silly. But it so made my day.

Okay this was the best I could do for our Worthy Candidate today:

So is he worthy? You be the judge!

Weekend Roundup

Before I forget, today for The Baby Bargain Blog Tour, I’m here at Laurie’s Non-paranormal Thoughts and Reviews.

The weekend was exhausting. Easter was exhausting.  Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of Bailey.  I did, however, make Bailey a special piece of bacon that I crumbled in his food. That dog now thinks I’m a goddess

I also watched Bailey help himself to a couple licks of Middle Son’s (he’s an adult) gin and tonic while Middle Son was in the jacuzzi and not watching. Then I watched Middle Son drink it. After I was done amusing myself I told Middle Son–who shrugged and laughed. Middle Son is too funny. Very little freaks him out. (Bailey didn’t drink much, I would have stopped him.)

So we’re set to have the bathroom granite put in April 12th. Then the next day the sinks and plumbing will be done. I’m excited to be getting work done, but frankly, Wizard’s doing the lion’s share of organizing this.  I’m pretty much chained to the computer.

However Friday night Wizard announced we were going to Home Depot to buy the sinks and hardware like faucets, towel racks, etc.  I was like…Yay, because my day started at just after 6am  in the gym and I’ve been going nonstop since then. Now it’s after 7pm and I get to go to Home-Freaking-Depot, oh double yay.

Wizard is staring at me warily… “Is is safe for you to be in public? You’ve been working a lot and you look a little…stressed.”

“No worries I’m fine. Let’s go.”

So we went. Bought stuff. All kinds of shiny stuff. Then we go to get the sinks. We need four, they have one–and I’m not a math genius but I know there’s a problem. So Wizard finds a guy to help. Except…he was confused by his job. So he vanishes.

And we’re waiting, and waiting, and now I’m bored. I’m standing across an aisle from Wizard when I say, “Hey Wizard, this store has cameras right?”

He gets THAT look again. Like I might be ready to snap the last threat tethering me to reality. “Uh, Yeah. Why?”

I start walked toward him. “Where is the cameras?”

His eyes get wide. Then he looks around, spots the camera and points to the ceiling on his right. “There. Why?”

Stopping toe to toe wtih him, I look up. “Cause “I’m going to get us on You Tube.  Or the news.”

His eyes widened.  “How?’

“We’re going to make out.”

After that, time went really fast. Okay, we didn’ t REALLY make out (or at least, I haven’t seen any video proof that we did .  Finally Clueless Worker Guy came back to announce there were no more sinks to be had. By then we laughing like idiots and struggling to pull it together. We made our escape and managed to stop laughing by the time we hit the check out stand with the stuff we did find.

Wizard tracked down the other three sinks we needed on Saturday. Oddly enough, he didn’t ask me to go with him that day.

How was your weekend?

Happy Friday!

All I want for Easter is Bailey to come visit!

And here he is sleeping on me last time he visited:

Wizard and I both miss him.

All right fine, we miss out three boys too.   They are all coming home and I am so looking forward to a family day.   I’m going to make Tri Tip, stuffed backed potatoes, corn, rolls and chocolate cake. Easy and fun!

I think I’m making some good progress on POSSESSION. I love Kat and Sloane so much, just hope I’m doing them justice. And thinking about the next Once A Marine book.  Meanwhile, THE BABY BARGAIN is really hanging in there (thank you, thank you!!)

Do you have plans for Easter? Weekend plans?

Wednesday Worthy

First me good news! I have signed on for two more books in the Once A Marine series with Entangled. I’m thrilled about that. Next up is Logan’s story, then Hunter’s.

Juggling the deadlines will be interesting.  I’m doing everything in my power to still hit my release dates for The Plus One Chronicles too.

Now the remodel, I think we’re set for the bathrooms. We have the granite guy, the plumber, electrician and the mirror people. We’re just waiting for the guy to check on the granite availability to make our final color selection. Then we’ll get a start date and the fun begins! I’ll try to snap pics to share then.

And while the granite guy was here, we went ahead and  had him quote the kitchen too. A really good price too…so we’re debating that.

And all this will be while I’m on crazy deadlines and doing blog tours.

Now for our Wednesday hunk. I’m inviting back an old friend:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think? Is he worthy?

Weekend Roundup

It’s official, Wizard and I are crazy.  So crazy, Sunday morning I got up early just so I could read in peace for a few minutes, but quickly found some email I had to deal with ASAP.  So I poured out some coffee, turned around and realized–

I’d already poured a cup of coffee. 2 cups of coffee sat on my counter. All for me.  Totally crazy. And when I told Wizard this when he got up–he laughed at me. Hard and so loud he probably woke the neighbors. Is that even nice?

Okay  let’s take care of a little business before I go on. Today is the first day of The Baby Bargain Book Tour:

The first stop is B00ks-n-Kisses one of my fave blogs because Kelly is a friend of mine.  Kelly is a huge supporter of authors and readers. If you get a minute, be sure to stop over. I’ll be posting the full schedule on my home page as soon as I have a free minute.

Today Wizard and I have a granite counter guy coming–and we are hopeful that this is finally the guy who will be doing the bathroom counters and sinks.  We’ve invested hours and hours of time into researching, getting estimates, etc and if the estimate comes in as expected, we’re good to go there.  We have the mirror place and we’ve chosen lighting (I think) too. That’ s pretty much it except for changing out some hardware in the bathrooms.

What I would love, but flat out can’t afford, is to do the shower and bath surrounds in the master bath. Bummer because I found the travertine  (however that’s spelled) I Love, Love, Love, but it’s not going to happen right now. Even Wizard agreed it’s gorgeous.  But it’s just not in the budget.

And we have a budget. Wizard is, after all, an accountant. And he’s damn good at what he does. But sometimes, he can be a tad…unrealistic. Sometimes numbers guys miss the variables, the things we really can’t control.  So we’re walking through another big box store, and he’s doing the numbers in his head.

It’s freaky-scary to live with this, but not only can do it, but does it all the time. And he’s rarely wrong. So he tells me the number.

I nod. I know he did math right except I tell him the bad news, “There will be miscellaneous stuff and problems.”

“Nope I ran the numbers. ” In his head. Sigh.

“Yep, now add on $500.00 to $750.00.”  I may not be able to run the column of numbers in my head, but I can estimate the stuff we forgot or that will come up.

Fast forward a day later as Wizard figured out the stuff we missed and put together a spreadsheet (he’s an accountant, what can I say?) “Well damn it,”  he muttered.

“Just say it. Come one, you can do it.”

“You were right,”  he growled. “It’s $7oo.oo more than I thought.”

Laughing, I said, “Did that hurt to admit? Cause it sounded like it hurt.”

“Yes.”

I may have laughed. Once in a while, I”m right, and it totally rocks!   Now shhh, we all know there’s going to be even more surprise expenses, but Wizard doesn’t need to know that yet.  After all, he’s living with a crazed woman on an impossible deadline and on a blog tour at the very same time.  So if he wants to believe all will go according to his spreadsheet, what’s the harm?

Now I want to hear all about your weekend!

Happy Friday!

I’m dreaming of a tropical islands, hunks and appletinis.  Really, really dreaming of having nothing to do but sip a cool drink and read!

But I’m buried in work. And stuff like B&N having a major glitch in gifting e-books is making it really hard for me to deliver prizes. But…maybe when I get up Friday, it’ll be fixed. I feel terrible making the winners wait! I even had Carla (my assistant) try it, but she got the same error message. So I called B&N and they said they are aware of it but couldn’t tell me when it will be fixed.

So if I owe you a Nook version of THE BABY BARGAIN I will get it to you as soon as the problem is fixed!

Enough of all that Saturday, Wizard and I are going to run around looking at stuff for this remodel that we somehow think we’re going to manage to do. Call us crazy–because someone needs to!  And I’ll be working. That’s about it. I’m slammed on getting POSSESSION done by April 15th, but determined to do it! Plus I have all the blog tour interviews and blogs to do.

What are you doing this weekend?

 

Wednesday Worthiness!

We’ve gotten two estimates on the two bathrooms.  Yeah…it’s going to be a process.

Then I got up yesterday to find out THE BABY BARGAIN is a B&N bestseller and my publisher, Entangled is doing a special promo. So cool! They are having a contest for a chance to win 5 free Indulgence books! Here is the link, go enter here! It’s really easy.

It’s all so much fun, but a really wild ride.  I’m pretty sure I haven’t processed it all yet except to be very grateful–so many people have helped me. And frankly, a lot of this is pure luck. And I’m also absolutely thrilled.

So onto our candidate! I couldn’t find any really good candidates at Bigstock. I think I’ve drained them So this is the guy for today:

So what do you think?

Weekend Roundup

It’s been a completely wild ride the first week out with THE BABY BARGAIN.  Color me stunned and all kinds of happy with how well it’s doing.  I owe a huge thanks to my Street Team from the the Lyon’s den, all the awesome reviewers and the publicity team at Entangled!

I also had an inquiry about audio rights on THE PROPOSITION which is super amazing. That book is getting attention.  That is due, again, to the hard work of my street team and to Carla and Book Monster Promotions for getting the word out!

Now with all this going on, three plus more books due this year and one early next year…is this the time to be…

REMODELING?

Of course not.

So what are Wizard and I doing?

Yeah, we’re interviewing contractors for some work in the house.  It won’t be extensive, just getting started on a few things. New counter tops, sinks, medicine cabinets and mirrors in the two upstairs bathrooms to start with. Then later updating some lighting in the family room and kitchen. Eventually granite…but one step at a time, and as much as our budget can handle.

So this weekend was mostly a blur.  I’ve started reading THE STILLNESS OF YOU by Julie Bale, but haven’t had much time to read.

How about you? How was your weekend?

Happy Friday

Do you know the month of March is half over? I looked at a calendar today and choked on my coffee.

I’ve been swimming around in this set of scenes with Kat and Sloane for-freaking-ever and I finally figured out the problem.

It’s all Sloane’s fault.

I think of POSSESSION as more Sloan’es book, and every time I probe around in his emotions and back-story a little bit, he shuts down. The next thing I know, I’m online doing promo work instead of pushing through the scenes.

Sloane is sneaky like that. Or, and this is more likely the truth, Sloane’s issues are a little too close to home for me.  But since I don’t want to take responsibility I’m going to blame Sloane.

But look what I found online:

This could be the elusive, never before seen, Cooper from THE BABY BARGAIN (except Cooper has scars).  Poor Cooper gets his story last though, if things go the way I think they will.

Not that I’ve been procrastinating or anything.

My weekend plans are mostly to clean the stupid bathrooms. So what are your plans this weekend?

P. S.  Bonnie Vanak (award winning author of TAKEN BY AN ALPHA WOLF, which is on my Kindle waiting to be read!) is doing a little feature on THE PROPOSITION tomorrow if you want to stop by here .

 

 

By the way, I’ve got a little guest spot on http://bonnievanak.blogspot.com/2013/...

Hunk Worthiness!

I got the nicest email yesterday from me editor telling me THE BABY BARGAIN  is doing well. Both that book and THE PROPOSITION are holding their own and I’m humbled by it because I’m not doing it by myself and I know it.  I want to thank all of you so much  for helping spread the word!

Now a quick bit of business (then I promise, onto Wednesday Worthiness!)

THE BABY BARGAIN REVIEW GIVEAWAY!

I’m giving away THREE $10.00 Gift Cards over at my Jennifer Apodaca Page for posting a review of THE BABY BARGAIN . Click the link below to see how to enter. Giveaway is open until midnight on March 22.

http://bit.ly/W7eNJk

Ok that’s done. Now onto the image I bought (paid too much, but this captured the troubled side of him and so, I ponied up the bucks) to represent Adam from THE BABY BARGAIN:

 

So what do you guys think? Worthy? No?

P.S. I have a routine doctor appt and probably won’t get to answer comments for awhile.