Zetta Hunt's Blog, page 3

New Release - Beach Fling with the Biker

 Another new release is here! Beach Fling with the Biker is live!

Is it a fling? Or forever. . .

Alexa

At last, a long overdue vacation at the beach.

Everything was going as planned.

That is, until a god of a man walks in on me in the shower.

At least he didn’t have a knife. Still, who does that? Because of a reservation screw up, we’re sharing the little beach cottage. He’s a hot guy on a bike from Houston and I’m just a boring accountant from Cleveland. Not a chance this could turn into anything more. But a beach fling with a hot biker? Even a boring accountant like me wouldn’t turn that down.

Damon

Alone on the beach for a week.

That’s all I wanted.

Except, a mix-up with my reservation has thrown a sexy woman who wears loud shirts in my path. I’ve never met anyone like her and fear I never will again. It doesn’t take long to figure out that I don’t want a beach fling. I want forever.

Author Note: This is NOT a motorcycle club romance. This is a man on a bike that meets a woman on the beach with a HEA guaranteed.

Beach Fling with the Biker is available at AMAZON for $.99 or free in Kindle Unlimited. Enjoy!

A Story of a Beach Story - Part 2

 

Thought I'd give a quick update. If you've been following along then you know that last summer I was writing a beach story. Every thing was going well until I was struck down with a tired spell.

I've also come up with an idea for a series of stories. Then I was torn about which to pursue first. I've done some noodling with the series, but nothing has quite gelled with that yet.

I decided to uncover that beach story to see what I had and to my surprise it was close to being finished. Since it was so far along I decided to finish it and make it my next release. I still have a lot of work to do before I can get it out.

My hope is after this story I can get a better writing routine going and stay with it. I have my fingers crossed that I don't get struck down by some weird illness and things of that nature.

While I'm still sort of noodling around about the series I mentioned, as of now I'm not sure if that will be what I work on next or not. I've had a bit of a problem getting into the swing of things lately. There always seems to be something going on in my life, and when there isn't I often feel like a slug.

With that said, I'm going to start playing around with ways to get me writing and keep me writing as I've got a lot of story ideas swirling around in my little gray matter.

So that is where I'm at right now. Finishing the beach story, then plugging forward to keep making forward progress. 

My title for this beach story is: Beach Fling with the Biker.

I plan on having this story out sometime next week. So stay tuned, and if you want notified when I release it, you can always follow me.

The Rabbit Was to Blame This Time

Some days I wonder if I should keep pursuing this whole writing thing? If I'm not getting in my own way, then it's an illness that lasts over six months. I finally get better, get past myself and think, yeah, now I'm going full speed ahead with writing and this is awesome! Then. . .

Then something happens.

Is it always going to be this way? Is it this way for other writers I often wonder? Are these some sort of divine tests to see if I have what it takes to keep on going? Who knows.

So what happened this time?

My sweet and beautiful house rabbit chewed my laptop cord.

Again.

Sometimes, electrical tape will do the trick. Not this time. She chewed the whole way through it. Just a small piece of the outer black plastic holding the cord together. The inner wires completely chewed through. There were other chew marks on the cord.

What I don't understand is how she does this without getting electrocuted. Do rabbits have a natural ground that prevents this? No idea. Is this the fist time this happened? Nope. It is not. Is it really her fault and was I mad at her for what she'd done? Again, nope. Because in reality, this was entirely my fault.

See, I'm not a novice house rabbit slave. . . um, er. . . I mean owner. For several years now, I've had a rabbit in the house. So I know that if you have something important, like say a laptop cord, it must stay out of reach of bunny teeth. I know this. I preach this to others who get rabbits.

This past Friday night as I was shutting down the computer, I noticed it wasn't charging. I thought, that's strange. Upon investigation, that is when I found the chewed cord. My first thought was, "Not again."

Notice the again parts of this post.

You see, back in January this same incident happened. I had to get on eBay and track down another power supply. Luckily, my laptop is old and they can be found for cheap. The incident in January wasn't the first time this happened either, or the time before that, or. . . but I digress.

When I discovered what happened, I logged on to eBay, looked at my purchase history and reordered the same power supply. To which my first thought was, I'm going to protect this new power supply with my life!

My next thought was - Gee this sounds like I'm shit faced drunk and begging God that if he gets me through this I'll never drink again. Only, you know, we all drink again. And after the second or third time of that prayer, we know that God knows we are lying our asses off because we will indeed get shit faced drunk again. At least for me, it was only I think after the second time of me praying to God to help me out, I realized that I would get drunk again and so now I leave out the, I'll never do this again part. (Please know that I rarely get that drunk, but once in a blue moon, it happens.)

Will I protect this power supply with my life? Yeah, I doubt it. God knows I'll get lazy. Like I did this last time. Still, I'll try to do better.

A lesson learned long ago

I have another, very old, laptop that still works but needs updated. I keep meaning to do that, so if something does happen to my main system I have a back up. So now might be the time to get on this.

I remember taking a course on spreadsheets some years ago. The most important take away from that course was the instructor drilled into us the 3 most important rules when it comes to computers.

1. Backup
2. Backup
3. Backup

To which I am actually fairly good at this, but I'm learning that this also means having at least one other computer (or two) that works as a backup.

Friday to Wednesday

So the cord was destroyed on Friday night. As I read the fine print on eBay from the seller, after I'd already ordered the power supply, is when I saw they didn't ship on weekends. Like, what the heck!?

Of course this comes from a woman who had to work weekends for several years. So that meant it wouldn't get shipped till at least Monday. Oh, wasn't this just peachy.

I had an old laptop cord that would send power to the computer but not charge the battery and I worried about using it. I thought now would be the time to get my old laptop updated and working.

Only I didn't.

Saturday I had a ton going on. Sunday was sort of the same. Monday I began reading a book that drew me in and wouldn't let me go. On Tuesday I finished the book I began on Monday. (For a full length novel of over 300 pages that is pretty darn fast for me.)

By then it was sort of like what's the point when my new charger will be here the next day.

So that was several days I didn't turn on the computer and it was. . . kind of nice, actually.

Granted I was on my phone on the internet, but using the net on a small screen just isn't the same so I did not spend hours and hours like I'm prone to do on the computer, wasting my life away on the internet.

I try to look at this incident as a learning experience of some sort. The time away from the computer was golden, actually. Which might mean I might spend more time away from it. That is until this lesson fades, along with my diligence about keeping the laptop cord away from rabbit teeth.

What all of this translates into is that I didn't work on the story that I'm hoping to publish this month. So that was five days of not working. Getting back into the swing of things, for whatever reason, is hard. Which is why I'm writing this. Doing a blog post often gets me back into the swing of things.

If you have a beloved animal living with you that has teeth made of titanium (I swear, rabbit's teeth are this strong) Keep important items out of reach. One day I will take my own advice. It was only after I placed my order for a new power supply that I thought, yeah, I should have ordered two, because I know what will happen to this power supply. Again.

Ways to Follow Me, Subcribe by Email, and Stuff Coming Soon. . .

In case you hadn't noticed I did some updating and tweaks to this site. I've been pretty busy lately. So let's get started.

Ways to Follow Me

If you've been to my About page, you know that when it comes to things like Facebook, X (Twitter) and other social media sites, I'm terrible at them. I don't know why. I tried to doing stuff on Facebook long ago, but I always fizzled out in a hurry.

Maybe because of this, I failed to realize there are other ways for people to follow me. I have an Amazon author page and a Goodreads page.

I now have links for both of these on my About page. I may try to put these links elsewhere on the site, but for now that's where they are.

I might try another form of social media in the future, but as of now I'm not quite sure. I do like Instagram and have a personal account that I follow people on. So I've been toying around with setting up an account there. If I do, I'll let everyone know, but as of now I don't. So let's move on.

Subscribe by Email

Also, you can now subscribe to my posts by email. You'll find a subscription form on the right sidebar. If you click on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) in the upper right hand corner, the subscribe form is first up. I've also set up a Subscribe page. When I post you can get them sent to your inbox instead of having to return to this site when you think of it. You can also subscribe by rss.

I've thought about setting up a regular email newsletter, but honestly, I don't see the point. I can't think of anything I'd put in a newsletter that I wouldn't write here on the blog. So it would be redundant.

I should have done both the follow links and the email subscription long ago, but for some reason, I just never got around to them.

Oh, but wait there's more!

More stories are coming soon! In fact, I've decided to start a series.

After I finished and published Snowed in with My Crush, I didn't have another project lined up. I sort of had a few ideas I'd been noodling but nothing concrete.

Then I thought of a title for a story. Which is usually not my first step in coming up with story ideas. It's more like my last. Anyway, I liked this title, a lot. Then, I began to wonder if I could come up with more titles similar to this one, and voila! I had a series. Not sure if I'll use my original titles or not when I publish the stories, but this should keep me busy for some time to come. I'm hoping that knowing what I'll write next will keep me more productive.

I've also uncovered my beach story that I talked about in a previous post. I didn't realize how near completion that story was. So I've been doing some work on it. Not sure which I'll release first, the beach story, or the first story in the series. I'll figure it out. I'm excited about all of these projects.

I'm still feeling much better and no more Lyme Disease symptoms since early February. Hopefully, that is all behind me. Now, I'm trying to make up for lost time. Which often feels overwhelming when I look at all the things I want to do and need to do. Because of that I'm working at getting better organized the whole way around.

It is my goal to get another story out this month. So stay tune, and you know, don't forget to Follow me.

New Release - Snowed In With My Crush

 At long last a new story is finished and out into the world. I'm just a few days past my self imposed deadline, but it's still within the time frame, so I'll take it. Hopefully, the next release isn't this many months apart.

Hope you enjoy!

 

Snowed in with my long time crush after I’m over him? Yeah, not what I needed right now.

Olivia

For years, I had a secret crush for Asher James. Except he never showed any interest in me for anything other than a friend. So I moved on. Only that didn’t work out too well either. After my new husband cheated on me with my best friend, I escaped to the family cabin. Only Asher is there. We’re snowed in together. He still looks as hot as ever. But the last thing I need right now is another man, no matter how hot or how many times he cooks me breakfast. Nope. Not happening.

Asher

Olivia Taylor helped me get over a terrible past. When I heard she was getting married I made a fool of myself and blurted out that I loved her. It was clear she didn’t feel the same. I ruined everything between us, including our friendship. Now, we’re snowed in together and she’s the one suffering. I’ll do whatever it takes to help her through this, even if she doesn’t love me back.

This is a short, sweet and steamy, stand alone short romance. Snowed in fun with a HEA guaranteed. 

Available at Amazon for $.99 and free to read in Kindle Unlimited.

Enjoy!!

Cover Reveal - Snowed In With My Crush

 

Thought I'd share my cover for my up coming story - Snowed In With My Crush.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the story and should have it out in a few days as long as life doesn't get in the way.

A snowed in story this close to Spring was not my intention, but life happens. At least I'll have this story finished at long last.

After I get this story published, I have other things in the works. However, some of that has taken a back seat at the moment as I'm determined to get this story finished and out for you to enjoy.

So stay tuned!

 

Update and Things That are Coming Soon

 

The other day I realized it was mid December since my last post. Where has the time gone? Wherever it has gone, it went without me.

So I thought I'd take some time to post a quick update on things.

First off, I have a new story almost ready. Again, this story took longer than it should have, but at least it's getting done at long last. My hope is to have it out by the end of this month. If it's not out by then, I should have it out around the beginning of March for sure. I've put it as a priority in my life at the moment.

I suffered more tired spells and joint pain (symptoms of Lyme Disease) in January and again the beginning of this month. But the past two weeks I finally feel better. The six month mark for me and the Lyme Disease would have been at the end of January. So I'm hopeful, that maybe at long last, I am finally past that. All I know is it has been great to have some energy again and not be tired all the time.

What else you ask? Well, glad you asked. 😀

Since my energy has returned, I have been trying to develop a plan to get more stories written this year and to stop lollygagging around with my fiction writing. I have another story in the works, and I haven't forgotten about the Beach story that I mentioned in my last post.

Also, I'll most likely make some changes to this site in the near future, along with a few other changes. Like my Zetta Hunt logo that appears on Goodreads, Amazon and my About page on this site.
 

During my tired spells back in January and at the beginning of this month, I tried to determine the path I wanted my writing to take. I'm talking over all, and not just with these stories. I'd like to write in other genres, and other subgenres of romance. However, I determined if I want to make any real progress I'm going to have to narrow my focus for the time being and stick with what I decide.

I decided that I want to focus on short romance stories like I've been writing under this pen name.

My last couple of stories haven't been quite as steamy as I would have liked, so I'm going to work on that after this next story that's almost finished. Because I love me some steamy stories.😍

I've also been exploring ways to be more productive and keep this a priority in my life. Also, coming up with ways to keep going when life throws me a curve ball like it did last summer with Lyme Disease and last winter when I had some issues with an aging family member.

The only thing left is to make all this happen and get in a routine to get the work done. So keep checking back as there should be plenty of activity around here in the near future. I'll post a cover reveal when I get that far and should have a better idea when the story will be released by then also.

A Story of a Beach Story

 If you have read my last post, you know I contracted Lyme Disease, which has made me eternally tired. If you read the post before that, you know that I’d started a new story. Except, being sick caused progress to stop on the story. Which was a bummer.

The story takes place at the beach. I love going to the beach. I enjoy listening to the waves hit the shore, the cries of the seagulls and people laughing and having a good time while I sit in the sand watching said waves, seagulls, and people. The reason I love it so much is probably because I don’t live close to any beaches. The closest I’ve got is Lake Erie, and even that is a bit of a hike to get to.

Also, if you read my post ‘Pushing Forward-More Stories in the Works’ then you know that after trying to make notes and do an outline of a story, that I finally gave up and just started writing the story with no pre-planning.

I was having great fun with it. Then I became dead tired again to the point I didn’t have the energy to do much of anything. My progress came to a standstill.

When I felt a little better, I worked on that story some. Except it didn’t feel as much fun as before. Which I think was because of my illness.

Falling into Fall

Before I knew it, the trees were changing colors; the weather became cooler and my beach story languished on my hard drive. I love autumn as much as I love the beach. It’s one of my favorite times of the year and consider myself lucky that I live some place with a change of seasons.

As time went on, I thought, who wants to read a beach story this time of the year?

Well, okay, I would. I’m sure many others would as well. That was probably my cantankerous self talking.

Still, the story was in the back of my mind. Way back, but there. Debating about what to do, I finally gave up work on that story. I wanted something tied more to the current season. I don’t know why. Honestly, I don’t. For some reason, I seem to be tied to the seasons, and when I think about it, it’s sort of weird. <shrugs> Oh well.

So I did the logical thing and wrote something set in Autumn, only I didn’t get far. Another tired spell hit me, and I became frustrated. The rate of speed I was going it might be Spring when I got the Autumn story finished.

Let’s have some snow!

After I finished Finding Beauty, I had started a story with a snowed-in trope. I’d run into issues with it, and finally thought the idea was dumb and abandoned it. Only that dumb story would flutter across my brain from time to time.

In a tired state, I looked at what all I’d done on it. What I’d written, the parts I’d discarded, all the notes and my sad attempt at outlining the story. As I did, I thought, gee this isn’t dumb like I thought it was. It’s actually got a lot of good going for it.

I reread everything I had, more than once, made a few changes. There were rough spots and parts that weren’t gelling together like I wanted. I did a new rough outline of what I thought was going to happen, and then next thing I knew, I was totally immersed in this project again.

Lessons Learned

There were many. The important thing is to remember the lessons to make them stick. Yeah, I’m still working on that.

One of the biggest things I learned is when you fall out of the habit of writing, it’s hard to get it going again. The way I did it was to take things slowly. I worked on this story daily, even if it was just for ten or fifteen minutes a day. Amazing how much that really helped.

The other thing is, despite what life throws at you, keep moving forward. Last year when I wrote Finding Beauty, I had so much going on it was unreal. A family member had taken a turn for the worse and I had to step up to be a twenty-four-hour care taker. To say it was stressful and disheartening is the understatement of the century. However, working on a story got me through it.

The family member improved, which brought an entirely different level of stressors with it. (It’s a long, long story.)

This summer when I got hit with Lyme Disease (stupid tick) it really slowed me down on finishing The Billionaire and the Bookseller. What propelled me forward to finish it is I really loved that little story. I adored my characters and the setup. I was determined to get it done.

Looking back, I should have pressed forward with the Beach story no matter what. Doing that might have helped me get through this tiredness and everything else better than I have.

I’m hoping after I finish my Snowed-in story, that I keep these lessons in mind and keep working and become way more productive at last. I already have another story lined up to work on after this one. It’s a story I started after I finished The Gift of Holly.

Yes, I’ve been revisiting old projects. Projects that every once in a while nag at me to do something with them.

On that note, I don’t have a tentative title for this story yet. I have a couple different ones that I’m noodling around in my gray matter. I’m not exactly sure when I’ll have this story out, but it should be before the end of the year for certain - I hope.

I’ve counted the months and figured that this Lyme Disease crap, in theory, should clear up by the end of January. I’m hoping it does.

As for the Beach story, it’s one of those stories that I started that has been nagging at me. So as of now, I plan to finish it at some point next year and have it out in time for beach season. 

A Delay in Progress - Part 2 - Lyme Disease

 

Once again, it’s been a minute since I posted last. At least I’ve been more active with blogging and writing stories this year than I was last year, so I guess I’ll take that little win for now.

If you read my Delay in Progress post back in July, then you know I came down with an illness. I thought I was getting better when I posted that. In fact, in some ways I felt better, until I didn’t.

Being summer, I’d gotten some sort of insect bite on my one leg before my illness set in. Thought little about it. I did not see what bite me but I just assumed it may have been a spider bite, which I’ve gotten before, no big deal.

However, as time went on, I developed other health issues. I was tired all the time, which is nothing new for me, but this was much worse. I’d developed some joint pain, mainly in my hands and jaw. Red patches showed on my skin in various locations. I wondered if a tick had bitten me and I’d contracted Lyme Disease. Finally, I gave in and went to the local urgent care. The doctor did the test that confirmed my suspicions, that yes, I did in fact have Lyme Disease.

By now, I was dead tired all the time, to the point I barely did anything. In fact, I was tired of being tired. I’d take naps, but still my tiredness persisted.

I scheduled a follow-up visit with my regular doctor, who said I could experience symptoms for the next 3 to 6 months.

Isn’t that just jolly?

Of course, since I hadn’t been to a doctor in some time, she wanted me to get poked and prodded everywhere to make sure I was healthy. Which I’m glad to say all the doctors have confirmed that I am, in fact, normal. Granted, I did not visit a psychiatrist, but let’s just move along and go with the fact that I’m in good health overall.

For a time I was doing well, then a few weeks ago I contracted a cold/flu virus. Apparently, since I had Lyme Disease, I’m immune compromised for the time being. The cold/flu wasn’t too bad other than I wanted to sleep all the time.

I’d get up in the morning to feed the cats. That’s non-negotiable regardless of how I’m feeling because the one house cat makes sure I’m up at a certain time no matter how crappy I feel. After I made the rounds feeding the inside and outside cats, I’d eat breakfast and go back to sleep till lunch time. After lunch, and go back to sleep. Same with dinner.

When my symptoms began to clear, I thought I’d soon be back on my feet. But no. The tiredness from the Lyme Disease sat in on me once again. Worse part is, I had volunteered for an event at the local theater and I felt like a slug moving through dense fog.

Nothing can be done for this. With luck, it’ll all clear up in a few more months. In the meantime, I have to live with this. I have to find a way to get things done regardless of how tired I am. That is my main goal at the moment.

It is a struggle for sure. On the other hand, it’s given me lots of time to think and reflect on many things. Namely, on how to get things done. My hold ups in the past have been of my own mental making, now they are not. I reflected on getting past the mental barriers in order to get me past my current physical barrier.

What really sucks is I rarely get sick and never on this level. I stay healthy for the most part. Believe me, I’m grateful for that.

So I’m trying to pull myself up from this. I am working on a story that I hope to have out by the end of the month, but as always, no promises on that. I should be more active on here as well, with plenty of updates, ramblings, insights, etc.

Learning to live with being tired and drained every day isn’t easy, but I’m finding it is doable if I give myself a little push.

Delay in Progress - Part 2 - Lyme Disease

 

Once again, it’s been a minute since I posted last. At least I’ve been more active with blogging and writing stories this year than I was last year, so I guess I’ll take that little win for now.

If you read my Delay in Progress post back in July, then you know I came down with an illness. I thought I was getting better when I posted that. In fact, in some ways I felt better, until I didn’t.

Being summer, I’d gotten some sort of insect bite on my one leg before my illness set in. Thought little about it. I did not see what bite me but I just assumed it may have been a spider bite, which I’ve gotten before, no big deal.

However, as time went on, I developed other health issues. I was tired all the time, which is nothing new for me, but this was much worse. I’d developed some joint pain, mainly in my hands and jaw. Red patches showed on my skin in various locations. I wondered if a tick had bitten me and I’d contracted Lyme Disease. Finally, I gave in and went to the local urgent care. The doctor did the test that confirmed my suspicions, that yes, I did in fact have Lyme Disease.

By now, I was dead tired all the time, to the point I barely did anything. In fact, I was tired of being tired. I’d take naps, but still my tiredness persisted.

I scheduled a follow-up visit with my regular doctor, who said I could experience symptoms for the next 3 to 6 months.

Isn’t that just jolly?

Of course, since I hadn’t been to a doctor in some time, she wanted me to get poked and prodded everywhere to make sure I was healthy. Which I’m glad to say all the doctors have confirmed that I am, in fact, normal. Granted, I did not visit a psychiatrist, but let’s just move along and go with the fact that I’m in good health overall.

For a time I was doing well, then a few weeks ago I contracted a cold/flu virus. Apparently, since I had Lyme Disease, I’m immune compromised for the time being. The cold/flu wasn’t too bad other than I wanted to sleep all the time.

I’d get up in the morning to feed the cats. That’s non-negotiable regardless of how I’m feeling because the one house cat makes sure I’m up at a certain time no matter how crappy I feel. After I made the rounds feeding the inside and outside cats, I’d eat breakfast and go back to sleep till lunch time. After lunch, and go back to sleep. Same with dinner.

When my symptoms began to clear, I thought I’d soon be back on my feet. But no. The tiredness from the Lyme Disease sat in on me once again. Worse part is, I had volunteered for an event at the local theater and I felt like a slug moving through dense fog.

Nothing can be done for this. With luck, it’ll all clear up in a few more months. In the meantime, I have to live with this. I have to find a way to get things done regardless of how tired I am. That is my main goal at the moment.

It is a struggle for sure. On the other hand, it’s given me lots of time to think and reflect on many things. Namely, on how to get things done. My hold ups in the past have been of my own mental making, now they are not. I reflected on getting past the mental barriers in order to get me past my current physical barrier.

What really sucks is I rarely get sick and never on this level. I stay healthy for the most part. Believe me, I’m grateful for that.

So I’m trying to pull myself up from this. I am working on a story that I hope to have out by the end of the month, but as always, no promises on that. I should be more active on here as well, with plenty of updates, ramblings, insights, etc.

Learning to live with being tired and drained every day isn’t easy, but I’m finding it is doable if I give myself a little push.