Roxanne Snopek's Blog: From the Mind of Roxanne, page 13

Saving the Sheriff – Now Out!

It’s Happy Book Birthday in Roxanne-land! My novella is now available for purchase, as part of a holiday anthology. Along with my story, this collection contains work from Karen Erickson, Coleen Kwan and Cindi Madsen, heady company indeed!

If you can’t wait for a little Christmas spirit, dip in – you’ll find plenty here! 

Three River Ranch Book 3.5

Title: Stranded with a Hero

(A Bliss Christmas Anthology)

Author: Karen Erickson, Coleen Kwan, Cindi Madsen, Roxanne Snopek

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Length: 350 pages

Release Date: November 11, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-62266-384-2

Imprint: Bliss

“Luke. I am your dark side. Hug me.”

Tomorrow is the start of another NaNoWriMo. During National Novel Writing Month people from around the globe commit to writing 50,000 words in a brand-new project, in 30 days.

They don’t have to be 50,000 good words. The idea is to just pull the cork and see what spills out.

McMurphy: I must be crazy to be
in a loony bin like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t going to participate this year. I’ve been burnt out, exhausted and very near the dreaded writer’s block that I’ve always claimed doesn’t exist. However, this year’s NaNoWriMo event falls during a Mercury retrograde – in Scorpio. Which means that this year, there might be some pretty powerful stuff pouring onto the page.

Here are a few tidbits from Maria Desimone. Read the full essay here.

What are we hiding from our own consciousness? What are we afraid to admit to ourselves? This Mercury retrograde phase promises to ferret it out of us and deliver a chance to reconcile with darkness in our lives that we either truly don’t see or have tried desperately to sweep under the rug.

I’m a classic rug-sweeper, a deny-er, a smoother-over-of-conflict. And dang it all, there’s no great, nail-biting, stay-up-all-night books without it. You see my problem.

Just for balance, someone should add this to all the
happy baby pictures on the maternity ward.

So, what if I use the next few weeks to explore that pulsating darkness within, lance that poisonous mass in a dramatic Alien meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gesture of literary defiance? (FYI: we in the biz call that previous sentence Purple Prose. Don’t do it.)

Karmically, the universe is screaming at us to open wide and swallow the nasty medicine that will give us a new perspective. The nasty medicine is the uglier part of your life … the part that you might take great pains to hide from others. From yourself.

To up the ante, I’m also at that stage of life where my developmental tasks include taking stock, reviewing and adjusting goals, facing the fact that even coconut oil and psyllium husks can’t turn back time and that yes, that is my ass now. Naturally, I’ve been avoiding this inventory-taking.

 Once you call yourself out on it something powerful will happen. You will be unrestricted from the grip that this darkness holds over you in your life.

Best case, I emerge better, stronger, faster. Worse case, I’ve got another lavender-hued pile of schlock on my hard drive.

What the hay. Where do I sign?

Riding the Wave

Yesterday afternoon, I returned home from my 15th consecutive year at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference.  A few of those years, including this one, I was there as a presenter, which also meant providing critique services to other writers in the Blue Pencil Cafe appointments.

During these 15 minutes slots, writers bring 3-5 pages of a work-in-progress to an author for an opportunity to get feedback, ask specific questions or simply practice the pitch they’ll be lobbing at an editor later on. Much sweating occurs.

This may have been one of the best years for me yet, and the honor of seeing such excellent work from up-and-coming writers was truly a highlight. (You know who you are. I expect a mention in your awards speech.) I’ll post more about the conference later, once I’ve met my current deadline. But I just had to share the message that popped into my in-box this morning from the Daily OM:

You may feel that you are winning in everything you do today, which could be due to your successes at work or at play. This feeling of being able to accomplish anything might be the result of an increased confidence in your ability to reach your goals. Today would be a good time to use this momentum to continue to set realistic objectives for yourself. You might want to think about what targets you can create for your life that you can easily attain.

So. I’ll be riding that wave for as long as I can. I’ve got my realistic reasonable possibly-remotely-attainable goals in front of me and now it’s time to work. 

What secret goals do you have? Is there an important, scary, outrageous task that scares you, but that might just be possible if you try? Why not see if you can catch a bit of this energy and see where it takes you, too? Let me know what happens!

Psst: Wanna Win an iPad Mini?

In ten days, the third book in my Three River Ranch series releases. Fake Fiance, Real Revenge is - wait for it - an engagement-of-convenience story, with some revenge thrown in. Plus two lovers who must overcome a tragic past - and rediscover each other in the process.

Plus horses. Plus a luscious hero who trades in his corporate duds for a hat and boots.

And other stuff too. Like prairie oysters. Don't know what they are? You'll find out!

But I digress. I'm here to tell you that the blog tour will run from August 12 to October 11 and all followers will be entered to win a grand prize of an iPad Mini! (cue the Blatant Self-Promotion. Will GoodReads kick me out of the club for this? I guess I'll find out.)

I've also made up some cool Kindle sleeves. You can see pictures of them at www.Facebook.com/RoxanneSnopekAuthor and at www.roxannesnopek.ca. Join me on the blog tour, I'd love to see you there. You know you wanna!
Fake Fiance, Real Revenge

Women In Need Of Sanity...

... is what a local wine bar calls their Wednesday Ladies' night. WINOS. Get it?

I love it. But don't get me wrong: alcoholism is not a laughing matter. Unless you're recovered enough to laugh about it, I suppose.

I've got my boatload of weaknesses, but fortunately alcohol isn't one of them, probably mostly because it interferes with my mood stabilizers and makes me fall asleep.

Oh, I hear you thinking: I KNEW it. She's CRAZY.

Well, honey, if you haven't gone through menopause, then shut the front door. Bolt it from the inside. Crazy's coming for you too.

Aaaaannyyywayyyy... all this to mention my latest stop at Confessions of Romaholics, where one lucky participant will win the giveaway! Hope to see you there!

http://confessionsfromromaholics.com/...

Unconventional Review!

Hear what Lexxie has to say about Three River Ranch!

http://unconventionalbookviews.com/re...

Monday's Stop:

My Book Addiction and More...
http://www.mybookaddictionandmore.com...#

Still time to join for a chance to win a free copy!

Three River Ranch

Next up on the tour:

A conversation with Random JenDSmit

http://randomjendsmit.blogspot.ca/201...

Pop in and say "Hi!" if you have a moment. You never know what you'll learn about me...
Three River Ranch

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know...

... nor not. I have a tendency to over-share. Consider yourself warned!

http://fadeintofantasy.com/entangled-...

Sweaty Hot Boys

So my blog is up at Fresh Fiction and we're having fun. Come join us!

http://freshfiction.com/page.php?id=4433