Asrai Devin's Blog, page 4

Wanna live longer?

I was playing with my phone a few days ago, it’s an Android HTC, I think, and I was installing apps. I installed the Kijiji app and the Ikea App. And then the TED talks app.

In case you’ve been under a rock, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. According to Wikipedia, TED conferences started in 1984 in California. They’ve grown and are held all over now. The main events are called TED, but any city can host one called a Tedx. And no one is allowed to be paid to speak at a Tedx conference, and all speeches must be allowed to be free streamed on the TED website.

Since 2006, all TED speeches have been available for free on the http://www.ted.com.

Anyway, I was flipping through the TED app and I came across the title “The Game that will can give you 10 extra years of your life” by Jane McGonigal. Since I love anything that says gaming is good, I clicked watched. While I half watched my 10 year old playing a video game and my husband playing a different game on the computer, we listened to to Ms. McGonigal, a game designer, tell us about her experience with games. She suffered a major head trauma and she didn’t heal as we assume concussions normal heal. About 1 in 3 concussion victims end up with suicide ideation.

Instead of just falling into a depression over the pain, or listening to her brain, Jane decided to make her life into a game. She would “collect power-ups” for doing anything that would heal her brain. And in a couple days of playing the game with her sister, her depression started to lift. She started sharing her game with other people on her blog and people started playing their own game and started telling her about their own amazing transformations.

She started calling the game superbetter, which you can play on the website http://www.superbetter.com 

My daughter and I both joined. ‘Cause who doesn’t want 10 extra years of life, and some fun. IF anyone has joined in the past or joins after reading this let me know and we can join up and be allies. :)

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Depression, Game design, Happiness, healing, Jane McGonigal, Kijiji, Romance, Video game

Finally on Barnes and Noble

After several weeks (months) when did I publish these things? Anyway

Love Can’t Wait

annnnnnnd it’s follow up

When Love Knocks

are up on Barnes and Noble.

Links? oh yes links. Only to the Barnes and Noble editions. They are also available on Smashwords, Amazon and Kobo.  But today we are pimping B&N.

Love Can’t Wait 

Amy Black is in the middle of divorcing her cheating ex-husband, when she meets Scott Jones. After a night together, she discovers he’s not only her ex’s team mate, but her brother’s best friend. She has no choice but to ask him for help when her husband drops their cat off at her no pets allowed building. When he gets hurt, he requests a favor from her. Before long, Amy is wondering if a move to Ontario is the next best move in her life.

When Love Knocks

Sophia Clark is just feeling normal after losing her husband in a car accident, when Doug Black knocks on her door. She hasn’t seen him in years and suspects his motives. She has no qualms letting him know she is not looking for a white knight. Her four children, however, have different ideas. And pretty soon they are trying to convince Sophia that Doug should stick around for the long-term.

Looking at the covers, When Love Knocks might need a professional job. I did both, but Love Can’t Wait turned 1000x better.

Oh well, they are finally up. I’m going to go celebrate with a drink. Of juice. It’s only 4:30 PM.

Okay I love you, bye bye.

Imagining … kisses

I keep imagining …

wearing a garter belt, thigh high stockings

long fingers stroking the soft skin exposed just above the stockings

gentle teasing fingers, touching

soft kisses, long kisses, wet kisses, seeking tongue, nipping teeth, soft lips,

kiss by mikelawrey stock.xchng http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1105969

gentle murmurs with romance “so beautiful”, “so sexy”, “can’t wait to touch, to taste, to see”

beach vacation, warm sands, hot nights, revealing clothing

of love, of lovers, of first times and next times and every time,

of young love, mature love,

uncontrolled lust and falling, falling, falling for you.

Tagged: Asrai Devin, fantasy, Garter (stockings), imagine, Kiss, Kisses, Romance

Get excited about your life

This is the culmination of a few things. First, my latest crush obsession with Eddie Redmayne . Second, trying to figure out my next novel, which I’ve started and crashed about three different times. Third, subsequent daydreaming linked to said crush and writing attempts. Fourth, (I keep adding on) my best friend is in the middle of falling in love. She and her boyfriend as just disgustingly cute about it all!! And last, a post by fellow WANA classmate/friend Kristy K. James, Why Can’t Life be Like a A Love Song?

I was having a lovely daydream the other day about a life different from my own. A life where the mundane things weren’t so mundane, where I was just excited about things and my partner.

And then I started thinking about my husband. I don’t want a new partner. I want him, we have future plans together, which is going to be legendary. But, in the meanwhile, we have to live day to day life and it can get boring and we get entrenched in the exhaustion of two kids, jobs, bills, and the constant threat of clutter taking over our lives. (My husband is perfect for me. I’m keeping him).

But the mundane crap is really a drag.

So it hit me. Why not feel excited about the mundane things? Why not do things for him and be happy I’m making him happy, instead of feeling a bit resentful? Why not be more present with him and with our kids? Why not feel more sexy? Why not put on a bit of an effort for him? Why not feel excited when I see him?

Some people might consider it fake or false to force excitement. You can call it fake it til you make it. I don’t think it is false. After a decade, I can’t expect to feel spontaneous excitement and flooding in my lady bits when he walks in the room like when we were first together. Doesn’t mean it would be false to dwell on it and get excited about him.

A lot of people had the wrong idea about how love should feel. I know I had wrong ideas.

I thought for ages it be as Kristy K James says:

Am I way off base here, or are the feelings expressed in this song the samefeelings that most every adult in the world wants to feel? The newness of love? The uncertainty? The hope? The knowledge that this is the one?

Maybe it’s not the wrong idea of how we should feel, but the idea that we should feel that day in and day out without putting out any effort ourselves.

So, bring up the excitement in your life with what you have. Put out an effort to make the people around you feel the way you want to feel, don’t wait for them to make you happy.

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Daydream, Eddie Redmayne, fake it til you make it, keeping the magic alive, Kristy K James, philosophy, Second Chance Romance

If I ruled the world … #1

 

I have delusions of turning this into a semi-regular post. Which means I’ll set up about 4 of them and you’ll never see it again. But here we go …

If you’ve ever seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog there is a part where Dr. Horrible receives a letter from Bad Horse and 4 cowboys jump on screen and sing the letter. I’ll post it after so you can see it not just read my sad description.

Anyway, if I ruled the world I wouldn’t send letters or e-mails. I’d have minions dispatched to sing my messages.

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Felicia Day, if i ruled the world, Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Sing Along Blog, singing telegram

FML: Too much to do

 

Damn it.

For readers who want more hockey- you are in luck. My brain figured out the next novel. I know it’s YA for everyone. because I get the feeling i”m going to love this one. (I know I say that EVERY TIME).

but at the same time, I have all these other awesome ideas I want to write.

I had this fairytale romance I started writing. It derailed, but I love the idea. The heroine is the daughter of a high ranking noble, set to marry a Prince, whom she’s never met, when she meets his illegitimate half-brother. I’m not sure where it derailed. This was a lesson I did with Holly Lisle‘s How to Think Sideways, I’ll have to pull out my notes and work through it. I love the idea.

I am mostly finished a May-December romance. And now the new hockey novel wants to run that way as well. I’ll try to resist.

I noticed that one thing I love to write about is a rekindled romance from the teenager years.  Maybe I never got over the boys I loved as a teenager. (Also, despite  wishing to write erotica, this last romance I wrote has ONE sex scene and it doesn’t even need to be in the book. I am writing less sex!!)

Back to the May-December, I-loved-you-since-I-was-a-teen that is not quite finished. When I write a novel I do the first draft and then I plot it out and look for holes. I think there may be holes, but now that I wrote the HEA my muse is washing her hands of the project.

I was going to force it a bit more, but I think I shall leave it sit for a few weeks, and I’ll go onto HOCKEY.

While I was looking up hot redheads, I stumbled on some gorgeous pictures of Eddie Redmayne. He’s taken up permanent residence my brain people. I’m sorry that you are tired of hearing about him, I am not tired of thinking about him.

I was trying to work his image into a story, and then my brain managed to morph it into a hockey novel. While you are waiting for that to get onto paper, I am going to release a new Corey Porter story. I forgot about this until I was cleaning up some files. I’ll hopefully run it through the editor and get it out shortly. I think you’ll be surprised. Like Where the Path Leads, it will be free on Smashwords. deets later.

There are a few other projects I’ve abandoned over the last few months, maybe years, that I’d like to see finished. Somedays I wish my brain had an off switch, or I had a nanny. If I had a nanny maybe I could get all this shit done.

Let me know what is up in your life.

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Eddie Redmayne, hockey romance, Holly Lisle, Online Writing, Romance, Smashwords

Does failing teach?

I shouldn’t read the comments on Huffington Post articles (or almost any other opinion “newspaper” for that matter). But I’m addicted to it, so I doubt I’ll stop.

Today we have Alfie Kohn‘s article on HuffPo titled “What Do Kids Really Learn from Failure?” is provocative. His ideas are. If you aren’t familiar with Kohn I’ll give a summary. He believes that we should get rid of imposed consequences, rewards and punishments. He dislikes the idea of grades, especially when what is being graded is subjective.

I agree with Kohn’s ideas. I tried reading a book of his, but it’s kind of dry, psychology stuff so I didn’t do very well. I will try again because he has ideas worth learning about.

If he had his way he’d revamp the entire school system. OH YES PLEASE. It is broken.

So there was a comment from a user who said he/she wanted his children to fail. because this commenter didn’t fail in school, they didn’t learn how to survive in the world. I, too, found school very easy and I never learned to study. I did learn about the world from my parents. My dad ran his own business, my mom did the basic accounting.

I think failure is the wrong word here. We shouldn’t want our children to fail. Failure generally teaches children they are dumb and not to bother trying.

The word we want is “challenge”. We should want our children to be challenged. One big problem with school is that it’s not individualized. One child who can read at a very high level is put in the same class with a child who struggles with basics, because they are the same age. Some teachers are better than others at changing things up to challenge children. In second grade my daughter picked two bonus words to learn to spell because the basics were too easy.

When we are challenged at just the right level, we get excited about the work. And occasionally we get frustrated. And if parents and teachers do their job correctly, a challenged child who reaches an obstacle or problem, we can teach them how to problem solve.

Do you challenge your children? Do you challenge yourself?

Tagged: Alfie Kohn, Asrai Devin, child, Education, failure, Huffington Post, imposed consequences, Kohn, Parents, punishment, Reading, rewards, School

Friday Fun: Cookie Monster wants you to share!

 

Last week was  my daughter’s favorite video, this week, my son’s.

Hey me just met you

And this is crazy!

I got video

Like it maybe?

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Call me Maybe, Call Me Maybe parody, Carly rae Jepsen, Carly Rae Jepsen parody, CookieMonster, parody, SesameStreet

Letting it Go

My personal philosophy is to just let things go. There are few things I get worked up about. Not throwing stuff away ranks high on my list of things to get worked up about. It can be a big issue in my relationship. My husband would just rather throw stuff out. I’d rather donate it, give it to someone or sell it.

This has been my philosophy when it comes to publishing as well.

Right now I have a review for my book Love Can’t Wait on Amazon KDP that says the book is horribly edited. It says words are missing, the book needs to be spell checked. I panicked because this book was professionally edited. I formatted it and I’ve looked at it (not on a Kindle because I do not have one) on my tablet. It looks fine to me.

When I read the review I panicked. I opened the file and ran a spell check. I was going to comment back, because I think it’s a formatting issue. I don’t know. I decided to just let it go. I don’t know if it’s the right or wrong thing to do. The other review is positive. If there were several comments on the formatting problem, I’d reformat and re upload. (If anyone has read the book and notices similar problems please comment here or email at asrai.rd@ gmail.com).

I also noticed that despite my price being changed EVERYWHERE my book, Complications Over Coffee, is sold to 2.99, Amazon has it discounted to 2.99. Annoying? yes. Worth my time to email them? Maybe. Worth their time? Not likely. I checked ALL my others sales channels, it’s 2.99. I don’t know where else it’s discounted. I’ll watch it for right now, if it doesn’t go up, I’ll ask where their data is coming from.

The last thing I’m forced to let go but is really irritating me is Smashwords distribution lag. Any book that’s distributed already goes up fairly quickly. But my last two releases Love Can’t Wait and When Love Knocks claim to have been distributed the last three weeks. They are not up on Barnes and Noble, Apple (Apple doesn’t have Second Chance Romance either) or Sony. The latter two aren’t a big deal, I don’t sell much on either. But I sell a lot of books on B&N this delay is costing me tons of sales. TONS and therefore Smashwords is losing out as well. I have people waiting for it.

I wrote Smashwords an email, but they say they have a backlog for service help. They are hiring more staff it says, but expect to wait 2 weeks to hear from them. I told them I didn’t expect to hear back, but that I wanted my frustration noted. I’ve heard of people waiting 4 months for distribution. Frustrating. Especially if you are a non-US resident, Barnes and Noble won’t let you in without Smashwords.

I love all that Smashwords has done and I’m not going to abandon them during these growing pains.

All of this reminds me that I need to write a letter to the editor of my local paper telling him that I’m thankful he doesn’t get to make the laws on abortion. (I’m very pro-choice and if that alienates you- GOOD. One woman, one brain, one choice what to do with it.).

Tagged: Amazon, Amazon Kindle, Apple, Asrai Deivn, Barnes, Barnes & Noble, distribution, Noble, Smashword, Sony

Stalled before I start

 

I am putting it off. I am waiting for the moment to be right. I am waiting for me to stop being scared. I am waiting for permission. I am waiting for my muse. I am waiting for a good night’s sleep and a day where my son isn’t whiny.

I am waiting to start my next novel.

I’ve got the basic pre-plan on file. And then i just write, but I haven’t started.

I think because I am not excited about this one yet. I want to write it, the hero needs a chance to redeem himself. And yet, I want to write about sexy encounters on the beach with men with freckles who kiss like a fantasy.

I want to write about heroines who think they might like to be literally tied down. And spanked for fun. Heroines who apprecaite dominate men who have strict rules about behavior and decorum. And dress. And sex. Of limits tested and stretched further than you thought you could go.

I want to write about falling for the wrong person at the right time, or the right person at the wrong time. I want to write about taboo seductions and clandestine relationships that walk the fine line of hot and just plain wrong. (Nothing illegal this has been something I’ve wanted to write for years).

I want kisses and bodies brushing together, moaning and panting breath that meet between two bodies, mouths that suck and tease, fingers that caress and stroke and orgasms for everyone.  And people who roll over and say “I love you” even though they’ve only been dating for five days.

I want love at first sight and happily every afters forever more.

Maybe I should write those things instead. I think the muse and I will be much happier. I will come back to the hockey later. I’m still mad at the hero for his past.

 

 

Tagged: Asrai Devin, books, Hero, Romance, Romantic, sex and romance, up in flames, what I want, writing ideas, writing inspiration