Karilyn Bentley's Blog, page 13

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Good morning.  It's my turn to be up on the Plotting Princesses today.  I chose today because (drum roll please) IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! 

I've honestly stopped counting the years.  The last time somebody asked me how old I was, I had to stop and do the math in my head to come up with the right answer (and since you all know how well I do at math, it was actually the wrong answer LOL).  Age is just a number, right?  Too bad it's such a BIG number. 
One of my birthday traditions is to get whatever meal I want for my birthday, whether it's a home-cooked one or going out to a restaurant.  I haven't decided yet what I want, but I know it will be delicious.   Plus because it's my birthday there will be cake!


Birthdays also mean getting presents.  Except today I'm going to be giving a present instead of getting a present.  How's that for a new birthday tradition? 
My latest book released on February 1st.  Wicked Wagers is a box set of the first four books in the Lovin' Las Vegas series, and today I'm going to give a copy to one person who posts a comment on this post.  It couldn't be simpler.  You post, your name goes into the hat and you might win a copy of Wicked Wagers, the box set.  

Even if you don't win, you can still go and pick up the box set at the regular price of $7.99.  Still a great deal for four books. 
  







Amazon:  http://amzn.to/1nALQoM BN:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wicked-wagers-kathy-ivan/1123351980?ean=2940152788273 iBooks:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/wicked-wagers/id1080483145?ls=1&mt=11 Kobo:  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/wicked-wagers?bookId=40d504f4-5292-43c3-bc16-20ecef68a5bb Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Kathy_Ivan_Wicked_Wagers?id=sIx-CwAAQBAJ  
I also wanted to tell everybody about a new release that I have coming out on March 2nd.  This is a Kindle World book and it's part of Melissa Foster's The Remingtons series.  I was thrilled and honored to be asked to take part in this series, and my book, Could This Be Love, will release along with several others at the same time.  Here's the cover.  

Make sure and mark your calendars for March 2nd, and grab this brand new, standalone story. 

I need a #Hero

I admit it. I love Thor-his bulging muscles. His manners. His charm. Well, I love the Chris Hemsworth version of Thor. Actually, I love Chris Hemsworth. Yes, he is handsome. But it’s so much more than that. Over time I’ve come to appreciate that a hero isn’t just someone strong and capable of handling a stressful or chaotic event--and looks good doing it. No, a hero is so much more. Mr. Hemsworth persona (since I don’t actually know him I can’t affirm that he is as good as he looks/seems) is my ideal hero.
For me, a hero is someone unwavering in his devotion to his wife and children. His sense of humor is contagious—but his laughter isn’t the result of someone else’s misfortune. He’s not afraid to show his emotions to those he’s closest to. His strength is daunting but he uses it for good. He’s kind, lifting up those that are downtrodden. And he has passion.
As far as Hollywood goes, I would say Liam Neeson and Hugh Jackman also warm the cockles of my heart.
When I’m writing, I find myself using these traits when I develop my own heroes. But I know my idea of a hero might be different than yours. So, as I’m always looking for new hero sources, I want to know:
Who is your hero? Or, what traits do you consider most heroic in your book and film characters?
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.And, yes, I know heroes can be female too, so sound off. :)
Oh, and, Happy Thorsday!

Michelle Miles: Creative Pursuits

I taught myself how to cross-stitch over a decade ago when I was young(er) and single. I discovered it was a relatively inexpensive hobby I could do on weekends when I was broke and had to stay home (i.e., I couldn’t go party with my friends). One year, I started stitching projects in January and made something for every lady in my family. It was a huge undertaking but I got it all done and everyone loved their gifts.

When my son was small, I stopped stitching because needles, small beads and floss don’t go well with a toddler. ;) But I picked it up off and on over the years. A couple of years ago I discovered these great kits for Christmas ornaments with beads. I thought I’d give them a try. Turns out, I really liked making them. Back in December, I ordered more kits and decided to try my hand at a Santa face stitched on perforated paper. I’d never stitched on that before but I actually liked it. It’s sometimes easier than stitching on linen or Aida cloth.

Anyway… Here is the result. I think he came out super cute. And now I want to make the rest in the series of these Santa faces. I find I like these smaller projects because I can get them done in a week or so and it makes me feel accomplished. :D

The thing I discovered about stitching is it seems to help me focus on writing when it’s time to sit down and write. I’m not sure why that is – maybe because I’m using a different part of the brain and it allows that other creative side to rest and regenerate. Who knows. At any rate, I’m happy to be stitching again and plan to purchase more kits.

Do you have any creative pursuits? If so, what are they?

I'm so excited, I could scream! #newbook #RssosSisters #MFRWauthor

Lately, I have written about everything except for my new book. Yup, The Wild Rose Press will be publishing Temporarily Insane, my second romantic comedy mystery, featuring my always job searching heroine, Hattie Cooks, and the hunky detective, Allan Wellborn.

Here's a blurb: No man. Bad job. And Murder. Hattie Cooks is still searching for her dream job and one might be available...in the Big Apple, far away from friends, family, and Allan Wellborn. In the meantime, she finds temporary employment at an accounting firm where two auditors turn up dead.
Detective Allan Wellborn dumped Hattie for Blonde Bimbo who coincidentally is employed at NLB where fishy things are taking place. When Allan interviews Hattie, he must determine why all signs point to her as a possible suspect. Can Hattie find out who is murdering auditors before she’s arrested?

Pretty much fun--right? So here's an excerpt:

“Stop it, Hattie!” Trixie had some nerve. Her reprimand, the one which skewered a stabbing pain to my right eye, sounded terribly out of character, like she had little patience for me. Maybe she felt rushed. Ordinarily, she was the nicest person I knew who didn’t have a mean bone in her body. The kind who rescued animals, picked up trash at Sommerville Park, and delivered Meals on Wheels to the elderly during her lunch hour.   Not today. I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest in a school-girl flaunt. Trixie tilted forward in her ergonomically designed chair, her bosom almost resting on her desk. “This nonsense has to end. Your moan sounded like an obscure breed of a bizarre...untamed...wounded animal.” She returned to an upright and seated position. In tiny increments, she rotated from side-to-side, waiting for me to say something not insane.In truth, Trixie had pounded the nail on the head. I had nothing to add. My whole life had turned into an obscure, bizarre, bad reflection of itself, thus wounding me to my core. I sighed and pouted an if only. Don’t go there.My funsister friend owned the employment agency Jobs Inc., and on occasion, she’d--mostly--happily assisted me in finding temporary work since my dream job had been flushed down the proverbial toilet a few months back, thus soiling my picture-perfect life. For this newest offered assignment, I’d be employed as an administrative assistant for the managing partner at Northside, Lancaster, and Brookside, Certified Public Accountants, headquartered in my hometown of Sommerville.   At first, she’d sounded oh-so pleasant when we began our chitchat about the opportunity. “Think accounting,” she’d teased, followed by a small chuckle.     Her laugh had spoken volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica proportions. Did I tickle your funny bone? And finally, here's a small cover sample:    Have you read Temporarily Employed? Find this fun one at: Amazon Amazon PB  TWRP ebook  TWRP PB      
 

Escaping the daily grind @sloanebcollins #PlottingPrincesses #Escapism #PearlsPerils #amreading #MFRWorg #scrapbooking #feedmysoul

I'm pretty much a loner, and need to escape the daily grind of a big city and a demanding day job. So when I'm taking a break from writing (or have the dreaded writer's block), I find other ways to feed my soul.  I don’t usually play a lot of games, and was never into video games, but lately I’ve been playing a game on my iPhone called Pearl’s Perils, a hidden objects game.  But it’s not like any iPhone game I’ve seen before. This is the official description from the Facebook page: “Get swept back to the romantic and sordid 1930’s along with our trailblazing heroine, Pearl Wallace, ace pilot and world explorer. Pearl’s glamorous social life grinds to a halt when her father mysteriously dies and she inherits a strange island filled with perilous secrets. Journey with Pearl and her deliciously sarcastic best friend, Iris Hillman, as they travel the world, uncover a global conspiracy, and navigate a chilling mystery you won’t soon forget!” 
The story line is fun, and the artists are truly talented. The scenery is lush and beautiful, and true to the time period of the 1930’s.  The story takes place on Artemis Island, and in Paris, New York, and Russia.  While following Pearl on her journey and trying to solve a mystery, you earn coins, cash, and energy, but you also get to build and design your own Artemis Island. That’s the most fun part to me.  As the story progresses, you earn, badges, coins, and cash to help you purchase decorations and buildings.  I usually play the game on the train commute to work, and before I go to sleep. It’s my chance to escape the daily world and go to a romantic era and location, and design a place I’d love to live. 

I used to do cross-stitch, then for many years I was hooked on scrapbooking.  I still have all my supplies, and keep all my photos and memorabilia so I can get back to it when I have spare time. I like to do a scrapbook for each vacation, so I've got stacks of boxes, one for each trip, ready to go.  So until I can actually work on those scrapbooks, I've been doing shadowboxes for each vacation. This one from Hawaii is still a work in progress, but I'm almost done!

Books are my other choice of escapism.  Historical Romance, Contemporary Romance, and Cozy Mysteries are my favorite genres.  In books, I can go anywhere I want.  I think part of why I love Cozy Mysteries so much is they take place in small towns, and have a cast of characters the reader gets to know and love.  And there’s usually a theme to each series: knitting, cooking, sewing, magic, crafting. 
I just realized as I was writing this post that I tend to lean toward small towns even in my choice of escapism: the small towns of Cozies, and the island in iPhone games.  I’ve always wanted to live in a small town.  Life seems so much simpler.  You don’t have a long commute, have to deal with strangers every day, there’s a slower pace, and a sense of community that is lacking in a sprawling big city. 
My husband and I prefer to vacation in places where we can get back to nature.  We might venture into a big city for a day, but we don’t stay very long, and would much rather be out among the mountains, forests, coastlines. 
So until we can build our cozy little cabin on the outskirts of a small town in the mountains, or a forest, or on the coast of Maine, I’ll keep reading my favorite genres, designing an island of my own, and remembering vacations in shadow boxes.

What ways do you escape the daily grind of life? Books? Movies? Games?  What are your favorites? 

Michelle Miles: The Great Declutter of 2016

I’m sure we are all aware by now that it’s a brand new year. I, for one, was glad to wave goodbye to 2015 and welcome in 2016 even if I was feeling somewhat under the weather for the holiday.

But it’s a new year and that means new goals and new adventures. I have deemed this year as the Year of Decluttering. I have reached my limit of Crap I Don’t Need Anymore and so I’ve begun to really downsize. My first order of business was to actually declutter the Christmas tubs. We have fifteen or something absurd like that. I ditched everything that was broken or not in use for the last five years. The only thing I really kept was the kid’s artwork over the years.

I told the husband I wanted to go through the pantry and get rid of stuff that was expired and donate the stuff that wasn’t that we were never going to use. He handled that quite nicely and we did purge a lot of stuff.

I intend to go through every room and closet in the house systematically to remove things I don’t want or need anymore. I’ll donate some things and toss others. But I’m sick of the house being in a constant state of clutter. It will likely take all year for me to get it done but I think I will be much happier when I do.

I’m also going to “declutter” my finances. I had been doing so good on the Dave Ramsey Snowball plan paying off my credit card debt (Google it if you don’t know what that is). I was down to one card with a balance and then these last two years I just sort of blew it. So I’m back on my spending diet. I kind of think of it as a diet. ;) I put the cards I wanted to keep in an envelope and gave them to my husband to hide. The others I cut up that I know I’m never going to use again. Why am I hanging on to these old accounts? I have no idea. I’m currently researching the best way to pay down debt with zero interest – either a consolidation loan with a lower interest rate or a balance transfer with a zero interest rate. In the meantime, I’ve managed to pay off one credit card and have another small balance I’ll have decimated by the end of the month. It’s slow progress, but I know it will be well worth it when I get all of them to a zero balance.

So that’s what I’m doing in 2016. It’s more of a goal than a resolution.

What are your goals for the new year?

2016 What Kind of Year Will You Have?

In 2016 I’m going to hit one of those milestone birthdays! You know the kind that makes you cringe and yet I feel so extremely blessed to still be walking this earth. As you go through life there are some good years, some not so good years, blah years and really bad years. I rate 2015 as one of those blah years - not really great, but not really bad either. So I’m planning on 2016 being a fantastic year. 
So what am I going to do to make it a great year? I’m going to improve my attitude. It all starts with me. And that’s about the only New Year resolution I’m making this year. I know I need to lose weight, exercise more, work harder, yada, yada, yada. Been there, done that and the T-shirt is worn out. So this year my number one goal is to change my attitude and be more grateful.
How am I going to do that? I’m going to get up each morning and write something down about what I’m grateful for. I’m also going to write down something good that happened the day before. I’m not going to focus on the negative things in my life and there is a whole book I could write about. You know those crazy-makers in your life that have you wishing you were capable of murder. Those people will now receive a smile and be a villain in my next book. I’m going to do my best not to let them affect me. 
As for my job…I love writing, but in 2015 it just about consumed me. I had some excellent opportunities, I did a lot of traveling to events, but it wore me out. I had ten books come out this year and I almost burned out. I’m going to try to stop and take care of myself a little more and realize that though I’m a diligent, hard-worker so much is out of my control.  I already have four completed books lined up to publish in 2016, but I’m going to make 2016 the year that I return to writing something fresh and new that excites me.

I’m grateful for the life that I have, my friends and family, my dear sweet husband who puts up with so much, my sweet dogs who are curled beside me as I write this. What are you grateful for and how are you going to make 2016 the best year of your life?
Wishing you the best year of your life!! Happy New Year!

OUR WISH FOR YOU

From all of us here at the Plotting Princesses, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a most joyous and prosperous New Year!  

Reflecting On My Year - By Kathy Ivan

As we all get ready to celebrate the holiday season, and I had a post due, I decided to take a look at the changes I've made in 2015 and the impact they've had on me personally and my writing. I thought with the New Year just around the corner, I'd share these with you.  (As you can see, I brought snacks.)

1. Quitting the day job. One year ago, I made the decision to leave my full-time job and write books for a living. You have no idea how big a decision this was, because at the time I only had four books published (two full length and two novellas). They definitely weren't bringing in enough to cover the loss of salary by any stretch of the imagination. But, I'll be honest—the stress from the day job was slowly killing me. Between the diabetes and high blood pressure and major stressors, my life wasn't pretty. Since then, I've written more and loved every minute of it. While there are always stressors in life, it's so much less now. In 2015 I released three books in the New Orleans Connection Series and six books in the Lovin' Las Vegas series, and one book in a boxed set, Mischief Under the Mistletoe. (There's a new Vegas book coming out in January—it would have been December, but didn't quite make it before the holiday shutdown at the vendors.)

2. Starting a new series and a new genre. In 2015, I branched out into a new series, the Lovin' Las Vegas series, which are contemporary romances/romantic comedy. It's been fun because I never knew that I could add comedic elements to my stories and people would actually like them and find them funny. But they do!

3. Making the USA TODAY Bestsellers list. This was one of my goals, high up on my bucket list, and I knew that I'd make it one day. Luckily, this happened in November, with the release of Mischief Under The Mistletoe. My story, Yours For The Holidays was part of this box set and we reached #67 on the USA TODAY list. It was a surreal moment, and I'm loving every minute of it. And being able to add that moniker to my author bio—thrilling!  (And if you look at the cover above, you'll see it right there -- front and center!)


4. Making new friends, both personally and professionally. This year I've tried to reach out and be more social. Working the day job as a medical transcriptionist, I was pretty much housebound in front of my computer for 8-10 hours a day staring at a computer screen with headphones attached to my head. And then I had to write. When was a gal supposed to socialize? But I've made more of an effort this year and I can say it's been great. And I plan on being more outgoing (which for those of you who know me is hard because I am an extreme introvert—the kind who doesn't talk much until I get to know you well). I'm getting better about that. Watch out 2016!


Those are just a few of the highlights of my 2015. You should see my list of goals for 2016—it's even bigger than 2015's.


What about you? What were some of the things that had the biggest impact on your life in 2015, either personally or professionally? Post them in the comments, so we can all celebrate where we've been and where we're headed in the New Year.

Best of the Best #MFRWauthor #RssosSisters #amreading #christmasbooks

I am often asked what is the best book/romance book you have ever read? I have to giggle--"Besides my own??"

I like to read mysteries, thrillers, cozies, romantic suspense, contemporary and historical romance. Naturally, I have read books that have stayed with me forever. Was it because of an aahh Calgon take me away instance? Or did I finish the book and instantly, reread it?

Only two books had me instantly rereading:

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux
Come to Grief by Dick Francis

Something about them had me wanting to experience the contents again. And to this day, I still consider them to be very special.

And then there are books that I periodically revisit, such as:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.   

I first read Rebecca at age thirteen. For me, the book isn't a romance, but a thriller. Yes, there's a nice meet between the hero and heroine, but more importantly, the death of Rebecca. And that Mrs. Danvers??? She played with the heroine's and our minds.

Then there are authors whose works I really like and will consume everything they write:

A, B, C and on mysteries by Sue Grafton
Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella
Thomas Lynley mysteries by Elizabeth George
Mysteries by Dick Francis
Romance by Emilie Loring
Crazy mysteries by Carl Hiassen
Mystery series by Julia Spencer Fleming
Romantic suspense by Mary Stewart
English romps by Georgette Heyer

and on. You avid readers know what I mean. One book by an author and you will probably read everything they've written.

Oddly enough, I don't have any books on my Christmas list this year which is okay because my six foot tall bookcase is loaded with TBR. I can't wait to discover a new author for my must read.


Do you have a book you read and instantly reread? What is your all-time favorite book?



Perhaps you are in the mood for holiday stories? These Amazon best-sellers, which includes my romantic comedy short story, "Holiday Handbag Extravaganza," is available at e-retailers and: Amazon