Heather Marie Adkins's Blog, page 12
October 23, 2011
Day 6 of Samhain Blog Tour
Day 6 has arrived! We're countin' down to Halloween…
Today on the Tour, I'm being hosted at the fabulous Book Briefs blog, ran by a lovely book reviewer named Michelle, who will be reviewing "The Temple" at her blog on Tuesday. In today's post, I talk about every little girl's desperate desire — to be a princess!
October 22, 2011
Day 4 of Samhain Blog Tour
Day 4 of my blog tour ended up not happening. BUT, it was a good day because my first published ebook, a short story "Underneath", has officially gone free at Amazon! I'm so excited. It's only been 5 months since I first published it…
I could be biased, but I really do think Underneath is a great story — not only that, I think it's pretty representative of my writing style. Having it free may well draw people to my work that may never have tried me in the first place. It went free sometime this evening, approximately after 6 pm because I was on KDP at that time. Forty minutes ago, I had had 95 downloads. I just checked again… 136 downloads.
I don't know whether to run screaming in terror or do a happy dance. I'll go for some odd combination of both and hope the neighbors don't see.
So… FREE! Go get it!
October 20, 2011
Day 3 of my Samhain Blog Tour!
Today, I'm visiting at Anna's Book Blog! The post is My Funniest Halloween Memory. If you stop by and leave a comment of YOUR funniest Halloween memory, you could win a copy of my ebook, The Temple!
October 19, 2011
Day 2 of the Samhain Blog Tour
With Redneck Zombies, Voodoo arts, and my closest brush with the unknown…
At Get Jack'd with fellow Louisville author, Jack Wallen.
October 18, 2011
Blog Tour Starts Today!
In which I pimp my books!! The tour begins today and to kick it off, I'm being interviewed over at M. Edward McNally's Sable City. His questions were fun to answer and really made me consider some things I hadn't really given thought to. Stop by and check it out! Plus, take a gander at Ed's books. He is one of the best writers I know 
October 14, 2011
An Exciting Week of Fiction!
Lots to talk about for today's Fictional Friday!
First of all, if you want to sneak a peek over at the Fairytale Nerd's blog, Joanne invited me to do a guest post/interview for her amazingly wonderful idea, 31 Days of Fairy. 31 days of posts devoted to all things fae! You can even enter to win an ebook copy of "Abigail!"
Check out my post from October the 11th, "Wings or No Wings: Reinventing the Fairy", then stick around and browse through the first 13 days of guest posts, giveaways, and interviews! Lots of chances to enter and win books
Also today, I'm guest posting at 1000+ Books to Read on "Writing Into Myth" — a nerdy ramble on mythology and writing. The post isn't up just yet, but it should be live sometime this morning! It's an absolute pleasure to work with Melissa, who will be posting a review of "The Temple" on October 27th for my blog tour!
In other news, I've decided to set up my own LLC to cover both my formatting and my books. About a month or so ago, I helped Ed McNally get some pics inside his book file for Amazon and B&N. He started jokingly calling me "Cyber Witch". Well, I totally dug the name. So, in honor of that… I present to you:
I know… so cute, right? I'll be looking into getting my Kentucky business license and making it all official soon. Plus, I'm going to be setting up a website specifically for CyberWitch Press. I'll copy all of my Smashwords formatting posts there, as well.
Keep your eyes peeled because in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be posting blogs on how to create linked TOCs within html, as well as how to format the linked TOC for Smashwords Word docs. I may even be considering to write a book on ebook formatting. Depends on how busy this girl is!
On October 19th, Eclective member Lizzy Ford will be releasing her newest book, "A Demon's Desire". Other than the fact that one of my friends is releasing a book, why is this important, you ask? Because Lizzy is complete awesomesauce and will be featuring the first chapter of "Abigail" in the back of the book! I'm excited and honored for the opportunity to reach Lizzy's fans. Poor Abigail just does NOT get the attention she deserves!
I've trumpeted for several weeks now, but just a friendly reminder… The Indie Eclective's Halloween Collection is still FREE at Amazon! We even had our first 2-star: an extremely well-written review. I wish more people were so in-depth! They say a lot of people don't believe straight 5-star reviews, so I can only imagine this should help us reach some fans! Pick up your copy of The Halloween Collection before it's too late…
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My Eclective buddy Alan Nayes has released his 5th book, "Smilodon"!
Jason Bristol, ex-prize fighter and expert animal tracker, and part-time drunk, teams up with beautiful wildlife biologist Norah Phelps as they pursue a man-eating predator that threatens to derail her father's prize real estate development project in north central Idaho.
Against the majestic pristine backdrop of Idaho's Bitterroot Wilderness Area, the adventure unfolds. Jason, with Norah's assistance, soon discovers the ghosts of his past are nothing compared to the battle he's undertaken.
Smilodon. A saber-toothed cat. He's angry, he's frightened, he's hungry, and he's 12,000 years from home!
SMILODON 75,000 words or about 300 pages
Alan Nayes is the author of GARGOYLES, THE UNNATURAL, BARBARY POINT, and GIRL BLUE.
Pick it up for 2.99 at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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It's like the neverending post, huh?
One last thing before we go.
On November 7th, I'll be featured at Pixel of Ink!!
October 12, 2011
Gender and Friendship
I really have no idea what I'm going to write about for this week's Wednesday post. So, allow me to ramble.
I was never one to have a slew of giggly girlfriends. Throughout elementary school, I had maybe three girls (not the same every year) that I considered my close friends. When I hit middle school, I met my best friend, Erin, who is to this day still my bestie. Hers is the kind of lasting friendship nothing in the world could replace.
I cycled through a couple of other girls in those three gods-awful, pre-teen years. I formed a semi-lasting friendship with one girl, Erica, and her friend Meagan, but we lost touch sometime around our senior year of high school. Another Meagan was a girl I thought was my soulmate-friend in middle school–but once we hit high school, our friendship collapsed. During high school, I had another wonderful friendship with Chrisden, but we also lost touch after high school.
It's too easy for teens to start running with different crowds and forget one another. A girl goes through a LOT of changes during her teen years, and unfortunately, your friends don't always go with you. It doesn't change how you feel about them–to this day, I am filled with affection and fondness when I remember these ladies. They've gotten married, started families, and I'm on the fringes, where at one point I thought I would be a part of that process.
Despite those early connections with girl friends, I've always been a guy's girl. The majority of my friends through life were guys; one of my earliest guy friends, Parker, is still someone I consider myself close to today. Once I hit college, the guy friends greatly outnumbered the girl friends. This trend continued until I moved back to Louisville after a short stay in Nashville, when I reconnected with an old friend (who hasn't contacted me in months) and met Mayme, who became one of my closest friends. Not too much later, I found Ann and Bev–my witchy sisters.
With that being said, I'll be the first to tell you that it's important for a woman to have girl friends. What's even more important is to have friends that you feel a deep connection with; women that remind you of everything the gender stands for.
Maybe I'm feeling philosophical. I just finished beta reading a book for my dear friend, author Talia Jager. She is a one-woman revolution. She has raised 5 beautiful daughters and is expecting a 6th child next year. Since I've known her, she's released 3 books… with 2 more (at least) to be released before Christmas. Her books are so RAW, and they deal with very feminine themes–teen pregnancy, overcoming domestic violence. Her books make you remember just how strong the female is–despite society's belief to the contrary.
We may not boast of physical strength, but the woman is a mighty force. We have an inner strength that shines in times of trial. This ties into my spirituality–the goddess. I revere the female body and all it is capable of (even if my own personal preference is to not use mine to its full potential as I don't want to bear children). It is in my blood to care about women's issues across the world.
I'm lucky to have an advent of lovely lady friends that have recently joined my life–mainly authors who I've connected with online. Julia Crane, Talia Jager, Pj Jones, Shea MacLeod, Lizzy Ford–these five women are ALL incredibly strong, brilliantly talented ladies. I feel honored and pleased to have found them. Those are just my eclective girls–there are other amazing women like Pj Port, Kathy Green, Penelope Crowe, Xtine (she knows who she is), and Cheryl Shireman, who have touched my life tremendously in the past couple months. There are more I'm looking forward to getting to know, such as Red, who haunts my blog and is having coffee with me on Friday I know I'm probably forgetting some people, but I really do feel blessed to have met so many amazing women in such a short period of time.
Maybe gender is such a focal point of my existence because I have such strong women in my family. Between my mom, my stepmom, and my grandmother(s), I've had nothing but good juju raising me. Not to mention the strength of my Aunt Glinda and the friendship and love of my little sisters. The women in a girl's life shape the person the are, whether it's the women who raise her or the friends with which she surrounds herself.
I draw daily strength from my friends. Their support, their banter, their encouragement and advice… this stuff is tantamount to my existence. More so now, than ever.
And that's my philosophical ramble for the week, peeps. Please return on Friday as I ramble again about books!
I shall leave you with a link to check out — International Women's Day
And… a must-read book! America's Women by Gail Collins
October 11, 2011
Heather's 2011 Samhain Blog Tour!
Well, my schedule is official!
I've been busy busy lately getting posts together for the blog tour. I've also been hired for several freelance formatting job, so that's kept me busy too. Plus, trying to fit in my OWN writing time to finish this YA novel that's kicking my butt.
Anywho!
I present to you, my blog tour schedule.
October 14th - "Writing Into Myth" a guest post at 1000+ Books to Read
October 18th – Interview at Ed McNally's The Sable City
October 19th – Getting Jack'd with Jack Wallen
October 20th – My Funniest Halloween Memory at Anna's Book Blog
October 21st – Interview at Cheryl Shireman's Blog
October 22nd – "Wings or No Wings? Reinventing the Fairy" Guest Post at The Fairy Tale Nerd
This is not an official part of my blog tour – Joanne with TFTN sought me out as an author of fae-related work (Abigail) and asked me to be a part of her 31 Days of Fairy. I'm excited to be a part of it and thus didn't fill this spot on the blog tour.
October 23rd – My Favorite Halloween Memory at Michelle's Book Briefs
October 24th – Guest Post (untitled as yet) with Julia Crane
October 25 – A Review of "The Temple" at Michelle's Book Briefs
October 26th – Guest Post on Samhain at Shéa MacLeod's Everything's Better with Dragons
October 27th – Nothing 
Possible book review
October 28 – The Scariest Place on Earth… at The Librarian Mouse
October 29th - Guest post with Alan Nayes
October 30th – Guest Post with Talia Jager
October 31st – "The Egg" – Flash Fiction at PJ Jones' Blog
October 7, 2011
The Grammar I Know
The Grammar I Know(and what I don't)
Sometimes I find myself Googling grammar crap because I honestly haven't the faintest clue what I'm doing (who does?). The one day I thought, Hey! Maybe I could write up a blog about these odds and ends I DO learn – to help others!
(Don't let me lie, I'm only doing it because I'm an airhead and need an easy reference manual — what better than my blog.)
Ahem.
Fun Grammar Fact #1
You DO NOT capitalize most school class names. (Did that even make sense? I'm jacked up on caffeine.)
WRONG I have Social Studies at the end of the day.
RIGHT I have social studies at the end of the day.
When to capitalize School Subjects:
· When it is a Language course (French, Latin, Spanish)
· When it is a Specific course (History II, English 100)
· Words in a course that need to be capitalized (American history)
· NOT general courses (geography, science)
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Fun Grammar Fact #2
What the frigg is the difference between ITS and IT'S???
Merciful gods, I have a terrible time with this one. I'll type something into Word and think I have it right, only for Word's little grammar feature to scream at me like a drill sergeant. Geesh.
I found a great site here http://garyes.stormloader.com/its.html Fabulous that it was the first to pop-up when I typed "its vs it's" into the toolbar. And yes, it IS this simple.
What he sez… is fabulous. Go look.
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Last but not least…
Fun Grammar Fact #3
Hyphens. Ugh.
Apparently, I use A LOT of phrases in my writings that require HYPHENS. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it sure can look funny when half the words on the page are hyphenated.
Some examples from my novella, Cause & Effect…
He'd bought the 65-year-old Cape Cod with his meager construction earnings as a scared 20-year-old with a new wife. (These hyphens are proper grammar – #-year-old is always hyphenated)
What he did notice were the barely-there lines at his wife's eyes…
He slathered another glob of plaster over the fist-sized hole in the wall…
Alison was running circles around the fan-shaped water…
…in her black-and-white, polka-dot bikini…
Friend and Fellow author Ed McNally told me an easy way to decide if you need a hyphen is – can you insert an "and" between the words? Polka and dot bikini? Erm, No. Thus, polka-dot. fan and shaped water? Uh-uh. Fan-shaped.
Of course, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule because unfortunately there are no hard-and-fast rules in hyphenation. See what I just did there? Compound phrases sometimes require hyphens.
Kill me now.
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Visit the Grammar Goddess Pj Jones at her blog
Also, check out my grammar queen Grammar Girl at her website
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In other fictional news…
A fabulous post on the rise of Novellas in the epublishing world by Tim C Taylor over at Mike Cooley's blog.
A hilarious piece on Why Vampires Will Always Be Popular by parody princess, Pj Jones at Curiosity Quills.
The Indie Eclective's Halloween Collection is at #47 overall in the Amazon Kindle Free Store, and #1 in Anthologies!
New releases from author Penelope Crowe — Absorbed and 100 Unfortunate Days. I was lucky enough to be the formatter for Penelope. Her tales are dark, raw, and MUST-READs.
And finally, a NEW RELEASE from my best pal and fellow Keep Louisville Writing author
The City of Lights is crawling with the undead who care nothing for love or wine and are hell-bent on getting the one thing they want – your brains. The living have only one hope – Bethany Nitshimi who carries with her an encrypted file containing the key to the cure. Unfortunately Bethany is battling the undead, the apocalypse, and a group who will stop at nothing to keep her from curing the plague.
My Zombie My picks up where I Zombie I left off and heads into Paris. Bethany's gang of heroes has picked up a few more strays and mankind is getting dangerously close to the end. As Bethany battles the zombie horde she must crack the file, get the cure, and save the human race, before we are just meat for the beasts.
Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble
October 1, 2011
Introducing – Sustainable Saturdays!
New Cheep Cheeps and
An Abundance of Zucchinis
We have new baby chicks!
A couple weeks ago, Delia began nesting. She had only just begun to lay eggs and all of a sudden she was feeling broody – really?? I thought she had to be out of her damn mind. There wasn't anything in those eggs.
Au contraire. I was wrong We have two new baby chicks just hatched on Monday! They are tiny and fluffy. One is all black while the other is a mishmash of black and brown. Uber cute! Here's hoping they're little girls. If they turn out to be roosters, we're screwed. We can't even get rid of the asshole rooster we already have.
So, I probably went a little overboard this year on the number of plants I planted in the garden for me and Andrew.
There are only so many vegetables two people can eat before they go bad :O
One night recently we had Zuchinni Parmagiana. Ok, so it sounds a little weird, right? But the thing is I don't want to waste any of our veggies. They're good for us and well, it's wasteful to grow them only to throw them in the compost heap. So I thought what they hey?
DELICIOUS.
I split one of our giant zucchinis in half. I spread a layer of spaghetti sauce, a mix of Italian cheeses, some Italian seasoning. Then, because I love sauce and cheese maybe a little TOO much, I did a second layer. On top, I dumped some bread crumbs, then drizzled some melted butter.
Pop it in the oven until bubbly and brown – and dear gods, was it delicious.
Then, a few nights later, we had Zucchini Enchiladas. Whoa, buddy, were they even BETTER.
Chop up some bell peppers, serrano peppers, onion, and garlic. Sautee with chopped zucchini in a skillet, adding lime juice and chili powder. Wrap said mixture in tortillas. Put the tortillas side-by-side in a baking dish. Instead of enchilada sauce, I topped with cheese sauce and baked until the cheese was bubbly.
Yum.
I never did like experimenting with food. But I'm slowly learning that it's fun, and we're finding recipes we LOVE that we never expected to like.
There is no limit to what you can do with Zucchinis. I'm planning on tackling Zucchini Soup, soon!
