Cathy Perkins's Blog, page 153

Merry Christmas!

From all of us here at Blame It On The Muse, we wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas! May your holiday be filled with peace, joy and love. And may the magic of the season touch your heart, mind and soul.

I’ll Take Door Number Fun

Nina Malyna – DepositPhoto.com

I went to one of those holiday parties where gifts were distributed at random, opened, then gamed with participants allowed to “steal” from each other. Never understood what the appeal was. Somebody gets a bottle of wine, and promptly loses it to someone who got the fingernail clipper. In homage to Let’s Make a Deal, and the great Monty Hall, prizes are supposed to be proffered and exchanged before you open them.

I grew up in a German household where family gather...

Recently Retired Rabid Readers

So. Digital books are here to stay. Less than a decade ago, micropresses were the only houses doing digital. Now, it seems every major, mid and micro publisher has their own line.

Then there is self publishing. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have both created options for writing so that authors have a direct line to readers. Once upon a time, there was a stigma associated with self pubbing, but now names like E L James, Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Courtney Milan, and Bella Andre ring bells of ne...

My – We’ve Changed Since Then

Many folks in these economically troubled times long for the good old days, especially holidays filled with nostalgic childhood memories of crackling hearth fires, and family gathered around a decorated, live-cut tree. Mom served eggnog in her new apron. Dad lit up a camel in his favorite chair. The kids wore their Sunday finest, jiggling with impatience for Santa to come.

Dad wasn’t always in tune with what the love of his life really wanted for Christmas in those days, so retailers back then...

A Christmas Musing

I spent yesterday afternoon wracking my brain for a blog idea. You see, when I originally selected this date, I thought the first book in my Imnada Brotherhood series DEMON’S CURSE was scheduled to hit bookshelves on December 18th. But it turns out the date on the ARC was wrong and the book is coming out December 26th, just in time for those shiny new Christmas e-readers!

So, that left me scratching my head for a topic while scrambling to prepare myself for the impending holiday next week.

Hmmm...

Happy release day!

I am so excited to announce the recent release (last week!) of my first indie book, SHAMELESS. This is a sexy contemporary romance about forgiveness and redemption. Here is the blurb:

Haunted by a tragic accident 20 years ago, John Everest knows he doesn’t deserve a family of his own, so he spends his days building the most successful fitness franchise inSeattle…and his nights alone. But that all changes when Samantha Rossi storms back into his life.

Happily single, Samantha feels there are onl...

Wondering In My Sleep

Be honest.

How many times have to laid your head down on the pillow after a long day determined to relax and get a good night sleep only to have the solution to that nagging problem you fought all day long appear out of the blue…

You want to capture them on paper but you’ve just turned over toward the middle of the bed, curled your body in its usual cozy fetal position, and the bed just. got. warm.

You might even fall off to sleep in a few seconds. So instead, you think maybe if you just concent...

Have a Honey Boo-Boo Holiday

We are a nation obsessed with excess. Completely mesmerized by all things Big Gulped and supersized, we are never satisfied but are constantly on the hunt for the next big thing, the next way to push the envelope just a little bit more.

Back in the day, pretty much the only place you could watch extreme bad behavior was on Jerry Springer or Girls Gone Wild. However, now you can close your eyes, play eenie- meenie-mynie-moe with your remote, and come up with something that may even put old Jerr...

Garden of Sorrow – New release and a giveaway!

Seventeen months ago I released Tuesday’s Child. Since then I’ve had 12 more new releases, including books 2 and 3 of the Psychic Vision Series. The process of releasing a new book never gets old. There is such satisfaction in bringing a creative project to this point, and so much hard work, that a new release is both a joy and relief. Mostly relief!

The joy comes several days after. When reality sets in that I really did remember to fix all those rogue threads that took off on their own tange...

It’s All About the Words

I’ve got all these words in my head that are just screaming to get out. Some are descriptive, emotional, sensual, horrifying, loving. My writer friends understand what I mean. For us they are the heart and soul of our work.

Each word is carefully chosen. There are words we scrutinize (adjectives and adverbs), hunt down (gerund), labor over (verbs). We search them out and agonize over if there are too many, too few, and too passive. We edit, re-write and edit some more. We don’t stop there. We...