Lisa Bilbrey's Blog, page 84

Sugarplum Dreams

A late night reunion on the beach, warm cookies fresh from the oven, the overwhelming world of online dating, and a one-night stand that changes of the lives of three people — Sugarplum Dreams, Book Four of the Candy Collection, wields a voyage of self-discovery, new beginnings, new loves, and admirable courage. 

Sugarplum Dreams in a word from our authors:
Lisa Bilbrey calls the collection: “Four amazing stories that will have you on the edge of your seat and begging for more.”
M.B. Feeney says, “Beaches, baking, blogs and babies — Sugarplum Dreams offers escapism for all romantics.”
R.E. Hargrave added, “Moonlit beaches, the London dating scene, broken eggs, and mistaken identity are the stepping stones to follow four distinct love stories that span months and years in Sugarplum Dreams, Book Four of the Candy Collection.”
Michele Richard said, “From beaches to bakeries, to babies, to dating blogs, this anthology has everything to fulfill those holiday romantic readers with delight!”


Sugarplum Dreams releases on December 11th, along with all four books in it's collection.  

The Roommates

 Veteran author Michele Richard brings us another amazing book. The Roommates is a snarky tale that will have her readers anxious for more!

Spring break changes everything for Daphne Hobbs. A one-night stand leaves her pregnant and alone. She soon discovers that the father is an identical twin, and she's unsure of which one turned her world upside down. She’ll be forced to share her apartment with them until she can discover the truth. Julius and Jordan Sweet share everything in their lives — almost to the point of living one life. Will Daphne uncover who’s the daddy?
Come back tomorrow for the big reveal on the Sugarplum Dreams reveal!

World Diabetes Day

Today, November 14, is World Diabetes Day. For most people it’s just another day. Maybe they’ll wear a blue shirt and offer a little prayer for the cure. But today, I’d like to share our story with you in hopes that maybe, you’ll understand what we deal with every day — a day that we pray for a cure.Our journey started in early September, or at least that’s when we noticed the changes in our daughter. She began losing weight. At first we didn’t think much of it. Sophie had always been one of those children that stretched out as she grew. After a month or so, we began to really get concerned. She was losing too much weight. She’d begun using the restroom all the time, often waking up in the middle of the night. Sophie drank gallons of water a day, so we figured that she was just drinking too much. She’d come home exhausted; she’d take a two hour nap, only to go to bed early. Sophie’s always been a night owl, so not fighting her at bedtime had been a perk — at the time. Over a few weeks, she’d lost so much weight that her collar bone and ribs were showing; the ridges of her spine could be seen. I’ll be honest—it scared the crap out of me. My daughter was sick and I didn’t know what was going on with her. So, we took her in to see her doctor. I almost canceled — I didn’t want to be the mom that freaked out over nothing — but my gut told me that something was seriously wrong. The first words out of her doctor’s mouth upon hearing about her symptoms was diabetes. My step-father had been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes several years before Sophie, and my mother just a few months before, so diabetes wasn’t new to us, and was something we’d already considered. But hearing that word trickling out his mouth, seeing the fear in my daughter’s eyes was enough to bring tears to my eyes.Her doctor sent us for blood work, but because her appt was late on a Friday afternoon, the lab was closed and they wouldn’t reopen until the following Monday. So Sophie and I went home. By six o’clock on Sunday, we’d called her doctor and told him we were taking her to the hospital. Sophie had begun having cramps in her arms and legs. My mom had given us one of her spare meters and every time we checked her, her blood glucose was 300, 400, or 500 +. I was terrified, my husband was terrified, and my daughter was terrified. She knew that a diagnosis of Diabetes came with a whole new lifestyle — one she shouldn’t have had to deal with.When we got to the ER, her blood glucose was 496. They immediately brought her into the back and had her give a urine sample, placed an IV in her hand, and drew blood — a lot of blood. Sophie wept because she was so dehydrated that the IV hurt. She was scared and clung to me, and I held her. I hoped and prayed that they’d come back in and tell us that we were wrong, that she’d be okay. But of course, she wasn’t and we weren’t.Sophie was admitted to the PICU and given her first of many insulin shots. She spent 2 ½ days in the hospital. On her second day in, a wonderful nurse named Joseph talked Sophie into giving herself her shot.  I watched with pride and guilt as she cleaned her skin, pinched it, and slid the needle in. Pride because she was braver than anyone I’d ever met, and guilt because I couldn’t take this horrible disease from her. It’s been almost two years since she was diagnosed. We’ve had ups and downs, highs and lows. Sophie went from syringes to insulin pens, to using a pump. We’ve celebrated when she’s woken up with a  perfect blood sugar and worried when she woke up too high. Sophie has learned how to count carbs, and figure out her bolus—her math skills are amazing!But mostly, we’ve had hope. Hope for a life where I don’t have to wake up at three in the morning and pour sugar down her throat. We hope that one day, she’ll be able to have a normal, healthy pancreas again. We have hope that there will be a cure.

A little Sugar & Spice

 Today's cover reveal is another new author making their debut. R.E. Hargrave brings us a sweet little tale of love, family, and baked goods. Sugar & Spice is her first release, but she's got another one coming in just a couple of months.

Lacey Harrison has been dealt an unexpected hand in life: being a single mom. With her father's help and that of the residents at Royal Hills Nursing Home, she thrives and goes on to become a successful baker. She is content with her life but knows that she and her daughter Candy are missing something. Will things change for the better when Trent Childress moves into town and adds some spice to her sugar?
 Stay turned for another reveal tomorrow!

A little Right Click, Love

Today's cover comes from one of Renaissance Romance Publishing's newest authors. M.B. Feeney is making her publishing debut with an adorable novella set in London. 



Right Click, Love
Disheartened about not being able to find “Mr. Right” on the London dating scene, best friends Jodie Lynch and Louise Hewson create a blog to not only document their disastrous dates with the numerous “Mr. Wrongs” and “Mr. Okay-for-nows” but also to help those going through the same experiences and to see where they’re going wrong. How will they deal with everything the dating scene has to throw at them — planned or otherwise?

Check back tomorrow as I display another new author!

A Special Day Indeed

For the last twelve days, I've been diving into a series of short novella's that are the sequel to The Journey Home. I've written an amazing amount of words in a short amount of time. They've been a part of my NaNo Collection, and as of midnight on the 11th, I had 47,023 words out of the 50K I need to successful win NaNoWriMo.
But while I am thrilled with the amount I've been able to write, my friend and fellow author, Laura Braley pointed out that there is hardly a day that goes by that I don't write like this. It's who I am. So today, I'd like to be able to share with you a result of my writing obsession.
On December 11th, I will be releasing my fourth Novella/Anthology of the year. Sugarplum Dreams will be the fourth book in the Candy Collection, and my story,  Broken Hearts & Dusty Dreams will be a part of it.





Broken Roads & Dusty Dreams
Riley Farris and Natalie Sloane were the best of friends who spent every summer together on the sandy beach of Mustang Island. Then, just when Riley is getting set to spend another summer with Natalie, she disappears. As the years pass, he struggles to understand what happened to the girl he knew. Until, one night while walking on the beach, he stumbles upon a woman who is broken and lost.



Check back everyday as I reveal the next covers in this amazing collection!

Day Seven

Gonna make this shorter and sweeter than ever. Day 7: Today I added 4059 words to my NaNo project, putting me at 33,108 words. 13 1/2 chapters written in seven days. #feelingpride

Day Six

Day Six started off good, but slowly floundered. I managed to get about 1600 words written before I had to leave for an appt. Eight weeks ago, my oldest son, Cooper, broke his foot playing football. He spent 5 weeks with a boot on his foot and a part of crutches. Then three weeks ago, he was able to get rid of the crutches and just wear the boot. We expected to get out of the boot yesterday, but instead, Cooper has to go back on the crutches and if in three weeks the break isn’t healing, he’d looking at having surgery. So, not a good day at all.  By the time we got home, I was exhausted and only managed to add about 1K to my word count. Still, overall, I’m doing great with my NaNo project.

Day Five

Okay, so now I have a name. The Journey Collection (clever, I know) will be comprised of three, possibly four, novellas. The first is  “The Journey Home.” The second, “A New Journey” followed by “The Journey to Forever.” And then, if I decide to write a fourth, “A Journey to a New Life.” Whatcha think?
Oh, and I added 5K+ to A New Journey and The Journey to Forever. Yep, I finished A New Journey at 25,397,and managed about 1100 on The Journey to Forever before I fell asleep.

Forged Blog Tour

Portrait of Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golitsyna (credit: Wikipedia) by Louis-Michel van Loo (1759)
Moscow, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. If the Labrador is a Noble in the Court of Dogs then the Pug is surely it's Jester. The Pug can trace its comedic and human loving ways all the way back to before 400 BCE where they graced royal laps in the Chinese Shang Dynasty. These days Pugs are gracing the laps of more than just courtesans, one set in particular share a house here in Portland, Oregon with my husband and I. Before I dive into this short and entertaining post on our two comedians I want to thank Lisa for hosting me today as we continue our blog tour for my latest book, Forged. While Forged is a high-octane romance about first loves and fast cars, today will be about the fuzzy and cuddly Pug!

My two rascals on Halloween, Olive (the bee) and Al (in the football jersey).Pugs, unlike any other dog breed (and between my husband and I we've owned labs, cattle dogs, poodles, beagle mixes and mutts in our lives) are so much more than just a dog. While they may be small - with the exception of ours, which stand knee height and are 25lbs each - they consider themselves the Goliaths of dogs, they act like cats sometimes babies and have a passion for food that is second to none. Seriously, our dog Olive has been caught bouncing off the side of the lower kitchen cabinet so that she can catch air as she sails toward the garbage can, like a food ninja.

"I swear mom, I did NOT eat my stuffed animal. I am shocked and hurt that you would accuse me of such debauchery." - Olive the Pug


There have been several epic stories in our household concerning food and our Pugs, which started when we adopted them from the Pacific Pug Rescue. The foster mother laughed as she handed them over saying that they were a little heavier because they'd had gotten on the counter that morning and ate an entire loaf of white bread. ONTO the counter (most likely levitated...). So it should be no surprise that we've been having bread incidents ever since. For example the COSTCO sized bag of dinner rolls for a party.

Happy walkin' pugs! The COSTCO bun incident happened when we were prepping for a party and had done our shopping then stepped out for bit only to come back to a whirlwind of bags and crumbs. The Sherlock side of me looked at the counter where the buns had been, at the back of the counter. The counter, has an open shelf below it. This means that to get anything off the counter above, it must have been a collaborative effort. Think: food ninja. Most likely (I calculate this from the time that they were alone divided by the quantity of buns eaten) they did this run-at-it-like-a-gymnast jump routine a couple times before they were successful. Then dragged the carcass of their bakery catch into the living room and ate them like the cookie monster.

Happy Pugs!!
Overall Pugs are a great city dog, made for sitting in laps and entertaining guests with their antics. And speaking of antics I'll leave you now with a cute YouTube video of some quirky Pugs readying for a waaaaalk, or maybe getting the maaaail?



Thanks for having me Lisa and I hope everyone has a great week! 
 ~Becky

Fun extras:

Things that look like:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/freddiecampion/10-pugs-who-look-like-things-5vii

Battlepug Comic (it's being optioned by Dark Horse)
http://battlepug.com/2011/02/01/the-battlepug-is-nigh/


***

Becky Banks is the award-winning author of The Legend of Lady MacLaoch. Her newest novel, Forged released October 26th.