K.M. Jackson's Blog, page 24

Summer Stretch

Last week I got to experience yoga for a cause with my DD and it was wonderful to welcome the summer season by stretching outdoors and such a strange experience for me to feel the heat of the concrete under my back and legs. I don’t think it’s something I’ll forget anytime soon. I will say I woke up sore from all the downward dogs and planks, but by the next day the kinks were gone and I was left with a wonderful sense of relaxation and a reminder to stop and take a moment to appreciate the solid warmth of the ground under my feet.

 Wishing you a warm and steady week ahead.

 

All the best,

KMJ

Summer Lovin’

Happy 1st Day of Summer! Wishing you a happy and relaxing weekend. I’m hoping you kick your feet up and possibly have some good reading planned somewhere in the mix. If you haven’t picked up Seduction’s Canvas yet I’d love it if you’d give it a go and if you have I’d love it if you’d hop on over to Amazon or Goodreads and give it your review.

 

Have a great one and be sure to relax and enjoy yourself on this first weekend of the Summer, maybe join my garden frog in a little sun salutation. I think I need to take some time to give him a paint job in the coming weekends. He’s looking a little chilly.

 

 

All the best,

KMJ

Write Your Way Out…

I’ve been feeling stuck with my current WIP and when I’m stuck I often use tricks, some good (character casting) and some not so good (snacking much) to find my way out of the dark hole of nothingness. Well, yesterday I did another thing that I often do and it’s something that I my current character does also. Buying a new journal to write a new start. Sort of a re-write on her life. I ran out and got these 2 pretty new Moleskin notebooks to play the “What If” game so that I can map out this book and finally get a handle on it in my mine. Sort of what my character Gabby does when things start to get all jumbled in her life.  Wish me Luck. Let’s hope by the end of the weekend I have a roadmap to a full story or a least a clearer head.

 

All the best,

KMJ

The Jackster

Here’s a little deceptive Jack cuteness to get you over the hump today. Isn’t he looking sweet and oh so harmless? Yeah, don’t believe everything your eyes see. He needs to start doing his job and get a little more muse-y. My words are not flowing as they should for this story. I think he’s angling for me to add a dog but I’m standing firm on my no dogs or teens in the books rule… so far.

See I told you the pics would be on the way. This is what happens when I have to start a new story. Sorry, but it should at least be a colorful summer, though less wordy.

 

All the best,

KMJ

Point & Shoot

For my birthday last week I got a fantastic new camera that his been on my wish list for quite a while. A fab Olympus PEN. Isn’t it cute? I’m still learning the ropes with it and I think I will be for quite a while. Excuse me while my blog turns into my own personal photo album while I take up my new hobby. I’ve always been a closet photog. Please bear with me.

Any new hobby you’re thinking of taking up?

 

All the best,

KMJ

Piercing!

Happy Friday! Another week down. This one went really fast. I blinked and it was over. Was this just me?

I had a great birthday and hope to continue the celebration into a nice weekend and a fun Father’s Day with the DH. last night I finally opened up the Scrivener writing program I downloaded and am diving into that with my newest work. I’ve gotten down 470 new words with it and it only took me 4 hours to do it. I think this new program will be a tough one to learn but I’m determined… for now. Check back with me in a week to see if I have not run back to Word with my tail between my legs. Let’s hope this doesn’t end with my tears all over my keyboard.

But since there are no tears as of yet please join me today over at fellow Crimson author Vristen Pierce’s blog The Piercing Miss V with an excerpt of Seduction’s Canvas. Please stop on by and let me know what you think. Thanks so much and have a wonderful weekend. Tell me, what cha got planned?

 

 

 

All the best,

KMJ

Babbling about Seduction and Thanks!

I had the best day yesterday (thanks to everyone for all the well wishes here and on twitter and FB. It was amazing). I’m a little hung-over today from eating so much goodness last night. Sidebar: Calories do count on your birthday. Who knew? Today I’ll be trying my best to get my head back in gear in the real world and the writing life, but all I want to do is play with my fantastic birthday gift: My gorgeous new PEN camera (so new,  I still have packaging on)!

 

I suspect for the rest of the summer I’ll be wandering around the city having my own Mika photography fantasies ala THROUGH THE LENS. This will be so much fun.

 

But today it’s not all pretty pictures as I’m hanging over at Katie’s blog: Babbling About Books, and more talking Seduction’s Canvas and my favorite obsession Scandal! Please stop on by.

 

All the best,

KMJ

It’s My Birthday… Holla!!

Whee!! It’s my Birthday! Time to bound out of bed as quick as these old bones will let me and do a

Happy Dance of thanks for making it to another birthday!

Am so grateful for being here amongst so many wonderful friends and family, to have the love of my husband and my children and I’m looking forward to a fantastic year ahead. I’m happy about having my 2nd book released with Seduction’s Canvas. I’m not looking for much by the way of gifts this year, except I’m just asking all my friends to tell as friend about Seduction’s Canvas and Samara and Mark.  As a new author, spreading the word is all I want to do.

Besides spreading the word about Seduction, today I’ll be kicking up my heels as I try and pretend all the things I eat for the day are calorie free because they ARE since it’s MY BIRTHDAY!!! Then it’s onto writing my next book. You know me, I never stop plotting.

But no fear,  It’s not all work. Since it’s MY BIRTHDAY I’m going to also dance. Starting with an oldie but a goodie hard rock (just like me) from Neneh Cherry!  Please join me in rocking it out 80′s style! Cause you know, I never progressed all that far past ’89.

All the best,

KMJ

images from You Tube and We Heart It

Reading is …. Fashionable!

I sure can agree with that statement. Please join me where I’m interviewed by the fabulous Fifi Flowers over at her wonderful blog Reading is Fashionable. Yes, I’m talking Seduction’s Canvas and a little bit more. I think you’ll love this fun and fashionable new lit blog.  Happy Friday!

 

All the best,

KMJ

Man Up To Love…

 

“Sugar and spice and everything nice.” Yep, that’s what the old nursery rhyme tells us little girls are made of. And for so long it seems to have been the ideal standard for woman. The woman that we should look up to, the heroine for everyone to adore. But of course, living in reality and in the age of ‘not so real’ reality TV, we know that as women we can’t always be sugar and we definitely can’t keep everything nice, at least not all the time without blowing a gasket or two.

That said, even with the reality of it all, I have seen so many times in romance, especially the romances of the past, that the heroine must be perfect. She must be the Sandra Dee and never the Rizzo. The girl without a past, always a virgin, never one to swear and although she may have flaws, they are sweet little flaws like clumsiness or a penchant for over-generosity. The things that make my eyes roll to the back of my head by page three of a book. Looking at all these perfectionists that I know I can’t live up to I wonder, who are these women and what about the men that fell for them? How can they be truly relatable? This level of perfectionism doesn’t leave much room for the Rizzos of romance and the “not so bad boys” that may fall in love with them. Don’t the cranky girls need love too? What about the girls with a past, the women that are not virgins or even born again virgins? What about the mouthy… ahem, ladies? Can a woman speak her mind and still get her HEA?

I say yes. That is if there is a hero strong enough to face the mouth, the emotions and the past head on and man it up to the plate. My 2nd book from Crimson romance: Seduction’s Canvas ,out now, features what some would consider my most divisive heroine yet. A cross between, Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan with a bit of Ivanka Trump thrown in,  Samara Leighton is a woman with a past, forced to take long hard looks at her mistakes and face them head on. But still she’s not apologizing for her needs and desires. Samara is the type of woman that if you don’t already know, you wouldn’t mind knowing and a bit of her may be you. That part that you want to whoop it up with and sometimes shake and say, “woman, get it together!” over drinks.

Thankfully, she’s found a hero in Mark Thorn, who is just as strong as she is and alpha as she is to give her the space she needs when she needs it and the shake and the shakes (*insert wink here*)  she needs just when she need them too. I think this is what makes a truly great alpha hero. When he is tough enough, but still secure and soft enough to let a strong women be the woman she was meant to be.

I hope you give Seduction’s Canvas at try as well as more books with heroines who have a little more Rizzo and a little less Sandra Dee or if it is more Sandra Dee, let it be Sandy with those cool, can’t breathe leather pants at the end of the movie.

Here’s a blurb for Seduction’s Canvas:

“I want to paint you” Artist Samara Leighton had wanted to say those words to the sexy motorcycle rider who lived in the building ever since she first laid eyes on him nearly a year ago. But now that the words were out she couldn’t stop her heart from beating wildly in her chest.

“Honey, you don’t have enough paint to cover me.” Security specialist Mark Thorn didn’t mean to come off as a hard ass. As a matter of fact he wanted nothing more than to let the tempting artist from across the hall do whatever she wanted to him and then some. But her haughty demeanor left the normally cool rider off his game.

Samara knew this was her only chance to live out her long-standing fantasy and she wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers. She has very little time before her show is done and the pressure of her family legacy means she will finally go through with living out her life under the umbrella of the Leighton name and its responsibilities. There would be no more downtown jaunts, lazy museum afternoons and evenings spent lost in the magic of color and her canvases. And definitely no time spent holding tight to the muscular form of her dark rider while the horrors of her past and her cares drifted further away with each mile of road they covered.

 

All the best,

KMJ

images fm tumblr and beyond.