M.E. Tudor's Blog: Upcoming Event!

My Birthday Week and Crazy Life

 

I was looking for a picture to convey how crazy busy my life has been, and I found this one. Then, I decided I need to create a board like this so I can keep track of what I need to do, what I'm currently doing, and what I've completed. Well, I might have to have a board about this size for just the "To Do" list. 
I don't know about anyone else in the self-publishing business, but does it feel like it's getting more and more overwhelming?
When I started 13 years ago, there was Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and MySpace. Now, there are still all of those, plus TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, Patreon, Substack, Discord, and a few more that I can't remember. How can you get any writing work done when you are trying to connect with people on all these other platforms? It makes me tired just thinking about it. And God forbid, you be like me, who is working two part-time jobs and dealing with family on top of squeezing in some writing time. 
This past Sunday was my birthday, and I had told myself I would figure out how to put more effort into my writing business. That will be my goal for the last year of my 50s. But it's Thursday, and I've just caught up on all the emails I missed because I worked over the weekend and then had my great-grandkids visit on Monday. 
On the flip side of all this, I could probably quit one of my part-time jobs if I could get my book sales going again. 
If you are one of the many writers trying to figure out the best path and you have some suggestions, please send them my way. 
Until then, I will keep plodding along. I do have a Substack and Patreon account. Currently, both of my Substack accounts and my Patreon account are free. I am posting chapters of my work-in-progress on my M. E. Tudor Substack, if you're interested in checking that out.
I really still haven't decided about Patreon, but I think that's because I don't feel confident enough to charge people to read about my crazy life.
Here's the link to my M. E. Tudor Substack:https://metudor66.substack.com/ 
Here's the link to my Music That Moves My Soul Substack:https://substack.com/@tbrews0824?
Here's the link to my Patreon account.https://www.patreon.com/c/metudor

Happy July!

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Happy July! In the U.S., we will be celebrating the 4th of July. Hopefully, the celebration will remind people that we are a nation of immigrants. A melting pot of cultures that should be celebrated. Unfortunately, with the current people in leadership, I personally don't see much to celebrate because I fear they are going to try to take away the very freedoms our forefathers fought so hard to make available. 

But, let's not discuss that. Let's talk about happiness. It's often fleeting, but sometimes it shows up and stays for long periods of time. Sadly, mine has been fleeting for a number of years, but big changes have been happening over the past year and I'm starting to see the light at the end of a long and very dark tunnel. 

I hope that all of you have something to celebrate this month, even if it's just waking up to a new day. 

I'm going to be promoting my book Learning to Love Again this month. All of my books are still on Kindle Unlimited and at the 99 cent price, but I'm going to raise the prices next month in celebration of my birth month. August is a very hot time of the year here in southern Kentucky, so I'm going to work on some ideas to stay cool. I hope you all will do the same. 

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I'm not ready to talk much about what's going on behind the scenes, but hopefully next month I will be bursting with news. 

Sending peace and love vibes to you all. 
 

Happy Pride!

 

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I hope this Pride month has been going well so far. It has for me. 

I've almost completed one of the books I've been working on. This one I've been writing for about a year. It's an age-gap romance. It covers topics of revisiting past pain and moving forward. I've been writing it under the working title "Trying to Love You," which was inspired by the Trisha Yearwood song with the same title. It's one of the many great songs on her Jasper County CD.  My original idea for the book was that it would be about a woman trying to show an older woman that she could love her if the older woman would just let her. 

As I wrote the story and it evolved, it immediately became more about the older woman, Cam, who is forced to face the past where she grew up in rural Indiana, a place she had not revisited in a very long time. When Cam picks up a younger woman at a gay bar in Indianapolis, she has no idea that she will see the woman again. But, as fate would have it, the younger woman, Shiloh, turns out to be a real estate agent interested in helping Cam sell her former childhood home. On top of them ending up meeting about the house, Cam learns that Shiloh is her former high school girlfriend's daughter, further complicating the situation.

I've always been a pantser when writing, and my stories often take on a life of their own, as this story did. Now, I'm considering changing the title to "Trying to Love Again," which was inspired by the Eagles' song of the same name, featured on their iconic album, Hotel California.

If all goes well, I'll have the book finished by the end of June and ready for publication by August or September. 

I've been working on a playlist for the book and will have it complete in the very near future. But for now, here's a little snippet from Chapter Seven of the book. I hope it sparks your interest. 

She ended the call and got out of the car. Taking a deep breath, Cam turned and walked toward the house. She didn't see Arthur or Shiloh outside, so she assumed they were in the house, but she didn't find them there. 

She stepped out the back door and looked toward the barn, where she saw them walking toward it. She would not join them out there. That was one place she would never step foot in again, not for any reason. She'd burn the thing down if she thought she could do it without costing Mattie more money than she and Eric had already put out. 

Instead, Cam went to the garage. She hadn't gone in there the other day when she was here. Perhaps some of her father's tools were still out there that would sell well at the auction. 

She unlocked the padlock on the side door. It appeared to be stuck when I tried to open it, but she put her shoulder to the door and forced it open. Dust flew everywhere with the rush of air. She was surprised to see what appeared to be a car under an old car cover. She studied the shape of the car. Surely, this wasn't her father's old Mustang. 

Cam went around to the back of the car and lifted the cover, revealing the dark blue paint of her father's 1965 Ford Mustang. She was stunned it was still here. This was definitely something that would bring a pretty penny. Cam needed to let Mattie know it was here in case Eric and she or one of her kids might want it. She turned to go outside and make the call but found Shiloh standing in the doorway. 

"Hey," Shiloh said quietly.

"Hello," Cam said coldly.

"I hope you aren't mad that I came out to look at the property," Shiloh said. 

Cam shrugged. "Are you going to send pictures to your client?"

"I already did," Shiloh said. "He's at an event in Indianapolis and probably won't check his phone until later."

Cam nodded and turned away. Now that she knew who Shiloh was, she couldn't look at her without seeing Melissa.

Shiloh stepped further into the garage. She was dying to know what had happened to cause such animosity between this woman and her mother, but she also really wanted to sell the house and receive the commission that could land in her pocket. 

"Look," Shiloh said. "I don't know anything about what happened between you and my mother, but I really wish you wouldn't hold it against me. I honestly think I can get close to a quarter of a million for this house and land, but I might need a little time to convince my clients that it's worth that kind of money."

Cam turned and looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for this house and property?"

Shiloh nodded. "Yeah. There are many people looking to escape the city but still want to be close enough to enjoy its amenities. If my calculations are right, this house is about fifty-five minutes from downtown Indianapolis. Of course, that depends on traffic, but it's not a bad commute for someone looking to have some peace and quiet."

Nodding, Cam turned and looked at the workbench where her father had spent so many nights working on his stupid car or parts for one of the tractors. "I still need to talk to Mattie about it. And I highly doubt you will get that kind of money for this place."

Cam felt the heat between them grow as Shiloh moved closer. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about this beautiful woman pressed against her back the way she had been this morning before they'd had sex again. 

"Here's my card," Shiloh said.

Cam turned and brushed against her because she was standing so close. Cam took the card and moved away. "I'll let you know what Mattie says." Cam stepped past Shiloh, careful not to touch her again, and left the garage.

If all goes well, I will have this book finished by the end of June and published before August. 

I've started a new Substack where I'm going to be publishing a new chapter from this book at least once a week until it's completed. The first chapter is going to be completely free. The chapters after that will have a portion that's free and the full chapter available to paid subscribers. 

Happy May

 Can you believe it's already May? And the Kentucky Derby just happened over the weekend. Most people probably don't care, but it's a big deal here in Kentucky, although I never watch it. Someone told me the horse that won was supposed to be a descendant of the Secretariat. That's a famous horse the was the subject of a movie. 

I've been working on this post for a couple of days and was going to put on a recipe to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, but that has already passed too. I did go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner on Sunday and had a very yummy vegetarian chimichanga. 

Here's a picture of me with my mouth full, totally unaware that my daughter was taking the picture. That cute little girl is my youngest granddaughter, Deborah. 

As I mentioned in my last post, there have been a lot of changes in my life. I have a new apartment that I am slowly making my own. I have a new car and it's blue! My favorite color. 

I have a new song that I've been wearing out. It's not a new song, but a new version of a song that I had probably heard and liked originally, but didn't give it much thought until I heard this new version. The song is "Leave A Light On (Talk Away the Dark)" by the rock band, Papa Roach. They originally released this song on their album "Ego Trip" in 2022 and often dedicate it to the memory of Chester Bennington, the singer of the band, Linkin Park who died in 2017 by suicide. 

The new version of it is with Carrie Underwood, you know the country singer. It's beautiful in it's original version, but even more so with Carrie. Here is the studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E4Us2lZ87s

After I heard this I wondered how on earth Carrie ended up singing with this hard rock band and the answer kind of surprised me, but it's very cool. Here's the story from Jacoby Shaddix, the lead singer for Papa Roach, it's kind of a long interview, but totally worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MSWL5_qHlw

I know you all are probably wondering when I'm going to get a new book out. Hopefully before the summer is over. It's been a challenge to fit writing in when I work two jobs, but I'm doing it. I'm looking so forward to getting this project done and making it available. 

I'm going to wrap this up with a picture of a gorgeous sunrise I saw this morning when I was on my break at Walmart, where I work stocking. And then I'm going to hit publish before I get busy and don't get this done, again. 

Changes

2024 was a wild ride. One that I don't ever want to repeat. There have been a lot of changes in my life over this past year and I'm praying things are going to stay calm for a while. Melissa Etheridge's CD "Your Little Secret" is probably my favorite of all her CDs. One song on there that summarizes this past year is "Change," which I have attached a link to the music on YouTube for your listening pleasure. But, as the song says, "The only thing that remains the same is change." It's true whether we like it or not.
2025 is starting off to a rocky start on many levels, but my goal for this year is to publish two new full-length books. I've started several over the past three years since I published "Learning to Love Again," but I have not completed any of them. In fact, just about all of them have stalled out, but I believe that was due to my crazy personal circumstances. Things are calmer in my world, at least for the moment, so I am writing up a storm every chance I get.
Right now, every single book I have published on Amazon is available on Kindle Unlimited and only 99 cents to buy. If you've missed a book or are new to my writing, I hope you'll take advantage of this deal. I'm not sure how long I'm going to keep them at this price, but definitely until after I Heart SapphFic's Valentine's Day sale. 
I know all of us are very concerned about what the Great Orange Idiot is going to do next. If you're a Trump fan, well, I'm not, obviously. He is out to ruin this great country of ours, and unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do at this point except pray and vote in the next round of elections. 
There are so many things to be worried about right now, from the fires in Los Angeles to the snow in Florida, but together, we can project all our positive energy toward a brighter day. 
Sending prayers, blessings, and love to you all.
M. E. 

Struggling

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Just a couple of weeks ago I was feeling hopeful and wanting to write, but my depression is back and I am struggling to make it through each day without alcohol. The alcohol withdrawal is part of my depression, but things going on in my home life are part of the problem too. I'm not going to into details about that because they are just too depressing to talk about. 
I've been struggling with alcoholism for several years. It's a disease that runs in my family and I always feared that I would suffer from it. I fought it for a long time when I was younger, but as depression and dealing with teenagers doing bad things over took my life, I went to alcohol for relief. 
I'm going to start seeing my therapist again next week and hopefully she can help me get out of the funk that I'm in. I used to see her earlier in the year and she was wonderful. She helped me get to a happy place and hopefully she can help me find it again. 
As a result of my struggles with depression and life, I 've decided to give up on the College Hill series. It's not selling well and no one is reading the Kindle Vella episodes, so I'm going to let that go. I've really been struggling to write it and I just don't feel like I want to continue with the story. 
I am going to work on Ridgway Moon, but it will not be on Kindle Vella, and it will probably not end up being a romance. 
I tried to start a new story, but it crashed and burned before it even got going and I know it's because I'm struggling so much with my day to day life. I'm not saying I'm going to stop writing, but I going to stop trying to force myself to produce what I think everyone wants me to write. I'm going to just let my words flow and see where they go. 

 

Celebrating Patriot's Day

 

I have exciting news! College Hill: Season One is now available on Kindle Unlimited. So, for those of you who didn't want to fool with Kindle Vella, you can now read this season that follows Jamie Edwards and PJ Thomas from my book Suddenly through a portion of their first semester in college together. 

Season Two, which is on Kindle Vella for now, starts shortly after Fall break and will go to just before Christmas break. Season One introduces two characters, Kayla Martin and Lori Weaver, who will have a bigger role in Season Two and become two important characters throughout the remainder of the story. At least, that's the way I see them in my mind right now. 

I plan to make Christmas break its own season. When our characters go home for the holidays, there's going to be lots of drama.  

I'm also starting to post episodes of Ridgway Moon on Kindle Vella. The story is still dragging, so I want to get it out there and get some feedback from readers. Ridgway Moon is a follow-up book to Learning to Love Again. My characters from that story, Ava White and Mel Graves, play important roles in the new story, but it's about Mel's step-mother, Corina Graves, dealing with Mel's father, Jeff Graves' deteriorating health, and an attraction she begins to feel towards Sarah Dorcester, a childhood friend of Mel's who ends up in Ridgway, Colorado by chance. 

I recently created a new Patreon account, so I'm very new to that platform. I was planning to post something today, and I wasn't sure what I was going to talk about, but after watching the debate last night and seeing some of the news this morning, I decided to put my opinion about all that on my first post. It has nothing really to do with my writing, but it tells my readers where I stand with things in this election. 

As a woman, a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, partner, a lesbian, and a decent human being (I like to think), I have to choose Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, and my post on Patreon explains some of my thoughts on this subject. 

The Storms of Life

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This summer has been absolutely nuts. There has been so much drama with my family that has seriously interfered with my writing for the past few years, but I'm getting back on track. The good thing about all that is that it's given me another story idea that I'm putting down the first notes for.
 I have been working on new episodes for College Hill: Season Two. I'm going to make College Hill: Season One available on Kindle unlimited soon. And I'm going to start posting episodes of Ridgway Moon. Life has been so crazy that I have not been able to complete a book, but I want to publish new content and that's where Kindle Vella is a good source for me to post new material. 
I'm trying to decide which book I want to make permanently free as a draw for readers and something to give away for newsletter subscribers once I get my newsletter back up and running. I think it's going to be Sheltered by Love. It's not one of my best sellers, but it's a great story. 
I have been doing quite a bit of reading recently. I've read both of Gerri Hill's newest books, The Apple Diary, for which she just won a Golden Crown Literary Society Award, and Hunter's Revenge. Both are excellent books and I highly recommend them. 
I've also been on an Ashley Blake Herring binge. I read Delilah Green Doesn't Care and Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail a few weeks ago. I am rereading Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World and I'm about to start Iris Kelly Doesn't Date and The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James. If you have not read any of her books, I highly recommend them all. 
That's about all I have this month. If you live in the United States you'll understand when I say that I am SOOOO ready for fall. It has been hot as Hades here in southern Kentucky. 
Thank you for reading my blog and stay tuned for more news to come. 

Finally Working On Writing

This is the new cover that Ida at https://www.amygdaladesign.net/ created for me. She does amazing work and has created several covers for me. 
This year got off to a rocky start, but the waters seem to be settling down. I've finally been able to work on some writing projects, including a 10-minute play that I'm going to enter into Emerald Theatre Company's annual contest. This will be my third time entering. My first attempt was successful, and they picked my play "Is She or Isn't She" to be performed. That play is available for purchase on Amazon. 

I'm editing Ridgway Moon, which is sort of a sequel to Learning to Love Again, and deciding if I'm going to put it on Kindle Vella. I've gone back and forth with it because I'm afraid it won't get a lot of reads there, but I want to put out something new. I'll be making my annual trip to Ridgway, Colorado, on May 26th, so hopefully, that will give me plenty of inspiration to finish the story and get it out there for the fans who are waiting for me to publish something new. 

I've also been getting to do some reading, finally. I recently finished Gerri Hill's The Apple Diary and am reading her book, Hunter's Revenge. It's the fifth book in the Tori Hunter series by Gerri. All of her books are amazing. I usually devour her books as soon as I get them and several I have reread a number of times. I know I'll revisit The Apple Diary, and I'm sure I'll feel that way about Hunter's Revenge. 

I also read The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur. This was the first book of hers I'd read, and it was a fun story. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books. 

I've also got Can't Fight Love by KC Luck on my Kindle app that I'm working on too. 

While 2024 has had some pretty low moments, it's also had some great highs, like getting to watch my youngest daughter, Michelle, graduate from college with her Associate in Science as she works toward her nursing degree. Here is a picture of me with Michelle and her older sister, Jessica, in Owensboro, Kentucky, in front of the Ohio River. 

My other serious distraction but a source of great joy is my great-grandson, Angel. He's a little clip of him practicing his screaming skills. 

 

I hope and pray that all of you are having a good spring and enjoying the beautiful flowers popping up everywhere. I know I am. Next month, I'll have pictures from the Colorado trip, which my partner Rosa is going on, too. She hasn't gotten to go on the last few trips, so I am super excited about her being out there with me. 

Until next time, I wish you all great joy and love. 

This picture sums up the way my life has started this yea...

This picture sums up the way my life has started this year. It's been a shipwreck. I've managed to survive the wreck, but in many ways I feel like I'm in pieces, like this ship. Sometimes you have to make really hard choices and changes. I can only pray that I have made the right choices and the right changes. 

I haven't been listening to much music lately, although I did get a copy of Dolly Parton's Rockstar CD from the library and I listened to it in my car. It's awesome. If you have gotten to listen to it yet, check it out! Rockstar!

I've been listening to a couple of podcasts. The main one I've been listening to is the Lesbians Who Write podcast. I have been listening to this podcast for a few years now and I really love it. The two ladies who run it, TB Markinson and Clare Lydon are excellent lesbian writers and fun to listen to. 

Another podcast I've been listening to for the past couple of years, and a lot here lately is the Be Positive Stay Positive podcast. Nat, the guy who runs this podcast is a hoot. Sometimes he's pretty serious and other times he's a character to listen to, but I have found almost all of his podcasts very inspiring, especially during this bumpy time in my life. 

I've been writing in short spurts and I finally published my play Is She or Isn't She that I wrote back in 2018. So I am super excited about having published something new. And I took The Wrong Place at the Right Time off of Smashwords so I could put in on Kindle Unlimited. I haven't seen much traffic there yet, but that's such an old story. I'm planning to change the cover in a few months and hopefully that will make it appealing to new readers. 

That pretty much surmises things for now. Thank you for your continued support and please keep sending the positive energy. 

Peace, love and blessings.