Krista Lakes's Blog, page 12

Crepes!

Oh YUM!

Crepes, or as my husband likes to call them “really thin pancakes” are my new obsession. I had been craving spinach crepes and blintzes, so I bought a new pan (http://amzn.to/14FJxjL) and found a recipe.

I might gain a million pounds because I can’t stop eating them! My husband is rather found of this new meal inspiration as well. They are so versatile- breakfast (whipped cream cheese inside- or scrambled eggs with cheese), lunch (wrap up some turkey and cheese), and dinner (spinach and ricotta cheese filling). The possibilities are endless and oh so delicious. Here is the recipe I am using, taken from allrecipes.com, modified slightly per user recommendations (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-crepes/)

Basic Crepes (makes about 8 crepes) (ready in 30 minutes)

Ingredients:

-1 Cup all purpose flour

-2 eggs

-1/2 cup milk

-1/2 cup water

-1/4 tsp salt

-2 tbls melted butter

-optional: sugar, vanilla to taste

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk all wet ingredients (eggs, water, milk) until blended. Then slowly add flour, whisking to combine. Add the salt and butter, add sugar/vanilla or any optional flavorings; beat until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

 

 

My Favorite Wedding Gift

When I was married, one of my aunts gave me a present that, to this day, is my favorite wedding gift.

It is my favorite because it can never be duplicated and is something incredibly unique to my special day. Thus, I have stolen the idea and use it for all the weddings that I go to You are now welcome to use it too, but if we go to the same wedding- this is totally mine!

One of my high school friends was married on May 25th, 2013. This is the sunrise that day. (And thus my wedding gift to her).

I typically put the picture(s) with the wedding invitation in a cool frame. If you are low on funds, this is an amazing gift that I guarantee the bride will appreciate. I attach the gift receipt for the frame just in case they need it in a different color, or they need a different style. As long as the weather is nice, the hardest part about this gift is the getting up before sunrise… time for some more coffee!

Here are some more pictures from the morning- enjoy the sunrise! (taken on a Cannon Rebel T3)

 

How to Find Paid and Free Erotica!

I started out writing erotic romance, and even though I am moving more towards more traditional romance, I still have some wonderful connections in the erotica world. Amazon’s adult filter is hurting their sales (and thus their livelihoods). These erotica writers have some real creativity and if you think erotica is easy- try writing some. Erotica has been around for as long as the written word because sex is always interesting. If you haven’t tried reading erotica, I would suggest trying some- even if it only makes you giggle. There is some really amazing, classy stuff if you know how to find it. (And look a book to help you find it!)

 

“How To Find Paid and Free Erotica, Erotic Works, and Sex Stories!” by Mercy Faulk is a FANTASTIC FREE guide to find the sexy stuff you may be looking for.  There are hundreds of types of fetishes and kinks, so give this book a read if you are even curious what kind of erotica is out there.  (BDSM, minotaurs, werewolves, tentacles, gay, straight, aliens, sleeping,- you name it there is a story)

So if you are even remotely curious about Erotica, check out this guide! (IT’S FREE!)

http://amzn.to/12pyEUZ

 

Amazon Filtering

Can’t find what you want on Amazon? Feeling the need for a “naughty” book, but can’t find it when you search? Can’t find the book you were looking for on Amazon?

Welcome to the Adult Filter.

This last week, Amazon started adult filtering a random smattering of erotica. I am in touch with a lot of amazing erotica writers, and this is rough news for them.

What is the Adult Filter? The adult filter makes books unsearchable from the main/All Department Search page. This is a good thing in some cases- you don’t want your kid looking up “Fun things to do with Daddy” and seeing some of the erotica that comes out of that search. To get around this, you have to go to the kindle store (drop down menu) and search from there. It seems as though this happens automatically on your kindle, so you will be able to find things that way.

Why is this a problem then? It isn’t being applied equally or with any rhyme or reason. Do a search for “Breeding” and see what comes up on the main page. Then do one in the Kindle store. How are these erotic titles showing up while I have friends whose entire catalogues have been filtered? (and they are the equivalent stories).  This is a big deal because we are talking about people’s livelihoods.  There is a lot of money being spent on erotic fiction, and the industry is only growing.

I understand that Amazon doesn’t want to be labeled as a “Smut” store. But their guidelines, and feedback once something is filtered, is so generic it borders on absurd. They want to keep the income from erotica, but they don’t want the fall out from it either. There is no transparency or consistency. If you want to sell erotica, but keep moral superiority, then put ALL the erotica behind a filter. Not just some of it.

This “adult filter” is fairly ridiculous. It is applied by Amazon automated bots, and as such doesn’t catch everything and filters things that don’t need filtering.  Amazon simply needs an “adult” checkbox option for their search engine. If you click it, you can see adult stuff. Then put anything with a pg13 rating and up in that filter. Make it all or nothing, not this maybe some stuff. If a reader is looking for “Breeding” and the box isn’t checked, they get animal husbandry. If it is checked, they get sex toys, dirty books, and everything their little hearts desire.

Selena Kitt, http://selenakitt.com/blog/index.php/2012/03/20/corporate-bullies/ explains this much eloquently than I do. This post is over a year old, but it has come up again. (The filtering issue occurred last year around this time for pseudo-incest, and now it is occurring again but for a broader range of erotic topics).

My racier stories haven’t been filtered (yet), but I know a lot of people who this does really affect. And if Amazon doesn’t explain why they filtered certain stories (other than “we have found filterable content”) it could happen to a romance writer like me.

Get checked!

One of my fellow authors just recently blogged this:

http://wickedchrista.blogspot.com/2013/03/breast-cancer-or-why-you-shouldnt-be.html

She had no real risk factors (ie no family history, no predispositions) and was lucky enough for her husband to find the lump and make her do something about it.  She thought it was just a cyst, one that they had found on her last mammogram, but her husband insisted. This is so important to get checked regularly. An ounce of prevention…

This is just as important for colon health for men (and women) too! These preventative tests are annoying and waste a day, but they are worth it. One day of your time to make sure you are healthy (or to get something fixed early) is far preferable to fixing it later.

 

Be sure to check out Christa’s works to support her!

Poor Review

A couple of weeks ago I received a 2/5 star review for Fire Always Burns.

It hurt a little bit. It was easy to shrug off the negative reviews for my previous works; Woman of the Billionaire’s Dreams, Worthy of the Billionaire, and Ancient Loves are all shorter works. The represented about a weeks worth of time and effort and for the most part, the negative reviews tended to be poorly worded or short “I didn’t like this” statements.

Not this review. It was long. It was accurate. The review hit on all the weak parts that I myself thought of the work. The things I wasn’t sure how to address, the weak plot points, the issues I hoped were only things I could see. It is easy to see the flaws in ourselves, but to have others point them out is difficult.

I would have shrugged it off, my husband told me to ignore it, but it came when I really could have used a boost.  It had been a slow sale’s day and I was feeling dismal about my first novel.  Despite my best efforts, the book just hadn’t connected with readers. I was coming to terms with the idea that I had spent a month writing this book and it wasn’t going to sell.  Then a low review just kind of hammered that home. It shattered my confidence in the new novel I was working on. I just couldn’t get the energy to commit again.

It has been a couple of weeks and I have gotten it out of my system. I am glad that Fire Always Burns is not the last novel I will ever write. I learned more writing it and promoting it than I ever could have hoped for. I hope to take this knowledge and use it to make the next one better. The novels are going to get better and better.

A famous author said that it takes a million words to become a decent writer. My mom told me that in a regular job, it takes about a year before you are truly competent at your job. I have not written a million words yet. I haven’t even written half-a-million words yet, and I have only been doing this since November, but I am on my way.

I hope that people enjoy Fire Always Burns. I hope they have a few hours of being lost in a new place and falling in love. I hope to one day go back and write Luke and Britney’s story.  There is so much that I want to accomplish as a writer, so many stories that I want to tell, that I am excited to write again. The review phased me, but it isn’t going to stop me.

Next stop: the million words mark

Walking and Writing

Things have been busy here at the Lakes’ household! My little one is just about walking (he has taken a couple of steps by himself, and is gearing up for more!). He is so adorable as he stands there and holds out his arms and attempts a step. If he is distracted (like Elmo is on TV or I am offering cheese) he will take a solo step, but if he knows what he is doing he psyches himself out and just sits down to crawl over. It also means that I have to keep my computer even further out of his reach. He loves to press the keys to hear the noise and watch the screen change. Cute- but not when he decides my story needs to be adjusted to include 00000000000000000000+++++++h;alskfj;alsdkfj in the middle of a paragraph. He’ll be a writer one day too I guess!

In writing news, I have the outline all done for my next novel. 7,000 words and the story is going to be good! I have about 10,000 words done so far, and my characters are just falling for one another. It is going to be a lighthearted billionaire romance, so be on the lookout for some fun summer reading! Updates as I keep working on it. It is going to take a little bit of time because the little one trying to “help”, but that is what naptime is for!

Guest Blog Posts!

I am so incredibly grateful to these wonderful blogs for letting me post on their sites

Belle’s Book Bag (post 3/20/2013)

Reading Between the Lines (post 3/19/2013)

Deep in the Heart of Romance (post 3/22/2013)

They have been so wonderful to work with. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have their addresses saved so I can give them first dibs on my next work!

Insatiable Reads Tour

 

Insatiable Reads Opportunities

 

I am loving the books of the Insatiable Reads tour. As I am participating, I was excited to support my fellow authors and have purchased every single one. They are amazing. I am going to have a lot of reading material for at least a month. (It would be more like three days if I didn’t have to care for an infant and write my own work!) I keep picking one up thinking I will just read a chapter, but inevitably, I can’t seem to put it down. My son loves it because I just sit and read my kindle with him in his room while he falls asleep; he wakes up after a while and then snuggles back in with a smile when he sees I haven’t left yet.

These amazing authors have given me so much inspiration. I love the stylistic differences, the different ways each author describes their characters, and the pure creativity of their stories. I feel so incredibly lucky to be in the same category as many of these amazing writers. They have given me so much inspiration, and they are all wonderful people to work with.

 

Be sure to check out my first full length novel, Fire Always Burns! (Part of the Insatiable Reads Tour)

 

Krista Lakes currently on virtual tour with 15 other awesome romance authors as part of the Insatiable Reads Book Tour. From March 4-31st, readers will be invited to enter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire, free books, and other fun goodies. Readers will also be able to participate in author chats, get insights into writing and publishing romance, and collect story swag.

 

This week, Krista is touring with Anya Karin, Nadia Simonenko, and Karolyn James.

 

To enter giveaways and meet the other writers, follow us at:

Website: www.insatiablereads.com

Facebook:www.facebook.com/insatiable.books

Twitter:twitter.com/insatiablereads/

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100902224798608127488/posts

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/selenakitt/insatiable-reads/

 

Fire Always Burns

It is published!
Fire Always Burns, my first full length romance novel is now available on BN, Amazon, Kobo, and All Romance Ebooks!