Jamie Farrell's Blog, page 24

About Being Good Enough

With yesterday’s surprise launch of Mr. Good Enough, I wanted to tell you a little bit about the story’s backstory. Hope you’ll indulge a few writerly ramblings for a minute today!

I’ve been writing romances since the fall of 2002 and joined Romance Writers of America in 2004. I wrote a couple books that will never see the light of day, because they’re bad. (But they did teach me a lot about writing!)

In 2005 or 2006, I read an advice column where a guy in his late forties had written in to say that he was happy enough with his long-term girlfriend, but he didn’t want to propose just in case something better was out there. Except he was getting older, and what if this was as good as it got? Should he just settle for good enough?

And the idea for Mr. Good Enough was born.

(Side note: The advice column was a Dear Prudie article, and if anyone can find it for me, I will hug you and kiss you and love you forever, because my Google-fu has failed me and I can’t find it.)

I wrote the first draft of Mr. Good Enough when I was pregnant with Munchkin. I revised it sometime after he was born, and then I revised it again, and then in late 2010, I finally decided it was ready for the world, and I started querying literary agents in hopes that one of them would think it was good enough.

Obviously that didn’t happen.

I pitched the book to a few editors along the way, and I entered a couple contests with it, hoping they, too, would think it was good enough.

I came close a couple times, went through a round of revisions with an agent who ultimately passed (though with wonderful things to say, and I’ll forever be grateful to her for her time and support and the confidence the experience gave me), took second place in the Southern Magic Romance Writers’ Linda Howard Award of Excellence in 2012, gathered a few more rejections, and became very, very discouraged.

My dream had always been to be published with a New York publishing house, and if agents and editors didn’t think my story was good enough, then it wasn’t good enough. They complimented the writing, but ultimately the rejections had a theme: “This just isn’t what we’re seeing selling right now.” So I wrote a few notes about potential future books in the series (Yes, Jaime, I know a little bit about Parker’s story, and I kinda have a crush on him too), then put Mr. Good Enough to the side, and I picked up my revisions on Southern Fried Blues.

Because Southern Fried Blues would be good enough. I was sure of it.

And… it wasn’t.

Except it was. You, my readers, have laughed and cried with our characters (they’re not mine – they’re ours to share), You’ve told friends and written reviews and lent Southern Fried Blues and Mr. Good Enough to other readers.

You’ve given me the gift of not only being good enough, but of being confident in being good enough.

I don’t talk much about being a self-published author, because I think books are books, and most readers I’ve met care more about getting a good story from their favorite authors than they do about who put the book out on the market. There are self-published books I love, and there are traditionally-published books I love, and as a reader myself, I love having my pick of all kinds of books. As a writer, though, I’m so, so grateful that self-publishing is a viable option for authors like me.

It took me a long time to pull Mr. Good Enough back out of the digital box it had been sitting in, to look at it as both a business woman and as an author with a small but growing audience of readers who were falling in love with Southern Fried Blues. And the funniest thing happened.

I found myself laughing. And crying. And saying, “Oh, this needs to be updated, because everyone has smart phones now.” And ultimately, I found myself falling in love with the characters I hadn’t visited in two years. And that was when I knew that Mr. Good Enough was good enough too.

So today, a huge THANK YOU!! to each and every one of you. I hope you fall in love with Mr. Good Enough. (And that you borrow it from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library or grab it this week while it’s still $0.99, if you haven’t yet!)

All my love and appreciation,

Jamie

It’s a Happy Birthday Happy Monday!

It’s my birthday!

And that alone is reason enough to celebrate a Monday, but today, because this is what I do, I’m making your Monday a little brighter too.

So!

Off we go with ten things to smile about today!

(Number one is my favorite, just in case you’re tempted to stop at number six or something.)

10. Surprises! (I have one. It’s number one.)

9. Barry’s Irish Tea with milk and sugar. (It’s what’s gotten me through planning number one.)

8. Birthday cake. (It’s what I’m having with number one.)

7. Massages. (It’s what I’m getting after working so hard on number one.)

6. Birthday presents! (It’s kind of what I’m giving you in number one.)

5. Tiaras. (Of course, right?) (I’ll bet you thought I was going to say something about number one.)

4. Birthday parties. (Mine’s all week long on my Facebook page. It’s related to number one.)

3. Bouncy houses. (I am totally having a bouncy house at my real life birthday party.)

2. Bouncy slides. (Which is totally different from a bouncy house, and worthy of its own smile.)

1. This week’s music video that makes me smile… Just teasing!

No video this week. Because I have something better.

Y’all.

I have a surprise new book out!

There’s a story behind this book (there always is, right?), and I’ll be sharing it later this week.

But for now–Happy Monday!

(And go buy Mr. Good Enough! It’s on sale this week only for $0.99!)

Husband of the Year – Meda’s Hubba-luv

In honor of this year’s release of The Husband Games, we’re celebrating everyday hero husbands here every Friday! Today, I’m so excited to have my friend, Meda White, here today to tell us about her hubby! Meda’s one of my friends and a fellow writer in the Southern Magic chapter of Romance Writers of America, and I’m just tickled to have her here! Welcome, Meda!

Jamie: Tell me about how you met your husband.

Meda: I’d been living in Atlanta about a year when my cousin from Florida called to say she gave my number to a guy who would be calling me. She’d worked with his dad at the phone company for twenty years and she thought we might like to make a new friend. He called, we made a dinner date  and the rest is history.

 

Jamie: When did you know he was the one for you?

Meda: I knew he was the one when he brought me home after we’d been getting to know each other for a few weeks and I was ready for a kiss. I was like, “Yo, you gonna make a move or what?” He informed me that I’d ruined his romantic plans for our first kiss, which was set for the next day. We hiked Cloudland Canyon and went boulder hopping upstream. He spread a picnic out on a big boulder, complete with Champagne and strawberries, and we smooched in front of the waterfall.

 

Jamie: What’s your favorite small thing that he does for you?

Meda: The dishes.

 

Jamie: What’s the grandest gesture he’s ever made, or your favorite story about him?

Meda: He’s pretty good with the grand gestures: first kiss, proposal, honeymoon, anniversary trips. Most recently, he told me my birthday present was going to cost more than he thought it would. His speech was something like, “For your fortieth birthday, and your first sale, and Valentine’s Day, and because you’re so practical you’d never get yourself anything like this.” He gave me a little box with big earrings. They weren’t genuine diamanté either.

 

Jamie: What is your husband’s sexiest feature?

Meda: Two things: His super-hero jawline (think Superman comics) and his broad back that has a nice v-taper down to his narrow waist. *slurpy noise*

 

Jamie: If he were competing in the Husband Games, which event would he win?

Meda: Hubba-luv would win the Carpentry Challenge. By day, he’s an engineer pushing paper to keep our air clean. By night, he can build just about anything. I have no less than five pieces of custom wood furniture and he’s currently building a Lady Cave for me- framing, insulation, sheetrock, flooring- the whole bit.

 

Jamie: Tell me about the nickname.

Meda: When I first joined RWA and Southern Magic, I discovered many authors have fun nicknames for their husbands. For instance, Kristan Higgins calls her husband McIrish. I started playing around with ideas and bounced a few off one of my critique partners. The early options were Special-K, Boo, and Ken (not his name), but I didn’t love any of them and he hated all of them. Until I could decide on one, I kept calling him Hubs. One day, it evolved into Hubba-luv and I knew it was the one.

 

Huge thanks to Meda for sharing her Hubba-luv with us today! I am so jealous of her Lady Cave! What a great guy. Make sure you swing by Meda’s website, her Facebook page, or her Twitter page, and read all about her debut Contemporary New Adult novella–coming in March (so SOON!!)–and also her upcoming contemporary romance release with Soul Mate Publishing!

Know an awesome husband? Email me or drop me a line on my contact page! I’d love to feature him here!

The Assignment of the Great Appliance Disastrophe

Y’all remember my stories from last summer about our movers holding our stuff for almost three weeks after we moved into our new house, and then the story about how the dryer died as soon as it was finally delivered and installed?

Fast forward six months, and I’m hoping Bubba can pull of a miracle for us again.

The other night, we turned on our dishwasher, and it started right up… and then promptly stopped.

Hubby switched it off. Turned the dial. (This one’s old school, y’all.) Then he flipped the latch to start it again. It swished once, twice… and then died.

So I turned the dial and flipped the latch.

Nothing.

At that point, we did what any brilliant couple would do. We opened the door.

The dishwasher promptly roared to life, sprayers spraying like they’re going for gold.

All over the kitchen.

Hubby slammed the door shut. I stood there giggling. (Of the two of us, he got wetter. Probably the universe’s interference, since Squeaker threw half a cup of water on me while I was giving him a bath not thirty minutes earlier. Not that I wished for the dishwasher to malfunction and then spray hubby. It just happened that way, and it struck me as interesting that now we were even.)

We both actually got a good laugh out of it. Then hubby twisted the knob again, flipped the latch, and the poor dishwasher was just dead as an armadillo on I-10 in August. Hubby carefully opened the dishwasher back up, then, while it was open, he turned the knob. (He wanted to see if the soap container would open again.)

Cross my heart, that dishwasher sprayer sprang right back to life. And this time, Hubby had a full rack of dishes pulled out and a giant bowl blocking the vertical sprayer thingie (technical term) that had shot upwards, so he couldn’t just slam the door shut again.

We’re talking water shooting up over half the kitchen here, folks. Me and my military man, shrieking at each other to turn it off turn it off TURN IT OFF!! until one of us remembered the fancy little switch on the wall that kills the power to the darn thing. (Seriously. Confused the bajeezers out of us when we moved in and couldn’t figure out what that switch was for, and then thought we’d moved into a house with a broken dishwasher until we figured out how to get power to it.)

Between that and the timer on our new-to-us dryer recently deciding only some cycles are necessary, I’m thinking our little sunny spot of Alabama has some spiritual issues with the idea of us having working appliances.

Probably I should go make a sacrifice to the appliance gods. We’ve got a few months left here still. Wish us luck!

 

p.s. Disastrophe is totally a word. And it’s awesome.

A Year of Happy Mondays–Bacon Edition

So it’s Monday again. And because I like to mix things up while still remaining both predictable (I love bacon) and unpredictable (you’re never going to believe what can be done with bacon), this week’s top ten things that make me smile on a Monday morning are all about bacon.

So, pull up a plate, and let’s dive on in.

Ten Things (About Bacon) That Make Me Smile on a Monday Morning:

10. Chocolate bacon (I know, I know – acquired taste. Stick with me. It gets better. Or possibly worse. Unless chocolate bacon is your heaven, in which case… hey, more bacon below!)

9. That there’s a bacon romance novel. (Side note: I TOTALLY have to write a bacon romance novel.)

8. Bacon Roses

7. Y’all. BACON OF THE MONTH clubs. Brilliant.

6. And of course, Kevin Bacon.

5. Having friends who send me pictures of bacon stuff. (Thanks, Amy!)

Amy from So Many Reads sent me this picture of her kid’s birthday loot. Great taste!

4. Bacon and homemade donuts

More on the donut later

3. That there’s an endless supply of recipes for Bacon Cupcakes on Pinterest.

2. There’s a Church of Bacon. Seriously, y’all.

1. Okay, it’s not quite bacon, but… Lady Antebellum’s spoof of Lee Brice’s “Love You Like Crazy.” Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present… “Biscuits and Gravy.”

BACON.

The End.

p.s. I totally would’ve added using bacon grease in my biscuits (in honor of Jackson Davis from Southern Fried Blues, of course), but bacon grease isn’t really something that makes me happy all the time, you know?

p.p.s. For more (not always bacon themed) happy Mondays, check out the archives here or visit my Year of Happiness board on Pinterest!

Husband of the Year – Hiding Under A Cabbage Leaf

Happy Friday! In honor of this year’s release of  The Husband Games , every week we’re featuring super husband heroes! This week, romance author Jeannie Moon is here to tell us about her sweetheart of a husband, Tim. Welcome, Jeannie!

Jamie: Tell me about how you met your husband.

Jeannie: My husband Tim and I met when were juniors in high school and working at a local grocery store.  I worked at the register and he stocked produce.  Years later I tell people I found him under a cabbage leaf.

Jamie: When did you know he was the one for you?

Jeannie: This is hard.  I always knew he was sweet and special, but we did take a bit of a break when we were at the end of college.  We didn’t break up, but there wasn’t that closeness. When we got back together seriously I think it was because we both knew we’d each found our other half.

Jamie: What’s your favorite small thing that he does for you?

Jeannie: My writing career is finally taking off and I have a full time job as well.  Tim has taken on a lot of household chores, but the biggest one is the laundry.  He does my laundry, without me asking, and he doesn’t turn anything pink.

Jamie: What’s the grandest gesture he’s ever made, or your favorite story about him?

Jeannie: He’s not a grand gesture kind of guy—he’s about lots of little things.  My favorite story, though, is something that happened on our wedding day. Along with the other attendants, there were three little girls in the wedding party.  We had our pictures taken at a beautiful arboretum and when the group shots were done, the wedding party went on to the reception.  The children, however, were riding in our limo.  We took some wonderful couple photos, but while the photographer was taking pictures of me alone, I wondered what happen to Tim and the girls.  I looked over and spied the four of them in a grassy meadow nearby.  To keep the kids busy while my photos were being taken, he and the girls were looking for four leaf clovers.  It was priceless and charming and I knew he was going to be an amazing father someday.  To say my heart swelled would be an understatement.

Jamie: What is your husband’s sexiest feature?

Jeannie: His eyes and his smile.  His whole face.  He’s so handsome it hurts.

Jamie: If he were competing in the Husband Games, which event would he win?

Jeannie: He’d win the Staying calm in the Face of Crazy event.  I’m emotional, but he’s cool as a cucumber.  Gold medal for him.  No doubt.

 

What an awesome guy! Big thanks to Jeannie for sharing him with us today. Love that image of Tim and three little girls looking for four-leaf clovers!

And if you’re looking for a great read this weekend, I highly recommend Jeannie’s books!  The Temporary Wife was one of my favorites last year. Visit her website or her Facebook page to learn more.

Know an awesome husband? Email me or drop me a line on my contact page! I’d love to feature him here!

Take Me Back To Florida!

Sunset over the beach

Because I came home to two sick kids and we have houseguests coming and my house is a mess and we’re still hand washing dishes (more on that soon) and we’re getting antsy about finding a place to live when Hubby’s orders kick in this summer, I’m heading back to the beach today.

Okay, not really, but I wish I was, so I’m living vicariously through my four-days-ago self, ruminating on all the fun stuff I did and saw back on the Gulf Coast this weekend. Consider this a bonus “Ten Things That Make Me Smile” post.

10. I accidentally stumbled upon Betty’s Fireworks in Florala. “The Best Bang in Town,” Betty promises. (Really. It’s on the building. Picture right here.)

9. Confederate flags still fly around the Deep South.

8. I always love visiting the Silver Sands Outlet Mall where I scored the CUTEST ladybug costume for Buttercup this weekend.

7. It’s dead skunk season. (Okay, not a highlight, but if you’ve read Southern Fried Blues, you know that Anna thinks an armadillo’s purpose is lying on the side of the road with its legs in the air. And while I’ve smelled dead skunk on the road, I’ve never actually seen dead skunk, but I saw two this weekend (and Hubby saw another on his way to work yesterday) so it’s kinda like the skunks in Alabama are suddenly launching a roadkill war, trying to one-up the armadillos, and I’ve apparently lived in the South long enough to consider discussing roadkill normal, which means that, even though I’ll miss being close enough to drive to the beach, it’s probably a good thing we’re moving north(ish) this summer.)

Moving right along…

6. The sunrises and sunsets on the beach are pretty.

Sunrise on the beach – such a peaceful time of day!

5. I’ve never given much thought to being a Pisces, but I found the Gulf so amazingly soothing this weekend. Almost like it was welcoming me home. (More likely, being responsible for myself and only myself for the first time since Buttercup was born probably contributed to that, but I still love the water.)

4. Telling Hubby I was really sad that Dean’s Cake of Houses was closed. (Yes, that’s what I said. On purpose. Really.) The last five years, we’ve driven past the signs for Dean’s House of Cakes in Andalusia dozens of times without stopping, and since this was probably the last time I would be driving past it, I decided to stop. And it wasn’t open. I still haz a sad. But the beach was pretty!

3. I feel like a total goofus for forgetting to snap a picture together with my friend Maria Geraci. We just worked too hard to think about it! (And y’all will appreciate that one day, I promise. Hopefully one day soon!)

2. This Cash’s Liquors sign makes me giggle every time.

(Backstory: The guy who own’s Cash’s has been advertising for years for people to buy at his store so he could send his daughter to Auburn. She’s graduated now, so he needs to find her a rich husband. Or so the string of historic ads and this story would indicate.) (And yes, Jackson Davis is highly amused by this. But that’s all he’ll say on the subject.)

1. Pompano Joe’s Seafood House, home of the most AMAZING coconut-crusted amberjack.

Pompano Joe’s is also the site of Munchkin’s most infamous dinner conversation. The story:

When he was just barely two (and still our only child), we went to dinner Pompano Joe’s, which also just happens to be right on the beach. It was early summer, so there were lots of people playing volleyball and swimming, and little Munchkin spotted something that he Could. Not. Look. Away. From.

A gorgeous, fit, very tan woman in a leopard print bikini was walking in the sand a hundred feet away. And Munchkin was completely enthralled.

I kinda giggled and poked the hubby. “Proud of him?” I teased.

But no sooner had the words left my mouth than Munchkin leaned over the half-wall, squinted harder at her, and yelled, “Hey! You got your naked on!”

 

If you could be anywhere today, where would you be?

Toes in the Water. :-)

A Year of Happy Mondays, Florida Edition!

My super awesome friend Maria Geraci and I have been hanging out on the beach, erm, writing in a hotel room all weekend, having a great time, and while I’m sad to see our time coming to an end, I’m also super excited to keep going on my projects when I get home later today. (And I’ll probably like giving the hubby and my kids some big hugs too.)

In honor of our weekend on the beach, here are this week’s top ten things that make me smile!

10. Dolphins

9. Sticking my feet in the sand on the beach

8. Sunrise over the ocean

7. BBCs – that’s Banana, Baileys, and Colada mix

6. Slumber parties

5. Disney World

4. Clemenza’s (Everyone has their favorite Italian restaurant. This is mine.)

3. Maria Geraci’s books

2. Shrimp

1. Kenny Chesney’s “Anything But Mine” (which also happens to be the inspiration for book two in the Misfit Brides of Bliss series – yay!!)

 

Everybody smiling now? No? Maybe we need a reminder to check out these awesome Husband of the Year nominees too. Love stories are awesome! Have a wonderful week!

Husband of the Year – A Romance Writer’s Dream Guy

Happy Valentine’s Day! This year, in anticipation of the launch of The Husband Games, we’re featuring awesome husbands here every Friday. Today, I’m thrilled to have my friend and super awesome romance author Kate Pearce here to tell us about her husband, who totally rocks those grand gestures. Welcome, Kate!

 

Jamie: Tell me about how you met your husband.

Kate: We were fourteen and our schools joined together to form one bigger one. The first class we took together was chemistry. LOL At 14 he was really annoying… but he grew on me, and we started going out when we were 21 and married at 23. We’re still married 28 years later

Jamie: When did you know he was the one for you?

Kate: Our first kiss was a total disaster of clashing teeth, and yet it didn’t matter. We both laughed and tried again and it worked just fine the second time.  I think it was the combination of having been friends for years, and then the kiss…just blew me away.

Jamie: What’s your favorite small thing that he does for you?

Kate: He’s a great hugger. He wraps his arms around me and tucks my head under his chin and I immediately start to feel better about everything.

Jamie: What’s the grandest gesture he’s ever made, or your favorite story about him?

Kate: Gosh, so many things… I’d say it was when we were leaving the U.K. to come and live in the USA. He told me we were going away for the weekend and that our destination was a secret. We eventually ended up in the city of Bath, one of my favorite places in the world. I was getting irritated with him because he wouldn’t stop and ask for directions, and we were heading for a dead end on the Royal Crescent-except we weren’t. He’d booked us in for the night at one of the premier hotels in Bath right on the Royal Crescent, (remember I’m a Regency romance writer). And he also took me shopping and then on a tour of all the places we’d lived together during our marriage in the area.

Jamie: What is your husband’s sexiest feature?

Kate: I cannot lie; he works out and paddles in a six-man Hawaiian canoe. That man doesn’t have an inch of fat on him and he looks gorgeous, but he’s also very shy.

Jamie: If he were competing in the Husband Games, which events would he win?

Kate: The Handyman of the Year Award, and I.T. specialist and printer consultant. He’s also an awesome dad.

 

Huge thanks to Kate for sharing her hubby with us! If you’ve never read a Kate Pearce book, do yourself a favor and check one out today. You can find her book list here. Have a great Valentine’s Day!

Know an awesome husband? Email me or drop me a line on my contact page. I’d love to feature him here!

A Strawberry Cake Lover’s Guide to the Best Strawberry Cake In The Universe

Grandma made this one special for me at Christmas!

You know what would be cool?

A strawberry cake throw-down.

Not an actual throwing down of the cake, because, hello! Wasted strawberry cake!

Nope, I’m talking about an intergalactic search for the best strawberry cake in the whole universe. Except… wait.. Oh. Right.

Totally unnecessary to use NASA’s resources scouring the outer planets, because I happen to have The Very Best Strawberry Cake Recipe In The Whole World in my possession. My grandmother gave it to the hubby a few years ago for Christmas. The original, mind you, on a recipe card that she’s had since 1947. (Or some year thereabouts. I didn’t actually inquire as to the card’s humble beginnings.) (Also, this recipe was gifted to my husband in an effort to put to rest rumors started by my mother that my grandmother held back a secret ingredient, since Mom was never able to make the cake as well as Grandma. Grandma did hold back a secret, but it wasn’t an ingredient, and it’s not on the card, so technically, Grandma wins.)

Anyway, since my grandpa’s birthday would’ve been tomorrow, today I’m going to share with you my grandma’s recipe for strawberry cake. And if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll also tell you the secret magic trick to making it the perfect way. Ready? Let’s do this.

Grandma’s Best Strawberry Jello Cake

1 package white cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)

1 tablespoon flour

1 box strawberry jello

Mix these together, then add, one at a time:

3/4 cup canola oil (Grandma forgives me if I don’t always use Mazola)

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup frozen strawberries (thawed) (Grandma also forgives me if I sometimes use more strawberries than the recipe calls for)

4 eggs beaten well.

Put it all in a bundt pan and bake it. Grandma’s recipe calls for this to be baked at 350 for 25-30 minutes, but it actually takes 40-50 minutes.

And here’s the trick: You have to let the cake cool in the bundt pan for at least 20-30 minutes. If you flip it out any sooner, the cake will fall apart (which is “The Secret” to making this one a beautiful cake).

The Original Recipe

The other secret – this cake is AWESOME after being refrigerated overnight. Grandma puts frosting on sometimes, but you don’t have to. It’s that good all by itself.

So tell me – what family recipes have your grandmothers failed to pass down properly?