Jamie Farrell's Blog, page 26

A Year Of Happy Mondays, Take Three

Yee-haw! It’s Monday morning, which means it’s time to smile!

Too much?

Sorry. Here, I’ll try whispering.

Psstt… y’all awake enough to find a few things to smile about yet? I’ll go nice and easy on you. Promise. All you have to do is read the list below, and hopefully you’ll find a smile too. Ready? Go!

Top Ten Things Making Me Smile This Week

10. Three day weekends

9. Zombie Fluxx

8. Bacon

7. The number eleventy-billion (Yes, I know it’s made-up. That’s part of why I love it.)

6. Office Space

5. Toddler giggles

4. Buttercup singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” (It goes something like this: “Iiizz aaaa baa daaa aw ta pow.” She’s one. It counts.)

3. Campfires

2. Getting a strike in bowling

1. Kip Moore’s “Hey Pretty Girl.”

Everybody find a little smile? If you want more, just click right here for two more weeks’ worth of smiles! And I have more where these came from, so stay tuned! Happy Monday!

p.s. Did y’all see the awesome review for Southern Fried Blues at Delighted Reader last week? Wow! That had me smiling all weekend!

Husband Of The Year – A Long Distance Love

Happy Friday! This year, in honor of the upcoming launch of The Husband Games, we’re celebrating everyday heroes and featuring awesome husbands. This week, we have my Twitter friend and fellow author, Katie Bailey, here to tell us about her husband, Dave! These two are so sweet. Hope you enjoy their love story!

Jamie: Welcome, Katie! Tell me about how you met your husband.

Katie: Oddly enough, though we lived in neighboring towns for several years and even went to the same church growing up, I didn’t actually meet him until freshman year of high school and a mutual friend introduced us.  The real kicker?  By that point, Dave had moved a state away!

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

Katie: We’d been friends for a little while already, and he was constantly on my mind.  It might sound silly, but I knew he was the one when Sparky, the family dog died.  Sparky had been around for most of my life, and Dave stayed up crazy late that night talking to me online, comforting me, even though we both had school the next morning.

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

Katie: I’ll list it as small because it might be to some people, but, to me, it means the world.  He holds me.  Sometimes, when my depression gets the best of me or I have anxiety attacks–and, yes, even at “just because” times–he holds me close, letting me feel safe and loved.

Jamie: What’s the grandest gesture he’s ever made?

Katie: He makes a lot, but I’d list endurance up there.  As I mentioned, we started our relationship long-distance.  We remained long-distance for a good 6+ years until we got married, but he didn’t mind sticking it out if it meant being together.  We still talked all the time and he’d make trips out to visit car-less me whenever he could.  Now that we’re married (over 3 years wed, but together as a couple for 10 years on February 10th!), the hardships of high student loan rates and a rough economy pulled us apart again; in order to work jobs that would allow us to pay off the necessary bills, we have to live in separate states once more.  Despite all this, he still remains steadfast in our relationship and travels to visit me whenever work permits.  Never once have we “taken a break,” and he has remained by my side physically or emotionally regardless of the obstacles.  If you ask me, that’s pretty grand.  (On a side note, we hope to have enough paid off and saved up to have a house and live together again in the coming months!)

Jamie: What is your husband’s sexiest feature?

Katie: Like, physical feature?  He has plenty, but I have to say his smile.  He has the cutest little boy grin, and it melts me time and again.



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

Katie: I’d have to say he’d rock at video game marathoning.  Playing games together is something we love, but, of course, not all are dual-player.  When it comes to ones that my lacking coordination fails, he’ll man the controls so we can enjoy it together–sometimes for hours on end, days in a row.  Pretty much, he’s awesome.

Huge thanks to Katie for sharing Dave with us today! Hope you two get to spend the weekend together, and happy early anniversary!

If you’d like to know more about Katie and her writing, check out her Facebook or Tumblr pages!

https://www.facebook.com/CentralAvalon

http://katrinaebailey.tumblr.com/

And if you know an awesome husband who should be featured as a Husband of the Year, email me or drop me a line on my contact page. Happy weekend, everybody!

Home Brewing Turned Healthy

Friday afternoon, Munchkin came running in the door after school with a bag. “Mom!” he yelled. “The neighbor gave me beer stuff for Daddy!”

Which meant the hubby spent part of Saturday afternoon brewing, which meant Saturday evening, I was presented with the normal question:

“Honey, do you want to use the spent grains in anything?”

(One of the first steps in making beer is to crush grains, then pour boiling water over them so that the water soaks up all the to-be-beery goodness. At the end of this step, the water, which has now absorbed a bunch of the sugars out of the grains, is drained off and used in the next beer-making step, and the wet, used grains are discarded.)

A few months back, we tried spent-grain bread. . Since then, hubby’s heard of other people using the grains in granola, dog biscuits, and even in vegetarian burgers. It’s all basically whole-grain goodness, so why not? We whipped up a batch of granola bars (slight failure, but we’ll try again), and still had several cups left.

So hubby pulled out the dehydrator.

Sunday morning, we had three sheets of dry spent grains, which he tossed into the Vitamix and turned into spent grain flour. Can’t wait until the next time my kids ask for blueberry muffins or pancakes. I’m gonna sneak some extra fiber in on them, and they’ll never know the difference.

So tell me, do you know any home brewers? Or have any interest in learning for yourself?

A Year of Happy Mondays, The Second

It’s week two of the Year of Happiness, and we’re pushing ahead full-steam! I have lots of happy things saved up for you guys for the next several weeks. So let’s get down to business with some smiles on this Monday morning, shall we?

This Week’s Top Ten Things To Smile About On A Monday Morning:

Watch out, Minion! Mr. Chompies is going to get you!

10. That Squeaker calls pliers and clamps “Mr. Chompies.”

9. Freshly washed sheets

8. Avenue Q

7. The Macarena (it’s nostalgic, y’all!)

6. The word “y’all”

5. Nathan Fillion

4. Pedicures

3. S’mores

2. That epic little spelling error in Susan Andersen’s Baby, I’m Yours (Over two years later, this one still makes me roll with hysterical laughter. Check it out. Seriously. It will make your whole week.)

1. This Waffle Wedded Wife video

 

Want more smiles? Check out last week’s list! Or you could always give Southern Fried Blues a read. Or a re-read. Trust me. That’ll work.

Happy Monday, y’all!

Husband of the Year: A Steady, Dedicated Guy!

Y’all ready to meet another awesome husband? This week, we have Amy from So Many Reads telling us about her husband! I’m loving these love stories, y’all! Let’s get to it!

 

Jamie: Tell me about how you met your husband.

Amy and Rob

Amy: I met my husband, Rob, through a mutual friend in college. Rob lived an hour away so we only got to see each other about one or two times per month. Eventually the friendship we had turned into something a little more. One of my memories was that once we went out on a couple of dates, I thought something was wrong. I mean, he was too nice! I had never dated a nice guy. My mom and sister convinced me to give him a try and 17 and ½ years later, we are still together!

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

Amy: I don’t know if I remember the exact moment that I knew he was the one for me, as I think it was a growing attraction and love that formed over the months and years we dated.

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

Amy: I think my favorite thing that he does for me is the way he makes me feel. He likes to be physically close to me. He likes to hug me and touch me whether it is his arm around my shoulder or holding my hand. I will stop at that to keep this rated G. Physical touch is his love language and makes me feel loved and cherished. Even though we have been married for 14 and ½ years and I don’t look like I did when I was in my early 20’s any longer he has never ceased to make me feel beautiful.

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

Amy: This is hard since we have been together for so long. I can’t think of a specific one, but one gesture he does all the time is that he makes time for me. We both work full time, have a son in junior high and a daughter in elementary school who both play sports, so we are busy. He always makes time to focus on us and our marriage. I think a lot of men leave that to the wife, but my husband is more intentional about it than I am. I love that he does that.

Jamie: What is your husband’s sexiest feature?

Amy: Well, I think you are probably going for a physical attribute (which I can think of a lot), but I am going to say the way he is with our kids.  There is nothing as sexy as a Dad with his children. From the time they were infants and he was snuggling them while watching TV to now when he is playing catch with our son in the backyard or kicking the soccer ball around with our daughter. He is also the first one to teach them things whether it is how something works or how to ride a bike. He just loves our family so much and puts everything he has into it.

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

Amy: He would win the “ability to organize anything” event. Whenever we have to really clean something out like the garage or basement or we have to start a home improvement project, he can organize it into easy steps that make the best use of our time and money. It is his super logic powers that give him this ability. It is sort of annoying to my impulsive self.  Sometimes I don’t want to measure twice and cut once. I want to skip the measuring and just cut to get ‘er done! He is so dang patient.

 

What a great guy! My heart melts a little every time I think of dads with their kids. Big thanks to Amy for sharing her husband with us today!

If you know a great husband, why not nominate him? Email me or drop me a line on my contact page! Happy Friday!

One For The Writers: My Favorite Resources, From Idea To Polished Book

Once upon a time, I was a new military wife sitting up late at night hiding my writing from my husband because I was so embarrassed to admit to anyone that I thought I had a book in me. And now, *mumble mumble* years and manuscripts later, I want to give a shout-out to the people who have helped me along the way, even when they didn’t know it. (And perhaps provide a few resources for anyone who might be in that same spot I was in *mumble mumble* years ago.)

So today, I say a huge, hearty thank you to my best writing resource peeps. Including:

1. Romance Writers of America

To the best of my knowledge, RWA the only national writing organization that accepts unpublished members, and they have amazing resources and classes and conferences to help new writers learn and improve the craft of writing. Also? I met my awesome critique partners (Kelsey Browning and Maria Geraci) through RWA.

2. Deb Dixon

The very first thing I learned about writing stories when I joined an online RWA chapter was that my hero and heroine each needed a goal, motivation, and conflict. I’ve never met Deb Dixon or taken her class, but she wrote a book (called Goal, Motivation, and Conflict) that was quoted frequently on my writer boards. It’s the foundation of everything I know about writing a story.

3. Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Laurie teaches writing classes at WriterUniv.com on topics such as fatal flaws and plotting via motivation. Her classes have taught me how to make a solid framework for the plots of my stories. (And her blurb class helped me hone and tighten my teasers and query pitches for my books too!)

4. Michael Hauge

Michael Hauge teaches screenwriting, but he also teaches classes and workshops on story structure and something he calls Character Identity to Essence. And he has a writing book (or eight) available as well. He has a way of explaining turning points and stages of a story that makes sense to me. I listen to the audio recordings of his workshops from the 2011 RWA conference when I’m on long road trips, and every time, I come away with something new to apply in my writing to make my books stronger.

5. Margie Lawson

Margie teaches a series of classes about using psychology to hook your readers. Her methods are intense, and applying them is time-consuming, but they will make your prose unique and strong and memorable. She teaches how to eliminate cliches and tap into your reader’s subconscious so that they will have to read just one more page before bed.

6. Chuck Wendig

I’ve never met Chuck, but he runs a blog called Terrible Minds that is full of writerly goodness for writers in every stage of the writing game. From the actual writing to the business side of being an author and everything–and I mean everything–in between, Chuck covers it all in his unique, bearded, beautifully vulgar way. He’s smart, he’s generous, and he’s level-headed. He hides it behind strong language sometimes, but he’s a great resource.

7. Angela James

Angela is the editorial director for Carina Press, and she teaches a class called Before You Hit Send. I like to call it a line-editing short course, which means she teaches ways to clean your prose by eliminating unnecessary words, tightening phrases, and basically cleaning your manuscript so that when it lands on an agent’s or editor’s desk, they’ll be able to read the story rather than get distracted by misspellings or slow pacing. There’s more to line editing than what she teaches, but this is a great starting point for polishing a manuscript. Angela’s also very active on Twitter, where she provides a ton of other resources for writers.

8. Penny Andler

Penny is my copy editor, and I love her. When she gets my books, they’ve already been through content revisions, line edits, and my own spelling and grammar check (reading out loud is awesome for this). In theory, I’m handing her a clean manuscript. But Penny makes it shine. She finds everything that everyone before her missed. And she’s good. (My reviewers have noticed too!)

There have been several other classes and articles and books I’ve read along the way, but these are the people (and organization) I credit the most with helping me to grow as a writer (and reviser). And I hope in the next *mumble mumble* years, I find even more wonderful, generous writer-type peoples to connect with over the craft of writing.

So let’s hear from my fellow writers today – who are your favorite writing resources?

 

The Last Southern Fried Blues Deleted Scene – Anna and Jackson Have A Phone Date

Here it is, the last deleted scene from Southern Fried Blues. The following is what would’ve happened if Anna hadn’t missed Jackson’s text message about grabbing coffee. (i don’t know about y’all, but I’m pretty darn glad she missed that message. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made that pie and met that armadillo and… well, you know. And if you don’t know, you should totally go check out Southern Fried Blues. It’s fun. I promise.)

* * *

By the time trivia ended at nine, Anna felt like an emotional punching bag and her cheeks hurt from forcing smiles all night long. Their table came in second in trivia, dead last in the race for an enjoyable evening. Anna didn’t wait around for the prize. She put cash on her receipt, pleaded homework, and slipped out the door. As she approached her car, her phone buzzed in her purse.

She pulled it out and checked her text message. Despite her aching cheeks, she found a smile at the note from Jackson. Coffee break?

She was ten minutes from home, twenty from school, and ten hours from facing Jules at work again. Much as the fluttering in her chest disagreed with the pounding in her head, she so didn’t have it in her to drive all the way out there tonight. Rain check? she typed back. She hoped he wasn’t already sitting at Jimmy Beans.

His reply arrived as she was buckling herself in. Yankee chicken.

It felt good to laugh. She slipped in her Bluetooth and hit his number as she backed out of the parking spot. When he answered a minute later, his warm, rich voice soothed away some of the louder pounding in her head. “Evenin’, Anna Grace.”

“Hey.”

“You callin’ to make excuses?”

“Yep.”

“Go on about it then.” Despite the few number of times she’d hung out with him, she could hear the smile in his voice.

She checked traffic, then pulled out of the parking lot. “Class was canceled.”

“So you been locked up studying hard all night so’s you can take some time off this weekend then?”

“That would’ve been more fun.”

“You havin’ another bad night?”

“Not me. A friend.” Anna braked for a red light glowing in the night. “I just got caught in the outer bands of the storm. Not sure if I helped or made it worse though.”

“Yeah? Make you feel better, you can cheer me up.”

“Did you have a bad day?” That was hard to picture.

“Nah. Couple flight delays. Had worse.”

He’d been out of town? Shouldn’t she have known?

Of course she shouldn’t have known. One kiss didn’t make him responsible for telling her his every move.

Still, it would’ve been nice to know that was why he hadn’t called for coffee earlier in the week. Something whirred in the background, then Anna heard grinding. “You’re at Jimmy Beans, aren’t you?”

“Might could be.”

Anna winced. She was so tired.

But chai tea was a terrible thing to waste.

But she was so tired.

But Jackson might kiss her again if she turned around and headed for Jimmy Beans.

Her heart sped up. She switched lanes. She could turn around in the gas station up ahead.

“You workin’ tomorrow?”

Crap again. “Unfortunately.” Stupid military hours. She passed the gas station. “You didn’t do anything all macho and order me a drink already, did you?”

“Aw, now, you think I’d be steppin’ all over your independent Yankee ways like that?”

“What’s wrong with being independent?”

“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it, so’s it don’t interfere with a guy’s ego.”

“So your ego needs me to meet you for coffee?”

He chuckled. “Darlin’, seein’ you ain’t ever been for my ego.”

Right. Because she wasn’t a good long-term prospect. She answered trivia questions, organized kitchens, and could play the heck out of rednek golf, but other than that, all she had going for her were decent genes and a spotty sense of humor. “Then what is it for?”

“Anna?” For a guy who had being a chauvinistic redneck down pat, he sounded remarkably wary.

“What’s it for?” she said. “What’s in this for you? Do you have some thing for women who’re just out of relationships? You want the rest of your house organized? You like losing in redneck golf? What?”

She slowed her car to turn onto her street. Just stamp her forehead with high maintenance, not ready for relationships already. It’d be a lot less embarrassing than having a mini-meltdown on her not-boyfriend.

After a long pause, he spoke. “You make me want to make you smile.”

She blinked at her dark apartment looming before her. “Why?”

He chuckled. “You got class Monday?”

“Every Monday from now to eternity.”

“How ‘bout you meet me after class, and I’ll see if I can figure it out by then.”

Monday. Not over the weekend. Monday. So she was good enough for a late night rendezvous, but she didn’t qualify for weekend time?

Oh, lordy. She was an idiot. “Are you married?”

“Am I—what?” A weird strangled noise came over the line. “No, ma’am.”

Kaci must’ve been right about his momma raising him right, because despite his tone, he hadn’t added the hell, no part. “You have a problem with marriage?”

“Ain’t really my thing. You lookin’ for a another ring?”

She shuddered. “Absolutely not.”

“Then seems to me we might could get along right well.”

She felt a little zing between her thighs at the thought of commitment-free sex with Jackson. But she still couldn’t figure out, other than her own aversion to a long-term commitment, why he wanted her. Maybe she should be more worried about his sanity than her own. “Do you know I don’t even know what you do for a living?”

“Uncle Sam owns me. That okay with you?”

The dip in her stomach had nothing to do with excitement this time. But if this was no-strings, what was the harm? “I want to buy my own coffee this time.”

“Just ‘cuz you can do somethin’ don’t mean you hafta.”

She could do no-commitment sex, couldn’t she?

She’d have to if she ever wanted to get laid again, because apparently the marriage thing wasn’t for her either. She coasted to a stop in front of her apartment and killed the engine. “Still, I’m buying my own coffee.”

He heaved a sigh. “S’ppose if that’s the price I gotta pay to spend an evenin’ with a pretty lady, it’s the price I gotta pay.”

Anna swung her purse over her shoulder and climbed out of the car. The last time she was in college, she’d been irritated by guys who just wanted a pretty girl. Especially since she’d never thought of herself as particularly pretty.

But this wasn’t about much more than two people enjoying each other’s company, so did it matter why he wanted to spend time with her? “Nice of you to make the sacrifice.”

“I’m a giver.” He paused. “A real good giver.”

If he could do other things as well as he kissed, she had no doubt.

But she had to get through the next few days before she’d have a chance to find out.

* * *

There you have it! The last deleted scene from Southern Fried Blues. But don’t be sad – I already have a file of deleted scenes from The Husband Games, and I’m working hard on rearranging a few last pieces of the story before the polish and shine begins so you can have the story this spring!

And I have a feeling Jackson and Anna might could stop on by my little ol’ blog sometime again soon for some other little extras…

Happy Tuesday!

A Year of Happy Mondays, Take One

There seems to be a general consensus that Mondays kinda suck. Which is too bad, really. I mean, did Monday ask to be Monday? Maybe Monday secretly wanted to be Friday, or even Thursday, but it wasn’t able to summon the pep it needed on Day try-out day, and it got stuck being Monday.

Poor Monday.

(It’s possible I shouldn’t try to prep blogs on a Sunday night after peeling and chopping twelve pounds of carrots. But it’s also possible that’s beside the point…)

So today, and for every Monday for the rest of the year, I’m listing ten things that make me happy in the hopes that at least one of them will bring an extra smile to your Monday.

Or, it’s possible you’ll discover I’m a bit odd. Which will hopefully also make you smile, no matter if it’s because we’re kindred spirits or because you’re relieved you’re more normal than me.

On to this week’s list!

The First Ten Things That Make Me Happy

I’ll exercise for bacon!

1. Babysitters

2. This joke: Four men are walking down the street. Three walk into a bar. The fourth ducks.

3. Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow

4. My bacon shirt

5. When I ask Squeaker when was the last time he went potty, he replies, “Fine. Five.” Every time.

6. Rainbows

7. Static making a baby’s hair stand on end

8.  Finding a penny on the ground

9. Firefly

10. The video to Jerrod Niemann’s “Lover, Lover”

Want to play? Tell me something you’re happy about! (Yes, even on a Monday.)

Stay tuned! A certain Southern gentleman has convinced me I should post his last deleted scene sometime this week…

Our First Husband of the Year!

As part of the Year of Happiness, we’re celebrating awesome husbands! And today’s husband is total Husband of the Year material. Wesley was nominated by his sweet wife, Amanda. When Amanda saw my blog post asking for nominations, she sent me this:

Amanda and Wes on their wedding day

Husbands are amazingly great and evil. LOL! I met mine 14 years ago. I was coming out of a bad relationship and it seemed like I was always changing myself for a man. So, when I met Wes I had already decide I wasn’t changing myself for anyone or settling for less than I deserve. I told him that if he was in love with me he needed to make sure I knew it and he would have to make me the center of his world. And if he couldn’t handle it then that was ok and we’d just be friends. Amazingly, he stuck around & has made me the center for his world.

He’s a horrible dancer, he knows it but it doesn’t stop him from doing it and having fun and making everyone laugh.

He buys jewelry, our first Christmas he bought me a diamond heart pendant. When I told him it was too much he said he didn’t do it Santa brought it.

He washes and waxes my car and now he does it with our 3 kids (8, 5, &3).

He knows my love of cars. It’s something we have in common. So last year before my birthday he found an old ’67 Camaro. He bought it so we would have an old rusty car to work on together. A nice long project that would take us years of working on together to finish.

He totally supports my wanting to be a stay at home mom. And not just until the kids go to school. Forever, because my mommy gig isn’t up just because they go to school.

He knows it’s hard to be at home with kids all day and not have much interaction with adults. So when I tell him I need some time to go have a drink with a friend he says no problem and to have fun.

He’s a very manly man. LOL! He can work on cars/truck and remodel a house. We did that when we first got married. And we didn’t kill each other.

He always kisses me when he gets home or before he leaves.

When I disagree with his mother, which is often, he’s always on my side and stands up for me.

He lets our girls put make up on him, and is always up for a tea party.

He’s a total smartass and he always knows what to say to make me laugh.

Ok I could rattle on about him forever. He really is the love of my life. He’s not perfect but he’s perfect for me. Loving, supportive, infuriating, and all mine.

Jamie: Aw, doesn’t he sound like a great guy? This nomination summed up exactly why he’s Husband of the Year material, but I asked Amanda a few more questions anyway. Just for fun.

Amanda and Wes

Jamie: Tell me a little bit more about Wes.

Amanda: The boring stuff is that he is a Union insulator. He works exceptionally hard to provide for our family. He may be gone to work out of town at the drop of a hat. He loves his truck that he’s had since he was 16. Horsepower and Chevrolet are things we both love.

Jamie: When did you know he was The One?

Amanda: Well he put up with my ultimatum. LOL. But I truly knew he was it when a friend and I stopped by his house (he lived with his parents at the time) and he was playing with his niece who was 2. We came in and he was crawling all over the floor with her playing, chasing, letting her climb and ride on him and he was completely oblivious that we were there. I completely lost my heart that day. I knew for sure he was the one.

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

Amanda: I don’t know if I could pick 1 favorite little thing that he does. Maybe the way he holds my hand and plays with my wedding ring in his sleep while I sit up reading on my Kindle. Or the way he says the silly pet name he came up with for me right after we started dating. I never would have thought I’d like a pet name.

Jamie: What’s the grandest gesture he’s ever made?

Amanda: Other than marrying me. Probably buying me the Camaro.

Jamie: What is your husband’s sexiest feature?

Amanda:. Ok I’ll admit I like his butt. But really it’s his hands. They’re big and always warm when he touches me. They’re kinda calloused from hard work and I love them.

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

Amanda: Probably oil changing. He would also kill it in grilling a great steak or doing who knows what on a lawn tractor, but it’d have to be a lawn tractor not a mower. He definitely knows the difference.

Huge thank you to Amanda and Wes for sharing their love story with us today!

How to Have a Happy 2014

In honor of 2014 being the Year of Happiness, as proclaimed by me and celebrated here for the next 365 days and beyond, I present to you the top ten things I’m excited about in 2014!

10. Moving! (Yep, we’re moving again. And yep, I’m  looking forward to it. It’s all about the attitude.)

9. Happy Mondays. (Seriously. Stay tuned. Every Monday this year, I’m going to attempt to share ten things that make me happy. Can I think up 520 unique happy things? It’s gonna be fun!)

8. Husbands of the Year. (We’re celebrating awesome husbands all year in honor of The Husband Games! Know an awesome husband? Email me!)

7. A huge pre-move birthday bash with lots and lots of book giveaways!

Just a hint at the things coming your way…

6. More highlights of my children. (I think they’re funny. I hope you do too!)

5. Definitely a few more deleted scenes, from both Southern Fried Blues and The Husband Games

4. Jackson Davis’s Guide To Being A Southern Gentleman will go live at some point this year. (I think I need to make some I Heart Jackson Davis T-shirts… what do you think?)

3. Hmmm… do I have a bonus book to release this year? (Maybe!)

2. Character interviews. (You tell me – who do you want to talk to, and about what?)

1. The Husband Games, still on track for a spring release, and looking better every day!

 

Here’s to a great 2014! Nothing but happy times ahead!