Anna Jeffrey's Blog: I'm Just Saying..., page 4
March 6, 2013
THE BETTER TO SEE YOU WITH…
Sight and hearing might be the senses we take most for granted. That is certainly true of me. So some months ago, when I wasn’t seeing as well as I thought I should be, I thought it was my contact lenses. I thought the prescription needed renewing. I toughed it out for as long as I could stand it because I just hate to take the time to go sit in a doctor’s office, go through the exam, wait for the prescription, yada, yada, yada…..
Imagine my surprise when he said, “I don’t think I can do much for your left eye. You have a bad cataract.” And all the while, I thought my left eye was my “good” eye. Before I even had time to absorb that and all of its implications, I had appointments with a cataract doctor to have surgery!
So I went under the knife, or the laser, or whatever it is, on the left eye on Monday. I think it went as it was supposed to. Already, I’m seeing much better out of that eye. Light is brighter, colors are clearer and my distance vision is great. I might not have to wear glasses by the time all of this is finished.
And I didn’t even know I had that kind of problem.
The surgery on my right eye is scheduled for about three weeks from now.
The moral of this story is if your vision is not quite what it should be, get your eyes checked! Don’t fool around.
The Dreamin’ In Dallas writers’ conference it coming up the last weekend of March. There will be book sales and a signing on Friday night, starting at 7:00 p.m. Then a full day of workshops and networking the next day. So if you’re in the Dallas area, come on out and see us. It’s at the Double Tree Hotel in Richardson. The last I heard, about 60 authors will be there signing books. I’ll be signing THE TYCOON and SWEET RETURN.
Doing another book giveaway of THE TYCOON. The coming week, it’s on GoodReads. It should show up in a couple of days. So if you’re a member of GoodReads, perhaps they will draw your name. If you aren’t a member, by all mans, JOIN! It’s a wonderful social site for readers.
February 26, 2013
FREE BOOK!
Hi, everyone,
I’m giving away 3 copies of THE TYCOON at The Good, The Bad and The Unread. http://goodbadandunread.com/ in either e-book or print format. Stop by and leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.
In case you’ve forgotten (as if I haven’t inundated everyone with this information), here’s a short blurb:
When wealthy Texas ranching scion and business tycoon, DRAKE LOCKHART, encounters stunning SHANNON PIPER at a fancy ball, the last thing he expects is a tryst he can’t forget with a woman who disappears in the middle of the night. Once he finds her, he recognizes his bachelor days are over, but she isn’t ready. She doesn’t trust him. She wants to restrict their relationship to “just sex.” Surmounting the barriers she erects isn’t easy, especially when without his knowledge, an associate in his powerful company yanks a coveted real estate buy out from under her. How will he ever restore her faith in him?
February 5, 2013
WHEN “WHY” IS THE BIGGEST WORD IN MY VOCABULARY…
As most of the country has probably heard by now, ex-Navy SEAL and American hero Chris Kyle and a friend, Chad Littlefield, were murdered by an ex-marine at a gun range here in Texas.
He also wrote a bestselling book, “American Sniper,” about his war experiences. If anyone wants to read of a sincere love of country, I urge you to read his book.
I did not know him, yet I felt like I became close to him through reading his autobiography. It’s weird how his book touched me. I can’t describe it. And my husband 
feels the same. I guess it’s that six degrees of separation thing. At one time before he joined the Navy, he worked on a ranch in the county where I live and I know a couple of people who went to high school with him.
Besides being a war hero, he was a good and caring man with the courage of his convictions. Apparently many people loved him and looked up to him. He was the very definition of leadership.
He was in the Navy ten years. Did four tours in Iraq. He was in the midst of the worst of it–Falluja and Ramadi and saved thousands of American lives. He was wounded twice. Known as the “Devil of Ramadi,” he had a price on his head. After surviving all of that, he left the Navy because he had been away from his wife and two small kids so much.
Now, after being home only a few years, he’s been murdered. He deserved better. He deserved to spend time with his family who loved him. His wife and kids deserved his company and influence on their lives. All of us need and feel the loss of a seldom-seen hero of his caliber.
CHRIS KYLE, American Hero
I’ve seen stunning irony a few times in my life. It’s something that always leaves me reeling. His death is such a supreme example of it. I’ll be weeks getting my head around it. I cannot even describe the hurt I feel. My heart is broken I mourn him as if he were one of my own. And I mourn his friend.
For anyone who’s interested, he will be memorialized at Dallas Cowboy Stadium on Monday, February 11th. There are numerous websites and groups collecting for his family and for the family of his friend, Chad Littlefield.
Related articles
Motive? American Sniper Killer Admits:”Traded His Soul For A New Truck” (patdollard.com)
Iraq war veteran charged with murdering author of “American Sniper” (nzweek.com)
Chris Kyle memorial scheduled for Cowboys Stadium Feb. 11 (twitchy.com)
Deadliest marksman in US military history shot dead (telegraph.co.uk)
Deadliest American sniper shot dead (telegraph.co.uk)
Ex-Navy SEAL murder suspect had been in mental hospital (cbsnews.com)
January 24, 2013
Reading and Heroes
BULLETIN: THE TYCOON is now for sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. It will soon be for sale on Smashwords. The price is $4.99. It will soon be for sale also as a POD through Amazon for $12.99.
Here are the links:
BARNES & NOBLE - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-tycoon-jeffery-mcclanahan/1114134738?ean=2940015956870&itm=6&usri=anna+jeffrey
Today, I surfed over to a blog where someone I know was a guest and they were talking about favorite heroes and heroines from books they’ve read. And that caused me to think about that.
Many weighed in and named their faves.
Most of the posters consistently named Roark from Nora’s “In Death” books, a character that hasn’t excited me at all. I’ve tried to analyze what it is about that character that so many love, but it eludes me.
Several others names Jamie from Diana Galbaldon’s series. He didn’t do much for me either.
A few of the posters named Scarlett and Rhett. I did like those two as Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable portrayed them in the movie.
Beautiful picture, huh?
This just goes to show you how subjective reading is. So I compiled my own list. You might notice that all of my faves are alpha males.
First, I came up with Tom Booker from “The Horse Whisperer.” Great book by a great writerly writer. I didn’t especially like Annie, but I fell in love with Tom Booker.
Then, there are Penelope Williamson’s epic books. “The Heart of the West,” with its angsty lifelong relationship between Clementine Kennicutt and Zach McQueen who was loveable in his own rough way. Also, “The Outsider” and the challenging love story between the righteous Rachel Yoder and the outsider and dark anti-hero, Cain. Who can resist an anti-hero who is basically good?
My next thought was of Kara Whittenbrook and Ben Thocco in Deborah Smith’s wonderful book, “A Gentle Rain.” Ben was so honest, so caring and so much his own man, you couldn’t help but love him. And Kara did.
A hero from a book I read more recently is Jack Travis from “Smooth Talking Stranger” by Lisa Kleypas. Her heroes are always alpha and heroic, but IMHO, she hit a homerun with Jack because she added a bit of a sense of humor to an already charming man.
What I realized from this exercise is that over the years, I’ve read a large number of books, some of them more than once or even twice, but the number of heroes and heroines I could remember was small. What does that say about writers writing and me as a reader reading?
Crafting a memorable hero is harder than it might seem. My stories emanate from the characters I create. In other words, the plot doesn’t dictate the characters that populate the story. Rather, the characters drive the plot. Thus, I devote a lot of thought to how I want a hero to be perceived by readers before I ever put a word on a page.
In many ways, the characterization is organic in that I believe it comes from something deep inside. A philosophy, more or less. A fantasy of how a hero should be and how a heroine should respond to him. And from that I make a story.
Anthropologically speaking, since the beginning of history, women have instinctively been attracted to alpha males who can provide for them and physically protect the nest. These days, the attraction has a more intellectual bent in that the method of providing and protecting is not brawn, but brains and perhaps wealth. Hence, a whole new type of attractive male has emerged.
So do women now go for the nerdy type over the alpha type and is that what they want to see in the romance novels they read?
How about you? I know all of you are readers and I’ll bet you all have favorite heroes. Are they your faves because they’re alphas or because of something else? Open up, readers. Confess who your fictional heroes are.
Related articles
Holding Out For a Hero (ridingwiththetopdown.wordpress.com)
I Need A Hero (quotidiandose.wordpress.com)
December 27, 2012
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION…
Happy Holidays, everyone. As for me, I’m just glad it’s almost over. When you work in retail, the Christmas season calls for a huge amount of work and the patience of Job. And it’s hard to find fun in all of the chaos.
North Texas actually had snow on Christmas Day this year. In my entire life, except in the Panhandle, I don’t think I’ve ever known of it snowing on Christmas in this part of the world.
A lot of other things were going on besides work at my real job. First and foremost, (And I don’t want to forget a trumpet blare here), I finally got THE TYCOON uploaded into the Kindle Store on Amazon. But it didn’t happen until Christmas week. And here’s the cover one more time.
I ran into a few snags, like a copyeditor who dropped the ball. Consequently, I ended up hurrying through it and formatting it myself. The result of that was a whole lot of errors in the formatting. I hate that, but I had to upload it. I had copyrighted in in 2012 and I wanted it to be a 2012 release. Now I’m in the process of going back and correcting the errors. I can’t move on get into Book #2 because I can’t seem to get free of Book #1.
My intention was to get it uploaded the first week of December, then follow up with the promotion of SWEET WATER free in the Kindle Store, thus expose it to more traffic. Not getting the copyedit back threw my schedule all off and nothing came off as I had planned.
One of the things I’m learning in self-publishing is that there are a lot of unqualified, unreliable folks out there. I knew that about other endeavors in which I’ve been involved through the years, but I was hoping for better from the writing world.
I put a price of $4.99 on THE TYCOON because it’s a long book and a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into it. It’s my usual character-driven soap opera. As I think I’ve said before, it’s Book #1 of a trilogy called SONS OF TEXAS. The books will be romance novels, but overarching the trilogy and threading through it is the story of a wealthy, dysfunctional Texas family. The true ending will not come until the end of the 3rd book.
Besides that, I got SWEET RETURN uploaded into the Amazon Kindle Store. Kim Killion designed an awesome cover. It might be my most favorite cover. Let me know what *you* think.
The female model on the cover wrote me a Facebook message and told me how happy she was to be on the cover. I thought that was cool. Actually, it’s kind of surreal how much these two models look like I imagined Dalton Parker and Joanna Walsh, the hero and heroine in that book.
SWEET RETURN is a reprint of my 2008 book. It won the Aspen Gold contest held by an RWA chapter in Denver and placed in several other contests. It will also be available as a print book from Amazon. It was a fun book to write and I hope it’s a fun book to read.
So that’s what’s been keeping me busy writing-wise and publishing-wise.
Prior to that, my daughter came and stayed ten days with me. We beaded and cooked and shopped and did all of the things we usually do. Had a great time. I enjoy her company so much and miss her a lot. One of these days, I’m going to have to move to Oregon to be near her. She hates Texas and only comes here because I’m here.
I didn’t do a lot of holiday cooking this year, but I did make biscotti to take to work. Turned out to be delicious. I had never made it before, but it’s fairly easy and almost foolproof. And tomorrow, I go back to my real job, which ends the holiday for me.
One of my resolution for the coming year is to try to be more attentive to this blog. For me, its purpose it to promote my books, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about other things. A lot is going on in the world and most of it bears discussing. So please hang in there with me.
November 8, 2012
Sometimes There’s Pain…
In Reading as well as Writing.
Some of you, if you’re still following this blog after I’ve neglected it for weeks, might have started to wonder what has happened to me. I have been meeting myself coming and going, as usual. I had to prioritize and the blog moved down the list. Hopefully, now that I’ve cut back to 3 days a week at my real job, I’ll have more time to spend on things like the blog and the newsletter
Despite what else I might be doing, I’m always reading. It puts me to sleep at night if nothing else. I’ve started but not finished several books lately, which has become a pattern. In the past, I always finished a book I started no matter what. I don’t do that anymore. There are so many books I really want to read and I just don’t have the time to invest in reading a book that doesn’t excite me.
September 7, 2012
TIDBITS OF NEW OLD NEWS . . .
I’ve hired someone to format THE LOVE OF A LAWMAN for the digital bookstores, so I won’t be taking six months to do it myself and get it uploaded. If all goes well, I’ll be able to upload it by the end of this month and hopefully, it will be error-free.
I have a cover ready and waiting. It was designed by miracle worker Kim Killion. I love this woman.
I’m weary of seeing half-naked men on book covers, so I decided to go a different direction. Seems like every other book these days has a picture of bare chests and abs. Hope I haven’t made the wrong decision. This guy looks pretty good, doesn’t he? Even if he is fully clothed. Let me know what you think. One nice thing about self-publishing: If the cover is wrong, you can take a mulligan.
This book was originally released in 2005. The original cover designed by my print publisher won the Cover Cafe award for cover of the year.
Like all of my books, it’s kind of a soap opera. The “What If?” question I asked when developing this story was, what if beautiful gutsy woman who has been abandoned by the guy she ran away from home with years back, returns to her hometown, bringing her brainy daughter, searching for her roots and starting her life anew, only to encounter and be distracted by the man who has been in love with her since they were teenagers?
What if a handsome ex-ProRodeo champion, who is divorced and starting over, takes on the job of sheriff in his tiny crime-free hometown just to while away a few months before he does something else, then a murder occurs under his watch? And what if, at the same time, he runs into the beautiful woman he had a crush on in high school?
If you’ve read my books, you know that all of my heroines are beautiful and all of my heroes are handsome. Romance novels are, after all, fantasies. So if you haven’t read this one, it will soon be available through Kindle and Nook and other online venues.
****
The second occurrence is I had a conversation with Amazon about publishing a print edition of THE TYCOON. According to them, I’m wrong in thinking I should publish it as an e-book first. They recommend I publish it as a POD book first. I’m still deciding. In any event, God willing, I’ll get this book on the market this year. I started the year thinking I would get it out there in February. Then I moved the date to May, then September. Now I’ve lowered my sights and I’m just shooting for 2012. So much for best-laid plans.
****
My newly designed Web site is up and functioning. Check it out. www.annajeffrey.com. Let me know if you have any problems navigating it. It can be fixed.
August 21, 2012
The Hazards of Offering a Book for Free…
It’s probably because I’ve spent a lot of time at the dentist lately, but I seem to be in a grouchy mood and more eager than usual to climb up on my soapbox. But what are blogs for, Fellow Bloggers, if not to vent?
First of all, as I’ve posted before, when I offered “The Love of a Cowboy” for free for five days on Amazon, an unbelievable number of people downloaded it. I’m very grateful that so many people had an interest in the book. The “free book” promotion produced a much better result than I expected.
Even so, today, I’m ranting about Amazon reader reviews. As much as I love the people who take the time to write them, I’m amazed by some of the things they write.
This one, for example, showed up night before last:
“1.0 out of 5 stars Uninteresting, August 19, 2012 By “tom”
August 1, 2012
FINISHED!! … AT LAST!
I’m back, fellow bloggers and readers! I hope none of you thought I had died.
Two things have been going on that have kept me from blogging. I just had to get THE TYCOON finished, which I did. Unfortunately, my *real* job consumes so much of my energy and time, I just don’t get anything done during the four days I work, so I had to dedicate my three days off to nothing but the book.
I already have the cover. I’ve just applied for a copyright and now I’m on a quest for a couple of beta readers and a copyeditor. One thing I’ve learned is copyeditors are expensive!
I’m going to release it as an e-book, but soon I will put it into print as a paperback.
Finishing a book is a weird letdown. All of a sudden I feel like I’ve got nothing to do, though in fact, I do have plenty to do to launch the book. But I’ve lived with this particular one and its characters for more than two years now. So giving them up is almost like abandoning the family pet. I know from the past that for a few days, it will just feel like something important is missing from my life.
I’ve posted the blurb for THE TYCOON before, but it’s been a while, so here it is again.
“When DRAKE LOCKHART, wealthy Texas ranching scion and business tycoon, meets a stunning redhead at a fancy ball, the last thing he expects is a tryst he can’t forget, followed by her disappearing in the middle of the night. Every minute spent with the vulnerable beauty has left him hungering for more.
“SHANNON PIPER was out of place at the ball. And an intimate encounter with a man so far removed from her social hemisphere wasn’t on her agenda, especially when he has a reputation for ruthlessness and is one of Texas Monthly’s most eligible bachelors known for his history with women. Is a relationship based on just sex the way to protect her heart? Or is it the beginning of the most enduring love a girl with a sketchy past could ever know?”
So what do you think? Does the blurb make you want to read it?
I also have a new Web site being designed. Hopefully, it and the new book will launch at about the same time.
Now I’m on to working on THE LOVE OF A LAWMAN, which was originally released in 2005, getting it ready to upload. Too bad I can’t use the same cover because that cover won an award.
The second thing that has been going on is I put my 2003 release, THE LOVE OF A COWBOY, in the Amazon Kindle Select program. Since it’s a nine-year-old book, I was amazed and humbled by the number of readers who downloaded it when it was free and and bought it after the free promotion ended. It stayed at #1 on the Top 100 Free Downloads in the Kindle store all five days and remained on the top twenty list for nearly several weeks. That was more than I had hoped for when I started the promotion.
That kind of reception lessens some of the trepidation I have about releasing THE TYCOON. Since I haven’t self-published an original book before, obviously, I’m a little nervous. I’ll keep you posted.
Related articles
The Promotion…and What Does It Mean? (annajeffreyauthor.wordpress.com)
