Meka James's Blog, page 15

Big Things in Small Packages - #MFRWauthor

Welp summer has officially started in the James' household. We have a busy summer ahead of us, but should be good. Keep the kids busy and not on the gaming systems too much. But enough about me, let's get to why you're here. This week's #MFRWauthor blog topic is talking about the best give I've ever gotten.
Over my X number of decades alive, I've gotten lots of gifts from various people. So trying to narrow down a favorite wasn't immediately easy. But then the answer was staring me right in the face. Literally.

Sir Titan The Mighty

I've wanted a Yorkie for a very long time. VERY. LONG. But The Hubs wasn't really a fan of small dogs, (even though he got The Girl a Pomeranian years back) and we had a house full with the big dogs, the kids, etc.

Well over the last two years, I'd been wearing him down about adding to our pack (we have 3 big dogs). He and The Girl worked together to find me a puppy as a birthday gift. I got him a month after my birthday, but still he was my gift and a total surprise.

We are rescue people. All of our dogs have come from rescue organizations, but Titan is our first breeder dog. That part alone took a lot of research because 1) they can be pricey and 2) they wanted to make sure it was a reputable breeder and not a puppy mill situation.

But on July 22, 2017, the hubby turns to me and asks if I want to take a road trip. My answer, not really. LOL Then he say what if it's to get 'this guy' and he shows me a picture of Titan's brother. So off we go, four hour drive down to the breeder to meet the brother, and Titan so I could pick out my new puppy.

Before this, we had looked for rescue options, but they are harder to find. The ones we did find had the no small children and no big dog warnings...both things we have going in my house, so a puppy really was the way to go.


He's doubled in size. So now 4lbs, up from the 2lbs he was the day we picked him up.



He celebrated his 1st birthday on Mother's Day of all days. He wasn't a fan of the hat. LOL but I managed to get a shot of him wearing it. As you saw from the above picture, he's slightly spoiled. We are (were) a no dogs on the furniture people, but yeah...that all changed.

Not gonna lie, at times he is a jerk. I fuss at him about his jerky ways. He typically doesn't care and then will give me sad face. Because let's face it, he has an adorable face.

So there you have it, great things come in small packages, and Sir Titan The Mighty is proof of that.

Hope you've liked getting to know about my best gift ever. What's yours? Be sure to stop by the other authors on the hop to find out theirs'.

Thanks for stopping by

Until next time,
~Meka

Virtually Social - #MFRWauthor

The end of school is upon me and being a room mom for both boys and part of the PTA has kept me busy. Plus I've hit the wall of doubt and burn out so took/taking some time off. I skipped last week's post as part of that time off, but decided to jump back in this week.

I've had a Twitter account since I published my first book, but I never did much with it. I didn't understand the point of trying to say anything in 140 characters. At the beginning of 2017 I set goals to increase my social media presence overall. I joined groups on Facebook, attempted to post more to my page, opened a Tumblr and instagram, and finally blew the dust off my Twitter account.

Of those, I had the most success with making connections on Twitter. I joined in on hashtag games, interacted with people, and ultimately found the best thing ever, a CP group. My Romance Chat (RChat) ladies. Twitter is the only one I check daily.

This year instead of using an author page, I made an actual FB profile. That has allowed me to interact much better on Facebook since the pages were so limiting. I know people have success with them, but I haven't found that magic yet. I've even created a reader group on there, though I haven't yet started promoting it. At the end of the year, we'll see how it fairs.

I'm not artistic enough for Instagram, but I keep that account decently updated. Tumblr is basically dead, and I've never gotten into Pintrest.

So there you have it. Short and simple. What social media sites are you fond of? Stop by the other authors on the hop to find out where you can find them.


Thanks for stopping by
Until next time
~Meka

Say What Now? -#MFRWauthor

It's the first Friday of May, and it's time for another #MFRWauthor blog post. Week 18, and when I looked at the topic, I thought about skipping this week. Character and/or setting profiles...say what now?


By now you all know I don't plan stuff. Not when it comes to writing. Because of that I've never made a character profile.

I get an image in my head of what they look like. Thanks to my RChat ladies, I've started looking for 'face claims' for my characters. That helps with the basic physical traits. The rest comes to me as the story develops. Emotional issues, family history, job, hobbies, etc. I don't pre-plan any of those things, I let my characters tell me. It's working so far so I don't see a need to change it up.

As for the setting, well I can see how that might be beneficial if I were writing fantasy or something like that, but as I talked about last week, I'm a contemporary girl. I don't use a made up city, I use Atlanta and it's surrounding areas so it's done for me pretty much. At best I might look around for housing inspiration, but that's about it.

Short post this week, but better than nothing.



Before you go, I'm gonna ask a favor. I entered Not Broken into a cover wars and could use some votes.

COVER WARS

Also, back in week 12 we talked contests. If you've never entered one before, one of my CPs is heading up the CLEVELAND ROCKS one and would love more entries.

That's it for this week. Are you a profiler? Stop by the other authors on the hop to see if they are or aren't.

Until next time,
~Meka

IWSG 24 - Taking The Plunge

Oh boy, it's May already! In just a few short weeks my boys will be out of school for summer. Not sure I'm ready, but don't have much choice. Mom life struggles aside, new month means new #IWSG blog post.

Way back in February I talked about the idea of submitting my work to publishers. Since then I've completed two projects and have been spending plenty of time in #editinghell trying to get them polished up. A few weeks ago I participated in #CarinaPitch, a pitch event hosted by one of the publishers I planned to submit to. To my great surprise I got a 'like' on one and the lead editor commented on the second project, encouraging me to submit it as well.

Let the panic begin!!

It's one thing to plan to submit, it's another to actually have gotten the attention of the editors. Yes, that's a strange way to look at things, but that's me. The biggest reason for my panic, the dreaded synopsis. DUN...DUN...DUN...

The line for which my novelette was written wasn't supposed to require one. The other presses I looked into, I checked for if it was a requirement or not and only targeted ones that didn't. Really didn't want to try and write one of those. I have a hard enough time with the query and if not for the spectacular women in my CP group my query would be a steaming pile of doggie poo.

In true awesome support, the ladies assured me it wasn't as hard as I imagined and sent me copies of their synopsis so I could have a guide for putting my own together. So it's done (at least one of them), edits are nearly complete. Both projects are with my final sweeper readers to make sure any changes made fit, because I'm a terrible self-editor, though I'm working on it.

But the closer I get to completion and uploading, the more the nerves grow. The fear of the R. It's a real thing, writers put themselves out there, querying agents and/or presses on the daily and get back the rejections in return. That scares me. Being Indie, I sorta skip that part. Sure I'll get less than glowing reviews, but that doesn't put my writing in judgment in the same way as it coming from an industry professional. It's another kind of pain.

However, with my cheering section behind me, I am unable to not move forward with my plans. So within the coming week I should be taking the plunge and presenting my projects to at least one of the publishers on my list. Maybe two, we'll see. And I'll have to hope my hair isn't completely gray bu the end of the process from all the stress and worry.



In more fun news, I'm gonna ask a favor of those that stop by. I've entered Not Broken into a cover war and could use some votes if you don't mind.

VOTE HERE

Thanks in advance!






The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

Thanks to this month's awesome co-hosts  are E.M.A. Timar, J. Q. Rose, C.Lee McKenzie, and Raimey Gallant!

Until next time
~Meka

A Modern Love Affair - #MFRWauthor

Welcome to the last Friday of April. This year is zooming by. But being Friday that means it's time for another #MFRWauthor blog post. There are many sub-categories under the romance umbrella and this week's topic we are discussing which is our personal favorite to read and write.


I am an avid reader and writer of adult contemporary romances. Even branching off of that a little more, you can add in now erotic romances as well.

I'm not good at world building. Setting descriptions are hard for me, so I know I'd fail at all things fantasy. PNR...well while I can read some and let myself get lost, I know from past experience thanks to my for fun stories with The Sims games, that I have a tendency to forget about any sort of super powers are are to go along with supernatural beings and just humanize them. And historical...ha forget about it. The research required to make sure I don't totally screw of the time period is something I would not be dedicated to.

I'm a simple woman with simple thoughts. With contemporary I don't have to waste more time trying to figure out the background settings which allows me to focus solely on the story and characters I'm creating. I get to be wrapped up in them, their struggles, and their happy ending however that comes about.

And it has to be adult. I'm an adult, and while I know many adults love to read and write in the YA age bracket, I rather read and write about people that are in the same place in their life (give or take) as I am. Reading and writing is about fantasy, and I can't get lost in that if the characters are the age of my children. My daughter has asked me to write a YA or NA book, mainly because she holds out hope it would be less steamy, and the best I can offer is a copy of my current ones with the sexy times redacted. LOL Even though we have open communication, she still finds it hard to read 'those words' written by her mother.

Speaking of words written by me, this is an extra special weekend. Saturday, April 28, marks the 4 year anniversary of the release of my first novel, FIENDISH. It's not perfect, I've learned a lot since then, but I'm still very proud of the fact I was able to write and publish a book. To celebrate, both books are on sale this weekend. That link takes you to Amazon, but if you click the "My Books" tab on my blog, all retailer links are there.


There you have it. What is your favorite sub-genre of romance? Be sure to stop by the other authors on the hop to find out theirs.

Until next time
~Meka

Music Monday - Days Like This

Happy Monday (if there is such a thing). I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. This week's Music Monday is a 'special edition' as I'm helping to celebrate the upcoming release by one of my CPs, Coralie Moss.

Her debut novel, INVISIBLE ANNA, is set to release this week on April 26th. Cora is a contemporary romance author that specializes in seasoned romance. Don't know what that is? Well, it's all about love in the 'later years' of life.

Most of the romance market is dedicated to characters in their 20's, sometimes 30's, but mostly they revolve around stories in the 'younger years', start of life, marriage, babies, that sort of thing. Seasoned romance takes you to that next phase. Just because you've hit mid to late thirty or beyond doesn't mean that you are no longer looking for a new love.

Taken from Coralie's website:  They’ve lived a bit and they bring that ‘seasoned’ perspective to their love lives.

When I talked to Coralie about the music that spoke to her when working on INVISIBLE ANNA, she said it had to be something bluesy and soulful. No specific song, but she played Van Morrison a lot for the sound and mood. For doing this post, I listened to a few songs until I found one that I felt matched the overall tone and theme of her book (with her approval of choice).

"Days Like This" spoke to me in regards to Anna and where she is in her life currently. She's in the mindset that fading into the background is all that's left for her, but between her friend and new love interests, she learns that there is much life still to be had after 50.

On the cusp of a new decade, Anna Granger thinks she knows who she is: widow, attentive mother, accommodating businesswoman. But with the Big 5-O comes the realization she’s rendered herself all but invisible. Longtime clients aren’t renewing, her adult children are moving on, and—hardest to admit—men no longer look at her, only through her.

Anna’s best friend takes the reins and organizes an uplifting girls-only weekend in Vancouver, where lingerie shopping and a beginner’s intimacy workshop reconnect Anna with her body. And when emails from former flame, Daniel, move from hinting at rekindling their romance to the offer of an all-expenses-paid trip to Cabo San Lucas, Anna takes another step out of her comfort zone. Small-town island life goes from humdrum to hopping with the addition of Liam, the visiting New Yorker who rents the cottage next door.

As romance reorganizes Anna’s personal life and her client list grows, dreams she abandoned when she embraced motherhood clamor for attention. Though the future holds no guarantees, can Anna claim her newfound confidence and find her way back to herself? 

PRE-ORDER today
Paperbacks also available
Follow Coralie: TWITTER - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM

"Days Like This" by Van Morrison



Until next time~Meka

Borrowed Quirks - #MFRWauthor

Another week, another #MFRWauthor blog post. I finished my latest round of edits and actually participated in the #CarinaPitch event this week. Even more surprising is I got a like so now I'm in a whole new hell, #synopsishell!!!
Taking a break from giving myself more gray hairs to talk about this week's topic, family, friends, and/or pets I've written into my books. I've never written anyone directly into my books, but I have pulled quirks from those around me to help bring my characters to life.


In FIENDISH my FMC Calida is very non-confrontational and is a serious people pleaser. That particular trait came from a close friend of mine that is the same way. She doesn't like upsetting people, and because of that she can and has gotten taken advantage of on more than one occasion.

Calida's BFF Macy is a fun, outspoken woman. She likes to eat, shop, and is very sex positive. Those traits were borrowed from my younger sister. The fun thing about that was I didn't tell her, but when she read the book she was able to pick up on it!



NOT BROKEN brings the return of Calida, but we have a new leading man. Malcolm is Macy's older brother. Two of his more defining quirks are taken from my husband and my sister's boyfriend. Malcolm is 'old-school' and prefers having CDs to digital music. He also keeps them all alphabetized along with his movie collection. That comes from my husband. Malcolm's love of shoes and clothes is a borrowed quirk from the boyfriend. He was very pleased to have made it into my book.

We also have Dr. Carr, we meet her at the end of FIENDISH, but we see her more in the second book. Her name is borrowed from a close friend of mine who wanted to talk some sense into Calida so to speak. LOL

Other honorable mentions would be Calida's parents. Their jobs are borrowed from my in-laws. He is an ex-marine and she is an elementary school teacher. Her mom shares my mother-in-law's name.


In my current WIP (the one I've been editing) I pulled a trait or two of my own for the FMC, Quinn. She has two close friends, one of them shares the name and personality of one of my CPs. We have some interesting talks and I totally pulled those into the story. She was thrilled! And got a kick out of seeing 'herself' in that role.

All of my stories have been set in Georgia except my latest one. I set it in Arizona, where the hubby is from. But I made the FMC from Georgia, because I need my home town connection. LOL But it's another nod to pulling in the personal for my stories.


None of my characters have ever had a pet, but after getting Titan, the FMC of my next full length novel will be the proud owner of a Yorkie. Hers is a female I've named Ms. Priss, but she has a lot of the personality quirks that Titan has been displaying.

That's been it for now. Inspiration for my stories can come from anywhere, but those closest to me find a way to make it into my stories (so far at least) one way or another. Can't say if that will always be the case, but picking out traits and quirks from real people helps to give my characters an extra layer of realism. And that is always a good thing.


What about you? Have you added traits, quirks, or names of anyone close to you? Be sure to check out the other authors on the hop to see how they've done this.

Until next time
~Meka

Cheers To Me - #MFRWauthor

Happy Friday y'all! I missed last week's #MFRWauthor blog hop. I've been spending more time in #editinghell trying to prepare my first ever manuscript for submission. The struggle is real as editing is not fun for me and I'm ready to be done with it.
That coupled with the fact that last week was spring break for my boys, I was not in my right mind. So, since I am in the middle of #editinghell, I'm not in the best place to talk about celebrating finishing a project, but gonna go for it.

How do I celebrate? I didn't really have a special way. Or didn't. I can't remember where I first saw it, but there's this thing called Writer's Tears Whiskey. After learning of its existence, I set out to find it, only none of the liquor stores here carried it.


My delightful first born, a.k.a The Girl managed to order it for me for Christmas. It came as a complete gift set, the bottle with two tumblers with tear drops on them. Considering the time, effort, and in some cases actual tears that go into my projects, I loved the symbolic name.

Now, I'm not much of a hard liquor drinker. I'm a wine gal mostly, occasionally I'll have a glass of Bailey's, but really that's it. However, after getting this, I told myself I would have a celebratory drink after I completed each first draft. It is now my new 'routine'.

January 10th I got to have my first drink. I completed my first project of the year (the one I'm currently editing). It was supposed to be an erotic novella, that has turned more into a short novel after the three (now four) round of edits. I'm suspecting I'll wind up around 52k by the time I'm done give or take. For reference, that's adding 10k in additional new words as the story got fleshed out more and the subplot took on more importance than I had originally anticipated based on CP feedback.

March 30th I had my second after I completed my first ever novelette. Even after edits, it should still remain firmly in novelette territory as it's currently sitting at 16k. Even I can't can't that much more. To ensure this, I kept the plot much more simplistic to fit the word count.

I'm proud that I've managed to complete 2 projects already this year, because I am an #turtlewriter. Project 1 I did start at the end of last year, but still I was happy putting out one book per year and I'll have my goal beat. Plus these two showed me that I CAN manage to write a complete story in under 100k LOL. Seriously I'm wordy.

That's it. How I celebrate publishing a book is different and that's a post for another time. How do you celebrate finishing a first draft? Check out the other authors on the hop to see how they enjoy that 'the end' moment.

Until next time
~Meka

Music Monday - Skin

Hello and happy Monday. That is if one can be happy on a Monday. Spring break is over for my boys. They are back off to school, and boy getting up was hard on all of us.

Yesterday, however, I started working again on an old, but the newest WIP. One of my wonderful CPs, Lily Michaels, is lovingly known as a Book Pusher. She gets extra excited about the words she's read and wants more. The WIP that I went back to yesterday, thanks to the weekly sprinting event I host, was one such book that she pushed me into writing.

The Lists (temporary name, maybe) is a novella based off my last novel, Not Broken. Lily read it and has since started a fan club for Malcolm, because she really fell for him. Every time she talks about him, it makes me smile since working out his character was a struggle at times. One of the fun quirks that came up during Not Broken was an inside joke of sorts between Calida and Malcolm and a kinky to-do list. Lily felt Malcolm needed more attention (because according to her I neglect him LOL) and thought it would be a great idea to let them actually make out a list. So the story was born.

Other stories spoke louder to me and got finished ahead of that one (Lily may be on to something about the neglect), but I got back to it now that I'm editing both those other stories and need a new writing only project.

A chapter that I stopped writing mid-chapter last month, I managed to finish writing yesterday. Two songs were on repeat for that process, so I did a coin toss to see which one would win out today. "Skin" by Rihanna won the toss. Make sense because the other song was really more for the first half of the chapter and I used this one for most of the words written yesterday.

It's a sexy time book, that requires a sexy time song and this one fit the mood of the moment perfectly. These two are in love and while they have their sweet 'make-love' times together, other times...well they are not so sweet, but the love is always there.

Hope you enjoy. **while no explicit words, still may be slightly NSFW**

Until next time
~Meka

"Skin" by Rihanna

IWSG 23 - Against The Odds

It's April. A new month. And that fact totally slipped my mind until I saw Lidy Wilk's tweet about her IWSG blog post. So this is going up super late, but it's still Wednesday so yay!

I wasn't sure what I wanted to talk about since nothing new is going on with me. Until Monday, I was still avoiding edits, but have slowly gotten back to them. I also managed to finish my novelette which is about 16,000 words. I'm proud that I managed to write a complete story in such a low word count. I am a self-proclaimed #wordcount rebel.

Then the topic hit me as I was still scrolling through Twitter and saw a post by Alyssa Cole. If you aren't part of RWA and don't follow romance writers on social media, you may not know of a rumbling storm surrounding RWA's top contest the RITA. The reason for the upset, a lack of PoC finalist. That issue steam rolled into a larger issue talking about how AoC writers struggle in the publishing industry.

As a new member of RWA, and a WoC writer, to say the news was disheartening would be an understatement. Talks out blatant discrimination faced by AoC at the national conference in past years. Every thing from non-black authors moving tables to avoid sitting with black authors, to publishers shunning their own authors if they had happened to final in the RITA. RWA even put out a statement saying they are trying to change because they are aware of issues. It's 2018 and this is still a thing?

Hearing the stories that came out made me second guess if I wanted to continue in an organization such as that, on top of thinking about the added challenges faced with trying to make it in this business. I'm an Indie author, so trying to get an agent or a publishing house was low on my radar. However, the two stories I mentioned before I had plans to try and submit them, if for nothing else but the experience. Now I'm not sure. How can I know for certainty if my possible rejection has less to do with the story and writing and more to do with the race of my characters.

All the talk of wanting 'diversity' and the #ownvoices movement, the numbers put out by The Ripped Bodice shows the talk it just that. Talk. It's an added stress and worry that shouldn't be a factor, but sadly is. Crimson romance, ironically the one with the highest percentage of PoC authors, closed it's line. Harlequin is set to close it's segregated line this year as well.

So, my insecurity this month lies not with my writing, but with the odds being stacked greatly against me before I type a single word.

This month's optional question: When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing?

** I take a break. I walk away from whatever project I'm bogged down on and do something different. I play a game called The Sims and I write little stories to go along with that game. It's a nice easy way to relax and write for pure fun. If not that, then I start a different project for the heck of it. The novelette I finished is one such project.I'm a pantser, so I can't force the words. I have to sit back and let the characters tell me when they are ready.
Until next time and thanks for stopping by~Meka
Thank you to this month's co-hosts:   Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Renee Scattergood, and Tamara Narayan!

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.