The Wolf's Red Rose

It started with a simple writing prompt two years ago. The prompt came in an email from Writer's Digest as way to keep writing during the holiday season. The prompt was to rewrite a fairy tale in 1,000 words.  I was immediately inspired and then the story grew because I was excited by the story. So here we are 2 years later and I finished the story, I edited the story and made it into an ebook which is on sale now on Amazon.

Why make this story an ebook as opposed to trying to get the story published by a magazine? It's all about length (we are talking story length here). The Wolf's Red Rose reaches over 9000 words. Many magazines have restrictions on length and want only stories that are 4000 and below.  With Amazon, Kindle Direct Publishing, it makes it easy for me to put books for sale even if they are short stories and right now since I am beginning in my publishing career, I am getting my name out in the world. No, I don't make any money from Amazon by talking about them and sure I might get some Google hits from just mentioning them but I only mention this because there are other writers out there who are also starting out. Okay enough about business mumbo jumbo let's get to the book.

Book Cover
 

Yes, I think some of the language in this story is very beautiful. And it was that very reason why I decided to finish the story just because of the sentences I wrote. Sometimes, I really do amaze myself. The Wolf's Red Rose  is a retelling of the well known fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" and in short it is about WHY the wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma. Perhaps Red and her Grandma angered the wolf. There is a lot more to the story than the wolf just ate them.

This is the book cover my husband and I worked on. I drew the picture and he colored it in and did some special effects. This time I used a preloaded font, this one of my favorites and I use it a lot. The font is called "Papyrus."

Although, this is a retelling of a fairy tale, I would not think it is appropriate for very young readers. Not that I am an expert but this PG-13 type of story.  There are no bad words just one mention of making love and very little blood.  I listed this book for $.99 but if you are a prime member you can borrow it for free. 

It is a quick reading story with talking animals, poetry, lies and love so why not check out The Wolf's Red Rose on sale through Kindle bookstore. Kindle offers a free app for android, PC, and even Apple so all you really need is the Kindle app to read the story.

Until we meet again, the wolf carries his across  the frozen tundra.

Fall is Coming

Even though my computer is only a few steps away, I just have to play with my new  toy. I got a tablet case with a keyboard. I have to get used to typing with such a small keyboard. Now the  next step is to get the word processing app for the tablet. I can get the app for $15 from Amazon. So far the keyboard is working pretty  good, my fingers other keys so my spelling is horrible. Hey at least I should have no excuse not to write on the go now.

So what is new in my life? Well August is filled with lots of appointments and getting ready for school. I have my wisdom teeth coming in and now I have to have them removed. I had one removed years ago. According to the dentist, I am super freaky because I have 2 wisdom teeth in the top. So yeah lucky me. I also published "The Wolf's Red Rose" it is available on Kindle. I promise the next post will be all about it. You should see the book cover, I think it is fucking awesome. My husband and I worked on it together.

I got a reject and I get rejects plenty of times but this one annoyed me. The editor said there were too many errors and not ready for publication. Here's the kicker, he didn't tell me what the errors were. Why say it if you're not going to expand upon it?

Okay enough about me, take care of yourself and each other. See you next time (that's what's Jerry Springer says at the end of each show. I used to love watching the Jerry Springer Show)

August for the Future

So now it is August, this summer has flown by at incredible speed. July- well that was month that was filled with non-stop action. From hanging out at the Bryce Jordan, to shooting off fireworks at home while drinking beer, to hot sultry days filled with swimming, sun poisoning, bee stings, yard work, my birthday and my daughter had to have an appendectomy. I am glad to say I am glad to see July go. With the end of July, the weather changed dramatically. It feels like September and not the dog days of summer. According to the weather channel, the highest temperature my area will see this week is 77 and I am not complaining.  I was supposed to finish my latest ebook and publish it in July but that did not happen because not only was July an exciting month- I am my own worst enemy.

I am a slacker. There is no question about that. When I sit down to write, I actually write very fast and get stuff done. I hate editing and I pretty much dread editing. So another round of slacking. There are no good excuses because I am poor at time management and I am slacker. Case in point, I know there is work I want to do but I find myself washing dishes. When dishes need to be done I am doing something else. I have been like this forever and I really don't think that is ever going to change. I do get this done though. I finished writing my latest ebook and now it is time to edit which for some reason even though I hate it, I will work on editing quicker because of how I edit. I will read through it and make minor corrections. I will do this several times and then I will do the big edit where I read it out loud and make more corrections. All the while the story is fresh in my brain and I will think of things to make the story better. One last edit and that is the grammar check. Okay I am on the fence with grammar check, it is one of those nice things that point out those stupid mistakes that your brain fixes when you read something (especially me since I will start memorize everything). I finished the story last night so I won't be looking at it until tomorrow at the earliest but preferably Tuesday. And this paragraph is unbearably long....

I hate exclamation points.  I just read a book it is written for younger people anyway the author uses a lot of exclamation points.  Something about exclamation points which makes me think of this overinflated excitement.  I don't know but I really hate exclamation points! See how that is just so bizarre.

For today that is enough let the sun swallow you and the crows carry you home.

Free Meme About Being an Individual

Feel free to use this wherever you want just do not change anything on it. Easy to do just right click and hit save then you can upload to any other site you want.

Sizzling Summer

And it's hot. Today not so bad as others but it still hot. I was so looking forward to yesterday because we were supposed to have thunderstorms some of them severe. I really wanted to use my new LED lantern but the storms never came and my tomatoes can use the rain. The haze is thick like someone plastered a fine coat of white all over the world and I live in the mountains. Down by Philly in Lancaster County was a lot worse.

Last Monday was my birthday. After much discussion I decided on going to eat at the Good and Plenty Restaurant. Honestly, I would have eaten at the Plain and Fancy but I got a free meal at the Good and Plenty (which saved like 20 bucks). We left after my husband got done work and slept over night at the Sleep Inn in Mountville because I had a coupon and it had an indoor pool open till 10. With traffic we didn't get there until 9:30 so we had  half hour for swimming. We threw on our swimsuits and into a heated pool. Afterwards we drove down to Lancaster and stopped at Jennie's diner. It was open 24 hours it was posted on the sign but I didn't see the sign and I asked the crazy waitress anyway. She was a little nuts and according to my husband she was going to stab out his eye with a fork because he wasn't paying attention when she brought coffee. Besides her, the food is cheap and good. Hell unlimited coffee was only $1.35 and my pancakes were huge. Our bill came to 20 bucks you can't find places like that too much anymore.

On Monday, I got a free game of mini golf from the place right next to the hotel we stayed in. We made sure to wake up early so we can enjoy more swimming and take more showers. We checked out about 10 am and played golf. It was already sweltering. I knew I should've  bought a case of water at Sam's. I brought the cooler along because we wanted Amish baked goods. By the time we left golf, I looked like I was just in the shower- with my clothes on.  We had a brief reprieve driving on 30 toward places like Bird-In-Hand and Intercourse. Our next stop was a buggy ride.

I have been to Lancaster many times. My grandmother on my dad's side has lived there forever so the Amish are always interesting but we didn't do the tourist stuff when I was growing up. I always wanted to go on a buggy ride. I chose Aaron and Jessicas at the Plain and Fancy because I had a coupon to save $2. Our driver wasn't Amish which would be okay but he didn't really talk about the Amish. In fact, he said about three things. It was nice to ride through Amish farmlands, it was quiet and beautiful. Corn stretched high into the sky. The driver's horse was plain tired but he kept tapping on her hind quarters to keep her going. It was over 90 and the sun was hot. He tried to say his horse was fine but we thought otherwise. Even the other family said about the horse being tired. I may not have lived on a farm but I know when an animal was tired. If I was a horse, I wouldn't want to be outside pulling a buggy full of people. On the ride, we didn't see any of the Amish working the fields maybe it was too hot for man and beast.  The highlight was stopping at a home and we bought homemade rootbeer and cookies.

After the buggy ride, we drove to Intercourse for Kitchen Kettle for jams and such. I really love jams and jellies.  After that we went to the Amish Village where the guide who is not Amish but actually had Amish friends growing up offered a lot of information and knew a lot of stuff. Finally it was dinner time.  Thank god for air conditioning. I am not a big fan of air conditioning but there are days where AC is heaven. Since it was Monday, it wasn't busy. We were seated with folks from New York and New Jersey. The folks from Jersey must be close to New York City because they had the accent where as the folks from New York didn't have the city accent. I felt like a stranger in my own state since most of the people at the restaurant were from another state.  We found another motel for the night that didn't have a pool but had a deal with another place up the road to use their indoor pool. After swimming, a stop at WAWA for coffee. MMMMM WAWA coffee.

It looked like it was going to storm in Lancaster, the sky grew dark and fearsome but soon the fading sun shone again. It was a great birthday adventure!

Speaking of heat, if I had a damn pool at my house, I would be in it all the time. I have three neighbors who have pools.  And no one is in it. Maybe you will see the kids in the one pool for like an hour and that is it. The rest of the time they are running the streets. Why spend money on chemicals if you aren't going to use it. I want to a pool to be in it, not for a status symbol.

Oh yeah, I just got over a 24 hour virus which made me nap all freaking day long and my tonsils swelled and I had a fever. It was just so much fun.

July Thoughts

Yeah, it is July! Okay, I know its been two weeks since I wrote. Honestly, I have no idea where the time went. Really I don't believe how this summer is flying by and I still did not get my pool put up. With the weather anymore, I probably won't ever get the damn thing up.

So I've had some random thoughts lately of things I wanted to write about so why not just shove them all in one blog post because I know everyone loves my random thoughts, it makes me special.

Thursday is July 4th which is one of my favorite holidays right up there with Christmas, Halloween and my birthday. I am really looking forward to drinking beer and setting off fireworks. Unfortunately, PA doesn't allow the fireworks that go into the sky so we get shoot off fountains and sparklers and things like that. Of course July 4th is much more than beer and fireworks, it is the day America celebrates it's Independence from England. Now as many of you know that are American, England was BAD. America didn't want to be ruled by England but wanted to rule themselves. Now I wonder, when British children start to learn about the war in America in 1770's what is learned? Who are the heroes? Maybe it is taught with a slant that the colonists were NAUGHTY because they started it, threw tea in the harbor and just bad children that should be spanked. I would love to know how British teaches the American revolution. If you are British tell me all about the American Revolution from your point of view.  There are always two points of view to everything.

It is also 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. I am not interested in the Civil War as much as the American Revolution but we went to Old Bedford Village and there was a Civil War re-enactment and that was cool because they shot guns and canons. I wouldn't mind going to Gettysburg because it is supposed to be incredibly haunted and I am still looking for evidence that ghosts are real. Oh yeah and I want to hear more canons. Even though I piss my pants (I jump thirty feet in the air when the canons fire) every time, I think they are pretty aweseome.

I've been thinking a lot about my grandparents lately and I miss them. One of the highlights of my summer was spending a week or two at my grandparent's house.  I don't know how to explain those good times because maybe to someone else it might seem boring but for me, it was different. No matter how far away I lived my grandparents were always there in my life some way or another. I was very lucky to have grandparents like that and it sucks for kids who don't get to have that kind of relationship with their grandparents. One of the last emails, I got from my grandmother before she passed away, she told me to keep writing, no matter what. I know one thing is for sure when my child has children in the future, I am going to be the kind of grandma I had. I will remember their birthdays and I won't favor one grandchild over another one. And when they are old enough for email, I will write them often (or I guess Facebook them often since that seems to be the way of the world.)

I am working on my ebook. Thanks a lot to my husband who says he needs a new project to work on (he works on the book cover) and that I should get writing. I don't know if I mentioned this before but maybe I did, who cares anyway. The story is called "The Wolf's Red Rose" and it is a retelling of the old fairy tale, "Little Red Riding Hood." Now we will all know WHY the wolf ate Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood. Although this is a retelling of a fairy tale not made for children but more teens and adults.

So I emptied my head and this is where we part for the time being. May the fireworks boom and your heart flutter

My Writing Sucess

I can sit around all day and write, I can post things on here, I can write eBooks until the cows come home but really when it is all said and done my success really depends on you. Right now, since I am  what the magazines call an early career author (this is just a term that means I am not very published, well you got to start somewhere) anyway who cares what I am called. I would like to offer other authors a trade. A trade of reviews that is. Considering, I am only technically making royalty monies off of one eBook I am not looking to sell books. Hell "Heart of a Goddess" is FREE every 90 days. What I want now is to be read and reviewed. I want to be a better writer and I want to get my name out in the world. Both of these are rather large goals but I know I can do it. So here is the nuts and bolts. I have 4 ebooks for sale on Amazon (two of them are also on Smashwords) and I would like to someone to read one of my books and in return I will do the same for you (I would read novels but I don't have a lot of money to spend, the most expensive book I have is $2.99). I want an honest review and I will do the same for you.  I would never say the book sucks but I will offer what I think would improve your book. Writing is skill that has to be honed much like any other skills. I know this first hand.

I have been writing for well over 20 years and I know one thing to be true, I am much better writer and poet and today than I was 5 years ago or even a year ago. And when it comes to my jewelry, my stuff is much better today than it was two years ago.

Another thing I would like to offer is a link exchange for other writers. So leave a comment anywhere, the comments are under moderation and I will not post sensitive information. If you want a link exchange,  I want to exchange with writers or writer type websites. I guess when it comes to writing we all have to help each other out. I am not looking to bring this blog to huge Google PR, I don't even care about that, what I care about is getting my name and my books out in the world because if I start building a fan base now, it might be easier to convince a publisher to publish my book. Of course selling more books is an extra bonus for me.

Speaking of eBooks, I plan on self-publishing another one in July. It is called "The Wolf's Red Rose" which is a retelling of the classic fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood." My story explores why the wolf ate Grandma and Little Red Riding Hood. Keep your eyes peeled for that book to hit Amazon.

So I leave you today may the moon kiss you sweetly as the sun burns your flesh.