POP? Coke? or Soda?

How do you order your carbonated beverages?
When I lived in the Northeast, I asked for soda.
When I lived in Atlanta, I asked for a Coke (then I specified which kind)
Now I live in the Midwest, and I ask for a POP!

Anyway, how've you been? What's new? What's POPPING! Ha ha.
Well, my book launch party Saturday was a complete, ravingly insanse success!! I will be posting pictures and more info on my facebook author page when I get them from my photographer - my neighbor volunteer! (need to get some use out of it, been slacking) The best parts - I got to meet Sherry Ellis, fellow blogger who was in the middle of moving, and... my sister surprised me and drove up all the way from Mississippi!! INCREDIBLE WEEKEND!

Well, I haven't given you all the low-down on news or blog hops for a while, so here's what's going on!

First! Awesome friend CD Coffelt's book, The Wilder Mage is coming out August 30! And here is her electrifying cover!!

I've only read the first few pages, and I can tell it's going to be a thrilling series! Here's the blurb (or my rendition):

A hotter commodity than he realizes, Justus Aubre is a wilder, hunted by the Imperium Mages, who can't control his power. He's been hidden for many years, until Sable Rounds walks through the door of his antique shop, looking for work.

Also on the run from the Imperium, Sable longs for somewhere to belong, which she finds with Justus, who she unwittingly puts in danger. When the Imperium finds Sable, they find Justus. And all hell’s about to break loose.

Pretty intense, right?! I can't wait to read it!

Now, for the blogfest news:

• Aug 1-8 -- Charmaine Clancy is hosting the Imagination Sparks blogfest - she is challenging us to challenge each other with writing exercises for us all to try! Check it out! (I found this at Denise Covey's blog =)

• Sept 9-15 -- Christine Rains and Cecilia Robert want you romance writers to post a kissing scene for the More Than Just a Kiss Blogfest. I am not good at those, but more power to those who can make us feel it! 

• But let me say how excited I am about Klahanie's NON-BLOG HOP or the Amazing Anti-Blogfest! A host of hosts will judge entries of PG-13 blogfest titles that should never be! Hilarious! And Mark wrote some awesome examples!

On Thursday, I will announce the winners of my July blog tour giveaway and forward some awards. What a month it's been!!

POP-ular destination!

Here are a few pics from our vacay in sunny Florida. Dodging raindrops, we still had a great time!

 view from room, sunny mornings!

 mmm, mmm, good!

(Ford's garage)

 birds let me get close, didn't seem to mind...

 the feet shot on the morning walk

 boys got water-logged at pool, nice it wasn't crowded!

 Steamin' Oyster Brewery! 

my favorite part! I got to meet fellow CQ author,

Jamie Ayers! Talking shop and shopping!

Then, we both got to see Shrek, the Musical.

Incredible happy coincidence!! Awesome show!

I shot this video because it was amazing to watch... Nature is awesome!

And I was inspired to write this poem while I was there...

We Are Waves

Pushing to reach

High on the beach

Then we fall back

As more waves attack

I want to be

A tsunami

Not just abide

Washed up in low tide

Hope your summer (or whichever season you are in) is going well. Can't believe school starts in less than a month! Have a great weekend!

PS - Thanks to those who have offered up reviews of POP TRAVEL,
they are greatly appreciated!
And if you don't have it yet, there's a giveaway on Goodreads (thru Aug 15)
in addition to mine - only three days left!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Un-POP-pable

Hey Everyone,
Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

I just got back from our family vacation and I'm so happy to be home (will post pictures later this week). I hope it doesn't take too long to catch back up. It's going to get crazy fast around here. Sports crank up with football starting Monday, in addition to summer basketball training. At least baseball is over for a while!

I also have some exciting things happening for me this week.

First, I was welcomed home by boxes of Pop Travel books! Yay! And just in time for my Book Launch Party on Saturday, July 27!! I'm very nervous and excited about it. (Will tell you all how it goes.)

TODAY, I get to go to the SPACEDOCK with Mary Pax! I love her intergalactic interviews and now I get to do one. Yay!

I met Mary at the beginnings of my blogging venture and what captivates me most (other than her writing) are her summer star-gazing posts. This is her 6th year as a star guide! She always shares the most beautiful pictures from the observatory. I get to see spectacular sights through her eyes that I never would otherwise! And bonus: The gift shop now stocks her paperbacks!

Mary is a terrific, fellow sci fi author and today is the first day of the Blogger Book fair, with The Renaissance of Hetty Locklear on sale for 99 cents. She is also hosting a giveaway for copies of paperbacks and ebooks!

Currently, she's writing short stories, working on a fantasy novel, and in the homestretch on the fourth book in the Backworlds series. Not too busy, right? Ha!

Here is a blurb about The Renaissance of Hetty Locklear by M. Pax. (On sale! 99 cents!)

The journey into adulthood is stranger than she expects.
Graduation from community college isn’t the magic elixir Hetty Locklear counts on for becoming an adult. Her parents, who work the Renaissance fair circuit, insist she spend part of the summer with them. Hetty doubts pretending to live in the Middle Ages will help her find her way.
 To make it worse, an entity haunts her at her dead-end job, warning her of a dangerous man she doesn’t know. The ghost leads her to a lover who has a lot of secrets. He pulls her farther into peril and into a strange, hidden world of genetic experimentation.
New Adult Science Fiction Fantasy.

Amazon / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Kobo / B&N / Other Outlets and formats

I hope you'll join us for a cosmic cocktail and cool company!

I'm on Pop of the World!

Yes, you will soon be sick of the pop-shtick if you aren't already!

Today, I get to pop over the vast Atlantic Ocean to sit in the interview chair of THE Ellie Garratt! She is so awesome, and such a cool nerd! She's a cool nerd because she likes sci fi and horror - and can write the shiznit out of it!

Excellent exhibitions of her skillz are

Passing Time: Nine Short Tales of the Strange and Macabre 

available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

And the just released

Taking Time and Other Science Fiction Stories

available here Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk 

And here are her additional links: Amazon, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter.

Aren't those covers the shizzle?
Don't forget to vizit our interview.
Thanks for all the support, poppy people! (excuze all the z's, I'm on vacation! ha ha!)

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pop Nation!

Sunday and Monday, I am so happy to be appearing on three super blogs! And I don't just means 60's super. I mean dumped into a vat of toxic waste and morphed into a hero SUPER! I'll share their super identities with you if you promise not to spread them around.

On Sunday, I'll be relaxing with

M.J. Fifield from My Pet Blog

Or, as I like to call her, the Raving Reviewer!
aka - the Galactic President Superstar of McAwesomeville!

She has a wit as sharp as the quills of a porcupine, and her epic fantasy Effigy should be out soon. I'm waiting!

And on Monday, I'll be guest posting for:

Jeff Hargett of Strands of Pattern

Or, the Grand Wizard Dragon Tamer!

I'll be talking about how publishing a book has been more than I expected - in many ways.

and

L. Diane Wolfe of Spunk On A Stick's Tips
Professional Speaker & Author of How to Publish and Promote Your Book Now!
www.spunkonastick.net

Or, the Mystical Marketer!

I'll show you how much I have learned, and still need to learn, about promoting a book!

Thanks for joining me on my Pop Travel Extended Blog Tour!

But wait! One more thing! My Super Friend, Carrie Butler, is about to release her next book. Remember Strength, with that hot hunk on the cover? Well get a load of Courage!

Carrie Butler

WEBSITE  |  BLOG  |  TWITTER  |  FACEBOOK  |  GOODREADS
AMAZON  |  KINDLE  |  BARNES & NOBLE  |  NOOK 

Rena Collins never thought she’d long for the past—back when affection from Wallace, her freakishly strong boyfriend, was the most dangerous aspect of her life. But now that the human-altering organization known as ERA has gone on the offensive, nothing is safe. Her bloodline is exposed, her relationships torn apart, and just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, ERA ups the ante. To save mankind from forced evolution, Rena will have to mend her broken ties and form a resistance... hand-in-hand with the one she hurt most.
Congrats, girl!

Poppin' Fresh!

Yeah, I got alotta POP jokes!

Today, I am celebrating BIG with Vikki, my super duper crit partner. (Hey Vikki, my goal is to get you a first look at Simulation in August. Writing keeps my mind off sales numbers!)

Anyhoo. My blog tour is doing terrific! Writer-bloggers are the best group of people on the planet! Give me an AMEN!

And I'm also excited to take Pop Travel on the road.
Here is the LIVE book tour schedule:

POP TRAVEL LIVE BOOK TOUR!

July 27, 2013 - Cincinnati - Book Launch Party!
October 12, 2013 - Cincinnati - Books by the Banks Book Expo (hopefully!)
November 15, 2013 - Orlando/Downtown Disney

November 29, 2013 - Detroit area (black Friday!)

March 25, 2014 - Atlanta

Summer 2014 - Dallas/Ft Worth

Dates after the launch party are rough and subject to change. Details coming soon.
If you live near these areas and would like to join me, email me! Let's talk!

PS - Look what my hub gave me to celebrate my first book - an iphone cover of it!

If I were a Pop Tart...

Okay, Kellogg's - here's your next big promotion idea! (Oh, and put a big picture of Pop Travel on the box, please!)

What flavor Pop Tart would I be? Pomegranate banana. I would be low-cal, no frosting, but have a dusting of red and yellow sugar crystals. Mmm!

How about you? What kind of Pop Tart would you be?

And speaking of tarts! The Queen of Hearts, Vikki! has put me up on her collaborative website, the Writer Diaries TODAY! It's full of promotions, contests, and other writing goodies. Check it out if you haven't yet. I did a quick interview to boot. Sweet!!

It's Alive!

My ebook is alive!! And so is my extended blog tour! Ah!

First, I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone tweeting and facebooking and wishing me congrats! This is a wonderful feeling! I'm overwhelmed with happiness! And I can't wait to start peddling Pop Travel around the country! (more details about where I will be, later this week)

Now, in all the excitement of going live, I forgot that I was going to tell you about my blog tour helpers. Since they are hosting me on their blogs, I wanted to give them a little plug here!

YESTERDAY, I visited Nicki Elson - we go way back! She asked a simple question and I blasted her with my son's school project - a soundtrack for my book! Please go check it out if you haven't. He/we worked hard on it!

And I know I have many romance reading friends out there. Nikki takes romance and perks it up with twists. Her current releases are Three Daves and Divine Temptation. And she has two events going on right now!

TODAY, I'll be at Charity Bradford's talking about hooks and hangers. I hope you'll stop by!

Charity and I go way back, too. Very knowledgeable and helpful! Her first novel The Magic Wakes was released in February and in between moving a couple of times, she's also working on several projects:

a YA Fantasy, a Sci Fi Anthology, the Sequel to The Magic Wakes and a shiny new project--Romantic Suspense - she writes for whichever muse shows up that morning. Here's all her links:

Twitter | Facebook |  Goodreads | Amazon

Is this for REALz?!

Pinch me!!
Okay, that's enough.

This is it! At long last, my release day has finally arrived!

Source

Can I get a WOOT, WOOT!

I have links!!

Mini Blurb:

In a futuristic cat-and-mouse game, hard-boiled detective J.L. Cooper is chased across the world using Pop Travel teleportation, which has a deadly flaw he is determined to expose.

Pop Travel is available here, so far:
Amazon

Thanks for all your support and encouragement!

Now, to kick off my Six Month Pop Travel Blog Tour!

Each month I will be Popping around to three or four blogs for interviews or guest posts and giving away a copy of the book and a QV bracelet and other surprise stuff. I hope you will join me! And as I visit other blogs, I will give a little highlight of them here. Aww!

To get the transmission party started, I will be popping over to visit...

Nicki Elson!!

Nicki was one of my first bloggy friends. I loved her first book, Three Daves - about 80s college romance! Her latest book is called Divine Temptation - wicked good!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Your stunned silence is very reassuring...

Seemed appropriate, since I am dying to hear word from my publisher if I get action tomorrow or not! And considering the prequel of the movie this line came from recently released =)

Got any good one-liners for me to guess the movie while I wait? Shoot!

One day left!

(I hope!)

And I had to share this with you - my dad sent them to me and called it "Mom Travel"

The suspense is killing me!

Did anyone notice?

Google Friends Connect READER has died. (Thanks, Alex, for that correction! I thought we couldn't use the Google Friends Connect following buttons anymore!)

I am very interested to know what you are using for a reader, now. Did you use Google Reader? Did you choose a new one? I am liking Feedly. But Bloglovin is also popular. There are many to choose from. But now we don't know who is following us!

And yet, we do. Our true followers make comments on our posts. I'm kinda sad not to have those numbers anymore, but I'm also kinda glad because they didn't mean that much if they were fair weather followers.

Here's to reading and commenting! Thanks for taking the time!

TWO DAYS!!!

And here are methods to get buttons for your blog to let people follow you on Feedly and Bloglovin. You don't have to be a member of them. But it helps those who are add you to their feed.

Feedly is an easy code where you replace YOURBLOG with your blog name. Easy, right?

<a href="http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" title="Follow me on Feedly"><img alt="Feedly" b="" order="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZlf-BWTuaWTY2M54tlauv6IkYukvXqU3fUbWt28gjo4gKgwmkPg" /></a>

For Bloglovin you have to go here and follow the instructions.

Happy ID!

Independence Day, of course! For us here in the USA =)

It's supposed to be a rainy one here in the Midwest. We'll see how it goes. And we start our last tournament of baseball season! Yeah!

4th of July also means BBQs! Rain or shine! Here is the lovely dessert I prepared to share...
Take a virtual taste of my Berry Cheesecake Bites. (Recipe below)

This is one of the first recipes I tried on my own. Straight off the Cool Whip lid. It's called Fruit-Topped Cheese Pie. Back in college, I made one and auctioned it at work in a bake auction and it brought $25! This time, I altered the shape to make individual servings on graham cracker squares.

Fruit Topped Cheese Pie

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1/3 Cup sugar
1 tub whipped topping
1 graham pie crust
1 Cup canned cherry pie filling (or other fruit)

Beat cream cheese and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping.
Spoon into crust. Spoon cherries around edge of pie.
Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Store in refrigerator.

Here is a link to the recipe.

And POP TRAVEL will be out in only THREE DAYS!!! WAHOOO!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This month I don't need the couch

It is July 2013. The month my first novel, Pop Travel, is published, thanks to Curiosity Quills. And in only

4 DAYS!

Thanks, Brinda, for the 3D image!

I have been a pretty steady member of the Insecure Writers Support Group, hosted by Alex J. Cavannaugh. Most of the time I find something to moan about without much trouble. But today, I want to spread some good vibes! Because not only is Pop Travel coming out, but Broken Branch Falls is soon to be next!

And I also want to say how happy I am that many of my fellow bloggers, who I've been friends with for a while, are also being picked up for publication or taking on the self-publishing journey.

So to anyone who is struggling or just starting out, it will happen for you! Don't let negative responses get your down. Don't let a writing funk be the end of you. And don't let anyone tell you you can't do it!

If you persevere, you will succeed. Don't give up! And if you ever want to rant or whine - do it!  We writers love to listen. Get it off your chest! Release those bad thoughts to make room for good ones. And keep writing!

And thanks for always supporting me when I was low. You guys are the best!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five days to go!

Since I'm so busy with everything, I thought I'd use this countdown day to respond to your lovely, much appreciated, supportive comments! You guys are the best!

Five days to go!

So here are my responses to yesterday's comments =)

Alex J. Cavanaugh – I am very excited! You're right, you only have a first release once!

Suzi – I think I'm more anxious than excited. I don't like to wait and wonder if my purchase info will be ready on July 7!

L. Diane Wolfe – I'm ready as I'll every be! I'm so surprised it's already upon me!

Angela Brown – This is definitely a unique experience. Thanks! I hope I have many more releases too!

mshatch – Thanks!

Rena – I love that NASA changes the actual time on the count down! Now I don't feel so bad! And thank you!

Jessie Humphries – It's great to hear from you too!

Sheena-kay Graham – thank you, Sheena! It is going to be a great day!

Murees Dupé – Almost here! Yeah! Thanks!

Dana – Wheeee!

M Pax – Woo hoo! Me too!!

David P. King – WAY! And I'm looking forward to your release too!

Julie Flanders – thanks, Julie! I just made the deadline to enter the Books by the Banks mega bookfair – I hope I get to have a table! Near you!

Suzanne Furness – Thank you! I hope so too =)

M.J. Fifield – Woo Hoo! Thanks so much! I hope you like it.

Nancy LaRonda Johnson – I sure hope I don't explode! But I hope my sales do! Thanks, lady!
Alleged Author – Thank you!

Allison – Now I need to think of another good song, maybe Major Tom? And Thanks!

Yolanda Renee – Thank you, sweetie!

Carrie-Anne – Thanks, girl! It's worth so much!

Krista McLaughlin – Aw, you won't have it stuck for long. I'm surprised you know that song, youngin!

Nicole – A good countdown is a quick one!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The final countdown

Well, the first countdown of many, I hope! But you're singing that song in your head now - it's great accompanying music!

I am going with a July 7 release date, so I am starting my countdown today! If it changes, I will just keep counting down and it will be a nice surprise when it POPS out! ha ha ha

6 days until Pop Travel is released!!!

Can't believe it! I am also venturing into Rafflecopter territory... At the end of each month during my 6 month blog tour, I will give away stuff! This month, I am giving away a GC, a book, and a bracelet (like the ones pictured Friday)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let's see how this goes!!Ah!

And let's not forget our IWSG session on Wednesday with Alex!

Happy, happy July!