I had some t-shirts made up – because it’s fun to do and I have the Local Author Showcase coming up – and here are the results:
They are available at zazzle, with other colors available. I kind of want to get them in the screen version – just black and white – for a street team, if that ever comes to fruition. We’ll see. 🙂
AH! The son has awakened so I can show his shirt, too! I’m lucky I was able to get a picture.
If you have Stone Lover and Stone Romance there is an update available for both. There have been no significant changes – just a few tweaks to a few flurbles.) 🙂 I don’t think Amazon will send out a mass e-mail but you’ll be able to find the updates in your manage my kindle section (it’s there – I saw it and used it this morning, as well as updates for 70 other books….) If you got the books from smashwords the updated versions are the newest entries. If they have the same date look at the time. Funny story: while I was uploading the new versions of Stone Lover and Stone Romance I tried doing it at the same time. Bad idea. When I checked the files to see if they formatted properly I discovered that Stone Romance was actually Stone Lover so I had to re-upload Stone Romance all by itself. 🙂
Today my baby graduated from basic training and is now a soldier. During basic he lost thirty pounds and his ego has become a separate entity devouring stray souls. 🙂 In truth, he is an amazing man and we’re all very proud of him.
These are from last night’s rehearsal – the recital is tonight and I can’t video tape them. My stupid memory card decided it didn’t have enough space (It may SAY 4 GB but in truth it’s only 3.5) so in the fourth song I had to dig out my back up camera to finish the tape so there is a cut scene and the video quality changes. And then the last song is also shot with the back up. Her solo comes in and out of focus because the camera wanted to focus on a stationary object, which my daughter is not. She did an amazing job!! ****EDITED TO REPLACE THE SPLICED VIDEO WITH THE COMPLETE RECITAL NIGHT VIDEO (The 4th video)****
 (Tornadoes – taking Dorothy to Oz dance 2)
  (Which way do they go? dance 10)
 (SOLO!! Dance 36)
 (Rejoice!! Dance 39)
 (Group dance – dance 43)
This week was my son’s girlfriend’s birthday so my daughter was busy planning out various birthday gift ideas, from cakes to gifts. She got on the paint program and designed an elaborate cake (which she did not make) but it was very cool none-the-less. instead, she decided to go with cupcakes but with her own unique stamp on it: purple batter ranging from light on the bottom to dark on top. Then she decorated them with homemade frosting (courtesy of the middlest son, who makes the best frosting!) 
But, the piece de resistance is the gorgeous quilt she made – her very first attempt at making a quilt (I even had to teach her how to use the sewing machine, which she picked up like an old pro!) She cut and pieced together the front and helped tie it. (Admittedly, I did do the casing around the edges but she was working on her cupcakes at the time.) She has started a blog to showcase her amazing talent – she just doesn’t have time to update it – or write anything, really. 🙂
Happy Birthday, Sarah!! Love you!!!
The edits on Stone Destiny are mostly done. If there are any more I will probably find them long, long after I publish.
I have been putting off writing on my blog because I wanted to keep the Siren Song video at the top. Plus, I’ve been busy writing other stuff, mostly Stone Destiny but also letters to my son while he gets through basic. From the letters he has sent home he seems to be doing well. Personally, I would have been happy if he had decided to stay home for a few more years instead of bolting out the door the moment he turned eighteen. (it was five and a half weeks after he turned eighteen, but who’s counting?) He is so determined to be independent and ‘m not sure where I went wrong (I’m kidding; I am so bloody proud of him. It’s just, he is such a great person and I miss him like mad!) Sigh.
Some days I feel like a fraud, especially when I get on boards with other writers and they talk about all of the marketing and signings and stuff they’re doing. There is so much more to self-publishing other than putting a book together and hitting the publish button. Unfortunately, I’m happy doing exactly that so I really want to thank all of my readers who have taken the time to email or post on facebook or leave a comment here; it gets me off my ass to actually do more than simply hang out in my cave. Thanks to readers’ response I wrote Stone Romance and am working on Stone Destiny, two books that I doubt I ever would have written on my own. As a reader, remember that you have a LOT of influence – don’t be afraid to use it! Writers – well, this writer – tends to get lost in their worlds and without that outside prodding I’m pretty sure we’d be happy just staying there, a little bit isolated and disconnected from everyone else, even in a crowded room. Thank you all!!
Thank you!!
My baby shipped off today. We drove up to Raleigh yesterday, spent the evening together and then we got to see him get sworn in this morning. I am so proud of him!! At least he has a really nicely shaped head. He could totally pull off the bald look – except he has such pretty hair!
After swearing in, before saying goodbye. 😦
Little Sister is going to miss Big Brother
Girlfriend and Boyfriend are going to miss each other terribly
Before the head was shaved – my biggest and my littlest with my middlest hiding so as to not have his picture taken.
We got lost on the way home because mapquest lied to me and instead of taking the route I knew would get us back home I followed the deceptive directions. We ended up taking the long way home. Once we arrived home my darling daughter had a letter from the dance studio – she made the competitive dance team!! That will be a fun and new experience.
This past weekend was the freebie days for Awakening and while it did well (over 2,000 downloads) it didn’t do nearly as well as Blind Attraction (well over 20,000 downloads.) And yet, with all of the Blind Attraction downloads, Awakening still inspired more hits to my blog/website. It’s strange but I think that it is also very interesting. One of the coolest aspects about being a self-published author is not being bound by someone else’s schedule, which is also a bad thing if I am having a particularly long writing slump. It also means I get to focus on the books that have a higher demand (ahem, gargoyles) instead of following a set time frame.
I started this thing just over a year ago with Darkness Comes and I had every intention of writing the second book immediately but I had Stone Lover and Blight more or less ready to go so I published them and went back to work on Darkness Comes part 2 (it has had several working titles, including Darkness Sees, which would be followed by Darkness Conquers, which I thought was hilarious.) But then a funny thing happened: readers discovered a love for gargoyles and so I wrote Rhys’s story, with the plan to follow up with Armand’s. Taking a little break after Rhys I cleaned up another book that I had written and that became Siren Song. Then back to work on Stone Destiny, which was put on hold because life happens. Since I was busy with everything else, I pulled out two other books that I had written to clean up for publication: Blind Attraction and Awakening (originally titled Original Sin: Eternal, or something.) Now I am back to writing Stone Destiny and it is going in some directions that I didn’t expect but it is moving forward. Yay!! I think the extra time that it has spent percolating has improved the story; I hope it has, at least.
Anyway, what I guess I am trying to say is if you love a book, especially a self-published book, let the author know; you’d be surprised at how much sway you can have influence which book gets written next. Write reviews, tell your friends, become a fan on facebook, leave feedback. whatever it takes to have your voice heard because you have a lot of power. Writing can be very solitary and hearing from readers can make a HUGE difference. I know that there are a few people out there waiting for the continuation of Darkness Comes and I am really, really sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to it; I will write it, I swear.
My current schedule (subject to change, depending on, well, my readers) is:
1.) Stone Destiny (50% done!)
2.) After Blight (75% done)
3.) Darkness Comes part 2
4.) The continuation of Awakening
5.) …. (I have 2 that I really want to work on plus a billion more ideas, any one of which might scream loud enough at the right time to be picked.)
So, happy reading!!
Two nights ago my sweet little angel started watching make up tutorials, starting with this adorable little moppet doing the Monster High makeup. Since my baby loves Monster High she watched every single video, including the one for Ghoulia Yelps, which she had been for Halloween in 2011. From there, she went to special occasion make up to fantasy make up. And then awesome nail polish tricks. Now, she has graduated to extremely disturbing zombie and horror make up. She has a billion plans now for Halloween; as if she needed any more inspiration.
 My poor baby. Today she had to get the last of her baby teeth removed – all three of them – because she has no space in her mouth. As soon as her bicuspids come in she will be getting those removed as well – and then hopefully there will be enough space in her teeny tiny mouth for her adult teeth. So now she has her eight front teeth (four on top and four on bottom) and one molar in each quadrant with three missing teeth in between, which is enough space for only two teeth in each quadrant. Hence the need to get her bicuspids pulled as soon as they come through.
A.C. Warneke's blog 