Blurb

The shoes didn't fit. It was an omen.













Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Get Healthy BlogHop: Challenges

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Challenges. Life is full of them. Schwoo!

Once upon a time, I used to get up 6 mornings a week and do 2 hour session workouts. Weight training. Cardio. Spin classes. Boot Camp. I was kukoo without my workouts.

Sadly, my body went kukoo from too much. That’s a challenge for me-not to over do a good thing. My adrenals got drained, and I kept losing weight even though I ate 6 times a day-small meals, of course.

So now I take a whole different approach. I do it in moderation. Everything in moderation is the best way. Moderation is the key to keeping me healthy, but its my challenge. Since I’m an overachiever.

What is yours?

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If you want to start an exercise program and learn how to eat right, you can go to www.hasfit.com. The site is full of free workouts and food plans. I go there 5 days a week and spend no more than half an hour doing something.

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Also, Authors for Oklahoma is still taking ebook and paperback donations to make bundles for contributions to the American Red Cross. After, Friday, May 31st, we should have enough.

We’re on Facebook. Click Here To Learn More

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Friday, May 24, 2013

Authors for Oklahoma: Open Invitation to All My Blog Buddies

My friends and authors, Norma Beishir, William Kendall, and I have created a group on Facebook. Authors for Oklahoma. CLICK HERE to LIKE and check us out.

We’re looking to raise money for the families victimized by the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. Whatever is raised will go to The American Red Cross.

So I’m extending an invitation to all of you out in the blogosphere. Click on the icon above. I hope to see you all there.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Royalties from Secondhand Shoes Will Go to The American Red Cross

This morning as I woke up, the Sweetman turned on the TV. The newsperson stated that 20 children had died in the monstrous tornado. Homes and businesses splintered into heaps of rubble flashed across the screen. I can’t imagine losing my family, my home, my stuff…

But I’m a big believer in doing unto others as I would like them to do unto me. So from now until September 1, 2013, I will be giving any royalties to The American Red Cross for the families who were victimized in Oklahoma. I already have a job that pays the bills so…

I filled out the proper paper work with the organization. Right now, I’m just waiting approval. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be.

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Its 2.99. Click here to purchase.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Psychic Twins, Terry and Linda Jamison

Good morning, everyone! I know its not good at all for the families in Oklahoma. Upon waking, Sweetman had turned the television on. I hate waking up to bad news.

May our tears and prayers cover the victims of Oklahoma during this time of devastation. I can’t even imagine what the moms and dads are going through right now as I watch the morning news. God be with all of you!

psychic twins

Speaking of this, I researched a pair of psychic twins, Terry and Linda Jamison. What I’ve found out about them is quite amazing. I’m impressed and feel they’re an example of how psychics should be.

When I visited their website, there wasn’t the usual blaring neon pop-ups about any psychic reading specials. And according to little note at the bottom of their screen, they’re not offering personal readings at this time. Click here to check out their website

According to them, they’ve always been psychic. They’ve known ever since they were five.They use a technique called automatic handwriting when they do a reading.

Here is a list of their stellarness(I know, this probably isn’t a word):

They are the worlds most documented psychics.

Predicted the 9/11 Worldtrade Center and Pentagon attacks.

Predicted the May 2000 Stock Market Crash.

Predicted the JFK Jr. death by small airplane.

Cracked the case of Olivia Newton-John’s missing boyfriend.

Predicted Hurricane Irene.

Predicted the deadly flooding and tornadoes of 2011.

They have two titles under their names: Psychic Intelligence: Tune In and Discover the Power of Your Intuition and Separated at Earth: The Story of the Psychic Twins. I’m definitely going to purchase their books.

Not long ago, the Psychic Twins were on the Ricki Lake Show. Watch this impressive clip

They’re on Facebook, too. I follow their inspirational quotes. You can find the page here if you wish to follow them.

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KILLER STILETTOS UPDATE

I have 38 chapters drafted. But I know the more I write, I’ll definitely will be going back to fill in the holes. Since I’m a panster I fart-write (Shelly’s term for free-writing) as I go.

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Sometime today, on behalf of the Oklahoma devastation, I’ll be setting up the e-sales of Secondhand Shoes to go toward these people , throughout the summer months.

Once, I figure this out and set it up, I’ll let you all know in order to spread the word.

***

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Remember to love and hug your families.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Coming Soon and Volunteers Needed

 

I’ve been working on getting three short stories ready for ebook reading pleasure for this summer. They will be released one at a time. The Partner’s Progeny will be the first one.

I’m so excited! The cover was approved yesterday. YAY!! And its really hard for me to keep it under wraps.

I’m pushing for the week of June 3rd to reveal it. The names of volunteers will be put in a drawing to win a 10 dollar Amazon card.

Also, I need at least 10 peeps who would like to read the ARC for reviews. Its no longer than 5 thousand words.

Here’s the blurb:

Bullies rule…or do they?

Victoria Sheek has been the paralegal supervisor for the law firm of Pereene, Carr, and Sevino for seventeen years. Rumors portray her as a bully. She maintains confident that she will never be replaced since her father; Mr. Carr, is one of the founding partners.

Until one day Monica Bowman is hired by Mr. Pereene, the head partner, and is apparently smitten with her resemblance to his deceased granddaughter, Melissa, and his memories of her.

Who will end up staying? Monica or Victoria. One will stay, but not without a surprising twist.

So let me know if you want to help reveal the cover down in the comment box.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Sweetman and I are looking forward to the chemo-free days ahead. He’s finished with it. Over the next several months he’ll be scanned and prodded to make sure all is good.

Thank all of you for your prayers, well-wishes, and good vibes.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Eat Your Heart Out Martha Stewart

If you were coming to my house for dinner when I was a kid, you would have to come armed with straws, your own seasoning, and some plop-plop-fizz-fizz.

Mom was known for cooking hot dogs twenty different ways, and not the Chicago-style kind either. Nope. Our hot dogs were boiled, broiled, or fried. hot dogs

Add a can of beans, a couple of slices of processed cheese, crushed potato chips, and some tomato slices…dinner was served. Mmm…mmm good. Pork and beans

If mom couldn’t prepare it from a box, can,  boil it in a bag, or add water, it didn’t get prepared. But on special occasions she would slave over her crockpot. She’d make her famous spaghetti sauce, apricot glazed ham, salad, and her lime green Jell-O. Yum…yum.

Mom’s famous spaghetti sauce ingredients:

1 can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

1 pound of the cheapest ground beef you can find

salt, pepper, and sugar

Make sure you brown the meat before adding all of this to your crockpot. Then, let it cook all day. 6196743-electric-crock-pot-or-slow-cooker-isolated-on-white

 

Apricot-glazed ham:

I pound canned ham

1 jar of apricot preserves

Make sure you slather the ham with the preserves before you put in the oven.

Lime Green Jell-O:

1 box of lime green Jell-O

Plenty of water, more than what the box recipe calls for.  That’s why everyone needed to bring their own strawsjello

Salad

Iceberg lettus

Thousand Island Dressing

Make sure you wash the lettuce before you slather it with the dressing

Mom will always be remembered for her cooking ways. They are recipes that could put Martha Stewart to shame.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! I know I’m late in my well-wishings but I’ve worked all weekend. I’ve done close to 70 haircuts since Friday. So I’ve got zombie brains.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Indie Life: Bragging and Gratitude

Today is the second Wednesday of the month where we Indies pull together to support and encourage each other.

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Click here to learn more about Indie Life

Anyway, I hope its okay if I brag a little…just a wee bitty bit.

For one, I got a couple more 5 Star reviews on Secondhand Shoes. You can click here to read if  you like

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Since I hang out at Goodreads, I’m not so sure 5 Star reviews are the best. Some people feel they can’t trust a book if there are too many great and wonderful reviews on one book. I know this has something to do with authors actually paying for rave reviews.

However, this is not how I fly. One, I’m a starving artist and wouldn’t be able to afford one, and two, I’d prefer an honest review. How else am I to grow as a writer?

What are your thoughts on this?

My second brag is about Secondhand Shoes being nominated for 2013 eFestival of Words Award Nomination. You can click here to read for yourself

I have no clue who nominated my book, but thank you so much. This is where my gratitude comes in. It totally floored me when I got the news. Tears filled my eyes.

Also, I wanted to thank Lucy Pireel for passing me The Versatile Blogger Award.  She’s a very supportive Indie, pretty kinky, and  fun, too. You can click here to go to her blog

And also, I wanted thank Mike Saxton, Indie author of the 7Scorpian Triology. The other night my cursor froze. Thank God for the Iphone and the ability to text and leave messages on Facebook.

Mike promptly answered my plea and told me what to do. I’m so grateful. I was so panicked. You have no idea. I thought it was over for my computer.

Anyone have something to toot their horn about?

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

PS- I’ll be at work from 9 to 4 today so I’ll be catching up with everyone this evening and tomorrow.

Friday, May 3, 2013

My Chocolate Brings All the Librarians to the Yard

You can lead all the librarians to the chocolate, but you can’t make them by your book. ***smiling and gritting my teeth***

Before I rushed from New Port Richey to Orlando to the FLA (Florida Library Association) conference, which is about a two hour drive, I stopped off at my local Publix for two bottles of water and a couple of protein bars. On my way back to my car, one of my liter bottles plopped out of my bag and rolled under my car.

The Voice spoke as I got on my hands and knees to find that the bottle had rolled under the car parked next to mine. “Today isn’t going to go as you planned.”

“Okay. Fine,” I said to myself. “I bought a space at this event and I paid Create Space for a bunch of books. I refuse to give up. I will persevere.”

So I did. Once I hit I-4 the rain clouds rolled in and eventually let loose.

One of my bright spots was picking up the author of The Metamorphosis of a Muslim, Lena Winfrey, on the way there.

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After I picked her up, we headed for Panera Bread on Sand Lake Road. While we had a wonderful talk (she’s got lots of novels inside her) and ate our lunch, the rain did more than pour out of the sky. When we got back into my car, I read my Google Map instructions on how to get to the Orland Hilton, and thank God, Lena came armed with a GPS tracker.

But…we followed the Google instructions first, which had us on the totally wrong road. So we went to Lena’s GPS tracker for help, which she learned on the fly in my car. This was definitely an adventure of a lifetime-being lost in the rain in a busy city.We barely made it to the Hilton.

Once we arrived to the front of the Hilton, we were told to take three rights to get to the back where we were to unload. I had a suitcase and a couple of boxes of books to carry up an escalator and then another one…we opted for the elevators.

Check-in didn’t go so smoothly either. One hand didn’t seem to know what the other hand was doing. Although, a very nice lady…we’ll name her Ms. R (we got separated though and she had some of my stuff with her) and an employee of the Hilton graciously helped us out with a dolly to tote the box of books to where they needed to go.

Well, we totally lost Ms. R and my paper said we were to go to the Orange Ballroom. I went to an empty room.

Thankfully, my stuff had been left in the giant room across the way. But once we got to the door, despite my name tag, the people at the door were reluctant to let me in. I thought I would never make it into that room.

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Once there, I got my things set up. But the crowds seemed to herd together toward the back of the room where the refreshments were. None of the vendors there seemed to have any more action than I did.

So I brought out my big box of chocolate. Lena grabbed a stack of my cards and walked through the room schmoozing and planting seeds. With a little persuasion, people came to the table but no one bought my books or any books from the vendors beside me. ***shrugs***

It was a seed planting day and I met few more authors.

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The picture above is of Sybil Nelson, author and public speaker. She writes YA and middle grade novels. I’ll be in contact with her since she’s an Indie, too, and has been doing this a lot longer than me.

I thought I had other pictures to share, but knowing how my day went, I more than likely pressed the wrong button.

But its all good! Friday is another day to work on my marketing plan and figure out what doesn’t work. Although, my chocolate did bring the librarians to my yard.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Psychic medium, John Edward

john edward While in college and a skeptic of anything psychic, John Edward had a reading with a…you guessed it….a psychic. She told him that he was…well, psychic and that one day he would be seen as a teacher who helps people.

He says the people on the other side give him pictures in his mind to guide him to the living person he needs to give a message to. Although, the experts that study him say, he uses mentalist techniques of hot and cold reading.

The psychic has seven titles. Two television shows, Crossing Over with John Edward, and John Edward Cross Country. He admits to heavily editing his shows “to fine-tune them.” Others feel its to hide his misses.

He also has a website Click here to visit if you like . He charges 500 dollars for a private reading. OUCH! I still feel if you really want to help the dead deliver a message to the living to help them…why so much?

However, in my research on Mr. Edward, I didn’t find any evidence condemning him as a fraud. Even Anderson Cooper seemed convinced that he’s the real thing. You can see a portion of the interview here

What do you think?

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I’LL BE THE ONE WITH THE CHOCOLATE

Thursday, May 2, 2013, I’ll be at the Orlando Hilton, at the FLA Conference. From 2:45 to 4 PM, I will be selling and signing copies of Secondhand Shoes. I’ll have a box of chocolates to share with everyone, too.

Address: 6001 Destination Pkwy

Orlando, FL 32819

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DIDDY TIME

Lila’s Journey, Book II, Killer Stilettos

To my surprise, Vinny sat back and blinked his eyes twice. “But I swear, I never aimed my gun at you.”

“Maybe you didn’t aim it at me, but my friend B.J. is dead now and Cynthia has an injury to the side of her head. So did you kill and injure my friends?!” Heat flushed through my body. My pulse sped up.

Vinny lowered his head.

“Yeah. Just what I thought. Loser!”

“Please. You have to forgive me,” Vinny said between faint sobs.

“You need to ask God for forgiveness. From what I know, you’re bound for hell.”

“Please, you can’t let me go there.” Vinny raised his head, teary blue eyes peered at me. “You have to help me, please.” For a ghost, he cried like a baby. Snot pooled at the top of his upper lip and drool leaked from the corner of his mouth.

“I don’t know if I can help you,” I said in a calm tone. The sight of his urgency and fear made me feel a little more powerful. Something I didn’t exactly possess a few days ago when he and Max held me captive. But a part of my felt sorry for the idiot. I hate it when people cried in front of me. Even creepy ghosts.

“What can I do to fix what I did?”

My mind file clerk came out of hiding and a thought popped into my head. “Right now, you can stand over and guard me until my Gram returns. And I’ll figure out the rest.”

***

Okay. This concludes my post for today. Now its time to make my blog rounds.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly