Posted in authors, books, dogs, Family, Fiction, friends, health, humor, Jansen Schmidt, love, reading, success, words, writers, writing, tagged authors, body aches, book signing, books, cats, comedians, dogs, labrador retriever, labs, losing a dog, malaise, men, quiet house, sore throat, speaking, speaking engagement, Youtube on November 5, 2018| 10 Comments »
I’ve had a hard couple of weeks. Some of you know, my super sweet, almost 15-year-old Labrador Retriever, Sherlock, had to be put to rest on the 11th of October. It was one of the hardest days of my life. I’ve never had to make THAT decision before. Here’s a picture of him in his glory days.
Sherlock and miniature Thor. Photo by P. Rickrode.
Posted in Amazon.com, authors, books, cowboys, Fiction, friends, goals, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, romance, social media, success, words, writers, writing, tagged Barnes & Noble, book launch, book signing, book trailer, debut novel, fiction, fiction writing, first book, Google Play, Kobo, Literary Titan, On Common Ground, party, romance fiction, video, Youtube on October 22, 2018| 10 Comments »
It’s finally here – almost! Launch day for my very first full-length novel On Common Ground. Some of you might be sick of seeing the cover so I won’t be posting that again, but I will be providing some helpful links for those of you who haven’t yet pre-ordered your copy. You’ve still got 2 days to pre-order. Launch day is Wednesday – 2 days from now – so go. Go now.
Here are the links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2NPqohX
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2QmC60i
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2RfA0kf
GooglePlay: http://bit.ly/2QfmUlA
Posted in Autumn, blogging, books, cowboys, desert, deserts, Family, Fiction, friends, Jansen Schmidt, reading, travel, Uncategorized, vacation, writing, tagged AQHA, Arizona, Babbitt Ranches, cattle, cattle ranches, cattle round-up, cowboys, cows, debut novel, fiction, fiction writing, Flagstaff, horses, Northern Arizona, On Common Ground, quarter horses, ranches, ranching, romance fiction, romance writers on October 8, 2018| 13 Comments »
Over the past few weeks I’ve been introducing you to the main players in my upcoming release On Common Ground. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is the cover.
I don’t know about you, but I love it!
Posted in Amazon.com, authors, awards, blogging, books, Family, Fiction, Free book, friends, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, resolutions, romance, short story, social media, success, words, writers, writing, tagged authors, Barnes & Noble, Book Bub, book buying, book recommendations, book reviewers, book reviews, e-books, Good Reads, Kindle, library, new authors, recommendations, star ratings on September 24, 2018| 18 Comments »
I know a lot of folks like to read. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say, there are a lot of folks who LOVE to read. I’m one of those folks. Most writers probably are. Everyone has their favorite authors, books, series, genres, etc. Me? I like to read lots of stuff. The only things I don’t read are science fiction, horror, and books that “preach” at me about anything. (more…)
Posted in authors, bull riding, Family, Fiction, friends, Jansen Schmidt, love, reading, romance, sports, success, writing, tagged Ashley Schafer, barrel horses, barrel racing, first book, heroines, horse training, horses, imaginary friends, ranch life, rodeo, rodeo life, romance novel, roping, team roping on August 27, 2018| 8 Comments »
As writers we spend a lot of time with our fictional characters. They become our invisible friends. We talk to them and we talk about them. We imagine what their life was like before our story begins. Sometimes, like in my case, we imagine what they do after the book ends. It’s just something we do.
Posted in authors, blogging, Fiction, friends, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, success, words, writers, writing, tagged attachments, computer folders, computer search, computers, documents, email, email attachments, getting older, internet, karma, losing stuff, lost documents, lost items, missing documents, random, searching on July 23, 2018| 10 Comments »
I know I’m getting older and my memory isn’t what it used to be. But, I try to be careful in my daily dealings. I’m not inclined to forget things if I write them down, but it still happens. I’m a list maker so I don’t forget to accomplish certain chores that must get done. And I’m not one to lose things. (more…)
Posted in authors, awards, blogging, bucket list, drinks, driving, Family, Fiction, friends, goals, Holidays, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, resolutions, success, vacation, words, writing, tagged 50 states, bucket list, games, guessing, guessing games, prize, prizes, traveling, winning on June 4, 2018| 7 Comments »
Today we’re going to play a game. I don’t know about you, but I love to play games. As in actual games with rules and prizes and stuff, not the emotional games game. I don’t play those games. Those are hurtful. But I digress. (more…)
Posted in Amazon.com, Aunty Cindy, authors, blogging, books, Fiction, friends, humor, Jansen Schmidt, Loucinda McGary, reading, romance, short story, social media, words, writers, writing, tagged artwork, authors, book covers, book shelf, book titles, books, cover blurbs, cover design, first impression, fonts, foreboding, foreshadowing, images, judge book by its cover, mock-up, romance writers, RWA, titles on May 21, 2018| 10 Comments »
About a month ago I blogged about the importance of a good title, in relation to articles and books. A lot of that post was poking fun at embarrassing headlines from newspapers, but the point got made – how something is titled is important. Because I’m on the brink of publishing my first novel, I’m at the point where I need to start making some very important decisions about not only titles, but the items that will make or break someone’s decision to buy my book. The items that create a good first impression. The things that will make my book stand out from the rest on an already crowded shelf. (more…)
Posted in anthology, authors, blogging, books, Fiction, goals, grammar, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, short story, sports, success, words, writers, writing, tagged bad headlines, book blurbs, book covers, book titles, catchy titles, fun, funny headlines, humor, inappropriate headlines, internet, risque headlines, titles on April 23, 2018| 4 Comments »
Writers know how important it is to grab readers’ attention as soon as possible. A catchy opening line, an intriguing back cover blurb, even a good title is important to make that very first awesome impression. Sometimes those 3 things alone are enough to make a sale. That along with a good cover of course. I’ve been known to buy a book based on these 4 things. (more…)
Posted in April, authors, blogging, books, dancing, Family, Fiction, food, friends, humor, Jansen Schmidt, reading, resolutions, roses, success, Vicksburg, writing, tagged aches, ashes, bad taste, cancer, cancer free, cancer sucks, eating, exhaustion, food, healing, IV, medicine, medicine taste, nausea, pains, tired, treatment, Wonder Woman on April 9, 2018| 8 Comments »
There’s a line from a song from the movie Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang, that I love: “Up from the ashes, grow the roses of success.” That line can be applied to a lot of things. For me, right now, it applies to my rise from “sickness” to improved health. Not that I was unhealthy before, because I really wasn’t, I was just infected with a nastiness known as cancer. (more…)
