My Midweek Mayhem, Contest Winner and a Karen Fail for 8/29/12... Eep with a side of LOL!

Happy Midweek Y'all!

Working it out…

• Squee!!!!!! Witch Way to Turn's book trailer WON the You Gotta Read Reviews Contest! Thank you so much for your support! It means a lot to me. I absolutely adore the trailer that my editor, Danielle Fine, created and am so excited to share our win with you!! :o)
• Last week of the Blog Tour! On the right-side of my blog is a list of stops for Witch Way to Turn.
• Today I'm at Jacqueline Paige's Blog with a Guest Post! Hope you'll stop by and enter the giveaway :)
• Exciting news!! My demon-slaying unicorn story (Running From Shadows) is a Finalist in the Heart of the West contest!!! (The Utah chapter of RWA) Squee!!!!

Hearing voices…

• Am pluggin' away on book #2 in the Witch Way series. Current word count is a little over 62,000 words!
• Here's a teaser line from book #2 I'm super happy with (as always, no spoilers to book #1 or #2). This is my girl Breena thinking about a lame arse excuse from one of her fellas. Omigod, if his reasoning gets any more circular, I may loop for eternity.

Getting personal... A Karen Fail!
So my best friend--since the 4th grade--celebrated her 30th birthday in July! I was so happy for her, but sad cos I was going to be out of town (at RWA) and would miss her BIG celebration. 

When I got back home, things were crazy with WWTT's release, the month-long blog tour, my day job, writing book #2 and waiting for her final present that it put me behind in getting her gift mailed out. Once I got her presents together, wrote out this super long note and packaged everything, I took it to the post office. Hooray, right?

Well... It had been almost a week since the tracking confirmation said it was delivered. So, I'm like: Hmm. I knew my BFF would've let me know once she got her gift, so I texted her and she said she hadn't received it. Ohh no! *panics*

(Insert backstory here) I'd scrolled through our texts and thought I'd found her home address (she lives 8 hours from me). Anyway, you can see where this is going. I mailed it to the wrong place! (Yes, I shoulda already had it saved in Google contacts, I'm slack...it's added now!)  

My BFF was my Maid of Honor 2006

Wanna know where I mailed her b-day gift? To a freakin' restaurant!! Holy crap! Yes, I did. It was the most recent address I had in my text cos it was the most recent place we'd met up to hang out when I went to my BIL's wedding in May. 

What happened to the gift? Right... So, I called the restaurant Monday night. Yes, they thought I was crazy. I don't disagree. They hadn't seen it and said to call back Tuesday to speak with the daytime manager. I did and she hadn't seen it either. Of course, I'm kicking myself cos I mailed my BFF's birthday present to the wrong dang address! *growls*

Annoyed with myself, I call the post office on a hope and a prayer that it somehow got returned to them. Yeah, they said no they didn't have it. Ugh! But then, the postal worker asks what the name of the restaurant was and I say: Cracker Barrel. She says, hold on. Apparently the carrier for that route was standing right there and said she saw the package in the mailbox still. Hooray!!! So they graciously offered to deliver the present to the correct address.

So I'm hoping today it will be waiting for my BFF when she gets home from work. *prays* Moral of this story...CONFIRM addresses before mailing something and SLEEP more so your brain isn't complete mush like mine. Phew.

Of course, my BFF was so sweet about the whole thing and I'm blessed to have such a wonderful friend in my life.

Karen vs. The Lost B-day Gift
To be continued...

Waiting game…

Cover Art by Danielle Fine

• On week #12 of waiting to hear back from a lovely agent who is reading Running From Shadows.*continues to keep fingers and toes crossed and keeps querying*
• On week #4 of waiting to hear back from the two agents and editor from the RWA conference. *also continues to keep all possible body parts crossed*

Reading...

• The Empire (The Lover's Opalus) by Grayson Reyes-Cole. I'm already over 1/2 way through this fantasy novella and it's haawt! I was up way too late last night reading. As a friend of mine likes to say... Book hangover!
• Finished reading Creatures of the Moon by Kristine Overbrook this past weekend! Soo good! Check my review here.
  

Bonus material...
*Tune back in for SSS on Sunday for some steamy goodness from Witch Way to Turn!
*Need more Likes for my publisher Lyrical Press - Please click here! Thanks!!
*BIG shout out to my virtual assistant, Florence Price, for all of her help with promotion and getting my book trailer submitted in the You Gotta Read Reviews Contest! Thank you for all you do to keep me on the right track!
*Beautiful Cover Art for Running From Shadows by Danielle Fine... Check her website for more cover art, editing and book trailer services.

Random Alert! Random. Alert. Alert. Alert...

Rusty pup and me. He was only a few weeks old in 2008.

Okay, so this picture brings back memories! Picture this...a frosty January day. The hubs and I had driven 17 hours one way to Wisconsin (where Rustys come from) to get our little pup. It was a whirlwind trip. We talked to the breeders on that Thursday night, dreamed of our own little fella all Friday and then hopped in the car on Saturday. Got Rusty that same night (well, 2:00 AM), stayed in a hotel (without telling them about Rusty...whoopsy) and then drove 17 hours home the next day!
This is me and the cutie pie when he was a wee little bit of a thing and an even bigger demon!!! "Kill all humans!" Yes, that's what he was thinking. I can read doggie minds. Bet ya didn't know that about me. Hah.