An experiment in frustration....

Okay, we romance authors who first published almost a year ago with Crimson Romance are about to launch our anniversary celebratory Blog Hop. So, because I am a geek/nerd, I set out to create a badge that I can copy anywhere that will link to the main page of our Blog Hop. Easier said than even attempted!

So here I am now, I've learned a bit of HTML code, just enough to imbed a URL link to a website into an image by searching on Dogpile, my new favorite search engine, to find a quick fix. EZ-PZ. Now I'm back where I started. How do I copy this single image, with embedded URL address on FB or TWITTER or wherever I want?

Mission Impossible? BWA HA! I shall persevere... I'm now off to copy, paste and see if it works.

Damn... foiled. Followed the directions correctly on my cheat... check!  Perhaps update... check. Ah, I must publish... check!

It works, if you click this image it will indeed take you where I want you to go. As for getting it onto a Facebook site... that's for another day. I'm going for a smothering load of Hershey's Kisses, like, now!

Hugo winner 2312 rocks asteroid terrarium style!

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic science fiction like it should be done, with unique technology, stylistic often stream of consciousness segments that inform and leave tantalizing questions in your mind. I loved the concept of this book and Swan as the main character had me from the get go. Another great female character in the tradition of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The science wrapped in beauty that existed in Robinson's world is magnificent, adventurous and yes, hopeful. Ever so unique, not what I expected and delightfully so, I highly recommend this book to those who love cutting edge sci-fi.

View all my reviews

A Garden of Neurosis

I have a gan-green thumb. Oh yes, I can grow any little herbage in my wickedly fickle garden of irrational delights.

1. Foxglove, actually digitalis. A stimulant when the heart is under threat. This towering condo is full up with adjustment disorders; creative compulsiveness, bi-polarism, hypertension, palpitations; anxieties spinning like ferris wheels from three thirtyish to five fortyish a.m. Trepidation hypomania.
2. Forget-me-nots grow like weeds in this garden; fear of rejection, yada, yada, yada.
3. Daisy’s, of course, with their spikey “pluck-me-nots” house irritations and mood swings. They’re just so darn perky yet crush so easily.
4. Lilies, cleverly three lobed, grow from bulbs. Oh my, deep rooted apprehension and fear of being naked.
5. Blanket flowers have multi-colored petals, rough edged. They go to seed in spiked balls resembling demented clouds… multiple personalities on crack.
6. Columbine. Lovely columbines, curled, fragile petals with tails—definitely self image issues.
7. Iris’s so exotic and yet top heavy. Spanked with a few drops of rain, they topple… definitely hyper-phobic.
8. Pansies. Need I say more? They somehow, sweetly, mirror a crazy set of inferiority complexes.

Gardening is a soothing, get-dirty-with-nature, feel good exercise. You plant seeds, water them a little and your flower bed fills with blossoms of intense color and scent that lasts a short few months of warm sunshine. Glorious life in full splendor. Having said all this, I think I’ll sleep well tonight. So thanks for a sabbatical from chronic insomnia. I owe ya.

Addendum to $.99!

So it's11:00 p.m. and this marvelously, fabulous day has happened and now is mostly history. Smitten Image did me proud today. From 115, 021 in the Amazon rankings last night at this time to...

 #77 Paid in Kindle Store
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Paranorma
 #1 in Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic 
#11 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary


... this truly magical night, I am speechless, flabbergasted beyond reason, metaphysically on a surreal plane soaring way off planet! I truly don't understand what these numbers mean or how they work in the grand scheme of the book selling world but...

I am humbly grateful and sending out thanks to EVERYONE in my life, for getting me here, for their love and support and belief. And I'm thanking the wondrous universe that often baffles me, for the gift of today and the angels hovering near.

 

$.99!

First blog of 2013... what the blue blazes have I been doing instead? Writing (just not here), skiing some, coughing, reading...  same old, same old. But an hour or so from now, January 15th, is Smitten Image's big day on Amazon. The Daily Deal, $.99 day where my little book will be the price of a candy bar, half the price of a latte, about thirty seven minutes worth of meter parking downtown and in my bad ass, ski instructor days, the cost of a can of chew. (Yeah, I chewed... didn't spit, so gross and it messed up the pristine beauty of white snow.)

$.99 day for the e-book of Smitten Image, futuristic fantasy fun that is Lily and Daniel's story, the artist who drinks a love potion and paints her perfect men who stalk her, the telepath who can't let anyone too close or he'll go mad. Yep, my two love birds hit the big time. Maybe...

 http://www.amazon.com/Smitten-Image-ebook/dp/B008DVLINQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341973718&sr=1-1&keywords=smitten+image

Trying to understand how one's novel is selling on-line is like playing craps. Or jacks or deciphering code. But tonight, and it's 11:00 p.m., Smitten Image is ranked 155, 041 in the convoluted, algorithmic, ether-market that is Amazon books. Tomorrow, a different story, I hope. I would love to sell a million copies at $.99. I'd love to give it away for free if I knew people were reading it, giggling, falling in love with the characters and the fantastical futuristic world of magic. Because I may have written this book because it's one I'd fall for, but as I learned being an artist, value in the Real World is created by how many souls like it. And buy it.

So tomorrow, I'll be pushing my little book as if I were a pharmaceutical rep, a crack dealer, a pimp. And I'll probably get bad "street cred" and people will cry me 'wolf' for a spamming, self-serving self-promoter...

Tomorrow, I'm likely to be misbehavin' out in cyber world. So you better cuff me now.

"Baby, there's cops outside" Karaoke! And our last day Blog Hopping with Holiday Gift of Love.

Alas, this is our final day for Karaoke Fun singing wacky, whimisical and way off planet lyrics to some of my favorite Christmas songs. Thanks so much for taking part. I hope you all signed up here to win a free book and then hopped all over the merry place to enter on other blogs for more prizes and some amazing Grand Prizes.

Smitten Image is the first of a series of futuristic urban fantasy's set in the future. I'm currently working on The Bedrosian Born: Broken Eros, a story about an apprentice pleasure succubae (whose family has been in the world's oldest profession since the world was new). Garin Bedrosian is determined she will not co-operate with her family's plan to turn her into a high priced courtesan, which puts her life and those she loves in danger. Cutter Greely is a Rifter who can open space and slip through to other destinations which makes him a perfect corporate spy. But it doesn't make for an easy nor a very long life. And he has no room for Garin and the troubles she brings with her. Please check back in early 2013 for the release of Broken Eros. I'd love to hear what you think. Thanks again for stopping in and Happy Hopping!

                    (I apologize for singing both parts and for not sounding very male...)

 "Baby, there's cops outside"... (a.k.a. Baby, it's cold outside)

I  really can’t stay,

                   Baby, there’s cops out there

I must get away

                   Baby, there’s cops out there

You got me in

                   Was hoping they’d miss the boat

This awful mess.

                    They caught on faster than I’d hoped.

I really thought it wasn’t a bank job

                    Quick, let’s hide the loot in the floor

Didn’t think of paying the price

                     Before they come to break down the door.

So really I’ve got to scurry,

                     Hurry there’s no time to lose now

So let me go, I’ll shut my mouth.

                     We’ve got to keep a hold of this score

Don’t want in the clink,

                    Baby, it’s bad out there  

Jeesh, what’s in this drink?

                    Lights flashing everywhere

I wish I knew how

                    I’ll make a dash,    

To quit this mess

                    Just let me go, I’ll take the cash

I shoulda said, hell, not going

                    No one’s gonna catch me again

At least I coulda gotten away

                    What’s the sense in hurting my pride.

I really can’t stay.

                     Baby, don’t hold out.

Hey, cause there’s cops outside!

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Crazy Karaoe fun with "Starving in a Winter Wonderland" on the Holiday Gifts of Love Blog Hop!

Welcome to Karaoke Madness with me today. We're singing "Starving in a Winter Wonderland." So push play below, loosen up your voice, sing along, enjoy yourself and please, laugh out loud! Leave a comment to sign up for giveaways, including some great grand prizes. And then please go to other bloggers listed below, enter there and then just keep hopping! 

And feel free to look around here. I've written a futuristic urban fantasy called Smitten Image. Lily Barnett, a drifty but brilliant artist who is hopeless at love, stumbles on a magic shop and drinks a love potion. Her magic sparks to life, creating chaos and mayhem around her. Not even her handsome best friend and neighbor, Daniel, can help her. Rogue powers, mischance, dark secrets, pelican mini-lights quoting poetry and painted portraits coming to life all turn Lily's once simple life upside down...

“You will want to curl up on Lily Barnett's sagging sofa for a cup of tea, remind her to feed the fish, and watch her magical world unfold around you. A thoroughly welcome and refreshing take on the classic romance novel. Read it and be transported...” says Tin L.

“Magic--Excitement--Exquisite Writing! Pam B. Morris knows how to write. Her words pull you in and make you feel as if you're living in the world she's created. It's a joy to read and I couldn't wait to see what happened.--then was so sad when I'd read the last word.” Review by Celtic Moon Girl

 

 Starving in a Winter Wonderland

It’s the phone, are you listening,

I’ve a rant and it’s blistering.

My swimsuits too tight,

I’m dieting tonight,

Starving in a winter wonderland.

Gone away are my thin clothes,

Here to stay, strange new fat rolls,

Cabbage and greens,

Peas and some beans,

Starving in a winter wonderland.

On the treadmill I can break a sweat now

Pretending I can run a marathon,

Yes, I look a lot like a big milk cow

I’m confused I will not lose what I put on.

Later on, I’ll conspire

To eat cupcakes with desire,

Then face off the scale,

Hit Walmart's BIG sale,

Starving in a winter wonderland

When I’m thin, I’ll buy new clothes

Spend my time paintin’ small toes,

I’ll wear nothing much, get by eatin’ slush,

Shrinking in a winter wonderland!

And what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $200 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

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