Merry Christmas Happy Christmas Happy Holidays

My website is back up! And I want to publicly thank Mandy Eve-Barnett, a writer friend of mine, for alerting me that my website was gone. If not for her… Well, I’m so very grateful she let me know. Maybe visit her website and check out the books she has to offer? Or wander off to Amazon to check her out? I think her site is http://www.mandyevebarnett.com.

I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year. It can be a struggle to accomplish everything you have in mind to do, but I’ve come to the conclusion that just enjoying the spirit of this time of year is most important.

That said, I finished my wrapping yesterday. Never did get to writing out Christmas cards. Next year I’ll get it done. Pretty sure I will. No making Christmas cookie this year for me. My body doesn’t like sugar or gluten. Makes my finger joints ache. Not worth it.

I’m watching Miracle on 34th Street. Never gets old for me.

Looking forward to Sunday when two of my grandchildren visit with my daughter and her husband. They’re three and seven and I look forward to watching them open their presents and spending a little time with them.

Christmas Day should be fun around here. My other two grandchildren are thirteen.

If you’re looking for some Christmas themed books, I have a few. I’d be pleased if you checked out these short stories.

Yes, two different covers of the same book.  But hey, I also have other books if you’re in the mood for humor and the paranormal, historical and present day. If you’ve read my Gettis (Gettysburg) trilogy, you might enjoy Love’s Blood. That tells the tale of Britta when she was young and how she and Erik got together. Yes, it’s possible to travel through time…if you’re in the right place.

So, my best wishes to you all and have a wonderful holiday and very Happy New Year!

SERENITY: ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE IN GETTIS

It’s been a long while since I’ve blogged…January 2107. But I knew since I finished my new book I should at least blog about my achievement…and make my goal.

I belong to the Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers group, and we meet in Mechanicsville, about an hour away from me, once a month for two hours. We sometimes have guest speakers, report about conferences we’ve attended, spread any news about publishers and agents. We laugh a lot, too. And we also set a monthly goal. My goal since June has been to blog about my new book. It’s the end of October. Well, one more day until the end of the month. But I finally made my monthly goal.

SERENITY: ACCEPTANCE AND LOVE IN GETTIS is Book number 3 in the Love In Gettis series. Read Gettysburg when you see Gettis. If you read Book number 1 you’ll find out why.

What’s it about? Book number three follows book number two which followed book number 1. Book number 3 may or may not be the final book of the series. As I have on the back page blurb:

It’s hard enough to find and then keep serenity in your life even when things are going well, because, really, how long does that serenity last? But when things go wrong…as in…

Your fiancee is furious by something you’ve confided, but won’t explain why he’s angry. Then things get worse when he turns into someone you no longer like.

Or when you realize the woman you’ve been dating is now different, but not in a good way, and you can’t remember why you and she even began dating.

Your young daughter believes you and her father will get back together again.

Or you learn your crazy sister is moving back home and now you, your husband and children need to move out much sooner than expected.

The big, wonderful surprise you’d planned for your honey blows up in your face.

Or when the people around you act as if they can hear animals talking to them…and they even answer them.

But a little acceptance of the strange and unexpected things that happen in our lives, as well as adding a lot of love, can lead you to serenity.

I do hope you enjoy my latest, and please let me know what you think.

Any idea what the house on the cover represents? Let me know.

 

Question and Answer Tag-My Turn

I have been tagged by Mandy Eve Barnett, https://mandyevebarnett.com to play along with this Q&A, so here’s mine.

Rules: Thank the blogger who tagged you.
Thank you, Mandy. I’ll remember this.

Answer the ten questions you were given by that blogger. Nominate ten people, give them ten new questions, and let them know they were tagged.

The questions I received were:

Which do you prefer – tea or coffee or something else?

Coffee.

Vacation destination – beach, city, cruise or adventure?

If you’re paying, anywhere. If I’m paying, anyplace where I can look at trees.

As a writer do you plot your novels step by step or free flow allowing the idea freedom?

I have an idea and the story flows from that idea. Might take a while.

Given the choice would you either write your memoir OR the autobiography of someone else?

My memoir. That way I know I’ll get all the facts straight.

What inspires you to write?

The ideas that comes to me. They nag and keep coming until I begin a story.

Do you prefer one genre or many to read? If one genre – why that one?

All genres. I don’t like horror, as in gruesome, hurtful, sadistic death and pain without end and generally like bedroom scenes behind closed doors. I’m old.

Which TV show from your childhood was your favorite?

Lassie and Yancy Derringer.

What is your preference for a pet? Dog or cat or some other animal?

Dog. Miss Tawny is my dog. I also have two pissy cats, Sally and Miss Loupie.

List two items you would rescue in the case of a house fire.

Pets and hard drive.

What skill do you wish you had?

Remembering things.

Thank you for joining in!

Now my potential nominees. You may post your answers here in the comments or create your own blog post, as I have done.

http://www.authormaggiepreston.com

https://brandyayers.com

https://pattytaylorauthor.com

https://cpbialois.wordpress.com

https://www.amazon.com/Angela-B.-Mortimer/e/B00C8G2RGE

http://heatherheyford.com

https://thewritingdeputy.wordpress.com (Joel Jurrens)

http://greendragonartist.com (Christy Jackson Nicholas)

https://www.facebook.com/rrsmythe?fref=ts (Ronna Smythe also W/A Brynn Chapman)

If I’ve misspelled a name or messed up your author information site, please let me know! I’ll fix it.

There is no time limit on this Q&A Blog Tag. Please do not feel rushed or even obligated to take part, I know we all have a lot of projects to complete and life stuff to do!

Your questions are:

1. Is there a particular theme or themes to your books?

2. Anything about you that people would be surprised to learn?

3. Where in the world do you live? What do you like best about that place? Least?

4. You can have dinner with anyone from the past or the present. Who is that person? Why that person? Which one of you asks the most questions?

5. Do you believe there is something you were born to do? Have you achieved this goal?

6. Social media. Love it or hate it? Any links you’d like to share? Where can people find you?

7. Do you have a favorite book you go back to re-read? The name? Or has this changed with time?

8. Is there a book you want to write but you can’t get it right?

9. Any rituals you follow before you begin writing? Or do you just sit and write wherever and whenever you want?

10. Has your writing subject changed through the years? Is so, in what way? Why do you think that is so?

I just like this photo. No particular reason I placed it here.

Good luck! Have fun! No time limit!

Christmas Stories For Christmas

Need an idea for a Christmas gift? A stocking stuffer? Gift exchange? Yankee Auction?

I just happen to have four short Christmas stories. They are all e-readable, but if you’d like a paperback full of Christmas themed stories, my stories are also in paperback anthologies.

This will have to do as a Christmas Picture.

Then I found this. Remember Black and White Panda Beady Baby Thing?

So below are my four short Christmas stories. All are sweet Regencies. Humorous.

A sweet Regency short story. Either singly or in the anthology.

My story is in this anthology.

A short and sweet Regency romance.

This is Lady Lydia. She has trouble with her fangs. She’s a Sunshine Vampire. She finds romance and Love at Christmas.

This is Lady Annette, Lady Lydia’s sister, and also a Sunshine Vampire. Teeth fascinate her. Despite that obsession, she does find love at Christmas.

Since I’m really, really P.O.’d with the changes made at WordPress, changes that seem counter-intuitive compared to the old way, and I am unable to do what I’d intended, that is to put the buy link that would take you to Amazon and other stores, I will settle for asking to visit the MY BOOKS pages that have the links. Sorry about that.

OH! Miss Loupie has not had to go to the vet, a good thing. She has lost weight and can now bend enough to clean her own butt. I never knew if she understood what I was doing when I cleaned her. She always gave a strange look.

I’m almost finished book #3 in the Love In Gettis series. I hope to have another Christmas short out next year with Grandpa Santa and Helen as the main characters. And Gettysburg. I haven’t gotten too far with anything else, ideas still whirling around in my head.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, merry and bright!

DISCOVERY AND LOVE is out!

Book Two in the LOVE IN GETTIS Series is now out. Actually it was out last month but with this and that, which I’ll get to later in this post, it’s taken me this long to actually get to my website and blog about this big news.

Book one is a time travel from past to present. Late 800’s South West Ireland to modern- day Gettysburg. Book number two is a present day story that takes place in and around Gettysburg. If you read the first book, ESCAPE TO GETTIS…AND LOVE, you realize the people who came through the portal always referred to the place of escape as Gettis.

Now that I think about it, Book One was a double time travel. Captain David Heacock went through a portal one night while walking the battle ground, and stepped into medieval Ireland and was captured by Danes. Oops. Once the portal opened, he gladly walked with his captors back to what he thought was his time to the battle field in Gettysburg. Poor David.

If you’re read any of my stories, you know I like humor and the ridiculous. My tag line is “Stories with Humor…The Impossible…And Love.”

I also have the wild-blooded in my stories. If you want to know more about what that is, go to my Page devoted to my wild blooded world and read that, but a partial listing is also included in the front of my book.

Book Two is David and Laurel’s story. *Spoiler alert!* No, they don’t get together. Did you really think Laurel would fall for David? The man has some serious growing up to do before he’s ready for a relationship with a woman. Laurel accepts a date with someone, her first date in over six years, but that…  You’ll have to read the book to find out. Laurel begins to see auras and develops some other gifts as well. Maggie and Joren are in the story, but not as much as the first book since book one was their story. But they’re happy. So are Thora, Helen and Artur. Mr. Big Boss intrudes, or tries to. Some new characters and some old characters weave their way through the story.

Koozie, Dromo and Port do what they do, and try to get their charges to hear them. They succeed with two people in this book. When they see who come through the portal, they’re very excited, yet can foresee some serious problems arising because of this.

I also have a Cast of Characters for this book. I also had a Cast of Characters done for Book One as well, but I believe it’s just for the eBook.

There may be some curse words, but nothing horrid as I’m aware teens read my work. My dog has heard worse. No sex. Sorry about that, but it hasn’t been needed.

So if you do read my books, please write a review, and if you just can’t do that, go to GoodReads and leave a star review. I do that until I can get back and write a review. Thank you!

Now… This and That:

I had eight inches cut off my hair. Long hair is great in the summer because you can just put it up off your neck and thus keep cool. Also, it took forever to style, not that I styled it that often. So I’m back to what I call page-boy style. Easy peasy.

* * *

I had to put Miss Sophie down a few months ago. It happened when it seemed like everyone on FaceBook had put a pet down that week. Weird. Miss Sophie was the sweetest and most intelligent of the cats here. She got something wrapped around her tongue, a string, ribbon, or floss, and we thought that was taken care of, but about two weeks later I had to take her back to the vet and he shook his head, so I held her as she passed. She was only six.

Regarding cats in the house, we had a war going on not long ago. A disgusting pee war. Nothing was spared. Since none of the humans can speak cat, we had to listen to the vet who advised us to keep them separated and calm. Right. Five cats now in the house, four of them from the same litter and of those four, three are female and they hiss at each other for no apparent reason when they see each other. Then Miss Loupie developed a urinary tract problem, so another visit to the vet. Fluids, antibiotic shot and pills and try to keep her calm. She was always calm until I went to put a pill down her throat. She was fine for two weeks after the last pill and then the problem started coming back. Another trip to the vet. And a special diet just for her. Her cans of cat food cost about $2.00 per can, but she doesn’t really like it, so it’s not like she’s scarfing it all down at once. So Loupie can only eat the canned food for Urinary Tract problems, but Sally can eat regular cat food, but only canned. Nothing dry and crunchy in here because Loupie can’t have it.Which also means no more treats.

So my door to the rest of the house is always closed. The Great Pissing War between the cats has ended, which is a very good thing. Except Baxter, the lone male, a real sweetie, always tries to get in so he can eat their food. That’s all he wants, their food. He looks disgusted when he does get in and looks down and sees he can’t get to the food. The thing is, if they aren’t eating, I have to keep their food covered so the other cat doesn’t eat it. Sally always wants to eat Loupie’s food and Loupie wants to eat Sally’s food. I really don’t want to have to take Loupie back to the vets because of another UT infection.

* * *

My memory had been pretty bad lately, not sure why, so I can’t remember when everything started, but I do know it kept getting worse and nothing I did make it go away. Prescriptions were offered but I wanted to know why I hurt, why I couldn’t move my arms higher than 45 degrees. Then it got worse. I remember spending one Saturday on the sofa, trying not to move because everything hurt,  every joint in my body hurt, and watching Law & Order SVU all day. I finally got a six-day Prednisone pack and after the first day my pain was gone. My mind was cleat. It was wonderful! Then the pain started creeping back. Cutting to the chase, I was referred to a Rheumatologist and she ordered xrays, blood test, RX for inflammatory, 10mg of Prednisone, now cut to 5mg, and 50,000 units of V-D2 once a week. Tentative diagnosis was Polymyalgia Rheumatica which I believe it is since the Prednisone really helps with the creeping pain. Otherwise it could be Rheumatoid Arthritis or Lupus. So I see her this Monday and will see.

However, my minds blanks at times. I really, really hope it will get better. So if I seem a little goofy at times, well, I guess I am. But I do go blank at times, too. So please bear with me.

And read my books!

A Book Signing!

I went to a book signing this past Saturday as one of nineteen authors. It was supposed to be twenty, but Julie Doherty was sick that morning.

The event was fun. The weather was not.

It was about 2,000 degrees below zero and the wind was blowing about 300MPH. It had snowed about an inch the night before, but the roads were mostly cleared by the time I drove away.

Except…it was very windy and as I traveled north the snow kept blowing over empty-but-for-snow fields and across the roads…a lot. So, you’re going 45 or 55 and then you see a thick patch of snow ahead, so the cars ahead of you slows down to 25 mph.

It took longer to get there than I thought, but I got there safely. A good thing.

It’s been a while since my last book signing, and I’d forgotten how heavy it is to carry books and all the paraphernalia authors bring with them. A small rolling suitcase will be used by me next time.

The event was in a nursery…the kind where plants, mulch and flowers are sold. They also sold many neat and cool things that called to me to buy them and take them home with me. Proud to say I resisted.

I was seated between authors Delynn Royer and Wade Kelly. Delynn is in my writing group, the CPRW, and we’ve been at retreat together, and Wade Kelly lives in Maryland. But I had met Wade about four years ago at Kid’s Fest, held at Codorus State Park where I had taken the grandtwins each morning for one week that summer. We both agreed we looked familiar, and Wade figured it out.

Surprisingly to us, there were a lot of people who braved the roads and wind and came through and looked at all the books, some asking questions, taking our cards, free gifts and occasionally buying books. We assumed the weather would keep everyone at home. But these people must have been book lovers, or else they were so bored they decided this would be something different to do on a Saturday.

Many of these people expressed their surprise that there were so many authors who were local or lived elsewhere in Pennsylvania. I know, right? Hopefully these kind people who bought our books will read them and return again next year for another Valentine’s book signing.

When you go to book signings, do you avoid looking at the author? Or do you enjoy chatting with the author? We really do realize that no one will be coming in and buying a copy of every book for sale. We really do. 😀

Oh, and it’s snowing again.

 

2015 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 920 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 15 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Last Post For 2015, Photos and Christmas Stories

I admit I’m terrible about blogging with regular posts. I think of things to blog about but never get around to sitting and writing up a post. When I do, I discover WordPress has changed something, and then I have to grumble and figure out the new things. I like to mainly sit and write my stories.
Today is the day I blog. My last post for 2015.

Since Christmas is this Friday, and people like to read Christmas stories at Christmas time, I am reminding those of you who haven’t read my Christmas short stories, well, I have a few.

Joy’s Christmas Wishes. A sweet Regency.

A Chorus Singing Love. A sweet Regency.

Mind Your Fangs. A sweet Regency.

A Wild-Blooded Christmas- With Fangs. A sweet Regency.

Sweet as in suitable for all ages, and although I do write paranormal and fantasy, nothing gory. My Vampire’s are Sunshine Vampires, who are healers, and drinking blood in anathema to them. Take a look on this site on the My Wild-Blooded World page where I describe all my creatures and what they are if you are confused.

The above stories are available as singles or in anthologies with other authors and their Christmas stories.

My Grand daughter helped me to decorate for Christmas. She did it all, really, much to my delight. Photos follow.

I’ve also included some photos of some of my flowers blooming. The African Violet has a before decorating and after decorating photo.

•    I’m happy to report the cats have yet to knock anything down.

And before I forget, my newest release, Book One in the Love in Gettis series, ESCAPE TO GETTIS…AND LOVE now has three reviews! One on Amazon US, one on Amazon UK and one on Amazon CA. There is also one on GoodReads, and another to follow. Not Christmasie, but people like the story.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, a Happy Holiday, wonderful Solstice and a very Happy New Year!

If you love someone, tell them so. You never know what the future brings.

My best to you all.

Gerri

A New Book, and a Little of This and That

This the the cover for my new book, Escape to Gettis…and Love. The first in the Love In Gettis series.

If you liked the characters Koozie and Dromo in my book LOVE’S BLOOD, the good new is…

Koozie and Dromo are back!

Maggie is content with her life as it is. She’s divorced, and makes a good living as a massage therapist in Gettysburg. She’s not ready to accept there’s a portal to Viking Ireland in her back yard that’s now open. Yet when the intruders come through, she is attracted by one man’s aura, Joren. She later finds out that he saved her brother and is also  a healer, which attracts her even more. Yet she’s been hurt before. Despite her inner fears of commitment, she believes she could be happy with this man.

When the portal is discovered to be open, Joren knows it’s time to go through to Gettis and rescue those children who had been stolen away so many years ago. With permission from the old man, Joren collects his men, the prisoner, and his sword, Singer of Mighty Blood Songs and enters Gettis. His world is rocked. Wonders abound and the children are safe. His mission is now changed. One of the reasons is Maggie. Would she have him?

The evidence of Arndt, an evil man who is pursuing the travelers puts everyone in Gettis at risk. Without alerting the outside world of their portal, can they defeat Arndt and his men, and live happily ever after?

Koozie and Dromo will help them.

This book is available everywhere e-books are sold. It’s also available in paperback! I hope you enjoy reading my new story. If so, please put up a review. It’s helpful to do this for all authors and very much appreciated, I assure you. Just a sentence or two why you liked it.

~ ~ ~

It’s been almost one year since my last post.

That time has been one of great loss for me, with the cruel death of a loved one. Parents should never outlive their children.

The past year also blessed me a new granddaughter.

And life goes on.

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 960 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 16 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.