Fribble's Blend

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Location: Jefferson City, Tennessee, United States

Published by: Hard Shell Word Factory (http://hardshell.com) and Awe-Struck E-Books (http://awe-struck.net)

Monday, February 28, 2005

I LOVE This Rollercoaster!

Last night I was checking my books again, scrolling down the romance best sellers list at http://store.fictionwise.com/epic/ and found out that my book Diamond in the Rough is doing very well. My books are taking turns leading the pack, and then dropping back again, and now it's Diamond's turn.

It's a sweet romance, meaning that there is no really explicit graphic sex, but it dwells on the period when the heroine and hero first meet until they realize that there is a relationship building between them.

She is an image consultant, hired to turn the company's vice-president from a mountain man into a tradeshow salesman. Her firm's future depends on it, and as he starts digging into the state of affairs back at the office, he realizes the camping supplies company needs his serious efforts to keep it going. But he can't resist the urge to make her life miserable.

There are some really good laughs in this one!

Friday, February 25, 2005

Life Runs Downhill

Well, it's not a steep downhill, but it is a bit of a shock to one's system from time to time. I've been sewing my little fingers to the bone, making new outfits for my trip to California and the EPIC conference. Today I finished the outfit I hope to wear to the banquet.

It is not easy to sew on silk or satin. They slip, they stretch, they don't like to be ironed. I haven't had to do so much frog stitching -- rippit, rippit, rippit! --for a long time. But finally I finished and went to try my new outfit on.

I looked in the mirror and this old woman jumped in front of me. She has white hair, and is dumpy and short! Her face is wrinkled, and her neck is crepey. Sigh!
And sigh again!

I have to be comforted by the growth making my outfits has given me, and that has come with the white hair and the wrinkles. I can now write better -- and I'm a whizz with a blind hemmer!

Thursday, February 24, 2005

If It Hurts This Bad --

-- There must be a book it it somewhere! That's my motto about plotting. Many ideas come from my own life.

When we lived in rural Florida, someone wanted to build something totally inappropriate on an adjoining property, so we mobilized the neighborhood to go through the steps to block it. It was an interesting experience, but a few weeks later when I went to a romance writers' conference, I heard that property disputes aren't terribly well received in editorial offices -- unless they have a twist ending.

Finishing Touch was the result of much rethinking, much difficult but rewarded effort in the research. The neighborhood prevailed.

My book is on the Hard Shell Word Factory site, and available in both e-book and print. If you like romances with a twist ending, you'll like Finishing Touch.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

I Feel Like Royalty!

--Because I got a royalty check yesterday. Honestly, I've had much larger royalty checks, but this one made me smile. It represented the proceeds of several books. What made me very happy was that my electronic book which has been on sale longest, Once Again a Princess, is still going strong.

So today I cashed the check and went shopping.

I had wondered how I was going to afford the things I needed, but the check more than covered them. That was a wonderful feeling.

Monday, February 21, 2005

It turned out to be a nice day

We woke to rain, and I wished that it would go away. I had things to do. I wanted to go to the George Washington's Day sale at the Cherry Pit, a quilt shop down in Sevierville. The weather started to lighten up just as we crossed the bridge going into town.

I found a few small pieces of fabric that I needed, but the yardage I was looking for had already sold -- something that happens often when something is beautiful.

But the weather got better ont he way home. There was water flowing everywhere, down the driveway, down the little creek that sometimes goes through our yarddraining the hill behind us. But as I walked around the yard after lunch, i saw that the daffodils are just about to pop.

Tomorrow will be sunny and warm. The daffodils with come out, and Spring will really start. We committed to this Spring, as we have been in years before.

Friday, February 18, 2005

And the Gardening Begins

Although we can't be certain that the frosts will end for another two months, we have begun the gardening. Not just the weeding, which is well done this time of year, because every weed you pull now saves pulling ten later on. But the things that don't mind the cold.

Yesterday, we noticed that one of the discount stores had saplings out, so we took a look at them. It pays to size up the trees you plan to buy fairly stringently. These had sturdy, regular trunks, nice branching, few broken branches. Now, one of the things you might not know about me is that I was born in the days of Victory Gardens. I've been gardening since I was two years old. I have the touch.

We got two dwarf apple trees, a Golden Delicious and a Red Delicious. Now, I have always thought that whoever named them was long on hope and short on veracity. But we'll see if the tender loving care we plan to give these trees makes a difference in the taste of the apples.

Otherwise, they will be made into apple bread.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Other Paths to Getting Published

I listen to Morning Edition when I'm waking up in the morning. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the success story of Ron Mac Larty and his book which went first to audio rather than to print. Yeah, Ron! (I don't know how to do links successfully, but you know how to get to NRP, Morning edition, and see the most emailed story of the day.)

What caught my ear toward the end of the interview was the observation that an author work now is looked at more as sothething that can be promotable rather than of lasting literary quality. And all this time I thought I had to write well.

But on reflection, I think about Charles Dickens' selling of his work by subscription because he had to feed his family. Little did he know he'd be studied in today's colleges and high schools.

I know I'm not terribly promotable, and to travel around the country to prmote my books has in the past been a disaster. I guess I'm just going to have to wait a century or so for recognition.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

I Gotta Crow!

Last night I found out that EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Connection, ranks second in Preditors and Editors survey of resources for writers. I am so proud of the EPIC organization.

Back in '97, romance writer Florence Moyer and I kept running into each other on the Net because we had a common quest -- information about and outlets for publishing our book electronically. One day she suggested forming an email loop, including other romance authors she knew, a couple of whom were electronically published.

I was then and am today technically challenged, but the idea caught my interest. "Sounds good," I said with my habitual enthusiasm for rushing into things I know nothing about, "but how would you do that?" Well, by dinnertime, she had. Two people became seven, and seven twelve, and now we have about 430 members around the world, in USA, Canada, UK, NZ, Australia, and even in some countries where we have only one member. I am currently President of EPIC -- my tenure ends in a matter of weeks, and I have enjoyed serving my fellow-writers very much.

Our members include published authors, publishers, editors, cover artists and other electronic publishing professionals.

What do we offer? A place where a writer can get information about electronic publishing, publishers, copyright registration procedures, etc. Next month we will be having a conference in Long Beach, CA, aboard the Queen Mary, where we will award our EPPIEs, the award for excellence in many categories of writing.

If you are interested in learning more about EPIC, go to http://www.epicauthors.com

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Sure Signs of Spring

I've got crocuses -- pretty little yellow ones. A lot of them, really, considering how few bulbs we planted a few years ago. The yellow ones have taken over the place where they were planted.

While we were out getting bread this morning, we stopped in the dollar store. I saw cute little gardening ornaments here and there, so I poked around a little more. Bulbs! For glads and ranunculus and something else, which I've forgotten now but I really should have gotten.

Then I spotted the seeds! They were just the 4-for-a-dollar packages, but I got sunflowers. Last year my husband and my grandson planted a row of them and they grew taller than my husband. The seeds didn't get dried properly so we had to buy them again this year, but it is so much fun to plant something that grows that big and showy.

Once the stores put out the seed packets, you know there is no going back! Spring is coming. Now the sun is out, too!

Monday, February 14, 2005

Valentine's Day

This is my unofficial national holiday, as a romance writer. That's why my period-key is sticky today with a little dab of Russell Stover's coconut-center chocolate. I'll eventually get it off there, just in time to get some maple-center on it.

Actually, it was a neighbor who gave us a 3-pound box of chocolates from the outlet store at exit 407 on I-40. Y'all know that's where you turn to go to DollyWood. The trouble with chocolates is that you have to share. Same with cake, ice cream and liquid refreshments. You have to share flowers, too, but that's not as painful.

Even though I have kept the love-handles off, I'm too old for sexy lingerie.

Love is mostly in the mind anyway. Hm...the slash-key has something sticky on it too...orange-center, maybe. Did I mention that is it a really good box of seconds?

Friday, February 11, 2005

My Son, the Nudge

My son doesn't think I should blow off two straight weeksdays of writing my blog. Maybe he's right.

What to write about? Well, he made suggestions, none of which lit any little light bulbs over my head. And I shouldn't write about him, because, well, we live in the same house. That can get uncomfortable.

But I can say that he is a loyal reader of my work, and he reads a lot of interesting things. When one of my books was translated into Japanese, he was able to read bits and pieces of it. He'd taught himself Japanese because of his interests in Anime and model-making.

He's also a writer. I don't know about promoting his work...hm...maybe I'd better read it first.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Promoting Yet Again

I found out something that might be of interest to romance readers, or any readers for that matter.

First of all, if you go to http://www.hardshell.com and click on the ebookstore and Romance, all the books there are 20% off! I have several books there, so you can do a search for Jane Bierce, or slide down the first page of romances to # 15 (Wozzah!) and click on my name.

Or, you can go to http://www.awe-struck.net and check out the Regency romances that are new this month...they sound wonderful to those of us who are fans of that genre.
(I can't write them because I can't do all that research and keep it straight!)

So in this month of Valentines and all the mushy sentimentality, if you are feeling a little left out, check out ebooks. REMEMBER that these publishers and many others let you read a chunk of the book before you buy, and in a more comfortable place than on the bookstore floor!

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

A Few Bright Spots on a Dull Day

First of all -- Happy Birthday, Geneva Grace!

On another note, I accosted a woman in the "used" bread store when I saw the jacket she was wering. It was a "log cabin" block pattern with some exotic Japanese fabrics. Now, I could make a jacket like it, using purchased cloth foundation pieces which I already have, but she put her fabrics on the batting so that the lining could ride free. Oh, this gave us a lot to talk about! And to think about...

Yet another thing that has brightened my day is that my husband has a new interest -- repairing the spinning wheel (see yesterday's entry). We've looked in
What's What?, that wonderful book all writers need to have, and Googled it.
Well, he's engaged in something other than fixing up his Ford truck and cleaning up the yard. That is a good thing.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Guess What We Found!

There's a tool and garden shed on our property, built in the early 60's out of used materials, odds and ends. It's a very irregular shape and I often puzzled over why it has an attic. A relative of the woman who lived here at that time -- the man who built the shed (up to a point -- it surely isn't finished) said that part of the shed was supposed to be a smoke house. But the attic just became an out-of-sight place to put things.

Until today. My husband has been cleaning the shed out now and again for the last year or so, and finally he found something of interest, if not of value. An old, much used, spinning wheel. It looks awful, I have to admit. Where one leg once was there is something that looks like a broom handle. Another leg is broken. One spoke of the wheel looks like the termites had a picnic.

It's going to be lawn art.

Hm...the seat of the chair I was sitting on Saturday split (of old age, of course). I wonder if one of the legs...hm...this requires some thought.

Friday, February 04, 2005

The Sun Shineth

After all the cold, dreary dampness we have been subjected to (but nowhere near as bad as other areas) we have sunshine today, and look for a bit more warmth this afternoon. There are signs of life in the yard, for which I am very thankful.

It's hard to think of things I should be doing when the weather draws me outside. I poke dead leaves away from the crocuses and daffodils that are peaking through the ground, some of the earlier ones already showing buds. I pick up so many fallen twigs and branches that I joke the nickname "Fribble" means silly old woman who picks up twigs.

We will have about three or four more weeks of winter, barring a blizzard the day before my flight to California. I don't care if is rains or snows (lightly). Just give me those spring flowers and I'll be happy.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Blog Me Up, Scotty!

Yet a little more Blatant Self Promotion. Well, I'm trying to spread the Promo around among my fellow writers. In realizing that the best ways to promote romance ebooks are free, I'm starting a romance-readers/writers chat in a few days. More about that later.

It seemed to me that many of the established and newly-tried methods of promoting ebooks were missing the mark. Book signings? How do you sign something that zips through the Internet? Advertising in readers' magazines? People who read print magazines probably aren't ready to jump to ebooks. I appreciate refrigerator magnets, but my fridge looks like it's packed to walk out the door as it is.

So the best thing to do is put out the word that a bunch of romance writers will be on a certain site to chat at a certain time and hope that we have fun and someone decides to buy and ebook they've heard about. Now that sounds a little confined, doesn't it? But it seems to work.

Proof? I've mentioned a couple of my books here and there, and lo, an behold, the ones I've mentioned have climbed in the lists! (But then, it doesn't take much to make ebook authors happy!)

So I'm going to try it again. Anyone who would like to read a nice little book about a romance in a small town, look for my Hard Shell book, COLD NIGHT BEAUTY. Pay particular attention to the cover, as it is a quilt I made while I was writing the book.

About that chat? I'll tell you more next week.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

To Really Mess Up Takes a Computer!

In my last blog, I tried to make links, but they didn't work...I'll try to learn how to do it right. But most of you know how to Google or otherwise search for anything you want to find, anyway. So if you want to look for my ebooks -- or anyone else's -- you already know how.

But yesterday, after I read my morning mail, my ISP had trouble and we didn't get back on line until dinnertime. Unlike many people, I love my ISP.

I have been with them from the day I went online. They gave me a free website, as their contribution to encouraging someone in the arts. When we have a problem, we email them, and sometimes both guys respond. So for almost eight years I've referred people to them, and I'll continue to do so, because I believe in doing as much business locally as possible. But my heart did a couple lurches when, consulting the calendar, I saw it was the first of the month and thought perhaps -- just perhaps -- they had insurmountable problems.

Happily, no! And I surfed the net last night, pleasantly surprised that my books are climbing the charts. Wahoo!