Book Covers and Movies and Tweets and Stuff

I am so freaking tired, I'm sitting here staring at the computer and trying to find some little ounce of energy to do something. Anything. It really is not a good idea for me to go to bed at 12:15 a.m. and get up at 5:00 a.m., after first getting up at 4:00 a.m. to feed the cats so they stop scratching at the freaking doors.

So I got the final print cover for Acceptable Risks, which comes out in mass market paperback in June. It's pretty much the original cover with the new Carina logo and some added richness and contrast, I think. I'm excited! This is my favorite of my three Carina books. If you're in the romantic suspense Reader Service, you'll get this one!

I am not much for independent films. I tend to find them morose, dull, navel-gazing, and/or weird. The bigger accolades the critics give an independent film, the less I tend to like it (assuming I cave to the praise and give it a try).

Things started to break with Silver Linings Playbook. I was wary of the mental illness plot, but I love both Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper (every time I type his name I want to go back and watch Alias again), and I love football. Lo and behold, the movie was funny and sweet and had an uplifting ending that surprised me.

Last night I watched an independent film that I absolutely loved. Well, it was Joss Whedon, so that's not a surprise. The ending was a little too Hollywood (dramatically satisfying without much thought to the consequences of events and what would happen after the credits rolled), but the acting and editing were absolutely superb, and the characterization and cinematography equally so. I rented it last night, and since I haven't stopped thinking about it all day, I'd say it was well worth the $5. Check it out:



Last night or maybe this morning, I don't know, it all runs together, I watched the trailer for Clark Gregg's Trust Me, and it looks delightful. Now, admittedly I've got a bit of a crush on Clark Gregg. Some of it is why the rest of the world is crushing on him (i.e. Agent Coulson) but he's a Massachusetts native and went to my college and is a writer. And he's always super-gracious to all the Twitter whiners who beg him to tweet them. So check THIS out:



And finally, there's the movie called Authors Anonymous that also looks cute and funny and not dull or depressing, though I'm not as eager for that one because a) I've been burned before by movies that portray author-dom in a completely ridiculous way (I'm looking at YOU, Cheaper by the Dozen), and b) the cast doesn't excite me as much as the other two movies did/do.

Okay, that's book covers and movies... Oh, tweets! Yeah, I thought I had 10k tweets exactly this morning because Twitter said 10k, but then I pointed to it this afternoon and it said 10,004, so I missed it. That made me a little sad, especially since I'd already posted a tweet about it that was wrong. Oh, well. I gotta be wrong sometimes. It validates all my rightness. :)

Stuff...

Why do we have so much freaking mulch? We'll be shoveling it around the property all summer long.

The mulch-shoveling is extra annoying because I also have to do a big heavy cleaning of my house, with my inlaws coming later next week to stay with Number Two while we go to Boston to pick up Number One from college. Cleaning and yardwork take away from writing time, and that's frustrating. So I should write now, except I'm pretty brain-dead.

This came out okay, though. Maybe I'll have my heroine do some blogging...

Grocery Store Fantasies (of the Non-Food Variety)

I just made a quick run to the grocery store for pancake mix for Number Two's birthday breakfast tomorrow. (We HAD pancake mix, but it turns out it expired in January. :/ )

So on my way out I watch a woman with a giant SUV parked 4 spots from the store using her free hand (she was on her cell phone, natch) to stick her grocery cart in between the cars. Rather than taking 30 seconds to run it up to the walkway.

As I passed it, I deliberately-accidentally bumped into it, but it didn't go anywhere. That made me sad. So here's my fantasy, edited twice in my head on the drive home, because that's my job. :)

I "bump" the cart hard enough to knock it into her shiny planet-killer. She leans back out the partially open door of her vehicle to yell at me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I say, grabbing the cart, even though it's too late to save her paint job. "The person who left this here obviously didn't care about what happened to people's cars."

And then I leave it there and walk away to my 16-year-old Toyota that can totally stand up to any carts left in the lot, and then carefully put my cart in the corral, because I always do.

That would have been trés satisfying, non?

What kind of confrontation have you fantasized about lately?

Second Honeymoon Book Tour by Sara Walter Ellwood

Gambling On A Secret

Book 1 of The Colton Gamblers

Blurb:

When Charli bets everything on a secret, will she find the deck stacked against her?

Former runaway-turned heiress Charli Monroe is hiding her sordid past and planning a future in Colton, Texas. Attending the local college for a degree in social work, she intends to raise cattle on her newly purchased ranch, which she plans to open as a home for troubled teens. Only a few glitches—the Victorian mansion is crumbling, the barn needs a roof, and her oilman neighbor wants more than friendship. When she meets Dylan Quinn, Charli is willing to take a chance on the town drunk to help her rebuild the rundown ranch.

Dylan has his demons, too. The former Special Forces commander can’t get past his ex-wife’s betrayal and the botched mission that left him with much more than a bad limp. Certain the greedy oilman next door to Charli wants much more than just her heart, Dylan’s even willing to stop drinking in order to protect her.

When things get dangerous and secrets of the past are revealed, is he only looking out for his new employer, or is she the new start he so desperately needs?

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Gambling On A Heart

Book 2 of The Colton Gamblers

Blurb:

She once lost his heart on a bluff. Will she risk everything to win it back?

Beautician Tracy Quinn spends her days making the women of Colton, Texas beautiful, while living down the nickname of Olive Oyl, given to her by the only man she has ever loved—Zack Cartwright. She spends her nights alone, despite what her ex husband wants their friends and neighbors to think.

Ex-rodeo cowboy. Ex-bad-boy. Ex-Marine. Widower and single dad Sheriff Zack Cartwright can describe his life in exes. One ex in particular reminds him of what’s missing in his workaholic life: Tracy Quinn. For years since she broke his heart, he’s practically made avoiding her a second job. He still wants her, but can never go after her.

When cattle rustlers target her brother’s ranch, Tracy and Zack are stuck working together. Her son could use a positive male role model, and his daughter is wild for a chance at a “substitute” mom. But Tracy’s ex threatens to sue if she lets Zack near her son, and the Colton grapevine is abuzz with rumors about their past relationship. Is it worth the gamble to see if what they have is more than lust?

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

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Heartstrings

Blurb:

He’s determined to set things right, no matter the cost.

The last person Abby Crawford wants to face down is country music superstar Seth Kendall. Last time she did, she flat-out lied so he’d go to Nashville without her. She’s never understood why their mutual best friend proposed, but she went with it so her baby wouldn’t be fatherless. Now she’s a divorced mother of a teenager, and secretly Seth’s biggest fan.

Seth is home in McAllister, Texas for his father’s funeral…and a chance to meet the daughter he’s never known. He’s willing to face the music of his own making and admit he’s known about his little girl all along. For fifteen years he’s kept his distance because Abby told him to follow his dreams without her, insisting she didn’t love him. But now he won’t leave until he knows his daughter and she knows him, even if it means facing the woman who broke his heart for good.

Confessing she’s lied about her daughter’s paternity all these years won’t be easy for Abby, especially with her ex blackmailing her to keep the secret. And Seth doesn’t know the hardest truth of all: Every love song he plays on his guitar still plucks her heartstrings.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGmgAkdsyM

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press | Amazon | Barns and Noble | iTunes | Kobo

~*~

About Sara…

Although Sara Walter Ellwood has long ago left the farm for the glamour of the big town, she draws on her experiences growing up on a small hobby farm in West Central Pennsylvania to write her contemporary westerns. She’s been married to her college sweetheart for over 20 years, and they have two teenagers and one very spoiled rescue cat named Penny. She longs to visit the places she writes about and jokes she’s a cowgirl at heart stuck in Pennsylvania suburbia. She also has paranormal romantic suspense published under the pen name Cera duBois.

Author links:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Newsletter Signup

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Follow the Second Honeymoon Blog Tour HERE

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Rafflecopter Giveaway:

Sara is giving away a beautiful treasure box full of goodies:

1. A thumb drive containing Sara’s novella The Birthday Fantasy and her paranormals A Hunter’s Angel and A Hunter’s Blade

2. A signed paperback copy of Carolyn Brown’s Just a Cowboy and His Baby

3. A retractable black ink pen

4. A decorative diary style notebook

5. A mouse pad

6. Sara’s own custom designed jewelry (necklace and earring set)

7. $10 Starbucks gift card and more.

A total prize package valued at $100.

The giveaway ends April 30 and the winner of the Swag Pack will be announced on May 1, 2014. Must be 18 years old or older and a resident of the USA to qualify. Void where prohibited by law. See http://sarawalterellwood.wordpress.com/giveaway-rules/ for complete list of terms and rules.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filling You In, Catching You Up

This is why I couldn't clean out my gutters.

So today I thought I'd update you on some of the things I've posted about recently. (Of course, "recently" is a relative term. Heh.)

There's a new thing to add to my "Happy" list. This Saturday is the City Islanders home opener. Local professional soccer. I have come to love attending these games so much, and I have occasional anxiety about it because Number Two is finishing her freshman year in high school so the countdown has begun to when I have an empty nest. Now, no kids in the house does not bother me. Them moving on to their own lives, possibly far away? Great! That's what's supposed to happen! I have plenty to keep me busy and Number One can tell you I'm not the Meddling Mom type.

But what if they do both decide to live several hours away? What will I do about the City Islanders? My husband only goes to a couple of games a year because it's a family thing. I have no friends who like soccer. Do I really want to be that creepy woman all alone in the top corner of Section 7 every summer?

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I have not been killed by Silent Sam. So there's that.

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I got to read Misty Simon's next Ink book, Protective Ink. It's even better than Wicked Ink! I'm very happy to say she's hard at work on the next one and has ideas for the one after that, so we're set for a while! :)
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I'm writing lots! Well, in comparison to the not lots I was doing before. Harte and Soul is going well, and I'm pleased with its progress. I'm really tickled by the imaginative idea I had in the current chapter. It's a small thing, but it made me smile. Aftershocks is under consideration by my publisher so I'll let you all know if/when I have news on that. It's a little different from my usual romantic adventures, in that it's longer than the ones that have been published recently, and there's some ambiguity about the hero. As in, there are two guys who could potentially win my heroine. That's risky!

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Plumbing! This is the main reason for this post, because I never updated you all on the clog situation, and I'm sure that bothered you as much as it bothered me that there's not a sequel to Kasie West's Split Second.

So my expert plumber guy came out, used a powered snake, sent that about 20 feet through the pipes, closed everything up, and the clog was still there. So he opened it all up again, went 42 feet, which is an incredible distance and HAD to be outside the house. Hit something he couldn't get past, which we both hoped was just a cast iron bolt in the outside plumbing and not something, like, collapsed. But that did it, and the drain has been clear ever since, and we haven't had any soggy spots in our yard or anything. So fingers crossed that's the end of it.

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Victoria Smith has a new book out! For the Love of Isaac. Which I haven't read yet. Because I am a bad friend. The pressure is off after I buy the book. But I HAVE read her next one, and it's a great paranormal that has a feeling like Supernatural. Keep watch for that!

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Okay, last one. I had a post about being sick of winter and talking about the weather, and despite spring finally making an appearance, we had a wintry mix this week and it's been in the 20s at night. Sigh. A coworker and my daughter are both all, "I refuse to wear a winter jacket in April!" and I'm like, "You know Mother Nature doesn't care, right? You're only spiting yourself." They both kind of gave me a look.

The birds are indeed ALL back, and they're nesting. On my ladder. That we need to get to the roof. So that we can put up this giant piece of flashing that fell off.

Did I say Yay, the birds are back?

There's Something to be Happy About Every Day

Hi, all! I know, you don't remember who the heck I am, since I post so infrequently! I have had little to say and no time to say it, but I've been thinking about this one for a while. So here's a quick hit, with hopefully some more rambling stuff to come soon. :)

Monday
On Mondays I am happy because there is a new Football Today podcast to listen to.

Tuesday
On Tuesdays I am happy because there is a new PFW in Progress podcast to listen to, plus Agents of SHIELD and Supernatural are on TV.

Wednesday
On Wednesdays I am happy because my Entangled sales are updated. Even though I'm far enough past my newest release that they aren't "big" anymore, it's still exciting to see how many copies have been sold. Also, my first Friday of the week, so I feel okay staying up late to watch TV shows recorded the last three days, even though I typically get up very early on Thursday, anyway.

Thursday
Another new Football Today podcast AND another new PFW in Progress podcast. I'd never get through my daily commute and household chores without them. And since it's the offseason, Ayisha Tyler's Girl on Guy and EW's Inside TV Podcast get me through the gaps, but I don't know what days those release. ALSO on Thursday, Carina sales are updated, AND I don't have to leave the house to go to work. It's my catch-up/writing day.

Friday
The busiest day at the day job is also my second Friday of the week. LOL

Saturday and Sunday need no explanation.

What makes YOU happy each day?