Happy Tuesday All, Once again, I'm posting the monthly post near the end of the month. But oh well. I was pretty busy during part of the beginning of the month, so I thought I'd wait until after so that I could mention some of it here. I got to hang out with 2 out of 3 of my Girls' Night Out Ladies. These ladies are my besties and I've known them a long time. We had a nice dinner out and then hung out at a coffee/sweet shop until they closed. The last time we'd all been together was in 2019. I'd seen them on and off, but not all of us together. So, that was a wonderful thing to have happen this month. #UnhingedPit -- a pitching event held on X and BlueSky happened. Authors pitch their manuscripts but in unconventional ways. The two ladies who run the event decided to make me their ambassador (it's sort of a funny story--they liked my enthusiasm when it was first developed in 2024, and after a while we got to talking and that was that). It was so much fu...

  Happy Tuesday Everyone! It's...July? Yep. July. Can you believe it? I know I often say this, but it feels like the month went by very quickly. Or maybe it just seems that way because of all the weird things happening in my life. And, yes, it's hot. (But when isn't it during June and July in Texas?) Real Life: At the end of May, lightning hit my car (at least, that's what we think happened, didn't SEE it, but based on what we know, that's what we think). Nobody was in it, but the car got damaged and wouldn't work properly. Insurance had it towed and thus began a saga (which is still going on at the time of the writing of this blog post). It's been about 3-4 weeks. We had a rental for a few days, and then had to return it. Then my husband's car had a problem and had to be towed to the dealership. So, husband talked to insurance and told them we were getting a rental because we needed transportation and he needed to get to work. Hopefully all this ge...

  Happy February! Okay, for the first time in a while I can say that a month didn't zip past me at lightning speed. I don't know if that's good or bad. Just that January didn't seem to go by quite as fast as most of last year seemed. Perhaps the lack of "zipping by" has to do with the fact that my eldest had a bacterial infection near the end of December and then 2 weeks later had Covid and a week later I had a bacterial infection (different one from eldest). So for awhile there, it was a bit crazy at my house. Luckily the rest of January was pretty healthy. This February has a couple of particularly interesting things about it...for one, there are 29 days this year for this month (most of the time it's 28) so Happy Leap Year! Query news...not really anything I'm ready to report on, so I'll let you know when there is. Writing news:  I have several unfinished manuscripts and after some revision work that I did for like 2-3 months, I'm back to th...

  Happy December, Well, it's already almost the last day of December...and the whole month totally snuck up on me and slipped by me without me realizing what was going on until Christmas Weekend! I kept thinking "Oh, I've got time to do..." and whatever. HA! Next time, I'm going to REALLY look at my calendar and go "Wait, NO, I DON'T have all this time!" Exhibit A: I need to finish putting together (and mail) Christmas cards. Yep. I'm late, I know, but hopefully I'll get them out during the 12 days of Christmas (before the celebration of Jesus' Baptism, which is celebrated the Sunday after Epiphany. Catholics don't do celebrations halfway! Case in point: Easter has many, many days in the Easter Season). Exhibit B: I was wrapping presents on Christmas Eve. I'm usually done days before then. So all of you out there who were behind this year...I get it! Things happen. Life can be nuts. This whole year felt fast, though. I know I kept...

  Happy Tuesday All, Wow...I can't believe I actually forgot to post on here in May. In my defense, I thought I had, but when I came to post a June entry I realized I had missed May! In May, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary. We've been married for well over 10 years! :-) We didn't do anything big...but we did get take out from Chili's, which was good. My husband is my Real Life Hero. The man has seen me at my best and my worst and STILL loves me, so I'd say he's a keeper. My wedding was lovely. I felt like a princess (which is cool, since my Dad sometimes calls me "princess"). We had a blast at our reception and a wonderful honeymoon on St. Croix (US Virgin Islands). This June my parents will celebrate 57 years of marriage. I'm so happy for them! In terms of writing...I've turned a bit of a corner so to speak. I had a brainstorming session with my long-time critique partner, author Tess St. John , which helped one of my manuscripts q...

  Happy Tuesday All, Can you believe April is already almost over? I think it went by way faster than I expected. One thing that has been interesting about this particular April is the variety of weather we've had. Everything from jackets to shorts. No snow, but that's just fine with me! After "Snowmeggeddon" (what was that, about 3 or 4 years ago?) I'm good. I don't need any snow here. Yes, I'm still writing. I have several what I term "active" projects, meaning they're the main manuscripts I'm working on. I also have a sort of "side-ish" project, which has to do with my Immortal Dreams series, but I don't foresee it ever published (at least, not anytime soon). For those who have read the other books, this would be Nic and Sirena's story. I hinted a bit at it in Perfect Love . The Immortal Dreams books are no longer available (I have my rights back; any of them you find for sale aren't from me or my previous publis...

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Near the end of this month is Memorial Day, and in honor of it The Author Encounter is having a May We Remember Blog/Website scavenger hunt. In talking with my business partner (we're Co-Founders/Co-Owners of The Author Encounter) I got to talking about my grandfather who served in World War II. He was my dad's father, and he was a tall man who went by the nickname "Mickey" (no, I didn't call him that, I just called him Grandpa). My dad doesn't even know why his nickname was Mickey, nothing in his name suggested it (does the name Owen sound like Mickey?) But that's what he was called (apparently, my Grandmother even called him that--but I didn't know her, she died a year before I was born). Anyway, he was an MP (among many other jobs while in the army) and he went all over the place, including Italy. I've often wanted to go to Italy (not during a war, obviously, but on a visit--who knows when or if that will ever happen, bu...

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I've got a question for you: how fast can you touch-type? I'm talking typing on a computer or typewriter keyboard without looking at your hands, and with reasonable accuracy? I haven't checked my times in YEARS, but last time I was tested I was around 80-words-per-minute (wpm). You think that's impressive? Well, don't. I had an uncle who could type 100 wpm. Yes, you read that right. One-hundred words-per-minute. During the Vietnam War, there was a doctor who told the people who were sending my uncle's unit over to Vietnam not to send him because he needed him to type out prescriptions. Later it was found out that the majority of those in his unit had been killed.  My uncle lived because he could type fast and the doctor needed him. Crazy, huh? I figure it's God's grace there. Now, touch-typing didn't save my physical life, but it did save me academically. When I was in the sixth grade I was diagnosed with learning disabi...

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I've been working out some administrative things and also on this blog, so I haven't posted much lately. I've also been working on the novel I was writing under the Jeannie Averie name, so I've been fairly busy. We are now in April, and already the weather in Texas is in the 80s! I wonder if it's going to get into triple digits this year like it did some other years. You never know. This summer, one of my nephews is getting married. I'm looking forward to that and seeing family. On top of that, I'm working on the newsletter especially for those who signed up at BrazCon. Don't worry, if you didn't make BrazCon there will be a way to sign up. We're going to have some fun items for newsletter subscribers that we won't have anywhere else. Books 5 and 6 in the Immortal Dreams series has been on hold while I work on the Jeannie Averie novel, but that doesn't mean I'll never get back to the series, it just mea...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, I've been back from RWA Nationals 2018 in Denver, Colorado for about a week now. It was all right, but I liked last year's better. But that's okay. (Part of it was that I had bad heartburn 2 days in a row. I've spoken to my doc about it, and I'm fine, now). Moving on, I'm way behind in my "promise to read and review on my blog" books, so let me get right down to today's: A while back, I won in a fun little giveaway a signed copy of It Wasn't Always Like This by Joy Preble . Joy is an imaginative and talented author behind the amazing Anastasia trilogy (that I loved). She didn't ask me for a review, but I promised her one. Joy took the idea of "the fountain of youth" and added murder, mystery, suspense, romance, and a quick-witted, smart heroine. After drinking a tea mixed with a herb found in a disappearing-reappearing-in-different-places spring, Emma O'Neill and Charlie Ryan find themselv...

Happy Tuesday All, Summer is in full force in Texas. Heat and humidity...and lots of it! The Averies are trying not to melt and Averie Cat loves to sun himself on the window sill or lay on my bed where the sunlight peeks in during the afternoon. Currently as I write this he's laid out sleeping.  Romance Writers of America's National Conference (aka "Nationals") is coming up in a little over a month (July 18-21) and I'm excited. I've never been to Colorado before, and I hear it's really beautiful. I'm also thrilled to be able to see friends I haven't seen in a while, meeting new people, including trying to meet up with  Syrie James , whose Nocturne I have loved (I'm totally fan-girling about that). I'm going to be rooming with Belle Ami , whom I've enjoyed getting to know. I didn't final in the RWA Ritas, but that's okay. I'm still going to the ceremony because it's such an incredible celebration and let's face...

Happy Tuesday All, Normally I'd have this up and running in the beginning of the day, but I got behind. In my adventures as a writer, I come across people who say "I want to write, but I don't know how to get started." The really simplistic answer to that is "Just write." That really is a key part of writing is actually writing . But sometimes they want more information, or ideas of hints and help, etc. So here's a basic, general breakdown: 1. You have to write . What are you interested in? What story do you have to tell? Do NOT worry if it seems stupid or whatever to you. Just get started. You can always edit later. 2. Check out your favorite authors. A lot of authors have websites and/or blogs, etc. Some are on social media. Check them out. See what they say about the writing process and getting published. Find out what worked for them and see if it's something that'll work for you. 3.  Find a writer's group. Very helpful and you...

Happy Tuesday All, I skipped posting last week for two reasons. One, I wanted to give proper attention to the interview with Meg LeFauve after the hold up with the formatting, and two, I had several things going on. Me (Maid of Honor), and my deceased friend, Sarah, on her wedding day in 2003 Monday marked 4 years since my friend, Sarah, died, and by the time I thought of doing a blog post it was late in the afternoon, so I decided to switch this week's post to today. Recently the national organization I belong to, Romance Writers of America (RWA) opened up registration for its annual conference --dubbed "Nationals--which is being held in July, at a resort in Orlando, Florida this year. Talking with my family, it was decided for the first time since I joined in 2009, I would go. I'm all registered with a hotel room and have had a lot of outpouring of Me at my chapter's conference in 2014 support from other RWA members both ones going and those who have b...

Happy Tuesday All, This once a week blogging seems to be working for me so far. Whether or not I stick to Tuesdays remains to be seen. I might choose to jump around. But for now, it works. For Christmas I received Book 8 of the Enchanted, Inc. series by Shanna Swendson . I've loved this series since I stumbled upon it one day some years ago, and waited and waited for Book 5, and then waited a little while for Books 6 and 7. I thought she had left the series behind after Book 7, but was happily surprised when she announced that in December 2016 there would be another one. I received this new one for Christmas and wanted to write a blog book review to tell you all about it. Katie Chandler and Owen Palmer are back! Freshly engaged, and glowing with that "I'm-in-love-and-narrowly-lost-my-soulmate-due-to-crazy-elves" glow, but unfortunately, their happiness isn't meant to last. Once more evil magic is in the air. People are disappearing and Katie is determined...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, The last time I posted was in November. That's pretty bad, but getting to post a blog is tough. Blog posts take a lot of time because I have to think of a topic, write it up, edit it, add graphics/pictures, and make sure any relevant links are set up. I'm thinking that I will go to once a week or once every other week for blog posts. Also, apparently there are some kind of European laws and Blogger is posting Cookie notices, but I don't know where they are and I don't know if they're showing up, so if they are, please let me know where to look because the directions weren't clear. Christmas in the Averie Household was eventful. On Christmas Eve we went to Mass and the Averie Offspring was rather rambunctious much to me and Mr. Averie's chagrin. I'm chalking it up to the excitement of the season, but despite the goofiness on the part of my offspring, it was a lovely service and we sang one of my favorite Christmas hymns ( Jo...

Happy Tuesday All, Lately I've been watching YouTube series on ballet. Ballet fascinates me on several levels--as someone who used to take ballet classes (no, I never danced en pointe , or on my toes--I also took tap and jazz, but that's another story) some of the steps and terms are familiar to me. As an art form, I think it's one of the most beautiful. I love the grace and elegance of classical ballet. I also have a tremendous respect for the dancers. They work their bodies hard, and their futures are often uncertain. In some ways, writing and dancing aren't that different. Both are art forms in their own right. Both take dedication to their craft. They take time to develop. Both have to learn new ways of doing and thinking depending on what they're working on. And both often take up much of a person's time. Growing up, my parents took me to several ballets. I've seen The Nutcracker so many times I have no desire to go again (even though it's a ...

Happy Tuesday Everybody, Thank you for joining us on this blog series. Today is the last one. The comments and response has been wonderful--thank you for that as well! There are young people in the world struggling with learning differences (sometimes called learning disabilities) who may or may not feel they aren’t as good as those who don’t have these disabilities/challenges. The three of us—Bethany Averie, Ryan Jo Summers, and Christie Craig—have all faced learning disabilities/difficulties and based on our personal experiences, and what we see in the world today, were inspired to share our own stories with you. We’ll be posting each author’s Q&A style on all our blogs. Today is the last day with author Christie Craig's interview up. Our wish is for you teens and young adults to never be afraid to dream big. In a world where less than someone’s definition of perfect can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection, we want you to stand up and pursue...

Happy Tuesday Everybody, We're continuing the Learning Challenges/Disabilities blog series.  For those just joining us, I will include the preface I had up for last week. There are young people in the world struggling with learning differences (sometimes called learning disabilities) who may or may not feel they aren’t as good as those who don’t have these disabilities/challenges. The three of us—Bethany Averie, Ryan Jo Summers, and Christie Craig—have all faced learning disabilities/difficulties and based on our personal experiences, and what we see in the world today, were inspired to share our own stories with you. We’ll be posting each author’s Q&A style on all our blogs. Last week was Bethany Averie. This week will feature Ryan Jo Summers, then the next Christie Craig.  Our wish is for you teens and young adults to never be afraid to dream big. In a world where less than someone’s definition of perfect can mean the difference between acceptance and ...