I used to be a "Guy's Girl" 🙄

I am so thankful that February is over. I had so much going on that every second felt like it had to be accounted for, otherwise I was wasting time. I’ve still got a lot going on, and I loved every minute of February because it was a blast, but now that it’s over I feel like I can breathe again.
 

One of the things that February brought with it was my birthday. And one of the things that becomes more and more clear every year is that my relationships with the women around me are the things that keep me afloat.

Now, of course, my husband is my lifeline and my daughter is my whole world, don’t get me wrong, but the women I call friend are the people that keep me sane.
 

And it took me a long time to recognize the value of those relationships. Because in my bright and blooming youth I was one of those girls. The girl who wasn’t like other girls. I was a guy’s girl.

Whatever that is. I almost want to gag saying it.

I hung out with guys and only had a select couple of girls I called friends and when Friday night rolled around it was time to be just one of the guys. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that BUT you have to know that it’s a limited time thing.

See I didn’t know that at the time. I thought me and (insert guys name here) were going to be bros forever. What I didn’t realize is that once he starts dating/marries ‘the one’, she doesn’t want him to have any girl bros but her. And I can’t fault her. I don’t want my husband having a female bff, and they didn’t either. But I didn’t understand it back then and I can’t tell you how many times I got my feelings hurt because this guy stopped returning my phone calls or that guy didn’t have time to hang out with me but he could hang out with all of our other friends. Or that dude flat out said he girlfriend didn’t want him hanging out with me anymore. It really really did hurt.

But “I’m not like other girls” also meant something else. It meant that I didn’t value the things they valued, like tons of make up, or Hallmark movies, or or or…. ROMANCE NOVELS!  That those things were stupid and beneath me, the guy’s girl.

I felt above all of it and now when I hear a young woman say it I cringe so hard inside because it’s so ridiculous.

As I’ve aged I’ve found a network of women who lift each other up. We don’t always agree nor do we all like the same things but when it comes down to brass tacks we support each other. And I am so grateful to have them in my life. They are smart and successful and great mothers and funny as hell and so beautiful it hurts to look at them. And some of them watch the Bachelor and cry over it. And some of them (cough cough) read a ludicrous amount of romance novels and get the warm tingleys over every single one of them. And some of them collect ridiculously priced purses and shoes. And some watch hours and hours of make up tutorials on youtube.

And all of that is just fine. I’m sad that for so many years I didn’t realize that I’d been brainwashed by society to think that “girly” stuff was bad and I missed out on a ton of things and great friends because of it. But at least I came to my senses in time to make some amazing friends who value me for the woman I am regardless of the fact that I didn’t always value them.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner! 

 

Congratulations to Isa J. for

 winning the giveaway! 

My first giveaway!

Alright, we're going to try this again!

Hey guys it's about that time! Shattered, the third book in the Dogs of War MC series is finally available! Woohoo! Go ahead and grab it here:

I know it has been a long time coming and so I'm celebrating by putting all the books in the series on sale for 99¢ and by doing a giveaway! So pick up your copies of Wounded(Book 1) and Broken(Book 2) too!

Now this is my first givaway so, as with most things, I don't really know what I'm doing. But I'm excited to be doing it!

So without further ado, the giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway (PS: Amazon is taking it's time setting the price of Broken to 99¢, but it should be changed in a couple of hours.)

You would know...

That after had already started a new blog over on wordpress I find out that it won't run a rafflecopter giveaway because javascript is dangerous.

Oh my god.

So I'm scrambling to try to set this blog up (which by the way might look better than the other one) and update the back matter in all my books and set up the giveaway and do all the things I need to do because hopefully my book will go live tomorrow.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Can I admit something to you guys?

I have no idea what the hell I am doing.

When I decided to try my hand at writing and self publishing romance all I had in my mind was the writing part. I was unaware that I was also going to have to learn about marketing, social networking, formatting ebooks, graphic design, and everything else in between.

I don’t know how to blog, how to reach out to fans and potential fans, how to engage people on facebook, on twitter (which thinks I’m a robot and locked my account), how to make interesting blog posts, I don’t know how to “win friends and influence people” as they say.

I don’t even really how to write. I’m an avid reader but there is a world of difference between what I, as a reader, thought writing was and what writing actually is. A world.

Because you know what? I. am. winging. this. shit. Every bit of it.

So I apologize that it’s been two years since I published anything. And if you sent me an email in between then and now and I didn’t respond back to you, I am so sorry, but I didn’t know what to say. Because the last book I published flopped. Badly. And it made me sad, so I stopped writing. I stopped checking my email. I stopped checking how many people bought my books. I stopped looking at reviews.

I just… found other things to do… But I’m not that chick. That chick that gives up.

So I’m back. The book that flopped is going to get its face lifted, refocused, and republished. Dogs of War book 3 is already done and on the editors desk. And I’m 28k words into Dogs of War book 4.

I might not know what I’m doing but hot damn I’m doing it.