by Sarah | Apr 4, 2013 | All About Me, Dance, Personal
From awkward girl.
To graceful swan.
From deep shyness.
To shining star.
The shoes had the power to lift the soul where she lacked inner strength.
Once those shoes were on,
Once her feet touched the hardwood,
Once the spotlight shone down on her.
Nothing else mattered.
Not the teasing.
The bullying.
The horrors of wicked peers.
It all fell away.
The shoes didn’t hold the magic.
She did.
She just didn’t know it until many years later.
When she shoes mostly lay at rest.
The power she found in dance.
Was always in her.
The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
by Sarah | Apr 3, 2013 | 45 before 45, All About Me, Books, Bucket List, Changing Tracks, I'm A Writer
There were so many things I could have done for C.
Cystic Fibrosis, Colors, Cannonball, Canada…
But I chose [amazon_link id=”B00BEMN5SC” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Changing Tracks[/amazon_link].
Of course I’m a little biased. Changing Tracks is my first published novel. It’s the first in a series, and the characters just make me giddy with happiness on a regular basis.
It was another check off the bucket list when this one came out on February 8th.
I’ve been blessed to have friends read it (and communicate back to me their thoughts WHILE reading, which was hilariously fun)…and strangers alike.
In several months the next book in the series will be out, and I’ll get to keep telling Jane Doe’s story…all while continuing to find new characters and stories to write in the background.
I’ve got a great job…and Changing Tracks helped make it officially a job. 🙂
Blurb:
There’s nothing simple about forgetting your past.
Cole Mitchell runs the busiest saloon and brothel in Dominion Falls. He keeps his women at a distance, unwilling to relive a past he worked hard to forget.
Until the night Jane Doe falls into his saloon bleeding and near death. She wakes with no memory, only the firm belief someone tried to kill her. In the strange world of amnesia she manages to find solace in Cole’s arms and he finds home in hers.
While they work together to solve the mystery of her appearance, their pasts – her lack of, and his buried – build a barrier between them.
To make matters worse, Jane’s past isn’t willing to let her go. A stranger proves he’ll kill to keep his secrets safe. With those she loves in danger, Jane’s errant memory is all that stands between them and death. Cole can only do so much to protect her, will it be enough?
Buy Links:
Secret Cravings Website
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance Ebooks
Bookstrand
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The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
by Sarah | Apr 2, 2013 | 45 before 45, All About Indiana, All About Me, All of Us, Bucket List, Indianapolis Zoo
Two years ago when I first made my 45X45 list, I added a little something that I thought would be easily accomplished. Something that I’d always wanted to do, but hadn’t because I always came up with an excuse.
Seeing the butterflies at the Indianapolis Zoo. It was a special display they had annually with all of these butterflies. I’d heard such beautiful things about it. I wanted to take my camera and nestle in and stay forever.
So, to keep myself from using the “It’s too expensive to take us all” excuse, I bought our first zoo membership.
That was the year the butterflies went away. I was sad, but we still put that zoo pass to very good use, and have not hesitated to renew our membership every year since.
This year? The butterflies have returned! A couple of weeks ago I got to go to a special event before it opened, take my camera, and wipe that sucker right off the bucket list. And I have the pictures to prove it. (although when I go BACK this week, I’ll make sure to take my zoom lens that I forgot last time, so I can really get those close up and personal shots. ~ahem~)
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by Sarah | Apr 1, 2013 | All About Me
I’ve started this crazy thing called the April A-Z Challenge. As my writing blog has taken off and is keeping me very busy, this poor old blog has been neglected. I thought that the A-Z challenge would be a great way to get my mojo moving again, as it gives me a clear guideline for every day but Sunday. Maybe that will give me time for nice weather and me actually living again to have blog posts to write (a sick & cabin-fever filled house is not inspirational). And so…it begins.
I’m not much of a drinker.
Really.
Ask anyone I know and they may be hard-pressed to think of a time I was actually drunk, and if they can it was many moons ago and I wasn’t really drunk.
I believe I can still, at 36, count the number of times I’ve been truly and deeply drunk on one hand.
I enjoy an occasional glass of super-sweet wine. A random margarita or sweet martini. (Are we sensing a trend?)
I’m the one at the party that sips her mixed drink (or, more likely, pop).
I have no great drunken tales to tell.
My best story is about the time I was walking with a guy that thought he might have a shot (he soooo didn’t) around the hotel at the Star Trek convention (yup, nerd-alert). I was pretty buzzed, and talking away happily. The sober voice in the back of my head was still active and made me stop mid-sentence and turn to face the guy. I looked him dead in the eye and said. “I know I sound like an idiot. I can’t seem to stop the words from tumbling out. I swear I’m not an idiot.” The turned and picked up the sentence I’d dropped and kept talking. Soon as we got back into the lobby and I saw my friend I abandoned him for her and we went around offering everyone in the hotel pretzel rods with a ridiculously pitiful attempt at a leer.
And I remember every minute.
And I never passed out.
And that is true of all the times I’ve been ‘drunk’.
by Sarah | Mar 14, 2013 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, I'm A Writer
I’ve been hit by a truck…did anyone get the license number?
Okay, not really, but it sure feels like it.
Last month, [amazon_link id=”B00BEMN5SC” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Changing Tracks[/amazon_link] released.
Last week [amazon_link id=”1938397495″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]HerStory[/amazon_link] with my short story An Uncivil War within it released.
I got new contracts in the past couple of months.
I’ve started new stories.
I have spent the past month writing dozens of blog posts – for other blogs. The writing side of my blog has taken off with dozens of guest authors and book releases and the writing meme’s I participate in.
In some ways I feel like I’ve been surgically attached to my computer.
Therefore not living.
Therefore having little to write about.
Yet so much to write about.
Like my Straight A Student.
My advanced reader.
My blossoming introvert.
But when I sit down to write it, I find myself just enjoying a moment of peace.
Soon the whirlwind will ease up for a little while. Edits for Masked Hearts are done. It doesn’t release until at least mid-April (I think). I’m almost done with the blog tour for Changing Tracks, and won’t be spending hours writing posts for others.
I’ve missed this blog and feel guilty every day I don’t post. Hopefully soon I’ll be bustling with posts again…and will pre-write as many as I can for the next book-tour rush so I don’t neglect this one so much.
And now that the weather shows signs of turning – I might just be more apt to go outside for a while. You know, remember how to have a life again.
by Sarah | Feb 28, 2013 | All About Erik, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All of Us, Cystic Fibrosis, Failure to Thrive (FTT), Hospital, Special Needs
Monday morning Kennedy had her tests scheduled.
By luck (or misfortune? or happy accident?) they decided only to perform the bronchoscopy. Of course, that meant she still had to undergo anesthesia and have a tube stuck down her nose – but it was one test, not two.
Overall the test went well. They were able to get a good sample to test.
For the bronchoscopy purposes and getting the sample, it was required that they inject fluid into the lungs…of a CF patient. This, of course, “could cause a low-grade fever.”
Low-grade my ass. She spiked up to 103.6*.
In the end, it came down with Tylenol, snuggle time, and a good round of her [amazon_link id=”B005LAIHW2″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]favorite[/amazon_link] [amazon_link id=”B007MDB6L0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]movies[/amazon_link].
Now she’s back to normal, at school, playing/fighting with her sister…and none the wiser.
Meanwhile Erik & I wait.
And wait.
And wait some more.
The test results could mean a hospital stay, a PICC line, a g-tube – any or all of the above.
Kennedy is blissfully unaware of the repercussions.
But Erik & I wait.
Waiting sucks.
From awkward girl.
