Frustrated Beyond Words

Have you ever had a day or event planned and it all fell apart for no apparent reason? I think we all have.
I was super stoked about releasing the 12^th box set in the Sweet and Sassy series: SWEET AND SASSY HEROES. Pre-orders had been live for two weeks, promotions purchased, newsletters written (by all the authors in the set and a few others who weren't), interviews given, videos produced: you name it.

And then the email from the big guys (who shall remain nameless): Your pre-order has been cancelled.
No reason was given, so as the publisher of the set, I made phone calls. After I spoke with three different representatives — including one at the senior level — I found out that they were as confused as I was. They still can’t figure it out, so asked for 72 hours to find an answer.
Corporations aren’t human, but they do make the same kind of mistakes. You know what I mean: dumb and unexplainable, costly and embarrassing, but mostly frustrating.
What can we do?  I guess we  - authors, readers, promoters - all have to be patient and wait for the Big Guy to find out why they thumped us off their list. Keep watching, though. SWEET AND SASSY HEROES will arise again: meaner, sassier, sexier. You can't keep the great ones down, and this set is stainless!

Strong Women!

I know, it was just Fathers Day, but I was reared by a single mother...in the 60s!

I'm in the middle, Mom and Grandma Bibb on my left.
The others are three of my five daughters.

My mother divorced in 1962, tried a stepfather for us, then when that ended horribly, decided she’d do it by herself. Now, that might not sound like such a big thing, but fifty years ago, it was.
And what a challenge! Even if there had been welfare (and there might have been), we weren’t on it. My mother groomed dogs, cleaned hotel rooms, did whatever she could to scrape together enough so we had food and a safe place to live.

Eventually, she got a job as an accounting clerk. She and a young man had identical job titles and responsibilities, but he made twice as much money. When she asked her boss about it, he said a man was the head of the family and needed it. She reminded him that the co-worker wasn’t even married and that she had four kids! “Well, he could have them one day…”
I can’t remember what she did at that point. She couldn’t leave until she had another job, so she probably sucked it down. I know she did wind up changing employers down the road. Still, she always earned less than men.
All four of us turned out fine, too. Even though my youngest brother was physically and mentally handicapped, he graduated from high school. Other brother served in the Army and Reserves and went to college on the GI Bill, graduating with a bachelor’s degree. Older sister married well and, after ten years of working and going to school part time while rearing two high-achieving children, also earned a bachelor’s degree. No trouble with the law for any of us or our kids, either!
Well, I didn’t graduate from college, but I did manage to get USA Today Bestselling Author status a couple times and establish a successful business, starting out with nothing but chutzpah and tenacity...and a great role model.
Not bad for kids of a divorced woman. Correction. A strong woman!

Do strong woman stories inspire you? Check out  Invincible – Strong and Fearless box set. Inspiring stories for women (and men) of all ages.

I'm not in this Invincible set, so if you want to read one of my stories about a strong woman, Kit Kringle: An Alaskan Tale is a warm happy ever after tale about a young entrepreneur who finds herself in a family way without a man.

Here come the Brides!

So, if June is the month for weddings, doesn’t that mean that May is the month of final (and frantic?) preparations? 

Do you know someone getting ready to get overwhelmed with photographers, floral arrangements, gowns and tuxes (or tuxi?), honeymoons and hairdressers? If it isn’t you, consider yourself lucky, grab your Kindle (or other reading device) and settle back and read one of The Authors’ Billboards Fabulous Wedding Box Sets. 

There are enough stories in these four sets to keep you busy reading into June! A great place to start is SWEET AND SASSY BRIDES.

One of the NINE stories in Sweet and Sassy Brides is THREE ARE ONE, my sweet story about a military wife with a scoundrel for a husband. Not your typical romance, this one has colorful threads of mystery, irony, and even unexpected humor in the morgue. How can that be? Start reading and find out. You’ll fall in love with Kizzie and her sweet special needs daughter just as quickly as the chaplain does.

Other stories in this set include Mimi Barbour’s TOGETHER AGAIN, a spirit travel story about unequal timelines and a romance writer. Hmm. Gotta love time travel stories, right?

Jacquie Biggar mixes two stubborn fools, a touch of fate, and a double dash of desire to get A CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE.

Love lurks where you least expect it in Alicia Street’s THE LEFTOVER BRIDE.

You can run, but you can’t hide when Stephanie Queen and the SMALL TOWN SASSY BRIDE come to this small town.

Need a Bridezilla story? How about mixing it up with a hunk and a wedding planner? Sounds like the recipe for ROSES AND CHAMPAGNE KISSES by Stacy Eaton.

A whole Caribbean island has decided who Jane must marry in Rachelle Ayala’s BRIDE FOR BREAKFAST. Some neighbors, right?

Yearning for a Regency Romance? Check out this bright tale of the Duke and the devious ploys of his dowager mother who has decided she will choose his bride in THE DUKE NEEDS A WIFE.

And what’s a box set of romances without a cowboy? Check out and see if Aileen Fish needs some help WARMING THE COWBOY’S HEART.

Once you’re done with the nine stories in Sweet and Sassy Brides, check out the other wedding box sets by The Authors’ Billboard ladies and Chill Out! Books. Check out Sweet and Sassy Weddings, Unforgettable Weddings, and A Wedding She’ll Remember. That should be enough stories to keep you seeing tulle and lace for weeks!

Are you in the UK? Here are your links:

Sweet and Sassy Brides: http://bit.ly/2SSBridesUK

Unforgettable Weddings: http://bit.ly/2UWedUK 

Sweet and Sassy Weddings: http://bit.ly/2SSWedUK 

A Wedding She'll Remember: http://bit.ly/2AWSRUK 

Watch for more great themed sets or check out the dozens already available now!

I did I did I did the Iditarod Trail! (vicariously)

I’m from Alaska and I love dog mushing! At least, watching it (I'm not a participant). The only sporting event I follow is the Iditarod Dog Race, the 1049-mile race from Anchorage(ish) to Nome run by sixteen or so dogs and their caretaker.
I took this photo of one of the teams running the race in 1999. In case you didn't know, this challenge is as much a head game as it is an endurance race. Mushers need to know how to read the trail, when to take breaks, when the weather’s too rough, how much and when to feed, when to send a dog home on the next plane and how to fix a broken sled. Oh, and they also need to be strong enough to go nine days or more with very little sleep. You see, the one thing these guys and gals depend on is their dogs. Every hound gets a hot meal, fresh water and bedding, a foot massage and change of booties, and anything else they need before the caregiver gets his or her food and a nap.
One of the great things about dog mushing is just about anyone can do it. There have been years that three generations of one family have run in the same race: grandpa, son, and grandson. Women run (and win!) the race, cancer survivors, and even a legally blind woman have made that long trip from the Anchorage area over windswept mountains and frozen seashores to Nome, the end of the trail. If you’ve ever watched these four-legged fuzzy fiends as they lug their food supplier and foot servant on a slick-runner sled, their smiles wide on their faces, you’ll know that they’re doing what they love to do: run!
The Polar Xpress is my novella about a woman who’s losing her vision but wants to run her dogs to Nome before she loses her sight completely. Wynter adopts dogs from other mushers, accepting the dogs that aren’t quite perfect, training and loving them despite their shortcomings. When she rescues Dr. Hernandez from his overturned snowmachine, she doesn’t expect him to stick around. Then again, she didn’t expect a winter storm to shut them in, either. Check out The Polar Xpress today.