The Boston Trip, October 2013

Last October, Drew and I took a trip to Boston. I'm just now getting around to sorting through the picture and writing about it.

If you only care about the pictures and not the details, click on the oysters below. Go ahead! They don't bite...

Boston 2013

Otherwise, here's what we did...

Drew and I love Boston! We love everything in New England, especially along the coast. I love it so much I set the location for my Lyssa Winfield Mystery book series in Boston. We planned a long-weekend trip last October just before Halloween to visit Boston, and the surrounding area. I made it very obvious to anyone that would listen to me for more than two minutes, that this trip was about one thing, and one thing only.

My book.

I wanted to visit everywhere I talked about, all the streets everyone lived on, where they worked, ate, and played. Yes, the book is fictional, but a lot of it was based heavily on actual places. 

FRIDAY - After a beautiful, sunny drive across New York and Massachusetts, we arrived in Concord. Home to many writers: Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne. They lived there; they died there; they're buried there at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (no relation to the story). 

Concord is also the site of Old North Bridge where the "shot heard round the world" was fired, which was essentially the start of the American Revolutionary War.

But the main reason we came to Concord was this...

PRISCILLA'S CANDY SHOP!!! It's where Lyssa stopped for a small box of ganache truffles while she was out driving around, avoiding the FBI, and trying to figure out if Alex was going to kill her. Like my heroine, I did the same thing. (Got chocolates, not the driving thing.) I got Dark Chocolate Mint, Hazelnut, Dark Chocolate Tiramisu, and (my favorite!!!) Champagne. We also got about thirty bucks in other chocolate goodies. So dang good!!!

While in Concord, we ate lunch at Helen's Restaurant. I got a Shrimp Po'Boy, which was excellent. Drew had the Chicken Thai Wrap, which he said was really good!!

After Concord, we decided it would be fun to live like a true Bostonian and tried to take I95 on a Friday afternoon into Boston. Frustrating, but not nearly as bad as Wegmans parking lot on a Saturday morning.

I took the opportunity to contact our friend Jessica. She's a college student from back home whom I'd met at work where she interns during the summer and Christmas breaks. She attends Emerson College in Boston and she's been a huge inspiration for the next Lyssa Winfield Mystery book. She happened to be home and we promised her dad Mike, whom we also happen to work with, that we'd stop by at some point to install a new locking doorknob on her bedroom door. I got the address and we got off the interstate.

I wish I took a lot more pictures than I did. The suburb of Boston that Jessica lives in is crazy. I can't even describe it. It's like if Chinatown invited Greenwich Village over for a rave in the middle of a hundred-square blocks that are comprised entirely of college student housing. Just insane-o. If I were a college student, I'd live here too. I bet you can get in all kinds of trouble here.

And be careful that you don't get hit by a train, because cars and trains share the same intersections and stop-lights. No joke.

Drew giving Jessica a lesson in DIY.

Don't be fooled by the photo. Jessica is neither fat nor pregnant. She's actually very thin. My camera was jealous.

After fixing the door and catching up for a few minutes with Jess, we headed into Boston to find our hotel. Wish we'd done that in the daylight! Boston traffic is psychotic. It took two trips around the block, but we did eventually find the Park Plaza.

I don't have much to say about the hotel. It was your standard hotel room. Nothing special. Except it was near EVERYTHING!!! I've visited Boston a number of times in my life. Enough that I don't really need a map to get around anymore, but I've never stayed inside actual Boston. I always stayed outside and taken the train in. I am now spoiled beyond belief.

We walked a lot around Concord, and we were in no mood to walk much further for the night, so we decided to eat at MJ O'Connor's. An Irish Pub on the same block as the hotel.

GOOD CHOICE!!! I got their "Award Winning" Clam Chowder. They weren't kidding. The BEST EVAH!!! Oh my God! One taste and you instantly start talking like a Southie. Drew got the Guiness Onion Soup and that was amazing too! The place was hopping and the staff was great. We really enjoyed it there.

SATURDAY - We got up early and started walking. We hit the Emerson Cafe for a simple breakfast. Danishes and coffee. Then we kept walking. Today was all about taking in the sites. Not the tourist sites. We've done those before. This was about getting over into the sections of town where Alex lives, where Val's yoga studio resides, and where future murders will likely take place. (The books! I'm talking about the books!)

I won't bore you with all the details, but it was just incredible to walk around this gorgeous city. Now, before you think I tortured Drew with my little fantasy walking book tour, he loved it just as much as me. And to prove it, I let him buy me lunch at The Union Oyster Bar.

See! He so happy!!! Actually, he is. It was very touristy, but the bar was super cool, the Union Oyster Ale draft was great, and the fact we could be there was just neat. It's fun to say we ate at America's Oldest Restaurant. 

Afterwards, at the insistence of Jason (another huge Boston fan), we hit Mike's Pastry for some super nommy muffins for breakfast the next morning.

The infamous box!

In the late afternoon, we met up with Jessica again. She took us down Newbury Street. I soooo have to come back here to do some shopping in warmer weather. We stopped at Pinkberry for frozen yogurt. Jess had raved about this place at work so we had to try it. It was just as amazing as she said.

We traveled down to Quincy Market. By now it was dark. It was the weekend before Halloween, so the costumed partiers were starting to come out. I would have loved to stay, but we were getting tired. We bid Jessica a fond farewell and promised her that when she graduates and moves to Boston permanently we will visit all the time. Especially if she has a guest room.

For dinner, we ate very, very late at a restaurant across the street. It came highly recommended by Jessica and is a fave of her father's.

Maggiano's. 

It was one of the best meals we have ever had. They do something with roasted potatoes which has to be illegal. I can't describe it, but Drew has been perfecting the recipe ever since we returned. When Mike visits his daughter in Boston, the first thing he says to me upon returning is, "We went to Maggiano's." He says it in this deep, evil voice with a villainous twinkle in his eye. I say, "Describe it to me. I want to know everything." It's sinful and delectable. I would travel all the way to Boston just for Maggiano's.

SUNDAY - We got up early and said goodbye to Boston. We successfully navigated our way out of the city, heading North.

The Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial

The artist community of Rockport

Lots of galleries and shops!

Motif #1

Our last stop on our weekend getaway. Rockport. A community full of artists and craftsmen. It just love it here. I visited once and always swore to come back.

And yes, it's in the book. The Waldron Art Gallery (named after my good friend and artist Georgia) is in Rockport on Main Street.

After a few hours in Rockport, Drew and I drove home. We were sad to leave. We truly love it here. I don't know if we ever got the opportunity to move here if we would. We also truly love Key West. And London. But at least Boston is only six hours away. We can visit at any time.

If only Boston had a Wegmans...

If you want to see more pictures, click on the beauties below.

Boston 2013

Eye Candy For My Fans

For my fans at University Physicians Ophthalmic Group (or something like that --- they're the Eyeball Divas!) in Johnson City, Tennessee.

I love my fans!!!

As she was explaining where she fell in the company hierarchy she noticed Alex walking in the door. She tried to convince herself that the quickening of her heartbeat was from the fact that he was probably going to interrupt her dinner date and had nothing to do with the faded jeans, black t-shirt and leather jacket he was wearing.

Model: Rajneesh Duggal
Photo By: The greatest photographer in the world!!  (I admit it.  I don't know.  But you rock for this!)

UPDATE!!! Free Kindle Weekend

After I unleashed my blog post I discovered something fascinating...

A LOT of people hang out at Amazon on a Sunday night.  I think most of those people scour the Best Seller Lists for free books.

Final tally as of 1 am EST...

#8 in Fiction > Humor
#53 in Fiction > Romance
Ranked #134 for ALL free ebooks
2,453 downloads!!!!!

Wow!  That was a huge jump.

Squee!!!!

"Game of Hearts" Free Kindle Weekend

This past weekend I offered the Kindle version of "Game of Hearts" for free at Amazon.  As of 5:30 pm today, the book was downloaded 1,317 times during the promotion.  The breakdown by country is...

United States (includes India) = 1,246

United Kingdom = 54

Denmark = 6

France = 5

Italy = 5

Spain = 1

Why would I offer the book for free?  Simply because I prefer people have the chance to read it and enjoy it.  Honestly, until you get an agent and a nationwide publisher willing to put their neck on the line to put your work out there, you don't make money writing.  Not this kind of writing and not the kind of money that would allow me to move to Boston and write 24/7.

Another reason is that agents and publishers watch the Best Seller lists at Amazon.  If I can move up the list and catch someone's eye, fantastic.  

So how did we do today???

As of December 7, 2012, "Game of Hearts" Kindle Edition was ranked #485,087.

And now???

This format of "Game of Hearts" is currently ranked #206 out of over one million books in the Kindle Store.

And!!!!

Ranked #9 in Fiction > Humor

I'm actually quite thrilled!!!  My book should up in the first page of a Best Seller List on Amazon.  This was a lot better than I'd even dare hope.  Will it get me noticed?  Meh.  Probably not.  But that's ok.  Over 1,300 people downloaded it.  Many of those people were other authors on Twitter who know what it's like and what I'm doing.  They probably won't read it.  Some were competing authors who were doing the same thing.  Heck, I downloaded over 20 books myself.  Including books beating me in the same category! Because we all know the competition isn't each other.  I mean, look at some of the junk out there on the store racks.  It's about catching someone's eye on a good day.  Something I've never been good at doing.  Especially where self-promotion is concerned!  Oh lord!  Pessimistic people with low self-esteem should not try to market themselves!  What a disaster!  

I never thought I'd say this...but I like Twitter.  It's a fascinating resource, if that's what you're using it for.  People don't follow me because they want to know how my day at work was, which is good because I really don't care to tell them.

So, it was a very anxiety filled weekend doing this, but it was a lot of fun.  I will probably do this again, but only after Book #2 is out.  Shooting for April 2013!!!

Local Farmers Thank You For Buying My Book

On Friday the first box of 20 paperback Game of Hearts books arrived.  Much to my dismay, the cover was terrible.  It looked good on the digital proof.  It looked good on the Kindle version.  On the paperback it was dark and a little fuzzy.  I was not pleased.

UPDATE: I re-did the cover.  It's the same pics & layout, but it's a lot brighter.  Lesson learned.  Use 300 dpi for the pics, not 96.  Oopsie.

All of the books had been pre-ordered by my co-workers and I told them if they didn't want to buy them they could wait for the next batch as I was determined to fix this issue.  To my delight I received a resounding, "NO!  WE'RE NOT WAITING!  WE WANT THIS NOW!!"  Most added, "This is even better because someday it will be a rare collector's item."  I don't often love my co-workers, but on Friday they were the best friends and fans a nervous writer could want.  I still choke up thinking about how supportive and awesome they have been.  These people have had to listen to me talk about this book for months and they're still excited about it.  I love them all*!!!

* Except Jason, whose job it is to kick my exercise ball and crush my ego if he thinks it's getting too big.  He falls in the category of "a tool with a purpose."  It's a good thing he's kidding (although probably not) and kind of funny or I might kick his ball.  I'd even let him pick which one...

With the money I made Friday from book sales I went to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning and bought A LOT of veggies.  A huge basket of tomatoes.  A huge basket of "second" peppers.  (Second should be re-labelled as "homegrown" because they taste the same but look like something you grew in the backyard.  I never understood why people needed perfect looking produce.  Are you gonna cut it up and eat it, or use it as decor.  Stupid humans.)  A bag of onions.  Eggplants.  Squash.  Geode zucchini.  (So freaking cute!!!!)

For those of you from Auburn, NY who have been living in a cave, the Farmer's Market is located in the large parking lot across from the YMCA.  It's a small market but the vendors there produce the most tasty and beautiful veggies and fruit in the world.  Please support them.

I came home and went about making a healthy, super-yummy soup.  I will probably make three batches of this before I'm done and freeze it up for winter.  You can use whatever veggies you like in it.

Rare Ugly 1st Edition Chunky Tomato & Chicken Soup

10 huge beefsteak-sized tomatoes, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

1 large red bell pepper, diced

2 small onions (3" in diameter), diced

1 heaping tsp minced garlic

1/3 cup olive oil (I use F. Oliver's Smoky Chipolte)

1 heaping tsp dried oregano

1 heaping tsp dried basil

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Throw everything  in a huge crock pot.  Cook on Low at least 10 hours.  More is recommended.  The longer, the better.

After you've cooked your chunky tomato base to damn-near death...

4 hot poultry sausage links

2 large grilled Italian-marinated chicken breasts, cubed or shredded

1 bag frozen cauliflower, nuked & drained (Somehow missed the fresh stuff at the market. Tsk tsk tsk.)
1 eggplant, diced

2-16 oz packages mushrooms, cubed or sliced

2 cups cooked Basmati rice

1 cup chicken broth (optional)

Squeeze the innards out of the sausage links and fry it up.  Crumble it up and toss it into the crock pot.  Throw in the remaining ingredients as well.  Stir it all up and cook another 2 hours.

Feeds a crapload!  Freezes excellently!

A note about chicken broth:  I prefer to use chicken broth leftover from Crock Pot Chicken.  Use as much as you want.  I like a chunky soup with less broth.  Feel free to use more and stretch this recipe even further.  

Crock Pot Chicken

Put a whole chicken in a crock pot.  Add a cup of water.  Season at will.  Cook on Low for 8 hours.  The chicken will fall apart but will be super-moist and amazingly yummy.  Strain the liquid for the best chicken broth!  The leftover breast meat is great for chicken salad sandwiches.  Or you can use it in the soup!

"Game of Hearts" is Published!

"Game of Hearts" is available as a Kindle download on Amazon.

Prime Members can get it free!!!

GET IT HERE!!!

Yes, I am a little freaked out about this.  This book is my baby.

Now to go find an agent and make more!!!  :)

"Game of Hearts" Cover

I resolved my issues with using Alex's face on the cover by not putting him on the cover.  Bah!  Instead Lyssa is going on the cover.  Honestly, I couldn't make a cover with Alex's dreamy but oh-so-serious face that correctly conveyed the theme of the book.  Essentially, the book is humorous.  Alex's face is anything but humorous.  So I made a cover that was less serious.  It contains little elements from the book, but doesn't give anything away.  People who read the book will understand the cover better, but I don't think you have to read it to like it.

Why don't I just show you the dang cover...

Inset photo of "Lyssa" by SavchenkoJulia
Panties supplied by First Mate

I know the photo of Lyssa is not the same as the referenced source I used when writing the story, but I think she's quite lovely.  And it only cost me $5 at istockphoto.com.  There's no limitations on the number of times it's used on e-books.  If and when it comes time to print the book, I will let the publisher worry about the cover then.  This model has lots of great photos on the site, so I can see more book covers in her future. 

Note:  I am not an experienced photographer and I realize this isn't professional by any means.  But I like it and you can read the title when it's the tiny size that Amazon uses on the screen, which is what's important.  Plus, I futzed like hell with the damn thing to get it done so I'm not changing it!!

But wasn't the below the bomb!!!

The model is Rajneesh Duggal

Photo by Jitu Savlani

Yeah, I know.  Maybe for Book #5.  That's a much more serious book.

The Book Cover Dilemma

So.  I have to make a book cover for Game of Hearts.  In the back of my mind I had hoped to put it off and make a publisher do it.  Ut-uh.  Not happening.  Not if I want to get this thing posted on Amazon and with RomCon and all the rest!  And I do.

I tried to make a freebie cover using shades of red and black.  Something that looked like a video game, since that is her job.  Something simple.



It sucks.  I dig the M for Mature label in the corner.  But honestly, it sucks.  You have to have read the book to get the point of the cover.  Buyers need to know what the book is from the cover, not vice versa.

So I looked at the books on RomCon (www.romconinc.com).  Almost all of them have the same kind of cover.  Either it has a half-naked guy on it, or a guy & girl making out on it, or a girl looking like she just murdered someone and it's made her horny.  Point is, they're dramatic and steamy.

Like I said...my cover sucks.  I put it aside and decided to deal with it later.

Last night I was talking to my mother and she was telling me how much the girls at work enjoy the pictures.  I didn't have to ask what pictures.  I know exactly what she's talking about.  This is the third time she's told me.  It's him.


Alex.

My next question for her should have been, "What in the world did you do with his pic that the girls are still swooning?"  Instead, my brain said, "My mother and her co-workers are in love with a character from a book I wrote that they haven't even read yet.  All because of his picture.  He's gotta be on the cover!  We'll make a fortune just from people buying it so they can stare at the cover!"

Big problem.  I don't own that picture.  Theoretically speaking I shouldn't have even posted it here without at least giving someone proper credit for it.  Which raises the question...who took the picture?

Should be easy enough to figure out.  The guy's name is actually Rajneesh Duggal.  He's an Indian model.  The man's job is to be photographed.  There's gotta be some site out there that gave credit to whoever took the photo.

Nope.  Not at all.  There's nada / zilch / zip / zero credit given on the interwebs for this picture.

But I do have a possible lead.



This is also Rajneesh.  This is the Alex fan-favorite "touch my girl and I will mess you up" photo.  This photo was taken by Jitu Savlani.  I am this close (imagine I'm holding my index finger and thumb up, and they are a flea's width apart from each other) from sending Jitu an email asking if he took both photos.  And if so, what's it take to get permission to use the top one for Game of Hearts.

Actually, now that I look at it, I think this photo might be nice too.  The dimensions aren't great for a book, but if we use maybe just the right half of his face and put the wording on the grey part then...hmmm. Not bad!

Anyway, I'm too chicken to email him right now.  I should be too old to be too chicken to do anything anymore, but I still get that way.  One of the downfalls of never having kids is that you remain immature & nervous about some things that parents got over a long time ago.  Sending emails to photographers in India about a photo of a hot guy is apparently one of them. Silly thing is, if this were for Stacey's book or Jeff's book I wouldn't hesitate to send an email for them.  In fact, I'd jump all over that.  I love being the resource that says, "Hey, I contacted him and he's cool!  Says go ahead and use it!  Whoot!" But not for my own work.  Nope.  Stupid, isn't it?  A lot of writers are weird like that.  (Ok, that was a little mental side trip no one really needed.  Let's get back to the picture.)

Jeez, that would be a nice cover, wouldn't it?  *squee*  Maybe I'll email him later this week after I figure out how to make the *insert expletives here* document convert to Kindle correctly.  Without that then a cover is completely useless and a large waste of time anyway!

In the meantime, check out Jitu's website.  It's kinda cool.  Very Bollywood.

http://www.jitusavlani.com/

Looks fancy, don't it?  Looks like he'd probably charge a lot for the photo, don't it?  Yep.  I fear he's gonna want a lot for it, I'm not gonna be able to pay it, and then I'll have lost my Alex.  I think I'd rather be able to look at the photo and see the cover, then know for sure it could never be the cover.  Looks like I'm not gonna send an email, don't it?

And that right there is what they call in the therapy biz as a break-thru.

I should have taken the percocet prescription from the doc when I had the chance.

$$$$Steph

It's Freaking Done

I can't believe the book is done.  It's been a long, strange week for it too.

Last Saturday - I just got to the company picnic and sat down with a bowl of steamed clams.  BAM!  Migraine.  I didn't have my meds on me.  So I did the next best thing.  Drank it away.  People kept tabs on me and brought me beer the whole time.  Within an hour it was gone.  HALLELUJAH!  I wouldn't recommend that remedy often though.

Wednesday - MIGRAINE AGAIN?!?!?!?!  Took meds and stayed home.  I was pretty sick the whole day.  At 3 pm my brain finally snapped free and took off like a race car.  I was all of a sudden back into the book and loving it!!!  Writer's block gone.

Yesterday - I was in a race to finish the book.  I wanted it done by Monday.  I was well on my way to finishing it too when...yep.  Migraine.  (Are you freaking kidding me???)  This one was weird too.  The symptoms were backwards.  So I took meds AND booze.  Finished a bottle of wine and within an hour...no migraine.  None whatsoever.  Weirdest thing.

Today - Hangover.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  Oh, but I finished the book.

Now I just need some critics and a kick-ass editor to catch my screw-ups.  Oh, and a publisher might be nice.

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Favorite goofy line of the day...

The blouse was so see-through that he could see the flower pattern on her bra move when she laughed.  It looked like a rose bush in an earthquake.  

"Game of Hearts" - Meet Lyssa Winfield

In honor of reaching over 50,000 words, meet the heroine of our story...

This is Lyssa.  She works as a project manager in the gaming software development department at Markison Industries.  She enjoys yoga, Thai food, and long walks down Newbury Street to window shop for cool girly-things she's going to buy with all the overtime money she rakes in by not having a social life.  

Next on her To-Get List:  Hypoallergenic lingerie in a color that matches Alex's eyes.

Actually, this is a chick from a hairstyle magazine that we were thumbing through at work.  It was another, "Gasp!  That's her!" moment.  I don't even know her real name.  I guess it's just Lyssa.

FYI - Lyssa's eyes are actually silvery gray

"Game of Hearts" - Meet Alexander Dane

This is Alex.  He works for Markison Industries as a Security Specialist.  His current job is making sure nothing happens to pretty project manager Lyssa Winfield.  Not only would Alex take a bullet for Lyssa, he'd gladly catch anything else she threw at him.  Except the wooden spatula.  When he sees his frisky little ninja babe wielding the spatula he ducks.  She's kind of dangerous with that thing.

 

The story behind this photo --- I was going to give Chase, another character in the book, a goatee.  I did a google image search on "goatee" to find one I liked so I'd have a picture as a reference for describing it.  I like having pics for inspiration.  As soon as I saw this beautiful man's face on the screen I instantly gasped, "That's Alex!"

His name is Rajneesh Duggal and he's a supermodel/actor from India.  This photo has been a huge inspiration for the character Alex.  Before this, I was having a hard time picturing him.  Now it's kinda easy.

Lousy Update

This is a quick update.  Mostly for my parents.  I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been super busy since getting back from vacation.  But it's not the kind of busy that anyone wants to hear about.  I'm not sure anyone wants to hear about the stuff I do write anyway, but it's there.  Deal with it.

Drew and I have been making great strides in cleaning up the house.  We are collectors.  The only thing that keeps us from being horders is that all the cats are still alive and we don't get the newspaper.  We just can't stand to throw away anything.  Everything looks like something we might use someday.

Something happened a few weeks ago and I snapped.  I just started cleaning stuff out.  It took Drew longer to come around than me, but I think once he started to see how much easier it was to clean and find stuff when the junk is gone that he was on the bandwagon because he started ditching things too.

Another thing that's kept me even busier lately is my writing.  I'm writing again.  I mean, seriously writing again.  My obsession with how much I hate 50 Shades of Grey has fueled my need to write something better.  So, I'm going to write my own trashy erotic novel.

The Game of Hearts

A Lyssa Winfield Smut Mystery

By SKDeal

Dr. Lyssa Winfield is an anthropologist with a taste for exotic cuisine, fashionable shoes and expensive purses, which is why she’s left her field of study to work as a high-profile software development manager for Markison Industries.  When her job comes under threat from a mysterious source, Lyssa’s assigned hunky security expert Alexander Dane to shadow her.  As the threats become more personal, Alex finds himself guarding every aspect of his charge’s life.  The closer they get, the more dangerous things become; a fact which scares Lyssa even more than her stalker.  Everything’s at stake for Lyssa.  Her job, her life --- and most of all --- her heart.  Can she uncover who’s out to get her without losing them all?

It's a working title, by the way.  I don't like it, but I have to have something right now.  And "Smut Mystery" will probably be changed to "Sexy-time Mystery" or something more appropriate.  But I've discovered that I really like using the term "smut mystery".  Sounds funny.  And now my co-workers and friends come up to me and say, "Hey!  How's the smut coming?"  That's funny as hell!  

And of course everyone knows about this because I cannot stop talking about it.  Somehow I made it through TOPS tonight without saying anything to anyone there, but it was hard.  It's because I'm completely in love with my characters and the story.  

The erotic part isn't kinky, but it is very, very detailed.  I'm hoping to prove to readers that you can have "vanilla" sex and still find it hot.  Even more importantly, you can have sex and a plot too.  (Ask anyone who's read 50 Shades -- none of them can tell you the plot.)  And to top it all off, there's humor.  (Of course there is!  I'm writing it!)

I've completed various sections of the book (I don't work in order --- never have, never will).  But I know the entire story.  It gets enhanced on a daily basis too.  As I think about the scenes, I find ways to improve situations and characters.

I've given parts of the book to a few people to test it out on.  So far I've had an overwhelmingly wonderful response.  And I didn't just pick friends that would coddle me in my efforts.  I picked people who would tell me the truth.  I've taken my criticisms well (few as there have been) and it's helped me improve the story!  But so far they've all wanted to read more.  This is amazingly encouraging!!!

So, you probably won't hear much from me in the next few weeks.  I've made only a few cards and the ones I did were sent to blog readers, so I wasn't going to post them anyway!

Ok, gotta go!  I have to change the color of Alex's hair and I need to give his buddy Chase a goatee.