Barbara's Meanderings

                                      http://www.comingsoon.net/imageGallery/Mission__Impossible___Ghost_Protocol/Mission%3A_Impossible_-_Ghost_Protocol_21.jpg

There's nothing like scheduling something a long way in advance, because you never remember it until a day or two before and then you wonder how the time got away from you! At least that's what always happens to me.:) So when I got the announcement that I was scheduled for a chat I recorded it in my brain and on my calendar and said that is weeks away. Well the day is finally here and I am announcing here that I will be chatting on my own on the e-chatters loop for Coffee Time Romance & More tomorrow night at 7:00PM - 8:00PM EST.

For all of you followers of this blog, you will have the upper hand, because I am doing a scavenger hunt from my past blogs. I will also be asking some questions about me and to all the lucky winners I will be giving away free ebooks. One of these will be the memorial anthology, Lavender Dreams, in which I have a story. Also, I will be talking about little known facts concerning both the story and the history of the book.

I would love for you all to come and be part of this chat. In order to do this you need to be registered here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karenfindoutaboutnewbooks/

Hope you all had a great holiday. We spent it quietly and then went to the movies to see "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" which was fun and full of action. The photo above comes from the movie. Both my daughters and I agreed that it was one of the best action movies we have ever seen. Some of those scenes are crazy!!! See it for yourself and let me know if you agree. Of course, before the movie began we had to have some problems. I had told my husband that we were going to be at Port Chester and he heard it as The Majestic, which is a theater in Stamford. Meanwhile, we were at Port Chester waiting for the movie to begin and my daughters were waiting in the lobby with his ticket. When he called me I was in the theater holding the seats for everyone. I texted my daughters, but he had already called them and we all had to go to the later movie. Luckily the manager allowed us to exchange the tickets. We all agreed after that this was the reason cell phones were invented. In a previous world my husband would never have been able to get a hold of us and we would have had a lot of aggravation wondering where he might be.:) The joys of modern life!!!

Until the next time, I hope to see a lot of you at the chat tomorrow night.

If you didn't see the comment on the last blog post, the winner of the free ebook from my last contest is:

Donna McDine

She has another day to contact me or I'll do another drawing!

For the entire month of September this blog was devoted to bringing you only writers of MG/YA. Today my guest author is a very dear friend and author from MuseItUp Publishing who is on the brink of publishing her book, Erotic Deception from the MuseItHot division.

Here is her bio:




I live in a Southern California Castle with Prince Charming and a Magnificent Black Stallion.

Okay, it’s a bungalow, my husband works in a corporate environment and my horse is a small black pug with a sense of humor and a lot of attitude. But my address is Cloud 9, CA.

I grew up in a small town in Missouri sharing years of romance novels with my mother. We laughed together, cried together, and thoroughly enjoyed our favorite authors. My mother has since passed but her gift of memories will always remain through the pages of each novel I write.

Thank you, dear reader, for the precious time you will use in journeying with my heroes and heroines. May the echo of their laughter and tears create special memories within you as I have enjoyed from authors past. My gratitude to MuseItUp Publishing is one I am still trying to articulate.

Actually Karen, the gratitude should be from all of us authors at MuseItUp Publishing who you have helped in so many ways. Karen's website is very unique. Anyone who hasn't been there should go there immediately and check out its many features. When you first get on the website you are greeted by this lovely avatar of Karen








 telling you all about the places you can visit on the website. She invites other authors to come and prepares a custom made avatar for each author. I had the pleasure of being interviewed along with my character, Carolyn Samuels. She treated each of us with care and panache. Her choices for wardrobe and hair were excellent and she continues to make every author who appears on her site very special.

I'm sure Karen is now blushing, because she is not one to heap praise upon herself. On the contrary, she usually is there helping someone else and rarely thinks about herself. She is a benefactor in so many ways. For this Thanksgiving Karen has added another dimension to her website. Here she is to tell us about it in her own words:

Coffee Time Romance…Proud Sponsor For…2011 Thanksgiving Project


Hello darling Barbara. I am EXCITED to be here today and I thank you so much for the opportunity. You know, in this world of hearts, there exist few that are bigger or more generous than yours.

Okay, now I'm blushing. Can you all see it??

You’ve been a friend, role-model, and such a solid support; not only of my own endeavors but everyone who enters our Muse house or comes into contact with you. As such, I didn’t have to ponder too much about what I wanted to discuss here. Of course, it’s what you do most. Give to others.

When I first mentioned the efforts of Coffee Time Romance, (another big heart) you embraced it with that unique spirit of yours to jump in and get involved. Barbara, I’m grateful for the person you are and the platform you’ve provided to express this need.

Thank you, Karen! I feel the same way about you.

As you know, Coffee Time Romance is a sponsor for a very special project for those in need. I’ve listed all the details below and I hope anyone visiting today will join us in our efforts and step forward to nominate a family and give hope to someone who may need a helping hand in a time of need.

I actually did nominate a family and it gave me such a warm feeling to know that I was giving a family a chance to have a real Thanksgiving dinner so they could use those funds somewhere else. You shouldn't have to make the choice of paying bills or having a real Thanksgiving dinner. Many families are in situations this year they would never have imagined. Nominating a family only requires you to go the website and follow instructions. Think of their faces on Thanksgiving.

Your Part:

We need you to help us select a needy family this season.

Thanksgiving is a time for family gatherings and holiday meals - for sharing and spreading happiness. A time to be thankful for the people, experiences, and gifts we receive in our lives. Unfortunately, there are some people who have a tougher situation than we do. Regardless of the hardship in their lives, whether it's a family crisis, lost job or other unforeseen circumstances, they are unable to truly celebrate the holidays because of their financial situation.



In hopes of helping these families share in the holidays, last year, Silver Publishing donated two $500 Gift Certificates to grocery stores local to two needy winners. The recipients were nominated by family, friends and coworkers who witnessed, first-hand, the hardship these families experiences day-to-day. They nominated each family via a forum post. It was heartbreaking to pick only two families, but we chose and they were able to join others in the holiday experience.

We want to expand that further this year and try to help more families during these difficult times so we’ve joined forces with other publishers, review sites, authors, and others in order to spread the holiday message and allow others to truly enjoy the season which would otherwise be too difficult to do on their own.

This year, Silver Publishing is going to repeat the project and offer another $1000 in gifts to needy families. Additionally, we are going to add a percentage of royalties earned during a special sales week to be announced. Others joining in the sponsorship will contribute other gifts of their choosing – whether it’s food, money, gift cards, or another gift, we are getting together in a joint effort to help more families during this special time.



If you’d like to help us, please nominate a family you feel needs a little help this Thanksgiving. Let us know ‘why’ you feel they should get a sponsorship. And don’t forget to let us know how to contact YOU, the nominator. This way, if the family mentioned is selected, the sponsor can contact you for more info on how best to send them their holiday gift.

We are accepting nominations July 1, 2011- October 31, 2011.

To nominate a family, please follow the link to complete the entry form.

ENTER HERE
Thank you.

ONE MORE WAY TO GET INVOLVED…In addition to nominating a family there’s another way you can help feed a family at Thanksgiving. All you have to do is go to the following site and tell us your favorite coffee beverage or tea, if you prefer. Your preference will be logged as a comment and for each comment $1 will go toward feeding a family at Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for your caring and participation. Here’s the link to comment:

http://www.karencote.tv/coffee-time-romance-a-sponsor-for-the-thanksgiving-project-2011


Again, thank you so much, Karen, for bringing this to our attention! Now didn't I hear that you were about to publish a novel?

Yes, I will be publishing my first novel from MuseItUp  Publishing on October 14th. Look in The Muse Bookstore for more information, the cover, the blurb and an excerpt.

I am thrilled for you, Karen!! Good luck with all your ventures!!!


Until the next time. thank you to my new follower! More news about my book, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor.  I now have three reviews on Amazon and two are 5 stars!!! I'm not sure about the rank, because it varies so much! If anyone knows about how they determine the rank on Amazon I would love to know.:)

I am still going through the various blog comments you left in September and soon will be posting the results of the drawings and the comment contest. The month of October is going to be like a vacation for me, so I will be blogging less and trying to relax before November when it all gets crazy again. I will be posting on two blogs on Saturday: DowntownYA, my usual Saturday column, and on The Muse blog where I will be talking about Halloween experiences.

My guests for RRWL Tales from the Pages on Thursday, October 27th will be Roseanne Dowell and Nancy Bell, two authors I love from MuseItUp Publishing and who just published MG/YA novels. Also we will be joined by a dear friend, Donna Marie Merritt who will be talking about her recently published book of poems written while she was taking care of her husband who has cancer:

Cancer:Poetry for Tough Times v.2: A Caregiver's Guide


Where I live it's brilliant sunshine and blue skies. I think I will venture outside and enjoy this. Also they came and painted today and I'd like to be able to breathe.:)