I had a brief email conversation with my editor at Sapphire Blue Publishing this week.

Here’s the gist:

• I apologized for submitting such a rough manuscript and taking so long to rework it.
• She showed nothing but grace and understanding for all that I was juggling in my life.

Juggling?

I generally consider myself an underachiever but I stopped to think about that.

Yeah, I am juggling.  I’m juggling like a fricking mime on speed!

When I was on active duty there wasn’t any juggling.  There were 12 hours of work and 12 hours of play every day.  A nice, clean slice down the middle.  12 hours toting a machine gun and 12 hours of gym time, tossing back drinks with the boys (I really did a great deal of drinking) and a little sleep once in a while.

There was never any juggling.

Now I’m a civilian mother of two small boys, one of which just started Kindergarten.  I’m a wife, though I’ll admit a lousy one because my husband never gets his quality time.  I’m a freelance writer at Associated Content.  I’m a novelist with Sapphire Blue Publishing.  We just PCSed to Texas and I’m trying to unpack all these boxes of crap we can clearly live without.  I’m also trying to get my pre-pregnancies (there were 2) body back (these kids have really messed me up).  Lastly, I’m trying to implement a 5-year plan aimed at a location independent retirement.  (Yeah, we’re kinda young for retirement but my husband would like to retire and damnit, he deserves something for not getting his quality time.)

So maybe there is some juggling involved.

I was just looking over my calendar for tomorrow.  I had to scroll the page to see everything.  That’s when I know I’m in trouble.  My day will go something like this:

0500 Wake, drink a pot of coffee while responding to email, purchase and give away books promised as prizes in recent promotions, post this blog, post an article at Associated Content

0600 Wake the boys, feed them breakfast, change 2-3 diapers on the little man depending on whether or not he drops a load or pisses like a racehorse, get the boys dressed, teeth brushed, faces washed

0700 Get the boys in  the bike trailer (Mommy’s little rickshaw), helmets on, water bottles in hand and pedal Mr. Kindergarden to school (20 minutes of uphill biking in San Antonio heat and humidity), drop him off and pedal home (10 minutes of fast downhill coasting)

0730 Fight with the little man about how we will not keep riding around, clean up a mess or two as the little man is potty training.

0800 Down a protein shake and some vitamins, drain the coffee pot of any essence of coffee that might be left.

0830 Unpack 3-5 boxes and put more crap away, do a couple loads of laundry.

1030 Make toast and a bottle for the little man, say a little prayer to the universe that he takes a nap, fight with him about putting on a diaper.

1115 This is my only TV time all day so don’t judge.  I watch The Young and the Restless from the DVR so I can skip the commercials.

1200 Work on the current novel.

1300 Little man usually wants some Mommy time

1400 Mount up to pick up Kinderdude.

1430 Pick up Kinderdude

1445 Go over school work, homework and notes sent from his teacher, ask him about his day, find out if he ate lunch

1530 Check on that laundry

1600 Make supper for the family

1700 Do the dishes, prepare clothes for me and the boys for the next day, prepare evening snack and bottle.

1730 I try to write but there is usually the pitter-patter of little feet as well as some screaming, airplane and train noises and crazy questions like “Mom, what a mouse house?”.  I try to sneak away for a shower at this point since my neglected husband is home.

1830 Bath time for the kids then snacks and some Spongebob or Scooby-Doo.

1900 Bedtime for the kids, I write my blogs, catch up on RSS feeds and go over my calendar for the next day (all done from bed, on my phone)

2030 Pass out, phone in hand

2100 Wake up, pick my phone off the floor and put it on the charger, go back to sleep.

But who am I kidding?  My day never happens in tidy blocks like ths!

On rare nights I can sleep from 9-5.  Most nights the boys wake up for one reason or another.  Last night, Little man woke at 2300, 2400, 0100 and 0200 and drank a bottle every time.

Yeah, I’m a juggling muther*!$#”&!

Some days I wish I was sitting in a leaky Hummvee with and M-60.  Too bad I wasn’t writing back then.  I had plenty of time for it.

PS: It is 0300 and the kids have been up coughing most of the night.  They’re both sick.  You can disregard pretty much everything I thought I was going to do.  I’ll be running popsicles and apple juice all day.  I am so grateful for my own health…and the fact that I had the good sense to stay with Sapphire Blue Publishing!

Come to my crazy little world for a visit sometime at http://www.LisaPietsch.com

 If you’ve ever had to transfer to a new base, you know that it can be exciting, especially when moving to a place you’ve always wanted to live. However, uprooting from a group of people you’ve come to love can also be difficult. Even if you’re not career military, you may end up with a permanent change of station (PCS) within one tour. According to http://military.com here are the various transportation groups who will ultimately be in charge of your move.

One of the questions I’m often asked by readers is “What’s your favorite of all your books?” Which 
is a bit like asking a mother to name her favorite child and impossible to answer.

That said, I’ll admit that The Homecoming, the first in my Shelter Bay series, is very personal to me. Partly because it’s set on the magnificent Oregon coast, where my husband once bought me a bag of salt-water taffy, then proposed. Decades later, not only is the candy store still there, I’m so glad I said yes! Combining my hobbies of photography and scrapbooking, I created a video virtual tour of Shelter Bay on my website at http://joannross.com. If that red-roofed house on the tour looks familiar, it’s because Signet’s art department used it on The Homecoming’s cover.

Another question I get a lot is why I chose to write about military heroes. That’s a complex question, but one reason is that I’ve always been a sucker for a guy in uniform. When I was growing up, nearly every male I knew got drafted into the military. Even Elvis didn’t get a pass. After going through Army boot camp, he was sent to Germany, where he met a teenage Priscilla, and well, we all know how that turned out.

Along with several military men and women we’ve “adopted” through Soldiers Angels over the years, we also have two nephews in the Army — Patrick, who completed two Iraq tours and Kyle, who’s already “done” Iraq and is currently serving as a medevac in Afghanistan. Needless to say, having them in harm’s way these past years has made my High Risk books, and now my Shelter Bay stories, extremely personal.

Ongoing concern for them is also partly why I’ve returned to my more emotional family-centric romance roots after the murder and mayhem of romantic suspense. Since writing about serial killers eventually gets depressing, I’m so happy to be back telling feel-good stories about good things happening to nice, but flawed people.

Another reason I like to write about military heroes (along with a military heroine in Shattered) is because they possess something that seems to be in short supply these days – honor.

I firmly believe that a man capable of committing to something outside himself can also commit to a mate and, as a woman, I find that really appealing
The hero I like to write about doesn’t have any personal desire to create conflict or aggression, but he does possess an unwavering code that has him not hesitating to put himself in harm’s way and risk being wounded — physically, emotionally, or both — to protect, defend, and fight for what’s right. He’s self-disciplined, decisive (though he often has to battle his own internal demons, as The Homecoming’s Sex Douchett does) and along with an integrity as tough as his body, he’s unwaveringly loyal and self-confident enough to appreciate and support the equally strong woman who manages to win his guarded heart.

Many readers might be surprised to learn that I’ve been writing military heroes since I wrote a male point-of-view romance about a former Vietnam POW in the mid ‘80s, which was a groundbreaking subject for the genre and still remains on many must-read lists. Since then, though I don’t always mention the fact, most of the heroes in my books have been veterans.

One of the things I’m enjoying exploring in my Shelter Bay books is life after war. As hopefully more and more of our troops begin returning home, there are some wonderful stories waiting to be told, and I can’t wait to write some of them.

In The Homecoming, both Sax Douchett and Kara Conway have returned to their small coastal hometown seeking healing and closure. The ocean has always provided a shelter from emotional storms for me. It’s where I go to unwind and put my life in perspective, which is why I named my fictional coastal town Shelter Bay. Do you have some special place where you feel at peace? A place that, at least in your heart, feels like home?

To celebrate the book’s release day, three people who respond (chosen at random), will receive an autographed copy of The Homecoming.

Thank-you to Jess for inviting me and to the rest of the RollCall-ers for having me by the blog today!

I have been writing, and thinking, about alpha males a lot, and what makes for a ‘warrior.’ My current release, THE IRISH WARRIOR, has obvious ties to the topic. And my husband works for the MFLC program—Military and Family Life Consultant Program—which provides free, anonymous, completely confidential short-term counseling by Masters-level licensed therapists to Military Personnel and their Spouses and Families on all CONUS and OCONUS instillations.

Wow. That was a mouthful of information and syllables and acronyms. Still with me?

The heroes in the romance genre—and fiction–are often the warrior archetype. I think many people often equate ‘the warrior’ with ‘the fighter,’ and while that is often true, it misses the mark if its aimed too closely. It dilutes the totality of what makes for a warrior, in fiction and in life.

The warrior is active, not cringing at what is to come or may come, but moving forward into it. This doesn’t mean there’s no fear. It means the fear is integrated into the rest of the ‘knowing.’

The warrior is self-directed. Not that s/he does not take orders, but that she has an inner compass for what needs to be done, and takes care of that without needing someone to tell her to. This requires a focused mind and determination, and the exercise of both restraint and power, following along the trajectory of will.

The warrior has the capacity to be a master. And there is only one route to attain such a height: devotion, dedication, hard work and utter focus.

The warrior has a variety of intelligences. She can absorb information, accurately determine what’s relevant to the goal, distill that knowledge into something meaningful, and adapt in response. The true warrior is flexible—the essence of intelligence.

The warrior values life, sometimes as a direct result of having taken it, but certainly as a result of knowing he can take it. He has that power. And therefore, exercises that restraint.

Many of you are warriors. Many of you love warriors, as husband, wife, son, daughter, cousin, friend.

I call it the ‘good alpha.’ Adrenal junkies, sure. There are worse things to be. Alphas in charge, often. Real men and women with families and feelings. Above all.

Even in our books, there’s that inner world, the one that fuels the hero’s fire, for better or worse, usually a little of both. In our books, the love of the heroine is at minimum the motivation for growth. That’s true in real life too. In real life, though, there’s more than 400 pages, and sometimes the love of a good person (and insight) is not going to be enough.

Warriors use all the tools available to let them become a master.

Like the MFLC program.

It’s possible this program may be just the thing our real-life warriors needs once in a while. Again, it’s free. It’s confidential—no one ever knows you even went. It’s on US military installations in the US, Europe and Asia. It’s for military personnel and their spouses and families.

And best of all, it’s completely anonymous. You don’t even have to say your name.

You can contact the Family Support program on your base/post to find out more. The MFLC consultants also often give program brief at various meeting. And they just walk around the installation, hoping to get the word out, so keep your ears open.

They’re there for one reason: to help. They serve the warriors and their families.

Because the strongest among us cannot stay strong for the rest of us if they don’t stay strong. And it is a tripartite: mind, body, heart/spirit. So here’s to keeping our warriors true to the spirit of a warrior in our fiction, and here’s to keeping them healthy and strong in this real world.

Thank-you to all the warriors who serve our country.

Kris Kennedy writes sexy, adventure-filled medieval romances for Kensington and Pocket Books. At her website (http://kriskennedy.net) , you can sign-up for the newsletter and drop Kris a line saying Hi! THE IRISH WARRIOR, winner of the 2008 Golden Heart® Award for Best Historical Romance, released June 1. Read an excerpt here!

When we moved from a five-bedroom house with a living room, family room, and great room to a one bedroom with living room, it was a lesson in Thing Economics. I went through everything I owned and wondered why in the world I ever thought I’d needed so much. I decided right then it was time to pare down. But how to go about it? Should I toss stuff? Give it away? Sell it? Donate it to a thrift store like Goodwill or Salvation Army?

After all, how many pairs of shoes does one person really need? Okay, okay. We’ll skip that question. LOL

Fun shoes in a rainbow of color

Being the list type, I sat down and sketched out ideas, and ended up using several. Fortunately, I keep those sorts of things, and my notes were handy recently when one of my sisters experienced an apartment fire. No one was hurt, her items were cleaned, and she was moved to a new unit in her apartment building. Still, once she settled in, she had to redecide where to put everything. Both units had the same square footage, but not everything fit the way it had before.

To help her get started, I shared some of my notes, and realized that they would make a good blog article. I say that to say this — getting organized doesn’t always mean throwing everything out. Here are some other ways to get started.

Money makers:

• Yard sale with a family member who has a yard and wouldn’t mind getting rid of things either.
• Post the items on eBay.com “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” Buyers always pay shipping.

Giveaways:

• Have a family “yard sale” where only family has the choice of what pieces they want. No money has to change hands.
• Post a note on the bulletin board in your subdivision or apartment building that you have xyz free to a good home. Others might love to have it.

Storage:

• A plastic storage container is better than a box because it protects against moisture and insects, and is less likely to crush and damage the contents.
• Start with a medium size box and add another as you fill it up.
• Wrap each piece you want to keep in clean paper (newspaper is okay for non-staining items, but don’t use comic pages or color print ads).
• Place the heaviest items on the bottom and most fragile on top.

Donating:

• Some thrift stores and family agencies will pick up items. Most have limits, so call ahead to find out.
• Ask for a receipt. These are generally blank except for a date and a signature. Write out the kinds of things you donated, and affix a fair-market-value to them if you want to deduct the donation on your taxes. Essentially, use the price you would expect to pay in a resale shop.
• To better understand how to affix a value, go to http://irs.gov and search on the subject “value of donated items” or use this link: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p561/ar02.html#d0e545 Here is the tinyurl for the same spot: http://tinyurl.com/2b7ht6x

Avoiding Junk in the First Place:

As the old saying goes, the best offense is a good defense. Avoid taking home things that will end up being considered clutter. To do that, ask yourself a few questions before taking things home. If the answer to any of the following questions is no or you’re unsure, leave it and move on. Adjust to fit your purpose (for example, if you’re picking out something for someone else).

• Will it add value to my life?
• Can I use it now?
• Will it fit me and do I have items to match it already? (especially clothing)
• Is it my favorite color?
• Is it in good repair?
• Do I want to dust/clean/maintain it regularly?
• Do I know exactly where it will fit in my home/closet?

When I feel overwhelmed by an organization task, I set a timer for ten minutes, and work on only one thing during that time. When the bell rings, I stop and assess what I did. I’m usually pleased with how much I accomplished. I take a five-minute break and then set it for ten more minutes. It’s amazing what you can achieve in ten to twenty minutes. Some days, you may only have time for five minutes, on others, fifteen to thirty. Make it small numbers and you won’t begrudge the time. It takes me just under five minutes to strip the bed and put the sheets in the washer. I can also put away the silverware from the dishwasher in the time it takes to fill a one-gallon pitcher with filtered water at the sink. I try to make it fun, and see how quickly I can do things while something else is happening, like folding towels during commercials on TV, which has the bonus of keeping me from snacking.

As a little girl, I took great joy in playing house. I’d fold and refold, smooth and straighten doll clothes, and make everything just so. My toys weren’t always dolls; I loved playing in the mud too. I realized one day that I’d lost the joy of handling these details, and challenged myself to make work more playful.

It’s surprising how much fun playing house can be. It’s almost as much fun as playing doctor. *wink*

The Path to Freedom, Book #1 in the Task Force 125 Series by Lisa Pietsch

Let’s face it – the military life is romantic.

We travel to exotic places that other people only dream about.  We meet people from all walks of life who are driven, capable, confident, fit and well-groomed.  It doesn’t get much sexier than that.  We live fast and work hard.  We savor every moment because we know, it could be our last.  We love, sometimes for the moment and sometimes forever but always passionately.

A Taste of Liberty, Book #2 in the Task Force 125 Series by Lisa Pietsch

We suffer.  We endure.  We ache and we grieve.  The joys are balanced with the pains of living but I don’t know one person who has served who would give up any of their pains if it meant giving up their joys as well.

We eat a bigger slice of life than all the people back home put together.

Is it any wonder they’re just chomping at the bit to read about it all?

I am a veteran and a military wife.  I write romance because I live a romantic life.  If you want to know what has been so romantic about it, pick up The Path to Freedom and start reading.  Sometimes, the only way to get people to believe it is to dress it up as fiction.

As someone who has reaped the benefits of the military education system, I can honestly say the GI Bill is one of the best out there. Now that the rules have changed, however, it’s critical that all veterans look into just what that means for them. The below information came from Diana Bakowski, who asked me to help spread the word to our Romance Roll Call Readers.

d. The Post-9/11 GI Bill offers terrific benefits, but they are not automatic. The actions taken today will simplify the process and help the VA expedite benefit payments. I’m contacting you today on behalf of The United States Department of Veterans Affairs to stress the importance of completing all of the necessary steps to ensure the benefits deserved will be paid in a timely fashion! Here’s what needs to be done:

* Check your eligibility online at www.gibill.va.gov
* Submit your application VA Form 22-1990 or 22-1990E.
* After you have enrolled in school, check with your School Certifying Official (SCO) to confirm that your VA enrollment certification has been sent to the VA on your behalf. This form certifies your actual enrollment period and triggers your payment. *Here’s a little hint: the school’s designated SCO will be found in the Financial Aid Department, Admissions and Records Department, or Registrar’s Office.)
* And last but not least, enjoy the education benefits you earned!

If you or a loved one is planning to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill to attend school anytime this year, action must be taken today. Please let me know if you would be interested in working together to ensure your readers are securing the benefits they are eligible for. For more information please visit: http://www.gibill.va.gov or text GIBill to 99702.

And thank you for your service to our country.

If you’ve never had to really consider what you’d take on a desert island with you, you’ve never deployed. Last year while I was in Iraq, there was nothing I loved more than getting care packages full of books (except when they had books, coffee and chocolate in them). I had incredible support from the RWA community and so it’s time to pass along a great message.

Author Laura Griffin was one author who spent the time to trudge to the post office, stand in line and send me all of the above with one added benefit: she sent me ARCs of her two books that came out last year: Untraceable and RITA nominated Whisper of Warning. So without delay, here’s Laura, asking for support on books for soldiers!

What’s better than chocolate? According to a friend of mine who just spent a year deployed overseas, a good book.

As a civilian, I’d never spent much time thinking about the reading material on most military bases. But I guess it isn’t surprising that it’s geared toward men. When my local Romance Writers of America chapter heard that female soldiers were finding the reading selection a little thin, we started sending care packages containing romance novels, chick lit, mysteries, women’s fiction—basically, whatever we thought women overseas might be missing. The effort continues today with a paperback book drive over on Murder She Writes: www.murdershewrites.com

“These packages mean a tiny space in time where a female soldier can feel like the woman she is rather than the weapon wielding warrior she also is,” says Monica, a soldier who helps get care packages to women in uniform. “These packages let the soldier escape from the sand and stress of a deployment and be somewhere else completely.”

The goal today is 100 books, one for every person who leaves a comment here or on Murder She Writes. Many author friends have generously donated books, and I’ve picked up some paperbacks from the bestseller section of my local book store. They’re all going into the box, along with a few other much-requested goodies, such as blank journals and chocolate!

Please leave a comment and help us reach our goal!

And if you have some books on your hands that you’d like to donate directly, you can contact Monica at: mojo09226@yahoo.com for details.

Laura Griffin started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of writing romantic suspense. Her articles have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, and her fiction work has garnered awards from writing competitions throughout the country. Laura currently lives in Austin, where she is working on her next romantic suspense novel.

Things are changing.  Fast.  3 April the iPad will be launched.  The parameters of the iBookstore are known by only a few.  Kindle will be doubling royalties come the end of June, BUT, only for titles priced under $10.  Fictionwise has gone from requiring ten titles to requiring 25 titles and 5 different authors.

What’s a writer to do?  Well, the way to go is still traditional publishing.  Latest book just came out this past week:  Wild Ride and we just found out yesterday it hit the NY Times list on its first week, which is nice.  But there are other options. So here’s an example of something we created just two months ago from nothing.

What is Who Dares Wins Publishing?

An independent Flex Publishing company specializing in military fiction and non-fiction, and narrative military non-fiction, especially authors who have rights reversion on their backlist. We consider new authors in Special Operations fiction and those interested in writing episodes for one of our series.

We publish Series Special Operations fiction and Military Science Fiction falling under the “season” and “episode” model.  Series fiction premieres with a pilot at approximately 20K word count with each additional episode at 10k word count.  We have established Series Lines and are looking to increase series options for our readers.

We want to give authors the opportunity to publish their backlist in both ebook and POD form without the cost and time intensive of creating and preparing manuscripts for upload and conversions to various ebook formats and ebook readers.  We provide our authors with cover art and will create a Print on Demand book that will be distributed on websites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble and available via Ingram to brick and mortar bookstores.  Also, the author can purchase trade paperback versions of their book to hand-sell at discount, with us handling the orders and shipping.  We charge no fees and work with you to earn a profit via royalties.  If you don’t make a profit, we don’t.

Flex Publishing:  Authors are the producer of the product.  Readers are the consumer of the product.  Who Dares Wins Publishing offers a non-traditional option for authors to get their work to the readers.  The key is to build synergy in the brand among all the authors, each helping the others.  The bottom line that will make Flex Publishing a success is TEAM-WORK.  Authors who write similar material working together to promote each other.

As the publishing world undergoes some major growing pains, many authors are feeling the crunch and in many cases, being pushed right out of publishing.  Traditional publishers want authors to become a brand in themselves.  Many big names have, but most authors are struggling to even find a single slot on a bookshelf.  The day of the advance is coming to an end for many mid-list authors and nearly impossible for the new author.

Technology has provided readers with new options for enjoying the written word.  However, traditional publishers have not embraced the new technology and while the publishers are trying to figure out how to save their crumbling empire, reader demands are changing and it’s the readers who authors need to reach.

Who Dares Wins Publishing has been created with authors and readers in mind.  Our goal is to connect our author with their readers.  We realize we can’t compete with the Big NY houses as we don’t have their distribution abilities.  However, the distribution channels are quickly changing as well.  More and more readers today are buying their books differently as well as reading them differently.  Amazon is an online store.  There is no Amazon on your street corner, yet Amazon is one of the leaders in both the physical book market and the ebook market.  Barnes and Noble might be in your town, but with the addition of Fictionwise (ebook online store recently purchased by Barnes and Noble) and Barnes and Noble’s new ebook reader The Nook, even their sales are changing, leaning toward online sales.  The introduction of the iPad and Apple’s online digital bookstore will do for publishing what iTunes did for music.

Who Dares Wins Publishing currently cannot get physical books into your local bookstore unless they are ordered via Ingram (Lightning Press- a pull rather than push system).  However, we can get out POD’s to the major on-line bookstores and make ebooks available through major on-line ebook stores and support each ereader.  Ultimately, we want to get our books to our readers.

Anyway.  I predict a lot of similar start-ups in publishing across an area of areas.  I believe military has a better chance at succeeding because we know the value of working as a team.

Also, my new book Warrior Writer: From Writer to Published Author just came out and I’m really happy with it.  I recommend everyone who wants to write, start putting together their own writing book.  Just write down everything you know right now and then keep adding to it.  A similar concept is to write a book using your blog.  We invest a lot of time into blogging, if you can find an interesting topic reference your platform, schedule out the blog like chapters.  Just a thought.

www.WhoDaresWinsPublishing.com

I may be a writer about those amazing Navy SEALs during the day, but every Tuesday afternoon I become a Girl Scout leader. A few years ago, one of my Brownie’s father went to Iraq and we sent him Girl Scout cookies. Since then our girls have challenged themselves every year to send more cookies to our soldiers overseas. Here’s a note from a brother of one of the girls we sent cookies to, and is in Iraq right now:

“Thank you so very much to all girls in your troop! Me and my platoon buddies all enjoyed receiving the cookies that you all sent us. My favorite were the peanut butter patties. We really appreciate and are thankful for your support, there is nothing like knowing that the people back home care, especially when you don’t know all of them.”

PFC. Nathan

And you can help, too! Right now we’re taking donations to send cookies to our soldiers – we’re calling it Troops for Troops! What’s even better, it’s totally tax deducible. A box is $3.50 and a case is $42.00 – and all money is welcome!

If you’d like to donate contact kkloman@aol.com We’re hoping to make the next March 21st mailing – thank you so much in advance!

If you’d like cookies for yourself, you can easily find a troop in your area by going to: http://www.girlscoutcookies.org/

My favorite is thin mints!

Jill Monroe writes sexy Harlequins and can be found at www.jillmonroe.com