Reading

Signs of Life

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Hello, all. Anna here, breaking radio silence for a bit. Hopefully Storm and I will be back to a semi regular blogging schedule, along with writing-writing, but here’s where things stand at the moment.

It’s been a rough several months, ever since the bedbug incident, and the time that we thought would be only a couple of weeks between apartments is now at month number ten. It’s been a combination of motel living, friends, and the occasional impromptu camping for short periods of time. As one can imagine, not great for mental health, but yay church family and yay modern medicine. With the COVID outbreak, this did affect Real Life Romance Hero’s line of work, as he’s a front of the house restaurant dude, and there has been no front of house for a wile. He’s looking into options, especially as restaurants begin to reopen, so there will be good news on that front soon. We’re also working with some pros to help us navigate the system, which takes some time, but will get results.

Last week, Real Life Romance Hero was in the ER twice (he is okay now) and, at the same time, my tablet died, which made blogging and social media on the go a lot more challenging, but not insurmountable.

I have long been a paper and pen writer, and the stories still need to be told, so that’s a good thing. Transcription time is also editing time, and there will be a chunk of that when the dust settles. Right now, RLRH and I are sharing a laptop, and I have been using that for social media and Simming. (Also planning a return to vlogging in the near future. First on my list: old school romance reviews.) Playing Sims stretches those storytelling muscles, and, as I dive deeper into custom content and mods and editing screenshots, I like the energy it brings. My old school Kindle is still going strong, which makes me immensely grateful that I can carry an entire library with me anywhere I go.

Deciding what to put here can be a tricky thing at times. Is this a writing blog? Is this a romance genre blog? Is it a personal blog? The answer to that is that it’s all of those things, because it’s all part of the journey. Right now, the writing life is more chaotic than I would like, but it is still happening. Number one on the list is getting Drama King, my second contemporary romance with Melva Michaelian, and getting Her Last First Kiss to the end of its second draft, which may involve some reconstruction, but I have done that before, with Orphans in the Storm, which I also wrote during a challenging time and didn’t remember selling until I got the request for the final-final manuscript from the publisher. That book, along with my first historical, My Outcast Heart, is back in my hands. Still weighing the options when it comes to traditional versus indie publishing, but these titles will be back out there as soon as I can make it happen.

For those whose most pressing question is “where are the dang kitty pictures, woman? You know that’s what I’m here for,” here you go:

Storm is doing great, and she will be back to her regular blogging duties hopefully next week. We definitely have us a travel cat, and she has taken beautifully to coming along on certain errands, when we can pop her carrier into a shopping cart and push her around while we shop. She is definitely getting that kitty stroller when we are settled, and a kitty friendly backpack/kitty Bjorn sort of thing is also a possibility. This cat is definitely going places, and so are we.

I’ve also picked up a freelance editing gig that is super fun, and something I would be very happy to do more of in the future.

A couple of days ago, while checking out the social media links for a favorite Simmer, I semi-accidentally created a Discord account. Of course being me, my immediate thought was “I wonder if there are any historical romance themed Discord servers?” and my second thought, “if not, I bet I could start one.” Not taking on the second part of that right away, but if you kno of any romance reading or writing themed Discord servers, I definitely want in.

As I’ve noted in this blog before, I have long since known I do better in my original writing when I am actively involved in a fandom. In the past, that’s usually been TV shows, but I haven’t been in a TV mode much in the last few months. Right now, it’s Sims and my favorite brand of historical romance: rich and intricate and emotional. I fully intend on steering into that particular skid.

That’s about it for the current update. TLDR (too long, didn’t read) version: things are progressing and should stabilize soon. Writing is happening. Cats are good. I love romance novels, Sims, and all of you.

Summer of Love (Stories)

annabowling 2 Comments

Back before the whole vagabonding thing began, I had planned a Skye-athalon. I would re-read not only my all time favorite historical romance novel, Skye O’Malley, by Bertrice Small,

Always. :sigh:

but the entire two series that flowed from it, first to last, top to bottom, no interruptions, and blog about the whole darned thing. From Tudor era Br4itish Isles to the high seas, Northern Africa, and back again, up through the Restoration that followed England’s Civil War, this is an epic. I love epics. That’s no surprise.

Ah, notebook, we will meet again one day

I was super hyped for that, bought a special notebook and washi tape to keep all my notes in, picked a dedicated pen, and even had the namesake of my favorite novel, Skye O’Malley Hart-Bowling, the kitty, not the book, to cheer me on while I read the book, not the kitty.

Fur-ever the queen.

Then life happened. Then it happened again. Then it turned into a dumpster fire, and while all my O’Malley books are safely in storage, my O’Malley books are in storage, so getting to them and the notebook and washi would take some doing, but I still like the idea, so why not do a similar thing with a different series by a different author? That, I can definitely do.

This means I am now in one of the fun parts (spoiler: they are all the fun parts) and that’s picking which series I want to read and share with all of you. I love watching deep dives and readthroughs on BookTube, and t his may indeed be a natural way to jump back into video blogging.

While most of such vlogs I’ve seen are dedicated to some of the brightest stars of today (Julia Quinn, Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, et al) I would love to bring that treatment to some of the grand dames of historical romance, some of which may actually be new to newer readers of the genre. Since I am still vagabonding, I cannot, unfortunately, do this with actual physical books, but that also opens up the whole wide world of the e-reader, and all of Kindle Unlimited is at my disposal. If this works out well, I’ll want to do the same thing with an indie author’s work, and see where things go from there.

So. Which books? Here are a few peeks at my shortlist of possibilities:

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The DeMonteforte Brothers – Danelle Harmon

5.5 books, including novellas, Georgian England. 1770s. aka what the British were doing during the American War For Independence.

Gather the Stars (Culloden's Fire #1)
Culloden’s Fire
Kimberly Cates

5 books. This series is also called the Jacobites, which should give a clue as to the setting, but there are also a few surprises. British Isles

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Fire series
Anita Mills

Also 5 books (I am seeing a trend here) and this one’s medieval, and follows more than one generation.

These days, my cheering section looks like this:

#calicolovestorm

and I am still much more likely to do a thing if I have told the internet I am going to do it, so here we go. I will be reading/listening to all books on my Kindle Fire, through Kindle Unlimited. Shoutout to Lisa at Buried Under Romance for telling me about text to speech so every book can be an audiobook. This will greatly help, as I have found listening to historical romance while playing Sims 4 is my sweet spot.

Which of the three above would you most like to see me cover?

Anna

YA Recommendations for Pride, pt 2

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When I first thought about posting a list of YA recommendations with LGBT themes, I thought it was going to be easy to pick a few favorites, but I was wrong. Love, loss, angst, healing, friendship, and growing up and into oneself are universal, and as with many genres, there are flat out too many excellent voices to pick only a few, and I want to know the stories of people whose experiences are different from mine, so here are five more examples of the stories that have stuck with me the most. gain, no particular order, and all are, as far as I know, own voices stories, and standalones.

Deposing Nathan, Zack Smedley: This book, oh man, all the love. Told in non-linear fashion, we learn how it was that Nate and his best friend, Cam, came not only to blows, but a near-fatal scuffle that now has the legal system involved. The added bonus here is that Nate is equally rooted in his orientation, and his Christian faith, truly desiring to reconcile both truths about himself and live his most honest life. Gripping, raw, and real, this is a five star read for me, and I will pick up Zack Smedley’s next book by only his name on the cover. I’m sold.

I Wish You All the Best, Mason Deaver: When Ben DeBacker comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they toss him out of the house without even shoes on their feet. Where can they possibly go while processing such betrayal? To the only person who can understand, their estranged older sister, Hannah, who immediately comes to get Ben and brings them to live with her and her husband, Thomas, a teacher at the school Ben will attend for the next year. Hannah and Thomas don’t have all the answers, but they want to ask the right questions, and guide Ben as Ben charts his own path in life, art, and love.

If I Was Your Girl, Meredith Russo: Meredith Russo is another writer whose books I will pick up by name alone. In her debut novel, Ms. Russo hits the sweet spot of heartbreaking and heartwarming, as we journey with Amanda, a trans girl looking for a fresh start in a new school. She is strongly attracted to classmate Grant, but unsure of how much to share about her past. She also has some ups and downs reconnecting with her divorced father, with whom she now lives.

Symptoms of Being Human, Jeff Garvin: In Riley Cavanaugh’s own words, “The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?” This is how Riley starts the anonymous blog on the advice of their therapist. Riley, a genderfluid teen, has a voice, but how to use it, when they are settling into a new school, their conservative congressman father is running for reelection, and everybody has expectations of who Riley is or should be. The blog takes off, creating a community, but when Riley’s identity is leaked, that’s when Riley has to decide who they are and what their future will be.

Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden:

There is a lot to love about this book. Not only is it a seminal work of contemporary YA, one of the first with LGBT themes (and certainly with a happy ending)but the author’s voice is so lyrical that it’s almost like music. Not a lot is actually shown of Annie’s musical talent, but it’s infused through the story, told entirely from Liza’s point of view. Two teenage girls, from two different worlds, who find love in each other, the story of their growing relationship interspersed with a letter Liza may or may not send to her estranged beloved, Annie, grabs readers by the heart and doesn’t let go.

Annie, it’s raining. From those three words, the first three that came to the author when she began putting Annie and LIza’s story to paper, I knew this story had me. The scene, early on, where Liza first encounters the enchanting Annie, in a museum, on a rainy November afternoon, instantly earned a place as one of my all time favorites.

It’s not easy to be two young women in love in the late 1970s/early 80s (the book was published in 1982) and both Annie and Liza learn this firsthand, but that’s part of the magic of growing up, getting through the things we think will break us, and learning who our people, family, and chosen family, truly are.

I had a lot of fun coming up with these lists, so will probably be adding more recommendations, both YA and historical romance, maybe a few other things, in future posts. If there’s a topic or trope you’d like to see me cover, drop it in the comments, and I will see what I can do. If you’d like to follow me on Goodreads, to keep up with what I’m reading as well as new releases, I would love to be Goodreads friends, which can happen right here.

YA Book Recommendations for Pride Month, pt 1

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After historical romance, my next favorite subgenre of fiction is Young Adult (YA.) It’s still not a genre in which I write (I hear a dear aunt’s voice in my head now, saying “never say never.”) but one in which I know I am going to find a lot of love, familial, platonic and romantic.

It’s also a genre that is wonderfully diverse, which I love. Here are, in no particular order, five recommendations for YA novels with LGBT+ protagonists. As far as I know, all are own voices stories.

1) All the Bad Apples, Moira Fowley-Doyle: We first meet narrator, Deena, after the funeral of her free-spirited and much older sister, at which there was no body. Deena’s family is believed to be cursed, that something horrible will happen on a girl’s seventeenth birthday, that would follow her the rest of her life. Prepare to be swept away by Fowley-Doyle’s compelling voice, and live with the characters as multiple generations of Deena’s family deal with their own curses and choose their own futures. Oh, and Deena likes girls.

2) Let’s Talk About Love, Claire Kann: Alice has her whole summer planned out, but when she comes out to her girlfriend as asexual, that’s only the first of the big changes in Alice’s life. That relationship is over, but life isn’t, and not wanting sex doesn’t mean not wanting love. What better time than a job at the library to keep Alice’s mind on the right track? Well, apart from co-worker Takumi, who very much reminds Alice how nice romance can be. Will he still be into her if he knows the whole truth about what she wants? (spoiler: he is)

3) Two Boys Kissing, David Levithan: modern teenage boyfriends Harry and Craig participate in a kiss-a-thon to set a world record, but the focus is not entirely on them. Narrated by a Greek Chorus of gay men who died in the AIDS epidemic, we also see how the boys’ lives affect other teens, their own families, and the reader’s own heart.

4) History is All You Left Me, Adam Silvera: Oh my heart. Adam Silvera has ripped it out, stomped it flat, put it back in, and made it somehow, if not stronger, more resilient. Here’s how: teenage Griffin was in love with his ex-boyfriend, Theo, even though they broke up so Theo could go to college on the opposite coast. Neither of them counted on Theo falling in love with Jackson. Or Theo dying, in front of Jackson, who has come to NY for the funeral. Who are the only two people who get what it was like to be in love with Theo even though he’s gone? Yeeep. This is raw, beautiful honest grief, with healing and growing up.

5) Pulp, Robin Talley: I said this list was in no particular order (and I am starting to wish I had made this a top ten, but that’s what other posts are form, hm?) but I am going to give this one the title of favorite, because while I don’t know what it’s like to be LGBT in any decade, I do know what it’s like to have the discovery of a genre of fiction change one’s entire life. For me, it was historical romance. For Janet Jones in 1955, and Abby Zimet sixty-two years later, it was lesbian pulp fiction. Ms. Talley is a master at writing twentieth century historical fiction, fully inhabiting both timelines, as Abby delves into what really happened to the mysterious ‘Marian Love” who wrote only one book and then disappeared.

All of these books are standalones, another thing I love about YA, so there is no need to read other books by any of these authors, before diving into these, but oh how quickly those TBRs will grow.

Typing With Wet Paws: Almost June Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome and this is Typing With Wet Paws. This was a quiet week for blogging, because we had a small family emergency last week (all sorted now, everyone is fine) and then Aunt Anna picked up a gross bug ( the people sick kinds, not the fun six legged hunting kind) which means I am on nursing duty, which means I yell at her when she is up for too long. I have also been diligent in making the very best use of Uncle Rheuben’s butt warmer (he calls it a laptop. It is a butt warmer. Good thing he’s cute.)

Things Aunt Anna has been super good at while sick:

1) naps (I coach her)
2) staying hydrated (once again, I lead by example)
3) watching You Tube videos mostly about Sims and Degrassi.
4) feeling really really guilty as she looks at her unmoving reading tally (and usually falls asleep next to a good book.)

On the one paw, there is nothing to feel bad about because this is how healing happens. On the other paw, the library does want their e-books back after a certain amount of time. On the other other paw, Kindle Unlimited is a thing, and she has a ton of books in her Kindle already. On the other other other paw, there are all those great stories waiting for her, and reading makes her want to write more, and writing more helps her feel better, so those things all feed each other and she really does tend to overthink things like this too much.

That’s okay, though. Taking a catnap with an actual cat is beneficial for everybody involved, and text to speech means that there is always a dependable robot voice ready to read a tired human a story. Not to mention the small notebook Aunt Anna keeps at hand, to write down stuff for when she’s able to keep a thought in her head already (her words, not mine.)

One thing that helps her a lot in both reading and writing is accountability. On the reading front, she is way way way ahead of the game, and on the reading front, she is reading The Pirate Prince by Gaelen Foley, along with Aunt Linda. It looks like this:

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Aunt Anna doesn’t know much about this book, except that there are pirates in it, and it’s got a pretty good reputation, so she is optimistic. If she can stay awake for anything, she can stay awake for pirate. Also belly rubs. I do require my belly rubs. More regular posting coming next week, toebeans crossed.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Mid-May Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Can you believe it’s the middle of May already, and the next month is going to be June? I don’t have a lot of experiences with these month things, because I am only two, but the humans, and especially Aunt Anna, seem stymied by where we are on the calendar. She is not overly fond of summertime, but if she can stay indoors most of the time (hopefully writing, definitely under feline supervision, aka me) then things should be okay.

All of the stuff from Chez Grandmere is safely and neatly stashed in storage, and there is still plenty of room, which means Aunt Anna is looking at moving some stuff from the first storage unit to the second one, to decrease congestion. In storage, that is, not anybody’s respiratory system. One of her priorities is to get at one of her keeper books, A Love So Bold, by Annelise Kamada, because one of the books she rescued from Chez Grandmere, A Banner Red and Gold, is the sequel to that one, and she wants to read them back to back. As far as Aunt Anna knows, Ms. Annelise only wrote the two books, or only had those two published, so they are especially valuable as there aren’t any others. She is kind of salty about that. Even so, she is pretty excited about the prospect of doing a deep dive into some of the older/classic/first wave of historical romance, and keeping notes on what works and doesn’t for her, what inspires her, and what she would like to do.

Right now, reading the sorts of stories that get her excited about writing is high on that list. Apparently (I can only go on the materials left by Big Sister Skye, because this is my first almost-summer with Aunt Anna and my first as a Mews) summertime is not Aunt Anna’s best time, but I think we will get through it okay.

there is not a lot of pressure on the reading front, as Aunt Anna is already 25 books ahead of schedule with her Goodreads reading challenge. That means that she has read 58 out of 90 books, and puts her at 64% of the way to her goal. For those who have asked if she is going to increase that goal, she is not sure as of yet. Ask her again when she gets closer to 80 or so. An early win would not be a bad thing, all things considered. Also, that makes more time for Simming.

There is no grass growing on top of Buried Under Romance, as there are three new reviews, as well as Aunt Anna blabbering about her usual stuff (aka the book haul) so go check that stuff out. Frankly, I am impressed. Aunt Anna would like me to give a shoutout to Miss Lisa, Miss Amy, and Miss Evelyn from Buried Under Romance, for their super revewing powers. They only use them for good, I promise.

Speaking of good, let’s go to the part about me. I know there are graphics that normally go here, but I don’t feel like accessing them. Anyway, I don’t know if I told you, but Uncle Rheuben has a butt warmer. He calls it a laptop. He is taking care of it until Aunt Anna needs to do a video conference with Aunt Melva, or do Zoom meetings or make videos. Anyway, he makes sure it is running well. Sometimes, he gets up to do something else, and that is when I make my move.

Clearly, the thing is a butt warmer. It is the same color as (most of) my butt, so that’s a sign, right? It is apparently not okay to use the keyboard as a scratching post. One guess as to how I found that out. I am not telling how I learned how to close his windows, but I can. Biggest Brother (Sir) Ginger said I can’t give away trade secrets like that. What is knowledge to felines is mystery to humans. So is how I know when it is time to yell at Aunt Anna to go to bed already and then sit on her and purr when she finally does. That is a pretty good bookend to when she sits down at the glowy box and starts making with the clickety clack. I do not even try warming my butt on the desktop keyboard. Well, okay,. I may have tried, but a) it wasn’t warm, and b) Aunt Anna said it is for writing (and gaming) only. Says her.

Headbonks!

.

Romance, Buried Under

annabowling 1 Comment

Due to technical difficulties on the Buried Under Romance site, I am posting the pictures from my discovery of a vintage book stash here. For the story behind the pictures, please visit Buried Under Romance for my latest Saturday Discussion post, here. These are some, but not all of the books Storm mentioned in yesterday’s Typing With Wet Paws.

Fair warning, these pictures were taken in basement lighting with a Kindle Fire, but that hardly matters because…books!

Henley, Taylor, Parker and Balogh
high angst and romance in Georgian England
Bartlett, Kamada, Dorn Hart, Burgess, Jenkins

These were the best pictures of the bunch, but there were plenty more books in that box, so more pictures forthcoming.

Typing With Wet Paws: Almost Out of April Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Lots of mews duty for me this week, as Aunt Anna had a couple rounds with the anxiety monster, but I think things are under control now. That’s a good thing, because that means she can take care of some overdue stuff, like writing things and keeping new content up on Buried Under Romance.

Last week, the internet wasn’t working so great, but things should be better now. Aunt Anna is glad for that. She is a little salty about the Will and Grace finale, but gives it a grade of incomplete. If it’s pass/fail, pass, which is better than fail. She also hit her loan limit for library e-books, so there is going to be a bunch of reading ahead. She has now read fifty-four out of ninety books, putting her at sixt6y percent of the way to her goal.

She is well aware that a bunch of the books in her currently reading sidebar have been there for a while. Some are even from before me. At least one is. part of her says she should really get on that, but another part says that putting should in her pleasure reading takes the pleasure right out of it. I am not sure which is right. I’m only two, so I don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing (or a lot of things, really.) What do you think?

Aunt Anna thanks everyone for their patience with the Buried Under Romance stuff. She hasn’t forgotten or gone away. It’s this whole life thing, but romance novels are a happy place. What ones are you reading? Aunt Anna is mostly reading e-books now, as we are still in for-now lodgings. I can tell you one thing: when we do move into our new apartment, I am going to have a lot of book scenting to do. Her tablet and Kindle cases already smell like me, so we are all set there.

Anyway, I am being a good girl, if you don’t count 4AM Parkour sessions and systemstically knocking things off Aunt Anna’s nightstand (and only her nightstand. Uncle Rheuben doesn’t have much smackable on his, nor does Aunt Linda. I also like sleeping right above or next to Aunt Anna’s head. That’s not at all creepy, right? I want to make sure she is okay.

The big family news around here is that Chez Grandmere has sold, so it is time for Aunt Anna and Aunt Linda (Uncle Rheuben will stay here with me) to go out in that direction and load the stuff we are keeping onto a truck and drive it back to NY, where they will put it in a storage unit. From there, once lockdown is lifted, Aunt Linda will take one box of Grandma stuff every time she visits and let Grandma decide where it all goes. I am very happy to report that when it was time to put labels on things, Aunt Anna put Storm labels on my favorite chair and headboard. Well, every chair is the cat’s chair. You know what I mean, but this is the one where I hid in the boxspring. It’s special.

Let’s see, what else? Aunt Anna and Aunt Melva are putting together a real official draft of Drama King to date, with Aunt Anna searching her files for scenes that go in particular places. When they wrote Chasing Prince Charming, Aunt Anna numbered all the scenes. She is probably going back to that because it made this kind of thing a whole lot easier. She’s still working on finding the writing routine that works for the current arrangements, as in no door to close, and can’t go to a coffee shop to write. She’s smart, though, so she’ll figure it out. Trial and error, a good pair of earbuds, and some creative scheduling should do the trick.

I think I’ll wrap it here, and see if I can give one of the humans the big eyes so they will play red dot with me. I love red dot. I will catch him. I will.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Mid-April Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! It’s halfway through April, I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. The humans are almost done with their side quest with Chez Grandmere, so Aunt Anna is confident that she will be back to a regular blogging schedule. Yesterday was actually a “regular” writing day that felt pretty darned good, from where I was sitting (on the table behind her monitor, if anyone wants specifics. I take my duties as mews very seriously. Feline supervision is crucial.)

Goodreads challenge report first today because I’m a cat and I do what I want. Apparently, Aunt Anna also does what she wants because she is currently twenty-five books ahead of schedule, with fifty-one read out of her goal of ninety. I will be waiting to see if she can continue this pace, because we are no longer in residence at Chez Grandmere, hence access to interwebs, and Uncle Rheuben bought Aunt Anna two new stuff packs for the Sims 4 yesterday, so it’s really anybody’s guess. Also there is apartment hunting to be done, but Aunt Anna can listen to audiobooks while she blogs, journals, or -most importantly- cuddles me, so she may well be able to maintain. Also, she keeps finding new stuff to read.

Segue now into Buried Under Romance. Four new reviews went up this week, thanks to the amazing Amy. Aunt Anna is still finding her way around all the technical aspects of the site, but she’ll get there. In her latest post, she talks about some reading goals that challenge the status quo (for her) and will probably involve some hunting on eBay, because going to in person used bookstores is kind of not a thing right now. When it is, expect Aunt Anna to be alllll over that. So am I, because if the humans take me, then I get a car ride, and I looove car rides.

I have my own banner now.

That brings us to the me part of this post. From the first day I came to stay with these guys, I have been surprising them with what a good traveler I am. In short, car rides = awesome and I frequently chill in my adventure cave even when we aren’t going anywhere. It makes a pretty good stay at home cave, too. Since the hauling of one beautiful calico girl across state lines will no longer be happening on a regular basis, and roots will soon be, well, taking root, the humans have had discussions on what will happen when the resident feline gets wanderlust. They already agree on what to do about the regular lust. I will be getting fixed when the human virus thing is past. Sorry in advance to all the disappointed boy cats.

Where the humans landed on are a few facts:

  1. Storm loves car rides.
  2. Storm loves new places.
  3. We have a travel cat.
  4. We will need to take her on pleasure trips.

This means they are looking into getting me a harness and leash once we are settled-settled, and maybe even a kitty stroller, so they can take me on walks. I would have to practice the leash stuff inside and the humans will definitely consult with a vet before any of this happens. I am also looking forward to going to the stores where cats (and dogs) are welcome and can pick out their own toys. I already told them I want the yellow flappy things that go “chirp” and anything in the fish department, but I am told those are actually other pets. Who knew? Anyway, if you ever thought of Aunt Anna as the kind of human who looks forward to walking her cat while conferring with her imanginary friends, you are a human of great vision. She totally is.

Headbonks!

Typing With Wet Paws: Where Were We? Edition

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Tails up, Storm Troopers! I’m Storm, you’re awesome, and this is Typing With Wet Paws. Greatest Hits picture because Amazon and Aunt Anna are having disagreements of the password variety, but yay for new content.We are back in Albany after a side quest in CT, and Aunt Anna said it was high time to get back to blogging. This seldf isolation thing is hard on extroverts, so I have been putting in exstra mews time to get Aunt Anna up and running…er, writing.

Aunt Anna’s big task this weekend is to comb through her Google Docs and put all of her scenes for Drama King into one Scrivener file, along with Aunt Melva’s scenes. Some of those scenes might be stored on a flash drive that is in the storage unit, which is on lockdown (except by appointment) so if Aunt Anna can’t find a couple of specific scenes in the files she can access, she will need to reconstruct the scenes. If you hear her sobbing softly, it is probably that. She has not yet come to the point of obessively looking at her writer email to see if there are any nibbles on A Heart Mosty Errant, but we are realistic over here. That time is coming.

She is also verging on “what the fluff, let’s see what happens” about giving My Outcast Heart a once-over and getting it out there with a new cover and a couple of tweaks. The main things that give her pause is that it was written in first person, and maybe that’s a turnoff for enough romance readers to consider translating to third. Because it is exhausting to see her overthink (and I need both of us well rested because she got me a red dot and I LOVE chasing it) I will ask you guys here. Would you read a historical romance told in first person, or is it third person or nothing?

Aunt Anna is kicking tail and taking names on the Goodreads challenge front, with 45 books read out of her goal of 90. This puts her at halfway there, so I think she is probably going to make it, seeing as this is only April. She is 23 books ahead of schedule, which I can’t even….but good for her. Keep going, Aunt Anna. Blow that goal out of the water.

Aunt Anna is kind of salty about this, so if you’re looking for a new contemporary…

For readers looking for My Outcast Heart or Orphans in the Storm, those are currently between publishers, so keep eyes peeled for news on new editions soon. In the meantime, besides Chasing Prince Charming (click the link above) her historical romance novellas, Queen of the Ocean, and Never Too Late, are both available on Amazon for less than the price of a cup of coffee. QotO has wreckers and pirates, and NTL has a seasoned heroine and second chance at eh one who got away. Both are standalones, so you don’t need to read one to read the other. I’m not saying don’t read them both, but if you have strong opinions on tropes or settings, pick the one you like.

Buried Under Romance is indeed on the way back now that we are done with the CT side quest and Aunt Anna has some ideas historical romance authors, message her. She wants to talk.

In other news, we are moving toward a new normal, with apartment hunts and Aint Anna working on Patreon stuff. She and Aunt Melva are back to their weekly chats about their contemporaries, and will be giving their website a major overhaul :salute.: If you got that reference, you get an extra awesome point.

I have been helping Aunt Anna with ther planning and asrt journal, though she says making off with her pen is not actually helping. She got a new pen that is part thing that pokes her tablet screen and part RED DOT!!!!! I LOVE Red Dot! No shade on Mousie, but Red Dot? Dude is going down. As soon as I can catch him. He’s a slippery one, though, BUT i WILL KEEP TRYING.

Headbonks!