2010 in review

Wow, guess I rocked the blog this year, that’s good! …

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 91 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 250 posts. There were 110 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 13mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 4th with 93 views. The most popular post that day was A Tiny, Yet Electric Taste of the Upcoming Final Book, ‘Raven’.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were featherbookseries.com, en.wordpress.com, largeheartedboy.com, facebook.com, and digg.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for abra ebner, dogs in costumes, fallen book, johannes vermeer, and sister for sale.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

A Tiny, Yet Electric Taste of the Upcoming Final Book, ‘Raven’ January 2010
6 comments

2

Parade Of Funny Dog Costumes! October 2009

3

Sister for sale! Sister for sale! One crying and spying young sister for sale! April 2010
1 comment

4

Books March 2010
1 comment

5

What I’m Reading Now… ‘Fallen’. And my thoughts on ‘Hush, hush.’ February 2010
6 comments

A New Week!

Sciatica contained, I can now start a new week! Let me tell you, lately I have been majorly slacking! I got addicted to this Facebook game called City of Wonders and I can’t seem to focus anymore. And I thought Farmville was bad…

But now I’ve nearly conquered the game and I can focus back on what’s important cause the holiday weekend is over and I have to, or is it want to?

The weather sure sucks lately, huh?

Then again I was growing tired of the hot weather. My husband and I were discussing candles last night and how wonderful they are when it gets cold because muggy + candles doesn’t mix. I’m just happy to have a reason to mask the smell of his dirty clothes again, but that’s just me…

Book tour for Knight Angles: Book of Revenge starts October first. We will be visiting a whole ton of blogs in October. I will post the schedule as we get closer.

I love my bloggers 🙂

The sequel toy Book of Love is shaping up well. Looks beautiful so far. I love the actual page elements and layout, not to mention the ending! Gets me all excited for the third book and I think it will get you excited too.

What else????????

I made some cookies. It’s my famous Choc. Chip cookie recipe which isn’t much different from Toll House except the egg part:

Two sticks of salted Butter, room temp

One Two Tablespoons Vanilla

3/4 C. Brown Sugar

3/4 C. Sugar

1 tsp. Baking Soda

pinch of Salt

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Whip furiously. And I mean furiously…

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ADD:

One egg and one egg yolk.

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Whip furiously some more. Think submission.

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ADD:

2 C. Flour

One bag choc. chips (not the huge bag unless you’re nuts)

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Bake 350 for 12-15 min.

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Swear they keep you full for hours. Keeps my pregnant bestie pretty happy too.

Flat On My Back…

I feel old today…

http://tinylittlesandra.blogspot.com/2008/12/so-i-guess-its-about-time.html

I feel old because I hurt my back doing something, who knows what, maybe golf, gardening, sitting and editing too much. Either way now I’m on my back in bed with a cat that kicks me in his sleep and a back brace. I guess it’s called Sciatica and with this kind of pain, giving birth without an epidural is starting to sound good in comparison.

Anyhow, this really BITES.

More International Interest – Turkey

On Friday I was made an offer to bring the Feather Book Series and Knight Angels Series to Turkey! I was very excited, and find the opportunity another unique advance in reaching the world with my stories! I haven’t yet signed any contracts, but plan to. The publisher is Artemis:

http://www.artemisyayinlari.com/

They have a lot of great titles, a beautiful site, and the chief editor is very nice!

Just another exciting opportunity!!

Week At A Glance…

Once upon a time, I had a really busy week…

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Six hours of driving got me here, wrapping three-ply TP around my friend to make a wedding dress. It was a competition, and I learned that I should have been a fashion designer…

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After three hours of that and a few Champagne cocktails (ample time letting it wear off) I then got to the Ferry where it took me two hours (including waiting because of the UW Graduation at Safeco Field) to get to Seattle.

Needless to say, I crashed.

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The next day, My friend and I spent ten hours at thrift stores looking for things for her condo. We managed to make this:

2$ worth of furniture and spray paint…

And this:

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All the while, Hubby was at home making this:

Happy Garden Shed!

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Because he made me this, I bought him this:

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And then I went home. It was a good, LONG trip…

Re-Living My Childhood ♥ Part 5

 

Copa Cabana!

 

My parents have finally made a blog for their Cabana (well, I made it, but still…) I think it’s so CUTE! You should go be friends with them now, so that they have followers. I’m trying to walk my mother through the blogging process, hopefully she learns quick!

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Visit Their Blog Here

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The Story

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This is where I grew up: Fishing, swimming, wakeboarding, and of course writing! I was a lucky girl – blessed!

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I wouldn’t trade anything for the memories I have from this place. I still remember it before it was ever remodeled: Horrid blue glass. Blue. Blue. Blue!!!

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My favorite part is the port holes in the floor where you can see through the glass to the fish under the house. The waves at night lull you to sleep, and I love the kitchen!!

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This is just the guest house, but to me it was my play house!

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Sister for sale! Sister for sale! One crying and spying young sister for sale!

I’m really not kidding,

So who’ll start the bidding?

Do I hear the dollar?

A nickel?

A penny?

Oh, isn’t there, isn’t there, isn’t there any

One kid that will buy this old sister for sale,

This crying and spying young sister for sale?

Shel Silverstein

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Sister for sale?

Well, no. I’ll sell my brother, though!

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But what is for sale is my book. To celebrate the new release, Amazon has Knight Angels on sale for 28% off!

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Two. Eight.

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Twenty-eight.

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Percent (%)

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Yay!

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This guy is sure excited about it!

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This guy’s sure gonna put in an offer!

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Knight Angels

It’s a Party!

Because anyone who gets this is a friend, follower, or fan, I think it’s fair to say that Knight Angels has actually been released early for Amazon customers (can you believe that? it never happens that way) I know, I know, exciting…

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In May, it’ll be available to Barnes and Noble readers, Nook, iPad, Sony e-reader (may take longer for them, their finicky) Various international Amazon stores, and more!

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So, happy early release party day!

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Buy your early release copy from Amazon!

Tedious Tuesday: Cat Surgery, New Books, and Final Edits…

Yes, today is the day I get to pick up my now toothless cat from the vet.

I tried to find a pick of a toothless cat to get an idea of what this little guy is going to look like. This above pic was the best I could find, and I’ll admit, I did chuckle.

I used to call Chandler ‘Count Catula’ because his front teeth were so BIG.

Now I will be calling him ‘Gum Ball.’

He’ll have to eat the pate canned food from now on, not like that’s such a bummer for him. He loves that stuff! But boy, does it make him gassy, ha ha.

 

New Books

I’m very excited to finally own a copy of Shiver. I’ve ben looking for this book in a store nearby for a while. I know I could have just ordered it, but I’m weird like that.

I still haven’t finished Beautiful Creatures (it’s been over a month now) but I swear I will. I got hung up doing the final edits of Knight Angels and then reading my friends Annette and Brenda’s books.

I know it’s probably old news at this point, but I’m still so excited!!

Final Edits

My final edits are taking longer than I originally antisipated, luckily the deadline is later than I thought! I’m reviewing my copy at the moment, adding and subtracting to be sure there’s enough suspense. I love suspense!

I think you are all going to pleasantly surprised by this book. If you were a big fan of Feather, just you wait. This is Feather times four…

Ahhhh!!! I can’t hardly wait for the Review Copies to get to the reviewers. I just have to know what others think!

My NaNoWriMo Progress! November is National Writing Month!

So, this month I’m starting that new series, the Knight Angels Series! YAY! I am really cruising through this!

Words So Far: 7100 ish

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy. Angels. Shape Shifters. Dreamers

Setting: Post Apocalypse in a new world without dreaming or magic… until…

Level of Love For New Book: HUGE! This book is so fun to write so far, so fast paced! For all the Feather Fans out there, just wait till you get your paws on this! It will blow that outta the water!

Working Cover Art:

I’m trying to go with a “Card” Theme. The queen of hearts, the King, etc etc. The cover will inevitably change (as I recieve your input!) So that is why it’s a “working cover”