Sunday, April 26, 2009

Tending Our Garden

April 26, 2009

Yesterday evening, my partner and I visited with friends to celebrate the purchase of their first home together. Being from the South, we didn't go empty-handed. The new place is sorely lacking flowers, so we dug the first clump of hosta and took it along. I have more perennials to give them: daylily, astilbe, sedum, yarrow, peony, iris, poppies, Tigerlily. Next spring, the border along their back fence will not be so bare.

Along with the flowers, my hubby made a few birdhouses to give them, and a wine bottle incense burner for their new deck furniture. I think he should make them a bat house, too. I'll even paint it for him. (No need to make bats in belfry jokes. I took care of that 'long about dusk.)

It was nice to sit with them and feel their happiness. Starting over at fifty seems daunting to me, but sometimes it's the only choice a person has. Maybe that's one of the reasons why we like our 'happily ever after/happy for as long we can be" endings. The constant starting over in new relationships, while exhilarating, is also draining.

But having to start over when you've passed those milestone birthdays also gives a person a different perspective. You know yourself a lot better, and so does your partner. "Who's the boss?" no longer matters as much, if at all. You learn to carefully pick and choose your battles, and a pair sneakers and dirty socks left by the recliner for one night is hardly worth noticing much less starting a fight over. (Besides, in my house, if you leave things lay it's at your own risk. We have a Lab and he can't resist old socks.)

I think this is why so many of my characters are a bit older than the norm, more mature. They've pared life down to what is really important, and the cap on the toothpaste ain't it. A pair of socks not making the hamper for six hours while everyone, even the dog, is asleep ain't it. With maturity comes the desire to tend those things that feed the soul - acceptance of others, caring for those you love, kindness in small things, tolerance of the human condition, and most importantly, love.

So this morning I'm going to show a little love and rescue my partner's socks from the dog. Maybe they won't be full of holes, maybe they will be. Whether they end up in the laundry or the trash doesn't matter. What matters is I tend the garden that is our life.

And if I'm ever too tired to get my socks to the hamper for one night, maybe he'll spot them before the dog does and remember that at least I tried to save his, and save mine.

KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
twitter.com/kckendricks
facebook.com/kckendricks
pinterest.com/kckendricks/boards
instagram.com/kc_kendricks
My country life at Holly Tree Manor

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Saturday Evening Romance

One of the hardest things about writing happens after the story is finished and the contract signed - promoting. The e-pubbed author is generally with several different publishers and may even have a different nom de plume for different genres. To help the process along, I opened a promo blog, Saturday Evening Romance. http://www.saturdayeveningromance.blogspot.com

This promo blog is open to all authors regardless of genre or publisher, and I invite authors, and readers, to check it out. The guidelines are posted on the home page of the blog for reference. I've also included them below.

I hope you'll find Saturday Evening Romance a place to find a wide range of new and favorite authors.

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com

SATURDAY EVENING ROMANCE GUIDELINES

To have your new release or excerpt posted, please send it to kckendricks@yahoo.com with Saturday Evening Romance in the subject line.

Only contracted, edited work with proper ISBN and publisher links will be accepted.

If you include a link in your post it may not show, so be sure to type the url so it can be copied and pasted into a browser.

Be sure to format your excerpt. We won't reformat it. While we welcome the chance to help everyone promote their work, we have our own writing to do.

You may include a book cover.

Please, only one post per author per week. If you have permission to post and abuse this limit, your posts will be removed, and your posting permission revoked.

New release - please make sure you've included your purchase link and ISBN.

Reviews- Please add them at the end of your excerpt.

Contests - please add them at the end of your excerpt.

Coming soon - please add them at the end of your excerpt.Visit my [website, blog, myspace, facebook, ning, booksigning, etc.] - please add them to the end of your excerpt.

Make sure you send time sensitive material in plenty of time to be posted.

Political commentary of any nature will not be posted.

We reserve the right not to publish any entry that we feel is offensive for any reason.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Dammit Jim! I'm a writer! Not a reviewer!

Mentioning I planned to read a fellow author's book had an unsuspected consequence. Liking the Steve Earle song, "Copperhead Road," I wanted to read the book by the same title by TD McKinney and Terry Wylis. When one of the authors commented they'd like to know what I thought about the book, okay, I PANICKED.

What if I didn't like it? What if it tanked? What if I couldn't find one good thing to say about it?

DAMMIT JIM!!! I'M A WRITER NOT A REVIEWER!!!!

Sorry. Star Trek moment...

Writer's Angst 102.

Well. I liked the story. It most definitely did NOT tank. I can think of more than one good thing to say about it. Seriously. It's not like anyone is twisting my arm here, you know. It's not like anyone can FORCE me to stay up until midnight to finish a book.

But, I'm not a reviewer. I can't take a point and pick it raw, and I wouldn't anyway. If I didn't like it, I'd just move on without comment. Always better to do that than to say you didn't like a story. That's more than professional courtesy, it's common courtesy. And being from the South, not being courteous about someone elses work would be viewed as simply common.

I read a story to ENJOY it and I enjoyed this story. Getting a second chance to be with the person you love is a favorite theme of mine. To try and "speak" in reviewer, the plot was well thought out, the relationship between the two leads was tender and caring (and sexy as hell)with just the right about of getting together jitters, the writing was well paced, and the story backdrop was vivid and descriptive.

Being a simple kinda girl, let me say simply - GOOD BOOK!!!GOOD JOB!!!

Whew. That wasn't so bad, after all.

KC Kendricks
http://www.kckendricks.com
http://www.twitter.com/kckendricks
http://www.myspace.com/kckendricks

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Give Me One Night on the Amber Allure March 2009 Top Ten Best Sellers



March 4, 2009

**updated information 6/4/2016**

Having a new release "go live" is both exciting and scary. You never know how a story will be received, or how it will impact the sales of the next one. If you go out on a limb and do something outside the norm, how will readers react to that? And yet, churning out cookie-cutter stories gets boring for everyone. So where is that fine line between too boring and too edgy?

Welcome to Writer's Angst 101.

The results are in! GIVE ME ONE NIGHT was the #6 best seller at Amber Allure in March 2009, its debut month! Yes, I get excited about things like this. So I didn't achieve world peace, but life is about enjoying each tiny victory as they come.

Here's the complete top ten Amber Allure list for March:

AMBER ALLURE
1. Jake's Regret - Shawn Lane (Gay / Contemporary)
2. Copperhead Road - T. D. McKinney/Terry Wylis (Gay / Contemporary)
3. Still, Life - Vivien Dean (Gay / Contemporary)
4. Forget Me Not - Adrianna Dane (Gay / Contemporary)
5. I'm Sorry - Christiane France (Gay / Contemporary)
6. Give Me One Night - KC Kendricks (Gay / Contemporary)
7. Passion - M. L. Rhodes (Gay / Contemporary)
8. Committed - Cassie Stevens (Gay / Contemporary)
9. The Obsolete Man - Pepper Espinoza (Gay / Contemporary)
10. Furtive Liaison - Amanda Young (Gay / Contemporary)

Happy reading!

Give Me One Night is now available at 
AmazoniTunes/AppleBarnes and NobleKobo, and other online booksellers. 

Life through the eyes of Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com