Beast is number 1!

Hi Blog family. Beast is going through a promotion where for the next week it will be on sale for .99 on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and AllRomance e-books. This promotion has really done a lot to bring attention to the book. Today we went to #1 in African American Books, #1 in African American Romance Kindle and #1 in African American Erotica Kindle. Also Amazon has ranked me #2 as the most popular author in erotica, just under E.L. James!

Thanks go to you all for all of your support and special special thanks go out to those who leave reviews. Beast has a whopping 160 5-star reviews on Amazon out of 186!

More information on non-receipt of my e-book updates

Many thanks to ShornaR for taking the time to contact Amazon concerning non-receipt of the re-edited e-books that I've been working so hard on. 

If you use Amazon to purchase your e-books you should be able to automatically receive updates on your e-books. You do this by going to YOUR ACCOUNT, then MANAGE YOUR DEVICES, and lastly AUTOMATIC BOOK UPDATE. You can turn this option on and off and it is supposed to allow the updates to happen automatically. Well it's not happening automatically for many people. So ShornaR contacted Amazon who gave her some enlightening information which she has shared with us. Amazon's response is that the updates will not happen if the book has not been 'quality reviewed' by the staff.

However, I can not accept that explanation. Whenever an author uploads an e-book to Amazon it does go to a quality control and is kicked back to have corrections made if necessary. When asked how long this supposed quality control would take since some of the updates were made three or more months previously, the CSR indicated that he did not know. However he then went on to send each of the new edits to ShornaR--which made no sense to us that it is NOW okay to send them even though they evidently have not been quality controlled. 

So how I interpret this is that if you contact Amazon's customer service (best done on live chat through your computer) you will then be sent the updates.

2014 IR Cruise Update (from Gerrilyn Grant)

If you have, or are considering booking for the 2014 IR Cruise I want to inform you of some important changes. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience this causes you and if you would like to request a refund please contact Gerrilyn Grant: 1 800 4357, FAX 1 88 835 4427. I'll still be there so hope to see you. Also, if these dates are better for you than remember that you can still reserve an outstanding oceanview/balcony room at the same discounted price.

~Pep

From: Gerrilyn Grant
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 10:49 AM
Subject: IR Romance Readers Cruise 2014 IMPORTANT UPDATE
Importance: High

M & E Unlimited Travel Services‎IR ROMANCE READERS CRUISE 2014

IMPORTANT UPDATE for the IR ROMANCE READERS CRUISE 2014!
We have just been informed that due to a fleet wide ship and itinerary changes by PRINCESS CRUISES to their FALL AND WINTER 2014-2015 cruise sailings, the IR ROMANCE READERS CRUISE will now sail on Saturday, September 20 to Thursday, September 25, 2014 instead of Saturday, September 6-11, 2014.
All currently booked passengers have automatically been rebooked to this new sailing with the same fare and cabin selection as before on the same ship, the Caribbean Princess.
In the event any passenger needs to CANCEL their booking, due to this change, they will receive a full refund if this new date is not acceptable to you.
The new itinerary is as follows:
Sep 20 Fort Lauderdale: Check In 12:30pm-3:00pm, SAIL AT 4:00PM
Sep 21 At Sea
Sep 22 Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands 7:00AM 4:00PM
Sep 23 Island Of Cozumel 9:00AM 6:00PM
Sep 24 At Sea
Sep 25 Fort Lauderdale 7:00AM
PRINCESS CRUISES is offering on board credits per cabin to passengers as compensation for the change in date and itinerary and there are no changes to the current IR ROMANCE READERS CRUISE events set for the days at sea.
We sincerely regret the changes that have occurred and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to our group of over 100 booked passengers. We promise that your loyalty to this event WILL BE REWARDED if you stick with us as many have already agreed to do!
Please direct any and all questions to Event Planner and Travel Agent Gerri Grant Gipson at gerrilyn.grant@gte.net or 800 834 4357. More updates to be posted here as they become available.

Free Read on Kindle: Wheels of Steel Book 3

Wheels of Steel 3 is featured for free on Kindle. If you did not read the re-edit which includes the new ending then here is your opportunity to download it for free. Remember, if you don't have a Kindle you can download a free reading app onto your computer which will allow you to read Kindle books on your PC.

It's 2014 And Time For a New Blog look

Welcome to our new look for 2014. Hope you like it...my eyes hurt looking at it but I'll adjust.

New edits to some old books

I've been very fortunate to have found several people that have helped me to edit some previously published stories.

Re-editing my previous stories is my way of letting my readers know that I get it--I'm not superwoman and I can't do it all myself. Plus I respect you enough to recognize that writing is not just my hobby, it's a business in which people spend their hard earned money. So I'm doing what I need to do.

My editing team includes LS Lange and Andrea Watts (I hope to have another join the team--but I haven't asked her yet). My Beta Readers include Phyllis, Leslie, Evelyn and Sue. I give many thanks to Nikita Bryant for her editing of Juicy as well as CeCe Monet for editing The Throwaway Year.

Current re-edits:

1. Juicy--Available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon & coming soon to AllRomance ebooks

2. Wheels of Steel books 1, 2 & 3--Available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon  AllRomance ebooks

 3. Angel Over My Shoulder--Available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon & coming soon to AllRomance ebooks

4. Beast-- Available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon & AllRomance ebooks. Coming to Audible audiobooks in May.













5. They Say Love is Blind--Available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon & AllRomance ebooks.

That's it for now but more coming soon!

Another funeral

Another funeral...that I won't be attending. This morning my mother asked me if I was going to the funeral of my cousin Yvette's son. I told her no and she said she needed to find someone to take her. Mind you she spent the night in the hospital after being admitted from her emergency room visit. Her post chemo blood work and test came back fine but they kept her to monitor her. I slept in her room until 3am and then snuck out to go home so that I could let out my dogs and crash in my own bed. Her phone call woke me up that morning.
"Are you going to Kenny's funeral?"
"No."
"Okay. I have to find someone to take me. I won't keep you. Bye baby."
The hospital wanted to keep her a second day but she said no. She was going to a funeral.
I showered and dressed, prepared to go pick up Mom from the hospital. I put on black pants and a black blouse with a colorful scarf. Then I applied my makeup as if I was going to a funeral. Somehow I was going to end up taking her to a funeral. Somehow I would have to go...I knew it would happen even though no one blamed me or pressured me to go. Somehow I would be going.
As I drove to the hospital to pick up Mom I felt panicky and I kept saying; you will not cry. You will not cry. I can't do this. I can't...My sister called to find out how Mom was doing and I put the phone on speaker and explained about all the hospital antics. My sister asked, "Are you going to Kenny's funeral today?"
"No...I can't."
"I know. It's okay. I talked to Darius," his brother, "and he asked if I knew who was coming. He just worried that no one would be there and that he would be sending his brother off all alone." Of course he would worry about that. Darius is little more than a kid and his brother was all that he had now that Yvette is dead. Tears formed in my eyes as I thought about all the years since Yvette had died of COPD. I remember not believing that I could lose someone that I loved as much as I loved Yvette. I still see her deep cocoa brown skin and large almond shaped eyes, her full lips and I can hear her infectious laughter. I see my little cousin as a kid tagging along after me. I see myself going to her house and playing with her friends. I see her in my mind's eye at 8, 10, 12, 15, 21 and then in a casket looking like someone I'd never seen before.
"I know I should go. But I can't."
"It's okay," she said. "I told him that my mother would be there as long as she wasn't too sick. My son will be going but I won't be there because I'm in Lexington and my sister won't be there because she doesn't do funerals."
Everybody knows; Kim doesn't do funerals. Those are not my words but that is what they know.
After a moment of guilt I said, "But I know why I can't go."
"Why?"
"Because I can't stand seeing people I love crying."
"Ohhhh," she said softly.
But what I didn't say is that I can't stand to see the pain of loss. I can hold back my emotions but I can't NOT feel the emotions of someone that I love. If they cry, then I will cry. And if I cry, I won't stop. There. If I cry I'm afraid that I won't be able to stop.
I missed my uncle RJ's funeral, the funeral of my best friend's triplet brothers, the funeral of my best friend's grandson, the funeral of another friend's son, the funeral of uncles and aunts and the funeral of the man that I intended to spend the rest of my life with.
Because I can't do funerals.
But I wish that I could.

Yet another ice storm. Mother Nature...you suck!

Yet another winter storm. This time it's pure ice. I was driving within the first 45 minutes of it and I can attest that it was treacherous. But I get home safely, blink the ice off of my eyeballs and then fall asleep, comfy and cozy in my bed (with a fleece blanket AND comforter).

That's when I get a call from my teenaged daughter who is attending college in another state; Power is knocked out in her apartment building due to the storm. Grrrr! I want to get my babygirl and bring her home and tuck her into a warm bed and then make her hot cocoa in the morning!!! It sucks having a child that needs you and you are separated by circumstances. Mother Nature you can be one bitch.

Babygirl is a trooper though. Despite the fact that I failed to supply her with candles or a working flashlight she is using the flame of a lighter to see by. Very McGyver! Go babygirl go!

She also informed me that she has shut the window so that it will keep the cold out. See! All the bucks I'm spending for college is surely creating a smart young lady!

Now she is going to go lay down and stop texting me since the power on her cellphone is low. Ha! yes indeed my babygirl figured this all out on her own!!! Here is a picture of my daughter the way I see her; which is as an anime character...with one Vampire tooth...(not sure why)

Pepper's Healthy Change Challenge

What a challenging week I've had. How about you? Did you have one of those weeks that didn't fall into line with the normal routine? That's how it was for me--and I'm proud to say that I still met my weight loss goals! That is a 1-2 lbs a week weight loss. Anymore than that could be unhealthy. And again, this is not a race to get to a specific weight (at least not for me). For me this Healthy Change Challenge is a way for me to kill the word diet.

That word sets us up to fail because having a diet 'state of mind' means that we are in a mindset that we are doing something unpleasant. Maybe creating a strict regimen works for a while but my goal is to create a different thought pattern about weight loss and becoming healthy. I do this by incorporating acceptable changes to the way I live and if it is something hard then I give myself a challenge with a specific time frame. After that time frame ends than I have the choice to go back or keep going forward without feeling as if I am cheating. For the last 2 weeks I've given myself a challenge that I couldn't make.

Friday I walked up the garage stairs and although for about 5 minutes after I felt as if i was going to pass out, by the time I began driving I felt invigorated. Same thing happened today. I feel energized having forced my heart to pump and the oxygen to give life to my sluggish cells.

You might ask what happened to the other days of the week...well that is where life happens. Mom had to go to emergency Monday evening and...well it would have been just down right bad to worry about walking up the garage steps when your Mom is waiting for you to drive her to emergency (smirk). I was with my mother for the next few days. She is okay. She is actually better than okay. She's had her first chemo treatment and she didn't get ill (knocking on wood).

So, despite the fact that I didn't have any stairwell to climb I did stomach crunches every night to make up for my lack of stair-walking. In addition I added more healthy foods to my diet by creating a world winning salad that I crave even now. I crave it more than unhealthy food and have eaten it 4x in a week! Also I found a Vietnamese restaurant right next to Mom's hospital and I got a big bowl of Pho (no meat). Eating Pho is like eating a 4 course meal to me--that's how much I love it. And it's just broth, noodles and fresh veggies! Perhaps I should buy a weeks supply of the soup--I could literally eat it every single day.

In addition to finding healthy foods that I don't mind eating, I start my day with oatmeal. I will never tire of oatmeal. But if I want eggs than I'll do that occasionally. All in all I've had a good healthy week and I feel good. This week's healthy change is stretching.

Yep. Stretching. Did you know that you don't stretch before a warm-up, but after? Do some light cardio and then stretch when your body and muscles are warm. Don't bounce and hold your stretches for 30 seconds. If stretching causes pain than you have stretched too hard. You should feel a pleasant pulling.

In the winter months our bodies need the stretch. My joints ache, my back is stiff, my knees make noises like snap, crackle and pop! Worse is that I just feel sluggish. But when I do my crunches it makes me want to feel the burn in my muscles from some activity and I have noticed that it doesn't take much to increase my flexibility. I walk different because I stretch--yep no more shuffling like a zombie, my hips flow from side to side (smile).

let's stretch this week. You know you want to!

Winter...is it over yet???

It's crazy here in the midwest. We've had all four seasons--in one week!

A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera - Say Something

J.K Rowlings ruined Harry Potter?

So J.K. Rowlings admits to messing up when she hooked up Hermione and Ron instead of Hermione and Harry. Btw...no I am not a Harry Potter geek, but yes I read the first few books and then finished out by watching the movies.

But I did feel that she missed the boat with the pairing. No one cared about Harry more than Hermione. Even when Ron flaked out, Hermione stayed a true friend. And as her reward she gets the story's buffoon. When my daughter explained that Harry would end up marrying Jenny I remember saying, who the eff is Jenny? How did she earn the right to marry the STAR when we barely know whats in her heart??? Ugh...

Anyhow, my point is that authors mess up--even really good and successful ones. If authors could go back and re-write a popular book my re-write would be They Say Love is Blind (to add a wedding), and Stranded (to change the name and to add more to the story and then ending).

But now that she admitted to messing up I'm a little more understanding. Sorry but my mind is not easily manipulated to just go with the flow--it felt wrong which ruined the experience for me...much like the last episodes of Roseanne and Dallas.