DEADLY CHEMISTRY

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

Welcome

Teri Anne Stanley 

I first featured Teri three years ago as my critique partner. You can read the awesome interview here. Today, I am beyond excited to  be featuring her again on the release of her debut, Deadly Chemistry.

I love Teri's ability to work humor and sarcasm into her writing voice. I mentioned her sharp wit in our first interview. It shines through in her book. 

So, tell us about your story, Teri! 

 Thanks for sharing the news about DEADLY CHEMISTRY! It’s meant so much to me to have your friendship and support over the past few years...what a crazy journey we’re on, huh?

Isn't that a yummy cover?

 Former undercover cop Mike Gibson has been lying low, working as a maintenance man to put his troubled younger brother through college. But when a beautiful scientist enlists Mike’s help to repair the damage done to her lab by a group of vandals, Mike finds that his, and his brother's pasts, are about to be brought to light. 
 
Lauren Kane was happy having a secret crush on the hot maintenance man at Tucker University, but when the drug she was studying is stolen, Lauren has a chance to get to know Mike in person. The problem is, he seems to know more about what's going on than any maintenance man should. But then the drug turns up in the wrong hands, and Mike and Lauren have to decide if their own chemistry will help, or hinder, the race to save innocent lives.

From now until June 29, DEADLY CHEMISTRY is just .99, and just click here.

And there’s a contest! Go here to find the rafflecopter and other blogs I’m visiting this week.

BIO: Teri Anne Stanley lives in Northern Kentucky, near the Ohio River and her beloved Interstate-

75, with its lush rolling semis and musical rumbling tires. Teri has authored several scientific articles—and a three-ingredient recipe column, but isn't allowed to write sex scenes for them, so now she writes fun, sexy romance filled love, angst and nekkid parts.

She's also worked as a fashion designer for female body builders and a sex therapist for rats. In her spare time, she is a neuroscience research assistant. Along with a variety of teenagers and dogs, she and Mr. Stanley live just outside of Sugartit, which is—honest to God—between Beaverlick, and Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.

Where can readers connect with you?

Website:

http://teriannestanley.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/TeriAnneStanley

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TeriAnneStanley

Newsletter:

http://bit.ly/tasnews

Thanks for stopping by! I am so excited for you!

HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY!

12 hours in 12 seconds

Makeover Monday

Remember my living room looking like this?

My girls and I worked on it a few hours at a time 

with a little help from our dogs who kept climbing right

into the middle of the pile to lay down. 

I preserved the process for you in pictures. 

Watch below for 12 hour in 12 seconds. 

Looks like fun, right? 

My Life on a Puzzle Board

Makeover Monday

Image Credit

Have you ever played with one of these? 

Right now, I'm living in one. 

It's called My-House-Is-A-Wreck-and-I-Don't-Know-Where-To-Put-Anything.

You see, 

Mama Elephant escaped last week, before I could completely finish up with baby. 

(If you don't normally read my blog, the above sentence is probably incoherent to you. No, I'm not a zoo keeper. I have two rather large organizing projects going on. Baby Elephant and Mama.) Due to scheduling and other logistics, I had to empty out the Mama Elephant room (You'll get to actually meet her next week) before I could finish the Baby Elephant area.

Now my living room looks like this:

I can't describe how much looking at this makes me want to cry. 

You see the Baby Elephant space there in the background and my pretty new empty bookshelf on the right? 

It's empty because the floor behind the couch looks like the picture above. 

I can't get to the bookshelf to put stuff on it. 

I have to keep moving the puzzle pieces around.

Example:

 Furniture item X must be moved into room A, but that means furniture item Y is going in to room C, but room C doesn't have a space for it yet because I have to clear out that corner which requires making a decision on furniture item Z. 

And, this is why I'm sitting on the couch paralyzed with anxiety instead of diving into that pile. Which is large enough I could literally dive into it. I'm not sure the flooring is even present anymore. 

So, what do I do with all this stuff? 

Feel free to resume your regularly scheduled life now. 

I'm just going to here and breath into a bag. 

And this one time at band camp...

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

Like I said yesterday, I'm at ASL Teacher Camp this week. Okay, that's not what it's really called. But, that's pretty much what it is.

So, tell me your best camp story. Pranks, homesickness, sneaking out of the cabin and meeting that special someone (not that I ever did that!)

You know, this one time at band camp....

Sneak Peek

Makeover Monday

I'm actually not here. I'm at ASL Teacher Camp in Austin. But, it is Monday so I wanted to share a sneak peek of how well my baby elephant is coming along. Remember this? The place where I store all my family's priceless picture and mementos?

Well, in the process of sorting through everything else. This happened.

AVALANCHE!

So, I took the hint that it was time to start sorting. For now, I just have everything divided by person. I have big plans of making each family member an album. But, that wasn't going to happen this week. Each picture went into the appropriate box. The awards, game tickets and other souvenirs went into crates. Then, my awesome husband rewarded all my hard work with a new book case. 

 Isn't it pretty? 

Before and After 

Why We Are Moving Out Today!

*I had a completely different blog post for today. But, after a harrowing experience yesterday, I decided to share this instead. Below is an email I sent to my friend to try to work through the trauma*

The story of why we are moving out today.

By  Dawn Alexander

The puppy is the tan one.
She's 5 months old. 

The puppy is getting better on house training, but still has accidents. Friday, I was playing with her on my bed and she got excited and dribbled..alot. So, had to wash the bedspread. Huge-heavy-denim-takes-FOREVER-to-dry bedspread. Usually, I wash it, put it in the dryer for a cycle, take it out and turn it over, put it in the dryer for another cycle, then spread it out on the spare couch for a day before putting it back on our bed.

Well,  around 7pm on Friday night, I basically fell into a coma and slept until Saturday morning, then spent the day running errands all day on Saturday, so when I remembered to take it out Saturday evening, it smelled kind of mildewy. I spread it out in the laundry room and left it all day yesterday. Still slightly smelled this morning, so I put it back in the washer. Immediately took it out, cycle in the dryer, flipped it, cycle in the dryer. 

Decided to spread it out on our bed instead of the spare couch because I've got boxes of pictures all over the couch right now (whole other story). 

Took it to our room, started spreading it out and FREAKING COCKROACH FROM HELLLLLLLL came crawling out of one of the folds! 

It looked JUST LIKE THIS! Only bigger with more teeth!

Let's just say, I might have screamed like a little girl and did the heebie-jeebie sprint into the living room 

Scott, being the hero he is, drowned it in bug spray and flushed it. 

So, new to-do list for today:

BURN BEDSPREAD

MOVE

I'll send you our new address. 

For my non-Texas readers, there is something very important you must understand. We do not have little  scurry-when-the-lights-come-on cockroaches here. We have I'm-looking-for-water-and-will-kill-your-whole-effing-family-to-get-it Palmetto bugs.
I was going to add more pictures, but just looking at them was freaking me out!

So, tell me your story. 

Any fascinating encounters with our insect friends you'd like to share? 

You can read about me other creature encounter here. 

Why I can never do yoga again

30 minutes or...more.

Makeover Monday

I really wanted to title this post "30 minutes or less". I'm taking a momentary break from my elephant and working on some other small projects around the house. Don't worry. I'm still making progress on the biggest project. Just giving myself breathing room to avoid burn out.

Anyway, my youngest daughter is a gamer. Serious gamer. This is her game area.

I thought we could manage this in 30 minute or less because we were only focusing on that drawer right there. The massive amount of Pokemon cards, Skylanders and random Halloween pumpkin could be addressed later. Just this drawer. No problem.

Then,

we opened it.

Then, I closed it and walked away. 

THE END

Okay, I wanted to close it and walk away. But, I didn't. 

*Deep breath.*

Step one: 

Empty the drawer. 

Step Two: 

Manage this.

Actually, I made my daughter manage this because I don't know a Play station from a Nintendo. 

Step Three: 

Find a way to contain all of this without spending any extra money.

Only my daughter gets in this drawer. I wanted to use what I had on hand.

 (Plus, she refused to make a trip to the Dollar store with me.)

Ta Daaa!

A left over desk container from a desk organizer, an apple container and two shoe boxes later.

She can actually see what she owns!

And, it only took....Okay, it took over an hour.

But, it was totally worth it! 

Spoiler Alert

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

My oldest daughter, who is much older now than in the picture above, made a confession last week that forced me to reevaluate everything I thought I knew about this sweet child.

SHE READS THE END OF A BOOK FIRST.

I fear I have failed as a parent.

I blogged before about her reading obsession. She is almost never without a book. Takes two or three with her for any kind of overnight stay and, when we recently changed the sheets on her bed, I found she was sleeping with FOURTEEN (!) books every night. 

The child is by all definitions a reader.

But, she reads the end first! 

Shocked and confused by this admission, I took my argument to the best place for public opinion.

Facebook.

Me: Michelle just confessed that she reads the end of books first...I don't even know her anymore...

Male Childhood Friend #1: I do too! If I don't like the ending, why invest my life in the story? For me, reading fiction is an escape from reality. If I don't like the destination, I'd rather not buy the ticket!

         (WWHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT?? Not by the ticket?

Isn't that what the whole reading experience is about?)

Fellow Mommy Friend: Funny! [Her daughter~same age as mine] reads the last book in a series...what's wrong with their generation?!?!? 

Male Childhood Friend #2: I've always read the end of books first... Agree with [MCF #1] on this one.

Me:  [MFC #1]while I have to admit on the surface your argument has substance...It's just wrong. wrong. Wrong. WRONG! 

 You, too,[MFC #2]. (I say this with love, of course!).

Is this some kind of widespread epidemic of which I have lived blissfully unaware? Do YOU read the end of a book first? Is there some kind of 12 step group I can get my daughter in before this gets out of hand?

Buried Treasure

Makeover Monday

   I've been avoiding sorting through the picture stack of my current major project because I know it's going to be an overly emotional experience. From looking at photos of high school friends who have passed  to snapshots of my children as babies, I probably need to just get a box of tissues as well as a bottle of liquor and just do it. 

 

 In my avoidance, I concentrated on the stacks of paper and stuff that were inside the desk.  I assumed most of it to be old bills in need of shredding, some pay stubs from three jobs ago, maybe a letter or two from former students. I could handle that. 

Instead, I found buried treasure: 

Polaroids and hair snips from girls' first hair cuts.
Which happen to take place at the same time, despite the year age difference. My oldest daughter was a very, very bald baby.


Letters from a sweet woman who I wish I could still call. Virginia Hawkins was the grandmother of a

boy I dated my last year in high school and first two years of college. She had an infectious laugh and a quick wit. After he and I broke up, she called me to let me know how unintelligent she thought he was being and that she still loved me. She wrote me letters after I moved to Texas. Several of them were lost in this sea of paper. This birthday card and one that I couldn't get out for the picture or I'd cry again. A folded piece of stationary thanking me for the invitation to my wedding and telling me how happy she was I'd found someone to share my life with. She passed away in 2002. Her grandson that I dated died in 2008.

This picture of my great-grandmother was stashed between an electric bill from 2007 and a lease agreement from the second year I was married.





Last, I found a gallon sized Ziploc bag stuffed with old Christmas cards. I considered not going through it. In the middle of the stack, I came across this:

Inside was the best treasure of all:

Pictures from of my dad with my cousin taken years before I was born.

I don't remember getting these or ever seeing them before. 

I'm not sure who they came from but it brought back good memories of him holding another baby 33 years later.

Notice the baldness!

So, that's what my elephant was hiding. 

My goal for this week is to conquer the pictures. 

Instead of being sad, maybe I'll just break out the scanner

 and embarrass some old friends on Facebook.

 Nothing like big hair and blue eye shadow to make a girl feel better, right? 

Why Do You Remember?

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

There either is or is not, that's the way things are.

 The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. 

Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes it's red.

 But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day.

 I'm not going to tell you the story the way it happened.

 I'm going to tell it the way I remember it.

Charles Dickens ~ Great Expectations

My husband and I had a conversation recently about first kisses. He doesn't remember his. 

I'll pause for a moment and let that sink in. 

HE DOESN'T REMEMBER HIS FIRST KISS!

How does that happen? He couldn't even with confidence remember the first time he kissed ME!*

*Disclaimer: I am married to an amazing man who supports me fully in everything I do. I can forgive the fact that he has let a moment on Sept. 21, 1997 at approximately 10:14 pm while slow dancing in my apartment to a local country station playing from my mini-stereo slip his mind.*

His explanation was that he "didn't catalog the information for future reference."

Then, he mumbled something about women never forgetting anything. 

But, my mind was already working. Why do I remember so well? 

I'm sure part of it is about being a girl and living for those kinds of moments, but I believe there is much, much more. 

I don't just remember my first kiss. I remember everything about it. Where I was standing, the butterfly army in my stomach, praying my mom did not choose that moment to walk into the kitchen. Everything. Just like I do so many other tiny but huge moments in my life.

But, I wonder how much of it is because I'm a writer. I love the story of each moment. I love hearing how other people met and fell in love. I love passing those emotions on to my readers and sharing the experience of moving through it together all over again. 

So, tell me your story. 

Do you remember the tiny but huge moments of your life with vivid detail? Were you cataloging it all for future reference? 

If you're in the mood for some nostalgia, you can check out this post about Remembering the Good Old Days (It's worth the click just to see my 1989 hairstyle!)

Baby Elephant Part II: Tiny Bites

Makeover Monday

Tiny Bites

LOOK! Carpet!!!!

I gave myself a built in deadline when I started this project last week. I knew that on Saturday my house would be filled with people for my daughter's birthday party. The main goal was to get everything off the floor and in a presentable pile. 

After hours of Pandora radio, dropping a shredder on my foot (OUCH! Very reminiscent of the marble chess board incident)  and a healthy dose of self-talk ("You can do this." "Don't get overwhelmed." "No, no, no sitting down to check Facebook and Twitter, Bad Dawn!")

the floor emerged.

It looks even better with the lid down!

I filled up several garbage bags with donations and had our recycle bin overflowing. 

That left this. 

The dreaded "TO-BE" pile.

To be filed

To be shredded

To be tossed

To be...um, I don't know. What do you do with Christmas cards from 15 years ago?

That's the project for this week.

I sorted everything into crates and hope to go through a crate each day this week. 

Next Monday, I'll be posting some of the buried treasures I found in this mess. 

Like this,

Nine reams of unopened paper as well as a stack of unused folders and binders. 

Previously lost in the seas of chaos, now neatly stacked in a cabinet. 

For now,

What do you do with old Christmas/Birthday/Congratulations on the New House cards? 

Eating My Elephant

The Return of Makeover Monday!

How do you eat an elephant? 

One bite at a time.

Welcome back to Makeover Monday!

It was on hold for a short time while the Mondays piled up on me like college freshman's mountain of laundry their first weekend home. 

But, I'm back and I'm confessing.

I have a baby elephant in my house. 

Wow. 

If you ever want to know just exactly how terrible a space looks, take a picture of it. 

This is my dumping ground "office". 

I have a lovely desk in the corner. 

Isn't it pretty? 

This is where all of our precious family photos and mementos are stored in an organized, easily accessible manner. 

There are multiple problems with this space.

1. It appears to have no floor. I am pretty sure one still exist under there because I don't fall into oblivion when I climb over everything looking for an envelope. 

2. Just to the left of the picture above is our front door. Yes, that's right this is what you see FIRST thing when you enter our beautiful home. As a family, we almost never come in the front door. So, this lovely scene is reserved for guest!

3. I don't have the slightest idea what's over here. In my defense, most of this was stuffed into the desk with the top closed until I had to find a paper...for our taxes.. 3 months ago. 

*Hangs head in shame*

So, it's time to eat the elephant. 

I don't expect the plate to be clean by next Monday, but I need some accountability. 

You'll ask me about my elephant, right? Make sure I'm taking daily bites and not letting it just over in the corner and grow like it has for the last few months? 

Good! I knew I could count on you. 

And, you may have noticed, this is the baby elephant. There is a mama. She lurks in the other room. 

If I survive this journey, you'll get to meet here next! 

HAPPY RELEASE DAY TO RONI LOREN!

Tell Me Your Story Tuesday

Today, I am breaking out the virtual champagne and throwing imaginary confetti for my friend, the FABULOUS RONI LOREN!

Roni is awesome. I'm a total fan of her Loving on the Edge series, especially Melt into You (Hmm, Jace and Andre....*insert dreamy stare here* Oh, sorry. Were we talking about something? Oh, right, the blog post.)

Um, as I was saying, her new release

 Not until You Dare 

is the first title in Roni's new eserial.

  A new installment will be released every week over the next eight weeks. 

I have been totally looking forward to this because 1. It is about Andre's sister. He is in the very first scene ( *insert fangirl squee) and 2. It will be longer than her regular novels, which I love, but always want to read more!

So, CONGRATULATIONS RONI!!!

Here's to a terrific release day. 

A little taste of Not Until You Dare: 

From the author of the Loving on the Edge novels comes a story of a good girl who discovers that once you dare to cross some lines, it’s hard to turn back…

On the night of her graduation, innocent veterinary student Cela decides to play a game of Never Have I Ever with the two hot neighbors she’s been quietly crushing on for the last year. Always the prim and proper student, Cela thinks she’s earned a wild night before she has to move back home under the watchful gaze of her family. But what starts out as a simple game is about to take a very sensual turn...

Ian Foster is tired of playing games. With his membership to The Ranch, an exclusive BDSM resort, and a musician roommate who brings home groupies with a taste for ménage, Foster has a life most guys would kill for. But lately, his need for dominance is no longer satisfied via one-night stands. He craves the full surrender a woman—a submissive of his own. 

But when his quiet, sweet-as-sugar neighbor shows up at their door with a bottle of tequila and an invitation, Foster decides he and Pike may have time for one more fling… 

Click here for an excerpt! 

And a few questions for the Roni fans out there.

What book is your favorite? 

What character would you love to spend an evening with? 

What character would you be terrified of spending the evening with?

Makeover Monday~ The Little Things

Makeover Monday

The Little Things

I didn't tackle any major organizing projects this week. I have one looming that I'm not quite ready to share. If I do get it done, we're having a virtual party. 

But, just so I didn't disappoint any faithful Makeover Monday followers, 

I thought I'd share some of the little things I've added to our house that make me way happier than they should. 

The first is this hook. 

I bought this forever ago to hang bags in my closet. It is supposed to fit over the door. Unfortunately, I have fat closet doors because this was too thin.  Last week, when I was doing the great kitchen shift. I remembered it. It fits perfectly over the cabinet door and holds my cutting boards right within reach. 

Second, is this basket.

I mentioned this basket in this post, but didn't really give it the attention it deserves. This is a charging station for my children's electronics. It hides a surge protector and gives them a place to store anything that needs a plug. No more scavenger hunt to find a lost mp3 player two minutes before leaving. 

And, last, this basket.

I got one of these for both of the girls when I redecorated their bathroom. They are wide enough to hold a regular-sized cup, toothbrush and toothpaste and they suction cup to the mirror. Why do I love them? They get all of the dental hygiene products off the counter and give them a neat, organized appearance. 

So, how about in your home? What little things give you a big smile?