Bookin' It Despite the January Blahs

Hello, friends! Welcome to the long, dark days of January. Blah. I saw a meme on Facebook today that said, "Nothing in nature blooms all year, so be patient with yourself." Well, I'm here to tell you, this girl doesn't bloom in winter. I have plenty of friends who relish the cold and snow, but I'm much more of a beach (and by that I mean warm beach, sorry my PNW friends, but a year-round cold beach doesn't do it for me) and sunshine girl.

The beach from our Southern honeymoon. 85 degrees and bright sunshine. That's what I'm talking about, people.

Instead, I've got this...snow. Blarg. Though, I'm fortunate to be snuggled up against such a hawt man!

And this...big coat, scarf, hat, gloves. Cold weather wear. Blech. 

If we have to stay inside thanks to cold, fog, snow, and darkness, we might as well use the time to do bookish things, right? So, Deek's novella, "Birth of an American Gigolo," releases on January 19th. It's been through my edits, Anya's edits, and five different proofreaders, so it's ready to rumble. And thanks to Ellie, it's all formatted and purty for both eBook and print. Now Deek and I just have to get it uploaded and ready. It's our first time entering the self-publishing domain, so we're still figuring out all the bells and whistles. Update: The preorder is live!! Place your order for "Birth of an American Gigolo" now! 

And while we're in the midst of all that, his publisher sent back the proofread version of 122 Rules for his approval. We read through those minor changes and sent it back. Now, it's on to the final stages too! It still needs a cover and the formatting, but 122 Rules is almost finished too. PS. We have some exciting news about the other two books in the 122 series, but we have to wait just a bit longer for that announcement (stay tuned).

Then, we get an email from Anita (the bestest cover artist in the world) saying she's completed her work on the banner that Deek will use as the basis for his upcoming 122 Rules tattoo. We had high expectations because of the high quality of Anita's past work, but our mouths still hit the floor when we saw what she'd created. People, really... I can't even.

We bow to Anita's greatness!!

We'll talk to the tattoo artist to see how much of the background we can incorporate, but it will definitely have the gun, the numbers, the bullet, and the number fragments in it. We are so excited to get ink to represent our first books (I'm getting one with the symbol from the front of The Prophecy)!!

Then, Anita whipped up another banner using a smoke effect that Deek really liked. 

The background is transparent, so it takes on the color of whatever is behind it. Again, Anita is a genius! This banner transforms based on the background. Here's white.

 Here's black. Too cool!

So, as you can see, it's a very exciting time over at the Rhew's when it comes to writing. You may wonder what I'm working on over here. Well, I'm writing my historical fiction. Deek's editing it chapter by chapter as I get it complete, and I hope to start sending it out on submission in the spring. After that, I have to decide whether I want to revamp my futuristic thriller or turn my short story "Volatile" into a novel. Decisions, decisions... LOL!

And let me say, I'm so proud of my husband!! He's been working hard to make his dreams happen, and they are! We don't call ourselves Team Tenacious for nothing. But even though he's busting his hump to get his regular work and book work done, he ALWAYS makes time for me and our family. Always. He's the most amazing man, people! I loves him so much!

Before I sign off, I want to give a big shout out to Anita, Anya, Ellie, our proofreaders, our friends, and our family. Without them, we wouldn't be launching all of these amazing things. So, from the bottoms of our hearts, THANK YOU!! 

For those interested, here's the latest update on my PaPa (grandpa): He ended up back in the hospital after Christmas for dehydration and a bad reaction to some of the medicine. He stayed in there over the new year and came home shortly after that. Now, he's doing much better! I've spoken to him several times, and he's acting more like his regular self. It does my heart so good to see him well again. Thank you all for your kind words and well wishes! ((HUGS))

Now, I'll leave you with some more summer pictures so you can join me in dreaming of warmer days to come!