Bachelor Number Nine

The latest volume in The Bachelor Series is now available!  Bachelor Number Nine went live on Amazon just last week.  This time we follow spunky Piper Daniels as she follows her best friend Amanda out to life in Los Angeles.

Or, as it says in the product description:

"Piper Daniels has had about enough. She's just plain tired, of her small town life in Iowa, her job at a greasy diner, and most of all, her boyfriend. It wasn't long ago that her best friend Amanda and headed west in search of love. Maybe the time has come for Piper to join her. Maybe love is waiting for Piper out in Los Angeles, too. All she knows for sure is, there's only one way to find out."

It's always a relief to finally get a new project out there, and for anyone who decides to pick it up, happy reading!

Heading Home to California

After a great month in my second home of Budapest, I'm headed back to California now.   We never did get much snow in Hungary while I was there, but the little dusting we got on a few nights was nice anyway.

Thanks to Sarka Holeckova for taking a new author photo of me while I was there, at one of my favorite cafes to write in, Kisuzem.

Whenever I see this photo I know it will leave me feeling just a little bit homesick for my writing life over there in Hungary.  I can't complain too much, though, about coming home to California in the winter to defrost!

Season's Greetings from Budapest

Happy Holidays to everyone from my second home here in Hungary.  I'm back for just a month this time, visiting friends, strolling through the Christmas markets and sipping hot wine.

The days are short and the temps are chilly.  The other day I took this photo of my favorite bridge across the Danube, the Liberty Bridge (Szabadság híd):

Szabadság híd

This picture was taken at 3:30 in the afternoon and the sun is already going down!  No snow so far, though I'm hoping we get a little before I head back to California in January.  A little bit of holiday snow would be nice.  Fingers crossed, anyway!

Kindle Countdown Deal

I'm running a Kindle Countdown Deal on No Cure for the Broken Hearted this week for the first time since I updated the cover.  The book is on sale for 99 cents and so far I like the results!  Over 130 downloads by noon! Anyone who wants to check it out can do so here:

Last gasp of summer

I was up in the mountains and visiting friends in the Bay Area for the past three weeks before returning home to beautiful Laguna Beach.  I figured the summer-like weather and warm ocean temps would be over by the time I got back. I was happy to be wrong!

Usually the water temp here in Laguna is around 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the summertime.  On rare occasions it climbs to 70 or above.  When I got home this past week, the water was still a balmy 71 degrees!

It's hard to complain.  I managed some surfing with friends and a bit of snorkeling.

Now the weather has turned and the skies are threatening rain.  Sea temps are sure to drop soon, too.  Ah well, the good times couldn't last forever.  Plus we need any rain we can get.  And besides, all of the nice weather makes it awfully hard to write!  Maybe now I'll get a little work done. :-)

Autumn in the Eastern Sierra

I'm back up at Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountains this week, putting the finishing touches on my latest novel.  I've arrived at the peak of fall color here in the Eastern Sierra, which is stunning, but also makes it a little hard to sit inside and write!  Yesterday I spent the day at McGee Creek Canyon, hiking and taking photos.  It was a nice day to be out!

I did manage to get some work done this morning, but now it's time to head back out on my bike to enjoy the scenery!

Rubbing Shoulders with Giants

After 25 years of rejections from the publishing industry, it certainly is a relief that I am able to finally put my books out on my own these days.  It is even better when I manage an occasional sales boost that lifts me up on Amazon bestseller lists alongside some of my writing idols.

This week I dropped the price on Memoirs of a Starving Artist down to 99 cents and am running some ads to support the sale.  I woke up today to find that I was sitting at number seven on the Author Biographies and Memoirs list, just behind Maya Angelou.

On the Travelogues list I was just ahead of Jon Krakauer and Bill Bryson.

Of course I realize that without these ads and the low price, I'll drop like a rock, but there is still some small thrill in being right up there alongside these literary giants, however fleeting it may be!  And hey, maybe I'll even manage to keep up some momentum.  That dream itself is enough to keep me plugging away...