Drowning

I’ve realized that I need to drink more water. Like, A LOT more water. The last few days weeks months, have been stressful. And like so many people, when I get stressed, I want to live on iced tea and baked goods. And mashed potatoes. Because, well, mashed potatoes. So instead of waiting until the New Year (Should that be capitalized? Like Christmas and Valentine’s Day and Thanksgiving, does simply referring to the coming year deserve big letters?) and making a resolution that I’ll dump before the last of the Christmas ham ends up in the bin, I’m going to start it now.

My goal? 64 ounces of water a day. Not water made into coffee or tea. Not milk (which is something like 95% water, depending on whether you drink whole or skim or whatever) or with any kind of drink mix added to it. Just plain, straight water.

Frankly, I don’t think I can do it. I love caffeine so much. I have kids, so I’ve gotten into the loop of drinking WAY too much tea and coffee and cocoa, to the point that if I could just hook myself up to an IV, I would do it.

But stress makes me feel awful. A bit of a redundant statement, I know. Who watches their life pelt rock-filled snowballs at them and thinks, “Man, this feels great! I’m totally not going to have digestion issues that last for five weeks after this!”?

So, water. Sixty-four ounces. That’s… *attempts to math without the aid of a calculator*… about eight ounces for every two to two-and-a-half hours that I’m awake. That’s… doable. Maybe. I mean, counting the couple of sips I had this morning, I probably only have about… *maths*… sixty-one ounces to go?

Oh, heaven help me. Where’s my hot chocolate?

I’m Not That Sort of Girl

Book promotion is not something I like to do. When I first realized that I wanted to be a writer, I didn’t sit down with a notebook and plot out my first blog post, or my first awkward interaction with another author on Twitter. (For the record, Twitter didn’t exist then. Neither did blogs or the Internet. It was a dark time. We may have still used rotary phones or accused witches of being made of wood.) What I really wanted to do, more than anything else, was write.

And I did. And it was great.

But then, a terrible thing happened. I discovered that I couldn’t simply write a book, toss it up on Amazon, and call it a day. I had to tell people about it. I had to market not only my work, but myself. I had to socialize (albeit through a keyboard and computer screen) and I had to write about what I had written.

Which is awful. Really. Because I would love to live the rest of my life as a hermit, churning out manuscripts, sending them off for editing, shouting out an occasional “BUY MY BOOK” at random passersby, and then retreating back to my cave as I turn my attention to the next story clamoring around inside my head.

But today, I’m going to talk about something I’ve written.

Several months ago, a group of talented authors called The Writing Wenches (to which I belong) decided to write an anthology of romance stories. Over twenty of us contributed stories, all of them centered around the holidays, and yet all of them completely individual and indicative of our own writing styles. There weren’t a tremendous amount of parameters for us to follow (there were SOME, of course) so a bit of fear existed that it wouldn’t all tie together. After editing and editing again and editing AGAIN, would twenty-one separate stories by twenty-one separate authors work?

Well, I hope they do. Seeing as how I’m one of the authors (my story is First Position, and it’s also my first story in which ballet plays a huge part), my opinion might be construed as biased. But this was a project that we (including myself) enjoyed immensely. There were chats, polls, discussions over cover design, over marketing, over release dates, and all of it was fun. All of it managed to not feel like work, even when we were all busy banging our heads against our computers trying to make our characters do what we wanted them to do (and then tossing back some wine when they didn’t).

So months later, and here we are. Unwrapping Love is the final product, of which I am incredibly proud. So proud, that I am talking about it. BLOGGING about it, in fact. Twenty-one stories. Twenty-one authors. Multiple heat levels (Heat levels? That translates to “Maybe a bit of kissy-kiss” all the way to “Whoa, Nelly!”). And through all of our blood, sweat, and tears, finally available on Amazon.

See? Ain’t it purdy?

But! I’m not finished yet! I have a giveaway! (See? I’m so proud I’m actually giving stuff away. And not just that second crock-pot I don’t use anymore.) Just go to my author page, Quenby Olson, and enter to win a paperback copy of my novel “Knotted”. (Want to know what it’s about before you enter? Just skip over to Amazon and take a look.)

And while you’re on Amazon (Best. Segue. Ever.) you can check out Unwrapping Love, which is conveniently available for purchase!

Also, be sure to follow along with the rest of the blog hop to learn about the other authors and for more giveaways!

Kay Blake contributed Winter’s Gift. Her site is http://www.authorkayblake.wordpress.com

Christine Cacciatore wrote Noah Cane’s Candy. She blogs at http://poopwafoley.blogspot.com/ .

Patricia D. Eddy wrote On The Eve of Love. Her website is http://www.pdeddy.com/holiday-blog-hop.

C. S. Kendall is the author of Second Chance Girl. She would love it if you would visit her at http://www.cskendall.net

Tami Lund is the author of The Perfect Christmas. You can find her at http://tamilund.com/?page_id=91 .

Misti Murphy contributed Christmas Candy. Her site is http://mistimurphy.weebly.com .

Keisha K. Page contributed Rhythm of Love. Her website is http://thewordmistress.blogspot.com/ .

Grace Ravel wrote Shut Up and Kiss Me. Her site is http://www.graceravel.com

Jennifer Ray wrote Declan’s Special. You can visit her at http://www.adventuresinjentopia.wordpress.com .

Jennifer Senhaji is the author of Angels in Disguise. You can find her at http://jennifersenhaji.blogspot.com/ .

A.E. Snow contributed Miles and Mae. Her site is at http://www.aesnowauthor.blogspot.com

Sheri Williams wrote Numb, and is sharing the blog hop from the Writing Wenches main website at

http://www.writingwenches.com.

S. K. Wills wrote Hanley’s Secret. Her website is http://skwills.com/blog/ .

Allison Winfield is the author of Stay With Me. You can find her at http://alwinfield.com .

Other stories in Unwrapping Love were contributed by:

Melody Barber

Sonja Frojendal

Melina Gillies

Michael Simko

Beth Stanley

K.R. Wilburn