New Website!

Hi, all!

I am very excited to share the release of my new website. It still has a few tweaks here and there but for the most part, it is done. It is a beautiful, clean site that will be able to make whatever book covers or photos I throw at it stand up and shine (rather than clash!!).

The new site has a new blog on it as well. I will be archiving this one and moving it over. Please come on over to the new site and follow me there or join my mailing list to stay in touch AND to get a FREE story about the FIRST Guardian. You can also follow me on facebook! 🙂

Below is a screen shot of the new site.

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you on the flip side.

Cheers! ❤ Lisa

 

New Cover for The Guardians!!❤️

Cover Reveal!! As promised! Here is the new cover for The Guardians! I love it so much. Once the second cover in the series is redone, I will be posting that one too and then getting them updated on Amazon. Cheers!❤️🖤

Check out Ammonia Book Covers (fabulous designer!!!): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1031687487003253/?ref=share

 

Where does the time go? Plus Ireland!

Geez. I hadn’t realized that so much time had passed since I last posted. This is terrible! I need to make up for some serious lost time.

Since the last time I posted I have published the second book in my Gargoyles Den series and I’ve been to Ireland, not once but twice!

You can check out the second book, Rogue, in my series here (which would read weird if you haven’t already read book one so you might need to get that here first). I am working on a short story called Origins that tells how those bad ass shape-shifting gargoyles came to be while I am also working out the final book in the series. So exciting!

But…IRELAND!

Ok, if you’re from Ireland I imagine you would be more excited shouting FLORIDA which is where I live and I’m not even slightly excited about it.

I just love Ireland. Last year a few of us in my family (7!) visited the beautiful island in May. We stayed a few days in Dublin, Cork (including the stunning Gougane Barra where my hubby’s family hail from), Dingle and Galway (including Connemara – amazing!).

Here’s a picture from that trip.

Sheep and castle ruins. Bliss. Actually that is the Rock of Cashel. Loved that leg of our trip.

We had so much fun that one month after we returned from Ireland, we bought tickets to go again. So the last two weeks my hubby and I have cruised the east side of the island. We visited Dublin, Trim, Kilkenny and Wicklow. It is just so freakishly beautiful there. Every turn is a new magical view.

Here’s a picture from the latest trip.

Kilkenny Castle

And another because – this is an amazing shot!

Dunamase Castle

When I took the above pic, I was standing inside the crumbling outside wall of the castle and looking out. What a view! Loved it there. Highly recommend you visit if you get the chance.

Well, that’s my quick update. Until next time! Cheers!

For writers: Dealing with Negative Reviews

My friend wrote this perfect piece about dealing with negative reviews. I wanted to spread it around for any other writers who might be interested.

And as a side note, I don’t bother reviewing books that I don’t finish or care for. I feel like there is enough negativity in the world and I don’t need to make someone feel less about themselves. Especially when I am confident that despite my dislike, there are people out there who will like it and it’s not my place to ruin that for them. There are already quite a few people out there who feel that it is their role in life to correct everyone’s faults (so- called). I have no interest in being one of those people. I am happy to consistently review books I’ve enjoyed.

I say to all writers, keep writing and don’t listen to the naysayers. There’s an audience out there for all of you. Digital hugs!

Enjoy this great article on defeating negativity!!

We are told that reviews are important. Other people see reviews and decide whether or not to invest the dollar or two and take a chance on your unknown work. It has been said that Amazon doesn’t care whether the reviews are good or bad, more is better, and the more reviews your book has, […]

via How To Deal With A Negative Review (For Writers) Part I —

Happy Day of Love Love

Just a quick note to acknowledge you today.

No matter what kind of love you have in your world, I hope you’re glad that you have the ability to experience it. One of the most miserable, sudden, delicious, sad, troublesome, happy-making, heart-breaking, fantastical, incredible, insane feelings in the world.

I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to have found my hubby twenty years ago. We’ve been through so much and every time we win, we come out stronger.  Plus, he embraces my dark side. It makes me a true believer of magic and that dreams can come true.

No matter if you have someone to share it with – please accept my digital hug and thoughts of Love Love for you today.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

And here’s a picture of my cat who owns all and loves none. Not really. He loves me. I think.

Holiday Love

For the first time in years, I am truly excited for the holidays. There’s no particular rhyme or reason as to why this is, simply that it is.

I have finished buying all the gifts and even wrapped them too. That is a pretty major feat. I just decided a few days ago that I wanted this last weekend before Christmas to be light, chill and enjoyable, not frantic and staying up late to wrap. So yay for me.

I am also excited about the gifts for everyone. I really enjoy the anticipation of someone opening their gift and loving it. In my family, you are batting almost 100% due to my secret method of making sure everyone gets what they want for Christmas. It seriously takes out the hard decisions, the guesses, and the failed gifts.

I’ll share it with you. If you’re not much of a computer person, you will cringe, but if you can get around a computer pretty well, and excel isn’t just a word meaning you’re really good at something, then this will work for you.

Here’s how we handle gift giving at our place.

A week before Thanksgiving I start emailing the family.

GIVE ME A CHRISTMAS WISH LIST ON THANKSGIVING OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES (losing your sister / mother / aunt from being stabbed by Gma).

Once I receive the lists, I prepare an excel document with all the info. I also include a special bonus of what each person likes to get/wants in the stocking. (I know this from past years, that can always be requested in the email mentioned earlier.)

At Thanksgiving, when we’re all stuffing our faces with turkey (or in my case, ham) we throw everyone’s name into a hat and pull out the name of the person whose stocking we’re going to handle. ($50 limit, parents handle their own kidlets.)

Then after reviewing and tweaking the gift wish list, I send it out to everyone. Then if “Dad” wants a new computer, we don’t all fall on the ground laughing, we figure out together how to get that person what they want or as close to it as possible. We also agree in advance what is an acceptable amount to spend. You don’t want Bob to throw in a $20 when you’re forking out $80. It has to be fair. If you’re lucky and have a wealthy family member, they can fill in the price gap on spendy stuff.

So, everyone gets what they want.

It helps to have a “coordinator”. Yep, that would be me. I enjoy it for the most part and Christmas day is always so nice because there are no upsets to deal with, everyone gets something they wanted, we all share in the food activities, and then we play games for the day and spend good quality time together.

 

This is here for no other reason than it is really cute.

 

I send my happy wishes to you all to have a wonderful holiday season, that you get what you want, spend it however you want and hopefully with someone special.

I am looking forward to 2018 and everything I’m going to get done. Expect some fun new things from me this coming year. I can’t wait to finish them.

Cheers and hugs!

Lisa

Social Media During Life

A good friend of mine posted this experiment and I think it is genius! Wanted to share. Would love your opinion. 🙂 

I was considering titling this post “Social Media: Gift or Curse?” but I thought that sounded a bit overly-dramatic, so I went with a statement of simple fact: What I learned from a month of staying off all my social media. Social media. Some people love it, some people don’t care. Some people are gurus […]

via What I Learned From A Month of Social Media Abstinence —

How Twitter Became Fun

I’ve known that Twitter could potentially be a fun place to hang out and maybe even promote a book every now and then but with the exception of a few entertaining users, anytime I looked at it I felt like I might  A) drop into a political overload of annoyance or B) suffer from a snore fest. I just couldn’t find the enjoyment of it on a regular basis.

Then I was introduced to two things.

One of the gals in my writer’s group (Find the gal here, find the writer’s group here) recently told us all a Twitter tip from one of her super smart media expert friends.

I took the advice and couldn’t be happier.

The advice? Go to (in my case) the profiles of your favorite authors and check out THEIR followers. Then follow those who are interesting. If you’re not an author, you could go to profiles of people involved in subjects you’re interested in and check out their followers. I couldn’t be happier. People that I have reality and understanding with are all over my feed and it is so entertaining now!

The other thing I learned, from the same author friend mentioned above, is about monthly games that various people play where they post a sheet with a question for every day of the month and you get to post answers and find even more interesting people. Here’s an example of one.

 

 

This one is #authorconfession and is hosted by @_JM_Sullivan. I would think there are such things available for other items of interest. It’s fun to participate and see what other people post.

There is also #51writers and #wipjoy and #wiptunes and #mythcampnano…you get the idea.

I like it waaaayy more than Facebook now. Cheers!

First SMFS Book is released!!!

I have a few shorts in this book! It was a lot of fun to put together with my incredible writer’s group – the Ink Slingers Guild! Please grab a copy and enjoy!

Stories My Friends Started

Hello All!!!

I am excited to announce the release of the first of the Stories My Friends Started anthologies.

This is a collection of 5 stories, started by you, our friends, from each of the amazing Ink Slingers.

Please download, read, enjoy and review!!!

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Ted the Accountant by Lisa Barry

This was a lot of fun to write!

Stories My Friends Started

For Remi Paquette, I hope you enjoy it!

Ted, the accountant walked out on stage and looking over the assembled gods realized that this was not going to be a fun presentation.

Clearing his throat, Ted nodded at the crowd and then turned to his laptop, already connected to the big screen before them. He cleared his throat again and tried to steady his hand before turning back to the crowd.

He gave a weak smile as he fished the laser pointer from his pocket and aimed it at the pie chart on the screen.

“Thank you all for coming today,” Ted said and cringed as his voice boomed by some god’s will over the colosseum.

“I am one of the forensic accountants for Athena.” The crowd turned to look at her where she sat demurely at the end of the second row on the left. She had a small…

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