My Favorite Podcasts & A Few Updates

It's been a busy week over here. I'm writing, writing, writing, which means I'm a little behind on everything else. :) But I wanted to pop up this afternoon to share a few things.

One, next Tuesday is release day for the Loving on the Edge novella boxed set! This is a set of all four Loving on the Edge novellas rolled into one. That's a lot of content, y'all, because I write long ass novellas. So I hope you'll grab a copy!

Next up, I've been reporting in on my choices each month from the Book of the Month club. So here's what I grabbed this month. In addition to the new release choices, they also offer some hand selected bonus choices of older books. So the first one I'm tackling, Ready Player One, is one of those. The premise grabbed me right away. It's the year 2044 and we're all living our lives through a video game (which frankly doesn't seem that far fetched with how we are with our phones now.) But the inventor of the video game dies and leaves behind a contest to win his billions. Players have to figure out a puzzle in the game to win, and the puzzle is all about 1980s references. So being a child of the 80s, I'm loving that.

If you're interested in checking out the Book of the Month club, you can get 30% off with my link and a free tote bag. (That's an affiliate link but it gets you a discount and me extra books, so win-win.) :)  

Next, I know I'm behind the curve on this one, but I've recently discovered the joy of podcasts. I generally try to avoid talk radio, especially with this insane election season, but I love information and learning new things, so podcasts are a great option because there's no news and minimal commercials. Also, you can pick specifically what you want to hear about and listen on your own schedule. I find them soothing to listen to while I get ready for the day or do dishes. And like I said, I'm still new to this, but here are some of the ones I've been enjoying. (Be warned, I'm a junkie for productivity, self-improvement, books, and writing, so these choices will reflect that.)

1. Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Y'all already know I love her books and have gotten a lot out of them. Her podcast sticks to her topics of happiness and habits, but goes more in depth. She does the podcast with her sister and they're a good team. Fun to listen to and helpful.

2. 10% Happier with Dan Harris

Like I mentioned earlier this week, I recently read Dan's book on meditation for skeptics and it really clicked with me. His podcast brings in interesting people who speak on the topics of meditation and happiness. 

3. Beyond the To List

This is more productivity focused but covers a range of different aspects. I've only listened to a few so far but I've enjoyed them.

4. This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt

This is another productivity one, and though it focuses on leadership and business stuff, Hyatt comes from a publishing background, so I find a lot of the advice helpful even though I work from home in a creative profession and not in an office.

5. The Minimalists

Minimalism has fascinated me for a few years now. I wouldn't call myself a minimalist yet, but I take lessons from it and try to apply it to my life. two years ago I did a full gutting of my house because of minimalism, lol. And recently after watching their documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, I ended up with three large garbage bags of clothes to give to Goodwill (even though I'm not even a clothes person and should never had had that much!) So I find listening to them helps re-inspire me when I fall off the wagon a bit. This is especially good stuff to listen to as we go into the holiday season.

6. Smart Podcast, Trashy Books

If you're familiar with the book review site Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, this one will be familiar to you. If you love the website, you'll love the broadcast. All about romance reading. :)

7. Magic Lessons by Elizabeth Gilbert

I read Big Magic at the beginning of this year and got a lot out of it. The book was about living a creative life without fear. This podcast is more about the things covered in the book with interviews and special guests.

So how about you, are you a podcast listener? Have any recommendations? 

The Loving on the Edge Novella Boxed Set will be here in October!

Want to catch up on all of the Loving on the Edge novellas? Get FOUR of them all in one place, and these are not short stories. Lots of pages! And you get a little bit of everything: married couple romance, a menage romance, a m/m romance, and an dominant woman/submissive man romance. :)

*These can be read as standalones and don't require that you've read the other Loving on the Edge books. However, Forever Starts Tonight is direct follow-up to Melt Into You so if you *do* plan to read Melt Into You, read that first or you'll get spoilers. :)

Coming OCTOBER 18, 2016 but available for pre-order now!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Crash Into You comes four previously published Loving on the Edge novellas, together for the first time... 

In Still Into You, married couple Seth and Leila head to The Ranch, a resort where any sexual fantasy can be had. Seth hopes to put the spark back in their marriage and to show Leila why he’s the only man for her...

In Forever Starts Tonight, two Dominant men and one submissive woman attempt to jumpstart their relationship with a getaway at a mountain cabin. When they get snowed in, however, the heat between them reaches a fever pitch, and secrets come out...

In Yours All Along, two men, Devon and Hunter, shared a hot night in college, but an accident tore their relationship apart. Four years later, Hunter is a professional baseball player, engaged to a woman, and in Devon’s bar. Neither man can get that one night off their minds...

In Break Me Down, Samantha Dunbar and sexy executive Gibson Andrews are Dominants, and according to Gibson, that makes them incompatible. But after an attack shakes Sam to her core, Gibson finds himself unable to let her go...

PRE-ORDER THE BUNDLE:  Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

Need a fun October Read? Her Halloween Treat by Tiffany Reisz

It's almost October and that's one of my favorite times of the year. We don't get much Fall here in Dallas, but the two or three weeks we do get, I cherish. And as soon as October starts, I start thinking about Halloween. Not so much because I'm all that into the day itself, but because of all the things that come with it. Cooler weather, horror movies on TV, that signal that the holiday season is starting. Love it.

So this weekend (when it was still 90 degrees outside--ugh), I picked up Tiffany Reisz's Her Halloween Treat. It turned out to be the perfect read to get me in the mindset for fall--particularly because it's set in Oregon (the part of the country where I eventually want to live). But beyond the Halloween theme and fall mood, the book was a really fun, sexy read. I always enjoy the humor in Tiffany's books. The characters in the story are people who sound like my friends, which I love. 

So if you're looking for a quick, funny, steamy read, this one's a good choice. Plus, it's worth reading for all the 80s and 90s references alone. ;)

(Disclosure: I know Tiffany and we share an agent, but she didn't ask me to review this book and I purchased my own copy.)

About the book:

Trick…or wicked treat! 

It was a devastating dirty trick—Joey Silvia just found out her boyfriend of two years is married. What. A. Dick. Joey knows her best chance to get over one guy is to get under another. Of course, heading home to her family's remote cabin in Oregon poses some challenges in the "available men" department…until she discovers this cabin comes with its own hot handyman! 

Holy crap, Chris Steffensen. When did her brother's best friend turn into a hard-bodied pile of blond-bearded hotness? He's the perfect Halloween treat—and a surprisingly dirty rebound guy. For a couple of weeks, anyway. Except that Chris has other ideas…like proving to Joey that this blast from the past is a whole lot more than a naughty Halloween hookup.

Grab a copy: Amazon | B&N | Kobo

What to Read - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

If you follow me here regularly, you know I'm a bit of a junkie for a good productivity read. So when I saw Greg McKeown speak with Michael Hyatt in the recent online productivity summit, I knew I had to get his book - Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

First, here's the back cover:

Have you ever felt the urge to declutter your work life?

Do you often find yourself stretched too thin?

Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized?

Are you frequently busy but not productive?

Do you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist.

The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.  It is not  a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.  

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy – instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.

Essentialism is not one more thing – it’s a whole new way of doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or individual who wants to do less, but better, and declutter and organize their own their lives, Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.

This book has a lot of fantastic information and guidelines for how to go about your "disciplined pursuit of less." But I think the way the concept resonated for me was that it's about editing. When I write a book, I look at every word, every scene, every character and ask--is this necessary for the story? Does this add something valuable to the book? Essentialism is doing that with your life and job, with all those tasks and activities and demands that take up our time. But instead of asking, "Does this add to the story?" we're asking, "Does this add to my life?" or "Does it add to what I'm trying to accomplish in my life/job/etc?" It's the idea of doing Less But Better.

Though this book is geared toward the business people of the world, I think it's applicable to more people than that. I'm a writer, which is what I do, but I'm also running my own business of being an author and all the things involved with that--marketing, promotion, working with my publishers, organizing things, going to events, soon indie publishing (which is another stack of tasks). Plus, I'm a mom so have those home duties layered in. 

So, often I find myself working, working, working and being constantly busy, but not actually, you know, WRITING. It's been driving me a little bit crazy. That's what originally led me to read Deep Work by Cal Newport (which I talked about more here), and I think these two books pair well together. Pare down your life to the essentials and make room for deep work (or whatever it is that's most important/fulfilling to you.)

But how do you do that? What does that mean? That's what this book answers.

I can't give a full summary because there's too much info and you should read the book, but here are some of my takeaways.

1. Learn the art of "no"

This is a huge one for me. I think women, in general, tend to have more trouble with the no because we're taught to be people pleasers, to be nice. We want to be nice and helpful--and there's nothing wrong with that. But if we say yes to every request, we're actually saying no to something else. We only have a set amount of time and energy in a day. Everything is a trade off. So a yes is always a no as well.

It's important to understand what you're saying no to by throwing out that mindless, "Sure I'll bake 100 cupcakes for the school fair." or "Sure, I'll critique your manuscript." or "Sure, I'll take on that extra project." Because it might be simultaneously saying, "Sure, I'll give up family time on my weekend." or "Sure, I'll miss my kid's soccer game." or "Sure, I won't get my own important work done this week." McKeown makes the point in this book that if you don't choose how to spend your time, someone else will choose for you.

I also like the method of "No, but instead..." I use this a lot. You switch out the request that would take a lot of time for something for something that is less of a time suck but still provides something helpful to the person. "I can't bake the cupcakes, but I can order some from the local bakery." "I can't make it to your Facebook party, but I can donate a prize." 

2. Getting over FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

This goes along with the "saying no" thing. Especially in business, we're afraid of turning down opportunities. But often we make the mistake of seeing every opportunity as having equal weight. They don't. In writer land, this translates for me that if anyone offers an opportunity at promo, I should take it. But if a guest blog post takes me an hour to write (which it generally does) and it's posted on a blog that gets no traffic, I've just taken an hour of time I could've been using to write my books--the thing that is my essential--and used it to maybe get a post in front of a handful of people. 

This also applies to social media. We are all trained to be SO afraid that we're going to miss something, so we're connected all the time. We also can justify it because it's often part of our jobs to be connected. But social media and the internet are the greediest of time stealers. And it's fluff for the most part. Fun and social and nice for the occasional break. But when I look back on my life, I'm not going to say, "Wow, I wrote some great tweets and saw some fantastic cat pictures." I'm hopefully going to be able to say, "Wow, I wrote some great books and had an amazing time with family and friends." So I'm not saying social media/the internet doesn't have its place, but we often give it a way bigger place at the table then it deserves. And it will eat all your food if you don't keep it in check.

3. Giving yourself space to think

This, I think, is probably one of the hardest ones because we're so used to being busy and connected. We don't leave room for quiet and boredom anymore. I'm in a creative job. That space is vital to me (which is often why I end up getting ideas in the shower or before I fall asleep at night--because it's the only time I let myself be bored now.) Instead of all those pockets of time we used to have nothing to do--waiting in lines, sitting in the doctor's office, walking somewhere--we have our phones to fill the void. But there are good, ripe things in the void--ideas, solutions to problems, time to breathe and refresh. That's what had made me read Deep Work. I knew my ability to lose myself in thought was waning. Essentialism also speaks to this--making space for focus. Blocking time off in your schedule where you are unapologetically unavailable and not connected. This is probably what I'm taking home the most from the book. I'm ready to cut out a lot of the noise. Because, wow, life is noisy these days.

There are so many more takeaways in the book. I'm only skimming the surface. But between this book and Deep Work, I've changed my outlook on a lot of things and will be making some changes. I'll blog more on what those changes are, but for now, I'd love to hear your thoughts. AM I the only one fighting with these things? What's frustrating you right now with your time?

Giveaway & Interview: The Hard Men of the Rockies Series

Every now and then I like to feature authors you may not have had a chance to read yet. So today I'm bringing you five authors from my local RWA group who are starting a new connected series called Hard Men of the Rockies! I haven't had a chance to read these yet, but I had the ladies stop by and answer a few questions and they've been kind enough to offer us a giveaway!

To get a chance to win a book from each lady, sign up for their mailing list. 

First, a quick peek at what the books are about...

RED LACE by Kym Roberts

He knocked on death’s door, but she refused to let him walk in… 

Ty Beckinsale was a dead man…until an angel in red lace saved him and disappeared into the night. Tortured with memories but unable to pursue leads to determine her identity until after he recovers, Ty seeks the assistance of the experts at Achilles HeAl, a private physical rehab facility for the rich and famous. Or in his case, the infamous—an ex-Secret Service Agent hell-bent on avoiding the media. His road to recovery, however, leads him straight to the woman he can’t forget—a woman he vows to protect from a past he can’t leave behind.

Fear consumes her, drives her to build walls no one can penetrate… 

Secrets and lies have driven Faith Artino to turn her business into a compound. She’s secure, safe and satisfied with life. Until Ty Beckinsale walks in and knocks down all her barriers with a chemistry she can’t deny. But her fear of betrayal stops her from seizing the moment and from taking what she wants more than anything else—a passion so strong, it can’t be destroyed.

A life-time sentence of loneliness awaits, unless Faith opens her door to the one man who’s stolen her heart.

Preorder RED LACE:    Amazon   |    Kobo

TANGO & LACE by Misty Dietz

World renowned geoarcheologist Jackson Whiteside has come home to Colorado to care for his grandmother and teach at CSU…not to rekindle the passionate, but doomed love affair with gramma’s high-spirited neighbor whose memory has haunted him half-way across the globe. But the moment he sees his feisty, melodramatic ex, his cortisol levels spike. And he damn well knows he’s about to unearth more layers of their relationship…whether his neurotransmitters like it or not.

If there’s one thing dancer and dispatch operator Mya Castillo can do well, it’s Tango. But dancing with her feet is one thing…dancing with her heart is another. Especially when she has no choice but to accept her ex— the world’s most unintentionally sexy professor—as her stand-in partner for the biggest performance of her life.

Jack’s two-year scientific immersion has kept a tight lid on his right-brained proclivities, but his irritatingly illogical gut is telling him the attack on Mya’s dance partner jeopardizes more than just her dance studio. It bodes evil toward the woman he still loves beyond reason, so this is one dance he won’t sit out.

Preorder TANGO & LACE: Amazon | Kobo | iBooks

LEATHER & LACE by Brynley Bush

NFL bad boy Knox Beckinsale has made headlines one time too many. Injured, suspended from the Torpedoes, and needing to clean up his image—fast—he heads to Fort Collins to help his Grandma Rosie after her heart attack. No women. No parties. No trouble. Until he meets Leila Patton, who’s nothing but trouble with big blue eyes and a girl next door demeanor that does nothing to hide curves that could make a man forget his religion.

Knox Beckinsale is cocky, arrogant, and sexy as sin—everything unemployed journalist Leila isn’t looking for in a man. Which makes him absolutely perfect for banishing the memory of her former boyfriend who broke her heart—and fired her. But one night turns into another, and before long Leila realizes there’s more to Knox than just a pretty face and killer abs.

When secrets from Knox’s past surface, Leila is forced to choose between writing the story of a lifetime…or taking a chance on her own love story.

Preorder LEATHER & LACE:    Amazon  |  Kobo

BEYOND LACE by Mia London

Colorado was the last place on earth he wanted to be.

Blake Strickland has a good life in Chicago. His first company sold for several million dollars, and he’s on his way to repeating that with his second. But when his grandmother has a heart attack, the return to his home town of Fort Collins, Colorado is unavoidable and unwelcome. It’s the place he’d fallen madly in love with an incredible woman—the same place Charlie ripped his heart right out of his chest.

Charlotte Brookfield put love behind her, or so she thought. Until he returned—to her town, in her bar, a thousand miles from his home. And looking sexy as hell with a chip on his shoulder so big, she knew, she was still his enemy.

Eight years apart has done nothing to ease their pain, and everything to ignite their passion. Can Blake build a firewall around his heart, or will Charlie leave an indelible imprint on his soul?

Preorder BEYOND LACE:   Amazon  |  Kobo | 

BLACKMAIL & LACE by Tracy A. Ward

Grayson Montgomery is on a mission and bad boy Adam Holder is on the top of her bucket list. When the successful defense attorney mistakes her for an old flame, Grayson doesn’t hesitate to use a misleading video to bring him to his knees and blackmails him into a trip he would never make. Duty-bound to a deathbed oath, Grayson doesn’t count on the intense attraction between them or how much she’s falling for the sexy bachelor.

Adam Holder loves women, but he loves success even more. He would never jeopardize his career, until a case of mistaken identity makes him look guilty of a crime he’d never commit. Not willing to take a chance with his future, Adam submits to the blackmail of a beautiful woman while plotting his revenge…but when their sparks of passion ignite, Adam forgets his thoughts of retaliation and risks it all to win Grayson’s heart.

Preorder BLACKMAIL & LACE:    Amazon  

---

The Interview

Question: Who decided on the theme of the series? How was it decided?

Answer:

KYM: We wanted something to reflect on the reader conference we were planning to attend in Colorado, and since I have an obsession with a certain Rock, I was all in for The Hard Men of the Rockies. ;)

MISTY: Exactly! Plus we thought a family-theme built around gramma sounded like a hoot.

TRACY: The theme was set, and the rest of us just fell in line :-). 

Q.   What was the most fun in working with 4 other authors on this series?

A.    KYM: Our texts. OMG, they were hilarious and X-rated. Definitely not something we could allow our kids to read to us while we drove. ;)

MIA: Definitely!

BRYNLEY: It was also fun seeing my characters in the other books. Knox, the hero in Leather & Lace, is the little brother of Ty, the hero in Red Lace.  I remember being amazed at how well Kym nailed Knox when she sent me an excerpt from Red Lace that included him.

TRACY:  The constant support from my fellow authors was also an added bonus. I just recently went through a cross-country move after living in Dallas for 20 years (and in the same neighborhood for 16). I knew collaborating on this project would be a major incentive to stay focused on my writing. The Chick Swagger girls were exactly the kick in the pants I needed!

Q.   What’s it like writing in the same world with 4 other authors?

A.    BRYNLEY: Chaotic, but totally fun. I'm used to making unilateral decisions for my books and characters, but in the Hard Men of the Rockies series, all of the books take place in the same house and with the same grandma, so we had to make sure we communicated and got our facts straight across all of the books.  If one author had Grandma Rosie driving a red Jeep, we all had to make sure we did the same.  And when I gave Rosie a cat, I had to make sure none of the other cousins were allergic to cats. J

MIA: I was the last author to join the group, and initially I was overwhelmed with the facts to keep track of—the who, what, where, when, and with whom? The first thing I did was construct a spreadsheet with some facts we could all refer to. I think I helped, especially when we had some overlap of characters in each other’s books.

Q.   What fun/interesting research did you do for your book? 

A.    KYM: I based my Ty, on the strengths of the alphas I met while working a task force with the Secret Service.

MISTY: I enjoyed learning more about Tango dancing - I danced a little bit of it when I was a Zumba instructor. But most of what I used in the book came from watching a lot of YouTube videos on technique as well as the heart and soul of what Tango is.

BRYNLEY: Knox in Leather & Lace is an NFL player, so I to look at lots of hot football players in tight pants in the course of my football research...But I did it for my readers! I'm selfless like that.  I also had to make sure I deleted my search history, which included topics such as "how much is a sex tape worth" and "extortion 101."

TRACY: Because Grayson, the female protag in Blackmail & Lace, is on a mission to fulfill a deathbed promise and complete the bucket list she inherited from her dead sister, I had to tap into my adventurous side. Tomorrow is guaranteed to none. I had to think about some of the things I wanted to do/accomplish before I die. Researching the Inca Trail and diving the dangerous underwater caves of Jacob's Well were just a couple of the adventures I skimmed the surface of. It really made me wish this was a full length book, rather than novella!

MIA: For me, I’ve been to Colorado only once. I needed to brush up on the topography, climate, the university, all that. CSU fans will see truth in Beyond Lace. Also, I learned about rock-climbing as that is Blake’s favorite pastime (maybe second favorite).  

Q.   What was the biggest challenge in collaborating with 4 other authors?

A.    MISTY: Making sure the details of the house were consistent as well as the timing in the Christmas epilogue scene.

BRYNLEY: Trying to get everyone's approval and input on everything when we all had our own deadlines, schedules, life, etc. I'm pretty sure I was the slacker. I owe everyone drinks.

TRACY: Time! Everyone works at a different pace and I was always the one lagging behind. :-)

Q.   Do you see doing more series like this in the future? Why or why not? 

A.    MIA: Definitely. I love the collaboration and idea-sharing. Plus I think the readers will love to see the characters they “know” weave in and out of each other’s books.

KYM: That was our goal when we started last year. This is the second series by Chick Swagger. We hope to make it an annual event, and who knows we may expand our releases to coincide with different reader conferences throughout the country!

MISTY: Making a series collide with a reader event is a lot of fun and generates a lot of synergy at the event’s book signing. Would definitely do it again. 

TRACY: I would love to. Maybe next time we'll rent a cabin somewhere and meet for a week to knock out our first drafts. That would be so much fun!

***

 More about this series and the authors—Brynley Bush, Kym Roberts, Mia London, Misty Dietz, Tracy Ward—can be found on www.ChickSwagger.com.