Happy New Year

Hello everyone.

I cannot believe that 2013 is almost over. It seems it flew by so fast and so much happened in my life that sometimes I can't reconcile everything. Life is definitely a rollercoaster and this year has been all over the place. It turned completely around for me and I'm so grateful.

I started this year with a move, a broken heart and going to physical therapy, not certain if I would be able to write again. At one point, I wasn't able to even read a romance novel -- and I'm a romance novel junkie, I have no problem admitting to it and don't really want help...thank you very much. But every book I read pissed me the hell off. I couldn't even think about writing, because my poor characters would have suffered greatly. I wanted to go sadistic on everyone of the male persuasion and since I write M/M romance stories, that is not very conducive to a good book. I had to take a big step back from it all. It didn't help that I had hurt my back and neck so badly that migraines and numb hands were the norm. I couldn't even hold a glass or silverware some days. It sucked, but slowly over this year I have healed. I am now reading and writing regularly again, and feel much more myself because of it. I don't feel whole without my books and my writing.

I was lucky enough to be able to go to two conferences this year, Authors After Dark and Gay Romance Lit. I can't really explain what it meant to me. I came home feeling fulfilled, happy, hopeful and blessed. I met some amazing people who I will never forget. Their smiles, kindnesses and friendship mean so much. Even the few authors and readers that I wasn't able to keep in touch with since, I remember everything and it makes me smile and keep striving. Never stopping.

Most importantly this year, I learned. About myself, about my craft, and about my hopes and dreams of the future. I learned I had skills that I didn't know were there, and weaknesses I need to watch out for. I am hopeful this new year. It's a great place to be.

I can't wait to see what 2014 will bring.

I want to say thank you. To my family who are always there for me and support me. To my friends new and old, who have lifted me up, and listened to me overanalyze things, given me advice, and were there for me. You guys mean so much to me and I would do anything for you. I'm so blessed and I know it.

Lastly, to my readers. I still have a hard time comprehending that anyone would want to read what I write and want more. It blows my mind!

Thank you so much, and I hope you all have a safe and fabulous New Years, and that 2014 brings all of your hopes and dreams into fruition as well.


Oh, I almost forgot. I have one last giveaway for New Years. A couple extra books and swag that I was lucky enough to get from the conferences I went to.

Comment below, and I will put your name into a drawing. Again, you have to be willing to email me your mailing address to win, because it will come in a box.

Happy New Year!


Hugs and spanks,

Taylor

Winner of My Christmas Giveaway.

Hi everyone,

I hope that you had a fantastic holiday filled with fun and laughter.

I'll get straight to the point of this post. The winner of the Christmas giveaway is.....drumroll......

Claudia!

Congratulations! I will be emailing you to get your information.

Thank you to those who entered. I will be having one more giveaway this Sunday, because I missed it the week I was sick. Stop by and enter. There is a great chance you will win, because I am still relatively unknown, I don't have much traffic yet.

I'm hoping that won't always be the case. So take advantage of it while you can. :D


Happy Friday!


Hugs and spanks,

Taylor

My Christmas giveaway.

Hello everyone.

Sorry I missed you last week, I was extremely sick.

No, not only in the head. I had the plague.

Really, it was just a sinus and upper respiratory infection, but it affected my eyes. Anything electronic gave me a headache and I wound up with a couple of migraines. Migraines are never fun, but migraines when you are coughing up a lung....HELL.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better. Lingering cough aside, I can see. Which makes me want to do a happy dance, let me tell you.

This past weekend, my family did our Christmas. I live about two hours away from them, and I work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas. A few others in my family have the same issue, so it was just easier to pic a different day and pretend.

It was a fantastic time!




My family is large, loud, obnoxious, loving, and hysterical. I always say it's like a mix between "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "The Godfather," and I'm not kidding.

I love watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." It makes me crack up every time, because I can point out family members as I'm watching. I grew up plucking my grandmother's and my mother's chin of stray hairs. Yeah, I know - great picture in your head now, right? Happy dreams!! Muahahaha!

Listening to the Italian version of Spanglish is standard operating procedure in our household. Also, everyone drifts back into a New York accent, even though we haven't lived there in decades. It really is very strange, now that I think of it.

I am actually one of the quietest people in my family, if you could imagine that. We all get loud and boisterous. It's learned at a very young age, or you will be forgotten and not get a word in edgewise. We also talk with our hands. That joke about tying an Italian's hands to make them shut up has some background in truth, although I'm not so sure it would work.

The Latin culture is so different from other cultures, even the American mix. I've been to enough households where everyone sat and stared at each other, and politely commented on the food, to know. It is extremely awkward for me, but I try. I'm generalizing of course. I'm sure there are other families out there that are like mine.

One of the differences that I noticed was we have "the more the merrier" mentality. We are always adopting people. If someone doesn't have family, they do now. Last minute person shows up, no worries. Our house has an open/revolving door policy. It's not like we won't have enough food (that thought is laughable), and we will pull out random dishes and drink out of wine glasses if we have to. We had my piano bench and several folding chairs pulled up to the table this past weekend. Everyone was squeezed in elbow to elbow, and had to be cautious not to poke someone's eye out when we started talking, hands flying.

We laughed a lot, argued some, got annoyed with each other a little, and shared a ton of love.

That is what Christmas is all about to me. Love!

I didn't get any presents this year. No one had the money to buy for everyone, so we just did gifts for the kids. But watching those children open their presents and squeal, that is my gift. Being able to be with my family, and watching my mother smile and get bossy, that is my present. She is not a healthy woman, and I don't know how many more years I will have her in my life. I want to take every moment I can get.

Our Christmas tradition revolves mostly around food. We all get together, whenever we can. Sometimes on Christmas Eve, sometimes Christmas Day, but just as often it is the weekend before or after. Everyone comes and we take a ton of pictures. Usually, I'm not in many because I have a tendency of being behind the camera, but this year a friend came and took family photos in the park on Sunday. They came out awesome! I will try to put some up on Facebook when I get them.

Every Christmas it is the same menu. It's the only time of year we eat this food and we wait all year for it.

We start with our version of appetizers. We have antipasto, which is lettuce, tomato, onion, genoa salami, provolone cheese, ham, sometimes pepperoni, and black olives. It's stacked on top of each other and we eat it with a homemade red wine vinaigrette, like a salad. We also have fresh mozzarella cheese, and tomato that is layered and drizzled with olive oil and fresh basil, and usually an olive salad and/or a red pepper and anchovy salad with bread. It taste better than it sounds, to me at least.

The main dish is manicotti. My parents make gravy, which is a homemade meat sauce. Sicilian meat sauce has nothing to do with ground chop meat. It's a red sauce that is cooked all day long, and it has meatballs, sausage, pork, beef, and hard boiled eggs in it. It simmers from morning until night. My dad makes several hundred manicotti from scratch - I mean he even makes the shells. We pull the meat out of the sauce and have it on the side. Hard boiled eggs are my favorite. It sounds really weird, but most people who try it really enjoy it.

Lastly, we have coffee and some kind of sweet treat. Pie, cookies, cake, pastries, nuts, fruits...etc.

We don't eat like this all of the time anymore, and actually three courses for an Italian dinner is nothing. I remember going to my grandparent's house and there would be six courses, and it would be an all day marathon eating session. I still don't know how they did that.

We had enough food left over, even with guests and unexpected visitors, to eat it for lunch again on Sunday and the guests all took some home, and my parents are probably going to eat it again at least one more night. We usually can feed an army with no worries.

It was delicious and satisfying in a way that really has nothing to do with food. It is our tradition, and we fulfilled it. I can't really explain that thought process properly, but I am sure that some of you will understand what I mean. Some people bake, others do crafts, some go specific places, and all of it is a tradition. If for some reason you are not able to do "Your thing" one year, for whatever reason, you feel like something is missing. The Holiday is just not really perfect, it's lacking.

My Christmas was not lacking in anything, and I came home feeling an abundance of love. I am very lucky and blessed, and I know it!

Again, this week I have an amazing giveaway. I was blessed to be able to attend two conferences this past year, and I was at the right place at the right time. I obtained some books and swag. I have five books, and a bag full of swag to giveaway this week. It is my Christmas present to you. All of the books are ones I have in my collection. Some I have read, some I intend to read when I get the chance. All of them are from authors I completely respect.

Comment here and tell me your plans for the holiday. What are your holiday traditions? It doesn't have to be Christmas. That is what I celebrate, but it could be Hanukkah, Kwanza, Diwali, whatever. Tell me what your plans are and if they are a tradition. I will be drawing a name from the comments on Friday night. You have to be willing to email me your address to win, because this is something I will be shipping out.

Whatever your plans, I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday filled will love and joy!

Hugs and spanks,

Taylor

Winner of the Gift Card Giveaway

First, I want to thank everyone who signed the petition and reposted the link. There were a ton of you, most of whom didn't comment here for whatever reason, and I am so appreciative of each and every one of you! I just hope that we can get enough names to do some good. The problem hasn't affected me personally....yet, but numerous friends have been harassed. I don't like bullies in any form and that's why I created the petition. Not for any kind of gain, just to make some kind of change, a difference. Hopefully.

As for the winner, I put the names into this random name picker and the winner of the Amazon gift card is....drumroll please....Michele Jarrach!

Congratulations sweets! You can order yourself something nice for Christmas. :D Either email me or PM me on Facebook, so I can get your prize to you.


Everyone, make sure to come back Sunday for another giveaway. I still have two more weeks left and some great prizes to give out.

Until next time.


Hugs and spanks,

Taylor


Because I wish I could give everyone a prize, here is a pretty man to make you smile.

Week Two of the December Giveaway

Hello all of you lovely people out there. I'm back again for the Sunday Fun-Day post and I'm going to be giving away an Amazon gift card. Read to the end for instructions to win. I know...I'm a brat.

If you haven't seen it yet, I started a petition on Change.org. The petition is to Facebook, asking for them to change their reporting policy. The reason I did this is twofold. Several of my friends, or their friends, or people I've seen have been bullied, attacked and harassed by random people. We've been talking about it on Facebook for months. It hasn't affected me yet. I say yet, because this type of thing is a slippery slope.

What that means is: if we let it happen, things will snowball and before you know it, you too are being attacked. You could have anyone report you, for anything at all, and there is absolutely nothing for you to do about it. That is not right!

This is not just happening to people who post provocative pictures. Did you know satirical cartoonist, clothing designers, photographers, body painting artists, and even photos of well-known artwork, that is hung in museums all over the world, are being banned, simply because someone was offended by it in one way or another?

In my mind, this is wrong, it is regression on all of the work people have done to have the right to freedom of expression. I've always marched to the beat of my own drummer, and I try to stand up for what I feel is right. I'm not one for talk with no action.

Below is the link to the petition, just below the picture. Yes, I'm going to bribe you. No, I'm not above it. Please go to the link and sign the petition, and then share it. After you've done that, please let me know in the comments. Everyone who comments will be entered into the drawing to win a $25.00 Amazon gift card. I will do the drawing Friday night.

Change.org Petition

If we stand up together, we can make a difference. We've shown that countless times in the history of mankind. One voice turns into thousands, and changes are made. This might not be as important in the scheme of things as world hunger, and peace, but to a large number of the victims, this is taking away their means of advertising, and as such, taking away their bread and butter.

I appreciate all of you!

Hugs and spanks,

Taylor

And the winner is......

I put the names into a random name picker online and the winner for the K-lee Klein giveaway is Jessica Lingo. She Facebooked me her response, because for some reason Blogger kept eating her comment. It must have been very hungry that day. :D

Our conversation:

"Jessica Lingo: It kept eating my comments, but I'm really glad your doing this. I don't always see when new books come out or old goodies that I might not have found yet.
December 2 at 2:00pm via mobile · Unlike · 1

Taylor Law: I know, me too. I find most of my reads by recommendations. I'll make sure you are on the list Jessica
December 2 at 2:38pm · Like · 1"

Jessica, I hope you like Unbreak My Heart as much as I did!

Thank you to everyone who participated. I hope you all enjoyed the interview with K-lee. She is awesome, so be sure to check her out.

As a reminder, you can get Unbreak My Heart at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Amber Allure and All Romance.

Visit K-lee's website for more info. If you read it and love it, please be sure to let me know.

Don't forget to come back Sunday for another giveaway!

A present for you before I go! Happy Thursday.

Hugs and spanks,

Taylor

Sunday Fun-day with K-lee Klein and a giveaway

So, I was told by a very dear friend of mine that I needed to start blogging regularly. As you can tell, if you look at the history of this blog, I have been a very bad girl when it comes to posting. It has been random at best. The very, very best, if you look at it sideways and squint a little. Well, no more. From now on every Sunday will be labeled Sunday Fun-day by me, and you will get a post. It may just be a load of rambling, but it will be there and I will try my best to make it fun, entertaining and /or interesting. I can't promise all three, I'm just not that talented.

Also, I'm regularly asked by readers for book recommendations. So, I'm going to start incorporating that into this blog as well. I am not going to rate, review, or rank books. I just don't have the time or inclination to do so. But when I read a book I really enjoy, I will mention it or feature it on the blog, so that others may enjoy them as well. You can be sure that there will be no snarky comments about the books I feature. I will be honest, but I simply will not put a book on here that I do not like.

I'm turning over this new leaf at the perfect time. It's December 1st today...woot! No, no, no groaning! To get us all into the holiday spirit, I will be doing a giveaway every week this month. That's right, you have the chance to win something free each Sunday. Feel better?

To start us off, I'm going to incorporate two of the things I just mentioned. The lovely and talented K-lee Klein is here with me this week. She has a reasonably new book out, published this past August, called Unbreak My Heart.

I bought the book on the recommendation of another author and read it this past week. I read during my two 5 minute breaks and lunch at my Evil Day Job, and I had to literally pull myself away from the book when I got home, so I could write.

It was fabulously angsty, with so much feeling I was pulled into the story, like I was living it instead of reading about it. The start was a little bit slow, but that may have been because I had so much on my mind and couldn't give the book the attention it deserved. That didn't last for long though. It's got cowboys, which I have a tendency to avoid because I've lived in 'bless your heart' Florida for most of my life. I'm so glad I didn't know about that before I picked up this book. I would have missed out. The two characters are beautifully flawed, with layers to their personalities. They go through some rocky roads throughout the book. There was sexual tension that had me gritting my teeth. Brett nearly broke my heart but the ending made me smile. Nothing is better than that for a bookworm like me. I didn't cry, but it was close a few times.

After I finished, I hit up K-lee on Facebook to tell her how much I enjoyed it. I think, in this grumpy and gruff world, a little kindness and complement to someone who deserves it is important. We don't know each other, except for online, but she was extremely nice. We had a great conversation in which I informed her I was going to do this, and she offered to answer a few of my questions about the book and give away a free copy to one lucky reader.

So now that I have blabbed away, here is K-lee.

So K-lee, without giving away too many spoilers, what was your favorite part of Unbreak My Heart to write?

First of all, thank you for having me and for reading Unbreak My Heart. Usually the hardest question is saved for last but this one...it's a toughie. I think I'd have to say the first forms of personal contact between Brett and JT - first kiss, first hug, first more than a hug and kiss. And contrary to what you might think, the emotional upheaval Brett went through during the whole story.

What was the hardest part for you to write?

The hardest parts in general were Brett's confused, painful emotions and memories because he really destroyed me as I wrote him, sometimes in a good way but generally in a very tearful way for me. This of course contradicts what I just said about fave parts, but it's true because Brett's heart needed to run the gamut from depression to hope and back again. The singular hardest part to write was something Brett did purely out of emotion and in-the-moment pain, something neither one of us is proud of him doing.

Did you base the characters off anyone or did they just come to you?

The story itself was originally for a very specific submission call but it didn't turn out the way it needed to be, plus it was 65,000 words too long. LOL. Other than that it just sort of grew. But I can say that I had huge physical inspiration for Brett - his looks, accent, even some of his mannerisms came from the only country singer I like (love), Christian Kane. (see below- yummy!)

Are you a pantser or a plotter?

I am definitely a pantser. The only things I have before I start a story are my main characters' bios. They're always the first part that appears in my mind anyhow since my stories are built around them and I love getting inside their heads. I usually know my beginning and my ending, but nothing in between except maybe a scene or two.

Do you think we might see Brett and JT again?

I would love to write more about Brett and JT. I always have a hard time letting go of my characters and Brett, in particular, is still living inside my head and my heart more than any other character I've written. Maybe I should have JT's background come out of the woodwork a little more since Brett's is pretty well revealed now, and I do admit that I love writing established couples, especially newly established ones who still have so much to learn about each other.

Thank you so much for joining me today, K-lee, and for the giveaway. It was very sweet of you! You can find Unbreak My Heart at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance and Amber Allure. Check out K-lee's website for more info.


If any of you get online, you should definitely follow K-lee on Facebook and chat with her. She's awesome!

If you have stuck around this long, I thank you for your patience and perseverance. Leave a comment and I will randomly draw a winner for the book. You have until Thursday, 5:30 p.m. EST.

Also, I wanted you to know that My Lord's Judgment is now available at Amazon, All Romance and Smashwords, as well as in PDF form in the member's area of my website. I also updated the member's area with a few little extras while I was at it. I hope you enjoy!

Until next time. Hugs and spanks,


Taylor