Best Stairs Ever!

Best stairs ever!

No, I don’t mean the kind at the gym. You know, the stairs that you become oxygen deprived on while the woman next to you (younger, always younger) zooms up like she’s on an escalator?

I mean the kind of stairs that make you feel good about life…

Well, last weekend in Portland, I found these stairs at Powell’s Bookstore, and they made me really happy. Maybe it was finding them at such a great bookstore, healthy and thriving since 1971. Or maybe it was standing among all those print books and knowing that one way or another I can make that happen too.

Sure, I’m currently an e-book author, but sometimes all the categorizing that goes on… self-published/traditionally published; e-book/print book; small presses/large presses; commercial fiction/literary fiction;  well, it makes me tired.

I’m a writer because I write. I’m an author because you have been my reader. And that makes me happy too.

And while I find myself at the end of the best spring break ever with my family! (See photo below of my backyard  to see how OVER spring break is.)

I still feel a little spring in my heart. I wrote this morning (not a lot… we all have colds as a last souvenier of the trip) but enough to get me going again, to take me another rung up my own staircase.

I’m not sure what I’m doing right now, what’s ahead with novels, screenplays, e-books, print, but I do know whatever the next step, I’ll be in good company.

Happy Reading!

Kathy

A Bookstore the Size of a City Block!

It’s Spring break time at my house. And while I imagine this in my head…

I am marooned here for a quiet week of sun and reading (not necessarily in that order.)

In fact, my Spring Break starts with a…

 Luckily for me, the van is headed to Portland, home of Powell’s Bookstore! I may not have the tropical beach, but I will definitely have the books.

Now, it’s true I am an e-book author and love my Kindle a lot, but I also read old-school    I’ll post some trip pictures on Facebook so hop on over and  join the conversation! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathy-Dunnehoff/100342156725545?ref=hl

Meanwhile, Happy e-Reading & paperback reading too!

Middle of Winter Reading… (Or The Donner Party with a Book)

I’ll admit right up front that this is probably not the best day for me to do a blog post…

1. Daughter home with cold caused my writing time to be replaced with Hallmark movies with dialogue so bad we replaced some of it with our own commentary. (It doesn’t make it right, but it does entertain us.)

2. It’s the middle of WINTER!

3. I am still wearing fuzzy pyjama bottoms. It’s 4:40 p.m., people.

4. It’s the middle of WINTER! Did I mention it’s the middle of WINTER?

But, I am ever the optimist (except when I’m not and then my family just steers clear) and I’m going to say something good about the end of January even if January doesn’t deserve it…

It’s a great time to read…

1. I’ve personally downloaded at least a dozen FREE books over the last couple of weekends and bought half-a-dozen more, and some of them look especially good.

2. Since it’s dark a good deal of the time, it’s okay to curl up on the couch and read. It’s not like I could be out in the garden, right?

3. It’s very, very quiet. And although that’s not great for a person’s social life, it’s swell for uninterrupted reading time.

4. When the color outside my window is this…

 GREY!

I can travel the world (and worlds that don’t even exist) and feel the sun on my face and adventure in my heart.

On a cold end of January day like today, I feel, as I have since I was a little girl, that I can jump into a story and take a wonderful wordy vacation. And right now that’s the only good thing I’m going to say about January!

Happy e-Reading!

Kathy

Happy Holidays 2012!

Three FREE e-books for the Holidays! (And a Kindle giveaway on my birthday, January 1st) Forward this to your e-reading friends! To be eligible for the drawing fill in the box above & to the right “Subscribe to our mailing list”   Happy Holidays! It’s been a great year for e-reading… To celebrate, I’m offering 3 of my novels for FREE 12/25 & 12/26 And I’m giving away a Kindle on my birthday… January 1st (To sign up for the drawing, fill in the box at the top right…  “Subscribe to our mailing list”) A Contemporary Romantic Comedy It’s a logical plan to Professor Hattie McLean. Date 6 men in 6 months and one will be the clear choice to father her child. But biology involves the heart as well… even if she didn’t plan on it! Click here on Christmas Day to download for FREE on Amazon! A Hollywood Novella For Amy there was something suspicious about her mother’s decision to flee Hollywood for Minnesota and never look back. Now, forty years later, mother and daughter return to the City of Angels where surprise endings and happy beginnings are born. Click here on 12/25 & 12/26 to download for FREE on Amazon! A Romantic Comedy When Gwen hits the big 4-0, her husband leaves and her daughter takes off with a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band. Taking her daughter’s place at the university seems like a good idea until she runs into the reason she dropped out twenty years before… and he’s also found his way Back To U. Click here on 12/26 to dowload for FREE on Amazon!   Follow on Twitter | Friend on Facebook | Forward to Friend Copyright © 2012 Blue House Publishing, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2181 Kalispell, MT 59903 unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Hollywood Beginnings! (New & FREE until Midnight!)

In the time it takes to watch a Romantic Comedy… you can read Hollywood Beginnings!

That was my plan when I set out to write a novel for summer. I made it a Quick Read, so you could finish it on the beach (or during a couple of lunch hours or waiting in the van… yeah, I know how busy life gets!)

I’ve always loved the Frankie and Annette beach movies and came up with the premise…

“What if…” your mother had been an up and coming star but left Hollywood before you were born? What would have driven her from stardom, and how would you, as her daughter, feel about growing up in Minnesota?

My main character, Amy, feels a little robbed. And when mother and daughter return to the City of Angels for a funeral, an over-due L.A. adventure is exactly what Amy gets!

And you’ll get Hollywood Beginnings with all the laughter, romance, and real women’s aha moments I could pack in a Quick Read… For FREE until midnight tonight! Download it in seconds from Amazon by just clicking on the cover!

Happy e-Reading!

Kathy

Bubble bath ’cause you deserve it!

I

(Update on the first give-away… The lucky winner is Sammi P.!  Check in for another spring present!)

think it’s about time for a give-away, a little swag to say thanks!

Through writing, I’ve met amazing readers on Facebook and Twitter and Amazon and Goodreads… whew! did I leave anything out? Oh, yeah, and in person in my classes and workshops! And now, I’ve got the inspiration for The Do-Over… the bath products that started it all, LUSH.

So… Relax, take a bath! I’ll be drawing for the gift basket in just 5 days. To enter to win, just look to the top of this page on the right and pop your email in the box. I promise to only send the rare but entertaining announcements for FREE books, NEW books, or if GEORGE CLOONEY passes me a note in class.

Good luck, and while we’re all winners (especially GEORGE CLOONEY) one of you will get an email from me on Sunday April 15th!

10 Reasons Everybody Needs a Spring Break!

It’s 34 degrees here in Montana, and it’s Spring Break. Yep, the vacation that centers around warm weather and all things beachy has begun with SNOW. So, to celebrate, here are 10 reasons we all deserve a little warmth.

1.  It’s past the official first day of spring, so bring it!
2. My backyard looks like this…

       3. I like my backyard when it looks like this…

4. College students probably don’t need a week on a beach as much as the rest of us do.

5.  I’m pretty sure I heard Oprah say, “You get a vacation and you get a vacation and you get a vacation!”

6.  Frostbite doesn’t glow the same way a tan does.

7.  Even bears know it’s time to stop being cooped up in the den.

8.  Admit it, you’ve rented every movie in Redbox this winter and are starting to see even the bad ones twice.

9.   There are some really cute bathing suit cover-ups out there, so the only thing to fear is fear itself.

10.  You’ve been good all winter, and when Santa came by on a sleigh yesterday, he said you could take a week off!

Enjoy the spirit of Spring Break even if you have no sunshine or time off!

To celebrate… March 31st & April 1st, download for FREE the romantic comedy

Plan On It: 6 Men in 6 Months

You may not have a beach, but you can have a beach read!

P.S. If you’re not signed up for my email list (at the top right “Subscribe” box just pop in your email) you’ll want to be by March 29th… Someone will win a bubble bath gift basket just like the one that drove Mara to Canada in The Do-Over!

A Bestseller, A Freebie, & a Newbie!

So a funny thing happened to me in February…

Because of all your great support and encouragement, The Do-Over made its way up the Amazon Kindle Bestseller list!

The Amazon Top 100 seemed an impossible dream for an indie author like me, but we did it! Thank you especially to everyone who posted a review on my Amazon page or clicked on the thumbs up button to encourage other readers to find a Montana writer who’s done it all from her tiny home office.

I’m always looking for that sentence or two of support that leads new readers to give my books a try!

This Sunday to celebrate (and because it’s almost Valentine’s Day!) I’m giving away FREE downloads of Plan On It.

I gave away over 20,000 copies of The Do-Over, so don’t hesitate to pass this on to friends. The more the merrier! (Plus, it may count as a gift from you even if it’s a Freebie!)

And finally the Newbie which is also a Freebie…         If all the Amazon stars align, my newest novel, Back To U, will be available on Valentine’s Day and FREE!

As a writer and a teacher, I’ve had some really great years. But as an author, this is already the most amazing year ever, and it’s only February!

Thanks for coming along on the ride!

Kathy

Happy New Year & Thanks for the Best Birthday Ever!

1965 was a great year for buying a car… average cost? $2,650. Rent? How about $118. It was also the year the Sound of Music was released; Wham-O Super-balls were everywhere (and if you ever had one you know how ”everywhere” they could go); the Beatles sang “I Feel Fine”;

  TV added Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, and Green Acres to the evening line-up; the mini skirt appeared on the fashion scene; and I appeared in time to be the first girl born that year in the state of Montana.

Having a birthday on New Year’s Day has been a mixed blessing. There’s always a celebration the night before, for example. But on the actual day, it’s pretty hard to get anyone to rally for cake. My father’s birthday is Christmas Day and for 86 years he barely got a cake, so I try not to complain.

I’ve had a lot of great birthdays, ushering in the New Year, and feeling grateful for the one I’d had the privilege of living. This year is a distinct one for me, though. I started 2011 with one major life goal unreached. This is not to say that every single thing I ever put down on my January 1st list, I achieved. Some, over the years, I’ve had to let go.

 I am not going to be in an MTV video playing guitar next to the sisters of Heart. I can live with that.

Nor will I ever have a shot at Tom Selleck. Again, I let that one go by the late 80′s. And it’s not looking good for me to spend spring break partying in Florida when I need to put my energy into preventing my teenagers from EVER doing that.

But some dreams don’t die. Some dreams no matter how much you’d like them to leave you, just keep whispering from somewhere deep in your soul. Mine was to be an author. Not a writer, mind you. I was a writer and have been a writer since 3rd grade. A writer writes, and I can’t help myself. I’ve scrawled bits of stories on napkins and bank deposit slips. When it comes to being a writer, I could check “Yes.” What I didn’t have was the chance to have readers.

That’s not entirely true. I’d had chances, but they relied on things beyond my control, like agents and editors, and the economic state of the publishing industry as it was swallowed up by large corporations. And then… I had a real chance that was in my hands. I put out an e-book, a romantic comedy novel, The Do-Over, and over the course of the summer and fall, I found readers.

This Christmas when my second novel, Plan On It, came out, I gave away free downloads of both novels in the Amazon Kindle store and readers found me. Thousands of readers found me. Thousands of readers that sent The Do-Over into the top 5 for Romantic Comedies, and Plan On It in the top 20 Funny Romance in less than a week.

I’ll tell you, it’s been such a crazy great week for me, I’m tearing up right now, and it’s not just because I make Jambalaya for New Year’s Eve and the onions are very powerful! I have had, at last, the chance to share what I write, and that is the best birthday present I’ve ever received. Thank you.

Happy New Year ahead!

Happy Holidays!

As always it’s a crazy-busy time of year, but I’d like to share a pair of holiday inspired songs (only vaguely inappropriate) and offer you TWO PRESENTS! ( No, really, it’s okay if you didn’t get me anything)

The first song is for my writer friends out there… Sing to “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”

Write Christmas

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas,

the one I hope’s right down the road.

Where the scenes I hammer and readers clamor

to rush my Kindle book download.

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas

with every novel that I plot.

May the book be funny and hot,

and may all the comma errs be caught.

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas.

I’ve worked the keyboard all year round,

where my neck would seize up, my fingers freeze up,

my head would spin around and pound.

I’m dreaming of a write Christmas

I made my list in case he might…

May St. Nick bring a manuscript tonight,

’cause I’ve heard those elves can really write.

This next number (I’m sounding like a lounge singer now, aren’t I?) is one I wrote for my beloved Bookgroup: all women, all amazing, and all wondering if… Here Comes Menopause.

You can hear this song performed (not by me) in front of my very own Christmas tree. I love the little dog in the background (also not mine but I wish he were).The yellow title below links directly to Youtube where you’ll enjoy lyrics like… “She’s got a bag that’s filled with rage, but she loves you just the same!”

Here Comes Menopause

And didn’t I say something about a PRESENT… about TWO PRESENTS? Yes, I did. To thank everyone for being so wonderfully supportive and encouraging in my first year as a real live author, The Do-Over and my newest novel, Plan On It will be available for FREE downloads on December 26!

Thankyouthankyouthankyou and happy e-reading!