Thanks for dropping by to chat, everyone. The winners for my giveaway this month are:
Summer
Laney4
Nicole S
If you could all drop me a line via the contact page on my website – www.sarahmayberry.com – I will get your books to you ASAP.
Until next month, everybody, happy reading!
First, allow me to get the obligatory self-promotion out of the way:
I have a book out this month! Yay! Her Secret Fling is the story of Poppy and Jake and how their bad first meeting turns into a fling and then into a relationship. It’s got a couple of sad bits, lots of steamy bits and hopefully some funny bits – I’ll leave it up to readers to be the judge on that one!
This is one of those stories that I really enjoyed writing. Not that I don’t enjoy all my books, but some put me through the wringer more than others when I get to certain points that I was sure I had mapped out and suddenly realise that there is no way that what I plotted will fly and have to think my way around problems. That was not the case with Fling. I had a really solid idea of who Poppy and Jake were when I started writing and the story and words just kind of fell out of my fingertips and into my laptop. Bliss!
Okay. Plug over. Phew! Now, onto other matters. I know a few of my fellow Blaze writers have touched on New Years resolutions. Hard not to at this time of year, right? I’m not going to hammer the topic, but I do want to share my latest purchase with you. For a long time I have been complaining about my stiff joints and back – the downside of writing for a living – and this year I am going to do something about it. I have always loved Pilates, and the Pilates reformer exercises are my absolute favorite. So, yesterday I found a second hand reformer on line and I bought it. It will be delivered next Monday and then I will start rebuilding the strength in my core abdominal muscles. It’s been nearly 2 years since I had a pilates class, but I am hoping it will all come back to me, like riding a bike. If not, I have DVDs and books I can borrow or buy that will set me on the right track.
I’m including a picture of a reformer here for those of you who don’t know what one looks like. Basically, it’s a big wooden machine that helps you do a bunch of exercises. The resistance is provided by a series of springs that you can hook on or disengage depending on what part of your body you’re working on. You can work all parts of your body, and there’s lots of stuff to think about while you’re exercising – your breathing and your tummy muscles and your back. A great way to get in touch with your body and perfect for someone like me who spends waaay too much time lost in my own head space. I don’t know why I enjoy pilates so much. Maybe because it’s a bit like playing on the monkey bars at school and not like exercise at all? I’m not sure, but whatever the reason, I can’t wait to get moving and get strong again. And the best thing is that I don’t have to make appointments or fit in with my trainer’s schedule, I can just walk out to the garage and start working out!
Can you tell I’m excited about this? I could use a few more exclamation marks if necessary!!!! I’d love to hear what you’re excited about in the year ahead. Have you got plans to write your own book? Plans to read a targeted amount of books? Career goals? Personal or family goals? I’ll be giving away three (3!) copies of Her Secret Fling to posters, so hop in and share and let’s inspire each other!
Entries (RSS)
Good Morning Sarah! Well I already told you that I love Her Secret Fling, but I just had to say it again, I loved it!!!
As for things Im excited about, I am excited about trying to get my book published and getting to work on the second one I just started. Woke up the other morning with an idea in my head and I am totally excited to get it down. Also my husband will be finishing with his degree and will be starting law school in the next two years, so thats exciting. And next fall my daughter otherwise known as TROUBLE, lol, starts school. Aside from that we have a family vacation to Californina planned for this summer which will be fun because I get to see all my family out there.
Have a great day!!
Hey Alina. Long time no speak! Your year ahead sounds great – a good mix of challenge and reward, me thinks. Congrats to your hubby on finishing his degree! And so glad you enjoyed Her Secret Fling.
Hey Sarah! So THAT’S what a reformer is, LOL — I wondered in our email.
I have an exercise gym in my yard right now, too — over 30 inches of snow — full body workout moving it all since our snowblower isn’t working, LOL. I am feeling the ache today, but it’s a good kind of pain, I suppose.
I LOVE your cover. . .those two look like they’ve been working out.
Sam
You see, you actually inspired my post – I figured I could explain a reformer to you and come up with something to talk about at the same time! Plus brag, of course – I have been wanting to own one of these for a looooong time. As for the cover, I don’t know what you mean. She’s got something in her eye, hasn’t she? And he’s helping her get it out…? Right?
Snowblower? What is this thing you call snowblower?
Reformer? I thought that was what many heroes of books were, LOL!!!
I am pumped about 2010. It’s got to be better than 2009 (and already is). Had lots of health ailments last year and am glad to be rid of them. Have lost 24 pounds since Aug 15/09 and am excited to know I WILL be losing even more. I can do this. It’s amazing when you have the right motivation (longevity)!!!
No, I don’t write books, per se, although my friends/relatives have said that I write novels when it comes to emails, Christmas notes, etc., LOL!!!
I don’t plan on reading a targeted amount of books. ANY amount of books is just fine with me!!! (Kind of like the weight loss: ANY weight loss is better than weight gain.)
Family/personal goals? Nah. More of the same: lots of friends/family over for supper and cards, etc. … trying more foods … and hopefully will continue having an increase in self-employment earnings, despite “the economy”….
Oh dear. Couldn’t fit in those exclamation marks in the last paragraph. So sorry, LOL!!!
Congrats on the health gains, Laney. Fantastic effort, and yes, being highly motivated makes a big difference, doesn’t it? I want to be strong and healthy as I move into a whole new decade (yes, THAT birthday is coming up this year) and that means more moving and less eating for me, too. And you did a great job with the exclamation marks (!!!!)
I plan to read as many books as I can, but also focus on dropping some pounds… do a bit of this and that and we will see if a better me shows up… (*)
Go for it, Colleen. I read somewhere that we can actually eat up to 20% less than we normally do and our brains don’t actually realise it – so that’s a nice way to sneak less food under the radar, I think. I figure if I can reduce my food intake a little and move more it will come off, slowly but surely. And now I have my reformer to play around on, so hopefully the moving bit will be a lot more fun than usual. Although I must say I do enjoy a good walk, no matter where I am. And it’s free!
Oh yeah I love Pilates too! I like it a lot better than yoga. Another exercise I like is Zumba. It is a mixture of a lot of different exercise forms, dance, aerobic, stretching, etc. I love to exercise and really need to do more this year. Last year I was so busy taking care of my elderly mother that I really let myself go. I vow to get to the gym or even at home and exercise.
One of my goals for the new year is to keep a book journal of all the books I read this year. I have never done that and would love to find out how many I read in a year.
Happy New Year Sarah!
Hi Michele. Isn’t Pilates awesome fun? Sometimes it’s incredibly painful, mind – I don’t know if you’ve ever tried the Wonderchair, but that little beast of a machine is a killer on the thighs! But fortunately I love most of the excercises you can do on the reformer, although I suspect there are heaps that I don’t even know about yet. And they have just started advertising Zumba over here in Australia. It looks pretty funny on the ads – not helped by the very cheesy voiceover, I might add – but it sounds as though it might actually be pretty good. Do you go somewhere for classes or do it at home? They’re selling a bunch of DVDs over here for some ridiculous price. As for the book journal, that’s a great idea. There are a lot of readers who do theirs on line – through livejournal or blogger or whatever – and keep a track of things that way. Or Goodreads is also great for that, too, I think, and Shelfari… Happy reading!
I go to the YMCA only 10 minutes away. It is so much fun and really gets your energy levels up. Also, it is a tremendous workout! The first 3 or 4 times I only made it half way through the one hour class. But with the high energy music, fun dance steps, everyone trying to keep up with the instructor, it is a blast! Also, there is a mirror that we all face so to look at everyone in the mirror as we all do it together is so funny! It is rather addictive once you try it and see for yourself.
Oh wow thanks for the online journals! I haven’t heard about them. I was just going to write them down in a journal that I have here. Believe me, I have lot’s of journals just waiting to be used!
Michele, I love the idea of journals – I always wind up browsing them when I’m in book and gift shops. But I have never written in a journal in my life so they wind up collecting dust. Maybe I should just call them notepads and use them for writing down ideas. That would be a good justification for buying them, right? The last time I went to an exercise class I had to take time out to avoid passing out. Not pretty. Something I’d really like to try this year – and I’ve said this for a few years, so I really need to pull finger and do something about it – is take some salsa or latin or whatever dance classes. Dancing for fun and exercise sounds like a good way to go. But I guess that’s a bit what Zumba is, yeah?
You go girl! I am behind you all the way! Hey, don’t feel bad. When I first started going to exercise class, I was not very coordinated. Tripping, slipping, fell a couple times, and basically pooped out before it was even over with. You have to start somewhere. Just remember the people there all started out just like you. After a few classes it gets so much easier and eventually you can make it through the whole class. I was so excited the first time I made it all the way through! I still was huffing and puffing but hey, it sure was fun!
For fun, one time I did a calisthenics class for a couple of weeks. Oh my gosh, that was a real workout! Running, jumping, squats, etc. for a whole hour! I lost a lot of weight but my knees were so sore! I had to eventually quit. Oh, after I quit that they had a new teacher start up belly dancing classes. I quickly signed up! No more sore knees and a flatter belly! Ha,ha!
Plans for the New Year. Well I’ll be welcoming a new grandbaby in June. My plans are to help out my daughters as much as possible by helping with my grandbabies. This will be my youngest daughters third child and as her others are 6 and 4 she will have her hands full. My oldest has a 14 and 13 year old stepdaughters and our little preemie girl who is almost 10 months old now and weighs over 9 pounds. She is growing right along. They say by the time she is two she should be caught up. Not bad considering her very early arrival. Other than that, I’m going to try and eat healthier this year. Not as much junk food. I’m going to try anyway.
What a lovely year you have to look forward to, Linda. My mum loves being grandmother to my sister’s children – she says it’s all the fun without the responsibility! I must say, as an aunt I can only agree. So glad that your preemie girl is doing so great. It’s scary when they’re so young and so small, but doctors can do amazing stuff now. I did a tour of the maternity ward when my sister was pregnant with her first and the preemie nursery was a a miraculous eye opener, those babes were so small. It’s fantastic that she’s on the track to catching up by two years.
My plans for the New Year are to improve my writing and submit something that gets half way decent feedback rather than a form rejection. And, the more books I read of just about any genre, the happier I’ll be.
Yay, Summer. If it helps any, I got form rejections for many years before I got something more personal, and then finally that blessed “yes”. The important bit is to keep writing – in the doing, we all learn, and then we take those lessons and apply them to the next effort. Have you joined your local RWA? They offer great support and critique groups and writing competitions where you can get lots of feedback.
Hi Sarah!
My plans for the New Year include just getting stuff done. (Some would call it the ‘do it now’ principle!) Anything from just vacuuming to picking up the phone to call a friend. I’m going to stop thinking about it and actually do it!
I’ve never heard of a pilates reformer. Huh…if I had room, that looks interesting. I’d love to start doing yoga again. I don’t do as well doing it on my own, but with a good instructor/class, it does wonders for me. Maybe I can find a way to increase our income and then I can afford classes again. There is a studio about a block away. Hhmm….time to get the ol’ thinking cap on.
Looking forward to reading about this secret fling.
I love yoga, too, but like you I need a class to keep me motivated. We had a great yoga teacher here in Melbourne before we left to live in New Zealand for two years, and now that we are home again I should look her up and see if she is still teaching. And I love your “do it now” principal. It works for some many things, doesn’t it? Maybe I should write it in big letters and stick it in front of my desk…
Living alone like I do in a three bedroom house I have gotten in a bad habit of stacking stuff instead of organizing it and I really need to get to organizing several year’s worth of stuff and that includes donating some of it to someplace like Goodwill. So even though I’m NOT making it a New Years Resolution I am going to do what needs to be done to “clean house”.
Ellen, don’t give yourself too hard a time on the organising front – I think most of us let stuff like that get on top of us at times. I’m house-sitting for my stepbrother at the moment and his wife is the neatest, most organised person I have ever met in my life. Her cupboards would thrill an army man – precise, pristine, organised within an inch of their lives. Even her forks and spoons are stacked on top of each other in the drawer! I must admit to being more than a little intimidated and I am hoping like crazy that my man isn’t looking at all this tidiness and comparing it to the organised chaos we normally live in and thinking “hmmm…how do I get me one of these NEAT ladies?” Good luck with your plans!
Congrats on the new release, Sarah. I’m definitely looking forward to new books from my favorite authors like Lisa Kleypas and Allison Brennan and hopefully eating right can lead to my losing a few pounds.
I’ve got my eye out for a few new books from my favorites, too – Lisa Kleypas being one of them, and Laura Kinsale being another. And also Kristin Higgins, who I adore. Now, if only Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Rachel Gibson would both offer up a book each, that would be January taken care of!!! If only I didn’t read so fast… And I hear you on the food thing….Oh boy do I hear you!
Hi Sarah0
I picked up a copy of Secret Fling yesterday and can’t wait to read it. I plan to finish my WIP then start another. Continue to do Zumba 2x a week and go to the gym – maybe cut down eating (as I stuff a cookie into my mouth). I’ll be married 25 years in June so planning a big cruise – need passport first.
Liz, you put me to shame. Good on you with the Zumba and the commitment to your writing. It’s gonna happen, believe me! And yay on the cruise – any particular destination in mind? My dad did a canal cruise through Europe a few years ago, then a train/cruise thing up through Alaska/Canada which he loved. He thinks cruising is the most civilised of all travel methods!
anywhere warm and we’ll be crusing out of NY or NJ so we don’t have to fly
cruising is the best
Good luck with your new machine. It looks like a great idea. This year I want to add more exercise to my day although I already use our elliptical for 30 minutes and it is always so hard to find more time to exercise when there are a million other things I’d rather be doing like reading a good book.
Your 30 minutes a day sounds like a miracle to me. A few blogs ago someone suggested doing exercise first thing in the morning, making it a part of the morning routine and getting it out of the way before the day gets out of your control – I thought this was great advice. If you can make it a habit, like brushing your teeth and having breakfast, then hopefully it just becomes an expected part of life. We shall see how I go with this technique this year!
This is the worlds lamest goal, but as of this minute I just want this horrid winter to end. Our state is the snowiest and coldest it’s been in–no kidding–a hundred years according to the forecasters. So my goal is to become Mother Nature and make that happen.;-)
Good luck with that one, Jody! IAs an Aussie, it’s so bizarre for me to hear about people shoveling snow and being snowed in etc, etc. It never snows in Melbourne, and, of course, it’s summer here so we’re experiencing the absolute opposite in terms of weather. I believe we have a forty degree plus stinker coming our way some time this week. Thank God for air conditioning! Which, I’m sure, you probably find just as weird as I find the snow! But here’s hoping you have a nearly thaw and that spring is heading your way as we speak.
Wow, good for you, Sarah! I’ve heard about Pilates and the reformer, but have only tried some of the most basic exercises (not requiring equipment!) It’ll be awesome to learn to use it and to know you’re getting stronger!
As for what I’m excited about? Well, reading a lot of books on that TBR, of course! And what I’m aiming for (though this is not so much something I’m thrilled to be doing) is to work on decluttering the house. It’s taken a long time to get to this point, so I know it’ll take some doing to undo it. And I’m also thinking of dipping my toe back into the work-for-pay pool, so we’ll see how that goes
Just celebrated a birthday and got a major haircut, so hey, new year, new me, right? 
Hi Fedora. I love getting a new haircut. How exciting! It’s like having your own mini-make-over, isn’t it? Unfortunately, my hair is pretty short so there aren’t many options for me in terms of new haircuts. Maybe I should grow it a little so I can indulge my make-over fantasy…? As for decluttering….blurg! Not much fun, for sure. My best tip – and only tip, by the way, since I am the world’s most disorganised person – is to create a ring binder for each year and file all your yearly bills and other paperwork inside it. That way when you need to grab the financials for each year, you have them all together and at hand. I read this in one of my mother’s magazines and it has revolutionised my office. Yes, it’s still messy, but now I hole punch and file everything I get under tabs for utilities, internet, insurance, banking, etc, and I never lose anything. Before I used to create folders for things and forget what I’d called them or where I’d put them or keep adding stuff till they bulged and the folder broke… You get the drift. Now I feel like a veritable neat freak with my annual folders. Good luck with your plans and enjoy that new hair cut!
I’d never heard of a reformer. I’m impressed! Also impressed that you have room for it, LOL!
Hi Heather. I don’t know that I do have room, to be honest – it’s going in my mum’s garage in the short term, and we are yet to buy a house so this is going to be one of the deciding factors on whether we fit into the house or not! That, plus my ridiculously long Chinoise daybed (four metres! What was a I thinking!) and our almost-as-ridiculously-long dining table (2.5 metres. Dinner for 12, anyone?) We obviously have a thing for big furniture. Hmmm…. But if you’re ever looking for a new form of exercise to mix things up a bit, Pilates is great fun. Especially on the machines – there’s the reformer, and there’s also another big piece called a trapeze, and a Wonderchair, and a half barrel. All of which do their bit to make you strong and build long, lean muscles. It’s a bit like yoga, and a bit like gym work, but more fun than both, in my opinion.
My goal book wise is to cut my TBR pile down, it’s getting too big.
A personal goal I have is to get myself exercising, I keep putting it off and I’ve got to get myself motivated to do it.
The exercise thing seems to be a recurring theme here today. Maybe we should start a virtual Blaze walking club….? Nicole, I love having a healthy TBR pile – it’s when the pickings get slim that I get twitchy… At the moment I have a few good books lined up, and then I’m lost in the dessert with not a read in sight again.
You are right, when the TBR pile is big there are all sorts of reading possibilities.
Thanks for picking me! Congrats to Laney and Summer!!
Congrats Laney and Summer and Nicole! Such good reading headed your way! Thanks again for hanging out, Sarah!
Congrats to Summer and Nicole! We are soooooo lucky!
Thanks, big time, to Sarah. I just sent you my email with details.
Have a great day/night everyone!
Congrats ladies on your wins! (*)