How was your summer?

It's been a while since my last post and I apologize for being away. This has been a crazy summer!

Here are the things that's happened to me this summer:

1. My mother sold her house and is building a new home. Because the new one wasn't completed when she finalized the sale, she is now living with my sister, brother-in-law and niece. I admit it was weird seeing her move from her old house. We made many good memories there, so it was definitely a melancholy feeling when I walked out of the door for the last time. I'm looking forward to seeing her in her new home. (should be in about 3 weeks) and ready to make some new, happy memories there. I've always heard that home is where the heart is, and I believe that. Wherever she lives, it will be always be home to our family.

2. My grandmother has had some health issues this summer. She's felt pretty poorly this season, but is determined to get back on her feet. She's lost almost all of her eyesight and it's been an adjustment for her and for us, but she's a fighter and I know that she'll get through this one too.

3. We kept my niece twice this season! We had a blast with her. We went fishing, polished nails, colored many masterpieces, played 'trouble' until I couldn't play it anymore and just enjoyed being with each other. My husband and I learned real quick that sleeping with a 6 year old isn't all it's cracked up to be. (I don't know how mothers do it) But we had a great time and we're looking forward to her spending more time with us soon.

4. My niece turned SIX a couple of months ago. She has literally changed from a little girl to a girl right in front of our eyes. I have mixed emotions about this. I want her to stay young, but on the other hand I can't wait to see the woman she grows up to be.  As of right now, she wants to be a gymnast, a veterinarian and an artist when she grows up. As smart and as talented as she is...I think she can do anything she sets her mind too.

5. We have a new addition to the family. Last week we had a stray *young* cat appear in our yard. We literally live down far on a gravel road, so it was obvious it was dumped. Once I saw it, I immediately fell in love with it. Our dogs love it and my husband is quite fond of it too. This is a new experience for me because I've never had a cat before. He's a sweet thing and he's already part of our family.

6. I've done a fair amount of writing too. I should be submitting some finished manuscripts to several publishers soon. I'm really looking forward to it too.

7. My cabin mates from the retreat last year and I have teamed up for something special. The Mischief Corner will be announcing some very exciting news VERY soon!

I hope everyone has had a great summer! I promise to be more proactive when it comes to keeping y'all informed of what's going on with me. I don't know about y'all, but I'm ready for the heat to go away! I'm very happy fall will be here soon.

How was your summer?

My niece's dance recital and my new release is still at a discounted price!

Hello Friends!

I've just got home from spending several days with my family in Little Rock. My niece, Snow White, had a dance recital and it was a lot of fun watching her prance around in her tutu! She also just graduated from Kindergarten! Can you believe she's going to be in first grade next school year? Wow! Where has the time gone!

I also want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of me and of my newest release, By The Light of the Silvery Moon.  I've had some really great feedback about it and I'm thrilled that readers are enjoying the series so far. If you haven't checked it out, it's still on sale at Siren Bookstrand until tomorrow. You can check it out here.

I'm also extremely flattered that it's reached the top 10 on their bestseller list! I have a huge Thank You for everyone who has bought it and given me feedback on what you've thought of it.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead! Here is a picture of Snow White in her ballet costume!

And the Winners are...

The winners for the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia contest are:

Urb and Karl.

Please email me at andianderson@live.com with the words Blog Hop Winner on the subject line and I'll send you your prize!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and shared your amazing stories with me!

*HUGS*

YAY!! I Have a New Release!!

Hi Friends!

The time has finally come! My book, By The Light of the Silvery Moon is now available through Siren Bookstrand! I'm very excited about it and hope all of you will enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Thanks so much for checking it out:)

Andi

Blurb:

Charlie Amos always wanted a werewolf for a mate. At thirteen, he convinced his two best friends and his little brother to participate in a "love spell" ceremony on New Year’s Eve. Each boy picked their own paranormal being that each of them wanted to be mated with forever. Even though Charlie and his friends knew the ceremony was probably just wishful thinking, it was never forgotten.
Years later, when Charlie meets James Williams, a spark of attraction soon turns into a heated courtship. But James has a secret. He’s a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old werewolf, who instinctively knows Charlie is his mate. Not one to keep a secret from the man he loves, James is determined to tell Charlie his secret as soon as the time is right. But when he finds out about the love spell from another paranormal friend, both men wonder if the feelings they have for one another are nothing but magic, or is it true love?

A Siren Erotic Romance

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Today is the international day against Homophobia and Transphobia. For weeks, I've been thinking about what I was going to post on this day of education, tolerance and change. I participated with this blog hop last year, and I really enjoyed the feedback and the amazing stories many people shared with me. It gave me hope that things are really starting to change for the better and in all honesty, I'm very honored and pleased to be a small part of it.

It amazes me that we still live in a time where people are not accepted and often frowned upon because of who they are attracted and fall in love with. I've always believed that love and sexuality is one of the greatest gifts given to us, and to see that some people are ostracized and bullied because of their homosexuality or their sexual identity is beyond my comprehension. How can anyone look at two people who are in love and whether it's heterosexual or homosexual love, think that it's not a precious and beautiful thing?

It's because of these beliefs that I started reading homoerotic romances. I admit, I was bored with heterosexual romances, and once I discovered the M/M genre, I was immediately hooked! Soon, my love of homosexual romances took a life on its own. Before I knew it, I wrote my first M/M romance, Got Mistletoe?, and I've never looked back since.

When I first started writing my first book, I admit I was pretty nervous about talking about it with my husband. Now, don't get me wrong...my husband is a very open minded man, but I still was unsure of what his thoughts would be about me writing romances about gay love. To my elated happiness, he was and still is extremely supportive of my writing and what I write about. He doesn't hesitate about talking to others about my books and not once has always shown his support and pride in what I write.

I'm not one to hide anything so I soon also discussed it with my mother, sister and stepfather. I had a feeling they too, would be supportive and I was right. I knew there were some of my fellow authors that didn't have the same support system that I had, and I was extremely grateful for my immediate family.

Of course, I also knew that there were other relatives that wouldn't feel the same way. I have an extended family that I wasn't sure of what they'd think of what I write when they found out.

I found out a couple of years ago.

As I mentioned earlier, my mother is very proud of me and one of my biggest fans. I had my first paperback book published and she was one of the first people to order it. It was a holiday, and we had just finished eating our Thanksgiving dinner. We, as an extended family, were sitting around the table talking about our lives and so on. Now, some of these members knew I wrote romances, but they weren't aware of what kind of romances I wrote. One of my family members started questioning me about it and before I could say anything, my mother jumped up and grabbed her copy of my book. On the cover are two men in a loving embrace, so there is no mistaking what I write about.

Well, I'm sorry to say that after one of my extended family members looked at it, he got all flustered and angry. He questioned what it was. I told him. He walked out of the room and then after a few moments came back in and proceeded to tell me how I was going against the laws of nature and of course, God, for writing such trash. Although I was furious with him, I somehow managed to keep my cool. I told him that I believe that love is love and that although I respected his opinion, what mattered was how I felt about it.

Not once did he listen to what I had to say. He then began to rant about how the money I made off of the books were sinful and dirty. "I'd rather live in a tent instead of living off of the money you make for writing such pornographic trash," he said.

Now...please don't get me wrong. I WANTED to stand up and pop him in the mouth because of the vicious things he said about homosexuals, my writing and apparently my greed for writing the love stories that I do.  But even though I wanted to rant and rave back at him, I kept my cool and just told him I didn't believe, nor would I believe like he does. No matter what I said, he didn't listen. I look back on it and realize he DIDN'T want to hear what I had to say. He was so wrapped up in his own prejudices and beliefs, he didn't care about really having a rational discussion about it. Soon, my mother, husband and sister even began to try and reason with him. In the end, he never listened. Instead, he shook his head and left.

Since then he and I have barely spoken a word to each other.

Do I feel a loss because of it? NO. Yes, I'm saddened by the strain it's put on the extended family, but I will not apologize for my beliefs, nor will I tolerate being around someone who claims they are religious and yet feels so much hate for people who do not think or love how HE believes they should. So much for loving thy neighbor and showing others love and tolerance like the good book says. Do I hope that one day he will begin to understand the hatred and intolerance that he spews all in the name of God? Yes. I sincerely hope one day we will be able to sit down and have a rational discussion about it. I hope he will allow himself to let go of the confusion and hate he has in his heart for others that are different than him. Do I think he'll ever change? I don't know, but I do hope that in time he'll become more educated and open both himself and his heart to all people and just not the ones who think the way he does.

The thing is...I know what I've gone through is nothing compared to what both homosexuals and transsexuals go through on a daily basis. I have friends that have been bullied and worse because of who they are. This sickens me. I hate that they have this ongoing fight to live proudly as they are meant to live. I truly admire anyone willing to stand up and proud of loving and being who they really are.

As a straight woman, I will always stand up against the fight against homosexual and transphobia. I will never back down and will always proudly stand beside them and fight the good fight.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. As a prize, I will give two commenter's on my post my entire backlog of ebooks. The contest will run until the blog hop is over on the 27th.

For more information on The International Day of Homophobia and Transphobia check out their website here.

Here is the link back to the Blog Hop page.

Thank you again for stopping by.

*Hugs*

Andi

I have cover art!

I have cover art! My book, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, is scheduled to be released in late May. I'm excited about it and can't wait to share more about it with all of you soon! The cover artist, Harris Channing, did a great job capturing my heroes! I'm thrilled to be working with Siren Bookstrand and hopefully will have the second book in the series submitted to them soon!

It's only Monday and I'm already exhausted!

It's going to be a crazy week.

My grandmother is still in the rehabilitation center. She is still weak and is suffering from gout on top of her other problems. The good thing is that she's in good spirits and is determined to go home soon. For that I am very thankful.

My husband hurt his ankle six months ago. He's been going to a specialist and had surgery on it this morning. He'll be off of work for a week and will have to stay off of his feet. He has a boot he has to wear for the first 24 hours then he'll only wear it if he has to stand up and walk. (with the aide of crutches) In two weeks the doctor will check it again, so hopefully he'll be on the mend and his poor ankle will be healing.

I plan on writing this week and hopefully getting my current WIP closer to be completed. I'm sure I'll be hooked up from taking care of my hubby, so I don't know how much I'll be able to get done.
Wish me luck!

I hope your week will be a great one.

*Hugs*

Pray for Boston

All of my good thoughts and prayers goes out to the people who were affected by the Boston bombings. Please take a moment or two and send good thoughts out for the families.

*Hugs*

Update on my Grandmother

We've had a stressful week. As you know, my grandmother has been in the hospital for almost a week and has been literally fighting for her life. She was bleeding internally and the doctor's had no idea why she was bleeding and what was causing the bleed. After a series of many tests, they found the bleed and although it would be an easier fix for someone much younger or someone who does not have to be on blood thinners, hers is more complicated. They said when she was admitted to the hospital, her blood was a thin as water, so it took some time for them to thicken up her blood. She also received many units of blood to keep her alive. The doctor told us that if she had waited another couple of hours before going to the ER she would have bleed to death and died. This was a wake up call for her. She has promised to tell us if something is going on with her, instead of ignoring the problem and hoping it will go away.

She is still in the hospital and will be transferred to a rehab center in a day or so. Because of her massive blood loss, she is very weak and is going to have help to get back on her feet again. I want to thank everyone who has emailed me, left a comment on my previous post or made a comment on facebook giving her and my family support and good thoughts. This means a lot to me and I'll never forget it. Although she's not out of the woods, she's getting there, and I know I for one and truly thankful.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

*Hugs*

My Grandmother

Yesterday, we woke up from a phone call telling us my grandmother was in the hospital. This surprised me, since I just spoke with her on the phone the night before, and although she sounded tired, I had no idea she was feeling as ill as she was.

Apparently, she's been bleeding internally for over two weeks. Being the stubborn woman she is, she didn't bother to tell anyone she was having any problems. She's always been a strong woman. She's one of those people who wouldn't tell you she's in pain or sick because she always believes she's either putting you out in some way or she thinks whatever is going on with her will improve and she'll feel better. This has always been something I've always fussed at her about, but she's set in her ways and when it comes to complaining or health issues, I might as well be arguing to a brick wall because she's going to do what she's going to do.

She lives almost two hours away from me, so it seemed like it took us forever to get to the hospital. When we arrived her room was filled with my other family members, and although it was good to see them, my eyes zeroed onto the fragile, pale figure on the bed. I was startled by tiny she looked and by her sweet, pale face, but it didn't stop me from thinking how beautiful I think she is or how much I love her. (Stubbornness and all)

Her blood count was low, so she's been given several pints of blood as well as some kind of strong antibiotic. They are going to keep her for several days and will be running a lot of tests on her. Throughout the years, she's had a lot of health issues. She's had heart attacks, one functioning kidney, she's had a stroke and she's almost totally blind. Every time something goes wrong with her, it makes me catch my breath. I fear of losing her. I fear my life without her sunny smile and the unconditional love she's always given me. I freely admit I'm scared. In July, she'll be 85 and sometimes I feel as if I have borrowed time with her. She's always been spunky, sweet and a lot of fun, but in the past few years, her zest for life has diminished. She once told me that if you are lucky enough to live long enough, you somehow outlive your usefulness to others. People stop seeing you as a person, but just as someone who doesn't matter. I cried like a baby when she told me this, but soon afterward, I noticed that when we took her places, she would be ignored by sales staff, waiters and so on, so I began to understand what she meant by it.

I've made it my purpose in life for her to know how much I love her, respect her and need her in our lives. I know having a strong will to live can get you through a lot in life and I want to make sure she has the determination to get through her day and to have something to live for. I hope I've succeeded in doing this, but you never know.

I feel like she'll come through whatever is going on with her okay, but I would really appreciate it if you would keep her in your good thoughts. She means the world to me and without her, I'd be totally lost.

Thank you. *Hugs*

Happy Weekend!

I'm always thrilled when I hear about a review on one of my books. What made this one even better is the review is on my first book, Got Mistletoe?. I have to admit, it is my baby. Out of all of my books, it's still one of my favorites because I loved Ryan and Blake so much. It also seems to be the book I've had many readers ask me to write more about them. I still plan on doing it one day because I've always thought they had more to say.

You can find the review at Fallen Angel Reviews at this link:
http://fallenangelreviews.com/2013/January/teresa-gotmistletoe.htm

I want to thank Teresa for taking the time to read and review my book and for all of the wonderful things she said about it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Life, Love and Understanding

Once upon a time I used to work as a case manager with mentally ill children. I did this for over ten years and I enjoyed almost every moment of it. I worked in both an inpatient and an outpatient facility and met some truly amazing kids.

Most of the children and adolescents I worked with had behavior problems. The majority of them were ADHD and had some sort of mental illness such as Bi-Polar disorder. All of these children had been teased at school by their peers and usually were bullied because they were different. I don't know how many hours I spent working with these kids and I tried to give them the tools they needed to survive in an unforgiving world. Even at young ages, they knew they would never looked upon or treated as 'normal' kids. Because of their behavior outbursts, many of them were even labeled by their teachers and other adults (even their parents) as problem kids and were often made to feel as if they were somehow less than other kids their age.

This always broke my heart. I loved these kids and most of the time, all it took was a little attention, understanding and patience with them, and they would literally bask in knowledge that someone loved and believed in them. Some of them also had learning disabilities, and had been teased by their peers. Most of these children were either in special education classes or they were so behind in their studies they would pretend to not care if they learned anything or not. Even some of the parents of these children had reached their wits end and would brush their kids off, because they were simply sick of the drama and the difficulty it can be by raising them. I honestly never understood this way of thinking. Yes, it took a lot of dedication and understanding to get these kids to trust, and eventually work hard. Most of the time, after weeks and even months of working with these children they would start to take pride in what they accomplished and some would even start to set goals for themselves. The sad part of it is: I think people forget that even children with these disorders will crave and thrive under praise just as any other kid would do.

There was one child I worked with that really changed my life. His name was Ryan. He was thirteen and had serious anger issues as well as Tourettes and Bi-Polar disorder. When I first met him, everyone had given up on him. The kids at school teased him because of his Tourettes and some feared him because of his anger outbursts. When I first met him he tried to act like he didn't care that others made fun of him, but I'll never forget the pain in those big brown eyes. For months, I worked with Ryan. We worked through some of the issues he had and he learned some positive coping skills to deal with his anger issues. I spent many days helping him study, giving him a shoulder to lean on and sometimes being a sounding board to him when he had a bad day. After a year of solidly working with Ryan, he changed into a more well-balanced, happy child. When he finally returned to school, he started making the honor roll, became a popular football player and ended up graduating and going to college. He is one of my success stories and to this day I'm proud to have known him.

It angers me that these children are often labeled. Not only are they labelled from their peers, but they are often labelled by the adults in their lives too. I remember one teacher telling me that one of the children I worked with was thrilled because it was the end of a school year, and this child was finally going to be the next teacher's 'problem' the following year. I also had the feeling that this child would be stereotyped as a problem child even before any of the faculty worked with him. Instead of giving the child a chance, they had already chosen to black list this child and immediately decided they were going to have a hard time working with him. I thought this was outrageous and very sad. Now, don't get me wrong. There are MANY, MANY amazing teachers out there. If it wasn't for these wonderful teachers there would be even more children struggling to belong in school, but unfortunately I also worked with a lot of teachers who had a negative attitude. They were burned out, overworked and underpaid and just didn't care anymore.

It's been many years since I've worked with these children. Some of them live happy lives and some of them have had a more difficult journey making good choices as they try to fit into a society that is very unforgiving and stereotypical one. I wish people would stop and truly think before they either label some of these children as problems OR brush them off as if they don't matter. These kids have so much to give to the world, if only people would try to see it.

Happy Thursday!

We've had a busy few days. We've finally finished all of the painting we're going to do, now we're in the middle of getting the house back in order. It's taking longer than normal because I've been fighting the pain I have from a past surgery. It has a tendency to get me down if I overdo it, so I've had to take it easy for the past day or so. But, on the bright side, I love the way our house is starting to look. Everything is fresh, crisp and clean and almost like new. I'm glad we made the decision to paint and spruce up the place a little. I think we definitely needed it.

For the next few days I'll be working on my edits for my upcoming release from Siren AND I'll be hopefully come close to finishing another book by the end of the week. I'll definitely keep you posted.  

Have a great day:)

Happy Saturday!!!

This week has been pretty busy. We've been painting the inside of our house and that's taken more time than we anticipated. We have the living room, kitchen and hallway done, but we still have the bathroom to do and we'll be finally finished. YAY!

But for the next couple of days I plan on lazing around and doing some writing. I filled out my cover contract from Siren for By the Light of the Silvery Moon and just received edits for them. I'm pretty thrilled about this upcoming release and can't wait to see what everyone things of it. I'm also working on the next book in the series, Could this be Magic?, and hope to have it completed within the next week or so.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

*Hugs*

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'll be spending my day painting the living room, hall and bathroom. I hope your day will be more fun than mine!!

*Hugs*

Happy Friday and Crazy Hats

Hello Friends:)

It's been a busy few days for me. We went to Little Rock and spent time with my family. My mother is getting ready to put her house up for sale next week. She and my stepfather have lived there for twelve years and have had many happy times there, so the move will be a little bittersweet for me. They are moving so they can live in town and they'll also be residing closer to Snow White, so they're both pretty excited about the move.

I see a lot of packing in my future...lol.

We did get to spend some quality time with Snow White. Last week was crazy hat week at school. She and my sister made hats out of construction paper and here are two of their creations. I thought they did an excellent job. (They did a lot better job than I would have. I have ZERO craft skills) Snow White was sick over the weekend. She has bronchitis. The doctor is going to take her tonsils out over spring break because she's been sick so much this year. She's worried about the surgery, but once she found out she'd get all the Popsicles and ice cream she could want, she decided it might not be such a bad idea after all.

I also signed my contract for By the Light of the Silvery Moon and I'm about to sign the contract for the cover art. I'm super excited to be part of Siren's list of authors.

We are going to have a very busy weekend. We're going to paint our living room, hallway and bathroom. I'm not looking forward to all of the work, but it will be nice to freshen up the house. We've lived here for eight years so it's time for a change.

I hope everyone has a great week!!

*Hugs*

Happy Weekend!

As you know, for the past couple of weeks I've been stalking my email. Finally, after checking and double checking my email account (like some mad woman) I received the email I've been waiting for...

My manuscript has been accepted by Siren Publishing!! My upcoming book, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, is scheduled to be released in May! As soon as I receive more information about it, I'll let you guys know!

So now I can give the frantic email checking a break.

In other news, we're going to see Snow White for a few days. We're really looking forward to seeing everyone. It will be good to get out of town for a day or three.

Have a great weekend!!

Happy Monday

I hope everyone has a great week ahead.

*Hugs*

Painting, writing and other nonsense

I hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. I've been productive these past few days. I've worked on my current WIP and we're getting prepared to paint the living room, bathroom and hall of our house. We've lived here for eight years and it's time for the walls to be freshened up a little bit. As much as I'm NOT looking forward to smelling paint and to all of the hard work, I'm thrilled we're going to do it.

I'm still stalking my email...yes, I know it's silly of me to do it. It's only been a week and there is no way I'll hear anything for a few weeks, but the crazy writer in me is dying to find out if they liked my book or not. Until then, hopefully we'll get the painting done and I'll have another book finished.

Have a great weekend! *Hugs*

Happy Friday!

Here's a little eye candy to get us through the day. Have a great weekend:)

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone has a great day and even better week ahead. I know it's silly, but I'm beginning to stalk my email like a crazy woman! For the next couple of days I'm brainstorming on the current WIP's I've got started and thinking of some upcoming books to write.

Have a wonderful week:)

The Waiting Begins...

Hi Friends:)

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I've finished the first book in my Circle of Friends series and have submitted it to a new publisher for me. It feels great to work through the writer's block I've had for months now. I've started the second book in the series and I'm about to start working on a series of books I'm going to self publish..which I am totally stoked about!

At least I'll be keeping busy while I stalk my email. 

Wish me luck:)

Have a great week ahead...

Happy Weekend!

It's been a while since I've blogged anything. In all honesty, I haven't had the energy to write a lot. I know a lot of you know what's been going on at Silver, so there's no reason why I should get into it. I've had several readers ask me if I'm okay and if I'm going to stay with them, so here's my game plan.

At the moment I'm sticking with them. The owner is trying to get things into order again, so I hope that everything will work out. This has not been an easy decision for me to make. Many of my author friends, whom I greatly respect, have left or are in the process of leaving Silver. I totally understand and respect their decision to leave.  It's not an easy choice to make. Silver was once a great publishing house (hopefully it will be again) to be a part of, but with its uncertain future, it's certainly understandable why people leave. I still don't know if I'm doing the right thing by staying. I have the "Damned if I do...Damned if I don't" feeling about it, so who knows if sticking with them is the right thing to do. I guess only time will tell.

In saying this, I don't know when I'll be continuing my Men of Charlestown, Kissed by an Immortal or Sons of Aphrodite series. I hope to do so soon because the characters are driving me crazy, but I'm waiting it out right now. 

Because of the stress of it all, I haven't been able to write like I should. Up until the past few weeks it's been short of a miracle to get any story started at all. I've tried, but I couldn't. Writer's block and and stress from everything took a toll on my creative juices, but thankfully, I've been able to work through it and now I'm almost finished with my book. I don't know where I'm going to submit it yet, but I'm going to branch out to other houses and see where I stand. Wish me luck.

Personally, things have been going pretty good. My niece, Snow White has been excelling in her first year of Kindergarten. My husband and I are doing well and my grandmother has been feeling better lately...so all in all, I can't complain.

Thanks for being patient with me. I'll try and do better at keeping y'all informed of what's going on with me. Have a great weekend!