Blog Archives

Live Love Publish

12/20/2014

So here we are, the holidays rushing upon us, and Glynn decides this is the bestest of all possible times to publish our novel, Live Love Rewind: The Three Lives of Leah Preston. Personally, I think he just wanted to get out of Christmas decorating, which he very well did. While I hung the stockings by the chimney with care (please note: we have no chimney, I tossed them by the dog’s bowl), he did the tech work necessary to get LLR out into the world.

That’s the cover, in the upper left hand corner, and I like it very much. It’s different enough and contemporary enough that even a casual reader shouldn't wonder if it’s one of our mail order bride stories. If not, then the synopsis ought to set things straight –

Live Love Rewind: The Three Lives of Leah Preston

If I’d known how life was going to turn out, Leah reflected, I’d never have wanted to grow up.

In her thirties, divorced, and trapped in a dead-end job, Leah Preston is willing to do anything to start over. She wants a career she respects, a man worthy of her love, and, frankly, she'd like to get laid.

When a gorgeous FBI agent appears at her doorstep, she has no idea she’s about to become the only participant in a very unusual experiment. Soon, she’ll have the opportunity to rewind her life and see if she can make her wishes come true.

But who will end up at her side? The handsome FBI agent, the brilliant college professor, the sexy movie star…or anyone at all?

“I really loved this novel!” – Silvia’s Reading Corner

I truly hope browsers pay attention to the "frankly, she'd like to get laid" line because (*spoiler*) Leah gets lucky and the lights are left on. This doesn't happen in our mail order bride world. I think the story is a lot of fun, and I hope you will, too. Love Love Rewind just became available on Amazon as this is written and will remain there for the next three months. Afterwards, it will slowly leak into the rest of the world as our other suppliers permit.

All in all, a fresh publication is not the worst way to end a year. But here’s something even BETTER: family. Our home will be whelmed (never overwhelmed) by some of our nearest and dearest, starting early next week and until just after the new year. I’m so excited! Because of our visitors, I’ll be posting again on January 6th, so please swing on by.

Until then, I hope your holidays are wonderful.

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"Who thought this was a good idea?"

12/9/2014

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Prescott, Arizona is a lovely community in the upper part of our state. Some friends of ours are interested in looking for property in that area and asked if we could get them a real estate guide the next time we visited “Arizona’s Christmas City”. When we picked up the over-sized guide, Glynn looked at the cover and said...well, you can read the subject line.

Back in August, he had his own idea to share with me. He didn’t say it was a good idea. He said it was an interesting idea. What he actually said was, “I’ve been thinking about something. You might find it interesting but it’s a little outside of the box”, which gave me chills because the last time he thought outside of the box, we ended up investing in a canoe business.

Here’s a life tip: If you don’t know anything about canoes, you should be maybe reflect a bit before putting everything you have in a business that makes canoes.

But that was then and this was very much now. What he said next was, “You know our short story collection, Love Unexpected? What if we took all of the stories, rewrote them, and turned the entire thing into a novel?”

“It can’t be a novel,” I told him. “Every story has a different main character.”

“But the character in each story is always a woman looking for love. We’ll just make that character the same woman, seeking her one true love and struggling to find him.”

“Please tell me you're joking.” On reflection, this is also what I said when he mentioned the canoe thing.

“It could work. Not definitely but maybe.”

It was madness, of course, and I said as much when I told the Good Witch about it. But Glynn argued for the idea again and GW decided she liked the concept. Honestly, I think she just wanted to see if we could pull it off. Which made me wonder if we could pull it off.

And then I decided I had to know if we could do this thing.

Months later, it’s done. Rewritten, re-edited, then rewritten again. Not all of the stories fit into the novel, no matter how we tried. Despite our best efforts, the Dickens tale and the zombie story never quite worked and our beta readers made sure we knew it. (Thank you, beta readers.) Now that the task is complete, I think the finished piece reads as an entertaining and satisfying novel. Our beta readers, not knowing how the project started, have told us they think so, too.

“I told you it would work,” Glynn said yesterday.

“You also said it would take a couple of weeks, tops,” I reminded him. Which kind of ended that conversation, so he wandered away to watch football.

Next week, the cover reveal.

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This is so not genius

12/3/2014

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Okay, I know I said I’d go into my latest writing misadventure this week and I will soon. Probably next week. I would have done so today but, as I was cleaning up bits and pieces, I came across this thing on the left. It still irritates me and I want to share my irritation. Just because I have to tell somebody and you happened to stop by.

Last week, I mentioned Glynn and I had been spending time with some out-of-town visitors. I also said the visitors had been a joy. All of which was absolutely true. However, even the most enjoyable of house guests can be a little trying at times and – as it happened – the Good Witch and I were babysitting when young David turned a little cranky. He had every right to fuss. The three of us had been out-and-about for at least two hours and David was hungry and bored.

Still out in our car, we were miles from home. So I made a suggestion: “Fast food.”

“Genius,” the Good Witch agreed.

Pulling out her cell phone, GW told the navigation app to find us “fast food”. It guided us to a Carl’s Jr., the closest fast food stop to our location. The restaurant lacked a children's’ play area which was far from ideal in our situation. GW and I knew that, once David was full, he’d still be bored as we continued the trip home.

So I made a suggestion: “Kid’s meal. They always come with toys.”

“Genius,” the Good Witch agreed.

Now, if you’re ever in a similar situation and hope to soothe a savage five-year old, there’s something you need to know. When a customer buys a children’s meal at Carl’s Jr., they aren’t given a selection of toys to consider. There’s one option only and you’d best take what you’re given, little miss. It doesn’t matter if, like David, you’d hoped to get a squeezable dinosaur or something...y’know, fun...because that’s not gonna happen.

What David received during our visit was a key ring of “Fruit Ninja” cards. Look at the picture above and you’ll see what the object looks like. It is a rare child that wants to play with this. I’d venture to say, it’s the exceedingly rare child that even cares to look at it twice. (You’ve looked at the picture once. Care to see it again?)

On each card, there is a question, there is a hint, and there is an the answer. It goes something like –

WHAT IS THE LARGEST KNOWN SEED IN THE WORLD? (Hint: It’s hard to open) Answer: Coconuts

WHAT FRUIT WILL CLEAN YOUR TEETH AND STRENGTHEN YOUR GUMS? (Hint: They’re crunchy) Answer: Apples.

HOW MANY SEEDS DOES THE AVERAGE STRAWBERRY HAVE? (Hint: Over 100) Answer: 200

In case you’re thinking, Well, Anne must have picked out the most boring question/hint/answer combinations she could find, you’d be wrong. I asked Glynn to flip through the cards and pick three of them at random. This triplet is as interesting as any in the bunch.

Back at the restaurant, I asked the cashier who was the target audience for the key ring. Straight-faced, she told me, “It’s for children over three” and the staff at the restaurant seems to believe this. If they ever have cause to doubt it, they can find this same information printed on one of the Ninja Fruit cards. Seriously.

Carl and all of his juniors must not want children in their stores. If they could have seen David’s face when he opened the little bag, they’d have known this wasn’t for kids. They’d have seen it for what it was: a fairly lousy advertisement for some other company’s computer app. Not a toy.

“As soon as we find a Target, I am so going to get him a squishy dinosaur,” the Good Witch told me.

“Genius,” I agreed.

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... but, really, the good stuff is posted here.

Welcome!

At the back of my paperbacks and e-books, you'll find this:

A collector of vintage Barbies and younger boyfriends, Anne Glynn currently resides in the American Southwest.

The truth is a little more complicated. I'm Anne and my S.W.P. (Significant Writing Partner) is Glynn. Together, we write as 'Anne Glynn'.

However, I am a collector of vintage Barbies and I have, on occasion, collected the younger boyfriend. Not so much these days.

I'm glad you're here.