The Weekend is Here!

Woot woot! It's Friday.

This week has been a blessing and a curse. Let's do the cursing, bad stuff first.

The day job suddenly produced mass amounts of work this week. Of course I'm grateful to have a job, but this level of busy hasn't happened in a while. Let's say I need a couple more days to hit my stride and a short work week doesn't always help.

From the blessing standpoint my book released, which all of you are already aware. I want to thank everyone who's read the blog, shared the blog, shared the Amazon page, left a review, and bought my book. The support I've received outside of my online presence has been amazing and I've been in a state of awe by the number of friends, family and acquaintances who've enjoyed my story. It means a lot to me and is probably the biggest encouragement for me to write more.

For those anxious to hear who won my release day contest well, it's not over yet. Due to the glitches that happened at the start of my release day I decided to extend the entry period for the giveaway until February 28th. March 3rd I'll announce winners. In the meantime tell your friends to enter.

Finally for Friday I'll leave you with this awesome video. Kristin Anders posted this in the comments to a post about being an angry feminist. I loved Joss Whedon before, but now I think he's on my list of 'People I have to meet before I die'. Check it out and my your weekend be restful.

Thank You Dad!

Father's Day, the holiest of days when we honor those who helped raise us and without their swimming friends we would have been nothing... absolutely nothing.

My father taught me everything I know. From working on plumbing to shaving my legs. He brought football into my life, taught me sports, and made me a wooden pump action shotgun. FYI: We modified this gun shortly after by adding a clip. Gosh knows, you need clips when you're shooting zombies. The point is he tried to make everything fun, even when we didn't have the money to hit up Six Flags or Disneyland. He support us rocking out to Classic Rock music, Van Halen especially, and pretending to play guitar and drums with whatever he could grab. This is a man who took plenty of shots to the family jewels as he taught me how to play catch.

No... really, my father did a lot for me.

The sad part was that he got saddled with a daughter being his first born. I know he really wanted a little boy because he's a boy at heart. He could have ignored me, but instead he took it upon himself to make me just as good as the little boys. I can talk football, hunting, a little guns and ammo, and I don't seize up at the sight of dead things. Yes, that's right! Perfectly comfortable with eatin' Bambi for supper. Heck, I'll help you field dress 'im; even though I've never actually done it before...just watched.

This father of mine did everything for his family. He slaved in dry cleaners, worked night jobs, took on 2 jobs when required, and relentlessly worked to rebuild our home (built in the 1960s) over my childhood. He is now back to his original job working for the Air Force and protecting our country!

Today is the day to honor father, as he has been a huge influence in my life. Thank you, I say, for telling me from the time I was 6 years-old that I can be anything I want to be and do anything I want to do. Without these him I don't know where I would be or what I would have become.

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance- Ruth E. Henkel

Happy Thanksgiving---to all and to me!

So, Thanksgiving is a few days away and I am feeling in the thankful mood.

My thanks (here goes):
-I am thankful for a loving family, a good job, and my week long vacation.
-I am thankful for the Internet, and blogger... as I have found both to be very helpful on my writing quest.
-I am thankful for Evil Editor, Phoenix Sullivan, Query Shark, Lynette Labelle, and a slew of others that have provided me insight over the last 12 months.
-I am thankful for this laptop, without it my writing would be strewn across tablets of paper.
-Finally I am thankful for good food, a bottle of Bud light, and music... all three keep my creativity flowing.