Giveaways, Writing, Knitting
In other words, an update! I suppose I could break this up into a couple of different blogposts, but it’s summertime and everyone is busy, so I’ll try to keep this short and sweet.
I’m continuing my monthly giveaways. I really enjoy sending out boxes of goodies. These giveaways are open to those who receive my newsletter. Sometimes they are “grab bag” giveaways, where people enter to win a prize sight unseen. Sometimes it’s a specific prize or set of prizes. Last month’s giveaway was a grab bag. The lucky winner was Nichole from Michigan and this is what was inside her box: 2 full size paperbacks, a couple of short stories, earrings and a pearl ring, magnets, bookmarks, pens, and other swag from writers.
I have August’s giveaway ready to go. It will also be a grab bag, but one thing I know
will be in it: This hand knit shawl/scarf. I’ve been working on it all summer, and now it is finished and ready to go around someone’s neck just in time for the cooler mornings ahead. See? My cat Merry stood guard over it while it dried. If you would like a chance to win this shawl plus other great prizes, you can sign up for my newsletter.
I am currently working on my contemporary novella for Paige Tyler’s Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindle World. I am LOVING Dusty and Isabel! It comes out in mid October. Isabel owns a yarn shop with her sister, and the shop colors are fuchsia and black. Dusty, in a desperate attempt to catch Isabel’s attention, recklessly signs up for her Learn To Knit class. In 
the first class the students learn to knit a dishcloth. Dusty swaggers in to class, confident that he can master knitting without any trouble. He slinks out, convinced that knitting was invented by demons out to drive humans crazy. In the second class, he knits this hat. I am considering writing the pattern up and including it at the end of the book. I’m not sure about that, though.
Do you think it would be appreciated by readers? Would most readers even care? Maybe it would be better to include a link to my website where I could post the pattern?
What are your thoughts about that? Please leave a comment, I would really like to know.
I hope your summer is going well. Only a few weeks until the kids are back in school. I come from a large family, and on the first day of school, my mom put out the flag. She said it should be a national holiday! LOL
Happy Reading!
Sleeping With the Wolf is Featured
Woo-Hoo! Sleeping With the Wolf is a featured book on
eBook Daily!
Isn’t it great that we live in a world where we can learn about free reads and great book deals just be signing up for a newsletter? If you’d like to sign up for eBook Daily, just click the graphic above. They have all sorts of books listed that are free. Young Adult, Romance, Sci-Fy, Self Help, non Fiction… Lots of great stuff.
Look! My book is #114 over all in the Kindle Free store, and #2 in it’s genre! That makes me HAPPY!!! LOL
Thank you to everyone who has downloaded a free copy at Amazon, or anywhere else. If you haven’t already, why not download a copy for yourself? If you have the original version from 2010, it was updated slightly in 2015, so you might like to download it again and give it a re-read. Or let a friend who likes to read know about Taye & Carla, and Shadow & Glory, and… All the great characters from the After the Crash series need some love. 🙂
Happy Reading!
Maddy’s Quick and Dirty T-Shirt to Peasant Blouse Tutorial
Do you have drawers full of T-shirts that you don’t wear? I do. I don’t wear them much because A) I have scads of them (don’t even ask how many fuchsia pink T-shirts I own), and B) they’re sort of boxy and not terribly attractive. Added to that, my figure is the Apple type (you know, skinny stick legs and BIG tummy, double-no, make that triple-chins) so I don’t like to wear things that are too closely fitting with round a neckline that comes up to my throat. And plain boxy T-shirts are … well, plain and boxy. No style. Plus, I am just barely over 5 feet tall, so most T-shirts come down to mid-thigh on me. Sure, they make great sleep shirts, but I want to get more use out of them than that.
T-shirts are great though, because they are so comfy to wear, and wash easily. I could donate them, but some, like my RAGT T-shirts, have happy memories attached to them that I want to be reminded of. I don’t want to get rid of my T-shirts. I want to use them!
Do you ever see something on Pinterest or somewhere and say, “Hey, I
can do that!” Well, I do, and I can, and I did. I took a plain white T-shirt, cut off the edges, ironed on some floral appliques, added a casing for a gathered neckline, finished the raw edges, and Ta-DA! My new summer blouse. Here is how I made this:
Maddy’s Easy Peasant Blouse
Supplies:
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T-shirt in a size that is a little loose
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Any appliques, trims, or other decoration you like. I found this floral applique on clearance for $1.97.
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Approx. 1 yard 1/8-1/4 inch wide elastic, or 1.5 yards narrow ribbon to gather the neck.
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Sewing machine or serger
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Iron (if needed to iron on transfers or appliques)
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Scissors
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Thread
Directions:
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Wash and dry your Tshirt. If you are using an Iron On applique or transfer, don’t use fabric
Cutting lines. Excuse my poor drawing skills!
softener.
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Cut off the bottom of the shirt so it is 2” longer than you want it to be. When the neck is gathered, the bottom of the shirt will rise a bit. Keep the actual hem because that is what you will use to create the neckline casing.
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Mark a circle around the neck and cut. I measured 2 inches from the neck ribbing as a guide.
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Cut a slit across the top of the sleeve to create a flutter sleeve. (This is optional. You can just have a plain sleeve with a ruffled edge) Cut off arm ribbing.
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Add any trim you like now. Red and Blue ribbon in rows around the hem would be fun for 4th of July. Maybe a scatter of those iron on rhinestones? How abut a strip of lace down the center front? Or no trim to make it even easier and cheaper.
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Take the bottom hem that you cut off in step 2 and trim close to the stitching. On the wrong side of T-shirt, make a casing
by stitching down the hem an inch or so away from the cut neck edge. Leave an opening to thread the elastic thru. Do not put the elastic in now. NOTE: if you want to use ribbon to gather the neck instead of elastic, you can stitch the hem on the right side of the shirt. The ribbon can be tied in a bow. -
Create the lettuce edge to the bottom, the neckline and the sleeves. If you have a serger, you can use that to do a beautiful lettuce rolled hem. If not, a regular sewing machine works fine. Set your sewing machine up with a zigzag stitch. Stitch length should be like for a button hole, so .3 or 4, and width should be a 5 or 6. Be sure to hold your fabric very taut while you do this. If you don’t know how to do this curly edge, there are several YouTube tutorials like This One
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Thread elastic (or ribbon) through neck casing. Fasten off.
DONE!!
These directions are pretty barebones, so it you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to help you out.
Imagine how many fun things you could do with all your T-shirts! How about a tied dyed T-shirt? What if you added some lace at the hem instead of doing the lettuce edge? Wouldn’t this be adorable for a little girl too?
Another one! Black T-shirt with lace down the center.
I hope I’ve given you some good ideas for making some cheap summer
tops, but I have got to stop now. I have a book to write! I won’t be doing regular Tuesday Teasers for Brave Hearts, but stay tuned. I want to drop you a few tidbits here and there. Dusty is turning out to be a more complex hero than I thought he’d be. And Isa has depths beyond just a somewhat embittered woman wounded in war. I can’t wait to introduce you to them.
Happy Reading!
Back From RAGT!
I’m back from Lori Foster’s
Reader & Author Get Together!
As always, I had a fantastic time. My first time at RAGT was in 2011, so that makes 6 for 6. If this was baseball, that would mean I was batting 1000. I think this is one of the best reader events out there. This is the only one I’ve ever been to, but I still think it is the best. Why is it the best? It’s small enough that there is time and places to hang out with authors and readers. It’s big enough that there is always something going on to do, but if you want to just sit down in the ballroom and relax you can do that too. I got to spend time with some of my favorite people like Paige Tyler, Janet Juengling-Snell, Monette Michaels, Joni Anderson, Janet Rodman, Wendi Zwaduk, Jennifer Sapa, Linda and Mary Ellen Faneuff… There are just too many to name! And this year Tina Holland, my fellow LSB author and local critique group member, came to RAGT for the first time. I think she liked it a lot. Who wouldn’t?
The raffle baskets are awesome! The Science Fiction/Fantasy basket my friend Jessica and I put together was pretty popular. It had the Star Wars quilt I made, the first season of Sherlock on DVD (not specifically fantasy, but Benedict Cumberbatch!!! Need I say more?), a Firefly Monopoly game, and gift cards to both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Jessica and I both put in a large number of tickets but didn’t win anything. I was disappointed, but as Jessica said, it was a great donation to One Way Farm, and how would we fit any winnings into the car for the drive home? It was already stuffed to the gills.
I did my third fashion show at RAGT. Lori Foster caught us and did an impromptu filming of each model. Fun! Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/lorifoster/videos/10153648932642966/
And of course Paige and I had to play with Dean and Sam! Most of 
us had our picture taken with one or more of the hunky cut outs. 🙂
Another super fun thing is the goodie bags. Everyone who registers and comes gets a tote bag full of swag. Pens, mirrors, lip balm, BOOKS, screen cleaning cloths, notebooks and more stuff! More than I can use. Stay tuned for a newsletter going out later this week. I’ll be having a contest to win some of that swag.
And now I need to kick my writing into high gear. Dusty Wolfe and Isabel Ybarra, prepare to fall in love!
That’s the wrap up of the 12th Annual Reader & Author Get Together. I’m already counting the days until next year!
Off To RAGT!
Every year for the past six years I have attended Lori Foster’s Reader & Author Get Together. It is a fairly small romance novel conference as these things go. Lori keeps it limited to only 500 attendees, 100 authors and 400 readers, and the focus is on readers. Maybe that’s why I love it so much. It’s not so big that shy little me feels overwhelmed, and I get to actually meet and spend time with readers. It is closed to the general public, but the book signings at 3pm-5pm on Friday and Saturday are open to everyone. If you are in the Cincinnati, OH area, stop by the Marriott in West Chester on Muhlhauser Road and say hello to me. I’m signing on Friday. I’d love to meet you!
We (we being me, my friend Jessica, and fellow LSB author Tina Holland) are leaving tomorrow morning at 7:00am and heading to Ohio. I’ll be mostly out of touch for the next few days, but I promise pictures when I get back.
Also, since I’m positively giddy with excitement over RAGT, I have reduced the price of Wolf’s Glory from $3.99 to $0.99. The price will go back up on Monday June 13, so if you don’t have it yet, this is a great time to pick it up. Don’t forget that the first book, Sleeping With the Wolf, is still FREE. And hey, if you like audio books, if you buy these in digital format on Amazon, they are only $1.99 each over on Audible. As my grandmother would say, such a deal!
Wolf’s Glory at Amazon.com
Wolf’s Glory on B&N
Ciao for now and Happy Reading!
An Update From Maddy
Once again it has been too long since I made a post. I have not fallen off the end of the earth, I promise!
Life has been a little crazy lately. I was diagnosed with diabetes a few weeks ago, and since then my life has revolved around exercise and learning how to eat. I can’t tell you how much I mourn the loss of eating half a package of cookies at a time. But on the other hand, I’m feeling much better already. I have more energy, more enthusiasm for things, and I’ve already dropped a few pounds. I’m doing fairly well with managing my blood glucose. I started out with my numbers in the 120s to the 170s, and now it is usually in the 90s to 120s. That’s practically normal! I don’t even flinch anymore when I have to press the button to poke my finger. 🙂 Of course, I’m not happy to be diabetic, but I’m glad to have the chance to make changes in my lifestyle. I’ve feeling pretty well these days. Except for work. The day job is just a teensy bit stressful right now. Just a teensy bit. *cough*
Anyway, just wanted to drop a quick line to let you know I’m still alive and kicking, and to give you a heads up that I’ll be sending out a newsletter tonight with a super quick contest. I will introduce the new website (Ta-Da! Isn’t it beautiful?) and gave a giveaway for TWO $10.00 Amazon gift cards. Who can’t use an Amazon gift card, huh? If you’re like me you’ve been buying birthday, shower, wedding, and graduation gifts left and right for the past couple of months. You deserve a gift too! So if you get my newsletter, check your email tonight. If you don’t get my newsletter, why not? It’s easy to sign up; just look on the right and fill out your info.
Ciao for now, and Happy Reading!
