Ecstatic About Books

Two of my bookshelves.

I have to confess, I am ecstatic, passionate, giddy about books. Between the books on my bookshelves and the ones on my two Kindles, I have more books than I can read in two lifetimes. So in reality, I guess that I am obsessed with books.

Well, as I've pointed out before, I have my mother to blame for my obsession, passion, love of books. At a very early age she read not only the standard fairy tales to me, but the wonderful stories by O'Henry and Terhune. When I could read on my own I took off like a racehorse and never looked back.

In two of my August posts, "Crazy About Books" and "In Love with Books," I gave a guided tour of three of my bookshelves.  Well, this post is a guided tour of my last two bookshelves. All my other books live in boxes under the bed in the guestroom, in boxes and stacks in the guestroom closet, on my Kindles, or in the Cloud. More books than I care to count, but still never enough.  There are just so many great books out there, that I keep buying more.

You can imagine my husband's relief when I started buying more eBooks than paper books. At least the next time we move there won't be additional boxes of books to lug around. I think with our last move, from the Texas Hill Country to the Florida Gulf Coast, I had approximately twenty-seven very heavy boxes of books. But all those zillions of eBooks can be carried around in my purse. I have to say that's awesome!

So here's the guided tour of the bookshelves in the photo above. Obviously there are too many books to list them all, so I'll only list a few of them. The top shelves have "treasures" collected through the years, but the other shelves are packed with books and magazines.

Left bookshelf from top to bottom:

Clouds and Eclipses (The Collected Short Stories) by Gore Vidal
New Stories from the South (2007 - The Year's Best) ed. by Edward P. Jones
New Stories from the South (2008 - The Year's Best) ed. by Z. Z. Packer
Like unto Like by Sherwood Bonner
Mothers & Daughters (An Anthology) ed. by Alberto Manguel
American Avenue, Rhythm & Reason (A Collection) by William Steding
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
The Best American Short Stories (2006) ed. by Ann Patchett
The Best American Short Stories (2009) ed. by Alice Sebold
Half in Love (Stories) by Maile Meloy
Best American Voices (2003) guest editor, Joyce Carol Oates
Best American Voices (2004) guest editor, John Casey
Best New American Voices (2006) ed. by Jane Smiley
Best New American Voices (2007) ed. by Sue Miller
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald Selected by Malcolm Cowley
Girl with a Pearl Earring (A Novel) by Tracy Chevalier
The Lady and the Unicorn (A Novel) by Tracy Chevalier
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Forest Lover (A Novel) by Susan Vreeland

Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton
The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
Sandhills Boy (The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer) by Elmer Kelton
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Shane by Jack Schaefer
Education of a Wandering Man (A Memoir) by Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour's wonderful books (54 of them on this shelf, too many to list)
The Great Trek by Zane Grey
Shower of Gold by Zane Grey
The Everglades: River of Grass by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas
The White Witch of Rosehall by Herbert G. de Lissor

Southwest Art (Magazine) (two stacks, several years)

Art of the West (Magazine) (one stack, several years)
Southwest Art (Magazine) (one stack, several years)

Right bookshelf from top to bottom:

The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Revised Ed.) ed. by Hardin Craig
Masters of Modern Drama ed. by Haskell M. Block & Robert G. Shedd
A Field Guide to Central Australia by Penny van Oosterzee
Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways by National Geographic
Guide to the National Parks of the United States by National Geographic
A Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies by Roger Tory Peterson
Seashells of North America (A Guide to Field Identification) by R. Tucker Abbott

House Plants (How to choose, grow, display) by Sunset
Introduction to Basic Gardening by Sunset
The House Book by Terence Conran
Illustrated Guide to Gardening by Reader's Digest
Best Loved Garden Plants by David Myers, Lance Hattatt & Lindsay Bousfield
Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel by Cathy Yardley
How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author by Janet Evanovich with Ina Yalof
Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy
Handbook of Short Story Writing by The Writer's Digest
Handbook of Short Story Writing - Volume II by The Writer's Digest
Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter
Character Naming Sourcebook by The Writer's Digest

Art Books (48 of them, which I'll save for another blog post about art and art books)

American Art Review (Magazine) (one stack, several years)
Birds & Blooms (Magazine) (one year)
Hallowed Ground (The Civil War Preservation Trust Magazine) (one year)
American Art Collector (Magazine) (one year)
Country Lifestyle (Magazine) (one year)
Plus an assortment of other art magazines.

I hope you've enjoyed the guided tour of my bookshelves. Please check back for other blog posts, because I'm always talking about books.

BAYOU BLUES AND OTHER SORROWS has a New Cover

Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows has a new cover. This ebook available at both Amazon and Smashwords. Within the next few weeks it will also be available at Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Diesel, Sony and Apple.

Amazon/Kindle Edition

Smashwords Edition

Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows has gone through another edit. Only minor corrections were done. The short stories and poems are the same, but the order has been changed in this latest edition.

Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows is a collection of eight short stories and eight poems touching on issues that all may face at one time or another, from lost love to life changing crossroads to moments of pure happiness. These are heartwarming stories you won't want to miss.

"A Kiss is Just a Kiss" – People are not always who and what they appear to be. A kiss is not always just a kiss, it may have consequences.

"I Love You, Joe Montana" – Love from afar vs. love at home.

"Checking Out" – There are many crossroads in life. Sometimes we're tempted to "check out" and then realize that life really is beautiful.

"The Night of the UFO – Happiness comes at strange moments. So how many Whiskey Sours does it take to see a UFO?

"Earthquakes" – Some lives begin with a bang.

"Faded Love" – Faded love is better than no love at all.

"Harry's Garden" – How far will a woman scorned go to get even with her cheating husband?

"Old Dogs Need Love Too" – Love lost and love found.

The poems are: "Bayou Blues," "Cartwheels," "In a Café," "Sweet Lips of Time," "Barefoot," "Sunshine and Promises," "The Turtle," and "Tumbleweeds."

I hope you'll enjoy reading Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Please let me know what you think of the new cover. Thanks.

Happy New Year!

The New Year 2012 snuck up on me. How did it get here so fast? I swear that Thanksgiving was only a couple days ago and Christmas was just yesterday. Did I get lost in time somewhere? Did I spend too much time on the computer?

Well, 2011 was a very good year for me. I fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming an author by ePubbing four books between August and November: "Outback Love," "Jetting Away," "Moon Over Madness" and "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows." I guess that is why the year zipped by so fast.

"Jetting Away" went free on Amazon October 27th and from that date on I've been on a roller coaster ride. To date, over 20,000 people have downloaded a copy of "Jetting Away." For weeks it was on the Best Sellers Top 100 Free ebook list on Amazon and then for weeks more on the Best Sellers Contemporary Fiction Top 100 Free ebook list. What an exciting ride for a new indie author. I can't thank you all enough for getting "Jetting Away."

In addition to the excitement on "Jetting Away," "Outback Love," my contemporary romance novel, was on the Best Sellers Contemporary Romance Top 100 Paid ebook list for a number of days. Needless to say, I was on Cloud-9 for all of those days.

In the midst of that roller coaster ride, I ePubbed a collection of eight short stories and eight poems, "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows." The date, 11/11/11, just seemed like a perfect day to bring out a new book. Unfortunately, "Bayou Blues..." is off to a slow start. However, it's now available as a free ebook to members of Amazon Prime. This is a book I've worked on for a very long time and am so pleased to finally have it out there. Writing poetry and short stories was my first love before writing novels.

November and December have been months of mostly dreaming and some writing. I've been working on several different ideas for some new novels. I managed to write partials on some of them and have hopes of finishing and ePubbing them in 2012. For now, I'll just say that I think you'll enjoy the novels I've been dreaming about and writing. If all goes well, I should have a new contemporary romance novel out before spring.

Many thanks to everyone who bought my books from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, Diesel and Kobo. Many thanks too to those on Twitter who re-Tweeted my many Tweets, mentioned me on Twitter, and/or chose to Follow me on Twitter. Thanks too for the very nice reviews I've received on my books on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

In the meantime, best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year for all.

Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows - A Collection of Short Stories and Poems

"Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows" is a collection of short stories and poems touching on issues that all may face at one time or another, from lost love to life changing crossroads to moments of pure joy.

Writing "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows" was an emotional rollar coaster ride, as I laughed and cried right along with the people in my stories and poems. Life is like that, sometimes sad and sometimes happy. I can't help but think that if we didn't have those sad times we'd never truly appreciate the happy times.

So that was my inspiration for writing this book. It was a labor of love into which I poured my whole heart and soul. Even the saddest of these stories has a happy ending, the gray cloud with a silver lining, the treasure at the end of the rainbow.

Life may put obstacles in our path now and then, but then it offers us many sparkling moments to embrace and treasure. I like to think that's what you'll experience in reading "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows."

Buy "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows" at Amazon.com and/or read a free excerpt:  BUY or READ

"Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows" - Now Available at Amazon.com

My latest book, "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows," was just ePubbed yesterday on 11/11/11. What a cool date to get published.

This is a collection of eight short stories and eight poems that touch on issues that all may face at one time or another, from lost love to life changing decisions to moments of pure happiness.

I enjoyed writing this book and hope you will enjoy reading it.

Here's a link to "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows," available now at Amazon.com for only $1.99.  BUY NOW

A Sneak Peek at "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows"

Here is a sneak peek at the cover for my latest ebook, "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows." I love how it turned out. My husband, Ben Heyer, did another great job in designing this cover. There is a big advantage having such a talented husband.

"Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows" is a collection of short stories and poems about life, love and other important issues. It should be available on Amazaon by mid-November.

I was originally aiming for a November 1st ePub of my book, only I was sick for all of last week, which delayed the launch. I'm really excited about this collection. It's more mainstream fiction with only a touch of romance.

Some of the short stories in this collection are: "Harry's Garden," "Checking Out," "A Kiss is Just a Kiss"  and "The Night of the UFO." I hope that gives you a tiny hint at what's inside.

Some of the poems in the collection are: "Bayou Blues," "Cartwheels," "Sweet Lips of Time" and "In a Cafe."

I'll let you know the minute "Bayou Blues and Other Sorrows" is available online at Amazon.com.