Patience and Persistence Equals Progress

Is anyone else really feeling the time change this time around? I’ve been enjoying sunrise occurring before I walk the dogs in the morning before work, but when I woke up at 6:30am this morning, it was DARK. Ugh, I guess it’s back to walking the dogs in the pitch black again. Yay.

Anyhoo, another week of ice packs and heating pads has gone by. I wrote in my last blog post about the difficulties I was having adjusting to my new reality in which I can’t go full out in a Zumba class or I’ll have to limp home with crying knees. It was also disturbing and frustrating how achy my knees felt after a 45-minute dance lesson. I had a lot of questions swirling around in my head (still do) about what my apparent limitations meant for me and my dancing future.

Continue reading

Advertisement

Checking In and a Holiday Sale

Everyone survive the Thanksgiving holiday? I ate plenty, but not too much. There was more food coming at a birthday party on Friday, so I tried to pace myself. Now, on Saturday, I don’t feel like I’m still full so I must have succeeded.

I love 4-day weekends (who doesn’t?)! I’ve been off from the day job for two days already, and it’s only Saturday! Of course, I still have to do some overtime work for the office, but at least I get to do it from home. And I get to write to you guys too!

Continue reading

Inspired by Dance and You

One of the big unexpected side effects of ballroom dancing I continue to experience is the courage to dive into my other passions. I’ve always loved creative writing, but hadn’t done it consistently in years until I started dancing, after which I started blogging. I also realized my dream of being a published author. The tree of life tattoo idea I had since high school finally fully formed in my mind after I started dancing, and then I actually got it inked!

Continue reading

Interview on The Dancing Housewife Show

Hi everyone!  A little while ago, I was honored to be interviewed for the Dancing Housewife podcast. The episode aired today!

the-dancing-housewife-podcast

We talk about the inspiration behind my Dance Diaries series (including my personal experience behind the infamous “Friendly vs. Friends” article), the origins of my tree tattoo, and of course, my ballroom dancing.

You can listen to it on Google Play, iTunes or Podomatic. You can also access it directly on The Dancing Housewife’s blog.

Thanks for listening!

A Thank-You Note to 2016

2016 was a rough year. Just in the last week, the world lost two amazing women, who were also two of my favorite Hollywood actors. Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were an inspiration to me. Princess Leia showed us that we can be strong and feminine at the same time. The way Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds’ character in Singin’ in the Rain) teases Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) as she’s driving him to Beverly Hills is my go-to when I’m searching for my Foxtrot character. I love the way she playfully puts him in his place and firmly stands up for herself, despite the fact he is a famous (and therefore intimidating) celebrity.

Continue reading

Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday Sale!

Cyber Monday Update – Sale price now available on BookBaby and Amazon! See the Dance Diaries page for links. PayPal links are still available for those of you who want to buy direct. 

Thank you for supporting this author during this shopping season!

I confess – I’m jumping on the holiday bandwagon. Although many stores are ignoring the calendar and proper order of things, this Friday represents the beginning of a month-long shopping spree in America. Personally, I like to stay home and watch movies all day on Black Friday. A mall packed with eager and/or desperate crowds scrambling to find that perfect gift or best deal is not my idea of a good time.

If you’re like me and would rather shop online than in a crowded mall, I have a solution! The Dance Diaries series is going on sale this weekend, starting on Black Friday and going through Cyber Monday.

dance-diaries-holiday-cover-photo

Anywhere you like to shop for digital books (i.e., Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, etc.), Learning Ballroom Dance and Ballroom Budgeting will be discounted to $2.99 and $3.99, respectively. You can also look for them on my own BookBaby shop pages.

Fun fact: if you buy my books directly through BookBaby, I get a greater percentage of the sale price AND the books are available in any eReader format you need – ePub, mobi and PDF.

If you have someone in your life who has been wanting to try ballroom, give the gift of inside knowledge with Learning Ballroom Dance

If you know someone whose passion for ballroom is greater than the size of their wallet, give the gift of Ballroom Budgeting

The sale is only during this crazy shopping weekend though!  Friday through Monday, and then the prices go back to their usual amounts.

Please help spread the word, and as always, happy dancing!

Dance Diaries on Tour!

The Dance Diaries virtual book tour is only one week away happening NOW! I have mixed emotions about that fact, but mainly I’m excited.

From September 26 to October 14, Dance Diaries: Learning Ballroom Dance (Dance Diaries #1) and Dance Diaries: Ballroom Budgeting (Dance Diaries #2) will be featured and/or reviewed on a number of websites, most of which are book blogs. Some of them have also requested guest posts or author interviews from me, so their readers can hear from me directly.

I signed up with iReads Book Tours, and they arranged everything for me. Here is the schedule:

Sept 26 – Jaquo Lifestyle Magazine – book spotlight / guest post
Sept 26 – Books, Dreams, Life – book spotlight
Sept 27 – Library of Clean Reads – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview / giveaway
Sept 27 – Writers and Authors – book spotlight / author interview
Sept 27 – Books for Books – book spotlight
Sept 28 – The Autistic Gamer – review of Dance Diaries #1
Sept 28 – The Dance Bible – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview
Sept 29 – Bound 4 Escape – review of Dance Diaries #1 / giveaway
Sept 29 – Library of Clean Reads – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Sept 30 – Northernmsw – review of Dance Diaries #1 / author interview
Sept 30 – T’s Stuff – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 3 –     The Autistic Gamer – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 3 –     #redhead.with.book – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 4 –     Bound 4 Escape – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Oct 5 –     Bookworm for Kids – review of Dance Diaries #1 / giveaway
Oct 5 –     Book reviews nature photos – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 6 –     Book reviews nature photos – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 6 –     The All Night Library – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 6 –     The Dance Bible – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 7 –     Rockin’ Book Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
Oct 11 –    Northernmsw – review of Dance Diaries #2
Oct 11 –   Readers Muse – review of Dance Diaries #1
Oct 12 –   Bookworm for Kids – review of Dance Diaries #2 / giveaway
Oct 13 –   The All Night Library (separate links for review and guest post) – review of Dance Diaries #2 / guest post

Oct 13 –   Book Lover in Florida – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 14 –   Readers Muse – review of Dance Diaries #2

TBD –      XoXo Book Blog – book spotlight
TBD –      Deal Sharing Aunt – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway

You’ll note some of the scheduled tour stops include a giveaway! You’ll have to visit the sites on the appropriate days to get more details, but there may be a chance to win an Amazon gift card! *hint hint*

You can also access the giveaway link here.

You’ll also note just by the names of the blogs that the majority are not dance-related sites. The point of all this is to reach more readers and hopefully introduce more people to ballroom dancing. It’s also good exposure for me as a writer and author. I’m still not exactly sure where this path is taking me, but I want to find out and the only way to do that is keep moving forward!

The mixed emotions I mentioned in the beginning are courtesy of my demons, of course. I’m excited to reach a broader audience and connect with new readers! But there’s always that lingering doubt/fear that I’ll be rejected or called out as a fraud. Or worse yet, my books will be met with a whole lot of indifference!

I know these feelings are normal, and every writer out there can relate. All I can do is take a deep breath and push forward anyway. I keep reminding myself to glance back and acknowledge how far I’ve come despite being terrified. It’s almost hard to believe.

So I hope you’ll tag along and check out some of the stops on the tour. I’m sure the other bloggers who have been gracious enough to welcome me and my books to their websites will appreciate your visit just as much as I do! I’m going to keep this post on the top of my blog page until the tour ends, so it’ll be easy for you to check the schedule and click over to the other sites.

Cheers!

Just Enjoy It – Two Great Lessons and a Book Launch

This past week, I had my two regular lessons, one working on rhythm and the other working on smooth. During the rhythm lesson, we danced the cha cha routine to music and I NAILED that stupid spin TWICE! Then we worked on rumba and I “upgraded” my hip movement, according to Teacher. During the smooth lesson, we revisited tango. Teacher wanted me to focus on keeping my right arm forward (I tended to let it pull back, especially when the movement required me to put my left side forward). We worked on these tiny adjustments I could make to be able to take my left side forward without affecting the right.

You know how your teacher will tell you to do something and keep telling you you’re not doing it and then all of a sudden, after making the tiniest adjustment that you may or may not be aware that you made, they exclaim “yes, that’s it!”? Usually, in that situation, I have no idea what adjustment I made. But during this week’s smooth lesson, I actually started to feel it. I consciously made a tiny correction while we were dancing and Teacher felt it and confirmed it was correct!

Sounds like an awesome week, right? Well, it was!

So what’s the catch? There must be something, it can’t all be good.

Continue reading