The first of these stories was LuvU4Ever, written on a late December day when I realized I hadn't published anything that entire year.
You see, 2014 was a year of renovating the home we'd bought northwest of Houston (contractor said 3 months *ROTFL) then the unpacking.
By May, I was in the doctor's office. The rest of the year is a fog created by prescription muscle relaxers to help me deal with the pain of strained muscles in the rhomboid group of my right shoulder.
Back to My Story Reno
Writing the short story, set in December, gave me a boost. I decided if I couldn't get an actual book written, at least I could do a short story.
The story was also my way of dealing with a friend's depressing situation, kind of writing a reversal on what had happened in real life. That's what I love about writing fiction. I can wave my magic wand and make everything work out well in the end.
Time rocked along, and I wrote Last Chance New Year, my second short story.
Huh. Set at another holiday. Also, to my surprise, I found myself writing "in" the couple in the first short story. They played matchmaker for the second couple.
Plus, the new couple both worked at the company owned by the first story's hero. I hadn't planned that. It just happened.
A few months later, I wrote a third story, Blame It On Chocolate.
Geez! Another holiday and with some of the people from the other stories referenced.
Obviously, my Muse was trying to make a series out of these stories! The problem with that was her timing sucked!
A Valentine's story published in July? My Muse needs to get a calendar and/or get inspired before a holiday, not months after!
Last year, on my writing goal list, I put down "rewrite the 3 existing stories, reinforcing the links between them, and outline another 10 stories, each set during a monthly holiday celebration.
My plan was to end up with a 13 story series that began with a Christmas and ended with a Christmas.
I got to work on it this year. First I outlined all the other stories and created relationship links with everyone from the first book to the last! That was a job!
Then I had my cover artist take my original covers and incorporate the main art into a new cover. I branded better by consistently using the graphic style on each cover and also incorporated font consistency.
I've managed to get the first story, LuvU4Ever edited. The new version is on Amazon. (These short stories are wide, but I'm going to remove them from other channels until I have the other 2 edited.)
I had planned to publish a short story every month, but then I undertook the Romance Gems journey! As if that wasn't challenging enough, I accepted too many contract deadlines, and had a lot of life crap happen. *LOL* That's the way I rock and roll, it seems.
LuvU4Ever is free on Amazon and should be free on all Amazon Kindle shops, but I won't guarantee it.
Seems a reader in another country told me she had to pay whatever the equivalent of 99centts was. So if you go to grab a free copy, make sure it shows as free.
This next weekend, I'll have the other 2 short stories edited and uploaded. If you want to read them, wait until Sunday please to check them out.
So that's my Pop-Up Giveaway for you this month.
By the way, the snow scene on the cover of LuvU4Ever was taken near downtown Houston.
We've had a lot of freaky winter weather since 2013 including snow from 2013 through 2017.
Now let me tell you about our Fabulous July Giveaway.
Our Rafflecopter opens at midnight July 5 so as soon as you finish your July 4 fireworks, you can go online and enter. The Giveaway runs through July 25.
You can watch a video about our giveaway in Movie Theater or on YouTube. (I appreciate LIKEs and shares on your social media pages.)
The Monthly Giveaway page lists all the prizes. Enter often and tell your friends about Romance Gems.
