Holiday Blog Hop Winner

Time to announce the winner. The winner for my portion of the hop is Roberta. Congratulations! I hope you enjoy whichever book you choose.

I want to thank everyone who dropped by for the hop. And I wish you all good luck in winning the iPad2!

Evernight Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Evernight Holiday Blog Hop!

We love the holidays, we love making our readers happy and we love giving away swag. What better way to do that than to hold a blog hop?

Here's how it works... the more blogs you hop to (shown below) the more chance you have of winning prizes. Each site on the hop is offering a prize and Evernight is offering an iPad 2 as the grand prize! To be in with a chance of winning the site prize simply follow the blog you're visiting and leave a comment which includes your email address. Each entry on each blog is then counted towards the grand prize draw. The more entries you have, the better your chance of winning that iPad 2! You also get extra points for liking the Evernight Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/evernightpublishing. Just make sure you let us know in the comments that you've done so.
  
Happy hopping!

This is like Christmas come early! For my part, I am giving away a copy of one of my Evernight publications to one lucky winner. Those include Whimsy, Acting Witchy, and Just Vamps. I'll leave the choice up to the winner. For information on those books, visit my Books tab. Thank you for dropping by! Good luck and don't forget to leave your e-mail address!

Evernight Holiday Blog Hop

Computer Viruses Make You Paranoid - Or At Least They Make ME Paranoid

Well, I received a delightful unwanted gift before heading off to spend Thanksgiving with the family last week. I was wrapping up a few things on the internet when all of a sudden my laptop was telling me that it was in danger and that I should download a specific software to fix it. Of course, I recognized this for the virus that it was and ignored this message. But after this, I couldn't get on the internet at all. It was virtually holding my computer hostage.

I did a search for the specific virus and found a few sites to help me fix the issue. And then I went into download mode. I downloaded Spyware Blaster, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I got my hands on Norton 360, replacing my free anti-virus software. Then even though I never downloaded the software the virus recommended, I used my desktop to change my passwords. I took advantage of that neat little feature at Gmail to have them text me whenever another computer attempts to log into my account.

The worst part is the mystery of this virus's origins. I don't visit suspicious websites. I hadn't downloaded any attachments. I had three websites open: Gmail, Facebook, and a survey site that I've been a member of for about seven years. I'd just left Yahoo! I still don't know where I picked up this virus.

It's been a week and everything seems fine. But now my laptop is that cheating boyfriend that you can't quite bring yourself to trust again. I've backed up all my work. I've run scans through all of the above mentioned protections. But I'm still on the lookout for any unusual behavior....

Thanksgiving

Well, I'll be off to spend the week with family. Hopefully, I will get some writing done here and there, but I can't make any promises. I come from a big family. I am the youngest of seven children. So, yes, I'm spoiled. We're planning on getting together this year and everyone brings a dish. One of my sisters usually assigns who brings what. As the youngest, I never get this responsibility. But, thankfully, I also never get assigned the turkey.

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday.

Reviews

I know I shouldn't read them, but I admit I do. It can sometimes be painful, but sometimes, it gives me an insight into what readers want. Of course, you can't please everyone. I have seen some contradictory reviews. What one reader likes, another may hate.

It's funny in a way. I've seen reviews that comment on the covers of novels. For instance, I saw a comment where one reader said they didn't purchase a book because the cover featured a model with one color hair and in the sample it said his hair was another color. This brought to mind a review that someone wrote for one of my books that said they didn't feel that the cover model looked like the character. As authors, we are asked to fill out a form to help cover artists create a cover. (This may be a different story if a book is independently published.) I haven't created the cover for any of my books. I appreciate all the hard work that goes into creating covers and I thank everyone who has ever worked on one for me.

The other day I read a review where the reviewer overall enjoyed my book but felt that it had one too many F bombs. I actually thought this was funny and I've tried to tone it down in my books. Why did I think it was funny? In my everyday life, I almost never curse. Not even the four letter words that are condoned on television. It was a comment from an older sister of mine at a formative age. She said it wasn't ladylike. So I never developed the habit.

Anyway, keep the reviews coming. You never know when a comment might shape a future novel.

Just Vamps Blog Hop Winner

Congratulations to Cassandra for winning the blog hop. Thank you to everyone who participated!