Get Lost in a Story: Her real name is Clover

Today, I'm over at Get Lost in a Story: Her real name is Clover: Charity Greves has the gift of healing. So when a wounded bleeding Highlander materializes out of the air into her kitchen, she does w...

Go over and leave a comment for a possible pdf of my newest book. (It's not even out yet!) 

The Making of a Book Cover

Thought you might like to see the transformation a cover has to go through.
This is the original picture I purchased from Dreamstime.


Then it got flipped horizontally so that when it goes to print there will be enough picture for the back cover. The cat was also removed since there are no cats in the book. No offense to cat lovers. It also went through some intense color saturation to make the heroine pop as well as dodged and burned to bring out the details like the rain. 
The above transformation will be kept for when we are ready to create the cover for the paperback version with plenty of room for the back cover blurb.

Cropping for the ebook version comes next and then the title and author fonts and placements. So here's the final version ready to go to market as soon as the final draft is complete. For more information about the making of covers, visit my husband's website at patautrey.com.







Highland Sorcerer in Paperback

It's in Paperback form. Highland Sorcerer can be bought as a paperback. Isn't it pretty? I love this cover so much.

Get your Paperback here at Amazon.
For the Nook
For the Kindle

Kilt Up

Best Sporran Ever
Kilt with flip flops
This old chap made sure we knew he was a MacGregor
Babes in Kilts


In Texas heat, socks are optional
Sporrans

Scottish Highland Festival in Texas

The Texas Scottish Festival in Arlington, Texas is the first Highland Festival we've ever attended. Mayfest and the Scarborough Renaissance Festival run the same time and we've been to both of those so it was time for something different and since we do have Scottish roots from the Clan Buchanan, it was time to get our Scottish on. It was fun and interesting. Only 93 degrees out so not incredibly terrible. Lots of artisans selling their wares, good food, clan tents represented, athletes throwing weird hammers and logs around, musicians, dancers, and guys walking around in kilts.

Here's a few pictures:


Haggis anyone? Considering that it's made from the lining of a lamb and other, um, interesting bits and pieces, it is really really tasty. Seriously. I was surprised at how good it is.Then there is the meat pie below, totally different than the pot pies I grew up with. These had little to no veggies, but are just so yummy. I can see why they are a favorite.
I'll add a few more pictures tomorrow of all the different kilts roaming the field.


Waiting Room Boredom

My husband went in for a simple procedure yesterday. What should have taken less than an hour ended up being 3 hours, half of that waiting to even get called to the back to begin.

So what do you do when you have to wait? And wait. Here are my tips:

1. Always have a book on you. Whether you bring an eReader or a paperback, have it.

2. Pad and Pen. A must have. Yes, I got some writing in. Other waitees kept giving me out-of-the-corner glances, wondering what I was writing so furiously and could it possibly be about them.

3. Bring a snack. Okay, I didn't. Nor had I eaten because I wasn't hungry and we were going to grab lunch together afterwards. Mistake. The only thing louder than my scrawling pen over paper was my stomach growling. That got several looks as well. And then we didn't have time to eat because I was late for work. Grrrr. A reeses peanut butter cup, though satisfying, is not lunch.

4. Um, possibly the food network wasn't the best channel for the telly's waiting room. Oh my gurgling belly, all these mouth-savoring dishes kept flashing across the screen. I think all of us in there were holding back from making a run on the nurses' stash and devouring all the juice and crackers. Several were white-knuckling their armrests. Have enough courage to ask the receptionist to change the channel.

5. Bring a smart phone. I do not wear big girl panties yet. I have not graduated into the era of smart phones, mores the pity. I bored holes into the guys happily social networking their way through waiting room boredom, most likely tweeting about being trapped in a waiting with a scary woman staring at their high-grade technology.

6. Play Brick Attack on your not-smart dumb phone. Boringest slowest game ever. Pong was more exciting.

How do you relieve waiting room boredom?

Why I Like Time Travels

I'm over at the Sweet Not Spicy blog all week talking about what I love about Time Travels. Come on over and join me!