Archive | February 2021

Books Released and Drive-Thru Baby Shower was Fun

So I was working on print covers and publishing both Saving the White Cougar, preorder for September 1st release, and Primal Desire is out. I need to grab all the links as soon as they’re available.

Stella White never believed that going on a cougar run would be such a dangerous excursion, painful, punishing, and pleasurable in the end. She realized that sometimes she just needed to get through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff and that meant meeting Ted Weekum, ranch foreman, and the kind of cowboy she’d only dreamed of.

Ted Weekum was visiting with his brother at the ranch when he thought he saw a white flash of fur, but it wasn’t until hunters started shooting up the place, claiming they’d shot a white cougar did the notion sink in that the cougar could be one of their own shifter kind. But a white cougar? Unheard of. And yet when he went to save her life—that’s exactly what he found. A rare white cougar. Unclaimed. Unmated. The right age. The stars had aligned right that night.

But the hunters aren’t through with hunting down the wounded white cougar, or Stella White.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1138912166?ean=2940162539957

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1071511

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Terry_Spear_Saving_the_White_Cougar?id=1HcgEAAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/saving-the-white-cougar

https://books.apple.com/us/book/saving-the-white-cougar/id1555858191

On the one had, I wanted to work some more on proofing Dreaming of the Wolf, so I could get that done and turned in. Such a fun story. On the other hand, I wanted to feel that the weeks I have worked on the other two books counted for something and are finally available to readers. Primal Desire has been in the making for 10 years, so it really felt good to get that one done.

Primal Desire

Selena Townsend has no idea what will happen after she kills a fellow hunter while protecting an innocent vampiress. She’s ostracized, but acquitted of charges against her, but now she’s looking for her sister who has disappeared. That mission takes her to a vampire club and all kinds of trouble.

Atreides has been in charge of the vampire clans, while his brother is off on a honeymoon with his new mate. He doesn’t expect a huntress to walk into one of their vampire clubs, which is just not done, and then return later after being savagely attacked by a vampire. He has to take care of her before the League of Hunters learns of it, and then he wants to pawn her off on the hunters who can protect her pronto! But he finds he really doesn’t want to give her up after all.

War between the hunters and the vampires could break out any moment unless they find the rogue hunters who are killing innocent vampiresses and the vampire who had attacked Selena and other huntresses at the same time—and terminate the rogues.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/primal-desire-terry-spear/1138909479?ean=2940162539827

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1071480

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Terry_Spear_Primal_Desire?id=yHcgEAAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/primal-desire-5

https://books.apple.com/us/book/primal-desire/id1555857792

As I updated my list in the back of the books, I noticed the poor little fantasy book that has been listed for years as TBD–meaning the date To Be Determined–the Emerald Isle of Mists. It’s part of a fantasy trilogy and when I wrote the first two, I couldn’t get them picked up by a publisher, so I finally gave up and didn’t write the 3rd book. That was way before self-publishing was even possible. Then I self-published the other two, and I still need to write this one. I’d love to get that done this year too. But it’s only just been started. And I’d love to have another polar bear shifter book out. *sigh*

We had a nice baby shower drive-thru and gave out candy and bubbles and bottled water. And several friends gave diapers–always needed! And hand-me-downs, which is great and my daughter asked for them. She gave all her adorable girl baby clothes to my son, in case they have a girl. It really helps since the kids grow out of their clothes so fast and don’t wear them out.

Everyone wore masks and it was good to see the little ones who have aged a year and they hadn’t been able to see them, including the baby that my daughter and son-in-law went to their drive-thru baby shower for so it was the first time they saw the baby.

It will be good in the future when people can feel free to enjoy being around other people without worrying about getting deathly sick over it.

Onward and upward, lots of stuff needing my attention! So I’m off to do something! Proofing Dreaming of the Wolf first, I think.

Never give up! Never surrender!

Have a super great day!!!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
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A Baby Shower Means the Baby is Coming Soon…

Feb27

I’m excited to say I figured out some backstory and a plan for the United Shifter Force Christmas for the Christmas anthology I’m doing with a group of shifter authors. I’m not sure of the list. It keeps changing. But when I have it, I’ll share it. I think it’s coming out in December. More on that later.

My 4thewords Avatar. My granddaughter loves to help me dress her. lol I have trouble dressing her the way I want, unless she’s not around. I’ve earned all this by writing to fulfill quests.

I had to look up writing prompts for Christmas stories and I had it! So much fun. The thing about writing prompts is they’re so generic that anyone can used them and come up with a totally different story. I already have some backstory on the human homicide detective and I’ve started the story in different ways twice already, but now I have it. The first story didn’t have him. The second, he was working on a homicide. I write romantic suspense so writing them during a Christmas story is par for the course. But this time, I wanted to write something lighter. No murders this time. At least that’s what I say. What do I know? As I get into the story, a dead body might show up.

But for now, it’s more lighthearted and different fun. As I was brainstorming the hero and heroine I came up with a connection they’d had years earlier. I can’t plot out a book but at least I can set up the motivation and goals and occupations of the persons involved. The heroine also works at the United Shifter Force, but she’s a gray wolf.

Writing prompts are great because it gets me out of my own mindset and gives me ideas that I can twist around and use. Here were a couple. You can do all kinds of different things with a couple of prompts like this.

A Christmas card arrives in the mail fifty years after it was delivered.
The Christmas ornament is supposedly enchanted.

If I were writing a fantasy, the Christmas ornament one would be fun. But it could be anything: it shouldn’t have been there. It was tossed years ago. She saw it in a store, but nobody admits they bought it for her or how it got there. She swore something moved inside it when she was looking at it. Like a glimpse of a Christmas past–of snow and ice skating on a lake and then in a blink of an eye, all she can see is her own reflection. Just anything that gives the imagination a run for the money.

Maybe I can find one of these to use for the Christmas story I need to write for Red Wolf after Billionaire!

So I went to the grocery store yesterday morning first thing and they were still out of some things, and a lot of items had limit signs on them. This is all due to the ice storm, I think.

I turned in my marketing materials yesterday morning for White Wolf and I’m working on proofing Dreaming of the Wolf 10th anniversary book. It’s 410 pages with the new novella included, and I’m up to 86 pages so far. I did work on the print version of Saving the White Cougar’s cover also today. I wish I had gotten more done! I had dinner with the kids and then today is the baby shower for a couple of hours, but before that, I hope to get a lot more of Dreaming done.

I was working with my granddaughter on writing her numbers. It’s interesting how she always starts from top to bottom. I’m trying to teach her the “right” way because what if the teachers don’t like her writing the “wrong” way and mark her down? But the thing is, if she can draw her letters, and her alphabet, and they look great, what difference does it make?

I remember my son having trouble with math in school, and I was teaching him how to do some of it the way I learned to do and he was doing a great job and coming up with the right answers finally. But the teacher told him, no, you have to do it her way! What way matters if you can get the right answer? Right?

So I try to teach my granddaughter how to do her numbers and letters the way they want them done, but if I were queen? I would let her do it the way it works for her, if in doing so, she did a great job. When my son was young, the teacher told them to draw something for class and it was Thanksgiving, so the other kids all drew sailing ships. My son drew a Star Wars fighter plane.

Let the creativity flow and you never know what brilliance you might discover. He’s the one who has just created a game that he plans to release this summer. Though he tells me there’s a lot of math involved in game development, and guess what? He does just fine.

I have too much to do, too little time!

Have a great day!

Terry

Upcoming Books

Feb26

I’m so excited! I finished proofing Saving the White Cougar and created the cover for it. That’s for ebook. I need to work on the print cover next. And I finished proofing Primal Desire the other day, so now I just need to get them ready for publication. I sent off the copyrights for both last night. So this was what I planned. Friday, I’d get them ready for publication. And then after that, I could sit down and start proofing White Wolf next.

Then I get a message that I need to proof Dreaming of the Wolf–10th Anniversary release, and write up the marketing materials for White Wolf.

I think everyone’s conspiring against me. lol

The marketing materials are due on Monday, so I need to get them done this weekend. And I’ll begin proofing Dreaming maybe this weekend. Maybe I’ll proof white wolf first so it will help me with writing the long synopsis for the marketing materials. I think that’s the hardest part. Trying to hit all the major plot points in a long synopsis for a 100K book. I’ve read two other books all the way through since I finished writing White Wolf. And as they say, I’ve slept since then. So what was the story about?l

But I HAVE to get groceries first thing. I ran out of milk even while little one was here yesterday. And I’m out of everything practically but dog food. As soon as I told her I was out of milk, she asked, “Did you put milk and yogurt on the list, Grandma?”

I should tell her no, but she can. And I should have made it a learning experience.

She’s so funny. She’ll say something and then say, “Well, actually…… ” And then end it with, “Actually.” lol I wonder who she gets that from? Me or her mom? Maybe both of us.

I am working on You Had Me at Cougar after all the other stuff, and I’m thinking about the next Billionaire book. I see the heroine rescuing the hero. I loved the princess and prince stories when I was young, but I always thought they should have helped save the day too. Not just being damsels in distress. Well, scratch that. They are also in distress. No fun if they aren’t. But so are the heroes.

I’m off to the grocery store. And then proofing or writing or something!

Have a great day!!

Terry

Now I Know My ABCs…

Feb25

alphabet letter text on black background — Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

Yesterday was a good day. It actually was 80 degrees today, and we went outside and enjoyed the nice weather and took a walk.

So since my granddaughter’s parents and I are always on computers, I wanted to show my granddaughter how to find the letters and type the ABCs. We did capital and lowercase letters and when she held her finger down too long on a letter, she learned to use the backspace key and to use the enter key to skip to the next line.

It was good because even though she knows her alphabet–can sing it, knows the letters to see them, if she’s not singing it, she doesn’t know what comes next. So when it was time to type a new letter, she would sing the beginning of the song and eventually near the end she knew all the rest of the letters.

So then we did the same thing with numbers. For numbers, when she reaches 10, she always gets confused and says zero one. She can count to a hundred, but always has trouble with the transition when she reaches the next 10–20, 30. So by having her actually type the number each time, it was sinking in a little more about the number twelve having a 1 and then a 2 and so on. We draw numbers too, but I think this will help to reinforce it in a way that’s fun because no one will let her touch their keyboards. It’s just something different. Eventually, I can teach her how to type. I had special games my daughter used to learn to type and she really had fun doing them. Not like when I was back in school. And they didn’t have those kinds of games when my son was my daughter’s age.

The problem with my keyboard is I have some missing letters since I wear them off writing stories. So I have to tell her what the missing letters are. lol

I think it’s fun coming up with different ways to teach kids things. It keeps them interested in learning when they get bored with it.

Ironically, some kids had written the whole alphabet across their driveway in chalk, and when she and I took our walk, she had to go along and say each of the letters and then do them again, just for fun. It was so cute and a fun reinforcement again of her capital letters. We might end up doing that too, just take the chalk out and draw. It’s supposed to rain on and off all week, so we’ll see.

I finished up the promo blogs to send to my publisher, and I’m over halfway through proofing Saving the White Cougar. I’m hoping I can spend Friday getting both that book and Primal Desire ready to publish, though I still need to work on the cover for cougar. I need a white cougar. They’re so rare, I can’t buy a photography, so I was watching Youtube videos on how to turn a color of something white. I bought a photo of the couple, and next need to turn it into a fall/Halloween setting because it’s supposed to be a Halloween book.

Today I have my granddaughter and sometime before she comes and after she leaves and while she’s napping, I’ll try to finish up the rest of proofing Saving the White Cougar.

I also began working on setting up the first of the 17 titles of the audiobooks on Findaway Voices–that will take some time and concentration, so I have one more than halfway done. Those will be available through a wide variety of sources then, and through libraries too.

I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow–desperately. My SIL said that a lot of foods weren’t available in some of the aisles, most likely because deliveries couldn’t be made on Saturday. I was too busy working on White Wolf on Monday and Tuesday to get the groceries. With Covid, I don’t take my granddaughter anywhere.. So I hope when I go, I’ll be able to get what I need.

Hope you all have a lovely day. It’s supposed to be rainy here, which is fine with me!

Terry

Elf and the Wisp-o’-the-Will

Feb24

I created the background from two different pictures and the elf from DAZ3D

I had to pick up my granddaughter from daycare and the poor little thing was crying. The reason? They woke her from her nap. Now the ironic thing about that is she doesn’t need naps. Ever. She doesn’t fall asleep every afternoon. No siree, Bob. She doesn’t need naps. lol

Today I have her for the day, but still need to get a million things done. My audiobooks are non-exclusive with audible now so I need to set them up on Findaway Voices. That’s 17 titles, so it will take me a while. I finished proofing Primal Desire yesterday, and I started proofing Saving the White Cougar and I was working on promo blogs for The Wolf Wore Plaid and a little bit on You Had Me at Cougar, the summer book. So a lot of stuff that I need to get done before the baby gets here because I’ll be helping the kids with him next too. Oh and next up is the next Billionaire book once I proof White Wolf.

So my granddaughter goes to the doctor with her momma to get the baby checked out. It’s due in about 6 weeks. The doctor lets her hear the baby’s heartbeat.

“Did you want to hear your heartbeat?” the doctor asked my granddaughter.

Her eyes widen. “I don’t have a baby in my tummy!”

With that, I’m off to write before she gets here!

Hope you all have a great day!!!

Terry

Sometimes You Need a Good Howl!

Feb23

Some days don’t you feel you just need to howl? Picture created with Oscraps and other clip art. Sometimes we get ourselves into a tight spot. Here’s hoping we can come out of it in good shape!

Yay! So I’m over halfway through proofing Primal Desire! I think I finished White Wolf yesterday. I did all the last of the major rewrites and added scenes. I have to re-read it from beginning to end and there might be some changes still needed, but I have to give it a couple of days’ break so I can look at if with fresh eyes.

In the meantime, I’m now proofing Primal Desire one last time and then I’ll be getting it ready to publish. I’ll be doing the same with Saving the White Cougar, but that one will be a preorder. So as soon as I finish proofing Primal Desire, I’ll begin proofing Saving the White Cougar one last time. I need to create a cover for that and that means finding a good cougar photo to add to my couple, and turn it white. 🙂

All this means no word count for a bit, though I will try to get some done for my 4theword game so I can keep my writing streak going. Even my blogs can count for that. And I need to write some promo blogs for Primal Desire, so I can work on them on 4thewords too.

I didn’t have to pick up little one yesterday and that helped because about by three, I had finally finished White Wolf and jumped on Primal Desire proofing.

The snow and ice are over–for now, so I’m back to weeding.

Hope you all have a great day! I’ve got to get back to proofing Primal Desire so I can publish it. This book was 10 years in coming, and periodically I would work on it. So now, it’s nearly done. Yay!

Terry

Pelican and Sailboat in San Diego

Feb22

I feel like a broken record. Still working on the White Wolf book rewrites. I came to the end of the book, found a scene that I had moved around and around and it belongs earlier in the book, so trying to figure out where to put it now. lol Okay, finally found its home. Still need a more finished ending to the story though. Will work on that until I have to pick up little one today.

I used Oscraps border, but took the picture of the pelican in flight and the sailboat in the background in San Diego some years ago.

In the meantime, I read where some people in Texas were getting humongous electric bills. Not just what I had heard via the grapevine before but some Texans received electric bills amounting to $17,000. Forget paying the mortgage, car payments, health insurance, home insurance, car insurance–taxes!, other bills, for food, gas, or whatever else you need to live on during the month because all your money, and the loan you’re going to have to take out will have to pay for the electric bill. Is that nuts, or what?

Like I said before, heads should roll over this whole fiasco. Now some are saying that the government is going to help people like that out who were charged such high bills. Well, thank you very much, but why is this even happening in the first place? And what does helping customers out mean in real terms? That their normal $200+ bill would still be a $200+ bill, or they might have to still pay a couple of thousand?

We have plenty of sun and wind in the state, but the powers that be want to keep their money in the fossil fuels which means Texas is literally screwed. Well, except for those who reap the benefits of profits from fossil fuels. Will someone please step forward who is truly for the PEOPLE and progress?

My electric bill comes due in a few days and I’m hoping I won’t have any heart attack surprises like that too. It didn’t look like it when I looked at my account, but who knows, right? None of these people knew they were going to get that kind of a bill either.

I really, really, really believe this year will get better. Sometime. Some day. Hopefully sooner than later!

I have faith. Unless I end up with a $17,000 electric bill.

Have a beautiful day and stay safe!

Terry

Weirder Weather

Feb21

blue body of water with orange thunder — Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

They say that the weather is going to keep getting weirder. That that’s the effect of global warming. It’s Weirder Weather time.

I believe it. I just hope we don’t have another hurricane or tropical storm in the area once the season hits us for that. That runs from June through November, but you know what they say. That’s for normal weather! We’re supposed to be at 70 today, 10 degrees just a couple of days ago and if that isn’t weird, I don’t know what is.

And the weather is just getting–weirder.

One of our previous storms and the clouds can be just beautiful

I’m still rewriting huge sections of the story that I thought were fine with the new earlier rewrites but now I can see they aren’t. So I’m rewriting, editing them again on paper at night and finding lots of corrections to make still. My goal was to have this totally rewritten and begin proofing today, but I’m probably just going to be rewriting all day and adding new scenes. I stripped away 8500 words yesterday, which is good, but I need to write another couple of scenes again. Maybe by Tuesday I will be at the proofing stages. I’ve been working at this every day for days from early in the morning until late at night. And it is getting better.

So I’m off to work. Late morning wake up–the first time ever for me–after a late night of edits and then ghostly, haunted dreams. Blinds down, doors locked, everyone staying in the same room, except for the person who just couldn’t sleep with the rest of us, and you know what happens to the person who has to go off on their own during a haunted session, right?

Anyway, I managed to stay alive until morning. Isn’t that great? I can write more books now! Or finish the ones nearly there.

Have a great day and stay safe! There are all kinds of things out there that can be way scarier than us.

Terry

Junco in Snow and Ice

Feb20

My friend in Minnesota tells me that when the Junco arrives, it means snow is coming. Well, it sure worked here in Texas too.

We still have snow on the ground, still freezing temperatures through the night and this morning. When I saw how many people died at home due to hypothermia because of the week-long hard freeze we had and no electricity, it made me wonder how cold it had to be to get it. The horrible fact is that none of those people had to die.

Apparently, there are no hard and fast rules.

Today we will get to 58, and perversely, 70 tomorrow.

I heard someone say that Texas never gets snow. Sure we do. I’ve been in snowstorms in Amarillo, whiteout conditions trying to drive home to Canyon from work in Amarillo. I’ve slid all over the black ice roads trying to get to Fort Hood in an ice storm along with countless others when they didn’t close the fort early enough. In Crawford, I have pictures of the number of times we had snow, both at my home and later when I lived at my mother’s. In Houston, I’ve only lived here for six years, and we’ve had snow for 3 of those years. My pipes froze in Crawford a couple of times. My pipes froze here. I’ve been stuck in Dallas during a snowstorm and couldn’t get a flight out.

So yes, we do get cold weather. It doesn’t last this long–a week of way below freezing temperatures down to 10 degrees, but yes, we can get freezing temperatures, snow, and sleet.

And even if we don’t get it very often or for very long, there shouldn’t be any reason why we had to go through what we did this week and for people to die because of it.

Okay, I’ve got to get to work on this book. It’s nearly at 100K, I thought I was cutting some out! At least I’m writing about summer. Heat, paddling, swimming. I should be writing my Christmas book!

Have a super great day!!! And stay safe!

Terry

2021 Was Supposed to Get Better!

Feb19

I’m a long ways from finishing White Wolf but I’m getting closer. 🙂 It’s been a job with changing out the whole new beginning, and I’ve deleted some scenes, added a ton more and I definitely like the story better. Minimum word count is 80K, I’m now at 96K, and I’m sure I’ll be deleting more, just not sure what to take out and what to keep. I still need to write more.

I don’t often include the bad guy’s POV in the book, but in this case I did because I did in the original story he was in. And because it adds more conflict.

We still have freezing temperatures, still have some snow on the ground. Electricity has stayed on. Thank God! Because of the screw up by so many concerning the electric grid failures across much of Texas, the word is getting out that for 2 days–or more, electric customers will be charged $400 per day. Like everybody can afford that, right?

So we can thank those who, as usual, are making the big bucks and failing do to what they should have done to prevent this from occurring in the first place. Heads should roll, comes to mind. And when we have a crisis this bad–people are still without electric, some counties are on boil water orders–with no electric, how is that possible?–more pipes will burst without electric–some people are without water, plumbers are stretched to the max, and we haven’t even thawed out to see how bad it will be, we should all just head to Cancun, right?

Meanwhile:

The New York Times states: “The number of confirmed Covid deaths in the U.S. is on pace to exceed 500,000 in the next few days.

Yet the alarmism continues. And now we are seeing its real-world costs: Many people don’t want to get the vaccine partly because it sounds so ineffectual.

About one-third of members of the U.S. military have declined vaccine shots. When shots first became available to Ohio nursing-home workers, about 60 percent said no. Some N.B.A. stars are wary of appearing in public-services ads encouraging vaccination.

Nationwide, nearly half of Americans would refuse a shot if offered one immediately, polls suggest. Vaccination skepticism is even higher among Black and Hispanic people, white people without a college degree, registered Republicans and lower-income households.” The New York Times

hands with latex gloves holding a globe with a face mask — Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

Why? It’s safe, it’s effective. It reduces the downtime of being sick if you get Covid. We need to dumb down the rhetoric. With all the high-fluting medical jargon, people aren’t getting the right message. And more people are going to die from it. I don’t understand it, but hey, what do I know?

Put it this way–if everyone gets the vaccine, maybe we can open businesses up again??? Maybe no masks after the 2nd dose and the time waited for it to be effective, right? Anyway, I can’t worry about people not taking care of themselves. I just have to worry about doing what’s right for my characters in my books. Would they take the vaccine? You’d better believe it.

I saw a post that said:

2020: The Year in Hell

2021: The Year Hell Froze Over

Okay, I’m back to the book, living in the wonderful world of fantasy where we have a happily ever after!

Have a super great day and stay safe!!

Terry

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Terry Spear's Shifters

"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."

Archive | February 2021

Books Released and Drive-Thru Baby Shower was Fun

A Baby Shower Means the Baby is Coming Soon…

Upcoming Books

Now I Know My ABCs…

Elf and the Wisp-o’-the-Will

Sometimes You Need a Good Howl!

Pelican and Sailboat in San Diego

Weirder Weather

Junco in Snow and Ice

2021 Was Supposed to Get Better!