Tag Archive | games

Monkeying Around

Nov16

Okay, so I should quit monkeying around and get to work, but baby is here today, so that puts a real crimp in writing.

Monkey chilling, manta ray swimming, and snow sitting on shelf mushrooms.

Wrote 4,000 words yesterday! Getting close to the end of The Witch and the Jaguar, about 5,000 more words. Hope to have it done by this weekend and off to beta readers. Then I need to get back to Woodland Fae and start working on edits for Silver Town Wolves: Home for the Holidays.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, are you ready? I’m going to try and not eat so much! I do better at setting word goals and meeting them. lol

Off to get ready for baby!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears: http://www.celticbears.com
Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/u63qP

Follow Me for new releases and book deals: www.bookbub.com/authors/terry-spear

signature line email Seal Wolf Undercover, Cougar Undercover, Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas, My Highlander 300 x120

A Walk Through the Wetlands

Nov7

I’m off to work with baby. But I loved taking a stroll through the wetlands, watching for snakes! And hoping we didn’t get lost. The leaves covered so much of the ground in the wooded area that it was hard to locate a real path. 🙂  I loved catching the sunlight streaming through the woods and didn’t realized I’d captured some sun flare. 🙂 <3

Hoping still to get to 30K on My Highlander today. Reached 28K last night. 🙂

Have a super day!!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears: http://www.celticbears

Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/u63qP

Follow Me for new releases and book deals: www.bookbub.com/authors/terry-spear

signature line email Seal Wolf Undercover, Cougar Undercover, Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas, My Highlander 300 x120

Playing around with Photoshop

Sep15

The composite is made of a cemetery in Edinburgh–beautiful angel statue, the dog gravestones, Edinburgh Castle, a Texas moon. The fog and wolf were overlays.

Deer reflected in the water where there was none.

Time for grandbaby to come over. Which means no writing. I have kept up and I’m only 16,000 words from word count. Though a long way from finishing the story. Off to get ready!!

Have a lovely day!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears

Bluebird Family

Jun7

I didn’t realize there were two baby bluebirds until I saw them sitting on the fence together. They didn’t stay long. Daddy bluebird didn’t either. That’s a blur of his wings in flight. They sit up on the fence, dive down into the grass for bugs, and return to the fence.

They also do a lot of gutter diving for insects. They’re great little birds to have around to get rid of some of the insect population. 🙂  I saw momma and daddy bluebird on the fence for a moment, but not long enough to get a shot of them.

Off to write. Poor puppies have shots today, so trying to get some writing done before I take them in.

Have to do edits on Flight of the White Wolf (2nd round), The Bounty Gets Her Wolf (2nd beta reader), Cougar Undercover (1st beta reader), and over halfway done on Falcon Fae.

It quickly stacks up! 🙂 <3

But I have a case of food poisoning also, second time in just a few days. Ugh. It’s not really on the schedule. 🙂 Unfortunately, I have to work it into the schedule. lol

Have a great day!!!

Terry Spear

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears

Taming the Wild Cougar…how did I get the idea?

Apr23

Years and years and years ago, I read a romance where a cop had taken a nurse hostage because he had seen her give first aid training to a bunch of Boy Scouts, and he was wounded and on the run. The “good” guys are out to take him down, and he’s got to solicit her help to prove his innocence.

So I wanted to have a hero who is undercover, wounded by another cougar, and seeking medical supplies in a clinic that is closed for the night. Except the doctor is napping in her office before she takes off on her camping trip. He didn’t mean to take her hostage. But he doesn’t have much choice. She tries to get away, to warn the sheriff–but inevitably–they are thrown into a situation they’re stuck with until they can find a way out. The story is completely different from the one I read so many years ago.

But that kernel of an idea stuck with me over all those years, and Taming the Wild Cougar was born. Every story is different. Sometimes I read a news report, or watch a movie, or think–what if? And a story is born.

It’s not easy. I may make it look easy. But it isn’t. I’m winding down on Bounty Hunter Gets Her Wolf. How to end it? I don’t know. How to make it more conflictive? I don’t know. Sexier? I don’t know. More wolfish as in more wolf scenes? I don’t know. lol

But I’ll get there. I just need to finish the book, then go back in and make it have more of all the elements that will ensure it is so much better. To make it fun. Believable. A book readers don’t want to put down, and then want the next one.

Taming the Wild Cougar

Cougar shifter, Dr. Kate Parker, is planning her annual camping vacation alone this year. She runs into trouble before she even starts her trip in the form of one wounded, hot cougar undercover cop—or so he says. He’s not going along with just her tender loving care because he came into town as a cougar, and he needs her help to get him back to where he can take up the search to look for an arms dealer, who just happens to be a cougar too.
Leyton Hill slipped into the unlocked, darkened clinic, figuring his luck had just changed. Except he doesn’t plan for the good doctor to be napping in her office. Taking him on her vacation wasn’t in the plan, and taking her hostage, hadn’t been either, but now she’s stuck with him until he can get back to his mission and the chase at hand. It appears the roles have reversed and who’s holding whom hostage now?

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taming-the-wild-cougar-terry-spear/1122410324?ean=2940151043960

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Taming-Wild-Cougar-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B012PQGRUS

Amazon UK:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taming-Wild-Cougar-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B012PQGRUS

Amazon CA: http://www.amazon.ca/Taming-Wild-Cougar-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B012PQGRUS/

Amazon AU:http://www.amazon.com.au/Taming-Wild-Cougar-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B012PQGRUS/

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/taming-the-wild-cougar

iBook https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/taming-the-wild-cougar/id1035143561

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Terry_Spear_Taming_the_Wild_Cougar?id=9W0lDAAAQBAJ

Excerpt for Taming the Wild Cougar:

But then Dr. Kate Parker saw what he was looking for. A photo on her desk of her and her cat, Sheba, in her arms. Another with Sheba catching her favorite pink ball mid-air.

She knew in an instant, that’s why he wanted to come to her office. To see if she had a family portrait. He was good. If he was an undercover cop, he had to be good at his job.

“I’ll show you a picture of my husband. Let me have the phone.”

He obliged, but stayed right next to her as she pulled up her photo gallery, his hot piney-woods scent drifting to her. Trying to ignore his close proximity, which was damn hard to do as he breathed down her neck, she quickly searched through the pictures until she came to one and clicked on it. She hoped he’d believe that the deputy sheriff who owned the cabins on Lake Buchanan, Chase Buchanan, was her husband.

“Here’s Chase. My husband.” Best of all, she’d given him a big hug for having taken her to the firing range and teaching her how to fire her 9 mm and his wife had shot the picture of them.

As long as he didn’t see the pictures of Chase and his wife, Shannon, and their adorable babies, Kate thought it looked convincing.

“Nice,” the man said, studying the photo way too long. “May I?” He waited for her to hand the phone to him, but she tried to turn it off. He took it from her and flipped through the pictures. “And this is his sister and her babies?”

“Uh-yeah.”

He flipped through several more photos. “No pictures of her husband. He must be a really close brother.”

“He is.”

He glanced at the walls in her office. Her medical credentials. More pictures of Sheba. Her Black Belt First Degree certificate in ju jitsu. Great.

Then he focused on her desk, and specifically her large desk pad calendar and studied it. “Vacation from now until Monday, returning two weeks. Rockies.” He shifted his gaze to her. “You and who else?”

“My husband, Chase, of course.”

“What happened to your three kids?”

She twisted her mouth in annoyance.

He cast her a small smile. “Why don’t we go to your house?”

“Sure. You can explain to my husband why you’re running around naked, wounded, and forcing me to take you places.”

“I could. Let’s go.”

Quickly, she tried to toss her lab coat onto her chair, just in case anyone might notice the blood and she always hung up her lab coat. But Mr. Undercover Cop looked at it and smiled at her, not in an amused way. More sardonically, like he knew just what she was up to. “Why don’t we take it with you so you can wash it out? Blood can leave permanent stains.”

He caught her glancing at her desk drawer. “Got something in there you need to take with you on your trip?” He still had her phone in his hand, but dropped the trash bag and bunched gown on top of her desk to free his other hand. He reached past her, brushing against her, and pulled the drawer open.

When he grabbed for the gun in her drawer, she saw her chance at escape and made a dash for the door.

***

So you see, you never know what’s going to happen in the cougar-run town of Yuma Town. Never.

Cougars ears back, supposed to mean aggression, annoyance

I get ideas for things all the time for just everything. Do you ever see something and think what a neat idea that is, and want to do something in your yard, or house, or writing, or photograph something similar?

But no matter what you do, it will be yours. Your voice, your way. And who knows but you might inspire others.

Oh, and Taming the Wild Cougar’s audiobook should be out soon. Just need the narrator to fix four issues and then it goes in for final proofing!

Have a great inspirational day!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears

Do You Give up Easily?

Apr17

I don’t! Success is measured in pushing forward and making it happen.

salvia 900 042

When I was a kid, I struggled with math concepts. I was good at math, but not the way the teachers were teaching me. I learned how to do some of it my own way. Everybody has to find the way that works for them. I’d get the correct answer, but the teachers insisted I use their method. Why? Mine worked for me. As long as it works, don’t fix what isn’t broken!

A photographer who gives online tutorials on working with Photoshop, had given a really neat one on using gradients on a picture. Not just to change the colors in the photo, but to give it a beautiful depth and quality that it didn’t have in the original photo.

I don’t know if this link will work for everyone. You might have to join her FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/taralesher/?multi_permalinks=1727142380636219&comment_id=1727228527294271&notif_t=like&notif_id=1492263775292604

Sooooo cool. BUT, I ran into a bit of a snag. I wanted to create gradients like she did. Not working. Save. Load. Not on my gradient tool bar.

So I was watching several different Youtube videos on how to create them. Easy. I did it myself, but still not saving to my tool bar. That’s okay. I’ll figure it out. Eventually.

But one of the sites I looked at on how to create them mentioned places that have them for free! So people made up tons of them and share them with you so you can just use them, and not have to create your own.

http://www.vandelaydesign.com/photoshop-gradients/

So then, I try to download one of them. File doesn’t work on my Photoshop. Can’t download.

I tried a different one.

http://enhancers.deviantart.com/art/JJ-s-Gradients-1-Skin-Tones-191369946

It worked!!!! Woohoo! I think I’ve got it. Well, maybe not. Now I have to use it and see what a wonderful job I can do.

But, you see, if one thing doesn’t work, try, try, try again.

So, hmm, is it working for me? The gradients are on the gradient tool bar, but now my gradient thingy seems to be stuck and clicking on ANY of the gradients doesn’t change it. It has to be something simple I need to do. Or not.

But if there’s no struggle, you see, when it finally works, it won’t have meant as much. Don’t you think?

salvia rainbow gradient 900 042

I did it! My gradient bar was on 0% opacity. No wonder nothing worked.

salvia purple gradient 900 042

The world is at your fingertips.

Never give up! Never surrender!~~Galaxy Quest!

But sometimes, you have to take a break, and start again. 🙂

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Atlantis

Mar6

atlantis-composite-900-contrast-126

It rained all day yesterday, same thing for today and tomorrow and I feel I might have ended up here!

These are  pictures I took at: a theater, aquarium at a zoo, crackled glass ornament in my yard, and castle ruins. 🙂

Okay, so I had a neat email about how to clean up your Mailchimp newsletter. We pay for members, so this was something that was great to know.

http://carabristol.com/2017/03/how-you-can-use-mailchimp-star-ratings-for-newsletter-subscriber-maintenance/

And I had an email for a freebie, if you are using Photoshop, or other programs like it, I guess. This is for free light flares.

** presents on the weekend ***

The deal is easy: this Freelens Flairs package is free for the next two days, but we are asking for a share of this post or a backlink or something like that. It helps us make free stuff.

http://bit.ly/2mqoyVV

 

Okay, back to the book. I’ve been getting the narration chapter samples for Taming the Wild Cougar also, finished the bear I need to send out, but need to package it up, and still working away on Flight of the White Wolf.

Have a great one!!

It’s raining, it’s pouring….

Terry Spear
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears: http://www.celticbears.com

 

Mad Hatter Tea Party–Draw a Mad Hatter

Jan17

On a paper plate on top of your head! Elizabeth actually had the best, most complete drawing of a person-like character. 🙂 mad-hatter-tea-party-elizabeth-paperplate-contest-900-077

mad-hatter-tea-party-game-drawing-a-mad-hatter-067

Best Mad Hatter drawing won!

More games and pictures later.

I’m still behind on my writing. I had to crash a seaplane so I’ve been doing tons of research on them for the book. Did you know that a lot of places don’t allow seaplanes to land on waterways in their states? That many don’t allow a seaplane to carry external loads, like canoes and kayaks? I’ve watched way too many plane wrecks, trying to get a feel of what it would be like.

Landing gear up? Down? One airplane landed on it’s belly, the pilot trainee forgetting to put the gear down. But he did a great job of getting it back in the air and landing with the gear down the next time. Yes, it did damage to the plane when he landed with the gear up. Seaplanes that have landing gear flip when the landing gear is down. So it’s best to have them up for water landings. 🙂

Rough water, gusty winds can make it difficult to land, but also smooth glassy water because it’s harder for the pilot to judge where the water begins.

See? So I’m behind, but it’s because I have to do so much research. I had one scenario in mind, but it wouldn’t work based on the research. So I had to rewrite all of it, and when I did that, I have some other scenes that I need to change because I did some of the stuff earlier now. *sigh*

Will all of the research be in the book? Nope. But I still need to research to find out if they can do what they do.

I’m also getting Dreaming of the White Wolf Christmas 2nd edits, need to make a few minor changes due next week. AND, I have to write a novella to incorporate in the rerelease of Heart of the Wolf. It will be the 10th anniversary of it’s release next January. Plus, I need to write a letter in the book, all due mid-March. And the book I’m currently writing is due April 1st, when the baby is due.

I also have a writing retreat to go to, first one ever. Have no idea what to expect. I scheduled no writing word count on those days, because it’s a long trip, and I have no idea if I’ll get any writing done at all. But maybe I can catch up???

We were under a tornado warning yesterday morning. But other than thunderstorms, we were fine. Have rain again today, which brings March flowers, right?

Have a great day! I’ve got to get to work!

Terry Spear

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

Connect with Terry Spear:

Website: http://www.terryspear.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/terry-spear  (For Releases and Deals)

Saving, Restoring, and Downright Cheatin’

Feb9

sparrows on new feader 004 (427x640)

First, my birds. 🙂

I was having a blast with Cougar’s Mate, just going along nice and linear like, which means from Point A to Point B to Point C, and then something happened. I had the brilliant scene play out in my mind that was the whole ending. Or not.  I thought it was the black moment, and I thought it was the ending, but the characters did the unexpected, again.  What that means is that some of the other stuff I wrote that I had already cut out–the 10,000 words could be used, so I inserted them back in. But they have to all be reworked because they don’t fit now with the new beginning and the almost ending.

So what happens? Can’t sleep. I had another scene, so wrote it, but I wanted to write another scene. Too tired. Hoped I’d remember it in the morning. 1:00 and I’m thinking about the scene I didn’t write. It doesn’t pay to put the muse on hold. So I wrote it, turned out the lights, couldn’t quit thinking and had another scene come to me. *sigh*

The first 6 chapters are great, linear, from the first point through the end point. The end chapters are too, well, the almost end. And then, I have to rework and add a lot in between. Does this mean filler? Never. Conflict, mystery, romance, adventure. If it doesn’t add to the solving of the mystery, to reaching the ultimate goal and a HEA, it doesn’t belong.

When I was playing RPGs, Role Playing Games, I saved a lot. I do with my writing too. But if you don’t save an earlier version, that you might decide you like better, just like in a game, you might find you saved too late. Believe me. I’ve been in really tight spots of no return in a game, and the last saved game means no going back–or to a much, much earlier place where I didn’t have half the wonderful armor or weapons or magic skills, hadn’t solved a lot of the mysteries, and have to fight all the bad guys again.

My dad used to say he really hated to have to go backward when he was trying to move forward, like heading out, forgetting something crucial, and having to return for it. Or getting lost and traveling way out of his way.  That’s how I felt about having to go to an earlier game and start “all over”. I didn’t enjoy fighting all the monsters again, or finding all those treasures again. I wanted to find new monsters, new mysteries to solve, new treasures.

If you play a lot of these games, you’ll be driving through town and think:  I wish I could have restored to an earlier play. 🙂 If I’d only known the mess I was going to get into driving this route, I could just take a different one. If only I could click a button and I would be back at that point and just take the other road. I think there’s a story in that. 🙂

Or, saving. Wouldn’t it be neat if, like with that thought I had last night, just save it in a game folder? And then open it up in the morning, at a decent hour and it’s all there???

Okay, so saving and restoring are great game play techniques. If I didn’t have them, I’d be dead. Game over. Forever and ever and ever.

Now then there’s cheatin’. I’m going to tell you that if I try and try and try to solve a puzzle and I can’t go anywhere else to continue the game play because that’s a main quest and I have to do it, I cheat. I’m not saying I’m proud of it. But sometimes, I have to have a clue or three to get me on my way. There’s something called an Easter Egg that programmers add to games also, and so you can get a cheat item, unlimited money, magic potion, whatever.  I usually don’t do this. But I was playing Dungeon Siege and it was so glitchy, I kept having trouble. You can’t kill of the monsters and have fun exploring the area. You have to keep killing them. I love the mystery, finding cool stuff, solving puzzles. Killing over and over and over is not my thing. It wears me out. 🙂

So I got a cheat code that made me really powerful. And then I got to the place where I had to fight several wizards and they killed me! Over and over again. I was no longer all powerful.

You see, sometimes you can’t just save and restore and downright cheat. You’ve just got to put your nose to the grindstone, and… work. 🙂

And that’s what I’m going to do.

Have a super great Sunday!!

Terry