Category: Uncategorized

Back up and refreshed!

Well, thanks to my brilliant computer guy I’m back up and running with a totally refreshed computer. I spent last night reinstalling all my programs and back ups. I always worry when doing this because I don’t want to lose any information. It’s amazing how attached we get to technology.

As for my writing, I was unable to get any done last night and I wanted to so badly. As I sat waiting on Office to reinstall my mind was whirling with characters that were screaming in my ears. I even dreamed I was on a pirate ship. 

I’m excited to report that the republished version of With All My Heart is still doing well. It’s now in the top 20 on Amazon. What’s funny is the original version is free on Amazon and is at #8. How crazy is that? All of my books have started hitting again. I guess it’s true if you get a bestseller then you hit the right algorithim on Amazon. It’s been refreshing to say the least.

As I sit here watching Lonesome Dove and sipping my coffee I’m content, for now. Of course now I have to put my books on this computer. My fingers are itchy and ready to get back to work. If you’re wondering why I’m watching Lonesome Dove so early this morning, well it’s one of my favorite cowboy movies. I recorded it a couple of nights ago, It was my dad’s favorite too. We used to watch it everytime it came on. 

Of course watching all these cowboys and horses makes me ready to start my newest cowboy romance, but no, I’m going to be strong and finish Emma Rose and Safe In The Pirate’s Arms. At least Emma Rose has horses in it. I’m a country girl, what can I say.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Upgrading Computer today!

As an Accountant and writer I’m attached to my laptop several hours a day. Today is going to be a test of my patience. I’m carrying my laptop to the shop to be upgraded and added to. Believe me when I say I’ve backed up my computer on two different external harddrives. I’m being over cautious I know, but I have a lot on this computer.

It’s crazy how dependent we become about our computers. I’m actually not looking forward to several hours unplugged. So if you notice my social media presence is really low today, that’s why. I’ll let you know later how it goes. My computer guy has assured me several times that everything will be alright, but it’s my baby, errr, my computer.

So, keep your fingers crossed and the next time I talk with you I’ll be on a newly renovated version of my old laptop. Yikes, just saying that gets my nerves all jittery.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Patriotic Sale on Amazon!

Sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days, but I’m back and ready for action. I spent a couple of days with family and friends celebrating the 4th by the lake. But now I’m back in full force and working hard to keep up with everything.

I do hope you had a great holiday and for my many friends across the pond, I hope you had a wonderful weekend. In honor of our American holiday and for all those that have fought for our freedom I’m marking all my books down to .99 for the month of July on Amazon only.

Also, my book With All My Heart has remained in the top 100 on Amazon for the last two weeks. I’m so pleased and excited. Now back to the writing. I have a pirate and a southern belle breathing down my neck. I’ll give you a little tidbit from both books this week so be watching for it and also may have a little something special to giveaway.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Over worked? Over stressed? Write it out!

Some days are just hard to get through. You sit behind your desk and wonder if you’ll live through the stress of the day. You’ve gone far past your normal time to get off, but you keep going. Well, what are you doing about it?

For me I’ve worked really hard over the last twenty years building my accounting business. It’s been really hard and I’ve put in a lot of long hours. When I was younger it was nothing to put in 12 hours a day, then go home and put in a couple of hours cooking and doing laundry. No problem back then, but the older I get the less I want to spend long hours behind a desk. I guess that comes with age, not sure…

About 5 years ago my stress level was at the breaking point. I was spending a lot of time in my office making sure everyone was happy. I spent a lot of time making sure everyone in my life was happy, but I wasn’t happy. I was overworked and overstressed. One day I sat down and did a inventory of my life. Why was I miserable? Duh! I was the reason I was so unhappy. I was trying to please everyone but myself. Get real with yourself and realize you probably do the same thing yourself.

I took a couple of days and went through my office, clearing the backlogs that hindered my organization. As I was clearing it all out I ran up on some floppy disks, yes I said floppy disks, and they were filled with manuscripts that were unfinished. Also, my assistant found the printed copies and asked to take them home. She came back the next morning with so much excitement that it was contagious.

I picked up the manuscripts and read them that night. The excitement surged in me and I knew my new path to a happier me. I began going through the manuscripts and working out the details. Suddenly I had a purpose again. I could put all my stress into my writing. I wrote it out. It cleared my head. Every night after work I’d sit with my laptop and write. It was calming. 

So, if you’re overstressed, then let it go to writing. If you don’t write novels or have a desire to do so, just start a journal. Write your daily stress out and leave it in the journal. Believe me, my stress level is so much better and I know I’m easier to live with 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Discover the real you!

Do you know who you are? Do you really? Sometimes events in our lives shape the person we are. Maybe something happens that causes you to think about what you’re doing with your life. There are so many aspects of my life that have been shaped by fate. 

I sat Saturday afternoon writing and thinking. I was caught up in the storyline and suddenly I was in deep thought. The character was having a personal battle and it hit me. We’re all in a battle of wills. We wake up with a plan for the day, well sometimes we have a plan, but life steps in and those plans can change.

We go through life making plans, changing plans and seeing them through as best we can. We have a life plan, but do we really expect all of it to happen. Life changes constantly, whether it’s a death, marriage, birth, career change or just something as simple as traffic. We all have life changes that send our plans in a different direction.

For me things have changed many times. As a child I had it all planned out. I’d be a horse owner and have a huge ranch. Then as I became a teenager and was introduced to romance novels I wanted to be a writer. But then I went to college and changed my major from business to Accounting and became an Accountant. After losing my son’s twin before he was born my life changed drastically. I realized how fragile life is and my want for more children were dashed with one word from the doctors. So I became a Children’s Minister to help children find their destiny in life. 

Well, some of the aspects I mentioned above have come to life. I’m now a romance author with many published books and I realized my dream this weekend of appearing on the bestseller list at Amazon. I work with children two days a week by helping to shape them into good Christian adults and showing them how to live a positive life. But no, I’ve not yet achieved the goal of becoming a horse ranch owner, but I have written many novels about that and lived my dream through my work. For now that’s good for me.

So, have you discovered the real you or are you still searching?

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

Changes make all the difference…

Yep, I’m doing a happy dance this morning. With All My Heart (Revised Edition) Is doing really well on Amazon. 

You may be wondering what I did as far as changes. Well, I did a couple of things to change this book from the original edition.

Here are the changes I made:

1: I updated the cover. The original cover was awesome, but as one author explained to me, if you change the manuscript and republish you have to change the cover.

2: I went in and changed the voice slightly in this edition. I also added a couple of elements that made the story flow better.

3: I changed the categories that the book was put into. Amazingly enough, as the numbers above tell the tale, it worked.

I’m in the process of revisiting a couple of my older published books. As my writing becomes more refined and I learn new techniques it causes me to think of my earlier works. Now when I go back over them I smile. Things have changed with my writing voice and I have to make sure that all my work changes with me.

So if you have older works that maybe need a facelift, then go for it. It’s been an awesome thing for With All My Heart. Of course this book has done well in the past, but the numbers from just the last two days have been, let’s just say, awesome!

I also want to thank my Twitter friends that took over the post from the other day regarding the republishing. They spread it like wildfire over the Twittersphere and I’m humbled by their wonderful comments and promotions. It’s amazing the support I’ve received from so many, so thanks to you from the bottom of heart 🙂

As always, good writing and May God Bless You… 

 

Insomnia – Not a writer’s best friend…

For the last two nights I’ve written until time for bed. Which you might be saying, that’s good, you’re getting in writing time. But there’s a problem. I have a couple of characters that are pulling at my sleep strings. As soon as I put my laptop down and head to bed my mind wonders to them. 

Monday night I laid down and picked up my Kindle to read a little before bed. Of course my eyes got heavy and not from boredom with my reading selection, it’s really good, but I was tired. So I turned out the light and lay my head on the pillow with a contented sigh. The problem started at that moment of contentment. The characters in my pirate romance were telling me to get up.

I quickly tried to push them to the back of my brain. I do run a busy accounting business and sleep is something I need. But they were persistant. I rolled to my other side and tried again, but guess what, they were on that side too. Finally about an hour later and really wound up sheets I got up. You’d think I would pick up my laptop, but I refused to give in to the characters demands.

I carried my Kindle to the couch and turned on the lamp beside me. I situated myself comfortably in the corner of the couch and settled in to read until I could go to sleep. The characters kept up at the needling. I knew that if I gave in to them I’d be up the rest of the night writing.

Have you ever wondered if your characters haunt you? Well, I’m here to tell you they do. Every time I would get into my book a noise would happen in the room that I couldn’t explain. One time something shifted in the corner and I almost jumped off the couch. I turned toward said corner and frowned. I refused to answer their call.

Then it happened again last night, but this time I refused to give in. I tossed and turned. The good thing that came out of last night’s insomnia trip was I rewrote one of the scenes in my head. This morning I changed it and was pleasantly surprised with the results. The chapter flowed so much better with the changes. SO maybe the insomnia was worth it. But of course my tired, blood shot eyes this morning don’t think so. I so need a nap, but I’m not going to tell my characters, hopefully they’re tired from their constant nudging.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

 

With All My Heart republished!

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Yep, I threw one in on you this weekend. It’s amazing when the inspiration hits and you just go with it. I’ve been wanting to revise With All My Heart and it just hit me Friday and bam there it was. So I started reading and revising.

If you’re a fan of the Lean On Him series then you’ll enjoy this revision. I changed the writing some and added a couple of new lines to change some of the scenes. As you notice in the above picture, the cover changed also. I’m excited about the changes and can’t wait to finish the revision of Ghost Lover and Tender Flame. I think these are the only two that will be revised in the near future.

For those waiting on Emma Rose, yes she’s coming along really well and will be out soon. Also Safe In The Pirate’s Arms will also be out this summer. Writing historical romance is really fun since I love history. But don’t worry, I’ll be back to my cowboys really soon. You know me and my cowboys, I have to slip them in.

As always, good writing and May God Bless You…

IN BETWEEN SEASONS BY CASSANDRA GIOVANNI COVER REVEAL

COMING JULY 31, 2014 From Show n’ot Tell Publishing NEW ADULT POST – APOCALYPTIC ROMANCE SERIES In 2021 the world as we know it changed. The government collapsed, and the worst characteristics of human nature were shown as the world fell into ruins. Years after The Fall, the Tribes that were established are still at war. They still fight to keep what they pillaged, and most of all, they fight to keep their lies a secret. In a world filled with deception, nothing is as it seems. I was born into this world. Hunter Marks was molded into this world; a General— a person cold and harsh. A person meant to kill me. We were told to just believe. We were taught to never question. We’re supposed to be robots, and accept our roles in this altered society. Too bad Hunter and I don’t follow the rules. And we’re a hell of a lot stronger than they ever thought possible. They’ve been searching for the world’s deadliest weapon. It’s me. And I’m not following the leader any more.

Cassandra doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t writing. In fact, the first time she was published was when she was seven years old and won a contest to be published in an American Girl Doll novel. Since then Cassandra has written more novels than she can count and put just as many in the circular bin. Her personal goal with her writing is to show the reader the character’s stories through their dialogue and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening. Besides being a writer, Cassandra is a professional photographer known for her automotive, nature and architectural shots. She is happily married to the man of her dreams and they live in the rolling hills of New England their dogs, Bubski and Kanga. Cassandra Giovanni is published by Show n’ot Tell Publishing based out of Connecticut, USA.