Happy New Year! Welcome to 2011!

2010 has been an interesting year. Interesting isn't always a good thing. There's an old curse that says, "May you live in interesting times." But I take hope in the other saying, "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger."

So another year gone. Another decade is history. Seems as if the last ten years flew by in a flash of streaming starfields. That'd be warp speed for the non-Trekkers among you. *cackle* I think the older I get, the faster time flies.

I don't do New Year's resolutions. I feel like I'm setting myself up to fail with over ambitious goals. However, I will be general about what I hope to see in 2011.

Get healthier. Write more. Don't let the evil day job take over my life. Spend more time with family and friends.

The last one I'm jumping into today. Taking the 16yo niece and her friend to see Tron: Legacy in 3D on the IMAX.

To all my friends, online and off, I hope you have a fabulous 2011 and life brings you everything you desire!

Hugs!
Shayla

Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite Christmas songs done to perfection by the Gloucester Cathedral Choir - In the Bleak Midwinter. Have a safe and happy holiday.

Guest Blog at The Rainbow Studio!

Talking about my contribution to Ellora's Cave's Naughty Nooner freebies! And there's a drawing for an AllRomanceEbook gift certificate! Check it out at http://therainbowstudio.blogspot.com/2010/12/love-at-first-sight.html.

Have a fabulous day!
Shayla

Winner of the Roses Day 8 Contest!

Christine (Chirth7@), come on down! You are the winner of a $15 gift certificate to AllRomanceEbooks! I'll contact you by email for your information! Congratulations and thank you for playing!

Thanks to everyone who answered. I hope all have a fabulous and safe holiday season! And keep checking out the Roses Colored Glasses December calendar for more articles and contests!

Shayla

Music For the Writer's Soul: Marcia Ball

I first heard Marcia Ball in the mid-90s. One of her songs, Blue House, was on a compilation CD called Blues Women Today. I really enjoyed the song and started keeping an eye out for her albums.

Then along came Memphis in May. Every year, the first weekend in May rocks the Mississippi River with the Beale Street Music Festival. I don't remember exactly which year--maybe 1997--my little sister, my ex-sister-in-law and I did a last minute what the heck and headed to Memphis. The big reason for the trip was to see Kenny Wayne Shepperd, an up and coming artist from Louisiana. But guess who else was on the lineup?

Marcia Ball. I fell in love with her voice, her energy and her obvious joy in her music. Wikipedia quotes the Boston Globe in describing her music as "an irresistible celebratory blend of rollicking, two-fisted New Orleans piano, Louisiana swamp-rock and smoldering Texas blues from a contemporary storyteller." I couldn't describe it better.

The trip that year started my love of Memphis. You can't beat the food, the fun and the music. They don't claim to be the home of the blues for nothing. Many of my novels are set in Memphis because of my infatuation with the town. And some of Marcia's music is usually ringing in my ears while I write them.

Try listening to Play With Your Poodle and not tap your toes...



Rose's Colored Glasses December Calendar Day 7 contest: For a $10 iTunes or Amazon.com gift card, post in the comments an artist who has inspired you. Winner will be announced on Saturday, December 11th.

Winner of the LLAP Contest from Roses Colored Glasses Day 3!

Winner of the LLAP/Twitter contest on rosescoloredglasses.com Day 3 is Michelle L! Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who played!

Michelle, I'll contact you by email for your choice of ebook from my backlist!

Shayla

Contest Winners!

So many great entries from people thankful for wonderful things. Family, friends, safety of service members--home and abroad, pets, Thanksgiving off--finally, having a job, kids leaving the nest, waking up each morning, health, happiness and a Kindle (I can relate! *cackle*).

Wonderful entries! But you really want to know who won, right? So here goes. I'm thankful for Randomizer.org for taking the choice out of my hands.

The prizes were:

Prizes

Grand Prize: $25 gift card to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

2nd Prize: Signed print copy of
Joey W. Hill's Rough Canvas
(hot m/m BDSM)

3rd Prize: Signed print copies of
THE COST OF ETERNITY
ETERNITY
(The complete Eternity Series)

Bonus Drawings: Winner's choice of one of my ebooks.

 

And the winners are:

Grand Prize: $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card - Brandy W.
2nd Prize: Joey W. Hill's Rough Canvas - Jean P.
3rd Prize: Shayla Kersten's Eternity series in print - Brandi M. R.
Bonus prize #1: Choice of one of my ebooks - Tara W.
Bonus prize #2: Choice of one of my ebooks -Perpetua

Congratulations, everyone! I'll email you for details of where and what to send!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing my fellow Americans a happy, healthy and safe Thanksgiving! To everyone else, I hope you have a happy, healthy and safe Thursday!

I'm off to Momma's for family time with her, the siblings and nieces.

Don't forget to enter my Thanksgiving contest for a chance to win a $25 gift card. Details on my contest page at:  http://shaylakersten.com/shaylacontest2.htm.

Turkeys, Thanksgiving and a Contest!

This time of is always hectic and it's even more so since I went back to work full time. As crazy as things get, I think about the things I'm thankful for.

1. As always, I'm thankful for my family. Too many people dread the holidays because of the stress of family gatherings. My mother and younger siblings, my nieces and niece-in-law, are fun and I enjoy being around them, spending time together. They make the holidays something to look forward to and not dread and I'm very thankful for that!

2. Writing. Although the return to full time work has severely cut into my writing time, I'm still thankful for my only creative outlet as well as the readers who honor me by reading my books. I'm also thankful that a lot of those readers like my books. *cackle*

3. The evil day job. Unfortunately a necessary evil. I'm thankful for my staff making the transition smooth and relatively painless. I'm grateful my Evil Boss hasn't been that evil. And I'm really thankful for the full-time paycheck and benefits!

So on to the contest...

Thanksgiving Contest!

Go to my contest page at http://shaylakersten.com/shaylacontest2.htm. Find the turkeys on my website. Tell me which pages you found the turkeys and what you're thankful for!

(Hint: There will be three turkeys.)

All responses will be entered in a random drawing for the prizes. Contest will run from Monday, November 22 to midnight US CDT Sunday, November 28.

Bonus drawing #1: Post the link to my contest page on your favorite social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc). Paste your link in the form with your answers from above.

Bonus drawing #2: Stop by the Literary Nymphs Thanksgiving Day M/M Only Weekend Chat and give me a shout out! Put my name in the subject so I find the entries.

Everyone is allowed to enter all three drawings.

Because of gift card terms of use, the grand prize is limited to US residents. All other prizes have no geographical restriction.

Prizes

Grand Prize: $25 gift card to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.

2nd Prize: Signed print copy of
Joey W. Hill's Rough Canvas
(hot m/m BDSM)

3rd Prize: Signed print copies of
THE COST OF ETERNITY
ETERNITY
(The complete Eternity Series)

Bonus Drawings: Winner's choice of one of my ebooks.

Winners will be notified via the email provided on the contest entry. They will also be announced on Monday, November 29th, on my blog.

Good luck!

Time Flies!

But I'm not sure it's because I'm having fun... *cackle* I just noticed I hadn't blogged in two and a half weeks. No idea where the time went. Working full time seems to have created a time warp of some kind.

However some of the time was really fun! High points of the last two and a half weeks...

My last post was about the release of RIVER OF NEED (TN Cop #4). So far, I've had some wonderful feedback from readers. Love that!

Big highlight! Wicked! The Broadway musical about the real story of the witches of Oz opened in Little Rock on November 3. My sister--who never wins stuff--won tickets to opening night and invited me to go with her. Freakin' awesome show!

The 1939 film The Wizard of Oz began airing on TV in the US before I was born and it seems I watched it every year from the cradle on. I'll never see the show in quite the same light again. The clip below is from the Tony Awards with the original Broadway cast and only shows a small part of the sheer awesome known as Wicked.



I finished and submitted my short free story to Ellora's Cave. Haven't heard anything from my editor yet. I hope it passes muster for the Naughty Nooners freebie series. It's a glimpse of ICING ON THE CAKE's Jeff and Ollie three months later tentatively titled ACQUIRED TASTE (Thanks for the title, Debbie! *cackle*)

I started a new story on November 1st as yet another attempt at the annual writer phenomenon, NaNoWriMo. NoNo is an attempt to write 50k word novel in a month. Considering today is the 13th and I'm barely 4k into the story, I'm guessing I won't make it again this year. Work has me drained in the evenings and my weekends have not gone as planned. But hey, I started a new story! This one has a BDSM theme and the idea is begging to get out. I have to make time to let it. The book is tentatively titled AFTER HOURS.

Oh, and I had an offer on another short story--my lesbian vampire one. I'll wait to go into details until the contract is signed.

So a lot of good things going on. I just wish they'd figure out how to come up with 36 hour days!

Most of today has been dedicated to resting. Guilt plagues me when I do this but sometimes it's necessary. I've been on the go and out of the house every day except one for the last three months. Hard to believe I've been back at the full time EDJ that long already. Things are going better than expected there. Me being the pessimist I am, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. LOL Kind of like I keep waiting for someone to tell me my publishing career is all a joke. *cackle*

Hope life is treating you kinder!

Hugs!
Shayla