Category Archives: rl

And I sold my time to the devil at the crossroads…

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It’s been a while.

I confess that I have been doing less writing in the past couple of years than I’ve wanted. I’ve had grandiose plans to work on this Fury series and several smaller short stories, and time has just slipped away from me.

As a parent, I’ve had to make some sacrifices. My only child is now in school (and starting to read – proud mom here!), and I adopted yet another dog, so I have three fur babies, a husband, and a daughter to care for.

I’ve also spent the majority of my time advancing my career in the technology space, and I’ve done well for myself and my family. I love my job and constantly find the motivation to improve and grow.

I haven’t given up writing. I haven’t given up designing either. I dabble in fanfiction if I feel motivated. I still draw on my iPad in Procreate. I’m still voraciously reading and watching shows. I also jump on the spin bike or elliptical regularly.

Life is like that I guess. I don’t have any intention of giving up writing. I know that my stories are still there, waiting for me to share them. I plan on taking 2023 to plan my next goals, to stick to these goals, and do it again in 2024.

My current goals are to release two short stories this year as well as re-release an old story on Amazon. Updates coming soon.

I’m not dead, so that means I can still write. Hopefully soon!

Book Giveaway: Touch of Death

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It’s been awhile since I posted here. I apologize for that. It’s been a busy year for me and I’m hoping to have more time in 2018 to post here. I do maintain an active private personal blog on Dreamwidth/LJ so that makes it harder to juggle social media outlets. Plus having a 1 year old doesn’t always give me adequate time.

I am 98% done with Mod Fury. My goal is to get it out before the end of 2017. Nanowrimo really helped me get far with it and even start the next in the series, even though I didn’t complete the book.

Now the purpose of this post. I am a huge proponent of helping Indie Authors. I am a member of a self-published group and have met some great people there. One of the authors is doing a giveaway and since Goodreads is going to charge for giveaways, she’s doing her own at her blog and at this community. Please, if you enjoy layered characters, action and well done world building, please join her Giveaway. Her book is currently free on Kindle Unlimited.

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Anyone can leave a comment to enter! Costs nothing and I’ll ship internationally.

Giveaway // Book Summary // Share Link

 

Thank you!

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

Boy and Girl Clothes

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Happy Ostara! Happy Spring!

I’m hoping 2017 will be good for me to do some spring cleaning. I have already begun my Great DeCluttering of 2017 and 2018, where I’m making goals for myself – read all the books and empty one bookshelf by end of 2017 and sell the books. Unfortunately I tend to accumulate more books. I don’t know how that happens…

I did clean out one shelf so that’s good. If anyone is my friend on Goodreads you’ll see a mass addition of “read” books in the coming year. Next I want to clean out closets again, especially the baby’s as she grows out of clothes, and then start on the kitchen with dishes that we don’t really use. My friend and I intend to have a garage sale soon, so I’m gathering up stuff in boxes in a place in the garage for when that happens. I just hope the weather gets nicer so I can go out and start pricing things.

Speaking of kid’s clothes, I have another friend who’s expecting a boy soon and she’s always lamenting how boys clothes are not at cute as girls clothes, and it’s funny because I’ve kind of felt that both clothes are cute, and I’ve wanted to buy my daughter boys clothes before, and we have, but clothes with dinosaurs, super heroes, and power rangers on it were cute too, and made me miss having a boy as well. I love my daughter, but maybe some day I’ll be able to have a boy? I know it’s not really up to “me” if that happens, but I would love a little boy to buy clothes with dinosaurs and lizards on them, as well as play outside in the mud with him, find toads and earth worms — I guess I can do that with a girl too. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not limiting what my daughter can do either…

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We definitely bought this boy’s onesie for our daughter. Because this is totally her. You can find this at Target.

But maybe I feel cliche as a mom that wants to have one of each. I’d love to see my husband bond with a son like I do with my daughter, and hope that he has a relationship with a son that he had with his father.

Oh, and yeah, I’m sure he wants to buy our future son dinosaur shirts too.

No matter what, if we have girls, a girl and a boy, or just one girl, I hope we can take them to Gatorland like we did for our Honeymoon in Florida. No matter what gender you are, they have to enjoy seeing big crocodiles, pythons, turtles and all the other kinds of animals they have there. That’s my hope anyway.

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In other news, I’m still working on the short stories. I was looking for stock art for covers the other day and enjoyed it very much.

There is this stock photographer that I follow at DeviantArt that has a lot of book cover contests with her art. Sometimes I vote on them, but I also think in the back of my mind that I can do a better job. I know that’s rather pretentious of me, so I kind of thought if I think that, why don’t I do it? I can’t be all talk. I have to show that I can do it. So I looked at her current contests and downloaded the images and plan on entering. Fingers crossed!

If anything it’ll be good for my portfolio.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

Hobby Doesn’t Mean Free

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Sometimes I am just baffled by people who still don’t think being an artist, photographer, videographer or designer deserves compensation, that the jobs that we get should be for “exposure” because it’s just a “hobby”.

Today our Program Director came up to me (the resident Lead Designer) and asked me if I knew any students/interns in art or photography that would come to our Meetups downtown Chicago and take photos and videos for us.

Me: “Like for internship credit?”

Him: “No, not interns. Students that like to take photos and video. It would be like a hobby. [Our Company] would not pay them.”

Me: “But you’d have to pay them. Even interns get paid these days. And if you want them to come downtown to Chicago, there’s parking expenses, train ride expenses. Plus no one would do it for free.”

He gives me this blank look. “These students wouldn’t even do it because they like it? Because it’s a hobby?”

Me: “Nobody, not a student or anybody, is going to do photography or videography for free. At least an intern should get minimum wage.”

He looked completely baffled that we would pay someone to come to our events in Chicago, whether by train, bus, or car of their own expense, let them take photos and video of our speakers, and not pay them a single thing.

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I’m kind of livid, as an artist, you know? Like it’s unreal.

No, artists do not do things for free. We do not do things for trade. We have these skills, hone them, and use them for money so we can eat, put a roof over our heads, and clothe ourselves and our family.

Don’t let anyone try to persuade you to do things for exposure either. Work = $$$. Bottom line.

Cheers,

HK Rowe

 

Stuck in a Time Warp

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It’s been ages since I last updated here. And like the last time I don’t intend to abandon this blog.

I never realized how busy I’d become being a new mom. Sometimes I’m “not” busy, and am just caught up with all the moments of my daughter. To say that my writing has suffered because of this is an understatement… but I’m not really complaining. I’m happy being a mother and taking in all the new experiences.

Someday I hope to write about them.

But I “have” gotten back into my groove. I’m catching up with my to-do list since I went back to work and got used to being a 9 to 5 professional again, as well as with my daughter now in daycare, and I have to continue my motherly duties at work by making milk for her.

Sometimes on down times at home or during my lunch break, I work on my writing. I’ve been doing some drafting lately, as well as planning out a couple of short story series.

All of the things I want to do takes time to get used to, even more so now that I have a baby, but I’m determined to get my writing out there again.

I’m hopefully going to update this soon with a more concrete writing schedule. Mod Fury is about 85% done.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe

Lucky Number 7

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I wanted to give a shout out to those who have read and reviewed my book Unbridled. I got my seventh review at Amazon recently, and I know I’m no where near some of the other indie writers when it comes to reviews, but each and every review and rating on Amazon and Goodreads means the world to me and gives me hope for the next book.

Thank you! And thank you for giving me such positive feedback.

If you have read Unbridled or are planning on reading it, thank you as well!

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How about a treat? Here is a snippet from my new series, The Avenging Sisters, with the first short story entitled Mod Fury coming out this summer.

The mood mellowed with that statement, and they met each other’s eyes with mutual understanding on why they were here. They couldn’t play and enjoy themselves all the time, even though the twenty-first century made that easier. The Furies still had important tasks to fulfill; it was in their blood, and in any given moment they could resort to their darker selves if it meant saving the innocents. It was their true purpose, hunting terrible people one by one so they could bestow their justice.

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And last but not least, if you just love writing, reading and blogging in general please take a moment to visit my sister’s blog: Fear Nothing, Risk Everything. She’s a wonderful, strong and beautiful soul, a great mother and even more amazing woman, and she’s fighting breast cancer right now. She’s documenting her journey through this troubling time.

If you could pop by and just give her a comment, like or encouragement, I think she’d appreciate that!

Cheers.

H.K. Rowe

Trying to Make a Comeback

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So I suck at keeping up with this blog, but my goal this 2016 is to keep up with this more regularly. Let’s see how that goes! I’m definitely determined.

The main reason I haven’t been online is that I’ve been busy. Plain and simple. We’ve been trying to sell our house for more than two months and it’s stressful and daunting, and I honestly didn’t want to overload people with my personal battles with it. This is why I still keep an LJ, and I even suck at keeping up with that journal.

Now that we’ve got a contract with someone to buy our house, as well as a house to move into, I’m hoping my life will have more order after February.

I can’t tell you how much this whole process has disrupted my creativity. My house was basically torn apart, packed and put into storage. My safe haven writing room was stripped of my beloved books, artwork and files and made to look like nothing for house showings. It was very difficult for me to write in this space that no longer felt like my own. I hope this changes for the new place, but I will probably struggle through the malaise through the holidays as we pack some more in our old house.

In the meantime, I’ve just been making plans on what I’m going to write for 2016, drafting ideas, writing character profiles and basically writing down any haphazard thoughts that skim across my brain. I’m hoping to do some fiction prompts soon just get back into the swing of things.

Ready or not I’d like to get Killer Orange available for publication, as well as a second edition of Unbridled. Somewhere in between those projects I want to do some short stories.

I will be back trying to keep up with everyone. I hope to post some writing snippets soon.

I’ve missed this blog and everyone I follow, and I intend to make it more active again!

Cheers and Happy Holidays,

HK Rowe

Disruption and Disorder

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I have not been around much here, and it’s causing me a lot of anxiety. My life has been turned upside down, and I don’t even feel comfortable in my own space anymore.

A week ago, we put our house up for sale. Before that, we had to pack things and declutter the house and put our prized belongings into the storage locker for better showings. I have very little of my possessions with me or even around me in my “house”.

My house doesn’t feel like a home anymore. It is distinctly “not me” and it’s very hard to be creative in a space I once considered sacred.

While we are showing our house, my husband and I are also looking for our next “home” which is even more stressful because I really don’t have any clue where we will be. I can’t plan ahead and know exactly the time frame I can settle back into a space again and be myself.

I don’t know how long it will take for a new house to become my home once we find it.

I know these things shouldn’t deter me from my passions, like writing, but it certainly is disrupting it, and I can’t find any semblance of normalcy to get into any sort of creative mood.

I feel like I’m in limbo. I’m hoping the fire and inspiration will come back to me. I’m hoping I can rise above the disorder, the chaos, to find my creative space again.

If anything, I just hope we can find a new home soon.

Stay tuned.

Cheers,

H.K. Rowe