Wow! My first book, The Other Side of What, is on the Amazon.com Kindle Hot New Release’s List at #9. How awesome is that?! Check out the list here!
Monthly Archives: June 2008
WIN A FREE COPY OF STEALING WISHES!
That’s right! You can win a free copy before my new book, Stealing Wishes, even hits the bookstore shelves or Amazon.
All you have to do is leave a comment right here on this post! That’s it. It’s that simple. One lucky reader will win a free signed copy. So go ahead, post to your heart’s content.
The game is on! The winner will be announced on July 1st!
The search for Mr. Right has never been portrayed with more quirks and charms than it is in Shannon Yarbrough’s Stealing Wishes. This is a book that is full of heart and hope, filled with the kind of characters you’ll want to know…and for whom you will come to wish the very best. An emotional, engaging read, you’ll want to return to the world of Stealing Wishes again and again.
–Rick R. Reed, author of IM and Orientation
Midafternoon, A Visitor Came
From our dining room window, J snapped this picture today while I was in the shower.
The baby bunny lives under the bushes in our neighbor’s front yard. The sparrow is probably Larry, Curly, or Moe…one of the sparrows that cussed us out when we cut down the bushes in our own front yard last month.
I wonder what they were saying to each other. Perhaps they were still discussing the tragedy of the cut bushes. Perhaps they were gossiping about how J and I need to weed the flower beds that were put in their place.
Or perhaps they were just exchanging hellos and enjoying the weather.
I wish I knew.
JK Rowling Sells Shorts
According to a recent Shelf Awareness story this week…
An 800-word “prequel” to the Harry Potter series that J.K. Rowling wrote on a single sheet of paper sold for £25,000 (US$48,858) during a charity auction held at Waterstone’s flagship London bookstore to benefit English PEN and a dyslexia charity.
Wow! I wonder how much she could get for penning the alphabet on toilet paper while sitting in the crapper?
You can actually read the story online here. Apparently, it’s part of a competition and other authors also wrote short story cards. The last line of Rowling’s says it is from a sequel she is NOT working on.
Funkytown Followup
Here’s a fun quote I woke up to this morning from a friend who had emailed some words of encouragement after reading about me being in the funk…
So keep on keepin’ on. Because eventually Funky Town is going to become the night life, and you look like a guy who can boogie.
Thanks, Will.
It’s definitely been a rough week. Work is picking up as fall rush approaches. I’m also training a new employee and scheduled her to be with me most of the day Wednesday through Friday to try to move the training along quicker. That said, it cut my time I had to work on other things so I quickly fell behind each day. I hate that feeling.
J was on vacation this week and left on Tuesday to go visit his family. It’s the first time he’s been away and I’ve had the house all to myself since he was gone to training for 3 weeks in December. Now we all know time alone is important so I thought I was looking forward to it, but by the time each workday ended I was too exhausted to do anything except veg in front of the TV and then go to bed. The dreams were weird; the nights too short. And it’s always an odd feeling like stepping back in time to 5 years ago when I came home to an empty place everyday. You soon realize you don’t really like it, and I found myself wishing Friday would hurry up and get here because he’d be back home.
His birthday was yesterday. He’s 38. And it’s too bad I will still be at work today when he arrives home and walks in the door. I’ve decorated the house with HAPPY BIRTHDAY signs and balloons. I’ve wrapped all of his gifts and put them on the table. I’ve hung curly ribbon all over the chandelier above the table. I hope he’ll be surprised. Ya see, we don’t usually celebrate birthday and holidays with much splendor. We buy each other gifts, sure, but we are usually with each other when we buy them and we just hand them to each other right then and there. I got my birthday gift a month early. So, this was fun to plan this week. I’m sure he’ll be surprised. He needed this.
I think I needed it too.
Ms. Lang, I love you Part II
Yesterday, I received the fall schedule in the mail for the Touhill Performing Arts Center. I’ve never been there, and only remember it as the place that advertised on the radio last year when Roseanne Barr performed there doing stand up. I love me some Roseanne so I totally would have gone to see her, but we didn’t.
I would have probably thrown the advertisement away with the Papa Johns Coupons and Credit Card Preapprovals had I not quickly seen k d lang’s picture on the cover. I thumbed through the glossy pages only to learn she’ll be here in October. You see….I love, LOVE, me some k d. So, I have to get tickets!!
If I were straight, I’d marry her. Well, um…she’d have to be straight too. Okay, if she were a guy I’d marry her…if it were legal. 
We got the funk!
“The funk” is what I call that rut your life gets into sometimes when the roller coaster of each day is going way too fast and you can’t manage to get anything done, well at least anything you want to get done.
I left last Thursday for a four day weekend at home in Tennessee with the family. It was a nice visit, busy, but now just a blur. I returned on Monday to work to 85 emails in my inbox and a ton of work which I’m still not done with, plus I’m having to train a new girl so she sits with me part of the day. J was on vacation this week and his birthday is Thursday, but yesterday he decided to go out of town to see his family. I’m cool with that because by the time I get home from work each day I barely have enough conscious brain cells left to do a load of laundry.
I attempted laundry and TV last night, drank way too much coffee, was in bed by 11 but couldn’t sleep because I was wired. So, here I am now at 6:30 in the morning realizing it’s only Wednesday and I hate being in this funk. The new girl sits with me most of today so I won’t get caught up on the work I need to be doing. At least So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight. That’s a highlight of the end of the day already.
Maybe a chicken sandwich from Wendy’s for lunch will make for some good medicine…
*yawn*
*sigh*
I hate this funk!
A trip to funkytown ain’t no fun at all!
Mama, I’m coming home…
I’m off the next two days for a 4 day weekend. Despite the price of gas, I’m leaving today for the 3 hour trek to good ole Dyersburg, Tennessee to visit the family. I haven’t been home since my Dad’s birthday in April, and probably won’t get down there again until my Mom’s birthday in September. So, it should be a nice little get away. Work is about to pick up for Fall rush, so I needed this break. It would have been nice if my book was already out and I could have utilized this time to do some book promotion. But oh well….nothing beats family.
A NEW LOOK…A NEW BOOK!
That’s right! I gave the blog a new look. Do ya like? I’m really into this whole lime green, powdery blue, on chocolate look. David Bromstad would be so proud!
And check out my new look in the pic over there on the right. About a week ago, I started letting the face carpet grow out. I had just the soul patch at Christmas and it didn’t last long. It’s been about 10 years since I tried the goatee. As a coworker at work said…”Wow, Shannon, you look so trendy!” Um, did I look untrendy before?
A new look for the blog. A new new look for me. Oh, and if you’ve read any of my recent posts then you know I have a new book coming out too! New! New! New! I like it. Like burning a new candle for the first time. The scent of a new car or a new box of unsharpened pencils. Do people use pencils anymore?
Book Update
May was a busy month, and I can’t believe it’s gone! I went through several edits and a completely new cover design for my next book, STEALING WISHES. The anticipated release date was July 1st, but I think it might be mid June now.
I’ve been trying to concentrate on my historical fiction novel but haven’t been able to concentrate on it since early May with all the excitement going on with STEALING WISHES.
I’m back on MySpace now, mainly to promote the new book and make contacts with friends and acquaintances there. I’m also still using my Amazon blog, where readers who bought my previous work can catch up with me and keep up to date. Speaking of Amazon, the Kindle Ebook edition of STEALING WISHES is already available there for just $6.00!
I also signed up for AfterElton.com yesterday, something I can’t believe I haven’t done already. It’s loaded with lots of entertainment information and I spent almost all day yesterday reading stuff there. Check it out and add me as a buddy there too if you want. I probably spend too much time on line, but between writing at the computer, and getting the word out about my new book, the internet is such a valuable tool for an author.
So stay tuned to my blog here, or Amazon, or AE, or MySpace because the release of STEALING WISHES is fast approaching. I look forward to hearing your opinions of the new book, and I appreciate your readership.
Best wishes!
