July at Casa Chaos

July has been a fun month here at Casa Chaos. The first week was filled with celebrations – Canada Day for me, the Fourth of July for Hubs & the rest of the family, and the release of Dating a Single Dad. We traveled to Maine (Hubs’ old stomping grounds) for the long Fourth weekend. There were fireworks, lobsters, games of dodge-the-iceberg at the beach (that ocean water is COLD!), and tons of laughs with family we see only a few times each year. We also got to experience the gridlock that is exiting southern Maine on the Sunday of a long weekend. Yowzers!
Tsarina and HRH have been attending the half-day playground program run through our town. That’s when I get the bulk of my writing work done. It ends in early August, and already, I’m freaking over how I’ll get anything done once it’s over.
We squeezed in a day trip to visit more relatives at their lake house. It was a long drive – 3.5 hours each way – but oh, what a hoot to paddle around the lake and eat delicious barbecued chicken and see all the changes in scenery and kids! Tsarina discovered that a kiddie pool (the rigid plastic splash ones) makes an excellent pseudo-boat. She sat in there with her life jacket and kayak paddle while we took turns towing her around the dock.
Usually, July would include a trip to the RWA National Conference for me, but it wasn’t in the cards this time. It was certainly fun (in a jealousy-inspiring way) to see all the Facebook photos and tweets from friends who were in attendance. Next year in NYC, for sure!

What’s-Up Wednesdays: Novel Engagement

There’s a great new tool in town for folks who love to read romance: Novel Engagement, an app from the Romance Writers of America. It’s a listing of over 6500+ romance novels, with more being added every day.  There are five different sections to the app, including Books, Authors, and a Reader Zone.  You can search, mark books as favorites. keep track of what you’ve read, and pick out what you want to read next. There are excerpts, covers, links to buy the books, and more.  Best of all, it’s absolutely free!
You can find Novel Engagement now in both the iTunes store and Google Play – find the links here–  and there will soon be versions available for Kindle, Nook, and the we web. Download it, play with it, and enjoy!