My Guilty Pleasure: Marriage Boot Camp

If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you've probably realized that I am a big fan of reality television. Talk shows. Dramas. Whatever... I like it. Who knows why, since I haven't quite figured it out myself.

One of my guilty pleasures--one show that I never miss no matter when it's on or how many times I've seen it--is WE TV's Marriage Boot Camp. It's a show about the couples who were on the show Bridezillas who are now having issues in their marriage. It's a therapy show where the couples go through different drills and challenges to attempt to fix the problems in their marriage.

I love this show for several different reasons, but mostly because the problems are so real. Infidelity, anger, alcoholism, all of them are problems that are smack in the middle of the human condition. What real people go through on a daily basis. I suppose that's why I love reality television so much. Because it shows the worst of human behavior, but also the best sometimes.

Marriage Boot Camp, although I'm acutely aware of the fact that it is reality television, comes across as incredibly real. These couples are having real problems. True, there are big personalities and a massive dose of editing to really play up the drama. But the show gives an insight into the way relationships go right and in the way they go wrong.

I guess reality television makes it easier for me to write because it gives me a new insight on how relationships work. Especially since I don't have a lot of experience in them myself.

Fire's Princess Cover

Since the new book is coming out in the next few months, I thought I would share with you the cover of the new book. It was a long process of trying to figure out what the new over was going to look like. My sister--my lovely graphic designer--put together a few covers to see what we could work with. But none of those really fit. But this one... the one that we finally agreed upon, it was perfect. And it fit.

So here is the cover of The Fire's Princess, which will be available on Kindle and in paperback from Amazon on June 4.

Rose has lost everything she's ever known. 

 Her father has been murdered. She has fled her home in the Forested Land to take refuge with King Andrew Rivers in a foreign kingdom.  Her home is under the control of a tyrant king, one who will stop at nothing to see Rose and all of her family dead. She has to fight to stay hidden, stay alive, and find a way back home.  Now Rose must find a way to organize a rebellion to get back to her homeland, as well as win the hearts of a kingdom that doesn't know her. With lords scheming with hidden agendas and her own secrets threatening to be exposed, Rose must face enemies she never expected and find a destiny she never planned for.  In the stunning sequel to The Forest's Heir, Ley Hayley takes readers on a journey through court intrigue and matters of the heart. The Fire's Princess truly is a fiery ride!

The Agent Search is On

I've done this whole process before. Searching for an agent is something that every writer will do at least once in their career. Most, I think, do it multiple times or over a long period to find just the right fit between your project and the person who is going to fight for it.

Sometimes that part takes a long time.

I've been on the hunt for an agent for a long time. More than once, I've gone out searching for agents and trying to figure out how best to pitch my work to someone. It's difficult to figure out how to put information in a form that will make people get excited about something that I've spent the last year and a half of my life writing, fixing, and polishing.

Perhaps the hardest part of the agent search is hearing "no." I think that's the hardest part because people think that saying no is a simple thing. I've done it as a reviewer, and I know it isn't an easy thing to do. It's hard to tell people that you aren't interested in something that they worked so hard on. I know it has to be hard for the agents to say no to projects, but it's hard for me to hear it too. I don't like being told that something I worked so hard on isn't good enough for someone.

But that's their job, and I have to learn to live with the word "no." It's a part of life, and it is certainly a part of writing.

So the agent search is still on... and one day I'll find the right person to fight for my writing.

Blood, Sweat, & Tears

Sometimes, I think this is everything that is built into being a writer. In everything that you do that you're passionate about, there's an element of putting so much of yourself into it that you bleed for it. You cry for it and about it. Sometimes I feel that if you aren't tearing yourself apart for the project, then it doesn't seem to be something worth doing.

I know that it seems kind of strange to hear something like that. But I'm one of those people who think that if you're going to do something, then you might as well do it the best as you can. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, as they say.

I've been working on my projects for over two years now, and I'm trying to get them to the point where I can really make them the best they can possibly be. And that's all about bleeding and sweating and crying for a project. Putting everything that you can in a project and letting yourself and your desires bleed out over the page. That's the kind of writer I want to be. I want to be one of those writers who people say is passionate about writing. Who makes their characters and worlds come alive because I breathe my own life into them.

Maybe I'm a bit too passionate about writing. That might be the problem. But it doesn't matter to me. It's all about being who I am and making it work for me. And for me, I have to be all or nothing about something. I'm in it, or I'm not.

It's that simple.

Second Blog Tour Update

The next blog tour is coming up quickly since the second book is about to come out in a few months. I'm getting ready for the next blog tour, trying to figure out which blogs are going to pick it up and how I'm going to promote things this time.

It seems like things are going much more slowly this time than for the last time. Maybe it's just because I've been so busy with my new job. But I'm going to get to work and bring in a few more blogs before the tour kicks off at the end of May. It'll be fun.

I'm looking forward to this tour and the second book launch. In honor of it, I've opened up the book on Smashwords. And the second book will release on Smashwords on the day of the release as well.

Short Hiatus

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted any new blogs in the last few days. I'm sorry about this, but I just haven't had the time. I've barely had the time to write anything! I just got a new job, and I've been working almost non-stop to get ready for it. 

So I'll be on a short blogging hiatus (I'll probably be back on Monday the 7th) until I get things situated for the new job.

Playing Pranks

April fool's day has never been one of my favorite holidays. I suppose it's because I'm not very good at playing pranks. I'm usually the recipient of the jokes rather than the perpetrator. That doesn't mean I don't like pranks. I just like funny ones, not ones that hurt people.

Here are my top five favorite pranks that I've either played on someone or had played on me.

1. Gluing everything down on someone's desk 
2. Ketchup packets under the toilet seats
3. Putting maple syrup in someone's shampoo
4. Stealing all of someone's toilet paper from their apartment
5. Underwear in the freezer at a sleepover

I think my favorite prank is the one where myself and a few of my roommates glued everything down on someone's desk. That happened during my first semester at university, and we did it to a couple of the boys who lived in the dorm across the quad from us. It was kind of this ongoing prank war between our room and theirs. Eventually it escalated to where our RAs told us we couldn't do it anymore, but it was fun while it lasted. No one got hurt, and there wasn't any real damage to anything since we didn't use superglue.

We sneaked into their room while they were in class and used Elmer's glue to attach everything on their desks to the wood. It took forever, but it was fun. Especially because we very nearly got caught when one of them came back to their room to grab something for a class. We had to hide in the closets to keep from being caught.

It was fantastic. And I absolutely loved it. It's one of the best memories I had from university.