Giveaway Alert!

Hi all,

With the release of my  newest book, STONE SILENCE, many bloggers have been sharing the news, which I greatly appreciate.

In fact, one blogger is even doing a review a day of each one of my books--AND doing a giveaway of one of my books--reader's choice!

So, I thought I would point you her way, so you can enter to win a free book! I'm not doing the giveaway, she is, all on her own. Wow. Isn't that amazing? I'm floored by her efforts on my behalf.

She blogs about clean romance and has lots of great suggestions for books, so if that's what you love, you won't regret giving her a follow.

Go to MYLISSA'S REVIEWS AND BOOK THOUGHTS

Day One post is HERE.

Day Two post is HERE.

And by the time this posts, I'm sure the Day Three post will be up.

Go on over and check it out! Good luck!

MONDAY MUSINGS: How to Cover Wallpaper Borders

I mostly write about my books and my writing on this blog, but today I'm going to write about something else.

I recently googled the title of this post, "How to Cover Wallpaper Borders."

You know what  I found? A whole bunch of posts that told me NOT to cover a wallpaper border. TAKE THEM DOWN was the general consensus. It was such a '"duh" moment. The information was not helpful to me at all. If I could remove them I would. I wanted to COVER them. So, I thought it was time to write a post of my own on the subject and maybe I'll be able to help someone who is looking to to do what I did.

We bought our house in 1994 and we had wallpaper borders put up in every single room except the bathrooms. I had no idea it would be a decision I would one day regret.
(Warning: Funky paint colors to follow! We had been living in military housing for ten years along with white walls and white tiled floors. Therefore we went a little crazy with color. We're still living with the carpet color choices as well.)

The first border I tried to remove was in the master bedroom. I followed some all natural recipe online that swore it would melt away my borders and make them come down easily.

Nope. Didn't work.

I ran into a major problem. To my surprise, I found that all the borders in my house are attached directly to the sheet rock. There is no texturing or paint between the border and the wall. Removing them is nearly impossible.

Would a remover I can buy at the store work? Maybe. I've never tried one of them. They smell to high heaven and make me dizzy and lightheaded. In other words, I cannot remove the borders myself. I don't have the time OR the patience. I would need to hire out and I don't want to spend the money on it right now. The quote I received for removing the border in the kitchen alone was $500.00. We will do it someday when we renovate our home, but for the time being I needed another option, one I could live with without breaking the bank.

So, if this is what you are interested in doing, read on!!

My idea was to COVER up the borders because I just couldn't live with them anymore.

Here's what we did:

In the master bedroom, we covered the border with peel and stick floor tiles. They are brown and have a leather-like look to them. My husband cut them to size. After placing them on the wall, he put a small brown nail in each corner to hold them in place securely. I LOVE the look of the border now and even if we renovate, I would leave the border up.

Before:

After:

We did the same thing in the kitchen using white peel and stick floor tiles. It's not ideal, but it works for the time being. I don't love the way it looks, but at least the darn floral border is hidden.

Before:

After:

In my son's room, we had a space border, which he outgrew long before he begged me to change it. I finally gave in. We decided to tape off the top black stripe and the bottom black stripe and paint over the border with a contrasting color from the wall. We had no idea if it would work or not. I'm sure all borders are not created equal, so I don't know if this will work with every border.

We painted the first coat and could still see the border underneath. We thought it didn't work and began to brainstorm for creative ways to cover the border. Then we walked back into the room and realized that after it dried, it looked great. So we did a second coat and we LOVED it.

Before:

After:

Recently we did the same thing in another bedroom. The border did not have a convenient black stripe at the top and bottom though. So I spent two hours painstakingly taping off a small stripe at the bottom and at the top. This prevents the wallpaper from peeling at the edges. It is also best to use a contrasting color from the wall.

Before:

After:

So, that's what we did! There is a way to cover wallpaper borders and not have them look horrendous. I realize this is not the ideal answer, but it worked for us! I hope this information will help someone else as they struggle with those darn wallpaper borders.

As for some of the other borders in my house, I'll just have to live with them for now! In all honesty, I still like the below borders, even if they are outdated!

MONDAY MUSINGS

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the blog silence.

Image courtesy of [digitalart] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I haven't been keeping up with blogging as much lately. Family obligations have kept me busy and I've been pouring whatever time I have left into writing my newest books.

I'm still here!! Just busy writing!

Image courtesy of [rattigon] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This past week I had to say goodbye once again to my son as we sent him off to nursing school.

He was home for nine months as he took all the classes necessary to receive a BS in Nursing. He has a degree in Chemistry, yet he had to take two semesters of classes in order to receive a BS in Nursing. Go figure. His end goal is to be a Nurse Practitioner. I'm excited for him and his job prospects as he takes this next step in life. But it was so fun having him home again and it was hard to say goodbye.

He's so funny and he keeps me laughing. He may or may not have pushed me around on the luggage cart at our hotel.

His idea, I swear.

I'll miss him, but I have a lot of writing to do and that will keep me occupied!

So, tell me what you have been up to!

SIDENOTE: Back in January, I did a post where I talked about my novel, I'M WITH YOU. Amazon took away its five star rating, even though no new reviews had appeared. UPDATE: Still no new reviews to cause a change, but the full five stars are back!! 
I love having my full five stars back, but WHAT THE HECK?!!

MONDAY MUSINGS

I have been busy, busy, busy writing my newest books.

I had the opportunity to go with my hubby on a business trip to Santa Fe. We had a room with a gas fireplace.

One of my favorite things to do is sit by the fireplace and WRITE.

And that's exactly what I did for two blissful days.

I wish I could've stayed there for a week! I love being able to write with no distractions.

I also had my grandson with me for a week.

He's a cutie and I have so much fun with him.

My newest books are coming along quite nicely.

So, what have you been up to?

MONDAY MUSINGS

Sometimes an idea for a book hits me and if I don't write it down immediately,  I lose it.

A few weeks ago, an idea for a Christmas novella came to my mind and I was so inspired by the story, I sat down at my computer and started writing it that very day. I loved it and I didn't stop working on it for the next week. By then I had 24,000 words done. (Not that that's impressive or anything, I'm a slow writer.)

It still needs a lot of work but the basic story is on paper and now I won't forget the story I had in mind. I can't wait to get back to it and give it a good polish.

It is entitled VIOLIN WORDS and I will release it in December of 2017.

(The image above is not the cover--or maybe it will be if I don't find something better! I don't know yet!)

Now that my Christmas novella is on paper, I have returned to my new series, which I should have been working on all along! I lost a week of work on my new series, but I gained a novella.

It was worth it.

Stone Silence is complete and Jailbird is halfway done. I'm on a roll with Jailbird and I'm anxious to finish it as well.

So, that will be FOUR new books coming your way in 2017!!

I have my work cut out for me. But, I'm loving every minute of it.

Have a great Monday, everyone!

MONDAY MUSINGS

Every once in a while, being an author can be an extremely rewarding experience.

And I'm not talking monetary rewards.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Yes, this is my job. And of course, I want to earn an income.

But how wonderful is it when you receive more than a paycheck? How wonderful is it when you feel as though you have done something that touched someone else's life? Or helped someone?

That feeling came to me this week in the form of an email regarding my book, I'M WITH YOU.

(I have omitted the dates and names to protect the personal information of this lady.)

Dear Taylor,

I'm so happy you wrote a book about a baby with Trisomy 18. I understand your feelings completely. In 2015 my daughter gave birth to my first granddaughter. She lived 12 1/2 BEAUTIFUL hours and then went to Heaven. The baby had Trisomy 13. Nine months and two days later in 2016 my daughter gave birth to my second granddaughter.

My daughter was six months pregnant. The baby was stillborn.

She was my granddaughter with Trisomy 18. The odds of this happening two times back to back is like winning the largest lottery with only one purchased new ticket. These baby girls mean so much to me. I think about them often and it's nice to know there's someone out there who knows what I feel. That I love these baby girls. My story does continue and it's beautiful.

In 2017 my daughter gave birth to my grandson. He is fine. He's a beautiful healthy 7 lbs. 13 oz. little boy. I thank you for making people more aware of children with trisomy 13 or 18 or 21. You let the world know that these babies are real and they are LOVED... Thank You

It is messages like this that really keep me going and inspire me.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Another thing that happened fairly recently came in the form of a package from a reader who I've become friends with. She lives in Belgium. How cool is that? I have a friend in BELGIUM! If not for being an author, we never would have connected. Through our emails we have found we have much in common. Some day I really hope to meet her in person. At Christmas, she asked if I wanted to exchange Christmas cards and I said yes. But she sent me much more than a card.

This yummy package of Belgium chocolate arrived!

WOW! This was so unexpected and YES, it was AMAZING.

By the way, she blogs about the books she reads here. She likes clean romance and has some great recommendations.

On this day before Valentine's Day, I'm thankful for people who SPREAD THE LOVE! And that means ALL OF YOU who follow this blog and leave me lots of comment LOVE and ENCOURAGEMENT!

THANK YOU!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

MONDAY MUSINGS

Image courtesy of [aechan] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Happy Monday, everyone!

Thank you to all who commented on last week's Monday post. I appreciated your feedback.

Today, I have another issue to share with you and, again, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Here's what happened to me a few weeks ago and I'm still bothered by it.

My novel, I'm With You, has been numerically rated high enough to receive the five full yellow stars on Amazon.

Do you know what stars I'm talking about? The five yellow stars at the top of each book page that show you the overall ranking of a book at a glance.

I'm With You Kindle Edition

by Taylor Dean  (Author), Jules Isaacs (Editor)

4.7 out of 5 stars    113 customer reviews

 You know what? A full five yellow stars are rare and it was a big deal to me. Huge. 

But suddenly, my five beautiful yellow stars changed to four and a half stars.

Four and a half stars is still a really good rating and one to be proud of.

The thing is, my numerical rating didn't change. I had NOT received a new unfavorable review. As a matter of fact, nothing had changed.

Nothing.

Except my five full yellow stars were gone.

Now, I know this is not the end of the world, but I LOVED having a book with five full yellow stars!! Like I said, it was a big deal to me!!

So, why did my yellow stars change from five to four and a half when there were no new reviews or ratings?

Good question. It didn't make any sense.

So I wrote to Amazon, sure it was some kind of mistake.

Here's the answer I received: 

The overall star rating for a product is determined by a machine-learned model that considers factors such as the age of the review, helpful votes by customers, and whether the reviews are from verified purchasers. Similar machine-learned factors help determine a review’s ranking in the list of reviews.

The system continues to learn which reviews are most helpful to customers and improves the experience over time.

What?

I still don't see why my rating should change when I haven't received a new rating or review???

Should the age of reviews and the amount of likes a review has been given matter to a book's rating? That means anyone can go on Amazon and mark a review helpful or not helpful and mess with the book's star rating.

 And why can't my free-book-in-exchange-for-honest-reviews count?

I know Amazon is doing their best to prevent fake reviews. I appreciate their efforts. But this policy is working against authors.

Then a few days later, I checked my books on Amazon again. This time Sierra suddenly went from four and a half stars to four stars. No new reviews or ratings occurred to change this rating either.

I don't like this policy. It demeans an author's hard work. It says to me, "No matter how good your reviews are, we have other factors we figure in to determine your rating."

I also noticed reviews that stated they'd read my books through Kindle Unlimited--and yet those reviews were NOT counted as verified purchases. I'm going to write to Amazon about that one next.

I'm not sure why this needs to be so complicated. False reviews on a book will not stand the test of time. Eventually there will be a rash of bad reviews on a bad book. It seems as though the system will fix itself in some ways.

Sadly, there's nothing I can do about it. My hands are tied.

So, that's my rant today. Thanks for listening. Now it's off my chest and I'm just not going to worry about it anymore. It is what it is. Moving on.

 I would love to know what you think!

MONDAY MUSINGS

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!

(Image courtesy of Google Images)

I would like to start a discussion about an issue today. I'm really interested in your thoughts on this matter.

I received a wonderful three star review of Chasing Fireflies a while back. I know, only three stars? How could it possibly be wonderful? The review was a very positive and complimentary review. The reader had two complaints however. The second of which I would like to discuss today.

Please read the below thoughts of the reviewer:

The second problem is one a lot of chaste romances are guilty of and that's the missing faith problem. We have two contemporary American adults who have an intense and intimate relationship and yet neither even thinks about having sex (and this one has the further problem with missing alcohol, probably as a result of Dean's Mormon background). I'm sorry, but contemporary American culture assumes that couples have had sex by the time they are engaged. That's the very longest you can leave it without it coming off as strange and even unnatural to the core audience of your romance. If your characters are talking marriage, they're thinking sex. And not having it has to have a reason or it feels strange. And the thing is, I know a lot of readers who don't care how authors meet the cultural expectation so long as it makes sense. Many read romances for the emotional catharsis rather than the explicit sex, so chaste romances that have religious characters putting off the sexy times for marriage isn't an issue. But it breaks the sense of reality when contemporary characters don't have a reason and still don't have the sex. Many of these authors are religious and may not be aware of how unnatural their stories come across. I hate that otherwise talented authors like Taylor Dean are limiting their audience so unnecessarily by cutting out the religion of their characters when the scars of its removal are so obvious. Please, include the religion, or figure a way around the issue of sex. Leaving it completely unaddressed is strange and off-putting and it doesn't need to be.

So, I would love to know your opinion on this matter. When you read a clean romance, do you like this subject to be addressed? Does it need to be a religious reason? Do you prefer it to not be mentioned at all? Do readers assume the characters are moral when they know they are reading a clean romance, and therefore it doesn't need to be addressed?

I have addressed this issue in a few of my books. I didn't include religious reasons necessarily. Most of my characters decide to wait for marriage because they feel intimacy is sacred and I leave it at that. While my books have inspirational elements, they are not strictly inspirational and I don't want preachy elements. I've handled it differently in each one of my books. In some, I like the way it was handled and in others, I worried it came across as awkward.

In Chasing Fireflies, I really didn't address the issue, but I also felt their relationship escalated quickly and it didn't need to be addressed in that particular book.

At any rate, I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter. As I'm writing my new series, I have been thinking about this matter quite a bit.

Thanks in advance!

MONDAY MUSINGS--COVER REVEAL

Here it is, the reveal of the third cover in my all new Sound of Silence series!

This is the third and final book in the series and it is entitled,

HOTHOUSE FLOWER.

This cover features my niece and her husband.

Again, I love that family members were willing to appear on my covers. It makes this series EXTRA special.

Here's all three covers!

Spencer's story

 

Mia's story

Shay's story

When I first revealed the cover of STONE SILENCE a few weeks ago, I also revealed it on Facebook and tagged my niece. I DID NOT expect the reaction I received!

Of course, building up hype for a new release is a really good thing, but I'm not even ready to name my release date as of yet. Therefore, I have not advertised books two and three on Facebook. Only here on my blog. I'm not quite ready to build up that much hype!!

As I spent this past week polishing STONE SILENCE, I began to doubt myself. I wondered if the book was any good. I wondered if the plot line is a little "out there" and if the book would totally flop.

These are dangerous thoughts while an author is in the middle of the creative process.

I expressed my worries to my daughter and she sent me a favorite quote by David Bowie:

ALL MY BIG MISTAKES ARE WHEN I TRY TO SECOND-GUESS OR PLEASE AN AUDIENCE. MY WORK IS ALWAYS STRONGER WHEN I GET VERY SELFISH ABOUT IT.

I read that quote and realized that he is so very right! When I worry about whether or not anyone will like a book or not, I lose my muse. I need to trust myself and write the story that I LOVE--the one that my mind conjured up from the very beginning--and GO WITH IT.

So, that's what I'm doing. I'm letting my imagination rule the story and writing the kind of story that I love to write.

It's the only way I know how to write.

If I try to write someone else's idea for my story, it just doesn't work.

Now all that indecision and insecurity are out of the way. I'm going to write these books for the sheer joy of penning the story that's wandering around in my head. That's when I do my best work.

 NO MORE DOUBTS.

A fan of Lancaster House loved Chasing Fireflies. In her review of Chasing Fireflies, she wrote:

Loved this book. Couldn't put it down, True Taylor Dean style.

And you know what? I knew exactly what she meant.

I knew what I had added to the book to keep the reader turning the pages.

It's time to stick with the Taylor Dean style of writing and trust myself.

So, those are my thoughts on a Monday morning.

Tell me about YOU! What's on your mind today?