Domain name snafu

If you've been typing in loriannstephens.com, I'm sorry that the link is broken. I suppose someone, at some point, will answer my frantic emails about the problem.

Glitches never happen at the right time. This weekend, I've been in the middle of a website nightmare: my website was assigned a new URL, and when I tried to go to a "certain" host to manage/transfer my domain name (www.loriannstephens.com), the server freaked out and pointed the domain to the login page of their free service, which I do not use. Apparently, I've done something wrong, but there's no documentation on the site that tells me how to fix the problem. To make matters more frustrating, this particular business does not have a phone number anywhere on its website. Just a "support ticket." I've submitted three so far.

Meanwhile, I'm handing out bookmarks and business cards with my domain name on them. And..my website domain hasn't worked all weekend. This was the final straw: it sucked, fitting for straws.

So, here's my direct, somewhat clunky website address that will take you to my new site:
people.smu.edu/loris

You can find out about Appearances, etc, there. I hope my domain name gets sorted out soon.
But...lesson learned. I hear changes afoot!

Kathleen M. Rodgers and Me

Hop on over to Kathleen's blog to see a few rare photos of me. At the Dallas Symphony! In Paris! At 16, when my sister and I adventured to NYC all by our lonesome! We were cool in the 80s.

I also answer some of her questions about Some Act of Vision and Song of the Orange Moons.

Kathleen Rodgers is (consistently) Amazon's #1 Top Rated War Fiction writer and an award-winning author. And she's the kind of person who makes you feel right at home from the minute you meet her.

Thank you, Kathleen, for inviting me for your interview.

And if you're interested in war fiction, take a look here!

Daddy with Pink Ukulele Wins Father of the Year!

Well, if I were in charge of "Father of the Year," I'd pick him.

What do you think?
(video circulating on Facebook...)

Nice Words...

Nikki Loftin (author of The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy and Nightingale's Nest, in February 2014) shared some nice words about SOME ACT OF VISION. Thanks, Nikki!

And over at Kritter's Rambling, there were more nice words. So glad you're looking forward to more!

Feeling happy.

Pub Day for SOME ACT OF VISION

It's my YA book birthday!

Yes, you can look inside.

I think I'll share some Lucky Charms with my son for breakfast.

My girls did a dance for me:



Late yesterday afternoon, I received a package in the mail: my book! It has to creamiest, butteriest cover. I actually petted it.

It's getting some sweet reviews on Goodreads, too. Inching their way to Amazon. Hope you enjoy it.

Now I have to get professor-y and head out to work.

I should dance tonight. Yes, I will.

The Cure-All for Pub-Day Jitters

Tomorrow's the book birthday for Some Act of Vision. Hooray! Happy reviews are coming in.

And today,YA novelist Amy Plum is giving away a signed copy of the book in a Twitter-fest challenge. Tweet me!

So, what did I do the weekend before a book birthday? I spent it 32 feet up, at the tip top of an extension ladder, painting our two-story house. My sweet guy has vertigo, and I have a case of Crazy when it comes to DIY projects, so he took the vital (and by vital, I mean literally life-preserving) role as Ladder-Holder, and I climbed a wobbly, steel lean-to ladder to the roof of the A-Frame to complete the slow-but-fulfilling task of painting the seams with a paintbrush. Balancing at the top is not the scary part. It's the ascent, midway, when you feel the ladder's slow weeble, and you look up to see another ten rungs to go.You want pics? I shall deliver. Later today, I'll do Part Two of the paint job, because what else keeps one's mind off book birthday jitters?

I wonder what causes the jitters for other authors. Is it: will reviews write kindly about my book? Will readers like my book? Will anyone buy my book? Will it be buried among the million-book pile at Amazon? Too many things to worry about. I say: go paint instead. Make something else beautiful for the world to see.

One Week, and breathing

I can't believe it's one week until pub day.
Part of me wants to run around the house, flailing my hands, and screaming "gahhhhh!"
The other part (that wins) whips out this post, then puts on some subdued, professorial clothes, and heads to work.

And hey, look! A Book Vacation said some nice things about Some Act of Vision: "a great read" and "most of the novel I was on pins and needles." Four stars ain't nothing to shake a stick at. (That's Texan-speak, for those of you un-introduced to the fine art of the Southern metaphor.) Thanks, A Book Vacation!

Because of server and software glitches, I've been scrambling to copy pages from my website over to a new home here. It's not finished, but you can see my growing list of book-related fun-things-to-do, mainly involving merry toasts.

Cheers!
(breathes and counts to three)