Cover Goodness

I have a pretty to share today! I love covers, but waiting for your cover can be nerve racking! Of course my friend had me spoiled! lol She does very nice covers and she is fast! But this cover...this cover was WORTH the wait. My story, Semper Fi: Magnus, is my first full length. I'm very proud of it and happy to unveil my cover here!

Don't you just want to lick him? lol

Next wait...the release date!!! I can't wait until I can share it too!

Remedy for wrinkles? Really?

You’ve been out in the sun, you’re growing older… your skin is starting to show the effects. So any ideas on how to combat the adverse consequences of living are good, right? The following is an article I found in some items from my other line of work. Like I tell my clients in regard to any new supplements/treatments/lifestyle changes, please check with your physician to make sure it’s all right to use them.
~ Coenzyme Q10 ~ The Wrinkle Cure ~
Air pollutants, toxins, cigarette smoke, cell metabolism, exposure to the sun, and other environmental factors initiate free radicals, which can cause dangerous reactions that destroy cells and damage DNA, proteins, and fats. Free radicals also interfere with collagen production and integrity, resulting in loss of elasticity and, ultimately, aging skin. Although this is a natural and unavoidable by-product of metabolism, an overabundance of free radical damage can cause premature aging and wrinkles. Fortunately, there's a nutritional way to fight the elements.
Coenzyme Q10, also called CoQ10 and ubiquinone, is a fat soluble, vitamin-like nutrient present in virtually all cells and considered the spark plug of the body, helping to produce and regulate energy as well as fighting free radicals as an antioxidant.
CoQ10 levels are highest during the first 20 years of life and decline with time, so much so that at age 80, CoQ10 levels may be lower than at birth. Yet the body's demand for CoQ10 increases with age. Furthermore, statin (cholesterol-lowering) medications can further deplete the body of CoQ10.
The recommended daily CoQ10 dose is 30 mg, in combination with alpha lipoic acid and vitamins A, C, E, and selenium. Foods highest in CoQ10 include sardines, beef, peanuts, spinach, and albacore tuna. However, it would take a pound of sardines, two pounds of beef, or two-and-a-half pounds of peanuts to provide 30 mg, and cooking foods at high temperatures degrades the enzyme. Consequently, CoQ10 supplementation is likely necessary to achieve therapeutic effects.
CoQ10 can also benefit topically, as it's a small molecule that can easily penetrate the skin. When CoQ10 is combined with vitamins C and E in creams or lotions, the synergistic effect can neutralize free radicals, thus reducing wrinkles.
Supplementing with CoQ10 is not only a good anti-aging strategy for the skin, it can also enhance energy, cognition, heart health, stroke prevention, and immune support.
Article from Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals newsletter.

Where do you get inspiration from?

What a deep subject this could be. Where do we get our inspiration from? For me, I pull my ideas from the newspaper, the Internet, and even on the radio.

Just yesterday I was plugging away working on my synopsis for a current work in progress when I decided to pop a cd into the computer. I love country music, so that is usually my first choice when it comes to listening pleasure as well.

A few minutes later, I stopped typing and started listening to the words of the song. Whoa, they were very poignant and alsmost made me cry. When the songstress sang this at the Country Music Awards a few years ago she broke down crying during the song. It's about how her mother left their family and how the singer wanted to let her know that was doing just fine without her in her life. Ok, so I shedding a tear or two, or lots (G).

It really hit home as my mother gave me up when I was three months old. Granted she gave me to family members (my great grandparents) but it still hurts nonetheless. I will always wonder what if things would have been different. But they weren't. My father was killed in a car crash at the young age of 19, my mother was then barely 18, a widow with a baby. Life was not going the way she had planned by any stretch of the imagination.

So, long story short, when I hear something like that on the radio I always find myself wondering what kind of book it would make. Would anyone care about my life even if was fictionalized, and romanticized?

Who knows, but regardless of that I ALWAYS jot down ideas and have scraps of paper all over my office, my purse, my nightstand, my house with scribbles and snippets of ideas for future books. Will I ever write them, again who knows. But I certainly have a stockpile of ideas to chose from.

What about you? Do you write down the ideas so time doesn't take them away from you? Where do you get your inspiration from? Share with me please.

SpoCon

I had the experience of a lifetime last weekend. My very first Con, and it was great. It was nothing like I had expected and thankfully I got through it without throwing up from nerves. The picture is me in the green room waiting for things to get started on day two.

I must say, I expected weirdos and I expected to be judged for not being into all that. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of people dressed in costume, but even more were just dressed normal. There was actually a large population of middle aged women there, specifically to see Patricia Briggs no doubt. I was impressed by the diversity, and the fact that everyone there was nice and non-judgmental and I never felt like I didn't fit in or didn't belong. Saying that I write Romance novels didn't get me laughed out of the place.

I was nervous all weekend, felt like I wanted to puke for all the nerves at times. I was scheduled for two panels the first day, a signing and reading the second day, and one panel the third day. Not knowing what to expect I was dying the whole time. I don't like to speak in front of any group and to put myself out there talking about what I do, that was worse in my mind. But I got through it without bursting into flames or passing out. I even enjoyed the experience, although I was the quietest one on all the panels, I really do need to learn how to but my way into conversations sometimes.

My favorite part was having Patricia Briggs talk to me like I was an equal. She didn't put me down for being a new author or writing e-books. She even asked my thoughts on the e-book industry. It was awesome, I love her books.

So all in all a good experience that I am destined to repeat. I will attend RadCon in TriCities Washington in February, which will coincide with the release of my short story Blood Visions through Extasy Books, which will start my paranormal series with books to follow through Devine Destinies Books.

Hush My Mouth

By A.J. Llewellyn

I have blogged before about my extreme dental phobia. My problem has been so extreme that a friend of a friend, let's call her Sandy, called me a few days ago and asked if she could use me as a guinea pig for her dental exam.
"I hear you have bad teeth," were her opening words.
Not exactly a way to win friends and influence people.
I was happy to report that she was misinformed. I told her with some pride that I now have my runaway cavities, crowns and a deep cleaning firmly behind me. I now have a great dentist and in spite of a horrible incident last week during sedation dentistry - I woke up in the middle of it - and a big ol' bruise on my arm from the injection site, I am no longer a man with a bad mouth.
I love my sparkling teeth!
Sandy was not pleased and virtually hung up on me.
Her mom called me next and said Sandy was devastated. She thought I'd be the perfect guinea pig to help her pass her oral exam.
Why me, Lord? Why?
Long story short, I got drafted into helping her find a new victim. She thought I was such a shoo-in she hadn't bothered finding a backup. And the exam was scheduled for this morning.
Big shumuck that I am, I did look for bad teeth and found her the owner of the worst ones I've ever seen in my life.
I found him at the gym.
He was a beaut. He's a broke boxer and he was willing to be her guinea pig in exchange for free dental work.
Except he's a bigger dental phobe than I am.
Sandy's family enlisted an impressive roster of babysitters to keep the guy busy and his mind off this morning's procedure.
I was drafted into babysitting him last night - the exam was 9am this morning. Why I said I would help I'll never know, but from 6.30pm to 11pm last night, I kept him with me and he kept looking at my arm.
"What happened to you?" he asked.
I knew if I said, "Dental surgery" he would run all the way to Tijuana.
He was nice enough to sit through a meeting I had to attend for work. He even put up with me thundering away on my laptop as he watched TV.
We argued only when he wanted to watch bull fights.
He settled for a UFC match.
He ate fast food and I kept checking he wasn't sneaking out the door when I went to the bathroom.
The only time he grumbled, really, was when I forced him to walk the dog with me at 11pm because I didn't trust him not to run away.
I handed him off to Sandy's boyfriend at 11pm. He in turn, handed him over to Sandy who was swatting for her exam and she arrived bright and early with her guinea pig this morning.
I just learned that poor Sandy was disqualified because the guinea pig's dental problems were so severe the instructors felt she could never complete them in the allotted time.
So it's all my fault. From now on I shall keep my phobias to myself.
Hush my mouth and smack my grandma if I ever blog about my teeth again!
Aloha oe,

A.J.