After the Party!!

My RRP Author Day was a huge success!! It was perfect thing for me since I was pretty much stuck at home yesterday. The rains here were so bad you couldn’t even see the road. Good thing I had got enough of that on Friday. Lol. A lot of people came by and posted. A special thanks to all the authors in attendance. It was a lot of fun!!! I can’t wait to do it again . . . which would probably be next month. Now, it’s time to start back writing and finishing Warrior’s Heart and getting ready to promote Captive Temptation.

I actually thought about starting the second book to the Captive Series. “Captive Desire or Captive Seduction” whatever’s cleaver. I haven’t sat down and played with them just yet. I have thought about what I am going to do with each of them thought.

Captive Desire follows bounty hunter Remira Satari as she is ordered to take rouge pirate prince Xavien Madore into custody for more counts of thievery but the whole thing goes awry when they are taken captive by the very man that wants Xavien dead. ( I haven’t got out the full synopsis yet but I like the sound of this idea).

Captive Seduction follows Therica, the infamous rouge pirate Golden Scourge, as she pilfers and punders the transport ships of the Secoorian sector. Before her pirating days, Therica and her brother teamed together seduced and robbed a young transport merchant named Kiernan Cregor, stealing his shipment and leaving him dead in space. Kiernan, now a bounty hunter will stop at nothing to catch the Golden Scourge in an attempt to douse the fire that still burned for her. (Still playing around with this one too. Lol).

I’m hoping to get these officially out in the open to where I can write more clearly on them. Maybe this summer when I’m officially finished with Warrior’s Heart. Lol

Now it’s time for me to push myself into being productive. I actually have to clean up today. Lolol. I wanted to extend my thanks again for stopping by and having fun with me yesterday. It was a blast!!!

Take Care!!



Leah V.

First Ever Author and Reader Day

I am so excited. I am having my first ever Author and Reader day on my yahoo group. I hardly ever talk on my own group being that I’m so busy, but since I have so many friends it was hard to pass up the idea of having them all join me for an author’s day. I think of the benefit of both promoting myself as well as helping my fellow authors in promoting theirs. My group is small, right now, but it is the perfect place to have a group of members chats and bring their friends. I am actually hoping to do this on a by weekly bi-weekly basis. I’m really excited. And what better than to do it on a Saturday (for me, I’m going to be kidless, and not working lol).

Sitting around doing nothing bout talking about contests, free exerpts of great books, and chatting with authors about upcoming work. This is going to be so much fun.

If you haven’t joined my yahoo group yet, please go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/leahvaughn and join today.


I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Leah V.

Crippled Yet Again

I managed to hurt my knee all over again. I did it once in January, the day of the Inauguration just dancing and being with my friends (trying to be a little TOO grown lol). One force move and I can’t move the damned thing. Now, mind you, I was alright for the walk out of the bar, and okay for the drive home, but when I stepped out of my car, I couldn’t put pressure on my right leg. And with me not having anymore insurance because of my beautiful dismissal from a certain cable company (laughable), I am left dealing with the pain by soaking my leg in hot water and taking pain killers (and not the good stuff from the doctor either).

Well, after a weeklong of walking with cane assistance as if I’m like a million years old (lol) and more painkillers than I can shake my stick at, I started walking fine and actually started a good workout regimen (I ain’t lost a pound yet, but them thighs is looking good and toned). Just the other day, all that ended when it rained so hard I couldn’t see my bottom step. It never fails that crap always happens when you are being the most careful. While taking the kids to school, I slipped and fell on the bottom step, twisting the same BLASTED knee again!!! So now I’m sitting on my sofa yet again, with my leg propped up. Yet, this time I have a little insurance to at least have it x-rayed. So within the next week, I’ll have a little writing time down and maybe I can finish Warrior’s Heart and have it out. LOL

I’ll let you know about the progress.

TTFN

LV

Sunday Morning Thought

Happy Sunday Morning!!

I’m sitting here in my bed thinking about the things of this week and trying to make some headway in writing. I’m attending a conference in Austin this week so maybe while I’m get to catch up on some of the writing I’ve been putting off.
I wanted to bring up something that came to mind over the weekend. I have someone very close to me be diagnosed with Autism. Well, you know that I have an autistic son who is fairing very well. Thought this child’s mother is not. And I can really understand. At the time my son was diagnosed, I was dealing with a failing marriage, a job that took up the majority of my time, and there was no way out for me that I can think of. Emotionally, I was a wreck and the only thing I could think of was how in the hell was I going to help my son when I can’t even see myself out of the mess my life was in. To top that off, my other son has ADHD and the time I was having with his school was driving me practically insane (another tale for another day)
I cried like a boo-hooing fool. I didn’t know about the functions of Autism or whether or not my son was ever going to get around the screaming for no apparent reason or t he fits of frustrated rage that followed. And like I said, at the time my marriage was circling the drain so there was little to no help coming from my husband.
And that brings me to my point. There are times that things become so overwhelming that there is no way to see around them. Sometimes the circumstances in our lives impact the things that we do and we are powerless to stop them. But, with that being said, we can certainly work around them.
Autism is a distressing disorder not only to the parents, but to the little ones it effects also. It takes patience and consistency in order to working around some things. If you want to work on a way to communicate with your little one instead of letting him scream (they’re going to do this anyway so get ready), then there are many methods of communication available that have already been developed for other things. Sign Language had been around for years, but it’s not only for people hard of hearing. Some autistic children use this as a way to say that something hurts or is uncomfortable or even for something that they want. Computer use is on the rise with autistic children and the way they can communicate.
And also there is old fashion talking. I chose this method. I knew my son could talk. In my theory if he could vocalize then he could talk. Of course he could scream, that we knew on a constant basis, but if I wanted him to talk I had to work extra hard and be extra patient with him. It wasn’t going to happen overnight. I also noticed his level of input/output of information (sorry he’s not a computer but this is the best term that I could put it in). As far as input wise he is on point. It might not seem like he takes in information, but a few hours later he is mimicking exactly what I just taught him. That shows me that he has cognitive capabilities. As for the output, well he is far behind. When I started, he could only tell me ‘more’ and ‘finished’ in sign language. That was a start. From there we worked on potty training talk, and then food. I constantly talked to my son, making sure he heard language since I wanted him to talk.
This was not easy, and often added in a lot of frustration, redirecting, and heartache when no one else saw the progress I did. Three years later, and my son is talking. He’s still behind as if right now he speaks like a 2 year old. He now asks for things and asks for people. As a mom, I think it’s wonderful and I’m constantly pulling him next to me to hear him talk or say anything (he has such a deep voice).
I’ve come to realize that he is no different than my other children, and then again he is. Devon still gets in trouble, is very mischievous, extremely giggly and happy child, who enjoyed his 5th birthday this year and surprised me by telling me how old he is (I’m still excited). He knows good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior has its consequences. He’s extremely smart and constantly pushing that bar that was given to him three years ago at his first diagnosis. I am extremely proud of him as any mother could be of his progress and want to see so much more for him as he grows.
I haven’t been talking because I feel the need to write. I want to encourage those who are at the low point to keep going. There are certain things that should help make working with your child better.
· Be consistent: It’s hard and repetitive things get on my nerves, but if it helps my child anything will work.
· Be patient: There are times when you just want him to spit it out, but it ain’t gonna happen overnight and not if you’re yelling down his throat. Take a minute to calm down. If you’re calm, he’s calm and the screaming will stop in a minute.
· REDIRECT: By all means find something that you know will hold his attention for a minute to get him to calm down.
· Remind and Remember: Remind him constantly of how to talk or what to do. Remembering to always do so will help him to constantly keep on track.
· Reward good behavior discourage bad behavior: Even autistic kids get in trouble and break things or even terrorizing brother and sister with sticky booger fingers (true story). Good behavior gets the fun stuff, bad behavior gets the serious consequences. Remind him that bad behavior will not be tolerated.
· Develop a different style: Not all styles work for every parent. Developing your own style coping and working through the tough spots.
· Make it fun: Immortalize every smile, every giggle, every kiss on the cheek, every hug. Making it fun for them well make it a lot easier for you. TRUST ME!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at leahvaugn06@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Leah V.

Ebay and the weather

I'm having this addiction this week with ebay. I think it's because I haven't used it in a while. I'm sitting here at 4 in the morning trying to not be out bidded but . . . yeah like that works. i have a limit and I put it in, then go to bed. When I wake up I've been out bidded by the same person on two items. I'm not stupid nor desparate. My DH tells me that it's because they are trying to get a higher price on it and have someone with an ebay account to login and outbid. I think they are full of crap and I would much rather deal with the local circuit but you can never find those guys. I'm not a quitter so i'll keep looking for what i want hopefully I'll get it.

Well it's been raining on and off here for weeks. I love spring don't get me wrong, but either it's too damn cold to function, one minute, the next it's so damn hot that my clothes stick to me. It's either the heat or the damn rain. UGH Texas weather. Yesterday was a B-E-A-Utiful day. No clouds, a little chill to the air in the moring, but warmed up to about 76 degrees in the afternoon. The sky had that pretty solstace ozone blue color that I love to see in the spring and the fall. And will it stay the same, NOPE. Right now it's raining, cats and dogs might I add, and thanks to my 20 yearold dryer my grandmother gave me, I'm outside at the laundry mat drying clothes. It's just freaky you can see the wind and the rain rolling across the street as it comes in. The wind blowing hard feeling the light shake of the car with each burst. Pretty yet, frightening if you don't like being out in this weather. I know I don't. I would much rather be at home cuddling up to my DH partly because we live in a mobile home and the thunder and lightening sounds much louder then.

To top that off, I've fighting off ANOTHER bout of laryngitis with sinus congestion. SIGH

Well the clothes are done. Going home now. TATA!!