Sloan McBride

The Battle Within

2012-01-09T20:04:00.000-06:00

So, I was checking the different sites where my books are available to make sure the information is correct, which I do occasionally because I know gremlins or nargels can cause havoc. I was reading some of the newer reviews for "Highland Stone." One particular review caught my attention because it said that the book ended like all the other time travel novels. This made me chuckle. The ending that is in "Highland Stone" today is not the way it was originally written. It's funny. I like to be different and I write what I like. This book, however, being my debut novel, gave me the first interaction with a publisher. One who told me that while she liked the story, she felt the readers would be mad at the ending. I battled with myself for a week. I spoke to critique partners, friends who are authors, and some of my regular friends about the ending. The advice I got more or less said go ahead and conform now to get the book out there and then once you get established you can do what you want.

I caved.

Yep, I went the easy route and rewrote the ending to conform to the way the publisher felt would be acceptable to the reading public. So now I'm curious.

To the readers out there my question is "Would you be upset if you read a time travel novel or any genre for that matter if the ending wasn't like every other one you've read?

To fellow authors, have you ever been asked to make this kind of decision? If so, how did you handle it?

I will tell you how the story ended originally, or may even post the original ending if along with your comments, you ask to see it.

Is it Monday????????

2011-02-01T12:29:00.000-06:00

Hi All, I'm a bit behind on the monthly blog. My mother passed away the day after Thanksgiving and I wasn't up to doing the blog thing December 1st and then January 1st I woke up deathly ill. 2011 is not starting out real well for me. Please forgive that the blog is a little old, but I had them all set out for a few months and like I said, I'm a bit behind.

Did you ever have one of those days when it seems you have so much on your schedule you don’t know how you’re gonna get through?

I get up at 6:30 a.m., jump in the shower, get dressed, throw on makeup, have to be at the chiropractor by 8:00 a.m. It’s a 20 minute drive. I get in the car and find I have hardly any gas (my son has been driving my car while home over summer), so I have to go to the gas station. Fill up the car, jump in and drive to chiropractor’s office. (I love that machine they hook me up to. I wish I could buy my own). I leave the chiropractor’ office, drive through McD’s to get breakfast (heart attack in a bag), go to work.

Not only do I work for three men regularly but have to fill in for others who are on vacation, meaning I’m pretty damn busy. I work until 4:30 having worked through half my lunch hour because I was a half-hour late this morning.

That’s just the first half of my day and this kind of day happens more often than not…..Ugh!

Thank goodness for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon. No, I don’t have little kids anymore, but I love the shows and they make me feel good.

Sloan

Winners for Halloween Blog Tour

2010-11-01T20:06:00.000-05:00

As I promised, here are the list of the winners for each day of my blog tour. Again, thanks to all of you for joining me.

Monday October 25
Lynne Roberts

Tuesday October 26
Cathy Fierstein

Wednesday October 27
Ali

Thursday October 28
Cathy M.

Friday October 29
Tamsyn

Saturday October 30
Fedora

Sunday October 31
Cathy M.

Please email me at sloanmcbride@gmail.com so I can get the appropriate information to send your prize. Thank you again for participating.

Sloan

To Cook or Not to Cook

2010-11-01T19:17:00.000-05:00

So meals at my house are never certain. That’s not how it had always been though. When I had my first child, I cooked good breakfasts and dinners and had the best snacks in the house for him to eat. By the time the second child came along, it was poptarts, cereal, toast, donuts for breakfast, and whatever I could throw together as quickly as possible for dinner. Working full time and having a husband who worked 55-60 hours a week every week didn’t help. I thought it would get better as the kids got older, but that didn’t happen. People say I’m picky, but the three of them are more picky than I ever was or could be.

Ever trying to get back into eating well and pushing healthier foods, I am always experimenting with new recipes. (My daughter laughs because sometimes we end up throwing it away and getting McDonald’s which defeats the purpose.) This time it was something for chicken. I went online and found a recipe for chicken kabobs. It seemed pretty simple so I printed it out, went to the store and bought the ingredients, and prepared to dazzle them with my culinary arts. (Really, I hate to cook, and you’ll soon see why.)

First, I couldn’t find any skewers. Plus, it poured down rain the entire day, so the grilling part was out. I decided to improvise. I got virgin olive oil (lite), and heated it in a skillet. I cut three chicken breasts (no skin, no bone) up into pieces, put water in one bowl, put the Romano cheese, one packet of Italian salad dressing (dry), and garlic powder. I dipped in water, rolled in mixture and put in skillet. To start with, three chicken breasts cut into pieces is a LOT OF CHICKEN. It took me forever to get it all cooked, and, I ran out of mixture and had to improvise again changing the Romano with Parmesan, the Italian salad dressing with Italian seasoning.

I finally got finished and having made red parsley potatoes and green beans and baked beans. I thought it was a good meal that I took a long while to make. We sat down to eat. My daughter and her best friends gobbled their dinner right up. I really liked it. When my husband and son ate it, it was well it was okay at first but then it got a little spicy at the end. So they didn’t eat all their chicken. This is the mixed reviews every time I cook. I make one meat and two or three different kinds of potato (because we all like different), and one to two vegetables. Sometimes I make a roll of some sort. (My mom says I am like a short-order cook.) I used to not mind cooking, especially the dessert parts. However, today, I usually end up eating most of the dessert myself and that’s not good. So I don’t bake that much anymore which is too bad because dessert is my favorite part of the meal!

Do any of you have similar stories either good or bad? I’d like to hear them.

HALLOWEEN BLOG TOUR

2010-10-31T11:50:00.001-05:00

I'm so late in posting today. You'd think after over a decade of writing I'd be able to balance life and my writing career. I haven't mastered it yet. LOL

Thank you for dropping by for my last day of the Halloween Blog Tour. While you're here please have a look at my posts. I started this monthly blog in September about life and writing.

Q: What do you see in your future?

A: Many time walker stories and a following for my wonderful army of warriors. I researched for two years before I found what I needed to bring the story to life. I'm very excited about my time walkers and I hope readers are enticed and excited by them as well.

Please leave comments about anything Halloween today. Don't forget to drop by tomorrow when I post my monthly blog as I will also be announcing the winners for each day of the blog tour.

I want to thank Mary Eason, Moira Keith, Nikki Duncan, Lynne Roberts, Shelley Munro, and Delilah Devlin for opening their blog time to me. You ladies were wonderful.

Hope you have a scary, twitchy HALLOWEEN.

HALLOWEEN BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

2010-10-25T18:27:00.001-05:00

10/25/10 Mary Eason http://www.maryeason.blogspot.com/

10/26/10 Moira Keith http://moirakeith.com/blog/

10/27/10 Nikki Duncan http://nikkiduncan.com/blog/

10/28/10 Lynne Roberts http://lynneroberts.blogspot.com/

10/29/10 Shelley Munro http://www.shelleymunro.com/blog/

10/30/10 Delilah Devilin http://www.delilahdevlin.com/blog/

10/31/10 Sloan McBride http://sloanmcbride.blogspot.com/

Prizes will be given away everyday. To enter to win, just post a comment at each blog site on the day I am there. Simple!

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

2010-10-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

So last year was like the worst year I’ve ever had in my entire life and believe me I’ve had some doosies. In March I went for my regular eye exam and they told me I needed my prescription changed so I sent off the glasses for two weeks (the only pair I had) to get the prescription changed and did without (which wasn’t easy because I can’t see without them) while I waited.

Two days after getting the glasses back my vision in the right eye was blurry and I had a shadow (even without the sun shining). I thought that was odd so I called them. They checked the glasses and said they were fine so they took a picture of the inside of my eye. I was diagnosed with BRVO (brachial retinal vein occlusion). The regular doc told me I needed to see a specialist and made an appointment, but I couldn’t see that specialist because of insurance (don’t you just love that?). So I contacted my insurance, found a doctor and called to schedule an appointment. The office said I needed to see one of their other doctors to make sure I indeed needed to see a retina specialist. (Why would I be calling them if I didn’t need to see a specialist? For fun?) I said, I was told I needed to see a retina specialist which is why I’m calling. They insisted I see the other guy first, so I relented and made the appointment. I didn’t like him so much (he had the personality of a potato).

The lack of personality dude checked me out and told me to come back in six weeks. I went back in six weeks, my eye was no better, he checked me again and was going to make me wait another six weeks and come back to him. I asked what would happen if my eye didn’t get better and he said (wait for it) I would have to see a retina specialist (sounded familiar to me). So I said how about making the appointment to see the retina specialist now. He was shocked (at least I think that’s what that expression meant), but he said okay and made the appointment.

I finally saw the specialist. He did things with funky machines and took more pictures of the inside of my eye. He told me he was going to watch it for a while. It should get better with time. I made an appointment for three months. (Do you see a trend here?)

I appeared for my three month check up, but much to my dismay, my eyesight had worsened in the right eye. They dilated me, numbed my eyes to check pressure, and sat me in the waiting room. The doctor was running really late so I waited for two hours (another trend). I like this guy a lot. He’s around my age, and he loves that I’m a writer. He offered to pose for one of my covers and says that I should write a romantic story about an eye doctor. He is good looking!!!! He and I have a great rapport which is a good thing because I am going to be seeing him a lot (no pun intended) with regular occurrences of getting a shot in the eye because of swelling (I know, right!). He says some people get better and others have to keep getting the shots (I’m betting on which group I will fall under).

I’ve decided to change my lifestyle, eat better, exercise. I figure it can’t hurt. I’m vowing to take better care of myself although I thought I’d been doing a pretty good job (well except for the weight) so far. I definitely need my eyes not only for work, but for reading and keeping up my writing career. I had actually been taking care of my eyes for years. (Damn Karma!)

THERE BE PIRATES HERE....

2010-09-01T20:10:00.000-05:00

So Book #2 in my Time Walker series (“The Treasure”) involves pirates. The Science Center in my area has an exhibit entitled “Real Pirates” and I absolutely wanted to see it. Research, you know. So I braved road construction and detours and went to the Science Center on Sunday anxious to see the exhibit ($9.00 for parking).

I arrived at 11:00 a.m. when the Science Center opened. I bought my ticket ($20.00, I paid extra for audio) but the exhibit didn’t open until 11:30, so I went to the Pizza Hut counter to get a small soda and a bag of M&M’s ($6.00). I sat down and drank my soda and ate my candy. I went to stand in line waiting with anticipation and staring from the balcony at the mechanical life-size dinosaurs that moved. Finally, the doors opened, or should I say went round and round and in I strolled.

I had my notebook, pen, and camera ready, but the staff person informed us that we could not take pictures. Totally bummed, I clutched my notebook and watched the three minute video. The screen lifted and into the dark realm I ventured.

I learned about the slaver ship that was captured by Sam Bellamy (the pirate) and made into a pirate ship. I saw real artifacts brought up from the depths of the ocean off Cape Cod. It was interesting, and I did get to see real cannons, sail rigging, grenades (yeah, they used them), and lots of other cool stuff. However, it was flippin hot and I thought about passing out a couple of times (maybe take a rest in the tavern replica and drink some replica beer).

I spent two hours going through the thing taking tons of notes (still bummed I couldn’t take pictures). They had a quasi life-size replica of the ship and I got to walk onto it and see how the crew lived, which was interesting. They had found two treasure chests of real treasure (Yep, full chests of pieces of eight). Totally awesome! At the finish of the tour, we are dumped out into the gift shop (naturally). I bought three large pieces of eight ($10.00).

Even though I dropped a wad while there (which bummed me too), I enjoyed the day.