Friday, July 16, 2021

Fun facts: Ten Things I Discovered When Researching 2006

Posted by Susan B James on 3:07:00 PM with 2 comments

 


Maybe This Time won the 2019 Raven Award for Best Contemporary Romance, The 2019 Reader's Favorite Gold Medal for Time Travel, and was runner up for the RONE Best Audiobook General Award. 

When writing time travel, it’s important to know what existed when. My characters in Maybe This Time jump forward to 2006 hoping to mend a glitch in time. I choose 2006 because computer technology leapt forward in the five years between 2001 and 2006. 

When I researched December 2006, I found a few things I thought existed then hadn't happened yet, and a few did exist that surprised me.
Here are ten things I can’t imagine life without today that began their existance in 2006 and 2007.
1.   1.  LCD Flat Screen TV  Technically these were “around” before 2006. But that was the year they were made affordable for people to buy commercially, and now they’re everywhere.

2.  2.   Facebook While it was available to college students in 2004 Facebook opened its doors to everyone aged 13 and older with a valid e-mail address on September 26, 2006.

3.  3.  Twitter Twitter launched in July 2006. The world embraced the service which allowed only short bursts of information of 140 characters or less.  Twitter grew from 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007 to 500 million tweets per day.

4.    4.YouTube YouTube was launched in 2005. Every day people watch some of the hundreds of millions of hours worth of content, generating billions of views. It’s physically impossible to watch every video uploaded to the site as it would take over 1,000 years. I have a YouTube channel for videos of some of my acting roles. Not all of them, because shows like American Horror Story do not allow you to post scenes.

5.    5. The iPhone It released in March 2007. I thought it was earlier. But in 2006 the most advanced phone was the Blackberry Pearl. Jen, my heroine can’t understand why anyone would name a phone after a piece of fruit. 
     Today iPhones and Androids together with Twitter and YouTube are changing our view of what is really happening in the world. 

6.   6.  The Selfie. Obviously we couldnt take selfies until someone invented the reversible camera. Selfies as a sport, didn’t become popular until the invention of the iPhoneThis selfie, taken at the 2014 Oscars, momentarily broke Twitter. 

7.    7.   E-READERS The first Amazon kindle was launched in 2007 priced at $400 and was immensely popular, selling out within five and a half hours and remaining out of stock for months.
8.     8.  SMALL INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS AND SELF PUBLISHING The demand for content for new e-reader opened up new avenues for authors. Not only did a host of independent publishers spring up, I am grateful that Soul Mate Publishing was one of them. New options for self publishing proliferated. I haven’t tried this yet because I am too chicken, but I’ve discovered wonderful books by self-published Authors.
9.    Amazon Prime. I have had Amazon Prime since it started in 2005. For a flat fee of $79.00 I could have free two-day shipping. I added up what I had been paying in shipping for my bookaholic habits and decided it was worth it.  Amazon Prime wasn’t launched in the UK where my heroine lives until 2007.
10.  AirBnB. This alternative to traditional hotels for short term stays and vacation rentals started in 2007. I’ve used it several times and I love it. I now rent a room in my home through AirBnB.
Back in 2006 when Jen needed to find a short term apartment rental in Los Angeles I had her ask her waiter. (I always got my best apartment tips from waiters.)

BLURB 
Happy Ever  After? Not unless they change time
Popular London stage actress Jennifer Knight just turned forty-nine and she's fine with her life,  thank you very much. Or she was until her beloved niece accidentally time travels them both to 1988 bringing her face to face with her first husband.
Computer guru, Lance Davies is more comfortable with machines than people. He never knew how to handle his beloved, mercurial Jen. But now her future-self is here in front of him and he wants another chance.
Jen's traitorous body insists that home is in Lance's arms, but her heart has trust issues.

When Lance follows Jen into the future, time tangles. And, according to the computer they both died on September, 2001. Their only hope of a future is changing their past. But how?
 We still have COVID to contend with so I hesitate to ask anyone to buy the book
The audiobook is available from your library via Hoopla 
Or I can give you an audiobook code through Findaway books.
 If you want a free PDF ARC  or an audiobook code, please contact me through my Website. Or you can leave a comment with your email here.
I wish you a week of small joys in an unprecedented time. Stay Panic Free. Watch News only once a day. Laugh at least three times.

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

June Is Audiobook Month. Sale!

Posted by Susan B James on 2:45:00 PM with No comments

Happy June all. My Second Chance Romance series audiobooks are now available in local libraries and on all platforms.

I'm Thrilled that Nook Audiobooks included Time and Forever, Maybe This Time and Irish Magic in their discount sale during “June is Audiobook Month. Here are the links:

Nook June sale

Time and Forever

Save 25% 7.95 5.99

https://www.nookaudiobooks.com/audiobook/1032251/time-and-forever

Maybe This Time

Save 21% 6.95 5.49

 https://www.nookaudiobooks.com/audiobook/1032253/maybe-this-time

Irish Magic   

Save 25% 8.95 6.99

https://www.nookaudiobooks.com/audiobook/1010029/irish-magic


If you prefer to borrow them from the library, I have links for that too.

 

Audiobook links hoopla

 Time and Forever

https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/14084853

 Maybe This Time

https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/14085003

Irish Magic

https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12831022



I am finally working on a new book.

The most important lesson I feel I've learned from the past year is 
to seize each moment and be grateful for any joy it holds.
What's bringing you joy? Please Share.

Monday, May 10, 2021

What's Your Next read?

Posted by Susan B James on 10:23:00 PM with No comments

 Happy May. Books I've been Reading

The Last Big FakeThe Last Big Fake by Kate Kerns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fabulous. It's funny with lots of heart.
This is the first book I've read by this author. II will be looking for more. She's got a wonderful sense of voice.
Darcy and Seth's voices are great. I loved the plot it was twisted and believable and kept me reading far past bedtime. It was a very happy read.

View all my reviews The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove, #5)The Lady Has a Past by Amanda Quick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a wonderful Stand Alone addition to Burning Cove series. Now I want to go back and reread the whole series. This was my Mother's Day present to myself. I broke into it Saturday night and finished it on Sunday.
I loved Lyra and Simon and the plot was a roller coaster of a ride. Thank you, Amanda, for a delicious read.



Sorcerer to the Crown (Sorcerer Royal, #1)Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant mix of magic and Regency England.

The world building in this is amazing. I am in love with all of the characters. The plot is twisted and full of surprises and there is of course a happy ever after. For now. Who knows what will happen in the next book?

View all my reviews View all my reviews Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea ShopVanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Magic, art, love, and Paris seamlessly combined in a book that is a perfect read. There is so much in this book about food and about paintings and about family and it’s all stitched together in a way that makes you want to not stop reading. This is the first book I have read by Roselle Lim. I highly recommend it. I feel reading more Vanessa adventures would be great. I hope there’s a sequel. Someday.

View all my reviews Night SongNight Song by Beverly Jenkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Passion and history entwined

This love story is set against the exodus of 1879 when thousands of blacks fled the horrors of Reconstruction and Redemption of the South to Kansas. This book is set in Henry Adams, and contains some of the ancestors of the Blessings series of books.The hero is one of the buffalo soldiers. the heroine is a teacher. It is a great and steamy love story.

I also reread several of Georgette Heyer's books. She remains my favorite Regency author. What's your next read?

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Happy Spring. Some laughs for youl

Posted by Susan B James on 3:00:00 AM with No comments
Happy Spring. 

I feel we all need laughter. I have for you my audition as a Novice Hip Hop dancer. 
(Epic fail as an audition. but it's really funny.) 
Plus the Current Washington Post Mensa Madness and their contest for Alternate meanings for common words. 


The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supplying a new definition.

 

Here are the winners: 

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for a really long time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

 16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The winners are:

 1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

 2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

 3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

 4. esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

 6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

 7. Lymph, v To walk with a lisp.

 8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

 9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

 10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

 11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

 12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

 14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

 15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

 16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men .

I wish you love, joy, and lots of fun reading.

PS My favorites were Innoculatte and Circumvent, What were yours?