Motivational Mondays: Making Way

Fierce Dawn, a dark paranormal romance, releases April 5th and is up for Bestseller for a Day May 18th.

Kissed From Beyond, a paranormal erotica anthology I contributed to, released March 15th. (But it here!)

Meet Your Muse, a non-fiction novella co-written with Jess Macallan, is in drafts.

The Sweetest Fling and Enchanted Moon release this year as well as possibly three other novels.

I’m thrilled with the sudden boost my career is experiencing thanks to this blog, the Indie Book Collective and 1st Turning Point. This boost is bittersweet, however. It means I have to streamline a few commitments so that I can focus on writing and releasing more books.

I’ll be handing over my Mama baton to the amazing, bubbly and fun Danielle Monsch aka Geek Mama on the first Monday of April. I hope you’ll make her feel welcome. Along with Rider Mama, she is another great addition to Plot Mamas. As for me, I’ll be moving to the Mama Alumni page (coming soon).

My dream is that every Plot Mama will outgrow our little blog because her career will blossom so beautifully, but that we all will maintain our roots here and return now and then.

I’ll miss being a weekly part of this Mama crew and promise to come back for all future Mama reunions. I don’t count today as a goodbye. I count it as a hello. Hello to Danielle. Hello to my books and all the new readers who I am out to keep by giving them more of what they want–hot, page-turning romance.

For all of you Motivational Mondays fans, please be sure to friend me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter (@amberscottbooks) where I’ll be sharing micro versions of this theme. I find them as motivating as much as I hope you do, so while the location will change, the weekly dose of sunshine will remain the same. So, stay tuned!

Much love and thanks,

:}Amber Scott, Sugar Mama

Motivational Monday: Apologizing

I visited my mom last week in Reno, NV, my hometown. She’s mourning the recent and sudden loss of her husband, my pop. One day, as we sat visiting, talking about him, she began to cry. She apologized to me for crying.

I couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed. “Don’t ever apologize for crying over losing pop, mama,” I said. “Ever. You have nothing to apologize for. Crying isn’t wrong. Grieving isn’t wrong. You love him and miss him. And if it ever makes someone uncomfortable, that is their issue. Not yours.”

My words seemed to make her feel a lot better. And, something in me awoke over my own words.

A few days later, on Blog Talk Radio with the Indie Book Collective, Carolyn McCray and I discussed what the IBC’s two key programs, Blog Tour de Force and Bestseller For A Day have done for us as authors involved. We ultimately agreed that it helped us stop apologizing for wanting–for asking for–success.

Think about it. The most successful people in the world never apologize for their good fortune or hard work. Instead, they expect their success and never take in personally if others don’t approve of it.

Somehow, sitting with my mom, trying to help her embrace her feelings, helped me see that I wasn’t embracing my own. I apologized for needing time to write. I apologized for wanting readers to buy my books. I apologized for the content by warning readers how HOT my books can be. This week, I’m not apologizing any more.

I ask you this: What in your life are you apologizing for? And, should you be?

What if you stopped apologizing and embraced the emotion, desire, idea instead?

:}Amber Scott

P.S. Irish Moon climbed to #595 on Kindle last week as part of Bestseller For a Day and I’d LOVE it if you bought a copy today!! Click here to check it out.

Motivational Mondays:Fertilizer

This week, I’d like to try something a little different.

Take a few minutes, get comfortable and close your eyes. Imagine you are sitting in the middle of a lush, fragrant garden. If this sanctuary was your private garden, what would you place in it?

Roses? Ficus trees? Fruit trees? Does a fountain grace the center with spokes of stone pathways winding into secret hideaways?

Is your garden filled with the sounds of gurgling water, the chirping of birds? Is it sunny and open or shady and overgrown.

Can you see it? Can you feel yourself in it?

Excellent!

Now, I’d like you to think of this garden as your life. Take another look around. Think of the weeds in your garden as doubts, worries, maybe even people in your life that are encroaching on the beauty within it. Can you pull those weeds out by the root? Did you get some less than thrilling news, some crap, that you can turn into fertilizer for your dreams by finding a good side to the news? Have you taken on too many tasks that could be seen as overgrown shrubbery? What if you trimmed it back?

How would you feel if, every day, you looked at your life as a garden and then, every day, took a moment to smell its roses and tended it?

I think I’m going to feel the beauty of my life right down to my toes. You and me, shall we see?

:}Amber Scott, Sugar Mama

March 16th Irish Moon is priced at $0.99 on Amazon Kindle for Bestseller For A Day. I hope you’ll come get yours and enjoy a moment in my dream garden with me.

 

Motivational Mondays–Sweet Fortunes

One of my bff’s, Kristin, stayed with us four days last week and my abs still hurt. Partly from her conning me into working out to her “Insanity” videos (#neveragain) and mostly from all our belly laughs.

One hearty chuckle came from a message inside a Dove chocolate foil wrapper. “Build a bridge and get over it.”

Mind you this little fortune came after things like, “Have faith it will all work out”. and “Some people walk in the rain, others really know how to get wet.” or “Dream big! Dreams really do come true.”

I read the fortune out loud and we both immediately laughed. Especially when we started adding things to the end like, “girl” or “bitches” or “dumbass.”

The little quote seems to be sticking around, though. So, of course, I’m paying attention. Why am I stuck on it? What do I need to build a bridge over to get over it? Is it a who? A wrong I’ve been keeping close to my heart? A disappointment I don’t want to let go?

Hmmmmm.

For me, every day, the hardest thing to ‘get over’ is my own expectations. I’m really hard on myself. I’m so excited to get to that day where I have three plus books published in each series and heading for many more that I can get overwhelmed. I inevitably compare myself to my peers and get spikes of unwarranted fear and jealousy. That feels rotten.

Yes, I remind myself that it is the normal and healthy duty of my brain to compare myself to others. Does it always help? No!

So, this week, I’m trying the bridge. I’m going to get over feeling overwhelmed. I’m going to cross that bridge back into that area of wonder. Awe that I have two new releases coming this month! An Anthology called Kissed From Beyond and a dark paranormal romance that I FINALLY got right, Fierce Dawn.

I’m going to remind myself that I just got a 5 Cup review for Love Lust from Coffee Time Romance and they rarely give  5 Cups! The reviewers words literally choked me up.

And I’ll take the time to enjoy the little things like this–you and me, stealing a moment to love being authors and mothers. Snuggles with my babies. My daughter saying “Mama, you have a breath,” so I’ll go brush my teeth. My son missing Auntie Kristin so bad he draws pictures of them as trees together.

This is an amazing life I’ve gotten into. And it’s taken getting over a few bridges to get here.

What bridge can you build this week? Where will it lead you to?

:}Amber Scott, Sugar Mama

Motivational Mondays–Tipping Points

I remember a scene in the movie “Say Anything” where John Cusack and Ione Skye are sitting in a cafe and she tells him her theory of convergence. She believed that really good things happen at the same time as really bad things, and while the two aren’t even necessarily related, it’s still true.

She tells John’s character that she can’t get serious with him. As you watch, you realize that in keeping him at a distance, she is in turn hoping to keep the bad at bay, too.

Both happen anyways. The good comes. The bad soon follows.

Sometimes, I wonder if many of us do the same. We avoid putting ourselves out there, asking for success because we fear the cost that will come with it. A cost that might be random outside of simple timing. A baby is born and a parent dies. You get a raise and the hot water heater breaks.

I don’t know if Ione’s character’s theory is valid. I do know I catch myself worrying, what will I lose in exchange for this gain? And, sometimes, that question makes me hold back. Go a little slower. Put myself out there a little less.

Not today. And not this week or month or year.

Instead, when I catch myself in that old pattern, I’ll refute it. I’ll be daring and take educated risks.

In the end, in the movie, it was worth the gain. She found love when she’d need it most.

I think that ultimately, the gain always will be worth a loss and that loss might be in part merely imagined.

What is one thing you can do today, a task you put off, or a job didn’t give your all, because you thought it might risk  loss?

List one here and together, let’s test the possibilities!

:}Amber Scott, Sugar Mama

Motivational Mondays: The Done List

Okay. This is actually a funny story. This morning, in between Moon’s 102 temp and half a cup of coffee, I felt so up and wonderful for managing to get my post in on time.

Yeah.

Except I posted it on my Amber Scott Books site.

Well, for those of you who didn’t already catch it, get in a giggle with me and read it here:

Anyone else wake up this morning feeling overwhelmed? The dishes aren’t done, the laundry needs folding, revisions have been following you around like a needy stalker?

Yep. Me too. Doesn’t life understand we don’t have time for colds, flu, stress or spousal disputes over where to put the new bed?

Sheesh!

Well, fear not! Today and any day you are feeling like you can’t make heads or tails of you to do list, stop. Yes. STOP. Your brain can get easily overwhelmed and when it does, it goes into shut down mode. In shut down mode, nothing gets done. Instead we get consumed with how we’ll ever get the mountain of tasks done.

First, let’s focus on what we’ve already gotten done.

Grab a pen and paper or open a blank page in Word. NO. Really do this. NOW!

Okay. Ready?

Jot down every little thing you can think of that is no longer on your ‘to do’ list, the sillier and more detailed the better. Here’s mine:

• Cuddled daughter.
• Read her a book.
• Painted bed frame.
• Put frame together.
• Avoided strangling husband.
• Changed TP roll.
• Folded laundry.
• Ignored dishes.
• Blogged once.
• Blogged twice.
• Hunted for elusive hunky model for book cover.
• Took both kids to doctor.
• Took care of sick family.
• Answered emails.
• Brushed teeth.

…

Phew! I’ve actually gotten far more done this week than I thought!

How about you? What showed up on your done list that surprised you? Better yet, how does all that done feel?

:}Amber Scott, Sugar Mama