Extreme Love By: Abby Niles *Guest Post & Review*

*Ahh Sorry just posting this now, but hope you enjoy the Author's lovely Guest Post!

Book Description

New body. New clothes. New men.

Used to the average Joe, Caitlyn Moore is overwhelmed when the supremely masculine Dante Jones walks into her life and expresses an interest in her. At first she pushes him away, refusing to encourage the attention of a cage fighter. Then she learns Dante has a love ‘em and leave ‘em reputation. What better way to fine-tune her non-existent flirting skills than with a male who won’t stick around? But Dante has no intention of being a practice dummy; he’s out for all or nothing. Now Caitlyn must accept Dante—violent career and all—or let him go.

Dante “Inferno” Jones has one goal: win the Welterweight Championship. At a time when focus is crucial, the last thing he needs is a distraction. Yet Caitlyn Moore becomes a challenge he can’t resist. When the light-hearted pursuit shifts to a battle to win her heart, his focus is shot. Faced with losing the biggest match of his career, Dante must decide if his extreme life also has room for Extreme Love.

The Author's Guest Post

Ten Things I’ve Given Up.

We all have to give things up from time to time. It might be to avoid going insane or to have more time in your day. Most of the things I’ve given up here lately have been because of my writing. Some of them I hope to one day get back, but the others I’m glad I kicked to the curb. So the top ten things I’ve given up:

Sleep. I’ve given this up twice. I don’t think I slept a full night for eighteen months after my twins came home from the hospital. Things calmed down a little after that, but then, a little over a year ago, I had to go back to living off little sleep. Between juggling a day job, being a single mom, keeping my nephew, and my deadlines the only way I was going to get any proper amount of writing time was by cutting into my sleep schedule. I don’t regret it, never will, but I do have my crash and burn points. And when those days comes, my body shuts down and I’ll sleep for twelve hours.

Cleaning.  I grew up in a household where an immaculate house was essential. My parents, still to this day, believe a home should always be tidy and clean just in case someone stops by. I carried this into my adulthood and always kept a spotless home. Over the years, as my time became more restrictive, I had to teach myself not to worry about the dishes piling up in the sink, or the laundry spilling over in the basket. Now I settle for one day a week, right before the weekend, where everything gets a thorough cleaning. And, even then, everything doesn’t have to be perfect.

Social life.  I think I’m close to getting this one back. I’ve had to put a social life on hold to get my priority done: writing. I’ve spent many, many weekends doing writing marathons instead of enjoying the great outdoors with my friends. After almost a year of being disciplined with my time, I see a little more free time in my future.

TV time.  I’m a TV junkie. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I would like to say I’ve given up TV all together, but, yeah, that’s not happening. What I have done is cut it back a lot. I used to have the TV on while I wrote, I envy writers who can do this, but I found that I spent more time distracted by the television than actually writing. So I no longer attempt it. I watch two hours of TV at night after the kids go to bed. It’s my unwind time after a very long day.

Writing at night. I used to be able to write during the day, pick up the kids from school, do all my mommy duties and then write again after the kids went to bed. I can’t anymore. By night, my brain is incapable of producing a coherent sentence much less being creative. If I’m on a deadline, I don’t try to get it done after all is quiet in the house, I set the alarm to go off even earlier because I know once I hit a certain point in the afternoon, writing is done for me. I’m still not a morning person. I don’t think I ever will be, but I’m the most clear-headed and focused in the morning. I never thought I’d say that.

Writing a perfect first draft. Giving this up was the best thing for my writing. I used to agonize over every word during the first draft, which is really counterproductive for a pantser. When I’d reach the middle of the book, I’d always see my beginning was all wrong and instead of waiting, I’d immediately go back and fix it and agonize all over again. After I had it where I believed it was perfect, I start writing again, get two-thirds of the way through the book, see that something else didn’t jive and immediately go back again. I wasted so much time doing this. It would take me months to finish a first draft as I rewrote scenes, over and over again. I don’t do this anymore. I write the draft, knowing I’ve got some major issues I’m going to have to tackle, but I’ll go back to them after I know the entire story. I save myself a TON of writing and time this way.

Trying to get my to-do list done. It never fails that I have this list of things I HAVE to get done for the day, and the first thing on that list takes me way longer to finish that I’d anticipated. Which makes it impossible to get everything else done. I used to freak myself out over it. Guess what? The world didn’t end because I didn’t get that list completed. I still have a list, but I don’t fret over it as much. It will get done, and it will get done on time, I just don’t have to spaz out if it’s not when I planned on getting to it.

Focusing on the negative. As authors, we want everyone to love our books. We work really long hours and put our hearts and souls into our writing. There are days we want to cry, days we feel proud, and days we doubt. The truth is it doesn’t matter if we’ve written the best dang book of our career, someone’s not going to like it, some will even hate it. I had to accept that I can’t write the perfect book. There are so many different personalities out there, so many different ways a person would tackle a conflict, that it’s just not possible. Now this isn’t saying I pish-posh away negative reviews. That’s not the case. I have gotten invaluable insight that has helped me grow as a writer from them. I just don’t obsess over them anymore.

Being the Yes-Man. Learning to say no wasn’t easy for me. I’ve always been the type of person anyone could come to and ask a favor of and I’d do it in a heartbeat, even if it spread me too thin. It was a struggle to stop this. I love to lend my help no matter if it’s to my family, friends or my job. But I can’t do everything, I wish I could, but it’s not possible. So allowing myself to say, “I wish I could, but I can’t,” was a freeing experience.

Refusing help. Now this is probably going to sound extremely hypocritical, since I just said I love to help. I do love to help. I don’t like ASKING for help. I’m a classic Type A personality. I’m supposed to be able to do everything. Yeah, well, even Type A’s have to suck it up and ask for help from time to time and I’ve learned to do that. It’s amazing how someone stepping in a taking one thing off my hands, truly does help me.

So what have you given up?

Thanks so much for having me today!

Abby

About The Author

Abby Niles has always loved to read. After having twins and becoming a stay-at-home mom, she started doodling stories to keep her sanity. She didn’t plan for writing to become an obsession, but it did. Today, she juggles work, home life, and writing. It’s not always easy, but hey, who said life was easy?

When Abby’s not writing, you can find her playing ‘Just Dance’ with her kids or trying to catch up on her never-ending to-be-read list. She also loves Zumba, and refuses to admit she looks more like Animal doing his Muppet flail than a sensual Latin dancer.

My Review

*Will Be Posted Soon*