Z.A. Maxfield

Happily. Ever. After.

Happy New Year!

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Ready for a new beginning?

It’s January 7th already!

It seems like I haven’t been out on the interwebs forever. Part of that is because my family has been home for two weeks, and part is because we not only have holidays here, we have three birthdays right after Christmas. Busy, busy!

But now that everyone’s back to work, I have breathing room to think about what’s going on in my life.

I hate making New Year’s resolutions. I never keep them. I don’t expect that after the first of a new year I’ll suddenly become a gym-goer, or a radically clean homemaker. It’s way too much pressure.

What I can do is continue making the small changes I started a few years ago. Cook more healthy food. Tidy things on a schedule, move a little more each day than I really want to. Look forward, not back.

I’m not gonna lie–I lost ground at the end of the year with regard to some of my goals. I held on to healthy eating by my toenails, and my 80-20 rule (eighty% of what I eat is supposed to be nutritious) got flipped around to maybe 20% nutritious and 80% Lord Have Mercy. And that’s on a good day. I really do need to get more exercise. I have yet to put away the holiday decorations. But I don’t see any of that as a drastic change. It’s all more of a course correction.

I don’t see my life in terms of what I’m not doing right. I’m all about enjoying the people and things I love. My life is about loving a journey that isn’t always going to go in a straight line.

Every day, I learn new things. Thanks to a Christmas gift from my family, I’ve become a proficient sous vide chef, so we’ve been enjoying a LOT of perfectly cooked fish. I have an Insta-pot, so we can make healthy meals in a flash. I have a local gym membership, and I might decide to actually go. Or I might lie in bed for a whole day reading, and I’ll feel good about that too.

What I believe is every day is a wonderful opportunity for a fresh start. Every day can be the beginning of a brand new journey. All it takes is one step.

Where do you want to go today?

 

 

 

Blog tour!

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Get ready for another Plummet! the next book in The plummet Series is a romantic suspense featuring Theo Hsu, the sarcastic cop from Plummet to soar.

There’s lots to discover about him. He likes his job, his family, and long walks on the beach. Also, childhood friend and lifelong thirst trap, Koa Palapiti!

Get in on the adventure, starting with the blog tour:

There will be ficlets, exclusive excerpts, fun facts about my heroes, (Who loves a mani-pedi?) and the winner gets a gift basket of Hawai’ian treats (sorry, only for those in the continental US.) Outside the US, we’ll come up with something else!
Comment, read, review! And thanks a bunch!

11/7 – http://mmgoodbookreviews.com/
11/12 – http://happilyeverchapter.blogspot.com/
11/13 – http://www.kimmerseroticbookbanter.com/
11/13 – http://twochicksobsessed.com/
11/14 – http://lovebytesreviews.com/
11/15 – https://scatteredthoughtsandroguewords.com/
11/16 – http://www.longandshortreviews.com/
11/19 – http://blog.dreamspinnerpress.com/

Downsizing

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As fall approaches in what could arguably be called A Most Difficult Year, I am downsizing to a new house. This is bittersweet for me because I love my old house so much. It’s the house where my kids grew up, the house that has their little handprints in the cement. There’s no real reason for me to feel so sentimental about a place, though, because I’ve lived in many houses, and if you’re lucky enough to be able to take the people you love with you, it’s all good.

My oldest son and daughter have graduated from college. Alexander lives in Escondido now–he’s healthy, happy, in a stable, long-term relationship, and has a great job. My daughter has a great job, but she prefers to live at home because she’s not stupid and rentals are ASTRONOMICAL here.

The twins are still in school so they too, still live at home. Maxfield wants to be an actuary, and Zachary is still undecided what he wants to do, but goes to school and works very hard. The important things will travel with us. Memories. Love. Laughter. Pictures. Films and DVDs of them on Christmas mornings and in talent shows.

No, it’s more that there’s another chapter of my life looming, and I’m not entirely sanguine about it–getting OLD. I feel old. Sometimes, I find myself acting old. I haven’t yet uttered the words, “‘Get off my lawn,” but I’ve been close once or twice.

To that end, I have decided to be like one of those countries in rampant inflation that simply lop off a zero from their money system. I plan to add a decade to my imaginary life span. I am downsizing in every way possible. Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. I plan to live simply, and find a way to bring health and happiness to others too, because that’s what I’ll be missing most from that middle part of my life–the chance to be the nurturer.

To be clear, my kids are in no position yet to have children, so my grandmother days are still ahead. I guess I’ll just have to look elsewhere to do good.

In the meantime:

Hawai’i Five Uh-oh will be out in November 13, 2018

Built To Love will be out in December 18, 2018

House on Fire should be ready by January 15, 2019

And stay tuned for Three Vlog Night, the third installation in the loosely related but in now way serial Plummet Series, and Hellion in the Making, part of the My Cowboy series, coming soon!

 

 

Way Back Wednesday – My Cowboy Freedom

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The author of My Cowboy Promises and My Cowboy Homecoming returns once again to the Rocking C Ranch… 

After doing time, Skyler is used to fighting for everything he wants, and what he wants most is a job at the Rocking C. But Sky’s boss Sterling Chandler is a vocal homophobe and his men don’t necessarily trust an ex-con. Sky plans to mind his own business and put his past behind him; hopefully, the men he works with will do the same. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like a friend—especially one like shy giant Rock Evans.

But Rock has health problems, which come with expensive bills, and a hyper-protective family that won’t hesitate to intervene if Sky gets too close. He can either fall in line with his family’s beliefs, or lose what little independence he has. Both Rock and Skyler are about to learn that there’s more than one kind of prison in My Cowboy Freedom…

Reviews —

My Cowboy Freedom is a must-read in a charged era of changing sexual principles. The novel’s “turn the other cheek” scene stole my breath. And yet, there was more… and more. –Anniemaus, Amazon review

This one requires patience for a while, but then, like me, you will not be able to put it down, or get it out of your heart, or craw. Well done. Bo, Amazon Review

I’m a newcomer to this series by Z.A. Maxfield so I wasn’t sure what to expect although the story line for this book appealed to me. I was not disappointed. In fact, I found myself enthralled by Sky and Rock’s story. Wow… –Smitten With Reading B+ review.

Generosity of Spirit – My List

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Generosity of Spirit has been the rule, not the exception in the author community as I’ve experienced it. I have been privileged to see my name on lists of authors who have helped with other authors’ careers, and I want to make my own list, here.

At first, I was tempted to put our willingness to help one another down to the obvious–writers cannot stop talking about writing or they’d have to do it.

But that’s not all this is about, is it? Because I have a theory that every real writer starts out as a reader. And for them, books aren’t simply commodities that can be packaged and marketed like the latest celebrity perfume, using a hint of this. A touch of that. People like this color this year so why not use that on the box?

Every reader/writer wants books to be good.

Most important, every real writer wants to do the impossible: Write the book no one has ever written before, so brilliantly that it breaks all sales records, without being a commercial success, because ew. Amiright?

When writers talk ideas are born.

There’s no reason your ghost written-in-a-week novel, dressed up with a fabulous cover, stuffed with fifty backlist titles, can’t be good. But the statistical chances of it being as good as a novel by a proven author are unlikely.

Marketing those books, buying ads, generating sales is hard work. So is day trading, or running a Ponzi scheme. So is grinding Texas hold ’em in Vegas, don’t ever let anyone tell you the life of a professional gambler is easy. But buying a book someone wrote and putting your name (or a fake name that pays into your PayPal account) on it, has to be the ultimate delusion.

Books enlighten us, inform us, and direct our future actions. They create empathy for our fellow travelers on this planet, even if those people are not like us. They are own-voice stories, and fiction, and fantasy. They speak of faith, and ethics–of the possible dangers of rigorously applied morality or cutting edge science, because writers can make hard concepts easy to understand. They invite discourse. They challenge perception.

Like cameras, they kill fascists.

And in my experience, writers have preferred lifting their fellows quietly, relentlessly, and lovingly rather than attempt to gouge or steal or bully or set attack dogs on their colleagues.

Twenty people without whom I would not have a career*, are:

***I knew I’d forget important people. Edited to add the amazing Heidi C. and Marie S. who came into my life with Coffee and Porn (figuratively speaking.)

  1. Terry Black
  2. K.A. Mitchell
  3. Josh Lanyon
  4. LB Gregg
  5. James Buchanan
  6. Louisa Edwards
  7. Samantha Kane
  8. Deidre Knight
  9. Treva Harte
  10. Laura Baumbach
  11. Kris Jacen
  12. Belinda McBride
  13. Lynn Lorenz
  14. Heidi Cullinan
  15. Marie Sexton
  16. Damon Suede
  17. Caitlyn Willows
  18. Christopher Koehler
  19. Amy Lane
  20. Rhys Ford
  21. Louella Nelson
  22. Debra Holland

*Many more are not listed here as I gave myself a not so hard limit of ten… headdesk.

surprise

What she said…

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