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Monday, December 19, 2016

2016 Week 51: TEA for TWO Cover Reveal at Xpresso Book Tours

Get ready for 2017!

Tea for Two Cover Reveal at Xpresso Book Tours

So excited!!!
Tea for Two will release March 28, 2017. Pre-order will be available February 14.
For those who have asked, Kinky Sex Magic will be re-released on Valentine's Day! Pre-order will be available by the end of 2016.

I will be having two blog tours for JULIET in January and February. So if you haven't yet enrolled in the academy, now is your chance to experience all the magic of Juliet!

I would like to thank the lovely Jewel Frick for all of my new covers.


For all the bloggers who have blitzed and promoted JULIET I would like to say:




XO -
kailee

Saturday, December 10, 2016

The Shame of Being

Dolls,

I awoke this morning to the latest trending of Keke Palmer talking about Kylie Jenner on Instagram. Now, I am not discussing this. They are like eons into the stratosphere of social media, and I am not touching that. What I am touching upon is the shame of being that not only pertains to "famous" young women and men, but everyone.

Bullying did not just start with the advent of social media folks.

Bullying has existed since time began. One person believing in their self-righteous jargon enough to belittle and dehumanize another, thereby building themselves up to some erroneous new height. I am bothered by bullying, but even more so bothered by the fascination therein. Like every time a bullying case erupts – we, by talking about it, reward - not the victim, but the perpetrator. We stroke the ego of the bully.

I have been the victim of bullying as I am sure most people have. My own grandfather announcing to me at the Thanksgiving table that - "K, could be so pretty if she would just lose twenty pounds." His standard by which I was expected to achieve. The simple fact is everyone gets bullied at some point, but it isn't new and it isn't something that "just" occurs to famous people.

The LGBTQ has been subjected to bullying to the point that they have the highest rates of suicide. This is a problem. I've said it once and I'll say it again to parents who bully their LGBTQ youth– 

You can accept it, or you can bury them.

All too often we say... "It's not my problem." But in truth, it is ALL of our problem. We have to change the fundamental way in which we raise our daughters and sons so they don't have self-image issues and/or don't become a bully. That's a tough job, I know. Parents have to be present and aware. And they can't just overlook the behavior, hoping that it will change.

There is a shame in just existing, but there shouldn't be. It shouldn't take twenty years of therapy or a coffin to get over just being allowed to be yourself. We are fundamentally all in this together regardless of race, religion, gender identity, and sexual preference. Our differences amount to us being whole. 

I don't want a cookie cutter clone.
No one should.

Embrace your puckered thighs or flamboyant style – just be who you are.  
There is a saying in writing that you have to write your own book because no one else can; the same could be said for each and every one of our beings. Be you simply because no one else can.

And that is a beautiful thing.

Love & Light,
Ms. Samuels



I've been told that discussing such things is career suicide – newsflash, it won't change my story. But not saying something will. Because it fundamentally goes against who I am. 




Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Why I Write....Err, Publish.

The obvious answer is: I don't have a choice.

I am controlled by some sort of external magic which forces me to grind pen to paper...err, finger to keyboard for -  h o u r s  - on end. I am a slave to the story, a junkie for plot twists, got a desperate girl or a beautiful asshole you equally love & hate - and I am so fucking there! Sign me up! Take my number.

*squeals*
I'll be your medium!
*begging on knees*
Please, Ms. Hot Chic choose me! Mr. Insane Killer, I am the writer for your tale of woe! Yes, you were repressed as a child I got it!
*whispers*
It's all okay though because you will be fucking gorgeous and women will love you anyway!
*eyes bug out*

Ok. Seriously. Why do I write?
Because I have to. *grins*

I have been writing almost as long as I have been talking. It started with poetry and flourished from there as seems common with my type. Basic answers you may have yourself or know a thousand friends that say the same thing.

The REAL question is why publish?
Long story short in three words, I almost died.
This started a chain of events which kind of led to a fuck-it-I-do-not-care attitude. They don't like me, I don't care. The goal was simply - write a fucking book. Start with Once Uponta...and get to The End. Become a FINISHER.

And thus, that became the mountain. Finish the damn novel. Not 100k in and not done (yes, I have several....) Not a beginning and an end, but follow the thing through. That I believe is the most difficult part. At least it was for me. Believing in the process enough to know and trust that I could get to the finish line.

So it began July 5, 2014. I would write the New Adult-Contemporary-Romance-Suspense-Erotica book I wanted to read. Fuck it if THAT ain't a genre. I don't care about that right now. Actually, I still don't. I realized early on that I could not wedge myself into the box of one genre, so I gave that up pre-starting the climb up the Finish It Mtn.

So...I write. First on my old huge Dell laptop. Then on a little RT machine. Then on a Surface Pro-3 (which I still use). And now on a MacBook Air. Keep in mind I have all those scraps of paper, journals, receipts, stubs, anytime I had an idea I wrote it down. I have a mess of paper. And by September 27, 2014, I had the skeleton of Juliet. Of course, I didn't know she was a skeleton, it was a year later before I realized I had another mountain on top of the Finish moutain called Edit Me Fool.


Yes, I am old school. I printed that damn thing like a trophy.

And then, I attempted to edit. Ok, now. Here is where things get very bad on Mt. Edit. No one tells you that Mt. Edit is like a hundred times as large as Mt. Finish. And that you will regurgitate that shit by the end of it, so for fuck's sake, love it. Love that story. And I did.

So, I kept writing in the Juliet world and hit the publish button three times.
Cool.

But after driving myself crazy for a year, knowing that my beloved baby was not what I had dreamed the choice became quite clear at the plateau I reached on Mt. Edit: Quit or Hire. By chance, a lovely editor sent me a friend request (...enter magical twist of fate here...) and the rest has been history. I gave Mizdee the current WIP - Tea for Two and decided I liked our flow so much that we would go back to the lands of that box because I believed in Juliet when few did.


  • Break the bones.
  • Reset them right.
  • Build her muscle. 
  • Give her skin...and makeup and loads of glorious hair.
  • And make that bitch whole for the first time ever.


And now, Juliet is getting dressed, going to the ball and waiting for readers to ask her to dance.
(The re-release of Juliet and The Initiation are both available now.)

The curious part is how close my own journey of growth followed that of Juliet. And so the other day as we - me and the Mizdee - are talking (not uncommon) and she has this epiphany that my words have impacted her and...bam...suddenly, I realize that sitting atop the now conquered Mt. Fuckin Edit is the strange world of Mt. Marketing, for which I am trying to be social.

But fuck is it hard.

Let's back up though to that little bit - my words made a difference, making someone feel. And that is ultimately why I write - to entertain and enrich, perhaps providing some thought-provoking material. My art exists to be interpreted by each individual in their own way. There is no right or wrong opinion. Some may hate it, some may love it. I will write what I want to read, and if you enjoy it...I personally invite you to join me on the journey of my words.

And speaking of words, I love them, playing and rearranging them to elicit a reaction. I have a particular penchant for "dying" words. Words like atramentous. If by chance, I happen to hit a phrase wrong or you have a lovely little tidbit of a word, please let me know.

Sure, I could give you some perfect little churchgoing-type picture and the Ms Samuels lives in a Farmhouse with a menagerie of crew and animals....but that's not what you really want.

You want dirt between my toes.
You want the grit under my nails.
You want to know about me, Sal, Juliet.
The truth behind the story.

And how do I know this?
Because I am a reader, too.
So, I am giving that for better or worse. I will never sugarcoat any of my social.
Some days it may not be pretty, but I promise, it will be real.

I owe a VAST & GREAT amount of thanks & love to the Crew @ the farmhouse, to Mizdee at Nerdy Girl Editing & Co., to Giselle at xpresso book tours, and J.A. Huss for blogging about Giselle. And the lovely Brit, Evelyn (Summer's Eve and Quill & Ink Book Tours), for telling me at 3:30 am to "go to bed Missy."

And that is how Juliet technically came to be.
I will give more insights into the actual story and scenes in the near future.

Be good to each other.
With much much LOVE,
   XO
   Kailee

AVAILABLE @

Juliet by Kailee Reese Samuels















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Thursday, November 3, 2016

Juggling Your Dirty Words

It's November, AKA writers must juggle all of their work/life/holiday - Halloween, Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas - time and somehow manage to slip in 50K words for NanoWrimo. It's easy, just blend it into work - you are after all, a writer, right?

Wrong.
Brilliantly misguided was I.

This is my fourth year of writing in the real world (opposed to my own private hermit retreat). I have not participated in every NanoWrimo though I have managed to hit up 2013 and 2015. I am trying this year. Seriously. I am.

My eldest son is prodding me along, pleasantly reminding me that my word counts should be increasing. And while I agree, I am in the midst of re-release chaos and preparations for Juliet and The Initiation as well as adhering to the sadistic hardcore schedule of 2017.

So while yes, I do have some ticks of ideas and what not, I make no promises as to having one solid 50k piece by the end of November. It may be 15k with Sal and 40k with Alex and maybe even 13k over there in that little ditty. But alas, I am trying to stay on the rails with this one unplanned and unscheduled piece.

Don't get me wrong, I am always writing, but I am rather spastic in my writing. I'll go a bit on one book and then toss it over for a few days in my mind, building the scenes and pacing. Then moving  to another book that has been milled over for a few days while working on the previously mentioned one. I am chaotic and crazy in my writing, rarely sinking into just one piece of work.

It's just not me.
And that's OK.

I know other people who start one and finish it, then move to the next one. And that is seriously GREAT for them. But it isn't me. I am a juggler. Kind of like plotsers and pantsers, there are also jugglers. And that is really the point of all of this, figuring out what kind of writer you are and making it work for you because in the end that is all that ultimately matters.

And that is half the battle - finding out what works and going with it. I appreciate the technique and ability of others, but I can't be them. And they can't be me.

Have a great fucking day y'all!
   XO,
   kailee

For the W! ;)

On that note, half of the farmhouse is resided in by *snickers* Northerners from Chicago (I am trying hard here to be PC).  And I want to extend my CONGRATULATIONS and LOVE to them and their history with their beloved CUBBIES. In watching your passion, this little Texan has become a fan! ;)

Saturday, October 29, 2016

I'm not dead.

I've been missing for the most part from social media for the past year. Perhaps an intentional - thought-filled reflection, my own personal sabbatical.

And if you are curious, here's where I have been.

Mostly hospitals. My Dad had a stroke. And all told at the farmhouse by years end we will have had five surgeries under one roof. Life sucks sometimes. But fear not, the writing wheel spins on. Only now, better oiled than before.

As for me, I account for one of those surgeries. I had a little lump come up in my hand about five years ago when I was teaching myself to quilt. I thought nothing of it and asked the doctor about it. It was just a ganglion and would likely disappear. However, if it started hurting, I should see a hand specialist.

Guess what?
My damn pet pet was a fucking monster. Almost three inches long, two inches wide, and an inch thick. A fatty benign tumor, a lipoma.


So, I had surgery October 7. I have graphic nasty photos which I will spare you. Now, I am recovering and getting used to being the 8-finger typist. I can't feel my ring finger or pinky yet. I may never feel them again, but hopefully the feels will return in time. But fuck, what do I care really? I have my fucking hand. All is right in my book. Sure it sucks but it could be much worse.

What else do I know?
I decided in July to test drive an editor after much debate. Always having that fear of - omg this is going to change me, this is going to turn into his/her painting - ok, I was wrong. But I needed to come to this place on my own. So the lovely Ms D and myself ran a spell through Tea for Two, which was next up to be published. I fell head over heels again with writing after being pretty damned disgruntled. (Read: if I had a dollar for every time I said I was giving this public showing of my art up...)

But alas, I decided I liked Ms D so much, I would give her the big baby of Juliet. And of course, her companion The Initiation. So now, I am better than ever, stronger than before, and ready to grab life by the balls.

Wanna join me?
I'd love to have you.

kailee
XO

P.S. And as always, this blog will never fucking be edited. Come because you want but hell, don't expect me to edit this...it ain't gonna happen. ;)