Anything and Everything.

Well, well, well. I set out a goal for myself of 30,000 words in the month of July, and I'm proud to say I came out slightly ahead of the game at 33,691. Woohoo!! It feels so good. I was worried it would be pretty nasty for the most part, but I am impressed with some of it - some chapters are pretty decent and will look even better when it's completely finished and edited. Alex is amazing, but he's got a few ghosts in his closet. Kelsey is unlike any character I've written, so this will be fun! No timeline on this though. I need to get through final edits of If You Say Yes  and get that off to an editor, get it formatted and a cover designed. At this point not sure what will become of Teach Me How , maybe a series (since there is enough cast in there to warrant it), maybe just a standalone. Only time will tell. Share with me your Camp NaNoWriMo successes? Even if you didn't achieve your goal, you still deserve to shine so tell me all about it. What genre...

Book 2 in the Bluff Harbour Series Coming August 1, 2017 Pre-sale $0.99 until August 3rd Torn between her desire for the guy who has her heart and her loyalty to her best friend, Kate Bergman knows she must break her own heart to give her fragile friend a shot at happiness. When Kate uncovers the truth about her best friend it's up to her to fight for the only man she's ever loved. But can she make River forget about the past to find a future together? Isn't this cover gorgeous?? Pre-order for $0.99 on Amazon Torn between her desire for the guy who has her heart and her loyalty to her best friend, Kate Bergman knows she must break her own heart to give her broken and fragile friend a shot at happiness. But letting go of River McEwan is the hardest thing she's ever done. Moving on is even harder--especially when River doesn't want to let her go.  As the two resist their passion for one another, Kate uncovers the truth about her best frie...

Crossed off a major #summerbucketlist item - we went canoeing on the North Saskatchewan. We had originally booked our trip for a leisurely Sunday afternoon paddling adventure on July 16th. We checked in with Edmonton Canoe at our starting/end point - Capilano Park (CP), signed the waiver, boarded the bus and arrived at our canoe starting point -- Emily Murphy Park (EMP). However, the weather had changed drastically between CP and EMP, and they cancelled. A little bit of a let down, but safety first. I didn't want my boys and I's first canoe trip to be disastrous due to poor weather, high winds and smoke. It was easy enough to rebook, and Bianca slotted us in for the following Sunday. My canoeing partners, my kids and I arrived to beautifully sunny weather, and light winds. Perfect! (Again) Signed waivers and boarded the bus. We knew we were going canoeing. Too perfect to not! Arrived at EMP, given our life jackets and paddles, and with an inhale of courage (I can act all...

To celebrate the new covers on my books, I had a HUGE SALE all summer long. Price goes up September 1st. Run Away Charlotte      Amazon   $2.99   $0.99 Barnes & Noble   $2.99    $0.99 Kobo   $2.99    $0.99 iTunes   $2.99    $0.99 Smashwords   $2.99    $.99 Nineteen year old Charlotte Cooper knows she’s unworthy of happily ever after. Her troubled childhood leads to her inability to trust people, and without trust, how can she ever love? Until Andrew Wagner walks into her life. His charm and patience make her question if love might be possible after all. Despite the intoxicating pull to him, she pushes him away, believing he won’t handle her past shadows when he sees her for who she really is. When he doesn’t bolt at the first sign of trouble, her walls come crashing down. In it’s wake, she gives him the key to her heart. He is her forever. However, ...

Fans of Duly Noted  and That Summer   prepare for the final installment into Aurora and Nate and Lucas and Kaitlyn's lives. If You Say Yes will be coming out in the fall. Date TBA soon. Just waiting on cover design and editing. Here are a couple of teasers: And now a snippet from the story: No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the author and/or publisher. Copyright ©2017 H.M. Shander All Rights Reserved. If You Say Yes by H.M. Shander Aurora linked her fingers behind his damp neck, and pulled him closer. A quick lick of her lips was all she got before Nate’s brushed across, tender and purposeful. She’d waited for this momentous night for days. For weeks. For what felt like a lifetime. His kiss was everything she desired, and everything she needed, all in one sweet package...

 I was a little surprised by how many times our first Ever Wonder... post was read. Didn't think it would see those kind of numbers. I guess there are many people curious. So we found another brand of inhaler to take apart. Ever wonder what the inside of a BREO inhaler looks like? Having dissected an Advair inhaler in curiosity, we waited until my son finished his newest brand of lung medication to see if they're similar or different on the inside.  Thoughts? Predictions?  Here's the packaging: It took a bit of work to pry off the mouthpiece, but with some effort, it popped right off (and nearly hit me in the face.) Getting the rest to separate proved challenging. The blue piece is what breaks the seal on the medication so it can be inhaled, and when it's used up its strip, doesn't want to open much, or at all.  But with the aid of two knives, and four hands, it finally came apart like this. A little more wiggling, grunting and maybe a...

Nine days into Camp NaNoWriMo, and I'm getting into the groove. What about you? What is CampNaNoWriMo ? It's a website where you can record your July word count goals, chat with other "campers" and be inspired to push on when the writing is a little harder to get at, because it's summertime, and if you're like me, easily distracted. Your word count goals can be anything you want vs when it's NaNoWriMo (which stands for National Novel Writing Month) in November, where the goal is 50,000 words in that month. It's can be done; it's hard but conquerable - I've 'won' NaNo three times in the past). For me in July, with two kids home and a clipboard full of activities to cross off our bucket list, I picked a modest 30,000 words for the month. That's a little less than a thousand a day. Doable. As of this blog post, I've added 8100 words to my current manuscript (MS), bringing it over the 21,000 mark. I still need to write toda...

Have you ever wonder what the inside of an inhaler looks like? My youngest has been using Advair brand inhaler for the better part of the year. My oldest, ever the curious one about how things work, wanted to take it apart when it was finished.  He's brought home a multitude of electronics and devices curious about their inner workings. This, with no electric parts inside, the temptation to see how it worked intrigued him (and me too!) So, why not take it apart? We always take them back to the pharmacy for proper disposal, in case there is extra medication still inside and we have a few to return. Big deal if we're short one. So we studied it to determine the best way to start the de-construction phase. The cover and mouthpiece came off easily enough.  With a couple of lego swords (because why not?) we were able to separate the two halves and let our true adventure and investigation begin.  It was neat to see how the medication rolled through the...