I think it is about time . . .

That I offer up an update as I have been rather inactive since September. Thanks to those of you who sent well wishes and warm thoughts to us regarding my last entry. However, I have some bad news.

Jamie's mom died two weeks ago tomorrow after fighting liver failure at home. She had been in the hospital for 6 weeks and then came home for another 2 months before her body called it quits. Her birthday was on Friday, she would have been 46 years old. We are doing well and the girls (his younger sisters) are being real troopers. Right now we just try to keep ourselves busy. This means a lot of cleaning, cooking and writing on my side of things, though up until this point I have not written anything publicly.

I've found myself writing more poetry again, just as I have said before, it was my first calling in the creative world. I have also gotten many convos from some of you on etsy, asking about certain items being in stock and if I am still selling.

I do have a bit of stock left, especially the perfumes. However, I cannot sell them as I no longer have business insurance. However, according to B&B laws, I can give them as gifts. So, if there is something you are looking for, please let me know as I may still have it. All I would require is the cost of shipping, that's it.

On another note, would you all mind if I turned this journal into a companion for my personal website? I want to share my world with you still and while it may not be bath & body related most times, I am curious to know who would be interested.

Thank you all again for being there, being patient with me and understanding. Hope you all are well!

A Small Update is in Order

Brain fried . . . go bed now . . . . mmmmk?

so . . . things on my side of the world are not . . . great. I messed up my back at work.

Called out from work yesterday as I could not move . . . spent much of the day in bed or in a hot bath. Have taken 2 baths today and am soon to take my third. Jamie and I spent 2 hours last night visiting his mom in the hospital (she has been in there for four weeks now). Then we went back today for another 1-2 hours, talking to her, the nurses and the doctors. She is on 'The List' for a liver and possibly kidney transplant. Folks, listen up . . . as nice as drinking may be, please take your body seriously. Years and years of drinking, drugs and smoking has gotten her here . . . please if you drink, do it in moderation and safely at home (not in a car).

So . . . it is a bit stressed here, but I have been keeping quiet about it. Lisa is basically saying that she will either die in the hospital bed or at home. Jamie and I knew it was depression talking and let it slide without giving any response. She looked terrible last night, but much better this morning. She is very jaundice however, as well as shakey. Why did she go in there? She was not eating/drinking for days/weeks at a time. When she got there they drained her abdomen of about 2 liters of fluid. About 2 weeks ago, they drained another gallon. Since her liver is shot and her kidneys are damaged, her body is having a hard time filtering the fluids so they just sort of sit there until they probe her and take them out.

So again, if you drink .. . please . . . please do it in very small amounts. Not 3-4 shots/glasses each day.

In other news, I had a really neat dream early this morning that I may be making into a story. I have also spent the last 5 hours working on my new website which i will share once it is done. It is for my writing, but will look cleaner and more professional than the one I have right now . . . it was only temporary.

Umm . . . not much else to say . . . sorry I have been so quiet. Work keep me uber busy and really tired in the evenings. I will try and post a little more . . . if at all possible.

Not a great post, but we are doing fine.

Crimson Tears Now Available!

Crimson Tears is now available for purchase through amazon.com!

I am also working on a kindle edition, but it is taking me a bit of time formatting the book (again) to fit the specifications. I will update once it becomes available as well.

Last Star of Mourning: The Beginning

Last night I found myself sitting in the kitchen of our apartment at an old card table. I had prepared myself to write in the evening, having gotten out my pencils, my journal of poetry as well as the composition book I have been using to jot down memories of my father before and after he had died. I honestly was not sure what I was going to write, so I had everything sitting out on the table.

Only when I put on my headphones and turned on my mp3 player did I know what my mission was last night. I sat there, pencil in hand, laying down various scribbles on white paper. It felt as if I was moving, writing in slow motion. However, as I got my thoughts in place, the words just rolled out of my hands, filling 8 pages of the composition book before I looked up at the time. It was 11:30 PM and I decided that I had had enough.

I wrote about my father, memories of when he took me to work with him as well as the day he had died. It was very difficult to write and I found myself a few times on the edge of tears. I'd never thought it would be this hard to write about the happier memories, in fact, I thought it would be easier than it had been for me to write "Crimson Tears."

How wrong I was. However, I now know that I need to finish what I started. I need to press forward and share my story, his story and how I remember him. I feel it is something that others should know. The pain I went through, the confusion, chaos and loss. Also hope, happiness and joy.

I will sit down this evening once again to write the second chapter, about the day after. I am not sure where it will take me and it is likely that I will have memories that i thought I'd forgotten, just as I had had last night. To think, I felt that I would not have enough to say. However, it seems that the more I write about him, the more I remember.

The World of Nicole Thomas -- Now Live!

After a painstakingly long time, I ow have my personal site up and running. On it you will find excerpts of my own poetry, short stories as well as a little more about myself as a writer and where you can purchase my recent publications. Thank you all for the amazing support as I could not have gotten this far without so many of you.

Visit The World of Nicole Thomas

Crimson Tears Proof

So I got the proof for Crimson Tears last night and it looks wonderful. I am very pleased with the work that createspace has done and the book itself looks better than I had expected. After publishing past works through Iuniverse and publish america, the quality that createspace offers has just blown me away.

It turned out just as I formatted the cover as well as the interior files. There are a few glancing errors, most of which only I would actually notice. There is one however that is quite obvious. While I was formatting the text, I placed in my page numbers. I did not use header or footers as it took up a lot of space on the page and I also could not get the section breaks to work for some reason.

So all of the page numbers were put in manually . . . very painstaking let me tell you! The only problem with this is that they were all placed on the right side of every page. This caused half of the page numbers to end up in the gutter (spine of the book). So, after looking through the book lat night with a red pen as well as editing and reformatting this morning, it has not been resubmitted to createspace.

I should hear from them in a day or so of which I will then order the second proof. Once I get the proof and am happy with the overall condition, I will contact createspace again and approve the files for publication. Now, while this may happen within a week or so, it may not be listed on amazon.com for a little over 15 days (or so I have read). Another thing I learned is that the 'look inside' feature usually does not go live on a newly listed book for about 8 weeks.

Other than that, it should be available on amazon.com by the middle to late August. I may end up taking pre-orders through my site as well, though I've not decided just yet. One thing that does concern me is that it will only be listed on amazon.com . . . making the cost of shipping internationally a slight problem. I want to offer this piece to everyone and all who wish to purchase it.

Due to this small set back and since I hate high shipping rates as much as the next person, I plan on buying a case of my books and selling them through my own site when the time comes. This way international buyers will only need to pay $3-$5 shipping instead of $25-$70. Really not sure of what the rates are on amazon.com for international shipping, but I know how much we charge at my work place and it just astonishes me by the immense cost of shipping alone.

So I will keep you all updated and let you know when the book is available to order through my site, amazon.com or both. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Time For an Update

I am so sorry for my inactivity as of late. I've been terribly busy with work, my first publication as well as working on my own website. Above is an image of the cover without the synopsis on it (do not want to give too much away as it is not up for sale yet).

The book itself is 164 pages in length and contains 10 journals as well as 113 poems that I have written over the last 5-6 years. Most of the writing has to do with the rape as well as losing my father at an early age. However, the end section called "Looking Ahead" shows that I have healed and gives hope to other survivors as well as my readers.

I have about 10 people reviewing my book. Two helped me edit and about 7 others are reading it (they are survivors) to let me know how it made them feel/what they think. The book itself will be available through my createspace store as well as on amazon.com for $8.50.

I had thought of ordering 20 copies and selling them on etsy, but there are a few issues. I honestly do not think they will let me list it. Not only that, but shipping to myself and then shipping to customers will eat into the small profit margin that I have. So I may just sell it on amazon.com and see how that goes. I am also thinking of offering it as a kindle, but I need to figure that out first.

That's about it for now. Hope you all have been well.