Raine Balkera - Romance Author

When life feels more like a sport in which you suck at, everything tends to get skewed (make biased or distorted in a way that is regarded as inaccurate, unfair, or misleading), as I'm sure most are already aware. As Moses once said, "I am but a voice crying out in the wilderness." For me, that wilderness is Social Media . Being my own worst enemy, there always comes a time in my writing endeavors when I stop typing, pull back from my efforts, and start to see things in that skewed vision. I feel like Moses in the desert. For several years now, I've made countless attempts at reaching out to people, making friends, and learning how best to 'market' myself in order to attract people to me and my novels. With zero in the way of progress. Facebook seems like a bowling alley now... abandoned, hollow, and aged. Tumblr fell in on itself once the SJW crowd took over and left zero in the way of space for any other type of 'socializing' or...

THE WEATHER It's raining here in SE Michigan, and after a severe drought that began in late May and lasted until late August, RAIN is a welcome weather occurrence. Except when it lasts for days (like it has) and causes flooding (which it is). please ignore the word EPIC The clouds are rolling in not from the West but the East to bring Atlantic moisture, which means heavy downpours (since Wednesday). It also means clean, fresh air that smells semi-tropical, and I love that. Of course, this puts a "damper" on my nightly sky viewing pleasure, and it's also being reported that the Northern Lights (aurora) may be visible as far south as here for the next few nights. In other words, once this Low moves off to the east in a few days, the sky will clear and the Aurora sightings will have passed. It's a bucket list item, and one of these days I'm going to head WAY up north with camera in tow, hopeful about catching a glimpse of ...

It's the first weekend in August, 2016, and even though it is still hot, muggy, and drought-inducing dry here, this particular weekend always triggers a whats-to-come feeling in me. I anticipate ominous weather reports about a Canadian Cold Front sweeping down across our state to switch seasonal gears and make all the hotness go away . . . for good. But according to our weatherman, it isn't the case this time around. It'll continue to be hot, muggy, and DRY through next week, so maybe it will happen then, or the week after that. Still, I'm thinking about autumnal colors, parkas and jeans, and how best to decorate for Halloween this year. The stores are filled with a lot of the stuff I go nuts over, like notepads, lined paper, gel pens, markers, and neon sticky-note pads. Discounts on the overly cool hardcover lined-paper 'books' I used to buy by the half-dozen and write story after imaginative story. Using colorful gel pens, of course. I s...

Thursday is almost done with, and I'm just now getting around to blogging. The big Holiday's are over now, and at my age, the whirlwind continues to increase as far as 'my, how time flies' goes. It was a wonderful time, though, and a first for me in a very long time, too, so that is a nice report for my readers! Last week , I received an e-mail from someone who commented on an old post from an old blog and said that she misses me and my writing.  I was so touched by this that I decided to visit the old site and get it up and running again. For my one fan out there. So, from now on, my Asian Drama posts will be at my Asian Drama Queen blog here on blogger. And, with all of the episodes for Oh, My, Venus   finally uploaded, my fan can look forward to a review about it very soon! Normally, I don't do resolutions . I learned decades ago that they lead to just one thing: disappointment. Yet, I had a bit of fun reading the many and varie...

Remember when I posted that it would be a long, LONG time before I ever downloaded another freebie on Amazon to read? Ever again? Well, I didn't exactly say never, ever again . . . And, thanks to my brilliant decision to sign up at Book Bub , the game changer, and meeting a lot of new and friendly Romance Novel authors on Facebook and at Triberr, the eBook count on my Kindle increases by the hour. RIGHT NOW, I'm in the midst of a really good eBook: The St. Nicholas' Day Wager by Em Taylor As the clock in White’s hallway chimes midnight on St Nicholas’ Day morning, Lord Nicholas, Viscount Eastden makes a stupid wager. Somewhat foxed, he agrees to a wager which states that he can marry the spinster sister of the Earl of Thornwich by Christmas eve. If Thornwich wins the wager and Eastden fails in his quest to marry her, he will get ten thousand pounds and vice versa. Having grown up on neighbouring estates, Nicholas can’t figure out why ...