Let's see......

The newest Pyte book is almost done :)

It is not the book that belongs to the excerpt in the back of Without Regret, but the next book in the continuing story.

The next Neighbor From Hell book is halfway done and is currently being checked over to make sure that it's worthy of the NFH title. Once i get feedback I will set back to work on it :)

After reading most of the reviews for my books I thought I should say a few things:

A Humble Heart is in no way meant to be funny so if you're looking for a fun relaxing book, this isn't it. This is meant to be a little bit dramatic, a little thrilling and basically a fairy tale for adults, especially women like Dana who may not have chosen well in life and deserve a second chance with the man of her dreams. I wrote this story when I was going through a pretty bad time. I guess you could say it was an unrealistic dream, but something that kept me going. It might not be the "favorite" book out there, but it has a special spot in my heart because of what it did for me. For those of you who are wondering if Edward will find out that he was the influence for Christian........yes.

The Pyte, Sentinel and Immortal series are not the NFH series. What I mean is that they are not written to be light, funny reads. They have funny parts, but nothing like the NFH series so if you're looking for an amusing light read these probably aren't for you. The EMS and the Hollywood Heart Novels starting with A Reclusive Heart and on are probably a better fit for you.

I've read a lot of your comments, some flattering and some that had me cringing. I appreciate both and have actually taken a lot of your comments to heart and applied the advice to my new books. That being said, I will say that I can't unfortunately tailor each book to every single person out there. I just can't. I'm sorry, but there is no perfect book out there that will please every single person. There's nothing I can do about that. I'll continue to do my best to publish enjoyable stories and hope that they manage to make someone smile.

Thanks for listening :)

Probably should mention....

The leads for the new Neighbor from Hell book are actually Connor O'Neil and Rory James. The name Shia wasn't working because of the name confusion so things were changed around. The name Connor is more fitting for this character anyway, trust me. The book is coming along rather nicely so I'm hoping to have it out soon.

 

FYI, the Bradfords just might make an appearance in this book :)

First Pay it 4ward Friday is here :)

It's Pay it 4ward Friday and I'm checking in :)

I started small this week and kept it pretty simple, but hopefully the act was passed along. This week with Pay it 4ward Friday in mind I stopped or slowed down enough to allow a car that was waiting to pull onto the road do just that.

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this, but waiting to pull onto a road can be pretty stressful, especially if you have a car behind you getting impatient and no one's willing to stop or slow down long enough so that you can pull out onto the road. What makes it worse is when there's a long line of cars and you're force to take a chance and pull onto the road when it's pretty tight. I've seen dozens of near accidents because of this over the years.

So this week I decided that I would hopefully pass some good driving karma around and made it a point to allow drivers waiting on the sidelines to safely pull onto the road or I've slowed down long enough for people to switch lanes in front of me. It's a small act, but a considerate one and hopefully those that I allowed to cut in front of me with copy the act.

 

Well, that's my Pay it 4ward act for the week and one I plan on continuing with. Anyone want to share?

Grammar, spelling and plots, oh my!

So, in case you've ever wonder if authors read the reviews for their books let me put your mind at ease, this one does.

Although I do enjoy reading what you enjoyed, I pay more attention to the negative or rather critical comments. Not that I'm trying to encourage negative comments, I'm really not, but I do look for constructive criticism. For example, many people didn't appreciate the number of times I used Little grasshopper in Playing for Keeps and I'll admit that I just really enjoyed that, but I will be more careful in the future not to go overboard with endearments......even though I really did think that was cute.

Now, the biggest problem, well, not a problem most people claimed, but a slight distraction is some grammar mistakes. I apologize if you found one, it was unintentional, but a result of editing the books on my own. If you find a grammatical problem or anything of that nature, wrong word usage, please feel free to send me an e-mail with a heads up so that I can change it. I would really appreciate it. As far as misspelled words go there shouldn't be any, but I could see how the wrong word was used since my computer has a problem with auto correcting my work. Yes, my computer and I have had many words over the years over this issue. Again, if you spot it please let me know.

The new books hopefully will not have this problem. I have several people who have generously offered their editing services so I hope between all of us that there will be no more mistakes in future books.

 

-R.L.

 

Confession is good for the soul

At least that's what I've heard. Since this is a new website I thought that the best way to kick this off would be with a little confession. So here it is:

 

Playing for Keeps: A Neighbor from Hell Novel almost wasn't published.

 

What happened was that I wrote the book, loved the book, but didn't think that anyone else would. I actually considered just keeping it for my own entertainment and building up the series for fun, but then I decided to take a chance. I never thought it would do so well.

Thank you, everyone, for giving this book a chance :)

 

P.S.

Perfection was a complete accident ;)

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Feeling pretty generous today :)

This is the first chapter of one of the newest Neighbor From Hell novels. I thought I'd share because I really am just that giving ;p

Enjoy!

 Chapter 1

            "How many men?" Kasey asked as she dumped a bag of ice in her old red cooler.

            "Three," was Sara's, her best friend since eighth grade, no nonsense response. 

            "Women?" Kasey asked, running a hand through her short spiky hair as she opened the refrigerator and considered her choices.

            "Three women."

            "Children?"

            "Six, all under the age of six, but they're inside with the women," Sara said, keeping a vigilant eye on the newly rented beach house next door. As the only permanent resident on this strip of beach, Kasey felt it was her duty to know what was going on next door, for safety reasons of course. Sara, the good friend that she was, felt it was her duty to help in this endeavor. They liked to refer to themselves as "The Neighborhood Watch." It was a tough job, but it needed to be done.

            Deciding that they would definitely need sustenance for this job, Kasey grabbed several of the large cold whoopie pies that she'd bought down at Karl's Grocery last night and tossed them in the cooler along with a six pack of Coke and a six pack of beer. She shared a look with Sara and knew they couldn't put their responsibility off any longer. With a nod she closed the cooler and carried it towards the backdoor where Sara waited, holding it open.

            Without a word they walked over to the old picnic table that sat at the edge of her property, which just happened to be right next to the neighboring cottage's driveway and afforded them a great view of the activities that they really need to keep an eye on.

            Folding her arms over her chest she approached one of the large shirtless men carrying a suitcase. She noted his good looks, perfectly tanned body and the tattoo of "Zoe" written across his left peck. Not too bad, she thought as she approached him.

            "We need to speak to your wives or girlfriends, or whatever they are," she informed him.

            For a moment he could only frown down at her until one of the other men joined him. "What's going on?" he asked and of course Kasey noted that this one was also devastatingly handsome, perfect body and had that bad boy look that she really liked.

            "They want to talk to our women," the first man said, still frowning.

            "For what?" the second one demanded.

            "Guys?" she said, drawing their attention. "If you could just go get your wives," she said, noting the wedding bands on both their hands. "We really don't have much time here," she said, gesturing for them to get on with it before crossing her arms back over her chest.

            With a shrug the men walked off following the third man, the much larger and hotter of the three men, she'd like to add, into the house. When two women stepped out of the house a moment later followed by the two men again she had to hide her surprise. She'd actually expected the men to have supermodel wives, but this was a nice surprise.

            The two women were a few inches shorter than her. The first one, the one smiling sweetly, wore glasses, and had long bronze hair pulled up into a messy bun and was adorable in a vixen kind of way. The other one was cute and had long brown hair pulled into a ponytail and was a little on the chubby side, but if the look the man with the "Zoe" tattoo was sending her ass as she walked towards Kasey was any indication then her husband had no complaints.

            "Hi, I'm Haley," the woman with glasses said as she held her hand out. Kasey shook her hand as the woman gestured to her friend. "This is Zoe and you've met our husbands, Jason and Trevor."

            "I'm Kasey. I live next door and this is my friend Sara and we're here to ogle your men while they work, but if that's a problem for you then we'll go back to ogling them from my window, but we'd rather not since the view's not as good," she said with a shrug.

            "It's true. The view isn't as good," Sara said on a sigh. The women's lips twitched as their husbands let out twin snorts of disgust as they continued to sort through the bags in the back of one of the minivans.

            "And do you do this often?" Haley asked, sounding amused.

            "No," Kasey said, sighing. "This is an honor we only bestow on our neighbors two, maybe three times a summer."

            "And how many times a summer does this cottage get rented out?" Zoe asked, looking equally amused.

            She shared a look with Sara before she answered, "Two or three times."

            Both women chuckled. "And what if the guys are old or overweight?" Zoe asked.

            "Then we of course are obligated to add catcalls to our ogling," Kasey explained.

            "It really goes a long way to helping with their self-esteem," Sara added solemnly.

            "It really does," Kasey agreed with a shrug. "We perform a public service of sorts."

            "They're not going to let you ogle us," Jason pointed out as he walked past them carrying what looked like a folded playpen.

            "They're very possessive," Trevor said, shooting another hungry look at his wife's ass.

            "No, we're not," Haley said, sounding bored.

            "You can stare all you want," Zoe added.

            "How could you betray us like that?" Jason demanded. "I thought you loved me?"

            Kasey grinned hugely as the woman shrugged indifferently, earning another gasp of outrage from her husband. They were a very entertaining family. She liked that. Too many times over the years she got stuck next to some real jerks. This was a nice little treat for her.

            "If you'd like to join us in our ogling we have Coke, beer and the best whoopie pies in the area," she said, gesturing to the picnic table.

            "Whoopie pies?" Jason and Trevor asked in unison, shooting a hungry look towards the cooler. She noticed that the third man just kept on working, not bothering to stop and say hello or wipe that scowl off his face.

            "I'm sorry, guys, but they're only for the spectators, but if you win our competition we'll give you one," she explained as she walked back to the picnic table and sat down on the edge of the table. Sara sat down on her right and she was pleasantly surprised when the two other women joined them.

            Sara handed out drinks while Kasey explained, "What's the point of ogling if you don't pick a winner?" she asked in a tone that said they really should know that.

            "You're going to judge us?" Trevor demanded, folding his arms over his chest as he glared at them.

            "Of course," Sara said with a shrug as she handed Kasey a Coke.

            "It is our civil duty to figure out which one of you is the hottest."

            "You're going to let them do this?" Jason demanded of his wife.

            Haley nodded as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I think it's a good idea.......unless you're afraid you'll lose," the woman said with a mischievous little grin.

            "Lose? To him? Puhlease, my little grasshopper. That would be a cold day in hell before I lose to-"

            "Damn straight you're going to lose, you bastard. There's no way-" Trevor began, but she felt it was time to cut them off and get them to focus on working so that they could properly stare at them.

            "Yummy is in the lead," she felt obligated to point out.

            Both men frowned down at her. "Who is Yummy?" Trevor demanded.

            She shifted to the side to point at the glowering man as he grabbed a large box and threw it over his shoulder. "Him. He's at least five points ahead of you now."

            "I'd say six points," Sara said, adding, "He's got a nice ass," when both men turned their glares on her.

            Both men opened their mouths, probably to argue, when their wives said, "He really does."

            "How could you?" Jason asked in a hoarse whisper.

            Haley shrugged. "He does and if you want to win I'd suggest you get moving so we can see the goods in action."

            "I'd give him two extra points for that Celtic tattoo on his shoulder. It's hot," Zoe said before taking a sip of her soda.

            Trevor gestured wildly to his tattoo. "How the hell can you think that's hotter than this? It's your name!"

            Zoe shrugged. "I'm just saying......"

            "Guys," Kasey said, drawing back their attention because really she did have other things to do today, "if you could get back to work I would really appreciate it."

            The men simply stood there glaring at her.

            Deciding that perhaps the guys needed a visual, she reached back into the cooler and grabbed one of the large, overfilled whoopie pies and held it up. The men's glares instantly disappeared and were replaced by desperate need. They licked their lips hungrily as they took a step towards her.

            "Uh ah, guys, you need to win these and remember the winner gets a bag of these," she said, giving them a shooing gesture to get back to work.

            Jason snorted at that, seeming to come to his senses. It probably didn't hurt that she dropped the whoopie pie back in the cooler and out of sight. "We're not whores that you can buy with a few delicious looking baked goods."

            Trevor shrugged. "I am," he said, leaning down to press a swift kiss to his wife's lips. "I better get an extra point for willing to whore myself out for this competition."

            "Two points," Sara said and when Haley and Zoe murmured their agreements Jason stormed off, muttering something about home wreckers and a bad little grasshopper.

            For the next ten minutes they watched the two men doing their damndest to win. When they awarded points for best set of abs Jason shoved Trevor into a bush. When they awarded points for Best Hair Trevor put Jason into a headlock and brought the man down where an amusing fight took place and they ended up awarding points to Trevor for Best Fighter. That of course caused Jason tackle Trevor to the ground and they decided to call it a tie on Best Fighter.

            Whenever they awarded points for Yummy, and Kasey couldn't help but wonder if the third woman watching the kids in the house belonged to him, Jason and Trevor glared at him, but he didn't acknowledge them in any way except of course that little tick that went double time in his jaw when he won. He really was a yummy specimen and she wouldn't mind a summer fling with him, but he was also grumpy and grumpy equaled too much work for a fling so she focused all of her attention back on the two men glaring at her as they carried more bags into the house.

            "These really are good," Zoe said, practically groaning in ecstasy as she took another bite of her whoopie pie.

            "They really are," Haley agreed as she went to take a bite, but suddenly found her baked good ripped out of her hands. All four of them looked up to find Jason holding up the whoopie pie.

            He scowled down at his wife as he took a huge bite out of it. After sending her one last glare he stormed off. Trevor wasn't too far behind, but not before he stole Zoe's treat and Kasey's cooler.

            "I guess they realized that Yummy was winning," Kasey said, laughing with the other women as she stood up.

            "I have to get back to the office," Sara muttered unhappily as she fixed her platinum blonde hair and smoothed down her blouse and skirt. She looked at Haley and Zoe as she said, "Thank you for the best lunch break ever."

            "You're welcome," Haley said, grinning hugely as she looped her arm through Zoe's and the two women followed after their husbands.

            Kasey waved goodbye to her friend as she grabbed all the empty cans and wrappers. Just as she finished picking up the last empty soda can she looked up and found a pair of deep green eyes watching her from the driveway. She sent him a wink as she walked away. "See ya later, Yummy."

            "The name's Reese," he said in erotically deep voice that sent goose bumps over her skin.

            She looked over her shoulder and ran her eyes over his damp bare chest, rope after rope of golden muscles and shook her head. "No, you're definitely Yummy." With that she walked back to her house and prepared herself for a long night of work ahead of her.

Neighbor From Hell, All Rights Reserved by R.L. Mathewson 2012

A sneak peek at the new NFH novel

"This ends now," Connor suddenly said, scaring the living hell out of her.

            Rory whirled around, hand to chest, heart pounding violently as she fought to calm her breathing. "What in the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded, taking a deep breath to calm herself as she looked at Connor.

            The man stood in the doorway with a flashlight in his hand and even in the dim light she could tell that he was having a hell of a time stopping himself from crossing the small room and throttling her. She had to give him credit because if she was in his place there would be no stopping the ass whooping he had coming.

            "You went over the line today with that bullshit, Rory," he said, taking a step into the dark room.

            She had to roll her eyes at that. "You're only pissed because you didn't think of it first," she said, turning her back on him and effectively dismissing him. She didn't have time for his whining today. She needed to make sure that the whole wall was made of wood and then go up on the roof and help the guys.

            "That's bullshit," he snapped. "You chained me to a toilet, Rory, and took away any way to call for help. What if there had been a fire?" he demanded.

            "I paid Mr. Henderson fifty bucks to watch the house and keep an ear out for you," she said in a bored tone as she started hefting more crates over to the other side of the room.

            "Mr. Henderson is ninety years old and wears a hearing aid the size of my fist. How the hell was he supposed to hear me screaming for help over the garbage you left blasting?"

            She picked up a crate and moved it to the other side as she said, "He had his binoculars." 

            Connor snorted in disbelief. "Of course he had his binoculars! He can't see without them!"

Computer cleaning tips :)

Okay, so I said that I would share my computer cleaning and maintenance tips so here they are. These are the things that I do to keep my computer clean. Using them is up to you and please be careful. If your computer has a virus or other problem this may not fix it. This is just preventative care tips that you can use at your own discretion. In other words if you accidentally fry your computer, well, it's on you so be careful.

 

First thing I like to do is clean the inside of my computer. It sounds like a daunting task, but it's really easy. You're going to need two things for this, a small Philips screwdriver and a can of dust remover, can of air, that you can find at Walmart for under five bucks.

Shut down your computer. Then, now this is important, unplug your computer. Remove every external device and make sure your computer is not hooked up to a power source. 

Next, using your handy screwdriver find the two screws on the back side holding the side panel on your computer tower. Make sure it's the two screws for the side. Once you remove them slide the side panel off and voila you have access to the computer tower. 

If you've had your computer for a while you'll probably find plenty of dust and maybe a tiny spider web or two. Attach the tiny straw to your can of air and gently begin to spray the dust and webs out of your computer. Do not pull on any wires and of course read the instructions on the can before you begin. Definitely focus on the fans, those cool your system and if they're covered with dust they don't work as well. Once I'm done with the inside I like to go around the computer and do the same for the outside.

Once that is done return the side panel to the tower and reattach with the screws. Reattach all your wires and devices. 

Other ways to clean your computer and help it work faster:

1. De-fragmenting your computer. This is easy and can be set on a schedule. It removes broken pieces of old files, cleans up the space and makes it easier for your computer to find information faster.

2. Disc Cleanup, found under accessories. This frees up space and gets rid of temporary files.

3. Go to Majorgeeks.com and you can find free ware. Ad-Aware is a decent spyware remover, but I prefer Super anti spyware remover. Again, this is your choice. Make sure you read everything before you download it and follow directions.

4. Clean your search history.

5. Check your start up menu. If you have programs running in the background that cuts into your computer's ability to do its job quickly. 

6. Make sure your software is up to date and if possible check for updates. 

Again, this is just the stuff that I do to take care of my computer. If your computer is running slow and you take it to a tech this is what they will do and charge you a small fortune. They might suggest that you add RAM, but you can do that on your own as well with a little research. Whatever you do is your choice, I'm just sharing what I do :)