When You Need A Laugh...

So I'm about to close on my new house this week. Hubby and I are frantically packing up our house after 14 years here.

It is incredible how much crap you can accumulate. Seriously. Where the hell did I get a dancing pumpkin and why was it in my attic?

But at night I try and take a break, and I have been falling down a YouTube hole of "Try not to laugh or smile" videos.  (I've been binge watching THIS CHANNEL if you want to see them all too.)

Below are some of my favorites from these videos. Many are NSFW...And all have been sent to one friend or another. I thought I'd share them with you too.

Have a great Monday, guys!

~Roxy


When you're looking for a new workout....




I wonder how many drinks they had before applying for that patent...


And for real....This is brilliant.

It's Release Week!

Only 5 days until Curved Lines releases! WOOHOO!!! How excited by this am I, you ask? Well, I'm quite possibly as thrilled as a family of campers rockin' their Snuggies.

via GIPHY

So anywho...some important stuff to know. First of all, have you scored a copy of this must have box set of the summer? Right now you can grab it for 99 cents. That price will be going up shortly after release. And because I'm the helpful sort, I've got some handy-dandy links to give your one-click finger a workout:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/23gQXu0
IBooks: http://apple.co/1Olgb7G
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1ULyQbM
B&N: http://bit.ly/25UTLlB
Google Play: http://bit.ly/1XWTM45
All Romance: http://bit.ly/1Qcgpyr
Amazon http://amzn.to/1Or8Gfl
Amazon UK http://amzn.to/25YSeuS
Amazon CA http://amzn.to/1Ue7oGN
Amazon AU http://amzn.to/1Ue7oGN

We're also throwing a party on release day! Join us July 22 for some tasty teasers, games, and a smorgasbord of prizes. If you're on FB you can click "join" right here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1251764024843270/

We'd love to see you there!

 

The Start of Something Tiny...

Once upon a time there was an author who lived in a small house.

She knew she had to make the most of her space and started falling down the rabbit hole of google to figure out where on earth she could put an office. An office held the keys to productivity and the weapons needed to stop the dreaded Netflix monster from invading. 

Then one magical day she found a show called "Tiny House Nation".

/div>

The author was enchanted by the the magical images she was shown. People built everything they needed into only 250 square feet or less. The people in the show downsized. They sacrificed, and they used all their extra money to have wonderful adventures throughout the globe.

Then the author realized it was three weeks later and she was out of clean clothes and had watched over twenty hours straight of this program. 

She had to take action. She had to release the hold this show had on her. There was only one way to break the spell. 

She wrote a book.



So...yeah. I got obsessed. I fell down the rabbit hole. I googled, I pinned, I started following every twitter account I could find.

(Yo...Tiny House Nation...if you still want to use my obsessive tweeting in a commercial, the timing would be killer. Just putting it out there. ;p)

It became all consuming for me in a big way, and I had to get it out of my head.

That was where this story idea came from. At the end of the day, everyone on these shows got rid of everything they didn't need in life so they could focus on what was the most important to them.

It fascinated me, and the idea of everything having a place, and needing so much less material goods in life, appeals to me.

The idea of cleaning up a whole house in ten minutes doesn't sound too bad either.


I'm releasing this "Tiny" book tomorrow, and I hope you'll give it a try. If you love tiny houses, or can't imagine someone living in something so small, I think you'll find something to love about this series.

Don't be surprised by some sizzling scenes. There's always room for that in my world.

If you've read the book, let me know what you think! If you're getting your copy tomorrow, let me know what you're most excited to read in those pages.

Whether you love or love to hate Felicity and Brandon, thanks for coming on the tiny journey with me.

~Roxy

To find Roxy's books with buy links and what she has coming up next check out her website at RoxyRocksMe.com

LOVE SHACK

Buy it at ...

AMAZON, iBOOKS, KOBO, ALL ROMANCE, B&N

Living tiny doesn’t leave many places to hide.

Tiny Houses, Big Hearts, Book 1

Felicity Newhouse left a life of excess for a tiny house—and she’s never felt richer. She’d like to give back to the artisanal community who gave her wounded spirit a place to land, but she wants to do it on her own terms. Except she’s been turned down for a loan four times. And the fifth bank on her list isn’t looking too promising, either.

The woman sitting across Brandon Halston’s desk must be out of her mind. Who’d want to live in a house the size of his walk-in closet, much less create an entire community of them? He’s drawn to her soft beauty and her ideals, but business is business.

When her story hits the news, Brandon’s boss solves the PR nightmare by ordering him to spend a month in her house—while cameras roll. The heat between them boils over like the water for their morning coffee. But when one person is hiding who they really are, passion may not be enough to clean up the dirt someone is digging up behind the scenes.

Warning: This book contains copious amounts of coffee and sex in confined spaces. If the tiny house is rockin’ don’t come a-knockin’.

AMAZON, iBOOKS, KOBO, ALL ROMANCE, B&N

Benedict Cumberbatch vs. Martin Freeman and The Stars and Stripes Forever

So I enjoy stories of all sorts, but I'm also a musician. I really love following my favorite actors and shows on television and in movies. And I'm really fascinated by how different they sound--especially when they're using an accent.

Being Midwestern, I am used to the accent of (dating myself here) Walter Cronkite. But I've been following BBC shows long enough that I can watch Sherlock and Black Adder without a problem. And I noticed something first in 2004, when I started watching House MD.

Here's the Hugh Laurie I know:
By the way, that's Robbie Coltrain (Hagrid) and Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean/Johnny English) with him.

Here's Hugh Laurie as House:
Now, his American accent is perfect. No British inflections or British pronunciations (like issue, ISH-u vs. ISS-u).

CAVEAT: Do not get me wrong--I adore House MD and am excited to see Dr. Strange in November, and urge everyone to go watch these astounding actors!!

But the range of Laurie's voice in House is maybe three notes, as opposed to the full range in his native British accent. His House voice sounds very flat and limited to me. You can hear, as the seasons went on and he lived for a while in the US, the range increases. Listen. When he has a wider range of expression, you'll note his hair is grayer.

So here's Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch speaking their native tongue:


Have you heard Dr. Strange? While this movie will be AWESOME and I'll be buying a ticket and waiting in line, his accent reminds me strangely of Hugh Laurie's early House--the range isn't there. It's a tessitura of three notes.

But Martin Freeman--oh!! In Captain America: Civil War, he sounds like Martin Freeman, just with an American accent. He has the FULL range of his voice. I couldn't find a clip of Everett K. Ross, but here's another.

And just for fun, this one:

So on this Independence Day in the United States and July Fourth in the rest of the world, here's a little Sousa to start (or wind up) your day! (Be kind, I'd just picked up the piccolo for the first time in several years.)