I have always thought boxing was stupid. Why would to adults want to strip down to their gym shorts and start punching each other in the face? I mean the whole point is to beat your opponent until they can’t get up. How ridiculous is that? Particularly if you know you might be the one sprawled out on the floor?
And then one day, when I was in a really bad mood I went to my gym and told one of the trainers that I wanted to hit something. He handed me a couple of training gloves and said, “Let’s do it.” He showed me some basic boxing moves and then he stood in front of me, pointed to the left and right side of his stomach. “Okay,” he said, “punch me here and here.”
“Like, really punch you?” He nodded so I started punching him, lightly. Apparently that wasn’t what he wanted. “You can start light,” he said begrudgingly, “but then with each punch increase the impact. I’ll tell you when it gets too hard.”
Now this guy is seriously buffed and I know he has a crazy tolerance for pain but still! Then again I was in a bad mood so I started hitting with gusto. Then we faced off and I wasn’t just hitting I was dodging his swings. I punched him in the head several times. The first time I did it I felt bad and was about to walk away when he smacked me on the back of my head. So I figured fuck him and I punched him in the head again. He got me on the ear. That hurt and the ringing didn’t stop for well over an hour but he didn’t let me stop because if you can’t fight while you’re hurt you can’t fight period. I danced, I jabbed and got to use my right hook…it was, you know, BOXING.
And here’s the weird part…I LOVED IT! It was the most empowering feeling I’ve ever had in my life! Just knowing that I could hold my own in a fight…that I could keep going even when hurt…it was awesome. I’m not going to get in a ring and invite some testosterone-filled-killing-machine to try to knock me out but I do get why other people might choose to do that. In a very weird way, it’s fun.
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Attention All Chocolate Lovers:
I am exhausted. I have never before been this hands on for the development and implementation of a marketing and publicity campaign. It’s a challenge but it’s also incredibly fun. The contest is totally coming together.
But here’s the best part….
CocoaBella Chocolates (Sophie’s “absolute favorite chocoletier.”) is the primary sponsor for the Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss Contest and in addition to giving me gift certificates for people to win they are also hosting a Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss event in their San Francisco Union Street store (yes, there will be chocolate samples). And…..
THEY’RE MAKING A SOPHIE KATZ LIMITED EDITION BOX OF CHOCOLATES!!! This afternoon I gave them a list of Sophie’s favorite chocolates and they will be offered online and in stores by the end of this month! And I told them to put a pink bow on it because I thought Sophie would like that.
If you haven’t had CocoaBella chocolates before you REALLY need this box. I still remember the first time I stepped into CocoaBella. Counter after counter of chocolates from all over the world in all shapes and colors, many of which could pass for individual pieces of art. And then you taste one and that’s when you realize that the chocolate isn’t just art, it’s a masterpiece.
Anyway, I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it’s available. In the interim those of you who live in or around Terre Haute Indiana should listen to 100.7 Mix-FM on Tuesday. I’ll be doing an interview with the fabulous Jay Michaels. They’ll also be giving away an autographed copy of Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss to 10 listener call-ins. It should be fun!
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
But here’s the best part….
CocoaBella Chocolates (Sophie’s “absolute favorite chocoletier.”) is the primary sponsor for the Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss Contest and in addition to giving me gift certificates for people to win they are also hosting a Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss event in their San Francisco Union Street store (yes, there will be chocolate samples). And…..
THEY’RE MAKING A SOPHIE KATZ LIMITED EDITION BOX OF CHOCOLATES!!! This afternoon I gave them a list of Sophie’s favorite chocolates and they will be offered online and in stores by the end of this month! And I told them to put a pink bow on it because I thought Sophie would like that.
If you haven’t had CocoaBella chocolates before you REALLY need this box. I still remember the first time I stepped into CocoaBella. Counter after counter of chocolates from all over the world in all shapes and colors, many of which could pass for individual pieces of art. And then you taste one and that’s when you realize that the chocolate isn’t just art, it’s a masterpiece.
Anyway, I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as it’s available. In the interim those of you who live in or around Terre Haute Indiana should listen to 100.7 Mix-FM on Tuesday. I’ll be doing an interview with the fabulous Jay Michaels. They’ll also be giving away an autographed copy of Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss to 10 listener call-ins. It should be fun!
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sophie Has Arrived!
Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon have all started shipping Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss to customers! Many independent book stores have ordered it as well so that makes it official folks, it’s HERE!!!! And for those who have been looking for a new copy of Sex, Murder And A Double Latte you can order it on eharlequin.com so the whole series is now at your disposal.
I can’t decide if I should be nervous or excited….probably both.
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
I can’t decide if I should be nervous or excited….probably both.
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
My Contest Is In Good Shape...Unlike My Car
On Friday I decided to treat my son and me to a little road trip for Mother’s day weekend. On Saturday my car decided that it didn’t like working on weekends and went on strike thus automatically extending what was supposed to be a two-day getaway into a much longer one. The local mechanic explained that there was a faulty wire going to my battery and it was sending all sorts of weird signals to my car’s computer system which is sort of like my car’s brain. My car’s brain didn’t know what to do with this nonsensical and random information and started to act out. “And now,” the mechanic added, “it’s going into self-preservation mode.”
“Self preservation mode?” I asked. “Like HAL the computer in 2001?” My Saab isn’t a big talker. The only noises it ever makes is are friendly little chirps to let me know that I’ve successfully unlocked or locked the doors with the little button on my key. But now I had visions of putting that key into the ignition in a desperate attempt to return home only to have my Saab say “What are you doing, Kyra? My mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."
The mechanic assured me that it didn’t really work like that and promised that my car would be just fine…as soon as he got the part to fix it and that would take three days. So now it’s Wednesday, I’m still in the same little beach town 300-plus miles from home and the mechanic DID get the part. Unfortunately it turned out to be the wrong part so now I’m being told I can’t leave until tomorrow.
I’ve had to reschedule all sorts of things that I really didn’t want to reschedule. On the bright side I have people here so I’m not without a place to stay. I’m a walk to the beach and today after teaching my son his lessons I took him on a seaside walk where he was able to climb along the rocks and examine sea stars up close and admire otters playing together in the harbor. Old men with long white hair hauled their instruments (a bass guitar, bongos and so forth) to the beach and sang old folk songs for the little surfer children to hear. It was really quite sweet and if I wasn’t so stressed about my rabidly growing to-do-list awaiting me back home I’d be fine with the whole thing.
Ah well, sometimes you just have to roll with it. And I can’t say all the news I’ve been getting lately is bad. For instance my Contest is REALLY shaping up!
The Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss contest in which you can win a trip to San Francisco now has a whole host of sponsors! The winner of the SF trip will now get to dine at the world renowned Restaurant Lulu! Lulu has some of the best Mediterranean food in the country (their gourmet food products can be found at Sur La Table) and is the restaurant that Sophie and Marcus lunched at in Sex, Murder And A Double Latte. Then they’ll have a lovely dinner at the famous Max’s restaurant where Sophie and Mary Ann had dinner in Obsession Deceit And Really Dark Chocolate. Max’s has a lot of diet friendly food but if you have a will-power-problem like me you’ll be in trouble because their desserts are insane! The Roxie Theater (the 100 year old theater that is home to San Francisco’s International Film Festival as well as the site of Sophie and Anatoly’s second date) is also throwing in free tickets for the winner.
Last but Definitely not least Cocoa Bella, Sophie’s absolute FAVORITE chocolatier (to quote Sophie) will be the primary sponsor. If you win the trip to San Francisco they’ll treat you to chocolates. If you DON’T win the trip to San Francisco but have more entries than anybody else you’ll win a two hundred dollar gift card that you can use on their website.
And if you don’t win ANY of that you can still get the special Sophie Katz box of chocolate! Yes, that’s right, this summer Cocoa Bella will be releasing a specialty box of chocolates containing all of Sophie’s favorite treats (think coffee and liqueur). You KNOW I’ll be telling you more about that when it’s released! In the meantime click here to find out how you can enter the contest!
So to summarize: I’m being held captive in a cute little beach town where I have nothing to do but hang out at the beach and call awesome San Francisco businesses and convince them to support Sophie and her readers. As crises go this one isn’t so bad.
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
“Self preservation mode?” I asked. “Like HAL the computer in 2001?” My Saab isn’t a big talker. The only noises it ever makes is are friendly little chirps to let me know that I’ve successfully unlocked or locked the doors with the little button on my key. But now I had visions of putting that key into the ignition in a desperate attempt to return home only to have my Saab say “What are you doing, Kyra? My mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."
The mechanic assured me that it didn’t really work like that and promised that my car would be just fine…as soon as he got the part to fix it and that would take three days. So now it’s Wednesday, I’m still in the same little beach town 300-plus miles from home and the mechanic DID get the part. Unfortunately it turned out to be the wrong part so now I’m being told I can’t leave until tomorrow.
I’ve had to reschedule all sorts of things that I really didn’t want to reschedule. On the bright side I have people here so I’m not without a place to stay. I’m a walk to the beach and today after teaching my son his lessons I took him on a seaside walk where he was able to climb along the rocks and examine sea stars up close and admire otters playing together in the harbor. Old men with long white hair hauled their instruments (a bass guitar, bongos and so forth) to the beach and sang old folk songs for the little surfer children to hear. It was really quite sweet and if I wasn’t so stressed about my rabidly growing to-do-list awaiting me back home I’d be fine with the whole thing.
Ah well, sometimes you just have to roll with it. And I can’t say all the news I’ve been getting lately is bad. For instance my Contest is REALLY shaping up!
The Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss contest in which you can win a trip to San Francisco now has a whole host of sponsors! The winner of the SF trip will now get to dine at the world renowned Restaurant Lulu! Lulu has some of the best Mediterranean food in the country (their gourmet food products can be found at Sur La Table) and is the restaurant that Sophie and Marcus lunched at in Sex, Murder And A Double Latte. Then they’ll have a lovely dinner at the famous Max’s restaurant where Sophie and Mary Ann had dinner in Obsession Deceit And Really Dark Chocolate. Max’s has a lot of diet friendly food but if you have a will-power-problem like me you’ll be in trouble because their desserts are insane! The Roxie Theater (the 100 year old theater that is home to San Francisco’s International Film Festival as well as the site of Sophie and Anatoly’s second date) is also throwing in free tickets for the winner.
Last but Definitely not least Cocoa Bella, Sophie’s absolute FAVORITE chocolatier (to quote Sophie) will be the primary sponsor. If you win the trip to San Francisco they’ll treat you to chocolates. If you DON’T win the trip to San Francisco but have more entries than anybody else you’ll win a two hundred dollar gift card that you can use on their website.
And if you don’t win ANY of that you can still get the special Sophie Katz box of chocolate! Yes, that’s right, this summer Cocoa Bella will be releasing a specialty box of chocolates containing all of Sophie’s favorite treats (think coffee and liqueur). You KNOW I’ll be telling you more about that when it’s released! In the meantime click here to find out how you can enter the contest!
So to summarize: I’m being held captive in a cute little beach town where I have nothing to do but hang out at the beach and call awesome San Francisco businesses and convince them to support Sophie and her readers. As crises go this one isn’t so bad.
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com today!
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Thank You
The reviews are coming in for Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss and they continue to be fabulous!
Publisher’s Weekly says Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss has:
Humor, romance and an appealing, spirited protagonist
The Mystery Gazette calls the book:
…A terrific whodunit
And The Romantic Times gave it FOUR STARS!!!
It all makes me happy. But you know what makes me even happier? The emails I’ve been getting in the last few weeks.
Gabra Zackman, the wonderful actress who reads the Sophie books for the audio editions wrote me for the first time. She just finished recording Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss and, to use her words:
“It gave me such great laughs, and was such a joy to read... to be honest, it didn't feel much like work!”
This is a huge compliment coming from the woman who helped make Sex, Murder And A Double Latte one of iTunes ten bestselling “romance” audio books in the US, Belgium and Finland!
Then a couple of you have written to tell me that not only do you love my books but you have managed to get a huge number of your coworkers addicted to Sophie as well!
And then there was that incredible email I got from a woman who has always “hated to read with a passion.” But now “Sex, Murder, and Double Latte has changed all of that.” She went on to buy Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights and is taking a second look at books written by other authors as well. She went on to say:
…thank you for helping me fall in love with books.
Believe it or not she is not the first reader who has contacted me to let me know that my books have helped her develop a brand new love of reading. I even get an occasional email from a mom who wants to thank me for getting her daughter into reading books. Those emails always make me want to pull up Word and pound out 50 more novels on the spot. The very idea that I can make that kind of difference in someone’s life is simply overwhelming.
But the emails that get to me the most are from the women who have read So Much For My Happy Ending. Yet another woman has written to tell me that So Much For My Happy Ending spoke to her. She had been in a highly abusive relationship with someone who suffered from a psychological disorder but now she’s free from all that. She says my book helped her put that relationship in perspective (and behind her). She went on to say that it helped her find the strength to stand on her own two feet and follow her dreams. Every time I get an email like that I am practically moved to tears. I didn’t write The Kite Runner or The Color Purple and I seriously doubt my novels have ever significantly raised anyone’s cultural awareness or taught readers about the harsh history of mankind. But I did help a number of women on a very personal level. I made a tangible difference in their lives.
If Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss doesn’t sell and I never get another book contract I will always have that. I will always have your emails. Emails from those of you who needed help walking away from abuse, emails from those who developed a love of reading while getting to know Sophie and emails from those of you who simply wanted to let me know that Sophie made you laugh. When I have a hard day and everything seems to be going wrong I go back and read your emails and all of a sudden things start looking sunny again.
So really for all your thanks it’s me who should be thanking you. YOU have changed MY life.
PS: Two seconds after I wrote this I checked my inbox and there was an email from a reader who read my book while waiting for her premature daughter to be released from the hospital. She just needed something to keep her mind off of things. Apparently it worked and she even read parts of my novel to her daughter as she lay in the incubator. Just another note from a reader that brought tears to my eyes.
In case I haven't made this clear before, I really love you guys : )
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com or IndieBound today!
Publisher’s Weekly says Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss has:
Humor, romance and an appealing, spirited protagonist
The Mystery Gazette calls the book:
…A terrific whodunit
And The Romantic Times gave it FOUR STARS!!!
It all makes me happy. But you know what makes me even happier? The emails I’ve been getting in the last few weeks.
Gabra Zackman, the wonderful actress who reads the Sophie books for the audio editions wrote me for the first time. She just finished recording Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss and, to use her words:
“It gave me such great laughs, and was such a joy to read... to be honest, it didn't feel much like work!”
This is a huge compliment coming from the woman who helped make Sex, Murder And A Double Latte one of iTunes ten bestselling “romance” audio books in the US, Belgium and Finland!
Then a couple of you have written to tell me that not only do you love my books but you have managed to get a huge number of your coworkers addicted to Sophie as well!
And then there was that incredible email I got from a woman who has always “hated to read with a passion.” But now “Sex, Murder, and Double Latte has changed all of that.” She went on to buy Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights and is taking a second look at books written by other authors as well. She went on to say:
…thank you for helping me fall in love with books.
Believe it or not she is not the first reader who has contacted me to let me know that my books have helped her develop a brand new love of reading. I even get an occasional email from a mom who wants to thank me for getting her daughter into reading books. Those emails always make me want to pull up Word and pound out 50 more novels on the spot. The very idea that I can make that kind of difference in someone’s life is simply overwhelming.
But the emails that get to me the most are from the women who have read So Much For My Happy Ending. Yet another woman has written to tell me that So Much For My Happy Ending spoke to her. She had been in a highly abusive relationship with someone who suffered from a psychological disorder but now she’s free from all that. She says my book helped her put that relationship in perspective (and behind her). She went on to say that it helped her find the strength to stand on her own two feet and follow her dreams. Every time I get an email like that I am practically moved to tears. I didn’t write The Kite Runner or The Color Purple and I seriously doubt my novels have ever significantly raised anyone’s cultural awareness or taught readers about the harsh history of mankind. But I did help a number of women on a very personal level. I made a tangible difference in their lives.
If Lust, Loathing And A Little Lip Gloss doesn’t sell and I never get another book contract I will always have that. I will always have your emails. Emails from those of you who needed help walking away from abuse, emails from those who developed a love of reading while getting to know Sophie and emails from those of you who simply wanted to let me know that Sophie made you laugh. When I have a hard day and everything seems to be going wrong I go back and read your emails and all of a sudden things start looking sunny again.
So really for all your thanks it’s me who should be thanking you. YOU have changed MY life.
PS: Two seconds after I wrote this I checked my inbox and there was an email from a reader who read my book while waiting for her premature daughter to be released from the hospital. She just needed something to keep her mind off of things. Apparently it worked and she even read parts of my novel to her daughter as she lay in the incubator. Just another note from a reader that brought tears to my eyes.
In case I haven't made this clear before, I really love you guys : )
Kyra Davis
Bestselling Author of:
The Sophie Katz Murder Mystery Series,
and
SO MUCH FOR MY HAPPY ENDING
Pre-order LUST, LOATHING AND A LITTLE LIP GLOSS on Amazon or Barnesandnoble.com or IndieBound today!
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