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5 stars for Alibi

This is not your normal Nicole Edwards book. It is intense and consuming since you will experience a plethora of emotions ranging from shock and sadness, to joy and hope for the future.

~Jaye
BookBub Reviewer

This book is actually amazing, worth more than 5 stars!! I ended up loving it so much.

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​~Christine L.
​ŷ±¦ÓéÀ� Reviewer

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This book will tear you apart and then wonderfully put you back together again.




~Tracy A.
BookBub Reviewer

This was an amazing and heartbreaking book all at the same time. Alibi definitely deserves more than 5 stars and I wish I could give it 25 stars.

~Cat's Guilty Pleasure Blog
​ŷ±¦ÓéÀ� Reviewer

​Remember when I said I was queen of procrastination?

Well, not to brag or anything, but that's still true. I can put things off like the best of them.Ìý

Yes, I accept that I am flawed, and recently I've started tracking that behavior, trying to get a better grip on myself.

On the other hand, when I set my mind to something, I lock on like a pit bull. Unfortunately, that desire doesn't always kick in when I need it to.Ìý As an author, it is crucial that you put into it what you want to get out of it. Not only with your writing, but also with everything else that goes along with your book. That includes promoting, advertising, and interacting with the readers.Ìý

I will admit, I'm quick to retreat into my writing world when things overwhelm me. It's so much easier to tell myself that I have to write the book or it doesn't matter. While that's true, I also have to do my part in celebrating the new releases and enjoying the relationship I have with my readers. Sometimes it's difficult, sure. Especially when a book releases months after I've finished it. Mentally, I've already moved on to another story, another set of characters. By the time the book comes out, I've lost much of the enthusiasm I had while writing it. Which is where the readers come in. When they get excited about a book, I do, too. That makes it easier to pay attention to the important things, to spread the word, to ensure people know about it.
​Part of my getting organized plan - or what I think of as turning chaos to order - has been inserting myself back into the day to day. I've vowed to play an active part in my Now the goal is to refuse to retreat when I should be rushing forward.Ìý

Fans of Travis Walker will never be the same. Travis Walker has been battling dark urges since the day Juliet Prince kidnapped his six-year-old daughter four months ago. Although Kate was returned safely, the woman responsible vanished.

When their attempts to find her keep coming up empty, Travis let his need for retribution consume him and it nearly cost him his relationship with his family. Thanks to help from Gage and Kylie, Travis came back from the brink and passed the case back where it belonged: with the Off the Books Task Force.

What they don’t know is that, despite their best efforts and repeated failures to find her, Juliet doesn’t intend to run forever. She’s coming back to Coyote Ridge to settle the score once and for all. And this time, she intends to bring Travis to his knees by taking what means the most to him.
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When the unthinkable happens, Travis’s need for vengeance is renewed and he will move heaven and earth to avenge his family.

WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO GET ORGANIZED?
FOR ME, LONG BEFORE NOW.
When it comes to the house, I'm on top of it. Between me and the hubs, we clean every week, change sheets every Sunday, wash clothes on Monday and Thursday, and we mow the yard every weekend. I even have a Shark Robot that vacuums my floors several days a week. So like I said, the house is covered. No, the type of organization I'm referring to here has nothing to do with my home and everything to do with my business, because that is where I tend to fail. Admittedly, I was used to having assistance when it comes to various aspects of my business. When I started out, I employed my husband and my two oldest kids to do a variety of tasks. However, I've been forced to scale back over the years, and now I'm a one-woman show when it comes to the business. If writing was the only thing I had to worry about, that would be one thing. While a well-written book is the key to success, there is a lot that goes into it behind the scenes, a lot of steps necessary to sustaining that success.Ìý
I think my biggest obstacle is that when I am in writing mode, I want to write. When I'm not, I'll come up with a million other things to do that don't involve getting my business organized. So I've spent quite a bit of attention to that this year and I'm well on the way to establishing routines and setting up processes to automate and make things easier, if only by small degrees.

I thought I would share a couple of tools I've recently started using that are proving to be crucial to streamlining.

Note: I do not have an affiliation with any of these applications, I simply find them useful.Ìý
​T´Ç»å´Ç¾±²õ³Ù This is an online to-do list that is so much more than merely a list of action items. It allows you to group your tasks into projects, add reminders, deadlines, even tags. The image to the left is a sample of my project list. As you can see, I use this each and every day for both personal and business action items. I love the fact that I can use it on my Mac, my iPhone, and my iPad.
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This app is my most recent find and let me tell you, I'm not sure what I ever did before it. This is an automation tool that allows you to automate tasks through a wide variety of other tools, including Google Sheets/Forms, Excel, and yes, Todoist, Mailchimp, and Powr. I am still learning my way through, but it's relatively simple to create your own automations and has significantly reduced the time it takes me to do things.
I'm always looking for suggestions, so tell me which apps help make your life easier? 

This was my 9th year participating in the May Mental Health Awareness book fundraiser, which raises money for the Keith Milano Memorial Fund benefiting the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.Ìý

This has been a particularly rough year for me from a mental health standpoint. In fact, the last few years have been difficult, but I continue to put one foot in front of the other and I seek help when necessary, relying on my family and friends to help me through.Ìý

​I wish I could say it's easy to deal with depression, but the bottom line is it isn't. That doesn't mean we are alone in this. And that is one of the reasons I believe in causes such as this one.Ìý  And while there are organizers who put it together and authors who contribute, I am eternally grateful to each one of you. Without you purchasing one or more of the books by the authors who participated, this wouldn't be possible. It is because of you that we can continue to bring awareness and to eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness. So THANK YOU! I am also grateful for the Milano family.Ìý

Thanks to Keith's family's courage and strength, so many of us have learned his story. And because of their efforts, we are reminded often that there are options, there is help. Mental illness is still misunderstood by so many, but there are people who understand the darkness is real, and that it needs attention.

​If you haven't read Keith Milano's story, I hope you'll take a moment to do so. My 2021 donation to the
Keith Milano Memorial Fund is: $2,500 If you are in crisis call 800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741741

Yep, it's the one thing most writer's fear. The worst thing about it is that there is no fix. There is no way to reinflate that creative bubble once it has burst. At least not on command. Not that I've found, anyway. At some point, if we're lucky, it comes back and we're once again doing what we love to do.Ìý
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​If I'm being honest, I've been fighting it for oh, I don't know, about six, maybe seven months now. Don't get me wrong, I've written words. Lots and lots of words. Really crappy words. Words that will not see the light of day in their current condition.Ìý

For the past few months, I've been forcing myself through, trying to write only to come up with more crap than I know what to do with.

​And then two days ago, I decided I would stop forcing it. I would stop trying to make it happen and look at the external factors that might be impacting this block. For me, there's always one thing that impacts me significantly. Depression. It's not something I like to dwell on. I have been diagnosed for depression and I see a doctor, talk to him openly about it, and get treatment for it. So am I depressed? Unfortunately, yes. I've been suffering beneath the dark cloud for quite a few months now and I'm hoping it'll lift soon. For me, being aware of it is extremely important because I know it will get better, it just takes a little time.

Another thing I have to look at is what I'm reading. I have been on a J.D. Robb kick for months now. I am absolutely head-over-heels in love with the In Death series. Eve Dallas and Roarke are what I look forward to day in and day out. Problem is, my writing style does not emulate J.D. Robb's (or Nora Roberts for that matter) and I don't want it to. And for me, that causes issues. When I get so wrapped up in an author who (a) doesn't write similar to my style and/or genre or (b) intimidates me on some level because I admire them so much or (c) distracts me from my own goal, I end up unable to focus on what I need to focus on. I'm not saying reading their work is a bad thing, it just is. So that means I am now moving in a different direction for my daily reading for a bit. But I promise, I will return to Eve and Roarke in the future. Moscato and Hennessy: happily providing another obstacle while changing the sheets. One very important thing that affects my writing ability: DISTRACTIONS.

​Yep and that's a picture of two very wonderful distractions in my life. For 6 weeks now, I've been 100% committed to puppy training, which means my brain is not allowed to wander beyond that cute little fuzzball for longer than a minute or two. If it does ... well, he's a puppy, so you can only imagine the craziness that ensues when he's left to his own devices.Ìý The good news about it all is that I've got an amazing husband who helps as much as he can. With his help, I've been focusing a little more these past few days on writing. I've even felt that eager anticipation that always shows up when I've hit on a good story. So for all of you wonderful people who've asked me if there will be more of this or that, the answer is probably yes.

As for when ... unfortunately the only answer I have at the moment is ---> 

​But I promise to do my very, very best and I thank you so much for your patience.

​Those two words don't usually go together. Yet, it happened here. And like they say, everything's bigger in Texas. This was no exception.

​So many lost power, most lost water, and even the cell service was spotty.Ìý

Thankfully, we didn't lose power here at the Edwards' house, but most of my neighbors did. As well as family.Ìý My oldest son was without electricity on and off, and water briefly. I think my daughter endured the worst of it. She was without power and water for several days, even when much of the area was back up and running.Ìý My in-laws also endured no power and no water for a day or so.Ìýâ€�
Here at the house, we did lose water for a few days. That was awful. Luckily we had just stocked up on bottled water, so it wasn't the drinking that was the issue. It was the showering and flushing that was a major problem for us.Ìý

Fortunately, we could shovel snow and store it in tubs so we could melt it down and pour it in the toilet tanks.

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I spent two hours one morning melting snow on the gas stove. And wouldn't you know it, one big tub of snow converts to about 2 inches of water. :) Took a while, but we got enough to take care of the whole house, just in case.Ìý 
Thankfully, the weather portion only lasted a few days. Now we're recovering, attempting to get groceries since we hadn't gone to the store before the storm. Unfortunately most of the stores near us don't have anything because the delivery trucks didn't make it for those few days. I figure it'll get back to normal soon.Ìý

Then again, that's what I said when the pandemic hit.
And here's one to leave you with. Heineken blending in.Ìý

My husband will tell you—Wait.ÌýAnd my kids.

​Yes, my husband andâ€� my kids (because they all like to give me shit) will tell you that I might have a small obsession with rearranging things. And by things, I'm talking about furniture. And sometimes it's not just the furniture I rearrange, but the room. The whole °ù´Ç´Ç³¾.ÌýAnd the furniture.Ìý

*³§¾±²µ³ó*â€� Fine. I have a problem with rearranging things. Even I can see it. But that's not the point of this post, I promise.Ìý

What I'm trying to say is that I put things off, and I was thinking about that recently. About why I do it. Which got me to thinking about what my excuses usually are: namely, rearranging furniture/rooms. I honestly didn't think I did it often, but I think it's become a ... dare I say ... it's become a thing .Ìý I'd like to say I wasn't always like this, but I'm pretty sure that'd be a lie. I've been coming up with excuses why I can't do one thing or another for a long time. It mostly has to do with work. And since I am my own boss, there's only one person who's getting screwed in this whole deal: ME.Ìý

So why did I mention rearranging furniture? Well, because that seems to be my main excuse.

I need a change of scenery. As soon as I rearrange (insert name of room here), I'll be able to focus so that I can (fill in the blank).

I can't even tell you how many times I've said that in the past ... oh, hell ... my entire adult life, maybe? 
Now, some of you are likely thinking that rearranging furniture isn't necessarily a bad thing. You're right. It's not. HOWEVER, rearranging furniture two to three times a month... That's probably a bit excessive, right? And not just moving a chair or a table. I'm talking about upending the whole damn room, shifting furniture, replacing it, turning it around. It's the very reason my husband will no longer mount anything permanently on the wall. Want a TV, Nicole? It has to go on a stand. So it can be movedâ€�.Ìý
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In my defense, there are several rooms in my house that I do not touch. The living room, dining room, my bedroom... None of those have been rearranged in the almost four years we've been in this house. And I'm fine with that. But my office, the craft room, the media room... those are mine and I will do with them as I please. So I do. And they can't bitch too much because the only time I ask for help is usually when I no longer want the furniture anymore. (Yes, my husband will tell you that's a thing, too, but whatever.)

*Sigh*
​There is one more thing I use as a major excuse for not getting anything else done. Can you guess?

Yep. Writing.Ìý

I use that one a lot. Hell, I even use that one to put off rearranging furniture. Ha! But I also use writing and rearranging as my excuses to not handle the more important things like promoting my books, interacting with my readers, posting to my blogs, sending out newsletters. (You get where I'm going with this.) I mean, this blog post was due 3 days ago and I've spent the past 2 days reorganizing my craft room. What does that tell you?
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Yep. That's me.
​The queen of procrastination. One of these days, I'll have to get me a crown. Maybe tomorrow.Ìý Have a good one!
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I've made some resolutions for the new year and one of them is to be more active with my readers, to get information out in a timely manner, and to give 150% to my writing. I hope you're as eager to get the information as I am to give it. Any one of these things is worth signing up for, or feel free to sign up for all. I promise to keep each one unique and interesting. Important updates If you haven't signed up for my newsletter and you want to get notifications regarding preorders, new releases, giveaways, sales, etc, then you'll want to sign up. I promise not to spam your email, just get you the most important updates. The Hot Sheet is coming back!! Some of you might remember a couple of years ago I produced a weekly hot sheet that gave a summary of what I'd done and what I had in the works. Well, I'm happy to say, I'm bringing it back starting February 2021, so be sure to sign up!  Nicole's Blog Going forward, my blog will be used for writer ramblings, which I am known to do from time to time. I will keep these separate from the newsletter updates or what I post in the Hot Sheet so that I don't duplicate in your inbox.Ìý Nicole Nation I created Nicole Nation here on my website to provide exclusive content to my readers. It's free and gets you access to exclusive content you won't find anywhere else! First Look notificationsSneak PeeksA Day in the Life character storiesExclusive GiveawaysCards from NicoleJoin Nicole's Review Team Nicole Nation on Facebook Join my reader group to interact with other readers, ask me questions, play fun weekly games, celebrate during release week, and enter exclusive giveaways! Nicole on Instagram Basically, Instagram is where I post pictures of my dogs, so if you want to see epic cuteness, you should follow me.