Book Bundles! Get Your Books!

The End is Nigh

Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic Giveaway

Short Stories, Novellas, Novels And Samples. Brought To You By Craig A. McDonough, Author Of  “Toward The Brink” Series And Instafreebie.

Featuring Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams – Teenager MC takes on the mighty powers of the government but is sidetracked by challenges of the training  academy, the new boy, and her secrets.


Coming Soon! Historical Fiction bundle August 10th to August 20th

We have assembled a listing of free novellas, novels, and book previews covering the Historical Fiction genre. Click on the images to download the book from InstaFreebie. Happy Reading!

Happy 2 years Daddy’s Donuts!

Happy 2 year birthday to Daddy’s Donuts – our local Kenmore donut shop for fresh cake mini-donuts!

See my review of Daddy’s Donuts here.

Here are some photos of their party and the donut eating contest. I ate 9 mini-donuts (the same size they serve in a regular order) in less than 1 minute to beat out the competition.

 

Seattle Specific Saturdays: Local Fitness Club Review – Koko Fitness

Pros:

As a newbie to weight lifting and those infernal machines where you change the weight and hook up different attachments, having the workout planned out in advance for me was wonderful and made me a lot less nervous to step into the gym.

The workouts are timed.

The workouts can be personalized depending on what you are looking to get out of your workout.

Every time I went I didn’t feel crowded.

There is a helpful employee there during staffed hours.

Easy parking

Central Woodinville location

You can try this gym out

The equipment is new and clean and the building is clean as well.

Data is readily available for all your workout sessions – you get a historical view of what you’ve accomplished!

For example – look at what I did during my trial:

Cons:

The machines are still made for regular sized adults (I’m 5’2″)

The beginner sessions were not challenging for me

The timeout on the touchscreens kept getting in my way

It took the entire first session to understand how to track my progress with the technology

If you go out of turn/out of step, you’ve lost your workout

The price of membership

You’re still mostly working out alone (I like the group mentality)

Annual Book Party at Neverending Bookshop Aftermath!

What a fun party!

I had all my books, donuts, a coloring station, and new special donut soaps at my party! Thanks to Dreamy Suds for specially making those beautiful donut soaps! Check out photos from the event below. Remember my event from last year? Did you miss out this year? Come next year when all my donuts books will be available or see me at any upcoming event.

Photo taken by fellow author Stephanie Larkin

Photo taken with fellow author Stephanie Larkin

Debuting my new coloring books – I still have some adjustments to make on them

Thanks, Donna for giving me my cool blow up donut!

Donuts from Countryside – not the greatest donuts I’ve ever had

My lovely standup sign that Paul made for me

My entire setup

 

All About the Donuts: Local Donut Shop Review – Factory Donuts – Kirkland, WA

Factory Donuts

Kirkland, WA

12505 NE 144th St, Kirkland, WA 98034

(425) 821-6140

 

Review criteria:

Most popular donut at the shop: Maple Bar
Signature shop donut: Croissant Sandwich/Large Glazed Ring
Most popular US donut: glazed
2nd most popular US donut: Boston crème
Donut Hole: Yes

What I tried:

cruller, glazed knot, old fashioned, maple, Boston, Donut Holes

$14.50/mixed dozen

I’ve been to this donut shop before – during NaNo, but went back for a dozen for this review!

What to expect:

Maple – sweet but one of the best subtle maple flavors, a clean and fresh glazed, dry cruller, the plain cake donut – oily exterior and classic interior. This shop has almost every classic donut you could want and a few more variations. Everything I’ve had was fresh and delicious.

 

My favorite:

Anything glazed! Even their maple ‘glaze’ is not too bad.

Wine & Words – A Fun Time

     

It was such fun to read from my new book “Seize the Donut” for the first time and to walk the audience through instructions on using chopsticks! Steven made me laugh with his short piece from the prompt of a funeral and jealousy. The cinnamon bun and stratta, as always, were very delicious.

Maple Valley Days 4th Year Follow-up

 

Next year I resolve to take more pictures! I absolutely love Maple Valley Days. I spent 32 hours volunteering in the park for the festival and quite a few prior helping to organize. Even though I spent about 10 minutes total inside our booth (and was able to help sell a book while I was in the tent whoop whoop), as a volunteer I interact with almost every other vendor (over 100) and always talk up the local writer’s booth!

Here are all the pictures I took.

I was thrilled to see all the corgis (not pictured). At least 3 tri-colored corgis and one 16-week old puppy corgi that was such a cuddler!

All About the Donuts: Local Donut Shop Review – Donut Pub in NYC

Donut Pub

New York, New York

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203 W 14th St (At 7th Ave) New York, NY 10011

(212) 929-0126

donutpub.com

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What I tried:

Canoli cronut & french krueller & 3 glazed donut holes

~$

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What to expect:

They are open 24/7 so usually they have donuts all day. They carried all their advertised flavors. It was a larger space with old dining style seating (plenty of it too). the french krueller was heavy and oily and after one bite I was done. The donut holes were standard and delicious.

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My favorite:

Croissant donut! They use FUDGE on the cannoli croissant donut and it was the best donut I’ve ever had.

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