I've been wanting to promote some friends with new books and blogs out for a while now...so long of a while that I'm not sure I can classify them as new! Two of these friends are from All My Writers, the entertainment website where I write columns on General Hospital, Glee, and currently, trying out the slate of Fall TV show premieres.

Let's start with Katrina Rasbold, webmistress of All My Writers and writer of many new books she's published to Amazon this summer. One of them is a guide to the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend featuring photography by me, but I'll post a separate entry promoting that. The rest of Katrina's books range from instructions on making candles with a spiritual intent--

--to discussing the principles of Energy Magic for those of you attracted to that practice--

--to a memoir about her life growing up in Kentucky that's on my must-read list.

She's adding Arthurian romance to her collection soon. I've read Katrina's blog posts for about a decade, and her style of writing is always entertaining and full of a woman who's determined to live life to its fullest, whatever that may mean at that time. You can buy all of her work here.

Carolyn Ridder Aspenson is another writer from All My Writers, and I've read her scathing, hilarious commentary on soap operas for years as well. Carolyn jumped into the waters of chick lit last year by publishing _Unfinished Business: An Angela Panther Nove_l about a woman who sees her mother's ghost and then can't stop seeing ghosts everywhere.

Carolyn's been in a whirlwind of writing since that publication, and she has a Chrismas novella also available at Amazon called Santa's Gift and a diet guide, which anyone who's ever known Carolyn can vouch for -- the woman knows her fitness.

Additionally, Carolyn is participating in _Merry Chick Lit: Celebrating the Season with Six Sassy Short_s, which is a collection of holiday-themed novellas that will beneft Rocking the Road for a Cure, a breast cancer charity this holiday season.

You can contact Carolyn directly at craspen at comcast dot net to pre-order that treat. The rest of Carolyn's work is available for purchase here.

Finally, it's time for me to brag about Samantha Rosasco and her new blogs. Sam is one of my best college friends, and I've lived her with her for a year and a summer, spent a year living next door to her, and spent a year practically living with her when she shared an apartment in Santa Cruz with another of my best college friends. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that Sam is one of the most talented cooks, crafters, and exercisers I know.  She now has a separate blog for all three areas of interest, and I'm impressed with what I've read! She describes her craft blog, Clearing Out My Craft Closet, thusly:

Every crafter has a box, cabinet, or closet filled with the dreaded unfinished objects, UFOs, projects that you meant to get to, might have started, but just never quite finished.  In an attempt to complete my projects, I've started this blog to get me over the hump and try to finish all those pesky projects that keep hanging around the house or finally start projects that I intended to make.

Samantha Experiments With Food is

A tasty experiment. Modify, create or replicate recipes to enjoy.  As with all experiments, good notes help to make sure the results are repeatable in the future and in turn will help to fine tune the flavorful results.

And 30 Days to Improve is an exercise and fitness blog about

Taking action to improve 30 days at a time.  I am just one woman trying to improve myself 30 days at a time.

And because I can't do anything without including a picture, here I am with Sam and my friend Devon at Capitola Beach a few years back.

Whew! That was a lot of bragging! I can't complain about having such amazing friends to brag about. Before you ask, yes, I hope to do bragging posts to promote my speculative fiction author friends as well, but they are publishing so much so often, I'm not sure when I'll get to it! But don't hesitate to send me info on your books, and I'll be happy to send a tweet out at the very least.