Vibes

I feel like either something big or something awful will happen fairly soon. You know that anxious wobble in the tummy, like adrenalin, and you can't say if it's dread or excitement? That's what I've got.

Subs are out there in the ether, with another soon to follow (I hope), with a fair ton of new releases for me this month and later... Plenty of shots for good news or bad. I want to start moving on up. I am itching to get on with a new contract, and to start making my mark. I've had my rookie year, almost. Now, it feels like time to piddle or get off the pot.

Will it be my shot soon, or will there be more wandering in the wilderness? Hard to say, but I feel like a change is in the air...

Anyway, here's one of my all-time favourite songs, and somewhat related (emotion-wise), as a little thanks for visiting:

The NEW WIP: Dark Paranormal Heat

On Sept 15, after a little break from fresh writing to edit and submit the New Years Eve story, Bubbly, I started my new work - a paranormal/shifter sensual-romance. So far so good, though this is brand new territory for me. It's a lot darker than my usual work, which was exactly the plan. I kind of want to delve into untapped corners of my imagination. A few hints - it's not a werewolf, and it's not a he-shifter. :)

Untitled Dark-Paranormal Erotica/Sensual Novella
An ex-boxer finds more than he bargains for on all fronts when he gets in to bed with the mob - and a mysterious exotic dancer who refuses to let him get too close.
This will be a novella at 20,000 words.
Finish goal: October 15, 2011.

The finish goal for the rough draft is early October, and I've very tentatively entitled the working draft Topaz. I have two publishers in mind for submission when it's done and edited, but this isn't contracted to anyone, yet. I hope it turns out well, and you all enjoy it.

(I may be seeking shifter/dark-erotica/paranormal expert writers/readers who are willing to betaread it for me in a few weeks, around Oct 1st-ish, to make sure I'm hitting the mark.)

You can find more info on my recent, current and upcoming projects on my WIP list, here.
*

PS - Not saying anything for sure, but how do we all feel about 1st person?

PPS - Here's an interview I did that was posted yesterday, if you care to see it, and also a little one posted today.

Yessssss!

Tonight, I finished the rough draft of my New Years Eve story for Rebel Ink! I really hit this story hard this week, to finish it by the end of summer before I return to my teaching duties. I was under the misapprehension that my obligation was to submit it before Sept 15. Turns out, I had it wrong, and it's not due until Oct 15! Oh well, nothing wrong with a month early, I guess, and at least it's done in draft. Now, I'll have time to mull it over at leisure.

And, after I've smoothed this one down enough to send to a few readers, I can move on to the next story, between bouts of editing for RIP as we prepare the Halloween story (Like Magic), Thanksgiving story (Charity, for which I have seen some rough cover mock-ups already - YAY!) and this final one, Bubbly, for production.

I can't believe what a wild flurry of work it's been. But, there's no rest for the wicked (or, at least, very little), so I'm on to the next one starting Sept 16 (if I can resist the writing bug that long).

Have a great weekend, folks!

Nothing This Week

I don't have a sample or an excerpt this week. :(

This is in part due to just now being reunited with the files on my computer (yay, new monitor!) and having a splitting headache at the moment, which have both made it rather difficult to select a passage to share today.

However, if you wish to glance over all my past Excerpt Sunday posts from this blog, you can click HERE.

It's kind of funny to look over all those posts - all the unedited bits are in published form now, I think, except that NaNo novel, which is still in revisions.

Anyway, back to regularly scheduled programming soonish. It's coffee time!

A Preview of 2011

2010 was a pretty great year, with three shorts released and a full length excepted. The New Year brought a lot more work in other areas of my life, but writing is still in the works. So, what's up for me this year, writing-wise?

Holiday Shorts Series for Wicked Nights: Following up on my Christmas erotic romance, Good for the Goose, I hope to add four more sweet and spicy shorts to this collection, hitting Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving. My February one is in draft form now - a shy young man with unexpected romantic depths shares an unforgettable V'Day with the girl next door.

Fall 2010's Full Length: This contemporary romance, which was written in rough during NaNo, is the passionate, and at times awkward, story about a determined anti-romance single mom who unwillingly falls for an almost-too-goof-to-be-true single dad. Between her job and his teen daughter, the course of true love is not only not smooth but seems to lead right up the wall. (But, between you and me, I think they'll make it.) This manuscript is in editing right now, and will soon be ready for a beta reader. I have a publisher in mind, so I hope to submit it by spring. Your guess is as good as mine as far as release date, but I will certainly keep you posted.

Winter 2011's Full Length: This is a paranormal/contemporary romance - a school psychologist may have to come clean about her family's well-guarded secrets in order to help a young girl with a troubling stalker. One her stubborn and broken father doesn't even want to acknowledge. This book has been outlined and is in the process of a rough draft.

I also have a novella planned for Spring 2011, and full lengths for Summer 2011 and Fall 2011 (my next NaNo work!), but don't expect them released any time soon - except maybe the novella.

And, of course, my full length contemporary romance, Strings Attached, will be released in May 2011 from Wild Horse Press!

Stay tuned for the results of these efforts, as well as snippets from them as they roll out of my brain.

I hope to continue making love stories you will love!

Writing Resolutions for 2011

I'm fairly new to this game, only having received my first acceptance in July 2010. I have had three shorts released since then, and am anticipating my first full length (actually the first one accepted) release in May. I have been with three companies, and have learned quite a bit - but I still have a long way to go. Looking back at 2010, I can see some things I want to better or differently in 2011.

1. I really do want to produce a free read short story. Honest. But it is very hard, I admit, to get my hands on enough time to do something for free that will be worth using as a sample. This continues to be a hope, and will be moved up on the priorities list.

2. I want to improve my promotions and marketing quite a bit. I want to continue to make better trailers, sooner, and find more places to get them out there. I want to make/get good banners for all of my books, as I have found the one supplied by Decadent was very useful. I think I will have to start putting money into marketing, as that really is the only way to get your book out there. 2010 was an extremely lean year, but 2011 might be better.

3. I want to improve my website - and get a .com instead of a .webs.com - as soon as I can afford it.

4. I want to finish and edit my NaNo novel. I have full lengths planned for Jan-April, May-August and Sept-Dec, as well. This upcoming year, I am hoping see better sales. I have publishers in mind for my current projects, and in 2011 I hope to have three or four full lengths accepted by strong companies. I will keep you posted if/when they say yes!

5. Shorts. I have decided to stop doing shorts - well, not altogether, but to spend much less on shorts. Shorts don't pay much at all, are hard to get reviewed and are kind of hard to promote in a big way. But they still demand a lot of time for writing, editing, promoting, etc. So, I have decided to give up writing shorts, for the most part - I will finish those currently in production, and complete the five story holiday erotica plan I have in mind with one publisher, as they are terribly fun to write (and so I can see it in paperback, I hope), but I think that is all, unless any novella-length ideas really grab me. I need to spend my time on my full length works, which sort of got the short end of the writing stick this year.

So, those are the specific goals and hopes for 2011. As always, the main overarching goal is to work at it; is to improve, continue to be happy at what I am doing, and produce the best writing I can for an increasing readership.

All the best for 2011. I look forward to better and brighter things!

***

What are your resolutions for 2011?

2010 in Review: The Trailers

August 2010

My advance trailer for Strings Attached, which comes out with Wild Horse Press in 2011. The music was composed by James McCall, and you can find info about his new album at his website www.jamesmccall.bandcamp.com. The photo is courtesy of Dave Dyet, www.dyet.com.

(My very first trailer attempt.)

~*~


October 2010

The trailer for my paranormal erotic release, Waking Kara, available from Wild Horse Press Liquid Heat.

~*~


November 2010

Trailer for my upcoming erotic Christmas romance, Good for the Goose, available from Wicked Nights: After Dark.

~*~


December 2010

The trailer for my romantic comedy ebook for Christmas, Unwrapping Scrooge, released from Decadent Publishing.


***

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep updated on the trailers coming in 2011!

NEW: Amazon Author Central Profile

I finally got around to making my Author Central profile on Amazon - I am not sure why it took me so long, except that it gave me performance anxiety for some reason. So, I kept putting it off until I felt up to it. Last night, I finally decided to just do the darn thing.

So, from now on, since all my publishers do sell through Amazon.com, I have a one-stop link for all my books:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GR1CGY

I hope that makes it easier for people to keep track of me. My blog posts also feed to there, and I have a little forum thingy there, I notice - watch for my release day celebration to make it there in May 2011, along with at my Yahoo group and anywhere else I can book.

I feel like such a grown up!

Wild Horse Press, Wicked Nights and Decadent Publishing

A word about my e-pubbing and my publishers.

Much has been said about e-book companies, some good and some derisive, but I am one of those who made e-books my first choice. This was partly because I respond better to smaller businesses, and like being a part of an independent venture - I find independent companies are more willing to work with everybody attached to a project, as a general rule. Primarily, however, I chose e-books because you don't need an agent, and my first attempt at publishing was an experiment; I had a manuscript, and I just wanted to see if someone found it worth publishing. I wasn't in it to write full time right away - I just wanted to see if someone would accept that first novel. When someone did, it was fast. I got word back within a month of submission, a turnover that would be impossible in traditional brick-n-mortar publishing, where the two years in the slush pile is the norm.

Two years of waiting, while life moves on, is simply not conducive to an experiment.

So, e-publishing was for me, straight away. Would I love to move into paperbacks? Sure. I will be thrilled when my current companies move into paper (like WHP has started to do, and Wicked Nights will be doing this year), and I wouldn't say no to a chance to publish something with a big print company someday, now that I know I'd like to stick with my writing for a while. But the general practice of e-publishing, of taking quality works fairly efficiently, and letting new authors get considered for publication without the work of an agent, was best for me at first, and will remain so for a while yet.

I won't be seeking an agent until I decide to write full time, if I ever do. So, e-pubbing is for me.

I now have works out with three e-pubs. I have two other companies in mind for current works in progress, but I am sure I will work with these companies again. Right now, I have my short paranormal erotic Waking Kara and my upcoming full length, Strings Attached, with Wild Horse Press; I have Good for the Goose with Wicked Nights' erotica line, After Dark, and I plan on a further series of holiday erotica with them (in the hopes of benefiting from their move to print). I have only one short Christmas romance, Unwrapping Scrooge, with Decadent Publishing, but I would love to work with them more.

Wild Horse took the very first chance on me, and has been instrumental on me staying in writing, and doing more. I have also met some of the most important writing friends I have through my association with this company, and the more experienced writers have been wonderful at helping me figure out where I am going. WHP is open to all of my creative suggestions, and, despite how busy life is for a publisher, they have remained enthusiastic and happy to hear from me. I owe WHP a lot.

My second company, Wicked Nights, was a heaven sent chance. I had a book that needed to go out by Christmas, and was in a panic because it was growing too long for the anthology for which it had originally been planned. I turned to Stacey Thompson-Geer, one of the authors at WHP, for advice, and she welcomed me to Wicked Nights with open arms. For a small, new company, Wicked Nights is getting it together - slick, determined and fresh, Wicked Nights has a strong future, and I am pleased to get in at the ground level.

My third company, Decadent, was a long shot for me. I knew they were quite powerful and "major league" for a startup, and, unlike Wicked, I didn't know anyone working there. But, I had Christmas romance that needed a home, and WHP simply couldn't accept any more submissions for 2010, as they were packed. Sitting with this romance, I was thinking to send it to Wicked, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to have two releases at one company within weeks of each other. I found Decadent, and was considering it when a happy Decadent author on Facebook gave me a nudge of encouragement, so I sent it off. I knew this book was strong, but I admit I wasn't sure it would be accepted. Then came word - Yes! Unwrapping Scrooge would have a home at Decadent!

I have really enjoyed my time with Decadent. They have lovely covers (which is important, despite the old adage), extremely rigorous editorial quality control, and they also do a bit more promotion than a lot of e-book companies do, which is great for a new author on a budget. They also have an incredibly supportive and active author community who have embraced me as one of their own, even though I am, at the moment, a one-short author with the company.

I would gladly work with all three of these companies again, and very likely will if I can come up with more works they like. Sure, my sales have been moderate at best, which is the price one does tend to pay for e-pubbing, and, in time, I might have been more successful (if you measure that in dollars or stats) had I been miraculously discovered in the slush pile two or three years from now... But I wouldn't have been happier.

And I wouldn't have been more keyed up, that's for sure. Right now, I have a great deal of enthusiasm for my avocation, which might not have been the case if I felt my publishing lacked momentum. Right now, I can feel the rise - when I Google myself, I get more and more hits, and I feel like putting out all of these works are starting to pay off. I may never be Nora Roberts, but that's okay - she has the big times all sewn up. I'm happy producing good work with small, intimate companies.

So, wherever I head now, and whether things work out with the other companies I have in mind, or if I never hit the big times, I am putting things out there, and proud of them all. I will always remain grateful to all of the companies who see in my work something worth taking a chance on.

2010 has been good to me. I wish us all the very best in 2011!

Unwrapping Scrooge: First Week, So Far

I am very excited to share that informal early reviews of Unwrapping Scrooge have been very positive. I am thrilled that people are enjoying this story. I enjoyed writing it, and I am pleased readers are receiving it well.

It is also now available on Amazon, which I hope will encourage more people to stick this story in their stocking this year!

Thanks for reading, folks!

Update on What I'm Up To...

Or should that be "To What I am Up?"

Anyway, here's the skinny on what I'm doing these days:

• My NaNo novel is going well, and has already passed the 25k hump. The chemistry is heating up between Seth and Libby, and I am enjoying the story... Needs a bit more action, but I think that's coming.
• Edits on my Christmas short, Un-Scrooged, is coming along nicely, and should soon be going onto the line-editing round. At this point, it looks like it will come out the week of Dec 10 from Decadent Publishing.
• I'm looking forward to my next release, the Christmas erotic romance Good for the Goose from Wicked Nights, on Nov 19!
• I will be making a big push on getting book trailers out for my two upcoming shorts this week, I promise!
• I am also up to my eyeballs in freelance articles, real life stuff and other nuisances, but those are much less interesting. :)

News!

Well, not only do I have my new release announced recently from Wicked Nights, but I just today got another holiday short accepted from another company - details to follow after the paper work all goes through! I am very excited that these two great stories will make it into print in time for Christmas 2010, and I hope you enjoy them!

In sundry tidbits, I have done a few more interviews, so those should run soon - I will link them when they show up. And I will be guest blogging at Wicked Muses soon, as well. In addition, I may have a few new covers to show you soon, so that's always exciting. I have been taking a short break from writing, but will be hitting the keys again very soon. I am behind in updating my websites, so I will get to that very soon, when I can keep my eyes open.

Also... In other news... I just officially joined NaNo!

*gulp*

The State of Things

I've been thinking about my WIPs schedule... I think I have decided to put the Valentine's Short I wanted to do this week on hold.

A major reason is that my schedule is kind of tight (that short at 7-12k, then a free short for my website at 2-4k, along with some academic stuff I have to, plus all my "real life" stuff, etc).

But most of all, I am feeling kind of tired of writing - since mid-Sept, I have produced a short paranormal erotic (9k), a short holiday romance (12k) and a short Xmas erotic (12k) - one of which is released, one soon be released and the other currently under consideration... I have also finished one short magazine article, and a rough draft of an academic chapter.

I feel like maybe my squid is out of ink for now and I might want to take a couple weeks off.

I am not the type to admit defeat, but I think I might on this one, and just reschedule things a bit. Three shorts and a full length this one term, I don't want to chuck in a super-short and a V'Day short and get all stale and lose the fun of writing. Not to mention ruin the quality!

The only thing that makes me hesitate on setting the Valentines short aside is that I was hoping to submit it for an anthology, and the deadline is looming. However, perhaps I could just publish it as a single short somewhere around January if I have to take a miss on the anthology.

The 2-4k free short is not a big burden, so I will do that, and I do want/need to do the academic piece... but I ask myself, why take on the Valentine's Day short right now? Do I need it? Perhaps I have been prolific enough for the time being. I don't have to throw it away entirely, but maybe save it until after my full length is written in November (poss for NaNoWriMo).

So, I think I might put it off until December, after WriMo, during the editing phase. My schedule now is finishing the academic chapter and the free read in October, do the full-length in November, and the V'Day short in December while I edit my NaNo project. I think that seems a bit more doable.

All I know is, if I over-reach too far, the writing might go blah... then what is the point?

Thanks for listening to me think out loud, folks.

Current Progress

So, my paranormal erotic is over the length I had planned on, but it is done in draft. I hope to have it proofed for a couple obliging test-readers by Sunday night, so if you've volunteered, expect it coming your way soon. I plan to spend at least a week away from it, so no rush.

I also now have a derailed 5 page synopsis and overview (with outline) of the holiday story, which, at 10-15K, should be written in draft in about 2 weeks. *cross fingers*

Then I have a few dull academic things to finish up.

Then it is back to the full length, diligently, in November (finished by New Year's Eve).

So, there's the skinny. *whew*