I awoke today feeling every one of my bumps and bruises—PLUS stiffness in my joints. Mom has some great pain pills in her medicine cabinet, so my world’s delightful at the moment.

Won’t be writing much today, if at all. I’m driving with mom and dad to Little Rock where he’s going to have his tubes checked out—the ones running into his heart. Poor thing hasn’t been feeling himself for months but he’s not happy that he might be facing bypass surgery (worst case) or stints (stents?). So, I’ll be hanging at the hospital with a notebook in hand. Sis is driving down from North Arkansas to be with us.

I made good progress this week despite yesterday’s little drama. I’m on chapter four of STONE’S EMBRACE and chapter two of a sexy little side project I decided to write to keep me sane while I work on the paranormal. Both are very raw, but the bones are there. I should have them complete by the end of the month.

Have a nice day and don’t stand behind any moving vehicles!

I live in Arkansas and my brains were scrambled about an hour ago, so I’m entitled to an ungrammatical moment!

It was a dark and stormy night…

No, no…it was a bright, sunny morning and birds were chirping…

Anyway, my mother’s an artist and works in many media (mediums?), and she’s giving this demonstration for her art guild tonight on egg art—you know, the Faberge kind. Painted, jeweled eggs. She decided to pull her minivan around the back of the house and load up everything she needed from the studio and I decided to meet her there to help carry the many baskets.

She backed up to the door and stopped. I moved forward with a basket in my hands, reached for the latch on the back of the vehicle to open it, when the car lurched backward.

She hadn’t seen me standing there. I didn’t have time to move away. My right shoulder and hand were bumped by the car, and I was tossed like a ragdoll through the air to land on the concrete porch.

It happened really fast, and all the while I thought, “Gee, so this is what it feels like to fly.” Wierd, I know. I started to sit up, then saw my shoes under her car. I didn’t know I’d “flown” quite so far or that she’d hit me hard enough to lift me out of them.

She was more upset than I was. I started to get up, but she was hovering, flapping, wringing her hands. I couldn’t help it, I started to giggle. I do that when I’m stressed. Like a hyena–or at least like Betty Rubble. Ask my sister.

So, now I’m cataloguing injuries, just to have a record, because you know this has to go into a story somewhere down the line:

* Right elbow scraped raw
* Ditto right knee
* Right hip aches, but no visible bruising. (Lots of padding there so bruise is probably closer to bone)
* Right shoulder bruised and throbbing
* Right palm tingly

But all in all, not that dramatic, right? I’m sure my body will start to ache in interesting places as the day goes on, but I feel very lucky. I’m gonna be fine in a few days and have something to add to my life experiences to write about. 😆

I do feel sorry for mom, though. She took a valium and headed to bed.

The resolution isn’t terrific and the color and brightness is a bit off since this is a copy of a copy, but I’m still loving this! It’s one of the designs for promotional materials I’m preparing for the release of the next Dark Realm book in June. Next up, will be bookmarks which I hope to have ready soon to start mailing!

If you are a bookseller and would like to get hold of the printed flyer, just email me. If you’re a reader, I can send you the .pdf to print out. It looks terrific on glossy paper.

After Midnight Fantasies, that is. I’m sure I have something interesting to say, so you won’t make a wasted trip. Probably something to do with cowboys since demons have been consuming my mind so much lately…

Stop and say hi! ~DD

Progress on Stone’s Embrace

I’m deep into chapter two now of Stone’s Embrace. Still haven’t figured out what happens after the sex, but I’m sure it will come…um, after my hero and heroine pry themselves apart.

This will be a busy week. I want to get through chapter four of this WIP. I have an older manuscript for a romantic comedy my sister and I co-wrote a million years ago that needs a lot of sprucing up. So, I’ll be giving it a read and making notes of what needs to be stripped, what can stay. I’m suspecting that pretty much everything except the basic plot has to be reworked. We’ve both learned a lot since we wrote the thing.

Next Saturday is the Diamond State Romance Author’s meeting in Little Rock, and as VP of Programs I have some administrative tasks to take care of.

Lastly, I will be teaching a worldBuilding class for Roses Colored Glasses at the end of the month and need to refurbish the course content.

So, all in all a packed week. Do y’all have big plans?

I’ll be blogging with the Bradford Bunch today and would love to see some familiar faces! I’m offering a prize, so be sure to scoot over there!

A quick reminder: Tonight at 9 PM ET/8 PM CST, I will be at the Fallen Angels chatroom. Be sure to stop by and say hello—and there will be prizes!

That’s what I need to do today. Writing is like exercising—when you step away from it for a while, your brain gets flabby. I’ve worked so many proposals lately, I have a real problem committing to getting to the end of just one story. Okay, so I need another metaphor, but my mind’s not cooperating.

Maybe I need to scare myself a bit. I have 80 pages due by the end of the month. 80 – the 5 already written = 75 pages to go. 75 / 18 writing days left in the month = roughly 4 pages a day.

So today, I commit to writing at least five pages on the story that’s due by the end of the month. That’s doable. Maybe I’ll open up my AIM and look for a sprinting partner—someone who will kick my ass.