Hey! Stick around for the derby pictures, but today’s my report card. Let me get business out of the way first. You know why I do this, right? If I don’t hold myself accountable in a public way for my progress, I might just decide to take a vacation. 🙄

I realize I’ve been absent a lot lately. I’m not deliberately dodging connections, but I’ve had a very hectic couple of months. This last week was another crazy, crazy week. Not a lot of new pages, but progress nonetheless.

I mentioned to you earlier this week that I spent several days at my daughter’s, babysitting and walking dogs. I managed to work in the mornings after getting the 5-year-old on the school bus and after getting her and the 8-month-old into bed at night. All the hours in between were a bust. As well, I stayed up until the red-headed hellion came home from work after 12:30 AM every night and we talked until 3-ish before heading to bed. I’ll be going back there tonight for the week. I’m hoping I’ll be better prepared this time and will actually sleep when I get the chance so I can be creative. She’s on dial-up and it’s a chore to get online and twitter or post, so I won’t be doing much of that.

Work-wise this past week, I completed a short story entitled The Weekend and submitted it for consideration. I worked on blurbs and cover requests for the two cowboy stories for Samhain. And I completed galley edits for the upcoming print anthology Captive Souls.

Yesterday was especially jam-packed. I attended the monthly Diamond State Romance Authors meeting, and honchoed it because our president was a no-show. Afterwards, I went to lunch and watched the Razorback game with friends while brainstorming story ideas. And then last night, I went to a roller derby match in Little Rock with Cyndi D’Alba and Shayla Kersten. I had a blast. See for yourself!

My flash didn’t work, and without light, the camera couldn’t catch the action very well, but I like this one anyway.

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My daughter needed help at home for a few days. My job was to wait for the 5-year-old after school, play with the 8-month-old and keep her from swallowing everything she wants to put into her mouth—oh, and walk the three dogs. Of course, nothing is ever easy. Like those dogs? A Malinois, a German Shepherd and a Dachsund (the meanest of the bunch)—who all have an appetite for cats (daughter has two). So, as you can imagine, every time I got out the leashes, I had to shut up the cats, who love to play hide-and-seek, so they didn’t become the dogs’ next meal.

I’ve done this before. Raised my own brood and zoo. I wasn’t going to have any problems doing that and writing…

Pfft! I did manage to finish up a short story today and work on blurbs for my next cowboy stories. Not a complete loss. But tomorrow I’ll be back at home and catching up big time. Hope you had a more restful week!

I like my horoscope today.

You’re making the most of what you’ve got—and flaunting it so the whole world can see your power! It may feel a little out of lien at first, but you should get some serious praise by the end of the day.

I’m blogging at Access Romance today, talking about fresh starts. I’d love for you to stop by and say hello! Follow the link: Access Romance Blog

Be sure to check out the pics my friend Sasha White took of our Seattle trip. Pay special attention to my doppelganger!

Here’s the link: Sasha’s Blog

I saw this on one of my loops where an author was talking about overcoming the doubt critics can cause, whatever your job or calling. I love it!

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt (Paris Sorbonne,1910)

Now, if I could just convince my inner critic to embrace that sentiment.

Most days, I’m scarily focused. The past week, again because I’ve had too much time on my hands to think, I’ve dithered. I’m not a ditherer. I’m a doer. I do…things. (Can you tell how much Grey’s Anatomy I’ve watched lately? I sound like Meridith!)

So just what did I get done this past week?

I played with opening scenes to two new stories. Just slapping down dialogue, trying to figure out who the characters are. Nothing’s solid yet. Very vaporous in fact. I have to keep working them to “gel” stage. But I’m thinking one will be about two men teaching the woman playing with both their passions a lesson. Yeah, I love it when guys turn the table on a woman, take charge, and rewrite “The Rules”.

I revised and shipped MIK-7 and Raw Silk to my new editor at Ellora’s Cave.

I completed a proposal for a new novel and sent it off to my agent. Hopefully, he will find it as much fun as I did and get behind it. Send up a message to whatever deity you worship that he finds it has legs. I love it.

That was all I accomplished writing-wise this week. I have to get motivated to plow deeply into something this next week.

Lastly, a BFF and I booked tickets for a cruise in December. As soon as we paid, I remembered I hadn’t seen my passport in a while. I tore apart my office and couldn’t find it, so yesterday I headed to the post office to apply for a new one. Have to start a countdown list of things to do and purchase before the trip. So if any of you have gone on cruises before, I’d love some advice. This will be my first. She knows someone who works aboard the ship we’ll be sailing on, and he will be our port guide. We plan to get up to plently of mischief aboard. Can you imagine the questions we will ask the crew? We’re both writers, so we’ll be looking for good places to stash a body or have a quick tryst. Murder and mayhem on the high seas!

Yesterday morning, I woke up to silence—inside the house anyway. No hum of electricity. No fan swirling the air. Outside a storm raged. The huge old oak in the backyard creaked and groaned with the wind. I heard an occasional pop and crack from branches falling in the woods. The rain came down in sheets. So naturally I had to stand beneath the deck to watch. I was without power for seven hours and missed my daily blog. I had the house to myself. It was supposed to be a productive day. But best laid plans and all…

I hate that I missed a day of writing, and I hate that I missed my daily blog. I made a vow to make an entry every day, however inane—and those of you who stop by often know I’ve kept it…er, about the inane thing…

Anyway, no progress at all yesterday. I’m hoping I can get back on track today, but I’m feeling compelled to clean up. Something about stale air and the fact I didn’t shower. Now the whole house needs a once over before I can sit at my desk without distraction. It’s a sickness, I know. I did read a book, a rather good one. I’ll have to do a review of it soon to tell you what I thought about it. That’s not so inane, huh?

And I did manage to scratch out some notes for the opening of one of those three stories I need to get started. But I also spent some more time thinking about what I really needed to write, and now I’m vacillating about which stories will make up those three. See why I don’t like time on my hands to think?

Thanks to the ladies who stopped by last night to keep me company during my monthly live chat. It’s always fun, and the hour flies.

Yes, I have a winner for yesterday’s free book, but I’m gonna make you read to the bottom because I’m just mean that way!

I’m having trouble sleeping lately. The problem is with the “when”. Three nights ago, I couldn’t fall asleep until after 4 AM. Two nights ago, I woke up at 4 AM and had to get up to begin working because I was wide awake. So that was two nights in a row of only 4 hours of sleep. Last night I slept 10 and I feel like a complete slug this morning.

I do have sleeping pills the doctor subscribed, but I hate giving up my “lightbulb” moments for the drugs. You know, you lay down, are almost asleep, and the greatest idea in the history of ideas pops into your head? Then you have to get up and write it down, although I have gotten to where I simply keep a pad beside the bed to jot down those random thoughts.

My inability to sleep might have something to do with the fact I’ve finished so many projects lately—the proposal for Beloved Captor, the complete novella for Raw Silk, and the ending of MIK-7. That’s a problem because when I finish one, I have to have another to jump to, something that’s already in the works, at a midpoint, so that I can keep going. Right now, I’m faced with starting three new projects, all at the same time. Which means, my brain is jumping from one idea to another since all three are in the “First Line” stage (which is DEATH to quick progress). I’ve wallowed for two days, then yesterday decided to finish up a short story I’m writing for a lesbian collection, just so that I can be writing SOMETHING.

I’ll head into timed writing sprints today with friends, and hopefully the competition will keep my brain focused. We’ll see. Remind me to do a better job at leapfrogging my projects in the future. They should all be at differing stages. And no, I can’t focus on just one book at a time. If I get frustrated in one, I have to have another to jump to or I’ll do the wallow thing again and accomplish nothing.

So, I’ve managed a really long whine. Sorry. This is my blog, and whatever’s on my mind kinda spills onto the screen. Today, it’s nose to the grindstone, no excuses. Tonight, I’ll be gathering critiques from the authors in the Rose’s Colored Glasses critique group and prepping them for distribution. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get up early enough to load the pics from Lora Leigh’s big party and share a few with you here.

And don’t you think I need to find a pic or a graphic to represent my whines so I can post it at the top each time and you can know whether you want to “go there”? Anybody got a good whiny picture I can use?

Enough whine. You want to know who won yesterday’s prize.

The winner, by random number generator, is…Jeanette!