I had such big plans! A workshop to run, NaNoWriMo to complete, family events…
It’s the 17th of the month, and I’m falling behind, big time!
First, the Mindmapping workshop is ongoing, although I haven’t been there much to prod folks along to create their 2019 Writing Mind Map. I haven’t even begun mine!!!! How crappy is that of me to abandon them?
Next, I’m only 11,552 words into NaNo’s 50k wordcount requirement. There’s no way I’ll get there now!
I have tons of great excuses…
A sh*t-ton of last-minute, short-fused editing jobs plopped into my inbox. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not very good at budgeting my editing time. I want to help everyone! So, I shove other commitments aside and go to work.
I’ve done a crapload of babysitting and petsitting for my dd while she’s been up to her eyeballs in kid’s events and medical appointments. No way will I ever tell her NO! She does so much for me in return.
Supporting my dad through rehab and his transition back home haven’t been horribly time-consuming, because my brother is visiting and doing everything he can to take the pressure off of us! So lately, that’s not been a huge time-suck.
Because I haven’t had a lot of time to write on my own projects, I’ve had to push back release dates.
I’ve pushed the release date for Wolf from November 20th to December 7th. I’m hoping I’ll finish the book sooner, but I thought I’d better give myself room to fail (that sounds so negative, doesn’t it?). Thanksgiving’s coming up, so I’m sure I’ll have more household duties, since it looks like we’ll have 20 people coming for dinner, and many of those will be staying in the house with us! I am hoping to release it by the end of this month but don’t hold your breath. Are you horribly disappointed?
I have two more books up for pre-order—the last pre-orders I’ll get for a year because I had to change my release dates. I hate losing that privilege with Amazon, but there’s just been too much happening. Worse than not knowing whether you’re eager for the book (as evidenced by your pre-orders), I won’t have hard deadlines, and I’m not good about producing without deadlines! Y’all will just have to nag me for what you want next!
As for those two pre-orders, have a look here. I can’t tell you how excited I am about Animal! I hope you are, too! I don’t know much about it yet, because I haven’t written a single line, but I do have a great, really funny opening scene in my mind. With that cover pic, maybe you can imagine one, too! As for With His Client, I’ve started that story, and a strongman with the Russian mafia is our girl’s target for seduction…
With His Client is a shorty coming December 18!
And Animal is scheduled to release January 22nd!
Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me two things:
1) Which story are you most eager to read?
2) Does the cover for Animal inspire any ideas for scenes in your own imaginations?
Is the pic festive enough? I love busy images, so this one’s fun for me! Halloween is our family’s favorite holiday. We go all out with costumes. And then we make a mad dash around the surrounding area, looking for fun, kid-friendly trick-or-treat parties. And then, there are the photos. We take them every year. These are a few of my favorites…
I think the 5-year-old was 2 when this was taken. She was already great with the camera. She still loves getting into character.
Here’s the pic of all the kids, taken in the front yard. We’d had hay delivered for the horses…
This was a couple of years ago. Note the werewolf in the wheelchair. We took the photo in front of the town’s cemetery gates…
There’s an “extra” kid in the mix in a ninja outfit. My dd tends to gather kids for these events. This year, we’re taking the van and an extra car to ferry everyone around. I’m not 100% sure I’m going. I had a late night. But I’ll try to get a nap, because I’d hate to miss the fun!
Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card,
tell me what your Halloween plans are!
Oops! Adding one more fave! The 14-year-old way back when. She went as an Aztec princess…
It’s the holidays again, an emotion-filled time where it seems there are not enough hours in each day to fit everything in. In this busy time, I ask each of you to please consider one more stop on your crazy to do list, that of making a donation to a local food bank. Your donation can be a dollar, a can of food, whatever you can give. With the hurricanes, fires, and flooding that have affected so many this year, anything you can offer is a gift to those working to rebuild their lives.
I volunteer for Habitat For Humanity, and something amazing happens when you allow a person a flicker of hope, that somehow, incredibly, even a stranger understands that at times life shoves us on a road we never asked for.
Several years ago, in addition to my personal donation to my local food bank, I decided to start a Food Bank Challenge. Except, it kind of wonderfully got out of hand. Amazingly, once I posted The Food Bank Challenge on my Facebook page and my Facebook reader page, people from across the U.S. began donating to their local food banks and sharing on my Food Bank Challenge post. Then, I read posts of donations from Canada. Holy cow, the Food Bank Challenge had gone international! And you know what, this is truly a blessing. In this venture, we all win. Gifts from the heart do that, they fill you, remind you there is good in the world, and that you can make a positive as profound difference in others lives.
On December 5th, 2018, ONE name will be drawn from all who posted that they donated to a food bank from both my Facebook page and Facebook Author pages that I received. The winner will receive a mug, and a tote bag.
*Note: Names of those who posted beneath my Facebook pages drive post that they gave to food pantries or groups accepting donations to donate to a food bank will be entered in the drawing.
I wish each of you a wonderful holiday season filled with friendship and laughter and blessings!
Diana Cosby, AGC(AW), USN Ret.
International Best-Selling Author
www.dianacosby.com The Oath Trilogy MacGruder Brother Series Forbidden Series: Forbidden Legacy/Forbidden Knight/Forbidden Vow/Forbidden Alliance‒Aug. 6th 2019/Forbidden Realm TBA
About the Author
A retired Navy Chief, Diana Cosby is an international bestselling author of Scottish medieval romantic suspense. Books in her award-winning MacGruder Brothers series have been translated in five languages. Diana has spoken at the Library of Congress, Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC, and appeared in Woman’s Day, on USA Today’s romance blog, “Happy Ever After,” MSN.com, Atlantic County Women Magazine, and Texoma Living Magazine.
After her career in the Navy, Diana dove into her passion – writing romance novels. With 34 moves behind her, she was anxious to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met throughout the world. After the release of the bestselling MacGruder Brothers series, The Oath Trilogy, and the first three books of The Forbidden Series, she’s now working on book #4, Forbidden Alliance, of the five-book series, which will be released August 6th, 2019.
Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey. www.dianacosby.com
My coffee’s cold…again. I need one of those cupwarmer thingies on my desk, because once I start working, I forget to drink it before it cools. Then I have to stop, head to the microwave, and… Well, I guess I just want to whine about something, and that’s the first thing I thought of. What else can I talk about to procrastinate a little while longer…
My dd met with all the kids’ teachers last week. The 5-year-old had the most glowing report, naturally. She’s a little leader in her class. She’s kind to other kids and listens. She’s smart as a whip (whatever that means). No worries there. The 9-year-old is doing SOOOO much better, behaviorally (she spent the last day of last year in ISS), and her teachers love her. Got to love those ADHD drugs. The 14-year-old girl is doing very well—and she made it into some kind of choral group. There were 700 kids who auditioned in the area, and she was one of 40 selected. Man, we were floored, because we thought for sure she couldn’t sing a note. The 14-year-old boy…? Yeah, he needs a kick in the ass to get his school work done, so we’re knuckling down on how he spends his free time…
Enough procrastinating yet?
I have two editing jobs I need to get out the door soon, because I have three more that will hit any day now. I can’t seem to get motivated unless I’m drowning in commitments. Adrenaline gives me focus—or, at least, that’s my excuse.
And as for new words for new projects of my own? I have three chapters of Wolf completed. I just need to edit them to remind me what I wrote months ago, then push forward to finish the story. I really want to get a Stepbrothers short story done, too. The cover is just too sexy not to find a story to go along with it, don’t you think?
Now, if I can just figure out what the story is about…
Hey! So, maybe you can help me figure that one out. Give me ideas for a story to go along with the cover. Maybe I’ll use it as a jumping off point. I’ll give away a free copy of any of my recent releases to one commenter!Your idea doesn’t have to be wonderful, just have fun with it!
In the meantime, I need to make a trip to the coffee pot for a little “cup of ambition.”
I have a good friend who teaches at a very small, rural school. This school has every grade from kindergarten on up, and she teaches seven art classes to all these children. As you can imagine, supplies are always hard to come by, and more often than should happen, they come out of her pocket. Lately, she’s resorted to having kids bring in cardboard boxes for them to cut up to make dioramas, empty milk jugs for them to paint ghost faces on for luminaires. She had to stop making the dioramas because they ran out of hot glue sticks and paste glue sticks. Read the rest of this entry »
My giveaway is ongoing, too! For a chance to win a free Night Falls story, enter here: Coming Tuesday…
My Lazy Sunday
typewriter keyboard in retro style
This morning, I rose at 6:00 AM, late for me, actually, since most mornings I’m up between 4:30 and 5:30. The extra half hour was nice.
I didn’t have to make breakfast for the house. That was nice, too. So, I reviewed my email, updated a couple of my work/schedule charts, then started editing.
No new words, today, so that’s a bit of a break, too.
Since my dd and my SIL are doing yard-work at my place this morning, I packed my laptop and headed across the street to her place to baby-sit the little ones while their parents work. They are watching Jurassic World, and not asking for my attention, which I usually give in spades, so a break again. I can complete this blog, and then head back into edits.
I hope to close down when their parents come and enjoy a blissfully aimless afternoon. We’ll see.
My issue is I’m a writer. I work from home, so I never escape my work. Ever. And that’s how I like it. I chose this life. I don’t have a job as a ______ (FILL IN THE BLANK). I am a writer/editor/teacher of writers. My work is never done.
Kind of like being a mom, huh? We work from dawn to dusk—and beyond. I wouldn’t chose another life, would you? But if you do crave the occasional, REAL break from work, how do you manage it? I’d really love to know… 🙂
Maybe life is glamorous for other writers, but for me, it’s work, work, work, work, work… Kind of like the song Rihanna sings, but without the sexy clothes or Drake reaching for my goodies. *sigh*
Today, for instance, began with some editing. I broke around 10 AM to conduct a live chat with my plotting bootcamp, then it was back to editing. Around 4 PM, I broke again, because my dd and I had promised to meet a friend for dinner. When we returned home, we had little girls in tow, so we spent an hour in the art work room, trying to keep them out of paint and ink, while we doodled with projects. When my dd left, I went back to editing. Then I remembered, oh yeah, my blog. Gah.
And writing? Grrrrr… I have to finish this project for another author before I can even turn my attention to my own words. Don’t get me wrong, I like editing. It gets me out of my own world. I don’t have time to read for pleasure, so editing equals guilty pleasure + income, so I rarely complain. It’s just that I’m running behind schedule, and I hate being late, but there’s only one me…
So, if you’re bouncing around websites while you break, and happen to come across this post, let me know I’m not the only one work, work, work, working on a Saturday night.
I’ve pushed the release date for Wolf from November 20th to December 7th. I’m hoping I’ll finish the book sooner, but I thought I’d better give myself room to fail (that sounds so negative, doesn’t it?). Thanksgiving’s coming up, so I’m sure I’ll have more household duties, since it looks like we’ll have 20 people coming for dinner, and many of those will be staying in the house with us! I am hoping to release it by the end of this month but don’t hold your breath. Are you horribly disappointed?
