This is for you writers out there…

When you’re on the go, you don’t have to carry the latest in digital gadgetry to get ahead on your Work-in-Progress (WIP).

What you might try doing for those short windows of time throughout your busy day, whether sitting in the dentist’s office or waiting for a school bus, is carry a stack of index cards in your purse. I like the colored ones (color inspires me all by itself). I keep them at the bottom of my bag with a rubber band around them. When I have those small windows, I pull them out and jot down notes—maybe a smattering of dialogue, notes about setting that I need to layer into a scene, the outline of a scene, whatever pops into my mind—on the card. It doesn’t matter where you might currently be in your WIP. You can lay out the cards later next to your plotting grid/outline to figure out where these snippets will fill in the blanks.

If you have your scenes plotted already, you can carry your grid/outline wrapped around your index cards. Number the scenes on the grid/outline and put the reference number at the top of the index card so that you can plop what you’ve jotted down into your manuscript at the appropriate place the next time you’re sitting in front of your computer.

If you need reminders of what your characters look like, jot down their descriptions on a card to keep permanently in the stack.

If you need a reminder where your were the last time you opened your document, and need to work sequentially through your manuscript (some of us are linear thinkers!), print that last page of your story, fold it in half lengthwise, and wrap it around your stack of cards.

Index cards can be a handy, transportable writing tool that won’t break your piggybank!

I stay pretty healthy. Yeah, there’s more I could do—shed some more pounds, get some more exercise—but on the whole, I don’t have many complaints. Which is why the nagging aches in my shoulder, neck and lower back are really beginning to annoy me. I’m close to the finish line with a couple of projects, but this is going to wreck my concentration. I haven’t done anything so far to fix it. I have a regularly scheduled doctor’s visit on April 5th, but in the meantime, all I can think to do is pop aspirin and sleep on a heating pad. Why now? Why me? Okay, there’s the whine.

The whole back pain thing does make me realize how important health is to writers. We need our sleep to keep our minds functioning at top peak performance—you can’t have wild, hallucinogenic dreams without it. We need our fingers strong and agile to slam those words onto the page (imagining little finger calisthenics now?). And we have to be able to sit for long periods of time, so we really need to build those butt and back muscles to stand the strain of our everspreading rears. Yeah, had to have some fun with it.

But y’all wanna know who won the contest, right? By random number generator, the winner is…(drumroll) Lisa J! Lisa—email me!

Just a quick progress report. I like to do those—just for me. I figure if I put my writing life out there, including my goals, successes and failures, I’ll shame myself into stepping up my game up.

In April, I will finish Beloved Captor. I will get to the end of the short novella for Samhain. I will write a proposal for a Nocturne Bite, and I will write two short stories. That’s a lot. But I can do it, if I stay focused. Here goes…

Remember, you can still enter yesterday’s contest. I will pick the winner tomorrow. Today, you can earn two more chances to win!

Just a quick note here because I’m blogging at Access Romance today.

I wrote the big external climax, the big exciting battle, yesterday—and now, I can see the end of the book wrapping up very quickly over the next two days. Then I will have about a week’s worth of edits to complete before I can ship my Berkley book out the door. Cross your fingers it isn’t complete crap! I’m enjoying it.

I finished the rough draft of chapter 3 of Bad Moon Rising. Today, I’ll edit it, then I’ll look for a Beta reader or two to see how they like it and hopefully find any typos I couldn’t see. So it’s just days now until I will put it on my website for you to enjoy. If you haven’t read chapter 1 & 2—do it now! Bad Moon Rising

If you post a comment today and tomorrow, you’ll be in the running
for a free download of this book!

Here’s something a little different from me. Witch’s Choice released in September 2006. I’ve done very few books set in medieval times, Jacq’s Warlord and Her Lance-Alot are the only ones that come to mind, but I find them a lot of fun to write. I got the chance to play again with my upcoming release. On April 28th, a prequel to the My Immortal Knight stories set in medieval England releases. I can’t wait to see what you think! Until then, here’s a little taste.

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From Romance Junkies: “Delilah Devlin combines historical and paranormal elements and throws in a sexual element that will seduce even the pickiest reader…”

Two men…a wolf…and a witch.

Gisele, “The Witch of Grimoult”, has ended a long vow of celibacy taken to ensure her independence from any man. However, her new lover, Tibor the sheriff, isn’t any real threat. His reputation among the ladies assures her he won’t be a possessive man. After a wolf threatens her livelihood, she seeks aid from the new Lord Grim, never anticipating his price will be a night in his bed! What’s a maiden to do? Lord Grim’s possessive stare and fierce loving make her crave her captor and his mastery of her body. When the sheriff is bitten by the wolf, only her cure will save him from becoming a monster. Loving both men can’t be so wrong.

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“What was that?”

The sheriff lifted his head from her breast, his eyes and lips blurred and glistening with passion. “If you have to ask, then you must find me sadly lacking.”

Gisele swatted his shoulder. “Idiot! Outside. I thought I heard something.”

His lips twisted in an impatient frown. “A horse’s whinny. Likely Tiberion. He’s a greedy bastard and simply wants more oats.”

She pressed her fingers to his lips and listened.

Nothing.

Perhaps her stretched nerves had made her overly aware. “Shouldn’t we keep watch?” she suggested, although her heart wasn’t really in it. Her body screamed for the release his cajoling and ready cock had promised.

“The traps are set. There’s nothing more to do—but this!” he said, lowering his face once more and trapping her nipple between his lips.

“Who’s greedy now?” she moaned as he suckled, tugging the tip of her breast until it grew engorged and painfully sensitive.
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I don’t know what this will tell you about me, but these are all the things that clutter up the top of my large, light oak corner desk:

* monitor and printer
* Galileo thermometer
* desklamp
* small bottle of purel
* hand lotion
* two fruity coasters waiting for a cup of coffee
* three flash drives
* bamboo plant
* dragon holding a letter opener
* crystal pendulum
* small King Kong statue
* pink plastic bucket holding Post-its
* telephone
* address book
* pink computer paper
* flower-bordered notepad
* flower-bordered Post-it cube
* small yellow basket holding two cameras, Iron Man Pez dispenser, smiley-face stress ball, sucker with a grasshopper in it, chapstick, nail file
* Russian lacquer-ware pen holder
* Dragon pen holder
* electric pencil sharpner
* crystal frog with more pens
* candle
* glass star with “Superstar” written on it
* book of affirmations opened to “I am talented”
* leather-bound, hand-made book, intended to be my personal Book of Shadows but which instead has pages of pretty stamps because I was experimenting with them
* tape recorder
* dragon stapler
* standing file with things I haven’t looked at in months
* three worry stones: carnelian, bloodstone, clear crystal

Tell me 5 things sitting on your desk now!

I had a terrific day with my daughter’s family yesterday. Didn’t worry about making a wordcount. Didn’t itch to get to my computer. I headed to Hot Springs with my camera and a credit card.

My SIL, his mom, the red-headed hellion, the 5-year-old, and 1-year-old were all loaded up, and we headed first to downtown Hot Springs. Parking was tough to find because it was a beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze and EVERYONE headed to the strip.

We started at Bubbalu’s for hot dogs and hamburgers. A woman came up to ooh and ah over the baby. The baby gave her a scowl. “She must be shy,” the woman said. SIL said, “No, ma’am, she’s just mean.” And that’s the truth. Little Girl doesn’t have a shy bone in her body, but she has a temper and she did not want to stay in her stroller.

We stopped in at several little specialty shops, the 5-year-old and I bought matching shiny pink scarfs to wrap around our necks and blingy necklaces. The girl-child got stopped several times to be told how beautiful and “fashionable” she was. The same folks chuckled at me as they passed. This was the girl-child’s last day of Spring Break, and we’d told her it was her special day. She kept remarking on how great it was that everyone showed up to help her celebrate.

While we were walking, I passed a family with this dog and had to stop them to get a picture. Don’t you know there’s a story somewhere in that picture?

The shopping was nice. Stopped in Tillman’s which is an estate sale store and saw some amazing pieces. Faberge eggs, jewelry from The French Quarter that dated back to the late 1800’s. So much bling I thought I’d died and gone to heavan. I forgot to ask if they had lay-away… But never mind. Daughter and I are already plotting our next trip there—just have to save a bit to get something special!

Girl-child’s wish was to go to the petting zoo, so off we traipsed. This is us in the goat cage, feeding bread to the goats. It’s the only shot you’ll see of me, because after I saw what the wind did to my hair that was over!

The highlight of course was the alligator house. They keep them inside in winter and the gators huddle under heat lamps in the pools. Being so close, with only a 4-foot fence surrounded by chicken wire, didn’t make me feel very safe. I know they can jump that height and that chicken wire isn’t enough to hold them back if they do attack, but they looked very well-fed and lethargic.

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