So much happened this last week! My life is completely nuts. Let’s see if I can break it down for you…
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Wild at Heart
First, for all you writers out there, the deadline for submitting your stories for inclusion in the Wild at Heart anthology, which will directly benefit the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge is APRIL 1st! Please get your stories in. They are short—just 1500 to 4000 words, and who doesn’t have an idea for one? You’ve been to a zoo, right? You’ve watched National Geographic. You don’t have to be an animal expert to be able to write about some exotic animal in need of refuge. There’s still time. Read more about it here: Wild at Heart
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About Three Stories
Three developments, book-wise, happened this week.
1) All Hallows Heartbreaker, the second story I ever published, is being offered for free! But this deal doesn’t last forever! For more information, follow this link: Free Story
2) The eighth book in the My Immortal Knight series, My Sweet Succubus, is out! It’s Moses Brown’s story, and I know there are those of you out there who have been waiting for him to have his happy ever after. Well, he gets it all right. Just not sayin’ where. 🙂 If you’d like to read more, click on the cover.
3) And most exciting for me, personally, is that I have a brand new contract to edit another anthology collection for Cleis Press! One more to follow Girls Who Bite (out last September), She Shifters (coming in July 2012) and Cowboy Lust (out in August 2012). It’s strange how much of a thrill this gives me. I should only want to write my own stories, right? But it’s so much fun. I get to read great stories, “meet” established authors, and nurture new authors. It’s work, sure, but it’s also very, very satisfiying. And something different to do. I like mixing it up. So if you hear me talking about smokin’ hot firemen over the next coming months, that’s what this is all about.
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Sunday Report Card
But what did I really accomplish this week? Not enough.
1) I worked through stacks of papers to burn, shred or file away in my newly neatened file cabinets.
2) Did some “back and forth” with my Cleis editor on the new anthology, wrote the call for submissions and sent it out to the world.
Notice there’s no mention of pages written. I have tons of good reasons—all centered around the fact I’ve been making tons of trips to Hot Springs to buy building supplies. The Red-Headed Hellion and her family are moving into the house across the street from me this week, but we’re down to the wire with renovations and now one of our contracted workers is a no-show. So SIL is learning very quickly how to repair and texture dry-wall so he can get walls and ceilings painted. In the meantime, I’m babysitting cats and dogs, doing laundry and cleaning their other neglected house to get ready for the movers. I hope to have some downtime in between to get some pages in, because I have a novella due tomorrow. Eeek!
Have a great week. Hope you’re getting lovely spring weather like we are here in Arkansas. Have to check the pool temperature. Won’t be long…
Psst! The winner of one of Myla Jackson’s (March 5) fabulously erotic books is…Leann! Leann, be sure to contact me to arrange delivery of your prize! Congrats!
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Free Story!
If you don’t have this story, click on the cover now!
This offer won’t last long!
And since it’s for free, maybe you wouldn’t mind “tagging” and “liking” it on Amazon. A review would be nice too… 🙂
Thanks to you, it rose pretty quickly up the Free Erotica list at Amazon. Just maybe, I’ll find a few new readers. Your reviews help them decide to take the chance, and those reviews don’t have to be pretty. In fact, the less polished the writing, the more the reader will trust you.
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Brand New Covers
The first four of the My Immortal Knight stories have fresh new covers. Take a look! I haven’t changed them on my website yet because they aren’t up on Amazon, but they are up at Ellora’s Cave! Click on the covers if you’re interested in reading more!
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Contest Reminder!
Two contests end on March 16th! The 4x2x4 Contest (four sets of two signed books to four lucky winners) and The Promo Ho contest (up for grabs? TWO $25.00 gift certificates!).
And because I want to give more of you a chance to win, I’ll add TWO HOT to the list of eligible books for the Promo Ho contest! Check out my Contest Page for more details.
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Sunday Report Card
What a busy-productive week!
1) I completed a short-short story entitled “Quick Draw” and submitted it for consideration to an editor!
2) I completed my part of Charmed in the Big Easy, a co-written story with Paisley Smith, and submitted it!
3) I put together three brief treatments for possible stories and shipped them to my agent for his opinion.
Not bad, huh? This week, it’s back to cowboys!
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Next Week’s Guests
This week, I’ll have the following ladies blogging here:
Mar 12 — Gillian Archer
Mar 14 — Dena Garson
Be sure to drop by to say hello. You might just find another author you have to read!
As usual, I have tons to catch you up on today. There’s some fun stuff in here along with the dry boring report, but you can’t appreciate sweet without sour, right? ~DD
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Latest Treasures
On Friday, rather than being a good author, I headed to Hot Springs with my daughter and SIL to hunt for things for her new house. If you haven’t heard me mention it before, we bought a fix-er-upper house across the street from mine and have basically begun gutting the thing. Anyway, Friday, we went to buy a sink and knobs for the new kitchen cabinets. On our way back, we stopped at a flea market. The Red-Headed Hellion and I love to hunt for treasure. See what we found?
My daughter found this buried on a shelf. When she held it up, I think she actually expected for me to let her keep it. LOL! Jeannie’s miiinnne! Doesn’t King Kong look like he’s spying on her from over the top of my crystal ball?
I still have a major girl crush on Xena! And now I have the doll to prove it. I sooooo want to break her out of her box. Think I’ll have to so she can play with Thor—she’ll break him like a twig!
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Contests
The Promo Ho Contest continues! Check the Contest page for details about how you can win one of TWO $25.00 gift certificates! And on Tuesday, I will have a brand new contest with a fun or strange (haven’t made up my mind yet which—but definitely not Jeannie!) prize for you to win. So, you see, you HAVE to stop by to check out my blog. May as well make me your daily habit, because you’ll forget to be here on Tuesday.
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Sunday Report Card
Not ball-of-fire production this week, but not too shabby either.
1) I worked on the opening scenes of CITBE—after I did a ton of research on St. Louis Cemetery #1 in New Orleans and voodoo loas. The story’s starting to gel, so going is slow as I feel my way through it.
2) I completed copyedits on My Sweet Succubus and it’s on it’s way to publication in March. Woot!
3) And I started a new short story for another call for submissions from Cleis.
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This Week’s Guests
This week, I’ll have the following ladies blogging here:
Feb 29—BJ McCall
Mar 2—Eliza Gayle
Be sure to drop by to say hello to them. You might just find another author you have to read!
I’m blogging in two places today. If you’re in need of a sex-fix, be sure to head on over to Wild & Wicked Cowboys for a quick one!
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Sunday Report Card
This week was pretty productive. I wrote and wrote and managed to move some things off my plate.
1) I finished Dragon’s Desire—and passed it off to my editor with instructions for her to pull me back from the brink. There are problems with some of the sexual situations, but if you’ve been reading me for long, you know that sometimes, I go there. Yeah, this is one of those stories. I couldn’t stop myself. *sigh*
2) I worked on revisions of a short story entitled Two Hot and shipped it to my formatter. Hopefully, depending on her schedule and whether I can get a cover together quickly, you’ll have a sexy little m/f/m story to read before the end of the month.
3) And I’ve plotted the next story I have to hustle out the door. A sequel to Bitten in the Big Easy. So this next week, I’ll have my head down, writing like my hair’s on fire. If you see me goofing off on line, you have permission to crack the whip!
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The Believe Fairy Contest Winner
I am trying to think about what I should do for the next contest, so I don’t have something to post just yet, but check back during the week, because when I get a minute, I will. In the meantime, the winner of the Believe Fairy is…Ava [ava@guilty….]! Ava, congrats, and be sure to send me your snail mail addy so I can get your prize into the mail.
I have a couple other prizes sitting in the hopper, waiting for me to take an hour to package them up, so it’s probably a good thing I’m taking a break do some catch-up!
A note, first. I spent the night at my daughter’s last night. We were playing with our new Razr phones, adding apps, battling Angry Birds, when the first message popped up about Whitney. Both of us were saddened. The Red-Headed Hellion was a huge fan. I remember her dancing in the living room as a very little girl with karoake mike in her hand, singing, “I wanna dance with somebody…”
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Chirping Like a Bird
Music means a lot to me. This morning, I wanted a reason to smile. I dare anyone who watches the video to not be twittering like a bird after watching this video.
We’re hoping to snag tickets today for Tom Petty’s concert at the Verizon, April 12th. Regina’s opening for him!
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Sunday Report Card
This was a more productive week than last week. TG!
1) I have something in the works for Ellora’s Cave. Another My Immortal Knight. I have new covers for books 2-4 that I hope will attract new readers to the series, because I want to continue visiting that world. The first thing is a repurposing of a quickie I self-published. My freaky little succubus story. Following that will be the completion of Viper and Mariah’s story. Yay! Viper’s been waiting for an HEA forever!
2) I submitted a paranormal story that’s half-written to a publisher. Witches, demons, a bit of police drama in the mix. Cross your fingers!
3) Lastly, I am nearing the end of Dragon’s Desire. I hope to finish it up in the next couple of days. Since it’s a straight-to-Kindle project, it won’t be long before you can read it.
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Remember, The Believe Fairy Contest continues! Be sure to click the link for the rules! And post a comment to enter! Ciao, for now!
Just a couple of reminders before I report. You’re welcome to grade me! 🙂
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Lone Heart releases Tuesday! Here’s what it’s all about:
When temptation catches fire, saddle up and hang on for the ride.
Lone Wyatt is a long way from his Colorado home. After his brother married the woman they both loved, he figured it’d be best if he was out of the way. He’d like to have his own one-and-only, but he’s in no rush. Until he saunters into a small Oklahoma town and spots Charli Kudrow. One wary glance from her haunted eyes, and he knows there’s hidden fire inside her just waiting to erupt. And he’s ready to tear through every objection she can think up.
Charli intends to slip out of Shooters unnoticed as soon as she’s done pinning a help wanted notice to the bulletin board. But there’s a cowboy at the bar with a killer smile who seems hell-bent on seducing her. And she feels something she hasn’t felt in five long years of widowhood—a spark of attraction. Thinking she’ll never see him again, she succumbs to temptation, only to discover that little “spark” is more like a raging wildfire.
One weekend is all he asks. One weekend to prove there’s more between them than just blazing hot sex…
Warning: Sometimes, love happens in an instant, but it takes a lot of sexin’ up to make one stubborn woman a believer.
Remember it? Well, it ends Tuesday! If you want to know more, click on my contest link: Contest
All you have to do to enter is post a comment sometime between now and January 31st! And the more days you drop by and say hello, the more entries you have!
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My Report Card
Enough dawdling now. I do have news to report!
1) I finished up a short story, entitled “Marmalade.” It’s about a married woman whose husband gives her the okay to have some fun with the boss’s wife. Very delicious!
2) I wrote my way through chapter four of the dragon story. I have only a few pages left to wrap it up, but first want to spend some time revising to make sure I close all the dangling threads. That one’s heading straight to Kindle, so you won’t have to wait long!
3) I recieved and read through my first two submissions for the anthology project, Wild at Heart! All you writers out there, be sure to check out the details. Stories must be submitted by April 1st! Find details here
4) We started another round of critiques with the Rose’s Colored Glasses critique group. I have to finish mine today. Why, oh why, do I always wait until the last minute? 🙁
5) I continued leading, along with my sister, the Rose’s Plotting Bootcamp.
This week, I plan to:
1) Finish the final read-thru/revision of “Marmalade” and ship it the editor;
2) Revise and complete the dragon story and ship it to the editor;
3) Begin the sequel to Bitten in the Big Easy;
4) And lastly, write another short story for another collection—this one with a paranormal bent.
I hope to do all that with two children underfoot while their mother takes a trip. Eeek! I may be a little overambitious.
Let me get a couple of announcements out of the way, then I’ll get to business! This is one of my New Year’s rezzies, so put up with it already!
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Last Day to Get It Free!
It looks like folks are finding the story. As of this morning, there had been 2500 free downloads in the States, and more in England and Germany. The point was to:
1) reward my loyal readers, and
2) perhaps, pick up some new readers—if they liked what they read.
Tonight at midnight, the offer goes away and the price will go back up to $2.99. I’d like for it to finish strong so that when it goes back to the “paid” list on Amazon, it doesn’t fall away into oblivion. So, be sure to get your copy now and send the link to a friend! And if you’ve read it, why now take a minute to leave a review? Just sayin’…
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Three Signed Books Contest
Remember that? If not, click on my contest link: Contest
All you have to do to enter is post a comment sometime between now and January 31st! And the more days you drop by and say hello, the more entries you have! Easy, right?
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My Report Card
I keep a To Do List, which I update every Sunday. I shoot for the moon, but am truly satisfied if I only accomplish lift off. The point is to keep all my goals fresh and in front of me while I whittle away.
This week, I managed to:
1) Field questions regarding the Wild at Heart call for submissions; (If you’re a writer, you’ll want to click on the link and find out more!)
2) Respond to lessons from the ongoing Plotting Bootcamp;
3) I completed chapter 1 of AT;
4) I wrote the opening of a new short story;
5) My formatter person rushed the job for me so that I had Strokes back in time to upload it on Monday, then I spent time promoing the book everywhere I could think of;
6) I put together the newsletter for the After Midnight Fantasies group;
7) And it wasn’t part of my goals, but I put together a one-page, single-space proposal for a two-novella demon book;
8 ) I wrote a proposal for a Cleis antho and shipped it to my editor;
9) Tuesday, my daughter was ill, so I dropped everything and spent the day and evening at her house taking care of the wee ones;
10) Thursday, I attended an art guild meeting with my mom and aunt;
11) and Saturday, I spoke at the Diamond State Romance Authors‘ monthly meeting about time managements and planning!
Does that sound like enough? It was definitely not enough progress on the main goal, the demon story. I hope to remedy that this week!
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I need nags. “You go write, Delilah”“Why are you on Facebook when you should be writing me more stories!” I won’t get mad, and just maybe, I’ll follow orders! Y’all have a good week!
2) The eighth book in the My Immortal Knight series, My Sweet Succubus, is out! It’s Moses Brown’s story, and I know there are those of you out there who have been waiting for him to have his happy ever after. Well, he gets it all right. Just not sayin’ where. 🙂 If you’d like to read more, click on the cover.
