Happy New Year!

It's not quite 2016 in my neck of the woods, but it's close enough that I think I can wish you all a happy new year. It's probably a good time for me to post an update, too, since it's been a little while.

I want to say thanks again for all the support you guys gave me for my Kindle Scout campaign, and even though Game Misconduct wasn't selected, it has made it out into the world. And even more quietly than it, The Monster in the Woods has also been published.

I still have a quest ahead to get my books noticed and published traditionally, but for now things are remaining self-published. Since all the books in my near future are going to be parts of existing series, I think that's going to continue for awhile.

Speaking of what's next, for those who have read Game Misconduct, I'm going to be writing Nelson's story. It's something that's been swimming around in my head for a few weeks now, so starting tomorrow it's going to coming to life. After that, I really want to finish out the Nightwalker Saga, along with Daughter of Gaia and The Argonauts Adventures. If I write nothing else in 2016, my goal is to get those four books written.

As you can see, it's going to be a busy year, and I'm excited to see where it leads. Thank you again to everyone who has supported me in this crazy dream of bringing the stories in my head to life. I wouldn't be here without all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, it's a holiday where I live, one of my favorites, and it's the last day of my Kindle Scout campaign for Game Misconduct. It would be remiss of me not to immediately thank all of you who have supported the campaign. It's taken a little while for it to take off - pretty much the whole campaign - but it's finally getting some looks, which is all I can ask for. I really do love this book and I'm hoping it will be out in some fashion before the next major holiday here.

So enough about books for now, although I have started shopping The Monster in the Woods around if anyone was interested in an update on it. I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I thought I'd talk about some of those things.

First, of course, is my wonderful husband. We've been together for fifteen years now and he seems to never tire of my craziness. Then of course is our "children," the two white fluffy dogs who think I am their pillow. I'm thankful I have a regular nine-to-five job that pays the bills while I try to figure out if my writing career will ever take off. It pays for things like the roof over my head and the hockey tickets I need, because only at hockey games do I seem to get the voices in my head telling me to write more books to quiet for a few minutes.

There are many other things I'm thankful for, but the only other one really important for this blog post is you. I am thankful for anyone who has been a part of my journey as an author. There is no way I could list you all out by name, because I don't even know some of your names, but I am thankful you have given me an opportunity to share the worlds I create with you.

The pains of being relegated to the last page

Happy November, one of my favorite months. I have a lot of those it seems, but I'm hoping November pops up on that list for many reasons in the weeks to come. It's been a busy hockey month already for me, and I'm getting ready to head to another game. I wanted to stop in and give a little update on where things currently sit with The Monster in the Woods and Game Misconduct.

Update: There is no update.

I haven't heard anything back from my agent query for Monster, which is to be expected. It's only been a couple of weeks, and I'm sure the stack of queries before me wasn't small. I may have mentioned that I only sent it to one person to start with, but I have a secondary list ready to go once I hear, or don't hear anything.

As far as GM, well after the end of campaign success I thought I had with The Call, I kind of expected things to be going a little better. It doesn't help that for almost a solid week the book has been the very last one in the listings for romance, no movement at all when I check multiple times a day. That probably means that it isn't getting very many eyeballs on it.

I need some help changing that. I know that most of the people who read my books probably lean more towards fantasy storylines, but GM has the same kind of feel as a lot of my stories. I just decided no one needed to sprout fur. Hockey players are already superheroes in my mind - I almost fainted just last night when I was waiting in line for something at a game and one ran by me for a pregame jog (I'm sure the fainting was just a matter of him being my favorite player).

Anyway, back to GM. Please take a second to check it out on Kindle Scout, https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2928DHO240K4J, and if you can find a hundred friends to also check it out, I will love you forever and ever :)

Please nominate Game Misconduct

And just like that, Game Misconduct is up on Kindle Scout and it needs some nominations. I'm hoping to do a little better than The Call did as far as time spent in the hot and trending area, so I need help.

I've got 29 days to get as many votes/nominations as I can and hope that the powers that be like the book enough to move forward with it. As you may recall, Game Misconduct is my first contemporary romance with no signs or hints of paranormal. It was a new venture for me, and I think it turned out pretty well.

If you nominate and it does get chosen by Kindle Scout to be published, you'll get a free e-book copy once the editors are happy with it. So, please, please, please, please get to clicking over to https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2928DHO240K4J and hit the nominate button.

THANK YOU!

Apparently I love sitting on the edge of my seat

So, I finally did it. Query letter, synopsis and first three chapters of The Monster in the Woods were packaged together in an email this morning and sent to an agent. I know I have been threatening it for at least a month, but it took a while to get the courage together to see the task through.

Game Misconduct also was finally submitted to Kindle Scout. Hopefully sometime next week I'll have a link to share - and everyone is ready to hit the nominate button.

With both of those actions complete, I have probably a month of nail biting to wait through before I hear anything. I should've probably submitted Monster to more than one agent, but I'm taking baby steps after going crazy and self-publishing for so long.

I should've probably sought out agents long ago, but the world of the Internet makes everything so easy to just hit a button and have your work out there. You also have to actually read the Internet to figure out that isn't always the right way to get started in your writing career. People don't magically find your books like I thought they would once upon a time. Marketing is a must for a self-publishing writer, and let's face it, it's not my strong suit.

If nothing else, the path I've gone done has taught me a lot. I'm not a perfect writer, editor, proofreader; I am still too shy to put myself out there and shout from the rooftops about my work; and writing takes a lot of work, it isn't just writing a book out, slapping a cover together and hoping everyone buys it.

Well, that's my update and ramble for the day. I'll share a link to the Kindle Scout campaign as soon as I get one.

It's always fun to see your name on the screen in a movie theater

So, this post isn't really about writing or what's going on with my two current work in progresses - still ironing out query letters there. This post is about how I spent a couple hours today in my 9 to 5 work life and ended up seeing my name on the screen for a documentary I was watching.

Sure it was just a special thanks at the very end for the work I did on the interactive digital portion that went along with the project, but I was sitting in a room full of probably a hundred people and got to see my name. I was also acknowledged at the beginning and had to stand up and wave to the crowd.

I've never had a moment like that and it was pretty cool. It was also nerve-racking for an introvert like me. I'm not a person who likes to have attention pointed at me, so when people clapped and cheered at the beginning for my introduction, I was quick to take a seat.

Anyway, that was how I spent my afternoon and now it's time to get back to those query letters, and maybe my paper mache projects.

Guess what ...

If you guessed I was in a melodramatic mood this weekend, you get a gold star. Don't let anyone ever tell you that writing is an easy hobby. I'm sure there's stats about how much alcohol and caffeine the average author drinks a day to deal with some of the frustrations a writer comes across.

I don't drink anything harder than alcohol-free apple cider and it's been over a decade since I had caffeine, so I just get glum. Then I wander across the https://iwl.me/ site and laugh hysterically when I fill in chapters of my work in progresses.

I pasted in the prologue (yes, as of yesterday there is a prologue) of The Monster in the Woods and it told me it was like Anne Rice, which knowing the tone of the book is a good thing. I pasted in other chapters and it started giving me various authors, but that wasn't really the funny part.

The funny part came when I pasted in the first chapter of Game Misconduct and it came up with Stephen King. Second chapter was Ian Fleming and the third chapter was Stephen King again. Neither of those authors come to mind when I think about my little contemporary romance.

It makes me curious to see what criteria they use. It says they use word choice and writing style to compare. Evidently I should've made Game Misconduct a horror movie with a hunky spy in it.

I know it's not really looking at genre, but it was still funny to me, and it helped give me a break from working on query letters and synopses.

The troubled life of someone who likes to write

Another week has come and gone and I'm probably wondering now more than ever why I keep writing. I have a handful of fans that I'm aware of who seem to love the stories I tell, but everyone else seems to think my writing sucks. I know not everyone in the world has read one of my stories, but there are just days that I feel like I couldn't tell a story well to save my life based on feedback I see.

I've had more than enough of those days this week. As I'm sure anyone who was curious guessed, Game Misconduct did not move on in the contest I entered it in. The fact that they were supposed to move only 50 books on and ended up moving 55 kind of felt a little like a nail in a coffin. They bent the rules for people they had trouble deciding on, so clearly my pitch and first chapter stunk. There wasn't any kind of feedback shared, which means I'll never know why they didn't like it.

I like to think I've grown since my days of writing Avery's and Nyx's stories three years ago. I can see it in my writing, but I still watch and wait for a person to return one of my newer books after they purchased it because I have pretty much lost any confidence that I can string words together to tell an intriguing tale. Sometimes it makes me want to cry and other times it feels like it would be a relief off my shoulders if I just gave up and went back to reading instead of making my own tales.

Which is sad because I really do love to write. I finished up The Monster in the Woods the other day and was dabbing away tears because I loved the way things ended. It wasn't at all where I thought things would go, but the characters in my head grab me and take me on a journey.

Maybe I wasn't meant to share those journeys with the world. Maybe I was meant to just write them for my own enjoyment and brain exercises. I guess that's something I need to figure out before I start on anything new.

If you're curious how my two recent journeys panned out, both Game Misconduct and The Monster in the Woods are on writeon.amazon.com and wattpad.com. While I think about things, I'll probably be pretty quiet for a while. Thank you to all of you who have become fans and have supported me. You definitely are the reasons I've kept going when people seemed to laugh at me.

Happy Saturday!

It's been a productive week for me with my little serial that I've been working on. As I've been writing, I've had to ask myself how in the world I thought just releasing two chapters a week would work out for me. I'm three weeks in, so chapter six has been shared on jukepop.com, but I'm currently writing chapter twenty-four and it's really hard not to start double posting.

I started out the story thinking it would be a beauty and the beast kind of tale, but as my characters often do, they fooled me. They're from a completely different, much older, story. I think it's going to be interesting to see how things conclude. They've shared some key events, but the conclusion seems to still be hazy. I'm imagining that I'll find out exactly where things end up by the end of next weekend, and I'm excited to see how the conflict is resolved.

For my other book that I've been working on, I have way too many days before I hear anything about whether Game Misconduct made it to the second round of the contest I have it in. I'm still freaking out about it and already picture myself in tears ten or eleven days from now when they tell me I didn't make it. I seem to be getting some support for it on WriteOn, but it's hard for me to tell if it's what the judges are looking for and whether it competes with the other entries.

As I've gone along on my little writing journey the last few years, I've already seen the dream I had when I first started come true. Just to have other people read my words and find enjoyment. As time has gone on, I've really wanted to try traditional publishing. Both self and traditional publishing have pros and cons, but something about having a contract will make me feel like I've reached another level of accomplishment.

I've always been hesitant to tell people I know that I write, because I've never felt anything I've written is good enough. I think something about having a book traditionally published will finally make me feel that something was good enough. That probably doesn't make sense, but right now it's kind of like a light at the end of the tunnel for me.

If it doesn't work out this time, I'm dedicated to keep trying. I'll probably try to shop both Game Misconduct and The Monster in the Woods around to see if I can get any takers. Hopefully while queries are out in the world, I can finish up the three series I've had sitting in the wings. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan of action. I guess I'll get back to my monster and see if I can't get the characters to reveal the ending.

Let the nailbitting commence

I get easily nervous. That's pretty obvious to anyone who has ever spoken to me, right? And sitting here a couple of days before my contest entry for Game Misconduct has to be finalized, I'm biting my nails.

It's my first non-paranormal work, even though the first book I ever wrote didn't have blatant paranormal qualities, every book since has. Okay, there is that one other book that I got about a third of the way through that I had to shelf for one of my paranormal story lines. (Note to self, circle back to that book one day. It was going to be great.)

So, writing a book that could actually happen in real life is a little new for me. At least one of the topics in Game Misconduct wasn't though. I think I've shouted it from every roof top that I'm a hockey fan. That's probably why I made a hockey player the male lead in the story. It's something in real life I can relate to.

There are a lot of other parts of the book that I had to rely heavily on Internet research to try to get accurate. I was lucky enough that my critique partner for the story had experience in one of the aspects I did research on. When the book is published, there's going to be a hearty dedication made out to her for all her help.

She really helped me put all the polishing I could on a story that I really hope people will enjoy. I think it still has my sense of sarcasm laced through it, and you know it wouldn't be a story written by yours truly if there weren't some plot twists in there somewhere.

So, while I wait for the word whether it will move on to the top 50, give it a gander over on wattpad.com. If I do get a chance to move on, I will need every vote I can get. Note: votes don't count until after Oct. 6, so read now, vote later :)

A new adventure

Why won't my brain shut off? Obviously, I don't really want it to stop working, but when I'm playing around with one book, it would be really freaking nice if it quite coming up with new characters it wanted me to write about. And why, brain, did you all of a sudden go really dark?

I've decided the story it wants me to tell would work well as a serial, which if you're not hip on what that is, it's just a way to say that the story is posted one chapter at a time for the world to read. After spending the long weekend searching the Internet for sites that host serials, I decided I wanted to try out the Jukepop site.

For this kind of story telling, I could've used wattpad or writeon and just directed my readers to read there, but Jukepop gives incentives for readers voting for your stories - incentives equals money in this instance - so I thought it might be interesting to see what happens. I'm still learning about their system, but the serial I'm started has already been accepted to the program.

What's the story? Very good question. I've gone with the title "The Monster in the Woods" and here's the really quick synopsis based on what my brain is currently sharing about the story.
After being held captive for almost a year, Britta sees a chance to escape the monsters who killed her family. The only problem is that her freedom means facing a different kind of monster. The kind that has sharp teeth and hasn’t met a person it didn’t kill.

I've got an idea where things will go, but who knows what twists I will come up with. I'm currently planning on posting updates Mondays and Thursdays - eventually I may back that down to just once a week depending on readership.

So, how can you find this new story? Go to http://www.jukepop.com/home/read/9076?chapter=1. The first chapter is up, and I should have a new one for tomorrow. I'll post on Twitter when new ones are released, so make sure you're following me, and pretty, pretty please hit the +vote button on each of the chapters you read. I'd really like to see if they do pay money for being in the top 30 for votes.

Also, please don't forget to vote for The Witch's Web in the Hidden Gems contest: http://www.inkitt.com/stories/21913/

In a contest mood

I have never won any popularity contests. Being the exact opposite of outgoing kinda puts me at a disadvantage. Knowing that, it may surprise you that I'm working on entering some of my books in what eventually ends up being popularity contests, which means I could really use your help.

One contest is still a good month away before any voting is needed, but I found a contest that took previously self-published work, so I entered what I've decided is my favorite book that I've written, The Witch's Web. The prize seems to be the company running the contest acting like an agent and getting your book published via someone who isn't yourself. There aren't a ton of details on it, but I'm currently trying to get my words out in front of as many people as I can, so I'll try anything once.

They say voting isn't everything, but I believe you have to be in the top 10% to move to any other levels, so please, please, please take a second and hit the little heart button if you like the story.

Link to do so: http://www.inkitt.com/stories/21913

And if you've forgotten what The Witch's Web is about, here's the description:
A day can really change your life. If Molly was honest with herself, her life changed in just one night. The one time she decided to be a little reckless turned out to be a blessing, and everything that happened afterwards couldn't take that away from her. That one night a miracle happened and Molly's daughter was created.

The Witch’s Web tells Molly’s story right after she gives birth to her daughter. In it, Molly finds her life spinning out of control when it’s revealed that the father of her little miracle isn’t just an average guy out looking for a beer after a long day at work. He’s really Jason from the Greek mythology stories her mother told her as a child, and he’s got a witch for an ex, who's determined to make sure he doesn’t have a family of his own.

And of course, one of my favorite covers:

The Pitch

So in this grand world of writing, there is often the need to have a pitch. Different people/publishers require different things it seems. The current one I'm playing with needs a pitch outlining the story concept, plot, characters, conflict and setting - in 100 words or less. After writing tens of thousands of words, that seems so little.

How do you get all the drama and emotion into something that short? I have no clue, but here are six takes I've been working on. There's a poll underneath them that I'd greatly appreciate knowing which one sounds the best, or if they all sound like crap. This is a new aspect of writing for me, so I'm learning and won't be offended at all if I'm going down the wrong path.

1.
Being set up with a date by her dad was the last thing Casey Holcomb needed. Learning to tell him no was on her to-do list, but first she had to make it through the annual breast cancer fundraiser they held in one piece.

As a star hockey player, Dylan Jones had more female attention than he knew what to do with, but none of it was from the woman he’d dubbed his number one fan. Having Casey as a date was a dream come true. The only problem was that he needed to convince her she shared the dream.

---

2.
Dylan Jones had almost everything. He was the star player on his hockey team and the line of women vying for his attention seemed endless. His face was even on the cover of a video game. What Dylan didn’t have was the woman of his dreams, and finding her in a sea of fans proved to be an insurmountable task.

Casey Holcomb’s dad didn’t usually butt into her business, and because of that she had trouble telling him no. When he sets her up with a date for the breast cancer fundraiser they host, Casey’s life is turned upside down.

---

3.
As a star hockey player, Dylan Jones didn’t have a problem finding women willing to spend time with him. The problem was he wanted the woman who didn’t mince words when she yelled what she thought of his skills during every game. He just had to find her.

Casey Holcomb decided at a young age she didn’t have time for men and the games they played. Work and health issues were more than enough to keep her mind occupied, but when her father sets her up on a date, Casey quickly learns maybe there is something missing from her life.

---

4.
A family history of breast cancer has Casey Holcomb’s attention divided between work and her health, leaving little time to deal with relationships. When her dad decides to set her up, she’s not happy about his interference, but she can’t tell him no.

As a star hockey player, Dylan knows it’s hard to find someone who’s interested in you based on who you are and not the fact that your face is on the cover of a video game. Meeting Casey is a dream come true for him. He just needs to prove to her that she shares the dream.

---

5.
When you’re set up on a date with one of the city’s most eligible bachelors, you become a hated woman. Casey Holcomb finds that out quickly while dancing at a charity ball in Dylan Jones’ arms. People didn’t understand there were more important things on her mind than being wooed by Dylan.

Dylan, on the other hand, was thrilled to be Casey’s date. As a star hockey player, women threw themselves at him all the time, but she was different. Dylan knew she was worth every second it took to win her over. He just hoped it wouldn’t take years.

---

6.
He’s a star hockey player. She’s his biggest critic.

Casey Holcomb’s taunts during hockey games don’t necessarily mean she hates Dylan Jones. She just hates that every unattached female in the stands seems to be in love with him. For her, there are much more important things to focus on, like work and her health.

After being set up on a date by Casey’s dad, Dylan uses the opportunity to try to win Casey over. Will her stubbornness and the army of women vying for Dylan’s attention stand in their way, or will Casey learn that happy endings aren’t fantasies?

polls

Days off

I feel like I've gotten so much done since having most of this week off from the day job. Both The Call and The Pull have made it out into the world. Now I'm really focusing in on marketing them and finishing up Game Misconduct in hopes of seeing if I can find someone who wants to publish it.

Here's the working cover for it:


I won't be holding my breath, but I'm looking at Kindle Scout and some publishers that don't require agents. It's been a fun story to write and I really like how it turned out because it's nothing like I first imagined. When I first started writing it my mind was a little more focused on elements that wouldn't have made it a romance, and I decided I like somewhat happy endings.

Aside from that, I've been connecting more with writers and am trying to learn something from everyone I digitally meet. It's always great to hear you're not the only one going through something. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

How do months just go by?

I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that a month has gone by since the last time I posted anything. Seriously, how does time just fly like that?

I jumped right into the contemporary romance I was working on, and ended up leaving The Call and The Pull on the back burner. It wasn't very nice of me, but I'm trying to focus more on getting something out there that a publisher will maybe pick up instead of just self-publishing everything. That tends to mean the quick month of writing it usually takes to turn out a story is stretched out for at least a month or two as I wait for someone to tell me whether they like my book or not.

One of my biggest problems when I end up finishing a book and reading it over and over a handful of times to try to find all the issues is that I never feel it's good enough. I've said before that I don't like giving up control of my stories, and so far never have, but a part of me really wants something that tells me that what I've written is good enough to have someone else publish it.

I think more than just the fact that my brain won't stop coming up with new stories to tell, I write because it's a way for me to connect with people. I've always been horribly shy, which is why you will very rarely find a picture of me somewhere or things I write on my blog or in emails come out somewhat stiff.

Writing has given me the ability to grow a thicker skin and express myself in a way I don't think possible in my daily life. I'm not really sure how I got going down this road for this post, but I guess it's been something on my mind lately.

In actual writing news, I have finished up Game Misconduct, which is my first foray into contemporary romance without things that go bump in the night. Here's the kind of quick working description of what the book is about.

---

As a star hockey player, Dylan Jones never had a problem finding women who wanted to spend time with him. The problem was he didn't want just any woman. He wanted the one who yelled what she thought of his skills during every game, and she didn't mince words. When he finally comes face-to-face with his number one fan, he finds out that falling in love with a woman you've never met doesn't prepare you for the reality you're in store for trying to convince her you're the man of her dreams.

---

It ended up being an interesting book to write. I thought it would be hard not to throw a vampire or werewolf or Greek deity in there, but since it was about hockey and I may have worked my new love for tiny homes in there, it turned out pretty good.

I'm currently deciding exactly what I'm going to do with it. Part of me says try the Kindle Scout route again even if it didn't work with The Call. Towards the end of the run, The Call had three straight days with the Hot label. I just need to figure out how to get people interested from the start. I had great plans of a social media campaign, but then I got a little freaked out or something and kept silent.

If I do decide to roll the dice and try again, I will apologize now to anyone who follows me on Twitter, because I will be campaigning hard for Game Misconduct. I have most of next week off, so I'll know by then what I'm going to do. During that time I'll also give The Call and The Pull final reads and get them out there. I'm sorry for anyone who was excited to get those read. They'll see the light of day soon.

Music for my brain

Happy Saturday! Another week gone by and the characters in my head haven't driven me insane. I call that a good week.

This week has been focused on a contemporary romance (cr) that I've had playing out in my head for a while. I've dabbled in cr once before, and have a book that had about six chapters written before one of my other books took over and it went on the back burner. Note to self: Get back to that book one of these days.

As I'm listening to Bruno Mars this morning while working on the current cr, I'm considering pen names to use for it. Since it's nothing like my paranormal/sci-fi books, I'd like to write it under a different name. Which more than likely means a new website and social identity to go along with it. That terrifies me to no end. I have trouble keeping up with the accounts I already have.

What are your feelings about authors writing under different names? Do you think different genres should have that kind of division? Authors out there, do you have more than one name you write under?

As far as my two latest paranormal books, they'll be coming out in the next week or so. I wanted to take a little break and then read them over again. I usually get too excited and publish things immediately. This time I'm taking things slow.

As I mentioned in my last note, I'm thinking about doing something with social media to gain more followers. So, anyone who follows me on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or this blog will have the ability to download a free book. Each follow equals a book, so up to four free books.

If you already follow, you aren't left out. Just contact me via personal/direct message on any of those platforms and let me know what book(s) you'd like. I'll send you a Smashwords coupon code(s) for the book(s) and it's(their) yours. Like I said, the new books will be out within two weeks, so you may have a little wait if you want those, but they are included in the available for free pile.

Summer of yardwork

I've lived in my house for eleven years now. The first couple of those years my husband and I played around with landscaping and general beautifying of our yard. For the last eight or so years it's been nothing but mowing the yard. This summer evidently is the year that all changes.

For weeks now our weekends have been spent in the backyard. First it was putting up a little fence for the dogs to keep them from running around the neighborhood. Then it progressed to trying to clear out a massive brush pile that had accumulated behind our garage, which had become a home for the neighborhood groundhog. We also built a compost area to deal with the many leaves in the yard.

Things are coming along great. Today we cleaned out a tree ring and reserved a quarter of it for our wood pile. The rest of it was filled with flowers - the first in our backyard for many years. I can't wait for there to be grass in what is now mostly just a dirt yard, so I can sit outside on my lounger and write.

As far as my last post, about submitting one of my boos to Kindle Scout, that didn't work out, which is fine. I was able to finish the sequel tothat book while I waited to hear back and I'm happy that I remain in control of the first book. That's one of my biggest reasons to keep things all self-published - I hate giving up control. I also hate marketing and self-promotion, which is why I still work a 9-5 job and only write as a hobby.

One of these days I'll feel confident enough to push my stories more. Until then, I'll probably be doing more things on social media. I'm thinking about offering a free copy of one of my books (the follower's choice) for anyone who follows me on Facebook to help boost followers. I think I'll figure out the details and post information about the giveaway when I get The Call and The Pull published in the next week or so.

I don't think I have anymore updates right now. I'm trying to figure out which project to work on next. It's between circling back to the Nightwalker, Argonauts and Daughter of Gaia series or maybe writing a story that isn't paranormal that I've had in my head for a while. I can be swayed in certain directions, so if you have a preference, let me know.

It's been a while

So it's actually been a long while. I've been so busy with work and playing with series I wrote years ago that I haven't felt like I've gotten anything accomplished lately. I suppose I have, because I did write another story and for fun I put it in the Kindle Scout program. I'm second guessing that choice, just because I don't think I have the following or social media chops to make it work, but it probably isn't hurting anything.

Anyway, while I was working on my Avery Clavens and Nyx Slaughter series the last few months, I kept getting flashes of scenes from a new story and I slowly put it together while I was working on everything else. From the very beginning my characters were at odds with me, which doesn't happen often. Usually they just tell me what is going on and I agree.

In The Call, Nikki and Paul particularly decided to just do whatever they wanted. I blame them for taking forever to get the story out - it's almost impossible to get any work done when your characters can't decide their motivation and change first reactions when you're trying to write them.

I don't really have any more updates other than I'm moving on to a second book in that series, which wasn't planned, but my brain won't be quiet. I thought I'd get back to my Nightwalker, Daughter of Gaia and Argonauts series, but I have to wait until my brain stops telling me to write more about Nikki and the gang. I love new ideas and where they take me, sometimes they like to make my life difficult, though.

That's going to be it from me for now. I'll try to make sure to update more often and maybe I'll even start doing the weekly short stories again. Time hasn't allowed for them, and weekends have proven really busy, but I do miss writing short Nyx adventures.

Happy New Year!

So it's been a while. Surprisingly I didn't fall off the face of the earth in the last three or four weeks. I've been busy with work and getting book five of the Avery series done, which I just happened to post on Smashwords.com moments ago.

I'm really excited to be done rewritting things and on to writing that sixth book. I've started working on another book that spoke to me as I was working on The Harder I Work, the Luckier I Get, but I've been able to keep if from taking over my life. My priority is finishing Avery and I hope to have that done by the end of January. I have a feeling it's going to be an emotional roller coaster, much like the fifth book was, but I'll get it done.

I hope 2015 brings health and good fortunes to all of you and your families.