What I'm up to right now.

Fall has finally arrived here in North Georgia. Or at least it feels like it. The mornings are in the 50's and the afternoon/evenings are in the 80's. It's absolutely perfect! I open the windows and it cools the house all day long. I love it!

This is the second week of school for my younger two girls, and the oldest has been in college for a month now. Everyone seems to be settling in quite well. My house is quiet and MUCH cleaner. LOL. I've used the last week and a half to get my house back in order from the chaos that is summer break.

Now.... NOW.... It's finally time to get back into MY world. It's time to knock out a couple of books, plan some giveaways, prepare for my next conference, and submerge myself into my fictional worlds. I've missed them so these last four month!

On the personal front, this is the time of year when I schedule all my yearly check-ups. Yesterday I had my very first dermatologist head-to-toe look for suspicious mole activity. The doctor removed three of them. Eek!! I should hear back about the biopsies in the next two weeks. My grandmother passed last year from melanoma so me, my sister, and my mother figured it was time to have a once over. It just happened to be my turn yesterday. I now have Band-Aids on my left shoulder, left thigh, and right hip. Two of the three are places that never even see the sun!

Work-related, I have lots planned for the next few months. I have blog posts planned for you, a few newsletters, and of course opportunities to win goodies and free books. Stay tuned for more to come!  :)

Time to hit it!

O. M. G! School has started...finally! After three months of non-stop kids, I didn't think it would ever come. The first day of school arrive last Tuesday and I couldn't have been happier about it. And my kids were pretty thrilled, too!

I spent last week getting my house back in order, cleaning carpets, doing laundry, running errands, filling out school forms, and paying for all sorts of things to get everyone settled into the new school year. New routines were established (considering the oldest is a senior who drives herself, with only 1 class at the high school after her morning college classes, and my middle child started high school) and implemented while I watched the clock to make sure everyone got to where they needed to be in a timely manner. If everything goes as smoothly as last week went, I'll have a little more free time on my hands this year. Yay, me!

All of that means this week I can (finally!) jump back into my work routine. Summers are a bust for writing in the Silvers household. There's just too much fun stuff to do, and not enough time to do it all. But when school starts, I'm free to delve back into MY world. I'm excited to get back into Liz Baker's world and finish book 6 before she uses some of her unpredictable powers to knock my behind back into gear. Eek!

The next few weeks and months will see me finish book 6 an finally release it, and then I'll be starting on the first book in a brand new series. I've been wanting to start this new one for some time now, but I'm not one of those authors who can work on multiple books at once. Nope, I'm a one book kind of gal, so it had to wait.

So here we go! Onward and upward! I'm planning to have To Kill a Demon off to beta readers by early October ad hopefully the release date won't be far behind. And a big THANK YOU to my very patient readers. Lots of love to you all!

Why I Love September.

My girls:
11th grader, 8th grader, & 3rd grader.

September, September, how I love you so!
Other than the lower temperatures, apple season, and the start of changing leaf colors, September is when my kids go back to school. It's the month I regain my freedom from complaints, arguments, the phrase "There's nothing to eat," and the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to a parent... "I'm bored."

My kids went back to school two weeks ago, and it has taken those two weeks for me to get my household back in order. Before anyone asks, yes, I do make my kids clean during their summer break, but I like things the way I like things, so I put my house back into MY order when they go back to school. Which, in the long run, isn't too bad considering they were home for three months and it only took me two weeks.

Sooooooo.....

Now it's time to get back to work on new projects and old ideas. And boy do I have the ideas. :)

Over the next few months I'll be writing book 6 in the Liz Baker series and the first book in a brand new series. I'm hoping to release both of them in the early months of 2014. In the meantime, I think Author Jennifer Malone Wright said it best in her blog post titled, September is an important month for authors.

I wish you all a great week!

Back to school celebration!

It's the first day back to school! Time for the 2011-2012 school year to begin. I hear the cheers of gleeful parents pushing their kids out of the house and cars with smiles on their faces and excitement in their hearts. "Have a good day, dear. I love you." Then they throw their hands to the heavens and scream, "WOOHOO!"

Or maybe that's just me. . .

After three months of summer vacation, several weeks of school preparation, and four school visits to two different schools last week, it's finally time for me to get back to MY work year. That's one of the best things about being a writer and stay-at-home mom; I can take off when my kids are out of school. However, I get antsy when I'm not creating on a regular basis. I miss my writing schedules, the worlds I work within, and conversing with my characters. That makes a new school year a time to celebrate. :)

So what do I have planned for my new work year?

• The third Liz Baker novel


• A new erotic novella


• A short Liz Baker story that will be given away on the website for free


• Preparing for & attending Book 'Em NC Conference & Book Fair in February


• Staying on top of the Turkish book releases

All of that on top of my regular mommy & wife duties: housekeeping, animal care, errand running, family member helping, school volunteer, and the many other things that I do on a regular basis. I also have some home improvements planned, but not yet scheduled.

If you're a parent with kids heading back to school, I celebrate with you! We all have different reasons for being excited, but that doesn't mean the excitement is any less. And if your kids are anything like mine, they're just as excited to be heading back.

Here's an exciting new school year for us all!

Big plans on the first day of school.

Good morning everyone. Today is a big, big day. Today is a day that brings peace, quiet, and most of all, FREEDOM back into my world. IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

Wooooohooooooo!!!! Tim & I took the big girls to school this morning and after the oldest was dropped at middle school there was a huge sigh of relief when I said, "Well, it's done."

We've been home for 1 hour now and I've already cooked (yes, cooked) breakfast, emptied & filled the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen counters, swept the floor, stripped the sheets off my bed & Kaitlyn's and tossed them into the washer, Tim vacuumed our bedroom & livingroom, and now I'm writing this. Not bad for 1 hour. Yay!

Neither of the girls wanted to be walked into school this morning, so we dropped off the 4th grader at elementary school (5 mins down the road) and then had to fight the insane traffic to get across town and drop the oldest off for her first day of middle school. She's a big 7th grader now.

They both have to be at school and in class by 7:30am. The 9yr old made with plenty of time to spare, but it was 7:15 when the oldest hopped out of the van. It was sooooooo crowded. Of course, it always is during the first week of school. It'll start easing up next week.

I have over 5 hours of quiet left for today. I'll have to head to pickup time about 2:30 for the middle daughter. However, the oldest wants to try her hand at riding the school bus home this year. Sooooo, now we just wait and see if she makes it home easily. LOL! I don't think she'll like it, and expect to hear her asking me to come get her by next week. LOL.

Okay, some of you may have noticed that the menu bar above looks a bit different today. As I said the other day, I'm going to be working on a blog redesign, and that's just a little something I'm playing with up there. CSS isn't my favorite to work with (I'm much, much better with plain HTML), but I always figure out enough to change things up and make them pretty. LOL.

It'll be a while before I'm finished because I'm creating a logo, a new header, custom sidebar headers for each section, new colors, theme, and widgets. It's going to be a lot of work, but it's time for a new look. :-) I have a whole list of ideas that I will be working with. Should be fun!

Well, I'm off for the day. I'm going to enjoy having only one child home today and getting work done easily. Yay me! :-)

Have a great day!

Happy Labor Day!

What do you have planned for today? It's the day that so many families are spending together and celebrating the end of summer. There are cook-outs, camping trips, get-togethers, parties, outside games, and much more.

We aren't doing any of those. LOL!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the big girls and today is being spent just relaxing and enjoying this last lazy day. Tomorrow begins our routine and brings back our schedule (which I've missed lately). The kids are planning their wardrobe, making sure all those school supplies are packing into the book bags, and wondering what the new school year will bring.

This evening I will be required (by 9yr old law) to straighten my middle daughter's curly, blonde hair and the oldest wants me to trim a little off of hers. I gave the 4 yr old her very first full hair cut on Saturday and she looks too cut. Her hair was down to her waist when wet and she was complaining that it kept getting "stuck under my arms" when she's in bed at night. LOL. I ended up cutting close to 6 inches off of her hair and now it's just below her shoulders.

Okay, that's it for today. Tomorrow is a big day.

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Ooohh, I can't wait.

Only 4 more days until school starts. Four more days. This extra month of summer vacation definitely came in handy when planning day trips and such, but I'm DONE with the kids being home all day long. Actually, they're tired of it too. They're as excited about the first day of school as I am. Woohoo!

Today is half over already. We slept late and then went out to do some Friday errands. I bought some grocries so that there was actually food in the house. LOL. If there's not cheese and ham in the fridge then there's absolutely NOTHING to eat... or though Tim thinks. LOL. So now he has food in the house. Hahaha!

Tonight is Mom's Friday to have the girls. Tim and I will be staying home and grilling out for dinner. We're doing grilled salmon, corn on the cob, yellow rice and steamed green beans. This is one of our favorite meals. It's so flavorful, yet light and easy. Yum!

I have two articles that I need to finish and submit today, while I want for payment from other ones. I love payday! :-) Luckily the two I need to write are already started and outlined. I know what I'm writing, I just need to write it. Another reason I can't wait 'til school starts.... more time to work!

Oh, it just hit me! I haven't shared the pics from our weekend trip, have I? Sorry all. Here you go. Just pop over to my Shutterfly account and watch the slideshow. There aren't a lot of pics since I didn't take the camera to Dixie Stampede, but there are a few of WonderWorks. :-)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8JZtmbZw3Y6o

Okay, I'm off to finish up my work so that I can enjoy the evening with my loving man and no worry about these articles. I don't think the laptop will go well with what I plan on wearing tonight. LOL!

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Wanna Know Wednesday #30.... A day late.

Yes, yes, I know. It's not Wednesday. Today is Thursday. However, yesterday was so busy that I forgot all about my Wanna Know list until it was late evening. So I'm just doing it today and it'll be a day late. LOL!

Yesterday we had Dish Network come out and install service for us. We're so sick of Charter's television service prices, and with Dish Network's curret specials we'll save over $800 in the next year over what we're paying Charter. Eek! Crazy isn't it? After looking at it like that, how could we not switch?

So we spent yesterday morning making sure everything was cleaned up in and around the house, and waiting on the dish guy to show up. He called at 11 am to say that he'd be here a little after 12. Well, it was 2pm when he finally got here. LOL. It was okay though since our appointment time was between 12 and 5. Hahaha!

The tech guy was nice and friendly. He and his partner dish guy had us all up and running in 2 hours. He showed me all the nice little details of the service and made sure I knew how to work the remote, and even showed me how to set the DVR. Most of the controls are the same as the Charter DVR.

This morning, we took our 3 cable boxes back to Charter and had the tv service cut off. The office lady asked, "Don't want to at least keep Basic?" Nope! LOL.

Ooohhh, today is Open House for the girls! School starts next Tuesday... only 5 days away! Woooooohooooooo!!!!! I can't wait. Tim can't wait. The girls can't wait. I'm so ready to get back on schedule. My days are much more productive when we're up and running by 6am every day.

Since school starts, and our oldest will be starting her first year of middle school, this week's (late) Wanna Know Wenesday is....

10 Things My Oldest Is Excited About

1. Going to middle school.
2. Seeing all her friends.
3. Having a locker.
4. Meeting new kids.
5. Being able to take new classes.
6. Being in a different school than Sara! (our middle daughter, lol)
7. Doing new sports. (she wants to play tennis)
8. Telling her friends about all the fun stuff we did over the summer.
9. Doing more stuff in art class.
10. She won't be surrounded by little kids all the time.

There it is. Now I'm off because the kids are rushing us to get ready for Open House. Gotta be there as soon as the doors open I suppose. LOL!

Have a great day!

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Wanna Know Wednesday #26

Good morning to all of you lovely people out there. I hope that you woke up to a beautiful Wednesday with lots of happiness. It's still muddy here, but the sun is peeking out from time to time. This has been one wet summer.

So tonight is a full moon. I've always loved the full moon. There's something magical and special about it glowing at its full brightness. With a cloudless sky the full moon can illuminate my entire house. It's quite lovely. Maybe I should go out and dance naked under the moonlight tonight. LOL! I would if I could convince Tim to do it too. Hahaha!

Speaking of my man. Today's his last day of work. I can't believe this day is already here. Seems like the days passed by so fast since the announcement of the lay-off. Now we just do what we can do and hope for the best. We've made all the preparations that we can possibly make, and now we just go with it.

I'm actually hoping that this going to be a good thing. Tim is the type to stick with where he's at and not make any changes unless he's forced into it. He's so good at it that at the age of 33 he's only had two jobs. He started working at the age of 16; worked there for ten years before moving to this current job where he's been for six years. Of course, I'm okay with that. I'd rather have a man who sticks with his jobs instead of moving from one to the next to the next.

Hopefully the future will bring about something fabulous for us. :-)

Okay, so it's Wednesday. When I sat down to write this I had no idea what my Wanna Know Wednesday would be about. However, I've been interrupted numerous times by the children (who are just as ready to go back to school as I am for them to go) and now I know what to list.

10 Of My Pet Peeves

1. Interruptions by children when I'm clearly working or on the phone.
2. Bad drivers who think they own the roads.
3. Someone arguing with me when they know I'm right.
4. Internet stalkers. Yep, you know who you are.
5. Screaming children. I don't care if they're mine or someone elses, I don't want to hear them screaming.
6. Crowds. Oh boy, do I hate crowds. Well, maybe I should say that I hate being IN crowds. I guess it's not so bad if I'm on the sidelines just watching the crowds go by. LOL!
7. Mopping the kitchen and then finding muddy footprints five minutes later.
8. Doing four loads of laundry, thinking I'm finally done, and then the girls bring in enough dirty clothes from their bedroom to do two more load. Blah!!!!
9. Trying to decide what's for dinner when you're not in the mood to cook or eat, and have no idea what to make. Yes, I'm often not in the mood for food, and have forgotten to eat on many ocassions.
10. Waiting on a sevice man to arrive between 8am and 5pm. Ugh! Seriously!

Those are only a few things that pick on my nerves. There are many, but these seem to be the top ones that happen more often than others.

Okay, I'm off to do some housework. I've had the kids cleaning their rooms all morning, and they're eating lunch right now. I've got #2 out of 3 loads of laundry washing right now. I'll have another load when Tim gets home from work and everyone takes showers this evening.

Have a great Hump Day!

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Is it time for school yet?

Please, please, please tell me that it's September 8th already. Geez, I don't think I can take much more of these kids whining, fighting, and screaming at each other. It's so muddy outside that they are mainly stuck inside. The youngest keeps begging to go to the beach; not realizing that the beach is six hours away and we won't be going back until next year.

Why, oh why, did the school system have to move the first day of school from August 6th to September 8th? I'm going utterly insane here. I haven't gotten much of any writing work done this summer, and that alone throws my entire world out of sync. I'm a writer. I must write! If I don't write my day isn't complete. Things get turned topsy-turvy when I can't find enough peace and quiet to put words on paper (laptop screen).

Today I get the supply list for our oldest. She's going into 7th grade when school finally does begin. I've already purchased a whole slew of school supplies as it is, but there is always more needed when those "lists" are finally released. This year is no different. I'll be going out in a little while to pick up the rest of what she needs. Thank goodness for back-to-school sales.

Speaking of back to school, thanks to those of you who comments and read my newest articles. :-) My pageviews are creeping closer and closer to 1 million with each new day!

I'm feeling a bit more rested today than I did yesterday. It's nuts how it takes days to recover from a vacation that was *suppose* to be relaxing. Let me just say that I'll never, ever book a vacation rental from the company I used this year. When you discover a used condom in a bowl on top of the fridge... well, that's just never a good thing. And yes, I took a picture as proof. Ugh!

For anyone planning a trip to Tybee Island, I'll happily share the name of the company with you so you can avoid the hassle I've dealt with. Just email me anytime.

Anyway, on the work front, I was so hoping to have the edits and rewrites finished for Time For Death by the time school starts. Unfortunately, with all the craziness we've dealt with this summer that's just not happening. It's still possible, but highly unlikely. Then again, maybe I can! *lightbulb moment*

Tomorrow is Tim's last day work. He'll be laid off after that. Sucks on the job/money front, but I do recall him stating that he'd be my househusband!!! Oh yeah! He's suppose to take over the household and children so I can get my book finished. Hmmm.... Maybe I can get done by September after all.

I'll have to remind him of that this evening. Yeah, that's it! Having a househusband sounds fantastic!

Okay, I think I'll go and fantasize (while blocking out the screaming) about being able to write all day without interruptions. Awwww, that would be fantabulous!!

Have a great Tuesday!

Welcome to a new week!

Good morning all! How was your weekend? I hope it was well.

We got back yesterday from our trip to Tybee Island. We all have a very nice, dark tan from our time on the beach. I've posted a lot of pictures in my website's photo gallery. Stop by and check them out.
http://www.christiesilvers.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=6678459




We had some rain on Saturday when we drove over to Savannah. Unfortunately, that meant we weren't able to get the yearly picture of the girls on the big tree in the park we go to. :-( However, we got many of them at the beach to enjoy. If you check out the pictures, I put some small descriptions for each one of them if you click on them individually.

Oh, some of you may have heard that Miley Cyrus was shooting a movie down on Tybee Island back at the end of June/beginning of July. I was so glad that we didn't go at that time. The beach would've been ridiculous. Wellllllllll, apparently this past weekend was time for her to re-shoots. Ack! Yep, half the beach and the entire pier was closed down on Friday afternoon so they coulddo re-shoots.

The younger two girls wants to go see "Hannah Montana" so we got them some icecream and walked over to one of the crossover bridges. The girls ate their icecream while we watched the re-shoot. I only had my phone with me, so the picture I took of that was small without zoom.



http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af339/christiesilvers/Tybee%202009/0731091639.jpg





Anyway, we're back and I was so glad to get back into my own bed. The kids tried to run us ragged the entire time there, and all we wanted to do was relax and enjoy the ocean. As soon as we finished one outting/activity, they were begging for the next. It was definitely crazy.

However, now we're home. We ate our fills of fresh seafood, tanned and played in the ocean, both Tim and Cassandra got hit by jellyfish twice. LOL. Luckily, it was just small hits on them that were better by the next day. Nothing like that year when one attacked my entire left leg, foot, and hand. I was in major pain for many weeks from that. Me being the good mommy that I am, I made sure to pack cortizone cream and Benedryl pills... just in case. Good thing I did.

Okay, now. It's a brand new month and a brand new week. Time for us to start counting down to the first day of school. Woohoo!!! I can't wait to send them off to school and get a break. LOL. We've already gotten all their school shopping done, and the school supplies are stocked up nicely. School shopping even inspired two new articles...

Back to School: Important School Supplies For Elementary School
Back to School: Preparing Your Youngest Child for Their First Day of School

Stop by and check them out. I'm getting closer each day to the 1 million pageview mark on there. Thanks to those of you who are reading my articles. :-)

One last thing before I get going today. Wednesday is the day that my monthly newsletter goes out. If you aren't already a subscriber, now is definitely the time to do so. :-) It's easy, and I only send out messages on the first Wednesday of every month.
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=1003219z

Okay, I'm off. I have some laundry to wash and a couple of errands to run. This is Tim's last week of work before he lay-off. I have preparations to take care of. This week is going to drag by. Might as well get to work on it. LOL.

Have a grat day!

It's a brand new week. About time!

Ahhh, it's Monday again. I'm so glad that this week has finally arrived. The holidays are over and schedules are getting back to normal. However, for us that will happen tomorrow. The girls head back to school first thing in the morning and I'll be back in my working comfort zone. YAY!

I've waited for this week for the last two weeks. LOL!

I finished putting away the rest of the Christmas stuff this morning, and even cleaned out my bedroom closet in the process. Empty boxes were put away, laundry has been started, the house is being cleaned... and all in anticipation of me FINALLY being able to get back to the work I love. Not only that, but hopefully the three year old will finally calm her mood back down to its normal level without her sisters here to annoy her.

Why, oh why, did the school decide to not go back until Tuesday? Why not today like all the normal schools and jobs? Now don't get me wrong, I do absolutely love being able to sleep late. However, sleep is overrated when it comes down to actually getting my work done in peace and quiet.

So here I am, just waiting for tomorrow to arrive, and looking forward to getting the time to write. How I miss you so, my dear written word! LOL.

Now I'm off to put the 3yr old's nose in the corner because she loves to tell me "NO!" these days. Oh joy. Fun all around!

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