I'm still alive... I promise!

Well, here I am again. Things are settling into a nice swing and I'm able to pick up a decent writing schedule. I'm still working on the 7th installment of my Liz Baker series and have hopes it'll be ready for release by the end of the year. Woohoo! I know a few readers have been chomping at the bit for the next book and I hope they'll love it just as much as they loved the previous ones. :)

The last few months have been insane. I thought things were calming down when the new year rolled in, but then my oldest daughter sprung the Army on us. She joined a few months ago and shipped out to basic training on May 15th. Nine days later, my middle daughter graduated high school, which was also the anniversary of my mother's passing. A week after that, the new graduate had orientation at the college she chose and we spent 8 hours there doing paperwork and going from building to building. In between all that, my middle daughter got her braces off (YAY!) and the youngest got hers put on (BOO!). I had to order senior pictures, print graduation announcements, throw a graduation party...all while panicking over the oldest being in basic training 14 hours away.

Sooooo.... yeah.... it's been crazy around here.

I'm still rockin' the day job and loving it. I adore my bosses and co-workers, and even most of the customers. LOL! It's fun and we laugh regularly. We all just have a good time together, and that makes for a wonderful work environment.

Aside from all that, I just hit my 1 year anniversary at the gym. I've lost a good bit of weight and just as many inches. I still have more to go, and it's moving slower these days, but I enjoy going to the gym and will keep at it. It's a great end to a busy day and helps me chill out with some mind numbing cardio or an hour of focusing on weight training.

Even with all that going on, it has finally settled again and I'm jumping back into my writing. Hopefully life will grant me a reprieve from the insanity for a while and I can get back on track. I miss my writing time and I'm excited about the upcoming books. And, I should mention, that personal office I've been pining over for years (regular blog readers will know) is finally happening next month! *Gasp* I'm actually picking paint colors and planning the layout now. *Faint*

Be on the lookout in the next few weeks for pictures of the office and updates on the writing.

Love to you all,

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!

Heads Up: I'm going on lock down.

Image by: Saavem on SXC.hu

As many of you already know, I'm in the finishing stages of the fifth Liz Baker book, Death Howls Twice. This book is scheduled for release on July 30th, so these next several weeks will require a lot of time, patience, and preparations to get everything in order for the big release.

Therefore....

I'm going on lock down.

Well, not 100% lock down. A girl needs her Facebook time, you know? I also have to deal with the numerous emails I get on a daily basis, or else I'm screwed. LOL.

My kids have been out of school for two weeks now (tomorrow starts week 3), and I gave them the first week of my undivided attention. Last week, I was pulled away from writing due to my landlord duties (Ugh!). That brings me down to three weeks left in June to get this book done.

The first of July will be dedicated to edits and rewrites, proofreaders, final cover updates/designs, getting all the edits from my editor put in, creating the different file types for all the e-book sites, and going over the paperback edition.  Oh, and I'll be putting the release day giveaway together during that time.

Lastly, the big day will be here on July 30th!  Woohoo! I'm excited and looking forward to it (like always), but I just gotta get to that point first.  LOL.

Anyway, I'll be around if anyone needs to contact me, but it might take me a few hours to get around to responding.  And don't you Page Peeps worry... Manly Monday will be posted right on schedule tomorrow morning, before I start my book work for the day.  ;)

Now I must go prepare the kids' weekly To-Do list to keep them busy while I'm locked away in my office/bedroom working. Thank goodness for earbuds, or else their arguing would be quite distracting.  *Sigh*

WIP & My Happiness

WIP is what writers call their most recent work in progress. If you're on Twitter or Facebook you've probably seen someone comment on their WIP from time to time. Well, that is if you're following any writers to begin with.

The other day I was complaining about not being able to get any work done on my current WIP: Liz Baker, book 3. However, yesterday I managed to crank out a good bit of work in it. YAY! I was definitely feeling like a happy camper when I was finished. How did I manage any work? Well, I had to do a bad mommy thing and sit the two younger girls in front of the television to watch a dvd movie. I got an whole 1 hour and 18 minutes of writing time. I won't say it was uninterrupted time though, as I had to stop halfway through to break up a screaming argument between the two of them. That's always fun.

Anyway, yesterday was a good writing day, leaving me feeling happy and relieved. There's something about the kind of release only writing allows me. I don't know if it's the same for all writers, but for me writing is something my mind craves, and without it I ended up feeling frustrated and disheveled. Even these blog entries aren't enough to satisfy the requirement. It's my outlet.

Before I started writing on a regular basis I had other things to occupy my desire for productivity. I bet you didn't know that I owned two different homemade bath supply companies before jumping into writing as a career. During those days when I became frustrated I'd go to my workshop and experiment with new soap fragrances and designs. create new bath salt combinations, order supplies I was running low on, or take pictures of new products for the website. It kept me pretty busy, especially during the holiday seasons.

But even all that didn't keep me satisfied. Only writing does that, and when I can't get the time to write I get frustrated...as you all witnessed the other day. Eek!

Anyway, Liz is well into her next adventure and I'm feeling light and shiny today. I'm off to do my weekly grocery shopping trip, visit with my mother and grandmother, go by the library, and stop by the post office. If I get it all done fast enough I *might* get the chance to scrap out another thousand words, or so. Fingers Crossed!

This is going to be a great week!

Yep, that's right.  I already know that this will be one fabulous week.  I don't care what happens, I'll make sure that it's a great one and not let anything get me down, frustrated, pissed off, or downright angry.

Stalkers, negativity, people with no sense of right or wrong... you aren't getting to me this week.  I'm just letting you know right now that you'll not get a rise out of Christie this week.  Here's a week's worth of fuck off for you and that's all you're gonna get.  I don't plan on wasting any of my precious time, energy, or happiness on you, so move on.  There's nothing for you to see here.

Now!  For those of you that I do enjoy...

This is going to be one great week.  I have big plans of good times, high amounts of productivity, making decent money doing what I love doing, and, And, AND I plan to finish my edits for Time For Death!  My book projects have taken a backseat to summer vacation and all the family activities we enjoyed over the last several months.  Now it's finally time for me to refocus my energy back to the work I love. 

I've missed my writing routine.  It was such a great routine too:

6am: Wake up.
6-6:30am: Check/respond to emails, plan the day's blog entry, check social sites, etc.
7am: Take kids to school.
7:30am: Have breakfast with the youngest
8am: Write/edit until 11am.
11am: Make lunch with the youngest.
12pm: Check emails, post blog entry if haven't already, chat with friends, etc.
1pm: Head to pickup time at school.

It was such a great schedule.  I'd even throw in a nice, sweaty workout between breakfast & work.  I'd do laundry throughout the day and clean when I took writing breaks.  And now with the extended school days, I even get an extra hour before heading to pickup time!

Gosh I'm so excited about getting back to it.

Last week was officially the first week of school, but for me this week is it.  It's a full week, and I took last week just to enjoy the quiet time.  Now it's work time!  I have big plans of one article per day and lots of editing and rewriting of Time For Death.

Now if I can just convince Tim that my schedule isimportant and exactly what I require in order to get my work done and bring in the money he likes to spend so much.  LOL.

Okay, I'm off to do my thang!  I did all the laundry last night, so today is all about writing, writing, writing.  I'm soooo excited!
Love to all,

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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