What's up with me?

Life has been crazy this summer. Lots of working at the public job and not so much working at the writing job. I miss it tremendously, but what's a girl to do when she's gotta make the money? I'm still writing sporadically, but not as regularly as I'd like to be. By the time I get home from work and school pickup it's time to make dinner, get showers done, and settle down for the evening. My main writing day is every Friday (since I'm off work), but that day seems to be full of all the errands, chores, and phones calls I couldn't get done during the week. Ugh! It's extremely frustrating when I just want to sit down and write.

Speaking of school... my kids started back to school on September 5th. This year I have a middle schooler and a senior in high school, not to mention the oldest who is still in college. This time next year I'll have two in college. Eek!! I don't even know how that happened so quickly!

Over the last 6 months I've:

• Had a breast cancer scare, plus biopsy, 
• Started the new job, 
• Learned a LOT about that new job, 
• Put my 17yr old through oral surgery to expose a tooth that wouldn't come out of the gum and put a braces bracket on it, 
• Joined a gym & go 3-5 days a week
• Endured the 1yr anniversary of my mom's passing
• Had to slow down on the writing in order to accommodate all of the above.

On the upside, I was able to pay off my husband's car several months early & my middle daughter's braces will be paid off in just 2 more payments. Woohoo!!  Unfortunately, on the braces front, I have one more daughter to put through them as soon as these are paid off.  LOL! Ugh.

Sooooooo, that's what I've been up to lately. It's a lot of craziness, but it is what it is. 

Lots of love to all of you wonderful readers. I am still working on Liz Baker's next book, but it's going slower than I had hoped. Please hang in there and I promise I'll keep you guys informed as the process moves forward. 

Life Continues to Roll On

SXC.hu: ShadowRave

Hey there, blog Peeps! I want to warn you up front that this entry may be a bit long winded. You've been warned! :)

First, let me start off by saying that yes, I am fully aware that I've missed yet another release date for To Kill a Demon (Liz Baker, bk 6). I promise it's getting there, but there's no way in hell I'll put it out into the world in less than the condition I expect it to be in. My writing time has been nonexistent; my family will always come first. Plus, my editor is having her own family issues and has been MIA lately.

Usually I try mot to ever schedule a book release, or plans of writing a book when my kids are out of school for summer break. My writing time is when they're in school. That has always worked out, but somehow this year just didn't work the way I wanted it to, and I was stuck with an unfinished novel when school let out.

UGH!

So here I am, the end of July is here and the book still isn't complete. My kids only have one month of summer break left and then I'll move forward from there. I probably only need like two more weeks to get this sucker in tip-top shape, and then send it to the editor. Then back cover blurb, and it's ready to go. It's just getting to the point where I have two weeks of uninterrupted work time to get it finished.

I like where the story has gone, and I know exactly how it will end. It's just getting the time to sit and write it all without the phone ringing or a kid screaming.

Oh, and I've been dealing with tenants, and the selling of one of my rental properties. That's stressful enough as it is. Fingers crossed the rental property sells soon and the rest of my current tenants behave themselves. :) Tim and I are tired of being landlords and are hoping to slowly bring our count down to just one rental property (his parents' house).

I've also helped my mom get her new accounting business started. I'm planning a remodel on our fifth wheel RV, and putting new flooring down and painting the inside of our own house. And if you'll stop by my other blog you'll see all the canning I've been doing this summer http://crazyhomesteading.blogspot.com/  Not to mention, my oldest daughter will be a senior in high school when school starts back, BUT she's also a dual enrollment student at the college in the next town, which starts on August 11th. She still doesn't have her own car (since she wrecked the one I bought her), so I'll either have to drive her so I won't be car-less, or I'll have to be car-less and let her drive my van. We also have to do a few more college tours, start all the college application processes (UGA opens apps on Sept. 2nd), and finally pull my hair out from all of it.

"Busy" is too minuscule a word for what I've been this summer.

Will you forgive me for being behind on the new book? I certainly hope so. I hope you'll all stick around and be there when it finally does release. Book purchases have been waaaayyyyyy down the last several months, so if you don't mind sharing the other books with your friends, family, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. I'd be forever grateful. <3

Smooches to you all!

Love Hurts

CMSeter on SXC

Authors love their books, almost as much as they love their children. Our books are our babies, in a sense. But sometimes the love we hold for our stories, characters, books can hurt when other people don't love our work as much as we do.

Reviews are a part of being a writer. You're going to have people who love your work and happily tell the world about it. And then you'll have the people who for some odd reason think your work belongs in the recycle bin.

Reviews are opinions, plain and simple.  Everyone has an opinion and we're not always going to agree. Opposing opinions are what makes the world go 'round. What do you do when someone disagrees with you in the real world? Do you scream and holler and cry? Or do you try your hardest to respect their opinion, yet hold true to your own beliefs?

I would hope that you'd understand that others have opinions they feel as strongly about as you do.  The goal as a writer is to take the good with the bad, while staying true to yourself and your characters.  Keep writing, moving forward, taking on the world with your unique style and gusto. And always remember that the world would be a very boring place if we were all the same.

How do I handle bad reviews?
I bitch and moan to one author friend and my sister. I might even tell my husband if it's really, really bad.  And after a day or two of being pissed and talking it out with my peeps, I move on. I jump back into whatever it was I was working on when the notion to check my books' reviews hit me and ruined my mood. I talk to my characters, especially Liz Baker (she has great insights), and then I get back to work.

So what if Sue Pissy Pants hates my writing and thinks anything I would ever write will be utter trash.  "Hey, you, don't read it if you don't like it!" Even the bests of the bests have haters.  It's up to us, as authors, to let the haters be haters without allowing them to distract us for too long.

Sure, it's hard to look past someone telling the world they hate you and everything you stand for, even though they know nothing about you personally.  But stand tall, be brave, pull those thorns from you heart, and get back to work.  You must be doing something right, after all, to garner that much attention from a complete stranger.

Have a great day & keep writing!

An update on my world.

As you may have noticed, the time between my blog postings has stretched. I'm currently in a rush to finish up Killer Intentions (Liz Baker, book 3) in order to get it into editing and production as soon as possible. The book is scheduled for a December release, but will probably be toward the end of December.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet to work that the kids being back in school has afforded me. Not only that, but Tim has been working the day shift every other week here lately. That makes for very nice writing days.

I do all of my housework from the time I drop the kids at school until 9 A.M. After that I write from 9 to 1 P.M. and then a quick lunch before leaving to run errands and pick the kids up from school. I'm home between 3:30 & 4 P.M., when it's time to help with homework for three children, cook dinner, get everyone into showers/baths and then start bedtimes at 7:30 P.M. At which time, Tim makes it home from work (or is just leaving if he's on night shift) and it's time for me to stop for the day to relax. I watch about 2 hours of television--depending on the night--and then bedtime for me so I can do it all over again the next day.

Whew! Makes me tired just typing all that out. And that's just the week days. On the weekends I'm doing home projects (working on the little girls' bedroom right now), tending to my animals, and enjoying the time with my family.

So basically, what I'm trying to say is, you may not see too much of me online for the next few weeks. I'll be around, and will always answer e-mails/messages, but please be patient as I attempt to get Liz where she wants to be and still deal with family obligations. As soon as the story is in the hands of my editor I'll be back around. Until then, e-mail me if you need me. :)

Mental Writing for the masses.

The other day I complained to Tim that I hadn't gotten any book work done this week other than mentally. He laughed and asked, "What the heck is 'mental' book work?" Duh! Geez, some people...

Those of you who are writers know exactly what mental writing is, but for those of you who don't, it's what we writers do when we don't have the time to sit down and actually type/write our stories or articles. Most writers write in their heads from the time they wake up 'til the moment their brains close down for the night. And some of us (myself included) continue "writing" in our sleep. Dreams come in handy when writing fiction.

When the kids are screaming about some sibling unfairness I'm wondering how Liz will tolerate me putting her in a swimsuit. When Tim is texting me from work because he's bored, I'm contemplating the color of Liz's hotel room comforter. As I'm fighting with my pillow and trying my damnedest to fall asleep, I'm being hit with the most perfect solution to tie the next Liz Baker book together with a planned short story I'll be offering for free here in the future.

Do you get it now? It's mental writing!

It helps to know that even when I can't seem to find the quiet time to put fingers to keyboard in my current book file I always have the time to work ideas out in my head, and my notebook and ink pen is never far away.

Pumpkin Carving Lessons & My Two Week Wait

Happy Tuesday!  How was your Monday?  Anything exciting?

As I promised yesterday, here are the pictures from my kiddos carving their Halloween pumpkin on Sunday.  They did a great job, and all I did was lay out the design for them and set them to it.  I had a lot of fun watching them scoop it out, especially the 4 year old.  I made them wait until I could grab the camera, and  actually got the "Ewwww" picture that I wanted from her.  LOL.

Left: Scooping with a scooper.  Right: Ewww!

I think it turned out really good for a 12, 9, & 4 yr old cutting it all out. 

So today's Tuesday, and another "off" day for me.  I only have a few more days to enjoy the non-working days.  I always give myself two weeks between books, but it turns out being more of a hassle.  I do it in order to refresh myself; to clear my mind of the previous story in order to focus solely on the new one.  Two weeks is a good amount time (for me) no matter if the books are about two different groups of characters, or even the same characters but in a different setting and new problems.

However, I feel lost during those two weeks.  I have no characters to spend my time with.  No vampires to admire, or lust after.  No dangerously sexy men to thrust upon my heroines one last time.  No smokin' hot fantasy sexual encounters to direct and unfold...  Well, that may not be entirely true.  ;-)

But these two weeks make me feel like someone who is suddenly unemployed and don't know what to do with their time. 

So why do I commit myself to two weeks off, you may ask.  Don't go thinking that I've never tried jumping from one book straight into another one--I have!  It didn't work out well.  I couldn't get my new character to act the way they were suppose to.  They kept reverting back to the one(s) in the previous story.  No matter how much I tried.  The storylines would run together and things just wouldn't work out the way they were suppose to.

This is why I admire the authors who can work on multiple novels at once.  I have to focus solely on one project at a time.  I have to get it finished from beginning to end before I can take my two weeks off and jump into the next one.

Why not one week?  What about three? 

One week has been tried and it's not long enough.  Three weeks are too long and I start to lose that urgency I feel in starting the next one.  I've tried both.

So, even though the two week wait drives me crazy and leaves me feeling so anxious about jumping on the next one, it's the best way for me to transition from one story to the next.  I know this, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.  LOL.

Okay, now that I've shared a little insight into my writing insanity, I'll leave you with...

Have a fabulous Tuesday!  :-)