Not an August Release After All

As most of my loyal readers know, I'm working on the 7th installment of my Liz Baker series. I've already released one full length book and a short story this year, and I have the goal of releasing this new Liz book, as well as getting started on the 2nd Penny book. My hope was to release in August and then jump right into the Penny book, with hopes of releasing in December or January.

Welllll, it looks like an August release is a no-go. Things have been a bit hectic around the Silvers homestead lately and my writing time has fallen by the wayside. Work has kept me busier than usual; the kids being out of school has prevented weekend writing; and then there's the stress of Mr. Christie working stupid night shift and finding time to spend together. Oh, and add on that my middle daughter turned 17 last week and is about to enter her senior year of high school. We're already working on college applications and SAT scores (this time next year I'll have two in college), while getting ready for her braces to come off so I can get braces on the youngest.

Needless to say, I'm struggling with finding writing time lately.

Can you tell I'm stressed the f**k out?

On the upside... I'm happy. Much happier than last year when I was still avidly mourning my mom's passing. So much has changed in the last year. I'm proud of my kids and looking forward to the middle one going to college. And an added bonus is I'll finally get the office I've always wanted when that happens. I'm looking forward to making it allllll mine! Also, I've been going to the gym religiously for almost 2 months now and I'm feeling fantastic! I love it! I've met my first weight loss goal and am closing in on the second one. I'm telling people that I've lost the baby weight from baby #3 and #2, and now I'm working off the weight from baby #1. She's almost 21 years old, but you know...  LOL!

Overall, it's a crazy time around here, and I'm hoping it will calm down soon, but in the meantime I am working in small spurts when I have the opportunity (like today) and even though the book won't release in August, I'm optimistic it will release this year. All you Liz fans out there stay positive and be on the lookout for future updates.

Lots of love to you all!

I'm on vacation this week!

© Christie Silvers 2015
I'm finishing up P.M. Terrell's Exit 22.

It has been six years since my last family summer vacation. We had several years where we were caring for Tim's elderly parents, and then their passings. It took a while to get all that stuff in order. Kids stuff, work stuff, job changes, and even my own work events. Finally, FINALLY, we had a good year, Tim has vacation days again, and I'm determined to take my oldest on one more vacation before she leaves for college next month.

So here we are, toes in the sand and hoping the sunscreen holds out. Yet knowing, unfortunately, it won't. LOL. My 10 yr old is building sand castles and pushing my patience on the allowed distance she can go out to sea. My 15yr old is jumping in the waves and then tanning on a beach towel.

My 18yr old is sitting in the condo, probably watching some sort of anime on her laptop. *Face Palm*

I'm reading, people watching, and just enjoying the peace, waves, and sunshine. Meanwhile, the hubby is swimming in the ocean, causing panic when I look out and don't see his head bobbing. All in all everyone seems to be having a good time (even the condo-bound 18yr old), and that's all that matters to me.

I'll be heading home Friday, so until then be prepared to see lots of beach pictures floating around my social media pages. :)

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*

Camping w/ casualties

Happy Monday! Time to start a brand new week. We spent most of last week in a camper up in Pigeon Forge, TN. The days went by fast, but everyone came home exhausted and suntanned (or burned). So I'd have to say it was a successful mini-vacation. There are a few pictures of the trip in the photo gallery.

We went up Wednesday morning and got there around lunch time. Tim had enough time to set the camper up and I fed the children their lunch before the rain started. It didn't end until well after dark. Day 1, no good. Grumpy kids couped up in a 29 foot camper isn't a pleasant way to spend your time. Trust me on that one.

As for the casualty, well, the storm brought high winds, hail, booming thunder that shook everything, and lots of lightning. There were eight campers in the campground that lost their awnings that night, and we just so happened to be one of them. Tim was extremely upset, but I assured him that everything is repairable. Once he found out we weren't the only ones his mood improved. LOL. Men!

After that first night everything went better. The sun came out; we did a lot of swimming; the kids enjoyed trips to the arcade, coming home with lots of little goodies; and we even tried two restaurants we'd never eaten at. Oh, and of course there was shopping to be done--most of it window shopping, but shopping nonetheless.

All in all, it was a fun trip. We're hoping to take another one toward the end of August, but that's just a consideration right now. We'll see how July goes first. LOL!

I hope you all had a nice weekend and a belated Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Week Two: Insanity Sets In

Summer Break: Week Two

This week isn't starting off the way I had hoped. Saturday went okay, but it all started down hill on Sunday morning. Yep, that's when the insanity started to grow. I knew things weren't going to go as easily this week as they did last week.

Sunday we had a family reunion to go to for Tim's mother's side of the family. We stopped down at FIL's house to see if he was ready; he was as far from it as he could be. FIL was having trouble breathing and I ended up calling 911 to take him to the hospital. That set it up with Tim going to the hospital with FIL and me taking the kids up the mountain to the reunion.

The day was beautiful for an outside family gathering, if only there had been family there. Yep, there were only 10 of us by the time I left, two hours after the scheduled time. Some were sick, the majority had a funeral to attend, and others just didn't show up. The kids were disappointed that their favorite cousins (and the only ones their ages) didn't arrive either.

At least we came back down off the mountain with full tummies and plates of food for later that evening. No cooking for Mommy--other than the more than two dozen homemade dinner rolls I made the night before and half were brought home due to no one being there to eat them.

There was a hospital visit with FIL (he has pneumonia, again) and then finally home for the evening.

That brings us to Monday. I won't even go into how screwed up that day was. Ugh! And it doesn't look like today will be any better.

I miss Liz. I miss my quiet days. I hate having to shush the kids all day so Tim can sleep. Now I remember why I'm always so relieved when school starts back. My fingers miss flying across the keyboard (which is probably why this entry is too damn long).

Whatever, I suppose. I'm now off to get dressed so I can run numerous errands, listen to whining children, and take more stuff to FIL in the hospital. Oh, and while we're there I get the enjoyment of making the children share the elevator button pushing responsibilities.

School's out for summer!

Happy Memorial Day ladies and gents. How is your day going? Mine has been pretty uneventful...just the way I like it. The kids even worked through their new summer chore charts without a hitch. I highly doubt their gusto for the new chores will last the entire summer though.

So school has been out for four days now and I'll be damned if my eyes haven't popped open every single morning at 6 am. Of course if school was still in 6am would be considered running late at my house. But still, how fair is that? Sheesh! I hope my internal clock starts running a little later over the next few days. Now, that's not saying that I'm actually getting out of bed at 6 am. No way in hell! Nope, I just roll over and go back to sleep for another two hours. Then again, after I've had a few days of laziness I may just take advantage of the 6am wake up call and get some writing work done before the kids wake up for the day. We'll see.

Though it's not technically summer yet, it certainly feels like it here in Georgia. We've had highs in the 90s already. We even filled the kiddie pool for the little girls yesterday. It's going to be a hot one when summer actually arrives. In my opinion it's better to have a hot summer than a bitterly cold and wet winter.

On the work front, it looks like I'll soon be an "Internationally Published Author". I've agreed to the contract from the Turkish publishing house ARVO and my books will be released in Turkey, starting with A Midnight Infatuation (Alex & Fiona, book 1) in July. All other books will follow in the months after, all the way to February 2012. I'm looking forward to this new endeavor and hope they are a great success with the Turkish readers. More to come as I have updates to share.

Before I go, be sure to pop over to the Facebook page and check out a special Manly Monday in honor of Memorial Day. It's definitely worth the click.

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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And we're off... again!

Morning all! We're packing and getting ready to hit the road for the last time this summer. Thought I'd post a blog entry before shutting down and packing up the laptop to bring along with me. I never leave home on a trip without my laptop... even if where we're going has absolutely no internet access. Gotta have my baby with me. LOL.

So we'll be on the road in a couple of hours (unless Tim gets overly excited and wants to leave sooner) and will reach the hotel in Pigeon Forge, TN about 3 hours later. We were last up there in April for our anniversary.

It's funny because when we were first married (and 17 years old) we could get there in 2 hours. However, over the years our times have increased. I'm guessing we drove a lot faster when we were stupid teenagers with no kids to worry about. Hahaha!

I called yesterday to make our dinner reservations at Dixie Stampede for tomorrow at 6pm. We're all set!

Today we're just going to make it up there and hang out and enjoy the pool with the kids. Everyone is excited though. Hell, Tim was begging me to go yesterday, but I set my foot down with a resounding "NO" when I saw that the hotel price for Saturday was $80 and we're only paying $50 a night for Sunday and Monday. "Nope. You're jobless, remember?" LOL! Poor guy.

So anyway, we're leaving in a bit and will be home on Tuesday. I will still have internet access so feel free to email me if you need/want to. I'll only be checking them in the late evenings, so don't expect a speedy response.

Time to shut this down now. Have a great Sunday! <3

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Wanna Know Wednesday #29

Good afternoon everyone. How has your Hump Day gone? I've had a great time today!

Yesterday we planned to take the kids to the Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum. So we got up fairly early (for us lately) and were out the door by 9:30 a.m. From our house to Cartersville, GA (where the museum is) is a 50 minute drive. The museum opens at 10 a.m. and we got there at 20 after. Perfect timing!

This place is huge! It has a gift shop, cafe, outside patio from the cafe, a planetarium, a theater for guest speakers, a fossil room, motion room (cars, planes, trains, etc.), minerals and gemstones room, a playroom for the kids to try out a bit of science, and a room where you can pan for gems and dig for fossils. We were there for HOURS! It was so much fun.

If you ever get the chance to go to this museum definitely take it. The kids were amazed and loved it all. Kaitlyn (our 4 yr old) was complaining when it was time to leave. LOL.

If you'd like to see all of the pictures from today, click here to visit my Shutterfly album. :-)

Now, since it's late in the day, and I want to get this done in time for the email subscribers to get it, let me jump right into this week's Wanna Know Wednesday.

Ten of My Favorite Pictures of the Summer

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Whew! It's been such a busy, yet fun-filled summer this year. We have one more trip and then we're declaring summer OVER. LOL.

I made reservations yesterday at the hotel we'll be staying in up in Pigeon Forge. We're heading up on Sunday afternoon. We're planning to relax in the pool and hot tub that evening. On Monday morning we'll go to WonderWorks for a few hours. Then later that evening we'll go to our dinner at Dixie Stampede. You gotta make resevations for that one, so I'll call Saturday from here to make sure we can get a 6 p.m. reservation.

We'll come home on Tuesday and that's that. Whew!

Okay, I have to get going now. It's been a long, fun day, but soon I need to figure out what's for dinner and doing some laundry. Have a good evening!

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Wanna Know Wednesday #17

Good morning. Here we are again at Wednesday. Hump Day has an appeal to me; always has. However, these days it appeals because it's Tim's last day of work for the week and I have him for 4 days. Woohoo!

Yesterday was a nice day around here. The kids spent a while in the pool and I was able to get a good amount of writing done in that time. Then after they came back inside I went out for some sunbathing. There's something about laying there, sweating your ass off, and no one is around to disturb you. I love it!

Then after that, the youngest and I jumped into the pool and had a swim. I came inside afterwards with a very nice tan line. Gotta get that tan before beach vacation time. Don't wanna be the only one out there all white and pasty from the winter jeans and long sleeves. LOL!

Today I don't have any plans. That's the fun of summer break! Last night Tim grilled out burgers for dinner and the chicken for tonight's Mexican dinner. Yum! So I don't even have to cook tonight. Gosh, I absolutely love that man. I love when he cooks for me.

Okay, let me get into theWanna Know Wednesday list. This week's topic is..........

10 Things I Love About Summer

1. Less clothing.
2. No bulky shoes.
3. Flip-Flops.
4. Swimming pools.
5. The beach!
6. Suntans.
7. No schedule.
8. Hummingbirds tapping at my windows.
9. Fresh vegetables.
10. Painted toe nails.

Summer is the all-time best time of the year. The sun is shining, plants are growing, pools are full of happy, squealing kids, and I get to go to the beach. Woohoo!

Well, I better get going on the day. The kids will be begging to go out after lunchtime and I'm not going to stop them. LOL. I'll do some writing and then see what happens. :-)

Have a great Wednesday!

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Monday, June 1st!

Morning! Welcome to the first day of June. Summer starts this month. Yay!

Today I was able to hang out in bed until 8am. Then Tim started texting me saying "Get up. It's not fair." LOL! I told him not to pout just because he's at work and I'm on Summer Break. LOL! Poor boy.

It's another gorgeous day outside this morning. The girls will be hitting the pool after lunch, so they should be nice and tired when bedtime rolls around this evening. I'm going to throw a roast in the crock-pot for dinner in a little bit. Tim won't be cooking this evening since he's working today. However, when he does get home the two of us will spend some time in the pool. By then the kids will be done with their time and all tired, so it'll be quiet for us. ;-)

I plan on having a peaceful day. We have no appointments or a schedule to keep. We aren't going anywhere at all today. I'm doing laundry, I've cleaned the kitchen, the girls have some rooms to clean and a few other chores to do, and I have writing to get done while they're in the pool.

We've had a little change of wedding plans.....

We decided to move the vow renewal ceremony from Key West, Florida to Tybee Island, Georgia. Many of you already know about our love for Tybee, so it seemed only natural that we'd want to have the vow renewal there. Tim says we'll go to Key West another time, just fr a vacation, but he agrees that Tybee is better for our renewal.

Not only that, but it's cheaper. LOL! I've found another great wedding coordinator for Tybee that I'll be working with. I can't wait for April 2011! It's going to be so much fun.

Okay, I better go. The washing machine has stopped and the youngest is apparently going through the kitchen junk drawer for no good reason. LOL!

Have great Monday and make the best of this brand new week!

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Wanna Know Wednesday #14

Good morning out there in cyber-land! How is everyone? It's Hump Day and I hope you're able to take full advantage of a brand new day. :-)

This morning there was a little sunshine, but then clouds started rolling in and now it's dim outside. We had two days of sunshine, so I guess it was only a matter of time before he clouds came back. I am sooooo ready for summer to arrive.

Speaking of summer, this week's Wanna Know Wednesday topic is:

10 Things I Love About Summer

1. Sunshine all the time.


2. Getting a good tan.


3. Swimming in the pool everyday.


4. Going to the beach


5. Wearing sandals & going barefoot.


6. Watching the kids play in the sprinkler.


7. The excitement of taking a vacation.


8. Not having to get up early.


9. The slowness of a lazy summer day.


10. Relaxing outside with Tim while grilling out and drinking something fruity.

I love summer! Yes, it gets pretty darn hot down here in Georgia, but I love it! We go on a beach vacation every summer to Tybee Island, Georgia. We weren't going to go this year since Tim will be losing his job in August. However, he decided that he wasn't going to let that stop us. We usually go for seven days, but this time we're going for three days. Just long enough for us to have a good time and get our yearly dose of the beach that we love so much.

We'll be heading out on July 30th and will return on August 2nd. Then he'll have three days of work left (with August 5th as his last day), and the girls will go back to school on August 6th. It will be a very busy two weeks at that time.

Oky, enough rambling. I must get going now. I have a load of laundry to fold, another load is drying, and I need to throw my bedsheets into the wash. After that it's writing time! Woohoo! :-)

Have a great Wednesday!

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Tuesday... Yawn!

Gosh, I'm so tired this morning. I just popped open a can Coke because I'm really in need of some sort of boost... and the caffeine will have to do, I suppose. And I don't like coffee. I like the smell, but can't stand the taste. So Coke it is!

It's not like I was up late last night either. I guess it was about 10:30pm when Tim and I finally settled down for sleep. During the summer, I'm regularly up until 1-2am in the morning each night, and not feeling so drug down. I'll just blame it on winter. I am sooooo sick of it! At least it's suppose to be in the 50's here today.

Tim had to go into work early this morning, but he'll be getting off work early as well. I'm looking forward to having him home before dark for a change. Plus, it'll give me a little more writing time since he'll be home and can deal with the girls while I'm working. Yay! Then again, I may find better uses of his time once he does make it home. We'll see...

Ah, it appears that my business email is now back in working order. I awoke this morning to several days of emails piled up in my inbox. Thank goodness! Therefore, christie@christiesilvers.com is now back in working order. Woohoo!

Okay, I've wasted an hour of my writing time by just goofing off and trying to feel more awake. The laundry is done, the kitchen is clean, the trash has been emptied, and I need to get to writing. Liz has a man in the hospital, vampire to kill, and not a lot of time to tell me about it. Check back tomorrow for this week's Wanna Know Wednesday!

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