Looking Back.

Today I have been looking back at old stories I started years ago and was having a gander through them. What shocked me was how badly they were written after working with editors for the past year I realise I know so much more now. Thank God no one has to see the crappy first attempts which I thought were so bloody good when I first started out - for those of you who were subject to my work in the beginning I can only apologise.

The worst thing in all of my earlier works that I am guilty of is HEAD HOPPING. Why I felt the need to be inside everyone's head all  at the same time I have no clue as it makes re-tweaking a nightmare. But if I ever want these stories to see the light of day I have a lot of re-tweaking ahead of me.

Seriously I need a good critique group. I have two wonderful beta readers (Sue & Yoda) who put up with all my weirdness, and I have two great editors (Kimberly & Mark) who help me sort out the rest. Without them all I would still be a total mess.

One Of Those Weeks.

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you think to yourself - "What the fuck is going on?" In our household this week this is what we have been going through.

1) Emily and the hubs have decided it's fair game on their work jeans - they have each torn a couple of pairs so I will be replacing them and all down the back seam - mind you it has given me an abundance of sick jokes for the next six months or so.

2) Emily spilt curing oil all on the floor of the shed and down the leg of a pair of jeans she didn't rip. typical that is all I can say.

3) Emily went into the head office and left all the stuff she was meant to take sitting in the home office. If that wasn't bad enough she forgot to pick up the stuff from head office and bring it back out to home.

4) The hubs came home with a $330- fine from talking n his mobile phone while driving... and then gets cranky at me because of it - Hey, I wasn't the idiot talking on the phone - LOL. I am one of the good people who pull over or just don't answer the ringing phone.

5) The rego payment slip for the trailer goes missing so it takes me all day to get through all the departments just to pay $89.40 (I may have been the one to lose this but I am not owning up to it.)

Can anyone besides me see a pattern here? I think Em and the hubs should just stop touching things and writing themselves notes and my life would run a hell of a lot more smoothly.

Lie To Me...

Today I have decided to work on something completely different to what I am supposed to be doing. so after cleaning out my drop box I went through and randomly picked a book to work on -  (pull a name out of a plastic container method).  Lie to Me is the story that I pulled out. So even though I have 30 K of the 45 K story written I am going through and making sure there are no really bad head hopping incidents, (believe me, there are a ton so I am dreading going through the rest of the story. This is one of those crazy-arse stories where I have like three story lines going on. So I have decided to separate them and turn it into three 45 K Novella's.

On A Moon-Runner Christmas I have worked my way through most of the stuff and am waiting for my first lot of Edits I think my editor is Mark Hopkins again, it will be good to argue with him again. Mind you since One Last Kiss Goodbye we have become old friends. I wonder if his favourite things to tell me are REDUNDANT-DELETE-SHOW DON'T TELL. I suppose I will find out soon enough.

Em is getting the last of her chest tattoo (the diamond rose) done today so it should be all good by the time we get to GRL in October. I really must finish writing  the damn book seeing as she has the title now tattooed across her chest. Well, at least it will be good pre- promoing for me, LOL.

AKM Miles & What's The Hap?

The goss for today is not much is going on in my life at the moment... (writing wise - personally wise my life is as crazy as a jumping castle).

I finally emailed someone and asked about the thing I was stuffing up in the Silver system... man it was so easy and I couldn't believe it was as simple as me misreading an email (actually we all know it could be that simple - I am blaming it on total lack of sleep).

Have I told you all how much I love AKM Miles Scarcity Sanctuary books? Well I love them, and I recently finished reading the latest one Trick's Dante, (I had to go back and start from book 1- which was okay by me as we all know how much I love Soldier & Dillon...) If you haven't read this series yet then you better get to it as it is bloody brilliant, and I'm in this one. I am Ms. Norma Nash... When I didn't think AKM could do any better than the last one, I found myself surprised again. So get yourself a copy and enjoy.

Available At:

MLRPress

Amazon

New Contract...

I just wanted to let you all know I just signed a new contract with Silver Publishing for my Christmas story: A Moon-Runner Christmas. I am so fricken stoked I am at a loss for words. This is just what I needed today.

R.I.P Patric Michael.

We lost another generous and loving soul from our writing world recently, and I wanna honour Patric with a song. Patric will be sorely missed by many, he was a very talented author, and one of the nicest people I ever had the chance to know  - even just a little bit that I did.

Patric you were an amazing light show for us all.

Playing Catch-Up & A Review

This is a picture of my family way back when my siblings were all young I am still a few years from even being a thought in my parents minds. (well the four on the left are my siblings I have no clue who the one on the right is. so that is Julie = blond, Brenda = curly, Ted = baby and Catherine (Saff) = holding Ted.

They will probably all wanna kill me when they see this, but I would like to point out I found it on Julie's Facebook first so blame her.

Okay, so now we are onto my other news, and what I have been up to for the past week in my absence.  I have spent most of the week spring cleaning my house, and let's just say I can't believe the crap I have kept since the last time I felt the urge to clean the whole house.

I have also been in meetings for our company where my name was yet again the cause of us having to resign paper work but at least now it is all sorted out - I hope.

Last night some mongrel decide to decimate our wheelie bin, so we are now trying to get a new one because not even reliable old duct tape is going to be able to help this one. she is split on all four sides and I am not eve sure the bottom is attached. I hope the fucker that hit it with their car has a huge dent in their bonnet this morning.

I am not saying this review on One last Kiss Goodbye is good or bad, I will let you decide for yourselves.


Review by:  The Romance Reviews

On that note I will away as I have got to finish going through 5 days of emails that I have let slide. Oh what fun - NOT!!!

I'm In Print!!!

The Lines of Marsden: Rules are Meant to be Broken

In Print Here

I am so fricken Stoked.

I Subbed Again.

Yesterday I subbed Christmastime at Papa Lee's to my wonderful editor Kimberly Brandt over at MLRPress... and I made the deadline by just a few days... Hopefully soon I will find out one way or the other if it gets accepted.

In the meanwhile I am working on my Aussie Day story Boys from the Bush (Rethinking Title) and my Warrior Vampires story The Crimson Grimiore. so I am keeping busy.

I am also doing some beta reading for my friend Mark Hopkins (All I'm gonna tell you is that what I have read so far is awesome).

I know you are all gonna love knowing I finally got around to cleaning out my office - and I still couldn't fit all my books in every time I opened up something I would find a book or too so now you can't even tell that I gave away 155 books, my hubs doesn't believe that I did.

So True.

"A professional 

writer  is an

amateur who 

didn't quit."

~  Richard Bach

What's Next...

My Beta Reader James A or as I call him Yoda has told me he will get my MLR Xmas story back to me by tomorrow so that I can clean it up and sub it to my wonderful editor Kimberly Brant at MLR.

Today I am working on my Australia Day story Boys from the Bush (which may have a title change). I have just passed the 3K mark so I am pretty happy with that one.

My Vampire Warriors have had a series name change from The Crimson Coven to The Sons of Evenmore - let's just say it came to me in a dream. I could do nothing but change the title as the characters threatened to boycott my thinking if I didn't change the title and now they want me to change the title of the individual stories I have planned. So anything could happen with them. I will know more when I start working on them again.

What has been really helping me is over on Facebook I am having sprints with Dakota Trace which has been great fun not only am I getting a stack of writing done I am making new friends along the way. For all the authors out there sprinting is the way to go and I have Erica Pike to thank for that as she joined me up to the group in the first place.

OMG! Finally Finished.

Christmastime at Papa Lee's: I finally finished and have sent this off to my beta reader hopefully I will get it back in time to sub to MLR before the deadline of the 15th. The story came in at 27K so I am happy now keep your fingers crossed that it gets accepted.

Sprinting!!!

Today over on Facebook I met someone - get your minds out of the gutter - Dakota Trace is the person I met who graciously decided to sprint with me. So my total word cont for today on Christamstime at Papa Lee's is 5,742.

Tomorrow I am away as my Mum is coming home from Cairns and will wanna fill me in on the family gossip. So I will catch you all in two days.

What's The Hap!

As of yesterday I just passed the 15K mark on Christmastime at Papa Lee's... And let's just say it went in a whole different direction than I thought it would. But what else is new - we all know I suck when it comes to planning shit out - LOL. I am going to be working on it some more today.

I am sitting here as I write listening to the top 20 of Barnsey (Jimmy Barns - Cold Chisel) songs. it has been great listing to songs I grew up with. Em, the hubs and I went to see them last year or was it earlier this year - bloody Brilliant. (Em says it is at the end of last year - September). Em didn't really like them because she thought he was Bryan Adams.

Anel Viz has a new book out over at Silver Publishing called New Lives: If you like stories that a little different then what is out there then I suggest you give this a go - my personal favourite of his is: The Thought Collector. 

I have until Tuesday before my ma gets back from Cairns, so I will have to write like the dickens to get as much done as possible before then as for the first couple of days after she gets back she will wanna fill me in on the family gossip.

HOLY HELL: the film clip for Choir Girl came on and Jimmy is fucking HOT!!!

Message From Kris Jacen

**PASSING IT FORWARD**

Hey all,

I'm hoping to spread the word for aspiring authors. Want to help? I'll be listening to pitches over on the Marketing for Romance Writers group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/) on September 8/9 for all three presses. All someone that's interested needs to do is be a member of the group and then sign up when they announce sign ups. I've seen some really helpful information being passed on the group. Would caution to put the group on digest or web only if you join (lots of email).

Thanks, Kris

~~~
Kris Jacen
Executive Editor/Formatting Director
ManLoveRomance Press www.mlrpress.com

Passion in Print Press www.passioninprint.com

Featherweight Press www.featherweightpublishing.com

Christmastime At Papa Lee's.

I just realised I have 13 days left to finish the story and get it to my beta reader and then my editor before the cut off date of August 15th... so if I am a bit slack in blogging between now and then I want you to know getting this submission finished is the reason why.

Seems like this years is slipping by so fast and then getting sick messed up my whole schedule - why does real life need to jump in and screw with my writing? Okay rant over - LOL.

I will keep you all informed on what is happening as I am able.

Talking GRL...

The days are rapidly approaching when Em & I head off to GRL - 75 days until we catch a plane and head to Albuquerque, New Mexico. And where I will finally get to meet some of my own personal favourite authors. (yes even I have my fan girl moments).

Emily is so excited because she is having lunch with Carol Lynne - who is her all time favourite author (can you believe my child picks Carol over me) LOL. And yes, when I say she is Gypsy Marsden I really mean it.

There are so many people I just want to say hello to and see what they really look like. and there are some people I need to get them to sign my books (I mean my copies of their books) so look out Carol Lynne, ZA Maxfield, Andrew Grey, Stormy Glenn, Ethan Day, Lynn Lorenz, and a few more. I have to buy Z Allora's boys to get hers... Am I excited you bet your sweet bibby I am. (Gees I hope they are all going.)

At least this time I will have company on that long arse flight there and back. Em asked me this morning is it too early to start packing. Yeah baby, it is. though mind you she has so many clothes she could probably pack and still have a ton of clothes left over - me not so much.

I live in Jeans and ankle length skirts... I am not sure what I should even pack to wear - How dressy do I need to be? would it be okay to rock up in my jeans and a David Bowie t-shirt? Would my Tattoos need to be covered or can they be on display? (I have been asked to cover the tats before). and then I think Fuck it I will just be me and people can like me or not - I can't change who I am as I have no filter and the real me just spills out of my mouth anyway.

I will probably ramble on more about this the closer it gets to leaving Australia I won't be able to help myself. So you will all have to read it or skip it I am just giving you fair warning.