Author: Maya

It’s always fun to start something new. There’s always a certain excitement in creating something from nothing and shaping characters and a story from the ground up. And no, not working on Micah yet. He’s still brewing. I’m actually doing one of those “February” projects which means something that isn’t contracted. I want to finish this proposal before I leave next week for Vegas (oh I cannot WAIT for Vegas) Im looking forward to some time off the way a starving dog eyes a T-bone.

But Micah…soon. Songbird and Sevren’s Rule also soon. My brain is going to take a week’s vacation in Vegas and I’ll come back all refreshed and ready to burn rubber :rockthefuckon:

Yesterday we went to Houston for the day. My daughter’s birthday was earlier in the week and she wanted to go ice skating and shopping so she brought a friend of hers with her and the entire family spent the day in the mall. OMG just kill me now.

Today my middle child has a baseball scrimage and it drizzled all morning so the fields should be nice and muddy. How much more fun can you ask for? A fun scrimmage that doesn’t mean a thang and MUD. Weeee.

I’ll be making my last pass over Sweet Seduction today. I’ve fiddled and tweaked and mulled over certain parts and I have at least one more scene I know I want to add but for the most part, it’s done. I’m sure I’ll do much more tweakage during edits.

I’ve already started pondering Micah’s story, and even though it’s not due for awhile, I’ll probably go ahead and dive into the first few chapters while he’s still very fresh on my mind. I also have edits for Amber Eyes to do this week and *gulp* it releases in about a month and a half.

So that’s my Sunday (and the weekend) I hope yours went well!

Now I usually greet the end of each book with a certain amount of spaz and glee but this one, whew, this one is…I don’t have words. You see my deadline is uhm Monday. And I’m one of these people who is ANAL about getting things done ahead of time. Usually, and there have been very few exceptions, I finish a book at LEAST a month before deadline. Sometimes more. That way I can set it aside, forget about it, come back to it later and take my time sending it in.

Well that all came to a crashing halt last fall. Yeah, things have a way of going the domino effect. We had hurricane Ike which screwed things up royally. On the heels of Ike, as in when we’re doing repairs, hubby had his heart attack. If that wasn’t enough, my doc changed some of the meds I was taking for headaches then left the country for a month and those meds fucked me up big time. Ugh. So I wrote nothing. Not a THING for two entire months. And with deadlines like mine, I can’t afford that kind of “break”

Suddenly at the beginning of December I was facing two books that were due by Jan 1 and still another due Feb 1. Did I panic? Oh yes. You see, because I always finish things way ahead of time, I haven’t really ever been challenged. I wasn’t sure what I would do when faced with YOU HAVE TO GET THIS DONE NOW. Would I choke? I mean flaking on a deadline just isn’t an option for me, but what if I just couldn’t get it done? I was facing something I hadn’t had to face yet, even though I’ve written over two dozen books.

I managed the first hurdle, which was getting those two books done and submitted but then I had to turn my attention to Nathan’s book which is a longer book than the other two. He’s a single title. The other two were category length.

My husband has been amazing this month. Really. He’s always terrific about house/kid stuff. We’ve always split duties even when I didn’t have a “job” But this past month, he took over everything. House, laundry, cooking, kids. I love him more than caramel.

The most exciting thing that came of this? I know I can do it. I don’t ever want to cut it that close again, mind you. I like my anal ways of finishing ahead of schedule. But now I know I CAN do it. Some of my panic is gone :woot:

Been doing a LOT of mulling lately. Probably because I’m approaching February, and for whatever reason, that seems to be my appointed month to take off from writing and figure out new projects, new directions, make goals etc.

Last Feb, wow, much has changed since last Feb. At the beginning of the month, all I knew was that I had several goals burning a hole in my brain and I really wanted to make them happen. So I took a month off from already contracted work and I wrote proposals. In March I sold two three book deals to Berkley Sensation and Silhouette Desire. Feb turned out to be a very productive month and a wise investment in my career.

This Feb I have just as much bumping around in my brain and I’m already looking forward to sorting it all out. Some of it I got a jump on by contracting Songbird, Sevren’s Rule and also the third Falcon book. But that’s not all that occupies my brain space these days. I have a few other things up my sleeve… One of which I was up all night last night pondering.

This is what I love most about this business. The boundless possibilities. The only limit is your own imagination. It’s important, in my not so humble opinion, to surround yourself with people who share the same motivation and the same drive. Being “unequally yoked” can be a huge detriment. Your agent needs to be firmly in your corner and share your career goals. Your writing “go to” pals need to be on the same page. Nothing worse than getting talked down by a “partner” But perhaps most importantly is not to ever let self doubt creep in and sabotage your progress. And for the love of all that’s holy, ditch the “yes men!” :stfu:

ahh there’s my sermon for the day, as much to myself as to anyone else since I abhor preaching in general :lol2:

which is pretty stupid when I think about how often I get interrupted. you know, a few billion times daily. I get up this morning and immediately get to work, barricading myself in my office. Kids are still in bed, hubby had to work today so all is quiet and Im getting lots written.

My lardass cat, who is not the brightest bulb, likes to jump onto my desk and “visit” me which usually constitutes her annoying the shit out of me until she tires and goes away. So today she’s walking around on my desk and I notice her eyeballing my little cubbies above my desk. Now these are slots, mail slots really, that are all of 4 inches high and about 12 inches wide. Perfect for paperwork, mail, etc. Suddenly she launches herself upward only to realize about the time she smacks into the too small entrance that her lardass isn’t going to fit. She flails and then flops onto my desk, knocking over my tea and scattering shit from one end to the other. I yell at her dumb ass and she runs to hide under the bed. And to think I once suggested that cats were smarter than dogs.

I clean the shit up, get back to work and Im all concentrating as I’m about to finish up a scene when hubby walks in and asks a question and when he doesn’t get an IMMEDIATE response, asks again somewhat impatiently. Which annoys the piss out of me because damn it I just lost my entire train of thought. So I growl at him and tell him to give me a minute. I turn back but I’m already out of the moment *sigh*

It’s an important scene. I want everything just right. The emotion has to shine.

So I break and we talk about all the crap that needs to be done and Im mentally groaning. Finally I suggest that we eat locally and that hubby take me back home so I can work and he and the kids can go run the fourteen errands that need to be ran. Because damn it, I need to get back to that scene that’s eating a hole in my brain.

Finally I’m back, I sit down, read the last paragraph and am hopelessly lost. :cursesign: So now I need to read back over the last 20 pagesand hope to reinvest myself once more so I can capture the essence of precisely what it is I want to highlight in this moment in the story.

I hate interruptions :crying:

There is an auction to benefit author Sharon Cullars going on right now with lots of really cool stuff from some really terrific authors. I donated a complete collection of all my print books (autographed) as well as an ARC of Sweet Persuasion (Damon!) and an ARC of Sweet Seduction (Nathan!)

You can check out all the goodies here.

Go bid! I can’t think of a more worthy cause than a home.

where if someone looks at you in a certain way annoys the piss out of you and every little noise makes you grind your teeth and you just want to tell everyone to shut the fuck up?

Yeah, today was one of those days. Of course the root canal did not help and the entire left side of my head aches like a bitch, not to mention they tried to send me home without pain meds. Picture my head spinning as I hold the side of my face in agony.

:cursesign:

This might be of interest to those of you who have emailed me asking when/if Stay With Me would be available in print. I just contracted Songbird which will release as an ebook this June from Samhain and will be paired with Stay WIth Me in a print duet in early 2010. So good news for Stay With Me :cheer:

I’ve also just contracted the third Falcon book for those of you asking me what my plans were for the rest of the Falcon team members. Right now I’m thinking Mad Dog. Pretty set on him being the third story but don’t kill me if it changes! :lol2:

If all goes well those will release as ebooks in June and September of this year. I also have another story contracted with Loose ID called Sevren’s Rule which should also release this year.

Does anyone get the impression I won’t be crawling out of my hole much this year? :kap:

I’ve got my days and nights totally turned around. As a result I was up almost all night last night and this morning my ass is dragging. Usually my problem with insomnia is the result of my brain not shutting down at night when I go to bed. I can be bone tired but as soon as my head hits the pillow my brain starts churning. And it keeps it up until I either get up or just lay there and let it roll.

My doc prescribed me something to help me sleep and it was working really well but it gave me a headache every time I took it and I already have enough issues with headaches so I’m thinking the trade off isn’t really worth it. I’ll have to talk to him about it next time I see him.

On the bright side, I got some writing done last night/morning. Nathan and Julie are coming along quite well. As fun as they are, what I really wish is that I had a fast forward button to be through with January so I’d be done with the hellish deadlines of late and hubby and I would be on our way to Vegas :lol2:

Hubby and I got up Saturday morning, okay, we dragged out of bed because we were out playing poker Friday night and didn’t get in until the wee hours of the morning. We had to go into town to get my middle son a new bat because he started practice for his select baseball team today. After we got home, we started putting the desk together, and we spent hours and hours lol. Took a break to go grocery shopping and came back to cook and put together some more. We got everything but the cabinet with the drawers in it done last night and hit the bed late.

This morning my daughter (she’s sooo cute!) cooked up pancakes. She’s getting to be such a wiz in the kitchen. After breakfast hubby and I folded 16 loads of laundry that we caught up on at the end of this week lol. Then I had to cram in some pages while hubby put together the cabinets because I didn’t get anything written yesterday. Then we had to hurry out to middle child’s practice. Afterwards we ran into town to pick up fish for tonight’s supper and now hubby is cooking while I flop in front of the fire with the laptop to try and get the remaining pages written. Gotta love that man :hug:

But the desk is finished and I moved all my stuff in today. I have this really cool pin board that runs the entire length of one side of the desk. It’s awesome because I have pictures and papers I don’t want to lose pinned up where I can see them. I have lots of nooks and crannies and cubbies to keep all my notebooks and pens and office supplies (because notebooks and pens are VERY important)

To celebrate I think I’m going to go buy a few more notebooks *g*