Author: Maya

Sometimes I wonder how I’ll cope :oops: Other times I think I’ve lost my ever loving mind.

I have lots and lots of work to get done in very short order. It’s one of those times that a bunch of things have come flying in all at once and I’m wondering how I’m going to get everything done. I always do, mind you (get things done) but it doesn’t stop the flutter of panic I get when the crap starts to pile up.

So yeah, I’ll be uhm underground. Until the end of the month. And then I’m going on vacation.

He can run, but he can’t hide.

A Red Hot Summer story and a stand-alone sequel to Brazen.

Sheriff J.T. Summers promised to keep an eye on his best friend’s little sister. What could possibly go wrong? A lot. “Little” Nikki Durant isn’t so little anymore. She’s sex on a stick, and she’s pointed right at him.

Nikki has always loved J.T., and she’s through waiting for him to come around. The soaring summer temperature is nothing compared to the heat generated when she sets fire to his senses. With a take-no-prisoners attitude, she’s out to get her man. But no matter how many ways she offers it, J.T.’s not buying.

What’s it going to take to get him to realize her love for him isn’t a passing fling? Get herself arrested? Hmm…

You can go here or here for excerpts and here to purchase.

Kids are out of school. Regular baseball season is over, although All Star practice starts today. (See how enthused I am?) I mean who wouldn’t want to sit out in 100 degree weather with the sun so bright that it takes thirty minutes to see again after going indoors.

I’m just ready for vacation. USUALLY, we’re packing up to head out like uhm..now! We always go the week after the kids get out of school. This year we’re not going until the first week in July :crying: What was I thinking?

Instead, I’m flying to Kansas City at the ass crack of dawn this coming Thursday where Amy will pick me up and then we’re road tripping it to Ohio for Lori Foster’s reader get together. Fun huh? Well, not if you’re me and will spend the next several days obsessing and wondering wtf I was thinking when I signed up to go, because conferences and “get togethers” stress me out….

The weekend has been not so busy, mainly by choice. I really have a lot of work to do but yesterday I took off to go play poker with hubby. It was fun and we had a late night so we slept in today.

Then we got up and went grocery shopping. It was a mondo trip because I was running low on EVERYTHING so I had to restock the entire pantry. And now that the kids are home I had to make sure I had stuff for their lunches.

After the staple restocking trip, we headed into town to the grocery store we love to shop at. It has so much cool stuff. Their meat and seafood counter is to die for. I picked up crab legs, some cajun catfish filets and also some salmon that we’re cooking tonight. We went by the meat counter and was greeted by our “meat guy” lololol. We’re there pretty much every weekend to pick up a good steak to grill and so he’s gotten used to waiting on us. The store stocks the prime beef and oh man is it good. We’re total carnivores and so our idea of a great time is getting to drool over the meat selection. This time we chose T-bones. Yum!

So now I’m back home mellowing out to some great music. Of course my idea of mellow would probably make most people laugh. When I get contemplative, I listen to Erasure. I LOVE Erasure. So I have this bizarre playlist of Erasure, Dierks Bentley, Tim McGraw, Gary Allen, a whole horde of classical guitar selections as well as some folk music and bluegrass :banana:

But Erasure by far outnumbers all the other selections :woot:

Oh and I’m working on Theron’s proposal….

After doing mucho thinking and then running the idea I had for Theron by my editor today, I’ll be doing his story next :whoo:

Chrysander’s story is first and it releases in January. I think Theron will release in either April or May. I’m not sure which. Which means Piers will follow around Septemberish.

Every time I finish a book, I have to sit back and wait….for the barrage that follows. When I’m concentrating hard on a particular story, I block out everything else and won’t allow myself to think about other stories or characters. So what happens, is that when I DO finish the story, it’s like the flood gate opens and all that stuff I’ve held back on for weeks on end floods my brain. Complete bombardment.

I was literally juggling a half dozen storylines as the ideas came fast and furious. I was able to figure out Nathan and Micah both from the Sweet series with Berkley HEAT. I also figured out Theron and Piers, the two remaining Anetakis brothers from my Desire mini series. All of those proposals are due in the near future. But then there was also much thinking and note taking on a few uncontracted stories as well. :oops:

My brain is a scary thing when I finish a book.

So anyway, I’ve got to get Theron out the door and then I’ll be back to Ian, Braden and Katie. :writersblock:

Sweet Persuasion (Damon) is finished. Not officially finished, mind you, but I wrote the last word around 2:30 this morning and then staggered off to bed.

USUALLY I’m a one draft writer. I edit, revise and tweak as I go. Sometimes I can agonize endlessly over ONE sentence or a single word. Other times it flows faster than I can keep up. But this time I knew I didn’t have a lot of time because of other pressing deadlines and so I just sucked it up and wrote.

I hate sucking it up and writing. I envy writers who can just write whatever, knowing they’ll come back later and fix it. It gives me hives. I’m more overwhelmed by finishing a book and facing major rewrites than I am just taking the extra time to get it right the first time.

Well, I didn’t “get it right” this time. Oy! Far from it. I finished the book knowing that A. the hero has a lobotomy half way through the book because I changed an important part of his character midway through but didn’t go back and reconcile the early parts. B. there are two whiplash moments where the transition is jerky and abrupt, but at the time I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do “in the now” so I just went on and kept writing. And C. the ending? Abrupt. Disjointed.

BUT I do have time. Not a whole lot mind you, but the good thing about setting personal deadlines ahead of the “official” deadline is that it gives me time to put the book aside and let it percolate. So I’m shoving Sweet Persuasion into a dark, dark corner because I have to finish copy edits on Be With Me by the 28th and I have the proposal for Silhouette book 2 that is due June 1 and I still haven’t decided whose story Im writing next, Theron’s or Piers’…:oops:

My project for June is to finish Into the Lair. I’m a good bit into the story so I don’t face the daunting task of starting from scratch. Once I’m done with that story, then I’ll pick up the pieces that are Sweet Persuasion and plaster it with bandaids and stitches before shipping it off to NY by July 1.

July is going to be interesting…I have to write Silhouette book 2 that month and uhm I’m traveling two weeks out of that month :help:

Just finished one hell of a writing binge for today. Managed 13k words and I needed them badly. I promised myself I wouldn’t quit until I hit a certain page count because then it would be all down hill and I’m scheduled to finish this book up by Monday.

Here’s hoping that happens!

And now I’m off to bed. I don’t function without at least 8 hours of sleep and I’m looking at a maximum of 5 tonight and that’s only IF I get to sleep immediately and my brain doesn’t keep me awake for the next two hours plotting what comes next…. :cursesign:

was that performance by Fantasia on American Idol? :beam:

Sweet Jesus that was painful!

to all the moms out there. May your day be filled with lots of love, hugs and kisses from your brood whether they’re real or in spirit :hug:

It’s been a good weekend despite recovering from surgery. Yesterday I sat propped on the couch while hubby and the kids went shopping for Mother’s Day pressies. THey brought home Chinese take-out for dinner.

Today hubby folded all the laundry and cleaned the kitchen and he’s presently out shopping for steaks to grill for dinner. I love that man…

Me? I’m still propped on the couch with my laptop. I’m still sore but nearly as sore as I was yesterday. I’m working on something I’m not supposed to be working on…..shhhhh!

Stay With Me is now available! :banana:

Getting her back will be the toughest deal they’ve ever negotiated.

On the night of her fifth anniversary, Catherine Cullen-Wellesley intends to break the news to the two men in her life. She’s pregnant with their child. It’ll be the perfect preamble to the vacation they’ve promised her: Two weeks on a Jamaican beach. No cell phones, no emails, no business.

But when Logan and Rhys blow off the trip for yet another “business emergency”, Catherine faces some difficult truths. She hasn’t come first in her busy husbands’ lives in a long time. Defiantly, she packs her bags for her long-awaited vacation—alone. It’ll give her a chance to figure out what the hell she’s going to do with the rest of her life.

When Logan and Rhys come home to an empty house, they realize two things: One, it was a mistake to take Catherine for granted. Two, they’re not willing to just let her walk out of their lives.

Winning her back will be the most difficult battle of their lives—more important than any business deal they’ve ever negotiated.

You can go here for an excerpt!

Or go here to purchase.

We were talking over the weekend in the Writeminded Reader’s Group about Stay With Me and I mentioned that while I love writing about finding love, meeting newly and going on to the happily ever after, there was something so powerful about taking people who had already embarked on their HEA and show them holding onto their love, fighting for it. People make mistakes, they make stupid choices. They’re human. To me it’s rewarding to see a couple not give up when faced with hard times. Forgiveness is a big part of loving someone unconditionally. Who hasn’t made a mistake that they’ve needed forgiveness for?

This was my focus for this book. I hope that if you pick it up, you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :hug: