Notebooks, snacks and THE fight!

I bought two new notebooks today :elephant: I’d finally used every scrap of available paper in my other nine. I love paper :hug: and hey, since my husband is a forester, I’m supporting his trade hehe. Buy more paper!

Tonight is the big fight. Chuck Liddell and Rampage Jackson. I stocked up on snack goodness today on my notebook buying trip and we’re going to be parked in front of the television, snacks in hand to watch the big smack down. I can’t wait!

And speaking of snacks. Hubby and I are addicted to habanero dip over cream cheese on wheat crackers yummmmm. I made brownies for the kids with cream cheese frosting.

I hope everyone is having a fun Memorial Day weekend. Don’t forget to display your flag and remember our fallen heroes.

The official start to summer

ok well, it got kicked off a day early. Technically, TODAY was the last day of school, but it’s such a joke. I get notes home with the kids saying that basically the entire purpose of the last day of school is so that the kids can get their report cards and that they are free to leave afterwards. My daughter’s note even said PLEASE take your children home because otherwise they’re going to be “stuck” in the cafeteria the entire day watching movies. Uhm yeah, sounds really fun or educational. Why the crap couldn’t they go outside to play? Hello? Warm, sunshiney, play outside? Why even bother? Could they not have sent home report cards yesterday afternoon with the kids? I don’t know how the work out of the home parents deal with the school’s retarded schedule for the last week of school. Every single day has been some lameass activity from 8 to 9 in the morning followed by “please take your children home”

So I let them stay home today and we all slept in. They all made the honor roll so it’s not like I have this burning need to see the physical report card.

Two hours into the day, I’ve already broken up a fight and sent one of them to their room. :purplelaugh: Boy is this going to be a fun summer….

I wrote a lot yesterday. I’m back in that manic phase. Monday I wrote a lot of pages. Tuesday I did not. Wednesday I wrote a lot of pages. Today I haven’t even started yet. Overkill or totally lame. No in between with me! :beam:

The Handy Dandy Notebook

I go through a lot of notebooks. I love buying them. I love carrying them around with me. So far this year, I’ve counted nine completely filled notebooks that I’ve gone through. I jot down story notes, snippets of dialogue, and I’ll write entire scenes. I frequently get “blocked” or stuck and find myself staring at a blank computer screen. Other times I won’t even want to open up the laptop at all. Not a good thing when you’re a writer.

I’ll set the laptop aside, find a comfy spot, or a new location, open up my notebook and start to write. Usually if I can just start in the notebook, I can then transfer the words over to my laptop and keep on typing where I leave off.

The first entire year that I began seriously writing, EVERYTHING was scribbled in my notebook. That first book was written with one hand, and a baby or toddler in the other, sometimes both. It took me a long time to be able to “create” new words on the laptop, to be able to stare at the screen and get the ball rolling. So it’s not surprising that even now, when I get blocked, that I can turn to a notebook and pen and let the words flow.

So with that said, I’m closing the laptop, going to scrounge a few blank sheets of paper in one of my nine notebooks, and start scribblling. :writersblock:

Ok so myspace is good for something

I have a myspace page. I’ve had one for a bit now. I know nothing about myspace (still don’t) which is why I hired my beloved Scrappy to do it for me. I piddle around on it occassionally, but for the most part, it remains a mystery to me.

The other day, someone I went to highschool with “friended” me. Which was very cool because this was someone I was really sad to have lost touch with and one of the very few (very few) people from highschool that I would have cared to have caught up with.

So now I get to chat and catch up on what he’s been doing for oh the last 16 years or so. Good grief. 16 years. How very depressing! :faint:

And suddenly

all I have to do is write a book. :fainting: No endless list of things to do, no promo stuff to finish, it’s all done and outta here. This is the first time all year that I only have one project to focus on. No mad rush. No juggling deadlines, edits, conferences etc.

This time last year, I knew I was facing a very busy next twelve months. I had multiple contract obligations, but I had developed a business plan and I was determined to stick to it. That plan has paid off very well, and I’m very pleased with the results. And while I can’t totally relax, a break is certainly deserved, and I plan to take advantage of it.

I’m looking forward to finishing my current book that I’m diving back into because once done, I’ll have a bit of free time. I already have evil plans for how to spend that free time. Yeah, I’ll still be writing, but I’m gonna work on something different. One of those I-can-hardly-restrain-my-glee-over-writing books. I can’t wait! :lol2:

Check and check

Two HUGE things are now checked off my to do list. :banana: :cheer: Just when I feared never getting anything done, I managed to finish up my proposal AND get it off to my agent AND I finished getting all my ARC packages together, addressed envelopes, everything is FINISHED.

Now all I have left to do is my galleys, which arrived last week. And then all I have to concentrate on is writing. Which I love. It’s hard when all the non writing things that have everything to do with my publishing career keep cropping up. Now maybe I’ll have time to unpack from RT….

But all that aside, I’m taking tomorrow off. For Mother’s Day, the weather is going to be fantabulous, but even better? BLUE WATER day. :fishing: Blue water days are rare on the Texas Coast. We missed a greenish water today, which is fantastic enough. My son had a baseball game and my other son had a band event. So tomorrow, we’re packing up the fishing gear, packing a picnic and we’re going to be beach bums the entire day. Water will be like glass and blue as far as the eye can see. Sigh… I can’t wait! I’ll snap some pics if I remember to take my camera.

Undenied!

Undenied releases today!

Another chance to make a night gone bad very, very right.

Payton Ricci is the last person Wes Hoffman ever expected or wanted to see again. After the disastrous sexual experience between them twelve years ago, he was only too happy to put the whole episode behind him. After all, he’s come a long way since that awkward encounter between two gawky teenagers, and his ego needs no reminder.

The night he sees Payton, a very sexy grown up Payton, in Zack’s Bar and Grill, he’s mortified by this blast from the past. Payton harbors no such reservations about seeing Wes again, and it’s clear she wouldn’t mind catching up on old times. However, Wes can’t get over his mental block where she’s concerned.

But that’s nothing a blindfold and a little mad seduction scheme can’t fix, and Payton is a very determined woman.

Go here for more info and here or here for excerpts!

The official back cover copy

Here is the official back cover copy for FOR HER PLEASURE. I like how they combined the first two novellas into one blurb (they’re very, very closely connected)

When it comes to sensation, be careful what you wish for.

The pleasure can become addictive…

What a woman needs…

Nice set-up: one spirited woman in Kit Townsend, and two buddies like Ryder and Mac. Kit never did follow the rules—especially nonsense like “three’s a crowd.” So, for a while, everything was easy and hot—a no-strings threesome in and out of the bedroom. Kit never thought she’d be giving Mac the edge. And Ryder never dreamed he’d secretly be head over heels for Kit. When love puts a kink in sex, is there such a thing as a happy ending?

What a woman craves…

Mia Nichols was a sweet Dallas girl with big dreams for the future when she first met Texas Ranger Jack Kincaid. A lot has changed since that fairy tale. Framed for drug possession, Mia’s now being forced to work undercover at a strip joint where several girls have disappeared into the sex-slave underworld. Then, into the club walks Jack, who’s got one more chance to prove himself as Mia’s protector, savior, and lover….

For Her Pleasure

RT Pics

These are just a few pics from RT.

First, reader extraordinaire, Ali. Isn’t she gorgeous?

Me and Karin Tabke

The always fun Lauren Dane at the booksigning

Me and Sunny at dinner with the Australian booksellers

Me and Mackenzie McKade

PROOF that Mac loves me

Me and authors, Annmarie McKenna, Beth Williamson and Mac