Category: Maya’s Older Posts

Wow, amazing how much time has passed since I returned from Vegas. I’ve been busier than a one armed paper hanger, and well, a lot has changed.

Still working on No Place to Run.  I’ve also been working on Pillow Talk for the Four Play anthology.  Both are due December 15th.

Want to know what else happens on December 15th?  Besides the fact that I’m obviously taking a break from reality…

See, I’ve wanted to move for awhile now.  We’ve outgrown our current house and with three very rambunctious, getting older and bigger children, we are really feeling the squeeze.  We need room. More room. Lots of more room.  But well, the thought of having to move?  Enough to make me pluck out my eyeballs with a fork.  But we revisited the idea recently and typically we said well we’ll consider it next summer (because really we are chronic putteroffers ;)

But then we happened to see the PERFECT house. And it’s for sale NOW, not next summer. And well, did I mention this was the PERFECT house?  It is everything both hubby and I want as far as location, yard size, house features. I mean this couldn’t have been designed better for us. So how could we pass?

Well we didn’t.

So uhm what else happens on December 15th?  We close on our new house.  Because clearly I didn’t have enough to do with my current deadlines. I had to add the hassle of purchasing a new home and closing on it and then MOVING. For God’s sake. I’m already whimpering. The good news is I can take my time because I’m not putting my current house on the market until after we’ve moved completely out.

I can’t wait. Finally there will be room to spread out and not be on top of each other all the time.  AND I have an upstairs office far far away from everyone else. I may never come out of it….

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Congratulations to all the winners!

Giveaway #1: Missy Martine (Comment #55)
Giveaway #2: Bella (Comment #19)
Giveaway #3: Armenia (Comment #2)
Giveaway #4: Scott Romanski (Comment #23)
Giveaway #5: Cecile (Comment #52)
Giveaway #6: Stacy W. (Comment #17)
Giveaway #7: Minna (Comment #34)
Giveaway #8: Eli (Comment #25)
Giveaway #9: Teresa (Comment #1)
Giveaway #10: Christy (Comment #48)
Giveaway #11: Deidre (Comment #30)
Giveaway #12: Sharon Manning-Lew (Comment #41)

Winners, please email your address to me at maya@mayabanks.com. In the email, please include the title & author of the book you won.

I’m currently bopping to Erasure because dude, you can’t possibly be in a down mood when listening to Erasure. It’s like illegal or something.

Anyway, I’m off to Vegas bright and early tomorrow morning and OMG I cannot wait.  I’ve done a lot of traveling this year but this is solely for me.  A fun trip with no other agenda other than to spend time with hubby and have more fun than a human being should be allowed.

While I’m gone, I’m going to have the blog run itself and give away autographed books that I picked up at RAW and at the Baton Rouge readers’ luncheon I attended.  Sounds scary huh. I hope it doesn’t blow up or something.

So be looking for the giveaways. I’ll do one a day until I run out of books.

Have a great weekend!

It’s raining this morning. One of those nice, steady downpours with just a hint of thunder in the distance. It’s a perfect day for staying in…. To bad I must go out!

I have some errands to run in preparation for an upcoming trip.  Hubby and I leave bright and early Saturday morning for five days in Vegas.  He and I are like kids at Christmas. We’ve both been super swamped with work and stress and we’re dying to get away and have fun, adult conversation, good food and lots of poker.

In other words, we’re both refilling very empty wells!

I need to charge my Kindle and of course browse Amazon to see if there are any titles I MUST HAVE for my trip, never mind I have something like 400 unread books on my Kindle. But what if I want to read THE ONE I don’t have on there?  It could happen you know.

Sort of like last night when I really wanted to reread a particular book and it was the ONLY ONE I couldn’t find on my bookshelf. Anywhere. It was gone.  And of course it had to be THAT BOOK. That’s the one I wanted to read, damn it.

I’ve started buying some of my absolute favorite rereads to put on my Kindle just for this sort of problem. I love my print books but damn they keep going missing!  Besides, who knows when the urge to reread will strike?  Might be when I’m in Vegas, or on a plane, or in the car.

Yes, obviously I’m ill. I can’t help myself.  But at least I’m not snorting drugs or something.  But if I could put a book up my nose, I would!

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The weekend was just GORGEOUS here. OMG. Beautiful bright blue skies. No clouds.  Crisp, cool breezes. It’s the first glimpse of Fall we’ve seen here.  I spent a lot of my time starting over with Sam and Sophie’s story because I’d missed the boat with the opening.  When the pieces finally fell into place, it was a marvelously fun thing to behold. Kind of like ripping the tape off my character’s mouths and finally letting them tell their own story.

Hubby and I had a late poker night Saturday night which was fun.  We’re bad for even going since we’re leaving for Vegas this next weekend, but we’re both restless, ready for a break and we couldn’t wait.  Sunday the husband made the most FABULOUS caramel shortbread and then grilled firecracker Salmon Mmmmm. I am so freaking spoiled but damn the man is so good to me.  We sighted in rifles in preparation for hunting season which begins two weeks from now with the youth hunt. Kids are absolutely stoked especially my daughter.

We set up trail cams to monitor our spots and she’s named “her” buck “big boy” and says  he will be HERS and no one else’s. The girl has serious buck fever.  As a result we have to let the kids draw for stands for opening morning because there is a fight going on about who goes where.  All I know is whoever bags big boy, serious bragging rights will be appointed and the rest of us may never live such an event down.  Ever.

Today, I’m still dug into my cave. Have lots of reworking to do now that my characters have changed all the rules.  Sophie, particularly, is a very bad girl and gee, who knew?  While Sam? I mean I knew the man was sexy but geesh. All I can say now after rewriting that first chapter is ROWR!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Web chicky says I’m all set.  Comments have disappeared from all the old posts but going forward everything should be smooth.

But ack! Everything looks different *sob* I hate change and this dashboard? Totally different. I have no idea what I’m doing.

Currently watching the Saints and the NYG football game (Geaux Saints!) and afterward we’re going to sight in our rifles because hunting season starts in two weekends!

And I think I lost all my smilies… *sniffle*

The blog is getting overhauled and updated this weekend so it might be down. Also, I believe all comments will disappear from the imported posts so we’ll be starting fresh with comments etc. All the old posts should carry through though.

I’ll be back as soon as I can!

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I’ll be scarce for awhile. I really need to knuckle down on this book and I’ve got a lot going on right now. I’m getting to that “stressed out” point. I’ve been away from home quite a bit and I don’t feel like I’ll ever catch up.

At any rate, I don’t know how much I’ll be around or updating the blog. If all goes well, I’ll be back on schedule by the end of this month (Ideally in two weeks from now but we’ll see)

Before I head into the cave though, I just want to say how much I appreciate all of you who have bought and read Sweet Seduction and for all the really wonderful emails and reviews you’ve sent my way. It’s always a little nerve wracking to release a book that I love so much because ME loving it is inconsequential. It’s you the reader who has to love it.

For those wondering, Micah’s story is finished. It’s been finished for quite some time. In fact, both Sweet Seduction AND Sweet Temptation were both written and turned in before Sweet Persuasion (book 2) ever released. That’s always the confusing part of publishing is how far ahead of release date the books are written and turned in. I’m currently working on 2011 books and we aren’t even to 2010 yet :)

I’ll see you all in a little while. Wish me luck whipping the last of this book into submission! (It’s killing me)

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So yesterday I scoffed at the cold front and went swimming with my son. We stayed in an hour. The water temp hadn’t dropped that much and well neither had the outside temps BUT it wasn’t in the 90s so I’ll take what I can get.

Hubby got up early this morning to fire up the grill. We’re grilling ribs and pork butts today and will have leftovers all week. The smell is torturing me!

Oh, and my pitiful daughter…she went shopping with a girlfriend yesterday for the girlfriend’s birthday. They were going to eat lunch, go to the mall and then hit a movie and then have a sleepover. (My daughter is nine) So I get a pitiful call from the mall because her FEET hurt and her shoes were KILLING her. Never mind that I’d advised her to A. wear socks, B. don’t wear those shoes to shop in in the first place and C. to at least bring an extra pair of flip flops.

I could positively see her little lip quivering and I told her to have her friend’s mom help her find a pair of socks to buy. She calls me a few minutes later and says they found flip flips instead. Because of course this girl can’t EVER have too many shoes. Or flip flops…

We’re supposed to go sight in guns today (hunting season is upon us!) but daughter isn’t home yet, middle child just took off with friends, and I’m really really reluctant to move from my current spot. So we’ll see if that actually happens

Hope everyone else is having as lazy a Sunday as I am!

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What do YOU suppose the purpose of blogs are? I find I’m dissatisfied with a lot of blogs because when I go to them I feel like they’re feeding me info but not talking to me. Does that make sense? A lot of them are endless info dumps. Others want to preach at me. Others want to bitch at me. But few really seem to want to talk to me. I wonder why that is since in my mind blogs are for talking. Am I wrong in this? I mean I could be because Lord knows I don’t have all the answers or even one for that matter.

And I totally get the whole idea that a blog is what the individual blogger WANTS it to be, so I guess maybe I’m asking more of what blog readers prefer or expect when they go to blogs.

I think of all blogs, I hate the preachy ones the most and I don’t mean in a religious sense. I mean when a blogger harps about how everyone else is doing it wrong and so by default they must be doing it right. (Authors are so guilty of this) Maybe I’m too laid back but hey I say let everyone have the rope to either hang or not hang themselves.

On a completely unrelated note, Dude, it’s so not chilly today. I wanted chilly. I mean yes, it is cooler, but I don’t think the word Cold Front should be wasted on this sort of event. I think it should have been called “A somewhat cooler front”

Eh well I’ve exhausted my pee brain for today and that’s all the deep thinking I shall do. I’ll probably need the rest of the afternoon to recover!

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