Happy Birthday, Candy Girl!!!

Today is a very special day. No, not because of the high five for book four in 2014. Even better! Candy Girl a.k.a Agent M a.k.a Thunderkitten a.k.a Marvelous Miranda is celebrating her birthday!!!!

We "met" a little over a year ago and have never spoken except online, but she's still my BFF. After Sally, Miranda is the first person to know what's happening in my RL. She's always willing to give me pep talks (even the tough love ones). Creative and quirky, Candy Girl shows me things I would never see on my own. There's no way to express how blessed I feel to know her.

Used is her "baby" too because she found the guy's picture and took it in a completely different direction than I would have. The consensus is the cover is smoking hot. Aces, CG!!!

More proof of Miranda's awesomeness is the thank you she got in Emilia Winters's new romance Electric. Yep, everyone cool loves Candy Girl.

This week has been great and it's only Tuesday! Used is out. Miranda is celebrating her sweet birthday. Pooh is showing real signs of improvement after only a week on the new medicine. Roo is out of school. With the little man on summer break, I'm also on vacation since I'm his teacher. More time to write!

With Sally and Miranda's help, I made my deadlines for both Damaged and the Dragon and Used. Planning to stay in my writing groove, I've already begun working on Damaged and the Bulldog and my side project of Blue Awakening (yes, I've said that before). My goal is to release twenty books by the two-year anniversary of the first book I published. I seriously doubt I'll make two more books before the end of July, but one can dream.

With so many great books coming out in June, Miranda will keep her Kindle busy. Just this week, there are new books from Emilia, S.N. Garza (my girl Stephanie), Amity Cross, and Jo Wylde.

Speaking of awesome authors, I will publish the interview with Sera Bright this week. Yep, I'm finally getting caught up. I do think there's a Deadly Dee review I need to post too, but that's for another day.

Candy Girl deserves the best birthday imaginable. She's a great friend, co-blogger, beta reader, illustrator, BBA Whisperer (makes those whiners wet themselves), and all around awesome chick. I hope everyone enjoys the songs on this week's post. They're two of Miranda's favorites. :)

High Five for Book Seven!

What a nice way to start this holiday week!!! I have uploaded Damaged and the Outlaw to Ammy, B&N, and Smashwords. It feels good to have made my deadline (the 2nd one anyway) thanks to help from Mustang Sally, Candy Girl, Hardcore Patty, and Saucy Sarah.

With Outlaw, I have hit the same number of books I published in 2012. Plus, Candy Girl pointed out another milestone. I have officially published over one million words!!! Hot damn!

As happy as I am to publish Outlaw, I'm already focused on Scattered. I still hope to get two more books out this year. Scattered is for sure. It just needs to be edited along with lengthening the finale. My goal is to have it to Sally by Thanksgiving and Candy Girl by next weekend. Depending on the problems they find, I might be able to publish Scattered next week.

The minute Scattered is in the hands of my beta readers, I need to start Blue Awakening. While I hope to finish the book this year, it'll be tight. The upside is that December will include the holidays, so I'll be on vacation from homeschooling Roo and Pooh. This should give me the time to hustle with Blue.

Back to this holiday week, I'm planning on enjoying my family. There will be no new posts on Where Zombies Come to Read, Just That Good, and BBA Whisperer. I will post a Bijou Babbles when Outlaw is live on Ammy. Later in the week, I want to write a La La post about everything I'm thankful for this year. Finally, I posted an interview on Indie Angie with a new romance author named Emilia Winters. Her first novella Complications was reviewed positively by Candy Girl on our blog.

For now, it's turkey time. Family, food, and fun!!! I wish everyone a safe and happy week.

Outlaw, Thugs, Full Time Author, and Charity

Happy dance! Damaged and the Outlaw is in its final stages. Sally has read the book and says it's her favorite Damaged book so far. Trust me that the chick doesn't bullshit when it comes to books.

Candy Girl is reading it now. I'm still tweaking things. Adding and deleting, editing and proofing, but it'll be in the hands of my other beta readers by the end of the week. The publishing date is set for November 26.

An awesome romance blog called Read This ~ Hear That did the cover reveal on Saturday. Thanks to Natalee who put it together last minute. Not only is she aces, her blog is sexy fun with lots of great book giveaways.

For Thanksgiving week, I'm set to edit Scattered. As some of you know, I homeschool Roo and Pooh. Normally, kids attend school Mon-Wed during the week of Thanksgiving, but they honestly never do much. I've decided to have my boys take the week off and add those missing days later in the year. So next week will be relaxing for everyone.

I'm also psyched to start Blue Awakening. Last weekend, Candy Girl helped me decide on a cover for the book. Now, I just need to write it. While I've completed the first chapter and a few other scenes, the gist of the novel waits for me to get cracking. I'm even listening to Susan Boyle to set the mood.

This last week wasn't all happy happy joy joy. A particularly stupid BBA decided to turn full-on thug and use an offensive slur against the disabled. She giggled about it later. Blew off anyone who might be offended then made herself the victim. Same old crap from her type of loser.

Months ago, I wrote about how hurtful and evil the R word is to anyone who truly cares about the disabled. As a mother with two sons on the autism spectrum, I have no patience for excuses by people who attack the disabled. I never wrote about my sons' disabilities before because I know the asshats would mock them. That's what the sick bastards do.

In the end, those bottom feeders can write whatever they want about my family. They are beyond help, particularly when they make excuses to use hate speech. Some words are just ugly and should never be used.

Possibly, this selfish chick is from a part of the country or belongs to an age group that believes the disabled should be shuttered away and pitied from afar. It doesn't matter why she believes hate speech like the R word is acceptable. She's filth like all people who attack the most vulnerable in society. Yeah, I'm pissed. Use that vile word and I go Mama Grizzly. No sympathy for bigots.

In good news, my girl Lauryl quit her "day job" and is a full-time author now. Congratulations! It's a big deal when an author can claim writing as their occupation, rather than a hobby. She's worked hard the last year, publishing three books and building a fan base. Here's hoping 2014 is even more successful for Lauryl as she expands to new genres and gains more fans.

Lots of great blogging this last week. On Indie Angie, I interviewed a really cool UF author named Rebecca Espinoza. Candy Girl previously reviewed Rebecca's first book, Binds. This week, she reviewed Café Insomniac. I added a review for Lady Sings the Blues. On Where Zombies Come to Read, Deadly Dee gave a stellar review for Corpse Days which is by a new hot author named Jonathon Kane. We're all looking forward to his upcoming UF novel.

With Outlaw's approaching release, I wrote up a Bijou Babbles. Later in the week, I'll post an excerpt from the book. Finally on BBA Whisperer, we giggled through our weekly update, pointed out a raging duh from one of my fandorks, and revealed the nastiness from the asshat I mentioned earlier.

I want to end this post by mentioning the recent natural disasters that have taken the lives of so many. I have several friends with family who have been devastated by the typhoon in the Philippines. If you're interested in donating to help those who've suffered greatly, you can do so here. There are many other groups providing relief like Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, OXFAM America, and Save the Children.

Closer to home, a tornado tore apart towns in Illinois. If you'd like to help those hurt worst, you can donate here.

I hope everyone who believes in the power of God will pray for those suffering. If you're not a believer, please send positive thoughts to the survivors.

Halloweenie

Halloween is my fifteenth favorite holiday. It's a time of year when we piss away money on costumes we'll wear once and eat candy from tiny bags instead of normal sized bags. I'll admit I haven't been interested in decorating since the wind blew away our plastic jack-o-lantern four years ago. Living at the end of a cul-de-sac makes front yard decorations short-lived.

This is the first time in seventeen years I haven't gone trick or treating with a kiddo. Roo decided he wasn't interested in going out. Instead, we ordered pizza, played Jenga, Uno, and charades before watching hours of those ghost hunters shows. In Yamalamadingdong, trick or treating was rescheduled for the weekend because of a storm, so we'll have a second Halloween tomorrow. However, I doubt the pizza will last that long with teenagers in the house.

Earlier in the week, I caught a cold. It didn't slow me down writing and I'm hoping to finish the first draft of Outlaw by early next week. I'm hitting all the action scenes now with only a few doinking scenes left. This novel is much more action oriented than my other Damaged books.

My writing plans for the year keep shrinking. At this rate, I'll be lucky to get Blue Awakening and Scattered finished. Don't know if I'll have much time in December to goof around with Shadow World books. All that means is that 2014 will be even busier.

This week, I started the new book review blog. Only two reviews are up so far because I got sickie as did one of my reviewers. "Just That Good" is an in-joke from my Blood Tide book. Candy Girl gets it and that's all that matters. I figured I'll kick the blog into gear next year. So far, I have reviewers Sheena, Candy Girl, and Mustang Sally. I love working with such diverse badass babes and their varied tastes. The first reviews are for The Gate by KT Grant and Binds by Rebecca Espinoza.

On Where Zombies Come to Read, I posted an interview with GB Banks along with a review from Deadly Dee for The Most Uncommon Cold. I also added a little chewy brain treat for Halloween with Our Favorite Cinematic Zombies.

For the Whisperer blog, we profiled several whiny nobodies on our update. Plus, we asked F&G to retire or improve her game because she was boring us. The BBA have been quieter this week which is good news for readers. Maybe the whiners took the week off for Halloween.

While I didn't have a chance to add anything to Indie Angie, I did write an update for my Bijou blog.

Lastly, I want to send happy thoughts to Lauryl who bought a house in Oct. It's been a wild year for her, but her family will enjoy their first holidays in the new abode. With things settling down for her, I look forward to her next books. She's working on three! Way to multitask, badass babe!

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and happy November!!!

Happiness makes me happy!

Autumn is here and it's frigging cold in Yamalamadingdong!!! Duh, I know, but I'm too old to shake the chill apparently. As pretty as autumn can be, it's also a time for tedious yard work. Tigger and I have nearly finished winterizing our yard. The end can't come too soon.

I'm getting ready for the holidays too. Cleared out a spot for the tree, wrote my Christmas letter, and nearly have all the pics ready for the card. Oh, and I'm even a few gifts away from finishing Christmas shopping. Yeah, I'm that good.

I love autumn because most of my favorite shows return (waves sadly at Community). The Walking Dead is wonderfully gross and Rick isn't pissing me off as much this season. Supernatural is sexy awesome. How I Met Your Mother is apparently spending the whole addictive season at Barney and Robin's wedding. Finally, I'm hearting the hilarious Brooklyn Nine Nine. Of course since I love the show, it'll be cancelled. All the great sitcoms are. Weeps for Happy Endings.

The fall weather has caused a lot of sinus headaches and I slept most of last weekend. This means I'm behind on writing Damaged and the Outlaw, so it won't be ready by Halloween. Denial was my best friend until Candy Girl gave me an intercontinental pep talk and I had to accept I couldn't finish by my self-inflicted deadline. Why rush the book and shortchange the characters and by extension my readers? As soon as I admitted on FB I wouldn't finish Outlaw until closer to Thanksgiving, I felt a sense of peace. The pressure was off and I could breathe.

I don't normally write one book at a time. Having pushed back my Outlaw deadline, I will be able to bounce to Blue#2, Scattered, and Shadow City. I'm also thinking about goofing around with Memphis Death Wish. Occasionally writing silly stuff relaxes my writer's block. I don't currently have writer's block, but Outlaw is dark and a little fluffy fun might keep me focused. That's the plan anyway.

Blogging-wise, I suck more than usual when it comes to interviews and showcases. I did post reviews from Deadly Dee and Miranda Macabre on Where Zombies Come to Read. Soon, Dee will provide reviews for my new currently unnamed and unformatted blog. I should also write an update for Bijou's blog and probably some other stuff too. Yeah, I'm totally on top of it.

I did write a few posts for the Whisperer blog. Rick and Melissa are having a really funny battle which gave me lots to mock. In her attempt to dox me, Melissa managed to out one of her socks. D'oh! I did take time out of pointing and laughing at asshats to reformat the Whisperer blog to a holiday theme. Plus, on BL, I started a thread about what BBA we would dress up as for Halloween.

This week, I'll post an interview with GB Banks on Where Zombies Come to Read and those reviews from Dee. Might get that blog up and running. Will totally move Outlaw closer to the finish line. I'm nearing the abduction scene with the quote I posted on the Bijou blog. Most of all, I suspect I'll be lazy and goof off. That seems to be my go-to move lately.

Farewell For Now, Cool Beans!

What an exhausting week! I worked two days at Cool Beans Elementary and adored both classes and not in a fake "all kids are great" way. The kids at Cool Beans are simply charming. After all, there's a reason I made an exception this year for the school.

Since writing is my core employment now, I really didn't need to work at Cool Beans. I tried though because the kids are dolls and the teachers and support staff are awesome too. Yet, with only so many hours in the day, I've made the decision to stop taking jobs for the rest of the year. I still have plans to publish between five and eight more books by January. This means I must say farewell to Cool Beans for 2013!

Bijou readers are getting restless for the next Damaged book. I said Cobra would be ready in late September. They don't care about pen names' books. They want it now! I feel like a lame La La to take this long to finish the book. The upside is I hope to publish Outlaw around Halloween, so readers will have less time to wait between books.

Dmitri is on hold until Cobra is in the hands of beta readers. Same with Blue Awakening and obvious Rebound Biker. I'm panicking a little at how it's already September and I have a ton of writing and editing left to do. No way will I get all of my projected projects completed this year. Bummer. The must haves are:

1) Damaged and the Cobra

2) Damaged and the Outlaw

3) Dmitri (Catalina demands her book this year)

4) Scattered (needs a good editing and revised ending)

5) Wounded Soul (really big edit needed)

6) Blue Awakening

7) Damaged and the Dragon

Hopefully, I can get Gigi or Shadow Sisters started by the end of the year. Would love to get Rebound Biker done in early 2014 for the Etta pen name.

Regular readers probably remember my Denny's buddy Bill. Well, the guy is frigging badass and I'm totally writing him as a character in my next zombie book. He got all shy when I told him, but that's just how the guy is about attention.

You also might remember my fangirl Margo who humps my every move. A few weeks ago, I said she was writing another book and I hoped she would focus on writing instead of being a BBA. Nope. She's back to harassing readers and ignoring her writing. It's obvious where her priorities rest.

Another fangirl is Princess PP who linked her whine blog to my personal blog because she's hearting for me. Since she wanted a shout out, here it is.

In case you don't know, PP is a whiny woman who wears silly hats, writes awful books, cites herself as an editor on her books, and has never met a misogynistic pig she couldn't cuddle with. She's a winner for sure.

The funny thing is she claims I should focus on writing, instead of being "mean" to her. Hmm...since I learned she existed (back around January), I've published five books and two have actually done well. I don't think I need to worry about my priorities. Unlike Margo and PP, I can multitask.

The not so funny part is how PP named her new blog "Trollstomp." Classy, huh? She acts so uppity and refined, but her blog's title is a threat of violence. After all, I'm one of the "trolls" she hates and she wants to stomp me. Anger management classes clearly need to be in her future.

My blog tracking her bad behavior is called BBA Whisperer. Yes, I whisper to the badly behaving authors in the hopes of changing their vile ways. Meanwhile, PP threatens violence. You know, when she isn't abusing a thesaurus in a sad attempt to seem smart.

One of PP's buddies is Bad Santa who has admitted he plans to track down the personal information of readers and post them on his blog. We wrote about this on BBA Whisperer this week. I also had a lot of fun writing about Bankie Boy needing his diaper changed. The guy is a whiny loser who seems especially angry at women. PP's friends are the epitome of class.

You know who actually is classy? My new reviewer Deadly Dee. She reviewed an awesome author's books this week. I talked up Vincenzo Bilof last week and Dee couldn't say enough wonderful things about his books. Loved them! What a great start to our reviewing feature on Where Zombies Come to Read.

Since I worked at Cool Beans last week, I didn't have a chance to blog for Indie Angie or Bijou. I hope to get caught up in the next few days.

Most of all, I'm focused on finishing Cobra, so I can give it to my beta readers. As always, I have the amazing Candy Girl and Mustang Sally. This time, I'm also blessed with the help of a few great readers who enjoyed the first two Damaged books. My goal is to have Cobra published by October 1. Wish me, Lark, and Aaron luck!!!

Oh! Crap!

Marvelous Miranda just reminded me how NEXT WEEK is the 16^th of Aug, so I need to light a fire under my ass to finish Vivi. My final edit should be tomorrow then I’ll send it to beta readers for proofing. As long as they don’t find any major issues, Ain’t No Queen will be ready by my self-imposed deadline.

My buddy Bill came into Denny’s today and we shot the shit. Chatting with the regulars always puts me behind. Worth it though. The guy has the best f’ed up stories EVER.

He told me a freaky one about a mama duck with her ducklings swimming across a pond. Suddenly, a bass came up and ate one of the damn babies! I had no idea that shit was even possible. Poor ducky.

Some of you may have noticed I added two new series to my “Next” page. I know, I know. There are too many projects already. Yet, when I mentioned how I might do a mermaid book, I received a lot of positive feedback. So I worked up a PNR idea about mermaids finding love (aww), plus a badass UF idea. Now, if I can just finish my five open fantasy series, I’ll add these new paranormal ideas to my "most definitely" lineup. Easy peasy, right?

Brainstorming-wise, I'm having issues with a future romance series. Dmitri’s character is OTT and a jerk (sexy), but his natural character progression leads to cheating. I HATE CHEATERS! Fortunately, I won’t start this book until early 2014, so I’ll have time to work out his character quirks.

If I’m worried Dmitri might be too big of an asshole, I’m also worried Aaron will be too nice. Damaged and the Cobra isn’t six months off though. I need to start the book in a week or so because I plan to buddy write Blue and Cobra.

This is why I need to plan things ahead. With Aaron, I didn’t imagine him as the hero of a romance. He was Cooper’s nice friend. Now, he’s the hot guy hero who carries a book. The sooner I start writing him, the sooner I’ll know what he's like. My characters rarely stay on their leashes.

A problem that comes from the blessing of success is a reader has asked me if I provide signed copies? She lives in Australia. Not even sure how to do that, but I hate saying no to readers. Another thing on my to-do list is writing a few Cooper POV scenes. A reader asked for a scene for her birthday. I’m sure she was teasing, but I’d like to get a few written for her and the other readers who've been so loyal to my Damaged series.

In my last post, I wrote about an author named Margo who's given up writing to be an asshat. She likely noticed because she’s suddenly working on the next book in her series. Yes, I keep an eye on her blog because she likes to attack people on it. Anyway, I noticed she claims to be working on book five. Maybe she’s full of absolute shit (it really fits her).

Or maybe she really will write more and attack readers less. I’ve never read her books, so I don’t know if the world is better off with another offering. If she stops harassing readers as she writes a book, it’s a win for us all.

Tomorrow is our new Whisperer post about Thunderpussy and her ability to cause BBA to piss their pants. Not just Bankie Boy with his bladder issues either. Hell, just Princess PP’s freak out will amaze and delight! This weekend, we’ll post more exclusive info from the F&G moles.

The next time I post on La La, let’s hope I’m sighing with relief at finishing the Vivi edit. I’m really looking forward to writing again. I’m sure you’re all looking forward to me whining less about how boring editing can be.

Let’s end with a little Wicked Walken.

Coming Down From a Publishing High

Thursday is upon me and the week has been weird. I always go through a down period once I publish a book. After Damaged and the Beast, I also had to worry about sales and reviews (you know, because I actually had sales and reviews).

Well, Damaged and the Knight has sold well in its first few days and been received positively by fans of Beast. Even a few readers who didn't like the first book enjoyed Knight. My goal is obviously to improve with every one I write.

On Saturday, it'll be a year since I published Blood Tide. During that time, I tried new writing techniques such as first person POV. This was something I didn't love in the past, but the key seems to be to avoid starting every sentence with "I."

Genre-wise, I tried my hand at young adult, horror, fantasy, and romance. I learned how releasing too many series at one time will put an author behind on sequels. Mostly, I accepted how I need to settle down and focus on a few ideas, instead of writing every a-ha that pops into my head.

This year, I made many great friends - readers and authors alike. I've joined the readers' rights movement. I also learned how to blog. This one was the most difficult. When a blogger starts out, no one is really reading their stuff and it feels pretentious to write to nobody.

Eventually, I realized I would have more fun blogging if I blogged about other authors. Indie Angie stopped being my personal blog and became a showcase for indie authors. Even though I fall behind on my five blogs, I also have periods when it's all I do with my days. Best of all, after months of blogging, I feel less dorky writing my personal stuff down.

I'm currently working on Blue Awakening and it's a sad book in the beginning. I'm surprised by how quickly I jumped back into Blue's head and her world. On the days I have trouble with Blue, I work on Gigi and Vivi. The former is maybe a fourth complete while the latter is over half. My biggest goal is publishing Micah this month. I'd like to build the Dakota brand.

I plan to write a multi-part blog about branding as an indie author. I've learned a ton about this concept over the last year. Hadn't really thought about it when I first published, so I used my name for all seven of my books in different genres. Now, having worked as Bijou, I see the benefit of pen names and branding.

I also need to finish my "Why I Read Negative Reviews" series for the Indie Angie blog. It's been months since my last post and I need to light a fire under my ass.

This week, I planned to write a "Be the Best BBA You Can Be" post for the Whisperer blog. I wanted to profile Krazy Monkey Ass, yet publishing Knight distracted me.

I will write up the Weekly Whiny Whiner Update. Right now, it looks like we'll have Mary Lame back in the mocklight. Other recent raging asshats have passed their expiration date, so we'll skip them. Besides, Lame messed with my girl Grim and that shit is never cool. Still, wouldn't it be great if we could get through the week with only Mary Lame to mock?

I want to thank Miranda again for all of her support over the last few months. She not only beta reads my books and helps me run the BBA Whisperer group and blog. Miranda also gives me plenty of pep talks and advice. She's still my Sweet Chick from the Netherlands.

I'll finish off this post with more happy dancing to celebrate Knight's release!