The Pants

June is nearly over and what a month it proved to be. Two book signings, a book release, and a lot of family fun. As much as I enjoyed traveling, I'm looking forward to spending July close to home. Besides writing, I plan to spend the next few weeks enjoying the movies, bowling, and miniature golf.

Tigger and Roo joined me at the Crowne Plaza in Louisville during the last signing. They swam and enjoyed room service. Tigger got a chance to try Zaxby's (don't ask me why Roo loves it so much). I didn't get to spend much time with them since I attended the meet & greet and the after party.

At the Louisville signing, I met cool authors like Scarlet Wolfe, JM Madden, Atty Eve, Emma Shade, and Jessie Lane. I was super lucky when Julia Sykes was sweet enough to give me a signed copy of her newest book. Plus, Laramie Briscoe, Seraphina Donavan, and Chelsea Camaron donated swag and books for a giveaway on Nic's Novel Idea. Finally, I was able to spend time with Aimie Gray at the after party where we learned about a signing scheduled for October. Now we'll be tablemates in Cincinnati.

Writing-wise, I'm working on Thunderstruck. While it's technically the first book in the Ramsey series, I plan to write the books as standalones. After finishing two series in the last six months, I crave the freedom of a standalone romances. After Thunderstruck, I'll work on my novella for a box set.

I'm also inching along in the edit of Wounded Soul for my Dakota pen name. Creatively, I want to work on Thunder, so Wounded keeps being pushed to the back burner. I do plan to get it finished this summer, so the book will be ready to showcase at the Kentuckiana Authors Book Blitz in September. I'm hoping to pimp both Bijou and Dakota at that particular signing. Roo and Tigger will also be with me, so it should be a relaxed and fun occasion.

Here's hoping July is relaxed and fun for everyone!

50 Ways to Say Goodbye

Naughty in the South 2015 was great! Sure, there was some drama with the organizer, but none of it affected me. Being a midlister has its benefits. I just kept my head down and focused on my table.

Instead of trying to micromanage everything, I allowed God to take the lead during the trip. Roo and I arrived in Birmingham safely. We were assigned a room on the 14th floor, and Roo loved looking down at the hotel's Atrium restaurant.

On Friday, I skipped the Meet & Greet. Instead, I met the super cool Shyla Colt. We talked for over an hour, and I was thrilled to learn she's not only attending the Kentuckiana Authors Book Blitz in Sept. She's also going to the Outlaw Biker signing in 2016. That one should be phenomenal with Shyla, Laramie Briscoe, Jordan Marie, Sapphire Knight, Nicole James (who asked me to attend...eep!), and plenty more of the coolest MC romance authors.

Back to Birmingham, I was thrilled when a reader named Tiffany showed up. Having read Beast not long after it was published, she was one of my first "fangirls." Tiffany proved to be as great in person as online. I felt really blessed to see her there.

I had no idea how many books to bring to the signing, so I went with a handful of each of my 12 books (Wind's paperbacks weren't ready yet). I ended up selling all but two.

During the signing, I met Chelsea Camaron who worked on the Blue Colla box set. At the table next to mine was Tia Louise. She's also from the Indy area, so it was great meeting another Hoosier author. I'll see Chelsea again at the Louisville Authors Event and Tia at Sassy in Savannah in October.

I ended up skipping the after party. I wasn't feeling great and decided to hang with Roo instead. My little man was an amazing travel partner. He loves hotels and eating out. He even helped me set up my signing table. Roo made his mama proud.

Now that I'm back home, I need to prep for the Louisville Authors Event. I'm also editing Wounded Soul for my Dakota pen name. Yesterday, I started writing Thunderstruck for Bijou.

Well I had better get back to work if I want to make all my upcoming release dates. These books won't write (or edit) themselves.

Happy Birthday, Candy Girl!

Happy birthday to the awesome Candy Girl! My PA, cover illustrator, and BFF is too badass for words. I don't want to get all sappy, but the chick is both wise and creative. She keeps me on my toes and has saved my ass more than once. I have no idea where I'd be today if I hadn't met her back in 2013.

For the second year, I managed to publish on Miranda's birthday. I plan to make it a tradition. Last year was Used and this time around is In the Wind.

When readers first asked if I planned to write a book for Sawyer Johansson, I thought, "nope." A book set in the future felt tricky, and I didn't want to keep writing the same series forever. In the back of my mind though, I played with ideas for Sawyer while interest increased with every Damaged book.

Her book proved to be tricky, but not because it's set in the future. Maybe I jumped into the story too soon after finishing Broken Memphis. All I know is I had trouble getting into the heads of Sawyer and Jace. The side characters began taking over the story, and the romance felt lacking. A romance without chemistry isn't a romance no matter how much I say so.

The fix to the story came to me AFTER I finished the first draft and announced the release date. Thanks to Miranda, I got my ass in gear, fixed what needed fixing, and smoothed the rougher parts of the story. Only with her help did the book make its June 3 release date. Yeah, she's that good.

To give my Bijou brain a rest, this week I'm editing Wounded Soul for my Christian series. Miranda recently designed new covers for the three earlier books. I don't give my Dakota pen name much love since it doesn't pay the bills. Even so, I write those books out of a personal desire to tell the story. At this rate, I'll likely finish the series in 2017 since I'm publishing one book a year. They'll be finished though, which is more than I can say for my Angela books. One day, I do hope to give them proper endings.

This week, I'm driving to Birmingham, Alabama for my first signing since Houston in Jan. '14. I'll also attend the Louisville Authors Event two weeks later. During my author lunch last month, Laramie and Seraphina suggested I join the Louisville signing they're both attending. They called the organizer who said a spot was open. Voila! I'm now attending four signings this year.

June will be a busy month. Besides publishing and book signings, I'm taking Tigger and Roo to Holiday World. We've lived in Indiana for over a decade, yet never visited the amusement park. Finally, we can go. If we enjoy it, I'd love to visit often. When we lived in California, I took Tigger and Pooh to Disneyland at least once a month.

Roo is done with 5th grade and enjoying his reward - a video game. I'll start his summer school work after we return from Holiday World. I can already hear the whining.

After I go through the edit of Wounded Soul and get it to Miranda and Sally, I'll start on a new Bijou book. I'm looking forward to writing something different. I want to step away from motorcycle club romances for the next few books. In 2016, I have two MC series planned and at least one MC themed signing scheduled. I won't forget my tattooed biker boys and their tough chicks, but for the rest of the year, I'm shaking things up a bit.

As you all know, I met Miranda through my blog about a BBA. We don't blog anymore, so someone asked me if the BBA still cause trouble. Of course. Creating drama is a hobby for those people. Just recently, I discovered the sock of the more obsessive ones. She's manage to friend all of the "bullies and trolls." Now I admit she's pretty clever with her sock, and I'd seen this account more than once on BookLikes without giving it a second thought. Of course, everyone has their tells, and her arrogance gave her away. Once I figured out who was the behind the sock, I was able to figure out another one of this BBA's secret pen names. 

Why not out the sock? She's not harming anyone. If she wants to pal around with people she hates, so be it. She's not paling around with Miranda or me. No one who is buddies with her seems to be bothered by her and she isn't accessing private info. Sure, she's pimping her own books, even writing reviews for them, but whatever. She always pulls that shit and she always will. Outing her sock will just mean the end to that particular sock. She'll be back with another one or two or ten. Plus once I out her, she'd become more obsessed with me. She's always been one of the least entertaining BBA focused on me. I prefer her more as her sock than as the real person. I say let her play her games. If she gets a few sales (a handful at most) with her lies, the readers scammed are smart enough to return the books if they don't like them. If they enjoy the books, no harm is done.

Miranda and I occasionally check into the BBA activity, but everything is too nasty. Negative behavior has escalated. Outing people's addresses. Calling their homes. Showing up at their houses. Attacking them physically. Their current nastiness makes the good old days of calling their enemies crazy fat sluts seem quaint. Turning our backs on the crap freed up a lot of time to write and read. The BBA always wanted us to focus on things that made us happy (and stop pointing out their lies). Well, they got their wish. Miranda now receives a lot of ARCs because more and more people are realizing what a cool chick she is. Somehow she manages to handle ARCs, my madness, and a fulltime job. Yep, she's that good.

Happy birthday, Candy Girl!!! The two videos are Miranda's choices. No one can say the chick doesn't have great taste! :)

The Big Time

Happy birthday to my middle son! Pooh is eighteen today. Each week, his health improves. We visited him yesterday and he smiled so much. A year ago, we couldn't get him to eat anything solid. During our visit though, he chowed down on fresh fruit plus cupcakes. Pooh loves cupcakes.

This week was wild publishing-wise. I had everything planned perfectly until Amazon decided I might not own the copyright for Rebound Biker.

I really should have prepared for this issue since Miranda pointed out such problems can arise from box sets. I admit I was freaking out a bit on Thursday evening and Friday morning. Fortunately, Laramie Briscoe followed up my messages to Amazon with one of her own since she was the account holder for the box set. Once she sent her message, Amazon quickly published Rebound Biker and I was able to get everything in order for my free promo.

With Rebound Biker's short length (just under 20,000 words) and so many of my regular readers already owning a copy from the box set, I figured I'd use free days to reach new readers. Also for those core readers who missed the box set and subscribe to my mailing list, I sent them a copy. Hopefully, the new readers who grab a free copy will like RB enough to try out a few of my other books. 

Broken Memphis has sold well even at a 3.99 price point. I'm always nervous about going that high since romance buyers tend to be voracious readers. Budget becomes a concern for them and I don't want to price myself out of top of the to-read pile. One reason Broken has solid numbers was through the help of a blogger who is a member of a lot of romance groups. I kept seeing her posts coming up (I get FB notices when my name is tagged) and I got to thinking she'd be perfect to help me.

I always lag with marketing. While I'm getting the hang of using promos, I still only utilize a few sites (BookBub, Romance Reads, and Bknights). I need help getting the word out. So I asked Nicole if she would like to be my Virtual Assistant. I'm super thrilled she agreed. Now I'll have help with organizing ARCs and other marketing avenues. I suspect one reason most of my books only rank as high as the 800's is from a lack of marketing. I have my core group of readers. If I want to reach 500 and below on Amazon, I need to expand my core group. Now I have Nicole to help me get organized.

In totally random news, an author I was chatting with on FB mentioned how she was lunching with an editor from Harlequin and they talked about MY writing. This is a best selling author and an editor who regularly works with top notch YA romance authors saying how they love my books and my unique voice. Talk about a boost for the ego.

I have met so many positive people on FB. The reality is when I was interviewing authors and pimping them on my blog I just didn't have enough reach to make a difference. On FB though, I know of readers of mine who've tried the books of authors I've pimped. They're now fans of those authors. Contrary to what many authors (usually unsuccessful ones) believe, there is a great amount of harmony and cooperation in the indie author world.

It's been a year since I put aside my blogs (besides this one and Bijou's). At first, I really missed blogging, but I lacked the time to keep up with the work involved. Now I love using FB and BookLikes to share info about sales and new releases. The interviews were a lot of work too and often I'd never hear from the authors again. Some of them seem to have even quit writing. So while blogging was fun, I prefer the kind of interactions I have now with authors and readers.

May will be a busy month. I need to finish writing In the Wind and begin editing. I'm also preparing for the Alabama signing on June 6. I ordered a new banner designed by Kari Ayasha. Meanwhile, Miranda is working on the bookmark designs. She's completed the Damaged bookmark and is trying to work with the picture I want for the Memphis series. I'm also ordering other swag for the signing.

In two weeks, I'll head to Louisville, Kentucky for another author lunch. This time, I'll travel alone. Even Moms with awesome kids need private time. I haven't been on my own for more than a few hours in a very long time, so this will be a new adventure for me. During the weekend visit, I'm meeting one of my beta readers for lunch too.

May is also Roo's last month of school. He's thrilled summer is nearly here. I'm pretty damn excited too. I like homeschooling, but everyone enjoys a bit of a break. He'll finish school the week before we travel to Alabama. Tigger will remain home with Sally for this trip. Let's hope those two don't throw any wild parties while we're gone. :P

Well I should return to writing Sawyer and Jace if I want to make my planned release date. June is just around the corner after all.

Enjoy a few new songs by my fave singer Dwight Yoakam!

Don't Tell Me What To Do

Spring is here! What a difference a year makes too! Last April, Pooh was in the hospital for two weeks. Even after his release, my baby's troubles were far from over. This year though, he's doing so well. His health has improved greatly and he's actually put on a little weight.

Also last year at this time, I was emotionally stuck and had trouble focusing enough to write. This year, I was doing final edits for Broken Memphis while beginning to write In the Wind. Yeah for productivity!!!

Last year was the first time I did my taxes with any real income as an author. It was a little overwhelming to be honest. I hoped 2014 would improve my brand. Even with the late start publishing last year, my income increased by 20,000. Yah!!! Then I was shocked by the reality of paying more in taxes this year than I made in all of 2012. Wowzer! Self-employment has many benefits, but taxes ain't one of them.

With the release of Broken Memphis, I have finished two romance series. The three book signings coming up later in the year could prove distracting, so I'm planning on writing only a short series and standalone books in 2015.

Today is the two-year anniversary of publishing Damaged and the Beast. With that one book, I went from fifteen sales a month to thousands. Twelve Bijou stories later, I am still learning and improving. Marketing is my bane and I suck at it. Fortunately, many great readers, bloggers, and authors have helped me get the word out about my books. Nothing like having best selling authors such as Aurora Rose Reynolds and Jen Frederick pimping your books. It really makes me feel like the geeky girl in the corner getting a nod from the cool kids.

Miranda gets much of the credit for my success. Her feedback makes me a better writer. Her covers help me stand out in a crowded market. Her support keeps me from turning bitch on stressful days. She's awesome enough to have already completed the cover for In the Wind. Candy Girl is on fire. ;)

April is a happy month so far. Getting into a groove, I'm even writing at Denny's again. In fact, I should get back to writing right now. I plan to publish In the Wind in June. That'll be one busy month, so I better get my ass in gear.

Hold On Tight

I'm writing this blog from Lexington, Kentucky on my last day of a trip to meet with a group of awesome authors. As most of you know, I took part in my first box set this month. Laramie Briscoe and Christina Tomes from Blue Colla are authors I met in Jan '14 at a Houston book signing. This weekend I was also able to meet fellow box set contributors Stella Hunter, Seraphina Donavan, and Aimie Grey along with several cool local authors.

Talking about writing, marketing, and life, we enjoyed lunch at a little dive called Willie's Locally Known. They're a great bunch of chicks in varying stages of their careers. We had so much fun that we're talking about organizing another author lunch. The May get-together will be in Louisville, Kentucky. Fingers crossed that everything works out.

While many of the girls are from Kentucky and drove home last night, I decided to make a weekend of the trip. Roo and I are staying at a Holiday Inn Express with an indoor pool. We've tried new restaurants like Firehouse Subs (brisket sandwich was yum) and Zaxby's. This mini-vacation allowed for one-on-one time with my youngest.

March has always been a wild (and sometimes sad) month for me. This time around, I've been really busy with the box set release plus finishing Broken Memphis. My goal for an early April release is out of reach. It's looking like mid-April at this point. Afterwards, I'll start on "In the Wind" with Sawyer and Jace from the Damaged series. They'll be all grown up and out of Ellsberg, Kentucky. Can't wait to see what happens with those two.

Well I had better finish this short, happy post. Need to get packing so I can spend a few hours writing before bed. Tomorrow I head back to Indianapolis. As nice as Kentucky has been to us, home is where my heart aches to be.

I'm On Fire

February is one of those months where not a lot happens. I tend to use the month to catch up and this year isn't any different. I do have lots of good news to report.

In personal news, Pooh is doing better each week. He's now eating only solids after nearly a year of dietary issues. On our last visit, he devoured the fruit we brought. He's even put on a little weight and is closer to the ideal weight for a young man of 6'3. We are thrilled with all his improvements but know he still needs professional help to keep him healthy.

Work-wise, March looks like it'll be a strong month. The Blue Colla Make Ya Holla box set will finally be released. I had a little trouble writing such a short story (20,000 words), but I managed to give a solid HEA to my couple. Laramie Briscoe was quite a machine. When another author dropped out, Laramie wrote a second novella in less than two weeks. I bow to her speed and focus.

Broken Memphis should be finished next month and published in late March/early April. In marketing news, I was stoked to be approved by BookBub. Knowing how difficult approval can be, I avoided requesting a spot for over a year. Finally, I popped my BookBub cherry and expected the worst. Instead, I was offered a spot in March for Little Memphis! Very cool. There was lots of happy dancing around the house and internet high-fiving with Miranda. Oh, and the box set was approved by Romance Reads. March looks to be an eventful month publishing and promotion-wise.

I planned to work on Bad Men Rising after I finished Broken Memphis, yet the first book in the Devil's Hollow MC Series just isn't calling to me currently. I'm considering skipping it and working on Thunderstruck for the Ramsey Security Series. Might write a standalone book too. This is one of the benefits of being an indie author. I have the power to decide what I write.

Also in March, I'm driving to Kentucky to join Laramie and several of her author friends for lunch. I'm making a vacation out of it and staying the weekend. Found a hotel with an indoor pool for the boys and I'll see more of the state where my first romance series was based.

I feel a little guilty leaving Sally home with three cats and her dumb dog. The chick cats Tinker and Pixie remain deeply in hate. Fortunately, we have a large enough house to separate the gals. Poor Bow just wishes the drama would end. I plan to leave a large bottle of water for Sally, so she can go spray-crazy on the misbehaving cats while we're out of town.

I'll leave you with one of my fave songs from the 1980's and now Roo loves it too!