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!!!

How awkward!

Weirdest thing happened yesterday. I was working at Denny's (not the weird part) and one of the regulars started talking books with me (again not weird). She likes those Southern mystery-type books. I don't write them but found myself recommending one. Here's the weird part. It was a Peggy Holloway book.

If you don't know who Peggy is (get in line), she's an indie BBA who whined about reviewers months ago. Why would I recommend her book? Two reasons. Well, mainly one. Here's a hint: p-ty.

Reason One: Mustang Sally read a book by Peggy and didn't hate it (got it for free, of course). She didn't love it either, but that genre isn't really her deal. I tried reading it, but I don't have the patience to read much the last few months. The book wasn't bad. I don't mean it wasn't bad compared to books by BBA like Spamalotta and Krazy Monkey Ass (shudder). I mean, it was an okay read.

Reason Two: I do pity Peggy. I can imagine the chick was trying to fit in with the cool kids back in December when she kissed Claude's stinky ass. All of the lame losers in her author groups were bitching about reviewers, so Peggy did too. She's a sheep, not a shepherd. What did it get her though?

Nothing.

When Breaking Bad Santa posted her picture and called her a liar on his FB page, where were all of her BBA buddies? They didn't give a shit.

Scammer Mouse didn't even offer to buy her damn books like she did with Butt Plug. Athelissa allows Hoax Hugger to post on her shitsite at will, even though she doesn't like him.

No one likes the fucker, but that's the point. They hate readers so much that any author who attacks a reviewer is immediately in their clique. Standards aren't in their vocabulary since none of the shitheads stuck up for Peggy. Not Princess PP or Annabutt. Not the other jerks whose names I don't remember. No one. In fact, Rick still has Peggy's picture plastered on his FB page where he calls her a liar and none of them care.

So I felt sorry for Peggy who wrote an okay book and was screwed over by her allies in the asshat arena. I guess I felt sorry for her because no one else did and she deserved some defending.

Rick was full of shit by attacking her for being a prolific reviewer. Just because he doesn't read or review books except for those belonging to his friends and clients, doesn't mean other people don't read and review a lot. Mustang Sally has read tens of thousands of books over the years. Who's to say Peggy hasn't too? Screw Dipshit for saying otherwise and screw the F&G fucks for not defending Peggy over that piece of shit.

With that said, Peggy remains on my BBA list and I'm not planning to friend her or anything. It was just weird to be in the position of recommending a BBA's book. I think I'm getting too nice in my old age.

Otherwise, the last few days were all kinds of tough because of my new tomato allergy. Getting the hang of avoiding my beloved fruit is tricky since I love salsa, spaghetti, and ketchup. Even as I type this, the bottle of ketchup at Denny's is mocking me.

I've started writing three books today while Candy Girl beta reads Vivi. My main goal is to write Damaged and the Cobra since it's the book that readers want. The last few days I've craved writing Dmitri though. I think because the heroine is Vivi-like and I enjoyed goofing around with her. Blue isn't a goofing around character, but I need to finish the series soon. As much as I liked writing young adult, I'd rather stick to adult books for a year or two.

Oh, Mustang Sally wants a laptop now. In the past, she never had interest in one. As soon as extra money started coming into the house, suddenly she thinks a laptop would help her proof my books. Uh-huh.

I've wanted to buy her one for a while. As I wrote above, she's a hardcore reader. A book a day. While the local library is stellar, more and more of their catalog is ebooks. Sally prefers physical copies, but I know she'd love access to a wider selection. Just the free books on Amazon would keep her in reader heaven. Since Sally's a Libra, her birthday is just around the corner. I guess I know what I'm buying her.

Before I sign off, let me draw attention to a few awesome authors. On Where Zombies Come to Read, I interview J. Powell. His book, Vermont Voodoo, takes zombies in a great new direction. Very cool.

Also, Grace Lost by Lauryl will only be .99 for a while longer. Her zombie books are sexy fun. The sexy isn't with the zombies. Just wanted to clarify that.

KT Grant just released a new paranormal romance called Sharp Bite of Pleasure.

Let's finish with some funky ginger fun...