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.

Monchichi Goes Military

With Halloween around the corner and zombies back on TV, I had to change my Monchichi avatar. He's a precious little guy prepared for the mayhem of the zombie virus breakout. Ah, I love freckles!!!

I want to start off by wishing Mustang Sally a happy birthday. A few months ago, I mentioned buying her a laptop. Instead, she wanted a new recliner for her reading den. I also bought her all of the books in the Hollows and Fever series. Sally has been hogging the library's editions for over a year. Now, she has both series in her personal library and is super stoked. I have no idea how I'll wow her for Christmas.

With all of the shopping I did for Roo and now Sally, I'm psyched about the holidays. In fact, I'm already putting together our Christmas card and letter. Yesterday, I bought new tree ornaments to replace the ones destroyed by our then kitten Tinker. Even a year old, she'll likely view a tree in the house as an invitation to attack. Plus, those colorful balls dangling are just begging for a beating. Yep, I bought the shatter-proof ornaments.

I've been pretty lazy the last week. Writing Outlaw with the hopes of publishing around Halloween, I didn't focus on editing Scattered. I did take a break from goofing off to post an interview with Jeffrey Littorno on Indie Angie. Plus, I added book showcases on Indie Angie and Where Zombies Come to Read. KT Grant's new romance, The Gate, was published last weekend. The sequel to the zombie novel Red Dust is also available. Finally, check out Zombie George Washington by new authors by GB Banks and Blaine Hislop. This week, I plan to post Deadly Dee's review of an erotic zombie compilation. Yeah, it's as gross as you're imagining.

Speaking of Dee, I'm creating a book review blog soon and she'll be my main reviewer. She reads everything from horror to romance/erotica and even young adult on occasion. Candy Girl might share her eclectic tastes on the blog too. Eventually, I'll add a few more reviewers, but I don't want to take on too many projects for the rest of 2013.

The main reason I decided to start a review blog was because authors I'd interview would often ask if I wanted to read their books. I know how difficult it can be for new authors to get reviews. Especially since the bigger bloggers are avoiding indies now. Thanks, BBA.

This week, we wrote a few posts on the Whisperer blog. One was the update and the other focused on F&G's lie about doxxing. With the hate site retiring soon, we'll likely blog less. Candy Girl and I could really use a break for the holidays. No doubt in the future, the asshats will congregate around a new whiner cooler to moan about conspiracies. Until then, we hope to reduce our blogging to the weekly updates. Our work will continue behind the scenes though.

In fact, this week F&G pissed themselves in glee over how a jackass created a fake book on GR to mock a reader. Their happiness led Candy Girl to discover the sock who created the book. GR deleted the book as well as the sock. We have no doubt the person behind the sock will return. She's had plenty of fake accounts deleted. No doubt she thinks she's sly, but we know what she's up to when not hawking her books. We'll let the pathetic whiner have her fun. It might be the only amusement she has in life.

As for me, I love October. Two big birthdays and Halloween begin the holidays in the best fashion. If I manage to hit my deadlines with Outlaw, Scattered, and Blue Awakening, I'll take December off to write Shadow World books. After all, I really haven't written enough poop humor lately.