Ironic Sacrifice is on sale for 99 cents!

 

 To celebrate Thanksgiving, my urban fantasy romance,

Ironic Sacrifice is Only 99 cents until December Fifth!

Book One, Wrenching Fate is still free!

Have a happy Thanksgiving, All! 

Thank you to those who improved my life this year.

Whew, I'm finally getting caught up with things and in a much better mood than the last time I posted.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I want to give a shout-out to some people who have done wonderful things for me this year.

In no particular order, I am grateful for:

My aunt, Wendy Masten:

Thank you for all the little random treats you've surprised me with. My mom used to do things like that and now it's like you're filling a part of the hole she left behind.

Kent Butler: 

When we first met, we talked and laughed for hours. The next time I saw you, you brought me hard cider because you remembered I liked it. When my college book bag was hurting my shoulder, you gave me a wheeled bag. When my mouse broke, you gave me another one. That is why I fell in love with you and I am so thankful your kindness has remained steadfast. When my back hurts, you rub it, when I am cold, you make a fire. You saved Thanksgiving for my family by opening your home to all of us. You always cheer me up and help me with everything, big and little. You are the the best boyfriend I've ever had and I'll never be able to fully express how much I love you and how grateful I am that you came into my life.

Bonnie R. Paulson:

My fantastic friend and critique partner, I can never thank you enough for all you've done for me. You've provided invaluable feedback on my books, cheered me up and motivated me with our conversations, shared all of your knowledge on the crazy world of book-marketing, and written wonderful stories that I adore.

Every single piece of advice you've given me has improved my career.

Your successes never fail to cheer and inspire me. You are my patronus!

Rissa Watkins:

Longtime beta reader and excellent friend, I still can't believe you drove all the way to that convention in Vegas and I finally got to meet you in person. I don't think you'll ever truly know how much that meant to me.

And I cannot thank you enough for your invaluable feedback on my stories. I am so happy that you finally put out a book of your own. Your writing is spectacular!

Rachel Faircloth:

My best friend since third grade, thank you for always being there for me and sending me little cards and letters and forgiving me when I get busy and lose touch. You are the best friend anyone could ever hope for and even though we don't talk every day, I always think about you.

Shona Husk:

My friend and fellow author down under, thank you for giving me editing work, allowing me to vent on you about random things, talking advice, and helping me improve the most difficult novel I ever wrote.

Micah Allen:

My wonderful, awesome son. I live for your smiles and laughter. I love spending time with you and I want you to know that my world is so much better with you in it. On my worst days, I only live for you.

Jeff Miller:

For always being the Zen Master of common sense and surprising me with a bookcase.

Jeff Jeskie:

For all fun conversations and the helpful things you do without a second thought.

Dean Chamberlain:

For being an amicable housemate and not dying on me, and all of our intellectually stimulating conversations, for giving me Microsoft Word 2007 when my computer died, and most of all, a place to live.

Noreena Lewis:

For giving me those CROW cards and being a wonderful friend.

Angie Hacker Christianson:

For that wonderful package of hard cider, chocolate, and kitty toys that you randomly dropped off "To brighten my day." It brightened my whole year. I am now inspired to surprise someone like that.

Rebecca Larsen, Bonnie Maestas, and Beverly Ross:

For being dedicated readers, spreading the word about my books and assuring me that my stuff is worth reading.

Ashley Reader Granger:

For all the awesome facebook parties you hosted for me with my new releases. They were a blast!

Shelley Martin:

For helping me out with some things this summer, for invaluable help with Conjuring Destiny and being a fun friend.

Layna Pimental:

For catching all the passive voice and overuse of adverbs in Conjuring Destiny. You made it stronger.

Grace Burrowes:

For providing wisdom, encouragement, and moral support in my publishing journey and having my back during its inherent struggles.

Rebecca Butts:

For being compassionate to everyone, understanding my craziness, coming to my book signing, and making ye olde dreaded day job bearable. If it weren't for you being such a nice boss lady, there's no way I could handle it.

Merrilee Remmick:

For being an amazing coworker, coming to my book signing, reviewing my books and being an understanding listener to my ranting and raving.

Raye Roeske, David Bawden, and Jeremy Shipp

For creating Bad Movie club and giving me a ridiculously hilarious reprieve from the stress of my three jobs. During our movie banter you guys became my friends and a source of cheer.

Nephele Tempest:

Thank you for being a spectacular agent and improving my career.

Cammile Hahn:

For providing a home for my heavy metal romance and putting up with my nit-picking on the cover art.

Tamara Lush: 

For our wonderful chats and expanding my horizons on author opportunities.

That guy at my neighbor's barbecue who offered to use his truck to haul my new desk.

I was a stranger to you and you offered aid when I needed it. 

A series of calamities...

As you can see I've been absent for awhile, alas not for a productive reason.

Just as I was getting in an excellent groove of blogging, keeping up with my newsletter, writing, editing, and working on my crit partner's stuff, and even a really complex present for my boyfriend

Then I got a ton of editing clients back to back. Which would have been fine if two disasters hadn't happened.

The first is that because some idiot stole a credit card, my day job tightened security, so I can no longer access google docs, which I used for drafting my novels, blog posts, and critiques.

The second was that I screwed up royally on what could have been a huge client... twice.

The first time I got sucked into their story and read through it too fast and missed a ton of stuff. I apologized profusely and they gave me a second chance.

I went through it very slowly and carefully.

And I blew it.

I don't know if it was the stress of a ton of other things going on, me being stuck in my right brain from one of my art projects, or if my eyes are going bad... or if that book was denser and more complex than the usual ones I edit.

Either way, it doesn't make me feel any better. I've never failed an edit before.

Either way, I'm going take proofreading off of my services until I can get my eyes checked and maybe cut some genres from my list.

Aside from being deeply ashamed, I lost out on a couple hundred dollars, and got two weeks behind on revising my 3rd Hearts of Metal book and making headway on Scandals with Bite Book 3.

Not to mention the fact that I've done zero marketing and haven't gotten to keep up with this blog and socializing with you awesome peeps.

Oh, and even worse, I was subcontracted out to line edit another MS that was supposed to be 300 pages, but it's a giant block of text with no paragraph indents and unbroken dialogue, so that's been taking forever. AND I got either bronchitis or pneumonia.

It's been hell, and I'm so sorry if this came off as too ranty or whiny.

On the bright side, I did get some writing done in the last couple days and I'm almost done with that last monster project.

I will have to handwrite at work from now on (Though they're talking about banning pens and paper.)

And I'm looking for another job... unless my book sales pick up even more. :D

I want to thank you all for your support and to those of you who posted those wonderful reviews on Amazon & Goodreads, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Those keep me going during hard times like these.

I promise my next post will be more cheerful.

November news, Book Sales, and More!

Well, I was supposed to post a list of Horror Movie recommendations before Halloween, but as you can see, I missed that. I had car trouble and a bunch of other things. So I only got to enjoy Halloween for a few hours.

I carved this pumpkin and lightning speed. It's supposed to be Pinhead from Hellraiser, but it didn't turn out as well as I would have liked it.

I gave candy to Trick-Or-Treaters, and curled up on the couch and watched my favorite ghost story, ROSE RED.

For November, there's a lot of Excitement on the way. First off, BITE ME, YOUR GRACE (Scandals with Bite, Book 1) is on sale for $1.99! Woo-hoo!

You can snag your copy on:

Amazon

Kobo, 

Nook

And speaking of Scandals with Bite, I am working on Book 4, Lenore and Rochester's story, and hope to release it this Spring.

On the heavy metal front, I will be getting my editorial notes for Hearts of Metal book 2 as well as the finalized cover and release date!

And then there's the big SEEKRIT project for my boyfriend's Christmas present. I can't talk about it here, but I am giving details on Facebook and my Newsletter, since he's not on any of those places.

Oh yeah, and I get to make turkey this month! YESSSS!!!

How's your month going? Any big plans?