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. 

2014 Recap

2014 was an exciting year for me. I figured I'd share some of the highlights

First off, I dipped my toes into the Indie pool and launched the first book in my Urban Fantasy Romance series, BRIDES OF PROPHECY.

These characters have been in my head for FOREVER, but since the traditional publishing houses are reluctant to take on paranormal, especially vampires, I couldn't find a home for these stories there. But since that world is so important to me, I decided to release the series myself.

I present, WRENCHING FATE! 

After that, I also got two new front teeth... okay, two crowns and a filling. After nearly dying from an abcessed tooth in 2013...seriously, I almost DIED. I decided that taking care of my crappy, poor white trash teeth was a priority. I still have a long way to go.  

Umm...I'm not posting pics of that.

In May I got to attend the RT BOOKLOVERS CONVENTION in the city I've always wanted to visit, NEW ORLEANS!!

Me and author Sarah Humphreys at a Mardi Gras party they threw for the attendees. How cool is that?

It was such an incredible and busy experience that it took 4 blog posts to recap it. Here's part one if you want to read about the awesomesauce.

Unfortunately, just a few days after I got back, a good friend of mine passed away. RIP, Bill Kieffer. You will always be dearly missed. :(

I'll never forget all the times we had fun talking about music, movies, and other quirky things. I'll never forget the time we got drunk on the front porch talking about every topic in the book until the sun came up. I'll never forget that you chose to aid me in a crisis, despite disapproval from some people you'd known longer.

Okay, after the sad stuff...

Over the summer, I was invited by editor, Alex Johnson to submit a short story to a heavy metal horror anthology. 

I ACTUALLY had one gathering dust in my hard drive because I never found a home for such an oddity even though it won 1st place in the 2012 Idaho Writer's League Short Story Competition. 

AND IT WAS ACCEPTED!

I'm pleased to announce that I will be featured in AXES OF EVIL II: RISE OF THE METAL GODS, which will be released soon!

Check out this badass Iron Maiden inspired cover!

And if you're a metalhead, you'll know which album inspired this!

I finally had the opportunity to return to another beloved project. The restoration of my 1980 Datsun 210. 

Her name is Little Beast. I'd rebuilt the engine, but her body's been a bashed-up mess. But I finally found new body parts for her so hopefully she'll be on the road and pretty by next year.

Right now her front end is all torn up, but do you see her shiny engine compartment?

I got some requests for the Heavy Metal Romance I wrote back in 2012.

It's called HIS ROADIE for now...and good lord, we need to find a better title. But right now I have 2 publishers looking at it and the first sent me a Revise and Resubmit request and now I'm waiting to hear back. Even if they don't accept it, I got some excellent feedback that helped to make it a better book.

I fell in Love.

It's really hard to nail down the exact time that happened, especially since we were friends for so long, but damn he's wonderful. I call him "Sexy Genius." Our first official "date" ended up with us working on a car together... which is totally my style. And I've never been treated so well.

Huckleberries.

An annual North Idaho tradition. In 2013, I had to sell all of mine. This year I got to keep some to eat! Seriously, if you're ever in the Northwest, you have to try these berries! 

Release of ONE BITE PER NIGHT!!

This was another important book for me.

When I got the offer for Bite Me, Your Grace, I had NO ideas for future books in the series. But it was a 3 book deal so I had to come up with something.

I wanted to put a different spin on the guardian/ward trope, and play with another fun setting in England: Cornwall, namely a castle! Ideas for a heroine came into play, but I was at a loss for a hero. I didn't want to the typical "tall dark and handsome alpha vampire" that I did with the last book. I wanted something different.

So, I had an acquaintance that had really cool hair, striking looks, and was as kind as he was mysterious. I inspired the hero after him.

We ended up getting to know each other and he actually came to my signing!

I now call him "Sexy Genius"

ONE BITE PER NIGHT ended up being well received with reviewers. I was almost too scared to click on the link to Publisher's Weekly's review because they can be mean sometimes. (They were pretty nice to me with BITE ME, YOUR GRACE, though they threw in a bit of snark).

Publisher's Weekly LOVED IT!!!

But there was no rest for the wicked. 

Since I'd decided to go hybrid, I also had my Indie series to deliver.

In October, I released Book 2 in my "Brides of Prophecy" series: Ironic Sacrifice

Before I was published, this book was a favorite of my beta readers. Razvan is definitely the most alpha hero I've ever written and people LOVE him!

He also has a twin brother, but you won't get to know him until book 4.

Thrills and Chills Book Signing

That month I also had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a multi-author Halloween themed book signing with Shelley Martin, Bonnie R. Paulson, Frank Zafiro, and Kaye Thornbrugh.

It was a blast!

Edits, edits, edits

Honestly, I would dub 2014 as "The Year of Edits" for me. I did not write a complete brand new manuscript the entire year. Instead I hacked away at stuff I wrote in 2012 and 2013 and added thousands of better words. 

Not only that, but I also launched my freelance editing business and despite not having gotten around to putting up an official website, word of mouth grew, and I made almost as much money off of editing as I did on book sales. And as a bonus I got to help some awesome authors make their books shine!

Art projects

I was an artist before I was anything else, and it was a joy to finish off the year with my first love.

Here are the pieces I did:

Freddy Krueger: Pumpkin Carving

Pinhead from Hellraiser: Scratchboard

Trippy Zebras: Scratchboard

My aunt's dog: Pencil.

All in all, I had a pretty good year, but I have more goals for the next. Stay tuned! 

Multi-author Book Signing October 25th in CDA!

If you live in the Coeur d'Alene area, you're in for a treat. On October 25th at the Coeur d'Alene Hastings (101 Best ave) I will be participating in a multi-author book signing. The other authors attending are Shelley Martin, Bonnie R. Paulson, Kaye Thornbrugh and Frank Zafiro.

To keep with the Halloween spirit, we've dubbed out signing, "Thrills and Chills" with Shelley, Kaye, and I providing the "thrills" with Vampires, Fae, Gargoyles, and Phoenixes, and Bonnie and Frank supplying "chills" with Zombies, Serial Killers, and apocalyptic thrillers. I think Bonnie's even bringing some cowboys along, so there should be something for everyone.

There are going to be lots of swag and prizes.

I'll be handing out these scrumptious candy bars and raffling off a basket of books.

So if you're in the Spokane/ Coeur d' Alene area, stop by and get your thrills, chills, books, and treats! 

Why I've been neglecting you all.

As you can see, I haven't been blogging for awhile. Aside from the usual summer fun, I've completed the first draft of my rock star romance novella, finished the first revision of my 2nd regency paranormal romance, and... just this weekend... went through the first round of revisions with my awesome editor for BITE ME, YOUR GRACE!

Also, I've been helping out at the local bookstore and enjoying a brief vacation that I can't really afford...but really need before I go back to college this fall.

AND, I've been helping out my awesome critique partners, Shelley Martin and Bonnie R. Paulson with their upcoming releases.

WINGLESS by Shelley Martin comes out August 2nd:

Cover art by Valerie Tibbs: http://www.tibbsdesign.com/

And Bonnie's second installment of her apocalyptic thriller series is out right now!

It has been an exciting month! 

What makes a favorite author?

Due to my tiny house and only having one book case, I had to get rid of 3 bags of books. Excuse me a minute while I mourn their loss.

This is my bookcase after getting rid of 3 bags of books...and a foam airplane one of the cats "killed."

As you can see, I still have a lot of keepers. Some are favorite books, like THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett, SILKEN SAVAGE by Catherine Hart, IF TOMORROW COMES by Sidney Sheldon, and NEW ORLEANS LEGACY by Alexandra Ripley.

And some are favorite authors.

The difference is: The favorite books are ones I read and reread over and over again, but I didn't enjoy other books by those authors as much.

But this is a favorite book by a favorite author:

I replaced it after my eighth read but kept this copy for sentimentality.

But what makes a favorite author?

My answer:

A favorite author is one whose books are an instant buy.

A favorite author is one whose books do not leave your library.

A favorite author is one you forgive easier. i.e. Stephen King often sucks at endings. I'm sorry, but he does. However, the journey still makes it worthwhile.


A favorite author is one who you won't give up on if they write a less than stellar book. However, if they keep writing bad books, they can easily lose their position. I ranted about that here a couple years ago.

Some of my favorite authors include, Stephen King, Eloisa James, Shana Galen, J.R. Ward, Maggie Shayne, Judith McNaught, Rebecca Zanetti, and of course, my critique partners: Bonnie R. Paulson and Shelley Martin. Because you cannot be a good critique partner if you do not love the other's work... and love it enough to call out the author when they're letting you down.

Favorite authors inspire me to work hard, so maybe one day, I too, can have permanent space on someone's bookshelf.

Different Friends, Different Gifts

When you make friends with someone, at first a lot of the bond goes to the "Me too!" moments. But as the friendship deepens, you get to know their differences. Some are surprising, some are fascinating. Many, you can learn a lot from.

I have such a friendship with fellow authors, Bonnie R. Paulson and Shelley Martin. We are all romance writers, mothers, and wives. But we are of different faiths, listen to different music, and have different interests. Bonnie's passion is dirt biking, Shelley's is Japanimation/ Manga, and mine is heavy metal & horror movies.

We also have different strengths with our writing.

Shelley's is definitely VOICE! One of the most difficult aspects of the craft to master, Shelley lends voice to her characters like a natural.

Bonnie's skill with visceral descriptions and heart-wrenching emotion is just as inspiring as it makes one seethe with envy.

As for me, I *think* my strength lies with creating unique & memorable characters. I don't think I've ever had a "normal" protagonist in my work.

As for weaknesses, I think I'll leave that for our critique sessions, editors, and book reviewers.

Anyway, what inspired this post are two things:

1.) One can learn a lot from the strengths of her friends in real life.

2.) In fiction, the best stories are where the characters learn and grow from each other's unique gifts. Stephen King's IT is a wonderful example. Yeah...like I'm going to miss an opportunity to plug my favorite novel. :)

What about you? What strengths do your friends have? What gifts of yours enhance the lives of others? If you're a writer, how do your characters' differences enhance your story? If you're a reader, what novels have done best with variety in characters?

Speaking of Series...

Yesterday I got together with my writer buddies, Bonnie R. Paulson and Shelley Martin. With them I discovered what's been holding me back on my latest project. Since it's a series, I've been having trouble figuring out how and when to work in details from previous books...and just how much information to fit in. More on this later.

That's when we began discussing the two main types of series novels. Sequential Series and Stand-Alone Series.

A Stand-Alone Series is one in which you could read the books in any order without missing anything. They can feature different characters like Judith McNaught's regency novels, or follow the same character on different adventures, Like Nancy Drew. How that girl stayed he same age from the 70's on, I'd like to know. :)

A Sequential Series is one in which it's best to read the books in order so you can follow a continuing story line. They may feature different characters, like the Dark Hunters or the Black Dagger Brotherhood novels, or the same character, like the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series.

But though there's a continuing story in the series, each novel, especially in romance, has stand-alone features, like a love story.

This is what I'm going for in mine. Today's mission will be to cut a little more back story that I believe unnecessary to the plot of this novel.

Oh, and contrary to what my progress bar for THE QUEEN OF PROPHECY says, I have been getting stuff done with it. I've just been cutting as much as I've been writing. :) See my post on this Monster Project for more explanation.

For those writing a series, which type are you working on? What problems are you attacking and what solutions have you found? 

I'm Starting to Feel Like a Real Writer!

Those of you that have been following me on Twitter and Facebook have seen that I've been on a major workaholic frenzy with my latest project, breaking 1K a day almost every day. I've even been taking my laptop to the bar on my Friday night out and writing between dart games.

When I'm not writing, the story continues to spin in my head. And this story has been doing some interesting things. My characters are realizing things about themselves before I do. And though this story isn't part of my main series, it's showing me things about those novels.

I owe a lot of this new inspiration and progress to my awesome crit partners, Jamie De Bree, Erica Chapman, Shelley Martin and Millie Mclain. Their comments and feedback have helped my stories grow into tangible dreams. Shelley even did a blog post not so subtly urging me to deal with a certain subplot from the first book in my series. The way I'd imagined it would have gone a lot easier, but her way will make my characters freak, which is more fun for the reader. Thanks, Shelley.

So what's been going on in your writing journey?

Fun at the Release Party for FATED

I'll warn you now, I'm going to make a huge deal over this. I live in northern Idaho, which is a beautiful place, but  is practically in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, we miss a lot of excellent concerts, plays, and other attractions. Authors almost never come here for book signings. But this time, I lucked out. In case you haven't heard, FATED by Rebecca Zanetti came out yesterday. And what's even better is that she's from my area, so I was able to attend the release party!

It was held at The Gourmet Way, a fabulous store full of cooking supplies, spices, and wine. And I got a new digital camera so I was able to go all fan girl and get a picture of myself with the author.

I gotta say, Rebecca Zanetti is even prettier in person! And she was all cool and classy the whole time signing TONS of books for her never ending line of eager readers. I would have been blushing and babbling like a moron, I'm sure.

With all the people there, I didn't get a chance to talk to her long, but there were other awesome people in attendance. My buddy and fellow IWL member, Shelley Martin was there along with romantic suspense author, Bonnie R. Paulson. Then later I ran into author, Asa Marie Bradley who did an awesome workshop at last year's IWL conference.

I also got to sample some delicious appetizers, yummy wine, and these decadent chocolate cupcake thingies. While munching, I overheard the funniest conversation between two guys. They said they loved the cover of FATED because men could read it in public without anyone knowing they were reading a romance novel. LOL!! I was still laughing when I left to go to work.

NOW for my awesome news: Be sure to stop by on Friday, because Rebecca Zanetti is doing a guest post and you guys will get a chance to win a copy of FATED!