HAPPY RELEASE DATE FOR WRENCHING FATE!!!

"Silas McNaught, Lord Vampire of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is elated when he finds Akasha Hope, the woman his psychic visions revealed to him centuries ago. 

To his surprise, Akasha is infuriated when Silas interferes with her life. Furthermore, she is nothing like the sweet woman he’d envisioned. Instead she's a foul mouthed mechanic and, due to being the accidental result of a military experiment, she possesses the strength of ten men ….and government agents are looking for her. 

Matters are further complicated when Silas’s vindictive ex lover spurs the Elders to investigate Silas in hopes to destroy Akasha and gain control of her friends, which are the key to an otherworldly prophecy. 

As government conspiracies and vampire politics collide, Silas teaches Akasha the meaning of trust…and love."

OMG, You guys, I can't believe it's here already!
Wrenching Fate is now out in the big scary world!
Here's the links to where you can get it:
Apple (ibook store)
Barnes & Noble (Nook and Print)
Kobo
Google Play
Amazon

I'm also having a virtual release party on FB Here!

There will be chances to win digital copies of Wrenching Fate as well as other books and prizes from my stellar list of amazing guest authors.

So please pop by!!!

For an extra chance to win, you can comment on my guest post at SOS ALOHA!

OMG, I am so excited!!!

The Sh*t Just Got Real.

Dio always knows the right thing to say. These are indeed words to live by...even though they're a little blurry.

Okay, so I finally got a book deal. Now that the ecstatic joy has gone down to a sane level, (okay, as sane as I can be) I need to begin focusing on what this means for me. The obvious being, no longer can I be considered by anyone (or myself on a bad day) a hobby writer.

Because, the sh*t is real now.

My editor said we have a lot of work to do: namely edits and working on my career path. As it says on their website: Sourcebooks publishes authors, not books.

Career...I haven't heard that word applied to me since I got my degree in automotive. A degree I can no longer use. However, I've been treating my writing as a career for the last two years. I've made self-imposed deadlines, gone through line edits with friends, built up a humble platform, and discovered the value of social networking (other than winning free books.)

But now it's a REAL career. The deadlines will be real, the edits will be through trained professionals who are not going to take it easy on me. My platform and social networking could impact my sales.

I know the work my editor referred to is going to be a lot more than revising BITE ME, YOUR GRACE. Speaking of, when I said that to my husband, he said, "But, I thought you edited it already." The house practically shook with my hysterical laughter.

Anyway, besides polishing that work, there's going to be a multitude of preparations before I make my debut. Namely, what project will be the next focus? No longer can I willy-nilly hop around sub-genres. Not right now, anyway. At first that sounds restrictive...until I remember the anxiety that came from: "What project should I work on next? I have one idea here, and another there!" Now, I will have guidance and help in shaping my personal brand. And that comes as such a relief.

What am I doing now, so early on my journey?

As you can see, I've deleted the progress bars for my other projects from my site until I figure out what I'm working on next. Also, I've finally figured out how to add pages to this blog. Aren't the tabs cute? Those pages are pretty bare for now, except for the one where I list my upcoming guest posts. Check it out. I got some good ones lined up already. The "books" tab is for now a source of happy daydreams of what's to come. As for the "About Me," I'm going to do my best to seem awesome. :)

Because my career is REAL now. Hey, do you think if I say that to the kids, they'll behave and let me work when they're around?

No? ::sigh:: That's what I thought.

Thanks to all who are here for me and been supportive of my journey so far. I'll pop back in and say "Hi" later. Now I gotta go to my Idaho Writer's League meeting, where Shelley Martin and I are interviewing everyone as their characters. To keep the Halloween spirit, we're also bringing some spooky goodies. I carved a pumpkin to "barf" up smoked salmon spread and made deviled eggs to look like eyeballs. Shelley's got pumpkin bread, lady fingers...and a chocolate fountain. It bears repeating: A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. 

I no longer have an agent, but maybe that's okay.

For those of you who haven't yet heard, Tribe Literary Agency is no more. The agent closed shop due to family obligations. For a few of the clients, this was an unpleasant surprise, but for others, like myself, it was a good thing because we'd already sent out "intent to terminate" letters and thus no longer have to wait 30 days to get back in the game.

Instead of launching into a vitriolic rant about my experience with this agency, I've decided to share the positive things I got out of it.

1.) I'm cured of the "I MUST HAVE AN AGENT NOW" fever. There seems to be a persisting attitude online that you're nothing without an agent. Those who have one seem to be held in higher esteem. They often have more followers on Twitter, their blogs get more traffic, etc. It seems they have it all, and the thrill when their book sells is vicariously exciting.

Once I had an agent, it seemed there was a huge empty spot in my life that had been taken up by querying and stalking my inbox. I dedicated that time to what should have been priority #1: focusing on my writing and perfecting my craft. I ended up fixing a previously broken novel and completing another, along with 2 short stories and a novella.

2.) I made a lot of new friends. Part of what drew me to the agent in the first place was the awesome bond she helped form between her authors. When she quit, that closeness remained and we were able to comfort each other.


3.) The manuscript being "shopped" was not the best way to launch my career with a big house. BITE ME, YOUR GRACE is a historical paranormal. It's a really fun book, but the problem is, I don't have any more historicals at the moment. That would have been awkward, had I landed a multi-book deal.

4.) My manuscript wasn't really ready. I recently won a critique from the awesome Ashley March and she pointed out a bunch of stuff that needed fixed. On the bright side, there was nothing wrong with the story or the flow, so it'll be an easy fix.

So, what am I going to do now?

For starters, I am NOT going to rush straight into hunting for an agent. I am going to step back and really do my homework.

While I polish up my urban fantasy romance series, I am going to shop my novella and short stories to get more credentials. I may even find a home for BITE ME, YOUR GRACE. It's such a fun book and a lot of people loved it. It feels wrong to let it die because of my poor decisions.

In the end, I think I'm going to be okay. I think I came out of this experience stronger than ever. I would like to give special thanks to those who were with me through all my doubts and turmoil. I wouldn't have made it out as well without you.

Overhauling a Manuscript

Back in 2008 when I decided to take my writing seriously, I completed a manuscript titled BLOOD PROPHECY. It was to be the first in a series involving vampires, psychics, sorcerers, and other awesome supernatural beings of my own creation that would culminate in a bitchin' War of The Worlds type awesomeness. And each book would have its own love story.

BLOOD PROPHECY garnered a few requests from agents and even a publisher, but ultimately failed. By the time I was resigned to that, however, I had finally become internet savvy and made some priceless writerly friends. I shelved it and wrote BITE ME, YOUR GRACE and had success. But my previous story kept haunting me. Thanks to my awesome writer buddies, who were willing to endure the disjointed and full of suckiness BLOOD PROPHECY, I have discovered what is broken and what is missing.

One main issue was that there was too much prophecy and not enough blood. But what was worse was that the romance took the backseat and let the subplots take over.
The problems were so intensive that I couldn't see the story for the book.

So here's what I did:

I opened up a blank document and I keep it open next to the original draft. I have then pasted in the scenes I will keep.

Then I am writing new improved scenes to fill in the gaps and keep the story going where it's supposed to. When I have no inspiration for a scene I work on other issues with the existing text. These issues are:

1.) Pronouns: I have abused them excessively in this manuscript for some reason.

2.) Dialogue tags: The talking heads are at it again!

3.) Setting/ descriptions: These characters are in a white room too many times.

4.) Chemistry/ romance: I need to turn the heat up big time.

With these improvements my new novel, WRENCHING FATE is being built.

How about you, dear readers and writers? Have you ever had a broken manuscript that you longed to resurrect? What did you do to fix it? Any tips for me in this scary journey?

Why it's good to push yourself

Two weeks ago, a miracle happened. I had the house to myself for the weekend. That's almost three full days without the TV squawking, the constant inquiry of "Mommy, can I...." and the interruptions of my husband's friends. What did I do with this glorious time? Well, yes I did reserve a few moments for bubble baths, celebratory drinks, junk food, and trashy movies. But most of the time I dedicated to my writing. I knew that I would not get another opportunity for uninterrupted solitude, and I needed to use it. I set myself the seemingly impossible goal of 10,000 words for the weekend.

Well, just five minutes before midnight on that Sunday night, I accomplished my goal. Getting started was the hardest part, but there were many moments when the blinking cursor seemed to ask, "What now?" and I did not have an answer. Still, I blundered through, writing some lifeless crud that I know will be cut in the next draft. But as I plugged along, often an amazing thing happened. The story would jolt to life like Frankenstein's monster (couldn't resist the Halloween-esque analogy) and it seemed the words poured out from my fingertips on their own. It was magical and I was living the story along with the characters.

It happened again today. I had hoped to have this draft finished by Friday, but I have little hope, because I was sick for the last three days. Still, I'm going to try. This morning, hacking and sneezing away, I forced myself in front of the word processor, I had a staring contest with the blinking cursor and won. The story has come back and I'm excited about it once more.

Does this happen to you? Please, tell me of your ups and downs in story creation.