Oh The Crazy Inside My Head

Where to start when I've been working myself to the bone--perhaps even to the plasma? Well, lets take a look at my goals update for the end of Summer 2011 as well as some of the new...news...I have coming up.

• Get one full length book published
• Start Super Sekeret Project
• Submit full length novel
• Two novella's edited and subbed to editor

 At the beginning of my summer I wanted to submit my full length contemporary novel, Not So Pure, to my editor at Ellora's Cave. Not only did I submit it, but a few weeks ago I signed a contract for it with Ellora's Cave. So now my super awesome modern fairytale baby is going to have a home! I'm in the process of edits with it now and can't even tell you how over the moon I am after all the hard work I put into this manuscript.

As far as my super sekeret project, I have about 15k on this contemporary wonder and ideally, I would like it to be 30-45k after final edits. So I've got a bit to go before that goal is reached. Can you tell by now I have overall goals *points above to list* and little mini goals that swim around in my head? It's loud inside my mind.

With my novella's goal I currently have one novella which is Roped Emotions going on sale with Ellora's Cave Sept 14th. The second fairytale novella is almost all the way written, then I need to clean it up and ship it off to my editor. That will be my last and final goal for 2011. But that doesn't mean I'll stop making other, more tiny goals. Because I like lists....and I'm crazy.

Now for what I'm currently doing--as in, right now, this minute while my brain cracks like an egg.

• I'm working on edits for Not So Pure, my modern day Snow White novel with EC
• I'm finishing my first swoop of edits on my steampunk novel, Steel Magic, before sending it to my editor at EC
• I'm gearing up for my promo goodness for Roped Emotions
• I'm writing the ending of my alternate world Cinderella novella
• I'm outlining a mythology novella
• I'm outlining the ending of my super sekeret project
• I'm writing blog posts for the next month

Oh, and did I mention I go on vacation two weeks from now? Can you tell it's much needed? I feel like a powerhouse of crazy sauce with how much I push myself to do all the time. But I know it will pay off in the end. I do have stories lined up until at least April!

And then there was a Hurricane

(Music video by Scorpions performing Rock You Like A Hurricane. (C) 1984 The Island Def Jam Music Group)

I figured this was a good song for the oncoming madness after the earthquake that is now going to hit my part of Maryland this weekend. I'm almost 2/3's through edits on my steampunk erotica sub for my editor at Ellora's Cave and starting a HaulAssDraft with my naughty Cinderella WIP tonight at midnight. For those who don't know a Haul Ass Draft as where you write as many words as you can in a week and compete with other writers. Whoever wins gets bragging rights, whoever loses has to say something yucky and untrue about themselves on Twitter. Like they eat toe jam.

Hurricane Irene will have a hard time bringing me down unless she takes my internet. I love's my internet. And my Twitter. *curls around the laptop* It's gonna be a long, adventurous weekend, folks. Here's hoping I get all my deadlines done.

Roped Emotions Blurb And Release Date

My Exotica fairytale novella with Ellora's Cave will be coming out Sept 14th! Yay!! Here's the blurb:

Rapunzel is trapped by the harsh, inescapable reality of her prison, so she builds vivid sexual fantasies where she has full control and no one can take it away. If nothing else, at least she has command over her thoughts.

When Prince Samuel climbs into her tower it’s a small, satisfying excuse to break the rules—until his gentle touch coaxes out her trust. But it’s not enough. No longer can she keep her dark, sexual secrets inside. Rapunzel yearns for rough, passionate sex—a way to unlock her sensual freedom for good.

Vulnerable but unable to turn back, Rapunzel leads Prince Samuel on an intimate journey to define their sexual limits while twisting their definitions of control forever.

Author's After Dark in Review

I'm finally recuperated enough to write this post. Well, where to start? Phew! For my first conference EVER as well as my first conference as an author AAD had everything I could have asked for in a con. There were plenty of things to do, tons of new people to meet, and you could take your own down time where you wanted too. Considering I went into the con not having slept in 48 hrs I really liked the nap time I could carve out for myself.

Panels: I was on one! For someone who's absolutely terrified of public speaking, this was an amazing experience because it was completely reader motivated so the questions were casual and not generic. It kind of felt like I was just talking on Twitter to a bunch of real people in a room. It was a lot of fun comparing how we wrote on the Erotica panel and comparing how we did sexual positioning for books with barbies or white boards--and those are just the highlights.

I was also a "reader" in a few of the panels, meaning I went to learn and question other authors. I've never gotten such personal, nice advice! I have tons of notes to share with my readers over the next coming days because of these awesome panels. Every author was super duper helpful and a panel was customized based on what people wanted to know so it didn't feel like a rehash of someone's old blog post.

Parties: It looked like a lot of people had fun with these. I didn't go to the two offered, though I did go to dinner and dress up for the themes. I wound up outside on the balcony with my new author friends talking the night away! But, from what I heard, the balls, etc were epic with lots of dancing, neat vendors, and good booze in plastic containers. (Everything was cash bar for the most part).

Swag: I came home with more than 14 books. Enough said.

Author Signing: There was a decent turn-out, a lot of people came for the highlight authors or the big names but I handed out a lot of free reads and business cards so that was neat. Luckily, I had my parents there, (yes, I was lame like that) and they went around getting the signatures I couldn't get because I was signing. Like Meljean Brook!*fangirl squee* I happened to sit next to her in my steampunk panel and dear god, I think I may have scared her I was so excited. I gushed, it was bad. It was also stalkerriffic.

A sense of utter comfort and community--well, to me, that's priceless. For the cost and the experience I would def hit this con again next year in 2012!

New Cover for Roped Emotions

I got my new cover for my Rapunzel Ellora's Cave Exotica release that I'm editing right now as I type! Isn't it preeeeeeeeettttttyyyyy? A blurb should be coming soon.

Reviews

Lately everyone in the writing world is talking about the impact of reviews on author's writing processes and whether or not they read them. Let's clear something up real quickly--I read my reviews and I am not ashamed lol. They can fling me up into the sky or into a wall. But sooner or later I forget about them. Mostly because I go through projects so quickly that I just dismiss the last review as something I can work towards correcting in my next book.

Quite an optimistic viewpoint for someone who is supremely pessimistic, but I'll take the weird sunshine-y atmosphere where I can get it. I'll cry and get my kicks out if it's a bad review. If it's great one I'll cry and run upstairs from my lair/basement office to show my husband and then glow all day.

Either way I'll keep writing. Why are people getting so caught up in whether or not to read them? A writer is a writer is a writer--meaning, no matter what, we write and most of us can't stop. The End.