Well…I finished reading Harry Potter last night. I think I went through almost a box of tissue there at the end. Sniffle. Then my husband and I laid in bed and discussed it. Needless to say, it was a late night! My daughter is on about page 306…so we can’t say much while she is around.

Amazingly, with all the reading I’ve done in the last couple of days, I’ve also done some really good editing on the second draft of Fool’s Gold. I’m on page 88/111 and will try to finish the second draft today. I find I add quite a bit of layers and details during this portion of the work…it’s at 23K right now and may finish up closer to 24K by the time I’m done. Then I have to go and take out all the *thats* as well as the ands, buts, and thens, thens that I’ve started sentences with and in that process I’ll probably remove 300 words! Ack! I’m hoping to have Fool’s Gold submitted by the beginning of next week.

Fridays at the library are back!

My husband gave me babysitting for my birthday so that I could go to the library and write. At the end of the summer, Nati went on vacation for a month. But a couple of weeks ago, I got one last Friday…or so I thought. Since then, Nati has decided to do homeschool/independent study this semester so that she can graduate early. As a result, she has Friday afternoons free and would love to earn $!! So, from 2-5 I’ll be at the library writing away. I’ll have to hurry back to attend the Cobblstone Press chat and told my husband we’ll have to go out to eat on Fridays (that’s a win-win situation, huh?)

So, I’ll be working on my Vampire Oracle story tomorrow!

Since the official announcement came out on Main Street at Cobblestone Press, I’ve been leaping around doing the happy dance.

The Moon by Michelle Hasker
Birth by Diana Bold
Innoncence by Lia Morgan
Life by AL Debran
Hunger by Sophie Athens
Chalice by Ericka Scott
Power by Ava Rose Johnson
Battle by Lia Sebastian
Fever by Sapphire Blue
Lust by Jade James
Sin by Antonia Pearce
Sacrafice by Leila Brown
Love by L. Shannon
Harmony by MG Braden
Shadow by Karen Erickson
Sunlight by Moira Reid
Ashes by Contessica Ryans
Death by Yolanda Sfetsos
Sleep by Eugenia O’Neal
Tomb by Rebecca Goings
Awaken by Eliza Gayle
Rebirth by Lyric James
New Life by Emma Petersen
Wisdom by Sable Grey
Circle of Life by Deanna Lee

Congrats to the other authors!

Now, long ago and very far away, I was a member of the Double-barreled Tiger Cubs, a Sherlock Holmes society at the UofI in Urbana-Champaign. Although I’ve written my share of Holmes fan-lit none of it is worth publishing (yet…) I did, however, get the premise for the story from Holmes’ older (and smarter) brother Mycroft.

When I get my cover art package, I’ll be posting the gorgeous cover designed by Sable Grey. Until then, here’s my blurb…

Reclusive vampire Sapphire McKenzie lives in her penthouse apartment with fortress-like security run by her AI computer, Buffi. She’s been hailed as the greatest armchair detective since Mycroft Holmes and has solved every case she’s ever been asked to investigate – and even some she hasn’t. Her ex-lover, Drake Chastain,
is a retired basketball star living off his fame and fortune until women he’s dated begin disappearing, then reappearing…dead.

With Drake framed for murder, Sapphire has to leave behind the safety of her home to save the man she loves…or die trying.

Another non-writing related post to catch everyone up on my potty-training travails.

I know everyone has different ways of potty-training….I have to say that “neeked” is the way I had to go.

My oldest boy, 4, would always poop at nap. Even if we put undies on him. BUT if he went naked, he held it! So…he’s been sleeping bottomless for a few weeks and staying dry. We’ll start transitioning him to PJ bottoms in one more week.

As of yesterday, my “baby’s” new Shrek undies stayed cleaned and dry. He, too, has been running neeked during the day to learn control…and doing wonderful. He picked out his new Shrek boxer briefs and we’re on day two with no accidents so far! Yahoo!

As for the writing front…I finished the first round of edits for The Werewolf Whisperer on Wednesday. I also received and finished the first round of edits for Tinsel Time! And if you glance over to your right, you’ll see the cover for The Werewolf Whisperer! Also, check out myspace, I’ve got a video trailer for The WWW posted there~

And I’m picking apart the first “book” I wrote (34000 words of sheer dreck) and extracting one character and the main plot. I think I can work it into it’s own story by pitching all the ballast and writing a couple of new scenes.

Fool’s Gold my BIAW (book-in-a-week) project that became a BIAM (book in a month) is finally done! The first draft anyway~ it took me a little longer than I had hoped because my best-laid plans for the weekend were waylaid by a garage sale. My “other” daughter, Lizzie, and her roomates have decided the trailer they rented off Lizzie’s dad is too expensive (especially now that a roomate moved out). So, Lizzie’s dad is going to sell it…the tricky part is that he’s in Alabama and she’s here in California. So it fell on her and her roomates to clean up the trailer and the shed.

Oh, MY! I don’t think I realized that my friend Ellie, my other daughter’s mom, was such a packrat~ it was very sad to go through all of her things this weekend with an eye to selling or giving them away. There were boxes and boxes of her precious sewing patterns, sheet music, fly fishing paraphanelia (Ellie used to tie flies for her brothers and those flies are incredible works of art), and her collected dolls and books….Lizzie can only keep so much of it, especially now that she has a life and a child of her own.

Now, I’m a pitcher. Even when editing, I’ve noticed I’m ruthless at cutting out parts that don’t work for the story. And although I keep all those fragments until the book is published, I have no problem hitting the delete key.

As for the stuff around my house, if it’s not been used for a year, tied down, or of enormous monetary or sentimental value, I’ll throw it away with no remorse. My husband and my kids are the packrats of the family. And I must say that after going through all of the boxes this weekend, sorting what to keep, what to sell, what to give away, and what to throw away….My husband vowed to start going through all the boxes in the garage. Well, as soon as he has some shelves built for the stuff he needs to keep. Sigh.

So…are you a pitcher or a keeper??

Merry Christmas Comment Graphics

It certainly feels like it!

Tinsel Time was contracted by Cobblestone Press for the 12-days of Christmas series they are doing this year! Yeah! All my forms have been filled out and sent…Tinsel Time was a fun story to write ~ even the blurb was pretty easy!

And, I’m over halfway through my edits for The Werewolf Whisperer. When I first opened the file, I could feel the panic attack already. So much red!! But, once I got started, things started clicking. I figure with some dedicated time this weekend, I’ll be able to send the first round back to my editor on Sunday.

I also managed to get 250 words written on Fool’s Gold….and I have the final 3 scenes mapped out. I honestly think if I can escape to somewhere quiet for about 3 hours, I could almost finish the first draft.

I finished reading Stephen King’s On Writing a few weeks ago. He talks about the importance of shutting the door when writing. Although he was speaking figuratively for the most part, it can also be taken literally.

For the past few weeks, life has been a bit rocky in our household. It started when my oldest daughter left to visit her biological father. He left our lives when she was two…and this is only the third summer that she’s gone to spend time with him (she’d almost 14). So, in a way, it’s like sending her off to stay with strangers for 3 weeks. I’m not as concerned about her this year as last year…but…

Then, one of my best friend’s daughter is involved in a situation. Since my friend Ellie died two years ago and her husband moved out of state, we’ve sort-of adopted her daughter. She calls us for advice and help, which we dish out when needed. But (you saw that coming, didn’t you)…there is a point where I can no longer help. The situation she is involved in is very similar to the one I went through when my husband left me and my child. So having this constant needle of reminder after ten years has really affected my state-of-mind. My wonderful husband gladly offered to handle the situation and I handed it over to him.

And I’m now being forced into a very uncomfortable situation. I have to shut the door on this. I don’t want to avoid her calls or or visits. But I have my own life too. One that involves finishing writing Fool’s Gold and working on the stack of edits that dropped in my inbox this morning.

So, I’m shutting the door…

Well, I knew it was coming. I saved the form until the very last. Now, I have nothing else to fill out except for the dreaded “blurb” form. You know the one.

Describe the major conflict in 2-3 sentences. Okay, this one isn’t so hard. But it’s the next one that makes me cry. Condense a 7,000 (14,000, 32,000 or 100,000)-word novel into 300 words or less. Oh, and if that isn’t good enough, it has to have spark, sizzle and sex appeal!

Sigh…I think writing the blurb is almost harder than writing the book!

And if it doesn’t, you just go right on ahead and bust the door down!

I just got notification that Dark Eden Press wants to contract Opportunity Knocks!

Yippeee, yahoo….now, back to your regularly scheduled writing!

Well, for all of you who picked up your copy of the last and final Harry Potter book, I say “happy reading”.

I’m jealous.

I stood in line for hours last night (but I was smart and took my Alphasmart and worked on my WIP sitting on the sidewalk outside the bookstore) and purchased a copy.
It was oh-so-tempting to stay up all night and read it. But, I didn’t.

Why? Well, because I had a 2-hour drive to get my daughter to the airport this morning. She had an 11:30 plane to catch to Florida to visit her bio dad for 3 weeks.
The kicker is…she took the book with her!!!

My daughter had better know how much I love her. Wah!