*

Shiny New Book Cover: Triple Trouble 5

Tuesday, April 30, 2013
I have a shiny new book cover to show off! It's for Out of Smoke and Ashes (Triple Trouble 5) coming on May 24th from Siren-BookStrand! :)

Blurb:

Elain’s wedding is interrupted when her matron of honor, Lina, goes into labor. Unfortunately, events spiral downhill from there for the Lyalls and their kin when an old foe refuses to roll over and play dead. As everyone suspected, Rodolfo Abernathy won’t give up.

What Abernathy doesn’t know is he’s become more prey than predator. Shifters with grudges of their own enter the fight with their sights set on Abernathy’s downfall.

When the fur hits the fan, it won’t be pretty.

While Elain and Lina struggle to cope with their new roles, various shifter Clans band together to fight their common enemies. Devastating heartaches are finally laid to rest as new love blossoms.

And Baba Yaga isn’t even done with them yet. Elain, Ain, Brodey, and Cail, along with their ever-growing band of friends and adopted family, must still confront those who’d gladly destroy all they love as evil and vengeance once again return from Out of Smoke and Ashes.

You can get all the other books in the series from Siren-BookStrand:

  1. "Boiling Point" (Tasty Treats, Vol. 3) (Prequel)
  2. Steam (Prequel)
  3. Fire and Ice (Prequel)
  4. Trouble Comes in Threes (Triple Trouble 1)
  5. Storm Warning (Triple Trouble 2)
  6. Three Dog Night (Triple Trouble 3)
  7. Triple Dog Dare (Triple Trouble 4)
  8. Out of Smoke and Ashes (Triple Trouble 5) - Coming 5/24/13

O.M.F.G.L.M.F.A.O!! Deranged Sorority Letter LOLZ

Wednesday, April 24, 2013
You know...I'm hard to make outright laugh so hard I'm brought to tears by something I read. I'm a tough audience. I really am.

However...

I am currently sitting here with tears streaming down my face from laughter. And it's not just the letter itself, it's the comments that followed it that are Funny. As. Shit.

Warning: If you're allergic to the word "fuck," don't click the link.

If you want to snort beverages through your nose, keep reading.

Note: I do NOT agree with this girl's tactics. I think she's probably screwed the pooch on her future with the sorority (hopefully) and maybe even with the school. I think this letter will come back to haunt her in the future. I think it was rude, crude, and outright outrageous. If I'd received it, I would have been pounding on someone's door demanding blood or her hide hung from the damned flagpole.

That said, as it stands, taken in a vacuum (as I can since I didn't write it) it's funny as hell.

(Even funnier if you imagine it spoken by one or more of the following: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, Gary Bussey, or Samuel L. Jackson.)

And "cunt punt" is SOOOOOO making it into a book of mine soon. VERY soon.

http://gawker.com/5994974/the-most-deranged-sorority-girl-email-you-will-ever-read

And there is this:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4ad20b4edf/michael-shannon-reads-the-insane-sorority-letter

You're welcome.

And do you need to rant? Do you feel a need to rage like the sorority gal did? Do you feel a need to break out a cunt-punting? Feel free to do so in the comments.

I'll bring the popcorn.


Many Blessings (Coffeeshop Coven 1) Available for Pre-Order

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The next installment of my Coffeeshop Series, Many Blessings (Book 1) is now available for pre-order from Siren-BookStrand. (And yes, this is the book containing the accidental blowjob that I've been teasing everyone about. *grin*)

http://www.bookstrand.com/many-blessings

Blurb:

Mandaline Royce swore off love. She’s happy working for her best friend, Julie, at her New Age shop, Many Blessings. Then her life’s turned upside down by Julie’s tragic death. Julie leaves her everything, including the shop and her dog, but the gaping hole in Mandaline’s heart isn’t one she’s sure will ever heal.

Ellis Fargo and Bradley Sawyer are as close as brothers. Ellis feels his life’s mission is caring for Brad, a former veteran who suffered debilitating injuries. Brad insists their house is haunted. Ellis doesn’t believe in ghosts and thinks the trouble is Brad’s injured brain. He humors Brad by having Mandaline check the house for supernatural issues.

Ellis doesn’t understand the sudden, scorching attraction he has for Mandaline, but he can’t settle for anyone who won’t also put Brad first. Brad thinks Mandaline would be the perfect woman…for them both. Can they help each other heal and turn their various emotional wounds into Many Blessings?

While all the books are standalone and can be read independently of each other, the best reading order for the series is:

Out of the Darkness (Coffeeshop Coven prequel)
It's a Sweet Life (Coffeeshop Coven prequel)
Many Blessings (Coffeeshop Coven 1)

They're all available at my author page on Siren-BookStrand's site:

http://www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

You can go to my Siren-BookStrand author page and click on the Notify Me link to get an email from Siren when they update my page and add new books for pre-order. (It's also where you can find all my releases under my various pen names: Tymber Dalton, Lesli Richardson, Tessa Monroe, and Macy Largo.)

Happy Earth Day!

Monday, April 22, 2013
Happy Earth Day, peeps!

One easy way to save a tree? Read an e-book! :)

We also use cloth grocery bags, utilize local recycling services for papers, metal, and plastics, and are switching all our light bulbs over to the longer-lasting CFL kind (and LED when possible).

What steps do you take, no matter how little, to try to help out?

Writer Beware: Author's Guild not really supporting authors.

Sunday, April 21, 2013
I don't know what's in the water Scott Turow, head of the Author's Guild, is drinking, but it must be good shit. He's apparently gone over to the camp of the legacy traditional publishing houses and is no longer interested in genuinely supporting the interests of the AG membership at large.

Can't someone stage a peaceful coup and get that moron voted out of office?

I, for one, will not waste my money on joining them. Why join an organization that not only doesn't support its authors, but is also in direct opposition to a successful business model many of them use? (ie. indie publishers and self-publishing, or a combination of the two)

It's the same reason I didn't renew to the RWA after my first year of membership ended back in 2009. I refuse to pay to be treated like a red-headed step-child with rabies just because I found a path that works that's different than what they're preaching. (Although I've heard from some recently that the RWA has undergone a shift in thinking, but I don't know that for sure and, frankly, haven't seen enough compelling evidence to make me want to try them again.)

Read about Scott Turow and his backward thinking at TechDirt, an earlier post about it on TechDirt, and a good response by Barry Eisler.

Snippet Saturday: Stoneface

Saturday, April 20, 2013
Today's Snippet Saturday selection comes from my release Stoneface, which is currently available for 50% off at Siren-BookStrand as a retro release special.

http://www.bookstrand.com/stoneface

The set-up: Gwen and Liam's sister, Amy, has apparently gone AWOL while on a trip to Rapid City, SD.

--

She called Liam’s cell. He answered using a Humphrey Bogart voice. “How ya doin’, shweeheart?”

Gwen giggled. Her partner in crime. “Hey, bro. How’s it hanging?”

“Long and low as always, baby sis. What’s up?”

“Dad’s freaking out. I figured I’d better call you and get the accurate story.”

He sounded aggravated. “I told Mom I had the information about my scripts. She insisted on calling Amy anyway because she hadn’t called home in a couple of days. They keep tabs on her like freaking prison wardens. I’m not worried about her.”

“Ah. I thought that might be it. Maybe she just wanted extra downtime.”

He laughed. “Probably more like up and down time.”

“What?”

“Hold on.” It sounded like he put his phone down, and a moment later he returned, his voice lower. “I wanted to shut my door so Mom doesn’t overhear. I think Amy was meeting a guy out there. Which would explain why her name didn’t show on the hotel register.”

Suspicion confirmed. “We think alike, bro.”

“I couldn’t say that for fear of blowing her cover, you know? What am I supposed to tell them? ‘Hey, don’t worry about her, I think she’s just getting her freak on.’ I think not.”

Gwen burst out laughing. “Yeah. Dad would threaten her with the convent again.”

“I haven’t managed to convince him that one, we’re not Catholic, and two, she’s an adult.” He sighed. “Can you come spring me tonight? Please?”

Another guilty pang. Except for the fact that she’d want to kill her father, she would have volunteered to live there to help take care of Liam instead of Amy. “Will they let you out tonight? Are you feeling okay?” He’d almost been hospitalized over a kidney infection a few weeks earlier. She’d got him to the book signing only because he snuck out while their mother was out making her regular grocery store trip and their father was out playing golf. Liam waited to call their mom until after Gwen had safely spirited him away for the day.

“Just, please, come take me to your place for a couple of nights. I’m having a good week. I can move around okay. You saw me on Saturday, I feel fine. Two or three nights, please? You can order me a hooker. Or at the very least a damn pizza.”

Gwen laughed. No way in hell could she tell him no. “Be ready to run at three. Toss your bags out the window.”

“You are such a good baby sister. I’m willing my Star Trek collection to you, you know that, right?”

“Even Malibu Worf?”

The old joke never failed to make him laugh. “Malibu Worf, Malibu Data, anatomically correct Q, the whole damn crew.”

“Okay. You break it to them, and I’ll slow down on my way past so you can jump in.”

“See you at three.”

She looked around. Nothing needed cleaning, but she’d have to rearrange the living room a little so he could easily navigate in his wheelchair if he needed to use it. He’d sleep in the downstairs office she rarely used. The comfortable queen-sized Murphy bed folded down from the wall and was easy for him to get in and out of. She’d had the downstairs guest bath modified a couple of years earlier, after his diagnosis and before her divorce from Dickweed, so it opened into the office with a door wide enough for a wheelchair and configured so Liam could use it without assistance. She fingered her phone and decided to send Amy a text message instead of calling.

Pls call or txt me or Li. M&D going batshit. We won’t rat u out, promise.

Hopefully that would get some sort of response.

If not, she wouldn’t get a moment’s peace.

--

Blurb:


[Ménage Amour: Erotic Contemporary Ménage a Trois Romance, M/M/F, with M/M]

Gwen has a cheating ex, a paranoid best friend, crazy overprotective and ultra-religious parents…and is a successful erotica writer. Forced to overcome her fear of flying to search for her sister in Rapid City, Gwen doesn’t expect to run into her internet buddy, Tim. Better yet, Tim’s boyfriend, Jack, is a police detective. They welcome Gwen and her older brother, Liam, to stay with them during their search.

Jack earned his “Stoneface” nickname after personal tragedy hardened his heart. He loves Tim, but Gwen stirs up painful memories that make Jack’s feelings for her suspect in his own mind. It doesn’t help that he falls in love with her.

Unfortunately, finding their sister leads to more problems. Shattered trust, broken hearts, and Liam coming out to their parents in a defiant showdown make Gwen question her priorities. Can she risk her heart again trying to break through Jack’s “Stoneface” façade?

A Siren Erotic Romance

Writer Beware: Noble Romance is STILL screwing authors.

Friday, April 19, 2013
Well, I reported a while back about Noble Romance screwing some authors. It's still going on, and the problem is spreading.

Britta Addams reports her experiences with them on her blog.

Absolute Write has updated reports from other authors on their discussion forum (go to the last page to get the latest updates).

I, personally, am not buying ANY Noble Romance books. I've seen requests from several Noble Romance authors being screwed to not purchase their books published through Noble.

If you are a newbie author, DO NOT SUBMIT TO NOBLE ROMANCE.

Feel free to link/share this post. Let's get the word out and get this frakking thief of a publisher shut down for good.


WIP Wednesday: Triple Trouble 6

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Today's WIP Wednesday snippet comes from Triple Trouble 6, which I still haven't officially named yet (and no, no release date, because it hasn't been submitted yet). The setup is that Lina is talking to Baba Yaga and asking for her help.

“What are you asking of me, Lina?”

She desperately didn’t want to cry, but the tears flowed anyway. “Please,” she whispered, “help me. Help us. Help me get him back safely.”

Baba Yaga walked over and leaned against the counter. “Firstly, I want to commend you on your approach. I am not trying to sound sarcastic or condescending. I am very proud of you. I know you don’t think it of me, but the most powerful must never lose their sense of humility.”

It felt like an invisible stopwatch was ticking in the back of her brain. “Thank you, but please, that isn’t helpful.”

“I’m guessing you already tried talking with Ryan Ausar and he declined to help?”

She shook her head. “We keep getting his voice mail.” A harsh laugh escaped her. “The Devil has voice mail. Imagine that.”

Baba Yaga smiled. “I would think some would say that is a level of Hell. Albeit a milder one.”

--

Book five in the Triple Trouble series, Out of Smoke and Ashes, will be released by Siren-BookStrand on May 24th.

Monday Mish-Mash QOTD: He did what to her what with his what?

Monday, April 15, 2013
Happy Monday, everyone. (Yes, I know that's an oxymoron for most of us...) Hope if you're in the US you got your taxes/extension filed.

Today's question of the day: I know language is subjective, but what's the worst thing you've ever seen male and/or female genitalia called in a romance/erotica book?

Feel free to chime in below. :)

Snippet Saturday: Sarasota Steam

Saturday, April 13, 2013
Today's Snippet Saturday is from my book Sarasota Steam, a historical, writing as Tessa Monroe. Setup: Callie is posing as "Charlie." She's taken refuge with Jasper and Goyo, who are lovers. The men already know her secret, and on a hot day, they figure the perfect way to get her to finally admit it...

--

Callie looked up at the sound of Jasper’s laugh. The easy sound rolled out of him and across the small spring. She watched the way Goyo looked at him, and Jasper’s return glances. At the very least they seemed good friends, as close as brothers from the way they worked together. Many times silently, as if knowing the other’s thoughts.

She wondered why they were single, then decided it didn’t matter. She’d hate giving up a nice bed for a pile of hay, but if it meant staying safe, she’d do it.

The dogs had followed them to the spring and plunged in with the men, paddling around for a few minutes before climbing out and shaking water all over. She watched them, not paying attention to the men until she heard a splash of water and realized Jasper swam over to her. Even through the rippled water she could see his thick member, seemingly waving at her as the clear spring created the illusion.

She swallowed hard.

“It’s a hot day, Charlie. You should come on in. I’m sure you’d like to cool off.”

She didn’t dare draw her feet in, reading something in his eyes telling her that’d be the wrong thing to do. “I’m all right. Just wettin’ my toes.”

He stood, the water just below his hips. Water clung to the dark, curly nest of hair just barely exposed by the water. She struggled to keep her eyes off the trickles of water running down the dark hair on his chest and dripping from his...

Oh, my!

He put his hands on his hips. “I think you’d enjoy a chance to scrub the dirt and sweat off after a day like today. You smell like a horse.”

“Well, you smell like a wet dog, Jasper.”

He grinned. “Do I?”

Goyo chimed in from nearby, where he sudsed up with the soap. “Yeah, now that I think of it, Jaz, you sort of do.”

Jasper’s smile didn’t put her at ease, but before she could scramble backward off the rock and out of his reach, he’d grabbed her, hoisted her off the rock, and slung her out into the middle of the spring
where she nearly landed on Goyo.

She came up screaming her outrage as she tried to swim to shore, but Jasper blocked her progress.

“No, Charlie, I told you we’d teach you to swim,” he said as he grabbed her and tossed her into the middle of the spring again, “and that’s what we’re going to do!”

She finally had to swim across the spring to get away from him. Goyo stood near the opposite shore, laughing. “Look at that, Jaz. You’re a good teacher. One swimming lesson and she’s swimming like a gator.”

Her eyes widened, horrified. “There’s gators in here?” She frantically looked around, terrified.

“Not in this one, it’s way too small.” He crossed his arms and stared at her. “Now tell us your real name, Charlie. Or is it maybe Charlene? Or Carla?”

--


http://www.bookstrand.com/sarasota-steam

Blurb:

On the run and disguised as a man, Callie Johnson is on her way to inquire about a job at the Coval Ranch outside of Sarasota when she’s caught in a hurricane’s fury. Jasper Collins and Gregorio Valdes see right through her deception but are willing to protect her secret…if she’ll keep theirs.

The two men are lovers, but that’s not all. Jasper mourns the murder of his wife and children, while Goyo hides his true heritage. Callie can’t help but fall in love with them both. When the men make their intentions known, she doesn’t hesitate to become Mrs. Jasper Collins to protect all of them from flying rumors and meddling single women.

Callie can almost forget her past and her vengeful step-father. That’s when a brutal attack forces Jasper to face demons from his past as he sets out to protect their steamy little slice of heaven.

A Siren Erotic Romance

"The Denim Dom" available in print.

Friday, April 12, 2013
Yay! "The Denim Dom" is now available not only in e-book from third-party sites, but is also available in print.


Blurb:

Who needs leather when you can have denim? A denim Dom, that is.

Shayla Pierce dumped her lying ex and moved to Florida to start a job at a magazine. An assignment to write about BDSM leads her to discover a new world and make a slew of new friends, including the sinfully sexy Tony Daniels. She’s just not sure she can ever trust again.

Tony is used to teaching about BDSM, but he’s never trained a submissive he wasn’t dating before. After losing hope he’ll ever find the perfect submissive for him, Shayla walks into his life and asks him to train her for her series of articles. He knows about her bad break-up and their agreement is supposed to be nothing more than business. But as she raises the ante, he’s finding it harder to keep his heart under lock and key.

Will Shayla stay a hostage to her past, or allow Tony to become her Denim Dom?

--

Other books from this "world" and characters followed up by this book include:

The Reluctant Dom
Domme by Default
Safe Harbor
Cardinal's Rule

I've dubbed this group of stories "The Suncoast Society" and have several more books planned involving these and other characters.

They're all available at my author page on Siren-BookStrand's site:

http://www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

Or, you can get them from the following:

Kindle | Print - Amazon
Nook (coming soon, they take their sweet time sometimes, GRRR but you CAN get the .epub version from Siren) | Print - B&N
Kobo | Sony Reader Store | iTunes (coming soon)

Snippet Saturday: Stoneface

Saturday, April 6, 2013
Today's snippet is from my book Stoneface. The setup: This is the introduction to our two heroes, Jack and Tim. Tim obviously thinks Jack needs a little, eh, tidying up.

--

“Ow! What the hell are you doing?” Jackson Kelly couldn’t move because his boyfriend, Timothy Ellis, sat straddling his chest, pinning him to their bed.

“Lie still. I told you it hurts more if you move.”

“You’re a fucking sadist—ow!”

“Hold. Still.” Tim pressed his palm against Jack’s forehead to keep him in place.

“I can’t—ow!—hold fucking still, Tim! You’re ripping my goddamned face off!”

“I’m almost done.”

Ow!”

When Jack tried to push Tim off, Tim slapped his hand away. “Stop. Hold the fuck still.”

Jack thrashed and yelled and protested. Tim wouldn’t stop. Finally, Tim moved, letting Jack up. He put the tweezers on the bedside table. “There. You don’t look like a damn caveman anymore.” He climbed off the bed.

Jack glared at him before he went to go look at his face in their bathroom mirror, examining where Tim had yanked nose and eyebrow hairs.

“You jerk! You shaped them! I said you could get rid of my unibrow, not shape my fucking eyebrows!”

“You couldn’t tell what I was doing?”

“When it feels like someone’s ripping your nostrils out, no, you can’t!” He shot him another nasty look.

“You’re a fucking sadist.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. It’s not like I held you down and gave you a Brazilian, you know.”

--


http://www.bookstrand.com/stoneface

Blurb:

[Ménage Amour: Erotic Contemporary Ménage a Trois Romance, M/M/F, with M/M]

Gwen has a cheating ex, a paranoid best friend, crazy overprotective and ultra-religious parents…and is a successful erotica writer. Forced to overcome her fear of flying to search for her sister in Rapid City, Gwen doesn’t expect to run into her internet buddy, Tim. Better yet, Tim’s boyfriend, Jack, is a police detective. They welcome Gwen and her older brother, Liam, to stay with them during their search.

Jack earned his “Stoneface” nickname after personal tragedy hardened his heart. He loves Tim, but Gwen stirs up painful memories that make Jack’s feelings for her suspect in his own mind. It doesn’t help that he falls in love with her.

Unfortunately, finding their sister leads to more problems. Shattered trust, broken hearts, and Liam coming out to their parents in a defiant showdown make Gwen question her priorities. Can she risk her heart again trying to break through Jack’s “Stoneface” façade?

A Siren Erotic Romance

"Real" men don't cause pain? Really? Thus, I rant.

Friday, April 5, 2013
A Facebook wannabe "dom" poser's comments that "real" men don't cause pain inspired this rant. (Because I didn't want my head to explode and I refuse to comment on the douchetard's page.) Thus, I rant thusly:

http://bdsmauthorsplayroom.blogspot.com/2013/04/real-men-dont-cause-pain-think-again.html



Writing How-To: What NOT to do for promotions.

Today's post is prompted by the fact that on one of the email loops I'm on, a writer has apparently gone on vacation to the South Pacific with her handsome hubby to do book research.

How do I know this?

Because before Clueless Writer left on vacation, she set up an auto-responder to her email account.

Meaning EVERY FRICKING PERSON who posts to the loop now gets an auto-response from her telling us about her.

She is now going to my spam filter.

She's also managed to piss off quite a few writers, because it's a fairly active loop that a lot of us post to on a frequent basis.

I can only imagine how many readers she's currently blissfully unaware she's pissing off on other email loops.

She might need to enter the witness protection program for her pen name when she finally returns.

Rule One: DO NOT USE AN AUTO-RESPONDER! I don't give a crap about your arguments that oh, you use it for work. Whatever. It's one thing if it's for a critical account, like you work software support and have managers and programmers who have to contact you, and you don't have email loops that will be REBROADCASTING the message to members.

The author will be lucky if she can get herself off half the spam lists she's now flagged on.

Rule Two: DO NOT ADD PEOPLE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS WITHOUT ASKING THEM FIRST! No, the invite feature does NOT invite them. It ADDS them. And it royally pisses people off.

Rule Three: DO NOT ADVERTISE YOUR BOOK/WEBSITE/ETC ON SOMEONE'S FACEBOOK WALL WITHOUT PERMISSION. Don't post it as a link in your, "Thanks for the add!" message. Do not private message them the information. Do not post it as a link in someone else's promo thread without asking privately first. DO. NOT. DO. IT. It's the same as if someone came up and plastered bumper stickers all over your car or house without asking you first. Would that piss you off? I know it would piss off a majority of people. Treat virtual real estate just like real real estate.

There are more rules, but those are the three biggies I see right now that hit my mind.

What things, as a reader or a writer, piss you off? Vent your spleen here and let's educate newbie authors so they can quit shooting themselves in the foot. Don't name offenders, please, just spleen vent about the offenses. :)

Shiny New Book Cover: Many Blessings (Coffeeshop Coven 1)

Thursday, April 4, 2013
Oooh, I love getting shiny new book covers in my email! :) Today I received the cover to Many Blessings (Coffeeshop Coven 1) which releases May 3rd at Siren.

I'm in LOVE with this cover!! It's gorgeous!! :)

Remember, you can go to my Siren author page and login to your account there and click the Notify Me link on the top of my author page to get an email from Siren when they upload my books for pre-order:

http://www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

The two prequels in this series are:


They're both available from Siren-BookStrand, Amazon, B&N, and others.

"The Denim Dom" now on Kindle.

For those of you who've been waiting, The Denim Dom is now available on Kindle. (Keep an eye out for it to appear on other third-party sites.)

Click here for Kindle.

The Denim Dom is the most recent book in my "Suncoast Society" series. The other books in the series are:

  • The Reluctant Dom
  • Domme by Default
  • Cardinal's Rule
  • Safe Harbor

You can read them in any order as long as you read The Denim Dom last (to prevent spoilers in the others LOL).

Thanks! :)

Release date for "Out of Smoke and Ashes" (Triple Trouble 5)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013
I have a tentative release date of Friday, 5/24/13, for "Out of Smoke and Ashes" (Triple Trouble 5). :)

If you're missing any of the previous books (including the dragon prequels) you can find them all at my Siren author page at:

http://www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

WIP Wednesday: Out of Smoke and Ashes (Triple Trouble 5)

In addition to Snippet Saturdays, I'm trying out doing WIP Wednesdays, giving you a little taste of what I've got on the mental stove, as it were. :) Hope you enjoy them.

Today's WIP Wednesday comes from "Out of Smoke and Ashes" (Triple Trouble 5). Setup: Lina is in labor and, as with everything else, getting her to the hospital isn't necessarily a simple matter.

--

Lina knew she'd have some ’splainin’ to do, especially to Elain, Liam, and Carla for holding back her information about Maureen. She'd have to wait until after the whole birthing dragon twins thing was over and done with to focus on that. She looked at Callie. "I don't want this Goddess gig anymore. I just want to be a mom and a wife. That's all I want." The tiny part of her brain still holding on to a shred of logic knew her tears and emotional response were all part of being in labor.

But she meant every word.

"It's all right, dear," Lacey assured her. "You're going to be okay. You're a wonderful Goddess, and you'll be an even better mom."

"But I don't know how I got there!" she wailed. "I was here, and the next minute I was in Baba Yaga's house!"

Callie rested a hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, it’s okay. Focus on breathing. You’re going to be a mom.”

“But what if I’m as crappy a mom as I am a Goddess? Or worse!”

Carla leaned over the back of the seat. “You are going to be a great mom,” she said. “I was terrified when Elain was little, but look how well she turned out.”

“And I think she only dropped me on my head once,” Elain joked.

“Twice,” Carla said with a smile. “But who’s counting?”

--

Stay tuned for more information on a release date. :)

"Triple Trouble 5 - Out of Smoke and Ashes" coming soon!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Woot! Got "the" email today that Siren as accepted the fifth installment in my Triple Trouble series, "Out of Smoke and Ashes." No release date yet, but I'll update you as soon as I have one. Probably in May or June.

I'm working on finishing up book 6 in the series now (still haven't decided on a title for it yet), so that one will be next in the pipe.

Also, don't forget that "Many Blessings (Coffeeshop Coven 1)" is coming Friday, May 3rd.

Stay tuned! :)

Scrivener convert...Kill. Me. Now. (Please?)

Monday, April 1, 2013
Oh, happy friggin' April Fool's Day, folks.

Not.

Why am I so grumpy, bucky? Well, those of you who follow me on a regular basis know two things. One, I'm on a pretty heavy writing schedule right now, averaging a book a month. Two, I love (love LOVE) a writing software called Supernotecard that I've been using ever since I discovered it through one of the writing magazines back in late 2007.

Pretty much EVERY book I've written since then, with the exception of Love at First Bight (which I wrote using Open Office on a TINY Asus netbook because my laptop screen died and it was in for repairs) has been written in Supernotecard. I do my rough drafts there, keep my character notes, timelines, etc. there. I export to Word for my final draft.

Meaning over forty books.

FORTY. BOOKS.

And then...

Well, apparently, a recent Java update basically farked the hell out of the software. Made it start running VERY slow, created a HORRIBLE buggy line break issue, and other things. For my purposes, it basically rendered the program unusable to me as a piece of production software, because I wasted too much time waiting for the program, or switching back and forth in views to correct the line break issue.

In other words, when the software becomes the focus of my rage (and I was raging pretty heavy) and makes it impossible for me to focus on the WRITING, it's time to move on. An email to the software developers basically left me nowhere. Their suggestion was to roll back Java (um, it was a security update, so I'm thiiinnkinggg...no). Yes, they are aware of the issues. No, they don't know why it's doing it, or when they'll get it fixed.

Unacceptable. I don't put out a book a decade, or a book a year.

I put out a novel-length (50k words+) book a MONTH on average (I'm not talking novellas), and I need fast, reliable software that stays the frak out of my way.

The way I write makes writing my first drafts in a word processor difficult, tedious, and time-consuming. So I looked into Scrivener, which is similar, but different, than SNC. (Apparently the Windows version wasn't available until 2011, so it wasn't around when I started using SNC.) I run Windows-flavored laptops (I have completely done away with desktops), and the Windows version lacks some coolio features the Mac version has, but I can deal with that. It's similar to SNC...but different. There are features SNC has I wish Scrivener had, and there are features Scrivener has that, now that I see them, I damn sure wish SNC has.

Since I was in the middle of writing Out of Smoke and Ashes - Triple Trouble 5 (yes, got it submitted, so stay tuned for news on that) I basically dumped the current book into Scrivener as best I could, recreated my series character notes (which was a bitch and a half seven books in, let me tell you what), and prayed I didn't have to redo it all again once I actually sat down with the Scrivener for Dummies book I bought. I had a little issue with the compile feature to export it when I was done, but I muddled my way through it (meaning I basically forced the Word file to be my bitch and fixed everything there) and got it submitted.

Now, with a couple of days of breathing room, I can get everything exported from SNC and imported and structured in Scrivener. I spent some time last night before The Walking Dead (and OMG my HEAD is about to EXPLODE over the bs the writers are pulling!!!) looking into stuff and realized where I turned wrong at Albuquerque (brownie points if you get the reference) in regards to the compile feature. I doubt I'll completely give up my export the draft to Windows for final formatting step, but now that I see what I didn't do and should have, it'll make my life a lot easier.

I'm sad to say I can no longer recommend Supernotecard to users. I wish I could, because I LOVED the software. (Forty-plus books written in it should be a pretty darn good track record.)

Now I'm finishing setting up my Triple Trouble series in the project file I just used so I can work on finishing book 6 for submission this month. I can see where I need to set up a custom template for my other projects, and have already figured that step out, so it should take a little of the pain out of creating the new project files.

Not looking forward to it, but it's a growth process, I know. It's part of moving forward. This, too, shall pass, and all that bullshit.

How's your Monday going?