Monday, December 10, 2012

new banner and background

I'm so excited! This site finally looks like something that belongs to an erotica author! I owe it all to a patient and generous friend who made up the sexy, sexy hottie you see in the background off to the side.  It's taken me an embarrassingly long time to get it just right with the settings and layout, but now it is!  Whew!

I hope everyone checks out the  Total-E-Bound 12 Days of SeXmas. There are going to be a lot of prizes, some great promotions, and maybe even a visit from a sexy Santa!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

plot vs character development

I know there's plenty of debate, many books, and endless websites dedicated to the eternal question of whether plot or character development is more crucial to the story.  I've been thinking about this after watching this week's episode of "Homeland" titled "Broken Hearts."  There have been a lot of reviews debating the merits of the episode with many questioning the direction the show is taking and the plausibility of the events that took place. 

But one columnist made me think about my own writing when he said that "Homeland" is sacrificing character development in favor of advancing the plot at a more rapid pace.  I enjoyed this week's episode, but then I like fast paced, edge of your seat television.  TV shows that dwell too much on navel gazing fall out of favor with me pretty quick.  It goes that way with books too.  I can't stand books where a character has endless scenes of Hamlet indecisiveness without there being any real payoff.  But then, too, I don't like books where the characters are cardboard cutouts who do nothing but go from one plot point to another.  There has to be a balance, but I think I lean more towards plot than character development.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Cover Art!!!

I'm sorry I've been out of touch all month!  I promise I'll do better.  I know, I know, I always say that, but I really do mean it this time.  It's going to be a 2013 New Year's resolution.  But at least I'm blogging with something important to say.....I have cover art!!!!!!!  My first ever cover art!!!!!! Take a peek...



Cool, isn't it?  Not to mention sexy, hot, sensual, desirable....okay, you get the idea.  Anyway it's my first cover for a story so I know I'm going a bit overboard.  But you have a first cover only once so a little bit of going overboard is in order.  :)

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

being bad

I should be writing but instead I'm looking at TV.  Yes, I'm being bad, but I'm enjoying it!  "Nashville" is living up to all the hype.  Between this show and "Revenge" maybe the nighttime soap opera is making a comeback?  I hope so because juicy tales of backstabbing and betrayal are my favorite things to watch on tv as well as read.  I think I'll make backstabbing and betrayal one of the themes for my NaNoWriMo novel.

Monday, October 8, 2012

my first guest post / interview

I'm so happy to announce that I've completed my first guest post / interview with author H K Carlton on her blog Pick A Genre Already. Although my story doesn't come out until March, she generously gave me the opportunity to introduce myself to other authors and readers.  As anyone can probably guess, I'm still getting the hang of social media, so getting exposure like this is huge.  I hope I get more chances like this because this kind of networking and exposure are crucial to making it as a writer.  Please check out the article and let me know what you think!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

taking care of business

I'm going on vacation in a couple of weeks and I'd like to be able to leave with a clean slate.  I've made some progress in that direction but still need to finish my short story and finish revising my novella.  Accomplishing both is definitely doable but will take more discipline than I've been exercising this week.  However, setting a deadline might help in achieving this goal.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

new contacts

I've joined three new writing groups and have made a lot of new contacts.  Two of the groups I'd been a member for a couple of weeks before I worked up the nerve to write a introductory post.  Don't know what I was afraid of because the worst that could have happened was *crickets.*  Not good, but not fatal either. 

However, that was not the case when I joined any of the groups.  All of the writers were extremely welcoming, and I've even accepted invitations to do a guest blogs when my short short comes out.  The invitations are extremely gracious, I hope I don't disappoint.  Now I'll have to get my own blog up to speed so that I can reciprocate.  But that's a few weeks away.  I've probably already bitten off more than I can chew with the guest blogs in addition to the short stories I need to finish editing and writing.  So, yes, things are still busy, but I'm slowly making progress.

Monday, September 24, 2012

more work

It's the start of a new week and it kicked off with good news.  I submitted a synopsis to my publisher for an anthology and have been given the go ahead and finish the story.  I'm very excited at the possiblity at having more work published but it also means buckling down to get things done.  It's a problem with us ADD types, taking on more projects before finishing projects already started.  However, I'm determined to fulfill all the commitments I've made to both myself and publishers.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Focus

I haven't had a lot of focus lately.  There are lots of things I want to accomplish in both my real and my writing lives, but I've been making slow progress in both.  On the writing side, I have joined 3 new writing groups, and I'm looking forward to meeting and talking to new writers.  I hope I can share as much as I learn.  I'm also now revising the novella I've been working on for the last month and I'm hoping I can finally have it ready to submit by next week.  Then it will be on to the next story!  A writer's journey never ends.  :)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

pulling out of a mini-slump

It seems like I always start off these blog posts with an excuse for why I haven't posted.  Well, I don't really have an excuse this time except that I've been in a bit of a slump.  It's hard to get into the writing mood when you're dealing with allergies as well as car repairs.  However, professional writers deal with 'obstacles' like this all the time and still get their manuscripts completed, so I know I sound like a baby.  I want to become a professional writer, i.e. make a living from writing, so I know I need to do a lot better.

Friday, August 31, 2012

contracts signed

I signed the contracts today for a m/m erotica short story that will appear in Total-E-Bound's Emergency Servicing - Medical anthology.  It's hard to believe that I just submitted the short story on July 15, and received news it was accepted on August 15.  It feels like it's been a lot longer as I waited to hear whether it was accepted or not, and then for the contracts that would make things official.  Next up is the editing of the story.  I've been in touch with the editor by email and she seems really nice, I'm looking forward to working with her.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

meeting deadlines

I promised myself I'd write 2-3 posts a week and now I see it's been about ten days since I've been on here. I disappointed at not exercising more discipline but I've been busy writing a novella to submit to an anthology. It's a m/m romance but it's also paranormal, a new genre for me, so it's taken me a little longer to write than I thought it would. The anthology deadline is September 1 and I'm still not done, but I'm doing my best to try to finish. Keeping up with this blog is important to me, and I'll try to do a better job of posting more regularly in the future.

Monday, August 20, 2012

food truck race

Although I'll focus mainly on my writing and stories in this blog, occasionally I'd like to discuss other stuff too, like reality television a weakness of mine.  I watched "The Great Food Truck Race" last night and thought it got off to a strong start.  I wasn't surprised by the first group, Under the Crust, who got the ax because I don't know food truck friendly pot pies are.  And I'm not sure how much longer some of the other groups will last, like the Australian barbecue women who couldn't light the pilot light on their food truck.  However, it should be an interesting season since all of the competitors are rookies and competing for a truck of their own.  I'm looking forward to seeing how things turn out.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Knowing Your Story

I'm still not totally believing my story has been accepted into the anthology, but all the work I did tonight made it more of a reality.  I had to fill out book and author forms, and this included coming up with a 25 word tagline as well as a 100-200 word description of the story.  Even though I've written both a query letter and a synopsis for this story, the tagline and blurb needed to be written from scratch.  The story is still fairly fresh in my mind, so it wasn't too much work, but it's something to keep in mind for the next time (!) I have a story accepted by a publisher. 

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Accepted!

I am so happy to announce my m/m erotic romance has been accepted by Total-E-Bound as part of their Emergency Servicing anthology.  I submitted the story on July 15 and almost given up hope until I received the acceptance email today.  I am so looking forward to working with Total-E-Bound and hope this is the first of many stories I publish with them.