Three geeky freebies!

The first day of school is in five days. I'm super excited. I finally get back my writing time!

This weekend is also one of the biggest gaming conventions in the world, Gen Con. Have you ever been to a huge convention? It's a phenomenal experience. So much to do!

I won't get a chance to go this year, but at least I'll get to play with my gaming group next Friday. It's one of the highlights of my week to be creative, scheme, and laugh with friends.

In celebration of geeks everywhere, my hilarious and steamy trilogy, Dice & Debauchery is free for five days!

Loose Corset (Book #1)

Layers of Lace (Book #2)

Masked Kiss (Book #3)

Friday Five for July 31, 2015

1. On Tuesday, my son will start kindergarten. I'm still in shock a little. Giddy, nervous, fearful, excited, anxious. Really, a frazzled mess. Will I cry that first day? No, I don't think so. I'm not one for tears, but my heart will be pounding as loud as or louder than his.

2. This means on Tuesday, I get to give it a go as a full time writer! All day to write. With no interruptions. In a quiet house. I need to stock up on the chocolate. I have the same mash of emotions about this as I do with my little guy starting elementary school.

3. It's been a bit of a rough week, but I got some good news. My steampunk Lovecraftian horror tale, "What Lay Below" was accepted by Dragon's Roost Press for their anthology, Eldritch Embraces. It's due to come out spring of next year. They're still accepting submissions if you have a dark little story with a bit of romance in it!

4. Our last big fun day before school starts will be attending Family Day at Gen Con this Sunday. My son is almost old enough to participate in more programming. He's already a gamer through and through! Also at Gen Con, they have an excellent Writer's Symposium. Tons of great seminars and workshops spanning the entire four days.

5. Yesterday, I took my son and a friend to a small water park. They had fun, and one of the last events of the day was a Dangling Donut contest. Donuts were tied up by string and the kids had to eat them without using their hands. My little guy got really angry that he couldn't bite it. Afterward, when he had a moment to calm down, he told me that Anger took over his mind's console. He is a little obsessed with Inside Out!

Have a great weekend!

Friday Five for July 17, 2015

1. I've managed to catch up on my sleep and some online things. I think I have to realize that I'm not going to catch up on it all and just let it go. Sometimes that's difficult for me. I'm still learning to be easier on myself.

2. I wrote a flash horror piece for my local critique group tomorrow. A Christmas story with a monster in the closet. Perfect for July! And no, it's not a Fearless story. I wanted to write another Christmas tale because right now is the time of year to submit them to magazines and other venues. I still have six stories out there under consideration, and hopefully after this weekend, I can send out a seventh.

3. I've been sending out my Dice & Debauchery series to reviewers. It's hard to find people that review erotica. I sent out a batch of queries in December and didn't receive one reply. I've only received one reply from the dozen I sent out this week. One of my dream reviewers would be Felicia Day. She and three other geeky women have a book club called Vaginal Fantasy. It's absolutely hilarious and fun.

4. Only two weeks until Gen Con! Will any of you be attending this year? I'll be going on Sunday for Family Day. Their writer guest of honor this year is Terry Brooks.

5. A reminder for two fantastic giveaways: Win 5 awesome ebooks and an Amazon gift card from T.B. Markinson, and celebrate Tara Tyler's book birthday with an incredible giveaway that includes prizes of a signed print copy of her book, an ecopy of my book, Of Blood and Sorrow, and an Amazon gift card.

Don't forget about the Smashwords Summer Sale!

Friday Five for August 9, 2013

1. This week is the one year anniversary of the release of FEARLESS. I haven't had much time to do anything in the way of a celebration, but I'm happy to report that it still receives wonderful reviews and has had over 12,000 downloads. The biggest critique is it's too short. I'm taking that as the readers want more, and thus it's a compliment! You can get your FREE e-copy of the novella on Amazon and Smashwords.

2. I haven't had a chance to do as much writing this week as I wanted. I think I'm over-thinking my short story. I tend to do that with short pieces. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of the weekend. Knock on wood.

3. I've decided to push back my release date for the 13th Floor collection. There's no way I can have it ready for September 13th. Plus, my critique partners are immensely busy this month. I don't want to add to their loads. I'm doing the cover reveal on September 13th and the official release on October 13th. Yet I want to make October a 13th Floor month. Lots of guest posts, excerpts, tidbits, and giveaways. I'll do an official announcement next week. It was difficult for me to push the date back, but I feel relieved now that I've finally decided to do it.

4. Next week will be a busy week for me. I have my son's preschool orientation, and my husband will be gone for Gen Con Indy. So I'll be a con widow for three days. My son and I will be going with my husband to the convention on Sunday for Family Day. If anyone out there is going and you want to say hi, please let me know! They have a great four day program for writers called the Writer's Symposium. Most of the seminars are free with the purchase of the badge. I highly recommend it. I've learned a lot from years of attending the Symposium.

5. I took my son for his first pony ride yesterday. He was very excited, but then didn't want to ride the pony. His reason: it wasn't "proper." I couldn't get any definite explanation out of him, but he refused to ride. He talked, pet, fed, hugged, and examined the horses. He wasn't afraid. He almost went under a male horse curious as to what was dangling there! I told him what it was, and he nodded, curiosity sated. I had to explain what it was in front of the lone stablehand. A quite handsome stablehand.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Five for August 17th

1. I wrote a new flash piece, a twist on the myth of Cassandra and Apollo, and submitted it. I'm still keeping up with my goal this year to write one/submit one. Though, it's the only goal I've managed to keep. Time is slipping by so quickly, and I'm far behind on my other projects.

2. My steampunk Cthulhu short story that I wrote earlier this year was the one I really wanted to get accepted. It was short-listed. I was eager to contribute to the Mythos, but alas, my story was cut. I consumed a lot of ice cream and wallowed in the rejection. Now I'm making a few little adjustments and I'm submitting it to the YA steampunk anthology, REAL GIRLS DON'T RUST. The other story I started for that anthology fizzled out. I had a great character and story idea for her, but then I started writing about this huge mound in the desert and the workings of the people living in it. It was more fantasy than steampunk. The two concepts clashed and didn't work. I'll have to separate them and keep them in my idea files for later use.

3. FEARLESS continues to do very well. It makes my head spin to think of so many people reading it. I'm still promoting it, but I realize that I need to work on my other books and get them out there. One of the biggest thing that helps a writer with sales is putting out more books.

4. My husband is away at Gen Con. It's just me and the boy for three days. The boy hasn't been napping much lately. It's going to be a long three days. On Sunday, it's Family Day at Gen Con and we're all going.

5. The boy starts preschool next week. We have orientation on Tuesday and his first official day is Thursday. He'll be attending two mornings a week with five other two-year olds. For the past few weeks, I've been having stress dreams about this. Dreams where I end up being put in the position to teach the class, that I have to run all the parents' committees, and that my son won't let go of me or, if he does happily go, something bad happens. I'm use to dreaming about fighting monsters. I don't know how to fight parent stress dreams!

Have a good weekend, folks!

Saturday Six for August 4th

1. I've been a bit paranoid recently with the scare of bloggers being sued over using other people's pictures on their sites. It's frightening to think that could happen. My new Saturday Six pic is my son's most recent painting. I love the color! My new "anthologies seeking submissions" pic (as seen yesterday) is a photo of my son. My Wicked Wednesday pic has always been my own creation. I've seen other bloggers doing the same thing. Seeing some personal photos has been fun, actually, but not in the mood of the paranoid moment.

2. Our new AC unit is up and running! Woo-hoo! Just in time for one of the hottest nights of the year last night. Is the unit whole? No. The guy still have to put in the kit for the furnace part, but I think we can live without heat for a bit. Heh.

3. I'm excited about the FEARLESS release week next week! Currently, all the sellers seem to have it up and for sale except for CreateSpace. I haven't had time yet to fix what I need to do on there. Hopefully I'll get to it this weekend.

4. Every year in November, I participate in NaNoWriMo. I love it! I plan to do it every year for the rest of my life. This year, though, I've considered using the month to catch up on the writing I missed in July. I'm way behind schedule. Of course, my muse will have none of that talk. A brand new shiny idea hit me hard the other day and came with an amazing first line. It's a superhero story and it made me laugh. If it sticks with me, I think that will be my NaNo story this year and my current project will have to wait that month.

5. Gen Con is coming up in two weeks. Before I had my son, I'd go every year and do a ton of writing seminars. This year, Brandon Sanderson is the author guest of honor. We can't afford to go four days this year, but we'll be going on the Sunday for Family Day. There will be stuff for the boy to do that day, and I can get a chance to visit with some of the writers. I even have new business cards to match my blog's banner.

6. No plans for the weekend except to pick up some groceries and catch up on my networking. Maybe I'll get a minute to write some more of my steampunk short story.

Have a good weekend!

My adventures at Gen Con 2011

First lesson of being a parent of a toddler and attending a convention: Never make a definite schedule.

We started out late on Thursday. I scheduled myself for a 9:00 seminar, but we didn't even leave until 8:40. It takes an hour to drive to Indianapolis from our house. That's one seminar I missed.

We found a good parking spot and got inside. The line for SWAG bags was short. Not a terribly good bag of stuff this year. Not even a die. I had to go pick up my tickets at Will Call. I've done Will Call the past few years. Last year, it took me two minutes to get my tickets. This year, I waited in line for three hours. My feet still hurt. I couldn't do anything without my event tickets. Another writing seminar was missed.

We managed to get into our hotel early and get my son down for his nap. The hotel staff was great all weekend. Some of the ladies snatched food from the kitchen to give to my son because he was blowing them kisses! He even got a free milkshake from Steak & Shake for being so cute. He knows how to work people.

I made it for "Stealing One Hour of Anton Strout's Life." It was a lot of fun. He was hilarious and Elizabeth Vaughan did a fantastic job of going James Lipton on him!

We had dinner at Scotty's and then I had the boy for the rest of the night. I discovered it's very different to take photos and wrangle a toddler in a crowded convention center. He's quick like a ninja! I didn't get very many pictures.

My son was tuckered out the first night. I took him to visit the Beholder in the largest of the D&D rooms. He crawled up under the Beholder and looked like he was going to fall asleep right there. Several people took pictures.

We had a better start on Friday. I made it to two morning seminars.

"Urban Fantasy" - The people on the panel were good, but it didn't get into anything more than what was the definition of Urban Fantasy and what wasn't. I was hoping more for tips on the market.

"Villains as Heroes" - Great panel. They were hilarious and made a lot of jokes. They talked about how to make villains sympathetic and ones that are just bad. 

One of the things I really like about writing seminars is listening to the panelists talk about their own experiences. I've attended seminars more than once various years and I still had a good time. I don't get to talk about writing often at home, so it's fantastic to be immersed in an environment where everyone is talking about it.

I had my son again that afternoon. I took him with me to Anton's book signing. After, we had to go play with the troll.

There's the boy showing the troll how strong he is. Every time we passed the troll, we had to stop so he could honk its nose. Later on, he added giving it five. A bidding war for my son started amongst other attendees after seeing him flex his muscles for the troll. We got up to $100. So tempting!

I did the "Write & Critique" on Friday evening. It was fun, but I felt I flopped. Hey, we all have our off days, right? To top it off, I was the last person to read. (Tickets were chosen at random.) We were given a topic and we had fifteen minutes to write something. The topic was: a ride in the country. Totally not what I expected. I played around with a few ideas in my head and then I went with something urban fantasy. Two monsters in a Bonnie & Clyde situation, having just eluded the cops, and are driving down a country road as they're talking. I didn't have enough time to explain the setting of the world or what sort of monsters they were. A few other writers did urban fantasy, too, and they were hilarious. It added to the feeling that mine flopped. The panelists were confused as to what my two characters were, but they got the basic premise of it. They liked the subtle juxtaposition of what seemed like an ordinary outlaw couple with the supernatural weird bits. I didn't go overboard with it. I wanted the focus to be more on the characters and their situation rather than the fact they were monsters. The panelists said that subtle isn't always good, though. In a short story, you have to plainly say such things and say them up front. They said nice things about my clean style, but that was it. Since my story didn't impress me, I don't think it made a big impression on anyone else. The best thing to come out of this workshop for me was listening to the panel critique all the stories. I've been learning a lot about critiquing this year. I hope it's making me a better critique partner.

I missed two more seminars on Saturday morning because I was sick. Something I ate for breakfast didn't sit well with me. Yet after my stomach was emptied, I felt better.

I attended one seminar with a bit of a headache. "Make it Steamy: a look at the steampunk genre." This one was a lot of fun. They talked about the definition of steampunk and its history. There was a new author on the panel who recently published a short story called "Pimp My Airship." He's writing a novel in a new sub-genre called Steamfunk!

My headache cleared in time for me to do the True Dungeon in the afternoon. This was my first time playing through with a group I didn't know. Usually my husband and I do it together. Thankfully, I got a wonderful and experienced group. The girl who played our rogue was dressed as Sailor Moon! I played the cleric. We survived the Lair of the Sea Lich and acquired the amulet to fight the Draco Lich next year. (Unfortunately, my husband didn't get a good group when he went through later that night and didn't survive. AND he was forced to play the bard. Poor guy.)

I had two seminars scheduled for Sunday morning. It was a rough morning as we were packing up. Once again, I missed them. Yet we managed to get down to the exhibit hall and I got some more books signed. I talked for a little bit with a couple of authors about proper book signing etiquette. When you're doing a signing for an anthology, the author is suppose to sign the page where their short story starts. Only the editor is suppose to sign in the front. Yet, of course, it all depends on what the customer wants.

The weekend was a blur. I wish I had gotten more time to do writing stuff, but being a parent must come first. It will be even more fun when the boy is older too.

Thank you, Gen Con. It wasn't my best year, but it was fun.

Home sweet home

I love to travel, but it always feels good to return home. I like our cozy house. My son squealed and clapped when we pulled into the driveway. He likes our little house too. I can't wait until I can curl up in my own bed tonight. Only after True Blood, of course!

Gen Con was good. It had its ups and downs. I'll tell you all about them tomorrow when I get some time to write an entry. I missed some of my seminars. I didn't get enough sleep. Yet social anxieties did not stop me from talking to other authors. I survived the True Dungeon. My son's cuteness got him free stuff.

I didn't get many pictures. It's hard to wrangle a toddler in a crowded convention center and take pictures at the same time. Plus, the first few people I asked to take a photo with my son said no. They didn't want anything to do with babies.

I hope you had a good weekend. It's Monday tomorrow. Let's see if I can get back into the swing of things.

One day until Gen Con

Gen Con tomorrow! Woo-hoo!

I finished my third revision last night. I added some details to the ending and hopefully it will make it feel more complete. Endings are sometimes difficult for me because I don't want my story to end. The world doesn't stop moving on in my head even when the story has to come to an end. It's important to know when to end a story. Dragging it on too long will bore the reader. Cutting it short will leave the reader feeling dissatisfied. I considered adding an epilogue to A Lion's Heart, but I don't think it needs it. Everything was tied up neatly at the end. At least I hope it is. I will have to get my critique partners' opinions and find myself a few beta readers who know paranormal romantica well.

I've got errands to run and cleaning to do. Packing will be done this evening. My husband has been gone these past few days and hopefully he'll be home early this evening to help out. I know anything I put into something will be immediately taken out by a small child.

One week until Gen Con Indy 2011

I'm excited. My husband and I have been going every year for eight years. Last year, we couldn't do much because I just had a baby. We walked around, played a few board games, I chatted with some of the authors and got books signed. It was fun, but this year we arranged our schedules so that each of us has time to do what we want to do.

I signed up for nine writing seminars and workshops. Every year I force myself to do a Read & Critique. Writers get five minutes to read their work (short story or novel) and a panel of authors, editors and publishers critique it. I get extremely anxious talking in front of people. This year, instead of a reading, I'm doing a workshop called Write & Critique. The panel will give writers a topic and time to write about it. Then they'll critique it. I love the idea! It will require me talking in front of people again, but it's good for me. It's the only way I'll get over that particular fear.

Here's a list of my other seminars: Fantastic Females, Urban Fantasy, Villains as Heroes, Love Between the Sheets (of paper), Confessions of a Slushie Machine, Make it Steamy: Steampunk genre, Genres: What are they and how do you mix 'em?, and finally, Stealing One Hour of Anton Strout's Life. Anton Strout is the author guest of honor this year. I've met him several times before. He's hilarious!

You can see the complete schedule of seminars and workshops on the Get Literal: Writers' Symposium site.

A quickie

I'm going to see the new Harry Potter film tonight. Yay!

I was up early this morning taking my son to his 15 month check-up. He's doing great and his hands have healed wonderfully. He scored six months higher on his mental development. Yup, I'm bragging a little bit.

I finished critiquing the two stories for my writer's group tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone for their advice. I think I did some good work. I hope I've given them something to think about.

12 days until Gen Con Indy. I have my tickets for my writing seminars and workshops.

I did all my housework in one day. That's pretty darn good when the kid didn't take a long nap.