Twisted Fairytale

As usual, things are busy busy on this end.

CBear and I finished painting the nursery tonight! *squee* FINALLY! We’re letting it dry before we take out all the tarps/plastic/tape. Tomorrow afternoon is dedicated to the big ‘move-in’. My mother, grandmother, next door neighbor from when I was like twelve, my brother and a friend of his are all swinging by to give my house an overhaul and get that baby room COMPLETE. Hubby has to do some work things out of the house, but when he gets back he may not recognize the place!

I do have some pictures chronicling my progress. I absolutely plan to post those, if not later on tonight, then definitely some time tomorrow. Look out for those! There will be lots of baby goodness.

I’ve also managed to get some work done on fast draft. For the week I’ve written about 1k. Which may sound like nothing, considering some authors can pull out 2k+ a day! However, I’m proud of my humble numbers. I’ve managed to write despite baby brain, exhaustion, impossible amounts of cleaning/nesting, prepping, painting, etc. I’ve actually had an insanely productive week.

Not to mention, I’ve been preparing for a book signing next Saturday! Look out for the official post/announcement for that on Monday.

Hope you’re all having a slamming Friday! And here’s a dance break for your enjoyment: (dance break + eyecandy! Yes, Isabelle DOES love you all).

Well, the awesome Lisa Asanuma might just have the solution.

She’s offering a free read in episodes, written in the form of letters. It’s contemporary YA and it’s really spot on. Reading the passages takes me back to emails and blog entries I exchanged with friends in high school and throughout my first year of college!

In fact, I still have one very good friend (hello Amalia, if you’re reading this!) who writes me long, detailed blog entries about her college experience and we talk and laugh and it’s like I get to live it with her. It’s quite magical.

Lisa has managed to capture that very delicate time in a friendship, when you’re trying to keep those things that made you friends in the first place at the forefront amidst a changing (and very adult) world. If you’re a YA fan, you may find this right up your alley!

So check it out:

Wren and Marnie’s Guide to World Domination

In case you’re wondering, the blog post title refers to the sound my brain is going to make when it finally decides to shut down. As if I didn’t have enough on my plate, I decided to join Romance Divas‘ Fast Draft in order to push myself to get as much writing as humanly possible done before Peanut arrives. In theory, this is actually a spectacular idea. I have a two WIPs in various stages of completion. One is almost at the halfway point, the other is just past it. If I could finish ONE of these, I’d have a story to edit/obsess over in my spare time post-labor and delivery and I could do that with printed pages and red pen, without having to set foot at the computer desk! This way, I could focus on Peanut and work only when the mood is right.

Only problem is that my brain feels like it’s stretched thin! Most days, I can’t manage enough energy to concentrate on when the last time was I ate. I’ve got scenes swirling around in my head, to-do lists forming in a dusty corner of the mind, the names of paint colors imprinted on the back of my eyelids, and promotional posters/cds/and cupcakes to make for a book signing first week of February! *_*

*snap*!

How am I ever going to get all this done? Should I hire a body double and spend a day at the spa? I’ll just put in a request for a Mary Poppins w/out the distracting singing.

I’ve got a little project I’m working on which I can’t share with you all just yet, but which I’m very excited about. It’s with my good friend, Lisa Asanuma, and I’ll definintely be telling you more about it as we get closer to reveal. I know, I’m such a tease, but I can’t help it!

In the meantime, I got some actual cleaning done today and decided it was time to try and get back to work on my writing- which I’ve slacked on for almost two weeks!

Granted, I have been very busy with baby preparation, but still. That’s inexcusable. Today I got to thinking about my writing career and what I expect out of it. In order to meet my goals and expectations, I have to be consistent and WORK! Especially once Peanut gets here. I have to make good use of my time or else I’ll NEVER get any writing done!

So tonight I’m reading over what I have of my WIP and forcing my mushed brain to focus. *please focus* While I washed dishes I went over the next scene I have to write in my head, and even sharpened the dialogue that closes/transitions the scene before. So now it’s a matter of getting my thoughts on paper. Dishes and showers are really great for brainstorming, aren’t they?

Surfacing

Surfacing now has an official release date!

Look for it available February 10th at Freya’s Bower.

Here’s a little blurb to put you in the mood:

Paige Jacobs lives the perfect life with her fiancé, Ryan, but the memory—or fantasy—of a gorgeous boy with silver eyes consumes her. Her sister Aimee, the only one who knows the dangerous secrets of her past, refuses to talk about them.

Feeling very much alone and obsessing over haunting memories, Paige decides to write a book in hope of finally dispelling the ghosts of her past so she can move on. Every chapter she writes brings her closer to the boy she’d loved so much in her youth. Then one morning in a coffee shop, she encounters a man with silver eyes.

Has she crossed the line between fantasy and reality?

Hey blogosphere!

I know it’s Monday. I absolutely have not forgotten about you all -

I just have SO much to tell you that I can’t do it at this particular moment due to being rather busy on my end. I’ve had my husband available at home for the past two days and so I’ve taken advantage of his manly strength to help me get things around the house done. I’ll admit, for about 3 days my house was so topsy turvy, it was impossible to even find a place to sit! Not fun. But it’s looking much better now. And we’re more than halfway done with what needs to be finished, so yay for that.

When I return (hopefully in another day or so) I should have pictures and proof of my very productive weekend. As well as shots of some of the awesome gifts received at Saturday’s baby shower! *yay, everyone loves baby gifts*

In the meantime, I leave you with this little blog meme. I was tagged by the lovely Cora Zane.

Rules are:

Link to the person who tagged you; write down six things that make you happy; post the rules; tag six others and let them know you’ve done it; tell the person who tagged you when your entry is up.

Ok. I’m gonna be straight with this one. Most people say family, kids, spouses, parents, siblings, etc. etc. with the happy list. I think that’s kind of a cheat, because while we LOVE them, and yes, we do experience happy times with them, happy is an internal thing. Either you’re a happy person or you aren’t. If you are, you’ll find little things around you every day that make you happy. And if you aren’t a happy person…well, you’re just a miserable old shoe and I doubt anyone would tag such a scrouge for a list anyway. So no family on this list. No loved ones. No pets. That is too damn easy. And besides that, family is sort of like hard candy – sweet, but after a while it hurts your teeth.

Now for the list:

Six things that make me happy

6.)Snow – Most New Englanders HATE snow. It gets dirty, it’s hard to drive in, and they can only cancel so much work/school before you’re forced to go out and freeze your butt. However- all that aside- there’s something so innocent and cleansing about snow. It’s so pretty when it falls. The world gets so quiet. It’s just beautiful and I can’t help but love it. Hot cocoa on a snowy night is my idea of a perfect winter evening.

5.)Laughter- I love to laugh. In fact, I’ve had some people who met me think I’m too cheery, or perhaps even phony, because really- who the heck is happy all the time? But, laughter, especially that really intense from the gut laughter, is so cathartic. I usually feel like a new person after. So I find as many situations to laugh as possible. Life’s too short to spend it frowning.

4.)Food – I’m not deliciously curvacious for nothing. I’m a woman who loves to eat and I make no qualms about it. Granted, I don’t just eat for the sake of eating. Being a glutton is not sexy. Over the past year, while pursuing weight loss goals and focusing on working out more I’ve developed a new love for recipes and new foods. I love the whole cooking process. I love finding new flavors or trying international recipes. And I especially love family meals where we all sit together and indulge in a meal and good conversation.

3.)Writing – This is one of those double edged things. It makes me as happy as it makes me crazy. But honestly, I can’t picture myself NOT writing. It just relieves SO much emotion. I love to laugh/cry/get angry with my characters. And I love the butterflies that form when I know something is just right. That’s a kind of happiness that’s hard to replicate.

2.)Music- I’ve chronicled stages of my life to music. I have an entire soundtrack to memorable moments stored in my head. Music expresses what many times, my words cannot. It is one of my life’s simplest pleasures.

1.)Autumn – I’m a HUGE fan of crisp, cool fall days. I love the changing of the trees and I love sweaters. My friends jokingly called me Bill Cosby in high school because I own a sweater in like every color of the rainbow. And I don’t even care. It’s like walking around in a blanket. It’s sooo insanely awesome. It’s why fall’s my favorite season. It also tends to inspire me more than any other. Weird, huh?

And that’s about it! I won’t tag anyone, but if you’re interested, please, knock yourself out!

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.

xoxo

I have become a time bomb. Tick-tick-ticking away, ready to explode. Or at least that’s how I feel. How is it possible that everyday I wake up I feel monumentally larger than the last? *_*

This weekend will see a slew of baby activity. Tonight, CBear and I are going shopping for paints and brushes to work on the nursery tomorrow and a covered cat pan for Senor Gato, who will be moving into the cubby area under the open staircase.

We’re getting him a nice new home, a mat, and if we’re feeling generous, we’ll even get him a scratching post. He’s been upgraded to teenager. It’s like giving him his own apartment. Which I’m sure he’ll ignore in favor of sleeping at the foot of our bed instead. *ha ha*

Tomorrow, I’m riding to NY to see my grandmother with my mother and little sister. We’re doing a family-only baby shower, which will be nice. There’s quite a few people I haven’t seen in- well it feels like forever- and I’d like to catch up. So expect lots of pictures from that event. My mother has promised to be trigger happy. *rolls eyes* I may have to snatch the camera away at some point.

While I’m in NY, hubby and his guy friends will break open a few beers, do some painting and rearranging, so that hopefully it’s ready for when I get home. Since I’ve been told I can’t do any of it due to the fumes. Pft. I love the smell of paint.

Then, I’ll likely pick up the pieces that make up the crib from my mother’s house on Sunday night so I can put it together on Monday! Just in time for my 34th week! Which leaves me only 6 more weeks! *panic, panic*

As you can probably tell from this post, I’m a bit overwhelmed with all these changes and it’s made it hard to focus on actually WRITING anything. However, I have been doing mental plotting. I play over scenes from my WIP in my mind and fill in dialogue, etc. If it’s really detailed, I’ll jump on the computer for a few minutes to write quick chapter summaries in brackets like these [...] so that I can refer to them when I have more time. These have been lifesavers because they’re detailed enough to include actual snippets of character convos and major moments, etc. And as far as I can tell, once I actually sit to write, I’ll be at about the halfway mark! Can you believe it?! That makes me giddy.

Then it’s a matter of plotting out the second half. :- Why do I do that? I’m such a pantster.

Angela James, editor extraordinaire, is coming to Romance Divas for a 3 day class on Epublishing! Come join us Jan 13-15 and ask her anything.

Everything You Ever Needed to Know About Epublishing (and some things you didn’t know you should know)

Why doesn’t epublishing offer advances? What are some of the pros and cons of publishing my manuscript via epublishing? How do I research publishers? Can I really make money in epublishing? What exactly is POD? Can you give me a snappy comeback for people who say that epublishing isn’t real publishing?

Epublishing has evolved and grown, especially in the last 5 years, but with growth comes pitfalls and problems, and trusting an epublisher with your baby might seem like a risky proposition. We’ll cover the basics of epublishing, from choosing an epublisher and contract details to methods of ebook and print distribution to reasons why you might not want to epublish your manuscript.

Bio:

In 2005, Angela James joined Samhain Publishing, Ltd, a small press company focusing on digital publishing, as its executive editor, where she has played an instrumental role in building the company from the ground up. In her executive position at Samhain, Angela is responsible for managing the publisher’s editorial services division. Her responsibilities include the management of editorial staff, quality oversight, networking and marketing efforts at regional, national and international writing conferences to promote the electronic publishing industry as well as Samhain.

In addition to her administrative duties, Angela continues to edit more than 50 authors including national bestselling authors Lucy Monroe, Lilith Saintcrow and Deidre Knight.

So, after an intense cleaning spree with my darling MIL yesterday, I woke up to a beautiful, sparkling home that smelled deliciously clean. This = love. I’m determined for it to stay this way for as long as humanly possible. If CBear starts tossing stuff around I may be forced to smack him upside the head. With love, of course. Always with love.

Now, because the house is in tip top shape I can focus on the Project To-Do List (PTDL) for Peanut. These are the big things that don’t get done cause I’m usually too sidetracked with regular cleaning and housework. I’m happy to say the PTDL is dwindling nicely. All that’s left is moving our bedroom furniture upstairs, painting the nursery, and putting the nursery furniture in there. This could all be done in a weekend if life were to allow us a break and there were NO outside influences. But that’s doubtful, so I’m giving us two weeks. I’m due in four. After 2 weeks, if it’s not done, I intend on having a dramatic meltdown in order to get my point across. The acting classes I took in high school will most certainly make a return. ^_^

In writing news, I’m happy to announce that I signed a contract for Zerah, my romantic fantasy yesterday. This is the last story I’m subbing out until after Peanut gets here. I have a few other things I’m working on but none are complete enough to go out. So I’ll have to choose one and focus on doing paper and pen updates for it once baby arrives. I doubt my computer time will be much. I’ll most likely do drive-by posts. I won’t abandon you all completely! Promise.

Surfacing is just about complete as well. Blurb, excerpt, and dedication are written. Now I just need an official release date and last round proof edits. Then we’re good to go.

Somehow, the week has slipped by me. Again. This seems to be happening alot. Am I just blacking out and missing stuff here, or what?

I’ve spent most of it in a haze, busy with cleaning, rearranging house, building furniture, and squeezing writing in between dishes and dinner time. I’m pretty tired, as you can all probably imagine. But a very dear friend of mine sent me two books to read and I’m looking forward to the mental vacation. The first, by C.L Wilson, is called Lord of the Fading Lands. So far, the beginning has been very interesting and thrilling. I think it’s going to be the kind of fantasy/paranormal story I devour once I get the chance to really sit and put a dent in it. The second book is The Luxe, by Anna Godbersen. If it’s anything like Gossip Girl (the tv version, not the books), then I’m going to fall head over heels. I’ve been completely addicted to GG lately. Talk about brilliant writing/characterization.

Unfortunately, the weekend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down – unless we get the predicted snowstorm. Is it terrible that I’m hoping for it? *fingers crossed* I could use a few days of R&R with CBear. And I could use having him home to help me out with some of the bigger things I can’t do myself. So I’m sending out snow vibes into the atmosphere and hoping that it falls.

Shh… don’t tell anyone I’ve done that. The people in my neighborhood will hunt me down and beat me senseless.

Either way, it is Friday which means that we should celebrate another week gone by! Happy Friday to all and hopefully your weekends will be full of fun, family, and other good things.

Enjoy a little 80s music dance break: