Behind the scenes

There’s a lot of stuff going on around here, it just isn’t really visible. So, what’s happening behind the scenes?

1. Had a lot of trouble with spammers creating user accounts to post spam. So I did some backend changes to resolve this and hopefully the spam will be less problematic around here. 

2. I have new covers for self epubbed books that are already out and for one that hasn’t been released yet. I should have time to update, format, upload, etc. all of this soon. I hope.

3. Cowboy Lust is coming soon (August). So I need to get a page created for it. I hope to do that soon, too.

4. Nuns and Huns in the Mammoth Book of Futuristic Romance is all revised and done, done, done until publication. I need to create a page for that, also, but kind of waiting for release date info.

5. Hard at work on finishing Mammoth Paranormal tale.
After that, more novels will be coming soon.

5 things I’d blog about if I had time

1. Homework. I’ve had it with homework. Last night after once again having my kid work on it from the time she got home until I told her to stop because she had to get ready for bed, I went out and did some research. Turns out there is no evidence that homework for elementary and middle school aged children has any benefit at all, and it’s not uncommon for kids to find themselves in the situation mine is in, where the assignment is supposed to take 20 minutes but actually takes much longer to complete.

Monday’s assignment, for instance, took me 20 minutes just to explain and work through an example for her. THEN she started to do the work on her own, finishing at bedtime. From now on, she’s going to put in her 20 minutes and that’s it. Putting in another 2 hours or more of assigned work after a full day of school is too much to put on a small child.

2. Still working on my Mammoth Paranormal story. It turned out to be a story I’d started more than 10 years ago, and it’s always interesting to me how ideas ripen and taken on new forms and are suddenly ready to be finished long after I’ve even forgotten about them. Really excited to see this one done at last.

3. Sleep. Or lack thereof. I’ve reverted to tools like the Baby Go to Sleep CD on constant repeat because napless baby and sleepless nighttime baby is a recipe for psychotic breaks all around. Also not good for productivity. Blackout curtains are helpful, too.

4. You don’t know until you go. We had an aborted campout last weekend that we knew could end in rain and bad weather. But it also might’ve been fine and fun for everybody and ultimately the deciding factor was that we’d never know unless we went. Sometimes you just have to take the risk for something you want, even if you know it might not pan out. The alternative is to stay in a very narrow comfort zone.

5. I’m experimenting with writing on the go using iPad and Evernote with a keyboard folio. Not sure how I’m going to like it yet but I really want a good portable writing solution and I want one that just sticks to text and doesn’t get in my way. 

A breath of fresh air

Happy post Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I wanted to spend my day wearing a 20 lb backpack and climbing a trail to a waterfall, so we got everybody ready for the day and headed off to hike in Olympic National Park. Which, by the way, never gets old. You can buy an annual pass for $30, a whole lot of entertainment value for the money, and it’s all yours, from the beaches to the glaciers. Since one child was at the doctor’s office on Friday we kept it very low key, and took the easy, well-maintained trail from the parking lot to Sol Duc Falls. The total round trip is a bit over a mile and a half, a nice distance to loaf along breathing unbelievably clean air and drinking in all the sights and sounds. It was literally a breath of fresh air and a feast for the senses. 

New month, new story, new playlist

Hello, May! So much work to do, so little time. Books to finish. Short due for Mammoth Paranormal anthology. I’m knocking out the short first and spent yesterday brainstorming plot details, choosing character names, working on the blurb and settling on a final title. Since the theme is a “monster hospital”, my story is Visiting Hours.

The playlist:

Abraham’s Daughter, Arcade Fire

Bring Me to Life, Evanescence

Love is a Place, Metric

Everybody Knows, Concrete Blonde

One, U2

Nuns and Huns snippet and playlist

Nuns and Huns has been such a good time. Space opera! Hijacking! Mad scientists running amok! Here’s the playlist, all courtesy of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes:

Seasons in the Sun

Crazy (originally by Seal, punked out by Me First)

I Believe I Can Fly

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

I Only Want to be With You

Snippet:

She tasted the froth at the top of her glass as if sampling some unknown delicacy then tilted
her head back. The icy cold beverage filled her mouth before she took a long swallow, eyes closing in appreciation. She set the glass back down carefully, as if she was used to handling delicate crystal and drinking something that cost significantly more than beer.

“It’s my own recipe,” Caleb stated, wondering where she was going with this.

“You’re a genius,”she assured him with apparent sincerity. She raised the glass for another long
drink.

That wasn’t the line he usually got.

“No, really,” she stated, as if sensing his skepticism. “A wonderful balance of flavors, bitter
and yet sweet. And the mechanical bull, that was your program, yes? Excellent tactics.”

His lack of response made her brows draw together. “I offend you?”

“Most women say something like, my place or yours.”

She tilted her head to one side, considering. “It will have to be yours. Mine is…complicated.”

A mixture of amusement and arousal stirred inside him, along with a curious reluctance to
let the conversation come to its natural end. When was the last time he’d found it so stimulating to talk to a woman? “Aren’t you going to introduce yourself first?”

“Is that a required part of the ritual?”

“Usually.”

“I am Althea. You are Caleb.” She beamed at him and the suddenness of it gave him a curious
shock. “We are now introduced. May we proceed to your place?”

“Slow down and back up to complicated. Is sleeping with you going to get me shot?”

“Oh, no. I pose no danger to you at all.”

Caleb wondered why he wasn’t reassured. A complicated, sexy, obviously intelligent woman could
pose all kinds of dangers to his peaceful existence. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

To his surprise, the off-hand remark made her features still and her eyes widen, almost as if she were frightened. Then her face smoothed into calm. “No, but I thought I spoke your language well?”

“You do.” Just oddly. But he kept that observation to himself.

“We don’t have to talk.” She leaned forward and touched the corner of his mouth with the tip of
one finger. “I am sure you can think of other things we could do.”

Caleb gave in to temptation and nipped at the finger, lightly grazing the pad with the edge of
his teeth. “Many things.”

Her eyes darkened. “I would like to try them all.”