And The Winners Are...

Congratulations to Sandie and and Anna S. for winning print copies of Life in the Vrail Vol. 1 and Creations Vol. 2. Thanks to all who participated!

Winner Coming Soon...

Today is the last day to enter the contest to win a print copy of Life in the Vrail Volume 1 or Creations Vol. 2. (See details here.) I'll be announcing the winners later tonight, around 10:30 EST. Good Luck!

Circe's Recruits: Derrick IN PRINT!!

Circe's Recruits: Derrick is now available in print! I'm so excited! This is actually the third Circe's Recruits book, but the second print book of the series, since CR: Roane and CR: Zack & Ace came out in one volume. I've had several people ask about it, and here it is. Derrick in print. Hurray! Now there's just one more volume in the Circe's Recuits world left to see, Hale's story.

Contest Ends Friday, Reminder

REMINDER: The contest to win a print copy of Life in the Vrail Vol.1 or Creations Vol.2 ends Friday!

It's as simple as checking out my website for a few answers. Anyone can win, and two of you will. :)

For contest details, click here...


To read more about the books, click on the covers. Both are anthologies of futuristic romance.

Blogging at The Rainbow Studio

Today I'm guest blogging at The Rainbow Studio, The Romance Studio's GLBT blog. Come on over and have a listen while I discuss the appeal of what I like to call slash romance, that m/m/f trend.

The Rain on Monday is Mainly a Pain

It's a Monday morning. Cold and wet, and filled with idiotic people in cars with kids. You'll have to forgive me. I just returned home from dropping off my children, and the doofus parents driving their kids caused massive backups because they won't drop their kids off more than two feet from the front door. Normally everyone lines up and...

Sorry. It's a Monday, people are idiots, and I still haven't had my coffee--the real tragedy in all this.

The good news is that I have no distractions today. My husband has the Sirius, so no satellite radio. And the rain makes the thought of going outside less than pleasant. So nothing but me and Julian today. He's finally home again, and there are things he has to do. Bad guys to catch, teammates to fix, a mystery to solve.

Time to get back at it. Cheers, and happy Monday.

How I Spent My Saturday--OR--The Longest Walk EVER

I'm thirty-eight. My son is six. But after the longest walk in a park EVER, this is what we looked like when we came back.

I just wanted to take advantage of the nice day. My son has been coughing a lot, and I thought the fresh air, away from the house and the damned Wii, ni addition to the sixty-plus degree day, would be nice spent outside. Well, we had to stop so he could examine every rock, stick, and bug in existence. He needed to sit on every bench--and yes, there's a bench like every six feet. And God forbid we ignore the brown, sluggish river gurgling ever so close.

For an easy day spent walking, I nearly had a stroke forcing myself to relax and go at his pace. Two hours and three miles later, we finished our walk. Needless to say, I now know everything there is to know about his favorite color, toy, friends and activities. My little chatterbox likes to talk, so I did actually have a good time listening. But holy-moly, the kid drags his feet like nobody's business. Nice bonding, not so great exercise. But hey, I made a memory today. And hopefully, he'll remember us walking and laughing and (me) griping when he's older.

The February Newsletter is Here!

The February Newsletter is here. In it, there's a new contest and new excerpt offered, a never before seen glimpse of Hayashi's Hero, a Dawn Endeavor book, coming to Loose Id in May. Enjoy!

Patience: The Virtue I Lack

This is such the wrong profession for a person who isn't patient. You write a story, you submit it, and you wait. You get revisions, you resubmit, you wait. You do edits, you submit, you wait. There's more waiting in the writing world than anywhere else, I think. That's why most writers recommend that after you send out a project, you get right to work on another one. Because if you wait to hear back before writing again, you'll never get your work out there.

Right now, I'm waiting on one publisher to yea/nay a project. I turned it in but the Internet gobbled it up, so I had to resend it. So this wait is actually legitimate, to my way of thinking. Not the publisher's fault, and at least they had the courtesy to let authors know there was a problem. Kudos to them for that, as well as to their unusually quick turn-around time.

Another project is sitting with a publisher, with a wait time on a query (the letter that briefly describes the project at hand and a brief summary of the writer's qualifications), not the whole submission, but the query, mind you, to see if they are even interested, of 3 months. Then there will be more wait time if they are interested in the whole submission.

I'm also waiting on pins and needles on another project. The publisher has expressed interest, but they're having Internet problems. (This $#@!! Net!) So I think they want to offer a contract, but it's been weeks and I still haven't gotten what I need to cement a new publishing relationship. I even have all my other paperwork filled out. Yeah, lots of author info, payment stuff, etc that goes along with the contract. And I'm waiting...

Then there's the editor who takes a long time to get back to me on projects. Now, to me, anything longer than five minutes is a long time. But this editor used to get back to me within weeks, and now it's taking months to hear back on projects, which in turn puts my work out way later, since I'm behind other authors on the schedule.

And heck, if you submit to the New York publishing houses, most wait times range from four months to a year to hear back on a yes or no to send the whole manuscript! You're easily looking at a few years between submission to acceptance to publication. (Which is why I'm a huge electronic market proponent, because it doesn't take nearly as long to get published.)

Again, to the normal person, waiting is not usually a big deal. But I'm a "RIGHT NOW" kind of gal. In the military, it was, "Do it now. Get results, report back." Here, in the civilian/writing world, I have to readjust my way of thinking to, "Let it be and check back, again and again and again."

Talk about torture for an uptight writer! Then again, sometimes waiting is better than an immediate rejection. It allows for a period of hope, a positive feeling I need to keep up with the many rejections I've been given over the years. (Hell, who can account for bad taste? :)

So if anyone out there is seriously considering writing for a living, you need to not only have a thick skin and the tenacity of a bulldog, but you need patience. Lots and lots of patience. Sigh. I'm still waiting.

New Release: FALLON'S FLAME

FALLON'S FLAME releases today!
The first in a new Circ series called Dawn Endeavor.

Genetic manipulation has created the first super soldier, the Circ. Able to transform into hulking, inhuman beasts at will, the second generation of Circs, under Project Dawn Endeavor, is much more dangerous than the first. Psychically gifted, the secret four-man team who once worked for the Navy now belongs to the mysterious Mrs. Sharpe. Bent on cleaning up science gone wrong around the globe, Mrs. Sharpe sends the men of Dawn Endeavor out on behalf of the United States government. But there’s more to her agenda than patriotism. If only the team knew what she really had planned...

There are few minds Jesse Fallon can’t read. Mrs. Sharpe’s is one of them. Olivia Lynn’s, the team’s new interpreter on their latest mission, is another. The woman’s smart, sexy, and hell on his libido. Her lips say she refuses to become romantically involved with a ex-SEAL, but her body says something else entirely. Yet how can a Circ ever find satisfaction with a human, when only a Circ can ease his carnal needs? Except Olivia satisfies everything inside him and leaves him craving more. When the mission goes wrong, he’ll have to learn Olivia’s secrets in order to save her, and in turn, save himself. Because a Circ in love is a dangerous thing.

To read more, click here.

The Return

Maggie Valley, North Carolina, is a beautiful place to visit in the winter. And yes, it's cold. Leaving sunny Georgia for the mountains was an adventure all in itself. While in the mountains, we got a snowstorm. Boy, did we. But it made skiing and tubing that much more fun. My thighs and shins are still protesting from snowplowing to a stop. Still, the break was nice.

Now I'm back home. Back to dishes, laundry, and fur balls creeping along the floor. Back to TV, Wii, and a crazy schedule as we spend the last few days before school kicks back into gear.

I spent the last week in N.C., a mini-holiday before the rest of the family arrived. The blessed quiet and unrestricted time off was like a breath of fresh air. And now I'm back and raring to go.

Of note: I read A TON of books on my nook. I also watched a terrific new series courtesy of Netflix. (I don't have Starz.) I can't say enough about Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Is it kind of cheesy? Yes. Is there gratuitous violence and nudity? Yes. Full frontal nudity? Big grin. But beyond the sexuality, there's an addictive quality to the story, about a man turned warrior turned slave, who lives for one reason only--to get back to his beloved wife. You can't go wrong with that kind of commitment, can you?The lead actor is hot, so bonus there. Plus, Lucy Lawless is back in full glory, as the wife of the man who owns Spartacus. Great stuff, I tell you.

So between Spartacus, Law & Order: Criminal Intent reruns, and a plethora of Lora Leigh, Gena Showalter and Sabrina Jeffries novels, I'm pampered out.

Almost.

There's always room for chocolates from Valentine's Day. Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

Hiatus

I didn't realize I hadn't posted since the 4th. I'm currently on vacation in the mountains in N.C., and man, did we get a ton of snow today. I'll be back blogging next week, starting Sunday.

Cheers!

Marie

A Short Break

Ugh. Feeling under the weather today. But on the upside, I've run twice this week and finished two projects. I'm taking the rest of the day off. I'll work more on Julian's Jeopardy tomorrow. Heck, at this rate, I might not even cook tonight. I'm feeling very fast-foody. Who knows?

Work Done, Work To Do

I love this picture of Grover. He's either yelling because he's annoyed or because he's excited. Today, he's excited.

I finished Hayashi's Hero and sent it off to my editor. I also finished the revised Seriana Found and sent that off to my editor. Note to self: DO NOT attempt to work on two projects at once again.

In other news, I resent a submission to a new publishing house that I sent in December, because my manuscript floated away in cyberspace. &^%$#@@!! Internet. And I'm waiting on a*fingers crossed* contract from another publisher, which may or may not be the start of something big. Only time will tell.

Now to the dreaded synopsis... Okay, that's Grover yelling in annoyance now. I have managed to procrastinate work on a synopsis for a 90000 word long project. sigh. Someone save me. Please.

Reviews, and an Upcoming Interview

Reviews are funny things. From a writer's perspective, good ones make you feel good. Bad ones make you feel terrible. And the crazy ones make you wonder just how badly the reviewer was feeling before she read your book.

I follow some review sites, even choose books to purchase on the basis of a review (plus a look at the book's blurb.) In this day and age, with the cost of books being what they are, it pays for me to be choosy about where I spend my money.

Just Erotic Romance Reviews (JERR) is one group I belong to that gives pretty decent reviews. They don't hand out 4s and 5s to everything they read. They have been known to give 2s and 3s, and they don't come across as mean about why they don't like certain work. Now, I may not agree with everything they say, and I've read a few books the reviewers didn't like, yet I loved, but for the most part, I like JERR's opinions on books.

On Feb 7th, my interview with JERR will be posted, and I'm offering 3 books, 2 e-books, 1 print, to lucky winners of JERR's contest. If you're not a member of JERR, you might want to join. It's free, and they give a great perspective of romance you don't always get in RT Book Reviews, a print magazine that reviews romance. RT mandates that you buy advertising to get a review. JERR doesn't.

Anyway, just a heads up about next week. And if you're curious, take a look at JERR to see what you're missing. They have a readership of 6000 and growing.

An Overdue Update

I haven't blogged in a while, so I guess I'd better list some updates. I'm currently writing my tail off, working on the Dawn Endeavor series. Hayashi's Hero is done, and I'm gearing up for Julian's Jeopardy. I have to polish up Seriana Found for Total E-Bound, as well as a piece for Samhain. Lots to do this month and next.

Unfortunately, February is not only a short month, but my kids are out of school for five days due to some wacky winter holiday here. I guess Christmas and New Years didn't count! So I need to work around that.

Tax time is here, and then, hmm, I have to get ready for the Desert Rose conference in April I'm attending. Lots to do, not enough time in the day. Oh, and I've also indulged in a few entertainment pleasures to recharge my creative engine (read: I needed a break.)

I saw The Book of Eli over the weekend. I love Denzel Washington, and the movie had promise, but I wish I'd waited for DVD. I give it a B-/C+ for effort, but the story just had too many holes. Oh man, and I still need to review The Truth About Lord Stoneville. I'll have to get to that later this week.

Happy Monday!