Release Day!

Monday just became a day to look forward to...The Onyx Seeler is released on Amazon! I'll leave it at that...short and sweet.  Here's a brief blurb on the book:

One Djinn warrior, intent on saving a handful of innocents.  One evil leader of the damned, with a hefty God complex.  One will stop at nothing to save the world, the other will do everything to rule it…

 

The bottle…

Yanked from a five hundred year prison sentence to rescue a few unwitting pawns in the battle between two Djinn races, Manick of the Krave House has precious little time to reacquaint himself with his powers before chasing down—and saving—a mostly human target.  The problem?  She thinks he’s either a fake or a bottle-dwelling pansy.

 

Is only a myth.

What can she say?  Raised in the jaded world of Las Vegas with its seen-all, done-all nightlife, it takes a lot to sway Alaiya Lovely.  The guy claiming to be the djini who’ll rescue her from the troubling changes plaguing her life is either too good to be true…or a candidate for the loony bin.

 

Do you believe?

It’ll take more than a couple of encounters to convince Alaiya she needs to trust him, but Manick has never been accused of giving up on his duty.  Trailing the little minx through bars, strip clubs and brothels, his determination and success is bigger than her resistance.  But to attain the ultimate prize, he must leave his duty behind and sacrifice all he’s ever wanted.

The Final Countdown

Hallelujah, my release date for The Onyx Seeler is just around the corner on Monday, July 22nd, and my blood is pumping like a racehorse!  I'm so excited to be able to say that.  Tied closely to that is the launch of my brand spanking new website by week's end, and I can't contain the excitement.  Woohoo!!

I'd made a promise to myself last year that if my manuscript didn't go the full mile at Entangled Publishing, I would self pub.  So when, after a request for my full manuscript which prompted a request for a pretty massive revision, things didn't go the way I'd hoped, I buckled down and began to fulfill that promise I'd made...to me.

Enter Kim at Hot Damn Designs who I swear took up residence in my head to be able to pop out a cover which matched exactly what I'd envisioned!  Next came a fabulous gesture by my friend Naima Simone who gave me a cover quote, and my foot was over the indie pub line.

Incorporating all the things I'd researched and learned became more time-consuming than I'd first believed as every step started uncovered two more I needed to do before completing that one.  Sigh...  But perseverance is an attribute I'm more than familiar with and amidst majorly revamping the business side of things for my husband's sole proprietorship and planning my high school class reunion (I won't say how many years, so don't ask!), I tackled Kindle formatting, copyrighting, front matter, back matter, table of contents, blurbs (both about myself and my book), and other things I'm probably choosing to forget right about now.

Now here I sit, pumped up and ready for some action--in the digital sense, that is.  So if you've stumbled across my blog or website for the first time, or if you've known me forever and are just interested in seeing what's going on in my little slice of life, thanks for taking the time to read and I hope we share many, many more conversations together.

I'm about to get EXPOSED!

In a good way, though.


My good friend, Naima Simone, will be featuring me this coming Monday, June 7th on her blog as part of a new venture she's beginning.  What's the venture, you might wonder?  Well, it's simple.  As luck, talent, being in the company of the right people or being in the right place, would have it, she was published about 6 months ago.  My vote is for 'talent'.  All the way, baby!  

And while she's doing well (you should check out her books at Elorra's Cave) she's still close enough to where she started to remember us lowly, desperate, striving UNPUBLISHED authors.


A few weeks ago she approached me about beginning a series of interviews with those of us who are still working to get ourselves recognized--and she wanted ME, little ol' me, to be her first interviewee.  


I'm pumped!!!!


What would make this even better is if my friends who know me and would like to know more about my writing would stop by and say a great big hello.


I just might feel like a celebrity.  LOL


Hope to see you there on Monday!

When the Big Blues hit

And I'm not talking about my big blue hunky men. 'Cause, well, if they hit, I'd just hold on for the ride. *interject lascivious grin*

No, I'm talking about the 'will the publishing world ever notice ME?' blues. They hit nice and squarely into my chest this morning when I opened up the letter from RWA with my contest scores awaiting me inside.

I had five scores: 9...8.5...6...5.9 and 5.1

Now, why couldn't the last three be of the mindset of the first two, I ask? I know it's a subjective contest, but man, oh man! To have two judges score me so close to a 10 and three others put me in the 50-60th percentile just confuses me. And yes. It gets my feathers all ruffled, too. How else does a writer react when their novel, their baby, their fear-happiness-tears-joy-sorrow-another macandcheesenight all rolled into one, gets rejected? When we get told by the mark of a pen that what we've poured our heart and souls into isn't good enough, how do we handle it? Me? I just sat for a minute and let the hurt have its way with me.

Then I shored up my confidence and moved on.

Is the sadness still there? Yes. Will I be rejected, turned down, and/or ignored again? Certainly. But I haven't given up the fight yet! Nor do I plan to any time soon.

So who's the Fool?

As my office place is abuzz with those who live to trick our other unsuspecting coworkers--sanitizer on the phone mouthpiece, tape over the wireless mouse detector, flat tires, holes and mysterious brown spots that don't exist--I'm reminded of one particular April Fool's Day when the joker became the jokee.

ME.

Yes, me. Now, I'm not one to typically pull pranks. Imagination with writing aside, I'm a pretty straight-laced kinda gal. Accounting degree--check. OCD tendancies--check. Organizational skills beyond reproof--check in triplicate.

This particular year, though, as I innocently drove down Ambassador Caffery Parkway on my way to meet my parents and husband for breakfast at IHOP, I decided I was going to pull one over on my husband. He, who always (with good reason) was concerned we would have yet another child. With a 2 year old and a 10 month old, he had good reason to worry. We got pregnant if we looked at each other too long.

So back to the drive.

I'm on my way with said babies in tow. And thought..."Wouldn't it be funny to make my husband get a look of horror on his face by telling him 'WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY!'"

Yeah. Right. Toooooo funny.

So I do it. Or try to. As I sit down at the table, I fess up on my own, laughingly telling them all how I had planned to April Fool's them. But in the end, couldn't. Yet the joke ended up on me because not a week later, I find out I'm, oh, about 1 month pregnant. Wow.

Setback or Motivation?

So here it is. My first blog. Well, correction--MY first blog. As in, I've posted to blogs before ('cause really, who hasn't??) but have never created my own. The topic, you ask?

Hot, super yummy djinis I write about, of course! Sprinkled in with excerpts of my manuscripts and the PAAAAAAINFUL journey called Getting Published. On that last note...

I entered the Golden Heart contest put on by RWA (the Romance Writers of America) this past November. A contest put on by a writing organization and judged by its entrants. And guess what? Yep. I didn't final.

So I'm chatting it up with my CP's and bemoaning my writing career in all its unlaunched glory, ready to throw in that typing towel-if only for half a day-when, as expected, they talk me back from the ledge. Thanks girls!! Mwah! and Smooch!<--these are my cyber kisses.

Now it's onward-ho! Today is a new day, work has to be tended to, kids need to be cared for, husband needs to be loved, and pages need to be written. I WILL persevere, I WILL succeed, and I WILL keep on writing.