Happy April Everyone! April has sprung or arrived or hopped in (whatever image suits you). The leaves are returning to our trees and I've seen some flowers around in different places. How about you? My Easter was very nice. We went to Mass (Catholic Christian liturgy). I really like the joy involved. It was beautiful. In the evening, we went over to one of my sister's house and had dinner with her and her family, my parents, and one of my aunts who had come into town. It was fun. My father made apple pie (one of his specialties) and my sister cooked (delicious).  Updates? I think I've mentioned this before...I've been working on a Christmassy-mythology inspired type of novel. It's a YA Fantasy (of course...because I like to incorporate fun type of magic in my work). It's going pretty well. I'm getting closer and closer to the end of writing the manuscript and then I can move into edits. It's mostly whimsical and light, with some serious moments. I'...

  Happy Friday! It's April, if you can believe...or even if you can't believe it. Sometimes to me it seems like the year goes slowly and other times it seems fast. Real life has been taking up some of my attention lately, so I forgot to get a post ready ahead of time. Now we're approaching Easter (well, at least it's a little over a week away, but still it's almost here). I've got a story out on query with agents and we'll see how that goes. I participated in the recent Mood Pitch on Twitter and that was an interesting experience. As part of the pitches, participants could share Mood Boards (for those who don't know what a Mood Board is, they're images/words that express either the mood or something about a story--or whatever the person who creates the Mood Board wants to express). It was kind of cool to see pictures with pitches. The Author Encounter keeps moving along. We're having a quieter year due to real life (not bad, just busy). But we...

Happy Friday All, As those of us who are Christians remember Jesus's death on the cross today, and then on Sunday celebrate His resurrection, a thought occurred to me. I'm a self-described eccentric. At least, some people have thought of me as that way, and to be honest, I like being quirky. Sometimes you gotta have a bit of quirkiness to keep your spirits up. To that end, I believe in trying to spread smiles and sparkles wherever one goes. What do I mean? Well, it's rather simple, really. Either you know someone who is this way, or you're this way yourself, but they can't seem to find anything positive, like, hardly ever. They tell you all the things wrong or they're having a horrible day. You try to point out something positive, even something small, and they find a way to make it negative. I've met people who are this cynical. I don't know if they're aware of it. For me, their cynicism and negativity drags me down. I'm not the sort of pe...

Happy Wednesday Everybody, Wow...I have been really neglecting the blog! Last post was in February about Nationals. I'm all signed up and everything to go there. I'm looking forward to it. I've never gone to the National conference, even though I've been a member since about 2009. I got my first round publisher edits for Perfect Love , the next book in my Immortal Dreams series. For the readers who have been asking, yes, this is Hailey's story. Hailey and Arion's story, I should say. You meet Arion very briefly in Astral Love , but he'll be more prominent in this one. Will there be more books after Perfect Love ? I don't know, you'll have to wait and see. However...there is a little surprise for my readers after the end of Perfect Love . I won't tell you what (because it's a surprise). The f irst round publisher edits got turned in on Sunday (April 9th) which was later than I intended, but at least they're turned in. I'm still w...

Happy Tuesday Everybody, Did you all have a nice Easter? We did. Holy Saturday we got to see one of my sisters and her family. That was a lot of fun. We also went over to a friends' house to visit. On Easter we went to Mass, and my father-in-law came over in the afternoon. So not bad. I did find out a piece of sad news. Mother Angelica (the nun who started EWTN --Eternal Word Television Network--a Catholic TV station) passed on Easter Sunday. Mother Angelica was humble, straight forward, and humorous. She will be missed. Rest in peace, Mother Angelica! Now, for a piece of fun news... Author Katie McGarry has a brand-new release out today! I've received  Walk The Edge and I'm interested to see what Razor's story is like. This is the 2nd in her Thunder Road series, the first one was Nowhere But Here . It's been a lot of fun for me to watch Katie's career grow and flourish. I met Katie before Pushing The Limits was published. She had ente...

Happy Monday All, Happy Easter to all who celebrate Easter! Hope your Easter weekend was lovely, peaceful, and fun. The Averie Household keeps busy during Easter, Mass, family, etc. I've covered this topic before, but now I have another perspective on it...the question of "how do you do it?" People look at me with my Offspring--those demands, wife, home, writing, etc. The truth is--and everyone will be so disappointed--I don't. Some days I just do one thing. Some days, I run around feeling like if I could just clone myself everything would get done. Sometimes I'm lucky if I remember my name (it's "Mom" or "AAAHHH", right?) The fact is, this is my life. This is the life I've been given and chosen. I don't expect anyone to do it for me, and I don't expect people to know how I do it. I don't know how I do it. I just do whatever I do for each individual day. Some days it means Real Life Hero (my husband) takes the Offspr...

Happy Tuesday All, Before I get to C.C. Hunter's guest post (as noted in the title of this post) I hope you all had a great Easter. I apologize for so much silence. Last week I took most of Holy Week off and had a friend visiting, and Monday I had some thing else going on, so I was unable to post on here. I have the wonderful and talented C.C. Hunter as guest today, describing 13 things she learned from TAKEN AT DUSK , which is available today (Tuesday, April 10, 2012) from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstores. So, take it away, C.C.! Thirteen Things Learned From TAKEN AT DUSK by C.C. Hunter 1. The only thing worse than trying to help a woman with amnesia remember her name and life is trying to help a dead woman with amnesia remember hers. 2. Be careful what you wish for—you might just get it . . . and the reality will probably not be anything like the fantasy. 3. The person you think is your enemy could just turn into a friend who'll do anything to...

Happy Wednesday All, I apologize for all the silence. I've had a lot going on lately, and with it being Holy Week, I'm taking some time to reflect and prepare myself for the Easter celebration. For that reason, I will NOT be putting up a post on Friday since it's Good Friday. However, I have a special post for today... It’s almost here! C.C. Hunter’s release of her 3rd Shadowfalls book, Taken At Dusk , will arrive on shelves on April 10, 2012. In the meantime, here’s a glimpse into the exciting next installment of Kylie Galen’s adventures: When Awake At Dawn closed, Kylie was about to meet her grandparents. Yet, what should’ve been a happy reuinon, turns into a bigger mystery than before. Especially when they leave Shadowfalls and just go poof! If that's not enough strangeness, Kylie starts seeing weird evil-looking animals coming after her. Burnett and the others start wondering if there’s some kind of shapeshifter at work. It’s got to be Mario, but ...