It's That Time Again...

Happy Wednesday Everybody!

I'm one tired chica. For the last 4 nights either dizziness (due to allergies) or Youngest Offspring has made sure I don't get a full-night's sleep. In fact, I don't think I've slept from 11 p.m. to 8 or 9 a.m. in over a year. I imagine it's part and parcel of the whole Mommy-gig. But since I know things could be much worse, I suppose I should thank the Lord this is all I'm up against in terms of being a mom at the moment.

The NWHRWA has opened up registration for the annual Fall Conference--the Lone Star Writer's Conference, which is happening Saturday, October 1st. This conference is open to ALL writers, NOT just Romance novelist. So you Thriller, Suspense, Horror, and such, you can come, too. YA and NA writers, you come, too. It's open to ALL writers.

The fabulous NY Times Best Seller, Kerrelyn Sparks, will be

Me, KERRELYN SPARKS, and author Christie Craig

talking about world building and all of that fun stuff. We have another speaker for the afternoon--someone I've never heard before, but she sounds great, too. Her name is Jennifer Fusco, and she'll be speaking on promotion.

More details can be found on the website, which if you click right here, it'll take you straight to the information on the conference.

Trust me, you do NOT want to miss. We have a lot of fun. There are raffle baskets (great stuff are in those, believe me--I plan on bringing at least one for the raffle, so don't you want to come and see what I'm giving away?) I have to double-check, but I believe lunch is included, and we usually have something out for breakfast. This is southern hospitality, folks, and we don't skimp on the welcoming.

As of the writing of this blog post, they're waiting on the reservation code for hotel rooms, but I'm told that will be available soon. We especially encourage any Lone Star Writer's Contest finalists to come because we do a whole announcement for that.

I've already turned in my registration...have you?

Have A Wonderfully Whimsical Wednesday!

A Bit Of This And That...

Happy Wednesday All,

It's late in the afternoon when I'm writing this, but oh well. I've gotten the mock up cover art for Book Two of my Immortal Dreams Trilogy and love it. It's not totally finalized (I asked about something so I'm waiting to hear back on that) but I'm happy with the direction and everything. I don't know when I'll do a cover reveal for Book Two since it's not scheduled to come out until Fall of 2014. 

Fountain in Frankenmuth, Michigan

We have been soggy in my neck of the woods. Rain for almost 3 days straight. Monday poured, Tuesday poured and rained on and off, and then early morning today it was raining hard. There was quite a lot of thunder and lightning, but at least it wasn't like Tuesday morning when we thought we were going to be dealing with a tornado (the wind sounded a lot like it was trying to form one, thank goodness it didn't happen--I certainly said a prayer of thanks to God on that one!) Now no rain, and trying to be sunny. Husband said it was very humid. Ah, Texas Summers...how I know them well!

Also, I've done some updates to the Books portion of my website, so if you click here, you can check it out. 

June 8th is the final day to enter NWHRWA's Lone Star Contest. It's a chance to get your work in front of professionals' eyes. It's also a chance to get feedback. You can check out the rules by clicking here.

I'm excited over author Katie McGarry's newest release, Take Me On. I haven't gotten it, yet, but I plan to.


What 2014 releases are you looking forward to? 

Have A Wonderfully Whimsical Wednesday!

Learning Unforgettable Writing Techniques...

Happy Tuesday All,

I promise, I didn't do it on purpose. Really.

The NWHRWA Lone Star Conference came around and I...

Forgot my camera!

However, I did, in fact, go, and there are a ton of witnesses who will attest to the fact I was there. For all I know, RM Brand might have gotten a photo of me during the time I was down in the

Conference room helping them set up before it started. 


Donald Maass was unable at the last minute to come. His family had an emergency, so he had to back out. However, he was nice enough to do his best to help us get someone. In the end, James Scott Bell, who came last year, rescued us and returned with a brand-new topic. (I give Raven Raye, our 1st V.P. a lot of credit for dealing with this unforeseen situation, she worked so hard and deserves a standing ovation).

Friday night, I attended (by invitation) the Meet & Greet. I got to sit down and chat with agent Kevan Lyon, who is authors Jennifer L. Armentrout and Katie McGarry's agent. We had a delightful conversation, and I learned some awesome things about Armentrout's New Adult books. Ms. Lyon also spoke very excitedly about a McGarry novel (not yet available--and a title she didn't divulge), so that was fun.

Saturday dawned bright and early (especially since at first I woke up at 4 a.m. and went back to sleep, then woke at 6:15 a.m. when my alarm went off). I got ready, and headed downstairs. Since I was so early, the conference room wasn't completely set up, so I helped the 1st Vice President of my chapter set up.

The coffee service finally arrived, and we all made a beeline for that (some chose tea). People began trickling in, registering, and getting their name tags. 

NWHRWA current President, Susan Muller (author of The Secrets of Forest Bend, and The Witch On Twisted Oak), welcomed everybody, and then 1st Vice President, Raven Raye (author of Broken Prophecy) introduced keynote speaker James Scott Bell who started us off by announcing that he thought he'd figured out the greatest secret to writing unforgettable fiction. However, we had to wait until the end of the conference to find out what that was.


Meanwhile, I headed out about an hour later to where I was going to go help time pitch sessions for Harlequin Editor, Rachel Burkot. Ms. Burkot was extremely gracious, and I enjoyed talking to her about the industry, and her role at Harlequin. 

During lunch, 2nd Vice President, Jaye Garland (author of The 25th Hour) announced the final placement of the Lone Star Contest winners. Excerpts of the 1st place winners were read (so many good ones, by the way). She gave a great presentation. A couple of the winners were there, so it was nice to get to say hello to them, and also congratulate them.

After lunch, I went ahead and sat in to hear the rest of the Conference. Mr. Bell was going through the movie, The Fugitive to describe different ways of drawing out tension, and livening up your novels (whether your write Romance, Thrillers, or other genre).  It was very interesting, and a great way to illustrate his points.

At the end of the Conference Mr. Bell gave us the secret to the greatest secret of writing unforgettable fiction. Which, I can't share. You'll just have to attend James Scott Bell's Don't Let 'Em Put The Book Down workshop for yourself to find out. 

I'm sad Conference time is over, but feeling blessed I got to go. If you're a writer, please do consider coming down next year. Our Lone Star Conference is generally held in October.

Have A Terrifically Thrilling Tuesday!

MIA? Nah, Just BUSY!

Happy Memorial Day / Monday Everybody,

Again I find myself apologizing for the silence on this blog. I really have been super busy.

This past week was the last week of school for offspring, so I had that going on, as well as getting back to full speed after having a virus AND infection the week before.

Now of course, you'll have to pardon more silence on my part as I prep this week for some family events I have coming up next week! I'm hoping after June 9th to be able to keep up better with the blog and every other "every day" thing I do. Life has been incredibly busy (some good ways, and some ways I could do without; i.e. virus/infection), but I have not forgotten my loyal readers! Not at all.

The Lone Star Contest is coming to the deadline for entries (deadline is June 9, 2012). Please check it out and get your entry in. The prizes are really great, and an opportunity to come out to our annual conference is NOT to be missed (believe me, this is my 4th year going to the Conference and I can attest that the other 3 years were AWESOME!)

I've been working on one of my WIP manuscripts (Work In Progress) and there's some tweaking and stuff to do, of course, as well as finishing the manuscript. I like the story; although, Surreal still occupies a particularly special place in my heart. I'm going to have to learn some Blogger stuff so I can create an area for my characters so you can get to know them better--that's one of my goals is to have that up at some point (don't know when, though).

I'm also going to be working on setting up more author interviews. I haven't been doing that because there's been so many other things demanding my attention, but I have a few ideas of people I'd like to ask.

Dreamless by Josephine Angelini comes out tomorrow and I've already ordered my copy which is supposed to ship tomorrow YAY!

I hope all is well on your end and you're having a happy and safe holiday.

I will try to post again before June 9th, but if I don't get to, look for me the Monday after!

Have A Marvelous Monday!

You-Whooo, Writers!

Happy Thursday All,

So sorry I've been away--there's been a lot going on over here, so I've been very busy. Allergies are a little better--thank you to everyone for your good thoughts/wishes/prayers.

The other day I mentioned my RWA (Romance Writers' of America) chapter, the Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America is having its annual Lone Star Contest for writers. There are several categories to enter, everybody. There's great prizes available and an opportunity to get your work in front of editors and agents.

One year I was a coordinator for one of the categories and I saw some really talented writers come through. This is a chance to show people what you're doing with your work. It's fairly easy to enter, and it's not real expensive either.

Please go to the contest web page and check out further details. The category chairs (coordinators) are all really nice people and the person who heads it up is so helpful.

Have A Thrilling Thursday!

Rain, Comments, Contest & Books

Happy Monday All,

It's rainy, wet, and thundering around here--not cool and very gloomy out, which isn't really conducive to feeling awake and peppy, but I'm going to try anyway. I've got my coffee, so that should help quite a bit.

I don't know about you all, but I'm sick of allergies. I've got them and my offspring has them and either way you look at it, it's just annoying, right? Well, the upside is, I'm feeling a bit better and I got some rest yesterday, so hopefully I'm mending the rest of the way.

There's a couple of things I wanted to address...first off:

I've been getting some questions lately about posts not showing up. Let me explain:  comments are, in fact, showing up...the thing is, every single comment goes through moderation. That is, they show up in my administrative files on Blogger. When I sign in, I see them, and press the "Publish" button and then the comment shows up in the comment section of the blog post. Unfortunately, I haven't sat down and addressed this in an official blog post, but there is a little note at the top of the space where you type in your comment. I apologize for the inconvenience, but this has cut down on commenting issues (why, I have no idea) and it has also given me an opportunity to make sure there aren't duplicated posts. Sometimes it takes me awhile to sign in and see your comment and get it posted onto the blog--that does NOT mean that it's not there, it just means yours truly hasn't signed in to get it. If you don't see your comment up within 24 hours, please, send me an email and I'll check and see if it got caught in moderation or if Blogger decided to have a glitch. Thank you for your patience.

Guess what! The Northwest Houston Romance Writers of America has opened up its annual Lone Star Contest for writers! (This is a chapter of RWA I'm a member of) There's some great prizes this year, so be sure to go check it out. Deadline for entries for the Lone Star Contest is midnight June 9, 2012. Please click on the link above for further information.

I got to go to C.C. Hunter's book signing at Katy Budget Books on Saturday. I also met author Joy Preble. I purchased the first book in Ms. Preble's series, it's called Dreaming Anastasia. So far, so good!

What's going in your world?

Have A Marvelous Monday!