Christmas 2013...A Success! Also Writing Updates...

Happy Monday All,

I hope everyone had a wonderful and very Merry Christmas! We sure did.

Christmas Eve we attended church and then came back and relaxed a while before friends of ours came over for a brief visit. 

On Christmas Day, we slept in, (yes, Offspring does sleep in from time to time--which is lovely, especially when didn't have to get up

early!) We got up, Offspring and I ate breakfast, then we opened gifts (Husband opted to wait until after gifts to eat breakfast because he was going to have oatmeal and he said that took him a while to eat, and Offspring was going crazy wanting to open gifts LOL).

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing. Offspring and husband played in the backyard--I went out there for a while. I spent most of the day reading one of my new books, Katie McGarry's Crash Into You (She writes contemporary/romantic YA novels. I've enjoyed everything she's published so far).

Husband had to work the next day. I was supposed to be writing, but last week was a bust--I was pretty distracted (gee, I wonder why! New presents, and brain not focusing). I finished another book I got for Christmas last week--Jessica Day George's Princess Of The Silver Woods (I've read her other princess novels in that series and I really enjoyed it).

I got a bunch of new novels on one of my E-readers (we now how two) using a gift card I got from one of my friends. I read one of the short stories I got--Lisa Scott's Say My Name, which is a play on the Rumpelstiltskin story. 

Now I'm needing to read Rick Riordan's House Of Hades, then get moving on some of the other books I got on my E-reader until the

next round of library books come through here. (Yes, I both buy books and get books from the library--some books I own are books I first read from the library and liked so much I wanted my own copy). 

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of all the awesome gifts I got, but I'll go ahead and list them:

1.  Several new books (as I said, gift card from one of my best friends).
2.  A blender from Husband and Offspring (to make smoothies)
3.  A board game called Damn You Autocorrect from one of my other best friends. I laughed when I saw the title. Looks like fun!
4.  Two pretty t-shirts from my parents
5.  Lounge socks, slippers, lip gloss, and a sample of lotion from my "lil sis" 
6.  10 Things I Hate About You anniversary edition DVD from one of my sisters (a sibling of mine has a program that takes me and my siblings, and our spouses' names and pairs us up with someone for Christmas)
7.  Perhaps Love Jonathan & Charlotte album from one of my sisters
8.  Kindle Fire for my family from my parents

I'm pretty happy with what I got. I really like that movie, 10 Things I Hate About You...husband and I both like it, actually. I'm looking forward to seeing the special features on it, too. It's also a movie my deceased friend, Sarah and I enjoyed.

Writing news?  I do actually have some. I may not have worked as hard last week on the writing as I intended, but I have made progress on TWO novels I'm working on:

*Book 2 of the Third Realm novels (Loralyn from All's Fair In Love & Lion story) has a few pages written (I still need to do a lot more work on that one).

*Book 2 of my New Adult (NA) Paranormal Romance has made some progress (and has some plot points for me to use for the rest of the novel--yay!)

I don't know when I'll have these two novels, done, but I'm glad they're moving forward.  There's been a few people who have asked about a book coming after All's Fair In Love & Lion--be patient, I do have plans for at least one. Right now, the New Adult series has taken a lot of my attention. When I have more news on that and other novels I'm working on, I'll let you know. :-)

So...

How was your Christmas? Do you have a favorite gift? If so, what is it?

If I don't get to posting before January 1st, Happy & Blessed New Year to you and yours.

Have A Marvelously Magical Day!

NEW RELEASES ALERT!!!

Happy Monday Everybody,

PLEASE NOTE:  In the margin of this blog I've supplied a post regarding the problems some people have been with trying to comment on this blog. I'm going to be implementing a new thing for posting comments on here to see if that cuts down on some of the problems. The post in the margin has information on what to do if, for some reason, Blogger won't let you comment.

Whew! There are new releases popping out all over the place...

Not too long ago, Rick Riordan put out book 2 in his Heroes Of Olympus series, Son Of Neptune (which I gotta pick up, soon!)

Apparently Vanish by Sophie Jordan (book 2 in her dragon series) has come out (yet another one I need to get my hands on--I loved Firelight). (It came out in September).

Tess St. John's second Romantic Suspense, Eyes Of Jade is now available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook for your reading pleasure! (Interesting trivia for y'all:  I critiqued the first 3 chapters of this one...and I fell in love with it! I've been begging to read more for awhile now and it's FINALLY out!) Be sure to visit her site, and see the cover for her upcoming release, Angel Eyes. Very cool!

*EDIT 10/10/2011 at 11:12 a.m. (Central Time):  I forgot to mention that Tess St. John is offering on Kindle and Nook for a LIMITED TIME ONLY her previously released Romantic Suspense, Don't Let It Show for 99 cents! So don't miss out on this sale...she said it's a limited time only and I don't know how long that means.

Tomorrow C.C. Hunter releases her second Shadow Falls book, Awake At Dawn.

Folks, these are books that will take you on an adventure...they're certainly not to be missed!

On a side note, I've purchased a paperback copy of Syrie James' Nocturne. I just loved that book so much. I even was asked by Syrie to write a blog review of the book, which I did a few days ago and you can read here.

What books are you reading right now?

Have A Monumental Monday!