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 Monday! Can you believe that next week is Christmas? I thought it would take longer to get here. I finished my Christmas shopping last week. Have you finished? The Averie Household has been slow about getting the tree up this year. The evening of December 13th, my Real Life Hero brought the box in. Slower than what we usually do, but things have been a bit crazy the last couple of weeks. Despite being slow about the tree, we've been anticipating Christmas. The Offspring are excited and we've been to one Christmas party and Real Life Hero has one coming up at his work. In the car we've been playing Christmas music, which has been fun. Working on some more projects under my Jeannie Averie pseudonym, but I'm thinking up things for the last two books in the Immortal Dreams series. Averie Cat had his yearly check up and he's in good health. Got his shot he needed and we're now all set. He didn't enjoy the whole thing, but at least he's health...

Happy Wednesday All, Whew. I'm tired, are you? For one thing, Texas is back to yucky weather. Luckily it's not supposed to be as bad as a week ago, but it certainly wasn't fun to be woken at 4:30 a.m. with a Tornado Warning. Now, I appreciate the National Weather Service (NWS) doing its best to keep people safe. In fact, I'm grateful, and I respect what they're doing. Honestly, I do. What I don't like is the fact that after being woken at 4:30 a.m. (when I finally was able to sleep after dealing with Youngest waking up every 1-2 hours because Youngest is going through a rough patch right now--something all people go through and it's not dangerous, just hard) is that I couldn't go back to sleep for the longest time! I finally conked out around 6ish, I think. Only to wake up again around 6:30 or so. Then I went back to sleep until Youngest decided that at 7:27 a.m. sleep was a rotten idea, and it was time to get up (this was after Youngest had been ...

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,...

Happy Wednesday Everyone, Wow, what it is about Wednesday that the last post and this one are both on a Wednesday? I promise, I didn't plan it that way. Today is an incredible day. Not only did a cold front finally deign to pass through the area, thus making it more January weather, rather than say...APRIL weather around here (YAY) it's also the release of my chapter mate and friend's contemporary Romance novel, Inked By An Angel . Currently I've only found it available through Soul Mate Publishing's website , but I'm sure Amazon and Barnes & Noble will have it up eventually. It's in e-book form. The good news is, if you don't have an e-reader there's apps available for computer and phones both on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for your reading pleasure. ***UPDATE 1/30/2013 12:03 p.m. CENTRAL TIME****:  It's gone "live" on Amazon Kindle  I'm keeping an eye on Barnes & Noble. It's currently not available through B...

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 ...

Happy Monday All, So school is back in session, the weather hasn't exactly changed--well depending on where you live. On the East Coast they're cleaning up after Hurricane Irene and down here we're still  wallowing in dry, very hot conditions. Over the weekend it hit 109 degrees. If you ever wondered what that feels like...come down to Texas. (Although, God willing, it'll cool down this Fall and Winter--that's the prayers and hopes of pretty much everyone I've talked to). In spite of the heat, I'm managing to plug along. I finished reading Karsten Knight's Wildefire and interesting YA novel. I'm prepping for another official book review (probably posting in October) while working on some edits.  Things are still pretty busy on my end, so I'll probably be in and out, but like I said before...I'm not gone. Something to do while you're waiting on me to be less busy:  pick up a copy of Christie Craig's Don't Mess With Texas ...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Congratulations to Jessica, winner of Monday's Christie Craig book review drawing ! Today is release day for Christie Craig's Don't Mess With Texas so everyone make sure you get your copy! This is one that will definitely make you laugh at out loud. She's an awesome person and incredibly witty--both in her books and in person. There's chances to meet her in person-- check this blog post to see when and where. Since we're nearing the end of August the time to submit your registration for the Lone Star Confer ence is getting shorter--that is because the conference is on October 15, 2011. I'm mailing in my registration this week. Writers get out there...it's worth your weight in gold to network, get support, and party with me (conference day just happens to be my birthday!) Okay those of you with rain...care to share with Texas? We're in a drought and while I don't want a hurricane, we could sure use some rain to ...

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Fun little tidbit just because... One of my sisters got me into this:  If you like to have cream in your coffee, substitute with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. YUM. (I generally have creamer, but if I'm having decaf after dinner I sometimes go ahead and have a scoop of vanilla ice cream). Anyway... Are you as excited about the Fall and Winter months as I am? I know, I know...I keep talking about it. I can't help it. It's been such a hot summer that I can't wait to pull out my sweaters and pants. My cloak (or cape, whatever you choose to call it) is waiting in our hall closet for the weather to get cold. My sweaters and long-sleeved shirts are sitting in the back of my closet just waiting for me. Plus there are so many releases happening in the Fall! C.C. Hunter's Awake At Dawn , Rick Riordan's The Son Of Neptune , Kerrelyn Sparks' Sexiest Vampire Alive ...(and I'm sure several other releases that I'm gonna kick myself la...

Happy Monday All, Also, HAPPY AUGUST! We're now getting closer to the Fall and students going back to school and (hopefully soon) cooler weather. Texas has been hot, but it generally is in the Summer. Fall and Winter are my favorite seasons because I love cooler weather and I'm a huge fan of Christmas. I can't wait to put up Christmas lights. Okay, so I'm a little early on the anticipation, but all these  commercials  for back-to-school items have brought out thoughts of the latter (and cooler) months as well as the holidays that go with them. This past weekend I was doing some house cleaning (believe me, my house needs it). My dust allergies are acting up, but so far I've managed to avoid being laid up in bed with them, which is good. There's some book reporting I need to do, so, without further ado... Author A.S. Fenichel has an erotic Romance out through publisher Ellora's Cave called Mayan Afterglow . Good news! You can pre-order C.C. Hunte...

Happy Monday All (Happy Labor Day), Fall and winter are my favorite seasons. If you live in places where it gets past 90 degrees in the summer, you understand. I live in Texas, and it gets hot, hot, hot in the summer (plus you know, there's the humidity factor). So, on Saturday evening when my husband, son, and I headed toward the entrance/exit of the mall near us and a breeze kicked up and I could smell the way the air smells in the Fall, you won't blame me if I got excited. Seriously, it really did smell like Fall. There was that leafy, woodsy, cooler weather scent that always gives me a thrill. Plus there was a cool breeze ! Not something you normally get in Texas in the summer. Then I went to Bath & Body Works to get some more hand soap and my favorite body wash. After getting the body wash I went to the back of the store to where they had their hand soaps...and lo and behold, they had out their fall scents! There they were...lined up just waiting to b...

Afternoon All, Okay, it's not snowing A LOT and definitely not what they get out in the colder places of the world, but it's still snowing. Yes, I went out in it with my son and even took some pictures (gotta find the attachment so I can upload them onto my computer). My son wasn't real excited about it, actually. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it (it doesn't snow much here, which I'm glad about. I can only put up with snow for a little while before it gets to be an "old story"). But anyway...do you have snow in your stories? I do in at least one of mine (a Christmas story). However, that's a side project and not something I'm focusing on. I don't do snow much even in my stories. I guess it just doesn't occur to me. What about you? What type of weather do you find you most write in your stories? (I generally have sunshine or rain). Have A Fabulous Friday! (And an awesome weekend, too!)