Winner Winner

I have a winner for my blog/publicity contest, Rodney Johnson will be receiving:

A blank notebook, pen, and keychain featuring the cover for Steamlust, a copy of Dreamlover, the previous collection edited by Kristina Wright, and a half pound of coffee from Bean There cafe.

Thanks for everyone who entered!

Thanking Buddha

Social networking is interesting, isn't it?

One of the things I love about social networks is the ability to meet people that I might not normally talk to; for instance, I'm not a fan of green things (plants, you know) but one of my favorite blogs is written by a man who reviews people's lawns and gardens. I don't know half of what he talks about, but his style, my friend, is what's important. He's brilliantly funny.

I don't always, however, remember how I met someone.

Talking with my lovely editor - who is just lovely, have I said that? I had the hardest time not touching her hair while we were talking - recently, we were discussing how we had met.

I didn't even know this story, so it was pretty fun.

We frequent the same coffee shop, the Bean There. Last year, it was located just up the street from me. Then it moved. Tragedy! Have I mentioned I loathe downtown Norfolk? Well, I do. (It's slightly less loathsome now that I know my way around better.) But while they were in the process of moving, I was sans coffee for three months.

Do not get between a writer and her coffee.

Amy, the owner, and I had these drug-trade meetings in parking lots. I would hand her an envelope containing cash or a check, and she would hand me a cloth bag containing a pound or two of her custom blended and roasted coffee beans.

Apparently at some point I commented on this exchange on the Bean There's facebook page.

Kristina, my editor, was looking on the page to see when the shop would be re-opening and saw the comment. She clicked on my link.

Kristina is/was doing some "connecting" through her Buddhism enlightenment - forgive me if I get this wrong, I don't really know much about Buddhism - and was entertained to learn that we were born very close together. Her birthday is exactly a week after mine, although she's almost exactly five years older than I am. Further prodding on my Facebook page and she discovered that my husband and her husband have EXACTLY the same birthday.

She decided to write me an email to see if I would mind taking a Facebook friends request from a perfect stranger.

I didn't mind. I like meeting new people.

A few weeks later, she put a call out for a place to do a book reading/signing. I suggested the Bean There. It was a raging success!

Kismet Happens.

Cloud 58

[As a reminder, there's only two more days to sign up for the promotional contest! Either Follow this blog --> use the little button on the right there, I don't write so much here that your RSS feed will be overwhelmed! OR sign up to fan my Facebook page or Tweet about the contest (@tisfan so i can see it! OR write a brief blog post directing people to this site... and tell me about it in the comments. Winners will get some cute promotional materials, coffee, and a copy of Dreamlover.]

Right, moving along.

I had a great coffee-chat with my editor yesterday. She was astonished to learn that Golden Moment is my first publication. Apparently my copy was so clean that there were a couple of comma changes and ONE word that she wasn't entirely thrilled with, but decided not to bother me with those minor edits. So, on the plus, it means I do a fairly good job of self-policing, and that my beta readers and editor-suggesters are awesome. I'd thank them publicly, but one of them would rather NOT be thanked (I understand this person's privacy concerns) and I don't want to give the other one over-credit. But, thanks y'all. You know who you are!

I got the scoop on an upcoming CFS (Call for Submission)... so I'll have to do some thinking about that.

She was also exceptionally pushy about my submitting my novel; Marked Man has been sitting in the trunk for a while. So, I'll schedule in edits for that, and start trying to move it.

We talked about books we've read, other writers we admire, our first pieces of erotic fiction (mine was Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, by Anne Rice) and kids. There's something incredibly bonding about discussing kids with another woman that I rarely get to experience. Most of my women friends either don't have children, or, in the case of my best lady friend, I already had a fairly close bond with before we spawned.

It's one thing; much as I love my beta readers, to have friends rave about your work. Not that I don't think they'd tell me something was crap if it was - in fact, one of my readers didn't actually like Golden Moments all that much. But I always wonder... how much praise comes from a fondness for the person behind the keyboard? It's something totally different to have a relative stranger, one who is herself an award-winning writer, give praise.

Apparently I was so high on life yesterday that my husband wouldn't let me drive home (I went to pick him up from work... him and three ENORMOUS zucchinis that he got from his co-worker... seriously, these are some scary gourds!) for fear that I'd run us right into a telephone pole.

Other People's Contest's

My friend, Liz, is hosting a lovely book contest for her new release...

So go check it out if you want to win some fun prizes from one of the best writers I personally know (and that actually means something these days, since I've met rather a good number of writers!)

Shilling

The scene, early morning.

Eight o'clock classes hadn't yet started, and those students unfortunate enough to have them were just starting to crawl out of bed and get their daily routines started.

The Marketplace was sparsely populated at this time of day. Mostly a few stragglers came in, grabbed their caffeinated beverage of choice, and headed off to class. A few, for whom breakfast was a critical part of their day, stayed, lingering over toast and eggs.

A girl with long, straight hair and clear, grey eyes, sits in the center of the room. She is by herself, her tray neglected. A book is propped upright, leaning precariously against a paper bowl half full of milk-soggy cereal. She is quite obviously not in the mood for company, nor noticing the lack.

Didn't matter.

The other girl arrived in the cafeteria. She had badly dyed black hair and wore an almost obnoxious shade of cranberry red lipstick that didn't suit her. Her tray was dotted with her choice repast - bagel and annoying small envelop of cream-cheese, large Mountain Dew, and plate full of strawberries - was bored. And wanted company more than she wanted to appear polite. Instead of looking aside and seating herself at another table, eating breakfast alone for the third time that week, the seventh week in a row - astonishing how constant her lack of breakfast conversation was - she sat next to the reader.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked. It wouldn't have mattered much if the answer was yes. She sat with the intent of taking it over by hostile force if necessary. "Love that book," she continued, jerking her chin at the paperback. "I read it twice last year." That was true enough. What went unsaid is that she'd read it five times the year before that. And probably a dozen times altogether. She read a lot. And re-read a lot. First because she had a limited allowance and if she'd purchased new books every time her bedside table was bare, she'd never have money for other things, like food and clothes. Secondly, the books seemed somehow like old friends. Reading again was like having a conversation with a someone she hadn't seen in a few months. Or, at least, she assumed so. She'd never really had a friend.

The reader sighed and closed the book. "Good morning."

And that's how I met Liz, who would become my best friend.

In case you don't know, I'm the one who had no qualms annoying someone else who was reading. I have always loved to read; I still read avidly. But I found that particular morning something else about myself; I also love to talk.

So today, I'd like to talk about this: My best friend's second novella has been released today. I'm so pleased for her I could squeal.

(Her first novella, Of One Mind, is also available, as well as the companion short story that was written for charity... )

Now, her stuff's not for everyone, but if you like exceptional love stories and you don't much care about the gender of the two people in love, these books are truly wonderful. (Personally I like Safe Harbor better...)

Promotion!

Couple weeks ago, I got a $50 pack of stuff from Vistaprint for $10. As far as I can tell, this doesn't actually mean anything. Vistaprint's apparent money-making scheme is to charge a zillion dollars for shipping and handling, so they can charge almost nothing for pieces of paper. I'm ok with this; I chose the cheapest shipping option and while I didn't actually expect to get my stuff until the end of the month, I got it yesterday.

(If you're interested in printing your own business cards, or whathave you, there's a recommendation at the bottom of this page. You sign up, I get more stuff, you get more stuff. We kiss, we schmooze, we go home happy.)

And this is it. Lovely, yes?

There's a mousepad, a notebook (lined), some pens, and some keychains. (There are also some postcards on the way, they haven't arrived just yet.)

So... contest: This blog hasn't gotten much traffic, so I'm going to try to raise my readers a bit. For everyone who signs up for the blog ---> click the link over there on the sidebar, you get 1 entry. For every Twitter I get directing people at this contest, 1 entry. (RT @tisfan So I can track your tweets) Ditto Facebook. You can sign up for my new Fan page, too.

The package will include the notebook, a pen, a key chain, and some other assorted goodies: A copy of Kristina Wright's most recently released anthology (Dream Lover), a half-pound of my favorite coffee from my favorite coffee shop, and some odds and ends. I haven't put it all together yet, but this will be a fun little box of goodies, and honestly, wouldn't you LIKE something in your mailbox that's not a bill?

So... promote! Promote! Promote!

And thanks!

Save up to 80% on custom printed products at Vistaprint. Order today!

Work Time Goals

There are a couple of problems with this whole "stay at home mom" thing. And I'm not even talking about my two-weeks-after-school-ends "Mom, I'm bored" problem. (Although, in all honesty, if she doesn't SHUT UP soon, I'm going to have to mangle her.)

The first one is, I'm used to doing things on my own time. This is not usually a problem, and my schedule is flexible enough to allow certain amounts of screwing around. (Before people call me lazy, keep in mind that I KNOW what you all do in your corporate offices, and I'd say at least 75% of the people I know who have a "real job" screw around more than I do. Facebook games, anyone?)

However! (You knew there had to be a but coming, right?) Having my own schedule doesn't always lead to my getting everything done! How this can be, I'm not entirely certain. It does often seem that my life is like some mysteriously crazy game of whack a mole. Every time I think I've got it covered, something else sticks up a furry little head. I made the mistaken assumption that once the child-thing was out of the house several hours a day, I'd have "plenty of time" to do everything. So why does it seem like I can't get anything done?

Back when she was a wee-one and sat in a rocking swing most of the day, I wrote an entire novel in less than nine months.

That was six years ago.

And then she started walking and talking. And so I've done very little work since then.

Part of it is the housing situation... We have one "family room" that's supposed to be a dining room/living room combination, but instead is a living room/computer room (we don't have a dining room table; we eat at our computer desks.... and anyone who'd like to argue with me that "family dinner" is more important than my sanity... I have a sledgehammer with your name on it.) We have two tiny bedrooms - and the master bedroom is so small that my dresser is actually in our daughter's room because there's no room for it elsewhere.

And unlike me, when I was my daughter's age, she plays OUT HERE. (When I was seven, I spent most of my time hiding in my own bedroom. My mother didn't ALLOW toys in the living room. Or anywhere else in the house, except my room. If I wasn't in my bedroom, I had to be watching television. Which I wasn't allowed to do past 4:30pm anyway.)

And of course, after he gets home from work, the husband is in here. All the time. There's NO WHERE to go in this house. The bedrooms are tiny and stuffed full of furniture. Not to mention the lighting in my bedroom at least is terrible. I don't even read books back there most of the time.

It's just not the most productive environment. I feel like there's always someone on top of my head.

I've tried doing the coffee-shop thing a few times, but my favorite coffee shop is about ten miles away, and I just can't see forcing myself to have Starbucks in order to get some alone time. Aside from that, I always seem to have a sign on my head that says "Oh, please, bother me." I can't seem to go anywhere that someone doesn't decide to sit down and start talking to me. Wearing headphones and reading a book doesn't stop them. I've even had one batty old lady jerk the headphone OUT OF MY EAR.

(Although I have finally seemed to have snarled at enough people that the patrons of the laundromat don't bother me anymore. And oddly enough, I get a lot of work done when I'm there. But who wants to go do the laundry 2-3 times a week?)

But honestly, these are all just excuses...

I haven't been writing as much as I'd like BECAUSE no one is forcing me to do it. When I started writing Marked Man (or, started re-writing it, because originally, in 2004, I'd written it as my NaNoWriMo project and then I'd had complete hard-drive failure in January and lost the entire thing with no backup copies...) I had reader anticipation. My friend/muse/researcher/editor had been particularly interested in this story and I wrote to satisfy her expectations.

I've been writing well on deadlines, for these short stories, written to spec. I've even really enjoyed working on them, and generally feeling quite happy with my progress.

But I did some math yesterday. (Why yes, while I complain about my child's math geekery, I'm guilty of it myself.) I'm writing 1 short story every other month. And while I am getting paid for one of them (and obviously, I hope to get paid for the others as well!) that's really not very productive in the long run. $50 - $100 every 2 months is not what you'd call "real money." Heck, it's barely a dinner out! And not quite that if I plan to do any drinking.

So....

I need to write more. I need to re-discipline myself to writing several times a week, and doing more than 200 words in a session.

Since I have a couple of projects: two short stories for spec, and a series of urban supernatural romances (a 4-novel set... and I've already done some headwork for them... I think they'll be fun) I want to get back into writing as an actual job.

When I wrote Marked Man (six years ago? Really? jeeeeeeez) my writing goal was 2,000 words per week. That was four sessions per week of 500 words a session. Or, one page, four times a week. Four pages in a week. That's NOT much. I certainly know many people who are significantly more prolific than that.

But I don't think it'll do me any good to compare myself to other people.

I'm going to do what works for me.

For July, my goal is to write at least 2,000 words per week. I can work on Shifting Steam (due August 10), or work on Ripped (due Oct 1) or work on True Sight (the first of the four urban supernatural romances... ) I'd also like to edit Marked Man, so I'm also going to make revisions a goal. I'd like to revise 2 chapters per month, at least. (it's a 29 chapter novel... which might take a while to revise with a goal like that, but since I can't seem to find an actual editor to do more than 8 chapters of suggestions before they crap out on me, I have to do a LOT MORE WORK to get it into shape... I know why people pay editors, but honestly, right now, I can't afford it!)

I've already worked out a rough timeline of when I want Shifting Steam done; so it should go out to my beta readers by July 27th. That's a 5-10k story, of which I've already done ~2,000, so on the goal of 2k per week, I will finish that handily on schedule with a bit of work on one of my other stories. 2 Chapters revised on Marked Man. And perhaps an outline drawn up of True Sight.

It's going to be a busy month!