Jamie DeBree's Blog, page 30

Recommended Read: "Believe It or Not" by Tawna Fenske

I'll start by saying I'm acquainted with Tawna in the stalkerish "I
read her blog & social media updates, try not to laugh while
co-workers are around so I don't have to explain what I'm laughing at,
and devour her books like candy" sense. I suspect we'd get along
famously if we ever had time to chat - though I also suspect most of her
other stalkers feel the same way.


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Now you know where my bias lies when I say that her stories are truly fabulous, and Believe It or Not
is no exception. It's hilarious, and sexy and heartwarming....did I
mention hilarious? Not really the kind of book you want to read in
public though, unless you have no issue with the strange looks people
will give you when you burst into spontaneous laughter, and then stare
at that corner table at the coffee shop wondering if a handsome strip
club owner will catch you if you were to stand on it wearing high heels
and start to fall.



Bonus points if you actually try that while reading this book, and
share the video, please. Tawna will appreciate it too, I'm certain.
Especially if that hunky guy actually does show up to rescue you...



Sometimes life really should imitate art, and that's one of them. But I digress.



In any case, this story is better than chocolate. Yes, seriously.
Whether you're looking for an escape, something to tickle your funny
bone or something to restore your faith in love winning no matter the
odds, it will give you all three and leave you with that well-satisfied
"morning after" feeling. Who doesn't want that?



Go. Read. Be happy!

I'm not a
professional reviewer, I don't accept offerings direct from writers or
publishing houses (so don't email asking me to review your book - that's an
excellent way to ensure I never read it), and there's a very good chance
I know the authors of over half the books I'll recommend, so my opinion
is likely biased on any given day. This is just me telling you about a
great book I recently read. Nothing more, nothing less.

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On Craziness, Housekeeping & Cover Art...

I don't know about you, but I'm glad the holidays are over and we're
getting back to normal this week. Relatively speaking, anyway. There's a
lot going on at work that isn't exactly normal, but at least my
daily/weekly routines will be stable again. 

Despite all the craziness of the past couple weeks, I
managed to get a ton of stuff done. You may or may not (if you read via
rss reader or email) have noticed the new blog layout, and I've started
redoing my main website as well. I've restructured my writing routines
right down to the bones, and while it still feels really weird and a
little disjointed while I adjust, I think it's working. We'll see. 
I've
been working a lot on personal routines and habits too - another good
but odd change. Ironically, changes I've meant to make for a long time
(like keeping the house cleaner) have been easier to implement since
I've moved farther along on my mission to get fit and healthy. Why?
Because I need to *move* on the weekends, and a good way to get more
exercise without actually exercising is...housework! I know...it's
totally wrong, but it really does work. A win-win all around, sick as
that may be. 
This past weekend was a nice mix
of work and personal stuff, and I managed to get three covers designed
while I was at it - one for each genre I write in. I'm just waiting on
some copyright info for a tiny piece of the cover for Deadly Chai
before I reveal it - but I have to say, I think it really turned out
well, and I can't wait to share! The other two covers will be up on the
BSB blog and their respective author blogs sometime this week. 
This
coming week, I have big plans for a lot of writing and more catch-up on
business stuff I've been neglecting. I'd also like to do something with
some non-writing related blogs that have also been neglected. So a full
plate, but a satisfying one, I hope. 
Here's my list for the week: 
- Finalize the cover for Deadly Chai, one way or another- Finish the short story draft I'm currently working on- Scenes for both the ongoing serials- Start catching up on the business accounting for 2012- Finish up some unfinished anthology business- Update the BSB blog- Updates to my non-writing blogs- Get back to a normal workout schedule 3x per week- Start cleaning/decluttering/organizing the basement- Look for cover art images for current short story draft
And
that's it. I'll be extremely happy if I can get most of that done.
Here's to ongoing productivity...and steamy short stories that
practically write themselves. **Please
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Resolution Week: Measuring Success

Talking to Carol
on Facebook the other day, I realized that the reason it doesn't bother
me to call my goals for a new year "resolutions" is because I'm very
resolute in making goals. At the end of the year, while I give myself
points for effort, I still ultimately categorize each goal as a
"success" or "failure" for the year. For a lot of people, that doesn't
work just because the word "failure" carries such negative connotations,
but unlike a lot of people, I think it's good to have some negative
feedback in life, even if it's my own. It's honest, and it makes true
success that much sweeter.



Trying to protect myself from what is real (from my perception,
anyways) for the sake of avoiding negativity would only serve to make me
weak. I'd rather be strong, and face the truth head on, even in my
yearly resolutions. Because that sets the tone for how I will deal with
issues in all other areas of my life. 



Obviously, this is just my personal outlook on things, but to
understand how I measure success, it's something you need to know. Our
personal perception colors everything we do.



With that said, after all the work I've done of analyzing last
year's resolutions and creating this year's list, scheduling them into
my daily/weekly/monthly routines and setting up infrastructure to ensure
I have the best chance at success, one might think I have some complex
spreadsheet system to track my progress for these goals throughout the
year, or a daily peek at the list to make sure I stay on track.



One would be wrong.



Once the resolutions are made, the schedule is lined out, and the
infrastructure is in place...I completely ignore the original list until
next December. I don't refer back to it at all. I treat it like a book
synopsis, something to center my thinking and focus my thoughts, but
then whatever happens, happens. I've done as much as I possibly could to
make those goals part of my life, not just a list on paper, and I have
to trust that if I fail to achieve that goal by the end of the year that
either I screwed up somewhere in the scheduling or infrastructure, or
the goal itself wasn't actually as important as I'd thought it was, and
doesn't really need to be a goal. Which is fine too.



"But if you don't keep track, how do you know if you succeeded
at truly measurable goal? Like writing 1,000 words per day, 5 days per
week - how would you know if you don't keep track?"



Good question - and the answer is, I don't really. I could easily
check it at the end of the year by adding up the word counts of any
published works and works in progress, and average it out by the number
of possible writing days. The truth is though, when I get to December
I'll have a very good idea just in my head of how many words I'm writing
on average per day, and if I'm averaging 1k words most days of the
week, I consider that a success for the year. In that respect, I'm
perfectly fine with averages. If most days are under 1k and have been
for awhile, I'll know that too (I have a fairly good memory), and I'll
consider the goal a failure for that year.



I'm going to know how many books I published and if I hit my goals
each month just by memory, and if not, I'll know the answer to that if
I'm keeping up on my bookkeeping goals for the year. I guess my point
is, I'd rather spend a month analyzing and setting up so that I can
focus on *doing* for the other 11 months of the year, rather than
tracking my attempts to do something.



I've never been big on extraneous paperwork. Even if it's digital.



I think if we're honest with ourselves, we'll generally know at the
end of the year whether our goals were a success or failure without any
busy-work during the year to make that happen. So my advice to you,
should you choose to accept it, is to make your list, fit it into your
schedule, set up your infrastructure, and then forget about it until
next December. Your schedule and infrastructure should remind you of
what you need to be working on when, and that should be enough if the
goal is important to you. Or that's my opinion, anyways.



And with that, I'm putting my list away for the year, and getting
back to my normal schedule for the year - which includes this blog.
Starting Monday, we'll go to the regular weekly schedule:



Monday: A news/goals post
Wednesday: Recommended Read
Friday: An excerpt from either one of my books, or a draft I'm working on.



Incidentally, the two serial drafts I currently have going on other
blogs *will* continue until they're finished. After those are done, I
may serialize already published works, or drafts that are done and
awaiting publication if there's interest.



Here's to a new year, new resolutions and a solid plan to be successful with them!
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Resolution Week: Infrastructure

Continuing on with this week's series on setting ourselves up for
success with New Year's Resolutions, today we're exploring
infrastructure - the tools we need to make our resolutions possible.
Once we have a plan for how to fit daily work on our goals into our
schedule, we need to make it as easy as possible to keep those scheduled
"dates" on track - and that means making sure we have everything
organized to jump in and work on goal-oriented tasks.


For my writing goals, that means having a distraction-free place
for my scheduled writing times. December was a month of decluttering and
preparation, and one of the things I did was to clean out our home
office so it's usable again. Now, rather than trying to write amidst the
noise and chaos of "family time" with the hubby and dogs, I can
disappear back into the office at my scheduled time, plug my flash drive
into the desktop, and write away. It's been working great for the past
few weeks, and I do write more and more easily when working back there,
so it's a win-win for me.


The trick, of course, will be keeping the office clean and
usable...which means keeping up with another resolution to maintain the
housekeeping on the weekends. But I've spent the last couple months
getting into that routine, so I'm primed for success with that too.


No matter what your goals are, if you don't have the infrastructure
you need to actively work toward that goal, you're less-likely to reach
it. For getting/staying fit, my plan is scheduled around the tools I
have at home and at the gym - my infrastructure for reaching that goal.
My main accounting infrastructure is QuickBooks - already installed and
running on my laptop, so I just need to get into the routine of actually
doing the books (the most difficult task on my list, by far).


And of course, the most important part of my infrastructure is my
calendar/task list program on my tablet. Without that, I'd be hopelessly
lost in a sea of drifting to-dos and dreams.


The nice thing is, there are endless ways of setting up the
environment and tools to suit on a very personal level, so if one thing
doesn't work, we can always try another. Once you find your perfect
set-up, you'll be amazed at how easy it makes whatever you're trying to
do. Don't be afraid to experiment with different tools and environments
until you find your perfect match for your personality and whatever it
is you're trying to accomplish.


Tomorrow this little mini-blog series wraps up with a post on
measuring success...and no, I don't tend to use spreadsheets for that.

Resolution Week: Scheduling for Success

This is another long post - just FYI. If you need a cup of tea and a snack, better grab it now and settle in...
The
word "resolution" can be defined a couple of different ways. The first
is what we're all thinking about (or avoiding stridently) this time of
year, which is a "strong intent to do or avoid doing something". 
What
we tend to forget is that a "resolution" is also defined as a solution
to a problem, or the end of something (like, say, a project). So in
making resolutions, we are actually stating our intent to find solutions
for what we see as issues in our lives. 
This
doesn't normally happen magically, whether we're talking about water all
over the basement or a big project at the day job (or even a writing
project). It's not often we jump from the start of something straight to
the resolution (and when we do, it's normally a huge surprise outcome
that we are naturally suspicious of - or maybe that's just me).
No,
in order to reach a resolution for something, we need a plan. For a
problem, we need to troubleshoot first in order to figure out exactly
how the problem happened, and then a plan to fix the problem so it won't
happen again. For a project, we need to break the end goal into
smaller, manageable chunks to avoid being overwhelmed and missing
important details.
Part of that
plan for me is scheduling. I realize not everyone responds to daily,
weekly & monthly routines like I do, but I thrive on having fairly
set routines the majority of the time. Routines give me freedom, because
I feel like everything is under control (even when I need to deviate
from the routine for whatever reason). It's a mental game for me...and
it allows my brain to relax and not worry about getting things done
because everything has a scheduled time and place.
When
I create my list of resolutions for the year, one thing I do is to make
sure I add them to my regular schedule. If I can't make a resolution
fit on my normal schedule, it doesn't make the final list (reference my
rules for resolutions at the top of this post). This is part of planning
to succeed - giving myself the time needed to accomplish the goal,
rather than just trying to "fit it in wherever" (which I think we all
know rarely works - it's a good way to forget things for an entire
year).  
My full daily schedule would make most
people tremble in fear - not due to what's on it (because everyone
actually has the same sort of daily routines, it's just most people
don't realize it), but because of how detailed it is and how huge it
looks when you're cognizant of it and write it all out. But I don't need
the whole schedule when I'm working in my resolutions - I just need to
know when those things will fit. So here's my tentative daily/weekly
schedule for 2013 - not all of it, just enough to give you an idea of
where my new tasks will fit into my normal day/week. 
***
Writing: 4 fiction drafts going consistentlyCrafts & Hobbies: Nail Art, Tea tasting notes, Crochet & Polymer Clay, Smurf & Stamp CollectingHealth: Morning Yoga, nightly workouts x3Business & Marketing: Finances once a month (first/third weekend - two chances), one monthly newsletter, three random (release only) newslettersBlogging: Excerpts
on VP, TM & AW blogs once weekly. SB as needed for
announcements/sub calls/new releases. Weekly news post & recommended
read on VP. Weekly nail art post, random tea & other hobby blogs.
Sunday:Menu Planning/Prep cookingHobby DayVP Post (schedule for Monday)Excerpts (Schedule for the week)Recommended Reads (schedule)Nail Art (Schedule)
Monday:Yoga - 6:30am - 6:40amPromos/business work & TV - 8pm - 10pmWriting 11pm - 12am
Tuesday:Yoga - 6:30am - 6:40amPromos/biz stuff & TV 7:30 - 8:30pmSwimming - 9pm - 10pmWriting 11pm - 12am
Weds:Yoga - 6:30am - 6:40amBilliards (1/2 year) or strength workout (1/2 year) & promoWriting 1 hr late night
Thurs:Yoga - 6:30am - 6:40amPromo/Biz work & TV - 7:30pm - 8:30pmSwimming - 9pm - 10pmWriting 11pm - 12am
Friday:Yoga - 6:30am - 6:40amBiz stuff & TV - 7:30pm - 9pmStrength training - 9:30pm - 10:00pmWriting 11pm - 12am
Saturday:Cleaning/Errand Day 11am - 4pm or soFinances (first & third Sat. of the month, business & personal) 7pm - 9pmNail Night - midnight to 2am or so
***
I'm
sure you get the idea, right? As for publishing stuff, my publishing
schedule is separate from the general daily schedule and I'm keeping
that to myself as things tend to get moved around quite often on that. 
So
that's part one of how I plan to succeed - I schedule my resolutions
into my daily routines as I make them, to ensure they won't just
immediately fall through the proverbial cracks. 
In
tomorrow's post, I'll explore the infrastructure needed for my own
resolutions, and how I've been working on that over the past month or
so. Join me if you're interested! **Please
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I Hereby Resolve...Resolutions for 2013

Happy New Year! I just love the start of January, and the fresh
feeling that anything is possible. I know it's just a mental construct,
but the part of my brain that craves organization loves the symbolic end
of one year and beginning of another.


This is a long post - my resolutions for 2013 are below with a bit
of explanation below each section. Yes, I make resolutions - goals, if
you prefer, but whatever you call them, I like to have a sort of outline
to start each year with. So many people make unreasonable resolutions
and then feel like a failure for not reaching them, which is sad. My
rules for making resolutions is that each resolution *must* be
completely within my control (ie, a true "goal" rather than a "dream"),
and that I must have some sort of reasonable plan/infrastructure in
place that will facilitate my reaching them.


In other words - "Write 1,000 words per day" is a reasonable goal
only if I have a plan in place to make that goal reachable. In my case,
that means a place and a time scheduled and set up for daily writing 5
days per week (one that is unlikely to be affected by things that go
wrong during the normal day or flow of things, but still within a time
that your brain will actually function - in my case, that means very
late at night). Just "write 1k words per day" without the supporting
plan wouldn't be a reasonable or attainable goal for me - it's too easy
to let it slide that way.


Similarly, "lose weight" isn't a reasonable goal unless I have a
set workout time, place and workout plans built into my schedule, plus a
supporting nutritional/eating plan as well.


The point I'm trying to make is, if you don't have a decent plan
for *how* to reach your goals, or if your goal is not completely under
your control (ie, sell x amount of books per month - I don't care how
much promo you do, you can't control buyers/readers), odds are against
you and you *will* fail. The key to making resolutions is to make goals
that are within your control, and then *plan* to succeed. Otherwise,
there's little point to the exercise.


That said, let's move along to my resolutions for the year:   

***


Writing


- Serialize only published or waiting-to-be-published work
- Minimum of 1k words per day, 5 days per week
- Writing time 11pm - 12am Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri, & while the dog food "incubates" on Weds
- Publish at least one story every month
- Write one short story/novelette per month along with other drafts.


I love serializing drafts. But I've
had a couple issues with them over the past year. One of which is that
some of the central plot points from a few of my serial drafts have
shown up elsewhere throughout the year last year, and while it seems
egotistical/paranoid to think that someone might be reading my serials
just to turn around and use my ideas elsewhere, it's hard not to draw
that conclusion when it keeps happening. If I'm not posting draft work,
it will be much easier to assume that when my ideas show up elsewhere,
it's just a coincidence instead.

The
second issue is that while the serial schedule originally provided hard
deadlines to keep me moving forward daily, now it's constricting me in
the sense that if I feel like I need to move forward more quickly on one
draft than another, I can't - because my writing time is limited and
with a hard serial deadline, the scene that's "due" is the one that
*must* be done. I feel like I have enough discipline/motivation to keep
writing daily now, and the freedom to choose which draft to work on
based on where I am with which story at any given time will help me to
manage my writing time (and publishing schedule) more efficiently, I
think.  


My other writing goals are pretty straightforward, and really should be easy enough to hit with daily attention during the week.


Business


- Get accounting in order and maintain monthly bookkeeping schedule
- No Anthologies
- Cut blogging back for all blogs (schedule out serials/excerpts so content is largely automated)
- Once monthly BSB newsletter, newsletters for author names on new releases only.
- Light promo, review copies, site updates, formatting & cover art evenings while watching TV.


That whole accounting thing? Ugh. And
so very, very necessary to get done, and get done right. And there's no
other way to get cover art, site updates and other minimal promo things
done except to multi-task in the evenings...I just don't have any other
time to give it. So I really need to focus better on this area in 2013.


The no
more anthologies resolution comes from two things:  new policies Amazon
has instituted that may eventually require me to produce hard proof that
I have rights to the stories I publish - which I can provide, but since
I don't have a traditional contract, it would be difficult and time
consuming. On the flip side, it would be time consuming (and expensive,
as I'd need a lawyer to look it over) to come up with an actual
traditional contract for authors to sign as well, in order to protect
myself. The other reason is that it's time consuming and expensive to
produce books that don't make the money back that I put into them. I
think my time and money are better spent on books that should eventually
produce enough income to pay for themselves, and I just don't think
there's a big market for anthologies at the moment. Maybe later if those
I've already done start selling, I'll rethink that decision. For now,
no more anthologies.


Personal


- Make time on the weekends for hobbies
- Keep up with housework weekly
- Continue morning yoga workouts
- Workout at least 3x nightly per week - focus on strength & toning
- Reorganize morning routine for better efficiency
- Reactivate tea & nail blogs in a very casual manner/schedule


I feel like I've achieved a sort of
balance with personal stuff, and my overreaching goal this year is
really more about maintenance than new things. I need to focus on the
writing and business, so personal goals need to be maintained alongside
those, so I stay healthy and keep things running smoothly at home. It
shouldn't be too difficult until summer hits...but here's hoping I can
keep up even through the summer/fall months.

***


Those are my resolutions for the year...and I'm excited to jump in
and get started! I have a tentative schedule laid out and infrastructure
in place to make them as easy and achievable as possible, so I'm
optimistic about these.

Do you want to make yearly goals, but struggle to make them work?
Never fear. I have three more posts this week all dealing with how I set
myself up for success at the beginning of the year, and perhaps some of
my methods will work for you too. It does take a little effort to set
up, but you won't regret it. Or I never have, anyway. 



In tomorrow's post, I'll share my new tentative schedule for moving
forward with these, and how I came up with it. I hope you'll join me!


Did you make resolutions this year? If so, feel free to share in the comments...
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Rollercoasters All Around - 2012 in Review

Welcome back! I hope you had a merry/happy holiday season and a
relaxing and/or fun-filled week. As you can see, I've been busy updating
templates and web sites, moving things around and generally wreaking
mayhem on my little corner of the 'net. Things aren't quite put back
together again yet, but most pages and links should be working more or
less normally now. 
It's the last day of
2012...are you ready for a new year? It's been a roller-coaster year for
us, moreso than normal what with switching out two cars (one planned, one out of necessity), losing a dog, adopting another dog, riding actual roller coasters in Florida, and a job switch-up for the hubby. Up and down, up and down...as someone who doesn't do change all that well, I'm looking forward to what I hope will be a more stable year in 2013. 

In
any case, in the last few weeks I've gone over my 2012 resolutions to
see how I did. Here's the list, and my comments for each section: 

Writing
- 1 flash story per week (dropped)- 15 short stories in three genres (5 each), culminating in 3 collections (Four stories done)- 1 thriller novella  (Shelved)- 1 romantic suspense novel (check)- 1 romantic suspense novella (check)- 1000 words 5 days per week (500 words per day done)- Try out methods of planning stories that won't kill my interest (never got around to it)- Read three craft books (nope)- Pick one craft element to focus on for each project during the year. (sort of) 
*Sigh* Yeah. No.I
failed pretty miserably with these last year, for a variety of reasons.
The main one was lack of motivation - I said I'd give myself a break,
and it ended up being too much of a break. I also got too caught up in
the "serial schedule" and didn't hit my 1k words per day goal, which
together just made everything slower. Plus I had a few stories that
ended up going way over the word count I'd planned for them, and the
thriller/horror novella needs a completely different ending (so I
shelved it, rather than fixing it this year). Not my best writing year
ever, though not my worst either. My writing goals and methods are
getting a complete overhaul next year...
Business
-
Get a handle on my bookkeeping, and stay on top of it monthly - this is
an absolute must if I want to keep running my own writing business. (nope)- Stop worrying about alternate formats, bookstore sales, etc - focus on writing (check)- Minimal promotion - blog, twitter, FB & newsletters, occasional guest posts. That's it. (check)- Cut down on services offered to other authors.  (check)
I
did well on this last year, aside from the bookkeeping part (I really,
really suck at that!). Unfortunately, I did a little too well as far as
cutting back on promo goes, and my sales show it. So I'm going to have
to find better balance with this...and better, easier bookkeeping
methods.

Personal  

 
- Be a better housekeeper by following new cleaning schedules. I genuinely want a cleaner, more kept up house. (check!)-
Play more. I refuse to feel guilty this year about playing FB games, or
taking time out for TV/movies/reading.  If I need a mental break from
real life, I'll take it. (check)- Keep up with the 3x weekly workout habit I've established, and watch the portion sizes. (check)-
Keep up with my dental-treatment plan...one visit per month until it's
done (or until insurance runs out for the year and I can't afford out of
pocket). (check)- Take better care of my feet & hands, including toenails, cuticles and skin. I need to develop a schedule for this. (nope)-
Go back to making my own moisturizer and makeup remover. It's better
for my skin in a major way, and I'm tired of trying to find the perfect
all-natural makeup remover wipe. It really doesn't take that much time
or effort, so there's no reason not to do that. (check)
I
excelled in this area last year - which makes sense, considering what I
*didn't* get done above. I established a regular housecleaning schedule
(and have spent the last month organizing trouble spots in our house so
we're starting the new year right). I actually *watched* my favorite TV
shows, instead of half paying attention while multi-tasking with work, I
played games, I lost 38lbs, and I've been taking better care of myself
on the whole. I still have a lot of dental work to get done, but I did
as much as I could before maxing out my insurance, and I've got my first
appointment for next year already scheduled.
So
in the personal arena, I'm good. I'm where I should be. And considering
two years ago I let everything personal go for the writing, and last
year the writing slipped for personal stuff, I think 2013 should be the
year I finally get it all balanced out, right? One can hope...

Here's
the thing - even though I may have done better in some areas that
others, I kept moving forward in all areas, and that's really what's
important. So even though I consider parts of the year as failures, I'm
still not terribly unhappy with how the year went. There was a lot to
deal with, so just to keep moving forward through all that is a success, no
matter what. 
Tomorrow, I'll post my
resolutions for 2013, along with my definition of a "resolution" and how
I go about choosing them. Stop back in if you want to see what I'll be
working on for the next year. 


How was your 2012? Whether you set resolutions or not, did you keep moving forward despite the difficulties?   **Please
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Don't Mind the Mess...

...just cleaning up the place a bit for the new year. Feel free to shuffle around (carefully), and if you find any broken links or whatnot, leave a comment or catch me somewhere online to let me know, K?

Next week's schedule will be a bit full - it looks something like this:

Monday: 2012 Year in Review
Tuesday: Resolutions for 2013
Wednesday: Scheduling for Success
Thursday: Winning Infrastructure
Friday: Measuring Progress

January 7th, the blog will return to a regular 3-day posting week:

Monday: Weekly News & Goals
Wednesday: Recommended Read
Friday: Weekly Excerpt

See you next week!
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Weekly Wrap - December 21, 2012

You didn't *really* think the world was going to end today, right? I
mean, even the small amount of Mayans still living today didn't believe
that - it's merely the end of one of their "eras" and the beginning of a
new one. Which is certainly noteworthy, but hardly worth getting all
shook up over. I can't help but be a little disappointed that the
present day Mayans aren't planning a human sacrifice to celebrate or
something...now *that* would be news...


In any case - this week wasn't uber-productive, but rather more of a
steady work week (which is fine). Now that the great office clean-out
is done and the room is usable again, I've established writing hours
every night back there...and aside from a brief stint downloading
wallpaper themes last night, it's working quite well. That computer does
have internet access, but it's not customized and I never use it for
surfing or email, so the difficulty in doing so isn't worth the time
when my laptop is all set up for everything else I might decide to do.
Instead, it's easy enough just to plug my flash drive in and start
typing.


Incidentally, I've read blog upon blog by professional authors who
use a scaled down computer (many of them not even connected to the 'net)
for writing, and a different one for surfing/business stuff. Good idea,
as it turns out.


In any case - my daily word count has nearly doubled, which is a very good thing. If I can just keep that up all next year...


For those following The Handyman's Harem Girl, Chapter 23 is online (and steamy, so be careful!). Next week's installment is already done as well, which is nice.


And I've changed the title of my former NaNo draft to Sleep With Me (for now), and posted a new installment of that this week as well:


Installment 14


For those following Jack, my horror short, the draft was
finished last week, but there's a new installment on the blog today and
the last one will go up next Friday.


Chapter 10


Finally, I started my next erotic romance draft - Chocolate Cream
this week. But you can't see that one just yet. When I finish it, I may
serialize it on the Trinity blog while it's being edited. We'll see.


I also plotted out a sci-fi/fantasy series I've decided to try my
hand at next year...the interesting thing about that was/is
world-building...something I normally don't worry too much about as my
books are generally set in the "real world". This new series will be set
in a completely made-up world, with a societal structure that
is...quite different and intriguing, or at least I think so (which is
good). I'm looking forward to starting the draft of that project soon
after the new year starts.


As far as reading goes, I'm still working on that western romance - Superstitions by J Carson Black, and Split Second by Catherine Coulter (which is never going to end, ironically).


To wrap this whole thing up...this is the last weekly wrap for the
blog. I've decided to take next week off from blog posting (aside from a
quick Christmas post) so I can update all of my web sites for the new
year (including this blog). Posting will resume with the year in review
post on Monday, Dec. 31st, and a new blog schedule for 2013.


Have a great weekend, and if you're so inclined, stop by Christmas Day for a special holiday treat!

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Romantic Suspense
| Erotic Romance | Suspense/Thriller 
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Recommended Read: Deadly Consequences by Lori Gordon

I'll just preface this by saying that I "know" Lori online, and I downloaded this for free. So now you know.







Deadly Consequences by Lori Gordon
is a suspense novella in a more contemporary "who-dun-it" style. It
takes place in a zoo, and I found the main character - Sam Black - to be
a very interesting character, if a bit more unstable than I'd normally
expect a cop to be. She reminds me of Kate Beckett (um, you do watch
Castle, right?), though a somewhat more emotional version. The chemistry
she has with her partner is very intriguing, and I'm looking forward to
exploring that more in the novel Lori has coming out next (I think it's
next, anyways - I hope so).



The mystery is pretty standard for a murder plot, with plenty of
twists and turns to keep you guessing (they did me) and conflict with
another detective that you'll want to slap upside the head several
thousand times before you're done reading (I'll admit, I wanted to smack
Sam too for allowing him to do what he did, but I tend to be hard on
characters and people alike who allow themselves to be steamrolled). I
was left scratching my head over something in the end, but it resolved
itself satisfactorily before the story ended, and made a nice final
twist out of things.



All in all, an excellent suspense well played - more Sam & Alex, please!

I'm not a
professional reviewer, I don't accept offerings direct from writers or
publishing houses (so don't email asking me to review your book - that's an
excellent way to ensure I never read it), and there's a very good chance
I know the authors of over half the books I'll recommend, so my opinion
is likely biased on any given day. This is just me telling you about a
great book I recently read. Nothing more, nothing less.

**Please
note - If this is your first time posting, your comment
will be moderated. Once you have been approved, future comments will post automatically.