Teri Anne Stanley's Blog, page 2

My Planner’s Uglier Than Your Planner

I’ve been on this Get Organized and Productive And Amazing In General kick the past couple of weeks (just want to point out that I started this thing BEFORE New Years Eve). I started following this Bullet Journal planning system with some tweaks and tips from Lisa Jacobs and everything in the universe from Pinterest (okay, not everything. I had to stop before I lost ALL of the time I’m supposed to be saving by  being the WORLD’S BEST JOURNALLER).

ANYWAY. All these planning blogger type people are all about POST YOUR OWN PLANNER pictures on Facebook and Twitter and InstaSnap (I made that one up). But I have total journal inferiority issues, so I’m hesitant to throw my pathetic attempts out there for the interwebs to chew up and spit out.

But you, my friends, I trust with my less than perfect journalling. I’m not going to share a picture of the page where I track how much I ate this week *shudder*, nor am I going to show you  my to-do list.

But here’s the less than glamorous page I made to motivate me to get my rewrites for Bourbon Boys 2 finished. Yes, it is a very lame cartoon. My hand lettering will get me thrown out of Scrapbookers Anonymous. But see those little lines at the bottom? Each little line gets me 1000 words closer to my goal.

Please don’t tell my editor how few lines I have in the bottom of my tequila bottle, okay? I’m working on it!

The Amazing Shot With You word count recording system.

 

Working on a New Year

It’s the quiet time–the week between Christmas and New Years. The week where there’s nothing much going on at work (technically I’m off, but I’ll be going in to take care of some things, I guess. *sigh*). The week where I can futz around and try to clean and organize things that I ignore the rest of the year, and make BIG PLANS for how next year is going to be SO MUCH BETTER and more organized and productive.

Hey, it could happen!

Instead of going all in for a big old goal-setting planner that I’m going to stop using after a month, I’m gonna try this Bullet Journal system I wandered across yesterday.  Basically you get to use pretty pens and make schedules and lists and lots of pretty doodles in a notebook of your own choosing, and you adapt it to fit your own needs.

I love this concept, because, while I am miserable about following someone else’s suggestions for how to have a PERFECT, ORGANIZED LIFE, I am consistent about dragging one of these every where I go:

I love these because they come extra cheap at the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR (that would be back-to-school supply season). I have dozens. Every time I open a new one, I feel a whole bunch of new possibilities open up in front of me. And they’re not so danged expensive that I’m afraid to write in them!

I write all kinds of stuff in these, and it’s rarely well organized. Or at least it wasn’t well organized in the past. But NOW I have a section at the front for a…shocking development…TABLE OF CONTENTS. And I am free to make notes about everything I think of, and keep lists, and calendars, and everything, and it will all be nicely indexed at the front of each journal.

I use these notebooks often to brainstorm plot issues.  I’ll have six pages of free-association thinking about one book, and then switch to another with no rhyme or reason, and then when I need to go back and find what I wrote for one of them, I have no idea where to go.

Or at least I didn’t. Now I can use the magical index and find, not only where I decided that Molly and Will should have sex in the hay loft, but where I wrote down the time and date of my daughter’s next doctor appointment. It’s AMAZING!

So. What are you doing to get organized for 2016??

What’s new?

I’ve been busy working on my next Entangled Pub release, DRUNK ON YOU, a contemporary romance set in the land of bourbon, thoroughbred horses and hot guys, so I haven’t been keeping up with my “Media Presence” lately…but want to make sure to let you know that I’m planning to go to the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Dallas in May, and Lori Foster’s Reader/Author Get Together in June. I’ll be signing DEADLY CHEMISTRY (okay, I’ll be signing postcards with the cover on them, not the actual book, since electrons are really tough to stick ink to) at RAGT, and I’ll have lots of other awesome stuff to share!

In Which Evan Discusses Mike

Hi, everyone! I’m participating in a “Meet the character” blog hop this week. I was invited by my friend Anne Lange, who I met during NaNoWriMo the year I wrote DEADLY CHEMISTRY.

Anne posted last week  about her character Jack, and tagged me to post about one of my characters. If you’ve read DEADLY CHEMISTRY, you’ve met Evan—he’s one of the hero’s brothers. He’s also in the process of getting his own book, but it’s not quite there yet. So I thought it might be nice for him to talk a little bit about DEADLY CHEMISTRY. Then maybe when Evan’s book comes out, we’ll invite Mike back to talk about Evan.

Evan, would you like to introduce yourself?

*Tall man—broad-shouldered but lean, with oddly perfect hair—enters, wearing lab coat, khaki pants and a blue polo shirt (tucked in, of course)*

I suppose so.

Hello, I’m Dr. Evan Adams. I have Ph.D.s in Biochemistry and Ecology, and a professor of Biology at Tucker University.

Thank you, Teri, for inviting me to speak today, although I’m much more comfortable discussing my frogs than family issues.

I know, but Mike wouldn’t talk about what’s going on with him. Can you tell us?

*rolls eyes*

Apparently, he is under the impression that he can redeem himself and save the world from drug dealers if he crawls around in a maintenance uniform and flirts with female faculty members.

Is it working?

I’m not sure if he’s having luck with the drug dealers or not, but he seems to have caught the interest of one particularly attractive professor.

No kidding. Do you think things will work out between them?

*sighs*

If Michael can get out of his own way and forgive himself for the mistakes he thinks he’s made. I’m the screw up in the family. As soon as he realizes that, he’s got a shot at this Happily Ever After business they discuss in the English Department. Unfortunately, I don’t think his character arc will include learning to remember to do laundry before he runs out of clean underwear.

Um, okay! Thanks, Evan!

You’re welcome. Apparently, you can read the first chapter and get buy links to find out what happens to the drug dealers, the attractive professor, my brother, a family of possums, and a neurotic cat in DEADLY CHEMISTRY here.

If anyone has any questions for Evan, I’m sure he’ll be here the rest of the week, and he’ll tell you almost anything. I have ways of making him talk.

I’m tagging a couple of my friends to carry on–I would love to hear about CATHY PERKINS project (could it be the newly released CYPHER?) and JESSICA LEMMON (MILLIONAIRES, anyone?)

 

A Cover Reveal…

Cathy Perkins has a new book coming out, and she offered to let me share her cover with you all…I’m going to insist that you go put this book on your TBR list RIGHT NOW. Okay?

Cara Wainwright thinks life can’t get tougher when her mother’s cancer becomes terminal—until she returns home from the hospital and finds a courtyard full of police officers and her houseguests dead.

Greenville, SC Detective David Morris, is unsure if Cara is the suspect or the intended murder victim. As he searches for insight into her family, their mounting secrets, and the conflicting evidence from multiple crimes, his attraction to Cara complicates his investigation. Is the lure need, manipulation—or real?

While David pursues forensic evidence, Cara pushes for answers about her father’s possible involvement, for at the center of the mystery stands Cypher—the company her father built and will take any measures to defend.

When the assassin strikes at the heart of the family, Cara and David have to trust each other and work together to stop the killer before he eliminates the entire Wainwright dynasty.

ABOUT CATHY PERKINS:

An award-winning author, Cathy Perkins works in the financial industry, where she’s observed the hide-in-plain-sight skills employed by her villains. She writes predominantly financial-based mysteries but enjoys exploring the relationship aspect of her characters’ lives. A member of Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America (Kiss of Death chapter) and International Thriller Writers, she is a contributing editor for The Big Thrill, handles the blog and social media for the ITW Debut Authors, and coordinated the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense.

When not writing, she can be found doing battle with the beavers over the pond height or setting off on another travel adventure. Born and raised in South Carolina, the setting for CYPHER, HONOR CODE and THE PROFESSOR, she now  lives in Washington with her husband, children, several dogs and the resident deer herd.

FIND CATHY:

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/AuthorCathyP...

Twitter@cperkinswrites

website http://cperkinswrites.com

Goodreadshttp://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5367341.Cathy_Perkins

G+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CathyPerkins/

 

New Ignite Titles Today!

And all for .99 for the next week!

These both look amazing, I’ve got them queued up on the Kindle, ready to start reading!

Alive at 5, by Linda Bond

and…

Down Among the Dead Men, by Claire Baxter.

Go get ‘em!

Read ‘em!

Let me know what you think!

T

 

More Blog Tour News

DEADLY CHEMISTRY is still .99 for the next couple of days!

As my first week as a published author winds down, I have SO MUCH to be grateful for…My mom has been pimping my book to all of her friends–we’ll see what they have to say to her after they read the naked parts, huh?

Someone asked the other day if reading my book was like looking through the keyhole of my bedroom door. Uh, not so much.

ANYWAY!

I did a lot of fun stuff this week. First of all, make sure you stop by Pump Up Your Book to enter the Blog Tour contest for a $25 gift card to your choice of online book-retailers! There are a lot of blogs there that are featuring DEADLY CHEMISTRY even though you may have read my blurb more than you’d like to, there are a lot of other great books featured on those sites, to go! Make sure you enter the contest!

I already linked to a few other places I went this week, but I want to encourage you to visit

Amie Louellen, who is also a Seymour Agency sib, and invited me to post on her blog

Suzanne Johnson, a friend I met online a few years ago, and then in REAL LIFE last year in Kansas City. I sent her a whiny guest blog about the travails of world-building.

One of my crit partners, Dawn Alexander had me over,

Cathy Perkins posted in Blame It on The Muse,

I posted about why I like romance: The Big Oof on “What’s that Book About”

and there is a lovely review on Literal Exposure. And a great close-up of that nipple on my book cover.

AND another nice review on She Hearts Books!

Let’s see…

I also went to a Facebook Party hosted by my most excellent friend, Jessica Lemmon, who’s MILLIONAIRE AFFAIR came out on Tuesday.

Are you sick of me yet? I’m sick of me. Of course, I have a few more blogs to visit over the next few days, and I’m going to ease up on the compulsive Amazon page refreshing to finish that sequel to DEADLY!

Have a great weekend!

 

DEADLY CHEMISTRY RELEASED ON THE WORLD!

Some chemical reactions generate too much heat….

OMIGOD, it’s finally here. MY BOOK IS OUT!!!!!  And it’s on sale for the next week, for .99!!!!!

I have all kinds of stuff going on this week.

There is a blog tour: Pump Up Your Book has me signed up to go to a whole bunch of different blogs to spread the toxic cloud…

June 23  I guest blogged at Joyfully Reviewed, and there is a review posted at Tori MacAllister’s website that made me cry, it was so nice.

June 24,

DEADLY CHEMISTRY is featured at I Heart Reading

and I’m being Interviewed at Review From Here

I also visited my friends, Cathy Perkins, Anne Lange, and Amie Louellen (link to come!)

Enter my contest! You can win your choice of a $25 Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, or PayPal gift card!

Go HERE to enter. I haven’t figured out how to copy the rafflecopter thingy onto my website yet.

I’m being featured on a bunch of promotional websites and newsletters, including  www.ebooksoda.com. a new readers’ site where they’ll send you ebook recommendations tailored to your taste.

So GO! Buy it now! You can even read it if you want. If you’re a member of my family or a coworker, please know that the nekkid parts are completely based on someone else’s life.

DEADLY CHEMISTRY is available for purchase from

AMAZON for Kindle

BARNES & NOBLE for Nook

iBOOKS for iPhone, iPad, iEverything

and KOBO for…the Kobo thing.

OH, WAIT! Hey! It’s really, really helpful if you leave an honest review wherever you bought Deadly Chemistry, and on Goodreads, if you ever go there. An example of an honest review would be something like: “Deadly Chemistry is a love story greater than anything I’ve ever read in my entire life. It changed my life and made me a better person. It also made me want to get a PhD in Biology and try to save the world. And to build the fictional town of Tucker, Kentucky.”

Just don’t say you know me, if you do. Amazon will take down the ones that say, “My cousin has written the best book in the history of literature. Elizabeth Barrett and Mr. Darcy have nothing on Mike Gibson and Lauren Kane.”

Okay, that’s probably all for right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m It.

I don’t mind much being “it,” but I know that I’ll never catch anyone else to tag. I am, truly, the slowest walker/runner/blog-tagger in the universe. But I’m a good sport, so here we go:

(I was going to put a picture of me smiling bravely right here, but I’m just not rocking the selfies right now. Maybe some hair product and make up are in order before I try that)

ANYWAY My most excellent friend Jessica Lemmon tagged me to post a few things about myself…so I figured I’d better get on the stick now, before I’m tagged by ninety-nine more people and drown in a pool of guilt. Here’s the deal. I’m supposed to answer some questions:

Q1)  What am I working on/ writing?

A)      Ha! All The Things! The sequel to DEADLY CHEMISTRY is almost finished, and then I’m going to do a Savvy Authors workshop next week to get ready for a Summer NaNoWriMo type thing. I have the book I want to write started, so that’s on deck!

But mostly I’m busily girding my loins for the release of the afore-mentioned DEADLY CHEMISTRY on June 23. People are starting to add it on Goodreads, which I think is a good thing. It’s a good thing, right? And some bloggers I know have told me that they requested ARCs from NetGalley, so that’s good, too, right?   *Buys All The Ben And Jerry’s*

Q2)    How does my work/writing differ from others in it’s genre?

A)      Hmm…well, my debut is Romantic Suspense with Love, Angst, and Nekkid parts–which I think is found in almost all romances, right? Okay, the nekkid parts are optional. My particular romantic suspense is infused with a lot of my snarky personality, but hopefully keeps the dark, angsty, feelies that make us romance readers come back for more. I aspire to be the writing love child of Elmore Leonard and Taylor Swift. How’s THAT for unique?

Q3)    How does my writing process work?

A)      Ummm…there’s a process? Well, let’s see. I work full time in a research lab, so I have to fit my writing into the crevasses of time I manage to find–either during a lull in the science (and that’s not an oxymoron, people, science CAN be exciting and action packed–if you have low expectations)–or I write at night after I get home. Sometimes, I’m really lucky, and on a Saturday I can lock myself in my office and type until my fingers go numb. I love that!

I’m a plantser, with means that I plot, and then write by the seat of my pants a little, and then go back and rearrange the plot outline that I sort of made, and then I write some more, and then I go back and repeat the process, and sometimes I finish a book. I’m a huge fan of Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat process for plotting. At least it gives me the mountain tops to get me from one foggy valley to the next.

So that’s it.

Now, go check out Jessica. Her new book comes out the day after mine, and the first two of this series were AMAZING. So you have time to read them before this one comes out:

I know, right? Sizzzzzle.

Now, I’ve got to go figure out who blogs slower than me–someone that I can catch to tag for this blog hop!

RAGT 2014

What on earth is RAGT, you might ask? Well. In case you don’t know, it’s the Lori Foster Reader Author Get Together in West Chester, Ohio.

This was my second year, and it rocked. I think the thing that sets this conference apart from other, larger conferences, is the opportunity to interact with potential fans (who will, I’m sure be real fans here ins a few weeks after Deadly Chemistry releases). Yes, at RT, you get to meet MORE readers, but at RAGT, you get to see the same people more than once, and to get to know them a little.

There is one poor woman, Amy, who foolishly asked me to sign the little autograph book they gave out last year, and as that was my first time signing my pen name for a real human being (as opposed to the imaginary signings I did, like when I doodled “Mrs. Tom Hopkins” on my notebooks back in the day (and I didn’t really, as I met him in college, but it seems kind of weird to mention the boys I had crushes on in ninth grade)), I became a crazed lunatic.

I made her let me take her picture. I waved and yelled “hi” every time I saw her. And then THIS year, when she made the mistake of saying hello, I followed her around squealing all weekend.

In addition to seeing a lot of my friends from OVRWA, I met Samantha Kane, who is an author I have loved for years. I mean, in a totally non creepy stalkery sort of way. I love her books. I only just met her in person, so it would be weird if I pledged my undying troth, or offered to go home with her. But she does right some down right twisted, dirty historical romances, and I got addicted a long time ago.

Anyway, I have to go back to getting a proposal together, but I wanted to pop in and remind you all that I exist, and that I’ll be here bugging you a LOT more over the next few weeks!