To begin a new year…

Monday, January 6, 2014. 9 a.m. PST –

I settle down at my desk. It’s been over two weeks since I laid my pen to paper, so I’m eager to dive in but careful in my approach. The day is crisp, literally there is frost coating all the houses that spread between the ocean and my home office window. The sea is flat today, but ready, posed to roll. The craggy mountains that carve through the light blue sky are snowcapped. Wisps of clouds colour but don’t dampen the horizon.

I open my notebook to see where I’ve left my work in progress. Parker, the golden Persian, snuggles next to me on the reclaimed 100-year-old fir desk. He curls his paw around my left arm. I read through the first two handwritten paragraphs in the notebook and try to strikeout a sentence only to realize there is no ink in my pen. Of course, I need ink. A fountain pen doesn’t fare well from two weeks of neglect.

I fill the pen with green ink.

Now I am ready.

Life is damn fine in 2014.

Let’s see what shit I can get Jade into today.

green inked tissues and pen

Richard Parker oversees Chapter Five

Parker and Chapter FiveSoon I will be announcing the release date for Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (aka Dowser #2)(YAY!!!). But, to tide you over until then, I thought you’d like to see that Richard Parker, the golden-shaded Persian, is cracking his whip this afternoon and keeping me on track with the first draft of Dowser #3.

About to crack Chapter Five and 21,000+ words.

And yes, that is a mug of hot chocolate. What else did you expect?

And the winners are …

Thank you to everyone who participated in my birthday giveaway and book sale! Your comments, tweets, and shares helped make my birthday a super fun day!

The winners are:

The Cupcakes (Etc) paperbacks are being mailed off to: Patricia from Saskatchewan (yay, fellow Canadian!!) and Sandy from New Jersey. Amy from Ohio also won via Goodreads.

The Time Walker paperback is winging off to Mary in Queensland, Australia. Oh, Mary, you’re going to get a kick out of the ending of the next Dowser book, Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic!!

Spirit Binder goes to Kelsey in Georgia. I totally got caught up reading a section of this book today … not your paperback, Kelsey. I would never! But now I want to be writing in that Universe … except I have at least two other novels to write before I can get back to it. GAH!

And After The Virus now belongs to Cindi from Missouri!

How freaking cool is that? Well, perhaps I’m the only one who gets super jazzed to send these paperbacks off to so many different places. But it’s my blog and my books, so I get to be jazzed!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

birthday giveaway paperbacks

47,435 words and counting…

Okay, drive by update. I’m over halfway through the second draft of  Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic, so if I keep up this pace – and the edit isn’t too atrocious – I’ll hopefully be hitting publish on this sequel in October.

The 2nd draft of Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic has been fuelled by See's Candies dark chocolate chews!
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic brought to you by See’s Candies dark chocolate chews!

I’d like to say that it has taken me over a week to accumulate those paper wrappers, but that would be a bald faced lie. And I’m about to add two more to the pile … then recycle the evidence.

Jade made me do it.

Okay … I can’t even lie convincingly by blog.

 

I spy … something that is paper…

Guess what was in the mail today? The Cupcakes, Trinkets & Other Deadly Magic paperback proof. It looks amazing!!

Cupcakes (Etc) paperback proof - front

Unfortunately, Leiah uncovered a few more typos (GRR!!! & thanks Leiah!) in her read last week, so I’ll have to fix those and upload the text again before I can publish. But, never fear, the paperback will be available by the ned of the week.

IMG_0903And, yes, I know I need to remove my polish, but wouldn’t you rather I was writing? (That’s my excuse).

I also need to draw a winner for the final excerpt giveaway. I will do so before the end of the day.

 

3600 words and counting…

The sequel for Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic got its first official words today. Actually, I’m still ignoring emails (etc) in favour of writing. I figure I have a good hour remaining in the work day. And yes, I have chocolate fuel on hand – 70% and 72% valhrona to be specific – and “local” Rainer cherries. Also new “jade” ink currently all over the fingers of my right hand.

So far so good … wish me luck!! May the muse be with me.

openingwordsforTREASURES

No typos yet …

… though that doesn’t mean I’m not adding/changing things, of course. And yes, that is my customized pink ruler. It was a gift many, many years ago, and it is just the perfect length to keep me focused line by line.

So focused I don’t even have time to take a picture and … err. Wait, that’s not right. Maybe the ruler should be named ‘procrastination thy name is writer-facing-final-proof-of-70,000-word-novel’. Except that wouldn’t all fit on a 6in/10cm ruler. Well, not in a readable font size anyway.

Back to work! I have a book to release after all!!

Cupcakes (Etc) chapter three with ruler

 

Skyping with Irene…

So I just finished a great Skype chat with Irene Langholm, who is the brilliant artist who has done all the covers for my books. While the chat ended very well – we were discussing the cover for the soon to be released Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic – it started out a little embarrassingly … for me. You see, Irene requested I send her a sketch of my basic idea for the cover.

Ahem.

I cannot sketch, or draw, or paint … but – in the spirit of cooperative creation – I made an attempt.

Yes, this my attempt to sketch a book cover idea ...
Yes, this my attempt to sketch a book cover idea …

Note all the fine details I included – the figure is obviously female, one of her hands is caressing the Y of the word deadly … the glowing ‘door’ is hanging on some sort of grid and the woman appears to be standing (on her heels) on water … um … that’s not right …

I’m surprised Irene didn’t fall over laughing. Well, perhaps she did, it would be difficult to tell during a text based chat, but she was very understanding about my perspective issues, and even thanked me.

I have a feeling the finished cover will be a bit more … hmmm … what do I want to say here … well, perhaps we’ll have to do a comparison when Irene sends me what I know will be a work of art.

At least I spelled everything correctly … beside that ‘D’ … I guess I had trouble with that.

Ah, it’s good to know your shortcomings, no?