Summer Dreamin'

Need a sexy summer vacation?


Check out WAVE RIDER by Cora Zane

Sunny Richards' vacation at an exclusive Bonaire resort takes an adventurous turn when she meets a sexy Venezuelan surfer staying in one of the waterfront chalets next door.

After an erotic interlude on the beach, he invites her to his suite where he introduces her to his equally handsome friend, Matteo. The three spend a scorching hot evening together riding wave after wave of pleasure. It's a sexy summer vacation Sunny will never forget.

Read an Excerpt
Genre: Erotica
This title contains explicit language, graphic sex, and ménage.

* * *

Summer is my favorite season. I think of tropical waves, white sand, and gorgeous sunsets. I love the smell of the ocean breeze and coconut tanning oil. I'm more than willing to fry my pale Irish hide in the summer heat if I can sit on a beach to do it.

I wish this year we could take a vacation, but it's just not in the cards for us. That doesn't mean I can't read about sexy locales. I recently re-read Wave Rider. Now, I'm reading Pleasure Beach by P.J. Mellor. Yum. Summer fun at it's finest. :0)

MMC Surprise

Photo by rdleeper. Links courtesy of Webshots.

Congrats to the Midnight Moon Cafe. July is the MMC blog anniversary, and yesterday we were surprised to learn that we've been voted as one of the top Paranormal Literature websites according to the New Orleans Examiner. Pretty cool anniversary gift!

Monday - New and Improved! (okay, not really)

Photo by CatskillHiker. Links courtesy of Webshots.

I took a much needed day off on Sunday. The house was relatively clean (to have three males loose in it over the weekend), so I took to puttering around, doing hobby things. I've crocheted two new pot holders out of scrap yarn, begun a new latch hook, and organized some of the play pieces Mini had scattered in the Berry Happy Home. I took a few minutes to pay a few bills, and put gas in the car. Once back home, I played around on SL for a little while. It was worth it. Too much stress lately from every angle, I've been seriously ready to crack. Most of it is little annoyances that just sort of show up and you have to deal with it. Ugh.

Monday is being kind, so far. I've made good progress on the new werewolf story and it is hot, hot, hot. I love it when my characters can't keep their hands off each other. I don't have a title for it yet, but I guess I should be thinking about that. I don't know why I struggle with titles so much. I talked to an author once who could pop them off right there on the spot. She was absolutely brilliant. Ah, to pick her brain for a day!

Anyway, my goal today is to hit around 3k on the werewolves. I'm about half way there, but I have some errands to run toward the afternoon. That said, I better get on it. Happy Monday, everyone! ;0)

Sanity for Sale - 1/2 off - Slightly Irregular

Photo links courtesy of photobucket

Geezer pup is doing better. He decided to give me a scare yesterday. He was lying on his doggy cushion in the dining room when he started yelping. I was in my office. I looked up, and he was trying to get to me. He'd made it to the hallway and was shaking and stumbling; his legs kept going out from under him. I jumped up and ran to him. He was very upset and scared. I petted him while he went through the stroke, and had Oldest come and take Sassie into the other room because she was upset and trying to sniff at the the old pup. Once it was over, though, he seemed to come right back from it. He wasn't 100% steady, but he was moving around and such. Oy. Nope. Yesterday wasn't a good day at all. 

Hubby messaged me from work this morning in a mood. I knew from the tone of the message, but didn't grasp the full effect until he called me later. I blame the heat. He's working in it, and it makes him irritable. His high blood pressure doesn't help matters. He refuses to go to a doctor over it. Anyway, a few days ago, he had a talk with Oldest about watering his plants for him in the mornings so they won't wilt from the all day heat. Oldest, being a natural born smartypants, walked around with him, listening to his spiel, quietly taking in directions, and when Hubby had finished, Oldest told him..."You know I'm not going to get up early to do any of this, right?" 

OMG. I was so surprised Hubby didn't flay his liver over that, but no, he took it in stride. Of course he lectured the guy after that remark, for all the good it does.I know better. Lectures get no where with Oldest. He won't listen. A total waste of breath. 

Right now Oldest isn't bothered to do much. He sleeps all day, stays up on the computer all night. He gets the clothes out of the dryer when I ask him to - he basically sets the laundry basket on my bed and I fold clothes there. He'll put food/water in the dog dish IF I ask him to. He mows the grass every two weeks if hubby asks him to - and that's usually a bitch and moan fest. And that's it. There are no real chores. He comes out of his room for food, and if someone is going somewhere. If he wants to go, he'll tag along. 

So granted, I didn't take Oldest's remark to hubby very well. In fact, it totally pissed me off. A day or so ago, I knocked on his bedroom door and when he opened it, I informed him calmly he WILL be watering his dad's plants DAILY, and since he couldn't be bothered to get himself up to do it, I will be there to pound on his door until he gets his lazy ass out of bed to do it. If he is not happy with those arrangements, he knows where the luggage set and the front door is. End of story. 

For the past week, every morning between 8-8:30 I go and knock on Oldest door and tell him to go water the plants. It's the only way he can be motivated to do it, and that's fine with me - as long as he does it. Do not think for an instant I'm letting him off the hook. 

Well, hubby has had a week to stew over this. And I guess the heat and the fact it's almost noon and Oldest is still sleeping is enough to finally piss him off. He messaged me this morning to say he had come to a realization: He's out working in the heat, and there's a grown man at home sleeping all day, laid up in the air conditioning eating his groceries. When hubby called me, I could tell he was ready to blow. He told me tomorrow he's making Oldest get up at the crack of dawn, shower and shave, put on decent clothes (he practically lives in sweatpants and a T shirt), and he is going around to put in his application at various stores around town. In a nutshell, Big Daddy says the baby boy is going to get a JOB. Oh my. I think I'll take Mini to my mother's that day. Escape, escape, escape! :P 

Today I'm setting a goal of 2k on the werewolves. I'm itching to finish this story and submit it. If at all possible, this sucker will be my weekend project. Cross your fingers for me. 

Well, I'm off to play with yarn. Mini saw me crocheting yesterday, and he wants me to show him how. I going to try teaching him to chain. Wish me luck. ;0)

Groovy Mushrooms

photo and links courtesy of photobucket
I spent about two hours this morning browsing online for the perfect vintage canister set. They have printed mushrooms on top. Groovy, baby! They remind me of the food containers that came in the refrigerator of the yellow and orange version Barbie Dream House. ;0) 

I've also been working on the werewolves today. I'm shooting for at least 2k today, but that remains to be seen. I get my best work done at night when the kidlets are sleeping and in their separate corners. Now that it's officially summer, the kids have made it a daily habit of annoying the crap out of each other. I'm constantly calling through the house, "You two be nice in there!" and "Please stop annoying your brother!" Sigh.
I'm about to go pile up on the bed and read with Mini for a bit. I hope you're all having a fabulous Wednesday. :0)

Summa Breeze Makes Me Feel Fine...

photo and links courtesy of photobucket
While talking to my mom on the phone yesterday, she mentioned something about the first day of summer and - BAM - I've had Seals and Croft stuck in my head ever since. I woke up singing Summer Breeze this morning, so as you can imagine, my children are hiding from me right now. 
The dogs aren't hiding, though. Every dog in the house is parked around my desk right now. Thanks for sharing your fleas, my furbabies. :P No one tell them, but they are getting baths today. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to know.
Last night, er - early this morning around 1 am, the power went out. Both my kids are ooky spooky about the dark, so I immediately rolled over and told the man, "I better run in there and get Mini before he freaks out." 
I opened the bedroom door to step into the hallway and he was already in the den. He seemed far more composed than I thought he would be. I called his name, and he sighed. "I'm here, Mimi. Why does this gotta happen?" LOL That's my boy. 
I picked him up and carried him to our room, but it was too hot to sleep. Mini was jumpy about every sound and shadow, so about two in the morning I got up, put on my flip flops and a pair of cut offs. I made Minibeast put on his sandals, and since the automated message said the lights should be on around 3:40, I drove him around in the car. You know, blessed air conditioning and all that? :P
I put in his favorite singing-in-the-car-at-the-top-of-his-lungs song: Tik Tok by Kesha (yes, I know...) and we drove all over the countryside, into town, and back out to the countryside again. We passed by the house, and saw the lights were still off, so we kept going. 
Around 3 in the morning, I started getting bleary eyed so it was time to go home. By the time we got there the lights were on - YAY!  Hubby was sitting at his computer when we first walked in. Priorities, you know. ;0) He said the lights had only been on a few minutes. I told him that was fabu, and that I was going to bed. 
I bet that poor man is going to be exhausted when he gets home. Lack of sleep plus this crazy heat?  Ugh. I plan to have the house ready for him to just flop down when he gets in. 
Anyway, that's about all I've got for now. Mini is cranking up the drama, so I think I'll go tickle the beans out of him, the little booger-snoot. Have an easy, breezy Tuesday, everyone!

Facing Bridges

Picture by jcuski23. Links courtesy of webshots.

I'm prepping a story for submission today. :0) I have the entire short out to my crit partner, my query letter is written, now I just have to pull together a synopsis,which shouldn't be too hard to do once I go over note cards. I'll probably read through the story a couple times before the final send off, but for the most part, it's ready. Wish me luck!

We had a wild, woolly (okay, not really) two day Father's Day. We BBQ'd at my parent's house on Saturday, and on Sunday we did it all over again at our own house. I drank entirely too many margaritas...if there is such a thing. Overall, the whole weekend blitz was nice and relaxing. 

Last night hubby came into the house to inform me he'd read one of my books. I admit, I kinda went "uh-oh" when he told me that. The last time he read one of my stories, he got a little jealous *cough, cough* of my hero. He didn't tell me about it at first, but I knew he'd read at least a few pages of it. My manuscript looked like it had been shuffled around and hadn't been put back where I'd left it. He came clean about it three days later. I didn't ask him or anything, he just started asking me what's with the ripped abs and cock sucking? In guy speak, "So what are you trying to say?" ;0) 

This time was different, I'm happy to say. I think it's because he's addicted to True Blood. He'd downloaded a free copy of Under A Midnight Moon from Smashwords, and came in to tell me that he'd loved it. Yes. My husband loved my naughty werewolf story. I think I'll keep him. 

Speaking of naughty werewolves, there are currently two new stories from that series in the works. One is almost finished. (Yay!) The other is going to take a while. The one that's going to take a while... it's about Seth. His story is going to be novel length, so those that have asked about him, take heart. It's coming, and it's going to be a really good story. Cross my heart. X<3X 

So that's what's going on in my camp. Writing and more writing. Oh, and coffee - which is finally ready, I think. ;0) I hope you all have a brilliant Monday!  

Walking On Glass Flowers

Glass flowers photo by brandongrant. Links courtesy of webshots.

I'm so tired this evening. I woke up at a decent hour, had coffee, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until lunch. I made a box of pasta salad, because I was starving. I ate a single bowl and then remembered why I stopped buying this stuff over a year ago. It spikes my blood sugar something crazy. I've felt like a zombie ever since then. :P 

On the other hand, this story I'm prepping to send off is looking pretty good. I'd hoped to be finished with it today, but it needs more words and another editing pass. This weekend should cover it. I'm printing up the vampires as well, and sorting the chapters this weekend. I will have to make a full batch of scene cards for that book. I'm planning to go over that book with a fine tooth comb. 

Tomorrow we're all going over to my parent's house to celebrate Father's Day. I'm going to get the guys a gift each, and we're going to grill burgers. Yum. It should be a good time. Oh! Note to self, dad wants to borrow our copy of District 9.

Tonight it's going to be writing and more writing. Oh, and cupcake baking. Because I promised Mini. They'll be strawberry cuppies this time. He picked out the mix himself. It was a serious endeavor, I tell ya. ;0)

That's it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Is It Friday Yet?

This stunning photo is by roguegenius. Links courtesy of webshots.

I'm trying to pull a story together to send out this weekend. I'm a bit nervous about it, and the kids aren't helping. ;P Oldest came in this afternoon and informed me that he'd run over his dad's tomato plants. Hubby has been trying to grow a decent batch of tomatoes for the past 3 summers. They've never gotten very big, sometimes we didn't get but a single tomato. This year, he finally got two good vines going that are loaded with huge tomatoes. And Oldest runs them over with the lawn mower. 

How?  How did this happen? I can't even fathom it. Just not paying attention, it's all I can figure. It was an accident, and I'm not angry, but I know this is gonna upset the man when he sees it. I called him on the phone to soften the blow when he gets home, and he didn't sound angry either, just...deflated. The whole mess has kinda ruined my day. And if the man never plants another fucking tomato plant, I wouldn't blame him one bit. 

I'm thinking about resubmitting a story that I sent in to a publisher months ago. I've heard of the new silence = NO rejection, and I'm wondering if this is the case, or if it just hasn't been long enough. Either way, I'd hoped to have this story sold by now. I really love the story, and I think maybe I should just go back over it and send it elsewhere. If nothing else, I can sell it on smashwords.

I do hope more publishers avoid the silence = NO kind of thing, because I'd probably avoid the publishers that use that as their standard - in particular, those that don't put a time limit on the response time. If that does become the norm, it would definitely lead me to start simultaneous submitting because, seriously, let's be fair. I hate to say that, but there it is. Never hearing back on a submission isn't cool at all.

That's all I've got for now. I need to hammer on this story some more. And possibly take an aspirin. :P

Did All I Could

Photo by happened2crash. Links courtesy of webshots.
Tuesday was a nice day, despite the fact I dropped almost everything I picked up, forgot half of what I was supposed to do, and some how kept creating my own technical difficulties. 
I took my last thyroid pill in the bottle this morning, so I knew I'd have to make a dash to the store. There were a few other things I needed too, so in order to avoid a second trip later in the week, I wrote out this fancy schmancy shopping list to take with me. I went to the pharmacy first, dropped off my refill bottle, and went on to buy the stuff on my list. 
I did just that. Then I put Mini back in the car seat, put all the groceries in the trunk and went home. I was almost finished unloading everything when I realized I hadn't picked up my prescription before I left town. *sob* Effers. I'd have to make another trip. 
So, I did. I waited until after the man made it home, then Oldest and I ran to pick up my pills. I had planned to get an adapter so I can run my laptop, fan, AND my printer all at the same time. But apparently I can't remember to do more than one thing. Oldest side tracked me with tales of wanting a special desk or some such thing, and he took me to this display for a computer desk. So, of course, I totally forgot the adapter. Again. That's one of those items like dental floss. Hard to remember to put on the list.
At any rate, I cleaned and mopped, grocery shopped, and all that jazz today. And I wrote quite a bit on the werewolves. Now that I have paper, I should be able to print out the vampire story so I can start working on rewrites for it. Wish me luck!
That's all for now. I hope you have a nice Wednesday. :0)





Best Remix Kate Bush EVER.

Braving the Hallway Laundry Mountain

{photos removed}
The kids are only driving me mildly bonkers today. I got up before Mini did this morning, and sat down to read through emails while drinking my coffee. When he got up, he proclaimed himself hungry and said he wanted a snow cone. I told him he could have one of those this evening, how about some breakfast. He seemed skeptical, but went with my plan. We browsed the fridge and I suggested bacon and eggs. He said that would be okay, and walked away with a sigh, which told me in non-speak that he'd rather have the snow cone, and that mother's everywhere else in the world give their kids snow cones for breakfast anyway.
I ignored the slight, and went to work cooking bacon and eggs. About five minutes into the order, Mr. Mini Bear stomps into the kitchen with his fists on his hips. "WHERE is my breakfast? You're taking to long. I'm hungry right NOW."
Oh, dear. See, with only one cup of coffee in my system, I'm afraid that totally piqued my Irish temper. I turned to Mr. Minibear and informed him quietly, "I'm cooking your breakfast right now, sir. If you're tired of waiting, it will take me only two minutes to spank your ornery rear." AKA, get your tail to that living room and watch Yu-gi-OH! before mama swats you good, boy. He got the message. He slunk off to the living room like it took every ounce of energy he had to drag his body to the recliner. Little rump.
The bacon and eggs were yummy. I made a plate for everyone, and told Oldest if he wanted food, to wake up and join the living. I swear, that guy will sleep until 2 in the afternoon if you don't wake him. After breakfast, I put the dishes in the dishwasher and put the laundry on. The house is an absolute wreck after the weekend.
The minute I returned to my desk, the phone rang. First the hubster called. Then dad. Dad is in fits right now, asking me daily if they've passed the unemployment extension yet. He has a computer and could look it up. He also has more satellite channels than I do, and yet, I've searched this thing out for him and told him they are going to have to re-vote. He's sweating it because the work has all but left our area. Everything but retail and service jobs. It's been going that route for the past few years, though.
I gave him money yesterday to put some gas in his truck, and told mom on the phone if she needed me to pay some of her bills, or buy her groceries, to let me know.
Anyway, after the phone call with dad, I opened up the manuscript I'm currently working on, and Mini came into my office and practically fell across my lap. "Mimi..." I'm noticing these days he only calls me Mimi when he wants something. Any other time it's MOM. Just for the record, so far his strategy is working, the lil turkeybutt.
"What is it?" I ask him, and he sighs like the living breath has been dragged out of him.
"I need you to play with me."
Right now, my office looks like a toy bomb went off. I told him to drag out the trains and his new car play set, and we put it in here. I did a multi-tasking play time that involved car playing, LOLcats browsing, and I tried to get a few words in. I didn't get so many words in, but... oh well.
He's playing with Pix-O's right now, and since it's after 1 o'clock and he's had his lunch, I'm going to see if he wants to go lay across the big bed and watch a movie (of his choice, aka Speed Racer, or Open Season, Hot Wheels Battle Force 5, or something along those lines) while I fold the laundry. I should probably pick something out of all the laundry to wear, too, since I'm still sitting around in my pajamas. What can I say, it's been a busy start to the day.
That's all for now. I'll update more on the writing projects when I finally get somewhere with one of them. Now to tackle the mountainous heap of laundry. I hope your Monday is a pleasant one!

Lazy Sunday

Photo by erdogan41. Links courtesy of Webshots.
So I wrote this big long post about what happened over the course of the weekend but on re-reading it, I decided to delete it because most of it was a big, unhappy mess. The gist of it: hubby hasn't been feeling well. He got something - metal shavings more than likely - in his eye on Friday, but the ER couldn't find anything so it's been a real joy around the house. Yesterday I drove the kids to Toys R Us because Mini had saved up $40 dollars. While we were there, Oldest managed to show his ass because I wouldn't buy him a bunch of Sonic videos, although I explained to him Mini had his own money. Ah, how I love weekends.
Today has been going much better. Dad dropped by to hang out a while and visit with Mini. I've been working on my latest werekind story - trying to get it pulled together. In a few minutes I need to make a dash to the store and pick up another ink cartridge, some dog food, and a gallon of milk. Once I get back, I'm gonna print up Love Fool and put some of these revision workshops I've been taking to the test.  
If you're looking for something to read, check out my free e-books at Smashwords. http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/CoraZane I'm working on getting Heart on Fire transferred, and hope to have it up there with the others very soon, so keep checking back.
So that's what's going on here. Writing and more writing...just the way I like it. I hope you all have a relaxing Sunday.

The Big Pink...

...50k milestone!

As of this morning, I'm officially over the 50k mark on the vampire story. I know it needs a lot of fleshing out, but for the most part, the rough story is there from A-Z. I'm going to give it a rest for a day or two before I print it all up and start sorting through it. I need to get the plot details ironed out before starting on draft two, because the story has some growing to do. I gotta say, though, overall, I'm very jazzed with this thing.

There's a NOLA Stars meeting tomorrow in Bossier, and I plan to go unless it rains super hard or something. Or, if hubby calls me back and tells me there's something serious going on with his eye. Before I'd even crawled out of bed this morning, I got a call that the man had gone to ER. He got something in his eye at work, and the safety guy couldn't get it out. Oy.

This weekend, I need to go back through the Werekind story I've been working on, and try to get it shaped up a little more. I probably won't touch the vampires again until Monday, so I need something else to keep me busy. ;0) Aside from that, and RWA, it's going to be a quiet weekend here. Just words, drinks, and relaxation.

Speaking of words.... If you're looking for a fun (and steamy) summer read, I have the e-book for you! Cassandra Curtis, my critique partner, has a brand spanking new .99 cent story available on Smashwords today. It's called The Deal Breaker.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16538

Eccentric recluse Athena Thanos owns Archimedes Island, a tropical paradise she can never leave. Cursed by the Goddess Hera, the moon and tides control her prison. Corporate player, Ryan Palmer is sent to negotiate a huge deal. But Ryan doesn’t know the hand he’s been dealt by fate or that he is the key to breaking Athena's curse. Will he agree to her demands once he understands the risks?

That's it for now. I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Out of Her Chains

Photo by Magikeith, links courtesy of webshots
Time for a coffee break! I've spent most of the morning editing a friend's manuscript and listening to Mini Bear talk about Knight Rider. He's had a DVD marathon going on since we got up this morning, and he's been keeping me updated on the what's what about Michael Knight. (Jesus, help me! I'm being hassled by The Hoff. Or would that be Hasselhoffed?)  
I totally skipped the HS board meeting, since I couldn't be bothered to find a pair of jeans that looked like they hadn't washed up from a shipwreck. I'm sure they didn't miss me, but still... There are plenty of outfits I could wear, if I wanted to bake to death in a poorly air-conditioned conference room. But rather, I'd have gone with a skirt or shorts or something - if I had any that were presentable for such an affair. 
See, I have two wardrobes. One is business clothes - stuff for conference, meetings, etc. Classic stuff that never really goes out of style: basic Chanel blazer, shell tops in every color, camel colored trousers. You get the idea.  The other wardrobe is...well, it looks like a trunk of shipwreck clothes. I wish I were joking. It's a mish-mash of t-shirts, tank tops and cut offs. A lot of it is ragged and faded. Why?  Because some of this stuff doubles as beach wear and pajamas. Heh.
I told myself back in December I was going to toss a lot of it out and buy a couple of pretty sun dresses for summer, but what am I wearing?  You guessed it. Shipwreck wear. With a pony tail, no less, because I apparently can't be bothered to take myself back to the salon either. (Okay, I've been planning to do that. Soon.)  
Whatever. I skipped the meeting, and went about editing. Later, I plan to pile up on the couch with Mini. Think I'll read some more of this Donald Maass book. I tell ya, some of this stuff - the scope of it - is a bit intimidating. I'm gonna keep on with it, make notes, but then I'll work with what I have and let the story tell itself. 
Speaking of the story, I should touch the 50k mark on the vampire WIP tonight. Finally. I have two scenes to add in that I can think of right off hand, but all in all, the story is winding down. It's about ready for a print up and read through, but I'm not even going to attempt it until I have that base of word count. 
That's that. I'm waiting for the timer to go off in the kitchen so I can flip the tater wedges. *g* I need to put a salad together as well, and what not. The kidlets are going to start yowling if I don't get lunch on the table soon. I hope you're having a good Wednesday. And if you just happen to be Tamara, happy birthday, hon!

 I loved this song when I was a kid! How jazzy... ^_^ The video makes me lol.

Under A Midnight Moon available free on Smashwords

Under A Midnight Moon

by Cora Zane

Betsey recently broke up with her boyfriend, Jonas, and this time it's for good. Now that she's a single werewolf again, she plans to stay that way...until she takes one glance at the new handsome biker in town. She knows Chase Tillman is a hellraiser, but can she resist the havoc he's playing on her emotions?

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/16234

This version is an updated re-release of the 2006 edition. Contains adult language and graphic sexual situations. You must be 18+ to download. 

Be sure to add authors Cora Zane and Cassandra Curtis to your Smashwords library!

Cruising Along With The Vampires

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What a day! It's blazing hot out. I tried to weather it, but quickly came indoors to the air conditioning like the shameless wuss that I am. On a brighter note, I made it up to 47k on my vamp wip. It's so hot in my office I can barely stand to hang out in here, so I feel like even a handful of words is an accomplishment. I'm thinking a window AC for my room may be necessary before the super hot months make it round, or I might have to start writing in the bedroom.
I have the rough outline for my latest Werekind story complete as of this afternoon. This one is very on the romancey side of erotic romance. It's hot, but with lots of emotion tied up in it. More so than usual for me. I hope my readers like it. I'll be submitting this one to Cobblestone Press shortly. I wrapped it up this afternoon, and so far the plot seems solid. Just need to flesh it out more and clean it up. With any luck, I should have this one out the door fairly soon.
Tomorrow's another Monday. I'd hoped to be closer to 50k with the vampires at this point, but I just worked out the very last questions I had swirling around my plot. Last night Cass and I stayed up until after 2 am working on plot holes, and going over story concepts. I think I've finally asked all my nagging questions as far as the vamps are concerned. Now, if I can only stretch it out by another 15k words. ;0)
That's all I've got for today. I think I'm about to take my laptop and go stretch out across the bed. Happy Sunday, everyone!

The [Vampire] Plot Thickens

The milestone fairy visits once again! I reached 45k this morning on the vampire draft. At this point, I pretty much know where I want everything to go, but on reading back through some of what I have, I can tell its going to need a lot more fleshing out on the second pass. Usually that would make me want to run screaming into the wilderness, but this time I see it as an opportunity to boost my word count, so it's all good.

I still haven't received the books I ordered. I've been stalking the mailman all week, and nothing. Boo hoo. I'm hoping they'll come in today's mail, but I'm pretty sure at least one of the books is coming via media mail. What's frustrating about it all, I would've bought all of these books in e-format just for the sake of instant gratification, but they weren't available that way.

This afternoon, I promised to make snow cones for the boys. I bought a snow cone maker on sale yesterday, along with the cups and a bottle of sugar free blue raspberry syrup. They'd stacked the boxes on an end-cap facing the bath towels, otherwise I probably wouldn't have seen them. Now I just need a bag of ice. Cass should be tickled to know I finally got one. She's been loving her snow cone maker, so I took a cue from her. ;0)

I suppose I should get back to work. I need to sort through about 50 pages of notes before I head out to pick up ice. Happy weekend, everyone!

Finding My Rainbow

glitter-graphics.com
It's been a trying day, but I've made it through alive. Summer is one of the glorious times of being stuck in the house with two perpetually bored kids that like to irritate each other, and by way of each other, I mean they like to attempt driving me insane.
I'm watching Neon Maniacs at the moment, giving myself a brain relief party after an otherwise shitty day. Neon Maniacs is probably one of the silliest, cheesiest, weirdest "horror" movies ever, but I love it. I don't know why, but I do. It's up there with C.H.U.D. and Future Kill, in my opinion. A cheap horror movie classic.
Last night Mini wouldn't go to sleep. He said there were aliens looking at him through the bedroom window. After about the sixth attempt to go to bed, I finally just put him on the couch with a blanket and pillow, and went to sit in my office in a bid for peace. I got about an hour's worth of sleep after hubby left for work, but Mini was up at the crack of dawn so it didn't really amount to much. I haven't felt well all day, and every attempt at a nap was met with dogs scratching to go out, the phone ringing, or kids coming to ask me for something because they can't seem to so much as fart without asking for my help.
Needless to say my mommy-patience was all run out by the time Hubster came home. Hubby was tired and cranky, Oldest was cranky and... oh hell, everyone was tired and cranky. It has not been a fun evening.
Now the house has settled some. I've had a cuppa tea, and I'm about to make another one so I can take an allergy pill. My eyes are endlessly dry and itchy. Ugh. I can't seem to stop rubbing them.
On another note, I managed to get some old conference pictures added on facebook. Some agent panel stuff. I need to sort through some more family pics to post because I did a few scans and checks and my computer is using 57% of available memory. No wonder it's running slow. This weekend, I need to do a whole maintenance tune up from cleaning up registry entries to defraging, malware checkup, and overall backup. And definitely a hijack this analysis. It's been a while since I did that.
That's about all I've got going on right now. That and vampires. I'm almost to the 45k mark. I had to take a day to work through the plot again. I swapped out endings, so I had to go back and reconnect everything I'd severed from that point. I'm hoping I'll be to the 50k mark by Monday. After that, I'll be satisfied to just get all the loose ends tied up so I can do an initial read through. We'll see how it goes. Until tomorrow... I hope you all had a pleasant Thursday. :0)

Write Your Heart Out

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So I came up with the twist for my vampire novel last night. It struck me out of the blue, flipped my novel on its ear and added a whole new dynamic to the book. I think I've finally found that cohesive ingredient to get this book over the 60k mark and firing on all four cylinders. Five cylinders, if you count all the plot points.

My ending will be dramatically changed, but I do think it's for the better. It actually makes more sense, and the new ending actually circles to the beginning, so that's a huge plus. Lots of suspense, action, and tension, in this one, so that has me excited. Too, I went through the plot changes with my crit partner she gasped when I got to the twist. I'm taking that as a good thing. It was certainly found the reaction motivational. ~_^

I've run into a handful of complications from making the switch, and I'm currently trying to iron those out before I plunge forward with the next 20-30k. One of my central characters has been reduced to a minor character (ouch), and I had to delete two other characters and make create a single character to take their place. (double ouch) The locations for the 2nd half of the book have changed, there are more scenes to be added, and then there is the whole, brand new ending sequence to tack on. I don't even have any of this down in my note cards yet.

So it hasn't been an easy switch up, but I'm grateful my word count is still intact. It will come together if I keep working at it. I just have to pace myself and keep my head in the game.

I'm waiting for my new books to arrive. I've got my fingers crossed they'll come in this week. I'm mostly itching to get my hands on Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass; it's been the book most recommended to me since I started writing. I honestly don't know why I haven't picked it up by this point.

While waiting for the book haul to come in, I've been going through some of my keeper shelf books. I just re-read through Stephen King's On Writing, and now I'm re-reading through Conflict, Action, and Suspense, by William Noble.

Funny how I read Conflict, Action, and Suspense years ago, and I didn't find it all that compelling. I realize now it didn't impact me because I was no where near ready or capable of applying the material. But now it seems full of wisdom. I've probably taken three pages of notes since I started reading it this afternoon. :*)

I still have at least 16 scenes to write on my wip, so I've got quite a bit of work ahead of me, but I'm feeling a bit better about where I'm going. That means a lot.

So there you have it. All the great big news going on in my world. I hope things are more exciting for you and your family. Happy Tuesday, everyone.