I'm soooo excited! I received my release date for Ring of Lies! 


A café owner and an ex-cop must unravel the mystery surrounding a hot blue diamond in order to stop a cold blooded killer. After a childhood lived on the road with a free-spirited aunt, all café owner Ivy Michaels wants is a normal and uneventful life, but when her aunt is found floating in the Savannah River, Ivy inherits an heirloom blue diamond and a killer bent on keeping the past buried. Dom Riordan is an ex-cop obsessed with finding his mother's killer. A chance meeting, and a glimpse of evidence he's been seeking, convinces him that Ivy Michaels is the key to solving the crime. Dom devises a plan to date Ivy and ferret out the truth but he didn't count on losing his heart. As a ruthless killer closes in on Ivy, Dom will risk everything to keep her safe.


                

            Available December 22, 2010 !!!

Just in time for RWA Nationals; I'm going to print off a bunch of labels with my tagline and release date then stick them on the back of my business cards. What do you think? Good idea?
With a firm release date I can now  begin planning my marketing strategy. Lots of new information will be added to my web pages, all kinds of interesting facts about Savannah, some of Ivy's (my heroine) recipes, a music page with  songs by the fabulous Thomas Claxton, who played at Ivy's cafe's opening night, and who knows what else my imagination will unfurl!
I'm ordering postcards of my book cover, thinking up contests, a new web page design ..., I'm going to be busy! 

            Oh yeah! I have a sequel to write, too!

But, for now I'm concentrating on the conference Be sure and stop by from Thursday through Sunday! I'm going to post pictures, the low down on what I'm doing, learning, and who I'm meeting!

I hereby report, with a guilty conscience, that some of the 30 odd pounds I've lost over the last three and a half months, have been found.



Tinydog weighs in at 32.7 pounds: waaaay too much for those stubby little legs to hold. Even though she walks with me every night her girth has not decreased and I have to conclude it is my fault. See, when I eat she sits right beside me and you know the effect of puppy dog eyes? Well, for every bite I take, she takes on too. That might actually be partly responsible for my loss in weight, lol! Alas, Ms. Tiny is fast resembling a pot-bellied pig and I've noticed that her nightly walk is punctuated by pauses while her chest heaves and her lungs wheeze, so ... It's DIET time for the little pooch.
 
Poor boo-boo dog, no more sharing peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches

Well, just as expected, I've returned from my brief visit to my mother's with a load of work to catch up on! Putting aside the never ending piles of laundry and the lawn that won't stop growing, I had to face a mountain of paperwork in the office. Since I'm going to be gone the last week of July for RWA Nationals, I'm trying to pay all bills, file all quarterly taxes, and process all accounts receivable before I leave. July is always a pain in the behind month for our business as quarterlies, liability insurance renewals, and Worker's Compensation renewals and payroll audits are due. Add a week off for a conference, a long weekend of company, and a two week visit of my husband's 11 year old grandson and my month is officially CRAZY!

So crazy in fact that I completely forgot I needed to finish proofing the final galley of Ring of Lies. I read about 65 pages before leaving for Jackson but faced with the long list of urgent tasks upon my return, the most important thing in my life drifted from my mind. Needless to say, I've put that as my number one priority for today and regardless of my protesting eyes, I will complete and submit the final galley by this evening!

Did I mention that I'm also brainstorming website redesign ideas with the woman who did the cover art for Ring of Lies? Tricia Picky Schmitt is trying to help me find my "brand" and corresponding images to convey my author identity through this site. I'm very excited. She does amazing work and the results can only be spectacular . I feel sorry for her, however, because I'm an extremely eclectic person. I love Savannah and all its spooky/historic atmosphere but I don't plan on writing novels exclusively set along the Georgia coast so trying to capture all of my interests won't be easy; heck, capturing just a few will be a challenge!

I'd like to see something historic feeling but with a paranormal feel. Maybe a foggy Factor's Walk with a woman dressed in a hooded cloak, perhaps carrying lantern. Or, maybe my header should have a misty picture of the marsh with a full moon? Might be something completely different from either of those ... just have to wait and see what ideas she submits

What do you think, any ideas of what my new website header/page should portray?

And so it begins. July is shaping up to be a hectic month. The first weekend saw my house filled with family and friends. A great time was had by all but the week preceding the holiday was used for major cleaning. That put me behind on Broken Chords so last week was spent finishing my plotlines. The chapter by chapter outline ended up being more detailed than I intended, or usually do, so I basically have a completed rough draft; very happy about that!

While I'm still hoping to write two chapters of Broken Chords before the end of the month, it's going to be a challenge. I'm attending the RWA National Conference at the end of July and having lost some weight I have had to do some shopping. I have my formal dress for the Award banquet and a dress to wear for one day of the conference but that still leaves me with two more days to dress in something other than baggy shorts and tank tops. I got a babysitter last Thursday and hit the shops looking for shoes and an evening bag, a wrap, and outfits for the other two days. I really don't enjoy shopping, in fact, I generally avoid it like the plague, but I must admit Thursday was FUN!  It probably had to do with the fact that, for the first time in nine years I got to shop in the regular women's section. There is a much wider selection of clothes in the women's area than in the plus sized one. I cheerfully bought a pair of tan/khaki pants and a gorgeous animal print blouse. I also found a cute silky tee shirt, (kind of "artsy" print) with shades of lime green and blue and my favorite purchase; an open knit cardigan in lime green. I loved the sweater jacket so much I bought one in black too! Everything was marked down so I was able to justify the extra purchase ! I didn't manage to find shoes, bag, or wrap for my formal dress but my mother loves consignment stores and stuff and never needs an excuse to stop and browse so I told her what I was looking for and low and behold she found a pair of silver heels and a pair of black heels, both with matching bags; total cost? $20.00! I hope they fit!

Tomorrow, I'm driving the three hours to my mother's and staying for a couple of days. I used to live in the same small town and the only thing I miss, aside from friends, is my hairdresser. Kim is the "go to girl" for hair in Jackson. A few weeks ago my mother was heading to the salon and I was moaning about the bad hair cuts I kept getting in Savannah. Imagine my surprise when Mother called me a few hours later and said she'd paid Kim to cut, color, and highlight my hair as a present to celebrate my first sale! I'm getting "the works" tomorrow afternoon, just in time for Nationals!

I definitely want and NEED my hair done but the trip will cost me three days of writing time. I thought I could make them up this coming weekend, but no go; my step-son is coming up from Alabama to pick up his son, who's been visiting since the 4th, and will be staying through Sunday. That leaves the week of the 19th for writing, but I have to get my car serviced one of those days and Friday will see me driving back to my mother's since she is going to keep my daughter while I'm in Florida. There are also mountains of laundry to do, carpets to be swept, floors to be mopped, food to be cooked ... somewhere amidst all those chores I can surely find a day or two to write those chapters; then again, there is always  August!

So, are you accomplishing your writing goals or has summer derailed you too?

I am happy to announce the "birth" of a fully fleshed out plotline for Broken Chords! The going was tough, twice I changed my direction and had to start over but the final product is well worth the effort, at least in my humble opinion

About this post's title: To complete the afore mentioned plotline I worked all night. Around 2:30 am I thought I'd had it and was ready to call it a night or morning as it were, but a pause to let the dogs out, a few lazy stretches, and my muse was energized. As is usually the case with La Muse, I was inspired with several solutions to tricky plot twists and "heard" some great and snappy dialog. No way I was giving in to my body's inconvenient demand for sleep and risk losing the golden nuggets of prose flowing through my weary brain!

The ideas flowed fast and furious, even as my eyes started to cross and my hands began screaming a protest to the abuse inflicted upon them. Imagine my surprise, and dismay, when I typed The End on Chapter 20's plotline and looked at the clock: 8:06, AM!!

I'm guessing you now grasp the appropriateness of this post's title!

Debating a nap and my sincere apologies if this post is in fact incomprehensible; I've a vague feeling that they "little grey cells" have taken the decision out of my hands and retired to bed!

I spent a great weekend with friends but today it's back to work, and boy do I have a lot of it! I need to finish proofing the final galley of Ring of Lies then I need to concentrate on completing the plotlines for Broken Chords. The instructors of the plotting boot camp course I took last month are willing to critique plotlines until the 11th so I've set a personal deadline of today to submit so I can get comments and still have plenty of time to correct and resubmit after they comment. Once the plotlines are set, I am setting another goal for July: complete two chapters of Broken Chords before I leave for the RWA National Conference.

Speaking of nationals, my friend Kelly and I managed to find time for some shopping over the holiday weekend. The final evening of nationals is the awards banquet and it is a formal event. While excited, I have been nervous of this event because I had nothing to wear. Also, I've never been to anything that has a formal dress code and was unsure just what constituted formal attire. I researched, (as per my usually obsessive self ), and came to the conclusion that formal dress for women can be anything from good "Sunday best" to full length gowns so I chose the middle ground and went looking for cocktail dresses.

With Kelly's help I found not one, but three! We stopped by a local clothing store called Ross'. If you don't have one in your area you're deprived . Ross' carries a lot of designer clothes at very low prices, which is why I purchased so many dresses. Two of the dresses are undeniably cocktail attire but the other could be considered business casual and that is the recommended dress for the conference, so that just leaves me to buy two more day outfits.  I've now lost about 25 pounds so all of my pants are too big and working at home means I don't have "business" clothes anyway! A nice excuse to go shopping, huh?

Since I bought three dresses, I need your help. I'm going to post pictures of all three dresses and take a poll as to which one I should wear for the awards banquet so leave me a comment telling me your choice for the awards banquet please! Oh! BTW, I take terrible pictures and my hair looks like crap so ... they look better in person .

*PS: Controversy surrounding Dress Number One: Remember I said I've lost roughly 25 pounds? Well, that means I was able to buy clothes with more shape than my usual tent style When I tried on this dress my friend grinned and said, "that's the one, it is sexy and you'll feel like a princess." Well, I had to agree it fit perfectly and showed my, now much smaller, waist to advantage, however, my reply to Kelly was, "Alan is going to take one look at me in this and say, "you're not wearing that when I'm not going to be there!" I tried all the dresses on when we got home and sure enough, the first words out of his mouth were ...   LOL, that isn't going to stop my wearing it, of course, but I'll await everyone's opinions.


Dress Number 1


Dress Number 2


Dress Number 3
(thinking about wearing this for day time, instead. What do you think?)

Ok, a quick note to let ya'll know I have not been abducted by aliens, fallen into a black hole, or gotten stuck inside a tear in the space time continuum!

This week has been crazy. Actually, last week was too! I mentioned before that I'm taking the Rose Colored Glasses' Plotting Boot Camp and, well, I've been immersed in my fictional world for Broken Chords. On top of that, I've been finishing up the proof reading for Ring of Lies. Last week my daughter was in summer camp and I thought that would give me "alone" time to finish the plotting but the camp was from 1-4 so all it really did was interrupt my day. In fact, one day I managed to forget all about her and was almost 30 minutes late picking her up!

I was determined to work like mad this week and finish plotting Broken Chords before my company arrives Friday.  Oh, did I mention two of my best friends and their families are coming to visit for the 4th? No? Well, at present count there will be 14 of us   I didn't think anything about their coming, no big deal, the house is big enough, plenty of beds for adults and floor space for kids, etc. However, Tuesday I emerged from my fantasy world long enough to realize my house was a WRECK!

Now, my writing friends will surely relate when I say that house work falls by the wayside when the voices in our head's begin to chatter, but for those non-writing beings let me just say this house of mine had accumulated massive quantities of junk since the first of the year. Yes, I know, non-writers are saying, "WHAT, how can you not have cleaned since January?!" My answer is, "easily." Remember that I started plotting RIng of Lies in mid January but I was stressing and brainstorming from just after Christmas. Then I met Riley Quinn and started fleshing out my story with her and everything fell in place, but since the deadline for the submission of the manuscript was March 31st I had to devote all my time to actually writing the story. Let us also remember that I home school so some of my day had to be devoted to that as well. Oh, and there is a business that requires a modicum of my time, too!

Not surprising then that the house did not rate as a priority. I managed to sweep, mop, and keep piles of laundry from accumulating but dusting, windows, removing cobwebs, finding a home for Christmas presents ... NOPE, did not get done.  The bell tolled for me Tuesday morning. I could not have guests, and so many guests, in the house without cleaning, and I mean REALLY cleaning, not just running the vacuum cleaner and swiping a wet mop across the floors.
 
I finished another chapter of plotting on Broken Chords then pulled out the major cleaning supplies. The "public" areas were not too bad, dusting, sweeping, mopping, scrubbing the couch my dog likes to lay on ... I completed all of that in about two hours and went back to work on Broken Chords. Yesterday however, was another story. I decided to tackle the bedrooms. Thank God the guest room is out of bounds unless occupied by an actual guest but my daughter's room will be pressed into service this weekend, and OMG!  How can one fairly small girl create such HUGE messes?

Cleaning her pig sty took the better part of Wednesday. I filled two, count them TWO, kitchen sized garbage bags with trash, literally TRASH. She is an avid artist so paper is everywhere, some with drawings on them but most are just miscellaneous doodles. But ALL must be kept for posterities sake, at least according to her, so I corralled all the "art" into a bin, instructed her to gather up all the pens, pencils, markers, colored pencils, charcoal sticks, etc. and put them back on her desk where they belong, then I turned to the space under her bed.

Words escape me. I knew there was stuff under there, but I had no idea just how much she'd managed to squirrel away! I sent her little skinny self under the no man's land to rake out her stash while I decided whether it went to the keep or trash pile. Unbelievable. That is all I can say about the experience. Tiny triangles of paper she'd cut up for some forgotten purpose, piles of yarn and cotton batting, empty, and thankfully washed, pudding and yogurt containers, straws, etc. I have no idea what she intended to do with the stuff but if filled a trash bag. Then she pulled out clothes. She had half a wardrobe under there! No wonder she never has a mate for her socks, they've been living under the bed! Shoes too! Stuffed animals also came out of their prison ... I still cannot figure out how she managed to cram all that stuff under there! But, her room is now clean, and get this, she keeps going in there to look at it and had the nerve to say how much she likes it when her room is clean. You can guess my response, right? 


Still waaaay too much stuff, but at least you can see the carpet!


I was exhausted after the process but the jungle that is our yard still beckoned. We used to have a man come and cut the grass, weed eat, etc. but he can't do it anymore so that chore has fallen to me. I don't mind, normally, but the lawn mower is getting up there in age and now has quirks. What kind of quirks? Well, the worst one is its refusal to start until you remove the air filter, pour "so much and no more",( a delicate balance, don't you know), gas into the carburetor, then scramble to replace the air filter and jerk on the pull chord while praying it starts, before said gas runs down into where ever it goes and you have to start the process all over again. It worked on the first go'round and I managed to get the majority of the yard mowed, but, (there is always a but , it ran out of gas which leads me to the **#&^%$$?? mower's other major quirk. If the tank runs dry you refill it, and of course go through the carb. process again, but now, for whatever reason known only to the perverse mower, you can pull on that cord until you are red in the face but it IS NOT GOING TO START! Let us just end this with my kicking the stupid thing a few times and leave out the "choice" words I blessed it with; between gasps for air of course, since by this time I was utterly worn out from trying to start the ??(&%$#@*# thing!

On a final note, and one more thing on my list for this week, (wait! There is also a necessary grocery store visit on that list for today ,  a good friend of mine and her family are moving to Canada next week and we wanted to get the girls together to play one more time. They live on Tybee Island so we are supposed to spend this afternoon at the beach, though that may get scratched since the weatherman on the radio keeps harping about taking an umbrella if you venture out today ... that will just mean I need to find something else for the girls to do or find another open day to hit the beach ... I can't wait for RWA Nationals. A hotel room to myself, a big, fluffy bed; I may not leave the room!

Last week I posted some pictures of notes my daughter wrote to the neighborhood boys concerning the Battle of the Sexes they are waging. I assumed the war was in hiatus since most of the kids are occupied with gymnastics and summer camp but my husband discovered another note. While the combatants are otherwise engaged, preparations for the future battle are in full swing!



LOL! It seems my baby girl isn't above pulling the gender card to get the advantage!

I didn't manage to write a post yesterday because of George Harrison. You know, the "quiet" Beatle.
I've always liked the Beatles' songs, I even used two of them in Ring of Lies, but a few songs stick out as my favorites. Along with Across the Universe and A Day in the Life, I love,Taxman, I, Me Mine, While My Guitar Gently Weeps ... All of those are George Harrison's contributions so it is no surprise that I would fall in love with some of his solo work. My husband is also a fan of the Beatles and George is his favorite so for Father's Day I bought him the DVD of The Concert for George, see? It really is his fault

After George died, his friend Eric Clapton decided to honor him with a concert. Clapton planned the concert for November 29, 2002: a year to the day that George passed away. The concert took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and included the many musicians that had worked with George over the years, along with his son Dhani, who looks eerily like him. All of these people donated their time and talent to the event and all money raised went to George Harrison's charity, The Material World Foundation.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching that DVD. Harrison's songs were played by Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ringo, Paul, and many others. A particularly fine rendition of My Sweet Lord was played by Billy Preston. The most soulful performance ... I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it.  Two other songs stood out for me: Jeff Lynne singing, Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), and the finale song, Wah Wah. Both of these songs are running through my head and I spent part of yesterday watching You Tube videos  of them. I figured it was a "lost" day but since I got a blog post out of it ... it's all good.

If you love the Beatles/George Harrison I highly recommend you get these DVD's. There is also a performance by Monty Python, including Tom Hanks standing in for John Cleese. George was a huge fan of Monty Python and even started a production company, HandMade Films, so Python's Life of Brian could be made.  Oh, and if that isn't enough to entice you George and his son Dhani wrote a song together. A Horse to the Water was the last song he wrote and it is great. Even better? Sam Brown, a popular UK singer, brings down the house with her rendition. Absolutely fabulous, I'd go so far as to say her performance was the best of the night!

Ok, I think I've got that out of my system Perhaps now I can get my plotting done for Broken Chords. But, since it involves rock music and musicians ...eh, maybe I'll pop that DVD in while I'm working. Just for inspiration you understand

How about you? Have you seen Concert for George? Are you a Beatles or Harrison fan? What's your favorite song?

Like my title says, I'm trying to get motivated today. I have lots of things to do but no enthusiasm for doing them!  Ah well, no choice. I hung out at the house for three days, no paper work done or bank deposits made  for the "real job". I used the excuse that I had to finish proofing my galley for Ring of Lies, but, alas it is finished so ...  Sorry, paused to watch my excuse fly out the window!

I was really going to get up early and head out the door, really, I was. But I opened my email and there it was, a new distraction! This one is in the form of a yahoo group, (I just love yahoo groups Love Romances Cafe . The group is for readers of all romance genres to meet and chat with authors or to learn about new books, etc.  I need this group like I need a hole in my head; my e-book file is full and my shelves are overflowing with books! No hope for me. I'm a writer now but once a book lover, always a book lover.

Today is TWRP Author day at LRC so I'm reading posts and getting to know some of the other authors at TWRP but I am going to run my errands ..., seriously, I promise, I'm going just as soon as I finish writing this post. And checking in on FB, and reading a bit more of LRC, and getting dressed, and getting the kiddo up and around, and ... No! I will not be distracted ... too much

The babysitter is coming over tonight and my husband and I are heading out to listen to a new favorite band of mine. Magic Rocks is on FB check them out! I'm not kidding, they are awesome. Best harmonies I've ever heard in a live band. They also play classic rock and tunes I've hardly ever heard covered. My favorites that they cover? Bad Finger's "No Matter What You Want" and The Beatles "Hard Day's Night". Close your eyes and you'll swear its John, Paul, George, and Ringo up on stage.

Ok, I really am signing off now, but first I have to tell ya'll about my dog. Tiny is a mixed breed pooch that resembles a Corgi and several other things She is also neurotic. The first crash of thunder and she's glued to my side and shaking like jello. What happened the night before last has only worsened her issues. I'm sitting in bed with my laptop, diligently working on my galley while my husband watched our favorite TV show, Two and a Half Men.  All of a sudden a pitiful, high pitched whine drifts in the bedroom door. I'm sorry to say I didn't jump up when my husband asked me what the noise was, but I was busy and figured the dog got between the hissing cats again.

My husband didn't like my answer so he went to see. I, of course, followed. Poor Tiny! She was standing in the hall, tail tucked between her legs, hair standing up on the back of her neck. She was shivering all over and drool was hanging from her mouth. There was also a small pile of poo near my end table. I'm telling you, I had no idea what was going on.

My nine year old came out of her room to say Tiny probably ate a toad! Yep, she was insistent that dog's drool when they eat toads, (which they do but that wasn't it. I wiped the dog's mouth and headed into the living room to clean up her mess and that is when I found it.  Remember when I said Tiny is neurotic? Well, that extends to bugs. If one bites her or lands on her she will chew and scratch until I nugdge her to stop; she is OCD. Tiny had been laying on a pink blanket behind my end table. The lamp cord, which was on BTW, was under the blanket and Tiny must have been chewing again. The blanket has a small hole and the lamp cord's plastic coating is gone. Thankfully, the wires weren't completely severed. I'm thinking that fact, along with the blanket, is the only reason she's alive.
She literally got the crap knocked out of her!



The rest of the night, Tiny shivered and whimpered. She also refused to budge from my side and slept as close to me as possible. She is back to normal now. Well, as normal as Tiny can be

Gotta run ...
Have a great weekend!