Busy weekend! Wizard and I had a great time at the beach on Friday. We tried a hole in the wall pizza place for lunch, and that got a big fat thumbs down. But then we headed over to another place for chocolate dipped ice cream cones that got two thumbs up. We passed a French bulldog too.

“Look, it’s a French bulldog.” Naturally I couldn’t resister pointing him out.

Wizard took one look and proclaimed, “No way, witch. That’s not a dog. We can’t get that!”

“You are a dog snob!” Then I tortured him endlessly all weekend long.

And FYI — it’s humid and miserable here. We spent the remainder of the weekend in the house. Ugh!! I succeeded in getting Caged Magic up on Netgalley and am now tackling the remainder of the pre-orders, plus working on the Blood Magic file. Things are moving alone, I just need to clone myself to get it all done

So how was your weekend?

Happy Friday!

It’s been a long week, and dang, but I’m so frustrated that Caged Magic got held up in production for something I can’t control. I’m pretty much banging my head on my desk. It’s not a major deal, I just want to get it up on Netgalley for reviewers and up for pre-orders. It will get done, just not fast enough to suit my impatient self. But we still have plenty of time, so it will get done long before the release date.

In other news, I will be re-releasing the first four Wing Slayer Hunter books, which is great news. I don’t have a time table yet, but I’m excited to get control of the entire series! And I truly appreciate Random House’s cooperation. I’ll be working as quickly as I can to make it happen and should have a time table for the release in July.

But you know what? Life is about more than work — even when we love our job as much as I love writing — so today I have granted myself time off! Yay! Wizard asked me if I wanted to go have lunch down on the beach, and I was like:

Heck yeah!!! Except I didn’t look as cute as this dog when I said it.

So we’re taking off to enjoy a few hours away. I really do take time off — although few people believe that, LOL!

What are your plans this weekend? Are you doing anything fun?

I totally missed posting on Monday! My only excuse is that Sunday, Father’s Day, was way too much fun and by the time the last people left around 9pm, I was zonked.

Yesterday, I saw the first proofs of the print version of Caged Magic. It’s going to very pretty once Amy (my formatter) and her team are finished. She’s also working on the digital files. As soon as I have those, I’ll get more pre-orders up.

In the meantime I’m supposed to be working on blogs for the two blog tours but I’ve been finding a million other things to do But no more procrastinating…no really…

So for our Wednesday Worthy candidate, I’m bringing back an oldie. I went looking through my files for a new image I had recently purchased and got sidetracked by this:

Vintage stylized monochrome sepia classic portrait of young male model (Photo has an intentional film grain)

So what do you think? Does he seem worthy of sidetracking me24?

I know a lot of you are getting rain, but it’s been HOT here. Over a 100 every freaking day!

In other news, it only took me 3 different trips to a store on 3 separate days to get new towels, a rug and a toilet seat cover for the downstairs powder room. It’s a good thing I didn’t take up a career in Interior Design! Wizard, by the way, thinks this is hilarious. I can raise three boys and deal with a sick mom at the same time — all while writing a book, but I can’t seem to buy simple household items.

I’m also **trying** to rest a bit since I have a cold (mild) and my ankle is acting up. But resting is hard when there’s so much to be done!

Now for the important thing; Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

I got this photo from Bigstock because it reminds me of Wizard. He was the kind of dad that was always happy to get home from work and hang out with the kids. For a few weeks, our youngest son, BLB had some mild colic. Every night around dinner time, he’d cry. Wizard would come home from work, change and immediately take over. I’d tell him he didn’t have to, but he’d just say, “You need a break too.”  Then he’d hold BLB in his arms, walking around the house and outside, soothing him while playing with our two older boys and listening to their chatter about their days. It was so sweet and sexy and to this day, Wizard is still like that. When the kids need him, he’s there.

I wish all children had a father like that, but most especially boys so they could see what is true strength in a man.

Sunday, Wizard’s brother is visiting from out-of-state, and for sure Middle Son and his girlfriend will come over. I think BLB will be here too. CPA boy and Special K will be on a camping trip. We’ll see them soon. Oh and Bailey Dog is coming too, I think

What are your plans for this weekend/Father’s Day?

So is anyone else sweltering? It’s over a 100 degrees here, and next week we’re supposed to add humidity to the fun. I’m hearing from others that they are getting hit with the heat in their states too. I’m thankful for the air conditioning and the pool!

As many of you saw on my FB page, I sent Caged Magic off to the formatter. Yay!!  Now I’m trying not to think about it too much

And…it’s time for our Wednesday Worthy Candidate:

What do you think? Is he worthy?

I’m reading a book that uses the term “platonic”wrong. I mean it’s just wrong…like what the characters are doing is the opposite of platonic. I even looked it up in the urban dictionary to see if the word has taken on a new meaning in certain circles. Near as I can tell…nope. Normally this would be a reason for me to DNF (do not finish) the book. But I didn’t, which is pretty amazing because lately, I’ve had zero patience in my very limited reading time. My last couple months have been non-stop rounds of editing on two different books, literally getting hammered by content editors, copy editors, line editors and proofreaders on every single little thing (as is their job–I’m explaining my mindset, not complaining). So much so, that I’ve stopped Wizard in the middle of the story with editorial comments like, “You just used a dangling participle.”

He either ignores me and goes on with his story, or if he’s feeling brave, he’ll reply with something like, “Just checking to see if you’ve learned what a dangling participle is yet.”

“Not funny.”

“Can I finish my story?”

Being magnanimous, I of course, nod for him to go on. And he does, until I stop him again. “There was no subject in that last sentence.”

He sighs dramatically. “Are you sure? Maybe we should ask your editor since she manages to find all your sentences with missing subjects. How many did you have in Caged Magic?” He hands me a glass of wine. “Are you sure you know what a subject is?”

Okay, I’d be pissed and smack him, but I don’t want to spill the wine. So I take the glass and sip it. “Here’s a subject for you — brownies.”

He perks up. “What about them?”

This is just too easy. “I’m not going to have time to make brownies for a very long time.”

His face falls and I enjoy my wine-laced victory.

But my long-winded point is that I’m deep in editing-picking-books-apart-mode. Yet this book has made a couple significant mistakes and I keep reading.

Why?

Because the sheer power of the author’s voice mixed with and engaging story keeps me reading! If a book has those elements, a couple mistakes here and there won’t ruin it for most readers.

That’s my advice to myself today It’s time for me to let Caged Magic go and send it to the formatter, but I’m stressing that I’m missing something. I want this story to be good, but at this point, changing one word, or catching one overlooked mistake, won’t save a slow, boring or confusing plot or lackluster characters. Either the book has a compelling story and engaging voice, or it doesn’t.

Now we’ll see if I can actually let it go today!

I had a great weekend. We went to our friends daughter’s wedding and it was lovely!

How was your weekend?

TGIF!!

So yesterday I took my Rita Dress in to be hemmed. I tried this new place with a German Grandmotherly type of seamstress recommended to me by a friend. This lady knew WAY more about my dress than me. That was a very good sign, especially since I’m fashion challenged, and also, I can’t sew.

I tried on the dress and she began pinning it up. “These mermaid dresses are usually a couple inches off the ground.”

Oh cool, I have a mermaid dress. Wait…I need to focus on the length of the dress. “Umm, I want it longer.”

“Yeah? Okay but you need the the overskirt an inch off the ground to walk.  The underskirt will be shorter.

Oh come on, walking is totally overrated. Right? “I wanted it to skim the ground.”

“I show you.” She pins up the underskirt two inches. “This shows your shoes, and the overskirt (which is sheer) will be longer. Turn and look in mirror.”

Hmm. I look in the mirror and what I’m thinking comes right out my mouth. “I think I want it longer. Cuz, you know, I’m short.”

Grandma Seamstress sits back on her heels and gives me a stern look. “You think the dress dragging on the ground will make you look taller?”

Umm….Yes? But judging by her dubious tone, I’m guessing that was wrong.  At that point, I’m pretty sure I looked like this:

So I said, “I think I’ll just trust you.”

She nodded, re-pinned the underskirt a little longer and then got to work on the overskirt. And dang, what she showed me when she was finished looked pretty good, and much safer. Although I still looked a little like an overstuffed mermaid, but skinny is not in the cards for me right now.

I really liked the seamstress by the way. She really did ask me if I thought the dress dragging would make me look taller (and hearing someone say it out loud showed me exactly how stupid that is!), but she was super helpful, nice and clearly knew her stuff. And she loved my shoes, said they worked perfectly with the dress. Which is pretty funny since I got the shoes on a killer sale for around $30.00 And those I can wear again over and over. The dress…well if you see a women hanging out at Starbucks in a mermaid dress — just know I’m trying to get my money’s worth. That’s not crazy, right?

This weekend, Wizard and I have a wedding. Otherwise, I’m mostly gathering up promo stuff and working on the behind the scenes stuff but nothing terribly stressful since my awesome team is totally on task for me and that’s helping me out a lot. By the way, when I say team, I mean people like my assistant Anna, my editor, my formatter, the graphic designer from Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs who just did an awesome title page logo for me, my proofreader, my cover designer — all of them help me in huge ways that make everything go smoother. I can’t express how much I value them. And Wizard! He’s pitched in so much over the last months so I could get both these books done.

What are your plans this weekend?