Hi all! First, for all of you in Oklahoma, I hope you and all your loved ones are safe. What a horrible tragedy. My heart it with all of you.

I’m writing blogs and getting ready for a blog tour next week. So yesterday afternoon Wizard called me just to chat because he wouldn’t be home until late. But as soon as he found out I was writing blogs ( not my favorite thing to do, except for THIS blog which is super casual) he got off the phone. Immediately. That made me laugh. Men are such babies.

For those of you who missed all my FB posts and tweets, there’s a short excerpt up for POSSESSION here 

And I’ve invited a “friend” to help me do a little promo and be our Worthy guy today (he’ll look very familiar, I invite him here a lot, LOL).

So what do you all think?

Notice anything new? It’s my redesigned website Imagine my surprise when–after working straight through the weekend without checking email or anything–I logged on and saw the new design, LOLOL! My web designer has been busy!

So…one more week until POSSESSION comes out! And it looks like I’ll get it up by, or at least close to, the 28th of the month.  After endless days of work, I  sent POSSESSION off to the formatter last night.  I’m hoping the book is good At this point I’m way to close to it to know for sure.

Next weekend, Bailey Dog is coming out! Middle son is bringing him out Saturday evening.  I can’t wait to see Bailey or Middle Son. I’m actually going to take some time off (Hush, Wizard, I know you’re shaking your head and saying, “That will never happen.” But I am–really!)

How was your weekend?

How can May be half over? Incredible and scary!

I finished the revisions on POSSESSION (book 2 of The Plus One Chronicles) and sent the book to the editor for round 2 on Monday. Hopefully everything will work out as it should to get the book up around the 28th.

To celebrate the upcoming release of POSSESSION, book 1,  THE PROPOSITION  is now 99 cents I think the price has changed at all the e-retailer now.

But today I’m not working!  Biker Witch (my sister) is coming over and I’m excited. I’ve been wanting to show her my counters etc.  We’ll probably just go to lunch and hang out.

And now, here is  today’s hunk candidate:

What do you think?

What just happened? How id today Friday? Sigh…okay last day of The Baby Bargain blog tour and the stop is Crystal’s Random Thoughts  Stop by and enter for a chance to win a $50.00 gift card. And if you want to catch up on ones you’ve missed, look on my home page here

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling great (just sinus that make me slightly queasy paired with a little insomnia), and by two o’clock I gave up working, sat on my butt and read for a little while. I probably need to step back a bit. Today will be better!

Wednesday I saw Biker Witch (my sister). I bought her coffee and begged for her forgiveness for being the absent sister.  But the truth is she always forgives me. No matter what I do, I’m forgiven.  She’s super cool that way. But then she tortured me by telling me funny stories about her volunteer job working with rescue dogs. It’s torture because I’m jealous!  Although picturing her in a battle with a Chihauhau determined to get out of a kennel while Biker Witch is trying to get another dog out was priceless. I may have splurted coffee. In fact, I was laughing so hard, I’m not sure who won–Biker Witch or the Chihauhau. I think it was a draw,  but they will battle it out again next week

Tonight we’re meeting our son’s for dinner to celebrate a birthday. This weekend, I’m going to do a little cleaning.

What are you doing this weekend?

Very quickly, my thoughts are with all those affected by the tragedy in Boston.  I’m sure we all carry sadness and anger this week.  And now we’ll move on.

So…BLB (my youngest son) was right. A couple weeks ago, we were texting and I said, “My book is due on 4/15, I’m not going to make it.”

BLB texted right back, “Yes you will. You just need MORE COFFEE!!”

And…I made it. I’m not saying the book is good, in fact I’m playing the game, Can This Book Be Saved in my head, but I got it in. Which means BLB was right And I’ll know when I see the revision letter if the book is salvageable.

In the meantime, my Entangled editor and I were talking about the possibility of my getting in the second book early.  I will do it if that’s what they want, though I may have to shift around my last book in The Plus One Chronicles. It will all work out as long as I drink enough coffee, according to BLB.

Right now, I’ve been trying to catch up on 100s of emails, promo, etc. And BTW I accidentally deleted a chunk of emails so if I haven’t replied to you, resend.

So we’re not getting the mirrors we ordered installed until Friday. I promise I’ll get pictures after that.

Today I’m hoping to see Biker Witch! I’m not even sure if she still claiming me as her sister. I’ll probably have to grovel and buy her coffee to get back in her good graces.

Now let’s move onto Wednesday Worthy! I just bought a new pick of a very familiar candidate:

What do you think? Is he worthy?

Today’s The Baby Bargain Blog Tour stop is Page Flippers. Stop by and enter for a chance to win a $50.00 gift card!

So, The Baby Bargain has been out about four weeks now.  When I originally singed with  Entangled Publisher I was cautious and a bit unsure. But now, after three solid weeks in their top ten (the first week out the sales were just building) , I am thrilled with the publisher. I’m very pleased with the editing process (I’m sure mistakes got through–digital is like that for many reasons) but their editing at all the stages including revision, copy edit and proofreading was as rigorous as any I’ve ever been through. My editor not only edits, but answers every question I have and cares as much as I do about the book. So far, I love this publisher  All they work me hard, that’s something I respect (when I’m not griping, LOL).

Then there’s my beloved THE PROPOSITION. It did pretty well for the first of three books in a series. I decided to take a risk and offer it to a reviewer known to be brutally honest.  She read it last night and contacted me today to let me know she really liked it. This, for me was a huge personal validation. The review will be up on her site next week, and I’ll link it then. But you guys have been with me through all this so I just wanted to share.

Now  for our Wednesday Hunk, I went to iStock to use up some credits I had leftover there. It’s a small picture, but what do you think?

Is he hunk worthy?

The Baby Bargain Blog Tour stop today is Ex Libris. Stop over and enter for a chance to win the $50.00 gift card!

I now have a rough draft of POSSESSION! This is the absolute roughest drafter I’ve ever written.  I need to fill out one scene then I’ll read through it and see if there’s hope for the book.  I’m crossing my fingers. I’m trying to streamline my process into something a little faster. There’s no way to make it easier, writing is always hard. But getting a draft down gives me something solid to work with and then I can agonize over the finer details, descriptions, word choices and finessing plot lines. The hardest task is always setting up and executing emotional scenes.  I really want to get POSSESSION to the editor next week and let her take a crack at it. I think I’ll be able to do an even more powerful revision with her input. But it has to be in good enough shape for her to get a solid feel in order for her to  give me constructive feedback. So we’ll see.

On Saturday, we got the lights in the bathroom. They look exactly as we hoped, we’re so happy! We have a great handy man that is doing the electrical and plumbing for the bathrooms as we need it. Wizard could do this but he’s busy enough patching, painting, etc.  He’s done the lion’s share of pulling all this together too. Weirdly he gets mad when I say that. He always says, “We’re a team.” And that’s true. I’ve done everything he asked, including getting a quote on mirrors that is going to save us $270.00 so I’m not entirely useless. But he really has done most of it while I write.

Here’s a picture of the granite I think we’re putting in the two upstairs bathrooms. This piece is broken, but the slab will be a full piece with no seams. Then they’ll cut out the sinks and faucets once they line them up.

The granite color is petty bold, but I’m tired of so much white. In the kitchen we have something softer in mind. But we’re going to see how they do in the bathrooms before we make a final decision on the kitchen.

So how was your weekend?