Here’s a coupon for 25% off a book at Borders or Waldens. :pirate:

In other news, I agreed to write three more single title historicals for Brava today. :cheer:

*I have to add that my editor rocks. She really does. What a way to start out my year!

I’m getting ready to dig into my copy edits. The first thing I do (out of curiosity) is go through the post-its that stick out the side. There are about half a dozen of them in the ASK FOR IT ms. No matter what they say, they make me cringe.

I’m going to make errors. That’s a given. But still, I hate that I make them. If a gown or eye color changes when it’s not supposed to, I mentally kick myself. How the hell did I do that? If I overuse something and it’s pointed out to me with a little, “Can we maybe have something else here?” I’m :doh: and :scratch: Why didn’t I catch that? And part of me wonders if the copy editor is sitting there saying to themselves, “Man, this chick sucks. Why the hell are they buying her books?” and that thought bothers me.

*sigh* My cp asks me often how it’s possible that I have such confidence issues. I’m selling stories I haven’t even thought up yet. (Unlike many authors, I don’t have a file of story ideas. I’m not an author who has endless premises to explore.) I replied the other day that I’m confident my work is salable, I just don’t know why it’s salable. I haven’t been writing long enough. Not that I’m complaining. No way in hell am I complaining. It’s just everything happened really fast. And I know none of this would be happening if I didn’t have the editors that I do. Out of all the editors I could’ve gotten, all the editors who would reject my stuff and think I’m not good enough, I ended up with editors who love my work. Sheer dumb luck.

I think that’s where the confidence comes into play. How do you feel confident about luck of the draw?

From Terescia Harvey:

I recently had the pleasure of reading Sylvia Day’s new book Bad Boys Ahoy! so I could interview her about the book. I was excited to realize this was a historical entry into the Bad Boys anthology series from Brava.

I don’t usually recommend books on my blog, but I thought I would recommend this one. I really enjoyed reading the book and I think a lot of people are going to like this one. Especially those who enjoyed the earlier Bad Boys anthologies but grew tired of them. This isn’t the same old thing. It’s the first historical Bad Boys anthology from Brava.

Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I’m getting caught up on everything.

Cool thing today was going to BN with my mom and sister, buying Susan Johnson’s When You Love Someone, and finding an excerpt of BAD BOYS AHOY! in the back. :love: A book of mine in the back of Susan Johnson’s!! Too cool!!

• 1.) Read and judge 6 GH entries
• 2.) Read and judge 7 6 RITA entries
• 3.) Answer the questions to 8 3 interviews
• 4.) Work on ASK FOR IT copy edits
• 5.) Write President’s letter for Passionate Ink newsletter

*partly done

• 6.) Go to post office and mail prizes
• 7.) Get my tax stuff together (add up numbers, get the paperwork all in one place, etc.)
• 8.) Clean my house
• 9.) Think up new stories

*got a synop written, need to tweak


• 10.) Think up book discussion questions for Feb. BBA book club
• 11.) Sleep

*getting there

• 12.) Think up title for MISLED/KISS OF THE NIGHT antho.

*trying. Sent a few to my editor

• 13.) Write up article on BBA
• 14.) Critique one partial and one story.
• 15.) think up a decent class to teach that hasn’t been done to death

*working on this

The bulk of my BBA author copies arrived yesterday. Fun stuff. :yay:

My To Do list isn’t getting much shorter (probably because I’m surfing Amazon and BN ), but I’m determined to make a dent in it this weekend. My sister flies in for a two week visit this afternoon, and that’ll be fun. She just turned 21 today, so we’ll have to go out for drinks. :beer:

In the meantime, I really need to cross of stuff on the list.

• 1.) Read and judge 6 GH entries
• 2.) Read and judge 7 6 RITA entries
• 3.) Answer the questions to 6 7 interviews
• 4.) Work on ASK FOR IT copy edits
• 5.) Write President’s letter for Passionate Ink newsletter
• 6.) Go to post office and mail prizes
• 7.) Get my tax stuff together (add up numbers, get the paperwork all in one place, etc.)
• 8.) Clean my house
• 9.) Think up new stories
• 10.) Think up book discussion questions for Feb. BBA book club
• 11.) Sleep
• 12.) Think up title for MISLED/KISS OF THE NIGHT antho.
• 13.) Write up article on BBA
• 14.) Critique one partial and one story.
• 15.) think up a decent class to teach that hasn’t been done to death
• 16.) Write up a reading guide for BBA ooops!! this is #10. :doh:

Copies of BBA have reached the mailboxes of readers from the online booksellers. :pirate: Very cool to get the emails that say, “I got it today!”

I dislike the romances I’ve read that feature protagonists in the military. Admittedly, I haven’t read very many, but every one I have picked up seems to be written for people who have never been exposed to military life. Using a common military acronym like MRE (”Hey, you want a MRE?”) and then replying, “Meals Ready to Eat? Sure, pass me one.” is not only lame, it’s totally unrealistic. Glamorizing or romanticizing the military is also unrealistic, and you’re talking to a gal who loved every minute of her time in the military. But it’s not glamorous or romantic. *sigh* Just not my cuppa, I guess. I wonder if military stories written outside of romance are also written this way?

Maybe it’s the editors saying, “What is this? Can you explain for the layman?” Dunno. But it doesn’t work for me. I keep getting yanked out of the story.