Between the Covers

I enjoyed the uncovered feature I did on my blog last year. This year I decided to do a spin off of the uncovered feature. The feature will be called:

Between the Covers

Between the Covers will random excerpts from my books. Each month I will pick one of my books and throughout the month I will be giving you a look between the covers.

Each Wednesday I will post excerpts from whichever of my books I chose. That will be four or five according to the calendar Wednesday’s of the month. So check back next week for our first Between the Covers. And be sure to check each week for your Between the Covers look of my books.

Thanks to McKenna Jeffries for inspiring the Between the Covers feature. She had done something similar to this for her yahoo group readers called Between the Pages. She graciously let me use the concept. I tailored it to make it work for my own use.

Crenshaw Reading Thursday - Series Rundown

This week I've been exploring series. I've found myself reading some series I love and lost track off. This last year I didn't get a chance to read as much as I would have liked. I've been reading some of my favorites.

A quick rundown on my favorites.

Brenda Jackson's Madaris Family Series. I love the family, the passion and their closeness.

Francis Rays’ The Grayson’s of New Mexico and Taggart/Falcon Series. This is a dynamic family with so much passion, closeness and brings you in.

McKenna Jeffries' Sultry Nights series which feature the Hamlin Family and their friends. The Hamlin and their friends are another dynamic and close knit family. The stories are passionate, heartbreakingly poignant and make me want more. Conquering Jazz, the first book isn't released yet but I've read a sneak peek of it and some of the others in the series. I enjoyed them. I’m afraid to say too much. All I can say is go out and get the story when it comes out. I can't wait for the release. It will be coming from Liquid Silver Books sometime in the next few months.

Layne Blacque's upcoming series. I can't say much about this one because she hasn't officially announced it yet but I can say if the first book is any indication it is a great series. I can't wait until I can say more. So a not so subtle hint to Layne. Make the damn announcement already so I can talk about it. Jeesh it’s hard to keep quite about this one.

Seressia Glass' Hughes Family Series and No Commitment Required. Although the Hughes may not be considered a series by some I see it as such. These novels were emotional, passionate and real. No Commitment Required is still one of my all time favorite books.

Pamela Leigh Starr's Love Found Series. From the first book Fate which featured Scott Halloway and Vanessa Lewis to the last in this four book series I was caught in the lives of the Lewis family. They face unexpected love, bigotry and most of all forgiveness. When the series was done I was sad but at least I can revisit the Lewis' when I reread the series.

There are so many more series I enjoy. Series across all genres’. The above are only a few of the contemporary series I enjoy reading. I'll be exploring more of the series in a variety of genres that I enjoy in some of my future blog posts.

Now back to what I was getting at. What is most prevalent of all the series above? Family. No matter if by blood or not. They all explore families and the love and support they all give you. Each of the series above is passionate, emotion filled and most of all show the power of all types of families. You get to follow the characters and see them in other books. I don't know about you but I sometimes wonder what happens to characters after I close the book. With the series I read I get to know and see them again. Ahh.. series this is why I love them.

So read any good series lately? I'm always looking for things to read.

God Style Temptation - Available Today

God Style Temptation, is available today at Ellora's Cave . Make sure go and get your copy. I’m so excited about the release. Be sure and check it out.

God Style Tempation is the second in my Olympus Unleashed Series.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Decisions

I mentioned few days ago since the new year started I was going through and setting up my writing calendar. Well I took it one step further and reviewed my goals I had set for 2007 -(ie. short term career plans) and long term career plans. When I reviewed my 2007 short term plans I realized I had achieved them and even more. I usually don't share these sort of things but since I have been talking about it I'll give you a look at what I had planned. These are in no particular order.
2007 Short Term Career Plans
1.) Have at least 3 releases in 2007.

Result: Check had eight releases in total.

2.) Submit to Ellora's Cave and keep trying until I get in.

Result: Check. I got in on my first submission to them and had multiple books contracted with them. And have more planned to submit.

3.) Submit to Liquid Silver and keep trying until I get in.

Result: Check. I got in and have. And have more planned to submit.

4.) Streamline my website.

Result: Check. I streamlined my site and love the new site.

5.) Become more promo savvy.

Result: Check. I teamed up with Moonglade Marketing to handle my promo. This is still an ongoing one so will always be a part of my plans.

6.) Try to get over my shyness.

 Result: Sort of Check. I tried to get over my shyness and talk more on groups. I have a lot of authors I love and am part of most of their groups but I tend to lurk and read posts. So this is still a work in progress.

7.) Complete four new books and submit them.

Result: Check. I'm not going to even admit how many books I have written. If I do I know my muse will go running for the hills how hard we worked last year. {To my muse: Warning we have a lot more to do this year. Hey don't give me that look. You slacker we have things to do.) Ummm... sorry I digressed. My muse can be a handful. Oh yeah where was I. Writing. Yeah wrote a lot and much more to come.

8.) Sign up to go to the Romantic Times Convention.

Result: Check. I'm going and will also be part of the 2008 Faery Court, will be at hopefully both the print and e-book signing. {insert shudder here} Remember I'm shy so look for me in a corner somewhere at RT watching everyone. {insert panicked look} Unless my friend does as she threatens and drags me to the center of room and screams to let everyone know who I am. In that case look for me passed out in the middle of the floor from fright. Just step over me and try not to step on me. I bruise easy. LOL.

So that is only a few of my 2007 Short Term Career Plans and I think I did well with them. After reviewing them I reviewed my long term career plans and wrote some 2008 Short Term Career Plans. No not sharing them. I'm a little superstitious about jinxing them until they happen. {grin}. While making my plans I had to review my decision I made in my writing career last year, make decisions on where I want to be this year and this time next year. It was a hard process to make some of the choices I had to make. Just like my site I had to streamline some things and rework others.

I won't know how things work out until they happen but I feel good about my short and long term plans. We'll see how it all works out.

Blogging at SIA

Today’s post is over at the SIA blog for my weekly blog day. Go by and check out my post.

70 Days of Sweat Totals - Round 2

Here are all my totals for my 70 days of Sweat with Sven! I will update it each week. http://70daysofsweat.com/wordpress/

My goal is to write 2 - 25K novels and 1 - 50K novel.

Updated New Word Count:

10/17/07 - 9,349

10/21/07 – 9,050
10/22/07- 11/6/07 – Ill
11/7/07 – 292
11/18/07 – 100
11/21/07 – 100
11/25/07 – 100
11/28/07 – 700
12/2/07 – 1000
12/5/07 – 1000
12/9/07 – 12,404
12/12/07 – 14,077
12/16/07 – 5,708

12/19/07 - 4,303

12/23/07 - 5,374

12/26/07 - 3,185

12/30/07 - 3,388

1/2/08 - 10,190

1/6/08 - 16,096

1/9/08 - 14,257

1/13/08 - 7,649

1/16/08 - 17,854

Total to date: 137,789

Updated on 1/16/08

Whoo Hooo I’m getting back in my groove.

70 Days of Sweat Totals

http://70daysofsweat.com/wordpress/
My final count was 137,789 words.
Wow I made some good numbers these last weeks of Sven. My goal is to write 2 - 25K novels and 1 - 50K. I surpassed that and so much more. Yay.

It took me sometime to get back into the groove but when I did I burnt a lot of midnight oil. {Grin}. I had fun with Sven and plan to use it to get me back on track with my writing schedule.

This helped me push myself after my being so blah the end of last year and now to take it and run with it through the year and beyond.

So Sven made me sweat and I loved it. LOL. So here is to lots of writing in 2008.

Now off to bask in the glow of my numbers then get back to writing. LOL.

Series Landscape

With me getting sick last year I’ve been absent for a bit here on the blog and starting today I hope that will change. I won’t promise I will post everyday but will try to post more often. I’ve been playing catch up. Getting back into my writing schedule. Some of my friends tease me about always changing my writing calendar. Yeah I have one. I’m an organization freak. LOL. The good thing about having a writing schedule is that I have an idea of what I will be writing next. I also have my schedule set so it leaves flexibility for me to change and shift things around. I have another friend who has a writing calendar also and we are always discussing the changes we make. How it helps keep us on track and set our long term writing career goals.

The schedule helps me a lot with my writing and planning out my various series. I love writing series because I get to get deep into the world, see previous characters and develop more. It is fun and of course time consuming. You must make sure that you keep the thread of the series accurate to your previous books and so on. LOL. But I love it. It’s like a puzzle that keeps getting more pieces that fit together to create a beautiful image.

This is what we are doing with the stories on Satin Notes building two towns with lots of people, place and so on. Bringing you into their lives and world. It is fun to do and I can’t wait to see what comes next. I already have a few stories that are set in both Trescott Cove and Savoy Valle contracted as well as some more that I will be sending out to various publishers. Once I have more on the books not contracted I will let you know.

God Style Temptation is a book that is set in Savoy Valley and releases on January 23, 2008 at Ellora’s Cave. This is book two of my Olympus Unleashed Series. I did say I love series. LOL. I also have some news I hope to share sometime this week or early next week. {grin}

Since I am discussing series here is a quick update on some of my series.

I’ve finished book two and three for Immortal Blossom series however I still need to go and edit them and flesh out a few things before I submit them. I’m waiting a little before doing anything else to them that way I can go in with fresh eyes so to speak.

I’m currently working on finishing the next book in my Nefer Investigation Force series. This book is action packed and sexy. I’m having a blast writing it and sad to see it finish. After that I’m going to dive into the next Rarities Incorporated book. I already know what the story is about just have too write it.

I love revisiting my series and writing the next book. It’s like opening a candy jar and finding my favorite candies. I guess that is why I tend to like to read series too. To get into the world and so on.

Bad Blogger and Reaching out

I’ve been a lax blogger. The holidays and so on. I’m still trying to recover from it all. I’ll be back blogging next week.

Today’s post is over at the SIA blog for my weekly blog day. Go by and check out my Crenshaw Reading. I plan on posting Crenshaw Reading here on my blog also but it will be on Thursday's so this will make sure I blog more often. Look for Crenshaw Reading next week.

The next chapter of Cami’s Surrender has been posted to Satin Notes - http://www.satinnotes.com, a site where we will have free stories. Go on by and check it out.

I also had some bad news. One of my grand uncles died. It is so hard to lose someone. It’s been a while since I saw and spoke with him. Earlier this week on the SIA Blog Layne mentioned about the importance of keeping in touch and she was so right.

I speak with my sister in St. Thomas almost everyday and she keeps me up to date on the rest of the family there including my brother who also lives there. My other I speak to at least once a week. My brother who is also in St. Thomas I speak to ever so often. I try to call the rest of my family every couple of months. I’m definitely going to have to reach out and call the rest of my family more.

The Moments

This is X-Posted from the SIA blog .

Let me get a little deep today. The people I call friends will tell you I have moments. I can see the eye rolls and grins on my friend’s faces now. Grin. My moments can range from any sort of news good or bad in writing or daily life. For the good I scream, effervesce and all around make a fool of myself. I celebrate my own news but go nuts over the news of my friends. I know some probably suffer temporary hearing loss from my screaming. LOL. I’ve even been known to do a dance. Butt shaking and all. I send cards for releases, news and just because. Yeah I am a sap. For the bad moments I curse, cry and support with them. Then we talk about it and come up with another plan.

You’re probably wondering why I am telling you all this. Well because I read something the other day that made me realize that there are a lot of moments that people shrug off and just let pass. Life is too short not to dance at each victory and think on the failures then dust yourself off and move on. It’s the moments that keep us going. The moments that define who we are. Each second of a day there is a moment. Now I am not saying that you should dance each second but when you get that next promotion, compliment from someone, book contract, book release, or any number of things take a moment to acknowledge it is someway.

I shared a moment with Layne Blacque yesterday and was glad she chose me to share it with here. And yeah Layne I had my moment when I went home. Butt shaking, screaming and all in between. LOL.

I got myself a nice palm phone for the holidays and I was putting in my dates on the calendar. Besides the birthdays and so on I put in the moments. My first acceptance to EC, LSB and TEB. The date each book I have with them was released and so on and so on. Also added the somber things my mom, dad passing, and my almost two misses of not being here. I put all the moments because I don’t ever want to forget how blessed I am to be able to have moments.

Today I am having another of these moments and want to share with you. A project that is near and dear to me launched today. I’ve wanted to give back to all the readers who have supported me and my writing. All the readers who enjoy books as much as I do. I found two other like minded authors in Aliyah Burke and McKenna Jeffries. We joined together and created Satin Notes - http://www.satinnotes.com, a site where we will have free stories based in two towns called Trescott Cove and Savoy Valley. The free stories will be for all readers.

I’m excited that Satin Notes opened today with the first chapter of our first free read. Cami’s Surrender. So share with me as I have my moment today. Come on all do the dance with me. {Shaking butt and hips. Moving hands in air and grinning}

Thank you for sharing my moment.

Taige

A new year~2008

Happy New Year. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2008. Be safe, get a little naughty and most off all have some fun.