Milestone: Third book sent off to publisher



Artwork done by Lorelei Bell in "paints"

Breathing in.... and exhaling. This is what it feels like to me. Freeing! Like I'm out on a lake somewhere fishing.

I've just delivered my 3rd book to my editor, Yolanda Campbell at Copperhill Media. That's right, Vampire Nocturne, the third book in the series, is in the hands of my publisher. Now you all get to wait, and wait, and wait...

I made the decision back a few months ago, that once I got this one done and out, I would take a little break. That's not to say that the fourth book won't be written. It's actually 90% done. I still have some scenes to work on and add to it. But I've other projects I'd like to work on during the next 3 months--through the summer. I'm hopeful to get my first self-published book, Spell of the Black Unicorn, into shape, and want to get it to Smashwords or whatever, by this fall and go Indie with it. I have no idea what I'm doing, really, or what to expect. I will be peddling this one of as a paranormal romance, since it seems to be more that than anything else. Back when I wrote it, I don't even know if the phrase even existed, or if it did I had no idea what it meant.

I'm working on a few shorter projects, as well. I have to get a short story done before the deadline, and I think it should be ready soon. I've got a few guests coming on my blog soon--this month, in fact. Heather McCorkle is taking her latest book tour (Puca tour), and will be on Lorelei's Muse on the 24th.

I also will have Jeremy Hawkins, a.k.a. Retro-Zombie. I have come to get to know him a little better, and I felt it was time to let everyone out there get to know more about him by doing an interview with him. This won't be a cookie-cutter interview, either. I felt I knew him well enough to ask things like "Cubs or White Sox?", "Chevy or Ford". And just how much does he love those zombies, folks? I wasn't afraid to ask! LOL! But he just put out a wicked looking book he published that combines pictures and interesting, somewhat skewed poetry. I will be having him over at the end of the month.

So, there you have it--my short term and long-term plans for the summer. I'm not exactly going fishing... but that would be fun, really, since I will be at my regular job 5 days a week and not looking forward to it one bit. But I've decided to adopt a new philosophy of enjoying my days off, when I get them. I won't be at the grindstone [the thing I call writing] as I have been the past couple of years. This year I'm going to get outside, do some walking (try to loose weight), and enjoy the summer months ahead. And I think my husband and I might do close-at-home vacation trips, since the price of gas is not going down.

Anyway, I hope you will join me, here, and get to know a couple of my friends. I'll still be working with Carole Gill over on Bloody Good Vampires, so, if you are into vampires and would like to check out something on the darker side, come on over.

Permission to Relax

Having a week off makes me want to retire NOW. I have been getting up at 5:30 or once 6 a.m.! And can stay up as long as I want, but I get sleepy around 8:30. I think it might be the time change thing.

Our weather has cooperated for once. Can you believe it? Yesterday it hit 80! We've seen 77, 78, and 79 all week long. These are records for Northern Illinois for March. We shouldn't see anything over 54 degrees.

So, since the weather was so wonderful, and we can wear shorts, I spent a couple of hours outside enjoying it. I took my bird book and binoculars and was able to get into a wooded area to find a golden crowned kinglett. Might not be of interest to most people, but I've been a bird watcher all my adult life and I do believe this was a first sighting. I was thinking I had a warbler, as these are very small, very quick birds that flit and jump from tree-limb to brush and back to tree limbs. You can't identify one of these little guys w/o something that brings them in close. I can't imagine trying to take a photograph of one! I caught the identifying markings--and lack of certain other markings--and was able to find him in my book.

Why was this important to me? This is a relaxing mode for me. I have not been able to do this in a long while, merely because I've been working so damned hard on writing and getting a WIP done, that taking a couple of hours off in the day to NOT write seemed like an impossible idea. I would love to have a lap top, it would free me from the dark room which is my office. Up until the bugs begin to bug me, that is, and it becomes too hot outside. But still, it would be nice to have that freedom.

It's important to give yourself permission to relax. You need to go and do something else, not thinking about writing. You can suffer from burn-out if you don't do something like this once in a while.

On Wednesday, my husband and I drove to a state park to have a picnic and do some hiking. That was a wonderful time of R&R. We enjoyed the warm weather and my potato salad and fried chicken. It will buoy us through the next few weeks of work. The memories will give me something to think about, and smile at.

Me relaxing in the backyard

So, give yourself permission to relax. You deserve it. More importantly, if you don't, you'll find yourself burned-out and won't know how to get back the momentum again.