Flying Fingers & what the heck is favicon????

Hi out there to old and new viewers of Muse--you know who you are!

Well, if you read Sabrina's post the other day, you know that I'm on vacation away from my job (driving transit), and I couldn't be happier. I've now got time to reach into my head and pull out all the stops and just write, and allow it to pull the aces, or rabbits out of my hat--or head . . .  whatever.

The third book was finished weeks ago--first/second/third draft--and so I've put it off to the side to rest. The fourth book was in me, and so I just let the thing take me. Sort of fun when things happen like this. I had so many ideas I had to take recordings, jot them down in another document (I always make separate NOTES documents for each book), and now I'm getting caught up. And then of course more ideas come. I even have the ending. Which is great. And I didn't even see it before, but now I do. I LOVE when that happens.

I've just re-vamped (I love using that word!), the blog here for my book, Vampire Ascending~The Book. I think it looks great. Those of you who've been there, thanks for stopping by. I posted it on facebook and I can see I had a lot of visits. This blog is all about the book, any blogs I've appeared on have been placed here, too. On the side-bar I've written small blurbs about each character you meet there.I changed the background too--it's sort of cool, a field of green wheat (looked like corn to me), and the sun has just set--which was perfect!

I'm hopeful I can do something special this month with my 1st book, but I won't know until later if I'll be able to. My birthday is at the end of this month--always hated it as a child because I was usually back to school (hated school, it meant all my little day dreams ended), and it's no different now since I drive NIU students around and thousands of students come back and it's like driving through an ant hill!--so hopefully I can celebrate it in a way that will include you guys. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

And as I've been getting all sorts of people telling me how much they liked the first book, Vampire Ascending, and can't wait for the second one, Vampire's Trill, I can report that my editor at Copperhill Media is half-way through edits. I may be getting these in a matter of weeks to okay and send back. I'm hopeful about the cover, too. Everyone loved the cover of my first book. I couldn't agree with them more. I know what I would like to see, but I don't know what they will find.

Speaking of Vampire's Trill, I've been working on that book's site here at blogspot. Not finished yet, so I'm not going to give the site out as yet, so be patient. Anyway, I noticed something at the top when I'm working in "design" you know where you add and arrange page elements? Does anyone know what "favicon" is. It's this little tab up on the top, left hand side when you're in designing your page. Does anyone know what this is and how to use it? I'd love to know, so PLEASE, if you have used this at all, tell me what it's for. I don't want to mess with it until I know. I'm hopeful that it will come into great use for me.

Okay, that's all from me on this Monday morning. I hope the rest of you are doing well, and have a good day!

Milestone . . . ooo! I know this one!

Okay, maybe it's a not big deal, or earth-shattering news but here it is: "author works on her WIP, and achieves word count goals. FINALLY!" Big deal.

But it was a goal which had been glaring me in the face. It was being mean, taunting me: "You'll never reach it . . . na-na-na-na-nah!!!!" for months now, because I'd been too busy with the second book, Vampire's Trill, editing it so as to send it off to my publisher so that they can someday put it out there for those of you who are fans of Vampire Ascending, because you've been clawing me for the next installment.

Well, kidies, I've managed to get my book, Beyond the Black Veil -- a.k.a. WIP-- into a more healthy word count zone to be considered a novel, and not a novella, to 94,471 words, so humph! I'm nearly done with the first draft (which I've gone over the front part of it so much, playing and editing it to death, it's sort of a 20th/10th/4th/2nd/and 1st draft all in one. Yeah, I'm a fly by the pants writer. So get over it already!

And my week-long vacation ends soon *pooh*, and I go back to the bus driving *bluchk*. But I've had a great week, had some time away from this--went for a hike in the pines with my husband and we had lunch; we bought a few more things for the kitchen, and YAY! We finally have knobs on the doors and drawers (had to do this ourselves, but it's done)! Eventually I'll get shelving paper in all the cupboards & drawers. But it's been wonderful having a nice new kitchen.

Lastly, my book, Vampire Ascending, was one featured in Raven's Vampire Books newsletter. I received mine this morning. Looks good along with all the other books. I've told her about the eventual release of my next book--have not actual date as yet. They've just begun work on it, and I'm really excited about what sort of cover it will have.

Oh! and before I forget, I'm to have another interview on another blog later this month. I'll keep you posted, when it happens.

I've placed a few bits and pieces from Beyond the Black Veil on my other blogs, this one was a latest with Alucard having drugged Sabrina and he's the vampire with the foot fetish. This little excerpt is here, if you wish to read that.

Okay, I'm newsed out. Happy 4th everyone!

Getting Dirt Under the Fingernails

There is always something relaxing for me to go out and plant flowers in black dirt. My whiskey barrels were looking rather forlorn and weedy. Plus, I had some re-seeded marigolds in one that needed to be redistributed.

So, yesterday we went and bought me some flowers. I didn't need many because the marigolds would help fill it out. My passion is the color violet to orchid, and petunias are one of my all time favorites. Along with the gold of marigolds, it would be eye-catching.

I was able to take the day off, called a woman who was more than happy to take my run, so that was no problem. Somehow the knowledge you don't have to get up for work relaxes you and you can concentrate on other things. Getting outside in the sunshine helps too.

I've been working on my WIP, of course. There's a certain excitement for a writer when a minor character rears his ugly head and lets you know he can fill the order of villain. I usually have a couple of bad people in my books--as some of you may know. I usually save revealing the real nasty villain toward the end, at the climax (which is what some writers do when you don't reveal them in the beginning). I like people to wonder who is going to turn out to be the deadliest person. So, I'm working on this today.

What are you doing today?