So the weekend wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped it would be, which is why I’m still sitting in my office, working on fiction. In fact, the next three nights will probably find me doing this.  I have no idea why I seem to work better here than in my own home, but it certainly doesn’t bode well for the whole dream of writing fiction full time does it? I mean, do you think they’d let me lease my desk after I quit?  Sure they will.

While I didn’t get a spectacular load of pages completed, I did send out two queries today, one to an editor and one to an agent, for two separate projects.  Query letters only at this point, though formal proposals are ready to be sent.  No, that’s pretty much all you’re getting from me.  I don’t want to jinx myself.

One agent that was on my list was someone I’d had a face to face with last year.  Here’s a tip, children: don’t procrastinate.  I let life and holidays and other crap get in the way of sending the requested submission in, and now she’s left the agency.  I’m happy for her, but it’s teh suckage for me.  Sure, she’s gone off and gotten hitched to a gorgeous romance-hero sort of guy with lots of money who gives her fireworks (okay, that’s all conjecture on my part) but what about me?

On the bright side, if I’d signed with her and she’d called to tell me she was leaving, I’d be far from calm right about now.

The writer’s life, it is like a road maintained by the city,a little bumpy, a little rough, with happy surprised spots of smoothness.

Last weekend I was in Virginia, doing a couple of signings with Bridget Midway (and an unexpected group signing with members of CRW). Anyhoo, for your viewing pleasure, here are pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!

Bridget and I at the B&N entrance.

Happy that our books arrived! (Who’da thunk that they’d order No Apologies?

Authors Monique Lamont (2nd left) and the Paperback Diva Andrea Jackson stopped by the signing. Monique is in Vegas Bites Back and the upcoming Vegas Bites: Three of a Kind.

With members of the Chesapeake Romance Writers chapter outside of Fellini’s (the site of much craziness that was documented but doesn’t need to be shared with the rest of the world.)  Mae with Midnight Showcase is on the far left, followed by the always funny Denise Jeffries; Bridget in red; Monique Lamont kneeling; Nancy in turquoise, Violet behind her, then me and Andrea.

No, I don’t know how I’m going to fit all those curves into a fairy costume for the Faery Ball at the Romantic Times Convention next year.

More news by category Topic -: Buy phentermine saturday delivery ohio Tramadol hydrochloride tablets Picture of xanax pills Free shipping cheap phentermine Buying phentermine without prescription Safety of phentermine Pyridium Generic viagra cialis Cialis generic india Pink oval pill 17 xanax identification Buy free phentermine shipping Best price for generic viagra Information about street drugs or xanax bars Ordering viagra Snorting phentermine Hydrocodone overdose Lithium Amiodarone Get online viagra Order viagra prescription Order xanax paying cod Cheap phentermine free shipping Imiquimod Tramadol next day Linkdomain buy online viagra info domain buy onlin Pfizer viagra sperm Vidarabine Cheapest viagra price Prevacid Viagra cialis levitra comparison Dutasteride Lisinopril Thiotepa Female spray viagra Black market phentermine Betamethasone Cialis forums What does xanax look like Loss phentermine story success weight Order xanax overnight Viagra alternative uk Diet online phentermine pill Order xanax cod Mecamylamine Eulexin Cheap hydrocodone Buy cheapest viagra Viagra xenical Phentermine with no prior prescription Xanax in urine Macrodantin Cheap phentermine with online consultation Epivir Buy phentermine epharmacist Ditropan Woman use viagra Cialis erectile dysfunction Xanax withdrawl message boards Viagra online store Atorvastatin Generic ambien Is phentermine addictive Next day delivery on phentermine Buy online viagra Ethanol Natural phentermine Avandamet Xanax long term use Diet page phentermine pill yellow 5 cheap Cheapest secure delivery cialis uk Information medical phentermine Cialis experience Phentermine no perscription Compare ionamin phentermine Viagra cialis levivia dose comparison Noroxin Effects of viagra on women Buy cheap cialis Viagra shelf life Hydroxyurea Phentermine discount no prescription Buy cheap online viagra Dog xanax Online cialis Viagra class action Viagra price Phentermine without prescription and energy pill Hydrocodone cod only Nicoumalone Cheapest viagra Cheap ambien Vicodin without prescription Phentermine prescription online Phentermine snorting Mirtazapine Quazepam Isradipine Buy generic viagra online Xanax look alike Moxifloxacin Viagra experiences Piroxicam Nicorette Free try viagra Sotalol Cash on delivery shipping of phentermine How do i stop taking phentermine Xanax prescriptions Cheapest phentermine 90 day order Niacinamide Phentermine weight loss Phentermine

What I want today is more vacation days.  A lottery win that enables me to retire from my full time job would also be nice.  I do think I would probably have to have property in which I would have to “go” to my office, whether that’s the garage, the pool house or a turret room, so that I could get into the mindset of being “at work” and thus be more productive.

And yes, I am writing this post during my lunch break.  I have a new wireless broadband toy that enables me to surf while I’m not at home.  No more paying for access while at Starbucks or Barnes and Nobles or (as has seemed a lot lately) the airport.  I haven’t decided whether I want to boot my DSL yet, but the thought of getting rid of the home line (which is only there for the DSL anyway) sounds lovely.  Because if someone’s calling and they can’t pronounce my name, it’s probably not someone I want to talk to anyway.

Anyway, I only have two weeks of vacation.  Most of those vacation days are used to attend writing conferences, with a few squeezed out to actually go away and recuperate.  Next year, I’ve already decided to go to Romance Slam Jam (March 12-15); PASIC (RWA’s published author chapter) Power Conference March (19-21); and the ROmantic Times Booklovers’ Convention (April 22-26).  The only way I’d get a decent vacation next year would be to tie it to Labor Day or Memorial Day, which I normally try to turn into Writing Weekends.

I want more vacation days.

While I was away at Book Expo, Monica Jackson posted a wonderful post over at Blogging in Black (where I’m posting something less controversial on Friday) in which she asks:

My question why finding books by black authors in one place is more important than the principle a generation once struggled to achieve?  

She asks a great many more questions that I think are definitely worth a read.  So please click through.

Isn’t this look into the mind of a writer fascinating?  Not.

Must remember to order a real Mojito at dinner Wednesday.

Tuesday, I got six pages done.  On the wrong story.  It’s a side project that I’m hoping will be my first New York sale, so it needed to get done, but still…

Wednesday will be a low production day as I’m going out for lunch and typically meet with a writer friend for dinner as well.  I may have to break out the paper notebook.  I’m going to hope to have three pages before my midnight turn-in.

Shoulda bought a lottery ticket today.

I finished my script (yea for me) got handed something else but provided enough counter-argument to table it for a bit.  So the day job was very productive.  Sorta worked through part of lunch (note to self: wear noticeably large airplane-tech headphones during lunch) and had to get groceries, so the total today was only 5 pages.

Five pages more than I had though, and they are smokin’ hot pages too.

Tuesday’s goal is five pages, which may or may not include writing a synopsis apiece for RODE HARD and the upcoming THE SHARPEST EDGE.  Yeah, pantsing sucks.  Even though I live in my head 90% of the time and have the story in my head, it helps to also to have stuff written down (and printed out) to refer back to.  Especially given that I won’t be able to sequester myself this weekend, because I’ll be in Virgina with the fabulous Bridget Midway.

Now off to bed.

Here’s the new cover for the mass market release of my third book, Three Wishes, which will be out the first week of October:

Other than the fact that the guy doesn’t look like he’s old enough to have a seven year-old daughter or be a surgeon, I like the cover well enough.

Mercury is still retrograde for three more days, and I am a Gemini and I always feel it.  Nothing else explains how carrying my laptop from the cabin porch to my bed somehow turned the screen upside down.  I mean up was down and left was right and I was trying not to freak out.  I managed to correct it, but I took that as a sign to just enjoy my vacation and hit the ground running on the 16th.

So I’m home and the 16th is here.  Here’s my plan for today:  At work, I have a script to complete for a training video I am working on.  Day job stuff, of course, it completely outlined.  I do intend one day to apply some of those tools to writing but I need a break in due dates to make that work, and hopefully can put into some sort of templates that I can hand out in workshops.

Lunchtime is used for writing.  I allow myself one lunch break out of the office a week.  It’s when my friend Lynne and I go for Mexican and talk…writing.  Every other day, I’m at my desk with my sack lunch or carry-up from the cafe downstairs.  I am usually quite productive during that hour.

Stay at work until I finish the script (hopefully it will be complete during regulation hours).  Then spend a couple of hours at my desk with the laptop, working on one of my writing projects.  Come home and read email while watching Friday’s recorded Dr. Who, and the Adult Swim lineup from Saturday.
Hopeful time to leave work: 8 PM. Hopeful fiction pages created: 5-10.  Will update on Tuesday’s post.

I’m back from vacation, my week in the woods time to reflect.  I’ll be undergoing a re-direct of sorts, nothing too drastic.  But the blog may go away.  Or it may change into a writing process type of blog, if anyone is interested in the excruciating minutiae of how I forge my stories.  At the very least, this may serve as a guide to how not to get your stories done.
Right now, I am juggling three stories.  One is a novella due in just over a week.  Another is a short due in July, and another is a novella that hasn’t been started yet.

I should mention that I also have a full time career, in which I…write.

This is why my tagline for my weblog was “A blog a day means I’m not writing!” 

We’ll see how it goes.  It may go nowhere.  It may just be fodder.  And we may find something useful.