Tuesday, November 18, 2014

I Ramble As I Wander

It feels like time for another ramble post... and I am constantly surprised by how many people tell me they enjoy reading them LOL.

I'm freaking COLD.  Which is inhibiting my writing because it makes me feel like just curling up under a blanket and reading.  For hours.  Which is what happened last night.  I did get some writing done before that and Mastering Lexie is now at 60k words (yay!) but I didn't get as much done as I wanted to.  *sigh*  On the other hand, I've been reading some good books lately... but I've also been paying more for them than usual.  Normally I try to keep my book purchases under $5 unless it's an author that I know is worth more, but then I discovered Cynthia Eden who has a freaking MILLION books and I got into most of her series, and then Lauren Dohnner's New Species series... and the next thing I know I'm reading instead of writing and spending way too much money on it.  again - *sigh*

The good news is, I'm really liking what I've got going on with Mastering Lexie =)  Even if I wish I was writing it faster.  Definitely going to try to get some serious work done on it today.  The other day I ended up re-writing the outline for the book - again.  I haven't done it quite as often as I did with Stronghold, but the end of the book is def going to be very different from the way I'd originally thought.  I think it's much better though.  One of my beta readers made a couple of points that have really helped me develop the characters further than I initially had, and that's making me really happy.  I was fighting some of the usual "big brother's best friend" tropes so hard that I went a little too far in the opposite direction and was taking out my frustration with other people's books on Patrick.  Poor guy.  Now I'm more balanced and I think it's a lot better that way... Lexie's got some good points to make about his attitude, but at the same time, she's also got some growing up to do.  Sucks being the youngest in the group.

Some other things I'm really enjoying about this book... I'm getting to know Leigh, Andrew and Jared a lot better, which is fun.  There's a seriously hot scene with Master Michael, which I thoroughly enjoyed and is making me look forward to his book.  Off to the side characters like Ellie, Will and Gina are getting small mentions through the book - and Will and Gina have their own short story which will be part of the YellowSilkDreams' holiday 'magazine.'  I'll let you all know when that's available.  I'm also finally getting to know Jake, which I've been looking forward to for a long time!  Not that he gets to show up much, so far, but it's still exciting.  He's kind of a hottie.  Rick basically has Maria locked up in his apartment doing naughty things, so we don't get to see too much of them, but he does let her out every now and then.

So yeah.  That's a lot of fun right now.

I'm also really enjoying working on From Terra.  I should be finishing Chapter 16 and submitting it today, and it's a HUGE turning point in the story, which will change completely after this chapter.  Definitely looking forward to it.  I love Chryssa.

I've also been thinking a lot about what I want to write next... I've got a ton of re-writing to do to make Marriage Training into a book (and, fun announcement, I might be finally making a break into traditional publishing with that one!  I've got a writing agent who's interested!) and I'm working on the beginning of a fetish novella, but I don't know what my next series will be.  I'm on a huge sci-fi romance kick when it comes to reading right now and it's kind of making me want to try my hand at writing one myself.  On the other hand, I also really enjoy doing the Victorian time period, so I'm kind of torn.  I keep coming up with all sorts of story ideas for both.  Aliens or earls... aliens or earls... such a dilemma. LOL.

Before I end this, I just want to say... thank you to my fans.  You guys.  I read every comment, I try to write back, I notice who follows me on Facebook and Twitter and who contacts me.  I love getting emails and feedback.  It doesn't just keep me motivated, it makes me feel really good about what I'm doing.  There is nothing more rewarding than having the same names pop up over and over again throughout the week in response to the stuff I post, whether it's here, facebook or twitter.  One day, if I'm lucky, I might be swamped with fans on all my sites, but there are certain names that are always going to stand out, and it's because you've been the ones who have stuck with me the longest and who are going out of your way to let me know that you're there.  I can't express how much I appreciate that.

10 comments :

  1. Wooohooo good exciting teasing news all around!!! awesome!!!! and thank YOU. I love your books and always look forward to them as well as having read every single story on Lit. Shame they're not translated yet cause I think you would have one more fan. I translated the teaser you posted about Patrick and Lexie and she was 'you're sure they're not translated into Portuguese? cant you do it?' I think I might have a go... LOL.

    Anyway, thanks for the news and the words!!!!!

    Marta

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    1. If I could translate them, I would! email me at goldeniangel@gmail.com and we'll chat about it =)

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  2. Aliens who are Earls? Earls who are aliens? Both please!!!

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    1. hahaha I'll work on it =D

      Lately I've been wondering - what would happen if Alex and Bella's colony met up with aliens... lol. Wouldn't be a story from their point of view, but it would allow me to show where they ended up =)

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  3. I've never been much of a fiction writer myself (I am told I'm hilariously good at describing weird situations like when my Great Dane screwed up my mother's Easter basket [white] chocolate project), so I always find it interesting how writers describe their characters as actual people. I like that you have to get to know your own characters.

    I hope you manage to get traditional publishing done, especially if it has been a goal for a while. Please please please work out with your publisher a way to get it on a kindle. I've gotten so used to reading on the kindle now that I almost don't want to go back to books. As beautiful as your covers are, I don't want anyone but my husband seeing what I'm reading and I just can't put your books down.

    I have not managed to get to most of your Lit stuff, but if you're looking into the sci-fi area, there's always were-races and vampires. I'd LOVE to see where you would take those. I bet you can think of some incredibly crazy and sexy stuff.

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    1. Okay... you've got me curious... I need to know more about this Great Dane Easter basket!!! LOL. Yeah, my characters are def their own people... and we do not always agree about what they're supposed to be doing, which is even weirder.

      Trust me, I'll still be getting my stuff out on Kindle =D I know that Kindle is where it's at, and I'm the same way about the covers! I read so many more romances now than I used to because I can do it on Kindle!

      Lately I've been thinking about doing a werewolf / vampire book, but I've always been thinking about doing an alien book... it'll be interesting to see which one I'm in the mood for once I'm in a position to start working on something new! =)

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  4. Very long story short. Basically my mom had just had surgery on her knee, total knee replacement. She was at home supposed to be on mostly bed rest, while on heavy pain meds and doing some horrible physical therapy. So she decided to make.. they were Christmas presents, but whatever.

    Main thing here, the chocolate was white chocolate. Basically yogurt, not bad for dogs. Gotta say that first.

    She blew up balloons and tied them off. She had several different sizes, water balloon up to like.. birthday size. She'd take one, set the fat end of the balloon into a vat of melted white chocolate, tip it forward, then back, then left, then right. She'd then set it on a plate and hope that it stayed upright so that there was a base to allow the chocolate to cool. Basically it created a curved + shaped chocolate bowl. She then planned to drizzle chocolate on it and decorate it and fill it with edibles.

    Well... as it turns out.. fully blown up balloons, when dipped in hot chocolate, expand. Then they pop. Then chocolate goes flying. Cookie, the Dane, figured this out quite quickly. The first balloon scared her a bit, but then this magical tasty stuff landed on her nose. The second balloon didn't startle her, but it got chocolate between her eyes. Cookie spent a good 20 minutes trying to remove that with her tongue. Eventually she realized that the popping balloons were connected with the tasty goop. She waited until my mother left the kitchen and started biting and popping every balloon (the ones that managed to survive the hot chocolate bath) she could reach and scarfing up all of the chocolate drippings she could find. This resulted in a dirty sticky dog and a dirtier stickier kitchen.

    I relayed this story in greater detail to all of my mother's work friends. At least three responded that any emails that I sent in the future needed disclaimers to use the restroom first. This was almost 10 years ago. They still reference that story.

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    1. There was a fair amount more to this story. It ended up being about a 4 page e-mail. Some of it had to do with my mother's reactions to the frustration of not having it go as well as it did on tv. Sadly we have not been able to recover the email. I remembered today that my mom did manage to have quite a few cool correctly, after figuring out to not fully expand the balloons and to lock Cookie far away from where they were cooling.

      It took several extra attempts to remember to not pop the side of the balloon to let the air out. The chocolate stuck to the balloons and when you stab the stretched part of the balloon, it implodes and breaks the shell. Keep in mind that my mother was on heavy duty pain meds after surgery, so it took some time for her to remember to poke a small hole near the tie of the balloon to have the air leak out slowly. After she got her technique down, she managed to crank out about 30 of these things. With every one she gave to people, she included the story of their creation and Cookie's antics.

      If you google "chocolate baskets made with balloons" there are multiple project ideas. The goal with these had been to have them dry and then decorate the insides of the solid white baskets with milk and dark chocolate drizzles and then fill them with goodies. All in all, the memory of our blue merle Great Dane with chocolate dripping off her ears chomping balloons and trying to catch flying chocolate is priceless.

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    2. bahahaha that's amazing... sounds like something I would do!

      can I use that in a story if a good chance occurs?

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    3. Haha by all means, I'd be honored. I just request that you keep the dog a Great Dane.

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