Deadlines, Galley, and Edits Oh, My!

C.R.A.Z.I.N.E.S.S.

Not kidding. I'm surprised I can find my head with everything that is going on. This will probably read more like a newsletter. So much has been happening!

Earlier this month I submitted The Aurora Conspiracy to Less Than Three Press for their Keeping The Stars Running Anthology. I'm waiting to hear back from them, hoping they like it. I adore this short story but I'm biased.

I also submitted Ruby Red Booty Shorts & A Louisville Slugger. Hopefully I'll have some good news for this series in a few weeks. The second book in the series, Werewolf's Tale & A Druid's Sword, is finished and has been sitting on my hard drive collecting metaphorical dust. It needs some good editing... which I need to get to soon.

I received the galley for Twin Flames. The re-release date is scheduled for October 1st. I've been contacting places to host me for the blog tour. I have three spots left: October 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

London Burden designed the new cover for Twin Flames. I adore this cover. She's also forming the bookmark to match. Yay!

*Points Up* Did you see my new banner. Again, Breathless Design knocked it out of the ball park. She also made me some fantastic bookmarks. I think that I'll have like a series of them done for each re-release of different characters. We'll see what happens but I'm really stoked with what I have right now. No, I'm not going to show you--yet.

Swag, swag, and more swag. Pre-orders is you are going to GRL and wish to buy a paperback ahead of time. Look at the top, I have tab with the order form. :-)

Earlier this week I received Twin Flames swag that I ordered for the blog tour and for GRL. Since this series is Fantasy/Menage/M-preg, that's like a small-of-a-small niche in the M/M romance genre so I didn't go too crazy when I ordered non-paper swag. There will be a limited supply of real ceramic coffee cups for GRL. Closer to the blog tour date, I'll post pictures of the prizes that I have for the re-release. I'm really happy with the quality and will probably order something similar again for Songs of the Earth re-release.

Speaking of which, guess what was in my mailbox this morning??? The first round edits for Songs of the Earth. 

Color me tickled... and overwhelmed!!

And talking about GRL and swag. Y'all remember the sketches I did leading up to the release of Striker (The Valespian Pact, 2)? I picked out the best ones and asked Breathless Design  to help me make them into trading cards. I've decided I will continue to do character sketches and for each new Valespian Pact release. The best ones will be added to the trading card portfolio. I'm so excited to see where this project will go! 

The lovely Aisha Akeju designed the fantastic covers for Alpha Trine and Striker. She also helped me with a bookmark for Alpha Trine for GRL swag and I will see about having a bookmark made for Striker as well, but that will probably be a couple weeks away.

*waves arms vigorously in the air* it looks like Alpha Trine and Striker are going to audiobook. I'm not flippin' kidding. Dude! Dude! Dude! I just... you have no idea how freakin' stoked I am. *runs around in frantic circles*

Four days are left in the month and I'm pushing to have the first draft of Keeping Faith revised and edited by month end. Revising and editing doesn't always go as fast as anyone wants and the frustration level is high. It looks as if Keeping Faith has a home and so I want to get it there as soon as possible but not until I'm satisfied with the end result.

With Keeping Faith nearing completion, I wanted to put a fresh face to the first book, Playing For Keeps, which Breathless Design did fabulously. Fireborn Publishing has offered to host this little free story on their website. I actually need to write a blurb for this before I send Playing For Keeps over to them.

What's next, you ask?

Well, in the editing sphere, Werewolf's Tale & A Druid's Sword for one and the huge 100+k manuscript for Fate & Destinies.

For writing? I will be finishing the Sumeria's Sons series with Dragon's Eye and Releasing Chaos. I'm so very stoked to write these last two books. With everything that needs to happen to reach that HEA I'm switching it up a bit and you'll have not only Tristan's POV but Ushna and Nikita's as well. I'll also have a couple of free short stories that will fit between the books from side characters. So don't miss out on those either. If you weren't aware, I'm planning two offshoot series, Sumeria's Magi and Sumeria's Children. ^_^

And if there is enough time before the end of the year, start writing Bespoken (The Valespian Pact, 3). The next books of this series will be written close together and somewhere in there I'll have to fit writing the rest of the I.O.N. series as well.

Are you as exhausted as I am??

August has been a busy month, a fantastic month, and an exhausting month. And GOOD, so very, very good. I cannot tell you how thankful I am to be this busy.

Love you guys! Thank you for making the next couple of months as busy as they are.

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!

Striker Character Sketch: Prince Azaes

I realized today that the release for Striker is a little over a month away. In fact, five and a half weeks and I had planned six more drawings. That may be a little ambitious for me. We'll see what I can do. I might end up with five sketches or less for the release week.

Because I'm behind, this is the last character reveal on my blog until June 1st. I had planned for the sketch to be both Azaes and Mestor. It wasn't until after I began that realized 1) my drawing tablet was much bigger than my scanner. 2) there was no way I could make a mirror image of Azaes for his twin. It's just not possible for me to draw the same image exactly a second time. 3) I used a cobra-man as inspiration but didn't have something to refer to when it came to Azaes' hands. Which means he doesn't have hands, at least for now.

I wanted to show the red ridge of the royal family, and I like how that turned out. I grew bolder and experimented with more color and I'm not happy with the outcome. It is what it is. I'll return to this when I have time and fix it, or sketch a different picture of Azaes.

While I'm gone...

Hey you guys. If you head over to Hearts On Fire Reviews, until April 17th they are taking entries for a $20 gift certificate for Less Than Three Press. With the the discount they are giving this month to celebrate their five year anniversary, you can make out like a bandit. Oh, and I hope you enjoy a the post.

Thank you for stopping by and reading!

Striker: Sketch of Galactic Emperor Cyprian

Where Have I Been?

Time flies when I'm working my tush off.

I spent roughly 60 days editing various manuscripts.

I'm putting together everything for RainbowCon. Sort of freaking out a little because this will be the first time that I'm going as an author.

I've been working on the sketches for Striker and becoming frustrated with my drawing limitations. I won't tell how many I've quietly filed in the trash.

Now with RainbowCon looming I'm determined to have Fate and Destinies completed. I'll have an except in a couple of days for you.

But that is for later. Right now I have the progression of the drawing of the Emperor Cyrpian of the Fal'Amoric. I messed up on the eyes a bit because I was too focused on the iris being silvery white. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Galactic Emperor Cyprian of the Fal'Amoric 

Thank you for reading!!

Character Sketch From Striker

So I promised a couple of weeks ago that I would post a few drawings for some of the characters from the Valespian Pact Series. I started off with Europa Astarte who is introduced in Striker.

I has been ages since I drew a proper picture but this first one isn't so bad. I used a mechanical pencil, a Q-tip, and my fingertips. 


About half way through I began to wish for charcoals and stumps. My husband, being the sweet man he is, bought me a slew of drawing supplies that were delivered the day before Valentines. (In return I shoveled the drive and the sidewalk. We had six inches of snow that day and he came home to a clean driveway after spending two and a half hours driving home from work. Not very romantic, I know, but he loved it.)

I promised a series of progression photos. This is a finished as she is going to be. There are others I wanted to get around to so I'm not spending more time on her. 

They're not as dramatic as I thought they would be. At least Europa doesn't look as off as I thought she would. I forgot most of my lessons. Some came back but I still don't remember somethings. Occasionally, when I'm trying to remember how to do something I feel like my brain is fried but at least she is presentable. I hope you guys like her. If anything, she is a visual of a character in my head.

1st picture taken on Feb 2nd.

2nd picture taken on Feb 5th.

3rd picture taken on Feb 8th

Europa Astarte - final

Thank you for stopping by and reading!

Character Sketch: Europa Astarte from Striker (Valespian Pact #2)

I noticed I haven't posted anything in a week, so I'm making it up to you with an early picture. I started with a character introduced in Striker, Europa Astarte. I wasn't going to show her off until she was finished, but I thought, maybe, I would post a series of pictures to show the progress as they were completed. I, of course, had this novel idea after I had made a good deal of progress on Europa. The others will have better progression posts. Promise. I haven't decided how many I'll do. I think it'll depend heavily on the spare time I'll have to put into this project. If any of them really suck big, hairy toes, I might not have the courage to post them. But I'll post "meh" to "mediocre". Something to note: I'm not an real artist.

Until last year, I hadn't attempted to draw anything since I was 19-20. So we are talking 20 years, roughly. I have found that if you don't work the 'art' part of you brain you forget what you once knew. I drew a lot when I was a teenager. Loved to duplicate the covers to my mother's romance novel. Do you remember in the back of the magazines, where they had the ads. You could usually find the one for the contest that involved drawing the turtle or the pirate. I drew both and never sent them in. I didn't take any classes other than a general craft's class where they did a bunch of different things like ceramics, weaving, and candles. (That was a fun class even though I had to go the principal's office for flipping Scott the bird when he called my mom fat.)

My best work used to be done with pencil and charcoal. I've been wishing for a set of charcoals this last week or so. There is so much I've forgotten how to do. How to shadow. How to add depth. I know Europa's head is a bit warped. I'm trying to fix that. 

Just be a dear, and don't expect amazing, because, like I said, it will be mediocre at best. The upside--you get a glimpse of what I see, who I see when I write.

Europa Astarte - progress picture #1