Post GRL Frenzy

I think I was one of the fortunate few who didn't catch the con-bug although my whole body ached by the time that I made it home. I'm really, really glad that I've been going to the gym on a regular basis. I didn't totally die with all the lifting and the walking and the stairs.

What were the highlights of my week??

I had two wonderful roommates, Piper Vaughn and Sue.

RJ's Hubby is a complete gentleman and so very kind. I was carrying boxes from my car to the Supporting Author Signing on Thursday morning. It was a descent haul to the convention center and I was at that point where I was shaking the mental pom-poms at myself. "Just a little further. I'll use the elevator instead of the stairs. OMG. My arms are killing me. Just a little further to go." RJ's Hubby offered his help. I didn't find out who he was until afterwards. Then I turned all spastic with, "Oh! I know who you are!!"

Lissa Kasey let me hang with her which was so nice and calm. All the voices and the noise and there were times I was ready to hide in my room. Lissa and I sat off to the side and had normal conversation about coffee and tea and it was just what I needed.

For a host of various reasons Sara York, Wade Kelly, Ethan Stone, Crissy Morris, Toni Griffin, Angel Martinez, Silvia Violet and her husband Brent, Hank Edwards, Jayden Brooks, Jason Mitchell and his husband David, Freddy MacKay, Matt Watson, and Kindle Alexander were bright points in this year's GRL experience.

I tried not to be stalker-ish of RJ Scott but there was the moment when I was grabbing a cup of coffee and she her tea and I practically pounced. The opening line was something like, "Oh! You're alone now!" In my defense, Every time I saw her she was so busy and there were always people around. (I know, duh, it's a con.) I only wanted thirty seconds to say hello.

Then there was the moment when I saw TA Chase at registration and I asked her for a hug. I totally cried. See, I cut my M/M Romance teeth on TA Chase, JL Langley, Lynn Lorenz, Jordan Castillo Price, Abigail Roux, and Madeleine Urban because those were the authors my public library carried. With those points of references, I was able to search Amazon enabling my book addiction to explode.

Since then, TA Chase has been a favorite author of mine. Sometime at the beginning of this year or the end of last year she sent me a tweet about Alpha Trine. I was seriously Over. The. Moon. So when I saw her, I had to say thank you. Hence the tears.

I'm never not a reader and so of course I had a book budget when I arrived and I definitely went over my budget before I left. I want everything but I just can't afford to go that crazy. If only.

Coming home, edits for Keeping Faith waited for me... and news about my dad.

Dad has been diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. He has tumors in his brain, in his neck, and on his hip bones. After he completes 10 days of radiation, he'll start chemo. I think he's more worried about losing his beard than he is his hair.

There isn't a lot I will say about this at the moment. I'm still struggling to figure out how to handle/deal with it. I have moments and then others I'm fine. I'm sure later on I'll have a ton to say.

Dad and T.

Any positive thoughts y'all can send his way, I know he would appreciate it. <3

As for other pictures from GRL, I suck. I don't remember until after something is over. But I do have a few.

Piper under the skylight. ^_^

Wade Kelly and her beautiful smile.

Sue looks like she has a tiara. 

Gorgoeus Crissy Morris

Jayden Brooks trying to hide her dimples.

My only crowd picture as we were waiting in line for sausage. *cackle*

Count Down To GRL - Where I Will Be

This is my last blog before I head off to Chicago. I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm trying to stave off the con jitters. Going as a reader was much simpler. All I needed was something descent to wear and extra cash to feed my book addiction. If I needed to disappear into my room for a couple of hours because I became a tad overwhelmed, I could without feeling guilty.

Now I have lists and more list because I'm afraid that I'll forget something vital. I bought and then promptly lost my black sharpie. And I'm attempting to plan for all contingencies. Headaches, migraines, coughs, and colds. Do I want to wear makeup? Do I want to wear jewelry? I get stuff out and then put it right back hours later.

Where will I find good coffee?  That's a serious question because coffee is very, very important.

You would think that I've never traveled before. ^_^

This isn't my first con as an author. I went to RainbowCon in April. It was a small con and there were a couple of people who I knew and I met several more for the first time. I sat on panels and attended others, and when I just needed everything to pause for a little while I went to visit the ladies at the LT3 table and simply chilled.

Keep reminding myself that I did fine then I will do fine this coming week. I'm just over thinking everything. Once I get there and and start the activities, I'll be fine.

Ooooohhhh!

You know what I did? Have mercy I wanted to crawl under a rock and disappear.

So I was putting together my spreadsheet for Ethan Day with a list of books that I would bring to GRL to sell. When I inserted the sell price something niggled at me that I did something wrong somewhere. And the answer was, yes, I did.

Back in August when I put together the pre-order sheet I listed the wrong pre-sale amount for the books.

Color me twelve shades of  M.O.R.T.I.F.I.E.D.

I sent out the refund because, yes, there was only one buyer. But that didn't keep me from feeling like a complete and utter idiot.

So if anyone is wondering here are the sale prices for GRL (that have been quadruple checked just to make sure I didn't slip back into idiocy again).

$5 - Alpha Trine
$10 - Striker
$5 - Twin Flames

Here is a list of what I'll be doing and where I'll be if your at GRL and want to look me up. ^_^
I volunteered for a few things as well.

Tuesday, Oct. 14th
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Stamping in the Atrium (Volunteered)

Wednesday, Oct. 15th
8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Stamping in the Atrium (Volunteered)

Thursday, Oct. 16th
Supporting Author Booksigning (this is me signing books)
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Cyprus I & II

Friday, October 17th
Author Lounge Event
12:30 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.
Trillium III

2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Fun Fair Volunteer (Volunteered)

Saturday, Oct. 18th
Feature Author Booksigning - (this is me feeding my book addiction by having others sign books for me.)
2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Clean-up TB Time Travel Party (Volunteered)

That's it! I will be around so please don't be shy. Say, Hi. I'm good at giving and receiving hugs if you want/need one. See you there!!

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!!

GRL Book Signing and Pre-orders

If you're going to the 2014 GRL Chicago then you've probably heard of the pre-sales that many authors and publishers are doing. Holy cow. As a reader, I'm thrilled with the pre-sales because book fairs are where I purchase most of my LGBT paperbacks. I LOVE autographed books plus at the book fairs they can be purchased at a discount. What is not to love about that?

After much consideration, I will be doing pre-sales as well, even though by book title list is that ---> <--- big. If you are going to GRL Chicago in October, until September 20th you can pre-order Alpha Trine and Striker from me and then be able to pick them up at the retreat.

I will bring limited stock to GRL to sell at the normal book fair price.


 


On a separate note, Less Than Three Press is having a END-OF-SUMMER SALE! GET 20% OFF ALL LT3 STOCKLT3 is throwing an end-of-summer sale! Stock up on sweet LGBTQ romance for the beach (or the couch ^_~) with 20% off all ebooks, paperbacks, anthologies, collections… basically, if you can read it, you can buy it on sale.

Sale runs from today, Friday, August 15 through end of day Friday, August 22.