The amazing cover artist for the Steel Empires series, Brad Sharp, did such a fantastic (fang-tastic?) job on the cover for Steel Blood that my publishers and I couldn't decide between them! So we're leaving it up to all of you with a vote. Head over to Raw Dog Screaming Press' website to choose your favorite … Continue reading STEEL BLOOD cover reveal contest announced!
Holiday Romance Special Part 2: Victory & Mikelos
As promised, the husband and I shared a delicious meal of Indian food in front of the TV last night to celebrate Valentine's Day. We watched another few episodes of The Grand Tour and then went to bed early. Today actually marks 8 years since we officially started dating! Not because of the holiday, but … Continue reading Holiday Romance Special Part 2: Victory & Mikelos
January Wrap-Up & February Goals
I had a very good, low-key January that also included some major news and accomplishments. First of all, I'm excited to announce that Steel Empires #3: Steel Blood will be released July 2017 from Raw Dog Screaming Press, along with a full slate of other amazing books. Want to know what Victory has been up to … Continue reading January Wrap-Up & February Goals
June Wrap-Up & July Goals
June has definitely been one of my rougher months in recent memory. The bad news is that I don't feel like I got as far on a lot of my projects as I wish I could be. The good news is that I'm spending the long holiday weekend with my husband! Mississippi is hot and … Continue reading June Wrap-Up & July Goals
May Wrap-Up & June Goals
I'm not going to lie: This month has been really busy and kind of rough. I'm satisfied with my progress on some things, and not as happy with others. Unfortunately, June is looking like more of the same. May Wrap-Up: The Steel Magic cover reveal happened, to great success! A great group of people came … Continue reading May Wrap-Up & June Goals
April Wrap-Up & May Goals
What a roller coaster of a month! April Wrap-Up: Vacation successful and new job started! I'm three weeks in and enjoying myself immensely. I'm doing a very different sort of editing, along with a bunch of other interesting projects. My small team is great, and I love the area of Baltimore that my new office … Continue reading April Wrap-Up & May Goals
March Wrap-Up & April Goals
Some highs and lows this month, for sure. See last Friday's post about the major milestones in my life I'm currently in the middle of. March Wrap-Up: Complete the scene-by-scene outline for book 4, Steel Time. It turns out that the power in the 'verse that can stop me is my own brain! I have … Continue reading March Wrap-Up & April Goals
End of an Era
Today marks the end of a journey. If you've read my Bio page, you know that I'm a medical editor for my day job. That's not going to change, but as of this morning, I can announce that I am no longer employed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) , where for the … Continue reading End of an Era
Final STEEL BLOOD Wrap-Up
Now that I've finally completed the first draft of book 3, tentatively titled STEEL BLOOD, I wanted to do a bit of a wrap-up on it. These questions were gleefully stolen from fellow writer Breeanna Pierce, and you can check out her final thoughts on her most recent novel here. Previous posts I've made about … Continue reading Final STEEL BLOOD Wrap-Up
January Wrap-Up & February Goals
First of all, can we just spend a moment basking in the fact that this happened yesterday? I did a bit more tweaking today, and STEEL BLOOD is currently at 79,999 words and on it's way to the beta readers! January Wrap-Up: Finish book 3: DONE! WOOT! Finish edits on prequel story 1: DONE! I'm … Continue reading January Wrap-Up & February Goals
December Wrap-Up & January Goals
December was both a slow and hectic month for me. Slow in that I was out of commission with a nasty cold for the first 1/3 of the month and hectic because the holidays coincided with the deadline for the final draft of STEEL MAGIC. (But it was submitted on time! Go me!) December Wrap-Up: … Continue reading December Wrap-Up & January Goals
NaNoWriMo Follow-up: Part 1
Sorry for the silence for the past 2 weeks. I picked up a cold on the last day of November and it took me down hard. But I'm feeling much better now! Unfortunately, my days have been wrapped up with working on STEEL MAGIC edits, and my NaNoWriMo novel is still languishing at 70k words. … Continue reading NaNoWriMo Follow-up: Part 1
November Wrap-Up & December Goals
November Wrap-Up: Participate in NaNoWriMo (successfully): Done! I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days over the month of November, bringing my word count for book 3 to 70,014 words. December Goals: Incorporate my editor's notes and complete the full line edit of STEEL MAGIC before deadline on 12/31/2015. Start working on a series bible for … Continue reading November Wrap-Up & December Goals
NaNoWriMo Update: WINNER!
NaNoWriMo for 2015 is finally done, with a few hours to spare. This is my second year "winning" in a row, and just like last year, I definitely still have a lot of work to do. This time, it's writing about 8 more scenes (including the epic dragon battle while a city burns) and going … Continue reading NaNoWriMo Update: WINNER!
NaNoWriMo Update: Week 2
I'm still plugging along, kids! Sort of. This update was supposed to go up on Monday, but I burned one of my free days and drank beer and caught up on the DVR instead. No regrets! As of last night, I'm at 29,086 words (49,086 for the STEEL BLOOD total). As a reminder, you can … Continue reading NaNoWriMo Update: Week 2
NaNoWriMo Update: Week 1
I am on a roll with NaNoWriMo this year! Tonight I hit 16,000 words (36,000 total for the manuscript), and I've been consistently writing every day. The only exception has been 11/7, because that's my husband's birthday--instead, we had a great day watching the new James Bond movie and eating delicious Brasilian pizza. If you're … Continue reading NaNoWriMo Update: Week 1
October Wrap-Up & November Goals
October Wrap-Up: I made it to 20,000 words in STEEL BLOOD by October 31. So I will definitely have at least 5k to 10k words to complete in December, but I am okay with that. I finished all of the Kitty the Werewolf books and wrote up my review of the final novel in the … Continue reading October Wrap-Up & November Goals
STEEL BLOOD: My 2015 NaNoWriMo Novel
It’s that time of year again, kids. That time when a significant number of the writers in your life hibernate with their computers for hours on end, alternately spamming social media with words counts or angsting about how this is impossible and they will never get it done. For more information about National Novel Writing … Continue reading STEEL BLOOD: My 2015 NaNoWriMo Novel
September Wrap-Up & October Goals
September Wrap-Up: Reach 20,000 words in book 3, STEEL BLOOD. Progress: Better than August! After a few rounds of scene edits with my criqiue partners in which some narrative vomit was thankfully cut, I ended up with approximately 9,000 words written for the month, and I'm hanging out at about 14,000 words right now. Goal: Finish … Continue reading September Wrap-Up & October Goals
August Wrap-Up & September Goals
August Wrap-Up: Goal: Write 10,000 words of book 3, STEEL BLOOD. Progress: A little over 5,500 words. Part of that was because I didn't even start writing until August 18, and the other part was crippling uncertainty as to the way I was starting the novel, which is one of the hardest parts of any … Continue reading August Wrap-Up & September Goals