Great News! (And STAR WARS!)

Hello there and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! It’s been a while since I gave all of you an update on the blog, and a lot of things have happened in the last two months, so let’s get started…

I am excited to announce that my third book, Under Your Scars (Tri-Town Book 2), has been contracted by eXtasy Books, and will be live sometime in 2020! This is the book I’ve been working on for over 2 years, between actually writing it, editing it, and making a lot of changes. I had started it in 2014, but Away to Me hit me like a ton of bricks, and it was set aside while I wrote that one and rewrote Stricken.

Under Your Scars follows the romance of Seth Mitchell, a carpenter with a lot of baggage from an abusive ex-wife, and Alexis Graves, an orphan with a questionable past who has a secret big enough to make her growing relationship with Seth implode. Its timeline is the shortest of all of my stories to date – less than 3 months pass between the first scene and the grand finale – and it is a fast paced ride that has highs into the stratosphere, and lows that go deeper than the Marianas Trench. There are a few twists and turns in it that not even I saw coming. It was a fun yet heartbreaking story to write.

Introducing…

 Under Your Scars

Book 2 of the Tri-Town Series

TAGLINE: You can run from your past, but it will catch up to you eventually.

Blurb (unedited):

Alexis has that special something about her that Seth can’t fathom. His friend Mirabelle’s new employee is even prettier than the merchandise she sells. Too bad she’s distantly polite when he tries talking to her.

Alexis is attracted to Seth, but she’s in hiding from her past and her mistakes. Getting involved with the one person she's attracted to could blow her cover.

Forced to work together, their libidos ignite. Alexis is terrified to open up and give into her feelings for Seth. If he remembers that night, five years ago, he’ll never speak to her again.

It becomes a question of whether Seth will expose her and force her to keep running, or if he'll help her face her past.

As of today’s date (December 27, 2019) we are unsure of what its release date will be. I just signed the contract this week, and sent in the information for the cover yesterday morning. At eXtasy Books and Devine Destinies, the rule of thumb is about 120 days between contract signing and the story going live, but that’s not written in stone. The contract for Away to Me was signed at the end of June 2019, and it came out less than 3 months later. So many factors can be variables – the amount of upcoming releases, the amount of revisions and edits needed to get the story just right, which side of the house it will be published through (eXtasy Books or Devine Destinies, generally eX releases more books each week), and a lot more.

I did hear from my editor a few days ago. I should be seeing Round One of edits/revisions needed land in my inbox sometime soon. I can’t wait to get it. Under Your Scars needs a lot of work, and I’d like to get to them ASAP so I can finish it and get back into finishing a draft I’ve been working on for a while. I’m not ready to discuss that one yet… In time, I will be, like if eXtasy Books decides to take it on.

Other News:

December 23, 2019: At the Cineplex Theaters in Bridgewater, NS.

Part of my Christmas present this year was going to see the final chapter of the Skywalker saga on Monday night – “The Rise of Skywalker”. HOLY SMOKES. It was awesome! We saw it in 3D, and it was beyond cool! I’m still paying for it a few days later, with my trigeminal neuralgia going bananas from wearing the 3D glasses and how BIG everything looked, but I don’t care.

It was worth it!

JJ Abrams did a fantastic job of tying everything together from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Seeing the late Carrie Fisher on the screen made me cry, and what happens to the remainder of the Skywalkers is…

NOPE! No spoilers allowed here!

If you go to see it, take tissues. You will need them. It was such an epic and fun ride, and it really felt like the original trilogy. It’s much sadder in spots but it is still a great film. Only Rogue One is higher in my likes of the new movies than TROS.

Go see it! You won’t regret it.

As for The Mandalorian, I don’t have Disney+, so I am unable to catch it until it either hits a channel I already have, or something like Amazon Prime. It’s supposed to be an epic show from what I’m seeing in my one Star Wars group. The Child, aka “Baby Yoda” rocks!

via GIPHY

Have a great new year everyone, and all the best in 2020! I leave you with one of my favorite songs of all time, “Heaven” by Warrant, fronted by the late, great Jani Lane. Enjoy!

Tis the Season....

Good tidings, everyone!

The solstice has come and gone, and we are now going to see the sun move in a northward direction, meaning our days in the Northern Hemisphere are getting a touch longer, and the nights are getting a little shorter. 

I hope all who celebrate Yule had a peaceful and safe day. 

My Yule had an unexpected gift - One last writing day before Winter Break. Husband got scheduled to work the opening shift, and it was Son's last day of school before the holidays. I dived into Word as soon as I guessed I had consumed enough coffee to be alert.

I've been thinking about the manuscript code named "TEN" again. I hate the seesawing back and forth between the original way and the alternate way, and I'm so frustrated with myself for being indecisive. So I made up my mind.

I'm doing it the original way I had planned when I came up with the idea in 2014. I'm going to finish the manuscript's first draft come hell or high water, and even if it kills me... I hope it doesn't! If my betas don't like it or say it doesn't work, it's going into the "rewrite" pile along with the original version of "Fourteen". 

I really hate rewriting a manuscript halfway through the first draft. Call it laziness if you want, but sometimes we have to write something that's not good to produce gold in the end product. Sometimes I do better doing a rewrite, instead of having the original idea drafted out. That's been proven already. Ask my Beta Team. They'll tell you. Not the full story on the manuscript in question, but they will tell you its current incarnation is a huge improvement from the original version. 

That's another story for another time. I'll talk about things when I'm ready and able to on here. It's all good. No worries. ;) 

The end result was 2450 words added, three scenes worth, and a major event happening between the mains. It's rough and needs a lot of polishing - one of my more recent jokes is that my rough drafts look like a nuclear bomb went off in the middle of an ink factory - but the gist of it is there, and I think it's working for the most part. That may change after the Betas get their paws on it though. 

I won't be working on much writing wise until after January 3rd, 2017, when Son returns to school. Those late night writing sessions always seem to mean "REWRITES" for me, so I'm just going to take the next while off and relax with my family, and of course, keep the prank war going with my best pal in Facebook. I'm a dead girl walking. Oh well. It's worth making her laugh. *looks innocent* 

Husband has the entire weekend off...  For the first time in five years, he isn't working till 9 PM on the 24th. It's going to be great to have him home and eat supper at the normal time for a change that day. Son and I are normally up watching Santa zip around the world on NORAD's site while we wait for Husband to get home that night. We're probably going to be keeping track again, but not as much. It's still going to be a great holiday. Just being together is a great present in itself.

My holiday wish came early this year... We saw "Rouge One" in the theater Saturday night, and it was *awesome*!!!! I'm so glad they are keeping the feel of the original trilogy, as well as the story lines perfectly lined up. This movie felt like it had been filmed before "A New Hope", because it lines up perfectly with the beginning to that movie. If you love Star Wars - I do, I'm a huge SW geek! - you will love this movie. It answers a lot of questions about how things came to be at the start of "A New Hope". Don't miss it. 

Seeing it in 3D did make my occipital neuralgia go nuts, but that's normal... That gets agitated at the stupidest things I swear.

Anyway, I wish all of you an amazing holiday, whatever you celebrate... Keep rocking everyone. Namaste and all the best. 

It's a Green Holiday....

Once again, the temperature here in my province is well above freezing, and it is looking like we are going to have another green December 25th.

I have no problem with that. It makes driving so much safer when the temperature is in the double digits Celsius.

Things have been busy here... We've been shopping like mad the last couple of months, and busy getting everything ready for Santa's arrival later tonight. We're finally ready for him too... The tree is up and lit, the presents are wrapped, and Son is bouncing off of the walls, he's so excited.

For the first year in ages, I am actually feeling festive, and feeling like we did a wonderful job all around with everything, from the tree to the preparations, the food and most of all, gifts to our son. The last couple of years haven't been the best, and now things are finally looking up, enough for me to spend a little extra on him and Husband.

It could be the fact I finally got to the theater to see "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" last night too.... Which was AWESOME by the way!! I'm not posting any spoilers - one of my close pals won't see it until it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray and PPV in the spring or summertime - so please... NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS, for her sake. She does read the blog...

However, I will say that seeing the original cast members and the Millennium Falcon again was like seeing old friends... I cried! It's making me want to watch the original trilogy - Episodes IV through VI - sometime soon... I do have the lot of them on DVD, and Son is now showing interest in Star Wars... Which I think is cool. He's a huge Trek fan, and although I love Star Trek too, it's more Hubby's thing... Star Wars is my thing. I'm going to enjoy introducing my son to a whole new realm of the sci-fi world... tee hee!

Work on the stories is slowly progressing. I've been working on TWO ideas, Thirteen and Fourteen, in between running around and getting ready for the holidays. It's all prelim work, researching, choosing character names, writing down scene ideas, and other general early work.

For the record, "Fourteen" is a spin off idea, a "What if THIS happened...?" kind of thing. I'm not saying where the idea came from either. That's between me, Bestie and maybe two other people, and will stay there for now..... *whistles innocently* I'm hoping to get into one of them, or another idea, sometime in the new year. I'm feeling a lot better now, and my health continues to improve... So, it's time to get off the fanny and get cracking!

In closing, I wish all of you joy, happiness, lucky, health, wealth, and love this holiday season.

Here is what my ideal celebration looks like: A warm blanket, the lights twinkling on the tree, a "crackling fire" (actually the holiday fire channel on our satellite dish), and a purring kitty on my lap. Pure heaven!

My ideal celebration of Christmas...

Merry Christmas from Amber and myself. Have a safe and fun weekend everyone!