Bad News

Well, here I am, finally updating. I wonder if anyone even remembers me these days? I'm such a terrible blogger, it isn't even funny. But I've been busy with real life stuff - both writing and non-writing related, so unfortunately, something had to give. And since it seemed like I'd blogged about everything I could think of, guess what got sacrificed?

Anyway, I'm back for now and unfortunately, I'm the bearer of bad news. Last Friday, I woke to an email from Musa Publishing. It seems they are closing their doors as of February 28, 2015. And just like that, I've got orphaned books.

Six orphaned books, to be exactly.

The four books in my McKenzie Brothers series and the two in my Mordainia series are now homeless. Damn it.

Now, I'll admit, they didn't earn me a fortune, but the royalties were a nice little bonus every month. But more importantly, it just makes me sad that they will no longer be out there. I've received quite a few good reviews on them, and frankly, I'm very proud of them. They are--in my humble opinion, of course--good stories. And I've grown quite fond of both the McKenzie family and the Mordianian royal family.

So, I don't really know what my next step will be. I will have the rights returned to me free and clear as of the end of the month. I'm considering self-publishing them, since they've been edited and the only changes I want to make to them are very small. But I don't know yet. We'll see. One day at a time and all that and I have a ton of research to do before I make a decision.

But, considering I believe that every time a door shuts, another one opens, I"m trying to look at this as a positive thing. Trying. I was lucky when this happened with Aspen Mountain Press. Musa scooped up my three orphaned McKenzie Brothers books (The Pursuit, Playing With Fire, and A Perfect Lady) and gave them a home. This time around, I don't know what will happen. We'll see.

There is quite a long thread over on the Absolute Write Water Cooler forums regarding Musa--both the good and the bad--and I have to admit, I've had my ups and down with Musa, I was always paid on time, but there were issues with what seemed to be a long list of revolving editors. But over all, mine was a good experience and I don't regret it. What I do regret is that it's ending this way. And I wish they'd given more than a week's notice. But what's done is done. All I can do is look to the future now.

We'll see what happens.

Still Sick

Last week, I started with what I thought was a cold, caught from the Boy because he just loves to share. Sore throat (ugh. I despise sore throats with every fiber in my being. I heard that if you have your tonsils out, you never, ever get sore throats again. I'd voluntarily have them removed if it meant I never had to have another sore throat. I'd probably voluntarily give up just about any body part, if it meant I never had to have another sore throat again.) Cough. Stuffy nose. Watery eyes. It. Sucked.

And with the hubs working the way he is, I didn't have any chance to really rest. The kids were really good about not killing each other, but the Girl's only 11 so she's not really ready to cook meals yet, and they still needed to eat, and I still had to get them off to school and all, so just hiding under the covers until the Ick went away just wasn't an option.

Well, by yesterday, not only was I still sneezing and coughing, but my right ear was starting to bother me. It felt all clogged and uncomfortable and since I'm prone to ear infections, and usually can recognize them, I caved and called the doctor.

Turns out it wasn't an ear infection yet, but there was fluid trapped down there and it turns out I have a sinus infection that probably would have morphed into an ear infection if I'd waited any longer. Sigh. So now I'm antibiotics and Mucinex-D (which you need a driver's license to get. Thanks, meth-heads, for ruining everything. A-holes.) With any luck I'll actually be able to breathe through my nose very soon. I don't like being a mouth-breather. Not one bit.

Spring can't get here soon enough.

But on the bright side, I've started work on another McKenzie book. As of right now, this will probably be the last one. Then again, I thought A Perfect Lady was going to be the last one, so never say never, right? I'm about 50 pages in, still don't have a title, but it's going well. Or, at least I think it is. We shall see. I've made it beyond the first thirty pages, and that's usually when I hit the wall, so I'm pretty optimistic about this one.

Well Hello There...

Good Lord, is it really almost October? Yikes. Bad blogger is bad and then some. I'm so far behind on reading blogs, never mind posting in my own.

So to catch up...

You might have noticed my Aspen Mountain Press books are no longer here, or on my website. Or anywhere else, for that matter. I no longer write for them. There are some serious issues with that publisher with non-payment of royalties (mine included), books being sold after the contracts on them expire, the owner dodging rights-reversion requests and basically vanishing from view. It's been a mess, really, and I feel for AMP authors who are still being held hostage over there. What the owner is doing is terrible and childish and frustrating and I hope those authors can get themselves freed as soon as possible. Check out the thread over at Absolute Write, especially the last few pages.

But I'm one of the fortunate ones. Musa Publishing bought out (and promptly released) the contracts of Aurora Regency and Aurora Regency Historicals imprints (Well, they bought the imprints themselves, as well.)

Have no fear, though. The Pursuit and Playing with Fire are back under contract with Musa and will be released in the near future under their Clio imprint.

Remember A Perfect Lady? Well, I'm thrilled to announce that it will be released in October from Musa, which is kicking off their launch next week. I'm so excited about working with this publisher, it isn't funny, and I should have shiny new cover art to show sometime this week.

I've also finished the first draft of Midnight Angel, and the (hopefully) final draft of To Dance with the Devil. That one will be going out later this week, or so I hope.

So that's it for now. I will be posting with a little more frequency as the clock ticks down to Musa's launch. I may even give away some books. I'll never tell. Well, okay, I will tell, but not yet. :D

Six Sentence Sunday

And I'm back for Six-Sentence Sunday again. Yay!

In honor of finally finishing (and turning in) A Perfect Lady, today's six picks up where we left off... With Rebecca and James after their first... ahem... encounter...

Enjoy!

“McKenzie. Although I prefer James, love. And may I say, this has been the most memorable an evening I’ve had in a long time.”

As he spoke, he crept closer to slip his arms beneath her. A sharp, airy squeak rent the air as he lifted her from the floor. With very little effort, he pulled her from the darkness, into the bed, where he caught the blue ribbon of her chemise between his thumb and forefinger.

Don't forget to check out all the other terrific six at the official Six-Sentence Sunday site right here!  And if you want to join in the fun, it's easy to do! Here's how it works:

1.Sign up at the Six-Sentence Sunday blog.

2. Pick six sentences from any work you've written - it can be a WIP, an unpublished manuscript, a latest release, or a work under contract.

3. Post those six sentences on your blog by 9AM on Sunday.

That's all there is to it!

Shifting Gears

OMG.

Yes. I'm blogging. Woo hoo!

Well, now don't get too excited, since every time I think (and say) I'm back, I go **poof** just as quickly.

So, let's just enjoy this while we can, 'mkay?

Anyway, first off, thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last post. You have no idea how much it meant, reading your kind words. It helped me get through what's been undoubtedly the roughest few months of my life. My mother is doing a little better, but not much. Still, each day is a gift and that's how I have to look at it.


Things are starting to calm down a little. A Perfect Lady is off to my editor. I'm going through the print galleys for Tiger Eyes (**coughcough**available on Amazon for preorder. Order early. Order often**shamelessplug**coughcough**) and that's it. I'll have a clear schedule (until the edits for APL come in, that is) and I'm already plotting out two more books, and finishing the third Sebastiano book. Yay!

I'm taking a break from the Georgian/Regency era for a while. You Belong to Me, After the Storm, Devil in Disguise, The Pursuit, Playing with Fire, and A Perfect Lady are all set in those time periods and I'm a little burned out from it. For some time, I've wanted to write a western-set historical, which I did for NaNoWriMo, and I'm planning (hoping?) on finishing that sometime before the end of the year.

I'm looking forward to the change. I love the Georgian/Regency eras, but I don't know if I'll write any more books set in either time period. At least, not in the strictest sense of the words. I'm a strict believer in never-say-never, but right now, I have no plans to. I do have two WIPs that are nearly finished (as in submission ready) so while I may sub those somewhere, I have no plans to write anything new.

Change is good for the soul. Hopefully it'll be good for the stories, too. :D

Time Flies...

When everything is going on at once.

And that's what's happening in my little corner of the world. Everything at once. :D

I'm 9/10ths finished with the revisions to A Perfect Lady, and will be turning it in to my editor within the next week. I don't think I'll be too high on the idea of selling a book before it's written from now on. I far prefer already having the finished book in hand. Much. Less. Pressure. Maybe I shouldn't feel that way. I don't know. A year from now, when there's (hopefully) a little less stress in my life, it might not seem so bad. But for now? Never. Again.

I had written two posts since my Clarence Clemons one, but one just seemed stupid and the other got eaten by Blogger, which is partly why it's been what, three weeks? since my last post.

But the main reason is my mom. As many of you know, she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer last summer. She's been in and out of the hospital ever since. Well, at the end of June, she went in for chemo, and ended up being admitted with - on top of everything else - diverticulitis. She had to have surgery for it last week, which is a big deal for an otherwise healthy person (very longtime readers of this blog may remember back in 2007, my husband was operated on for the same thing), but for her it was MAJOR MAJOR surgery. And for her, any complications can be life threatening, but her surgeon's main worry was infection. Chemo really weakens your immune system, since the drugs that kill cancer cells also kill healthy cells in the process, so any little infection could kill her.

She spent nearly a week in the ICU, then was moved back to the Oncology wing when all looked fine. Unfortunately, less than a day after being moved, she spiked a 104.7 degree fever and was brought back to the ICU. It looks as if her incision somehow became infected.

So, needless to say, I've been running like a crazy person and frankly, blogging has been the last thing on my mind. I hope to return to a quasi-regular blogging schedule, but I don't know when that will be. I hope you'll bear with me until everything calms down a little.

Um... Hi?

Yikes, it's been ages since I last blogged! It's been almost as long since I last read any of the blogs I used to read on a daily basis. Sorry about that. I'm trying to get caught up, but it's really kind of an uphill battle-type-thing.

So let's see... what's been going on in my little corner of the world. School's almost out, which means kidlets will be home. And that means I spend more time breaking up fights and sending little people to their rooms than I do breathing. Yay.

I'm working on getting the first draft of A Perfect Lady whipped into shape, since I have to turn the book in sometime in the next six weeks. Eek. Although, as I'm reading through it, I'm finding it's really not as bad as I thought it was (I probably shouldn't say that, right?) and I'm actually thinking it's a pretty good book. Of course, I'm only about 50 pages into it, so there's still time for it to hit the wall.

I also made a happy discovery last weekend. My very first laptop was a Sony Vaio and I loved it. Unfortunately, the hard drive just didn't have enough memory and even after expanding it, it still wasn't enough. According to my computer guy, I couldn't put a bigger HD in it, so I had to replace it. No laptop I've had since has been nearly as awesome as that Vaio. I held onto it, and the kids used it to play games, but eventually it didn't just stopped booting up, How sad.

Well, long story short (I know, I know, too late, right?) I had a few manuscripts on that machine that I never finished and never transferred (oh, the horror!) For some weird reason, one of those stories popped into my head and on a whim, I decided to see if I possibly saved it to disk.

Turns out, I saved not only one, but all of them. Yay! So I spent last weekend transferring, printing, and reading said manuscripts. One is beyond cringe-worthy, but other two are (I think) salvageable.

Of course, for every up, there has to be a down, right? That down is the backspace key broke off my keyboard. Grrr... Turns out you can't just replace a single key (which is just moronic, IMHO and yes, HP, I'm looking at you) so I ended up having to buy an entire new keyboard. No problem, the guy at the Big Blue Box Store with the Squad people, assured me. Yes, you can swap it out yourself. It'll just pop out.

Um... no. No, it doesn't work that way.

Not only did the old keyboard not pop right out, but the new keyboard came without any installation instructions.

No, wait. That's not true. The instructions? Call Customer Support because they are there to help you.

And if by help, HP means, "We'll keep you on hold for half an hour "transferring" you to the person who can help, only to have that person say, 'Oh, we don't know how to do that. You have to take it to someone else," then HP's "Support" is aces.

But, if you really want true support, just bang your head against the wall for an hour or so. It won't get that keyboard installed, but it'll feel terrific when you stop. Oh, and it is actually much greater support than HP's so-called support.

Ahem...

Okay, no problem. Big Blue Box Store Squad guy also told me that if I can't install the keyboard myself, they can do it for me. No problem.

You know what's coming, right?

I call Big Blue Box Store Squad. They can help me, but they'll have to charge me for a whole new keyboard because, hey, they have to suck as much $$ out of you as possible and OMFG they can't possibly use the keyboard you already bought because the seas would boil and cats and dogs would fall from the sky. So in essence, I'd have to pay for the same $%$@ keyboard twice.

Go. Screw.

So now I'm waiting (almost two days, which does NOT make me happy) for my computer guy to get back to me on whether or not he can/will fix this keyboard. If not, I have a brand new keyboard (that HP WILL be receiving back) in a box, and a missing backspace key (there's a nub that sort of works, but talk about annoying.) If so, then perhaps I stand a chance of getting this fixed. One thing is for certain, HP's support sucks (at least for this it did) and I'm going to make damn sure my next laptop is another Vaio. That's two things, isn't it? Oh well...

So that's what's been going on in my world. Nothing like a little drama, eh? It's fun. And by fun, I mean, "damn do I need a vacation."

Done!

**collapses**

A Perfect Lady is finished! I have been writing like a madwoman all week (there were at least 2 days of 5k+ words written. On. A. Roll. :D) to get this book done and I am happy to announce that as of 7:15 this evening, I typed THE END. The book... she is written. Braise Jeebus.

This book has been such a labor of love to write. I've never sweated finishing a project the way I did with this. It seemed so cool to sell a book on the basis of a very skeletal synopsis, but let me say I far prefer having the book already written. So. Much. Pressure.

I'd originally set a personal deadline of May 1st to have the first draft done. Unfortunately, about 25k into the book, I decided it was going in the wrong direction and ended up scrapping all but about 500 of those words. Twenty-five thousand words, roughly a third of the finished book - tossed. Ack.

But now it's behind me and the real fun begins. Revisions. But not tonight. Tonight, I will read through it (I usually print a draft chapter by chapter and revise as I go. Not with this project. This read-through will be the first one. Keep your fingers crossed) and make a few notes. Other than that, it will get put away for a week or so, and then I'll begin the second draft. I already know a few changes I need to make (a character disappeared about halfway through the story. Need to resurrect and rewrite this character. Fortunately, I know pretty much what will happen. I simply need to get the words down.)

However, with writing like mad all week, I haven't had the chance to do or read any of the Six-Sentence posts from last week. I'm going to try to play catch up this week, but unfortunately, I'm going to miss the Six-Sunday fun this week. :( Oh well, I should be back next week.

I certainly hope so.

Six-Sentence Sunday

Happy Sunday, everyone!

This week's six is from my current historical WIP, A Perfect Lady. When we left her, Rebecca was searching for her chemise after having spent some quality time in James' bed...

Enjoy!

She didn’t take the time to ponder how it found its way atop the canopy. It didn’t matter. She wriggled into it, then dove into the darkness on the far side of the bed for her gown. As she knelt, the tick made a crushing sound and the man in the bed mumbled, “You are welcome to stay, love.”

Rebecca froze, her hand halfway to the crushed silk gown she’d worn to Christina Sheraton’s masquerade ball, her response a whispered, “No. I’m sorry. I really must be going.”

Linen and feathers crushed again, and this time, his head appeared over the side of the bed as he whispered back, “Are you certain?”

In the mood for some more great six? Check out the Six-Sentence site right here! 

Rain, rain.... GO AWAY!

**sigh**


It's done nothing but rain in my little corner of the world.

Rain.

Rain.

Oh, look! Rain.

**rant alert** 

Seriously - we have not had a truly sunny day since May 12th. My backyard has inches of water standing on top of the grass. For some insane reason, our landscapers decided to try and mow the lawn. After 7 straight days of rain. WTF? Are they trying to ruin my yard??? Both my front and backyard now have stripes. I can't believe I actually have to tell the (supposed) professionals that, from now on, I do not want them anywhere near my lawn if it's rained in the last 48 hours (or nonstop for the last week.)

Of course, my plants are growing like crazy (except for my pot o'basil, which is pretty waterlogged. For some reason, the pot has no drainage. I'm hoping I can salvage some of the basil, but right now it's looking as if I'll have to plant fresh. Rats.) And the little sapling the Boy brought home from school on Earth Day? It's put out a separate branch and a bunch of leaves. Now, that may not sound like much, but this is the third sapling I've tried to grow. The first one was a little white pine that was doing very well until my landscapers (the same ones who didn't see anything wrong with trying to mow over-saturated grass) apparently can't tell the difference between a tree and a weed and cut it down. I coaxed it back to life, and on their next visit, the landscapers hacked it down again. It gave up after that.

As for the second sapling? The Boy's teacher forgot to put them in the kids' backpacks. She also forgot to keep the roots wet. I tried, but after about six weeks of it remaining a stick, I pulled it back out of the ground. Oh well.

But this one is doing well (I've got it staked so no one mistakes it for a weed.) My mint is growing like crazy. The parsley and sage are doing well. The rosemary is finally taking the hint an starting to poke up through the soil. My vincas are doing well, but the heavy rain (occasionally accompanied by end-of-the-world type winds) have decapitated the blooms. Fortunately, it looks like they're putting out new flowers, so all is not lost. And the entire woods behind my house is a stunning array of very vivid greens.

**end rant**

Now, in the spirit of trying desperately to remain glass-half-full, the sore muscle that's kept me from running (and walking like a normal person) for the last ten days? It's finally starting to feel better. I've missed running (I started in March, could barely do a quarter of a mile. Before I got hurt, I was up to two miles. Yay!), so I'm looking forward to getting back. For now, I do the same two miles on the elliptical machine, so hopefully I won't lose my endurance. I'm down almost 15 pounds (yay!) with ten more to go. I've actually had to go and buy new jeans because the old ones don't fit any more (yay!)

A Perfect Lady is chugging along. I'm still ticked with the characters, but payback is here and it's going to be fun to torture the daylights out of them . And I'll be here for Six-Sentence Sunday with another six from Rebecca and James. Want to know if she found her chemise? Want to know if she's caught with him and ruined forever? Well, tune in this Sunday...

Yes, I am Still Here

Clawing out from beneath the mountain of Real Life and Book-to-be-Written that has buried me for the last two weeks to remind everyone that yes, I am still alive and well and have great hopes of someday returning to the world of regular blogging.

At the moment, I hate A Perfect Lady. Hate it. Want to punch James and Rebecca in the face kind of hate it. So, I'm taking a few days to wrap up a few other projects. Then I'll go back and deal with those two. God help them if they don't behave. Seriously. I'd kill one of them off, except I need them.Gah!

I've also been thinking about the contest I was running. Since it seems as if there is no interest, I'm going to call it off. However, if anyone who commented is still interested, just drop me an email at kimberlynee AT gmail DOT com and let me know.

I'm so hopelessly behind in my blog-reading and commenting as well. And my Six-Sentences just haven't happened. I used to think it would be so awesome to be offered a contract based on a very loose outline. But I'm thinking that's not necessarily the case. I far prefer having a finished book to having to write the entire thing under such a tight deadline. I normally write well under pressure, but this has just been a bit too much, especially with everything else going on in Real Life. A Perfect Lady and the need to simply. Get. It. Written. is proving to be more pressure than I want or need right now. Maybe someday, when life calms a bit. But now? Not a good idea. I don't know how other writers do it.

So bear with me for a few more weeks - once this book is finished - and I will be back.

You have been warned. :-D

Happy Birthday, A Few Thoughts (And Some News, Too!)

Okay, it's a little silly, but today, A Few Thoughts turns five. I looked back at the very first post, which is amazingly boring. Some six months after I posted it, someone commented. I remember being shocked - shocked, I tells ya - that someone actually --yanno - read my blog. I clicked on it (I was moderating comments at the time) and....

It was spam for a porn site.

Ouch.

Okay, so the blog's come a long way since then - now my comments are usually from real people (I still get the occasional spam link) and I love reading them! I don't blog as much as I used to - although I keep telling myself I will get back to it. And I will. Promise. :-)

And now for the news...

I recently sold A Perfect Lady to Aspen Mountain Press/Aurora Regency Historicals and it's set to be released in October to coincide with Aurora Regency Historicals first anniversary. It's the first book I've sold based on only a rough outline, so now I'm under the gun to get the book written. It's almost halfway finished right now and it's what's keeping me from a lot of other things. I've never worked under these circumstances - my books are usually completed by the time I sell them - so this is new (and stressful) for me.

A Perfect Lady is a McKenzie book, a prequel to Playing with Fire and The Pursuit. It's James and Rebecca McKenzie's story, which starts with one night of unbridled passion (if you're going to have passion, it might as well be unbridled, right?) and ends with... well... you'll just have to read the book when it comes out, right?

So, in order to celebrate both this sale and A Few Thoughts' birthday, I think I'll hold a bit of a contest. From now until May 15th, just leave a comment here to enter for your chance to win digital copies of Playing with Fire and The Pursuit.

Happy reading!

Something Old, Something New...

I haven't written many new words this year. At the end of last year, after finishing edits on the last of five books, I decided to take a break from writing and concentrate on the projects I had in various stages of revision. Now that I'm subbing again, it's time to begin something new. Yay!

So, for the last week, I've been working on the next McKenzie book. It was a bit of a struggle at first, because this is James and Rebecca's story, so I had characters I already knew, but I didn't have a plot. If you've read The Pursuit or Playing with Fire (and if you haven't, why not?? Go and get them now. Go on. I'll wait. :D)

ahem

If you've read either of those books, you know who James and Rebecca are. I know them, sort of. They were minor characters in both books, but played very important roles, considering they are Garrett and Drew's parents. So, I know who they are by the time they are 30+ years into their relationship. The later years were the easy part.

The trouble was, I didn't know who they were, when they were just beginning their life together. It took a bit of brainstorming with my Aspen Mountain editor, and BAM! All of the sudden, I knew exactly how they met, and what they had to do in order to be with each other. And that's what I've been doing for the least week -- writing like a lunatic. It's been good though, I hadn't realized how much I've missed it until now.