Gotta LOVE a sale!

Got Super Bowl fever? Yeah, join the club! To celebrate, we put my fun & smexy football romance on sale for 99 cents--limited time only. Grab a copy! No commercial breaks. :)

Amazon
B&N

so much bliss!

Guess what, guys...

PLAYING AT LOVE is part of a 3-book bundle...all sweet Bliss novels and all about finding true love in your home town. This awesome bundle is available for a short time and is only 99 cents. Grab it now, right HERE!

Day 4 - #ChickLitLove: Galentine's Day

Today, we #CLC gals are celebrating all things Best Girl Friends from our chick-litty novels. Of course we all know I love writing kisses the best. But second best are those scenes with our sassy heroine and her equally sassy BFF. There's something so wonderful when it's just chicks in the room. Great belly laughs, sometimes tears, but always chocolate. 

Happy Galentine's Day from my gals. . . .

Abby and her bestie Molly from ABBY ROAD

Tess & Mackenzie from both PLAYING AT LOVE & SPEAKING OF LOVE

Spring and Mel from DEFINITELY, MAYBE IN LOVE

Ellie and Jane from FALLING FOR HER SOLDIER

Now grab your bestie, your favorite drinks and let's all karaoke!

Happy book birthday to me!

It was one year ago today that I welcomed my first book baby, PLAYING AT LOVE, into the world. 

*cheers*

 Let's all take a moment to remember football coach Jack Marshall and his hotness...

*moment of silence and heavy breathing*

Now, party!!

Entangled in Love - Blog Hop

 How can you not be so full of LOVE this time of year? When I feel love, I want to give away stuff!

For this occasion, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share SUGAR RUSH, the sexy and SWEET e-romance from my fellow Entangled sister, Rachel Astor. You'll be reaching for that box of chocolates (and your man!) in no time!

Dulcie Carter has been running her family’s homemade sweet shop, Candy Land Confections, on her own since her mom passed away. But business is slow and rent is high, so Dulcie knows if she wants to keep her mom’s dream alive, she’ll need a miracle. The annual Assembly of Chocolatiers competition might be just the thing, if she can bring herself to try creating something new for the first time in a long time.

Then she meets Nick, a molten-hot guy with a sexy smirk and an attraction stronger than any sugar rush, whose family also happens to own the big-box candy shop in town—her strongest competition for first prize. Nick’s got his own reasons for needing the win, but then being around Dulcie is proving addictive.

As their competition heats up, so do the sparks between them. Can they keep their sights on winning, when love might be the sweetest prize of all?

ENTER HERE:

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 AND....since I'm so full of love, and feel like celebrating Monday's release of SPEAKING OF LOVE (the second book in my Perfect Kisses blissful e-series), I'm also throwing in an digital copy of book one PLAYING AT LOVE. Yippee!! 

Click HERE to check out what the other authors are giving away during the Entangled In Love blog hop! 

 

We also have a Twitter Party with more fun and prizes!

Date : February 8th, 2013

Time : 9pm EST

Hashtag : #EntangledInLove

What : We'll be asking Valentine's day related questions and each question has prizes to be won! Answer right for a chance to win some of the many awesome prizes

Where : Follow the instructions below

1. Go to http://tweetgrid.com/party 
 2. Fill in the hash-tag as #EntangledInLove 
3. Fill in the hosts
@entangledpub 
@totalbookaholic 
 @babsbookbistro
 @anjanavasan 
4. Enter your twitter handle, follow the tweets, answer the questions and you may just get lucky

Don't forget to mention the #EntangledInLove hashtag in your replies!

Romance is in the Air - blog hop giveaway

Welcome to this pretty blog hop!

My giveaway is a digital copy of the recently released GREAT AND THE GOBLIN KING by the fantabulous Chloe Jacobs. This gem has been on my to-read list for months, so my winner and I just might be reading it at the same time! 

 

While trying to save her brother from a witch’s fire four years ago, Greta was thrown in herself, falling through a portal to Mylena, a dangerous world where humans are the enemy and every ogre, ghoul, and goblin has a dark side that comes out with the eclipse.

To survive, Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young goblin king, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her will to escape.

But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. An ancient evil knows she’s the key to opening the portal, and with the next eclipse mere days away, every bloodthirsty creature in the realm is after her—including Isaac. If Greta fails, she and the lost boys of Mylena will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back...

AND....since I feel like celebrating Monday's release of SPEAKING OF LOVE (the second book in my Perfect Kisses blissful e-series), I'm also throwing in an digital copy of book one PLAYING AT LOVE. Hooray! 

 

This is how you enter to win all the stuff..... a Rafflecopter giveaway


 

Hop away!

*slap*

A few weeks ago, I got the first pass of edits back for SPEAKING OF LOVE (the soon-to-be-released, second book in my Perfect Kisses series). It's such a fun story; I'm so totally crazy in love with the characters and I can't wait to send her out into the world.

Before that, however, I'd sent my rough draft to my critique partner. Who is fab and brill and dons a editing pen of fire and brimstone. She had kiiiiind of an issue with one of my characters, who had tendencies that my crit partner (ha-ha) did not care for. In fact, there were many comment bubbles that said things like: "I want to slap her."

Fair enough.

As her notes on my manuscript progressed, instead of explaining what she didn't like, she simply wrote "slap." (I still crack up at the memory, even as I write this.) After some soul-searching and chocolates, I completely saw her point and set out to de-slap-ify my character, then sent the rewrite to my editor. Shew!

End of the story?
No.
Because it got me to thinking...

You know those annoying characters who keep making the wrong choices and every chapter you read gets more and more frustrating? Unfortunately, many of these characters are YA chicks. (Not her, her, her, or her and many others--I LOVE me some YA!) They whine, they pout, they stomp around and never listen to anybody.

Wouldn't it be so great if--like with my crit partner--every time one of these annoying characters did something super-annoying, you could write "slap" in the margin, and the author was forced to take out the annoying slap-worthy action?

Let me just throw an example out there: When Bella Swan sneaks out on her new vampire friends because she thinks she has a better idea than the hot vampires who have been living in the vampire world for, like, 500 years...just call out "SLAP" and blammo, Bella is listening to Edward's advice, ditching Jacob-the-manipulator, and washing her scraggly hair.

 Brilliant, no?

As soon as someone comes up with the software for this little gem, don't worry, I'll only claim intellectual property rights. We can split the royalties.

Dude, please close your mouth and run a brush through that hair.

Thankful, a year later

November 30, 2011 - THE DEADLINE

Exactly one year ago, I completed my first NaNoWriMo project. (Well, it was one year ago, minus 3 days, actually, but I didn't want to brag.) What a wonderful experience that was: creating a brand new story of 50,000 words in one month. I was petrified at the time, though energized and excited. All in all, it was major blast. 

From day one, I was in love with my story (that I named "Maren's Big Scoop") along with the funny, big-hearted characters that played around inside my head for a solid month. Recently, I went sifting through my Facebook posts from last November, to kind of relive when I'd been writing about Maren and Patrick and all their tomfoolery. What an amazing time that was for me, and what a perfect way to prepare for my future writing projects. Of course, last November, I had no idea that I would soon be under contract to write two more stories for the fabulous Entangled Publishing's Bliss cat-rom imprint--namely, "Playing at Love" (you remember her?) and her upcoming spin-off "Speaking of Love." I wrote each new story in about three weeks. Without my NaNo experience, I probably wouldn't have been able to tackle such an ambitious goal.

Color me grateful.

And what is even more thrilling is that--a year later--I am currently editing my sweet "Maren's Big Scoop," preparing her for submission. And, ya know what, I'm just as head-over-heels in love with my characters and story as I was a year ago. I can't wait for the world to meet these people and follow them on their ride.

So, cheers to you, NaNo. Thank you. You almost killed me, but I am forever grateful. 

And an extra cheers to all the fab writers out there who are winding down on this years' NaNo. Congrats and let the celebrating begin!

What I learned from writing the 1st draft of SOL

1) I am a writing drama queen

Wait. Let me back up.

I first have to tell you a little bit about the process of writing the Speaking of Love (spin-off of Playing at Love) draft.

I wrote the first three chapters over two months ago, got the "okay to move forward" from my editor, then got busy with other writing projects (such as editing both P@L and Abby Road and writing numerous guest blogs and interviews for P@L), knowing that I still had loooooads of time to get back to SOL. Then it came time to do the actual manuscript writing. I sat down with my laptop, cracked my knuckles, then checked Facebook. And Twitter. And pretty much anything else that falls under the title of "time suckage." After about a week of this, I started to worry. Therefore, being the good little author I am, I sent an email to my editor explaining that it may behoove us both if she gave me a due date for the first draft . . . .because, obviously, I wasn't getting it done on my own.

She did as asked.

And I freaked out.

Because it seemed very soon, only one month away. Additionally--since I simply CANNOT allow my editor (who, let's face it, thinks I'm perfect. . . .) to see a first draft without it first going to my critique partner for a blood-drenched edit--I had to move up the completion date in time to send it to her in time for her to read it and send notes and then for me to have time to fix those before the looming due date. AND, since my crit partner is participating in NaNoWriMo starting at the stroke of midnight on November 1st, I needed to get my draft to her even sooner, since she would be completely out of pocket come 11/1.

Sooooo. . . .needless to say (but since I'm so long-winded, I'll say it anyway), my writing time went from one month to two weeks and I was completely freaking out. Then (heh-heh) came the "writer's block"--which often comes when I put undo pressure on myself. :) After another few days of falling into the "time suckage" vortex, I was really panicking. My writing sucked, I lost focus, I didn't know who my characters were or what they wanted or what they sounded like, and I basically started rethinking my skill as a writer and my reasons for being born.

Very productive.

Despite the fact that I was woefully behind my self-inflicted schedule, I took an evening off....not able to face that blank page. I watched a movie that I loved and pulled a book off my shelf that I hadn't yet gotten to. I read that book and the first half of another. It was pretty amazing what that did. If nothing else, it reminded me what an actual book is supposed to look like and feel like and sound like. The books weren't amazingly great, but they took me away from my own story long enough for my creativity to rest and reboot.

And then I wrote.

For three days straight.

My characters were back conversing in my head and driving me crazy, and the muses were smiling. It's what we call a breakthrough. I finished the first draft just shy of two weeks. Which, for me, is pretty dang fast. It's not perfect, it's got loads of problems, but. . . . for a rough draft. . . I think it's quite fab.

But I digress. . . . .

2) writing a good "hunky guy chopping firewood" scene can snap me out of a writing funk

3) I need to cut myself major slack

4) writing is easier when my mother is in town and cooking for me. Just knowing I have a freezer full of potato soup is soothing

5) it doesn't help my writing to watch Vampire Diaries, but it sure is fun

6) I am productive under pressure, but I fear it ages me and drives those around me to want to run and hide

7) for a time, it's okay to think that I don't have any writing talents or marketable skills or reasons to be living. Obviously, that will all pass. If I can learn something from it (and then blog about it a week later), maybe those moments of panic aren't in vain

8) I really need to read THIS

9) cupcakes can save the world (but I kind of already knew this)

10) a support system and friends who ask about my projects mean the effin' world to me

11) Taylor Swift's new album is really good. I like THIS one best.

12) I should give up Diet Cokes but I can't

13) a good crisis of faith is healthy--but only if short-lived

14) I want/need a new office chair. One of those ones with the mesh back. Or a recliner. Or a private island.

15) Gwen Stefani totally gets me

16) always laugh. Find balance. Enjoy the moments. Even the stressful ones. Everything is fodder.

Now--my creative types--time to dance to Gwen. The first two minutes, you know you totally relate to this! 

("tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock")

Playing at Love - musical giveaway!

Hey everyone. This is so cool. I'm hosting a giveaway to celebrate my first book 

PLAYING AT LOVE.

(eep!)

(I'm still so in love with my cover. Let's take a sec to stare at it.
 Okay. Thanks. Moving on.)

Prize: 

a brand spanking new iPod loaded with . . . get this . . . 

the playlist inspired by the book!

So fab, yeah?

Entering is way easy. Check it out here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

All you bloggers out there, go crazy, grab the widget code HERE. 

Happy Weekend!

In the last 3 months, I've gained 5 pounds and 1 published novel. 

Not bad.

Happy weekend!

Meet the "Playing at Love" peeps!

Here they are!

The beautiful Tess Johansson: looking for love, finally in all the right places...

 

Jack Marshall: football coach and all around dream boat...

(hubba hubba) 

Ooh-la-la. Go for it, Jack!

Mackenzie: Tess's faithful pal, always willing to seduce a hot guy if necessary for "the cause"

 

Rick: hipster newspaperman or sexpot in disguise?

 

Penny: Franklin High's little song bird who can belt out Nirvana with the best of them!

Charlie: Tess's soldier brother, and dreamy enough to earn his own spin-off...

It's enough to make me want to read my own book. Again! 

*swoooooon* 

Find "Playing at Love" at amazon.com & barneandnoble.com

You're welcome. :)

"Playing at Love"

Tuh-duuuuuuuh! 

Show choir teacher Tess Johansson loves three things: music, her job, and sharing that passion with her students. But when a school budget crisis forces funding to be pulled from either the sports or music programs, she finds herself going head to head with Jack, the gorgeous new football coach who broke her heart fifteen years ago.

Jack Marshall wants two things: to be closer to his young daughter and to make his mark as a football coach. Taking the new job, with the promise that he’d have time to build a solid team, gave him both. But now he must win the season with a group of boys who aren't anywhere near ready or he’ll lose everything he’s worked so hard for. Being pitted against Tess, the summer love he never forgot, is like being fourth and long with only seconds on the clock.

On opposing sides of a fierce battle and with everything at stake, Tess and Jack find themselves torn between doing what it takes to win and doing what it takes to be together.

 

To read LOTS more, go here: 

amazon.com 

barnesandnoble.com

things I've learned from the second pass of edits

(and I've had two of them now, which makes four passes in all)

 I use these words too much:
     "continued" (we're talking 123 times, but I managed to cut it down to 44. No easy task.)
     "scoffed" (I fear I use it incorrectly, as well)
     "paused" (my new go-to is "hesitate." I might be deleting that one during the third pass.)

I expect people to be mind-readers. They're not. Not even my editor. Who should be, right? 

I am absolutely rubbish at the proper use of the em-dash.

Speaking of punctuation and over-usages, I also overuse (and misuse) ellipses. We're all shocked. . . . .

I can't count - if the way I numbered my chapters is any indication.

Cutting word count is effing hard. I'm much too long-winded for that. Ask anyone.

Evidently, it doesn't faze this writer when I use the same word four times in one paragraph.

Oh well. Moving on. Here's to Round Three!

Play this:

Music has always been my muse when it comes to writing. Sometimes, I've created a playlist after the story is written. Sometimes, songs come to me organically. And sometimes, I build a list before much of the story is on paper. . . . which helps me along when it comes to plotting.

My newest story "Playing at Love" is about a high school choir teacher and the school's new football coach. (Smexy, right?) After the initial "thunder-struck" attraction, these two people are sitting on opposite sides of an issue--which was really fun to write. 

Without giving tooooo much away, here are the songs that helped me write this fun little love story.

Playing at Love - playlist

(clicky-click to take a listen)

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Cake
My Romance - Carly Simon

The Last Worthless Evening - Don Henley

Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani

Harder to Breathe - Maroon 5

This Grudge - Alanis Morissette

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Fallin' For You - Colbie Caillat

Faster - Matt Nathanson

When He's Not Around - The Corrs

Your Body is a Wonderland - John Mayer

Desperately - Michelle Branch

What Kind of Man Would I Be? - Chicago

I Want it That Way - Backstreet Boys