Huzzah!

You can expect my next book sometime this summer. A more specific release date will be announced once it's verified. It's going to be called Bones of Mud and I'm pretty excited about this one.

It's gone through a lot of changes, but I think what I've ended up with is pretty nifty. It's an urban fantasy about a private investigator. Shape-shifters are all over the place in the plot, plus the world's most adorable psychic.

uuuuugh

I've been sick for about a month now. First it was a really bad cold. Then it went in my lungs. Then it went into my sinuses.

Antibiotics cleaned up most of it, but apparently sinus infections are notoriously difficult to get rid of and so this massive pain and pressure remains in my head. Which sucks because my head is where I do the majority of my thinking.

I'm still working on my next book, but it's going very, very slowly. So to make up for my slowness, here is a baby penguin with a candle on his head.

a moment of glee

This is the cover of my first solo novel from Amber Quill Press. It's coming out in December and I am just ridiculously thrilled with how gorgeous it is!

It's a historical romance, taking place during the reign of Ramses II. The story is about a Hittite named Hantilis who gets taken as a hostage by an Egyptian prince, Itamun. There's a lot of antagonism and mutual desire and a healthy dose of kink along the way. I just really hope people who read it end up loving my boys as much as I do. They were a lot of fun to write.

The story I was going to write next, TFD, is on hold for the moment. I think it'll be great once I get into it again, but I had a much louder plot bunny screaming for attention instead.

No ideas what I'll be calling it yet, but it's about werewolves.

so. much. fun.

I work for Salt of the Earth Press, which owns Cheap Peeks. I actually helped come up with some of the content for the generator. Be that as it may, I am not lying or self-promoting when I say the romance novel plot generator is my new favorite webtoy.


It does straight romance in a standard setting as well as paranormal or a mystery/crime option. There are also some LGBT options which you could theoretically mix-and-match with the other possibilities.


The paranormal ones are the most entertaining, in my opinion:

The girl's name is Alexis and she is eccentric and outspoken. She enjoys sewing. Her occupation is veterinarian and overall she is suffering an ethical dilemma. She is also a voodoo practitioner.

Her hair is strawberry blonde and very long and curly. She is 5'8" and has an athletic body with firm breasts. She wears off-the wall, unique clothes that make her stand out in a crow.

She meets Andrew at a cabin. He is an artist, energetic and private, and he enjoys dancing . He appears to be optimistic. He is also immortal. 

His hair is honey blonde and shaggy. He is 6'3" and is built like a runner or a skier. He wears sexy shirts and expensive trousers, like a playboy.

The paranormal situation these two face is a genie. knows secrets about one of the protagonists.

Answer these questions:

• Why do they meet there?
• Why is she there?
• Why is he there?

The obstacle to their romance that they must overcome is that if people found out about the paranormal situation and their involvement, there would be serious social consequences. When someone has come up missing by supernatural forces it brings them to the realization that they can overcome the obstacle.

an old leather jacket

I am not my possessions, but it can be really difficult to live without them.

The night my house burned down I rushed outside into a cool and rainy night in nothing but a pair of pajama pants and a camisole. Barefoot and bare-shouldered and terrified, it took a while before I could focus on things like comfort.

Once I did, I was lucky enough to find that I had left one of my jackets with a pair of gloves shoved into a pocket sitting in the backseat of the car. It was a few years old, black and leather. I had several like this because it was a style I liked. This one was beaten up in comparison to the other ones, which was likely why it had been abandoned in the car. I pulled it on  along with the gloves and that little bit of normalcy in the midst of watching everything I owned be destroyed was a small comfort.

Between the smoke in the air and on my body, there was no saving the jacket after that. The smell of burning house is very different from wood smoke. Plastic, furniture, clothing and a couple of unlucky cats all went into that smoke. It was death smoke and every time I caught a whiff of it I nearly gagged. Once I had enough donated clothes to keep warm, I tossed the jacket into a dumpster to get rid of the smell and the reminder.

Today for the first time since I threw away that jacket I pulled on another leather jacket. Like the one I'd thrown away. Like the others that burned up in the fire. It's donated and dark brown where the others had been black. It's been broken in and has that soft, battered look to it that only old leather can have. It's perfect.

Even though I am not my possessions, I pulled that jacket on and suddenly I felt like me again.

DONE

I finished EC, finally. Now I can worry about starting new projects and no longer feeling guilty.

...of course it seems like a lot of those projects currently floating around in my head might be sequels to EC. Currently, I'm toying with the idea of a trilogy. I think I'll see how EC is received before I start on something set in that same universe, though.

The very next project I'd like to do is currently codenamed TFD. It's first person and the main character is a young woman, so it's a bit of a departure for me. I like the concept, though.

a new goal in life

Me: Baby, random question: can we breed pigs for super intelligence?
 
BF: I don't see why not? They're fairly smart to begin with.
 
Me: Yay! I shall devise elaborate intelligent tests for them and breed them based on their wit and charm.
 
BF: I wonder if they taste worse as they get smarter?
 
Me: :-( YOU CAN'T EAT THE SMART ONES. You can eat the dumb ones who fail.

BF: FIIIIIIIIINE

Me: <3 

BF: <3