This morning, I’m off to Little Rock for a pre-op appointment. So I’ll be offline until afternoon. But I’m guesting at Adele Dubois’s blog and would love to see some familiar faces there when I return.

See you there! Adele Dubois’s blog

Tomorrow, I’ll be back here with another Flashback contest!

Since I already talked about what I accomplished writing-wise in my April Wrap-up, I’ll talk about some other things.

Last year, I looked at my collection of writing books and realized I had wasted a lot of money because I hadn’t cracked the spine on some of them. I decided what I needed was company to work through one. I chose Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, formed a yahoo group, and invited my writer friends at Rose’s Colored Glasses. Every week there was a reading assignment and the questions at the end of the chapter. We wrapped up the book in March. Sure some folks dropped by the wayside, but some of us kept reading. Maybe I could have finished the book a heck of a lot faster, but I the point is I actually did finish it!

So, I opened a new challenge in April. I formed a yahoo group, sent out invitations and we’ve begun working through Robert Ray’s and Bret Norris’s The Weekend Novelist. The book describes a methodical way to write a novel one weekend at a time. I have a project set aside for that effort. A novel I’ve been too intimidated to write. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Our online critique group is still going strong. And I love to hear when someone who ran a project through it sells. That happened this week. Would love to mention her name and the book, but maybe she wants to keep her resources a secret.

This next week might not be so super-productive. I have a pre-op appointment on Monday in Little Rock, which messes with the rhythm of my writing day. Have to be able to roll out of bed and start, but I will be up super early to make that appointment. Then on Thursday, I’m having a lump removed. Nothing wierd or dangerous, just something that’s causing my shoulder to hurt. So Monday and Thursday are pretty much hosed. I’ll be looking for sprinting company to keep my butt in the chair all the other days.

This week will also see the release of the print anthology Captive Souls, which includes my story Stone’s Embrace. So be looking for it!

I spent 14 years on active duty in the Army and another 7 in the Guard. I know the kind of mischief soldiers get into when they get bored. This video was made by a group of very bored soldiers in Afghanistan. Keep watching, it gets funnier. Don’t you know Lady Gaga has to be smiling too?

This is something I like to do for me. I figure if I put my accomplishments and failures out there, it will give me a kick in the butt to do better as I move forward.

Guess we’ll see how well I do. 🙄

I’ll admit I have a fondness for writing short stories. I’m an author who enjoys a challenge. Calls for submissions for erotic collections offer me an outlet for my competitive spirit. I’m known as a novelist of erotic romance—not so known in the erotica world. So when I receive acceptance for a short erotic work I feel validated as a writer.

I’ve been lucky to appear in the following collections so far: Zane’s Purple Panties, Black Lace’s Sexy Little Numbers, Cleis Press’s Lesbian Cowboys, and Harlequin Spice’s Naughty Bits.

I also will appear in the following Cleis collections this year: Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, and Lesbian Lust.

Something I’ve done in the past with my local RWA chapter and with the Rose’s Colored Glasses loop, when I find a call that interests me, is offer a challenge to other writers to write a short for that collection. We share ideas and critiques. Writing the shorts can offer an experienced writer a quick-win and sharpen flabby skills. For the unpublished author, it provides a supervised challenge to improve budding skills.

Why should authors consider writing shorts? For one thing they don’t require a huge investment of time so you can work on a short story on the side while writing the bigger book. In addition, writing short requires an author to choose every word carefully and make every one count. It sharpens your skills.

It’s been a while since I chimed in with a challenge to my writer’s groups, but looking at the calls for submission on the ERWA website has me stoked. The site lists many cool, different sorts of projects to dive into. I am going to challenge myself to write a story for four different calls. (Egads! Now you’ll be able to track how often I get rejected! :confused:)

I’d love some company while I write these. If you are an erotica or erotic romance writer, or have thought about taking the plunge, this is a cool way to try it out. If you’d like to join me, let me know. I’d love a partner or five. We could bounce ideas off each other and critique each other’s work. We might not sell, but the effort is never wasted. What you produce could be the start of a longer book, or something you could offer as a sample of your writing for free on your website.

These are the calls I’m interested in:

Due 6/1/10: Big Book of Quickies – No more than 1200 words
Due 6/1/10: Carnal Machines – Steampunk Erotica – 1500-4500 words
Due 7/15/10: Dream Lover: Erotic Paranormal Romance – 2000-4500 words
Due 8/1/10: Lesbian Cops – 2500-6000 words

Psst! The name of the FIRST KNIGHT winner is at the bottom of this posting!

First thanks to everyone for all the support you gave me yesterday. And special thanks to those of you who went out and bought the book. Several of you wrote me later to tell me how much you loved it! That always makes the labor worthwhile!

I saw a really long list of conversation prompts called “Just 4 Things” in an email sometime back and liked the concept so much, I thought it would be fun to use them here—only we will only do three of the questions at at time to get to know each other better. If you’d like to play, post a comment and your answer to these prompts. My answers will be in the comment section too.

1. Four jobs you’ve had in your life:

2. Four jobs you wish you had:

3. Four movies you can watch over and over again:

Okay back to the book release and the winner of the contest. If you read the story, I’d appreciate you posting a review, or just “starring” it on the EC website. Help another reader figure out whether the story is something they’d like. And by random number generator the winner of the handmade, beaded bookmark and the signed book (any book I have in stock) is…Paula! Paula, email me with your choice of story and your snail mail address. Congrats!

While hiding her true identity, Maddie must seduce the mysterious Lord Garon to cement their marriage contract to ensure she won’t be returned into her lecherous stepfather’s care.

Fresh from Crusade in Palestine, Lord Garon has a secret he must hide, a hunger that must be fed, and a dark and uncertain future. Having shed himself of a fiancée he never met, he’s home to lick his wounds. The only thing he wants is a warm-blooded meal—but the new housekeeper is strangely insistent on giving him much more.