So I’ve finally sloshed through all my edits and as I await to hear back from each one of my editors I find that I have a little bit of time on my hands.  (Shhh…don’t repeat that too loudly)  Knowing the next round of edits are coming soon, I’m furiously pumping away on my new project entitled Until the End.  More details to come later, but at about 7k into the project I can tell you it’s about a young woman facing a disease that will eventually kill her without surgery.  However, the surgery could also take her life. 

For months, dare I say years, my children have been bugging me for a pet, more specifically a dog.  Until recently I’d done a good job of deflecting their requests, but things have begun to change.  Nearly every one of gameboy’s friends have gotten a dog over the last year.  From puggles to giant black labs, every time I turned around I was getting.  ‘Come see so and so’s new puppy’, which inevitably was followed with ‘I wish I could have a dog’.  Even my mother had a new puppy when we went to visit for Christmas.  Still I stood firm.  ‘No you’re not old enough.’, ‘No because I’ll be the one taking care of it.’, ‘No I don’t want my house smelling like a dog.’

The other day I saw a commercial for pedigree dog food talking about dogs being adopted and the pup in the commerical was so darn cute.  It got me wondering…my mom got her dog from a shelter, but actually found him on-line through the shelter’s website where his picture had been posted.  Did our local shelters do something similar?  BIG BIG MISTAKE!

I must have looked at photos of fifty different dogs, but I kept coming back to the same one.  Now, two days later, I find myself still thinking about him and am even considering going to the shelter to see him tomorrow (when the kids are in school of course).  I don’t want a dog.  I don’t want the shedding, the smell and the responsibility that comes with owning a dog, yet I can’t help myself.  It’s kinda like having kids.  Before gameboy, I’d always said I didn’t want kids.  They were nothing but loud, obnoxious, smelly, messy, demanding little creatures.  Yet something about the idea appealed to me.  Two kids later and I know I don’t want anymore, but would never trade the ones I have for anything in the world.  Something about this dog calls to me in the same sort of way.  So I have to ask, what should I do?  I haven’t spoken to hubby yet, who very well may veto the whole thing, but what if he says yes?  Do I go see the dog and risk wanting to bring him home even more? 

I agree 100%

I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile (the story’s release date was Christmas 2007) and haven’t gotten to it.  Figured it was about time now.

Christian Ryder is rich and lonely. When the people around him keep dying, Christian forgoes personal attachments. The thought of his Pyromancy hurting anyone else, isn’t something he’s willing to risk.

Tanner O’Bannon is broke and desperate. The recent loss of his father has thrown Tanner into a tailspin of debt he can’t afford to pay. Working as a rent boy allows him to pay the mortgage and his college tuition, but it’s eroding his soul in the process.

Through the machinations of Male Companions — the escort agency for which Tanner works — the men are thrown together. Through a series of startling revelations and danger, Tanner and Christian both face changes. Smoldering embers of desire fan the flames of love, but will it be enough to make Christian overcome his fear of love, or to save Tanner from the fire? Only one thing is certain; both men will burn.

I had the pleasure of critiquing this story for Amanda when it was still in it’s infancy and personally I think it’s a great story about overcoming fear to find love.  But if you don’t believe me, check out this review from Literary Nymphs http://literarynymphsreviewsonly.blogspot.com/2008/01/pyromancer.html    Then when you’re good and convinced head over to Loose-ID to buy it.  http://www.loose-id.net/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=294 

I don’t quite know what it is about starting a new project that lifts my spirits so, but as I sit here writing this blog, I feel better about myself than I have in weeks.  I’d almost liken it to a drug addict getting a new fix, though my drug of choice isn’t going to kill me. (I think?!?)

For quite sometime now, I’ve been buried under edits, rewrites and general paperwork that coincides with the business side of being an author.  It’s not fun.  It’s not glamorous and it’s not something I want to waste my time doing, but it is a necessary evil.  Thankfully I’m now caught up with edits and am free to start a new project that I’ve eagerly been playing in my head for the last few days. 

Chapter 1 of my new novella tentatively titled ‘Until the End’ is complete and at this moment I’m very happy with it.  Maybe it’s the idea of being able to take what I’ve learned from the mistakes I’ve already made and start fresh.  Maybe it’s the fact that as of right now, my virgin work is in my eyes perfect.  That of course will change with the wonderful help of my critique partners, who will no doubt rip it to shreds and ever so gently tell me I can do better.  Or maybe I’m thinking way to hard about all of this and need to have my head examined. 

Whatever the reasons, and for however long it lasts, I’m once again excited about being a writer.  Now if I could only get gameboy as excited about bringing his grades up, life would be perfect and I’d be dancing on the moon.

Wow, I’ve been so busy with edits and real life issues that I didn’t even realize it was Thursday until I heard the garbage men outside my window this morning and remembered that gameboy forgot to take the trash to the curb.  Sigh…at least it’s cold outside so the garbage won’t stink much while it festers for another week until the next trash day.  Since I’m still up to my eyeballs in edits, coming up with something witty to say today isn’t going to happen, so instead I found this quiz and though it would be fun to share.

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.In love, you feel the most alive when your partner is patient and never willing to give up on you. You’d like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy. You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please. Your ideal relationship is open. Both of you can talk about everything… no secrets. Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment. You think of marriage as something precious. You’ll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred. In this moment, you think of love as something you don’t need. You just feel like flirting around and playing right now.

How would you like to get to read a story for free?  Okay, so maybe it’s not without strings, but it won’t cost you any money. 

Currently, I’m working on a rewrite for a story contracted to e-publisher Loose ID.  Here’s my problem, since this is a rewrite, I’m not sure if things work as I see them.  That’s where you come in.  Agree to read my story and give me feedback on what worked and didn’t and I’ll not only send it to you for free, but I’ll send you a free copy of my next release. 

Here’s the thing.  You need to be a fan of romance (erotic romance specifically) and know the ins and outs of the genre.  Now, I’m not looking for somebody who’s going to stroke my ego and tell me how wonderful I am.  My editor isn’t going to baby me and I don’t expect you do either.  So if you’re still interested and want more info drop me a line at michelle.cary@yahoo.com and include the words Beta Reader in the subject line.

Since I will be up to my eyeballs in edits this weekend, I probably won’t be posting so I thought I’d wish everybody a great weekend.

It’s easy for me to loose perspective in my day to day routine.  Little things, like dragging gameboy out of bed for school, listening to dollbaby’s incessant chattering, stupid arguments over the television, who’s sitting where at the table and what clothes they’re wearing to school can easily drag me down.  Pile on troubles with editors, line edits and a few ms rejections and my day has went all to hell.  Then I get a reality check.

One of dollbaby’s classmates is in the hospital right now, recovering from spinal surgery.  He has to be the sweetest, most charming 5 year old I’ve ever met and it kills me to know what he’s going through.  You see, he was born with a heart condition and intestinal problems.  He’s been on a feeding tube since he was born and last but not least and the reason he’s in the hospital now, he has scoliosis.  Last Tuesday he had surgery to put rods in his back to help straighten his spine. 

His mother, bless her soul, has a special website set up that friends and family can log onto to check his progress.  Every day she updates it and now over a week after his surgery, the poor baby still isn’t doing well.  It breaks my heart to hear about his daily struggles and how much pain he’s in.  Then I look at my own little one and remember just how thankful I am that she’s healthy, that both of my kiddos are healthy.  Sometimes, it takes a reality check to keep things in perspective.  At the end of the day the only thing that really matter is family.

For the last six months, quite possibly longer than that as I’ve kinda lost count, dollbaby has been driving us crazy with her pleas to play soccer.  Well, she is finally going to get her chance.  Tonight, I plunked down $70.00 of my husbands hard earned money to sign her up for spring soccer.  I’m not one to follow trends and have my children enrolled in everything under the sun.  I’m a firm believer that if they’re truly interested in trying something they’ll keep hounding me until I say yes.  Gameboy did that with T-ball and play one season, then decided he didn’t like it and never played again.  He also did that for music sign ups for school at the end of last year and now he’s taking drum lessons.  And while I know nothing about soccer and could really care less about the game, my little one was so excited she was going to get to play, she wanted to come home and kick the ball around the back yard in the dark, cold night.  Will she stick with it?  Who knows. If she doesn’t like it, I certainly won’t make her play again next year, but if her track record is any indication, once she sinks her teeth into something she sees it through.  You never know, I might be raising the next Mia Hamm.