An unplugged Christmas

I'm back from the mountains where there was spotty electricty, no cell or internet service, and lots and lots of beautiful snow. The drive was long. (Any drive with a 2 yr old, a 9 yr old, and a Great Dane is long, but this one was 7 hrs up and 8 hrs back.) We got back home last night.

Christmas was your typical chaos. And, I have to admit, realizing I couldn't check email or use the phone, was kind of traumatizing at first. We are so 'plugged' in all the time, ya know? But I got over my panic pretty quickly. The world didn't end just because I couldn't read or send email. And the visit turned out quite nice. No distractions. Just time with my family, and lots and lots of beautiful snow.


Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Here's to an awesome New Year!

Happy Holidays

Today was supposed to be a travel day, but the winter storm that passed through NC. VA & WV has delayed our trip. :-( My parent's home in the mountains is currently without power, not to mention another three inches of snow fell on the interstate yesterday. It's supposed to warm up a bit and rain tomorrow, so we're hoping to leave then. And the power should (according to officials) be back on sometime later today. *fingers crossed*.

I have not finished Christmas shopping either! This has been the craziness month on record. First book debut, Thanksgiving, promoting, first book signing, holiday shopping, revisions on book 2, travel... Oy. Looking forward to spending some time with my family and working. Yep. This is a working holiday for me! Authors have said before that everything book-related seems to happen at once, and then there'll be long periods of quiet. This is definitely a time when everything is happening at once -- right smack in the middle of two holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Crazy.

So, I'll be finishing up some last minute packing, maybe a trip to the store for some gifts, and some late night revisions... Then, we'll be on the road to spend Christmas in the wintery Appalachian wonderland!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! :D

Male sirens & blog tour thanks & giveaways

Hank seems to be intriguing a few readers out there (yay!), so the wonderfully patient Abigail of All Things Urban Fantasy and I asked Charlie to write up her thoughts on the siren, and to give a little sneak peak into what it's like to work alongside a being naturally designed to lure and entrall. And, to sweeten the deal, there's an exclusive excerpt from THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS featuring Hank at the end of the post!

Yesterday, BPOD, was a December Pick for Pocket Books SciFi/Fantasy Blog Tour Group. I just want to say thanks to Sarah and my publicist Erica for sending out books and organizing this tour. And to the particpants: THANK YOU!! for taking the time to read and review the book -- I really appreciate it. :D (And if anyone is looking for a free copy, the particpants are giving away copies!)

I also wrote a holiday-inspired guest post at A Book Blogger's Diary as part of yesterday's blog tour. It's one of my favorites, and the subject matter really means a lot to me, so I hope you'll take a look. Thanks to Rashmi for asking me to post!

Live...

...and in person. Today. At 12pm central, I'll be at Bitten by Books chatting about BPOD, writing, books, you name it. Stop by, say hi, ask questions... I'm yours for the day. ;-)

Here's the link, which goes live in just a bit: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=14828

Bitten by Books

I love this place. The information they've accumulated on all things books, authors, paranormal -- it's staggering. So, make sure to visit Bitten by Books and browse around. And if you go today and RSVP to my author interview, chat, and giveaway that's happening all day tomorrow, you'll be entered 25 times to win a $30 Amazon giftcard or a $30 giftcard to The Pyramid Collection. (Make sure to read the rules!).

They also gave BPOD a five tombstone review!

What's your favorite mythological creature?

Tell Susan Adrian and you're entered to win a signed copy of BPOD. But the window closes at noon tomorrow, so hurry on over and check out her fabulous blog and *cough* a little interview with moi. :D

Around the web...

Charlie just did a really fun interview over at Cat & Muse. Well, except the part where she talked about shoving a nitro-gun somewhere we won't be talking about here. ;-)

And while Charlie was off having fun with Jezebel and Mel, I did my own interview at Sara's Urban Fantasy Blog. Sara's blog is great, and she's giving away an ARC of THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS, so make sure to stop by and say hello.

And this is just so cool -- BPOD was given an honorable mention in Preternatural Review's Best of Paranormal/Urban Fantasy - 2009. Thanks, Patrick! :D

And you have until Dec 15th to enter Literary Escapism's contest to win a signed copy of BPOD and a copy of J.F. Lewis's STAKED, which is an awesome read.

Book signing report

EDIT TO ADD: I'm also guest posting at Literary Escapism today, and giving away a signed copy of The Better Part of Darkness as well as the awesome Staked by J.F. Lewis.

A little late with this, but what else is new, right? :-) So my first book signing, which took place Friday night at the fabulous Barnes & Noble at Southpoint Mall in Durham, NC. was awesome. I can't tell you how nervous I was, just hoping some people would show and the store wouldn't be left with a gazillion unsold books.

My daughter and I drove to the store two hours early to met up with some friends. (And this was one time I wished I had a Blackberry or any phone that would've allowed me to get my email because my editor sent me something very special, and I was dying of curiosity!). We met our friends and ate dinner. Well, correction. They ate dinner. By the time we were seated, I only had enough time to order a sweet tea, and then it was off to the store where my critique partner and her hub were waiting for me.

The signing went extraordinarily well. We sold every book on the table and had to get a few more off the shelf. This is due to all the wonderful friends and readers who took time out of their Friday night to stop by. So THANK YOU to All. Unfortunately, we didn't get as many pictures as we would've liked, but here are two that turned out okay:

I had so much fun seeing my friends and family and meeting a few new folks. Cheri at the B&N was incredibly nice, and I'm looking forward to going back again sometime. And, when I got home, put on my jammies, and checked that email from my editor, I FREAKED out. Um, yeah. Saw my book 2 cover, and *sigh*. LOVE IT. Cannot wait to share it with you guys!

Running low

. . . on hours in the day, on energy . . . I really need to stay up an extra three or four hours a night to get everything done that needs doing. When I looked at the calendar for December last week, it looked fairly clear, and somehow, between then and now, it's nearly full. How did this happen? *sigh* And then there's Christmas shopping, decorating, traveling... You know what I want for the holidays? An extra month nestled right in the middle of December.

And I don't think that's going to happen, so moving on...

Thanks to all for visiting Sci-Fi Guy yesterday. Very cool reading the comments and answering the questions!

Once I'm done here, it's back to revisions. Aiming for a chapter per day. Accomplished that goal yesterday, but today's chapter is a bit more involved in terms of work needed, so I'm not sure how far I'll get. But it's moving along nicely. It's funny b/c when I think in broad terms of the fixes on this book, I get overwhelmed and worried, but when I get into it and go line by line, it's totally doable and I find myself feeling really good and positive. So that's my approach with this one, focusing line by line and tackling things as they come.

And I soooo need more coffee, so catch you all later . . . :-)

Release Day thoughts

The fabulous Kelly Meding and I are discussing our debut experience over at Sci-Fi Guy today. Please drop by and enter the giveaway. We'll be stopping in throughout the day to the read comments and answer questions. Should be fun!

Crazy week

Hope you all had a nice holiday. Me, I went to Golden Corral for Thanksgiving, which was odd considering that every other holiday since I can remember, has been spent with family and a home cooked meal. But, it was tasty. I ate a lot. And there was no cooking or clean up. Of course that meant there were no leftovers. *sigh*

I'm so happy that THE BETTER PART OF DARKNESS is out on the shelves! Enormous thanks to everyone for their well wishes and 'book sightings' reports! You all are awesome. :D Feel like I can breathe a bit easier, settle into my role as published author, and get back to work. Right now work consists of revisions on THE DARKEST EDGE OF DAWN, and just a few guest spots/interviews to do in December.

One of those spots will be up tomorrow at the awesome Sci-Fi Guy's blog. Love his site! (And that's why I'm not posting about what release day was like here, because Kelly Meding and I will be discussing it over there. It's a neat little peek into what our debut experience was like.