Drive-by flaily update

1) My home laptop is dead. We formated it, but there are also hardware issues with it, and we have to wait for the parts to arrive before it can work again. Awesome hubby decided to set up an ancient desktop computer we found lying around in our storage room for himself, and is giving me his laptop some time this weekend.

2) Cherry Stem is out in paperback form! I’ve set up a Goodreads giveaway, which is currently pending approval. I’m super psyched about it, and will probably be giving away more copies soon-ish!

3) Magic at Work got its first Did Not Finish review. It stung, as you can imagine, but I get that not all things are for all tastes.

What hit me the hardest is seeing the laws of Marketing at work: every good review the book has gotten, has maybe one or two “Likes.” The DNF review has four of them, and some comments–including something along the lines of “I hate books like that!”

Books like what?

Anyway, I pressed “Like” too. A reader spent time reading–some of–the book and more time writing down their thoughts on it. That’s all a writer can ask for, really.

4) I don’t know what to write on. *headdesk* These are my current WIPs:

• Cherry Blossom: sequel to Cherry Stem. I’m stuck seven chapters in, despite having the entire outline worked out.

• How I Failed to Save the World – Take One: Young Adult paranormal mystery/romance. I’m three chapters in, outline is done, but I’m not sure about the main character’s “voice” in my head. Yes, I have voices in my head. Shut up. Not you, the voices.

• Exotic Beast by Xopi Chilli: The book-in-a-book from Magic at Work. PNR. I’ve only written one chapter, but I have the entire story in my head…and it’s getting crammed in there, with all the voices!

• Colin and Caitlin’s Story: Doesn’t have a name yet. It’s set in the Magic at Work-verse, but I’m thinking of keeping it strictly Contemporary Romance. Well, naughtily strictly. We’ll see.

• Short Shifter Story: The story is short, not the shifter. Another that’s fully formed in my head but only has one scene written. Gah!

• Banana Guy: Yup, that’s its legit name. It’s a novella I’m rewriting. May grow into a full length novel.

• Passionate and The Tooth Fairy: Two titles, but undergoing the same process. They’re novellas I previously self-published under a slightly different pen-name, and they need months of work before I like them again. When I published them, I’d never worked with a professional editor and couldn’t recognize the oodles of things that needed fixing. Now I’m slightly better at it and wanna give them another go. One of them may turn into a novel.

• My Mom is a Witch: Mostly-aimed-at-moms children’s book. Yes, you read that right. Short, utterly innocent, and possibly coming out under yet another pen-name. I’ve written it and am waiting for my cousin to complete the artwork. 

I think that’s it. Anyone who can come up with a viable plan for me to put these into order and start working on them wins two bookmarks of Magic at Work.

5) Baby-O (it’s how a very good friend of mine calls my son–it’s also the name of a strip joint in Athens. how awesome is that? LOL!) got a sudden allergic reaction late Sunday evening. Within something like five minutes, he turned into a red version of the Michelin man. Doctor told us what to give him, and he was back to his normal color and size in no time, but I freaked out there for a while. We think it was a reaction to the strawberries I had shortly before breastfeeding him. Buh-bye strawberries. Sigh. It’s been good.

6) Random fact: I love making lists. About anything. The longer the better.

7) I’ll stop typing and post this now.

8) Hope you’re all well. 🙂

9) Me.