My latest obsession

I’m kind of ridiculous with music. Music + Books = My Life. I was watching Rehab with Dr. Drew on VH1 and during a commercial, they had a blip for a song. I heard the song for ten seconds and it was enough. “Bottom of the River” by Delta Rae. And it’s freaking amazing. The female lead’s voice is amazing. So unique. I immediately looked up the music video in its entirety and then I immediately bought the album. And the entire thing is amazing. Not a single song on it that I don’t like…which is an extreme rarity for me.

Watch, listen, and become as obsessed as me…hopefully. =)

Something is wrong with me…

I can’t seem to finish a book anymore. Unless it’s for work, that is. And it’s not because I’m reading books that I don’t like or just can’t get in to. The problem is that I keep starting books, and then I find a new book I want to read, and do I want to wait until I finish the current book/s? No, I want to start it right NOW. And then I start it…and then I find a new book I want to read right NOW. Let’s just open my Kindle Fire and see what books I have in progress right now…

1. Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha = This is the most current one and I’m actually 3/4 of the way through it…I think I might finish this one soon!

2. What’s Left of Me by Kay Zhang

3. Crossed by Ally Condie

4. Lone Wolf by Jodi Piccoult

5. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

6. Lamb by Christopher Moore

7. Hush by Anne Frasier

8. Evil Eternal by Hunter Shea

9. Who’s Your Daddy by Lauren Gallagher

And then there’s my nightstand…

10. The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe by Randy J. Taraborrelli

11. A Season of Seduction by Jennifer Haymore

12. Marilyn Monroe by Barbara Leaming

13. Salem Falls by Jodi Piccoult

14. How to Make Love Like a Pornstar by Jenna Jameson

15. The Iron Duke by Meljean Brooke

16. The Lure of the Wolf by Jennifer St. Giles

17. Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

18. My Lobotomy by Howard Dully

19. Angel Time by Anne Rice

20. Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

21. Dark Love by J.R. Ward

22. Perfect Match by Jodi Piccoult

23. Elizabeth by Randy J. Taraborrelli

See? And those are just the ones I’ve started! Not the PILES of TBR on my Kindle Fire and in paper. I have got to buckle down and finish reading all of these. No more starting new books until I’ve finished these. Perhaps no more housework until I finish them? No sleeping until I finish them? Maybe take about two years of vacation time to finish all my currently reading and my TBR? LOL

What I’m Reading Wednesday

Other than submissions of course. =)

1. Double Down by Katie Porter. Loving this one. Um, it has a hot fighter pilot in it with a secret kink. What’s not to love?

2. Who’s Your Daddy by Lauren Gallagher. Completely unconventional love story. =)

Random Thoughts

1. Any way someone could make me a romance out of The Walking Dead? I’m obsessed with that show. Wait, what about Dexter? Pretty please? That would be awesome too. Ooh, what about Sons of Anarchy? I need a Jax in my life, please. Yummy.

2. It’s always feast or famine with my authors. I swear you guys all commiserate and decide when you can all submit to me at the same time. =P I went from having 4 to read to having like 10.

3. Can someone hire a maid for me? Pretty please? That would be the best Christmas/birthday/just because present EVER. I’m sick of doing housework. Why do I have pets? All I do is clean up cat hair, dammit.

4. I’ve been having the urge to go through the house and throw stuff away. But once I throw stuff away that I think I don’t need, I end up going to try and find it a few weeks later and then I’m ticked because I threw it away. Sigh.

5. I’m really excited about the books I am working on right now. I’ve got a hot wolf shifter in a government agency, a hunky hospital admin who works with children, a droid, and other awesome goodies. Have I mentioned how much I love my job?

6. Um, Samhain cover art rocks. I work with the art department so I get to see everything. Have y’all been to Samhain’s website lately and checked out the Coming Soon pages? Dude. Go. Now.

How to (Not) Make a Good Impression

I posted a Tweet today about how you only have one chance to make a first impression and it got me to thinking. I know I’ve said some of these before, but I’ll say them again, because I like repeating myself, and, well, it obviously needs to be repeated. =)

1. Spell my name right. If you Google me, you can easily find it. Heck, it’s on the Samhain website (along with a really flipping’ awesome baby picture of me. Oh yeah, I’m a cross-eyed gangsta).

2. Don’t have any typos in your email. This is always important, but lately I’ve even seen typos in querys from agents. Don’t trust spell check! I cannot stress that enough. The best thing to do when sending an important email, read it aloud before you send it. I have always found that to be the best way to catch my own typos.

3. Don’t send an email to someone who is no longer with the company. Please, do your due diligence. If a person hasn’t been with us for years and you’re sending us an email to their attention…

4. Make sure that what you’re submitting is even something the house publishes. For instance, don’t send me literary fiction, women’s fiction or YA. It doesn’t matter how phenomenal it may be, I won’t be reading it and you’ll be getting a rejection immediately because it’s something we don’t publish. And also, it doesn’t reflect well on you that you didn’t even look at our website to see our guidelines.  It’s all about research, guys.

5. Don’t tell me about your sex life. PLEASE don’t tell me about your sex life. I don’t want to know that you visited every BDSM club in a two-hundred-mile radius in order to ensure the accuracy of your book. And I really don’t want to know what goes on inside your bedroom.

6. Don’t send a generic letter and send it to multiple publishers at the same time. 

7. Don’t forward me the query letter you sent addressed to another publisher. You just might forget to change the names on it…

8. Please don’t send follow-up emails regarding your manuscript a week after you’ve submitted it. Any publisher’s website will tell you what their response times are. Let it get within at least that before you send anything. 

9. Don’t tell me your mom loved your book. Haven’t you ever watched American Idol?

10. Please don’t send me an erotic romance that you tell me is based on your life…and then top it off by telling me that your daughter proofread it for you. ‘Nuff said.

New Reviews!

Taking You Home by Cooper Davis receives 5 Nymphs from Literary Nymphs! See the review here. Buy the book here!

Shelter From the Storm by Samantha Sommersby receives 4 Cherries from The Long and Short of It! See the review here. Buy the book here!

Playboy Prankster by Pamela Britton receives 5 Hearts from The Romance Studio! See the review here. Buy the book here!

Need You Now by S.L. Carpenter receives 4 Cherries from The Long and Short of It! See the review here. Buy the book here!

Collateral Damage by J.L. Saint receives 4.5 Nymphs from Literary Nymphs! See the review here. Buy the book here!

Something New – Tuesday Tutorial

So, I’m going to be introducing something called Tuesday Tutorial, where I talk about industry “stuffs”. I’m going to start next week, and I’m going to do a shout out on Twitter for items people would like me to talk about. I already have some ideas, but we all know everyone can always use more ideas. =)

What would you like to know/learn/hear about?

Monday Menagerie

1. The Grammy Awards last night were pretty good, but I have to say my favorite was Cee-Lo. Dude, awesome. I’ve decided I want him to father my children. Shh, don’t tell my hubby. Though, he’ll probably notice that something is up when they’re born. Unless I can convince him I have some secret, recessive African American gene. I’ll let you know how that pans out.

2. Lady Gaga. I adore her, really, but last night’s performance was “eh” for me. And the subcutaneous implants….really? I’m not digging them. At first I wondered if they were real, or some sort of makeup thing, but then when they showed her in the audience with the black hat and strapless dress, it looked like there were some healing wounds on her shoulder/collarbone area. Oh Gaga, really?

3. I’m finishing up edits today on a super-awesome book by Shelli Stevens…Seducing Allie. Let me say this, you must buy it for the hero. Clint is…well, damn, he’s HAWT! Really super duper hot. I want one of him.

4. Today is Valentine’s Day. Yes, notice I didn’t even think about it until number 4. Just not my thing. It never really has been, actually. Maybe if I had some crazy awesome romantic thing happen to me on V-Day I’d think differently. But, nope. My crazy romantic stuff has been not-so-romantic sounding for most people, and it’s been really random. Which I think is best…when you don’t expect it. =)

5. I’m trying a new receipt for dinner for a turkey breast in the crockpot. It uses butter, white wine, salt and pepper and onions. I didn’t have any onions on hand so I used onion powder instead. Yeah, I cheat. And that’s cheating in a way I don’t really like to cheat in, but oh well. I wasn’t about to go to the store just to get an onion. That would require real clothes. And socks. And shoes…and, well, leaving the house. I’m just not up for that today. I’d rather sit on the couch and work in my comfy cozy PJs with my Notre Dame fleece blanket, and my cats. Oh, and the hubby. Can’t forget about him over there across the room. Yup, he works from home too.

Noble Blood by Dana Marie Bell

Nobility has its privileges…and its price. Sometimes it just sucks.

The Gray Court, Book 2

For Lord Duncan Malmayne, it was love at first sight with his true bond, the lovely half-Sidhe, half-leprechaun Moira Dunne. Yet something is missing from his relationship with the fiery redhead, something that prevents him from completing the Claiming and making Moira his forever.

As problems multiply in what should be a magical, idyllic time, the depression weighing on Moira’s Sidhe heart signals a potentially devastating condition. Mate sickness. Her instinct tells her what’s missing: Jaden Blackthorn, Gray Court vampire, Duncan’s bond brother and closest friend—who tactfully withdrew from their lives after Duncan declared his love.

Jaden is both heartbroken and elated that the two people he loves most in the world are together. It’s best he cut off all contact to give them space to complete the Claiming. But trouble is brewing in the Malmayne clan, and when Jaden’s forced back into their lives by the Hob, their extremely rare tribond clicks with a reaction that’s swift, sensual and all-consuming.

But not everyone looks upon it as a blessing. In fact, the price of their love could be a potentially fatal shift of power…

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Product Warnings

This book contains explicit sex, graphic language, and M/M/F love scenes between a Sidhe lord, a vampire and a leprechaun. And no, that’s not the start of a dirty joke no matter what my Beta readers said.

 

It’s THAT time…

Oh yeah, it’s the day after Christmas and it’s that time. You all know what time I’m talking about. The time where you make your New Year’s Resolutions. No, most of us don’t succeed, but we still make them and try. At least, that’s how it usually works for me. So, here are some that I’ve been kicking around and would like to do…we’ll see how they’re turning out after a month or so into the new year. =P

1. Get back into shape.

2. Swear less.

3. Go through the house and organize, dejunk, and declutter.

4. Force myself to get on more of a schedule.

5. Be faster at reading submissions.

6. Blog regularly!

What are some of yours?