This competition is now underway. Both myself and my CP, the fabulous Imogen Howson, are giving this a go. The first round is a 750-1000 word excerpt of a brand new work created for this competition using the description they gave us (supplied by a reader).

Go check it out - read the excerpts and vote for your favourite. I can’t tell you which number is mine or even give any hints (it’s against the rules). I can’t even tell you which one is Immi’s, because I don’t know that either (although I have my suspicions, since I’m familiar with her work). It doesn’t really matter anyway. Go vote for the one you like the best. They are all based on the same scenario, so I suggest reading a couple, taking a break, then reading a couple more, and so on. Then go back and vote for the one you liked the best.

I received my graphics package for my Vampire Oracle: Harmony book today. They did an absolutely fantastic job. Here’s an example:

I’m going to be ordering some business cards and really cool bookmarks (I love, love, love the bookmarks) to give away at Nationals. Cooincidentally, I will be at Nationals the day Vampire Oracle: Harmony releases (August 1, 2008 for those who like to keep track of these things.

Since I now have some fun stuff to play with I’ve added a “Fun Stuff” page to my website where you can find three differeint banners to link to my site (including one Vampire Oracle: Harmony one) and an amazing Vampire Oracle: Harmony desktop to use on your computer.

Antonia Pearce tagged me…The rules:

Tell seven random and/or interesting things about myself. Get five blog buddies to play, too and link to their blogs. Don’t forget to post the rules.

7 things I dream about…

1. Not being worried about finances

2. Writing, there are never-ending stories in my head

3. Finding an agent & selling to NYC

4. To write faster and better. Increase my overall productivity. (I’m stealing this from Antonia)

5. Driving a Hummer

6. Being a better mother

7. Being more confident in who I am and what I do (whether it be writing, singing or just life in general)

Those are my top seven dreams for the moment. The order varies from time to time. LOL

I’m not going to tag anyone - if you want to do it, go for it. If you don’t want to do the meme, why not just tell us what you dream about?

Don’t drive without car insurance. It’ll cost you $598 smackers when the nice policeman pulls you over.

Yes, my dh’s car insurance expired a week ago. Normally our insurance carrier sends us a renewal notice about a month in advance. They didn’t this time. My dh, who drives like an old man - sorry to any old man reading this blog (but, yay to you if you are reading this, I hope you are reading the books too, might give you some good ideas! ) - had no idea why he was pulled over. And, luckily, the cop believed him. Unfortunately, he still had to give him a ticket for it.

He was pulled over because they now have these new ghost cars equipped with these license plate reading cameras that pull up insurance/driver’s license info up, so they knew he was driving on expired tags. Fortunately the nice policeman did not tow dh’s vehicle and allowed him to run to an insurance place to grab some day insurance to get home.

$598!! That’s my new gas stove.

What else have I learned? Um, that I need to stop volunteering to do so much stuff, because it takes away from my writing time. And it’s a handy excuse. So is reading other author’s blogs “to learn”. Notice how they have books out? Yeah. That’s because they are writing, not just reading.

Lesson learned - now, I just need to finish this one last book, then I swear I’ll get back to my ST.

Naw, this is me…

I started writing again and I’m thrilled. I kicked my own butt and did it. I added some words to my ST and completely edited another story. I had hoped to add an additional 10k to it, but it just didn’t work that way. I did add some subtle spice to it and that is where it should stay, imo.

The story that I edited is the story of my heart. I’ve now hit the submit button and sent it back out into the world. I’ve tried to incorporate all the advice I received on it and I hope I did it justice. I wrote this a few years ago and I have really changed my style and learned so much since then. I did the best I could when editing it, without doing a total rewrite. This one seems be a tough sell, because of its depiction of emotional abuse. We will see. For now I’ve sent it off into the world and can only hope it finds its wings.

Now I can focus on my ST. I’m waaaaay behind in the 70 days of Sweat thing, but I’m not going to let that stop me. I’m going to just keep typing and know that I’m doing the best that I can do. Because as long as I’m actually writing and not just thinking about it, I’m a hell of a lot further than I was previously.