My friend and idol Joely Sue Burkhart's novella Lady Doctor Wyre released today. Check it out. It combines steampunk, menage and BDSM with some upside down regency tropes. Definitely a recipe that could only be Joely. I'm going to be picking up my copy very soon.

A dangerous technology could conquer the universe. Love could set it free.

A Jane Austen Space Opera, Book 1

Charlotte, Duchess of Wyre, once held the Queen's highest confidence--and the technological secret that keeps the royal heart beating. Fearful of what atrocities that Britannia might commit with her research, Charlotte turned to the galaxy's most infamous assassin, Lord Sigmund Regret, to stage her own death.
Even without the simplest of luxuries, seven years hiding in the Americus colony is preferable to one day in the Tower of Londinium. Until a bounty hunter's bullet forces her to revive her research. Now the same nanobots that keep the Queen alive also run rampant in Lord Regret's body. Making his yearly Solstice visits increasingly...intimate...and complicating her courtship with the safe and honorable Sheriff Gilead Masters.

When the Americus colony declares independence, and her humble sheriff makes a shocking confession, Charlotte has had enough. Weary of running, tired of living without tea and silks, she fires a warning shot across Britannia's bow: cease hunting Lady Wyre, or lose the technological power the crown holds so dear.

Her next task isn't so simple. Somehow she must keep the two men she loves alive--and prevent them from killing each other.

Product Warnings: Ladies in positions of power, stylish spaceships, BDSM. A ménage a trois featuring a duchess on the run, a gentlemanly assassin, and a rough-and-tumble sheriff willing to gun down anyone who gets between him and his lady.

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/lady-doctor-wyre-p-6286.html

Come on over to the Sweet n Sexy Diva Easter Blog Hop for the change to win a huge basket of exotic chocolates and an amazon gift card.

All you have to do is go to the Sweet n Sexy Diva's blog, read the rules and start hopping from author to author site by finding the easter fairy icon. There are a ton of great authors in the group, and the prize looks scrumptious. If I weren't a participatin

Go to this location to start
http://sweetnsexydivas.blogspot.com/2011/03/sweet-n-sexy-divas-easter-blog-hop.html

I haven’t been doing as much writing this week, because I’m taking a class with Savvy Authors. This is continuation on my post to improve on aspects of my writing that were pointed to in rejection letters. So far the class has been fun, and typical of yours truly, I’ve asked a lot of questions and I’m learning a lot. I’ll write some more about what I learn once I’m further into the class.

I’ve also been doing a decent bit of cleaning this last week. And it’s not even procrastination. Maybe it’s the hope that spring is coming soon. 

Now if you knew me well you’d be laughing at this idea. I’m not much of a housekeeper. One of the best parts of living alone is there’s no one else around to care. It’s not that I’m messy, I just don’t think about it. Between the EDJ, friends, family and all that being a professional author entails, cleaning continually falls to the bottom of the list.

Some of my cleaning projects are personal, like cleaning out my closet to make room for the new clothes I’ve bought, but several are writing related. One of my big projects is to clean out my spare room which used to be my office/library but has turned into a storage facility.

I don’t have a lot of luxuries in my life. I don’t see the point in them most of the time. But one of the few splurges I’ve ever made was buying a bigger place so I could have a second room completely devoted to my writing. My bookshelves are all lined up in there, I have a nice big desk and all my reference books are on the shelves. It’s a place where I can be completely committed to my writing.

But when I adopted my sweet little fur babies I decided to move everything that wasn’t kitten proofable into that room, so they couldn’t get into (they certainly get into everything else). But as a result I never use the room anymore. It’s really too bad. I love having an office devoted to my writing. So I’m trying to reclaim it. We’ll see how well I do. It’s going to be a lot of work.

I’ve also been cleaning up my computer. Organizing my files, from the indiscriminate mess on my desktop into the correct folders. I’ve also been looking through my files, seeing what is ready to submit, what needs work. What’s complete and what’s missing pieces. Getting as many of these files into a state ready for submission that I can. After all that was point of my submission a month goal. To clean things up and get them ready to submit. I’ve been amazed to find how many partial works I have. But I hope I’ll be able to fix that this year, while managing to release even more works to the public.

The new cleaning is making me feel a little more in control, but only time will tell for its effectiveness.

Through my determination to meet my goals I’ve learned a few tricks for working writing into as many spare moments of life as I can.  Here’s a few of the tips I’ve developed for fitting more writing into my day to day life.

*Lunch breaks: When I first started this goal I thought I would be able to get back some time for writing during my lunch break by sitting at my computer and working through that hour rather than socializing in the cafeteria. It’s a nice theory, but the reality isn’t real accurate. Not only do you have the distractions of the internet I have at home, but also of people coming up and talking to me thinking I’m working instead of on lunch.

*Solution: Get up from the desk. I get the most done if I get up from my seat and move. Unless I’m doing some promotion (which time needs to be set aside to do), I have found I need to get up from my desk to get any work done. If I’m in the second stage of revising (which is the round where I print out my work and correct it on paper, an essential step to rid my work of most of those pesky typos). Otherwise I’ll take a pad and pen and scribble some. It’s a longer way of doing things, instead of typing directly into the computer, but it’s faster overall, since it does actually get some words down, instead of the zero I’d get down if I stayed at my desk distracted.

*The drive home: I’ve always used the drive home for prewriting. I get some really great ideas on the drive home. Many around my writing, but others around work, my family, my home, my fur babies. Whatever’s on my mind. I’m almost always going a mile a minute and the car is a great time for my mind to just wonder and play as it can’t when I’m more focused at work and home.

*Improvement: I’ve found that if I take a few minutes to think about my writing, to actually say the current wrinkle I’m facing out loud before I leave the parking garage, I can focus my musing for the drive on my writing instead of whatever mishap occurred at work or the housework I have to do when I get home. Which means more solutions and less hold ups when I actually sit down at the computer. The same can be true of the shower, or doing housework like laundry, dishes, etc…

*Ereader: My Ereader is a big distraction. Especially when there’s a book on it I really want to read (like I felt with Qwillia Rain’s Rite of First Claim this last week). I can easily spend all night reading, even forget about eating dinner, until I finally pull away to find out its 3:30am (it makes me real pleasant the next day at work :D)

*Solution: I have begun leaving my ereader in my purse upstairs once I get home. If I have to walk up the stairs to get it, or dig the files out of my hard drive to read the book I want, the added work is enough to deter me. This way I can read before I go to bed as is my habit, but it’s not always there to tempt me until I pick it up and finish that book.

These are the tricks I found to limit distraction. As I find out more tips I’ll share them with you all. For now these are helping me to improve productivity. Does anyone else have any tips for gaining a little more time?

My dear friend Em Petrova has another release coming out today from the amazing Loose Id. If you get a chance please check it out. I know I will be soon...

Buy Link: http://www.loose-id.com/Isoldes-Wish.aspx
Blurb:

With a wild boar on her heels and a naked man before her, Princess Isolde has no clue which danger is greater. When she trips and falls into the dirt at the feet of the axe-wielding warrior, giving her a very close encounter with his manhood, she battles her undeniable awareness of the sculpted man even after she finds he has a price on his head for attempting to assassinate her father, King Adlard.

The bold son of the man executed for sleeping with the king's wife, Sadler attempted to avenge his father at a very young age. Now he's faced with the temptation of King Adlard's daughter and presented a fresh opportunity to right his failed assassination attempt.

But when he learns a powerful earl seeks the princess's hand in marriage, Sadler realizes his passions run deep. Desperate to keep her from the arms of his enemy, he plans to steal her away from the kingdom and make her his own.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4vCuWLb1_w