There’s been a lot going on in my writing life over the last few weeks. Since a writer can’t stay still for any time (ask my mother, it drives her crazy, she says I’m always going a mile a minute but guess who I got it from :D), while attending the romance convention I’ve also been submitting and revising a few works. And of course, as is always in life, all the news converged together in one glorious week. So here are a few announcements of things to come for the next few months.

For starters, I submitted Foolish Desire to Siren Publishing. After The Romance Convention I was so motivated to work with them again, I came home and revised Foolish one more time and sent it off to them a day after the conference. I heard today that they have accepted the work. Foolish Desire will be out sometime in November, so look for it then. 

I also received a contract for a short story I wrote inspired by one of my favorite places in the world, London. The short story is called Jack the Bodice Ripper. The story takes place in London and does include some ripped clothing. It is set to appear in an anthology called, Sex in London (fitting right). I’ll keep you all posted as soon as I know when that will be releasing.

And in exciting news, the little story that could, Wandering Off the Path received a contract last. After many revisions and rejections, Wandering has finally found a home with a great publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing. It is scheduled to release early February 2013, and be available for preorder in January. I’m so thrilled to finally have a place for this story in the world. This work has truly been a labor of love. It was only through sheer determination that Wolf and Abigail managed to keep moving forward in the world.

Wandering is the first story in a new series I’ll be starting called Bound by Fairytales, which are historical versions of our favorite fairytales with a little bondage thrown in. I hope to start working on a few more stories for this series soon. We’ll see, with all the other stories in my head, it might be a little while before I can get around to them. I already have ideas brewing for remaking Goldie Locks and the three bears (yup, I’m going exactly where you’re thinking) and Beauty and the Beast. But I have a few more kernels for some other fairytales I’m hoping will sprout into something great.
 
As you can see, the next few months will be a little crazy with edits but I couldn’t be happier about it. I’m thrilled that these great stories have found so fantastic homes, and I’m excited to keep working.

Now back to writing, I’ve got a few more revisions and submissions to make before my inbox fills up with edits ;)

This past weekend I attended Siren’s first conference in Dallas, TX. As some of you may know I’ve been having some craziness in my working life, and debated for some time whether I should go to this event, if I could afford it, or if I should save the money for the future when I might be unemployed. After having attended, I am so grateful I choose to go.

Starting on Friday with an awesome writers event that could have continued for hours past closing time, we learned about what’s hot in the genre and what’s not, how to market and promote your writing, and we got to pick the
brains of the top bestselling authors with Siren for how they got where they
are. David and Diana, the publishers, discussed the future of Siren-Bookstrand, and I have to say, I’m thrilled to see the expansions they plan to make. Siren will most definitely be keeping up with the times, and quite possibly surpassing them.

But the most exciting part of the conference was getting to meet so many authors that I have conversed with online or emailed with, and to finally put faces to names. One of the most exciting for me was meeting Berengaria Brown, who was the author that encourage me to submit to Siren, which I couldn’t be happier about. I also met Tymber Dalton, Sophie Oaks, and Dixie Lynn Dwyer, who was my table mate at the book signing and just awesome to talk to about her experience.  The funniest part of all, turns out
Dixie and I live about an hour away from each other. Who knew I’d fly all the way to Dallas to find a neighbor. I also got to meet a ton of great readers, including attending a reader’s panel where they got to tell us why they wanted.

Over all it was an awesome event, and really revitalized my energy and passion for writing. Writing can be such a solitary activity, on the rare occasions when we actually get to meet and talk it’s truly a blessing. It was fantastic to be in a room filled with others that I could talk to about my craft and have understand me, not just understand the terminology (when we say mfmm we all know what we’re talking about, but I did wonder on a few occasions what the hotel staff thought of us) but also about the issues of trying to fit writing into life, or how to deal with characters that just won’t
talk.

All and all I came back from the weekend inspired to do more. During our author session, Diana asked all the authors who wrote full time to raise their hands, and I was in awe of how many hands went up. Many of my siren sisters are living their dreams, to write full time, and I’m newly inspired to think one day that could be me.  I came home, arms full of swag, determined to put their words and advice into action, and I’ve already started to. Maybe sometime in the next few years, I can be one of those with my hand in the air saying, yes I live my dream, every day.

I want to say a big thank you to Diana and David, and all their staff for their work on this event. It was truly amazing.  Siren really is one of the best publishers out there, and I am so thankful to be a part of their team.

Next year San Antonio! I can't wait!

I've been knee deep in revisions for Foolish Desire for the last few, working very hard to get you all the next installment of the Naughty Holiday Lists as quickly as I can. Unfortunately I'm still not meeting my own deadlines, so for right now, I'm in detention. No more reading, no more fun, until it’s done.
 
It’s interesting to see how I've changed and grown as a writer in the last few years. It’s always amazing for me to see how each work improves. Since being published it’s been a huge increase in proficiency, since my amazing publishers have been great about being honest and forthright and helping me see my mistakes the way I never could on my own. Each work I can feel myself growing.
 
With this revision, it’s been disconcerting how much I've changed. The revisions have gone rather smoothly, considering how horrible edits used to be for me. I used to cringe and slam my head against a wall when it was time to do revisions (and I might be right back there with the next release, cross fingers I won't be). This revision there were no huge sections to rewrite, no horribly crafted passages that made you question why you'd ever started to type to begin with (yeah, I've had some dozes in the past). In fact there were times I was revising, I actually forgot I was revising, I was enjoying Will and Amy's story so much.

Now there are a few reasons why this one is going so much better than others in the past. Part of it is due to the fact I've been in this world so long. Foolish Desire will be the fourth Naughty Holiday List installment, and as a result I know the stories and characters very well. I've been setting up these story lines in all the other books (if you go back and read some of the others you'll see hints of what's to come, but its subtle enough not to give too much away). Since I've known where I was going for almost two years, I'm much better at staying on track than I used to be. 

I've also started using character charts, which have really helped me get the character right the first time. No more writing half the book before I decide who they are and what their conflict is, and as a result no more going back to rewrite sections with a different back story or character trait. Amy is the same she's always been, shy, awkward and just a touch repressed. Just enough to make it so much fun for Will to push her boundaries.
 
But I really think the majority is due to growing as an author. Now I can see the pitfalls before I fall in them. I can anticipate the problems before I even hit them, and I can even wade my way through them faster (since I've done it before) I still have issues and problems come up while writing and revising, and I think I'll continue to. When I stop having anything more to learn, I'll probably stop writing, or we'll evolve past it. But I'm definitely improving, which I hope means I'm writing faster and it will be even sooner you'll get to read another one of my books.

Until then, here's the last snippet I revised on Foolish Desire, Will and Amy are enjoying a late meal after play rehearsal, but Will's got a little more up his sleeve than garlic bread. 

Will leaned towards Amy, taking advantage of her excited state to shift his arm a fraction closer on the table. Her heat radiated his side, offering him a glimpse of how amazing her body would feel pressed up against his. Her soft flowery smell encircled him, his mouth watered to taste her.

“I bet they can’t wait to see their teacher at work. Those sets you made are
breathtaking.” He leaned closer, slipping his hand under the table to graze her knee. Not lingering, but certainly remaining long enough to draw her attention, if the way her soft mouth fell open and her eyes gazed up at him in question were any indication. “And those costumes,” he whispered low, close to her ear, even though no else sat near enough to hear him. “They’re worth the price of the ticket alone. They certainly get my heart pumping.”