Month: December 2013

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Goodbye, 2013–What’s Coming in 2014

I’m not sad to see the end of 2013.  It was a year fraught with change on both the Evil Day Job and the homefront.  I haven’t been able to do Dark & Early this fall since school started because we already have to get up at 5:45 just to get everyone to school in time.  Plus, our first year of high school and band camp, need I say more?

I’ve been trying to write more at night — which works just fine as long as I don’t use the opportunity to get caught up on *my* TV shows, like Project Runway, Almost Human, etc.  My gas tank runs on empty more often than not, but what’s new.

The Evil Day Job turmoil has hopefully slowed down and now I can concentrate on just getting the job done.  That was a lot of stress that simply sucked down my creativity levels and eroded my weight loss goals.  There are still changes ahead but I think the main core is in place.  I’ve GOT to get back to my weight loss goals, though.  I’ve really backslidden there.  Is that a word?  Anyway, ugh, and more hard work ahead.

My main goal for 2013 was MOAR WORDS and that didn’t quite happen.  I did finally get Lord Regret’s Price finished and published, so yay!  I also wrote The Billionaire Submissive, which will be out next June.  Two releases in 2013, currently two slated in 2014, pending acceptance of Mama Connagher (once I finish her story, which should be soon).  I’d really like 3-4 releases a year but it’s just been a struggle to balance everything.

I finally started a story that was inspired by RT 2012, thinking it was a novella (35K) that now I want to make a full-length longer book.  So good words–but not a finished project yet.

I definitely want to get my PNR series complete and ready for submission sooner than later too, but that’ll have to be after I finish Mama C.  I’ve done a lot of good work and planning on it — just need to get the first draft finished.

I’ve got a follow-up to The Billionaire Submissive started, as well as a shorter Christmas novella partway plotted in that series that would be ideal for the end of next year.  After I finish Mama C, I need to get Mal’s book figured out too.  That’ll wrap up the Connagher series.

A Jane Austen Space Opera series is in flux.  Sales just haven’t been that great.  I’ll be spending some time in 2014 trying to build a little broader exposure to the series (promo, ugh, a necessary evil) and hopefully wrap up Lady Wyre’s planned trilogy.  I’d really like to finally finish Deathright too but we’ll see how it goes.  I love this world so I definitely want to do some foundational exposure that will hopefully help.

Right now, my main concentration will be building the new contemporary series, finishing up the old contemporary series, and filling in with PNR and SFR as I’m able.  Building momentum, both in words and weight loss.  That’s my general goals for 2014!

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Click

I don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I’ve *finally* got Mama C fully cooperating!

I’ve been chipping away at her story all month, but it was slow going.  I had the general feeling that something was wrong, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  I had all the players in place. I have the general plot in my head.  I’d reread the opening scenes and was pleased with them. But there was something missing.

Sometimes you’ve just got to talk out loud with people about a story, and so while we were at Granny’s for Christmas, I mentioned to my Beloved Sister that I was having problems but I didn’t know why.  I said the story wanted to be too many things.  It wanted flashbacks.  It wanted a story within a story.  It’s basically two romances in one.  No, three.  And it was just TOO MUCH.

In saying all that, I finally realized the problem.  It was me.  Snort.  Raise your hand if you’re surprised?

The problem was the tension in me fighting what the story wanted to be.  I *didn’t* want flashbacks.  I didn’t want to have to go back and write a bunch of scenes with Ty and Virginia twenty or thirty years ago.  I don’t have time!  I didn’t want to spend too much time fleshing out the story within the story.  Again, time!  The worldbuilding for that thing could get me in a heap of trouble in a hurry.  Thanks a lot, your deep dark secret identity sucks, Jeb!

But that’s exactly what I have to do, because that’s what the story wants.

And bingo, as soon as I sat down and wrote the first flashback scene with Ty, the magic was there.  It was like everything clicked.  All of the character motivations I’d been pretty sure of but not quite perfectly happy with suddenly slid perfectly into place.  That scene told me what I’d gotten wrong.  Jeb wasn’t best friends with Ty.  He couldn’t be.  He was Virginia’s best friend.  Ah.  Now that made things much more interesting and definitely made her conflict much more real and personal.

So I’m going to have flashbacks.  I’m going to have a story within the story.  I’m going to show her romance with Ty, even while the main romance with Jeb begins.  Because in the end, this is menage in a way.  Even though Ty is already gone.  And somehow I have to weave them all together into a tight, compelling story.  One story reveals the other story reveals the other.  It’ll definitely be a challenge.

Whew.  I definitely have my work cut out for me, but at last, the pieces are falling into place.  Now I just have to put it all together and finish the damned book!  It’s going to be like NaNoWriMo month around here but she’s finally cooking!

Now if I could only find the TITLE.

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Giveaway: Lord Regret’s Price

LordRegretsPrice72webHappy birthday, Lord Regret!  To celebrate Lord Regret’s Price’s release from Samhain, I’m offering several prizes, including:

A free electronic copy (any format) of Lord Regret’s Price

A free electronic copy (any format) of Lady Doctor Wyre (book 1, if you need it)

A custom Her Grace’s Stable make-up size bag created by Haut Totes filled with pens, bookmarks, etc.

Winner’s choice $25 gift certificate to any online ebook retailer (Amazon, B&N, etc.).

I’ll ship the bag anywhere on the planet and you can comment on this blog post as many times as you’d like.  BONUS: Post a comment on this blog post with any online review or rating you post for an extra entry.

Just enter using Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Reviewers: Lord Regret’s Price Releases Next Week

LordRegretsPrice72webIt feels like his day has been a long time coming, but Lord Regret’s Price is just around the corner! (Next week, dies!!) If you enjoyed Lady Doctor Wyre, I hope you’ll give Lord Regret a chance. There are more hijinks and inventions, a new world to explore, and yes, more relationship exploration between Charlie, Sig, and Gil. Yes, they had their “happy” ending in Lady Wyre, but committed relationships take a lot of work to keep healthy and strong, even more so in a ménage.

Did you ever wonder exactly who Sig was? Which House he could claim? How exactly did ladies come to rule in Britannia? It’s all revealed in Lord Regret’s Price!

So if you’re able to post a review anywhere online, please drop me a note with your desired format and I’ll gladly provide a review copy.

Here’s what Vivian Archer had to say on GoodReads:

Burkhart can be depended on to deliver strong characters and a high level of sensuality and that is evident here. The one great torment? Gil. The tension between Gil and Sig is killing me. Sweet mercy above.
He had the distinct longing to touch those marks and see what else she’d done to Sig.

This is beginning to feel like the Dance of the Seven Veils, and being the barbaric heathen that I am…I want to rip them all off at once.

Recommended for steampunk devotees, cultural melange lovers and polyamory fans

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General Update

Sorry for the unexpected blog silence!  Things have been crazy around here.  Let’s see if I can catch you up without writing a book.

Survived the trip to MN for the Evil Day Job.  Reconnected with lots of people, gave and participated in training, and realized I’ve actually picked up more than I expected over the past few months, so that’s good.  Work is crazy as usual with meetings, tight deadlines, production issues, etc. so it’s going to be a big push through the end of the year.  I’m taking 47.5 hours of vacation starting 12/18 at 11:15 and I have to get a major project in shape before I can comfortably leave.  (Otherwise I’ll lose the vacation.)

Survived Thanksgiving prep.  It wasn’t the same without my beloved sister and my ex-SIL I still miss sorely, especially on Thanksgiving when we used to prep (and drink wine) together.  Of course it wasn’t the same without That Man’s father either, but we did okay.  I didn’t burn anything, though my cherry pie didn’t come anywhere close to living up to Mistress L’s expectations (see The Billionaire Submissive in June to understand what I’m talking about).

I ended up getting a new computer this weekend so I spent a lot of time transferring files and generally cleaning up my old ASUS for the kids.  They’ve been killing my miniscule writing time by stealing my computer to play MineCraft so I had to do something.  The new baby is also an ASUS, touch screen with Windows 8.  It’s not as bad as I feared though I had to do lots of updates to get caught up to 8.1 and get Scrivener, etc. installed.  So far so good.  It has a gorgeous HD screen that’s crisp and clear, easy on my eyes, though I reserve the right to buy a large monitor at some point to ease my eye strain if needed.

We’re still working on Koko.  She saw the vet today and got some doggy happy pills to help with her anxiety.  The vet also recommended some trainers to help us with her socialization.  The vet agreed that Koko is a sweet dog – she’s not mean.  She’s scared.  Yet that doesn’t mean she couldn’t get into trouble in the wrong situation if we don’t learn how to handle her difficulties.

I got the paperwork done for The Billionaire Submissive and discussed plans with my editor on what to concentrate on next.  Up first is Mama C and then a holiday billionaire submissive for next year.  I’m also still working on the new PNR as well, so it’s going to be craaaaazy and full the next few months!