Author: Joely

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Deadline AND Promo Mode

This month’s going to be pretty tricky. I have the following irons in the fire:

  • still promoting The Billionaire’s Ink Mistress from April.
  • Preparing for One Cut Deeper’s release on May 18th.
  • Which means Carina promo (done) and extra blog posts for other sites (I’ve done 2 so far). One of them is really fun – KoKoKoNa helped me!
  • AND on top of all that fun, I have a deadline for The Billionaire Grinch!  I promised it to Tera by mid-May.

AND the kids are SUPER busy with school out this month.  Basketball practices and games for two kids (at least Littlest quit softball so we don’t have entire weekends devoted to tournaments). It’s band and choir concert season (which means 4 performances – the pain of having musically inclined children) and a parade next week. So extra rehearsals after school…

Not to mention Princess’s job and upcoming trip to Hawaii end of this month.

PLUS: Huge Evil Day Job project stresses that I feel like I’m constantly behind on, because things keep getting added to my neverending list.

I’ve really been struggling this year with motivation and energy. Spending more time in front of the computer (whether Evil Day Job or writing) just wasn’t helping. In fact, it was slowly killing me (Sitting is the New Smoking).

My calves and knees are aching more. My wrists are killing me (even though I don’t have that many words to brag about). My overall energy has been really low in all aspects and I’m struggling to get things done, like I’m walking in quicksand.

I had to get a grip on things. My stress level has been through the roof, which isn’t good for my blood pressure. I’m sitting all the time, frantically spinning my wheels but not getting anywhere fast. I actually started to have some anxiety symptoms (tight chest) and my mouth is full of fever blisters.

Something had to change. I didn’t want a heart attack for my birthday this month!

So I’ve started a new program that’s really helped. My trusty old timer. I’ve been setting it for 20 min increments. Then as often as I can, I get UP out of my chair and do something. Like pick an upbeat song and walk around my office for a few minutes. Stretch. Do a few squats or pushups (though with KoKoKoNa in my office, getting down on the floor is an invitation for play time, not exercise).

I don’t have time for a huge workout program – and I don’t have the mental willpower to tackle Power 90 again. But I CAN do the same moves in three-to-five minute increments.

I don’t know why it took me so long to think of this. I’ve already “worked out” 15 mins today just by taking 5 min breaks as often as I can throughout my work day. I’ve done lots of stretches, marching in place and general steps from cardio programs, a little kick-boxing, some light dumbbells. I mean, I work from home, so no one can see me dancing in my cubicle. I might as well take advantage of it!

On the writing front, this is helping tremendously. I do the same thing: set the timer and write for 20 mins. During that time, I can’t check email or Twitter or open a browser at all. Just words. Then I can get up and take a break. The first couple of sessions, I’d only get 200-300 words. But now, I can get 500, 600, even 800 words in 20 mins. Crazy, right?

That’s 2000 words an hour. I couldn’t BUY 2000 words a DAY before this.

Without sitting and struggling for hours at a time.

The other thing I made myself do last night: I took my “outline” – which was really a couple of sentences in a loose 3-act structure and a few candybar scenes sketched out – and filled it out with much more detail. It took an hour, but I jotted down everything I could think of that I wanted to cover so far. It could use more work as I go (especially near the end), but having a better outline (than a note that says “the hero does the despicable” because I had NO IDEA what I meant by that….) has enabled the higher WPH counts.

So May’s a crazy busy month. I’ll post when I can – definitely when I finish BIllionaire #3. If anyone wants to beta read it before I send it to my editor, I’ll probably only have a day or two before I need to send it in, so it’ll be a quick turnaround. Comment or email me if interested.

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Comments Disabled – Edited

I HATE THE STUPID EMJOIS included with WordPress 4.2.  HATE.  Then I find out the very thing I’m disliking is a security vulnerability. So for now, I’m disabling comments.

Yes, they just released a fix, but I’m still mad about the stupid emojis and I can’t figure out how to get rid of them. Even now, they’re staring at me in the below pane.

Grrr.  Not cool, WordPress. Not cool.

Update: 4.2.1 is out which supposedly fixes the issue. I’m going to give it time.  There’s also a plugin to disable the emojis, but I’m still seeing them below.

Final Update: Rather the the disable emoji plugin, use Classic Smilies. It corrects all the crap emoji inserts with 4.2.

Comments going back on!

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WordFence is the BOMB

Someone on Twitter mentioned that they loved the WordFence plugin a few weeks ago (I think it was @mharvey) and I installed it.  I haven’t been hit with attempted hackers lately TO MY KNOWLEDGE but that hack years ago when my site was hosted on yahoo was one of my most horrible memories.  I almost deleted the whole thing and said f*ck it.

Last night I was trying to do dinner and my gmail box was flooded constantly with WordFence notifications.  400+ between when I left work to pick up the kids and got home.  By 8:00pm I easily deleted 600+ notifications.  I went into WordFence and tweaked a few of the settings to further limit access (these were all invalid login attempts with user accounts that didn’t exist), and the emails dwindled to a trickle.

But the plugin is blocking those IPs for me automatically.

Of course WordPress itself never told me I had a problem.  I have a different iThemes Security plugin installed and not a peep from it either.

So a few words of advice:

  1. Never use the generic user ids like Administrator or admin or your site’s domain name.  Those were the top 3 attempts to hack my site.
  2. Get WordFence posthaste.  I don’t even have the paid version – though as good as this was, I’m very tempted now and will look into the benefits.
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Slow and Steady

I have a surprise coming for you tomorrow:  the re-release of Beautiful Death!  If you pop over to the book’s page, you’ll see the pretty cover that Angela Campbell made for me.

I’ve been hitting Dark & Early a couple of times a week and working on Billionaire #3.  I usually do pretty well Monday and Tuesday, but then I get lazier–and sleepier–and find myself staying in bed toward the end of the week. But I’m getting about 500 words a morning, and then trying to match that at night.

The nights are still difficult for me to concentrate. I might have to start going back into my office for a bit each night until I can get the minimum words in. I want a really solid draft finished by April 30th and I’ve scheduled two days of vacation that last week of April for a big push.

Usually, if I keep chiseling away at the story, everything will eventually click and the last 10-20K will come in a rush. That’s what I’m hoping. I still have a lot of story to go and it’s only loosely plotted after a tarot card session.  I have the ending, though, and sometimes that’s the most important scene to know.

The Evil Day Job has been pretty stressful this month so far, though quarter-end went okay after the scary production issue the day before. I have a lot of stuff that’s supposed to get crossed off my list tomorrow, but it’s going to be TIGHT. Some of the requirements changed, which means rework. And I’m waiting on people to get back to me on questions, which means I can’t go much further on various steps for fear of wasting time. That I don’t have.

Then there’s that project that’s waiting on me to get done with project A, that’s due by the end of the month…. when I want that vacation.  Sigh.  So this week is going to be packed.

 

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Now Available: The Billionaire’s Ink Mistress

BillionairesInkMistress-The72smHappy book birthday to Jackson and Diana!

It’s not necessary to read The Billionaire Submissive first, but if you’ve been wondering about that stained glass project, you’ll get a nice update in The Billionaire’s Ink Mistress. Donovan and Lilly make several appearances to help introduce his attorney and best friend, Jackson Montgomery Warring, and his future Mistress, Diana Temple, aka The Priestess.

To celebrate, I’m offering two prize packages, one to be given away here, and the other given to a newsletter subscriber.

Each package includes a $50 e-gift certificate to any online book retailer (I’ll split it at multiple venues if you wish) and both Billionaires in Bondage books, signed print or electronic, winner’s choice.  Open to anyone on the planet.  Yes, if you choose print, I’m willing to send the books internationally.

To enter this giveaway, comment on this post as many times as you wish.  I’ll use Pick Giveaway Winner to generate a winner from comments on April 17th.  If you review either Billionaire book, please do send me the link in comments so I can add you to my collection and get an extra entry at the same time!

To start the discussion, what element of BDSM or kink would you LOVE to read more of that no one’s really doing right now?  Daddy Doms, breath play, knife play, bondage without D/s elements…?  Anything goes!

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Re-Release: The Fire Within

The Fire Within_webOver the years, I’ve had a few people email me to ask about the Keldari Fire novella, The Fire Within.

It was originally published by Drollerie Press, along with the Shanhasson trilogy and Survive My Fire, but that publisher folded years ago.  I was on a roll in 2012 and got most of these lost titles re-released with new covers, but I ran out of steam. Sadly, I had this cover made… I just kept putting off the actual formatting.  Then I decided I ought to make an edit pass, because that was several years ago and my writing style has changed quite a bit.

Finally this month, I sat down and made a quick pass.  I hired out the formatting so I didn’t have that hanging over me.  So it only took a few minutes of setup this morning and I was able to push the “publish” button.

I’ve never had a work exclusively in KDP, so this is a trial for me. I know that this makes it more difficult for non-Amazon fans, so if you can’t bring yourself to pick up a copy via Amazon, just email me and I can hook you up.

So I’m very happy to offer a new fantasy romance (yes, this one is solidly romance and has a HEA) complete with dragons!  There’s no need to read any of the other Blood & Shadow books to enjoy this one, though it does fill in a few holes about the king prior to Shannari’s line taking over the throne.

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Wordless

I’m trying to think of something to post so you know I haven’t died or fallen ill.  I’ve opened up the new post window at least twice tonight, stare at it, and shut it down.  There aren’t any words.

That’s my problem so far in 2015.

I’ve been battling several different situations at home this year so far.  Princess is struggling with her first job and the stress of making enough money to go on her band trip to Hawaii.  We bumped up her therapy appointments to every other week because she’s been having anxiety issues.  I’ve been depressed quite a bit and just haven’t had a lot of energy or motivation.  That Man is… well… That Man.  I’m not happy with how my healthy eating and exercise has trickled off to nothing.  Kind of like my words.

I have completed edits on two different books, so I haven’t been entirely worthless!  Just no new words beyond the requirements for edits.  I open up Scrivener and stare at my Billionaire project and there’s just nothing there.  I *have* to get this story done by May so I can work on the next Killer story due in September.  Since it’s a holiday story…  The window is closing before it’ll have to go to the following year.

A short story I wrote for an anthology last year was rejected, so my record still sucks in that regard.  However, now I have a nice little story to polish up and give away in my newsletter.  After news of rights issues with Cleis, I have to admit I’m more glad than anything that I don’t have to worry about my story and it took MONTHS to hear anything.  Relieved, honestly.  Now I can move forward.

I got devastating news at the Evil Day Job this week too.  Someone I care about a lot, someone I’ve been in the trenches with for years, is leaving, and since I telecommute, I won’t be able to see him off on his new endeavor.  I will just have to hope that the next time I go to the home office that maybe we can meet up at a happy hour or something.

So everything’s a struggle right now, but I’m still trudging onward.  I’m going to work on a little short story to try and get some of my creative juices flowing again.

This too shall pass.

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20 Questions

La Crimson Femme tagged me for twenty questions:
1. How tall are you?
5’4″
2. Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?
My hidden talent is making a mess in the kitchen.  I get flour all over me and the floor no matter what I’m making.  One time I tried to make sushi and ended up with rice in my hair.
3. What is your biggest blog-related pet peeve?
Blogs that only post “buy my books” over and over.
4. What is your biggest non-blog-related pet peeve?
When people complain about something that I’ve done for them.
5. What is your favorite song?
La Crimson Femme wrote:  Closer by NIN – If I were fit and going to do MMA, that would be my song coming out.  
Me too!  I write many sex scenes to that song.  I also love Take Me to Church.
6. What’s your favorite Etsy shop?
7. What’s your favorite way to spend your free time when you’re alone?
Writing or reading.  Though I do enjoy a good Big Fish Game too.
8. What’s your favorite junk food?
Doritos
9. Do you have pets?
Two dogs, KC and KoKoKoNa
10. What are you favorite fiction and non-fiction books?
Non-Fiction: I have tons of reference books on everything from BDSM to ancient China to Regency England.
Fiction:  too many to name.  Love Larissa Ione, George RR Martin, early Laurell K. Hamilton, Lynn Viehl, and many more!
11. What’s your favorite beauty product?
Coconut oil
12. When were you last embarrassed?
Probably when a bunch of guys at the Evil Day Job asked me to explain 50 Shades to them.
13. If you could drink one beverage for the rest of your life what would it be?
No question.  Coffee!
14. What’s your favorite movie?
Too many to name.  Lord of the Rings, Pitch Black, anything with the Rock
15. What were you in high school? Prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock,
valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, etc?
I was prom queen, cheerleader, math nerd, valedictorian, band geek, choir geek
16. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?
Alaska or Hawaii
17. PC or Mac?
PC
18. Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boyfriend/girlfriend?
That Man isn’t much on the romantic gestures.  We did have a nice long weekend in a log cabin for our anniversary though.
19. Favorite celeb?
The Rock
20. Which blogger do you secretly want to be best friends with?
La Crimson Femme!  She’s way cooler than me.
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Getting Unstuck – With Tarot

I blogged earlier that I was stuck on Billionaire #3 and started brainstorming the premise to figure out where I went wrong.  The final step for me to come up with a solution was flipping to my favorite tarot deck, The Steampunk Tarot.

That deck works fantastically for Lady Wyre’s universe, so I wasn’t sure if I’d get anything helpful on a contemporary idea or not. But it was worth a try.

Some background on this story idea:  When I first started working on this idea, for some reason I decided the heroine needed to change.  I built an entirely different backstory for her and gave her a different profession.  I loved what I built… but the story just died.  I couldn’t take it anywhere.

So the journaling and brainstorming I did first was to compare the original premise that I’d found lacking, and the newer premise that was a storykiller, and see if I could come up with a new (better) solution that solved all the issues my subconscious seemed to be having with both ideas.

My questions were about the heroine.  Who was she?  Why was she willing to step into this story in the first place?  What kind of woman is she?

Personally, I like to shuffle the deck 7 times and then spread them out in a line in front of me.  I don’t pick from the top.  I randomly drew 3 cards, flipped them over, and started taking notes one by one.

Note:  It’s important to LOOK at the card first, without reading anything the deck’s guide might have about it.  You’ll probably notice things that aren’t even mentioned in the guide that can add a cool layer to the story.

The cards I drew:

  • Queen of Wands
  • Seven of Pentacles
  • Five of Swords

This is one of the few times that the cards spoke perfectly to what I needed.  It’s not unusual for me to draw a card featuring a man when I’m trying to figure out a heroine.  That can still be helpful, but it’s not as “obvious.”  These cards were very obvious for this particular story.

Obviously the Queen of Wands is my heroine.  The first things I noted about her card without peeking at the book:  a riding crop (snickers, you know me so well), a sunflower, and a fox emblem that looks like a mask as part of the horse’s tack.  The book’s information about her was spot on.  This was my heroine to a T.  There are still several things I don’t know yet, but I’m hoping they come through slow revelation.

The Seven of Pentacles isn’t a character, but a message to me for this book. Yes, I should pause and take a full accounting.  Something’s not adding up.  There are good things in this idea, but not enough for success.  Evaluate.  (Which I was doing.)

The last card represents my hero, but also the book’s premise as well.  There are 3 main characters, two men and a woman, the same as my book.  One is obviously the “lord” or wealthy man.  Ditto.  It’s also a shifty deal-in-the-night-gone-bad sort of card — which my hero fully expects and experiences, even if that’s not his heroine’s intent.  The tarot guide says “He may have all the swords now, but I warrant someone will find something else to stab in his back.”

Oh yes indeed they will.

Now I feel like I can finish plotting this book!  I’m excited about it, where before I kept avoiding even opening my file.  Onward and upward.  I’ve got to hurry and get this one done, so I can change gears to Vincent’s story (Charlie’s brother).