Author: Joely

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Giveaway: The Billionaire Submissive

BillionaireSubmissive-The72webThe Billionaire Submissive kicks off my brand new contemporary BDSM series, Billionaires in Bondage.  To celebrate, I’m giving away a $50 gift certificate to any online bookstore(s) (multiple okay).  To enter, just comment on this blog post as many times as you want.  If you post a review online anywhere, please share the link in comments!

This giveaway will stay open until Sunday, June 22.  That will give several days to enter – but also let me pick a winner before the last frantic week before we move!

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Release: The Billionaire Submissive

BillionaireSubmissive-The72webIt’s finally time to kick Lilly and Donovan out into the world and share their story!  Read Chapter One and sign up for my newsletter to read Chapter Two.  As reviews come in, I’ll be sure to post some snippets.  If you have one to share, please send me the link!

I’ll post a giveaway in a separate post later today!

Thank you to everyone who picks up a copy!  I hope you enjoy it!

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Final Stages of the Move

Less than two weeks until the big move date!  Cue panic!

Today, we loaded everything I’ve packed so far into the POD, along with the kids’ loveseat that will go in the basement.  I’m going to have to go through another pile of stuff I thought was organized but the kids dumped more stuff on top of it.  From now on out, each box will get taken out directly instead of lingering inside.  It’s too easy to get buried, moved, etc.

I also helped Littlest clean her room today and oh dear Lord it was a nightmare.  Every time she “cleaned” her room by herself, she just shoved stuff under her bed or worse, in her closet.  So we dragged out tub after tub, filled with everything from crayons to dirty clothes to trash to stuffed animals and everything in between.

The worst, though:  doll hair.

Evidently Littlest is a budding hair stylist and has worked on every Barbie and doll she has.  Unfortunately, she never threw the hair away – she just hid it in her closet.  It was actually quite creepy!  (At least she didn’t take doll heads!)

We went through every drawer, every item of clothing, every toy.  I have a stack of stuff to donate and several more bags of trash as a result.  And her room is packed!  She just has the stuff on her bed remaining.

Only two more kids to go….

*dies*

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I Don’t Write XYZ

There’s a post or two going around via Twitter where some female authors are saying they write MM because they don’t like to write bitchy heroines.  Or they wrote a “difficult” heroine and it didn’t go over well so they changed genres to write only men.  It’s okay to have a man curse, but not a woman.

Uhhhh…..  (Nobody tell Lilly in The Billionaire Submissive that she’s not allowed to curse!)

That leaves me scratching my head going “HUH?”

Ignore the fact that I’ve read many “bitchy” or “difficult” heroines that I enjoyed a great deal.  Or heroines who are “sluts” – I love Lex in the Beyond series, and I hear the authors get a ton of hate mail about her.  I don’t LIKE doormat heroines, passive aggressive heroines, or whiny TSTL heroines.  Yeah, there are some out there.  But there are also tough, kickass heroines that are fabulous.  If you don’t like it, don’t read it!  But don’t tell me that ALL heroines have to be one kind of thing or people won’t read it!

I don’t write just one thing.  I don’t write just contemporary.  Or just BDSM.  Or just SFF.  Why?  Because I write PEOPLE.  They tell me what kind of story it’s going to be.  Oh, I have to set some boundaries as much as possible.  If I’m writing contemporary, then I know I won’t have any magic going on…other than in the bedroom.  *winks*  But in general, I’ve learned NEVER to say that I won’t write XYZ.

Because as soon as I say that…I’ll have a character show up who breaks that rule.

I can’t/won’t say I won’t write MM.  (see Cole and Arthur in Her Grace’s Stable.)

I can’t/won’t say I won’t write something without BDSM.  (see The Bloodgate Guardian.)

I can’t/won’t say I won’t write POC/non-white characters (unavailable Storms as She Walks or Golden or another project I’m working on).  Or FF.  Not that I have a story with FF right now… but I won’t say never.  One of my dearest friends came out as a lesbian in the past year.  Someday I’d love to write a story with her in mind.

Because I write PEOPLE.  Whatever that means.  The good and the bad, the black and the white and the 50 shades of gray in between.  Ugh, okay, maybe not 50 shades.  *snort*  I guess that means I may not always be able to define my brand, but I have to write the best Story I can the way it unfolds in my mind and heart.

That’s all I can do.

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Crazy Busy Summer

I wrapped up the synopsis, polished nearly 40 pages, and sent Billionaire #2 off to my editor.  Yay!  I’m hoping to finish it by the end of August, assuming she likes it.  The synopsis ended up being quite detailed – much longer than I really care to write (nearly 6K).  But as I worked on it, new ideas and layers came to me, so I recorded them.  I didn’t want to lose them.  I think it came out pretty well.  We’ll see.

I’m still drinking green smoothies.  My Dad brought me some fresh beet greens to try and I admit they were pretty tasty.  Nice and mild.  I have a spring mix that is so bitter I can hardly drink it even with a cup of mango and a whole banana in it.  (Once I eat the whole tub I won’t use it for smoothies again.)  Spinach is really my favorite, but I can do kale too.  It’s important to switch greens up to keep from having too many alkaloids build up in my system.

The two youngest monsters are away to church camp the rest of the week.  It was a scramble to get them ready (they only decided to go for sure on Sunday).  Princess is going to summer school and is already hitting extra band practice.  Middle has two basketball camps later this month and they’re planning two trips in June to head to my Dad’s farm (just 3 days each thanks to other activities).

Plus we’re moving by the end of the month one way or the other.

So it’s looking to be a crazy busy summer!

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Baby Steps

(Her Grace’s Stable Giveaway still open!)

After two years on Weight Watchers, I’ve reached the point where I simply can’t stand the thought of counting another meal.  The thought of doing this the rest of my life is depressing.  I’ve been off the wagon more than on for most of the year as a result and definitely going the wrong direction.

So I’m switching my thoughts and reframing my goals.  I’m concentrating on what to eat, not what I can’t eat.  I CAN eat lots of super foods.  The more super foods I eat, the better I’ll feel and the less room I’ll have to worry about chips and pizza.  I’m not yet back to the place where I can cut most of the junk food out again, but I am working towards limiting it and filling up on the good stuff.

Since I got back from RT, I’ve been concentrating on whole super foods like avocados, cherries, mushrooms, and yes, I even tried sardines.  Not my favorite – the little fish bodies give me the heebee jeebies.  But I can smash them up with a fork and ALMOST eat them like tuna.  I prefer white albacore, which makes it harder to convince myself they are just like tuna, but I’ve not thrown up yet and they’re not horrible.  Not my favorite by a long shot, but I’m holding out hope that I can eventually look forward to them.  Coughs.  We’ll see.

I’ve even started making simple green smoothies each morning.  No yogurt, dairy, etc. but just greens, frozen fruit, maybe a banana, and water.  I drink a huge one off and on throughout the morning, and then when I’m done, if I’m hungry, I have some scrambled eggs in olive oil.  So far so good.  I actually like green smoothies more than I expected.  (I’ve been putting spinach in my workout smoothies a long time, but mixed with yogurt, protein powder, milk, etc.)  The only one that turned out gross was one with kale and cherries.  It was a lovely mud color.  However it tasted fine – just not aesthetically pleasing.

Starting today, I’m also doing a 30-day ab challenge on Twitter and a 30-day push-up challenge.  More small steps to hopefully get me back to some kind of regular exercise.  I don’t want to tackle anything too mind-consuming this month since we’ll be moving by the end of June.  Hopefully.  Assuming they finish the house on time.  Or we’ll be homeless!  No stress a all. *dies*

 

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Giveaway: Her Grace’s Stable Print Release

giveaway

Her Grace’s Stable is now available in print on Amazon and following soon other places (official release date is June 3rd).  To celebrate, I’m giving away a signed copy, along with a custom make-up-size bag filled with RT swag.  I’ll mail these goodies anywhere on the planet.  Enter via Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Back to the Beginning

I’ve gotten lazy… or lucky… with the last few books.  When they were ready, they just dumped out of my head without me having to do a lot of plotting.  It was all in my head and I just took dictation.  At times I couldn’t type fast enough (and I’ve been clocked at over 120 wpm in my heyday).  Remember how fast The Billionaire Submissive roared out of me?  70K in like 40 days and I didn’t have to revise a ton (unlike my original Fast Draft ms which I still haven’t ever done anything with).

However, the downside to this is that sometimes the book had to marinate in my head a long time. Either I was working on it subconsciously (Mama C) for years or I managed to just miraculously tap into the Great Ether of Story (Billionaire).  I can’t count on that happening every time and I don’t want to let Billionaire #2 marinate.  I want it done, signed sealed and delivered as quickly as possible.

I know how to plot.  I just haven’t done it in a while.

So I opened up Scrivener tonight and went through all my various plotting templates I’d started and never really used.  I have a Snyder’s Beats template, a Hero’s Journey template, the old original “Block” the Witch first taught me.  Some of each technique is here or there or not really useful. And the MOST useful thing that I used to use all the time but haven’t in awhile:  The Emotional Toolbox.  It’s nowhere in my templates.

Today, I started a Master Plotting template.  I’m going to have a folder for each bit of plotting technique I’ve learned that makes sense for me.  That way I can copy, paste, delete, move whatever makes sense for each story.  Then I also went through the Character Map questions today to refresh my memory and created a cool little graphic/worksheet that will jog my memory.

Before I lumber off to bed tonight, I’m going to take a first stab at running Jackson Montgomery Warring through the Character Map to figure out what’s going on in his head.  (If you’re wondering who I’ve cast in this role, take a peek.)

At least I already know the first song in the playlist:  Willie Nelson’s Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.

And yeah, Jackson is the Angel who crashed and burned.

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RT Reflections

I had a blast in NOLA, but not without a few hiccups.

I made the mistake of not taking an exercise bra (sorry if TMI) and we walked all day Tuesday in New Orleans heat.  Yuck.  I also sunburned my shoulders that day, but not too horribly.

I never actually had Café DuMonde coffee.  We walked by…and just never went in (they were busy).  However, I did buy some coffee to bring home and try.

I misunderstood how the Samhain party was going to work and had the wrong kind of promo.  I went with quantity and so have a TON of beaded bookmarks left over that I had to find a way to bring home.  The hotel charged me $15 to retrieve my package — I wasn’t going to give them the opportunity to charge me again to ship it back home.  Many were lost in a tangled mess of my misunderstanding, but I crammed them into a baggie to bring home and cut apart so I can at least save the beads.  Ann helped me save the bulk of them, so not all is lost.  I just have way more bookmarks (for an ebook – the print won’t be released for 10 months) than I need but oh well.

The Giant Book Fair was named appropriately.  So Giant that few readers actually made it over to our side of the building.  I chose to sit on the ebook/indie side since my last print release was over a year old, and my next release isn’t out until June, so I really didn’t have anything to “sell.”  I hoped to give away lots of promo, but the way the event was set up, we had few browsers.  Readers were hurrying to find exactly who they wanted in two separate huge ballrooms, generally standing in long lines (Ann stood in line well over an hour just to check out and pay for her books), so I didn’t have many people stop by. Some, but not many.  That’s okay – I still had fun dressing up and chatting with Monica Burns.  She was hilarious.  “Get your BDSM here, Joey Hill approved!’  (Re: His Mistress) Trying to get the hurried people to stop by our table.

I honestly don’t know that I’d do the book fair again unless I just really hit it big and could sell a lot of print books.  Or if they split the event out or come up with some better way to run things to encourage browsing and general chatting with readers.  I sat there for four hours in a corset, crammed in like sardines, and didn’t get to connect with many readers.  Meanwhile I missed the opportunity to roam around and see MY favorite authors.  I didn’t even get one of the Sylvia Day wheeled bags.

The highlights:

I won a copy of Meljean Brook’s book at the Steampunk Carnivale and she signed it for me.  Even more, she said she recognized my name!  I was too stunned and shy to ask if that was a GOOD thing.  I hope it was.

I finally got to meet Stephanie Tyler and she hugged me twice!  I also got to see Larissa Ione again.  Shiloh Walker invited me to eat with her one night when I was alone.  Angela Knight and her husband also took Ann and I to lunch one day.  I was awed to meet and be in the company of so many of my favorite authors!

Near the end of the book fair, an agent went by.  I recognized her name and said hello.  She saw The Billionaire Submissive and recognized it.  She said she thought it was going to do well.  From her lips to God’s ears!  Then she asked if I was agented.  No, I’m not.  Nothing will probably come of it, but it was nice to be asked and recognized in some way.

Then Sat. night I had a really nice chat with my Samhain editor, Tera, and another editor, Christa.  We discussed timing for the next two billionaire books.  I’m going to write a proposal and we’ll go from there.

I also had an epiphany about what’s wrong with my PNR.  The heroine isn’t quite right.  Close, but not right.  I need more.  More experience, more darkness.  It’s tabled a bit while I switch gears to get the next billionaire book turned around as quickly as possible.

I used the travel time to read.  I finished two books and then read my entire Shanhasson series.  I needed a comfort read midweek and then I couldn’t stop.  I’m glad – reading that na’lanna series helped reaffirm what I want to write in my mind.  It reminded me of what I love, and that I need to just stop worrying and Shine with love as Our Blessed Lady desires.

I’m off work today and I’m going to plan out as far as I can with Billionaire #2.  I’m not going to tell you the title of book 2 and 3 – I want them to be a surprise.  They’re too hilarious and cool to risk sharing until I’m ready!

P.S. If you’re still reading, I have lots of goodies to give away from RT including print books, bookmarks, pens, buttons, etc.  I’m going to start by offering goodies to my newsletter followers.  So if you want the first shot at goodies, sign up!

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RT14

I made it to New Orleans for my third Romantic Times conference! My roomie, Ann Martin, and I had a blast touring around the Garden District and French Quarter today. We walked nearly five miles even though we also took the streetcar frequently (best $3 we spent all day).

The first place I wanted to visit was the Lafayette Cemetery. I was thinking Marie Laveau was buried there, but she’s actually in St Louis #1, so we crossed over there and then dropped down into the Quarter to have some beignets.

It was hot and humid – so bad I had to take a second shower before venturing out for dinner (and sunburned my shoulders since I forget sunscreen). Ann had a librarian event so I was on my own. I headed back to Daisy Duke’s since it was right across the street and familiar. Standing in the door waiting to be seated, I saw someone wave me over and ask if I was with RT. She invited me to eat with her party …. and then I realized she was Shiloh Walker! Talk about nice! We had a great dinner.

Now I’m already back to the room and trying not to dose off. I’m such a party animal! Even made a cup of crappy coffee but still can’t keep my eyes open.

Ann and I are planning to head to the Mississippi water front tomorrow morning since events don’t start until 10. Maybe we’ll hit Cafe DuMonde!

If you’d like to see pictures, head on over to Facebook. I posted a lot!