Category: The Blog

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The Perils of a Writer’s Imagination

Last night I was cooking dinner when Middle Monster casually stepped into the kitchen and said, “Hey, Mom.”  (Drawing out the Mom part.)

I finished shaping the hamburger patty and immediately washed my hands.  Something was up.  Definitely.  “What?”

“Did you know there’s a suitcase in the middle of the street?”

Ugh, still washing my hands — I hate raw meat.  More soap, but I’m hurrying, because I have a very bad feeling about this.  “You didn’t get close to it.  Did you?”

“Uhhhhh…..”

Crap.  “You didn’t touch it, did you?”

“Uhhhhh….  There’s only gloves and stuff inside.”

Taking deep breaths, I tried to remain cool and collected.  “You know there could have been a bomb in there or something.”

Cheerfully, Middle Monster replies, “Nope.  I didn’t hear any ticking.”

While I lectured her on all the horrible nasty things that could have been in that mysterious bag (yeah, we live in “safe” suburbia in a relatively small town, but you just never know), I headed out to investigate.  From a safe, boring distance.  It wasn’t a suitcase, but a duffel bag.  Now I’m imagining drug money, dirty needles, weapons….

In the end, the bag belonged to the neighbor across the street.  They have a truck, and I suspect it might have fallen out the back when he pulled into their slightly sloped driveway.  Anyway, I was just starting to recover from the “bomb” scare when we watched the news last night.

Evidently there was an attempted abduction of two girls on the street that is THREE HOUSES AWAY from us.  *dies*  My girls play outside with the neighbors all the time.  They walk down that street each day to come home from summer school.  Needless to say…

I’m having a very hard time letting them out of their locked rooms right now.  I know they have to live and not be afraid, but that’s just too close to home.  Literally.

P.S. As far as the attempted abduction, the man never got out of the van, but when he tried to get the girls to come over to him, they smartly ran to a neighboring house.  I have no idea how old the girls were but it’s very scary with three little girl monsters in this house. 

P.S.S. And no, the suspect has not been apprehended.  *deep breaths*

But at least the mysterious duffel bag wasn’t ticking.

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News Roundup

It’s free book week at Carina Press. A new free book each day! Details here.

I’m also over at The Romance Reviews today talking about The Bloodgate Guardian. Comment on any of my posts over there to be entered to win a $10 gift certificate to any online retailer of your choice.

Of course, I’m still giddy that Mykal has finally arrived! Return to Shanhasson should start filtering through book retailers over the next few days. I’m still looking for reviewers, so if you’re interested, drop me a note. (This is book 3 of a trilogy, not a standalone.)

I’ll be planning a giveaway shortly — any requests?!?

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Return to Shanhasson is Live!

Blessed Lady above, thank you for your bountiful blessings of love.

The final book in the Shanhasson trilogy, Return to Shanhasson, is now available at Drollerie Press here.  In the next few days it should also pop up on Amazon, B&N, etc.  I’ll add buy links as they’re available.

Reviewers:  please contact me (joelysueburkhart AT gmail DOT com) for a review copy!

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Beating the Dog Days of Summer

If you go back over the years and look at my history, I never tend to do well over the summer.  The kids are up late, which means I can’t concentrate at night.  We’re up later, because the kids are up later, so I can’t get up early.  If I can’t get up early, I obviously can’t do Dark & Early writing!  So when do I write?  Lunch?  Not with my project load at the Evil Day Job right now.  (Twice in the past three days of work I’ve forgotten to even EAT lunch, let alone take time to write.)

So I have to get a plan of action done NOW.  Some kind of strategy to help me get my projects done instead of waiting (praying) for September.

The first thing I did today was print out June, July, and Aug calendars.  I penciled in all the projects I need to work on.  My releases and planned promo.  I organized my idea file (and yes, I got a new idea germinating.  Sigh.)  I prepared my wishlist of projects too — things I’d really like to work on but haven’t committed anywhere or to anyone yet.  All the various lists are recorded instead of cluttering up my head and distracting me.

I also joined a book club discussing 100 Days of Weight Loss to keep my diet progressing.  35.8 pounds lost since Jan and I don’t want to lose momentum!

I also committed to walking 12 miles in June.  Not a lot by any means, but I figured a challenge would help me get active again.  I seem to do EITHER eating or exercising…I can’t do both at the same time.

Let me rephrase that using Day 1 of the 100 day challenge.  In the past, I used to be unable to exercise and diet at the same time consistently, but today, I’m going to find a way to do both.  I’ve been dieting consistently since January, so I just need to set a small exercise goal that I know I can achieve.  Done!

My number one priority in June will be to finish the first draft of The Bloodgate Warrior.  Then I have two proposals I want to finish plotting, including synopses, and then choose one to begin drafting.  I’ll also have Vicki revisions this month (details will be announced as soon as I have dets in hand).  I’m preparing promo plans for Golden this August, including some FANTASTIC artwork that Soleil is creating.  I can’t wait to share it with you!

So, I’ll continue to eat right.  I’ll begin a modest exercise program.  And probably the most important thing, I need to get enough sleep so I can get up as many times D&E as possible.  (I totally overslept today and wasted a pot of coffee.)  I have to be in bed by 10 pm each night, if not earlier.  Sigh.  That’ll be the toughest thing on my list!

Do you lose momentum in the summer, and if so, how do you plan to combat it?

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Good Riddance to May

Not only did I turn another year older, but my sister’s town was devastated by a tornado and my laptop was busted.  Plus I’ve had a major project in progress at the Evil Day Job, which was running late, stressing me out.  My husband is unemployed for the second time this year, and the kids got out of school.

SHOOT ME NOW.

MayNoWriMo is a bust.

Yet, there’s several rays of sunshine in this May of gloom.  I finally finished the pyramid sacrifice scene in The Bloodgate Warrior!  It only too me all stinking month to finish the scene…Sigh.  However, it’s a killer scene, one I’m very pleased to finish.  Now I have the big showdown ahead.  I plan to continue getting up D&E as much as possible, because with summer activities driving me nuts, I won’t have time at night to write.

I also finished a major component of the EDJ project today.  Woot!  Still have a lot to do, but the part that was like an albatross around my neck is finally DONE.  I collapsed in a huge heap Friday after working late, spent the weekend like a slug watching movies and cross-stitching, and finished up the last of my tasks today as I promised.  Whew.

 

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Mythos, Joplin Update

I noticed quite a few hits to my blog from people looking to see if Mythos survived the tornado.  Damon, superstar waiter at Mythos (ask for him, he’s great), says on Facebook that the restaurant is fine.  South of Mythos…not so good.  George (the owner) was inside Wal-Mart when the storm hit, but he’s okay, just banged up a bit.

I’ve heard from Molly tonight — they’re all buckled down and braced for another round of weather.  Please pray that Joplin is spared any further damaging weather!

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Joplin Tornado

I’ve talked about my Beloved Sister too many times to count here.   Molly lives in the Joplin, MO, area which was devastated by a massive EF4 tornado last night, but she’s fine.  Everyone I personally know in Joplin — including George, the owner of Mythos (which I’ve also raved about several times!), and our favorite waiter, Damon — are also okay.  I don’t know about their homes but we’ve connected with them on Facebook.

We didn’t even know about the storm until my Dad called and said Joplin had been hit, but he’d already talked to Molly and she was okay.  He warned us to get home as quickly as possible because the storm was headed right for us.  We hit Walgreens quickly and before we could get home, the tornado sirens started.

If I’d known at the time how bad Joplin had been hit, I might have been even more worried.  The kids and dogs hung out in the basement while we tracked the storm on the news.  I saw the storm passing a good ten miles south of us, so I wasn’t too worried.

Then the pictures from Joplin started coming in….

Sobs.  It’s so hard to realize that we were just there Saturday.  We drove down Rangeline Road and passed that Wal-Mart that is now just a pile of rubble.  As far as I know, Mythos is still there, but the other side of Rangeline is a tangled mass of trashed cars and destroyed buildings.  Rangeline, a major commercial road, is completely impassible.

I’m just so thankful that everyone we know and love are safe, but it’s going to take a long, long time for the area to recover.  Molly’s office building is completely gone.  The major hospital in Joplin, evacuated.  The high school, gone.  Over 2000 buildings damaged or completely destroyed.  If you’d like to help, this local website has details.

Please keep Joplin in your thoughts and prayers!

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Slacker

Sorry for my blog silence this month.  I just haven’t had much mojo, in blogging or in writing.  I’m still trudging along in The Bloodgate Warrior, specifically, the pyramid sacrifice scene.  Sex scenes can be really sloooow going, so I’m trying to be patient with a couple hundred words a day.  The backup laptop can’t handle more than one thing open at a time — just not enough RAM.  At least I can’t play any games to distract me!

I’m expecting the repair on my main laptop to run about $250.  I hope to get it next week, but it might run into the first week of June.  I’m trying to be patient.

We had a tagging party for all the Carina Press releases.  We all went out to Amazon and “liked” and “tagged” as many releases as possible.  It was fun, and a great chance to see all the gorgeous covers.  Anybody want to do this for some other publisher?  If you’re a writer and have a book out, remind me in comments and we can exchange “tags!”

I’m turning another year older this weekend (assuming the rapture doesn’t happen!!) so what would you like to have me do on the blog to celebrate?  A free book?  A sneak peek of something?  If you have a burning secret desire for something, let me know.  We’re planning another trip to Mythos — the monsters’ present to me — and I’ve asked for pens, paper, notebooks, and books.  My very favorite things!  Point me to the stationary or office supplies aisle and I’m one happy camper!

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The Backup Laptop Saga

After spending the entire weekend cleaning, defragging, scanning, etc. I finally have my original writing laptop up and running.

Seriously, what a headache.  I’ve had constant Norton virus protection on this device, but it still managed to pick up a trojan somewhere between the kids hitting Webkinz and Disney.  I knew something bad was going on as soon as I took it back from the monsters.  It was just too slow.  Norton couldn’t/hadn’t found this virus, but thankfully McAfee Stinger nailed it.  I un-installed tons of games and old programs, but defrags and scans still took HOURS.  AdAware took almost 6 hours.  What the heck?!?

I did some googling and finally realized that Microsoft never cleans up after itself.  Duh, silly of me to think that Windows would clean up previous updates.  Plus, this laptop is using Vista, which no one liked.  Four years of Windows Updates and restore points were bogging the poor old thing down.  I ran a registry cleaner first, then cleaned out all those old updates, then deleted all but my last clean restore point.  Freeing well over 20 gig of space!

The laptop is running much better now.  Hopefully the next virus scan won’t take 6 hours, either.

Oh, and I managed 366 words on The Bloodgate Warrior.  New file, of course, since my last file didn’t get backed up.  Even if I lose it, it’s only a couple of hundred words and I was not real happy with that day’s work anyway.  May is half gone — I really need to step it up or I’ll never get anywhere close to meeting all my MayNoWriMo goals!

P.S. More monster woes.  Middle Monster broke her bed while stripping off her sheets for laundry day.  It was a cheap put-together platform bed I bought a couple of years ago off Wal-Mart, and it’s been through several moves.  She stepped on the platform in the wrong place and cracked the particle board base.  So we spent a couple of hours bunk-bed shopping yesterday too.  More unexpected expenses but at least it’ll free up some nice space in their room.  And no particle board — this one is made out of metal!  Hopefully it’s Middle proofed for at least a few years….