Author: Author Missy Jane

The voices in my head make me write their stories.

A Child Died Today…

…he wasn’t my child. I’ll bet he didn’t even consider himself a “child”. But I considered him one of the many I interact with on a daily basis. I’m a server in the cafeteria line at a high school and today one of our students was killed. He was stabbed by another student who also stabbed three more. Now everyone wants to know WHY? Does it matter? I want to know HOW? How can this child have so little regard for human life, including his own? How can he reach his teens without learning all life is precious? How can he have not known or cared about the consequences for everyone involved? How can this keep happening in our schools, with our children?

The only thing that kept me sane through the entire ordeal was knowing none of my children were on that campus. They all attend other schools and I was the only one of us there. I was in the kitchen, in the back preparing lunch when it happened as breakfast was ending. Today will be a day I never forget no matter how hard I try. Many parents’ knee-jerk reaction is to want to pull their kids from this school, but where would they go? Where is safe? Past incidents up north have proven even the smallest, quietest, most affluent communities can be attacked by a person intent on killing innocents. It sickens and infuriates me in equal measure.

So I’ll hug my girls more tightly tonight. I’ve already reminded them to always run the other way when they see or sense a confrontation. I’ve warned them not to stop to take photos or videos. Their life isn’t worth a damn twitter pic. There’s no school the rest of the week but we’ll be back to it on Monday and the memories will last my lifetime.

It’s September!

September has arrived and with it almost nothing on my writing calendar. I don’t have any signings, releases, guest posts, etc, scheduled so far this month. But that’s probably a good thing since I’m still trying to get used to my new work schedule. I do plan to attend Kerrelyn Sparks’ signing at Murder by the Book at the end of the month. I also will be preparing for the JDRF Walk for  Cure. So don’t worry, I’m not going to be completely silent this month.

If you’d like to meet me, make plans to attend Readers n’ Ritas in Allen, TX in November. I’m hoping to have a new book out by then but I don’t have a release date for what’s in edits right now yet. I’m working on some hot stuff for Ellora’s Cave and just finished edits for my part of an anthology from Just Ink Press. The first release in my gargoyle trilogy is also in edits with Entangled. 

What do you have cooking in September?

And Yet Another Direction

From time to time I might talk about my personal schedule. The fact is I’m a mother of four, I work part-time, and I write as often as I’m able. Back when I first started writing seriously I was working full-time. I would write only on my one hour lunch breaks, and I was able to complete a few novellas that way. Now my schedule is about to change again. I got a new job.


It’s nothing glamorous but will take up a good chunk of my day. I’ll be working in the morning until early afternoon Monday through Friday. I’m still keeping my part-time job too since that one is only every other weekend. So, what does this mean for my writing? Well, it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop. That’s for certain. However, I’m going to have to get creative on when I get to write. I’ll have the weekends I don’t work and I should have late afternoons and evenings. The good thing is my husband works nights. The bad thing is I still have to make dinner for the kids every night.

Overall there shouldn’t be a serious decline in how much novel writing I get done. I just have to rearrange my schedule. However, it might affect my online presence a bit. Evenings are when I’m usually playing on Twitter and Facebook. Though I probably still will while writing, I’ll have to keep it to a minimum to get any real writing done. We shall see. I just wanted to warn y’all that I might seem to disappear for a few days at a time. Especially when I first start next week.

Sex Scene Championships

It’s August! And with the new month comes a fun endeavor I’ll be participating in for the first time: Scorching Book Reviews’ Sex Scene Championships.


Basically two authors will be facing off in each round with one sex scene she picked from one of her books. This was pretty hard for me, not only because I had more than one book to choose from but also because the competition is so fierce! On top of that, we had to only choose an excerpt of about 600 words. I hadn’t realized how long my sex scene run. Almost all of them are well over that 600 limit.

So, I’m in round 11, up against Cari Quinn. She’s a fabulous author so I’m a little worried. As soon as the link is live for voting in my round I’ll have it posted everywhere. For now, be sure to check out the first few rounds. Every time you vote you’re entered to win some fabulous prizes!

Do You Know Shelley Munro? (contest)

Hi, my name is Shelley Munro and I’m a frustrated cat owner.
Let me explain. Cats love my husband and always make a beeline for him if he meets them at a friend’s house, but he doesn’t like them back. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the next door neighbor’s cat and my husband have an ongoing war about trespassing in the vegetable patch. Don’t tell my husband, but I think the cat is winning.
Luckily I’m an equal opportunity pet owner and I find a dog an acceptable alternative. We adopted our current dog Bella from the Humane Society. She’s a real bundle of energy and we both love her to bits.
But back to cats. I decided one day that if I couldn’t own a cat, there was nothing to stop me writing about the species. After pondering the matter and doing a little research, I settled on black leopards and wrote an entire series about them. Take that, Mr. Munro!
My choice of black leopards came after I read a story in the local paper about sightings of a large mystery cat in the South Island. The story fascinated me, and continues to interest me since there are still occasional sightings. Some people say there is a leopard living out in the wild while others scoff at the idea, because we don’t have big cats in New Zealand—not unless they’re in a zoo. I like to believe the stories, although I hope I never come face-to-face with one!

Leopards are interesting cats. Here are some facts about the big cats.

1. Leopards are solitary cats and usually only seek out other leopards in order to mate.
2. They hunt at night and sleep in trees during the day.
3. They’re excellent climbers and often haul their kills up into trees.
4. Leopards are found in many different habitats and countries.
5. Their spots make for excellent camouflage.
6. They are built for short bursts of speed, and their jaws and strong build help them take down big animals.
7. Black leopards are called panthers in some countries. They still have spots but they blend into the leopard’s coat.
Are you a cat or dog person? A feline shifter or a werewolf person?

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Leticia’s Lovers
Middlemarch Mates, Book Seven.Lion shifter Leticia Huntingdon has FIV, the feline version of AIDS. For months she’s been in remission, treated by Gavin Finley, the Middlemarch feline doctor. Now the disease has returned. Her feelings for Gavin can’t go anywhere because of the FIV, so it shouldn’t hurt when Gavin turns to Charlie, the new male cop.Gavin can’t believe how good sex is with Charlie, can’t believe he’s found a mate. The loving is amazing and hot, but Gavin can’t forget Leticia. He wants her in his life. He wants Charlie too. Confusion and jealousy create torrid undercurrents for the trio.Charlie McKenzie falls for Gavin quickly and can’t understand why he’s attracted to Leticia. A nightmare changes everything, drawing the three together and bringing new possibilities. A ménage a trois. Raw need and passion brings them closer. If only the disease threatening Leticia’s life didn’t loom on the horizon…

Also available in print.
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Shelley Munro is tall and curvaceous with blue eyes and a smile that turns masculine heads everywhere she goes. She’s a university tutor and an explorer/treasure hunter during her vacations. Skilled with weapons and combat, she is currently in talks with a producer about a television series based on her world adventures.
Shelley is also a writer blessed with a VERY vivid imagination and lives with her very own hero in New Zealand. She writes mainly erotic romance in the contemporary, paranormal and historical genres for publishers Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave and Samhain Publishing. You can learn more about Shelley and her books at http://www.shelleymunro.com.

BLOG: http://www.shelleymunro.com/blog
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Shelley-Munro/e/B001JOWGNK
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/ShelleyMunroAuthor
GOODREADS: http://www.goodreads.com/ShelleyMunro 
PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/ShelleyMunro
TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/ShelleyMunro

The Blahs

As I’m sitting at my computer fighting the temptation to log onto Facebook, it struck me that I should probably write a blog post. Piece of cake, right? I mean, I’m an author after all. Subjects to wax poetic on should spring into my head at the drop of a hat. Um, not so much.


I’m actually in a blah kind of mood. I feel like writing but don’t know what I feel like writing. It’s kind of like being hungry when nothing sounds appetizing. 
In case you’re wondering, the photos were taken from atop the Ferris Wheel in downtown Houston at the Landry’s Aquarium. That’s where we spent yesterday to celebrate my oldest’s nineteenth birthday. Yeah, that probably is a part of my blah mood too. My own birthday never make me feel old, but my daughters’ definitely do.

Checking In

If you keep up with me on a regular basis you may have noticed I wasn’t as active online the past week as usual. It’s all preteen’s fault. One day as she was lying on my office floor staring up at the six bookshelves around her, she decided they needed to be reorganized. I originally had them ordered by genre. I’ll admit it wasn’t the most organized arrangement. Romance and horror dominate my shelves and had begun to creep onto the literature and fantasy shelves as well. There was also the not so small problem of books that fit into more than one genre. I really don’t know how anyone who works in a bookstore can handle it. So together we decided to redo my entire library alphabetically by the authors’ last names, regardless of genre or anything else about the book. Did I mention I own 1,078 books?

So yeah, it took nearly the entire week to accomplish. Each day we tackled one shelf. We had to empty each one before adding the right books back onto it. My Stephen King collection took the longest. I own 64 of his books. Then, to make it more interesting, I started visiting author websites to determine the order of my series collections. I now have a ridiculously long to buy list to complete the series. But I have to admit the pain was worth the end result. I own a software program from Collectorz.com to keep track of my library. I hadn’t been using it to its full potential before. Now my software can tell me which shelf the book is on, whether or not I’ve read it, and what rating I gave it. 

So that has been my past week or so. This week I’m working on edits for my archangel book contracted through Entangled publishing. I hope to finish those quickly so I can move on to writing the sequel. 

What is your week looking like?

July is Gonna Be Busy!

Happy Independence Day, America!!!! It’s July and I’ve got a lot going on this month. No new releases unfortunately, but lots of promo. 


First up is the Summer Author Blitz. I’ll be joining quite a few other authors in posting blogs and/or interviews, giving away prizes, and just trying to reach as many new readers as possible. My post will be over at Demons Do it Better on the 10th. I will be giving away a prize so be sure to stop by and say hi.


Next, all through the month of July All Romance ebooks is celebrating popular Romance novel tropes. Do you have a favorite? My books will be featured on three different days:

July 3rd: Enemies to Lovers – They Call Me Death

July 12th: Social Class Differences – Two-Week Trial
July 20th: Boss/Employee Romance – Heather’s Redemption (with blog post)

And last, but most certainly not least, I’m also participating in the Digital First Read-a-Thon. My blog will be posted on The Book Reading Gals on the 27th. There will be a prize offered there too.


I also plan to participate in a chat with Cynthia Sax (date TBA), and of course you can always find me on Facebook and Twitter. 



Meet Me Tonight!

Come to my book signing tonight and you’ll get a cookie! Who can possibly pass up a deal like that? That’s right, I’m not above a little bribery to meet some new readers. You don’t even have to buy one of my books. Though if you did that would be cool with me. I’ll have the above awesome cookies, bookmarks, and business cards with some book info on them. Or if you don’t want any of that, just stop by to say “hi”. I’ll be in the Half Price Books in Humble, TX from 6-8 pm. So after we chat you can look around for your next read. It’s a win-win! 😉

No Religion Here, Politics? Umm…

One of the first things any author and/or blogger learns is there are certain hot topics that are best avoided if at all possible. Whether it’s in your writing, or even when speaking to someone you meet at a convention, signing, etc. It’s almost common sense not to bring up religion and politics. There are other hot topics that should probably be avoided as well, but those are the two most widely known.

Overall, I’ve heeded the advice and try not to wander down the lane of social media suicide by bringing up either topic. However, every now and again something happens where I can’t keep quiet. Last night was one of those nights. I won’t get into the whole issue of Texas Senate Bill #5, but look up #SB5 if you want to know the ins and outs. It was nuts. I was riveted and glued to my computer screen for about six hours as I watched the drama of a live filibuster unfold.
So, what is today’s post about? It’s an almost-but-not-quite apology I guess. I’m really hoping I didn’t alienate any loyal readers last night. If I did, it wasn’t my intention. I won’t apologize for the passion I feel on certain subjects. But I will apologize if you felt overwhelmed by them. All I can say is it doesn’t happen very often. Feel free to venture onto my Facebook page or Twitter feed again today. It’s safe now. The regularly scheduled program of writing, reading, and kids is back in place.