Category: miscellaneous

Here I Am!

My wonderful, faithful readers, I owe you an apolgy for being MIA the past few months. I’ve played a little on FB and Twitter, but not nearly the norm of the past couple of years. 


I’ve changed jobs twice since July and rearranging my schedule has been a bit hectic. My daughters and I just (this morning) finished the JDRF Walk for a Cure, which has taken up a lot of my time as well. To those of you who donated to our team, THANK YOU! We sincerely appreciate it. I’ll probably start planning for next year’s walk in late spring so keep it in mind if you’d like to join us.

Next up: NaNo! November 1st marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. Me, along with thousands of other masochists, attempt to write a 50,000 word novel within thirty days. It’s funny, exhausting, eye-opening, and frustrating all at the same time. You should join in!

Along with NaNo, November marks my return to Allen, TX for Readers n’Ritas. This year one of my all-time favorite authors will be there, Sherrilyn Kenyon! I’ve had the honor of meeting her twice before but still look forward to seeing her again.

So, as you can see there’s never a dull moment in my house. NaNo will also be my return to a regular writing schedule. After all, who needs sleep, right?

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.

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?

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.

I’m on a Boat!

Though writing is what I do with as much of my free time as possible, I also have a regularly paying job on most weekends. I pass out a local publication at various trade shows in the Houston area. This past weekend was the Houston Boat Show. 


This was my first time at a boat show, and it was definitely a learning experience. I never knew there were so many different types, shapes, and sizes. I have my future yacht all picked out. Now we just have to see which of my daughters becomes rich and famous enough to buy it for me.

While fantasizing about my leisurely life on the water, I realized a yacht could make a great setting for a romance. Can you imagine being seduced by a hunky hero on one of these babies?
I can!

Who wouldn’t want to relax and let the waves rock them to sleep in this set-up? Now I just have to find the right characters to place here and decide on the situation that gets them here. Hmmm. I love when real life can spark an idea for a new book.



Writer vs Author

Whenever I mention to someone that I’m an author I don’t always call myself that. Sometimes I say writer instead without really thinking about it. The two words are pretty interchangeable in my mind. However, I’ve noticed quite a difference in the reactions of those I tell based on which term I choose.

When I say I’m a writer or that I write it’s usually met with a smile and nod of understanding, but no real interest. The listener usually moves on to the next topic of discussion without really acknowledging what I’ve just said. That’s okay by me. To be honest, when I’m meeting or talking to someone as myself (Melissa rather than Missy) I’m perfectly okay with not discussing my writing. I don’t push it on other people or even say much about it unless they show a genuine interest. I realize not many people are willing to admit they read the genres I write, so I give them an out by not making it a big part of our conversation.

On the flip side, when I say I’m an author the reaction is vastly different. Many times the person shows surprise and they ask about my books. How many have I written? What genre are they? Are they self-published? I answer the questions honestly and as succinctly as possible. What can I say, I’m not the best at self-promotion. I do offer a bookmark with my info if they seem to be genuinely interested rather than just being polite. 

I’m not bothered by either reaction. I just find it interesting that the two words, which mean essentially the same thing, garner such different reactions from people. I rarely say I’m a published author, and almost never that I’m multi-published, even though both are true. There’s really no reason. Again, I’m not so great at self-promotion. 

Do the two terms have different meanings for you? If so, why and how?

Around My Town: Japanese Festival 2013

I live just north of the fourth largest city in the nation. What that means to me is plenty of opportunities to do a lot of cool stuff. Take last weekend for example. The 20th Japanese Festival occurred downtown in Hermann Park. This is a festival my family has attended nearly every year for about six or seven years. We absolutely love it! The best part? Entry is free. For a family of six, that’s just what we need.

I don’t remember how I first learned of the Japanese Festival. It’s put on every year by The Japan-American Society of Houston. This organization is dedicated to ” encourage mutual knowledge and understanding of Japan by Americans and of America by Japanese, and to encourage communication between the two countries.” (from their website) 

Every year they do a fantastic job of bringing together food, dance, martial arts, art, crafts, and various entertainment from Japan. We stuff ourselves full and buy things that don’t last the year. But that’s okay because we know we’ll just go back next year to buy more. One of my favorite aspects of the festival is the costumes worn by the attendees. If you like cosplay, anime, or anything to do with Japanese fashion (real or in the movies) then you would get an eye-full at the festival.

I was told this bookmark says “Missy”.
I would have had a better picture of my food if I had remembered to take one before chowing down. Sorry. The pork and curry over rice was just too yummy to resist.

One of the most popular items (aka longest lines) at the festival are these drinks with tapioca. Umm, not for me but the teens love them.

This year my girls surprised me by trying something new. A bun filled with sweet bean paste. I wasn’t adventurous enough to give it a taste. 




Fun for the whole family includes two long tents filled with children’s games. This is one the youngest plays every year. Especially since I wouldn’t let her try to win a goldfish again.



I take this photo every year and it never gets old. Hopefully she’ll still let me when she’s in her teens.




This year paper swans were added to the pond. I never got close enough for a better picture, but you get the idea.

Fourteen Thousand?!!

When I started this blog a few years ago it was because all authors have blogs, right? I knew keeping in touch with my readers was a good thing but website are meant to be somewhat static. I wanted to keep it flowing with updates and my rambling thoughts so my readers could get to know me. Now Facebook is much more prevalent in my life and where I do most of my “reaching out”. However, I still try to keep my blog updated at least every couple of weeks.
So, when I logged in today and took a peek at my stats, what did I see? 14,004 all time page views!! Oh my god! You guys rock. I can’t believe we’ve made it this far together but I’m absolutely thrilled. THANK YOU for hanging in there with me through the unlimited self promotion and goofy paragraph-only posts. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey and plan to stick around for another thousand views or so. 😉