I feel like I’ve just been thrashed by the In-Between.

I’m not sure if I have that line in either of my books, but I should because I’m sure this must be the way McKenzie feels after a particularly rough fissure. Worn out. Spent.

Nope, I haven’t been sick. I’ve just been finishing up edits on The Shattered Dark. Actually, I should probably put air quotes around “finishing” because there is still so much work to do on that book. I’m just plain exhausted right now. I’ve been working on it pretty much non-stop, and I need to catch up on life. My family would probably like to eat this week, and I really, really need to shower.

And I need to catch up on emails! I am sooooo far behind on them! I’m so sorry! I will respond to everyone who’s emailed me, hopefully by the end of the week.

Because I’m feeling majorly guilty about being so non-existent online and for being so far behind on emails, I thought I’d post an excerpt from TSD. I’m pretty sure this might be the first excerpt I’ve posted. It’s super hard to find something that’s not spoilery for the first book. I’ve had to redact just a little from this snippet, and this scene probably isn’t in its final form and might not even make it to the book, and yada yada yada, but here it is! From the current Chapter Six:

I’ve already locked the door. My back is to the room, but I hear the softest tap, taptaptap, tap behind me. In my rush to get inside, I didn’t even think about the possibility of there being another fae in here.

And it has to be a fae. The tapping is too deliberate to be anything else. I listen for movement – the pad of a footfall, the swish of clothing, or creak of jaedric armor – but the only other sounds come from outside, and while I’m standing here trying to decide what to do, they too, fade away. It’s silent except for the rhythmic tapping.

I stare at the door handle. It’ll take a couple of seconds to unlock it. Some gut instinct tells me not to try it, that it might trigger the person behind me. Slowly, carefully, I turn.

A tall, slender fae woman stands between two backless couches in the center of the room. She’s straight as a board except for her right arm, which is fully extended so she can rest her hand on the hilt of her sword. Its blade is pointed straight down, digging just a little into the surface of a low, wooden table. Aside from one index finger drumming down on the pommel over and over again, she doesn’t move; she just stares.

I stare back, not daring to breath. Pale, wavering bolts of lightning fade in and out on her face and hands. We’re in the Realm. She shouldn’t have any chaos lusters here, but she’s not a normal fae. Even if the lightning wasn’t visible on her skin, I’d know she was tor’um. Something about her feels off.

[redacted]

“Your skin is bright.”

The bluntness of her statement makes me stare down at my arms. White lightning bolts around my left wrist. Another one scurries up to my right elbow. Chaos lusters always appear and disappear quickly, but I guess my skin could be considered bright. I just don’t get why it’s important enough to say out loud, or why it seems to annoy her.

“I told him you wouldn’t turn it off.”

Turn my skin off? I frown at the lightning again, and that’s when I understand. The woman wasn’t born tor’um. Those fae are magically handicapped, but sane. She isn’t. She lost her magic sometime during her adulthood and, now, her mind is broken. Whether that makes her more or less dangerous, I don’t know.

Without warning, she’s in front of me. She grabs my wrist. Her cold touch makes more chaos lusters shoot down my arm. They pool beneath her hand, almost as if they’re trying to keep my skin from turning to ice. I attempt to pull away, but she’s strong, and her dull, dark eyes are locked on me.

“You’re not Paige.”

I go still. Her Fae accent is faint; I’m certain I heard her right. “You know Paige? Where is she?”

“Why aren’t you Paige?” Her hand tightens to the point where it hurts. My back is against the door. I can’t move away when she leans forward, her face coming within inches of mine. Her eyes are narrowed, agitated. “You feel like Paige.”

[redacted]

The tor’um hisses then swings me around with so much momentum, my feet leave the floor. My hip hits the coffee table, sending a sharp lance of pain down my leg, and I slide off the other side.

She’s standing above me with that same mix of anger and confusion in her eyes. My gaze moves to the sword in her hand. Her knuckles go white then back to normal as she tightens and loosens her grip. Then, all the sudden, she looks one hundred percent sane.

She whispers, “Nalkin-shom.”

A few years ago when my husband and I were living in London, we started watching a program called Dragon’s Den. We really enjoyed it, and not just because it was the only thing on besides Friends (seriously, they showed Friends all the time over there!), but it was interesting. The gist of the show is that a man or woman is looking for funds for their business. A panel of millionaires listens to their presentation and decides whether or not they want to invest. Two things make this show a win for me:

1. We get to see new business ideas.

2. We get to see how millionaires make decisions on whether to invest in something or not.

Super cool, right?

Turns out, they imported this show to the U.S.! They call it the Shark Tank here. (Who knows why? I prefer the name Dragon’s Den.)

Anywho, this lady presented to the sharks the other day. She has a business called One Sole. She has shoes which have interchangable tops! Supposedly, the shoes are comfortable.

A sampling of some tops:

I should say, I’m not a shoe fan. I mean, I like wearing them and everything, but I hate spending money on them, so 99.9% of the time, I’m wearing tennis shoes or my black Puma’s. But occasionally, I do need to dress up a bit more, and since I’m thinking about what I’m going to pack for the RT Booklovers Convention, One Sole seems like a great idea. I can pack one pair of shoes and a few tops!

I really, really want to find a pair to try on, but it looks like they only sale them in boutiques. Boo.

Do any of you have One Soles or something similar? Totally love the concept.

(Grr. My laptop just froze up on me. Had to rewrite this post. Usually, it only freezes when I move it, but I swear I didn’t do anything other than use the keyboard. This laptop is only 2.5 years old. It shouldn’t have these problems!)

I haven’t finished last week’s goal (note the singular noun), so that’s the goal for this week as well. Finish The Shattered Dark.

Am I still panicking? Yes. It’s due next Monday, and I still have a few big scenes to flesh out, including one I just discovered yesterday. The good news is I’m almost liking the book. According to everyone who knows me, I always hate every book I write until I’m finished writing them. I don’t feel like I hated The Shadow Reader, though. I was worried about it, but almost all of that worry was centered around the fact that I wrote it in the present tense. I’d never written in present tense before, and I knew that some people loathed it (I used to loathe it.), so I moaned and groaned that nobody was going to like my book because they wouldn’t like the way it was written.

Anyway, I’m past that type of worry now. Now, I worry all the time about whether book two will be even half as good as book one. Book one was everything I wanted it to be. Book two is… Well, I’m at the point where I’m calling it “Good, but different.”

I should be working on book two right now, but it’s Monday, which is No Nanny Day. Back in the fall, I tried to work on the days when I didn’t have help with the boys, and I didn’t achieve anything. It was so very, very frustrating. I would be on the verge of crying almost all day long, and those were the times that I stopped and asked myself why the hell had I chosen to become a mother.

When I finally gave up on trying to get anything done on No Nanny Days, everything was sunnier. I didn’t resent being home alone with the babies. I even started to enjoy it. So, now I use Mondays for cleaning, couponing, blog posting/reading, and thinking-about-organizing (I need to write a post about the thinking-about-organizing thing). Those are all things that I don’t mind getting interrupted.

I am kind of stressed out about it today, though, just because I have so much to do before turning The Shattered Dark in. But I don’t want to reach that level of frustration again, so I’m posting, cleaning the kitchen, and doing laundry today. Oh, and playing with the boys, who are super adorable. They’re six and a half months old, almost sitting up on their own, and they loooooove their walkers. Boy #2 is an expert at his. He can do U-turns! He practically flies!

Off to fold some baby clothes (THAT job is neverending!).

Last Week’s Goal

1. Finish The Shattered Dark

This Week’s Goal

1. Finish The Shattered Dark!

Sometime between Sunday and Monday, I passed the 1,000 rating mark on Goodreads. Whoohoo! Thank you everyone who’s read and rated The Shadow Reader. You all totally rock!

I really wanted to have a swag giveaway when I reached the 1k milestone – and when I reached the 50 Amazon reviews milestone – but I actually have to have swag in order to give it away, and as usual, I’m behind on getting that made. I’m behind on everything, actually, which you could probably tell since my weekly update is coming on Tuesday instead of Monday. *sigh*

Maybe I’ll be able to catch up at the end of February? Pleasepleaseplease?

Anyway, here’s my update.

Last Week’s Goals

Business

1. Catch up on emails. I’m still woefully far behind. I don’t know how that happened, but I’m very sorry! I’ll catch up just as soon as I finish my revisions..
2. Write three blog posts.
3. Revise next 50 pages of TSD. I might have done this. It’s hard to tell since I deleted *cough* twenty *cough* pages.

Personal

4. Exercise three times.
5. Babyproof outlets.
6. Organize the pantry. Bought supplies!

This Week’s Goals

1. Finish revisions on The Shattered Dark.
2. Finish revisions on The Shattered Dark.
3. Finish revisions on The Shattered Dark
Does it sound like I’m panicking?!?!?!?!?

I’m wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans! And I can still breath! Whoop!

That’s super exciting, but I have even more super exciting news. Guess who’s story is going to be made into an audiobook?

McKenzie’s story!!!*

Yes, that’s right. Tantor Audio will be producing the audiobook version of The Shadow Reader (A Shadow Reader Novel). I don’t have publication date details yet or know who the narrator will be, but I’m so excited about this! People can listen to TSR while they’re driving or cleaning house or jogging or… Hmm. I wonder if certain scenes will make people run faster.

*does happy dance*

Also, I made a decision about Which Big Convention I’m going to attend in 2012. I’m going to the RT Booklovers Convention in Chicago! It’s April 11th to 15th, and I’ll be at the big, public signing on Saturday, the 14th. Let me know if you’re going to be there! I’d love to meet you IRL!

The RT signing will be my second public signing. My first is two weeks before then on Friday, March 30th at the North Texas Two Step Conference. I’m excited about both! I’ve really only signed books for friends, family, and giveaways so far. I’ve just had zero time on my hands since July. Imagine that.

Anyway, that’s all my news for now! *more happy dancing*

* I don’t think of The Shadow Reader as my story or book. It’s totally hers. Does this make me slightly psychotic? Not sure if I want an answer to that.

My second quarterly newsletter went out last week. The contest question was “What is your favorite scene from The Shadow Reader?” I loved reading your responses! Since I had more than one person interested in everyone else’s answers, I thought I’d share them here. If you haven’t finished the book, these might be slightly spoilery, but I’ll try to be vague.

1. The wedding scene. Page 168

2. The scene where McKenzie shadow-reads for the first time. Page 26-27

3. This scene involved a certain somebody discovering a certain piece of jewelry. Page 227

4. When McKenzie tries to escape using bedsheets! Page 31

5. The confrontation between McKenzie and a certain guy in the palace. Page 199-201

6. The kiss before the big, final fight. Page 285

And the winner of a $10 Amazon Gift Card selected by Random.org is….

*~*~*~*~* Shelli R.! *~*~*~*~*

I‘ll email you!

Thanks to everyone who emailed! If you’re not subscribed to my email newsletter, you can do so here.

And now, for my Monday update. I did better on my goals this time around. Hurray! But I think I still need to do some scaling back. I am so, so tired. And stressed. This second book is still kicking my butt. I mean, it’s going okay – I’m still hopeful I’ll meet my January 31st deadline (my deadline, not the publisher’s) – but every waking moment, I’m thinking about the book. I’m even thinking about it when I’m trying to sleep. That’s not always a bad thing, but most of my thoughts are things like, “God, I hope I get this finished in time,” “Man, I hope this book turns out to be as good as I know it can be,” and “I hope readers like this book at least half as much as they liked the first one!”

In other words, I have MAJOR anxiety over book two. I think this is normal. I keep telling myself it is, at least.

Anyway, here are my goals from last week:

Business
1. Write a total of five blogs. Failed miserably!
2. Revise five chapters of The Shattered Dark.  I REALLY think I did this last week, but I started counting my progress in pages and I’m not sure where I started, so I’m going to leave it uncrossed off.
3. Comment on five blogs a day. I did this at least one day. I really just need to keep track better.
4. Post daily to Facebook. Another miserable fail!

Personal
5. Exercise three times this week. Gawd. I was so, so close to this! Even had my jogging shoes on and everything, but husband had to go somewhere at the last minute, so I had to stay in and watch the boys.
6. Plan the rest of this month’s menu. I did even better! I planned the next four weeks’ menus. Hurrah!
7. Read Ann Aguirre’s AFTERMATH. I’m not reading at all lately. Maybe this will get better after I finish book two, too? I don’t know, but I want to read more!
8. List formal dresses for sale on ebay. Totally did this! Not on ebay, but on a local garage sale site.

Looking at the list, it doesn’t seem like I did better. I felt like I did more, though, so that has to count for something!

This week’s goals:

Business

1. Catch up on emails. I’m woefully far behind again. Don’t know how that happened.
2. Write three blog posts.
3. Revise next 50 pages of TSD.

Personal

4. Exercise three times.
5. Babyproof outlets. Boy #2 is an expert in his walker. He flies! And he’s even able to hit the front door, turn around, and come back, all by himself. We have a few outlets that are right at hand level for him. Plus, I think Boy #1 is going to crawl soon.
6. Organize the pantry. This one might carry over until next week. I think I need to purchase a few organization tools, like Under Shelf Wrap Rack
and an Expandable Shelf Organizer
What are your plans for the week?

Posting late today, so this will be quick.

Had a good but busy weekend. I was able to get some writing done, thanks to my wonderful husband who watched the boys and kicked me out of the house so I could work. Also was able to do some fun stuff, like hang out with friends. We had a great time playing 7 Wonders.

I did better on my weekly goals last week, but I’m still not getting them all crossed off. I guess that’s okay. They’re goals, something to aim for. I’m just going to keep aiming and hope I do better.

Last Week’s Goals:

Business
1. Write a total of five blogs. Wrote 4 1/2. Not bad at all.
2. Revise five chapters of The Shattered Dark. Revised 3 1/2. Bad, but I think I’m past the sticky issue I had.
3. Finish writing quarterly newsletter. Written and sent!
4. Comment on five blogs a day. I did better, but still wasn’t close to 5 a day.
5. Post daily to Facebook. Again, I did better, but I think I missed two weekdays.

Personal
6. Exercise three times this week. Only two times again, but I’ve decided to stop trying to exercise in the morning. Should do better this week.
7. Plan the rest of this month’s menu. Only did a week again. I’m way over my grocery budget for the month. That’s what I get for not planning.
8. Wake up at 6am every weekday morning. I am so giving up on this goal! The boys still wake up several times a night and I’m just too exhausted to talk myself into getting up. I’m a wimp, I know.
9. Read Ann Aguirre’s AFTERMATH. Am so loving this book, but not finished yet!
10. List formal dresses for sale on ebay. Took pics, but haven’t loaded them to ebay yet.

Wow. I can only cross one thing off that list. This is bordering on ridiculous. I think I might need to make more realistic goals. Either that, or someone needs to kick my butt!

This week’s goals:

Business
1. Write a total of five blogs.
2. Revise five chapters of The Shattered Dark.
3. Comment on five blogs a day.
4. Post daily to Facebook.

Personal
5. Exercise three times this week.
6. Plan the rest of this month’s menu.
7. Read Ann Aguirre’s AFTERMATH.
8. List formal dresses for sale on ebay.

Amazon Taxes: I discovered last weekend that, since June of 2011, every Kindle book purchase I’ve made has been charged a sales tax. As I said on Twitter, I’m not exactly upset at being taxed – I think Amazon will have to tax all purchases soon – but I am annoyed there wasn’t any warning or notification of the change. I emailed Amazon to see what was up, and they responded with something about the book being sold by a third party, the publisher, so it’s subject to sales taxes.

So, all Kindle books (with the exception of self-pubb’d maybe) are subject to sales taxes, but I can by the same paperback book through Amazon, and not have sales taxes applied. Doesn’t that make perfect sense?

Amazon also decided to issue me a $5 credit. I wasn’t writing for a refund or money or anythign, but hey, I’ll take it.

The thing that still bothers me, though, is that every single other person I’ve talked to says they don’t pay taxes on Kindle books. I’m feeling kind of singled out. So, here’s a question to other ebook owners out there: have you paid a sales tax on the ebooks you’ve purchased?

Aggie Sippy Cups:  (Note: You might have to be an Aggie or familiar with Aggie jokes to get this story.) Last fall, we received two Aggie Sippy Cups from a friend of my husband’s grandparents. Since we both went to A&M, we were super excited about the sippy cups. Just the other day, I took one out of the cabinet because I wanted to try to give Monkey some water with apple juice. I put it in the sippy cup (yes, I know six months old is super early for sippy cups, but I was experimenting) then gave it to him. He liked chewing on it, but wasn’t very interested.

A friend said her son kept getting frustrated with sippy cups because they were kind of hard to sip from, so I decided to try out the Aggie sippy cup to make sure it wasn’t to difficult to get the water to flow.

You guys, I couldn’t get a drop out of it!

I told the husband when he came home. He tried it himself (he was totally thinking I was just sippy cup handicapped and that it would work fine for him!).

He couldn’t get anything out either!

Now, we’re kind of realizing these really are Aggie sippy cups.

Email: I think I’m caught up on responding to reader emails! Woohoo! I appreciate every single one of you who has read my book, and I definitely do want to respond to your emails (although, sometimes, it might take me a while), so if you’ve sent me an email or contacted me through my Contact Page or via Goodreads and you haven’t heard from me, please contact me again. Thanks!

One of my resolutions this year is to go to a big conference. The two that I’m considering are the RT Booklovers Convention in Rosemont, Illinois and the Romance Writers of America Convention in Anaheim, California.

Right now, I have to say I’m leaning toward the RWA convention. Mostly, because it’s in the late summer instead of the late spring, and I’m still feeling pretty stressed out with these revisions and the babies and life in general. Maybe I’ll have things under control in July?

Or maybe I’m just procrastinating.

The RWA convention is geared more toward writers than toward readers, although I’m pretty sure there’s a public signing. RT, I think, is a bit more reader oriented. I plan to alternate the conference I attend every year, so if I do RWA this year, I’d do RT next, but I really have no idea which one to start with. It might come down to who I know who’s attending RT and/or RWA – I’m probably going to need a roommate – but I thought I’d ask you guys if you have an opinion.

(I want to insert a poll here, but the last time I tried that on the Magic & Mayhem blog, I broke it. I’ll figure the whole poll thing out later, but for now, just leave your response in the comments. Thanks!)

Which convention should I attend in 2012?

RT in Rosemont, Illinois
RWA in Anaheim, California

Are any of you attending either convention?

Last week wasn’t the greatest productivity-wise. It took a while for me to get back in the swing of things. The three days I had someone watching the babies were great, though. Got lots done then.

I know most of you following this blog are readers, but for the few writers out there who might be reading, I post writing related tips and thoughts over on the Magic & Mayhem Writers blog every Monday. Today, I posted about the 5 Email Folders Every Writer Should Have. If you have time, check it out, and let me know if you agree.

I’m hoping I do better on my goals this week. One of my problems last week was that I tried to write from home. Bad idea. So, I’ll be spending a lot of time at Starbucks the next few weeks. Revisions on The Shattered Dark are going really well; they’re just not going quickly enough. I’m determined to have them finished by January 31st so I have time to get some feedback and revise again before I send the manuscript back to my editor.

Last week’s goals:

Business
1. Write a total of five blogs: one guest blog, one Magic & Mayhem blog, and three blogs here. (Two down, three to go!) Ugh. Only wrote four. Gotta do better this week!
2. Revise seven chapters of The Shattered Dark. I did well on the days I had someone watching the boys. The other days? Not quite as productive.
3. Write quarterly newsletter. You can sign up here if you haven’t already. Halfway finished with it!
4. Comment on five blogs a day. I have such a bad habit of just reading blogs, and not commenting. I did this almost every day.
5. Post daily to Facebook. Gah! I still need to do this today! Hope I can come up with something interesting. Oh, yeah. Facebook. I think I posted a few times.

Personal
6. Exercise three times this week. Twice in a week is better than nothing, right?
7. Try a new crock pot recipe. Woohoo! I get to cross something off my list! Didn’t like the recipe, though. Boo. But the next day, I used my bread machine and made easy Italian breadsticks. Yummy!
8. Plan this month’s menu. I planned the menu for the week, so I guess this is 1/4 done.
9. Finish reading Nadia Lee’s The Last Slayer. Another one crossed off my list! If you like dragons and hot books, you should give this a try.
10. Start reading the boys a bedtime story. This is more challenging than it might seem. They don’t always like to be held at the same time, and I really don’t want to read a bedtime story twice. I did this one night. See.

This week’s goals (there’s a lot of carry over from last week):

Business
1. Write a total of five blogs.
2. Revise five chapters of The Shattered Dark.
3. Finish writing quarterly newsletter. You can sign up here if you haven’t already.
4. Comment on five blogs a day. I’m going to make myself a tick sheet so I can keep track.
5. Post daily to Facebook.

Personal
6. Exercise three times this week.
7. Plan the rest of this month’s menu.
8. Wake up at 6am every weekday morning. The real reason I didn’t meet my exercise goal is I kept sleeping too late. Boys are waking up at 7 and I’d like to get up at 6 so I can get some things done before then.
9. Read Ann Aguirre’s AFTERMATH. If you have not read this series, drop everything else and read the first book, Grimspace, now!
10. List formal dresses for sale on ebay. You guys, I still have my prom dress. Never mind that I hardly ever go somewhere where I’d need to wear that, but I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that I will never, ever fit into it again. Anyway, I have several dresses I’d like to put up for auction.