First, I wanted to say congratulations to Nicole T., who’s favorite fae book is ELFLAND by Freda Warrington. You should receive an email with your $15 Amazon gift card.

If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, you can do so here. I have subscriber-only contests in all my quarterly newsletters, and I update you on my latest reads and my writing news.

Now, um. Take a look at this:

I know! One more week! ONE MORE WEEK! And you know what, I think it might even be possible that THE SHADOW READER shows up on some shelves before then. I’ve heard of that happening with other books, and I’m so, so tempted to hang out in the SF/F section of my local bookstore until it shows up. Maybe I can sneak into the back and check out all the boxes they have waiting to unpack.

Yeah. Probably not going to happen right now because I’m in OHMYGODIHAVEADEADLINE mode. I’m writing my butt off, trying to get book two finished ASAP. Good news is I’m loving it! I had a great writing day yesterday, a GREAT writing day. For the past year, writing has been so difficult it’s almost – ALMOST – not fun. But yesterday, I went out and worked in the Starbucks of my local Target, put on my headphones, and had Taylor Swift playing on death loop. And it was fun!

Hoping to repeat that every day this week, lol.

Happy Friday, everybody!

This week went by so fast! I’m having fun with the sequel to THE SHADOW READER. And let me tell you, THAT is a big deal. This has been such a tough book to write. I think that’s because my mind has been everywhere this past year (pregnancy from hell, newborn twins, general chaos), but it finally feels right. Yay! I have tons of work to do on it still, so I’ll probably continue to be scarce online for a while. I’m just excited to be excited about this book!

Speaking of books, a week and a half until THE SHADOW READER hits the shelves. OMG! OMG! OMG! I have a copy of the actual book beside me on my desk. I keep opening it up, and every single time, I’m surprised that my words – MY WORDS! – are written on the pages. *grins*

I want to send a big congrats out to Vanessa N., who won KINDLING THE MOON by Jenn Bennett! I’ll put the book in the mail this weekend. Hope you love it!

And today is the last day to enter my newsletter only contest. If you haven’t sent your entry in, please do so by midnight, and if you just recently signed up for the newsletter, don’t worry. There will be subscriber only contests in each quarterly newsletter, so you’ll get the chance to win next time.

In real-life news, we bought a new desk last week! The husband put it together over the weekend. (OMG, it took forever! So many parts and pieces!) I’m loving it. It has filing cabinets! I can file stuff! Not that I didn’t have filing cabinets before. I had two of them, but they were ugly, not quite functional, overstuffed with a ridiculous amount of papers we didn’t need, and they were located in the closet. To answer your question, yes. Apparently I am too lazy to take those extra two steps to open the door and file stuff in there.

It’s fun to be organized!

Anyone have plans for the weekend? I plan to write, write, and write!

It’s giveaway time! I’m super excited about this one. First, because I LOVE the book I’m giving away and, second, because I get to use a new contest program that’s still in beta: RaffleMonkey!

Okay. No. The program isn’t really called RaffleMonkey – it’s called Rafflecopter - but everything sounds more fun when you add “monkey” to it.

So, what is the prize of this contest? It’s Jenn Bennett’s awesome debut, KINDLING THE MOON! You guys, this is seriously one of my favorite reads of the year. It made waking up in the middle of the night to feed the babies so much easier (well, relatively) because I got to read it. (Sidenote: a huge benefit of having an e-reader is that you can hold a baby and read/turn pages at the same time!) I loved the heroine, Arcadia. She was special, but she was also very normal, and what I mean by that is she reacted to situations the way I think a real life person would react. She didn’t mouth off when her life was on the line. She was genuinely scared, but not to the point that she was paralyzed. In fact, she reminded me quite a bit of my character, McKenzie. I think Cady and McKenzie would be great friends if they ever met.

The other awesome part of this book? Lon. Oh, how I love him! He’s kind of quiet and reserved, but he somehow manages to emit strength and courage at the same time. He’s fabulous. Definitely not the typical urban fantasy hero.

Then, you have the worldbuilding. I love what Jenn did with the magic and the demons. Very cool. Then, you have the actual plot. Cady has been in hiding for several years after her occultist parents were accused of being serial killers. Something happens, and she now finds herself having to prove their innocence.

That’s the quick run down. The point of all this is that you have to read this book! To win a copy, follow the directions below. Oh, and let me know how you like Rafflecopter. Is it easy to use? Is it annoying? Did it even work for you?

I can’t even begin to tell you how surreal it is to read reviews of THE SHADOW READER. I still feel like this whole publishing thing is just a dream. It’s something that happens to other people, not to me. I’m just me, a girl with stories in her head. The stories don’t even belong to me. They belong to McKenzie. I just happen to be the one who writes them down (McKenzie is WAY too busy to write a novel!).

But, there are reviews out there. Good reviews, too! I get giddy whenever I hear someone actually read my book all the way through. To hear that they read it AND they liked it is just all sorts of awesome. One of my favorite reviews is up over at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ News & Reviews . Check it out if you have time.

Want to win a copy of THE SHADOW READER? Here’s a round up of contests that are still open.

Penguin Facebook Contest (Ends today!)

Dark Faerie Tales Contest (Ends September 30th)

Shawntelle Madison’s Magic & Mayhem Post Contest (Ends October 5th)

And next week is October! Check back here for more giveaways as I count down to release day!

Geez. I’m already behind this week, and it’s only Tuesday!

(The husband just came in with Boy #1 saying, “Look how cute he is!” He is pretty darn adorable, which is why it’s so hard to get work done sometimes.   )

I need to get some more writing done today, so I’m doing a quick post to update my goals. Here’s what I accomplished last week:

Last Week’s Goals:

Writing Goals
1. Write 10k on TSR2. Hopefully more! [Totally failed on this! I'm writing at a good pace for me, but it's not quite fast enough.]
2. Write 5 blog posts. I have a few guest blogs due soon, and I want to blog here more regularly and not miss my Monday post slot on the Magic & Mayhem blog. BTW, if you’re a book reviewer blogger and would like me to stop by for a guest post or interview, feel free to send me an email!  [I wrote two posts last week. The good news is, I've already written three posts this week, so maybe I'll accomplish this goal this time around!]
3. Contact at least two book bloggers to see about guest posting. [Geez, I suck at meeting my writing goals!]

Mom Goals
4. Spend at least an hour of quality time with the twins in the morning and afternoons. I’ve been (attempting to) multitask way too much this past month. I need to play with them more. [Totally accomplished this! I gave up trying to get anything done when I have the boys on my own, so I'm doing good on the quality time. This is probably why I'm not doing so good on the writing goals. *sigh*]
5. Develop a nighttime routine. We’re trying to read a book to them before bed, but sometimes they’re already asleep before we start the nighttime routine. Might still be a bit early for routines. (They’re two months old, but were born four weeks early, so, developmentally, they’re probably closer to one month.) [The whole reading a book thing is NOT working. They're either already asleep or majorly fussing at bed time and aren't interested in listening to Mom or Dad read. So, we just change their diapers, swaddle them, then turn on the mobile and put them to bed. Does that count as a night time routine?]

Home Management Goals
6. Finish cleaning/organizing the study. [So close to accomplishing this! I have almost everything cleaned out. I just have huge stacks of papers to sort through and file.]
7. Organize all my couponing stuff so I’m spending less time on it. [Halfway there.]
8. Plan next week’s menu. [Did it!]

Personal Goals
9. Exercise. Walk for 20 minutes three times this week. I want to do more, but the hip that hurt me so much when I was pregnant hurts almost as much after walking briskly for 20 minutes. Hopefully, it’ll get better soon! [So surprised I did this! I'm going to keep the goal the same this week, but I might try to jog some. It all depends on how my hip joint holds up. (God, I sound old!)]
10. Drink at least 24oz of water each day. I’m addicted to Diet Coke and horrible at drinking water. I’m not going to try to limit my caffeine intake until the boys sleep through the night and/or after my deadline, though! [Did it! I have, however, consumed equal amounts of Diet Coke. lol]

So, four out of ten goals accomplished. Not too bad

I was going to write out this week’s goals, but they’re basically the same as the ones above which I haven’t crossed off. Hopefully, I’ll get them all done this time!

What are you hoping to accomplish this week?

I mentioned a few weeks ago in my I’m Back post that I experienced a mini life crisis the other day after spending over $100 at Target on a week’s worth of diapers and baby formula. Since them, I’ve been reading up on how to save money, namely, I’ve discovered the world of couponing.

One of the sites I stumbled across was Money Saving Mom. It’s a great site to check out if you’re interested in saving money by sale shopping and using coupons. She posts deals and tips multiple times throughout the day, but one of my favorite posts is her weekly goals. Her goals for this week are here.

I think this is a fantastic idea! I have so, so much I need to do that I get overwhelmed and don’t accomplish half of what I should. So, I’m going to try this whole writing-down-my-goals thing. I don’t know if I’ll post them here each week – I don’t want people to drop dead from boredom – but I might do this for a while because it’s a quick and interesting-to-me blog post, and I’ve so been neglecting this blog! Bad, Sandy!

So, my ten goals for this week:

Writing Goals*
1. Write 10k on TSR2. Hopefully more!
2. Write 5 blog posts. I have a few guest blogs due soon, and I want to blog here more regularly and not miss my Monday post slot on the Magic & Mayhem blog. BTW, if you’re a book reviewer blogger and would like me to stop by for a guest post or interview, feel free to send me an email!
3. Contact at least two book bloggers to see about guest posting.

Mom Goals
4. Spend at least an hour of quality time with the twins in the morning and afternoons. I’ve been (attempting to) multitask way too much this past month. I need to play with them more.
5. Develop a nighttime routine. We’re trying to read a book to them before bed, but sometimes they’re already asleep before we start the nighttime routine. Might still be a bit early for routines. (They’re two months old, but were born four weeks early, so, developmentally, they’re probably closer to one month.)

Home Management Goals
6. Finish cleaning/organizing the study.
7. Organize all my couponing stuff so I’m spending less time on it.
8. Plan next week’s menu.

Personal Goals
9. Exercise. Walk for 20 minutes three times this week. I want to do more, but the hip that hurt me so much when I was pregnant hurts almost as much after walking briskly for 20 minutes. Hopefully, it’ll get better soon!
10. Drink at least 24oz of water each day. I’m addicted to Diet Coke and horrible at drinking water. I’m not going to try to limit my caffeine intake until the boys sleep through the night and/or after my deadline, though!

So, there you have them. My goals for this week. Does anyone else write down weekly goals? If so, what do you usually include in them? I might steal a few ideas to include on my future lists!

* Should Mom Goals come first? Probably! But The Big Looming Deadline is, well, looming, so I’m putting them first for now (although I don’t exactly consider this list ordered by importance).

Others have already posted their memories of September 11th. They’ve written about their thoughts and feelings more eloquently than I ever could, so instead of writing out my memories, I’m posting the thoughts I wrote several days after the attacks.

I don’t think I’ve shared these written thoughts with anyone before. I found the yellow pieces of paper folded up in an old journal in my memory chest. The letter or journal entry or whatever you want to call this is long. I wrote it at work. I was a legal assistant at a tiny, one attorney law office in Bryan, Texas when I was in college. I remember sitting there the Friday after the attack and then, just losing it. I guess it took that long for the reality to sink in.

It’s incredibly difficult not to edit this letter – the first two lines make me grimace – but I’m transcribing this exactly as it was written ten years ago.

September 11th – I feel like I’ve been captured by a book or a movie and I can’t escape its ghastly tales. Reality is more vivid than my imagination could ever be, though. I didn’t learn what happened until more than an hour later. I was in the library, sitting at a table and preparing to get some studying in before my next class at 11:10. I glanced at my cell phone and noticed that I had a voice mail from my friend, Jennifer. I tried to call my voicemail box, but I couldn’t get a signal. I figured that it was just because I was in the library and it wouldn’t pick up in there for some reason. Since I had a good two hours before my next class, I decided to go downstairs and outside to get one. I was finally able to reach her, and the first thing she said was, “Have you heard?” “Heard what?” I asked. “Two airplanes ran into the World Trade Center.”

My initial reaction was to say, “No way.” Then I was anxious, almost excited. I got off the phone, telling Jenn that I had to find a TV. I remember looking around, thinking about where I could go. I saw the Pavilion and rushed in there. A decent sized crowd was there, but I managed to find a good seat, and I sat down and watched as the world changed.

You could see one tower with a gaping whole, billowing out smoke and flames. The whole I saw wasn’t where the plane had entered; it was the right side from that which had exploded out. It almost looked like a war except there were no weapons involved, only an airliner, two airliners, our airliners. The tv started showing footage of the second plane hitting the tower. The repeated it over and over. It was like watching the tragic ending to a movie and hoping that somehow, this time it would end differently. It never did. The media kept reporting that there were rumors that the first tower had fallen to the ground. I remember thinking that they were overreacting, that they needed to calm down and double check their facts before they repeated them and caused a panic. But then the second tower fell.

I couldn’t believe it. What was happening? There were 50,000 people that worked in the two 110 story buildings. They were huge buildings. They couldn’t fall. My imagination, always so wandering, had really gone too far this time. I remember saying “Oh, my God.” I faintly remember other viewers saying the same thing. I glanced at a girl sitting at a table near me. Her eyes and face were red, her cheeks streaked with tears. She had a hand over her mouth and shook her head in disbelief. I realized that my hand was over my mouth as well. I sat there stunned. What do you think in a moment like that. There are no words to make it go away. You can beg and pray but history is chiseled into the hardest stone and all the winds and rains in the wall can not weather it away.

More footage kept pouring in: men jumping out of windows, plummeting sixty stories to their deaths like rag dolls; women running from a cloud of smoke. They were completely covered in ash and soot. They looked like ghosts and walked around almost like zombies. You could hear them cry out “Oh, no” as the tower fell, they stared in disbelief, backing up slowly, not knowing what to do. Some cameramen were overtaken by the blast, you could see the cloud and ebris rush past them, knocking them to the floor. It looked like a scene from Independence Day. There were so many people in there. Sirens were in the background of every scene. Sirens use to never both me, but then, ever since Bonfire fell, I have come to link them to tragedy. There were so many sirens. Then it hit me that they had been there: firefighters, EMS, police. They had all been trying to help. The media reaffirmed my realization: they were missing. Their radios had gone dead. Whole units could not be found. Firemen were missing there friends, their buddies. One fire fighter came on the TV, saying he couldn’t find his team. He said it was a disaster, then he said to the camera and to his wife, “I’m okay. I made it out.”

Tears filled my eyes, but I held them back, determined to be strong and not cry. But I got up and walked to the back of the room, cell phone in hand. I had to call my mom. Even if I interrupted her class. She would understand.

Thank God, she had her phone on. She answered and I asked her if she had heard. She said that she heard a plane hit the world trade center. I told her it was true, but two planes had hit and they fell. “They fell, mom” I said. “They just crumbled. There were so many people in there. It’s a mess. Smoke is everywhere. People are covered in soot and running. People were jumping out of buildings. There’s still two planes missing. They’re grounding all air travel.” I rambled on, trying to get everything out as quickly as possible. She comforted me as much as she could. She told me she would leave her phone on and to call her at lunch. I hung up with her, knowing she had kids to watch over and class to teach. I tried my grandparents, but I couldn’t get a hold of them. So I went back to my seat and watched. A report came in, saying a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. Then another came in, saying that there was a plane heading to DC or Camp David or the Pentagon. Then they said a plane crashed in Pennsylvania. It took a few hours to piece it together that these were the same plane, that it crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. They suggested it might have been aiming for Camp David.

Then they said the President was heading back to Washington from Florida. I thought this a ridiculous idea. DC was the last place I thought my President should be going. But then a report came saying than Air Force One had been targeted and he was being detoured.

So many reports kept coming in. It was unbelievable and I thought that all I really needed to do to make it go away was to go to sleep and wake up the next morning.

It seemed that I sat there forever watching the news. The crowd had grown by this time. There was one girl there. She sat at another table talking with a friend in a loud, nonchalant voice, almost making light of the situation. I think she was bothering a lot of people because they kept glancing at her out of the corner of their eyes. I was getting a bit angry with her, but then I thought that that was probably just her way of dealing with this unspeakable tragedy. Another girl had tears streaming freely down her face. Even a few of the corps guys looked teary eyed. I watched their reactions interested in how they assessed the situation. Beneath the shock, I believe I saw determination. Jaws were set and there was a certain hardness in their stares that seemed to say, “You don’t mess with the U S of A. No threats needed to be spoken. It was understood that we would have justice. People will remember New York as we today remember Pearl Harbor. The sleeping giant has again been awakened.

To everyone who lost friends and loved ones, you’re in my thoughts and prayers.

God bless!

I can’t believe it’s been over three weeks since I last posted. Major writer fail on my part! But I’m back and I think I’m at a point where I have time somewhat under control again. Since it’s been so long since I’ve been around, I thought I’d do a quick summary of what’s been going on these past few weeks.

Book Stuff

• I have a widget!

• Isn’t it pretty? And useful, too. It lets me know there are only 55 days until The Shadow Reader hits the shelves. I am both excited and terrified. Excited because, hello! My book is finally going to be really real! Plus, I can’t wait for people to read McKenzie’s story. But I’m also terrified because what if nobody reads her story? Or worse, what if the dozen or so people who do read it hate it? Oh, yes, I’m already having nightmares about that.
• I’m still working on the sequel to TSR (deadline is November 1st!), and I’m getting excited about it again. I love where the story is going, and if I can pull off all the excruciating drama, I think readers will love it, too.
• Another thing that’s exciting? There are a lot of copies of TSR galleys up for grabs! Comment here by September 7th, here by September 12th, or enter the Goodreads giveaway by September 15th!

Life Stuff

• Babies are doing great! They’re six and a half weeks old. Boy #2 is starting to play. He bats at toys and Boy #1, who mostly ignores him. Both are smiling some, but beware! If #1 smiles, better grab a burp cloth!
• The nanny started last week, which is why I have time semi-under control again. Love her! And it’s great to have a break from all the diaper changing.
• I’m trying my hand at couponing. I don’t have time to do the whole extreme couponing thing, but I have to find ways to tighten the budget. I went to the store the other day for two boxes of diapers, two canisters of formula, and a package of wet wipe refills. All this cost $100. I kid you not. And the sad thing? Those diapers and wipes might last a week.

Random Stuff

• Watched a news segment on the International Space Station. We have astronauts up there right now. Reporter mentioned they have to go home via a Russian ship since we’ve cancelled our shuttle program because all our shuttles were old and becoming unsafe. Question: are Russian shuttles any safer than our shuttles were?
• I am loving this season of Entourage! I’m sad this is the show’s last season. I love the inside look at Hollywood. Also, I have a surprising crush on Turtle.
• I smell baby poo. I’m not near the babies or even the diaper genie right now. *am disturbed*

My in laws are in town helping out this week. They were here yesterday, but I didn’t get hardly anything accomplished, writing wise. I kept helping out with diaper changes and feedings and baby holding, etc. I just feel so guilty if I don’t. But I have 81 days until THE SHADOW READER hits the shelves and 88 days until my deadline to turn in book two (which is in desperate need of a title!), so I’ve sent myself to my room and am trying my darndest not to help out with the boys. (One of them is whining right now. I think he’s hungry. Ahhh! So. Hard. To. Stay. Away!)

In the few hours I’ve been here, I’ve accomplished more than I have these last three weeks (minus the one night I stayed up until 3am to get my website up and running). Unfortunately, I haven’t done any writing yet today. I responded to some important emails that were piling up, did a quick check-in of my Facebook page, realized I didn’t get a chance to post here yesterday and started writing this post, and then ordered business cards and some swag items. That last part took way longer than I thought it would. I kept jumping between sites, comparing prices and paper stock and stuff. And then Jodi Meadows posted about HER business cards with a printing site I hadn’t heard of yet so, of course, I had to research that.

All of this is just to say that I have to have help if I have any hope of getting promo stuff done for book one and meeting my November 1st deadline for book two. My grandmother lives nearby and can help out some, and I’m sure my mom and in laws will be around often, but I have so much to do and need a regular schedule. So, we’re going to start looking for a part-time nanny, and I have to say that that is terrifying. The babies are so little! The only thing that makes me feel somewhat better about it is that I’ll still be home for the most part. I can see them whenever I want.

But we probably won’t have anyone for a few weeks. I gotta take advantage of the help I have now and start cranking out some words!

P. S.  Thursday. It’s the new Wednesday, right?

Apparently, it is in my mind. I didn’t get around to posting yet again yesterday. I guess I should just go ahead and admit that my schedule is a bit… nonexistent right now. I’m still going to post here twice a week, but I have no idea which days those posts are going to be on.

Hi guys,

Just stopping by to say my Monday post is up over at the Magic & Mayhem Blog today. I ask the question, What’s Starred on Your RSS Feeder? and list my five most recently starred items.

I’ll be back here with a new post on Wednesday. Well, that’s the plan at least. Tomorrow, I’m going to be home alone all day with both boys. That should be interesting. If everything goes to hell, though, the husband can take off work and come home to save us.

So, yeah. Wednesday. I should be back. Who here thinks I can do it?