Finding Balance

The past two months have been a lesson in finding balance between work and motherhood. My son is about seven and a half months old right now and just starting to crawl, but even before this new phase in his life, he was a very active baby. The first couple months after he was born I’ll admit that I got a ton of writing done. Seriously, all he did was eat, sleep, poop and look adorable all day long.

Now he’s still adorable but oh my, he’s a little bundle of energy. Not only is he crawling but he’s discovered a new love for his walker. Since we have hardwood floors, it’s the perfect surface for him. He’s created a racetrack path around the house and he runs until he literally falls asleep. It’s pretty impressive to watch, actually.

Currently I write during his naps and then late at night once he’s gone to sleep, but that means my writing is cutting into time I like to spend with my husband. So finding that balance has been full of trial and errors and yes, guilt. It’s like I’m being pulled in a hundred different directions. Luckily I have some wonderful writer friends who are also moms and have been where I am before. It’s nice to realize I’m not alone. Since the childcare in the area where I live isn’t the best that’s not an option. But I think I might have discovered an option where someone will come to my house and watch him here at home a few afternoons a week for a three hour stretch while I work. Three whole hours of uninterrupted writing? Sounds beautiful!

Any writers out there or any mothers who balance working from home while raising a kid(s), I totally commend you. In fact, I commend all moms. I never truly understood how much motherhood would change my life. Now that my little guy is here, I can’t imagine my life without him, but I’ve learned that it’s okay to ask for help and I don’t have to feel guilty about that.

I’m Back….

So where have I been??? Hell I don’t even know that. The last few months have been a haze for me. I got the new job, started coaching a basketball team(poor kids), and got a new puppy. The job is cool, tiring, but thats okay. The basketball team has won one and lost one, my daughter cries alot and tells me I’m mean but the other kids seem to think I rock. Go figure!! And the new puppy, well, he freaking hates me! I’m sure Rebecca Zanetti is crying she’s laughing so hard at that news. You see around my house, male dogs have a terrible life expectancy. No, I don’t intentionally harm them but somehow every male dog we’ve ever had had come to some unfortunate death. I swear to you I am not doing it! Nature just hates male dogs at my house. So this puppy is a great dane and eight weeks old. We’ve had him for about two weeks and so far nothing has gone wrong.

On a different note, I have had a new release. Rawhide Angel is not a paranormal but it’s hot and sexy! I love the two main characters in this book. I’ve been writing a little here and there, nothing to brag about but I’m excited over a story I’ve found. I started writing this really out there female Dom story about two years ago. I got to around 20k words and just stopped. I started reading it about three weeks ago and really want to finish this. Rebecca says my attention span is nill but hey, thats what makes me so unique!!

Hope you all are having a great start to 2012!!

Sayde

Post Valentine’s Day Blues

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentines, even if, maybe especially if, you spent it alone. It isn’t one of my favorite holidays, I admit. Okay. It’s possible the words ‘romantic extortion’ have passed my lips in regard to Valentine’s Day. Not that I don’t appreciate romantic gestures. I do! But not because an entire industry has grown up around telling you to cough up some great momento of everlasting love. 

The other reason Valentine’s isn’t my favorite is that once it’s past, there’s a relatively long, dreary stretch before we get another holiday. Oh, I know St. Patrick’s day comes in mid-March, but what did the Romans say? “Beware the Ides of March”? Do you suppose they were talking about green Guinness? Should they have been? Really, the next holiday that’s good for anything at all is Easter and that’s just because of the chocolate. Wait. I can’t have chocolate any more…Okay. Black jelly beans. Easter is all worthwhile because even as a kid, I loved black jelly beans. Had to fight my father for them every Easter. In most parts of the world, the weather starts brightening up right around that holiday, too. Not so much in Seattle. There’s a reason most of our ‘egg hunt’ events are held indoors. Which is fine, because then you’re inside with the wonderful smell of whatever Mom’s cooking for dinner. This is the final reason I’m not crazy about Valentine’s Day. Mom’s not cooking. And if Mom’s not cooking, it’s not really a holiday.

Image source: http://www.picturesdepot.com/wallpapers/209408/valentines+day.html

Ah, Romance

Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day which means romance is on a lot of people’s minds.

As a romance writer (even if it is erotic paranormal romance), I love telling stories of people who meet and fall in love. Of course, because I enjoy writing about the paranormal, my characters aren’t your average Joe and Jane. They’re shifters, or vampires, or banshees, or elves. But romance is the key.

I think I’m like most romance writers. I love telling stories about romance and reading them. Where I probably differ is I really don’t like to watch romantic movies. Sorry, please don’t pelt me with rotten tomatos, but I’d rather watch a good horror or comedy to a sappy romance.

I don’t like to cry and most sappy romances are the ones that make you cry whether you want to or not. Those don’t do it for me at all. Am I just weird, or do other people feel this way? I always wondered if other romance writers avoid the heartbreaking romantic dramas that seem so popular. Maybe one day I’ll take a poll on the subject.

But I don’t think I’ll change my mind. When I think about love and romance, I like to think about the good things like laughter, intimacy, and warmth. How about you? How do you like your romance?

All for love

Despite what big box stores would have you believe, Valentine’s Day is not about chocolates or roses or stuffed bears that sing Justin Bieber songs. It’s about love and appreciation. It’s a day to remind that special someone in your life why you love them.

My husband and I don’t generally fuss over Valentine’s Day. We’ve gone to dinner, to the movies, and I’ve received the occasional over-priced bouquet of red roses, tied with a big red bow.

This year we’re doing something different and I’m over the moon thrilled.

We’re going to see Peter Cetera in concert! (What? You mean you’ve never heard of him? He was the lead singer of Chicago, one of the best voices of the 80’s! I’m aging myself here, aren’t I?) Anyhow, I’m kind of a Cetera freak. Any time his music comes on the radio it gets blasted and I sing my off-tuned heart out. My husband isn’t a Peter Cetera fan. (He’s not a fan of my singing, either, but I can’t blame him for that.) He’s more of an AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd type of guy.

But get this…Husband is going to the concert anyway. For me.

He’s going to drive two hours away from home, put up with lines from hell, sit up in the nosebleeds and sing along with me (oh yes he is) all night long. Then all the way home, he’ll get to listen to Cetera CD’s, because what else do you do after you’ve seen someone in concert? That’s right! You keep right on listenin’!

If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

And just because I love Peter Cetera so much (and want to share it with y’all), here’s one of my all-time favorite songs. (Check out the hair in the video! Awesome!)

Whatever you do this Valentine’s Day, or whomever you spend it with, I hope it’s a great one!

It’s hotter in space

This week I was supposed to unveil my newly and fabulously redecorated office. Alas, nothing has been done to beautify the space in the past two weeks. No wait—my husband moved the boxes to the other side of the room and it has become slightly messier. I’m just getting over the flu, so that didn’t help. I have a new goal to have the office done by the time I blog again in two weeks. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I have another unveiling… HOTTER ON THE EDGE, an anthology of science fiction novellas. I’ve had a space adventure going on in my head since I was a kid. I’ve tried many times to attempt to write the story, or parts of it, but it has grown too epic and unwieldy to contemplate putting into words.  I actually don’t even know who the hero or heroine is anymore since I change the main point of view character every once in a while.

Anyway, it was inevitable that I’d give space a try. I’m so excited to be included with authors KC Klein and Jessa Slade. Blurbs are below, but check out www.HotterOnTheEdge.com, my husband’s contribution to our space endeavor, for excerpts and more.

On the edge of space…

On the edge of danger…

On the edge of desire…

“All That Glitters” by Erin Kellison

Cheated out of a fortune by the Sol royal family, lowborn Simon Miner will do anything to get his revenge, no matter how ruthless. When Princess Mica Sol, a terraforming expert, is shot out of the sky on the way to her sister’s lavish wedding, she fears the worst—scavengers—and flees into an alien jungle to avoid capture. But the man who pursues and captures her is none other than Simon, her former lover. Passions reignite as violence rocks Sol City, and Simon and Mica must fight for love, family, and their world…or lose everything.

“To Buy A Wife” by KC Klein

In a harsh land where corruption rules and women are few, cold realist Hudson Land must purchase a wife to save his farm. Instead of an auction, he witnesses the start of an execution. With his first look at a beautiful woman in years, Hudson knows he has to have her—no matter the cost. Lake, a chemist and a rebel fighter, is resigned to her death, but when some back-hill farmer rescues her from the chopping block she has no intention of simply becoming his wife. She’s pledged her life to the Rebellion and being bought for some stranger’s bed doesn’t change a thing, though his soft caresses have her longing for more. As lies and secrets build between them, are the quiet moments during the nights they’ve shared enough to stand against two warring factions in a world where only the strong survive?

“Enslaved by Starlight” by Jessa Slade

Transformed by empathic crystals into the perfect paramour, Benedetta Galil is the last treasure of her fading world. When raiders attack—seeking to corrupt the crystals and conquer all of charted space—she gives herself as a prize to the one man in the universe who values freedom over power. Mercenary sheership Captain Corso Deynah left oppression behind him on a burning planet and has no use for a sex slave, even one as seductive as Benedetta. But while he stubbornly resists her body, her fierce spirit tempts him, and he will risk everything—his ship, his seclusion, the very stars—to win not just her passion but her love.

You can find HOTTER at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords!

Release Day!

Today is my release day so I hope ya’ll don’t mind if I share a little about it! But first I want to apologize for missing my last post day a couple weeks ago and being very absent here at the blog! I honestly had no clue how much time went into promoting a new release and I’ve been guest blogging all over the place in addition to normal writing stuff like editing (and writing!) and of course, having fun with my six month old who is *so close* to crawling. Man, he is trying so hard! I have a feeling in the next month he’ll be moving everywhere.

So…release day is finally here! It feels like forever from when I first received ‘the call’ from my agent until final production. After edits, line edits, copy edits and another final read through (and maybe some more steps I’m forgetting!) Alpha Instinct has finally been unleashed into the world. There are a few who have received ARCs and contest copy giveaways early but now it’s available to everyone and I couldn’t be more excited!

What is Alpha Instinct about, you ask?

Alpha Instinct official blurb:

Fear has a scent. So does desire…

Ana Cordona has been a strong leader for the lupine shifters who survived after all the males and most of the females in her pack were mysteriously poisoned. As tough as she is, with no Alpha male, the pack is vulnerable to the devious shifter Taggart, who wants to claim both their ranch and Ana as his own. When Connor Armstrong comes back into her life, promising protection, it’s almost enough to make Ana forget how he walked out on her before—and reluctantly accept his offer to mate.

The minute Connor sees Ana again, it reawakens a raw hunger. He must have her for his bondmate—his wolf cries out for it. But his human side knows he must proceed with caution because of their complicated past. If he is to truly have her body and soul, he must go beyond his burning desire and win back her heart. Whatever it takes, he is determined not to leave her side again.

But Taggart and his rival pack are not their only enemies. A human element in town is targeting shifters. Their plan not only threatens Ana and Connor’s future, but the lives of the entire pack…

If you check it out, I hope you enjoy it!