Vixenwriter

THIRTEEN THINGS I’M GRATEFUL FOR

I was thinking last night about how fortunate I am in so many ways…

1. My husband. I met my husband when we were both eighteen years old. We had an apartment together two months later and we’ve been together ever since. That’s twenty one years this year. He’s someone so special to me. We’ve had our rough spots but he never gave up, he’s always supported me and my passions. He’s a wonderful dad, a fabulous husband and my best friend.

2. My kids. Crazy. Annoying. Chaotic. Noisy. The best thing ever. My kids keep me grounded, remind me every day in a myriad of ways that the universe is about the future as well as the now. Remind me to see the joy in every day things.

3. My mom and dad. My parents kick ass. All the major important lessons about character I’ve learned have been through watching them. Parenting, how to have a strong, committed marriage, how to be a member of your community, how to be a good friend – it’s all there.

4. My friends. In the last years, I’ve had some unpleasant experiences with people I thought were friends but who weren’t . Still, during those times when it hurt, my real friends stood by me. A real friend will tell you when you’re being an ass, but who loves you enough to tell you. She’ll celebrate with you, pet you on the head when you’re down and listen to you prattle on and on about the agony of waiting to hear back from editors.

5. My readers – how blessed am I to have so many wonderful people in my life? My readers are the absolute best. They’re smart and funny and thank god for me, fiercely loyal. The notes I get, the time you all take to read my books and keep up with my writing is so amazing. Thank you.

6. My publishers.
Ellora’s Cave and more specifically, Martha Punches who read Triad and urged Raelene to give me a chance. I made my base, made my name at Ellora’s Cave. I’ve had a hell of a lot of freedom at EC to write my heart out. That’s priceless.

Samhain! I absolutely love writing for Samhain. Crissy is the bomb, she runs a kickass publishing house, she’s smart, savvy and has made Samhain incredibly supportive for her authors. Samhain gave me a wonderful place to call home and they make me grateful I write for them every single day.

Harlequin – distribution all over the planet? Check. Great covers? Check.

7. My editors. I’ll do this in alphabetical order…

Angie James - I sent her Giving Chase, something totally different than what I’d written before and she gave me a chance. She’s an amazing editor, no nonsense, tough, smart and I love her to death. Plus she makes me laugh. She believes in me.

Ann Leveille - I love Ann. She is so responsible for helping me become a better writer. Her notes and editing have been priceless guides and I am so fortunate to have her.

Susan Swinwood - I haven’t had a lot of editing from her yet, this is new but every single interaction I’ve had with her has been fabulous. Oh and she has a great sense of fashion and a sharp sense of humor!

8. My agent, Laura Bradford. I have to say up front just how much I love Laura Bradford. And not just because she let me bully her into dancing with us at RT, but because she believes in me. She believes in my writing. She works hard and is tireless for her authors. She’s kindhearted, smart, compassionate, no-nonsense, funny and on the ball. She’s a smart businesswoman and just an all around fabulous person

9. Other authors who go out of their way to be supportive and professional. Jaci Burton always comes to mind. She’s one of the first authors to welcome me to EC, she always has great advice and a supportive word. You never see her slag off other authors in public and she’s a tough cookie, she doesn’t let people run over her but she stands up for herself with class and dignity and she’s amazingly talented. I learned a lot from Jaci when I was all squeaky new and I still do. Other authors who make me proud to be in this business with their behavior – NJ Walters – never an unkind word for anyone, a great writer, supportive to other authors. Alison Kent – I’m in awe of her, I can’t hide it. I love her books, I love how supportive she is to newbies, her blog is a treasure trove of ideas and suggestions and she’s just an all around wonderful person. Maya Banks – I love her to pieces and I think Writeminded is the best group author blog going and a great example of how to work together. Michelle Pillow – Aside from being a promotion whiz, Michelle is also a wonderful writer and tirelessly works on her craft. I know I work hard, I’m proud of that, but Michelle? She puts that to shame AND she’s totally supportive of other writers. Mandy Roth – ditto! Smart, savvy and professional. Megan Hart – kicks ass and you’ll never hear her being bitchy to other authors in public. She’s a fabulous example of professionalism. Anya Bast is one of the first authors I met and became friends with. So supportive, so funny and kind. Not only will you never hear her be bitchy in public, I’m her friend and she rarely does it in private either. When Anya gets mad enough to bitch about something, it’s a very bad thing! Newbies like TJ Michaels – who is just fabulous! There are many more and I know I’m missing people so I apologize in advance!

10. Reader bloggers – Such a vibrant and wonderful part of the romance community! Rhian is a great example. Many authors, myself included, can be thankful at how much she reads and talks about books. Being part of Rhian’s tribe is a wonderful thing! Anne, Kate, Jenn and Lori at Let’s Gab and I Just Finished Reading – each one a wonderful person, each one tirelessly supportive of romance and reading. There are so many others – May, Michele, etc. Thank you all so much for being so fabulous!

11. Books. I can’t count the number of times in my life when a book has made me laugh, cry, think, smile, gasp – all of it. Books have been my friend since I read my first Dick and Jane book at four.

12. Clive Owen. Mmmmm. this one is self explantory

13. Cupcakes. Be they lemon with buttercream frosting or chocolate with vanilla frosting – I’ve yet to meet a problem a cupcake couldn’t at least momentarily make better.

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The uber fabulous Sasha White has tagged me…

Four jobs Ive had or currently have in my life:

1. Writer
2. Lawyer
3. Grant Writer
4. Domestic Violence Victim’s Advocate

Four countries I’ve been to:

1. Czech Republic
2. Mexico
3. Germany
4. Hungary

Four places Id rather be right now:

1. Prague
2. Las Vegas
3. Maui
4. Bali

Four foods I like to eat:

1. Yellow Curry
2. Shrimp Egg Rolls
3. Snappea Crisps
4. Cupcakes

Four personal heroes, past or present:

1. My Grandma Minnie
2. Vaclav Havel
3. Marian Wright Edelman
4. Mother Jones

Four books you’ve read or are currently reading:

1. The Midnight Hour by Patti O’Shea
2. Trouble by Sasha White
3. Thirteen by Richard Morgan
4. Bit By The Bug by Michelle Pillow

Four words or phrases you would like to see used more often:

1. You’re totally right, Lauren
2. I’d like to offer you a three book contract
3.Thank You
4. Excuse me

Four reasons for ending a friendship:

1. Lies
2. Repeated Thoughtlessness
3. Jealousy over what I have
4. Racism/Sexism/Homophobia or any other bigotries

Four smells that make you feel good about the world:

1. Fresh Soup From The Crock Pot
2. The Top of My Children’s Heads After A Bath
3. Morning Air
4. The way it smells in autumn – clean air, fireplaces, leaves, sunshine

My question: Four Faces Who Bring Inspiration:

1. Clive Owen
2. Gerard Butler
3. Salma Hayek
4. Julian McMahon

I’m going to tag: Megan Hart, Anya Bast, Cynthia Eden and NJ Walters

We got back home this afternoon and it’s so nice to be back among our stuff. The kids were hyper of course, that’s the way of things. I’m going to start working on To Do List tonight. I haven’t done more than some plotting in my head since the 18th. A nice writing vacation and I’m glad I did it. While the process of writing itself hadn’t been affected, the other parts, the waiting, etc, were getting to me and I needed the break. Now I return, refreshed!

Got two new covers. First, Reading Between the Lines – my October Samhain release. Anne Cain did this one and I love it!

And then a reissue for Chased for print, etc… Scott Carpenter did both covers and I liked them both. This one I think, is more in line with the age of the characters though.

In Las Vegas we did many fun things: We had dinner at Tao and it was delicious! And as it turns out, the total bright spot restaurant wise. We ate at several other places in the Venetian and I was not impressed at all. In fact, other than the rooms, which were absolutely fabulous, the Venetian wasn’t a place that really worked for me.

Still, we did have a lovely time (and it only made our love of the Bellagio greater). We saw Fashionistas on Thursday night. It’s a show based on the porn movie of the same name but there’s no nudity in the show at all and the dancing was marvelous. We went to a party with some folks we met on the net on Friday and it was quite fun. Saturday we went to the Borders in the Fashion Show Mall and they were lovely to us and then we went to shoot automatic weapons at American Shooter Supply which is just about three minutes off the strip.

I have to tell you that the guys at American Shooter Supply were the friendliest and nicest of our entire trip. No one patted me on the head and treated me like a dumb girl. They were helpful and open and just really nice guys. So seriously, when you all go to Las Vegas, head out to American Shooter Supply and tell them Lauren sent you! We all chatted writing at the end as well, by the way.

This is me shooting an HK UMP .45 in full automatic. A very light weapon and I didn’t shoot anyone or the ceiling either, thank god.

We saw a few movies in our room – 28 Weeks Later which was okay, way more gory than the first one and whle scary, it lacked the adrenaline factor in many places. And Knocked Up – which made me laugh and laugh. It truly was a funny movie.

My dude and I hung out a lot. Had drinks. Read. Watched movies. Took naps. Shopped here and there. It was a very necessary time to have together. My kids had a great time working their grandparents for Happy Meals so they didn’t miss the 109 degree heat.

If I never smell fast food again, I’ll be happy. Road trips, ugh!

I read a lot! I’ll recap on Friday. I missed everyone and I hope you all behaved. Or at least didn’t get caught when you didn’t.

Last night my dude and I went to see Fashionistas. I’ll actually write a longer review of the show later on but I’ll say now it’s the best show I’ve seen in Vegas, in fact, one of the best shows I’ve seen period. Great dancing, fabulous soundtrack and well, the dancers’ bodies are off the chain.

I’ve gotten some reading done this last week and some new story ideas. I love traveling, it always gives me new ideas. Of course, I have so many deadlines, I’ll be writing these ideas next year at the earliest.

Speaking of writing, I’ve just contracted a contemporary novella, To Do List, with Samhain. It’s got a holiday theme and it’ll be out in December. More details to follow.

It’s 109 here. Seriously. Bleh. The heat? She sux. Still, Vegas being Vegas, you don’t go outside much anyway, although I did walk way too much in stilettos last night and my toes, they pay for the pain.

Tonight it’s more fun! I’m hoping to go shoot machine guns tomorrow, I’d like to know what it feels like when I’m writing some of my heroines.

Whheee! Food is here. Gotta step!

Warning – Lauren started her afternoon without her kids and just her gorgeous husband with a shot of tequila and then followed up with delicious gourmet food and a few more tequila based drinks so she may wander….

So once a year my husband and I make a trek to Las Vegas to hang out sans kiddos and be a couple for a few days. This is a new development because our youngest just got old enough to be left for a few days with her nana and poppa with her brothers.

Vacation is a necessary thing. You can let got of your daily life for just a bit. Here, right now, I’m tipsy from a few screwdrivers, some uninterrupted, um, private time with my husband and a really lovely dinner at Tao that ended with a dessert with six layers of chocolate.

I haven’t written a damned thing since Saturday although I have plotted and I’ve read a few books I’ll talk about when I return next week. We did of course have a vomit incident at mile 16.9 of our road trip (sadly you really should know this when you feed leftover birthday cake to your 3 year old for breakfast)

And right now I have to write this while my husband nags me to take my vitamins – I don’t get a vacation from everything, LOL!

So I checked in to the gorgeous Venetian hotel and quizzed the wonderful Katherine about Las Vegas and where folks lived when they worked in town. I do have a few new stories brewing in my head as I always do when I travel.

We all need time away from our context, time when we are not just a wife or a mother – when we can kick up our heels, or laze around or both.

I’ll be back next week with pictures and a drawing for some fun prize or two.

I hope everyone is having a great last gasp of summer! Talk to you all soon!

Before I flit off on vacation I’ll put up a few ideas for some great reading.

First: Red Garnier’s Divine Assistant releases today from Ellora’s Cave

Blurb: Lucy Divine has her career perfectly mapped out, and a new job as assistant to renowned investor Patrick Holden is an extremely opportune place to start. To Lucy’s surprise, however, her notorious new boss’s accomplishments are instantly overshadowed by his attitude. He’s arrogant and conceited and pleasing him is next to impossible. But Lucy’s disturbed to find she wants to please him—in every way possible. Holden’s brooding, sizzling good looks make Lucy wonder if his passion extends beyond the boardroom.

No one’s ever called Patrick Holden a sweetheart. If he’s anywhere in this world, it’s due to his fierce determination. A blonde, sexy bombshell assistant whose body is begging for a tumble is a distraction he can certainly do without…and one he’s hell bent on getting rid of. No assistant has ever lasted under the strain of his demands, but Lucy is proving to be the exception. She’s intelligent, resourceful, determined — and Patrick quickly realizes the only hostile takeover he’s interested in involves his Divine assistant.

Another new release is this one – Coming Together for the Cure with a story, My Right Breast, by none other than my dancin’ partner, Amelia June. (One agitating thing is the buy page has no other author or content info except for one when it’s a multi author anthology – this is odd) – EDITED TO ADD – Amelia put this link to the antho website where it has the names of all the contributing authors. As I thought, a really impressive line up!

From Amelia’s website here’s the blurb about her story: A short story in the Coming Together for the Cure anthology about a woman recovering from a mastectomy with the help of her husband and dominant. A sexy tale about a loving and kinky couple.

Don’t know who else is in it. No info anywhere, but it’s for charity and it’ll be out in print in October too!

I didn’t get much reading done this week. I got first round edits in and turned around for Reading Between the Lines and it looks like I’ve got something coming out in December that I’ll talk about later but I’m writing it now.

But I did finish up Lori Devoti’s Love is All You Need. This one is a contemporary which is also set in the Ozarks near Daisy Creek (the setting of Love is All Around) and gives us a pleasing glimpse of the life of some of the characters in her first book.

But Love is All You Need takes all the heartwarming sweetness and humor of Love is All Around and kicks it up several notches into something even better than her first novel.

Love is All You Need is a wonderful romance. It’s hot with great sexual tension beween Del and the super sexy Sam but there’s a great connection between these two very unlikely characters. There’s also a lot of humor between them.

Devoti gives us an HEA but not in a straight line. It’s a crooked road but just like her characters and their surroundings, unconventional works.

I hope she’ll be back to the Ozarks sometime again, I really enjoy her contemporary romances.

I’ve got a stack of books and several more loaded onto my laptop for vacation so I hope to catch up at least partially on my TBR pile while I’m gone. I should finish up with Kelley Armstrong’s No Human’s Allowed tonight (I love her books) and even though it’ll earn me the “what the hell are you doing buying MORE books” look from my dude, I’m planning to pick up Rachel Caine’s newest and a few of Michelle Pillow’s Cheek titles while I’m away too so I’ll have lots to talk about when I get back!

No TT today, I am buried in twelve million things to finish up before vacation time. I did post at The Bradford Bunch today so check it out if you like!

I will leave you with a picture…

So I got my edits for Reading Between the Lines last night and I have to laugh every time I get edits from Angie because she always starts out with an ego stroke and then gets to the stuff she wants me to address. And at first read it always seems way more monumental than it actually is when I go and look at the text notes. But anyway, I got a good start on them and I’ll push through and finish up before I leave for vacation so I have nothing hanging over my head. I’m too big a control freak to just leave stuff undone and it’ll drive me crazy if I don’t finish.

I also managed to completely outline Always – a contemporary, category sensual romance. I don’t usually outline but the more I aim stuff at NY and the more I sell on partial, the more I use outlines and synopses because it’s necessary. It’s especially necessary with category because you’ve only got a certain wordcount to tell a story and you don’t want to overtell some aspects and rob the important stuff.

I don’t do chapter by chapter synopses. I’m just not that detailed becuase I still prefer to let the story flow where it needs to but these days when I get interrupted mid process with other things like edits or galleys, I find I need at least a bare bones outline to get back into the swing of the story.

I’m still pantsing it a lot, but I will admit to finding at least a rough outline very helpful in keeping on schedule and on track.

I’m moderately embarassed to admit I’ve been listening to Evanescence a lot lately. I know. I can totally own my deep love of Justin Timberlake but this sort of Emo isn’t my normal fare, I tend toward harder stuff like Static X and Ministry for my emo needs (nobody does emo better than a junkie, just sayin). I swear Evanescence is like pringles, I can’t stop myself from listening to Fallen over and over. Although I am listening to JT right now, Lovestoned is such a great song to write to. If only I was able to write instead of having to break up fights in the living room and the petite monster didn’t come in here every two minutes to tell me how unhappy she is that she’s not wearing her pink dress today and how much she hates the apple dress (which is actually cherries but all that matters is her discontent dontcha know)

I am however, relieved because apparently “dozens of horny girls in (my town)” want to be my friend. Gosh, isn’t that nice of them? I’m sure my husband would be pleased by that. So friendly they even send me dozens of emails every day about it offering to send me pictures for some low introductory price. If I use that along with the offers to make my penis very large and virile, I’m so money! (well, if only I had a penis)

I have several new pairs of shoes that make me squee every time I see them. I’ve never had strappy stilettos before and these are so ridiculous! I love them in all their totally ridiculous, can only wear them with a few things glory. Also? A pair of bright red patent leather slingback open toed pumps. With, white polka dots on the heel and platform. Totally works with the vintage dress I picked up last month.

Okay, I’m officially rambling and I need to post excerpts up at my messageboard because it is, after all, Titilating Tuesday – actually I’ve already done that part. Sneaky peeks of Reading Between the Lines and Fire and Rain are up and ready to be read.

OH! And speaking of Fire and Rain, I realize I posed the cover all over the place but not here. Duh.

Syneca does it again and it works well with the Ascension cover too! (Which I’ll post too because I lurve it)

Actually, an excerpt from Cascadia Wolves: Wolf Unbound – releasing January 1 from Samhain. 18 and over – behind the cut, etc.

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