Halloween, tummy bugs, and NANO

My daughter, who is eight and a half years old, has had a tummy bug since last Wednesday. She missed school Thursday and Friday, felt slightly better on Saturday so I let her do a Girl Scout cake decorating party, then she threw up again in the wee hours of Sunday and then barely ate all day. She still feels bad so is at home from school again, which means no Trick or Treating.

And if my kid is willing to forgo Trick or Treating and a year's worth of candy, she is certainly not faking it just to get out of school.

Probably.

I'm sure you wanted detail.

It's supposed to rain starting at about seven, anyway. So the good news is that we'll have leftover candy and she can have some of that (the middle child will want some, too. I bought a bag of mixed candy and didn't even notice it included Almond Joy, which is evil. I hope we get enough T-or-T-ers so I can foist those off. One of my friends said she likes them, so she might be getting a present in the next few days.

Today is about digging through my brain for more information about my anti-hero for NaNoWriMo. I'm starting over on a book I started a few years ago, the year my family went off the rails, my son refused to go to school, and I started homeschooling him. I still get hit with images of the kid in that story, weird things he does, etc. I don't know what the main plot is.

Heck, I'm still deciding if it's going to be first person or third. I might want to make up my mind on that. I'm thinking of being weird and making it first person from his POV and third person from anyone else's. That might be too confusing, though.

I'm not a fan of First Person, except he's an unreliable narrator, so his twisted thoughts would make more sense from his own view point, justifying his crap in his own head, knowing the reasons he's lashing out against the world, etc. I don't even like Catcher in the Rye because of the kid in it, but that's sort of where I'm headed with this, only with paranormal skills.

Also, today I'm going to get the RWA chapter newsletter out to my proofreader, no matter what is or is not in it. We can at least have the majority proofread, right? Maybe tonight or tomorrow, since some of the things I'm missing are a big deal.

But for now, I'm going for a walk. Part of the walk is to the Kwikee Mart to get sprite for my ailing daughter. Big excitement.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Also, imagine yourself in Versailles....
The Chevalier. Just $4.99 for a 200+ page novel. 

Henri et Marcel - get it on your calendars

My next book, Henri et Marcel, number four in Châteaux and Shadows, a novella, but which squeaked past the 40K words necessary to release it in paperback with Wild Rose (and let the people say WOOT),

will release on

January 6, 2017 !

Henri de Cantière has been surly since he returned from visiting his family at Versailles, but he doesn’t want to burden Marcel Fourbier, his longtime lover, with his problems. He can’t sleep and hurts all over at exactly the time when everything else seems to be falling apart. 

Marcel can barely keep up with his usual duties of running their household and creating beautiful furniture in the de Cantière factory when more burdens fall on his shoulders. His estranged Huguenot family condemns him to hell but wants his help, a stranger attacks him in a dark street, an arsonist tries to destroy the factory, and Henri’s beloved sister-in-law, who has been like a sister to Marcel, is weakening after being in labor for several days. 

Most of all, Marcel wants to find a cure for Henri, the man who holds his heart.

I have the ISBNs but no links yet!

And it's all very exciting! Though it's over two months away. Aww....

Perma-Tired

When I was driving up the highway at 6:30 pm yesterday, on my way to pick up my daughter from her friend's house, I was thinking that all I wanted to do was go to bed. I ended up falling asleep at about 9, while my daughter was still up. I had to wake up to get her to bed. I have no idea if my high school boys finished their homework.

Did someone put decaf coffee beans in place of regular ones? Is it low thyroid? Weird blood sugar? The constant tug of my back pain? Anemia? I need to find a doctor (thanks, insurance, for making that harder) and get looked at.

Until then, the lying around reading is probably not the best thing for my back. Not having energy to go for walks is making it so my energy is even lower.

So right now, I'm doing what they call "Filling the Well." I'm reading what I want to read, trying to do things I want to do, Thinking happy thoughts as much as I can, and generally not worrying about stuff....as much as I can.

I'm also currently getting really anxious about a phone call I have to make that I should have made a few days ago. DEEP BREATH.

But hey, at least I'm not the poor souls at major internet companies whose servers are being attacked and they're scrambling all over the place trying to get things to work. I'm also not the nasty ****** who created the attacks.

In an hour (my daughter gets out of school early today for teacher conferences), it will be the weekend! 

I have to corral at least one of my big, strong sons and ask him to help me move boxes of books from the library to storage for the Friends of the Library.

We have a local RWA chapter meeting tomorrow. "Finish that novel (or write your next one)" with Elisabeth Barrett should be good. (NOTE: it costs $30 to attend the meeting.) I need to get fired up before November so I can hit the ground running with NaNoWriMo, so this should be good for me.

Otherwise, I'll be doing as little as possible. I have books to read for my book groups, too. Uh oh....I don't even have one; the library still hasn't coughed up a copy for me (ebook or paperback) and the ebook is $10. Uh, no. I guess I'm skipping that one. I just freed up a few hours! Yay me!

And did you see the reviews that posted on Wednesday?

This was a good one at Up Til Dawn.

Don't forget to buy the book, OK? And leave your own review, especially at Amazon.

All about the running

I have about half an hour before I have to leave again.

Today's been about running. Not actual, you know, jogging or anything, because my knees and hips and lungs can't handle that, but about the driving here and there. Luckily, after the morning dropping kids at school part, I went and had coffee with a friend whom I don't get to see very often anymore. So that part was run-free.

Then grocery store, then picking boys up (they had exams and got out at noon), then lunch, then handling various paperwork and stuff...

And because I only have half an hour, I'm just not going to get any writing work done until after I get my daughter from school. Might as well blog!

Next week, I have stuff every morning from Monday through Saturday and my daughter gets out at noon Wed-Fri for teacher conferences. It's going to be juggling. Not evil-clown type of juggling, but expert mom juggling.

All that to say I'm not sure what I need to do and don't know what time I'll have to do it.

I haven't done any promo for the Christmas novella and it's at least time for that to come out. Maybe next year. Maybe when I get my new adult books ready to come out, I'll get the Xmas one out or use it as a freebie. Hmmm... This one isn't new adult, but it's set at the same college. (Also set at that college is a paranormal romance I wrote years and years ago. I'm afraid to look at it, to be honest.)

So ARG.

I get caught up in the day-to-day stuff and fail to plan ahead. 

Speaking of which, I need to get some reviewers on board for the French historical novella I have coming out in January. I don't have the exact date yet, so have to plan vaguely, which doesn't work for scheduling promo.

Until then.... sneaking in the first glimpse of my novella cover...

When their orderly world falls apart, love is the base on which they rebuild.

Henri de Cantière has been surly since he returned from visiting his family at Versailles, but doesn’t want to burden Marcel Fourbier, his longtime lover, with his problems. He can’t sleep and hurts all over at exactly the time when everything else seems to be falling apart.

Marcel can barely keep up with his usual duties of running their household and creating beautiful furniture in the de Cantière factory, then more burdens fall on his shoulders. His estranged Huguenot family condemns him to hell but wants his help, a man attacks him in a dark street, an arsonist tries to destroy the factory, and Henri’s beloved sister-in-law, the lady who has been like a sister to Marcel, has been in labor for several days and is weakening.

Most of all, Marcel wants to cure Henri, the man who holds his heart.

Thiiiis close. And cat pics.

I'm so close to downloading the cover I made for my Christmas ghost story novella. I'm trying to figure out if I should get the multi-use license for the images or single-use. I could use the pictures for marketing things. On the other hand, I could make nine more marketing things using the cover itself. Or two or three where I pay for the pictures again separately, which is more likely.

I think I just made up my mind. Now I have to find a credit card to pay for the kindle cover.

No, wait. Single use means I can download it within 24 hours and can make 2000 "prints" of it. Does that mean 2000 ebook sales? 2000 views of it on my website? Hmmm.

Coming soon to an e-bookstore near you: Christmas Spirit, a story of tenure-track faculty romance, a goofy yellow dog, and an agoraphobic ghost.

In my next book, I'll have a weirdo ginger cat who snores and twitches.

And sometimes sleeps with his eyes open.

Synopsis, back cover copy, logline

I'm attempting to write a synopsis to turn in with my next French book. I really hate writing synopses. So far, I have a five page version that wanders and a four page version that....also wanders but maybe with more form.

I've also written a blurb / back cover copy. Well, I've written three of those so far. None are very good.

I have not yet written a logline. Because I really hate trying to write those. How to I write something super duper and catchy that sums up the feel and theme and attraction of the book....in about 20 words?

But I'm about *this close* to turning the book in as it is anyway and fixing it all in edits. I mean, the book is ready to turn in, though I want to beef up a few things. And the sooner I turn it in, the sooner it gets on the publishing schedule. So really, it's best to get it in. So why am I hesitating?

Oh yeah, the logline.

And the blurb.

And the synopsis.

And since I've complained about editing and all the rest before in The Zipless Draft, I'm mostly posting to let you all know that it's still true.

Oh, and I should get to work making a Pinterest board for Melisande. And fixing up one for Henri's novella.

So I leave you with Melisande's mom:

The Fortune Teller, Georges de la Tour, c.1630's.