Updates n' Things

Greeting: Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. How’s it going? I had planned on simply posting excerpts from either my debut vampire novel or perhaps tease you a bit further with my current WIP, but in the end decided just to offer an update on several things. I realize no one likes to read a lot of something unless they bought it. I get that. Besides there’ll be plenty of time for that in the coming months while I finish the work on my paranormal ghost story.

Latest: I just finished the last edit before beta. I’ll be printing the novel and handing it off this week. The reader is a co-worker who has read my work before and seems really excited to be involved. I will then make any necessary changes and send it off to my editor. I have changed the title because the previous one has been used a few times and very recently. Once I finalize it I will share it with you, along with the cover. Speaking of covers, I have been working with the wonderful Author Maria Zannini on that front. Right out of the gate she came up with some great stuff. It’ll probably be a while yet on revealing that, but I’m very excited about where we’re heading.

Promotion: I’m pretty much dead in the water here. I just don’t have the time. That’s why you’ll see some more teasers this year. I have some fairly good vampire stories out there that few know about. Perhaps it’s the subject matter. I’m not convinced there’s an issue with them since the reviews have been very good. I’m really hoping the paranormal market will embrace me and then find my other novels. We’ll see.

Physical: Many will recall my whining about gaining a bunch of weight during the holidays. I’m usually at about 183 or so. I ballooned to 188 and the clothes weren’t fitting all that well. J I have been watching the portions, laying off the garbage and hitting the treadmill especially hard – and am pleased to report that Saturday evening the scale displayed 176.8. Now…where’s the chocolate? *grins*

Music: I haven’t offered much in the way of what I’ve been listening to in a long time. I go back and forth. Treadmills are boring so one has to spice it up in order to keep climbing back up on them, especially when sessions last anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes. In the past week I’ve been listening to Green Day, The Rolling Stones, 30 Seconds to Mars, Iron Maiden and Jamie Cullum… What? Cullum? Who’s that? C’mon, you know. If you saw Eastwood’s film Gran Torino than you must know that song. My 18 year old got me hooked and I have been playing the heck out of him for the past 6 months or so. Check him out. He’s not just a jazz guy. This weekend while catching up on yard work, I listened to Cullum and Melody Gardot. How’s that for a wide range of music tastes? Now, back to my Zeppelin.

Books: I continue to read slowly due to lack of time. I actually do the first part of my treadmill routine – time permitting – by power walking with my Kindle. I’m currently reading Kate O’Reilley’s book,It’s Nothing Personal. It is a work of fiction based on actual events that happened to her. I recently finished Dark Corners by Liz Schulte and Coincidences by Maria Savva. I enjoyed them and I think many of you might as well. In fact, many of you already have – that’s how behind I am in my reading. I will have reviews for them very soon on Goodreads, if not here as well.

Dreaded day job: Thanks to many of you who have wished me well of late. We didn’t work this weekend and my partner should be in line to work the next one. I know I shouldn’t complain since many of you have to work Saturdays and I rarely have over the years. It just isn’t fun to work 11 fairly tough hours and then not have an entire weekend to decompress from it. Oh, well. It is what it is, as the saying goes. You don’t want to hear about it and I certainly don’t want to think about it until my alarm goes off at 3 am and I start the next work day.

Final word: That’s enough for now, I think. Have a great week. Now that I’ve come toward the end of the writing part of my WIP, you should begin to see me a bit more around the blogosphere. We’ll see how that goes.

We’ll talk soon.