Author of Paranormal Romance
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Hi Everyone! It's here! It's finally here! The book AND the blog tour!

What is the blog tour all about, you ask? Well, hop on over to Gretchen McNeil's blog and hear all about it. Twenty brief interviews! Twenty days of madness! Twenty chances to enter!

What you need to know: It's all about me. And my books! And writing in general. Actually, mostly about writing.
What you want to know: You can win a query letter critique from my agent, Holly Root.

Check Gretchen's post for all the details first!

Then, the Official Blog Tour starts over here at Amy Bai's journal...

Is the big day (at least, it's exciting for me).

I'm...so tired I could fall over. ;) Seriously. Next time I have a book release, remind me not to have it in December or January. Or BOTH.

Just a quick reminder that you have a few hours left to enter both my Goodreads contest and my blog contest to win a free copy!

I was also over at Dear Author today for the First Sale letter, and Mandi at Smexy Books reviewed Gentlemen Prefer Succubi.

There's a little something cool launching tomorrow, brought to you by a group of the most supportive people ever...so stay tuned. :)

ETA - AAAAH! My counter says 2 hours until my book releases.

No writing tonight. My eyes are crossing. Hopefully tomorrow.

Starting to get over the hump! Just write through it. Just write through it.


Might get a bit more today, but I'm at a good stopping point. Next scene should be easy-peasy to do. Here's a teeny tiny snippet from My Fair Succubi to get you through the day. It's very rough draft, so please be kind.

The set-up: Jackie & a friend (Ethan) are cleaning up someone's trashed house. Ethan is...well, he's the male equivalent of a nun. A monk, if you will. Raised behind monastery walls and all that. He's...innocent. I lovingly refer to him as my Napoleon Dynamite.

Snippet!
#

"Thank you, Ethan," I said, dumping my backpack of clothing on the corner of the couch and glancing around the room. "I really appreciate it, and I'm sure Remy would too if she were here."

He said nothing, but I caught the gleam of his eyes again as he grabbed the garbage bag and began to stuff it full of shredded paper. "You are welcome, succubus."

Oh brother. Again with the 'succubus' thing. "Can you please just call me Jackie, for once and for all? Jeez."

"Calling you by your first name would imply an improper relationship," he said in a stiff voice. "And I have no wish to imply such a thing."

Well, at least he was honest about it. "Can you call me by something else? A pet name of some sort?"

He straightened and looked at me with a perfectly grave expression. "Like...Fluffy?"

#

I haven't written in about three weeks, maybe longer. As soon as December 1st hit, my brain kind of exploded,  my schedule at work exploded, and with Christmas coming...I've been a mess.

But Christmas is over! And I think I'm over the worst of some of the other stuff (though I still anticipate next week to be brutal) so it's time to poke at Book 3 again. Just a little poking - I left off at a nice rounded spot, so it was hard to get back into the story. I know where I'm going, it's just a matter of picking up the threads again.

I always mentally picture writing a book as kite flying. And each plot-line itself is another kite I'm launching into the air. If I keep on top of it, and I pay attention, I can keep multiple kites up in the air at once, no problem. And it's great fun and I look like a kite-flying badass. But when I stop paying attention, one kite crashes to the ground, then another, and another. And when I open my document after sitting on it for a few weeks...I have no clue what I was working with. Heh. So I'm slowly launching my kites back into the air again, but it's going to take a few days and a few writing sessions to get them all flying again. Baby steps.

It's Christmas! It's Christmas! And it's a white Christmas, even in Texas! Whodathunk?

I have a holiday post up at Odd Shots, eggnog in my coffee, a stocking cap on my head, presents wrapped, a book to read, and the rest of the weekend off of work.

Joyeux noel!

Just in time (well, not really) for the holidays!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Gentlemen-Prefer-Succubi/Jill-Myles/e/9781416572824/?itm=2&usri=jill+myles

Still not shipping from Amazon yet, but I imagine it will soon.

ETA -- Shows in stock from Amazon. So if you want to order it, you should be able to now. :)

:)

Just to update, the Goodreads giveaway is here: http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/2280-gentlemen-prefer-succubi

If you signed up for my giveaway, you can sign up for the Goodreads one as well (I'm not cross referencing!) so you have two chances, more or less, to win one of four copies. :)

SO PRETTY! I'm so excited - it's beginning to feel real!

And before anyone asks - they're all pretty much spoken for (that didn't take long, eh?).

To celebrate getting in author copies, I'll give away two signed copies right here. I'll even throw in some matching bookmarks. Just comment either here on my website journal or on my LJ and you'll be entered to win a signed copy (continental US only please). You have between now and 12:00 noon on December 29th (release day!) to comment.

ETA -- I'm also going to give away two copies on Goodreads (what the hell, right?) so if you have a Goodreads account, sign up to enter over there too! The URL isn't up yet, but I'll post it when it is. Good luck!

And I'm starting to feel a little impatient. It's like I'm in a car, sitting in traffic. I can see the light I need to get to up ahead, but in front of me is an endless line of crawling cars. And all I want to do is STOMP ON THE GAS AND GET MOVING.

Yeah, publishing is like that sometimes.

In the meantime, there's plenty of cool stuff going on to keep me mentally busy. I just spent all morning wrapping Christmas presents and going through my bookshelves. I have a few old favorites that I've pulled out to re-read: Julie Garwood, Judith Mcnaught, Johanna Lindsay, Jude Deveraux and Donald Maass (HEH - which one of these does not belong, eh?). Work is bound to be slammed this week since it will be a short week. Survivor Finale tonight (Go Foa Foa!) and that Christmas thing should be popping up this weekend too...

There is a somewhat large, somewhat light box under the tree. I am optimistic that I have worn the husband down and he has relented to his "No Snuggie" rule. We shall see! *rubs hands gleefully*

In other news, I was having quite possibly one of the worst weeks I have had all year, but a few things made it better.

1) A tower of chocolate from Ilona Andrews. She is a freaking godsend. I definitely needed chocolate today.

2) My editor sent me a real, live, advanced copy of my book! I have to admit, I'm not the most sentimental person but I totally teared up at the sight of it. There were times that I thought this book would never make it onto the shelf, so to hold it in my hands, all pretty and with foil on the title...I choked up. Just a little.

3) Two amazing reviews on the Bitten by Books website. The whole thing is still new to me, y'all, so each review posted makes me giddy. Both books got a great rating, and even better than that, a really great review. Did I mention I'll be over there tomorrow, answering questions and chatting? There's still time to enter and win a free copy of Gentlemen Prefer Succubi!

(I know, I know, so much promo. Bear with me, though!)

After all that, my mood perked a little. And it perked even more when my husband framed my book covers and hung them on the wall for me. He's a good man.

SO. YOU GUYS. I know I have a lot of aspiring authors reading (still? i hope?) Starting at my book release, I'll be doing a blog tour. More deets as I go, but there will be a contest. The prize? My terribly wonderful and far-too-nice-for-her-own-good agent has offered to be a prize! That's right. If you follow the book tour, you can win a chance at feedback on your query letter from Holly Root.

Kind of nifty, right?