Same Old Same Old...

Not much going on in the past few weeks. The writing/publishing world is getting crazier by the moment. Nobody knows what's happening, or which road to take these days. I'm just quietly typing away and minding my own business, and trying to stay away from blogs that are negative, who needs that toxic stuff in their life anyway?

There's a new romance e-publisher in the mix, www.carinapress.com is their site. They're under the umbrella of Harlequin Enterprises yet say they are a seperate company and don't follow the rules and regulations of Harlequin/Silhouette. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I went up to L.A. for the weekend to attend my chapter meeting but after spending Saturday shopping with my daughter, my poor old knee was swollen and sore. I'd vacuumed the house, then used the steamer vac on the dining room and living room on Friday, then driven the two and a half hours on Saturday morning. Then topped all of that off with shopping. Yikes! Anyway, Sunday morning I was limping. I decided to ice the knee down, take a few slugs of extra strong coffee and drive home. Fortunately after some medication, ice bags, and significant time spent on the couch followed by a good night's sleep, it feels okay today. Whew! I managed to dodge that bullet, no doctor visit in sight.

Last week I finished judging six contest entries set in the Regency period. They were all good, one was outstanding. It made me look at my own writing again (not that I write Regency romance) but to try to get a feel for how a judge might read my submission. Couldn't do it though. It's so hard to judge your own work, if not impossible. This week I'm preparing my Golden Heart entry and thinking it doesn't stand a chance in hell. Oh well, I paid my money so might as well continue on. : )

I decided to purchase a couple of books printed by Samhain Publishing to see what the editing was like. Read Maya Banks, Into the Mist. What a neat story. The writing was excellent, the pacing was great, and I was invested from the first pages and even though the love scenes were pretty steamy (and I normally don't read those) I thought they were necessary for the main character to show her developmental arc. Also, the hero was a shapeshifter who shifts into mist, and he was delightful.

In my opinion: it was a really good read, and I'd highly recommend it.