Contests

I've become an ADDICT!

I love Brenda Drake contests and Pitch Madness is finally here! 

I entered my submission around 7 this morning CST. And officially dumped my submission into the slushpile. 

Hopefully I make it to the top 60!

Here is my submission for your reading enjoyment. 

Title: NEOPHYTE

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy/Paranormal

Word Count: 95,000

Pitch:

After sacrificing her life to save a friend, Addisyn's angelic afterlife should be all clouds, halos, and harps. Too bad the dark-winged angel who's manipulating her to incite a war didn't get the memo.

Excerpt:

Honestly, they must have thought I was going to throw a celestial-sized rager the minute they left me alone. They’d promised me some time to myself, and yet, twenty minutes later, were still skulking around, finding ways to delay the inevitable. I’d been under almost constant supervision for two years. An hour or two alone wasn’t going to kill anyone.

I sank into the porch swing. The sun dipped lower over the ocean and created a cascade of colors across the evening sky. Seawater gave the air a clean fragrance as the soft, constant roar of the waves filled the otherwise silent night. Finally, I could just relax and pretend I was a normal teenage girl, instead of feeling like the recently deceased Addisyn White and her five angelic misfit handlers: Bossy, Crabby, Hottie, Cocky, and Rebel.

“Hey,” a voice called from the doorway. I glanced over to my best friend Cocky-I mean Hunter-standing there with a grim look on his face, as if leaving me alone was tantamount to signing my death certificate. Again. We were bonded by God. Which sounded more epic than it really was. Mostly the bond just gave him an all-access pass to my thoughts with only a touch of his hand to mine. I had yet to gain that super power—another on a long list of things I still couldn’t do. Just another perk of being the newbie.

“Thought I’d tell you Graham and I are leaving.”

Graham, aka Rebel, looked nothing like Greysan, his fraternal twin I’d had a not-so-secret crush on since the day I met him.



Some of you might find this familiar. Yes it's Neophyte, but I revised and redid most of it. If you've read it before, you're going to want to read it again when its published again. I am working on getting Requiem edited and finished so I can put all my attention into Rogue and get all three out together. 

What do you think? 

~M

DONE!

Not with this blog... sorry for the absence... I spent all... well most... of January and the beginning of February rewriting/editing Neophyte.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, I have been saying that forever now. 

But really.

It's done.

And it's sparkly and shiny and amazing.

For those of you who have read previous versions of it. Ditch those and read this one. 

You will thank me.

As for any and all manuscripts that come after Neophyte... well I am working on Requiem right now. And hopefully by the time I am done editing and writing it--I'll be able to pronounce it's title properly.

I seriously only have like 20-30 pages more to write and it's done!

And then I will be writing Rogue, which is in like a billion pieces right now.  And working on the rewrite of Tainted Lullaby, because you are all going to want to read that one... its my New Adult, and it's so freaking hot and amazing and I am so proud of it.

So, yeah that's where I am right now. 

Gotta run and get the Goose from preschool - today was their Valentine Celebration! She was so excited!

Tootles!

~M

Monday Madness

It's Monday!

And man did it seem like a long time coming!

Saturday I had people over from 11 in the morning until 2AM on Sunday!  Talk about a long day!  I think I had a mental break down that day because I let my friend cut my hair in my dining room, I also laughed uncontrollably most of the day. Good friends bring that side of me out.

Yesterday, I paid for being up so late... you know, because I am old and have kids...  I was totally regretting my half bottle of wine when I rolled out of bed early enough to shower before waking up my monsters to take them swimming with my mom and gram.  

I was so tired yesterday that I accidentally put orange juice in my son's cookie crisp cereal. He was not so appreciative of that.

We (My son and I)  had a lot of ups and downs yesterday and by the time I sat down to write and edit, I was on my last piece of sanity. 

So instead we watched a movie together as a family. The second half we watched over the sound of D (my husband and the daddy of my monsters....) snoring. Because having the house to yourself must be very taxing.  ;)  He made good target practice for the popcorn fight too. 

I was so excited to put my kids to bed last night because I thought I would finally get sleep. 

My daughter proved that to be wrong. She got up at 3:30 and wanted breakfast and to be up for the day. 

I finally got her back to sleep around 6, only to get up to get my son ready for school.

So now I get to sit down and get to work. 

Because it is Monday.

And I have a job.

I am an author.

And a mother. 

Which means lots of laundry to do today, and my house needs a good cleaning. We also have gymnastics after school tonight for the son and a play date with my mom for the daughter. 

Did I mention I just want to sleep?  I would love like 3 straight hours of uninterrupted sleep. No kids, no cats, no dog. Just sleep. I don't remember the last time I slept three straight hours. And I don't even have any babies in my house anymore. 

So I get to write around my chaos.

And I get to wear my son's headphones when he isn't home because I hate cramming earbuds into my ears only to have them fall back out because they are to big for my little ear spaces. 

And you get to endure many Monday Madness posts from here on out. 

Welcome to my chaotic life. 

~M

Crit Partners

When I started writing, all those years ago....

I had this naive image of what getting a book published is all about. 

Man was that a reality check after I had finished my book and thought it was perfect and ready for an agent to pick it up, wave their magic wand and poof my manuscript would become a book. 

I never once thought it was going to be as hard to get an agent, (I currently still don't have one. But if you are an agent reading this, and you are looking for an awesome writing who will work hard... contact me! I won't disappoint!) I didn't even know how to get one really. I thought you just go through pick one off a list, tell them you want them and poof they were all yours. 

Yeah, I am blonde... and it was a big shocker when that wasn't how it went. 

So, that was a few years ago. And I learn new things about the writing/publishing world almost every day!

Like Crit partners! 

Who knew there are incredible people out there that will help you with your MS as long as you help them with theirs!

So I met two amazing women, Ashley and Leila and they have helped me more in two weeks than I have helped myself in the last year by trying to do it on my own!

These two have helped me renew my love of the Linked Series and I am working hard at getting it done and out for all to read. Hopefully with this awesome revamping of it an agent will see it and love it and me and the characters and will want to sign me and help me further my career.

So that is awesome and so are my new Crit partners!

~M 

How do you write?

Do you have a ritual for when you write?

I have to have something to snack on, some music and something to drink.

But as of now, I don't have a set writing schedule. I usually have at least one child running, demanding something or another and by the time both my monsters go to bed, I am worn out and ready for sleeping myself, so late night writing doesn't work for me. 

I have found that sitting in a chair, not on my couch helps me be more productive, but sitting at my table means the kids have to keep walking by me, which means they ask for things - constantly! 

And the little coffee shop in the center of my town has a great view for writing to. 

But I only manage to get there when both kiddos are in school, which is twice a week for 2 hours. 

This year, I plan on making myself a writing schedule and really sticking to it. 

Feel free to poke me and tell me to work if you see me on Facebook or Twitter. I need less distraction, my offline life is enough of a distraction as it is! But honestly, how can you tell your 3-year-old 'no' when she asks to play tea party for the 6th time that day?

~M

It's a New Year!

Hello!

New Year, New Blog. Welcome and get comfortable!

Here is where the fun, chaotic journey of 2014 is going to start for me. I plan on making it a huge year both in my personal life and my writing career. So buckle your seat belt and get ready for the roller coast that is my life! 

I guess I should start by saying Happy New Year!

Over the next couple days I will be vamping up this page as well as I can and getting it up and running! So if you see some construction just hold tight, I'm making it all sparkly and bright. 

Can't wait to blog again! I've been missing this part of my life for a while now and so I thought, what's a better day to start than the first day of a new year! 

Enjoy the Chaos!

~M