Busy week behind me...better week ahead

The last couple of weeks have been very busy. My husband's great aunt passed away last week. She was almost 80 and had pneumonia for some time. It wasn't a big surprise that she died, but it was still sad and she'll be very missed.

My father-in-law just celebrated his birthday. This was another long road trip, but at least it was a good one. We enjoyed spending some time with his parents and time seemed to fly by while we were all with each other.

I've just finished the final edits to A Hold on His Heart. It will be released some time in September and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of cover it's going to have. As usual, I'm both a little nervous and excited about it being released. It's strictly a pick-me-up story between two men who are very different from one another. After writing Angel's Redemption, I decided to lighten things up a little. Now I'm back to normal and really pushing myself to write more angst, but we'll see. 

My grandmother is going to turn 84 on Sunday. Originally, we all planned to meet at her house and just have a day of spending some fun and quality time together. Unfortunately, she's not feeling well, so we had to postpone it for the next week. This past year has been very hard on her. She's practically blind, and her heart has been giving her a lot of trouble. She also suffers greatly from the gout, which is very painful and keeps her from doing many things she's always loved to do. She went to the doctor a couple of days ago and was told she's very anemic. They're going to give her some sort of 'blood' shot and also make her take high doses of Iron. To say that I worry about her is an understatement. Many of you know how much she means to me, and between her age and constant health issues, I lose a lot of sleep. But on the bright side, my grandmother is one of the strongest women I know. She's been through a lot of hard times and heart ache in her life and has always worked through it and come out stronger and a better person because of it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that these health issues can be resolved and she'll be on the road to a speedy recovery. 

Above are two pictures of her when she was a young woman...wasn't she a gorgeous? In my eyes, she still is and always will be as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out.

I hope everyone has a great week:)

Have a great weekend:)

It's been a very good weekend. I found out yesterday my latest submission, A Hold On His Heart, was accepted for publication at Silver Publishing! I'm pretty excited about it and whenever I find out the date they expect to publish it, I'll definitely let everyone know.

I've been working hard on my current WIP. Originally I planned to complete it and submit it as part of Silver Publishing's 'Father's Day' submission call, but once I finished it I decided to hold off on it. After I read through it, I really felt the need to revamp it a little and turn it from a Novella to a full length Novel. I think my characters have more to say than what they did, so I'll be continuing to work on it and hopefully get it finished and submitted soon.

I've also been working on the first round of edits for Angel's Redemption. It is the next book in my Men of Charlestown series and the story revolves around Jackson (who makes his first appearance in Daniel's Dream) and Elijah's story. I've been working on Angel's Redemption on and off for over a year, so I'm both excited and nervous about its release. I'm still not exactly sure what day it will be released, but if I had to guess I would say probably the end of May or beginning of June.

My grandmother has been doing better. She still has days she's not feeling as strong and healthy as she should, so I still worry about her. I guess I probably always will. If my grandfather was still alive they would have celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary a few days ago. Isn't that amazing? My grandparents had a strong marriage and when my grandfather died, my grandmother had to really pick herself up and learn to live an independent life. There are so many things I admire and love about her and her zest for life is one of those things. The picture above is of my grandparents. It was taken not long after they married. I love this picture because it shows how playful they were, and how much they loved each other.  I thought since I've been talking about them, I would share it with you.

I hope everyone has a happy weekend.

Happy Friday

For the past couple of weeks my grandmother has had a rough time of it. She has heart issues and her doctor recently changed her medication. Unfortunately, she had a bad reaction to it, and it really did a number on her health, and for a few days there I really thought she might not make it. But, lucky for all of us, she is doing better and for that I'm grateful. The picture above is my mother, grandmother and of course my niece, Snow White. I love the picture because they are all smiling and happy to be with each other. Just as it should be.

I'm behind on everything. I am trying to catch up with my writing, but it's been hard considering everything that's been going on.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Here's a little eye candy to get us through the next few days. I love the playful and sexy feeling I get when I look at it, don't you? :)

"Spells", Shawn Lane, Writing and Sexy Heroes

I've had an interesting week. My 82 year old Grandmother had a "spell" last week. After taking her to the hospital that "spell" was a minor heart attack. She is the type of person that could be on her death bead, and still want to cook and please everyone. She is one of the strongest women I know, so when she says that she had a "spell" then we know something is wrong.

After surgery, she's doing much better. I wanted to stay with her a few more days, but she insisted that I come home. The only reason I agreed was because my mother is now there with her, otherwise I would have been as stubborn as she is and just parked it at her house anyway.

When I got home last night, I really re-read one of my blue collar stories and totally hated it. So, I threw it out and started over. Last night I wrote a little over four thousand words and tonight I hope to do close to the same. I'm very happy with how this one is turning out, and is totally in love with my heroes Allen and Shiloh.




Allen is my blue collared worker. He's a supervisor at a rendering plant, and has worked there for 15 years. Because he lives in a small town, he's very discreet about his homosexuality and because of that, he has closed himself off emotionally from others in the process. When I started envisioning Allen my mind immediately went to an actor named Charlie David. He stars in Dante's Cove and admittedly isn't the best actor in the world, but he sure is nice to look at.

Shiloh owns a bakery and is very out about his sexuality. He's fun and flirty and the minute Allen comes into his store to order his parents anniversary cake, sparks fly and the hormones start raging! But, with Allen being in the closet, this will cause problem between the two men. Not to mention problems Allen will have if he comes out at work.

I admit I surf the web a lot. I'm always looking for ideas and when I come across pretty or interesting men, I usually save their picture and put it under my inspirational men file. This picture of a young man struck me for some reason. I don't know if it's the sweetness in his face or the lost look in his eyes that called out to me. Yes, he's very young, but when I saw him Shiloh was born. Just add about ten years and he's the perfect Shiloh.



I'm really excited about this story. I'm anxious to get it done. Shiloh has been bugging me for a while now. He's even more persistent than Sidney, and believe me, that says a lot! I think this book will be a longer one than I've written in the past. Both men have a lot to say and I think it'll be a fun ride watching it come together.

I want to thank Shawn Lane for my interview last Friday. I had a great time answering her questions, especially about Jack. *wink* I also read both Only in his Dreams and Only for Him and fell in love with this series. If you haven't read them yet, you should. They were awesome and Barnaby will be a favorite character of mine. I can't wait until next Only book comes out!

Y'all have a great night!