What will this week bring?

It's Monday morning.
I have half an eye on the time - after waking from a nightmare this morning. I dreamed it was  1:15 pm and I hadn't picked Breezy up from kindy yet!! Kindy finishes at 12:30, and I'm always there well ahead of time.
It's been haunting me this morning. My eyes flick to the clock on my screen every few minutes.

The house is sparkling. There is no one to mess anything up. So nice! That will all end when we get home from kindy at 1. :-)

Even managed to polish my desk.

Did some exploring over at Goodreads too this morning. I'm still not terribly sure what I should be doing with my page over there. Or in fact what I should do with Goodreads at all.

Today is the third day in a row that I haven't written anything. Not opening the MS I was working on prior to finishing the third book re-writes which are now with my editor. Not even thinking about the story -sure as hell not thinking about a new story that Eric got all excited about last week. I don't want to know. Not at the moment.

:-)

Now back to my non-writing day.

How were your weekends?

Paperback anyone?

And along came Friday...

Who knew it would come around so fast? Color me surprised.
This time last week I was in the midst of party prep and already the week has flown by.

I am currently over at J.E. Taylors blog. (And you thought I was here, huh? But no, you'd be wrong... I'm over there for a few days or maybe a week, I don't actually know.)

Jane interviewed me, which was a lot of fun. She has some interesting questions.
We discuss all manner of things from death to Bon Jovi - and I sneak in a plug for Lorenza too! It's all good!!

Now as part of this fabulous interview - one Mobipocket copy each of KILLERBYTE and TERRORBYTE will be given away.
Just drop in, leave a comment and you'll go in the draw to win.
Jane gets the joy of deciding who gets the books. :-)

Gotta say - am currently reading TERRORBYTE - and it's fuc'n awesome. I've got passed the weirdness of reading my own book in print and not as a manuscript or eBook and I'm just embracing the gorgeousness and damn Ellie comes over well in print!
Bloody good story too and even though I know this book intimately, I can read it like it was written by someone else.
I'm a freak.

So back to fondling my copies of TERRORBYTE.

In about 10 days I'll have the KILLERBYTE ones... I can't wait!!!

Whoops forgot I was writing this...lol

Not the first time I've decided to write a blog and become side tracked... and I doubt it will be the last.

I got caught up fiddling with my website. As you do!

Then the stack of books sitting on top of my printer caught my eye and I needed to pause for a fondle.

After all the waiting I have to say - WORTH IT!!!

Now, the waiting continues for my copies of KILLERBYTE.

It's odd getting them out of order.

But oh TERRORBYTE is soooo pretty.

Breezy thinks so too.

She's been touching, stroking, reading, hugging them all day.

Funny to think I wrote all those words and they make sense.

It's different seeing a tree Book to seeing an eBook. It just is.

You too can own your own tree book copy of both my books by checking out the links here and here.

That is all.

:-)

Okay you win!

I sent the Squealer to get ready for school. She spent an HOUR in the shower (cos her timer didn't go off) and yet didn't manage to use either soap or shampoo, for the third day in a row.

She's now at school... after I sent her back upstairs to clean her teeth and resorted to brushing her hair for her.

I declare defeat. I just don't have the energy to go back to this place with her again. (I thought we'd made progress... it only lasted one school term...)

Being me, I suspect she spat her morning meds in the tissue she blew her nose in. I can't prove it. BUT this is behavior typical of her without Ritalin. Standing for an hour in the shower DOING NOTHING. Then being astounded when I get cross!!

She's taken a HUGE dive recently. The last two weeks she hasn't done her homework, or hasn't even brought her homework book home. She's not out the door as fast as she used to be. This last week in particular she's been SLOW to the point of almost late.
Yet she used to want to be at least half an hour early. She's been sick twice in the last two weeks -asthma. Which is unusual this year. She's been very healthy this year.
Something is going on.

Either at school... or she's spitting out meds.

Squealer NEVER sees consequences coming, she is incapable of understanding that everything has a consequence - right up until it hits her. So - if she doesn't do her homework all week... unlike you and me, she doesn't worry about it. Because nothing has happened yet.

She's now reverting back to behavior I haven't seen for MONTHS.

I think I'll go see her teacher when the rain stops. He might know what's going on.

I hope my books arrive today!!!

The day after the night before

Last night was much fun.

Yes it was, thank you very much.

Today I'm feeling pretty good. Scratchy throat... not sure if it's from last night or if I'm catching whatever delightful cold bug the kids have.
Here's hoping it's from too much laughing. 'Cos I don't fancy getting sick.

Still don't have my author copies - so I'm just not thinking about it now. Decided that's the best way.
I did however get my fabulous tee-shirt, key ring, and new promo magnets from Vista Print... odd isn't it?They managed to get through the volcano ash just fine.

As for today... managed to finish a really fun scene... but didn't have enough uninterrupted time to do much more than that. Might squeeze out some writing time later this afternoon.

House slowly returning to normal after the party. Dishes done. (Thank you Chrissy LLB - yes lawyers can do dishes!!) House vacuumed.
Norman the Gnome sitting on the lawn waiting for a permanent home... I'm going to paint him.

For those of you who think it's odd that I have a traffic cone called Norman. Let's just say at 1:30 a.m. weird things occasionally get said over police radio, and leave it at that.

Norman has a spider living inside him - we've called the spider Fred.

Last night was awesome! :-)

Sort of achieved a goal...

Okay it's a weird goal... but I wanted to beat Dean Koontz... for a year now he's always been one ahead of me on the Mobipocket list, I've been following in his footsteps unable to pass him... and this morning, I jumped him. Which is groovy as can be. (YOU ALL ROCK!!! Big time!!)
Just one more obstacle...

Best Of

1. The God Machine 2. Killerbyte 3. The Good Guy 4. Terminal Freeze 5. Tripwire 6. Deep Storm 7. Hostile Intent 8. Gone Tomorrow: A Reacher Novel 9. Strangers 10. The Lost Symbol

Wednesday!!!

It's still dark out. Can't tell if it's raining or not, think it was supposed to get quite wet over night. Guess all will become apparent when the dark leaves and the morning shuffles in.

Looking forward to today. School + Kindy = Writing time for me!!

Our goals? NY Times best seller list and KILLERBYTE the movie (or TV series). The Boy Wonder suggested my Conway shorts as movies first, so as to develop the characters more fully than a stand-alone movie can. I thought TV series with spin-off movie. It would do the same thing.

Now we just have to make it so.

I had the best email last night from someone who is currently reading  KILLERBYTE. It's awesome when someone takes the time to drop me a short note. This one made me smile a lot. It's good to know that my writing freaked someone out to the point she had to go lock her apartment windows.
Causing a reaction is the best thing ever! I just hope she's not too freaked out.

A few people have become jumpy while reading KILLERBYTE.
Understandable, really. There were a few moments while writing it that I had to stop and check doors and windows myself. And a couple of times I could've sworn someone was behind me on the stairs.
Also, I stopped writing late at night while working on KILLERBYTE. Funny how normal house noises can become sinister at about two a.m.

If you follow me on Twitter of Facebook you'll know about the Rocky Road I made yesterday. I can happily report no one has touched the secret stash. Leaving a small plate out seems to have done the trick. :-)

And if you need chocolate after all the scary talk... here ya go - enjoy.

A wee reminder - anyone wanting signed bookplates  should email me. Will be doing a mass posting on Friday this week.

Have a fabulous Wednesday!!
I know I will.

Monday Monday

So how was your weekend?

Mine was fairly quiet. Sick household will do that. Breezy is almost over Chicken Pox - and stir crazy. She misses Kindy and her friends. She could probably go back today but Squealer has this interesting Croup/Asthma/cold thing happening. Which means no one's going anywhere. Which means mummy probably won't get to work for long. Some days that's not a bad thing, but when I'm right in the middle of some really cool shit, I hate not being able to work.

At some stage today I need to bake pie crusts. Which means I need to make short crust pastry. Lucky I enjoy pastry making. Rosanne (Admin One) assures me I can make the pies for Saturday ahead of time and freeze them. So that's what we'll do.
Just so long as I remember to get them out of the freezer in time... lol. And with the Lemon Meringue Pie I have to remember to make the meringue and pop it back in the oven on Saturday afternoon!! Which might be mission impossible.

Trying to decide whether I'll make a cake of not. By that I mean trying to decide if I'll have a picture made for the cake... and what picture to use. Or will I create a new one.

Of course none of this is getting me any farther through my re-write. I so wish it was, cos I'm loving the things I uncovered within the story. Although it's always horrifying to discover a trusted character is in fact a slimy evil person.

Have a good Monday - or Sunday if you're slow. :D

Ohh and Killerbyte popped back up to #2... you all ROCK!!! :-)

And a huge thank you to Lorenza for tweeting this little gem yesterday!

lorenzaponce 

  

Gr8 Book!!! Killerbyte at Barnes and Noblehttp://search.barnesandnoble.com/Killerbyte/e/9780981425696/?itm=1&USRI=killerbyte @Catconnorabout 15 hours ago via web

You are awesome! xx

ahhh killerbyte slipped.

After nine days at #2, KILLERBYTE has slipped to #3.
It's a bit scary. :-)
But I note TERRORBYTE is holding steady at #12 for the 5th straight day.

Best Of

1. The Good Guy 2. The God Machine 3. Killerbyte 4. Terminal Freeze 5. Deep Storm 6. Tripwire 7. Gone Tomorrow: A Reacher Novel 8. The Lost Symbol 9. Hostile Intent 10. Strangers

Updating!

Updating place that you can purchase paperback copies of both killerbyte and terrorbyte.

Unites States:

Barnes and Noble:
killerbyte
Terrorbyte

Amazon:
killerbyte
terrorbyte

UK:

Amazon UK
Via my author page

Adlibris:
killerbyte
terrorbyte

Should be in more places over the next few weeks!

Found me on a Swedish site!

Yes I know...

But it's kinda cool to see! And if you hit the translate button - killerbyte becomes 'replacing the killer'.

killerbyte

terrorbyte

Okay I'm going to bed now.

Still can't find the books on any actual Brit sites. But no doubt Amazon UK will have them soon.

The Eerie Digest

Judging by how today's title popped up, as I began to write it, I'm going to say I've used it before.
But that's just fine and dandy.
The Eerie Digest happens to be one of my favorite places and if you'll pop over and take a gander at the NEWS section, you'll find that the very lovely Joseph O'Donnell has my press releases up there. (I made it easy for you, link is a direct one... but please please have a wander around the rest of the site, it's packed full of fantastic stuff!)

I am in the midst of planning a little dessert evening to celebrate the joy of paperbacks. (insert happy sigh here)
Of course Breezy wants Lorenza to come. This whole planning a party escapade has perked Breezy up considerably. I'll explain the whole thousands of miles and time zone thing to her another day... no sense in trying that one while she's sick, it's a helluva concept to try and grasp. :-)

Anyone wanting signed bookplates drop me an email with your address - a PO box is fine.

killerbyte   terrorbyte

So how's your day?

No, tell me. I'm listening.

Paperbacks, kindle, Mobipocket, bookplates...

A funny thing has happened...

No really... or maybe it only astounds me.
On Sunday (Mothers Day) both my books turned up on Amazon as paperbacks... it's not that it was unexpected because obviously my publisher went all out to bring them out as 'tree books' as well as eBooks, it's just that no one expected it quite so soon.
I was looking at at least a week on Saturday... so a bit of shock set in.
For all of you who use Amazon.uk and other Amazon's - the books will be there. They're just slower than the US Amazon at loading. (Which in itself is astounding.)

So it turns out - the kindle version of both books is suddenly selling more than they were, Mobipocket versions are still up there, and paperbacks are moving out the door.

This is really really exciting!! I've been beside myself since Sunday with the joy of having print books as well as my beautiful eBooks.

As yet I haven't seen my books. I'm waiting. I do confess to copying the measurements stated on Amazon and drawing a book sized shape on my desk blotter.... lol. Of course there was a method in my madness. I needed to know what size labels to get to create bookplates.

So here's the thing. Anyone buying paperback copies of my books - who can't get me to sign them due to distance, can email me with your address. I will send a beautiful signed bookplate - you can then stick it in the front of the book or whatever you want! Please put 'Bookplate' in the subject line. So I can find it easily. ;-)

My email address is in my blog profile or on my FaceBook fan page.

This morning I saw this. And I gotta say - Readers ROCK!!!!

Best Of

1. The Good Guy 2. Killerbyte 3. Gone Tomorrow: A Reacher Novel 4. Terminal Freeze 5. The God Machine 6. Deep Storm 7. Tripwire 8. The Lost Symbol 9. Hostile Intent 10. Terrorbyte

Sara J. Henry: Sara in Vermont: This Is Nashville Flooding, Guys

Sara J. Henry: Sara in Vermont: This Is Nashville Flooding, Guys

Mother's day, Glock, and paperbacks.

Happy Mothers day!!

This is how mine started.

And then with this...

And then I found out both my books were available on Amazon as PAPERBACKS. Yes that's right  -Tree books!!

So here are the link. Author Page.

All the Amazon stores will eventually have it - but they're slow in loading or America is fast... not sure which.

And all this means is that YOU can now go to your local book seller and order my books in a actual store. Rock into your local indie and ask them to order it.

You might need these numbers.

KILLERBYTE

• ISBN-10: 0981425690
• ISBN-13: 978-0981425696

TERRORBYTE

• ISBN-10: 0986973149
• ISBN-13: 978-0986973147
• 
  

I know... how exciting is that?? You can imagine how squealie I've been all day. Getting a bit headachy on it too, could be somewhat past myself!
Of course I haven't actually seen them yet. But my publisher, who has, assures me they are beautiful!
My copies will be along presently. :-)

OMG!!

I woke up to this ... and I am almost speechless. Oh My!!!! This is soooo very groovy.

Best Of

1. The Good Guy 2. Killerbyte 3. Terminal Freeze 4. Gone Tomorrow: A Reacher Novel 5. Deep Storm 6. Hostile Intent 7. The Lost Symbol 8. Tripwire 9. The God Machine 10. Executive Orders

Lack of sleep

It causes things to go awry.

Just clicked on a play list... and it wouldn't play. None of the music was there. Which of course it wouldn't be, I moved the entire folder. So now the path is wrong.
So easy fix, grab the songs and toss them into media player... and there is no sound.
I turned the freaking speakers off at 3 a.m.
So I turned them back on.
No sound.
Some time last night I also turned the volume right down on my keyboard.

Thankfully I'm not an entire idiot and have my music back.

This morning - due to Breezy dreaming that a cockroach ate her thumb off at 2 a.m.- has been a long one. Breezy doesn't know what a cockroach is. She has never seen one. BUT yesterday at work (we're talking office building here) Chris had a cockroach running around on his belt. Ewww. That story led to Breezy's nightmare and no sleep since 2 for me.

I manged to write a new scene.

So now the flow looks something like this. (chapter wise) Death - pause -kidnapping - pause- pause- death - pause - pause - freaky - pause -death and kidnapping - honey trap - pause - interrogation. - to be continued. :-)

Almost time to go pick Breezy up from Kindy. I suspect she'll be a weeny bit tired and cranky this afternoon.

Printer has not arrived yet.
Still waiting for some mail. I do wish it would hurry up. lol

You're all so fabulous...

You seriously are! Not sure where to start singing your praises. So I'll do a generic - You ROCK!! Yes... you!

April was an awesome month for me and it's in no small part due to fabulous readers. 

I'm a happy little author knowing you're all reading my books! And that 

killerbyte  has sat comfortably at number 3 dipping gently to 4 and back this past week. It's exciting stuff!! And  terrorbyte (my personal favorite) has floated between number 8 and number 12. 

At the moment I am still sharing my computer with The Boy Wonder. Shortly that will end. He will be sporting a nice new laptop (and so will I). Such joy! Meanwhile, I'm not getting as much writing done as I'd like. But that will even out. Plus - it's not hurting to get some distance. (And Breezy is kinda liking me not working so hard right now.)

So tomorrow - I'm mummy help at Kindy. I'll be there all morning. FOUR hours of whatever. Cos I'm not actually sure what mummy help does. Let's hope someone tells me!!

Recently - you'll probably recall my spitting and cursing at Paper Plus and Canon over my printer? Well Canon are still the biggest assholes on the planet as far as I'm concerned. They don't stand behind their products and they don't treat customers well at all.

After getting quite cross with Paper Plus (who sold me the useless printer), it was decided to go to head office with my disappointment regarding their lack of solution. Today we have a solution. They're sending me a replacement printer. Different model. So I am probably still out the $100 worth of ink... but will finally be able to print again. So YAY.

Now let me just say something here about EXCELLENT service. Vista Print are possibly the best company in the world to deal with. I contacted them after an order failed to arrive. (Five days late but due to dates the volcano shouldn't have impacted on it's arrival) So anyway I asked if the parcel was held up somewhere.

Their response. It should be there, they were really sorry and they're sending a replacement order immediately. 

No messing around. Done. Just like that. 

And that people, is why I go back to Vista Print, time and time again. Cos they treat every customer well. They understand service. They go out of their way to find a solution. AND they're polite about it! 

Kudos Vista Print, you're awesome! :-)