The Kitchen Sink

A fairly accurate title, if you ask me, considering I haven't been here since Plus One dropped out of the heavens way back in May. In my defense, I've been a busy beaver, writing and editing and writing some more.

First things first: Waaaaaaay back in May, my good friend and critique partner, Jeanette Grey, issued me a challenge. Join JuNoWriMo and write a novel in a month. Which I accepted. And kicked ass at, if I do say so myself. I blogged about my experience with it over on Contemporary Romance Cafe. And you guise...this book? I am all kinds of in love with it. It's gritty and emotional and darker than anything I've ever written, and the heroine...I just wanna put her in my pocket. The sole inspiration for this book came from this song: Favorite version. Full version. And if you are on the Pinterest train, you can see all the yummy visuals I used for inspiration here. And did I mention it's new adult?

I had lofty goals for this MS. Write it in its entirety in the month of June, spend the first three weeks of July editing the hell out of it and then pitch it at RWA. And let me tell you...it was tough. It was basically seven weeks of me being a hermit and rarely seeing my family. Considering I am an editing whore, and the last MS I edited took me well over a year before I felt it was complete, this was definitely pushing my limits. But I worked night and day (and a total of twenty straight hours in the car...thank God for modern technology) and got this bad boy finished. And, yes, I pitched it twice. And I got full requests from both. I'm currently on my fifth read-through, polishing this to all its pretty, shiny glory, and then I'll dive in. And then I'll wait.

So what else have I been up to? Well, in July I attended my first writers' conference, and I dove right into the big times with attending RWA. It was truly an unparalleled experience.

What I spent four days doing:

Enjoyed the view.

 

Rarely left this maze of a hotel.

 

Listened to my contemporary romance idols shoot the shit.

 

Met and hung out with some Bad Girlz.

Got stopped on my way to the Harlequin party by people wanting to take pics of my outfit. (that I MADE!) 

 

Had a blast at the amazing Harlequin party. 

 

Stuffed my face accordingly.

 

Met some amazing authors and had some fun with a video shoot.

 Attended the RITAs with my very pretty critique partner and good friend Jeanette Grey.

 

Had 2 a.m. breakfasts. How you do. 

Wore more uncomfortable (but cute!) shoes than I normally do in a year.

Basically, I had a blast. An exhausting, amazing, exhilarating blast.

Besides RWA, where I got a ton of awesome books for giveaway, I also attended ALA in Chicago at the end of June. It was two days of crazy crowds of book loving people just like me. What's that mean for you? Well, I've got all these for giveaway:

And some are even signed! I haven't decided yet how I'm going to do this, but stay tuned for details. In the meantime, I've got a few digital copies (codes available on signed by the author postcards), courtesy of Samhain Publishing, to give away. These codes expire on August 20th, so this giveaway is gonna be a quick one! You have until midnight on Sunday to enter, and I'll be picking five winners Monday morning to receive one of the books offered.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And one more (super duper exciting) thing (I told you this post was aptly named)... I just signed the contract for my upcoming release with Carina Press in their holiday collection. Remember Hot Single Dad? His name is Logan, and you can meet him this December in Season of Second Chances. As soon as I have fun things like cover art, I will be sure to share!

If you haven't already, sign up to follow the blog so you know when I post the giveaways for that pile of super awesome books! Did you see any in that group that you're dying to get your hands on?