Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I have a husband and a new book release, and all I can focus on is this stupid writer’s block that’s been plaguing me.
Pretty pathetic, eh?
But it’s a vampire novel, and my first one was so well received, I really want to give readers another. Plus, the characters in this one are secondary characters from the first one (It’s called RESIST, if you’re interested. Click the name to check it out, if you want), and I have a terrible tendency to fall so much for my characters that I want to write a happily ever after for every single one.
Wait a minute, I suppose I should tell you about the book that’s releasing tomorrow. On Valentine’s Day. Appropriate, as it’s titled CLAIMING MY VALENTINE (yep, click the name to check out the book). Yeah, it’s an anthology. Fourteen short stories (get it – fourteen??). Shapeshifter stories. Shifter love stories that have something to do with Valentine’s Day. All with a happy ending.
To top it all off, every penny earned will be donated to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Yep. Just for the heck of it. No, not really. It’s because it’s a good cause. Helping every little bit we can, for an incredibly important cause.
So back to my vampire writer’s block. I’m a hundred pages in, the hero and heroine haven’t yet done the nasty (although hot damn, there’s been lots of tension), and now I’ve reached the climactic moment. Not that one; the do or die one. The one where the bad guys discover whatever it is the good guys didn’t want them to know, and now it seems utterly impossible that the good guys will make it out alive (and finally get it on!!), and…
And I’ve rewritten this scene three times in the last three weeks. Three. Times. I should probably go back to the original. It’s probably the best. Except I have the other two fighting for dominance in my head–oh, and let’s talk Valentine’s Day.
I haven’t even bought a card for my husband, let alone acknowledged the day in any way whatsoever. He, on the other hand, has already given me flowers. Yeah, he had them delivered to the day job last Friday. Why? Well, funny story, that. See, I work with a lot of women, most under the age of thirty. It’s a rather young work environment. Anyway, a few years ago on Valentine’s Day, the flower deliveries reached such ridiculous heights, somebody started tracking the number. At the time there were probably 120 people in the office, and I believe we surpassed 50 deliveries. Those poor delivery guys, because the traffic out by where I work suuuuuuuuux.
Yes, before you ask, I was one of those 50. And I went home and told the hubs about the crazy number, how everyone couldn’t stop talking about it. So the next year, I got flowers on Feb 13, with a card that read, “Wanted you to be the first.”
Yeah, yeah, he’s a romantic. On occasion. But take it with a grain of salt: When I got home and thanked him for the flowers, he said, “It was cheaper, too!”
That’s my man. Because he knew damn well I’d fall a little more in love with him for saying that.
Ugh, see now I’m thinking about sweet, sappy happy endings, when I need to work out this dramatic, exciting, death-defying climax, so I can edit this damn thing and get it into readers’ hands!
Oh yeah, and I should probably spread the word about my Valentine’s Day shifter release, too. Because my contribution to CLAIMING MY VALENTINE (yep, click the name – click it!) is called Broken Light, and if you’re a Lightbearer fan, you’ll want to grab it.
It’s Xander’s story, FYI. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you clearly haven’t read FIRST LIGHT (yes, click the name), which you should, because it’s free, and it’s the prequel to the entire Lightbearer series.
Wait, where was I again? What day is it? And most important: Where’s the wine???
PS – Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate. Happy almost-not-Monday-anymore for those who don’t.
There is a reason we all clicked at that pre-cana retreat. Bryan got me chocolates the day after Valentine’s 😉