This author thing is hard!

Here we are folks! Two (count ‘em, TWO. Uno, dos.) months away from the release of A Devil in the Details!



I’ve hit that point where I should be banned from the internet. “Oh god, she has a better Amazon ranking than I do!” “How come he’s getting so many reviews?” “They hate me…they really hate me…” “ Google alerts is just teh ebul, ‘cause it just proves that NO one is talking about me!” Insert some wailing and flailing here, too.

I’m a hazard to myself and others.

See, running around promoting myself goes against some intrinsic part of my nature. It was drilled into me from a very young age, you do NOT brag on yourself. You are modest. You do not seek out compliments, and if they are offered, you gracefully accept and direct attention away from yourself.

Do you know how hard it is for me to run up to people and say “Hey, I wrote this book, lemme pimp it to you!”? And yet, that’s kinda what I need to do. I need to be able to approach people I don’t know and say “Hey, can I do a bit of promoting on your blog/in your bookstore/at your local garage sale?” Ok, maybe not the last one, but you get the idea.

It just feels so…wrong to me, even though I know it’s not, and it’s a customary (necessary) part of being an author.

Luckily, I have some truly awesome writing friends. (Stacia Kane, Jill Myles, Kelly Meding, to name a very, very few. Seriously people, go read their books. I’ll wait.) They talk me down, they tie the pretty white coat tight, they put me in a nice padded room, and if I’m good, there’s pudding on Sundays!

Over the next few months, I’ll be guest blogging in various places, most of which are still being arranged. So expect to see me popping up in strange places, rather like the BK King (and is that dude scary or what???).

Some of it will be my rambling thoughts on writing, some of it will be interviews, and there MAY just be a very interesting interview with one Jesse James Dawson, samurai demon-slayer extraordinaire.

Right now, one that I have scheduled for sure will be on my release day (July 6th! Yes, I DO have that tattooed on my butt, why do you ask?), at the blog of an amazingly lovely writer, Janice Hardy . Don’t wait for my post to be up there, though, go over there and explore right now! There’s neat stuff there. It’s shiny.

I’ll try to keep you posted as to where I might be appearing, and reminders when the dates of said appearances are looming large.

And for the more mundane process of simply updating my status: Book 2 is with betas, and feedback is trickling in. Most of them are very enthusiastic, but are still finding places where I can tweak, and that makes me happy! Muse is with The Agent, hopefully I’ll hear something back on that within the month. And to keep my hands busy (‘cause idle hands are…idle), I’m working on finishing up the first draft of last year’s NaNo novel. I like it, I think it has great potential. I have about 2 1/3 chapters left to go on that one, and then I might wing it out to betas too, just for shiggles.