Halloween Eve!

I can't believe Halloween is tomorrow. Normally, I'd already have all my Halloween decorations displayed all over the house, but I realized yesterday that I totally forgot! That seems to be the theme of my month... I think I've said this before, but where did October go? It's my favorite month and I just totally lost track of time.

On the writing front, I've gotten a few scenes written out and a few more written in my head. Perhaps I should have gotten the iPhone 4S, instead of the iPhone 4 (I did save about $100 though), so I could just dictate everything that's rummaging around in my head. I'm happy with my new phone regardless. I just uploaded the Pages app and can now do edits to my documents without having to lug my laptop around with me everywhere.

Sales for Parallel have been great. I'm not experiencing sales of epic proportions, but selling a few books a day is more than I could have ever imagined. Thanks to all of you who have supported me and enjoyed reading my story (don't forget to leave a review!!). Oh, and Parallel is now available for iBooks!!

As for Halloween, I don't hold out much hope this year. We didn't get any trick-o-treaters come to our house last year (they stopped coming a block before our house...I blame it on all the old neighbors that surround my end of the street), so I have nothing planned other than teaching night class. If any kids DO manage to come to our end of the street, well, they can have the candy we still have from last year. It doesn't go bad, does it??

And don't forget to check out my guest post on November 1, over at Karly Kirkpatrick's blog, where I discuss my thoughts on Dia de Los Muertos (although the holiday is actually celebrated on November 2nd. The 1st is Dia de Los Angelitos).

Grand-Prize Winner Announced!

I'm 35 today!!! Now, I know most folks dread turning another year older, especially after the age of 30, but not me. I always say life only gets better with age. Take last year for example. I didn't have a book out and I didn't have all these new wonderful friends that I have now. By this time next year, I hope to have more books out and more fabulous friends and fans. See? It only gets better.

Since it's a day of celebration, I'm going to announce the Grand-Prize Winner of the Parallel Blog Tour! And the winner is.....

Melissa from Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf!! 

Melissa will recieve a signed copy of Parallel, a OOAK Battle Grounds coffee mug, a OOAK bracelet, and a custom eReader skin.

Congrats and thanks for entering Melissa! Don't forget to check your email today!

And thanks go out to all the book bloggers who hosted me this last month and everyone who stopped along the tour! It was so much fun! (Yeah, I'm totally overusing my exclamations points in this post...)

Updates

I'm a bad ROW80 writer this week (again). Thank god I'm not a sponsor this round or I'd be forced to resign!

My blog tour is officially over. Well, the grand-prize winner still needs to be determined, but essentially, my part is done. Now I can go back to writing book 2!! I have worked on it off and on and I'm itching to get back to my story. Thank you again Danny and Heather at Kismet Book Touring for doing an awesome job on my tour. Seriously, I really could not have done it without you two!! XOXOXOX

Today, I spend the morning writing a guest post for fab author Karly Kirkpatrick's blog and updated the new Parallel cover to Amazon and B&N. So while I haven't written anything in a few days, I have done something on the writing front (yeah, I keep telling myself that).

Oh, I also managed to get approved as a seller on iTunes last week, so I promptly uploaded Parallel to iBook. I hope it goes 'live' soon...it's been about a week since I uploaded it and it keeps telling me they are reviewing it for quality or some such nonsense.

Just an FYI, I may not have much of a writing update on Wed. I have so much going on that day, I may just have to do my ROW80 update on Sunday.

Cluck, Cluck...

...I feel like a chicken with its head cut off. Where has October gone? Do I even know what day it is? That's pretty much what's been rattling around in my mind the last couple of days. With being swamped with work, finishing up the last of my guest posts for my blog tour, and getting about four hours sleep a day, I'm just lagging.

If that wasn't enough, now I have to try to find the time to renew my driver's license (which for some reason I am not allowed to do it online) AND take my truck back to the shop after they already had it for a month putting in a new engine. Oh yeah, and my tire is going flat again.

So on the ROW80 front, I've got nothing. I had to work last weekend and work some late nights, so I barely had enough time to do anything else. Perhaps I should worry, but then again, I seem to do well when I procrastinate and get behind. I hope things will go back to normal in the next few days.

In other news, if you haven't already noticed, I have a new book showcased on the sidebar. Satan's Toybox: Demonic Dolls is now available!! I am so honored to be part of this anthology, as horror is one of my favorite genres. So if you need something creepy to read on Halloween, don't forget to pick up a copy!

Tours and Prizes

Just a quick note to say good luck to those who entered Red Tash's Trick or Treat Bash! The contest has ended and I can't wait to see who ends up winning the grand prize giveaway! 

I'm a day late on my ROW80 Update and comments, so I'll probably do a longer post on Wednesday to make up for it. Still catching up with the last guest posts for the last week of my blog tour. Speaking of which, JL Bryan kicks off his blog tour this week for The Paranormals with the lovely Heather over at Bewitched Bookworms! If you haven't read the series, you're missing out! 

And don't forget to stop by Tynga's Reviews where I'm interviewed by the fabulous Jane *squeal* and you can read her review of Parallel. 

Writing, or almost...

It's that time again! This last week found me writing all right, but instead of working on book 2, I've been working on guest posts for my blog tour. I'm almost done, so I'll be able to get back to my regularly scheduled program that is writing. I do have my outline and a few scenes written for book 2 (I had to use an outline this time...when you're writing about multiple realities, it's a must). So technically, I'm keeping with my goals of writing everyday. It's just not as much as I should be.

Speaking of guest posts, I reached out to author Karly Kirkpatrick yesterday and I'll be doing a guest post on her blog in the near future. If you dig YA paranormal and haven't read anything by Karly, please do so...NOW. She's super sweet and uber talented and I'm honored to be guest on her blog.

And I almost don't want to add this, because I'm so not worthy, but the fabulous Kate Copeseeley wrote a great post featuring me. Again, so not worthy. If you haven't read any of Kate's books, you are doing yourself a disservice. Compis is one of my favorites and I'm honored to have read (beta'd) the first half of book two in the series, Aeris.

That's it for today folks. Don't forget to check in at I Just Wanna Sit Here and Read, where I guest post on balancing life and writing. And over at The Book Faery, where my main character, Etta, gets interviewed!

Updates

Happy Columbus Day! It's happy because I don't have to go to work today. Well, I still plan on spending the day writing, which totally counts as work, but I get to do that in my pi's.

The hubby and I just got back from a great weekend camping and I totally forgot my Sunday check-in for ROW80, but I did get some writing done, so we'll leave it at that for now. I plan on getting a lot more writing done today to make up for this past weekend.

Week one of my blog tour is over and aside from one small kink along the way, every stop has been fabulous! Thanks all around to all the readers that chimed in, the wonderful hosts that kindly allowed me to stop at their blogs and for those that also posted reviews of Parallel. If you missed the first week of the tour, no worries! You still have two more weeks to stop in and win either an ebook or the grand prize giveaway! Don't forget I'll be at Kindle Fever today, discussing parallel universes.

Oh, I almost forgot! Before I left to go camping, I was able to get the print version of Parallel up on Amazon! So for those of you who wish to purchase it in paperback, it's now available. It hasn't linked up to my Kindle version yet, but I expect that to happen very soon by the good folks over at Amazon.

And lastly, there's only 6 days left for your chance to win over at Red Tash's Trick or Treat Bash. Grand Prize is a new Kindle (and by new, I mean one of the fancy newly released versions) and a library collection featuring some horror-fic authors (including me), 2nd Prize: a $25 Amazon gift card and a free copy of Red Tash's book, This Brilliant Darkness, and 3rd Prize: a $10 Amazon gift card and a copy of TBD. I'm in the middle of reading TBD and I'm totally intrigued so far!

Check-In

Today is the first check-in for ROW80! I can't believe we're on our last round for the year. It's been an amazing one and I can honestly say that I wouldn't have gotten this far with my writing without all the fabulous support from all my fellow ROW80'ers...I'll be seeing you guys at the twitter party later.

I totally neglected to post my goals on Monday, so I'll go ahead and post them now.

1. Write everyday. This has always been #1 in each round and it seems to work for me.
2. Finish writing Paradox, book 2 in my series. I hope to have it released by December at the latest.

Yeah, I know. These are pretty simple goals, but I know myself well enough to know that I work best keeping things simple. Anything extra is just icing on the cake :)

So now that I have that out of the way, I'm happy to report that I've stuck to my goals so far and I am writing away, everyday. I'm going out of town this weekend, but I'm taking my laptop with me so I don't slack on my goals.

In other news...I just received my proof copy of Parallel and it looks awesome! I should have the print version available by the end of the week. And don't forget to check out the third stop on my blog tour today for a little bit of This and That over at Smitten with Books!

A Day of Firsts

Today is the first day of my blog tour *squeal* and the first stop in the tour is over at Alice Marvels, where I discuss the heroes in Parallel. She's a very gracious host, so don't forget to check-in and leave a comment. Every stop on the tour will be offering an a ebook giveaway and each comment left throughout the tour will enter you for the grand-prize giveaway!

Also, don't forget today is the first day of Round 4 for ROW80! For more info on this awesome writing challenge, click on button at the bottom of this site. There's also a Rock the ROW twitter party on Oct. 5th. We worked hard Round 3 and we deserve a party, so don't forget your virtual baked goods and beverages!! For details, click here.