Blessed Samhain! Happy Halloween!

So...
For me and my honey Samhain is our most important ritual day of the year and treated as a two day event...

From Wikipedia: "Samhain (pronounced /ˈsɑːwɪn/, /ˈsaʊ.ɪn/, or /ˈsaʊn/ in English; from Irish Samhain [ˈsˠaunʲ], cf. Scottish Gaelic Samhuinn [ˈsavɯɲ], Manx Gaelic Sauin and Old Irish Samain [ˈsaṽɨnʲ] — "summer's end", from sam meaning "summer" and fuin meaning "end") is a festival held on October 31–November 1 in Gaelic cultures. A harvest festival with ancient roots in Celtic paganism, it was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and continued to be celebrated in late medieval times.

Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". Many scholars believe that it was the beginning of the Celtic year. It has some elements of a festival of the dead. The Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on Samhain. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities."

We treat the day as the end of our year and will finish up projects and goals set for the year...for example, last November 1st, the first day of our year, I set my personal goal to have twelve acceptances from publishers and succeeded...so tonight I will also be celebrating with gratitude that I was able to do so...

It's going to be a busy day!

We will mow the yard one last time...
Clear the garden beds and cover them so they will be ready for Spring...
Plant our garlic crop...
Put up our seed potatoes from this years crop...
Harvest the last of the carrots and onions...

We will carve pumpkin lanterns...
Feast on this year's harvest...
Drink the last of last year's home-brewed ale and meade...

We will walk a ritual circle around our home, remembering those we have shared the year with, those we have loved and lost...

We will rejoice and reflect beside a bonfire...

Whether you are celebrating Halloween or Samhain with your family, I wish you a blessed night!

Cowboy WIP Has a Title...

Okay, so it HAD a title before I wrote word one... then it became the Cowboy WIP because it seemed the title just didn't fit anymore...

And now, finally, the Cowboy WIP is "Painted Lady"

No worries, there's still a super hot cowboy...
And a really, really wicked sheriff...

But the story is one of growth...and not to have any serious spoilers...but does center around one woman, a former slave, who embraces her own power by becoming a Painted Lady...

Want to read about some real painted ladies while you are waiting for my Painted Lady to release? Go HERE.

It Has Been Twelve Days ...

I couldn't believe it...
When I opened up my blog and saw it had been almost two weeks since my last post, I was shocked. Where has the time went? What have I been doing?

Oh yeah...
The COWBOY WIP...
Whew, it's finished...before deadline. Life is good again. Now, all I have to do is compose a really great blurb...

I loved writing this book! For years I've been wanting to focus on a historical look at the woman's journey...east to west...on the wagon train.


A long time ago...twenty five years to be exact...I read Women's Diary of the Westward Journey and have wanted to write a story ever since and now that I have, I'm addicted! I'm ready to write the sequel...

LOL!

Well, maybe not yet. I cannot write the sequel until the first of the year, or until after I finish the 4th installment of the Chronicles of Surrender.

Writing begins on the 4th book: Echo of Redemption on Monday.

This week I am officially on vacation, which I suppose is why I actually have time to blog...

Working on final chapters of the Cowboy WIP

I keep getting strange notes asking me what a WIP is... I guess I thought everyone knew it was my current Work In Progress... I forget not everyone writes...it just seems that way.

Why just the other day I met at least four people who said the same thing after asking me what I "do"...

Their answers were...
"Oh! I write too."

"Oh. I should do that.I have so many great ideas. Or better yet...Maybe I could tell them to you and you could write them down. You know, be my ghost writer. You can do that, right?"

"I wrote a story once. I never did anything with it..."

"Oh, I wrote a great proposal a long time ago and had a New York publishing house interested and everything. Damn, I should write that book and send it to them..."

Sigh...
Yeah, that's why I thought everyone knew what a WIP was...

So, You Want A Job Releases Today!

Thanks to Anne Cain for doing such an amazing job on my cover:)

Want to read an excerpt?

The ebook will be available here after midnight on Oct 13.

So You Want A Job Cover

Yay! Another new cover to show off!

So You Want A Job will be released by Loose-Id October 13th, right in time for boss's day. Here's the rough-draft blurb:

Recession-stressed, out-of-work, recently evicted CEO Morgan James needs a job and has absolutely no chance of getting one after Wall Street uses her as their scapegoat when the market crashes.

Financial mogul Donathon Cannon has personal reasons to hate her but is more than willing to give her a job – if she wins the position by competing in a reality tv show for a chance to be his personal assistant.

Will his plan come tumbling down when he realizes they are more alike than he’d ever want to admit? And when he decides to humiliate and punish her in private, can he keep his dominant streak from crossing the line?

Soiled Doves Research...

Writing and research go hand and hand...
Painted ladies, soiled doves, working girls...

Here are some real life women of the wild west I found interesting:

Dora DuFran

Irene Love

Pearl de Vere

The Latest WIP

Cowboys and Saloon Girls and...
BDSM?

Oh my...

Contemplating Burned Bridges

Following the full moon craziness, I've spent a few days inside my head... not talking to my characters (because that is my every day) but trying to figure out my real life thoughts and I came to some very unexpected conclusions.

Like...

Just because I feel like I am "supposed to do something" doesn't mean "I have to"... sometimes, it's okay to do what I think is right for me... just me... even if it goes across the grain of what someone else believes.

Just because someone else is fulfilling their obligatory 12-step program apologies, doesn't mean I have to be open to forgiveness or reconciliation. I have to do what is right for me... just me... first and foremost.

And the only answer I have to give for my own selfishness is "Just Because."

This week I have literally been visited by not one but three ghosts from my past... all wanting me to know they didn't mean it when they hurt me... or they want me to know they love me, even though their actions continue to say they hate me... or they want me to remember the good times the way they do with a more negative spin...

I am who I am.
I refuse to allow negativity in my life.

All three ghosts are filled with so much bitterness, anger, sadness, regret, addiction...

What is right for me is to not allow them to ever affect my life again.
Some bridges are best left burned.

Painful wisdom, but true.

Eye Candy for Inspiration

Full Moon Weirdness...

So is it just me or was this a very strange weekend?

Yes it was a full moon, maybe that explains it.

My horoscope for Saturday said: Take time to process thoughts on your own. For Sunday it said: Maintain your own balance.

It's all about me? What? Usually my horoscope addresses my needs to nurture, or a focus on creativity...

An unsettling phone call made me realize just how relevant Saturday's and Sunday's horoscopes were.

Anyone else feeling weird?