Busy, busy times

So many things have happened since I last posted, and I apologize for the silence, but I'm getting back up and on my feet, so we'll be back to a slightly more regular updating schedule soon.

I've almost finished my LHNB story, and hope to get it wrapped up this weekend so it can take a trip to one of my betas to get a second pair of eyes looking at it.  This story has been ridiculously fun to write, and I'm really hoping Shaz likes it. *crosses fingers* Hopefully this weekend I'll be posting a second teaser both here and on Goodreads. :3

My living situation took a bit of a nose dive, which is why I've been nonexistent, for the most part, on the internet.  Long story short, my long time roommate had been planning to move to CO, which I knew all about, so I've been helping her pack and prepare, as well as say goodbye to CA.  In the meantime I'd been hunting for a new roommate, and thought I found one:  he moved in on the 1st of April, paid his portion of rent for that month, as well as his security deposit.  All of April went by without a hitch until last weekend, when I got a call from my other roommate telling me that he was packing his stuff up and leaving.  So he left, with no warning or intent to say anything to me, and I've been scrambling ever since.

I'm good right now, but it's been a rocky couple of weeks.  XP

But enough whining about my personal life; writing!

Alongside working on my LHNB contribution I've been writing the story that picks up where Rock 'n Roll Seraphim leaves off, as Seraphim was only intended to bring the two together. *tries not to say anything that might be considered a spoiler* Now I get to write all about the ups and downs of them adjusting to their relationship, and the stresses both current and former jobs puts on them.  I love my boys, but I know relationships aren't all fluff and hearts, so I wanted to visit that, and show how they become as strong together as I've seen them in future stories.

Other than that, there are a couple of ideas I'm poking at but nothing concrete as of yet.

And now I'm off to paint my nails a shiny Tardis blue, and try to wrap up the lose ends in my LHNB story.

<3!

Winners, updates, and a teaser

First and foremost, before I get going, the winners for my contribution to LT3's 'Way to Your Heart' birthday shenanigans; Shayla Mist and Crissy Morris!  Emails have been sent out, so please holler back at me for confirmation, and the first one of you I hear back from gets first dibs on choice of shiny. And a big thank you to everyone who stopped by my neck of the internet to say hi during the past couple of weeks, thanks to your replies I've now got a couple new addictions to pile into my poor iPod. XD

Now, moving on to everything else...

In the land of editing: my final, personal revisions to 'Connect', still not entirely certain on that title, went in to LT3, as did the reviewed manuscript for 'Put You in a Song'. Woo-hoo editing madness! I'm looking forward to getting back the edits for 'Connect' because I think right now I'm still too close to it to be able to do it justice editing wise, but I am really, really pleased with the way it turned out, and can't wait to share it with you.

In the land of revisions: I'm working on rewriting one of my rejected stories from last year for re-submission at the end of next month, tightening and tweaking things to make it even better than it is currently. Also on the running the revision gauntlet is the rejected 'Prince's Flower', am hoping to expand it from 7K to 10-12K before I submit it to LT3 for their fairytale serial line.

In the land of new writings: I've sadly come to the conclusion that I'm not going to make LT3's 'Proud to be a Vampire' submission deadline for two reasons; one, the characters aren't talking to me, and I refuse to force the story to happen and end up with something I hate, and two, my Darkest Mercy boys have been chattering up a storm in my head space, so I'm giving in to them, and writing something that'll fall in-between 'Rock 'n Roll Seraphim' and 'Put You in a Song'. But I will return to my vampires in the not so distant future, so I'm not completely bummed to have to shelf them for now.

Also, I'm hard at work on my contribution to the Goodread's M/M Romance group's 'Love Has NoBoundaries' writing event. My 'Dear Author' letter was written by Shaz, and I'm having entirely too much fun with it. :3 For those of you who aren't members on Goodreads, here's the teaser, from the working draft, that I posted last week:

Names removed, and replaced with place holders, as per event guidelines

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Way to Your Heart winners

I'll be posting the winners once I get home for the day, so expect a much more verbose update later this evening. :3

Belated birthday drabble for Melanie Tushmore

Melanie,

Happy belated birthday! Sorry it took me an extra week to get this done and up. ^^;; My manwhore of a guitarist wasn't behaving. But I finally coaxed him into this diddy; so here you go, and I hope you enjoy it.

<3 Lacie J

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Bag of overpriced, but oh so worth it, band merchandise to my chest I wriggle free of the crowd surrounding the vendor's booth. Pushing free of the crush I pull my messenger bag around and manage to fit my latest purchases into the already crammed space. Glance around the convention hall as I snap the buckle back into place.

I still had a couple hours before my roommates were due to meet me for the benefit concert across the way. Normally I would have spent the day holding my place in line, but I'd somehow lucked out with reserved seating thanks to being one of the first fifty people to purchase tickets to the event. And all of that before Darkest Mercy had announced that they would be performing a couple of songs in the concert.

Phone in hand I ride an escalator up from the main dealer floor.

<So, how much have you spent on DM merch? Find anything you don't already have w Tobin, or Chris' face all over it?>

Snort under my breath, they knew me so well; anything with Darkest Mercy's guitarists was almost guaranteed to find its way into my room eventually. It was like a disease the way I felt compelled to buy the weirdest crap if it had them on it. <Round $100 :P taking a smoke break on one of the hall's roofs before descending into the madness surrounding the arena to meet up with you guys.> <cut>

<Only $100? What, do you have everything they're selling?>

Blowing a kiss to one of the boys I'd danced with last night as we pass each other I shoulder the door open. <...no...yes...maybe...shut up, I know you're laughing at me. It's not my fault they're hotter than hell.>

<You're worse than the teenage girls who stalk them.>

Less Than Three Press is celebrating their fourth birthday this month, and to help with the celebration they're hosting a bloghop featuring a bunch of awesome people.  You can check out the master post here to find links to all of the other participant's blogs.

And now, without further ado, I give you my contribution to the birthday shenanigans:


As anyone who regularly spends time with me can tell you, my life revolves around books(both the reading and writing of), music, my cat, coffee, and alcohol.  Now, since I can't take you out drinking, unless you want to travel to me, I decided to focus on music first.

Music to me, is less a way to my heart and more a way of life.  I love, love, love music!  I constantly have either my headphones in or something playing.  And I love all kinds of music; pop, classical, jrock, country; anything really.  Even at work I'm a musicoholic, constantly singing along with whatever random psuedo crap we've got on the in-store play loop.  There's just something about music that's followed me through my life that has made it one of the unchanging facets of day-to-day me.

Back when I was an itsy little bit, I used to sing in church choirs.  Did all sorts of embarrassing shows; which I'm certain my mum has on video somewhere in her house... ^^;  Come fifth grade my dad got me started on playing the flute alongside him.  Unlike him I continued to play, making my way through junior high in the band, and high school in marching, parade, and orchestra.  Nowadays I've slacked off on my flute playing, but I do occasionally pick it up and just twiddle away a chunk of time playing whatever comes to mind.

As for 'commercial' music, you know, the stuff they play on the radio and what have you, that didn't threaten to take over my life until eight grade when I was one of the millions of unfortunate casualties to the boy band resurgence  yes, I was/am a fan of Backstreet, 'N Sync, etc., and I do believe I've just dated myself. XD

*coughs* Anyway, moving along before I'm made fun of for my boy band liking...

Back when I first got going on that side of my musical addiction I used to buy cd's like they were candy, which explains the boxes of them in my closet that I need to go through, and now, with cd's losing popularity, I have to watch myself with my instant gratification kick on mp3's.  I think I tend to pick up a new song every week or so these days with the convenience of the internet and itunes.

And yes, I do create soundtracks to my stories, and sometimes even character playlists.  Every time I settle in to a new world, with new characters, I have to find the music that sings to them before I can really connect with them to write.  I know a lot of authors find music in the background distracting while they write, but for me it's just another facet of the process.

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Giveaway Time

In honor of my musical obsessions, I've got two shiny prizes I'm itching to hand out

* $10 iTunes gift card

* ebook copy of Rock 'n Roll Seraphim by yours truly

To enter, simply leave me a comment telling me what your favorite song/artist is currently.  Don't forget to leave me an e-mail so I can contact you. :3

I'll draw a pair of winners at the end of LT3's celebration, on April 14th, and will contact the winners.  First one to reply gets first dibs on which prize they want. ^^

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*raises a glass in toast* Happy birthday Less Than Three!  Thank you for everything so far, and here's to a long continuing relationship together!

<3 Lacie J

LT3 is turning 4!!

LT3 is throwing a bloghop in celebration of their 4th birthday!  The Way to Your Heart bloghop is going to feature a bunch of their authors and associates blogging about the things we love; music, Dr Who, food, cats.  You name it, we'll probably be blogging about it. :3

And in honor of said bloghop, I'll be doing my first ever giveaway.  Woo-hoo, Lacie's going to give away free things to people who comment on her blog!  What kind of free things you ask?  You'll have to visit during the bloghop to find out, but they're going to be shiny.  Promise.

** Yes, I know, two blog posts in one day after nothing for almost a month...what can I say? ^.~ **

Wow, I suck at keeping an update schedule

I've been meaning to post an update for like a week, and for some reason I just keep procrastinating on doing so. Sorry for that. *hangs head in shame*

Moving on; I've got news, which is why I've been meaning to post. 'Connect' has been accepted by LT3! *happy dance* I'm so happy that all of my hard work paid off with it. Of course, now I've got to give it a final run through to make sure I've got it all pretty before it goes to an editor. Still excited though. :3

Also, 'The Prince's Flower' was rejected, so we're going to give it another pass through before deciding whether I should submit it to LT3 or do something else with it.

I've also hopped on board with the M/M Romance group's Love Has No Boundaries writing event; snagged my story prompt and need to post my own 'Dear Author'. So I've got a fun, free story to write which'll be released as part of their annual summer event.

Other than that? I just finished reviewing the edits for 'Put You in a Song', which is due to be released starting in August.

Feeling rather productive this morning; now it's time to decide if I want to work on one of my upcoming vampire submissions or start my answer to the LHNB prompt.