Author Archives: Moira Callahan

Release Day!

So excited! A second book bearing my name out there for the world to see. Oh boy, yeah, better not think on that too long or I’ll be needing myself a paper bag. LOL! Just kidding.

There was a minor snafu with Amazon, they were having a few technology issues – happens to the best of us after all. But, like the troopers they are, they got things sorted out and my book is up. Hopefully everyone else’s as well affected by this small glitch. I didn’t really worry about it overly much, since I knew they’d figure it out in time. Besides, I was at work so that kept me from thinking about it for too long.

I will admit to looking for it as soon as I got home though. And there it was, in all it’s sexy glory – look at that cover, it’s HAWT! I keep wanting to nibble on that male model, just a little. Okay, enough of that, other things to talk about… All the links I currently have (sorry iTunes and B&N folks) are up on the Dangerous Times page. The other links will come as the individual sites get everything lined up on their ends.

Overall it was good day, not much happening at work, work wise. My one co-worker, the lady I’ve worked with personally for a number of years, left today. Off into the retirement sunset. Lucky bitch. We sent her off in a fashion she approved of, very low key, yet she knew just how much I was going to miss her. The fact I was hanging onto her leg like a two year old in the midst of mother leaving for the first time may have been a clue. My screaming “You can’t go!” may have also led to the belief I’ll miss her dreadfully. I will, but she deserves this, she put in forty years with the company, definitely time to get out and enjoy life a little.

I get myself a super-duper long weekend this weekend. Canada Day is on the Tuesday so the boss is giving us the Monday off, woohoo! That’s a four, yes 4, day weekend. Hot damn! I plan on writing, writing and doing some more writing. It will be great. I can tidy up and work on C&M book 3, maybe even submit it. Then I intend to work on the paranormal story that’s been bugging me for the last while, get some of that down on paper. More than what I currently have I mean.

Well, that’s it, I need to go and do some advertising I think. Have a wonderful evening folks! ~ Moira

First in a series…

dangeroustimes1sComing this Thursday Dangerous Times, is the first book of the C&M Security series. I’m very excited about this series, it’s my first one, and it’s also a slightly different take for me on a romantic story. It’s got mystery, it’s got danger, and it’s got some good old fashioned heat.

In book one we get to meet the delightfully adorable, Tamara Phillips. She’s a photographer who lives on her caffeinated beverages and hates mornings. Okay, I admit, those two traits are all me. Gotta put a little of yourself into your works, right? She meets up again with the sinfully sexy, Shawn Camden. He’s co-owner in C&M Security – the “C” if you need a hint as to how I came up with the name of his company.

I had a lot of fun writing this first book in the series. It was a great stretch of my abilities to try something new. Never having done anything with a bit of mystery behind it, and keeping the “big secret” actually a secret to the end, was definitely a challenge. So many times I caught myself giving something away that I knew would just ruin the effect I was attempting to create.

Thankfully my editor, the wonderfully talented Laurie Temple, was on my side of keeping the “secret” a secret. Normally not identifying a key character is a no-no, but in this case it was necessary to assist in leading the reader along just so. Then, at the end, WHAM! Big reveal. I also have to give a shout out to the talented cover artist who does all the Evernight Publishing covers, Sour Cherry Designs did a fantabulous job on the cover for this – so thanks!

That’s it for tonight I think, I have writing to do, characters to mess with, and a plot to twist up into knots. ~ Moira

Sunny Saturday…

It’s actually sunny out there, not kidding in the least! It’s a miracle really, given I was starting to feel like I was living in Vancouver (hehe!) after the last couple of weeks of nearly constant rain, and drizzle. I love my neighbors to the West, but seriously, keep the rain over there. Those of us living right across the Rockies are still feeling a little twitchy from last year over anything more than a couple hours of rain.

If I didn’t feel like such a pile o’ shit right now, I think one of my co-workers gave me her cold, I’d be out enjoying it. Instead I’ve been cleaning furiously in an effort to sweat some of it out. Now that I’ve exhausted myself though I think I shall write for a while before I go shopping. Nothing exciting though, just some food for my relatively bare fridge. Not bare-bare, but definitely lacking more than a few beverages, bread, butter and eggs. Need something for dinner, something with a bit of substance, maybe a nice thick and juicy steak. Oh god that sounds good! Of course, if I’m still feeling crappy when I go shopping I’ll likely just get a bunch of comfort foods instead, lol! It’s always that way.

On the writing front I’m stuttering through a bit of C&M Security book 3. I’ve been playing around with getting my hero and heroine back into town to confront the bad guy after they made a necessary, and strategic, retreat to recover from what he’d done. Now I need to get them back onto the playing field, quickly, so that this guy goes down – hard. Not really sure how I’m going to do this, but we’ll see. I’ve got a few ideas that I’ve been playing through, seeing how they’ll come to a conclusion. So far only two really seem to work, but I’m not really sure if it fits them. Oh well, it’ll work out, always does.

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I think that’s it from me. I’m going to watch a bit of backlogged TV – Games of Thrones and 24 – while I write. Maybe I’ll be hit by some inspiration ~ Moira

Whole new meaning to Wet Wednesday…

The weather is dreadful, raining and nasty cold out there. It has been raining on and off all day long. It’s only just picked up in the last hour or so, the temps dropped and the clouds have lowered enough that it’s truly dismal out there. Ick!

To commemorate this gawd awful day of wet weather I’m getting into the spirit of things with a Wet Wednesday slide show of naked, wet men. All of whom should raise the temperature just a little bit more. These are all images I got out of my purchased file folder – so I have no clue who any of them are, but I really wish I knew at least…well, maybe…screw it, I want to know them all!

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And, because what would a Wet Wednesday be without the one, the only, the original…

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Oh yeah, I went there. Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller of course.

All right, I’m off to keep working on my C&M Security book 3 -title yet to be decided- and see if I can’t make my characters nice and uncomfortable for a bit. Before I make them all run for their little lives. It’s good to be in charge of such things, lol!

Have a great night ~ Moira

Need to play catch-up

I only took three days off, but damn did it throw me behind the proverbial ball. Today was shot too since I had other things that needed doing, like getting my hair cut, doing laundry, and reading everything in my inbox and off of Facebook in an attempt to get caught up on all the latest.

Did a bit of writing as well, since I’m three days behind on that too. Didn’t get quite as much as I’d have liked done, but I’m back in the groove of things so that’s a major plus. This weekend, on top of a number of other things, have totally thrown my schedule for getting book three of the C&M Security series submitted. Not going to stress on it though. No reason to, and it doesn’t do a damn lick of good either.

Had a good visit with the family though. It was actually pretty relaxing in comparison to some of my other trips to see them. A very nice change actually. Though my mother still won’t let me sleep in to what I term an “acceptable time”. She does it on purpose, I know this, yet every single morning I’m still awoken way earlier than I’d like and my nerves are shot for a good four or five hours. The woman has it down to a science. Likely had to, given what a deep sleeper I am.

I have a couple of shows I need to catch up on, one of which apparently has had it’s season finale apparently. Since I’m also a couple shows behind, on the same series, I’ve been studiously avoiding any and all mention of anything in relation online. Never realized just how damn hard that was until this one, lol!

In other news I think I might just have a concept for a new stand alone. Not sure, but we’ll see. I was jotting notes down on the trip back last night so we’ll just have to wait and find out if it’s something my brain will actually want to write. Only real issue is, I’m not entirely sure what all my notes mean. There are a couple that, at the time they obviously made perfect sense, yet in the light of a new day don’t mean shit! LOL! Oh, dear. Well, maybe it’ll come back to me when I eventually get around to it. I have other stories to write first before I get too caught up in that.

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I think that’s it for tonight. I have a B movie I have saved on my PVR that I plan to watch tonight. “Pacific Rim” for anyone that’s wondering. It’s got Charlie Hunnam in it, which was reason enough to record it for later viewing. I honestly don’t remember it so I’ll have to see how “bad” it really is. So, if anyone’s seen it – don’t tell me. I don’t mind some of the B movies honestly. There are some though, the made for TV so-called B movies (they aren’t B, they are not that high up in the alphabet) that I cannot stand. We shall just have to see where this one falls.

Have a good night ~ Moira

Off for the weekend!

Yup, that’s right, I’m off to visit the family this weekend so I will be out of touch. Heading out tomorrow (got the day off work – HA!) to see my dad for Father’s Day. Should be good, I’ll get to see everyone, at least for a short time. Only bad thing is that I’ll have no time on the computer to keep writing. ARGH! Not that I’ll be completely Net-less, but I’ll be limited to my iPhone for everything.

So that also means today is my Friday! Yay! LOL! So happy about that fact, if for no other reason than a four day week is so much better than the forced five day work week. I can sit out on my balcony and laugh at all the people as they scurry into work tomorrow morning. If I feel like getting up early enough to watch them scurrying into work of course.

Tonight’s plan is to finish up some laundry, do some writing and then chill. Get in a good night’s sleep before I bolt out of bed tomorrow, run around like a chicken minus it’s head, and hopefully not forget anything of importance. In other words, my phone charger. Did that once, will never, EVER do that again. The horror of not having a charger, over Christmas break no less, when going into a mall to get a new one is the last thing on your mind. Thankfully though someone had a spare to lend me so I at least had that small connection to the cyber world.

Well, that is it for now. I shall wish everyone a lovely weekend. I hear my end of Canada has a bunch of rain in the forecast, ugh! May the rest of you have great weather ~ Moira

Ahhh, Friday

Finally! It was a long, long week. Thankfully it is over. Unfortunately I know just how the next one’s going to start – not very pleased about that part. Not much to do about it though, so I shall enjoy my weekend, and ignore the fact it will be over far too soon.

This weekends big plans involve doing up edits on C&M Security, book one. I would have done them sooner but I just couldn’t concentrate, had a headache the one night, and was just too damn tired the rest of the time. So, tomorrow while I ingest mass quantities of coffee I will be reading through all the little notes my editor likely has in there. Oh, there will be many I’m sure.

I am hopeful though that it’s not overly horrendous. Oh, how I feel for you my poor editor. I do hope I’m learning though. Slowly I shall be the first to admit, but I truly think I am learning a bit of this. So we shall see. I did open it enough to see who the editor was, and read her first comments. But that was all I could manage since my head was just not in the game. Hell, I had to read it four times just to get what she was saying. All good in that initial comment I will say, thank God.

After I sweat my way through the edits I think I’ll get some writing done. I really haven’t done much this past week. I’ve got my path I intend to take on C&M 3, it should be great if it writes the way I think it will. As long as my characters don’t get all up in arms and decide to take over running the show. I never know with them, they are a bunch of characters for sure…HA!

Well, that’s it for me. I think it will be a nice and lazy night tonight. Have a great night, sweet dreams, and have a wonderful weekend ~ Moira

It’s only Tuesday!

Damn it. Yup, this just sucks. It’s going to be a long, long week, I feel it. Given the whacko’s I’ve already had to deal with at the paying gig (aka: day job) in the last two days I can only hope that they find their mother ship and return to wherever the hell they came from. There’s a planet out there in the universe that is clearly missing all their village idiots.

On much happier notes, I have the first round of edits back for C&M Security book 1. Took a quick peek in to see who my editor was, I have been blessed, I got the wonderful Laurie T again. I haven’t actually read through to see all her comments yet, but I will do that likely tomorrow. I just don’t have the energy tonight to even contemplate doing up edits. My brain isn’t in it.

No date yet on when it will come out, but I won’t really know until after round two edits are returned. I do know it’s this month so, yippee! for that at least, lol! Book 2 will be out in July, and if I keep going on book 3 the way I am, I might just manage to get it slotted in for August. If I can get beyond a point I’m currently wobbling at. I haven’t quite decided what to do with the situation my characters find themselves in.

It’s sort of a pivotal moment, depending on what I decide to do here will determine the next few chapters. I’ve been running various scenarios in my head, making notes and playing with it to see what would work best for the overall story and for the books to follow. While each book centers around the main characters, I do little lead ins, introductions and tiny reveals in each book so that there’s a sort of central thread through them all. At least that’s what I’m hoping I’ve achieved, lol! We’ll see if it works the way I hope it shall.

Well, that’s all I have to say tonight…I think. Off to watch a little nice, mindless, TV before I crash ~ Moira

Happily plotting

It’s Saturday, a bit overcast, but quite pleasantly warm. So I figured I’d set up out on my balcony to write for a while. Fresh air, sounds of the city around me, and just enough sun not to freeze to death. It was an awesome plan. Got a lot of writing done on the new C&M Security book. Book three for those keeping track. Got just over 3500 words down on the page and already my lead female character is in shit up to her eyeballs.

Unlike the other books so far in this series, this one my lead character is heading straight into danger, willingly I should mention. She’s a police detective so that’s kind of her gig. Unfortunately for my leading gal, no one actually has much of a clue as to just who they are going up against, who they are rescuing her from. Neither did she until it was too late. Much too late.

Muahahaha! Yeah, I’m evil. I just LOVE putting characters into precarious positions and then trying to figure out how to dig them out. I do a bit of plotting ahead of time, more or less enough to know what the bad guy is after -his ultimate goal- but let the characters guide the story for a good portion of it. I like seeing where they pull things, often it’s to places I never would have been able to think up sitting there staring at a blank word doc.

I’m not saying that where they pull me is always the best place. Hell no! For instance, in book two of this same series, my lead male character nearly had him and those he was with, doing something highly questionable, and very illegal. I had to kibosh that right quick. Can’t be having any of that, especially since that isn’t who they are at their core. While the staff of C&M Security might play a little loose and free with the law, they can’t break it. So, after a knuckle whack or three, I got them back on track with a slightly less dramatic, but much better for the overall storyline, path. They were happy, no criminal records or jail time, and I was happy, no supporting of illegal activities just because you can. Don’t need to be setting that sort of precedent.

Now, had I written about a thief, totally different standards there. I can’t write about a thief that never steals anything, that would go against who I was writing and the story I was creating. But these guys work with law enforcement so, bending a little is okay, outright breaking is very, very bad.

Well, that’s enough of a break, back to writing now. Need to see if I can make about 5k words before dinner. Have a good day everyone ~ Moira

Allergy season…

The “official” start of Spring for me. Gotta love the red, watering eyes, the runny nose, and the uncontrollable sneezes that can clear a room. I was ready for it though, as I am every season. Thankfully, for me at least, it doesn’t last very long. A couple three weeks and then I’m fine for the rest of the season. It’s the dust, nasty shit, from after the winter as they do the street clean up, and people mow and de-thatch their lawns for the first time of the season. Snow mold/first mowing dust is my biggest enemy. I can’t mow a lawn, at any time in the season, without being pumped full of Benadryl.

On the other hand, it’s FRIDAY! Woohoo! LOL! So I have the weekend to get my snotty nosed self (literal meaning here) under control before I have to return to the workplace. The fact it will be a relatively lovely weekend, weather wise, is a huge plus. Maybe I’ll get out for an hour here and there to get some color into my poor native white Canadian ass. At least enough to not blind strangers as we pass on the street. Thank goodness I can tan. Being part Irish it was kind of a coin toss right from the start. Not everyone in my family got lucky on that particular draw.

Other plans for the weekend include some movie watching while I write book 3 of the C&M Security series. I will also likely be working on my paranormal book since it seems to finally be shaping into something tangible. Nothing else new on the horizon until I get these two written. Figured two at a time was more than enough but there are plenty of ideas I’ve been jotting down for upcoming books in the C&M Security series. Should be a good little series.

Well, that would be it! I’m off to hunt down some ice cream and poke at some paranormals for a bit. Night all ~ Moira