Pulled in all directions

RedTulip_106622021_XSHello everyone, long time no post. I know, I know – I’m terrible at this most days. But since I had a couple minutes before I need to head out to meet a friend for lunch I figured, why not? The day is sunny, warm and getting warmer. Only bad thing is my allergies. Good gravy! Only downside to spring in my book is all the random sneezes that come from out of the blue and scare the bejeesus out of everyone around me. Although, I will admit, that part is kinda funny. I am not a dainty sneezer if you hadn’t guessed.

Lot’s on the go today, none of it writing though. I have lunch with one friend, coffee with another this afternoon and then I’m showing friend number two around town. She’s thinking about moving here for work and wants to get a lay of the land before she makes the call. Then I’m meeting up with a couple co-workers for dinner before coming home to collapse. Tomorrow’s a loose schedule with my friend from out of town, depends on what she wants to do but again pretty much no time for writing unless I’m up at the crack of dawn. Not being a morning person that sort of thought really makes me shudder.

Cup of coffee with notebook on deskI’m hopeful dinner tonight doesn’t go too long and then I can get in a couple hours. And if I’m even luckier I can talk my outta town buddy into doing a few things late morning, early afternoon. If it all works out then it’ll give me several hours to get some work in. Characters are talking to me which is a great thing. That means there will be progress. Jotted down a couple notes for what they’re talking about to use later.

Well, that’s about it folks. I’ve gotta get a move on or I’m going to be late. Have a fabulous day ~ Moira

Happy Easter!

Tulips on the white background.Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, and enjoying their Easter however that may be. The weather’s supposed to be pretty good again today, chilly but mostly sunny from what the weather app on my phone tells me. If not for the family types I’d be out on my balcony enjoying it. Gotta enjoy the sun while you can get it.

Good news for any who are wondering, Living Victorious is progressing along nicely once more. I won’t have much time to work on it this weekend given everything else going on, but I’m getting there. The flow is back after a couple hiccups from the characters. For a short time they were torn about which way they wanted to go. Thankfully they must have “sat down” and figured it out because they gave me a huge gob last weekend and are still chatting as of when I wrote this post. Unfortunately they’re going a little faster currently than I think I can do the old fashioned way during my downtime sans computer – ie: hand writing in a notebook.

Anyway, I should let you all get to enjoying your Sunday. Don’t forget, if you haven’t already, go check out my joint blog with six other fantastic authors at Naughty Quills. We always have a lot to say, and it’s usually pretty helpful too. Mixed in with humor, real experience and plenty of fun.

Have a great day ~ Moira

Ostern Vektor Hintergrund

The aftermath…

Fotolia_80726222_XSWell, thank goodness that’s over, ha! Actually I had a pretty great Christmas with the family, and obviously survived. Though it was by the skin of my teeth I’ll admit. Hopefully everyone was able to enjoy some time off, sleep in, and maybe relax a little. I was lucky and got plenty of downtime.

The day prior to leaving for the gathering of the familial sorts I was at work, with a sick salesman. He had a cold, and I thought I’d dodged a bullet with that but really I should have known better. Boxing Day the cold I’d managed to hold off until that moment kicked in full force. Stuffy head, runny nose, hacking, wheezing, the whole nine yards. Yup, fucker got me sick. On the plus side I managed to not give it to anyone in my family so that’s a blessing, and I am on the road to recovery. Thank you modern medicine – I don’t utilize you all that much, but when a killer cold kicks my ass I am ever so grateful you are there. That and the pharmacy guy who, once he finished snickering (yeah, I saw you) helped me narrow down what I needed to kick this thing to the curb.

Didn’t get any writing done as of yet. A head full of cotton is not exactly what I would call helpful to the creative process. The muse doesn’t like my coughing or something, who knows. Not that I could have concentrated much, I was more concerned with ensuring the box of Kleenex never ran out. But I still have six days off work that I can hopefully put to good use and get some things, if not 100% done, much closer to completion. I’d be a much happier camper if I had several things off the writing plate and into my publishers hands. So too would my readers I’m thinking, lol!

Today is for unpacking, laundry, and generally getting myself sorted out. If the head-fog clears out a little more I will get some writing in before the next dose of fabulous medication is needed to hold the sniffling, sneezing, hacking, and wheezing at bay. But if not I am not overly concerned. I have a few notes of things jotted down for where various works will be going to so when I do finally get to writing I have a game plan. The muse did surface long enough over the last few days to do that much. Therefore we have a plan of action and attack for the writing.

I think that’s it currently. No big plans for New Years, not that it’s ever really been my thing, so likely it will be writing and watching the various parties across the country as they go down. Well, that’s it for the moment. Hope everyone has a great New Years whatever your plans are. ~ Moira

Weekend plans made

Weekend mode: ON - inspirational quote.Yup, that’s right, I’ve made my plans. They involve a lot of relaxation, buckets of coffee, and a good bit of writing. Which I really do need to get to since yet again I’ve had another week of nearly nothing in the writing time department. Between work, and a (mainly because I forgot) unexpected outing with relatives for dinner, I’ve been otherwise distracted.

But it is Friday, and I have two glorious days ahead of me where I needn’t do anything more stressful than starting up the laptop, and choosing some mindless TV program to provide a noisy backdrop. Household chores have been mostly completed with only a couple minor things to attend to while coffee is brewing in the morning. Then I can settle down in my big comfy chair, turn on some noise, and get to work. At the moment not a single character is chattering, but with the folks I had to deal with today at work I’m not surprised they are quiet. The fact they haven’t run off screaming is a miracle. I was damn well tempted to run off screaming at no less than three different instances of yet more proof there are people out there who should be banned from ever reproducing.

I really hate having to be an adult someday’s. This whole “responsibility” thing really sucks. I need to find a job where I can taste test I think. I’d be good at it, and I’d enjoy it too I do believe. I love food. I wouldn’t want the sweets/desserts though. I’d truly hate to have to hunt down the person that eventually pushed me over the brink into hating them. Oh! Even better, alcohol tester. I think that would be one hell of a fun gig. As long as you didn’t have to go anywhere right after your day of work. Maybe they have you come in for a couple of days, you get a room and meals provided, do your job, and then stumble home for a few days to dry out before coming back in. Not sure my liver would appreciate me, but I think it could be an interesting addition for the resume at the very least LOL!

And now that I’ve slipped into the silly end of the posting pool I’m going to take that as a sign to sign off for the night. Hope everyone has a great night, and a wonderful weekend. ~ Moira

Thank goodness it’s Saturday

wake upHappy weekend to everyone! Hope you are all enjoying it as much as I am. The last week was brutal attempting to get back into the swing of things after a much needed break over Christmas. Still not fully back into it all yet but I’m getting there slowly. The worst of it all was that first Monday morning alarm that went off. I am such a natural night owl that having to pry myself from the warm depths of my bed is a chore and a half. But I managed it, and then had to repeat it four more times until today. I admit, I did sleep in a little more than I normally would but it’s the weekend – WHO CARES?! LOL!

MFAntho-001-07012015-evernightpublishing-JayAheer2015-3DrenderBut there was one particularly amazing shining spot in my week I must share. Got home on Thursday to find a great little surprise in my inbox. The covers, and some other visual goodies for the Uniform Anthology that I’m honored to be a part of. They are so damn pretty, so a huge thank you to the artist Jay Aheer for these. They are truly stunning. It took me a while to finally pry my eyeballs off the bloody things, and then only because I realized I was drooling and had the nearly uncontrollable urge to lick my screen.

It’s pretty amazing to see it all begin to come together. It won’t be out for a while yet, projected release is in February but a date hasn’t yet been finalized. Depends on our poor editor for the books, and how quickly we all get through whatever changes are required of us I think. But as soon as I know more I’ll definitely be sharing the news.

On other fronts the final edits for C&M Security 5, Dangerous Pasts, along with the teaser/dedication have been submitted back to my publisher for the last look through on their end. Should hopefully be seeing a cover draft in the next few days. Can’t wait to share that with everyone. In the meantime though I need to get to work on book 6 of the series. I have a lot of ground still to cover before the big finale of that one that will tie up the last little threads left dangling in a couple of the other books.

After that who knows what I’ll be working on. I know what I should be working on, the two WIP’s I have in my docs, or even the new “something” that’s tickling my brain. But for now it’s all about focusing on the one to get it done and submitted. Easier said then done with a case of attention jumping going on right now. My brain is all over the map, twitchy, and may or may not have something to do with all the coffee I’ve pumped into my system. Oh well, eventually I’ll come down from whatever’s got me and my thoughts all over the map. In the meantime maybe I’ll just randomly open up a WIP and see what pops out. Until later ~ Moira

Here we go…

Well it’s been a very chilly start to 2015 so far. We had a huge blizzard blow in yesterday, dumping a lot of snow onto the city, and brought some very unnecessarily cold weather with it. I know it’s winter and all, but it really wasn’t nice of Mother Nature to do that.

SnowyDayThankfully I haven’t had any reason to go outside beyond sticking my nose out my balcony doors to see just how chilly it was. It was damn chilly I’ll tell you right now. So I pulled the blinds, turned on the TV to the Holiday Fireplace for some ambiance, grabbed more coffee, and got down to some writing. Or attempted to. Apparently all my characters went off on an unauthorized bender over the holidays, and still haven’t fully recovered.

I did manage to get in some stuff on my C&M Security book, but definitely nothing of significance. Which is okay I guess, the brain isn’t back into full gear as it is anyway so getting back at this slowly isn’t a horrific plan. Especially since I’m still figuring out my new laptop, and the fact it has a few interesting quirks I’m having to work around. Like a possessed mouse pad. Which raises another question, who was the bloody brainiac that though increasing the size of the damn mouse pad on a laptop was a good idea? Like I don’t have enough problems with the things, no-no, lets make the space even bigger and ten times more sensitive than all previous models. Great plan there.

In other news my place has never been so spotless. I’ve had more than a bit of time to clean, obviously since the characters went off on hiatus. Not even complaining a little. Before the holidays I was too busy running around like a crazed lunatic to give it more than a quick once over, so it was nice to do the down and gritty cleaning. Though my knees may hate me for a few more days from scrubbing my floor by hand lol!

EPHolidayHangoverHopAnd before I completely forget to mention this. There is still a few hours left to my publishers Holiday Hangover Blog Hop. I’m hosting on my blog, A Great New Read, and there are also many other great spots to get in on the action as well. You can start right [HERE] on my publisher’s site.

Well that’s it for this rambling blog post. Hope everyone’s having a great start to the New Year. Have a great night, a great weekend, and I’ll post again soon… ~ Moira

A teeth chattering chill

We are definitely getting the “cold shoulder” from Mother Nature in these parts. I don’t know who pissed her off, but apologize already! Only good thing about such weather is it gives me a damn fine reason to stay inside where it’s toasty warm. Because there isn’t a chance at all that I’ll go out until the mercury starts crawling back up unless I absolutely have to. Sadly my boss insists that going to work is one of those absolutes.

Thank goodness it’s the weekend, LOL! I can stay warm at home, I don’t have to get dressed for any particular reason, and I can work on my two WIP’s. Plus there is an unlimited amount of coffee available to be had. Oh, and cookies too – totally forgot about the cookies.

Tropical beach

Not that I didn’t wish I was somewhere much warmer of course. The place above would do. I don’t even care where it is. There’s blue water, a couple hammocks and lots of sunshine. I think it’s the perfect place to relax, and write. Oh to have a view like that for inspiration. Okay, maybe it wouldn’t do well for inspiration, but it would do amazing things for my already winter weary mental state lol!

All right, I need to go and do something productive. Like writing I do believe. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay toasty ya’ll ~ Moira

Slow going Sunday

Himbeer-Limetten-CocktailHad a busy day yesterday that totally threw my whole “plan” off for the day. Went to an event with a co-worker, and had a fantastic time, but it definitely mucked up my writing plans for yesterday. Though I will say, they had some fantastic beverage options – and the food was pretty damn good too. Then I get home to a wonderful reminder of something coming up shortly here in October. What would that be, Moira? Ah, let me tell you.

First up on October 2, is an Evernight Publishing Facebook party from 6pm until 10pm (EST). This is the kick off event for Evernight’s 4th Birthday celebration. The graphic at the bottom of this post contains a link, so feel free to click on it if you’re interested in joining up. It’s a chance to meet a bunch of the authors, and win a lot of great prizes. The Book Enthusiast is handling the event, and from the sounds of things there will be lots of fun going on.

Next on the list is a huge Birthday Blog Hop with the Evernight authors. This runs from October 3 until October 13. A great opportunity for readers to get to know some new authors, find out about their books, and to also win some fantastic prizes. Oh, but it doesn’t stop there! No, no. There are a bunch more things to follow – scheduling hasn’t yet been fully determined as of yet, but stay tuned for posts to learn about it all. What I do know, and can share, is that All Romance eBooks will be having some huge sales of Evernight author’s books during this time, and after. There will also be the ARe October Monster Giveaway during which participants can win a free gift at time of checkout – including some gifts from the Evernight authors.

Basically October will be a wild ride of fun with the Evernight family. Between all the parties, the giveaways, the blog hops, and numerous other happenings this should be a blast. The fact that it all leads up to my favorite holiday of the year, Halloween, is a definite plus. I am a huge fan of going all out, above and beyond, and totally wild for Halloween. My parents used to dread this time of year knowing I’d be out in the yard doing prep work for at least two weeks leading up to the big night so I could terrorize the neighborhood. Ahh, good times.

Now, since I was off looking for a little inspiration, I figured I’d share it here with you as well. ~ Moira

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Evernight Publishing facebook party(Click the image to go straight to the Facebook page)

 

Here comes book three…

dangerous-linesA happy, sunny Sunday to everyone. Great news to share, book 3 of the C&M Security series will be releasing this Wednesday. Dangerous Lines is Vincent, and Rhonda’s story. I’ve been looking forward to this release. So have several other folks I know apparently, lol! Since this would be a short post otherwise, I figured I’d put in a little snippet from the book to tempt folks into buying it. For the official excerpt you can check out the Dangerous Lines page.

So, here you go – enjoy!

* * * * *

He smelled so good, all male, all Vincent. Closing her good eye as he headed for the door, she rubbed her nose lightly to his neck. She had truly thought she’d never see him again. Never have the chance to be completely honest and open with him. Never get the opportunity to tell him how she felt about him.

Rhonda didn’t know if he felt the same, one of the reasons she’d held back. The other was that she didn’t want to ruin their friendship by admitting she had the hots for him.

She wanted a relationship with him, beyond friendship. Hell, she wanted to strip him naked and jump his gorgeous self. On more than one occasion she’d actually had to restrain herself, she thought with a bit of humor. Usually when they were at Shawn and Tamara’s for some reason or other and he was out swimming in the pool. He had a body that just screamed to be licked, slowly, preferably by her. A smile tried to curl her lips at the idea of walking up and licking him. Only that smile didn’t go any better than her other attempts, and she let out a low moan of pain as her jaw throbbed.

She could feel him walking carefully. Likely to prevent jostling her, but also to prevent any noise from betraying them. It was also how he moved. He was incredibly light on his feet, thanks to all that wonderful military training, she was sure. She loved watching him—it helped to fuel more than one late night fantasy—and dreaming about him.

* * * * *

There you go. Buy links to come as soon as I have them. Have a great night ~ Moira

TGIF!

Hot diggity damn, it’s Friday. About bloody time it showed up. For only a four day work week – it was damn lo-o-o-o-ong. Somehow I managed to survive it, which is really all that matters, or counts. Some of the people I had to deal with though…m’eh, they were a little closer to not surviving their weeks. Today was the day filled with people calling in who you have to shake your head at. Either that, or run out stark naked into traffic screaming at the top of your lungs until the dudes with the self-hugging white jacket wrangle you. Thank goodness for a coffee shop less than half a block away, otherwise I might have been out racing through traffic.

It’s days like today that make me question the wisdom of my day job. And question it, and question it, and question it some more. I think I need to re-evaluate my money maker a smidge, or a lot. Confession – I am not a people person. Yet every, single, flipping job I’ve ever had, I’ve had to deal with the public. Obviously something is seriously wrong with me. I need a job testing pillows, or taste testing coffee blends, or ohhhhh! Food taste tester… Oh gawd, now I’m drooling with the thought of the possibilities. Of course, only downside to that is, I’d likely have to work out. Ugh! The dreaded “work-out” regime. *Shudders*

Cute red haired kitten sleeping in hammock

I am not now, nor have I ever been, one of these folks that “likes” to work out. I’m not even one of these people that will “willingly” work out. You put a gun to my head, I’m going to keep eating that chocolate cupcake and flip you off. I do not work out. Ever. Nope, not even a little. That stuff is for the birds!

Okay, now I can’t recall what the point of my post was today. Did I even have a point? Maybe not… Hm, all right then. Well, anyway… The weekend should be lovely, lots of sun before next week which according to everyone has the “S” word mentioned in it. In September no less. I am NOT a happy camper about that. Oh, I have all the necessary bits and pieces to survive such a thing should it occur. But not even in Canada should one need to start using, let alone dig any of it out, until at least October. Preferably after our Thanksgiving.

Oh well, maybe I’ll get a bunch of writing done. That sounds like a stellar plan. Especially since all the other household chores have been completed already today. Sit back, watch some movies while I write, definitely sounds like I have a plan going.

To that end, I hope you all have a fantastic evening, and weekend ~ Moira