Jax's Artistic Journey...

I literally get glued to my seat in my home office. So, I finally sent off my GHOSTHUNTER partial to Chris Keeslar at Dorchester and I'm stoked. The chapters are in excellent form thanks to all my CPs... Kristen, Lisa, Briana... it's amazing how each person can show you things to improve your craft. Things that I'll take with me into my many many novels. It's a nice feeling of accomplishment. I just finished Lisa's website ... her pen Eden Bradley and Eleanor Murphy's site and I feel good. I'll be working on my personal site this week as well.. I've managed to start writing again on my contemporary Parisian Skye and it's coming along great! I love my characters. There's something amazing when you start thinking they really exist. haha! I love the challenges they put me through. It's been a productive month and finally some good showing out of the dreary months past. I can say hubby has 3 different screenplays out at 3 different movie studios awaiting a sale. I'll cross my fingers that we'll see three contracts!

Well, now I need to get back to writing or else my h/h will be bugging me the rest of the day!

My friend Lisa Bradley has proven that when it rains, it pours. Not only did she sell "Cherokee Cowboy" to New Age Dimension's Publishing last week, she also sold the novella "Heat Wave" to Phaze this week!

The girl is hot. Remember her name... she's not only the best CP I've had (besides Kristen), she's also very talented and worked hard to get to this point. She truly deserves it and I just wanted to congratulate her on this burst of success.

You do Romance Divas proud! Now go write that darn chick lit you keep talking about!

Thanks for all that you do and I'm very very happy for you!

When I first married my dh I was introduced to his family as well as a beautiful golden retriever named Cali. She had the sweetest face with those big brown eyes and such a loving demeanor. I remember how attached she was to me from the first moment I saw her. She use to lay her head on my lap and follow me wherever I went in the house. When it rained she'd sleep outside my door to make sure I was protected... Although she was only 9 years old, she will always be my baby and the only real pet I'd ever known. This morning, she passed away at the vet's office. She had been suffering for the past six months that we were told may be cancer.

Although it's hard to say goodbye.... Cali is gone, but will never be forgotten. May doggie heaven treat you like the princess you are!

Liz Maverick :: Woman of many genres and superfly blog that'll keep you rolling on the floor... catch her books
:: Crimson City - July 2005
:: Card Sharks - November 2005
:: Adventures of an Ice Princess
:: The Shadow Runners
:: What a Girl Wants

Gena Showalter :: Woman of many vices and sexy as hell heros that'll make you want to add the extra spoon for her triple hot fudge brownie sundae ... catch her books
:: Awaken Me Darkly - Available Now
:: Heart of the Dragon - September 2005
:: The Stone Prince
:: Pleasure Slave

Special thanks to these two wonderful writers who are gracious enough to be our second round judges for Romance Divas Pitch Contest to help prepare our members for the Reno conference.

You gals ROCK!
What are you waiting for? Buy their books... :)

I can't say I have writer's block because I don't believe in it... but I do believe in writer's lag.... I know the creative juices are in there, but it's like a clogged drain and I need to unclog my brain. So, what do I do...? I dragged my friend Lisa to go with me to this really neat place called In the Skin Studio in Pasadena and got a navel piercing!! Yes, it's true and I'm very happy with it. It's got two diamond studs. One on top, one on bottom. Then Lisa changed out her navel ring stone to diamond too.. now we're matching for Reno.

Being 35 doesn't mean you have to act 35!

It was such a fun day and I realized that I've spent so much time stressed, overworked, underpaid, underappreciated...that I need to enjoy life. Sometimes you just gotta do nothing. On top of that -- I took a nap at 7:00PM last night and didn't wake up until 9:00AM this morning. I NEVER DO THAT. I usually sleep a few hours a night.

No, it's not a mid-life crisis... I think I'm starting to force myself to slow down and now I'm going to re-structure how I live.

What should I do today? Get a tatoo? Nah, I think I'll wait until after Reno.

Okay, so I found out that I could get a free iPod if I filled out these short surveys and can get 5 people to actually accept free subscriptions which could be canceled before the end of the trial expiration dates... http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=19373125 I guess you'd have to click on that to be eligible. I have friends who have gotten a lot of freebies so I thought I'd test it out. I'll report back if it's true.

I'm not one for doing this junk because I'd rather not waste my time, but since it's an iPod I thought I'd give it a go and see how long it'll take before I get anything in the mail. Just be sure to read the agreements and terms.

On a writing note. I did three measley pages last night, read some of Gena Showalter's Pleasure Slave and worked on a website for a client of mine to be up this month. Today my goal is rather ambitious yet again. I'm hoping to crank out 20 pages if I don't start daydreaming again. It's true... I have issues.

Don't you just love it when you're on a writing role. I can't explain it but the writing muse has graced me with some creative sprinkles. A while back I wiped out my WIP at 30 pages and in like three days I've written 38 pages... I'm hoping I'll be at 50 by Sunday if I'm not sidetracked. This story is just flowing, granted I'm not going back to edit and just doing a straight draft. Once I get to the end I will go back, flesh it out, add some prettiness and then I will take a break before I do major edits.

What I love best is the characters, how attached I am to them. How beautiful the hero is in his manners.. gotta love 'em. Now, the true test is if I can stick to my writing schedule of 10-20 pages a day... I can normally do 20 if I'm not working on other projects, otherwise it's a good 10 pages.

Just ate dinner and now I'm thinking I need a break tonight. This weekend is going to be a busy one, so I might as well enjoy doing nothing. Between bbq's, chapter meetings and working - I may need tonight to recupe in advance.

Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog's name in the #5 spot. You need to actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme-age to kick in *g*.

Here we go:

1. Joely Sue Burkhart
2. Teresa
3. Kat (The SoapBox)
4. Lynn Daniels
5. Jax

...and then you choose 4 unsuspecting victims...

1. Briana
2. Sela Carsen
3. Michelle Arroyo
4. A.D. Roland
5. Maria Shanti

And now for Memory Lane:

Jumpin' Jupiters, I finally edited my blasted first three chapters of Ghosthunter! Yippee, now I can get a second opinion before I put it in the mail to Chris Keeslar. Man, I'm behind. I may take one more look at it tonight and hope I've done a bit of improvement yet still retains my voice.

I can't believe I've got writing-itis again. It's been so long since my sweet inspiration left me.. now I'm back in the game and I'm ready to chug ahead. Maybe write some more tonight on my new WIP and of course, continue edits throughout the chapters on GH (short for Ghosthunter)... sigh.

Okay, I've been pondering ideas on what kind of dress I'm looking for to take with me to Reno. Gosh, so much to do even though it's next month. Seems like the weeks are flying by and soon I'll be flying out to the big event. It's exciting and the rush of pitches, meeting new people, learning and having fun is something I look forward to. No work for days and it's going to be a sort of vacation for me... much needed. I'll bring my bikini and hope I'll have pool time with the cabana boys refilling my martinis. :)

I wanna hum-- sing at the top of my lungs....one problem, I can't sing..croak..

The sun is out. It's a new day and I've gotten the Romance Divas Blog finally up and soon will populate with articles and divalicious tidbits... the weather is so beautiful I'm sidetracked. My head is churning on ideas for my current WIP and I'm taking notes. I spent half the day with Lisa, but it was a good thing to get away and have fun before I roll up the 'ole sleeves and delve back into my work.

What's on the agenda.. a book review, a website, a few edit pages and writing on Parisian Skye.

Need another cup of coffee and I should be good to go. The weekends... Love 'em! Too bad it's never enough time to get things done before the work week!

Must resist the urge to play hooky!

Has it been six long years already? Considering it flew by with a blink of an eye, I still can't believe it. Feels like yesterday we were just saying the "I do's" ... now fast forward to 6 years later, no pets, no children... just aspirations and determination. Well I can't say it was an exciting thrill ride every moment, but it was a crazy enough rollercoaster and I'm glad we arrived at this point of understanding. You see, I'm hard to live with. I'm stubborn, short-tempered, workaholic and recently a recluse. I barely hang out with people socially and I fear my skills are slowly diminishing. Why? I've been working my arse off.. between my WIP, graphic design, full time corporate and then some...who has time to be social. I can say my only connection to friends is my cell and tele. If it weren't for Kristen or Lisa I'd be a total hermit. Might as well take me to the mountains and drop me off-- as long as there's food in the fridge and a DSL line I should be fine. If it were that simple :)

Okay folks, I should have been writing but instead my geekoid mind made me do it. I was coerced into doing it...the sweet call of blogging has taken over my brains. I spent 9 hours learning and testing and building my very own blog template...the Jax look and feel for the moment... jaxadora.blogspot.com -- call me crazy, it was a thrill, a total obsession and now I'm trying to do something with the Romance Divas' blog.. romancedivas.blogspot.com -- okay, I'm bent on cleaning, writing, and finishing web work this weekend. Wish me luck!

Now, gotta go find a nice bit of black lace for some research..ahem-- er, yeah, research.