Exciting News

Yesterday I received an email from Dawn at Love Romances Café letting me know that Heat Waves had been nominated for Best Contemporary of 2009. Can you say WOW! I was shocked. It only got better. As I was reading the other nominees I noticed Spank Me Twice was up for Best Erotic Book of 2009. It floored me to be nominated for two awards.
I’m up against some awesome authors for the Contemporary award, but I swear just being nominated is exciting. :o)
The voting begins the 15th. Once I get the information I’ll post it, in case you’ve read Heat Waves and want to vote. LOL

In other news I participated in my first book signing with eleven other authors last night. It was interesting. During the author bio the announcer talked about my nominations. Well! The funniest part was at the end. I was packing up my things when this older couple...I'm talking late sixties . early seventies comes up to me and says, "What was the name of that book? Smack Me Twice, Hit Me Twice?"

I looked at her and asked, "Spank Me Twice?"

"Yes. Yes, that's the one." She turns to her husband. "We have to go home and look that book up!"

I was rolling. It's nice to see they're still interested in sex.

The day kept getting better because when I got home I checked email and there was a contract for Dante's Desire.

Now how am I going to top that? LOL

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

Busy, Busy!

What a great weekend. I wish it didn't have to end. LOL Saturday I spend the afternoon with my local chapter. I haven't seen the group in months. It felt so good just to hang with them again.
The DH and I went to see Legion after my meeting. Save your money - not worth the price of the ticket. While I liked the premise of the movie and the crazy old lady, nothing else appealed to me. Just my .02
I took Sunday off from everything writing. I didn't even spend much time online. DH and I spent the day preparing for family and friends to come over for the Superbowl. Had a great time hanging with everyone.
When I finally went online I learned my email address is bouncing and one of my editors has been trying to get a hold of me. Not a good thing and very frustrating to say the least. Tried to set up a gmail account...that turned out unsuccessful. Crazy. I'll have to try again today.
There's so much I have to get done today. I have to finish my booklets for the book signing I'm participating in tonight on top of a long lists of to-do's.
So, off I go to work, work, work. Happy Monday Everyone!


For Any New Englanders
Big Writing Event
Monday, February 8th, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM
The Hayden Center, Rooms 1 & 2
1464 Diamond Hill Road
Cumberland RI
The Cumberland Rhode Island Library Presents
RHODE ISLAND PUBLISHED AUTHORS TALK AND BOOKSIGNING
For details: Contact Betty Havrelik at 401-333-2552 Ex 2
Featured Speakers are:















Hannah Howell, Annette Blair, Donna Russo Morin, Rachel Moniz, Christine DePetrillo, Amber Skyze, Eden Elgabri, Coralie Jensen, Blanche Marriott & J.M. Griffin

There's a Storm Brewing

A monster storm is making its way north. They say it’s going to miss us. I’m thankful for a lot of reasons – one being I hate shoveling and we didn’t buy that snow blower this year.
Part of me enjoys the storms though. I like sitting in my sunroom watching the snow fall and built up outside. A warm cup of hot chocolate and a good book goes well with this scenery. I love watching my dog’s race around the snow, burying their faces in the white powder.
It was during a storm that I came up with the idea for Talk Dirty to Topaz. The couple has some red-hot sex in a sunroom while stranded by a snowstorm. Strange this book has been out since July and it’s suddenly selling like hotcakes. I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m rather excited. :o) It just makes me wonder why all of a sudden.
Mistletoe Studs did great this year too. I don’t usually like to write seasonal books, but this one I couldn’t resist. Who wouldn’t want hot twins – right?
I’m still trying to figure out the payroll crap, so that will likely eat up my day.
Watch we’ll get hit with two feet and I won’t be able to leave the house!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Ticked Off!

Yesterday sucked! I spent the day in bed battling some sort of bug. It was most likely stress related as Tuesday was worse. Being out on disability I’ve been getting paid regularly. Things moved smoothly. No lag in the paychecks. THAT should’ve been my first sign.
I’ve been logging into my work email once a week just to keep it under control – well I’m glad I did. I received an email from payroll saying “we’re sorry to inform you that we’ve overpaid you for the following pay periods.” It basically stated that they’ve overpaid me for every bit of time I’ve been out and would be taking the money back in future paychecks. First of all I was on paid vacation when went out on disability. Secondly, maternity leave is 100% covered for 8 weeks.
I can’t get a hold of ANYONE to answer my questions.
I tried responding to the person who emailed me, no response. I emailed HR directly – no response. I CALLED HR, keep getting disconnected. Called the company that handles the short term – talked to someone! HA!
She had no clue, but she’d have someone call me. Tuesday, no call…Wednesday, still no call…wait at 9pm someone called. She couldn’t really help, but sympathized with my situation. She stated she was having issues with our HR department lately. They haven’t been responding to emails or phone calls. You wouldn’t mind but I work for a large well known company. WTF is going on?
Checked email again this morning – nothing. Have to wait until 10am Central time to start calling again. Like I want to spend my days fighting over money owed to me.
You don’t mess with my family, money or friends…unless you want me to f#$% you up. Can’t wait to start this battle all over again.
On a better note, I received a nice email from an author who I don’t know personally, but have read her work. She wanted to let me know she read Ignited and enjoyed it so much that she bought two more of my books during the 50% sale at Are. That was really cool and made my day! :o)
Happy Thursday everyone. Let the fun begin!

Online Friendships

A lot of my writer friends have been touching on the subject of friendship lately. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s the time of the year for reflection, but I’ve been thinking about it too.
Over the past year I’ve made some incredible friends online. I have a handful of close friends, but I honestly can say, they don’t compare to my writer friends. Is it because we, as writers, understand each other? I’m not sure.
I do know that when crisis hit my family, it was my online friends who reached out. I received emails just asking if I’m okay…did I need anything. People I didn’t know offered comfort and I’ve made new friends.
Almost a year ago I met two wonderful writers at a conference. When tragedy struck they immediately sent flowers. I don’t know them that well, but it touched my heart. One editor made a donation to the fund the DH and I set up in honor of our son. Another publishing company sent flowers. I couldn’t get over how much people care. I must say the donations have poured in and I’m thrilled. To know that we can help other families struggling in the NICU makes me feel good.
So to my online friends – YOU are the ones who lifted me up and carried me to a better place. I can’t thank you all enough. Without you this last month would’ve been impossible to bear.
Cheers to my fabulous friends!

February’s here! A new month means new beginnings. I ended January on a good note. I submitted another story to my editor on Friday. So on top of the two new contracts I have three other stories out awaiting word.
I managed to write the synopsis for the Cougar Challenge. I’m going to tweak it a bit before submitting it for the others to check out. I’m always nervous when writing a synopsis. I loathe them. I’m better off just writing the darn story, but I want to make sure it fits what they’re looking for.
I’m busy working on Sliding Home an M/M story about a couple of baseball players. I’m enjoying writing this story, so it should go quickly. :o)
My newsletter went out today, with a brand new contest for subscribers only. If you’d like to sign up you can do so here:
authoramberskyze-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Time for me to get busy with some editing and that article still needs to be written. Busy day! Oh and time to start planning a Valentine’s Day treat for the DH. Since we missed our anniversary on New Year’s Eve, we’re going to celebrate on Valentine’s Day.
Happy Monday everyone.

Being Flexible

I'm a very laid back person. I don't like confrontation, so if I can avoid it, I will. BUT that's not to say that I won't stand my ground on something I feel strongly about - especially my children.
Recently an editor for a magazine I write for assigned me an article. I was about to start writing said article, when I received an email that basically said - "did you start the article, because I just received one on the subject from someone else I'd like to use. I'd like to give you a different assignment."
Luckily for me I hadn't. I did do all the research and I literally WAS about to start writing it. I just went with the flow and agreed to the new assignment. Now this article is higher paying and a feature - but it's longer. I'm having some difficulties finding enough information to sustain a teens attention. UGH!
I know I'll prevail and write the article. I'll find some tidbit of information to make it more interesting, but I'll have to dig deep.
The bottom line here, was the editor thanked me for being flexible. She appreciated that I didn't fight her, because she did give me the option to submit my original article. I had no clue what she was offering when I agreed to take the new assignment, but I knew I wanted to continue writing for this magazine.
Of course not every situation will be as simple as that one, but in this business you need to be flexible.
So off to request some expert resource advice...I have a long day ahead of me. :)