Back - Kinda

So the trip to Florida was awesome. The weather was hot, hot, hot. I swear I sweat off 5lbs a day, but with the food I ate, it came right back. LOL

Mom had a hard time because she suffers from COPD so the heat index of 107 wasn’t a good thing for her. She went to Disney with us one day and Busch Gardens. The little one rode a roller coaster. It was a kid one, but pretty big for a 3 yr. old. Her height is a benefit for rides. She rode it twice.

See pic below.

I couldn’t wait to go to Busch Gardens to see the tigers. I’m a huge fan of white tigers. I’m not a fan of them being in captivity, but that’s another story. Anyway, I was hugely disappointed. There weren’t any white tigers and the one beautiful female tiger didn’t like being seen. She was hiding most of the time. They’re gorgeous creatures.

We spent one day in the pool – out of the 5 days there. Go figure. Hubby isn’t much for idol vacations. I on the other hand give me a beach with the ocean, a blanket and a good book and I’m good to go. I could hang out all day.

So needless to say I need a vacation from my vacation.

What have y’all been up to? I miss my friends.

Flordia Bound

The family is going to Florida for 5 days. It's a much needed vacation for hubby and I. We're bringing my mom along for nanny services for the little one. She doesn't mind...she gets quality time with her granddaughter and we get some free time. We'll visit Disney and Busch Gardens. Time by the pool, sipping something cool and maybe a good book.

I'm hoping for some writing time!

I'm Baaaaaaackkkkkkk!

I feel like I haven’t blogged in forever. August was such a crazy busy month. We had something going on every single weekend. I’m snowed under in my day job. We went on a whirlwind vacation to Florida and a very close friend of mine died.

I haven’t grieved for my friend yet. I fought back tears the afternoon I got the call. My 15 yr old gets so emotional when she sees me crying I couldn’t cry in front of her. The next morning we were at the airport at 4am, so I’ve pushed the loss down. I’m sure I’ll grieve soon.

On top of all that I’ve been working on edits for Protecting Grant and writing my holiday book Patience and Resolutions. I’m just about done with both and I’m sure my editor is happy. (God, I love her). :o)

I had a plan for September. Edit my contemporary and get it ready for self-publishing, update my website and READ, READ and READ some more. We’re 10 days in and I haven’t done any of the above. Oh I did read the first 7 pages of The Strix. :o)

Off to do some writing.

Happy Monday!

Stressed and Overwhelmed

Just a little update from Amber, who has been in hiding. In preparation of edits for Claimed by Dragons I was attempting to get a book finished. I knew I’d be getting edits for Protecting Grant, behind Dragons. If I hadn’t mentioned this before I received a contract from Loose Id for a new M/M coming out sometime in November. Loose Id had a theme call out and I answered, thus leading to the contract. Turns out Protecting Grant won’t be released as part of the theme series. Not a big deal though. It gives me more flexibility. Oh, and Katalina is doing the edits for Dragons! I love her.

In the meantime I’m plugging away at my wip and Loose Id did it again. They put out another call. This was a holiday themed call out. Not just any holiday. It’s actually two holidays in one. I thought how much fun. I wrote a proposal and sent it off to my editor. I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting a contract. Guess what? Yup, my editor loved my idea and sent a contract. Now I’m under tight deadline to write the book. I’m about 11k into the book, not bad considering I’ve only been writing it for a week. Looks like the second half of this year I’ll see three books released.

In September I’ll be getting out the last two of my former Aspen books and a few under my real name. To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. Oh and add in that I’m now doing three people’s jobs at my day job. My poor hubby is looking forward to our vacation next week.

Which leads me to my hiatus. The hubby, Lexi and I are off to Florida next Tuesday. The baby will be staying with the in-laws and our other daughter will be staying at our house to house sit and take care of the dogs. It’s only a 4 night stay, but I need the break. I can’t wait to enjoy Universal and Busch Gardens. Lexi is really looking forward to the trip. Her two friends had to back out of the trip. It’s sad because now she’ll have no one her age to hang with.

Here a link to a nice review of I Wanna Sext U Up - http://whippedcream2.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-wanna-sext-u-up-by-amber-skyze.html?zx=3f3b9dad4f918dd2

That’s it! I’ll likely not be posting until September unless I find time. I will have guests during my absence so please drop by and say hello.

Return to Work

Wow, what a vacation. Last week I had lunch with Rose Marie Dufour and Nina Pierce. I love getting together with these women. We always have a great time and we even managed to brainstorm a plot for Nina. I’m surprised because although we always say we’ll brainstorm we normally get carried away talking. :o)

On Friday we took the girls, along with my niece to the beach. What a fun day. Teagan loved the ocean. She sat on the shore yelling at the waves and giggled when they washed over her. When she wanted more she crawled closer making everyone around her laugh. She was a hit at the beach.

We only live about 30 mins from the ocean and I can’t understand why we don’t get there more often. I love the ocean. It brings a peace to me. I can sit and watch the water for hours (when I don’t have the baby).

I told the DH I’m taking a sick day soon when T is at her grandparents and heading to the beach with my book and iPod. I’ll spend a quiet day with myself. LOL

I have to get back to work today. Not looking forward to it. I have an extremely busy week and have to work the weekend. I have a job, so I guess I can’t complain.

I haven’t written since before vacation. Hope the muse returns from vacation. :o)

Happy Monday.

And so it begins! 2012

First - I'm featured over at Lila Munro's blog today, during the 11am EST hour. She's hosting a ton of fabulous authors. Drop over. You may find something you like!

http://realmanticmoments.blogspot.com/

It was the best of times…it was the worst of times.


That’s how I feel about our weekend away. It was fabulous to see family and celebrate Christmas, New Year’s and a birthday – oh and my anniversary. ;)

The DH thought we’d upgrade our stay to a different Marriott hotel. We normally stay at a residence inn. I like them because you have a kitchen and a separate room so I can get up early, write and have coffee without bothering anyone.

This room was one large room. No free internet. No microwave and the coffee was awful. Luckily there was a Dunkin Donuts across the way. Now don’t think me a snob, but no microwave? Not even in the entire hotel.

The first baby bottle I warmed in a glass of hot water. I was trying to get the chill out for her because the formula was freezing. Oh we had to keep it on the ledge in below zero because there was no mini fridge or anything. Thankfully she only stayed with us one night and then spent the night with gram.

DH went in search of a microwave to get the bottle to room temp. Nope, none to be found. The manager said they don’t provide them anywhere in the hotel, but room service is available. Huh? Am I going to order a microwave to the room? It’d likely cost $100 and I could buy one for that price. Or did he mean I could order a baby bottle through room service. I’m still shaking my head trying to figure this one out.

Okay, off my soapbox. It’s a new year and I need to reassess my promotion process and writing. I want to write longer and sell more.

I’ve decided to take on a new pen name for my paranormals and of course my sweet contemporary I’ll publish under my real name. So look for new stuff this year that varies across the board.

It’s good to be back home. Today is my last day of vacation. :o(



Happy Monday!

Sorry

for being MIA...trying to finish my Christmas shopping. Luckily I'm officially on vacation today.

Happy Thursday!

Clone Me

The first few days after vacation are always crazy for me. Add to the fact that I received edits for Spend the Night With Me, Cover Art request for Play With Me and other paperwork I’m going insane. I wish I could afford to quit the day job, but seriously, writing will NOT pay the bills.
The funny thing is I’m just about putting in full time hours with writing. I feel like I never sleep anymore. It feels like I’m always missing something. Promo takes up more time than the actual writing. Add in supporting fellow authors, because I HAVE to do that.
I’m not whining seriously. I’m thrilled that I’ve reached this point in my writing career. I’m in the process of building a website too. Geez, I definitely don’t know what I’m doing. But I know it’s a necessity.
I have to work all weekend at the day job. The DH’s family is having a huge family reunion picnic on Sunday. I need to be cloned.
Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Newsletter and Stuff

My newsletter will be late this month. Likely on the 5th or 6th, due to vacationing. I should have planned this earlier but...I didn't. Sorry.

The brighter side of this is you have longer to enter the contest for a chance to win. Don't know what I'm talking about? Join my newsletter over to the left to find out.

I have a secret. Don't you just hate when you're bursting at the seams to blab about something and can't? That's how I feel right now. Hopefully in a few days.

Went to the Red Sox game last night. They lost. We still managed to have a good time.

That's it for today. Time to pack and hit the road. Hershey Park here we come!!!!!!

Vacation and New Review

Still enjoying the vacation. Temps were in the 90’s here yesterday. We originally planned to take the train into NYC, walk around, go to the Hard Rock Café, etc. We stepped outside and knew it was a crazy idea. Instead I took the DH to breakfast. We spent the day eating, shopping and then three hours playing volleyball in the pool. It was a fun-filled day. I can’t remember laughing that much in a very long time.
Later I took him, the two girls and the grandbaby out to dinner. Our son had a softball game with all this guy friends so he didn’t join us. Overall a great day.
Tonight we’re off to see the Red Sox. His parents bought him great seats for his birthday. Until then I have to get the house cleaned and in order for our trip tomorrow. Six hours in the car with three 13 yr olds. We must be insane!!!! LOL
On the writing front Pretend With Me, the first book in my Freedom Fantasies series, received a 4 cherry review from Whipped Cream. You can read it here

I haven’t written since Friday. My intentions were to take the entire week off from any writing. That ended today. *shakes head*
Yup, I started a new story. It’ll be a quick holiday story. I swore I wouldn’t write any holiday themed stories too. Yet this Naughty Nick wouldn’t stop talking in my ear to write his story. So this morning I began writing again. No rest for the wicked.
I have so many other ideas for stories, but Nick spoke the loudest. Demanding sucker.
Okay, off to play!

Happy Wednesday.

The End

I typed those two words on two manuscripts this week. Wednesday I sent one editor my cougar challenge story and today I finished Stranded. I began editing Stranded yesterday, knowing the end was near. My hopes are to have it to the new editor by Monday or Tuesday.
I’ve been suffering from migraines all week long and they’ve taken their toll on me. It’s probably the stress from trying to get two books done and finish all the preparations for the surprise party. Tomorrow is the big day…all my hard work will be over. It can’t come soon enough. I still have running to do today and in the morning. I hope the DH realizes how much I love him. LOL
Tomorrow is also my mom’s birthday. Even though we celebrated it a few weeks ago, I’ll do something small for her when she arrives.
Sunday I will crash – hard! The DH is talking about leaving Sunday night for Block Island. We’ll see.
As I’ve been saying I’ll be on vacation next week – woo hoo. Probably won’t be blogging too much. The second half of the week I’ll have limited email access too. I’ll likely leave you all with snippets of my backlist.
Until then…have a great weekend!

Chillin'

I know I was supposed to announce my winner yesterday, but I was chillin’. The DH and I took an overdue weekend away. We stayed in NH and traveled into ME. What a wonderful time. The weather was in the 50s. The people of Maine must have thought it was a heat wave. They were out in their shorts and t-shirts. We witnessed people playing tennis and the parks were filled with children. It was refreshing. It was a sign that spring isn’t too far away.
We shopped in Kittery, Portland and Freeport. I haven’t walked that much in a VERY long time.
In Portsmouth we ate downtown at a place called Friendly Toast. I have to say the food was fabulous. It’s very retro. There was an old Superman pogo stick, the RCA dog, and board games from 30+ years ago hanging on the walls. An old Borden’s Ice Cream sign too. The DH and I kept spotting things and saying – look at that. I don’t think two dishes matched in the place. LOL
The wait to get in was out the door both times we went. Yes, we went back, the food was that good.
We hated to come back, but the kids were going nuts. By three on Sunday afternoon we were getting calls and texts asking when we’d be home. LOL We finally broke down and headed home around 5ish. It was nice to sleep in my own bed.
Tomorrow I go back to work and the DH heads out to OK for a business trip. I’m looking forward to the distraction. I have soooooooo much stuff that needs to get done, but no desire to do any of it.
I want to finish Sliding Home my newest M/M by month end. I’m about 3-5k away. Then there’s the last sex scene of Shea Manor. I thought I finished this book, but as I was editing it I realized I left out the most important fantasy for the heroine. DUH!
So hopefully I’ll get some writing done today.
Oh and the winner???? Booklover0226 Contact me at amberskyze@aol.com to collect your copy of Wild Lickins.

Entertaining the Family

My mom and aunt came in from NY for the night yesterday. They're in route to Cape Cod for a week long vacation. Our house was total chaos yesterday. Between them, the kids and grand kid I couldn't hear myself think. Well, they're off and hopefully the weather will be perfect for them. Next Sunday they'll be back on their way home. My youngest came home from being with her father for most of the summer. School starts next Wednesday -junior high. L is not a morning person. School starts at 7:55am. This should be interesting.

Me, I woke up with an ear ache, pain in my neck and jaw. Not sure if I was clenching my teeth in my sleep or if something is going on. I'll wait until tomorrow before calling the doctor. On another note tomorrow we find out if our lives are going to change and if so how much. I could be worrying for nothing. I could be just fine. But either way I'll know tomorrow.

Needless to say, no writing was accomplished for me this weekend or today. There's always tomorrow. Right?

Welcome back to the work week!

Back to the 9 to 5 Grind

I’m back from vacation. Sadly enough I didn’t get to go to the beach. The weather improved and we had a gorgeous weekend, but because of all the rain, the beaches were closed due to high bacteria levels. I just can’t win! :o)
We had a fun weekend anyway. We went to a cookout both days and it was nice to visit with family and friends. Something I miss about being home in NY. Our family always gets together for a picnic on the fourth. The DH’s family doesn’t make such a big deal about it. It’s a shame because they live on the bay and the firework display is to die for.
We took our granddaughter with us yesterday – our first outing with her. She’s babbling and enjoyed being the center of attention even at 10 weeks.
I didn’t do much writing while on vacation. I did do edits for Body Shots due out in November from Ellora’s Cave. This is part of the Wet Theme series. Today I have to write the blurb and get my editor an excerpt. My other editor will be sending edits for Heat Waves and Talk Dirty to Topaz this week, so I’ll be busy.
I’m back to work on my new series for Aspen Mountain, called Lady Shea’s Manor. I’m working hard on the third book, tentatively titled Satisfy Me.
How did you spend your 4th of July?

Feeling run down and run over!

This is the way I feel lately!

The countdown has begun. Only four days until my much needed vacation. We're not going anywhere special. Maybe a few day trips to the ocean, but it doesn't matter what we do, because I won't have to log into my work computer and perform any work tasks. Woo Hoo!

In preparation of taking a week off I've been tying up loose ends in my writing life too. Last Friday I finished and submitted a short for an anthology. Today I finished Cabin Fever. This one sat for too many months before editing, but I'm glad I did it. I added over 10k to the story and like it much better. Just have to write the synopsis and send it off to my editor. My goal is to have that baby gone by Friday.

Not only have I completed the two projects, I sent out 4 queries to a magazine I've written for the last three years. Something I've been slacking off from lately. With any luck I'll have some new assignments lined up when I return from vacation.

Yesterday my youngest graduated from elementary school. She'll begin junior high in the fall. Geez, it seems she just started kindergarten and suddenly she's a 7th grader. It's times like these I get the baby urge, but I usually cure that urge by inviting my daughter and granddaughter over for the day! LOL I love spending time with my precious angel, but it's not easy at my age. I realize I'm just too old for caring for a baby full time. Now I finally "get" what they mean by just borrow someone else's child to cure the baby desires.

Oh well, time to get back to the queries for Complete Woman. I've yet to crack this magazine, but shit I'm determined.

Writing THE END

There’s been a lot of talk on different blogs lately about ending your story. Right now my heroine has her ass up in the air waiting for her husband to spank her. It’s the second to last scene. I know exactly where how this story is going to end. So why can’t I seat down and finish it? Some say that I might not want to let go of the characters. Not in this case. You see I’m editing this story after it sat for two months. While editing I decided it needed more story. So, 7k more words and I’m just about done.
Others might argue I don’t have the next project mapped out. Not so. I’m under deadline to finish a short story 7-10k words by the 18th. I currently have 1.5k. I know this story beginning to end. Still when I sit down and open the document I putter with a few hundred words.
I want to finish these two projects before I start my vacation on the 26th. Of course one HAS to be finished. I’ve been waiting six long months for this vacation. I’ve written nine novellas and one full length novel during these six months. I think I deserve this vacation. We’re not going anywhere. Well, probably the ocean, weather permitting. It’s only a forty minute drive. I love watching the waves. I always come back recharged and full of new ideas. It’s my inspiration. I’ve considered moving south where the weather is warm most of the year. DH and kids still fight me on this.
So instead of working on one of the projects, I’m updating my blog! LOL - Oh well. I guess it’s time to go back and do some writing. Hope everyone out there is having an easier time writing that final scene.