A Day of Extraordinarily Good News!

Yesterday was just a super fantastic day. It started out with the cover of Dragonborne being posted on Samhain’s website! Which meant I could share. Yay.

Then I downloaded the finalized version of Ink in the Blood to my Sony so I could read it while waiting at the doctor’s appointment. Double yay.

And finally, for the win, we got the letter from the college that said my husband has officially graduated.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s that days like that don’t come around too often, so I did everything I could to bask in the glow of happiness and soak in the all-is-right with the world feeling. And to help continue the basking, here's the link to my excerpt from Ink, which is being released in just over a month! The last line is one of my favorites from the story. It’s actually the reason I chose this as the excerpt. Hope you enjoy the story clip and are having a fantastic day of your own.

I Can Breathe Again! (This time for realz)

I’m always amazed at level I take something for granted until I’m suddenly unable to do it. Once I pulled a muscle in my neck and literally couldn’t pick my head up off the pillow. I remember lying in bed thinking of how easy it should be and trying to force my muscles to move, but nothing. It was like I’d suddenly forgotten how to blink. Something that should be automatic was now impossible. Fortunately, some muscle relaxers, pain pills, and good old fashioned rest got me through it, but it was a feeling I never quite forgot. And one I got to experience all over again last month.

I’ve always had mild breathing issues, but nothing my rescue inhaler couldn’t take care of. That is, until early December. We still aren’t sure what happened, but I noticed I was taking my inhaler way too often and it wasn’t helping. So I made a doctors appointment. After all, breathing is rather important. Since then I’ve had two prescriptions for oral steroids (no fun), at least three follow up appointments (the last one is hopefully today), chest x-rays, and an appointment with a pulmonologist (who prescribed Advair). And finally, after about a month and a half, I can breathe again! Sure, while I was on the oral steroids I could breathe, but I didn’t feel like myself. I was very meh about everything and always felt tired. Then after two days of being off of them I couldn’t breathe again, so I’m not counting those days :).

I don’t believe there’s a great moral lesson learned in this post. True, I still take a deep breath every once in awhile just to marvel at how easy it is, but I know that will fade into the background after a couple weeks. Really, I can’t be expected to appreciate every blink that happens without issue, can I? But today I am very happy, so I wanted to share.

Winter Blessings

Every year around this time I start playing my favorite game: What's the weather going to be in Austin today? I can't help it. I'm just not made for cold weather and I pine for the warm days of summer. This year, however, I've decided to do things differently. Instead of pining, I'm going to take a moment to think about all the things about winter that make me happy. Here goes.

1. Slammin' boots. And I got a new pair this year. They're a chestnut brown, knee high, and they have a gold buckle on the top so they look supper cute with tight jeans.

2. Hot chocolate and tea always sound good. These are two of my favorite drinks and it just gets too hot in the summer to drink them, but I can drink them anytime the mood hits me now.

3. Snuggling under a down comforter. Really, is there anything better?

4. With it being so cold outside, I don't feel bad about indulging in more inside activities like, say, reading and writing.

5. Baking! I always do more baking when the thermometer dips and there's nothing like being surrounded by the aroma of something in the oven whether it be sweet or savory.

So, yes, these are my favorite things about winter. Do you have any? Or are you one of the people who prefer the cold and have to come up with a list for scorching days of summer?

M.I.A. ?

When I tell people I'm a writer (I'm actually still getting used to saying the words) they almost always have the same response. "I'd love to write, if only I had the time." I smile and say something encouraging, but all the while a little voice is screaming in the back of my head, "You don't have the time, you find it. You force it if necessary." Yes, I'm a stay at home mom, so I can maybe find a couple extra hours in a day to write. Maybe. Some days. Next year will be different, both my children will be in full time public school, so I'll have whole blocks of time where I don't have to change the channel, switch Wii games, pour juice, fix snacks, read stories, play hide and seek...you get the idea. But that's next year. This year my five year old is still home with me, which means I've got to work my writing around taking care of him, too. It's not that I'm complaining. Really, I'm not. I wouldn't change my life for all the gold in Spain (Does Spain have a lot of gold? I'm not sure about that one, but let's just go with it). But it does get a bit irritating for people to assume I've got oddles of time to write. I don't. Case in point: I haven't written much in the past two months and I know it's because I'm not forcing myself to sit down and write.

A couple months ago, my Godmother passed away. She introduced me to my faith when I was a teen and gave me a home to live in while I was in college. She was one of the most independent and inspirational women I've ever met. So when I came home from the funeral I started cleaning, and running errands, and filling my time with everything but writing. And I had plenty of stuff to fill my days without ever opening Word for anything but edits. I had so much stuff to do, I didn't even realize I was avoiding writing until a week ago. So today, I am forcing myself to sit down and write. Could I find other things to do? Absolutely, but I'm a writer.

On the brighter side of things, Ink in the Blood is complete and has an official release date of March, 1st 2010. And even after all the rewrites and rounds of edits, I found I still like the story. Also, I've talked a bit about my dragon/shifter/fantasy novella on here in the past...I'm pleased to say Samhain offered me a contract for it. I don't have a release date for that one yet, but I will keep you posted.

So that's from here. Hopefully I'll get the sequel to Ink and my sci-fi piece done and will be able to submit them soon.

I hope this holiday season finds you surrounded by the comfort and joy of the people you love.

Chandra

Upcoming Event!

I’m trying to limit my exclamation point usage since my editor pointed out eight of them in one argument, but as this is my first event, I think it warrants one. Lyrical Press is doing an End of Summer Event! Starting August 24^th, Lyrical is posting author profiles on their blog and mine is going to be one of them. Some of the authors are even giving away prizes with the event so be sure to check it out. If you click on the very lovely picture in the upper right of my blog you’ll be able to read all the details.

Rejections and sort of new projects.

The space opera novella was submitted on Monday and today I got an e-mail that it'd been rejected. It’s okay. I know the story was a bit rushed and it needed expanding here or there. That’s one of the major problems I have with deadlines. It has to be done on that day, so even if I know there are problems I still turn it in and hope for the best. All in all, I’m rather proud of my first attempt at a space opera. I think it’s a good story with a good plot and good characters so I think I’m going to expand the areas that feel rushed and submit it elsewhere when it’s done. No rush this time, though. It takes what it takes.

But now that I accomplished my goal of completing and submitting a space opera on a deadline, I’m totally allowing myself to go back to comfortable territory. It’s back to Izzy’s world I go. I’ve been playing around with her sister’s story for awhile now (I actually started writing Nikki’s story before Izzy’s) and I can’t wait to finish it. It helps that the editor expressed interest in a possible sequel to Ink in the Blood. Gives me a bit of motivation. And since this is a novel length story, I could use all the motivation I can get.

Hope you all have a super weekend!

Catching Up

Life has a way of getting away from me when I’m not looking at, and living by, my day planner. I try, really I do, but I think I take on more projects than I can possibly handle just so I don’t have time to compulsively check my e-mail. It’s a temptation for me, and I hear I’m not alone. This week edits on Ink start, I’m trying to finish up the space opera novella (I’m rather impressed with how it’s turning out), I had a fantastic idea for a new story pop into my head that I want to draft it before I forget it, I have a suitcase full of laundry from our vacation, and I have to start planning the trip we’re taking in October. I know, it seems like I have plenty of time to plan the trip, but that’s what I always think and then we’re scrambling to find a hotel at the last moment. Not this time! I will get a good rate at a good hotel, preferably one with a pool. Thank goodness I have a fantastic husband who doesn’t mind eating convenience food from time to time. I honestly don’t know how I’d cope without him.

Well, I’m off to get my space opera done. The submission deadline is Aug. 10^th and I have so much yet to do, including a synopsis.