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The 6th Cyborg Seduction book is now released!!! Yippee! I'm so happy to get this story out there. If anything - maybe the emails asking me to kill him in various ways will decrease...LOL!!! No, I wrote this story because Zorus was a complicated guy who maybe we didn't like but he had his reasons for being...well...Zorus! Here's the
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I will be writing more cyborgs in the near future. I just wrote three of them in a row so I'm going to focus on a few books for my other series before I come back to them. If you follow my blog at all, you are more than aware that I LOVE to write and I find the time to put in a lot of hours. It's April and this is the third book that has come out this year. You'll see more cyborg stories! There will be more Zorn, Raines, and I'm hoping to release some great news very soon about His Purrfect Mate. That's the title of the second book to Mate Set. (There's a hint for you in that title! LOL!!!)

.If you're on my update list and wonder why you didn't get a reminder...I apologize. Gmail - that account - is down. I'm hoping they have it up soon. It's frustrating but I'm sure it will be fixed soon. They do this from time to time so I may go 24 hours without access. I'm also running late on the book trailer. My son has been really sick but he's getting better. He hasn't been to school this week but I'm hoping the doctor clears him today when he goes in for his appointment. He's 6 years old and getting anything done is a challenge! I'll post it when I'm able to finish and post it on youtube. It's been...a LONG week with a very sick little boy. Thank you and have a great week!!!

The 6th Cyborg Seduction book is coming VERY soon!!! Yippee!!! I'm really nervous because yeah...it's about Zorus, the cyborg everyone loves to hate. LOL! I can't even begin to guess at the number of emails I've gotten with suggestions on how to kill Zorus off. Tossing him out of an airlock, a battle to the death with another cyborg he angered, or gift wrapping him to send to Earth just to get a little revenge for what Earth had done to Cyborgs because he's the equivalent of the kind of present no one wants to get. (Am I the only one thinking...Fruitcake?) LOL! So of course...I finally had to write the book about Zorus. I will say the two people who read it were...reserved when I told them who I wrote about. Okay...they were probably flat out stunned and didn't think they'd enjoy reading his story. They both loved it so I'm hoping everyone else does too. Here's the blurb and . The excerpt is down right now but I'm sure they'll fix it soon.

Book 6 in the Cyborg Seduction series.

Charlie's brother has put her in the no-win situation of having to rescue a cyborg from Earth Government. It's dangerous, she'll become an outlaw on Earth, but it's the only way to save her brother's life. The imprisoned cyborg is rude, conceited, and probably the biggest jerk she's ever had the misfortune to meet. His only redeeming qualities are his handsome face and sexy, muscular body. Just wow! Still, she can't wait to be rid of him.

Cyborgs hate humans, but Zorus is consumed by it. Chained, enslaved and facing death on Earth once again, he vows revenge. To his utter astonishment, a human female comes to rescue him. She is mouthy, rude, and bossy. And very brave. She baffles him almost as much as she arouses him. Zorus cannot deny that he is fascinated by her. They are about to lock wills and ignite a firestorm of desire that defies every rule he lives by.

. . In other news...I'm hoping to have some good news (fingers crossed) about the book I just submitted recently. It's the second book that follows Mate Set. If it gets picked up I will be writing more of them. Grady's got some hot brothers who I'm itching to get my fingers on. Um...as in writing about them on my keyboard. LOL! Ellorascave lowered the prices on my books at Kindle, Allromanceebooks, and Barnes and noble. Stealing Coal and some other titles have been on the Top 100 paid bestsellers in erotica list there so that's been...WOW for me! Thank you to everyone who reads my books. I so appreciate you!!! Tempting Rever has hit PRINT. It's available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's coming directly to Ellorascave on April 11th. .I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Not an April's Fool joke
Ellorascave has lowered prices at third party ebook stores such as Kindle, Barnes and Noble, All Romance Ebooks, and most others. Check out the reduced prices on ebook titles from the following authors. I've linked each author's name to their website!






Dohner (me)













Yippee! Very COOL news!!! So please give them a read!
(And no...this is not an April Fool's joke. Go take a peek!)

In other news...Tempting Rever is available in print at and .
I should be receiving the cover for Redeeming Zorus and a release date soon! Have a fantastic week!!!

I get asked A LOT about when books are added to Kindle. I've seen them go up after a week to it taking over a month for them to be available. I don't know why some go faster than others but Stealing Coal has been added. Click the cover to go to the Kindle version of it or click <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

In other news I should be getting the cover for Redeeming Zorus soon and a release date in the near future! The feedback I've gotten from the two people who have read it were really great! I'll easily admit it seemed daunting when I realized Zorus needed his own book and the story came about. You have no idea how many emails I've received with helpful suggestions on how to kill him off in the Cyborg Seduction series. LOL. Hey, he is HOT, you know. He hates humans but he has his reasons. You'll discover them if you read his story. Writing about his life became an obsession of mine. I have never had an easier time coming up with a title though. LOL!

This weekend I'm preparing to submit the second book that follows Mate Set. My fingers are crossed that it gets picked up. It's edgy, it has violence, and a whole lot of passion so that's why I worry so much. I wonder if I crossed any lines or pushed boundaries. It's that kind of book. I heard back from someone who read it and she assures me I have no reason to worry. She gave me fantastic feedback about it. I trust her judgement. I'll let you know when I hear anything. If it gets picked up I do plan to write more books. I really love Grady's brothers and this story just connected me closer to his family. I want to write about the rest of them!

I hope everyone has a great week. I'm going to relax for a day and catch up on reading a few books on my 'to be read' list.

Okay, if you belong to my update list you know I dropped some serious hints about the next book coming out. I wrote and left Coal and Zorus trapped inside a life pod together heading toward Earth. I submitted and continued on to write . A freight carrier heard the life pod's signal, scooped it up, and discovered two cyborgs aboard. They kept Coal to sell him to fight in brutal death cage matches and tried to gain a huge reward from Earth for Zorus. Instead, Earth Government just took Zorus away without paying them a dime. When I submitted …I kept right on writing the next book. Ready for the title? Redeeming Zorus � the 6th book in the has been picked up by !!! I'm so happy about that!!!

I don't have the cover or official blurb yet but I'll post it as soon as I can and of course � share the release date when I find out what it will be. Redeeming Zorus was a blast to write. If you read the series � you know redeeming him had to be a challenge! I had a lot of fun with his story. I really hope you're looking forward to it coming out as much I am.

In other news � I'm writing - of course. I'm a workaholic who loves to write. I get asked a lot what I'm working on. Right now I'm finishing up on the second book related to . I'm almost ready to submit it! Yippee! I really hope it gets picked up. I'll let you know when I hear anything after I sub it. If you follow me on facebook you know I happened to get 'hijacked' by a new storyline last month. I wrote and finished the first book. I haven't submitted it. I'm planning to write the next two books and submit it as a new series. I'm a third of the way through the second book. I don't want to give anything away but it would be considered a paranormal erotic romance series. I'm hoping to have some good news before this summer and more details to give out. I also get asked a lot about . Yes � I'm planning on writing more books in the series along with more Raines stories. And yes � the cyborgs will return! I wrote out a few chapters of the seventh book already.

While I have you � the question I get asked the most � how do I write so much? It's easy. I'm truly a workaholic! It's not that I write fast. I just put in insane hours. I really love what I do. The stories would be stuck inside my head regardless of what I'm doing so I prefer to just type them out. LOL. I'm lucky enough to be at home full time, my kids are all in school, and I have an amazing husband who pitches in constantly to free up a lot of my time. I'm also an insomniac so I don't require those pesky eight hours of sleep every night.

I hope everyone has a terrific week! Happy St. Pat's Day!

Yippee! In just over a week... it's going to be released. Now you're going to find out what happens to Coal - who we last knew had been trapped in a life pod with Zorus. Poor Coal! I tried to get this book out as soon as I was able. I finished Touching Ice and wrote straight onto Stealing Coal since I didn't want to leave him confined for too long with that annoying cyborg. LOL.

Book 5 in the Cyborg Seduction series.

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Jill has learned the hard way that men can't be trusted and sex only causes pain. In the lawlessness of space, women are a sexual commodity—to be used and abused. She's doing a man's job, with only her father's brutal reputation and three androids to help keep her alive when she sees a massive, handsome cyborg chained to a freight table. The abusive crew plans to sell him to fight in gruesome death matches. It's stupid, it's insane, but Jill can't leave him to such a horrible fate.

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Coal has survived being a captive breeding slave and irreversible damage to his cyborg implants, but his honor is still intact. He's grateful Jill saved him and he'll repay her the only way he can. He'll fix her—with his mouth, his hands, and his body. He can teach the little human just how much pleasure she's capable of feeling.
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.In other news... I just submitted another book. If it gets picked up I'll share the details. I'm currently writing more. I write, write, write. I have stories to tell for all the series and even have started a new one I HOPE to have good news for. (Don't you hate all the mystery???). I know but I don't really like to talk about things until they are for SURE. LOL. I figure it's the end of Feb... I've had come out last month... will come out in March so I'm doing good so far this year on getting books out. I hope everyone is having a terrific week! I'll update you as soon as I'm able if I get any news on the new submission I sent in.

I was thinking about what I'm afraid of. What prompted this? A BIG black spider was on the wall. I immediately did the right thing. I pointed with a trembling finger and urged Mr. Laurann to 'kill it!" He was my hero. He laughed, taunted me a bit, cracked jokes, but that baby is GONE. It was given a burial inside a napkin in the trash. I knew it was going to walk around the wall if Mr. Laurann didn't get him…until he got me. Paranoia � yes, I know, but I swear that spider was staring back at me thinking up ways to close the distance between us. I have good blood or something, they enjoy biting me, and it may be my vanilla scented body wash that fools them into thinking I'm food but yeah. They bite me. I swell up. I have reason to fear them.

There's a story behind why I'm terrified of them. Blame one of my cousins. He had tarantulas. Have you ever seen them in person? Hairy, ugly, big, and ewwww. I didn't want to touch one. I didn't even want to be in the same room with them. He had a few of them. So we were visiting and you have to sleep sometime, right? I fall asleep, my world is right, and then I wake up to my cousin smiling at me. Ah…how sweet. He's happy I'm there. NOT! His gaze lowers to my stomach and I feel this slight weight there. Then something moves on my shirt over my chest. I look down. Yeah. He's put two of them on me. He tells me very softly�"Don't move. You know they are poisonous, right? If you scare or startle them it's a horrible way to die." First off, boys are MEAN to girls. Second off, it turns out he thinks this is a RIOT. Talk about the longest minutes of my life. I'm barely breathing, begging him in terrified whispers to take them off me and then my aunt walks in. She smacks him in the back of the head, picks them up to put them back inside their cage, and tells me they are harmless. Yeah. I wonder if I gave him a phobia about toothpaste up his nose when he woke up that way the next morning. You guessed it. I don't talk to that cousin as an adult.

I am afraid of ventriloquist dolls. There's another story. When I was a kid I thought they were cool (Okay, I was a GEEK but give me a break � I was a kid). I got a Charlie McCarthy doll. I loved him with his suit and little eyeglass. I could throw my voice even. I was proud and (a kid remember � not pathetic) thought it was a neat trick. Of course I have family. You know how they are. Someone had to show me that movie Magic. For those of you in the younger generation = scary movie about a killer doll. Yeah. Now I had my own expensive source of trauma sitting in the corner of my bedroom. He watched me with his beady little eyes. I knew when I turned off my light he was going to grab up my Ken doll to beat me with it or something. Death by Ken doll. NOT pretty! I would lock my CM doll in the closet. I'd put crap in front of it so I knew he couldn't escape. I told my mom I didn't want him anymore. GASP! Hey, those things weren't cheap so yeah…I was STUCK with that damn doll. Every time I walked into my room I'd KNOW he was there lurking inside the closet just waiting to sneak up on me to beam me with a toy. I'd have to check to make sure he hadn't escaped to hide under my bed. I have an imagination (Author with overactive imagination � you know it) so I'd think up what he could have gotten his evil little doll hands on while I was at school if he'd escaped. Knives, the baseball bat, whatever � and then I'd make sure he was still locked up without weapons stashed � EVERY NIGHT. Finally that doll was given to some other poor sucker, I mean, one of my cousins (not spider one but I would have loved to dump CM on him), but the fear stuck. (Amazing I don't write horror novels, huh???)

(See a resemblence going on here? Yeah!)

Mr. Laurann rented a movie a few years ago. He used to go and get them. Sometimes he'd call to ask � other times not so much. Guess what he brought home? Yeah. A movie about dolls. Dead Silence is the name of it and you guessed it by seeing the pic of the movie. He looks eerily similar to my CM doll. I of course shook my head NO. I wasn't going to watch it. No way, no how. If you know me at all, Mr. Laurann could talk me into walking over a bed of fire. I love him that much and he knows how to totally make me do stuff because he's got husband ninja skills that way. I ended up sitting on the couch (He HAD to turn off the lights BTW) watching it with him. I hope I left bruises when I ended up on top of him, behind him, clutching him, my face buried against him during the worst parts, and I'm STILL traumatized. I had nightmares for weeks. I break out in chills just thinking about that movie to this day. There isn't enough money to get me to see it again. Mr. Lauran loves to threaten to buy it. Yeah. That's the day I load up on movies that will make him cringe. I know what his fears are and I'm not afraid to get even if I have to. Checkmate!

I'm terrified of big lizards. Yeah, you know there's another story. My friend's brother had a monitor lizard. It's big. The monitor lizard wasn't friendly. It hissed at me, bit him hard enough to take a chunk out of skin when he took it out of the cage to show me his 'baby', and I think that damn body wash fooled him too because he seemed to think I must be food. (Insert mental image here of me running for my life with a 8 pound lizard chasing me, hissing, and damn� do they move FAST). I made it to the bathroom, slammed the door shut, and that thing hit the door with a thump. I was hoping the impact had knocked it out. Then I hear this hiss and nails on wood and it's full on attacking the door. I put my back against it and locked it because the door was shaking. (So was I). It took my friend's brother about five minutes to lure it away (he wasn't going to pick it up � he's still bleeding and making sure his finger is intact). He calls out he's leading it back to its cage. I breathe out in relief and unlock the door, crack it open, and all the sudden I see that thing whip around and here it comes again running full speed at me again. I slam the door and BOOM when it hit. Yeah. I was locked inside that bathroom for an hour before it was safe to come out. It didn't want to leave. It wanted to bite into me bad enough it refused to budge from trying to claw through the door. NOT a lizard fan after that.

Okay � try not to laugh � or go ahead. I can't hear you so my feelings won't get hurt. I'm afraid of toddlers. Yes, I said it. It's the beginning stage where little adorable people are starting to walk and explore their little worlds. I have four kids and they instilled that fear with the help of others. My first brush with the terrifying toddler came when my oldest daughter was learning to walk. So exciting! (They lure you into a false sense of euphoria and cuteness) and she stumbled over to me where I sat on the couch. She leaned against one of my legs (summer � was in shorts) and bent over. I thought she was going for a toy on the carpet. Nope. She sank like all three of her teeth into my knee. (I mentioned I must have good blood or my body wash must make me seem like food, right?) OMG. It HURT. I checked for blood and yeah, she broke the skin. She laughed when I cried out. It was funny to her! She tried to do it again! They play with toys and suddenly think it's important to learn the reaction of them nailing you in the face with it as hard as they can. You never see it coming until POW! Pain and sometimes bleeding result from that toy car slamming into your face. (Been there, had it done to me…A LOT). Or they learn to throw things and yeah…you suddenly look like a target to them... and most of them have surprisingly good eye/hand coordination. That's why so many parents think little Jr. will grow up to be a pitcher on their favorite baseball teams. I have this blonde, wild hair that is naturally curly. I understand why kids may be fascinated with it (adults have been too). It's kind of frizzy and yeah, not typical for most blondes. The thing is, I've yet to hold a toddler who doesn't try to keep a fistful of it. I watch toddlers now as if they are wild creatures who are really cute…but you don't turn your back on them. You don't let your guard down. They can bite, hit, or try to remove stuff that's a part of you at any given second. They will go for hair, your eyes, or try to rip off your fingernails. They also wonder if your nose really will come off. BTW - STOP playing "I have your nose" with kids…it teaches them BAD things! Those smiles can lure you into a false sense of 'Awe…I'm so cute I'd never do anything bad like make you bleed just because making you scream is funny to me' but beware! Toddlers are scary too. I'm just willing to admit my fear. LOL!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I should have Stealing Coal news soon (release date).

I have an odd blog topic today but it began with a phone conversation with a friend of mine recently. We were talking about things we'd purchased lately. I mentioned some of the stuff I bought for my desk. She sighs...LOUDLY before she speaks. "And let's not forget your two foot gargoyle." I can HEAR her eyes roll. "So you now have a werewolf and a gargoyle lamp too? Plus two naked couple sculptures? Seriously? That's what you love to look at? How old are you again? I'm having flashbacks of when you went through that whole black phase where everything was black or blood red or bright splashes of blue." She paused. "At least (insert my ex-boyfriend's name from TWO DECADES AGO) put his foot down and stopped you from painting the walls black." (Do friends EVER forget anything? I think NOT!)

I said... "Don't forget the guy sculpture in the towel I bought. The one that had you drooling, you ran your hands over when you were here after I let you hold it (she molested him, I swear!), and you said your boyfriend would kill you if you displayed something like that inside your apartment. You asked me where I got it from and how much he cost." (Okay, I couldn't help but point out she'd wanted to take my guy home - I saw envy.)

She laughed. "He is nice looking." (Damn straight!) "But don't your kids ever say anything? Doesn't your husband have a fit?"

I thought about it. "My younger kids think the werewolf and gargoyles are cool. They kind of ignore the statues of the guy and the couples." (True) "My oldest daughter doesn't say anything. My husband knows I write erotic romances, I love Gothic stuff, and he encourages me to buy whatever I want. It's my desk. I don't complain about his signed Ducks poster (not of the team but of women with hockey sticks in skirts) over his desk and in fact I've bought him pucks to display."

She goes on to tell me I'm weird. Okay, I can't dispute this. I know it, own up to it, and am happy about it. Who really wants to be 'normal'? I feel it's overrated. When friends joke about how I'm going to go to hell for my twisted sense of humor I always laugh. I would rather spend eternity with people who are more like me than someone I have nothing in common with. Right??? That's the saying I'm sticking to. LOL.

She goes on to list her idea of my strange definition of art. She even brings up my silk and leather stage I went through. I can't really defend that much but let's just say I got weird looks at the time when people entered my apartment to see some of the stuff I bought. Hey, it's personal tastes, right? Yeah. She dragged up the beanie baby stage I went through. I was a collector, had the display cases, and while I donated most of them - some still are hidden inside a chest in my living room. A LOT of people were buying those things though...and they were cute to look at. After I listen for a while I go on the defense.

"Wait a minute," I tell her. "You collect pastel carousal horses." I know I have her. "Is that your version of art? Painted up cutsie little horses that chase each other's tails forever to the tune of elevator music?"

Silence can be golden! I go on. "My werewolves and gargoyles would eat your little pastel horses. I bet your boyfriend would rather look at Dude ( my 2 foot gargoyle ) sitting next to the TV than that damn carousel table you paid a gazillion bucks for. Ask him. I dare you!"

Yeah...she's silent. We both know the answer. "And I bet he'd rather have two naked couples cuddled up on a bookshelf than those stand alone carousel horses you buy. I bet the guys give him shit when they come over. Any guy walking into my house doesn't laugh at my husband." (Okay, I admit I may sound 12 years old here but we've known each other that long so it's easy to revert! LOL)

She's still silent. I smile. BINGO! "Now who's weird?" I remind her of the stages she went through since we're going back TWO DECADES and she started it. She was a lacy, pink fluff girl who had a bedroom any ten year old would preen over with joy... after high school. I asked her how many guys she dated who wouldn't step foot in her room (seriously...doesn't that say it all when you invite a guy to spend the night - he gets a load of where he'd have to sleep with you...and bolts for the door??? - Really happened!). All I ever had was a live-in boyfriend who crossed his arms, shook his head, and told me "Don't paint the walls black, babe. I'll walk into them going to the bathroom in the middle of the night." He wasn't amused when I said I could buy paint that glowed in the dark for the back of the door so he couldn't miss seeing it. (MEN!) She once lived with a guy who she allowed to turn their bedroom into a shrine for...shudder...a horrible band that sucked. And she smiled as if it were cute that he'd want to decorate. (Hated that guy - really - and he was annoying on top of it). And the final nail in the coffin... she loved unicorns for a while. They had glitter on their bodies. She had posters and pictures and cutsy little figures with hearts adorning the room in every direction. Don't think I passed up the chance to remind her. I did since we've started playing 'this was your life'. LOL.

"Okay, maybe your version of art isn't so bad." She gives that to me grudgingly. "And maybe we all are a bit weird when it comes to the things we enjoy looking at."

Yes! (fist punch into the air in victory) My world is right again. I got my best friend off her high carousel horse to admit she's just as weird as I am - just in different ways! LOL! Here are pics of my desk art buys. I'm guessing everyone has their own version of what they consider art. Anyone willing to share theirs that they've gotten some crap over from friends or family? I'd love to hear about it. Have a great day everyone.

I'm not someone who anyone should probably try to take lessons from. LOL. I recently have talked to a lot of authors via emails. I have to say that they are some of the nicest, most supportive people I've ever had the privilege of getting to know. Most of them ask me how I managed to get nine books out last year. They want to know my secret. I'm obsessive, don't have much of a personal life, and I love to write. I also suffer from insomnia so sleep isn't something I need in spades, I drink a LOT of iced coffee (total addict), and I can literally keep three or four WIP's going at once. I don't suffer from writer's block. If I get hung up on one book, I just switch to another, and then can later come back at it with a fresh set of eyes to make it move again. That's the secret I guess. I also really love what I do.

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I'm also lucky enough to be at home full time. I have three kids who are all in school and at an age where they are into their own amusement for the most part. That helps. I have a very supportive husband who doesn't mind going to bed alone while I'm enjoying the writing hours without interruption while they all sleep and he is totally willing to pitch in with the kids and home. We share the cooking duties. He does laundry. It really helps free up more of my time. The hours I put into writing each week would probably shock a workaholic. I love every minute of it. I get a lot of warnings about not burning out. You can't do that on something you live and breathe. For once in my life I have free license to let my imagination go wild. It's like spreading my wings and learning how to fly. Amazing!

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I'm a series reader so I guess it affects how I write. I want to know about what happens to the friends and family of characters in books I read. I want to know more about their world, what goes on, and how it progresses. When the stories are mine I can 'make it so'. (Blame Mr. Laurann for the Trekkie humor) I'd like to write a standalone book at some point.

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My world sometimes hits bumps. Example? A few weeks ago this storyline that I played with a couple of years ago…popped into my head. It got a tight hold on me, became something that filled all my waking thoughts pretty much, and I opened up a new word document. I started to type. One chapter turned into two…and before I knew it…I'd been hijacked by this story. Total obsession.

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It couldn't have happened at a worse time. I'd been dedicating my time to finishing two books that are close to the end. I wanted to submit one this week. I haven't touched either of them since this book has taken over my life. I finished it last night so in two weeks I wrote just over 63,000 words in this book. Even for me that's a feat. I couldn't believe it could be a good story because to be honest, it came too fast, too easy, and it's different from my usual stuff. It's dialog heavy to my mind but I had two people I trust read most of it and they claim to LOVE it! I'm going to edit to clean it a bit and send them the rest…and cross my fingers they love the last few chapters as well.

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I hadn't even finished this 'hijack' book yet but the next two books had already formed inside my head. Last night when I cuddled into Mr. Laurann ready to call it a late night at three in the morning� another book popped up. Now I have three more books I want to write to go with 'hijack' instead of two. Note to self � STOP thinking 'what if�' when I already have way too many projects on my plate!

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Is my world crazy? YES. I have way too many stories roaming around in my imagination and they fight it out for dominance on who gets my attention. Now that I've finished my obsession…I can return to my two WIP's it took me away from. I'll then deal with the books that haunt me demanding to be typed out. Right now there are, seriously, about twelve books stuck in my head. I don't have enough time, ever, regardless of if I put in sixteen hour days and I do write seven days a week. I've refrained from turning to technology to get even more done. An author shared this neat program (can't remember the name) so you can talk and it dictates your words into the computer. OMG. Can you imagine? I'd be out and about, talking away into a recorder, and people would think� wow, that is one crazy lady who talks to herself! I'd hook it up during those few hours I sleep to get my voiced notes into the computer…wake up to it all on the screen…and it would be as if I worked 24/7. SCARY! Tempting…but no! I am with the kids or Mr. Laurann when I'm away from my computer. I want them to have my full attention.

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On top of it all, I wrote for years, have 53 books that sit in a file, and some of them I'd love to rescue. They need updated. I've learned A LOT from my talented editors who take the time to teach me my bad habits with every edit so I'm a much better author. I see a huge difference. I write cleaner, I make less mistakes, and it just sounds better. HUGE difference. If anyone out there thinks editors are something they don't need, think again. They are an author's best friend even if you dread edits, if they make you flinch, or cringe � even pull out tissues deciding maybe this isn't something you're good at. They tell you what works, what doesn't, and where your weaknesses are. ALL things you need to learn and know.

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The trouble is I have so many new projects I want to write…those old files sit. I've started to spend at least four hours here and there on them. I sent one of them out to an author friend who was gracious enough to carefully go over that beast to find where it needs help. It's a BIG book, not an easy task, but she faced it head on. (Authors are fearless sometimes!) It's also the first book in a nine book series I wrote. That means not only updating that first one and polishing it up but eight more to deal with after that� and if I am being honest, there are six more books in that series that I put on hold when I started my writing career when I wrote . Yeah. Fifteen books in all, more stories to tell in that series, so� insane. And we're not talking a stop at book #15. I've been with this storyline of this series for…oh boy…at least a decade. More. Ever heard of an author's pet project? Their golden child they love the most? I'll call it N.S series. N.S is my…baby. The characters were my friends, my people, and are real to me. You can't spend years of your life writing about a subject in your spare time without them becoming a part of you. I know that probably sounds crazy to anyone except an author. I swear I'm not certifiable. I want to launch that series in the future if I'm lucky enough to get them contracted once I have them ready to submit.

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I have another file of 'books I footprinted' which means there's anywhere from one to seven chapters down). Don't ask how many. It would SHOCK you. I had a lot of ideas but no time to really write before I committed to getting published after all my kids were in school. I wrote ALL NEW stuff when I did submit my books. I've only updated and reworked one of my old books to try to get it published. That was .

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What is my version of footprinting a book? Example? The 5th and 6th Zorn are partly written. I didn't want to lose the feel of them although I knew I'd put them on hold after getting four of them published to work on my other series. One of them is half done while another one is about four chapters deep. I can read what is there and literally step right back into the storyline as if I never took a break. It's why I call it footprinting.

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I try to be fair to my series by writing one of each. I made exception in the case of . I couldn't leave poor Coal in a life pod stuck with Zorus. I finished Ice and wrote right into Coal. To me it wasn't as if there were two separate books. It was as if I'd kept writing one but changed over character's stories mid book. It was really fun! Stealing Coal was picked up by Ellorascave but I don't have a release date yet. I WILL get back to (I did start those books) but I need to even up some books for other series I have going first. I just don't know who will win the fight for dominance on who gets headspace after my next four projects. LOL. Kind of a sexy mental image, huh? I hope they are naked when they wrestle it out! Hang on a sec…I'm imagining that�

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I get asked what kind of books I used to write before I got published. Werewolves (I have a few series I wrote), a lot of books similar to the Raines, and I wrote standalone books! Imagine that! LOL. I wrote two books about two cousins who live on a Reservation after I spent a little time on one. I wrote a few romances with humor from being raised on a farm (I couldn't resist � I shoved some true humorous moments of my life in there). I even wrote a few murder mysteries! I wrote a few books about some woman who ends up in danger and finds herself rescued by some sexy hero. SIGH� I love to write those. I wrote one historical western. And the closest thing to science fiction I wrote was my first finished book and the four books that followed it. MAJOR work to ever clean that hot mess up! What inspired me to write it? What else? I thought� 'What if there was an accident with chemical weapons involved�' It took me a year to write my first novel, its 300 and some pages long, and I honestly don't think I'll ever find THAT MUCH TIME to rescue it. Think of an editor's worst nightmare MS with so many errors…yeah…and there you have it! But hey, I finished it and that's how you start! It sits on my bookshelf in a three ring binder printed out and it makes me smile when I glance at it.

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I hope everyone has a great day.

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Laurann

It's OUT today! The second Riding the Raines series book! Click on the cover and it will take you there. Here's the trailer too.




I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Laurann