Pretty obvious that June was not my month, by a long shot. Between family shenanigans and the motherboard on my laptop going kaput, the muse decided to pack up her bags, take the cabana boy and head for greener pastures, leaving me to struggle along on my own.

I did, however, add a bunch of words to Bite Me Tender and have been through one set of edits, so all is good on that front. When I’m certain the release date isn’t changing, I’ll let you know. For now, it’s looking like right smack-dab in the middle of August.

I also finished the Christmas short for the Dreamspinner Advent calendar and sent it off to betas. It’s not due until August 1st, but I’ll send it in earlier once I get any last corrections made. One less thing to worry about. I called it ‘Their First Real Christmas’ and it’s a lovely, warm, romantic tale–completely at odds with the rest of my sexfests. Which makes it even funnier that one of the ladies in the crit group christened it ‘Sexmas’ a while back. Unlike Sign of Spring, which was wall-to-wall humping, this one only has one sex scene. But it’s a good one. Because you deserve it.

Speaking of the crit group, some bright bulb thought it would be a good idea to keep track of our weekly and monthly word count goals on the group website. And the rest of us drank the Kool-Aid and jumped right in. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to do a sprint. I am dead. So dead. They are going to leave me in the dust. I am such a slow writer. And I just realized, we need a prize for the winner. I think I’ll go get a gift certificate to somewhere and wave it in front of them.

Still coaxing John and Phane together. I’ve written past the point where I can write linearly, so know I’m bouncing around the manuscript like a demented ferret, sticking paragraphs here and there. But, barring yesterday, I’ve packed a solid 1000 words a day onto this sucker and should be finished the first draft by the end of August. I’m in the angsty part right now, which is hard on the head and makes me a little ADD, so I’m doing my 250 words/go do a chore/250 words/go feed the ponies/250 words/empty the dishwasher thing. It seems to be working…

Anyway, it’s finally cool enough here to have something to eat and throw a few words on another story. Maybe noodle with the angel a bit. Should I set it in a real town, or a fictional one? Hmmmm, decisions.