Not enough day!

With one day to do so many things, which do I try to accomplish?

It's already evening and I haven't gotten a quarter of what I need to do finished!!

Writing, editing, proofing or update all things web?

Read, answer or ignore all the emails and posts?

Clean the house or pretend it's lovely and organized?

Forget about everything and pick one the books patiently waiting in my tbr pile?

I do have two days off coming soon, so I could push a few things to those days - but then those days will become too full as well. Getting everything ready for four kids to go back to school is an endless event, mostly because I need them to go with me to finish the shopping - if they would all let me just buy them black it would be so much easier because then I could fly out and do it all myself!

If you've never taken more then one child into several stores and spent the day in the car with them - then you aren't going to understand the stress involved in back to school shopping...

I have managed (between work and children) to finish a few WIP's, leaving the list of projects there at the comfortable number of four that need the most attention.

Of course I only got distracted once today (for an hour) playing with my blog template and finding something that was a whole lot less pink then the one I was using.

Which reminds me I should now get off my blog and go work a few more things so when I remember where my bed is tonight I can feel like I accomplished many things.

***

Excerpt from WIP

Book I in the Hidden Senses Trilogy

Mystic Perceptions

(unedited/unformatted)

Brent reached into his shirt, pulled out his chain and pendant. Lifting it over his head, he handed it to the crazy woman standing there, patiently holding her hand out at him.

He smirked when Reid gave her a “you’ve got to be kidding” look when she stepped in front of him. When she continued to stand there, looking at him impatiently, he leaned back and pulled his keys out of his pocket. Working the pendant off the ring, he handed it to her and leaned back again. Brent knew his partner well enough to know his blood pressure was going to spike shortly if they didn’t stop screwing around, then he was going to start yelling.

Sandy sat down behind Jac. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” Jac held up her hand, palm up. She felt something cold being lowered onto her hand. It was a chain of some sort. Closing her hand around it, she took a few deep breaths trying to find some focus.

Brent sat there waiting for one of them to say “gotcha!” When he heard Jac laugh softly, he figured it was now.

Jac shook her head. “Really, Sandy, next time please specify something they weren’t wearing during sex.” She smirked. “Cute blonde though, Brent, love the lady bug tattoo.”

My week so far...

It's been a great week so far!!

**Beltane Magic was voted #1 trailer on YGR! Thanks for all of the votes!! It's always good to know that if I'm affected by writer's block at any point I can make trailers instead **

**Behind the Mask, my halloween themed Novella was accepted by Amira Press. I'll get the cover and release date posted as soon as I have them. **

**I have an author interview coming up at Blazing Trailers blogspot on August 30th. **

** And I started a new job this week (outside of the computer that is) and although it runs from busy to insane I love it! **

Keep all the entries coming for the Magic Seasons draw, I'm loving the comments everyone is sending.

I also joined the Infinite World of Fantasy Authors this week.

The only thing that could make this week any better would be if my lottery ticket wins!!

Hopefully once the kids get back to school and I get into the groove of working I'll be able to get back to more regular blogs.

Until then...

NEW CONTEST!

To celebrate BELTANE MAGIC placing #1 in suspense category at Amira Press

And #2 on the paranormal list I’m starting a second contest with the Magic Seasons series

A Draw for a Florite cuff bracelet

Email me at jacq.paige@gmail.com

(place Contest #2 in subject line)

Tell me your favourite Magic Season's character

and your name will be entered in the draw for

a beautiful multi-strand florite chip bracelet that

measure 1 1/4 inches wide!

Draw will be made on October 1, 2009

Book I in the MAGIC SEASONS series

BELTANE MAGIC

A Paranormal romance/ suspense

ISBN: 978-1-935348-55-9

Available at Amira Press

BELTANE MAGIC TRAILER

MAGIC SEASONS CONTESTS

BELTANE MAGIC EXCERPT

MORE EXCERPTS FROM MAGIC SEASONS

Jacqueline Paige

~never predictable~

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/

Writing is just the beginning!

So, you have this fantastic idea for a story. It takes a few days to jot down all possible ideas, figure out character names and fill in all the blanks in the plot.

We won't even discuss complete scenes popping into your head when you've finally remembered where your bed is - scenes so good you feel around for your note book and pen in the dark (the one that lives beside the bed) and start scribbling this scene down (so you can SLEEP), figuring out what you jotted down in the dark is always an adventure.

You write in note books, on the back of pages, type for hours and more hours and THERE! it's finished, your awesome story! Of course the first three times you read through it, you find humourous typo's, missing words and endless pieces that seemed like a good idea at the time, but not so much now. So that's it, it's done!

Wrong! Now you need to go through it AGAIN and figure out a summary (synopsis = bad word) to send to the publisher. I do my synopsis after the story is finished, because my characters NEVER behave and do what I've plotted them to do. I'm not sure if it's easier to do it before you write or not ... hmmm.

It's sent to the publisher, you're done! Not really! When a contract is signed, after you're finished the happy dance and telling E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E you possibly can. You begin edits. These are much different then your edits, these are the proper edits. It's entertaining at times to see how someone else interprets what you've written, mostly in a good way. Edit 1 , 2 and 3 is done! Whew!

Hopefully somewhere in all of this you get the proof of your book cover - which becomes your new picture on facebook, myspace and pretty much anywhere you can put it! The cover artists are completely brilliant and have with one picture made your story real to you! You take your fantastic cover and turn it into bookmarks, posters, ad's ... anything you can come up with that will help at some point promote your book.

Excellent! But we're not finished yet ... final edits more changes and fixing really silly (aka stupid) lines that aren't right, but were right in your head at the time.

YES! We're finished. The book is released. Kick back and relax ... not! Who is going to know that YOUR book is out there to buy if you don't tell them? P-R-O-M-O-T-E anywhere, everywhere and then promote some more.

This has been a whole new learning experience for me. I am great at jumping in and helping any author I've read or talked to, promote ... but promoting my own, that's been interesting to say the least.

I've managed to find the places, or some, to do the promoting and let the readers know that my book is now available. Book chats, loops, blogs and pages. Not to mention book stores and libraries. We can't forget facebook, myspace, twitter and Ning either. There are websites for books, for trailers and for authors too. The lists are never ending, the updates never stop.

ALL of this and I only have ONE book so far, there are more on the way, but I have to stop and wonder how authors that have a long list of books out there do it. When do they have time to write the fantastic stories that they write? The fantastic stories that I need to absorb like most people do sunlight? Truly, they are amazing people!

I only hope I can live up to the title of "author" in comparisson to the brilliant people that I've met in the past few months that have welcomed me and encouraged me when I jumped in without looking ahead.

Now that I've got all of that out, I think I'll go do some writing. Just remember the next time you read a book that you loved because it made you laugh, or cry or both - drop the author a thank you note and tell them about it. They're writing it for YOU and working hard to get it to you.

Until next time...

View BELTANE MAGIC trailer

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/apps/videos/

Amira Press

Jacqueline Paige

~never predictable~

BELTANE MAGIC

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/

It comes out tomorrow!

Book I in the MAGIC SEASON series

BELTANE MAGIC

BLURB

To the outside world she was just Leena Duncan,

a quiet woman who worked a normal job and lived a quiet life.

A few times a year she could openly use her magical gifts at

celebrations within a small community of people she called friends.

Having lived through the horrors that can come from the hands of

someone you thought loved you; she decided never loving again would prevent

more emotional scarring.

It took one man at a rainy Beltane celebration to change everything with

which she was comfortable and one killer to change her safe world.

He created worlds on and put them on paper to

entertain others. After years of using

his imagination he finds out his friends can do things he thought only his mind

created.

For his entire adult life Owen

Grey had always played it safe and kept to his own world of writing,

never getting too close to anyone.

Having lived a nightmare growing up he would never take the chance of

repeating history. He may write about

happily-ever-after, but he knew it was pure fantasy and didn’t exist.

View BELTANE MAGIC trailer

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/apps/videos/

Jacqueline Paige

~never predictable~

BELTANE MAGIC

Available at Amira Press

August 7^th 2009

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/

WHY EBOOKS?

WHY EBOOKS?

Today while I was out shamelessly promoting my first release – BELTANE MAGIC- (August 7^th!!!! – in case you haven’t managed to stumble across it ALL over the web- lol) at local book stores and libraries and the same question kept coming up. Why ebooks?

Of course my answer each time was filled with wonderful fact and reasoning. And I chuckled for most of the drive home when a sassy elderly lady answered for me the one time “Because paper doesn’t grow on trees.” Both of us laughed, having gotten the joke in that – however the young girl on the other side of the counter didn’t quite see the humour in it...

So why ebooks?

For me, I love books in any form a book can be in!!! More often than not I buy the ebook, yes I’ve been known to sit and wait for the clock to roll by midnight on a release date, and if it’s a favourite author I buy the paper version as well. It is hard to display a fabulous ebook collection on a shelf. (but my hard drives are full of them)

The practical side to buying/publishing an ebook is – no paper, less physical storage space, less time consuming -for publisher to format for ebook formats is less time consuming than setting up paper printing – or so I’ve been told and for a reader, you don’t have to leave the house to get the book. You can shop and select and it’s instantly there on your computer when you’re finished. (Fabulous for those nights of insomnia when you’ve already read everything on paper in the house - twice!)

Before the electronic book age hit, you had to choose which book you might be in the mood to read if you were going on a trip, anticipating a long wait in an office or to read on your break. There are more reasons than these but...

Now, you can upload favourites or your ‘to read’ list onto your portable device and decide then what you’re in the mood to read. Without having to announce to the world what exactly you are reading. (because seriously, sitting in a noisy office waiting room trying to become absorbed in the latest fantastic erotic paranormal book is at times awkward if you’re displaying the sexy cover of naked yummy bodies – and the young children of the woman waiting beside you have more than noticed and asked rather loudly about it...)

So, to me reading whatever wherever you want it a HUGE plus!!

Another thing I’d like to point out – and yes it may seem weird coming from a person that has had to actually go through boxes and boxes of paperbacks and decide (or try to) which ones you really, really HAVE to keep because you’re out of places to put them – is sometimes a book isn’t the great success that a publisher/author would like it to be and ebooks save printing (or paper and time). If the sales warrant it in ebook format, then printing it is a great idea ( I bought a new book shelf to fill!!!)

I could babble on for pages about this, but I won’t.

With that being said, go try and ebook, you might like it!

Jacqueline Paige

~never predictable~

BELTANE MAGIC

Available at Amira Press

August 7^th 2009

http://jacqpaige.webs.com/