Happy New Year!

hugs to all

Cover art for drive your truck

Pre-order it here!

I'm a pre-order!

Drive Your Truck, available from Dreamspinner in January, is up for pre-order. It's 1.00 off right now, too!

Go get it!

preview of Cereus Rescue

Hey y'all

Yep. Comes out on the 17th. Yay! Sorry for the delays. They are totally my fault along with BA's.

Here's a bit from Cereus Rescue

It was snowing. Like whoa. Like a lot. Etu sat at the window and stared at it.

Pretty snow. Lightening's heat warmed his back.

"It is. It makes it seem like we're all alone."

Etu and me. Etu and me. Lightning sounded so pleased.

"That's right."

Lightning had finally allowed him to close the door, so there was that at least.

Lightning's warm tongue licked along his ear and there was a wave of want.

"I know, bear. Some day."

When?

"I wish I knew."

Lightning sighed, warm air blowing over his neck.

"I'm sorry, bear. I am."

No sorry for my Etu.

"I wish I was a bear."

You would be a beautiful bear.

"Thank you. I'd be a skinny one, for sure." He snuggled in.

Mine. More and more that thought was coming from Lightning.

Etu chuckled. "And you're mine."

Yes. Lightning pressed close, heavy against his back.

"Mmm." He sighed, so pleased. So happy.

Lightning's weight seemed to shift, his fur becoming softer.

"Love you, Lightning."

"Love you, Etu." The voice was deep, husky, rough as if from misuse.

He stilled. "Bear?" Could it be?

"Etu," Lightning repeated, and a hand slid along his arm. "You are soft."

"Oh, God. Please. Please say it's real." He leaned back, feeling skin, muscles, not fur.

"I'm real, Etu." Lightning's hand took his chin and turned his head.

Oh. Oh, his bear was a beautiful man.

"Oh, my bear." Pale and broad, with a chest full of white hair, Lightning looked like he was kissed by snow. The eyes, though, those were the same. Like dark little buttons.

"Etu..." Lightning leaned in, their lips pressing together.

Oh, he moaned and pushed into the kiss. He'd fought the urge to be erect around his bear, resisted the urge to rub, but it had been getting harder and harder lately.

Long arms wrapped around him, Lightning pulling him in close.

"You shifted for me. Thank you. Thank you, love."

"Wanted you." Lightning was so warm, even as a man.

"Yes." He reached out to touch the soft belly. Tell me it's okay.

"It's okay."

Lightening pressed their lips back together again. Etu's fingers pressed flat against Lightning's belly. Lightning breathed, ab muscles flexing with it.

"So good." He moaned low, his palms aching.

"Because you're mine." The husky tone remained in Lightning's voice.

"Yes. Yes, I'm yours."

XXOO

Julia

top ten things a decade of editing has taught me

Hey y'all

These are the top ten right now because they're all things I encountered in my last edit!

Put your name in your MS. Spell it right. Seriously

NO FORMATTING that the pub didn't ask for. No weird style sheets, macros, highlighting, etc. Just no.

Run spell check judiciously. Don't accept all the things it tells you to do. Check for extra spaces between words. Track changes can do that

Put your website and social media links in your bio! There's nothing worse than finding a new author you love in an anthology and having to dig to China to find their other books, or to see if they have any. Most readers will give up.

Read your blurb. Out loud. Make sure it makes sense, tells enough of the story to hook readers but not tell the whole story, and make sure it's free of errors.

Do a find for em dashes and ellipses. Eliminate half of both.

Try to work with the publisher you're working with at their pace. They all do things differently. Don't tell publisher X that publisher Y is better. Even if it's true. ;)

Don't use chapter headings that don't say "Chapter" in them. In the day of digital tagging at places ibooks etc, even cute and clever chapter headings like, "Dog's day in heaven" should be prefaced with Chapter Thirteen. That's how they get tagged in ebooks.

Do your research. Put your states in the right place. Make sure you CAN actually use that as lube.

Everyone has a different voice, so stick to your guns, but make sure you're defending your voice when you refuse an edit, and not just being defensive. This is the hardest one for me as a writer, and I'm finally learning to let go.

I'm sure there are scads more but that's enough for now. What have y'all learned during the editing process? From either side.

XXOO

Julia

who gets a cold sore on their eyeball?

no kidding

Eyeball.

Stress, apparently. It amazes me, since I've never had a cold sore in my life.

So, what am I trying to de-stress?

I'm gonna sit and write.

XXOO

Julia

Peppermint, Cereus, and quitting my day job, again

So excited, y'all. I get to focus on only writing after the 1st of January. Most of y'all know (and if you don't, you live under a rock) that I've been doubling as publisher at Torquere Press since it opened in 2003. (Lord) Well, now I am stepping down and letting the corporation close, so my SIL Kristi can open a new version called Torquere Press LLC. The corp is not in trouble, btw, this is all just legal mumbo jumbo because of where we incorporated and where Kristi lives. She and her partner Joanna (no relation to me, as my Talbot is a randomly picked pseudonym and hers is real, thank you) have lots of great ideas, and I wish them all the best with TQ.

Now I can join RWA as a voting member, and join Rainbow Authors. I can write more and stress less. I can squeal about the new contract I signed with Samhain for a May release. MMF menage. Yum.

Also, my peppermint twist is out at Changeling Press. Strange Bedfellows has lumberjacks, a dentist, and pain reliever fueled sex. Woo. Snowflake, my logger elf, is based loosely on Kris Norris, the loudest Canadian I know, and a fab writer. Find it here on sale!

A lot of folks have been asking about the next Cereus book. I know it's been on the coming soon at TQ a few times, and as authors we tried, but two of us moved, and that horked the schedule. Not TQ'a fault at all. It will be out this month, and it's a doozy! Demons, weres, vamps. Yay!

I also have the 4th Elemental Ops book coming from Changeling late this month. I'll holler as soon as I have a coming soon link!

It's beginning to look like Christmas!

XXOO

Julia