Pain, Pain, and... Oh Yeah. Pain.

This week has been a little rough on my joints. Thank you, Puxatawney Phil. Another six weeks of winter, eh? Remind me to look up groundhog recipes later.

So I've been using some highly recommended arthritis gloves to keep my joints warm at night, since I've been waking up with stiff, sore fingers recently. I picked up a second, lighter pair for while I work, and I've found they're pretty comfortable.

And stylish. If you're a Golden Girl.

I wound up taking Monday off completely, spending the day in my ultra-deluxe hospital bed so my knees remained elevated and, of course, rocking the arthritis gloves. The same thing wound up happening Wednesday, but I made sure I got my wordcount in before retiring to my room like Scarlett O'Hara, sweeping my pain-train behind me.

I don't think there's enough brocade here for Ms. O'Hara. Or curtains. You can never have too many curtains.

Anyway, other than my knees and hands taking one for the team, work has gone well. I've hit my word count every day except Monday, and realized something. I have a habit of taking one day a week to do things like website maintenance, blog posting, ordering promo or doing edits/paperwork. So I set WriteWay to a four day a week writing schedule, and promptly whimpered at what it did to my daily minimum word count.

If you're lazy and you know it, clap your hands!

 Surprisingly enough, I did not resort to Dragon NaturallySpeaking this week. I think my stylish gloves worked.

You want them. You know you do.

Print Release Dates, Quarter Mark, and Boys Being Boys

This has been a busy week. I've almost hit the quarter mark on the rough draft of The Hob, I got my February newsletter out, and I updated my website to show the two new contracts I got and the print release date of Artistic Vision. All during a week when the kids had half days.

The devastating results of Fart Wars. Thank God they didn't use action figures.

I kid you not. I'm trying to write a scene where Robin thinks perhaps Michaela might be the one in Shane's sculpture of his future, when I hear the children making fart noises at one another. I turn to look, and they are literally lifting their butts at each other and pretending to fart. I kept waiting for them to hold up score cards.

Or get a panel of impartial judges.

Thankfully, Robin and Michaela are getting along like oil and fire, so the writing went well despite the despairing cries of "Cheater! That was a real fart!" and questions like "If I use a lot of spit, does that make it a wet fart?"

I love my life. Really.

Character Pics

I'm doing some more research today on Robin and Michaela, and I found the perfect pics to represent them.

Robin is slender, with long red hair and a flair for the dramatic. When I started hunting pics, I found one that made me go, "Oh. That is so Robin."

Polish model Bartek Borowiec

Isn't he perfect? This is exactly how I see Robin Goodfellow. I couldn't believe how close this guy is to my mental image. Needless to say, his pic is now in my files. For reference purposes.

For Michaela, I went looking for a woman who's a bit athletic. Michaela loves her weekend sports, especially skiing and dirt biking. So when I went picture hunting, this lady stood out:

Danicka Patrick, professional race car driver

Oh, yeah. Now let's watch her turn Robin's world upside down...

New Contracts!

I know a lot of you are waiting for word on Cynful. (So am I. I'm hoping to hear something within the next week or two, and if I don't, I'll poke my editor.) 

But I do have some contract news for you:

Shadow of the Wolf and Hecate's Own, Books One and Two of Heart's Desire!

The Beckett Brothers have been picked up! It's currently a four book series about magical brothers whose family was cursed long ago with lycanthropy. The only way to control the beast is to find the one the Goddess means for them, their mate, or they lose themselves forever to their beast.

Here are the temporary blurbs for Shadow and Hecate:

Shadow of the Wolf
Heart's Desire Book 1 

Christopher Beckett is tired of being alone. His wolf is howling for his mate, and Chris knows it is only a matter of time before his needs override everything else in his life. He casts the spell all the Becketts have used to call their mates to them. What he wants is a woman of an older lineage, of power to equal his own. And she has to accept the one aspect that sets him apart from almost every other wizard: his wolf. 

What Chris gets is Alannah Evans, a powerful witch of the Evans Coven. The petite, dark haired woman has no problems with the wolf. What she does have a problem with is the fact that Chris is a wizard. Since wizards and witches don’t get along very well, neither should they, but the sparks flying between them can’t be denied. Chris isn’t taking no for an answer. When it becomes clear that an old enemy has targeted them both Chris will wind up engaging his enemy in a duel that could cost him his life. 

Or worse: Lana.

Hecate's Own
Book 2 of Heart's Desire 

Zachary Beckett has been a screw-up most of his life, but he's finally done something right. He saved his brother's life at great personal cost, and now he's on his way to Cleveland to train as a witch. There he meets Johra Yashodar, a teacher with the belief that Zach is still a screw-up. It isn't long before Zach realizes he's hot for teacher. 

Jo has never met someone like Zachary Beckett. His blue eyes haunt her, his body is made for sin and his magic... well. The less said about that the better. He's the worst witch she's ever met, bar none. But Jo is determined to help him, and to do that she'll fight the attraction she feels towards him tooth and nail. 

But things aren't always what they seem, and when Zach realizes he's under a hex he comes into his own... as one of Hecate's Own. Chosen by the Goddess Herself to fight evil, it's up to Zach and his brothers to save Jo from a fate worse than death.

I can't wait to fill out the art forms on these. The art department is going to hunt me down. They've been known to run and hide when they see my name on the form.