Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Has It Been THAT Long?

Oh wow! I just realized how long it's been since I posted my blog. Gah. Bad author. No cookie for you.

In case you didn't notice, Noble Blood is out! I added the All Romance eBooks purchase link today. Last week was so rushed, updating purchase links, setting up ads, etc., that some stuff got pushed aside. Like my blog. Ahem.

Along with the new release came edits on Blood of the Maple, my very first Carina Press release. Working on them took a lot longer than planned due to an arthritis flare-up and various other factors, like children and releases and cats thinking it's okay to chew on the cord of my World of Warcraft headset, the little pita.

The good news? I should have a release date soon. When I do I'll post it on my website and add it under the cover art on the sidebar here. The bad news? Dana's off to see a rheumatologist. Sigh. The doctor mentioned talk to text software so I don't strain my hand so much, but I have Google Voice. I've seen how it can mangle speech to text. It's not pretty. I'd rather sit here and type it right the first time than have to go back and retype what I just spoke.

Plus Dusty pointed out there are some educations you shouldn't get from your mother, preferences in anal lube being one of them. Until I have an office with a door (and soundproofing) it ain't happening.

Unfortunately, due to my massively busy (and painful) week last week, Fen and Jeff had to be put on temporary hold. I'm hoping to finish the rough draft this week and send it through the Meat Grinder next week. I've also got scenes in my head for Cynful and Mr. Red Riding Hoode, as well as Stern Negotiations, my very first sci-fi romance.

Someone's gonna have to wait their turn, and it sure as hell won't be Julian. I'm thinking Chela of Mr. Red will have to sit down and have a latte while Mommy plays with the Spirit Bear.

5 comments:

AimeeKay said...

Love the cover for Blood of the Maple!

Dana Marie Bell said...

Isn't it purdy? I wasn't sure I liked the curly-cues at her neck, but I stared at it for a while, and you know? I DO like them! I'm hoping to keep the whole leaf motif going if I sell more in the series. Oak leaves for Oak, birch for Birch, etc.

Anonymous said...

I'm right there with ya chica! I was just compiling my 'to-do' list and getting a blog entry done is on there because I'm long overdue for the review of Noble Blood (bad bad fan!) and updates regarding our status and website - yikes!

Time just seems to fly right by, doesnt it??

If you can, get Dragon Naturally Speaking - once you train it (which is a bit time consuming) it doesnt make the mistakes Google Voice does (I have Google voice and it can be a garbled mess to decipher some days!) -- Naturally Speaking is expensive, especially if you get any of the add-on packages - but completely worth the money if it saves you some pain and agony while you write. I highly recommend it. Like I said though, be prepared for a learning curve and taking a good bit of time to 'train' it to your voice (and for you to 'train' to its specific commands). Dragon was bought out by Nuance - they're one of the leaders in medical transcription and they're constantly developing and refining the software to make it as accurate as possible because that's the software they also use in their dictation systems!

Oooh... another WoW person! VERY cool. Sucks about the headset though. You can get wireless headset on Amazon that's a good headset (with a mic of course) for really reasonable prices - that's where I got my Creative Fatality and love it for gaming and dictating.

Dana Marie Bell said...

I'm a WoW addict, when my hands allow me to be. I've got a warlock on a non-PVP server. LOVE LOVE LOVE my headset, just have to keep the evil kitty from nomming on it.

I'll have to look into the Dragon software; last I'd seen it was as bad as Google Voice, so maybe it's been longer than I thought since I looked into it. Still, I have the problem of "Mommy? What are anal beads?" Not sure I can work during, oh, any time the kiddies are home if I'm using THAT, lol!

Anonymous said...

Naturally Speaking has come a LONG way in a few short releases. Even the jump from 9 to 11 was huge.

Like I said earlier, there *is* a learning curve that can be frustrating at best. BUT, I bet you could also 'nickname' things that the kiddos shouldn't hear. :) and use THOSE words instead.

Just a thought.

I used to WOW on PVP servers. My ex got me into it - now I just dont have the time to devote to it - I SO wish I did!!! Too much going on with the new startup to try to get gaming time in!

Working on the Noble Blood review now. :)

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