The Dynamic Trio - Blog

So 2007 is coming to a close and I have to say, this has been an incredible year for me. Full of incredible moments of intense highs and low lows too. There’ve been times when I truly wondered if I would ever break into NY or whether I needed to adjust my priorities and be happy with the wonderful career I’ve been blessed with thus far. Some people close to me have dealt with major health problems as well.

All in all though - 2007 was amazing and I’m more than thankful, I’m fall down to my knees thrilled.

So by way of that, I’ll give a best of 2007:

I’m most thankful for:

1. My husband. I can’t say this enough because he’s just the best person in the world. He’s intelligent, compassionate, loving, passionate, funny, a great dad, supportive, a rockstar between the sheets and just an all around fabulous person. We’re going into our 22nd year together and we’ve faced some major challenges and thank goodness we continue to make it through.

2. My Kids. Three more unruly, wild and unmanageable people I’ve never met. They’re a challenge every day. But they’re also amazing and I love them more than I can articulate.

3. My parents. They’re good, solid, kind people who are wonderful parents and really excellent grandparents. I’m forever grateful to them for being such good parents. They’re a great example of how you can be individuals but still place parenting as a priority. Not all parents are like that. I’ve never heard my mom make an excuse or blame her behavior on anyone else. My dad came into my life when I was 4 and he’s consistently shown that parenting isn’t about biology but what you DO.

4. My friends. How freaking blessed am I in the friend department? You all know who you are. I’m thankful for you every day. Thank you Megan for reading and critting, for listening to me whine and for kicking my butt when I need it. Anya, you too! Angie - what a wonderful editor and friend you are. Laura Bradford you rockstar. Thank you for believing in me and for being such an articulate pest on my behalf.

5. My readers. Some of you have been with me since day one, others come along with each new release. My deepest gratitude to you for taking the time to read my books and for being such staunch supporters of romance in general.

6. My publishers - Ellora’s Cave for giving me a place to make a name for myself. Samhain for taking a chance on me in a new genre and for being so incredibly author focused and supportive of me. Harlequin for opening the door to New York and for, well, being Harlequin. Berkley - for being my dream publisher and giving me my first ST deal. Black Lace - wow, for *getting* erotica in a way that makes me so freaking happy! Each one of you lets me use a different part of my writerly brain and skill - I’m so grateful for that.

Some Moments in 2007 I’m Thankful For:

February - my Harlequin contract arrives. Holy crap, it’s actually happening!
March - Reading at Babeland, 4 1/2 star RT review for Tri Mates, Anya and her husband go to China to meet their daughter
April - RT - Had a freaking blast with Megan, Laura and Amelia. Met Sasha, Vivi, KKT and a multitude of other super fun people, including the extra fabulous Renee Meyer, Joy and Danny who came all the freaking way from Germany!!
May - Angst because really, if you don’t have the pain is the victory as sweet? I contracted the last two Cascadia Wolves books with Samhain. Wolf Unbound is out January 1 and Standoff March 4!
June: Lori Foster gathering and hanging out with Anya! Meeting Badbarb, Pam, Anne, Karen, and a whole host of other folks! Ascension releases. Making Chase releases. Bradford Bunch Blog starts up. We did the Susan Komen cancer walk as a family along with tens of thousands of others.
July - First 70 Days of Sweat and it helped me finish multiple projects!
August - Vegas trip with my husband! Two of my brood have birthdays. Contracted To Do List
September - School finally back in session, my youngest starts kindy, my oldest is now a 4th grader! Sold the second anthology to Spice!
October - My dude and I celebrate 21 years together! The second round of Sven is pushing me into an incredibly productive space. I’m ahead of my schedule. Halloween, whee! Gorgeous cover for Vegas anthology.
November - MY SALE TO BERKLEY! Oldest kiddo turns ten. Vegas anthology goes up for presale.
December - MEGAN AND I SELL TO BLACK LACE! Three CAPA nominations. Finish round one and two revisions on Undercover. Get back cover copy and it’s fab.

Yep - I’m a fortunate woman. I hope you all had a great 2007 and here’s wishing us all a truly fabulous 2008!!!

BTW - don’t forget my joint contest with Joyfully Reviewed over at my Lauren Dane blog. It’s running until January 2!

OH! And Tuesday the 1st - Cascadia Wolves: Wolf Unbound releases from Samhain Publishing!

A new year. It’s like a clean slate at the beginning of a school year–all shiny and new. I tend to look back over the year that’s just gone and mentally balance the good and the bad. I work out how I can change the things I want to do differently. Not that I really make new year resolutions and write them down. With me it’s more of a mental balancing and focusing my thoughts on the months to come.

Do you make New Year resolutions? And if you do, do you keep them?

All the best for 2008. May the new year bring you everything you desire.

Hugs,
Shelley

Well, Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is on the way. My family and I wish you all a fabulous start to the New Year that leads into greater things for you and yours. I’m going to be offline until next week sometime and just wanted to make sure I gave my well wishes. Love you all and thank you for making this year a memorable one!

TJ

It’s Christmas Eve here in New Zealand. The house is clean ready for visitors, the menu planned, presents wrapped, and hubby and I are pretty organized. We’re about to go for a walk and then spend the rest of the evening relaxing.

I even managed to get my newsletter out today! If anyone isn’t a member of my mailing list and would like me to send them a copy just shout out.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday.

Best wishes for 2008!

Shelley

A friend of mine sent me this today and I just had to post it. It’s an audition, a REAL audition that a guy did for the Christmas Choir. Turn it up…and prepare to bust a gut!

Woohoo! ROFL!

Click HERE, turn it up…and prepare to bust a gut! (a little BYOA player will pop up followed by *snicker* the song.)

ENJOY!

TJ

I am nearly finished with the revisions of my first draft of Undercover and then I’ll upload them to crit! Wheee! The best part, aside from being ahead of schedule, is that the book doesn’t suck. Yay! I’ve written a piece about what my revision process looks like should anyone actually care at my blog.

Also, I’ve got a contest running at my blog with Joyfully Reviewed so don’t forget to check it out!

I realized earlier that Cascadia Wolves: Wolf Unbound releases in NINE days! I’m so excited. I love my Cascadia Wolves books so much and this one was really fun to write! I’m going to put an excerpt up at my blog next week so I’ll pop one over here too! Keep an eye out for it. In the meantime, the blurb and an excerpt are up at my website along with my fabulous cover!

I’ve got brownies in the oven and my house smells SO good! I need to go and wrap stuff. Y’all enjoy your weekend and if you celebrate, Merry Christmas to you!

Today is the last day of my birthday bash celebration, so come along and join my final guest Sierra Dafoe in her discussion of the holidays and epublishing. She’s also giving away a copy of her latest release, The Mighty Flynn, which has scored some great reviews.

I’ve had a fun month and discovered some great books along the way. Now it’s time to clean the house and get ready for the family to descend on us. Every time the phone goes a few more people get added to the list. It’s going to be a full house so I hope it doesn’t rain!

And finally, NJ Walters had a wonderful and quick fudge recipe on her blog the other day. If you have a sweet tooth, like me, you’ll definitely want to check out this one.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Shelley

The details of the Dynamic Trio’s HOLIDAY HOTTIE contest were posted on the Ellora’s Cave readers group and the Samhain Cafe readers groups on Yahoo. WINNERS HAVE ONE WEEK TO CLAIM THEIR PRIZE.

The THIRD PRIZE winners in the HOLIDAY HOTTIE contest have their choice of eBook download from ANY of the authors whose wish hints were posted for the HOLIDAY HOTTIE contest (wish hints are archived at www.tjmichaels.com/the-scoop)

The SECOND PRIZE winner in the HOLIDAY HOTTIE contest has a choice of TWO eBook downloads from ANY of the authors whose wishes were posted.

The FIRST PRIZE winner in the HOLIDAY HOTTIE contest will receive a spa basket with “smell good” relaxing goodies in it, and their choice of either an eBook or a print book (must be available on Amazon or B&N.com
- anthologies not included) from any Dynamic Trio author.

The third prize winners are…DragonStar1974@aol.com and WckdDivaMommy,
And the second prize winner is…JWIsly@aol.com,
And the first prize winner is rainingdark@yahoo.com!

Please e-mail your prize information (book name, publisher, author name, eBook format, mailing address, if needed, etc)

CONGRATULATIONS ALL! AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I got an early review of Wolf Unbound! Chrissy Dionne at Romance Junkies gives it a five blue ribbon review:

WOLF UNBOUND is the latest in Lauren Dane’s CASCADIA WOLVES series. This story is full of all of the passion, emotional angst and wolfie wonders you could possibly want in a fantastic storyline. I adored Tegan’s kick-butt attitude. There’s no doubt she’s more than capable of taking care of herself - but she has a whole pack more than willing to go to battle for her if Ben ever hurts her - in any way. One of my favorite things about this series is how each story builds on the last one and you feel like part of the family. If you haven’t yet experienced a Lauren Dane book then you’re missing out!

That’s a nice thing to see in my inbox. I haven’t had a Cascadia Wolves book out in over a year so I hope there’s a nice bit of anticipation for it. I’m quite proud of the book too, of it and of Standoff as well (the last book in the series arc). These books started out as something relatively simple but they turned out to be more complicated and seriously fun to write and plot as a whole rather than just one book and then another. It was fun to think in terms of a four book arc and now that I’ve done it, I’ll try it again in the future.

In other news, I’m about 1/3 of the way through with my revisions on Undercover and relieved the book isn’t turning out to be utterly awful and in need of a big overhaul.

One of the authors I’ve admired since before I started writing has agreed to blurb Undercover. I’m so thrilled about that because she’s just fabulous.

I also am in possession of ARCs. Sasha White’s Wicked and Jaci Burton’s Riding Wild. I’ve had Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace for a few months now and cripes it’s so damned good. I need to do like a week of ARC reviews at my blog because there’s a lot coming out. Megan Hart’s Tempted is out in just two weeks and of course it’s fabulous - I re-read the ending the other day and it made me cry. Anya Bast’s Witch Blood is out in March and it’s sooo good, IMO, even better than Witch Fire. A really good winter for books I must say! The ARC thing is like probably one of my favorite things about being an author. FWIW, I do still buy copies of the books because I like to support my favorite authors and also, I want them to do well. I often give away those extra copies in contests as well (so keep an eye out and check out my Lauren blog for my latest contest, ahem)

Okay, I need to make some tea as, no surprise, I’m freezing.

…that the Holiday Hottie contest is over, I thought it would be fun to post the answers to the wish hints today. The Grand Prize winner of the contest will be announced on Wednesday the 19th at the Samhain Cafe Yahoo group during my half list-mom day. We’ll also tell more of what the authors want for the holidays (we couldn’t fit them all into the contest).

And remember, your name is in the drawing for the Grand Prize for any of these that were answered correctly. Also, if you left a review on Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.com (a bit disappointed we didn’t get more of those, but no worries) your name automatically went into the Grand Prize picker pile and no correct answer was needed.

So, here we go:
• Ahn Leod wants… A personal spacecraft with a pleasure droid
• Ashley Ladd wants…A ride in the Starship Enterprise
• Ashlyn Chase wants…Unlimited access to the spa of her choice
• Cheryl Dragon wants… To be a size 8 no matter how much I eat or how little I exercise!
• Ciar Cullen wants… Toes in warm sand. Now. My toes. In Mexican warm sand. With Keanu Reeves bringing drinks to me and hubby.
• Denise Agnew wants… My hubby in a gladiator outfit. AHEM. Okay. :) *WINK* And putting my hubby in a Roman soldier outfit.
• Desiree Holt wants… My very own shapeshifter.
• Koko Brown wants… Gerard Butler’s Codpiece from 300.
• KZ Snow wants… Oprah to call. She wants to feature my Samhain novel in her Book Club.
• Lauren Dane wants…Gerard Butler on my left and Clive Owen on my right – nekkid and they both LOVE old chicks with three kids and stretch marks. On a private beach somewhere sunny where they oil me up and feed me grapes.
• Mary Winter wants… Captain Jack Sparrow tied to my Christmas Tree.
• Mechele Armstrong wants…Magic!
• Michelle Pillow wants… My own clone - who understands that I’m the one in charge here!
• Rhianna Samuels wants… I’d like an affectionate ancient vampire to fall madly in love with me.
• Sapphire Blue wants… A life size Boris Kodjoe doll, complete with all the fixins!
• Shelley Munro wants… A lifetime supply of free books, both print and e-format.

And last but not least…

TJ Michaels wants to win the lottery! …and a partridge in a pear tree!