I'm currently at a stand-still with the Pierce Securities. I hate to say it, but Zack has built a cinderblock wall around his story, and isn't letting me though for revisions. I'm getting pissed at him.
There have been times, where I have made extensive outlines, and managed to write a rough draft that is relatively complete--story wise--only needing some minor revisions. But that is not usually the case. In face, Zack's story, Seek, is currently short on storyline, and long on stories.
There is no arc. The characters don't really grow. The plot doesn't develop. It's very frustrating, almost to the point where I'm considering scrapping it and starting over.
But I don't really have time to do that. Nope.
This week, I will finish up on Andromeda's Reign, the book I co-write with Kristie Haigwood, until the next point where she needs me to work on it.
Next week, I will kick Zack's ass into submission.
I keep thinking something will come to me, some A-HA moment that will fix everything. A plot element, a story line that will pull everything together in an unforced way. Zack's story has to come out before May, because May is INSANE in my life as a Mom, and having released books in May in the past, I know better.
And I'm pretty sure I will get death threats if I make readers wait until June. Which is sort of cool. But also very stressful.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
#NewRelease from Anne Conley in the Pierce Securities Series, Grab #BaBB #GRABit #HotReads
Jordan Rocco has just received a medical discharge from the Marines and is now working with his brother, Evan, at Pierce Securities. He's struggling to find his place among these men who have a brotherhood that doesn't seem to include him. Jordan's only saving grace is the woman across the hall in his apartment building, with her smart mouth and tight curves.
Mia is wholly focused on making enough money at her crappy job to bring her sister home to live with her, instead of globe-trotting with her mother and the latest in a long line of losers. A boyfriend is not in the cards. But a couple of nights with the hottie across the hallway—to release some pent-up frustrations—wouldn’t be remiss. When she's grabbed from her apartment in the night, Jordan witnesses the crime, helpless to stop things.
He's suddenly got a new mission: Before the worst can happen, he has to save the woman who has come to mean more to him than he realized.
***WARNING*** This book has a vague description of events that may cause triggers.
“Hey there, Jordan. Rough day?”
He shrugged, turning to face her. She was a hottie, but totally tired. Dark circles etched around her eyes made the lines around her mouth more pronounced. “I just hate my job. That’s all. No biggie.”
Rueful laughter met his ears. “Who doesn’t? Tequila?” She held up a half-empty bottle they’d started the other night, and shook it.
“Sure, what the hell. But not much. You need to get some sleep.” Closing his door behind him, he took the two steps across the hall to her room. She waited tables at a diner a few blocks away, all the time.
“You trying to say I look like ass?” As she stepped aside to let him in, Jordan tried not to brush against her pajama clad body, nor notice the fact all she wore was shorty shorts and a camisole, all in thin thread-bare cotton. Nearly see-through. Every curve on display.
No attachments. But that didn’t mean sex was off the table, as long as she understood the stakes. Or his lack of desire for stakes.
“No, you look fine, but that set of luggage you’re wearing under your eyes could use some leather oil,” he tried to joke, but felt bad immediately when he saw her stricken face. “Hey, wait. I was kidding. Don’t get all mad. How long has it been since you had a day off?” She waited tables every damn day, as far as he could tell.
She shrugged as she got shot glasses down from the cabinet in the kitchenette. “Two weeks, or three. Not sure. Had a double today, that’s why I’m so tired.” The house had been busted into four tiny apartments, each one a small living room with an attached kitchen. So when Mia turned around, Jordan was there, bumping into her.
“Then let me wait on you for a change,” he whispered. He watched the pulse on her neck pound rapidly, and her breasts heave with heavier breaths. That was good. So she wouldn’t be opposed to sex. He hadn’t thought so, but affirmation was nice. “Salt?”
She nodded, reaching behind her to grab the shaker, and handed it to him, wordless, enormous brown eyes tracking his movements. Mia’s shoulder and neck were calling out to him, that smooth expanse of bronzed skin was so beautiful. Just to test something, Jordan lowered his head, and suckled there, leaving a small kiss behind.
Her sharp inhale was accompanied by her fingers immediately clamping down on the countertop. Good.
Swiping his tongue across her shoulder, he left a long wet trail that he sprinkled salt across. “I like you, Mia,” he began. He needed to get everything out up front. “I think we could have some fun, don’t you?” She nodded, looking at him from half-closed eyes. Sexy fucking eyes. Eyes that told him to fuck her right now. But he wasn’t going to do it like that. Not tonight. “Good. Because neither of us has time for strings, right?” He was looking at her, really close, but he wasn’t touching her, just looking.
“You want to have sex, right? No relationships?” she breathed. “I’m totally down with that.” She gasped the words out at him, and he mentally high fived himself before swiping his tongue across the line of salt, tasting her shoulder with relish before swigging straight from the bottle of tequila.
When he went in for a kiss, she stopped him with a finger on his lips. “You did it wrong, hot shot.”
That was one of the things he really liked about Mia. She was cool. Almost like one of the guys, only she had tits and a pussy, and an ass men would die for. And Jordan had an erection that would jackhammer concrete, and she was telling him he was doing it wrong?
Yeah, she was golden at getting his mind off his shitty job.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Make it stop!!! Wait, no. As soon as it stops I'm screwed...
I've been clearing out my 2016 schedule--my mom is about to have to move closer to me, and I know that's going to divert more of my energy toward all the stuff that goes with moving her. So, I've tried to gracefully bow out of anthologies and stuff like that. But holy hell. Yesterday I got an idea in my head, and it's HUGE. I mean, it has the potential to change the landscape of my career, as well as others involved, in such a massive way that I'm a little overwhelmed by myself. I haven't been as excited about something since I decided to go Indie, so I know this is something I need to do.
I owe it to myself to make it happen. And because of this, I will re-organize my calendar--again--in order to make this work. I'll walk around my house with a notepad in hand all next week, and begin contacting authors over the holidays, and then cross my fingers.
I'm all about collaboration, and this will collaboration on a scale I've never quite done before. I just need to work out all the details in advance, and then hope everyone does their job. If enough authors are involved, they don't all need to do much, except write. And that's golden, right?
In the meanwhile, I must keep my brain from overloading itself. Currently, I'm working on a Pierce Securities novella for Susan Stoker's world, and I'm hoping have that rough draft done by the end of next week. I'm still in the revisions stages for book one of the Book B!tches, a new series that I am taking a chance on and hoping readers will enjoy. It will be my second release of 2016, hopefully in March. Grab is still on schedule for a January release, and Seek will come in April, if the stars align. I have the rough drafts of another Pierce Security novel that I'm working on (Quinten, if anyone's interested), which will come in Summer of 2016. The Book B!tches will be full force in 2016 as well, so if you like your contemporary romance swirled around with some historical romance elements, feel free to check those out. I have plans for at least four additional Pierce Securities books in 2017, so they won't be stopping anytime soon.
With all that going on, I honestly don't see how I can squeeze another project in, but I'm going to look at everything and see what can happen, because I WANT this to happen. In a bad way. Thanks for reading, and look for Chapter one of the first Book B!tches story to be posted soon. :)
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Badass Book Society is Now Taking Applications #BaBB
Badass Book Society is now taking applications for Badass Professionals.
Are you a Badass Professional? Have you been working with authors in the Indie Publishing world for longer than 2 years? Can you provide at least 4 references from authors or publishers attesting to your work? Do you frequently help other individuals that are not your client for the benefit of the industry? Are you willing to give a discount to Badass Book Society Members? If you answered yes to these questions, you are just the type of Badass Indie Publishing Professional Badass Book Society is looking for.
Badass Book Society is looking for Indie Publishing Professionals in the following areas:
- Cover Design
- Editing
- Translation
- Interior & Formatting Layout Design
- Personal Assistants
- PR & Marketing
- Publishing Consultants
- Publishing/Book Packagers
- Tour Coordinators
Other 'divisions' will be handled and added as the need arises. If you are knowledgeable, ethical, and have clients that can give you a recommendation contact Badass Book Society. If you would like to recommend a professional you have worked with, let Badass Book Society know and have the professional contact BaBS.
Benefits of Membership
- Access to private professional only and author/professional forums
- Opportunity to be on at least 1 podcast at least once annually. Podcasts will be perpetually available and promoted indefinitely.
- Benefit from Badass Book Society Marketing & PR blitzes.
- Professional landing page with information about your service/company/history, logo, social media contacts, listing of services, examples of work (if possible with image) as well as up to 4 testimonials from happy clients.
- BadassBookSociety.com email address
- Additional benefits are in the planning stages and will be announced soon.
About Badass Book Society
Over the course of several weeks—months, actually—an editor, cover designer, author, publishing consultant, and blogger all hung out and discussed what was going on in the Indie publishing arena. Tales of individuals marketing themselves as editors without even a moderate understanding of grammar rules, blog tours with absolutely zero engagement and planning, embarrassing covers, formatting that was a jumbled mess, and authors who brow-beat reviewers for poor reviews were just a few of the things discussed with this Publishing Round-table.
These individuals decided they wanted readers to have a place where they were guaranteed a Badass Reading experience. A place where the reader could be sure the book they purchased was professionally written, edited, formatted, covered, and promoted. So, Badass Book Society was born.
Then we started thinking...What constitutes a Badass Author? Is it an author who has a large following on social media? An author who consistently hits the Best Seller list (or says they do, anyway)? Or is a Badass Author an author who takes their writing and publishing seriously? Someone who pays or barters for editing, formatting, covers, promotion. You know, someone who puts their money where their mouth is.
While these professionals were sitting around brainstorming, the idea of having a directory, of sorts, to list reputable Indie publishing professionals started to take hold. What if we could list Badass Professionals who went above and beyond for their authors? What if we listed those Professionals who had the experience, knowledge, and originality to always produce stellar results? So, Badass Professionals was born.
A call for Badass Authors is imminent but you can find out more about becoming a Badass Author at
For More Information:
Example of Professional's Landing Page: http://smarturl.it/BaBS-EBBPricing: http://smarturl.it/BaBS-ProApp
Email: HBIC@BadassBookSociety.com
Monday, November 2, 2015
#NewRelease #Sale #UnderABuck Anne Conley's Click, Latest from the boys at Pierce Securities
Introducing Anne Conley's latest release, Click, Book #3 in the Pierce Securities series. Now available at Amazon, and other retailers soon!
BLURB
Jake Callahan has a problem, and the only people who can fix it are the guys with Pierce Securities. Except Jake needs a woman. Miriam Bartoli will happily play the part of a sexy woman to get what the client needs, especially since playing mom to an office full of alpha males and recent surgery has wreaked havoc on her femininity. Can she fight her attraction with the target long enough to get what the client needs? Or will this case of mistaken identity and clicking with the wrong man be the end of her?
EXCERPT
“This right here. The stars. Aren’t they beautiful?” She glanced over to find Jake staring at her.
“You’re beautiful.”
His hand cupped her neck and he came in close. “Can I?”
Miriam didn’t respond. She licked her lips as if they weren’t listening to her brain, which was emphatically yelling at her to stop this.
Jake obviously wasn’t listening to her internal monologue as his lips captured hers in a tentative kiss.
Her brain reminded her he was an asshole at the bar, he’d given her coke yesterday, he was mixed up in Tres Lobos, and he stole from his parents. It was screaming at her that this was a bad idea.
But at the touch of his lips on hers, the lizard part of her brain—the part which was just made to eat, sleep, and have sex—told her to go for it. She whimpered into his lips in defeat, and his arms went around her waist, pulling her close as he deepened the kiss. Jake’s lips were soft, his mouth warm, and the aftershave exquisite. She didn’t want him to ever let her go.
“Oh my God,” she breathed at him between kisses. His tongue delved into her mouth, but before she lost herself completely, she pulled back. “We can’t do this.”
He kissed her again, muttering against her mouth, “Why not?”“I can think of half a dozen reasons off the top of my head.”
That seemed to stop him, but he didn’t let go of her. Jake just looked at her quizzically, as if he saw absolutely nothing wrong with the fact they were kissing. He apparently didn’t realize he had a dual personality and was a complete shit half the time he existed. He finally looked up, taking a deep breath. When he refocused on her, his eyes hardened into something wild. Something feral. Something passionate. And a little scary.
“Blame it on the stars,” was all he said before his mouth captured hers again. This kiss was different from the first. Where the first one was tentative \ and exploratory, this kiss was devouring. It was like he’d gotten a taste of nirvana and craved more. It was heady, the way his tongue was mating with hers in a fiery kiss that was quickly undoing her cell by cell. Her last coherent thought was that Simon was going to kill her.
Check out the other books in this series, Craze and Wire:
Craze: When Krista catches her boss doing the unthinkable, the only thing she can do is run. Straight into the arms of the eye-candy she’s been trying not to flirt with on her lunch break. But whose side is he on? Ryan’s security firm is having a hard time getting off the ground, and this may be just the job to help the company out. But pseudo-bounty hunter isn’t really what Pierce Securities is trying to get a name for. When he finds out their target is the classy lady from the park, all of Ryan’s senses go on high alert. What do these men want with her?
Krista is forced into Ryan’s sanctuary in the woods, where she realizes just how wild he is, but she doesn’t want to tame him. He may feel his methods of protection endangered her, but without Krista in his life, Ryan is crazed.
Wire: Evan Rocco has been a hero to Paige Lawson for as long as she could remember. So when she runs into him in a bar after a major professional coup, she’s feeling celebratory and reckless. But it can’t go anywhere, because after all, he’s Evan freaking Rocco. But when her gaming company gets into trouble, there’s only one man she can turn to. Evan can’t get the woman who disappeared after their one-night-stand six months ago out of his head. He’d honestly thought there was more between them besides just sex—a connection he’d never felt before. When PSL, his favorite software game company is in trouble, he jumps at the chance to help them solve the mystery behind The Crimson Lady and get his mind off the woman of his dreams.
When he realizes who the CEO of PSL actually is, he has to get over his own issues or else he’ll put the one woman in danger he never wanted to hurt.
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