I feel the earth move!

And no, I’m not talking about great sex! Although….

No, really, our whole building just swayed which means somewhere close by just had an earth quake. Probably Indonesia. After yesterdays one near Samoa and the following tsunami we could be forgiven for being a little concerned but past experience tells us we’ll be fine where we are. Singapore isn’t close enough to any fault line to suffer anything greater than a few tremors. And Hubby just text me with a report of it being a 7.6 off Indonesia’s southern Sumatra. No tsunami warning which is good. Fingers crossed it will be the only one.

It does make you think about things in strange ways. For instance we’re not concerned at all because we know we’re safe from any serious damage but I can only imagine how I’d feel if we were living in Indonesia. This isn’t the first or last earth quake in that region and I have to wonder how people live with the constant threat. Do they have evacuation plans, safety tips, emergency supplies? Is there a particular procedure you should follow? Hmm… I think Mr. Muse would like to play around with this idea some more. But for now he can wait while we wait and see if we’re in for a rockin’ and rollin’ night.

Rhian

Guest author, Alisha Rai

Viv writes:

Alisha’s first book at Samhain released around the same time mine did, so we’re kinda publishing sisters.

She’s got a new one out now, Cabin Fever.

Product Warnings:  Contains a convenient snowstorm that throws together two wounded characters who happen to be wildly attracted to each other, a drool-worthy hero, a shotgun-toting heroine, mattress sex, shower sex, couch sex, armchair sex, some light bondage, and a really good cup of hot cocoa.

Alisha:

I have a Twitter account. Occasionally, I get an email telling me someone is following me on it. I then commence feeling really really really bad, because I have never in my life tweeted a single thing. I’m still not quite sure how tweeting works, and why there are @ and # symbols all over the place.

You see, when I started writing, I was given some good advice to go reserve my name everywhere so I wouldn’t have to worry about a domain name or blog address or whatnot. With grand plans of promo, I decided to reserve a Twitter account as well.

Unfortunately, Twitter scares the pants off of me. Because, I know, once I break the seal and tweet something…I will never, ever stop.

As a master procrastinator, I feel as though the internet is one giant conspiracy to keep me from doing anything productive with myself. My current top favorite time sucks?

1)    E-mail. I have three e-mail addresses, for work, personal, and writing (alishawrites@gmail.com). It’s not e-mail reading that takes me so long, it’s the writing back. I’m wordy. As an aside, I do love hearing from readers. I consider that to be motivation, not procrastination.

2)    Facebook (www.facebook.com/alisharai). I get shaky if I don’t “like” something at least once a day.

3)    Blog reader. Why is it that reading about other people’s lives is so fascinating? Of course, I can justify some of them as industry blogs and therefore “critical” to my writing career, but I also like to visit cooking blogs, knitting blogs…sigh, too many to list.

4)    Hulu. Nuff said.

There are many other things like YouTube, etc., that I stick under the label of general tomfoolery. So, you see, I am extremely susceptible to the shiny that is the internet, and I fear Twitter’s hold on me if I give it a chance.

Of course, I could always just cancel my internet and do nothing but work…but then I think you’d find me curled whimpering in a corner somewhere. And that’s really not cool.

So what are your top time wasters?

Do you have a schedule?

Viv writes:

I’ve fallen into a good place with my life. I’m not moving anytime in the next six months (that I know of yet). I have no major family issues to deal with. School has begun, but with children who are in Grades 9 and 12, my workload as they homeschool has decreased. The house isn’t huge and the garden is just about done.

So why the &^%^$ can’t I get a blessed thing done?

In an attempt to figure it out, I took part in a class over at Liquid Silver Books on Saturday morning. Time Management for Writers–taught by the editorial director of LSB, Terri Schaefer. Now if you’re not a writer, don’t turn away, because I think these lessons are for anyone. The classes are open to the public- you just need to be able to read the forum at LSB.

The homework alone made me start to realize one answer to the why things are never done. I kept track of what I did in a day, and wow, do I ever waste a lot of time…

Bottom line, I’m a list-maker, and always have. Only problem is I work the list hard for a few days and then get burnt out and need a vacation for a few days. The biggest thing I got from the class is my lists are good, but I need to work them with a schedule.  So I know I write from 10-12, I do schoolwork with the kids from 12-2, whatever. I know I need some wiggle room, or I’ll never stick to it, but I’m feeling really good as I think about this method. It means I can put down the chore list at a certain time without any guilt, because I know it’ll be picked up again later.

Anyway, still tweaking, but I wondered if you had a schedule? Maybe not for writing, but for getting chores done, or even taking time off for yourself. ’cause man, I’m totally putting date night on my schedule.

Weekend Warrior

The end of summer approaches. Less days to wander in the sun and enjoy the heat of the day. Less time to enjoy the beautiful green trees.

You are looking at scenery, aren’t you?

We’ll be back on Monday. See you then.

Posting on the Run

Whew!  Can I just start with that?  I’m over here catching my breath.  But only for a minute cause then I’m off again.  You see, I’ve been on vacation.  Okay, so what if it was sort of like vacation boot camp?  We toured four countries in Europe over two and a half weeks.  It was the trip of a lifetime. Plus I managed to sneak in edits on not one, not two but THREE upcoming releases on planes, trains and automobiles… and a hotel room.  Now I’m back in the US and packing up another suitcase.  Okay, so the first one is not unpacked yet but I have clean underwear, I swear!

This time I’m off to Lora Leigh’s RAW as soon as I figure out exactly where in WV it is.  Yes, I release I should already know this but what’s the fun in that?  I’ve got GPS.  I’m good.  Right?  Anyhoo… for anyone else going, I hope to see you there.  Make sure you come find me for goodies, not just from me but many members of International Heat.  Of course, if you haven’t already seen the photo of when I met Lora Leigh the first time at Lori Foster’s get together you might want to check it out.  Then you’ll know how to find me.  Just look for the person in total bliss.

In between all the craziness some terrific things have happened so I wanted to shout out all the news.  You heard it here first!  Okay, first up… I am now officially an Ellora’s Cave author!  Woohoo.  It was my first Lora Leigh book from Ellora’s Cave that really sparked something in me to want to write so it feels like I’m coming full circle.  My vampire menage Quickie titled Phoenix Incantation will release on October 20th!  Did I say woohoo yet?  Next, I got the amazing cover art for my November 24th Samhain Publishing release Night is Darkest.  This book is one of my favorites to date so I’m thrilled to say the cover is one of my favorites as well.  If you like m/m/f romantic suspense menage this one’s for you!  Then, to top it all off, I also signed a contract for my super hot extended menage Kate’s Crew which will release 2/9/10 from Samhain Publishing.  Okay, I’m sure you’re bored reading me shout to the world by now but.. just two more things, I promise!  Dream Machine will be in print 3/1/10 and Night is Darkest sometime in the Sept to Oct timeframe next year, both from Samhain.

Whew.  So, nice to see you all but I gotta go.  Sorry to post and run…

Jayne
www.jaynerylon.com