Pete & Brooke – 8,264 words.

It's crazy how 2013 is more than half over. It's crazy…crazy I tell you!

I've been terrible about blogging. Mostly it's due to my being busy with things that required (and drained) a lot of my energy.

Recently, I've been super stressed, and I started taking phosphatidyl serine, which supposedly helps reduce cortisol (a stress hormone). I think it's helping me stay calmer than I would otherwise. It also supposedly boosts brain function, but I haven't noticed anything. However, cognitive benefits were tested on elderly people who had trouble remembering things, and I don't fit the demographic. If you want to try it, you can get a bottle from Amazon. It's not that expensive.

In July, I finished drafting one book (contemporary romance), and I'm working on another book that's tied to it (a novella). I'm hoping to release them all either December 2013 or early in 2014. It's going to depend purely on the editorial schedule and how healthy The Boy is for the rest of the year.

And just for fun — and I haven't done any self-improvement that's mentally stimulating in a while — I've decided to study Photoshop on my own. I have a few books on it, and why the heck not? I only did one unit so far, and I've already learned so much. (BTW – one of the books was written and published by Adobe, which called Photoshop “intuitive.” *snort*)

On the reading front, I just devoured Ilona Andrews's Magic Rises. It's my favorite Kate Daniels novel now. :) Really loved it.

The plan is to finish the novella this month and start revising the novel I wrote in July.

I hope everyone's doing well, and have a great August.

Gavin & Amandine – Finished. Total words: 56,995.

Get A Happily Ever After of Her Own (Ever After Book 1) Free!

Melinda Lightfoot, a preschool teacher with an unusual ability to flit in and out of fairy tales, never thought she would get into trouble…

…until the Fairy Tale Police arrest her while she is in Beauty and the Beast. They offer her a deal: Find Beauty, who left the story when Melinda trespassed into it, or be charged with the ultimate crime — Fairy Tale Killer. If that's not bad enough the Beast tags along in search of his true love, and Melinda starts falling for the fairy tale prince. She must choose between doing the right thing and having her own happily ever after.

Warning: This title contains the following: Fairy Godmother, the Wicked Witch, dysfunctional fairy tale families, ax-wielding executioners and a happily ever after (or two).

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Available free from the following stores:

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Okay, mea culpa: I have totally neglected my monthly updates. I've had a bushel-basket of crazy real life crises and so on that totally drained all my energy.

My house in America had a water leak right before Christmas. The repairs were supposed to take 3 weeks. They finally ended in mid-April. The flooring had to be redone 2-3 times due to unimaginably bad workmanship by the crew. I can't even count the number of times the drywall had to be looked at again. It was a big challenge to manage it from Japan. I'm just glad it's over though.

The good news on the real-life front is that we moved in late January. We now have a bigger place, still river-front, and close to two big shopping centers. Sadly it's a bit far from Costco, but I'll live, esp. since I now have an actual office. :)

The new place, however, needed a new kitchen. The previous owner ripped out all the cabinet doors. I have no idea why. No, the doors weren't rotted or anything. And the stove didn't work quite right, and the fish oven/grill was really gross with rust all up inside it. Thankfully, ripping out the old kitchen and putting a new one in was done on time, with no major problems and very minimal supervision. The biggest angst we had with this particular job was deciding on the color of the new flooring.

Then The Boy got the chickenpox—he's okay now—and had some misadventures.

So since I had all these crises and issues, I didn't get to do any serious writing from January until late March. I didn't start writing again until late March, and very slowly, too.

The good news is that the sequel to Carnal Secrets—featuring Ethan and Kerri—are with a couple of betas. I've also outlined the 3rd book in the series featuring Ethan's younger brother, Gavin, so hopefully I'll be able to finish the first draft by summer if not sooner.

I'm hoping to release both titles this year before Christmas. If you want to know and/or get sneak previews, sign up for my newsletter below:

Hope everyone has a lovely May.

The Boy got diagnosed with chickenpox, so he's been going without bath or shower since Saturday (doctor's orders). Apparently, he's had enough because he got up and tried to sneak into the shower last night at 2am. I stopped him in time, and didn't think much of it.

This morning, I left him alone with Hero Material and went grocery shopping. He pretended to go to his room to grab some toys or something, but then he detoured and snuck into the shower and started the hot water*.

The Boy neglected to take off his clothes, so of course he got soaked through instantly. So Hero Material had no choice but to wash him, and he was thrilled to be finally squeaky clean again.

Thankfully, he's gotten over the chickenpox, so he can go back to daycare and hang out with his chibi (= very small) friends. Yay us.

* Japanese bathrooms have shower controls at around most adult's shin level because people here like to shower while sitting down. Also the water wasn't super hot or anything because it takes a while to warm up, and the shower temperature is set for 41C / 106F.