In My Mailbox + Update

IMM is a weekly hosted by The Story Siren.

It was a good week in books for me and I'm a little bouncy for it, I admit. First off, I joined Kimberly Derting's The Body Finder Street Team, which means hitting the streets around the bookstores and promoting her upcoming debut release. I am really excited for this one and yes, have it preordered already, and now have a Body Finder tote bag and a personalized, signed poster as well as some great swag to hand out to people (which I did not take pictures of because it has been my experience paper + dog = destruction). Because I'm me, and because I seem to enjoy tormenting Toby dog... I saw that tote and thought: Cape! So, you guessed it, I made it a cape on the little guy and sure, he kept trying to roll over while I was trying for pictures, and then I had to chase him around the apartment for awhile but finally, I prevailed with proof:

Unfortunately for Toby, having a tote bag cape does not equal a sudden ability to reach the plates on the counter. I give him credit for trying though. I also think his cape fits quite nicely.

After the adventures in cape land, however, Toby wasn't so happy with me. Really, he gets annoyed when I take pictures but I guess when your mama has been taking random photos of you for 11+ years, it gets old. In his irritation, he hid from me in the corner under my table where he looked oh so very enthused and happy and this photo makes me laugh:

Now on to the actual books that showed up for us this week:

Books for Review:
After The Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Compromise by Heidi Aya
The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B. Schienmel
Party by Tom Leveen
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
The Darkling by Keoni Anderson
(Special thanks to Terra, Heidi, Alyssa, Tom, Cheryl, Keoni and Hyperion!)

Bought from Amazon:
The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

My awesome friend Eleni at La Femme Readers also shipped me two books she had because, well, she loves me:
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles
The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg

That's what showed up in my mailbox this week.... and now on to an update. I decided this week I need to rewrite my addict boy's story. When he came to me, he was 22. I went with it, fell in love with him, plowed through it- but he was still in an odd age for fiction. He's too old for YA, too young for adult, even though much of his story switches between the present and his past- his high school years. It's been nagging at me, and I've been debating but finally, after the suggestions of an author I respect, I made the choice to rework him and make him younger. It's a total rewrite- it isn't as easy as changing his age because while the first version gave glimpses to his high school years, now he's in them.

With that said, I have 4 1/2 chapters written already and am really liking how it's going. It is going to be a differently told story but hopefully, the same overall points, story, etc. Honestly, I think the kid came to me as a 22 year old just to worm two books out of me. He's a persistent little kid. I'm a little bummed, mostly because I was almost done with typing up all the revisions- well, almost halfway done- but really, I've only been working on him two months. It isn't too big of a deal, except now my new kid is getting put on hold. He's still talking to me though and I'm jotting down ideas as they come, which is keeping my drive for my addict boy strong so I can finish and get to know this new guy better. Yep, it's a male MC as well. Somehow, I just do better with them I guess.

That's my big news but on the plus side for you guys, I will probably be super excited when I finish his draft again and throw a contest in honor of it. Also upcoming is a possible 400 followers contest since as of right now writing this, I am 1 follower away from hitting that number. I'm a bit floored by that but thank you to everyone who follows. Also thank you to everyone who gives me awards. I admit, I suck at passing them on. I see the comments usually at work, and then forget... and get lazy... and yeah, I have no award spirit, I guess, but I love getting them. I love that you guys think of me so, again, thank you thank you thank you thank you.

Also upcoming is a chat with Estevan Vega, author of Arson, next Wednesday, March 17 at 8 CST. Look for an upcoming chat with Lisa Schroeder as well- date to be determined- and Jennifer Brown in early April. I'm also working on more author chats for the forum so stay tuned. I'm excited, I admit it, and you should be too.