Happy Holidays and Happy New Year too!

So much happiness! I hope you get your piece :) And your peace.

Having the child home during the vacation break has been trying but I love her so no real sweat off my nose. Plus, she pretty much occupies herself. Can't beat that.

Had my birthday this week and it was fun. The child put together a whole party for me which included pin the tail on the donkey, guess who drew this picture, and tell me what the letters of HAPPY BIRTHDAY stand for. Let's just say that the letters stood for nothing I would have thought of and the game involved the child's sleeping mask even though we all knew what letters were being used. :) It was a blast though and I really appreciated how she worked on it all day so I would have a "real" birthday party. She's the best :)

Best Christmas present this year - very cool fairy headphones for the iPod.

The year is winding down and I'm winding down with it for right now. Happy New Year to all in a little over an hour. May 2009 bring you everything you wish for. I'm simply hoping for a better year than the last :)

Misty

Thanksgiving a day early!

I wanted to post this today because tomorrow will probably be insane and I don't want to forget it :)

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you to all the readers, reviewers, writing buddies, critique partners and friends I have made through this business.

And in the writing vein I will add this additional thanks...I finished IVY!!! I typed THE END last night after four intense days where I accumulated 16,000 words to type the end. I have edits to do (boy howdy!) but it is at least all there!

So those are a few of my thanksgiving moments. Have any you want to share?

Enjoy your turkey day tomorrow :)

Misty

Great Review and good progress

Hi again!

Just wanted to take a moment to say YAY! because I got a fantastic 5 heart review from the Romance Studio for my newest book A Mother's Heart. Yeehaw!!! You can read the review here:
http://theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/mothersheartsimon.htm
Thank you so much, Brenda Talley!

This was one of the very first books I ever wrote and it morphed so many times I couldn't even tell you what the original story was :) But I really wanted to tell a story of a woman who thought that the motherly instinct was genetic and that if her mother hadn't had it then surely she couldn't be trusted with kids. It's available in e-book right now from The Wild Rose Press and I'm ordering copies next week of the print book which is available publicly on Dec 6.

In other news I have made strides on the latest Ivy and have approximately 15K words left to write before I can start revisions/rewriting. YES! Seriously never thought I would get to this point some days.

I have to credit a great book for giving me the kick in the rear I really needed. This book is one I highly recommend no matter what stage of your writing career you are in. It's called No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty, the man who started NaNoWriMo. For some reason I forget sometimes that the first draft is not the one that should be ready to send out as soon as you type THE END. I worry so much about making the first draft good that I don't let myself make mistakes. This book begs you to make them and it is an awesome tool to have around when you are feeling the slump.

I don't do NaNoWriMo simply because I'm almost always in the middle of a book come Nov and you have to start absolutely fresh. But next year I might just try to schedule myself so I can compete. What a rush!

Talk to you later,
Misty

Here I am again

Wow, look at that, twice in one week. That might be a record of some sort :)

So, today I'm working on the rest of the last Ivy book. This is the fifth and final book because I don't want her and her escapades to get boring because I have too many books in the series. Have you ever read a series faithfully but at one point you wondered why you were still reading? Wondered when the books started being a little bit boring? Or too far out there?

I don't want to be that author. I don't want people to stop reading because I don't have any other way for the character to grow. But I do want people to still be excited when a new Ivy comes out and I'd like to go out high on that wave.

So I'm writing, struggling with it and hating it some days, but I'm writing it and I hope to be finished by the end of the month. Keep me honest :)

Misty

Return from the Dead

LOL! I wasn't really dead, obviously. But it felt like it for a while. Honestly, I've just been struggling with quite a few things and haven't made time to get over here. I've had the time, I just haven't used it to blog. So no excuses. I will try to be more consistent and come up with some topics that aren't going to bore the snot out of anyone who is still reading :)

Misty

The books are in the building!

And may I just say how totally thrilled I am!!!! I love the smell of them, the look of them, the air that brushes by my face when I fan the pages! Woo-hoooooo!!!! I hope I always feel this way about my new books. Then again this is book eight that I've received and the enthusiasm hasn't waned at all so I think it's a pretty safe bet that it's not going anywhere!

If you are interested in having a book signed, let me know :)

Misty

Super Cool Release Day!!!!

Woo-hoo!!! Frame and Fortune, the next installment in the Ivy Morris Mysteries, is out today!!!! Run, don't walk to find out exactly what Ivy is up to these days. I can promise a lot of fun and mystery :)

Here's the blurb!

There's something in the freezer...and it's not Chunky Monkey ice cream.

Actually, the something is a someone. Ivy Morris' best friend, Bella Landry, is in serious trouble because of the surprise she finds in the unused walk-in freezer at her hair dressing shop. Calling amateur sleuth Ivy is a no-brainer for Bella, especially because it's Ivy or no one since she can't trust her policeman boyfriend (he's the one who cuffed her and booked her--and not in a sexy kinda way).

But Ivy might finally be in over her head this time, with Bella's ex, the Bastard, showing up in town wanting to help and only making things worse in the process. Who is he secretly calling? And does it have anything to do with the person who's running around town stealing picture frames but leaving the pictures?

Ivy's got a convoluted mess on her hands involving secret lives, secret agendas, and a lot of money she can't explain. To top it all off, the decidedly delicious Ben Fallon has turned gourmet cook and chief bottle washer in her house...all while slowly taking over a few of Ivy's drawers.

What's a girl to do? Well, when you're Ivy Morris, you wade on in and hope you stay alive long enough to taste that Chicken Parmesan Ben has cooking in the kitchen.

ENJOY!!! I'm having the time of my life!

Misty :)