Maria's Journal

Yes, the season to be overwhelmed! Lots of holiday events, gift exchanges and gatherings to attend, oh my! :D Let me take a step back and say a big helloooo since it's been forever since my last post! Okay, so that's a little dramatic it's been less than a month, but it's probably the longest I've gone without posting 'something'. Now, this is not to imply that I've been disconnected, no! Actually it's quite the opposite... First let me give you an update on the MS that I'd submitted to IRN. After all the changes and modifications done the material was still not up to par with IRN's inspirational/sweet romance theme ;-) This is okay - it's all part of the writer's process, you win some, you lose some (so I'm losing more than I'm winning but who's counting...lol). Second, let me say that NaNoWriMo went very well. Not only did I win with over 50K words written, but the experienced I gathered was invaluable. I am a diff...

Family/Friends, Day eleven of my first NaNoWriMo journey ever and guess what?  I've managed to maintain the daily word quota necessary to keep me on track. Yay! This hasn't come without it's challenges however. I'll tell you there have been days when I sat there at computer for a half hour just staring at the blinking cursor on the screen, thinking...why did I sign up for this?! Thank God for wine...lol! All joking aside though, working on NaNo has given me discipline.  Committing to writing 50K by 11/30 puts a lot of pressure on someone :-) So I've made myself sit and type and do what I like to call, 'brain dump'. This is when I just sit and write whatever comes to mind. I can write chapter one, then turn around and write chapter six, I can even write the last chapter and it would still be okay. As you can see I've developed my own system for winning (completing 50K). But I can still certainly us...

Family/Friends, I'm six and a half days way from going into a NaNoWriMo 'leave of absence'. Yep, this means the Flash Fiction Friday section of my website will be on hold until 12/7.  Also, I don't expect to be online much (Twitter or Facebook), but will check email periodically. On a side note, I want to say thanks to those of you who have recently signed up to this blog, I appreciate you.  Oh, and thank you also to those folks who have visited this site from Russia,  Sweden, and Malaysia. I think that's pretty awe-SOME! Well, that's all for now. Until next time! Maria

Family/friends, First off, I'd like to inform you that I did receive word back from the publishing firm, and I'm still working on edits/rewrites-round three!  And though this is all very exhausting right now I know it will all be worth it in the end. Second, I'd like to say that the Amazon release day for my eBook Captive in the Game was phenomenal as over 1,600 people downloaded free copies of my book, this put me at Top 150 Amazon Best Sellers Rank Free in Kindle Store (at #143) on 10/1. Thank you to everyone who pitched in to help disseminate the information. I truly appreciate you. Lastly, I want to advise those who follow my Flash Fiction Friday (FFF) Section that will be taking the month of November off from posting weekly stories as I will be dedicating my writing time solely to NaNoWriMo - FFF will resume on 12/7. That's all folks.  I hope you guys have a great weekend and for those lucky enough, have a great long weekend :-...

Family/Friends, Yes, it is that time of year again when the leaves change colors and the days get shorter and cooler and....WAIT! That's everywhere but Phoenix of course :)  Our fall doesn't start until right around Halloween. So that means that we still have about five weeks of 90+ degree weather, YAY...not! Either which way folks, we are looking at just about ninety days out until Christmas, there, I said it! So don't say you didn't have enough time to buy your dear Auntie Mary a gift, you've been given plenty of warning....lol. Moving on to business, I'll tell you guys that at on 9/30, I will be publishing my fourth eBook, Captive in the Game and it will be FREE for 24 hours on Amazon.  I will be sending further communication via Twitter and FB, so stay tuned for that.  With respect to the MS that I submitted (to IRN) the Acquisitions Editor contacted me and stated that it may be until early next week before someone gets...

Family/Friends: First and foremost happy Labor Day weekend to you all!  I hope you and yours are enjoying the time off and spending it doing something fun. Second, I want to let you know that I'm excited (and nervous of course) because just yesterday I sent in my 21K+ word story to the publisher for consideration.  I should point out that the publisher had already read the 1st Edition of the book which resulted in them requesting modifications and requesting extra word count, hence the 2nd Edition of the book.  In the meantime, until I hear back from them, I am furiously working on other projects some of which have fallen by the wayside when I took on the 2nd Edition challenge . Amongst my plans for the remainder of the year are the release of two other eBooks, several interviews in September & October, and time permitting I do want to delve into restructuring two books which were also submitted to other publishers but rejec...

Family/Friends, With the Snowed In - 2nd Edition MS still in revision, I've had time to catch up this last week with other pressing items, reviewed a story for a fellow romance writer, wrote up my monthly Social Media Corner article for the PWC Newsletter, helping the PWC board with website revisions, wrote up two guest posts for other blogs and of course daily reading and writing. Talking about reading and writing, my reading challenge has been going well as I've already met my one romance book a month quota last week. As far as my writing, the 1K word a day challenge went well the first week, but then with so much editing it became very difficult to do both edit endlessly and write (to meet my self-imposed quota). I will, however, resume my1K word a day challenge on 9/1. On a side note, I'll tell you that after attending an online workshop for romance writing plots just yesterday I'm psyched for my next project so be on the look out for that :-) Well folks, t...