When a Mind Fries -or- The Gratuitous Lighting of Omaha

Something crawled into my brain yesterday, turned on every single freaking light in my consciousness and then jacked up the electricity to “Hello. I’m powering Omaha” levels.

Not kidding.

My power grid is still sore.

Needless to say, the writing I did get done yesterday was a frantic mess of disjointed sentences which will most likely never see the sun. Not that what I wrote was necessarily “bad,” it just felt void of honest inspiration. (The electricity normally earmarked for inspiration was instead busy running the slurpee machines in some of Omaha’s finest 7-Elevens.)

The only thing I did accomplish yesterday (besides driving myself to the county line of Loony) was checking the success of Writhe and “Ravenscar” on the market.

Yep, I did that darn well.

Obsessively well.

Again, no kidding.

I’d sit at the computer for hours and check Ravenous Romance, Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, All Romance Ebooks, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble constantly, non-stop. We’re talking mad, hyper woman at the keys. I’m sure I averaged checking each site fifty times an hour. All freaking day. And I couldn’t stop. Knew I should, but couldn’t…

*sighs shakily*

There are reasons I’m tagged “Mentally Ill.”

Yesterday was a fine example of one of them.

Well, if I haven’t scared too many of you good people away I must tell you that I really missed not writing an evening blog last night. (This change in my ever precious schedule probably did not help with the Omaha issue either.) But I know it’s the sensible thing to do and I will stick to my decision… a little bit of phantom blog pain can be expected though, right? *lol*

Thankfully, I am better this morning. It looks like Nebraska’s largest city will have to power itself today.

Below, I have included a few links to “Ravenscar,” just on the off-chance that somebody out in the huge world hadn’t yet noticed that a second Chloe Stowe release in a week’s time was now out there. (I pride myself on my selfless helpfulness in such situations. *chuckles*)

Ok, I’m out of here.

Survive your Monday everyone, and I’ll try my darnedest to survive mine.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

 

“Ravenscar” at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ravenscar-Chloe-Stowe-ebook/dp/B00KPC3AK0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401711022&sr=1-1

“Ravenscar” at All Romance Ebooks (which includes a nice excerpt): https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-ravenscar-1527648-149.html

Release the Madness!

The words “writhe” and “release” twist and tangle in the morning’s breeze distracting me in the most beautiful way.

Release day is upon us and the sun in my world burns bright and troublingly hot.

Nerves.

Panic.

All those tiresome things that strangle me more times than not are already having a field day this morning.

*angrily sighs*

I get awful tired of me from time to time.

*shivers and gets her crap together*

While Writhe will not hit the bookshelves for a few hours yet, I will not bombard you with promotional teases or pleas to throw a few coins my book’s way (that blog post will come later today *innocently grins*).  I will however give you newbie authors out there a taste of how release day operates for me.

*chairs scrape as 99% of the audience rises and hurries toward the exits*

Ignoring all such clattering like a girl with delusions of grandeur must, I begin…

1) Check Ravenous Romance’s website (www.ravenousromance.com) every few minutes until I see “Writhe by Chloe Stowe” blazing across their homepage as the Book of the Day. (Usually this occurs somewhere around the 11am hour.)

2) Shoot off fast and furious tweets to my followers announcing the initial outing of book #15.  

3) Start the laborious task of posting in all my groups around the web spreading the good word along with a link back to Ravenous (the only place at this early hour for them to buy my masterpiece.)

4) Write and post a “Special Edition” blog complete with official blurb, cover and loooong juicy excerpt for those hungry.

5) After obsessively checking the various ebook suppliers for Writhe’s arrival, I will start peppering out word of my baby’s availability at each of the major outlets. All Romance Ebooks usually comes first with Amazon pulling in the caboose.

6) Once a fair amount of outlets are selling Writhe, I craft the lone promotional email I will send to all my friends and contacts on Facebook, Google, etc. (I never send more than one email to these lists, EVER. They only receive email from me on the day of release of one of my novels. Being thought of as spam is what you’re trying to avoid. So be very creative and as personal in each letter as rationally possible.)

7) Continue checking Ravenous Romance’s Best Selling List. This has been going on rather obsessively since the 11am release, never mind the fact that Ravenous does not update their Best Selling List on any kind of schedule or regularity I’ve been able to figure out over the years. (The OCD tendencies are really out of control with this, but such is life as a crazy person, I suppose. *lol*)

8) Drop exhausted to the bed convinced not one single person in the entire universe has bought my book. Frank, my specter of Writhe’s imminent failure, has by this point reappeared and offered marriage.

Ok, boys and girls, let the madness begin!!!

Until the Special Edition Blog this afternoon…

Chloe

On Hoedown's Eve

Brevyn peeled back his lover’s hands to only find tightly closed and scrunched-up eyes. Samuel looked no more than four and Brevyn had to fight down the urge to scruff his little blond head. “Oh, but you’re going to love this one, Samuel,” Brevyn purpose- fully purred.

Sam moaned. “Just spit it out, alright? Are we parachuting into a demilitarized zone between hostiles to save some kind of ancient crockpot?”

“An ancient crockpot?” Brevyn repeated with a smirk. (Writhe, page 142)

 

 

And there you have it! The final Taste of Writhe before its release tomorrow…

Puking my cowardly guts up at this point would be gauche, right?

*giggles nervously while keeping an eye peeled on the waste basket only a lurch away*

You’d really think I’d be over all of this mental melodrama when it comes to the release of a book. This is my 15^th time, for pity’s sake, but I’m still as skittish as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs (always wanted to use that old saying somewhere *lol*)

I can feel my OCD tendencies gathering themselves up for one heck of a hoedown tomorrow…

Did I just use the word “hoedown?”

Jeez.

The hillbilly blood has picked a darn fine time to peek out. *snickers*

Enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day weekend everyone and I’ll see you tomorrow for the long anticipated release of Writhe!

BYOPB… Bring your own Pepto Bismol.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

 

POST NOTE: I've updated the homepage of my author's website! (www.chloestowe.com) Please check it out if you're keen for some juicy details on Writhe and "Ravenscar".

Lost to the Sand-Weevils of Time

“Brevyn Steed.

Just the sound of his name sent something hot and melty pull- ing at Sam’s heart. It tinted everything a warm umber, casting all in an imaginary candlelight. Reluctantly, Sam closed his eyes. He didn’t trust this thing between them, didn’t trust its staying power past this one current breath.” (Writhe, page 120)

 

Today is indeed brighter.

The panic which had been frothing up from its poorly buried depths yesterday has calmed to nothing more than an occasional murmur of ill-content.

I can handle a murmur.

Writing will be a matter of my spiriting the boring stretches of car races into something fruitful, or at least trying to.

Both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 will be taking up huge stretches of my attention today. Luckily, racing is a sport ideal for accompanying writing jags. (This might be one of those Chloe-things not applicable to any other human being on the face of the planet, but I share it nonetheless.)

It’s funny but I’m having to dig up from memory how to promote a release day. All the little tricks, all those juicy nooks of the web where a post announcing the arrival of a book on market truly gets noticed I’m having to scrounge up from my still-with-a-uterus days of 17 months ago.

I can’t believe it’s been that long since I’ve had anything published.

Wow.

I took last year off from the m/m romance market. After my hysterectomy I wanted to take time to enjoy a life without deadlines every three months, without word quotas, without the hurry-up-and-wait of the writing world. So I did.

Of course, I could hardly give up writing. It is my passion after all. Other projects such as The Sun and the Sand Cat f/m romance thriller off at a literary agent’s office right now filled last year. So it was definitely time well spent.

But…

Seventeen months is a long time.

I just hope the m/m bandwagon still has room for Chloe Stowe.

Until tonight…

Chloe

BREAKING NEWS... from, well, me

I know you're chilling this weekend but...

Creeping in a little late this Friday evening but I come carrying big news.

I, Chloe Stowe, mad authoress extraordinaire, received word from Ravenous Romance this afternoon that my 15^th novel Writhe will be released this Tuesday, May 27!!!!

Let’s all take a moment to enjoy each and every one of the above exclamation points. They have been a very long time in coming.

Tomorrow, I will rev back up the promotional motors on Writhe and tease a little excerpt from the last six chapters each day.

*the world cheers*… at least in my enthusiastic imagination it does.

Expect a cover release this weekend as well. (Now, if I was a pessimistic soul whose glass was eternally half empty, I’d point out that this being Memorial Day Weekend there will not be a soul reading any of my blogs. But since I am a glass half full gal I’m not going to think that way. Nope. Glass half full, baby. *forces a grin*)

So if you could spare a moment between your barbecues, car races, and summer lovin’ to tell family and friends “Chloe Stowe’s Writhe is coming Tuesday!!” I’d appreciate it very, very much. (Imagine the looks you’ll get as you’re passing the potato salad to Great Grandma Edna.)

So, with big news unloaded at your feet I will leave you all to your Friday nights.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

Through Chartreuse-Colored Glasses

Gremlin leavings.

The gremlin of discouragement from this morning, I am glad to report, only left a pale residue on the rest of my day. (A yellowish green taint that reminds one of a moldy chartreuse. *shivers*)

Turning a blind eye to those particular sections of the color wheel, I have managed to get half of my word quota done on Book Two of “The Lion and the Steed” series.

Is it bad that I have to keep reminding myself of the name of the series?

I’m so used to writing a book, promoting that book through release and then moving on to either the sequel or an entirely different universe altogether, that Writhe’s sitting in “publishing house inner-space” has really screwed me up. (And as you well know I don’t need any more screwiness in my life/head.)

Yes, I realize that another nudge Ravenous Romance’s way will be required very soon, but I can’t think about that quite yet. (Mostly because I have no idea what I’m going to say. *lol*)

Alrighty then, I believe the gremlin chartreuse has now officially spread to this blog.

Apologies.

I’ll try to scrub away the remaining gremlin-ness before the next post.

Does anybody have any lye?

Until tomorrow…

Chloe

When the Gremlin of Discouragement Visits

Wednesday is knocking tenaciously at my door. I peek outside and find a gremlin of discouragement has tagged along for a visit.

Goodie.

I ask the little, beady-eyed fellow, “What the heck are you doing here? Nothing bad has happened in my writing career?”

Fists on his bony hips, grotesque tiny noggin cocked arrogantly to its side, he replies, “You almost got it right, lady. Almost.” He snorts out a disgusting little giggle that is more snot than actual snort. “Nothing has happened in your writing career. Nothing. Good or bad, it don’t matter. You’re just treading water, going nowhere.” The gremlin grins, “So, here I am!”

Crap.

The creepy runt is right.

I’m treading. 

Moving nowhere while I’m just hanging out waiting.

Waiting on word from the literary agent. (A perfectly acceptable and expected wait. That’s just part of the “game.”)

Waiting on Writhe’s publication…

“Bullseye, lady!” The gremlin interjects with a bit too much excitement. “That’s why I’m here. Writhe. What are you going to do, huh? What the freaking frak are you going to do about that?”

*hangs head down and sighs*

Good question.

It’s been 2 months and 1 week since I turned Writhe in to the publishing house, a publishing house that has always, ALWAYS, released my previous 14 novels within 2 to 3 weeks of my deadline. More troublesome yet is that they haven’t updated their website in weeks. Their book of the day has been the same book of the day for over 3 weeks…

The gremlin waves and heads for the door. “My job here is done. Have a great day, lady!”

Yeah, a great freaking frak day.

Until tonight…

Chloe

Remember the Lumbering Beast

Monday has lumbered back into our lives again, loaded down with all of the must-do’s the weekend had been gracious enough to turn a blind eye to.

I am so not looking forward to the baggage the day will be dumping at my feet. Let’s have a look at what will be squishing my poor, undefended toes this morning…

1.) Got to call the body shop about the state of my brand new, little Civic which was laid low by a big, hulking Ford Explorer on April 19^th. Repairs, which will include two new doors, new panels over the front wheel and a whole bunch of other crap I have no idea what it does or where it goes, are scheduled to be done May 16. Time to check if that’s still the big day. (Remember: talking to body shops, mechanics and the like always leaves me feeling dumb as a corn flake.)

2.) Have to eat at some point. Yuck. (Remember: a disdain for eating is one of the more unusual quirks to the Chloe Stowe madness.)

3.) Waiting on my mother’s regular checkup at the doctor’s. I tuck this must-do here in the middle of the list hoping it will disappear altogether. (Remember: an utter belief that Fate is about to strike me and my loved ones down is one of the very worst symptoms of my mental illness.)

4.) Got to think about writing Ravenous Romance for a check on Writhe’s progress.  I’m not quite sure yet if I’m going to give them one more day to hear from them about either the cover or the release date. It’s been almost 2 months since I turned Book One of “The Lion and the Series” in and 2 weeks since I last heard from them, so I think a check/nudge is appropriate, right? Right? (Remember:  I hate to nudge.)

5.) Another 750 words on Book Two of “The Lion and the Steed” series is on the plate today. While this is hardly a burden, it is a little disheartening to write on a sequel to something whose original’s release date is still up in the air.

So, as you can no doubt see my poor defenseless toes won’t necessarily be broken by today’s load of must-do’s, but they will be badly bruised. I’m particularly worried about my littlest toe. It’s particularly fragile to Mondays.

*chuckles*

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Until tonight…

Chloe