Blood Oranges

Got the word this evening that Breathless Press accepted my vampire short story "Blood Oranges" for their Crimson vampire anthology.

That's two anthologies! Woot!

Below is kind a visual representation of how I feel. The leather sculpture is a work by artist Rayna Masters. Isn't it beautiful?
More of her work can be found at  www.raynamasters.com. Check her out.

Crimson

I submitted my short story "Blood Oranges" to Breathless Press' Crimson Anthology today.  It features a hero who is a vampire fruit bat and a heroine who owns a fruit orchard.

Here are some images of fruit bats.

This one is eating oranges!

A bell pepper I think. Look how cute!

Check out those wings.

 

This one looks like a wolf with wings.

 Truly vampiric.

Series Titles

A couple of days ago, I submitted my title ideas for both of my series to my editor, the fab April Chapman.

It's official. Both were approved! : D

Look out world. Sexy Scots and Hot Hybrids are coming your way!!!

Accepted Is A Beautiful Word

I have good news to report here at http://persephone-jones.blogspot.com/! :)

"Heart Of Stone" has been accepted by Breathless Press. Woo-hoo!

Three cheers for gargoyles. Cheer, cheer, cheer!

Image of Goliath and Elisa from the animated series Gargoyles. Credit goes to www.djinn-world.com.

This is the first of my WIPs of 2012 to be submitted and accepted, so this is good.

WIP#2 of 2012

Working Title:  Heart of Stone
Genre:  Erotic Romance, Paranormal, Gargoyle
Heat Rating:  Hot, hot, hot!
Inspiration pics below...
Sterling Archer looks a lot like my story's hero, Griffin Lux.

WIP#1 of 2012

I missed my desired deadline but I have completed my first WIP of 2012, entitled Virgin Unbound, a story about a virginal bookworm and her hunky professor. I am off to a good start! Here a few images I found on the internet that resemble the images in my head that inspired me to write the story...

Love Hurts

Well, not a happy post to be sure. Sadly, Cougar's Kiss will not be published any time soon. As it turns out, I must return it to the drawing board and rework it extensively. I do however believe Cougar's Kiss will be published one day. At its heart, it is a really good story and worth putting out in the world. For now, it will go on the back burner to simmer for a while. When the time is right, Sierra and Joseph's story will return to my computer screen. Sometimes the best things in life are hard won. Maybe Cougar's Kiss is one of them.

Mating Season Cover

I didn't have any specific ideas for the cover of my latest story (usually I have some vague idea of how I would like a cover to look) so I told the creative powers that be at SFP to go for it. My only request was that they made sure to put a hot Native American guy on the cover. Score!

Here it is...my uber-super-duper cover for Mating Season. My (count it, people!) THIRD release with Shadowfire Press! Is the studly-muffinous hero coverbabe reeking of hawtness or what? :)

Accepted

Shadowfire Press accepted "Mating Season"! Whoo-hoo! *Snoopy happy dance*

I did it. Comes out April 1st. No, seriously, that's not a joke. :)

Mating Season

Back on New Year's Eve or thereabouts Michael Barnette of SFP asked me when I was going to send them more stories. I asked him if he was still accepting stories for the Easter line and he said they were. I had the perfect Easter-themed story, Mating Season. So I went to work for all of January getting it polished and submitted it today.

*huge sigh* Now for copious amounts of nail-biting, profuse sweating, and pins and needles-sitting.

This is the first submission without the aid of any CP and I hope I did a good job. Wish me luck!

Love Me Two Times

I feel like Jim Morrison. "Seeing Stars" has been accepted by Shadowfire Press! I am very excited about being a twice-published author. Once again, I want to thank my awesome CP Kitty Cahill for helping me put the finishing touches on Payton and Savannah's story. HUGS! Her Scooby sense told her to tell me some good news was coming my way. And as usual, she was SO right. Then I checked the date. It's the 8th. Eight happens to be my all-time favorite/lucky number.

Now, I'm seeing stars.

Seeing Stars

I sent my second submission "Seeing Stars" to Shadowfire Press today. It's for their Love and Fireworks: Fourth of July theme open call. Once again, my CP Kitty Cahill, helped me polish it and I send her a big red, white and blue kiss for it! (MWAH!)

Wish me luck!

P.S. When I went to the grocery store this evening, my checker's name was...get this--Payton. Is that a good omen or what? :)

Oh The Horror

Gotta love the snail mail. It occured to me that I may not have put enough postage on my envelope containing my contracts to Shadowfire. There is but one word for this and that word is

ARG.

But it's all good as they say. If they come back the folks at Shadowfire told me to resend them. I think I'll be taking the envelope inside the post office next time this happens. Did you see that--"the next time"? Optimism! *Gasp*

P.S. Enjoy the evil mail kitty.

Signed Sealed Delivered

I had my husband print up my contract forms for Shadowfire Press today. He brought them home, I signed and dated them, put them in an envelope, and addressed it. It's all ready to go back to Shadowfire tomorrow morning.

Wow!

Woo-Hoo

The unbelievable has happened. My short story "In Heaven's Arms" has been accepted by the editors at Shadowfire Press. This is awesome news. It will be my first publication. I am sooo excited. :)

(Insert an even louder hysterical scream here...)
This part of my post is going to sound like it just got doused with a box of melted Velveeta cheese but I don't much care, since I have every right to be out of my mind for a second. This would not have been possible were it not for the support of my darling husband, my CP (the uber-awesome Kitty Cahill) and my mom. Not to mention the scores of English teachers who showered me with praise whenever I wrote something they liked.
Lastly thanks to Shadowfire Press for giving this girl a chance.
Hugs for everyone!

Luck O' The Irish

The luck o' the irish. Wearing green. Being redheaded. Call it what you will. I got some wicked good news today. My short story, "In Heaven's Arms", has passed the preliminary reading and has been sent to the senior editor at Shadowfire Press! That I submitted--yesterday.
(Insert hysterical scream here...)
Needless to say, I believe...

Flying Free

Well, for better or worse my short story "In Heaven's Arms" is complete and out of the nest. I submitted it to Shadowfire Press with my CP's best wishes. I am nervous but also relieved.

Now, onto the next story! Back to work!

No News Is Bad News

The open call for the Ellora's Cave Caveman Anthology ended sometime late last year. The information sheet said they would make their decisions/notifications by the end of the calendar year. So since it is officially February I can safely say I probably didn't make the cut.

Meanwhile, yet another unpublished writer friend has been offered a contract with an erotic romance e-publisher. Which leads me to my next thought...am I really that bad?

The Caveman

It's Friday and I feel like a 9-to-5 regular having just completed my short story "The Caveman." I'm planning on sending it off tonight. Thanks to my fab cp, Cynthia Rayne, I think I have a shot at this publishing thing. :)

Thanks Cyn!

P.S. Here's a link to Cynthia's awesome work. You go CRay!
http://www.ellorascave.com/AuthorsBooks.asp?AuthorCode=CRay

Groovin'

The writing gods and goddesses have been good to me lately. The only reason why I can figure is that pound of flesh I left at the dermatologist's office when he whittled away at my finger with a razor blade. I guess that qualified as a human sacrifice.

I hardly miss the finger, by the way...

...kidding.

I've kept busy on three short works that have a real shot at being in print. I re-named them and am currently at work on expanding them. The feedback has been positive and couldn't have made me feel better. Joining a critique group was also a good idea. All their criticisms were legit and insightful.

Even better, the trilogy has inspired a spin-off that could be as equally promising.

I'm still vacillating on whether to enter the Siren contest. I don't want to split the trilogy and feel that the editor at Liquid Silver was right about expanding the stories.

I'll probably pass Siren up as well as Liquid's Zodiac contest and just submit them at a later date when they're all they can be rather than squeeze them into strict guidelines and parameters.

Phaze has a September contest I'm considering but the word count limit is 12K. That's awful short but I may shoot for it anyway. Worst I can do is miss.