The weather here in Oklahoma has been cold. Some would even say freezing. Including ME! This is our Autumn Blaze during the ice storm we had last week. Tree limbs were cracking and falling everywhere but our three year-old tree held strong. My poor si
ster had one tree limb go through her roof. Our neighbor’s massive tree created an ominous backdrop of cracking noises all day. We lost power throughout that weekend, but ice storms have happened here before and once we were out of power a week, so we’re prepared. We fired up the generator. This only gives you power to certain areas, but we make it work. We alternate heat, refrigerator, freezer–to keep food from spoiling–and okay, there was a football game my husband and son couldn’t miss, so the cable had to be on at that point. Seriously, we had oil lamps and candles barely lighting the room, but the OU game was on! 😉
What did I power up? My laptop. You see, it’s old, doesn’t hold battery power anymore, and I’m working hard on SHATTER. Actually, Jocelynn and I both are working hard on it now. I’m at a point where I don’t want to stop writing, don’t want to be bothered. (I’m terrible. I snap at people who call. The only one brave enough to try again is my critique partner, Rachel Vincent, who thankfully gets it. She’s a writer who knows about these times when the story takes over. But yeah, I even sort of grouched at her when she called for plot help.)
So, on this particular ice storm day, I moved my big chair and ottoman to a spot in front of the fireplace, stuck a towel under dripping, wet firewood, bundled up, kept hot coffee going, and wrote some Snow love scenes to warm things. up. AND WOW, DO SNOW LOVE SCENES WARM THINGS UP. I even sent some to Jocelynn, who loves to remind me that she lives in Florida and actually thought of wearing a sweater when it was 65 DEGREES. Still, she loves the Snow scenes. So much, she sends, or posts, things like this. Pitiful, yes?
SHIVER is out now and it’s getting such wonderful reviews. (Look at this latest 5 star one!) Again, we appreciate readers who take the time to post ratings and reviews. This is an independent project we’re doing ourselves out of true love for the stories, so all word of mouth helps more than you know.
Oh!!! Big news!! SHIVER also made a best books of November list with a group of authors that made me happy dance around my cold living room. Plus it’s on Mary Calmes’s blog. If you’ve read this Drake and Elliott blog for any amount of time, you know that she is my number one comfort re-read author. She’s one of my auto-buys, so having our book on her blog was also a bit of a fan girl moment for me. I don’t mind admitting that. The dorky happy dance. <G>