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Most of you know I just released Soul of a Vampire. This is the thirteenth work I’ve released (although two of the releases are compilations of some of the others), and I still get all excited when I release something new. Keep your fingers crossed for me. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway on my blog!

Now on to the next project. I finally started looking over the notes my husband and I made last May for a book idea that came into his head. Some of you will remember that my husband suddenly had this awesome idea for a book, and I told him I would write it for him. We brainstormed on the way to Florida when we were going on vacation. I think the way I’ll handle the author credit on this book is to put both of our names on it. Or say Lauralynn Elliott with Jim Elliott…something like that. Anyway, after going over the notes and getting a rough outline, I know how this book starts and ends. I have several points for the middle, but a lot of those will be filled in later. I’m excited and scared because I’ve never collaborated with anyone before, and I certainly never thought it would be my husband I would write a book with. My plan is to write at least one hour a day, five days a week on this. We’ll see how that goes.

Now that Soul of a Vampire is up on Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, it’s time to announce what I’m giving away to celebrate the release. At first, I was going to just give away swag, which is basically items with the book cover images or some other promo type items. I’m still going to send bookmarks to the winner, but I wanted to find something special. I searched and searched for the perfect thing I was looking for, and I finally found it. Everyone who comments on this post and tells me their favorite gem through October 23 will have their name entered into the drawing, which will be done by using random.org. The winner will receive a Smashwords coupon code for a free copy of Soul of a Vampire, some bookmarks with the cover picture, and……THIS:

Garnet Jewelry Mentioned in Book

This picture doesn’t do this necklace and earring set justice..it’s much prettier when you actually see it. There is a garnet jewelry set (sorry, there was no bracelet with the one I bought) in Soul of a Vampire. I know these aren’t real garnets, or I wouldn’t have been able to afford the necklace, but they LOOK like garnets. LOL. Anyway, good luck everyone. Please tell your friends how they can win this necklace and earring set. Remember, the only thing you have to do is comment and tell me your favorite gem. There is no obligation to review the book or Tweet or mention on Facebook or…. See, I’m easy to get along with.

Just wanted to let you guys know that Soul of a Vampire is up on Amazon now. Soul of a Vampire

It should be up on B & N soon. As soon as it is, I’m going to announce the giveaway I promised. 🙂

I was going to upload SoaV during lunch today. Then I realized I needed a blurb. Duh. Then Amazon says KDP is not working and to come back later. Seriously? So, right now, SoaV is up on Smashwords only. Here is the link. Soul of a Vampire. Hopefully, Amazon will be up and working tonight so I can upload. And I plan to do B & N tonight, too. Right now, I’m off to file several reports to several different states. Stupid day job. (Just kidding…I actually like my day job!)

Keep checking back on my blog to see what I’m giving away in honor of publishing Soul of a Vampire. (I’ll post that when SoaV is published on all venues.) All I’m saying is that it’s pretty and it relates to something in the book. 😉

There’s not a lot of writing stuff going on right now. I’ve had a lot of OTHER stuff going on. The biggest thing on my plate was the banquet, with entertainment, that we did at our church for our “over 65” members. We did a Hee Haw skit which turned out hilarious. I’m glad that’s finally off my plate. Hopefully, I can get started on my new book this week.

I hope I can finish the last few things that need doing on Soul of a Vampire tonight. Maybe I can upload it for publication tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I skipped a couple of workouts last week, so I only got in two. I just had too much other stuff to do during lunch those other two days. Back on track next week!

Kait Nolan once said the Black Dagger Brotherhood Books by J.R. Ward were like crack. I resisted reading them for a long time because, from what I’d heard, they sounded kind of silly. Not so! They ARE crack. Honestly, I can’t put my finger on the exact reason they are so addictive. I think it’s because they are so intense, and you get entangled in their world. And each book, although it’s about a certain brother, is a teaser for what might happen in the next book. You have to keep reading.

Anyway, I’m about an hour away from finishing book #3. I like to listen to the audio books for this series. The narrator is awesome. Anyway, this has been my favorite book so far. This one is jam packed with emotion. This is the only one so far that has actually made me CRY. More than once. There are a couple of things that happen that are so sad. One of them will stay sad. I think the other situation will work out in a happy way. But I don’t KNOW for sure. When a book touches my emotions like this, I feel like I really got my money’s worth in buying it. I plan on listening to all of them, if possible. I will have to listen to some other things in between because I don’t think I can just listen to them all back to back. My tastes are too eclectic to stick with the same genre for a long time. But you can bet I’ll be back to read the next one!

Where is the time going? It’s already getting close to the middle of October!

I finally finished edits on Soul of a Vampire. Everything is almost ready. I say almost because I always let my mom have a go at my manuscript before publishing. She’s caught things that NO ONE else has. She doesn’t see very well, so I still can’t figure out how she does it. LOL. Also, I think Anya had a couple of questions, so I need to get those from her. So it’s almost time. Publishing should happen this week or the beginning of next week. Once again, I have something going on to distract me from writing stuff. Our church congregation does a little dinner and program for our senior citizens every year, and I’m part of the entertainment. So there’s practicing, rehearsing, then the real thing. I hope I can find a really being pair of overalls. Got you curious now, haven’t I?

So what do the rest of you think of the Author Rank thing going on at Amazon?

I’m really too tired to post anything coherent. I got the beta read done for a friend while I was manning the booth…you know, the one where nobody bought anything. Well, not much. As most of you know, I got stuck in an elevator (for all the details, see yesterday’s post). I didn’t get any editing or writing done. Going to bed soon. It was a long trip back. My sponsor duties will have to wait until tomorrow. But I haven’t forgotten you guys! 🙂 Goodnight.

You know when you see those movies where people get stuck in elevators and they are between floors so they have to jump down to get out? Yeah, that was me. When the dinner at the conference was over tonight, we all went to the elevators to go back to our rooms. (Anya had already gone up to the room earlier.) All the doors were open and it said the elevators were out of order. We were supposed to use the service elevator. So nine of us got into the service elevator, and it gave a little lurch and stopped. I have a little bit of fear of elevators anyway because of the aforementioned movies. And I’m very claustrophobic. We knocked on the door, rang the emergency bell, BEAT on the door to no avail. Finally, one of the people in the elevator yelled that we were stuck. A voice on the other side said, “Are you really stuck?” Seriously? In the meantime, someone on the elevator called 911. They were about to send the fire department. But finally, they were able to pry the doors open. They had to get us a chair to step down on. All I could think of then was a movie or two that I’ve seen where someone is halfway out and the elevator starts up again and cuts them in half. *shivers* As soon as it was my turn, I was out of there. Then I had to WALK up to the 9th floor. Because I had told the people in the elevator I was claustrophobic, one of the ladies found out my room number and called me to make sure I was okay. She said I shot out of that elevator and ran away, out of breath. I was REALLY out of breath when I got to the room!

My question to myself is…will I be able to step into that elevator in the morning to go home? I hope so, because I can’t imagine lugging my suitcase, backpack, and purse down eight flights of stairs.

It looks like the release date of Soul of a Vampire is going to have to be delayed. I had forgotten about our revival, so going to church every night made editing impossible. Also, I agreed to beta read, so I felt like I should get that done first. She’s always quick to get mine done. Not to mention that I’m REALLY enjoying the story! 🙂 I’m taking my laptop with me to Tallahassee in the morning, so hopefully I can get some things done while I’m gone this weekend. I’m taking Anya with me and we’re manning a booth, hopefully selling products from my day job. Something funny…one time I was at one of these shows, and we were so idle at our booth, that I wrote almost the entire short story, The Beast in the Mirror. So I MIGHT actually do some stuff while I’m sitting idly twiddling my thumbs working.

Have any of you that use Google Chrome for your browser had any problems with PubIt? I tried to log on to check my sales last night, and the login button wouldn’t work. I thought it must be a glitch. I tried again this evening with the same results. On a whim, I went to Internet Explorer and tried from that browser. No problems! Has PubIt decided it doesn’t like Chrome? I hate it when a site only works with certain browsers!