Welcome Lea Schizas

Today I have guest blogging the wonderful force behind the new MuseItUP and MuseItHot publishing, Lea Schizas. I am so thrilled to have her and without further ado, here she is.

Thank you, Kat, for allowing me to grace your blog today. As many know, I wear different hats so I’m coming in today as Lea the author, Lea the editor, and Lea the publisher to give your readers some personal thoughts and tips.
Lea the author: I tell everyone that I woke up after a 23-year self-induced coma taking care of everyone else but my desires and finally began my writing career again. The year was 1999 when I picked up my first copy of Writer’s Digest, entered a contest they were hosting, lost, but it doesn’t matter. That was the push I needed to pick up a pen and write and I haven’t looked back again.
As writers we need long term goals to keep us in track with our careers. I won’t go into my goals but suffice to say I’ve achieved them and then some.
There are three things writers need to possess:
· Determination – to keep writing regardless of rejections or naysayers
· Perseverance – to help you climb obstacles that block your creative juices
· Patience – nothing comes ‘fast’ or ‘easy’
Lea the editor: There have been many times when I’ve had to edit manuscripts from authors who have self-published because they were disappointed by reviews that criticized the flaw-filled book. It’s a shame because these books all had interesting tales and characters but the urge to see a book in print prevented these authors from having a second pair of eyes look over their manuscripts.
There is nothing more devastating to an author than to see his or her hard work torn apart. There’s an easy solution to this: join a critique group or find a critique partner. Regardless if I’m an editor, I always have my work dissected by a fellow author or two. They catch things my eyes have read numerous times but simply missed them.
Lea the publisher: Opening my own publishing house was on my long term goal plan I mentioned above. It’s been years that I’ve been studying and mapping out what I wanted as a ‘house’ atmosphere. We opened up to submissions this year and this ‘atmosphere’ from authors, staff, and readers is in play. What is this atmosphere? There is only one kind – a family atmosphere of sharing. I won’t dig into this further because I am not the right one to further this topic but anyone who wants to find out how our authors feel are welcome to contact them and find out. And I say I am not the right one to discuss this only because I may be not be neutral since I have a great admiration and respect for everyone who is involved with either MuseItUp Publishing (mainstream fiction) or MuseItHOT Publishing (romance erotica). This is something I always advice writers when they email me to find out about another publishing house. Although the warning sites are the first place to check I suggest to contact a few authors from that house and get their ‘off list’ impressions first hand.
So regardless which Lea you are talking to, the same tip is given:
Possess determination, perseverance, and patience and this will make your writing life less stressful.
Thank you, Kat, for having the ‘three’ of us here today. Now I must leave and re-enter the asylum before they realize ‘we’ve’ left.

Thank you so much for being here today Lea. It's been an absolute joy to have you! If you'd like to visit the MuseItUp website, go here. And here is where to go to visit the MuseItHot page.

Welcome Guest Blogger Kristy Bock!

I have the wonderful Kristy Bock guest blogging today. Welcome Kristy. And without further ado, here she is.

There is no right way to write

One of the questions that I get asked often is what type of atmosphere do I write in. Well, I’m a single parent of four energetic children. I write in complete and utter chaos. When the sun has just risen and I’m reaching for my first cup of coffee while the children are still nestled soundly in their beds… I turn on some Ben Folds Five, or Green Day to overpower the silence that I just can’t seem to write in. Then, I write while they get ready for school amidst all the confusion and noise that I’m used to.

I do my best writing when everything is so hectic I can’t think straight. My life tends to jump from one state of crazy to another, so my best work stems from writing in my comfort zone… which is to say I could probably write during a hurricane with sixteen children under the age of twelve dancing around a maypole in my living room. What I can’t do… is write in silence. Go figure.

When I wrote Divine Touch, most of work weeks consisted of 60 hours, and I had to tend to homework, teenage angst and two boys who honestly believe they were put on earth to beat the hell out of each other. Each time I look back on that time frame, I do so with the biggest grin because that’s just how we do things. They gave up ‘mommy time’ for me to write the book and I let them jump on the bed while pretending not to notice.

I take my hat off to the folks who have to have things a certain way to be productive. If I had to wait for calm and tranquil living, I’d of written my first book while in hospice care. Of course, they probably wouldn’t have enjoyed putting Lady Antebellum on repeat for six hours just because I happened to love the song ‘I need you now’. Then I’ll play three hours straight of another song that captured my attention. (In retaliation my brilliant but devious children put a song I detested on every playlist I have… I’m permanently scarred for life over the song Fireflies by Owl City.)

So in all this chaos and confusion I have written two books to completion and have two others fast on their heels. That averages about one book every five months. I’m fairly well pleased with this, but I can’t actually say I wrote one until I finished it then started on the next. My brain is so scattered that at any given moment I will have three-four active projects that I flit my short attention span to. It would just make far too much sense to write something front to back. Why would I want to go and do something as logical as that?

The key to a productive writing career, at least for me, is writing before I’ve had enough coffee to realize I’m awake. The key to good parenting is to pretend to know the difference between a yell, a holler, a screech and a blood curdling scream. Two of the three require emergency care, it is vital to know which. Also, it helps to have EMS, Poison control, and grandparents on speed dial.

(I’m kidding… I had those on speed dial long before I started writing!)

In short there is no wrong way to write, there’s no wrong atmosphere or wrong style. Writers write… it’s a rule we all live by. The truth of it is, we’d all write in a cave with rocks that mark the walls if it was the only option available to us.

Kristy Denice Bock

If you'd like to buy Kristy's book Divine Touch, go here. It's available now from Red Rose Publishing. And once again, thank you for being here today with us Kristy.

Release Day For A Friend!

I am so thrilled and pleased to announce that my good friend Kaye Manro's sci-fi romance Forbidden Love has released today from Red Rose Publishing. This is an excellent story and I highly recommend it.

You can buy it here.

For more info on Kaye Manro visit her blog here.

Writing Heroes!

Every time I do an interview one of the questions I get asked is who are my favorite authors to read when I'm not writing. That list is huge. Longer than I have space to fill out on the interviews and longer than I have space here for.:-)

But, it got me thinking about writing heroes. We all have them. One or two particular authors whom we completely revere and find ourselves jumping up and down like a loon when they actually are willing to not only speak to us, but encourage what we do.

My mom's writing hero is Glenn Kleier and today she was floored when he actually emailed her to thank her for mentioning him in an interview she did on Roseanne Dowell's blog. The smile on her face has yet to vanish. She was so honored and speechless that her hero was thanking her for talking about him!

My writing hero is without a doubt N.J. Walters. I fell in love with her Tapestry series and emailed her to let her know it. She emailed me back thanking me for telling her I loved her writing. As if that wasn't enough, she's the one who encouraged me to try submitting my own writing. The woman is a Goddess in my opinion. I even dedicated my debut novel to her because it really is thanks to her I was published. I'd never have tried if not for N.J. Walters and her encouragement.

So the question in, who are your writing heroes? Whoever they are, never forget to thank them for what they have done. Writers are such giving people and are so willing to help others reach their dreams. N.J. Walters, I thank you for what you have done for me. And Glenn Kleier, I thank you for making my mom's day. I love writers!

I'm Visiting Kaye Manro Today!

Hey everyone. I'm visiting my dear friend Kaye Manro's blog today. come on over and say hi.:-)

Working Under Covers is A Bestseller!

Woohoo! It's only been out a day and Working Under Covers is number 9 on Red Rose's bestseller list. I am over the moon. I can't believe it! Thank you to everyone who's bought it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm doing my happy dance right now! I love this series and I had so much fun with Aphrodite and Jordan. These are two great characters.

Working Under Covers Releases Tomorrow!

It's short notice but I just the official word. Working Under Covers, book one in my new Gods At Work series will release from Red Rose Publishing tomorrow, May 6th! I had a whole lot of fun writing this and bringing the Gods of old into the modern world. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

New Contract!

I am beyond pleased to announce that I have just signed a new book contract with Muse It Hot Publishing. This is my first full-length novel so I'm over the moon. The Lighthouse has a release date of January 01, 2011. It's an erotic paranormal romance/ ghost murder mystery. I love this story and can't wait for you all to be able to read it. It was a true labor of love. Stay tuned for more details as they become available. But make sure you visit me at the Muse It Hot blog and check the Muse It Hot website for more details. Woohoo!

Affordable Marketing!

I just bought a batch of bookmarks to use for promos with my upcoming release. I paid $50.00 for 100 bookmarks. I've found a new site that will make them. You can get up to 150 bookmarks for under $45.00. That's less than I paid. I'll definitely be using this place next time. It's called DK Renders and is run by fellow author Delilah K. Stephens.

But bookmarks aren't all she does. For a small fee compared to what other charge, you can have checkbook covers made, book trailers, and way more. If you'd like to know more and see everything she offers, visit DK Renders. Trust me, after what I paid for the first batch, finding this was a Godsend.:-)

I'm Guest Blogging Today!

I'm guest blogging over at the Roses Of Prose blog today. I'm talking about my upcoming release Working Under Covers and giving away prizes so come visit me and say hi. Hope to see you there.