Are You a Multi-Tasker???

I am. Okay, today, I’ve got to start proofing the final copy of SEAL Wolf Hunting. Don’t you love this cover? Besides the guy, I LOVE the wolf. Since I write about wolves, as  in werewolves, but they’re so human and so wolf-like that it seems sacrilegious to call them werewolves–as in a horror version of them, I love to see a beautiful wolf on the cover taking up center stage too. Why? Because the man is not just a man, but a wolf. I love this time with the book–it’s nearly done–just checking to make sure there are no other mistakes, but there are so few, that it’s a time for me to have that one last read that’s more for pleasure than anything, before you get it!

So that’s one of my number one priorities. I also want to continue to work on bears. I finished two last night. I finished making a 3rd, but still need to embroider the paws. :)

Plum bear with plum faux suede paws, 19″

Purple Bear with faux suede paws, 10 1/2″

And I want to get my word count in on She-Wolf. 2500 words a day. I need to be at 8500 today. I’m at 7200 right now. So moving right along. Usually when I get in edits, I have to quit everything and concentrate on only the edits. Then I’m playing a horrible game of catch up. So I’m trying to work on my blogs, word count, then proofing, then bears so I don’t get behind on anything. :)

It’s kind of like playing an RPG, role-playing game. I’m playing Dragon Age: Inquisition for my break time at night once I have all my other stuff done. Yesterday, besides word count, I was critiquing 10 chapters of a critique partner’s book, and while I was playing the game, I was finishing up the bears. Now, I also have to constantly stop to take puppies out, to play with them, cuddle with them, train them, feed them. So I do have other stuff going on. But in the RPG–there’s always a decision to make. Do I concentrate on the Big Boss, the guy with all the strength that is really, really hard to kill, and then work on his minions after he’s dead? Or do I tackle everyone at once? Then once the little guys are dead, I can use all my strength against the big guy?

Well, oftentimes I’ll go after the big guy while the little guys are beating at me too. And when I’m working on my projects, often I’ll tackle the one that needs to be done first–just all day long for every day that it takes to get it done. Then my stack of things to do goes down a little before it goes up a lot again.

So this is kind of a new experiment for me. Working on all things–having a goal for each, and getting each of them done, and not just working on one big project. I think it’s working, so far, because I think when I do just one major thing, I tend to take breaks anyway, and I don’t get as much done. Time will tell.

I want to get half of the proof book done today, and the other half tomorrow. That’s my goal. I need to start sewing up the other bears–4 of them, so another goal. And word count on She-Wolf.
Other than that, that’s it! :)

When you have jobs to tackle, do you go after the tough ones first, or the little ones until you’re ready to tackle the big one? I do that with first line edits. The simple stuff first. Then I tackle the bigger issues. :) When I see a page of issues, I want to reduce the number quickly. Then it doesn’t seem like so much.

Have a terrific Saturday and hope all your issues are little ones. The Big Bosses can be a real chore to deal with.

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Rats in the Attic! And the Muse and Me are in Time Conflict!

Okay, so the termite inspector came out to do his annual check and yes! No termites! Also, and this was so great, so exciting, the puppies didn’t even bark at him! They greeted him and were still shy, but they didn’t bark and misbehave! They even held it so that I could take them out to potty when he left. That’s a BIG deal.

Tanner tuckered out.

The bad news is–hey, without bad news, all the good news is just boring, right? Who wants to hear about all the great news? That everything is going along fine? We want conflict, right? We want to see that someone else has problems so we feel better about our problems, right? Of course. :) That’s what makes life interesting. The conflict. The drama.

Okay, so I’ve got rats in the attic. So says the pest control guy. I KNOW I get mud daubers in the house constantly in the spring through the fall. I know I have a lot of places that things can get in. Never seen a mouse or evidence of mice in the house, though when my parents lived here, the first few years, they had a terrible problem with them. I have snakes in the house. So maybe that’s why?

Anyway, he said that on a little bit of decking in the attic, he could see rat prints in dust, and their droppings. And that there’s a little bit of chewing. So I’ll have to check this stuff myself, document it, and share it. With you. Isn’t that what friends are for???

I’m finishing a book first. I’ve GOT to finish this. Eleven days and it has to be turned in. I have a ton of stuff stacking up in the meantime. Call of the Cougar–need to proof the audiobook for one.
So what’s happening now is my Muse and Me are in time conflict. What this means is that it wakes up at times that I want to sleep. Sure, I hear the puppies stirring a bit, and that’s probably what really wakes me, but then my Muse decides to go through scenarios in my book. Not only that, but it tells me all the things I should have done during the day or when I get up. Like, Hey, did you put the clothes in the dryer last night?

Shoot! Nope. But if I get up to do it right then and there, which I would if I didn’t have puppies, I would wake them, and they’d want to go out.

Now, the problem with that is for the last two nights, I’ve actually put them to bed at 7 pm, then I continue to edit, or write, and they wake up the next morning at 5 am. It’s great! But it means I can’t turn on the light or get up without “telling” them that it’s time to get up. And I want them to learn that 7 pm to 5 am (or later) is their bedtime.

Oh, and you know I do lots of research for my books, so I’ve talked a lot about the phases of the moon in this one, and so I was looking at the phases, making sure I got it right, and wow, guess what I found???? The werewolf diet. Hey, sometimes I can’t even make up stuff that great!

Anyway, so I’ve got to figure out a way to talk about it in the book, that makes it seem seamless. It’s not just an urban legend. Some actors supposedly followed it–Madonna, Demi Moore, according to Grazia. It’s also known as the lunar diet or moon diet. It has to do with fasting during the new moon and full moon. But what’s interesting is that when I was at The International Wolf Center, they fed the wolves only once a week. That’s normally how they eat in the wild. They’ll have a dead deer, for instance, (often road kill and someone will drop it off at the center), and once it’s gone, they don’t get fed until the next week. So it’s really appropriate to call the moon diet a werewolf diet, even though it’s not based on the phases of the moon. Anyway, food for thought.

I now officially have wordcount on A SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble, and then had to turn in the cover sheet specs including the blurb. Now I’m still writing the book, but it’s getting closer to being done. I printed out the first 100 pages, again, and am making more corrections. But I still have to finish writing the book.

Max Rubber Banded in Black and White

I love all his black and silvery tips and hope he gets to keep them as his hair grows out. I was able to pull more of his hair back, but this morning I found Tanner chewing on something, and yep, Max’s rubber band.

When I was coming in from one of my trips outside with the puppies, I saw that the daffodils had bloomed! The day before, I noticed they were getting ready to. It’s amazing how fast they open up when I’m not paying attention. Also, freesia has bloomed!



And all kinds of weed flowers are popping up! And my rosebushes are leafing out.
And white stuff on the roof. 

Okay, back to the book.  Nose to the grindstone and all that sort of thing.
It’s getting closer to being finished! And that’s the main thing!

Tanner stealing away from Place

Tanner stealing away from Place

Learning to Place

The funny thing  is when I say Place, Tanner is the first to get there. But then….he’s the first to leave.

Have a great Saturday!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear: Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

Jaguar Pride Review and Kissing the Highlander is OUT!

Loved this review from: Harlequin Junkie Recommends, and thanks so much to Angela for sending me the link!!!
http://harlequinjunkie.com/review-jaguar-pride-by-terry-s…/…
Excerpt from Jaguar Pride:
In one giant step, he grabbed her up. She squealed, never expecting anything like this, and laughed. She loved it. He tossed her over his shoulder and stalked back to the bedroom.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’ve had enough babysitting duty. It’s time for some grownup action.”

And the Review continues:
So. Much. Fun. Jaguar Pride was an exciting mix of pulse-pounding action while our hero and heroine tracked down bad guys, as well as playful scenes that showed off the cat side of their shifter personalities.
This is the first novel I have read in Terry Spear’s Heart of the Jaguar series and I have to say, I am pretty wowed by the world she’s created. I have read some of her other paranormal titles so I had an idea of her “voice” and writing style, which I’ve enjoyed quite a bit. I thought that this was just as solidly written and that it was actually very unique. I loved that there was an underlying message of how important it is to protect animals, especially exotic breeds, against poachers and ultimately, extinction. There was almost a reverence to the storyline in how the JAG agents protected their fellow shifters and all other creatures in the rainforests.


With so many books in the wolf and jaguar series, this is book 4, but I have 16 wolf books out, 2 cougar shifters, and tons of other books out, I have to do something really different with each one. With this one, they were already seeing someone else. It’s the first time I’ve done that because I didn’t want there to be a stigma about jumping from one situation into another, but also that they were working together before this, and NOT having an affair. Sorry, affairs don’t work for romances, unless the one having the affair is the villain.  But it can’t be the hero or heroine. Soooo, it means setting up the situation so it’s clear they really enjoy working with each other, and admire each other, but it doesn’t go beyond that, until their boyfriend/girlfriends call it quits.

Even though we write what we want to an extent, and each book must be different as readers don’t want to read the same story only with the names changed, we are limited by what is acceptable for the genre–the hero and heroine must be heroic, for one. They can’t be bed hopping when they’re in a relationship with the hero or heroine, lying, cheating, or stealing.

Now there’s a caveat. If the hero and heroine are doing these things for a heroic purpose, then it’s acceptable. It all comes down to motivation. He’s lying to her because if he doesn’t, she’s going to be killed. Castle comes to mind where Rick has to keep secrets from her or the powers to be will kill her. So lying is not a heroic thing, but in this case, it has to be.

Anyway, sometimes we have to write something different that might border slipping into that gray area, but again, we have to have something different in every book so that readers will look forward to it.

If you have read Jaguar Pride, did you enjoy it? I always have fun writing these books. Does it show?

The characters are real, the places real. I often use trip reports to flesh out the reality of the setting–like the donkey braying in one when they were eating at a jungle village cafe. And the woman who rented cabanas and fed wild animals and offered for them to feed them. Only jaguars actually eat those in the wild, not that my hero or heroine wanted to, but they declined. These were in fun trip reports written by folks who had visited the parts of the world that I used as settings and of course, small details were used to create that reality–in a jaguar shifter, or in a wolf shifter world.

Goodreads ~ Shelfari ~ Amazon ~ Apple ~ BAM ~ B&N ~ Chapters ~ Indiebound ~ Kobo –

Daytona Beach
The Raven

On Puppy News: Max is doing so well on his collar, I had it set on 1. Hmmm, maybe I had the collar on too tightly. But he really was paying attention to me despite Tanner attacking him from time to time, and that’s the ultimate distraction. The puppies are still having accidents on the tile floor after their stay in cages for the duration at the Vets. It was better yesterday and we have been fine this morning. But then, they’ve only been up an hour and are now sleeping on my lap. More pictures to come. Need to get back to story. I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!

I should have finished SEAL Wolf Diving for Trouble already so I could be working on my edits. Still trying to come up with an ending. I printed out pages and was editing it on the couch last night as the puppies will sleep on their bedding on the couch and I have total peace.
But, it’s time to get cracking! Deadline quickly approaching!


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Have a wonderful day!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
http://www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears
http://www.celticbears.com

Sick Puppy and Playing Catch Up

Max was throwing up all late afternoon, then got me up at midnight and didn’t make it outside for some of his other hurried business. But despite all the drama and cleanups, I managed to write 7,000 words. Then they wanted back out at 5 and so I stuck them in their crate for another hour of sleep afterward. But of course I didn’t sleep.

I was thinking of my next scene in the book. I left it at a cliff hanger. Heroine is in wolf form, lunges at hero. Normally, this means play time. In A Howl for a Highland Wolf, the heroine tackles the hero because he was late for a date and broke into her house, for good reason. But still, she was the perfect little guard wolf. In others, purely wolf play time. But in this one, she’s totally pissed off.

So that makes for a really fun, different scenario. :) She’s brand newly turned. And what does that mean? A puppy that doesn’t know its own bite power, only she’s armed with adult WOLF teeth, which can crush bones. And he’s in his human form, so stopping an angry wolf makes it a tad difficult. I so love conflict. In my stories. Not in real life. I much prefer no drama. Like yesterday with a sick puppy.

You’d think that if a dog got sick on something, it would teach it not to eat it again. At least one of my dogs that I took in was not that smart. Every time she could get hold of any chocolate, no matter how much I safeguarded it from her, she devoured it and would be just as sick as Max. Didn’t matter. Next time, she’d do it again. I wish I knew what he got hold of. I have them both on leashes when we go out, but he’s tugging one way and Tanner’s tugging the other, so I have a time watching both sometimes.

Okay, so though I wrote a great number of words yesterday, I didn’t write enough. I needed 11,000 to catch up. That means 6500 today, at least trying, then I’m back on track tomorrow.

Max with his hair pulled back

The little devil behind Max that ruined his coiffure.

Max has been so good to allow me to rubber band his hair. I still need little ones. This was a big one and I had to wind it around his hair a number of times to get it to be tight enough. He was sooo patient with me.

Then? You see the little devil dog, Tanner, an angel in disguise behind him, chewing happily away at a piece of rawhide? Well, later, they were playing and Tanner pulled out Max’s rubber band and bit it in two before I got it away from him and threw it out. *sigh*

For those of us who love to read romantic stories, I thought this was so cute.

SEAL Wolf Hunting

This dude sat down next to me on train. He’s so romance novel handsome I’m going to assume he’s a rancher navy seal billionaire werewolf.

All I’ve got to say is I hope she caught her man!

 Okay, puppies sleeping for the moment, so off to finish writing the scene with the lunging wolf. Yep, there she is, mid-air and what’s going to happen next. That’s a real cliff hanger. Oh, and my editor always wants the first kiss by page 60. So I try to have it before because with edits, my pages grow and then I’m past page 60. Dumb, I know. The kiss should happen when the kiss is supposed to happen, not on some arbitrary page number. But still, I was worried about it when I was thinking of the lunging scene.  Have I missed the obligatory kiss by page 60????

Yes, see the dilemmas I have when I have a moment to contemplate the novel?

And OMG, yes, I missed it by 5 pages. I was thinking in the lunge he was going to have to kiss her. Wonder how I was going to do that. But now, can’t do it. It’s got to be at least 5 pages before that. Bummer.

Have a super great wonderful…Saturday? Whoops, need to write another blog. Have fun!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
http://www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears
http://www.celticbears.com

Picture Bloopers with Pets

Don’t you love bloopers? I thought it would be fun to show a couple of the Christmas pictures that didn’t turn out and a couple that did.

Puppies a Blur

Squirmy Corgis

To better. In the shot with the corgis, I think I had my puppies in the bedroom, which was why both were looking that way and not at the camera. Oh, well, at least they weren’t blurs.

And there you have it!  Lots of bloopers and a few nice shots. I might have to include some of this stuff in a story. I actually have a lot of “real” life stuff in my stories, no matter how imaginary they may be.

So, are you doing anything fun today? I’ve been awake since 3, up since 4, so doing anything exciting beyond writing this blog just wears me out thinking about it. :) The audiobook for Call of the Cougar came back last night, so I might start proofing it today.

What about you? Have any plans? Eat special dishes? Black eyed peas? I’m having stuffed bell peppers since I bought them for when my daughter and SIL were here and we didn’t eat them. So that’s on the menu. :)

Happy New Year’s!!!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
http://www.terryspear.com
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website:
http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears
http://www.celticbears.com