Trying to get started off on the right foot here, so I’m beginning this year of blogging with a few of my goals for 2011.

First, I will blog more regularly. No, really! Lol! I’m going to blog at least once a week and start a few new features that, hopefully will breathe some new life into this tired old blog.

One of the things I have planned is a feature borrowed from the Page 99 web site where the blog features page 99 from whatever book is being spotlighted. My plan is to showcase page 99 from some of my own books and to invite other authors to do the same. I think it’ll be fun and doubtless will add to my already mountainous tbr list.

As for the writing in 2011, I have at least two novels contracted and possibly even three along with at least one novella that will release in April. I’ll be sharing more specifics about the stories in my future posts, so come back for sneak peek excerpts and other fun stuff.

Specifically, I plan to write at least 1000 words every day. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but a girl’s got to start somewhere, right? Lol! I also want to post some freebee stories here on the blog and in my yahoo group.

So that’s the plan for 2011.

I hope everyone had fun last night ringing in the new year. I know I did.

Wow, last week was a hideously unproductive week.

I met none of my goals. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I did manage to get one lesson written for the novella writing workshop and I discovered a major plot problem in DWD, but as for wordage … I got nothin’. *sigh*

In fact I’ve been so distracted and disorganized that I didn’t even get this lack of progress report filed on Sunday as I’ve been trying to do.

But that was last week.

So here we go. Goals for this week:

1 Finish three lessons for the novella workshop.

2 Revise/rewrite chapters 9 and 10 of DWD.

If I can get that much accomplished, I will be a happy camper. Until next time.

A friend from RRW does a thing on her blog that she calls her Sunday report card where she reports on how she did on her writing goals for that week. She also sets goals for the upcoming week. She says that declaring her goals publicly makes them more real and acts as the stick (as in carrot and stick) that encourages her to get them done.

I can see a lot of value in this, so beginning today I will be doing my Sunday Progress Report.

I had two goals this past week, and didn’t accomplish either of them. But I did get a few other things done. So here are my goals for this week:

1 Finish two lessons for the workshop I’ll be teaching in September.

2 Write 3k on the story I’m working on about the art forger.

3 Revise chapters 8, 9 and 10 of DWD, my current WIP for MLR which I’d hoped to have turned in by now.

So there they are, my goals for the week. Next Sunday we’ll see how I did. Wish me luck.

I’m back from my New Years vaca and ready to dive back into the writing.

Key West was fabulous as always, though a bit chillier than we like. Our friends down there think when the temp dips below 65F that they’re freezing. Lol!

We came home to 29F and snow this morning. Now *that* is cold!

Wow, I have so much to do and share with you all. I’m finishing up edits on Bound To Please, so you should be seeing that story in the very near future. I also got the cover art which was done by the

incomparable Anne Cain and I’ll be sharing/showing that off any day now. Also there are edits on a new antho story called His Leading Man which is a sequel to David and Kieran’s story from the BB anthology. So lots to get to.

Be well and happy!

The revisions are going slower than I’d like, but I am making progress. Thanks to everyone who has given me such lovely feedback on the teaser excerpts I’d posted both here and in various chats.

As I said, the book should be out later this summer. It’s a long one, longer than I had originally planned which is probably why it’s taken longer than I had hoped. But the story is nearing completion. Yay! And I hope to be moving on to other projects very soon.

If you write GLBT romance and are interested in creating and supporting a chapter that focuses on the GLBT romance genre please consider joining the group
so that the degree of interest can be assessed.

 You do have to be a member of RWA to belong to a special interest RWA chapter but for now, we just want to see if there is sufficient interest to warrant
the large effort of creating, maintaining and promoting the chapter. Whether you belong to RWA, are thinking of joining the RWA or just want to know more
about the possibilities, please consider clicking on the link below and joining us for discussion.

http://groups.google.com/group/rwa_rainbow_romance_chapter?hl=en

sincerely,
Laura Baumbach

And here’s the blurb for the story.

Jason doesn’t do monogamy and as a popular Dom he doesn’t have to. He has his choice of playmates any night of the week. So when he gets a chance to play
with Benny, a sweet young thing who wants only to please him, it’s game on.

Benny tells himself that a chance to serve the sexy Dom is all he needs. But when the rules change and they’re playing for keeps, it’s love not leather
that’s bound to please.

Well, not exactly a new blogger. You’re still stuck with me and my mediocre blogging skills. Lol! But I’m going to make a real effort in 2009 to be a more faithful (read more regular) blogger here. Call it a resolution if you like, but it seems those are made to be broken. So let’s just say you’ll be seeing more from me in the coming year.

Let’s see, a few things have happened since I last blogged.

First, and probably most exciting is that my novel, Phoenix Rising, finaled in the GLBT category of the Eppies. I just about fell off my chair when I opened that email and got the news. The winners will be announced in March at the annual Epic conference in Las Vegas.

I finished working on Snake Charmer, a short novella destined for the Shifting Sands anthology, a project I’m doing with the ladies in my critique group.

I also finished a novella titled Woman’s Weeds which will appear in an upcoming anthology from MLR Press called Bravo! Brava!. This antho was my own brainchild and so is close to my heart. Each of the stories (there are three of them) is set in the theatre and features a x-dresser. Publication is scheduled for March ’09.

As I write this post I am working on the synopsis for Bound To Please, my second book written in the Phoenix Rising universe. It is Benny and Jason’s story and hopefully will be available some time this summer.

That’s all the news for right now.

But before I go, my promise to you is a post at least once a week. So I’ll see you next Monday, if not sooner. Until then, read well and often.

This weekend I really kicked it on my NANO project. I wrote 5,136 words in just two days which for me is pretty damn impressive. *g*

Today things will get even more challenging since I have a story that I need to finish and get turned into my editor by the end of the week. And that will be in addition to keeping up my 2k a day word count for NANO. So it’s back to work I go.

Yeah, I’m still alive. *g*

And I’m getting ready to participate in NANOWRIMO, or National Novel Writing Month. I need to get some serious wordage down on my next novel-length project and I’m thinking NANO is the way to do it.

What is NANO, you may ask. Well, it’s a national (and now international) event in which writers, both published and not, pledge to write a 50k novel during the month of November.

There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the gist. If you really want to know more, go to the NANO web site and you can read all about it. And maybe even sign up yourself, if you’re bent that way. *g*

Anyway, my plan is to write 2,000 words every day during November, no exceptions, not even Thanksgiving, until at the end of the month I have 60k toward my next project.

So wish me luck.

I’ll be checking in here throughout the month to let you know how I’m doing, so check back often and give me some encouragement. I have a feeling I may need it.