Kimberly Gardner

Happy New Year!

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.

My new novella, Almost Heaven, went live yesterday! Yay!

It’s my first publication with Loose-ID and I’m totally pumped about it. I feel like I won the lottery. But I always feel like that on release day. Lol!

Anyway, here’s the 411 on the book and an excerpt to give you a little taste. Continue Reading »

On the 28th of this month I have a new release called Almost Heaven. It’s my first book with Loose-ID and I’m very excited. Because release day is just around the corner, I wanted to share an excerpt with you. Enjoy!

Continue Reading »

The anthology I

m in along with my friends Jet Mykles and Charlie Cochrane, Encore! Encore!, just got a new review. It got four kisses from Lisa at Michele and Jeff’s review blog.

Lisa called the antho a “great read” and had lots of nice things to say about all three stories. About my story His Leading Man she said,

”
I was entirely invested in the outcome of the challenges these two wonderful characters faced. The plot was perfectly paced, keeping me turning pages in earnest in hopes of finding a happy ending. This was a story of sacrifice, of overcoming obstacles, and of realizing what will ultimately bring true joy and satisfaction to life.”

You can read the review in its entirety at the following link.

http://michelenjeff-reviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/encore-encore-by-jet-mykles-charlie.html

A while back I wrote a story for an anthology of cowboy shifters. It was quite a switch for me, being both western and paranormal. But because of one thing and another, the project got side-tracked to the point that I had more or less written it off.

Then the other day I heard that the antho will be going to formatting by the end of the week. Which means it will be releasing soon. Yay!

The anthology is called Shifting Sands and contains stories by Jet Mykles, Ally Blue, Willa Okati, J.L. Langley, Brenda Bryce and me.

When I have an exact release date you guys will be the first to know.

A lot happened this week, though whether or not I met my goals is sort of debatable. *g*

I received and finished the line edits on my novella that’s releasing later this month. That’s a huge thumbs-up since I not only hate line edits, but I’m totally pumped about this book. It will be my first publication with Loose-ID and I’m really excited about that. I also got a cover draft for that book which I will share just as soon as I get the go ahead. Promise.

Let’s see, what else?

I’ve been working on the revision of DWD and it’s coming along, just a lot slower than I’d like. I’ve spent most of the week on chapters nine and ten and don’t know yet if they’re right, but I suspect I’ll leave them for now. Oh, and I had to cut a sex scene. *cries* But it simply wasn’t working with the revisions I’ve made. Of course cutting it has complicated things since I lost a big chunk of conflict that was driving subsequent scenes, so I need to rework some stuff in chapters ten and eleven.

I haven’t forgotten that I promised an update on the other projects I’ve got in the works, but that will have to wait maybe a few more days. I need to do some long-range planning then I can talk more about those future projects.

So until next time …

Not a horrible week, but not a stellar one either. Witness how late I am with this progress report. Yeah.

Anyway, I did get some writing done. I revised chapter seven of DWD and I wrote another lesson for the novella writing workshop.The workshop starts on the 8th and I have three more lessons to go, so guess what’s on this week’s list? *g*

I was also really busy with the Rainbow Romance Writers contest, the rainbow awards of excellence. We have been swamped with entries over the past week. So much so that it’s been rough for Sara and I to keep up. Hard to believe that I was worried that we wouldn’t get many entries. At last count we were pushing a hundred entries and may well have surpassed that number by now. *happy dance*

But I drift off point.

Goals for this week:

1 Revise chapter eight and rework chapters nine and ten of DWD.

2 Finish the lessons for the novella workshop. As I said, there are three left to do.

That should keep me busy, don’t you think?

Next time, along with my weekly report, I’ll give an update on where I am with the work I have contracted for the near future as well as a glimpse into what I have planned for next year’s writing schedule.

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.

I got a very nice review for my novel, Bound To Please from Christina at Romance Junkies.

She says in part, “Ms. Gardner has created three very distinctive and fascinating heroes. I enjoyed getting to know them. Each man brings unique strengths to the relationship. Benny, Rain, and Jason may be very different but they work well together. Things aren’t always easy between them but as they work together to overcome their problems they grow closer. I also liked the way that all three of them relate to each other individually. Benny has strong feelings for both Jason and Rain and vice versa. Their relationship is complex and very believable. BOUND TO PLEASE by Kimberly Gardner is a compelling and satisfying BDSM romance.”

Read the entire review,

http://romancejunkiesreviews.com/artman/publish/contemporary/Bound_To_Please_KG.shtml

This is my first week *officially* reporting in on my weekly goals, and it went pretty well, all things considered.

My goals were to finish two lessons for the novella writing workshop, write 3k on Jake and Dennis’s story and revise three chapters of DWD.

The revision didn’t happen. At all. Nada. I didn’t even look at that file this week. So that one goes back on the goals list for the coming week.

I didn write 3k on Jake and Dennis’s story and I was pretty happy with most of what I produced until I realized that I had the whole beginning of the story wrong. *sigh*

So it was back to the plot cards after reading my favorite plotting article from Holly Lisle. And I think I have a workable story even if I’m still not entirely sure about the beginning. Of course this is nothing new. Getting the beginning is always the hardest part for me. Why should this story be any different?

The good news is, I think I can still use most of what I’ve written.

And finally, I got two lessons done for the workshop. I also found out that there are ten people registered for the class. Six of them are RRW members but four are not. I’m going to do a little more promo this week so hopefully we’ll get a few more students.

So my goals for this week:

1 Revise three chapters of DWD.

2 Complete three lessns for the nvella workshop.

3 Come up with a solid beginning for Jake and Dennis and write 2k on that story.

Let’s see how I do. Have a great week. Continue Reading »