Birthday Palooza!

Technically, yesterday was my birthday, but still, it doesn't hurt to have some extra celebration.

I also AM getting better. My writing kicked it up a notch this past year, both calendar-year and the age of 33. At this rate, I just might get a novel written and published before I die! Which reminds me, I'm going to segue for a moment to state that two authors I personally know will have books out in the near future!

First up is Ali Luke with a novella called "Not So Imaginary". I have an advanced review copy, which means the official release should be just around the corner.

Your "imaginary friends" aren't imaginary at all.
And they're definitely not your friends.

     After months searching, Ruth tracks her former foster brother, Jonathan, to a flat in South London.
     She's barely seen him in fourteen years. Of course she expects things to have changed.
     But not this much.
     At first, he refuses to talk to her. Then -- terrified, maybe high -- he tells her a crazy story about his imaginary friends.
     When she gets a letter telling her he never wants to speak to her again, she's confused – and wary. It's in his handwriting, but sounds nothing like him.
     Who (or what) has him under their thumb?
***
     Each midnight, some cosmic flip of a coin decides Jonathan's next twenty-four hours.
     Will it be Corwin, uptight, obsessive, and decidedly Type A?
     Or Flint, darkly funny, but capricious and volatile?
     Jonathan can never quite decide which is worse. But he lies awake, and stares at the clock, and counts the minutes until he knows.

Clear your evening and sink into this pacy story of a brother and sister, and two not-so-imaginary "friends".

The second friend Celeste Straub is actually making her noveling debut with her book "Leather and Lies". Last I checked, she's still working on her official blurb, but here's the two I could find:

     For twenty-four-year-old Skye Winters, criminal profiling is the perfect career, helping solve cases without all the emotional baggage. When her cousin, Kortney, becomes the latest in a string of young women to vanish, Skye’s professional and personal lives collide. Cue the nuclear mushroom cloud.
     Amid the fallout, Skye meets Wes Carson, the mysterious and smart-mouthed new biker in her father’s motorcycle club. She tries to ignore their chemistry, even after accepting Wes’ aid in the search for Kort. Then one spontaneous afternoon takes them over the edge, forcing Skye to consider she might be in love. Too bad it’s with a liar.
     Unraveling Wes' lies leaves Skye ensnared in an FBI investigation, questioning her profiling skills and her heart. With Wes in danger, her affection overrules her caution with disastrous results. Will Skye survive to solve the case, save Kort, and still salvage a relationship with Wes?

     Never fall in love with a liar. Sound advice. Except liars can be hard to identify, even for twenty-four-year-old criminal profiler Skye Winters. When her cousin, Kortney, disappears, Skye’s personal and professional lives collide. That same day, Wes Carson rolls into her life. Wary, at first, of the mysterious biker and his freely offered aid, Skye soon opens her heart to him during the increasingly dangerous search for Kortney. But when his lies ensnare her in an active FBI investigation, her affection overrules her caution with disastrous results. Can she manage to solve the case, save Kortney, and still ride into a happily-ever-after with Wes?

So, keep an eye out for both stories!

Aaaaand now back to me.

Actually, no, can we not come back to me? Because I was kind of pathetic this week...

I've been on vacation, so, while I did get a start on my next, and possible last, chapter of "Peeping Tomcat," I wasn't able to get too far into it before I jetted for vacation. I haven't had as much down time to write as I thought I would. Writing this is actually the first chance I had to just sit and write. The rest of the time I've been running around doing activities and trying to catch up on my online notifications on FB, email, Tumblr, and DeviantArt. I've been more reactionary than anything.

OOOOH! Speaking of notifications on DeviantArt! I have some awesome doozies for you folks! Eeeeeee.

Maki Natsuo from Love Lab
by Ruri Miyahara

Okay, so first up is this girl Seirenpoison. She read my latest chapter of PT and just freaked about the outfit design I came up with for Adrien:

Seirenpoison: I really want to see their Chat Noir Outfits now!!!!!

I told her I really wanted to see them too, but I can't really draw. So I welcomed anyone who wanted to - and was willing to credit me and my story - to go ahead and draw their ideas for the CN Appreciation Day outfits. I also figured out that I goofed and never described what everyone besides Adrien wore. Whoops... 

Anyway, after a few more back and forths, Sei decreed that she was going to give some fanart a whirl. These are just rough drafts that she shared, but check them out!

Art by Seirenpoison

First up is Adrien in his outfit. It's pretty much exactly how I pictured it, so... squeeeee!

Then I saw Nino and Alya in their Chat Noir inspired outfits.

Art by Seirenpoison

Art by Seirenpoison

Finally, there's Marinette.

Art by Seirenpoison

This one was drawn as if Marinette was designing it, don't you think? So cute. So French. Don't forget to click on the images to see larger versions. They should also take you to Sei's DA account so you can show her love for the awesome work.

But hold up, because we're not through! As per tradition with the awesome, amazing ChibiSunnie, I got my birthday card from her yesterday. I had asked for her to draw My Girls having a birthday party for me, and I wanted Chibi to include some of her OCs as well. She's been riding a kind of high off of her original works, and I wanted her to keep up the momentum. She got so adorably excited about me asking her to include HER OCs. I loved it. Anyway, without further ado, Chibi's amazing card for me this year:

Art by ChibiSunnie

Again, don't forget to click on the image to see a larger version, which should be shown on DA.

It's starring my main three girls - from X-Future/Glitches - Lia, Willow, and Trish, along with her characters Todd and Zahir from "Team Giraffe Guy" and Bob the cat from her pumpkin people series. It's amazing how well she captured the personalities of my girls, even if Trish does seem a bit more civilized and subdued in this. For the full gush over my characters and how awesome this picture is, be sure to click on the link in the caption! I gushed in the comments section.

Anyway, so I had an awesome, jam-packed vacation thus far. I'm out of state. I hit up the Jersey coastline. I saw my cousins from across the country for probably the fourth time in my life. I hit up a casino with the hubby... luck wasn't really on our side this go, but we either broke even or lost only $20 or so. We had cake from one of the casino's "food court" booths. We did a room escape, and only just barely made it out. We played an old board game, and I don't know how many people would remember/know it: Scotland Yard by Milton Bradley. We even stayed up until the wee hours of the morning having an impromptu self-instructed - sorta, we also had "The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross" on in the background - paint and sip. Here are my two paintings, and you can see why I leave the fanart to others:

Originally, this was just going to be generic fire,
but then it became Calcifer from "Howl's Moving Castle".

Random abstract art because I had no clue what
else to paint and everyone else had two or
three paintings going by this point of the night.

In comparison, here's my sister's stuff:

My sister playing catch-up on a Bob Ross
episode my mom was using as a reference

A painting she did for me for my birthday.
My wedding colors were blue and yellow,
and I'm sure you can guess why the ladybug

Our own personal Elsa. She LOOOOVES snowflakes.

Don't compare yourselves to others, kids! Because... well.... yeah. At least mine are kinda sorta decent....

Anyway, like I said, a jam-packed vacation. We're still going to hit up the movies and meet with an old college friend on the way home.

I probably won't have time to do any further writing until tomorrow, but I do have my phone with a bunch of notes on it, so I'm hoping the writing process will be quick once I get to it.

I don't know if I'll be able to get my chapter up by THIS Friday, but I'm aiming for the end of July at the latest.

I am bummed that I didn't get it up this past Friday, and even more bummed that I couldn't get it up yesterday for my birthday. I mean, how cool would it be to have a Birthday Special chapter? Also, yesterday was the first new episode of "Miraculous Ladybug" in over a month! I mean, happy birthday to me, right? It would have been cool to post something to coincide with that.

Oh well, live and learn and improve. I'll do better next story. In the meantime, let's focus on me finishing this chapter, and possibly this story. Look for a chapter update next week!