See Ya Tomorrow!

  Putting Down the Pieces has been loaded onto Amazon Kindle and B&N Nookpress.  It is "in review" and will be available to purchase sometime in the middle of the night tonight, or early tomorrow morning!

  I'm really excited about this one.   I had a lot of good help with editing, and I hope you will not trip over very many silly mistakes.  It's a drama/romance where my main character, Nika Petrovskya, begins to recover and heal from a difficult upbringing.  She strikes out on her own, (sort of) and meets Simon Thorpe, who helps change her life.
 
  It's a feel good, clean romance and I think you'll like it.  Happy reading!

Just kidding...

  Ok, so I was going to use Leaving Dreams Behind  as the title of my book, but, you know, scratch that.  We're back to the original title Putting Down the Pieces.
  I know that won't mean much to anyone at this point, but there it is.  It's honestly not the best title that this book could have, but I really, really like it and the meaning it has for my main character. 
   You see, Nika has lived through a lot of terrible stuff, and she has to decide which pieces to carry with her and which ones to let go of so that she can move on with her life.  It's not as depressing as it sounds - I hope.  It's really just a sweet love story with some drama.  
  I'm pretty much done with editing, I am just waiting for my SIL to get back from vacation because she designed my cover and now I've gone and changed the title on her again so the cover has to be redone.  No pressure Amber.
  So that's it.  "Nearly there, Nearly there." - Talking head
  

Finally Some Good News!

  It's been a while.  It's been a long while.  So, if you're interested I will start by mentioning in a passing sort of way...I am almost done with the editing of my second novel!!  

My goal is to publish on Amazon and B&N by the end of May.
Special thanks to Lucinda Whitney, whose own novel is coming out this fall (The Secret Life of Daydreams, plug,plug).  She helped get me going and provided some excellent feedback about all the whoozits and whatzits that needed thinking over.  Wik, wik, Amber deLaine for helping with cover design.

If you're wondering, the title of my new novel is...
Leaving Dreams Behind
Look for it in late May!!

Back to the drawing board.

  Last year, I handed over my manuscript to an acquaintance that had editing experience and an English degree because she offered to look it over and give her advice.  Now I am fully aware that the editing on Blind Sided was not "tight" as some call it, so I jumped on her offer.  I would really like my next book to be better.
 
 Well, this kind lady experienced some very difficult trials and was not able to get her notes to me until just before the Christmas holidays.  Unfortunately, she left them in my mailbox during the only time of day that I was not home.  Putting stuff in people's mailboxes is technically illegal.  Which is why my not-particularly-friendly, neighborhood postal worker put them in the USPS official recycle bin.  My friend would love to email the notes to me but her computer gave up the ghost shortly thereafter and the tech has not recovered them yet.

  So it is with great sadness that I share my intentions to, once again, edit my own manuscript.  From the beginning.  May the (grammatical) schwartz be with me.  I guess those folks that whined about my poor editing won't buy this book anyway.  The rest of you - thank you for your patience.  It's time to bust out my Keys For Writers college manual and get to work.   

Shocked!

  I am humbled and greatly appreciative to all of you who have purchased my novel.  I honestly cannot believe it is still selling!  I looked at sales today for the first time in months and I was in shock.  Honestly, this whole writing thing has gone quite out the window for a while.  My almost one year old has been the most demanding, difficult baby EVER and I feel like I am drowning most of the time.
  I have the distinct privilege of having a former English professor for a visiting teacher and she is about done with my "new" ms, so I should be getting it back soon.  It's going to be ugly, I know, but I can't wait to just get it out the door!   I had hoped to publish by the end of the summer.  Fortunately summer in Texas lasts until October.  From now on, you can just call this the "Excuses Blog."

Years later...

  I can't remember what draft I'm on...4th? 5th? but I'm almost done going through it again.  After that I have to make a cheesecake or some other goody to bribe the Jen's into critiquing my manuscript.  When I've got some good feedback, I'll go through it again.  If I don't throw my laptop at the wall at this point, I'll publish it.
  Some people have a really hard time dealing with literature that isn't perfectly edited.  Let me tell you folks, at $0.99 a copy I can't AFFORD to have my work professionally edited and even then; well you've read professional work that needed some serious red pen work haven't you?  It's hard to be objective when you get into a story.  Ten chapters in, you've got the story playing in your head anyway and unless the grammar is really bad, or the story is a bore, you just get caught up in it and forget to be nit-picky.  So here's hoping that the story is good enough that you don't notice all of my errors, and if you do - well that's what refunds are for.
  Eat plenty of greens and have a great day - Cheryl
   

Ok, so I really thought I'd have more to say by now...

So, I am finally emerging from my postpartum coma.  Sort of.  Baby T is 5 months old now and my brain function is only just now beginning to smolder again.  My printed copy of my new manuscript is still at Suzanne's house - the same place it's been for several months now.  It's totally ok though because the thought of doing any serious editing makes me want to curl up and cry.  

I was so lucky the first time around with friends helping me (Thank you Chesney, Jennifer G, Jen E., Suzanne, Brittany, Angel, Amber, Kaitlyn, Stevie, and all the rest of you that critiqued and helped edit.  WHy didn't I include that in the book?)  It wouldn't have looked half as polished without their input.  Now I feel like I should just put on my big girl panties and get it done myself.  And I will.  Eventually.

What I really need is a mini vacation.  Just me, my laptop, and food I didn't cook - somewhere far-ish away where little people won't interrupt me every 5 minutes.  But Santa doesn't exist and neither does this imaginary vacation place.  I'll just have to bite the bullet and drive over to pick up that new novel to be and start marking it up.

What kind of story is it?  Oh, come on.  I only do predictable, formulaic romance.  You know, the good stuff.  But this one is less YA.  Don't get me wrong - it's clean, just more adult.  The title is called "Putting Down The Pieces" and I love it.  It's a cinderella story of sorts.  I can't wait for you to read it.  Ok, ok, I'll get on it.