Make the most of every second.

This is the kid! He's the one that inspired the title today. My youngest is what I like to refer to as high maintenance. VERY high maintenance. He doesn't stop. If he's sitting still his mouth is flappin'. Yep, that's my boy, always ready to dive right in and give it a go. He makes the most of every second, and so he should, the damn kid is lucky to be here, three strikes your out rule doesn't apply to my boy. He's beat the odds three times now, and I'm sure there'll plenty more times in the future he'll push the boundaries too.
So taking a leaf out of his book I'm put some excerpts up on my other blogs. Go here for Rachel's romantic suspense and here for Rhian's erotic romance. After you've read them be sure to leave me a comment, I always love to know what you think.
We had a great weekend, we had home made Big Macs for dinner last night. They were yummy and tasted just like the real thing. Hope your weekend was good and you week gets better.

Rachel C

The rock I hide under.

This is obviously not one of my pix but it shows our condo complex. If you want to see a real pic head over to here or here. So this is where I live, we're on the 11th floor on the end of the left building, basically as far left as the building goes. They're 30 stories high. (shuddering)

An author friend, Sami Lee is guest blogging over at the FAR Blog today, head over here and leave her a comment.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Rachel C

A quick hello and goodbye.

Damn! I lost a day! Here's the pix I promised, hello and goodbye. The top is sunrise, the bottom sunset. Gotta love the views from my place. I'll be back on deck tomorrow with something more entertaining. Maybe.

Rachel C

The Day After Tomorrow??

Ever seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow? I tell ya, some of the storms that head our way are downright scary. This one even had a mini twister that we could actually see touching the water! And yes, I have heaps of photos of it.
This past weekend saw me complete my 100th review for FAR. I can't talk about the book yet because we're not allowed to talk about them until they go live on the site at the end of each month. I've decided to start posting the links to my reviews here each month to let you all know what books I've reviewed in the previous month. But first, let me go back in time......

Soul Master - Reese Gabriel - Ellora's Cave
Cabin Fever - Shelli Stevens - Cobblestone Press
Rain Fell Down - Lexie Davis - Total-e-bound
36 Exposures - Linda Mooney - Amazon Shorts
Pregnancy Plan - Tina Gayle - The Wild Rose Press
The Bride Wore Boots - JT Schultz - Whiskey Creek Press
Craving Kismet - Jamie Craig - Samhain Publishing
Yours For The Taking - Karen Erickson - Cobblestone Press
Coaches' Wives - C.D. Conejo - eXtasy Books
Scout'n'Cole - Ciana Stone - Ellora's Cave
Best Laid Plans - Bronwyn Green - Cerridwen Press
One To Grow On - Caitlyn Willows - Amber Quill Press
Something Wild - Sable Grey - Cobblestone Press
Primal Attraction - Shelli Stevens - Cobblestone Press
Scorpio Tattoo - Jude Mason - Phaze
Angela's Abduction - JoJo Brown - eXtasy Books
Guarding The Coast - Samantha Gail - eXtasy Books
Rose Petals Anthology Volume 1 - Various - The Wild Rose Press
Far From Montana - Penny Ash - Liquid Silver Books
Last Chance - Kit Wylde - Freya's Bower
Tamara's Spirit - Nicole Austin - Samhain Publishing
In The Blink Of An Eye - Catherine Stang - Whiskey Creek Press
A Healing Passion - Samantha Lucas - Cobblestone Press
Double Deutsch - Shayla Kersten - The Wild Rose Press
A Stranger's Bed - Sophia Rae - The wild Rose Press
Ridley's Rival - Dawne Dominique - Love You Divine
Again - Adrienne Kama - Ellora's Cave
The Black rose - Skyler Grey - Red Rose Publishing
Reach Out And Touch Someone - Pearl Jones - Aspen Mountain Press
Risking It All - Anna Leigh Keaton - Cobblestone Press
Baby It's Cold Outside - Ellen Addie - Phaze
Undying Passions - Amy Mistretta - Samhain Publishing
Ranch Hideout - Julia Daniels - Cerridwen Press
Winter's Daughter - J.C. Wilder - Samhain Publishing
Jesse's Challenge - Nicole Austin - Samhain Publishing
Sweet Serenity - Catherine Stang - Whiskey Creek Press
Crossing The Line - Catherine Stang - Whiskey Creek Press
Two For The Money - Leigh Wyndfield - Loose Id
Eliza's Copper Penny - Ciara Gold - Champagne Books
Foxfire - Carol Ann Erhardt - The Wild Rose Press
Too Good To Be True - Marie-Nicole Ryan - Samhain Publishing
Chasing Phoenix - Christine d'Ado - Ellora's Cave
Familiar Strangers - Keziah Hill - Cobblestone Press
Home To Stay - Jane Leopold Quinn - Loose Id
Dangerous Grounds - Shelli Stevens - Samhain Publishing
The Pirate And The Puritan - Mary Clayton - The Wild Rose Press
Enough - Nicole Austin - Ellora's Cave
Beware Of The Cowboy - Mari Freeman - Ellora's Cave
Restless - Nicole Austin - Ellora's Cave
A Delicious Taboo - Jennifer Cole - Dark Eden Press
Playing To Win - Shelley Munro - Cerridwen Press
Spin Some More - Red Garnier - Ellora's Cave
Bareback - Amber Green - Loose Id
Court Appointed - Annmarie McKenna - Samhain Publishing
Sarah's Brass Token - Ciara Gold - Champagne Books
Night Wolf - Karen Erickson - Amber Quill Press
What Mattered Most - Linda Winfree - Samhain Publishing
Shaking Off The Dust - Rhianna Samuels - Samhain Publishing
Who Wants To Date A Superhero? - R.G. Alexander - Ellora's Cave
The Preacher's Daughters 2: Witching Hours - Sheri Gilmore - Loose Id
Breaking Skye - Eden Bradley - Phaze
The Seduction Of Cassidy Flint - Samantha Lucas - Siren Publishing
Fancy Free - Shelley Munro - Ellora's Cave
I Love Lacy - Lillian Feisty - Ellora's Cave
Anything But Mine - Linda Winfree - Samhain Publishing
Sidelined By Love - Ana Aragon - The Wild Rose Press
High Voltage - Calista Fox - Red Sage Publishing
Cowgirl Up And Ride - Lorelei James - Samhain Publishing
Between A Ridge And A Hard Place - Annmarie McKenna - Samhain Publishing
Nature's Pentacle - Eden Rivers - Loose Id
Baby Decision - Tina Gayle - Amira Press
Tempting Adam -Shelli Stevens - Samhain Publishing
Sand Angel - Mackenzie Mckade - Ellora's Cave
Bringo Springs - Laney Cairo - Torquere Press
Fly By Knight - Sahara Kelly - Ellora's Cave
Lila's Capture - Jade James - Loose Id
Halloween Heart-throbs: Witchy Woman - Karen Erickson - Total-e-bound
Deadly Sins I - Lexxie Couper/Eve Vaughn/Kira Stone - Changeling Press
Stay With Me - Maya Banks - Samhain Publishing
One Good Man - Lacey Thorn & Cindy Spencer Pape - Ellora's Cave
Bedside Manner - Sophia Rae - The Wild Rose Press
Absolutely Not - Daisy Dexter Dobbs - Ellora's Cave
Picture Perfect - Lexie Davis - Total-e-bound
A Taste For Jazz - Ciana Stone - Ellora's Cave
Deadly Dreams - Rie McGaha - Noble Romance Publishing
Too Tempting - Karen Erickson - Ellora's Cave
Devil's Dance - Scarlet Sanderson - The Wild Rose Press
Night Ride - Desiree Holt - The Wild Rose Press
One Night With You - Jane E. Jones - The Wild Rose Press
Coming Attractions - S.L. Carpenter & Sahara Kelly - Ellora's Cave

Whoa! That's a lot of books! It's not quite 100 but that's because there's a pile on the site waiting to go up in the end of July upload. As soon as they're live I'll post about them here.
By the way, if anyone's keen to do reviewing FAR is always looking for reviewers, pop over to the site and find out how.
I've linked to some authors and some publishers and some books, so go ahead and discover a whole new world of reading.

Rachel C

New ideas.

This is my office. It doesn't look like that at the moment, in fact I can't actually find my desk. I need to have a clean up but I'm busy, writing. Yep, getting lots done in the last few days, not as much as I was doing last month but we at the 50k blog have set a new challenge. Pick your own goal and log in with it, then each day come back and add what you did. Sounds simple, and it is, Sandie's calling it the page a day challenge but I'm going for 1000 words or 1 chapter edited. It's all up to you. We're starting today but I've been going since Saturday and so far I'm reaching my goal every day. Yay me!

I visit a few author blogs and over the last few weeks Linda Winfree (who's a great author by the way) has been posting pix of her recent holiday so I've decided to post pix in my posts from now on as a way of showing you all my part of the world. I've started with my work space because I couldn't decide what to post first. LOL But I've now decided that I'll do a week of the same area, so if I choose to do Singapore I'll post pix taken all over for that week. This week will be where we live.

Did you see the new widget I've got on the sidebar? I love Nora Roberts and this is a new thing for her so I just had to have it. If you're a fan grab on for your site, it's easy. Everyday it tells you something about her, it's really cool. I want on when I get that famous. LOL

Must go and get on with the day, yes it's nearly lunch time but we're on school holidays here so we're getting to sleep in and be lazy about getting up and going. Two more weeks then it's back to the 6am wake ups. sigh

Rachel C

Alive a kickin' butt!!!!

Yep, that's what I've done in the month of June. The 50ksIn30days challenge finished yesterday and during the month of June I wrote 100,015 words. I absolutely kicked butt! Of course I couldn't have done all that on one wip, I had to work on five which means none are finished. sigh
I know, I'm hopeless but I have discovered that when I put my mind to it I can write some serious word count numbers. Of course I'm not always in charge of my mind so hence the working on five wip's. The muse may be a hunky bloke but he's going to have to watch it or he's getting the sack and I'll high another muse to do his job.
Reviewing hasn't stopped and the FAR site went live with June's reviews over the weekend. I don't even know how many I did last month but you can find all the reviews here: http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/
I'm steaming ahead with the writing and even though this month was hectic I've enjoyed it. I'm also pretty brain dead, but never fear I'm still writing. I plan to have a few things finished by the end of July and I'm sticking to the plan.

Rachel C

Stranger than fiction?!

Love, laughter, tears, depression, sadness, vomiting on laptops, hating your parents, nasty letters and emails. Sounds like a great book, right? Wrong! That's my life! It's real, it happened and OMG! stop the bus I wanna get off!!!!!
So the love and laughter were for me and Hubby while we were away. We had a great time, lazing by the pool, going to the spa, and just doing what we wanted. I should have known I'd pay for it.
We arrived home to a missing child. Yep, no one knew where she was. Great! Then Hubby found a letter in his draw from said child about how she hates her life here, hates her school, she's depressed and it's really great that you got what you want in life daddy but I hate mine. P.S. I love you. Umm......
By late Sunday evening we still were no closer to getting anywhere with said child when another one starts screaming from the bed room that the cat just vomited all over her laptop! What? What was he doing on your laptop? Needless to say this was not a good thing.
Then Monday I get and email from said child, 'I never want to talk to you again. Eva!'. What the...? What did I do? I replied of course but she wasn't talking to me. Duh! Finally got that it was all my fault and that I don't care about her because if I did I'd send her back to Australia to live. I just want her here to make her life hell. Well, yeah, because that certainly makes my life a bed of roses. Just watch the thorns.
Vomited on laptop still not working and we're madly trying to get it to function enough to back up the files. Yes, nothing backed up and all her school work and photographs are on there. One more Duh! moment.
Tuesday, girls taking a mental health day (sounds good doesn't it?) and we're off to get the laptop looked at. Thankfully we managed to get the stupid thing to work enough to back up the files and photos, but the keyboard wouldn't work at all. Well, jeez, I wonder why? It's not like it got drowned in cat spew! What was I thinking?
Mental health day went well. Lots of talking between the girls (I'm included here) and nasty email writing child is a little more stable. At least I hope she is, she knows where the knives are kept. Laptop got fixed, yay! New keyboard required and I have to say those little things are amazing, they just pop right out and a new one pops right in. Oh, there's a couple of screws. But anyway, it was still under warranty! No cost! Thank you very much. Good thing too because girly is off to Australia for 4 weeks on Friday and she can't go without it!!! Oh, the horror!
Wednesday, all at school, mum finally able to breathe. Now to catch up on all the things that got put on hold.

Taking a break.

I won't bore anyone with the dramas of my life, but really, did someone drop me into a daytime soap opera and not tell? I've been working on Rhian's re-writes and the latest wip so I haven't been completely unproductive, I just haven't been all that productive. I have managed to get to nearly 9,000 words for the 50ksIn30days which I'm happy with considering the number of actual days I've written.
I'm pulling out an old wip that I plan to write under Rachel Charlton but it's a single title so don't expect to see it any time soon. But I'm doing something with it that I never thought I'd do. Plotting! Yep, I have to. The wip in actually a two story one and I need to get the bits and pieces straight before I start with the writing again. You know, time lines, characters that appear in both books. Lots of work I think. Just need to bite the bullet and do it.
On a brighter note, Saturday is my 20th wedding anniversary. I know, I don't look old enough to have been married that long. LOL We're leaving the kids behind, in the capable hands of the oldest, for 4 days of relaxing by the pool. We're not going far, just across the water to Batam, an island of Indonesia. I'm planning on writing and reading. If you're lucky I might post some pix when I get back.
Have a great weekend.

Rachel C

Seven days of mind numbing activity.

It's been a week since I posted anything here, and it was a productive one for the most part. I'm writing up a storm on Rhian's latest wip, Lux. I've done over 6,000 words on that one in the last seven days. The editor got back to me about On A Wing And A Prayer, she's asked for some changes and I'll be getting to those soon. I promise. I got that email last Saturday but by then I was into my third day of a pulled back and headache. I quick trip out with Hubby and an even quicker slip on a wet floor and I really pulled my back. Sunday? Migraine city! Damn I love that place! NOT!!!! Sunday of course was the 1st of June and the start of the 50ksIn30days challenge, so with the help of some pills I battled through to do 2,000 words. Not bad considering. By Monday I was in so much pain I could quite happily have committed murder. Luckily kids were in school hubby was at work and at home son went off for a job interview. Ahhhh... peace. More drugs, sleep, some more pills (and by now I think I rattled when I moved, not that I was moving) and I managed to write another 2,000 words. Woohooo...... go me!!
Ah...... No. Not go me. I read them today, those 2,000 words from yesterday, and let's just say that they were.... well.... interesting?! I'm not sure how to describe them other than I had no idea I was writing a fantasy. No, really, if what I'd written was even remotely salvageable I'd do it but nope, sorry, in the trash. But at least I tried, right. Right?
Oh, well back to it.

Rachel C

Getting back into the swing.

We've had visitors for over a week and most of that time was spent playing tour guide. What a blast! I'm exhausted. I think we covered half of Singapore in about four days. We of course, went to China Town and Bugis Street for shopping. We had breakfast at the zoo. We ate out every night, went to Ski 360 cable ski park, visited the Merlion statue, Raffles Hotel. Actually, I think we did all that in three days. Now they're gone, off on their trip to Europe. The house is so quiet I can hear the dust mites breathing! LOL
I'm back to writing every day and the 50ksIn30days starts on Sunday so I need to get back into the swing of things before then. I'm planning to work on four novellas I've got in various stages of production. But as they'll be published under Rhian Cahill I probably shouldn't talk too much about them here. This split personality thing is confusing and tiring.

May the Word Gods smile upon you.

Rachel C