It’s so fun to be here to kick off Cynthia’s Halloween Blog Party!

I am a huge fan of October – the trees are changing, leaves are falling, weather’s cooling and I have an excuse to break out the jeans, sweaters and snazzy boots I’ve been missing since winter.  And then, of course…there’s Halloween! Who doesn’t love Halloween?  The costumes, the candy, the trick-or-treating fun. I even like a good monster now and then. Oh, I’m not one of those people (like Cynthia!!) who likes to be scared senseless, but I do love a good creepy monster.

There’s something about a scary monster on the big screen that stays with you long after a movie is over. Some of my favs include:

Jaba the Hut from Star Wars – Okay, yeah. He looked like a big giant turd, but he was twisted and that made him memorable.
The orcs from The Lord of the Rings – Nasty looking creatures with really bad teeth. For some reason I couldn’t look away from the teeth.
The bug from Men in Black – Especially when it turned into the giant cockroach at the end and ate Tommy Lee Jones. Ew.
The Kraken from Clash of the Titans – Thank God that thing isn’t real or I’d never set foot on a boat.
Tyrannosaurus Rex in Jurassic Park – I nearly came out of my seat when he flashed on screen.
King Kong – A classic that just can’t be ignored.
The aliens in Independence Day – Creepy ESP abilities.
The alien in Alien – No one but Sigourney Weaver could have fought this thing.
The genetically twisted human monsters in I Am Legend – This movie gave me nightmares for a week. I vowed to stop avoiding the doctor and get every immunization I needed.

How about you? Who are some of your favorite monsters from movies or books? In honor of Cynthia’s Halloween bash I’ve got a book to give away today! Since I write about my own twisted monsters from the Underworld, I’ll give one commenter their choice – either a copy of MARKED, book one in my Eternal Guardians Series or ENTWINED, which just released in August.

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A previous junior-high science teacher, Elisabeth Naughton now writes sexy romantic adventure and paranormal novels full time from her home in western Oregon where she lives with her husband and three children. Her debut release, Stolen Fury, heralded by Publisher’s Weekly as “A rock-solid debut,” was recently nominated for two prestigious RITA® awards by Romance Writers of America in the Best First Book category and the Best Romantic Suspense category. When not writing, Elisabeth can be found running, hanging out at the ball park or dreaming up new and exciting adventures. Visit the author’s website at www.elisabethnaughton.com.

My Halloween Blog Party kicks off tomorrow!!  I can’t believe it, but tomorrow is October 1st. Ah, October, one of my very favorite months. A time for haunting and monsters and just…fun.

For my Blog Party, you can expect lots of fabulous guests…some fun prizes…excerpts, recipes, costume guides–for the month of October, my blog will only be about the paranormal or about Halloween. So get ready to get that Halloween groove on!

And, for the last five days in October, I will be posting a paranormal round robin story. My wonderful friends (and very talented authors) have joined me in creating this tale–so you’ll get to read a story by me, Shelli Stevens, Juliana Stone, Jess Granger, and Rebecca Zanetti.

So please check back in during the month of October.  Come join the party!

And wait! There’s more fun coming, too…

October will be an awesome month!

It’s book release day! My holiday anthology, THE NAUGHTY LIST, should be available in a bookstore near you (or it should be shipping for your fave online retailer).

Here’s the back cover blurb

“Naughty But Nice” by Donna Kauffman

Businessman Griffin’s never believed in luck…until sassy-sweet small-town baker Melody turns his world around. Except there’s a catch: There’s no way he’ll be able to build his empire and hold on to her. His new “lucky charm” could destroy all his dreams…or make this Christmas better than he ever imagined possible…

“All I Want for Christmas” by Cynthia Eden

Good girl toy inventor Christie takes a walk on the naughty side when she sparks a no-strings fling with Santa—actually, sexy cop Jonas in a Santa suit. She loves her new “bad girl” persona, except as the holidays approach, she starts falling, and hard, for this known “love ’em and leave ’em” ladies man…

“Tattoos and Mistletoe” by Susan Fox

Charlie returns to her hometown to fix up her aunt’s B&B, but she doesn’t count on LJ handling the renovations. Nerdy LJ pined for her in school, but now he’s grown into the town’s hottest bachelor. Charlie’s been burned before and won’t let him get close. But LJ’s determined to break down her walls and make her dearest Christmas wish come true.

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I loved writing “All I Want For Christmas”–the story really put me in the holiday mood (I wrote it last November, so I was all about decking the halls then).  It was also fun to write about a city that actually received snow during the holidays–a totally alien experience for me!

You can check out an except from THE NAUGHTY LIST here.

Thanks!  I do love release days!

My lovely editor recently let me know that the first two books in my Midnight trilogy (HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT & MIDNIGHT SINS) sold to Japan!  Can’t wait to see  those covers!

Congratulations to Edie’s winner…Viki!!

Today it is my pleasure to have my friend (and very talented author) Edie Ramer as my guest.  Edie and I met online several years ago, and I had the pleasure to finally meet her in person at the RWA Convention in Orlando.  She’s a great writers, a truly fab lady, and a woman who has some advice to give today!  (She will also be giving away a free download of her new release, CATTITUDE, to one commenter–very cool!)

How to keep your brains from melting

First, I want to thank Cynthia for having me as her guest.  I admire her so much.  She has a child and a husband, she writes multiple books a year, plus she has copy edits and a zillion other things that come with the job.  Yet she does guest blogs and interviews and goes to conferences.  And when I go on Facebook and Twitter, I see her many comments and retweets, etc., much more than I do.

And she does all of this without her head spinning off.  Or exploding.  Or melting into a puddle on her office floor, screaming, “No more!  I can’t do any more!”  (Not her head or her body melting; just her brains.)

That’s the point where I am now, one task away from my brains melting.  I’m writing this on Friday, and by the time the post is up I should have my energy back.  I’m burned out and had to take the evening off, though I haven’t accomplished more than a fraction of what I’d planned.  So what I’m going to do is get tough with myself.

Someone’s got to do it.  I used to write first thing in the morning, but somehow my email and blog reading became more important.  Assigning myself pages doesn’t work, because I cheat.  When I get stuck, I start peeking at the internet, telling myself “just this one email” or “just this one blog post.”  Which of course leads to another email and another post and another cute cat video.

Taking a break is sometimes valid, because in the past I’ve plowed through scenes even when they weren’t working, which put me on the wrong track and ended in a lot of deleting and teeth gnashing and whining.

Other times I have computer brain, aka rabbit brain.  It’s become the norm for me to hop back and forth on blogs and emails and other places.  My mind isn’t used to focusing for too long, and after a short time of serious writing, I have a hard time concentrating.  No wonder I’ve thought lately that I might have adult ADD.

I’ve decided to set a time limit instead of a page limit.  Every weekday morning, I’ll work on writing new pages or revisions or whatever needs to be done before I open up my email.  No excuses!  Not even glancing at my email to see if anything important came in overnight.

I’ll do this for one hour.  One lousy hour.  Or one FABULOUS hour.

Later in the day, I’ll do another hour.  Once I get into the internet, it’s like opening up Pandora’s Box, and all the “must write, must revise” tasks become less important than the latest news on Twitter and J.A. Konrath’s latest blog.  But I’ll figure out a way to do it, because writing and revising and finishing my books are more important than any of that.

I’m making it my priority.  I have to.  I’m afraid if I don’t my brains will melt.

What are your priorities?

Edie Ramer
http://edieramer.com
http://twitter.com/edieramer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=747112424

And don’t forget to check out Edie’s new release, CATTITUDE!

It’s all in the CATTITUDE . . .

After Belle the cat switches bodies with a psychic on the run from a murderer, she wants her perfect cat body back instead of this furless human one. But she doesn’t count on falling in love with her former owner. Or that a CEO and a beauty queen want to use up her nine lives. Now is her chance to prove anything a human can do, a cat can do better.