Yet another cover I will get around to sometime

Yes, I know, I need to write more and buy less. (I should devote a month to writing short stories and use up a bunch. Maybe I'll do that this summer!) But I keep seeing premade covers that are so awesome I just can't pass them up. This one is by Go On Write:

Sale!

Daylily Publishing (that's me) is having a sale. Twenty books are 33-50% off, including a lot of Meg and Gem books. The sale runs from now through May 2.

Okay, now THIS is a penthouse

Fancy a 35,500-square-foot penthouse with a private pool, overlooking the French Riviera? Sure you do. Who wouldn't? It hasn't gone up for sale yet-- it isn't even completed yet-- but the eventual price is guesstimated at around $273 million... a figure that might strain even Dom's finances a bit.

Just a bit more Dominance

A couple of my most enthusiastic fans wanted a slightly more "fairytale ending" for Dom and Gabe, so I have promised to write a little bonus freebie along those lines at some point. I would also like to write a freebie with them making love on the Boss, because that never got accomplished in the series. These might be minor scenes that only get posted on my site, or they might wind up being 5000 word stories. I don't know yet. But I will try to get them done within the next month or so, along with Flawless.

And yet more on muscle cars!

Here's a great article on ten muscle cars and what they go for. The Boss I described in Dominance is in there, valued at about $220,000. Pretty eye candy at the link if you like that sort of thing! I just bet Dom has a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Hemi, too. It's valued at a mere $400,000...

A few notes on Illumination

Random notes on various elements that made their way into Illumination:

-My daughter drives a blue Volkswagen (a Rabbit). It is a super nice little car-- it handles well and has a peppy little engine. My dad gave it to us when he could no longer drive, and I wanted the VW for myself. Alas, because I have four kids I kept the minivan and the kid got the VW. Life is not always fair.

-I love Mountain Dew. They call me the Mountain Dew Lady at the local Arby's, because that's what I always order.

-I lived in Charlotte right out of college (Hurricane Hugo came through a month or so after I moved down there). At the time, Charlotte had a beautiful downtown, but it was mostly a finance center, which meant it was bustling on weekdays, but absolutely dead on weekends. There were no apartments to speak of downtown. Just as in Norfolk, though, downtown seems to have become a prestigious address lately. Here's a site showing some Charlotte penthouses. Spectacular, aren't they?

-The big chrome X is an actual piece of public art in Charlotte, though it's out on the street rather than in a building lobby. You can see it here. I always liked this one a lot, though like Gabriel, I'm not sure what its meaning is.

-I lived in Charlotte for years and never went to Carowinds ("the thrill capital of the Southeast"). No idea why, except that my husband and I were still young and childless then, and almost every long weekend or vacation we had, we trekked up to Virginia Beach to see our families. We made that six-hour drive up I-85 and US 58 (and got caught in traffic around Durham) more times than I can count!

-I love roller coasters. I don't ride them as much as I used to, because they mess with my middle-aged balance now, but I used to ride just about every one I came across. I never rode one till I was an adult, though. My husband introduced me to the Loch Ness Monster when I was twenty-one, and from there on I was a coaster addict.

-A couple of weeks ago, not long after I'd written the scene mentioning the two songs, "Carolina in My Mind" and "Ramblin' Man" popped up on my iTunes, one right after the other. I have around 800 songs on that particular playlist, so this was a rather startling coincidence. They're both really good songs. I used to listen to "Carolina in My Mind" a lot after I left Charlotte!

-Dom and I share a lot of musical tastes, from Schnittke to classic rock. I never played the violin; I played the cello. I was able to play some of the Bach unaccompanied suites fairly well, so I was decent, but never close to professional standard. I haven't played in a long time, sadly.

-I broke the rule about having only two dramatic personae in this one. Another character besides the boys uttered dialogue in Illumination-- the first time that's happened in the whole Dominance series. It bothered me, but I couldn't figure out a way to work around it.

-My family was originally from Smithfield. I never lived there myself, but the Victorian house my great-great-grandfather built still stands in the town. Smithfield is on the banks of the Pagan River, but the name doesn't appear to refer to religion, but rather to the Algonquin word for pecan.

-Dominance wound up around 85,000 words. Add the three Innocence stories, one of which isn't written yet, and the whole tale of Dom and Gabe will wind up around 100,000 words. That's the longest story I've written in quite a while, and I thank you guys for following me through it all!

I love you guys

Illumination is now #6 on the ARe bestseller list. Thanks to all who've bought it!

Also, I got this nice five-star review on B&N: "I absolutely love this series. Im sad this is the last book but will re read this series over and over! SAD to see it end but loved the ending."

Yay!

I was gone most of the day yesterday, and when I came home I found that ARe had featured Illumination in their "weekly ebook bargains" newsletter. This morning it's at #9 on the ARe bestseller list and a gay ebook bestseller. I'm very excited, and once again I thank you all for buying it!

Thanks!

Illumination is now available on Amazon and Smashwords too. Also, I woke up to a nice email from ARe telling me that Illumination was a bestseller there (#39 on the list this morning) and giving me this nice little graphic:

Thanks to you all for buying it!!!

Now on B&N

Illumination is now on B&N. It's not yet searchable, though, so follow the link!
 "Illumination (Dominance, Book 6)" by Gem Frost on Ganxy

Illumination is up on ARe!

I'm happy to say that Illumination is now up on ARe. I've run into a problem with Amazon tonight-- the site refuses to convert the file, so I'll have to try it again tomorrow. (ETA: I finally got it to work, so hopefully it'll be up tomorrow sometime.) I put it up on B&N but it won't show up till tomorrow sometime (if I'm lucky!). Still working on the Smashwords file. I will send out a newsletter once the book is widely available. In the meantime, if you really want to read it, grab it off ARe!

The final installment of the erotic m/m serial romance. Stephen Dominick is a sophisticated, world-famous billionaire. Gabriel Mason is a young, naive college student. Gabriel is still ticked off about the havoc Dom has wreaked on his life, but in an effort to rebuild their relationship, he invites Dom to get away from it all for a few days and take a road trip with him. Can the lights of a distant city help illuminate their feelings for one another?

Length: Novella, 22,000 words.

Warnings: Explicit m/m sex, blunt language, mild BDSM elements.

99 cents for a limited time.

Still trying

Alas, we ran into an issue with formatting on Smashwords. I'm trying to find another formatter to help me out, but it may not be possible to get one on short notice. I'm still hoping I can get the book up on ARe, Amazon and B&N tomorrow, but my formatter is understandably frustrated by the three hours she spent fruitlessly trying to format the book, and needs to take a break on it till tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted.

Helloooooo, muscle car

Today I stepped out of Panera's and found a muscle car that could have easily belonged to Stephen Dominick. It was a beautifully restored 1968 Camaro SS 350 (and I know it was a 1968 not because of my vast knowledge, but because the license plate helpfully labeled it 68 Camy), painted, I believe, Matador Red. I was rather horrified to see someone driving it instead of keeping it in a garage (I could have easily dribbled Mountain Dew on it by accident!), but when I got home and looked it up, it appears that the car is "only" worth $20,000... which still strikes me as a lot for a car that's almost as old as I am. There must have been a lot of them produced. Nevertheless, it was a stunning car, and when I hit it rich, I'm going to buy one:-).

Annoying minor details

Google is both a blessing and a curse. There's a line of throwaway dialogue in which Dom mentions that he's getting ready for a merger with another company. I originally had the name "CapCo" in there, but it's taken. I started trying to come up with other names, but that's not as easy as you'd think. Senesco? Taken. Jupiter Industries? Taken. Aardvark Industries? Taken. AardCo? Taken. No matter what silly name I come up with, it's already been used. Go figure.

Happy happy work work

Illumination is coming along beautifully. Editing is really my favorite part of the process. When I finish up a book, I almost always think, "God, this is total crap."  But when I start editing, I realize it really isn't that bad... it just needs a little fine-tuning to make it better. I've been editing quite literally since I got up this morning (with a brief break for lunch), and it really feels like it's flowing much more smoothly. I am much happier with it now!

Website updates

Did some updating of my Meg Harris and Gem Frost websites as I try to learn how to use Ganxy. I also prettied them up a bit and tried to streamline them, so they're easier to get around. I do still need to get up excerpts for most of my books... this is my last major project with regards to website design. But I think I'll wait on that till after I have my two serial installments finished!

Illumination is done, sort of

I finished up the "first draft" of Illumination today. I put "first draft" in quotes because I edit as I go, so the book is already in fair to middling shape. There is still a lot of work to be done on it, though. It wound up a bit over 19,000 words, but because I usually expand as I edit, it will probably wind up over 20,000. I will work at it hard the rest of the week and this weekend, and hopefully put it up on Monday.

I also wrote quite a bit on Gambit last night. That one's coming along well, too. I don't usually write heroes who are such total bastards, but I have to admit, I'm beginning to see the appeal of the alpha male. Between Griffin and Dom, I'm starting to develop a taste for alphas!

Illumination excerpt

Thanks to those of you who have been so hopefully emailing me-- I really do appreciate the encouragement! Here's excerpt #2 for Illumination.

Working, and new covers

Easter was predictably a wash as far as writing was concerned, and yesterday I spent four and a half hours in the doctor's office, getting my Remicade (and waiting around for the doctor to see me, which she never did). So yesterday was kind of a bomb as far as writing goes, too. But today I'm back at it. This morning I wrote a nice hot sex scene for Illumination, and I'll see what else I can fill out and edit this afternoon. I'm thinking about putting up excerpt #2, but haven't quite figured out what I want that excerpt to be yet.

In the meantime, I've gotten a couple of great new covers from ebookindiecovers. The first one is, of course, a replacement. I loved the original cover, but I'm not sure it was "paranormal-y" enough. I think this one is eyecatching and says "werewolf romance" quite clearly. The second one was a premade that caught my eye, and when I thought of the title I immediately thought of a short story to go with it. I intend to write that as soon as I've finished up Illumination and Gambit: