I wrote a little something about our military in my LSB blog post today. From my husband, to my friends, my writing mentors, and my grandfather, I’m proud to know you and wish you a wonderful Veteran’s Day.

Here’s one of those…I can’t believe I have to explain this…kind of posts. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve received half a dozen emails from people thinking I’m a different Dawn Montgomery (and a lovely amount from people looking for the author, Thank you guys!).

There’s a lovely model in Georgia who’s recently been in several magazines and photo shoots. I’m not her. So please stop sending me all the wicked and downright scary things you want to do to this poor woman. I hope she has body guards and an incredible sense of danger. I have no way of getting hold of her, so don’t send me emails that way either.

There’s a Jeri Dawn Montgomery in Houston who accidentally killed someone b/c she was texting while driving. Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about texting while driving. As a matter of fact, I hate phones as a general rule, so it wasn’t me. (Nevermind the fact that I don’t live in Houston and am not serving a prison sentence). So please stop sending me hate mail about irresponsible texting. I assure you, this isn’t me.

The awesome female basketball player. She’s awesome…really. You need to see her play. I did and I was amazed. But nope, not her. I’m only 5 feet tall.

So maybe I should tell you a little bit about myself. I’m short, chubby with red hair, blue eyes, and pale skin (and freckles!) that can only come from major sun avoidance. I’m Irish, Scottish, and Shawnee in my heritage which makes me all-American. LOL!

I’m happily married and have some of the best kids in the world…even if they do their best to drive me crazy. I’m scatterbrained and spend my time making people laugh or making them feel comfortable in their own skin. I’ll never be a model or basketball player. To be honest, the only sports I like are solo sports. Hiking, running, walking, weight lifting…I’m picked last in pick up games b/c I am just that bad.

Dawn Montgomery is a penname.

For those of you who wonder why I “hide” behind one, I need only look to the stalker-eque emails for these other Dawns to confirm my instincts. My family is my life and endangering them by allowing unknown people access to my personal information is reckless.

This will be posted up on my “About Me” page under the FAQs.

Dawg Town: Playing for Keeps

Genre: Paranormal, Short Story, Erotic Romance,

ISBN: 978-1-60521-260-9

Released: July 2009

*BUY NOW FROM CHANGELING PRESS*

Written for Tariana, stay strong girl.

Prairie dogs may be low on the food chain, but Riley Cates is anything but. More man than dawg, he’s finally carved his place in Barkus. Until Tara walks back into his life. Now there’s no turning back, because once Riley has his taste, he’ll never be able to let her go.

Tara’s drawn to the one man who holds her soul, her happiness in his paws. And no matter what happens, this time, she’s playing for keeps.

Note: While this is a multi-author series, the title is standalone.

The concept of Dawg Town wasn’t my own but I jumped at the chance to write an unconventional shifter. I’m a firm believer in balance. The ladies and gents at Changeling were awesome (as always) to work with. I hope you’ll check out more of this series HERE.

Sorry it’s late, gang. I just got off a really long work shift. Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Worth Every Risk releases March 9th at 7pm EST from Liquid Silver Books. I can’t wait! *WEG*

Until then, I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I changed my front page from a splash page to publishing news. There are some other tweaks coming throughout the website to make it more upload friendly from my end.

Ocean Dancer should have loaded last night on my free page, but didn’t. Web guru is working on fix!!! Bear with me!

I’ve just received an email with a gorgeous pressie. Hot Vixen, my up-and-coming menage release is part of Changeling’s Masquerade Anthology (they call it a montage).

Tell me what you think!

Renee George is just an amazingly talented woman. It’s available 13 February from Changeling. Check it out HERE.

It’s the personal writing challenge and year in review. Christmas Eve 2006 was the day I was contacted with a publishing contract and was published two weeks later. So 2008 was officially my 2nd year as a professional author. Wow.

So what happened in 2008?

January

I introduced you to my sketching madness

Bound Eternally released from Changeling Press, the final chapter in my Bound Trilogy

I had an anniversary bash with all my Aspen peeps.

My dear friend, and fellow LAW lady, Maggie Nash, was released from her Triskelion contracts after a long legal battle. Much rejoicing commenced!

Babes in Toyland 2 was selected by Love Romances and More Cafe as honorable mention for best anthology 2008.

The League of Amazing Writers threw me a birthday bash on January 24th.

The month was ended with a somber tone. Cynnara Tregarth’s mother passed away. My heart broke for her.

February

February dropped me right in the middle of Sweating with Sven for the second time. I made that goal, but only two of the four novellas were published. LOL!

My free reads section got a new look and a few new pieces went up, including the Romance Divas annual free ebook challenge.

Many reviews came down for Bound in Fury, Bound in Lust, and Babes in Toyland 2

San Antonio, Texas had an earthquake…hmm, wow.

March

Spaceport: Bounty released from Changeling Press!

The League of Amazing Writers reopened the site with a whole new look! Much celebration commenced!

Phenomena Authors debuted.

April

Many guest blogs this month. Ecata, LAW, etc.

Lexxie Couper created the gorgeous Bound in Fury book trailer. Man she’s talented.

Bound in Fury was nominated for a golden rose as best cover art, 2008.

May

My family and I moved to a new house on very short notice. I set up my writing cave.

As a gift to myself (and something that was far more portable than my other laptop), I got the ASUS eee laptop. I love it take it with me just about everywhere I go. It fits in a portable DVD case so I have pockets

More reviews and Bound in Fury won the Golden Rose for best coverart!

Rookery Cove: Ocean’s Call, my very first m/m/f menage, released from Changeling Press.

I had the ant invasion.

June

Plain Brown Wrapper: Shadow Lies released from Aspen Mountain Press! A bargain short story at less than $1.00!

The flooding in Iowa had writing friends trapped. It was not a good time.

July

My husband’s birthday rolled around and I gave him a little love letter on the blog.

A few more reviews and a unanimous poll in favor of my writing a novel. I’m still working on it!

Phenomena Authors had a Left Behind and Loving It workshop on balancing motherhood and writing. Lynn Viehl was the sponsor of the series and we had a blast!

Big, Blooming and Wild! Texan Bound released from Changeling Press.

August

My anniversary and my son’s birthday.

I began and completed a hand to hand combat course, continuing on to complete certification to teach self defense. (Just rereading my entries from that month made me hurt all over again).

I had a few reviews and an interview with the owner of Aspen Mountain Press.

I started my Twitter Account.

We found out our son may be autistic.

September

I re-evaluated my writing goals and began the personal writing challenge, named Whiskey Straight ‘08. I blame Kim Knox. It was all her idea…really!

Hurricane Andrew hit and we had evacuees up in northern Texas. Many of my old school buddies were affected down in Houston. Definitely not a good day.

I re-organized my website

Lexxie Couper made me a new trailer, this time for Spaceport: Bounty. She’s a dream to work with.

October

I ranted on Genre Snobbery.

My main laptop showed the first signs of slow painful death.

I realized in October that I couldn’t figure out how to balance life and writing without sacrificing some part of life. This was where my personal stresses were driving me insane and the pressures of work kept rising.

I started my free read serial: Angel of Law in the Search for the Star Sapphire. Yes it’s very tongue in cheek, but it’s fun to write. Wicked Wednesdays was born.

Masqued Tails released from Changeling Press!

Our son is diagnosed with autism.

November

NaNoWriMo started…and I wrote 75K words. ‘Nuff said about that.

Burn Out was selected for Liquid Silver Books’ Worth Every Risk anthology.

Record making election year from both Republicans and Democrats.

70 Days of sweat started again.

I hosted weekend speedwriting sessions at Realms of Love every weekend during NaNo.

I finally found balance.

Hubby hijacked my blog to let everyone know I’d finished NaNo early. At that point I didn’t update my word count anymore.

Our son spoke his first words in months and has shown so much more progress than we’d ever hoped.

My hubby put up a chat room at Phenomena Authors.

December

Ginger Snaps: Serendipity 5A released from Changeling Press!

Del Fantasma: Winter Break released from Aspen Mountain Press!

Four contests, a coffee time romance chat, three reviews for Serendipity 5A, and a return to Wicked Wednesdays.

The writing frenzy of November caught up to me and I ended up on the ick end of sick.

I received notice of a job transfer. It’ll be temporary (doesn’t feel that way at a little over a year) but my family can’t accompany me since there will be no place for them to stay, and no way our son can get the care he needs. Other personal stuff accumulated. Pressure from work increased for two weeks while our section was being evaluated.

Record breaking frigid temperatures all across the country. New Orleans got snow…

More sketchbook love…

On a personal note, December was an emotional rollercoaster I hope to never go through again. Ever.

Babes in Toyland 2 is a Capa Nominee at The Romance Studio.

There are things I’ve missed, I’m sure…but just writing this makes me exhausted. Whiskey Straight will end with me about 40K or so shy of my goal, and that’s okay. I’ll set up new goals for 2009, ones that are achievable.

Next year will be interesting…

It’s here! 15 fun and naughty prizes and all you have to do is enter a contest at Bitten by Books!

Spicy reads over the holidays sound like a dream to me! Check out the details HERE.

This is not my contest! Any questions need to be directed to the reader’s loop

We’re just a LITTLE excited about Christmas - and we should be! This is our FIFTH Changeling Christmas! (Which means February is our fifth BIRTHDAY! Woohoo!)

Our Fifth Annual Very Changeling Christmas Contest begins December 1st with the first of 12 Gingersnaps.

Gingersnaps: Santa Paws by Lena Austin
Gingersnaps: Canine Cop by BJ McCall
Gingersnaps: Serendipity 5A by Dawn Montgomery
Gingersnaps: Christmas Knight by Alecia Monaco
Gingersnaps: Another Chance by L. Shannon
Gingersnaps: Cupid by Sierra Dafoe
Gingersnaps: Serendipity 7C by Lexxie Couper
Gingersnaps: Sophie’s Present by Anne Kane
Gingersnaps: Summoning by Leila Brown
Gingersnaps: Sugar Plums by Kate Hill
Gingersnaps: Pole Serpent by Renee George
Gingersnaps: Christmas Party by Moira Rogers

12 Changeling Gingersnaps, 12 Chances to Win!

Grand Prize: Free E-Books For a Year(All Changeling 2009 e-book releases)

Five First Place Winners will each receive free E-books for a month (All Changeling January 2009 e-book releases)

10 runners-up will receive Five Free Downloads of their choice.

Buy any Changeling Gingersnap during the month of December and you’re automatically entered to win. Every purchase of a Gingersnap counts as a contest entry. Winners to be announced at our Changeling New Years Eve party, located at the Changeling Bar and Grill -

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChangelingPress

Who’s coming down your chimney this year?
Margaret Riley
Publisher, www.ChangelingPress.com