I’ve heard it said that a mother’s work is never done. This month has flown by! Here we are, three days from the new year. How did it happen so quickly? I’m currently working on Enraptured, a co-written series with the incredibly talented Lacey Savage. It’s coming along nicely. A Familiar Kiss is near completion. My goal is to have it and Nexus to my editors before the New Year. Primal Hunger’scover is still phenomenal and I’m so thrilled to see my name on an Ellora’s Cave cover. Just amazing.

January brings me to Alaska with my family after a 15 month deployment. It’s hard knocks for a while, and injuries make recovery difficult. There are some pretty bad moments for a while, but I channel all that fury and uncertainty into the series that would become the Rift Wars. My injuries put me into a medical evaluation system. Lots of red tape and paperwork to sort through.

February and March are touch and go, health wise. So many medical appointments and briefings. I learn to adapt to a new lifestyle, and find alternative sports options. My sons and I realize we are really great at archery. I learn to ski, and Rift Wars becomes an obsession. I’m now writing several hours a day. Oh how I had missed writing…

April rolls around and I get back into the writing game. Send out a few submissions, receive amazing feedback (but no bites), and realize that my writing had changed significantly since my return from overseas. My work was darker and less apologetic. I receive some amazing fanmail that keeps me going.

By May and June the family helps me realize there is no going back. My life had altered, and we had to figure out what was going to happen next. I need a new career. After talking it over with SuperChef (husband), we  come to the conclusion that it is now or never. Time to get moving again on the writing train.

In July, I contact Lacey Savage about a crazy book series idea. We iron out the details and decide to go for it later in the year. So I set my sites on a publishing company I’d wanted to be a part of from the beginning: Ellora’s Cave. First novel submission is a feedback rejection, and I immediately begin working on the next submission.

By August,  Primal Hunger is submitted to an editor at Ellora’s Cave and a full is requested in less than a week. Insert OMG and Squee fest. My second novel submission ever, and it’s showing promise. Now to get it all polished up and pretty. My annual Holiday short submission is away to Changeling Press and approved. I love the winter contest they have every year.

September: The Other Klaus is written, polished, and submitted. I start working on Feral Intent, a sequel to Primal Hunger. The Other Klaus is accepted. WOOHOO!

October/November blend together in excitement and incredible change. Primal Hunger is accepted (and title is changed from Primal Heat to Primal Hunger). Contract information is completed, and I get to announce to the world that I’m an Ellora’s Cave author!  SuperChef celebrates record-breaking traffic on his recipe blog. He’s getting some serious acclaim from several incredible cookery sites. I get notice of a pending retirement. My career as an Airman is almost over. With that comes an emotional rollercoaster of epic proportions. Fourteen years. <Poof!> The family and I agree to settle down south where the weather is less intense. We settle on San Antonio, Texas.With two days to spare, I complete NaNoWriMo for the second time, ever. I get together with Lacey Savage and we work out all the details of our trilogy. We decide to start working on them the second week or so of December. Not a bad month…

The insanity doesn’t stop! I begin work on Enraptured. December 10th, The Other Klaus releases. I forgot how much I loved release day. December is tense while I transition from the military (OMG the paperwork…I forgot how much I’d had to sign to come IN. Getting out is just as crazy!). We’re still in the process of packing up a house for the move, house hunting, etc. The first three weeks in January will be just as intense, as we’ll be moving a household from Alaska to Texas. Family meltdowns and worries collide in some pretty potent mixes. Some of the best parts of the month: Christmas… just incredible! I also got to have a wonderful writing session with the fabulous Leila Brown! The Other Klaus came out! And I was just naughty enough to get a little extra in my stocking this year.

Throughout the year, I celebrated a ton of wonderful releases by my great critique partners, Kim Knox and Lexxie Couper. Don’t believe me? Check out Kim’s Smokin’ Hot Planetary Bodies series, or Lexxie Couper’s Sizzlin’ Ty the Sexy Dragon novella.

So what’s in store for 2012?

January will be busy. Enraptured will be finished, edits for Primal Hunger are expected, we’ll be moving to Texas (yikes!), and looking for a house. Internet will be sketchy, but that’s why the book gods created Barnes and Noble. My oldest son and I are getting our hair dyed something ridiculous, and I’m getting my fingernails done in funky tips as a retirement gift to myself.

In February I have two books releasing from Changeling Press. Will give you more information as soon as it becomes available. I officially retire as a Technical Sergeant of the United States Air Force at the end of the month. The kids get back into school. The new life officially begins. Despite the change in income and such, I expect it to be much like the old life…only more writing. And no more asking permission to go on a road trip. Or filling out paperwork if I want to go to Oklahoma. Or sending other men and women to war in my place b/c my body can’t do it anymore. Hmm. So far, I see far more positives than negatives. Enraptured should be polished up and submitted. By then, we’ll be working on the final book in the trilogy.

I have five books planned through May. Primal Hunger is slotted to release some time early 2012.

May your 2012 be prosperous, awe-inspiring, and non world-ending.

See you in 2012!

Keep Writing,
Dawn

I know it’s been quiet…too quiet…but all that is about to change. I have some exciting news coming and can’t wait to fill you in on the details! I hope your summer’s going well.

Please note that due to drowning SPAM (over 1500 spam emails despite daily updated filters) I have changed my email address. I’m slowly making the email changes everywhere I hang out, so pls be patient while I wind my way through my haunts.

It’s good to back.

I have several up-and-coming stories, but I can’t talk about them yet. I can’t wait to share them with you all!

Until then, have you checked out some of my favorite blogs to haunt?

Jess Granger
Kim Knox
Lynn Viehl

So if you want to follow along I’ll be at http://dawnmontgomerywrites.wordpress.com/. Holly Lisle has a wonderful continuous word challenge going on and I’ll be updating on her blog as well as the writing one. This blog will be all about characters, releases, the history of this book or that world I’d built, etc.

There will be a few more changes coming over the holiday. More to come on that later.

• Sex and Chocolate: Decadence will go audio! I love the story and can’t wait to hear how it sounds in audiobook.
• Holiday Howlz: Werewolf Woes comes out in a little over a week! WOOHOO! Don’t forget about the Changeling Press holiday special. For every Holiday Howlz you buy you’ll be entered to win free Changeling titles for a year! That’s right…not pick and choose, but you’ll be on the release distro list. How awesome is that??? The name will be randomly drawn during our Changeling New Year’s bash and at $2.99 a title, it’s a bargain!
• Speaking of bargains…seven of my titles are available for purchase at fictionwise for an incredible 30% off!! Grab your pre-holiday deals now! *edited to add, two other titles: Babes in Toyland II and Masquerade anthologies are also available at fictionwise!

NaNoWriMo is a bust for me this year, but I have made incredible headway in a new series. So for those Wrimos still kicking butt out there, you’ve got my support! I’m gonna cheer from the sidelines this year.

Favorite lines of the day (unedited rough draft! I reserve the right to come back and change these later! LOL):

Cheyenne rocked back on her heels and blew him a kiss.

His laughter ran over her like a warm embrace. She turned her back on him and jumped over the rail to land softly on the lower catwalk. Her lips lifted in a smile and she shook her head at her own antagonizing behavior.

She needed to get the hell off this station, and fast, before she did some other reckless thing.

1. My family and I are geographically separated. They’re halfway across the world from me and I’m missing them like crazy. My wonderful husband is doing his best to hold down the fort but we’re all feeling the edge of separation during this holiday season.
2. With the exception of Kim and Lexxie, my other writing partners are not NaNo-ing this year. There are a ton of ladies at the Romance Divas who ARE in NaNo and that’s encouraging, but the word wars and challenges are going to be fewer and far between. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what I’d do without my two amigas. They really keep me going.
3. I’m writing two novels. 100K by the 30th of November. Yeah. That’s right. I’m crazy. So this word marathon I’m on…anyone else have the feeling I’ll need a straight jacket when it’s all said and done?

But I’ll make it. I’ll tear that word count up b/c ultimately, the only one stopping me from achieving success is… Me. See you later, wonderful readers, I’ve got to get my write on.

For my candy story I have a novella planned. Nothing else about that yet as it’s a multi-author series and I don’t want to say anything that could spill information ahead of time. So what about you? Do you have anything planned yet? Or are you skipping NaNo this year?

Her images are fabulous and hilarious. You should definitely check them out on her blog. This year I decided I’d do the same thing…only I’d create an image that captures the heat/imagery I imagine for my NaNo wip.

Tell me what you think.

Since I’ve moved here for my day job, I’ve felt isolated. Even more than I’d ever imagined. The internet has become my way to talk to people. My connection with my family, my home, my friends. The relationships with my writing partners haven’t changed. We just see each other more (or less) often depending on where they currently reside.

The emails I get from fans I try to reply to in as little as 24 hours. My editors and publishing houses have all communicated to me through email so there is no change in the way I’m doing business there.

No. What’s happened is that I’ve become obsessed with blog hopping, twitter feeds, and facebook applications LOL. I’ve let them carve little patches in my writing time until all I have left is minutes a day to get my words down on paper. With the deadlines I’ve set for myself, that’s not acceptable.

So, I’m now refocusing my time. I’ll post what I’m up to and when, still give you news and come to chats. I love dropping in on them anyway, it makes for spontaneously good time!

So bear with me as I rework my balance.