A rare shot of the author during the crazed period known as Deadline Dementia

Here I am, having just finished The Portal Series Prequel, Legacy of the Witch, Book 1, Mark of the Witch, and Book 2, Daughter of the Spellcaster.  I need to write Book 3 by June (deadline’s July, but the coffers will be scraping bottom by June, so…) and also, to finish my non-fiction companion book The Magick of the Witchesby then.  I’m going to BEA in June too, giving away advance copies of book 1 and promoting the series, so the huge new website we’re launching for The Portal Series, which was scheduled to launch in August, has to be launched in June.  We’re doing a full set of 12 trading cards, 4 heroes, 4 heroines, 4 villains, book trailer videos, some with original music, a giant contest, and a whole bunch more.  At the same time, we’re formatting,

On sale now at Kindle, Amazon & Smashwords! Coming soon to iTunes. Print Editions in Progress!

editing, and creating cover art for my backlist.  Just uploaded Dr. Duffy’s Close Encounter  (NOOK LINK //  KINDLE LINK // SMASHWORDS LINK) and we’re almost ready to add Miranda’s Viking.  I’ll be doing Forgotten Vows next, and then redoing the cover art on the books already up.

So yeah, I’m busier than I like to be, and yet enjoying the heck out of it.  It’s all fun stuff that I love doing.  But this week, ahhh, this week, this gorgeous, beautiful, wonderful week, I’m not writing.  I’m taking one week in between novels to do other things.  Cleaned the aquarium day before yesterday, cleaning and refilling the hot tub today.  Yesterday I had my day at Aria on the Avenue, my favorite salon, where Craig Short, my stylist, made me look human again.  (Do you remember the episode of Buffy with the 1st Slayer?  She was this primal wild-woman?  Yeah, that’s what I looked like before yesterday.)

Maggie, before Aria and Craig....or The First Slayer

Anyway, I’m trying hard to enjoy my week off, do some basking, some hanging out with the girls, sleep late, goof off, see a movie maybe.  Cause I do believe in basking, as you know.  But I’m not finding all this fast paced, piles of work stuff at all unpleasant.  A little stressful, and I’m not sleeping much, with my mind racing around all there is to do.  And yet it’s that fun kind of stress, where there are just so many wonderful, fulfilling tasks to choose from that you don’t know which you want to tackle first.  So it’s all good.

So this week, video trailers, households tasks, proofreading and going over copy edits, fish tank, hot tub, (which so desperately need!) and fun.  Then next week, right back into writing again.  I love my job, and I’m very excited about this new series.  Here, let me show you.

Fourth cover isn’t in yet, but it’ll be just as gorgeous.  Legacy will be a free download Sept 1, at Nook, Kindle, Harlequin.com and maybe iBookstore. MARK releases September 17 in print, October 1 in E.  Daughter comes next on November 20/December 1, and then Blood of the Sorceress follows January 17/February 1.  Pretty, yes?  I’m doing a lot of exciting and fun stuff for this series, and I’ll post once we have the official site up and running.  As I said, we’re hoping for June.  Lots of giveaways and prizes for this, so it should be fun.

Okay, diving back in.  Trying not to drown.

May you be as happy when you’re working hard as you are when you’re playing hard.  In fact, may your work feel more like play to you!  I’m so lucky that mine does.

Until next time!

Maggie