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<\/a><\/div>\nBecause I was going away, I worked extra hard to keep my focus on the second draft of Masquerade<\/b>, the tenth Vampires Realm<\/i><\/a> book. I managed to complete it in time and get other necessary things done like the final blog posts for my Heart of Darkness<\/b><\/a> Blog Tour. It’s a relief to have the second draft of Masquerade<\/b> done. It’s now 90,000 words in total, so I added 6000 or so during this edit. There’s a chance I’ll either chop some of those out during the polish edit or end up adding more. We shall have to wait and see. I think I cleared up a few things that were bugging me during this edit though and I’m hoping that when my adorable crit partners have finished reading it that they come back making positive noises. I’m not worried as I still have the polish edit to go and can smooth out any rough edges then.<\/p>\n I’ve been trying to read about marketing plans and business plans and many other things involving the word plan but I seem to space out after reading a few paragraphs and get confused about it all. There doesn’t seem to be anything concrete about such things. I’ve boiled it all down to – set some random targets and attempt to achieve them. There’s no science involved. When people talk about business plans, I like to think somewhere there’s something that tells you exactly what you do. It does seem like setting made up targets and trying to make them happen to me. That frustrates me. I’m a very logical person, so I need logic in everything I do… scribbling some rubbish down and calling it a business plan turns my stomach. There has to be something more informative and concrete about them out there.<\/p>\n 2012 is sneaking up on us though, and I think it’s time I tried to get into a better position business-wise and formulate plans and stick to them. I want to start moving into a position where I have more time between completing a book and releasing it. I need that time so I can send out ARCs for review, create advertising, formulate a marketing plan, make a book trailer, arrange a tour, write tour posts etc all prior to the book’s release. Everything is always hot on my heels otherwise and I feel as though I’m about to get snagged and feel it just flood past me and leave me behind. Generally, I want to feel less stressed and more relaxed. The more relaxed I am, the more I write.<\/p>\n I do feel ready for the challenge though, refreshed by my break and time away from work, spending hours with my nose stuck in books. Reading wasn’t the only thing I did in my short break. I started thinking about my Hades Boys series too and I think I’ve written around 40 pages of notes for it now that I need to type up and add to my word documents. I would really like to get started on that series in 2012.<\/p>\n All this talk about working, I guess I should get some done! I’ll come back tomorrow for my final Heart of Darkness<\/b><\/a> Tour catch up post. Hope you enjoy today’s Daily Dozen later on too!<\/p>\n I’ve just finished reading through the first draft of Covet<\/b> ahead of doing the second draft, and tomorrow I’ll read through the first draft of Crave<\/b>. They’re both erotic vampire romance novellas and both part of my upcoming Vampire Erotic Theatre<\/i> series that is due out next year. I’m not sure when the first book will come out though. You’ll have to wait and see!<\/p>\n It’s been quite a busy few weeks for me. As many of your know, I was away last weekend for a few days, enjoying the wilds of Scotland and some good paranormal romance books. I read three of them. I … Continue reading <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"