Novel Spotter's Reviewed Small Lesson

I just stumbled across a review in Novelspotters for 'A Small Lesson' which I have out with eXtasy.. they gave me a 8/10!
http://novelspot.net/node/1045
The Review was by an editor, one that made a wonderful comment not just about the book, but also about my outlook as a writer. I am sat here grinning from ear to ear.


Yes the review mentioned some weak spots the reviewer felt there were within the manuscript, but considering the source of the review and the wonderful comments made about my writing, my outlook and the story as a whole I class this as an excellant review.

I am not perfect and 'A Small Lesson' was one of my first stories with eXtasy, with each new book, story and short piece I try to apply the lessons I have learned and look forward to each new lesson the next day will bring. Maitresse spoke of my openess to change and willingness to see the new opportunities working with an editor can bring, this was a lesson that was not easy for me to learn. Like many new authors the first time I submitted something to a group for critique I met not only negative comments, but ones that left me fuming. It took several days before I was able to submit again and in the end the same gentleman who left me so annoyed with myself and my writing became the very gentleman I am now working with on the Erien publications. Scott Palter taught me to step away from the keyboard, calm down, think, have a hot chocolate or tea before sitting back down to work with a clear head.

Thank you Maitresse of Novel Spotters for an open, honest and down to earth review of 'A Small Lesson' which is on sale now with www.extasybooks.com

Terri Pray

A New Review!

I woke up to a wonderful treat this morning, a review from www.fallenangelreviews.com for 'Sweet Deceptions' Five Angels and a recommended read! It really made my day to see it. 'Sweet Deceptions' is one of my two current releases with Magic Carpet books, with the third one 'Focused on love' due out on the 28th July and is already on pre-order from Barnes and Noble.

Here's a little of what Fallen Angels had to say...

Terri Pray has a touching story of sweethearts coming together after years apart with many misunderstandings and hurdles to get over. The novel flows extremely well. There is never a dull moment and the sex is blistering hot. Sweet Deceptions is a great way to spend a lazy afternoon. Full of intrigue it keeps you wondering what is happening and who did it. I was enthralled every minute. The underlying stories are also wonderfully poignant. This book is in my keeper pile.

Thankyou so very much to leyna of Fallen Angels and the wonderful review. http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/June2005/leyna-SweetDeceptions.htm for the entire review!

A Scare in the Night

Last night frightened me, I don’t do fear very well as I bury it deeply in order to cope with everything else around me. Sam, my husband, was taken into hospital last night with what we thought could be a heart attack or stroke. It turned out to be a reaction to medication he had been put on for migraines. It was gone 4am by the time we were finally home we were all exhausted and ready to collapse.

He is my world, that might sound odd but it is how we are. He is the reason I write every day. He pushes me to believe in myself and last night I thought I was going to loose him. I had to be so calm and focused because of our children, just so we could be there for him.

In January I nearly lost him, he had blood clots in his arm that would not break up and he ended up having surgery in order to remove them. So this frightened me a great deal. Perhaps I am silly for how badly this affected me but he is my world, my life. Silly I know. He is fine, tired, sore, but alive and fine and I can breathe again. It’s not easy being that deeply in love with someone.

It has been a week for grief and stress. My Grandma has a broken arm and that has left her doubting her strength again. She has been on her own for years so things like this rock her badly which I can understand. My Grandfather passed on Feb 14th 1974, which was one of the reasons I asked for Ruby Kisses to be released on Valentine’s Day with eXtasy this year. In tribute to him as well as my parents and the love they share.

But the scare is over, he is home, drained and we will cope with the effects of the events as they unfold.

Fathers Day

There are many memories that I cherish, from home, from days as a child, but there are two men in my life who have created more memories than any others.

As a child my father taught me so many things, encouraged me with my dreams, held the back of my bike as I tried to ride for the first time without stabilizers, he went to bat for me time and again. It didn’t seem to matter who the enemy was, be it school, a bully, a path I wanted to walk. If he could help me, protect me, yet allow me the chance to at least partially fight that battle myself he did. He spent nights down in the living room, watching over me when I was hit with on chest infection after another, read to me, went hunting for cough medication from one end of the town to the other until he found the one that worked.

The books he put before me, stories he shared, it all built into something that I know I have been lucky to experience. That wonderful ability to see beyond four walls, well beyond the mundane, the joy in curling up with a good book or watching a movie and taking a turn in the road just to see what would be at the other end. He gave me a sense of adventure, encouraged it, fed it with stories, tales from my family. He taught me and helped me through a bad marriage, keeping back from taking action that I know he wanted to take because he believed in letting me live my own life. And then, finally, he was able to take a step back when a younger knight protector stepped forward.

In 1998 I met Sam. He’s helped me step where I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Held my hand when I’ve been shaking, picked me back up when I have fallen. My Sam, who can growl, look fierce and be so very protective. But I’ve seen the look in his eyes when one of our children call him Daddy. Or when they crawl into his lap to curl up against his chest. He’s already the hero to our children that my own Dad has always been to me. I know out children are blessed with the same guiding yet protective hand I was fortunate enough to experience.

Happy Fathers day to my Dad and to Sam. May all children have the good fortune that myself and my children know.

Writing the World Book

It’s been a long few days. Sam and I are working on the World Book for Erien right now and it’s the first project we have worked on together of this nature. Before now he has been my cheering squad now we get the chance to do a major project together. I’m writing the fiction and information sections, he’s working on the stats, the military aspects and together we will be working out the rest of the details before handing the draft over to Scott of Final Sword Productions www.finalswordproductions.com

Arranging a signing for whilst I am at CONvergeance didn’t quite work out, but it’s Harry Potter Season so I might have to wait until next year to do a big signing in the Twin Cities. It will take a while to build up to that level but I can try. So it takes a little longer, maybe they will let me do stock signing at the other B&N in the area. That would still work. And I know stock signings can be a really good idea.

What else has been going on. Well It looks as though Eternal Slave will be a Halloween release with eXtasy *fingers crossed*. Obviously that depends on how it fits in with the other releases and the work load of the editors. If everything goes well I will be contacting a friend of mine to help with a very special launch prize for the book. It will be the first time I have put together a launch prize. Though I am also planning one for Pride of the Tavern as that is set at Formby Point in the UK. An area I know very well and will be able to get my Mum to send some items actually from the area to use as prizes.

Thursday was the authors chat at www.romancejunkies.com It went really well and was wonderful to see so many turn out to support the Australian authors of eXtasy.

Well back into the salt mines I go, or rather the work with my husband. We also now have a chatters list for those interested. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TerriPrayReaders/ is the link and I will be posting snippets of work there at least once a week.

Whilst I am at Convergeance, Scott will be at Origins play testing the Erien Game which I do half wish I could be there but I can’t split myself in two. August is the big one for me though, Gen Con, nervous about that but it will be a lot of fun or so I really believe.

One project completed, on to the next.

With ‘Focused on Love’ now in th’e hands of the editors I can turn my attention to other things and in this case working on Fae Born’ and the World Book for Erien. With the convention season just around the corner for me and the World Book needing to be completed I have to focus on that. Fortunately in many respects the world book is a series of short stories and pieces of information.

Sam and I are working on that together, putting the information, the rules, how certain situations need to be handled into a workable format. Much of this needs to be done long before I head off to Gen Con in August.

The conventions, that’s a whole different ball game. I have two major ones in the next two months. CONvergeance in Bloomington MN and Gen Con in Indiana. Both require a lot of hard work but Gen Con is the big one for me.
‘
Fae Born’ I can get the majority of that done before the end of the month, I have it mapped out with the first 10,000 words already written. Like ‘Focused on Love’ a lot of the extra work went missing in the great Best Buy fiasco. I swear unless it is a dire emergency I will never buy another thing from Best Buy again. They have cost me time and money. Bah.

So now I get my head shifted from erotica to fantasy and get my happy little ass back into the mind set of Lady Orent, Dragon, advisor and sharp wit in order to keep Prince Rhodan from destroying too much of the world before he becomes King. ‘Fae Born’ is already set to be at least 60,000 words perhaps more depending on how many of the new characters demand extra time during the creation stage.

Best Buy and Magic Carpet

I’ve been focusing mainly on getting a manuscript tidied up ready to send to Magic Carpet Books, now this would have been done over a month ago if it had not been for Best Buy. Why is that company to blame, or at least partially to blame, simply this. When my lap top was taken in for repair in March we were told it would be ready within two weeks. Two weeks passed and it hadn’t even been looked at, we then told them clearly do not touch the HD, an order we have proof of and they denied ever having been told or it ever being documented.

When I finally got my lap top back about four weeks ago, after it being missing for seven weeks, the HD had been completely wiped. Including the manuscript I had been working on for Magic Carpet books and one that was already under contract complete with a deadline.

So I have been scrabbling to get it finished. Now it will be done in time, and in all honesty I do prefer how this version of the story turned out.

Why wasn’t it backed up? It had been, however the night before my lap top lost all power Sam reformatted the HD of my back up computer loosing the manuscript and several others in the process. Most of my writing work was saved, three pieces weren’t one of them being the one I need to get to the editor by midnight on Wednesday. Now I will have it to her Tuesday as this will be finished well and truly in time by Monday night at the very latest. After that I can go onto writing other things again. Now the moral of the story is do not trust Best Buy tech support/Geek Squad. They will lie to you, change records, then state that such changes are impossible. This has been an ongoing battle with Best Buy since two weeks after the lap top was taken in and now we play the waiting game to see what will happen.

On a positive note, this will be the third book in print with Magic Carpet Books and is due to go on sale July 28th 2005

Lashing Out

We all lash out at times, though last night I was targeted by someone claiming to be an rpger who then decided to lash out at my work because of an rp I was involved in. He decided because I didn’t roleplay the way I wished him to that it gave him every right to attack what I do for a living as well as my appearance. Now I am not sure why he thought that but it got me wondering why people tend to do that.

I had taken time out of my work to actually help him and his response was to attack me.

So why do people think that is acceptable? Is the ability to work with the written word such a terrible thing that they must attack it? Has he and others like him not taken a good look around them? Very little exists in this world that has not been touched or shaped in some way by a writer, adverts, television programs, newspapers, magazines, sports reviews, movies, books, email jokes, even spam letters. Everything from the log or tag line on a product to a 200,000 word novel has been molded in some small way by a writer plugging away on their computer or note pad.

No two writers are the same either. We each have our own view on the world, genres we prefer, others we can’t ever imagine writing in. We often have passionate beliefs, we’ve been known to use a dry whit in order to pull others back into line or write a story for no reason beyond believing that it was a story worth telling. We call ourselves writers, authors, hacks, scribblers, hobby writers, professionals and hopefuls. There are times we don’t always agree, we have disagreements on everything from politics, religion to styles of writing. We come in all shapes and sizes, small, medium, large, extra large, petite, tall, short, we have blond hair ,black, red, purple, we’re white, black, tanned and a hundred other descriptive tags. The reasons we write vary just as much as the people behind the keyboard, in fact it might be reasonable to say that writing is the one thing we all have in common. Some of us write with the support of family and friends, others struggle in the face of no support at all. We balance children, spouses, every day bills, health issues, time, other jobs, rejection letters, months or even years of waiting for a response from editors and yet we continue.

So what is the point of this little entry?

If you’ve never sat down and stared at a piece of paper trying to figure out where to take the story, regardless of if you do that as a planner or write from the hip, then seen how the novel or short story takes place, feeling that joy as you finish knowing that another story is just waiting around the corner for you to explore then why do you think your attempt to put us down is going to do anything but make you look like a fool?

We write because we want to, because we can and because some people actually enjoy reading our work. We’re varied because readers are varied, because we are unique people and because we find something special in being able to work in a field we actually enjoy.

So please, continue to feel jealous and lash out at those of us who can enjoy our work. Our words will remain, maybe for a year or two, maybe for ten, twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years but your words will fade with yesterdays upset stomach.

Planning Events

With several calls made to Barnes and Nobles/B. Dalton stores in Fargo, Minneapolis and Madison WI I am hoping to get a few signings in this year whilst I travel. With Fargo/Moorhead only being a short distance away (an hour by car) I should be able to do signings there on a regular basis. I’ll know about those signings some time over the next few days I hope. I would love to do a launch signing locally for ‘Focused on Love’ when it goes on sale on July 28th. Though I would need to arrange it for the Saturday after the launch, due to commitments that Sam has.

Sam, for those who do not know, is my long suffering husband who puts up with me vanishing to the bedroom to write for hours on end. Without his help I wouldn’t be able to get the work done that I do, he supports me by looking after the children and keeping me supplied with coffee, soda and sandwiches during that dedicated time.

I belong to a number of writing lists on yahoo, one of them is ‘Writing Women’ and one of my list sisters just celebrated her first release yesterday with Ellora’s Cave. Eve Lilas’ Turning the Tide is well worth the read through, especially if you like your romance flavored with dark and intense scenes. Good luck with your book Eve, may it be the first of many to come.

I stumbled across a new review for Whispered Secrets from Cupid's Library Reviews. They gave the book a 4 for pleasure factor and a 4 for plot, which is a very high rating from this review group.

Just a snippet from the review as I do not want to post the full thing without their consent.

"Ms. Pray has written a realistic and believable story with a heroine, that many women can identify with.

Kate is the typical modern woman who wants both, a professional career and a family. But that doesn't seem to be possible, so she focuses on her job. Frank is too good to be true - an old fashioned family man who accepts that a woman has the same right as men to pursue professional success and enjoy sex without commitment.

This was a romantic yet very thoughtful book with the right amount of sensual sex scenes that I enjoyed reading a lot.

Birka, Cupid's Library Reviews"

One thing I had meant to mention yesterday and forgot to were the reviews my work has been receiving. I have been fortunate with the reviewers so far. Both www.fallenangelreviews.com and JERR have given Whispered Secrets a wonderful review. Coffee Time Romance has reviewed several of mine including both Whispered Secrets and Sweet Deceptions.

I can only hope that my fortune with the reviews continue.

I have one nugget length currently waiting for a yes or no from an editor, which is a story I truly hope will find a home. “Play for Me” is a sensual bdsm romance with a very different outlook. I should hear back about that soon, perhaps another week or so, I know the editor I sent it to has been very busy indeed.

There have been highs and lows over the last month, one of the lows a little over a month ago now I believe, was the death of Emy Neso. He was an active author for eXtasy, a talented man with a wonderful sense of humor and his death was a loss to the world. His books are still on sale and several are still due to be released. He will go on the hearts and minds of many for years to come.

I have been very lucky over the last year with the people I have met, those wonderful giving people so willing to help teach me what I need to know. Perhaps ,in time, I will be counted as one of those people who can aid others in their writing career.

It’s been way too long since I kept my blogger updated and in that time so much has happened that I barely know where to begin.
I now have three books out in print, Whispered Secrets, Sweet Deceptions and The Dragon Prince. Dragon Prince has been picked up by Final Sword Productions and is due to be re-released in August I believe along with Fae Born and the World Book for the Erien game.

On top of that I have 4 ebooks out with eXtasybooks where my name is now listed along with authors I have grown to admire. People like Morgan Hawke, Brenna Lyons, Master Nage, those who have been writing for so much longer than I have. Though I know I have a lot yet to learn about writing the very fact my books have been accepted by extasy when they have writers of that caliber already is a thrill for me. To make matters even better I have five more books waiting to come out with extasy later this year or early next.

So what am I doing now?

Finishing off a manuscript for publication, getting ready for a convention in Bloomington MN called CONvergence and trying to keep up with the work, my family and the kids. On top of all of that my husband and I now also run an RPG chat site called www.darkfantasychat.com never breakdown is booked for….

It is time, however, that I started keeping this blogger up to date at least once a week. If for no other reason that to try and keep a track on my own sanity lol.

Almost forgot. JustusRoux accepted a short story for her site, which I believe is going up next month and waxromantic accepted one for their ezine. I do have plans to write some more shorts in the coming month in between putting the final touches to the world book for Erien.

Its all good fun…