According to my serial readers, after Friday's prank I am now a "sadistic wench" and an "evil genius". I wear the titles with pride, of course – and I can say with certainty that killing off the main characters in a romance novel is not going to go over well with readers. It was a pretty fun trick though...for me, anyways.

The newsletter is late this week, but will be out sometime today. The weekend got away from me, unfortunately, but I'll be back on track here soon.

Last week was the final one for the Sex on the Page series – thanks to all of you who explored the subject matter with Carol Buchanan & I. I know I learned a lot just writing my half of the posts, as well as exploring Carol's take on the subject. I'll create a link index of all the posts later this week, and post it for anyone who wants to go back and revisit the series. Thursdays will be open days again starting this week – if anyone would like to guest post, let me know. Otherwise there won't be a post on Thursday, at least through the summer.

There are a couple of exciting new releases today, both from Lyrical Press – Strand by Adam Slade (sci-fi), and Ordinary Angels by India Drummond (paranormal romance). Both authors are talented storytellers, and I'd highly encourage you to check them out. As a bonus, India will be stopping here on her blog tour Wednesday with a rather intriguing post on why she hates the "R" word (romance). Do stop in and share your thoughts!

This Week at The Variety Pages

Tuesday: Ch. 60 of The Biker's Wench
Wednesday: The "R" Word – guest post by India Drummond
Friday: Ch. 61 of The Biker's Wench
Saturday: Excerpt from Dragonfly Dreams by Franki deMerle

Also on Friday – Dolly Garland is doing a series on editing at her blog, and this Friday I'm guest posting there. Stop by if you have a chance, and we'll talk editing.

Goal Reports

Last week was a great writing week – I started ahead, and would have ended that way too if I hadn't stayed up way too late several nights in a row. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good week for much of anything else, so I'm playing catch-up this week.

Before I list this week's goals though – just a quick note on this segment. You don't see me patting myself on the back much here because that's not really the point. The goal reports and lists are an analytical exercise for my mind – they help me step back, take an objective look at what's going on, and what needs to be done, and create a plan for moving forward. This doesn't mean I'm being "hard" on myself, or not giving myself credit – believe me, my ego is very healthy and well-fed. But I do know what I'm capable of, and these goals are a way to push myself a little farther, a little harder than what I know I can do. They’re *supposed* to be challenging – and please realize that I never actually expect to reach all of them from week to week. Just as many as I can.

Goals for the Week

Writing

- 6 serial scenes
- 2 crits
- Finish the TBW draft

Business

- Send out newsletter
- Update web site
- Start building FantasyRanchNovels.com
- Research ad space cost at major review sites

Personal

- 4 workouts
- 1 load laundry daily
- Taxes
- Loan application for home improvement projects this summer
- Update Goodreads

That’s what I’m up to this week – I also am in dire need of a reading binge, so I’m going to use that as my daily “carrot” – try to get everything done early enough to have more than my normal allotment of reading time. Because reading is fun.

Anyone want to share one of your goals for the week?

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