I have been a very bad blogger lately. Not only haven’t I looked at anyone else’s blogs, I haven’t touched my own.

At first I was SERIOUSLY too busy. I’m still way too busy, but I’ve realized in the time it takes me to lose spider solitaire twice I could have at least let people know I was still alive.

Anyway, after I decided I did have time to blog, Blogger was down when I finally got onto the site. The opportunity to get on again didn’t come until a few days later. . .

I haven’t just been slacking in the blog department, I’ve been slacking in the house cleaning and promo departments too.

I have a release coming out in October (SURPRISE) a print book coming out in October (SPITFIRE) and another book coming out in November (CONVINCE ME) have I done SQUAT about them?
Nope.

I know I sometimes come across like I’m Super Woman, managing the kids, the house, writing, working, and running around like a lunatic but sometimes it just catches up to me and I want nothing more than to sit down and play endless losing games of spider solitaire.

I think I’m probably still in the middle of one of those times. It doesn’t help that I’ve caught a cold to go along with my apathy. Coughing and hacking doesn’t really motivate me to get on line and post perky messages.

And honestly, no one wants to hear me whine EVEN MORE THAN NORMAL!

Things will slow down soon. . .sort of. . .a little. . .maybe
Well, one can hope.
In the meantime, please don’t desert me!!
Ari, the slacker

Last week my friend Summer Devon and I started teaching an online workshop about adding heat to your manuscript. We came up with all sorts of ideas and assignments and even developed a syllabus and lesson plans.

While I was trying to make a coherent lesson I realized that I don’t know HOW I do what I do, I just do it. It’s like trying to explain walking. I really had to go in and look at my editors’ comments and think about what I’ve done in the past to make my erotic romance manuscripts hotter. Doing this has really given me some insight as to what I’m doing and what more I can do to help my manuscripts be hotter, more emotional, and more descriptive.

By explaining things to others, I’m teaching myself too. It’s been a fascinating lesson for me so far. I can see where I’ve made mistakes and where I could improve, not to mention what I can do in my next book.

I’ve been a teacher for 14 years, and I always knew you could learn a lot from your students, but now I’m actually applying that learning and it’s fantastic.

Now, if someone could just ask me to teach a class about weight loss so I could apply that too. . .