I am in desperate need of some vacation time!  Spring is upon us and with it comes the need to spring clean...get seeds started for the garden...and I still have a list of book writing to do!  And that doesn't leave time for any fun at all!
I am such a procrastinator!  I decided to take a night off from responsibilities last night and go have dinner and margaritas then a trip to the casino.  The margaritas got the best of me and I just lost a whole day being miserable with one of the worst hangovers ever!  But, I've recovered and am regrouping after a nice dinner of lasagna with garlic bread...and hopefully a few gallons of water.  Nothing gained...and only $20 lost in the slot machines last night...
I looked around the house this morning and with the sun shining in the windows for perhaps the first time in weeks or months, the need to do some serious spring cleaning was very obvious.  Dust from being closed up, fur balls under the furniture, and for some reason there are a couple of muddy boot prints by the back door that appeared miraculously after I mopped last weekend.  It's a dirty job but someone has to do it!  And that someone has to be me!  But on the up side of the whole chore is that the curtains blowing in the open windows after they've been laundered smell amazing in a clean house.
Of course, then there are the seeds that need to be started.  But that doesn't have to be done for a couple weeks yet.  And besides, my seed order hasn't been delivered yet so I can wait on that.
But that leaves the books...the haunting WIPS that are hovering over me like ghosts floating in the air.  I have the new one that I am really excited about and I am vowing to have it ready for release within the next week...when it should have been done and released last year.  I told you I was a procrastinator! 
So, what is my plate full of in the way of books....Here's a preview of what's to come...
A Wing and a Prayer- What happens when a guardian angel who hates her job gets assigned to a fun loving party girl?  Throw in a disgruntled detective with a penchant for getting even and all sorts of things could happen!
Vengeance Trilogy- Previously self published and now c0ntracted by Soul Mate Publishing, Book 1-Blood Vengeance is presently undergoing (excruciatingly painful) editing and Book 2-Vengeance Unleashed will be next on the list with the goal of having all 3 books of the vigilante vampire trilogy re-released in 2016.
Possum Creek Series- Watch for the third book out of Possum Creek where the men are hot and the women are spunky!  Char, the widowed café owner, gets a renewed chance at love...or will she...when she realizes what the new guy in town is there for?  Home Stretch is the newest book of the series and the first two will have new covers and some new content and be available on all the eBook markets.  Look for it later this summer!
Sisters Trilogy-  Watch for Book 2 and Book 3 as the Summers sisters try to stop the evil that seems to be making their small, lakefront community a little bit crazy.  All 3 books will be available on all eBook markets just in time for Christmas!

I also have the workings of three new books...none of which I have given a title yet...and I don't want to give too much away either...let's just say, because I'm a procrastinating pantster...one never knows where the stories are going to start...go...or stop...

So...tomorrow February is over and March is on the way...stay tuned for more of my ramblings...and if anyone has a suggestion on a topic they would like to see on my blog please feel free to email me at Teresa.keefer.author@hotmail.com!

Someone asked me recently..."why do you write romance?"  That's an interesting question.  Romance isn't always my choice of reading material.  In fact, I select my reading material depending upon what I am trying to accomplish.  If I want to go to sleep and sleep well, romance is generally my go to material. 
Yes, I started reading Harlequins at the ripe old age of twelve back when there weren't any hot and torrid sex scenes in romance books.  Well, at least in Harlequins.  But by the time I was sixteen, I was seeking out more substantial novels.  Dirty ones.  I remember hiding one of those novels written by ANONYMOUS within the cover of a Black Beauty paperback during study hall for fear that the teacher would come around and decide that the material I was reading wasn't appropriate and confiscate the book that I had spent my hard earned allowance money on.
Is it easy to write a romance novel?  Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't.  Sometimes the words flow from my brain to the tips of my fingers to the keyboard and sometimes it's like digging stubborn weeds out of the garden.  In today's romance market, there is such a wide variety of subgenres that they are no longer just a man meets woman, they have a conflict that leads to love and they live happily ever after.  Instead, there are vampires and witches, cops and bad guys, time traveling and world traveling and the conflicts are sometimes as multi-faceted as a fiery gemstone.
I'm no expert at romance, either....because I have a trail of failed relationships strewn behind me like petals tossed in the wind.  But even with those failures, I still believe in love and have a tendency to run head first into the storm.
So why do I write romance?  I enjoy creating characters and scenarios and breathing life into them with the use of flowery adjectives and steamy verbs.  I have a stockpile of stories that pick at me to be told until I sit down and put my fingers to the keyboard and give them their way.  I may never be a NYT bestselling author or create a story fit for Lifetime Movie Network and I may never sell millions of books but I ENJOY my romance storytelling!

Have you ever had one of those times in your life where you weren't really sure what you wanted to do...whether you were heading in the right direction?  That's been me since before the holidays...

What in the world do I want to do with my life?  I thought about that question and the answer was pretty overwhelming...because I don't think that there's enough time in any given day to do what I want to do!  So, my options are to sit and do nothing or do as much as I can pack into every 24 hour period and be satisfied that I got something done! 

As much as I want to just sit and do nothing but read a book or watch a movie or stare out at the snow falling...that just isn't me.  And even if it were, the pair of twin muses that sit on my left and right shoulder would drive me absolutely nuts with their endless chatter.  Left Shoulder Muse with her pair of horns and bad language telling me that I really should go drink a few shots of Fireball and write a dirty, smutty sex scene...and Right Shoulder Muse with her halo, wings and soft musical voice urging me to write a tender love story.  They have been such a nuisance lately that I figured the best way to satisfy them both would be to include them in one of my novels...and you will find them sitting on the shoulders of my heroine in my upcoming novel Wing and a Prayer. 

Then, of course, there's that closet full of craft supplies that scream for attention every time I go into my spare bedroom.  There's the quilt that I designed, bought the fabric for, and then never cut out the first piece...there's the thirty cross stitch kits I've picked up and started and then put down before they were finished...there's the yarn for the purple afghan I was going to make as a Christmas gift this year...and there's the strips of fabric for the crocheted rag rug for my spare bedroom...well...I'm sure that you are getting the picture! 

Now that the groundhog didn't see his freaking shadow, it means that spring is coming up soon. That means with the onset of spring comes the need to get the seedlings for the garden started and to go shopping for a rototiller to cultivate this huge garden I am planning.  And don't get me wrong...I'm glad that the sun is finally going to come out and warm things up...especially my pasty white skin since sun tanned fat looks a little bit better than this stuff that looks a lot like the underbelly of a dead fish.  But then again, if I was outside doing something in the yard or garden I probably wouldn't have that problem to begin with!

Ok...so you might ask what I'm going to do...easy...I'm going to do it all!  Some how...some way...I'm going to get over this hump of sitting in front of the idiot tube and do everything that I want to do!  Stay tuned...for news...same place...every Sunday...