It’s 3:30 am and I meant to be in bed an hour ago. This is not an uncommon occurrence but still annoying. It’s been a meh day for me. I woke up feeling bent – this is my way of saying my arthritis was bad. I had to text my boss to tell her I wanted to start later. She’s always cool with this but it annoys me when I have to take advantage of it. I took an hour, slept for part of the time and then got moving (slowly) before getting to work. I opted not to make up my time.
This meant my brain was slow to work today. I made progress on tasks but I wanted to do super fast work. I couldn’t. I made a point of putting my computer aside for my lunch time. I knew I needed the break from it.
Because it was a rough day, I didn’t edit. My brain still felt sluggish and I didn’t think I had the bandwidth to give it the focus the editing needs. Instead, I talked with my sister and worked on a non-writing project.
Prepping for bed, my eyes were drooping and I felt worn out. When I turned everything off, I thought good I’ll be asleep in no time at all. Nope. That did not happen. I lay in the dark and heard this conversation.
Now I’ve signed up to write a bunch of short stories for different anthologies. I like writing short stories. They are quick writes and usually I can get them done in under a week. So I signed up for one and decided I could write in the Heart of Fire (short story I wrote several years ago) world and finish the story.
Earlier this week as I was getting writing things organized, I wrote a rough (vague) outline for this short story. I rarely do any planning or outlining so this was quite a thing for me. So I’m laying in the dark and I hear this conversation. I try to convince myself I can just remember it and get it down later… yeah I know. I laughed at the idea. So then I’m thinking – okay I’ll do talk to text and just email it to myself. But my phones been weird and I just want to get it written. I consider grabbing one of my rocket books but realize I’ll have to turn on the light. If I’m turning on the lights, I might as well open my computer.
So I did. Now I’ve got the first chapter done and I’ve written 1320 words. Now the short story needs to be 10,000 to 20,000 words. I’ve outlined 12 chapters so if I average 1500 words per chapter, I should be at about 18K when I’m done. We’ll see how that goes.
I like what I’ve written and I think I’ve gotten the snarky tone I want. I just need to make sure I write in first person present tense. That will be the hard part for me.
I’m a 10000% neurospicy (neurodivergent) mom to two kids. I volunteer in the community helping youth however I can, and I like to think I’m a good wife (most days). I live in the middle of the US in Nebraska, and have since 2003 when the military stationed my mom here. I’m not sure what else to really say. I like to read, write, play video games. I have a few chronic illnesses that leave me bed-bound a LOT so most of my hobbies can be done while cuddled up with one of my kiddos.
When did you know you wanted to be an author?
When I was at LEAST 13, if not younger. I’ve always loved writing fiction stories, and it was something I felt like I was good at all of the time.
What genres do you like to read? Are these the same genres you write in?
I like to read almost everything, it really just depends on my mood. My favorites is romantic suspense. I absolutely love writing it – aside from the headaches of keeping everything together. Pretty sure I’ve amassed a sticky note collection now.
Is your book for adults, young adults or children?
All of my books are for adults.
What is your current release or project?
My current release is Phoenix Flames, book two in my A Conspiracy of Ravens series.
Tell us about the key characters
Raven is the FMC in this series, and I absolutely love her. She has traumatic mutism (she can’t talk or make many noises in her particular case, so she’s forced to be 100% silent). Pierce is her childhood best friend (to lovers to enemies to friends to lovers…because they’re complicated like that). Phoenix is a guy she met when they were both in the hospital for mental health help. River…oh River. He’s the guy Pierce made friends with instantly when he came to college half a year early. He’s the fun-loving, gotta make everyone laugh because life sucks kinda guy.
What is your blurb or synopsis of the book?
When the world burns…will we burn with it?
I hadn’t meant to fall into the arms of the men who hurt me, but when the world around us threatens to crumble, the only thing we can do is lean on each other.
My father wants me to help him, but only at the expense of those I care for.
My best friend wants everything with me again, but I refuse to let him in until he’s proven his worth.
My fun-loving guy is cracking in front of us, unable to maintain the happy smiles and jokes he masks his pain with.
My brooding one’s past comes to haunt us all, threatening to end everything before it’s had a chance to thrive.
Will the past come in and destroy the present?
Or have we grown enough to outlast it all?
Phoenix Flames is the second book in the series A Conspiracy of Ravens. It cannot be read as a standalone. For a full look into the content notes, please visit the author’s website.
Share an excerpt
This is the first email between Phoenix and Raven which appears at the end of Chapter 2!
Hi. Salutations. Greetings? How are we supposed to start an email to a stranger, exactly? I don’t even know who you are, yet I’m sitting in the day service room (hereby known as the common room, because it sounds fancier, and I need to feel a bit fancy for a change, okay?) writing an email to a mystery person. Probably shouldn’t reveal too much, but I’m using the email they gave to me when I got here, as I didn’t want to make one up myself. Great idea that was, because now you know my last name, but alas, I digress. Do people even talk like that? Whatever. You said on your sticky note that you wanted me to have a place to talk freely, since it’s clearly hard for me to get anything across in group. You’d be fucking right about that, Flames. You’d be absolutely fucking right. I’m tired. I can’t speak, and I did a LOT of speaking before I suddenly couldn’t anymore. Fate and Karma are working hard against me for some reason. Tell me a bit about you in your reply, and I’ll tell you all about me and how this shit happened.
Kindest regards, RM Hill PS: What’s with the pineapple sticker on your note? It might behoove you to know that I absolutely loathe pineapple pizza. (I’ll be surprised if I get an email back after this.)
Do you have a favorite scene?
I do. However, if I said what it was, I’d be spoiling something. What I can say is that it’s the BEST form of groveling for Pierce to do and I laugh every single time I think about it!
What advice would you give a beginner?
Gosh. Have your ducks in a row? Research, research, research. Not all advice will fit YOU and YOUR brand. Remember that you are a BUSINESS, so you need to be as professional as you can, even if it is talking about dirty things in the romance community. Also, put a schedule together that you can keep up with. Every single author has a different situation, and allowing yourself to be sucked in to someone else’s schedule is not always ideal. Give yourself breathing room, and know that the author community is 100000% the best place for help, because we’ve all been there and we all still need help from time to time. I hope that wasn’t too long. I’m sure I have more, too. This is just what I can come up with right now!
Shelby Lee is a dark romance author specializing in the act of trauma dumping into her own stories in the hopes of eventually healing herself, and possibly others, along the way. She resides in a semi-small town in Nebraska with her husband, two kids, and guinea pigs.
When she’s not writing, she’s mentoring youth in the community on the off chance she just might leave the world a better place than she found it.
Other than that, you can probably find her on TikTok.
Abandoned as a newborn, I grew up in the foster care system with a skewed view of the world. One relationship to the next, boyfriends were more of a convenience and a roof over my head than anything. I want a change. I want to get my act together, stand on my own, no more live-in boyfriends.
Well, that was until he found me. A regular night dancing at Heartbreakers turned into something else entirely. I’m still not sure how a few heated looks and a lap dance landed me in this man’s dungeon. He knows things though, things about me…
When he told me, I thought he was certifiably insane, until, well… he IS certifiably insane. But he’s a demon so that’s normal, right? More importantly, certain things have happened, and I know he’s telling the truth. We have to stay under the radar from the vampires who contracted him for my capture.
How does a human navigate the supernatural world she finds herself suddenly thrust into? How do I justify my feelings for a man I just met, a man who just might be the first I’ve ever loved? And what happens when he feeds the darkness inside me?
Dark Heart is an adult dark paranormal romance. This book contains explicit language and graphic sex scenes, all consensual, intended for audiences of 18+. This is a reverse harem building series which means at the end of the series the main character will have more than one love interest. The author highly suggests this series be read in order to get the full experience. The series will end with a happily ever after. This book contains dungeons, unaliving, knife play, blood play, and violence. If you like a passionate FMC and a psychotic touch-her-and-die demon with excited puppy vibes, this book is for you. This is book three in the series.
It’s weird how every woman reacts differently. How each pregnancy differs.
Mine is definitely unique.
My sense of smell became stronger, picking up the faintest odors, and my stomach was in constant turmoil. Those were the first signs.
And then I started eating. And eating. If I don’t, I get a migraine and people’s faces become blurry. Electronics seem to malfunction in my presence. And the nightmares—they don’t stop.
Something is changing my body.
Something that should have never happened.
Something that my husband and I had prevented from happening.
Something people say is miraculous.
The bigger I get, the more frequently I encounter people who become possessed. And the more often I wind up questioning if I am carrying a miracle baby.
The closer I get to the due date, the more I love this child and the more confident I am that I will protect my baby from anything.
Even its fate.
DNA Demons N Angels contains violence, swearing, and sex scenes.If you are looking for a clean, curse free book, this isn’t it.
Katie Zaber, author of the series Dalya and DNA, is a fantasy author whose imagination knows no bounds. As a child, her parents read stories about Atlantis and other fictional places that she dreamed of exploring, fueling her love of history, adventure, and fantasy. She loves to spend what little free time she has winemaking, baking, and reading. When she has a full day to herself, you can find her at the beach or at a winery. Her favorite meals are the ones her boyfriend cooks, and she loves spending quiet nights at home with him, binge watching new fantasy shows or playing video game
Until the age of six I was raised and “trained” to be a stone-cold killer. Unfortunately, for my parents, that wasn’t who I was. They cut their losses with me when I was six, just before my sister was born. I was dropped off on my Gran’s doorstep and told I was defective.
For the next 20 years I lived in a town called Sanctuary, a refuge for the lost and persecuted. I held no illusions of my future; I was born to die and had made my peace with that. And then I met him.
Rafe was everything I secretly wished for and everything I knew I could never have. He didn’t agree. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t fight the bond between us. Suddenly, I can see a future for myself, and I’ll do whatever it takes to seize it.
My parents and sister are coming to claim my life, but I won’t be going as quietly as they expected.
Dark Moon is an adult dark paranormal romance. This book contains explicit language and graphic sex scenes, all consensual, intended for audiences of 18+. This is a reverse harem building series which means at the end of the series the main character will have more than one love interest. The author highly suggests this series be read in order to get the full experience. The series will end with a happily ever after. This book contains a CNC scene and themes of trauma from past child abuse and attempted sexual assault that some readers may find triggering. If you like a sassy FMC and a sweet, sexy wolf shifter, this book is for you. This is book two in the series.
At 11:30 pm I started writing. Or more accurately I reread the last scene I wrote and then moved forward with the next scene. I got about 800 words into this scene. So in all I’ve added another 2100 words to the book to put it in over 66K. I’m not worried about it. I’ve added some plot points which will be relevant in the subsequent books. I just need to make note of it.
I’m off work tomorrow! Yeah!
I hope this means I’ll have time to edit and write. I’m working with an author to help her with categories and keywords. I hope it won’t take more than two hours.
Once I’m done helping the author, I want to go back to my email notes and see if there’s anything else I need to address. My notes for book 2 in this series were minimal but I do want to make some notes from my research. I want to remember to incorporate tidbits in books 2 and 3. Breadcrumbs really…
My notes for Surrender to the Sea Demon are lengthy so my hope is to focus on those chapter notes and get a couple of chapter done.
I do need to do the client editing so I’ll work on that before I write. If I do it the other way, I won’t edit. I’d rather write so editing first.
We’re doing our virtual holiday with the family tomorrow night. It’s a good thing it’s virtual because the weather is miserable. Our temperature is -9 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill -34 degrees Fahrenheit. Not a pleasant environment. A perfect day to stay inside and write – after I edit.
I hadn’t meant to fall into the arms of the men who hurt me, but when the world around us threatens to crumble, the only thing we can do is lean on each other.
My father wants me to help him, but only at the expense of those I care for.
My best friend wants everything with me again, but I refuse to let him in until he’s proven his worth.
My fun-loving guy is cracking in front of us, unable to maintain the happy smiles and jokes he masks his pain with.
My brooding one’s past comes to haunt us all, threatening to end everything before it’s had a chance to thrive.
Will the past come in and destroy the present?
Or have we grown enough to outlast it all?
Phoenix Flames is the second book in the series A Conspiracy of Ravens. It cannot be read as a standalone. For a full look into the content notes, please visit the author’s website.
During my thirty minute lunch, I wrote in my journal. I was writing about writing – no surprise there. An idea came to me for the first book in the alien alliance series I’m working on. I wrote it in my journal.
My plan for the night – finish reading Alien Alliance book 1 and go back to Surrender to the Sea Demon. That did not happen.
I finished book 1. I was happy with it. I enjoyed the plot line and the pacing. But apparently my brain wasn’t happy with it. I wrote a new scene last night and tonight I finished reading it through (one of many read through steps) and planned to mark where I wanted to add in more. I found which chapter I wanted to add to, realized it was one of the shorter chapters in the book, and planned to just put in some symbol to find it again tomorrow.
If you’ve read my blog at all, you know this didn’t happen. The two brothers argued and I realized I wanted to get down just a bit of the scene to give me the feel for it. So I wrote. About two thirds of the way through the scene my eyes said – done.
I’ve been on the computer a lot today and they are burning. It’s a reminder to put eyedrops in tonight. So I thought – okay I’ll mark the spot and come back to it tomorrow. Yes I know you can laugh at me. I didn’t stop. I thought well maybe I can just quickly finish it off. Nope.
Now the scene is finished but it took me a bit. I’m even more tired now – go figure. I know I’ll have some smoothing to do when I edit but I added 1300 words to the story and I’m happy with the scene.
I think I’ll add one more scene (probably another 1000 words) with Janine and P’lar starting it. I feel like there should be one more scene in there. Maybe something about the mineral the humans want which will hopefully lead to some plot points in the third book. Not sure yet and I’ve named it in the last scene but I have to come up with a good idea why they wouldn’t use the human supply of it. I may have to rethink the material. That isn’t hard to do though.
And I made no progress on Surrender to the Sea Demon… tomorrow night maybe…
It’s the summer before my senior year in college and I had a plan.
Move to Atlantic City.
Bartender at the most popular bar in town.
The plan did not include vampires.
It did not include falling for my ridiculously hot boss, who happens to be one.
Nor did it include an ancient prophecy supposedly about my sister and I.
No, this was not the plan. Yet here I am expected to take my “rightful” place and save the world.
I just wanted to be a bartender. How is this my life?
Dark Spirits is an adult dark paranormal romance. This book contains explicit language and graphic sex scenes; all consensual, intended for audiences 18+. This is a reverse harem building series which means at the end of the series the main character will have more than one love interest. The author highly suggests this series be read in order to get the full experience. The series will end with a happily ever after. This book contains themes of infanticide that some readers may find triggering. If you like sassy FMC and a sexy, possessive vampire this book is for you. This is book one in the series.
