by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on May.2.2011
The Good:
- I’ve got a new job! After weeks of painful weighing of pros and cons, I chose to take the new opportunity. It’s at the same parent company but a different segment. New team, new role, new office, new projects and new technology. I’m excited, and can’t wait to start.
The Bad:
- Transitioning my current role responsibilities will be a bit tedious. There’s a lot of information I will need to pass onto my peers, and it’ll be a bit sad as I’ll be leaving the friends I’ve made, and a good boss, behind.
- Family Drama. *sighs* I’ll spare the details and just say that you know how it goes sometimes. At least the drama is with the extended family and not in my house.
The Cool:
- My parents celebrated 32 years of marriage this weekend, proving that with work, love and patience, marriage can work. Love you mom and dad!
The Work In Progress:
My work in progress, HEATED EXCHANGE, is slow coming. I’ve got a few hundred words written, but sadly, that is all. Hopefully this week will be much more productive on the fiction-side of things. I’m feeling optimistic about that though because I think I’m finally understanding why I’m in a slump – I’m being overly critical of myself and fear that what I’m writing these days is crap. I’ve rejected pretty much every page I’ve written since I finished writing WAY OUT OF CONTROL, and I’ve got to stop doing that. It’s better to have less than perfect words on a page than no words. A crappy story can be improved – there’s no fixing blank pages.
At least that’s what I’m about to start telling myself.
So here’s to this week looking up! *raises my mug of coffee*
Tagged as:
Weekly Update,
work
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.28.2011
It’s no secret I enjoy reading, writing, and talking about love, marriage and relationships. I recently read a very interesting book by Terrence Real titled The New Rules of Marriage for making love work in the 21st century. For today’s topic, I picked 13 of the many “relationship rules” described in this book to share with you for your thoughts:
- Intimacy occurs when 2 or more mature individuals choose to share themselves with one another.
- One of the great paradoxes of intimacy is that in order to have a healthy, passionate relationship, you must be willing to risk it.
- Objective Reality has no place in close personal relationships.
- A good relationship is not one in which the raw parts of ourselves are avoided. A good relationship is one in which they are handled. And a great relationship is one in which they are healed.
- The difference between acceptance and withdrawal is resentment.
- Couples don’t have problems; they are problems.
- You think that your relationship will improve once particular stressful issues, like money, parenting, or sex, “Get Resolved.” But it’s actually the other way around. You’ll be able to successfully tackle tough issues only after your relationship improves.
- Few things diminish one partner’s desire for sex more effectively than the other partner’s demand for it.
- You have no right to complain about not getting what you never asked for.
- Great relationships mean more assertion up front and less resentment on the back end.
- The essential dynamic of all relationships is a dance of harmony, disharmony, and repair.
- Listening equals understanding.
- Understanding builds empathy, empathy builds compassion, and compassion ends combat.
What do you think?
Tagged as:
marriage,
Relationships,
Thursday Thirteen
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.26.2011
Oooh, looky! The cover art for my upcoming book, WAY OUT OF CONTROL, is all done! Amanda Kelsey is the talented artist behind this one.
Here’s the blurb for the story:
Sometimes the only way to maintain control is to let it go …
Doctor Celise Belderon and a team of scientists are developing a formula to biologically enhance ordinary humans. Her task is to tend to their volunteer test-subject; wounded police officer Jaxon Wentworth.
The formula doesn’t quite work as expected. Jaxon gains exceptional strength and senses, but by the time the transformation completes he doesn’t recognize his own reflection. Worse still, he develops a volatile temperament he can barely contain.
While searching for a cure, Celise tries some natural remedies to help Jaxon keep his emotions in check. But each attempt is itself a dangerous experiment since she must get close enough to put herself at risk should he lose all control …
Want a sneak peak into the story? An excerpt for WAY OUT OF CONTROL is now posted in the coming soon section of the
Liquid Silver Books forums, and on the new info page
here on the site.
Tagged as:
cover art,
Way Out Of Control
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.25.2011
The Good:
- My Easter weekend was wonderful! Great food, good company (family and friends) and good fun.
The Bad:
- The weekend went by way too fast. I wasn’t nearly as productive as I would have like to have been.
The Cool:
I teamed up with a friend to help launch a new blog dedicated to video gaming gals like ourselves.
Fly Girl Gamers at WordPress.com just went up last week. If you like games or are curious about them, come on and join us! I have a
post up on the blog today (I am DragonPixie over there).
The Work In Progress:
Stay tuned for more on my upcoming release, WAY OUT OF CONTROL … cover art and excerpt coming very soon!
Tagged as:
Fly Girl Gamers,
games
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.21.2011
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.14.2011
Got guilty pleasures? I sure do:
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream
- Disney movies
- Naughty stories (in written, audio or visual format – doesn’t matter, it’s all good)
- Catching up on TV shows I missed
- Talking to my mother
- Being a tease
- Playing a video game that has strong romantic elements
- Singing while I’m alone in the car (if you ever heard me sing, you’d understand why I feel guilty about this)
- Vibrating toys
- Watching romantic comedies
- Spicy hot food
- Dancing in my underwear
- New technology and other gadgets
These are just some of mine. What are yours?
Tagged as:
Thursday Thirteen
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.11.2011
The Good:
- I thoroughly enjoyed my time off the week before last. Seriously – I feel like someone hit my reboot button. Highlights included visiting a museum, taking the kids to an indoor amusement park, spending time with visiting family and friends, and getting a lot of relaxation in.
- Watched the first 3 seasons of Bones – cool show! Makes we wonder what else I’m missing due to my lack of TV surfing. But thanks to Netflix, Hulu.com and DVDs, I’ll eventually get to check out all the good ones at my own time and pace. Scheduled TV is for suckers.
The Bad:
- Came back to work with a shipload of stuff to do and a few fires to put out. (But that’s not too bad – I much prefer work to be hella busy than hella boring)
- Watching my younger brother suffer with trying to find a job. It’s still rough out there and the competition can be fierce – I wish him luck in finding something soon, as he has several young children to take care of.
The Cool:
The Work In Progress:
I’ve tentatively titled the novella I’m currently working on HEATED EXCHANGE, and it is a paranormal romance which tackles the battle of the sexes in a magical, funny, sensual way.
So far I’m finding it a great outlet to express my thoughts on the problems with relationships between men and women while being entertaining (instead of complaining or preaching).
This story has some elements that make it a little more challenging (and interesting!) to write than anything I’ve tackled before, but I don’t want to give away more details just yet. So stay tuned for more info!
Tagged as:
Heated Exchange,
The Summoning,
Weekly Update
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on April.7.2011
I’d like to try something a little different for this week’s Thursday Thirteen. Instead of talking about me or what I think, let’s say we try to talk a little about you? Share your answer to one, some or all of the following questions, if you please.
- Why are we here?
- Do you believe in ghosts?
- Is there intelligent life on other planets?
- Do you believe some people have psychic abilities?
- What keeps you up at night?
- What motivates you day to day?
- Do you believe in love at first sight?
- Which do you prefer: Work hard so you can completely relax later, or live for today like there might not be a tomorrow?
- Do you believe in reincarnation?
- Is it that power corrupts people, or just that more corrupt people seek power?
- Creationism, evolution or other?
- Your parents on Facebook – good or bad?
- Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
Tagged as:
Thursday Thirteen
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on March.29.2011
The Bad:
- Last week was a rough one. Migraines every day, from the moment I opened my eyes in the mornings until I managed to fall asleep each night. Not sure if it was from the lack of good sleep, mental exhaustion, something else or all of the above, but it wasn’t pretty. A vacation is very much needed.
The Good:
- I’m on vacation this week!
(NOTE: I’m a low maintenance kind of gal. I define “vacation” as not working the 8 to 5 and getting to read, write, play games and watch movies all day, and catching up on some much needed shopping and cleaning. Actually going somewhere is considered an unnecessary bonus.)
The Cool:
- Sizzling Hot Books wrote up a nice review for THE SUMMONING.
- Almost forgot – for those of you who already read THE SUMMONING, there’s an open discussion thread on the LSB forums (don’t click if you haven’t read the book – there are spoilers!). ** Thanks CCDreams for *initiating the discussion!*
The Work In Progress:
I’m in the early stages of a paranormal story which is still unnamed. It’s nothing like the other 2 stories I recently pushed aside – this one has a totally different atmosphere and a contemporary, albeit somewhat fantastical, setting and plot. What I’m liking most about this project is the outlet it provides for me to illuminate some serious concerns I’ve been harboring about male/female relationships in an amusing way. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Tagged as:
Weekly Update
by ** Tatiana Caldwell ** on March.22.2011
Woops, so I’m a little late in doing a weekly update. Let’s consider this a 2-week and a day late update then, shall we?
The Good:
- Work has kept me crazy busy. Now, normally I wouldn’t necessarily call this a good thing, but I’m recognizing that it indeed is. 1) It means that I’m obviously of value at work, heh. And 2) I haven’t had much time or energy to sulk over my slowed writing progress, which I’ll discuss later.
- Taxes are done, filed, accepted and processed. Refunds have even been received. May not sound like much to get worked up about to you, but when your taxes start looking as messy as ours do, you’d do a big whoop when they’re all finished, too.
- Remember how much I loved the first Dragon Age? We bought the special collector’s edition of Dragon Age II! I’m very excited – I hope I find it as entertaining as I did the first one.
The Bad:
- … I won’t be able to play any games any time soon. Like – probably not until mid-April at the earliest. I really want to finish up a couple of projects I’m working on before I let myself get sucked into a 40+ hour game. Plus it’s a single player game, and the husband is hogging it up anyway.
- I still haven’t won the lottery or figured out how to travel back in time. *sighs* Yet, somehow I still manage.
The Funny:
Our 6 year-old son loves babies. Last week he was asking if he could ever get his own baby some day.
His father tells him, “Sure. If you meet a girl you like, fall in love and marry her, then maybe you can have a baby together some day.”
Our son’s face wrinkles with worry at this news, and he says “But what if I can’t get a girl to love me back? I really, really smell horrible when I poop and I don’t know if any girls would like that.”
While my husband cracks up at this, I say to the poor boy “You smell as bad as your daddy?”
The boy shakes his head. “I smell really horrible, but not quite as horrible as daddy.”
I nod. “Exactly. And see – I sill love your daddy, anyways. So I’m sure someday you’ll find a special girl who will love you too.”
He said okay, but I got the feeling he was only halfway convinced.
*laughs* If women really held to such high olfactory standards when looking for a mate, there would hardly be a married man on the planet. Heh.
The Work In Progress:
Book cover design ideas for my next upcoming title, WAY OUT OF CONTROL, have been sent to the Art Director. Now I just wait to see what they come up with based on my ideas. So far I have been far from disappointed, and so I have high hopes that it will be lovely.
I now have abandoned (or at least temporarily separated from) not 1, but 2 writing projects. Weeks have gone by now since I’ve made progress on either story. Sure I could try to blame part of this on how mentally drained I’ve been lately, but I’m not accepting that as a valid excuse. If I was truly vibing with either story right now, I know I’d make the time.
So I’m putting both manuscripts aside for now and am starting on a brand new one that is yet to be named. Once I’ve fleshed out the idea a little more, I’ll talk more about it. Hopefully I won’t change my mind and switch stories again by next week’s update.
Tagged as:
Weekly Update
