Progress Friday: A New Contract!

Hey peeps!

Can you believe it's already Friday??? And lol, I spent this morning online...but ended up getting nothing done. How is that possible? True though that there is always something shiny on the Net, and it's so easy to get waylaid. That's why I prefer to have the wifi off when I'm writing or have work to do. Less temptation towards time perdition.

Have you failed your readers?

Hey beautiful people!

Lol - strange to find me posting on a Monday, eh? I'm asking myself the same question...and I'll give you the answer in a few paragraphs (bear with me).

I remember I used to post every Monday, and every day of the work week, for that matter. When did this stop? Sometime about a year or a little more ago (I recall my last Random Thoughts Monday posting because I upped the post late. We'd needed to take kiddo to the dentist, and on the way there, we blew a tyre on the car. While we'd brought it to the garage to get a new tyre, super thunderstorms unleashed on the town. And it was our old car, the Suzuki Alto, which we sold last year in April for the Chevrolet Aveo we now own).

How to write about Africa...when you've never been there!

Hey peeps!

It was my turn today to post at The Pop Culture Divas, the group blog I belong to with a few other (awesome!) writers. I've been remiss in posting on my set day lately, so I apologize there...and put across a new post.

As ye all must know, I manage the Ubuntu line at Decadent Publishing. Geared towards African romance, with locations in Africa and characters hailing from or living in Africa and its societies, the line aims at giving reads that sweep you into a whole new world that is simply a continent or an ocean away.

But most authors think you need to be a native of Africa to write for Ubuntu, and the question I am often asked is this:

Catching Up & musings about my 2013 release schedule!

Hey beautiful people!

Funny how I find myself with some time on my hands when the hyenas are on break. I usually go nuts and all kinds of crazy haywire when they're at home, but this time, I tried to clear my sked a bit to be able to spend some time with them.

Not that I've managed to, really... I mean, I've arranged my schedule to fit everything I need to do within the hours when the kiddo is at school, and though on the whole I've accomplished my goals, I still find myself with a full plate at times.

That's what happens when your work is more akin to freelancing than having a set 9-5 jobs. As an editor, I don't really control when a project will land in my lap, and then I also depend on the author I am editing to stick to a certain schedule/deadline and the two of us need to work together. And most of the time, an editor is not working exclusively on one project, which means she'll be free when the work has returned to the author - there are other projects vying for attention in that time frame.

Not to mention that I find myself with a hectic publishing schedule this year. Lol, not that I'm complaining, but the work of an author doesn't stop when the book has been written and contracted. Then start the edits, which can get quite taxing and time-consuming (esp when you have other jobs to fit in, too)... and you also have promo and social media and all that lovely hoopla. Thank goodness I am a social butterfly who loves to keep in touch and maintain relationships; otherwise I'd be a basket case.

But publishing schedule, here's what mine is looking like right now:

May - Inescapable, Book1 of Eternelles with Natalie G. Owens

July - The Other Side, Book 1 of the Island Girls Trilogy with Decadent Publishing

September - Light My World, Book 2 of Island Girls

October - Indomitable, Book2 of Eternelles

November - Winds of Change, Book 3 of Island Girls

In the middle of all this, I suppose Transient Hearts (Western Escape with Decadent) will come out, too. I still don't have a release frame for that title.

And I'm trying to score a release for a Christmas story, which will (hopefully) mean that December will have a release, too.

Busy bee, eh? But that's how I love it! I mean, I've been writing for 8 years, and it's now that I'm really feeling like an author with a release schedule. Like, I know where I'm going and what to do to get there.

Feels quite spiffy, actually... *grin*

Oh, and speaking of releases, I realize I haven't posted my latest cover here. My FB peeps and Twitter followers have prolly already seen this one, but to you my blog viewers, here it is (along with my apologies for being so late with this reveal).

Isn't this one a beauty? The designer, Valerie Tibbs of Tibbs Design, created the dreamy perfection I wanted to showcase in this cover. The models look pretty much exactly how Lara & Eric look like (Eric is slightly more blond,actually). But the whole effect is just perfect!

Here's the blurb for you, in case you have no clue what I'm referring to here!

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. But this same spotlight shines as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

 

Lara Reddy left London after her husband dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in Mauritius, her homeland, and a society she ran away from over a decade earlier.

 

But once here, Lara has no escape. Not from the gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking....and certainly not from the one man she hoped never to meet again. The one she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian native, Eric Marivaux.

 

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again.
Today, however, they are both adults, and facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

 

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric again? To take a chance on love?

Hopefully, I'll be back soon and posting regularly about my crazy mad schedule on here. You do know you can also join me on FB and Twitter (see blog side bar, left, for the widgets to join me) where I am always sharing a quick snippet about my life and career.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

7 Things You Might Not Know About Zee Monodee (via The Very Inspiring Blogger Award)

Hey beautiful people!

Once again I find myself up to my neck in edits and barely able to pop my head over the water level for long enough to take another life-sustaining breath. But with the weekend approaching, I'm starting to let myself bob up and down on those choppy waters, and the best thing to do in that state is... chill!

I don't have a progress report for you today (though if you check the WIP counters, you'll see the jump in work), but since I've been tagged for a blog award, I thought, why not chill with that?

The lovely and talented Rae Rivers tagged me on this round of The Very Inspiring Blogger Award (thank you, darling!! I'm honoured!). For those of you who don't recall, Rae was here a little while ago with her guest post "Has the cat got your tongue?" Take a peek at the quirky world of art and art theft she features in her latest book.

But anyhow, the award... This is how this works. I'm supposed to link back to the person who tagged me (done!), write up 7 things about me, and then tag a few very inspiring people. I'm not too sure about the tagging part, because everyone I find inspiring seem to have already been tagged, so I won't burden anyone with a tag. I will, however, tell you who I find inspiring lately. *grin*

So, 7 things you might not know about me.... I'm pretty much an open book, but the blog's been getting lots of new visitors lately who might not have been following my rambles from all the while back. I also have lots of new Twitter followers, so this might be interesting for them.

Let's get started...

1. I was a surprise baby, born when my dad was 48 and my mum 41, a few months before their 20th wedding anniversary. After having my brother 16 years earlier, my mum had been told she'd never have kids again. Then, *poof*, here I was.
I'll admit it was kinda strange growing up with my cousins' kids the same age or slightly older than me... Today, at 30, I'm already a "grandma" to a 16-yr-old girl... *gasp*

2. I'm a cancer survivor. 8 years ago, a week after my 22nd birthday, I was diagnosed with malignant ductal carcinoma in situ - in short, breast cancer. Thank goodness it wasn't the invasive kind, but given how it struck with me being so young, my oncologist took no chances and pumped me up with meds and therapy. I've thus been through horrid rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
But as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and cancer changed my life, taught me to enjoy every moment I have been blessed with on this Earth, and to not take for granted all the blessings God has showered on me.

3. I always 'dreamed' of being a writer someday. I thought a 'good' life meant a career in a sophisticated office environment and me as a power maven in that culture. Then I tried corporate working, and it kinda left a bitter taste in my mouth when it wasn't making me sick outright. Still, that's what was deemed as our society as 'making it', so I stuck to my guns.
But when I was diagnosed, by husband told me that "one day is right now; you make it happen!" I took his words to heart and put pen to paper, literally, and what emerged was my first novel, The Other Side, which is being re-published in July this year.

4. I'm a bully magnet. I don't know if it's because I'm naive, or trust too easily, or people take me for an airhead whom they think they can boss around easily... I've been bullied throughout my life. There was the out-and-out mean girl in secondary school, who thought she was the hottest stuff to walk the earth and thus anyone slumming it in a way unlike hers deserved her contempt and riling. Sometimes, I wonder how I survived her taunts... I think God gave me the strength to cope. When I think of what she put me through, today I ask myself how I didn't think of ending my life, the way some bullied kids do nowadays.
Then at work, my boss' PA offloaded all her work on me, and in a sweet way that no one would pinpoint at first, would bully me around to do her bidding instead of what the department required (hence the bitter aftertaste and nausea induced by the corporate world).
I was not at the end of my tether, though, because even online, someone I considered a dear friend abused that friendship and turned on me in an outright war of slinging mud when I dared say, enough is enough!
I'm pretty sure I'm not done with bullies. With my track record, I consider that a given. But hopefully, I am older and wiser now and can stand my ground.

5. The sight and smell of fresh fruit makes me sick. I know - weird. I cannot even run past the produce section at the grocery store without gagging once. Consequently, I don't eat fruit, either. And in case you're wondering, I get my Vit C from veggies or boxed juice or even multivitamin tablets. It's worked so far.
But my biggest nightmare is bananas. Just the sight of them even in a picture can make me want to throw up. And no, I have no clue where that phobia of bananas comes from.

6. Other thing that can give me nightmares - reptiles! As much as I adore shoes and handbags, I cannot even tolerate the idea of a shoe or bag in reptile skin *shiver, shudder, horror!* I cannot stand the look of those animals, and they totally, totally creep me out! I can kill a cockroach (while screming the whole time to keep the adrenalin bursting!) and I'll shoo spiders when I see them. But if my gaze lands on a lizard, I freeze, and only my vocal chords will work as I yell for whoever is at home to come get that beast away from me!

7. The first time I got married, I was 17. Today I know that what I had deemed a lifelong love (without which I'd die!) back then was nothing more than a burst of infatuation with a man who seemed to have everything (including a tendency to want to provide to more than one lady love at a time, if you get my drift...).
At 18, while all my peers were writing their A-levels, I was getting a divorce in a very messy courtroom battle because my ex refused to shoulder the blame of his infidelity as the reason for our breakup. Yes, today I know I was partly to blame in there because at the time I was a spoilt little princess who thought she was owed everything. I wasn't easy to live with, but what hurt was that he never had the courage to say to my face that I was driving him nuts; instead preferring to go find his solace in other women's arms before crawling back into my bed afterwards.
So at the wise age of 19, I remarried, and so far so good, this man and I have been going strong for 11 years, through thick and thin (cancer, remember? We also had our lean times when the money was only enough to buy potatoes to take us to the next paycheck, and we didn't have a car for many years, among other things...)

So here's a bit about me. I must've bored you stiff by now, and I apologize. It's just that even to myself, I am a complex puzzle made of facets and sides that somehow all come together to make 'me' who I am. And the quirkiest is... I'm not at the end of my tether. Every day, I discover something about myself, and uncover some wisdom about life... They say we never stop learning, and life's doing its fair share to show me that all the time...

Anyhow, back on track. As this is The Very Inspiring Blog award, I am not tagging people but will tell you who I do find inspiring in this big bad world out there. Some of them are:
author Natalie G Owens. My bestie, a wonderful author, and even more beautiful person with a heart of gold and the most helpful, guileless nature out there. Proud to know she is on my team!
author Karen Rock. A fabulous writer, but an even more fantabulous person! I recently met her but the friendship bond she has extended my way is the kind that reinforces in your heart that Good does still exist out there!
Decadent Publishing owners Lisa Omstead and Heather Bennet. Two insanely awesome ladies who go to bat for their authors, their friends, and their pub house. It's an honour to be part of their team, and an even bigger honour to consider them dear friends.
authors Lynn Spangler, Graylin Fox, and Rebecca Royce - for being amazing women, fantastic authors, and always being there for me despite whatever drama could be going on in their lives. They are my rocks!

That's it for my (very rambling) Friday peeps. No, I'm not drunk (I don't drink, what with being a Muslim and all that, lol) and I'm not also high on anything (recently cut off caffeine from my life. I know, crazy, but I had to for health reasons...).
Still, I hope this post gave you a glimpse into my existence. Thanks for sharing these parts of me now.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

#HeartHop Why Heartbreakers Make The Best Heroes (& how you, the reader, can be featured in my upcoming series)

Hey beautiful people!

Absolutely delighted to be back on one of Carrie Ann's fantastic hops. And Heartbreakers... *swoon* Where do I sign up?

Seems like I'm not the only one with that wicked train of thought, because - get this! - there are about 300 participants in this hop! Nope, not kidding you. Check the hop's page and see for yourself.

Not only this - meaning like 300 giveaways, with one at every stop, there are also 3 fabulous Grand Prizes to win!

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more! (US only)

So what's the whole fuss about Heartbreakers, eh? How can a man who breaks a woman's heart be considered a hero?

Well, that's what it boils down to for me - a hero has to have the capacity to break the heroine's heart. Otherwise, he's not her hero, and he's not the love of her life.

Imagine a ho-hum guy with a written-in-stone routine who never notices when you've changed your hair colour from black to pink and shaved half your head in a faux-hawk. One day, he stands up and says, "I'm leaving."
You'd say, "Good riddance", innit? His leaving would totally not break your heart. Why? Because you never were in love with him, and he never seemed to love you or care enough to notice.

Now imagine a man who can, with a simple smile, turn your world upside down. A man who doesn't need to bring you flowers every day but shows his concern and feelings in more tangible ways. Like knowing you had an awful night so he wakes up early and takes the baby out on the run for your favourite coffee all so you can wake up to a great pick-me-up after getting some much needed shut-eye.

This man has the potential to break your heart, and you love him. You love for that, you love him because of that. He's your hero because he holds your heart, and he cares...


But what happens when the man you fall in love with really does break your heart... like Leila experiences in my latest 1NightStand romance, Once Upon A Second Chance.

This man saved her from a personal Hell and promised to love and cherish her. Through their short moments spent together, he's showed her he'll be her protector, that she's finally safe... And then he leaves without a word, Leila finding herself alone and not understanding what happened while trying to come to grips with living in a foreign country.

Does he redeem himself? Why did he leave?

Find out in Once Upon A Second Chance.

Leila Hassan Al-Nadir spent ten years in a forced, abusive marriage in the United Arab Emirates, before her husband divorced her... and another man stepped into his place to make her his wife. But before she can look at a future with this new man, he abandons her, dropping her off on the island of Mauritius in the care of his stepmother.

Khalid Al-Nadir wants nothing more than to be with Leila, his wife. But he hides a deep, dark secret – his intentions when he made her his weren’t noble. Despite falling in love with her in the end, he knows she will be better off without him.

Leila craves answers; Khalid desires salvation. Fate, in the form of Khalid’s stepmother, intervenes and sets this estranged couple up for a one night stand date with Madame Eve’s agency.

Can Leila and Khalid have a second chance, once they both face the truth that brought them together?

Genre: Multicultural/Interracial/Inspirational (Muslim) Contemporary Romance
Length: Short (45 pages/12,000 words)
Publisher: Decadent Publishing, LLC

Available on:

Amazon, Amazon UK, Decadent website, AllRomance Ebooks, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Smashwords


What do YOU think? Does the person you love have to have the capacity to break your heart, for it to be called love?

Answer in the comments, and don't forget to leave your email address! Both Carrie Ann and myself cannot enter you into the draw and contact you if you're the winner without it.

And what am I offering in my giveaway? I'm doing something different on this hop. Here it is:

I'm currently penning a contemporary series about 3 sisters set in a fictional little village in North Yorkshire, England. This place is the unofficial hiding place for most of the young, hunky, and eligible billionaires of England, with a ratio 3:1 where the male population v/s the female is concerned. Mecca of hot, handsome goodies up for the taking for all single gals out there, innit?

My giveaway - the winner gets to create a character in this village. Whether a hot, hunky, and eligible billionaire, or one of the lucky girls who gets to come there and pick her choice of rich and intelligent beefcake.
OR - winner gets to make a cameo in one of the books.

Don't forget to check the other participants in the hop. You can find the list with all their names here.

Thanks for dropping by today, peeps, and I hope you're having a great Friday and an even lovelier weekend.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

I write because... (a rant amid an affirmation & progress)

Hey beautiful people!

Lol, doing my best to have posts up regularly here. Though my brain goes awol sometimes, I have a whole crew of guests lined up for the coming weeks to keep the postings flowing. So this week might've been some hit&miss, after the staggeringly knackered kinda day I had yesterday, I missed the Links posting. Forgive me, and here's a glimpse of what I went through.

Imagine dealings with an ISP to make sense of their contract; banks conveniently 'forgetting' to cancel your standing order payments even after we've rolled into 2013; muggy heat and scorching sub with temps in and around 38degC at barely 10AM - and you have my day yesterday. On top of that, I had a scene to write in Inescapable, Book 1 of the Eternelles series, so my bestie and collab partner, Natalie G. Owens, could progress with her part on the project. Oh, and edits to finalize for not 1 but 2 clients.

In the middle of all this, I come across an email from my pub house's accountants, informing me that, as from February, they will be withholding taxes from all royalty payments, and any non-US citizen could fill in form whatever number to claim a refund under tax treaty laws.
Amount withhold? 30%
Issue for me - I'm from Mauritius... which doesn't have a tax treaty with the US.

Consequently, the IRS and US government just sent me a reeling 'up yours!' by chucking 30% of my earnings without any hope of me getting that money back.

Which made me wonder - if I lost 30% of what I made, was it worth it to continue working to earn a pittance? For a minute, I stared my projects in the face... Wouldn't it be the same for me to offer them all for free? After all the blood and sweat and time and energy that went into them, I also had to forego 30% of everything I would've made?

I must've hit the lowest pits of despair and self-doubt possible for an author yesterday. I had tons of projects lined up; in fact, so many projects I could derail my (somewhat fragile) health in trying to get them all on the rails. Was it all worth just 70% of what I can make on them?

But then I remembered. I recalled why I wrote, why I started writing, why I powered on when rejections were slamming me down from left, right, up, and down.

Why do I write? Because I want to share my stories with readers.

As simple as that. I won't go as far to say that I bring something totally unique to the book world - every author worth his/her salt does that. I won't say that my take on the cultural world of Indian-origin folks and Muslims in Mauritius is not seen elsewhere. Trust me, I know I have tons of competition out there.

But I also know that I have opened countless emails, and even met 'live' fans, who have told me I brightened their day with my stories. That they've loved reading what I have penned down. That my writing brought them something 'special' (whatever that might happen to be.)

I never thought I'd write for money. Yes, it's a dream of all authors to be rolling in the moolah brought in by fantabulous sales and a movie deal and all that hoop-la, but that's just what it is. A dream. Something we all aspire to. Doesn't mean we'll make it... I remember a quote that I'm gonna hash up badly coz I don't recall it exactly and also who said it originally, but the gist was:

"Knowing we'll never reach the stars doesn't mean we can't chart our paths by them."

I don't know if my sales will ever be fantabulous. I don't know how much money my writing can and will bring me. I don't know how many fans I'll ever get, how many lives I might get to touch...

I do know that I have stories in me, and that I'd die if I didn't write, and if I didn't share them with the world. If I can do that, and still earn something beside those lovely words from fans, then awesome. If not, well... It's all God's work, and I accept it. I know who I am and where I stand, and that's what matters.

And speaking of writing, there is some progress to show this week! Worked on Book 1 of the Eternelles series, that takes a jump of nearly 6,000 words this week through my addition to the plot. Now Natalie G. Owens must work her magic. Who knows - by next week, we might've crossed the half-way mark on this project!

Oh, and Leila, the heroine from my upcoming 1Night Stand release, Once Upon A Second Chance, (releasing February 5) is in the demon Bunny's hot seat today. Come read a bit about this Muslim girl who's not had an easy life till now, but who, nevertheless, allows nothing, and no one, to cull her spirit! Here's the link!

Looking forward to a nice weekend with the hubby & hyenas now. Hopefully, these temps will lower and we'll be able to sleep at night.

Hope ye all have a lovely weekend!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Progress Friday Update! 3 new contracts & a brand-new-looking site!

Hey peeps!

Seen anything different here? No...? (what do you mean, No???) LOL.

Forgive me, but I'm absolutely giddy right now. Spent most of the morning tweaking with codes and all that lovely hoop-la to make an airhead and/or non-nerd cross-eyed, and this is the result. A blog that doubles up as a website and steers clear of the previous clutter I had displaying on all my pages. Found some nifty tips and tutorials on the Net (what can you not find on the Net???) and here's the result. Your thoughts?

Anyhow, it's been a really, really long time since I posted a Friday update. To tell you the truth, the reason is because... I didn't have any update to post. With the hyenas at home, it took nearly all my brainpower to work on the rewrites and edits/polish on my Island Girls series before I managed to sub somewhat on deadline. Then the real holiday season started, with hubby staying home half the time, and there went any hope of getting anything done. Not that I still possessed the brain cells necessary to write by then. To laze out seemed like the best choice while I let my synapses re-wire themselves.

Have they re-wired? I'm not too sure... because, you see, I'm opening WIP documents and staring at blank half-pages this past week. With kiddo back in school, I expected to ramp up and rev up all guns a'blazing to write, but it sorta looks like I've been away from my WIPs for too long and need to re-acquaint myself with them again.

Consequently, no writing progress so far...

But I have other things to talk about (and here you thought I was about to shut up. No such luck, sorry! *grin*)

Well, guess what? Those 3 Island Girls books I rewrote all through November and half of December... have been contracted at Decadent Publishing, for the African Ubuntu line! Seems like the editors loved the stories, and little me couldn't be any prouder.

You see, these are the stories that originally called me to writing. Book 1 in this series, The Other Side, was my first ever foray into the world of writing. It was pubbed by a local publisher here in Mauritius, did pretty well, too, but when the rights reverted to me, I took them. Why? Because I had grown a huge lot in the 7 years since I'd penned this book, and this progress showed in my writing (and was sorely lacking in that original version!).

The story of a divorcee of Indian origin, a girl born in London to Mauritian parents, it spoke of how she met up with her first love when she comes back to the island. The one that got away; a man she gave up on, because he is of a different race. On this backdrop of Mauritian society, I had their love bloom.

Though I'd set out to write only this book at the time I started penning stories, I met the heroine's (Lara is her name) 2 younger sisters. Housewife Neha, and spirited Diya. And of course, both suddenly had a story to share...

Diya had her story briefly published with a now-disbanded epublisher, but Neha never got the chance to tell the world her story.
Enter Decadent and their Ubuntu line... and these books seemed 'perfect' for the requirements. What did I have to lose, right?
Turns out... nothing! I only gained, and now have 3 more babies ready to come out into the world this year.

And speaking of my babies, one of them received its fantabulous cover over the past few weeks. Check out the gorgeous cover Scott Carpenter created for my first Western Escape book, Transient Hearts. The models are totally Shayne and Grayson, while the landscape portrays, to a T, a pivotal scene's location in the book.

So now we head into the weekend and I need to wrap my head again around the idea of writing. Of getting into my WIPs, more precisely. My bestie, Natalie G. Owens, is expecting me to write my part of a chapter in our collaborative Eternelles series, on Book 1, Inescapable, before she can work her magic on the ms. Then I have a brand new series I am starting (of course, you know me by now - I can never write just one book from a new concept/location!).

Hope ye all enjoy a fabulous weekend with your loved ones!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Back on board! So much to come in 2013!!!

Hey beautiful people!

After 9 weeks of staying at home for the summer break, kiddo has finally gone back to school today! Yay - deliverance! I'd say that qualifies for me sitting down with a slice of awesome cake and savouring the whole deal, for once in 9 weeks not having to hide in my pantry so no little inquiring minds can know I am enjoying a forbidden moment when I'm not being their mental chew toy. *grin*

I always underestimate the impact of school breaks - I keep saying, the boys are grown so they'll leave me alone for a few hours a day and I can get my stuff done. Wrong! Having kids inside your house, with just a wall separating you from their loud (and often violent!) video games soundtrack and their very own bickering and ourbursts that would put the biggest cat-fighters to shame - tata, sanity!

But thank goodness that is now over. Kiddo starts 5th year in primary. Kind of a big step, because 6th year is the last of primary in the Mauritian education system, and there's a huge national exam to sanction the end of primary years. Foundation work for that milestone started last year when he did Year 4, but it is now in Year 5 that the heat will start to be felt... and since neither myself nor the hubby wanted to give in to the pressure to add extra lessons (which is a huge and totally warped culture in Mauritius. Kids in private tuition/lessons before and after the school day, sometimes even on weekends. When will they get to be kids, for goodness' sake???) So, yeah - this means I'll be having to monitor the little one with his lessons. Thank goodness I wasn't that lousy at school, and hopefully, can help coach him some so he can shine (without pressure and extreme expectations).

That takes care of my weekends, which will now be family time. But the weekdays... Oh, baby, do we have stuff going on in the weekdays too, now. :)

2012 was a fantabulous year for me. I signed contracts for 4 books - 2 of which came out the same year; the remaining 2, that I wrote during the year, coming out shortly in 2013. There have been ups, and some downs (namely a huge upheaval at one of my publishers. Thank goodness they seem to have gotten back on their feet quite quickly, and I look forward to working with them again this year).

Mostly, there have been ups - with me joining the author lineup at Decadent Publishing back in January of last year, I never dreamed where this association would take me. I ended 2012 as the Managing Editor of a brand new line Decadent had rolled out during the year. Ubuntu is its name, with stories, mainly romance, focusing on the African landscape, culture, and horizons. The very first book from this line is coming out this week, btw. Stay tuned for more on that.

I know I said someplace on this blog itself that, at one point, I let go of editing to focus on being an author. And that's exactly what I did. But the call to edit was strong, too, and I think I might just have been waiting for the right opportunity to arise. It came up the day Heather Bennett, co-owner of Decadent Publishing, "innocently" pulled me into a conversation about Africa and precisely, what modern Africa looked like (she'd heard I lived on the continent. Yes, Mauritius is considered part of Africa!). We got to talking... and then, Bam! She dropped the bomb - she and Lisa Omstead, the other DP owner, wanted to start a line geared toward African romance, and they needed someone to steer it. Would I agree to be that someone?

After speaking about this with my family, I got their green light... and haven't looked back. Never would I have thought when I started 2012 that I'd end up where I did. My goal was to write a few stories and get them published. What's happened has soared beyond my hopes.

Another dream of mine started to take shape last year, when I joined hands with my bestie and the woman I consider my soul sister, author Natalie G. Owens. We finally got down to starting a book series we're co-writing. The progression on that one beat all our expectations, and now we're cruising toward the finishing and release of our first book from that venture, called Eternelles.

2013 promises to be an even greater year. I also promise you much more of me (okay, you have my permission to run for the hills right away screaming "Gaaaahhhh!!!" LOL) on this platform. The posts should return daily, and I'll also be blogging 3 Wednesdays a month at the Pop Culture Divas blog. Gonna try my best to book some fantabulous guests to visit this year also, with more books for you to discover.

On the whole, 2013 will, I hope, be MY year, even more than 2012 has been. It will be my greatest joy to go on this journey with ye all right by my side, in this blog's audience, and also on my Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest journeys.

Big thank you to everyone who is reading this, and/or who visits my little slice of Zee-land on this blog here. After having my family with me, I am nothing without all of you.

Best wished for a rocken' 2013, peeps! Let's set the world on fire!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Progress Friday

Hey beautiful people!

Today's an absolutely fantastic & gorgeous day! The reason I'm in such high spirits - no, not TGIF, but here's what's happened:

A little while ago, Decadent Publishing sent out a call for submissions, urging in-house authors (and even authors not yet with them!) to consider writing some stories for some specific lines there. One of them is Western Escape - a multi-author, small-town community line of stories with a Western theme, set in fictional Freewill, Wyoming. Stories in this line can be set in contemporary Freewill, or in the historial, 1880s Freewill (and you can even time-travel between the eras! How cool is that?)

Anyhow, because this one uses a common setting and community, the editors require that any author considering writing for this line submit a proposal with blurb and detailed synopsis (GMC, plot, conflict, resolution) and if this gets approved, then the author starts writing the story, submits it, and the editors decide if they'll take it or not.

Now, ever since I saw this call for submissions go up (and, again, poked and prodded by some of the peeps over at Decadent!), I've been toying with the idea of a story set in Freewill. Indian-origin heroine who has ties to Mauritius; multicultural setup akin to my upcoming 1NS over there... On an insane impulse, I put a proposal together last weekend and sent it off...

And got the reply today - the editors want to see the finished ms. This in no way implies they'll take the story, but to me, it's one foot in the door anyhow, and I'm over the moon!

Those of you who have been following my career or who know me from my writing debut about 6 years ago know that my preferred theme/idea to write about is heroines who have the same cultural background as I do (and let's make a point here - culture and religion are not the same thing, in case anyone wants to point out and/or ask why I write about Indian culture when I'm a Muslim woman!).

Shania, the heroine in this story, is British with parents who hail from Mauritius. Grayson, the hero, is from Freewill, though he moved to Boston and then New York.
When the story starts, both find themselves in Freewill, and... *wicked grin* I'll make you wait a little before I unveil what happens then (though of course we all know these two will fall in love - it is a romance, after all!)

The title for this one is Transient Hearts. Look to the meter on the right to catch my progress on the WIP every week during March now.

Other good note of the week - I've been poked and prodded (yes, here too!) to showcase the cover art work I've been doing so far. So check the aka Cover Designer page on the blog - it features a slideshow of the covers I've done. I'll be adding to it as I go along.

So that's how I go into the weekend - on a high, and on the need to work out the story's plot in minute detail so I can outline the story to give me a working flow draft.

What have you got planned for the weekend? Good things, I hope :)

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Progress Friday

Hey peeps

Cannot believe it's Friday already, and my, what a week this has been! I started Monday as usual - not grumpy because school's in now and Monday means I get to pack the kiddo off and enjoy a few hours of peace and quiet at home to work (I know, bad. I'm a perfectly flawed & imperfect mum, remember? *grin*)

Was looking forward to a nice & easy week, where I'd hopefully get all my ducks lined up and finally be starting work on the staggering to-be-written pile of 2012. It was too much to ask, yet...

Monday took a different turn the minute I opened my inbox and saw an email from Valerie Mann of Decadent Publishing. A little while earlier, prompted and prodded by friends at Decadent (Jessica E. Subject, JoAnne Kenrick, & Rebecca Royce - yes, I'm looking at you, ladies!), as well my amazing beta reader & friend, Lynn Spangler, I had bitten the bullet and written a story for the 1NightStand line at Decadent.

And would you believe it - Valerie said they liked the story, and if I still wanted a contract, they'd offer one.

If I still wanted??? I'm like, seriously??? Lady, I'm ready to fall upon your feet to get a contract with your house and into the 1NS line!!! Back and forth we went that morning (I love it when US folks are at their work computers late at night - our times mesh just right when I get on in the morning!), and by the end of the day, I was...

A Decadent Publishing author!

How's that as a way to start the week? Next up came the sheets and sheets of paperwork necessary whenever you contract a story (and that's work I loooove to do, lol!), with me totally flying high... to having to crash yesterday when I burned and simply started to hyperventilate.

Not to mention that for once, I am so looking forward to the weekend, because
a) it's a long weekend, Monday being a public holiday here (Chinese New Year festival), &
b) we're making the most of the extra day by booking ourselves into a hotel for the next 2 days!

Yes, hubby, the hyenas, and I are going on a small vacation break this weekend, and I am so looking forward to that! Imagine - no cooking, for 2 days. No making the beds and cleaning. The gorgeous beach and sea... Gah, I wish I were there already, lol!)

So now I'm in that I-cannot-wait-for-cover-art stage where the 1NS is concerned - the title, btw, is Once Upon A Stormy Night, and the story takes place on my island. It's about the meeting of Lars Rutherford, a British/Swedish expat, and Simmi Moyer, a mixed race white/Indian career girl on a stormy night. Neither is looking for love, but love might just have found them nevertheless...

Hope you'll all have a lovely weekend, peeps!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Random Thoughts' Monday: Getting there... & some news...!

Hey beautiful people!

It's Monday, and the start of a new week. In my ideal game plan, I should've been on top of the game right now - all caught up with email, breezing through FB & Twitter and talking lots more with my friends there, I should've been writing a storm and totally immersed in my characters. In short, working at full throttle on being an author.

Instead, my second work week of January looks like a train wreck that's just happened, and now I'm left to pick up the pieces from this wreck and try to steer the train back onto the rails...

Remember last week I asked to please not be a robot? I'm working on that, trying to be more present for my family. And, uhm, turns out my son wants cake, and I'm on a total out and out war against processed food (more about that next Monday - I got into a new book called Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food, and this has me totally revamping our food habits here. Will chronicle this surefire debacle next week, when I get my head fixed on straight on my shoulders).
So, yes, Hyena #2 wants cake, and how can I say No to his big Puss-in-Boots eyes (that doesn't work all the time though, esp not when we're out shopping). Now 'cake' is really innocuous thing the big scheme of things, and I found myself... baking! Cake's done, I didn't burn down the house (and sadly didn't get to call any hunky fireman over, not that we have hunky firemen in Mauritius - most of them have a potbelly!) - actually, cake 'looks' done. Haven't tasted it yet. Waiting for hubby to get home and act as the self-sacrificing guinea pig here *grin*

Okay, that's it for Zee The Mum & Family Gal. Now on to Zee The Author... Have I got news for you *BIG grin*

I am totally, totally pleased & stoked to announce that as from today, I am joining the Decadent Publishing authors, through their 1NS line!

Over the second half of December, my brain scrambled for purchase and begged to write something. Egged on by some wonderful Decadent authors whom I call super-friends, the idea to write a 1NS short story set on my beautiful island, Mauritius, germinated and took root. I took the plunge, and had an unlikely couple meet through Madame Evangeline's 1NightStand service. :)
Stay tuned for more details about Lars Rutherford & Simmi Moyer's story, tentatively titled Once Upon A Stormy Night.

My week's started awesomely well - I hope it has for you too!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee