From Dragons, vampires, werewolves and fairies to flying carpets, lost cities and modern-day mysteries, this delightful compendium of over 250 weird and wonderful legends, myths and monsters will entertain and astound anyone enthralled by the unknown.

My plot bunnies are going to devour this whole.

~ Nika

I, of course, being the “Author”, and the person in charge (ha) decided I liked what I had, and declined to make any concessions. They, in turn, refused to get out of the middle of the street where I’d left them standing after a particularly riveting scene.

At least I thought it was riveting.

They seemed to think it was hokey and out of character.

For two days I’ve tried to ignore the fact they are standing in the middle of the road, hoping the silence would change their minds. Unfortunately for me, they were not willing to budge, and I was unable to continue with the story.

So I’ve ceded defeat to the fictional characters living in my head.

After rapidly brain-dumping over 30,000 words into this manuscript by letting them tell the tale, I suppose it’s only fitting to let them continue. After all, they do know themselves best, right?

~ Nika

In the upcoming book A Billion Wicked Thoughts, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam studied thousands of romance novels looking for clues about social expectations.

After analyzing 15,000 Harlequin books, they came up with the most popular professions for heroes in romance novels. The complete list follows below–what do you think?

Follow this link to read an excerpt from the book. They also write about these topics in a Psychology Today blog by the same name.

1. Doctor
2. Cowboy
3. Boss
4. Prince
5. Rancher
6. Knight
7. Surgeon
8. King
9. Bodyguard
10. Sheriff

The only question is, what if the doctor is a surgeon who’s also your boss? Does that count as 1 slot on the list, or 3? ^_^

Now that I have officially backed out my plot bunnies are peaking their heads out from the dark holes where they were hiding. I feel a slow resurection of ideas and a desire to crack open the files on my laptop and slowly make my way back into the wonderful world I’d begun to create.

Luckily my characters don’t seem too overly upset by my absence. Perhaps they even missed me.

So here’s to finding a lost muse and returning home to my misplaced worlds.

- Nika

The daunting task now comes in re-writing 253 pages of manuscript. I’d be worried — except I’m so damn pleased to have finally figured out what the problem is.

Let the writing continue!

Nika

SECOND CHANCES is up for “Best Book of 2009″ from Long and Short Reviews! I’m really excited and hope everyone can take a moment to go by and give me a vote!

I also submitted an article for the Seattle Writing Careers Examiner, and it’s now online. It was difficult to think of a topic to cover that hadn’t been done, so hopefully I managed to come up with something half-understandable, at least!

And I also submitted a proposal for a ‘Social Networking’ online course with one of the RWA online chapters. There are so many people in the industry who don’t know, use or understand social networking that I thought I’d put a quick outline together and see if I can help alleviate that! I don’t know if it will be accepted, but I’ll keep you posted!

- Nika

Of course to add to my zany schedule, I also recently completed an interview with the wonderful folks over at Coffee Time Romance! Big hugs to Lainey for such a wonderful chat! I had a lot of fun!

Nika’s Interview at Coffee Time Romance and More

- Nika

Don’t forget I’m guest blogging over at Leah Braemel’s site today! Come by and talk to me about yummy Firefighter Calendars, the holidays, and your perfect gift!

Leah Braemel’s Blog

Hugs!
- Nika

Last week I had a fantastic 5/5 review come in from Manic Readers! I’m really happy to say it’s my 3rd independent review, and my third 5/5 ‘best book’ or ‘must read’ rating! I mean, I know it rocks, but it’s fantastic to hear when someone else thinks so, too!

Check out the review for Second Chances at the Manic Readers site.

And, in other news, I just checked the listings for Bookstrand (an eBook seller) and Second Chances is finally listing in their new arrivals. Now if only Barnes and Noble would get me into their list! (Sigh!)

Hugs!
- Nika