Granted my marketing team consists of a teen and tween, but that 's all I can afford!

They actually came up with a good idea that I'd like to share with other authors.

It's a game, similar to  Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader, played out over two hours on Facebook.

So we are working out the questions and finding backup for the answers along with the prizes. If you'd like to donate an ebook or item that belongs under the genre of music or hotel stays, please let me…

I usually get something done during the week with my writing. I'll finish a chapter, edit a chapter or post to my blog. I also hang out on Facebook and Twitter and She Writes at least once a day.

Then school started again and the house went nuts! We'd discussed our new alarm settings and the revised timeline was placed on the fridge. Things we didn't count on - missing the bus, a sick dog, the baby pouring a gallon of milk on the floor, meetings that lasted until seven....and the list…

I'm hosting a week of character interviews on my blog, the Vallory V Blog, from September 10th -15th for romance writers of sweet to sensual to erotic. Please contact me if you'd like the Friday or Saturday slot. My idea is to include book covers and buy links on the sidebar to my blog from September 1st through September 15th and run the interviews from the 10th -15th. It should be a great opportunity for added free exposure…

I've been hosting music by New Orleans musicians and music performed in New Orleans on my blog all week in celebration of my latest release, Music For Her Soul. Stop by and give a listen to some of my favorite artists, Harry Connick, Jr., Dr. John and Trombone Shorty, as well as see some of the great places to hear music like Tips and The Spotted Cat: The Vallory V Blog 

So the biggies are covered - Fiction and Romance. I also have a pretty good grasp of a sub-genre - Interracial Romance. All of my romance stories to date star an African American female and a White or Hispanic male.

So what type of romance? I think my stories are sweet. Boy meets girl and falls in love. She is everything that he has ever needed and they get their happily ever after.

However, the couple usually has some awesome sexual encounter that leads them both to this…

Music For Her Soul will be released on August 10, 2012 by Amira Press. It is longer than Calendar Girl and In The Moment but still not a full length novel. I’d like to stay in the novella length for my romances, while I polish my cozy mystery.

Here’s a glimpse…

Let me first start by saying that I am family historian, one of those people who upon learning your last name will go home, open a database and see if we're related somehow. So this weekend, I received a death record and transcribed a labor contract between my Hathorn family and their former owners, also the Hathorn family. 

This sparked an idea that took over the rest of the weekend and over 7000 words later, I have a project that will last into the next few weeks. So much for the…

Tomorrow will begin my fourth week of rewrites for my current WIP. I hope to finish it this weekend. I realized too late that getting set to write a short story takes a different set of tools than writing a longer piece. I wasn't prepared for my endeavor but I have learned some lessons about myself and my writing. For that I'm grateful.

For my next project which is now a shadow of an idea, I want to avoid the mistakes I've made with this one. I've decided to use a modified outlining…

Today is the day! Calendar Girl was officially released by Amira Press at 7:00 AM CST. Yes, I was watching the clock tick over on my computer when the website was updated.

While I have interviews scheduled over the next few weeks to talk about the book and my writing, I wanted to take a few moments right now to mark this occasion – my first published work!

I tell my kids that nothing should stop you from dreaming dreams. I’m glad I finally took my own advice, even if it took me…

I had a really fun interview with Alexandria Infante' on her website at www.poisoned.com. Alexandria is a writer in the paranormal genre with a multicultural slant and gives a voice to minority women as authors in this genre. She also promotes other writers and has an amazing list of guest bloggers.

I was one of those with the opportunity to answer a few questions about myself and my writing. And these weren't your run of the…

When I first moved to New Orleans from Mississippi, my new friends told me that I had a thick accent. I thought this was funny because in my mind everyone else was speaking with thick accents. It was during a stage speech class that I was able to recognize my speech patterns and realize that I indeed spoke with a lazy tongue that drawled out "dog" to "dawg".

I began to speak without an accent because I learned to snap my tongue with each word. That is until I moved to Texas and my new…

Amira Press will release my first non-self published work on April 20, 2012. I stared at that webpage for at least ten minutes thinking - that's me! I was planning on writing tonight since I have the day off tomorrow, but now I'm just too excited.

Finished my short story from the hectic weekend and just got it uploaded. I bought the cover photo for $5.00 from a website and added a frame and the title.  Now this one looks like a real book!

Daisa's Adonis…

Get a free download of The Drive Home with coupon code - CG94X. Now through March 16, 2012. In this flash fiction piece, Cyril discovers that his mild-mannered wife has a saucy side. Can he coax her into more than dirty talk? 

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/138312

Just put the finishing touches on my blog - http://valloryv.wordpress.com/

Stop by and take a look.  I wanted something simple that was easy to manage.  I don't think that I have the fortitude for a website.

I have made my first submission to a publisher of a short story (interracial romance) and am anxiously awaiting a reply.  Of course, I think they are going to tell me that they have read short stories from third graders that were better.  However, I will happily tack that reply to my wall in preparation of one day sitting down for an interview on the Today Show. It will be my funny story.

I was thinking of creating a nom de plume to market my recent steamy romance novella.  I thought that I had created the perfect name - Vivienne Vance.  It wasn't until I shared it with my husband that I realized that Vivian Vance was Ethel Mertz.

Today, I tried out Blythe Tanner.  My best friend said, "Gwynth Paltrow's mom?"  (Her name is Blythe Danner).

So it's back to the search for my nom de plume.