Category Archives: Dirty Rotten Dixons

Bonne Anniversaire, Lavender!

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So I just realized something this past Christmas – while I was busy doing all the crap you do for the holidays – that I’ve been writing romances under the name Lavender Parker for three years! Time flies when you’re having fun (and having crippling creative blocks, but I digress…)

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Although it’s a bit past the official three year marker, I decided to do a lil wrap-up of the past three years for myself and you, my poor starved readers. So without further ado, here’s some musings on my past writings and future writings as well:

Favorite Book (so far): The Burning One

This is difficult, but I think my favorite overall is still The Burning One. It’s my biggest flop, sales-wise, but I still love the unusual story. Especially near the end of the book, when the story shifts to South America and Cee and Indira really have it out at Indira’s farm in the middle of nowhere. It’s a strange, slightly controversial story but I’m happy I wrote it. To me, it’s one of the most interesting stories that I’ve written and explores the dark and shady areas of psychology and grief, as well as romance.

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Frank Ocean.

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So as fans of Frank Ocean know, his looooooooong awaited album was supposed to drop today.

fooled ya

fooled ya

Surprise surprise, it hasn’t. Now, technically, there’s still several hours left today in which this album could drop, but it’s not looking good. While Frank’s fans cry in a corner, I was going through people’s reactions on Twitter and I had a realization.

I am Frank. Frank is me.

Not really. Frank is (arguably) a music genius and definitely more influential and interesting than I will ever be, but we’re both similar in at least one aspect – endless delays. Pushing forward projects that we might not be ready to let go of creatively because we feel like they should be finished. Enough, already! I find myself thinking when I’m staring at an unfinished scene in a book that should’ve (by my estimation) been finished months ago. I get so frustrated at myself for taking a long time to finish a book that the book ends up taking longer and longer. Months pass beyond my initial self-imposed due date. Any excitement and stimulation I felt about finishing a book starts to drain away.

But I keep pressing on. This writing ‘thing’ isn’t just a casual fling with me. It’s a lifelong love affair that I have to keep nurturing. Once I finish one book, I’ll move on to the next and then the next and the next. I think about my characters and their plot problems everyday. I write everyday, even if it’s only a paragraph. It might not be as fast of a process as I’d like, but I have to remember to keep it as creatively enriching as possible. I have to stop pushing myself to force out fast food and remember to let my ideas marinate. Not forever, but for as long as they need to become tasty morsels for all of you who enjoy my work.

Who ever said the life of a creative was easy? Cuz they lied! But to all my fellow artists out there, it’s worth it. I think 🙂

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I hope Frank feels the same way.

For all of you dying for updates, here’s what my VERY LOOSE schedule looks for the rest of 2016:

  • a novella spin-off of Flower in the Desert that I discussed in an earlier post. It’s tentatively titled Light in the Wilderness and should be out late this month
  • Beautiful Beatdown is very high on the priority list, of course. Hoping to have it out this fall.
  • I hope to have more installments of Dirty Rotten Dixons out before Christmas

Thanks for reading my rants~

L

 

(all images, credit to owners)

Looking Ahead

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Now that 2015 is almost over, I’m trying not to be depressed about my work output this year. 2014 was a really productive and creative year for me, and 2015 was, to say the least, NOT. But I’m not going to let myself get too down. I’m proud of myself for releasing Spitfire Suckerpunch, and I hope that you guys are enjoying Tate and Shay’s story.

frogprincess

For right now, I’m working on finally finishing Kiss of Life. Vivica’s story has been haunting me for a long time and I know you guys are very anxious to see how her story plays out. I’m very motivated to get it to you guys sometime this holiday season, so just know that I’m working hard on it and it will be coming!

A Devil Named Dixon has been on the back-burner forever, and for fans of that series, I apologize. I wrote the first part when I was struggling with Spitfire and I never thought it would take this long to complete. I’m actually considering taking it off sale until I can finish the rest of the parts. I don’t want to disappoint anyone who’s been waiting a long time for the continuation, but I just am still not in a great place, writing-wise. Kiss of Life is most important right now.

Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying fall and getting in those pumpkin spice lattes while you still can.

A DEVIL NAMED DIXON Is Coming Friday, March 27th!

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I’ve decided to try something new 🙂

If you’ve been following this blog or my FB page, then you’ll know that through the end of 2014, I was working my way through some creative issues. I was blocked for most of October and November, and then the holidays took up all my brain-space in December. But the important thing is I’m out of the woods.

adventure_time

I have a few things on the slate for the beginning half of the year. I’m working hard on not pressuring or over-extending myself, because I think that was part of my problem. After the unexpected success of my dark erotica book, I hit a creative low right when I wanted to finish a lot of projects. It’s been very frustrating for me and I’m sure for you guys too!

Now that I’m back on track, I’d like to announce that I will release A DEVIL NAMED DIXON 1 (DIRTY ROTTEN DIXONS VOL I) on Amazon on Friday, March 27th! Woot.

With this release, I’ve decided to try a new format.

Last year, I started reading a couple of serials and I really enjoyed them. It’s not for everyone, but I think the romantic crime thriller plot of DEVIL will work well in this format. The way ebook sales are going these days, I’m willing to experiment and see what will ultimately work for me to gain new readership as well as keep my current readers happy. I already have two novellas and four full-length novels out under my Lavender Parker mantle, so I think now is a good time to try something new.

All four installments of the A DEVIL NAMED DIXON serial will be around 75-85 pages and 99 cents. In the end, that will add up to around $3.99, the price I was going to charge for a full-length novel anyway. After parts 1-4 of A DEVIL NAMED DIXON are complete, then I’ll make a decision on how to release the second volume in the series. I may continue on in the serial format or I may release it as a full-length novel.

I’m excited! I hope you guys are too 🙂

Looking Ahead to 2015

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Wow what a year! I started my self-pub journey close to a year ago and so much has happened. 2014 has been the shizz! I want to thank all of YOU for making my year so great. I’ve had ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, but throughout it all, I’ve remained hopeful that I will keep upping my game with every new release. Now that I have two moderately successful pen names, I’m feeling nothing but excitement for the upcoming year. So without further ado, let’s discuss possible ideas for 2015!

First of all, in early 2015, I have plans for three books.

Kiss of Night (St. James Family #4) – This book will feature Holland St. James, Vivica’s brother. It will be the last full novel in the St. James Family series, but I’m still planning novellas that will return to Annata, Toni, and all the rest.

Spitfire Suckerpunch (House of Pain #2) – Stone Cold Knockout is just out, but it’s not doing as well as I wanted it to. However, I have lots of ideas for these books. There’s more characters and more possibilities for a sprawling series, so we’ll see. Spitfire Suckerpunch will be BWWM, and will feature a tough girl from Harlem who meets her match in a not-so-gentle giant. I’m super excited for this couple. Tate is a different hero than I’ve ever written before. He’s a shy guy and not as sexually experienced as a typical romantic hero. I think I’ve talked before about wanting to write a virgin hero, and although he’s not a virgin, he’s by no means a player. My virgin hero is still TBA 🙂

A sequel to the dark erotic book under my other pen name – this pen name is heating up, and I’m pretty excited to explore my–ahem–more taboo side through this pen name.

molly

 

Other books I’m planning for 2015 include:

The Dirty Rotten Dixons series.

A standalone featuring an Asian hero.

A series about chefs and restaurant owners in NYC, featuring Vadim, Mikhail from Stone Cold Knockout‘s brother.

A dystopian series about a militaristic future society, featuring two sisters who are trying to survive. I’m planning this as a two book series, but we shall see. I don’t foresee big sales for this idea, but I want to write it, so I’m gonna! I’m stubborn that way 🙂

I’d really love to do another holiday book, maybe a standalone. I love warm and fuzzy holiday romance novels, especially when people get snowed in to little cabins… so we’ll see if I’ll get my life together and write one.

So there you have it.

I’ve got big plans! Hope you guys are as excited as I am…

 

FLOWER IN THE DESERT Release Date

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Looks like I have a release date for Flower in the Desert… July 23rd!

It’ll be up on Amazon that day, and up a little later for B&N and Kobo. So keep an eye out…

I’ve really enjoyed writing Ruby and Jase’s story. This is the first time I’ve taken on a romantic suspense, but it won’t be the last. This is kind of a warm-up for what’s to come this year. With Stone Cold Knockout and A Devil Named Dixon, I’m going to be stretching my action, intrigue, and suspense plotting muscles in 2014. Woot!

I’m so excited to get this novella done. With work and vacation planning taking up a big chunk of my time, writing has been slow going for the past two months. But now with Flower in the Desert (almost) out of my brain, I can focus on finishing the last third of SCK! Sometimes (like with The Burning One in February) a story is just itching to be told and I can’t help but write it. Now, I can get back to my hot Russian boxer 🙂

 

Mid-Year Book Release Update

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Sooo summer is upon us (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is) and I’ll admit I’m not writing as much as I should… It’s so nice out and there’s so much to do and blaaaaaah blah blah.

What I’ve been doing instead of writing…

However, I assure you Stone Cold Knockout is coming, slowly but surely. I’m about two-thirds of the way through and I’m working on it everyday, bit by bit. I’m hoping for a June 25th release date, but I think that might be a little optimistic. It’s looking more like late June/early July.

Other book news:

I’m working on a novella about a rescue in the Grand Canyon featuring a Black Woman/Native American Man pairing that I hope to have out in July. I’m also working on a DARK (we’re talking scary dark) erotic novel that I’m going to put out under another pen name in July. Maybe I’ll tell you what it is, if you ask nicely. Tee hee!

Next, I hope to have Kiss of Life out in September and a short novella featuring Holland St. James out around the same time as well. As you may remember, Holland is Vivica’s brother and Annata and Toni’s cousin, and he showed up last in Kiss of Ice. The novella will set up the last book in the St. James Family Series, Kiss of Night, which will be out in 2015.

Lastly, I’m still planning book one in my new suspense series, A Devil Named Dixon, for November. I’m still in the brainstorming stages for it, but I am super excited about it.

Whew! That was a lot of info. Hope everybody is having tons of fun in the sun!